Lord Centipede - Centipede II: Electric Boogaloo (EP Review)

Release Date: March 13th 2026. Record Label: Morbid And Miserable Records / Wyrd Byrd. Formats: CD/DD/Tape/Vinyl

Centipede II: Electric Boogaloo - Tracklisting

1.Dumb As Fuck 03:10

2.Shitstorm of Stupidity

3.Wolf Witch

4.Dawn of the Troglodytes

5.Sword of Conan

Members

Samir Asfahani

Justin O'Neill

Ian Harris

Review

Lord Centipede returns with their latest EP - Centipede II: Electric Boogaloo which is another gleefully violent mix of Doom, Sludge, Stoner, Thrash, Crust Punk and Crossover Metal. This is their first release in over twelve years with the band not losing sight of what made their 2014 debut album such a fantastic release.

The EP never waivers from its pissed off Sludge/Stoner Metal energy calling upon sounds first laid down by the likes of HIGH ON FIRE, METALLICA, MOTORHEAD and FISTULA. Vocals are mostly screamed at you from a very close distance with that pissed off classic style of HEAVY GROWLS but at least they’re clean based and quite easy to understand.

Centipede II: Electric Boogaloo lasts under twenty minutes with Lord Centipede playing through a wide range of FILTHY grooves that sees the band play a stripped back style of music with a classic Eighties Heavy Metal aesthetic holding everything together. The lyrics are fuelled by slightly anarchic THRASH METAL and CRUST PUNK environments which only adds to the delicious and violent fun the record contains throughout. 

Lord Centipede slows things down here and there within the EP which gives the listener a small rest before they return to their dominant turbo charged sounds. It’s not the best sounding EP I’ve heard but it gives the record a more quintessential underground feel which should impress OLD SCHOOL METALHEADS the most  especially on tracks such as Dumb As Fuck, Shitstorm Of Stupidity and Sword Of Conan.

It’s perhaps best not to overthink or over-analyze this record as it’s mostly built on filthy HEAVY METAL dynamics with LORD CENTIPEDE’s sole intent is to ENTERTAIN and ROCK THE FUCK OUT. Though, there’s some classic Blackened Stoner Metal energy that Lord Centipede demonstrates on the later stages which made me “LOSE MY SHIT” in genuine excitement. 

Centipede II: Electric Boogaloo is an absolute blast from start to finish with Lord Centipede in great form throughout. If you want a record that gets straight down to the business of bringing pure HEAVY METAL carnage and chaos then this is the record for you.

Words by Steve Howe

Thanks to Morbid And Miserable Records for the promo.

Centipede II: Electric Boogaloo is available to buy now on Digital, CD and Cassette via Morbid And Miserable Records.

Vinyl Record will be released by Wyrd Byrd.

Links 

Facebook | BandCamp | Instagram

Verminthrone - Feast Of The Serpent (EP Review)

Release Date: December 19th 2025. Record Label: Self Released. Formats: DD

Feast Of The Serpent  - Tracklisting

Pallor

Swab

When It Rains, It Pours

Bloodletting

Event Horizon

Review

Crossover/Groove/Thrash Metallers Verminthrone return with their latest EP - Feast Of The Serpent. The EP offers five tracks running for around twenty six minutes in length. This is a similar vibe to their celebrated 2024 debut album The Cull with its great mix of fast-paced and brutally filthy sounds. The music is once again very fast-paced with a certain modern day Sludge/Stoner Metal pedigree shining through with Verminthrone keeping true to their core Thrash/Groove based melodies. The vocals are quite intense with a vicious Death Growl being used for the most part.

The opening song of Pallor leaves you gasping for breath with the multitude of different beatdowns and breakdowns Verminthrone delivers with supreme confidence. The sound is uplifted or amplified by a sudden rush of Crust Punk and Hardcore metallic elements which is used quite sparingly at first before the band decides to throw a TON of muscular weight for that particular sound being one of the most dominant themes on the whole EP.

