Conjurer
Unself
Bookending Conjurer’s Unself are its title track and This World Is Not My Home, both reworkings of a gospel song of the latter’s name originally from 1919 in which the narrator decries the hostility and unkindness on Earth, and yearns for a place in Heaven. In the case of Conjurer—UK post-metal’s misanthropic wunderkind for around a decade—their reframing comes from a place of self-discovery, namely co-vocalist Dani Nightingale’s late-diagnosed autism and the discovery of their non-binary identity. Conjurer’s apex has always coursed with an distrust towards the world at large, and with the added weariness of being marginalised and othered, it brings out even more of them.
It’s still a bit early to say if it’s their best, mind, but it’s absolutely an expansion of where that best comes from. Musically, these aren’t so much songs as scorching missives coaxed through the immense might of sludge-, doom- and post-metal. Even the opener Unself, the nominal ‘intro’ track, gradually becomes engulfed by the rot and turns to sluggish knells and animal roars to try and break itself free. All Apart follows to establish the baseline of Unself-era Conjurer—it’s kinda just like the rest of it, but maybe even angrier. Nightingale and Brady Deeprose’s vocals come caked in added resonance, whether it’s in chiseled-from-brimstone roars or the occasional clean turn that’s far from exceptional, but does what’s needed of it on a raw metal record.
There’s definitely a bigger sense of purpose on Unself that works in tandem with its more niche stylistic touches. There are moments evocative of early Mastodon in intensely slow-burning prog and doom, as well genre stalwarts like Gojira and underground, much-missed heroes Oathbreaker. This isn’t an album with crossover in mind; it’s supposed to be fraught and unfriendly and, at times, hard to swallow. And yet, in the way that songs like Let Us Live and Hang Them In Your Head wear their obliterating potential, you don’t want to look away. You can’t; it’s all too monolithic. That’s ultimately what makes Unself’s moments of vulnerability hit greater—the fractious mid-album breather A Plea, and the closer This World Is Not My Home, reshaping itself from quavering despair to eruptive force to barrel-chested determination for something more.
For the Conjurer faithful, it’s the kind of next step that you’d never dream this band wouldn’t take, given the opportunity. They’re a band who’ve always prized authenticity well outside the range of mere lip service, and in personal growth and discovery as magnitudinous as in Unself’s background, it’s reflected on another particularly strong album. It also helps that Conjurer clearly know they aren’t destined to be household names, and therefore don’t have to fold to keep up appearances. They’re important and purposeful as they are, and Unself brings that rushing out in tremendously bold fashion.
For fans of: Mastodon, Gojira, Oathbreaker
‘Unself’ by Conjurer is released on 24th October on Nuclear Blast Records.
Heavensgate
A Heart Is A Heavy Burden
If their recent UK tour opening for We Came As Romans would implicate Heavensgate to be of a certain pigswill variety of metalcore, fret not—they’re much worthwhile than that. You may also remember that Brand Of Sacrifice were on that run, and serve as a far more useful yardstick for comparison. Both can be stupendously heavy and contemporary when they want to, with an ear for sounds from outside the metalcore and deathcore cupboard. The difference is that Brand Of Sacrifice feel fully locked-in with their approach, whereas Heavensgate are…still working on it.
Let’s address that first, in how Petrichor and Darling Blue come deep enough in the tracklist to feel like a surprise, but are also clustered together to feel like a dip. They’re Heavensgate’s dalliances with alt-metal and nu-grunge, sounds with no prior exploration on A Heart Is A Heavy Burden, and thus wind up as a weird, experimental swerve on the release that’s meant to, first and foremost, define them. This is their first EP with some serious international push behind it, and it’s strange to feel as though Heavensgate are still testing their waters. As good as both of these tracks still sound (resultant of quality production that’s more fundamental than any other feature), the disconnect really lodges itself in.
Even just a shift in sequencing might’ve helped, to break up the punishment of A Heart…’s utterly barbaric take on modern metalcore. If there’s something that sticks as an out-and-out positive on this EP, it’s that, and in no small capacity. Every instrument hammers down to propagate its own pitch-blackness, going so far as to smuggle blastbeats onto Burden Of Being and A Fawn Flayed for some extra brutalising. It’s undeniably heavy, too, at points about ready to crack under its own immensity. And while Nazareth Tharatt is far from the most idiosyncratic among the scene’s parade of growlers, that doesn’t change the fact that he’s got a hell of voice (often literally) for metal like this.
It all comprises one of the handful of good starts shown off on A Heart…, even if they all aren’t so in sync with each other yet. Perhaps Heavengate’s creative breadth suits a full album better, where there’s more room to spread out in ways that they clearly want to. Right now, this is definitely good, especially for a hit-or-miss institution like metalcore. With a bit of tinkering and moving around, though, then we can talk about something properly potent.
For fans of: Graphic Nature, Brand Of Sacrifice, Half Me
‘A Heart Is A Heavy Burden’ by Heavensgate is released on 24th October on Pure Noise Records.
PENGSHUi
GUTS
As lovely as it’d be to see PENGSHUi undergo some forward movement, it’s also inevitable that they won’t. Theirs is a sound that’s filled with creative anachronisms by design, therefore having a built-in lodestone no matter what they do. What’s more, it was the same back in 2020 when they released their debut. From the abundant presence of grime and dubstep to the adamance towards ‘updating’ rock music by adding them in, the last time that PENGSHUi would’ve been truly forward-thinking is a decade ago, at minimum. Right now, when they’re on their third album and still trying to crank this into place, could they feel like anything other than a drop in the bucket?
And that’s still true while acknowledging that GUTS isn’t an awful album. None of PENGSHUi’s are, but there’s a defined suite of weaknesses that, without fail, they’ve all possessed. They’ve never been a band of great variety, as you may expect when enormous slabs of bass form their backbone and most of the rest of their skeleton. There’s potential in that for some hard-and-heavy slammers like PSYCHO EYES and BATTERED MIND, songs that push PENGSHUi’s punk angle further forward in execution (namely a quicker pace). Often, though, there’s this immobile, bricked-out feel to GUTS that makes it really forgettable. It also leaves you begging for even a hint of flavour after a while, such is the norm across as a significant chunk of PENGSHUi’s catalogue.
At least Illaman is still as good a fronting presence as he’s always been, with how easily and readily a forceful, commanding delivery comes to him. The ‘white grime artist’ voice really feels like a relic of the past, but as the sole source of flexibility that PENGSHUi has (especially on the interludes where he’s allowed to play around a bit more), you can be willing to forgive that. If nothing else, there is genuineness brought to the fore on GUTS; you’d never make music as out-of-step with current times and trends if there weren’t. And to a degree, that gives that PENGSHUi are bit more of an endearing side than their bruising might let slip. Tenacity is a good quality to have in any form of art, and when that’s effectively the shrink-wrap that encases GUTS entirely, it’s far from a wash.
That being said, it’s probably on their tight enough to preclude any further growth from PENGSHUi. It’s not a stretch to say they’ve gotten as big as they ever will now, thanks to how singlemindedly they continue to operate. GUTS, then, is rather emblematic of who PENGSHUi are as a band—they know what they want and what they like to do, and by hook or by crook, they’re gonna do it. It’s just that’s what they do do ran its course before they even started and is looking no more auspicious nowadays. The main issue is getting invested to begin with anymore.
For fans of: Astroid Boys, The Qemists, Hacktivist
‘GUTS’ by PENGSHUi is released on 31st October.
Words by Luke Nuttall
