Portland death rockers Excess Blood’s 2024 self-titled EP on Impotent Fetus was pretty fucking good already and on their recent follow-up, they sorta stick even closer to a pretty oldschool goth/post punk/death rock formula, so much that in the first seconds of Turn To Stone you’d almost think they’re about to segue right into a cover Joy Division’s Transmission. Usually that kind of thing doesn’t sound like the most attractive proposition to me on paper, but i gotta admit even the most traditional sounding records of that ilk aren’t all created equal and the devil is in the details really. On this one, all those details add up admirably – the tunes, the vibes, the performance and attitude, it’s all perfectly on point here, making for a record that sounds kinda old-fashioned but, unlike so many similar bands, not the least bit dull or stale.
This Berlin group plucks all the right strings in my neural sound processing circuits on their debut EP, on which they neatly combine a melodic, heavily song-based flavor of post punk á la The Estranged, Daylight Robbery or Sievehead with a decent dose of Wipers action, a bit of glammy eighties goth / death rock and a great deal of catchy, power pop-ish flourishes on top.
This is the third release already in just a couple months by this blackened-/dungeon punk act frome wherever in the US and just like its predecessors it’s yet another first-rate addition to the microgenre which approaches the stylistic signifiers of black metal from an uncommon post punk- and death rock angle to create a sound that’s in equal measure atmospheric, dense and layered while blasting a respectable crater in their own little patch of spooky dark forest all the same.
Excellent garage-leaning horror punk from yet another Minneapolis group. I gotta admit i wasn’t too thrilled at first as directionless is probably the right word to describe the opening track Lobotomized of their first long-playing effort, but thankfully after that, they quickly find their footing with pretty much everything that follows being on a different level altogether as flourishes of eighties early goth- and death rock collide with elements of early west coast punk and hardcore, plus riffs and solos straight out of the ’70s metal and motörpunk playbook in an inventive and tight-as-fuck explosion of highly addictive hooks.
Now i suddenly remember that, like, two weeks ago, i was thrilled as hell to see a new Nourishment EP being released and then apparently failed to bookmark it and forgot about it in the last couple weeks’ relentless flood of new releases. Happens to me all the time. Well, better late the never i guess. The sonic parameters on this one stay roughly the same for the US-based blackened-/dungeon punk group, althought the production values appear to have been improved a tiny bit here. As before, the new record captivates with a distinct spin on the genre that once again appears to take plenty of inspiration from contemporary, dark goth-infused post punk and oldschool death rock.
I didn’t ever think i’d need another instrumental surf rock record in my life, a genre that seemingly never expanded its stylistic vocabulary too much since its ’50s/60s gold rush or, even worse, often feels kinda like a dumbed-down, ultra-codified and risk-averse retread of its initial phase. This group from La Cisterna, Chile, however, pulls off that miracle of getting me invested in another surf-ish LP with a sound that makes me feel like goin’ surfin’ in… well, fuckin’ hell i’d say, tackling the genre from an angle of noisy, goth-infused post punk and death rock that infuses tons of energy and much needed fresh air into its ancient ways and in contrast to so much instrumental rock’n’roll (surf or otherwise) feeling in desperate need of a vocal line to bind together the moving parts, the arrangements on this record are perfectly capable to stand on their own – the dramaturgically dense compositions and guitar leads, brimming with energy, are masterfully telling their own stories, no words needed here.
Incredible new Dungeon Punk-related material from a mysterious group operating out of some unspecified dark forest located somewhere in the US. These folks approach the whole blackened punk thing from a heavily post punk- and goth/death rock-leaning angle, shrouding their fully developed, well-rounded song architecture in a beautifully fucked-up, blown-out Lo-Fi aesthetic, altogether reminding me of a couple of fairly recent genre entries by the likes of Conifère, Unsheather and Bloody Keep.
The 2020 debut EP of this spanish-singing swedish group still fit in (maybe a bit too) well with what i’d probably have described as your typical hardcore- and death rock-adjacent “dark punk” fare in the prior decade, though the 2021 split tape with Iceland’s genre mainstay Dauðyflin showed some steady progress already. Now, with their newest mini-LP, i’m gonna say they’re finally reaching peak performance and beginning to transcend their kinda restrictive genre surroundings with a bunch of new tunes that – though not actually inventing anything new here – tweak the genre’s basic nuts and bolts to absolute perfection in a breathless succession of immaculately built bursts of death and despair that keep things thrilling and interesting from start to finish, a quality that sadly has become a bit of a rarity in that particular niche.
It took them over five years to follow up on their excellent debut EP from 2019, but at long last here it is, the first LP by Sydney’s Negative Gears, on which they present an even more pitch-black, stone-cold vision than before, funneled into significantly matured and refined compositions and arrangements. Comparisons to US groups like early Institute, Rank/Xerox, Criminal Code and Nag still apply, kind of… but also i can sense some kinship with the widescreen drama of berlin-based duo Dead Finks and its sort-of precursor group, New Zeeland’s Trust Punks. Then again, songs like the opening track Negative Gear and Pills carry some of the hallmarks of british post punk powerhouses like Girls In Synthesis and Sievehead while in calmer moments like Ants and Zoned, a melancholia and elegance reminiscent of recent Marbled Eye or Tube Alloys shines through.
Now goth-infused minimalist synthwave is by no means among the genres i’m naturally inclined to get excited about, mostly due to its usually pretty formulaic and uninspired nature, but the newest LP by this Zagreb, Croatia dude, who already made a glorious impression opening for Nag in 2022, makes for a thoroughly pleasant exception to the rule. Admittedly, there’s nothing exactly new and unheard to these Songs either, but in spite of their kinda simple, tried and tested essence, they are undeniably well-balanced and always hit the spot, bursting with catchy hooks and melodies, plenty of energy and an eerily familiar yet incredibly effective sense of melancholia. Maybe that’s just my own bias, but rather than your average synth wave act i’m reminded way more of punk/garage-related acts like Digital Leather (yeah, that’s the very obvious one), O-D-EX and, most of all, the totally one-of-a-kind 2017 Sex Tourists LP.
