Devil's Horns Zine

  Freedom of Fear-Carpathia album. FFO: Excellent and Crushing Melodic Tech. Death Metal. By Mark J. I really adored this band's debut album and this really builds on from that. At its core, Freedom of Fear is a super talented band that walks between very melodic tech death metal and modern black metal and some symphonic metal as well. Now that is usually a warning sign for me, as I think most symphonic metal is dogshit and like bad gothic music, just dramatic and annoying. Obviously, I think there is a definite place for added atmosphere and tone to tracks, and luckily this band have that clever balance between the wide range of skills onboard. And across this very lengthy album, you feel the grim dynamic is perfect for this band. Tracks like the psychotic Zenith and the mini-movie like Nebula are fantastic showcases for the sheer mix of brutality and utterly insane guitar wizardry that is so evident. I also dig how they can also slow to a sludgy grind, and then move into an utt...

  Eight Count - Hard Dose Of Reality EP review and Interview. FFO: Uncompromising, aggressive metallic hardcore aka Mindsnare, Hatebreed, All Out War and Blood for Blood etc.  Frankston is churning out the killer bands in Melbourne Hardcore and also two of the best Aussie bands at the moment: Fever Shack and the mighty, crushing Eight Count. This band has reached for the stars since arriving, a confident and brutal demo kicked stuff off, followed by signing with the ever-productive 1054 Records stable and dropping a debut EP for them which has got the attention of hardcore fans worldwide. And the new EP, hahaha let's make it clear you ain't ready for this explosive release. Everything is angrier, with tons of new flavours and that gritty Eight Count that is the foundation of what real hardcore is.  So why is this so great: first up the stellar production is huge sounding, yet remains acidic and jumps out of the speakers every time. All the previous songs were very decent,...

  Freedom Fist-S/T album. FFO: Powerviolence/brutal hardcore punk. Love that I found this band, this is mental, frantic, intense powerviolence and hardcore punk with the abrasiveness of being Scottish and angry as fuck(although the two often go together). This is crushing and political as fuck, but then again I think punk cannot be anything else unless you are so fucked in the head to think shite like Blink 182 or Green Day is punk. This is nasty, clever and hectic hardcore gold. There’s nothing punk about simply taking to social media to voice your anger and concerns about the systems that are failing you. There’s nothing punk about simply writing songs for profit that latch onto people’s fears and distrust of the government and those who wish to stifle our voices. FREEDOM FIST exists to provide a soundtrack to any voice that needs heard, and to mobilise those in the band’s home nation of Scotland towards the necessary separation from the Union, Westminster, and the fucking Crown....

  BulletBelt Reviews: Disparo!, Autopsy, Abreact, and Irreparable. FFO: brutally diverse music. 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 Fastcore, Death Metal, Metalcore, and Gothic Black Metal. Disparo!-The Hot Mess Express. This is as expected blazing fastcore at its best. The band is not only made up of great blokes, but this is their best album and I state that as a fan for over ten years and not sure if it was lockdown or other reasons, but this is one enraged release. Disparo! deliver crisp and hectic fast hardcore/powerviolence of the highest quality. The production is really punchy and dynamic on this album. Guitars and drums are explosive and the vocals are as deranged as always. But that's what I am here for, and the killer samples they drop in as well. In all, a ripping release and my faves were Los Detesto, DuJour Mean...