There's a zombie apocalypse version of the classic old skool Wild West pioneer survival strategy game Oregon Trail called Organ Trail. It's basically Walking Dead meets The Road. Now imagine that grimmer version of the game directed by someone with a great sense of humour like James Gunn. Well this album is boom! The perfect soundtrack. Why? Well let's fucking study it.

I kinda hate it when bands say what they sound like because I then feel lazy when I say the same ones but this band do hit the nail on the head. Slow Mover sound like Torche with less dreamy brown sludge replaced with slam dunk dropped d fuzz of Red Fang. Like Queen on speed without being apartheid breaking scum. Motörhead without Lemmy or any other member and sounding nothing like them.

Their new album Move Slower was recorded at Labyrinth Audio in Billerica, MA by Keith Gentile of Vygr. The dudes hail from Boston and tour regularly apparently. You can hear the time done on the road as the standard is elite and spunklicious. This album is one word. Fun. It's also 7 songs and around 30 mins long. It's crunchy, riff daft and I imagine would sound amazing live and great with 20 cans of Stella in you.

'Bomb Shelter Eviction' is a fine start to the amp drama. Going mental at bits it sets the mood nicely, like candles n shit. 'I Am (Also) A Dog' is a short fast and good song, like a mental dangerwank. 'Crane Collapse' has riffs all over the place. It's like a stonery suicidal tendencies when they were good. The songs about a crane collapsing. 'SFCA' is an unrelentless fuzz behemoth about witnessing a huge Tory paedo slugbeast (David Cameron) eating used nappies. 'Chainsaw Crew' is an appallingly brilliant love song about how great Soundcloud is. 'Spirit Monster', the best song in my opinion, is a fine heartless sex assault on your sex senses in 80s NYC. Like a French prostitute with 6 big tits that pays you for sex, it's great.

Your probably scratching your fucking head wondering what the fuck I'm going on about, if you're still reading this and not listening to Slow Mover I demand you to give up on listening to music because you are a cunt. If you have no access to it then how are you reading this?

Slow Mover are a really sexy sounding heavy band. The covers got a big fucking demon eating some cunt while the demon has a bath in radioactive slime. A guy on a motorbike watches on and in the distance is a freeway. It's gallus. The ever magnificent James Plotkin masters and I highly recommend you give it a good chance. That's about it. Bye. Oh, it's not a concept album, made that up.

Recently, there's been a lot of talk going around about there being an ongoing 'emo revival', a movement which the producer of this record, Evan Weiss (from Into It. Over It.), and its creators - last seen putting down their roots on the promising Grow Up, Dude in 2012 - are widely considered to be a part of. A great number of bands of this ilk are making an effort to not tie themselves down to any particular scene; there have been enough past examples of bands changing tack as soon as they find themselves pigeonholed, too. Maybe this is all just a phase, and the Floridians will find themselves in a totally different place whenever they put out their third album, but however you may look at it, there's no denying that Keep Doing What You're Doing is a huge step up from what's come before.

As much as YBI! have made an effort to show that they have clearly moved on from past efforts - as great as their older material is, their debut was mired in production problems, and drafting in Weiss to give the new set a bit of spit and polish (relatively speaking) was a shrewd move) - some things remain unchanged, sometimes defiantly so. Frontman Tanner Jones still pours his heart out with every line, his voice usually halfway between a whisper and a scream, and sounding as scrappy as the music around him, even though he's perhaps more introspective than before ("I'm having trouble trying to find the right way to say I feel less than confident"). Opener 'Match & Tinder' lights things up from its opening riff, before settling effortlessly into a mid-tempo groove, its contrasting dynamics highlighting the fact that the band have matured musically as well, perhaps taking the advice of their debut's title.

Matt Nissley's pounding drums imbue flagship single 'Award of the Year Award' with plenty of forward momentum, while the complex arrangement of 'Strong Island' gives each band member enough space to do what they do best. There's an increased sense of cohesion audible in every note, and it's probably not just the quartet rallying around each other after the departure of long-time drummer Tim Flynn last year. That setback doesn't seem to have rattled the band in the slightest; the likes of the full-on 'House Address' and the radio-ready power-pop of 'Rock Springs' suggest that the band definitely have their shit together. By the way, good luck dislodging the latter's hook from your brain once you've heard it - it's the sort of precision-strike melody I always knew the band had in them. Likewise, the driving, syncopated 'Gray Matter' storms through its 3 minutes, juggling time signatures and delivering a killer chorus to boot. "I'm starting to realise that I'm wasting my time" Jones admits, as the band set the album up to finish as strongly as it started.

