PROLLY IS NOT PROBABLY

“Weight of the World” off The Cold Testament

I was beginning to wonder about Book of Black Earth. Especially with frontman TJ Cowgill’s new found love for Satanic Folk and Actual Pain’s success as a clothing label. But we all know that metal is eternal and the newest album from Book of Black Earth, The Cold Testament is living proof. The band is back with its fast-paced and brutal approach to metal. It’s not exactly black, death or power metal and yet it speaks clearly to fans across all genres.

Check out more of my Tuesday Teardown featuring The Cold Testament below!

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“Sex Tape” off Sex Tape/Snuff Film 7″

It’s Tuesday Teardown and this one will make you break your chain in a furious sprint!

All hail the mighty motherfucking BONGRIPPER. The Chicago four-piece has been wrecking speakers and houses for so long that any other band with BONG in their name must drink their bong water. When this band releases an album, much less a 7″, marijuana plants worldwide bud up and release a pheromone that entices pot smokers and riff-heads to spark one up!

Sex Tape/Snuff Film picks up right where the god dammed juggernaut Satan Worshipping Doom left off last year. Expect the gravity defying riffs to crunch your speakers and Beelzebub himself to grace your opium den with pentagrams and naked whores. Put on “Sex Tape” and daze the fuck out. As the first riffs drop, the sky rumbles and walls collapse as the heaviness sets in, obliterating everything in its path. BOOM!

Check out the rest of this review at the Mishka Bloglin!

“Inhume” from Diotima

NYC black metal and I don’t get along too well, unless it’s Krallice. Over the years, Krallice has been honing their sound and after two successful albums, Krallice and Dimensional Bleedthrough, the band has created a great album entitled Diotima.

Where do I begin with their sound? The initial track, “_” sounds much like their earlier work: tremelo picking, blast beats and endless loops of chaotic bliss but there’s something different now. In Diotima, the lead singer’s vocals have begun to take dominance over the tracks. But it’s not the typical black metal vocal stylings, they’re more akin to death metal and they compliment the fast-paced chaotic sound perfectly. There’s a power behind the music now and the dainty presence their music has had in previous albums is now irrelevant.

Just listen to “Inhume” for a key example, it’s fucking kick-ass! Same goes for “The Clearing”, another quasi-artsy composition that would normally be too shoe-gazey for my taste but the vocals just balance it all out. The title track “Diotima” is a bit slower and more epic than the other tracks. One slight critique of Diotima is the way most of the songs begin. They all start with the same reverb but the beast that lies sleeping is about to awaken.

Check out the rest of this review over at the Mishka Bloglin!

“The Fate Before Fate” from Guiltless

Here I was, thinking to myself that there needed to be an album in 2011 that gave Richmond-based Cough a run for their money. A few hours later and I came across the new album from Chicago’s Indian. This is one of the first 2011 albums that I see making through the metal masses and sticking around for years to come. As their first album on Relapse and forth in their collection, Guiltless delivers on all fronts.

The guys have come a long way since their 2008 album, Slights and Abuse / The Sycophant. Their sound is bigger and the production kicks ass. Not to mention the anger that was evident in Slights and Abuse / The Sycophant has been sharpened and honed for a much more impactful delivery. The twisted vocal stylings of Dylan O’Toole bring their sound to new, emotional lows in ways that I can’t even come close to describing. While the wretched sounds are heavy, they do lack that refinement that other doom acts posses after years of playing. Don’t look to Guiltless for a modern-day Burning Witch or Electric Wizard, these guys have a different tinge to their music.

Check out the rest of this review at the Mishka Bloglin!

“Epitome II” from 777 Sect(s)

With their sound bouncing and reverberating all over the place in the last few years, it’s hard to determine where Blut Aus Nord is taking their unique approach to black metal next. Maybe that’s a by-product of the genre dying out, or at least changing scope. Bands that take it seriously are often led down the path of mockery to the original intent of a cold and essentially compressed, low-fi genre. Gone are the compressed vocals and distorted sounds and now all that remains are the few lone acts who consistently nail down the feel by using their own experimentation with cross-genres. That’s where Blut Aus Nord’s new album, 777 Sect(s) comes into play. It’s clearly black metal but it’s a redefinition of said genre.

777 Sect(s) may just be the most significant black metal release in years. Its cold and cavernous feel creates the same depressed and compressed sound made popular by the early Norwegian acts. From their 2009 release, Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue… and into their more recent EP, What Once Was… Liber I, the French band effortlessly turn the dials of the apocalypse with one finger. Each track is entitled “Epitome” and they range from 1-6 offering a solid 45-minute experience.

Check out the rest of this review at the Mishka Bloglin!

“The Psalm” from The Psalm

Where do I begin with Monkeypriest? The last I heard from them was their first EP entitled Defending The Tree and I was not into it at all. The main reason I like doom metal, well good doom metal, is the power that’s inherent in the genre. I want fierce drums, heavy riffs and some damn strong vocals. Maybe my disdain for Defending The Tree was accentuated after hearing their newest release The Psalm. After sitting through this heavy-as-fuck rain of power, Defending The Tree seems like it may have just been a bit of musical foreplay.

“Hanuman’s Dance” becons to the gods. The elder ones who created the Earth. This precession of percussions and muddy riffage opens up the book that is The Psalm. It’s all instrumental, with simple drum rolls and head-dropping breaks. “The Word Of The Priest” begins with a war drum. Slow and steady riffs overlay and finally the doom and gloom sets in. Quickly the pace picks up and we’re introduced to Monkeypriest#1 and Monkeypriest#2′s vocals. How killer is that? They’ve reduced themselves to numbers. This track is Sabbath worship if I’ve ever heard it but the vocals and production are fucking killer.

Check out the rest of my review of Monkeypriest’s The Psalm at the Mishka Bloglin!