Behold! The Monolith Defender, Redeemist
BTM Records
As proven before, Behold! The Monolith’s stoner sludge is for subhumans only, and it is on Defender, Redeemist, their second full-length, that the LA trio delve further into the subterranean, digging out their descent with sledgehammers, not shovels. Defender, Redeemist is rife with ground and pound riffs, and tracks like “Halv King,” “Desolizator,” “We Are the Worm,” and “Witch Hunt Supreme” are a glorious feast of mud pies and smegma cakes, each one belching out High On Fire fury amidst tremulous and atmospheric aggression. However, it’s on the album’s three longest songs, “Redeemist,” “Cast On The Black/Lamentor/Guided By The Southern Cross,” and “Bull Colossi,” that the band is at its most heinous, laying down an ageless, soul-sucking black metal doom that ebbs, flows, and screams in myriad glorious ways. Add to that Billy Anderson’s production work and Dusty Peterson’s art work (which kind of reminds me of a re-imagined Screaming for Vengeance), and Defender, Redeemist is one hell of a monster on so many different levels.
Ancient VVisdom A Godlike Inferno
Shinebox Recordings
Yes, that’s VVisdom, with two V’s instead of a W, perhaps to denote some sort of kvlt affinity, and why not when you’re a band whose first recorded offering is a split with Charles Manson and your dark, acoustic doom is black metal played out as the Devil’s blues? Driven by a forbidden force of steel-stringed conviction and Antichrist alchemy, the Austin band’s debut, A Godlike Inferno, is more than a poor cover, fancy spelling, and men in costumed ceremony — it’s eight tracks of pagan chamber music, a melodic and catchy gush of neo-folk played by dudes in dirty denim vests. And nevermind that Ancient VVisdom contains members of the louder groups Iron Age and Integrity because this is simple, stripped down, fire-licking rock n’ soul, like Agalloch at a biker camp-out or Days of the New in corpse paint, which is actually way better than it sounds.
Check out two videos for “The Opposition” and “VVorld of Flesh” from A Godlike Inferno!
City of Steel, the full-length debut from Saskatoon thrashers Untimely Demise, was self-released by the band last year, but has been given a killer re-release courtesy of Sonic Unyon Metal, so let’s pretend this dynamite piece of soul fucking metal is new and bask in its ripping glory like whores presenting themselves at the Goat’s altar, shall we? Untimely Demise’s complex, brutal, and demonizing approach to slashing your gut and watching your innards drop out into the snow is made all the more vile by Matt Cuthbertson’s venomous snarl, a foamy gush of putrid vocals that couldn’t sound more perfect if they were puking out of the festering mouth of a zombie German drill sergeant. Add to that an insane — and by that I mean plenty and crazy — amount of tempo destruction, bat shit solos, and melodic hooks, and City of Steel becomes seven tracks of heavy metal mastery that ought to be universally regarded by fans of Kreator, Death, et al. (hell, Children of Bodom fans take note of the title track’s chorus) as pure evil, speed dealin’ pandemonium. Most everyone will hate you for playing this, which is exactly why it rules so damn hard, and why you should play it loud all the time.
Behold! The Monolith
Ancient VVisdom
Untimely Demise