Agrimonia - "Rites Of Separation" CD

Superlative heathen metal

The third album (and first for Southern Lord) from this Gothenburg-based quintet is a scalding, monumental assault of diverse metal stylings. At 60 minutes and 5 tracks, this band pushes the envelope with drawn-out and developing tracks that hint at several heavy sub-genres --melding them into something altogether menacing and seductive.

The opener, "Talion", is 11-minutes of dense psychedelic sludge metal with thick riffs and shrill, demon-like vocals. "Hunted" is another mid-tempo monster, with epic tribal rhythms and spacious guitars building after a melodic piano-led intro. "While Life Lies" is a beast of post-black metal, with huge, thunderous riffs and rhythms. The closer, "Awaiting", is a subtle summation, complete with nearly ambient interludes alongside the voracious and vicious metallic assault.

Most certainly, Agrimonia have a wide and varied sonic palette to draw from, and their brand of heathen black/death/psyche/sludge metal is uniformly superb from any standpoint. Played this one multiple times. Amen Agrimonia.

Southern Lord

Agrimonia site

Nails - "Abandon All Life" CD

 "Abandon All Life", the second album from American black/death/doom/grindcore merchants Nails, certainly economizes. It's 10 songs in a meager 17 minutes, but I swear there's at least an hour's worth of hate in those brief 17 minutes. Recorded by Kurt Ballou (Converge), who ably handles the ear-splitting highs and grisly lows, this is a seriously intense recording.

"Abandon All Life" sounds like a family being violently hacked to bits, crushing bones and explosive blows alongside blood-curdling screams and thuds. Track titles aren't too important, as this flows together as one extended piece of evil audio carnage. Devastating and riveting, Nails make most metal acts sound like kindergardeners. This is the most violent, aggressive recording I've heard in some time. All hail Nails.

Southern Lord

Nails site

Enabler - "All Hail The Void" CD

All hail indeed! These Milwaukee-based terror-core kings (also known as Enabler MKE) here release their full-length CD debut after a number of split EPs and vinyl releases. Coming from a breakneck metal/hardcore direction, Enabler's 12 tracks run roughshod over the listener with seriously throttled riffs, huge drums, and scarred-throat vocals.

The only respite here in the whole 34 minutes are the track breaks. "FATH" opens it up with a moment of acoustic guitar before launching into a fearsome tirade of complex rhythms and guitar mayhem. "Speechless" is punk-metal that absolutely annihilates others who may have similar inspirations. "Fuck Today" has a math-metal breakdown that would make the mighty Meshuggah proud, even. Well played. 

There's not a whole lot I can say about Enabler's "All Hail The Void", aside from the fact that this is a smoking-hot debut from a band that could be among the best out there if they continue this trajectory. I am stunned.

(Southern Lord)

Enablerbook

Black Cobra - "Invernal" CD

The fourth album from this Bay Area duo is an absolutely massive and vicious juggernaut of pummeling aggression. "Invernal" hits hard from the start, with the opener, "Avalanche", being an apt description. The next 7 cuts don't falter from there, either. With thick-as-molasses guitars and thunderous drums, Black Cobra singlehandedly crush most metal bands underfoot. Tracks like "The Crimson Blade" just seethe with tension, with as much low-end as the Melvins and as much speed as Slayer. Black Cobra just smoke, no doubt about it. (Southern Lord)

Black Cobra net

Craft - "Void" CD

Vicious and fiery black metal from Sweden that transcends the usual black metal sound by going even more brutal. For their 4th album, Craft dredge the depths of despair and fan the flames of hate with a powerful and crusty attack of simplistic but bowel-churning riffs and rhythms. Solid, solid work here. (Southern Lord)

Craftspace

Wolves In The Throne Room - "Celestial Lineage" CD

Opening with the ethereal ambiance of the 12-minute "Thuja Magus Imperium", complete with female vocals, it's evident that this isn't your typical black metal album. If anything, "Celestial Lineage" is a post-black metal album, delivering much more than just blasting beats and demonic vocal stylings.

Underneath it all, these eco-warriors eschew the genre's trappings, and create majestic songs that herald a new age of back-to-nature idealism. In fact, both members (and their families) even live (and work) a natural lifestyle and grow their own food. But that's beside the point. The music here blends black metal with ambient, psychedelia, post-rock, and drone in an unusually cohesive fashion.

