Photos by Wayne Edwards.
Main FFMB article on the show: https://flyingfiddlesticks.com/2023/03/04/soulfly-at-skullys-columbus-february-28-2023/
© Wayne Edwards
Photo Gallery: Bodybox at Skully’s in Columbus
Florida
Obituary, Dying Of Everything (Relapse 2023)
The new Obituary album sums up the state of the world: Dying Of Everything.
Legendary death metal band Obituary started out in Florida in the 1980s as Executioner (Xecutioner), releasing a few demos and a split in the middle of that decade. With the name change to Obituary in 1988, the band really started to take off and garnered increasing attention. Their first few albums are classics, particularly Cause Of Death (1990). Other great records followed, and in the past few years, Obituary is better than ever. Their recent albums have been embraced by fans and critics alike. Dying Of Everything is the eleventh Obituary album, and the first new studio album in six years. Founders John Tardy (vocals), Donald Tardy (drums), and Trevor Peres (guitar) are joined by long-time members Terry Butler (bass) and Ken Andrews Jr. (guitar) on the new record.
There are ten blistering tracks on Dying Of Everything. The door is kicked open with “Barely Alive,” and it is a ripper. It starts with a roar and has riffs like canon blasts. John Tardy is setting a high vocal standard at the jump, and he keeps it up throughout. “The Wrong Time” has a longer build, raising tension until the guitars hit hard with a charging menace. Two songs in and you already feel the weight and magnitude of this album.
The title track has a special allure, and its reckless speed is a dangerous attractor. The lead guitar work is bewildering. “My Will To Live” is another one to look out for. There is an insidious gruesomeness to the layers of the song, and the delivery of the vocals has a permanent impact. “Torn Apart” is another favorite track of mine. The persistence of the music, the insistence of it. It is exceptional, and that is saying a lot about a single song from set that is overall of such high caliber. Don’t miss out. Recommended.
Dying Of Everything is out on Friday, January 13th through Relapse Records. Hit up the links below to listen and buy.
Band photos by Wayne Edwards.
Links.
Obituary website, https://www.obituary.cc/
Bandcamp, https://obituary.bandcamp.com/album/dying-of-everything
Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/ObituaryBand
Relapse Records, https://store.relapse.com/b/obituary
© Wayne Edwards
Plasmodulated, Plasmodulated (Personal Records 2022)
If you are looking for some steamy fuzz, Plasmodulated has the answer.
One-man-band from Gainesville, Florida, Plasmodulated, has released a self-titled demo. Myk Colby does it all on these five tracks, and achieves an impressively heavy result. The music is fuzzy and dooming, with enough variegated elements of multiple other heavy music sub-genre to keep your attention sharp. I am always a little dubious of singular generators, but it turns out there was no cause for concern in this case. Plasmodulated delivered the goods.
“Intolerable Stench Place.” If ever a piece of music fit the title better, I don’t know about it. This absolutely sounds like an intolerable stench. There is a constant thrumming that won’t leave your ears alone, and a distant guitar line that echoes the croaking vocals. This the real deal. “Gross Cave” blasts into your space and groans its affection, then kicks up the tempo and rolls you around. The ponderous doom that lands in the middle is cryptic and eerie.
“Microscopic Horror” is a matinee thriller that makes you wonder whether you are safe at any given point in time because of the unseen menace that might be ravaging you and you aren’t even aware of it. Yikes. The title track is a little frantic, and it has an otherworldly ambiance. The anchor is “Protoplasmic Transformation,” a tropical storm in a bathysphere. The sparkling lead guitar is an early highlight, and the rhythm section shines throughout. I love the peppery chop of the riff on the intervening moments, and the echoey return of the lead guitar is a welcome haunting. Recommended.
The physical CDs for Plasmodulated are out August 26th through Personal Records, and you can stream the digital now at Bandcamp and elsewhere.
Links.
Bandcamp, https://personal-records.bandcamp.com/album/plasmodulated
Personal Records, https://www.personal-records.com/
© Wayne Edwards
Perdition Temple, Merciless Upheaval (Hells Headbangers 2022)
Perdition Temple returns with their fierce fourth album, Merciless Upheaval.
