Pythian – Understanding In Light
Prior to the Second Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, the northwestern portion of the state of Ohio was occupied by the Great Black Swamp – a nearly impenetrable mire of filth and disease. Over the course of 150 years the land was rehabilitated, rose to prominence as a manufacturing mainstay, and then plunged into a typical Rust Belt depression. Today, this region, which includes the Toledo metropolitan area, is haunted by ghosts of both eras – empty fields of…
Lord Of Confusion – Evil Mystery
Lord of Confusion hails from Portugal and has been creating psychedelic stoner-doom nightmares since 2018. After their terrifying debut EP Burnin’ Valley and the epic 19 minute single Witchmantia the band has doubled down on the amount of horror they can bring with their first full-length album Evil Mystery! Featuring off-kilter keyboards, mournful moans, and a sea of filthy riffs this album takes everything great about the first two Lord Of Confusion releases and amplifies it! It is a heavy…
Bugfight – Demo 2022
Throughout various parts of Asia, there exist communities centered around insect fighting. Two bugs of various species are pitted against each other in combat – often to the death – while spectators cheer and gamble on the results. This is the strange, frantic energy that feeds the Canadian band Bugfight – a powerviolence / hardcore trio with a frenzied sound. After recording their last raw and noisy demo in 2019, the band was lying in wait for the perfect moment…
Warcoe – The Giant’s Dream
Warcoe is a band that hails from Italy and is well-versed in the most ancient ways of doom metal. That is to say: much like Black Sabbath, although they dwell in the darkness, they aren’t afraid to kick into a hard rocking groove when the situation calls for it! Influenced by a variety of heavy metal progenitors, the three-piece got together in 2021and dubbed their sound “groovy doom from the abyss” for reasons that become apparent upon hearing it. After…
Geisterfaust – Servile Mirrors of Animosity
In a dimly lit cellar somewhere in southwest Germany a storm of agony was brewing. A trio calling themselves Geisterfaust had tapped into a primal sense of anguish and manifested it into sound. Combining equal parts black metal and sludge the band had cultivated something brooding, violent, and deeply immersive. On November 5, 2021 these experiments in auditory tribulation were recorded live and raw, the way they were meant to be experienced. The result was Servile Mirrors of Animosity –…
Crimson Tower – Aeternal Abyss
The dungeon seems a bit darker under the shadow of Crimson Tower — a doom metal trio hailing from São Paulo, Brazil. Getting their start in 2018 using the name Eternal Abyss the band quickly found their sordid style, but after a handful of demos they took up the new mantle of Crimson Tower. Drawing inspiration from both old-school doom and classic heavy metal the three-piece has created a dusky treasure in their first full-length release Aeternal Abyss. This is…
Bifid Corpse / Surfer James / Pythian – Bifid Corpse / Surfer James / Pythian
The atmosphere of the Midwestern United States gives rise to a variety of horrifying amalgamations of extreme music. On occasion, artists will even band together to mash their particular style of sonic disorder against another’s resulting in an absolute mess of noise and heavy sound. This is one such occurrence, as three bands – Bifid Corpse, Surfer James, and Pythian – have come together with their distinct methods of mayhem to create an album that screams with chaos. Bifid Corpse…
Slog – Graves
Dark, brutish, and mystic is the mood that saturates the sound of Slog. Their intentions are cryptic, but their individual reputations give some insight into the mystery. Slog is the latest in a cavalcade of musical projects from a pair of relentless heavy metal fiends: Jared Moran and Nicholas Turner. Each of them has lent mind, body, and soul to the extreme underground across numerous bands and subgenres of metal. Moran is the terrifying force behind Yzordderrex, Filtheater, 54R, and…
Soreeyes – Sleep Waves
When reflecting on past sorrows, solitude can have an amplifying effect – allowing memories that would normally fade away quietly to instead roar across an empty void and echo indefinitely in the mind. These echoes are the energy that fuels Sleep Waves the debut album from Soreeyes. Based out of Toledo, Ohio Soreeyes is a new one-person blackgaze/post-metal project that melts black metal, shoegaze, and post-hardcore influences into an emotional maelstrom. Sleep Waves comes following the release of the non-album…
Fake Muslims – Delusions of Grandeur
Somewhere in the Cleveland underground there exists a pile of rubble and broken glass from which Fake Muslims has slithered out. This trio of sinister savages has spent the last few years reveling in sonic disorder, carefully planning disturbances of sound waves and established musical practices. Armed only with blistering, chaotic drum beats, furiously fast bass lines, and unhinged screams of agony Fake Muslims has forged a type of sludged up grindcore mayhem that will drive listeners to embrace the…