Cattle Hammer |Dark Thoughts With Lights Out |Road To Masochist

Release Date February 6^th, 2026
Format CD/Vinyl
Genre Blackened Sludge/Drone Metal
Country United Kingdom

Born from the wreckage of the UK underground in 2023, Cattle Hammer is the brainchild of Duncan Wilkins, a man whose resume includes filth-peddlers like Fukpig and Mistress. If you know his history, you know he isn't here to write radio hits. The band crawled out of the gate with a massive 71-minute endurance test called "Methlehem", proving they have zero interest in brevity or your comfort. Now, they’ve returned to follow up that initial descent into madness with their first proper full-length, a four-track exercise in misery titled "Dark Thoughts With Lights Out".

Look, "Dark Thoughts With Lights Out" is a suffocating experience, which is clearly what these guys wanted. It kicks off with "Gloomsower", and right away, the sludge is thick enough to choke on. The vocals sound like someone being buried alive, screaming through a foot of wet soil. It’s slow. It’s painful. It drags its feet like a death march where the destination is just a bigger hole in the ground. There’s no flash here, just a vibrating, low-end drone that wants to rattle your teeth out of your gums.

Then you get "Rotting", which opens with some spoken-word bitterness that actually makes you feel like garbage. The riffs are massive, vibrating monoliths that just hang there in the air, refusing to move. It’s the sound of total stagnation. It makes you feel like time is stopping, but not in a cool way, more like watching your own life waste away while you’re paralyzed on the floor. It’s a total bummer, which, in the world of blackened sludge, is usually a compliment, though the pacing might test the patience of anyone who isn't already half-dead inside.

By the time "Watchmen, Alone" and "Body Puzzle" roll around, the band leans harder into the drone part of their description. "Watchmen, Alone" starts with some disorienting noise before the hammer finally drops in slow motion. It’s mean and brutish, but it stays in that one gear for a long time. "Body Puzzle" finishes the job with riffs that sound like planets grinding together. The vocals are panicked and claustrophobic, adding to the general sense of "I need to get out of this room."

It’s a decent debut if you want to feel like a total wreck, but it's a lot to take in one sitting. The production is raw and stays away from any studio magic, which keeps the misery feeling real. It’s cruel, it’s loud, and it definitely doesn't care about your mental health. If you’re into the kind of stuff Khanate or Burning Witch put out, you’ll find some common ground here, even if it feels a bit like a slog to get through the whole thing.

Score: 6.5

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Thumbsucker/Atomçk |Split |Road To Masochist

Release Date: November 14^th, 2025

Format: CD/10” Vinyl

Genre: Hardcore Punk, Grindcore

Country: United Kingdom

Thumbsucker and Atomçk come from the UK underground, operating far from trends and comfort zones. Thumbsucker work within raw hardcore punk, short, hostile, and confrontational. Atomçk represent grindcore at its most abrasive, active for many years and shaped by a long stretch of silence before returning with renewed hostility. This split brings together two bands with a shared appetite for confrontation and refusal to soften their message.

The split arrives as a blunt response to social rot, moral collapse, and everyday hypocrisy. The writing focuses on anger that is pointed outward, not abstract or decorative. Thumbsucker open the release with a sequence of short, violent statements built around social disgust, personal rage, and public apathy. The pacing stays aggressive and compressed, keeping pressure high without drifting into excess. The material sounds urgent and uncomfortable, rooted in hardcore tradition without drifting into nostalgia or polish.

Atomçk take over with a harsher and more chaotic presence. Their material leans into hostility and confrontation, built around relentless speed and abrasive vocal delivery. Lyrical themes attack urban decay, political emptiness, and cultural stagnation. The songs hit fast and disappear just as quickly, leaving little space for reflection. Atomçk sound angrier and more feral than before, channeling years of frustration into short explosions of noise and intent.

As a full release, this split works as a unified outburst rather than two disconnected halves. Thumbsucker and Atomçk share a similar worldview, and the transition between the two sides feels natural in spirit, even as the approaches differ. The release does not chase variety or accessibility, it exists to confront and provoke. For listeners drawn to extreme underground music rooted in anger and refusal, this split delivers a clear and uncompromising statement.

Score: 6.5

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Plague Pit | A Whispered Curse | Road To Masochist

 

Release Date: October 3rd, 2025

Format: 10” Vinyl/Cassette

Genre: Necrotic Death Metal

Country: United Kingdom

Formed in Bristol in 2024, Plague Pit emerged from the UK’s filthy underground with a violent sound born out of blackened hardcore chaos. Their early demo, “Give In To Death,” hinted at their appetite for decay, but it was their live shows, often shared with acts like Coffin Mulch and Thou, that revealed something more sinister brewing. Their debut EP, “A Whispered Curse,” drags that rot into the open, a foul mix of death metal corrosion and crust-fueled aggression that’s as physical as it is oppressive.

The EP opens with “The Seventh Bell”, a grim and cavernous invocation that rises slowly before erupting into a storm of death metal ferocity. There’s an occult atmosphere around it, as if the band is calling up the ghosts of early 90s death metal and feeding them through their own rusted machinery. “Womb Of Orchids” lurches with distortion and corrosion, veering between savage punk energy and pounding, almost suffocating heaviness. Its closing section slips into eerie ambience, offering a brief moment of decompression before “The Weeping God” crushes everything again under its collapsing pace and mournful guitars.

The title track, “A Whispered Curse,” closes the EP with a towering sense of finality. Its bass intro drags the listener down into the tomb, where colossal riffs grind against howling feedback and distant echoes. The whole song breathes that damp, sepulchral atmosphere of ancient catacombs, where every note sounds like it’s played through dirt and bone. There’s no flashiness here, no modern gloss, only decay and punishment served straight.

As a debut, “A Whispered Curse” is impressively focused. Plague Pit sounds like horror summoned; unrelenting, ugly, and proud of its stench. The production is raw and heavy, leaving enough space for the vocals to claw their way through the mix like a revenant from the crypt. It’s music that doesn’t want to impress, it wants to infect. For those drawn to the foul lineage of Bolt Thrower, Entombed, and Deviated Instinct, this EP delivers a proper descent into the pit. “A Whispered Curse” doesn’t just mark Plague Pit’s arrival, it drags the listener down with them.

Score: 7.5

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