Eraser - Mutual Overkill Deterrence (2020)

From start to finish, these Italians waste no time in delivering 20 or so minutes of absolutely blistering and explosive deathgrind. Every last song here is loaded with furious and fiery performances all around. The growls and grunts here are heavy as hell, delivering very powerful and rapid-fire performance. The riffs here are an even mixture of death metal, hardcore punk and grindcore, consisting of numerous long stretches of blast beats and double bass as well as simpler, slower beats spiced up with many fills. The band frequently mix it up in a song to produce something multi-faceted that keeps the listener on their toes and interested, with songs consisting of fast, blasting grind-inspired sections. The music here never fails to deliver great riffs and interesting, propulsive drumming. Everything is so tightly and convincingly performed it manages to be fresh and interesting throughout - the album never fails to deliver intense and inspired performances as well as track after track of supremely heavy deathgrind. The production is punchy and clear, with the sound accentuating the guitars and drums nicely and giving them the impact they need. Full blasting from the beggining to the end and killing everything on it's way. Only hatred and fury exales from this album, not for the faint of heart. Eraser is the new meaning of brutality!!

facebook.com/EraserGrindcore

erasergrind.bandcamp.com

Review by Paul Caravasi

Black Knife/Ritual Moon 7" Split

The Underground scene is getting stronger right now, with bands such as Ritual Moon and Black knife, focusing more on the blacker, more evil style of the Thrash genre. I can mention influences such as early Bathory and Hellhammer, but also have that bite of hardcore and speed metal in there. Black knife has the first side of the 3-song split, providing us with two songs: "Chaos Reigns" and "Take The Devils hand". These songs are fast, furious onslaughts of thrash, focusing more on speed and aggression rather than long and technical guitar solos. Because of this, it is clear that they enjoy doing this. While thrash metal often feature technical, lengthy guitar solos, Black Knife don't use that many. If you want a technical thrashfest, don't come here. If you want a blackened evil Thrash Metal, this is right up your alley. Is that bad? Hell No. Is that good? Fuck yes. It rips! Ritual Moon completes the split with one song of their own "Mad Lust".This is dark and evil as Black Knife. It sounds like a mixture of black thrash and hardcore. It doesnt let up. This tune is a heavy metal blitzkrieg that reminds the listener of what a true Brutal thrash band sounds like. This is metal ferocity. You might sense that Im getting a bit excited about this Split, but its worth getting excited about. This Split is fkn solid !!

facebook.com/blackknifeband

ritualmoon.bandcamp.com

Review by Paul Caravasi

Haunted Cenotaph - Abyssal Menace (2020)

Here, we see Haunted Cenotaph at their most primitive... and in the end; we have quite a beast of an album.This is very much a straight-up, death/doom affair here. The songs stay down tempo and rarely go beyond that. You've got sort of slow with brutal riffs. While the music here isn't flashy or technical, the song structures are well thought out, and very effective at generating a lush, dark & somber atmosphere. The guitar tone here packs a lot of punch, and the riffs are heavy as all fuck. They pummel its listener with slow, monstrous blows until every bone in their body is crushed. On a couple of occasions, they will break into acoustic passages, in which they do a fantastic job of creating a beautiful, haunting atmosphere. This sets it up for the heavy parts to hit even harder and feel much more aggressive. The drumming while not doing anything over top, it still does a great job at maintaining a powerful, precise rhythm throughout the entire album. Gut wrenching vocal performance, yet vocalist performance is still brutal as hell, and he does a pretty good job of pronouncing the lyrics so they can be somewhat easily understood. I highly recommend this for any fans of death/doom, as well as anyone who doesn't really know much about the genre and wants to see what it has to offer.

hauntedcenotaph.bandcamp.com

Review by Paul Caravasi

Blood Curse - Sorceress (2018)

Blood Curse have that sound which harks back to a different era, that era is the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) which swept over the United Kingdom during the late 70’s and early 80’s and if you didn’t know any better, you can say that Blood Curse stood alongside the likes of Iron Maiden or Angel Witch in 1980. But you’ll be surprised to learn that Night Demon actually formed in Kentucky a few years ago by Aaron Franks: Vocals/Guitar/Bass and Olivia Franks: Drums/Bass releasing their debut album 'Sorceress' in 2018. You can hear the influences of Diamond Head but Blood Curse spread out in the NWOBHM territory with plenty of the songs pointing towards the early Iron Maiden too. For the trained Maiden fan, there are little homages dotted throughout and this makes 'Sorceress' much more fun as you play the game of: “oh yeah, that’s from that song etc”. If you’re starting to think that maybe 'Sorceress' isn’t for you, then there are other nods to other bands as Judas Priest for example. 'Sorceress' is an excellent slice of NWOBHM and what you have to remember is, it is a homage, a nod to a band who knows where they come from, taking everything in their stride and creating their own sound. Blood Curse have created an album that is an absolute joy to listen to, not only are the tracks fun and full of the riffs and melodic breaks which make you crack out the air guitar, but each song is well crafted. This album is not only essential for all metalheads….it should be required listening!

facebook.com/youvebeencursed

bloodcurse.bandcamp.com

Review by Paul Caravasi

Pantheon - Age of Wolves (2020)

