Well, it may just be my own sense of stereotyping, but the one place I didn’t expect to get crushing death/doom from was Melbourne, Australia. I of course know that Australia has a proud history of pure heavy metal and rock, and the strange war-metal offshoots that came from the land down under, but slow stuff? Not so much.

Aglo, who appear to be a single bad member in Aaron Osborne are here to very clearly put my ignorance to a blazing death. “Into the Maze” is a six track EP, but from the very first listen I must say that I was hooked. It’s not often that I get the kind of shiver down the back from the guitar tone and opening riff, but when I heard it, it was completely my kind of thing. I’m torn between describing the sound of Aglo as either Left Hand Path era Entombed being played at quarter speed, or Crowbar being asked to play on the leftover equipment of Dismember. This stuff has serious levels of rib-crushing heaviness. Honestly, putting this stuff on loud through headphones made me feel like the poor unfortunate in “Casino” who has head his crushed in a vice.

Opener “Into the Maze” sets the scene, with a tar-black thick guitar tone and miserable riff that gives way to cavernous, cave-man vocals. “Parasites” has a stumbling, monster-stomp theme that brings terror in its wake. “Darkened Mirror” actually puts the pedal to the metal and accelerates towards mid-speed, sounding not unlike a more aggressive Nails in the process. “Collector” goes full on doom, a black-hole-gravity of a track; a melody that has an event horizon from which you may find it difficult to escape. “Past” features – perhaps for the first time I can recall – old-school Swedish death metal guitar tone with a cowbell intro. It’s certainly the track that would most comfortably sit on “To Ride, Shoot Straight and Speak the Truth”, “The Journey Home” is the epic closer. At almost seven minutes long, it has a cosmic vibe, an expansive sound created by the overlapping waves of super fuzzed out riffage and bulldozing rhythm section.

At six tracks long, this is probably just about the right length to get your appetites whet for a full lengther. It’s certainly a release that’s made me grimace and nod my aging head while listening to them for the last couple of weeks. Good stuff.

(8.5/10 Chris Davison)

https://www.facebook.com/aglobrutal

https://aglobrutal.bandcamp.com/album/into-the-maze