2019 Metal ’n’ Heavy Rock/Heavy Music Poll: RESULTS - Top 100 Countdown

We got 36 ballots, thank you.

We are doing an extra weekend bonus of another 20 albums for the true headz who like to check out music they might not know but several posters put high in their ballot, which some posters will feel they want to check out.

120-111 today.
110-101 Sunday

then the top 100 Mon-Friday.

Pom will be doing a lot of the rollout when available so a big thanks to him and seandalai for making this happen , along with you, the voters!

Hopefully we can all have a good friendly chat about the albums that place because that is what the poll is for.

We will start shortly..

TOO LOW

Yay! Time to Pretend that I know anything about metal.

Simon H otm

their first album was way better than this shit.

And 120 is a 3-way tie so will be posting all 3

I listened to everything nominated that I had any interest in (except Yellow Eyes, poor guys, they seem like nice boys) so I'll be interested to see if anything comes up that I didn't give a fair shake to.

\m/

woot woot

Weekend Bonus 120-101
TIE
120 Atlantean Kodex - The Course of Empire 75 Points,2 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/rcNvXsf.jpg
https://open.spotify.com/album/5AqSLXRAnhQecdpdvGZlyr?si=TbhWL1YgQ_-tKChfRU0XxA
https://atlanteankodex-vanrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-course-of-empire

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/atlantean-kodex-the-course-of-empire-review/

When you gaze upon the gorgeous artwork adorning the new Atlantean Kodex opus, does it remind you of another classic album cover? Look closely. If your metal mind went back through time to Bathory‘s Blood Fire Death, you win the Steel ov Approval. And it seems the similarity in art is anything but accidental. After impressing the metalverse with 2013s The White Goddess, the band took their sweet time crafting a followup, and the long-awaited The Course of Empire definitely dials up the Bathory-esque epic Viking side of Atlantean Kodex‘s mammoth heavy metal sound. Along with the band’s usual While Heaven Wept meets Manowar on Manilla Road take on oversized throwback metal, there’s a powerful Hammeheart influence under-girding the already titanic, soaring compositions, making for a heavier, darker sound. With over an hour of Homeric bombast and wanton excess to battle through, it takes a strong back and an iron will to weather this storm, so lash yourself to the mast, ignore the Siren’s song and let’s set sail to high adventure.

After a mighty intro builds a giant-sized mood with Markus Becker dramatically intoning on empires rising and falling, you’re treated to the 9-minute majesty of “People of the Moon” and all its stately grandeur and opulent metallic adornments. It’s the classic Kodex tune, driven by a mixture of doom riffs, and heavier, Viking-esque battle leads, then topped off with Becker’s soaring vocals. It’s as if Manowar circa Into Glory Ride tried their hand at doom, and it’s glorious to behold. Heavy, melodic and accessible as all hell, it’s what epic metal should sound like right down to the most minute detail – the lofty, fist in the wind chorus, the emotional ebbs and flows, the ability to make the music feel ginormous, it’s all here. You’ll be strapping on the Chest Plate ov Bravery before the song is even half over, and if you haven’t become a king by your own hand by its conclusion, you’re no Cimmerian. Brilliant, timeless stuff, and there’s so, so much more to come. “Lion of Chaldea” is every bit as immense, sounding like a metalized retelling of Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven. It’s stout, catchy and gorgeously lush – a sweeping panorama of metal with a chorus that sticks like tar. “Chariots” begins life with ominous, weighty doom riffs that recall To Mega Therion era Celtic Frost before transitioning into Immortal-meets While Heaven Wept, and the early days Manowar influence is never far away.

As “The Innermost Light” takes flight, it’s almost impossible not to hear “The Misty Mountains Cold” from The Hobbit before the battle axes are handed out. The minor touches of classical orchestration and church organs add a greater sense of grandeur and awe, and the short runtime leaves you wanting more. The album’s back-half is one monstrous epic after another starting with “A Secret Byzantium,” which is a commanding tune – the kind you want blasting as you march into the final battle of Ragnarok, and it’s one of the band’s finest moments – massive, monolithic and as mighty as a song can be without reaching out of your speakers to hand you Excalibur. “He Who Walks Behind the Years” introduces a dose of John Arch era Fates Warning in its proggier structure and vocal patterns, and this one grew to become one of my favorite moments of the album. The biggest set piece comes at the end with the nearly 11-minute title track, and following so many huge, overwhelming compositions, it had to really shine to stave off battle fatigue and Dragon Derangement Disorder, and fortunately, shine it does. It’s almost like a dream collaboration by Bathory, Running Wild, Doomsword, and While Heaven Wept, and it’s just a slobberknocker of an epic metal melting pot. So noble, so regal, this is what classic metal is all about.

The only complaints I have are minor. Some songs could have been trimmed down a tad, especially the title track which seems to wind out, only to surge back for 4 more minutes, approximating the never-ending ending of LotR III: Return of the King. I could quibble and say the highs here are not quite as high as those on The White Goddess, but these are small matters, and what Atlantean Kodex has wrought is a mammoth victory. The band builds one colossal song after another, full of gripping moments and bold bravado, and the entirety of it is amazing to experience. Markus Becker outdoes himself, channeling John Arch and Hammerfall‘s Joachim Cans as he glides over the hefty riffs like an iron eagle, bringing trve metal to the filthy, oppressed masses. He’s the ringmaster in this legendary saga and takes the songs to places many frontmen couldn’t. Manuel Trummer and new axe Coralie Baier piledrive the album with thick, weighty riffs that straddle the doom and Viking genres adroitly. Their playing keeps the material heavy and full of gravitas no matter how melodic Becker’s vocals get1, while their restrained, tasteful and beautiful solo-work transports you to majestic mountain vistas and ancient battlegrounds now at peace. The entire band is in peak form, and they truly accomplished something special here.

The White Goddess was going to be a tough album to top, but Atlantean Kodex has indeed topped it with The Course of Empire. This is the crown jewel of their discography and cements their status as the premier epic metal masters, bar none. It’s a monolithic magnum opus, taking the best of traditional and extreme metal and forging them into the mightiest of war hammers. I’m highly impressed by this record and look forward to having a deep and abiding friendship with it over the coming decades. Guards, knights, squires, prepare for battle!

I don't think I've heard anything by these guys.

That's a sweet-ass cover, though.

I got about three minutes in, not for me. I put on Blood Fire Death right after, I don't see any similarity whatsoever.

You really should. Its a cracking album and their previous 2 made the poll. Epic Doom Metal which has just the right amount of doom and doesn't quite cross the cheese power epic metal line.

I know unperson is a fan of this band.

120 TIE
Fetid - Steeping Corporeal Mess 75 Points,2 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/OTUje5x.jpg
https://open.spotify.com/album/7zTdv1SRgyW97c8rKm6J3r?si=zqL1M3e8RQOfZhmve5mDeg
https://listen.20buckspin.com/album/steeping-corporeal-mess

https://yourlastrites.com/2019/06/05/fetid-steeping-corporeal-mess-review/

Back in 2017 Fetid came on the scene with a demo entitled Sentient Pile of Amorphous Rot. Fans of sewer-originated death metal flocked to the internet to order cassettes of this absolutely putrid little demo. Yet for all it lacked in stature it more than made up for in performance. Rough production did a piss poor job of hiding the band’s immense potential. As they ripped through those four tracks – vocals gurgling, synthesizers and drum machines popping – a vision of what the future could hold began to take shape. Clubs full of smelly, hairy cave-dwelling folks with their long, curly back hair perfectly teased for the occasion dotted the tours that would be undertaken in Fetid’s future. The stench, rife with body odor and underscored by a hint of vinegar (or is that rotting fish?), came to life through the speakers. It was magical.

With one ear always to the underground, 20 Buck Spin quickly snapped up Fetid (their demo was put out by the unfailing Headsplit Records) swelling their already well-stocked ranks of putrescent death metal. Budget increased. They received the full complement of production typically afforded bands of their ilk. They received cover artwork that would make devotees of X-Files “Monster of the Week” series squirm recalling human-fish hybrid, sewer dwelling parasites. And thus, with the shelves of their cupboards lined with all the tools needed for a band to ascend to the upper echelon of gory, sludgy death metal Fetid set out to make their debut LP.

After making fans wait two full years for any new material, it’s fitting that the album opens with static and screeches, only further cementing the anxiety and urge to check out just what theses jokers have up their sleeves. In general, what they do have up their sleeves is a solid yet unmemorable follow-up to what was a very memorable and exciting demo.

It’s an odd thing that cleaning up the production and using more finances and resources to produce the art as a whole can somehow be a bad thing. Society is capitalist and the more money you have the better you are as a person and the more people will respect you. Turns out that this long held principle of capitalist culture isn’t a universal truth and Fetid is a prime example of that fallacy. Punk ethics, DIY attitudes, and dropping your master tape in the mud and running it over several times with a garbage truck actually produces some of the best gory, sludgy, sewage soaked death metal.

The drums are deep, cavernous even. There is an endless section of toms—each one slightly deeper than its predecessor. Double bass thunders like hoof beats of a strong mare connecting with the brittle sternum of an adolescent boy. The cymbals, used sparingly, ring true and clean, lightening the mood albeit for a brief moment. But mostly the rhythms are pummeling affairs of tom rolls unleashing waves of PTSD in anyone that was once caught on the business end of an automatic grenade launcher.

The vocals are of the bowels: low growls kept muffled in the mix, intertwined with any bass or guitar that finds its way into the depths of this guttural range. Lyrics are barked rhythmically, at times coming dangerously and deliciously close to what could be loosely considered a rap attack. But again, when compared to the demo, the vocals, even when drenched in reverb, seem lifeless. Not the enthusiastic leader they could be but rather a passenger enslaved by the ferocious rhythms that have assumed the job of cavalry commander.

Guitars, handled by Clyle Lindstrom (Caustic Wound, Cerebral Rot), who also shares vocal duties, shine on “Consumed Periphery.” Vacillating between so deep and bombastic and buzzsaw-like efficiency he even throws a few pick dives, whammy screams and technical solos in there. All while holding down the slow-paced riff game.

Holding down the rhythm section is bassist Chelsea Loh (also of Cauterized) along with drummer/vocalist Julian Rhea. Their chemistry is readily apparent with the bass never seeming out of place or showy but merely doing what is impossible for many bassists—to assist, support, and enhance without getting in the way. Particularly on “Dripping Subtepidity,” the bass work shines, holding down the lower riffs while guitar lines spiral into chaos. The ability to groove is one of Fetid’s main selling points, and much of that is thanks to the bass work.

The synth skills are once again on full display for the closing track “Draped in What Was” (a fitting title for a synth sound that was very popular about 35 years ago). This time no drum machine punctuates the eerie tones. The rhythm is kept by a pulsating synth while baritone keys pump a bass line beneath and more whimsical melody lines are layered over the top. The effect is a pronounced, dated mood befitting all the best campy horror films of Ti West. Again, Fetid makes the choice of using the synth as an intro for a track rather than simply an interlude on its own. While that tidbit certainly isn’t pronounced or even noticeable, it is worth mentioning as it’s indicative of a more modern take on synthetic death metal passages. It is also worth mentioning that the passage has no impact, effect, or connection to the track into which it is dumped.

Don’t get it twisted. Steeping Corporeal Mess is damn solid death metal. In fact, in a year relatively bereft of quality death metal – a massive change from the prior three years – Fetid stands tall, making the Pacific Northwest scene proud. The band will do very well touring Europe where they might not even have sewers yet. It’s just that Sentient Pile of Amorphous Rot was that good that the debut LP warranted exceedingly high expectations that simply weren’t met. Spin it. Love it. But keep your eyes to the horizon and hope that whatever they do next harkens back to their brilliant coming out party.

https://grizzlybutts.com/2019/06/06/fetid-steeping-corporeal-mess-2019-review/

Unkempt and festering from teeth to taint as a reeking tube of rarely animated human garbage in life and now a bulging, cold blue-bloated sack of vermin and toxic gaseous churn in death, the swollen corpse wriggles down a steep mud-slicked trench as the rain primes its descent. A leg catches tooth-like snares of jagged glass that’d slash drying rigor’d tendon and let loose the knee from the cadavers hunched formation, kicking outward. The first of many horrors yet conjures no blood. From his maggoted smile belches green and grey foam, the light mist of rain popping his viscous gargle like an enticing bubble mailer in the hands of a mailroom moron. The head rolls left and slaps the putrid water, the shoulder is next to pile on its weight. The great flop of his bloated and gratuitously nude upper body slaps wetly, an epileptic torsion with just one single fit, before the belly is shorn on an opportunistic plate of shale that’d act as a petri dish for the wriggling feast of bacterial stew and parasite within. Oozing outward and downward, a shrimp cocktail of neon green slime and scurrying anaerobic insect barely phase the already putrid swamp of human waste and plastic trash beneath. The rusted-sweet musk of human disintegration grants color and teeming life within a tributary previously only enriched by pipe-siphoned feces and the desperate corpses of fauna willing to drink from it. Count man among the first to create, see, and perpetuate his own doom and the last to prevent the piling of unsustainable life and the cruelty of our slow death. Quench your thirst for decay and cannonball your way into the toxic dead meat soup of Fetid‘s doomed-death and chug the rancid slime from the ‘Steeping Corporeal Mess’ they’d create.

The new generation of west coast United States filth and fucking doom coalesces in the pits of Portland, Oregon today as many’d migrate their bloody wares and fungal curse down from the traffic jammed Hell of Seattle as Fetid would beyond their formative years as Of Corpse with vital ties to Caustic Wound, Cauterized, and the true horror of Cerebral Rot. Among the most barbaric of the cellar dwellers stinking up the crypts Of Corpse would show their worthiness with a split from the (then) cranking on all cylinders Sewercide. The name was stupid, they moved to Portland and left their brutal Infester-isms to Cauterized and changed their name to Fetid. ‘Sentient Pile of Amorphous Rot’ (2017) demo was their first observation of a critically bubbling mass, a distorted bass and hammered-to-shit set of buzzing downtuned guitar growls already showing the pulverized slap of Cianide‘s ‘The Dying Truth’ and the loosened death/doom crunch of Derketa‘s ‘The Unholy Ground’ demo (alternately Mythic‘s EP). From that point their sound hasn’t strayed too far from the ultimate precursor race that was Autopsy‘s ‘Mental Funeral’, though their debut full-length ‘Steeping Corporeal Mess’ brings an appreciable level of fidelity and exemplar stature to a ‘murky by design’ primitive death metal style that quickly becomes a sub-genre all its own.

In a live setting a band like Fetid create a dominant and grinding groove with distorted bass throwing heavily downtuned thunder that’d guide the experience; This works incredibly well for a trio who’re writing for one guitar by default but it will always sound a bit like an unfinished demo when put to tape. Though they toy with rhythms and bombast that recalls the most classic Finnish and North American death (and death/doom) lordships Fetid never reach for a particularly high technical standard that keeps them just an inch short of the slithering ideals of Paralysis or (mid-era) Morpheus Descends. Rhythms may be attainable and direct but the entire experience hinges on groove and presence that ‘Steeping Corporeal Mess’ doesn’t surprise with. Again, in person it is an appreciably moshable churn but on record it reads as plain-and-powerful death metal. There is plenty to appreciate, though, as the crawling nastiness that Fetid bring is immediately heavy in its evocation of the early Cianide school of rotten bone-rattling down-tuned basement death metal, I’m personally on board for that every time and they do kick the speed up a notch throughout the release.

The whammy diving, bass-growling and hi-hat tapping freakery of “Consumed Periphery” is probably the highlight of ‘Steeping Corporeal Mass’ with its descent into high speed left-handed chord-strangling riffs and jogging double-bass blasts. Sure, the point has already been made that these are tricks of the early Autopsy trade but such is an infinite well of inspiration through fundamental presence. I only wish Fetid wrote tracks with memorable groove-based hooks (a la Morgue) rather than cyclonic pieces that often feel like exhibitions of ‘old school’ death metal motion. “Dripping Subtepidity” is a nearby second most valuable moment on this five song 32+ minute record for its interesting pace changes and progressions. I think most folks would start shaking their fists at the sky around two minutes into the beast of a song but there isn’t much else on the full-length that really begs to be obsessed over or ‘felt’ in any powerful way. I’d hesitate to label ‘Steeping Corporeal Mess’ as rote so much as I’d say its presence is entirely orthodox (read: ‘safe’) as ‘classic’ death metal with a handle upon pacing that is evocative of early death/doom metal progenitors. I’m all in for it and always make the effort to see this type of band live because that is where they shine best but I wouldn’t suggest that this is a timeless classic or whatever. Nonetheless Fetid‘s debut is a very deserved punch of death metal and filth-ridden doom to the sternum. Moderately high recommendation. For preview I’d recommend “Consumed Periphery” for the prime cut and then “Draped in What Was” for the sort of horror and intensity I’d hope the band is headed forward with.

I haven't heard of this but I love the choice of title font.

TIE
120 Have a Nice Life - Sea of Worry 75 Points,2 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/XgqWoNy.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/1PHM29evPgbff3brtIEh28?si=otzXTXEgRBm3jWw68JxHSQ
https://haveanicelife.bandcamp.com/album/sea-of-worry

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/have-a-nice-life-sea-of-worry/
7.4

an Barrett and Tim Macuga live double lives. To a rabid subset of the notorious 4chan forum /mu/, they are the mysterious co-founders of Have a Nice Life, whose debut record, 2008’s foreboding, gauzy Deathconsciousness, is regarded as beyond reproach; its accompanying 70-page manifesto has since begot reams of stoned hermeneutics. But man cannot survive on 4chan fame alone; Barrett and Macuga have day jobs, and day lives, with families and children who might be less enamored by the creation myths of Christian cults. Their follow up, 2014’s The Unnatural World, raised uneasy questions about settling into the tedium of adulthood. Five years later, Sea of Worry presents disquieting answers.

Have a Nice Life’s early work had a tendency to shape-shift, presenting as garage rock on one track only to unravel into ambient noise on the next. On Sea of Worry, these shifts are more abrupt; the pace of the record suffers as a result. The momentum of the triumphant, shout-along choruses on “Sea of Worry” is flatlined by “Dracula Bells,” a track rendered exhaustingly slow by awkward rhythmic shifts, multiple melodic tangents, and a painful dash of free jazz.

It’s nearly grating enough to make a new listener pull the plug altogether, which would be a shame—Sea of Worry finds the band honing in on the metallic sheen of goth rock, a subgenre consistently in the mix on previous records but never given its due. With a propulsive bassline that gives way to shimmering guitars, “Science Beat” sounds like “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” as helmed by Pere Ubu’s David Thomas, Barrett’s atonal sing-speaking cutting through the blinding brightness. “Lords of Tresserhorn” plays with the same elements—twinkling synths, thrumming bass, clipped vocals—but simmers them slowly, not so much building to a chorus as painting layers of scenery.

But these ambitious experiments are paired with concessions to an active fanbase that is terrified of change. Two of the album’s seven tracks are re-recordings of demos already familiar to diehards, padding a relatively short record with old material. “Trespassers W,” originally a brooding post-punk love song with muffled vocals and a bassline ripped from “Transmission,” justifies its inclusion with a full-band remake. The new version represents what online fans feared for the band, with crunchy, overdriven guitar and full-throated yelps that are more indebted to Superchunk than Bauhaus. But the song benefits from the crisper recording, which highlights impressive chord changes and structural twists that were previously buried. “Destinos,” with a lengthy sample of a sermon about the evils of Satan and Hell, is more similar to its original version; as a closer, it makes a disappointingly safe choice for a dramatic exit.

As Have a Nice Life learn to embrace professional studio recordings and bigger audiences, perhaps the band’s most defining quality will prove to be its lyrics, a potent expression of what one might call dad rage. Sea of Worry addresses the anxieties of adulthood with vengeful indignation. “I opted out by never really opting in,” they sing on the title track, finding simultaneous freedom and sadness in the idea. But the sharpest commentary on the nihilism of total independence comes from “Lords of Tresserhorn”: “I can stay up late whenever I want,” Barrett sings, “but other than that, it’s nothing like I thought. I guess I thought I’d know what I’m doing by now, but I know nothing.” Where Matt Berninger might be ruefully fondling his argyle sweaters, Have a Nice Life eyes revolution: “I am mortgaged to an irrational thought: that we are always on top, and nothing will ever go wrong.” After two records about death, Macuga and Barrett have landed on something truly terrifying: finding oneself, inexplicably, still alive.

Dan and Tim, now adults with adult problems, are reunited by fate once again. And things aren't a whole lot better.

Have A Nice Life are a fairly quiet duo, both in the quantity of their output and I can't say their music is that loud too, except that it can get really noisy. They've always been quality over quantity, which is strange to say of a band that released a behemoth of a double album as a debut album, along with a 70 page manifesto or rather something that puts the "book" in "booklet", and a compilation of demos/alternate takes in Voids. After another EP and a full length, it would 5 years until we'd hear a new Have A Nice Life song. So that's just three full lengths in more than a decade. So you can guess the massive anticipation I had for this record. After seeing them perform two sets at this year's Roadburn, one of which were a full performance of the cult classic Deathconciousness, though I was disappointed no new songs were played, the hype was at its peak.

So when the first single dropped, which was this record's opening and title track, I did like its more post-punk direction, but I can't deny that I was slightly underwhelmed by it. Ever since I discovered Have A Nice Life, everything about them was those few records and limited number of songs, some I liked more than others, some I listened to more times that I'd dare to admit. But there it was, a new Have A Nice Life song. And it was... alright. But I made the wise decision not to draw any conclusions about the entire record and just wait until the entire thing drops so that I can stream it in one piece and enjoy the whole thing instead of calling it underwhelming based on a different song. It was a totally different experience.

