Crust Metal

Downfall Of Gaia, Silhouettes Of Disgust (Metal Blade 2023)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , ,

German post-black metal band Downfall Of Gaia warp the continuum on their new album, Silhouettes Of Disgust.

Since 2008, Downfall Of Gaia has been growing and changing in both their sound and compositional attitude. Described in many different ways from sludge to crust to atmospheric post-black metal, their music is deeply rewarding to those who can hear it. They have released five full-length albums before Silhouettes Of Disgust, with a couple of splits, an EP, and a demo along the way as well. The band is Dominik Goncalves dos Reis (vocals, guitar), Peter Wolff (guitar, vocals), Anton Lisovoj (bass, vocals), and Michael Kadnar (drums).

Talking about the new album, dos Reis tells us, “With this record we wanted to return to our roots and the earlier days, but without taking a step back. We wanted to incorporate both worlds into our new album, where we came from – the DIY/crust punk scene – and the direction things have taken over the past few years, organically growing from release to release.” If you are a fan of Downfall Of Gaia, that will make perfect sense to you.

“Existence of Awe” leads the way with a direct and immediate assault on your senses by battering percussion and trilling riffs. Melodic elements can be heard operating over the same period but on a different cycle. The pieces together are like layers in an oil painting. You do not necessary hear every bit discretely at any given moment, but you do experience them all simultaneously. “The Whir of Flies” offers slapping percussion, which is quite visceral and intimate. After significant dosing, the tempo shifts and the music breaks off in a different direction, then speeds and slows throughout. At the halfway point, the song drifts into space, then sinks into a cavernous depth toward the end. It is quite a journey.

Over the course of the set, many ideas reenter in both the same and in differentiated ways. Brutality tag-teams melody, and the reverse. Songs are never one thing. Each is complex with numerous features and reflections. Every song is an example of this, but “Bodies as Driftwood” does it especially well, to my ears, because of its compactness. The final word on the album, “Optograms of Disgust,” will attract your notice, too, for its unshakeable dark beauty, its strength and resilience. Recommended.

Silhouettes Of Disgust is out now through Metal Blade Records in may forms. Examine the possibilities at the links below.

Links.

Downfall of Gaia website, http://downfallofgaia.com/

Bandcamp, https://downfallofgaia.bandcamp.com/album/silhouettes-of-disgust

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/DownfallofGaia

Metal Blade Records, https://www.metalblade.com/europe/artists/downfall-of-gaia/

© Wayne Edwards

Downfall Of Gaia, Silhouettes Of Disgust (Metal Blade 2023)

Gravehuffer, Depart From So Much Evil (Black Doomba 2023)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , , ,

Crust thrashers Gravehuffer pull out all the stops on their fourth long-player, …Depart From So Much Evil.

Joplin, Missouri’s own Gravehuffer has been haunting stages and studios since 2010, and even before that under the name Krom. With three previous full-length records in their wake, not to mention the EP and a generous ration of splits, these musicians have been around the block a few times. The new record expands on their previous work and moves into spaces they have not occupied before. Gravehuffer is Travis McKenzie (vocals), Mike Jilge (bass), Ritchie Randall (guitar), and Todd Morrison (drums).

“Blueprint For An Early Grave” opens with a fog horn sounding an alarm and an evacuation notice. Some shit is about to go down. A clobbering riff follows, and a pumping rhythm that leads to the first growling stanza. It is a quick punch to the head, and it gets things rolling nicely. “Slayberry” is another short one, and it is more actively savage than the opener from every angle, but especially in the vocals that hiss into black metal territory now and then. Grisly. The back half is a hop-along reconnoitering, surveying the damage. “The Cryptid And The Iron Bird” expands the metal palette and spreads its wings into a longer form where a wandering can take place. This song in a way presages the anchor piece.

“Brainstorm” takes a different approach, opening on acoustic notes, then proceeding to a creepy whisper. The acoustic guitar returns and you start to wonder where you are. Dual vocals and electric menace kick your cage, making the acoustic returns all the more unsettling. “Go Murder Pray And Die” is a screaming hardcore punk pummeling that has a tasty lead guitar break. Love this song. The big news, though, is the twenty-two-minute epic title track that waits for you at the end of the road. Solemn cello and emotional accompaniment lead off in a direction we haven’t heard before on the album. That is only the beginning, and, given the length of the song, you can imagine the ground that the composition covers. It is a journey of highs and lows, fasts and slows – growling and punishing and melancholy. It is an excellent suite in construction and execution. If you have never heard Gravehuffer before, this album is the place to start. Recommended.

Depart From So Much Evil is out now through Black Doomba Records. Snap it up at the links below.

Band photos by Wayne Edwards.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://gravehuffer2.bandcamp.com/album/depart-from-so-much-evil

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/gravehuffer/

Black Doomba Records, https://www.blackdoombarecords.co/

© Wayne Edwards

Gravehuffer, Depart From So Much Evil (Black Doomba 2023)

Wake, Thought Form Descent (Metal Blade Records 2022)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , , , , , ,

Canadian death metal band Wake release their sixth album, Thought Form Descent.

