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 LIVE REVIEWANTICHRIST SIEGE MACHINE / CAUSTIC WOUND / COMMUTED / ANGUTA - Portland, ME, 8/20/2025
When the gods of war call, you answer! Even if that means driving nearly two hours North on a school night. Caustic Wound put out one of my favorite albums of 2025 so far (see my review somewhere in this mess of a column) and ASM have been one of my favorites for a minute, so there was no way that I was missing this.
The show was at this art gallery/event space in Portland called Space (clever, right?!), which is stationed on the main drag of town. This would be unsustainable in any other city in America, but Portland, ME is somehow able to support several VHS rental stores as well as a pretty mid cryptozoology museum, so having a DIY collective right next to City Hall is about par for the course. I wasn't sure if I was even at the right venue at first but the dude taking tickets at the door was wearing a Blasphemy shirt, so I figured Space was probably the place.
I immediately got stuck paying for an overpriced beer just as Anguta were finishing up. They were playing on the floor. At first I thought they were doing like a 90's Assuck thing, but then Commuted also started setting up on the floor in the looming shadow of Caustic Wound's stage set up, so I figured this was just Space's way of trying to keep the show running on time rather than CW or ASM big timing the local bands.
Commuted played standard war metal complete with pick scrapes and divebombs. They also played in almost complete darkness so, yes, I was that asshole blinding everyone when I checked my phone. Sorry.
Caustic Wound were up next and I really gotta start looking at liner notes because I had no idea they were a five piece?! With three=fifths of the members looking like Morbid Angel, and the other two looking like they are in Damnation AD or some shit, CW play music that sounds pretty much what they look like. They rule. The bassist's filthy tone convinced me I really need to save my pennies up for a T-40. No between song banter, just 25 minutes of sonic annihilation with the singer sweaty and shirtless by the end. I should mention that though it was August, it was one of those weird weeks where the weather was 60 degrees and rainy so everyone at the show was testing out their fall looks and wearing way too many layers. Even before Caustic Wound started, the venue had already jumped up to about 80 degrees and was smelling like deli farts and clove cigarettes. I swear I watched one dude take off his Darkthrone hoodie to reveal a Darkthrone shirt to which he immediately covered with a vest boasting a giant Darkthrone backpatch!? I'm pretty sure it wasn't Fenriz himself but who can say?
Antichrist Siege Machine played last and before they even played one note, the front row was PACKED with young, swooning ladies?! It shouldn't have to be said but ASM play music that's not unlike a blender full of glass set to "puree," so while it was awesome seeing such a diverse crowd, I don't get it. My friend later said that maybe it's because drummer/vocalist Scott cut his hair. Maybe they ARE big timing rock stars?! Is Tiger Beat still a thing? If so, have I got a band for them!
So ASM completely crush it. The crowd is moshing and head banging. They love guitarist/vocalist Ryan's pre-set ritual of brandishing the giant spiked knife that graces the cover of their album, Purifying Blade, and then impaling his poor amp with it. The Richmond, VA weight-lifting devil worshipping duo blasted through a half hour set with such intensity that I don't know how Scott's arms are still hanging on?! The fact that he also has strength left to bash the drums for the excellent Left Cross is a testament to a solid workout regiment. He may also be on drugs.
Hopefully CW and ASM will tour together beyond just a string of East Coast shows so that they can leave more crowd's screaming and creaming in their war metal wake! Hails!
 SADISTIC FORCE - Morbid Odyssey (sadisticforce.bandcamp.com/)
From the perpetually weather-ravaged hellhole of Austin, Texas, come the blackened-thrash assassins, Sadistic Force! For having only been around about five years, SF have already racked up a pretty substantial discography including a split with Hellrot as well as an album on Texas's own Goat Throne Records. Morbid Odyssey finds the boys self-releasing a five-song EP produced by Ohio's Noah Buchanan, who has worked with Midwest slimeballs like Nunslaughter and Midnight. Now that my soggy brain thinks about it, Sadistic Force kinda sound like a perfect cross between Nunslaughter and Midnight?! You get the shredding solos of Midnight combined with the barf-bag vocals of Nunslaughter. Or Imagine Destruction's "Sentence of Death" if their balls had dropped! Props to cover artist Wibowo Yudo Baskoro for capturing the essence of this EP with a painting of some dude taking bong rips out of the skull and spine of a freshly murdered corpse! Someone see if the Louvre is accepting submissions?
