Flenser US 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: Los Angeles based self-described "ecstatic black metal" outfit Agriculture are slowly becoming one the most talked about acts in the extreme metal underground, with near hysteric levels of hype growing for their self-titled debut full-length. Signing to The Flenser, a label known for its championing of the leftfield extremity of artists such as Chat Pile and Mamaleek, it's no real surprise that so many in the scene are gravitating toward the group's euphoric and uplifting re-interpretation of black metal motifs. With tremolo picking, blast beats and howling vocal shrieks all angled in such a sonic manner to feel enveloping and warm as opposed to the traditional frosted machinations of the genre, as well as the vulnerable poetics on display, Agriculture make a strong case for the Venn Diagram intersections which can often occur between the realms of black metal, screamo and post-rock, but they do so in such a nuanced manner as for it to feel blissfully cohesive and utterly natural.

Review: .By its very nature, Tenkiller is a very different beast to Chat Pile's other releases. Recorded in the winter of 2020 to be the soundtrack to Tenkiller, an indie movie about the lives of ordinary people in small-town America, it sees the noise-rock/post-hardcore combo focus on mood and tone, rather than form and function. As a result, fuzzy and forthright cuts of the sort you'd expect come supplemented by dystopian, industrial-influenced soundscapes, lo-fi alt-country, guitar-laden mood pieces, low-slung and effects-laden creepiness, intense electronica and the kind of slow-burn ambient-not-ambient that was once the preserve of cult bands such as Labradford.

Review: Oakland queer blackened sludge duo Ragana make their decrepit return on the harrowing fourth full-length Desolation's Flower. Their first project since signing to acclaimed underground extreme label The Flenser (Chat Pile, Agriculture, Mamaleek), the work continues the stoic brutality of 2017's You Take Nothing, but embraces more emotive forms of catharsis, combining hefty sludge metal riffs with frenetic screamo chaos and black metal atmospherics. Hideous, despondent, and cavernous yet undeniably groovy all mayhem considered.

Review: Returning with their heftiest and most malevolent work to date, Desolation's Flower marks the fourth full-length from the Oakland based queer blackened screamo-sludge two-piece Ragana. Their first effort upon signing with extreme purveyors of underground ugliness The Flenser (home to caustic noise-rock titans Chat Pile and ecstatic black metal newcomers Agriculture), the LP serves as a creative rebirth following their longest gap between projects yet, with their preceding third LP You Take Nothing arriving back in 2017. Continuing their grim excavation into hideous sonic malaise, yet with an expanded palette of grooving doom, frenetic screamo-violence and heaving sludge metal ripped right from the banks of the bayou, this is a thick, dense, murky gaze into a void that spits back eternal blackness.

Review: LA indie rockers Sprain are the latest fixture of their state's post-rock/noise rock zeitgeist and to celebrate (following their debut), they've now released their second LP, The Lamb As Effigy Or Three Hundred & Fifty XOXOXOs For A Spark Union With My Darling Divine. Adding to the ever-burgeoning sophisti-post-rock landscape of late - which has heard an uptick in spoken word and noise elements - the trio unleash their screamiest, most abyssal vocal and instrumental anti-prayers here, lashing out at God and Man over the course of a gargantuan, eight-track sonic judgment day.