Caustic Wound – Grinding Mechanism of Torment Review

By Saunders

Back in the strange old days of 2020, Seattle’s Caustic Wound detonated a skin-blasting deathgrind debut, entitled Death Posture. It landed on my end-of-year list and has remained a staple since. Comprised of like-minded scene veterans, including members of Mortiferum and Magrudergrind, Caustic Wound skillfully weld brutal, old-school death and grindcore influences into a raw, gnarly, riff rumbling beast. Death Posture’s dirty, unrefined production and reeky, terrorizing attack lent it a dangerous, unhinged edge, complimented by its infectious riffcraft and ugly underground values. Fast forward to the present and Caustic Wound reappear hellbent to fuck things up in their wickedly violent, deranged way. The efficient, action-packed platter of splattery goodness gets the job done in under half an hour, rifling through sixteen sharp, savvy and utterly punishing deathgrind bursts. With all the pieces in place, can Caustic Wound back up their impressively savage debut and capitalize on their prior groundwork with a sophomore album to savor?

Grinding Mechanism of Torment picks up where its predecessor left off, albeit offering a freshly inspired take on the bare-bones aesthetics and raw buzz of the debut. First and foremost, this shit maintains the band’s brutally raging, guttural thrust and blast riddled form of deathgrind mayhem, featuring the thrashy, artery slashing hooks and gore spattered flair to do Exhumed and Impaled proud, Caustic Wound have sharpened their weapons of butchery and refined their sound, without compromising the blasty, grind-fueled punch and exhilarating blast of the debut. This is partly attributed to a cleaner, more refined, though still appropriately thick, beefy production job that stays true to their brutal underground roots. The tidier sonic aspects fail to diminish the savage old school charms and full throttle grind attacks that litter the album (“Advanced Killing Methods,” “Human Shield,” “Endless Grave,” “Dead Dog”).

Without discarding those classic death and grind influences of yesteryear, the influences reach a little broader, encompassing the occasional d-beaten Swedeath smackdown, hardcore stomp, and nods to the early days of legends such as Napalm Death, Cannibal Corpse and Terrorizer. Equipped with a bevy of killer riffs, the songs penetrate the memory bank. The buzzsawing, uppercutting riffs are uniformly strong, regardless of speed, but especially when Caustic Wound occasionally lay off the relentless pace and unleash the Leng Tch’e-esque groove and grind sections (check the sludgy, groovy crush of “Drone Terror” or insanely hooky riffs of “Blood Battery” as primo examples). Elsewhere, wild solos punctuate the chaos (“Infinite Chaos,” “Blackout”) and Clyde Lindstrom’s (Corpus Offal, Fetid) meaty, phlegmy vocal eruptions enlivens and adds a feral, guttural punch to proceedings, lending character and deceptive variety, not content to fall into being an unremarkable rhythmic afterthought. Not content to play it safe, closer “Into Cold Deaf Universe” dabbles in slow building, sludgy discordance, and samples before eventually mutating into a deadly deathgrind epic, unloading across nearly seven minutes of blasting and caterwauling noise, capping the album in momentously chaotic, violent fashion.

Despite the cleaner sonic palette, Grinding Mechanism of Torment packs a hefty wallop in the heaviness and brutality stakes, and is anything but a run-of-the-mill example of old school deathgrind. Chase Slaker and Max Bowman wield their axes with feral abandon amid lightning bursts of speed, vice-tight interlocking riffs, and divebombing solos. The riffs are a constant highlight and the deeper emphasis on thick, headbanging grooves unlocks some seriously chunky, infectious moments, such as the vicious outro of the grindy “Sniper Nest,” and swaggering grooves of “Horrible Earth Death.” Amidst the speedy focal point and blast riddled displays, the rhythm section of bassist Tony Wolfe and drummer Casey Moore do a bang-up job of driving this deathgrind killing machine and locking down the mean, violent grooves punctuating the album.