"Subterranean Initiation" is a bruising and fiery tempest of rolling metal that opens up to a low-and-slow psychedelic/krautrock thud, like a mix between Neurosis and Can, before refueling back to a torrent of cascading black metal stylings. "Woodland Cathedral" is a beautifully evocative stab at medieval Popol Vuh-style ambiance that conjures just what the title implies. "Astral Blood" is another dynamic and masterful 10-minute journey that blasts, lulls, and blasts again. The closing piece, "Prayer Of Transformation", is an epic swell of symphonic post-metal rich with bombast and beauty. A tremendous work, "Celestial Lineage" is Wolves' sonic tour-de-force. (Southern Lord)

Wolves website

All Pigs Must Die - "God Is War" CD

Fronted by Hope Conspiracy bellower Kevin Baker, and including Ben Koller (and producer/mixer Kurt Ballou) from famed hardcore nihilists Converge, APMD unleash a devastating blow on this debut album. It's a brief yet grueling affair, running all of 8 tracks and 33 minutes, but All Pigs don't waste any time showing their crust/hardcore roots. Every cut here is positively ferocious.

From the opening of "Death Dealer", APMD bruise and pummel with unrelenting viciousness. "Sancrosanct" approaches black metal, whereas "The Blessed Void" is a low-end blur of head-smashing thrash. It all leads up to "Sadistic Vindicator", which closes things out with a huge wall of guitar sound and brutal, churning rhythms. This is an album of violent aggression, and though it's a limited palette of sound, it's a wholly effective one. (Southern Lord)

All Pigsspace

Earth - "Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light 1" album

Legendary drone/doom rock (don't say metal these days) act Earth here return with their most musical album yet, a multi-faceted and moody set of instrumental tunes that join the band's influential quasi-mystical guitars with Western-inspired cinematic motifs. Think post-rock meets Ennio Morricone, maybe. "Descent To The Zenith" is a deceptively simple rock song, slowed down to half-speed, and retaining enough melody to be hummable and "catchy", even. "Hell's Winter" has a little more renegade attitude (there's definitely some blues lurking within), but nonetheless remains textural and soundscape-oriented. Superb work, really, as I get a dusky, gritty "Deadwood"-kinda vibe here. The title track is 20 minutes of spaced-out drones with swells of cello. This ends it all on a lovely, drifty, and meditational note.
Earth's strength lies in their ability to conjure dramatic textures and contemplative moods, all within the normally humdrum framework of guitar-drums-cello. "Angels Of Darkness" is a well-rounded, mature, and accomplished recording, and stands as a high point in the band's catalog. (Southern Lord)

Earthspace

Earth site

Summon The Crows - "One More For The Gallows" album

Fiery and potent thrash/death metal here from a Norwegian act. Limited to only 1000 copies, "One More For The Gallows" also channels some crusty English hardcore on tracks like the punchy "Ornaments", and "Black Hole" brings in some black metal influences, as well. All said, it's 10 tracks in 26 minutes here, all fairly vicious and packed with crunch and groove. Completely worthy. (Southern Lord)

Summon The Crowspace

Baptists - "Baptists" 7"

This new Vancouver act rages on this little 4-song slab of vinyl. It's packed with crazy, wicked, punishing hardcore/metal that burns with 90% more hate than those silly kids in Avenged Sevenfold. Hah! "Bachelor Degree Burn" is a tense sonic maelstrom of low chugga-chugga nihilism, while "Life Poser" is another slice of potent and reckless annihilation. Wow. (Southern Lord)

Baptistspace

Nails - "Unsilent Death" CD

Now this is some formidable heaviness. Hailing from Southern California, this trio's debut is as concise as it is destructive. 10 songs here, 13 minutes. But perhaps brevity is good here, as there's no room to breathe for these 13 intense, apocalyptic minutes. Opening with the 30-second grindcore bloodclot of "Conform", it's sink or swim with these dudes. Hah! "Scum Will Rise" isn't any slower -- a raging fireball of gutteral post-punk, post-metal, post-hardcore nihilism. This is not for the faint of heart. Awesome and powerful. (Southern Lord)

Nailspace

The Secret - "Solve et Coagula" CD

This band blew me away instantly with an absolutely punishing sonic maelstrom. Hailing from Italy, The Secret's devastatingly powerful grindcore/black/doom/noise metal muscles it's way through 12 tracks in under 35 uncompromising minutes. With a surplus of big, seething, and dynamic riffs, tectonic drumming, and throat-scarring, lung-searing vocals, The Secret all but annihilate on this, their 3rd LP (and first for new label Southern Lord). The aggressive nihilism never relents, from the initial "Cross Builder" all the way through to the final track, "1968". It's a nonstop ride of blistering torment, wicked grind/metal noise, and feral abandon. Production by Kurt Ballou (Converge) is clear and up-front, pushing the group's intense sound even further into the red. In fact, I'd say his production is a key ingredient here. I've heard few bands this year who are this intense. Wow. This one's all killer, and no filler, indeed. (Southern Lord)