Tampa’s Perdition Temple came together in 2009 with a musical mission first articulated on Edict of the Antichrist Elect (2010). An EP followed, then in 2015, The Tempter’s Victorious. Each new release was a step forward in the band’s formidable history. Rough seas ensued for a couple of years, followed by a renewed, solidified front on 2020’s Sacraments of Descension. The band is Gene Palubicki (vocals, guitar), Alex Blume (bass), and Ron Parmer (drums).
The new album has four original songs and four covers. New songs first. The title track breaks the ice, and my first thought is that the title is perfect. It is like a soundtrack to chaos with percussive savagery, willfully violent guitars, and Palubicki’s coarse and commanding vocals. “Execution Swarm” continues the death metal attack. The short lead guitar segments are like dive bombers aimed at your brain.
“Redemption Abattoir” might be my favorite track because of the turns it takes throughout. Every corner it explores fills in the picture a little bit more. “In Thrall of Malevolence” is clandestine in the way it circles around you, ultimately coming at you from every direction.
The covers are fascinating choices including classic bands all fans will know together with names that are less recognizable to some: Infernal Majesty, Pestilence, Shub Niggurath, and Morbid Angel. “Skeletons In The Closet” and “Blood On My Hands” are fantastic and especially wonderful to hear in these new renditions. I am delighted to see Perdition Temple offering respect to these storied bands with such reminiscences. The structure of the album is a winner, with half original tracks and half covers, the band has hit on a memorable combination. Recommended.
Merciless Upheaval is out through Hells Headbangers on Friday, June 24th. Have a look at the label’s shop and the band’s links.
Photos by Wayne Edwards, Higher Ground, Burlington, Vermont, 2019.
Links.
Bandcamp, https://perditiontemple.bandcamp.com/
Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/perditiontemple
Perdition Temple website, http://perditiontemple.com/
Hells Headbangers Records, https://shop-hellsheadbangers.com/
© Wayne Edwards
Bodysnatcher, Bleed-Abide (MNRK Heavy 2022)
The third album from Florida deathcore band Bodysnatcher is out this week, Bleed-Abide.
Bodysnatcher came together in 2014. They put an EP out in 2015, and their first long-player, Death Of Me, followed in 2017. It was probably their second album, This Heavy Void, that brought them the most attention, and their fan base has been on the uptick all along. The band is Kyle Medina (vocals), Kyle Carter (guitar), Kyle Shope (bass), and Chris Whited (drums).
Talking about the album, Kyle Medina tells us, “Bleed-Abide is the ultimate culmination of what the band has been building for years, and I believe the best material to date. The instrumentals have matured and become heavier hitting and the lyrics dig deeper personally and more relatable than even This Heavy Void. There is something for everyone in this album: slam riffs, breakdowns, two steps, choruses that stick…”
There are thirteen mostly short, hard-hitting tracks on the new album. After the intro piece “Bleed,” the clubbing begins with “Abide.” Savage aggression ensues. Growling, bristling vocals descend to croaks now and then, and the percussion beats your senses senseless. The intentionality is ever-present, pushing the musical ideas forward.
There is plentiful speed here, but acceleration is not the whole story. “Smashed Perceptions” disturbs perceptions of pace, and you hear this on many tracks. “Flatline,” for example, does it in a different way. Instead of relying entirely on speed and volume, the change ups and hanging moments add tension and drama, maybe also anxiety, to the music.
The last four songs taken together are a menace to reason and sanity. “Wired For Destruction,” “Hollow Shell,” “Behind The Crowd,” and “The Question” work together in my head even if they weren’t meant to – they are a suite of destruction at the end that brings it all together. Recommended.
Bleed-Abide is out on Friday, April 22nd through MNRK Heavy. There are lots of formats to choose from at the links below.
Links.