Death Posture established Caustic Wound as a deathgrind powerhouse to be reckoned with, embracing classic death and grind values, executed with fresh and frenzied flair. Some of those endearing, caveman charms of the debut cannot be recreated in the more refined format. As such Grinding Mechanism of Torment may lose some of the wild, unhinged edges of the debut. However, the album compensates through its addictive riffcraft and diverse, though still plenty brutal display of deathgrind lunacy, expanding their songwriting scope and marking a grisly, bone-crunching, and righteously infectious return.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Profound Lore
Website: Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: April 25th, 2025

#2025 #40 #AmericanMetal #CausticWound #CorpusOffal #DeathMetal #Deathgrind #Exhumed #Fetid #Grindcore #GrindingMechanismOfTorment #Impaled #LengTchE #Magrudergrind #Mortiferum #NapalmDeath #ProfoundLore #Review #Reviews #Terrorizer

Pissgrave – Malignant Worthlessness (Vinyl)

Like a freight train that consistently runs at full speed without derailing. Continuing to work on their craft while also getting more depraved. And that is what “Malignant Worthlessness” is. Pissgrave at their finest but also most brutal form yet. Cutting off a bit of runtime from previous albums to make this album 31 minutes of gore-soaked death metal. Everything has gotten even better and more fucking brutal.

#deathmetal #vinyl #profoundlore

Caustic Wound – Death Posture (Vinyl)

The album's production is really rough and raw. As we move through Death Posture's Hell Awaits-esque intro and subsequent blast beat wrath, we're immediately thrown into the late 1980s, early 1990s, somewhere between Onward to Golgotha and World Downfall. Just crank this one up!

#grindcore #vinyl #profoundlore

Wormwitch – Wormwitch Review

By Felagund

I have a complicated relationship with Wormwitch. On one hand, I was blown away by their sophomore effort Heaven That Dwells Within. I still spin it five years on and I routinely recommend it to anyone flirting with the melodic black metal or black n’ roll subgenres. On the other, I was generally let down by their follow-up Wolf Hex, which I had the good fortune to review. While I ultimately gave it a 3.0, I haven’t revisited the album much since then, and I still view it as a significant step down from their previous effort. Now here I sit, cradling these frigid Canadians’ latest album (which actually dropped back in July) in my loving arms, hoping beyond hope that this self-titled bundle of joy rights Wolf Hex’s well-intentioned wrongs and signals a return to form. As an AMG reviewer, we’re taught to live in hope, die in despair, and write the damn review already. So enough sharing what I want this record to be; is it good or what?

Well, it’s certainly not what I had hoped for. Wormwitch proved on Heaven That Dwells Within that they have the ability, both as players and songwriters, to deliver high-quality melodic black metal that remains memorable without overstaying its welcome; that incorporates elements of death metal, speed metal, crust, hard rock, and even folk without ever losing its essential, blackened edge; that weaves moving, melodic passages in-between ice-caked sheets of snarling brutality. And while Wolf Hex lacked much of the immediacy found on HTDW, it was still clear that Wormwitch were able to keep their creative spark alive, if somewhat dimmed. On Wormwitch, though, it sounds as if that once impressive flame is guttering, and threatening to go out entirely.

Sometimes this brand of all-encompassing criticism takes a few listens before it fully forms in your mind. But on Wormwitch, the problems are evident from the very first track. “Fugitive Serpent” is loud, blackened bombast revealing an utterly forgettable opener. Follow up tune “Envenomed” could have easily been titled “Fugitive Serpent 2,” doubling down as it does on unrelenting walls-of-sound, augmented vox buried too low in the mix, and a seeming disinterest in lingering too long on any passage, moment or interlude that runs the risk of holding the listener’s attention. As the album expands, so do these issues. Fourth track “Inner War” offers a bit more variety, including an attention-grabbing acoustic intro and a head-bobbing black n’ roll riff near the conclusion that helps bookend yet another forgettable heap of black metal bluster. Back half cuts like “Godmaegen” may boast an engaging, moody interlude between grungy guitar and wheezing bass, “Salamander” may deliver the sparse melancholy that Wormwitch used to such great effect on HTDW, and penultimate tune “Bright and Poisonous” might be where the band decided to toss many of their good ideas, but none of these brief moments are enough to save this album from what it truly is.

