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529 results for “panopticpen”
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Booted Kali Linux, opened Firefox… and boom: Amazon, Groupon, Allegro on the homepage 😳
Apparently my penetration testing OS wants me to buy a lawnmower before scanning ports.Cross-site tracking + IP matching + sponsored tabs = welcome to the panopticon.
Thanks, Firefox, very stealthy.
#Infosec #Privacy #KaliLinux #Fingerprinting #LOLcry #Firefox
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This week's Skinny timed out with the end of the month, and a season change on my website; needless to say I'm a little exhausted. I'm fond of this one tho, there's several pieces I wrote this week that when cleaned up clearly could have been full essays. Not that I had the time to source them, but some of this was pretty good for a social media blog for sure.
This week we're talking about how the budget bill fuels the fascist anti-trans pogrom, the multiple purposes of the surveillance panopticon, ICE agents setting traps for migrants at courthouses nationwide, and the banality of the open white nationalism the regime engages in daily. Oh, and Senate Democrats could stop the GOP homicidal class war Billionaire Bill in its tracks; do they want to? Check out this week's Skinny for more:
https://www.ninaillingworth.com/2025/05/31/the-skinny-banality-of-evil-in-trumps-america/2/
The Skinny: Banality of Evil in Trump’s America
"Which brings us to the vague wording, and potentially broad applications of this ideological screening. As we’ve learned to watch for from studying the Heritage Foundation’s Project Esther, and the Trump administration’s clear adherence to its doctrines, there is nothing in any of the administration’s orders targeting dissidents that essentializes being pro-Palestine, or anti-genocide. The regime has already asserted the power to define anything as terrorism, or material support, and even casual criticism as being a threat to US national security, so why would they stop at anti-genocide protestors or foreign students at all for that matter? A vast digital panopticon relying on “AI-processing” technology to sort through every aspect of a targeted individual or group’s lives can and almost certainly will be repurposed to identify and surveil the regime’s political and ideological opposition in broader American society until such a time as a ghoul like Marco Rubio, or Pam Bondi finds a way to declare that their constitutional rights too, are null and void."
#Fascism #USPol #ReconciliationBill #TransRights #Trump #GOP #ICE #MarcoRubio #StudentVisas #WhiteNationalism #TheSkinny #Newsletter
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This week's Skinny timed out with the end of the month, and a season change on my website; needless to say I'm a little exhausted. I'm fond of this one tho, there's several pieces I wrote this week that when cleaned up clearly could have been full essays. Not that I had the time to source them, but some of this was pretty good for a social media blog for sure.
This week we're talking about how the budget bill fuels the fascist anti-trans pogrom, the multiple purposes of the surveillance panopticon, ICE agents setting traps for migrants at courthouses nationwide, and the banality of the open white nationalism the regime engages in daily. Oh, and Senate Democrats could stop the GOP homicidal class war Billionaire Bill in its tracks; do they want to? Check out this week's Skinny for more:
https://www.ninaillingworth.com/2025/05/31/the-skinny-banality-of-evil-in-trumps-america/2/
The Skinny: Banality of Evil in Trump’s America
"Which brings us to the vague wording, and potentially broad applications of this ideological screening. As we’ve learned to watch for from studying the Heritage Foundation’s Project Esther, and the Trump administration’s clear adherence to its doctrines, there is nothing in any of the administration’s orders targeting dissidents that essentializes being pro-Palestine, or anti-genocide. The regime has already asserted the power to define anything as terrorism, or material support, and even casual criticism as being a threat to US national security, so why would they stop at anti-genocide protestors or foreign students at all for that matter? A vast digital panopticon relying on “AI-processing” technology to sort through every aspect of a targeted individual or group’s lives can and almost certainly will be repurposed to identify and surveil the regime’s political and ideological opposition in broader American society until such a time as a ghoul like Marco Rubio, or Pam Bondi finds a way to declare that their constitutional rights too, are null and void."
#Fascism #USPol #ReconciliationBill #TransRights #Trump #GOP #ICE #MarcoRubio #StudentVisas #WhiteNationalism #TheSkinny #Newsletter
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This week's Skinny timed out with the end of the month, and a season change on my website; needless to say I'm a little exhausted. I'm fond of this one tho, there's several pieces I wrote this week that when cleaned up clearly could have been full essays. Not that I had the time to source them, but some of this was pretty good for a social media blog for sure.
This week we're talking about how the budget bill fuels the fascist anti-trans pogrom, the multiple purposes of the surveillance panopticon, ICE agents setting traps for migrants at courthouses nationwide, and the banality of the open white nationalism the regime engages in daily. Oh, and Senate Democrats could stop the GOP homicidal class war Billionaire Bill in its tracks; do they want to? Check out this week's Skinny for more:
https://www.ninaillingworth.com/2025/05/31/the-skinny-banality-of-evil-in-trumps-america/2/
The Skinny: Banality of Evil in Trump’s America
"Which brings us to the vague wording, and potentially broad applications of this ideological screening. As we’ve learned to watch for from studying the Heritage Foundation’s Project Esther, and the Trump administration’s clear adherence to its doctrines, there is nothing in any of the administration’s orders targeting dissidents that essentializes being pro-Palestine, or anti-genocide. The regime has already asserted the power to define anything as terrorism, or material support, and even casual criticism as being a threat to US national security, so why would they stop at anti-genocide protestors or foreign students at all for that matter? A vast digital panopticon relying on “AI-processing” technology to sort through every aspect of a targeted individual or group’s lives can and almost certainly will be repurposed to identify and surveil the regime’s political and ideological opposition in broader American society until such a time as a ghoul like Marco Rubio, or Pam Bondi finds a way to declare that their constitutional rights too, are null and void."
#Fascism #USPol #ReconciliationBill #TransRights #Trump #GOP #ICE #MarcoRubio #StudentVisas #WhiteNationalism #TheSkinny #Newsletter
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This week's Skinny timed out with the end of the month, and a season change on my website; needless to say I'm a little exhausted. I'm fond of this one tho, there's several pieces I wrote this week that when cleaned up clearly could have been full essays. Not that I had the time to source them, but some of this was pretty good for a social media blog for sure.
This week we're talking about how the budget bill fuels the fascist anti-trans pogrom, the multiple purposes of the surveillance panopticon, ICE agents setting traps for migrants at courthouses nationwide, and the banality of the open white nationalism the regime engages in daily. Oh, and Senate Democrats could stop the GOP homicidal class war Billionaire Bill in its tracks; do they want to? Check out this week's Skinny for more:
https://www.ninaillingworth.com/2025/05/31/the-skinny-banality-of-evil-in-trumps-america/2/
The Skinny: Banality of Evil in Trump’s America
"Which brings us to the vague wording, and potentially broad applications of this ideological screening. As we’ve learned to watch for from studying the Heritage Foundation’s Project Esther, and the Trump administration’s clear adherence to its doctrines, there is nothing in any of the administration’s orders targeting dissidents that essentializes being pro-Palestine, or anti-genocide. The regime has already asserted the power to define anything as terrorism, or material support, and even casual criticism as being a threat to US national security, so why would they stop at anti-genocide protestors or foreign students at all for that matter? A vast digital panopticon relying on “AI-processing” technology to sort through every aspect of a targeted individual or group’s lives can and almost certainly will be repurposed to identify and surveil the regime’s political and ideological opposition in broader American society until such a time as a ghoul like Marco Rubio, or Pam Bondi finds a way to declare that their constitutional rights too, are null and void."
#Fascism #USPol #ReconciliationBill #TransRights #Trump #GOP #ICE #MarcoRubio #StudentVisas #WhiteNationalism #TheSkinny #Newsletter
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Just liberated the video of one of my talks from YouTube and uploaded a copy to our Vimeo account:
Big Brother Awards 2014: Moving beyond the clouds (we need an ethical approach to design)
(Imagine what a different world we’d be living in today if folks in tech had heeded our warnings back then. But I guess they were too busy making mint.)
PS. yt-dlp is your friend (on Mac: brew install yt-dlp). Also make sure you have ffmpeg installed (brew install ffmpeg). Finally, I had to manually tell yt-dlp where to find ffmpeg although your mileage may vary based on installation method: yt-dlp "<URL>" --write-subs --ffmpeg-location=/opt/homebrew/bin/ffmpeg (--write-subs saves the subtitles if there are any to a file in a format you can use on the web).
#EthicalDesignManifesto #ethics #design #ethicalDesign #AralBalkan #SmallTech #BigBrotherAwards #BitsOfFreedom #technology #tech #BigTech #panopticon #surveillance #capitalism #peopleFarming #fascism #technofascism #Google #Facebook
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Just liberated the video of one of my talks from YouTube and uploaded a copy to our Vimeo account:
Big Brother Awards 2014: Moving beyond the clouds (we need an ethical approach to design)
(Imagine what a different world we’d be living in today if folks in tech had heeded our warnings back then. But I guess they were too busy making mint.)
PS. yt-dlp is your friend (on Mac: brew install yt-dlp). Also make sure you have ffmpeg installed (brew install ffmpeg). Finally, I had to manually tell yt-dlp where to find ffmpeg although your mileage may vary based on installation method: yt-dlp "<URL>" --write-subs --ffmpeg-location=/opt/homebrew/bin/ffmpeg (--write-subs saves the subtitles if there are any to a file in a format you can use on the web).
#EthicalDesignManifesto #ethics #design #ethicalDesign #AralBalkan #SmallTech #BigBrotherAwards #BitsOfFreedom #technology #tech #BigTech #panopticon #surveillance #capitalism #peopleFarming #fascism #technofascism #Google #Facebook
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Just liberated the video of one of my talks from YouTube and uploaded a copy to our Vimeo account:
Big Brother Awards 2014: Moving beyond the clouds (we need an ethical approach to design)
(Imagine what a different world we’d be living in today if folks in tech had heeded our warnings back then. But I guess they were too busy making mint.)
PS. yt-dlp is your friend (on Mac: brew install yt-dlp). Also make sure you have ffmpeg installed (brew install ffmpeg). Finally, I had to manually tell yt-dlp where to find ffmpeg although your mileage may vary based on installation method: yt-dlp "<URL>" --write-subs --ffmpeg-location=/opt/homebrew/bin/ffmpeg (--write-subs saves the subtitles if there are any to a file in a format you can use on the web).
#EthicalDesignManifesto #ethics #design #ethicalDesign #AralBalkan #SmallTech #BigBrotherAwards #BitsOfFreedom #technology #tech #BigTech #panopticon #surveillance #capitalism #peopleFarming #fascism #technofascism #Google #Facebook
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Just liberated the video of one of my talks from YouTube and uploaded a copy to our Vimeo account:
Big Brother Awards 2014: Moving beyond the clouds (we need an ethical approach to design)
(Imagine what a different world we’d be living in today if folks in tech had heeded our warnings back then. But I guess they were too busy making mint.)
PS. yt-dlp is your friend (on Mac: brew install yt-dlp). Also make sure you have ffmpeg installed (brew install ffmpeg). Finally, I had to manually tell yt-dlp where to find ffmpeg although your mileage may vary based on installation method: yt-dlp "<URL>" --write-subs --ffmpeg-location=/opt/homebrew/bin/ffmpeg (--write-subs saves the subtitles if there are any to a file in a format you can use on the web).
#EthicalDesignManifesto #ethics #design #ethicalDesign #AralBalkan #SmallTech #BigBrotherAwards #BitsOfFreedom #technology #tech #BigTech #panopticon #surveillance #capitalism #peopleFarming #fascism #technofascism #Google #Facebook
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#ColumbiaUniversity Bent Over Backward to Appease #RightWing, #ProIsrael Attacks — And #Trump Still Cut #FederalFunding
Instead of #outrage, the school’s interim president responded to the cuts by vowing to continue its misguided crackdown.
by Natasha Lennard, March 8 2025
"Columbia University could hardly have been more draconian in the last year and a half since students began speaking out against Israel’s assault on #Gaza.
In early November 2023, four months before the Columbia #GazaSolidarity encampment even began, the university banned its chapters of #StudentsForJusticeInPalestine and #JewishVoiceForPeace. A few hundred students from the groups had had the audacity to walk out from classes and hold a “die-in” protest on campus — some of the most widely celebrated nonviolent protest tactics available."The crackdown was just getting started.
Since then, the university has ordered police raids on campus three times, leading to the arrests of over 100 students. Last week, the school expelled four students, three from #BarnardCollege one from Columbia. Many dozens of students have faced discipline and suspensions for participating in pro-Palestine protests and speech.
"Professors have been slandered before Congress, censured, removed from positions, and reportedly pushed into retirement over their support for Palestine and criticism of Israel. The campus has been essentially locked down for almost a year.
"Again and again, Columbia has shown a willingness to throw #students, #faculty, #FreeSpeech, and academic freedom under the bus in acquiescence to a #RightWing, #ProIsrael narrative that treats support for Palestinians as an affront to Jewish safety.
"For all Columbia’s #appeasement, President Donald Trump’s Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism announced last week that it would cancel $400 million in #FederalGrants and contracts to the university.
"'Columbia has worked overtime to appease,' wrote Layla, a student at Columbia’s School of Social Work, who asked to withhold her last name having faced doxxing attacks and harassment from Zionist groups. 'Students are miserable. Campus is a #panopticon. And their funding was still cut.'
"The Trump administration can be expected to use its perverted conception of antisemitism to further its explicit plans to decimate, #corporatize, and #ReWhiten #HigherEducation. The shame here lies with university leaderships — at Columbia and schools nationwide — that have failed to stand up for their purported missions of #CriticalThinking and #AcademicFreedom. Instead, they have put some of their most vulnerable community members, particularly international students and students of color, at risk.
"There is no appeasing a political force like the #TrumpianRight, intent on a program of destruction. And there is no appeasing a nationalist #Zionist worldview that, defying reason, sees #antisemitism in every call for #Palestinian freedom. Columbia is proof of the failure of caving in; the administration has offered up a platter of repression for more than a year and is still slated to lose $400 million."
Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2025/03/08/columbia-trump-funding-gaza-israel/Archived version:
https://archive.ph/jrNva
#Fascism #Appeasement #FreePalestine #Gaza #RightToProtest #Censorship #Fascism #ICE #ACAB #Authoritarianism #USPol #FreeSpeech -
#ColumbiaUniversity Bent Over Backward to Appease #RightWing, #ProIsrael Attacks — And #Trump Still Cut #FederalFunding
Instead of #outrage, the school’s interim president responded to the cuts by vowing to continue its misguided crackdown.
by Natasha Lennard, March 8 2025
"Columbia University could hardly have been more draconian in the last year and a half since students began speaking out against Israel’s assault on #Gaza.
In early November 2023, four months before the Columbia #GazaSolidarity encampment even began, the university banned its chapters of #StudentsForJusticeInPalestine and #JewishVoiceForPeace. A few hundred students from the groups had had the audacity to walk out from classes and hold a “die-in” protest on campus — some of the most widely celebrated nonviolent protest tactics available."The crackdown was just getting started.
Since then, the university has ordered police raids on campus three times, leading to the arrests of over 100 students. Last week, the school expelled four students, three from #BarnardCollege one from Columbia. Many dozens of students have faced discipline and suspensions for participating in pro-Palestine protests and speech.
"Professors have been slandered before Congress, censured, removed from positions, and reportedly pushed into retirement over their support for Palestine and criticism of Israel. The campus has been essentially locked down for almost a year.
"Again and again, Columbia has shown a willingness to throw #students, #faculty, #FreeSpeech, and academic freedom under the bus in acquiescence to a #RightWing, #ProIsrael narrative that treats support for Palestinians as an affront to Jewish safety.
"For all Columbia’s #appeasement, President Donald Trump’s Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism announced last week that it would cancel $400 million in #FederalGrants and contracts to the university.
"'Columbia has worked overtime to appease,' wrote Layla, a student at Columbia’s School of Social Work, who asked to withhold her last name having faced doxxing attacks and harassment from Zionist groups. 'Students are miserable. Campus is a #panopticon. And their funding was still cut.'
"The Trump administration can be expected to use its perverted conception of antisemitism to further its explicit plans to decimate, #corporatize, and #ReWhiten #HigherEducation. The shame here lies with university leaderships — at Columbia and schools nationwide — that have failed to stand up for their purported missions of #CriticalThinking and #AcademicFreedom. Instead, they have put some of their most vulnerable community members, particularly international students and students of color, at risk.
"There is no appeasing a political force like the #TrumpianRight, intent on a program of destruction. And there is no appeasing a nationalist #Zionist worldview that, defying reason, sees #antisemitism in every call for #Palestinian freedom. Columbia is proof of the failure of caving in; the administration has offered up a platter of repression for more than a year and is still slated to lose $400 million."
Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2025/03/08/columbia-trump-funding-gaza-israel/Archived version:
https://archive.ph/jrNva
#Fascism #Appeasement #FreePalestine #Gaza #RightToProtest #Censorship #Fascism #ICE #ACAB #Authoritarianism #USPol #FreeSpeech -
#ColumbiaUniversity Bent Over Backward to Appease #RightWing, #ProIsrael Attacks — And #Trump Still Cut #FederalFunding
Instead of #outrage, the school’s interim president responded to the cuts by vowing to continue its misguided crackdown.
by Natasha Lennard, March 8 2025
"Columbia University could hardly have been more draconian in the last year and a half since students began speaking out against Israel’s assault on #Gaza.
In early November 2023, four months before the Columbia #GazaSolidarity encampment even began, the university banned its chapters of #StudentsForJusticeInPalestine and #JewishVoiceForPeace. A few hundred students from the groups had had the audacity to walk out from classes and hold a “die-in” protest on campus — some of the most widely celebrated nonviolent protest tactics available."The crackdown was just getting started.
Since then, the university has ordered police raids on campus three times, leading to the arrests of over 100 students. Last week, the school expelled four students, three from #BarnardCollege one from Columbia. Many dozens of students have faced discipline and suspensions for participating in pro-Palestine protests and speech.
"Professors have been slandered before Congress, censured, removed from positions, and reportedly pushed into retirement over their support for Palestine and criticism of Israel. The campus has been essentially locked down for almost a year.
"Again and again, Columbia has shown a willingness to throw #students, #faculty, #FreeSpeech, and academic freedom under the bus in acquiescence to a #RightWing, #ProIsrael narrative that treats support for Palestinians as an affront to Jewish safety.