 HATEFUL ABANDON - Threat (sentientruin.com)
It's weird that Chat Pile is a popular band, right? You know things are truly fucked when even normies can relate to the strains of early Godflesh!? UK's Hateful Abandon is back after a ten-year hiatus to remind us that we indeed have no future to look forward to! Threat delivers eight blasts of misery from the post-punk/industrial duo who dig up the corpses of early Killing Joke, Amebix, Swans and Art of Noise, and throw them into the gears of some awful machine deep inside a decrepit factory located in some unpronounceable British town, and record whatever gets churned out. "The Grid" is nearly danceable while "Dome" is basically just noise and "Shithouse" might just be song of the year?! If you're putting together a playlist to jam while you wander the post-apocalyptic wasteland of this ruined Earth, Hateful Abandon has some bangers.
 STOMACH - Low Demon (stomachdoom.bandcamp.com/)
Midwest winters must truly be the drizzling shits if you join 300000000 bands like Stomach's John Hoffman has just to stay on tour and get away from them?! Just move, dude! However, us idiots have been reaping the rewards of his poor living choices for years thanks to his bands like Weekend Nachos, Spine, Ledge, and Harm's Way. And that's just grabbing the glop off of the surface of the man's discography!
Stomach is basically a continuation of John's one man sludge project ,Ledge, only he brought along ex-Weekend Nachos member, Adam Tomlinson (notably of Sea of Shit) and Kirk Syrek of Sick/Tired to suffer with him. Stomach play the type of hopeless doom-laden sludge I love! Low Demon is five tracks and over a half hour of agony that you want to turn off but just can't because it just keeps getting sicker and sicker! For instance, right when you're about to skip your way out of the oppressiveness of "Get Through the Winter", it becomes a hardcore song! Why? Fuck you! That's why! If you like Primitive Man or the sounds of sheer misery, Low Demon is the album of the summer!
 REVENGE – Violation. Strife. Abominate (revengeofficial.bandcamp.com)
Apologies to Revenge for taking six months to get to their new album. I’m honestly a big fan but so much crap comes out nowadays in limited quantities that I gotta prioritize the little bit of spare cash I do have for those “exclusive to 5 jizz stained copies!” releases and I know Revenge is always going to be there. And we should all be grateful for that! Please don’t enact “revenge” upon me!!!
Revenge is the duo of J. Read and Vermin. Despite Revenge having been around for close to 25 years, J’s epitaph is still going to read that he was a founding member of the short- ived but legendary war metal duo, Conqueror. Being half of two of the most influential war metal bands of the past 30 years can’t even buy you bus fare in Canada, which is why J has never taken his pissed- ff foot off of the gas for any of Revenge’s now seven full lengths ( pus seven EP’s and singles!) Violation. Strife. Abominate continues Revenge’s three-word naming convention along with their filthy mix of grind, black metal, and just messed up noise effects. One of the common criticisms thrown Revenge’s way is that they have basically released the same album seven times in a row. Dummies said that about the Ramones and AC/DC too. If you actually listen to their albums, you’ll hear quite a lot of growth. From their early noise / quasi-industrial beginnings to their most recent release which might be, dare I say, kind of listenable? Look, listenable is a dirty word in this here column, but if you’re a young buck just dipping your toes into war metal, I might honestly recommend this and the previous Revenge album as a good starting point before you move on to other war metal bands who make you question whether or not your stereo is working right. That’s also not to say that you’re going to confuse Revenge with Ghost or Sleep Token any time soon. Revenge’s audience is hardcore and pretty self-selecting. Thirty-seconds into “Shockwave Iconoclast”, “Treason Disrupt (All Are Guilty)” or “Swine Tumult (On All Fours)” and you’ll know if Revenge is your new favorite band or something you’ll only play to scare racoons away from your garbage cans. Personally, I got a Revenge patch on my vest so I consider them a “Satan-tier” act. Every one of their releases are certified “poseur disposers” , including this one. If it’s savagery you’re seeking, bow before Revenge as they chop your traitorous head off!
 DEADGUY - Near Death Travel Services (Relapse.com; deadguy666.bandcamp.com)
Coming home to this album after spending two weeks "on the continent" ,as us cultured elites say, was extremely funny because, while overseas, the pancreas of one of my travelling companions decided to shit the bed resulting in your hero having to drive him to some backwater French town which boasted the only ER in the region. Navigating 12th century streets and highways in a giant car made in the 21st century and trying to decipher street signs written in a language you don't speak while your passenger vomits blood into a wine bag - "Near Death Travel Services" indeed! (He's fine, by the way. Thanks for asking. Dick).