Which is what, exactly? To this lowly reviewer, Wormwitch’s self-titled fourth album is less a cohesive work and more a series of brickwalled black metal tropes, loosely held together by flickering, fleeting moments of inspiration. And much like a creaking discount Ferris wheel, this clunker threatens to collapse under the weight of its own hubris. In many ways, Wormwitch feels like the product of a band that is actively devolving before our eyes. While their second album is a mature, memorable slice of genre-hopping ferocity that thoughtfully balances mood, atmosphere and heaviness, their fourth outing is almost the polar opposite, dispensing with nuance in favor of regurgitated second-wave worship. Gone is the finely-tuned songwriting, replaced instead with an “all gas, no brakes” approach you’d expect from a group of untested upstarts, not musicians almost a decade into their career.

After taking such a long break from my reviewing duties, this isn’t the piece I’d hoped to produce upon my return. I want to like what Wormwitch does because I so loved what they’ve done in the past. So perhaps this is simply a case of unfair expectations. But I don’t think so; what appeared to be a bug on Wolf Hex appears to be a feature on Wormwitch, and that’s the unfortunate reality. The promo materials accompanying the album proclaims that this is “a statement of a band coming into its own,” and while I can’t fault musicians for seeking to develop their sound, I can certainly fault the result. Wormwich, it would appear I hardly knew ye.

Rating: 2.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Profound Lore Records
Websites: wormwitch.bandcamp.com | instagram.com/wormwitchofficial
Releases Worldwide: July 26th, 2024

#20 #2024 #BlackMetal #BlackNRoll #CanadianMetal #Crust #July24 #MelodicBlackMetal #ProfoundLore #Review #Reviews #Wormwitch

Spectral Wound – Songs of Blood and Mire Review

By Carcharodon

2021 seems a long time ago. So long, in fact, that I had utterly forgotten half of my year-end List. Imagine my surprise then, to discover, while checking for previous references on our auguste site, that I had listed Spectral Wound’s last outing, A Diabolic Thirst. That was as nothing, however, compared to my shock when I discovered that, not only had Deafheaven-groupie Doom_et_Al awarded it a list spot, so had avowed BM skeptic Ferrous Beuller. Perhaps this spread says something about what Spectral Wound achieved with its third record, its brand of vicious, semi-raw black metal appealing to both the ravening death metal machine Ferrous and Sunbather-apologist Doom, as well as yours truly, normally to be found luxuriating at the atmo-end of the BMverse. Can this Canadian five-piece achieve the same lightning-in-a-bottle effect with fourth record, Songs of Blood and Mire?

Pressing play the first time, I was briefly non-plussed, as I appeared to have unwittingly put on a sludge record, the first distorted notes of opener “Fevers and Suffering,” drowning in feedback, recalling nothing more than Charger. This effect lasts only moments but is, nevertheless, disarming. Then Spectral Wound rips you a new one with an altogether more familiar sound. Searing tremolos shed hoar frost in their frozen wake, as Illusory’s artillery-like percussion slams into the listener again and again. As ever, Jonah’s rasping shrieks cut like shards of glass blown upon an arctic gale, slicing into your flesh and your mind. So far, so Spectral Wound. However, there is a subtle, but marked, maturing to the band’s sound on Songs of Blood and Mire. Without losing any of the furious, visceral dark magic that tainted their previous outings, Spectral Wound now weave in, by turns, a really nasty groove, reminiscent of early Bathory (“Aristocratic Suicidal Black Metal”), as well as a Scandinavian epicness, a la Windir (“Twelve Moons in Hell”).

