FOR THOSE ABOOT TO ROCK: Riffs of Canada with Greber [Cambridge, Ontario]

By: Mark Tremblay

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 20/02/2018

Label: Pink Lemonade Records (CD) |

Hibernation Release (CS) |

Ancient Temple Recordings  |

D7I Records | No Way Records (LP)

Greber’s pursuit of intricate heavy music pays off immensely, creating a consuming sonic experience. “Cemetery Preston” will be one of the most unique and layered experiences of this year.

“Cemetery Preston” CS//CD//DD//LP track listing:

1. Backhanded Interest
2. The Wreckers
3. Prophetic
4. By Any Other Way
5. Overdraft
6. Our Burnt Treasures
7. Grave Plot
8. No One But You
9. The Closer We Got

The Review:

The sludge/grind two-piece Greber return with their new record “Cemetery Preston” and the long awaited follow up to “Kiln Hardened Psalms” showcases that the band has not lost any of its aggression with heavy music. Bassist Marc Bourgon’s tone has a chainsaw like quality to it. This tone, when mixed with drummer Steve Vargas’s unorthodox style of drumming, creates a consuming sonic experience not easily replicated.

This album flexes its efficiency through a variety of dynamics and stylistic elements; never relying on the same methods to get their point across. From the isolated bass tracks on “Prophetic” and “Overdraft”, to sequences where the drums carry the melody in “Grave Plot” and “Wreckers”, Greber have a variety of tools at their disposal. This keeps the listener engaged as the album goes through these continual peaks and valleys of emotion. It would be very easy for the band to become a plodding doom band, but have instead chosen a more nuanced approach regardless of the few elements at their disposal.

Greber’s pursuit of intricate heavy music pays off immensely. “Cemetery Preston” will be one of the most unique and layered experiences of this year.

“Cemetery Preston” is available here

Band info: bandcamp|| facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Corrupt Moral Altar - "Eunoia"

By: Ernesto Aguilar

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 23/08/2017

Label: Independent

Right off the bat, with opener "Human Cry," Corrupt Moral Altar demonstrate they have not lost an ounce of bombast or power. Their skill at overlaying guitars on guitars, and simply sandblasting your head with the kind of fire it specializes in is what has made the group renowned as one of the generation's most exciting performers

"Eunoia" DD track listing

1. Human Cry

2. Engineering Consent

3. Crime And Disease

4. Night Chant

5. Survivor's Guilt

6. Born In The Caul

7. Burning Bridges And Burning Homes

8. The All Consuming Self

9. Rat King

10. Destroying Everything You Believe In

11. Body Horror

12. On Judith's Birthday

13. Five Years

The Review:

The United Kingdom's Corrupt Moral Altar is a band you may know and love for its astoundingly fast and raw take on hardcore, thrash and grind. A demo and pair of EPs set the stage for its 2014 full length, “Mechanical Tides”. That release was popular at the moment because of its brawny sound and lyricism. Now, Corrupt Moral Altar returns with the hopes of plenty of hardcore fans on its back.

Vocalist Chris Reese has deft support in multi-instrumentalists John Cooke, Adam Clarkson and Tom Dring as Corrupt Moral Altar is back for 2017. Today, the group's return is "Eunoia." You have to appreciate dedication like this: 13 songs, and none of the one-minute-or-less variety that passes for extreme metal and can sometimes betray your eyes on first glance. Instead, you have fully formed cuts every one. By the way, the title is derived from a Greek word, but refers to the goodwill a speaker has with an audience. In this case, Corrupt Moral Altar's connection with fans is quite sturdy, for good reason.

Right off the bat, with opener "Human Cry," Corrupt Moral Altar demonstrates it has not lost an ounce of bombast or power. Its skill at overlaying guitars on guitars, and simply sandblasting your head with the kind of fire it specializes in is what has made the group renowned as one of the generation's most exciting performers. Reese keeps up the pace in spite of the ambitious package the band has offered. By the album's closer, "Five Years," which has a touch of sludge to the arrangement, one has to half-expect Reese has nearly howled himself to death. Not a chance. He goes hard until the final note.

