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Given that DHS, and in specific the ICE Gestapo have been the chief vehicle for Trump and Stephen Miller's larger ethno-nationalist purification project in America this past entire year, I don't think there's much hope of me catching you up on what ICE has been up to in the months since I stopped writing have passed. The short version is that they've been up to a whole lot of nazi shit, that makes it clear that at a very minimum Trump's mass deportation agenda is both real as penitentiary steel, and an ethnic cleansing operation in progress.
Of course, as far back as 2017, I was writing that Trump and Miller's then 1st term immigration policy was blatant white nationalism, and while the Swine Emperor did not yet have a large enough army to do a genocide (and ethnic cleansing is really just a polite way to say genocide; especially once some clever nazi starts pointing out that bullets cost less than boats) he was molding ICE and CBP into just such a force as we watched on live TV. I'd say that analysis aged pretty well, quite frankly; although I was certainly not the only analyst to notice - Adam Serwer in particular was writing many of the same things and issuing many of the same warnings.
Naturally, anyone who (correctly) analyzed that all of Trump and Miller's stated policy intentions pointed directly towards an ethnic cleansing operation, was dismissed as an alarmist. Yet if we fast forward to the very first year of Trump's second term in office, the reality that the entire US government has been repurposed in a variety of ways to conduct just such an ethnic cleansing in America, is so undeniable as to discredit an establishment that still wishes to pretend otherwise.
Take for example this December 13th opinion piece published in the Guardian; roughly 9 days after Trump sent 3,000 federal Gestapo goons to occupy Minneapolis, but before they'd actually murdered anyone there for exercising their constitutional rights.
The ethnic cleansing of the United States will destroy it
"The rant is abhorrent and factually incorrect, but it does hold one truth – the Trump administration’s vision for the United States is one of a white Christian nation. And the path to accomplish it is through the exclusion and removal of all who do not fit that vision – in other words, through ethnic cleansing.
To that end, Trump and his acolytes have increasingly been using the term “reverse migration” and even proposed an “office of remigration”. The idea, borrowed from white supremacists in Europe, understands immigrants as an inherent threat to the identity of what they imagine to be “white” nations. Immigrants’ forcible and systematic removal – remigration – is envisioned as a way to “restore” that whiteness.
This vision of an ethnically cleansed, white US is being enacted in policy."
As I implied above, I don't think it *should* be controversial to refer to Trump's mass deportation agenda as an ethnic cleansing project at this point; although to some degree, it still is. The reason I chose this piece by Professor Gowayed however, is because the author walks you through the ways this ethnic cleansing project goes beyond ICE disappearing people in our streets for the color of their skin, and instead has repurposed the entire apparatus of the federal government to "restore" whiteness and white supremacy. Legitimate pathways to citizenship or residency are closed, the regime is seeking to end birthright citizenship and expand the government's power to denaturalize people who've legally obtained citizenship already. The Supreme Court has allowed immigration pigs to stop people based on race, and at the same time an openly white supremacist GOP has poured enough money into the federal Gestapo to transform Trump's immigration security forces into his own private army. The entire federal government is now feeding data into a racialized police state, mass surveillance panopticon, at the very same time the Trump regime is slashing social safety net and support programs that will disproportionally affect people of color. All of which is to say nothing about the fact that the fascist police state being unleashed on migrants, is also being simultaneously repurposed to target anyone, including white American citizens, who opposes the Gestapo, or Trump's fascist agenda at all.
I'm not gonna lie to you folks, the situation is grim; but whatever we're going to do about all of this must be done with eyes wide open. It is not hyperbole to call an obvious ethnic cleansing operation, ethnic cleansing and indeed a genocide in progress. Thanks to the long history of fascism we already know how this story ends, and waiting around for Trump to start digging mass graves is a very good way to end up with mass graves.
#Fascism #Trump #GOP #Gestapo #ICE #DHS #BigBeautifulBill #EthnicCleansing #HebaGowayed #Genocide #StephenMiller #WhiteNationalism #WhiteSupremacy #Nazis #PoliceState
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Given that DHS, and in specific the ICE Gestapo have been the chief vehicle for Trump and Stephen Miller's larger ethno-nationalist purification project in America this past entire year, I don't think there's much hope of me catching you up on what ICE has been up to in the months since I stopped writing have passed. The short version is that they've been up to a whole lot of nazi shit, that makes it clear that at a very minimum Trump's mass deportation agenda is both real as penitentiary steel, and an ethnic cleansing operation in progress.
Of course, as far back as 2017, I was writing that Trump and Miller's then 1st term immigration policy was blatant white nationalism, and while the Swine Emperor did not yet have a large enough army to do a genocide (and ethnic cleansing is really just a polite way to say genocide; especially once some clever nazi starts pointing out that bullets cost less than boats) he was molding ICE and CBP into just such a force as we watched on live TV. I'd say that analysis aged pretty well, quite frankly; although I was certainly not the only analyst to notice - Adam Serwer in particular was writing many of the same things and issuing many of the same warnings.
Naturally, anyone who (correctly) analyzed that all of Trump and Miller's stated policy intentions pointed directly towards an ethnic cleansing operation, was dismissed as an alarmist. Yet if we fast forward to the very first year of Trump's second term in office, the reality that the entire US government has been repurposed in a variety of ways to conduct just such an ethnic cleansing in America, is so undeniable as to discredit an establishment that still wishes to pretend otherwise.
Take for example this December 13th opinion piece published in the Guardian; roughly 9 days after Trump sent 3,000 federal Gestapo goons to occupy Minneapolis, but before they'd actually murdered anyone there for exercising their constitutional rights.
The ethnic cleansing of the United States will destroy it
"The rant is abhorrent and factually incorrect, but it does hold one truth – the Trump administration’s vision for the United States is one of a white Christian nation. And the path to accomplish it is through the exclusion and removal of all who do not fit that vision – in other words, through ethnic cleansing.
To that end, Trump and his acolytes have increasingly been using the term “reverse migration” and even proposed an “office of remigration”. The idea, borrowed from white supremacists in Europe, understands immigrants as an inherent threat to the identity of what they imagine to be “white” nations. Immigrants’ forcible and systematic removal – remigration – is envisioned as a way to “restore” that whiteness.
This vision of an ethnically cleansed, white US is being enacted in policy."
As I implied above, I don't think it *should* be controversial to refer to Trump's mass deportation agenda as an ethnic cleansing project at this point; although to some degree, it still is. The reason I chose this piece by Professor Gowayed however, is because the author walks you through the ways this ethnic cleansing project goes beyond ICE disappearing people in our streets for the color of their skin, and instead has repurposed the entire apparatus of the federal government to "restore" whiteness and white supremacy. Legitimate pathways to citizenship or residency are closed, the regime is seeking to end birthright citizenship and expand the government's power to denaturalize people who've legally obtained citizenship already. The Supreme Court has allowed immigration pigs to stop people based on race, and at the same time an openly white supremacist GOP has poured enough money into the federal Gestapo to transform Trump's immigration security forces into his own private army. The entire federal government is now feeding data into a racialized police state, mass surveillance panopticon, at the very same time the Trump regime is slashing social safety net and support programs that will disproportionally affect people of color. All of which is to say nothing about the fact that the fascist police state being unleashed on migrants, is also being simultaneously repurposed to target anyone, including white American citizens, who opposes the Gestapo, or Trump's fascist agenda at all.
I'm not gonna lie to you folks, the situation is grim; but whatever we're going to do about all of this must be done with eyes wide open. It is not hyperbole to call an obvious ethnic cleansing operation, ethnic cleansing and indeed a genocide in progress. Thanks to the long history of fascism we already know how this story ends, and waiting around for Trump to start digging mass graves is a very good way to end up with mass graves.
#Fascism #Trump #GOP #Gestapo #ICE #DHS #BigBeautifulBill #EthnicCleansing #HebaGowayed #Genocide #StephenMiller #WhiteNationalism #WhiteSupremacy #Nazis #PoliceState
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Given that DHS, and in specific the ICE Gestapo have been the chief vehicle for Trump and Stephen Miller's larger ethno-nationalist purification project in America this past entire year, I don't think there's much hope of me catching you up on what ICE has been up to in the months since I stopped writing have passed. The short version is that they've been up to a whole lot of nazi shit, that makes it clear that at a very minimum Trump's mass deportation agenda is both real as penitentiary steel, and an ethnic cleansing operation in progress.
Of course, as far back as 2017, I was writing that Trump and Miller's then 1st term immigration policy was blatant white nationalism, and while the Swine Emperor did not yet have a large enough army to do a genocide (and ethnic cleansing is really just a polite way to say genocide; especially once some clever nazi starts pointing out that bullets cost less than boats) he was molding ICE and CBP into just such a force as we watched on live TV. I'd say that analysis aged pretty well, quite frankly; although I was certainly not the only analyst to notice - Adam Serwer in particular was writing many of the same things and issuing many of the same warnings.
Naturally, anyone who (correctly) analyzed that all of Trump and Miller's stated policy intentions pointed directly towards an ethnic cleansing operation, was dismissed as an alarmist. Yet if we fast forward to the very first year of Trump's second term in office, the reality that the entire US government has been repurposed in a variety of ways to conduct just such an ethnic cleansing in America, is so undeniable as to discredit an establishment that still wishes to pretend otherwise.
Take for example this December 13th opinion piece published in the Guardian; roughly 9 days after Trump sent 3,000 federal Gestapo goons to occupy Minneapolis, but before they'd actually murdered anyone there for exercising their constitutional rights.
The ethnic cleansing of the United States will destroy it
"The rant is abhorrent and factually incorrect, but it does hold one truth – the Trump administration’s vision for the United States is one of a white Christian nation. And the path to accomplish it is through the exclusion and removal of all who do not fit that vision – in other words, through ethnic cleansing.
To that end, Trump and his acolytes have increasingly been using the term “reverse migration” and even proposed an “office of remigration”. The idea, borrowed from white supremacists in Europe, understands immigrants as an inherent threat to the identity of what they imagine to be “white” nations. Immigrants’ forcible and systematic removal – remigration – is envisioned as a way to “restore” that whiteness.
This vision of an ethnically cleansed, white US is being enacted in policy."
As I implied above, I don't think it *should* be controversial to refer to Trump's mass deportation agenda as an ethnic cleansing project at this point; although to some degree, it still is. The reason I chose this piece by Professor Gowayed however, is because the author walks you through the ways this ethnic cleansing project goes beyond ICE disappearing people in our streets for the color of their skin, and instead has repurposed the entire apparatus of the federal government to "restore" whiteness and white supremacy. Legitimate pathways to citizenship or residency are closed, the regime is seeking to end birthright citizenship and expand the government's power to denaturalize people who've legally obtained citizenship already. The Supreme Court has allowed immigration pigs to stop people based on race, and at the same time an openly white supremacist GOP has poured enough money into the federal Gestapo to transform Trump's immigration security forces into his own private army. The entire federal government is now feeding data into a racialized police state, mass surveillance panopticon, at the very same time the Trump regime is slashing social safety net and support programs that will disproportionally affect people of color. All of which is to say nothing about the fact that the fascist police state being unleashed on migrants, is also being simultaneously repurposed to target anyone, including white American citizens, who opposes the Gestapo, or Trump's fascist agenda at all.
I'm not gonna lie to you folks, the situation is grim; but whatever we're going to do about all of this must be done with eyes wide open. It is not hyperbole to call an obvious ethnic cleansing operation, ethnic cleansing and indeed a genocide in progress. Thanks to the long history of fascism we already know how this story ends, and waiting around for Trump to start digging mass graves is a very good way to end up with mass graves.
#Fascism #Trump #GOP #Gestapo #ICE #DHS #BigBeautifulBill #EthnicCleansing #HebaGowayed #Genocide #StephenMiller #WhiteNationalism #WhiteSupremacy #Nazis #PoliceState
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Given that DHS, and in specific the ICE Gestapo have been the chief vehicle for Trump and Stephen Miller's larger ethno-nationalist purification project in America this past entire year, I don't think there's much hope of me catching you up on what ICE has been up to in the months since I stopped writing have passed. The short version is that they've been up to a whole lot of nazi shit, that makes it clear that at a very minimum Trump's mass deportation agenda is both real as penitentiary steel, and an ethnic cleansing operation in progress.
Of course, as far back as 2017, I was writing that Trump and Miller's then 1st term immigration policy was blatant white nationalism, and while the Swine Emperor did not yet have a large enough army to do a genocide (and ethnic cleansing is really just a polite way to say genocide; especially once some clever nazi starts pointing out that bullets cost less than boats) he was molding ICE and CBP into just such a force as we watched on live TV. I'd say that analysis aged pretty well, quite frankly; although I was certainly not the only analyst to notice - Adam Serwer in particular was writing many of the same things and issuing many of the same warnings.
Naturally, anyone who (correctly) analyzed that all of Trump and Miller's stated policy intentions pointed directly towards an ethnic cleansing operation, was dismissed as an alarmist. Yet if we fast forward to the very first year of Trump's second term in office, the reality that the entire US government has been repurposed in a variety of ways to conduct just such an ethnic cleansing in America, is so undeniable as to discredit an establishment that still wishes to pretend otherwise.
Take for example this December 13th opinion piece published in the Guardian; roughly 9 days after Trump sent 3,000 federal Gestapo goons to occupy Minneapolis, but before they'd actually murdered anyone there for exercising their constitutional rights.
The ethnic cleansing of the United States will destroy it
"The rant is abhorrent and factually incorrect, but it does hold one truth – the Trump administration’s vision for the United States is one of a white Christian nation. And the path to accomplish it is through the exclusion and removal of all who do not fit that vision – in other words, through ethnic cleansing.
To that end, Trump and his acolytes have increasingly been using the term “reverse migration” and even proposed an “office of remigration”. The idea, borrowed from white supremacists in Europe, understands immigrants as an inherent threat to the identity of what they imagine to be “white” nations. Immigrants’ forcible and systematic removal – remigration – is envisioned as a way to “restore” that whiteness.
This vision of an ethnically cleansed, white US is being enacted in policy."
As I implied above, I don't think it *should* be controversial to refer to Trump's mass deportation agenda as an ethnic cleansing project at this point; although to some degree, it still is. The reason I chose this piece by Professor Gowayed however, is because the author walks you through the ways this ethnic cleansing project goes beyond ICE disappearing people in our streets for the color of their skin, and instead has repurposed the entire apparatus of the federal government to "restore" whiteness and white supremacy. Legitimate pathways to citizenship or residency are closed, the regime is seeking to end birthright citizenship and expand the government's power to denaturalize people who've legally obtained citizenship already. The Supreme Court has allowed immigration pigs to stop people based on race, and at the same time an openly white supremacist GOP has poured enough money into the federal Gestapo to transform Trump's immigration security forces into his own private army. The entire federal government is now feeding data into a racialized police state, mass surveillance panopticon, at the very same time the Trump regime is slashing social safety net and support programs that will disproportionally affect people of color. All of which is to say nothing about the fact that the fascist police state being unleashed on migrants, is also being simultaneously repurposed to target anyone, including white American citizens, who opposes the Gestapo, or Trump's fascist agenda at all.
I'm not gonna lie to you folks, the situation is grim; but whatever we're going to do about all of this must be done with eyes wide open. It is not hyperbole to call an obvious ethnic cleansing operation, ethnic cleansing and indeed a genocide in progress. Thanks to the long history of fascism we already know how this story ends, and waiting around for Trump to start digging mass graves is a very good way to end up with mass graves.
#Fascism #Trump #GOP #Gestapo #ICE #DHS #BigBeautifulBill #EthnicCleansing #HebaGowayed #Genocide #StephenMiller #WhiteNationalism #WhiteSupremacy #Nazis #PoliceState
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Who Are These Clowns and Where Did They Put My Flesh Stapler? The AMG Staff Pick Their Top Ten(ish) of 2025 By Steel DruhmListurnalia is now upon us once again! If you are not ready to be assailed by non-stop lists and bad opinions for the next week and change, I suggest you get fooking ready! Listurnalia cannot be stopped, nor contained. It can only be tolerated and endured!
More than any year in recent history, 2025 saw more seasoned staffers step away from writing duties due to time constraints and life changes. To compensate for the loss of these slackwagoning quitters and shirkers, we added a gaggle of fresh new voices. This made for a bittersweet time around these parts as long-time friends departed and a bunch of untested, unknowns rose through the brutal n00b gauntlet to seize the means of promo production. These greenhorn neophytes have created great havoc at AMG HQ with their terrible taste, inability to follow directions, and steadfast refusal to ignore deathcore.
We’ve been here before, though, and we always straighten out the newbie upstarts. The daily beatings, deprivations, and absence of positive reinforcement will wear them down, and if not, we have plenty of space in the rotpit out back. This is, and will ever be, the AMG modality.
2026 will be an interesting year as the new crew members are shepherded by the olde while everyone is crushed beneath the iron heel of AMG management. Who will make it to 2027? Who will be sold off to Metal Wani for a box of bananas and Gorilla Glue? Place your bets in the official AMG Survival Pool!
As you read the Top Ten(ish) lists below, remember, reading our content is free, but you get what you pay for.
Grymm
#10. Venomous Echoes // Dysmor
#9. Blut Aus Nord // Ethereal Horizons
#8. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#7. Structure // Heritage
#6. Lorna Shore // I Feel The Everblack Festering Within Me
#5. Sigh // I Saw The World’s End – Hangman’s Hymn MMXXV
#4. Imperial Triumphant // Goldstar
#3. Am I In Trouble? // Spectrum
#2. Dax Riggs // 7 Songs for Spiders
#1. Paradise Lost // Ascension – I fully expected Paradise Lost to come out with quality music, which has been mostly par for the course in their storied almost-40-year career, and no one could blame them if they decided to coast along on their legendary sound. Instead, Ascension sees them giving a masterclass in songcraft and atmosphere, showing everyone, everywhere, how it’s done. With Black Sabbath now officially put to rest, Anathema long gone, and whatever the fuck is happening within My Dying Bride these days, somebody has to fly the British Doom flag high and proud, and Paradise Lost have done a bang-up job of doing so.Personal Highlight o’ the Year: Seeing Acid Bath live. I may or may not have cried during “Venus Blue,” and no, I don’t fucking care. 19-Year-Old me was pleased as punch that 48-Year-Old me got to see a legendary band (and one of his personal favorites) come back from tragedy to pay tribute to their fallen bassist and friend, Audie Pitre, by giving it another long-awaited go.
Disappointment(s) o’ the Year:
- Losing so many influential heroes (RIP Ozzy Osbourne, Ace Frehley, and Tomas Lindberg, among too many others)
- My health: I was hoping to be a lot more active this year, but early on, I needed to, in the immortal words of David Lynch, “fix (my) heart or die.”1 Thankfully, after surgery, I feel a million times better, so you should see a lot more of me in 2026. You have been warned.
Song o’ the Year:
- Paradise Lost // “Salvation”
El Cuervo
#ish. Astronoid // Stargod
#10. Ollie Wride // The Pressure Point
#9. Kauan // Wayhome
#8. Zéro Absolu // La Saignée
#7. Mutagenic Host // The Diseased Machine
#6. Asira // As Ink in Water
#5. Bruit // The Age of Ephemerality
#4. Saor // Amidst the Ruins
#3. The Midnight // Syndicate
#2. Steven Wilson // The Overview
#1. Messa // The Spin – In a year replete with comfort picks—progressive rock, synthwave, and death metal abound—how is that Italy’s enigmatic, inscrutable Messa forged my Album o’ the Year? The Spin doesn’t take the trouble to make itself easily approachable. Doom, prog, and post influences circle around velvety melodies that sometimes sound like deliberate songs, and sometimes like jazz improvisation. But it’s these very qualities that belie its subtle allure; only with repetition and attention does The Spin shine. Messa gradually reveals rhythmic motifs, instrumental nuances, and rich compositions that enhance my life on so many days. “The Dress,” especially, is stunning. And though the record’s loungey whimsy defies metal conventions, each track prizes genuine grit through its top-drawer guitar riffs. With the devotion it demands, no record from 2025 was more rewarding than The Spin.Honorable Mentions:
- Décryptal – Simulacre
- An Abstract Illusion – The Sleeping City
- Puteraeon – Mountains of Madness
- Hasard – Abgnose
Song o’ the Year:
- Ambush – “Maskirovka”
GardensTale
#ish. Structure // Heritage
#10. In Mourning //The Immortal
#9. Flummox // Southern Progress
#8. Der Weg Einer Freiheit // Innern
#7. Nephylim // Circuition
#6. Besna // Krásno
#5. Messa // The Spin
#4. Labyrinthus Stellarum // Rift in Reality
#3. Gazpacho // Magic 8 Ball
#2. Dormant Ordeal// Tooth & Nail
#1. Moron Police // Pachinko — I was a little nervous when I first read about the length and ambition behind Pachinko, especially in the context of the incredible and very concise A Boat on the Sea. I’ve never been this happy to be this wrong. Nothing in the last decade has overtaken my life as much as Pachinko has, and I’m listening to it yet again as I write this, and will probably restart it once it finishes. Pachinko has a lot in common with Everything Everywhere All At Once, one of my all-time favorite films, as a treatise on the chaos of life and the importance of friends and family. It treats its philosophy of silliness very seriously, laughing in the face of darkness in such a beautiful and inspiring way; it brightens my life every time I hear it. And it does all that in tribute to a dear friend who was gone too soon and too suddenly, and no other eulogistic album has let me feel like its subject’s soul touched mine. An astounding monument to friendship on top of an incredibly accomplished hour of music. Pachinko is a miracle.Honorable Mentions:
- Hangover in Minsk // Party is Over
- 1914 // Viribus Unitis
- Bianca // Bianca
- Fange // Purulences
- An Abstract Illusion // The Sleeping City
- Blindfolded // What Seeps Through Threads
Song o’ the Year:
- Moron Police – “Giving up the Ghost”
Non-metal Albums of the Year:
- Lorde // Virgin
- Jonathan Hultén // Eyes of the Living Night
- Shayfer James // Summoning
Mark Z.
#ish. Malefic Throne // The Conquering Darkness
#10. Urn // Demon Steel
#9. Teitanblood // From the Visceral Abyss
#8. Shed the Skin // The Carnage Cast Shadows
#7. Guts // Nightmare Fuel
#6. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#5. Perdition Temple // Malign Apotheosis
#4. Paradise Lost // Ascension
#3. Revocation // New Gods, New Masters
#2. Death Yell // Demons of Lust
#1. Abominator // The Fire Brethren – It took me a few years after hearing this Australian duo’s last album, 2015’s Evil Proclaimed, to realize I was wrong about them. Their raw and relentless black-death metal wasn’t just good, it was fucking awesome. With their long-awaited sixth album, The Fire Brethren, Abominator has conjured flames that reach higher than ever. As always, the enraged rasps, scorching riffs, and endlessly pummeling rhythms are like plumes of hellfire shot directly into your ear canals. But amidst the bludgeoning is some genuinely great songwriting, with deep-cutting hooks (“The Templar’s Curse,” “Underworld Vociferations”), flashes of melody (“Progenitors of the Insurrection of Satan”), thrashy breaks (“Sulphur from the Heavens”), and just enough variety to keep everything hitting as hard as possible. It’s not for everyone, but for those into Angelcorpse and other music of that sort, The Fire Brethren is the type of album you just can’t get enough of.Honorable Mention:
- Blasphamagoatachrist // Bestial Abominator
Song (Title) o’ the Year:
- Omegavortex – “Dystopian Worldrape”
Song o’ the Year:
- Fugitive – “Spheres of Virulence”
Carcharodon
#ish. Dax Riggs // 7 Songs for Spiders
#10. Novarupta // Astral Sands
#9. Atlantic // Timeworn
#8. Structure // Heritage
#7. Agriculture // The Spiritual Sound
#6. Igorr // Amen
#5. Messa // The Spin
#4. Abigail Williams // A Void Within Existence
#3. Cave Sermon // Fragile Wings
#2. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#1. Grima // Nightside – In each of 2019, 2021, and 2022, Grima released an album and, in each of those years, I listed said album (#5, HM, and #10). But this year, the year in which I have listened to the least metal and, of course, written the least since I started here in 2018, is also the year that Grima got everything dialled in to just what I want from a Grima album. On Nightside, the duo struck the perfect balance between the traditional influences of 2019’s Will of the Primordial and the propulsive, frozen atmosphere of Frostbitten (2022). The combination gives Nightside an almost hypnotic and weirdly tranquil flow, offset by Vilhelm’s rasping vocals, which remain among the best in the BM game. Every time I come back to this record, and the title track in particular, it’s even better than I remember it being, and I always end up spinning three or more times back-to-back. An album that can keep playing that trick deserves its #1 spot in my book.Honorable Mentions:
- An Abstract Illusion // The Sleeping City
- Gorycz // Zasypia
- Psychonaut // World Maker
- Wardruna // Birna
Songs o’ the Year:
- Messa – “Fire on the Roof”
- Novarupta – “Now Here We Are (At the Inevitable End)”
Mysticus Hugebeard
#10. Orbit Culture // Death Above Life
#9. An Abstract Illusion // The Sleeping City
#8. Qrixkuor // The Womb of the World
#7. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#6. Panopticon // Laurentian Blue
#5. Blackbraid // Blackbraid III
#4. Arkhaaik // Uihtis
#3. Kauan // Wayhome
#2. Wardruna // Birna
#1. Thumos // The Trial of Socrates – I recall groggily stumbling upon Thumos’ The Trial of Socrates at work one early morning, and I’m not sure if I’ve grown attached to it or it’s grown attached to me. It looms in my periphery, routinely interrupting my listening schedule for just one more spin. This gargantuan dive into ancient Greek philosophy and justice is melodically rich, laden with atmosphere, and fiercely intelligent. I love how this album stimulates my curiosity. I pore over The Trial of Socrates like a madman, piecing the puzzle together with feverish glee but never quite feeling finished, because every re-listen yields new shapes, new colors, new ideas. It eggs me on to research various topics on ancient Greek history or philosophy, and even made for an unlikely study partner during my long preparations for the German A1 exam. I always feel smarter by the end of it—hubris, I’m sure, but The Trial of Socrates genuinely sparks my imagination in ways few albums do. Time to go listen to “The Phædo” for the zillionth time.Honorable Mentions:
- Night Flight Orchestra // Give Us The Moon
- Mutagenic Host // The Diseased Machine
Songs o’ the Year:
- Disarmonia Mundi – “Outcast”
The Dormant Stranger by Disarmonia Mundi
- Jamie Page & Marcy Nabors – “Do No Harm (Ventricular Mix)”
Do No Harm by Jamie Paige, Marcy Nabors, & Penny Parker
- Thumos – “The Phædo”
The Trial of Socrates by Thumos
Disappointment(s) o’ the year:
- The dissolution of Ante-Inferno: After Death’s Soliloquy topped my list last year, I was genuinely gutted to see Ante-Inferno’s post that they were no more. Still, I shall not weep but rather smile that they happened, because Ante-Inferno was a rare breed of genuinely moving black metal. Just that one album rooted itself so deeply within me, and I will be listening for a long time.
- Arno Menses leaving Subsignal: Man, fuck. Fuck. Remember my nuclear-grade glaze of Subsignal, where I might as well have said Menses’ voice single-handedly justified the entire existence of music? How could I not break down in heaving sobs in the middle of this Denny’s when I heard that Menses and Subsignal have parted ways? It sucks, I tell ya. I will still listen to what Subsignal puts out in the future, because Markus Steffen is a talented musician, but it’s going to be a huge adjustment since Menses is nigh irreplaceable.