"For all Columbia’s #appeasement, President Donald Trump’s Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism announced last week that it would cancel $400 million in #FederalGrants and contracts to the university.
"'Columbia has worked overtime to appease,' wrote Layla, a student at Columbia’s School of Social Work, who asked to withhold her last name having faced doxxing attacks and harassment from Zionist groups. 'Students are miserable. Campus is a #panopticon. And their funding was still cut.'
"The Trump administration can be expected to use its perverted conception of antisemitism to further its explicit plans to decimate, #corporatize, and #ReWhiten #HigherEducation. The shame here lies with university leaderships — at Columbia and schools nationwide — that have failed to stand up for their purported missions of #CriticalThinking and #AcademicFreedom. Instead, they have put some of their most vulnerable community members, particularly international students and students of color, at risk.
"There is no appeasing a political force like the #TrumpianRight, intent on a program of destruction. And there is no appeasing a nationalist #Zionist worldview that, defying reason, sees #antisemitism in every call for #Palestinian freedom. Columbia is proof of the failure of caving in; the administration has offered up a platter of repression for more than a year and is still slated to lose $400 million."
Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2025/03/08/columbia-trump-funding-gaza-israel/Archived version:
https://archive.ph/jrNva
#Fascism #Appeasement #FreePalestine #Gaza #RightToProtest #Censorship #Fascism #ICE #ACAB #Authoritarianism #USPol #FreeSpeech -
#ColumbiaUniversity Bent Over Backward to Appease #RightWing, #ProIsrael Attacks — And #Trump Still Cut #FederalFunding
Instead of #outrage, the school’s interim president responded to the cuts by vowing to continue its misguided crackdown.
by Natasha Lennard, March 8 2025
"Columbia University could hardly have been more draconian in the last year and a half since students began speaking out against Israel’s assault on #Gaza.
In early November 2023, four months before the Columbia #GazaSolidarity encampment even began, the university banned its chapters of #StudentsForJusticeInPalestine and #JewishVoiceForPeace. A few hundred students from the groups had had the audacity to walk out from classes and hold a “die-in” protest on campus — some of the most widely celebrated nonviolent protest tactics available."The crackdown was just getting started.
Since then, the university has ordered police raids on campus three times, leading to the arrests of over 100 students. Last week, the school expelled four students, three from #BarnardCollege one from Columbia. Many dozens of students have faced discipline and suspensions for participating in pro-Palestine protests and speech.
"Professors have been slandered before Congress, censured, removed from positions, and reportedly pushed into retirement over their support for Palestine and criticism of Israel. The campus has been essentially locked down for almost a year.
"Again and again, Columbia has shown a willingness to throw #students, #faculty, #FreeSpeech, and academic freedom under the bus in acquiescence to a #RightWing, #ProIsrael narrative that treats support for Palestinians as an affront to Jewish safety.
"For all Columbia’s #appeasement, President Donald Trump’s Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism announced last week that it would cancel $400 million in #FederalGrants and contracts to the university.
"'Columbia has worked overtime to appease,' wrote Layla, a student at Columbia’s School of Social Work, who asked to withhold her last name having faced doxxing attacks and harassment from Zionist groups. 'Students are miserable. Campus is a #panopticon. And their funding was still cut.'
"The Trump administration can be expected to use its perverted conception of antisemitism to further its explicit plans to decimate, #corporatize, and #ReWhiten #HigherEducation. The shame here lies with university leaderships — at Columbia and schools nationwide — that have failed to stand up for their purported missions of #CriticalThinking and #AcademicFreedom. Instead, they have put some of their most vulnerable community members, particularly international students and students of color, at risk.
"There is no appeasing a political force like the #TrumpianRight, intent on a program of destruction. And there is no appeasing a nationalist #Zionist worldview that, defying reason, sees #antisemitism in every call for #Palestinian freedom. Columbia is proof of the failure of caving in; the administration has offered up a platter of repression for more than a year and is still slated to lose $400 million."
Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2025/03/08/columbia-trump-funding-gaza-israel/Archived version:
https://archive.ph/jrNva
#Fascism #Appeasement #FreePalestine #Gaza #RightToProtest #Censorship #Fascism #ICE #ACAB #Authoritarianism #USPol #FreeSpeech -
#ColumbiaUniversity Bent Over Backward to Appease #RightWing, #ProIsrael Attacks — And #Trump Still Cut #FederalFunding
Instead of #outrage, the school’s interim president responded to the cuts by vowing to continue its misguided crackdown.
by Natasha Lennard, March 8 2025
"Columbia University could hardly have been more draconian in the last year and a half since students began speaking out against Israel’s assault on #Gaza.
In early November 2023, four months before the Columbia #GazaSolidarity encampment even began, the university banned its chapters of #StudentsForJusticeInPalestine and #JewishVoiceForPeace. A few hundred students from the groups had had the audacity to walk out from classes and hold a “die-in” protest on campus — some of the most widely celebrated nonviolent protest tactics available."The crackdown was just getting started.
Since then, the university has ordered police raids on campus three times, leading to the arrests of over 100 students. Last week, the school expelled four students, three from #BarnardCollege one from Columbia. Many dozens of students have faced discipline and suspensions for participating in pro-Palestine protests and speech.
"Professors have been slandered before Congress, censured, removed from positions, and reportedly pushed into retirement over their support for Palestine and criticism of Israel. The campus has been essentially locked down for almost a year.
"Again and again, Columbia has shown a willingness to throw #students, #faculty, #FreeSpeech, and academic freedom under the bus in acquiescence to a #RightWing, #ProIsrael narrative that treats support for Palestinians as an affront to Jewish safety.
"For all Columbia’s #appeasement, President Donald Trump’s Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism announced last week that it would cancel $400 million in #FederalGrants and contracts to the university.
"'Columbia has worked overtime to appease,' wrote Layla, a student at Columbia’s School of Social Work, who asked to withhold her last name having faced doxxing attacks and harassment from Zionist groups. 'Students are miserable. Campus is a #panopticon. And their funding was still cut.'
"The Trump administration can be expected to use its perverted conception of antisemitism to further its explicit plans to decimate, #corporatize, and #ReWhiten #HigherEducation. The shame here lies with university leaderships — at Columbia and schools nationwide — that have failed to stand up for their purported missions of #CriticalThinking and #AcademicFreedom. Instead, they have put some of their most vulnerable community members, particularly international students and students of color, at risk.
"There is no appeasing a political force like the #TrumpianRight, intent on a program of destruction. And there is no appeasing a nationalist #Zionist worldview that, defying reason, sees #antisemitism in every call for #Palestinian freedom. Columbia is proof of the failure of caving in; the administration has offered up a platter of repression for more than a year and is still slated to lose $400 million."
Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2025/03/08/columbia-trump-funding-gaza-israel/Archived version:
https://archive.ph/jrNva
#Fascism #Appeasement #FreePalestine #Gaza #RightToProtest #Censorship #Fascism #ICE #ACAB #Authoritarianism #USPol #FreeSpeech -
Retour en arrière ce #vendredilecture, partant du dernier livre de #AchilleMbembe, « La communauté terrestre » – que je n’avais pas terminé en décembre, mais repris en main cette semaine – dont le traitement du « vivant » sur sa Terre hospitalière m’a ramené au « Nous, animaux et humains » de #TristanGarcia. Le point de repère est l’« être sensible » du philosophe utilitariste #JeremyBentham (célèbre pour son Panopticon, l’infâme méthode de surveillance d’un point central en usines ou prisons) mettant en contraste la « ligne infranchissable » entre humains et animaux avec celle qui – de droit à l’époque – séparait les hommes des femmes et des esclaves. 1/3
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"Accept Terms?"
Near-future Horror (cont'd)I try to ask the men to clarify the terms, but that was not one of their many jobs. The choice was equally easy & incredibly difficult.
Agree to total 24/7 monitoring, a silicon panopticon, or lose all modern entertainment and connection.
#Antifascist #AntifaArt #Microfiction #TTJ #HeirloomFiction #ArtFED
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Oceansize - that phenomenal Manchester-based prog-rock band from the Aughties & Naughties - announced that their third album 'Frames' is getting a vinyl re-release!
It's the last full album of theirs that I don't yet have on vinyl, so I'm looking forward to completing my collection in December when it gets delivered.
In the meantime, here's a great writeup reflecting on the album 10 years on. https://generationmixtape.com/2022/08/07/i-am-the-frame/
To answer the author's question "which album would you want to listen to again for the first time?", I'd probably say Isis's 'Panopticon' or 'The Fragile' by Nine Inch Nails.
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Liljevars Brann – Helja Kor Review
By Mystikus Hugebeard
They say that 75% of a Finnish park ranger’s job is finding black metal bands that got lost in the woods shooting album covers. Suppose the park rangers in Germany had a similar issue. In that case, I imagine they would have the hardest time finding atmospheric black metal newcomers Liljevars Brann, given how musically deep into the woods they seek to take us in their debut album Helja Kor. Written in a fictional blend of German and Norwegian languages and dubbed “mystical black metal with a folkloric edge,” is Helja Kor a strong debut that conjures grasping roots to drag you into the heart of the forest, or are these woods still too close to the parking lot?
Liljevars Brann weaves together slow-tempo black metal with winding acoustic guitar passages. It worked when heavier bands like Panopticon or Ulvik did it,1 and it works here in Helja Kor. Melancholic guitar riffs plod beneath high-pitched harmonizing guitar wails like a reborn The 3rd and the Mortal with a harsher, black metal edge, regularly interspersed with panoramic acoustic sequences. Liljevars Brann excels at folk music; the guitars have a satisfying pluck and pace that happily reminds me of Uaral. The vocals, by frontman Sjelvindur, are one of the most compelling parts of Helja Kor. His clean vocals marry a mysterious folksiness with a warbling gothic cadence, and some of the album’s best moments come from Sjelvindur’s percussive intonation in the outro of “Helja Kor” and the somber shakiness of the beginning of “Krieglande.” Between the winning combination of black metal and folk music with the added edge of Sjelvindur’s unique vocals, the components of a great album are all here.
Unfortunately, Helja Kor struggles to truly find its footing due to meandering songwriting that begins to drag early on. Low intensity is one thing, but Helja Kor is also low energy, which makes it difficult to stay engaged. From the opener “Helja Kor” to the second-to-last “Krieglande,” every song is in the same torturously slow 3/4 time signature with minimal evolution or differentiation between songs. Even the rare black metal sections of the primarily acoustic “Sjelvind” feel melodically identical to those of the more predominantly heavy “Krieglande.” A 3/4 time signature isn’t an issue by itself, but after 40 minutes of overtly similar riffs in a stagnant tempo, it’s impossible not to crave variation. That comes in, blessedly, in “Brannstjeringen,” which ends the album on a miraculously high note through dynamic songwriting in a refreshing 4/4 time signature. “Brannstjeringen” builds towards an exciting, emotionally charged apotheosis that highlights how the remainder of Helja Kor lacks meaningful direction in its song structure, devoid of stirring peaks that move me like “Brannstjeringen” does.
Helja Kor touts a mystical, woodsy atmosphere, and this atmosphere is strong enough to partly compensate for what the songwriting lacks. The folk guitars are effectively paired with Sjelvindur’s vocals, and they just ooze arboreal mysticism. It’s a shame that an excess of melodic/harmonic repetition and languid structure permeate Helja Kor, because by themselves, the guitar harmonies in “Dansa Mej Brodar I Fyre” and “Krieglande” are enjoyable. It boggles the mind, then, how much the drums clash with Helja Kor’s atmosphere through a distracting mix that fails to effectively integrate them. The strength of Liljevars Brann’s acoustics is frequently undone in “Helja Kor,” “Dansa Mej Brodar I Fyre,” and “Sjelvind” by the incessant ting-ting-ting of the cymbals. Even towards the end of “Brannstjeringen,” the drums leave a stain on the song’s highest point with loud, off-tempo blast beats. It’s clear that Liljevars Brann has put a lot of thought into the unique atmosphere they want to create, but it unravels at almost every turn through songwriting that doesn’t support it and a mix that dilutes it.
Helja Kor is the type of record where it’s easier to appreciate what Liljevars Brann is trying to do than enjoy its execution. There are glimpses of a compelling folkloric atmosphere to be found, but Helja Kor flounders in excessive repetition, frequently dissatisfying structure, and irritating production choices. And yet, I abhor the thought of abandoning Liljevars Brann for good because there is a real vision here, and I want to see it realized. Helja Kor has enough individually solid aspects—Sjelvindur’s vocals, the Uaral-esque acoustics, the black metal harmonies, the peaks of “Brannstjeringen”—to compel me to keep my eye on Liljevars Brann in hopes that their next release finds me more lost in the woods than a mere park ranger can handle.
Rating: Disappointing
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s CBR MP3
Label: Argonauta Records
Websites: facebook | bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: September 27th, 2024#20 #2024 #ArgonautaRecords #AtmosphericBlackMetal #BlackFolkMetal #BlackMetal #GermanMetal #HeljaKor #LiljevarsBrann #OctoberFalls #OctopusRising #Panopticon #Sep24 #The3rdAndTheMortal #Uaral #Ulver #Ulvik
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Liljevars Brann – Helja Kor Review
By Mystikus Hugebeard
They say that 75% of a Finnish park ranger’s job is finding black metal bands that got lost in the woods shooting album covers. Suppose the park rangers in Germany had a similar issue. In that case, I imagine they would have the hardest time finding atmospheric black metal newcomers Liljevars Brann, given how musically deep into the woods they seek to take us in their debut album Helja Kor. Written in a fictional blend of German and Norwegian languages and dubbed “mystical black metal with a folkloric edge,” is Helja Kor a strong debut that conjures grasping roots to drag you into the heart of the forest, or are these woods still too close to the parking lot?
Liljevars Brann weaves together slow-tempo black metal with winding acoustic guitar passages. It worked when heavier bands like Panopticon or Ulvik did it,1 and it works here in Helja Kor. Melancholic guitar riffs plod beneath high-pitched harmonizing guitar wails like a reborn The 3rd and the Mortal with a harsher, black metal edge, regularly interspersed with panoramic acoustic sequences. Liljevars Brann excels at folk music; the guitars have a satisfying pluck and pace that happily reminds me of Uaral. The vocals, by frontman Sjelvindur, are one of the most compelling parts of Helja Kor. His clean vocals marry a mysterious folksiness with a warbling gothic cadence, and some of the album’s best moments come from Sjelvindur’s percussive intonation in the outro of “Helja Kor” and the somber shakiness of the beginning of “Krieglande.” Between the winning combination of black metal and folk music with the added edge of Sjelvindur’s unique vocals, the components of a great album are all here.
Unfortunately, Helja Kor struggles to truly find its footing due to meandering songwriting that begins to drag early on. Low intensity is one thing, but Helja Kor is also low energy, which makes it difficult to stay engaged. From the opener “Helja Kor” to the second-to-last “Krieglande,” every song is in the same torturously slow 3/4 time signature with minimal evolution or differentiation between songs. Even the rare black metal sections of the primarily acoustic “Sjelvind” feel melodically identical to those of the more predominantly heavy “Krieglande.” A 3/4 time signature isn’t an issue by itself, but after 40 minutes of overtly similar riffs in a stagnant tempo, it’s impossible not to crave variation. That comes in, blessedly, in “Brannstjeringen,” which ends the album on a miraculously high note through dynamic songwriting in a refreshing 4/4 time signature. “Brannstjeringen” builds towards an exciting, emotionally charged apotheosis that highlights how the remainder of Helja Kor lacks meaningful direction in its song structure, devoid of stirring peaks that move me like “Brannstjeringen” does.
Helja Kor touts a mystical, woodsy atmosphere, and this atmosphere is strong enough to partly compensate for what the songwriting lacks. The folk guitars are effectively paired with Sjelvindur’s vocals, and they just ooze arboreal mysticism. It’s a shame that an excess of melodic/harmonic repetition and languid structure permeate Helja Kor, because by themselves, the guitar harmonies in “Dansa Mej Brodar I Fyre” and “Krieglande” are enjoyable. It boggles the mind, then, how much the drums clash with Helja Kor’s atmosphere through a distracting mix that fails to effectively integrate them. The strength of Liljevars Brann’s acoustics is frequently undone in “Helja Kor,” “Dansa Mej Brodar I Fyre,” and “Sjelvind” by the incessant ting-ting-ting of the cymbals. Even towards the end of “Brannstjeringen,” the drums leave a stain on the song’s highest point with loud, off-tempo blast beats. It’s clear that Liljevars Brann has put a lot of thought into the unique atmosphere they want to create, but it unravels at almost every turn through songwriting that doesn’t support it and a mix that dilutes it.
Helja Kor is the type of record where it’s easier to appreciate what Liljevars Brann is trying to do than enjoy its execution. There are glimpses of a compelling folkloric atmosphere to be found, but Helja Kor flounders in excessive repetition, frequently dissatisfying structure, and irritating production choices. And yet, I abhor the thought of abandoning Liljevars Brann for good because there is a real vision here, and I want to see it realized. Helja Kor has enough individually solid aspects—Sjelvindur’s vocals, the Uaral-esque acoustics, the black metal harmonies, the peaks of “Brannstjeringen”—to compel me to keep my eye on Liljevars Brann in hopes that their next release finds me more lost in the woods than a mere park ranger can handle.
Rating: Disappointing
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s CBR MP3
Label: Argonauta Records
Websites: facebook | bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: September 27th, 2024#20 #2024 #ArgonautaRecords #AtmosphericBlackMetal #BlackFolkMetal #BlackMetal #GermanMetal #HeljaKor #LiljevarsBrann #OctoberFalls #OctopusRising #Panopticon #Sep24 #The3rdAndTheMortal #Uaral #Ulver #Ulvik
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Dawn Treader – Bloom & Decay Review
By Itchymenace
I love black metal—especially when it’s drenched in an atmosphere that soars between heroic highs and guttural lows. But, finding quality records with dynamic songs that resonate with me on an emotional level can be harder than finding a needle in a Norwegian blizzard. Jorn knows I’ve dipped my scabbed hands into the sump numerous times only to pull out some third or fourth-generation Emperor copy put together by a couple of kids who are in 300 other bands that I’ve also never heard of. Patiently, I’ve waited for a band that has the hood-covered chops to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the great atmo-black bands I adore like Agalloch, Alcest, Panopticon and, dare I say, Deafheaven.1 So, it was as if Odin himself answered my prayers when Dawn Treader steered its mighty Saxon hull into my harbor with an album that’s as fierce, beautiful, stirring, and memorable as anything I’ve heard in the past several years. What makes this album such a gem? Direct your black gaze forward.
