New Carcass track

Stop the press. Carcass have posted a new song, ‘Captive Bolt Pistol’, their first piece of new music since 1996. The British death metal legends will be releasing their new album, Surgical Steel in September through Nuclear Blast.

‘Captive Bolt Pistol’ is a pristinely produced work of modern death metal, which is both to its benefit and detriment. The guitar tone is very clean and harks back to Heartwork in that regard but the bass is just a little too low in the mix so it’s missing some much needed heft. That said, Bill Steer lays down a tasteful but searing solo and Jeff Walker’s vocals aren’t missing a step.

As a preview for the new record, it may not be setting excitement ablaze but it piques enough interest, showing that the old guard still have a few riffs left in them. Listen below.

News: Oathbreaker track, Satyricon return

It’s time to catch up on some news released over the last few days. Of course, you’ve probably been soaking in the new Gorguts song quite a bit but on the other end of the spectrum, Belgium’s Oathbreaker are readying the release of their new LP Eros|Anteros, through Deathwish on August 20th, which will be the follow-up to 2011’s utterly blistering (and year highlight) Maelstrom.

The band is now streaming a new cut from the record called ‘Condor Tongue’, which you can check out on Brooklyn Vegan. Oathbreaker’s penchant for short bursts of adrenaline is in tow with searing buzzsaw riffs and Caro’s vocals just as caustic as ever.

In other news, Satyricon have finally emerged from the darkness again with the announcement of a new album, this time a self-titled, for release on September 9th. They also unveiled the artwork, below, and info on some European tour dates that includes Dublin’s Button Factory on November 12th and a Belfast date the night before.

 

New Gorguts track

Some of the best news this week came in the form of Gorguts, who will be releasing their first album in 12 years, Colored Sands, in September and the avant-garde death metal luminaries are now streaming a new track ‘Forgotten Arrows’.

Erupting with those Obscura-isms laced on the guitars that we hoped for, ‘Forgotten Arrows’ gets off to a promising start. The vocals take a swerve though, buried a little lower in the mix than usual. The production has put great emphasis on the guitars and bass, something typical of a Colin Marston production job. He hasn’t lost of the band’s eerie melody though, which counteracts the dizzying and meandering technicality and dissonance. Totally crushing.

Colored Sands will drop on September 3rd through Season of Mist. Check out the cover below and more importantly, the new song too.

Latest reviews - Deafheaven, Palms, Year of No Light and more

Posts have been slow on The Grind That Annoys lately, so apologies for that but here’s a round-up of the latest records review online over the last week or so. Click away and read on.

Deafheaven – Sunbather
One of the biggest records of the year and easily one of the most anticipated after the success of Roads to Judah and several high profile tours. Check it out HERE.

Year of No Light – Vampyr
France’s droning doom behemoths Year of No Light are back with a new full-length, Vampyr, a score to the classic film of the same name. Read it on CVLT Nation HERE

Palms – Palms
The long awaited supergroup with members of Isis joined by Deftones’ Chino Moreno is definitely getting a lot of attention given the key players involved. Click HERE to see if the fuss is worth it.

Wrekmeister Harmonies – You’ve Always Meant So Much To Me
Another “supergroup” of sorts. This intriguing record has kind of popped up out of nowhere. Let’s just leave it that. You need to read about this one – HERE.

Leucosis – Leucosis 
Californian black metallers Leucosis have well and truly arrived on the scene with this, their second album. Expansive and harrowing are just two ways to describe this otherworldly album. The review is HERE on MetalIreland.

Pest – The Crowning Horror
Finally we have Pest, from Sweden, with a new album. The Crowning Horror is the band’s latest offering of old school black metal but how does it hold up? Check it out HERE.

Regular posting on the blog will resume in the coming days. Cheers.

BriefcaseFest live review on CVLT Nation

Last weekend was BriefcaseFest in Toronto. There were a lot of bands playing, who are all covered in this live review on CVLT Nation. Hammerhands, Forteresse, Vilipend and Thantifaxath were all on the bill as well as a whole host of others that are worth reading about. Click HERE to check it out along with some (admittedly below average) photos.

All about the EPs: Enabler, Afgrund, Heartless

Enabler – Shift of Redemption EP
Still reeling from the release of last year’s stellar All Hail The Void album, Enabler have dropped a new 7” called Shift of Redemption, which sees them once again carrying the torch for metallic hardcore in this day and age. Four short tracks make up this terse EP and concision has always been a strength of Enabler’s. The title track kicks things into gear straight away with blazing melodic-riffs that still pack a punch while ‘Live Low’ sees the band at some of their most vitriolic and spiteful.

Third offering 'Sacrifice' is just a minute and a half of adrenaline and returns operations to the base of what Enabler is. However, it’s with fourth and final song 'Fallselflessly' that the band toy around with their formulas, employing gloomy guitars as well as vocals that borrow from the early screamo school of thought only to cut out before erupting once again in familiar pacey territory.

