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Relentless total war on metal journalism.
Episodes
Tuesday Oct 18, 2022
Tuesday Oct 18, 2022
We return to your regularly scheduled programming after a brief diversion to record a bonus episode on Lykathea Aflame's seminal Elvenefris (which you should purchase your way into immediately.) This week we're going way down the line with three more-or-less black metal records occupying often-ignored sonic niches of interest to serious listeners. First up: the return of ColdWorld, a DSBM legend who has lost no vigor in the 6 years since the last full length, providing classic melodies with a renewed essence through impressive harmonic arrangement.
To the meat of the episode: Blood Chalice provides a truly alarming amount of ÖUGH with their second LP which sticks to the tried-and-true conventions of putrid Finnish blackdeath in the vein of Archgoat, Beherit, and all other good company. What it may lack in novelty, though, it more than makes up for in execution, with compact, high energy songs that trace this style's lineage back to primordial extreme metal and grindcore, revealing track by track that this style is capable of far more variation than one might suspect.
Following this is the mysterious ᛋᚢᚱᛏᚱ ᚹᛟᚢᚾᛞᛋ (Surtr Wounds,) a British one-man project exploring a strange and murky nexus between black, doom, death, and industrial. Somewhat like the Syndexioi record we covered several episodes ago, Surtr Wounds retvrns to pagan tradition by accessing originary extreme metal ideas and presenting them remarkably unadorned within the haze of a gauzy, unearthly production job. Discussion on this one is complex and unusual, resulting in the conclusion that, yes, Hate Forest and Crowbar do have something in common after all.
0:00:00 - Intro/ColdWorld - Isolation (Eisenwald)
0:32:39 - Blood Chalice - The Blasphemous Psalms of Cannibalism (Werewolf Records)
Interlude - 1:13:06 - Nunslaughter - “Raid the Convent” fr. Goat (Revenge Productions, 2003)
1:15:25 - ᛋᚢᚱᛏᚱ ᚹᛟᚢᚾᛞᛋ (UK) - ᛋᚢᚱᛏᚱ ᚹᛟᚢᚾᛞᛋ (Inverse Solar Reqvriem)
2:09:20 - Outro - Cobalt - “Witherer” fr. Eater of Birds (Profound Lore, 2007)
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Tuesday Oct 11, 2022
Tuesday Oct 11, 2022
Let's face it, people: 2022 has been a difficult mating season for black metal. They're not sending their best, folks- or at least they haven't been so far. That might all change with today's episode, which features two excellent records of autumnal, melodic, and strikingly structured black metal which reaches back to the trenchcoat era of the late 90s/early 00s for its primary influences. If you're the type of Terminator who listens for assistance in separating the wheat from the chaff: welcome home.
First up is the newest record by Dutch stalwarts Asgrauw, who TBMG has mentioned numerous times on the show as a central figure to that nation's scene and as a personal favorite. For those unfamiliar, Asgrauw play an agile and melodic but traditionally aggressive form of black metal, pared down and structurally minimal, but harmonically and timbrally rich. This is a record that strikes a fine balance between accessibility and authenticity, between simplicity and dynamism, and is almost certainly one of the best black metal records of the year.
Drawing from a similar pool of influences but with a radically different vision is Firtan, a German band who reach back to ambitious, prog-infused black metal records to create something vast in both scope and sound. Featuring striking technical playing and impressively dense and saturated instrumental arrangements, Firtan manage to capture the excitement of early prog-black without sacrificing the core of heavy metal songwriting we're all here for. Violins? Spoken word passages? Maybe there's a place for those things after all.
0:00:00 - Intro
0:02:14 - Asgrauw - Façade (Death Prayer Records)
0:53:42 - Interlude - Thyrfing - “Set Sail to Plunder,” fr. Thyrfing (Hammerheart Records, 1998 / digital by Despotz).