Two of the songs on here are re-recordings of older songs from Voids, but even with those in their new form, Sea Of Worry goes through so many of Have A Nice Life's trademark sounds, from the very post-punk/gothic rock opener through more shoegaze tracks through more industrial and droning dark ambient cuts, it's a record that continuously changes and gets darker and noisier. All of those genre tags are fairly useless in a way due to how uniquely Have A Nice Life have always approached those, but if any of them have a strong and coherent presence on Sea Of Worry, it is post-punk, especially in the earlier half of the record, giving some credence to how I imagined "Sea Of Worry" would give clues about the record as a whole, but feeling a lot less underwhelming in context, because it's definitely the lightest song on the record and it all gets worse from there. And by worse, I don't mean quality. I mean that it's really not a nice life.

Have A Nice Life make melancholic music. That's kinda their shtick. Sea Of Worry finds two people (or maybe more, with the inclusion on this record of some of the band's live members) who used to be enamored with tales of a hunter that climbs to God on a staircase of bodies and kills Him with a flurry of arrows; but now are people with lives and children and who probably had hopes that they will have figured it out by now. You can probably guess that they haven't figured it out and the world is still pretty fucked up even as an adult, and they know it, and they're here to tell you. They've still got some talking to do about religion, but lines like "I guess I thought I'd know / What I'm doing by now / But I know nothing" do get quite hard hitting.

At this point, Deathconciousness is just too classic of a cult classic to have anything compared to it. I don't think The Unnatural World did and I don't think Sea Of Worry does. That one just had such an aura and a megalithic quality about it that just cannot be replicated. But am I glad that we got a new Have A Nice Life record and that they're more than just mysterious internet lore. For the first time, I feel like a Have A Nice Life was made by actual people instead of always having existed.

No fun. Not ever.

Spotify playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3JMsiMHffauPncEJCP4NC7?si=wnPMPREKS5Ob8YEd6krQGw

Love these guys but it didn't feel right to vote for them here.

Their previous 2 made the poll iirc

Also made it three minutes into Atlantean Kodex. It's fine, but definitely tilts too far into cheese territory for my liking.

Simon otm re: font

I'm a sucker for anything would-be cavernous and troglodytic so that Fetid album did it for me while it was on, but I wouldn't say it was especially memorable.

yeah the font on the Fetid record really makes it. The music itself is pretty good, not quite as unhinged as the 80s independent thrash record to which the font hearkens back.

As for Have a Nice Life, I liked it – a pretty convincing mishmash of styles. I guess I need to hear their previous LP next, since RYM seems to believe it contains some of the greatest music ever devised.

deathconsciousness is the one to hear.I have an og press of the cdr with booklet and 1st press of the vinyl issue with booklet

Deathconsciousness Is legitimately incredible. Deserves all the praise. Everything after it has been ok but not close to that brilliance.

118 TIE
Eluveitie - Ategnatos 75 Votes, 3 Points
https://i.imgur.com/5vXyCAp.jpg
https://open.spotify.com/album/3krZ5MFF83oXS7gIh8aOag?si=lqlPI0ttSqOKXlrRoyV4fA
https://www.angrymetalguy.com/eluveitie-ategnatos-review/

Taking in Eluveitie‘s closing performance on 70k Tons with sentynel, I recognized something: Eluveitie is popular. Not like entry-level popular, not poser popular (well, maybe), but actually popular. The boat’s Mosh Pit Residentia showed up in spades for that set, but with the floor choked with the trve and weeb alike, group activities like conga lines and dance parties sprung up instead. Everyone knew the songs—hell, I knew the songs.1 The nonet put on too great a show to discount, far better than other bias-confirming trainwrecks I witnessed that weekend. Maybe, just maybe, I’ve written Eluveitie and Ategnatos off too soon.

“Ategnatos” opens with a potent revival of the evocative and surprisingly capable folken melodeath that made Eluveitie. The run of In Flames-core that opens Ategnatos tops anything the Swiss produced in that vein this decade. It forges a more consistent core than Origins and is just plain better than Everything Remains as It Never Was and the supremely lackluster Helvetios. Rather than waffling from folk to metal and back, or worse, undercutting the meat of their music with a thin production and folk garnish, the Ategnatos platter recalls the heyday of Eluveitie. The music breathes through the performances; the band’s energy and commitment are exactly what I expected after seeing them live. Plus, there’s no doubt that this is still Eluveitie™ folk. Bagpipes, whistles, violins, harps, a bunch of shit I can’t pronounce, and, of course, the hurdy-gurdy fill out more layers than a wedding cake at a tree marriage. Ategnatos takes all of that, the best of the experience, and catapults it at you with no remorse. The fantastic first 20 minutes of the record culminate in fifth-slated “A Cry in the Wilderness,” with the full outfit congealing around memories of their late-00’s melo-might, replete with all of the folkified big boy riffs you ever wanted.

Closer tandem “Rebirth” and “Eclipse,” modeled after Irish folk melody “I Am Stretched on Your Grave,” play bad cop, good cop. Morphing from brutal beatdown into a somber, emotional solo by female lead Fabienne Erni, they close Eluveitie‘s return to habit on a high. However, that the borrowed melody is the best on the record symbolizes what is overall a frustrating run. The nine tracks between “A Cry in the Wilderness” and “Rebirth” scuffles through half an hour of tempered folk and melodreck that’s littered with a who’s meh of influences. Modern thrash-turned-Lamb of God rip-off “Worship,” complete with overwrought biblical passages spoken by Randy Blythe?2 Lame. “Threefold Death” and its Soilwork riffery? So-so. “Ambiramus” squanders a good whistle melody on a glorified pop single, while “Mine Is the Fury” is plain old stock melo. The folky bits in “The Raven Hill” and “The Slumber” aren’t bad, but it all smacks of an opportunity wasted, given the talent on display on other parts of the record. Erni isn’t some unknown; her high ceiling for gorgeous, catchy choruses should have given Eluveitie a fall-back option. She elevated “Black Water Dawn” when given the chance, but that’s about it. “Breathe”3 is her only misstep, overselling what functions as a higher quality Aeternitas, but her spotlights on “The Slumber” and “Eclipse” are magnificent.

The production is beefy where it needs to be and smooth where it doesn’t, solving prior issues with slicing out the bottom ends of the melodeath aspects to let the folk portions breathe. The resulting connection on “A Cry in the Wilderness” is necessarily visceral, the folk elements working perfectly fine without hobbling moments of blackened brutality. Chrigel Glanzmann, already a boon as he handles eight instruments, growls quite well at times, particularly on “The Slumber”—the best of the mid-section—where he and Erni combine for a ton of atmospheric success.

Ategnatos might deserve a kinder fate, as the record features some of Eluveitie‘s best metal since Slania. But while Eluveitie showcase enough ideas to prevent the record from drying out entirely, the folk elements can’t stop the riffs from sounding tired by the midpoint. Were it twenty minutes tighter or twenty years earlier, Ategnatos might fare much better. It will still delight fans who wanted something meatier from Eluveitie‘s most recent entries, but for those of us looking for the top tier hooks or something more ambitious, it turns out we weren’t missing as much as we thought.

118 TIE
Reveal - Scissorgod 75 Points, 3 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/6ihDflY.jpg

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/reveal-scissorgod-review/

While Americans prepare to gorge themselves in turkey, cooked six different ways, and the rest of the world takes advantage of every department store (physical or otherwise) for their Hanukkah and Christmas1 shopping, I’m still in a Halloween mood. This is partly due to my date with King Diamond in a couple of weeks and the fact that Halloween flew by me this year. Work be like that sometimes. No month of horror movies leading up to the big day. No romantic nights with Elvira. No King Diamond/Mercyful Fate marathons. But, I’ll be goddamned if Halloween escapes me before 2019 ends. So, instead of turkey preparations and being thankful for the useless shit in my life, November is my new October. And, as it turns out, there’s no one I’d rather spend it with than Reveal and their third concoction of mindfucking black and death, Scissorgod.2

Before picking up Scissorgod, I’d never heard of these Swedish upstarts. Jumping on the scene with their 2011 debut, Nocturne of Eyes and Teeth, Reveal bends the traditional Scandinavian sound over and fucks it with deathly chugs, punkish attitude, and slow-moving passages. It’s raw, it’s primitive, and it’s full of no-fucks-given character. A theme stamped on every one of their EP and LP releases. Flystrips followed-up in 2016 with a stripped, bare-bones approach that’s every bit as aggressive and hateful as the predecessor. But Scissorgod is something else.

Seconds into the opening title-track, Scissorgod reveals3 some of its deep, dark secrets. And it does so via slow-moving structures, haunting guitar leads, and saxy, Sigh-like additions. Other noticeable changes heard in the opener are Scissorgod‘s improved dynamics. Dynamics that allow the bass and six-string axes to peek their heads out of the muck and filth. Not to mention, these are the band’s strongest vocals to date. But this is just the beginning.

Follow-up track, “Harder Harder”—and its partners in crime, “Clevermouth” and “Feeble Hearts”—displays a punkish quality to it. Moving fast and hitting hard, the blackened rasps punch with each kit hit and drive the album further out into the muck. The muck getting muckier with the drive and gallop of “Clevermouth.” This piece hits even harder than, well… “Harder Harder,” showing that there is no limit to the band’s aggression and their ability to stack voice, guitars, and cymbal crashes to greatest effect. The groove comes a bit later on “Feeble Hearts,” taking a backseat to effects, distant vox, and spurts of horns as only mid-career Celtic Frost or Nattefrost might do. The drums steal the show here, though, and further prove the effectiveness of the mix.

But the unsettling moments of “Feeble Hearts” are but a taster compared to those of “Decomposer” and closer “Coin Toss.” Both move like a corpse on the county examiner’s table. The former is nothing but snail-paced sinisterness and circus-y nightmares wrapped up in whispered words. It’s a creepy motherfucker that could find a place in the dark concept of Cradle of Filth‘s Midian or Godspeed of the Devil’s Thunder. But its true home is here on Scissorgod. The closer begins like “Decomposer” but with blaring horns in the background and a building presence throughout. At first glance, I would have guessed it was Carach Angren, then the peak erupts and Reveal reveals4 themselves.

With the strongest guitar leads, bass work, and vocals the band has ever put to tape, Reveal steps out of their comfort zone and pushes the envelope even harder, incorporating builds and melodics like never heard from these Swedes. The bass is stronger than ever, the songwriting is pure power, and the inclusion of horns and saxy atmospheres increases the creepy factor. Scissorgod is a sinister work of art that will keep you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end. Well done, boys, you’re just in time for list season.

Deathconsciousness is amazing, and Sea of Worry couldn't be anything other than disappointing in light of that. Maybe I should give it another chance.

Fetid isn't something I would usually enjoy, but I'm really liking it tonight.

Eluveitie growler dude's folk-meets-metalcore stylings unfailingly elicit irl laughter out of me. I like their female vocalist, though.

On the other hand, that Reveal album was pretty good, suitably hideous stuff.

Eluveitie is sounding like In Flames or something... Oh and there is a little piping.

Reveal is certainly interesting. No thrashing, no blastbeats, just really gross creepy weirdness.

yeah that's TOO LOW! scissorgod was my #3. never heard of this band until late 019, imediately assumed they were the morbus chron kids. wrong. they turned out to be way more deranged, further, harder, down that berceuse dream. they must share drugs with 'em. got obsessed with this rec, still am. that's it.

It's definitely one of the most… uncomfortable metal albums I heard last year, which is an achievement in its own right.

Reveal is grabbing my attention instantly

Oh there are blastbeats farther in. My point stands, I think.

Is that a custard cream?

A cross between that and a Byzantine icon.

imago will make this album cover as a cake for my birthday

(It's sounding really great and unsettling)

The cover is quite Stabscotch imo

117 Paladin - Ascension 76 Points, 2 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/iYuMN6l.jpg
https://open.spotify.com/album/3HkxiSSIxRaT5HaIFR9NDN?si=ZdNiFMtpSXmH4zqHLsYsIg
https://paladinatl.bandcamp.com/album/ascension

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/paladin-ascension-review/

In my early days of metal fandom, there was a period of roughly two years – spanning from the time I stumbled upon DragonForce‘s Inhuman Rampage to when I began exploring Darkthrone‘s discography – where I listened to nothing except for power metal and thrash. During this period, as I worked on my sloppy renditions of “Eagle Fly Free” and “Battery” on a cheap Yamaha electric guitar my parents picked up at a department store, I had an epiphany: why the fuck hasn’t anyone mashed up the two best genres in the world? Sure, hybrids of these genres have long existed, but from Iced Earth to Cellador, no band managed to lean hard enough in both directions to satisfy my craving for this elusive duality. I wanted music that evoked unicorns donned with denim saddles slamming cheap beers. I wanted anti-war lyrics delivered by denizens of Middle Earth. And now – nearly fifteen years later – Paladin’s debut delivers. Even after a decade-plus of evolving taste, Ascension feels like everything I’ve ever wanted.

It’s been said that the opening sentence of any book is vital to hooking the reader. In keeping with this philosophy, the opening bars of “Awakening” command attention with an intoxicating flurry of soaring Lost Horizon guitar harmonies and sharp, party thrash riffs reminiscent of Ironbound-era Overkill. As an opener, this track is an excellent pick, but its focus on power metal acrobatics veils a more varied experience waiting immediately beyond. It doesn’t take long for Paladin to begin tinkering with its immediately successful formula, and while Ascension never loses sight of its Euro-power hooks or Bay Area attitude, elements of melodic death metal inject a welcome dose of aggression and dynamism. Paladin executes each stylistic shift with the utmost conviction, making for a record where every second feels engaging.

While most cuts represent a melding of genres, Paladin manages to divide their influences across Ascension in a way that makes each track unique. “Awakening” and “Black Omen” most heavily explore the band’s power metal side; “Call of the Night” and “Shoot for the Sun,” conversely, are more purely thrash oriented. Yet many of the best tracks here are odd ducks which find Paladin experimenting with more aggressive tones and unconventional structures. “Divine Providence,” for instance, trades off weighty melodeath gallops with Exmortus-esque neoclassical noodling. Elsewhere, “Bury the Light” splices tight, prog-power lead work with deliciously wicked, Skeletonwitch-inspired verses. Ascension’s most ambitious accomplishment by a wide margin, though, is closer “Genesis,” a mid-paced stomper that explores plodding doom riffs and blackened accents in its back half. At six minutes, “Genesis” is the record’s longest track, and feels infinitely more compelling than the longform closing numbers which plague modern power metal.

Ascension’s genre-hopping nature demands a varied vocalist, and guitarist Taylor Washington is fully capable of handling both clean and harsh vocals with skill and confidence. His clean singing can remind of Protest the Hero’s Rody Walker or Rhapsody’s Fabio Lione depending on the circumstances, while his vile, commanding growls recall the tone ex-Skeletonwitch frontman Chance Garnette. His guitar work, alongside that of co-guitarist Alex Parra, is impressively taut and harmony-rich, while the countless rhythmic change-ups and smart cymbal accents from drummer Nathan McKinney further elevate Paladin’s dynamic nature. It’s a shame those accents sound thin in the mix, but aside from diminished cymbals and kicks, Ascension makes for a reasonably balanced example of the modern metal production style. The important thing is that such a guitar-centric record has a solid guitar sound, and the strings here sound excellent, with strong, clear tones bolstering the impact and precision of both the low and high end.

It takes an exceedingly rare breed of record to capture the hearts of a majority of the AMG staff, let alone one that falls within the realm of power metal. Yet as word of Ascension spread through the offices, it quickly became the first staff-wide favorite in the genre that I can recall since Unleash the Archers dropped Apex two years ago. I realize that I’m one of the few power metal pushers on staff here, and that a 4.0 coming from me means absolutely nothing to non-devotees. Yet Paladin’s genre-bending wizardy transcends fandom, making for a level of accessible, exuberant fun that i haven’t encountered since last year’s Necropanther album. I’ve already resolved to make Ascension the go-to soundtrack for my summer. I suggest you do the same, lest you find yourself out of the loop come list season.

The YouTube recommendations led me to Nawaharjan's Lokabrenna, which seems to have come out this year on Amor Fati, and which is great so far. So if nothing else, Reveal did me that favor.

Retro 80s power metal isn't my thing but these guys are pretty good at what they do, mainly thanks to their singer.

I haven't brought it up in the 2020 thread yet but that Nawaharjan album sounded fucking incredible the first time around (yesterday). I hope that impression stays with me.

The Paladin record is pretty good so far! I don't hear anything but power metal, but it's good power metal.

Clevermouth is an incredible song

116 Nile - Vile Nilotic Rites 77 Points,3 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/STOSXnL.jpg
https://open.spotify.com/album/00UG7HkPlz5iF4sxdEnKs9?si=RpGy6MenTAGVnpoFmLU4xg

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/nile-vile-nilotic-rites-review/

I fucking love Nile and I’m certainly not alone. For many, they represent the upper echelons of extreme metal. But with such elevation comes even loftier expectation. Particularly after a decade of lackluster output. At the Gates of Sethu was beleaguered with limp songwriting and a vapid production whereas What Should Not be Unearthed tried too hard to make amends with blunt force boredom and impenetrable brickwalling. Such turmoil usually infers necessary change and ninth album Vile Nilotic Rites features some serious lineup alterations. Most notably, the inclusion of Enthean‘s Brian Kingsland in place of longtime guitarist and co-vocalist Dallas Toler-Wade. Despite the album being predictably marketed under the auspice of the dreaded “comeback” and the added scrutiny inherent in new membership, my question remains singular and simple. Are Nile any fucking good again?

The answer is yes. In many ways Vile Nilotic Rites is business as usual. The Egyptian lyrical themes and eastern musical motifs are as prevalent as ever, but thankfully delivered with a renewed vibrancy. To address the obvious difference, Kingsland’s voice is of a slightly higher register than Toler-Wade’s, but sounds increasingly similar as the album progresses. Stylistically, Nile don’t often deviate from their established formula and Vile Nilotic Rites is no exception. Chromatic riffing and wailing solos resound, allowing the band plenty of opportunity to ply their titaniferous content. Opener and first single “Long Shadows of Dread” is about as definitively Nile as can be and that’s no bad thing.

The album’s unique voice echos in the writing process, albeit faintly. Each track has been afforded its own identity and to some degree this works. “Oxford Handbook of Savage Genocidal Warfare”1 brandishes an immediately memorable gattling gun riff, while “Seven Horns of War” opts for churning passages with the occasional savage bluster. Such melodrama strikes a fine contrast to “Snake Pit Mating Frenzy” whose reticulated rhythms could shame even Apep’s cataclysmic coils. Unfortunately, the focus on individuality also detracts from the whole. Vile Nilotic Rites feels more like an abstract collection of songs than a cohesive album. This lack of immersion also highlights the record’s bloat, particularly in the second half. “The Imperishable Stars are Sickened” is grandiose in scale and a perfect closer. Sadly, the inferior “We Are Cursed” folds the album instead. A more scrupulous approach during the editing process might have gone a long way here. As it is, the record is unjustifiably long.

Discussing individual performances seems redundant considering Nile‘s reputation. George Kollias’ drumming is predictably superhuman and Karl Sanders still oscillates between chaotic soloing and monotone growls. Kingsland’s riffing, however, has definitely influenced the rhythm section. His more typical tech death background has fostered a prevalent vein of immediacy, which furnishes certain tracks with a, not unwelcome, linear nature. That’s not to say that the band’s signature compound of epic scale brutality isn’t still present. “Revel in Their Suffering” exemplifies its title by dual-wielding bone-cracking density and whip-sharp transitions while “Where is the Wrathful Sky” embodies its creators’ cinematic stylings. Fortunately, the material doesn’t have to contend with an abominable production. Nile have reverted to the even balance that buoys their most effective records, wisely allowing their own writing to do the talking instead of leaning on any misguided pledge of intent.

Reviewing an institution like Nile can be a challenge. The immediate question is one of comparison. How does Vile Nilotic Rites measure up to former glories? In truth, it can’t quite compare to the effortless quality and depth of In Their Darkened Shrines, Annihilation of the Wicked or even Those Whom the Gods Detest. But, under its own steam, the album is a success. It places emphasis back on the songs and it never sacrifices writing in a bid for excess. However, I would hesitate to call it a return to form. Mostly because Nile‘s ability has never truly waned. What the album represents is a return to enthusiasm – a necessary catalyst for all quality metal. Vile Nilotic Rites is a good album featuring some very good songs. But more importantly it means death metal aficionados can stop considering Nile with trepidation. Praise fucking be to Ra.

This was my introduction to Nile and it was… okay?

115 Dawn Ray'd - Behold Sedition Plainsong 77 Points,4 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/vJyU66w.jpg
https://open.spotify.com/album/70WWyU9uXdCHVmOurOneH1?si=0Lnv27_5SUmeFGddPPMdzg
https://dawnrayd.bandcamp.com/album/behold-sedition-plainsong

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/dawn-rayd-behold-sedition-plainsong-review/

Pyres become beacons as flames rise with a dangerously bright burn, lick the sky, and drape the green banks of the Sava river in a majestic red glow.

It’s a transporting and defiant occasion: the roaring fires ignite our inner blaze and unite us in remembrance of Partisans like my grandfather that on May 8th, 1945 freed Croatia’s capital, Zagreb, from occupying Nazi (and collaborationist) forces.

These memories of the Trnje bonfires flicker in my mind while I listen to Behold Sedition Plainsong, the second full-length of Liverpool black metal trio Dawn Ray’d. Because this is a music of awakening that sweeps away the waters of Lethe meant to make us forget what the liberation from occupation and similar historic moments stood for then and today. Reactionary forces gain strength and fight an insidious war against the heritage of antifascism. They exploit the failings of capitalism and its social fallout to point the finger at the eternal other. They recycle tyrannical ideas and repackage them into edgy, “freethinking” rhetoric. “Nazism is in the past, you fools,” they write with one hand, while the other rises into a Roman salute. “The only fascists are in your head,” they shout as their grimacing faces wink to each other. But Dawn Ray’d compel us to remember. Dawn Ray’d once again light the fires of revolt.