Dawn Treader is a “solo, anti-fascist black metal project” from London native, Ross Connell. Bloom & Decay is the project’s second release and the first to include vocals from Mr. Connell, who proves himself a formidable and impassioned vocalist. He balances urgency and angst with an emotional nuance that elevates the songs above most of his contemporaries. His opening shriek on “Idolator” is blood-curdling in the best sense, but he channels that rage into the verse with a near-melodic delivery that will put your heart in your throat. On his previous release, 2021’s The Burial of the Dead, any vocalizations came in the form of soundbites from poems, namely T.S. Elliot’s “Wasteland.” Bloom & Decay still benefits from plenty of carefully curated samples, but the vocals add a much-welcome dimension to the landscape.
The majority of Bloom & Decay is instrumental, but you hardly notice because the music has such a storytelling quality to it. To paraphrase the release notes, it takes you through the “cycles of life and death, grief and glory, hope and melancholy.” And while most black metal bands promise some form of this, Dawn Treader delivers in spades. The opening minutes of “Sunchaser” offer a prelude of everything to come with delicate melodies that intensify into heroic tremolos that feel victorious one moment and mournful the next. The track segues perfectly into “Idolator,” which somehow combines compelling black metal riffs with a crushing, metalcore-style breakdown and a finger-tapping guitar solo. It works, check it out! Listening to Bloom & Decay, you can’t help but feel that it is building up to something. That something is the title track and one of the most uplifting and inspiring songs I’ve ever heard. It’s a monster album closer that soars through some of the best, most melodic blackened guitar work you’ll hear. But, the coup de grace is the masterfully placed sample of Charles Bukowski’s “The Laughing Heart” as read by Tom Waits. The poem, which emphasizes how life’s soul-crushing lows can be offset by glimmering moments of light, perfectly delivers an emotional climax that makes you want to wipe your brow, catch your breath, flip the record and start over.
A big part of me wanted to give this record a 5.0 but the objective voice inside my head (and the thought of Steel’s boot on my neck) persuaded me to step back and reconsider. As good as the good stuff is, there are areas that could be trimmed. Curiously, the first single “Sky Burial,” resonates with me the least. “Iron Price,” with its heavily political and meandering “fuck you” speech may turn off some listeners, but the ferocity of the second half delivers serious chills reminiscent of Panopticon. While I love “The Oxbow Incident,” the Henry Fonda speech included before the final track delays rather than builds my excitement. Still, at 53 minutes, Bloom & Decay is right in the pocket for this sort of epic black metal.
Bloom & Decay not only contains amazing songs that celebrate the highs and lows of the human experience, but it also sounds great. It has a bright and punchy production that submerges you just beneath every cascading note and crashing tidal wave blast. For fans of black metal and certainly post-black metal, black gaze and atmo black (and whatever other hip genre you want to add) Dawn Treader have released a must-have record. Prepare to set sail for greatness!
Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 2116 kbps
Label: liminaldreadproductions.com
Website: dawntreaderuk.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: August 23rd, 2024#40 #AtmophericBlackMetal #Aug24 #BlackMetal #Blackgaze #BloomDecay #DawnTreader #EnglishMetal #Review #Reviews #UKMetal
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Dawn Treader – Bloom & Decay Review
By Itchymenace
I love black metal—especially when it’s drenched in an atmosphere that soars between heroic highs and guttural lows. But, finding quality records with dynamic songs that resonate with me on an emotional level can be harder than finding a needle in a Norwegian blizzard. Jorn knows I’ve dipped my scabbed hands into the sump numerous times only to pull out some third or fourth-generation Emperor copy put together by a couple of kids who are in 300 other bands that I’ve also never heard of. Patiently, I’ve waited for a band that has the hood-covered chops to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the great atmo-black bands I adore like Agalloch, Alcest, Panopticon and, dare I say, Deafheaven.1 So, it was as if Odin himself answered my prayers when Dawn Treader steered its mighty Saxon hull into my harbor with an album that’s as fierce, beautiful, stirring, and memorable as anything I’ve heard in the past several years. What makes this album such a gem? Direct your black gaze forward.
Dawn Treader is a “solo, anti-fascist black metal project” from London native, Ross Connell. Bloom & Decay is the project’s second release and the first to include vocals from Mr. Connell, who proves himself a formidable and impassioned vocalist. He balances urgency and angst with an emotional nuance that elevates the songs above most of his contemporaries. His opening shriek on “Idolator” is blood-curdling in the best sense, but he channels that rage into the verse with a near-melodic delivery that will put your heart in your throat. On his previous release, 2021’s The Burial of the Dead, any vocalizations came in the form of soundbites from poems, namely T.S. Elliot’s “Wasteland.” Bloom & Decay still benefits from plenty of carefully curated samples, but the vocals add a much-welcome dimension to the landscape.
The majority of Bloom & Decay is instrumental, but you hardly notice because the music has such a storytelling quality to it. To paraphrase the release notes, it takes you through the “cycles of life and death, grief and glory, hope and melancholy.” And while most black metal bands promise some form of this, Dawn Treader delivers in spades. The opening minutes of “Sunchaser” offer a prelude of everything to come with delicate melodies that intensify into heroic tremolos that feel victorious one moment and mournful the next. The track segues perfectly into “Idolator,” which somehow combines compelling black metal riffs with a crushing, metalcore-style breakdown and a finger-tapping guitar solo. It works, check it out! Listening to Bloom & Decay, you can’t help but feel that it is building up to something. That something is the title track and one of the most uplifting and inspiring songs I’ve ever heard. It’s a monster album closer that soars through some of the best, most melodic blackened guitar work you’ll hear. But, the coup de grace is the masterfully placed sample of Charles Bukowski’s “The Laughing Heart” as read by Tom Waits. The poem, which emphasizes how life’s soul-crushing lows can be offset by glimmering moments of light, perfectly delivers an emotional climax that makes you want to wipe your brow, catch your breath, flip the record and start over.
A big part of me wanted to give this record a 5.0 but the objective voice inside my head (and the thought of Steel’s boot on my neck) persuaded me to step back and reconsider. As good as the good stuff is, there are areas that could be trimmed. Curiously, the first single “Sky Burial,” resonates with me the least. “Iron Price,” with its heavily political and meandering “fuck you” speech may turn off some listeners, but the ferocity of the second half delivers serious chills reminiscent of Panopticon. While I love “The Oxbow Incident,” the Henry Fonda speech included before the final track delays rather than builds my excitement. Still, at 53 minutes, Bloom & Decay is right in the pocket for this sort of epic black metal.
Bloom & Decay not only contains amazing songs that celebrate the highs and lows of the human experience, but it also sounds great. It has a bright and punchy production that submerges you just beneath every cascading note and crashing tidal wave blast. For fans of black metal and certainly post-black metal, black gaze and atmo black (and whatever other hip genre you want to add) Dawn Treader have released a must-have record. Prepare to set sail for greatness!
Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 2116 kbps
Label: liminaldreadproductions.com
Website: dawntreaderuk.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: August 23rd, 2024#40 #AtmophericBlackMetal #Aug24 #BlackMetal #Blackgaze #BloomDecay #DawnTreader #EnglishMetal #Review #Reviews #UKMetal
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Dawn Treader – Bloom & Decay Review
By Itchymenace
I love black metal—especially when it’s drenched in an atmosphere that soars between heroic highs and guttural lows. But, finding quality records with dynamic songs that resonate with me on an emotional level can be harder than finding a needle in a Norwegian blizzard. Jorn knows I’ve dipped my scabbed hands into the sump numerous times only to pull out some third or fourth-generation Emperor copy put together by a couple of kids who are in 300 other bands that I’ve also never heard of. Patiently, I’ve waited for a band that has the hood-covered chops to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the great atmo-black bands I adore like Agalloch, Alcest, Panopticon and, dare I say, Deafheaven.1 So, it was as if Odin himself answered my prayers when Dawn Treader steered its mighty Saxon hull into my harbor with an album that’s as fierce, beautiful, stirring, and memorable as anything I’ve heard in the past several years. What makes this album such a gem? Direct your black gaze forward.
Dawn Treader is a “solo, anti-fascist black metal project” from London native, Ross Connell. Bloom & Decay is the project’s second release and the first to include vocals from Mr. Connell, who proves himself a formidable and impassioned vocalist. He balances urgency and angst with an emotional nuance that elevates the songs above most of his contemporaries. His opening shriek on “Idolator” is blood-curdling in the best sense, but he channels that rage into the verse with a near-melodic delivery that will put your heart in your throat. On his previous release, 2021’s The Burial of the Dead, any vocalizations came in the form of soundbites from poems, namely T.S. Elliot’s “Wasteland.” Bloom & Decay still benefits from plenty of carefully curated samples, but the vocals add a much-welcome dimension to the landscape.
The majority of Bloom & Decay is instrumental, but you hardly notice because the music has such a storytelling quality to it. To paraphrase the release notes, it takes you through the “cycles of life and death, grief and glory, hope and melancholy.” And while most black metal bands promise some form of this, Dawn Treader delivers in spades. The opening minutes of “Sunchaser” offer a prelude of everything to come with delicate melodies that intensify into heroic tremolos that feel victorious one moment and mournful the next. The track segues perfectly into “Idolator,” which somehow combines compelling black metal riffs with a crushing, metalcore-style breakdown and a finger-tapping guitar solo. It works, check it out! Listening to Bloom & Decay, you can’t help but feel that it is building up to something. That something is the title track and one of the most uplifting and inspiring songs I’ve ever heard. It’s a monster album closer that soars through some of the best, most melodic blackened guitar work you’ll hear. But, the coup de grace is the masterfully placed sample of Charles Bukowski’s “The Laughing Heart” as read by Tom Waits. The poem, which emphasizes how life’s soul-crushing lows can be offset by glimmering moments of light, perfectly delivers an emotional climax that makes you want to wipe your brow, catch your breath, flip the record and start over.
A big part of me wanted to give this record a 5.0 but the objective voice inside my head (and the thought of Steel’s boot on my neck) persuaded me to step back and reconsider. As good as the good stuff is, there are areas that could be trimmed. Curiously, the first single “Sky Burial,” resonates with me the least. “Iron Price,” with its heavily political and meandering “fuck you” speech may turn off some listeners, but the ferocity of the second half delivers serious chills reminiscent of Panopticon. While I love “The Oxbow Incident,” the Henry Fonda speech included before the final track delays rather than builds my excitement. Still, at 53 minutes, Bloom & Decay is right in the pocket for this sort of epic black metal.
Bloom & Decay not only contains amazing songs that celebrate the highs and lows of the human experience, but it also sounds great. It has a bright and punchy production that submerges you just beneath every cascading note and crashing tidal wave blast. For fans of black metal and certainly post-black metal, black gaze and atmo black (and whatever other hip genre you want to add) Dawn Treader have released a must-have record. Prepare to set sail for greatness!
Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 2116 kbps
Label: liminaldreadproductions.com
Website: dawntreaderuk.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: August 23rd, 2024#40 #AtmophericBlackMetal #Aug24 #BlackMetal #Blackgaze #BloomDecay #DawnTreader #EnglishMetal #Review #Reviews #UKMetal
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Ulvik – Last Rites | Dire Omens Review
By Mystikus Hugebeard
Last Rites | Dire Omens. Interesting album title, that. Last rites signify mourning and gentle acceptance, while dire omens suggest malevolence, a promise of death yet to come. Likely by design, these contrasting themes directly apply to the kind of neofolk and atmospheric black metal that Canadian duo Ulvik peddles, as the sad beauty of their folk music inevitably succumbs to a more pronounced black metal malevolence. Hailing from the endless pine trees of Canada’s westernmost territory British Columbia, Ulvik invites you to immerse yourself in their rural melancholy with their fourth opus, Last Rites | Dire Omens.
Ulvik’s atmospheric black/folk manifests in ways both familiar and unfamiliar for the genre. The implementation of acoustic guitars and strings reminds one of bands like Nechochwen and Panopticon, while the emotional tone wouldn’t feel out of place alongside the prairie-doom-isms of Altars of Grief. The metal, on the other hand, challenges the atmoblack label. Opener “Through False Dust” may initially give the impression of a traditionally atmospheric approach with distant, chilly tremolos, but the guitars quickly gain an uncharacteristic urgency as the album progresses. Last Rites | Dire Omens won’t allow you to drift into pleasant listlessness as you might elsewhere; many of the album’s deep, at times almost chugging riffs have a blunt force to them that demands your attention, while the vocalist’s emotive shrieks and all the wailing layers of guitars veer more into post-black metal territory. But while I typically associate emotions like sorrow or grief with the peaks of typical post-black metal, when Ulvik is at their heaviest in a track like “Sown on Earth,” I hear only anger.
Much of what works about Last Rites | Dire Omens lies in the simple appeal of Ulvik’s soundscape. Within the greater pantheon of folky atmoblack bands, Ulvik’s folk elements are some of the best I’ve heard. They bring to life the album’s bleak atmosphere while simultaneously underlining it with beauty; the heavier songs open with densely layered strings that have real grit to them, while the acoustic guitars are softer, offering a comforting reprieve. The acoustic interludes, which could’ve just been unremarkable asides, become genuine album highlights in Ulvik’s hands. This evocative, expressive dark folk pairs nicely with the metal’s bluntness and serves as an effective foil to the folk’s subtleties. After the gradual build of miserable strings and anguished spoken words in “Sown on Earth,” that aforementioned anger in the song’s crushing verse cuts all the deeper. That same bluntness did initially make the eight-minute “Glass & Scythe” feel tedious, but I’ve grown fond of its variations-on-a-theme approach to a simple, satisfying motif, for within this simplicity lies an emotional clarity that is thus enabled to shine through.
For most of the album’s duration, few issues stood out as terribly damning. The folk instruments are sorely missed within “Life & Death Are One”‘s repetitive avant-garde dissonance, and the first interlude, “Woven Into Threads,” is placed too early as the third song, but nevertheless, the album was overall an easy recommend. Emphasis on was, because the closing duo of songs changed matters for the worse. “The Pallid Mask” mirrors the increasing violence of the spoken words from “Sown on Earth,” but the speaker’s forceful delivery isn’t as believable and the song crawls to an insultingly short payoff that’s negligible in comparison. “Yesterday & Years Ago” has a more concrete, satisfying melancholy to it, but toothlessly meanders into yet more overlong spoken words without ever hitting its stride. Perhaps these songs might not offend as much were they spread out, but together they end the album on an extremely dour note that I’ve begun avoiding altogether on repeat listens. Each song builds towards a resolution that either disappoints or never even arrives, and in so doing rob the album as a whole of the resolution it deserved.
Perhaps the final word on this album isn’t as positive as I’d like, but I’m glad I found Ulvik. There’s a lot to like about the evocative dark folk and emotionally charged atmoblack that Ulvik brings to the table, and there are plenty of moments in Last Rites | Dire Omens that demonstrate why Ulvik is worth your time if this type of music appeals to you like it does to me. What a shame, then, that this album stumbles so hard at the finish line. There exists a differently organized or edited version of this album that I’d have gladly rated higher, but when an album ends on consecutive songs that so utterly miss the mark, it can’t be ignored.
Rating: Mixed
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps
Label: Avantgarde Music
Websites: bandcamp | facebook
Releases Worldwide: May 24, 2024#25 #2024 #AltarsOfGrief #AtmosphericBlackMetal #AvantgardeMusic #BlackMetal #CanadianMetal #LastRitesDireOmens #May24 #Nechochwen #Neofolk #Panopticon #PostBlackMetal #Review #Reviews #Ulvik
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By Cherd
When I first came on as a writer here, I had all kinds of ideas about what bands I’d be reviewing before the reality of seniority fully hit me in the solar plexus. I wanted to review Pallbearer. I got there, but I had to wait until they…uh…weren’t that good anymore and other, more senior writers moved on. I wanted to review Panopticon. Still waiting on that one. Same with YOB. I wanted to review Inter Arma, and Grymm surprisingly took pity on a n00b, so I’m forever grateful for that. Today I get to check off another goal. When Akerblogger left these halls, I loudly proclaimed dibs on any future Thou records before his body was even cold out the door, but then he was pretty inconsiderate for hanging on as long as he did. Thou, prolific as they are, have yet to release anything I don’t at least like, and usually love. Now that my moment to review them has finally come, will eighth full-length1 Umbilical be all I hoped for?
When Umbilical was announced, Thou hinted that this release would shift their sound from the sludge/doom they’re known for toward overt hardcore punk. That certainly plays out in frothing-at-the-mouth cuts like “Emotional Terrorist,” and “I Feel Nothing When You Cry.” That said, don’t expect a D-beat here. At their most up-tempo, these Louisiana boys sound a fair bit like Zao, which isn’t a bad thing in the least. If you’re a huge fan of their slow stuff, don’t worry. “Lonely Vigil” and the excellent closer “Siege Perilous” are vintage Thou, with disgustingly heavy doom grooves that forcefully separate you from any hope or happiness. In late album cuts “The Promise” and “Panic Stricken, I Flee,” Umbilical also finds room for the grunge song structures and riffs that have been creeping to the forefront of the band’s sound since Rhea Sylvia and May Our Chambers Be Full.
Like their chimerical American metal brethren Inter Arma, it doesn’t matter how many influences the band stuff into one album. They are all unified in sound under the banner of Thou. Bryan Funck’s acid-bit vocals are unmistakable and apparently unchangeable after 20 throat-shredding years. Also unchangeable? Thou’s ability to craft the most metallic-sounding guitar tone out there. As the standard bearer for…hell, as the entire sum of the second generation of Louisiana sludge, the sound they’ve forged isn’t the kind of sloppy muck you may associate with the term. It’s certainly thick, but it has a quality like two enormous steel I-beams violently striking each other. Album opener “Narcissist’s Prayer” starts with a chugging guitar line, but as soon as the central riff hits, it’s like a series of mini bomb blasts. That feeling of shell shock doesn’t let up for 48 minutes.
