Like all Atrophy fans, I was very happy when the band announced their comeback in 2015. The line-up of the new beginning included three founding members, which was great news and gave even more meaning to the reformation. The band began performing live and the possibility of a third LP was in the air. Then in 2019, bassist James Gulotta suddenly left the band. But they continued to work on new material and released the song "Riptide" on YouTube later that year. When I heard this new song I was completely relieved because the spirit of Atrophy was there. Another bit of bad news came in 2020 when singer Brian Zimmerman left the band after the European tour was cut short due to the pandemic. Then the remaining members, along with drummer Tim Kelly, recruited a new singer and eventually changed their name to Scars of Atrophy. After a few months of inactivity, Brian announced in 2021 that he would be forming another version of the band, still using the original name Atrophy. I was really weirded out by this whole situation, but somehow I still had a lot of faith that Brian would manage to put together a third album worthy of Atrophy. And now, after 34 years of waiting, the successor to "Violent by Nature" has finally arrived. It's called "Asylum" and it has 9 songs in over 44 minutes. In addition to Brian, the following musicians took part in the recording of the new album: Mark Coglan (rhythm guitar), Nathan Montalvo (lead guitar), Josh Gibbs (bass), Jonas Schütz (drums) plus two guest musicians Kragen Lum (lead guitar on "American Dream") and Justin Stear (bass on "Distortion", "American Dream" and "Close My Eyes"). The CD opens with "Punishment for All", which is a really great song, sometimes reminiscent of Atrophy's past style, although overall it's a pretty modern approach to thrash metal, with an Annihilator-like effect in the guitar melodies. "High Anxiety" follows with a full Testament/Xentrix vibe, both musically and vocally. The riffs are quite heavy, as is the sound production, and this move makes Brian's vocals less Atrophy-like, as he is more brutal not only in this tune, but in the whole material. Don't get me wrong, I like it when the music is heavy and brutal, but unfortunately it seems that the special character of Brian's voice, which was maximally present on the previous materials, has disappeared from the "Asylum" repertoire. The third song is called "Seeds of Sorrow". This is another good track that reminds me a bit of the old Atrophy, but again with an absolutely modern feel. That being said, I found the vocal themes to be pretty cool there. This is followed by "Distortion", which reminded me of Sodom's recent style. It's a completely mid-tempo song that focuses more on rhythms and melodies. "Bleeding Out" is the fifth track on the CD. It might sound weird, but in addition to the aforementioned Testament/Sodom influences, this song reminded me a lot of what Scars of Atrophy did on their "Nations Divide" EP (2022). After that comes "American Dream", a very groovy and dynamic cut, again with a totally modern soundscape, but unfortunately missing the stylistic features of Atrophy's past. "Close My Eyes" follows, opening with an atmospheric acoustic guitar intro with Brian's rather unusual clean vocals. After the short acoustic part, the song turns into a heavyweight Testament song with proper vocal parts. Sorry to say it again, but this composition has nothing to do with Atrophy's style. Fortunately, "The Apostle" improves things somewhat, as there are very few Atrophy-like fragments in it. The album closes with "Five Minutes 'til Suicide". Another song that is too modern in style and more typical of what Sodom and Xentrix represent today. In short, no matter how you look at it, feelings about this new Atrophy album are mixed. I mean, if anyone was expecting "Asylum" to be a musical follow-up to the albums "Socialized Hate" (1988) and "Violent by Nature" (1990), then you can forget it right away. On the other hand, the new material is not bad at all, the new musicians are top class, but it has very little to do with Atrophy's legacy. And while the packaging and visuals of the "Asylum" CD booklet turned out to be excellent, the production we've all been waiting far too long for was nowhere near convincing.