Near Death Travel services is Deadguy's first full-length in over 30 years. If you've been paying attention over the past 20 years or so, you will have noticed that almost every go-nowhere band from the 90's has reunited to varying degrees of success. Some of these ding dongs even decided to record new albums, almost all of which have been profoundly mediocre! So when Deadguy announced they were also going to make a new album, I was worried as Deadguy is one of my favorite bands. But Deadguy were never a normal band. Despite being one of Victory's early signings, they always claimed metal instead of hardcore. And on a label where the vibe was basketball jerseys and songs about killing drug dealers, Deadguy were the black sheep. Sounding like a cross between Slayer and every band on Amphetamine Reptile, Deadguy were darker, heavier, scarier, funnier, and older than all of their label mates. Which is why I dug them way more than Integrity or Strife.
Oliver, shut the fuck up and tell me if this album is worth my money or not!? Yes. Yes it is. A perfect sequel to the skull-pounding "Fixation on a Coworker." Deadguy is still pissed, still hate their jobs, still hate 90% of their friends, and as the world has only gotten shittier and more miserable since their last full-length, we need their music more than ever! There's sadly no prize for correctly predicting how awful things would get back in the sunny and booming economy of the 90s. Or that putting all of our faith (and money) in the hands of loser technocrats who couldn't get laid and whose fathers either didn't hit or hug them enough would result not in a utopia, but in an unlivable world full of unnecessary and broken web connecting devices, climate annihilation, mass poverty, and porn that still takes forever to load while your media illiterate dad who didn't trust the 'net back in the day is now 100% convinced the AI generated image of a buff Trump fighting a werewolf he saw on Facebook is totally real! But Deadguy knew! Near Death Travel services is like watching the world through the eyes of Private Pyle. The crushing, discordant riffs seem to get slower and slower as the album progresses so it feels like the record is fucking choking you by the end as Tim Singer tries his best to scream his way out of it! You have to be pretty "mentally unwell" to be as angry as you were in your twenties, but considering most bands of twentysomethings these days are trying their best to ignore the world falling apart around them (and who can blame them?), someone has to be pissed for the rest of us - and Deadguy are more than up for the challenge! Hail Satan! Hail Deadguy! Evil never dies!!
 LIPOMA - No Cure for the Sick (lipoma-gurglinggore.bandcamp.com)
Put on your dancing shoes and get your barf bags ready because the "progenitor of melo-goregrind", the bi-coastal Dr. Lipoma, has once again emerged from the toilet for eleven new shits that sound like what would happen if everyone in Gothenburg got food poisoning! Until the vocals kick in you'd swear this was some lost At the Gates Slaughter of the Soul-era demo, but then the rancid, pitch-shifted gurgles hit and you see the songs are titled things like "Remedies of Pagan Medicine" and "Psalms of Psoriasis"...and then you're even more confused?! You'd think this would be too listenable for the goregrind purists and that melo-death weirdos would reject it for not having enough songs about conquering Valhalla, but, more confusingly still, I have yet to come across one braindead headbanger who doesn't love Lipoma?! If you ever wished Symphonies of Sickness Carcass could be surgically stapled to Heartwork Carcass, congrats! Here it is! This freak is your problem now! A Lipoma / Haggus tour would be something to witness (and can you imagine the smell?!) Shouts to Maine's own Big Daddy Gore for continuing to scour the bowels of the underworld for only the freshest filth!
WITHERER - Shadow Without A Horizon (hypaethralrecords.com)
Not sure Canada has the same Google as us ding dongs in the States do, because, if they did, the members of Witherer would have noticed we have had a band here for some time called Withered that play more or less the same mix of blackened death doom that Witherer do!? Hey, band names are tough! However, where Withered are more on the doom end of the spectrum, Witherer are solidly more on the punishing black metal side of things. Shadow Without a Horizon is five tracks clocking in at almost an agonizing hour with three of the tracks going well over the ten minute mark. Plenty of time to burn down that blunt or cry your feelings out because Sally from gym class wasn’t impressed with your Euronymous shower sandals. If you dig what Thantifaxath are doing or wish Primitive Man came from a colder climate, Witherer are right up your depressed alley!
