Ulthar - "Providence" (2020)

Let’s cut to the chase here and address the bleedin’ obvious. The cover art for Pittsburgh death metal squad Ulthar's new album, "Providence", is knee-deep in dongs and minge. In fact, you can't move for all the hideously mutated clunge ‘n todger on display here.

True, they all emanate from what could best be described as a grimdark cancer-tree shagging itself silly in the lower depths of washed-out, spiky hell, care of legendary UK fantasy artist Ian Miller. But still. You'd think the wretch hanging off the top right of the picture would be happier, somehow...

But enough of what you're missing. This album may not always score a direct hit, but when it does, you feel it. I've already drooled over one track, Furnace Hibernation in a previous post. However, it's not alone. Songs like Undying Spear, Through Downward Dynasties, and album closer Humanoid Knot, are a case in point.

First Reactions - Ulthar's 'Furnace Hibernation', from "Providence." (2020)

In a previous life, I found myself, if not ravished, than as sure as heck seduced by the 2018 album, "Cosmovore", care of Oakland death metal threesome Ulthar. While it was having its wicked way with me behind a skip (it later bought me a kebab), I was impressed by how it blended huge, nasty, meaty hooks with at times deep and rich song structures. Also, the Ian Miller cover art.

As I held its hair up while it projectile vomited up the side of a Vauxhall Astra, and before we tried to find where one of its stiletto heels ended up (on the roof of a bus shelter), I was also left to ponder another question - what would Ulthar's next record sound like?

I got my answer today, care of the band's label, 20 Buck Spin. Ulthar has a new album, "Providence", coming out (if the Plague Lord wills it) on 12th June, 2020. It already scores points with another Ian Miller cover (really, he ought to be just given the brief to re-design the British Isles and be done with it). But what about the song just released from that album, Furnace Hibernation?

Oxygen Destroyer - "Bestial Manifestations of Malevolence and Death" (2018)

What is good in life? Big rubber monsters tw*tting each other and everything else that gets in the way (usually Tokyo), of course.

We are living in a kind of big screen kaiju renaissance right now, as Godzilla (2014), Shin Godzilla (2016), King Kong: Skull Island (2017) and the forthcoming Rampage (2018) all show.

So, big monsters make for big box office, but do they make for great death metal? Seattle Gojira-fanciers Oxygen Destroyer say they do, and their new album "Bestial Manifestations of Malevolence and Death" makes the case very, very forcefully.