Weekly Digest September 27 — October 3
This pre-October week has brought us music from the industrial legends Ministry, Full Of Hell with its long-awaited LP (whole 20 minutes of it), joint effort album by Big|Brave and The Body, EP from Enslaved, as well as noise rock, black metal in its various manifestations and Finnish punk, and this all is already checked in our Weekly Digest.
Abigail — Grotesque Nightmare
Abigail is a Japanese speed / thrash / black metal band from Tokyo, founded in 1992. Since then, the Japanese have released a bunch of releases, splits, compilations and gained a cult status. "Grotesque Nightmare" is a recording of the first Abigail concert. "I think there were about 80 people there. The audience was stunned. It was the first time they'd seen black metal live, it was probably their first black metal gig. We only had four original songs. We played Bathory and Sodom covers. That was 30 years ago now. Listening to it now is embarrassing. But we had incredible power. It's just not possible to perform like that anymore. Real Eastern black metal yakuza!" — says Yasuyuki.
The Body/Big|Brave — Leaving None But Small Birds
The Body and BIG|BRAVE are both bands possessed with an unequaled ability to convey overwhelming weight with simplicity, repetition, and detailed sonic atmospheres; artists who continue to alter the definition of a "heavy band". Their debut collaborative album "Leaving None But Small Birds" distills two ensembles’ pioneering approach to heavy music, which this album is not, in the traditional sense. The atmosphere created by The Body / Big | Brave is more reminiscent of the hypnotic dances of a dangerous hippie cult from the 60’s, the vocals of Robin Wattie from Big|Brave, combined with meditative music, captivate and put into trance. A wonderful album as it was expected.
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Bummer — Dead Horse
"I Want to Punch Bruce Springsteen in the Dick." Noisy rock band from Kansas City, Missouri mirrors the absurdity of modern life with a balance of dark humor, dejected nihilism and righteous fury. Their music spills out in torrents of skull-crushing riffs, gargantuan bass and caustic howls, delivered at a breakneck speed.
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Caveman Cult — Blood and Extinction
Cavernous War Metal from Miami. Caveman Cult slays in the best traditions of Sarcofago, Bestial Warlust and Conqueror. Their album "Blood and Extinction" is a sonic analogue of a baseball bat, wrapped in barbed wire. Bon appetit!
Enslaved — Caravans To The Outer Worlds
The progressive black metallers Enslaved have prepared an EP following their 15th studio album "Utgard", released just a year ago. Epic and exciting, Enslaved is a band that does not disappoint.
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Four Stroke Baron — Classics
An energetic blend of new wave and heavy progressive rock, Four Stroke Baron strive to create a bright and refreshing new sound in the music scene. Almost pop songs, combined with prog, alternative rock, electronics and god knows what else. The ear has lots to cling to.
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Full Of Hell — Garden Of Burning Apparitions
Full Of Hell are back with their long-awaited new album "Garden Of Burning Apparitions". The new album is a genre-bending blitzkrieg of hardcore, grind, death metal and noise — the same elements that brought Full Of Hell to the forefront of extreme music over the last decade. The only thing I can complain about is that despite such good taste, the band picked such a "meh" cover art.
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Kohti Tuhoa — Väkivaltaa
The hardworking 4-piece act from Helsinki is back with the new EP, which shows the band experimenting with different sounds on each side of the record. On side A, the band draws inspiration from early Spiderleg Records EPs and Killing Joke, with raw, catchy guitar parts and vocals, nicely layered on the top of a heavy driving beat. Side B offers 3 tracks of catchy, yet relentless hardcore punk, where intense screaming, pogo beats and broken-sounding guitars create a backdrop for a great mix of Finnish hardcore, Disorder and modern bands like Colombia's Muro. The lyrics illustrate a violent world, plunging into chaos at an alarming rate, which seems to be the case in all parts of the planet in 2021.
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Laang 冷 — Xinteng 心
Terror black metal from Taiwan about the afterlife. The music of 冷 narrates about a horrifying experience of an afterlife. The founder 冷 was allegedly shot in the head during a car-jacking. He has claimed that the songs he wrote for this project were inspired by his experience while hospitalized and in a coma as a result of the attack. He described his comatose state: "This place is a place beyond description of hell, mind-wrenching, desolate, and incomprehensibly terrible". I mean, ouch. This album is not for your brightest days, it is as heavy and as terrifying as the description implies.
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Ministry — Moral Hygiene
As the mastermind behind pioneering industrial outfit Ministry, Jourgensen has spent the last four decades using music as a megaphone to rally listeners to the fight for equal rights, restoring American liberties, exposing exploitation and putting crooked politicians on their rightful place. Jourgensen comments: With "AmeriKKKant" (previous LP, released in 2018) I was in shock that Trump won. I didn’t know what to do, but I knew I had to do something. Because I believe if you are a musician or an artist you should be expressing what’s going on around you through your art. It’s going to happen whether you do it consciously or unconsciously. "Moral Hygiene", however, has progressed even further into a cautionary tale of what will happen if we don’t act. There’s less rage, but there’s more reflection"
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