There are killer songs all across Umbilical, but the crowning achievement here is “House of Ideas.” After the whip-cracking intro, the hardcore riffs hit with enough torque to pull a hill up a mountain. From there, things settle into a nasty groove that in turn gives way to an absolutely sick guitar line for the fadeout. Just below this high point are cuts like “Narcissist’s Prayer,” which sets the tone of the album with the repeated refrain of “It’s time to die, so die,” the miserably lurching “Lonely Vigil” and the seemingly lost Heathen cut “Siege Perilous.” Meanwhile, “Promise” is the band’s best “grunge” song they’ve written and could have been a 90s alt-radio hit with less distortion and different vocals. If I had one nit to pick with the record, it’s that things drag a bit between “Unbidden Guest” and “I Return as Chained to You,” but Dolph lists the latter as one of his highlights, so take that with a grain of salt.
I never had much doubt that if I ever got my hands on a Thou review, they’d deliver for me. Still, it’s nice to see them in such fine form just before their 20th anniversary as a band. Umbilical is a different beast than their classic Heathen or their top-notch collaborative albums, but it’s Thou through and through, and that’s a great thing.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Sacred Bones Records
Websites: thou.bandcamp.com | instagram.com/thou_band_official
Releases Worldwide: May 31st, 2024#2024 #40 #AmericanMetal #DoomMetal #Grunge #Hardcore #InterArma #May24 #Review #Reviews #SacredBonesRecords #Sludge #Thou #Umbilical #Zao
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By Cherd
When I first came on as a writer here, I had all kinds of ideas about what bands I’d be reviewing before the reality of seniority fully hit me in the solar plexus. I wanted to review Pallbearer. I got there, but I had to wait until they…uh…weren’t that good anymore and other, more senior writers moved on. I wanted to review Panopticon. Still waiting on that one. Same with YOB. I wanted to review Inter Arma, and Grymm surprisingly took pity on a n00b, so I’m forever grateful for that. Today I get to check off another goal. When Akerblogger left these halls, I loudly proclaimed dibs on any future Thou records before his body was even cold out the door, but then he was pretty inconsiderate for hanging on as long as he did. Thou, prolific as they are, have yet to release anything I don’t at least like, and usually love. Now that my moment to review them has finally come, will eighth full-length1 Umbilical be all I hoped for?
When Umbilical was announced, Thou hinted that this release would shift their sound from the sludge/doom they’re known for toward overt hardcore punk. That certainly plays out in frothing-at-the-mouth cuts like “Emotional Terrorist,” and “I Feel Nothing When You Cry.” That said, don’t expect a D-beat here. At their most up-tempo, these Louisiana boys sound a fair bit like Zao, which isn’t a bad thing in the least. If you’re a huge fan of their slow stuff, don’t worry. “Lonely Vigil” and the excellent closer “Siege Perilous” are vintage Thou, with disgustingly heavy doom grooves that forcefully separate you from any hope or happiness. In late album cuts “The Promise” and “Panic Stricken, I Flee,” Umbilical also finds room for the grunge song structures and riffs that have been creeping to the forefront of the band’s sound since Rhea Sylvia and May Our Chambers Be Full.
Like their chimerical American metal brethren Inter Arma, it doesn’t matter how many influences the band stuff into one album. They are all unified in sound under the banner of Thou. Bryan Funck’s acid-bit vocals are unmistakable and apparently unchangeable after 20 throat-shredding years. Also unchangeable? Thou’s ability to craft the most metallic-sounding guitar tone out there. As the standard bearer for…hell, as the entire sum of the second generation of Louisiana sludge, the sound they’ve forged isn’t the kind of sloppy muck you may associate with the term. It’s certainly thick, but it has a quality like two enormous steel I-beams violently striking each other. Album opener “Narcissist’s Prayer” starts with a chugging guitar line, but as soon as the central riff hits, it’s like a series of mini bomb blasts. That feeling of shell shock doesn’t let up for 48 minutes.
There are killer songs all across Umbilical, but the crowning achievement here is “House of Ideas.” After the whip-cracking intro, the hardcore riffs hit with enough torque to pull a hill up a mountain. From there, things settle into a nasty groove that in turn gives way to an absolutely sick guitar line for the fadeout. Just below this high point are cuts like “Narcissist’s Prayer,” which sets the tone of the album with the repeated refrain of “It’s time to die, so die,” the miserably lurching “Lonely Vigil” and the seemingly lost Heathen cut “Siege Perilous.” Meanwhile, “Promise” is the band’s best “grunge” song they’ve written and could have been a 90s alt-radio hit with less distortion and different vocals. If I had one nit to pick with the record, it’s that things drag a bit between “Unbidden Guest” and “I Return as Chained to You,” but Dolph lists the latter as one of his highlights, so take that with a grain of salt.
I never had much doubt that if I ever got my hands on a Thou review, they’d deliver for me. Still, it’s nice to see them in such fine form just before their 20th anniversary as a band. Umbilical is a different beast than their classic Heathen or their top-notch collaborative albums, but it’s Thou through and through, and that’s a great thing.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Sacred Bones Records
Websites: thou.bandcamp.com | instagram.com/thou_band_official
Releases Worldwide: May 31st, 2024#2024 #40 #AmericanMetal #DoomMetal #Grunge #Hardcore #InterArma #May24 #Review #Reviews #SacredBonesRecords #Sludge #Thou #Umbilical #Zao
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In Season 5 Episode 3 of Solarpunk Presents, Christina chats with transdisciplinary technologist Stephen Reid about relationship solarpunk and lunarpunk have to crypto and web3. If lunarpunk is what solarpunk gets up to in the shadows of a moonlit night, that suggests that lunarpunk is inherently more interested in privacy, security, and anonymity, especially from the watchful eye of the state. That would further mean that where solarpunk is interested in renewable energy, sustainability, appropriate technology, and social justice, lunarpunk is interested in the tools, like cryptography, cryptocurrencies, and web3, that safeguard our privacy and anonymity and potentially protect us from tyranny. Do we need lunarpunk’s fixation with using tech to protect our privacy to counterbalance solarpunk’s sunny optimism that everything will all be fine to break through to a better world? To learn more about Stephen, his philosophies, and his work, check out https://stephenreid.net/
#solarpunk #lunarpunk #SolarpunkAndLunarpunk #LunarpunkandPrivacy #Privacy #OnlinePrivacy #Cryptography #Cryptopunk #Cryptobros #Cryptocurrency #Web3 #anticapitalism #interview #anonymity #panopticon
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One List to Debase Them All: AngryMetal Guy.com’s Aggregated Top 20 of 2023
By El Cuervo
This aggregation exercise represents my favorite article of the year. I enjoy identifying and highlighting those chosen few records worthy of additional recognition. But most of all I enjoy the sense of power derived from early access to other writers’ list data without the obligations flowing from being an editor. To my satisfaction, this list represents a diverse mix compared with certain previous years. Much ground is covered, from myriad metal sub-genres (death, black, doom, prog) to myriad tones (energetic, strange, historical, sadboi). I enjoy the variety, even if I don’t the specific choices. That said, we’re not helping our own argument against accusations that we despise all power and folk metal – with just one album from both sub-genres in the top 20 and an abundance selected by just a couple of people below this.
The most critical observation is that, compared with 2022, there are ~20% fewer unique records and voting points attributable to the top 10 albums is ~10% higher. This indicates greater alignment this year, with fewer albums chosen and stronger communal favorites. No doubt this is attributable to our loss of individuality and gradual morphing into one awful hivemind.
In a last ditch effort to save my own reputation at the cost of my colleagues, I want to emphasize that I personally had a distinct deviation from this aggregated list. As orchestrator of this article with early access to the data, I did attempt to identify why it was that some of these albums apparently had an impact on everyone else. The only conclusion I can draw following these attempts is that my faceless colleagues seek the average. They should try harder to be deliberately contrary next year; I expect that they’ll maliciously comply by picking the same 20 albums 20 times just to spite me.
–El Cuervo
#20. Crypta // Shades of Sorrow – “While Crypta is still fetid, OSDM adherents, Shades of Sorrow also amps both the black and thrash influences, resulting in a compelling sophomore effort that packs a significant, unforgettable punch” (Felagund).
#19. Onheil // In Black Ashes – “In Black Ashes is melodic black/death/speed/thrash at its finest. Onheil’s mastery of melody and songwriting elevates In Black Ashes into the stratosphere. Every track is a winner, and Onheil strikes an impossible balance between enthralling riffs and emotional heft” (Maddog).
#18. Ascension // Under the Veil of Madness – “There’s not one song on here that isn’t currently stuck in my head. Its huge choruses, hooky verses, and lightning fast shreddery have probably bonded with my DNA by this point” (Kenstrosity).
#17. Somnuri // Desiderirum – “The addition of (Soundgarden-esque) throwback radio alt-rock into their roiling pot of hardcore and progressive sludge makes Desiderium these Brooklynites’ strongest outing to date. It’s rare that an album this aggressive and energetic goes down this smooth” (Cherd).
#16. Warcrab // The Howling Silence – “Warcrab boasts fighting spirit, sharp claws, and a crustacean shell that’s fitted for turret combat. They’re obviously game for a scrap, but–as Cherd pointed out in his review–the band doesn’t have much competition in their death-sludge niche” (Ferox).
#15. Tribunal // The Weight of Remembrance – “With heavy doses of classic Candlemass and moments that recall the grim haunts of Fvneral Fvkk, Weight of Remembrance does so many things exceptionally well. There’s nothing I would change or trim on Weight of Remembrance, and if anything, I wish it was a little longer. Doom perfection” (Steel Druhm).
#14. Panopticon // The Rime of Memory – “Panopticon—particularly on more recent records—seems to have a unique ability to tug on my heartstrings and to blend the most ferocious of black metal with the most serene and evocative Appalachian folk. The Rime of Memory more than matched my lofty hopes” (Thus Spoke).
#13. Godthrymm // Distortions – “With meaty riffs, soaring leads, a fantastic rhythm section, and keyboardist Catherine Glencross’ angelic voice, this classic-doom-meets-classic-Pallbearer configuration landed my top spot as soon as I finished listening to it for the first time” (Grymm).
#12. Saturnus // The Storm Within – “The opening tracks comprise the best one-two punch of the year, while the back half of the album feels like an unraveling and stripping down. The Storm Within is a magnificently monolithic and aptly dreary return to form from Saturnus” (Dear Hollow).
#11. Night Crowned // Tales – “The intense blasting and no-holds-barred shrieking always hold a melodic thread that makes it more than a wall of noise, whether it be from extra vocal layers, subtly interweaved symphonics, or a goddamn hurdy-gurdy that works way better than it should” (GardensTale).
#10. Vanishing Kids // Miracle of Death – [#1, #2, #8, #8, #9, #HM, #HM, #HM, #HM] – Miracle of Death earns the dubious honor of winning more list mentions than the six records ahead of it, but only reaches this tenth spot due to generally low rankings. Undeterred, Steel Druhm highlights the band’s unusual combination of sounds, describing a “strange witch’s brew of genres and styles that is unique and enchanting… It’s doom, it’s goth rock, it’s 70s acid rock all wrapped into one enigmatic, ethereal burrito.” Despite the allusion to hot food, Twelve instead reckons that the album “takes me to a cold place. It’s emotional, but it feels like numbness; it’s quiet, but leaves a huge impression… any time I’ve felt low throughout the year, Vanishing Kids has been there.” This sense of something beyond easy description is mirrored by Carcharodon, who argues that the band “have that very rare something, that je ne sais quoi…. to create something truly unique requires genuine craft and these guys have it in spades.” Check out metal’s innovators.
#9. Convocation // No Dawn for the Caliginous Night – [#1, #4, #6, #7, #8, #ish, #HM, #HM] – Serving arguably the heaviest slot on this list1, Convocation and No Dawn for the Caliginous Night offered a mighty force of doom in 2023. Dear Hollow illustrates the heavier qualities of the release (“No Dawn for the Caliginous Night channels mammoth death-doom and despondent funeral doom to accomplish a weight both viciously devastating and patiently atmospheric”) while Kenstrosity instead prefers the counter-weight of both sides of the sound (“[their] deeply affecting use of orchestration and clean vocals to light up my nervous system while the heft of [their] tectonic death doom strives to end my life”). Bands like this remind us of our humanity and our finite nature; few records could be pitched as “a towering celebration of death’s enormity, packaged in the heaviest and most shimmering of vessels” but Convocation does this as Cherd‘s AotY. Step back, breathe deeply, and simply listen. No Dawn for the Caliginous Night exists in these moments.
#8. Afterbirth // In But Not Of – [#1, #1, #2, #3] – Inspiring a deep love among its few accolytes, Afterbirth reached this list through just a few list-topping selections. In But Not Of offers brutal death metal that isn’t just smart compared with its own – often blunt – sub-genre, but that is smart compared with anything. “For a band that traffics in slammy, knuckle-dragging brutal death, In But Not Of carries with it an undeniable progressive, cerebral quality, which feels like a logical outgrowth from their previous effort” (Felagund). Indeed, Doom et Al finds its progressive qualities its most compelling, describing that “while the first half of brutal, spacy, wacky death metal is great, the second half, with its explorations into post-metal and prog is where real greatness happens”. Nuanced, layered music invites exploration, and even our resident death metal enthusiasts concur: “Afterbirth crams an abundance of riches into a brutal death metal album that twists and transmutes… I continue to find surprises almost every time I revisit In But Not Of” (Ferox). This album exemplifies the power of invention and intrigue.
#7. Sermon // Of Golden Verse – [#1, #2, #4, #4, #9] – Boasting AMG.com’s prog o’ the year award, Of Golden Verse by Sermon is the sole album here also picked by yours truly. I found that “Sermon’s undulating song-writing style results in music that ebbs from steely, tense atmospheres and flows to passionate, cathartic explosions. Dramatic, sure. But exciting.” Saunders, awarding his album o’ the year, favors the record’s singularity, given that “Sermon boasts a unique sound they can call their own, where dark, eerie and deadly serious vibes and almost melodramatic flair flows through towering, intelligent, and emotive prog metal epics.” But even more than its dynamic songs and novelty, GardensTale underlines the most beguiling quality of Of Golden Verse: “What attracts me the most is the sense of threat. Sermon looms a great dark ominous wall that swallows the background and casts everything in shade. For an album to hold its breath even while beating you down is exquisite.” Few records are so powerful.
#6. Xoth // Exogalactic – [#1, #3, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #ish] – The first of three techy, deathy albums in a row, Exogalactic by Xoth consolidates the band as a bona fide site favorite. “Xoth’s brand of technical blackened death-thrash is a sci-fi spectacle. Exogalactic’s futuristic riffs, twisting melodies, and narrative arcs make it feel like reptilian aliens are indeed enslaving humans as gladiators… Every time I listen to Exogalactic, I can’t help but grin” (Maddog). More than simple smiles, Dr. Wvrm never hides his arousal around riffs. Of Exogalactic, he describes it as “prostrate before that holiest of holy, The Riff. So of course, the end product [is] impeccable, incredible, impossibly fucking good.” AMG Himself delights in “the consistently best thrashy melodic death metal this world has heard since the early-90s” and continues that “Xoth has started to cement themselves as one of my favorite bands.” This entire website has flown from His opinions so take heed; buy Xoth now.
#5. Wormhole // Almost Human – [#2, #4, #5, #5, #5, #9, #ish, #HM] – It takes a special kind of slam to breach the AMG aggregated list but Wormhole is a special sort of band. Having banged his drum about Almost Human almost all year, Kenstrosity surprisingly failed to AotY this album. But in doing so he was highly complimentary, noting that “Almost Human confirms that with the right songwriting, slam can be thoughtful, intentional, intricate, and enriching. Thanks to a healthy infusion of tech by way of tricky, but subtle maneuvers rather than straight-up wanking speed, Wormhole’s whimsically brutal metal suddenly transforms into something polished, elevated, and immersive.” Emphasizing the record’s heavier qualities, the ever-eloquent Saunders describes the release as a “visceral, ridiculously heavy, sci-fi-themed tech-slam assault.” And while we rightly review albums in their entirety rather than song-by-song, Dolphin Whisperer “repeatedly binged those first two singles as if they were a whole album to themselves.” It’s hard to deny songs so heavy but so gripping.2
#4. Carnosus // Visions of Infinihility – [#1, #2, #4, #4, #5, #7, #ish] – Visions of Infinihility offered some of 2023’s meatiest death metal. Angry Metal Guy was emphatic in His summary, penning that “the term tour de force was coined to describe albums like Visions of Infinihility. Sometimes an album simply rules and your record o’ the year choice is uncomplicated. Carnosus’ sophomore album is such an album.” As if this statement was insufficient, I’ll rely on Cherd to describe the thing: “a tech-death barn burner… tight, vicious, and catchy, this record also features [one of the] best harsh vocal performance of the year.”3 Some people – including me – are nonplussed by tech death, but Ferox has us poor bastards covered too: “every one of the nine tracks on Visions of Infinihility stands up to heavy listening… It doesn’t matter if you’re wearing four thousand dollar headphones or a bullet belt. Visions of Infinihility should appeal to wonks, diehards, and metalheads all across the spectrum.” You heard the man.
#3. Sodomisery // Mazzaroth – [#1, #2, #2, #6, #8, #8, #8, #10, #HM] – Sporting 2023’s shitty band name o’ the year, Sodomisery pulled no punches with their new record called Mazzaroth. Dr A.N. Grier describes how “with Mazzaroth came a new approach, emphasizing the black, death, and melodeath with massive orchestration atmospheres.” Its size warranted comment from other writers too; Twelve highlights “the vocal performance, the orchestrations, the songwriting—everything on Mazzaroth is top-tier, larger-than-life, incredible black metal.” More than anything, great music orbits around great song-writing and nowhere is that more apparent than with Sodomisery. Winning his favorite record of the year, newbie Iceberg commends this aspect. “The 36 minutes of Mazzaroth are as lean and mean as you can get… In the age of endless bloat, Sodomisery sharpen their knives and kill all their babies Spartan-style, leaving only razor-sharp riffing and inescapable songwriting in their wake.” You heard it here first; these Swedes killed their babies in pursuit of The Riff.