Similarly, the rest of the group makes "Euonia" a real feast for metal devotees. The drumming on "The All Consuming Self" is savage, fast and unrelenting. The guitars in "Survivors Guilt" romp along with the vocals in a manner that feels just right. And you will come to appreciate how sharp the bass sounds on "Body Horror," complimenting the whole track and giving weight to the festivities. Beyond the individual performances, the quartet's talent at making what sounds like a flurry of sound so compelling is where you learn to appreciate "Eunoia" all the more. To the untrained ear, Corrupt Moral Altar may sound harsh as lye, but theirs is a scrumptious poison.

Finally, there are a variety of lyrical themes touched upon in "Euonia," from class divisions to religion and many other topics hardcore listeners have come to enjoy. In "Destroying Everything You Believe In," a consistent idea of pragmatism in a difficult world comes up again and again. Corrupt Moral Altar deserves credit for taking the songwriting several notches above 'religion bad, people good' that lazier acts have resorted to. "Atoms, time and mathematics/Civilization is not a sign of human progress, Reese howls. "We need to nail their tongues to the temple doors/It just feels like we are casting pearls at swine."

"Eunoia" manages to sound both aggressive and reasoned, and Corrupt Moral Altarmakes it back to remind you how much they were missed.

"Eunoia" is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

REVIEW: Human Future - "Flat Earth Blues" (EP)

By: Charlie Butler

Album Type: EP

Date Released: 08/06/2017

Label: Truthseeker Music

This is another thrilling blend of jarring styles that Human Future bring together in seamless fashion.  Although it is a shame to lose such a distinctive voice in the UKheavy underground, the band can be proud that they went out with a bang.

“Flat Earth Blues” CD//DD track listing:

1). IV

2). Swine

3). Axiom

4). None Shall Survive Through The Churn

5). V

The Review:

Human Future’s new EP “Flat Earth Blues” is a bitter-sweet affair due to the band’s announcement of their untimely demise shortly after its release. The UKquintet’s swansong is an ambitious and exhilarating listen tinged with sadness that the potential displayed on this brief but beguiling release will go unfulfilled.

Bookended by two atmospheric keyboard soundscapes, “Flat Earth Blues” is a captivating journey through wild shifts in mood and genre. “Swine” begins in dark post-hardcore territory, an urgent razor-edged groove that comes across like a heavier Self Defense Family. The volume and intensity increases until the music drops away to an ambient cloud of hypnotic repetition and slow-burning psychedelic lead guitar. This soon erupts into a searing solo as the band strike into an epic finale that feels like the perfect meeting point between post-rock and prog.

The other main attraction here is nine-minute behemoth “None Shall Survive Through The Churn”. This is another thrilling blend of potentially jarring styles that Human Future bring together in seamless fashion. The first half of the track shifts between blissed-out choral passages and huge slabs of widescreen slide-guitar assisted heaviness that come across like a combination of Envy and Earth. The second half sees proceedings collapse into glorious controlled chaos, fuelled by some impressive drumming that teeters on the edge between mathcore complexity and all-out grindcore fury

“Flat Earth Blues” is a fine parting gesture from Human Future. Although it is a shame to lose such a distinctive voice in the UKheavy underground, the band can be proud that they went out with a bang.