Pantheon is a Death Metal band keeping the thrashing nastiness of the early 90's sound, this album unleashes aggression, solid guitars sound, which is down-tuned to the levels of latter day Slayer, and with chunky speed riffs to boot. Along for the ride is the usual barrage of impressive lead guitar gymnastics, but presented in a way that is not quite as overtly neo-classical, but more of a merging of the wild shredding of Cannibal Corpse . These are the sort of songs that most fans of older death metal can probably get into, even with all the lighter melodic lead passages that remind more of 1991 than 2020. The catchy "Age Of Wolves" showcase an intricate merging of heavier mid-paced poundage with the older, fast paced death/thrash character. This is a pretty solid contender amongst all the extreme releases from 2020 in the underground scene. Vocally it's a lot closer to a number of Florida outfits from back in the day, and thus comes an interesting blend of old and new that usually makes transitional albums all the more interesting. "Age Of Wolves" is an album with strong fresh appeal, and even the die-hard late 80s early 90's death metal cultists should give this album a listen. It's more of an extreme metal album, so give it a shot!!

facebook.com/Pantheon666

necroticrecords.bandcamp.com/album/age-of-wolves

Review by Paul Caravasi

Cathartic - Ceremonial Resurrection (EP 2020)

The music here is straightforward Death Metal when it comes to the drums and riffs. The vocals are brutal, i can tell they're influenced by the swedish style as well, although the music here is faster and brutal. My favorite aspect of this EP is the thunderous, yet melodic guitar shreds in Slowly Rotting, and the fast growling adds more texture to the sound; it has some of the New York’s chaotic style too, i can mention early Incantation that one should not underestimate. And then you have a more traditional song like Retribution. Of course, there’s room for improvement but this EP from these Mexican maniacs is certainly destructive, raw, and chaotic, they accomplished that without issues. A solid EP of fucking death metal. It's not the polished shit you'll hear nowadays; there's no ultra tight and technical, but it's uncontrolled chaos with furious blasting. It's nice to hear the variations between fast riffing and the slow grooving death metal, haunting and evil. The low end guitar tone and overall sound of this EP fills your lungs with dirt and shit and you feel like you're being dragged into the bowels of hell!!

facebook.com/catharticdm

catharticdm.bandcamp.com

Review by Paul Caravasi

Evil - Possessed by Evil (2021)

 This violent Assault from these japanese maniacs mixes perfectly the old school raw thrash metal to the bone.The songs are generally quite short and they point directly to the core of extremism. There’s no melody or will to slow down. We can also find some more canonical examples of speed/thrash metal too in a song like “Yaksa” but the up tempo parts are just blowing for power and intensity. The sounds are quite clear but extremely essential and you can hear the old style production very well. Nothing has been pumped in the studio and the volumes are simply those by the instruments. The band itself has inside an insane load of anger and madness. The tunes sound extremely heavy and twisted especially for the schizophrenic vocals that sometimes reach such a high level of morbidity, especially for the sick screams. Obviously, in an album like this, you must completely forget about technique and precision. There are several imprecise parts but everything is a simple demonstration of anger and impact. The power of the rhythmic guitars is unbelievable and during the palm muting riffage, it’s like being overwhelmed by truck at full speed. You can hear the early Sepultura and Destruction influences, the morbid atmosphere and the sounds are similar, speed and pure anger. This album is intense and violent. True old school thrashers, beware the impact of EVIL!

facebook.com/eviljapan

eviljapan.bandcamp.com

nwnprod.com

Review by Paul Caravasi

The Slime - Coming soon to an Alley Near You (2020)

Emerging from Toronto, The Slime releases their Ep 'Coming Soon to an Alley Near You'. Heavy in its presence and mosh-inducing, this Ep constantly pounds your eardrums with double-bass beats and angry vocals. Combining the aggression of Agnostic Front with the speed of Bad Brains creates a cool sound of extreme Hardcore. However, it has some metallic elements such as double-bass drumming and heavy guitars, Thi Ep quickly grabs the listener's attention. Vocal is aggressive and strong, cause the auditor to want to chant along and become part of this monster that is The Slime. The opening track, "Coming Soon to an Alley Near You" immediately calls you to action; this is a good opener because it showcases the ability of the band completely - the ultimate speed, violent lyrics and occasional vocal melodies let you know what's up. Kick ass HardCore with a touch of Metal !!

theslimehardcore.com

facebook.com/theslimehardcore

Review by Paul Caravasi

Ritual Moon

The first full lenght album by Ritual Moon completely fufilled my expectations. Very aggressive and fast, but still the same raw  ritual Moon at its core. I am also glad to hear better production and more varied drum work on this release, not that there was anything wrong with these things on the previous stuff, but it gives it a much better and brutal sound. As mentioned before, the production on this album is also a big step up from the previous material. It has much more bass added and creates some great shit for this album. The guitar sounds fucking killer, the drummer rips, and vocals sound full of hatred. This is definitely a new savage sound while still retaining most of what made Ritual Moon what it is. One thing that I know improved is the drumming. Drumming on this album is really solid and can easily match the speed of the riffs and adds some nice fills. The guitar work is insane. They can be brutal and heavy but at the same time, they're also quite catchy so the riffs strike a balance between heavy and melodic. Ritual Moon doesnt let up. Track after track is a brutal metal blitzkrieg that reminds the listener of what a true extreme metal record sounds like. Tracks like 'Grave Soul' 'Uncontrollable Death' and 'Crimson Avenger' are easily examples of their ability to take early black metal to new heights of Thrash Metal ferocity. You might sense that Im getting a bit excited about this record, but its a record worth getting excited about if you like the raw sound of Thrash Metal. If you enjoy their previous material, I have no doubt that you will enjoy this. Pick this up and have your mind changed by a face-melting nuclear blast!!!

ritualmoon.bandcamp.com

Review by Paul Caravasi