Doomsday – S/T

Goat’s head stew Sir?

Fancy getting pummeled into paste by some scabrous death-crust? Me too! Fancy that…

Doomsday pound away at you like a horny drunkard until you give in, squeal and enjoy it.

Then and only then, when you are slavering for more, do they finally let up and, having deflowered you, show you their atmospheric skillzzz.

Earthburner – Stoned at Birth

I don’t think babies should be allowed to smoke marijuana. They can’t roll their own for a start…

NOT the Kyuss rip-off you might expect with a bandname and EP title like that.

Instead we get satisfyingly fearsome crusty, sludgy hardcore-inflected metal that draws from the same wellspring that nourishes great bands like Black Breath and Trap Them.

While these Ohioans (is that even a word? Google says yes, so that’s good enough for me) certainly share traits with some popular beat combos du jour, their take on this sound feels their own.

Black Breath – Mother Abyss

OK, so I am about a billion years late with this but there’s a new Black Breath album teaser floating about called Mother Abyss.

Press play and you can hear for yourself but if you can’t be arsed, here is an approximation of the decimation in puny verbiage.

• Revving motorbike engine thrash riffs.
• More pounding and dense than before.
• Less crust, more thrash
• Their trademark groove is less obvious
• The infectious flourishes haven’t been entirely sheared off though
• A particularly impressive sustained screams brings the song to a climax.
• It’s definitely decent but doesn’t hold a candle to anything off Razor to Oblivion or Heavy Breathing.

Enough with the bullet points already.

The new Black Breath album Sentenced to Life drops on Southern Lord on March 27 and is engineered by King Midas of guitar tone himself Kurt Ballou.

They best not let me down or I might give them a bit of a dirty look at their April 2 gig. Yeah, that’ll show ’em.

Balaclava – Crimes of Faith

What next, death metal bands called "Bobble Hat"?!

Happy new year gentle men and women, lovers of the heavy.

Gotta love serendipity.

Picked almost at random from the Southern Lord website in a bid to sate my hunger for crusty metal, Balaclava has barrelled into my life without warning and wrenched me from my festive meat coma with an almighty slap around the chops.

Crimes of Faith may be billed as “hardcore punk [played] with severe intensity” but that is selling this cracking little gem far short.

Roundup: Amebix; Masakari; Bastard Priest; Book of Black Earth; Roots Manuva

One of these men now makes actual swords

It’s been a funny few weeks at MDG Manors with the daily soundtrack veering all over the shop.

I’ve dabbled in grind, death, hardcore, hip-hop and a few things that defy description.

I’ve found some real gold in the past week or so, so read on for some tips for sonic satisfaction.