#2. Fires in the Distance // Air Not Meant for Us – [#1, #3, #3, #4, #4, #5, #5, #7, #10] – Residing in the top half of 7 lists, Air Not Meant for Us represented the best of 2023’s death and doom metal. Grymm compares these Connecticutens to sadboi legends, articulating that “Fires in the Distance took what makes Insomnium and Omnium Gatherum and added their own unique embellishments to create a truly captivating album.” Thus Spoke highlights its “distinctive form of ethereal, key-accented melodeath/doom”, but favors most how it’s “elegantly composed, stirring, and effortlessly graceful.” She wasn’t the only person to bond with this record. Doom et Al agreed that there are clear influences but still bestowed his top prize: “It isn’t particularly original, but I don’t care. Art is about the connection it forges with the person engaging with it, and I feel every note of Air Not Meant for Us in my marrow. There’s a longing and a beauty here that I connected with immediately.” Who am I – and who are you – to deny his emotions?
#1. Wayfarer // American Gothic – [#1, #1, #2, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #6, #7, #7, #7] – With 12 main list picks, 7 top 5s and 2 AotYs, there was little doubt that Wayfarer would take the aggregated top spot for 2023. Carcharodon posits that while its predecessor may have been “close to fulfilling the promise of their Wild West black metal, American Gothic is the album where everything that Wayfarer has struggled to bring together for years finally clicked into place.” Why is this? Awarding his AotY, Sentynel attributes it to “utterly seamless” genre blending. “This is the best of bleak country painted with the instrumentation of black metal. Electric guitars pick up melody lines from banjos with a twang. Distorted slide guitars get that pedal steel feeling. There’s even a honky-tonk piano.” Lesser bands have gimmicks; Wayfarer’s central synthesis is essential. “Black metal should not go well with the Old West. Wayfarer crafted not only their best album to date, but also an absorbing, engrossing classic that begs to be absorbed in full with your complete, utmost attention” (Grymm). If you miss this, we’ll see you at dawn. With pistols.
#2023 #Afterbirth #AngryMetalGuySTop10Ish_ #Ascension #BlogPosts #Carnosus #Convocation #Crypta #FiresInTheDistance #Godthrymm #Lists #Listurnalia #NightCrowned #Onheil #Panopticon #Saturnus #Sermon #Sodomisery #Somnuri #Tribunal #VanishingKids #Warcrab #Wayfarer #Wormhole #Xoth
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One List to Debase Them All: AngryMetal Guy.com’s Aggregated Top 20 of 2023
By El Cuervo
This aggregation exercise represents my favorite article of the year. I enjoy identifying and highlighting those chosen few records worthy of additional recognition. But most of all I enjoy the sense of power derived from early access to other writers’ list data without the obligations flowing from being an editor. To my satisfaction, this list represents a diverse mix compared with certain previous years. Much ground is covered, from myriad metal sub-genres (death, black, doom, prog) to myriad tones (energetic, strange, historical, sadboi). I enjoy the variety, even if I don’t the specific choices. That said, we’re not helping our own argument against accusations that we despise all power and folk metal – with just one album from both sub-genres in the top 20 and an abundance selected by just a couple of people below this.
The most critical observation is that, compared with 2022, there are ~20% fewer unique records and voting points attributable to the top 10 albums is ~10% higher. This indicates greater alignment this year, with fewer albums chosen and stronger communal favorites. No doubt this is attributable to our loss of individuality and gradual morphing into one awful hivemind.
In a last ditch effort to save my own reputation at the cost of my colleagues, I want to emphasize that I personally had a distinct deviation from this aggregated list. As orchestrator of this article with early access to the data, I did attempt to identify why it was that some of these albums apparently had an impact on everyone else. The only conclusion I can draw following these attempts is that my faceless colleagues seek the average. They should try harder to be deliberately contrary next year; I expect that they’ll maliciously comply by picking the same 20 albums 20 times just to spite me.
–El Cuervo
#20. Crypta // Shades of Sorrow – “While Crypta is still fetid, OSDM adherents, Shades of Sorrow also amps both the black and thrash influences, resulting in a compelling sophomore effort that packs a significant, unforgettable punch” (Felagund).
#19. Onheil // In Black Ashes – “In Black Ashes is melodic black/death/speed/thrash at its finest. Onheil’s mastery of melody and songwriting elevates In Black Ashes into the stratosphere. Every track is a winner, and Onheil strikes an impossible balance between enthralling riffs and emotional heft” (Maddog).
#18. Ascension // Under the Veil of Madness – “There’s not one song on here that isn’t currently stuck in my head. Its huge choruses, hooky verses, and lightning fast shreddery have probably bonded with my DNA by this point” (Kenstrosity).
#17. Somnuri // Desiderirum – “The addition of (Soundgarden-esque) throwback radio alt-rock into their roiling pot of hardcore and progressive sludge makes Desiderium these Brooklynites’ strongest outing to date. It’s rare that an album this aggressive and energetic goes down this smooth” (Cherd).
#16. Warcrab // The Howling Silence – “Warcrab boasts fighting spirit, sharp claws, and a crustacean shell that’s fitted for turret combat. They’re obviously game for a scrap, but–as Cherd pointed out in his review–the band doesn’t have much competition in their death-sludge niche” (Ferox).
#15. Tribunal // The Weight of Remembrance – “With heavy doses of classic Candlemass and moments that recall the grim haunts of Fvneral Fvkk, Weight of Remembrance does so many things exceptionally well. There’s nothing I would change or trim on Weight of Remembrance, and if anything, I wish it was a little longer. Doom perfection” (Steel Druhm).
#14. Panopticon // The Rime of Memory – “Panopticon—particularly on more recent records—seems to have a unique ability to tug on my heartstrings and to blend the most ferocious of black metal with the most serene and evocative Appalachian folk. The Rime of Memory more than matched my lofty hopes” (Thus Spoke).
#13. Godthrymm // Distortions – “With meaty riffs, soaring leads, a fantastic rhythm section, and keyboardist Catherine Glencross’ angelic voice, this classic-doom-meets-classic-Pallbearer configuration landed my top spot as soon as I finished listening to it for the first time” (Grymm).
#12. Saturnus // The Storm Within – “The opening tracks comprise the best one-two punch of the year, while the back half of the album feels like an unraveling and stripping down. The Storm Within is a magnificently monolithic and aptly dreary return to form from Saturnus” (Dear Hollow).
#11. Night Crowned // Tales – “The intense blasting and no-holds-barred shrieking always hold a melodic thread that makes it more than a wall of noise, whether it be from extra vocal layers, subtly interweaved symphonics, or a goddamn hurdy-gurdy that works way better than it should” (GardensTale).
#10. Vanishing Kids // Miracle of Death – [#1, #2, #8, #8, #9, #HM, #HM, #HM, #HM] – Miracle of Death earns the dubious honor of winning more list mentions than the six records ahead of it, but only reaches this tenth spot due to generally low rankings. Undeterred, Steel Druhm highlights the band’s unusual combination of sounds, describing a “strange witch’s brew of genres and styles that is unique and enchanting… It’s doom, it’s goth rock, it’s 70s acid rock all wrapped into one enigmatic, ethereal burrito.” Despite the allusion to hot food, Twelve instead reckons that the album “takes me to a cold place. It’s emotional, but it feels like numbness; it’s quiet, but leaves a huge impression… any time I’ve felt low throughout the year, Vanishing Kids has been there.” This sense of something beyond easy description is mirrored by Carcharodon, who argues that the band “have that very rare something, that je ne sais quoi…. to create something truly unique requires genuine craft and these guys have it in spades.” Check out metal’s innovators.
#9. Convocation // No Dawn for the Caliginous Night – [#1, #4, #6, #7, #8, #ish, #HM, #HM] – Serving arguably the heaviest slot on this list1, Convocation and No Dawn for the Caliginous Night offered a mighty force of doom in 2023. Dear Hollow illustrates the heavier qualities of the release (“No Dawn for the Caliginous Night channels mammoth death-doom and despondent funeral doom to accomplish a weight both viciously devastating and patiently atmospheric”) while Kenstrosity instead prefers the counter-weight of both sides of the sound (“[their] deeply affecting use of orchestration and clean vocals to light up my nervous system while the heft of [their] tectonic death doom strives to end my life”). Bands like this remind us of our humanity and our finite nature; few records could be pitched as “a towering celebration of death’s enormity, packaged in the heaviest and most shimmering of vessels” but Convocation does this as Cherd‘s AotY. Step back, breathe deeply, and simply listen. No Dawn for the Caliginous Night exists in these moments.
#8. Afterbirth // In But Not Of – [#1, #1, #2, #3] – Inspiring a deep love among its few accolytes, Afterbirth reached this list through just a few list-topping selections. In But Not Of offers brutal death metal that isn’t just smart compared with its own – often blunt – sub-genre, but that is smart compared with anything. “For a band that traffics in slammy, knuckle-dragging brutal death, In But Not Of carries with it an undeniable progressive, cerebral quality, which feels like a logical outgrowth from their previous effort” (Felagund). Indeed, Doom et Al finds its progressive qualities its most compelling, describing that “while the first half of brutal, spacy, wacky death metal is great, the second half, with its explorations into post-metal and prog is where real greatness happens”. Nuanced, layered music invites exploration, and even our resident death metal enthusiasts concur: “Afterbirth crams an abundance of riches into a brutal death metal album that twists and transmutes… I continue to find surprises almost every time I revisit In But Not Of” (Ferox). This album exemplifies the power of invention and intrigue.
#7. Sermon // Of Golden Verse – [#1, #2, #4, #4, #9] – Boasting AMG.com’s prog o’ the year award, Of Golden Verse by Sermon is the sole album here also picked by yours truly. I found that “Sermon’s undulating song-writing style results in music that ebbs from steely, tense atmospheres and flows to passionate, cathartic explosions. Dramatic, sure. But exciting.” Saunders, awarding his album o’ the year, favors the record’s singularity, given that “Sermon boasts a unique sound they can call their own, where dark, eerie and deadly serious vibes and almost melodramatic flair flows through towering, intelligent, and emotive prog metal epics.” But even more than its dynamic songs and novelty, GardensTale underlines the most beguiling quality of Of Golden Verse: “What attracts me the most is the sense of threat. Sermon looms a great dark ominous wall that swallows the background and casts everything in shade. For an album to hold its breath even while beating you down is exquisite.” Few records are so powerful.
#6. Xoth // Exogalactic – [#1, #3, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #ish] – The first of three techy, deathy albums in a row, Exogalactic by Xoth consolidates the band as a bona fide site favorite. “Xoth’s brand of technical blackened death-thrash is a sci-fi spectacle. Exogalactic’s futuristic riffs, twisting melodies, and narrative arcs make it feel like reptilian aliens are indeed enslaving humans as gladiators… Every time I listen to Exogalactic, I can’t help but grin” (Maddog). More than simple smiles, Dr. Wvrm never hides his arousal around riffs. Of Exogalactic, he describes it as “prostrate before that holiest of holy, The Riff. So of course, the end product [is] impeccable, incredible, impossibly fucking good.” AMG Himself delights in “the consistently best thrashy melodic death metal this world has heard since the early-90s” and continues that “Xoth has started to cement themselves as one of my favorite bands.” This entire website has flown from His opinions so take heed; buy Xoth now.
#5. Wormhole // Almost Human – [#2, #4, #5, #5, #5, #9, #ish, #HM] – It takes a special kind of slam to breach the AMG aggregated list but Wormhole is a special sort of band. Having banged his drum about Almost Human almost all year, Kenstrosity surprisingly failed to AotY this album. But in doing so he was highly complimentary, noting that “Almost Human confirms that with the right songwriting, slam can be thoughtful, intentional, intricate, and enriching. Thanks to a healthy infusion of tech by way of tricky, but subtle maneuvers rather than straight-up wanking speed, Wormhole’s whimsically brutal metal suddenly transforms into something polished, elevated, and immersive.” Emphasizing the record’s heavier qualities, the ever-eloquent Saunders describes the release as a “visceral, ridiculously heavy, sci-fi-themed tech-slam assault.” And while we rightly review albums in their entirety rather than song-by-song, Dolphin Whisperer “repeatedly binged those first two singles as if they were a whole album to themselves.” It’s hard to deny songs so heavy but so gripping.2
#4. Carnosus // Visions of Infinihility – [#1, #2, #4, #4, #5, #7, #ish] – Visions of Infinihility offered some of 2023’s meatiest death metal. Angry Metal Guy was emphatic in His summary, penning that “the term tour de force was coined to describe albums like Visions of Infinihility. Sometimes an album simply rules and your record o’ the year choice is uncomplicated. Carnosus’ sophomore album is such an album.” As if this statement was insufficient, I’ll rely on Cherd to describe the thing: “a tech-death barn burner… tight, vicious, and catchy, this record also features [one of the] best harsh vocal performance of the year.”3 Some people – including me – are nonplussed by tech death, but Ferox has us poor bastards covered too: “every one of the nine tracks on Visions of Infinihility stands up to heavy listening… It doesn’t matter if you’re wearing four thousand dollar headphones or a bullet belt. Visions of Infinihility should appeal to wonks, diehards, and metalheads all across the spectrum.” You heard the man.
#3. Sodomisery // Mazzaroth – [#1, #2, #2, #6, #8, #8, #8, #10, #HM] – Sporting 2023’s shitty band name o’ the year, Sodomisery pulled no punches with their new record called Mazzaroth. Dr A.N. Grier describes how “with Mazzaroth came a new approach, emphasizing the black, death, and melodeath with massive orchestration atmospheres.” Its size warranted comment from other writers too; Twelve highlights “the vocal performance, the orchestrations, the songwriting—everything on Mazzaroth is top-tier, larger-than-life, incredible black metal.” More than anything, great music orbits around great song-writing and nowhere is that more apparent than with Sodomisery. Winning his favorite record of the year, newbie Iceberg commends this aspect. “The 36 minutes of Mazzaroth are as lean and mean as you can get… In the age of endless bloat, Sodomisery sharpen their knives and kill all their babies Spartan-style, leaving only razor-sharp riffing and inescapable songwriting in their wake.” You heard it here first; these Swedes killed their babies in pursuit of The Riff.
#2. Fires in the Distance // Air Not Meant for Us – [#1, #3, #3, #4, #4, #5, #5, #7, #10] – Residing in the top half of 7 lists, Air Not Meant for Us represented the best of 2023’s death and doom metal. Grymm compares these Connecticutens to sadboi legends, articulating that “Fires in the Distance took what makes Insomnium and Omnium Gatherum and added their own unique embellishments to create a truly captivating album.” Thus Spoke highlights its “distinctive form of ethereal, key-accented melodeath/doom”, but favors most how it’s “elegantly composed, stirring, and effortlessly graceful.” She wasn’t the only person to bond with this record. Doom et Al agreed that there are clear influences but still bestowed his top prize: “It isn’t particularly original, but I don’t care. Art is about the connection it forges with the person engaging with it, and I feel every note of Air Not Meant for Us in my marrow. There’s a longing and a beauty here that I connected with immediately.” Who am I – and who are you – to deny his emotions?
#1. Wayfarer // American Gothic – [#1, #1, #2, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #6, #7, #7, #7] – With 12 main list picks, 7 top 5s and 2 AotYs, there was little doubt that Wayfarer would take the aggregated top spot for 2023. Carcharodon posits that while its predecessor may have been “close to fulfilling the promise of their Wild West black metal, American Gothic is the album where everything that Wayfarer has struggled to bring together for years finally clicked into place.” Why is this? Awarding his AotY, Sentynel attributes it to “utterly seamless” genre blending. “This is the best of bleak country painted with the instrumentation of black metal. Electric guitars pick up melody lines from banjos with a twang. Distorted slide guitars get that pedal steel feeling. There’s even a honky-tonk piano.” Lesser bands have gimmicks; Wayfarer’s central synthesis is essential. “Black metal should not go well with the Old West. Wayfarer crafted not only their best album to date, but also an absorbing, engrossing classic that begs to be absorbed in full with your complete, utmost attention” (Grymm). If you miss this, we’ll see you at dawn. With pistols.
#2023 #Afterbirth #AngryMetalGuySTop10Ish_ #Ascension #BlogPosts #Carnosus #Convocation #Crypta #FiresInTheDistance #Godthrymm #Lists #Listurnalia #NightCrowned #Onheil #Panopticon #Saturnus #Sermon #Sodomisery #Somnuri #Tribunal #VanishingKids #Warcrab #Wayfarer #Wormhole #Xoth
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Thus Spoke and Maddog’s Top Ten(ish) of 2023
By Thus Spoke
Thus Spoke
Mum, I’ve made it; I’ve got my own official year-end list on Angry Metal Guy dot com. Just two years ago I had begun my probation period in what would come to be characteristically overzealous fashion, slapping a 4.5 on my first ever review, before deciding that words are much better than numbers. At the time, uncertain of my tenancy in these hallowed halls, I was juggling n00b reviews with short-form reviews on Instagram,1 the latter pursuit being what led me to apply here in the first place. And I’m glad I did!
My first complete year here as a writer has been pretty great, all things considered. I’ve reviewed (and not reviewed) some Excellent (with a capital ‘E’) albums and discovered new favorites—some of whom will be appearing below. It continues to humble me and blow my mind that I get to put my thoughts about music out here on the internet and that people actually read them; that I get to write about bands and records with a critical voice that actually garners some respect, like I’m a proper person who knows things; and that I have the chance to gush about artists I’ve loved for a long time, or only just hit upon. Reviewing Panopticon was a wonderful year-end highlight. Of course, not everything was rosy. It was another year of silence from Ulcerate2, not the greatest year for truly stand-out black metal (with some clear exceptions), and a year in which I struggled with some significant challenges at work. But disappointing promos and unavoidable life hurdles aside, 2023 has been the year that AMG—the reviewing, the staff, and the commenting community—has cemented itself as an important part of who I am. I’m grateful for all of you. Thank you.
Having not made one of these before, this has been my first proper taste of the agony (and perhaps joy) of choosing what to list and where to list them. Can I pen a Contrite Metal Guy piece about my picks later down the line? No, I can’t. So if I’ve forgotten something, please just don’t bring it up or it’ll torture me for at least the entirety of 2024.3 Now, on with the list before I change my mind!