0:58:06 - Firtan - Marter (AOP Records)
1:45:05 - Outro - Nagelfar - “Srontgorrth (Das Dritte Kapitel),” fr. Hünengrab im Herbst (Kettenhund Records, 1997). Here’s digital for the 2017 Ván reissue, with sadly inferior cover art. If you wanna hear these guys do a straight-up ripper, check the preceding track, “Bildnis der Apocalpyse,” or pretty much anything from Virus West (2001).
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Wednesday Oct 05, 2022
Wednesday Oct 05, 2022
Again, a bit of a delay, but we've got something to make it up for you: a big, sprawling episode of highly anticipated records and autistic analysis guaranteed to please all Terminators or your money back (please don't call me on this I can't give refunds on Patreon.) This time we're looking at two scrappy, unusual records descended from a parallel universe war metal scene that somehow drifted into our own- one from an established classic act, and another from youthful upstarts on a mission to make their mark.
From the veterans in Ares Kingdom comes a record that refuses to rest on the laurels of the past. "In Darkness at Last" presents the band's resolute and powerful style of black/death/thrash metal in a looser, more jamming fashion that excites TDMG but may polarize longtime fans of the band. There's no shortage of crushing riffs and vigorous rhythmic stomping, but the atmosphere of this record is that of a long-defeated empire slowly slipping into memory. What's the goal, here? And has Ares Kingdom really been a black metal band all along? We discuss.
Coming off last year's "Serpentine Descension," California-based Axis of Advance worshippers Galicia return with "Precipice," a debut record as exciting as it is inscrutable. The structural brilliance of Olde Edmonton combines with the sheer ferocity and pacing of mid-era Cryptopsy to create dizzyingly intense yet tremendously melodic music where riffs and rhythms slip past as quickly as they're introduced. This isn't easy listening, but those willing to take the time will likely discover one of the best records of the year.
0:00:00 - Intro
0:06:46 - Ares Kingdom - In Darkness at Last (Nuclear War Now)
1:03:00 - Interlude - Order from Chaos - “Forsake Me This Mortal Coil,” fr. Stillbirth Machine (Wild Rags Records, 1992)
1:08:07 - Galicia - Precipice (Hessian Firm)
2:07:03 - Outro - Warrior’s Chalice - “Atomic Assault Troops” fr. Warrior’s Chalice (Independent, 2017)
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Sunday Sep 25, 2022
Sunday Sep 25, 2022
Okay I know last time I said we were back and were gonna be super consistent and everything, but here's the thing: I lied. I lied specifically to hurt you. The relationship between Terminus and its fans is inherently abusive, but don't worry: we're bringing you back some flowers and promising to never do it again with an episode featuring two radically different sides of the wasteland known as Detroit.
First up is a band long mentioned but only now getting covered: Syphilic. A longtime favorite of TDMG, this one-man project has acquired a cult following over the years through its blistering technicality, challenging song structures, and aesthetics and themes so far beyond the pale they make the rest of brutal death blush. On the project's ninth full length record, the boundaries are pushed even further, making for easily one of the most challenging and exciting brutal death records of the year.
Next is Perversion, long running stalwarts of the Detroit underground who employ a foundation of thrash metal to etch out complex death and black metal ideas with proper leather jacket and sunglasses flair. While built on a mostly established set of influences, Perversion pushes the boundaries of this style past its usual structural limits in order to create dynamic, ornate compositions out of primitive materials.
0:00:00 - Intro
00:05:46 - Syphilic - …And Justice For None (Independent/Brutal Mind)
0:51:43 - Interlude - Insidious Decrepancy - “Extirpating Omniscient Certitude” fr. Extirpating Omniscient Certitude (Brutal Bands, 2009)
0:55:19 - Perversion - Dies Irae (Hells Headbangers)
1:37:49 - Outro - Cannibal Corpse - “Rotting Head” fr. Eaten Back to Life (Metal Blade Records, 1990)
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Thursday Sep 08, 2022
Thursday Sep 08, 2022
No excuses this time. We're back. For real. See? We've got another episode? This one's cut in pretty distinct halves, with some remarkably extreme, timbral music on one side and some true to the 80s heavy metal on the other, but surprising threads of composition run through both. To start, though: it's been a little while, so The Death Metal Guy took it upon himself to ruin your day with some brutal death. This time it comes in the form of Solemnity's debut EP, which follows in the footsteps of bands like Pustulated and Foetopsy to create grinding, gore-soaked brutal death in the style of the early 00's to great effect.