It does so in genuinely stunning fashion, with the opening instrumental of 'Better to Best' leading into a cathartic explosion of gang vocals and rollicking rhythms, the album ending on an exuberantly positive note, as well as boding well for the future. "Maybe it wouldn't hurt to try to be happy / Maybe things aren't quite as bad I let myself believe" - Jones, and the rest of the band, have quite a lot to be happy about; with Keep Doing What You're Doing, they've well and truly put themselves on the map. Are they among the poster boys for a new movement? Honestly, with an album as good as this, who fucking cares?

According to his official biography, “Vincent Vocoder Voice's self-titled debut album is a waking nightmare waiting to consume the UK…An experimental exploration of the solitary hell of the individual's psyche…those looking for catharsis would do well to look elsewhere - Vincent Vocoder Voice has no answers”. Hmmm…

“A waking nightmare waiting to consume the UK”? I assume this is a metaphor (!) but nonetheless it brings to mind the kind of introductions “scary” wrestlers receive before lumbering into the ring for carefully scripted “fights”. “There are no safe tracks on this album...” we are warned, “Each one will challenge the listener, and not all will come out on the other side unscathed”. Eeekk!! The album claims to capture “the second of murderous anger at being cut up at the roundabout or being handed a half-full cappuccino”. Murderous rage at a half-full cappuccino? Dark!

Despite what the band/artist/PR types might like to imagine this is not difficult listening in the sense of it being disturbing; it’s just often awfully bad. Certain tracks seem to have been written/arranged to “frighten” and/or outrage; it’s precisely this conceit that renders many almost comical. The intention – as we are constantly reminded – is to unsettle the listener by dwelling on existential dilemmas of the post-modern age; yet, worthy a goal as this might be, the strategy employed to expose our collective ennui and societal alienation lacks the subtlety necessary to enable the listener to fill in the blanks and, in so doing, identify with, inhabit and ultimately own the artist’s motif.

Surely the most effective books, films plays etc. exploring fear, hatred and isolation are those which guide the viewer towards a point from which they then – consciously or not – delve into uncomfortable areas of their own psyche. Too often here, however, the message is overt, repetitive and delivered with a lack of subtly Marilyn Manson would admire.

Opening tracks 'How Dare Anything Ever' and 'Waving Up at You From Under the Ice' are particular low points and comprise unoriginal medleys of atonal noise and self-consciously “bizarre” arrangements interspersed with vignettes of speech which are evidently intended to “disturb” or “inspire”; they don’t. But then 'A Cuntful of Wishes' follows; it’s arguably the best song on the album and displays exactly the kind of subtle, unsettling reflections that most of the album lacks. Yet it’s followed by 'The Concrete Cancer' a turgid triumph of pomposity…

The album is liberally peppered with references to disease and resentments but this tsunami of the unpleasant becomes self-defeating as the blatant horror becomes formulaic and contrived. Genuinely goods songs like 'The Unbearable Heaviness of Having' and 'The Slow-Creeping Cacophony of Compromise' lose much of their impact when surrounded by so much clunky imagery and crass social commentary. Interesting turns of phrase and imagery are too often buried under layers of monotonous, unlovable noise – such as on 'Superhappy Adventure Time' in particular. No doubt “making the listener work for it” is intentional, but Christ, really how difficult is it to make unpleasant sounds?

With savage editing there is a decent four song EP buried here though all too often this is imitation Nine Inch Nails without the menace and 'Holy Bible' Manic Street Preachers without the honesty and just too much vacuous, senseless noise.

As it stands most of this album will appeal largely to the kind of people who’ve memorised Satre’s Wikipedia page, equate silence with enigma, morbidity with existential angst, and who bore the shit out of anyone who comes near them.

With Terrestrials we have another collaboration (the first was the little known "CUT WOODeD" track) between avantgarde aristocracy: the merging of tantric drone masters Sunn O))) with Norway's Ulver (a black metal/prog/goth/electronic/psych/chamber-ensemble). As something that started out as a 2008 jamming session (which has been added to and enhanced periodically over the years until now) Terrestrials is surprisingly cohesive.

The last Sunn O))) cooperative album was back in 2006 (Altar) with Boris but this three-song effort, ‘Let There Be Light’ (11:27), ‘Western Horn’ (9:37) and ‘Eternal Return’ (14:10) showcases a new and different whole that is bigger than the sum of its component parts. I feel that Terrestrials is a logical conclusion of two separate but parallel musical directions starting with Sunn O)))'s 2009 release Monoliths And Dimensions and last year’s Messe I.X-VI.X from Ulver. But make no mistake this is a group effort and it isn't a true follow-up to either record.

