MANGLED CARPENTER – Between Blood and Silence EP

 

MANGLED CARPENTER – Between Blood and Silence EP

Broken Curfew Records

I believe I've found my Extremely Brutal Insane release of the year and even better it's an EP. Plus the cover artwork is damm good. MANGLED CARPENTER is a three piece Brutal Death Metal / Grindcore act who have been around since 2005. Fuck me running because this is my first time hearing them. 

Other then two full length releases, Under the Shadow in 2021 and Salvation Syndrome from 2023. This band is pretty much a short form release act. And they've got a ton of singles and EPs to back that up. As far as this latest one goes it's savage and brutal insanity which I like. 

The band is made up of Seth Metoyer on guitar and guttural fuckin vocals along with spoken word parts. Kris Olson is on bass and does the pig squeal backing vocals. Finally there's Mac Hine who does some drumming but also is more into the whole programmed drum thing. 

This is musically a cruel and calculated brutal performance. There's six cuts on here. "The Absence of Light" is definitely my favorite cut on here. The rest of the release is like a fuckin ritual of the bizarre with the exception of their MORTIFICATION "Terminate Damnation" cover which is straight up. In the end this release rules!

LISTEN TO & BUY IT HERE:

https://mangledcarpenter.bandcamp.com/album/between-blood-and-silence-ep

WATCHER - Mistress of Our Time review

 

WATCHER - Mistress of Our Time

Dying Victims Productions

A few years ago I was at a show wearing an IRON MAIDEN "Killers" shirt and this young person came up to me asking a question. He was, according to him, all into NWOBM stuff but wanted more. So I told him to check out the bands on the Dying Victims Productions label. Did he do it, I don't know? Then again ya don't see many people wearing a MAIDEN "Killers" shirt at local shows. A close friend of mine might wear his.

Anyways I guess it's obvious that this release here is NWOBHM influenced. This is the second full length by WATCHER who hail from Sweden. The band started out back in 2023. Actually it was a one man band featuring Viktor Gustafsson who sang and played everything. After a year he brought on guitarist Max Warnby and drummer Jakob Nilsson. After that bassist Oscar Nyberg joined and this year guitarist Timmy Lindgren has been added to complete the line-up.

Musically yeah it's MAIDEN-esque all the way. Personally I like the vocals by Viktor Gustafsson. He's a real guy vocalist who can hit a Heavy Metal scream once in a while. I like Max Warnby's lead guitar work on here. He's subtle in his leads which is cool. The rhythm section is strong in conveying solid song craft. 

In the end yeah this is a cool album with ten cuts all perfect. The promo info hints that this is classic Swedish Heavy Metal. Look I'm just an old Metal guy who owns two HEAVY LOAD CDs, yeah reissues, and maybe two other old Swedish Heavy Metal CDs, yeah reissues, and I don't care what a friend of mine says. EUROPE sucks! But WATCHER is great.    

https://dying-victims.de/

LISTEN HERE:

https://dyingvictimsproductions.bandcamp.com/album/mistress-of-our-time

MIDNIGHT PREY - Jenseitsritt review

 

MIDNIGHT PREY - Jenseitsritt

Dying Victims Productions

This month of August I've been musically getting nostalgic for 80's music which I still like a lot. Of course I share it on Facecrack with friends. They can handle it because they're younger. When I do the 70's or late 60's that's when they're going yeah I heard this in the 80's or 90's. It's always a good laugh for me. 

With that in mind it brings us to the question what if you hear a new release in 2026 and it actually sounds like something from 1978 to 1982 or more? That's what I got here with the second full length by Germany's MIDNIGHT PREY. The band originally started out back in 2012. Their debut full length, Uncertain Times, came out in 2019. And here we are today with their second full length. 

Musically this sounds like a late 70's Hard Rock release meets 80's NWOBHM along with, hold your breath, 1990's Post Punk elements. I chalk it up to the guitar work and vocal style of Winston Ziller. As a musician he's a Renaissance man creating an amazing sound that grasps everything cool from the past and reproducing it without a copyright held against him. 

Winston is joined with great partners on bass with Daniel Friesen and drummer Hannes Ruhland. This rhythm section gives a solid foundation though out this release which either rocks your ass off or cools you down. The bottom line is that you have a cool listening experience with this release.  

https://dying-victims.de/

LISTEN HERE:

https://dyingvictimsproductions.bandcamp.com/album/jenseitsritt

TERATUM - Ordnance of Spiritual Warfare review

 

TERATUM - Ordnance of Spiritual Warfare EP

Dying Victims Productions

This is the four song EP debut by Sweden's TERATUM. They're a four piece Black Metal act that started out in 2024. The band members are not new to the scene since they've been in bands like DIE HARD, DESULTOR, PUTRIFIED and GOATSODOMIZER. you should not be shocked that I know all of those bands as well as owning releases by em.

Musically for the record TERATUM are not reinventing the wheel here or destroying it. This is basically a fresh take on classic Swedish BM which in my not so humble opinion needs it. After listening to this a few times I think this band needs a full length. I mean the vocals are perfect aka: burning hot and aggressive. The rhythms are razor like melodic as well as punishing. The drum work is very impressive and yeah there's some bass sound. 

