abhorrence were a short-lived but ultimately quite influential finnish death metal band who formed in '89 and were already out the door before '90 ended. despite dropping a comeback EP of new material in 2018, i've still never checked out this seminal band's two lone releases, and since they're only a little over ten minutes each, i figured tonight's a better night than ever to see what they're all about. i do always enjoy some good ol' fashioned finnish OSDM, and while i do slightly prefer the ... read more

through my preteen years until i was like 15, toxicity was my favorite album. i played this shit like ten times a day, man, front to back. by 2020 i'd realized that my tastes had shifted from the cleaner alt-metal of toxicity in favor of the grittier, rawer, more underground and heavy style of its predecessor which i NOW regard as my favorite record...doesn't mean i like toxicity any less, though. shit's still CLASSIC. what, do you think you're better than toxicity? NOBODY'S above toxicity, ... read more

this is my favorite album of all time, has been for years, and at this point i've pretty much come to terms with the fact that i can never even hope to convey with words just how much i adore it. i can attempt to scratch at the heart of that love by gushing over the riffs and the guitar tone and cathartic heaviness and serj in general and blah blah blah ... but it's just not gonna happen. i wrote a lil bit about it on my main account a few months ago if you're interested in reading ... read more

first of all, let me make one thing clear: much has been made of the garden's creative blurring of genre lines, making many people unsure of what to classify them as. i understand this but to clarify, they are and always have been a punk band (thus their appearance here on gutter420). they've strayed far from the path in the past, often exploring all manner of alternative weirdo shit from utterly unique hip hop to jungle and electronic styles. however, throughout their career, punk rock has ... read more

the perennially trendy blackened hardcore sound has been relevant in underground circles for what feels like forever now. of course in the early 2010's you had all those southern lord type bands fuse sludgy crust and other sounds with black metal, and since like 2018 or 2019 i've felt like this kind of lo-fi blackened punk shit has been everywhere if you know where to look. i'm not opposed to this at all; a lot of my favorite black metal has a brazenly punkish flair to it, and i usually love ... read more

baphomorph is the solo project of a man known only as "jared"...nothing more mysterious than a jared. this chicago-based project specializes in good ol' fashioned doom n' gloom USBM, with some melancholic electronics sprinkled here and there to amplify the moody atmosphere. this compilation is fuzzy and depressive, in more of a bandcamp blackgaze way than a DSBM way. if you like your metal conjoined with the "post-" prefix at all times, this may strike a chord with you. ... read more

emo is a bit of a grey area when it comes to this account's criteria. i usually streamline reviewable material to be anything derived from metal or punk, and while emo does technically share a common ancestry with punk music and hardcore, i think we can all agree that some emo falls into the same category as most pop punk and loses its required edge, thus disqualifying it from gutter420 review consideration. i guess i'll just state now that the only emo i will review on this account must remain ... read more

while i enjoyed paranoid's debut out raising hell, i can't really say i was surprised by the fact that this 2014 EP which preceded it by six years is markedly better. one of that album's only weaknesses was its lack of volatility--it wasn't a sterile album by any means, but it didn't have the raw edge that destroy future less system undeniably has. the guitar tone is just a bit more brittle, the mix a bit more lo-fi, the vocals a bit more soaked in reverb; the instrumentals are still performed ... read more

paranoid are an interesting band; they're a swedish power trio whose aesthetic is influenced by japan, while their music is primarily a combination of scandinavian d-beat and old school metal of the 80's underground. complete with perhaps the sickest artwork i've ever seen in my life, out raising hell is apocalyptic biker metalpunk and we all need a bit more of that in our lives. there's a lot of music like this out there and i can't say this album is the most unique of its kind, but it's an ... read more

a short but oh so sweet bomb of explosive hardcore noise. i'm not familiar with the punk scene in tallahassee and i just discovered this EP today so i know nothing about ideation, but blunt instrument is pretty outstanding shit. maybe it's just my personal preference, but i love how the tracklist is sequenced cuz it feels like each song is better than the last. there are only five here, though, and none of them are any less than awesome. this could grow on me cuz i'm super into it, and i would ... read more