From Calgary, Alberta, heavy music band Wake has built a career by being different, not just from other bands but also from their previous selves. Moving from grindcore and crust toward black and death metal, combining and fusing them, and adding whatever was right and deemed needed is a hallmark of Wake. Over the course of five previous long-players, a couple of EPs, and split, the music is as reliably earnest and unpredictable.

There are eight tracks on the new album. “Infinite Inward” opens like a melodic death metal song and travels on an arc that leads to more extreme environments. “Swallow The Light” has a rambler kind of feel to it in the opening bars, reminding me a little of Mastodon. “Mourning Dirge (Repose of the Dead)” completes the first triplet, sounding for all the universe like a battling starship in an uncertain scrap that could go either way.

After a transition piece, “Venerate (The Undoing of All)” leads the way into part two. The song is a big production with dramatic presentations throughout, pushing even more than the previous pieces, and that is saying something as, up to this point, the album has already been intense. “Observer to Master” plasters rage across the horizon, and then does it again, and then does it some more. “Bleeding Eyes of the Watcher” puts me in mind of sorcery and has me thinking the world is not what it seems to be on the surface. This is a steady one that climbs a mountain then explores the coastline on the other side. Unsatisfied, the music presses on to reveal horrors buried deep. That is where it leaves you. “The Translation of Deaths” is a short reflective cooldown.

I presumed this album would diverge from the previous one because the previous ones had done that very thing to their predecessors. The new album lived up to that expectation and, more than that, provided active entertainment, drama, and opportunities for introspection. Recommended.

Thought Form Descent is out through Metal Blade Records on Friday, July 22nd. Explore the possibilities at the links below.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://wakegrind.bandcamp.com/album/thought-form-descent

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/wakeyyc

Metal Blade Records, https://www.metalblade.com/us/

© Wayne Edwards

Wake, Thought Form Descent (Metal Blade Records 2022)

Nequient, Darker Than Death Or Night (Nefarious Industries 2022)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Chicago hardcore band Nequient release their second full-length studio album this week, Darker Than Death Or Night.

You’ll see Nequient described as a hardcore band or maybe a death metal band. The press release declares the band’s music to be from a variety of wells, and that the band draws “influences from a broad spectrum of aggressive styles including grindcore, crust, sludge, death metal, black metal, and noise rock.” That covers a lot of ground, and it absolutely rings true. Wolves At The Door (2018) was Nequient’s first long-player, and I think the new one is even better. The band is Chris Avgerin (drums), Keenan Clifford (bass), Patrick Conahan (guitar), and Jason Kolkey (vocals).

The first track is a rampage, “First Casualty.” It sets the bar very high right at the jump. The chaos of “Worshippers of the Apocalypse” is what I imagine being gargled in Satan’s colon might be like; so to, “Consensual Hallucination.” The ragged rawness of these tracks is enough to make your gums bleed. The intensity and rapidly shifting off-angle attacks are a true aural battering. But this manner of music isn’t the only look you get, even if it does predominate. “Minotaur” is a gloriously doom-ridden landscape of mountain-high walls past which you cannot see the sun. “Wrongs” does this a bit, too, but with a more active brand of gloom.

The number one track for me comes near the end, “Bootlicker.” Here the emanations are barely contained. At many points along the way it seems like the music might burst apart into a ball of fire. “Golden Age of the Grift” is the kiss goodnight, and it is more of a kidney punch than a peck on the cheek. Nequient has put together one of the fiercest albums I have heard this year. Recommended.

Nefarious Industries will release Darker Than Death Or Night in multiple formats on Friday, March 18th and you can preorder it now.

Band photo by Nicolas Côté.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://nequient.bandcamp.com/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/nequientband

Nefarious Industries, https://www.nefariousindustries.com/

© Wayne Edwards. All rights reserved.

Nequient, Darker Than Death Or Night (Nefarious Industries 2022)

Fuming Mouth, Beyond The Tomb notice (Nuclear Blast 2020)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , ,

Following up on their impressive debut full-length from last year, Fuming Mouth has released a new EP.

Since 2013, Fuming Mouth has been releasing demos, splits, and EPs, leading up to The Grand Descent (2019). That was a big album with twelve crushing tracks. The new one is three songs, and they are just as ferocious.

“Beyond The Tomb” is a dark curse thrown at your spirit that cannot be escaped. “Master Of Extremity” is a steam roller headed straight for you. “Road To Odessa” is a heavy hammer of doom. Three things stand out to me about this release: the attack vector of the music which I hear as multidirectional, the massive bass lines, and the originality of the clever elements that are integral to the music, not merely ancillary. It is not easy to make a place for yourself in the heavy music scene, but Fuming Mouth is doing just that. This is a band to watch.

The new EP is out now from Nuclear Blast Records. Gather it unto you, in digital or physical incarnations. Either way, consider it highly recommended.

Photo by Gabe Becerra.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://fumingmouth.bandcamp.com/

Website, https://www.fumingmouth.com/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/fumingmouth/

Nuclear Blast, https://shop.nuclearblast.com/en/products/sound/vinyl/lp/fuming-mouth-beyond-the-tomb.html

Fuming Mouth, Beyond The Tomb notice (Nuclear Blast 2020)