All these tracks don't display any devastatingly heavy frequencies. Rather the orchestral droning rhythms, atonalities and microtonalities allow the songs to breathe and sound both simultaneously fascinating and enticing. By eschewing a more complex approach all of the additional varied compositional layers are given the opportunity to delicately grab your attention. Ultimately this is the beauty of Terrestrials; the manner in which the music gradually and deliberately unfurls so slowly that you don't even notice it, but you end up in a far, far different place from where you started. After several listenings one minor criticism was that I felt that both bands had calibrated themselves downwards for the first and last tracks and it was only on track two where symbiosis was truly achieved. But saying that what is clear is that both Sunn O))) and Ulver exude gravity and total commitment to their aesthetic and this is probably their greatest virtue as it allows them to deep dive into the genre and really push it into new territory without it sounding strained or contrived. They almost don't sound like they're experimenting; they're just growing and evolving.

So then onto each of the tracks:

‘Let There Be Light’ eases the listener into Terrestrials using piano, pining horns, bass, guitars and drones that sonically flower into an uninhibited symphonic explosion. This track was my least favourite as I felt that at times the disconsolate seriousness on offer could potentially try the patience if you’re not in the correct frame of mind or mood to listen to and appreciate it.

‘Western Horn’ is next and this is much more familiar Sunn O))) territory with brown-note rumbles which menacingly thunder drone-doom style, all interspersed with Ulver’s haunting background violins.

The epic concluding track ‘Eternal Return’ is both sombre and imposing. This uber-slow ballad uses total deceleration to fragment the song to the point of extinction. Slivers of heaviness rise and fall to melt, with haunting splinters of heavy ambience and conversational vocals from Kristoffer Rygg. After around seven minutes conventionality was almost reached and something resembling a post-rock song starts to emerge before sinking back into a cosmic daze, which defies classification.

In summary, this is a jolly good seamless collaboration, which is very cinematic and ambient but I may as well say it, this isn't going to be for everyone. If you have a low attention span and live for grindly brutal tracks then avoid this like the plague. For me it’s the sort of record you'd pop on after a heavy night out when you just want to wind down, chill and tune out of this particular existence and into another one. If you love music that is judged on its artistic merits then this will be a contender for your album of the year.

So yes Chrome Division is the brain child of Shagrath (the vocalist of Dimmu Borgir) to explore a different path form his day job… but seeing as he plays guitar this connection is almost irrelevant as album number four Infernal Rock Eternal is another dose of high energy “Dooms Day Rock n Roll” Despite initially being a Motörhead tribute act, time and line- up changes have seen them tinker with their sonic disposition to a more ‘Southern’ approach.

After a dramatic intro track that builds from an acoustic guitar that sounds like it should be in a Western a vocoder “woah” signals the start of ‘Endless Nights’ which is followed by a huge dirty RIFF as the songs hits a superb Southern groove in the vein of Black Stone Cherry (Fun Fact: I played this at work and a colleague thought it sounded like Bon Jovi…make of that what you will).

However they don’t stick to this formula instead opting to be almost a historical guide winding their way through the many sub genres of rock n roll, so after this opener ‘(She’s) Hot Tonight’ takes off in a very up tempo rock n roll in the style of Airborne et all complete with fist pumping hook laden choruses .

‘The Absinthe Voyage’ sees them channelling their best Lordi impression even including a nonsensical gang chant chorus refrain of ‘We Are the children of the Absinthe Voyage’ (eh!?) followed immediately by the a lighter waving grunge-lite power ballad ‘Lady Of Perpetual Sorrow’.

All these changes of direction could have sounded terrible if badly executed so it’s to the immense credit of vocalist “Shady Blue” that he has the range to cover/imitate the required styling’s to perfection (His default setting is a gravelled tone somewhere between Lordi and Joakim Brodén of Sabaton). Continuing this running theme later highlights include the full on heavy stoner blues of ‘No Bet For Free’ is and the closing salvo of full on punk rock of ‘OI’

As you can imagine they are not reinventing the wheel or offering new ideas; strip away any expectations you may have from the members involved and what you get is an impressively proficient rock band knocking out top quality rock anthems.

It's always exciting when you find that an album you are waiting for a long time is finally released. So when I saw the new Lunaire album I counted the hours to get home, lie on the carpet of my living room and listen to it in peace. I think that there's no better way to catch the spirit of a record.