With the release of All Hail The Void, Enabler proved that they could jam in as much energy and vitality to an album as they could with their splits and EPs. Now on Shift of Redemption they gone back to an old method and proven their versatility with both.

Afgrund – Corporatocracy EP
Sweden and grind go hand in hand. That hardly needs to be reiterated but in a post-Nasum world and with Splitter calling it a day a while ago, there are just a handful of bands that can pick up the baton so to speak. Enter Afgrund. Last year’s Age of Dumb was a searing dosage of modern melody-tinged grind with an aggressive social and political edge and this new EP Corporatocracy picks right up where it left off.

Corporatocracy is loaded with eight new tracks and three covers, one of which is a Nasum cover, while tackling Repulsion and Discharge tunes too. The new songs are the crux of the EP of course and each is a succinct fireball of modern grind with polished, but judicial, production, made quite clear by the spacious guitars of ‘Earthrape’ and the melodies of ‘Common Goals’ that’s counteracted by the grimier crust-inflected ‘Pact of Perfection'.

You can take the covers for what they are. Clearly as intended as fun homages more than anything else (including Repulsion’s ‘Splattered Cadavers’ and Discharge’s ‘The Nightmare Continues’), they’re a brief addition to the EP and their tinkering with Nasum’s ‘Shadows’ isn’t exactly criminal to be fair.

Heartless – Certain Death EP
Finally, we have Pittsburgh’s Heartless who have come roaring back with a new 7” entitled Certain Death. Following up their LP effort Hell Is Other People was going to be tough; it was easily one of 2011’s very best powerviolence records and rest assured that the band has not taken any harsh swerves with this new EP. Bellowing vocals? Check. Furious and reckless blasts of drums? Check. Short one minute bursts of vitriol? Check. Yeah, it’s all here. They haven’t messed around with anything. It could be a criticism as well as a compliment. For now, it’s the latter as the band sound just as hateful and spiteful as they did on Hell Is Other People. If it ain’t broke…

Reviews trio: Tribulation, Monachus, Thrawsunblat

Tribulation – The Formulas of Death

Perhaps this review is a little late to the party on this one, considering many a folk were losing their minds over the new Tribulation record about a month or two ago and hailing it a triumph. They weren’t wrong because that’s very much what The Formulas of Death is, all the while fearlessly taking a few left turns to mix things up a little bit. The Swedish death metal troupe has expanded greatly on their death metal with a new taste of theatrics and ambitiousness. Clocking in at a staggering 74 minutes, The Formulas of Death has a lot to take in but is ultimately rewarding.

They’ve taken their death metal into fresh realms here with new levels of melody and ambition and a flavour of Watain’s penchant for grandeur. There’s even a slight similarity to be heard the odd time between the vocals of Johannes Anderssen and Watain’s Erik Danielsson but that’s where the comparisons end as The Formulas of Death is actually an entirely unique death metal album for 2013. Chances are there won’t be anything else in the DM world released this year that will stand shoulder to shoulder with this record.

Monachus – Below

Monachus maintain good company, releasing records with Alerta Antifascista and playing shows regularly with Light Bearer or Planks. The Swedish psychedelic sludge band is a good accompaniment for sure and after a few releases they’ve been threatening to realise much of their potential and new LP Below sees that realisation begin to bloom.

Crushing sludgy riffs collide with throaty vocals and melodic awareness to craft an enthralling oeuvre on Below. There’s a lot to absorb with this album but once given the time and effort, the results are deeply satisfying. Often a post rock comparison is made to Monachus, and while it rings true a little bit, the band seem far more au fait with trippy ambient sludge than any clichéd post rock formulas and bless them for it.

Thrawsunblat – Wanderer on the Continent of Saplings

After the tragic and untimely passing of Woods of Ypres guitarist and helmsman David Gold in December 2011, his partner in crime and fellow guitarist Joel Violette skulked away into the corner for a while and perhaps understandably so. Little did we know that he had recommenced work on another project of his – Thrawsunblat. Having released one demo back in 2010 it seemed the band has retreated to inactivity but Wanderer on the Continent of Saplings marks their first full-length album.

Wanderer on the Continent of Saplings bears many thematic similarities to Woods of Ypres, with a morose tongue in cheek attitude at times while tactfully plucking elements of black metal and sprinkling them into the pot. However, Thrawsunblat have flirted with many a folk element on this album and it’s a pleasant surprise to hear acoustic-led folk numbers like ‘Goose River (Mourners’ March) and ‘Maritime Shores’ being two of the album’s highlights. Meanwhile, heavier but no less melodic material such as ‘Bones in the Undertow’ delights in equal measure. The major complaint though that could be levelled against this record is its length, it gets a little drawn out and could have done with a trimming of two or three tracks but still overall a solid return for Thrawsunblat.