Drudkh - They Often See Dreams About the Spring

Drudkh aren’t finished with with their zenith; They Often See Dreams About the Spring surges with sweeping harmonies and breathtaking cadences. Surely this is a renaissance for their career, as the Ukrainian based group follows up the critical success of A Furrow Cut Short with an even better album in my estimation.

It’s an unloading and cryptic album with hypnotic songs that dig down into the dirge of a warrior’s spirit. Artistically the album renders images of rolling landscapes and hideous flames purging all in its path. This is the purity of raw black metal in an environment that has fostered more than one thousand years of war torn poverty and oppression. It is no coincidence, in my mind’s eye, that this outfit has been releasing such tenacious material in the outcropping of a war that continues to tear apart their homeland.

Among Drudkh’s most persevering hallmarks is the ability to create music that rises above the tension. On one end of the spectrum is a style that relentlessly attacks in the form of their second wave inspired black metal assault, but they are also cultivating inspiration from folk ballads and the mystique of their culture. Beyond the maelstrom are symbols of faith and relief. Like the life of a forest that dies and breathes again, Drudkh lives out the tragedy of their struggle and relays inspiration out into the fog.

Release date is March 9th.

Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals - Choosing Mental Illness As A Virtue

Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals second album Choosing Mental Illness As A Virtue takes the listener down a thousand mad corridors and guarantees a bumpy ride. This style of sludge meets experimental death metal works wonders for Anselmo and it feels like here is where he belongs in his present state, and certainly no one knows that better than he does. 

While I do plan to write in great lengths about Anselmo, the Illegals are actually the standout contributors to this band and it would be disservice to ignore what they bring to the table. Mike DeLeon offers a plethora of talents to showcase in his riffs and change ups as their new lead guitar player. Stephen Taylor and DeLeon conjure up a wild tempest of sounds that approach the verge of old school Morbid Angel and even range around the technical versatility of Atheist. Jose Gonzalez clockwork drumming is impressive, and the dynamics of the band’s rhythms are upwards of the experimental metal wonders of Mr. Bungle. I’m often left wondering where the music is going and how many turns the band is going to take, but somehow it never actually loses focus. If Phil Anselmo weren’t the front man, every hipster in the scene would love this album for its deranged brilliance.

Although we’ve all laid to rest dreams of ever hearing the effervescent siren falsettos of Anselmo’s youth i.e. Cowboys From Hell, Power Metal, Anselmo’s continued use of guttural cries and deep scathing growls can still pack quite a punch. At times his delivery sounds tired or drained, but it feeds into the aesthetics of entropy that endear hearts to the sludge metal scene, and I picture Phil working within this realm for the long haul as years continue taking their toll. There are definitely strengths that Anselmo is capable of playing despite the wear and tear. If nothing else, the Henry Rollins influence on Anselmo comes to life stronger on the Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals albums than I’ve heard it before, with the frequent use of spoken candor in each song becoming a credible supplement to enhance his waning range.

Anselmo’s creative versatility and depth has few surviving equals, given his experience and contributions to more bands than I’ve had warm meals, and his storied history certainly propels the charm of an occult like myth. His lyrics can either be brutally forward (“Walk”, “Dress Like A Target”) or boggling with mystique (“Landing On The Mountains of Megiddo, “Pillamyd”). The lyrical content of Choosing Mental Illness As A Virtue certainly contains landmines of open accusations, which aren’t deliberate or specific, but certainly broad and suggestive remarks about the state of culture today. I don’t think you’re going to get a point on this album that matches the blissful tranquility of “Jail” or sorrowful acceptance of “Nothing In Return.” Choosing Mental Illness As A Virtue is an assault, not a tome.

In many ways, for his fans Anselmo remains the godhead of sludge, groove metal, and a variety of hardcore styles that intersect with Sabbath influences. Of course he’s also the subject of so much hostility due to his steadfast dedication to tongue and cheek humor and a politically incorrect ethos. His middle finger toward etiquette has on occasion led to quarrels with some of the more properly behaved and fashionably keen, and Rob Flynn.  This air of dimensions and dispositions that enshroud Phil Anselmo make it impossible to listen to an album featuring the front man without conjuring an opinion of this notoriety. It is an irremovable blot that Anselmo embraces and tackled quite well in Walk Through Exits Only, as he does again with amplified vitriol on the follow up Choosing Mental Illness As A Virtue.

If anything can be taken from the second Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals album, it’s that this old monolith isn’t going anywhere soon. He has the support and independent resources to continue pissing off his haters and charming his fans. Love him or not, Anselmo’s ministry continues in the dark swamps outside of New Orleans, and the force will be heard. The madman behind Nodferatu's Lair and all of its many spawn cleverly manages transformations to overcome each storm he's faced so far, and one should expect the beast will very well do it until he's dead.

