GNASCH ~ SPITE AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL (2022)

UK sludge so bloated its guts have burst and spilled onto the floor. Spite At The End Of The Tunnel by Gnasch has turned knuckledragging into a new life form. Riffs are dense but  glutinously sloppy, it feels as though you're drowning in offal. The album is tuned low but when you're convinced that Gnasch can't drop any lower, or slower, the trapdoor opens and cerebral hypoxia kicks in.

SITHTER ~ Master Of Suspense (2022)

Japanese band Sithter's newie, The Master Of Suspense is an ungodly tapestry of Eyehategod style sludge and the begrimed punk of  Buzzov.en, crudely stitched together by feedback contaminated riffs sounding all the more brutal due to the excellent mix. 

DEATHRATTLE PODCAST ~ Dirty Dozen (July 2022)

 

Deathrattle Podcasts 'Best Of' list for July 2022

Sons Of Arrakis

The formation is fairly influenced by the universe of the Dune novels written by Frank Herbert. The members describe their own music as Melange Rock and Cinematographic Sci-Fi Rock which differentiate them from "the vast sea of stoner rock bands with their lightning armor-piercing torpedo

Eciton

Danish Death Metal

False Gods

False Gods is a unique blend of sludge/doom metal mixed with melodic noise and down-trodden hardcore.

Patricide

"Pura Malum" is a hybrid of a new vision of the genre style and destructive old school death metal. Most of the songs are kept at a middle tempos, and there are also plenty of speedy and atmospheric slows down. Crushing riffs interspersed with melodic fragments create Patricide's music, opium-like and memorable, the lyrical layer is blasphemous hymns that form the philosophies of dark human nature.

Foothills

Foothills combines, Death-Doom, Sludge and Melodic Hardcore to exhibit something seemingly accessable whilst challenging expectations of all the genres at once.

Behold! The Monolith

Grizzlier, rougher-hewn and more technically visceral than they’ve ever been.

Rainbow Bridge

A wall-of-sound between blues and electric psychedelia.

Thirteen Goats

THIRTEEN GOATS takes cues from some of extreme metal's most infamous names (Death, Carcass, Cannibal Corpse) to create a tongue-in-cheek blend of different genre hallmarks that's as hooky as it is heavy.

Infame

Death/Sludge Doom desde el norte de Chile.

Mexicoma

 For the desert toned, riff based, heavy stoner rockers from Umea! 

Battlegrave

Battlegrave is the result of two life long metalheads and great friends putting their minds together to create an aggressive Thrash sound

Existence Dysphoria

"Doom sludge savages"

"Pure filth"

CHEMICAL CRUCIFIXION ~ Chemical Crucifixion ( 2022 )

When a band consists of members that have (dis)graced the likes of Iron Monkey, Cerebral Fix, Ravens Creed and Fistula, you can be sure that this self titled album by Chemical Crucifixion is devoid of any comfort zone. If you manage to survive floods of pestilent grind, you'll eventually be dragged under by surges of  pock marked sludge, to be drowned in decaying breakdowns that have metastasized like tumours throughout. Chemical Crucifixion is bitter, hateful and no respecter of reputations evidenced by the bands tortured take on Celtic Frost's 'Cherry Orchards.' That great riff is still recognizable but mauled and tarnished into submission.

CONVULSIS ~ An Evil Born From the Void (2022)

Wow! That was over in a heartbeat! Time flies when you're having fun. I've just finished listening to this sweet litlle headbang inducing EP from Michigan's Convulsis. Thrashing riffs slice and dice while the breakdowns run whats left through the grinder. Add a touch of death metal and what you have here is a potent, rabid slashfest.

File this under 'More Please!'

 

STONED VOID ~ Throbbing Rhythm of the Doldrums (2022)

I've been playing a lot of nasty, filthy stuff recently and it feels quite pleasant sometimes to just kick back and soothe my ears with some jams. 'Throbbing Rhythm of the Doldrums' the new album from French stoner psych band Stoned Void fits the bill perfectly. As I close my eyes and let the music wash over me I can hear emotive guitar jams of all types, the one I'm listening to now on the track 'Lonely Mountain' sounds like its off a Mahogany Rush live album but on 'Throbbing Rhythm of the Doldrums' the mood changes in an instant, one moment gentle and tender, the next spraying you in flecks of angry spittle! What makes this album stand out however is the frequent onset of heavy stoner heft with the coma inducing rhythm section of bass and drums throbbing higher in the mix giving an overall more immersive sound.

Hellgrav ~ Rottomatic (2022)

German death metal with a relentless HM-2 sound that grinds you to your knees. There's nothing new here and I'm sure Hellgrav couldn't care less, I certainly don't while I sit here listening to the album in all its downtuned, blood spattered glory!

CRUA - CHAN ~ Crua - Chan (2018)

I played a track from this album after it popped up on my iTUNES 'shuffle', it had been filed away and forgotten over the passage of time. As the track 'Resplandor' tore from my speakers, I took a glance at Crua - Chan's Bandcamp page to see if I'd missed any other releases and was amazed to find that the usual suspects you would normally rely on to discover the delights of albums such as this, are largely absent. Anyone who checks this album out, and surely you must, can expect their eardums to be spanked by rampant, quick fire stoner scraping away most of the fuzz, leaving a masticated hard rock foundation spitting out destructive passages of doom and thrashy sludge coiled in off kilter soloing that gives Crua - Chan their individual slant on what extreme music should sound like.

DEHISCENT ~ Split (2021)

Ugliness permeates every pore of this nasty piece of work. I found it buried deeper than usual in an unconsecrated patch of Bandcamp soil reserved for those releases that need approaching wearing a Level A HAZMAT suit because the sounds eminating from Dehiscent need  hazard warning signs plastered all over them. If proof is needed  that filth comes in many forms, Dehiscent's side of this split with Sterileprayer provides it in spades with each track providing obnoxious examples of punk influenced sludge, stoner or doom depending on which track assaults your senses, each song scoured and pitted with an unpolished but still more than acceptable production.

DEER CREEK ~ Menticide (2022)

Six tracks of  doom riffs engorged with sludge and consummated with humid stoner dissonance. Surprisingly, Deer Creek manages to dredge some semblance of groove from the lumbering colossus that is 'Menticide' particularly with the final track 'The Working Man Is A Dead Pig' which has a rather clever version of Rush's 'Working Man' hidden within its bloated bosom.

SEA OF FLAME ~ Ballast ( 2018 )

Most albums of this type are blues based. 'Ballast' is no exception. However, the blues in this record has been beaten to within an inch of its life by granite hard stoner rock riffs then lacerated from the various scorching guitar licks that lurk, coiled and ready to strike. 

VANDAL ~ Repudio tu Existencia (2017)

Chilean thrash along the lines of Destruction that doesn't break too many rules.Vandal know how to tear shit up. Choppy riffs slice and dice in blood letting glee, while breakdowns gouge and cleave what little remains. There isn't any waste here, all ten tracks are lean and hungry!

'Repudio tu Existencia' is the bands only full length so far and is a true reflection of how essential the Chilean thrash scene is to underground metal.

TYRANT'S KALL ~ Dagon (2012)

Belgian doom/death that often splits those genres into two separate entities depending on the track. On  one hand we have crunchy, riffy, mid- era Trouble type doom, on the other death metal ferocity. Somewhere in the middle lurks doom/death in menacing dissonance.