The next batch of tracks of Swab and When It Rains, It Pours continues with the Crossover movement with an epic sideline of HIGH ON FIRE, METALLICA and MOTORHEAD delivered musical moments that allows Verminthrone to operate with a clearer and riff-driven mandate. The mood is still BLEAK and aggressively violent but at least there’s some demented THRASH paced fun to be had along the way. You can hear shades of Classic Heavy Metal guitar shredding being delivered with both tracks that’s played at breakneck speed. 

Feast Of The Serpent never loses its monumental style of extreme heaviness with Verminthrone perhaps delivering darker and heavier moments of Sludge Metal grooves with great vocals and some epic lyrics selling the whole package right through to the very end. The final two songs of Bloodletting and Event Horizon both offer a more daring and violent creative theme with Verminthrone playing the heaviest and gloomiest sounds on the whole EP.

Verminthrone never waiver from delivering an action packed and violent style of filth driven Sludge Metal sounds. There are brief moments of Post-Doom and Psych Stoner Metal surroundings appearing on the later stages but the band still true to their HEAVY METAL beliefs that results in another standout release from Verminthrone to enhance their reputation with. 

Words by Steve Howe

Links 

Linktree | BandCamp

Doom/Sludge/Crossover Metallers PATRIARCHS IN BLACK Release New Song/Video For WHAT DO THEY KNOW? From Upcoming New Album

Sludge/Doom/Stoner Metallers Patriarchs In Black are returning on July 19th 2024 with their new album VISIONING and the band have just released their epic new song What Do They Know? which you can listen to below:

The songs on "Visioning" combine elements of classic doom metal with modern sounds as well as excursions into hardcore/crossover. Crossing over into other areas of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal was a dominant theme on their acclaimed 2023 release My Veneration. 

Check out the great song now and be prepared to be completely BLOWN AWAY...

Links

BandCamp | Instagram

Verminthrone - The Cull (Album Review)

Release Date: 16th February 2024. Record Label: Self Released. Formats: DD

The Cull - Tracklisting

Don’t Trust Morning People

It Always Snow In South America

Kuru

Birth Is A Rope/Death Is A Knot

Pulling Teeth (Spitting Blood)

Youth For Euthanasia

Aorta

Feral

Review

The Cull is the debut album from Crossover/Groove/Sludge Metallers Verminthrone who describe themselves as Sludgecore but there’s a lot more to the band than that description. As the band play elements of Crust Punk, Doom Metal and Stoner Metal for a sound that is quite nasty with brutal beats and breakdowns that elevates the album to high levels of PISSED OFF volumes.

The vocals are quite content remaining in the heavier realm with a never-ending supply of death based growls, grunts and chants throughout the record. The Cull is quite thorough with the Crossover/Thrash grooves that appear within the early stages of the album with the Sludgecore aspects allowing Verminthrone to play some outstanding Doom/Sludge extended instrumental passages on tracks such as Don’t Trust Morning People and It’s Always Snows In South America where a sublime NOLA based aspect starting to form. 

The music is constantly fast paced with the band playing some subtle screeching guitars that provide an unsettling mood. However, there’s some epic melodic moments on the album which will surprise many though Verminthrone impresses greatly on the more violent Sludge/Thrash/Groove Metal aspects of the album.

There’s an excellent STONER creative energy within the album even if it’s fuelled by bleak cynicism that appears within the excellent lyrics written for the record. The album feels inspired by bands such as POWER TRIP, DOWN, LAMB OF GOD, BLACK LABEL SOCIETY, METALLICA and SLAYER with Verminthrone blasting their way through a classic style of 1980’s Thrash Metal, 1990’s Groove Metal and modern day aspects of Doom/Sludge Metal that all providing an refreshing style of HEAVY METAL to devour audiences with.

Other standout tracks include: Kuru, Birth Is A Rope/Death Is A Knot, Youth For Euthanasia and Feral with some of these songs marching confidently into Progressive Sludge territory and small traces of Psychedelic sounds starting to dominate in the background.