The first main review of the night is the long-anticipated return of Vermin Womb, with a concise record that sacrifices nothing in its brevity. This is music that could be described in a lot of ways: black/death, war metal, etc., but ultimately this is grindcore at its core augmented by a wide variety of influences from extreme metal. Balancing adroitly between noisy chaos and elegant riffcraft, this record blows its contemporaries out of the water by engaging in a challenging, nearly forgotten tradition: Writing Actual Songs.
Closing out the second half is the second full-length by Polish heavy metallers Amargh, whose style owes itself as much to 1983 NWOBHM as much as... pagan black metal? TBMG unsurprisingly has a deep thesis on this record, which moves seamlessly between trad headbanging and esoteric, mystical extreme metal in a manner wholly unique to itself. How, exactly, do Jaguar and Graveland relate to one another? Listen to find out.
0:00:00 - Intro/Solemnity - Scourging at the Pillar (Comatose Music)
0:17:58 - Vermin Womb - Retaliation (Closed Casket Activities)
0:55:47 - Interlude - PLF - “Trinitrotoluene Negation” fr. Devious Persecution and Wholesale Slaughter (Six Weeks Records, 2013)
0:57:29 - Armagh - Serpent Storm (First Wave Only)
1:47:56 - Outro – Armagh - “Foggy Dew / Wehrwolf,” fr. the Venomous Frost EP (First Wave Only / 2016)
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Monday Aug 29, 2022
Monday Aug 29, 2022
It's been a laborious path, surely, but Terminus is back on track as TBMG and TDMG reunite after a long departure from one another. Creative differences? Lover's quarrel? Nothing so interesting as that. What's important is that we're back to the Terminus you know and love, autistically criticizing unknown records for the pleasure of equally autistic listeners. T-shirts in the back.
First up is the return of Vergeblichkeit, whose last record we covered in the very first episode of 2021. The new release features the same general ingredients of gothic (black?) metal, but arranged differently, with a greater emphasis on dissonance, burly riffing, and structural complexity. This album lacks much of the immediate, catchy, gothic melodies of its predecessor, but it more than makes up for it in complexity, nervous energy, and sheer, metallic weight.
On the back half we tackle the debut record by White Rune, a Finnish project which endeavors to restore the glory the now-rusted concept of symphonic black metal. Drawing from Finnish contemporaries as well as the more youthful efforts of bands like Cradle of Filth or Hecate Enthroned, the result is a record of catchy melodies and epic overtures that nonetheless allows the grit and weight of the Finnish style to penetrate every note. NO KEYBOARDS, NO FEMALE VOCALS- well, maybe we can start making an exception for one of those.
0:00:00 - Intro
0:06:59 - Vergeblichkeit - Unnahbar Dein (Independent)
0:49:56 - Interlude - Stahlhammer - “Messerschmied” fr. Feind hört mit (Nuclear Blast, 1999)
0:56:11 - White Rune - Dawn of the White Rune (Hammer of Hate Records)
1:52:28 - Outro - Cradle of Filth - “Beneath the Howling Stars” fr. Cruelty and the Beast (Music for Nations, 1998)
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Wednesday Aug 17, 2022
Wednesday Aug 17, 2022
It's that time of the season again! Terminus returns with another episode but, uh, a weird one again. This time it's TDMG that's our handling some personal business, which means we have an episode featuring TBMG and Terminus intern Hyper Shaman, this time focusing on wooly and wild strains of black metal from all over the (full) spectrum. Think of this as the perverse alternative to the first guest episode featuring TDMG and HS, but instead of slam and gorenoise it's even more cryptic, inscrutable black metal. So, in essence, business as usual.
