Deadbird - III: The Forest Within The Tree

Featuring members of Rwake, Pallbearer and at least a dozen other bands, Deadbird is a colossal project that has been collecting dust for a decade since their last album Twilight Ritual was released in 2008 through At a Loss Records. Now 20 Buck Spin has teamed with the band for a third album, The Forest Within The Tree.

Falling into the genres of sludge and post metal, Deadbird are dripping with angry raw southern doom with hints of ISIS and Neurosis. Effortlessly fusing the spirit of Arkansas with melancholy and nihilism, Deadbird is beautifully epic and packs some heavy punches. Recorded at Ardent Studios and mastered by the genius Brad Boatright of Audiosiege, The Forest Within The Tree burns on slow fuzz and atmospheric energy.

“Alexandria” is an eclectic track that resonates with elements of grunge, slowed down power grooves submerge you into a psychedelic hell on “Brought Low” and eject you into the meat grinder that is “Bone & Ash”.

While the new Deadbird album may not be something that bandwagons them out of exile into the next big thing, I do think this eight track package of gut wrenching experimentation offers some pretty tight twists. If you really want to be dragged down low and suffer morose melodies, then Deadbird might be worth checking out.

The Forest Within The Tree comes out on October 12th and can be ordered now via Bandcamp.

Beerwolf - Planetfall

Assuming you haven’t already heard, Florida has a pretty bitchin’ metal scene. Ascending from the bowels of Tampa are the renegades of boogy and grime, Beerwolf. Once their brand of electric groove snags you, you’ll be taken along for the ride that is Planetfall.

Yes, all 59 minutes of this space groove arcane doom trip will please you. Not enough labels for you? How about psychedelic fuzz monster. That’s what Planetfall is, which you’ll experience as guitarist Matt Howland takes you on a trip to other places, reducing you to slick protoplasmic ooze as he tears through time. The hypnotic rhythms of bass player Jason Kleim evoke a traditional free spirited rock aesthetic, which fits wonderfully with Beerwolf’s lyrics of heathen high adventure. In the background drummer Ashwin Prasad leads you along with grace, and easily pummels like a gigantic wave.

Borrowing from The Sword, Witchfinder General, Cathedral, 70s rock icons and of course Black Sabbath’s chunky blues riffs, Beerwolf have a lot to offer. The steady kindling of “Opium Meadows”, the flamboyant ecstacy of “Haze Arcane”, and the orthodox groove of “Magick Warbird” all make for something special that you want to feel a part of. As the titanic “Epilogue” closes the door on this maelstrom, you will be left with the aftershock of Planetfall branded into your skull. Planetfall can be purchased here through Ripple Music.

Cauldron - New Gods

The Canadian province of Ontario has long been a haven of traditional heavy metal and speed metal bands, including Anvil and Exciter for starters, and not unworthy of being mentioned, the extreme thrash outfit Slaughter which released the seminal early death metal album Strappado in 1987. One would need a ledger to detail all of the bands that have stayed true to heavy metal’s vision in the sordid halls of Toronto and its neighboring cities. Among those bands, at the top of the crop should be mentioned Cauldron, a band that has existed for just over a decade under the guidance of Jason Decay and Ian Chains.

Before the so-called new wave of traditional heavy metal was even a catchphrase to describe bands that were paying homage to acts like Anvil, Saxon, old school Priest, and Maiden, Cauldron was coming up out of the remains of Goat Horn; one would need to trace the lineage of Decay and Goat Horn back a decade further, and I would highly encourage you to watch the “Rotten Roll” video, even if you have already done it 1000 times, as I have. In 2009, Cauldron released their debut full length, a banger called Chained to the Nite, an album that set the precedent for what anyone else should be doing to respect true metal. With Goat Horn’s drummer Jason Mellish providing a kick behind the melodies and rhythms, the power trio accomplished an album that easily stood on an equal level with just about anything that came out two decades earlier. In an age of copycats and has-beens, Cauldron exercised an organic chemistry with an innovative mindset, implementing formulaic precision with the raw sleaze of 80s rock stars. It could not be done without the cerebral mindset of three passionate Millenials who were conjuring up a scene from the past, but under their own banners.

New Gods is Cauldron’s fifth full length in a decade and a follow up to the critically acclaimed In Ruin. The album takes the band in a slightly different direction, albeit not too far from what has pleased many of their fans. New Gods is a slow and heavy tribute to old-school arena rock and traditional heavy metal bands that emphasized more on formula than on face melting showmanship. The riffs still provide high energy, such as on the track “Letting Go”, which stays at a crawling tempo building up to a straightforward chorus. This song, like many on the album, has a simple pop template that emanates out through gritty aesthetic of metal.

