The Morningside - Yellow

 

The soft and bittersweet consonance of post-rock, the droning of depressive doom metal, and progressively-minded arrangements are three elements that shouldn't sonically "play nice" on paper. Moscow's own The Morningside shows with their latest album, Yellow, that not only can the aforementioned elements co-exist in the same thought but that they also can be separate components that make a much greater whole, one that is truly unique.

Lychgate - An Antidote For The Glass Pill

Black metal can be an enigmatic beast; from it's Norwegian origins to USBM to anywhere else in the world, it varies from band to band and continent to continent. Enter the UK's Lychgate and their 2nd full length, An Antidote For The Glass Pill; a thoroughly horrifying album in the best way possible. Organs are a major piece to this quintet's sound and they at times can sound like a more mysterious Mr. Bungle. The overarching atmosphere is that of say playing some of the original Resident Evil games without a strategy guide; never knowing what lurks around the corner.

Crypt Sermon - Out Of The Garden

When you are busy people like Brooks Wilson and Steve Jansson, you may find it hard to release new material as often as they do. Whether this duo is breaking necks as death metal band Trenchrot, grinding through some Nasum love as Unrest or by paying homage to the forefathers of epic doom metal in their most recent iteration: Crypt Sermon and their debut Out Of The Garden. you are surely to be impressed by the sheer variety of metal showcased by this heavy metal brain trust.

Sarin - Burial Dream

It seems crazy to think about, but 2015 marks five years since Isis called it quits, leaving the metal world without one of its most important and influential bands.  Just as crazy to think about is that post-metal as a genre is doing at least as well now as it was when the world lost Isis.  Part of that is due to the members of the band pursuing other projects with the same insane level of talent they brought to Isis; another is a new wave of post-metal bands following in Isis' wake.  Pelican continues to defy expectations and improve on every album they release, and I've written before about my love for Cold Blue Mountain and their phenomenal 2014 album Old Blood.  Now another disciple has stepped forward to spread the good word, in the form of Brampton, Ontario's Sarin, and their new album Burial Dream.

Lord Dying - Poisoned Altars

Metal sub-genres are often problematic endeavors.  At their best and most worthwhile, they give some vague descriptor of sound to potential listeners; at their worst they pigeonhole a band's sound so specifically that every band out there turns into their own sub-genre.  I'm glad they exist, because it can be a nice, easy way to describe a band without exerting too much effort; "Oh, you like doom metal?  You gotta check out Bell Witch (seriously, check out Bell Witch if you haven't yet)!"  At the same time, I hate that they exist because it can be damn near impossible to categorize some bands or albums.  Genres are basically a series of shifting venn diagrams that exist with the complete circle that is "Metal," and quite often a band will exist inside multiple overlapping circles.  Such is the case with Lord Dying's sophomore effort Poisoned Altars; you wouldn't be wrong to call it sludge or stoner metal, but neither of those labels properly convey what awaits you on the album.

Cold Blue Mountain - Old Blood

The metal blogosphere is much like the American political media, in the sense that buzz words are used to carry much of the weight and attract the most attention.  Where a Senatorial Candidate may tell the people that he's for "lower taxes" or "anti-gun control" to try and quickly give you a sense of his beliefs, metal bands rely on the increasingly hyper-specific sub-genres like "doom" or "sleepcore" (something I really read the other day).  While these words usually mean nothing when applied vapidly, when chosen carefully they can indeed give the voter/listener a pretty good idea of whether or not they want to proceed in checking out this politician/band.  For me, those words typically include "sludge," "post-rock," "doom," or "blackened," so when I saw three of the four attached to California's Cold Blue Mountain and their second album Old Blood, I decided that yes, this would potentially be someone I'd like to learn more about before voting.  Er... a band I would like to listen to.