#ish. Convocation // No Dawn for the Caliginous Night – Not only did this album floor me on first listen, but it also made me discover how much I love to say the word “caliginous.” *Annunciates* Cal-ig-in-ous. No Dawn… is just as satisfying, but in a very different way. Its drama, potency, and sheer scale are wondrous to behold and instantly catapulted it into my list (well, close enough). I had been thinking in recent months that I’d kind of fallen off the doom wagon. But Convocation was there right as the year was about to end to shove me firmly back on board. As Cherd opined “This is a towering celebration of death’s enormity, packaged in the heaviest and most shimmering of vessels,” and I concur. It’s really only down to a totally stacked year of music that this behemoth doesn’t rank higher.
#10. Thantifaxath // Hive Mind Narcosis – This album scares the shit out of me and I absolutely love it. Everything about its wacky, dissonant, bendy, manic, and malevolent intensity borders on the hallucinogenic and nightmarish. And as a piece of extreme metal, aiming to confront with the harshest of blackened death metal, this is a very good thing. Thantifaxath were a 2023 discovery for me, and this, their sophomore effort, thoroughly convinced me that I should be paying attention to them. It always sends me into a state of heavy foreboding, anxiety, and nausea at confrontation with the absurd. When I reviewed Hive Mind Narcosis, I talked about its contradictory coherence and beauty under a façade of erraticism and ugliness, and I believe this to be what makes it continue to stand out amidst many other unapproachable extreme metal records that came out in 2023, worthy as they may be.
#9. Downfall of Gaia // Silhouettes of Disgust – While I’ve had an appreciation for Downfall of Gaia since Atrophy, Silhouettes of Disgust has been the first one that’s really made an impression on me. It’s stuck with me nearly all year since it dropped in March, and I find myself continuing to return to it again and again. When I don’t know what to listen to, I’ll stick this on, and I’ll enjoy it every time. Melodically and emotionally powerful, it contains some of my favorite musical moments of the year, including in particular the building surge of drama and catharsis that ends “Optograms of Disgust” and the album entirely. I think the reason Silhouettes has had this effect was pinned down nicely by Carcharodon when he wrote: “this is the [album] that manages to blend most effectively all the disparate facets of Downfall of Gaia’s sound.” And I would go further and assert what he only hinted at, that Silhouettes is indeed the best of the band’s career.
#8. Stortregn // Finitude – I feel like Stortregn have been getting more and more fun with every album, or at least definitely on the last few. While Emptiness Fills the Void (2018) was light enjoyment, Impermanence (2021) stepped things up a gear into real grin-inducing territory. Finitude, however, blows those records out of the water with what is possibly the most fun I’ve had with technical death/black metal of any kind. Everything about it works towards this, from constantly evolving, circularly composed song structures that sweep you away with their drama and flair, to a flipping flamenco break in “Xeno Chaos” which I should hate, but instead, I absolutely fucking love because it works so brilliantly. Its melodies are gorgeous, its energy undeniable, its rhythms irresistible. Damn, I think I’m gonna go and listen to it again now, I’ve really given myself the itch.
#7. To the Grave // Director’s Cuts – This started off higher on my list. It’s not that I’ve cooled off on it. Quite the contrary, as To the Grave are my most-listened-to artist on Spotify this year, and I will still ardently defend, to anyone who bothers to vocalize their disagreement, that this is an Excellent album. It’s simply a testament to the strength of those you’ll find below. But let that not take away from the immensity that is Director’s Cuts. It’s a stunning slab of deathcore that utterly wipes the floor with anything else released in that subgenre this year, not just br00tal and groovy as all hell, but possessed of a powerful and righteous message of animal liberation, wrapped of course, in a super mean metal mien. “Manhunt,” and indeed most of the album, powered many a top set in the gym, while stone-cold classic-in-the-making, “Axe of Kindness” easily makes it to the Songs of the Year playlist. It’s just fantastic all-round. Until all are free! *Headbangs violently.*
#6. Wayfarer // American Gothic – I was not initially overly enamored with American Gothic. I don’t know what I was playing at though, because it’s quite clearly brilliant. It’s grown on me like no other album has this year, quickly and assertively muscling its way almost into my top five. Though at first I thought it was inferior to its predecessor A Romance with Violence, as I’ve mentioned, I was being silly, and it’s actually far superior. With a more coherent and consistent compositional structure, more powerful and punchy songs, with stronger, more memorable melodies, and a better integration of that uniquely Western vibe into vibrant and vicious black metal, this is my favorite Wayfarer album by a country mile. Brilliantly evocative, both satisfyingly savage and stirringly soft when it needs to be, American Gothic never ceases to transport me to the old West in its turbulent transformation with drama, passion, and beauty. And it’s wonderful to experience.
#5. Night Crowned // Tales – It was surprising enough that none of my esteemed colleagues had nabbed Tales before I did. But for it to be so mind-blowingly fantastic that it would end up this high on my year-end list was something else. With a songs-of-the-year-lister for an opening cut and, in general, a tracklist stuffed full of back-to-back bangers, and a blazingly bombastic, infectious spirit all around, Tales charges ahead of the competition with savage glee. It’s actually hard to overstate just how good this album is, particularly given how ridiculously easy it is to listen to with its catchy melodies, (relatively) snappy song lengths, and dynamic energy. The culmination of Night Crowned’s fiery and dramatic style of black metal, and the best of their already stellar discography, Tales calls me back ceaselessly and I’m more than happy to oblige.
#4. Fires in the Distance // Air Not Meant for Us – This album is magical. Nothing has changed since I first heard it in its entirety this spring. Elegantly composed, stirring, and effortlessly graceful, it’s hands-down the most straightforwardly beautiful thing on my list. It’s moving without being sappy, and pretty without being saccharine. And Air Not Meant for Us also wins points for including a midway instrumental that’s not only just as good as the other tracks, but possibly better, and bridges the two sides of the album in this lovely way that makes for a dreamy kind of interlude. Fires in the Distance have such a distinctive form of ethereal, key-accented melodeath/doom that I can only see the immense strength of Air Not Meant for Us as a huge, incredibly exciting sign of more brilliant records to come. As it is, I still haven’t had enough of this one.
#3. Serpent of Old // Ensemble Under the Dark Sun – Back in June, I confidently declared that “Serpent of Old have crafted one of the best metal records of 2023 so far, no exaggeration.” Well, it turns out I wasn’t exaggerating, because here it is, number three on my list. Clear as day I can recall hearing the opening notes of “The Sin Before the Great Sin,” as Ensemble Under the Dark Sun began playing for the first time. Straight away I knew that I’d landed a monster of an album, and 42 or so minutes later I was completely engulfed in its intoxicatingly atmospheric darkness. Like their eponymous snake, Serpent of Old wound their blackened death metal around and around my brain. Ensemble is intense, and yet utterly captivating, dripping with oppressive, haunting melodies and deep, angular dissonance. And it also features the best drum performance of the year in my opinion. To think this is a debut is frankly astonishing, and I am extremely keen to hear more.
#2. Dødheimsgard // Black Medium Current – For a long time, this sat comfortably in first place. Why is no mystery. Unlike anything Dødheimsgard have put out in the past, or anything else released this year, Black Medium Current challenged, confronted, and mesmerized me. Weird and discomfiting one moment, tear-jerkingly beautiful another, this album is an emotional and musical rollercoaster that treads perfectly that line between avant-garde wackiness and sincere black metal passion. I recall how stunned I was to discover its 72+ minute length, after already spinning it back-to-back multiple times because it’s so engrossing and intelligently composed. I also recall just how close I came to awarding my first “Iconic” when reviewing it, simply due to the lasting power I perceived it to possess. While the Contrite Metal Guy piece is not on the roadmap for anytime soon, I still believe Black Medium Current to be incredibly special, and an album that absolutely must be heard by everyone in the metalsphere, even if it’s to rapidly discover it’s not one’s cup of tea. Dødheimsgard have made an almost perfect record here. A worthy holder of the top position, were it not for one, equally lengthy rival…
#1. Panopticon // The Rime of Memory – As it’s so recently reviewed, perhaps this was obvious. But with Panopticon, I can be sure that its immense influence is not just due to proximity bias. Just like its predecessor …And Again into the Light, The Rime of Memory knocked me flat off my feet and buried me like an avalanche, with all of the intensity and force, and yet none of the cold. Because this burns white hot with passion and pain. I haven’t yet decided whether it sits above that prior record, but right now, it doesn’t matter, because it easily stands above all others in 2023. “Cedar Skeletons” alone snatches the song of the year accolade, but the whole is something I have to experience again and again. It would just be wrong to give anything less than first place to an album that quite literally brings me to tears because of how emotionally poignant and compositionally powerful it is. As with my #2 pick, its epic duration is immaterial in the face of its effect, which is utterly unmatched by any of my other list contenders. Panopticon—particularly on more recent records—seems to have a unique ability to tug on my heartstrings and to blend the most ferocious of black metal with the most serene and evocative Appalachian folk, and to have it all bleed pure pathos. The Rime of Memory more than matched my lofty hopes, and it already has a very special place in my heart.
Honorable Mentions:
- Ahab // The Coral Tombs – A return to form after the iffy Boats of the Glen Carrig. Managing at turns to be both as heavy as a colossal squid and beautifully still as the depths of the ocean.
- Nightmarer // Deformity Adrift – I love everything Nightmarer put out and this is no exception. Brutal and shivering with grim atmosphere and irresistible rhythm.
- Manbryne // Interregnum: O próbie wiary i jarzmie zwątpienia – Just as good, if not better than its predecessor. Which means it’s really rather good. Gnarly, intriguing Polish black metal with bite and pizzaz.
- The Circle // Of Awakening – This magnificent dramatic black metal opus came the closest to making it into the final list. I slept on this album hard until the final months, and it was only barely pushed out.
- Dymna Lotva // The Land Under the Black Wings: Blood – An album that came out of absolutely nowhere for me and stunned with its emotional potency and devastating delivery. Future Dymna Lotva records may well make the list when that year comes.
- Voidsphere // To Infect | To Inflict – Thank you to Dear Hollow for putting this on my radar. It’s like Decoherence and Darkspace had a baby. A dark, mesmerizing atmospheric black metal baby. Gorgeous.
Songs of the Year:
- “Cedar Skeletons” – Panopticon
- “De Namnlösa” – Night Crowned
- “Axe of Kindness” – To the Grave
- “Optograms of Disgust” – Downfall of Gaia
- “The Fall” – Serpent of Old
- “A Coral Tomb” – Ahab
- “Boreal” – The Ocean
- “Seven Crowns and Seven Seals” – Sulphur Aeon
- “Taufbefehl” – Nightmarer
- “Of Awakening” – The Circle (ft. Ne Obliviscaris)
Guilty Pleasure of the Year:
- “SIRENCORE” – Banshee – Not remotely metal unless you count some black metal shrieking scattered into its dance-pop. I did however, get mildly addicted to this song for a time. What can I say? I have to let my girly side out occasionally. And yeah. It’s going on the playlist.
Maddog
My earballs had a mixed year. A headbanger’s field day, 2023 boasted a solid array of death metal and some doom that won over skeptics like me. But this year’s music lacked emotional weight. Few 2023 albums sounded as beautiful as Inexorum’s Equinox Vigil, as heart-wrenching as Darkher’s The Buried Storm, or as monumental as Gloson’s The Rift, all of which rocked my 2022 list. There was still plenty to love, but something felt missing.
And so, I found solace in music from years past. Trees of Eternity’s Hour of the Nightingale, perhaps the most underrated record in AMG history, offered me catharsis on dark days. Emma Ruth Rundle held my hand,4 expressing boundless empathy through Marked for Death. Every Enshine release whisked me into a secluded world of sorrowful beauty. Conversely, LiveWire’s thrilling Under Attack!, my favorite 2022 record, kept hopelessness at bay; no matter what, I’m happy to inhabit a world that has LiveWire in it. On the fiercer side, I rekindled my love for Morbid Angel’s Covenant (1993), Suffocation’s Effigy of the Forgotten (1991), and Dying Fetus’ Killing on Adrenaline (1998). This deep bench of yesteryear highlights helped scratch the itches that 2023 albums missed.
The scarcity of tear-jerking 2023 music also re-taught me an important lesson: music that isn’t overtly emotional can still offer consolation or escape. Indeed, my favorite 2023 records brought a smile to my tired face rather than feeding my wallowing tendencies. A comment from the recent Suffocation review expressed this sentiment best:
All things fall to ruin in this world, and that’s why we have death metal.
I’ll give thank-yous a shot, though they’ll inevitably be incomplete. Thank you to AMG for his fearless leadership, Madam X for her tireless work, Grier for his insults, Steel for his bourbon (and also his bourbon), Sentynel for keeping us alive, and Dear Hollow for doing all the writing. Thank you to the UK staff for tolerating my occasional visits, and to everyone who’s supported me through bouts of melodrama. And thank you to everyone who makes my world more musical: artists, comment-section banterers, fellow writers, friends who share music with me, kind people at shows, and more. I’ll be on board 70,000 Tons for the first time next month, and I’m excited to keep deepening my musical community.
Finally, thank you to Thus Spoke, my (list) partner in (vegan) crime. Her intense emotional connection to music bleeds through her words, inspiring me to listen more closely and write more goodly. Read her list first; you won’t regret it.
#ish. Ne Obliviscaris // Exul – Exul’s peaks show Ne Obliviscaris at the top of their divisive game. The band’s balance of beauty and brutality is as strong as ever, as the strings, clean guitars, and death metal riffs move in lockstep. Bassist Martino Garratoni’s hyperactive melodies round out Exul’s rich soundscape. It’s a pleasure to hear Ne Obliviscaris’ compositions unfold, ebbing and flowing among the band’s diverse strengths. Exul’s bloat is the only major splotch on an otherwise stellar record. Listen to Exul with an open mind; it’s easy to get clouded by the hype or the popular hatred. Exul offers a lot to love, and there isn’t much else like it.
[Pairing: Maison Ferrand (Ars, France), Citadelle Jardin d’Été Gin. This gin is easy to sneer at; it’s contemporary, a newcomer, and French. But give it a chance. You might find your mind wandering through a château garden in bloom.]#10. Gorod // The Orb – I slept on The Orb at first because of its lackluster bass. After a decade of spectacular performances, bassist Benoit Claus inexplicably dialed back his wizardry after 2015’s A Maze of Recycled Creeds. Still, Gorod makes it work. The Orb’s unhinged harmonic leads showcase guitarists Pascal and Alberny at their finest. Meanwhile, the album’s energetic peaks and valleys give space for the drums to take the driver’s seat. Every moment of The Orb amps me up for the next moment, most notably on career highlight “Breeding Silence.” The Orb isn’t memorable enough to land near the top of Gorod’s formidable discography, but Gorod’s brand of hyper-technical death metal is still fun as hell.
[Pairing: Founders Brewing (Grand Rapids, MI), Porter – 6.5% ABV. Less rich than some of its Founders brethren (e.g. Breakfast Stout), but still a flavorful feast.]#9. Altari // Kröflueldar – I don’t know what the hell this is, but I love it. Altari’s distinctive debut melds black metal and psychedelic rock. While those genre labels might provoke knee-jerk comparisons to Oranssi Pazuzu or A Forest of Stars, Altari’s sound is peerless. Stalwart rhythms ground you while swirling melodies emerge from nowhere to whisk you away, echoing Love’s Forever Changes and Jefferson Airplane’s Surrealistic Pillow. And yet, Kröflueldar’s blackened edge makes it a haunting experience. While Kröflueldar’s abrupt song endings have room for improvement, Altari’s hypnotic debut is a triumph. It might be tucked too far underground to turn many heads, but it’s well worth your time.
[Pairing: Brandy Soymilk Punch (made with Paul Masson VSOP Brandy). “What the hell is this? Why would I ever drink… Errr, why is my glass empty? Fill me up!”]#8. Sodomisery // Mazzaroth – The melodic black metal resurgence of 2023 peaked with Sodomisery. Mazzaroth checks every box. Dissection-lite blackened death riffs collude with soaring Misturious melodies to lure you into the fray. The album’s clean sections and Sodomisery’s newfound symphonic elements add emotional depth without sounding generic. Mazzaroth’s strengths coalesce in its belt-along choruses, which maintain the album’s somber mood while still worming into your brain. Because Sodomisery executes every component so well, the record sounds fresh despite trodding well-trodden ground. Even Sodomisery’s less-than-ideal name inspired three of 2023’s most iconic comments. Mazzaroth has captured the hearts of old fans and newcomers alike, and the attention is well-deserved.
[Pairing: BrewDog (Ellon, UK), Drop D – Cascadian Dark Ale, 8.1% ABV. Perfectly balances hoppiness and roasty stout flavors, without reinventing any wheels.]#7. Faithxtractor // Contempt for a Failed Dimension – While 2023 had no shortage of compelling no-frills death metal, the genre peaked in January with Faithxtractor. This is what you get when you cross faith unforgiving death metal with a tractor meticulous songwriting. Contempt for a Failed Dimension’s single-minded focus keeps it concise and fearsome across both its crushing slow sections and its frantic riff carnivals. Faithxtractor’s creativity elevates the album from “mere” fun to the top of its genre. Even at its most unhinged, Contempt for a Failed Dimension never trips over itself. Every riff inhabits its optimal location, and each one is essential to the final product. I’m not sure which dimension has failed—I hope it isn’t a spatial one—but I know Faithxtractor will punish it mightily.
[Pairing: Lagunitas Brewing (Petaluma, CA), IPA – 6.2% ABV. A familiar beer in a familiar style, but it always hits the spot. Sometimes that’s all you need.]#6. Xoth // Exogalactic – Xoth’s brand of technical blackened death-thrash is a sci-fi spectacle. Exogalactic’s futuristic riffs, twisting melodies, and narrative arcs make it feel like reptilian aliens are indeed enslaving humans as gladiators like hordes of warriors are really battling for the galaxy. Hearing Xoth play Tetris with electrifying melodies of all shapes and sizes is thrilling. While the album’s peaks fall short of its predecessor, you’ll be belting out its colossal choruses in no time. Xoth’s style is unique, but it shares a strength with Archspire, First Fragment, and Jane Austen: you can hear Xoth grinning through their art. Every time I listen to Exogalactic, I can’t help but grin alongside.
