Review: ANA – Motivated By Death Eclipse Records – May 29th, 2026 Reviewer – David Brighouse This is the debut album from the Australian Symphonic Metal band. In a genre more usually associated with Europe this up-and-coming group from Melbourne has expanded the genre into what they call “couture metal” which adds high-fashion theatricality to the […]
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Ex-Grindlink guitarist Takafumi Matsubara is always up to something. Lately, it’s his involvement with crossover thrash weirdos Killseduction. Three years after releasing their first demo, Killseduction are back in action alongside Japanese fastcore vets Lowcard De La Morte. Their new split, fittingly dubbed Kill De La Morte, is out on May 29, but Decibel has an early, exclusive stream of the split below.
Lowcard De La Morte get through six songs in under seven minutes, boasting clean production, stompy riffs and flashy guitar licks. Killseduction take a more lo-fi approach, their crossover crossing over into powerviolence territory at times. Other times, like on “Sukimakaze,” Matsubara lays down riffs that are simultaneously discordant and flattening.
“I am very proud of this Japanese crossover thrash split album,” Matsubara says. “Low Card De La Morte is based in Nagoya and has many fans of hardcore/thrash. Killseduction is the experimental band that tries to mix traditional crossover and blast beat. If you have interest in Japanese crossover scene, please get this split!”
Check it out below. Digital and physical pre-orders are available via Bandcamp and HPGD.
The post Full Split Stream: Lowcard De La Morte / Killseduction – “Kill De La Morte” appeared first on Decibel Magazine.
The song of legendary drummer Mike Portnoy was unfamiliar with the track prior.
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Part of the ‘Mile End Kicks’ soundtrack.
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Reviewed by Dan Barnes
The April release of At the Gates’ The Ghost of a Future Dead album was a stark reminder that, while the wider world had been mourning the loss of Ozzy Osbourne in July 2025, the untimely passing Tomas Lindberg, on 16th September 2025, was an equally comparable loss to the extreme metal community.
Best known for his work fronting ATG, Tomas was nothing if not a versatile performer, who could be found in as diverse projects as the Hardcore-adjacent The Great Deceiver, death thrashers The Crown, and crust punks Disfear and Skitsystem to name but a few.
However, it was his tenure fronting the grindcore supergroup, Lock Up, that filled his time most notably during ATG’s hiatus at the end of the nineties and into the noughties.
Formed in 1998 by Napalm Death’s Shane Embury and the late Jesse Pintado, along with ex- Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir (among many others) drummer Nick Barker, as an attempt to recapture the raw, punk-infused grind that Napalm themselves champion on Scum and From Enslavement to Obliteration, but seemed to lose grip of during the nineties more-death metal sounding albums. The Godfathers of Grind suddenly found themselves being overtaken by the likes of Nasum, Brutal Truth and Rotten Sound, and it was time Grind came home.
With that being said, disc one of this retrospective collection, the band’s 1999 debut, Pleasure Pave Sewers, does not feature the voice of Tomas, rather it is noted producer and Hypocrisy/ Pain frontman, Peter Tägtgren who handles the screams.
While not as punk-infused grind as Jesse’s work on Terrorizer’s World Downfall, PPS’s death grind attack makes the genre feel dangerous again. Opener After Life in Purgatory begins with a scream and twisting guitar as Peter’s vocals bark and snarl and Nick’s drums blast; Submission continues the chaos and Triple Six Suck Angels introduces some groove into the sound. Delirium blasts and growls and we’re even given a wee breakdown for our troubles.
The two-part Slow Bleed Gorgon / Pleasures Pave Sewers begins at a moderate pace, reminiscent of Eighties mid-tempo death metal, launching into a whirlwind grind at the halfway point. Ego Pawn, The Dreams are Sacrificed and Tragic Faith are all unruly and out to destroy, whereas Darkness of Ignorance opts for a more textured approach through an exercise in restraint. Shane shines in the intro section to Salvation Thru’ Destruction; Leech Eclipse is a sub-one-minute rampage and closer, with the previously unreleased, Fever Landscapes, bringing the curtain down on the debut after a mere twenty-nine minutes and some-odd seconds.
When you think back to the state of the metal scene at the time of Pleasure Pave Sewers’ release, you appreciate how welcome this half-hour of uncompromising grind was at the time, and it’s been a real pleasure to revisit it after all these years, and it not having aged a day.