From the call to arms of the introductory canticle “Raise the Flails” to the anguished closing anthem “The Curse, the Dappled Light,” Behold Sedition Plainsong carries a scream of “¡NO PASARÁN!” in each blast beat, riff, and growl. Dawn Ray’d’s righteously angry and impassioned style is painfully necessary, fueled by the projected voices of the oppressed and the helpless. On “The Smell of Ancient Dust,” Simon B.’s fiery violin envelops black metal crescendos with a grandiose feeling. It gifts the cut, and most of the album, a propulsive momentum and channels it through a mosaic of solemnity, sorrow, and rebellion reminiscent of Partisan songs. “Comfort has led us to this hibernation / The struggle, less visible, has allowed us to forget,” they warn us: we don’t fight because we want to, but because we need to.

The eleven swift tracks alternate between black metal attacks and atmospheric interludes led by the violin’s mournful cries, often lost amid streams of acoustic guitar strums. The black metal barrages are especially inspired, focused on the exchanges of Fabian D.’s harmonious tremolos and Matthew B.’s disarming drum cadences. They frame the band’s stirring lyrics and explicit dialectics, which Simon B. delivers with conviction, standing sharp against pseudo-intellectual despotism. This becomes evident when the crunchy guitar strikes, booming blast beats, jolts of growled and screamed vocals, and the violin’s indomitable legatos raise their voices against worker exploitation on “To All, to All, to All!” It becomes painful when “A Time for Courage at the Borderlands” directs a punch in the gut of today’s increasingly xenophobic Europe and mourns refugees left to die on invisible borders. Finally, it becomes urgent as the mid-tempo hymn “Salvation Rite” muses about ecosystems crumbling under the pressure of the industrial machine.

Viewed from a distance, Behold Sedition Plainsong is a well-written and performed, but not flawless record—an unwelcome repetition here, a muddier section there—that owes its humanity exactly to the occasional cracks left behind by powerful messages. And while their themes might have more in common with punk and hardcore bands like Downtown Boys and Cliterati or crust influenced black metallers Iskra and Ancst, Dawn Ray’d indulge in a riotously traditionalist sort of black metal; melodious and folksy at times, raw at others, but always subverting of the genre’s dominant signifiers. Through flirting with the tropes of such an orthodox genre, each tune implicitly births an affront to the ubiquitous apologetics of neo-reactionary views and cowardly dog-whistle politics in the black metal scene.

If 2017’s The Unlawful Assembly was a furious “call to arms” and collection of “battle hymns for the coming class war,” then Behold Sedition Plainsong is the weapon for a harsher and harder offensive. The time to act is now and with Dawn Ray’d’s eternal fire on our side, we will never go fucking gently into the night.

This should be right up my alley (medieval meloblack) but the vocals are kind of weak.

tried to get into this band and record, because of their politics. gave it several shots. idk, i struggle with meloblack, i guess. enjoyed the love they got last year tho

114 Veiled - In Blinding Presence 78 Points, 3 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/1zG9KFR.jpg
https://thetrueveiled.bandcamp.com/album/in-blinding-presence

https://grizzlybutts.com/2019/02/13/veiled-in-blinding-presence-2019-review/

The auditory hallucination is without failure a signet of a failing region of the brain be it chemical, psychic or physical trauma. Disintegrating gyrus, or slashed left temporal lobe, over-extend the mind into spontaneous creation of unreal noise. The ‘earworm’ or rather the involuntary sonic recreation of memoria within a persons ‘inner dialogue’ is no less a symptom of psychosis; This despite the cultural normalcy enjoyed by those afflicted with bursts of void-filling, musical loss of control. These are in fact neologisms that most often serve to influence the mania of creation due to persistent obsessive thoughts. That the artist appear driven is not always such a voluntary or calculated persona, in fact the ecstasy we call influence is most often a necessary post-traumatic recreation, an easing of the torment experienced by those captured, hexed by the dark rituals of others. ‘In Blinding Presence’ is the result of several generations of occult musical curses, a creature of distilled moldy synapse firing under duress into sickness, mania and horror. Leipzig, Germany is unassuming ‘ground zero’ to the spread of such plague, this propagandized black essence is the untamed apocalyptic malevolence of musicians past spit through frantic vibrations and scowling hoarseness onto the skulls of future generations. (The True) Veiled appear dripping from the walls as they debut a fine coalescence of clangorous blur, a hallucination manifested as symptom of ubiquitous impending death.

Serpentine within their nihilistic pulsation Veiled endure a massive density of Scandinavian traditions deconstructed with untoward ambivalence towards traditional forms. That is to say that the shocking insight of Ved Buens Ende‘s futuristic Dali-esque hum on ‘Written in Waters’ is sped to the precise dissonant fervor of Thantifaxath and/or Deathspell Omega before a grand Hoest-like reshaping of that chaos forms as hook, and noose. The very seizure of ‘In Blinding Presence’ is ugliness and wretch beyond the relative beauteous niceties of Fleurety, Whirling or Dødheimsgard and nigh punkish in its trailing abandon. Where minds are left scoured and slaked by passing daimonian pressures onto unknowing victim that intensity approaches the stifled beauty of ‘Grand Declaration of War’, the crisp roaring hiss of early Slægt and the shamanic twitching of Wulkanaz. The guitar work is modern extreme metallic curse that’d bounce off every eardrum into psychedelic eternity, a Voivod-esque melancholia that would push the psyche into the depths and drown all hope, kill all cells, suffocate all reason.

A psychic sickness creeped its opaque tendrils across my self as I first approached Veiled, the driving noise-rocked bulge of “Triunity” expressed its rhythmic insanity as if Hasjarl had guided their hands himself and as the three minute mark approached I’d removed from husk to despair projection for the sake of self-preservation. When the silence and hidden ancient psychedelia punctuated “Bringer of Lambency” I set it aside, pushing away the trauma endured. I lay there into the early morning, window lit by the reflection of light pollution upon deep snow, and again it came in pieces and waves. For weeks, and then months ‘In Blinding Presence’ spoke to me as cursed addiction and incessant ear-twinging racket impossible to shake. Possessed and with weakened will by way of cabin fever, I gave in and resolved to wear it out; To bask in Veiled in the hopes of drying out the grip of darkness. No salvation came. Highly recommended. For preview “Steps” offers a mountain range to portend the terrifying plummet of “Bringer of Lambency” but it was “Triunity” that first scoffed and murmured with excitement as I unwittingly ventured into nothingness.

My #11 and something to tidy us over while we wait for the next Thantifaxath LP.

If you're only going to sample one track, 'Bringer of Lambency' is incredible.

113 Ithaca - The Language of Injury 80 Points, 3 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/83zcFy8.jpg
https://open.spotify.com/album/6Cv0Ujt0hHS02xObeLexXC
https://ithacauk.bandcamp.com/album/the-language-of-injury

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/ithaca-the-language-of-injury/

Ithaca’s debut is an invitation for whiplash. The young, politically principled band vault between genres like they’re playing a game, and sonic homogeneity is lava. Conflicting elements butt up against one another as the band pits noise rock against post-rock, metalcore against doom, and expectations of what a metalcore band should sound like against the reality of what they’re doing.

A passion for experimentation underpins every move they make here, and the band’s origin story—that the members came together “out of a mutual love of metallic hardcore but despair at its lack of ambition”—checks out, manifesting in each unexpected note or unfamiliar pairing. A ghostly choir rising above ’90s screamo riffs? Sure. The title track’s marriage of noodly noise rock and stadium crust? You got it. A seamless hybrid of Oathbreaker and Poison the Well with a feminist, anti-Nazi bent? Ithaca’s on the case.

There’s been a good deal of hype around Ithaca already. They’ve landed in an angular, unexpected sweet spot in the UK’s metallic hardcore world, rubbing elbows with forward-thinking bands like Svalbard, Employed to Serve, and Venom Prison—with whom the band, which features members of Arab and Indian descent, share a drive to foster inclusivity and diversity within the extreme music scene. At the same time, they take huge chunks of inspiration from vintage ’90s screamo and noise rock, forcing a meeting of new and old that could have gone direly wrong but has instead found an eager audience. Overall, there's a real lushness to the music, punctuated by skronky jabs of dissonance that add a tense dynamism. It’s also very unpredictable, which is a nice thing for a metalcore band to be in 2019.

Buzz aside, the band’s true strength lies in their ability to employ a diversity of tactics both politically and musically to hammer their end-time message home. Opening track “New Covenant” is a battle cry, and couches its beatdown breakdowns within expanses of frantic picking, spacious post-rock, and vocal misery. “Impulse Crush” ramps up the urgency with squeals of discordant noise rock and crystal-clear tremolo picking, anchoring more triumphant moments like the mid-song break with chugga-chugga aggression. “Secret Space” continues in that vein, breaking through a surge of dizzying, technical guitar work and epic swells of grandiose melody with a heart-rending mid-song acoustic passage that sees versatile vocalist Djamila Azzouz push her voice to the brink. That voice is one of the band’s strongest assets, which makes it even more of a shame when the production occasionally allows it to get unintentionally buried under the sound and the fury (“Better Abuse,” for example, could have hit even harder had the vocals been brought to the fore).

For an album that barely breaks the 30-minute mark, The Language of Injury asks a lot. That progressive, boundary-pushing sensibility informs every moment of the release, which is less pit-ready than anthemic. Some songs, like “Youth Vs Wisdom,” show signs of straightforwardness, but Ithaca’s obsession with progression would never allow for something so boring. “Slow Negative Order” comes drenched in a brittle, shining atmosphere that highlights its lovely vocal harmonies; juxtaposed with Azzouz’s feral bark and juddering guitars, the melodicism ebbs and flows into the relentlessly pretty instrumental interlude “No Translation.”

This soft-to-loud, pretty-to-harsh tactic is a classic entry in the melodic metalcore playbook, and is one that the band pulls out multiple times on The Language of Injury, notably on the soaring “Gilt” and perhaps most effectively in the final salvo, “Better Abuse.” The song begins with a simple melodic riff suspended in waves of reverb, adds in a set of clean vocals dripping in almost gothic splendor, explodes into combative noise, and then ends the album in uncomfortable near-silence. Thankfully, Ithaca keep their listeners guessing until the absolute last second of this album.

2 more after this tonight

Oh wow I wasn't expecting anything of mine to show up tonight, but I voted for these last two. Ithaca my #17 and Veiled #49 (if only for comparatively few listens).

never heard of either

Core ain't my cup of tea at all. This is a bit more listenable than the usual fare, though.

re: veiled. do they play live? a pitty, if not. some fuckin' vocals. enjoyin' triunity for starters

That review of the Language of Injury pretty much nails it tbh. It's just so incredibly fun and melodic for such an angry album! It's also pleasant to hear screamo in a thick British accent. 'Impulse Crush' is a great track to sample their energy!

No idea whether Veiled do live shows. Agree about the vocals.

112 Vanum - Ageless Fire 82 Points, 3 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/8IfvGMP.jpg
https://open.spotify.com/album/4MPsjeTpR7r8LgG4MVDBtm
https://vanum.bandcamp.com/album/ageless-fire-2

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/vanum-ageless-fire-review/

As one of the writers with the least seniority, my relationship to the promo bin is like a continuous first date. More tenured writers with sharper elbows usually have dibs on established bands, so I must rely on two main factors when choosing reviews: genre tags and album art. Genre tags can be misleading, but as a professional in the visual arts for the last 20 years, my gut reaction to images is rarely wrong. Questionable visual choices often translate to sounds, and image medium tends to say something about the music. For instance, as Photoshop levels rise, the likelihood of my enjoying an album falls. Vanum caught my attention with this gorgeous image of a violent geological process–a particular interest of mine–that is both legibly pictorial and pulling at the edges of abstraction. Tasteful typography and minimal framing compliments rather than competes with the painting. Interest piqued, I dug further and discovered this to be a project of K. Morgan and M. Rekevics of American black metal bands Ash Borer and Yellow Eyes, respectively, both of which I enjoy. Now firmly on the hook, my main question is: does the musical carpet match the visual drapes?

It does indeed, as Ageless Fire, Vanum‘s second full length, is a scorcher front to back. Right from the jump, “War” announces that this is black metal without cross-genre bells and whistles. Influences here range from Rotting Christ to viking era Bathory to moments of Agallochian beauty, but this is certainly not Cascadian black, and it sounds much fresher than mere second wave worship. Warm production, clear guitar tones and un-intrusive synth work make Ageless Fire a great sounding record, and what it lacks in experimentation, it more than makes up for in ample melody and sharp songwriting. Although an instrumental, “War” is a fully realized exhibition of Vanum‘s strengths, with complementing melodies that unfold naturally throughout the song. It does the job asked of any intro, whetting the appetite for what’s to come.

For fans of Morgan and Rekevics’ other bands, Ageless Fire is a more immediate take on black metal. The doom-inflected cold of Ash Borer is dialed down, and while Vanum hews closer to the melodic wandering of Yellow Eyes, these song structures are slightly more straightforward, and stronger for it. The band itself calls this “elemental black metal,” and I’m inclined to agree with the term. This extends to the emotional impact of Ageless Fire, which boasts music that is stirring in a way that’s almost primeval. Case in point, the guitar line that opens “Under the Banner of Death” is downright majestic. The band takes its time building around this until vocals kick in at the three minute mark. The track closes with one of a couple well placed and well paced guitar solos found on the album (the other being in “Jaws of Rapture”), striking a similar emotional tone to the earlier melody. This is music to stand resolutely on windswept peaks to. Good work, if you can find it.

The criticisms I could level at Ageless Fire are minor and subjective. Some may find the vocal performance grating, as the hoarse barks can sound flat compared to the instrumentation. That said, we’re talking about black metal here, kids. If the vocals don’t sound like they’re doing permanent damage to your throat, you’re probably doing it wrong. Track lengths may also give some pause, as three of the four proper songs–closer “Erebus” is also an instrumental–clock in at over eight minutes. This is mitigated by Vanum‘s smart songwriting. On the excellent ten-plus minute “Eternity,” a chiming guitar line separates the song into halves before tedium can set in, lasting just long enough for listeners to savor the mood shift before the blistering pace resumes afresh. Also helping, the album as a whole is a highly repeatable 41 minutes.

If “Elemental” is a word the band means to evoke with their music, they succeed, and their choice of album cover communicates the same. “Tasteful” also comes to mind when considering the visual and musical compositions. Knowing what you want to do and then doing it well may seem simple enough, but it’s actually very fucking difficult. Vanum is a band who knows what they’re about. They represent themselves well visually, and the music speaks for itself.

Good album that made a big impression on me at first pass then slowly faded into the mid-tier. Kind of surprised to see it this low – some of our fellow metal travellers seemed really into it in the rolling thread.

Wait, I'm an idiot. I was thinking of the Vastum album.

Last one for tonight folks coming up

111 Mizmor - Cairn 82 Points, 4 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/TaxtxTb.jpg
https://open.spotify.com/album/48kO2wvDadvRgGT1mlt4w8
https://mizmor.bandcamp.com/album/cairn

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/mizmor-cairn-review/

In Gareth Tunley’s haunting and haunted 2016 film The Ghoul, the whole of reality is bent and infected by the protagonist’s depression. He is trapped in a twisted, magically real manifestation of a Möbius strip. Here, all means of escape are soon revealed to be nothing but bottomless ladders that descend into the darkest craters of the human psyche. The beginning is the end is the beginning. There is no escape. But unlike The Ghoul’s main character who ultimately appears powerless, Portland, Oregon’s A.L.N. has the music of the project Mizmor (מזמור) on his side, both as a weapon and a vessel of catharsis. And on his third full-length, Cairn, he finds a way to finally break the loop.

2012’s raw מזמור and 2016’s massively bleak and cynical Yodh explored questions of faith and meaning while struggling to find reasons to go on. In contrast, Cairn’s heavy mesh of doom metal, sludge, black metal, and drone channels a hopeful kind of introspection and reflection. It carves a path to a reconciled future, supported by a cleaner, clearer sound. Along the way, the album builds cairns—ceremonial piles of stones, monuments to the past—to bury, leave behind, but never forget all the demons that haunted A.L.N. On one side, it’s God and faith that failed him. On the other, thoughts of suicide which once seemed plausible now become the coward’s choice. These two ideas make “Cairn to God” and “Cairn to Suicide” the heaviest and angriest songs on the album, which shift from permeating sludge and drones that move at glacial pace to incisive, blurring black metal segments driven by tremolos.

Amid a particularly affecting passage of “Cairn to Suicide,” A.L.N.’s mercurial voice—transforming growls into shrieks and clean cries—is accompanied by a YOB-like mournful heaviness as he pours these existentialist thoughts into austere lyrics. “Both are tragic, groundless, / leaps That completely miss / the mark. Desperate for the / oasis, Succumbing to / consoling lies,” he rasps with conviction. Whispers and atmospheric noises surround him, taunt him. But once notions of religion and self-destructive impulses are abandoned, where do we go next? How do we cope with the wonderful absurdity and irresistible meaninglessness of life? The answer to these questions comes crashing down during one of the most poignant moments of the record on “The Narrowing Way.” “And resumed my toilsome trek / Through the narrowing / wasteland. Remaining on that / dizzying crest Is the only valid / choice. Daily revolt – breath in / my lungs. Absurdity is pain / and beauty,” A.L.N. growls and screams and sings carried by crushing waves of scorched doom and sludge that crest with glimmers of hope.

There are no places to hide or attempts at mystification on Cairn. A.L.N.’s thoughts are instilled into sobering, frank lyrics and further explained in candid recent interviews. As he confides in Emma Ruth Rundle, “Life is not a miracle because that implies divinity, but it is certainly amazing and I go back and forth between ‘it is certainly terrible’ and ‘it is certainly amazing’ very, very rapidly, constantly.” This directness is reflected in the music throughout the record. On “Desert of Absurdity,” gentle themes played on acoustic guitar harden and blossom into atmospheric black metal romps twirling with harmonies. Then, the ground opens beneath us, and we’re sucked into funeral doom chasms adorned with enchanting leads. The music, while dripping with melancholy and sonic brutality, is always delicately beautiful.

While obviously a painfully personal and intimate confession, Cairn is decidedly universal as it tackles themes that affect and afflict each and every one of us. That such harsh and stark music could eventually peak in cautious optimism is a tribute to the endurance and fortitude of the human mind. Recently rivaled only by An Isolated Mind’s I’m Losing Myself in terms of musical exploration of the most agonizing of subjects, Cairn is an utterly difficult but vital listen. An encouraging signpost for all of us.

Awesome album, awesome Lewandowski cover. Too low, frankly.

Sorry for staying away so far...nothing I've voted for yet but some stuff here looking intriguing

I'm way overdue for checking out Atlantean Kodex, maybe I'll bn jam that on the drive home from practice

Voted for Vanum and Ithaca! I need the former on LP for obvious reasons. Ithaca one of my few non mon metal votes, a scorcher nonetheless

alright, just found out irrefutable evidence of leipzig-based veiled playing live. red stage lights doesn't seem do them any favours tho. what's wrong with good ol' pitchblack? need to see these guys live asap, and ftr they do know a thing or two about tension. your first record, you say? thx to the in blinding presence voters. fave discovery tonight

seem to do*

looks like I have plenty of stuff to listen to

Catching up now. 4 of my votes on here already. Had Fetid and Paladin pretty high and Nile and Mizmor in the lower reachs. Listening to Reveal now and would have voted for it if I heard it in time.

Voted for Vanum! Very good life metal. Also the only ones of these I have ever heard about, I think.

life metal?

Wow, I haven't heard any of these albums before. I'm listening to the Have A Nice Life album right now though and liking it a lot, and Vanum was also very good.

The Vanum is sounding good. Reminds me of Blood Fire Death more than the Atlantean Kodex did. I had Fetid and Veiled on my ballot. I'm liking the way the poll is shaping up so far.

This was my introduction to Nile and it was… okay?

i'm not a huge fan of the current lineup... IMO the best two Nile albums were 'annihilation of the wicked' and 'black seeds of vengeance'

I liekd it fine, at this point they've settled into a formula so they rarely make my tip top, but I think I was one of the three votes for it as it placed somewhere in my list

Voted for Vanum. “Under the Banner of Death” was a standout track of the year for me. Also voted Ithica, but lower.

It takes an exceedingly rare breed of record to capture the hearts of a majority of the AMG staff, let alone one that falls within the realm of power metal. Yet as word of Ascension spread through the offices, it quickly became the first staff-wide favorite in the genre that I can recall

This is pretty shocking to me that Angry Metal Guy has offices (and enough staff that there can be a "majority")... I never read the site much, but I always kinda assumed it was one dude working out of his basement, with some contributions from his buddies.
(Also, high five to the other Paladin voter!)

They definitely do not have an actual office.

There's a lot of Winger in A Kodex's DNA but the thicker sound and epic scope adds a lot of power to the cheese, almost makes it sound cool

I'm going to listen to Have a Nice Life next

I would've voted for this. It's better than a few things on my ballot

It takes an exceedingly rare breed of record to capture the hearts of a majority of the AMG staff, let alone one that falls within the realm of power metal.

I don't know whether their office is literal or virtual but this statement is astoundingly bereft of self-awareness. They routinely praise power metal to the high heavens, don't they?

Hurray for the roll-out!

the cover of that paladin record is fucking awesome, can't wait to check it out

a 3 way tie up next

I'm pretty tired of lewandowski cover art at this point.

(re Miznor)

Possibly a victim of his own success, but I still like his stuff.

He's obviously a talent but you can only paint the Large Sad Man in so many poses.