This is what I did with Dreams And Inbetweens, the first full length album and fourth release from Lunaire, a Melbourne based shoegaze and post-rock band that, inspired by the notes of Sigur Ros, Alcest and Slowdive,creates a vast landscape of sounds so easy to get lost in.

After their first demo release at the start of 2010, the Melbournians guys of Lunaire have contributed to a split album with the shoegazers Airs and in 2012 they released their debut EP With the Same Smile as Those Days. The new album follows the same path of the previous works but you'll find here a more atmospheric sound with a dreamy post-punk touch that is pretty nice even if it doesn't conquer me when it comes to be a bit dreamy pop.

Dreams And Inbetweens is a collection of 8 tracks, all with airy, climactic conclusions for a journey of about 50 minutes where “introspection, romance, dreaming and the beauty of night” are the protagonists.

The title track opens up the record and you are immediately brought into a dreamy atmosphere that is consistent into the whole album. I love when their sound is more introspective like in the first two tracks, 'Dreams and Inbetweens' and 'I Couldn't Leave You Alone', that have several remarkable elements, starting from the chosen titles, to the atmosphere and to the space that leaves the notes suspended. I lose this magic when it's the turn of rhythmic songs like 'Evenfall ' that is nicely upbeat as I do prefer their more intimate compositions where Lunaire demonstrate their notable ability to create intense atmospheres.

The wistful vibe of 'Goodbye' is so powerful that I’m sure it will put you in a great mood. 'The Distance Between us' and 'Goodbye' have both a joyful and an upbeat rhythm even though those titles naturally evoke melancholic and nostalgic sounds. There's no doubt that the Aussie boys have an originally optimistic approach to those themes.

'Encounter Bridge' is notable, it has a great ambiance and it's a sign of the maturation of their style and it proves the fact that Lunaire have found their own sound. I really like this track and together with the first two songs it's my favorite from the album.

Matthew, Sam, Lachie and Nick conclude their album with the atmospheric 'Dream Reader' that seems to be the place where all the elements of the album are collected and mixed in a beautiful daze.
Dreams And Inbetweens looks like a journey through a cheerful island and a nice listening even if I do believe that Lunaire should concentrate more on those more intimate moments where they really excel.

Over the last couple of months I have been going back and forth with new music suggestions with various people, usually through the medium of Twitter. One of the people whose music recommendations I always take on board is Myron, based in the US and respected editor of ThisIsNotAScene. We have been suggesting numerous sludge and doom metal bands from across the pond to each other. So when he asked me to listen to The Entheogen, the new EP by by Chicago-based band Without Waves, I expected another heavy filthy doom release to wax my ears with, especially since drummer Garry Naples also plays drums in heavy doom band Novembers Doom. But Myron threw me a right curveball here as this band is totally not doom at all. Instead they play a more experimental mix of extreme, progressive, atmospheric metal.

Opening track ‘The Entheogen’ kicks off with great technicality, reminding me of Dillinger Escape Plan and similar type bands. You know what I mean, crazy drum rhythms, dissonant staccato guitar playing, hardcore-like shouting/growling vocals, fantastic stuff really! But not to keep you going for 10 minutes, and that’s exactly how long this opening track on their EP goes for. The band manages to keep the attention span going all the way through the track though as they vary in style a lot, demonstrating huge skill and technicality. The instrumental part starting just after 6 minutes in is beautiful stuff, building up on atmosphere and working towards a climax around the 8 minutes mark of Tool-like proportions.

The second track ‘Blood & Rust’ is with “only” 8 minutes in length a bit shorter but offers a completely different musical spectre as this starts as a really good, almost ‘classic’ prog rock track, with really nice clean vocals. The singing especially is quite a difference from the first track, and musically Without Waves demonstrates their musical pallet greatly on this and the previous track. Towards the end the band brings you back to their Dillinger-like mathcore with vocalist ‘Anthony Cwan’ bringing back his growling aggressive voice.

The EP ends on a brilliant cover of Ministry’s ‘TV II’. This is one of my favourite Ministry tracks taken off their Psalm 69 album and Without Waves manages to keep the industrial feel to the cover while bringing a bit of their own experimental style into it. It is one of those tracks you need to just listen to on the loudest volume setting possible. Admittedly, I got quite a few weird looks on the bus to work when I did so!

All in all The Entheogen is a great EP offering some great progressive metal that should please any fan of Dillinger Escape Plan and Tool. As usual Myron was spot on with yet another great recommendation! This EP is available for ‘name your price’ download through their Bandcamp page, so go on and get yourself some great music while throwing the band some beer money too!

