Fórn is a new band from Boston(Mass) that is playing some of the heaviest sounds currently resonating from the East Coast. Chris, the vocalist, is a friend of mine and I’ve been following this band since their inception. I’ve been taking notice of the killer shows they are playing/putting together for their local community and I’m really digging what these folks are creating. It’s all about supporting friends and these friends of mine happen to fucking crush!

Chris sent me a copy of their debut demo prior to the official cassette release which is being self-released in early July by the band. Their demo clocks in at around 14 minutes and is composed of two slabs of nasty groovy heaviness. The first track is titled “Serpent’s Lair” and weighs in at a little over 4 minutes and the second track is called, “Dasein”. Both of the tracks on this debut are characterized by their punishing pace of skin-crawling dirge and all out heaviness. They’ve enlisted the artistic creations of Bryan P. of Clovenhoov/Natvres Mortes Illvstrations for their demo artwork which you can check out below.
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The singular entity known as JBS, partially responsible for such sonic aberrations as Encoffination and Father Befouled, unleashed this romp into chasmic turmoil upon the world last year. Justin has been increasingly busy the last half of the previous decade building and implanting himself in series of pitch black projects which dabble in various doomy death metal flavors, and this most recent experiment appears as Redolent of Spheres as channeled through the form of Chasm of Nis.

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It’s almost preposterous say in the first sentence of a review, but Unru have created perhaps one of my favorite releases of the year and it’s a demo. Unru hail from Germany and, like many bands of the more contemporary blackened crust movement, only reveal themselves through veiled mystique and runes. But image aside, let’s talk about the powerhouse that is DEMO MMXIII.

The demo itself brings with it all of the gritty qualities one would expect to be associated with a demo: low production, cymbals crashing and creating waves of non-sound, guitars that are seemingly lost in the mix, however none of this is a slight against Unru in the least bit and if anything, it really drives the point home. Four interlude tracks I-V serve as moments of atmosphere for the album, giving the listener breaks in-between the absolute onslaught that is DEMO MMXIII. I think what strikes me the most about Unru is the ridiculous vocal sound because I’ve never quite heard anything like it; the vocalist creates something so animalistic and sinister that it’s actually quite exciting to hear from track to track. Similarly, I felt as though the drums throughout most of the tracks held a particular antagonistic relationship with the guitar, much to each instrument’s benefit.

Throughout the album, it becomes evident that Unru have a single idea in mind and execute it to the best of the ability. Unru avoid some of the more typical conventions of blackened crust (or d-beat) such as alluring listeners with enigmatic aesthetic and instead give them exactly what they’ve been looking for without the bullshit. Tracks such as “Es schiebt sich zwischen uns, wie Schatten” and “Ich bin der Hexenmeister” showcase their ability to avoid cliche in lieu of a distinctly primitive, chaotic burst of music.

Pick up what is one of my favorite demo releases of the year right here.

Rhinocervs, for those unfamiliar with the group, is a label and band operated by two members as a means to distribute the music they had been working on under the guise of anonymity. I found Rhinocervs interesting in that regard, as they (potentially) function as their own musician, distributor, and label which makes their business model wholly attractive from an artistic standpoint. To add a more important note to this model it should be noted that Rhinocervs have made it a goal to prioritize releasing art, rather than create an embodied artist to represent their catalogue. In lieu of this, Rhinocervs catalog their releases very simply, as the current one is simply “RH-14.” But that’s business, and no one really likes to discuss business when they are looking to be entertained.

RH-14’s first untitled track is the largest of the three and in many ways the most full-bodied. From the get go it is reminiscent of artists such as Antediluvian who encapsulate the idea of death metal brutality and black metal form. While that sounds somewhat cliche and easily misinterpreted, don’t fret, this song is fucking pulverizing. As a sucker for the drum tone that is used on this release (and various others), I found myself wholly entertained by the force of the song. There is a deliberate idea within the first track that is melded and erected fully throughout the song’s seven minute length. It should be noted that the vocal work here is particularly enthralling; at times it feels both above and below the listener, eventually coming to a middle point in the mix and engulfing the mix fully.

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Review Source Equivoke

The album cover is simple, the moniker evoking some kind of Nails copycat riding on the blackened sludge wave. Don’t be fooled though. Crawl is very deserving of the title, a new Khanate-esque mutant that fans of patient, surgical heaviness will want to take note of. Crawl is one guy with a bass and drums making bone-scraping sludge in Texas unlike much out there right now. I don’t remember how I came across this whether by random search or through email request but I found the link today and popped this demo on, resulting in me being surprised and subsequently squashed.

This demo is only 15 minute long over five tracks but these four minute chunks of cold sludge drag in the best way possible. Each untitled song is like a glacier collapsing on top of you, suffocating and biting with every lead-weighted strike of the bass strings, distorted and sterile almost taking on an industrial feel — the breaths of silence adding an abrupt ambiance and heightening the creepy atmosphere. All this makes four minutes feel like it’s swollen to ten from the raw stomping Crawl dish out.