The show kicks off with the triumphant return of war elephant-riding Dressed in Streams with a new EP. The project's second record, Swaraj, was covered on the show in 2020 and ended up on TBMG's end of the year list. The new EP, while clearly part of the project's sonic lineage, presents a more biting, hot-blooded take on the style, leaning away from the subtle post-blackisms of the previous record and more fully into the brackish and insane. An obvious required listen for Terminators.
Following this is a true oddity: the debut album by Dogman, a Bosnian project which presents itself as worship of equally obscure Brazilian project Sovereign. What we have here is a truly unusual combination of Franco-Finnish consonance and panicked, alcoholic blackthrash which straddles no lines but its own. Can Dogman bridge the gap between what seem to be wildly divergent musical concepts? Listen and decide for yourself.
We conclude our evening with the debut record of Danish band Grigorien, a band which attempts to resurrect, in a sense, the totality of the second wave that does not discount advances made in more recent years. Furiously devilish and bitterly aggressive, this might have been denounced with terms like "Norsecore" in earlier years, but within the heat and extremity is a subtlety of arrangement that defies its contemporaries.
0:00:00 - Intro
0:11:16 - Dressed in Streams - लड़ाई का मैदान (“Battlefield”) (Colloquial Sound Recordings)
0:53:23 - Dogman - Alcoholic Fury & Madness (Total Death) (Independent)
1:38:50 - Grigorien - Magtens Evangelium (Signal Rex)
2:29:01 - Outro - Belëf - “Deathwind Legion” fr. Deathwind Legion (Criminal Records, 2000)
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Tuesday Jul 26, 2022
Tuesday Jul 26, 2022
What's this? Terminus rising from its gwave once again? Well, not exactly- TBMG's work commitments are going on a bit longer than anticipated so we're not coming back from break just yet. However, in the interest of maintaining positive SEO trends and social standing, TDMG and infamous Terminus intern Hyper Shaman have put together an episode to tide you all over. We'll be back to your regularly scheduled programming sooner rather than later, but for now- records.
First is the long-awaited return of Singapore grindcore stars Wormrot after a 6 year gap from Voices, the record that brought them to the forefront of the genre. This year's record, Hiss, clearly and deliberately moves in more experimental directions, laced with lashings of screamo and ambient, but attempts to also hew closely to Wormrot's tried-and-true d-beat and blast attack. This has already proven to be a divisive record amongst fans of the band, so how does it stack up to prior work, and is the move toward headier material one that makes sense for the band? We discuss.
Next up is a record already catching fire within the Terminus black circle- the debut of Grenadier, Arghoslent-worshiping melodic death metal from Newfoundland, Canada (of all locales.) Calling this mere Arghoslent worship is a bit reductive, though, as Grenadier proves themselves not only capable of replicating that band's distinct riffing style but also bringing their own idiosyncrasies to the plate. Certainly one for all the Terminators out there, and definitely on the short list for melodeath record of the year.
Finally, we lower our eyes in respect and fear of the return of Pneuma Hagion, whose 2020 debut made that year's Terminus aggregate album of the year list. 2022's Demiurge is in a large sense more of the same- mid-era Morbid Angel perverted and downtuned to tectonic levels- but a close listen shows subtle shifts in the project's sound. The trudge and blast arrangement of the band's style maintains primacy, but an injection of perverse d-beat energy and hypnotic riffing makes this very worthy of further consideration.