108 TIE
Devin Townsend - Empath 85 Points, 3 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/A2cazoV.jpg
https://open.spotify.com/album/7MPJRyMFbWbgezRP2Pj4TZ

http://www.invisibleoranges.com/devin-townsend-empath-review/

There is, of course, a musical change of direction on Empath compared to the most recent Devin Townsend material. This, if anything, signals more of a modal pattern for him than any one particular sound, leaping from one sonic space to the next throughout his entire career, be it solo work, his (self-titled) prog bands, or Strapping Young Lad. The throughline of those groups — the dense production, the panoramic visionary scale of the music, the interlaced pop-metal, post-Zappa prog, art rock, and dashes of the extreme — all express themselves across Empath, which presents an interesting dilemma when discussing the record: for Townsend himself, so well known for left-turns, stylistic reconfiguration is likewise so expected that his work becomes hard to analyze successfully. That said, Empath demands more specific note than just “more, but different, again.”

Following the dissolution of the Devin Townsend Project — his previous outfit which saw increasingly more serious and inwardly-drawn music after a macro-scale four-album musical inventory from Townsend and a brief arena pop-metal phase — Townsend seemed to want a level of creative freedom that a traditional group setting didn’t really offer. There’s nothing on Empath that feels like it couldn’t have been played by Devin Townsend Project, and in fact, several moments will remind listeners of Ki, Addicted, and Epicloud. The last record of that run, Transcendence, felt very much like an ending or some inward epiphany about what that group had brought Townsend as a person as much as a player — also, it was a glorified solo project and such endings require terminations, else they won’t endings be. Empath feels like, in this sense, the bright, bursting light breaking through the deep introspective clouds of Transcendence, the wild effusive creative outpouring that comes after such a focused and thoughtful record.

The tenor of Empath skews toward an airy, light approach even in moments of sonic density and downtuned guitars, feeling like a post-modern heavy metal approach to the fairy tales of classic Yes as much as it does a Disney musical scored by the man who once helmed Strapping Young Lad. A lot has been made of the connection this album has to, of all people, Chad Kroeger of Nickelback, but the importance of that connection is that inspiration from an unlikely source (among many others) allows Townsend to pursue his artistic voice without regard to profitability or fame (something that we must begrudgingly respect Nickelback for, a group that has soldiered on with their very particular vision for hard rock despite taking a critical and pop cultural licking for over a decade now). What this amounts to timbrally and structurally across Empath is the kind of sonic chaos and wide-winged span that frankly should have been on Ziltoid the Omniscient’s sequel Dark Matters: Ziltoid the Omniscient. The former was motivated by a wild and unrestrained sonic approach employed by Townsend who freely plucked ideas from Strapping Young Lad, his solo work, and his side experiments to craft a single manic burst of creativity; the sequel, meanwhile, felt restrained to the palette its esteemed predecessor had carved out for it, attempting to be a proper follow up in terms of material rather than in spirit.

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Empath feels like Devin Townsend learned from the sequel’s mistakes, allowing himself to indulge in that free-spirited jaunt across the million sonic spaces he’s able to successfully employ without feeling forced or like he’s trying to make you giggle, something other prog metal bands that attempt this kind of stylistic breadth sometimes fail tremendously at doing.

This does not mean that, to be frank, Townsend does not crawl up his own ass at times. What it does mean, however, is that those excursions are a great deal more understandable. By now in his career, we know that Townsend sometimes indulges on what at first seems to be perhaps wasteful whimsy, but is later validated by his sincerity. The power of a multicolor, bright, and bold record like Empath is that extreme metal touches are depicted in the way that big scary monsters in children’s cartoons are, as opposed to the morbidity of a group like Mortuary Drape or the esoteric spiritualism of Chaos Moon. Empath often plays like the soundtrack to some invisible, impossible Disney musical cartoon that exists only in his mind, paced track by track to have overtures and moments of terror and trial, introspection and elation, joy and fear, love and sorrow. The muted internalities of Transcendence are gone, replaced not by music that gestures out to the world but instead draws inward with a sense of childlike creative joy. This joy is infectious; even at moments that at first feel weaker or even cheesier, the album is effervescent and effusive in play and elation, which means more than a moment-to-moment whoa-factor.

It’s ironic that Townsend made perhaps the most cinematically cohesive record of his career since Ziltoid the Omniscient with what is notably not a concept album. Intriguing, partly because nearly every single record between Ziltoid the Omniscient and Empath was a concept album of some sort, be it by a fully-written narrative or by specific thematic unities employed in the material. Empath is wider, more a sequence of material that Devin Townsend just happened to write with no real gameplan in mind, much like the origins of Epicloud before it. Unlike that album, though, Empath/ spans wider and more often finds success, acting as the light-side counterpoint to the dourness of Deconstruction.

Empath dances wildly like bold, brightly colored cartoon animals engaging in epic quests and tales of ageless enlightenment and romance alongside fart jokes and slapstick gags. It is one of the most earnestly expansive Townsend records, finding a parallel perhaps closest in a record like Synchestra. It is too early, it seems, to order it among the constellated stars of Townsend’s lengthy career, and its unearthly brightness may be off-putting for some desiring a record more akin to Ocean Machine: Biomech, Alien, or Transcendence — but, for its mad breadth and boisterous joy, not to mention really fucking good songs, Empath is an exceptional record and an indication that Townsend’s future career may be forever fertile.

Ok genuinely TOO LOW

Dunno man, the sad man in me is so large that he's always on the lookout for further artistic depictions of himself.

2xp

Possibly a victim of his own success, but I still like his stuff.

― romanesque architect (pomenitul), Sunday, February 23, 2020 4:26 PM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

He's obviously a talent but you can only paint the Large Sad Man in so many poses.

― bold caucasian eroticism (Simon H.), Sunday, February 23, 2020 4:28 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

108 TIE
Devin Townsend

:D

Speaking of which, I couldn't get into this album because it lacked a large sad man.

3 votes! Are you kidding? I have previously been on record hating Devin Townsend and even I voted for this. Genesis is wonderful

This is like a mega mix of all the things I like about him, with the bonus of impeccable mixing

last few devy records have impressed me a lot initially and then got really hard to listen to. i think he's possibly on a path toward making the best music of his career though

well, best outside of biomech

Btw I'm glad we're doing a top 120 instead of, say, a 77.

hard to outdo the greatest album of all time xp

Plus one for large sad man holding prism artwork btw. His stuff is like John Martin pastiche, which I am personally all for. Meanwhile, this Paladin album is irreproachably fun.

108 TIE
Gaahls WYRD - Gastir - Ghosts Invited 85 Points, 3 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/9zdVKRM.jpg
https://open.spotify.com/album/7HeOApPwPNQit4zyEPPlUX
https://gaahlswyrd.bandcamp.com/album/gastir-ghosts-invited

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/gaahls-wyrd-gastir-ghosts-invited-review/

Kristian Eivind Espedal, aka Gaahl, is a controversial yet prolific figurehead in the Norwegian black metal scene. His work with Gorgoroth, Trelldom, God Seed, and Wardruna showcases how influential and varied his vocal abilities truly are. Of course, felony charges for assault, receiving death threats for coming out as openly gay in 2008, giving eccentric interviews involving the dramatic uttering of one word, and teaming up with former Gorgoroth bandmate King ov Hell in a failed attempt to wrestle the name away from guitarist and sole remaining founding member Infernus in 2007 all have a tendency to overshadow any and all of your accomplishments, no matter how powerful. With all that in mind, we are now in possession of GastiR – Ghosts Invited, the debut full-length from Gaahl’s newest project, Gaahls WYRD. With lofty claims of musical extremity and esotericism, as well as a more varied vocal delivery by Gaahl himself, GastiR comes across as a promising endeavor that looks to reshape the blackened landscape to Gaahl’s vision.

And when all the pieces fit, GastiR shines. Late album highlight “The Speech and the Self” contains some incredible hooks by guitarist Lust Kilman (aka Ole Walaunet) and interesting fills by drummer Spektre (aka Kevin Kvåle), with Gaahl’s vocals saddled somewhere between a low muttering growl and a clean vocal that’s best described as nestled between Peter Murphy and Aaron Stainthorpe (My Dying Bride). Elsewhere, closer “Within the Voice of Existence,” once it actually gets going, highlights the potential Gaahl and company are capable of, with an incredible atmosphere that builds to an explosive climax by the album’s end. The talent that they possess together in these two songs makes for an intriguing display of songwriting.

Too bad the rest of the album doesn’t hold a candle to those two songs or their lofty promises. To put it bluntly, GastiR plays out more like Gaahl having a vocal fever dream over some rather run-of-the-mill black metal. Opener “Ek Erilar” exemplifies this, as most of the song features Gaahl either singing in a low, growling register or howling with some rather paint-by-numbers black metal before abruptly ending when things are just getting somewhat interesting musically. “Carving the Voices” adopts a mid-paced crawl with Gaahl sounding his most Murphy-ish over a backdrop that wouldn’t sound out-of-place on any other black metal album. The biggest offender lies in “Veiztu Hve,” a track that starts off promising with its urgent tempo, atonal full-chord riffing, and Gaahl delivering a menacing spoken word section. Sadly, it devolves with one of the worst chants I’ve ever heard in a black metal song, and that chant stretches out for almost half of the song’s almost-seven-minute entirety.

The Iver Sandøy production and mix also leave a lot to be desired. Spektre’s drumkit sounds muffled, especially where the bass drum is concerned. Anytime Spektre utilizes double-bass, it sounds like wet cardboard being cracked with a baseball bat. Elsewhere, Eld’s (Frode Kilvik) bass is so buried that it might as well not be there. Thankfully, Kilman’s guitars cut with the right amount of heft and treble. The same can’t be said about the songwriting, as songs are either not fully formed (“Ek Erilar,” “Through the Past and Past”), or drag on for far too long, effectively stifling the potency (the chanting chorus of “Veiztu Hve,” the overbearingly long first-half of “Within the Voice of Existence”).

Gaahl stands as one of black metal’s most gifted vocalists and lyricists, as well as an intelligent, highly-respected individual, and I’ve enjoyed prior contributions of his throughout his storied career. This makes GastiR all the more disappointing, as I’m not blown away by most of the songwriting on here, and the songs that did impress me did so because of the strength of the songwriting present, not due to any thinking outside of the box. Perhaps this is just Gaahl testing the waters with a new band, but I’m left wanting something more substantial than what GastiR has to offer.

Two of mine placed yesterday (Mizmor at #6, Dawn Ray'd at #10). I loved Dawn Ray'd, btw, kind of reminded me of Yellow Eyes maybe? Definitely not a politics-first-music-an-afterthought vibe like I get out of Neckbeard Deathcamp (who has the superior Twitter, when they're not banned for threatening violence on Proud Boys).

This band's name confuses me

Didn't vote for it but this one's underrated, much like older Gaahl side gig Trelldom.

I assume it means something like Gaahl's Fate (cognate with 'weird')?

Gaahl's Wyrd: a band named after himself, in the tradition of Rod Torfulson's Armada Featuring Herman Menderchuk.

I do not know 'Gorgoroth', so have no idea of the context this is coming from, but this lovely seething album was a great addition to last year. Kind of like an occult prog metal Nick Cave. SO glad we are doing this top 120

Gaahl's reputation as a vocalist is fully deserved imo. A shame he's never done a truly phenomenal album, though, including with Gorgoroth.

108 TIE
Multishiva - Savupäivä 85 Points, 3 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/80BpZBE.jpg
https://multishiva.bandcamp.com/album/savup-iv

www.angrymetaldrugsamoneyguy.com/george

It's the dogs bollocks and you fuckers better check it out

Fuck yes! My #3!

Haven't heard this but I'm convinced after reading that review.

(Not even joking btw.)

I was one of the Devin votes, shocked at the low placement.

sadly won't get to hear any of this shit live as it's the same day as Toxic Holocaust/Soulfly which I had already bought tix for.

Couldn't find a review so Angry Metal George is going to review it here.

Wild chaotic sludge from Finland! First track "Total Fucking Dunkelheit" is like blackened Hawkwind. The next song "Monoliitti on Nyrkki" was top e on my tracks ballot and is literally the worst acid trip ever
A lot of it reminds me of Amon Duul II as well, Michael B said it reminded him of High Rise

*Top 3 tracks

Oh wait I remember commenting on 'Total Fucking Dunkelheit', which is an amazing title. Time to get acquainted with the song that's appended to it.

Yeah this is pretty awesome.

Wow, yes. Love those nightmarishly stretched vocals

107 Venom Prison - Samsara 86 Points, 2 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/CdXMR1r.jpg
https://open.spotify.com/album/6b6JTJkCWhpGVIZvw2zPi3

https://venomprison.bandcamp.com/album/samsara

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/venom-prison-samsara-review/

Life is dull and painful. Homeostasis demands a cycle of finding food, eating that food, and shitting what’s left of that food to keep your body running. Your job requires that you do the same tasks over and over to stay employed, and if you don’t it makes the whole “finding food” step much more stressful. The foundations of Maslow’s pyramid are banality and suffering. Sometimes it’s difficult to pinpoint why you go on living if this is the human condition. Other times, a death metal album cuts your junk off and force-feeds it to you to remind you that it, above the karmic cycle, above self-actualization, above the promises of eternal bliss, is the highest power and the reason to clock in on Monday and head to the bathroom.

Though the whole dick-cutting-off thing was Animus’s game, Samsara, the second full length from Venom Prison, is no less violent. The band’s grindy, slammy death metal draws many parallels to Cattle Decaptitation, whether it’s their everything-but-the-kitchen sink approach to riffing, their sudden outbursts of groove, or their vicious takes on social injustice. Samsara has no dull edges, no safe entrances, and a complete lack of regard for your safety. “Implementing the Metaphysics of Morals” careens between melodeath riffs, blackened blasting, slams, and even a Dimebag solo in five minutes. “Dukkha” begins with a 911 call reporting a suicide and only increases in intensity from there. This album just doesn’t give a fuck what you think is going to happen next.

While Samsara’s songs rarely follow an easily digestible structure, the band have an uncanny ability to transition almost imperceptibly between different ideas. “Asura’s Realm” moves between searing leads and Pig Destroyer pit fodder as if the two are different notes in the same phrase. Slam flows straight through Nile riffage into a glistening lead to begin the second verse in “Uterine Industrialization.” Beautiful needles of melodic black metal perforate the brutality of “Sadistic Rituals.” It’s at once scrappy and graceful, and listening along is like watching the camera pan through a crowded environment as Jackie Chan drunken-boxes his way through the goons inhabiting it. Except here, the goons are capitalists, bigots, and misogynists, and Chan’s fists and feet are riffs, blast beats, screams and roars.

Ben Thomas and Ash Gray have to spit out axe-acrobatics at a downright unhealthy rate to keep this momentum flowing, but they’re nearly outmatched by the rest of the band. Mike Jefferies plays a grounded, rumbling bass while Jay Pipprell pummels his kit as if every skin is a fascist’s face. The drumming rolls along with the riffs at a breakneck pace, beating the snare with a special contempt. On top of this insanity, Larissa Stupar puts out a diversity and intensity of roars, screams, growls, and gurgles that few vocalists could hope to match, doling out her vitriol in unhinged explosions. With the quintet’s powers combined, Samsara is a godsend for death metal fans starving for punishment.

You could hardly ask for a more exciting death metal release. Like Unfathomable Ruination, Venom Prison salt their winding structures with enough memorable ideas to hold them together and save their most intense material for just when it’s needed. Aside from a predictably disappointing mastering job, I can hardly find an issue on Samsara. These songs are propulsive, inventive, and constantly exciting, and the album sets the bar high for this year’s tech-death output. It’s albums like this that grant both perspective on and momentary release from the suffering and banality of the human condition, and bands like this that challenge the status quo and change the death metal landscape in subtle but important ways. Think on these higher goals while you eat and shit yourself towards death.

:(. 2 votes? One of my highest

Good vocalist, and I mostly enjoyed my first encounter with the album, but it felt a little superficial afterwards. Then again, I'm not an impartial judge of deathcore.

106 Spirit Adrift - Divided by Darkness 88 Points, 4 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/2nzDfjh.jpg
https://open.spotify.com/album/2LkBu897BhMBDlYW0NLI4w

https://spiritadrift.bandcamp.com/album/divided-by-darkness

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/spirit-adrift-divided-by-darkness/
8.1

Led by young oracle Nate Garrett, the second album from the Arizona heavy metal band carries the torch of their forebears and revives the genre with impressive songwriting and ambition.

Spirit Adrift is Arizona musician Nate Garrett’s vehicle for metal obsession, burning through thrash, doom, NWOBHM, melodic metal, and anything that’ll throw you out a window if you speak ill of Phil Lynott. He is not here for a nostalgia trip; he’s exploring the power within, approaching a unified theory of metal. Spirit Adrift’s second record, Cursed By Conception, is where he found his voice through forging a shared power in doom and thrash. Now, Divided By Darkness shows he has the vision for the greater pantheon.

Metal shouldn’t be measured like a recipe, but for Spirit Adrift, balance is key. No one element dominates over another: The rhythms are as mean as the solos are joyous as the cleans are beautiful. It’s how a track like “Born Into Fire” splices ripping leads and more Euro-style mournful cleans into something coherent. A thrashy jaunt like “Hear Her” can live right next to the more ambitious “Living Light,” where Garrett gets an assist from Witch Mountain’s Kayla Dixon for some vocal harmonies. Even though these sounds are well-established and defined, Garrett’s songwriting breathes new life into them. Darkness understands metal not as just a mash of distortion sounds, but as a continuous, living tradition that has meaning. He talked about Conception as a return to childhood loves of classic metal, and Darkness turns that pure love into mastery.

Even with Garrett’s expanded palette and a full band behind him, there are still shades of melancholy that have carried over from his early writing. “Tortured By Time” is the most classic doom track here, adding a modern sheen to end-time gloom. “Angel & Abyss,” though, is Darkness’ centerpiece for its reconciliation of Spirit Adrift’s past and future. It’s Metallica’s “Fade to Black” where death isn’t the exit, where it doesn’t end in self-destruction but in lead-centric renewal. Garrett channels young James Hetfield’s hopeless voice for most of the song, and ends with an Ozzy-like maniacal cackle, conquering the despair (or at least living with the madness.) It almost acts as the totality of ’80s metal majesty, a tour of hesher emotions. More than anything else on the album, it captures the me-against-the-world vibe that has informed many a metal classic.

There’s plenty of old school revival bands, yet most of them operate as if metal stopped in 1989. Though it pays much reverence to ’80s classics, Darkness also reaches into the early ’90s, when metal was in the midst of a fundamental transformation: Guns n’ Roses and Metallica proved tougher, un-glam looks was bankable, and Alice in Chains and Pantera previewed the sea change to come in their somewhat slower, markedly darker sounds. It’s an important sliver in metal history to which Darkness pays homage.

Two of Darkness’ biggest touchstones are Metallica’s Black Album and Ozzy Osbourne’s No More Tears, transitional records, both from 1991, that ultimately ended up massive commercial successes. There are few patterns more satisfying than the detuned stomp of Metallica’s “Sad But True,” and Spirit Adrift milk everything out that crunch on the title track. Garrett clearly worships Metallica, and Hetfield in his prime was an untouchable rhythm guitarist. Some keyboards sound lifted from Tears, particularly in the title track and instrumental closer “The Way of the Return,” and like Ozzy, goopy keys somehow make them sound even tougher. Darkness is old school, though not chained to one institution, more accessible but not commercial, deeper but not more complicated, a lunge forward without compromise. Garrett is a younger oracle to carry on the torch of heavy metal. Sounds like an unchill role, but he’s got the chops.

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/spirit-adrift-divided-by-darkness-review/

I’ve always worried whenever a band leaves their roots behind to explore different paths that, depending on who you ask, either betray their humble upbringings (and rabid fanbases) or turn them into creative juggernauts. Case in point: Arizona’s Spirit Adrift, once a one-man doom metal project spearheaded by vocalist/guitarist Nate Garrett, has blossomed into a fully-realized heavy metal machine,1 and both 2016’s Chained to Oblivion and 2017’s Curse of Conception being radically different from each other in terms of both mood and style, but thankfully not quality. That last point is startling, as the band’s not even been around five years yet. So I approached Divided by Darkness with an open mind, curious as to where Garrett and company were going to take me this time.

And here we are in the 1990s. My beat-up SNES (or Super Famicom for you non-Americans) works again, my flat-screen TV has been replaced by the familiar TV/record player/liquor cabinet/wooden fire hazard all-in-one that my parents flat-out refused to get rid of,2 and opener “We Will Not Die” wears its Painkiller t-shirt with pride as it reworks Priest‘s epic “Hell Patrol” into a slightly more modern twist. The tight-riffing Garrett flings about retains the drive of its influence while adding a slightly crunchier tone, with his bass work and drummer Marcus Bryant providing a groove-laden pocket for the duo to work with. Garrett’s voice definitely leans more towards James Hetfield than Rob Halford, helping to differentiate itself from the Priest classic even more. No lie, it had me grinning ear-to-ear from beginning to end, and made itself a spot among my small list of Songs o’ the Year in no time.

If Curse of Conception was starting to walk away from the sound and trappings of the American doom metal scene, then Divided by Darkness sees them taking off to the skies, waving one final goodbye before flying off to parts unknown3. Only “Living Light” peers back at the band’s younger days, with the second half delivering hefty riffs before Garrett delivers yet another beautiful Trouble-inspired vocal harmony to close out the song. The rest of the album pays homage to the greats of metal, with “Angel & Abyss” being the clear standout. Opening with a mood that recalls Metallica‘s “Fade to Black,” by the song’s end, it goes into full-bore “Bark at the Moon” territory, complete with maniacal laughter, keyboards, and staccato riffing to close the song out.

