MacDara Conroy surveys the landscape of heavy, noisy and interesting music over the past 12 months
With their two latest releases, Dutch ‘heavy jazz’ duo Dead Neanderthals make music for the body and the head, says MacDara Conroy
From breathtaking psych grind to meandering sludge doom, MacDara Conroy finds Inter Arma's Sky Burial a mixed blessing
'It's hard to believe a band can pack so much into a mere 17 minutes' - MacDara Conroy on Nails' second album Abandon All Life
'It's all over in under half an hour, but Moksha will stay with you for a great deal longer than that.' MacDara Conroy reviews the second album from emotional grindcore trio Cloud Rat.
'Positive pop melody is pushed to the fore' on Melt-Banana's Fetch 'and the results are pretty damn infectious,' says MacDara Conroy
'The most remarkable thing about this record is that it's so damn catchy' - MacDara Conroy on grindcore futurists GridLink's Longhena
MacDara Conroy picks some unsung favourites from the past two years in heavy music
Call Of The Void's debut Dragged Down A Dead End Path is a 'relentless torrent of downtuned doom grind' says MacDara Conroy
"...a flurry of furious guitar shredding, hoarse-throated vocals and inhuman blastbeats..." MacDara Conroy reviews This World Is Dead from French grind freaks Blockheads