 GRUESOME – Silent Echoes (gruesomedeathmetal.bandcamp.com)
Where do we even start with Gruesome? You can’t mention Gruesome without talking about Death (RIP Chuck and his cat shirt) as Gruesome is essentially a “tribute” to the works of Death. Not to be confused with the Death tribute bands that feature surviving members of Death like Death to All and Left to Die who also, coincidentally, feature members of Gruesome! Can I coin the phrase “Death-ception”? Because that’s what’s happening here. It gets even weirder when you remember that Gruesome singer / guitarist, Matt Harvey, is also the singer/guitarist of CA grind legends, Exhumed, who themselves are a “tribute” to early Carcass! Which band am I supposed to be reviewing again?! I need another drink!
Urrrrrrp…That’s better! So, Gruesome. While each Gruesome album is all original material, they borrow the, uh, vibe and production of a particular Death album for each of their releases. For instance, their 2015 debut, Savage Lands, was a tribute to Death’s Scream Bloody Gore and Leprosy; while 2018’s, Twisted Prayers, was a tribute to Death’s Spiritual Healing. This brings us to their most recent album Silent Echoes which is a tribute to Death’s Human. Still with me? I know most of you dear readers are drug-addicted, alcoholic, grade school dropouts so I’m trying to go slow for your benefit. The eight tracks of Silent Echoes go all in on the ‘tech-death’ masterpiece that is Human with killer bass solos, insane riffing, and drum patterns that use timing I can’t even figure out by counting on all eleven of my fingers and toes! Human-era drummer, Sean Reinert, was apparently good friends with Gruesome’s drummer, Gus Rios, and I can’t think of any better way to honor the man’s memory than with such complex kick drum patterns! If “Fragments of Psyche”, “A Darkened Window”, or “Voice Within the Void (Astral Oceans)” don’t drag you right back to 1991, you’re either too young or were too lame!
 CRYPTOPSY – An Insatiable Violence (cryptopsyofficial.bandcamp.com/)
I took a class on the devil in college (which should be a requirement at every college, if you ask me!) where the professor made us read a play he wrote which was a sequel to No Exit. But instead of being trapped with insufferable people, you’re trapped with yourself at different ages. I bring this up not to brag that my moronic ass actually went to college, but to make a point about Canadian brutal/ tech death legends, Cryptopsy. Back in the 90’s, these Canucks took everyone by surprise with the face-melting combo of Blasphemy Made Flesh and None So Vile. The revelation that you could be heavy, fast, and technical all at the same time sent many a longhair shredder back to the woodshed to quickly try and get better! But the problem with releasing two of the arguably best death metal records of all time is that you’re then forever in competition with yourself.
While Cryptopsy never really fell off like some other death metal legends, the 2000’s weren’t all that kind to them either (their dalliance with “metalcore” and making fun of the fans who didn’t like their dalliance with metalcore also didn’t help things). Going through multiple lineup changes with only original drummer, Flo Mounier, left from the golden years, Cryptopsy took a ten year break, returning in 2023 with As Gomorrah Burns. Whether it was absence making the fart fonder or the fact that As Gomorrah Burns kind of ruled, Cryptopsy were back, baby! And this year’s An Insatiable Violence goes just as hard! Vocalist Matt McGachy has had nearly twenty years to get his voice to the place where people might finally stop comparing him to Lord Worm! Maybe the non-stop comparisons actually made him angrier?! The furiousness rips through especially in closer in “Malicious Needs”! Musically, this is Cryptopsy 101! The fact that Flo’s limbs haven’t outrightly quit due to all the suffering he puts them through behind his kit is a testament to the healing powers of back bacon (or universal healthcare)! And the riffs are just as punishing and incomprehensible as they ever were! You’re also in and out in less than 40 minutes and left feeling like you are a Leafs fan in Habs arena, and the Habs just lost! You other slacking death metal legends once again have no excuse! Pop some Viagra and get back to the woodshed!