Samguineous Maximus
#ish. Imperial Triumphant // Goldstar
#10. Primitive Man // Observance
#9. Motherless // Do You Feel Safe?
#8. Deafheaven // Lonely People with Power
#7. Weeping Sores // The Convalescence Agonies
#6. Between the Buried and Me // The Blue Nowhere
#5. Calva Louise // Edge of the Abyss
#4. 1914 // Viribus Unitis
#3. Crippling Alcoholism // Camgirl
#2. Crippling Alcoholism // Bible Songs II
#1. Yellow Eyes // Confusion Gate – Yellow Eyes are one of the best black metal bands in the game, and Confusion Gate is their most impressive work to date. It sees the band return to a more traditional atmospheric sound, but with the lessons learned from their explorations of dissonance and ambience. The result is a kaleidoscopic blend of gorgeous melodies, haunting riffs, and a pervasive sense of pathos that only the best art can achieve. Confusion Gate feels like communing with nature from the top of a wintry peak, embodying both impossible grandeur and awesome terror. This is a record that bypasses the analytical reviewer’s brain and just hits me right in the feeling. It offers a unique catharsis in a year where I truly needed it.Honorable Mentions
- Flummox // Southern Progress
- Hexrot // Formless Ruin of Oblivion
- Ava Mendoza/Gabby fluke-Mogal/Carolina Pérez // Mama Killa
- Strigiform // Aconite
Song o’ the Year:
- Crippling Alcoholism – “Ladies Night”
Spicie Forrest
#ish. Cryptopsy // An Insatiable Violence
#10. Crimson Shadows // Whispers of War
#9. Oromet // The Sinking Isle
#8. -ii- // Apostles of the Flesh
#7. Suncraft // Welcome to the Coven
#6. Suncraft // Profanation of the Adamic Covenant
#5. Chestcrush // ΨΥΧΟΒΓΑΛΤΗΣ
#4. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#3. Qrixkuor // The Womb of the World
#2. Primitive Man // Observance
#1. Wytch Hazel // V: Lamentations – I know, I’m surprised too. But the bottom line is that I’ve been listening to V: Lamentations front to back at least once a week since it released on the most American of holidays, July 4th. For Steel, Wytch Hazel’s latest didn’t have the same staying power as previous efforts, but Lamentations is the first to truly resonate with me. Though musically consistent with their Wishbone Ash-meets-Eagles style, vocalist Colin Hendra brings a new sense of passion to the record, and the interplay between instruments, vocals, and lyrics hits me like a lightning bolt. Very possibly inspired by the core Christian tenet laid out in Romans 6:23-24,2 Lamentations is a masterful portrayal of what it means to perpetually fail, to know you’ll never be good enough, and in the face of a salvation that renders all efforts, deeds, and accomplishments worthless, to keep striving toward the impossible anyway. Even for godless sinners like me, Lamentations is a beautiful reminder that purpose is found in hardship, that the journey is the goal, and that falling down is merely an opportunity to stand up again.Honorable Mentions:
- Proscription // Desolate Divine
- Apocalypse Orchestra // A Plague upon Thee
- Messa // The Spin
- Bloodywood // Nu Delhi
- Pedestal for Leviathan // Enter: Vampyric Manifestation
Song o’ the Year:
- Yellowcard – “honestly i”
Grin Reaper
(ish) Sallow Moth // Mossbane Lantern
#10. Turian // Blood Quantum Blues
#9. Calva Louise // Edge of the Abyss
#8. Lychgate // Precipice
#7. An Abstract Illusion // The Sleeping City
#6. Thron // Vurias
#5. Structure // Heritage
#4. Species // Changelings
#3. Havukruunu // Tavastland
#2. Aephanemer // Utopie
#1. 1914 // Viribus Unitis – I didn’t know Viribus Unitis would be my top album of the year the first time I listened to it, but I knew it would list. 1914’s naked emotion and rousing story of a Ukrainian soldier’s survival through World War I, reconciliation with his family, and inescapable return to war remains as gripping and bittersweet now as it did the first time I heard it. Across adrenaline-fueled riffing, oppressive marches, and somber dirges, 1914 never relents on musical or lyrical weight. Though Viribus Unitis was released late in the year, it quickly became the standard I used to appraise albums while going through listing season. 1914 paints war-torn life with savage grace, supplying devastating melody and grueling crawls that elevate the album to such heights that I’m genuinely moved each time I get to the end. Viribus Unitis is bleak, raw, and human, but for all that, I’m never deterred from listening. Ultimately, 1914 clutches the threads of hope and weaves an aural tapestry that brings tragedy and triumph to life, cementing Viribus Unitis as my undisputed top album of 2025.
Honorable Mentions:- Walg // V
- Moron Police // Pachinko
- Defigurement // Endbryo
- Ültra Raptör // Fossilized
- Igorrr // Amen
Songs o’ the Year:
- Aephanemer – “Le Cimetière Marin”
- 1914 – “1918 Pt. III: ADE (A Duty to Escape)”
Andy-War-Hall
#ish: Dragon Skull // Chaos Fire Vengeance
#10: Changeling // Changeling
#9: Steel Arctus // Dreamruler
#8: Abigail Williams //A Void Within Existence
#7: Petrified Giant // Endless Ark
#6: Imperial Triumphant // Goldstar
#5: Structure // Heritage
#4: Lipoma // No Cure for the Sick
#3: Crippling Alcoholism // Camgirl
#2: Hexrot // Formless Ruin of Oblivion
#1: 1914 // Viribus Unitis – Immersion defines great music and art for me. It is almost unfortunate how good 1914 are in this facet of their music. Their ability to transport the listener to the battlefield in all its violence, both carnal and psychological, is stupefying. The utter dehumanizing hatred with “1914 (The Siege of Przemyśl),” the ravenous bloodlust of “1917 (The Isonzo Front),” the hellish wails haunting “1918 Pt. 1 (WIA – Wounded in Action):” all portrayed vividly through 1914’s brilliantly caustic and composed musicianship and deeply personal lyricism. When Dmytro Ternushchak bellows “For three days / The Russians attacked / And accomplished nothing but / 40,000 dead pigs” [“1914 (The Siege of Przemyśl)”], it’s all you need to get into his character’s violent headspace. When 1914 mournfully sing in Ukrainian “Це моя земля”3 [1915 (Easter Battle for the Zwinin Ridge)], you grasp how someone could put their life on the line for kin and country. When our soldier sings “My little girl reached out to me / But duty calls” [1919 (The Home Where I Died)]… well, shit, your heart just has to break, right? 1914 don’t play “history metal.” Viribus Unitis is as present and relevant as you can get.Honorable Mentions:
- Fell Omen // Caelid Dog Summer
- Ophelion // The Jaunt
- Coroner // Dissonance Theory
- Starscourge // Conqueror of the Stars – Betwixt Sundered Seraphim, the Lands Between Bleed
Song o’ the Year:
- Fell Omen – “The Fire is Still Warm”
Lavender Larcenist
#ish Spiritbox // Tsunami Sea
#10. Sold Soul // Just Like That, I Disappear Entirely
#9. Calva Louise // Edge of the Abyss
#8. Dying Wish // Flesh Stays Together
#7. Grima // Nightside
#6. Aversed // Erasure of Color
#5. Deafheaven // Lonely People With Power
#4. Ghost Bath // Rose Thorn Necklace
#3. Changeling // Changeling
#2. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#1. Crippling Alcoholism // Camgirl – Sometimes you listen to music, and you feel like it gets you. Camgirl was exactly that type of album, and it probably doesn’t say anything good about me. Ever since Crippling Alcoholism’s latest graced my ears and I shared it with my partner, we have been singing “I fucking hate the way I look, yeah I look like a fat fucking scumbag” way too often and mumbling “Mr. Ran away, ran away from family” every chance we get. The album is dripping with the atmosphere of neon-lit back rooms, seedy interactions, and terrible decision-making. It feels like a lens into the lives of those society has left behind, and I can’t help but feel a connection. The self-destructive nihilism, drugged-out sex, and abrupt violence that is all too common in those on the margins of life is something I think more and more we can all relate to, and Camgirl is the art that mirrors society back to us. As a result, it is an album that is just as ugly as it is terrifying and beautiful.
Honorable Mentions:- Shadow of Intent // Imperium Delirium
- Pupil Slicer // Fleshwork
- 1914 // Viribus Unitis
Song o’ the Year:
- Crippling Alcoholism – “bedrot”
Creeping Ivy
#ish. Nite // Cult of the Serpent Sun
#10. Blackbraid // Blackbraid III
#9. Flummox // Southern Progress
#8. 1914 // Viribus Unitis
#7. Cave Sermon // Fragile Wings
#6. Saor // Amidst the Ruins
#5. Imperial Triumphant // Goldstar
#4. Phantom Spell // Heather & Hearth
#3. Coroner // Dissonance Theory
#2. Messa // The Spin
#1. Havukruunu // Tavastland – On their Bandcamp page, Havukruunu explain the concept of their fourth LP: ‘Tavastland tells how in 1237 the Tavastians rose in rebellion against the church of Christ and drove the popes naked into the frost to die.’ Sounds like the metal album of 2025 to me! But I didn’t crown Tavastland for its lyrics that I can’t understand. As Dr. A.N. Grier has been exhorting for a decade, Havukruunu stands as a model of Viking black metal consistency, having dropped only very good-to-great albums since 2015. Tavastland isn’t a radical improvement over 2020’s Uinuous syömein sota, but it’s an (arguably excellent) improvement nonetheless, making it Havukruunu’s finest work yet. Yes, these fiery Finns forge sounds reminiscent of Bathory and Immortal, but Tavastland seized my attention for its adventurous prog sensibilities. Some of this can be attributed to the return of Hümo, whose bass rattles like the four strings of Geddy Lee. But the prog is deep in the album craft, from the overture-style modulations of opener “Kuolematon laulunhenki” to the extended guitar wankery of closer “De miseriis fennorum.” Now if only I can learn Finnish, I’ll be able to appreciate the killer anti-popery narrative while headbanging to my Record o’ 2025.Honorable Mentions:
- Am I in Trouble? // Spectrum
- Blut Aus Nord // Ethereal Horizons
- In Mourning // The Immortal
- Oromet // The Sinking Isle
- Wyatt E. // Zamāru Ultu Qereb Ziqquratu Part 1
Song o’ the Year:
- Phantom Spell – “The Autumn Citadel”
Baguette of Bodom
#ish. In the Woods… // Otra
#10. Species // Changelings
#9. Dragon Skull // Chaos Fire Vengeance
#8. A-Z // A2Z²
#7. Apocalypse Orchestra // A Plague upon Thee
#6. Amorphis // Borderland
#5. Dolmen Gate // Echoes of Ancient Tales
#4. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#3. Amalekim // Shir Hashirim
#2. Suotana // Ounas II
#1. Buried Realm // The Dormant Darkness – Melodic tech death? Symphonic power metal? Who knows! Much like my 2025 in general, The Dormant Darkness has a bit of everything in one gigantic clusterfuck. The great news is, neither I nor the album crumbled under all that weight. In a year full of odd twists and turns, my list became more varied and unusual than ever. Buried Realm took this variety and gave me everything I like about metal in one dense package: blazing speeds, soaring guitars, majestic vocals, and relentless fury. It’s also inexplicably well-produced for how many layers there are to deal with. While 2025 was not a particularly star-studded release year—especially compared to most of the 2020s so far—it threw plenty of fun curveballs at me, and The Dormant Darkness exemplifies this with its Xothian fusion of metal subgenres in one big Ophidian I blender ov shred. I would also like to request several Christian Älvestam features on every album, please.Honorable Mentions:
- Victim of Fire // The Old Lie
- Dawn of Solace // Affliction Vortex
- Dynazty // Game of Faces
- Coroner // Dissonance Theory
- Hooded Menace // Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration
Song o’ the Year:
- Dragon Skull – “Blood and Souls”
Chaos Fire Vengeance by Dragon Skull
#1914 #2025 #AZ #AbigailWilliams #Abominator #Aephanemer #Agriculture #AmIInTrouble #Amalekim #Ambush #Amorphis #AnAbstractIllusion #ApocalypseOrchestra #Arkhaaik #Asira #Astronoid #Atlantic #AvaMendozaGabbyFlukeMogalCarolinaPérez #Aversed #Besna #BetweenTheBuriedAndMe #Bianca #Blackbraid #Blasphamagoatachrist #Blindfolded #BlogLists #Bloodywood #BlutAusNord #Bruit #BuriedRealm #CalvaLouise #CaveSermon #Changeling #Chestcrush #Coroner #CrimsonShadows #CripplingAlcoholism #DawnOfSolace #DaxRiggs #Deafheaven #DeathYell #Décryptal #Defigurement #DerWegEinerFreiheit #DolmenGate #DormantOrdeal #DragonSkull #DyingWish #Dynazty #Fange #FellOmen #Flummox #Gazpacho #GhostBath #Gorycz #Grima #Guts #HangoverInMinsk #Hasard #Havukruunu #Hexrot #HoodedMenace #Igorr #Igorrr #II #ImperialTriumphant #JonathanHultén #Kauan #LabyrinthusStellarum #Lipoma #Lists #Lorde #LornaShore #Lychgate #MaleficThrone #Messa #MoronPolice #Motherless #MutagenicHost #Nephylim #NightFlightOrchestra #Nite #Novarupta #OllieWride #Ophelion #OrbitCulture #Oromet #Panopticon #ParadiseLost #PedestalForLeviathan #PerditionTemple #PetrifiedGiant #PhantomSpell #PrimitiveMan #Proscription #Psychonaut #PupilSlicer #Puteraeon #Qrixkuor #Revocation #SallowMoth #Saor #ShadowOfIntent #ShayferJames #ShedTheSkin #Sigh #SoldSoul #Species #Spiritbox #Starscourge #SteelArctus #StevenWilson #Strigiform #Structure #Suncraft #Suotana #Teitanblood #TheAMGStaffPickTheirTopTenIshOf2025 #TheMidnight #Thron #Thumos #Turian #ÜltraRaptör #Urn #VenomousEchoes #VictimOfFire #Walg #Wardruna #WeepingSores #WyattE #WytchHazel #YellowEyes #Yellowcard #ZéroAbsolu -
Who Are These Clowns and Where Did They Put My Flesh Stapler? The AMG Staff Pick Their Top Ten(ish) of 2025 By Steel DruhmListurnalia is now upon us once again! If you are not ready to be assailed by non-stop lists and bad opinions for the next week and change, I suggest you get fooking ready! Listurnalia cannot be stopped, nor contained. It can only be tolerated and endured!
More than any year in recent history, 2025 saw more seasoned staffers step away from writing duties due to time constraints and life changes. To compensate for the loss of these slackwagoning quitters and shirkers, we added a gaggle of fresh new voices. This made for a bittersweet time around these parts as long-time friends departed and a bunch of untested, unknowns rose through the brutal n00b gauntlet to seize the means of promo production. These greenhorn neophytes have created great havoc at AMG HQ with their terrible taste, inability to follow directions, and steadfast refusal to ignore deathcore.
We’ve been here before, though, and we always straighten out the newbie upstarts. The daily beatings, deprivations, and absence of positive reinforcement will wear them down, and if not, we have plenty of space in the rotpit out back. This is, and will ever be, the AMG modality.
2026 will be an interesting year as the new crew members are shepherded by the olde while everyone is crushed beneath the iron heel of AMG management. Who will make it to 2027? Who will be sold off to Metal Wani for a box of bananas and Gorilla Glue? Place your bets in the official AMG Survival Pool!
As you read the Top Ten(ish) lists below, remember, reading our content is free, but you get what you pay for.
Grymm
#10. Venomous Echoes // Dysmor
#9. Blut Aus Nord // Ethereal Horizons
#8. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#7. Structure // Heritage
#6. Lorna Shore // I Feel The Everblack Festering Within Me
#5. Sigh // I Saw The World’s End – Hangman’s Hymn MMXXV
#4. Imperial Triumphant // Goldstar
#3. Am I In Trouble? // Spectrum
#2. Dax Riggs // 7 Songs for Spiders
#1. Paradise Lost // Ascension – I fully expected Paradise Lost to come out with quality music, which has been mostly par for the course in their storied almost-40-year career, and no one could blame them if they decided to coast along on their legendary sound. Instead, Ascension sees them giving a masterclass in songcraft and atmosphere, showing everyone, everywhere, how it’s done. With Black Sabbath now officially put to rest, Anathema long gone, and whatever the fuck is happening within My Dying Bride these days, somebody has to fly the British Doom flag high and proud, and Paradise Lost have done a bang-up job of doing so.Personal Highlight o’ the Year: Seeing Acid Bath live. I may or may not have cried during “Venus Blue,” and no, I don’t fucking care. 19-Year-Old me was pleased as punch that 48-Year-Old me got to see a legendary band (and one of his personal favorites) come back from tragedy to pay tribute to their fallen bassist and friend, Audie Pitre, by giving it another long-awaited go.
Disappointment(s) o’ the Year:
- Losing so many influential heroes (RIP Ozzy Osbourne, Ace Frehley, and Tomas Lindberg, among too many others)
- My health: I was hoping to be a lot more active this year, but early on, I needed to, in the immortal words of David Lynch, “fix (my) heart or die.”1 Thankfully, after surgery, I feel a million times better, so you should see a lot more of me in 2026. You have been warned.
Song o’ the Year:
- Paradise Lost // “Salvation”
El Cuervo
#ish. Astronoid // Stargod
#10. Ollie Wride // The Pressure Point
#9. Kauan // Wayhome
#8. Zéro Absolu // La Saignée
#7. Mutagenic Host // The Diseased Machine
#6. Asira // As Ink in Water
#5. Bruit // The Age of Ephemerality
#4. Saor // Amidst the Ruins
#3. The Midnight // Syndicate
#2. Steven Wilson // The Overview
#1. Messa // The Spin – In a year replete with comfort picks—progressive rock, synthwave, and death metal abound—how is that Italy’s enigmatic, inscrutable Messa forged my Album o’ the Year? The Spin doesn’t take the trouble to make itself easily approachable. Doom, prog, and post influences circle around velvety melodies that sometimes sound like deliberate songs, and sometimes like jazz improvisation. But it’s these very qualities that belie its subtle allure; only with repetition and attention does The Spin shine. Messa gradually reveals rhythmic motifs, instrumental nuances, and rich compositions that enhance my life on so many days. “The Dress,” especially, is stunning. And though the record’s loungey whimsy defies metal conventions, each track prizes genuine grit through its top-drawer guitar riffs. With the devotion it demands, no record from 2025 was more rewarding than The Spin.Honorable Mentions:
- Décryptal – Simulacre
- An Abstract Illusion – The Sleeping City
- Puteraeon – Mountains of Madness
- Hasard – Abgnose
Song o’ the Year:
- Ambush – “Maskirovka”
GardensTale
#ish. Structure // Heritage
#10. In Mourning //The Immortal
#9. Flummox // Southern Progress
#8. Der Weg Einer Freiheit // Innern
#7. Nephylim // Circuition
#6. Besna // Krásno
#5. Messa // The Spin
#4. Labyrinthus Stellarum // Rift in Reality
#3. Gazpacho // Magic 8 Ball
#2. Dormant Ordeal// Tooth & Nail
#1. Moron Police // Pachinko — I was a little nervous when I first read about the length and ambition behind Pachinko, especially in the context of the incredible and very concise A Boat on the Sea. I’ve never been this happy to be this wrong. Nothing in the last decade has overtaken my life as much as Pachinko has, and I’m listening to it yet again as I write this, and will probably restart it once it finishes. Pachinko has a lot in common with Everything Everywhere All At Once, one of my all-time favorite films, as a treatise on the chaos of life and the importance of friends and family. It treats its philosophy of silliness very seriously, laughing in the face of darkness in such a beautiful and inspiring way; it brightens my life every time I hear it. And it does all that in tribute to a dear friend who was gone too soon and too suddenly, and no other eulogistic album has let me feel like its subject’s soul touched mine. An astounding monument to friendship on top of an incredibly accomplished hour of music. Pachinko is a miracle.Honorable Mentions:
- Hangover in Minsk // Party is Over
- 1914 // Viribus Unitis
- Bianca // Bianca
- Fange // Purulences
- An Abstract Illusion // The Sleeping City
- Blindfolded // What Seeps Through Threads
Song o’ the Year:
- Moron Police – “Giving up the Ghost”
Non-metal Albums of the Year:
- Lorde // Virgin
- Jonathan Hultén // Eyes of the Living Night
- Shayfer James // Summoning
Mark Z.
#ish. Malefic Throne // The Conquering Darkness
#10. Urn // Demon Steel
#9. Teitanblood // From the Visceral Abyss
#8. Shed the Skin // The Carnage Cast Shadows
#7. Guts // Nightmare Fuel
#6. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#5. Perdition Temple // Malign Apotheosis
#4. Paradise Lost // Ascension
#3. Revocation // New Gods, New Masters
#2. Death Yell // Demons of Lust
#1. Abominator // The Fire Brethren – It took me a few years after hearing this Australian duo’s last album, 2015’s Evil Proclaimed, to realize I was wrong about them. Their raw and relentless black-death metal wasn’t just good, it was fucking awesome. With their long-awaited sixth album, The Fire Brethren, Abominator has conjured flames that reach higher than ever. As always, the enraged rasps, scorching riffs, and endlessly pummeling rhythms are like plumes of hellfire shot directly into your ear canals. But amidst the bludgeoning is some genuinely great songwriting, with deep-cutting hooks (“The Templar’s Curse,” “Underworld Vociferations”), flashes of melody (“Progenitors of the Insurrection of Satan”), thrashy breaks (“Sulphur from the Heavens”), and just enough variety to keep everything hitting as hard as possible. It’s not for everyone, but for those into Angelcorpse and other music of that sort, The Fire Brethren is the type of album you just can’t get enough of.Honorable Mention:
- Blasphamagoatachrist // Bestial Abominator
Song (Title) o’ the Year:
- Omegavortex – “Dystopian Worldrape”
Song o’ the Year:
- Fugitive – “Spheres of Virulence”
Carcharodon
#ish. Dax Riggs // 7 Songs for Spiders
#10. Novarupta // Astral Sands
#9. Atlantic // Timeworn
#8. Structure // Heritage
#7. Agriculture // The Spiritual Sound
#6. Igorr // Amen
#5. Messa // The Spin
#4. Abigail Williams // A Void Within Existence
#3. Cave Sermon // Fragile Wings
#2. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#1. Grima // Nightside – In each of 2019, 2021, and 2022, Grima released an album and, in each of those years, I listed said album (#5, HM, and #10). But this year, the year in which I have listened to the least metal and, of course, written the least since I started here in 2018, is also the year that Grima got everything dialled in to just what I want from a Grima album. On Nightside, the duo struck the perfect balance between the traditional influences of 2019’s Will of the Primordial and the propulsive, frozen atmosphere of Frostbitten (2022). The combination gives Nightside an almost hypnotic and weirdly tranquil flow, offset by Vilhelm’s rasping vocals, which remain among the best in the BM game. Every time I come back to this record, and the title track in particular, it’s even better than I remember it being, and I always end up spinning three or more times back-to-back. An album that can keep playing that trick deserves its #1 spot in my book.Honorable Mentions:
- An Abstract Illusion // The Sleeping City
- Gorycz // Zasypia
- Psychonaut // World Maker
- Wardruna // Birna
Songs o’ the Year:
- Messa – “Fire on the Roof”
- Novarupta – “Now Here We Are (At the Inevitable End)”
Mysticus Hugebeard
#10. Orbit Culture // Death Above Life
#9. An Abstract Illusion // The Sleeping City
#8. Qrixkuor // The Womb of the World
#7. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#6. Panopticon // Laurentian Blue
#5. Blackbraid // Blackbraid III
#4. Arkhaaik // Uihtis
#3. Kauan // Wayhome
#2. Wardruna // Birna
#1. Thumos // The Trial of Socrates – I recall groggily stumbling upon Thumos’ The Trial of Socrates at work one early morning, and I’m not sure if I’ve grown attached to it or it’s grown attached to me. It looms in my periphery, routinely interrupting my listening schedule for just one more spin. This gargantuan dive into ancient Greek philosophy and justice is melodically rich, laden with atmosphere, and fiercely intelligent. I love how this album stimulates my curiosity. I pore over The Trial of Socrates like a madman, piecing the puzzle together with feverish glee but never quite feeling finished, because every re-listen yields new shapes, new colors, new ideas. It eggs me on to research various topics on ancient Greek history or philosophy, and even made for an unlikely study partner during my long preparations for the German A1 exam. I always feel smarter by the end of it—hubris, I’m sure, but The Trial of Socrates genuinely sparks my imagination in ways few albums do. Time to go listen to “The Phædo” for the zillionth time.Honorable Mentions:
- Night Flight Orchestra // Give Us The Moon
- Mutagenic Host // The Diseased Machine
Songs o’ the Year:
- Disarmonia Mundi – “Outcast”
The Dormant Stranger by Disarmonia Mundi
- Jamie Page & Marcy Nabors – “Do No Harm (Ventricular Mix)”
Do No Harm by Jamie Paige, Marcy Nabors, & Penny Parker
- Thumos – “The Phædo”
The Trial of Socrates by Thumos
Disappointment(s) o’ the year:
- The dissolution of Ante-Inferno: After Death’s Soliloquy topped my list last year, I was genuinely gutted to see Ante-Inferno’s post that they were no more. Still, I shall not weep but rather smile that they happened, because Ante-Inferno was a rare breed of genuinely moving black metal. Just that one album rooted itself so deeply within me, and I will be listening for a long time.
- Arno Menses leaving Subsignal: Man, fuck. Fuck. Remember my nuclear-grade glaze of Subsignal, where I might as well have said Menses’ voice single-handedly justified the entire existence of music? How could I not break down in heaving sobs in the middle of this Denny’s when I heard that Menses and Subsignal have parted ways? It sucks, I tell ya. I will still listen to what Subsignal puts out in the future, because Markus Steffen is a talented musician, but it’s going to be a huge adjustment since Menses is nigh irreplaceable.
Samguineous Maximus
#ish. Imperial Triumphant // Goldstar
#10. Primitive Man // Observance
#9. Motherless // Do You Feel Safe?
