Honorable Mentions from the Abyss #42: Gasoline Guns/Sandbreaker/Ulcer/Faeces/The Black Thunder

Hey motordoomdeathmetallers,

this is the very last episode of "Honorable Mentions from the Abyss" dedicated to the releases I received from Mythrone Promotion. In fact, the albums contained in this episode all belong to the last pack that Mythrone sent to me one month ago circa.

All the bands in this article are Polish, except the Gasoline Guns, as you'll see soon. In addition, all the albums were released in 2021 in co-production by Defense Records and Mythrone Promotion, also in collaboration with other labels like Free Joy Stereo, as in the case of the Sandbreaker.

I advise that the next episode of "Honorable Mentions from the Abyss" will be the last one because, as I explained, Timpani allo Spiedo is going to end its activities.

And now, thanking Marcin of Mythrone Prom to sending me all these awesome albums throughout these years, let's go to discover the bands!

GASOLINE GUNS - "MOTOR CULT"

Motörhead are one of those cults that are truly immortal. To confirm this again, the Gasoline Guns (FB page), a quintet from Ukraine, entitled their second album as "Motor Cult". The sound into this 9-track work is simple to be described: a rocking and straight-to-the point heavy metal that ranges from the speed metal'n'roll of "Under Wicked Sky" (there is also a promotional video made for this song) to the powerful mid-tempo of "Hell Thunder", and there is even "The Road is a Snake", whose first part has the tones of a ballad. The lyrics, shouted by the raucous vocals of Dmytro "Talladega", deal constantly with wheels, highways, heavy metal'n'roll, gunfighters, whiskey, beer, and with everything like a good band of this kind needs. Nothing more to add: the "Motorized Heavy Metal", as the Gasoline Guns dub their style, is waiting for you!

SANDBREAKER - "CHILDREN OF THE ERG"

As I anticipated few days ago, here we are to talk again about the Sandbreaker (FB page) because this year they released their second EP, "Children of the Erg". In according to Wikipedia, "erg" is an Arabic word that stands for "dune field" and, in practice, it indicates "a broad, flat area of desert covered with wind-swept sand with little or no vegetative cover". In brief, it's a word perfect for another release of the Sandbreaker, that change in no ways their music in this 4-track EP, so you have to expect again a death/doom metal with desertic tunes. I think that the peak touched in this new work is "Smuglers of the Spice", that has fantastic psychedelic tones and tribal drums focused on the tom-toms. And now I imagine that the Sandbreaker are working on other new songs, since they are so prolific!

ULCER - "DEAD SOULS CATHEDRAL"

Comprised, among the others, of ex and current members of Dira Mortis, Ulcer (FB page) have released few months ago their 4th album, "Dead Souls Cathedral". Dedicated to the "memory of Jakub Bajorek", it has 9 songs in which there is a death metal that combines the good old Swedish school with the US one, adding to all this a obscure mood made also with the occasional use of very dark keyboards. I like a lot the chainsaw guitar tone, that is incredibly majestic. In practice, Ulcer, that are obsessed with long songs such as the monstrous 7-minute tour de force "Those Black Gods", remind me a combination between Grotesque and Incantation... and I love so much these bands!

FAECES - "NIHILOMINUS"

Faeces (FB page) are a quartet active since 2001 and they managed even 10 years from the third album to create a follow-up. All these years weren't wasted because the band created a great follow-up entitled "Nihilominus". Also if Faeces are described as a brutal death/grindcore band, their sound in this album  can be dubbed better, for me, as death metal, simply put. But theirs is a death metal that, beyond being violent as it should be, is also technical, dynamic, creative and strong of lyrics based on existential themes, spewed forth with wickedness by Marcin, a singer able even to throw up piglike vocals. Considering the excellent results, I hope that we don't need wait for other 10 years to listen to another work by Faeces!

THE BLACK THUNDER - "INTO THE DARKNESS WE ALL FALL"

And now it's the turn of a very positive band, more positive than every straight-edge hardcore act out there: The Black Thunder (FB page)! "Into the Darkness We All Fall", promoted with the videos made for "The Sun is Falling Down" and "Flowers on My Grave", is their second album and they crush every possible solar vibe with a sort of sludge/doom metal that is very gloomy but also a lot powerful. Do you would like to know something about the lyrics? You have to know only that they are so pessimists and dark that it's incredible that band members are often so smiling in their pics!