 DRUDKH – Shadow Play (drudkh.bandcamp.com/music)
Ukrainian atmospheric black metal mountain ghouls Drudkh have once again appeared out of the fog to curse us with more songs about Ukrainian history and poetry that us dummies over here in the US continue to not understand! Hell, I don’t even know how to correctly pronounce Drudkh?! (though, at my rotted old age, buy me more than three drinks and watch me get pretty drudkh!) Shadow Play is six tracks clocking in at just under an hour with three of them being over the ten minute mark as required by today’s black metal code of conduct (don’t ask me, I don’t even work here!) I will say, Drudkh’s production has taken a big leap forward on Shadow Play. Yes, Thurios’s voice continues to sound like it was recorded down the street from the rest of the band, but that only pushes the musical atmospherics to the front (and, again, you have no idea what he’s saying anyway). If you’ve rocked with Drudkh in the past or their side project, Hate Forest, you’ll dig more crushing, screaming, Ukrainian fury (with just a touch of melody here and there)!
 IMPUREZA – Alcázares (impureza.bandcamp.com)
The French death metal band that sing en Español are back with a whole album about the “Spanish Reconquista” which is (dusts off elementary school history book) “ medieval Spain’s struggle between Christian kingdoms and Muslim-ruled Al-Andalus from the 8th century until 1492.” Basically, Impureza’s lyrical fodder for this album is wars, torture, and church burnings. All great topics for metal songs! Musically, Impureza play that European style of tech-tinged death that’s personally not my thing but that I bet gets the pits going at those huge international metal festivals (which, Season of Mist, if you’re listening, I’d love to be flown out to one all expenses paid! I’m broke and my complicity can be bought! Holla!). And while I admit that the flamenco guitar interludes are musically impressive, they kind of stop the moshing momentum when they pop up. Have we learned nothing from later day Sepultura? So, if you’re a history nerd or like Behemoth, you’ve already pre-ordered this. But if you dig the style mashups that stateside bands like Tzompantli are doing, why not check this out? If anything, you might learn something that will help you win bar trivia!?
BLUDGEONED BY DEFORMITY – Epoch of Immortality (ironfortressrecords.bandcamp.com)
So band name of the year is already in the bag! Thanks, BBD, that’s one less thing I have to think about! Lead by Sanguisugabogg’s word-vomitor, Devin Swank, and featuring the skin bashing of Pig Destroyer and Misery Index’s Adam Jarvis, BBD is a recently formed tribute to the dulcet tones of late 90’s, East Coast brutal death metal. Think Internal Bleeding with loads better production and no pig squeals, or Eternal Suffering without the ping-y snare, or Pyrexia (who these thieves stole their name from!!) Ok, I won’t lie to you, this really isn’t all that different than what Sanguisugabogg is currently doing, just with maybe a few more breakdowns and grind parts here and there. But seeing how Sanguisugabogg is like the less child-murder-y (that we know of?!) Pied Piper, leading impressionable young deadbeats down the gore soaked path of extreme metal, some additional servings of rot isn’t a bad thing! Iron Fortress has been one of the premier underground labels in the cash hemorrhaging business of death metal, so maybe this EP will turn some new ears on to their more gross fare? Or at least get them to buy a Skinless album.
 BLOOD MONOLITH – The Calling of Fire (bloodmonolith.bandcamp.com; profoundlorerecords.com/)
Blood Monolith is the recent project of Shelby Lermo, formerly of erotic freaks Vastum and now shredding in the Todd Jones war machine that is Nails, that along with Tommy Wall of Undeath, Aidan Tydings-Lynch of Brain Torniquet, and Nolan of Shitstorm, have created one of the best reggae albums I’ve heard all year! I’m joking, you morons! It’s a death metal supergroup! Of course it’s a death metal supergroup! Do they wear their 90’s influences on their sleeveless and booze stained shirts? What do you think?! Don’t pick this up expecting a genre-redefining album or anything that would make that dork Fantano use scary and confusing words like “auspicious.” This is a meat and potatoes, punch your neighbor in the face, hail Satan and pass the ammunition-type death metal album. A half-hour-ish long relentless bludgeoning with some doom-parts occasionally sprinkled in (the Grief inspired album cover should be a clue) is what you get for your lunch money, and it’s money well spent. You can probably stand to lose a few pounds anyway.