#8. Deafheaven // Lonely People with Power
#7. Weeping Sores // The Convalescence Agonies
#6. Between the Buried and Me // The Blue Nowhere
#5. Calva Louise // Edge of the Abyss
#4. 1914 // Viribus Unitis
#3. Crippling Alcoholism // Camgirl
#2. Crippling Alcoholism // Bible Songs II
#1. Yellow Eyes // Confusion Gate – Yellow Eyes are one of the best black metal bands in the game, and Confusion Gate is their most impressive work to date. It sees the band return to a more traditional atmospheric sound, but with the lessons learned from their explorations of dissonance and ambience. The result is a kaleidoscopic blend of gorgeous melodies, haunting riffs, and a pervasive sense of pathos that only the best art can achieve. Confusion Gate feels like communing with nature from the top of a wintry peak, embodying both impossible grandeur and awesome terror. This is a record that bypasses the analytical reviewer’s brain and just hits me right in the feeling. It offers a unique catharsis in a year where I truly needed it.Honorable Mentions
- Flummox // Southern Progress
- Hexrot // Formless Ruin of Oblivion
- Ava Mendoza/Gabby fluke-Mogal/Carolina Pérez // Mama Killa
- Strigiform // Aconite
Song o’ the Year:
- Crippling Alcoholism – “Ladies Night”
Spicie Forrest
#ish. Cryptopsy // An Insatiable Violence
#10. Crimson Shadows // Whispers of War
#9. Oromet // The Sinking Isle
#8. -ii- // Apostles of the Flesh
#7. Suncraft // Welcome to the Coven
#6. Suncraft // Profanation of the Adamic Covenant
#5. Chestcrush // ΨΥΧΟΒΓΑΛΤΗΣ
#4. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#3. Qrixkuor // The Womb of the World
#2. Primitive Man // Observance
#1. Wytch Hazel // V: Lamentations – I know, I’m surprised too. But the bottom line is that I’ve been listening to V: Lamentations front to back at least once a week since it released on the most American of holidays, July 4th. For Steel, Wytch Hazel’s latest didn’t have the same staying power as previous efforts, but Lamentations is the first to truly resonate with me. Though musically consistent with their Wishbone Ash-meets-Eagles style, vocalist Colin Hendra brings a new sense of passion to the record, and the interplay between instruments, vocals, and lyrics hits me like a lightning bolt. Very possibly inspired by the core Christian tenet laid out in Romans 6:23-24,2 Lamentations is a masterful portrayal of what it means to perpetually fail, to know you’ll never be good enough, and in the face of a salvation that renders all efforts, deeds, and accomplishments worthless, to keep striving toward the impossible anyway. Even for godless sinners like me, Lamentations is a beautiful reminder that purpose is found in hardship, that the journey is the goal, and that falling down is merely an opportunity to stand up again.Honorable Mentions:
- Proscription // Desolate Divine
- Apocalypse Orchestra // A Plague upon Thee
- Messa // The Spin
- Bloodywood // Nu Delhi
- Pedestal for Leviathan // Enter: Vampyric Manifestation
Song o’ the Year:
- Yellowcard – “honestly i”
Grin Reaper
(ish) Sallow Moth // Mossbane Lantern
#10. Turian // Blood Quantum Blues
#9. Calva Louise // Edge of the Abyss
#8. Lychgate // Precipice
#7. An Abstract Illusion // The Sleeping City
#6. Thron // Vurias
#5. Structure // Heritage
#4. Species // Changelings
#3. Havukruunu // Tavastland
#2. Aephanemer // Utopie
#1. 1914 // Viribus Unitis – I didn’t know Viribus Unitis would be my top album of the year the first time I listened to it, but I knew it would list. 1914’s naked emotion and rousing story of a Ukrainian soldier’s survival through World War I, reconciliation with his family, and inescapable return to war remains as gripping and bittersweet now as it did the first time I heard it. Across adrenaline-fueled riffing, oppressive marches, and somber dirges, 1914 never relents on musical or lyrical weight. Though Viribus Unitis was released late in the year, it quickly became the standard I used to appraise albums while going through listing season. 1914 paints war-torn life with savage grace, supplying devastating melody and grueling crawls that elevate the album to such heights that I’m genuinely moved each time I get to the end. Viribus Unitis is bleak, raw, and human, but for all that, I’m never deterred from listening. Ultimately, 1914 clutches the threads of hope and weaves an aural tapestry that brings tragedy and triumph to life, cementing Viribus Unitis as my undisputed top album of 2025.
Honorable Mentions:- Walg // V
- Moron Police // Pachinko
- Defigurement // Endbryo
- Ültra Raptör // Fossilized
- Igorrr // Amen
Songs o’ the Year:
- Aephanemer – “Le Cimetière Marin”
- 1914 – “1918 Pt. III: ADE (A Duty to Escape)”
Andy-War-Hall
#ish: Dragon Skull // Chaos Fire Vengeance
#10: Changeling // Changeling
#9: Steel Arctus // Dreamruler
#8: Abigail Williams //A Void Within Existence
#7: Petrified Giant // Endless Ark
#6: Imperial Triumphant // Goldstar
#5: Structure // Heritage
#4: Lipoma // No Cure for the Sick
#3: Crippling Alcoholism // Camgirl
#2: Hexrot // Formless Ruin of Oblivion
#1: 1914 // Viribus Unitis – Immersion defines great music and art for me. It is almost unfortunate how good 1914 are in this facet of their music. Their ability to transport the listener to the battlefield in all its violence, both carnal and psychological, is stupefying. The utter dehumanizing hatred with “1914 (The Siege of Przemyśl),” the ravenous bloodlust of “1917 (The Isonzo Front),” the hellish wails haunting “1918 Pt. 1 (WIA – Wounded in Action):” all portrayed vividly through 1914’s brilliantly caustic and composed musicianship and deeply personal lyricism. When Dmytro Ternushchak bellows “For three days / The Russians attacked / And accomplished nothing but / 40,000 dead pigs” [“1914 (The Siege of Przemyśl)”], it’s all you need to get into his character’s violent headspace. When 1914 mournfully sing in Ukrainian “Це моя земля”3 [1915 (Easter Battle for the Zwinin Ridge)], you grasp how someone could put their life on the line for kin and country. When our soldier sings “My little girl reached out to me / But duty calls” [1919 (The Home Where I Died)]… well, shit, your heart just has to break, right? 1914 don’t play “history metal.” Viribus Unitis is as present and relevant as you can get.Honorable Mentions:
- Fell Omen // Caelid Dog Summer
- Ophelion // The Jaunt
- Coroner // Dissonance Theory
- Starscourge // Conqueror of the Stars – Betwixt Sundered Seraphim, the Lands Between Bleed
Song o’ the Year:
- Fell Omen – “The Fire is Still Warm”
Lavender Larcenist
#ish Spiritbox // Tsunami Sea
#10. Sold Soul // Just Like That, I Disappear Entirely
#9. Calva Louise // Edge of the Abyss
#8. Dying Wish // Flesh Stays Together
#7. Grima // Nightside
#6. Aversed // Erasure of Color
#5. Deafheaven // Lonely People With Power
#4. Ghost Bath // Rose Thorn Necklace
#3. Changeling // Changeling
#2. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#1. Crippling Alcoholism // Camgirl – Sometimes you listen to music, and you feel like it gets you. Camgirl was exactly that type of album, and it probably doesn’t say anything good about me. Ever since Crippling Alcoholism’s latest graced my ears and I shared it with my partner, we have been singing “I fucking hate the way I look, yeah I look like a fat fucking scumbag” way too often and mumbling “Mr. Ran away, ran away from family” every chance we get. The album is dripping with the atmosphere of neon-lit back rooms, seedy interactions, and terrible decision-making. It feels like a lens into the lives of those society has left behind, and I can’t help but feel a connection. The self-destructive nihilism, drugged-out sex, and abrupt violence that is all too common in those on the margins of life is something I think more and more we can all relate to, and Camgirl is the art that mirrors society back to us. As a result, it is an album that is just as ugly as it is terrifying and beautiful.
Honorable Mentions:- Shadow of Intent // Imperium Delirium
- Pupil Slicer // Fleshwork
- 1914 // Viribus Unitis
Song o’ the Year:
- Crippling Alcoholism – “bedrot”
Creeping Ivy
#ish. Nite // Cult of the Serpent Sun
#10. Blackbraid // Blackbraid III
#9. Flummox // Southern Progress
#8. 1914 // Viribus Unitis
#7. Cave Sermon // Fragile Wings
#6. Saor // Amidst the Ruins
#5. Imperial Triumphant // Goldstar
#4. Phantom Spell // Heather & Hearth
#3. Coroner // Dissonance Theory
#2. Messa // The Spin
#1. Havukruunu // Tavastland – On their Bandcamp page, Havukruunu explain the concept of their fourth LP: ‘Tavastland tells how in 1237 the Tavastians rose in rebellion against the church of Christ and drove the popes naked into the frost to die.’ Sounds like the metal album of 2025 to me! But I didn’t crown Tavastland for its lyrics that I can’t understand. As Dr. A.N. Grier has been exhorting for a decade, Havukruunu stands as a model of Viking black metal consistency, having dropped only very good-to-great albums since 2015. Tavastland isn’t a radical improvement over 2020’s Uinuous syömein sota, but it’s an (arguably excellent) improvement nonetheless, making it Havukruunu’s finest work yet. Yes, these fiery Finns forge sounds reminiscent of Bathory and Immortal, but Tavastland seized my attention for its adventurous prog sensibilities. Some of this can be attributed to the return of Hümo, whose bass rattles like the four strings of Geddy Lee. But the prog is deep in the album craft, from the overture-style modulations of opener “Kuolematon laulunhenki” to the extended guitar wankery of closer “De miseriis fennorum.” Now if only I can learn Finnish, I’ll be able to appreciate the killer anti-popery narrative while headbanging to my Record o’ 2025.Honorable Mentions:
- Am I in Trouble? // Spectrum
- Blut Aus Nord // Ethereal Horizons
- In Mourning // The Immortal
- Oromet // The Sinking Isle
- Wyatt E. // Zamāru Ultu Qereb Ziqquratu Part 1
Song o’ the Year:
- Phantom Spell – “The Autumn Citadel”
Baguette of Bodom
#ish. In the Woods… // Otra
#10. Species // Changelings
#9. Dragon Skull // Chaos Fire Vengeance
#8. A-Z // A2Z²
#7. Apocalypse Orchestra // A Plague upon Thee
#6. Amorphis // Borderland
#5. Dolmen Gate // Echoes of Ancient Tales
#4. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#3. Amalekim // Shir Hashirim
#2. Suotana // Ounas II
#1. Buried Realm // The Dormant Darkness – Melodic tech death? Symphonic power metal? Who knows! Much like my 2025 in general, The Dormant Darkness has a bit of everything in one gigantic clusterfuck. The great news is, neither I nor the album crumbled under all that weight. In a year full of odd twists and turns, my list became more varied and unusual than ever. Buried Realm took this variety and gave me everything I like about metal in one dense package: blazing speeds, soaring guitars, majestic vocals, and relentless fury. It’s also inexplicably well-produced for how many layers there are to deal with. While 2025 was not a particularly star-studded release year—especially compared to most of the 2020s so far—it threw plenty of fun curveballs at me, and The Dormant Darkness exemplifies this with its Xothian fusion of metal subgenres in one big Ophidian I blender ov shred. I would also like to request several Christian Älvestam features on every album, please.Honorable Mentions:
- Victim of Fire // The Old Lie
- Dawn of Solace // Affliction Vortex
- Dynazty // Game of Faces
- Coroner // Dissonance Theory
- Hooded Menace // Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration
Song o’ the Year:
- Dragon Skull – “Blood and Souls”
Chaos Fire Vengeance by Dragon Skull
#1914 #2025 #AZ #AbigailWilliams #Abominator #Aephanemer #Agriculture #AmIInTrouble #Amalekim #Ambush #Amorphis #AnAbstractIllusion #ApocalypseOrchestra #Arkhaaik #Asira #Astronoid #Atlantic #AvaMendozaGabbyFlukeMogalCarolinaPérez #Aversed #Besna #BetweenTheBuriedAndMe #Bianca #Blackbraid #Blasphamagoatachrist #Blindfolded #BlogLists #Bloodywood #BlutAusNord #Bruit #BuriedRealm #CalvaLouise #CaveSermon #Changeling #Chestcrush #Coroner #CrimsonShadows #CripplingAlcoholism #DawnOfSolace #DaxRiggs #Deafheaven #DeathYell #Décryptal #Defigurement #DerWegEinerFreiheit #DolmenGate #DormantOrdeal #DragonSkull #DyingWish #Dynazty #Fange #FellOmen #Flummox #Gazpacho #GhostBath #Gorycz #Grima #Guts #HangoverInMinsk #Hasard #Havukruunu #Hexrot #HoodedMenace #Igorr #Igorrr #II #ImperialTriumphant #JonathanHultén #Kauan #LabyrinthusStellarum #Lipoma #Lists #Lorde #LornaShore #Lychgate #MaleficThrone #Messa #MoronPolice #Motherless #MutagenicHost #Nephylim #NightFlightOrchestra #Nite #Novarupta #OllieWride #Ophelion #OrbitCulture #Oromet #Panopticon #ParadiseLost #PedestalForLeviathan #PerditionTemple #PetrifiedGiant #PhantomSpell #PrimitiveMan #Proscription #Psychonaut #PupilSlicer #Puteraeon #Qrixkuor #Revocation #SallowMoth #Saor #ShadowOfIntent #ShayferJames #ShedTheSkin #Sigh #SoldSoul #Species #Spiritbox #Starscourge #SteelArctus #StevenWilson #Strigiform #Structure #Suncraft #Suotana #Teitanblood #TheAMGStaffPickTheirTopTenIshOf2025 #TheMidnight #Thron #Thumos #Turian #ÜltraRaptör #Urn #VenomousEchoes #VictimOfFire #Walg #Wardruna #WeepingSores #WyattE #WytchHazel #YellowEyes #Yellowcard #ZéroAbsolu -
Who Are These Clowns and Where Did They Put My Flesh Stapler? The AMG Staff Pick Their Top Ten(ish) of 2025 By Steel DruhmListurnalia is now upon us once again! If you are not ready to be assailed by non-stop lists and bad opinions for the next week and change, I suggest you get fooking ready! Listurnalia cannot be stopped, nor contained. It can only be tolerated and endured!
More than any year in recent history, 2025 saw more seasoned staffers step away from writing duties due to time constraints and life changes. To compensate for the loss of these slackwagoning quitters and shirkers, we added a gaggle of fresh new voices. This made for a bittersweet time around these parts as long-time friends departed and a bunch of untested, unknowns rose through the brutal n00b gauntlet to seize the means of promo production. These greenhorn neophytes have created great havoc at AMG HQ with their terrible taste, inability to follow directions, and steadfast refusal to ignore deathcore.
We’ve been here before, though, and we always straighten out the newbie upstarts. The daily beatings, deprivations, and absence of positive reinforcement will wear them down, and if not, we have plenty of space in the rotpit out back. This is, and will ever be, the AMG modality.
2026 will be an interesting year as the new crew members are shepherded by the olde while everyone is crushed beneath the iron heel of AMG management. Who will make it to 2027? Who will be sold off to Metal Wani for a box of bananas and Gorilla Glue? Place your bets in the official AMG Survival Pool!
As you read the Top Ten(ish) lists below, remember, reading our content is free, but you get what you pay for.
Grymm
#10. Venomous Echoes // Dysmor
#9. Blut Aus Nord // Ethereal Horizons
#8. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#7. Structure // Heritage
#6. Lorna Shore // I Feel The Everblack Festering Within Me
#5. Sigh // I Saw The World’s End – Hangman’s Hymn MMXXV
#4. Imperial Triumphant // Goldstar
#3. Am I In Trouble? // Spectrum
#2. Dax Riggs // 7 Songs for Spiders
#1. Paradise Lost // Ascension – I fully expected Paradise Lost to come out with quality music, which has been mostly par for the course in their storied almost-40-year career, and no one could blame them if they decided to coast along on their legendary sound. Instead, Ascension sees them giving a masterclass in songcraft and atmosphere, showing everyone, everywhere, how it’s done. With Black Sabbath now officially put to rest, Anathema long gone, and whatever the fuck is happening within My Dying Bride these days, somebody has to fly the British Doom flag high and proud, and Paradise Lost have done a bang-up job of doing so.Personal Highlight o’ the Year: Seeing Acid Bath live. I may or may not have cried during “Venus Blue,” and no, I don’t fucking care. 19-Year-Old me was pleased as punch that 48-Year-Old me got to see a legendary band (and one of his personal favorites) come back from tragedy to pay tribute to their fallen bassist and friend, Audie Pitre, by giving it another long-awaited go.
Disappointment(s) o’ the Year:
- Losing so many influential heroes (RIP Ozzy Osbourne, Ace Frehley, and Tomas Lindberg, among too many others)
- My health: I was hoping to be a lot more active this year, but early on, I needed to, in the immortal words of David Lynch, “fix (my) heart or die.”1 Thankfully, after surgery, I feel a million times better, so you should see a lot more of me in 2026. You have been warned.
Song o’ the Year:
- Paradise Lost // “Salvation”
El Cuervo
#ish. Astronoid // Stargod
#10. Ollie Wride // The Pressure Point
#9. Kauan // Wayhome
#8. Zéro Absolu // La Saignée
#7. Mutagenic Host // The Diseased Machine
#6. Asira // As Ink in Water
#5. Bruit // The Age of Ephemerality
#4. Saor // Amidst the Ruins
#3. The Midnight // Syndicate
#2. Steven Wilson // The Overview
#1. Messa // The Spin – In a year replete with comfort picks—progressive rock, synthwave, and death metal abound—how is that Italy’s enigmatic, inscrutable Messa forged my Album o’ the Year? The Spin doesn’t take the trouble to make itself easily approachable. Doom, prog, and post influences circle around velvety melodies that sometimes sound like deliberate songs, and sometimes like jazz improvisation. But it’s these very qualities that belie its subtle allure; only with repetition and attention does The Spin shine. Messa gradually reveals rhythmic motifs, instrumental nuances, and rich compositions that enhance my life on so many days. “The Dress,” especially, is stunning. And though the record’s loungey whimsy defies metal conventions, each track prizes genuine grit through its top-drawer guitar riffs. With the devotion it demands, no record from 2025 was more rewarding than The Spin.Honorable Mentions:
- Décryptal – Simulacre
- An Abstract Illusion – The Sleeping City
- Puteraeon – Mountains of Madness
- Hasard – Abgnose
Song o’ the Year:
- Ambush – “Maskirovka”
GardensTale
#ish. Structure // Heritage
#10. In Mourning //The Immortal
#9. Flummox // Southern Progress
#8. Der Weg Einer Freiheit // Innern
#7. Nephylim // Circuition
#6. Besna // Krásno
#5. Messa // The Spin
#4. Labyrinthus Stellarum // Rift in Reality
#3. Gazpacho // Magic 8 Ball
#2. Dormant Ordeal// Tooth & Nail
#1. Moron Police // Pachinko — I was a little nervous when I first read about the length and ambition behind Pachinko, especially in the context of the incredible and very concise A Boat on the Sea. I’ve never been this happy to be this wrong. Nothing in the last decade has overtaken my life as much as Pachinko has, and I’m listening to it yet again as I write this, and will probably restart it once it finishes. Pachinko has a lot in common with Everything Everywhere All At Once, one of my all-time favorite films, as a treatise on the chaos of life and the importance of friends and family. It treats its philosophy of silliness very seriously, laughing in the face of darkness in such a beautiful and inspiring way; it brightens my life every time I hear it. And it does all that in tribute to a dear friend who was gone too soon and too suddenly, and no other eulogistic album has let me feel like its subject’s soul touched mine. An astounding monument to friendship on top of an incredibly accomplished hour of music. Pachinko is a miracle.Honorable Mentions:
- Hangover in Minsk // Party is Over
- 1914 // Viribus Unitis
- Bianca // Bianca
- Fange // Purulences
- An Abstract Illusion // The Sleeping City
- Blindfolded // What Seeps Through Threads
Song o’ the Year:
- Moron Police – “Giving up the Ghost”
Non-metal Albums of the Year:
- Lorde // Virgin
- Jonathan Hultén // Eyes of the Living Night
- Shayfer James // Summoning
Mark Z.
#ish. Malefic Throne // The Conquering Darkness
#10. Urn // Demon Steel
#9. Teitanblood // From the Visceral Abyss
#8. Shed the Skin // The Carnage Cast Shadows
#7. Guts // Nightmare Fuel
#6. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#5. Perdition Temple // Malign Apotheosis
#4. Paradise Lost // Ascension
#3. Revocation // New Gods, New Masters
#2. Death Yell // Demons of Lust
#1. Abominator // The Fire Brethren – It took me a few years after hearing this Australian duo’s last album, 2015’s Evil Proclaimed, to realize I was wrong about them. Their raw and relentless black-death metal wasn’t just good, it was fucking awesome. With their long-awaited sixth album, The Fire Brethren, Abominator has conjured flames that reach higher than ever. As always, the enraged rasps, scorching riffs, and endlessly pummeling rhythms are like plumes of hellfire shot directly into your ear canals. But amidst the bludgeoning is some genuinely great songwriting, with deep-cutting hooks (“The Templar’s Curse,” “Underworld Vociferations”), flashes of melody (“Progenitors of the Insurrection of Satan”), thrashy breaks (“Sulphur from the Heavens”), and just enough variety to keep everything hitting as hard as possible. It’s not for everyone, but for those into Angelcorpse and other music of that sort, The Fire Brethren is the type of album you just can’t get enough of.Honorable Mention:
- Blasphamagoatachrist // Bestial Abominator
Song (Title) o’ the Year:
- Omegavortex – “Dystopian Worldrape”
Song o’ the Year:
- Fugitive – “Spheres of Virulence”
Carcharodon
#ish. Dax Riggs // 7 Songs for Spiders
#10. Novarupta // Astral Sands
#9. Atlantic // Timeworn
#8. Structure // Heritage
#7. Agriculture // The Spiritual Sound
#6. Igorr // Amen
#5. Messa // The Spin
#4. Abigail Williams // A Void Within Existence
#3. Cave Sermon // Fragile Wings
#2. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#1. Grima // Nightside – In each of 2019, 2021, and 2022, Grima released an album and, in each of those years, I listed said album (#5, HM, and #10). But this year, the year in which I have listened to the least metal and, of course, written the least since I started here in 2018, is also the year that Grima got everything dialled in to just what I want from a Grima album. On Nightside, the duo struck the perfect balance between the traditional influences of 2019’s Will of the Primordial and the propulsive, frozen atmosphere of Frostbitten (2022). The combination gives Nightside an almost hypnotic and weirdly tranquil flow, offset by Vilhelm’s rasping vocals, which remain among the best in the BM game. Every time I come back to this record, and the title track in particular, it’s even better than I remember it being, and I always end up spinning three or more times back-to-back. An album that can keep playing that trick deserves its #1 spot in my book.Honorable Mentions:
- An Abstract Illusion // The Sleeping City
- Gorycz // Zasypia
- Psychonaut // World Maker
- Wardruna // Birna
Songs o’ the Year:
- Messa – “Fire on the Roof”
- Novarupta – “Now Here We Are (At the Inevitable End)”
Mysticus Hugebeard
#10. Orbit Culture // Death Above Life
#9. An Abstract Illusion // The Sleeping City
#8. Qrixkuor // The Womb of the World
#7. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#6. Panopticon // Laurentian Blue
#5. Blackbraid // Blackbraid III
#4. Arkhaaik // Uihtis
#3. Kauan // Wayhome
#2. Wardruna // Birna
#1. Thumos // The Trial of Socrates – I recall groggily stumbling upon Thumos’ The Trial of Socrates at work one early morning, and I’m not sure if I’ve grown attached to it or it’s grown attached to me. It looms in my periphery, routinely interrupting my listening schedule for just one more spin. This gargantuan dive into ancient Greek philosophy and justice is melodically rich, laden with atmosphere, and fiercely intelligent. I love how this album stimulates my curiosity. I pore over The Trial of Socrates like a madman, piecing the puzzle together with feverish glee but never quite feeling finished, because every re-listen yields new shapes, new colors, new ideas. It eggs me on to research various topics on ancient Greek history or philosophy, and even made for an unlikely study partner during my long preparations for the German A1 exam. I always feel smarter by the end of it—hubris, I’m sure, but The Trial of Socrates genuinely sparks my imagination in ways few albums do. Time to go listen to “The Phædo” for the zillionth time.Honorable Mentions:
- Night Flight Orchestra // Give Us The Moon
- Mutagenic Host // The Diseased Machine
Songs o’ the Year:
- Disarmonia Mundi – “Outcast”
The Dormant Stranger by Disarmonia Mundi
- Jamie Page & Marcy Nabors – “Do No Harm (Ventricular Mix)”
Do No Harm by Jamie Paige, Marcy Nabors, & Penny Parker
- Thumos – “The Phædo”
The Trial of Socrates by Thumos
Disappointment(s) o’ the year:
- The dissolution of Ante-Inferno: After Death’s Soliloquy topped my list last year, I was genuinely gutted to see Ante-Inferno’s post that they were no more. Still, I shall not weep but rather smile that they happened, because Ante-Inferno was a rare breed of genuinely moving black metal. Just that one album rooted itself so deeply within me, and I will be listening for a long time.
- Arno Menses leaving Subsignal: Man, fuck. Fuck. Remember my nuclear-grade glaze of Subsignal, where I might as well have said Menses’ voice single-handedly justified the entire existence of music? How could I not break down in heaving sobs in the middle of this Denny’s when I heard that Menses and Subsignal have parted ways? It sucks, I tell ya. I will still listen to what Subsignal puts out in the future, because Markus Steffen is a talented musician, but it’s going to be a huge adjustment since Menses is nigh irreplaceable.
Samguineous Maximus
#ish. Imperial Triumphant // Goldstar
#10. Primitive Man // Observance
#9. Motherless // Do You Feel Safe?
#8. Deafheaven // Lonely People with Power
#7. Weeping Sores // The Convalescence Agonies
#6. Between the Buried and Me // The Blue Nowhere
#5. Calva Louise // Edge of the Abyss
#4. 1914 // Viribus Unitis
#3. Crippling Alcoholism // Camgirl
#2. Crippling Alcoholism // Bible Songs II
#1. Yellow Eyes // Confusion Gate – Yellow Eyes are one of the best black metal bands in the game, and Confusion Gate is their most impressive work to date. It sees the band return to a more traditional atmospheric sound, but with the lessons learned from their explorations of dissonance and ambience. The result is a kaleidoscopic blend of gorgeous melodies, haunting riffs, and a pervasive sense of pathos that only the best art can achieve. Confusion Gate feels like communing with nature from the top of a wintry peak, embodying both impossible grandeur and awesome terror. This is a record that bypasses the analytical reviewer’s brain and just hits me right in the feeling. It offers a unique catharsis in a year where I truly needed it.Honorable Mentions
- Flummox // Southern Progress
- Hexrot // Formless Ruin of Oblivion
- Ava Mendoza/Gabby fluke-Mogal/Carolina Pérez // Mama Killa
- Strigiform // Aconite
Song o’ the Year:
- Crippling Alcoholism – “Ladies Night”
Spicie Forrest
#ish. Cryptopsy // An Insatiable Violence
#10. Crimson Shadows // Whispers of War
#9. Oromet // The Sinking Isle
#8. -ii- // Apostles of the Flesh
#7. Suncraft // Welcome to the Coven
#6. Suncraft // Profanation of the Adamic Covenant
#5. Chestcrush // ΨΥΧΟΒΓΑΛΤΗΣ
#4. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#3. Qrixkuor // The Womb of the World
#2. Primitive Man // Observance
#1. Wytch Hazel // V: Lamentations – I know, I’m surprised too. But the bottom line is that I’ve been listening to V: Lamentations front to back at least once a week since it released on the most American of holidays, July 4th. For Steel, Wytch Hazel’s latest didn’t have the same staying power as previous efforts, but Lamentations is the first to truly resonate with me. Though musically consistent with their Wishbone Ash-meets-Eagles style, vocalist Colin Hendra brings a new sense of passion to the record, and the interplay between instruments, vocals, and lyrics hits me like a lightning bolt. Very possibly inspired by the core Christian tenet laid out in Romans 6:23-24,2 Lamentations is a masterful portrayal of what it means to perpetually fail, to know you’ll never be good enough, and in the face of a salvation that renders all efforts, deeds, and accomplishments worthless, to keep striving toward the impossible anyway. Even for godless sinners like me, Lamentations is a beautiful reminder that purpose is found in hardship, that the journey is the goal, and that falling down is merely an opportunity to stand up again.Honorable Mentions:
- Proscription // Desolate Divine
- Apocalypse Orchestra // A Plague upon Thee
- Messa // The Spin
- Bloodywood // Nu Delhi
- Pedestal for Leviathan // Enter: Vampyric Manifestation
Song o’ the Year:
- Yellowcard – “honestly i”
Grin Reaper
(ish) Sallow Moth // Mossbane Lantern
#10. Turian // Blood Quantum Blues
#9. Calva Louise // Edge of the Abyss
#8. Lychgate // Precipice
#7. An Abstract Illusion // The Sleeping City
#6. Thron // Vurias
#5. Structure // Heritage
#4. Species // Changelings
#3. Havukruunu // Tavastland
#2. Aephanemer // Utopie
#1. 1914 // Viribus Unitis – I didn’t know Viribus Unitis would be my top album of the year the first time I listened to it, but I knew it would list. 1914’s naked emotion and rousing story of a Ukrainian soldier’s survival through World War I, reconciliation with his family, and inescapable return to war remains as gripping and bittersweet now as it did the first time I heard it. Across adrenaline-fueled riffing, oppressive marches, and somber dirges, 1914 never relents on musical or lyrical weight. Though Viribus Unitis was released late in the year, it quickly became the standard I used to appraise albums while going through listing season. 1914 paints war-torn life with savage grace, supplying devastating melody and grueling crawls that elevate the album to such heights that I’m genuinely moved each time I get to the end. Viribus Unitis is bleak, raw, and human, but for all that, I’m never deterred from listening. Ultimately, 1914 clutches the threads of hope and weaves an aural tapestry that brings tragedy and triumph to life, cementing Viribus Unitis as my undisputed top album of 2025.