Perhaps it was the influence of Lock Up’s debut, but Napalm Death’s subsequent millennial album, Enemy of the Music Business, which was their first post-Earache release and the last of the band’s albums to feature Jesse’s playing, saw Napalm unleashing musical fury again and began a streak of ground-breaking records that continue to this day.
Peter didn’t return for the sophomore album, and his place was taken by Tomas for more grind-oriented Hate Breed Suffering in 2002. Disc two of this collection is the whirlwind assault that sees Lock Up in a particularly abrasive mood. Opening tracks Feeding on the Opium, Castrate the Wreckage and Violent Reprisal arrive with snapping, snarling vocals, sawing guitars and Nicks’ inhuman drums.
Jesse’s buzzsaw tone permeates the album, from the relentless aggression of the tile track, through High Tide in a Sea of Blood to solid grinders like The Jesus Virus, Broken World and The Sixth Extinction.
Peter’s departure does not rob Lock Up of those Deathy riffs, which can be heard on Dead Sea Scroll Deception, Horns of Venus and among the infectious progression of Catharsis; the two-part tune Fake Somebody / Real Nobody is reminiscent of the debut’s Slow Bleed Gorgon / Pleasures Pave Sewers, as it begins slow and deliberate before exploding into rampaging fury and concluding in some Deathy licks.
Hate Breeds Suffering isn’t all about the fiery anger; there are also moments which get your foot tappin’, as on Detestation, maybe even a little groove on Slaughtered Ways and a hooky riff in Cascade Leviathan, all ensure the record never becomes predictable.
As this is a Cherry Red product, we get three bonus tracks, including the loose bass of Satan’s Generation and live versions of The Dreams are Sacrificed and the previously unheard Storm of Stress.
It would be nine-years before Lock Up would produce album number three, 2011’s Necropolis Transparent, which found another unfortunate personnel change after the untimely death of Jesse Pintado in 2006. Replacing him arrived Anton Reisengger, of Pentagram (Chile), thrashers Criminal and the short-lived eighties project, Fallout.
Neither the years nor the change of personnel blunted Lock Up’s cutting edge and that is proved without a shadow of a doubt by Necropolis’ commencing trio of Brethren of The Pentagram, Accelerated Mutation and The Embodiment of Paradox and Chaos, all of which launch the album in the fiery, most fierce way possible, with unrelenting grind. Unseen Enemy, and the latter-album tunes Infiltrate and Destroy, Discharge the Fear, Vomiting Evil and Stigmartyr ensure there’s no reduction in the ferocious energy of the record as it nears its conclusion.
Blending styles to a greater extent than the previous two records, Necropolis Transparent experiment with variation on the likes of Through the Eyes of My Shadow Self, which reveals in an introspective musing, the slow, almost doom-death pacing of Tartarus, and the dark atmosphere of Stygian Reverberations. You’ll even find danceable grooves on Parasite Drama and Rage Incarnate Reborn to lighten the mood a tad.
Not wanting to fully forget their death-grind past, the band give you the crunch title track, and Anvil of Flesh, both of which owe something to the early Morbid Angel sound; Roar of a Thousand Throats even brings in a breakdown to maintain the interest factor.
Bonus tracks on disc three are new versions of After Life in Purgatory and Feeding on The Opiate recorded during the Necropolis sessions, a demo version of The Embodiment of Paradox and Chaos and the unreleased charging grind of Thus the Beast Decapitated and Infinite In Its Nothingness.
The fourth and final disc of this collection is Lock Up’s 2005 live album, Play Fast or Die: Live in Japan. As a band, Lock Up were not the most prolific live act, with their most recent visit to UK shores being with Napalm Death, Brujeria and Power Trip in 2017. Those of us who witnessed the band’s British debut at the under-rated Damnation 2009 festival were assured that Lock Up were one of the rare example of a ‘super-group’ equal to the sum of its parts.
Picking from the first two records, disc four is a pummelling twenty song blast of grinding energy, capturing the show from Nagoya’s Club Quattro in June 2002. It is largely the first-time of hearing Tomos singing Peter’s songs, giving the death-grind of After Life in Purgatory, Submission and Tragic Faith a more punk aspect. It’s three-quarters of an hour of utter brutality.
Brethren of the Pentagram is an essential collection of one of grind’s most important actors coming together at the peak of their talents. Lock Up would go on to release two further records, Demonization in 2017 and The Dregs of Hades in 2021, with the drum stool being taken over by Misery Index’s Adam Jarvis and Brutal Truth’s Kevin Sharp sharing vocals with Tomos, for the continuation of the band’s impressive legacy.