Spirit Adrift - Divided by Darkness 02
And that’s also a bit of a nitpick with the album. Sometimes, Spirit Adrift wear their influences a little too close to their sleeves. Not to the point of being flat-out plagiarizing, but enough for an eyebrow to be cocked every now and then (the aforementioned “Angel & Abyss,” for example). Granted, I was smiling just about the whole entire time I heard the album, and it still plays more like a love letter to the classics of yore than trying to cop a well-established style. Also, the title track and “Tortured by Time” don’t hit as hard as the rest of the album, but even then they’re good songs on their own.

Much like Pallbearer4 before them, Spirit Adrift left the trappings of their doom metal beginnings behind for a sound more classic and all-encompassing. With not even five years of existence behind them, the future definitely looks bright for this young quartet, and Divided by Darkness accomplishes the unthinkable: moving forward by giving a respectful glance to the past. Between this and last month’s incredible Exile by Black Sites, there’s no shortage of wealth provided by digging into our genre’s glorious past to see what can be made for future generations to enjoy.

TOO LOW! This one cracked my top ten.

Didn't vote for it but I like these guys. Totally reliable at what they do.

really wanted to listen to this album all last year and before i submitted my ballot and just did not have the time lol

paladin record is extremely fucking awesome

the venom prison record sounds right up my alley and i'm also sad i missed out on it

105 Deus Mortem - Kosmocide 89 Points, 3 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/qDaWpmu.jpg
https://malignantvoices.bandcamp.com/album/kosmocide

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/deus-mortem-kosmocide-review/

A ferocious frenzy. An icy calm. Both are phrases describing points in Deus Mortem’s new album Kosmocide. Due to the seemingly contradictory nature of these two descriptions, one might be skeptical that such dissonant moods could commingle on the same record without creating an inconsistent sound. On their new opus, Deus Mortem do in fact commingle them and still manage to produce a record fans of classic era black metal acts from the 80s and 90s (think Bathory and Mayhem) will salivate over. Formed in the dead of winter in 2008, Deus Mortem is a four-piece black metal band from Wrocław, Poland comprised of ex-Azarath vocalist N. (Necrosodom), S., another S., and L.Th. A lengthy six years have passed since their last full-length, Emanations of the Black Light, so they aren’t deserving of much slack on this sophomore album. It’s about time that they serve up some epic new material and with Kosmocide, Deus Mortem does not disappoint.

Given that the name Deus Mortem translates to “the God of death,” it’s not surprising that the group draws the majority of their inspiration from the spirit of the first and second waves of black metal. Though firmly rooted in the past, Deus Mortem’s sound has matured on this second full-length album; the band’s strength lies in their ability to blend together antagonistic tones. Kosmocide’s standout track “The Destroyer” is both a melodic and aggressive assault. Background vocals at around four minutes add spice, and the acoustic guitar in the closing seconds provides a brief moment of reflection after the pummeling. The preceding track “Ceremony of Reversion p.2,” the longest on the album at over eight minutes and follow-up to “Ceremony of Reversion p.1” from their debut, is a perfect example of Deus Mortem’s perfection of opposites. The track takes you on a journey complete with tempo shifts, guttural spoken word, feverish riffs, and ethereal winds. The most glaring flaw, however, is that these two savage tracks sit at the final two spots on the album, making Kosmocide back-weighted with the strongest numbers at the tail end.

The eerie metal on metal sounds and icy atmospheres found at the very beginning of the opening track “Remorseless Beast” and scattered throughout the album (“Sinister Lava”, “The Seeker”) would feel right at home on Brian Eno’s On Land, perhaps one of the greatest dark ambient albums ever. But the similarities stop there. The chilly ambiance and brief reprieves on Kosmocide never last long and always give way without warning to frenetic, ruthless tremolo picking (“Remorseless Beast”), a lightning fast flurry of blast beasts (“The Soul of the Worlds”), and Necrosodom’s ever-present pained and devilish growls. It’s impressive that these short atmospheric soundscapes induce an alien-like feeling of floating in space but do not sacrifice the ferociousness of the rest of the album. If anything, these weightless fragments strengthen the sense of impending doom that is to come.

Kosmocide’s icing on the cake is the modern, clean, and nearly flawless production thanks to M. of Mgla who is rapidly gaining experience as a music producer. In addition, Artem Grigoryev’s artwork for the album cover is extraordinary. The way the dainty pointillism contrasts with the image of a barbaric beast is symbolic of Kosmocide’s mastery of opposites.

While Deus Mortem’s new album is not revolutionary enough to cause Behemoth, the pinnacle of black metal in recent years, to step down out of the limelight, Kosmocide does, however, prove there is new blood also worthy of attention in the Polish black metal scene.1 All in all, black metal enthusiasts on the prowl for new bands resembling the likes of Bathory or Dissection and willing to accept Kosmocide’s modern production style will be thoroughly pleased. I, for one, will certainly give the record more spins and am left wondering what else Deus Mortem has in their arsenal. Let’s hope we don’t have to wait another six years to find out

Next up is a 2 way tie

My #19. Not to be missed if you're a fan of Mgła and Kriegsmaschine.

jeez this paladin record keeps blowing my mind

Not to be missed if you're a fan of Mgła and Kriegsmaschine.

I do like the idea of getting more of that sound without.....y'know

this is no attack on anyone really but mention of Mgła is, for entirely musical reasons, a total turn-off for me

Simon, that's totally fair. lj, that is not fair at all.

When you're right, you're Reich

It gestures towards minimalism, yeah.

103 TIE
Coffin Rot - A Monument to the Dead 90 Points, 2 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/9wXOrXX.jpg
https://open.spotify.com/album/4xL5sp9akfLTzvI7uZrUtE

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/coffin-rot-a-monument-to-the-dead-review/

This is death metal from Portland, Oregon. I could probably stop there and you would still know whether or not you’ll love this album. That city is absolutely dominating the genre this year, and we should probably just add a “Portland Metal” tag to WordPress as that domination extends beyond the bounds of death metal. You’re probably getting tired of me blabbing about how great the Weird City’s output has been this year, but I could comfortably fill half of my year end list if forced to choose only from records released by Portland bands. And so, I will continue to drink from the fountain until it runs dry — this is just one of the two October 18th releases from Portland that I’ll be covering. But enough of all that. I suggest you grab yourself a bottle of Gold Bond Extra Strength Medicated Powder as you’re about to come down with a painful case of Coffin Rot.

A Monument to the Dead is Coffin Rot‘s first full-length, and several of the band’s members have been busy this past year releasing another debut that Carcharodon covered here. He wasn’t enamored by their take on stoner doom sludge, but I’m here to tell you that they certainly know their way around a Grave. Sounding like a tribute to the debut from those Swedish death metal giants, early Asphyx, and Cause of Death era Obituary, Monument is eight tracks and 32 minutes of groovy OSDM with spectacular vocals courtesy of Hayden Johnson. If you’re a fan of these classic bands, there’s not much here that you haven’t heard before, but Coffin Rot‘s commitment to the style and ability to produce heavy, yet catchy songs in a concise manner make this album more than worth your time.

“Copremesis” opens things with a brief atmospheric intro of the creepy variety followed by big chords that lead into a speedy Swedeath riff. The track’s final minute briefly allows each of the band members to shine on their own, and it really sets the stage for the rest of the album. Doom passages emerge on “Saw Blade Suicide,” “Incubation of Madness,” “Forced Self-Consumption,” and especially “Coffin Rot,” a seven minute Asphyxian bulldozer that closes the album out splendidly. “Necrotized” features some blistering guitar and drums, but slows to a sick groove as Hayden vomits the track’s title during the chorus. I dare you to keep your head still during the opening seconds of embedded track “Miasma of Barbarity” as guitarist Derek Johnson saws you in half with an arsenal of riffs.

In the promo blurb, Coffin Rot states that they wanted A Monument to the Dead to showcase a “clear-yet-crushing production that’s the epitome of powerful — and one which is richly analog,” and the DR 11 and my ears are here to tell you that they’ve succeeded. This has to be the most pleasing sound I’ve heard on a death metal album this year, barely edging out another Northwest band from last week. The vocals and each instrument sound great in the mix, and the openness of the production allows Brandon Martinez-Woodall’s bass to play a prominent role in the powerful music. Drummer Derek Johnson’s performance is a highlight with his frantic and charmingly flawed (read: real) delivery harkening back to the days when bands were bands and didn’t let computers make everything perfect for them. Aside from some tracks having similar flows and structures, I really can’t find much to fault here. This is very good death metal, no more, no less.

Well, Portland has done it again, and I hope it never stops doing it. A Monument to the Dead is a fantastic sounding take on old school death metal, and the songs make it an easily repeatable listen. Coffin Rot resides in the the same territory as Witch Vomit — geographically, qualitatively, and aesthetically — and they’re the kind of band that pairs equally well with a Portland craft beer or a cheap can of Rainier. Please listen responsibly.

103 TIE
Sanguisugabogg - Pornographic Seizures 90 Points, 2 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/NcPXzVO.jpg
https://open.spotify.com/album/6rCiBnv1EjAdOL3H2uOGlR

https://www.sleepingvillagereviews.com/reviews/sanguisugabogg-pornographic-seizures-review

While many of you are likely aware of the plague pit we keep out back here at the Sleeping Village, a better kept secret is our vomit pit. That's where we go when the going gets...gross. Luckily, Pornographic Seizures, the debut from Ohio's nigh unpronounceable Sanguisugabogg, comes with an appropriate warning on the label: "we are not responsible for any instantaneous vomiting upon listening." Thanks, guys. Long story short, we made it out to the aforementioned vomit pit prior to hitting play on this 4-track grotesquerie , and everyone is for the better because of it.
​
Pornographic Seizures is just that: gross. Obviously. And in that spirit, as is the case of most metal of this variety, it's a bit of a race to see how many negative words I can attribute in a positive light.
Filthy. Putrid. Vile. Disgusting. Shat from the slime-ridden bowels of hell. You can see where I'm going with this: in short, Pornographic Seizures makes one want to explosively surrender the contents of their bowels. And so on. When you take caveman riffs and throw them in the arena with a tight snare, assertive cymbals, and sopping wet gutturals, the result is as massive as you might assume. This is a well-conceived mix of OSDM's blatant aggression, death doom's gloom-ridden atmospherics, and the pulverized-by-wet-concrete application of slam-worth vocal delivery. In the band's words, down-tuned drug death. In any case, it's a filthy/putrid/vile/disgusting mix.

Particularly impressive is the tendency to shift the tempo up or down at a moment's notice, best exemplified on closer "Succulent Decedent." My highlight track, however, would have to be "Perverse/Deranged," which cleverly utilizes the drums to a point most death metal outfits would never consider. For a good chunk of this trick, hammering snare and intriguing fills lead the way--a refreshing change from the riff-centric approach we've come to expect from genre convention. For all the blood and guts strewn about, the instrumentation is relentlessly tight across the board, resembling surgery at the hands of a trained professional, rather than the hands of a chisel-wielding lumberjack. Not to say there isn't a certain lumbering element, so to speak, on the brief-but-hefty "Uningest" and "Turkish Blood Orgy," both of which lean into the thunderous riffage.

At 11 minutes, this release is short, (if not necessarily sweet.) While I've seen some listeners critical of the short length, this particular scribe frankly can't imagine Pornographic Seizures being much longer. I only have so many fluids to expel before I'm little more than a withered husk. Death metal of this visceral variety operates best on the small stage, and here, Sanguisugabogg deliver the goods. Also of note is the production, which, while lo-fi, highlights the best elements with a surprising grace. Unlike their Maggot Stomp labelmates Encoffinized, for example, Sanguisugabogg feels immediately present and accounted for. It's a dynamic mix, no doubt.

Do the 4 tracks herein, tracks, in all their grimy glory, start to bleed into each other? Yeah. But do I give a damn? No, dear readers. Not in the goddamn slightest. If you're coming to Sanguisugabogg for reasons other than immersing yourself in assorted viscera and bodily fluids, methinks you aren't here for the right reasons at all. If, however, you're in the mood to wretch up your intestines, Pornographic Seizures comes highly recommended.

That is me for the day. I'm handing over to pomenitul who may carry on posting today if you guys ask him nicely?

Guys u know the rules, don't post bands with Coffin in the name before 1 pm, it causes me to empty my checking account

Xpost

*Note to Pom. Put the words 'Coffin' as a prefix to every band name from now on*

Haha, I'm should it would improve on some of them.

That write-up for Pornographic Seizures... Can we add it to that poll list of review styles we never want to see.

Coffin Coffins

Coffins Gaahls Wyrd

Are you carrying onwards today, pom? the 4-way tie takes us to 99 at least

Yeah, and I'm gonna post each one separately.

I have no idea how I managed to overlook the Coffin Rot.

the coffin rot one kept growing on me. AMG nails it highlighting the songwriting. songs over tones. my fave blood harvest rec since the first tomb mold

The Sanguisugabogg sounds like pure ooga booga so far. Not bad.

99 TIE
Vircolac – Masque
92 points, 3 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0595568149_10.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/2bMQAdnFZJaVTlEYVw5LPP

https://toiletovhell.com/review-vircolac-masque/

On their debut LP, Masque, Vircolac build on the flea-bitten death metal sound of their EPs, plunging listeners into the filth and wickedness of medieval Europe. While Masque isn’t a concept album per se, the band’s aesthetic (S K E L E T O N S) and songwriting choices suggest a shared world between tracks. The battering ram blasts and sword n’ board lyrics of “Titan” evoke the chaos of a battlefield—the brute physicality, the commotion of steel on steel (think war metal, but also music). When folks in the Middle Ages weren’t dying over the petty quarrels of royal families, they flocked to houses of God; the processional quality of the somber, doom-oriented sections of “Titan” and “The Long Trail” recalls the echoing interior of a cathedral, built high to strike fear in the lowly.

This archaic atmosphere is strengthened by the album’s production, which splashes a coat of mud over Brendan McConnell’s guitars without obscuring any details. As on past releases, McConnell seems at home in the grime, penning addictive riffs that reside somewhere between tech death and a bunch of rabid weasels fighting in a ditch (that is to say, they’re loose without being sloppy). There’s a meanness, a confrontational sound to the guitars that staggers through the album like a piss drunk peasant, culminating in the nauseous “Tether & Wane.” Far from the band’s usual blackened death metal style, this track flirts with noise rock, dissolving into shuffle beats and boisterous basslines that challenge the audience to a dizzy tavern brawl.

Like mongrel hounds, each song contains multiple bloodlines, influences that converge to create new beasts. Colin Purcell’s crisp, deliberate drumming in “Masque of Obsequious Venality” is a far cry from the murk of the preceding music; it’s this adventurous quality that lets the album burrow into the skin so effectively. Whether channeling Pallbearer‘s melodic doom or getting spooky with witchhouse-certified synths, Vircolac avoid the static songwriting that makes so many extreme metal albums a chore to listen through in full. Some songs wither and fade with a whimper. Some approach madness and return unscathed, while others succumb to the poison, crashing dead with little warning.

Furthering the Irish tradition of shamelessly appropriating Romanian culture.

j/k, this is a fine debut.

Next up is an album I would have totally voted for if I wasn't in the business of pretending that I'm a purist asshole.

99 TIE
Vesperith – Vesperith
92 points, 3 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0044698170_16.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/2514BwGIRKVsandyOm6GY2

https://deadrhetoric.com/reviews/vesperith-vesperith-svart/

Music, in all of its forms, is meant to make the listener feel something. In the case of much of the more extreme metal scene, it’s a vehicle for delivering riffs. High-energy material that fuels the rage within. But for some avenues of black metal, it’s been veering in a more introspective, cosmic, and atmospheric approach over the years as well. This is the type of setting that Vesperith nestles into.

This is one of those releases that qualifies more as a journey than an assemblage of tracks. It’s about ambience and mood more than seeking out that ‘killer’ riff in each track. In fact, the music that occurs over the course of Vesperith feels akin to letting your mind wander into some equally dark and dreary places and providing a soundtrack for it. That’s not to say that there’s no moments of ethereal wonder to enjoy (as “Quintessence” can attest to), but for the most part, this has a degree of minimalist to it. It’s about that slow burn and descent into dread as you stare up at the stars at night. The shifts between quiet and furious really are what set things up the best. Some tracks have some monstrous blastbeats and blackened rasps going on (“Fractal Flesh”), while others like “Refractions,” work to build things up slowly and drench them in atmosphere. The quiet doesn’t necessarily mean peaceful, with some eerie sounds and moods keeping you on your toes as you eagerly await what is coming around the next corner.

All the work of one Sariina Tani, Vesperith sets itself apart from others within the black/post-black community with her dedication to crafting an atmosphere that absolutely takes you to another realm. The change-ups between gloom, mystery, and chilling fury are impressively done for a debut album, even if by its own nature, it’s something you really need to be in the right mood to fully appreciate. Best absorbed in one sitting from start to finish with the lights down low.

My #10 (Vircolac), and then something I really should have voted for but forgot (Vesperith)

It's safe to assume lj voted this, maybe tt as well. Who else? Either way, album is spellbinding as advertised.

xp well then.

99 TIE
The Cosmic Dead – Scottish Space Race
92 points, 3 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1219705606_10.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/4MKNaPwkRRC4xQkf8YEnVK

http://freq.org.uk/reviews/the-cosmic-dead-scottish-space-race/

The cover of The Cosmic Dead‘s new album Scottish Space Race appears to be making an impassioned plea for national independence, depicting as it does a Scotland that is so independent it has become an island away from all the bullshit going on in the rest of the UK. And right now I can’t exactly say I blame them. But it’s not a political album. It’s a Cosmic Dead album. A journey into space fuelled by caffeinated tonic wine. A Bucky Rogers In The Twenty-first Century, if you will.

As one would expect from Scotland’s finest psychonauts, Scottish Space Race is an epic psychedelic onslaught. Don’t be fooled by the mere four tracks on offer — clocking in at about seventy-five minutes, there’s plenty of Cosmic Dead goodness to go round. And those tracks really do need to be that long to fit all of it in.

No idea who these guys are, but I approve of that cover.

Vircolac has some great stuff on it, it really should've made my ballot

xp oh shit! My #4!

omg @ that cover

Did Tom secretly submit a ballot?

quick first impression on the vesperith, i sure did look at that cover, read the blurb about charcoal nights and dark embracing and so on... and yet this is giving me an uplifting sundrenched ~vibe~? am i trippin on some contrarian bs or sumthin, idk

The cosmic dead are great

There's an ecstatic quality to it that evokes luminosity, yeah.

xp

Best way I can explain is that the Cosmic Dead are one of the few bands that know how to make 15-20-minute songs that aren't just flexing of technique but actually vehicles for pop ideas. Each song is legitimately trying to do something different, and this is their best album because it culls and refines the best ideas from their past 10+ releases

But it is barely metal and that is my bad (also it was my #5)

Before I post the final one for tonight, I can tell you that it is the most ludicrously named metal band of 2019. Any guesses?

why did i forget vesperith, just a total oversight. would have been near the bottom of my ballot but def there

you best not be dissing wales' finest there pom

xp
we butter the bread with butter?

lol I had to google them to make sure you weren't taking the piss. But their last LP came out in 2015.

As for Wales' finest, I'm not sure I could name a single Welsh metal band off the top of my head.

one is definitely going to place :)

99 TIE
Fvneral Fvkk – Carnal Confessions
92 points, 3 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0221440574_10.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/5VUp8QhmTsEVLNEoEAKO0f

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/fvneral-fvkk-carnal-confessions-review/

If there was ever a case of a band’s name totally not fitting their style, we’ve found it here with Fvneral Fvkk. When I see that godawful moniker all I can think of is some lo-fi garage black thrash band that sounds like a demon in a metal trash can getting thrown down steel fire stairs. Luckily, this is not what you get here. Made up of members from Crimson Swan, Ophis and Fäulnis, the band operates under Ghostly aliases, and on their debut full-length they deliver a stunningly effective slab of bleak, despondent doom metal in the vein of Warning and Solitude Aeturnus, with a heavy Woods of Ypres influence making it all the more gloomy and glum. Add an overarching concept about clerical sexual abuse and a uniquely minimalist construction, and you have a piece of music that grips you from the first moment and refuses to let go until the album’s final notes fade away. Beautiful and disturbing in equal measure, this one is something else.

omg

it delivers

That's it for tonight/today, folks. I'll be back tomorrow around 2pm (GMT).

This one almost made my ballot btw.

a shame they don't sound nothing like fvkk, imo

When I see that godawful moniker all I can think of is some lo-fi garage black thrash band that sounds like a demon in a metal trash can getting thrown down steel fire stairs.

:DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Luckily, this is not what you get here.

;_;

Meanwhile a few minutes with this Devin Townsend album has done wonders dissipating my contrition over the Cosmic Dead placing

What has been everyone's fave discoveries of the day(s)?

haven't listened to a second of anything but it's clearly going to be Cosmic Dead

Here's the recap so far:

99 Fvneral Fvkk - Carnal Confessions 92.0 3 0
99 The Cosmic Dead - Scottish Space Race 92.0 3 0
99 Vesperith - Vesperith 92.0 3 0
99 Vircolac - Masque 92.0 3 0
103 Coffin Rot - A Monument to the Dead 90.0 2 0
103 Sanguisugabogg - Pornographic Seizures 90.0 2 0
105 Deus Mortem - Kosmocide 89.0 3 0
106 Spirit Adrift - Divided by Darkness 88.0 4 0
107 Venom Prison - Samsara 86.0 2 0
108 Devin Townsend - Empath 85.0 3 0
108 Gaahls WYRD - Gastir - Ghosts Invited 85.0 3 0
108 Multishiva - Savupäivä 85.0 3 0
111 Mizmor - Cairn 82.0 4 0
112 Vanum - Ageless Fire 82.0 3 0
113 Ithaca - The Language of Injury 80.0 3 0
114 Veiled - In Blinding Presence 78.0 3 0
115 Dawn Ray'd - Behold Sedition Plainsong 77.0 4 0
116 Nile - Vile Nilotic Rites 77.0 3 0
117 Paladin - Ascension 76.0 2 0
118 Eluveitie - Ategnatos 75.0 3 0
118 Reveal - Scissorgod 75.0 3 0
120 Atlantean Kodex - The Course of Empire 75.0 2 0
120 Fetid - Steeping Corporeal Mess 75.0 2 0
120 Have a Nice Life - Sea of Worry 75.0 2 0

Not to sound like a broken record but you might get a lot from the Multishiva...? it's super short and leaps and bounds beyond Time Messer

xp to imago

Of the stuff I hadn't heard yet, Multishiva and Coffin Rot have piqued my interest the most. I still need to sample The Cosmic Dead.

xp and yeah I think you'd enjoy Multishiva, lj.