Website, https://bodysnatcherofficial.com/
Bandcamp, https://bodysnatcherfl.bandcamp.com/album/bleed-abide
Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/Bodysnatcherfl/
MNRK Heavy, https://mnrkheavy.com/collections/bodysnatcher
© Wayne Edwards.
Druid Lord, Relics Of The Dead (Hells Headbangers 2022)
Druid Lord conjures deep decaying darkness with their third full-length album, Relics Of The Dead.
Druid Lord has been haunting the catacombs for more than ten years. After the initial long-player Hymns For The Wicked in 2010, the band released a string of splits and a couple of EPs before the most recent full-length, Grotesque Offerings (2018). With a focus on the morbid and horror in general, the themes of the compositions are what you might expect from a doom-laden heavy music band so named. The Metal Archives records the band members as Elden Santos (drums), Pete Slate (guitar), Tony Blakk (vocals and bass), and Chris Wicklein (guitar).
There are six long songs and two transition tracks on the new album. The style is doom and death metal played both in alternating passages and as crossover experiences. “Relics Of The Dead” is a delightfully dreary requiem that drags your spirit through the muck. The following track, “Thirteen Days Of Death,” unsurprisingly, offers no sunshine. The song rolls out in a funeral procession, with heavy, hopeless vocals and slow, churning guitars. The pace becomes spritely after a couple minutes, but that does not elevate the mood. An excellent, depressing song.
I really liked “Festering Tombs,” I must say, with its nice lead flourishes and a driving, dooming intentionality. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention “Mangled As The Hideous Feed” as well – it is a song more well-titled than most. The album wraps up on “Monarch Macabre,” a beautifully rendered cinematic story of unrelenting darkness. The final bow is a short uscita that sounds like a creepy invitation to play the album again. Which I did. This one is a keeper. Recommended.
Relics Of The Dead is out on Friday, January 21st in digital, tape, and CD formats through Hells Headbangers. A vinyl version will follow in the coming months.
Links.
Bandcamp, https://druid-lord.bandcamp.com/
Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/DruidDeathCult
Hells Headbangers Records, https://shop-hellsheadbangers.com/
Fame On Fire, Blue Ridge Rock Festival, Danville, Virginia, September 12, 2021
Post-hardcore Florida rockers Fame On Fire brought a wilderness of sound to Blue Ridge.
All photos by Wayne Edwards.
Links.
Website, https://www.fameonfireband.com/
Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/fameonfire/
Blue Ridge Rock Festival coverage at Ryze-Up magazine, https://www.ryze-up.com/music-2/blue-ridge-rock-festival-2021/
© Wayne Edwards.
Massacre, Resurgence (Nuclear Blast 2021)
Florida death metal band Massacre roll out the Lovecraftian Resurgence, their fourth big album.
It has been a long road for Massacre. The band formed in 1984 and became well-known for a number of demos they released throughout the rest of that decade. Their first full-length album was From Beyond (1991), followed five years later by Promise. Things got quiet for about fifteen years after that. Back From Beyond was Massacre’s return to form in 2014 and now, seven years later, the latest installment in their history is Resurgence.
The music is straight-forward old school death metal with a strong reliance on H. P. Lovecraft for narrative content. Vocalist Kam Lee describes to new music this way. “lyrically it is basically about body horror of aquatic transmutation. Any deeper meaning than that is just speculative, but could simply be metaphor for our world’s current situation with the pandemic and other threats of the spreading of viral infection. Musically it’s just proper O.S.D.M. the way it’s meant to be played …”
The set begins with mystery and esoteric insinuations on the “Eldritch Prophecy” lead-in before turning to a heavy pounding riff and then taking off at speed. A vocal growl is the sign that death metal is kicking in. Ascending guitars rise above the pummeling percussion and a hiss harmony deepens the vocal attack. It is a great beginning.
Through the course of ten raging tracks, the story unfolds and the music takes a tour through recognizable Old School Death Metal stomping grounds, adding fresh blasts and turns to enhance the delivery. The pace ranges from mid- to up-tempo, spending a lot of time in the fast lane. Lead breaks and guitar pairings are reliably recurrent and the metal is heavy and solid. Could you ask for anything more? Recommended.