The post Boxset Review: Lock Up – Brethren Of The Pentagram appeared first on The Razor's Edge.
I was initially surprised that Galvanist hailed from Bozeman, Montana, but I really have no right to feel that way. Based on its proximity to major outdoor destinations, I thought Bozeman would be like Jackson, Wyoming, where I briefly lived, but Google quickly disabused me of that notion. Suffice it to say, I have no idea what Bozeman’s music scene is like. But I’ll tell you what I do know. I know that Galvanist released debut Connection in 2022 and split Hollowtop with Ulm in 2024. I know they’re returning now with sophomore effort The Silence Between Stars. And after spinning this album every day for weeks, I know that all my expectations, like so much dust beneath the heel of an eldritch god, have been casually and utterly annihilated.
The promo material describes Galvanist as “blackened doom metal, progressive death metal, and experimental textures.” That may outline the canvas upon which Galvanist paints, but it does them little justice. Throughout The Silence Between Stars, I hear Animals as Leaders drowning in sludge (“Atrophy”) and Huntsmen channeling Thou (“Dreich,”1 “Spiorad”2). Woven into the fiber of their sound, I hear the swirling chaos of Ulcerate (“Hauntology”), creating a shifting maelstrom that denies me any safe or solid ground. Synths and keys, courtesy of lead guitarist Micah Tippit, lend Galvanist a threatening, extraterrestrial edge. Over it all, vocalist Tanner Erhart bellows with the raw intensity of acts like Ragana. Galvanist takes these ingredients and filters them through a clear and singular identity to create something entirely their own. Orders of magnitude greater than its descriptors, The Silence Between Stars is a journey by turns and at once deeply rooted in the homestead and violently flung to the darkest reaches of space.3
With every track but the 63-second intro4 clocking in at roughly 8–11 minutes, I worried The Silence Between Stars would suffer from bloat or overly aggressive proggery. My fears were unfounded. The Silence Between Stars demands my attention front to back, and at an easily digestible 40 minutes, I frequently find myself looping back for another spin. This isn’t so singular a work as Winter’s Gate or Mirror Reaper—there’s little need for gapless playback here—but each track flows so naturally into the next that I struggle to start anywhere but the beginning or stop anywhere but the end. I don’t know if this is a concept album, but it’s heady, interconnected subject matter5 demands more than just lyrical exposition. Galvanist is plenty capable, wielding mystifying time signature shifts (“Atrophy,” “Hauntology”), abrupt—but never jarring—compositional transitions, and mid-melody key changes (“Spiorad”) with aplomb. Galvanist adeptly handles such progressive elements to bake their storytelling directly into the music itself.
Even beyond its total disregard for my expectations, The Silence Between Stars continues to awe. Galvanist uses the soundstage to further cultivate that sense of being both grounded and in freefall. Bassist Kevin George’s mix leaves room for each instrument to breathe, but in a good way, only just. With a little added reverb, the result fosters that contradictory atmosphere even more, like suffocating in open air. Erhart’s rhythm guitars hang out on the wings, where microtonal variances between left and right ears create an incredible dissonance, a feeling of infinite liminality. Elements float in and out of the spotlight—like George’s bass at the midpoint of “Atrophy,” Chris Navarro’s drums at the end of “Hauntology,” or Tippit’s astounding leads on the back half of “Spiorad”—constantly redirecting my attention and driving me further into Galvanist’s labyrinth.
It is not often I have no complaints about an album, and rarer still, I have more praise than I can fit on the page. Had I time and space enough, I would still be raving about The Silence Between Stars long after the final keys of “Spiorad” fade to silence. From the cosmic violence of “Atrophy” to the striking bookends of “Dreich,” and from the spine-tingling keys of “Hauntology” to the magnificent, delirious climax of “Spiorad,” Galvanist has created something truly special. Like a will-o’-wisp or a foxfire trail coaxing you into the dark, The Silence Between Stars is disquieting yet tempting, unnerving yet comforting. I didn’t know what I was in for when I picked up Galvanist, but to shamelessly adapt my favorite line from the album,6 I crossed the threshold, and I found myself amidst worlds strange and wonderful.
Rating: 4.5/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Aeternitas Tenebrarum Musicae Fundamentum
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram
Releases Worldwide: May 27th, 2026
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