ANOINTING THE SICK ~ Best Of 2024

 

It's difficult to shoehorn a whole years music into a two hour 'Best Of' Playlist but you have to draw the line somewhere so here's 16 bands whose new albums caused such a stir that it prompted me to review them. There are a couple of anomalies. Fireblood feature twice due to the band releasing 2 EP's in a year and Atomic Hand is actually a two band project Iglesia Atomica and Out Of Hand. Unusually one band plays psych jams the other brutal deathgrind. Both sides of this live album are great! 

~ Embrace The Sickness ~

Black Groove ~ Low End Scum

"Contains seven tracks of sluggish, de tuned, sludge caked hatred"

Cannabus ~ Other Side

The fuzz is still thick  but edged with barbs, pierced by blazing reverb and wah both shrieking in agony.

Fireblood ~ Hellaluja and Goatslayer

"The no frills, hard hitting, clunky riffs easily loosen the neck muscles, enabling the listener to bang their head with wild abandon to the sludge leaden groove."

Sun Moon Holy Cult ~ Sun Moon Holy Cult

"Citing influences from bands such as Black Sabbath, WitchFinder General, Acid King and Belzebong"

Severed Arm ~ Reaching Murderous For The Banker's Neck

"A purulent discharge of infected blackened sludge doom"

Demon & Eleven Children ~ Demonic Fascination

"Riffs are mighty, and the multitude of jams have been dipped in the same vat of acid"

Wormthrone ~ Enlightened Through Darkness

"Here lurks a suffocating, toxic album, spewing forth sulphurous riffs from a fermenting tarpit."

Bleed This Earth ~ The Shapes That Stood In Silence

"Straddling the the various emotions of despair between My Dying Bride and Mournful Congregation"

Sangria ~ Esclava De La Ira 

"'Esclavo de la Ira' has a darker, enraged sound to it, reminding me of Triptykon in parts."

Atomic Hand ( Iglesia Atomica & Out Of Hand) ~ Live

Iglesia Atomica ~A constant chatter of barbed jams squeal and shriek from the speakers. Out Of Hand ~ "spits deathgrind of the most poisonous kind."

Vulgarian ~ Eye For An Eye For An Eye

"Hateful sludge bloated with the DNA of slow, stagnant doom"

Harsh Realm ~ Death Carries On

"A coagulate of unemotional death doom encapsulated in a bloody crust."

Volume ~ Joy Of Navigation

"Joy of Navigation' is the band's latest album and contains five songs of immersive psychedelic stoner."

Sea Of Snakes ~ Bow To No One

"There is an abundance of riffs, huge and full of depth for the listener to revel in."

Pyrogaric ~ The Serpent

"Pyrogaric is back with more Welsh stoner doom Druidry"

Monolithic Architecture ~ Our World Grows Worse

"a raw and devastating bombardment of drone infused doom"

DOWNLOAD THIS 'BEST OF LIST' HERE

CRIMSON STORM ~ Livin' On The Bad Side (2025)

 

BIO

"Livin' On the Bad Side", the debut album by Crimson Storm, will be released on January 14, 2025, through Fighter Records. The Spanish speed/heavy metal band Crimson Storm was originally formed in 2009 by guitarist and primary songwriter Lögan Heads in Sardinia, Italy, with the goal of reviving the glory of ‘80s heavy, power, and speed metal. Their name was inspired by Riot’s track "Sign of the Crimson Storm."

Following several lineup changes, Crimson Storm released their first EP, "Motor City Maniac" in 2014, followed by the 7" EP "Speed Hammerin' Metal" in 2015. Later that year, Lögan Heads moved to Barcelona and reformed the band with new members, eventually leading to the release of their second EP, "Outrageous," in 2019. In 2022, the band made a triumphant return to live performances, supporting Stallion in Murcia and playing at Trveheim Festival in Germany and Pyrenean Warriors Open Air in France.

In 2024, Crimson Storm entered the studio to record their first full-length album, "Livin' On the Bad Side." The album features new tracks alongside reworked versions of earlier singles, delivering a mix of nostalgia, rebellious spirit, and the raw energy of ‘80s metal.

MY THOUGHTS

I'm a fairly recent convert to speed, heavy, power metal having been a musical knuckle dragger for many years and I'm so glad I saw the light otherwise I would have ignored this sizzling example of the best and heaviest of 80's US metal and U.K's Iron Maiden. 

