Fortunately for Cathedral’s lasting legacy, the last two songs on the record rank among their finest-ever work. ‘An Observation’ is over ten minutes of psych-soaked synths, depressive strings and piano interplay and cannoning, battering drums woven together by some of Dorrian’s most reflective lyrics to date, and takes a full-on acid-prog freakout diversion in its impressive stride towards the stomping, clattering end.
Sounds like The Last Spire is Cathedral going out on a high note - read Rob McAuslan’s full review here.
The release you want doesn’t come straight away, the building pulse and drone of ‘Mills’ only serving to shift your anticipation to fear. Incredibly, when‘God Alone’ staggers its way through the murk, there’s little relief to be found even then – the Irish masters of longform bleakness may have appeared to have learned conciseness and restraint, based on the length of the new songs compared to old material, but this isn’t really the case. All of the fury present onMammal and White Tomb is here, embodied in the blessed, excoriating blastbeat that finally unfurls itself from the lurching riff. It’s gone again nearly as soon as it arrives to be replaced with an industrial chug reminiscent ofCelestial-era ISIS, broken with off-time chord stabs and finally giving way to a nightmarish take on Gregorian chanting and coruscating feedback. Altar Of Plagues have made huge changes to the length of their songs with only a few breaking five minutes in length, but the idea that this is due to any restraint is misguided – sharper focus and broadened influences are the backbone of this record.
Teethed Glory and Injury, the new album from Altar of Plagues, has Rob McAuslan all worked up. Read his full review and find out why.
Being a hardcore fan can have its fair share of hardships. Worrying that you might pull a muscle while hardcore dancing. The ever-growing pile of TDON and Purgatory Records t-shirts you have to wash and iron. Not to mention how exhausting listening to the likes of Brutality Will Prevail all the time is, and how hard enjoying a Cornetto on the beach is while listening to Bastions. If only there was something to listen to that was aggressive but didn’t leave you so emotionally drained…well, get ready to turn those tattooed frowns upside down kids, The Catharsis are about to release their debut Romance, and it’s a whole lot of fun.
Gavin Lloyd reviews Romance, the debut album from The Catharsis.
Bloody Mammals
From: London, UK
Lazy equation: (The Bronx - Mariachi ennui) x the hypertense end of angry-young-men-with-guitars spectrum.
URL: Facebook // Bandcamp
Thrash Hits verdict: We don’t just rattle of Label Profile columns to satisfy the internet’s incessant and never-endong demand for content - we produce them because we believe in the bands that the aforementioned profiled labels are putting out. So when they have a new band join their ranks - as Bloody Mammals are to Flatpack Recordings (our next Label Profile subject, as it happens), then we sit up and listen. Especially if they sound this damn good.
Click here to read our interview with and hear music by Bloody Mammals.
Where their For Cause And Consequence EP stumbled a little around the inevitable weeds that grow during a long layoff, IV strides confidently – this is a band in the form they became so beloved for, no excuses necessary. The leadoff pairing of ‘March Of The Yeti’ and ‘Preacher’ is strong, classic Earthtone9 tribalistic drumming propelling RIFFS (yes capitals, as befits their hugeness) and Karl Middleton’s always-distinctive vocal schizophrenia leads the charge as if they’d never been away. These two tracks are really just an entrée though, a comfortably-familiar rallying call before the “new” Earthtone9 sound kicks in.
Rob McAuslan reviews IV, the first Earthtone9 album in 13 years.
Today is the 37th birthday of Christian Älvestam. What’s that? You don’t recognise the name of the vocalist of more than a dozen metal bands? Who’s done guest vocal spots for everyone from Bloodbath to Demon Hunter? The former frontman of Scar Symmetry? No? Well, in that case, this week’s Sunday Spotify Slaylist is going to be something of an education for you.
Click here to read more.
Incongruities start to seep in with the interesting, but misplaced, vocal assistance of King Diamond on ‘Room 24′. The song is clearly out of place, both thematically and in its adoption of a crawling doom-like riff; when it gives ways to Diamond’s distinctive falsetto contribution, the menacing but levity-flecked Western falls away to reveal a blackened pastiche that sounds at odds with the remainder of the album. Compared to the light springing amble of‘Lonesome Rider’, it’s a song that seems to have found its way on for the glory of its conception, not for its actual contribution to Outlaw Gentlemen. This unintentional alienation of the listener from the record is staggering from a band who were able to slot the stuttering intro of ‘Still Counting’ into a consistently heavy backdrop.
Guest spots do not the album make - but what else did David Keevill have to say about Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies, the new album from Volbeat?
We don’t mean to keep you from hanging on the line for that third Glassjaw album, but… you do know Daryl Palumbo’s back, right? This time Palumbo’s teamed up with Richard Penzone (last seen with ex-Glassjaw guitarist Todd Weinstock in Men, Women & Children ) for Color Film - yet another rebound into Palumbo’s love affair with the 80s.
Click here for more info.
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