Devin Townsend album is winning me over, at least at the level of guilty pleasure. Total food for grins

I accidentally listened to all of Sanguisugabogg

lol

The best of the albums so far is Atlantean Kodex but I already know and own that LP and voted for it.

Intrigued by the Mizmor

many xps
i paused a lot of music today. the cosmic dead and most of all the vesperith record sounded fine

Looks like another 2 of my votes got in today. Had Sanguisugabogg in my top 5 as it was my most listened to metal album this year (definitely aided by its 11 min runtime). It's the kind of dumb, ugly, chonky DM I am a huge sucker for. The Fvuneral Fvkk album was just outside my top 20 and is probably my fave doom record from last year even though I avoided it for months cause of the terrible and inappropriate band name.

I gotta check out the Cosmic Dead as I can't resist any psych space metal shit.

Shit the DT off at Why?--veering dangerously close to Disney movie musical number there

I might try the Mizmor after I take a quick nap

I'll just leave the typo there lol

Still back on the Nile record, the first few songs were fine but when "Seven Horns of War" started I decided I'd heard enough for the time being.

This Ithaca record is fun! Or at least it was until the breakdown in the first song.

The Cosmic Dead sounding great so far.

I do not have the patience for The Cosmic Dead. Multishiva definitely my favourite find. Fvneral Fvkk (it's an amazing band name) is sounding really awesome so far though.

Freudian metal.

:D

Except it's more justly lapsed Catholic than Jewish but you get my drift.

Never heard of Cosmic Dead but that cover is all-time.

Enjoying the roll-out (despite not being able to actively participate)!

It would be remiss of me not to mention that the cover of the Cosmic Dead album is not conceptually too far from the cover of imago's novel.

I wasn't even going to mention that...

Respect for the Sanguicinnabon record for including a 30 second belch as vocals, but no actual discernable language, on the first track

This Multishiva isn't immediately accessible (which is only a problem when you've got 120 albums coming at you in a week, tbh) but I'm starting to get into it, even the long slow part at the end of the first track.

Gaahl album is sounding pretty sick

I kind of regret not voting for it and Scissorgod.

I also hope we'll get another Trelldom album some day.

I just realized I've listened to nearly half that Vircolac album without thinking "it's about time I listen to the next album." That's a good sign.

It's a good album! Ireland represent

The wretched tree song might be the highlight but it's all pretty persuasive, well-written and very brutal stuff

Voted for Spirit Adrift and Cosmic Dead, lots of other clearly amazing stuff here I'll have to check out. Versperith seems like I'll like it.

I like that they went for the communist-era spelling of vircolac (well, minus the î). These days it's vârcolac, except if you were to drop the hat it would likely sound mangled in English with a mere 'a'. When uttered it kind of sounds like 'vurr-koh-LAHK' and denotes a demon who devours the sun and the moon, precipitating lunar phases and eclipses in the process.

Nice, thank you!

We're back to Reveal. What an amazing discovery

It would be remiss of me not to mention that the cover of the Cosmic Dead album is not conceptually too far from the cover of imago's novel.

A goodly chunk of my ballot placed in today's batch, including my #3 Coffin Rot (straight up fun OSDM) and my #5 Vircolac (a bit more blackened and raw). I should spend more time with that Gaahl's Wyrd, since I enjoyed his work with Trelldom.

Voted for Fvneral Fvkk. Frankly incredible that they pvlled that concept off.

Mizmor album is aite but for these ears the noise bits >>> the metal bits

Paladin album is legit m

(m = imo)

Multishiva was sounding groovy and shamanic last night. Managed about four songs of Atlantean Kodex before that.

Mizmor makes me think of "smizmar" from Futurama and thus I shall never listen to them

It's considerably more poetic than that:

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Psalms

http://www.bardomethodology.com/articles/2020/02/20/reveal-interview/

This is quite something

Unsurprisingly, this approach has led to some complications along the way. For instance, Crakk has previously battled major opioid addiction – mostly tramadol, which is a heavy-duty painkiller, but also heroin.

– I also love speed, acid, and mushrooms; preferably all together. I’ve always been into Lyrica and booze too. I haven’t really been sober one single day for the last two or three years now, I just take less opiates. I got a bit sick of them after about the tenth time I woke up at the hospital after having an epileptic seizure in the street. Also, one time, I died for several minutes. But that shit is just tiresome, boring, and – let’s be honest – a bit pathetic. I remember the “Flystrips” tour in 2017, when I ran out of opioids around half-way through; genius! When everything hurts and you hate every little inch of yourself but there’s nowhere to hide and you can’t ever be even the slightest bit comfortable… and then you have to get up on stage and perform in front of eyes that sear like lasers. Withdrawal fucks with your self-hatred and self-image so, besides everything feeling horrid all the time, it makes someone who’s already demented even more demented. The soul is of course intact but the bridge between spirit and body, the mind or mentality, becomes distorted. Especially the ego becomes out of balance. Anyway, addiction in itself isn’t that interesting, it’s mostly just intimately connected with the physical sensation of pain and the soulless empty shell of a piss-world theatre. So, moral of the story, either be on drugs and have a shitload of them or stay off entirely and, perhaps, don’t get hooked on the worst thing you can possibly get addicted to.

Wow, no kidding LJ :D

OT but this is the first time I've ever heard of the mix of Lyrica and alcohol to get yr kicks! I take Lyrica for trigeminal neuralgia (a good band name imo; they also call it the "suicide disease", he might have been triggered by that?), but cannot see it as a tripping thing.

Either way: thread delivers!

Bardo Methodology really has a knack for eliciting peak edginess from their interviewees.

Didn't they do a good Ruins Of Beverast one a while back

All the anguished, intelligent alcoholics

honestly stopped reading Bardo Methodology because even when they weren't revealing the edgy politics of bands I regretted liking their interviews are just excruciatingly pretentious

Coming up in 2-ish hours: even more Large Sad Men. Eat your heart out, Simon.

Alright this Reveal album rules

anyone who likes Scissorgod be sure to check out their Flystrips album too

Is it me or is it a bit. Cardiacs-y (or Panixphere-y) in places (Clevermouth!), though not the vocals obviously. Maybe it's that Lydian / tritone tang.

It being the Reveal album.

Exactly the response tt and I had to that song (which would have stormed into the upper reaches of my main poll tracks ballot)

It also reminds me of the whacked-out psych-gaze of Votaries from a few years ago

And obviously when it comes to Scandi metal-inflected post-punk, there's a clear lineage with Virus and RA as well

there's a clear lineage with Virus and RA as well

<3 RA but I'd be legit shocked if these guys were influenced by them

(of course I myself am convinced that both "Scottish Space Race" & Terminal Cheesecake's "Golden Hare" both are examples of the profound & enormous influence that DMBQ's Keeeenly has had over the British psych scene)

Brace yourselves, we've got a two-way tie coming up…

TIE 97
False - Portent
92 points, 4 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3620678273_10.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/7yRphAvRA5fDVi9EcHsoTu

https://www.heavyblogisheavy.com/2019/07/10/false-portent/

From the record’s opening frame, a few things become clear. Firstly, this record is a much leaner affair than their debut, minimizing its track count by 1 and runtime by nearly 20 minutes. Portent brings a more focused offering than the release that preceded it, which in this case offers a marked improvement over Untitled’s principal flaw: bloat. Where their debut could have done with a trim or two, Portent blasts out your speakers with the fat shorn away, presenting four tracks of focused aggression that never overstay their welcome (even at 10+ minutes each, minus the instrumental closing track). Opener “A Victual to Our Dead Selves” kicks off the record in glorious fashion, highlighting improved production and mixing as well as a songwriting aesthetic that goes straight for the jugular. False don’t mess around when it comes to shoving listeners directly into riffy mayhem, feeling more akin to Mayhem, Darkthrone, and in general the Norwegian second wave in this regard than some of their contemporaries. Emperor and Immortal should be mentioned here as well, as the band’s sense of melodrama and melody is even more finely tuned here than it was on their debut, featuring memorable and aggressive song structures that are diverse while never losing their innate sense of propulsion. It’s a stunning opening that paved the way for the wonders that await on the remainder of the record.

TIE 97
Russian Circles - Blood Year
92 points, 4 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2119011724_10.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/1LWWmVyhDxFAxBmQe3ecZb

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/russian-circles-blood-year-review/

Several years on, and having released the epic Guidance in between, Russian Circles are back with seventh full-length Blood Year (if you are unfamiliar with their discography and not yet ready to commit to working your way through it album by album, check out our primer playlist). Blood Year is not a record I took to immediately. I’d heard two of its strongest tracks—”Arluck” and “Milano”—before getting the promo and liked them both a lot but on my first couple of spins of the record as a whole, it felt a little disjointed. One of the distinctive things about Circles‘ albums until this point is their expansive, lush feel, with each track flowing pretty seamlessly into the next. Blood Year, however, feels less nuanced and more direct—a sense perhaps presaged by that beautifully simplistic cover artwork—than their last two albums, Memorial and Guidance, with each track standing on its own. It is also more consistently heavy than any of their previous releases, with only intro “Hunter Moon” and interlude “Ghost on High” providing respite.

Two more from my ballot. Russian Circles are really the best at This Sort Of Thing if you're into This Sort Of Thing.

False had the decency to use a Lewandowski cover where Large Sad Man is shown only in barest outline.

Possibly Two Large Sad Men, depending on the beholder's eye.

I think 7 of mine have already turned up! Looking forward to checking out the Reveal album.

I recall vaguely enjoying the False album, but not enough to return to it. As for Russian Circles, I guess it's not my Sort of Thing.

(With my apologies for not recusing myself from commentary as per imago's graceful example during the 00s albums rollout.)

96
Zig Zags - They'll Never Take Us Alive
95 points, 2 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0830932615_10.jpg

https://www.echoesanddust.com/2019/05/zig-zags-theyll-never-take-us-alive/

“Every album we record, every song we write – has to be faster, harder and heavier – than the one before”, so says the press release accompanying the fourth album from L.A.’s Zig-Zags. That quote could virtually be lifted from any band out of the pages of the eighties thrash metal mag Metal Forces. And that’s a little clue as to what the Zig-Zags deliver, a circle back to the time when NWOBHM and the very early stages of thrash intertwined.

No modern take on thrash here, nor is it a copycat of any particular-band, but They’ll Never take Us Alive successfully captures the pure rawness, energy, naivety of early eighties hard-core punk, Venom, Show No Mercy era Slayer, and especially Metallica, when they were that little ole’ thrash band. Also, tag in NWOBHM at its most-heaviest and most proto-thrashiest rawest, as in the company of Raven, and Savage.

This album spits and snarls, snapping away at relentless speed and adrenalin fuelled energy like teenagers taking bad, cheap drugs and alcohol. The Zig-Zags captures the sound of this time in metal history so well, I break out in acne every time I put the album on. And is there a better opening title, and indeed, a no-nonsense, thrashing mad, race you ‘till the end belter in ‘Punk Fucking Metal’ to set you on a rollicking collision course of a ride.

Oh, and the Spotify link:

https://open.spotify.com/album/5lIO4Re1meT6ks5G4vSqBV

(With my apologies for not recusing myself from commentary as per imago's graceful example during the 00s albums rollout.)

Your commentary rules and really helps foster discussion which I know us always a big concern with these polls. This is the most lively the metal poll has been in years..

I hate to just keep commenting on covers but lmao @ that one. The description sounds awesome though, I'll have to check it out.

<3 DAM, with additional apologies for the sheer un-metalness of this post.

Part of the 'problem' with these retro-af albums is that I feel like I need to spend more time with the originals first. I'm slowly getting there.

Never heard of this, but it sounds awesome. Definitely queuing this one up to check out.

yeah the zig zags were party like it's 1989 fun, novelty effect absent ofc. fun, nonetheless

seconding drug's last post

How many of us under-35ers (I've got a few more weeks to go) are heavily into thrash, I wonder?

How many of us over-35s have the energy for thrash.

inculter incoming?

How many of us under-35ers (I've got a few more weeks to go) are heavily into thrash, I wonder?

― romanesque architect (pomenitul), Monday, February 24, 2020 7:33 AM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

it’s the best kind of metal

lol Brad, that's less vmic than usual – I thought you were going to say every kind of metal is the best kind of metal.

Is there a subgenre you actively dislike?

black metal has to be like tremendous or heavily deathened to impress me. a lot of doomish stonery stuff is lost on me

Surprised by the latter tbh. I definitely like it a lot more on paper than I do while it's playing.

Speaking of the former…

95
Drudkh - A Few Lines in Archaic Ukrainian
95 points, 3 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1721612505_10.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/3fco2OJoJTmbwzc1yHj3qM

https://distortedsoundmag.com/album-review-a-few-lines-in-archaic-ukrainian-drudkh/

There are few atmospheric black metal bands in Europe as endlessly alluring as DRUDKH; the Ukraine mainstays have spent a career remaining remarkably consistent and replete with fresh and engaging ideas. Despite spending much of their time in relative obscurity, only achieving underground glory for much of their early years, they have managed to gradually and successfully garner a following, and it’s no surprise why; the quartet is responsible for some of the most all-encompassing black metal released this century.

Their debut album, Forgotten Legends, and its ambitious follow-up Autumn Aurora remain upheld as two of the most remarkable atmospheric black metal albums in recent memory – each of them called upon rural/folk influences specific to their region, as well as that of both BURZUM and CELTIC FROST. Throughout their career, they have continually built on this formula, sparing only 2006’s Songs Of Grief And Solitude, which provided an amalgam of both folk and dark ambient; a curiosity within their discography. They’ve continually impressed fans with their orchestral and dynamic take on pagan black metal, almost falling into the camp of ‘taken for granted’. Here, however, on A Few Lines In Archaic Ukrainian, they are on the finest forms they’re experienced in years, and demand a critical renaissance.

DRUDKH’s national identity comes through in their art in a number of ways, separating from a densely-populated pack. Their lyrics, generally, concern Slavic mythology – something that has since and previously been explored in black metal, but never to the standard of DRUDKH. On A Few Lines In Archaic Ukrainian, however, DRUDKH have opted for a new technique. The group have unearthed classical texts from Ukrainian poets and used them as the foundation for their music. For example, the words of Mike Johansen, who arrived in Karkhiv at the end of the 19th century, words are make-up the lyrics for single Autumn In Sepia. This song provides a perfect taster for the rest of the album; showing both that the album possesses a level of scope the band haven’t shown before, as well as being more musically direct than its immediate neighbours. It’s not the artistic highlight, but it is certainly the song one ought to be shown before being introduced to the album in its entirety.

First (and perhaps only) compilation to have placed so far, if I'm not mistaken? Either way, Drudkh's discography is nothing if not consistent.

That is very true. I like a brisk walk through a murky forest as much as the next person and whilst I don’t often choose to listen to Drudkh, I always enjoy it when I do.

94
Inculter - Fatal Visions
95 points, 5 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3113339614_10.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/0fPF9DdzCHBQll0xNNSRnF

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/inculter-fatal-visions-review/

What is an Inculter? Is it the person sitting behind the registration table at your local religious cult convention? You know, the one who greets you, helps you select the appropriate cult, provides the correct forms for you to fill out, and introduces you to the last family you’ll ever have? Or could it be that all-important person involved in the metal production process who is directly responsible for injecting the proper amount of cvltness into the music? Could it have something to do with yogurt and gut health? After pondering this riddle for some time, I continued to draw a blank and decided to listen to Fatal Visions, the sophomore full-length from this simple yet mysteriously named Norwegian band. Perhaps the music holds the answer.

After many spins, I’m convinced that Inculter is the Norwegian word for “producer of righteous thrash.” Holy smokes, this rips from front to back. Imagine an insanely tight and fast Slayer fronted by Sepultura‘s Max Cavalera, and you have a decent picture of the blistering ride that is Fatal Visions. Lead off track “Open the Tombs” begins with three-quarters of a minute of relative calm as classic power chords herald the coming storm. Use those seconds wisely, as the rest stops are few and far between after this. When the thrash riffing begins, a smile works its way onto my face and doesn’t leave for the next 33 minutes (or 67 if I play the record twice, which is almost required).

Thrash so sizzlingly good even I voted for it.

yay!

It made mine too! This rips.

I can’t get into a lot of thrash, but if it’s sizzlingly good then maybe! There’s one I voted for that I’m looking forward to placing later.

Also many xposts to Noel - Clevermouth specifically reminded me of Horse Head!

the drumming on this record is a beauty

Nothing against Daniel Tveit, I love the guy, but imagine someone with true jazz chops on those extended instrumentals on Fatal Visions.

haha

this looks dope

I'm narrowly under 35 and it takes a lot of wonky art nonsense for me to start liking thrash. I'm not even completely sold on Voivod yet. Still, if you all claim it's sizzling...

update: two tracks in, it's very dope

Coming right up: yet another ludicrously named band – far older than onomastic rivals Fvneral Fvkk, however.

93
Terminal Cheesecake - Le sacre du lièvre
96 points, 2 votes, 1 #1 vote

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0283117011_10.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/6PaLSRWO37qT6yKoinhryx

https://www.musicomh.com/reviews/albums/terminal-cheesecake-le-sacre-du-lievre

Terminal Cheesecake operate at a crazed pitch not dissimilar to Butthole Surfers, albeit by varying means, in that an underlying mischievousness underscores everything they produce. And if Le Sacre Du Liévre takes yet another twist in a career full of them, one thing it retains is that sense of fee spirited waywardness.

From their formation in 1988, Terminal Cheesecake blazed a swampy trail through the UK’s underground until they ceased activity in 1995. Having returned into the fold in 2013, the band committed their first new material in 22 years to wax in 2016 with the excellent Dandelion Sauce Of The Ancients via Newcastle’s Box Records.

Happily, their reformation continues with this latest collection of ungovernable noise. If Saddle Shower sounds like it was cooked up in a raging furnace, its plodding pace lending the track a very particular kind of menace, South Sea Wall creeps in at a quieter, softer canter with vocal loops, eerie guitars, and an ominous twinkle of a triangle here and there. Rest assured, it’s no less intimidating for it.

Not familiar with these guys at all. Will the #1 voter please stand up?

He's probably asleep tbh

I voted for this! Sets up a convincing old ruckus

Its a-me!

He's awake!

I'm going to have to sample this a bit later, unfortunately. Currently juggling between this and proofreading something for work.

Stupidly forgot about the bandcamp links despite the fact that I use it way more than Spotify. Sorry 'bout that. Here they are thus far:

93. Terminal Cheesecake - Le sacre du lièvre: https://terminalcheesecake.bandcamp.com/album/le-sacre-du-li-vre
94. Inculter - Fatal Visions: https://edgedcircleproductions.bandcamp.com/album/fatal-visions
95. Drudkh - A Few Lines in Archaic Ukrainian: https://drudkh.bandcamp.com/album/few-lines-in-archaic-ukrainian
96. Zig Zags - They'll Never Take Us Alive: https://zigzags.bandcamp.com/album/theyll-never-take-us-alive
97. False - Portent: https://gileadmedia.bandcamp.com/album/portent
97. Russian Circles - Blood Year: https://russiancircles.bandcamp.com/album/blood-year
99. Fvneral Fvkk - Carnal Confessions: https://fvneralfvkk.bandcamp.com/album/carnal-confessions
99. The Cosmic Dead - Scottish Space Race: https://riotseasonrecords.bandcamp.com/album/scottish-space-race
99. Vesperith - Vesperith: https://vesperith.bandcamp.com/album/vesperith
99. Vircolac - Masque: https://vircolac.bandcamp.com/album/masque
103. Coffin Rot - A Monument to the Dead: https://bloodharvestrecords.bandcamp.com/album/a-monument-to-the-dead
103. Sanguisugabogg - Pornographic Seizures: https://sanguisugabogg-maggotstomp.bandcamp.com/album/pornographic-seizures

92
Putrescine - The One Reborn
100 points, 3 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0817045084_10.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/4Sxw1UfeCYYbJJ7Pa8ei4P

https://reek-of-putrescine.bandcamp.com/album/the-one-reborn

https://astralnoizeuk.com/2019/09/09/review-putrescine-the-one-reborn/

With conceptual inspirations looking at both their leftist political leanings and a particular strain of Gothic horror lifted from action-role player Bloodbourne, San Diego three piece Putrescine are, on paper, a rather unique proposition. However, whilst their music may espouse a timeless hooks ‘n’ grooves philosophy steeped in the buzz-saw rage of Stockholm and the ornate menace of Tampa Bay, the bands debut EP The One Reborn could be rather easily dismissed as a simple tribute to old school death metal values. Luckily, the furrowed brow fury and songwriting quality on display swiftly quashes any grumbles that these tracks are not significantly original.

It is all convincingly unpleasant stuff, the listener swept along amid showers of  percussive clatter, the traditional sewer splurging lows/lacerating highs vocal switcharoo and a thick haze of malevolent ambience. However, it’s the relentless barrage of ferocious and joyously incisive riffs that spew from the guitars of Trevor Van Hook and Zachary Sanders that makes everything from savage opener ‘Child Sized Coffins’ and the mid-paced cudgeling of ‘Inhuman’,  through to the barbaric multi-limbed attack of ‘Entropy,’ resound with power, depth and electrifying intensity. For a debut release this is remarkably assured; evidence, perhaps, that Putrescine have what it takes for the long haul, and despite its understandably raw production The One Reborn contains more than enough promise to suggest that a full length record could strike a diabolical chord with death-heads the world over. Watch this space.

