English is fairly adequate for basic communication, but it falls short for niche communities. In the same way that skiers repurpose “powder” or “carve” and gamers repurpose “own” or “sweaty,” metal fans break and contort language to suit our needs. We talk about “filthy” guitar tones and “razor sharp” riffs, discuss “cavernous” production and “suffocating” weight, and use violent imagery—bleeding ears, caved in skulls—to denote quality. So when I read phrases like “slow, painful march,” “soporific1 dirge,” and “empty decades between chords” on the promo sheet for debut Dark Thoughts with Lights Out, I thought Cattle Hammer was just employing a little dialectical variance, speaking the lingo. Joke’s on me, though. They weren’t.

Based in Birmingham, UK, Cattle Hammer was formed by vocalist/guitarist Duncan Wilkins (Fukpig, Mistress) in 2023. He’s joined by I Cartwright on drums, J Wyles on guitar, and D Von Donovan on bass. Together, they mix a caustic brew of drone, doom, and sludge, but each track on Dark Thoughts with Lights Out has its own identity. “Gloomsower” leans stony, and Wilkins oscillates between deep roars and strangled croaks reminiscent of Weedeater. “Rotting” features short tremolos, although they don’t do much besides check the “blackened” box on the PR sheet. The ambient, noise-tinged intro to “Watchmen, Alone” caught my attention, but repetition of the vocal sample stunts its ability to build tension. Similarly, “Body Puzzle” ends on some interesting synths, but it’s a tough sell so late in the album. If you can’t tell, I’m really reaching for positives here, but there’s not a one that isn’t ultimately a disappointment.

Dark Thoughts With Lights Out by Cattle Hammer

Every time I thought Cattle Hammer might do something interesting or better texturize Dark Thoughts with Lights Out, they shrank from the occasion. The early lead guitar in “Gloomsower” is a bright change of pace amidst thick, doomy passages, but instead of playing a countermelody or variation on the theme or literally anything else, it just plays the same fucking riff in a higher register. This same-riff-different-instrument/key tactic is fairly common (“Rotting,” “Watchmen, Alone”). Organ (“Watchmen, Alone,” “Body Puzzle”) and piano (“Rotting”) make appearances, but fail to deliver anything justifying their inclusion. Static and feedback crop up frequently, but in Cattle Hammer’s hands, they are merely unpleasant and banal. While I was intrigued by the first sample2 and always appreciate Sheri Moon Zombie,3 Cattle Hammer’s sample usage is ham-fisted and melodramatic. Each of these ornaments gave me hope that I might soon feel something besides boredom and frustration, but invariably, Dark Thoughts with Lights Out dashed my hopes and shuffled on.

What astounds me most on Dark Thoughts with Lights Out is how avoidable many of these blunders seem. Percussion is a little lackluster, and the instruments seem a bit compressed in the mix, leaving the vocals too far in front. These aren’t deal breakers, but playing fewer riffs—I’m being generous, calling them that—in 45 minutes than I have fingers is. Structuring the front half of a song to sound like a narrative climax with no build-up or release is (“Watchmen, Alone,” “Body Puzzle”). Rhythmic density rivaling the emptiness of space is. Ambient, feedback-laden outros enough to compile an EP is. This album is ostensibly meant to convey misery and suffering, but devoid of creativity or artistic abstraction, it misses the mark that acts like Primitive Man, The Body, or Sumac hit so well. It’s as if Cattle Hammer has crafted some misguided meta experience, in which the act of listening to the music imparts the misery normally communicated through the music itself.

If there’s one thing Cattle Hammer truly excels at, it’s squandering potential. Every criticism in this review is a place where I saw an opportunity for Dark Thoughts with Lights Out to get better, only for it to stay the course. What’s even more frustrating is that, if any one of these problems weren’t a problem, it could have at least partially salvaged the album. Amidst deeply uninteresting riffs played slow enough for inter-note naps, song constructions that fail to launch, underutilized instrumentation, an impressive lack of variation, repetition ad nauseum, and a totally unjustified runtime, Dark Thoughts with Lights Out isn’t simply unremarkable or uninteresting; it’s a literal chore to listen through. Based on the promo sheet, maybe that’s the point, but whether Cattle Hammer achieved their goal is irrelevant.4 Dark Thoughts with Lights Out is a bad album.