“Flat Earth Blues” is available here

Band info: bandcamp|| facebook

REVIEW: "Moloch/Disrotted" & "Cloud Rat/Moloch" (Splits)

By: Charlie Butler

Album Type: Splits

Date Released: 10/05/2017 |10/04/2017

Labels: Feast of Tentacles |

Halo of Flies

“Disrotted/Molch Split 7”//DD track listing:

1). Disrotted – “Deliquium”

2). Moloch – “Fleshwound”

“Cloud Rat/Moloch Split 12”//DD track listing:

1). Clout Rat – “Sueno”

2). Cloud Rat – “Perdiak”

3). Cloud Rat – “Stench”

4). Cloud Rat – “Baby Sling (Balloon Born)”

5). Cloud Rat – “Biting the Air”

6). Cloud Rat – “Pit”

7). Cloud Rat – “Amber Flush”

8). Moloch – “The Ninth Wave/Bloody North”

9). Moloch – “Lead”

The Review:

2017 looks set to be an amazing year for Moloch. The Nottingham sludge dealers will be spreading their crushing misery across the US in support of Thou in the summer and are about to unleash a cavalcade of new releases. The first two waves in this attack are a couple of mighty splits; an LP with Michigan grind/punk whirlwind Cloud Ratand a 7” with funereal Chicago doomers Disrotted.

I’ve been hungry for more Moloch since their great 2016 split LP with Lich. The new material on offer across these two new records more than lives up to my expectations and sees the band take their sickening racket to new levels of extremity.

“The Ninth Wave / Bloody North” opens the Moloch side of the Cloud Rat split with twelve minutes of unrelenting terror. It begins with lumbering stop/start riffs and harrowing howls that establish a mood of all-encompassing dread from the very first second. The track degenerates further into a bottomless pit of despair, like a mix of Eyehategod and early Swansfiltered through a grimy noise rock lens. Just when you think this treacly crawl could not get any more unpleasant, the track drops down to a lone dirty bass and screeching feedback which acts a backdrop for a harrowing sample of indecipherable barked threats and desperate tears. It’s unlikely you will hear a more distressing and powerful track this year.

“Lead”offers some relative respite from this onslaught but still consists of repetitive bludgeoning riffs. It sees Moloch expanding their sonic horizons to take in some unhinged lead guitar squalls and more expansive sounds that bring a hint of black metal to the pounding finale.

The band’s contribution to the split 7” with Disrotted is the most direct of these new tracks. Relatively perky by Moloch’sstandards, it’s a hard-riffing no-nonsense sludge assault but still mired in a swamp of feedback and filth.

Moloch’s offerings on these splits see them raise their already impressive game, making them the ones to beat when it comes to ugly, messy, noise-riddled doom. My ears and soul should have recovered from the carnage inflicted by these new songs just in time to enjoy their imminent new LP.

The best part of split releases is getting introduced to killer new bands and Moloch have teamed up with first class partners here.  Disrotted contribute seven minutes of slow motion punishment to their split 7”. The band’s brand of Burning Witch-style torment is a good foil for Moloch’s more aggressive approach, unleashing molasses-thick waves of doom that wash over the listener to create a dense, hypnotic wall of sound. Once you’ve entered the dark cloud of Disrotted’saural domain, it’s hard to pull yourself free.

Cloud Rat’s ever-shifting blend of high octane grind, crust and hardcore punk is completely captivating and a brilliant contrast to Moloch’s drudgery. “Sueno” kicks things off with a pummelling intro riff that blurs into chaotic screamo mayhem while “Baby Sling / Balloon Born” introduces some spidery, discordant guitar lines that shift into furious d-beat sections that recall the fury of the much-missed Hammers. Every track here is loaded with twists and turns that strike the right balance between complexity and no-nonsense rock fury that results in an addictive blast of cathartic fury. The hints of keyboards throughout these tracks culminate in the glorious curveball of closing track “Amber Fury”. A brooding piece of post-punk synthcore it sounds like Cold Cave being played through a broken radio. The fuzzy lo-fi production only adds to its haunting quality. Somehow this complete change of sound sits perfectly beside the chaos that precedes it and within the split LP as a whole. It demonstrates that Cloud Rat are an amazing band who could turn their hand to pretty much any genre and produce gold.

Overall, these two splits are both essential purchases that showcase three incredible underground bands. Buy now.

“Disrotted/Moloch”is available here and “Cloud Rat/Moloch” is available here and USA

Band info: Moloch Facebook|| Disrotted Facebook|| Clout Rat Facebook