Honorable Mentions:- Walg // V
- Moron Police // Pachinko
- Defigurement // Endbryo
- Ültra Raptör // Fossilized
- Igorrr // Amen
Songs o’ the Year:
- Aephanemer – “Le Cimetière Marin”
- 1914 – “1918 Pt. III: ADE (A Duty to Escape)”
Andy-War-Hall
#ish: Dragon Skull // Chaos Fire Vengeance
#10: Changeling // Changeling
#9: Steel Arctus // Dreamruler
#8: Abigail Williams //A Void Within Existence
#7: Petrified Giant // Endless Ark
#6: Imperial Triumphant // Goldstar
#5: Structure // Heritage
#4: Lipoma // No Cure for the Sick
#3: Crippling Alcoholism // Camgirl
#2: Hexrot // Formless Ruin of Oblivion
#1: 1914 // Viribus Unitis – Immersion defines great music and art for me. It is almost unfortunate how good 1914 are in this facet of their music. Their ability to transport the listener to the battlefield in all its violence, both carnal and psychological, is stupefying. The utter dehumanizing hatred with “1914 (The Siege of Przemyśl),” the ravenous bloodlust of “1917 (The Isonzo Front),” the hellish wails haunting “1918 Pt. 1 (WIA – Wounded in Action):” all portrayed vividly through 1914’s brilliantly caustic and composed musicianship and deeply personal lyricism. When Dmytro Ternushchak bellows “For three days / The Russians attacked / And accomplished nothing but / 40,000 dead pigs” [“1914 (The Siege of Przemyśl)”], it’s all you need to get into his character’s violent headspace. When 1914 mournfully sing in Ukrainian “Це моя земля”3 [1915 (Easter Battle for the Zwinin Ridge)], you grasp how someone could put their life on the line for kin and country. When our soldier sings “My little girl reached out to me / But duty calls” [1919 (The Home Where I Died)]… well, shit, your heart just has to break, right? 1914 don’t play “history metal.” Viribus Unitis is as present and relevant as you can get.Honorable Mentions:
- Fell Omen // Caelid Dog Summer
- Ophelion // The Jaunt
- Coroner // Dissonance Theory
- Starscourge // Conqueror of the Stars – Betwixt Sundered Seraphim, the Lands Between Bleed
Song o’ the Year:
- Fell Omen – “The Fire is Still Warm”
Lavender Larcenist
#ish Spiritbox // Tsunami Sea
#10. Sold Soul // Just Like That, I Disappear Entirely
#9. Calva Louise // Edge of the Abyss
#8. Dying Wish // Flesh Stays Together
#7. Grima // Nightside
#6. Aversed // Erasure of Color
#5. Deafheaven // Lonely People With Power
#4. Ghost Bath // Rose Thorn Necklace
#3. Changeling // Changeling
#2. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#1. Crippling Alcoholism // Camgirl – Sometimes you listen to music, and you feel like it gets you. Camgirl was exactly that type of album, and it probably doesn’t say anything good about me. Ever since Crippling Alcoholism’s latest graced my ears and I shared it with my partner, we have been singing “I fucking hate the way I look, yeah I look like a fat fucking scumbag” way too often and mumbling “Mr. Ran away, ran away from family” every chance we get. The album is dripping with the atmosphere of neon-lit back rooms, seedy interactions, and terrible decision-making. It feels like a lens into the lives of those society has left behind, and I can’t help but feel a connection. The self-destructive nihilism, drugged-out sex, and abrupt violence that is all too common in those on the margins of life is something I think more and more we can all relate to, and Camgirl is the art that mirrors society back to us. As a result, it is an album that is just as ugly as it is terrifying and beautiful.
Honorable Mentions:- Shadow of Intent // Imperium Delirium
- Pupil Slicer // Fleshwork
- 1914 // Viribus Unitis
Song o’ the Year:
- Crippling Alcoholism – “bedrot”
Creeping Ivy
#ish. Nite // Cult of the Serpent Sun
#10. Blackbraid // Blackbraid III
#9. Flummox // Southern Progress
#8. 1914 // Viribus Unitis
#7. Cave Sermon // Fragile Wings
#6. Saor // Amidst the Ruins
#5. Imperial Triumphant // Goldstar
#4. Phantom Spell // Heather & Hearth
#3. Coroner // Dissonance Theory
#2. Messa // The Spin
#1. Havukruunu // Tavastland – On their Bandcamp page, Havukruunu explain the concept of their fourth LP: ‘Tavastland tells how in 1237 the Tavastians rose in rebellion against the church of Christ and drove the popes naked into the frost to die.’ Sounds like the metal album of 2025 to me! But I didn’t crown Tavastland for its lyrics that I can’t understand. As Dr. A.N. Grier has been exhorting for a decade, Havukruunu stands as a model of Viking black metal consistency, having dropped only very good-to-great albums since 2015. Tavastland isn’t a radical improvement over 2020’s Uinuous syömein sota, but it’s an (arguably excellent) improvement nonetheless, making it Havukruunu’s finest work yet. Yes, these fiery Finns forge sounds reminiscent of Bathory and Immortal, but Tavastland seized my attention for its adventurous prog sensibilities. Some of this can be attributed to the return of Hümo, whose bass rattles like the four strings of Geddy Lee. But the prog is deep in the album craft, from the overture-style modulations of opener “Kuolematon laulunhenki” to the extended guitar wankery of closer “De miseriis fennorum.” Now if only I can learn Finnish, I’ll be able to appreciate the killer anti-popery narrative while headbanging to my Record o’ 2025.Honorable Mentions:
- Am I in Trouble? // Spectrum
- Blut Aus Nord // Ethereal Horizons
- In Mourning // The Immortal
- Oromet // The Sinking Isle
- Wyatt E. // Zamāru Ultu Qereb Ziqquratu Part 1
Song o’ the Year:
- Phantom Spell – “The Autumn Citadel”
Baguette of Bodom
#ish. In the Woods… // Otra
#10. Species // Changelings
#9. Dragon Skull // Chaos Fire Vengeance
#8. A-Z // A2Z²
#7. Apocalypse Orchestra // A Plague upon Thee
#6. Amorphis // Borderland
#5. Dolmen Gate // Echoes of Ancient Tales
#4. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#3. Amalekim // Shir Hashirim
#2. Suotana // Ounas II
#1. Buried Realm // The Dormant Darkness – Melodic tech death? Symphonic power metal? Who knows! Much like my 2025 in general, The Dormant Darkness has a bit of everything in one gigantic clusterfuck. The great news is, neither I nor the album crumbled under all that weight. In a year full of odd twists and turns, my list became more varied and unusual than ever. Buried Realm took this variety and gave me everything I like about metal in one dense package: blazing speeds, soaring guitars, majestic vocals, and relentless fury. It’s also inexplicably well-produced for how many layers there are to deal with. While 2025 was not a particularly star-studded release year—especially compared to most of the 2020s so far—it threw plenty of fun curveballs at me, and The Dormant Darkness exemplifies this with its Xothian fusion of metal subgenres in one big Ophidian I blender ov shred. I would also like to request several Christian Älvestam features on every album, please.Honorable Mentions:
- Victim of Fire // The Old Lie
- Dawn of Solace // Affliction Vortex
- Dynazty // Game of Faces
- Coroner // Dissonance Theory
- Hooded Menace // Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration
Song o’ the Year:
- Dragon Skull – “Blood and Souls”
Chaos Fire Vengeance by Dragon Skull
#1914 #2025 #AZ #AbigailWilliams #Abominator #Aephanemer #Agriculture #AmIInTrouble #Amalekim #Ambush #Amorphis #AnAbstractIllusion #ApocalypseOrchestra #Arkhaaik #Asira #Astronoid #Atlantic #AvaMendozaGabbyFlukeMogalCarolinaPérez #Aversed #Besna #BetweenTheBuriedAndMe #Bianca #Blackbraid #Blasphamagoatachrist #Blindfolded #BlogLists #Bloodywood #BlutAusNord #Bruit #BuriedRealm #CalvaLouise #CaveSermon #Changeling #Chestcrush #Coroner #CrimsonShadows #CripplingAlcoholism #DawnOfSolace #DaxRiggs #Deafheaven #DeathYell #Décryptal #Defigurement #DerWegEinerFreiheit #DolmenGate #DormantOrdeal #DragonSkull #DyingWish #Dynazty #Fange #FellOmen #Flummox #Gazpacho #GhostBath #Gorycz #Grima #Guts #HangoverInMinsk #Hasard #Havukruunu #Hexrot #HoodedMenace #Igorr #Igorrr #II #ImperialTriumphant #JonathanHultén #Kauan #LabyrinthusStellarum #Lipoma #Lists #Lorde #LornaShore #Lychgate #MaleficThrone #Messa #MoronPolice #Motherless #MutagenicHost #Nephylim #NightFlightOrchestra #Nite #Novarupta #OllieWride #Ophelion #OrbitCulture #Oromet #Panopticon #ParadiseLost #PedestalForLeviathan #PerditionTemple #PetrifiedGiant #PhantomSpell #PrimitiveMan #Proscription #Psychonaut #PupilSlicer #Puteraeon #Qrixkuor #Revocation #SallowMoth #Saor #ShadowOfIntent #ShayferJames #ShedTheSkin #Sigh #SoldSoul #Species #Spiritbox #Starscourge #SteelArctus #StevenWilson #Strigiform #Structure #Suncraft #Suotana #Teitanblood #TheAMGStaffPickTheirTopTenIshOf2025 #TheMidnight #Thron #Thumos #Turian #ÜltraRaptör #Urn #VenomousEchoes #VictimOfFire #Walg #Wardruna #WeepingSores #WyattE #WytchHazel #YellowEyes #Yellowcard #ZéroAbsolu -
Who Are These Clowns and Where Did They Put My Flesh Stapler? The AMG Staff Pick Their Top Ten(ish) of 2025 By Steel DruhmListurnalia is now upon us once again! If you are not ready to be assailed by non-stop lists and bad opinions for the next week and change, I suggest you get fooking ready! Listurnalia cannot be stopped, nor contained. It can only be tolerated and endured!
More than any year in recent history, 2025 saw more seasoned staffers step away from writing duties due to time constraints and life changes. To compensate for the loss of these slackwagoning quitters and shirkers, we added a gaggle of fresh new voices. This made for a bittersweet time around these parts as long-time friends departed and a bunch of untested, unknowns rose through the brutal n00b gauntlet to seize the means of promo production. These greenhorn neophytes have created great havoc at AMG HQ with their terrible taste, inability to follow directions, and steadfast refusal to ignore deathcore.
We’ve been here before, though, and we always straighten out the newbie upstarts. The daily beatings, deprivations, and absence of positive reinforcement will wear them down, and if not, we have plenty of space in the rotpit out back. This is, and will ever be, the AMG modality.
2026 will be an interesting year as the new crew members are shepherded by the olde while everyone is crushed beneath the iron heel of AMG management. Who will make it to 2027? Who will be sold off to Metal Wani for a box of bananas and Gorilla Glue? Place your bets in the official AMG Survival Pool!
As you read the Top Ten(ish) lists below, remember, reading our content is free, but you get what you pay for.
Grymm
#10. Venomous Echoes // Dysmor
#9. Blut Aus Nord // Ethereal Horizons
#8. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#7. Structure // Heritage
#6. Lorna Shore // I Feel The Everblack Festering Within Me
#5. Sigh // I Saw The World’s End – Hangman’s Hymn MMXXV
#4. Imperial Triumphant // Goldstar
#3. Am I In Trouble? // Spectrum
#2. Dax Riggs // 7 Songs for Spiders
#1. Paradise Lost // Ascension – I fully expected Paradise Lost to come out with quality music, which has been mostly par for the course in their storied almost-40-year career, and no one could blame them if they decided to coast along on their legendary sound. Instead, Ascension sees them giving a masterclass in songcraft and atmosphere, showing everyone, everywhere, how it’s done. With Black Sabbath now officially put to rest, Anathema long gone, and whatever the fuck is happening within My Dying Bride these days, somebody has to fly the British Doom flag high and proud, and Paradise Lost have done a bang-up job of doing so.Personal Highlight o’ the Year: Seeing Acid Bath live. I may or may not have cried during “Venus Blue,” and no, I don’t fucking care. 19-Year-Old me was pleased as punch that 48-Year-Old me got to see a legendary band (and one of his personal favorites) come back from tragedy to pay tribute to their fallen bassist and friend, Audie Pitre, by giving it another long-awaited go.
Disappointment(s) o’ the Year:
- Losing so many influential heroes (RIP Ozzy Osbourne, Ace Frehley, and Tomas Lindberg, among too many others)
- My health: I was hoping to be a lot more active this year, but early on, I needed to, in the immortal words of David Lynch, “fix (my) heart or die.”1 Thankfully, after surgery, I feel a million times better, so you should see a lot more of me in 2026. You have been warned.
Song o’ the Year:
- Paradise Lost // “Salvation”
El Cuervo
#ish. Astronoid // Stargod
#10. Ollie Wride // The Pressure Point
#9. Kauan // Wayhome
#8. Zéro Absolu // La Saignée
#7. Mutagenic Host // The Diseased Machine
#6. Asira // As Ink in Water
#5. Bruit // The Age of Ephemerality
#4. Saor // Amidst the Ruins
#3. The Midnight // Syndicate
#2. Steven Wilson // The Overview
#1. Messa // The Spin – In a year replete with comfort picks—progressive rock, synthwave, and death metal abound—how is that Italy’s enigmatic, inscrutable Messa forged my Album o’ the Year? The Spin doesn’t take the trouble to make itself easily approachable. Doom, prog, and post influences circle around velvety melodies that sometimes sound like deliberate songs, and sometimes like jazz improvisation. But it’s these very qualities that belie its subtle allure; only with repetition and attention does The Spin shine. Messa gradually reveals rhythmic motifs, instrumental nuances, and rich compositions that enhance my life on so many days. “The Dress,” especially, is stunning. And though the record’s loungey whimsy defies metal conventions, each track prizes genuine grit through its top-drawer guitar riffs. With the devotion it demands, no record from 2025 was more rewarding than The Spin.Honorable Mentions:
- Décryptal – Simulacre
- An Abstract Illusion – The Sleeping City
- Puteraeon – Mountains of Madness
- Hasard – Abgnose
Song o’ the Year:
- Ambush – “Maskirovka”
GardensTale
#ish. Structure // Heritage
#10. In Mourning //The Immortal
#9. Flummox // Southern Progress
#8. Der Weg Einer Freiheit // Innern
#7. Nephylim // Circuition
#6. Besna // Krásno
#5. Messa // The Spin
#4. Labyrinthus Stellarum // Rift in Reality
#3. Gazpacho // Magic 8 Ball
#2. Dormant Ordeal// Tooth & Nail
#1. Moron Police // Pachinko — I was a little nervous when I first read about the length and ambition behind Pachinko, especially in the context of the incredible and very concise A Boat on the Sea. I’ve never been this happy to be this wrong. Nothing in the last decade has overtaken my life as much as Pachinko has, and I’m listening to it yet again as I write this, and will probably restart it once it finishes. Pachinko has a lot in common with Everything Everywhere All At Once, one of my all-time favorite films, as a treatise on the chaos of life and the importance of friends and family. It treats its philosophy of silliness very seriously, laughing in the face of darkness in such a beautiful and inspiring way; it brightens my life every time I hear it. And it does all that in tribute to a dear friend who was gone too soon and too suddenly, and no other eulogistic album has let me feel like its subject’s soul touched mine. An astounding monument to friendship on top of an incredibly accomplished hour of music. Pachinko is a miracle.Honorable Mentions:
- Hangover in Minsk // Party is Over
- 1914 // Viribus Unitis
- Bianca // Bianca
- Fange // Purulences
- An Abstract Illusion // The Sleeping City
- Blindfolded // What Seeps Through Threads
Song o’ the Year:
- Moron Police – “Giving up the Ghost”
Non-metal Albums of the Year:
- Lorde // Virgin
- Jonathan Hultén // Eyes of the Living Night
- Shayfer James // Summoning
Mark Z.
#ish. Malefic Throne // The Conquering Darkness
#10. Urn // Demon Steel
#9. Teitanblood // From the Visceral Abyss
#8. Shed the Skin // The Carnage Cast Shadows
#7. Guts // Nightmare Fuel
#6. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#5. Perdition Temple // Malign Apotheosis
#4. Paradise Lost // Ascension
#3. Revocation // New Gods, New Masters
#2. Death Yell // Demons of Lust
#1. Abominator // The Fire Brethren – It took me a few years after hearing this Australian duo’s last album, 2015’s Evil Proclaimed, to realize I was wrong about them. Their raw and relentless black-death metal wasn’t just good, it was fucking awesome. With their long-awaited sixth album, The Fire Brethren, Abominator has conjured flames that reach higher than ever. As always, the enraged rasps, scorching riffs, and endlessly pummeling rhythms are like plumes of hellfire shot directly into your ear canals. But amidst the bludgeoning is some genuinely great songwriting, with deep-cutting hooks (“The Templar’s Curse,” “Underworld Vociferations”), flashes of melody (“Progenitors of the Insurrection of Satan”), thrashy breaks (“Sulphur from the Heavens”), and just enough variety to keep everything hitting as hard as possible. It’s not for everyone, but for those into Angelcorpse and other music of that sort, The Fire Brethren is the type of album you just can’t get enough of.Honorable Mention:
- Blasphamagoatachrist // Bestial Abominator
Song (Title) o’ the Year:
- Omegavortex – “Dystopian Worldrape”
Song o’ the Year:
- Fugitive – “Spheres of Virulence”
Carcharodon
#ish. Dax Riggs // 7 Songs for Spiders
#10. Novarupta // Astral Sands
#9. Atlantic // Timeworn
#8. Structure // Heritage
#7. Agriculture // The Spiritual Sound
#6. Igorr // Amen
#5. Messa // The Spin
#4. Abigail Williams // A Void Within Existence
#3. Cave Sermon // Fragile Wings
#2. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#1. Grima // Nightside – In each of 2019, 2021, and 2022, Grima released an album and, in each of those years, I listed said album (#5, HM, and #10). But this year, the year in which I have listened to the least metal and, of course, written the least since I started here in 2018, is also the year that Grima got everything dialled in to just what I want from a Grima album. On Nightside, the duo struck the perfect balance between the traditional influences of 2019’s Will of the Primordial and the propulsive, frozen atmosphere of Frostbitten (2022). The combination gives Nightside an almost hypnotic and weirdly tranquil flow, offset by Vilhelm’s rasping vocals, which remain among the best in the BM game. Every time I come back to this record, and the title track in particular, it’s even better than I remember it being, and I always end up spinning three or more times back-to-back. An album that can keep playing that trick deserves its #1 spot in my book.Honorable Mentions:
- An Abstract Illusion // The Sleeping City
- Gorycz // Zasypia
- Psychonaut // World Maker
- Wardruna // Birna
Songs o’ the Year:
- Messa – “Fire on the Roof”
- Novarupta – “Now Here We Are (At the Inevitable End)”
Mysticus Hugebeard
#10. Orbit Culture // Death Above Life
#9. An Abstract Illusion // The Sleeping City
#8. Qrixkuor // The Womb of the World
#7. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#6. Panopticon // Laurentian Blue
#5. Blackbraid // Blackbraid III
#4. Arkhaaik // Uihtis
#3. Kauan // Wayhome
#2. Wardruna // Birna
#1. Thumos // The Trial of Socrates – I recall groggily stumbling upon Thumos’ The Trial of Socrates at work one early morning, and I’m not sure if I’ve grown attached to it or it’s grown attached to me. It looms in my periphery, routinely interrupting my listening schedule for just one more spin. This gargantuan dive into ancient Greek philosophy and justice is melodically rich, laden with atmosphere, and fiercely intelligent. I love how this album stimulates my curiosity. I pore over The Trial of Socrates like a madman, piecing the puzzle together with feverish glee but never quite feeling finished, because every re-listen yields new shapes, new colors, new ideas. It eggs me on to research various topics on ancient Greek history or philosophy, and even made for an unlikely study partner during my long preparations for the German A1 exam. I always feel smarter by the end of it—hubris, I’m sure, but The Trial of Socrates genuinely sparks my imagination in ways few albums do. Time to go listen to “The Phædo” for the zillionth time.Honorable Mentions:
- Night Flight Orchestra // Give Us The Moon
- Mutagenic Host // The Diseased Machine
Songs o’ the Year:
- Disarmonia Mundi – “Outcast”
The Dormant Stranger by Disarmonia Mundi
- Jamie Page & Marcy Nabors – “Do No Harm (Ventricular Mix)”
Do No Harm by Jamie Paige, Marcy Nabors, & Penny Parker
- Thumos – “The Phædo”
The Trial of Socrates by Thumos
Disappointment(s) o’ the year:
- The dissolution of Ante-Inferno: After Death’s Soliloquy topped my list last year, I was genuinely gutted to see Ante-Inferno’s post that they were no more. Still, I shall not weep but rather smile that they happened, because Ante-Inferno was a rare breed of genuinely moving black metal. Just that one album rooted itself so deeply within me, and I will be listening for a long time.
- Arno Menses leaving Subsignal: Man, fuck. Fuck. Remember my nuclear-grade glaze of Subsignal, where I might as well have said Menses’ voice single-handedly justified the entire existence of music? How could I not break down in heaving sobs in the middle of this Denny’s when I heard that Menses and Subsignal have parted ways? It sucks, I tell ya. I will still listen to what Subsignal puts out in the future, because Markus Steffen is a talented musician, but it’s going to be a huge adjustment since Menses is nigh irreplaceable.
Samguineous Maximus
#ish. Imperial Triumphant // Goldstar
#10. Primitive Man // Observance
#9. Motherless // Do You Feel Safe?
#8. Deafheaven // Lonely People with Power
#7. Weeping Sores // The Convalescence Agonies
#6. Between the Buried and Me // The Blue Nowhere
#5. Calva Louise // Edge of the Abyss
#4. 1914 // Viribus Unitis
#3. Crippling Alcoholism // Camgirl
#2. Crippling Alcoholism // Bible Songs II
#1. Yellow Eyes // Confusion Gate – Yellow Eyes are one of the best black metal bands in the game, and Confusion Gate is their most impressive work to date. It sees the band return to a more traditional atmospheric sound, but with the lessons learned from their explorations of dissonance and ambience. The result is a kaleidoscopic blend of gorgeous melodies, haunting riffs, and a pervasive sense of pathos that only the best art can achieve. Confusion Gate feels like communing with nature from the top of a wintry peak, embodying both impossible grandeur and awesome terror. This is a record that bypasses the analytical reviewer’s brain and just hits me right in the feeling. It offers a unique catharsis in a year where I truly needed it.Honorable Mentions
- Flummox // Southern Progress
- Hexrot // Formless Ruin of Oblivion
- Ava Mendoza/Gabby fluke-Mogal/Carolina Pérez // Mama Killa
- Strigiform // Aconite
Song o’ the Year:
- Crippling Alcoholism – “Ladies Night”
Spicie Forrest
#ish. Cryptopsy // An Insatiable Violence
#10. Crimson Shadows // Whispers of War
#9. Oromet // The Sinking Isle
#8. -ii- // Apostles of the Flesh
#7. Suncraft // Welcome to the Coven
#6. Suncraft // Profanation of the Adamic Covenant
#5. Chestcrush // ΨΥΧΟΒΓΑΛΤΗΣ
#4. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#3. Qrixkuor // The Womb of the World
#2. Primitive Man // Observance
#1. Wytch Hazel // V: Lamentations – I know, I’m surprised too. But the bottom line is that I’ve been listening to V: Lamentations front to back at least once a week since it released on the most American of holidays, July 4th. For Steel, Wytch Hazel’s latest didn’t have the same staying power as previous efforts, but Lamentations is the first to truly resonate with me. Though musically consistent with their Wishbone Ash-meets-Eagles style, vocalist Colin Hendra brings a new sense of passion to the record, and the interplay between instruments, vocals, and lyrics hits me like a lightning bolt. Very possibly inspired by the core Christian tenet laid out in Romans 6:23-24,2 Lamentations is a masterful portrayal of what it means to perpetually fail, to know you’ll never be good enough, and in the face of a salvation that renders all efforts, deeds, and accomplishments worthless, to keep striving toward the impossible anyway. Even for godless sinners like me, Lamentations is a beautiful reminder that purpose is found in hardship, that the journey is the goal, and that falling down is merely an opportunity to stand up again.Honorable Mentions:
- Proscription // Desolate Divine
- Apocalypse Orchestra // A Plague upon Thee
- Messa // The Spin
- Bloodywood // Nu Delhi
- Pedestal for Leviathan // Enter: Vampyric Manifestation
Song o’ the Year:
- Yellowcard – “honestly i”
Grin Reaper
(ish) Sallow Moth // Mossbane Lantern
#10. Turian // Blood Quantum Blues
#9. Calva Louise // Edge of the Abyss
#8. Lychgate // Precipice
#7. An Abstract Illusion // The Sleeping City
#6. Thron // Vurias
#5. Structure // Heritage
#4. Species // Changelings
#3. Havukruunu // Tavastland
#2. Aephanemer // Utopie
#1. 1914 // Viribus Unitis – I didn’t know Viribus Unitis would be my top album of the year the first time I listened to it, but I knew it would list. 1914’s naked emotion and rousing story of a Ukrainian soldier’s survival through World War I, reconciliation with his family, and inescapable return to war remains as gripping and bittersweet now as it did the first time I heard it. Across adrenaline-fueled riffing, oppressive marches, and somber dirges, 1914 never relents on musical or lyrical weight. Though Viribus Unitis was released late in the year, it quickly became the standard I used to appraise albums while going through listing season. 1914 paints war-torn life with savage grace, supplying devastating melody and grueling crawls that elevate the album to such heights that I’m genuinely moved each time I get to the end. Viribus Unitis is bleak, raw, and human, but for all that, I’m never deterred from listening. Ultimately, 1914 clutches the threads of hope and weaves an aural tapestry that brings tragedy and triumph to life, cementing Viribus Unitis as my undisputed top album of 2025.
