Nun Gun - Mondo Decay (2021)

Nun Gun is the collaboration of photograph Brad Feuerhelm and two Algiers members, Lee Tesche and Ryan Mahan, the album cassette Mondo Decay is the companion of a post-industrial decay themed photograph book of Brad Feuerhelm. The music is a mix of modified giallo soundtrack, synth-wave, dub, hip-hop, trip-hop. With featurings from a few vocalists (the track with Mark Stewart is especially awesome). Loved it from the beginning and listen to it every day (sometimes more than once). Easily one of the most interesting and best album for this year. I can't recommend it enough.

The Bandcamp page.

 

Sete Star Sept - Bird (2021)

Bird is the new release from Sete Star Sept, 14 songs in around ten minutes of free/noise grind from the bass/drums Japanese duo Kiyasu and Kae. As intense, wild, relentless and fast( but precise) as SSS use to do. Recommended!

The BC page.

 

Warish - Next to Pay (2021)

Next to Pay is the second album from Warish (I also recommend the first one Down in Flames). Their music sound like a mix of Black Flag, Black Sabbath and Nirvana, but moving closer to the first and the third on this slightly rawer second album. Cool stuff.

The BC page.

 

Pessimist - All Hope Lost (2021)

Four track from Pessimist, after a more ambient collaboration with Karim Maas (which was good), he's back to his more usual sound, with various elements of industrial/bass music, jungle, dub techno, dubstep, industrial tech... The four good tracks of this release called All Hope Lost have a dark and mysterious atmosphere. Good stuff.

The BC page.

 

Human Adults - God Made Dirt (2015)

Don't know much about this american band called Human Adults, except thet released in 2015 an excellent tape of Brainboms inspired (but trumpetless) noise rock, it's called God Made Dirt, 6 tracks, including a Flipper cover. Yeah that's not much, but again it's an excellent tape, so that's enough for me... A pity they seem not active anymore, but who knows?

Yakisoba - Acid Bath Litanies (2021)

Goregrind isn't my favourite kind of grind largely due to the vocals, and I also don't really like the gurgling vocals on this Yakisoba album, the first one for the Italian band (not Japanese!), called Acid Bath Litanies. But I like it anyway because the instrumental parts are great (goregrind bands really should do instrumental versions of their albums like dub or hip-hop artists often do!), with a lot of groove as expected, with d-beat parts alternating with blast beats, and the inclusion of some guitar solos works fine. A good album for discovering what can be good in goregrind.

The Bandcamp page.

 

Altarage - Succumb (2021)

Another great album from Altarage, maybe not as good as the previous one (the songs are less memorable), but still likely to make it to my "best of death metal" in the end of the year. They stil sound like somewhere between modern bands like Ulcerate/Portal and Morbid Angel (especially the atmosphere of crawling heaviness of the Gateway album), but went a step further into death/doom territory, culminating in a drone/doom long track in the end. They also included a bit of noise/industrial sound, which works well within their music. 

The Bandcamp page.

 

 

Mainliner - Dual Myths (2021)

Mainliner is a Japanese psychedelic/free rock trio with Kawabata Makoto on guitar (he's Acid Mothers Temple leader) and two other experienced musicians from the Japanese psych scene (Taigen Kawabe on bass and Shimura Koji on the drums) eight years after the previous one Dual Myth is their new album, released by the awesome Riot Season Records. The four long tracks are on the most rocking, heavier, noisy and abrasive side of psych rock, for a very convincing result. Recommended!

The Bandcamp page.

 

Andrew Nolan - Black Creek (2021)

Black Creek is a solo album from Andrew Nolan (ex The Endless Blockade and Column of Heaven). It could be described as industrial noise dub, and could remind the works of Mick Harris, Kevin Martin and Justin Broadrick. Trippy and dreamy and vaguely menacing and bizarre soundscapes. Excellent stuff. 

The BC page.

 

Needful Things / Controlled Existence - Split LP(2021)

Good split LP between two Czech grindcore bands, Needful Things and Controlled Existence on the excellent Psychocontrol Records (a label with guys playing in Needful Things), for both bands it's a last recording with their current vocalist. Both bands are on the old school side of grind, but with a quite modern sound for Needful Things. Both are doing well in this enjoyable split in the pure grind tradition.

The BC page.

 

Ulcerate - Stare Into Death And Be Still (2020)

I should have reviewed an Ulcerate album a long time ago, I'm correcting this with their last one (from last year) Stare Into Death And Be Still. I knew their previous stuff, but couldn't really get into it, maybe because of the atmospheric nature of their music, quite unusual in death metal. I don't know, but anyway I was wrong! I should have paid more attention, but now I will do! They are great at creating an ominous feel of grandeur and sounds like a mix of Immolation and Neurosis, but more technical (awesome drumming especially, maybe not so technical in execution but very smart in the songwriting, always perfectly fitting the music). You probably already know it's good but if not you really should give it a try (and not just superficially like I used to!)

The Bandcamp page.

 

Youth Code & King Yosef - A Skeleton Key in the Doors of Depression (2021)

A Skeleton Key in the Doors of Depression is a collaborative album between industrial metal/EBM duo Youth Code and King Yosef (see previous post). It's an interesting and enjoyable album mixing old school and new sound, some tracks sounds more like Youth Code but with King Yosef alternating with YC's Sara Taylor on vocals whereas other tracks sounds a bit like NIN's Pretty hate machine colliding with early Korn. And why not?

The Bandcamp page.