Despite that I’m late, in case Santacock has been a bit of a cheapo with his gifts this year, maybe I can make up for it with two little tips that’ll get you value without having to empty your purse. Nerve End and Mirrors of Obsidian have and EP and full album respectively up for free, at least if a digital version of the releases will satisfy you. However, like always, we would like to stress that you can in fact support these bands by donating a little something. It isn’t ‘name your price’ for nothing.

It’s a good day for those with a liking for stuff that’s brutal, grinding and bloody, because, dear boys and girls, it’s time for some mutilating Death Metal straight out of Ireland. The 2004-formed band hails straight out of Dublin and does things the loud way. With Skewered, the album they released in October, they stick their first flag into the soil of planet Brainfuckery-by-Riffs-and-Gutturals.

So yeah, that’s currently tearing my eardrums to shreds. Much like a dagger stuck in my ear. But that doesn’t mean it’s bad. In fact, it doesn’t mean shit. It’s just a figure of fuckin’ speech. Let me try to give you an overview of what Skewered is, what it does and give you some grip to help you determine whether or not this is for you. In short: it’s review time, kiddos!

Ireland, famous for its civil war, its potato famine and Guinness beer. Three perfect ingredients for some top quality metal I’d say. However, ask me to name any famous Irish metal bands and I’d come up with, you got it, none.

I was somewhat repulsed by this EPs cover, but I quickly adopted it into my iTunes, leaving the album cover blank. I couldn’t really grasp the image, but on the other hand, after I heard the music, I understood the choice. This is brutal and sophisticated at the same time, melodic and groovy in one.
As a genre-nazi, I often categorise everything I hear and within Hardcore Punk I feel there’s a difference between a loud punk band and a band with CORE written all over their asses. Fat Actress is THE archetype of this last band. Seriously, these guys kick asses all over the world, all the way from Cork, Ireland.

At first this EP’s music and me eluded each other, like the North and South poles have been eluding each other for quite a while now. Then I found out, once again – and you wonder whether I brushed out my brain when I did my teeth this morning – that Death Metal comes to its full right only – ONLY – when it’s played at volume settings that kill small children and critters smaller than a medium-sized dog.

And from that moment on I started to enjoy Capture Release Kill, Ireland’s Guttrench’s latest release, more by the second. In the style of Brutal Death Metal it’s pretty goddamn brutal Death Metal! But more than just a gathering of noisy components, Guttrench brings a lot of fuckin’ talent to the party. I’d go as far as to call this intelligently put together, which is not something you can say of most Brutal Death releases. And moreover, it just sounds very pleasant, except if you’re a toddler or a medium-sized dog perhaps.

I recently received an email from Dave of Guttrench, an Irish Brutal Death outfit. I may or may not yet have posted about them, I dunno at the time of writing this (if it isn’t here yet, it will be soon). In any case, Dave also gave me the names of a couple of other Irish bands to check out. One of those, and in my view the best one, is Vile Regression, based out of Dublin.

When bands start dressing up in checkered Celt clothing, you know you’re dealing with Celt Metal. Celtachor here is fresh on the job, despite its ancient roots. The group of four joined up as a band in 2007 and has come up with two demos so far. One of those carries the title In the Halls of Our Ancient Fathers and if they have properly released it, they could’ve nearly called it an album.

That’s not only because it carries enough music (seven tracks and over 35 minutes worth of tunes), but also because it sounds nearly too good for a demo. I’m saying nearly, because it’s still got some rough edges here and there and the mixing is a little flat, but that could’ve been fixed with minimal efforts and investments. At least I think so, I’m not aware of what a proper mix-job costs in Dublin, Ireland.

Earthy. Fluid. Human. Primal. All these vague descriptors are the best ways I’ve come up with when introducing people to the latest album by Irish Black Metal outfit Altar of Plagues. Black Metal doesn’t really do the band categorical justice either, as they’ve always been so much more than another Black Metal band.

The album focuses around death, a rather common theme in Metal. However, it is their sincerity and originality in their approach that distinguishes them from others. The album’s first track Neptune is Dead opens with eerie ambient noise, followed by some distant but foreboding tremolo guitars. It’s not long before the drums come pummeling down on your unworthy ears. The dynamics and air on this album is fantastic. The vocals are definitely something worth noting on this album as well. It isn’t your typical black shrieks, just the vocalist practically yelling the lyrics, but it works to great effect. No other way to describe it other than “primal”, as mentioned before.

Time for a new pack of music on this Wednesday morning! I’m amazed by how many bands I’ve already discovered since I started this website and how many I still discover every day, either helped by you lot – I massively appreciate that! – or by myself. It’s like the production rate of metal and the creation rate of new bands are much much higher than my metal consumption rate. I just hope it is, because then my supply will never run dry!

That said, what new stuff do we have in store today? We’ll start in Southern Europe with an Italian band that’s currently on hiatus and has been for quite a while. Doesn’t seem like they’ll ever get out of their dormant state, so you’ll have to satisfy yourself with the one track we have here and the album which it’s on.

The next track isn’t a new band, but it is a new song. It’s Insomnium, one of my personal favorite bands, from Finland, joined by Dark Tranquillity’s Mikael Stanne on vocals. Bloody bloody awesome, I can tell you that in advance!

And then finally, because there is non-metal music that is good – though only some – and because I’m a huge fan of the movie The Boondock Saints, some Dropkick Murphys. I’m sure you’ve heard the name of this Irish American folk-punk rock group before. Cheerful Irish music, with banjoes and accordions. Get y’er Guiness out laddies!