Bast are a 3 piece doom band from London, DOOOOM! They have been on the circuit for 6 years now, sharing the stage with the likes of Ufomammut, Bong and Winterfylleth and deliver a rather blistering live show. However, recording wise they’ve only ever had a rather dodgy demo to their name but here they are finally with a full-length album called Spectres, which has some rather delicious artwork featuring three morbid ladies in the Malleus Rock Lab style... nice. Just to make it even more appealing it’s being released by Black Bow Records, founded by Jon Davis from Conan…. let’s get stuck in!

We begin with ‘In the Beginning’, see what they did there? Anyway they fire into some proper black metal. Yes that’s right black metal, I have never noticed when I have seen them live (probably because I was in a state) but they sound like a black metal band. Not only that but a really fucking great black metal band. It’s not long before they are smashing into some doom though and we realise there’s some fusion at work here which is delivering on every level. They have two vocalists, one pumping out the black metal snarl and the other more doom/post-metal growl which keeps things very dynamic and exciting. Around the 5.30 mark a brand new slower even doomier riff kicks in and it’s like what the fuck am I listening to? YESS! It all sounds very primitive, like you have been teleported onto a mountain having a joint whilst watching an ancient and bloody battle like it’s a major sporting event. There is a real timeless feel dominant throughout the whole thing which makes it feel like the album could genuinely have been made thousands of years ago, EPIC!

That’s all I can say about this really, EPIC! I’m really glad they took so long to put out their first full length as you can tell so much love went into this, the level of detail is amazing and there is absolutely no filler whatsoever. The title track ‘Spectres’ is just ridiculous, brutal heaviness before flying into a jaw dropping psychedelic jam, it’s unbelievable and if you like Sardonis or Lesbian then you are firmly in the right place.

So there you have it, there are five tracks and they are all absolutely killer. Track length goes up to around the 12 minute mark leaving room to tell a story, about what I’m not sure but it is filled with both beauty and tragedy. It’s a doom a classic… people will discuss it in line with Bongripper’s Satan Worshipping Doom and Electric Wizard’s Dopethrone and I’m not exaggerating whatsoever. If you are a doom band and making an album this year, you best taken a listen to this as Bast have set the bar stupidly high.

The world of art and rock has a tendency to collide circles at any given moment in musical history, often with bloated attempts, sometimes as a sublime form of music. The Callas fall into the latter and whilst they may keep there art work separate from their music there is an aesthetic here that pervades the music giving it an altogether fulfilling taste.

There may be nothing new about The Callas. They come at you like a strange mix of The Knife and The Fall and create a raucous noise which blends in moments of great beauty. Essentially post-punk, they have more in common with the no wave CBGB scene rather than the generic post Joy Division sound and NYC oozes out of every hole.

'Lustlands' is a prime starter with its nagging refrain and pounding melody feeling both lo-fi and spacious in it's delivery. This is followed by the buzzsaw guitars of Anger which owes a lot to the Mark E Smith style without once sounding derivative. It's a tremendous start which ensures that us as listeners are gripped.

'East Beat' trades on a robotic dance riff letting in shade of Kraftwerk and is one of the best tracks on the album. It's incessant beat is waylaid by a haunting melody which shimmers in the background providing meat for our cold electronica. This is then taken down an even darker route with 'Black Leather Books' which is the very essence of sleazy and creeps insidiously into your spine as visions of Lou Reed stalking the night time whores of NYC creep into your mind..

The Callas can do full out rock too and 'Disaster' is a prime example of this whilst 'That's You' pummels along at an invigorating pace bringing in chiming guitars against a backdrop of dissonant noise and yelping vocals. It serves to highlight that The Callas are more than a one trick pony and can cover a breadth of styles on their music.

This makes for an entertaining listen and one that never gets boring. The only low point being 'Octopus Love' which sounds uncannily like The Stone Roses and jars with it's out of synch sound. Luckily this doesn't last as the title track 'Am I Vertical' manages to encompass all the album in one final song which gathers pace to an almost anthemic end. A tremendous end to an excellent album which is sure to win over a few fans. Expect The Callas to be one of the sounds of 2014.

Do we need Satan anymore? Satan plays many roles that have shifted throughout history: boogeyman/moral enforcer, symbol of fierce independence, and more recently a cartoonish punchline. The recent, popular movie This is the End plainly highlights the current image we think of when we contemplate the Devil - a big joke with no speaking lines. Modern day metal bands are beginning to reflect this shift as more bands’ lyrics and imagery deal in the natural world, alternative spirituality, exploration of the self. Often a new band claiming to embody Satanic ideals is dismissed as hokey and outdated by a critical base that increasingly praises innovation and unorthodox approaches to metal traditions. It is into this environment that Greyhaze Records is re-introducing Brazillian black metal band Mystifier’s 1993 release Wicca.