Secretspace

Righteous Fool - "Forever Flames/ Edict Of Worms" 7"

From a couple of COC members (Mike and Reed joined by Jason Browning of Bad Brains' HR band) comes this heavy doom-stoner-sludge-riff extravaganza. With molasses-thick Sabbath-style guitars, "Forever Flames" tears through a speedy 4 minutes of smoky heaviness (and solid songwriting). The B-side, "Edict Of Worms", is an even more monolithic mid-tempo rocker with a bluesy vibe. Another strong new project from the COC boys, whose COC3 reformation already nets them a renewed interest from old skate punks and metalheads alike. (Southern Lord)

Righteous Foolspace

BXI (Boris & Ian Astbury) - "BXI" EP

A surprise (and surprisingly good) set of 4 tunes, 3 of which feature vocals by Cult frontman Ian Astbury. Opening with the raw "Teeth And Claws", BXI showcases Boris' stoner-rock leanings well, and the added vocals by Astbury take it to an almost-radio-ready zone. The molasses-thick Melvins-like "We Are Witches" is heavier, and makes the later-period Cult material sound that much more anemic. This is a refreshing new sound experiment for Astbury, and the deep, grinding guitars and percussive thud of Boris provide a great backdrop. The cover of the seminal 1985 Cult hit "Rain" is faithful enough, with ethereal female vocals in place of Astbury, but it works well. The final track, "Magickal Child", is a slower ballad of sorts, but with Boris' chunky riffs and massive drums, it's epic. Good stuff, especially for Cult fans who've been turned off by that band's later material. Boris fans may see BXI as being too commercial, but I think it works well. I await the full-length from these international collaborators! (Southern Lord)

Borispace

The Cult

Lair Of The Minotaur - "Evil Power" CD

Chicago's LOTM are a monstrously heavy and thick clot of brutish metal aggression, tailormade for fans bands like Slayer or Mastodon. I'm particularly impressed by this trio's unrelenting bludgeon, which ranges from amped-up classic Viking-style metal to thrashy speed to almost stoner-death metal. And it's all played with a reckless and intimidating precision that pummels the head and churns the guts. The opener, "Attack The Gods", is a piledriver of intense riffage and gutteral vocals. The formidably-titled "Let's Kill These Motherfuckers" is a freight-train of raging wartime testosterone and a bold anthem indeed. Ditto for the mighty "Evil Power", and "We Are Hades", which would make an ideal soundtrack for the entrance of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Now that would make a killer video for these guys. One can only hope. But I digress.
Despite the fact that there are 11 tracks here of bowel-loosening aggro-metal, the attack never ceases to be mesmerizing or adrenaline-soaked. Perhaps because it's a short blast at only 30 minutes? Regardless, Lair Of The Minotaur are among modern metal's finest hopes, remaining faithful to classic metal themes and content, yet synthesizing them into a unique hybrid of ultra-heavy styles. Classic. (The Grind-House Records/Southern Lord)

Be sure to check the amazing new video for "Evil Power" on their own site (it's been banned by youtube and myspace):
Lair Of The Minotaur site

LOTMspace

Black Breath - "Razor To Oblivion" CDEP

From Seattle comes this new band's debut 4-song EP. It may be short (there's little more than 13 minutes here), but Black Breath don't need any more to prove they are the real thing. This is intense, raw and potent hardcore/metal mayhem with nods to classic British crust punk as well as American death/thrash. The title track features a galloping tempo alongside thick, downtuned guitar riffage and dense, scratchy-throated vocal assaults. "Beneath The Crust" shows more of an immediate, in-your-face mentality, with searing vocals and guitars that slash-and-burn like Slayer meets the Melvins. It's a sick and lovely sound, indeed, with equal doses of out-of-control punk/noise mayhem and tight metallic aggression. "Murder", the final track, lets up a bit on the speed, but remains a 2+ minute lethal injection of evil metal mania. Absolutely smoking stuff. Looking forwards to that full-lengther, boys! (Hot Mass/Southern Lord)