Rating: 1.0/5.0
DR: 10 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Road to Masochist
Websites: Bandcamp | Ampwall | Facebook | Instagram
Releases Worldwide: February 6th, 2026

Ba’al – The Fine Line between Heaven and Here Review

By Angry Metal Guy

By: Nameless_n00b_605

Post-anything is a tough genre to pin down. Does the music eschew genre trappings, rightfully identifying as post in the way it challenges previous norms? Or does it draw from the well that identifies as post, infusing itself with spacey tremolo riffs, heavy atmosphere, and lengthy, non-traditional tracks? If the Sheffield UK post-metallers Ba’al have anything to say, it is the latter. Ba’al showcases some real talent and variety with epic song structures and quality attempts at sampling numerous genres throughout this LP. But, with The Fine Line between Heaven and Here, I ask myself after each track, if variety is the spice of life, why does this album end up sounding so predictable?

Ba’al as a unit is impressive. Nick Gosling’s guitar work is superb, deftly switching genres on the fly, and there is skill to Ba’al’s ability to be a chameleon. Joe Stamp’s vocals are equally agile, as he seamlessly transitions from throat-searing black metal screeches to raspy death metal howls, all while infusing the more emotive elements of the album with heart. Each of these is served well by The Fine Line between Heaven and Here’s production, allowing the post-rock interludes to breathe while the massive riffs hit hard. My only real qualm is that the lovely bass that is present on their previous LP Ellipsism, is hiding away beside standout moments such as on “The Ocean That Fills a Wound.” While all the individual elements are strong and make for a cohesive track filled with variety, the band continuously returns to that same well across the album. Tracks begin to blend into one, amorphous serving of genre-blended pea soup. The first track feels the same as the last from an emotional perspective, leaving the album feeling one-note despite the variety on display.

Ba’al consistently combines black metal, post-rock, and death metal infused with hardcore (think Fuming Mouth, Gatecreeper, and Creeping Death, etc.), and even some indie rock musings across their second LP. The previously mentioned opening track, “Mother’s Concrete Womb,” encapsulates what Ba’al is doing and sets expectations for the rest of the album. Emotional piano and post-rock musings lead into more typical black metal sections that bring to mind blackgaze stalwarts Deafheaven. Ba’al surprises and delights with the sudden introduction of the aforementioned hardcore death elements. These moments are a highlight, and massive, chunky riffs make frequent appearances across the album.

The track “Well of Sorrows” is a perfect microcosm of how The Fine Line between Heaven and Here misses the mark. Eleven minutes long and sandwiched with interstitial post-rock that feels part Russian Circles and part God Is an Astronaut. No particular element hits as hard as its genre inspirations. The black metal sections are competent, the death metal riffs are groovy but lack memorable hooks, and to tie a neat bow on all of this, Ba’al consistently resorts to emotional clean singing and borderline spoken-word segments that made me think more of The National’s Alligator and Boxer era. The clean moments are effective in tracks like “Mother’s Concrete Womb,” “Wax Gorgon,” and “The Ocean That Fills a Wound,” but they can be grating and… very British (Joe Stamp’s accent comes through heavily here), for lack of a better word. This part of the album will be divisive, I imagine, and your mileage may vary.1

Ba’al is not without talent or promise; The Fine Line between Heaven and Here is a hair’s breadth away from greatness, a fact that only highlights where it falters. The Tracks “Legasov,” and “Waxwork Gorgon” are examples of tighter song structures that get right into the good stuff with memorable opening riffs and a lot of the fat trimmed from the post-rock and black metal elements. The album could cut at least fifteen minutes to give it more impact. Even the cleans should stay, but I would love to see them lean more into melody and less into spoken word or downright wailing like on “Well of Sorrows.” The intro of “The Ocean That Fills a Wound” starts in the right place with lulling, rhythmic vocals leading into a brutal explosion of blasting black metal.

The variety and talent end up being a double-edged sword for Ba’al, as what starts as impressive quickly grows predictable. If you like what Ba’al is serving up, you will have a nearly 63-minute slab of post-black metal to nourish you, but if the initial track isn’t for you, don’t expect the rest of the album to change your mind. Despite my negativity, it is from a place of love. Ba’al is an undoubtedly talented band on the cusp of true greatness. If they can edit their songs a little and lean into their best qualities, the next album may be a genre great.2

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Road to Masochist
Websites: baalbanduk.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/baalbanduk | instagram.com/baalbanduk
Releases Worldwide: July 18th, 2025

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The Fine Line Between Heaven And Here

https://blabbermouth.net/reviews/the-fine-line-between-heaven-and-here

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Row of Ashes – Tide into Ruin Review

