Devil's Horns Zine

  Morphine-Exogenous EP. FFO: Raw, soul tearing black metal. Pure and simple, Morphine is the demigods of depressive black metal that sounds like it's direct from some Norwegian evil forest; minus the shit production. This is the sixth EP by this great act and each time there is some added evil or twist. Whilst the production is actually crisp and dense, the vocals and hectic guitars dominate and give all the grim you could ever need. But also some nice melodic spaces on tracks 2 and 4. The guitar tone and warlike drums kind of suffocate the listener in a great way. Track V(as all tracks are called Exogenous 1-V etc) is probably my fave, as it drips the sinister in bucketloads and really sounds quite deranged, in an almost losing grip on one's sanity style. It's nasty, well-produced; but begs the question-when are you recording a full length because the EP's tease us with the band's obvious amazing skillset, then finish with us wanting more tracks. But for now, chec...

  Brick by Brick- Dismal Existence album review. FFO: Heavy, weighty metallic hardcore. Brick By Brick is a sick arse metallic hardcore we all know and love from Troy, NY. It's heavy, full of ignorant riffs and will blow your speakers.  The Hunted  and Infiltrate is a great representation of the album; everything is weighty and suffocating. It celebrates the strength of this band just by slowing the tempo down, but making it heavy and pummeling.  Tearing Down shows the sheer skill the band has and how the major element is hard and uncompromising metal-I dug that the main riff was so hectic; plus the massive gang vocals. Whiskey is the Truth also shows another side to the band with the best groove you have heard since Pantera and is almost bluesy. I dig how these boys ain't afraid to go out on a limb. Other killer tracks like Full of Hell, From My Eyes, Can't be Broken and Liar, Deceiver is all the meat and potatoes angry, metallic hardcore things we want from thi...

  Choof-Demo EP. FFO: Raging and crazed hardcore/PV/Grind/Fast-core-All the good stuff!! This is a wild debut-they may call it a demo, but this is a serious EP despite going by in a blink of an eye. I am not familiar with the other players in the band, but Jake always does some insane bands that border on pure mayhem and Choof is no exception. Choof is a raging, hectic as hell kinda sludgy but mostly power violence meets fastcore with some definite grind/hardcore stylings. It is tangential and damn psychotic. the mix of styles works so well because the unhinged shit drifts off into almost Mr Bungle greatness and a huge love of metal. The riffs are monstrous, and the drums/bass were epic. Whilst the release is brief, these fuckers cram so much into each track and this shows their pretty amazing songwriting skills. What I love the most about this release, is it really dwells in the realms of obscure 7 inch EP's of deranged powerviolence and real cult hardcore bands that you hear and ...

  Protospasm-Unreachable Summit Album review. FFO: Dynamic, killer riff heavy classic hardcore. Fuck me, what an absolute rager of an album. No surprises, as this band have musos that have been kicking around the hardcore and metal scenes for some time. And it shows for such a solid and action-packed debut. Broadly the palette is punk-influenced hardcore with tons of melody in an ol'school DC style as opposed to Fat Wreck Chords melodic punk.  The band are an utterly solid unit, the bass and drums work together as an absolute force, whilst the biting vocals and shredding riffs just bring it all home. Every track has tons of power and just pushes so hard with dynamic aggression.  Tracks like the killer title track,  Enough,   Tempus Fugit , Threats and Fake are utter peak 80's hardcore with style and finesse. These particular tracks are pretty brutish, but even in those mosh classics is quite fancy riffs that are gnarly and add that real rollercoaster edge to pr...

  Venom Prison-Erebos album. FFO: Incredible, Intelligent but Acidic and Cathartic Death Metal/Metallic Hardcore. This is a band that truly has and is evolving with each release. Now, this is not in a turning mainstream or jumping on a trend that is so hot right now style. This band drips aggression, vitriol and fierceness that frankly rips layers off any competition. Erebos is their third full-length release and whilst there is no massive overall stylistic change, each of their albums slightly hints at the greatness of the next release. But the twists and turns of this barbaric release floored me as a fan who has loved each of their releases. Each track has components of change that lift them above their contemporaries and this album is unique and remarkable because each element adds value to the individual compositions and the album as a whole. And the sheer weight of that is monstrous, oppressive and refreshing as hell.  Let's consider the layers of this album; in particula...

  Hornography Perth Metal Sampler #2 Review. FFO: The love of metal!!! Hornography, the insane and killer metal club in Perth that I am hoping to attend this year( as I live on the opposite side of the country!) which has sick bands playing, mad giveaways and apparently metal as hell good times have just dropped their second metal comp. And hard to believe, but it's even bigger, louder and sicker than the first one. You have well-known bands that are established and have dropped some huge releases like Crypt Crawler, The Furor, Bluddypop, The Harvest Trail and Kimura. Now these bad boys drop some nuclear tracks as expected, but the other lesser-known bands show how sick and solid the Perth metal scene is; with both diversity and strength of these bands. This sampler has everything from Death Metal, Goregrind, Black Metal, Metalcore and everything in between. I mean just pop this cd on shuffle and each time you get a solid mix of insanely great bands. There are 21 tracks and all are...

  Vinterdracul-The Murnau Nocturnes album review. FFO: Exhilarating, dramatic and frankly genius metal.  This is a cool release and even more so because from the imagery and background to the album I really expected some gritty and underwhelming generic black metal album tbh. But alas, no this is a great album with so many interesting tangents and its originality and composition is so rewarding. I find this is not really a black metal style release, it has more in common with Bauhaus, TSOL, Christian Death or even Samhain. Thus it's pretty gothy/deathrock/punk but with a wicked metal foundation, but I don't get the black metal referencing tbh. But labels aside, it's a wild ride. The album is described by the artist thus:   A fictional version of F.W. Murnau, director of the silent vampire film Nosferatu, comes to Hollywood in 1928 to sign a big contract with a major movie studio. It is a deal made with the devil. He soon finds himself haunted by the ghost of his one-time ...

  Wounded Knee-S/T EP review. FFO: Metallic Hardcore with truckloads of Groove and strong Beatdown attack!. Kudos to the never fucking ending great releases dropping out of the 1054 records stable. Here is another rager the insane Wounded Knee from Texas. This is a solid EP that has tons of groove and aggression; this release is the whole package-ripping riffs, acidic vocals and that bass/drums section that is like a battalion invading your ears.  For a debut this is an absolute rager, the six tracks are hefty, chunky and also so angry.  They remind me of NYC's mighty Backtrack, but way heavier. I have no history of the band members, but they sound like they have definitely played in bands heaps; the confidence and songwriting are clever and heavy as hell. Everything is underpinned by tons of heavy groove, but kind of encapsulated in a beatdown style. Definitely a huge up and coming champion here. The EP doesn't fuck about and slays you even with the intro and every track...