wormed - krigshu

stumbled upon wormed in several instagram posts and found the cover art and the term technical and guttural death metal intriguing. so i checked them out and wasn't too sure about them. i am still not sold to 100% but there is something about them that made me purchase a copy.

they play some fast and grindy kind of tech death metal with some hints of haunting melodies here and there. sometimes they lose a bit focus in song writing for the sake of sheer heaviness but most of the time they're pretty good in what they're doing on "krigshu". the lyrical concept is cool too. futuristic end-time dystopia and such. 200 copies made. season of mist. 2016.

carcass - symphonies of sickness

i believe this is the last heavy-hitter on my way to a full grindcrushing splatter series. i learned relatively late that this one even existed. carcass' "symphonies of sickness" is their sophomore release on earache and i stumbled upon an ebay auction a few months ago.

that specific copy went for eighty+ bucks and i knew i was into some serious game. time went by and another one popped up. i won that auction for less than the last but it still was painful. anyway, here we are. lovely copy of this classic. 2.000 copies made. earache records. 1989/1991.

tomb mold - primordial malignity

when blood harvest records re-pressed the compilation of the first two tomb mold 7"es, of course they gave their second mold label release another run. fine by me really.

i was already surprised at how good the molders sounded on their first releases and they just maintained being great on their first full length "primordial malignity". lovely presentation all around. top notch from the artwork to the highlighter yellow vinyl. blood harvest. 2017/2020.

tomb mold - the bottomless perdition + the moulting

tomb mold have become one of the hottest old school death metal revival bands of our time. that is because they sound relevant and fresh and not like a copycat of early nineties greats. with the success of the 20 buck spin records came a rising demand of the mold's back catalogue.

the two initially self-released e.p.'s "the bottomless perdition" and "the moulting", both from 2016, got compiled on one handy 12" by sweden's blood harvest records in 2017 and now it was time for a re-press. the cyan blue vinyl looks lovely and the almost-obi strip adds to the coolness of this record. 250 copies made. 2020.

sanction - broken in refraction

there's a certain late nineties/early 00's chaotic hardcore revival going on right now and pure noise records are on the forefront of that wave. next to chamber there is also sanction among their roster.

this u.s.a. based band sounds like a darker brother of snapcase and that's definitely a good thing. also i love the artwork which screams nineties. i snagged the ultra clear with black and mint splatter vinyl version which is the most common one, i think. looks pretty good anyway. pure noise records. 2019.

beneath the massacre - fearmonger

when i pre-ordered this on a whim, i had never listened to just one beneath the massacre song. i had the "dystopia" clear vinyl lp on my discogs cart for years though. there was just this indefinite trust that i was digging their music.

when i dropped the needle on "fearmonger" for the first time, i had a hard time closing my mouth. i stood in awe. what a mean machine! fast, technical, heavy and still catchy in a weird way. love the neon orange vinyl too! century media. 2020.

the black dahlia murder - verminous

with their last two records "abysmal" and "nightbringers" being just brief visitors on my turntable, i wasn't sure if the black dahlia murder could still excite me with a new record or if the magic had just worn off. "verminous" had just a few spins so far and i am not sure.

it sits somewhere between great and irrelevant as of now. i will have to give it a few more spins to form an opinion. from an objective point of view there is nothing wrong with it, though. ferocious death metal of that certain tbdm flavour. lovely presentation with green splatter vinyl, awesome artwork and glow-in-the-dark cover. 200 copies made. metal blade. 2020.

suicide silence - become the hunter

the new suicide silence. well, i wasn't too sure if i was interested. mitch lucker was pretty much the face of the band and after he passed away (r.i.p.) i thought suicide silence were done with. but they managed to keep things going and returned with eddie hermida of all shall perish fame.

"you can't stop me" from 2014 was admittedly quite good but i never made it around to listen to the self-titled album from 2017. so went pre-orders went up, i didn't jump on immediately. this nice u.s. splatter version did the trick though. glad i bought it, great record all the way through. fans of the band shouldn't hesitate. nuclear blast. 2020.

caliban - vent

the second album of caliban called "vent" was released via lifeforce records in 2001 and is one of their finest moments. metallic hardcore with a sense for depths and melody that was second to none.

the album was pressed to vinyl upon release and came in a total edition of 1.000 copies. reportedly there are 900 black and only 100 white copies. i am glad i could snag a white platter off discogs lately. what a cracker! lifeforce records. 2001.