Skullflower - The Black Iron That Fell From The Sky, To Dwell Within (Bear It or Be It) (2017)

The Black Iron That Fell From The Sky, To Dwell Within (Bear It or Be It) is a new vinyl release from Skullflower (Matthew Bower and Samantha Davies) and it is an excellent one. The noise / psychedelic /drone duo (noise / drone made mostly with two guitars and a saturated synth) found a really good balance between the noisy element and the melodic one, the noise is quietly droning and trippy, also charged with a feel of anguish and terrible things coming, the melodic element is subtle and infusing a sense of mystery and exploration. Great stuff to get lost into it!

Warp Transmission - Tamám Shud (2015)

If you don't want to choose between tripping or rocking music and have both then Warp Transmission is a good pick. The band from Finland released two years ago a really cool album called Tamám Shud that is a nice mix of stoner / psychedelic / doom and garage rock, evoking bands like Monster Magnet or Electric Wizard as well as The Stooges. And their spaciest moments are as goods as their hardest rocking ones. Easily better than the average stoner band. Really enjoyable stuff.

Their Bandcamp page.

ps : one of the guys in WT is also in Sonic Poison, which old school grind evoking Repulsion is a really different stuff but is also excellent (HERE is my review).

Brainbombs - Inferno (2017)

Inferno is the new Brainbombs album and it sounds quite similar to their previous one, Souvenirs. And, honestly, since Souvenirs was so good and this one very good as well this is not a problem. Better another excellent similar album than a disappointing change... On this one their noise rock also favour dark and psychedelic (think bad trip, not flower power at all...) atmosphere more than direct aggression, they found again lots of memorable riffs, and of course they kept the use of trumpet (think more Miles Davis than clarion call fortunately), coupled with their usual monotonous nearly spoken word vocals with super bleak lyrics. Nothing new but another excellent Brainbombs album that I will listen to on a regular basis (as usual with Brainbombs it gets better after a few listen as the basis of the songs are more familiar and the hypnotic repetitive element works better while you keep on discovering new subtilities).

Expulsion - Nightmare Future (2017)

This first release from Expuslion (called Nightmare Future, on Relapse Records) is a very serious contender for best grind release in 2017, and will also please anyone into old-school death metal as well. With Matt Olivo (Repulsion) handling the guitar, Matt Harvey (Exhumed) doing the vocals and Danny Walker (Exhumed, Phobia) on drums, this is not really a surprise, but still, being a "supergroup" is not a guarantee and few succeeds as much in living up to the expectations. The 7 songs (in 14 minutes) are great and infectiously catchy, with great riffing and soloing, of course in a early grind-death vein, there's also excellent vocals from Harvey, with a great flow, with power, rhythm and groove. Truly excellent and highly pleasing!

The BC page.

Full of Hell - Trumpeting Ecstasy (2017)

Trumpeting Ecstasy (their new album released by Profound Lore records) is Full of Hell most convincing stuff. Or maybe it's because I love grind and that on this album there's less "blackened" hardcore and sludge and more death-grind, there's a lot of very good death-grind in it. Still a slight bit of noise elements, mostly on a track with female vocals. They still like having some diversity in their music and that's a good thing. A heavier and more straight forward and extreme album but also maybe more personnal, farther than their previous ones to generic blackened metal hardcore. This time I'm not thinking "they're ok, but...", this time I'm won, Trumpeting Ecstasy is indeed a really intense, interesting and enjoyable album. Really good stuff! 

The BC page.

Ecstatic Vision - Raw Rock Fury (2017)

The title of their new album, Raw Rock Fury (released by Relapse this year) is a good indication of the direction Ecstatic Vision took since their debut, more quiet, album, two years ago. The psychedelic elements, the spacey moments are definitely still present, but they added some garage rock that could remind The Stooges, saxophone included. The first album was really good, but adding a new side to their music is probably a good move, we'll see what they will do next, but for now Raw Rock Fury is a good surprise and an enjoyable album.

The Bandcamp page.