From the moment the pitch-shifted, multi-layered vocals crash through the B-movie synth organ of album intro 'Our Gloat', it’s clear that this is music of a certain era musically. The mid-paced thrash of 'Osculum Obscenum' sets the tone for the rest of the album: full-charge rockers with manipulated vocals that sound like the deadites from Evil Dead. The immediacy of the music is a make-or-break moment. You’re either on board from the start or left feeling cold. For disciples of like-minded contemporaries Sarcofago and Nifelheim this music is like coming home. The bass is chunky and given ample space to punch through, the drums are mixed to sound like cannon-fire, and those love-or-hate vocals bark and squeal throughout.  It’s boilerplate blackened thrash, but it’s heavy as Hell.

What elevates this album as something to be reissued, though? Stripped of its context and heard as a new release, this album would quickly fade into the background without making much of a stir. Its obsession with sounding evil is unavoidably grotesque when listened to among more modern, nuanced metal bands. This sound, manipulated vocals and relentless drumming especially, has already been taken to its logical conclusion with bands like Canada’s Revenge - artists whose focus fits more naturally into an increasingly common narrative centered around bleak nihilism than the monsters-in-the-closet motifs used by older metal bands. A band like Mystifier, whose members continue to photograph themselves dressed in patch-heavy denim, is a call back to more thematically simple times. In this context it is difficult not to respect the music. As metal reaches wider audiences, critical analysis of older bands tends more toward the dismissal of traditional aesthetics which are often derided as cheesy and outdated. Within that context it becomes a bold statement to fly the raw Satanic thrash banner proudly rather than rely on current trends of introducing unorthodox textures and genre mash-ups as several modern metal bands are doing in greater numbers.

Wicca is a document in metal’s broad history. While its importance can be debated, it is worthwhile to explore as an undeservedly overlooked piece of culture. At times the album can cause a few moments of unintended comedy, a chuckle that is most likely a product of a modern age in which we too often consider what we like and how we share our preferences. If you set those concerns aside, however, and put on 'Mystifier (Satan’s Messengers)' your inner hesher will win out in the end. Never be embarrassed to be caught banging your head.

Hyper-distorted drone doom, glitchy electronica over hip-hop beats, sparse acoustic guitar that sounds like a bleeping Casio, blackened howls with downright funky delivery... there isn't much you WON'T hear on Warguts, the sixth release from Toronto's attention-deficit psychopaths eyeswithoutaface.

'War Will Set You Free' immediately plunges you straight into the horror, the introductory sample and echoing guitar setting just one of many horrifying scenes you'll journey through on this recording. Coming across like some sort of soundtrack to PTSD, the militaristic vibe is heightened by the use of instruments as weapons; an assault on your psyche.

'Devachan; or, The Cohesive Hole' sounds like if you had RZA produce Gnaw Their Tongues as they dabbled in gabber. Yeah. The track closes out with a haunting sample, before 'Dead Friends' kicks off with the sort of massive bass sound that actually makes dubstep sound palatable in comparison. A mangled, broken 'riff' of sorts limps around like a wounded soldier throughout the fringes of the track, while the vocals sound like a gaggle of Alan Dubin's having a glass gargling contest in the distance. It's absolutely horrible, and it's fucking meant to be.

This confrontational approach characterises the rest of the album as well; there is literally not a single moment of comfort or respite throughout this trawl through the darkest depths of every filthy genre music has spawned so far. You are not meant to enjoy this. To be honest, if you use the word 'enjoy' about anything for at least a week after the final notes of ultimate track 'Grotesque Tableau' die out, you should probably seek counselling.

Astoundingly, despite the plethora of weird and wonderful sounds on offer throughout Warguts, the band's kitchen sink approach never sounds ridiculous or overly-ambitious. Rather they manage to blend these disparate sounds into something which may be impossible to classify, but is never anything less than a captivating listen. The band's fascination with texture, tone, tempo and terror is so interesting that you'll have no choice but to sit back, strap yourself in, and prepare for the loudest ride of your life.

Just over a year ago during one of my Bandcamp searches I stumbled upon a great album by Swiss band When Icarus Falls. The album in question was Aegean, and initially it were the artwork and genre tags that attracted me to this release, but upon listening I got quickly hooked to their attractive mix of post-metal/sludge. They now released a new EP called Circles, providing 4 songs basically continuing where Aegean left.

