![The Austerity Program – Bible Songs 2 [Things You Might Have Missed 2025]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Bible-Songs-2.jpg.webp)
“Speak to enough musicians in the underground who favor the sonically depraved, and you might hear word of two New Yorkers, who emerge now and then from the doldrums of normal life to unleash their unique brand of sonic chaos upon the unsuspecting masses. I’m talking, of course, about The Austerity Program, the criminally underrated duo of Justin Foley and Thad Calabrese who have delivered some of the greatest noise rock records of the 2000s.” Bibles, poverty, and noise.
![Moron Police – Pachinko [Things you Might have Missed 2025]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/a2772970021_10.jpg.webp)
“Moron Police is an odd band, if the moniker didn’t give it away. The first few albums were very comedy-oriented, but A Boat on the Sea suddenly saw the band tackling anti-war themes, without giving up the bright melodic sound that draws from progressive rock and anime soundtrack J-rock alike. Production on Pachinko was already on the way when drummer Thore Pettersen died in a car accident. After taking the time to mourn their friend, Moron Police soldiered on, aided by Dillinger Escape Plan drummer Billy Rymer. The result is an astounding album in every regard, an experience unlike anything I’ve heard in years.” Required by law.
“As I prowled the depths of the promo bin, preparing for my next review, a peculiar glint caught my eye. The label read, “RADIOACTIVE: FOR N00B ABUSE ONLY,” and below it, in what must have been an act of genre-tag terrorism, sat the words: nü metal/gospel/jazz. I briefly considered calling the authorities, but morbid curiosity won out. What kind of unholy chimera lurks inside something with that particular trifecta? I dusted off the cover like a bomb disposal tech, hoping the wires are color-coded. The culprit is Control Your Soul’s Desire For Freedom, the sophomore album from Danish group Heathe.” Tripping over trip wires.
“It’s hard to keep up with Swans. Since 1982, Michael Gira and company have cranked out sixteen studio albums, eight EPs, and ten live albums (not to mention all the compilations and side projects), influencing underground stalwarts like Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Neurosis, Godflesh, and Napalm Death, as well as more mainstream acts like Nirvana and Tool. No genre was safe, as noise rock, no-wave, industrial, sludge, post-punk, and post-rock were impacted in the process – yet Swans have always had their own inimitable and uncategorizable sound.” Still on the pond.
“Mixing metal with non-metal genres is a practice as old as metal itself. But most such mixtures come about between jolly bedfellows. Folk music, orchestras, and various subgenres of rock don’t evoke clashing sounds or ideologies with the heavy and distorted. When the combination is less peanut butter & jelly and more peanut butter & sardines, is when critics look up, and oftentimes, audiences look away. We’ve had artists that mix metal with chamber music (Anareta), hip-hop (all of nu-metal), reggae (Skindred), even acoustic swing-jazz adjacent slam poetry (Dronte). But Contemplation is the first band I’ve come across that attempts to marry doom-death metal and dub, a niche genre that originated around 1970 from remixed reggae and psychedelics.” Young, dumb, and full of dub.
“I have a great admiration for the solo creator. Thanks to my attention deficiency disorder, the two tasks I struggle most with are staying motivated and staying organized. The kind of dedication it takes to perform every part of what is ordinarily a team effort seems Herculean to me. Pieter Hendriks (Black Bottle Riot, Born From Pain) has that kind of dedication, though, as The Last Black Flower is his second album as Soothsayer Orchestra, a mere 2 years after the self-titled debut. But does dedication equal quality?” One man, three projects.
“Dawnwalker have been around since 2011, but my first exposure to them didn’t happen until a mere couple of years ago, courtesy of this very blog. I was able to review Ages, the band’s fourth full-length release and compliment it on its well-done blend of progressive, death, and folk-like metal into one monolithic beast of an album. If words like those excite you, though, you should know that Dawnwalker do not stay in the same place for long—House of Sand is nothing like that, but don’t let that get you down. For their fifth full-length, the English band explore some new sounds, revisit old ones, and build out their album in a frankly beautiful way.” Downtuned Abbey.
“I’m not sure why we have a general rule against EP’s, but I imagine that it has something to do with the brevity of the content. We don’t get a good representation of the artist if we’re only given a few songs to work with, while full-lengths are intended as cohesive works and can showcase the effectiveness of an artist to create them. Grind, however, throws a big ol’ middle finger at this in favor of beatdown explosions that sneer in the face of subtlety with the dumbest grin possible. A grind full-length can be anywhere between fifteen and thirty minutes, and even then, Estuarine’s ten minutes is challenging brevity.” One-man grind to kick some behind.
“Belgium is a weird place. Maybe it’s the chocolate or waffles, but any country that offers groups like Neptunian Maximalism, Emptiness, or Amenra & Co. needs to have its cholesterol checked. Spewing out bizarre organic atmosphere with haunting repetition, artists like these have strangely minimalist tendencies that end up feeling bigger than the individual parts suggest. While spanning a broad range of metallic subgenres, it comes across as otherworldly, surreal, and fiercely dark. To add their two cents to these Belgian shenanigans is Wolvennest.” Temple of Weird.
![Melted Bodies – Enjoy Yourself [Things You Might Have Missed 2020]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/a2050181391_10-768x768.jpg)
“In a year like this, there’s something to be said for going crazy. If you have multiple personality disorder, severe paranoia or schizophrenia with auditory hallucinations, you never have to feel alone while you’re locked in your apartment talking to the walls! Which is why Melted Bodies have the right idea.” Assorted nuts.
