AND THIS IS PROGRESS? 12" EP - (2008)

Review from Terrorizer Magazine - April 2010
(truecultheavymetal.com)

Yet more intense necropunk has seeped out from the world's wounds. From blasting crustgrind to apocalyptically slow Extreme Noise Terrorisms After The Last Sky have all the bases covered for this 12" EP.
And it all fits, it all wallows in the diseased tanks of human misery and grief. (7.5) AB

Review from 'Musketeer of Death'- January 2008
(www.musketeerofdeath.nl)

UK Blackcore pioneers After the Last Sky already released a foretaste of their upcoming album to be released later this year. This promo contains 2 tracks. "It’s all over" is a real outburst of anger, full or raging guitars, tight fast drums, desperate vocals, deep grunts and even some blackish screams. Musically it’s somewhere between grind and math with a crusty taste. "Land of gluttony and rape" is an epos of 6’50" and is a more diverse song. The raging speeds are mixed with slugging doom sounds that really breathe destruction and misery. It kind of reminds me of the early Thee Plague Of Gentlemen stuff. The use of the sample is also a positive addition. All in all this is a delicious starter on what will follow on later in 2008.

Review from Initonit zine #22 - December 2007

Lycanthrophy are fantastic. Dual Female/male vocals they are pure grind aggression. This is face shredding stuff indeed. Its unrelenting politcal brutality, and with an improved production this would be perfect. Joe Pesci aren't as good, but their abysmal production lets them down somewhat anyway. From this they sound like an adequate grind band, but I'd like to hear more to give them a chance. From The Ashes are great. They're fast as fuck and they grind like fuck thats all you need to know. After The Last Sky are a kind of Black metal version of punk and grind, in a political kind of way. And it works a treat. Their songs are well crafted metal tracks. Overall a great record.

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4-WAY SPLIT 12" - (2007)

Reviewed by Steven @ Crucifados Pelo Sistema Records - September 2007

Great 4 way split lp .. lycanthropy - all the way from the czech republic .. female fronted blasting crust .. its just fast .. from the ashes - 9 tracks of swedish grindcore, crust .. brutal as fuck .. joe pesci - new kids on the block from the uk .. not unlike bands as yacopsae .. hit you with 5 mins worth of no production grindcore taken from the practice room .. after the last aky - the uk's very own blackcore pioneers are back with crushing political metalgrind .. all in all 30 songs .. a must have for all diy grind lovers .. great ..

Review from Initonit zine #23 - February 2008

ATLS play metallic grind/blackcore/black metal with brains and fast bits, metallic punk - whatever you want to call it. It's bleak and aggressive, but lyrically, the band learn towards the crust side of things with social and political concerns coming to the fore. There's a lot of old school grindcore in the sound too - of which I'm a hugs fan. Carcass and Bolt Thrower fans will love it. Inert have some ace metal artwork on display here, and come more from the Morbid Angel side of the grind coin than the Napalm Death/Carcass one. In other words, they play good solid death metal, and stand up pretty well next to ATLS.

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AFTER THE LAST SKY / INERT (SPLIT CD) - (2004)

From 'Burning Black' Webzine, Reviewed by Alvaro Pacheco P. - June 2006 (www.burningblack.net)

This split Cd compiles the first After The Last Sky work, "The Essence of our Art is Hatred" released in 2004 and Inert second demo, "The 3 AM Conspiracies" released back in 2003. Both bands belong to the most brutal and savage depths of the UK’s Underground. The first half of this disc, the first three tracks to be precise, belongs to After The Last Sky. This band started as a trio called Animosity in 1997, releasing four works before changing its name. The band, currently a quintet, delivers at this split brutal doses of their "Blackcore" (the term they use to refer to their raw blend of Death, Grind, Sludge and Black Metal). Opening this first half is "Art School Lebensborn" a mid to fast paced piece of grinding brutality, full of Sludge references and inexplicit Black Metal structures, which is reflected in the grim, brutal vocal work of Benjamin Hoare. "Dragons Teeth Harvest" continues with a strong piece of chaotic Black/Grind Metal, with complex structures and brakes that will take your breath away, the vocals are still blackish but adding some Deathly grunts and even some clean voices, which sound slightly similar to Phil Anselmo adding some Pantera-like atmospheres. Closing this first half is "Regretting Those Drunken Words", my favourite track (starting by the name) and the longest one of this half, with six minutes fifteen seconds of mutilating "Blackcore", this track also includes the most visible Black Metal influences, which is reflected in intense dark guitar lines, but the Sludge is also present during the whole song (sounding even Doom in some passages), with varied structures and some harsh guitars.