so i definitely dig the music these phine philly pholks play; zorn are energetic, they've got good riffs, they're pretty catchy, and they have an awesome style. certainly of a retro persuasion, reminiscent of 80s hardcore punk with a prominently blackened flair. at times they sound influenced by the likes of thrash and speed metal, too, reinforcing the retro vibes (of course assisted by the reverbed vocals recalling vintage extreme metal). i've seen them lumped in with a lot of bands labeled ... read more

the epitome of knuckle dragging caveman shit. as a big fan of this ignorant beatdown sound, it's not a surprise that i'm super into volcano. i'd love to hear a full-length from them cuz this lil EP already establishes them as one of the sickest bands of this beatdown hardcore revival that's been brewing in recent years; they write simple, heavy as fuck riffs that are amplified by a goddamn crushing guitar tone that's just ear candy to me. it's mixed and performed well. it's a short EP that'll ... read more

for the duration of one of my all-time favorite USBM records, arizona-based group take over and destroy (aka TOAD) bring forth one of the most original and sharp black metal sounds i've heard. that's especially impressive due to its accessibility; endless night one of the catchiest black metal records you'll ever find, as it owes some of its songwriting to other genres which influence it. there are key instances of heavy metal and death metal of a distinctly scandinavian flavor, evoking the ... read more

you'll hear nunslaughter described as something to the effect of "no-frills" whenever someone talks about these rowdy pittsburgh* freaks, and that's one of their greatest strengths. channelling a punky, thrashing style of grind-adjacent death metal, nunslaughter's full-length debut hell's unholy fire only lasts for 30 minutes on the dot, which is very much to its benefit. i saw them described as the "death metal ramones" on RYM; makes sense. this is fuckin' killer shit. the ... read more

holy FUCK. released in 1993 by dallas-based underground legends embalmed, this record is really something special if you're on the lookout for awesome old school brutal death metal. the riffs are disgusting, the guitar tone is PHAT, the drummer is downright maniacal, and the growls are fuckin' monstrous--some of the best and most brutal of their time in my opinion. an incredibly hard-hitting production job brings the whole thing together, and this is exactly how i like my brutal death metal: ... read more

decided to give this cult classic a relisten, and yeah, it's sick. no surprises there--although i must admit, i wouldn't put it amongst my highest tiers of death metal favorites like some would. the dead shall inherit is immensely popular with fans of the 90's new york sound, and if it were released today it'd probably be lumped into the same category as "caveman death metal" bands like undeath which i'm more often than not a fan of. sonically, the hardcore influences that were ... read more

edit 2 (8/6/23): maybe if it ever leaves my headphones for one second i will see fit to lower this perfect score but seeing as though that's never happened ................... i just wouldn't bet on it

edit (6/8/23): pretty much the only album anyone has ever needed ... (original score 92 --> 98)

original review (2/26/23): 1993's deliver me unto pain was released during death metal's "old school" period, and while it carried a brutal sound not dissimilar from other new york old ... read more

i'll get back to the black flag and black sabbath discographies real soon, but first i gotta take a quick detour to discuss this well-known classic of d-beat hardcore that i just discovered for the first time today. anti-cimex are a well-revered band, known as d-beat pioneers as well as one of the most influential groups in the scandinavian hardcore scene; unfortunately, i've kinda overlooked both d-beat and scandinavian punk over the years, so my knowledge of both sounds is quite limited. ... read more

black flag...i almost have TOO much to say about this great punk institution, one of my favorite bands of all time without question. for that reason i'll try not to get too distracted by their storied history, their impact on the genre, all the little stories and notes relating to them that occupy my brain, etc. etc. and simply review the music itself (perhaps a task easier said than done). forming in 1976 under the name "panic," the LA county-based and newly renamed band debuted in ... read more

a lot of people have classified angel witch as a decidedly "lame" NWOBHM band which ain't unfair. comparing lead vocalist kevin heybourne to other 80's metal singers is a fool's errand--he doesn't have the gruff n' tough appeal of di'anno, he's nowhere near as powerful as dickinson or dio, and he provides nothing more than a thoroughly serviceable performance on angel witch's self-titled debut. still, angel witch were one of the refreshing british bands who helped take metal to new ... read more