New fave + auld fave in the respective NWOBHM/thrash and doom schools.
A PUNISHMENT HAPPEN IN THIS FINAL HOUR (・`W´・)
VANIK - III (2007)
Venom's thuggishly catchy low-fi NWOBHM, augmented with precision machinegunner violence ala
Killing Is My Business. Door-kicking pop-thrasher CARMILLA, raucously sneering midtempo bludgeoner
RUNNING WILD (
"COS I'M RUNNING FUCKIN WIII-IIILD"), and mechanistically grooving
THE CREATURE a bone-judderingly good opening barrage.
I'LL FEED ON YOU OUT OF SPITE
A sensibly trim 30minute blitzkrieg with just a couple well-timed interludes, in cultic torch-lit doomer WE APPROACH, and ghoulish floorboard-stomping party rocker CORPSE ROOM - these two bookending the pistoning fury of NIGHT DANGER/RAGING HIGH. As befits the gleefully macabre spook house aesthetic, these mad fuckers do a damn fine terrace chant ala Misfits, too; best is saved for the mournfully hooky howls of rocketing closer NEVER SAFE.
110% proof Newcastle-vintage rocket fuel; easy recommend for fans of Cronos, Mantas and Abaddon's unvarnishedly bludgeoning
Welcome To Hell/Black Metal era; doubly so if you want a little Samuelson/Poland mechanix to go with that.
HOUR OF THIRTEEN (S/T) (2010)
Stately traditional doom ala
Master of Reality and
Vol.4's sludgiest passages. Likewise marshals its bone-juddering heft to august harmony, inescapable groove, and deceptively agile gallop. The lead singer is particularly excellent; a lonely, plaintive call atop the unhurriedly razing juggernaut. Opening furnace blast
CALL TO SATAN is consummately representative, a standard of gloaming quality never slipped beneath; if you dig that track's sound, consider the rest of the LP bulletproof.
KING OF THE DARK IN EVERYTHING (`w´メ)
Spellbinding odyssean closer
MISSING GIRL takes a lyrical turn from the contemplative and lamentatious, into abject atrocity; not my cup of tea, personally, but from interviews, I respect what they were going for... paraphrased,
"The kind of song you feel guilty listening to." The vantablack heart of a compellingly deep, dark, molar-grittingly heavy abyss.
HEX OF HARM and
ENDURANCE TO THE HEIRS OF SHAME demand mention on sheer brimstonic tonnage; floor-crackingly heavy hymnals to the dark, with
Hex sporting a magnificently keening lead howl.
GRIM REALITY and
ALLOWANCE OF SIN give rare, well-judged respites into the just-about-midtempo; hallucinogenic marches in the gloom, like "Children of the Grave" and "After Forever" at 1% battery.
SUBMISSIVE TO EVIL sports an especially bloodening rally, like a boulder heaved high and surrendered to freefall, splintering all in its dispassionate wake.
First-class dooming. I never caught up with these guys' later LPs... liked several scattered tracks I heard, though. "Lucky Bones" is a good one, in a slightly spritelier mode. "Return From The Grave" featuring a different singer is kinda prosaic, but by the same token, succeeds on sheer insistence.