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STOP! Stop right fucking there. I’ve got some ass kicking, grit licking, Frenchies for you to check out. If you like bands like Urfaust and Glorior Belli, you’ll most likely get into St. Barthelemy’s Temple. I had someone tell me that SBT also sounded as if Fenriz’ doom dabblings and Darkthrone had an awesome skeletal demon baby death god -okay they didn’t say the “skeletal demon” stuff, but that’s more fitting in my opinion.
My very first encounter with this band was roughly two years ago, back when I had a blog, someone (who I cannot remember for the life of me) had posted a youtube video from their demo. The person’s post seemed to sink down the feed unnoticed. I glimpsed at the art, read the short description, and hit the play button. Why not? I was half way paying attention when this dripping wet and primitive sound grabbed me by throat.

Normally, when you think of things sprouting up from France, you think more atmospheric and having a typical generic black metal sound, almost whiny or cheesy (See what I did there?), no? I was kind of bewildered to see these dudes weren’t from the USA, or Canada, or something. Not too long ago, I had gotten in contact with one of the band members, Pierre, through their facebook page -which only has sixty likes right now, yeah really, only sixty- and asked if I could purchase their demo “The Sheol Unfold“. This person didn’t let me give him any cash, and insisted on just sending out two copies for me to have. What a nice guy! He only asked that, when I received the demos, that I would share them with others. Honestly, he really didn’t even have to ask, I genuinely want to share this stuff. In order for me to blab about a band, I’ve got to really dig’m too.

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This is CVLT Nation’s 1st Demo of the Month for 2013, and the name of the band is AMERICAN. Hailing from Virginia, this band’s music is best heard rather than describing it with labels that won’t do it justice. That being said, ever since I got the AMERICAN demo, I have been listening to it a least 3 times a day at the CVLT Nation HQ. AMERICAN has made me like a word that sometimes I can’t stand! Check out their sick fucking demo below…

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Apart from their geographic location, we don’t know that much about Thaw from the mighty Poland.

Advance [MMXII] is Thaw‘s second demo and another right step in the right direction. Extreme as fuck, these guys play different extreme music genres (black metal, doom, sludge, etc) always trough their noisy – as fuck, of course – filter.

For those that have known this band since 2010, when they released their first demo Decay [MMX], it’s kind of easy to point out the differences between these two releases. If the first effort was full of black metal atmosphere, and it was an obvious influence in the way they created, here in Advance [MMXII] they use the sludgy atmosphere as a kind of base atmosphere to deliver the three compositions included in this piece.

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Face it, metallic hardcore/metal punk or whatever you want to call it is hot. Tons of bands are playing it. But while other genres seem to drown in monotony this genre is flooded with great bands. Deathseekers  (or “dthskrs”) is one of the fresh bands that popped up on my radar, because coincidentally their guitarist lives a mere 5 minutes from my town and they just released their first demo tape.

The pros of Deathseekers and their demo:
-         They’re Belgian
-         It’s fast
-         It’s as vicious as it can be
-         It’s not unlike bands like Length of Time, Trap Them, Rot In Hell or Entombed, to name a few

The cons of Deathseekers and their demo:
-         It’s limited to 50 copies and sold out, just like their shirts
-         The tape only has two songs on it, so it’s not that long

Seriously though, this is good stuff. A389 and Deathwish enthusiasts will eat this up like there’s no tomorrow. No reason not to download the two songs and give it a try. If you dig it you can maybe try and pick some of their future (and probably also strictly limited) releases up!

This offering from Washington D.C.’s Disciples of Christ is a nasty little bit of brooding, slithery grindcore. Six songs ravage one after the other, verging at times at sounding so evil, it’d make black metal blush. The pace shifts from blitzkrieg to howling silence in a blink, each change replete with its own unique savagery.

“Intro” is a lengthy showcase of ill emotions as lonesome guitars, suffocating in bent up hate, croon to each other like murderous lovers. When this lower-than-hell strumming runs its course, the Disciples will worship. By far among the most feral beginning ever heard by these ears, Disciples of Christ shred, batter and slash their way through, and swiftly, through their demo. Like a hot but rusted blade, the sound slashes and saws its way, giving rare moments of respite as the fury subsides for some gloom and doom.

The production of this demo is one of my favorite aspects of it. The vocals are front and center, abrasive, monstrous and seemingly without mercy. The riffs at times sound like a sound bite from a David Lynch film, fading into bleak static only to rise furiously. The bluesy bass lines sound as if they were lifted from the devil’s own playbook. The drum-work here is off-the-fucking-wall, a pace wrecking homage to utter, amorphous chaos.

Disciples Of Christ – Hall Of Mirrors (Taste Of Fear) by Disciples Of Christ

Disciples of Christ certainly have an eye and sound for aesthetics as this demo clearly gives a fuck about few things. This 9-minutes worth of your time will spit in your face, its that good and nasty. The whole shabang can be heard in all its pissed off glory here.