0:00:00 - Intro
0:04:28 - Wormrot - Hiss (Earache Records)
0:36:25 - Grenadier - Trumpets Blaze in Burning Glory (Drakkar Records)
1:15:27 - Pneuma Hagion - Demiurge (Meat 5000 Records)
01:48:52 - Outro - Grave Upheaval - “Untitled 4” fr. Untitled (Nuclear War Now, 2013)
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Friday Jul 01, 2022
Friday Jul 01, 2022
Through loutish, piglike force of will, we have arrived at the halfway point of season 3 of Terminus. Weary but unbroken, your intrepid hosts are going to be taking their customary two week summer break, but before that, another episode, this time featuring what is surely one of the biggest records of the year. This is another episode of pure death metal, but in this case we reach from the deeper depths of the underground as well as the heights of one of the genre's most seminal acts.
For the subterranean: Melancholy Pessimism's newest record, continuing the legacy of these criminally underrated stalwarts of the Czech deathgrind scene. This time the band reaches back into the 80s, injecting a shot of surprisingly traditional thrash into their agile, mosh-ready brand of deathgrind. Like many of the records we've covered this year, this is an album for aficionados of the style, its core traditionalism elaborated upon with subtle touches of structural cleverness and masterful musicianship.
And then, yes, it's time- we're late to the party but we'd be remiss if we ignored the latest work by Immolation. No preamble is needed: Immolation continue to impress with their unique style of haunting, textured death metal that has now been iterated upon for upward of 30 years. That being said, this isn't a band content to rest on their laurels, and Acts of God proves itself one of their most ferocious and pummeling offerings in their post-Harnessing Ruin career. Sit back and enjoy as we engage in a sprawling discussion of not merely this record but the band's career, legacy, and position in death metal as a whole.
0:00:00 - Intro
0:09:24 - Melancholy Pessimism - Shut Up, Give Up and Obey! (Bizarre Leprous Production)
0:57:10 - Interlude - Destructive Explosion of Anal Garland - “Ureterakhamun” fr. Tour de Anal (Bizarre Leprous Production, 2014)
0:59:10 - Immolation - Acts of God (Nuclear Blast)
2:04:48 - Outro - Winter - “Into Darkness” fr. Into Darkness (Future Shock, 1990). Note fr. TBMG: Here's the other template for that last chug riff on Acts of God.
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Tuesday Jun 21, 2022
Tuesday Jun 21, 2022
As though driven by an unearthly wind, Terminus' music pendulum is buffeted far to the opposite side of the last couple episodes with an evening of (mostly) pure death metal- generally oldschool, but portrayed in radically contrasting ways. We open with a peek at the debut EP by Licentious, announcing the return of Rob Fornicator (Fornicator, Whore, etc.) which combines his penchant for heroin-addict sleaze with the dissolute chaos of early Devourment. Recommended headbanging posture: stabbing motion.
The Chasm returns after a long absence, allowing your hosts the opportunity to review not merely the newest record but the band as a whole. A long-running and crucial project carrying aloft the torch of the most erudite of oldschool death metal, the band on this record sets their sights on something a little different: highly technical, erudite thrash. The Chasm represents a crucial lineage in death metal: that of the Guitar Guy who sees technical performance and songwriting scope as inextricably intertwined. Recommended headbanging posture: invisible conductor's baton.
Also returning from a long absence are Finnish bulldozers Slugathor, who have emerged from the depths of R'lyeh slower, lower, and more bestial than ever. Drawing from the ugliest and deepest pools found within Rippikoulu and Bolt Thrower, Slugathor appear primitive and reductive at first blush, but upon further examination reveal a master's touch in pacing and structure. Recommended headbanging posture: shotgun levelled execution-style at the head of planet Earth.
0:00:00 - Intro/Licentious - Licentious (Headsplit Records)
0:14:52 - The Chasm - The Scars of a Lost Reflective Shadow (Lex Inframundis Productions/Dark Descent)
1:01:54 - Interlude - Claude Debussy - Nocturnes III, “Sirènes,” performed by the Berliner Philharmoniker, Claudio Abbado conducting (Deutsche Grammophon, 2001)
1:11:41 - Slugathor - Crypt of the Ancient Fire (Drakkar Productions)
2:02:38 - Outro - Slugathor - “Endless Halls,” fr. Crypt of The Ancient Fire (2022)
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