The next four songs belongs to Inert, this band delivers a somewhat Blackened Grind/Death Metal, but their music still fits perfectly into the Death/Grind parameters, it sound more inclined towards the traditional Grindcore than anything else, including even the obligatory B rated movies samples. Musically this work embraces the fast velocities and infernal atmospheres, with obscure, blasphemous down tuned auras driven by the turbulent, blurry guitars, maybe Cryptopsy could be a good point of comparison, but more varied and slightly more obscure. The vocal work here is as brutal as the whole music, mixing low grunts with occasional high pitched grim vocals. The voice of Mr. Hoare sounds as insane as his work with After The Last Sky (yes, here’s the connection). The production of both works included in this split is very powerful and well sounding, not completely flawless but strong enough. Another interesting detail is the cover art; both covers are included in this split, so you can get the original artworks of those releases with this Cd… A great work and a wise move of Circus Of The Macabre Records. (AP)

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AFTER THE LAST SKY / INERT (SPLIT CD) - (2004)

From 'Pull The Chain' Webzine, Written by Georges - Dec 2005
(www.pullthechain.be)

Two newcomers of the new sick generation of metal bands rising from the land of Queen Elizabeth on one record. Both acts seem to have the same singer but despite the presence of this screamer in both projects there are some differences between After The Last Sky and Inert musical worlds. Inert are nothing more and nothing less than pure extreme death grind metal. Main influences can be searched in their land mates Napalm Death. Inert’s musicians are doing their thing pretty good: grinding death metal or perhaps should I say death grind core with some vicious gore parts that nicely compliment the band’s lyrical conception. Nothing new but a nice contribution to the genre. After The Last Sky are for my opinion another story, the overall effect of this first half of the split is just that little bit more original, that little bit more gruesome and thus for my opinion that little bit more promising. It’s eventually quite hard to pinpoint the sound delivered throughout those three songs, let’s say some harsh brutal death metal, grinding surroundings the whole coupled with Macabre orientated vocal works. Musically After The Last Sky are less brutal in their grind tinged death metal approach but their (multi faced) song structures make their music quite different from what we have the use to listen to in this scene. A good split.

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AFTER THE LAST SKY / INERT (SPLIT CD) - (2004)

From the BBC Web Site (Demo Doctor Section), Written by Mick Cooper - Nov 2005
(www.bbc.co.uk)

It took me a while to figure out [before and after playing!], but this is actually two bands, two separate efforts on the same disc. Death Metal, I surmised, since Inert's artwork featured 3 ghouls chewing on a business mans corpse! Bleeeeaaaaarrrrggghhh!!!!!!

After the Last Sky, a 4-piece are up first, conveniently the lyrics are reproduced [let's face it Death Metal isn’t exactly the most accessible of music], along with a brief synopsis of the track and website directions! So thorough!

Inert are a 5-piece and Conqueror Worm has a menacing intro which jumped suddenly to full-on grindcore - I would have liked to have built in more slowly, like Slayer’s Hell Awaits. Oblivious to the Threat and Empire of the Dead feature more film audio, which does add to the songs…You do get a better idea of what the song is about after hearing it. www.inertuk.cjb.net

Truthfully, I’ve never really been all that into Death Metal, I made exceptions for bands like Carcass, Death and Cradle of Filth due to them being something different from the norm, but these efforts seemed good enough in comparison, and seemed to add a little something different than what I remember the scene having to offer. Of course, two full albums later, the novelty could just as easily wear off, but for now, I give them both a thumbs up!

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AFTER THE LAST SKY / INERT (SPLIT CD) - (2004)

From Zero Tolerance Magazine (Issue 003), Written by Danny Lilker - Jan/Feb 2005
(www.zero-tolerance.co.uk)

This issues winner! ATLS play chaotic metalcore worthy of any band with four words in their name,if you get my drift. Tortured dual vocals agonise over a bed of dissonant and quite often hyper bedlam that’ll be sure to get your heckles up.

Inert play slightly more traditional death/grind again with dual vocals, opting for a more straight ahead and brutal approach. It seems (and I could be wrong)that thereare some incestuous relations here, unless it’s a coincidence that a certain Ben and Simon appear in both line-ups. Find out more at www.afterthelastsky.co.uk

5 (out of 6)

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AFTER THE LAST SKY / INERT (SPLIT CD) - (2004)

From Terrorizer Magazine (Issue 128), Written by Paul Schwartz
(www.terrorizer.com)

Amusingly enough, this up-from-the-underground split-featuring two fledgling British brutality-mongers can easily be divided by reference to each act's choice of samples. For where ATLS's choice of one from "Withnail And I"s more amusing scenes is refreshing like their jagged, Iron Monkey-and-Gorguts-aware hardcore downer-grind, Inert's use of the tried and tested "When theres no room in hell..." clip only serves to reinforce the feeling that their four tracks of goregrind could do with being less "faithful" to their forbears.

