October 2020: Top Picks - Venom Prison, Grimorte, Raging Speedhorn

October's a great month, right? It's spooky season, summer has well and truly gone for another year, and it's only a matter of time before we start having 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' assault our ears as we go for the weekly shop. Hang on, maybe 'great' wasn't the right word. Who's ready for Lockdown 2?

October had some stellar releases, though, from the likes of Spirit Adrift, Enslaved and Pallbearer in other countries. I've tried to stick to our homegrown bands over here in the UK this time round. If you like it noisy and extreme, I've got three great picks for you.

Venom Prison – Primeval (death metal/hardcore) – Prosthetic Records 

Not entirely a ‘new’ release, but the repackaging and re-recording of their first two EPs from 2015 (‘Defy the Tyrant’ and ‘The Primal Chaos’) along with two new tracks. As it turns out, though, this has worked well for Venom Prison – the older songs have truly been done justice with the improved recording quality and an additional five years of band experience. The shape of death metal to come at the end of the release, as well, seems to be instantly classic. There’s no stopping the Venom Prison train, evidently, and for VP fans in 2020 this is a nice offering that revisits their past, shows where they are in the present, and hints to where they’ll be in the future. ‘Primeval’ opens with the razor-sharp, Machine Head-esque Usurper of the Throne (slightly faster and much better sounding this time round) – a personal favourite of mine. Variety is offered, as you get the brooding, atmospheric Mortal Abomination not long after, the melodic Path of Exile, and Babylon the Whore, with its irresistible grooves. Narcotic, another personal favourite, is an old-school banger, with shades of Slayer and bouncy hardcore riffage. How about the new stuff? Both Defiant to the Will of the God and Slayer of Holofernes see Venom Prison evolving and expanding their musical palettes, with more melody and even some clean vocals layered in. This sacrifices no brutality, technicality or raw power at any point. Simply, the new stuff just sounds bigger. It’s hard not to see VP become one of the genre’s greats on their current trajectory. 

Grimorte – Esoteric Ascendance (blackened/death doom) - independent

Grimorte features Kieran Scott from Ashen Crown and Lewis Borthwick from Archierophant. With most of the instrumentation and production done by Borthwick himself, as well as a vocal performance from Scott even more savage than that on Ashen Crown’s 'Obsolescence', it’s a head-turning idea alone, even more impressive given the current climate for musicians. The lyrics conceptually deal with the occult, the mystics surrounding Aleister Crowley and a woman’s transition from innocence to the form of a demon. Of course, the EP was released on Halloween. There's something that will appeal to most varieties of extreme metal fans on here - the doom influence is clear, but there's elements of death, black, sludge and the more atmospheric side on 'Esoteric Ascendance'. This EP is somewhat of a slow burner - the songs tend to lull you into a trance rather than pound you in the face with energy, but the duo have done so to startling effect. Each track has its own distinct personality, but Sequestrate is probably my favourite, due to its uncompromising sense of darkness. The title track's gentle, melodic lead riff is another highlight, though, as is the monk chanting that illuminates the sinister atmosphere in Firvir. It's a short EP - at less than 20 minutes in length, you get the impression that Grimorte are only just getting started. I certainly hope so.

Read Jack's full review here

Raging Speedhorn - Hard to Kill (sludge/alternative metal) - Red Weed Records

RSH are veterans of the scene, but their ability to write hard-hitting, pit-friendly anthems hasn't withered with experience. They've been through several lineup changes over the years - only Frank (vocals) and Gordon (drums) have stayed from the original albums, but their demented, frenzied energy has stayed the same. The songs on 'Hard to Kill' don't really reinvent the wheel for the Corby sextet, but it wouldn't really feel right if they were going off into vastly different musical territory. Opener Snakebite is hard, fast and heavy, with a clever instrumental section towards the end, and the title track has a similar energy to it, akin to Motorhead, with its memorable hook. There's some cool slower stuff, too - Hand of God has a fantastic, head-nodding riff, and Doom Machine is bluesier and more Sabbathy than anything. When I met a couple of them for an interview back in January (which you can listen to at this link) they were drinking Spitfire (the beer) and told me about Spitfire (the track), which shows an obvious Rage Against the Machine influence - even with a cheeky promise to 'take the power back'. Can't be a coincidence, eh? 'Brutality' has a great (more original) lyric, in which vocalists Frank and Dan declare that 'brutality is the new reality'. The album closes on a cover of T-Rex's Children of the Revolution, which doesn't differ much from the original, except with much heavier, distorted guitars and a grittier vocal delivery. Some will surely hate it, but it's an interesting curveball to end proceedings on. 'Hard to Kill' is Raging Speedhorn, you know what you're going to get, it's always going to be good.

MN