Greetings one and all and welcome to the final MMM of 2023. I’m not going to waste time looking back at the year just gone – there’s more than enough exciting music coming out early in 2024 so I’m going to focus on that this time around. Enjoy!
KARNAK SETI
Portugal isn’t a place we’ve spent a whole lot of time in on this column, so I’m happy to go some way to setting that right with the inclusion of melodic deathsters Karnak Seti, who unleash a new EP, Restos, on January 12th!
These guys are pretty experienced, having been extant in some form or other since 2001 and having four full-length studio albums under the collective bullet belt, and that experience is pretty obvious when you give the EP a listen. There’s definitely a Lusitanian feel to their music – they mix death and thrash metal in to a thick, Brazilio-Portuguese stew that you’ll love if you know anything about music from those regions, but there’s a sophistication going on here – top notch production that really draws the bet out of the music – that sets them near the top of the pack. Restos is well worth some of your time!
TIGERS ON OPIUM
Off to Portland, Oregon now, and a date with the highly-regarded Tigers On Opium; These guys have signed to the ubiquitous Heavy Pych Sounds label and have an album, Psychomania, set for release in March. I have to say it’s one of the records I’m most looking forward to hearing in Q1 of the New Year, and on the evidence of newish single Sky Below My Feet I’d have to say that excitement is pretty well-placed!
Toting a nice duel-guitar attack alongside the usual loping, stoner-doom rhythms they’ve been collecting kind words aplenty. The general consensus of comments I’ve seen pitches them somewhere between Queens of the Stone Age and Alice In Chains, neither of whom I particularly enjoy, but I have to say there’s an infectiousness within the grooves of SBMF that’s pretty hard to knock back. I’ve thoughtfully included the vid for the track below so you can make your own minds up!
DRIPPNG DECAY
Staying in Portland we find ourselves in the company of deathsters Dripping Decay, who unleash a new EP at the end of next month that revels in the name Ripping Remains through Satanik Royalty Records. The band has a timeless sound that belies it’s young years and is a real joy to behold on grinding-yet-melodic nuggets of filth like the superbly-named Wormridden Piety.
The (intentionally) dank atmosphere to be found throughout the EP is leavened by some superb old school lead guitar playing from Neil Smith, who has a sharp ear for playing tasteful lead lines that cut through even when the rest of the music is a crepuscular chunder of churning chaos. The band signpost their influences by chucking in a suitably feral version of Halloween‘s Trick or Treat to boot, with the upshot of all this being a tremendously energising little slab of headbanging mania that’s sure to appeal to hardened metallers both young (you, probably) and old (me, certainly).
PERVERATION
Seriously, though, what’s not to love about a band called Perveration? Groovy moniker notwihstanding, though, once you find out they are from Indonesia and find a home with Comatose Music -always a reliable domicile for the truly filthy – then, as the boss man might say, it’s well and truly on for young and old…
For starters, have a listen to the track we’ve included here, Chaotic Spreading; Absolute churning, brutal madness is the order f the day, reminding the listener once again that when it comes to this kinda thing, well… Indonesia rarely misses.
The album from which that track was lifted is entitled Putrefaction of Infinite Apogee and is set to land in early February. Ten tracks, all just as brutal and maniacal as Chaotic Spreading? We’ll have some of that!
PETRIFICATION
Talking as we were about reliable sources of music, how about Finland’s Svart Records? They’ve generally got all our needs covered across all the musical bases, all the time, and the latest bit o’gold they’ve thrust my way comes from Portland (again!) based death metal assault unit Petrification…
You may remember these guys from the solid debut that emanated from their tar-ridden maws Hollow of the Void back in 2018. Nearly six years later they are back and still belching out the old school, groove-laden goodness. New effort Sever Sacred Light is set to drop in early February and it’s surely going to round up a whole new bunch of followers if morbid first contact Twisted Visions of Creation is anything to go by. According to Svart themselves, it’s the band’s ‘most barbaric, heavy and yet sophisticated release to date’ – and who am I to argue witht he blokes putting their money where their mouths are and releasing the damn thing? As ever, I’ll leave the clip here and allow you all to decide for yourselves – but I’m not expecting anyone to be disappointed!
DUST BOLT
We’re going to round things out on a much more ‘mainstream’ note now – German metal veterans Dust Bolt, who are set to release a new album, their fifth, through AFM in February next year.
Sound & Fury is the name of the album in question and, though the band continues to evolve away from it’s pure thrash metal roots, there is still plenty of both to be heard on tracks like Burning Pieces, which carries a distinct early nineties vibe in it’s meaty riffage. My personal fave is the thrashier New Flame which fuss the band’s old style to a more melodic, hard rock sensibility; I’m not really a fan of watered down music, but even I have to admit these guys might be on to something with catchy shenanigans like this, een if you’ll have a nagging sense that you’ve head that riff before and can’ quite place where…
As ever, have a listen. And please – tell me what that bloody riff is!
That’s it for 2023! Have a happy new year and we’ll catch you all on the other side!
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