Relapse Reco

Jencik Matt and Midwife: Never Die [CD]

Martyr: Hopeless Hopes (Reissue) [CD]

Exhumed: Red Asphalt [CD]

Warning: Watching From a Distance [CD]

MALTHUSIAN sign to Relapse Records and unearth their deathly opus, The Summoning Bell. On their highly anticipated new album, MALTHUSIAN's fetid hallmarks are ever present: truly unforgiving, unrelenting Death Metal. Swirling chords and ominous cymbal swells give way to the band's opener "Red, Waiting". What follows is a flurry of murk and madness - blast beats pummel against churns of distortion. The sonic atmosphere cultivated by MALTHUSIAN's palpable fury is suffocating; each riff carefully crafted to push and pull on the momentum behind their music. The Summoning Bell is undeniably a pitch-black take on the genre. The Summoning Bell is a lighting of the pyre - each of the album's tracks explore themes of true nothingness, condemnations of superstition, and a profound descent into darkness and time. The end result is a record that seemingly reconciles with a dimming - internal and external, a true end  to everything.

Death: Fate - The Best Of Death (reissue) [CD]

The UK's IRON MONKEY return with their highly anticipated new album, Spleen and Goad!On the new album, the legendary band are as uncompromising ever, churning out some of the most gritty sounding sludge doom in their 25 + year history. Dubbed a "doom sludge vanguard" by The Sludgelord, IRON MONKEY live up to their legacy, absolutely pummelling through each of the 8 tracks on their new album. From the two-ton, heavier-than-anything-else riff opening "Concrete Shock", IRON MONKEY show no signs of easing up; fuzzed out guitars crash against pulse-pound drums, set against vicious, misanthropic snarls and barks. Elsewhere, tracks like the aptly titled "Rat Flag" kicks the band into high gear with palpable fury and malaise.Recorded in their native Nottingham, Spleen and Goad was mastered stateside by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege.