Bone Fetish "Bone Fetish" (Review)

Bone Fetish Bone Fetish

2025 Sentient Ruin Laboratories (CD/LP/CS)

sentientruin.com

8/10 CRUSHED FUCKING SKULLS

From Canada's Bone Fetish we have the equivalent of a full length, which is cobbled together from past releases. I found the newest material the most interesting, so I spent most of my time reviewing that, but the entire record is worth a listen, as this is some of the finest goregrind I've heard in a while, especially since it's melded with ancient gory death metal. On the first several tracks we actually get normal growled vocals instead of the low pitch shifted stuff we normally get with goregrind, but that is present later on from earlier material. This material is very much in the vein of early Carcass (and even more so as the record progresses to older material), but cleanly produced with natural drums and a fuzzed out bass guitar. It's not exactly Carcass worship, but it's close, and it's mixed with early '90s death metal. In fact, their sound reminds me a lot of the Privilege of Evil EP from Amorphis, right down to the gaspy and raspy vocals. The blastbeats are fierce when they appear, and they're used to maximum effect, creating intensity where it's needed. The rest of the material isn't as awesome as the first several songs, but it's good in its own right, I just think they finally found their sound. Here's hoping they continue in this direction and give us more killer gore!

Infernalivm "Conquering the Most High" (Review)

Infernalivm Conquering the Most High

2025 Sentient Ruin Laboratories

www.sentientruin.com

8/10 CRUSHED FUCKING SKULLS

This is Infernalivm's first EP, and only release to date. They play a Morbid Angel, Krisiun, & Behemoth-style of Satanic death metal with relentless double bass and militant blast beats. This is neck-snapping intensity at its finest, relentlessly pounding the listener. Solid, sludgy riffs swirl over top the blasts with zero remorse, only slowing to inject a little morbid atmosphere into the music. I don't always like triggered kick drums, but here it makes sense, adding significant levels of brutality to the sonic stew they've managed to cook up. The stop-start kicks in "Ashes of the Saints" in particular are incredible. This is how dark death metal ought to be played - fast, in your face, and evil, using slower tempos only to provide a break in the volcanic speed. The vocal patterns are interesting and rhythmic when fast, sickly when slow. The doomed-out sections where the band does slow down are a welcome break from the speed, but quickly whip back into a frenzied state, and this is their strength. They seem to build each song to a sonic climax by mid-way through. The songwriting is just impeccable. Based on the power of these four songs, I cannot wait to see what they can do with a full-length, and what other satanic secrets their music holds.

Aberration / Diabolic Oath "Divinations" Split (Review)

Aberration / Diabolic Oath “Divination”

2024 Sentient Ruin Laboratories / 7”

www.sentientruin.com

On this split we get one 6-minute track each from Aberration of Minneapolis and Diabolic Oath from Portland. It’s a nice split, suitably underground-looking, with cool logos and nice gray and black art. Dismembered skeletons hanging from chains are always rad. Each band uses the word “divinations” in their track title, with “Divinations of Flesh” from Aberration and the mighty “Divinations of Wrath” from Diabolic Oath.

Aberration gives us a track of solid death metal, very much in the vein of Incantation and doomier Autopsy perhaps, but with a haunting sound, for some reason reminding me of Von, of all bands. I have no idea why that is, but it does in fact remind me of the Satanic Blood demo. It’s not nearly as repetitious as that, but it might because of the cave-like recording (and that is not an insult – it gives the song its own personality). It’s more intricately played than that, of course. While good, it didn’t reach out and strangle me and I felt it could be shorter, but doom-influenced death metal tends to longer compositions, of course. I’ll be looking forward to hearing more from Aberration to see if they step up their attack, because I’m definitely going to pay attention to them, but I have to hear more to decide for sure if I’m a true fan.

Diabolic Oath gives us a real treat on the B side, and they have a bit more of a black/death inclination, especially in the way the drums come across. This is easily my favorite of the two tracks on this split. Parts of it made me wish I still had hair to windmill! Possibly due to the drum sound or the reverb on the vocals, it reminded me a little bit of Demolition’s portion of the Heralds of Oblivion compilation from 1993 (hunt that sumbitch down if you can, it’s worth it!). Early to mid-period Necrophobic also came to mind during some of the more black metal-styled riffs. Stylistically, of course it’s different than those two bands, with almost a war metal vibe in certain parts of the song where the snare pounds away and the vocals echo malevolently, but the general feel is there. The Gorguts-like (or even Blasphemy-like) grunt with reverb right around the 3 minute mark made me a fan immediately. Badass creative choice there, and it built the intensity of the riff to follow perfectly. I just can’t say enough positive things about this track – it’s a good song. It made me a fan, so I’ll be actively trying to track down their other material for sure.