Surrendering machismo for soul and depth, New Gods greatest moments shine through on its bluesy ballads. However, the intensity favorable to thrashers and headbangers isn’t completely absent, as evident on the righteous skull bashing track “Drown,” and “Last Request” rips right down the length of this album’s conclusion.




New Gods has very little to offer in terms of outrageous excess, complex arpeggios, and theatrical amusement. On the other hand, Cauldron does continue on the beaten path of their formatted mid-tempo brooding riff rock, which has worked out quite well for them. New Gods blares out an amalgam of Angel Witch and Ratt, an odd combination in theory that considerably works out quite well for them in practice. 

New Gods is available for purchase here.

Spaceslug - Eye The Tide

Honoring everything from Hawkwind to Kyuss, Spaceslug explores space and sludge with incredible finesse. As the band maps out their course through celestial fuzz and doomed riffs, vocalist Bartosz Janik serenades with a gifted drawl. With very little backing them, the Polish unit has come out swinging; Eye The Tide is one of the best albums in the genre this year, and it far surpasses anything that Spaceslug have already done.

Eye The Tide is not an album you want to pass up. Seven tracks and about an hour of a creative vision that encompasses the best of post-metal. Conjured up from the darkness, the ominous bass breathes life into smokey guitar melodies that pay tribute to infinite cosmic gods. Primal stoner grooves add the essence of rock & roll, creating human substance from this audible trip.

Plummeting from the vastness of eternity, Spaceslug gifts us with graceful waves of riffs. Surrender to the cleansing waters of “Eternal Moments”, before being blown away on gusts of wind with the embers of “Words Like Stones.” In time those embers build up into an all-consuming blaze and the song becomes a meteor shower of sludge. Transcending the formulas, engross with an abundance of style and technique. “Vialys I” washes you up on a shore for a breather, and leaves you there for the perplexing build up on “Vialys II” before dragging you back out into the psychedelic cloud. “I, The Tide” is an unpredictable eleven-minute voyage through a plethora of energies that culminate into a final insurmountable doom riff that will leave you wanting more.

The musicianship on Eye The Tide is tight, spontaneous, and borrows from no shortage of influences. Before you realize you are engrossed in a treasured rhythmic dream, you will be crushed by the unrelenting dirge.

Integrity/Krieg Split

Combining two behemoths like Krieg and Integrity into one split is a near guarantee that the walls are going to tremble and floors will shake with blackened hardcore infused grooves. Cascading out of your listening device is a rapture of soul sucking metal from two veteran elite bands from their respective communities. Integrity are considerably far more mature and delve into sinister depths that are unlike the usual hardcore ilk of their Victory Records roots. It is reasonable to imagine that Dwid Hellion’s creative juggernaut would fit magnificently with the corrosive audible spawn of New Jersey’s Krieg. Their blackened branches may extend into different places but stem from the same bile.

It’s no surprise that Integrity kicks the door down with relentless force on “Scorched Earth,” a song that starts like screeching tires just before a car wreck before opening up into a maelstrom gut wrenching leads and palm muted riffs that tear at the psyche. Crashing and burning from out of the abyss lands Dwid Hellion, a charismatic enigma who somehow manages to contain all of the energy at his back and disperses it into malevolent guttural howls.

Yep, I think I’m going to like this split; Integrity’s transformation from metalcore (not that nicely polished 2000s stuff, mind you) into a legitimate blackened unit could not be any more successful. From the D-Beat inspired “Sons of Satan” to the unstoppable assault on “Flames of the Immortal”, Integrity are still provoking the hordes with intense creative bursts of sonic warfare.

Further tracing their lineage back to the vault of old school hardcore punk, Integrity performs a cover of G.I.S.M’s “Document One.” To put it simply, this song kicks ass and Integrity did a wonderful job of capturing the spirit of the original song while staying true to their own sound.

And then you have Krieg, a band with a storied reputation in the USBM scene, and if “Circle of Guilt” should tell you anything it is that they will have the mana to follow up Integrity. Their first track is a sick dose of negativity. Hammering down with a vicious force that will penetrate your will to live, Krieg’s pair of unreleased recordings and a live version of “The Sick Winds Stir the Cold Dawn” will leave any USBM purist salivating for more sonic dread.

Morag Tong - Last Knell of Om

Elegant. Progessive. Compelling. Those are three words that I would use to describe the music of Morag Tong. There is surely something enchanting about the group’s slowly moving psychedelic melodies, and then they hit you with eye-opening heavy rhythms of doom that come with a specter of death. Last Knell of Om offers sensuality with tenacity, mystique with brutal cadence, and harmonies that lure you into passive submission. This is exactly the kind of music that should be envisioned when I see the name Morag Tong.

