Matt Butler
Motörhead changed my life. Then the Ramones did. And Guitar Wolf. Public Image Ltd probably did as well. Then there was NoFX… and Henry Rollins. And Kyuss. Maybe even Monolord.
Come to think of it, Elvis and the Beach Boys probably changed my life as well, as I listened to them as a child (thanks mum and dad) and still harbour a desire for the former artist’s leathers and the latters’ garish Aloha shirts.
All right, I will admit it: every new thing I hear gives me something – even if it is just nausea. And it is this that keeps me looking. One day I might even find something as life-changing as Ace of Spades was all those moons ago.
Even if I don’t, the exploring is still fun.
Oh, almost forgot. I am a Kiwi, I like long walks (well, runs), socialising (whisky), good food (chocolate and pork scratchings) and cosy nights in (doom metal by candlelight). And I am a Pisces. In my day job I write about people in shorts.
Articles by Matt Butler
It’ll grow frills on the suede jacket you didn’t even know you were wearing, make your belt buckle holding up your flares swell into an eagle shape, before rendering the air into a hazy, pachouli-scented fog.
It is technical death metal in the best way possible: thundering roars, riffs to get lost in, a bass tone that will register on the Richter scale.
Ohhms return with eight blood-soaked songs blasted through in a mere 37 minutes. It does not mess about.
LA bands have a swagger to them. And Early Moods, with their doom laced with 1980s heavy metal, have attitude by the truckload.
Regenerator is a coming-out-of-hibernation record, it is one for a sunny morning after a storm, one to play loud as you are driving across a desert to spend a weekend with your cousin you haven’t seen since 2019.
Krisiun channel their anger at the state of their beloved death metal scene into 10 relentlessly brutal tracks. There are few surprises but they do sound revitalised and, yes, absolutely furious.
This is a noisy and joyous album celebrating the adventure of travelling through the cosmos.
Fenice has large riffs (of course) but it also has light, darkness, intensity and calm. It will move even the most cynical of music fan.
In the lead single, the head is not merely splattered, it is splattered seven ways. It is this kind of attention to detail that is important to discerning death aficionados.
It will come as no surprise that this debut has a heck of a lot of fuzz. Warm, enveloping waves of it.
This displays all the hallmarks of top-quality power metal and it is so much fun. It has everything you want: high-energy tempos, catchy choruses and more cheese than a fondue-fetishist’s birthday bash.
There is still more than enough fuzz and riffage. But there is a greater range of dynamics, thoughtfulness and – here’s a word you don’t hear often when it comes to doom – subtlety at play here.
Sometimes you need a 22-minute misanthropic boogie tune to get you through the day. This album has two.
An exhilarating call for resistance, strength in adversity and generally saying “fuck you” to everyone and everything that brings us down.
This compilation shows through a lens of people paying tribute that Fugazi songs were more than just angry – they were very well written.
Polaris is accessible, but heavy. It is catchy but clever. It is rowdy without being y’know, loud. And – I should mention – it is so much fun.
The riffs are still there but this album is a definite step forward – and connects some surprising Kosmiche dots.
Everything – the songwriting, the hooks, the production, the sheer metacular awesomeness – about the conclusion to this metal-opera trilogy is brilliant.
It is always a treat to hear metal with an agenda. Especially when it is done as aggressively and thoughtfully as this album.
To lumber this music with a label would be ungainly. Kosmische-psych-jazz-funk-film-garage-ambient, anyone? Let’s just call it ‘very good’.
Over five long years since their last album, Spelljammer have delved even deeper into the realms of thick riffs.