Antifa old-school DM? Sounds pretty cool.

I loved that EP. one of my votes, though further down the ballot.

funny thing is the guitars kinda sound outta tune throughout but that's part of the charm.

also I love the band's pic, which has the band staring menacingly into the camera in midstride.

this and Venom Prison were great 'woke metal' albums

Terminal Cheesecake

i see we are still in the george portion of results

xp to imago I had some errands to run for a few hours after work. I just got home. I'm prob going to sleep soon.

Le sacre du Lievre might be* this decade's finest example of my all-time favorite micro-genre:

Crazy Psychedelia (Helios Creed, Butthole Surfers and...?)

(*'might be' partially in reference to the fact that I've yet to hear TC's 2016 album Dandelion Ssuce of the Ancients)

Anyways TC have been around forever; back in the 90s the press used to call them 'the British answer to the Butthole Surfers')

91
Pinkish Black - Concept Unification
101 points, 5 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3800203582_10.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/5G5HaKew7fH311DS7wlEnf
https://pinkishblack.bandcamp.com/album/concept-unification

https://www.decibelmagazine.com/2019/06/13/album-review-pinkish-black-concept-unification/

Like the color out of the space that gives them their name, Pinkish Black defy categorization, occupying a weird netherworld between genres that leaves the listener feeling vaguely uneasy. Is it doom? Is it synth-prog? Psychedelic? Experimental? Hell if I know, but it works.

The Fort Worth-based duo named their fourth album Concept Unification, and the only results Google offers about the phrase refers to a process in which ShowBiz Pizza Place’s Rock-afire Explosion band animatronics were transformed into the Chuck E. Cheese equivalents after the chains merged. It’s strangely unsettling to watch the robots stripped of clothes and fur and faces and replaced with their Munch’s Make Believe Band counterparts. That’s kind of the experience that Pinkish Black seem to be going for. Not just the blending of styles, but the process of blending the styles. The point where the metallic doom meets the synthesized gloom. The title track feels as if Bauhaus got trapped in a fogbank, “Petit Mal” the favorite music of the computer from Harlan Ellison’s I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, “Next Solution” a 12-minute race through John Carpenter’s worst nightmares.

The miasmal vibe they spread may not be for everyone, but in a world filled with shitty knockoff robot bands, it’s unique to watch the process of deconstruction. It can be a bummer to listen to (nothing on here could be considered remotely uplifting), but there are no other colors in the rainbow quite like this one.

there are no other colors in the rainbow quite like this one

I'm holding you to it, Decibel dude.

After reading several blurbs in a row in this thread alone, it's hard to be kind to media covering this music isn't it? A lot of really badly written stuff, style-wise.

lol xp

I do enjoy reading them, don't get me wrong!

I voted for this too but towards the bottom of my ballot. I love the title track and Until but this is prob my least favorite PB album. Too ponderous imo

The rainbow line is prob in reference to the big single from their last album, called "Brown Rainbow"

After reading several blurbs in a row in this thread alone, it's hard to be kind to media covering this music isn't it? A lot of really badly written stuff, style-wise.

Tbf while (spoiler) all-too briefly trawling the internet for reviews I occasionally settle for the least palatably written one because it yields lines such as 'a 12-minute race through John Carpenter’s worst nightmares'.

That said, cliché-free writing about a cliché-ridden genre is no small task.

I just try to select from the same source and angry metal guy is it.

However if there is a pitchfork review I post it too

I avoided AMG this time because their review wasn't very positive.

I like Pinkish Black a lot but for some reason never checked this new one out. Will rectify.

AMG is the Leno of metal blogging: easy to mock the craft, not so much the grind

(Except he didn't actually write that review, so w/e)

Leno comparison is otm. Also, Grizzly Butts is insanely prolific, and I think he's just one solitary guy.

I remember the False sounding good when I played it but I never went back to it.
Putrescine and especially Inculter probably should've gotten some points from me, but there's just too much good stuff.

Next up: one for the Olds (not quite the Old Ones yet).

90
Angel Witch - Angel of Light
105 points, 3 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2478486705_10.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/3GGiFrheY2ycUYo6dIbQns
https://angelwitch.bandcamp.com/album/angel-of-light

https://www.blabbermouth.net/cdreviews/angel-of-light/

The obvious exceptions of IRON MAIDEN, SAXON and DEF LEPPARD aside, the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal didn't produce much in the way of enduring heavy hitters. Righteous legends like DIAMOND HEAD and VENOM cashed in deserved credibility chips after the fact, of course, and if you don't listen to the first two TANK albums on a regular basis then you're simply doing music wrong, but beyond the aforementioned trio of titans, only ANGEL WITCH truly deserve to be regarded as game changers. That 1980 debut album, understandably overshadowed at the time by a dizzying slew of soon-to-be-immortal releases, remains one of the clear high points of that era, guitarist Kevin Heybourne's instinctive blend of dark, SABBATH-fueled menace and explosive, post-UFO turbo-rock leading to fantastic songs that have lost none of their edge or allure over the last 40 years. Admittedly, the song "Angel Witch" is neither remotely representative of what ANGEL WITCH do nor even vaguely close to being one of their best songs, but an anthem is an anthem, right?

When ANGEL WITCH returned to action in earnest for 2012's "As Above, So Below", it was plain that the band's unique sound and spirit were the entire motivating force behind this fresh incarnation. A few line-up shuffles later, the ANGEL WITCH showcased on "Angel of Light" sounds even closer to that original blueprint, with far weightier songs and a wonderfully vibrant and punchy production. Heybourne is plainly enjoying the opportunity to do this thing properly, accompanied by musicians that love his band as much as he does, and from the rampaging groove of opener "Don't Turn Your Back" onwards, the quartet's shared enthusiasm and self-evident chemistry are a constant delight.

Where most NWOBHM bands played souped-up pub rock that broke zero new ground, ANGEL WITCH still sound like a curious collision between darkness and light, as haunting but hard-as-nails epics like "Death from Andromeda" and the fabulously bluesy "The Night is Calling" attach syrupy doom riffs to a propulsive and timeless metallic undertow. "Window of Despair" casually nails the exact sound that hundreds of skinny-jeaned try hards have been desperately trying to emulate for the last 20 years. It's a galloping dirt-metal tour de force, malicious in intent but urgent and thrilling, with some of the finest riffs Heybourne has ever written. The closing title track is the best of the lot — seven minutes of glowering, moonlit malevolence. It's the sound of an exalted creative force discovering new ways to travel along a beloved but shadowy path. No need to mess with the formula: only ANGEL WITCH ever sounded like this anyway, and in 2019 their uniqueness is an invigorating blast of heavy metal air.

Haven't even heard their debut, so I should probably start with that.

xp to LBI

probably i'm stating the obvious but metal review-wise, and comparing to 90's blurbs for instance, there's a colossal improvement, more than in any other musical genre, imo
ftr, and i don't know personally no one writing for grizzlybutts, i find everything very strong written, whenever i'm there

The obvious exceptions of IRON MAIDEN, SAXON and DEF LEPPARD aside, the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal didn't produce much in the way of enduring heavy hitters.

So apart from the heavy hitters, NWOBHM didn't produce many heavy hitters? Remarkable.

Missed the beginning of the rollout but enjoying the read!

Tbf while (spoiler) all-too briefly trawling the internet for reviews I occasionally settle for the least palatably written one because it yields lines such as 'a 12-minute race through John Carpenter’s worst nightmares'.

That said, cliché-free writing about a cliché-ridden genre is no small task.

― romanesque architect (pomenitul), Monday, February 24, 2020 5:22 PM (forty-five seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

To be clear, I love that you are crawling the web for these! Don't get me wrong. But yeah, it's hard to write about it without clichés (and it seems to get harder as you get older, and have written more? But that's a different subject)

xp to LBI

probably i'm stating the obvious but metal review-wise, and comparing to 90's blurbs for instance, there's a colossal improvement, more than in any other musical genre, imo
ftr, and i don't know personally no one writing for grizzlybutts, i find everything very strong written, whenever i'm there

― gaudio, Monday, February 24, 2020 5:34 PM (fifteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

That's fair enough, and there might be some truth to that. As I said in my response to Pom above, this could be an interesting topic to flesh out in a different thread.

Very much agreed!

I have no idea what Grizzly Butts is on about sometimes, but I love his willingness to go for baroque.

Next up: a piece of Very Serious Art to which I have likely failed to do justice as a listener.

89
Serpent Column - Mirror in Darkness
105 points, 5 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1281885549_16.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/6RNPcuWiWWiWxETksgL7Cw
https://serpentcolumn.bandcamp.com/album/mirror-in-darkness

https://www.heavyblogisheavy.com/2019/09/25/serpent-column-mirror-in-darkness/

Serpent Column is a project that has been waiting to burst onto the larger metal scene for some time. Over the past few years, sole continual member Theophonos has conjured adventurous, meticulously crafted music that melds elements of dissonant death and black metal into a swirling pool of chaos and degradation. His debut album Ornuthi Thalassa was an unexpected blast, with last year’s Invicta further cementing and, somehow, further darkening the project’s robust sound. That said, both of these releases felt, for different reasons, somewhat incomplete. I have a fairly strict policy for taking music as it is, but Serpent Column consistently feels like a band always capable of more to my ears. With the project’s sophomore full-length release, Mirror in Darkness, such a claim no longer holds weight. It is not only Serpent Column’s most complete and dexterous release to date, it’s one of the best albums I’ve heard this year. In any genre. 

Anyone unfamiliar with this project’s sound should stop reading this review and rectify that problem immediately. Take the angular black metal of Deathspell Omega and stir it together with a splash of Ulcerate and a few liberal dashes of Krallice and you’ll veer close to the rich amalgamation of sounds that Serpent Column peddles. But far be it from me to claim the project’s music is strictly derivative. With Mirror in Darkness, Theophonus has conjured compositions that honor their influences while striking off into some bold new territory. Opener “Promise of the Polis” infuses chaotic rhythmic and vocal performances with a significant amount of melodic guitar work that keeps the track (just barely) on the rails throughout. But the chaos never goes so far as to stay in a realm of complete inaccessibility. The end of the track incorporates a violent and measured riff that pulls the whole raging mess of fists and elbows together in a finale for the ages, culminating in one of the more powerful opening salvos I’ve heard this year.

Couldn't get into this. I love a Jute Gyte comparison but this doesn't justify it beyond the superficial microtonality afaict

Yeah this has nothing to do w/ Jute Gyte

This is one of those bands with a kitchen-sink blend of styles that actually pulls it off well, and with a minimum of excess.

i cant even remember what i thought of this album

The whole DSO/Ulcerate axis of maddened pantonal fury leaves me a bit cold these days. Not enough space or songwriting or dare I say surprise. Who knows, maybe this will click

on that DSO/Ulcerate axis, the ceremony of silence was my fave last year. sure voted for, don't think they'll get this far in the rollout

imago otm - I like my mad chaotic fury but preferably done by incompetent South American maniacs in the 80s. Great drummer though!

Ties are about to become increasingly more scarce but we've got a twofer coming up.

TIE 87
Dead to a Dying World - Elegy
107 points, 4 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3901233752_10.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/artist/6t0lkGM4eAOXCuGf6gOaZL
https://deadtoadyingworld.bandcamp.com/album/elegy-3

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/dead-to-a-dying-world-elegy-review/

If endlessly overused adages are to be believed, one might presume all Texas exports to tower over their non-Texan counterparts. I trust silly axioms about as much as I trust the Lone Star State, yet all the biases in the world cannot negate the fact that Dallas’ Dead to a Dying World delivered something downright tremendous with their sophomore full-length, Elegy. A colossal comprisal of epic atmospheric touches, devastating doom and sombre string-ed subtleties reflecting on the lost cause that is humanity, the album is certainly big enough for Texas and melancholic enough for Muppet. However, what makes this album deserving of such prodigious praise is its mastery of minutiae: it’s the little things that kill, yo, and Elegy is an obsidian Trojan horse, an imposing monolith loaded with legions of lethal low-key sonic assassins.

Elegy is comprised of three core tracks – namely, “The Seer’s Embrace,” “Empty Hands, Hollow Hymns” and “Of Moss and Stone” – which are loosely tied together by three peacefully contemplative interludes. While the interlude tracks (“Szygy,” “Vernal Equinox” and “Hewn from Falling Water”) are reposeful, delicately minimalist little ditties, the central songs are every bit as massive as all that nonsense from the intro paragraph implied. A decidedly doomy affair with progressive facets aplenty, the molten core of Dead to a Dying World is an ebony amalgamation of Shining, Swallow the Sun, and Pink Floyd – in other words, everything Anathema should be could have been had they retained their salad day rage through their progression. Mournful clean passages redolent of Ghost Reveries -era Opeth gently ache their way into hulking, crushing tides of blackened doom, bringing Eneferens to mind and the sound ov sadness to life. Death growls, blackened screeches, plaintive bluesy lamentations and operatic cleans twist and turn through it all as needed, and this ebb and flow dichotomy of Elegy makes for quite the immersive experience, allowing everything to naturally coalesce into an emotionally gripping ordeal.

TIE 87
Pharaoh Overlord - 5
107 points, 4 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1228953023_10.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/4fbVRLRd3kujXuJaTwgJmK
https://pharaohoverlord.bandcamp.com/album/5

https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=63733

Pharoah Overlord from Finland (founded in 2000) started as a side project for another band called "Circle". It was founded by the trio of Janne Westerlund (guitar), Jussi Lehtisalo (bass, guitar), and Tomi Leppanen (drums). Since then, the Psychedelic/Space Rock band has had fluctuating line-ups and have introduced various forms in their mostly improvised music. The album "5" is interestingly enough, their 10th full length studio album, released in October of 2019. The original trio is now a duo on this album, consisting of original members Tomi and Jussi. However, the duo isn't just bass and drums now as layers and layers of synths, Moog bass and electronics have been added to their music.

That user (?) review from progarchives is the only one I was able to find lol.

This DTOADW blurb makes it sound quite interesting actually.

I voted for DtaDW but I don't remember much about it right now beyond "epic" and "strings"

I also recall enjoying it while it was on but other bands (that shall remain nameless for now) trod that ground more persuasively in 2019 imo.

:)

Dead to a Dying World is my first vote to show up today (it was somewhere in the 30s on my ballot). It's a good mishmash of genres, epic black doom crust, that shouldn't work but does.

Ah, relistening now, I like the clean vox and genuine patience in the dynamics, they're basically Explosions in the Sky meets Deafheaven which is either, once again, either Your Bag or Very Much Not Your Bag

*rushes back to baggage reclaim*

lol

86
No One Knows What the Dead Think - No One Knows What the Dead Think
108 points, 4 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3606671825_10.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/artist/4GzUTmMLRXeoUgKLtZ8sq9
https://nooneknowswhatthedeadthink.bandcamp.com/album/no-one-knows-what-the-dead-think

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/no-one-knows-what-the-dead-think-no-one-knows-what-the-dead-think-review/

The New Jersey grindcore project No One Knows What the Dead Think boasts impressive lineage, with vocalist Jon Chang (ex-Discordance Axis, Gridlink) and guitarist/bassist Rob Marton (Discordance Axis) tireless veterans of the underground grind scene. Throw in accomplished drummer Kyosuke Nakano (ex-Cohol) and the trio on paper is a force to be reckoned with. A fresh project crafted by expert hands presents an enticing proposition for starved grind fiends. I have a healthy respect for Discordance Axis and a particular soft spot for the underrated and insanely brilliant Gridlink, so anticipation for this one runs high. Can No One Knows What the Dead Think move beyond past glories to deliver their own grind scene shaking statement of intent?

Nailing the artful balance of paying homage to the past and forging confidently into the here and now, No One Knows What the Dead Think create some of the most exhilarating grind I’ve heard in ages. Taking the raw, controlled chaos and unhinged weirdness of Discordance Axis and combining this influence with the ultra modern sheen, melodic underpinnings, and finely tuned extremity of Gridlink‘s brilliant swansong, Longhena, the band add their own imprint and cutting edge songwriting to the equation. And the results are unrelenting and pretty damn impressive across the board.

I like both of these albums but dont think I voted for them

xp

no idea what this is

Nü Discordance Axis, which was never my cup of tea to begin with.

once again if you're into this sort of thing, no one really does it better imho

So I gather. I haven't really given it a fair shake tbf.

i voted for this record bc it rocks. it is not as good as gridlink's longhena or as da's the inalienable dreamless but, y'know, what is

85
Krypts - Cadaver Circulation
109 points, 4 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3735133420_10.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/3EBUPAuXZyTM4qI7yIXqIa
https://krypts.bandcamp.com

https://grizzlybutts.com/2019/05/22/krypts-cadaver-circulation-2019-review/

Seeming newcomers as they formed in 2008 the origins of Krypts traces as far back as 2003 as Helsinki area teenagers formed a melodic death/thrash influenced band (Self-Hate) that’d re-brand itself as The Beheading in 2006 releasing one last demo before dissolving. From that dissolution seeped a more serious and mature, some might say tasteful, approach to ancient death metal that was more in line with the surge of Helsinki area acts that’d form in 2007 such as Goretexx, Solothus, Swallowed, and the infamous Hooded Menace. There’d been old school death compatriots stirring between Stench of Decay and Ascended but each would prove fairly inactive despite promising demos and smaller releases. Krypts would begin as a duo in 2008 and quickly release their infamous, mind-rending ‘Open the Crypt’ (2009) demo soon after. At the time nobody was sure which of these young doom obsessed death metal bands would have any staying power beyond this fruitful phase of demo tapes and deeply formative independent EP releases but it was quickly clear that Krypts and Hooded Menace were among the most ‘ready’ to commit to style and composition but the much younger Krypts would take a few more years to develop. Second guitarist and co-songwriter  Topi Siirtola (ex-Swallowed, ex-Desolator) would play a fairly key role in pushing their early compositions towards the ‘Krypts’ (2011) 7″ EP and some of those strongest moments would make it onto ‘Unending Degradation’ (2013) though Siirtola had left by 2012. In hindsight these were legendary formative releases and perhaps some of the most memorable modern Finnish ‘classic’ styled death metal of the last few decades. Krypts would beat out hundreds of other records for my best of 2013 list and prove me completely wrong when I’d said their EP wouldn’t lead to anything special back in 2011. I’ve been a die-hard fan of this Finnish death metal band since.

Dunno what to say about this one except Finnish death metal fucking rules.

what a fucking great record. voted for! (not that cover)

this looks dope too!!!!

It's really good! 2019 was a great year for metal imo.

Obligatory: and I didn't even vote for it!

And only now do I see what gaudio meant by 'not that cover'. My bad:

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3857580925_10.jpg

^ this is Cadaver Circulation.

84
The Neptune Power Federation - Memoirs of a Rat Queen
110 points, 3 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3530587935_10.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/1p6kfac80XHRy5wX93kQeD
https://theneptunepowerfederation.bandcamp.com/album/memoirs-of-a-rat-queen

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/the-neptune-power-federation-memoirs-of-a-rat-queen-review/

I have always loved storytelling. As a child I rapidly ran out of interesting books to devour in the library, and nowadays I get my fill with online free-form role playing. This extends to music as well; a cool concept can really elevate an otherwise unremarkable album. What a good story needs first and foremost is interesting characters though, and The Neptune Power Federation get that. Their vocalist, Imperial Priestess Screaming Loz Sutch, assumes the mantle of a time-travelling space witch for their fourth album, Memoirs of a Rat Queen. 70s space rock that mixes Heart with Hawkwind and AC/DC, a sexy vengeful bombshell on the mic, and a story scattered from the French revolution to boning in a parking lot; what could possibly go wrong here?

I guess we won’t find out, because not much does. That largely comes down to the Imperial Priestess. Like an Oscar-worthy actress, she completely falls into the role. Her character is straight out of a Neil Gaiman novel, a demi-goddess of lust and wrath, of regal rage and justified arrogance, and you believe her every syllable whether she sneers about the deaths of her enemies (“Rat Queen”: ‘Their last words as they fell / were damn that bitch to hell!’) or seduces a mere mortal with her eons of experience (“I’ll Make a Man Out of You,” not even close to a Disney cover!). It certainly helps that her technical skills are off the charts. Her voice is razor-sharp. Some might consider her too shrill, but she conveys supreme passion and power, and with a few momentary exceptions, she is always in complete control of her vocal chords and her role alike.

Listening to Krypts now and it sounds really great so far. It bounced off me before, but maybe I wasn't in the right head space to receive it at the time.

Who voted for the Neptune Power Federation? Doesn't ring a bell at all.

is this some sort of Ghost spinoff

what a fucking awful album cover

Makes you pine for more Lewandowski, eh?

I've got three more for you tonight/today, and I am excited about every single one of them.

As a child I rapidly ran out of interesting books to devour in the library

If you say so.

83
Kostnatění - Hrůza zvítězí
110 points, 4 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2953025415_10.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/1Vib5sZB9MxEYCWLztMabe
https://kostnateni.bandcamp.com/album/hr-za-zv-t-z

https://www.decibelmagazine.com/2019/09/06/full-album-premiere-kostnateni-hruza-zvitezi/

Pressed to explain the physical process of bringing Hrůza zvítězí to life, the artist writes: “The album was written and recorded from early 2018 to summer 2019 in various parts of the country where I was living. No studios were involved in its creation. Whereas Konec je všude was written in a quick frenzy during one of the best periods of my life in recent times, Hrůza zvítězí was created slowly and subjected to rigorous criticism from myself and close contacts, due to both the mental burden its writing inflicted upon me and the desire to create a truly inimitable work. I know that every band has caught onto Deathspell Omega’s influence on extreme metal and that almost everyone right now is pushing to coax more chaos, more dissonance out of the genre. If I am moving in that direction as well, and I want to be remembered in ten years’ time, there has to be something truly remarkable about my methods. To that end, I believe I have mostly succeeded.”