Honorable Mentions:- Walg // V
- Moron Police // Pachinko
- Defigurement // Endbryo
- Ültra Raptör // Fossilized
- Igorrr // Amen
Songs o’ the Year:
- Aephanemer – “Le Cimetière Marin”
- 1914 – “1918 Pt. III: ADE (A Duty to Escape)”
Andy-War-Hall
#ish: Dragon Skull // Chaos Fire Vengeance
#10: Changeling // Changeling
#9: Steel Arctus // Dreamruler
#8: Abigail Williams //A Void Within Existence
#7: Petrified Giant // Endless Ark
#6: Imperial Triumphant // Goldstar
#5: Structure // Heritage
#4: Lipoma // No Cure for the Sick
#3: Crippling Alcoholism // Camgirl
#2: Hexrot // Formless Ruin of Oblivion
#1: 1914 // Viribus Unitis – Immersion defines great music and art for me. It is almost unfortunate how good 1914 are in this facet of their music. Their ability to transport the listener to the battlefield in all its violence, both carnal and psychological, is stupefying. The utter dehumanizing hatred with “1914 (The Siege of Przemyśl),” the ravenous bloodlust of “1917 (The Isonzo Front),” the hellish wails haunting “1918 Pt. 1 (WIA – Wounded in Action):” all portrayed vividly through 1914’s brilliantly caustic and composed musicianship and deeply personal lyricism. When Dmytro Ternushchak bellows “For three days / The Russians attacked / And accomplished nothing but / 40,000 dead pigs” [“1914 (The Siege of Przemyśl)”], it’s all you need to get into his character’s violent headspace. When 1914 mournfully sing in Ukrainian “Це моя земля”3 [1915 (Easter Battle for the Zwinin Ridge)], you grasp how someone could put their life on the line for kin and country. When our soldier sings “My little girl reached out to me / But duty calls” [1919 (The Home Where I Died)]… well, shit, your heart just has to break, right? 1914 don’t play “history metal.” Viribus Unitis is as present and relevant as you can get.Honorable Mentions:
- Fell Omen // Caelid Dog Summer
- Ophelion // The Jaunt
- Coroner // Dissonance Theory
- Starscourge // Conqueror of the Stars – Betwixt Sundered Seraphim, the Lands Between Bleed
Song o’ the Year:
- Fell Omen – “The Fire is Still Warm”
Lavender Larcenist
#ish Spiritbox // Tsunami Sea
#10. Sold Soul // Just Like That, I Disappear Entirely
#9. Calva Louise // Edge of the Abyss
#8. Dying Wish // Flesh Stays Together
#7. Grima // Nightside
#6. Aversed // Erasure of Color
#5. Deafheaven // Lonely People With Power
#4. Ghost Bath // Rose Thorn Necklace
#3. Changeling // Changeling
#2. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#1. Crippling Alcoholism // Camgirl – Sometimes you listen to music, and you feel like it gets you. Camgirl was exactly that type of album, and it probably doesn’t say anything good about me. Ever since Crippling Alcoholism’s latest graced my ears and I shared it with my partner, we have been singing “I fucking hate the way I look, yeah I look like a fat fucking scumbag” way too often and mumbling “Mr. Ran away, ran away from family” every chance we get. The album is dripping with the atmosphere of neon-lit back rooms, seedy interactions, and terrible decision-making. It feels like a lens into the lives of those society has left behind, and I can’t help but feel a connection. The self-destructive nihilism, drugged-out sex, and abrupt violence that is all too common in those on the margins of life is something I think more and more we can all relate to, and Camgirl is the art that mirrors society back to us. As a result, it is an album that is just as ugly as it is terrifying and beautiful.
Honorable Mentions:- Shadow of Intent // Imperium Delirium
- Pupil Slicer // Fleshwork
- 1914 // Viribus Unitis
Song o’ the Year:
- Crippling Alcoholism – “bedrot”
Creeping Ivy
#ish. Nite // Cult of the Serpent Sun
#10. Blackbraid // Blackbraid III
#9. Flummox // Southern Progress
#8. 1914 // Viribus Unitis
#7. Cave Sermon // Fragile Wings
#6. Saor // Amidst the Ruins
#5. Imperial Triumphant // Goldstar
#4. Phantom Spell // Heather & Hearth
#3. Coroner // Dissonance Theory
#2. Messa // The Spin
#1. Havukruunu // Tavastland – On their Bandcamp page, Havukruunu explain the concept of their fourth LP: ‘Tavastland tells how in 1237 the Tavastians rose in rebellion against the church of Christ and drove the popes naked into the frost to die.’ Sounds like the metal album of 2025 to me! But I didn’t crown Tavastland for its lyrics that I can’t understand. As Dr. A.N. Grier has been exhorting for a decade, Havukruunu stands as a model of Viking black metal consistency, having dropped only very good-to-great albums since 2015. Tavastland isn’t a radical improvement over 2020’s Uinuous syömein sota, but it’s an (arguably excellent) improvement nonetheless, making it Havukruunu’s finest work yet. Yes, these fiery Finns forge sounds reminiscent of Bathory and Immortal, but Tavastland seized my attention for its adventurous prog sensibilities. Some of this can be attributed to the return of Hümo, whose bass rattles like the four strings of Geddy Lee. But the prog is deep in the album craft, from the overture-style modulations of opener “Kuolematon laulunhenki” to the extended guitar wankery of closer “De miseriis fennorum.” Now if only I can learn Finnish, I’ll be able to appreciate the killer anti-popery narrative while headbanging to my Record o’ 2025.Honorable Mentions:
- Am I in Trouble? // Spectrum
- Blut Aus Nord // Ethereal Horizons
- In Mourning // The Immortal
- Oromet // The Sinking Isle
- Wyatt E. // Zamāru Ultu Qereb Ziqquratu Part 1
Song o’ the Year:
- Phantom Spell – “The Autumn Citadel”
Baguette of Bodom
#ish. In the Woods… // Otra
#10. Species // Changelings
#9. Dragon Skull // Chaos Fire Vengeance
#8. A-Z // A2Z²
#7. Apocalypse Orchestra // A Plague upon Thee
#6. Amorphis // Borderland
#5. Dolmen Gate // Echoes of Ancient Tales
#4. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#3. Amalekim // Shir Hashirim
#2. Suotana // Ounas II
#1. Buried Realm // The Dormant Darkness – Melodic tech death? Symphonic power metal? Who knows! Much like my 2025 in general, The Dormant Darkness has a bit of everything in one gigantic clusterfuck. The great news is, neither I nor the album crumbled under all that weight. In a year full of odd twists and turns, my list became more varied and unusual than ever. Buried Realm took this variety and gave me everything I like about metal in one dense package: blazing speeds, soaring guitars, majestic vocals, and relentless fury. It’s also inexplicably well-produced for how many layers there are to deal with. While 2025 was not a particularly star-studded release year—especially compared to most of the 2020s so far—it threw plenty of fun curveballs at me, and The Dormant Darkness exemplifies this with its Xothian fusion of metal subgenres in one big Ophidian I blender ov shred. I would also like to request several Christian Älvestam features on every album, please.Honorable Mentions:
- Victim of Fire // The Old Lie
- Dawn of Solace // Affliction Vortex
- Dynazty // Game of Faces
- Coroner // Dissonance Theory
- Hooded Menace // Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration
Song o’ the Year:
- Dragon Skull – “Blood and Souls”
Chaos Fire Vengeance by Dragon Skull
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Who Are These Clowns and Where Did They Put My Flesh Stapler? The AMG Staff Pick Their Top Ten(ish) of 2025 By Steel DruhmListurnalia is now upon us once again! If you are not ready to be assailed by non-stop lists and bad opinions for the next week and change, I suggest you get fooking ready! Listurnalia cannot be stopped, nor contained. It can only be tolerated and endured!
More than any year in recent history, 2025 saw more seasoned staffers step away from writing duties due to time constraints and life changes. To compensate for the loss of these slackwagoning quitters and shirkers, we added a gaggle of fresh new voices. This made for a bittersweet time around these parts as long-time friends departed and a bunch of untested, unknowns rose through the brutal n00b gauntlet to seize the means of promo production. These greenhorn neophytes have created great havoc at AMG HQ with their terrible taste, inability to follow directions, and steadfast refusal to ignore deathcore.
We’ve been here before, though, and we always straighten out the newbie upstarts. The daily beatings, deprivations, and absence of positive reinforcement will wear them down, and if not, we have plenty of space in the rotpit out back. This is, and will ever be, the AMG modality.
2026 will be an interesting year as the new crew members are shepherded by the olde while everyone is crushed beneath the iron heel of AMG management. Who will make it to 2027? Who will be sold off to Metal Wani for a box of bananas and Gorilla Glue? Place your bets in the official AMG Survival Pool!
As you read the Top Ten(ish) lists below, remember, reading our content is free, but you get what you pay for.
Grymm
#10. Venomous Echoes // Dysmor
#9. Blut Aus Nord // Ethereal Horizons
#8. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#7. Structure // Heritage
#6. Lorna Shore // I Feel The Everblack Festering Within Me
#5. Sigh // I Saw The World’s End – Hangman’s Hymn MMXXV
#4. Imperial Triumphant // Goldstar
#3. Am I In Trouble? // Spectrum
#2. Dax Riggs // 7 Songs for Spiders
#1. Paradise Lost // Ascension – I fully expected Paradise Lost to come out with quality music, which has been mostly par for the course in their storied almost-40-year career, and no one could blame them if they decided to coast along on their legendary sound. Instead, Ascension sees them giving a masterclass in songcraft and atmosphere, showing everyone, everywhere, how it’s done. With Black Sabbath now officially put to rest, Anathema long gone, and whatever the fuck is happening within My Dying Bride these days, somebody has to fly the British Doom flag high and proud, and Paradise Lost have done a bang-up job of doing so.Personal Highlight o’ the Year: Seeing Acid Bath live. I may or may not have cried during “Venus Blue,” and no, I don’t fucking care. 19-Year-Old me was pleased as punch that 48-Year-Old me got to see a legendary band (and one of his personal favorites) come back from tragedy to pay tribute to their fallen bassist and friend, Audie Pitre, by giving it another long-awaited go.
Disappointment(s) o’ the Year:
- Losing so many influential heroes (RIP Ozzy Osbourne, Ace Frehley, and Tomas Lindberg, among too many others)
- My health: I was hoping to be a lot more active this year, but early on, I needed to, in the immortal words of David Lynch, “fix (my) heart or die.”1 Thankfully, after surgery, I feel a million times better, so you should see a lot more of me in 2026. You have been warned.
Song o’ the Year:
- Paradise Lost // “Salvation”
El Cuervo
#ish. Astronoid // Stargod
#10. Ollie Wride // The Pressure Point
#9. Kauan // Wayhome
#8. Zéro Absolu // La Saignée
#7. Mutagenic Host // The Diseased Machine
#6. Asira // As Ink in Water
#5. Bruit // The Age of Ephemerality
#4. Saor // Amidst the Ruins
#3. The Midnight // Syndicate
#2. Steven Wilson // The Overview
#1. Messa // The Spin – In a year replete with comfort picks—progressive rock, synthwave, and death metal abound—how is that Italy’s enigmatic, inscrutable Messa forged my Album o’ the Year? The Spin doesn’t take the trouble to make itself easily approachable. Doom, prog, and post influences circle around velvety melodies that sometimes sound like deliberate songs, and sometimes like jazz improvisation. But it’s these very qualities that belie its subtle allure; only with repetition and attention does The Spin shine. Messa gradually reveals rhythmic motifs, instrumental nuances, and rich compositions that enhance my life on so many days. “The Dress,” especially, is stunning. And though the record’s loungey whimsy defies metal conventions, each track prizes genuine grit through its top-drawer guitar riffs. With the devotion it demands, no record from 2025 was more rewarding than The Spin.Honorable Mentions:
- Décryptal – Simulacre
- An Abstract Illusion – The Sleeping City
- Puteraeon – Mountains of Madness
- Hasard – Abgnose
Song o’ the Year:
- Ambush – “Maskirovka”
GardensTale
#ish. Structure // Heritage
#10. In Mourning //The Immortal
#9. Flummox // Southern Progress
#8. Der Weg Einer Freiheit // Innern
#7. Nephylim // Circuition
#6. Besna // Krásno
#5. Messa // The Spin
#4. Labyrinthus Stellarum // Rift in Reality
#3. Gazpacho // Magic 8 Ball
#2. Dormant Ordeal// Tooth & Nail
#1. Moron Police // Pachinko — I was a little nervous when I first read about the length and ambition behind Pachinko, especially in the context of the incredible and very concise A Boat on the Sea. I’ve never been this happy to be this wrong. Nothing in the last decade has overtaken my life as much as Pachinko has, and I’m listening to it yet again as I write this, and will probably restart it once it finishes. Pachinko has a lot in common with Everything Everywhere All At Once, one of my all-time favorite films, as a treatise on the chaos of life and the importance of friends and family. It treats its philosophy of silliness very seriously, laughing in the face of darkness in such a beautiful and inspiring way; it brightens my life every time I hear it. And it does all that in tribute to a dear friend who was gone too soon and too suddenly, and no other eulogistic album has let me feel like its subject’s soul touched mine. An astounding monument to friendship on top of an incredibly accomplished hour of music. Pachinko is a miracle.Honorable Mentions:
- Hangover in Minsk // Party is Over
- 1914 // Viribus Unitis
- Bianca // Bianca
- Fange // Purulences
- An Abstract Illusion // The Sleeping City
- Blindfolded // What Seeps Through Threads
Song o’ the Year:
- Moron Police – “Giving up the Ghost”
Non-metal Albums of the Year:
- Lorde // Virgin
- Jonathan Hultén // Eyes of the Living Night
- Shayfer James // Summoning
Mark Z.
#ish. Malefic Throne // The Conquering Darkness
#10. Urn // Demon Steel
#9. Teitanblood // From the Visceral Abyss
#8. Shed the Skin // The Carnage Cast Shadows
#7. Guts // Nightmare Fuel
#6. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#5. Perdition Temple // Malign Apotheosis
#4. Paradise Lost // Ascension
#3. Revocation // New Gods, New Masters
#2. Death Yell // Demons of Lust
#1. Abominator // The Fire Brethren – It took me a few years after hearing this Australian duo’s last album, 2015’s Evil Proclaimed, to realize I was wrong about them. Their raw and relentless black-death metal wasn’t just good, it was fucking awesome. With their long-awaited sixth album, The Fire Brethren, Abominator has conjured flames that reach higher than ever. As always, the enraged rasps, scorching riffs, and endlessly pummeling rhythms are like plumes of hellfire shot directly into your ear canals. But amidst the bludgeoning is some genuinely great songwriting, with deep-cutting hooks (“The Templar’s Curse,” “Underworld Vociferations”), flashes of melody (“Progenitors of the Insurrection of Satan”), thrashy breaks (“Sulphur from the Heavens”), and just enough variety to keep everything hitting as hard as possible. It’s not for everyone, but for those into Angelcorpse and other music of that sort, The Fire Brethren is the type of album you just can’t get enough of.Honorable Mention:
- Blasphamagoatachrist // Bestial Abominator
Song (Title) o’ the Year:
- Omegavortex – “Dystopian Worldrape”
Song o’ the Year:
- Fugitive – “Spheres of Virulence”
Carcharodon
#ish. Dax Riggs // 7 Songs for Spiders
#10. Novarupta // Astral Sands
#9. Atlantic // Timeworn
#8. Structure // Heritage
#7. Agriculture // The Spiritual Sound
#6. Igorr // Amen
#5. Messa // The Spin
#4. Abigail Williams // A Void Within Existence
#3. Cave Sermon // Fragile Wings
#2. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#1. Grima // Nightside – In each of 2019, 2021, and 2022, Grima released an album and, in each of those years, I listed said album (#5, HM, and #10). But this year, the year in which I have listened to the least metal and, of course, written the least since I started here in 2018, is also the year that Grima got everything dialled in to just what I want from a Grima album. On Nightside, the duo struck the perfect balance between the traditional influences of 2019’s Will of the Primordial and the propulsive, frozen atmosphere of Frostbitten (2022). The combination gives Nightside an almost hypnotic and weirdly tranquil flow, offset by Vilhelm’s rasping vocals, which remain among the best in the BM game. Every time I come back to this record, and the title track in particular, it’s even better than I remember it being, and I always end up spinning three or more times back-to-back. An album that can keep playing that trick deserves its #1 spot in my book.Honorable Mentions:
- An Abstract Illusion // The Sleeping City
- Gorycz // Zasypia
- Psychonaut // World Maker
- Wardruna // Birna
Songs o’ the Year:
- Messa – “Fire on the Roof”
- Novarupta – “Now Here We Are (At the Inevitable End)”
Mysticus Hugebeard
#10. Orbit Culture // Death Above Life
#9. An Abstract Illusion // The Sleeping City
#8. Qrixkuor // The Womb of the World
#7. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#6. Panopticon // Laurentian Blue
#5. Blackbraid // Blackbraid III
#4. Arkhaaik // Uihtis
#3. Kauan // Wayhome
#2. Wardruna // Birna
#1. Thumos // The Trial of Socrates – I recall groggily stumbling upon Thumos’ The Trial of Socrates at work one early morning, and I’m not sure if I’ve grown attached to it or it’s grown attached to me. It looms in my periphery, routinely interrupting my listening schedule for just one more spin. This gargantuan dive into ancient Greek philosophy and justice is melodically rich, laden with atmosphere, and fiercely intelligent. I love how this album stimulates my curiosity. I pore over The Trial of Socrates like a madman, piecing the puzzle together with feverish glee but never quite feeling finished, because every re-listen yields new shapes, new colors, new ideas. It eggs me on to research various topics on ancient Greek history or philosophy, and even made for an unlikely study partner during my long preparations for the German A1 exam. I always feel smarter by the end of it—hubris, I’m sure, but The Trial of Socrates genuinely sparks my imagination in ways few albums do. Time to go listen to “The Phædo” for the zillionth time.Honorable Mentions:
- Night Flight Orchestra // Give Us The Moon
- Mutagenic Host // The Diseased Machine
Songs o’ the Year:
- Disarmonia Mundi – “Outcast”
The Dormant Stranger by Disarmonia Mundi
- Jamie Page & Marcy Nabors – “Do No Harm (Ventricular Mix)”
Do No Harm by Jamie Paige, Marcy Nabors, & Penny Parker
- Thumos – “The Phædo”
The Trial of Socrates by Thumos
Disappointment(s) o’ the year:
- The dissolution of Ante-Inferno: After Death’s Soliloquy topped my list last year, I was genuinely gutted to see Ante-Inferno’s post that they were no more. Still, I shall not weep but rather smile that they happened, because Ante-Inferno was a rare breed of genuinely moving black metal. Just that one album rooted itself so deeply within me, and I will be listening for a long time.
- Arno Menses leaving Subsignal: Man, fuck. Fuck. Remember my nuclear-grade glaze of Subsignal, where I might as well have said Menses’ voice single-handedly justified the entire existence of music? How could I not break down in heaving sobs in the middle of this Denny’s when I heard that Menses and Subsignal have parted ways? It sucks, I tell ya. I will still listen to what Subsignal puts out in the future, because Markus Steffen is a talented musician, but it’s going to be a huge adjustment since Menses is nigh irreplaceable.
Samguineous Maximus
#ish. Imperial Triumphant // Goldstar
#10. Primitive Man // Observance
#9. Motherless // Do You Feel Safe?
#8. Deafheaven // Lonely People with Power
#7. Weeping Sores // The Convalescence Agonies
#6. Between the Buried and Me // The Blue Nowhere
#5. Calva Louise // Edge of the Abyss
#4. 1914 // Viribus Unitis
#3. Crippling Alcoholism // Camgirl
#2. Crippling Alcoholism // Bible Songs II
#1. Yellow Eyes // Confusion Gate – Yellow Eyes are one of the best black metal bands in the game, and Confusion Gate is their most impressive work to date. It sees the band return to a more traditional atmospheric sound, but with the lessons learned from their explorations of dissonance and ambience. The result is a kaleidoscopic blend of gorgeous melodies, haunting riffs, and a pervasive sense of pathos that only the best art can achieve. Confusion Gate feels like communing with nature from the top of a wintry peak, embodying both impossible grandeur and awesome terror. This is a record that bypasses the analytical reviewer’s brain and just hits me right in the feeling. It offers a unique catharsis in a year where I truly needed it.Honorable Mentions
- Flummox // Southern Progress
- Hexrot // Formless Ruin of Oblivion
- Ava Mendoza/Gabby fluke-Mogal/Carolina Pérez // Mama Killa
- Strigiform // Aconite
Song o’ the Year:
- Crippling Alcoholism – “Ladies Night”
Spicie Forrest
#ish. Cryptopsy // An Insatiable Violence
#10. Crimson Shadows // Whispers of War
#9. Oromet // The Sinking Isle
#8. -ii- // Apostles of the Flesh
#7. Suncraft // Welcome to the Coven
#6. Suncraft // Profanation of the Adamic Covenant
#5. Chestcrush // ΨΥΧΟΒΓΑΛΤΗΣ
#4. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#3. Qrixkuor // The Womb of the World
#2. Primitive Man // Observance
#1. Wytch Hazel // V: Lamentations – I know, I’m surprised too. But the bottom line is that I’ve been listening to V: Lamentations front to back at least once a week since it released on the most American of holidays, July 4th. For Steel, Wytch Hazel’s latest didn’t have the same staying power as previous efforts, but Lamentations is the first to truly resonate with me. Though musically consistent with their Wishbone Ash-meets-Eagles style, vocalist Colin Hendra brings a new sense of passion to the record, and the interplay between instruments, vocals, and lyrics hits me like a lightning bolt. Very possibly inspired by the core Christian tenet laid out in Romans 6:23-24,2 Lamentations is a masterful portrayal of what it means to perpetually fail, to know you’ll never be good enough, and in the face of a salvation that renders all efforts, deeds, and accomplishments worthless, to keep striving toward the impossible anyway. Even for godless sinners like me, Lamentations is a beautiful reminder that purpose is found in hardship, that the journey is the goal, and that falling down is merely an opportunity to stand up again.Honorable Mentions:
- Proscription // Desolate Divine
- Apocalypse Orchestra // A Plague upon Thee
- Messa // The Spin
- Bloodywood // Nu Delhi
- Pedestal for Leviathan // Enter: Vampyric Manifestation
Song o’ the Year:
- Yellowcard – “honestly i”
Grin Reaper
(ish) Sallow Moth // Mossbane Lantern
#10. Turian // Blood Quantum Blues
#9. Calva Louise // Edge of the Abyss
#8. Lychgate // Precipice
#7. An Abstract Illusion // The Sleeping City
#6. Thron // Vurias
#5. Structure // Heritage
#4. Species // Changelings
#3. Havukruunu // Tavastland
#2. Aephanemer // Utopie
#1. 1914 // Viribus Unitis – I didn’t know Viribus Unitis would be my top album of the year the first time I listened to it, but I knew it would list. 1914’s naked emotion and rousing story of a Ukrainian soldier’s survival through World War I, reconciliation with his family, and inescapable return to war remains as gripping and bittersweet now as it did the first time I heard it. Across adrenaline-fueled riffing, oppressive marches, and somber dirges, 1914 never relents on musical or lyrical weight. Though Viribus Unitis was released late in the year, it quickly became the standard I used to appraise albums while going through listing season. 1914 paints war-torn life with savage grace, supplying devastating melody and grueling crawls that elevate the album to such heights that I’m genuinely moved each time I get to the end. Viribus Unitis is bleak, raw, and human, but for all that, I’m never deterred from listening. Ultimately, 1914 clutches the threads of hope and weaves an aural tapestry that brings tragedy and triumph to life, cementing Viribus Unitis as my undisputed top album of 2025.
Honorable Mentions:- Walg // V
- Moron Police // Pachinko
- Defigurement // Endbryo
- Ültra Raptör // Fossilized
- Igorrr // Amen
Songs o’ the Year:
- Aephanemer – “Le Cimetière Marin”
- 1914 – “1918 Pt. III: ADE (A Duty to Escape)”
Andy-War-Hall
#ish: Dragon Skull // Chaos Fire Vengeance
#10: Changeling // Changeling
#9: Steel Arctus // Dreamruler
#8: Abigail Williams //A Void Within Existence
#7: Petrified Giant // Endless Ark
#6: Imperial Triumphant // Goldstar
#5: Structure // Heritage
#4: Lipoma // No Cure for the Sick
#3: Crippling Alcoholism // Camgirl
#2: Hexrot // Formless Ruin of Oblivion
#1: 1914 // Viribus Unitis – Immersion defines great music and art for me. It is almost unfortunate how good 1914 are in this facet of their music. Their ability to transport the listener to the battlefield in all its violence, both carnal and psychological, is stupefying. The utter dehumanizing hatred with “1914 (The Siege of Przemyśl),” the ravenous bloodlust of “1917 (The Isonzo Front),” the hellish wails haunting “1918 Pt. 1 (WIA – Wounded in Action):” all portrayed vividly through 1914’s brilliantly caustic and composed musicianship and deeply personal lyricism. When Dmytro Ternushchak bellows “For three days / The Russians attacked / And accomplished nothing but / 40,000 dead pigs” [“1914 (The Siege of Przemyśl)”], it’s all you need to get into his character’s violent headspace. When 1914 mournfully sing in Ukrainian “Це моя земля”3 [1915 (Easter Battle for the Zwinin Ridge)], you grasp how someone could put their life on the line for kin and country. When our soldier sings “My little girl reached out to me / But duty calls” [1919 (The Home Where I Died)]… well, shit, your heart just has to break, right? 1914 don’t play “history metal.” Viribus Unitis is as present and relevant as you can get.Honorable Mentions:
- Fell Omen // Caelid Dog Summer
- Ophelion // The Jaunt
- Coroner // Dissonance Theory
- Starscourge // Conqueror of the Stars – Betwixt Sundered Seraphim, the Lands Between Bleed
Song o’ the Year:
- Fell Omen – “The Fire is Still Warm”
Lavender Larcenist
#ish Spiritbox // Tsunami Sea
#10. Sold Soul // Just Like That, I Disappear Entirely
#9. Calva Louise // Edge of the Abyss
#8. Dying Wish // Flesh Stays Together
#7. Grima // Nightside
#6. Aversed // Erasure of Color
#5. Deafheaven // Lonely People With Power
#4. Ghost Bath // Rose Thorn Necklace
#3. Changeling // Changeling
#2. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#1. Crippling Alcoholism // Camgirl – Sometimes you listen to music, and you feel like it gets you. Camgirl was exactly that type of album, and it probably doesn’t say anything good about me. Ever since Crippling Alcoholism’s latest graced my ears and I shared it with my partner, we have been singing “I fucking hate the way I look, yeah I look like a fat fucking scumbag” way too often and mumbling “Mr. Ran away, ran away from family” every chance we get. The album is dripping with the atmosphere of neon-lit back rooms, seedy interactions, and terrible decision-making. It feels like a lens into the lives of those society has left behind, and I can’t help but feel a connection. The self-destructive nihilism, drugged-out sex, and abrupt violence that is all too common in those on the margins of life is something I think more and more we can all relate to, and Camgirl is the art that mirrors society back to us. As a result, it is an album that is just as ugly as it is terrifying and beautiful.