 HELMS DEEP – Chasing the Dragon (helmsdeep666.bandcamp.com; namelessgraverecords.com)
Helms Deep is less a tribute and more a continuation considering two of the lineup are founding members of underrated 80’s metal pioneers, Raven. Named after some Hobbit bullshit, Helms Deep is exactly what you think it is: 70’s-80’s heavy metal with lyrics about dragons, vampires, and aliens. It’s a painted Chevy van come to life! Solos, falsettos, and head banging riffs are what you get over the 10.5 tracks of Chasing the Dragon (I’m not really counting the brief instrumental intro “Wing Chun”). My only complaint is that vocalist Alex Sciortino can sometimes break glass with his falsetto but other times kinda holds it back? Maybe it’s a voice preservation thing? But if I could hit the notes he does, I’d make it my mission to rupture every eardrum within a 10-mile radius of me! The production of Chasing the Dragon is also period correct to the point where you can almost make out vinyl pops and clicks in the audio, the result of you cleaning your weed in the album’s gatefold. If you liked that Century album, you’ll want to stop trimming your gross-looking wispy mustache and rush (excuse me, Rush) out to buy this!
 HAGGUS – Destination Extinction (tankcrimes.bandcamp.com/)
The world’s most listenable bunch of mincecore freaks are back again with the soundtrack to your lonely, shitty summer of watching people have fun at the beach while you sit in your room reading every volume of Das Kapital. “Mincecore” is like if grindcore grew an extra braincell and took night classes on political theory at a local community college. It’s a nice change of pace for those who want more from metal than just stories about vomit monsters from a sewer swamp. But don’t think Haggus is anything like attending a Chomsky lecture. Haggus fully embrace the slop filled pool of goregrind with some of the most puke-inducing sounds and graphics around! The singer sounds like he’s gargling week old chowder while the razor-sharp riffs, grinding bass, and blasting drums are some of the most moshable sounds you’ll hear all year. “Catchy” and “grind” are rarely things you’ll hear in the same sentence, but thanks to the production by “Grammy” Greg Wilkinson at the unholy Earhammer Studios, Destination Extinction might be the siren song that lures some more metal mouthbreathers away from spending all their allowance on an F-150 with an American flag painted on it, and into the welcoming ski masks of Antifa!
 SHRINKWRAP KILLERS – Feed the Clones Pt.2 (carbonizedrecords.com)
And speaking of Greg Wilkinson, if the maniac wasn’t busy enough producing seemingly every other metal band that Arthur Rizk can’t get to, he’s also currently required at rehearsals for Autopsy, Deathgrave, Brainoil, Static Abyss, Leather Glove, and probably a bunch more by the time you get around to reading this! Still, this freak of nature somehow found the hours in the day to also be a one-man band known as, Shrinkwrap Killers! That West Coast coffee must be something else?! Feed the Clones Pt.2 is the sequel to 2023’s Feed the Clones Pt.1 and despite Mr. Wilkinson’s metal bona fides, Shrinkwrap Killers sounds nothing like Autopsy but a whole hell of a lot like The Normal, Pere Ubu, The Spits, and The Screamers. Dark and sinister post-punk with excellent song titles like “Piss Bottles and Shit Bags”, “Rolling Hills and Rolling Heads”, and “3D Printing Humans”. Still, it’s not all Argento soundscapes, Feed the Clones Pt.2 has plenty of early B-52’s parts that you can Molly Ringwald-style dance to! Stop scaring the goths with your Devourment collection! Throw this on at your next party and watch the makeouts commence!
ANCIENT DEATH – Ego Dissolution (Profound Lore)
You gotta love a band that loves their moms and dads! With Mother’s Day 2025 in the recent rearview, let’s give it up for the moms who raised the members of Walpole MA’s finest, Ancient Death, because they clearly did a great job. From the Obituary eyes on the album cover to the excellent selection of shirts worn on the inside band photo (where do you even get a Rippikoulu shirt?!) shows me that these freaks were raised on the good stuff! And the music is just as reflective. There’s the obvious Dismember/HM-2 worship (actually done well?!) but Ancient Death clearly also like to play in the same psilocybin fields as Blood Incantation does with their dreamscape sounds and solos on top of solos. I’d say at least 50% of Ego Dissolution is killer guitar solos (thank mom and dad for the lessons!) but that doesn’t take away from the equally as sick low end. Bassist Jasime Alexander shreds the fretless bass and adds killer harmonies while drummer Derek Moniz has recently been inducted into the legendary Cruciamentum (apparently as a bassist but, still). If the BI boys have gotten too trippy for you, Ancient Death is here to welcome your spin kicks with open arms!