In some ways, Songs of Blood of Mire reminds me of what Miasmata captured on their debut, Unlight: Songs of Earth and Atrophy, as it serves up unflinchingly harsh, yet strangely melodic, black metal, channeling the likes of Dissection and Watain, as much as it does Windir and others. Raw and brutal in places, Spectral Wound are only too happy to kick down your front door, before setting fire to the splintered remnants and pissing on your doormat for good measure (“At Wine-Dark Midnight in the Mouldering Halls”). But that tells only half the story. Once inside, the band stalks your house, shambling from room to room, experimenting with different ways of smashing up your stuff. Debauched, seething, and frenetic, sometimes it feels like Spectral Wound are content to take their time, the groove of Sam’s bass giving the rest of the band space to lay leisurely waste to everything (“Less and Less Human, O Savage Spirit” and the back end of “A Coin Upon the Tongue”). At others, the band is a raging tempest, blasting through walls without hesitation, no shits given (“Fevers and Suffering” and “The Horn Marauding”).

Across its tight, 43-minute run, Songs of Blood and Mire is every bit the equal of Spectral Wound’s previous efforts. At its absolute best (“Aristocratic Suicidal Black Metal” and closer, “Twelve Moons in Hell”), it’s probably the strongest material the band has put out to date. Slightly less raw than previous efforts, there is something here of the transition made by Lamp of Murmuur between its debut and third outing, 2023’s Saturnian Bloodstorm. Whether it’s that deep seam of groove that’s now woven more firmly into Spectral Wound’s sound or little adornments, like the super fun solo dropped (either by Patrick or A.A.) around the halfway mark of “A Coin upon the Tongue,” this feels like a band confident in its songwriting, comfortable with its sound. The excellent production, which retains an organic rawness but emphasizes the details, like the keening, melodic edge to the guitars, hurts not at all.

Clearly written by the same band that conjured Infernal Decadence and A Diabolic Thirst, Songs of Blood and Mire has just a few more tricks up its ragged sleeve. Although it’s Spectral Wound’s longest outing yet (edging A Diabolic Thirst by a couple of minutes), there’s zero filler or bloat here, and the whole thing feels vital and packed with barely contained energy. My favorite Spectral Wound to date, I’m afraid that score counter is in trouble. Again.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Profound Lore
Websites: spectralwound.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/spectralwoundcontramundi
Releases Worldwide: August 23rd, 2024

#2024 #40 #Aug24 #Bathory #BlackMetal #CanadianMetal #Dissection #LampOfMurmuur #MelodicBlackMetal #Miasmata #ProfoundLore #RawBlackMetal #Review #Reviews #SongsOfBloodAndMire #SpectralWound #Watain #Windir

Spectral Wound announce Songs of Blood and Mire; premiere lead single "Aristocratic Suicidal Black Metal"

https://metalnerd.net/spectral-wound-announce-songs-of-blood-and-mire-premiere-lead-single-aristocratic-suicidal-black-metal/

#SpectralWound #ProfoundLore #metal #blackmetal

Listen to Wormwitch's latest single "Draconick Sorcerous Canadian Witchknights"

https://metalnerd.net/listen-to-wormwitchs-latest-single-draconick-sorcerous-canadian-witchknights/

#Wormwitch #ProfoundLore #blackmetal #metal

Grey Skies Fallen – Molded By Broken Hands Review

By Iceberg

There was a time when setting up a couple microphones and plugging in some line cables could yield an acceptable level of kvlt, capable of moving serious stacks of cassette tapes. These days things are more laborious; pre-production, tracking, retracking, multiple stages of post-production, all involving different professionals in different studios in different towns. New York doom metal veterans Grey Skies Fallen have been around the block a few times—since 1999 to be exact—and they know the right people to surround themselves with to craft a good album. With tracking duties helmed by none other than Mr. Menegroth himself Colin Marston, and post handled by Dan “The fucking MAN” Swanö my hopes were high for the band’s sixth full-length Molded By Broken Hands. Grey Skies Fallen know how to wrap a package, but is there substance beneath the surface?