The Cull runs around thirty seven minutes in length but feels much longer which is another highlight of the album. With excellent production values which are handled by Tom Dring at The Arch Recording Studios (Dragged into Sunlight, Dvne, Venom Prison) allowing Verminthrone to destroy everything within its path and release an album that’s superbly entertaining and one that is always constantly engaging from start to finish.

Verminthrone may have opened the door for an exciting career and future for themselves within the UK/European Sludge Metal Scene with The Cull. Ignore this great album at your own peril. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!

Words by Steve Howe 

Thanks to Verminthrone for the promo.

The Cull will be available to buy on DD from Friday 16th February 2024.

Links

Linktree | BandCamp

Mastiff release crushing new video 'Serrated' ft. Harry Nott (Burner); announce new album Deprecipice

Photo by Nick Sayers

Mastiff have announced their forthcoming album, Deprecipice, will be released on 22nd March via MNRK Heavy. The new release features an onslaught of special guests including Ethan Lee McCarthy from Primitive Man, Harry Nott from Burner, Dan James from XIII and Rob Scott from Yersin.

The band have introduced the caustic new album by sharing a very special video for their first single, 'Serrated ft. Harry Nott (Burner)'.

Watch the video for 'Serrated ft Harry Nott (Burner)' below: 

Pre-order Deprecipice here: https://mastiff.ffm.to/deprecipice

The first single that Mastiff have unleashed from Deprecipice is the furiously aggressive 'Serrated' which features blistering guest vocals from Harry Nott, the vocalist for South London’s Burner, whose debut album It All Returns to Nothing was one of the hottest debuts of 2023 featuring in Metal Hammer 10 Best Death Metal Albums of 2023 & 50 Best Albums of 2023, released on Church Road Records. Also appearing on the new single, ripping a Slayer inspired guest solo, is Dan James, guitarist in Hull band XIII, who played with Mastiff on their 2023 tour with theatrical metallers, Avatar.

Commenting on the new single, vocalist Jim Hodge said: “Lyrically the track is about the ‘bullsh*t machine’, people blowing smoke up your a*se but you try to stay grounded. It’s too easy to fall foul of the reverse of imposter syndrome. We met Harry and the Burner boys when they came to Hull when they were supporting Employed to Serve. It turned out Burner were fans of us and after about 30 seconds of them playing we all became some of their biggest fans too.”

Adds guest vocalist Harry Nott (Burner): “'Serrated' is a relentless track and the vibe clicked instantly - I went into the studio and smashed it in a couple of takes with some quickly penned lyrics. Mastiff are the epitome of darkness, so I went hard on some apocalyptic imagery.”

Everything Mastiff does is in the name of intensity. Since forming amid the misery of Kingston-upon-Hull in 2013, the five-piece have crashed extreme metal, sludge and hardcore together to create the most brutal sonic onslaughts possible, all in the name of keeping their music fresh, raw and seething.

Signing to MNRK Heavy three years ago, Mastiff’s commitment to blunt-force aggression remains untempered. Their 2021 album, Leave Me The Ashes Of The Earth, was described by Blabbermouth’s Dom Lawson as a “horrifying slab of disgust” and “a sustained scream in the face of uncontrollable madness”. Now comes its long-anticipated follow-up: Deprecipice – an album that, somehow, smacks even harder than anything this band have unchained before, produced by longtime collaborator Joe Clayton (Wallowing, Ithaca, Tuskar) at Manchester’s No Studio. The beguiling artwork that runs throughout the album is by Paul Phillips at the award winning True Spilt Milk Designs, another long time collaborator with the band.

“We’ve gone quite a lot towards a hardcore sound,” says Hodge. “Where the last one was more death metal, this one’s a lot more staccato: a lot more defined, riff-wise.”

