Here we are, then, Episode Twenty Seven and it’s one of the heaviest ones we’ve done in a while. So get yourselves prepared for a bumpy ride and I’ll see you at the bottom of the page!
COMA HOLE
From the stone-scattered shores of Rhode Island comes Coma Hole, a unique doom duo smoking out the underground scene with thick, fuzzed-out grooves destined for bigger stages. Formed in 2018, the band pairs the heavily overdriven basslines and powerful vocals of bass druidess Eryka Fir with the thunderously tight drumming of doom devil Steve Anderson. With a debut EP and killer single under their belt, the duo has risen in rank from basement headbangers to sharing the stage with notable psychedelic acts such as Horseburner, Heavy Temple, Temptress, Monte Luna and more.
As many of you will be aware my personal jury is still out when it comes to duos in metal, but there’s no denying the power generated by this pair on opening track Alphaholics. They remind your correspondent a little of Brit metallers Alunah, although there’s an unhinged element to Coma Hole’s music that ultimately puts them into an altogether different ballpark. There’s a real danger lurking in the undergrowth of this music, and Fir’s decidedly non-metallic vocal approach adds a real and very alluring point of difference to the music that is had to find elsewhere.
Best track Rivermouth is a riot of fuzzed up melody and pounding percussive abuse – or, as the band’s PR person puts it ‘an audible blend of filthy riffs and energetic percusion’ – and thos of you who enjoy your doom out on a moe psych tip will have a fine old time with the band’s new album, Hand of Severance, which is set for release on November 1!
HELL IS OTHER PEOPLE
It certainly is, and, as if to underline that fact, here are the band of the same name! Delivering an ethereal take on the blackened hardcore concept, HIOP have a very fine knack for penning an achingly melodic guitar line, and there are many on their new album Moirae that cut with laser precision through the unforgiving sturm un drang that is the bad’s default setting. In my experience, you’ve got to be in the right frame of mind to do this music justice as a listener, but if you are then Moirae‘s treasures are many and varied – and you’ll have a goosebump-inducing time familiarising yourself with them.
But enough of me – here’s what the band have to say about their new opus: “‘Moirae is an Ancient Greek term referring to three figures that are personifications of destiny. The role of the Moirae is to ensure that everyone lives out their destiny as assigned to them by the laws of the universe. We explore this necessary human process of birth, proliferation and death through these songs, couched in metaphor and esoteric meaning so the listener can interpret them as they see fit”.
Now, I’m as ready as the next man for a bit of philosophy with my metal, but in reality the intensity of the music coupled with the full-on commitment of the band’s execution means you won’t have time to reflect on the finer points of the moirae and their mission. You’ll be too busy being absorbed by the oceans of sound created by superb tracks like Fates for anything else, and, at the end of the day, it’s the music that matters. And this would appear to be music that matters very much indeed!
DEMISER
We tend not to feature too many bands on the ‘major’ metal labels like Metal Blade, but sometimes one comes up who are just to good to let through to the keeper, and Demiser are just such an act!
Hell Is Full Of Fire is the latest single from the South Carolina hell bringers… The apocalyptic new hymn comes by way of the band’s Slave To The Scythe full-length, which came out a couple of months back via Black Light Media/Metal Blade Records.
The band features Demiser The Demiser (occult liturgic blasphemy), Gravepisser (six-stringed Satanic fukklord), Phallomancer (abysmal rhythm of death), Defiler (dismal baritone curator), and Infestor (purveyor of percussive bile). The nine-track Slave To The Scythe is a devastatingly intense slab of work; an aural harbinger of hellish intent that sees the band blend eighties thrash, first-wave black metal, death metal, and a healthy dose of NWoBHM. Or, in other words, all the ingredients required for a right old knees-up!
Hell Is Full Of Fire is an epic tale of a demonic war, featuring the lines, “Call in the hordes, prepare for victory; The vermin Christ and his servants; Will soon plead as their blood spills; By the will of my steel.” The band further elaborates, “This was one that started with a riff Phallomancer brought to practice and we all jumped in and got it fleshed out. Lyrically, we were making up dumb song titles we thought Demiser The Demiser would write and somehow he dropped this gem out of his ass. We ran with it. We still regret it.”
Come, come, leather and studded ones – there’s nothing to regret when you’re churning out sulphurous classics like this! Keep ’em coming!
BILE CASTER
UK sludge trio Bile Caster come from Leicester, in the East Midlands of England… Once you know this information, everything you hear on their new EP, Writhing Between Birth and Death, makes sense. There’s no doubting that we live in increasingly troubled times, and so the threesome’s music as featured here would seem to offer nothing so much as the perfect soundtrack to our imminent demise. Bereft of any hope whatsoever, it’s blackened, acrid riffs suffocate the very life out of anybody who has the misfortune to get near, leaving the listener in the precarious position of risking their own well being if lingering for too long for a listen…
But seriously, this new EP is the good stuff. Classically British in sound, it stoves your head in and then rifles through your pockets for fags and loose change as only a band following in the great tradition of Iron Monkey could do. Listening is as easy as having your teeth pulled in a dimly lit public toilet, and you’ll feel similarly numb and bloody afterwards, but the arrival is well worth the journey. Proper extreme music!
Told you it was a heavy EP! Hope you enjoyed it! I’m off for a pre-christmas holiday but my young colleague Chris Arrowsmith will be looking after the shop for the next month or so – be nice to him!
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