Grey Skies Fallen have managed to fly under the radar here at AMG, despite releasing music for nearly a quarter century. While previous albums saw the band leaning into the more aggressive side of death-doom, the return of founding guitarist Joe D’Angelo has yielded a record steeped in the weepy sadboi doom of My Dying Bride and November’s Doom. Frenetic riffs sharpened with blast beats have given way to melody-driven harmonized guitar leads, and while Rick Habeeb’s impressive roar is still on display, there are more plaintive cleans here than usual for a Grey Skies Fallen record. Also notable for the band is the absence of keyboards, with only a few supporting synth performances by Marston. Although Swanö’s signature rich production creates a vast soundscape for Molded By Broken Hands, this is a leaner, more exposed version of Grey Skies Fallen, and that doesn’t always work out in their favor.

So much of Molded By Broken Hands feels like the band took one step forward and two steps back. Habeeb’s harsh vocals are on-style for massive doom, but his cleans aren’t nearly as strong, clashing with the energy of the band (“No Place for Sorrow”) or straining the limits of tuning (“Save Us”). The band show maturity in using minimal material per track, but they also have a fondness for unexpectedly shifting tempo or meter, creating a whiplash listen (“Molded By Broken Hands,” “No Place For Sorrow,” “I Can Hear Your Voice”). Seamless rhythmic transitions would help round out the edges here, but the drum parts often feel hesitant and too far behind the beat, almost as if the drummer wasn’t completely comfortable with the part being recorded (“A Twisted Place In Time,” “Molded By Broken Hands,” “No Place For Sorrow”). This is particularly egregious in the open, exposed moments of the title track, with far too much cymbal work filling the gaps in the music, when restraint might have lent some breathing room to both the song and listener.

It’s a shame because there are some bright spots hidden in Molded By Broken Hands. The guitars—particularly the melodic leads—by Habeeb and D’Angelo are noteworthy, shining in the coda of “A Twisted Place In Time” and standout closer “Knowing That You’re There.” The strings—credit to Ben Karas—that are so heavily featured in the album’s bookends are missed in the interior; their contrast with the weightiness of the band provides a welcome dynamic. 6 of the 7 tracks here approach 7 minutes in length, and while long-form is idiosyncratic to the style, it’s notable how strong of a cut “Cracks in Time” is. At a svelte 4:30 the riffs and melodies are distilled down to their purest form, the drums finally lock into step with the other instruments, and the band refuses to let the track overstretch itself. It’s telling that this is the only advance single available on Bandcamp, and thusly the embed; the band know where their strengths lie, but the final package doesn’t celebrate them.

I’m greatly vexed by Molded By Broken Hands. Grey Skies Fallen seem to have so many things going for them on the surface, from their musical maturity to their choice of recording partners. But the proof is in the pudding, and something went awry in the recipe for this album; it was difficult for me to get through a listen without asking myself “why?” track to track. Hopefully, the band can find a way to tighten up their recording and focus on their strengths on subsequent albums, but until then, I’d recommend looking elsewhere for your glorious sadboi fix.

Rating: 2.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Profound Lore | Bandcamp
Websites: facebook.com | Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: March 8, 2024

#20 #2024 #AmericanMetal #DarkMetal #DoomMetal #GothicMetal #GreySkiesFallen #Mar24 #MoldedByBrokenHands #MyDyingBride #NewYorkMetal #NovembersDoom #ProfoundLore #Review #Reviews

Kruelty – Untopia [Things You Might Have Missed 2023]

By Saunders

It may be a common thing to bitch about, but fast-paced modern lifestyles and an endless stream of metal releases dropping every week make it an impossible task to catch on to every worthwhile album that may fit snuggly into your wheelhouse. Trawling through a stack of overlooked gems from 2023, I stumbled across the impressive sophomore album from Japan’s Kruelty. In another bumper year for death metal enthusiasts, Kruelty channel classic Swedeath vibes from yesteryear, done Japanese style, armed with a healthy hardcore and doom kick. The Tokyo quartet formed in 2017, recording a lengthy string of short-form releases before arriving at their 2019 debut LP, A Dying Truth. Now with a solid number of years under their belt as a unit, Kruelty unleashed a power-packed second LP way back in March 2023. And if you happened to miss it initially, as I did, I am here to rectify the oversight and introduce you to the formidable slab of solid school death, entitled Untopia.