What attracts me most to Crimson Storm is how combustible this album is, shying away from anything too syrupy or symphonic, instead  launching riff after rampaging riff, blistering eardrums and causing concussion. The music is diamond hard, tight and dramatic and I love how abundant blazing solo's stitch the album together along with the pummelling rhythm section that somehow manages to keep the tracks from tumbling into speed metal chaos.

Don't wear your bullet belt near this one, it's liable to ignite

ANOINTING THE SICK #233 ~ Noose Around The Neck

 Download the final Anointing The Sick Show of 2024 and immerse yourselves in some of the finest heavy sounds of the year. Opening with the Barbarian track from the Celtic Frost compilation 'Mesmerized' released early this year and closing with the random pick, a psych, heavy blues track from the Netherlands in the form of Brahm. The filth Pit has been bountiful with contributions from Dripping Decay and Junta. As always I've included bands that made this years Doom Charts and a couple of tracks from recent releases by Fireblood and Okktli.

~ Embrace The Sickness ~

Barbarian

Blood Red Throne

Guhts                                      No 31 Jan Doom Charts

Mega Colossus

Drowned

Jenner

Junta

Ancient VVisdom                   No 25 Jan Doom Charts

Greengoat                               No 13 Jan Doom Charts

Sinnery

Dripping Decay

Novichok

Miscellen                                 Bandcamp NYP

Fireblood

Okktli

Brahm

DOWNLOAD THIS SHOW HERE 

CARNAL ROT ~ Skullfuck Fulmination (2024)

A Deathgrind slaughterhouse from my hometown, Liverpool UK. Joyously bathe in bloodspattered splendour as riffs treated like offal are ripped apart in a chainsaw orgy. 'Skullfuck Fulmination' is like being ravaged by the zombie horde, not the usual shambling corpse you can poke with a stick and run away laughing, oh no, this album by Carnal Rot is a 28 Days Later type of creature, rabid, frenzied and craving human butchery.

ANOINTING THE SICK #232 ~ Carnage Bloody Carnage

Today we're crossing a bridge into oblivion with the latest instalment of Anointing The Sick. It's a bumpy ride starting with the showpiece track from A Storm Of Light. After a brutal Death Metal segment, I have a US 80's style metal track before pulling Methedrine and Wasp Mother from the D-Beat / Powerviolence filth pit. From there old school Indian thrash rears its ugly head before a couple of stoner tracks get a look in. After that wallow in heavy psych ambrosia before the prog'ish segment kicks in. The prolific Rogga Johanssen is back with Ribspreader sounding more brutal than ever Recent discovery Monolithic Architecture provides a sample of raw doom/drone before I finish off the show with a final blast of dirty death metal.

~ Embrace The Sickness ~

A Storm Of Light

The Scum

Resin Tomb

Master

The Rods

Methedrine

Wasp Mother

Sabotage

The Vice

Fuzz Forward

U.S Christmas

Lord Dying                              #14 Jan 2024 Doom Charts

Final Coil

Ribspreader

Monolithic Architect

Sentient Divide

*DOWNLOAD THE SHOW HERE*

MONOLITHIC ARCHITECTURE ~ Our World Grows Worse (2024)

Monolithic Architecture is a U.S band with the DNA of grindsters Hobostew and Reptilian Brain among others skulking in a completely opposite sphere of extreme metal. In Monolithic Architecture's realm, time has slowed to a standstill and with a riff pressure that will crush out of existence anyone willing to don earphones and listen for any length of time.

The album 'Our World Grows Worse' is a raw and devastating bombardment of drone infused doom. Starting and ending with blasts of flesh stripping feedback which also permeates throughout the album like razor wire in no man's land, 'Our World Grows Worse' is a Stone Golemesque trudge into negativity. Some chords  wander into a hateful void while others slam into immobile granite walls. 

I've often wondered how 2-piece bands manage to create such cacophonies of sound and Monolithic Architecture treads the same turbulent path.

ANOINTING THE SICK DIRTY 30 ~ A Death Metal Playlist Volume III

 The third death metal playlist is now available to download. Expect a blastbeating blitzkrieg with tracks by ~

Abnormality

Barbarity

CÆLIBATUS

Damien

Echoes Of Death

Fall Of Serenity

Garoted

Hanging Fortress

Icon Of Evil

Jungle Rot

Kaamos

Lady Carnage

Macabre Decay

Near Death Condition

Obituary

Paladin

Rabid

Sacramental Blood

Teeth

Unbidden

Vainaja

Warp Chamber

Xibalba

Off Silence

72 Legions

Aborigen

Barren Earth

Caffa

Damned To Downfall

Eciton

* DOWNLOAD IT HERE *