All in all TERATUM should be the next cool thing from Swedish Black Metal. 

https://dying-victims.de/

LISTEN HERE:

https://dyingvictimsproductions.bandcamp.com/album/ordnance-of-spiritual-warfare

RAW POWER - Live CBGB's NYC 1998 review

 

RAW POWER - Live CBGB's NYC 1998 

Time To Kill Records

Honestly I saw RAW POWER on this tour. They played the club I worked at here in North Carolina. It was a decent show but turnout could've been better. It was a 80's Hardcore band, and yeah legendary if you were into Hardcore, playing in the late 1990's. So it was tough to get kids who got into Hardcore in the 1990's to come out. Also those crusty political punks didn't wanna pay to see the show. They rather have bands play their "punk house" and get paid in Ramon noodles and Bean soup.

The band had a new album out at the time titled Reptile House. Personally I didn't think much of that album. As far as RAW POWER goes their debut LP Screams from the Gutter from 1984 is their best. Their second album, After Your Brain, from 1986 is good along with their Wop Hour EP also from 1986 which was the first release I owned by em. 

Now as far as this live album goes it is pretty much what I heard / saw when they played the club I worked at. The set list is a mix of their tunes off of Reptile House as well as old 80's cuts. The crowd sound seems the same as well. They probably had the old crowd in the back while the new metal-core baldies were up front doing the whole push and shove wanna-be slam pit. Sound-wise it's a decent enough recording.

https://timetokillrecords.com/en-us

LISTEN HERE:

https://rawpowercbgb.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-cbgb

LAIR OF THE MINOTAUR - I Hail I review

 

LAIR OF THE MINOTAUR - I Hail I

The Grind-House Records

So there's a lot to unpack here. As far as anticipated albums go this was an obvious pick for me as far as 2026 goes. This band's last album, Evil Power, from 2010 is definitely a classic in my book. It was their fourth album and definitely their best. Plus I was already a fan of them from two previous albums.

LAIR OF THE MINOTAUR hail from Chicago, Illinois. They started out in 2003 as a three piece Sludge Metal / Thrash act. Now for you ignorant types, Sludge Metal came about when late 1980's Hardcore musicians started listening to BLACK SABBATH. They started incorporating the fast meets slow ideal. There are way too many early examples but by the 1990's you had bands coming out in the Metal scene who were Sludge Metal. 

When LAIR OF THE MINOTAUR finally hit the scene it was easy to like em because they came from Chicago, Illinois which had a history of Extreme Metal acts who didn't color inside the lines when it came to certain genres of Metal. Hell I'm still a USURPER / BONES fan till this day and that's just two name drops. 

So that was then and this is now some sixteen years later. As far as the line-up goes it's still Steven Rathbone as vocalist, guitarist and he adds the keyboards. Drummer Chris Wozniak is still in the fold. But on bass they have a new recruit who is well known in the Chicago area not only as a musician but a producer. I'm talking about Sanford Parker. 

As far as I Hail I goes it's not a great come back album as one would hope for. The first half of the album is reminiscent of their past aggressive work. I like that to a point other than being more causal than extreme. "Fucked Inside Out" and "Prowler Twin Sister" are memorable tracks. Everything else is kinda lackluster. It's kinda like drinking a six pack and by the fourth beer you're like I think I'm done. 

The last two cuts on this album sealed my overall opinion. "Vulture Worship" was a throwaway track but "Tartarus Apocalypse" is a seven minute plus Sludgey Doom boring opus of banality. Hey you were hot years ago but now your dead. Trust me, it comes with age. Except it or look pathetic.

https://www.thegrind-houserecords.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://lairoftheminotaur.bandcamp.com/album/i-hail-i-2

SQUELCHING - Squelching Compilation review

 

SQUELCHING - Squelching Compilation

Horror Pain Gore Death Productions

So while listening to this release I had a bunch of thoughts. The first one is years ago when I was at a show watching a Brutal Death Metal act on stage. Why didn't I bust a beer bottle across the bar, cut myself across the forehead with the sharp end and then run into the crowd like a bloodied brutalizing maniac to start a savage pit?

Looking back and being a knowledgeable person of pro wrestling (especially Japanese wrestling) I knew where to cut. But in all I wasn't that out of control. Of course that's my not so humble opinion. Close friends might differ on my perspective of history. 

Which brings us up to this release here which is a compilation of some output by a one man band, Once again years ago when I was a collector, I hated these things but now I'm not. So what we have here is a compilation of SQUELCHING material. SQUELCHING is a one man Brutal Death Metal act hailing from Indiana. The one man is David Sueoka who's musically responsible for everything. 

Even though David Sueoka started SQUELCHING back a few years ago. He has been fairly prolific in short form releases starting out in 2020. What we have here is a compilation of material from his 2020 A Fatal Procession EP from, the Backbreaker EP from 2025 and a few latter tracks from 2025. Musically this is not the sick twisted stuff nor your basic sound from the mid-1990's. 

Instead David Sueoka actually turns this sub genre into a gruff and yet brutal sound with an atmospheric touch. Even better is that he's not relying on that hiptard Prog style shit. He focuses on creating a developed sound instead of just a handful of songs. To me that's cool as well as interesting. David Sueoka does come from the MORTICIAN school of Brutal DM so that makes him a winner in my book.

I like this compilation a lot and if you're interested yeah you will to. It's what I like to call late night after work music. It's hate for those other people you have to deal with. Now with that said I really wanna hear what David Sueoka comes out with next and hopefully it's a full length. Nuff Said!

https://www.horrorpaingoredeath.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://hpgd.bandcamp.com/album/squelching