Kruelty plow and grind their way through seven meaty cuts across a tight and filler-free thirty-seven minutes, freeing the beast and leaving nothing in the tank. “Unknown Nightmare” kicks things off with eerie samples and chants, giving way to a thunderous assault of caveman clubbing grooves, violently catchy d-beat rhythms, filthy death meets hardcore riffs, and thick, throaty roars. Simple on the surface, the ironclad strength of the writing, diverse delivery, and catchy pummel keep the listener firmly locked in. Dueling vocals, including crazed higher-pitched shrieks and anguished screams to complement the predominant deeper growls, add more fuel to the bloody rampage. The song-to-song consistency and quality are impressively maintained throughout the album’s duration, each cut bringing its own character, memorable riffs, and churning grooves to the table. In the end, it’s the solid, passionate performances, tight, efficiently brutal execution, and uncomplicated, memorable songwriting that lifts Kruelty’s Untopia above the pack.

Kruelty’s crusty, mighty dealings possess the far-reaching appeal to attract old school Swedish death aficionados, into the likes of Grave and Entombed, along with listeners who get their kicks from the battle-hardened grooves and crushing weight of Bolt Thrower, or contemporaries such as Gatecreeper and Warcrab. Whatever your deathly poison of choice, Kruelty caters to a wide audience. The varied tempos, top-notch riffs, and loose, unhinged vibe elevate well-constructed songs dripping with atmosphere and loaded with potent hooks, killer riffs and headbangable moments. Highlights include the riffy, skull-cracking heft and doom-encrusted weight of “Burn the System,” grinding, swaggering crush of ‘Reincarnation,” and the more frantic, deadly assault of “Maze of Suffering,” but it’s all good stuff. “Harder Than Before” is another strong cut that brings the beef, doomy-death crush and crusty hardcore attitude in spades.

There is some serious heft and a rough, endearing garage charm to the production, especially the drums. As such the whole package carries a sizable weight and raw organic edge, without sacrificing crisp clarity. Amidst a quality selection of varied death metal platters in 2023, Kruelty’s Untopia is a top-shelf platter not to be underestimated and is well worth the time and energy to tap into their gnarly old school death meets hardcore/death-doom formula.

Tracks to Check Out: ”Maze of Suffering,” “Burn the System,” “Reincarnation”

#BoltThrower #DeathMetal #Entombed #Gatecreeper #Grave #Hardcore #JapaneseMetal #Kruelty #OldSchoolDeathMetal #ProfoundLore #Review #Reviews #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed2023 #Untopia #Warcrab

Out October 13 - Krieg "Ruiner" LP/CD from Profound Lore. One of the vanguard of U.S. black metal return with their first full-length in nine years. Pressed on both red and white vinyl variants. https://midheaven.com/item/krieg/ruiner
#krieg
#ruiner
#blackmetal
#profoundlore

Out September 15 - Fabricant "Drudge To The Thicket" LP/CD from Profound Lore. Technical death metal debut that's been in the works for over a decade feat. members of Mefitis.
https://midheaven.com/item/fabricant/drudge-to-the-thicket
#fabricant
#deathmetal
#profoundlore
#mefitis

Out July 21 - Mizmor "Prosaic" LP/CD from Profound Lore. Epic and monolithic isolationist black metal from the accomplished one-man heavy music project. The manifestation of a long-felt depression.
https://midheaven.com/item/mizmor/prosaic
#mizmor #blackmetal #profoundlore

Out April 28 - Altar Of Plagues "Trilogy (Vinyl Boxset)" 5xLP from Profound Lore. Three landmark albums by the Irish black metal band repressed on vinyl for the final time. https://midheaven.com/item/altar-of-plagues/trilogy-vinyl-boxset
#altarofplagues #profoundlore #blackmetal