Blame God - Strategically Confined (cs 2017)

Strategically Confined is a ten minutes cassette and the second release from the US grind band Blame God. Strategically Confined is not just really good, it's near perfect. The fast grind / crust parts are killer, high impact stuff, with great vocals and riffing and especially good drumming, while the slower parts are very good as well with some noise / feedback loving guitar playing that is really nice, reminding a bit some Napalm Death or even Godflesh stuff.  It's without any doubt one of the major grind release of the year and I'm impatient to hear more from Blame God (I''ve been listening to Strategically Confinded not just every day, but several times a day during the last weeks). Highly recommended!

The BC page.

Our Solar System - In Time (2016)

In Time is the third album from the Swedish prog/fusion/psych rock band Our Solar System, and I'd say it's their best. Two 20 minutes long tracks, mostly instrumental, different each from the other and both good. The first one, my favourite, is mostly sax and piano driven for the melodies, the sax playing a leading role, not just solos here and there. In the second track the guitar is the main melodic element. The album is of the quiet psychedelic kind, not buried under cosmic effects allover, but trippy anyway and the atmosphere created and the melodies are really enjoyable and not already heard countless times.  Good stuff.

The Bandcamp page 

Earthgrave - The Verge of Human Abyss (2017)

Seems this one went largely unnoticed bu i's a pity because his first album, The Verge of Human Abyss, from he German band Earthgrave is an excellent one. No originality to be found here but they do very well all that we like in sludge. They remind Crowbar but I'd say rawer and dirtier, less polished, wih the hardcore parts more hardcore and vocals closer to death metal. They master the sludge groove and flow from dirty doom to crushing hardcore nicely, making it a very enjoyable album. Ah the simple pleasures of life!

The Bandcamp page.

Broken English Club - The English Beach (2017)

Broken English Club's English Beach is not about holiday in Brighton, no, i's about Dungeness, a desertic place and the site of nuclear power stations. Knowing that it's no surprise he music is not made for beach parties and dancefloors. It's somewhere beetween EBM and industrial techno and it's a great exemple of how industrial music can blur the line beetween groovy and grim with it's bleak atmospheres with dark synth melodies and the cold heavy industrial beats. Very good stuff.

The Bandcamp page.