Honorable Mentions:- Shadow of Intent // Imperium Delirium
- Pupil Slicer // Fleshwork
- 1914 // Viribus Unitis
Song o’ the Year:
- Crippling Alcoholism – “bedrot”
Creeping Ivy
#ish. Nite // Cult of the Serpent Sun
#10. Blackbraid // Blackbraid III
#9. Flummox // Southern Progress
#8. 1914 // Viribus Unitis
#7. Cave Sermon // Fragile Wings
#6. Saor // Amidst the Ruins
#5. Imperial Triumphant // Goldstar
#4. Phantom Spell // Heather & Hearth
#3. Coroner // Dissonance Theory
#2. Messa // The Spin
#1. Havukruunu // Tavastland – On their Bandcamp page, Havukruunu explain the concept of their fourth LP: ‘Tavastland tells how in 1237 the Tavastians rose in rebellion against the church of Christ and drove the popes naked into the frost to die.’ Sounds like the metal album of 2025 to me! But I didn’t crown Tavastland for its lyrics that I can’t understand. As Dr. A.N. Grier has been exhorting for a decade, Havukruunu stands as a model of Viking black metal consistency, having dropped only very good-to-great albums since 2015. Tavastland isn’t a radical improvement over 2020’s Uinuous syömein sota, but it’s an (arguably excellent) improvement nonetheless, making it Havukruunu’s finest work yet. Yes, these fiery Finns forge sounds reminiscent of Bathory and Immortal, but Tavastland seized my attention for its adventurous prog sensibilities. Some of this can be attributed to the return of Hümo, whose bass rattles like the four strings of Geddy Lee. But the prog is deep in the album craft, from the overture-style modulations of opener “Kuolematon laulunhenki” to the extended guitar wankery of closer “De miseriis fennorum.” Now if only I can learn Finnish, I’ll be able to appreciate the killer anti-popery narrative while headbanging to my Record o’ 2025.Honorable Mentions:
- Am I in Trouble? // Spectrum
- Blut Aus Nord // Ethereal Horizons
- In Mourning // The Immortal
- Oromet // The Sinking Isle
- Wyatt E. // Zamāru Ultu Qereb Ziqquratu Part 1
Song o’ the Year:
- Phantom Spell – “The Autumn Citadel”
Baguette of Bodom
#ish. In the Woods… // Otra
#10. Species // Changelings
#9. Dragon Skull // Chaos Fire Vengeance
#8. A-Z // A2Z²
#7. Apocalypse Orchestra // A Plague upon Thee
#6. Amorphis // Borderland
#5. Dolmen Gate // Echoes of Ancient Tales
#4. Dormant Ordeal // Tooth and Nail
#3. Amalekim // Shir Hashirim
#2. Suotana // Ounas II
#1. Buried Realm // The Dormant Darkness – Melodic tech death? Symphonic power metal? Who knows! Much like my 2025 in general, The Dormant Darkness has a bit of everything in one gigantic clusterfuck. The great news is, neither I nor the album crumbled under all that weight. In a year full of odd twists and turns, my list became more varied and unusual than ever. Buried Realm took this variety and gave me everything I like about metal in one dense package: blazing speeds, soaring guitars, majestic vocals, and relentless fury. It’s also inexplicably well-produced for how many layers there are to deal with. While 2025 was not a particularly star-studded release year—especially compared to most of the 2020s so far—it threw plenty of fun curveballs at me, and The Dormant Darkness exemplifies this with its Xothian fusion of metal subgenres in one big Ophidian I blender ov shred. I would also like to request several Christian Älvestam features on every album, please.Honorable Mentions:
- Victim of Fire // The Old Lie
- Dawn of Solace // Affliction Vortex
- Dynazty // Game of Faces
- Coroner // Dissonance Theory
- Hooded Menace // Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration
Song o’ the Year:
- Dragon Skull – “Blood and Souls”
Chaos Fire Vengeance by Dragon Skull
Show 3 footnotes
- Translated: I had atrial fibrillation and needed a cardiac ablation. ↩
- “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” ↩
- “This is my land.” ↩
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“A Marvel of Ingenuity” – The Library’s Main Reading Room – Timeless
Timeless Stories from the Library of Congress, ISSN 2836-9459
- Home
- “A Marvel of Ingenuity” — The Library’s Main Reading Room
“A Marvel of Ingenuity” — The Library’s Main Reading Room
December 4, 2025, Posted by: Neely Tucker
—This is a guest post by Jane A. Hudiburg, an analyst in the Congressional Research Service. It also appears in the September/October issue of the Library of Congress Magazine.
In 1888, Ainsworth Rand Spofford, the sixth Librarian of Congress, detailed his vision for the public reading room in the new Congressional Library — now known as the Thomas Jefferson Building. The space should follow the example set by the British Museum Library and be “circular or octagonal in form, so that all parts of it may be commanded” from the center.
To realize this panopticon concept, Spofford provided specifications for a “massive circular desk” that would give librarians and the Main Reading Room superintendent a view of every researcher, the card catalog and each alcove representing a major realm of knowledge.
Meanwhile, from the eye of the room’s domed ceiling, the figures in the aptly named painting “Human Understanding” could monitor the books springing forth from conveyor systems that connected the control room under the central desk to the stacks, the Capitol and eventually the John Adams Building and beyond. In her memoir “Thirty Years in Washington” (1901), Mary Cunningham Logan, the widow of Sen. John A. Logan, called the entire process — identifying, requesting and delivering books — a “marvel of ingenuity.”
The Library’s Main Reading Room as seen from high above. Photo: Shawn Miller.Since that observation, the ingenious process has changed. The computer catalog replaced the card catalog; Electronic Book Paging phased out the call slips sent by pneumatic tubes; the book carrier pulled by continuously moving chains ceased operation, as did its replacement — a specialized elevator that lifted books from the control room into the reading room.
The tunnel to the Capitol, which once allowed the quick transport of materials to members of Congress, closed prior to the construction of the Capitol Visitor Center. And, the Library began providing content online, allowing researchers all over the world to access its digitized collections. Still, the mahogany central desk remains a powerful symbol — a direct connection between knowledge and its seekers and the never-ending quest to deepen and expand all human understanding.
Continue/Read Original Article Here: “A Marvel of Ingenuity” — The Library’s Main Reading Room | Timeless
Tags: Blog, Library of Congress, Library of Congress Blog, Main Reading Room, Timeless, Timeless Stories from the Library of Congress#Blog #LibraryOfCongress #LibraryOfCongressBlog #MainReadingRoom #Timeless #TimelessStoriesFromTheLibraryOfCongress
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2025.11 - Last month I mostly listened to:
1. Pale Horse Ritual
2. Yawning Man
3. Dome Runner
4. Slôdder
5. Cold In Berlin
6. Maha Sohona
7. Dune Aurora
8. Papir
9. Bogwife
10. ZebulonBy playtime (h:mm:ss):
1. Papir (4:08:34)
2. Pale Horse Ritual (3:25:27)
3. Maha Sohona (3:17:41)
4. Yawning Man (3:14:45)
5. Cold In Berlin (2:14:58)
Track obsession: Pale Horse Ritual - Holy Lies
Bubbling under: Beastwars, Black Sabbitch, Oslo Tapes, Wire, Kadavar, Saint Omen, All India Radio, Barren Heir, Brutus, Sapata, The Cyclist Conspiracy
Total artists in rotation: 225Relevant albums:
Pale Horse Ritual - Diabolic Formation (2025)
Yawning Man - Pavement Ends (2025)
Dome Runner - World Panopticon (2025)
Slôdder - Narcissist (2025)
Cold In Berlin - Wounds (2025)
Dune Aurora - Ice Age Desert (2025)
Papir - IX (2025)
Bogwife - From Ashes (2025)
Maha Sohona - A Dark Place (2025)
Zebulon - Come Day of Reckoning (2025)
Black Sabbitch - Unrest in the West
Oslo Tapes - Låst Comet
Kadavar - Kids Abandoning Destiny Among Vanity and Ruin
All India Radio - The Unified Field (2025)
Barren Heir - Far From (2025)
Sapata - Veins (2025)tags: #music #nowplaying #metal #doommetal #stonerrock #psychedelicrock #sludge #postrock #playlist #toplist #musiclists
Tracks from each artist can be found in these playlists (sort by 'date added' if applicable): http://dy.fi/k9y
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2025.11 - Last month I mostly listened to:
1. Pale Horse Ritual
2. Yawning Man
3. Dome Runner
4. Slôdder
5. Cold In Berlin
6. Maha Sohona
7. Dune Aurora
8. Papir
9. Bogwife
10. ZebulonBy playtime (h:mm:ss):
1. Papir (4:08:34)
2. Pale Horse Ritual (3:25:27)
3. Maha Sohona (3:17:41)
4. Yawning Man (3:14:45)
5. Cold In Berlin (2:14:58)
Track obsession: Pale Horse Ritual - Holy Lies
Bubbling under: Beastwars, Black Sabbitch, Oslo Tapes, Wire, Kadavar, Saint Omen, All India Radio, Barren Heir, Brutus, Sapata, The Cyclist Conspiracy
Total artists in rotation: 225Relevant albums:
Pale Horse Ritual - Diabolic Formation (2025)
Yawning Man - Pavement Ends (2025)
Dome Runner - World Panopticon (2025)
Slôdder - Narcissist (2025)
Cold In Berlin - Wounds (2025)
Dune Aurora - Ice Age Desert (2025)
Papir - IX (2025)
Bogwife - From Ashes (2025)
Maha Sohona - A Dark Place (2025)
Zebulon - Come Day of Reckoning (2025)
Black Sabbitch - Unrest in the West
Oslo Tapes - Låst Comet
Kadavar - Kids Abandoning Destiny Among Vanity and Ruin
All India Radio - The Unified Field (2025)
Barren Heir - Far From (2025)
Sapata - Veins (2025)tags: #music #nowplaying #metal #doommetal #stonerrock #psychedelicrock #sludge #postrock #playlist #toplist #musiclists
Tracks from each artist can be found in these playlists (sort by 'date added' if applicable): http://dy.fi/k9y
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2025.11 - Last month I mostly listened to:
1. Pale Horse Ritual
2. Yawning Man
3. Dome Runner
4. Slôdder
5. Cold In Berlin
6. Maha Sohona
7. Dune Aurora
8. Papir
9. Bogwife
10. ZebulonBy playtime (h:mm:ss):
1. Papir (4:08:34)
2. Pale Horse Ritual (3:25:27)
3. Maha Sohona (3:17:41)
4. Yawning Man (3:14:45)
5. Cold In Berlin (2:14:58)
Track obsession: Pale Horse Ritual - Holy Lies
Bubbling under: Beastwars, Black Sabbitch, Oslo Tapes, Wire, Kadavar, Saint Omen, All India Radio, Barren Heir, Brutus, Sapata, The Cyclist Conspiracy
Total artists in rotation: 225Relevant albums:
Pale Horse Ritual - Diabolic Formation (2025)
Yawning Man - Pavement Ends (2025)
Dome Runner - World Panopticon (2025)
Slôdder - Narcissist (2025)
Cold In Berlin - Wounds (2025)
Dune Aurora - Ice Age Desert (2025)
Papir - IX (2025)
Bogwife - From Ashes (2025)
Maha Sohona - A Dark Place (2025)
Zebulon - Come Day of Reckoning (2025)
Black Sabbitch - Unrest in the West
Oslo Tapes - Låst Comet
Kadavar - Kids Abandoning Destiny Among Vanity and Ruin
All India Radio - The Unified Field (2025)
Barren Heir - Far From (2025)
Sapata - Veins (2025)tags: #music #nowplaying #metal #doommetal #stonerrock #psychedelicrock #sludge #postrock #playlist #toplist #musiclists
Tracks from each artist can be found in these playlists (sort by 'date added' if applicable): https://sdz.sh/5XfsGv
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As the gravity of the Trumpenreich's attempted invasion of LA, the Swine Emperor's birthday boy military parade, and the regime's seemingly vociferous support for Israel's attack on Iran dominate the American discourse, I'd like to take a look at a story about the regime's attempts to deport anti-genocide activists and scholars, that got lost in the shuffle of larger spectacles in our news cycle. While this June 7th Intercept article by Jonah Valdez is centered around government attorney actions in one lawsuit, I think the behavior on display here actually says quite a lot about the regime's intention to discourage, criminalize, and punish anti-genocide speech or ideological opposition to Trump's pro-Israel policies going forward.
https://theintercept.com/2025/06/07/ice-deport-free-speech-aaup-rubio/
ICE Won’t Rule Out Retaliating Against Immigrants Who Testify in Free Speech Case
"As attorneys for the scholars prepared to file a motion to protect their witnesses — many of whom are in the country under green cards or visas — from being detained or deported for testifying during trial, government attorneys refused to agree to such safeguards, according to recent legal filings in the case.
In their refusal, government attorneys said that their clients, which include the Department of Homeland Security as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, “did not want to be bound by an agreement preventing them from taking action against individuals whose identities they did not know yet,” the filings said.
When the scholars’ attorneys clarified that the motion would only protect witnesses from being targeted for participating in the case, attorneys for DHS and ICE doubled down in their opposition to the protection and challenged them to instead have the judge decide whether to grant the order."
The backdrop here is that the American Association of University Professors filed a lawsuit against the government for its clearly-illegal targeting of anti-genocide student protestors and scholars, shortly after the regime kidnapped and attempted to deport Mahmoud Khalil (among others), a legal permanent resident, for exercising his constitutionally-protected free speech rights during anti-genocide protests at Columbia University. Naturally, because some of the people who would testify in a case like that are going to be pro-Palestine students and scholars who're the intended targets of Trump's fascist ideological policing, lawyers sought assurances that their clients wouldn't be targeted by ICE or the State Department, either for, or during their testimony. This should be a mere formality in a case centered around civil rights and the limits of state enforcement power like this, after all.
Of course, and perhaps to the surprise of no one, DHS and ICE lawyers refused to provide those assurances. What's more, they declined a second time even after the plaintiff's attorneys made it clear the immunity they were seeking was related entirely to the act of testifying against the government in a legal setting. This then ultimately lead to the motion this story is primarily about.
“Noncitizen witnesses contacted by counsel have expressed concern that, if they testify at trial or are otherwise identified in connection with this case, Defendants will retaliate against them by arresting, detaining, or deporting them, denying them reentry into the United States, revoking their visas, adjusting their legal permanent resident status, or denying their pending or future naturalization applications,” the motion read.
Look, I don't want to suggest that this isn't bog standard Trumpenreich petty vindictiveness and racism, because the government's behavior here certainly is those things. But this lawsuit challenges not only the government's kidnapping and attempted deportation of foreign scholars and student protestors who speak out against a US-backed genocide being conducted by Israel in Gaza, but also the rapidly-expanding immigrant surveillance panopticon the regime is still constructing; even as cases against all this fascist ideological policing continue to successfully make their way through the courts. The regime has a lot of its militarized police state plans hinging on this case, and cases like it, so they're comfortable with openly intimidating witnesses with the threat of federal reprisal; and they don't seem to care if anyone, including judges, knows it.
Analysis isn't prophecy, but if I were a gambling woman I'd bet that the regime has plans to expand its protestor kidnapping program no matter what the outcome of the case against Khalil (and others) turns out to be.
#Fascism #ICE #DHS #Trump #Courts #CivilRights #StudentProtestors #Imperialism #Colonialism #Genocide #Israel #Gaza #Palestinians #USConstitution #MahmoudKhalil
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As the gravity of the Trumpenreich's attempted invasion of LA, the Swine Emperor's birthday boy military parade, and the regime's seemingly vociferous support for Israel's attack on Iran dominate the American discourse, I'd like to take a look at a story about the regime's attempts to deport anti-genocide activists and scholars, that got lost in the shuffle of larger spectacles in our news cycle. While this June 7th Intercept article by Jonah Valdez is centered around government attorney actions in one lawsuit, I think the behavior on display here actually says quite a lot about the regime's intention to discourage, criminalize, and punish anti-genocide speech or ideological opposition to Trump's pro-Israel policies going forward.
https://theintercept.com/2025/06/07/ice-deport-free-speech-aaup-rubio/
ICE Won’t Rule Out Retaliating Against Immigrants Who Testify in Free Speech Case
"As attorneys for the scholars prepared to file a motion to protect their witnesses — many of whom are in the country under green cards or visas — from being detained or deported for testifying during trial, government attorneys refused to agree to such safeguards, according to recent legal filings in the case.
In their refusal, government attorneys said that their clients, which include the Department of Homeland Security as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, “did not want to be bound by an agreement preventing them from taking action against individuals whose identities they did not know yet,” the filings said.
When the scholars’ attorneys clarified that the motion would only protect witnesses from being targeted for participating in the case, attorneys for DHS and ICE doubled down in their opposition to the protection and challenged them to instead have the judge decide whether to grant the order."
The backdrop here is that the American Association of University Professors filed a lawsuit against the government for its clearly-illegal targeting of anti-genocide student protestors and scholars, shortly after the regime kidnapped and attempted to deport Mahmoud Khalil (among others), a legal permanent resident, for exercising his constitutionally-protected free speech rights during anti-genocide protests at Columbia University. Naturally, because some of the people who would testify in a case like that are going to be pro-Palestine students and scholars who're the intended targets of Trump's fascist ideological policing, lawyers sought assurances that their clients wouldn't be targeted by ICE or the State Department, either for, or during their testimony. This should be a mere formality in a case centered around civil rights and the limits of state enforcement power like this, after all.
Of course, and perhaps to the surprise of no one, DHS and ICE lawyers refused to provide those assurances. What's more, they declined a second time even after the plaintiff's attorneys made it clear the immunity they were seeking was related entirely to the act of testifying against the government in a legal setting. This then ultimately lead to the motion this story is primarily about.
“Noncitizen witnesses contacted by counsel have expressed concern that, if they testify at trial or are otherwise identified in connection with this case, Defendants will retaliate against them by arresting, detaining, or deporting them, denying them reentry into the United States, revoking their visas, adjusting their legal permanent resident status, or denying their pending or future naturalization applications,” the motion read.
Look, I don't want to suggest that this isn't bog standard Trumpenreich petty vindictiveness and racism, because the government's behavior here certainly is those things. But this lawsuit challenges not only the government's kidnapping and attempted deportation of foreign scholars and student protestors who speak out against a US-backed genocide being conducted by Israel in Gaza, but also the rapidly-expanding immigrant surveillance panopticon the regime is still constructing; even as cases against all this fascist ideological policing continue to successfully make their way through the courts. The regime has a lot of its militarized police state plans hinging on this case, and cases like it, so they're comfortable with openly intimidating witnesses with the threat of federal reprisal; and they don't seem to care if anyone, including judges, knows it.
Analysis isn't prophecy, but if I were a gambling woman I'd bet that the regime has plans to expand its protestor kidnapping program no matter what the outcome of the case against Khalil (and others) turns out to be.
#Fascism #ICE #DHS #Trump #Courts #CivilRights #StudentProtestors #Imperialism #Colonialism #Genocide #Israel #Gaza #Palestinians #USConstitution #MahmoudKhalil
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As the gravity of the Trumpenreich's attempted invasion of LA, the Swine Emperor's birthday boy military parade, and the regime's seemingly vociferous support for Israel's attack on Iran dominate the American discourse, I'd like to take a look at a story about the regime's attempts to deport anti-genocide activists and scholars, that got lost in the shuffle of larger spectacles in our news cycle. While this June 7th Intercept article by Jonah Valdez is centered around government attorney actions in one lawsuit, I think the behavior on display here actually says quite a lot about the regime's intention to discourage, criminalize, and punish anti-genocide speech or ideological opposition to Trump's pro-Israel policies going forward.
https://theintercept.com/2025/06/07/ice-deport-free-speech-aaup-rubio/
ICE Won’t Rule Out Retaliating Against Immigrants Who Testify in Free Speech Case
"As attorneys for the scholars prepared to file a motion to protect their witnesses — many of whom are in the country under green cards or visas — from being detained or deported for testifying during trial, government attorneys refused to agree to such safeguards, according to recent legal filings in the case.
In their refusal, government attorneys said that their clients, which include the Department of Homeland Security as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, “did not want to be bound by an agreement preventing them from taking action against individuals whose identities they did not know yet,” the filings said.
When the scholars’ attorneys clarified that the motion would only protect witnesses from being targeted for participating in the case, attorneys for DHS and ICE doubled down in their opposition to the protection and challenged them to instead have the judge decide whether to grant the order."
The backdrop here is that the American Association of University Professors filed a lawsuit against the government for its clearly-illegal targeting of anti-genocide student protestors and scholars, shortly after the regime kidnapped and attempted to deport Mahmoud Khalil (among others), a legal permanent resident, for exercising his constitutionally-protected free speech rights during anti-genocide protests at Columbia University. Naturally, because some of the people who would testify in a case like that are going to be pro-Palestine students and scholars who're the intended targets of Trump's fascist ideological policing, lawyers sought assurances that their clients wouldn't be targeted by ICE or the State Department, either for, or during their testimony. This should be a mere formality in a case centered around civil rights and the limits of state enforcement power like this, after all.
Of course, and perhaps to the surprise of no one, DHS and ICE lawyers refused to provide those assurances. What's more, they declined a second time even after the plaintiff's attorneys made it clear the immunity they were seeking was related entirely to the act of testifying against the government in a legal setting. This then ultimately lead to the motion this story is primarily about.
“Noncitizen witnesses contacted by counsel have expressed concern that, if they testify at trial or are otherwise identified in connection with this case, Defendants will retaliate against them by arresting, detaining, or deporting them, denying them reentry into the United States, revoking their visas, adjusting their legal permanent resident status, or denying their pending or future naturalization applications,” the motion read.
Look, I don't want to suggest that this isn't bog standard Trumpenreich petty vindictiveness and racism, because the government's behavior here certainly is those things. But this lawsuit challenges not only the government's kidnapping and attempted deportation of foreign scholars and student protestors who speak out against a US-backed genocide being conducted by Israel in Gaza, but also the rapidly-expanding immigrant surveillance panopticon the regime is still constructing; even as cases against all this fascist ideological policing continue to successfully make their way through the courts. The regime has a lot of its militarized police state plans hinging on this case, and cases like it, so they're comfortable with openly intimidating witnesses with the threat of federal reprisal; and they don't seem to care if anyone, including judges, knows it.
Analysis isn't prophecy, but if I were a gambling woman I'd bet that the regime has plans to expand its protestor kidnapping program no matter what the outcome of the case against Khalil (and others) turns out to be.
#Fascism #ICE #DHS #Trump #Courts #CivilRights #StudentProtestors #Imperialism #Colonialism #Genocide #Israel #Gaza #Palestinians #USConstitution #MahmoudKhalil
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As the gravity of the Trumpenreich's attempted invasion of LA, the Swine Emperor's birthday boy military parade, and the regime's seemingly vociferous support for Israel's attack on Iran dominate the American discourse, I'd like to take a look at a story about the regime's attempts to deport anti-genocide activists and scholars, that got lost in the shuffle of larger spectacles in our news cycle. While this June 7th Intercept article by Jonah Valdez is centered around government attorney actions in one lawsuit, I think the behavior on display here actually says quite a lot about the regime's intention to discourage, criminalize, and punish anti-genocide speech or ideological opposition to Trump's pro-Israel policies going forward.
https://theintercept.com/2025/06/07/ice-deport-free-speech-aaup-rubio/
ICE Won’t Rule Out Retaliating Against Immigrants Who Testify in Free Speech Case
"As attorneys for the scholars prepared to file a motion to protect their witnesses — many of whom are in the country under green cards or visas — from being detained or deported for testifying during trial, government attorneys refused to agree to such safeguards, according to recent legal filings in the case.
In their refusal, government attorneys said that their clients, which include the Department of Homeland Security as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, “did not want to be bound by an agreement preventing them from taking action against individuals whose identities they did not know yet,” the filings said.
When the scholars’ attorneys clarified that the motion would only protect witnesses from being targeted for participating in the case, attorneys for DHS and ICE doubled down in their opposition to the protection and challenged them to instead have the judge decide whether to grant the order."
The backdrop here is that the American Association of University Professors filed a lawsuit against the government for its clearly-illegal targeting of anti-genocide student protestors and scholars, shortly after the regime kidnapped and attempted to deport Mahmoud Khalil (among others), a legal permanent resident, for exercising his constitutionally-protected free speech rights during anti-genocide protests at Columbia University. Naturally, because some of the people who would testify in a case like that are going to be pro-Palestine students and scholars who're the intended targets of Trump's fascist ideological policing, lawyers sought assurances that their clients wouldn't be targeted by ICE or the State Department, either for, or during their testimony. This should be a mere formality in a case centered around civil rights and the limits of state enforcement power like this, after all.
Of course, and perhaps to the surprise of no one, DHS and ICE lawyers refused to provide those assurances. What's more, they declined a second time even after the plaintiff's attorneys made it clear the immunity they were seeking was related entirely to the act of testifying against the government in a legal setting. This then ultimately lead to the motion this story is primarily about.
“Noncitizen witnesses contacted by counsel have expressed concern that, if they testify at trial or are otherwise identified in connection with this case, Defendants will retaliate against them by arresting, detaining, or deporting them, denying them reentry into the United States, revoking their visas, adjusting their legal permanent resident status, or denying their pending or future naturalization applications,” the motion read.
Look, I don't want to suggest that this isn't bog standard Trumpenreich petty vindictiveness and racism, because the government's behavior here certainly is those things. But this lawsuit challenges not only the government's kidnapping and attempted deportation of foreign scholars and student protestors who speak out against a US-backed genocide being conducted by Israel in Gaza, but also the rapidly-expanding immigrant surveillance panopticon the regime is still constructing; even as cases against all this fascist ideological policing continue to successfully make their way through the courts. The regime has a lot of its militarized police state plans hinging on this case, and cases like it, so they're comfortable with openly intimidating witnesses with the threat of federal reprisal; and they don't seem to care if anyone, including judges, knows it.
Analysis isn't prophecy, but if I were a gambling woman I'd bet that the regime has plans to expand its protestor kidnapping program no matter what the outcome of the case against Khalil (and others) turns out to be.
#Fascism #ICE #DHS #Trump #Courts #CivilRights #StudentProtestors #Imperialism #Colonialism #Genocide #Israel #Gaza #Palestinians #USConstitution #MahmoudKhalil
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Today's #ThursdayFiveList is #The5Ws : who, what, where, when, and why...
Who
Leonard Cohen - Who By Fire (Live in London)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=251Blni2AE4
Cohen's litany of ways to die, iterating upon the apocalyptic Unetanneh Tokef ("Let us speak of the awesomeness") prayer, the mythological origin of which tells us that it came in a dream to Rabbi Kalonymus, delivered by martyred 11th century Rabbi Amnon of Mainz in Germany after he had his hands and feet cut off and was left to bleed to death for his refusal to convert to Christianity.
Lyrics: https://genius.com/Leonard-cohen-who-by-fire-lyrics
Unetanneh Tokef: https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/unetanah-tokef/What
Ulver - What Happened
https://ulver.bandcamp.com/track/what-happened
'I know
What you have done
To the world
Your face
It is in your hands
Like everything'
Lyrics: http://www.darklyrics.com/lyrics/ulver/shadowsofthesun.html#9Where
Dissection - Where Dead Angels Lie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zG8DL4ic0A
I built an amazing shortlist of tracks for this, spanning Panopticon, Deine Lakaien, NIN and Mono. Any of them would have done beautifully, with Deine Lakaien's Where You Are and NIN's Right Where It Belongs (v2) in particular offering different perspectives on similar concepts, that our experience of the world is defined by our context. In the end, we settled here. Yes, we're aware of how Jon Nödtveidt is problematic, in significant detail; he is, however, also extremely dead.