So, When Icarus Falls plays a nice mix of post-metal, sludge and listening to the new EP made me think about Cult Of Luna quite a bit, as there are so many similar elements to the music. It is very atmospheric, quite slow in parts and the vocals by Diego Mediano sound pretty similar to Johannes Persson’s vocals. But luckily I absolutely love Cult Of Luna and when another band sounds like them and they do a great job then there is absolutely nothing wrong with this.

Three out of four songs on offer here are new songs, with the fourth track ‘Nyx’ being a remix that was previously released on the Falling Down II compilation. First track ‘Erechtheion’ is with nearly 9 minutes the longest track on the EP, and it is a stonker of an opener. What I really like about this band is the continuous use of piano throughout the heavier parts of guitar riffing and chugging. It creates an interesting hazy atmosphere and during the opening build up of this first track the piano is already nicely present in the mix, together with more atmosphere creating strings. The rest of the track ticks all the post-metal boxes with various build ups leading to climaxes and explosions of sound, intermixed with beautiful instrumental pieces.

Second track ‘The Great North’ uses the same formula, with a slightly more angry sounding Diego on vocals, and again beautiful musical parts with clean piano over slow hitting drums and guitars building up towards yet another climax. The instrumental bit that starts just after 3 minutes is brilliant and induces quite a shiver in me as it is a stunning piece of music the band plays here. ‘Celestial Bodies’ is another long track, using all the aforementioned elements to the max again, but this track has an interesting bit of spoken word towards the end exclaiming, “I will never be king again, I will never be king again”, while building up more aggression and anger to finish the song in a fantastic pinnacle of this EP.

When Icarus Falls has again managed to produce a release that has all the elements I love in this genre: emotions, heavy guitars, heavy drums and plenty of atmosphere and build-ups. If you’re a fan of this genre then you should embrace this new EP with both arms.

The band will go on a last tour from April 25th to May 10th and as I understand they will take a long break after this tour, so Circles may very well be the last recorded output of this great Swiss band. If you by Circles now through their Bandcamp site you will get Aegean for free as well!

Powerful, precise, and perfect. Three simple words to summarize my opinion about Rust, an album where the feelings of melancholy, sadness, disappointment and sense of loss are perfectly mixed to create a deep and powerful atmosphere that doesn't miss a shimmer of hope.

The world of post rock never stop pleasing our boundless appetite for good music and it’s now the turn of Hypertoad, another band that makes songs without words and of its debut album that is a wonderful ride on waves of emotion.

Hypertoad, aka Andrey Bestolchenko , is a one man project from Saint-Petersburg, Russia, that decided to record an album by his own after spending three years to find musicians and assemble a band. Listening to Rust, there’s no doubt that he made the right choice. Hypertoad’s music is tagged as post rock, post metal and instrumental, so nothing different from hundreds bands orbiting the same music world – true, until you press play and you discover that what he delivers is something very unique where each track is different for its melody and the emotion it can provoke. The outcome is an album that demonstrates a great competence in the execution and a superb sensitivity through which Andrey let you experience a wide range of emotions.

Rust is a playlist of 6 tracks that in a running time of about 25 minutes will immerse you in an atmosphere where relaxation, excitement, anxiety and dreams alternate themselves leaving you speechless.

The album opens with the hypnotic ‘All summer in a day’ where the initial slow moving march disappears in favor of siren-like guitars and an unexpected drum explosion makes the whole experience overwhelming. I really like the following ‘Salvation’ and, together, the first two tracks are more than a long winded introduction to one of the finest post metal album I’ve heard in the last period. The rhythm in ‘Salvation’ changes so many times that this song alone can be an EP. The last part of it is simply stunning. I love this track.

Rust reaches its peak with ‘September’ that starts off quietly enough before announcing its intentions with some explosive riffs and power chords followed by an hypnotic vertigo of sound that is seriously good.

The sound changes in ‘Melancholia’ that, despite the title, has in it a positive vein, at least in its first part, before exploding in a so mind blowing sound that won’t leave you any possibility to think about something.

I love the first chords of ‘Pet Samatary’ that bring me back to an old rock style inspiring therefore a sort of nostalgia. Just 1:28 minutes for a great interlude. The title track has the honor to conclude this refined and elegant ride among post metal waves. ‘Rust’ is incredibly beautiful with its rising and falling synth providing a great variation in depth and the alternation of icy atmospheres with soft notes, as it happens in the best rides.

Andrey Bestolchenko defines his Hypertoad project "with three basic terms: post-rock, misery, and decay”. I define his project with another set of words: powerful, precise, and perfect.