Unlike so many of their extreme metal peers right now, though, Mastiff didn’t source this rejuvenated savagery from the anxieties and frustrations of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the lockdowns ended and real life started to resume in 2021 and 2022, Hodge and Lee noticed the spirits of the world around them lifting. Feelings of trauma and isolation were beginning to enter people’s rear-view mirrors – and it was an overcoming that the duo couldn’t relate to. Lee was mourning the loss of his mother, while Hodge realised he was still grieving over the death of his five-day-old son, Isaac, in 2010.

“The album’s called Deprecipice, and that pretty much sums up where me and James were when we wrote it,” says the singer. “We were both standing back on the edge of a depressive void.You have to keep that primal feeling,” Hodge continues. “I think, if you take too much time, you start to second-guess yourself. We try to be as true to ourselves as we can.”With Deprecipice, Mastiff have made a magnum opus that bleeds with genuine pain. As earnest as it is ferocious, it’s already an album of the year candidate for a year that’s only just beginning.

Mastiff hit the road in March touring the UK, including London’s legendary The Black Heart with North East extreme metal outfit Yersin. Pick up tickets here.

Tour dates:

22 Mar: Hull, Polar Bear
23 Mar: Glasgow, Audio
24 Mar: Edinburgh, Bannermans
27 Mar: London, The Black Heart
28 Mar: Brighton, Green Door Store
29 Mar: Bristol, Crofters Rights
30 Mar: Birmingham, Devils Dog
31 Mar: Nottingham, Rough TradeMastiff are:

Line-Up

Jim Hodge – vocals
James Lee Ross – guitar/vocals
Phil Johnson - guitar
Dan Dolby – bass
Michael Shepherd – drumsFor more information:

Links

https://www.facebook.com/mastiffhchc
https://twitter.com/Mastiffhchc
https://www.instagram.com/mastiffhchc/
https://www.mnrkheavy.com

Thanks to Rarely Unable PR for all of the details.

Celebrity Stalker - Thrill Seekers (Album Review)

Release date: January 09^th 2020. Label: Self Released. Format: DD

Thrill Seekers - Tracklisting

1. Thrill Seekers

2. Crime Styles of the Rich

3. American Dreams

4. Hatriots

5. Art of War

6. Repressed

7. Celebrity Stalker

8. I Am

Members

Jason Young – Bass, Lead Vocals

Larry Prosser – Lead Guitar, Lead/Backup Vocals

Charlie Moffett – Drums, Backup Vocals

Review

Thrill Seekers is the new album from Punk/Metal Crossover Band – Celebrity Stalker. OK, so these guys aren’t Doom/Sludge/Stoner Metal in anyway but I wanted to review their debut album as I used to dig a lot of this style of music in my younger years and it’s always good to revisit music you loved back from your youth. And these guys have written a hard-hitting album with a deep social conscience.

The album is fast-paced, aggressive and down-right catchy in places. The band say they’re aren’t a political band in any shape of form. However, the band to touch upon some hard-hitting social issues on this album which makes you really think about what the band are currently singing about.

There are 8 songs on the album and the band take influence from Slayer, Suicidal Tendencies and Iron Maiden but Celebrity Stalker follow their own destructive path with aggressive melodic riffs and some fine vocals from almost everyone in the band.

Maybe the album has a “Classic/Retro” feel to it but the music is so damn good that the Punk/Metal Crossover aspect of the whole album is what fully sells Celebrity Stalker as a hugely talented band in their own right. The lyrics and vocals do take a few songs to fully get used to but after that it’s all systems go for a violent onslaught of aggressive grooves with intelligence to match.

Standout songs include: Crime Styles Of The Rich, American Dreams, Hatriots, Art Of War and Celebrity Stalker.

If you’re a fan of this style of music then you need to check out Celebrity Stalker now. As these guys have an important message to say to the world and it ain’t pretty.

Excellent and Highly Recommended.

Words by Steve Howe

Links:

Facebook | Instagram | CD Baby