Lyrics: https://genius.com/Dissection-where-dead-angels-lie-lyricsWhen
Sadness - When the first snow fell...
https://sadnessmusic.bandcamp.com/track/when-the-first-snow-fell-2
Almost 20 minutes of melodic, emotional blackgaze by Sadness, a non-binary Mexican black metal artist whose work is defined by love. This remastered 2016 track is still raw, and the emotional heights it builds to are all the more deeply felt for that. Each movement of this piece is worth your heart.
Lyrics: https://genius.com/Sadness-when-the-first-snow-fell-lyricsWhy
Polynation - Why You (Vessels Remix)
https://polynation.bandcamp.com/track/why-you-vessels-remix
Finishing with some richly emotive NL techno soundscapes to bring you gently back up. -
I wrote this five years ago:
“Democracy or capitalism? Pick one.
If, like me, you grew up in the 80s, you probably unthinkingly accepted the neoliberal maxim that democracy and capitalism go hand-in-hand. This is one of the greatest lies ever told. Democracy and capitalism are polar opposites.
You cannot have a functional democracy and billionaires and trillion-dollar corporate interests and Silicon Valley’s Big Tech misinformation and exploitation machinery. What we’re seeing is the clash of capitalism and democracy and capitalism is winning.
Are we past a tipping point? I don’t know. Perhaps. But we can’t think like that.
Personally, I’m going to keep working to effect change where I feel I can be effective: in creating alternative technological infrastructure to support individual freedoms and democracy.
We’ve already laid the infrastructure of techno-fascism. We’ve already created (and are creating) the panopticons. All the fascists need to do is move in and take the controls. And they will do so democratically, before destroying democracy, just as Hitler did.
And if you think the 1930s and 40s were something, remember that the most advanced tools to amplify the destructive ideologies of the time were less powerful than the computers you have in your pockets today. Today we have machine learning and are on the brink of unlocking quantum computing.
We must ensure the 2030s are not like the 1930s. Because our advanced centralised systems of data capture, classification, and prediction plus a hundred years of exponential increase in processing power (note: I do not use the word “progress”) mean the 2030s will be exponentially worse.
Whoever you are, wherever you are, we have a common enemy: the nationalist international. The problems of our time transcend national borders. The solutions must also. The systems we build must be both local and global at once. The network we must build is one of solidarity.
We created the present. We will create the future. Let’s work together to ensure that that future is the one we want to live in ourselves.”
– In 2020 and beyond, the battle to save personhood and democracy requires a radical overhaul of mainstream technology
And that’s why I’m working on building the Small Web.
https://ar.al/2020/08/07/what-is-the-small-web/
With ZERO funding from the EU and multiple rejections from NLNet/ngi (because they still don’t get it).
https://ar.al/2022/10/20/nlnet-grant-application-for-domain-rejected/
(That’s from 2022. We were also rejected in 2024 for my work on Kitten, Domain, and Place as outlined in my talk, linked below, but I was too tired to write about it again.)
https://ar.al/2024/06/24/small-web-computer-science-colloquium-at-university-of-groningen/
So for fuck’s sake, if you agree with my vision for a technological (and thus societal) future different from the hellscape we currently inhabit, and want to help us explore one possible path towards it, please fund our damn work. (Because, clearly, the EU is adamant about not doing so.)
https://small-tech.org/fund-us/
Other ways to help:
- If you know of folks that are ethically compatible who offer no strings funding, please try to secure some for us (my time is 100% spent on coding at the moment).
- If you know of conferences that pay their speakers, ask them to have me speak on the Small Web. It can be as technical or non-technical as you like and I won’t do it for free but I’m happy to accept, within reason, what they can afford (in addition to travel and accommodation being covered) and any fees received go to Small Technology Foundation, our not-for-profit.
- Help share this far and wide.
Once Domain is released and we have the first Small Web host running on small-web.org – hopefully the first of many that will be run by other folks in the future – and we start taking commercial sign-ups for Small Web places, we should eventually have the money problem solved (because apparently that’s a problem you have to solve to gain the privilege of working for the common good in our world because our system is unabashedly shortsighted).
So, yeah, anyway, g’morning! How’s your day going so far? :)
(You made it this far? You deserve a hug. And don’t worry, I’m just venting. Things will get better. It’s just frustrating swimming upstream all the time.)
💕
#SmallWeb #SmallTech #humanRights #democracy #anarchy #BigWeb #BigTech #capitalism #neoliberalism #technoFascism #technology #fascism #society #freedom #personhood
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@GossiTheDog does the following seem a plausible near future, given current trends? What do you think?
@cstross
what about a new fiction novel where the hero (winston?) talks along these lines?"Given current technological evolutions, efficiency ministry actions of deleting humans from the control loop, and the last trends in huge investments annoncements by gov.corp, it seems that they could try to make all of us ruled by their far right biased AIs and their facists supporters using:
- iots and predictive behavioral analytics to ensure the security of their fascist gov.corp and control of production/distribution lines.
- biased cryptomoney (traceable via the gov.corp
AI running their blockchains, only for middle and low class to detect and respond threats to gov.corp and their landlords, rich man transactions do not appear on the blockchains)
-autonomous robots/drones (police, soldiers ,...). Used also to lead wars against other nations.
- autonomous research without any factual check on drugs produced by their AI simulated labs before release in the wild. No more complaints, take the drug now (insurance companies?)
- endpoint data analytics on individuals where only metadata/neural net embedded mobile AI chips analysis results (behavioral deviance opposition) will be sent centrally to AIs/digital twins analysis. This is inline with social network analytics for individual targeting and seems in line with recent events (fiction events inspired by "recall" feature enabled "by error" in one gafam os, edr capabilities and failures - cfr crowdstrike disaster, face recognition based on neural nets un mobile chip,...).
- iots datas (cameras, doorbells, mobile, smart tv, smart watch,...) and mobile datas feeded blockchains recording all abnormal behavior of individuals creating a "digital twin" of each of us to predict what we will do next and prevent any resistance by "pushing out" of this "new order" the most important " nodes" of resistance found in the digital twin social graph.
-deepfakes created using sample conversations for work and/or private life via internet (inspired by covid and today's tech level) .
- the resisting people see their payment means (digital Wallet) blocked by the gov.corp AI on their mobile operating system if they do not obey.
- the resisting people start to disappear physically and are replaced by their digital twin and deepfakes online.what they seem to want to impose is not limited to usa. It is also in the process to be imposed everywhere else (Europe, ...). This is not a putsch against the usa, this is a putsch against all the human race freedom of people by extremely rich religious madmens/bigots/extremists that believe they are in a dark enlightment moment, that they will reach singularity, will get rid of workers via strong leader ruling imposed by AIs/robotics and will bring sentient biased maximal efficiency AI,with sociopathic features similar to their own, as our new leader (no more elections).
This is how they will maximize efficiency and rule on it by destroying freedom and society.
And do not believe that you can vote with your feet by moving to other company or nation, they and their AIs will own all of them with different apparent flavors with the same disgusting value: all fascists to their core.
In such a panopticon world, they do not need people to protect other people from the bad guys. No cybersecurity specialist, no nuclear reactors specialists, no CISOs, no human police , no human military, no regulator , no science or even democratic gov to avoid their technological bigotry excess or abuse of power based on rule of human centered law and more importantly " human values". These are now obsoleted by efficiency and optimisation of profits for shadowy shareholders thanks to their AIs controlling the market by using digital twins predictive analytics and minority of shares in most companies to block décisions that would not be acceptable for the AI plan.
They are the bad guys ruling the world through their owned AIs, iots and robots for physical constraints. No more human in the loop than the richests man on earth (or mars).
Fuck them. They are disgusting. Wetware brains that created these AIs, the decentralized internet and were the first generation of cipherpunks of history are coming back to support resistance for freedom and push back revenge. And...Satoshi is back and is on our side to help design it."
Villains inspired also from
Recent history of USA, tech oligarchs actions, supporters of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Enlightenment
#ooda #resist #respond #recover #democracyhacked #freedom #liberty #notofascism #ai #blockchain #behavior #society #blackmirror #hackers #novel #scifi -
“Here, the firewall is not merely a tool—it is an actor within a neoliberal technocratic order, enforcing compliance with a constructed vision of ‘secure communication’ while erasing alternate possibilities for networked interaction” — Michel Foucault, Network Architect
I got ChatGPT to role-play what Michel Foucault would say if tasked to present a threat model for an internet-connected enterprise firewall.
There is a legit reason for this, I swear.
Also: Perhaps I could get a job teaching CS at the LSE?
Slide 1: Title – “Introduction to the Firewall”
Bullet Points:
- “A ‘firewall’—so named for its metaphorical invocation of a barrier—is not merely a technical apparatus but an enactment of boundary-making. It separates the ‘inside’ from the ‘outside,’ privileging one space while marginalizing the other.”
- “While ostensibly ‘protective,’ the firewall is a site of power relations, determining which flows of information are deemed legitimate and which are excluded as ‘threats.'”
- Image: A clip-art firewall with the label “Gatekeeper or Oppressor?”
Speaker Notes:
“The corporate firewall’s role is neither neutral nor passive. It does not merely ‘exist’ to block malware—it actively produces the outside as dangerous and the inside as pure. Who defines this? Whose interests are served?”Slide 2: Title – “Threat Models as Power/Knowledge”
Bullet Points:
- “The ‘threat model’ ostensibly guides the firewall’s configuration, but this is a regime of truth reflecting the priorities of the system’s architects.”
- “Examples of prioritized threats:
- External hackers (scapegoating the ‘other’).
- Malicious code (a discourse of infection).
- Unauthorized users (a Foucauldian criminalization of curiosity).”
- “But note the exclusions: insider threats, systemic failures, and the user’s own complicity in reproducing insecurity are often discursively erased.“
Speaker Notes:
“The firewall is thus not an objective measure of ‘security’ but a mechanism of epistemological violence, erasing alternative models of what could be considered safe, collaborative, or open.”Slide 3: Title – “Firewall Policies and Governance”
Bullet Points:
- “Permit/Deny Rules: These binaries exemplify a digital biopolitics, in which flows of data are subjected to constant surveillance and categorization.”
- “Packet Inspection: A form of digital discipline, reminiscent of Bentham’s panopticon, wherein every communication is subject to the watchful gaze of protocols designed to detect deviance.”
- “Default Deny: Not a mere security measure, but an act of pre-emptive exclusion—a declaration of guilt until innocence can be algorithmically proven.”
Speaker Notes:
“Do these governance models serve ‘security,’ or do they function to perpetuate asymmetries of power between the corporation and the data it surveils? By what right does the firewall scrutinize the packet, and at whose expense?”Slide 4: Title – “The Firewall’s Duality”
Bullet Points:
- “The firewall embodies both the sovereign power of exclusion and the disciplinary power of normalization.“
- “As a sovereign, it decrees what is permissible:
- No unauthorized logins.
- No unencrypted traffic.
- No access from the ‘Global South IP ranges’ (geo-blocking as digital colonialism?).”
- “As a disciplinarian, it inspects and reforms:
- Rewriting headers (policing identity).
- Flagging anomalies (the construction of deviance).”
Speaker Notes:
“Here, the firewall is not merely a tool—it is an actor within a neoliberal technocratic order, enforcing compliance with a constructed vision of ‘secure communication’ while erasing alternate possibilities for networked interaction.”Slide 5: Title – “Conclusion: The Firewall as a Site of Contestation”
Bullet Points:
- “The firewall does not simply block threats; it produces and reproduces the category of ‘threat’ within the corporate discourse of risk management.”
- “It reinforces a regime of visibility—where the act of observing creates the very conditions of danger it purports to neutralize.”
- “In resisting this, we must ask: Who benefits from this architecture of digital exclusion? What alternatives exist to this form of boundary-making?”
Speaker Notes:
“Let us not merely audit the firewall for misconfigurations, but interrogate its very existence. What does the firewall secure? For whom, and against whom? The answers lie not in the system logs, but in the broader structures of control that it embodies.”Final Slide:
Title: “Questions? Or Are Questions Already Precluded by the System?”
(Contact: [email protected]) -
Record(s) o’ the Month – August 2024
By Angry Metal Guy
August of 2024 was a pretty good month. First, it marked my return from the Injured Reserve, where I’d been nursing a high ego sprain and nagging executive dysfunction issues. These aren’t perfectly fixed, but being back on the field has shown beyond a doubt that I’m still a force to be reckoned with. Second, August of 2024 was a particularly fecund month for potential Records o’ the Month. This surprised me.
I couldn’t remember August being a particularly productive month historically and as I went back through the archive, that seems sort of true. Between 2012—when the RotM was started—and 2023, the hit rate for August Record(s) o’ the Month landing on my Top 10(ish) list for the year is 73%. Only once has an August record reached the top spot—that would be Pale Communion—with Sophicide hitting #2 in 2012 and Lör’s In Forgotten Sleep getting a #3 spot in 2017. Turisas’ controversial Turisas2013 was a runner-up in August of 2013 and ended up at #5, while the actual winner—Witherscape’s excellent The Inheritance—took the #10 spot on that list. 2020 saw Havukruunu ending up at #7, and Crypta’s Shades of Sorrow took #9 last year. The rest is a sea of -ishes and honorable mentions: Cattle Decapitation (2015), Dialith and Eternal Storm (2019), and Pain of Salvation in 2020.
And in 2024? How many of these babies will follow me to the end of the year? I’ve got an inkling, but I’m curious to see what you think.1
Dawn Treader’s Bloom & Decay—out August 24th from Liminal Dread Productions [Bandcamp]—is one of the biggest surprises of 2024 so far. The ‘one-man black metal project’ is a minefield of absolutely terrible music that I tend to avoid at all costs. Yet the sophomore record from London’s Ross Connell is an album notable for its pathos, rich composition, and artistry. What makes Blood & Decay remarkable is how it draws inspiration from—and comparisons to—revered bands like Agalloch, Alcest, and Panopticon without falling into the common pitfalls. Typically, such comparisons raise concerns about excessive reverb, overly long songs, and toothless riffs. Yet Connell subverts these expectations by creating a dynamic, storytelling experience filled with emotional peaks and valleys, masterfully blending black metal’s rawness with atmospheric beauty. Connell’s addition of his own vocals for the first time elevates the project. His powerful delivery—and powerful use of samples—transforms each song into a vivid emotional journey. As Itchymenace gushed in his review: “Dawn Treader’s Bloom & Decay not only contains amazing songs that celebrate the highs and lows of the human experience, it also sounds great.” A surprisingly easy choice for Record o’ the Month.
Fleshgod Apocalypse // Opera [August 23rd, 2024 | Nuclear Blast Records | Bandcamp] — Fleshgod Apocalypse’s Opera, their first album since 2019’s Veleno, has marked a significant evolution for the band. Drawing from the Opéra Lyrique style, the album features soprano Veronica Bordacchini voicing characters like life, death, and hope, while her vocals have brought fresh dynamics to the band’s symphonic death metal sound. With a more streamlined, melodic approach, Opera leans into catchier, poppier elements without losing its technical edge. Songs like “I Can Never Die” and “Matricide 8.21” highlight this shift, adding emotional depth through Bordacchini’s diverse performances. Though some longtime fans may miss the more grand operatic and technical side—Opera is not King—the album is still a genuine triumph. Opera blends new ideas with the band’s established identity, creating a fresh, cohesive record that accomplishes both a stylistic shift and adds another great record to Fleshgod’s already well-respected oeuvre. As I vigorously exclaimed and defended in the comments, “Opera is simultaneously and undeniably fun, heady, and technically impressive.”
Amiensus // Reclamation Pt. II [August 30th, 2024 | M-Theory Audio | Bandcamp] — Amiensus’s Reclamation Pt. II, the companion to Pt. I released earlier this year, has marked a standout achievement in progressive melodic black metal. The album blends melancholic melodicism, blackened fury, and progressive elements to create a dynamic and cathartic experience. With tracks like “Sólfarið” and “Acquiescence,” Pt. II offers invigorating and emotionally charged compositions, Amiensus skillfully balances moments of atmospheric beauty with powerful black metal. While initially, Reclamation seemed disjointed in places, the album’s intricate songs and layered instrumentation grow with each listen, presenting some of the band’s most versatile material to date. Despite some production issues, the album features elite composition and great songs like “Orb of Vanishing Light.” Reclamation Pt. II stands as Amiensus’s current “magnum opus”—in tandem with its predecessor—and a highlight of the year’s metal releases. As Kenstrosity opined, “Reclamation Pt. II is a more energetic, smartly edited, and exquisitely arranged work that blooms brighter the longer I live with it.” That’s a fancy way of saying that it’s a grower.
#2024 #Amiensus #Aug24 #BlackMetal #Blog #BloomDecay #DawnTreader #DeathMetal #FleshgodApocalypse #LiminalDreadProductions #MTheoryAudio #NuclearBlast #Opera #ReclamationPtII #RecordOfTheMonth #RecordSOTheMonth #RotM #Veleno
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Record(s) o’ the Month – August 2024
By Angry Metal Guy
August of 2024 was a pretty good month. First, it marked my return from the Injured Reserve, where I’d been nursing a high ego sprain and nagging executive dysfunction issues. These aren’t perfectly fixed, but being back on the field has shown beyond a doubt that I’m still a force to be reckoned with. Second, August of 2024 was a particularly fecund month for potential Records o’ the Month. This surprised me.
I couldn’t remember August being a particularly productive month historically and as I went back through the archive, that seems sort of true. Between 2012—when the RotM was started—and 2023, the hit rate for August Record(s) o’ the Month landing on my Top 10(ish) list for the year is 73%. Only once has an August record reached the top spot—that would be Pale Communion—with Sophicide hitting #2 in 2012 and Lör’s In Forgotten Sleep getting a #3 spot in 2017. Turisas’ controversial Turisas2013 was a runner-up in August of 2013 and ended up at #5, while the actual winner—Witherscape’s excellent The Inheritance—took the #10 spot on that list. 2020 saw Havukruunu ending up at #7, and Crypta’s Shades of Sorrow took #9 last year. The rest is a sea of -ishes and honorable mentions: Cattle Decapitation (2015), Dialith and Eternal Storm (2019), and Pain of Salvation in 2020.
And in 2024? How many of these babies will follow me to the end of the year? I’ve got an inkling, but I’m curious to see what you think.1
Dawn Treader’s Bloom & Decay—out August 24th from Liminal Dread Productions [Bandcamp]—is one of the biggest surprises of 2024 so far. The ‘one-man black metal project’ is a minefield of absolutely terrible music that I tend to avoid at all costs. Yet the sophomore record from London’s Ross Connell is an album notable for its pathos, rich composition, and artistry. What makes Blood & Decay remarkable is how it draws inspiration from—and comparisons to—revered bands like Agalloch, Alcest, and Panopticon without falling into the common pitfalls. Typically, such comparisons raise concerns about excessive reverb, overly long songs, and toothless riffs. Yet Connell subverts these expectations by creating a dynamic, storytelling experience filled with emotional peaks and valleys, masterfully blending black metal’s rawness with atmospheric beauty. Connell’s addition of his own vocals for the first time elevates the project. His powerful delivery—and powerful use of samples—transforms each song into a vivid emotional journey. As Itchymenace gushed in his review: “Dawn Treader’s Bloom & Decay not only contains amazing songs that celebrate the highs and lows of the human experience, it also sounds great.” A surprisingly easy choice for Record o’ the Month.
Fleshgod Apocalypse // Opera [August 23rd, 2024 | Nuclear Blast Records | Bandcamp] — Fleshgod Apocalypse’s Opera, their first album since 2019’s Veleno, has marked a significant evolution for the band. Drawing from the Opéra Lyrique style, the album features soprano Veronica Bordacchini voicing characters like life, death, and hope, while her vocals have brought fresh dynamics to the band’s symphonic death metal sound. With a more streamlined, melodic approach, Opera leans into catchier, poppier elements without losing its technical edge. Songs like “I Can Never Die” and “Matricide 8.21” highlight this shift, adding emotional depth through Bordacchini’s diverse performances. Though some longtime fans may miss the more grand operatic and technical side—Opera is not King—the album is still a genuine triumph. Opera blends new ideas with the band’s established identity, creating a fresh, cohesive record that accomplishes both a stylistic shift and adds another great record to Fleshgod’s already well-respected oeuvre. As I vigorously exclaimed and defended in the comments, “Opera is simultaneously and undeniably fun, heady, and technically impressive.”
Amiensus // Reclamation Pt. II [August 30th, 2024 | M-Theory Audio | Bandcamp] — Amiensus’s Reclamation Pt. II, the companion to Pt. I released earlier this year, has marked a standout achievement in progressive melodic black metal. The album blends melancholic melodicism, blackened fury, and progressive elements to create a dynamic and cathartic experience. With tracks like “Sólfarið” and “Acquiescence,” Pt. II offers invigorating and emotionally charged compositions, Amiensus skillfully balances moments of atmospheric beauty with powerful black metal. While initially, Reclamation seemed disjointed in places, the album’s intricate songs and layered instrumentation grow with each listen, presenting some of the band’s most versatile material to date. Despite some production issues, the album features elite composition and great songs like “Orb of Vanishing Light.” Reclamation Pt. II stands as Amiensus’s current “magnum opus”—in tandem with its predecessor—and a highlight of the year’s metal releases. As Kenstrosity opined, “Reclamation Pt. II is a more energetic, smartly edited, and exquisitely arranged work that blooms brighter the longer I live with it.” That’s a fancy way of saying that it’s a grower.
#2024 #Amiensus #Aug24 #BlackMetal #Blog #BloomDecay #DawnTreader #DeathMetal #FleshgodApocalypse #LiminalDreadProductions #MTheoryAudio #NuclearBlast #Opera #ReclamationPtII #RecordOfTheMonth #RecordSOTheMonth #RotM #Veleno
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Record(s) o’ the Month – August 2024
By Angry Metal Guy
August of 2024 was a pretty good month. First, it marked my return from the Injured Reserve, where I’d been nursing a high ego sprain and nagging executive dysfunction issues. These aren’t perfectly fixed, but being back on the field has shown beyond a doubt that I’m still a force to be reckoned with. Second, August of 2024 was a particularly fecund month for potential Records o’ the Month. This surprised me.
I couldn’t remember August being a particularly productive month historically and as I went back through the archive, that seems sort of true. Between 2012—when the RotM was started—and 2023, the hit rate for August Record(s) o’ the Month landing on my Top 10(ish) list for the year is 73%. Only once has an August record reached the top spot—that would be Pale Communion—with Sophicide hitting #2 in 2012 and Lör’s In Forgotten Sleep getting a #3 spot in 2017. Turisas’ controversial Turisas2013 was a runner-up in August of 2013 and ended up at #5, while the actual winner—Witherscape’s excellent The Inheritance—took the #10 spot on that list. 2020 saw Havukruunu ending up at #7, and Crypta’s Shades of Sorrow took #9 last year. The rest is a sea of -ishes and honorable mentions: Cattle Decapitation (2015), Dialith and Eternal Storm (2019), and Pain of Salvation in 2020.
And in 2024? How many of these babies will follow me to the end of the year? I’ve got an inkling, but I’m curious to see what you think.1
Dawn Treader’s Bloom & Decay—out August 24th from Liminal Dread Productions [Bandcamp]—is one of the biggest surprises of 2024 so far. The ‘one-man black metal project’ is a minefield of absolutely terrible music that I tend to avoid at all costs. Yet the sophomore record from London’s Ross Connell is an album notable for its pathos, rich composition, and artistry. What makes Blood & Decay remarkable is how it draws inspiration from—and comparisons to—revered bands like Agalloch, Alcest, and Panopticon without falling into the common pitfalls. Typically, such comparisons raise concerns about excessive reverb, overly long songs, and toothless riffs. Yet Connell subverts these expectations by creating a dynamic, storytelling experience filled with emotional peaks and valleys, masterfully blending black metal’s rawness with atmospheric beauty. Connell’s addition of his own vocals for the first time elevates the project. His powerful delivery—and powerful use of samples—transforms each song into a vivid emotional journey. As Itchymenace gushed in his review: “Dawn Treader’s Bloom & Decay not only contains amazing songs that celebrate the highs and lows of the human experience, it also sounds great.” A surprisingly easy choice for Record o’ the Month.
Fleshgod Apocalypse // Opera [August 23rd, 2024 | Nuclear Blast Records | Bandcamp] — Fleshgod Apocalypse’s Opera, their first album since 2019’s Veleno, has marked a significant evolution for the band. Drawing from the Opéra Lyrique style, the album features soprano Veronica Bordacchini voicing characters like life, death, and hope, while her vocals have brought fresh dynamics to the band’s symphonic death metal sound. With a more streamlined, melodic approach, Opera leans into catchier, poppier elements without losing its technical edge. Songs like “I Can Never Die” and “Matricide 8.21” highlight this shift, adding emotional depth through Bordacchini’s diverse performances. Though some longtime fans may miss the more grand operatic and technical side—Opera is not King—the album is still a genuine triumph. Opera blends new ideas with the band’s established identity, creating a fresh, cohesive record that accomplishes both a stylistic shift and adds another great record to Fleshgod’s already well-respected oeuvre. As I vigorously exclaimed and defended in the comments, “Opera is simultaneously and undeniably fun, heady, and technically impressive.”
Amiensus // Reclamation Pt. II [August 30th, 2024 | M-Theory Audio | Bandcamp] — Amiensus’s Reclamation Pt. II, the companion to Pt. I released earlier this year, has marked a standout achievement in progressive melodic black metal. The album blends melancholic melodicism, blackened fury, and progressive elements to create a dynamic and cathartic experience. With tracks like “Sólfarið” and “Acquiescence,” Pt. II offers invigorating and emotionally charged compositions, Amiensus skillfully balances moments of atmospheric beauty with powerful black metal. While initially, Reclamation seemed disjointed in places, the album’s intricate songs and layered instrumentation grow with each listen, presenting some of the band’s most versatile material to date. Despite some production issues, the album features elite composition and great songs like “Orb of Vanishing Light.” Reclamation Pt. II stands as Amiensus’s current “magnum opus”—in tandem with its predecessor—and a highlight of the year’s metal releases. As Kenstrosity opined, “Reclamation Pt. II is a more energetic, smartly edited, and exquisitely arranged work that blooms brighter the longer I live with it.” That’s a fancy way of saying that it’s a grower.
#2024 #Amiensus #Aug24 #BlackMetal #Blog #BloomDecay #DawnTreader #DeathMetal #FleshgodApocalypse #LiminalDreadProductions #MTheoryAudio #NuclearBlast #Opera #ReclamationPtII #RecordOfTheMonth #RecordSOTheMonth #RotM #Veleno
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"A new lawsuit filed by a current Apple employee accuses the company of spying on its workers via their personal iCloud accounts and non-work devices.
The suit, filed Sunday evening in California state court, alleges Apple employees are required to give up the right to personal privacy, and that the company says it can “engage in physical, video and electronic surveillance of them” even when they are at home and after they stop working for Apple.
Those requirements are part of a long list of Apple employment policies that the suit contends violate California law.
The plaintiff in the case, Amar Bhakta, has worked in advertising technology for Apple since 2020. According to the suit, Apple used its privacy policies to harm his employment prospects. For instance, it forbade Bhakta from participating in public speaking about digital advertising and forced him to remove information from his LinkedIn page about his job at Apple.
