The Angels Of Light - New Mother

The Angels Of Light took the heavily textured work of late 90s Swans and moulded those sound collages into moving, gorgeous folk songs. It is of course, in reality, a slightly more complicated story than that, and there is a lot to unpack here, a lot of nuances, however there is a beauteous simplicity to the tracks that betrays the denser roots that lay beneath the sparkly surface of these melancholic hymns. I find New Mother to meander somewhat, but it is still a solid debut from this now legendary act.

Avenged Sevenfold - City Of Evil

Nyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaahhhhhhhhh! Asides from the fact that M. Shadows sounds like a goddamn super villain, City Of Evil has aged fairly well. It is a slick yet clumsy monstrosity of a record, with a lot of it’s saving grace lying in the production. This could easily have been a garbled mush of bad GNR worship. The most notable performance for me though is the busybody drumming of The Rev, who was an incredible drummer, and arguably, wasted on A7X, but there we go.

The Toolbox Murders (1978)

This is a strange one. The movie starts off as one of the more depraved exploitation films I’ve encountered thus far; scene after scene of gratuitous nudity and horrendous violence towards women randomly peters out after half hour and the movie turns into this slow investigation / psychological piece. It is bizarre to see pretty much all of the slasher kills over and done with in one go, and honestly, it really effects the pacing and the remaining hour is an absolute slog to get through. A shame, as the snuff-vibes of this thing are totally minging to begin with. Toolbox Murders is brutal, but it really misses the mark.

Christian Death - Sex Drugs And Jesus Christ

Christian Death’s discography has been spotty; and is very hit and miss. Sex Drugs and Jesus Christ pretty much embodies that fact for me, being a meandering journey through a variety of different material, all of which being perplexingly “trademark” Christian Death, yet varying wildly between track to track. This should, in all honesty, showcase the pair’s musical chops, but some of the time, the record just completely loses its way as it jumps here or there. When its good, it’s great, but in the next breath, I’m left scratching my head.

System Of A Down - System Of A Down

There is an unique charm to the first System record. It is much rougher around the edges than the later offerings, and the vocals employ more shrieks and growls, akin more to metal than the unique brand of rock SOAD would go on to produce. You can almost smell the air and tell which year this was recorded in; the way alternative music was going around then... well let’s just say this record is symptomatic of that. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, but there are indeed elements which have not aged all that well.

That being said there is a fantastic set of tracks here, exploring territory that System would never tread again. It was a stunning debut album.

Air - Moon Safari

I think if there is one album in the world that I could describe as being “just lovely”, then Air’s Moon Safari would be it. I’m probably being a pleb here, but it invokes feelings in such a way that it makes electronic music sound new, fresh and exciting. I get a heavy “we can go anywhere” vibe off this, for all its 90s cliches.

The Aphex Twin - Collapse EP

More Aphex Twin is always a welcome. Collapse is a compact EP featuring several fresh new cuts of ticking, bleeping, blopping electronic goodness, blown along with wispy, dreamy synths. I’ve recently got myself some Tin T2 IEMs and this kind of music just absolutely melts my head on that kind of stereo stage. Glorious.

Shivers (1975)

Well this was just glorious. Eery yet hilarious from the outset, what this lacks in Cronenberg’s infamous body horror FX it makes up for with hilarious attitude and plot. A sexually promiscuous young woman and a scientist of sorts have brought an unstoppable parasite to a housing complex. Weird shit, and almost surrealist in some ways, I'm sure there's a bigger message here that maybe I am missing. Nevertheless, there's enough nipples showing through tops to keep your attention if surrealism isn’t your thing. I thoroughly enjoyed this one.

Desecration - Forensix

Forensix is probably my favourite Desecration record. There is just something about the pace and vibe that makes it stand out amongst the other records. There’s a ton of killer tracks here, most of which were live staples of the band’s performances for many years to come. The bass pops and clanks, the riffs are razor sharp and the vocals rabid, and the drums... well, Mikey is an animal, what can I say. Aim! Fire! Kill!

Trouble - Psalm 9

Often regarded as a classic of the doom metal genre, on Trouble / Psalm 9 the band take a more traditional rock and or roll approach, encompassing heavy - how should I say - Sabbathisms and elements of drowsy blues to their rocking sound. It’s not as heavy as Vitus or the aforementioned Sabbath, but it’s still a staple in the beginnings of doom.