Centiment is a new project formed by InMe members Dave McPherson, Greg McPherson and Gazz Marlow with the addition of Neil Howard and Mark Shurety to “create of a metal album that attempts to explore unknown areas of the universe of sound” of which the Pledge Music crowd funded debut album Streets Of Rage is the outcome. The result is a collision of 8 bit samples, metal core RIFF, Protest The Hero vocal melodies and electro synths….

Which will sound genius/horrific (delete as applicable) depending on your prevalent tastes. Me? I’m leaning towards the genius as there are a lot of great (and downright quirky) ideas thrown into a mix that often hit the mark but sometimes misfire spectacularly in the musical equivalent of a blunderbuss.

When they do get it right it results it some genuinely great songs such as the opening track ‘S.O.S.’ with its glorious charming 8 bit intro (I’ve been watching/playing too much Scott Pilgrim recently) leading into a crunching metal core and the afore mentioned Protest The Hero melodies in which the 8 bit elements occasionally surface in understated fashion amongst the RIFF.

On the other end of the spectrum the overt commercial nu metal/hip-hop/drum n bass combination of second track ‘Defenders Of Oasis’ is… not so good, in fact it could have been a horrible mess were it not for the strong vocal melody holding it together.

The rest of the album lurches from one extreme to the other - in the case of ‘The Kraken’ and ‘Three Laws of Neurotics’ all in the space of the same song - but when the nail it on the likes of ‘Acheron’  and ‘Viktor Frankl’ it’s rewarding.

Despite all this contrasting and sometimes conflicting ideas the entire journey is actually pretty coherent and not a disjointed mess it could have been. So top marks for effort and trying something different so I highly recommend giving Streets Of Rage a spin.

Andreas Pettersson, lead vocalist of Swedish black metal group Stilla, noted in a previous interview the stark isolation of his home country’s harsh winters and their effect on his music. All Nordic black metal is characterized in one way or another by the darkness and cold of the Northern country, but the bitter chill can be buried among other motifs and gimmicks. On Stilla’s new album, Ensamhetens Andar, the band summons only the most desolate, barren and bone chilling black metal in recent memory.

What stands out quickest on Ensamhetens Andar is the extremely high quality of the production. As is their nature, most black metal albums are made to sound like they were recorded using a computer microphone, a fact Varg Vikernes divulged about recording vocals for his legendary band, Burzum. Instead, Stilla has chosen to wash their instruments in just the right amount of distortion and reverb without washing them out. This way, every instrument remains sufficiently brutal but can be heard with just the right amount of clarity as well. Though this may be unusual in regards to black metal it serves Stilla’s purposes very well, and makes Ensamhetens Andar all the more enjoyable.

The superior production and masterful instrumentation may be due to Stilla being somewhat of a Swedish black metal super group. Members Pâr Stille, Adreas Johansson and J. Marklund are also in Bergraven, and a handful of other Swedish bands. Pettersson has been a consistent presence in the Swedish black metal scene for some time, and his presence in Tilla perfectly rounds out the group.

The album opens with a charred bass intro from Johansson on 'Vandring utan spår'. The short solo is the perfect concoction to begin the album- the progression is infectious, and the song quickly injects the listener with deathly cold. He is soon joined by Pettersson’s grisly vocals. 'Vandring utan spår' sets the mood for what will be an almost non stop assault on the senses throughout Ensamhetens Andar.

The third track, 'Till slutet', is a fantastically morbid track that trudges along through the first passage, then is led onward by Stille's echoing reverb guitars. A section in the middle is occupied by plucked acoustic guitar and bone chilling guttural vocals. The song’s transitions and movements are sewn together perfectly, creating one of the most harmonious yet bleak tracks on the album.

'Till slutet' also encapsulates the general atmosphere of Ensamhetens Andar. Although the album is first and foremost black metal, themes of nature and the occult come through as well. Most of the album feels like a woodland conjuring or a terrifying journey through the spirit world. The final track, 'Skuggornas dop', encapsulates this atmosphere even further. Tremolo guitars are joined by high pitched, echoey synths that create a truly epic feeling, which charges on through the rest of the song.

The chilling winds of the north course through Stilla’s Ensamhetens Andar. They expand on the sound they established with their previous record Till Stilla Falla, but Ensamhetens Andar manages to be something truly groundbreaking. It is a multifaceted record that does virtually everything with the right amount of skill and restraint, and it all adds up to a remarkably bleak and heavy piece of music. Ensamhetens Andar sets the pace for black metal very early on in 2014.