Devil's Horns Zine

Werewolves-From the Cave to the Grave album. FFO: Brutal Death Metal ugly. This is one brutal and ugly album. No subtle moments, only occasional diversions to fuck with your head.  I mean even their media bio proclaims they have zero interest in changing style or degree of caveman-type aggression. And I am cool with that, because this is more of the same on album number three.  Here's my summary of the nuclear beast of a release. The very first track  Self-Help Book Burning has a weird epic sample to confuse you then it's straight-up brutality and a slowed-down pace towards the end. These metal legends are sneaky fucks whose aims are to insult you, crush you with the nasty shit and occasionally confuse you on the path of some tracks.  The second track We Are Better than You is 100% meatheadish ignorant crushing dumb death metal glory and will be a live fave. Werewolves continue their bulletproof formula of being hectic and punishing. The third track was All the Bet...

  BulletBelt Reviews: GWAR and Decapitated. FFO: Metal!! The aim of BulletBelt reviews is concise straight to the point old school reviews in the style of MRR/old hardcore/metal zines. Today we have an excellent array of bands with substantial gems of heavy metal and death metal!!! GWAR-The New Dark Ages album. Man, this was awesome and overwhelming; a fine mix of fun, brutality and epic songwriting. As per normal GWAR standard, this was one-minute hard rock/classic metal, then wild twists and turns into punk and even funk. I have always said it is a huge risk to view this band as a throwaway and this album follows the high standard of this band. Is it ridiculous as hell, absurd and cheesy in sections, 100% and that's the charm of it.  It has ragers and the songs are clever and utter headbangers. Straight off the bat, the following are absolute classics: the S/T opener, Berserker Mode, Motherfucking Liar, The Cutter, Venom of the Platypus  and  Ratcatcher.  Thes...

  Downset: Interview with legendary guitarist Rogelio "Roy" Lozano on the new album, positive energy and tons of other great subjects. As we know the crushing album Maintain dropped last Friday and if you ain't spinning this release hard, you best check your pulse ASAP!.  This was an excellent and lively chat with original Downset guitarist Roy Lozano who was not only inspiring but gave us an excellent snapshot of his role in one of the most unique bands around mixing hip-hop, metal and hardcore. Here is the outstanding two-part ( due to technology and Zoom being a pain) interview with Roy. Note the audio cuts out briefly towards the end of part One and reception drops a bit for a short amount in Part Two, but stick with it; it's a worthwhile chat from start to end. Roy very graciously gave his time (well tons of time actually, like just shy of an hour) and we covered multiple topics: In Part One we discussed: -the new sizzling album Maintain, how Roy came back into ...

  Downset-Maintain album review. FFO: Legendary driving Hardcore with that killer O.G. rap style. This Friday these Rapcore/Raprock kings drop album number six and I can absolutely confirm it sits perfectly amongst their best work like their brilliant first three records. What do you expect: dense, abrasive riffs, thunderous rhythm section and exhilarating vocal gold be it screaming or rapping hard as hell; oh yes, IT IS ALL HERE IN TRUCKLOADS.  Maintain is their first album since 2014's raging One Blood, but whilst this album has a slightly different lineup (with ex-First Blood/Merauder drumming machine Bobby Blood on board and the return of founding member and guitarist Roy Lozano(who I interviewed and will pop up on the blog soonish) to bring the complete nasty guitar wizardry that this band is known for) it is the lineup the band needs to deliver a raging classic album in 2022!.  These 12 tracks are really fantastic and not only is this a great nostalgia trip for us ...

  BulletBelt reviews: Black Void, Kreator. The aim of BulletBelt reviews is concise straight to the point old school reviews in the style of MRR/old hardcore/metal zines. Today we have an excellent array of bands with substantial gems of black metal/crust, and classic thrash metal. Black Void-Antithesis album; is a raging mix of black metal, crust and thrash. It surprised me as at times it rips chunks of flesh off you, but at the same time is as rocking as Motorhead or Hellhammer and also has mega meaty riffs throughout. This is a solid 38 mins of grim and heavy blackened speed punk thrash. The opener Void has some cool melodic moments mixed with almost Bathory worship. The second track Reject Everything is probably what bands like Behemoth should aim for instead of stadium black metal. Death to Morality, Tenebrism of Life, No Right No Wrong and It's Not Surgery, It's a Knife Fight really showcase how skilled this band is in this brilliant section of the album. All excellen...

  Morphine-Visibility album. FFO: Grim, but dynamically creative Black Metal. This is the sixth glorious release from Morphine; a solid depressive black metal force that focuses on transgender/identity issues as well as pain and addiction and other personal content. Very clearly this is their best work, it's still raw yet produced well, but remains brutal and assaulting in all aspects. In opener Validation,  you can feel the vocals being rawer, more aggressive than previously and clearly this is so far removed from the broad dullness of most modern black metal bands. This like most tracks is punctuated by gripping riffs and real tonal attractiveness. Internalise/Repress has these amazing pounding drums that are as sonic as an earthquake. The spoken word intro sets a rousing mood and there are also tons of brooding chaos in this gem also. Track 3 is the thunderous Externalise/Express (great titles indeed!) that has a precise and coarser approach that also utilises the spo...

  BulletBelt Reviews: Malevolence, Who Bastard and Cold Concrete. The aim of BulletBelt reviews is concise straight to the point old school reviews in the style of MRR/old hardcore/metal zines. Today we have an excellent array of bands with substantial gems of beatdown/metalcore, blackened surf punk and brutal hardcore. Malevolence-Malicious Intent Album. The beatdown/metalcore meets sludge kings recently dropped their third album and for most of it, it simply amps up the rage and adds more tech flair and frankly monstrous riffs/vocals. Tracks like Life Sentence and On Broken Glass are utterly peak form, but some tracks jarred the fuck out of me tbh. I understand the whole spread your wings and expand your sound but tracks like Above all Else with those crappy/ pseudo grungey/lame guest vocals took away from Alex's magnificent vox (and yes Kublai Klan is not my jam). Equally, but not as irritating is Salvation with a guy out of Trivium shredding away(which is cool) but the gues...