Vancouver’s Wormwitch and Atlanta’s Sadistic Ritual, are at the brink of dropping their new split EP, out on CD, LP, Friday March 22nd, via Boris Records. Each band contributes three tracks of differing thrash, showcasing their individual takes on the genre. Ahead of its release, they are streaming the record in full. Head into the article below to check it out and find out more about the bands.
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LLNN Share Double A-side Split 7 inch with Sugar Horse
Danish quartet, LLNN, have released a two-track split 7” with labelmates, Sugar Horse. “The Horror,” LLNN’s offering for the limited, AA-side, presents the Copenhagen collective’s icy new path of synth cinematics and post-apocalyptic post-hardcore. LLNN and Sugar Horse are also preparing for their upcoming European co-headline tour. Keep reading below to find out more.
EP REVIEW: Full of Hell and Nothing (split) – When No Birds Sing
On paper, this makes perfect sense. A collaborative effort between Full of Hell and Nothing stand as two of the most creative outliers in their respective genres, and the mission statement of When No Birds Sing (Closed Casket Activities) is to fuse the juxtaposition of their varied sonic palettes. Brace yourself, as Full of Hell is the overpowering force when the album opens.
EXCLUSIVE EP PREMIERE: Ghost Hello and Night Goat Split Release Full Stream
Two of the best underground bands in the US Stoner Doom/Psych/Noise scene, Ghost: Hello and Night Goat have teamed up for an awesome split release to end 2020. Dropping tomorrow, December 1st from Interstellar Smoke Records the EP contains six songs all told, the per band, per side on the vinyl. Both bands were featured on Ghost Cult’s Crushing Underground Compilation this year! This split is Ghost:Hello’s follow up to their 2019 release Color in Space, and Night Goat’s last release, their debut Milk, was dropped at this time last year. The bands bring different flavors but form a unified front on this release. Stream this majestic beast of metal right now!
Coffins/Ilsa – Split EP
You can file Coffins and Ilsa’s Split EP (Relapse Records) under heaviest thing you’ll jam out to for a while. No time to waste here with pretentious orchestral arrangements or cliché samples; Coffins and Ilsa immediately start their brutal eardrum massage with relentless riffs and grooves.
Case in point? You only get roughly 12 minutes of music on this EP. Maximum effort and distortion crammed into two songs.
Japan’s Coffins gets first crack at it with ‘Tyrant’ and they somehow make it sound more demonic than on last year’s Craving to Eternal Slumber. The guitar tone remains Coffins gnarly, but the production has dialed up the grit and smoke inhalation. Jun Tokita’s grunts sound like the product of a lifelong sand and gravel diet and are perfectly paired to Uchino’s skilsaw on asphalt guitar tone.
Tempo-wise, Ilsa aren’t as jackhammer intense as Coffins, but they certainly bring the decibels on ‘Cult of the Throne.’ But what they lack in speed, they make up for with an even grimier atmosphere and steady double bass stomp. Orion Peter’s pained howling and the crawling breakdown at around the 4:15 mark conjure up images of prime Eyehategod.
You may not get much in the way of running time, but Coffins and Ilsa satisfy if heaviness is what you crave. Can we get a tour now?
8.0/10
HANSEL LOPEZ
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RAM / Portrait – Under Command
Friends, allies and countrymen lending each other not just their ears, but their riffs too, and sharing black wax time and what we have here is a pretty cool, if gratuitous, way for two bands to promote themselves and each other. The premise for Under Command, a split EP (Metal Blade), is that each band contributes a new original, a re-imagining of the other band and a cover.
First up is RAM’s original, a spiky Judas Priest inspired 80’s rocket called ‘Savage Machine’. It goes without saying originality is at a premium, but it’s delivered in the right spirit. However, the best of RAM’s trio of unholiness is their take on Portrait’s ‘Welcome To My Funeral’, outdoing the original with graveyard tones and atmospheres working well. All the good work done in the first two, RAM chuck it away with a piss-weak and stock cover of KISS’ ‘Creatures Of The Night’ that seems to go on for double its four minute length.
Portrait have been (unfairly? the jury is still out…) tagged as wannabe Mercyful Fate merchants, with people comparing Per Lengstedt to the King, in an evaluation that the Portrait man can only come out second best in. ‘Martial Lead’ does little to dispel the Fate association, with Lengstedt’s voice and falsetto too rough and no Diamond. Their version of Exciter’s ‘Aggressor’ is decent, raw and aggressive enough, and they run through RAM’s ‘Blessed To Be Cursed’, a more underground and Satanic British Steel era Priest tune, with enough intent to do it justice.
All six tracks suffer from a retro production, and it’s interesting that by the end the differences between the two bands are negligible and this could be one release by the same act. It’s also of note that the more high profile of the two, Portrait, come out second best, but, then, RAM have more to benefit from this, and it shows in the power they put into their track.
All said and done, this is a decent enough curio, but no more than that.
6.0/10
STEVE TOVEY