From the heaviest doom abyss to speedy thrash: This month’s highlights from the underground

Autumn has autumned. It’s all feeling cold and bleak and melancholy. As it happens, this past month or so has thrown up some appropriate sounds from the underground to accompany nature’s confirmation that summer has completely died once again.

It’s the perfect time, in fact, for a new offering from New Jersey funeral doom icons Evoken. Thus, we have Mendacium, their seventh album and first in as many years. That record, Hypnagogia, saw them expanding masterfully, casting their shadow on a whole new world of sound. Here, though, they return to the dread this stuff was forged on, with mournful, dirging riffs building a catacomb of deeply downer metal. There’s bursts of speed that recall similar detours by the likes of My Dying Bride and Disembowelment, but mostly this is haunting, atmospheric slowness drawn from metal’s darkest crypt. It tells the story of a monk in the 1300s, confined to his room by sickness, eventually encountering a terrible force from beyond our reality. The strange melodies and minor-key dissonance are the perfect expression. And for those wanting a fun fact, it was produced by former Guns N’ Roses bloke Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal.

Primitive Man established themselves as one of the world’s heaviest bands the second they started, and so it continues on Observance. It is ludicrously downtuned, and beautifully captured, so that you can feel every avalanche riff doing the business in your speakers as they surge through Social Contract. Which would be quite nice as a way to really appreciate their super-slug riffs, were it not for their skill at managing to make sure you can never sink into it and shut off your mind, jabbing you intermittently with bursts of blasty speed (Transactional), squealing, discordant harmony (Devotion), or simply unsettling buzzing amp noises (Iron Sights). Mostly, though, they are about the enormous power of the weightiest possible doom, stretching their riffs out like meat on a rack until you’re left completely in their thrall and with an odd sense of cathartic relief. So, yeah, still one of the world’s heaviest bands.

Keeping it gloomy, but with a Paradise Lost-ish sense of headbangery, Finland’s Hooded Menace are back with Lachrymose Monuments Of Obscuration. On Pale Masquerade and Portrait Without A Face, it’s all big, bold riffs that recall The Cult as much as they do their doomy brethren, thrusting along with their foot proudly on the monitors. Things get more sinister on the death-tinged Lugubrious Dance, while Save A Prayer takes a satisfyingly Type O Negative tack, before going into a full Seventh Son-era Iron Maiden guitar flourish. But don’t let the metal mania overshadow just how lachrymose all this stuff is at its heart, as once again Hooded Menace prove how deftly they can drag you into their vortex with a smile on your face and a fist in the air.

Last among this month’s doomy stuff, the debut album from Mexican doom deathsters Silent Tombs, Mourning Hymns From Beyond. They’re not entirely unlike early Anathema, particularly on the melodic gloom of Fade Away Journey (Echoes From Nowhere) and the faster chugs as Eclipsed By Despair rolls into view, before dropping down into the abyss. Frozen Tears is an almost anthemic melodic goth metal highlight, while The Crimson Sun is a treat for fans of doom guitar harmonies, with an enormous ending that could rival Moonspell at their most widescreen. Brilliant.

To matters black metal, where we find shadowy collective Achathras bringing some deliciously ’90s flavoured blasphemy on the aptly-named A Darkness Of The Ancient Past. They’re a supergroup consisting of members of various legendary black metal outfits, but they’re also unforthcoming with who’s actually in them. No matter, though, the icy, occasionally symphonic blasts contained within have the mark of experts in their (frozen) field, calling to mind early Emperor, Dissection and Immortal. Anointed With Moonfire, Emanation Of Chaos and The Despiser Triumphant all headbang along brilliantly, while The Curse Of Supremacy takes a slightly slower tack, with a curiously NWOBHM-y guitar line, and the descriptively-named The Uttermost Cold is an ambient, atmospheric closer that pits you right at the heart of winter, not least thanks to its windy samples.

The debut album from French mob Inritvm, Ex Nihilo Ad Nihilum, is just as shadowy, and an underground supergroup of sorts, but a lot more aggressive and abrasive. Rather than the majesty of the frozen north, it is instead rooted in cold, harsh nihilism, black metal forged as a stabbing weapon. The Principles Of Forfeiture and Falling Into Emptiness are wild-eyed assaults built on lashing guitar and violence, interspersed with moody, void-like soundscapes that underline the emptiness of reality. Ironically, when they go at it hammer and tongs, the wall of negativity they put up is actually rather enlivening, a rush of animal impulse.

From Atlanta, Georgia comes the second full-length from morbid death metal maniacs Occulsed, Antegnosis. As one would expect from Father Befouled guitarist Justin Stubbs, it’s brutality with a side of stygian, murky oddness. There’s no end of killer riffs, like the speedy thrasher that leads in excellently-titled opener Haze Of Morbid Slicing, but there’s also plenty of otherworldly dissonance and weird chords that create an atmosphere like that of the inside of a sealed tomb. And then there’s a bit during Cudgel Of Antimatter when the timings in the broken down, angular riff are so strange you actually feel yourself going a bit funny, while the doomy Nitre And Blight has the vibe of a nightmare. For fans of Incantation, Malthusian and their ilk, Occulsed are a must check out.

And finally, some homegrown heaviness. K! first saw Hellbearer at Bloodstock last year, and they were absolutely killer. The Manchester thrashers’ second album, Darker Fates, is a fierce document as to why. Speeding along with a vigour only youth can bring, and with more crunch than a gravel supply depot, it’s a full-on thrash attack from the moment first track proper The Witch kicks in. All of which would be excellent enough, but they’ve got Megadeth's skill for pivoting on their high-topped heel, turning corners seamlessly while losing absolutely none of their momentum. When they slow down to a more Pantera-like chug on Counting Seconds, they’re a total bulldozer, and the almost-ballad Afflicted acts as a breather in the mayhem, balancing out the bit at the start of Sacred Future when they’re going so fast they sound like they’re going to catch fire. One of the best thrash outfits in the UK right now, killing is Hellbearer’s business, and business continues to be very good indeed.

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