 CAUSTIC WOUND – Grinding Mechanism of Torment (profoundlorerecords.bandcamp.com)
Does what it says on the tin! The second full length from the Pacific Northwest war machine is another audible onslaught that’s in and out in under a half hour leaving nothing but bones, blood and gore in its wake like a well-oiled death squad! While the members of Caustic Wound’s other bands, like Bone Sickness, Mortiferum, and Corpus Offal, play various permutations on the squishy genre of “death metal," Caustic Wound’s sound is slicker, meaner, and more brutal than all of them! Look, I get it, grindcore can be monotonous. If you have a favorite Phobia song, you’re a liar! But a lot of modern grind bands now draw from all kinds of genres and Caustic Wound is no exception. Several of the songs on Grinding Mechanism of Torment go from blast beats, to death metal riffs, to a two-step part, to a war metal “ough!” and back again. I can best compare it what fellow West Coaster-ers Morgue Breath are currently doing. But where Morgue Breath lean more towards the hardcore side of things, Caustic Wound go more in the war- metal direction, most evident on the last song, “…into cold deaf universe,” which is nothing more than howling screams of pain over an interminable riff. And it rules! If you like members of Caustic Wound’s other bands, Morgue Breath or Primitive Warfare (and you should!), then Grinding Mechanism of Torment will leave you deader than the rotting skull on the album cover!
 PHANTOM – Tyrants of Wrath (Headsplit / High Roller)
I knew I had a package coming from Headsplit so I was excited to see it was out for delivery the other day. I was less excited when suddenly it was NOT out for delivery?! A day later I discovered that it showed up at the post office one town over. Thankfully, one call to the very helpful postal clerk sorted things out and the package was delivered within the hour! Upon arrival, I can see why there might have been a delay as Dylan had packed my order like the contents were cursed! After much hacking through the layers and layers of packing material, I finally unearthed the filth inside.
Speaking of curses, Tyrants of Wrath is the second full-length release from those prolific speed metal maniacs from Mexico, Phantom. Since forming in 2021, they already have what appears to be about 14 releases spread across demos, singles, EP’s, and albums. Last year brought us the excellent Transylvanian "Nightmare" EP and Tyrants of Wrath picks the thrash right up from there but takes it even further into hell. The 11 tracks here would be an impressive feat for any musician, but given that the mean age of Phantom members appears to be about 20, it’s downright amazing! We are finally bearing the fruits of the generation raised with access to all music ever at the tips of their Flamin’ Hot Cheetos stained fingers! If you didn’t know better, you’d swear you had heard this before sometime in the 80’s being blasted out of the busted speakers of your friend’s burnout older brother’s Tacoma while cruising for weed when he’s supposed to be babysitting. Too specific of an example? Anyway, Phantom are not content to just be a Hirax tribute and beef up the speed metal template with moshable riffs and spooky theatrics courtesy of guest piano, synth and “sepulchral voice.” A perfect compliment to their awesome mascot, the death dealing skeleton! Tyrants of Wrath is available on LP and CD from Germany’s High Roller Records and, if you’re quick, you might be able to grab one of the limited 100 copies put out on cassette stateside by Headsplit Records. 
MORBIFIC – Bloom of the Abnormal Flesh (mesacounojo.bandcamp.com)
Look, the one thing I know about Finland is that it has “mountains so lofty, treetops so tall.” The other thing I know is that it has produced some of the sickest death metal of the last 50 years. Must be the mountain air? You explain Demilich otherwise?! Morbific are a recent addition to that grotesque lineage. (de)Formed in 2020, and featuring a member of the excellent Sadistic Drive, Morbific have developed quite the reputation for vileness over the past five years, even putting out splits with Anatomia and Galvanizer. And when you’re on a release with those sick fucks, you’re gonna need songs like “stifling stagnant reek”, “hydraulic slaughter”, and “smut club (for the chosen scum)” to stand toe to decapitated toe! But instead of being bludgeoned by riff after riff, Morbific’s “music” is more often like slowly being dragged into a sewer and devoured by a horrible rat creature over a matter of days. You’d have a lot of time to wonder how you got yourself into that predicament while the guttural vocals, doom-y bass, brutal riffs, and occasionally grinding drums of Morbific provide the perfect soundtrack to your gross, prolonged and painful death.
