On their fourth album "EarthFlesh" Italians SYK present a truly wild potpourri of metal styles. Groove metal and deathcore are used as a basic set, while probably all existing metal and near-metal styles are periodically added to it, including alt metal and nu metal. Well, black metal elements can also be caught ('EarthFlesh'), even dissonant black metal ones (the beginning of 'Where I Am Going There Is No Light'). However, there is no point in sorting genres: an extremely dense sound, the dominant gloomy and monotonous blasting rampage, and almost continuous palm-muting with its chugs (tremolo-picking appears on "EarthFlesh" rarely) literally pound the listener flat. The guitar sound is at best like mechanical stamping (a truly industrial approach, by the way), at worst like the rumble of iron sheets being shifted. This makes it almost impossible to enjoy the technical elements of, for example, progressive metal. Guitar solos and picking passages are rare again and, frankly, in this deadly industrial hell they are perceived as mocking. Everything is played really precisely, with neurosurgical precision and sterility, the skill of the musicians is beyond doubt, but it is really difficult for a deathcore-untrained listener to decipher. Well, SYK's problem is that the singer Dalila Kayros left the band, so they lost their uniqueness. Co-founder guitarist Stefano Ferrian took over the vocal parts, but with his guttural growls SYK do not really stand out from the rest of the deathcore bands. So all they can do is flatten the listener with their ruthless music now.

The Lovecraft Sextet is one of several experimental projects by Dutch composer Jason Köhnen. On their third full-length album, The Lovecraft Sextet offer their own interpretation of "Miserere", a setting of Psalm 51 by 17th century Italian composer Gregorio Allegri. The only "black metal" elements (as well as metal in general to be entirely precise) on this album are almost canonical black metal shrieks, sometimes, however, turning into almost death metal growls, as well as typical black metal tremolo picking, which appears for a few seconds in some songs ('Occulta', 'Sanctum', 'Humiliatum') with its piercing melodies. As for the rest, "Miserere" is a dark jazz album. I guess all of you reading this are definitely asking, what is dark jazz? Well, it's something akin to playing a dark ambient piece or a drone track in a jazzy way. One more hint to understand: when bass enters, The Lovecraft Sextet's music is very reminiscent of jazz insertions from some Lynch movie soundtrack. Drums? Oh, you can't imagine better: semi-martial/semi-ritual drums at a funeral-march tempo (although the drum part on 'Humiliatum' is very dynamic). That is, open-minded metalheads will be able to listen to "Miserere" at least once, but in general this music is for those who love saxophone fantasies. Beyond all doubt, the saxophone is the basis of this album. Even the female soprano and organ are mere musical adornments here. Yes, they create a gloomy unearthly atmosphere and all that, but many dark ambient projects use soprano and organ too, while playing dark ambient/drone with a saxophone is much more original. By the way, don't panic: there's no John Zorn-style madness here! So the best song is 'Humiliatum' with a real black metal approach and atmosphere, the most chaotic and cacophonous (not that the rest of the songs are so structured) is 'Sacrificium', while the most vapid and contrived is 'Libera'. Welcome to the cellars of Arkham!

Collectors and sellers especially, please check your copies (matrix / runout). Perhaps you own not an original release but a repress.