Clitgore - The Final Cuntdown

I’m unsure if this album is fetid and ridiculous or absolutely bloody genius. Nevertheless, what’s on offer here is drum machine gore/death metal from a male/female duo (the lineup may have been different during this recording). The drumming is a bit wet but the vocals and riffs are solid throughout. I’m pretty sure I played a gig with these guys the last time Somnumapnoea was a thing. I can’t ever remember watching them though, unfortunately.

Avulsed - Cybergore

I’m unsure of what to really make of this one. It seems to pre-date all the awful cyber grind of the 2000s, instead being a product of the 90s where hip hop and nu metal douchebaggery bled into the extreme music worlds. That being said, Cybergore has some decent riffs, and some interesting variations on the theme of techno shit mixed with metal. This sounds like a soundtrack to a long lost 90s shoot ‘em up.

The Berzerker - Animosity

Animosity provided no great step forward from the material presented on World Of Lies, although I will say that the riffing is slightly less mournfully melodic as its predecessor and the programmed drumming is a little less chunky. It is however, as a whole, more refined and to the point. To some, it may just feel like another album being dropped, but to me it doesn’t fuck around, and is entirely savage as fuck. It is a long way from what made The Berzerker stand out with their debut, but its still an unique take on death metal whichever way you slice the cake (or corpse).

Earth - Earth2: Special Low Frequency Version

I’ve probably heard this CD a hundred times, but for the purpose of (finally) committing it to this site I gave it another run through, and boy does it sound absolutely magical. Perhaps I’ve grown up a bit, but I can feel so much more going on here. These sweeping, all-encompassing drones simply have to be heard to be believed. 

Slave Of The Cannibal God (1978)

Someone needs to tell the director of this movie the importance of pacing. The 100 minutes or so of this film were some of the longest of my life. The plot is absolutely nonsensical, with the most asinine twists imaginable. Its a good thing really that you want the insufferable cast to all fucking die. That aside, Slave Of The Cannibal God is the usual concoction of cannibalism, tits and staged animal slaughter that comes with the genre. All in all, this is pretty terrible.

Cemetery Rapist - Tongue Punched In The Fart Box

There is only so much that can be said about Cemetery Rapist, and I think I probably covered it all in my review of his Plundering... record back in 2015. You'll cowards want some phresh slices of mad-ass porno-tinged slamz yo? Then, truly, fine and esteemed gentlemen, look no further, the Rapist has you covered. Trademark vocals skitter across four tracks of tinny programmed drums, and thicker-than-bong-grease riffage. Drill full, and ascend!

Björk - Vespertine

Vespertine is another classic in the original run of stunning Björk albums, and a welcome return to form after the miss that was Selmasongs (unsure if that counts as canon, being a soundtrack album). Vespertine is looser, much more abstract and flowing than Homogenic that came before it, and I suppose you could say that initially it suffers, lacking direction, however this formula turns out to really work well for Björk, and many of the records that followed would employ this method of songwriting. Vespertine is considered a must by many Björk fans, but I'm not super hot on it myself. Its great, but its not incredible. What a terrible thing! 

A Cat In The Brain (1990)

Lucio Fulci’s swansong in the director’s seat, in which he bizarrely plays himself as he goes mad, unable to tell what is reality anymore after donkeys years of directing gore and exploitation. To top off his deteriorating mental state, people are starting to die gruesome deaths, and Fulci begins to suspect that he is the killer.

Despite this awesome plot summary (and the fact that the BBFC wouldn’t rate it), this actually is a pretty awful movie. The pacing is excruciating, Fulci can’t act (sorry meng, RIP) and it includes recycled footage from some of his earlier films. However there is a smattering of gorgeous Italian women present so if you like gore and tits and not much else you might be okay. Otherwise, you might wanna give it a miss.

Akercocke - Antichrist

Upon its release, Antichrist quickly became one of my favourite releases by the band. It retained the experimental, proggy edge of the previous record - which featured much more lighter songwriting and meandering exploration - and mashed that head on with brutal old school death metal. Akercocke have always had a death metal element to their sinister sound, of course, but the style here is totally different; you've got d-beats, more grooves, and more sludges old school riffs. Mix that with the previously mentioned progressive edge, and also with Akercocke's trademark, lightening fast, terrifying satanic ferocity, and Antichrist is one of the hardest hitting - if not the most easily accessible - offering that the band ever recorded. One of my favourite albums of all time, no doubt. 

Memoriam - For The Fallen

Chunk on chunk on chunk! Take Bolt Thrower and run it through the gamut of modern metal production and you’ll wind up with a sound that isn’t a bazillion miles from this. At first, it comes across as massively uninspiring, but maybe its the old school metalhead in me, because this was a grower.