Hideous Divinity - Simulacrum (2019)

Their previous album of Hideous Divinity (from Italy) Adveniens was hard to beat, but the new one Simulacrum, their fourth one, is a very convincing following, another masterpiece in brutal and technical death metal. The monstrous epicness and the relentless intensity could remind Nile (a Nile without the Egyptian melodies). This is impressive, breath-taking but also catchy, not easy to do, but they really master their thing and found a good balance. Highly recommended stuff! One of the best death metal album of the year.

Bror Gunnar Jansson - They Found My Body In A Bag (2019)

On They Found My Body In A Bag, Bror Gunnar Jansson is no more a one-man band but a trio, but it still really sound like a one man band actually. We could say it's blues/rock/garage somewhere between RL Burnside and The Black Keys but with also elements reminding Tom Waits and Earth that make it sounding different from the others garage blues-rock stuff, some rock/blues/boogie songs but also some more psychedelic drone/rock instrumentals. It's a good try and an enjoyable album.

The Bandcamp page.

Best Grindcore In 2019

Here we go, here's my list of favourite grind releases in 2019. Follow the link to read the review (and there you'll find a Bandcamp link nearly every time). I give it in alphabetical order. It happens that nearly half of the list is composed of releases from Nerve Altar, what a year they had! To me they're now the best place to go for quality grind. Keep going!

Beasters - Alienated By Solidarity

Bifid Corpse - Consuming Death

Birdflesh - Extreme Graveyard Tornado

Blame God - Power and Control

Die Choking - IV

Fluoride - Disentanglement

Gall/ Tooth Decay - Collaboration EP

Intensive Care / Incinerated - Split EP

Jardim de flores - Défloraison

No One Knows What The Dead Think - ST

Shock Narcotic - I've Seen The Future And It Doesn't Work

Skullshitter/ Bleeding Out - Split

 

Takafumi Matsubara - Strange Beautiful and Fast

Shit and Shine - Doing Drugs Selling Drugs (2019)

Doing Drugs Selling Drugs is heavy, repetitive, and dirty and I love it. This Shit and Shine album sounds very sick and filthy,  sludge noise sounding a bit like a crossbreed of Ramsses, Black Flag and Brainbombs, but worse. Highly addictive shit.

The Bandcamp page.

Orphx / JK Flesh - Light Bringer (2019)

Light Bringer is live collaboration between industrial techno duo Orphx (Christine Sealey & Rich Oddie) and JK Flesh (Justin Broadrick when he's doing techno music), released by Hospital Productions (the label of Dominick Fernow the man doing Prurient and Vatican Shadow), sounds good isn't it? Just click all the right boxes... And it does live up to the high expectations and delivers some excellent industrial techno/rythmic noise, often instrumental and sometimes with Broadrick holding the mic. Each of the eight tracks (recorded during one show in 2016 and another one in 2017) are really good, no fillers, just excellent industrial tech thrown at your face from masters of the genre. Heavily recommended.

The BC page.

Takafumi Matsubara - Strange Beautiful And Fast (2019)

Strange Beautiful And Fast is the solo album of Takafumi Matsubara (Gridlink, Mortalized, Retortion Terror). Solo but done with the help of many renowned musicians from the grind/noise scene (too many too list here! Check it on the Bandcamp page, it's impressive). The result is a very enjoyable album, often super fast and technical, but also with some melodic elements and more diversity than is usual in a "normal" grind album and it's working really well here. This one will easily find its place in my soon to come "best grindcore of 2019" list.

The BC page.

Unfathomable Ruination - Enraged & Unbound (2019)

Enraged & Unbound is the third album from UK's Unfathomable Ruination. This is very well crafted and enjoyable technical and brutal death metal. I can't compare yet with previous albums because I'm discovering them with this one, but at least on this one they found a good balance between brutality, speed, groove and melody, and brutality and technicality are not done at the expense of songwriting. Enraged & Unbound stand easily above any average death metal album, they don't push the limits of the genre, but they play it expertly.

The BC page

The Young Gods - Data Mirage Tangram (2019)

The Young Gods is an electro rock band from Switzerland, formed more than 30 years ago, but their twelfth album Data Mirage Tangram brightly shows they're as relevant as always. Some songs have a generous groove ("Tear up the red sky"), some heavy guitars part, but most of the time they're in a quiet mood, it's more about textures and subtle atmosphere, they excel at creating a unique dreamlike atmosphere of their own.
Highly recommended.

The Bandcamp page.

Beasters - Alienated by Solidarity (2019)

With their brutally chaotic technical grindcore Beasters are one of those bands that are bringing something different to grindcore. Their third album Alienated by Solidarity (this time released by Nerve Altar) is maybe even better than their previous one. I highly recommend it, really intense and crazy stuff.

The BC page.

Dead Neanderthals - Ghosts (2019)

On this new album called Ghosts (again with Utech Records) Dead Neanderthals teamed with Scott Hedrick, guitarist in the metal band Skeletonwitch (but don't expect riffs). The two long tracks composing the album are both exclelent. Bone Hill is repetitive drumming and we could say drones from the sax and guitar (the sax sounding a bit like ghosts moaning, or at least I can imagine that) slowly accelerating and going crescendo until the final climax. A captivating track. Death Bell starts more quiet but also has a more intense ending with the sax howling. Another really good tracks also a bit different from what they did before. Possibly their best release since Womb of God (but everything they did is worth checking).
Recommended.

The Bandcamp page.

Unaussprechlichen Kulten - Teufelsbücher (2019)

Teufelsbücher is the fifth album from Chilean death metallers Unaussprechlichen Kulten, and it's another great one, still building a strong epic and occult atmosphere through old school death metal, but this time with some more dissonance and a kind of black metal feel. And since it works fine, why not? A good try resulting in another very good album.

The Bandcamp page.