By Owlswald

Bristol post-hardcore group, Row of Ashes, likes to make noise—and they’re good at it. Known for their untamed live energy and drawing heavily from revered acts like Unsane, Will Haven, and Kowloon Walled City, Row of Ashes crafts an unyielding and suffocating wall of sound; one that fuses post-hardcore and sludge together with the experimental, dissonant fringes of noise rock. After releasing two EPs, their raw, physical force exploded onto the scene with 2022’s Bleaching Heat, a ruthless debut that earned them a tour with Will Haven. Now standing on the brink of broader recognition, Row of Ashes is ready to unleash Tide into Ruin, their second post-hardcore punch designed to be as overpowering and instinctual as their live performances.

Row of Ashes delivers raw, suffocating intensity through guitarist Will Duffin’s low, harsh distortion, Dan Arrowsmith’s bruising rhythms and bassist/vocalist Chris Wilson’s striking shouts. The threesome excels at crafting intense crowd-movers with stomping, crushing finales like “Immortalist” and “Icon,” while also evidencing their aptitude for tension and release with ominous, somber post-hardcore interludes such as “Coda” and “Wake.” Wilson’s and Duffin’s guitar and bass seamlessly meld into a thick, impervious wall of hard-hitting riffs, often creating an oppressive, gnarly buzz that rattles in unison, driving Tide into Ruin’s grim atmosphere. Wilson’s delivery is fierce and confrontational—his versatile range jumping effortlessly between British punk (“Fracture”), Mike Patton-like shrieks (“Leveller”) and blood-curdling hardcore screams (“Icon,” “Tide”), tearing through Row of Ashes’ heavy instrumental underbelly. Despite some mixed songwriting, Row of Ashes lets loose a surprisingly immense and pulverizing sound that defies their lean lineup.

Centered around Wilson and Duffin’s deep, sludgy distortion, Row of Ashes skillfully imbues Tide into Ruin with dynamic contrast, shifting between pummeling riffs and dissonant bursts, punctuated by softer, mournful interludes. The peaks and valleys of “Immortalist” and “Tide” demonstrate this with tender, forlorn passages squeezed between mammoth, plodding breakdowns. “Leveller’s” and “Icon’s” swarming guitar lines, sprayed with shoegaze-tinged high dissonance ebb and flow effortlessly, opposing crushing heaviness with momentary breaths that fuel the album’s brooding mood. Showcasing Row of Ashes’ more experimental side, “Imber’s” quirky beginning—featuring frantic guitar rises and feedback squeals—aptly conveys its anxiety through chaos before an eventual bone-crushingly heavy close. While the payoff takes a bit too long to arrive—even though Tide into Ruin’s stronger tracks feel too brief at times—this experimental flavor helps prevent the album from becoming a repetitive sludge-fest, pushing Row of Ashes’ sound beyond Bleaching Heat’s more straightforward style.

At the same time, this more experimental side also leads Row of Ashes astray. Interlude “Lille’s” ambient serenity and French spoken word is just short enough to work after the record’s strong first half, but “Wake” fares less successfully. Its length, repetition and close to forty-five seconds of nothing but feedback thwart its attempt to build pressure—alternating between quiet, eerie arpeggiated sections and heavier, distorted parts (including “Lille’s” spoken word). This same issue reappears later with “Coda.” The track’s somber, clean guitar notes and harmonics, coupled with Arrowsmith’s delicate cymbal work, create a foreboding and somber atmosphere that would have made for a much better closer if not for three minutes of cavernous ambient noises and static, rendering that portion of the song skippable. While interludes like these can be beneficial in a live setting, their inclusion here detracts from Tide into Ruin’s strength and cohesion, leading to more frustration than anything else.

Though the songwriting occasionally detracts from an otherwise solid effort, Tide into Ruin still contains some of Row of Ashes’ most potent material to date. And its relentless intensity—fueled by crushing riffs, fierce vocals, and raw energy—is amplified by a lively, organic mix that conveys the band’s vision. Row of Ashes’ affinity for crafting dynamic, atmospheric post-hardcore is sure to appeal to a wide range of fans, and the stage is set for them to realize their considerable potential. With continued refinement, Row of Ashes is poised to fully break through—building on their momentum and paving the way for a future brimming with possibility.

Rating: Mixed
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Road to Masochist
Websites: rowofashes.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/RowofAshesband | instagram.com/rowofashesband
Releases Worldwide: June 13th, 2025

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