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Among all the squally, putrid murk of modern day death metal it is often overlooked that any recipe for a decent blast of well done DM requires a jolly good measure of fury.  You can cloak riffs in layers of evil, dark and frankly fucking ugly atmosphere but still there needs to be a driving force to deliver them with the required clout.  As much as I love a bit of Portal, Antediluvian or Impetuous Ritual sometimes I just want to be scared shitless by the sheer intensity of the fury of the effort that is being applied. The blazing fury on Desolate Shrine's third album explodes immediately from first track proper (a four minute plus intro is a brave way to start) "Black Fires Of God".  It's seven and a half minutes of blasting DM with just the right smattering of melody applied to it's raging inferno to temper the flames perfectly.  One thing very much apparent with the album is that whilst there is no denying the obvious intensity on display the band are very go...

For anyone just born this past 4 days "II" is Tort's second release (read up on your Roman numerals kids) and my first experience of their particular brand of stoner/doom/sludge/death metal. The opening track opens up like Incantation stretching and limbering up for one of their heavy assaults with it's agonisingly slow riffs and crushing atmosphere, but as "Scratching The Coffin" develops it casts off the often worn cloak of Incantation and throws in some real sludge rumble and chops into the equation.  This pretty much sets the scene for the rest of the record, I can't think of any other band that manages to combine the familiar sound of sludge and stoner metal with DM so well.  Check out "Cry Of The Damned" for it's stoner riffs and DM vocals combo that are a perfect accompaniment to each other. With it's Satanic spoken word interludes and intros there's a fair nod to Electric Wizard in there (opening to final track "Dea...