A bold statement, and yet who can disagree after hearing Hrůza zvítězí?

i'm super late but this venom prison album is amazing

This guy talks a big game and mostly delivers. Do check it out if, like imago, you're burnt out on Serpent Column and their ilk.

xp

I'm a sucker for all-red bandcamp pages

Anyway, don't sleep on this one, it's definitely one of the least run-of-the-mill metal albums I heard last year!

82
Skáphe + Wormlust - Kosmískur hryllingur
111 points, 4 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2349143091_10.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5xxY2v6SpcP9gqSgbpsWF5
https://skphwrmlst.bandcamp.com/album/kosm-skur-hryllingur

https://grizzlybutts.com/2019/06/23/wormlust-skaphe-kosmiskur-hryllingur-2019-review/

Without scholia in the margins to extrapolate any meaning the entirety of this two sided abyssic, and ultimately psychedelic, experience might hold is lost in the moment. The name of the album makes its atmospheric intentions clear but it wasn’t entirely necessary as the full listen is clarity enough; A twisted stretch of impossibly layered horror psychedelia is appreciably dark in the hands of these oft-experimental black metal musicians. The mark of Skáphe picks up where they’d left off in 2017 with ‘Untitled’ and their song “VII”, an extended vision that’d been their most ruinous and layered at that junction. Between A. Poole‘s guitar presence in Guðveiki. and very recent examination of D.G.‘s Misþyrming in hand, I see both personalities alight within ‘Kosmískur Hryllingur’, particularly on the sixteen minute opening half, “Þeógónía”. Their work is dense, collapsing, inconceivably performed as if pulled from a lifetime of motions and improvised atop brisk and damning session drumming from current Véhémence drummer Thomas Leitner. The harrowing bent that concludes this track feels as if a glitch in the mind, a monstrous epileptic harangue of noise rock and deep-space black metal. It takes another ten listens to begin to understand the structure of this but only one to feel its effects.

This is also stellar, and for very similar reasons.

Really, really need to hear this one. I have been reliably informed it is a treat

still in the george part of the rollout

do we all have a part now lol

i fear for your sakes that mine might be a little higher than usual

not sure why i never heard this album during the year

It's not a split btw, despite appearances.

yo this krypts record fuckin rips!!!!

xp I think that's what put me off hearing it initially!

Alas it would be quite hard to hear it now as we're in a hospital waiting room :/

:(

I hope both of you are alright.

tt with a bit of the old pain and morbidity. with enough hails i think the dark lords will let her live

<3 to tt

Solely one entry remains for tonight, so I pray to the Old Gods that she'll be hale come morning that she may fully partake in tomorrow's leg of the rollout.

rather than listening to music she's reading The Magic Mountain, which she assures me is the most metal book ever written (Brad pls confirm)

Someone is playing a midi file of Debussy from a phone? An old Gameboy? It is metal in its own way. Or, it’ll certainly feel that way after the promised four hour wait. I’m almost definitely okay.

Skaphe and Wormlust album builds to some magnificent horror!

Well if Jute Gyte is in some sense the trvest metal act ever devised then surely it follows that of Mann's novels Doktor Faustus is the metallest of all.

Yeah, Magic Mountain invented black metal

Thank you, pomenitul! I’ll return to ceremonial listening tomorrow, for sure.

my magic mountain remains sitting on top of the other unread books but mordy started his i think

as is his other books i bought

rather than listening to music she's reading The Magic Mountain, which she assures me is the most metal book ever written (Brad pls confirm)

― imago, Monday, February 24, 2020 12:18 PM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

you know, honestly, yes

along with all the classic russian books

I must away now, but I leave you with a fitting night or afternoon or morning cap depending on where you happen to be at the moment.

81
Nightfell - A Sanity Deranged
112 points, 4 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3708953741_16.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/7rJ2wiYSJ74CKAYcBpy8Wn
https://nightfell.bandcamp.com

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/nightfell-a-sanity-deranged-review/

In my mind, Nightfell sounds like Amon Amarth or Bolt Thrower suddenly became depressed and introspective and morphed into an atmospheric blackened death/doom band. A Sanity Deranged presents itself as a cyclical exercise in building tension through the atmospheric and doom elements and the cathartic release that occurs when Burdette drops his gigantic tremolo riffs that would fit snuggly on any classic album from the aforementioned battle-obsessed death metal bands. Coupled with Burdette’s cavernous death vocals, this undulating musical formula places the listener into a relentless trance that makes the record’s 35 minute runtime seem even shorter. Take embedded track “The Swallowing of Flies” as the perfect example of Nightfell‘s strengths coming together in synergistic glory. Beginning with a sorrowful guitar motif played over Call’s constant cymbal work, the track works to create a sense of melancholy before the driving Bolt Thrower groove arrives with one of my favorite metal moments of 2019. From there, the track moves through some blackened minor chords, the hugely distorted bass gets a chance to carry the groove on its own, and some eerie clean arpeggios and background chanting make an appearance. The total package is reminiscent of the slower, doomier moments of Batushka‘s debut.

I assure you that this record is fucking awesome, and 'To the Flame' is a Viking jam.

the magic mountain is maybe more concerned with the briefest intimacies shared with a single person over the course of many years than most metal albums i've heard but other than that: being stuck in a sanatorium for seven years staring out at the alps and reconstructing the universe with your mind is pretty metal. the pre-world war i arguments about humanism vs radicalism are also, in their own way, metal

I had The Neptune Power Federation really high on my list.
My #TwitterLPReview of the album got one like.

The Neptune Power Federation
Memoirs of a Rat Queen
(@CruzDelSurMusic)

Royalty abounds! The Aussie crew namechecks Queen in the title, vocalist Loz Sutch is a Priestess, and they have the audacity to mimic Brian May's crew at their glammiest. They will rock you. #TwitterLPReview pic.twitter.com/LH0DUNcaFU

— Brian O'Neill (@NYC__Native) September 27, 2019

I tried to hey xhuxk to like it on Facebook, not sure if it ever worked.
Here are some videos off the album that I enjoy very much.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdObGeAvwl4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj8SzZoHiSA

nightfell! my no. 2!!!

a blackened and doomy bolt thrower would be the most perfect band

xps

Nightfell record excellent, another ballot entry of mine!

did you vote for 200 albums?

666 iirc

TT & LJ: take care <3

Quick recap of the rollout so far:

81 Nightfell - A Sanity Deranged 112.0 4 0
82 Skáphe + Wormlust - Kosmískur hryllingur 111.0 4 0
83 Kostnatění - Hrůza zvítězí 110.0 4 0
84 The Neptune Power Federation - Memoirs of a Rat Queen 110.0 3 0
85 Krypts - Cadaver Circulation 109.0 4 0
86 No One Knows What the Dead Think - No One Knows What the Dead Think 108.0 4 0
87 Dead to a Dying World - Elegy 107.0 4 0
87 Pharaoh Overlord - 5 107.0 4 0
89 Serpent Column - Mirror in Darkness 105.0 5 0
90 Angel Witch - Angel of Light 105.0 3 0
91 Pinkish Black - Concet Unification 101.0 5 0
92 Putrescine - The One Reborn 100.0 3 0
93 Terminal Cheesecake - Le sacre du lièvre 96.0 2 1
94 Inculter - Fatal Visions 95.0 5 0
95 Drudkh - A Few Lines in Archaic Ukrainian 95.0 3 0
96 Zig Zags - They'll Never Take Us Alive 95.0 2 0
97 False - Portent 92.0 4 0
97 Russian Circles - Blood Year 92.0 4 0
99 Fvneral Fvkk - Carnal Confessions 92.0 3 0
99 The Cosmic Dead - Scottish Space Race 92.0 3 0
99 Vesperith - Vesperith 92.0 3 0
99 Vircolac - Masque 92.0 3 0
103 Coffin Rot - A Monument to the Dead 90.0 2 0
103 Sanguisugabogg - Pornographic Seizures 90.0 2 0
105 Deus Mortem - Kosmocide 89.0 3 0
106 Spirit Adrift - Divided by Darkness 88.0 4 0
107 Venom Prison - Samsara 86.0 2 0
108 Devin Townsend - Empath 85.0 3 0
108 Gaahls WYRD - Gastir - Ghosts Invited 85.0 3 0
108 Multishiva - Savupäivä 85.0 3 0
111 Mizmor - Cairn 82.0 4 0
112 Vanum - Ageless Fire 82.0 3 0
113 Ithaca - The Language of Injury 80.0 3 0
114 Veiled - In Blinding Presence 78.0 3 0
115 Dawn Ray'd - Behold Sedition Plainsong 77.0 4 0
116 Nile - Vile Nilotic Rites 77.0 3 0
117 Paladin - Ascension 76.0 2 0
118 Eluveitie - Ategnatos 75.0 3 0
118 Reveal - Scissorgod 75.0 3 0
120 Atlantean Kodex - The Course of Empire 75.0 2 0
120 Fetid - Steeping Corporeal Mess 75.0 2 0
120 Have a Nice Life - Sea of Worry 75.0 2 0

I'm intrigued by Skáphe + Wormlust! Is it akin to Misþyrming?

Considerably less conservative, I'd say.

I *think* 12 of mine have placed so far, dang!

inculter's fatal visons and krypts cadaver circulation were my ballot entrys for today

didn't vote for, but totally cool with the one reborn and a sanity deranged placing

visions*

7 of mine have placed if we the count bonus weekend 20. Otherwise, 4.

I've had only 2, but this is mollified by the strong possibility that the majority of the top 10 will correspond to my own

xp I'll give it a whirl!

None of mine have placed so far. It will be more hivemind than kvlt, though I'm not sure my number 1 will make it!

Lets rephrase that: I expect that my top 5 will all place very high, 6 through 10 I'm less sure about

Any clue as to your 1, LBI?

Oof LJ, very difficult to come up with something that won't give it away.

1) I don't think there's a single riff on the album at all
2) The official website of the band is inaccessible for me because my antivirus thinks it's a phishing scam :D

3) Vi Vandrar Vidare

That Neptune Power Federation album was in my top 5 (although I don't think I ranked my ballot here), and "I'll Make a Man Out of You" was one of the very few songs last year that I actually did play on a loop for an extended period of time. So great.

5 placed so far, I’m considerably more in tune with the ILM hivemind this year than usual! I should’ve voted for Zigzags, totally forgot.

I've had only 2, but this is mollified by the strong possibility that the majority of the top 10 will correspond to my own

― imago, Monday, 24 February 2020 19:51 (forty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

You only put in a small ballot though so wouldn't expect much to place!

I have no access to ballots glenn so i cant check for you

tt, far from a heart complaint, had a pulled intercostal ffs

\m/

saw ZigZags for their album release party in LA and it blew me away. amazing band that I discovered on Rolling Metal from I think Brian. glad it made the list.

Tbf pulled intercostals are metal af.

Sheesh tt, that sux, but is also trve metal, and a relief re: heart is fine!

xp :)

Way glad to hear tt is doing well

Also way glad to see Pharaoh Overlord (my #16) & Skaphe/Wormlust (my #13) make it

Skaphe/Wormlust is basically paranoid free-metal fever-dream. I'm a p huge fan of Skaphe & it fits right in with the other albums I've heard from the act

I'm a p huge fan of Skaphe & it fits right in with the other albums I've heard from the act

Good to hear. I'll have to check out their other stuff then.

Skaphe² is a wild and miasmic ride

Well maybe not 'ride'...more like a fetid pit. The propulsion is not so much forward as omnidirectional

Kostnatění was my #14, and False my #15. I suppose the False album does anything new and clever, but it provides just what I'm looking for out of 21st century Lewandowski black metal. (Mizmor was my #6, speaking of good solid Lewandowski metal)

Russian Circles was my #60 (my ranked shortlist was 97 entries), it started much higher but I kept bumping it down because I thought it was relatively boring. I should have revisited and reviewed the ranking; after hearing one of their other albums in the car last week, I was reminded that I do like them. I've worn off a bit from the RC/Isis/Red Sparrowes instrumental post metal thing honestly.

I never ended up listening to the Kostnatěni

I listened to it a couple times and really liked it, but now I can't remember it. Late additions to the ballot often suffer this fate. I have a bunch of "discoveries" from the '16 metal poll languishing in the lower reaches of my Bandcamp wishlist to this day.

Lots of stuff for me to listen to in order to follow along, but have enjoyed most I’ve heard so far.

Probably the coolest discoveries so far are the Ghaal (loved a Gorgoroth album years ago - he is an amazing vocalist), Reveal, and the Serpent Column.

*Gaahls

Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam was the one.

Three more placed today from the middle reaches of my ballot: Nightfell, Putrescine and Inculter. All excellent and worthy of attention. Of the stuff I haven't heard before, I'm most intrigued by the Neptune Power Federation, and not just because of the unusual name.

Wasn't sure about Kostnateni but then there was a clean guitar line that could have been one of Kalmbach's own, followed by a mad distorted choral bit. Think I'm on board

Kalmbach makes the genre explode, Kostnatění settles for a few implosions here and there.

In other news, expect today's 20 to begin in a couple of hours.

Kalmbach is one of the most vital and confounding musicians of the decade. Just listening to the astonishing growth he achieved from Perdurance three years ago now to Birefringence. Just constantly reinventing and expanding his art, making records no one else could

That said, I did listen a little to the Kostnateni on the way home, it sounds utterly fierce. Will def return to it

Unfortunately I am about to crash so sorry if any of my oddball faves show up while I'm out

vote for terminal cheesecake

The Kostnatění was very cool!

An album I expected to get little out of based on cover aesthetics and that write-up was The Neptune Power Federation, but its 70s influences are all working together maximally and wow it's actually great.

Well, some of it

If I wasnt a dumbass and got the deadline day wrong, I'd have voted for that Terminal Cheesecake album

We're back in business, folks…

80
Amygdala - Our Voices Will Soar Forever
115 points, 3 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3139375020_10.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/4Vk4x74PVhzsvBX1XbJJD7
https://amygdalatx.bandcamp.com/album/our-voices-will-soar-forever

https://www.heavyblogisheavy.com/2019/05/06/amygdala-our-voices-will-soar-forever/

There aren’t a huge number of bands out there in hardcore who challenge all of the genre norms at one time. However, Amygdala do exactly that as they straddle a lot of different styles on their latest offering, Our Voices Will Soar Forever. From outright hardcore rage on opening track “Born Into Abuse” we are thrust into the band’s potent initial surge before we get introduced to the many other weapons in their arsenal. Before digging into that, though, it’s important to tackle some of the subject matter the band engages in here. This is a band who’s sonic variety is only the tip of the iceberg to the diversity they embody as people and their principles.

The band take on many of the ills of society that oppress so many people especially racism, sexism, homophobia, and the many variants of sick abuse that are thrust upon women and others. The album transcends being a simple vehicle for a screaming voice taking these things head on. Instead they utilize their sharp and varied attack on tracks such as “It Takes a Village”, “I Hate to Say It”, “BPD Versus Me”, and “I Wish Upon a Shooting Star”. All of these songs, among others, vary between punishing, often angular guitar riffs and some decidedly math-y takes on drumming to slower passages marked with droning notes or lightly picked arpeggios that allow the songs to breathe before being subsumed again by the all out assault of Bianca Quinones’ vocals.

I haven't heard this but it sounds fucking dope

Another one I don't know. I didn't do well at keeping up this year it seems

Some day I'll give core and core-ish bands a fair shake. Today is not that day, I'm afraid.

the 'core, the hard music

I love it

Next up: a band so controversial reviews of its latest album are hard to come by. Meanwhile, ezines that discuss it do so by not-so-subtly patting themselves on the back for their taboo-breaking bravery…

it's Pomplamoose time

79
Deathspell Omega - The Furnaces of Palingenesia
119 points, 3 votes, 1 #1 vote

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1229437038_10.jpg

https://open.spotify.com/album/2vpsBAqtKuJd8lGYe86Nbj
https://deathspellomega.bandcamp.com/album/the-furnaces-of-palingenesia

http://www.metal-temple.com/site/catalogues/entry/reviews/cd_3/d_2/deathspell-omega-the.htm

DEATHSPELL OMEGA’s reputation truly precedes the band, you could call them one of the most infamous Black Metal bands out there. Many “infamous” Black Metal bands are more known for their shocking antics then for going against the grain of common morals and social norms (causing a scandal or making a spectacle isn’t really subversive nowadays I would argue), not DEATHSPELL OMEGA. The band’s association with positions that fall outside the so called Owerton’s Window of acceptable public discourse. Actually, many Metal blogs and sites seem to have a self-imposed ban on writing about them and reviewing their albums. A search on these sites will reveal tens or hundreds of mentions of the band though, which is quite telling.

Many people don’t want to get their hands dirty with writing about DEATHSPELL OMEGA, but at the same time they can’t stop citing them as an influence on today’s extreme Metal music, which goes beyond Black Metal (dissonant Blackened Death Metal bands such as ULCERATE or PORTAL clearly owe a debt to DEATHSPELL OMEGA). I personally count myself among the fans of their music, hearing “Si Monvmentvm Reqvires, Circvmspice” or “Paracletus” was a true eye-opener for me, and it’s because of them that I started taking Black Metal more seriously. The conceptual side of their music is also something that I find interesting and provocative: their lyrics deal with doctrines of theistic Satanism but are also full of a Nietzschean scorn for modern society and the mass-man, as well as with themes inspired by the French surrealist Georges Bataille (you won’t find anything overtly bigoted in them as far as I can tell).

“The Furnaces of Palingenesia” is the band’s seventh full-length album and like most of their previous albums was released through the legendary – and equally infamous – label Norma Evangelium Diaboli. DEATHSPELL OMEGA are known as the pioneers of dissonant Black Metal, and dissonance is obviously what marks their sound. But beyond that I think the strength of the band is in how focused their music is. Their music is remarkable because of how they manage to take complex riffs and rhythms, that alone sound almost chaotic, and mold them into very concise songs. Their next level musicianship is on full display in “The Furnaces of Palingenesia”, both the riffs and the drumming are intriguing, sometimes the music seems to go in an almost jazz territory – while of course remaining super dark – but at the same time, the songs have a very rich atmosphere which ranges from eerie, to majestic, to deeply sorrowful. The atmosphere is sometimes enhanced by orchestral arrangements, which are very effective and have none of the cheesiness of “Symphonic Metal”.

The songs can be dynamic, but they never meander. The ebb and flow of the individual songs is complemented by ebb and flow of the album as a whole - “The Furnaces of Palingenesia” is one of those albums that feels increasingly more like a unified piece of art the more you listen to it. That’s a hallmark of great musicianship, if you ask me. The album opens with the apocalyptically scornful song “Neither Meaning nor Justice,” and ends with the mournful “You Cannot Even Find the Ruins…” which sounds like it could drag you into the deepest hole of despair. There are moments of fury and moments of sadness and many things in between on this album. It’s complex and multilayered – a musical journey really, form which you emerge richer the deeper you dive into these murky and disquieting waters.

I’m very pleased with this album, it is truly a enchanting piece of dark art. It is mesmerizing and spine-chilling in a way that looking into a snake’s eyes can be. This is not an album that you can listen to casually – at least I refuse to do so. It’s an album that you want to listen to in a dark room alone.

I did not vote for this btw, so the pomplamoose has yet to strike.

Mostly because I find these guys grossly overrated aside from Paracletus.

don't really have any need for more Deathspell in my life but they seem pretty low on the offensiveness scale to me by metal standards

I haven't thoroughly looked into this, but I get the sense that Mikko Aspa is more offensive than Mgła, all things considered.

Wasn't their connection to Aspa part of the reason the latter were accused of being closet nazis?

I think the rumour is that the lead singer is a straight up fascist? And seeing as the album concept is about fascism/nationalism, it made the whole thing a bit muddled for me. I still can't stop thinking about the album. It's neither fascist nor anti-fascist to me, it locates the hatred in right wing politics, and just heats it up there. The thing is, I think racism is a logical fallacy for the brain trust behind the band, but not because they think it's wrong to hate people, but because racism is based on the assumption that there are races you aren't supposed to hate. Their view of strongman fascism is pure hatred, most of all for the maggots who needs strong men to guide them.

love the anguished vocals on the Amygdala record, the music seems not super distinctive otherwise but by no means bad

The thing with universal misanthropy is that it has a nasty habit of becoming obsessively specific. Whether that is systematically the case is a different can of worms altogether.

I read the entire lyric of this album and found it more interesting than the music, but they're certainly playing some dangerous games

I mean, as metal may and even ought, sometimes

Mgła's album from last year, which, uh, may or may not appear in this rollout, also had an unsettlingly AmBiGuOuS title, come to think of it.

Anyway…

78
Motorpsycho - The Crucible
119 points, 4 votes

http://motorpsycho.no/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/motorp-cruc-1024x1024.jpeg

https://open.spotify.com/artist/2bNIAjyL3hFCuQBQqhPN4T

https://www.echoesanddust.com/2019/03/motorpsycho-the-crucible/

Whilst not as sprawling as previous release The Tower, Motorpsycho’s new album The Crucible is no less epic in scope and although only three songs in length, they easy match up to the wild progressive abandonment of that prior album. In fact, you can almost see this as an addendum, or encore if you will.

Not to cast the album off as simply though, as The Crucible is more than able to stand its own ground and if anything its succinctness makes it a much more enjoyable listen. Whilst we cannot knock The Tower in anyway, as in itself it was a remarkable album, sometimes shorter really is sweeter. Just don’t expect Motorpsycho to skimp on any of the progressive power that they are known for, and with their new dynamic as a trio, find themselves up on the pantheon of other great power trios.

Power trios are always cool so I'll sample this as soon as I can.