Resurgence rises to the surface on Friday, October 22nd through Nuclear Blast Records.
Links.
Bandcamp, https://massacre3.bandcamp.com/
Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/Massacreflorida
Nuclear Blast, https://www.nuclearblast.com/massacre-resurgence
Worm, Foreverglade (20 Buck Spin 2021)
Florida gloom band Worm continues further down the path of deep dark doom on their third album, Foreverglade.
Formed around 2014, Worm’s early music was more oriented toward a straight-forward black metal tint. As they moved along, the doom emerged and quickly intensified into a lead-heavy oppression. Evocation of the Black Marsh came out in 2017, followed two years later by Gloomlord. The driving force behind Worm is an entity known as Phantom Slaughter whose work is enhanced on the new album by Nihilistic Manifesto, L. Dusk, and Equimanthorn. I wonder if those are their real names.
Foreverglade opens with the title track, sure in its stance and determined in its eeriness. It is a creeping combination of funereal guitar riffs, muffled death metal vocals, and ethereal, almost ritualistic sounds. On “Murk Above The Dark Moor” the composition has moments that are choir-like in their dirge and reverence, positioned against passages slightly paced up and massive in their density. And then, unexpectedly, there is a lead guitar break that is transportive. Side one closes with “Cloaked In Nightwinds,” the longest track on the album. It is a churning, clompy excavation of darkness.
“Empire Of The Necromancers” has an active beginning volley that is positively rapid compared to the tracks that came before. Excellent lead work early on in the song is a memorable highlight, as are the lyrical keys. “Subaqueous Funeral” is a single-length dark beauty with a pulse and flow that is engaging and mesmerizing in the guitar. “Centuries Of Ooze” brings the curtain down on the set, returning to the solemnness of the opening but even more mysteriously. I am a funeral doom fan and this music could fit in that category for its sheer heaviness, but it is more active than the typical strain and so creates its own description and enigma. Recommended.
Foreverglade is available on Friday, October 22nd through 20 Buck Spin. Ordering information can be found below at the label’s website and Bandcamp for the digital, CD, and cassette versions. There is a vinyl edition that is due January 28th, coming out later because of the well-known worldwide vinyl backlog.
Links.
Bandcamp, https://wormgloom.bandcamp.com
20 Buck Spin, http://www.20buckspin.com
Charred, Prayers of Malediction (HPGD Productions 2021)
Florida Thrash~Death Metal band Charred re-release their first long-player, Prayers of Malediction.
There is not an enormous amount of information out there about Charred. The Bandcamp page reports that the band is from Deerfield Beach, Florida. The Metal Archives has about the same amount of detail, adding that Prayers of Malediction was originally released digitally in 2019. The new HPGD release will give wider distribution to this excellent album, so that is a good thing. And, anyway, maybe we don’t need to know much about the musicians and the band if we have their music to listen to.
There are nine ripping tracks on the album. Along with the obvious Thrash and Death Metal content, there is also a strong groove vein running throughout that makes these songs even more memorable. Most of the tracks are short, in the two minute range, with a handful of longer pieces. Growling vocals, battering percussion, and wailing shreds tag team to add force and power to the music.
“The Athame Of The Witchking” has a tasty Doom Metal opening, and that is always a good thing for me to hear. “Entity Of War” has a nice Mercyful Fate callback and “Enthralling The Weak” swings a weighty metal hammer aimed directly at your spine. My favorite track might be “The Means Of Destruction” because of the way it comes at you low and swerving then hooks back to crack you on the skull.
“Kesai Khati (Eater Of The Raw Flesh)” shuts the show down with a story that will keep you up at night. I did not know about Charred until I listened to this album and I am glad I got to hear it. Keep an eye out for anything else they release. Recommended.
CD and digital forms of Prayers of Malediction will be out from Horror Pain Gore Death Productions on Friday, October 1st.
Links.
Bandcamp, https://hpgd.bandcamp.com/album/prayers-of-malediction
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