7 (out of 10)

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AFTER THE LAST SKY / INERT (SPLIT CD) - (2004)

Review by Paul @ Raw Nerve (rawnervepromotions.co.uk on-line review)

After the Last Sky were previously known as Animosity for those keeping a watch on this site, and this name improvement is justified by the fantastic opening song ‘Art school lebensborn’ as well, smashing across not unlike The Red Chord in places, combined with something a lot more death / grind, and just generally weird with some of the discords and downbeat sections. I also hear the influences of Hard To Swallow, Incantation and early Carcass in there. ‘Dragons Teeth Harvest’ continues this rather off the wall vicious attack with big off kilter rhythm stabs, hints of hardcore and black metal in the blend to further confuse, but mostly lots of seering vocal rants, double pedals and down key thuddery, which is sludged up in the third track ‘Regretting those drunken words’. Massive doom encrusted slow notes open this one up, which then goes off on many different tangents, all depth chargingly heavy. The music of the apocalypse has arrived.

Within the first 90 seconds of this 4 track from Nottingham 5 piece Inert, I hear some good improvements. Some good harsh riffs, and the sound reminds of early Cryptopsy, the vocals are incredibly vicious and "Conquerer Worm" is relentless throughout. The carnage continues after the opening sample of "Oblivious to the threat", with the more chuggy and off kilter patterns, this song comes across as a mix between Bolt Thrower for the hypnotic fast picking, Konkhra for the odd timings and early Carcass during the breakdown, a nice healthy mix of top quality influences. Production makes some of the subtleties a little tough to pick out but is solid enough to help Inert pummel their evil Death Metal rantings out. "Empire of the dead" starts with the sample that Mortician fans will recognize from the title track of "Zombie Apocalypse", which is a surprise if none of Inert have heard that before, but it works well with the song. "Haunted" reminds me a little of "Hammer Smashed Face" era Cannibal Corpse, with the constant bludgeoning drum style, and the deep vocals in this song (the best of the four in my opinion) are awesome. Inert certainly hold their own in this half of the split and it’s great to hear 2 original bands in the UK death metal scene.

Good stuff.

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AFTER THE LAST SKY / INERT (SPLIT CD) - (2004)

Review by Darran Ali (Live4metal.com on-line review)

This split EP comes to me as an unknown quantity. I didn’t know the two British acts, but it’s always a pleasure to get to hear some good extreme nastiness piped out of this small island. To be fair, the extreme and the nasty were the two things that jump straight down my throat as soon as this 25 minute EP rattled out of its shadowy hole.

After the Last Sky were first with their furore, self termed “Blackcore”, sounds like it could be a militant black civil rights movement back in the 1960’s, who knows?. One thing is for sure the delivery of the music is probably as powerful and radical as my spurious association might suggest. Bearing in mind the band believes “The essence of our art is hatred”, (this also being the title of their side of the EP) strong minded severe disdain for exploitation and tyranny is probably an issue with After the Last Sky. Acting as the obvious outlet for the band’s personal views and perception of the world at large, gives the narrative, an impassioned focus. These are diatribes denouncing society’s crass existence, in part and tales of drunken woe for the plainly titled ‘Regretting those Drunken Words’. The “Blackcore” manifests itself in the form of as many repugnant mutations as you would care to take on. As and when the mood takes them, you could find yourself up against some harsh blackened death metal or feeling the full blasts of some grinding crust, or just the same be battered to a pulp by some thick sludge burdened doom; it’s as easy as that! The three songs on the EP opens with ‘Art School Lebensborn’ and at the first coughs up its raw disjointed blasts and awkward rambling passages of sludge induced noise. Torturous stuff to say the least, it’s not easy to describe all the shafting music styles any better than what I said early, but at all times this remains so dark and intimidating in its approach, it’s like watching Nosferatu (1929) while addled on the narcotics of your choice.

Moving in to the domain of Inert, things become slightly more hectic tempo wise. A crusty punk element is coupled with a grindcore guise. Ben on vocals is the common factor of the two groups as he is the vocalist in both. I think he may have a whole bunch of razors stuck in his throat. They are ripping his voice to shreds, it sounds about as ill as you can get, sort of like the vocals in Goatsblood, this is actually more of the case for After the Last Sky but there isn’t a huge difference between the two. However for Inert Ben is backed up by some deeper backing growls laid on by bassist Simon, adding a different dimension. Inert are probably slightly harsher than After the Last Sky, mainly because they are more relentless in the crusty grind department. This is in essence a kind of cross between Napalm Death and Hard to Swallow, so it goes without saying that it is brutally British. Both bands when the blast beats are pummelling down bring a spirit of raw necro hysteria in true black metal fashion, it feels cold and blunt throughout. Inert’s last track ‘Haunted’ has a suffocating atmosphere about it, an industrial wilderness of depleting emptiness. This actually runs through the whole EP a dire desperate quality that adds to the ruthless, tormented music.

Both bands have spawned out of the same kind of festering filth and the two share a lot in common. After the Last Sky will slow down to a rotting corpse pace at times and this is the major difference. But both play with the darkest attributes of metal, blasting away with unadulterated scorn, and making sure that what comes your way will not be the easiest of sounds to digest- extreme music in its raw and necessary form.