[Pairing: Brouwerij Huyghe (Melle, Belgium), Delirium Tremens – Belgian Golden Strong Ale, 8.5% ABV. A paradox in a glass: strong and flavorful, but light-hearted and bright. It’ll put a smile on your face.]#5. Raider // Trial by Chaos – Trial by Chaos is as dense as its cover art. Over 39 minutes of hectic death-thrash, Raider tells tales of dystopia, science fiction, and righteous defiance. Every element of Raider’s onslaught finds its mark. The guitars range from Floridian death metal steamrollers to three-piece melodic leads, nailing both styles. The thunderous rhythm section raises hell at climactic moments and stitches Trial by Chaos’ disparate pieces together. Most strikingly, Angelo Bonaccorso’s vocal variety imbues the music with emotional force and narrative structure. This is only Raider’s second full-length record, but its cohesion and show-stopping power make it best in class. Expect Raider to be a torchbearer for death-thrash in the years to come.
[Pairing: 3 Floyds Brewing (Munster, IN), Permanent Funeral – Imperial IPA, 10.5% ABV. Unforgiving in its strength, its hoppiness, and its intense flavor. Intimidating but irresistible.]#4. Wayfarer // American Gothic – Seamlessly blending their Western aesthetic with black metal, Wayfarer transports the listener to the Western United States circa 1900. This is not a romanticized Magic School Bus trip; everything around you is greed, senseless violence, and environmental devastation.5 American Gothic’s emotional palette matches this landscape, leading through righteous anger (“The Cattle Thief”),6 longing (“To Enter My House Justified”), and hopelessness (“Black Plumes over God’s Country”). The album’s fantastic rhythm section and its rich production, both uncharacteristic strengths for black metal, allow Wayfarer’s diverse compositions to shine. Even though Wayfarer isn’t the only band playing this style, they’ve won my heart. Concise but powerful, American Gothic is the new American gothic.
[Pairing: Buffalo Trace Distillery (Frankfort, KY), Sazerac Rye. Accessible for the wallet and the palate, but with a fierce rye edge. A flavor bonanza and a perfect companion for an evening of reminiscences or regrets.]#3. Hellripper // Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags – The “old Hellripper” is still alive and well, after two riotous slabs of blackened speed metal. The “new Hellripper” is no less formidable. Forays into death metal and old-school speed metal add flair around the edges. Meanwhile, Warlocks’ longer tracks leap out of Hellripper’s comfort zone while balancing melodic variety and narrative cohesion. Scottish folk influences add depth throughout the melodies, the lyrics rooted in Orkney mythology, and the unexpected bagpipes. With these forces combined, the record’s narrative pieces feel like captivating campfire tales rather than bedtime stories. And still, Warlocks’ speedy killers are the most fun I’ve had all year. Warlocks is both an exhilarating listen and a massive step forward for Hellripper’s songwriting.
[Pairing: St. George Spirits (Alameda, CA), Terroir Gin. The juniper-heavy palate will placate gin gatekeepers, while the Douglas fir and sage will transport open minds to a California coastal redwood forest. Classic, innovative, and delicious.]#2. Onheil // In Black Ashes – In Black Ashes is melodic black/death/speed/thrash at its finest. But that description is both a little too much and much too little. The album’s irresistible speedy riffs alone deserve Grier’s 3.5. Onheil’s mastery of melody and songwriting elevates In Black Ashes into the stratosphere. Led by the indomitable “Void,” In Black Ashes’ powerful melodies offer catharsis like none other. As the album progresses, Onheil flexes their compositional muscles more, melding narrative meloblack epics with Mors Principium Est-adjacent bangers. Every track is a winner, and Onheil strikes an impossible balance between enthralling riffs and emotional heft. In Black Ashes deserves a lot more love.
[Pairing: Hayman’s Distillery (London, UK), Royal Dock Navy Strength Gin. This isn’t just another boring London gin; spices and citrus add a twist. Bottled at the 114 proof point where soaked gunpowder can still ignite, Royal Dock is fierce but shockingly smooth.]#1. Theophonos // Nightmare Visions – Nightmare Visions throws everything at the wall, and everything sticks. I struggled to describe this album once, and it isn’t getting easier. Theophonos’ debut feels like a grind-paced tour through metal history, squeezed through a blackened filter. Armed with razor-sharp riffs, a vicious rhythm section, and a refusal to sit still, Theophonos’ dissonant style is both neck-shattering and evocative. The album’s density makes it a gripping experience, while Jimmy Hamzey’s (Serpent Column) masterful transitions hold the Jenga blocks together. Theophonos’ blood, sweat, and tears glisten through details like the inter-song callbacks and the blurring of frenzied black metal and serene rock. Ten months into our love affair, Nightmare Visions still reveals new facets on every listen. Even if blackened grind isn’t your home turf (trust me, it isn’t mine), give Nightmare Visions a shot. I’d never heard anything like it, but now I can’t stop listening.
[Pairing: Fifth Hammer Brewing (Queens, NY), POGlodyte – Sour Ale with Passionfruit, Blood Orange, and Guava, 5.5% ABV. The description is accurate but inadequate. Wilder than your wildest dreams, this sour is what you never realized your life needed. Rapture for every taste bud.]Honorable Mentions:
- Night Crowned // Tales – Tales is a scorcher from cover to cover, blending ferocious blackened death melodies with clean and folky digressions. Night Crowned jostled their way up here at the last minute. Ask me in a few weeks, and I might regret not pushing Tales up to my top 10.
- Tomb Mold // The Enduring Spirit – Tomb Mold’s 57-degree turn into prog death lands close to Fallujah’s best work. With dueling guitar leads, riveting bass melodies, and groovy drum lines, The Enduring Spirit is gorgeous and engaging. With more oomph, it could’ve landed near the top of my list.
- Saturnus // The Storm Within – From its crushing death-doom riffs to its My Dying Bride-esque dirges, The Storm Within ripped my heart out. Saturnus’ decade-awaited return suffers from bloat, but it’s still one of 2023’s rare emotional juggernauts.
- Kalmah // Kalmah – Kalmah’s Kalmah sounds like Kalmah, in the best way. Firestorm riffs, massive climaxes, and prominent synths get the blood flowing. The slower morose sections hit just as hard, especially with their infectious choruses. Kalmah doesn’t break new ground, but it still holds me rapt.
- Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter // Saved! – Saved! is jarring, but Hayter’s spellbinding vocals and her cohesive compositions won me over. The album pantses my heart in its best moments, like “I Will Be with You Always.” The out-of-place shorter pieces and the record’s rocky start hold Saved! back, but it’s still worth a spin or ten.
- Serpent of Old // Ensemble under the Dark Sun – This one is tough to describe. Ensemble’s blackened death melodies, at once eerie and grabby, crept under my skin on my very first listen. Given how dense and thoughtful Ensemble is, I still can’t believe it’s Serpent of Old’s debut.
Disappointments o’ the Year:
- Myrkur // Spine – Pairing: Methanol. A close relative of excellence, but hazardous in its current form. So close, but so very far.
- The Ocean // Holocene – Pairing: Southwest Spirits (Dallas, TX), Calamity Gin. The heavy floral and citrusy botanicals make for an intriguing promo pitch. Given my history with similar styles, I had every expectation of loving this. Alas, reality was not so kind; I struggled to finish it.
Songs o’ the Year:
- Onheil – “Void”
- Enslaved – “Congelia”
- Xoth – “Battlesphere”
- Sermon – “Golden”
- Gorod – “Breeding Silence”
- Ne Obliviscaris – “Equus”
- Insomnium – “1696”
- Theophonos – “Of Days Past”
- Raider – “Labyrinth”
- Wayfarer – “The Cattle Thief”
- Stortregn – “The Revelation”
#Ahab #Altari #Convocation #Dödheimsgard #DownfallOfGaia #DymnaLotva #Faithxtractor #FiresInTheDistance #Gorod #Hellripper #Kalmah #Lists #Listurnalia #Mānbryne #Myrkur #NeObliviscaris #NightCrowned #Nightmarer #Onheil #Panopticon #Raider #ReverendKristinMichaelHayter #Saturnus #SerpentOfOld #Sodomisery #Stortregn #Thantifaxath #TheCircle #TheOcean #Theophonos #ThusSpokeSAndMaddogSTopTenIshOf2023 #ToTheGrave #TombMold #Top10Ish_ #Voidsphere #Wayfarer #Xoth
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Thus Spoke and Maddog’s Top Ten(ish) of 2023
By Thus Spoke
Thus Spoke
Mum, I’ve made it; I’ve got my own official year-end list on Angry Metal Guy dot com. Just two years ago I had begun my probation period in what would come to be characteristically overzealous fashion, slapping a 4.5 on my first ever review, before deciding that words are much better than numbers. At the time, uncertain of my tenancy in these hallowed halls, I was juggling n00b reviews with short-form reviews on Instagram,1 the latter pursuit being what led me to apply here in the first place. And I’m glad I did!
My first complete year here as a writer has been pretty great, all things considered. I’ve reviewed (and not reviewed) some Excellent (with a capital ‘E’) albums and discovered new favorites—some of whom will be appearing below. It continues to humble me and blow my mind that I get to put my thoughts about music out here on the internet and that people actually read them; that I get to write about bands and records with a critical voice that actually garners some respect, like I’m a proper person who knows things; and that I have the chance to gush about artists I’ve loved for a long time, or only just hit upon. Reviewing Panopticon was a wonderful year-end highlight. Of course, not everything was rosy. It was another year of silence from Ulcerate2, not the greatest year for truly stand-out black metal (with some clear exceptions), and a year in which I struggled with some significant challenges at work. But disappointing promos and unavoidable life hurdles aside, 2023 has been the year that AMG—the reviewing, the staff, and the commenting community—has cemented itself as an important part of who I am. I’m grateful for all of you. Thank you.
Having not made one of these before, this has been my first proper taste of the agony (and perhaps joy) of choosing what to list and where to list them. Can I pen a Contrite Metal Guy piece about my picks later down the line? No, I can’t. So if I’ve forgotten something, please just don’t bring it up or it’ll torture me for at least the entirety of 2024.3 Now, on with the list before I change my mind!
#ish. Convocation // No Dawn for the Caliginous Night – Not only did this album floor me on first listen, but it also made me discover how much I love to say the word “caliginous.” *Annunciates* Cal-ig-in-ous. No Dawn… is just as satisfying, but in a very different way. Its drama, potency, and sheer scale are wondrous to behold and instantly catapulted it into my list (well, close enough). I had been thinking in recent months that I’d kind of fallen off the doom wagon. But Convocation was there right as the year was about to end to shove me firmly back on board. As Cherd opined “This is a towering celebration of death’s enormity, packaged in the heaviest and most shimmering of vessels,” and I concur. It’s really only down to a totally stacked year of music that this behemoth doesn’t rank higher.
#10. Thantifaxath // Hive Mind Narcosis – This album scares the shit out of me and I absolutely love it. Everything about its wacky, dissonant, bendy, manic, and malevolent intensity borders on the hallucinogenic and nightmarish. And as a piece of extreme metal, aiming to confront with the harshest of blackened death metal, this is a very good thing. Thantifaxath were a 2023 discovery for me, and this, their sophomore effort, thoroughly convinced me that I should be paying attention to them. It always sends me into a state of heavy foreboding, anxiety, and nausea at confrontation with the absurd. When I reviewed Hive Mind Narcosis, I talked about its contradictory coherence and beauty under a façade of erraticism and ugliness, and I believe this to be what makes it continue to stand out amidst many other unapproachable extreme metal records that came out in 2023, worthy as they may be.
#9. Downfall of Gaia // Silhouettes of Disgust – While I’ve had an appreciation for Downfall of Gaia since Atrophy, Silhouettes of Disgust has been the first one that’s really made an impression on me. It’s stuck with me nearly all year since it dropped in March, and I find myself continuing to return to it again and again. When I don’t know what to listen to, I’ll stick this on, and I’ll enjoy it every time. Melodically and emotionally powerful, it contains some of my favorite musical moments of the year, including in particular the building surge of drama and catharsis that ends “Optograms of Disgust” and the album entirely. I think the reason Silhouettes has had this effect was pinned down nicely by Carcharodon when he wrote: “this is the [album] that manages to blend most effectively all the disparate facets of Downfall of Gaia’s sound.” And I would go further and assert what he only hinted at, that Silhouettes is indeed the best of the band’s career.
#8. Stortregn // Finitude – I feel like Stortregn have been getting more and more fun with every album, or at least definitely on the last few. While Emptiness Fills the Void (2018) was light enjoyment, Impermanence (2021) stepped things up a gear into real grin-inducing territory. Finitude, however, blows those records out of the water with what is possibly the most fun I’ve had with technical death/black metal of any kind. Everything about it works towards this, from constantly evolving, circularly composed song structures that sweep you away with their drama and flair, to a flipping flamenco break in “Xeno Chaos” which I should hate, but instead, I absolutely fucking love because it works so brilliantly. Its melodies are gorgeous, its energy undeniable, its rhythms irresistible. Damn, I think I’m gonna go and listen to it again now, I’ve really given myself the itch.
#7. To the Grave // Director’s Cuts – This started off higher on my list. It’s not that I’ve cooled off on it. Quite the contrary, as To the Grave are my most-listened-to artist on Spotify this year, and I will still ardently defend, to anyone who bothers to vocalize their disagreement, that this is an Excellent album. It’s simply a testament to the strength of those you’ll find below. But let that not take away from the immensity that is Director’s Cuts. It’s a stunning slab of deathcore that utterly wipes the floor with anything else released in that subgenre this year, not just br00tal and groovy as all hell, but possessed of a powerful and righteous message of animal liberation, wrapped of course, in a super mean metal mien. “Manhunt,” and indeed most of the album, powered many a top set in the gym, while stone-cold classic-in-the-making, “Axe of Kindness” easily makes it to the Songs of the Year playlist. It’s just fantastic all-round. Until all are free! *Headbangs violently.*
#6. Wayfarer // American Gothic – I was not initially overly enamored with American Gothic. I don’t know what I was playing at though, because it’s quite clearly brilliant. It’s grown on me like no other album has this year, quickly and assertively muscling its way almost into my top five. Though at first I thought it was inferior to its predecessor A Romance with Violence, as I’ve mentioned, I was being silly, and it’s actually far superior. With a more coherent and consistent compositional structure, more powerful and punchy songs, with stronger, more memorable melodies, and a better integration of that uniquely Western vibe into vibrant and vicious black metal, this is my favorite Wayfarer album by a country mile. Brilliantly evocative, both satisfyingly savage and stirringly soft when it needs to be, American Gothic never ceases to transport me to the old West in its turbulent transformation with drama, passion, and beauty. And it’s wonderful to experience.
#5. Night Crowned // Tales – It was surprising enough that none of my esteemed colleagues had nabbed Tales before I did. But for it to be so mind-blowingly fantastic that it would end up this high on my year-end list was something else. With a songs-of-the-year-lister for an opening cut and, in general, a tracklist stuffed full of back-to-back bangers, and a blazingly bombastic, infectious spirit all around, Tales charges ahead of the competition with savage glee. It’s actually hard to overstate just how good this album is, particularly given how ridiculously easy it is to listen to with its catchy melodies, (relatively) snappy song lengths, and dynamic energy. The culmination of Night Crowned’s fiery and dramatic style of black metal, and the best of their already stellar discography, Tales calls me back ceaselessly and I’m more than happy to oblige.
#4. Fires in the Distance // Air Not Meant for Us – This album is magical. Nothing has changed since I first heard it in its entirety this spring. Elegantly composed, stirring, and effortlessly graceful, it’s hands-down the most straightforwardly beautiful thing on my list. It’s moving without being sappy, and pretty without being saccharine. And Air Not Meant for Us also wins points for including a midway instrumental that’s not only just as good as the other tracks, but possibly better, and bridges the two sides of the album in this lovely way that makes for a dreamy kind of interlude. Fires in the Distance have such a distinctive form of ethereal, key-accented melodeath/doom that I can only see the immense strength of Air Not Meant for Us as a huge, incredibly exciting sign of more brilliant records to come. As it is, I still haven’t had enough of this one.
#3. Serpent of Old // Ensemble Under the Dark Sun – Back in June, I confidently declared that “Serpent of Old have crafted one of the best metal records of 2023 so far, no exaggeration.” Well, it turns out I wasn’t exaggerating, because here it is, number three on my list. Clear as day I can recall hearing the opening notes of “The Sin Before the Great Sin,” as Ensemble Under the Dark Sun began playing for the first time. Straight away I knew that I’d landed a monster of an album, and 42 or so minutes later I was completely engulfed in its intoxicatingly atmospheric darkness. Like their eponymous snake, Serpent of Old wound their blackened death metal around and around my brain. Ensemble is intense, and yet utterly captivating, dripping with oppressive, haunting melodies and deep, angular dissonance. And it also features the best drum performance of the year in my opinion. To think this is a debut is frankly astonishing, and I am extremely keen to hear more.
#2. Dødheimsgard // Black Medium Current – For a long time, this sat comfortably in first place. Why is no mystery. Unlike anything Dødheimsgard have put out in the past, or anything else released this year, Black Medium Current challenged, confronted, and mesmerized me. Weird and discomfiting one moment, tear-jerkingly beautiful another, this album is an emotional and musical rollercoaster that treads perfectly that line between avant-garde wackiness and sincere black metal passion. I recall how stunned I was to discover its 72+ minute length, after already spinning it back-to-back multiple times because it’s so engrossing and intelligently composed. I also recall just how close I came to awarding my first “Iconic” when reviewing it, simply due to the lasting power I perceived it to possess. While the Contrite Metal Guy piece is not on the roadmap for anytime soon, I still believe Black Medium Current to be incredibly special, and an album that absolutely must be heard by everyone in the metalsphere, even if it’s to rapidly discover it’s not one’s cup of tea. Dødheimsgard have made an almost perfect record here. A worthy holder of the top position, were it not for one, equally lengthy rival…
#1. Panopticon // The Rime of Memory – As it’s so recently reviewed, perhaps this was obvious. But with Panopticon, I can be sure that its immense influence is not just due to proximity bias. Just like its predecessor …And Again into the Light, The Rime of Memory knocked me flat off my feet and buried me like an avalanche, with all of the intensity and force, and yet none of the cold. Because this burns white hot with passion and pain. I haven’t yet decided whether it sits above that prior record, but right now, it doesn’t matter, because it easily stands above all others in 2023. “Cedar Skeletons” alone snatches the song of the year accolade, but the whole is something I have to experience again and again. It would just be wrong to give anything less than first place to an album that quite literally brings me to tears because of how emotionally poignant and compositionally powerful it is. As with my #2 pick, its epic duration is immaterial in the face of its effect, which is utterly unmatched by any of my other list contenders. Panopticon—particularly on more recent records—seems to have a unique ability to tug on my heartstrings and to blend the most ferocious of black metal with the most serene and evocative Appalachian folk, and to have it all bleed pure pathos. The Rime of Memory more than matched my lofty hopes, and it already has a very special place in my heart.
