“The Thrashfall of Mankind”, from Lesson In Violence. This clearly deserves some jeers and eye-rolls for having a really cringey album name. And if you are not familiar with the subtle-as-a-Paul-Baloff-boot-to-the-head thrash metal reference with the band’s name, then you and the rest of the posers need to leave the hall. This is “THRASH!1!”, in all caps, obvs. Combine all of that baggage with the rather laughable album artwork, this Schweinfurt, Germany group has to work hard to be taken semi-seriously.

But that having been said, this is actually not bad, not bad at all. Their gritty thrashy attitude is on-target and the riffs are nice and chunky, even if you’ve heard this sort of thing approximately 666 times already. Wanna hear what a German band sounds like when they really really like Exodus? Head on down to the murders in the front row and throw this on for a kick to the head.

“Night Realm” from Night Realm. This is a largely one-man project from a talented multi-instrumentalist based in Oregon. It’s a work in progress, with individual songs being released piecemeal via singles on a week-by-week basis this month, ultimately leading to the culmination of a full-length release. What has seen the light of day thus far speaks to a classy, well-written Progressive Rock / Metal album, with each song both distinct and distinctly interesting.

One-man projects are often befuddling and poorly edited vanity projects (yes, I’m looking at all 501 of you Black Metal solo artists with too much gear, free time, and pirated ProTools on your hands). But here we have a project that has clearly been well planned, well executed, and something to keep an eye on for you Threshold / Porcupine Tree / Liquid Tension Experiment fans out there.

“Prólogo da Morte” from God of Carnage. It’s perhaps a cliché to say “If it’s a metal band that comes from Brazil, you know that shit is going to rip!“, since there are of course also some flaming hot garbage bands that have emerged from there. This is not one of those — this Brazilian band does indeed kick ass!

With the vocals en Português do Brasil, you will have to take your best guesses on the lyrics. But the delivery of the lyrics is 100% spot-on vicious, and marry up nicely to the riff’tastic Death Metal on display. A nice variety of tonalities are on display here; the band neatly skirts the trap of “one BPM / one sound / one vibe” across the entire album. Non-English lyrics aside, this musically reminds me of what you’d expect from any number of the various Euro Death Metal acts that Martin van Drunen has been involved with over the years. Definitely worth a listen for some rather filthy Brazilian Death Metal.

Stylistically on the opposite side of the metal spectrum, “Beyond The Blast” is a three-track solo album from Denver CO guitar instructor Kevin Zugschwert. Don’t let the somewhat pained look on his face on the album cover scare you off — this is a some really cool & clean instrumental shred guitar E.P. that would have fit right in with what Shrapnel Records used to put out back in the day. Very riff-oriented and classical-ala-Yngwie in nature, he also of course has a plethora of interesting tracks on his YouTube channel.

As a perpetually aspiring mediocre guitarist, I personally appreciate the guitar lessons he’s posted. And along those lines, I’ve also enjoyed the music tracks he has posted on YouTube and now also via Bandcamp. Check this out if you appreciate quality guitar wankery. 😉

Alas…, while there are some really interesting things floating around the Bandcamp’o-sphere…. there’s always going to be some ear-turds floating around, too. For example, here we have what Baerdcyn is self-described as “Ambient Neo-Medieval Dungeon Synth“. And the band, who pride themselves on “playing real instruments”, is certainly all about recording…, a lot. They genuinely toss around Tabletop Role-Playing Game terms, such as OSR [Old-School Revival], to no doubt sell their ambient dungeon-synth RPG cred as background tuneage for a DM to have in the background of a Dungeons & Dragons session. As a crusty/old AD&D nerd, all of that I can respect that I suppose.

But what I can’t get behind is when the resulting music sounds like it’s very little more than inept Skyrim background out-takes. I rather take an arrow to the knee than listen to this. Nothing here works for me, even within the very limited context of “harmless background noises while grown adults have fun rolling funny shaped dice to pretend to kill make-believe monsters”.

But what is also irksome here is that the band has the nonsense disclaimer: “DIGITAL ALBUM PRICE SET TO $999 TO ENCOURAGE PURCHASING DIGITAL ALBUMS DIRECTLY FROM THE ARTIST”. Using the Bandcamp site to then turn around to cut Bandcamp out of the already skimpy streaming revenues? Mark that down as a failed saving throw in my book, and a TPK of any interest I have in supporting such chicanery.

IMHO, avoid poorly conceived chintzy money-grubbing clap-trap like this.