P.I.L.A.U – Poisoned in the Pit (headsplitrecords.storenvy.com)
From Finland now to Hawaii. There really must be trouble in paradise if bands from these regions are as pissed P.I.L.A.U is! I know band names can be tough considering there’s already a Pilau from DC (that also have a member from Hawaii?!) but THIS P.I.L.A.U distinguishes themselves not only through annoying punctuation, but also through playing some of the best thrash going today. This is the real deal! None of that “pizza riding a skateboard” thrash here! P.I.L.A.U went to Exodus surf school and graduated with DRI honors before being eaten by a Toxic Holocaust shark (Billy Milano to speak at the funeral). Hell, if I weren’t so worried about my ancient knees, I’d be tempted to pull out the Powell Perelta, throw on the "Poisoned in the Pit" EP, and try a switch heelflip to emergency room! Even the haoles are moshing!
CENTURY – Sign of the Storm (centuryswe.bandcamp.com)
King Diamond played near me last Halloween and, like a dummy, I got way too high beforehand so all I remember was the opener, Overkill, calling me a pussy. Well, not me specifically, but it still put me in a weird headspace that not even King’s aged-like-fine-blood falsetto could pull me out of. What cheered me up is the fact that “heavy metal” is back, baby! Crypt Sermon, Attic, and now the new album from Sweden’s Century are once again making it safe to wear a vest with no shirt outside (which might help my fat ass at the beach this summer!) This two-man colossus has put together 10 tracks of Dickinson-approved, unfiltered metal. No blackened thrash, no blast beats, no growls; just riffs, solos, falsettos, and even melodies?! I know this column is intended to showcase music that sounds like putting a hairdryer next to your ear, but I’ll be Satan damned if the title track “sign of the storm”, isn’t the catchiest song I’ve heard in a long time! Ride your steed into battle and victory is guaranteed with Century!
Live Review
Zero Survive / Sadochismo / Morgue Breath, 5/14/25, Dover, NH
There are very few things that can get me to go to New Hampshire [statistically, the second worst state in the union after Connecticut (and that’s no easy feat, considering we also have Texas and Florida!!)], but we’re circling Maryland Death Fest time so a lot of bands that wouldn’t normally fart in the direction of this side of the country are gracing us with their presence! Los Angeles’ Morgue Breath also happened to put out one of my favorite albums of 2024, Plaga Sin Rostro, so I had no choice but to drag my ancient and rotting body out to a brewpub in NH on a Wednesday night for a show that didn’t even get going until 10pm! See the things I do for you?! Ok, I could have waited a day to see them play Boston but at this stage in life, a show can be happening in my living room and there’d still be a 50/50 chance I’d attend, so I went for the show with guaranteed parking (I’m still punk as fuck!)
Aaaaaaaanyway, Zero Survive played first and were a crushing grind onslaught. The singer walking around with a glass of white wine afterwards showed me that we all really do contain multitudes! Sadochismo played next and their singer used some sort of effect pedal where the only effect was to make his vocals inaudible. Still, the music was tight grind/noise. I noted that the crowd was going off for the local bands (side note: kids today dress goofy as fuck. I know the 90’s are “back” but that doesn’t mean you have to adopt the corniest of things we all bought into like giant jorts and puffy skate shoes. Ah, they’ll learn when they have to see pictures of themselves from today sometime in the future, assuming we make it that far?!), so I expected the venue to be destroyed for the mighty Morgue Breath.
People have debated if it’s worth touring around festivals or does it make sense to save gas and just fly in to play the fest? I briefly spoke with Morgue Breath’s singer/guitarist, Ivo, and he seemed genuinely stoked to be playing for people, even if it was just a few NH weirdos on a Wednesday night! If you’re into music long enough, your brain starts to die and you begin thinking like a tour manager, completely forgetting that some people just like to play music?! What a concept!?
Anyhow, Morgue Breath began to play and absolutely crush! To my surprise, the crowd just kind of respectfully stood there. I would have started mixing it up, but I’m far too pretty to get kicked in the face, so I tried to psychically encourage the yung’ins to mosh it up. To no avail. Regardless, MB play a killer mix of grind/death metal/hardcore that’s a veritable buffet of unlistenable noise! Drummer Issac Horne appears to be the lynchpin of LA’s incredible grind scene, beating the shit out of his drums for Sulfuric Cautery, Orchiopexy, and Retching Purulence amongst a dozen others. It’s unfair that the West Coast gets the nice weather AND a killer scene too! (Okay, I guess half of the city did burn down earlier this year, so that’s a check in the minus column). And bassist Emi holds down the lows with one of the nastiest bass tones I’ve heard in awhile! Morgue Breath were in and out in under a half hour and I was on the road back home before midnight! Wins all around! Catch Morgue Breath if they come anywhere near the crappy place you live!
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