1349 - Massive Cauldron Of Chaos

Urrrrrghhhh! 1349 returned from the misty fjords last year with the excellent Massive Cauldron Of Chaos. Personally, I would have called it Massive Cauldron Of Endless Blastbeats to more suitably match 1349's sound, but that would just be silly. Despite the expected ticking of mental drumming speeds, MCOC gets fairly melodic now and then, something which admittedly caught me off guard at first (see the tinkling passages between brutality in "Slaves" as an easy example of what I'm waffling about).

This album screeches past at lightening speed, breaking pace for song intros and then slowing somewhat for the beginning of "Postmortem" (which definitely isn't a Slayer cover). "Golem" is a strange one, at one minute forty in length (right up my alley haha), "Chained" returns to Hellfire speed/territory, mixing up extreme precision with Venom-esque riffage and swagger. Finally, "Godslayer" rounds off the swirling maelstrom with a six minute dose of epic black metal savagery. Beast. 

They might have taken a four year break between records but 1349 are as fresh and vibrant as ever. The sheer speed of this band never fails to totally floor me. 

Corrupt Moral Altar - Mechanical Tides

Christ, this band has come a long way since I heard their 7" EP Whiskey Sierra that was put out by Dead Chemists Records a few years ago. I knew the momentum was building for them; their ever-increasing dominance over the UK live circuit testifies for that, but it wasn't until this album dropped that Corrupt Moral Altar really made me turn my head. Now I feel like I've been missing out on something really special. Nevermind - it's always better late than never!

Mechanical Tides is a perplexing, dense mixture of sludgy doom and blistering grindcore. The band craft their own sound out of these two polar opposites, all the while creating an unique and almost groovy middle-ground that doesn't really belong firmly in either camp. To be honest, it's fucking great. The drummer is an absolute machine but my favourite thing has to be those vocals. I'm not sure if this is the work of one, two, or three vocalists but the range here is off the chart. In the first track, I almost convince myself that Barney from Napalm Death is doing a guest spot (ironically ND's Mitch Harris and Carcass' Jeff Walker appear a little later on). 

If you are into heavy music in any capacity, you really can't go wrong here.