Foremost in the big chunk of things I did with my life that took up way too much time for my own good was play video games. You are probably aware of Bethesda’s popular and hugely successful title called The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, but nearly a decade before that was released, the giant world of Morrowind was created and for a long time it was my deliverance from the cruel shackles of this mortal world.

Around that same time period between the years of 2003 and 2006, the heavy metal underground and in particular the doom subgenres opened up before me; as I traveled through the misty shores of Morrowind’s Bitter Swamp region and scaled ash mountains beyond the Ghostfence, Electric Wizard and Candlemass accompanied me on quests into a strange world of xenophobic mystical dark elves.   

I would like to think that members of this band were sharing the same experiences all the way out in London. Morag Tong is the name of an assassin cult that perform legal writs of execution against uppity out of line nobles all throughout Morrowind, and this atmosludge group from the UK had some heavy shoes to step in when they assumed their name.

Ethereal and otherworldly, Morag Tong dance around the primal substance at the axis of the music. The overwhelming drumming from Adam Asquith and hypnotic bass of James Atha carry a palate of eclectic melody that pulls in a multitude of directions.

The tones add depth down the surreal path of Alex Clarke and Lewis Crane’s spellbinding and often empowering chords. The Last Knell of Om is a sonic bath of realization, a cryptic invitation, and probably too cool for most.

I can honestly say that if this were a terrible album I would have shit all over it with the ferocity of an angry Nord on 15 bottles of Sujamma, but finding a band that pays tribute to my favorite video game of all time without even sucking really gets my mood to some nifty plateaus.

Do you need to spend over 1800 hours on the third installment of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind to get Morag Tong? Absolutely not. Does the backdrop of that beautiful region of Tamriel provide a splendid template for where this album will take you? Of course, it does, but without it, you may likely see yourself through the doors of your own imagination and discover a fantastic place beneath the layers of Morag Tong’s atmospheric fuzz.

Khemmis - Desolation

Khemmis have cultivated a pretty awesome following in the few years that they’ve been around, as a result of their successful debut Absolution and the immediate follow up Hunted, the Denver based unit have risen up to the status of doom metal elite very quickly. With all eyes on them, expectations are a bit severe, considering they’ve only been relevant for about three years; however as the rule of nature goes, once you dive in, you either sink or swim.

Desolation stays true to the spirit of how Khemmis have done things with a sharp and meticulous artistry that unravels a broad picture of their musical influences. Not content to sit on one wave and ride it, Khemmis have meddled in a variety of forces that culminate into a beautiful diverse lexicon of doom.

Desolation maintains that potent and tight musicianship which brought Khemmis to the metal vanguard. On the edges of classic rock and desert psychedelic bliss, their harmonies provide atmospheric layering to a storm of heavier doom trodden moods. This is the kind of composition that one might anticipate from band that has already proven to be capable of so much. Their ability to weave styles together without faulting themselves on fragmented escapades that lead nowhere is an exceptional trait, and it may hold for good if there aren’t any changes which result in changes to the elementary fabric of the band.

Foreboding and bone chilling, “Bloodletting” is a tragic poetic introduction that subtly leads down the path through to curb stomping tempos and eye awakening magic within catchy stoner licks. This song sets the doctrine for what you are probably already in the know; what you’re getting here is an open door into heavy metal’s future, which appears to be secured and well on the altar of Khemmis. The stylistic rhapsodies on Desolation brought forth with charming efficiency and depth provoke thoughtful mature images. Khemmis casts a worthy lot with this cascade of riffs sweeping down from the Mile High City. 

The shifting dynamics of Ben Hutcherson and Phil Pendergast as formidable co-frontman keep an interesting twist on tones. The elegant and sometimes ethereal vocals of Pendergast are like a melodic oasis in an otherwise treacherous landscape of morose and ominous riffs forecasting niches of black and sludge. Hutcherson has evolved a bit since Hunted, showing a noticeable capability to diversify his growls and powerful shrieks, and his ill portents on “Maw of Time” particularly gave me goosebumps and sank into my skin. The contrasting forces of Hutcherson and Pendergast are like an eerie revelation of light and dark transmogrifying into angelic and hellacious expression. Pendergast’s admirable ranges and hooks provoke a robust body of emotion as the band depicts cinematic story with bewitching grace.’

“From Ruin” brings the album around full circle, with an assurance of new found strength in darkness as a lasting resolution.

If you are a fan of metal with thick bluesy guitar solos guided by that rich 70s rock vibe, and rich harmonies surrounded by a forest of dissonant guitar gloom, then Desolation is an album that you will surrender yourself to time and time again.