While Brutality fans aren't giving up hope for a new LP, Denmark's Emanzipation Productions released a compilation CD titled "Sempiternity" in May 2022, confirming that a new record could be in the works soon. But while we wait very patiently for the new album, I will analyze the contents of this compilation CD. "Sempiternity" combines 8 songs in over 44 minutes. The first two tracks, "Orchestrated Devastation" and "Fluent in Silence", can be said to be Brutality's latest studio recordings, as these songs were recorded in June 2021. Both songs perfectly reflect Brutality's unadulterated style, but in their case, I think it can be recognized even from the first riffs and growls. These new tracks were recorded by Scott Reigel (vocals), Jay Fernandez (guitar), Jarrett Pritchard (guitar), Jeff Acres (bass/vocals) and Ron Parmer (drums). Then we have two tracks from the "Antecedent Offerings" limited edition 7" EP from 2018. Both tracks are old classics re-recorded. "Crushed" is from the debut album "Screams of Anguish" (1993) and "Artistic Butchery" is from the second album "When the Sky Turns Black" (1994). I love new adaptations of old classics, but honestly I prefer the originals. These tracks have the same line-up, except for Jarrett Pritchard, who didn't play guitar there yet, but was responsible for the production, recording and engineering of these two classics. The second half of the compilation CD features four live tracks recorded at Maryland Deathfest in May 2019. The live songs are "These Walls Shall Be Your Grave", "Cries of the Forsaken", "48 to 52" and "Cryptorium". Three songs from the debut "Screams of Anguish" and one from "Sea of Ignorance" (2016). The live atmosphere is simply fantastic, as is the sound production. It's pretty raw, but I think it's very enjoyable. This compilation CD definitely kicks ass! The 8-page booklet includes the lyrics to all the songs, a killer band photo, all the info you need about these recordings and an awesome cover artwork by Dr. Winter. A must for all Brutality fans and also available on vinyl!!!

Cryptic Process, a brutal death metal duo from Valenciennes, France, was formed in 2020 by Dam (vocals) and Ugo (guitars & drum programming), who previously played in Goryptic, Heresy, Trepan'Dead and Unsu. "Human Snack" is their debut album, which represents 9 songs written and performed in the most modern possible way of brutal death metal and deathcore. Musically they do something similar to Cryptopsy, Dying Fetus, Necrophagist, Psycroptic and Spawn of Possession to name a few. Of course, Cryptic Process isn't as original or technical as any of the aforementioned, but overall they still have quite a complex repertoire. The more than 33-minute material sounds solid and balanced. Their music mixes so many things that it is almost certain that fans of modern deathcore and brutal death metal will easily find their favorite tunes or parts. It's got it all, like ultra-massive grooves, bulldozer-like slam sections, furious sweeps, hyper-fast drums, insane growls, hysterical screams, pig snorts and more. The programmed drums sound very good, but sometimes the panorama is not optimal, or simply the volume of the samples is a little louder than it should be. I know it would be pretty hard to find a human drummer to play these parts, but I do hope they find someone to play their stuff live, because this kind of music needs to be presented live. The self-released 6-panel digipak CD wasn't overdone in terms of design and layout, but it still looks killer. You can order the CD directly from the band or their partners in crime, Crypt of Dr. Gore and Drowning in Chaos Records.

Deer Creek formed in Colorado in 2002, and after a demo, a single, 2 EPs and several split releases, they've finally unleashed their debut full-length album "Menticide" in 2022. The album's 6 lengthy tracks were recorded by Paul Vismara (guitar & lead vocals), Conan Hultgren (guitar & vocals), Stephanie Hopper (bass) and Marc Brooks (drums). The quartet's music is sludge metal. Their kind of musical fusion is very atmospheric, not one where the guitars, bass and vocals are too extreme or too distorted, but the kind that relaxes the mind and brings back the 70's vibe. I especially found the clean vocals very meditative and calm. The entire sound production radiates the sounds of the past and of course presents them very organically in the more than 39 minutes of "Menticide". Most of the time, their approach is about looping riffs to put the listener in a trance. By the way, their music is so relaxing that you can listen to it for hours. There are 5 own compositions on the CD, of which I liked "A Dark, Heartless Machine" the best. The album's sixth track is called "The Working Man Is a Dead Pig" and is a sort of compilation or homage to bands like Black Sabbath that includes well-known parts of the classic "War Pigs", at least for the first two verses. In short, I can highly recommend Deer Creek's music to anyone who likes sludge, stoner or doom metal. Their second full-length album is also on the way, so keep your eyes peeled for the follow-up to "Menticide". The 6-panel digipak version features great artwork and layout by Paul Vismara, along with lyrics, a live band photo and the usual information about the recording itself. As it is, it's a perfect sludge album, so order the CD or vinyl version while you still can!!!