Black magic?

If there's one thing you're guaranteed by taking a look at the Quietus' monthly round-up of metal releases, it's some spectacular band names and album and song titles. Take September's edition, for example, which served up Witch Vomit and Cerebral Rot, whose LP Odious Descent Into Decay features such ditties as 'Reeking Septic Mass' and 'Swamped In Festering Excrementia' - the latter a comment on the state of the nation, one presumes. Surely they can't be doing this with a straight face?

Kez Whelan begins the round-up with critical reviews of the month's three biggest releases (Tool, Slipknot and Entombed) and offers only a lukewarm assessment of Russian Circles' Blood Year, an album that I really enjoyed.

I've given the two records he's most enthusiastic about - Ghold's Input>Chaos and Uniform & The Body's collaboration Everything That Dies Someday Comes Back - a try. Neither could be accused of lacking distinctive character or sticking rigidly to a formulaic genre, but personally speaking that's about as much as can be said for them.