Black Breathspace

Pelican - "What We All Come To Need" CD

Chicago's progressive/metal act migrates to Southern Lord for their 4th album, and this one follows much in the path of their past work -- lengthy, intricately-developed instrumental rock that takes aspects of heavy indie, doom metal, drone, and even math rock and adds a monumental heaviness that will endear them to fans of kindred spirits like Tool, Isis, Jesu, Mono, or Sunn O))). "The Creeper" features some guest guitars from Greg Anderson, himself of Sunn O))), but the music is purely Pelican. The twin guitar attack of Laurent Schroeder-Lebec and Trevor de Brauw interweaves delicate melodies below seas of monolithic riff. Pelican's heavy (and heady) music leaves behind any semblance of ego or pretense, as these players create songs that sometimes sweep and float, at at other times twist into a tumultuous firestorm of angst and thunderous momentum. Tracks like "Strung Up From The Sky" epitomize everything that Pelican stands for -- strong, muscular, and tight riffing, softer passages, a monstrous rhythm section, and melodies wafting around the gargantuan (song) structure. Nothing here is tired, rote, overplayed, or showy. Superb work, and perhaps Pelican's finest thus far. (Southern Lord)

Pelicanspace

Pelican page

Black Cobra - "Chronomega" CD

Bay Area duo Black Cobra's Southern Lord debut (and third LP overall) shreds from the very first track. "Negative Reversal" is a frantic, riff-heavy onslaught of sludgy doom/stoner wickedness -- like the Melvins on a speed binge, perhaps. "Catalyst" begins with some subtle drone, but it soon erupts into another mammoth cataclysm of molasses-thick riff-n-spliff. "Zero Point Field" gets so sticky, it threatens to become total noise, but it never devolves quite that far. Produced by the man-of-the-hour Billy Anderson (Melvins, Neurosis, High On Fire), "Chronomega" is a thick, bludgeoning behemoth capable of crushing anything in it's path. I am duly convinced, and worship at the altar of Black Cobra. (Southern Lord)

Black Cobra site
Black Cobraspace

The Accused - "The Curse Of Martha Splatterhead" CD

Ah, the return of an old friend! It's been years (6 or so) since these influential Seattle-area crossover thrash/punk/metallers have shown their faces, and this is a welcome return. Boasting of 14 songs in a mere 29 minutes, guitarist Tommy Neimeyer (who gained some fame in the 90's with grunge band Gruntruck) and company (it seems he has drafted a whole new band) bring a fearsome and timeless attack on "Stomped To Death", which blasts it's way by without mercy, and puts many grind/death metal acts the shame. I'm sure the production (by Billy Anderson) helps, too, as he gives the band a raw and appropriately out-of-control sound, rather than an overly clean sheen. "Martha's Disciples" is a roaring beast of riff, every bit as heavy as Slayer and just as ferocious. "Avenue Of The Dead" is so spastic, it's almost like abstract metal. New vocalist Brad Mowen (also of Burning Witch & Master Musicians Of Bukkake) fits the bill perfectly, basically splashing/expelling his demonic vocals with reckless abandon. This is a hell of an album, and anyone who writes these guys off as irrelevant these days evidently hasn't heard much recent metal. I say, welcome back. (Southern Lord)

free mp3 of "Splatterbeast", courtesy of Southern Lord

Sunn O))) - "Monoliths And Dimensions" CD

Hailing from Seattle, this prolific duo (Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson) has undoubtably been one of the most well-regarded acts the area has produced in many a year. Sunn O))) specialize in a special gray area that skirts the lines between ultra-heavy doom metal and avante-garde noise/drone. You think Black Sabbath were slow? These guys truly CRAWL, with long, drawn-out, down-tuned bass chords and a variety of spooky effects that could be the soundtrack to someone's mental breakdown. This album, the group's seventh (if you don't count their numerous singles/EPs/collaborations) ups the ante with plenty of guests and some larger cinematic moments. The 17+ minute opener here, "Agharha", incorporates narration from Mayhem's Attila Csihar, creating a texturally rich soundscape complete with horns and grinding strings -- impressively intense and otherworldly. "Big Church" incorporates a Viennese woman's choir for eerie effect (think a classic Hammer horror film, maybe). "Hunting And Gathering (Cydonia)" is almost like a symphonic black metal minus the drums, and again features Csihar's masterfully evil vocals among the blackened guitar grind and, get this, brass! The closer, the 16-minute "Alice" is almost a crescendo of slow, brooding strength, told through fuzzed-out, sustained power chords and horns. It ends on an almost hopeful, even jazzy note. 'Monoliths And Dimensions" is as apt a title as you're gonna get. This is real. I love it. (Southern Lord)