Midnight - No Mercy For Mayhem

In what is the hotly anticipated sequel to 2012's Satanic Royalty, we are now privy to more sonic satanism with Midnight's new LP, No Mercy For Mayhem. Midnight know exactly what their fans want: Venom inspired passages that are both evil and might even remind listeners of the overt BDSM of 2nd wave bands like Carpathian Forest. But is this music even black metal? This is down and dirty heavy metal with the lyrical themes to open doors for prospective fans. This is quite simply, Midnight!

Coffinworm - IV.I.VIII

It's rapidly approaching springtime here in Chicago, with baseball, barbecues, and other summer goodness finally near at hand. It's been a hell of a winter here, with lots of snow and even more cold, so I'm definitely stoked to be able to put on a pair of shorts, grab an ice cold beer, and commence my acquisition of some good ol' melanoma. Yet there's a part of me that's going to miss winter. Maybe it's just Stockholm Syndrome, but as the days warm and the fair maidens of Chicago find less and less reason to cover up, I just find myself yearning for frigid temperatures, longing for a sense of cold bleakness that seems endless. I'm sure I'm not alone; spring is great for being outside, but it's pretty shitty for contemplating the futility of life, which is necessary thought process for a Monday morning. Luckily for myself and everyone else looking for a bit of misanthropy to accompany their sunshine, Indianapolis' Coffinworm has returned with IV.I.VII, an album that will make the next Polar Vortex feel like a balmy 70 degrees.

Trenchrot - Necronomic Warfare

2014 has been a year that has been slow to materialize with great metal. Thankfully Unspeakable Axe Records have unleashed upon the unsuspecting masses a debut from a death metal band that isn't afraid to be traditional as well as adding other not so common elements to their sound. They thrash and bash their way through this album with what seems like a relentless assault from the early '90s, but it is when you subscribe to this notion that they surprise you... with melody. Enter Trenchrot and their debut Necronomic Warfare.

Godhunter - City of Dust

"We live now in a nation where doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, government destroys freedom, press destroys information, religion destroys morals, and our banks destroy the economy."  This is the soundbite that opens City of Dust, the second full-length album from Arizona's Godhunter.  Before the band plays a single note, they let you know this is going to be a heavy album topically; when the distorted, fuzzed-out riff kicks in immediately after the audio sample, they show you it's going to be a heavy album period.

Murmur - Murmur

Murmur is a band from Brutalitopia's hometown of Chicago, IL.  They've been around for just about three years, releasing their debut album, Mainlining the Lugubrious, in 2010 and following that up with a split with Nachtmystium the next year.  They're still a fairly new band, and this month sees the band release their self-titled second album through Season of Mist.  I hadn't heard of the band until I saw the artwork over at Cvlt Nation; when that site started streaming Murmur, I decided to give it a listen and see what these local boys had going.  Turns out it was one of my better decisions.

Howl - "Bloodlines"

One of my favorite things about being a metal fan in 2013 is that with the internet, you can literally find hundreds, if not thousands, of bands you’ve never heard of every year.  The rise of Bandcamp and embedded tracks means you can hear bands at a clip like never before, which is fantastic.  Of course the flip side of that is sometimes bands slip through the cracks, and when you finally hear them, you curse your stupidity and wish to Dio that you’d found them sooner.  That sums up my experience with Howl over the past month, because evidently they had a self-titled EP in 2008 and a debut full-length titled Full of Hell in 2010, even though I didn’t learn of their existence – not to mention their impending album Bloodlines – until a few weeks ago.

Some News About Some Changes

Now that we’re back and ready to get posting again, we here at Brutalitopia want to fill you in on some of the changes that we’ve made.  Obviously we’re still going to be writing about metal and don’t be alarmed, We'll Do It Live Fridays aren’t going anywhere.  We’re going to try and incorporate a bit more in the way of video and audio, but we’ll wait until some of that content is prepared and ready to post before telling you about it.  We're adapting the site to be more in line with who we are and what we believe about the music we love, and so like a yeti facing dehabitation due to global warming, we're making some changes to ensure the survival of our mythical species.  The most striking of these changes is to our music reviews.