Honorable Mentions:
- Ahab // The Coral Tombs – A return to form after the iffy Boats of the Glen Carrig. Managing at turns to be both as heavy as a colossal squid and beautifully still as the depths of the ocean.
- Nightmarer // Deformity Adrift – I love everything Nightmarer put out and this is no exception. Brutal and shivering with grim atmosphere and irresistible rhythm.
- Manbryne // Interregnum: O próbie wiary i jarzmie zwątpienia – Just as good, if not better than its predecessor. Which means it’s really rather good. Gnarly, intriguing Polish black metal with bite and pizzaz.
- The Circle // Of Awakening – This magnificent dramatic black metal opus came the closest to making it into the final list. I slept on this album hard until the final months, and it was only barely pushed out.
- Dymna Lotva // The Land Under the Black Wings: Blood – An album that came out of absolutely nowhere for me and stunned with its emotional potency and devastating delivery. Future Dymna Lotva records may well make the list when that year comes.
- Voidsphere // To Infect | To Inflict – Thank you to Dear Hollow for putting this on my radar. It’s like Decoherence and Darkspace had a baby. A dark, mesmerizing atmospheric black metal baby. Gorgeous.
Songs of the Year:
- “Cedar Skeletons” – Panopticon
- “De Namnlösa” – Night Crowned
- “Axe of Kindness” – To the Grave
- “Optograms of Disgust” – Downfall of Gaia
- “The Fall” – Serpent of Old
- “A Coral Tomb” – Ahab
- “Boreal” – The Ocean
- “Seven Crowns and Seven Seals” – Sulphur Aeon
- “Taufbefehl” – Nightmarer
- “Of Awakening” – The Circle (ft. Ne Obliviscaris)
Guilty Pleasure of the Year:
- “SIRENCORE” – Banshee – Not remotely metal unless you count some black metal shrieking scattered into its dance-pop. I did however, get mildly addicted to this song for a time. What can I say? I have to let my girly side out occasionally. And yeah. It’s going on the playlist.
Maddog
My earballs had a mixed year. A headbanger’s field day, 2023 boasted a solid array of death metal and some doom that won over skeptics like me. But this year’s music lacked emotional weight. Few 2023 albums sounded as beautiful as Inexorum’s Equinox Vigil, as heart-wrenching as Darkher’s The Buried Storm, or as monumental as Gloson’s The Rift, all of which rocked my 2022 list. There was still plenty to love, but something felt missing.
And so, I found solace in music from years past. Trees of Eternity’s Hour of the Nightingale, perhaps the most underrated record in AMG history, offered me catharsis on dark days. Emma Ruth Rundle held my hand,4 expressing boundless empathy through Marked for Death. Every Enshine release whisked me into a secluded world of sorrowful beauty. Conversely, LiveWire’s thrilling Under Attack!, my favorite 2022 record, kept hopelessness at bay; no matter what, I’m happy to inhabit a world that has LiveWire in it. On the fiercer side, I rekindled my love for Morbid Angel’s Covenant (1993), Suffocation’s Effigy of the Forgotten (1991), and Dying Fetus’ Killing on Adrenaline (1998). This deep bench of yesteryear highlights helped scratch the itches that 2023 albums missed.
The scarcity of tear-jerking 2023 music also re-taught me an important lesson: music that isn’t overtly emotional can still offer consolation or escape. Indeed, my favorite 2023 records brought a smile to my tired face rather than feeding my wallowing tendencies. A comment from the recent Suffocation review expressed this sentiment best:
All things fall to ruin in this world, and that’s why we have death metal.
I’ll give thank-yous a shot, though they’ll inevitably be incomplete. Thank you to AMG for his fearless leadership, Madam X for her tireless work, Grier for his insults, Steel for his bourbon (and also his bourbon), Sentynel for keeping us alive, and Dear Hollow for doing all the writing. Thank you to the UK staff for tolerating my occasional visits, and to everyone who’s supported me through bouts of melodrama. And thank you to everyone who makes my world more musical: artists, comment-section banterers, fellow writers, friends who share music with me, kind people at shows, and more. I’ll be on board 70,000 Tons for the first time next month, and I’m excited to keep deepening my musical community.
Finally, thank you to Thus Spoke, my (list) partner in (vegan) crime. Her intense emotional connection to music bleeds through her words, inspiring me to listen more closely and write more goodly. Read her list first; you won’t regret it.
#ish. Ne Obliviscaris // Exul – Exul’s peaks show Ne Obliviscaris at the top of their divisive game. The band’s balance of beauty and brutality is as strong as ever, as the strings, clean guitars, and death metal riffs move in lockstep. Bassist Martino Garratoni’s hyperactive melodies round out Exul’s rich soundscape. It’s a pleasure to hear Ne Obliviscaris’ compositions unfold, ebbing and flowing among the band’s diverse strengths. Exul’s bloat is the only major splotch on an otherwise stellar record. Listen to Exul with an open mind; it’s easy to get clouded by the hype or the popular hatred. Exul offers a lot to love, and there isn’t much else like it.
[Pairing: Maison Ferrand (Ars, France), Citadelle Jardin d’Été Gin. This gin is easy to sneer at; it’s contemporary, a newcomer, and French. But give it a chance. You might find your mind wandering through a château garden in bloom.]#10. Gorod // The Orb – I slept on The Orb at first because of its lackluster bass. After a decade of spectacular performances, bassist Benoit Claus inexplicably dialed back his wizardry after 2015’s A Maze of Recycled Creeds. Still, Gorod makes it work. The Orb’s unhinged harmonic leads showcase guitarists Pascal and Alberny at their finest. Meanwhile, the album’s energetic peaks and valleys give space for the drums to take the driver’s seat. Every moment of The Orb amps me up for the next moment, most notably on career highlight “Breeding Silence.” The Orb isn’t memorable enough to land near the top of Gorod’s formidable discography, but Gorod’s brand of hyper-technical death metal is still fun as hell.
[Pairing: Founders Brewing (Grand Rapids, MI), Porter – 6.5% ABV. Less rich than some of its Founders brethren (e.g. Breakfast Stout), but still a flavorful feast.]#9. Altari // Kröflueldar – I don’t know what the hell this is, but I love it. Altari’s distinctive debut melds black metal and psychedelic rock. While those genre labels might provoke knee-jerk comparisons to Oranssi Pazuzu or A Forest of Stars, Altari’s sound is peerless. Stalwart rhythms ground you while swirling melodies emerge from nowhere to whisk you away, echoing Love’s Forever Changes and Jefferson Airplane’s Surrealistic Pillow. And yet, Kröflueldar’s blackened edge makes it a haunting experience. While Kröflueldar’s abrupt song endings have room for improvement, Altari’s hypnotic debut is a triumph. It might be tucked too far underground to turn many heads, but it’s well worth your time.
[Pairing: Brandy Soymilk Punch (made with Paul Masson VSOP Brandy). “What the hell is this? Why would I ever drink… Errr, why is my glass empty? Fill me up!”]#8. Sodomisery // Mazzaroth – The melodic black metal resurgence of 2023 peaked with Sodomisery. Mazzaroth checks every box. Dissection-lite blackened death riffs collude with soaring Misturious melodies to lure you into the fray. The album’s clean sections and Sodomisery’s newfound symphonic elements add emotional depth without sounding generic. Mazzaroth’s strengths coalesce in its belt-along choruses, which maintain the album’s somber mood while still worming into your brain. Because Sodomisery executes every component so well, the record sounds fresh despite trodding well-trodden ground. Even Sodomisery’s less-than-ideal name inspired three of 2023’s most iconic comments. Mazzaroth has captured the hearts of old fans and newcomers alike, and the attention is well-deserved.
[Pairing: BrewDog (Ellon, UK), Drop D – Cascadian Dark Ale, 8.1% ABV. Perfectly balances hoppiness and roasty stout flavors, without reinventing any wheels.]#7. Faithxtractor // Contempt for a Failed Dimension – While 2023 had no shortage of compelling no-frills death metal, the genre peaked in January with Faithxtractor. This is what you get when you cross faith unforgiving death metal with a tractor meticulous songwriting. Contempt for a Failed Dimension’s single-minded focus keeps it concise and fearsome across both its crushing slow sections and its frantic riff carnivals. Faithxtractor’s creativity elevates the album from “mere” fun to the top of its genre. Even at its most unhinged, Contempt for a Failed Dimension never trips over itself. Every riff inhabits its optimal location, and each one is essential to the final product. I’m not sure which dimension has failed—I hope it isn’t a spatial one—but I know Faithxtractor will punish it mightily.
[Pairing: Lagunitas Brewing (Petaluma, CA), IPA – 6.2% ABV. A familiar beer in a familiar style, but it always hits the spot. Sometimes that’s all you need.]#6. Xoth // Exogalactic – Xoth’s brand of technical blackened death-thrash is a sci-fi spectacle. Exogalactic’s futuristic riffs, twisting melodies, and narrative arcs make it feel like reptilian aliens are indeed enslaving humans as gladiators like hordes of warriors are really battling for the galaxy. Hearing Xoth play Tetris with electrifying melodies of all shapes and sizes is thrilling. While the album’s peaks fall short of its predecessor, you’ll be belting out its colossal choruses in no time. Xoth’s style is unique, but it shares a strength with Archspire, First Fragment, and Jane Austen: you can hear Xoth grinning through their art. Every time I listen to Exogalactic, I can’t help but grin alongside.
[Pairing: Brouwerij Huyghe (Melle, Belgium), Delirium Tremens – Belgian Golden Strong Ale, 8.5% ABV. A paradox in a glass: strong and flavorful, but light-hearted and bright. It’ll put a smile on your face.]#5. Raider // Trial by Chaos – Trial by Chaos is as dense as its cover art. Over 39 minutes of hectic death-thrash, Raider tells tales of dystopia, science fiction, and righteous defiance. Every element of Raider’s onslaught finds its mark. The guitars range from Floridian death metal steamrollers to three-piece melodic leads, nailing both styles. The thunderous rhythm section raises hell at climactic moments and stitches Trial by Chaos’ disparate pieces together. Most strikingly, Angelo Bonaccorso’s vocal variety imbues the music with emotional force and narrative structure. This is only Raider’s second full-length record, but its cohesion and show-stopping power make it best in class. Expect Raider to be a torchbearer for death-thrash in the years to come.
[Pairing: 3 Floyds Brewing (Munster, IN), Permanent Funeral – Imperial IPA, 10.5% ABV. Unforgiving in its strength, its hoppiness, and its intense flavor. Intimidating but irresistible.]#4. Wayfarer // American Gothic – Seamlessly blending their Western aesthetic with black metal, Wayfarer transports the listener to the Western United States circa 1900. This is not a romanticized Magic School Bus trip; everything around you is greed, senseless violence, and environmental devastation.5 American Gothic’s emotional palette matches this landscape, leading through righteous anger (“The Cattle Thief”),6 longing (“To Enter My House Justified”), and hopelessness (“Black Plumes over God’s Country”). The album’s fantastic rhythm section and its rich production, both uncharacteristic strengths for black metal, allow Wayfarer’s diverse compositions to shine. Even though Wayfarer isn’t the only band playing this style, they’ve won my heart. Concise but powerful, American Gothic is the new American gothic.
[Pairing: Buffalo Trace Distillery (Frankfort, KY), Sazerac Rye. Accessible for the wallet and the palate, but with a fierce rye edge. A flavor bonanza and a perfect companion for an evening of reminiscences or regrets.]#3. Hellripper // Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags – The “old Hellripper” is still alive and well, after two riotous slabs of blackened speed metal. The “new Hellripper” is no less formidable. Forays into death metal and old-school speed metal add flair around the edges. Meanwhile, Warlocks’ longer tracks leap out of Hellripper’s comfort zone while balancing melodic variety and narrative cohesion. Scottish folk influences add depth throughout the melodies, the lyrics rooted in Orkney mythology, and the unexpected bagpipes. With these forces combined, the record’s narrative pieces feel like captivating campfire tales rather than bedtime stories. And still, Warlocks’ speedy killers are the most fun I’ve had all year. Warlocks is both an exhilarating listen and a massive step forward for Hellripper’s songwriting.
[Pairing: St. George Spirits (Alameda, CA), Terroir Gin. The juniper-heavy palate will placate gin gatekeepers, while the Douglas fir and sage will transport open minds to a California coastal redwood forest. Classic, innovative, and delicious.]#2. Onheil // In Black Ashes – In Black Ashes is melodic black/death/speed/thrash at its finest. But that description is both a little too much and much too little. The album’s irresistible speedy riffs alone deserve Grier’s 3.5. Onheil’s mastery of melody and songwriting elevates In Black Ashes into the stratosphere. Led by the indomitable “Void,” In Black Ashes’ powerful melodies offer catharsis like none other. As the album progresses, Onheil flexes their compositional muscles more, melding narrative meloblack epics with Mors Principium Est-adjacent bangers. Every track is a winner, and Onheil strikes an impossible balance between enthralling riffs and emotional heft. In Black Ashes deserves a lot more love.
[Pairing: Hayman’s Distillery (London, UK), Royal Dock Navy Strength Gin. This isn’t just another boring London gin; spices and citrus add a twist. Bottled at the 114 proof point where soaked gunpowder can still ignite, Royal Dock is fierce but shockingly smooth.]#1. Theophonos // Nightmare Visions – Nightmare Visions throws everything at the wall, and everything sticks. I struggled to describe this album once, and it isn’t getting easier. Theophonos’ debut feels like a grind-paced tour through metal history, squeezed through a blackened filter. Armed with razor-sharp riffs, a vicious rhythm section, and a refusal to sit still, Theophonos’ dissonant style is both neck-shattering and evocative. The album’s density makes it a gripping experience, while Jimmy Hamzey’s (Serpent Column) masterful transitions hold the Jenga blocks together. Theophonos’ blood, sweat, and tears glisten through details like the inter-song callbacks and the blurring of frenzied black metal and serene rock. Ten months into our love affair, Nightmare Visions still reveals new facets on every listen. Even if blackened grind isn’t your home turf (trust me, it isn’t mine), give Nightmare Visions a shot. I’d never heard anything like it, but now I can’t stop listening.
[Pairing: Fifth Hammer Brewing (Queens, NY), POGlodyte – Sour Ale with Passionfruit, Blood Orange, and Guava, 5.5% ABV. The description is accurate but inadequate. Wilder than your wildest dreams, this sour is what you never realized your life needed. Rapture for every taste bud.]Honorable Mentions:
- Night Crowned // Tales – Tales is a scorcher from cover to cover, blending ferocious blackened death melodies with clean and folky digressions. Night Crowned jostled their way up here at the last minute. Ask me in a few weeks, and I might regret not pushing Tales up to my top 10.
- Tomb Mold // The Enduring Spirit – Tomb Mold’s 57-degree turn into prog death lands close to Fallujah’s best work. With dueling guitar leads, riveting bass melodies, and groovy drum lines, The Enduring Spirit is gorgeous and engaging. With more oomph, it could’ve landed near the top of my list.
- Saturnus // The Storm Within – From its crushing death-doom riffs to its My Dying Bride-esque dirges, The Storm Within ripped my heart out. Saturnus’ decade-awaited return suffers from bloat, but it’s still one of 2023’s rare emotional juggernauts.
- Kalmah // Kalmah – Kalmah’s Kalmah sounds like Kalmah, in the best way. Firestorm riffs, massive climaxes, and prominent synths get the blood flowing. The slower morose sections hit just as hard, especially with their infectious choruses. Kalmah doesn’t break new ground, but it still holds me rapt.
- Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter // Saved! – Saved! is jarring, but Hayter’s spellbinding vocals and her cohesive compositions won me over. The album pantses my heart in its best moments, like “I Will Be with You Always.” The out-of-place shorter pieces and the record’s rocky start hold Saved! back, but it’s still worth a spin or ten.
- Serpent of Old // Ensemble under the Dark Sun – This one is tough to describe. Ensemble’s blackened death melodies, at once eerie and grabby, crept under my skin on my very first listen. Given how dense and thoughtful Ensemble is, I still can’t believe it’s Serpent of Old’s debut.
Disappointments o’ the Year:
- Myrkur // Spine – Pairing: Methanol. A close relative of excellence, but hazardous in its current form. So close, but so very far.
- The Ocean // Holocene – Pairing: Southwest Spirits (Dallas, TX), Calamity Gin. The heavy floral and citrusy botanicals make for an intriguing promo pitch. Given my history with similar styles, I had every expectation of loving this. Alas, reality was not so kind; I struggled to finish it.
Songs o’ the Year:
- Onheil – “Void”
- Enslaved – “Congelia”
- Xoth – “Battlesphere”
- Sermon – “Golden”
- Gorod – “Breeding Silence”
- Ne Obliviscaris – “Equus”
- Insomnium – “1696”
- Theophonos – “Of Days Past”
- Raider – “Labyrinth”
- Wayfarer – “The Cattle Thief”
- Stortregn – “The Revelation”
#Ahab #Altari #Convocation #Dödheimsgard #DownfallOfGaia #DymnaLotva #Faithxtractor #FiresInTheDistance #Gorod #Hellripper #Kalmah #Lists #Listurnalia #Mānbryne #Myrkur #NeObliviscaris #NightCrowned #Nightmarer #Onheil #Panopticon #Raider #ReverendKristinMichaelHayter #Saturnus #SerpentOfOld #Sodomisery #Stortregn #Thantifaxath #TheCircle #TheOcean #Theophonos #ThusSpokeSAndMaddogSTopTenIshOf2023 #ToTheGrave #TombMold #Top10Ish_ #Voidsphere #Wayfarer #Xoth