Choosing Mental Illness As A Virtue was released on January 26th 2018 through Housecore in North America and distributed via Season of Mist abroad.

Album Review: River Black - River Black

River Black River Black (Season of Mist)

Raw, pummeling, and aggressive; River Black is a righteous blend of hardcore, thrash, and death metal that mixes into just the right cocktail of sonic intoxication. Thick grooves conjure wave after wave of unholy face melting hell.

River Black is a wailing monstrosity of unforgiven blues summoned forth from elite veterans in the metal scene. After the fall out of Burnt By The Sun, drummer David Witte (Municipal Waste) and guitar player John Adubato carved out the path toward their reawakening. Insert the technical prowess of Revocation’s Brett Bamberger and former Burnt By The Sun vocalist Mike Olender, and you have the aftermath of this New Jersey unit’s extreme revival.

Out forth pours River Black, thirty-five minutes of pure organic American metal chopped up into 12 tracks. Bandcamp

Album Review: Destroyer 666 - Wildfire

 

Deströyer 666
Wildfire
(Season of Mist)
Check 'em out!

This old dog has not grown tired or weak. Deströyer 666 is still fucking cool. Wildfire presents the krieg machine of K.K. Warslut at its finest. It’s been nearly seven years since Defiance came out. That was a different band entirely. K.K. hasn’t been twiddling his thumbs, and he hasn’t lost his sense of direction as blackened thrash’s unsung Australian. He’s come back and delivers with a pounder on every track. If you are familiar with the music of Deströyer 666, then you know that the signature sound is a really visceral style of metal that has its own distinct brand to it. It’s really from the gutter and hell. On top of their mastery of mean aesthetic, K.K. Warslut also writes some incredibly good songs, and has a very fine talent for creating a really dark and exciting mood.

Although Deströyer 666 are characteristic for fast, fast, fast music for the catacombs, the band has also churned out really mellow brooding numbers that guarantee a few hairs will stand up. That’s extreme metal at its finest. Where can these hessians go wrong?

With tracks like “White Line Fever,” you get the sense that K.K. is still living fast, and proud of his lifestyle as a midnight marauder. The wolf hessians hit the street night after night living for the hunt.
“Die You Fucking Pig” is the anti-religious rhetoric that fuels it all. Fucking hypocrites and righteous bastards – leave the hall.

Perhaps my favorite track on the album is the foreboding conclusion. “Tamam Shud” spends most of its time building up to an epic finale that carries the listener away with a desperate cry to escape from this mortal coil. As the song says, ‘there’s nothing left that I can say, please take me away.’ The name of the song itself means ‘finished’ in Persian. Although I don’t think this is an allusion to the end of K.K. Warslut, if it were I wouldn’t blame him. After all, how could one live in a world gone so far down the shitter? Only with metal albums like this.

Album Review: Rotten Sound - Abuse To Suffer

 

Rotten Sound - Abuse To Suffer
(Season of Mist)

Check 'em out!

A few weeks ago a friend of mine introduced me to a band from Finland called Rotten Sound. I liked their name, and I like bands from Finland, so I was already stoked to hear them before she even sent me a link to Exit. While I tediously slaved away on an assignment for the click bait agency we both worked for, the sounds of Finland’s grindcore phenomena brought a furious surge of beats and counter cultural degeneracy into my life. It was good. It was real good. I wish I could have made a living by telling people to share this motherfucking album, and “you won’t believe what they’re going to release next!”

Well, Abuse To Suffer is certainly one album I would like to take with me into what seems to be an inevitable Trump Presidency. I mean listen to this stuff. It’s the kind of music that makes me want to throw a Molotov cocktail into someone’s face. Nevermind that you don’t need to hit someone with a Molotov cocktail in order to hurt them with it. That’s beside the point. Will you pay good money to see Donald Trump hit with a Molotov cocktail? Would you even pay with your life? That’s a YouTube video I could picture with Rotten Sound’s “Yellow Pain” playing on a continuous loop. You can just picture his orange face going up in flames while this grindcore group from Finland is playing their new album in the background.

How could I compare the latest release of Finland’s premiere modern grindcore band to anything else? I mean it’s just what you would expect from bare bones in your face extreme music. These guys are taking misanthropy to another level. It feels like a tank in the streets, and a Patrick Bateman in the sheets.

Abuse To Suffer reminds me of that one time eleven years ago when I saw Extreme Noise Terror at the Elks in Cambridge in front of a packed audience of crust punks and metal heads. We were steaming in mid July heat and humidity, I was young and dumb, but I felt alive and free. I’m not typically engaged with grindcore and metal of this magnitude, but I think that this band are giving me new incentive. The band has been around since 1993, but I think they’re going to be keeping it real for a long time to come, and I’m stoked to be a new fan.