“For Apple employees, the Apple ecosystem is not a walled garden. It is a prison yard. A panopticon where employees, both on and off duty, are subject to Apple’s all-seeing eye,” the lawsuit says."
https://www.semafor.com/article/12/02/2024/employee-lawsuit-accuses-apple-of-spying-on-its-workers
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Who Let These Clowns in the Hall? The AMG Staff Pick Their Top Ten(ish) Records o’ 2023
By Steel Druhm
2023 draws to an end and the glory of Listurnalia is upon us. Over the coming days, we will unveil a vast array of hot takes, puzzling choices, and shocking omissions to gawk over and judge. And that’s why you all come here: to second guess the staff of AMG while making godawful “yer mom” jokes. We know what sells and puts butts in the seats, so here comes the cannon fodder. Up first is the AMG staff list. You don’t need to agree, but please refrain from throwing anything more impactful than well-rotted fruits and vegetables.
Dr. Wvrm
#5. Fires in the Distance // Air Not Meant for Us
#4. Moonlight Sorcery // Horned Lord of the Thorned Castle
#3. Ascension // Under the Veil of Madness
#1. Carnosus // Visions of Infinihility… and #1. Xoth // Exogalactic – I’ve agonized over this decision for weeks, and you know what? Fuck it. I cannot choose, and no one can make me, not you, not my last shred of dignity, certainly not that damned dirty ape with the hammer. Carnosus and Xoth lapped the field this year and deserve to be recognized as such. Both Exogalactic and Visions of Infinihility epitomize their respective genres, prostrate before that holiest of holy, The Riff. So of course, the end products are impeccable, incredible, impossibly fucking good. I struggle to imagine better blends of execution and energy, mercilessness and memorability. I am still, a hundred spins later, as hopelessly in love with these records as the day I laid ears upon them. As I struggle to carve a place in my life for metal and this wonderful, stupid website, Xoth and Carnosus remind me why it’s all worth the effort.Honorable Mentions:
Abstract Void // Forever
Svalbard // The Weight of the Mask
Twilight Force // At the Heart of WintervaleSongs o’ the (Previous) Year: Moonlight Sorcery – “For Thy Light Is Ice” and “Wolven Hour”
Itchymenace
#10. Thulcandra // Hail the Abyss
#9. Begravement // Horrific Illusions Beckon
#8. Thy Catafalque // Alföld
#7. Rotpit // Let There Be Rot
#6. Obituary // Dying of Everything
#5. Morwinyon // Wastelands
#4. Prong // State of Emergency
#3. Kalmah // Kalmah
#2. The Howling Void // Into Darkness Ever More Profound
#1. Night Demon // Outsider – When I wrote the review for this record back in March (my first 4.5), I suspected it would be a contender for AotY. The Howling Void gave it a run for its money, but Outsider is a near-perfect slab of good ol’-fashioned heavy metal. The fact that a band can create an olde school record that is so fun, so well-produced, with such great musicianship is a thing to celebrate indeed!Honorable Mentions:
Blackbraid // Blackbraid II
Panopticon // Rime of Memory
Moonlight Sorcery // Horned Lord of the Thorned Castle
Tanith // Voyage
Danava // Nothing But NothingSong o’ the Year: The Howling Void – “Into Darkness Ever More Profound”
Disappointment of the Year: Seeing Carcass struggle to energize the crowd at First Avenue. Apparently, letting Municipal Waste play ahead of you isn’t a good idea. Municipal whipped up what is probably the most energetic and chaotic mosh pit I’ve ever seen. Poor Jeff Walker just couldn’t get the exhausted crowd frenzied again no matter how hard he tried. They still sounded great though!
Iceberg
#10. Crypta // Shades of Sorrow
#9. Gorod // The Orb
#8. Vanishing Kids // Miracle of Death
#7. Wayfarer // American Gothic
#6. Sigir // Rainmaker
#5. Stortregn // Finitude
#4. Wormhole // Almost Human
#3. Silver Bullet // Shadowfall
#2. Night Crowned // Tales
#1. Sodomisery // Mazzaroth – Yes, the name leaves something to be desired. Yes, this is melo-black in a banner year for death and doom. But Sodomisery’s 2023 opus filled the Mistur-shaped hole in my heart in a way few bands have done since the heady days of In Memoriam. The 36 minutes of Mazzaroth are as lean and mean as you can get and are proof of the band’s superior sense of editing. 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. I spent the final months of the year trying to find something to top Mazzaroth, but no such contender arose. Each time that Nordic curb stomper of a riff closes “Demon in Heaven” and the orchestra draws down the curtain of “Ephemeral Requiem,” I’m more and more confident that Mazzaroth is this floating berg’s AotY. Dinner-table talk with extended family might still be sketchy this year, but hey, at least it’s not Fvneral Fvkk.
Honorable Mentions:Convocation // No Dawn for the Caliginous Night
Panopticon // The Rime of Memory
Moonlight Sorcery // Horned Lord of the Thorned Castle
Karras // We Poison Their YoungSong o’ the Year: Silver Bullet – “Soul Reaver”
Mystikus Hugebeard
(ish). Thragedium // Lisboa Depois de Morta
#10. Insomnium // Anno 1696
#9. Rotpit // Let There Be Rot
#8. Sodomisery // Mazzaroth
#7. Panopticon // The Rime of Memory
#6. Scar Symmetry // The Singularity (Phase II: Xenotaph)
#5. Blackbraid // Blackbraid II
#4. Wormhole // Almost Human
#3. Fires in the Distance // Air Not Meant for Us
#2. Subsignal // A Poetry of Rain
#1. Ne Obliviscaris // Exul – I had a lot of catching up to do as I was forming this list. Before the monstrous pantheon of writers at AMG plucked me out of the Styx and bestowed me with the power and legitimacy to embarrass myself to our dear readers, I’d been kinda slacking on new metal releases. As I tore through the recommendations of my betters peers, I waited for something to reveal itself to me in all its AotY splendor… but I realized that nothing was drawing me back quite like Exul by Ne Obliviscaris. I love just about everything by these Aussies, but goddamn if Exul hasn’t all but trivialized everything they’ve made before. This is Ne Obliviscaris as they’ve always been, but perfected and wickedly essential. Peaks of light-speed extremity tower above valleys of expressive violin wailing launched into and beyond the stars by laser-precise drumming and what is one of my favorite bass performances ever, all betwixt the almost painful beauty of the clean vocals and relentless growls. Exul feels like what Ne Obliviscaris have been building towards for their whole career, the perfect marriage of ferocious intensity and a dancer’s elegance. Hell, every part of Exul is the best part of Exul, and the album has a vice-grip on me that declares “You will listen to the whole thing again, you dumb idiot.” Who am I to say no?Honorable Mentions:
Theophonos // Nightmare Visions
Godthrymm // Distortions
Bulletbelt // Burn It Up
Dødheimsgard // Black Medium CurrentSong o’ the Year: Insomnium – “White Christ”
Disappointment ov the Year:
Mercenary // Soundtrack for the End Times – I don’t hate this album, but “disappointment” is an apt word. After years and years of eagerly checking on them to see when they’d release something new, it was disheartening to finally get my hands on an album that was just so meh. -
Who Let These Clowns in the Hall? The AMG Staff Pick Their Top Ten(ish) Records o’ 2023
By Steel Druhm
2023 draws to an end and the glory of Listurnalia is upon us. Over the coming days, we will unveil a vast array of hot takes, puzzling choices, and shocking omissions to gawk over and judge. And that’s why you all come here: to second guess the staff of AMG while making godawful “yer mom” jokes. We know what sells and puts butts in the seats, so here comes the cannon fodder. Up first is the AMG staff list. You don’t need to agree, but please refrain from throwing anything more impactful than well-rotted fruits and vegetables.
Dr. Wvrm
#5. Fires in the Distance // Air Not Meant for Us
#4. Moonlight Sorcery // Horned Lord of the Thorned Castle
#3. Ascension // Under the Veil of Madness
#1. Carnosus // Visions of Infinihility… and #1. Xoth // Exogalactic – I’ve agonized over this decision for weeks, and you know what? Fuck it. I cannot choose, and no one can make me, not you, not my last shred of dignity, certainly not that damned dirty ape with the hammer. Carnosus and Xoth lapped the field this year and deserve to be recognized as such. Both Exogalactic and Visions of Infinihility epitomize their respective genres, prostrate before that holiest of holy, The Riff. So of course, the end products are impeccable, incredible, impossibly fucking good. I struggle to imagine better blends of execution and energy, mercilessness and memorability. I am still, a hundred spins later, as hopelessly in love with these records as the day I laid ears upon them. As I struggle to carve a place in my life for metal and this wonderful, stupid website, Xoth and Carnosus remind me why it’s all worth the effort.Honorable Mentions:
Abstract Void // Forever
Svalbard // The Weight of the Mask
Twilight Force // At the Heart of WintervaleSongs o’ the (Previous) Year: Moonlight Sorcery – “For Thy Light Is Ice” and “Wolven Hour”
Itchymenace
#10. Thulcandra // Hail the Abyss
#9. Begravement // Horrific Illusions Beckon
#8. Thy Catafalque // Alföld
#7. Rotpit // Let There Be Rot
#6. Obituary // Dying of Everything
#5. Morwinyon // Wastelands
#4. Prong // State of Emergency
#3. Kalmah // Kalmah
#2. The Howling Void // Into Darkness Ever More Profound
#1. Night Demon // Outsider – When I wrote the review for this record back in March (my first 4.5), I suspected it would be a contender for AotY. The Howling Void gave it a run for its money, but Outsider is a near-perfect slab of good ol’-fashioned heavy metal. The fact that a band can create an olde school record that is so fun, so well-produced, with such great musicianship is a thing to celebrate indeed!Honorable Mentions:
Blackbraid // Blackbraid II
Panopticon // Rime of Memory
Moonlight Sorcery // Horned Lord of the Thorned Castle
Tanith // Voyage
Danava // Nothing But NothingSong o’ the Year: The Howling Void – “Into Darkness Ever More Profound”
Disappointment of the Year: Seeing Carcass struggle to energize the crowd at First Avenue. Apparently, letting Municipal Waste play ahead of you isn’t a good idea. Municipal whipped up what is probably the most energetic and chaotic mosh pit I’ve ever seen. Poor Jeff Walker just couldn’t get the exhausted crowd frenzied again no matter how hard he tried. They still sounded great though!
Iceberg
#10. Crypta // Shades of Sorrow
#9. Gorod // The Orb
#8. Vanishing Kids // Miracle of Death
#7. Wayfarer // American Gothic
#6. Sigir // Rainmaker
#5. Stortregn // Finitude
#4. Wormhole // Almost Human
#3. Silver Bullet // Shadowfall
#2. Night Crowned // Tales
#1. Sodomisery // Mazzaroth – Yes, the name leaves something to be desired. Yes, this is melo-black in a banner year for death and doom. But Sodomisery’s 2023 opus filled the Mistur-shaped hole in my heart in a way few bands have done since the heady days of In Memoriam. The 36 minutes of Mazzaroth are as lean and mean as you can get and are proof of the band’s superior sense of editing. 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. I spent the final months of the year trying to find something to top Mazzaroth, but no such contender arose. Each time that Nordic curb stomper of a riff closes “Demon in Heaven” and the orchestra draws down the curtain of “Ephemeral Requiem,” I’m more and more confident that Mazzaroth is this floating berg’s AotY. Dinner-table talk with extended family might still be sketchy this year, but hey, at least it’s not Fvneral Fvkk.
Honorable Mentions:Convocation // No Dawn for the Caliginous Night
Panopticon // The Rime of Memory
Moonlight Sorcery // Horned Lord of the Thorned Castle
Karras // We Poison Their YoungSong o’ the Year: Silver Bullet – “Soul Reaver”
Mystikus Hugebeard
(ish). Thragedium // Lisboa Depois de Morta
#10. Insomnium // Anno 1696
#9. Rotpit // Let There Be Rot
#8. Sodomisery // Mazzaroth
#7. Panopticon // The Rime of Memory
#6. Scar Symmetry // The Singularity (Phase II: Xenotaph)
#5. Blackbraid // Blackbraid II
#4. Wormhole // Almost Human
#3. Fires in the Distance // Air Not Meant for Us
#2. Subsignal // A Poetry of Rain
#1. Ne Obliviscaris // Exul – I had a lot of catching up to do as I was forming this list. Before the monstrous pantheon of writers at AMG plucked me out of the Styx and bestowed me with the power and legitimacy to embarrass myself to our dear readers, I’d been kinda slacking on new metal releases. As I tore through the recommendations of my betters peers, I waited for something to reveal itself to me in all its AotY splendor… but I realized that nothing was drawing me back quite like Exul by Ne Obliviscaris. I love just about everything by these Aussies, but goddamn if Exul hasn’t all but trivialized everything they’ve made before. This is Ne Obliviscaris as they’ve always been, but perfected and wickedly essential. Peaks of light-speed extremity tower above valleys of expressive violin wailing launched into and beyond the stars by laser-precise drumming and what is one of my favorite bass performances ever, all betwixt the almost painful beauty of the clean vocals and relentless growls. Exul feels like what Ne Obliviscaris have been building towards for their whole career, the perfect marriage of ferocious intensity and a dancer’s elegance. Hell, every part of Exul is the best part of Exul, and the album has a vice-grip on me that declares “You will listen to the whole thing again, you dumb idiot.” Who am I to say no?Honorable Mentions:
Theophonos // Nightmare Visions
Godthrymm // Distortions
Bulletbelt // Burn It Up
Dødheimsgard // Black Medium CurrentSong o’ the Year: Insomnium – “White Christ”
Disappointment ov the Year:
Mercenary // Soundtrack for the End Times – I don’t hate this album, but “disappointment” is an apt word. After years and years of eagerly checking on them to see when they’d release something new, it was disheartening to finally get my hands on an album that was just so meh. -
Auf dem Drahtseil: Beiträge und Überlegungen aus und für den anarchistischen Kampf
Von dem in #Chile inhaftierten Anarchisten #FranciscoSolar [Es/En/De/Fr]"Dieser Text versucht ein Beitrag zur Entwicklung und Vertiefung des anarchistischen informellen Kampfes zu sein, wobei die technologischen Fortschritte betrachtet werden, die sich immer mehr auf die Kontrolle und Überwachung der Bevölkerung allgemein und vor allem derer, die sich darauf einlassen gegen das Bestehende zu rebellieren, spezialisieren.Er entspringt auch dem Bedürfnis, der Macht härtere und fortwährende Schläge zuzufügen, welche Risse erzeugen, die weiter vertieft werden können.
(...)
Niemanden überrascht der schnelle Anstieg der Überwachung durch Kameras, durch die unzähligen Kredit- und Punktekarten die wir für fast alles benutzen müssen und der beginnende aber rasante Anstieg des Gebrauchs von Drohnen zur Überwachung. Wenn wir dem noch die Kontrolle durch die Handys hinzufügen, dann verschärft sich das Panorama noch viel mehr. Dieses technologische Räderwerk übernimmt dadurch, dass es vernetzt ist fast die absolute Kontrolle über die Stadt, unserem Schlachtfeld...."
https://panopticon.blackblogs.org/2020/09/30/chile-auf-dem-drahtseil-beitraege-und-ueberlegungen-aus-und-fuer-den-anarchistischen-kampf/#Repression #Staat #DirectAction #Surveillance #Anarchism #Prison #AnarchistPrisoners #FreeThemAll
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Stuck in the Filter: January’s Angry Misses
By Kenstrosity
March is but a few days away (at the time of writing), so, naturally, we at AMG and Sons feel it’s finally time to leave 2023 behind. Entering 2024 with a fresh vat of anger juice to fuel our findings, we trudge through the thin metal walls of our ever-taxed filtration system. And boy howdy did we get lucky this month!
January’s Filter is stuffed to the gills with great options, sure to find a home in the arms of one of you despicable rascals lovely readers. If there was ever a Filter stocked enough to feed an entire readership in one fell swoop, it’s this one. Now, go! Feast!
Kenstrosity’s Scuzzy Slags
Dark Oath // Ages of Man [January 18th, 2024 – Self Release]
Portuguese symphonic, melodic death metal five-piece1 Dark Oath quietly dropped its sophomore effort Ages of Man to an unsuspecting public midway through January. After a whopping eight years since their debut When Fire Engulfs the Earth released, surely expectations for fans run high. As for me, this is my first foray, and this follow-up is nothing short of striking. Immediately recalling Aephanemer’s excellent Prokopton and Aether’s In Embers, riffs aren’t Ages of Man’s focus. Rather, epic guitar licks and leads command the charge with a cavalcade of orchestral layers forming an army of triumphant melodies and counterpoint just behind (“Gold I” and “Gold II”). Prominently featured and wonderfully effective, acoustic plucking from what sounds like a bouzouki evokes the magnificence and reverent tones of Gorgon’s Elegy, creating another core character for this epic journey that deepens the experience further (“Silver I,” “Bronze I,” “Bronze II”). While I occasionally pine for more engaging, groovy riffs to provide greater dynamics than the chugging gallops utilized instead, there’s no denying that Dark Oath’s infectious melodies and danceable rhythms punch far above the weight of forty-two minutes of lush, epic material (“Silver II,” “Heroic I,” “Iron”). At the end of the day, if you wanna go on cinematic adventures in the near future, queue up Ages of Man. It will be your guide.
Rhûn // Conveyance in Death [January 26th, 2024 – I.K. Productions]
Falls of Rauros’ founding member Aaron Charles, known for his emotive and vicious howls and creative guitar work, established solo act Rhûn back in 2021. Over the past year, a set of singles hinted at what debut full-length Conveyance in Death might hold for the Portland, Maine multi-instrumentalist. Now that it’s unleashed upon the world, this record proves to be a compelling amalgam of atmospheric black metal, post-black, and death metal. Opener “Morningstar” showcases all of these facets with aplomb, shifting from crushing riffs to a gorgeous trem-based ascension in the final third. Further down the line, Song o’ the Year contender “Bone Ornament” suitably shatters my bones with its awesome main riff, swaggering groove, and vicarious pacing. Other interesting forays into multifaceted modality and doom-laden marches help define the darker “Tomb of Andesite” and “Citadels in Ruins.” At a tight thirty-seven minutes of quality material, there’s little here that needs editing, although some lengthier passages in “Howl of Gleaming Swords” and closer “Night’s Glacial Passing” could stand a thirty-second trim here or there. Nonetheless, this is a strong launch for the fledgling project, and I can’t wait to hear how Aaron develops it in the future.
Niemaracz // The Tales of the Dense Forest [January 31st, 2024 – Self Release]
Hailing from Almaty, Kazakhstan, uber-obscure stoner doom black metal band Niemaracz doesn’t even have a date of establishment listed on Metallum. Pulling from fuzzy doom metal, languid stoner rock, folk-tinged heavy metal, and witchy black metal, debut record The Tales of the Dense Forest ushers in a sound I can’t say I’ve ever heard before. Icy and warm, rich and sharp, relaxed and blistering, these sprawling soundscapes challenge every preconception I held for not one, but four distinct styles. Yet, coming in at just under thirty minutes, this record marries them all as fluidly as a babbling brook glides over stone. With the immersive opener, “The Experiment,” Niemaracz’s high-fantasy fueled melodies and classic riffs impress with their uncanny synchronicity, while the fuzzy and warm production deepens the music’s cohesion. Album highlight, “The Faithful Horse,” manages to blend classic Iron Maiden gallops with the sort of furious black metal I’d sooner expect from Emperor, all wrapped up in stoned fuzz, and it’s fascinating. Sometimes, the clean baritones are far too forward in the mix, throwing that delicate balance of tones and textures way off. Thankfully, the consistently entertaining and novel songwriting makes it all worthwhile (“The Secret of Longevity”). Go check them out, and give their lone Bandcamp supporter a new friend!
Tales From the Garden
Slift // Ilion [January 19th, 2024 – Sub Pop Records]
I am going to preface this glowing recommendation by saying that this fucking behemoth is far too long. It’s nigh-on 80 minutes of dense, twisting, and very French psychedelic madness, and the brain can only contain so much of that for so long. The reason I am posting it here anyway is that it is really good dense twisting French psychedelic madness. Slift became an underground darling after 2020’s Ummon, which got them enough acclaim to be Artist in Residence at the 2022 edition of Roadburn, where I first became acquainted with the Toulouse formation. Ilion is a feverish album, a chase through winding soundscapes that always change but never end, layers of vocals and synths passing in and out of view, the hefty riffs hammering your back and Frenchmen hollering at you from behind. Slift has been getting heavier with each release and now firmly finds itself in sludge territory. The phenomenal drums are the tone, the pace, and the foundation here, a colossal presence even if their sound isn’t massive per se. They remind most of the climactic sequences Dvne so excels at, a bludgeoning dynamic shuffle that feels like getting caught in an avalanche, but retaining their old-school jam-band roots. Thankfully there’s enough variation to mitigate the bloat a bit, from left-field saxophone intermissions to more mid-paced material like the excellent atmospheric doom of “Weavers’ Weft.” Ilion is a deep, deep well, but a richly rewarding one for fans of heavy psych.
Carcharodon’s Fanged Fancies
Ὁπλίτης // Παραμαινομένη [January 12th, 2024 – Self-released]
At this point, I am almost relieved that the Chinese black metal-making machine known as Ὁπλίτης (Hoplites, for those of us not well versed in Ancient Greek) resolutely continues to not send us promo. Such is his level of productivity and, crucially, consistency, that I fear I would spend a fair chunk of my time just writing >3.0 reviews for his various projects (Vitriolic Sage being another good one). A case in point, his latest offering, Ὁπλίτης, is another absolute banger. Παραμαινομένη actually offers something slightly different from previous outings. While still very much playing in the almost clinically harsh black metal space, there is a more present and more vicious bass groove to this (fifth track “Συμμιαινόμεναι Διονύσῳ Ἐλευθέριῳ”), as well as, more surprisingly, a lot of freeform jazz elements. Screaming sax and trumpets are a big component, particularly in the first half of the record, giving the whole a feeling of White Ward and John Zorn having a particularly raucous threesome with Vredehammer. There is nothing tender about what’s happening though; it’s furious, pummelling, experimental… at least one of which is a thing that a threesome should be. A punishing, relentless listen, with unexpected twists, Ὁπλίτης has once again cranked out a fascinating record, and in record time.
Infant Island // Obsidian Wreath [January 12th, 2024 – Secret Voice]
Infant Island is new to me but, apparently, not to all—I’ve seen a fair bit of buzz around these guys—and Obsidian Wreath is the Virginians’ third record. Probably best tagged as blackened screamo, this record has contradictory feelings of warmth and utterly despairing rage. The band themselves cite Panopticon and Deafheaven as influences. I can hear both in their sound, the melodic complexity of the former, and the atmospheric wall-of-sound style of the latter. However, there are a few other things going on in the mix, with something of the frantic, chaotic precision of Pupil Slicer (“Fulfilled”), as well as the haunted and melodic deathgaze of Kardashev (“Amaranthine” and “Kindling”). Guitarists Alexander Rudenshiold and Winston Givler create such a dense morass of sound, that it often feels like there are more than two guitar lines in play, while Kyle Guerra’s bass adds something faintly grindcore-esque to the mix. All five members are credited with the vocals, which are throat-shredding and packed with pain, mourning, and frustration. Obsidian Wreath is a brutal, percussive listen, that feels like it’s tearing open your ears so that it can scream directly into your brain. At the same time, dark and unsettling electronica and arrangements (“Found Hand”) play a part in lulling the battered listener, preparing you for the next assault, as does the mix, which is surprisingly rich for all the pummelling. Although Infant Island is a screamo band, they reach with confidence into other genres for inspiration, making for a much more interesting proposition.
Thus Spoke’s Reviled Ramblings
Cognizance // Phantazein [January 26th, 2024 – Willowtip]
As most of them are from Leeds, I would have expected Cognizance to know that the objectively correct, British spelling is Cognisance, actually.2 But what the Loiners3 might lack in grammatical precision, they more than makeup for in musical style. Finessing their brand of tech-death, which falls somewhere between The Faceless and Allegaeon, Phantazein realizes the convergence of grooviness, melodic catchiness, and technicality with panache. Stomping, neck-snapping, and irresistibly foot-tapping rhythms tumble over one another with precise eagerness (“Ceremonial Vigour,” “Futureless Horizon,” “The Towering Monument”). Punchy, satisfyingly urgent melodies lead the way in chunky, groovy guitar dances (“A Brain Dead Memoir,” “Shock Heuristics,” “Shadowgraph”). With the exception of the (unnecessary) echoing interlude “Alferov,” this thing wrestles and roils its way into and around your general head area. It’s snappy, slick, and smooth. Phantazein (I think) comes from the Greek meaning “to appear,” as in, to seem a certain way. It seems to me, at least, that Phantazein is a banger.
Resin Tomb // Cerebral Purgatory [January 19th, 2024 – Transcending Obscurity Records]
Having stolen this from Ferox‘s rightful hands due to his punishing work schedule, I find myself, not for the first, or the last time this year I’m sure, singing the praises of a Transcending Obscurity release. But Cerebral Purgatory deserves praise in its own right. Punishingly heavy, yet remarkably listenable, it sees Resin Tomb filter grindy percussive assaults and dissonant death metal through a hard/grind-core medium. Barking screams breaking across ringing, tremolo-ing descending scales and tempos from charge to crushing, headbanging groove. Clanging, twanging guitar beats aggressive and menacing patterns (“Flesh Brick,” “Scalded,” “Putrescence”). Sometimes, this makes for pleasingly slick, melancholic melodies, that play out with stalking grace (title track, “Human Confetti,” “Concrete Crypt”). Other times, relentless blastbeating or chonky bass chugging provides the background for the axe’s more dissonant angularity (“Dysphoria,” “Purge Fluid,” “Flesh Brick”). Like “a more hardcore-y Nightmarer,”4 or perhaps even an extreme metal Knocked Loose mixed with Nothingness. Seriously, just listen to it.
Mystikus Hugebeards’s Stupendous Scrolls
Albion // Lakesongs of Elbid [January 27th, 2024 – Self-Release]
I’ve been on a folk metal streak of late, yet I’ve struggled to find something that really gripped me the way I wanted. Thus did fate decree that some watery tart hangin’ about in ponds would lob a sword at me in the form of Lakesongs of Elbid, the debut album by the British folk band Albion. This album transposes Celtic folklore into lush, lightly proggy folk metal in the vein of Big Big Train, and is written like the music you hear in your head when you picture a grand quest to Camelot or the Isles of Avalon. “Arthurian Overture” begins the journey in earnest, the music cresting triumphant, orchestral hills and striding through valleys of flute passages, all to the rhythmic footsteps of the guitars. From there, Lakesongs of Elbid explores a wide array of musical locales that can range from direct, determined metal riffs (“Finding Avalon”), traces of British tavern rock (“Barret’s Privateers,” “Silvaplana Rock”), or somber, acoustic folk (“Camlann”). The quest is spearheaded by Joe Parrish-James, whose vocals effortlessly merge the buttery smooth cadence of a seasoned storyteller with a youthful yearning for adventure. That idea of adventure is the beating heart of Lakesongs of Elbid; I can think of a few bands that so easily transport the listener to a new world of vibrant color and sound. Adventurous, enchanting, tons of fun, and extraordinarily British.
Dolphin Whisperer’s Slippery Sermon
Cancer Christ // God Is Violence [January 5th, 2024 – Seeing Red Records]
HAIL CHRIST! HAIL CHRIST!! DO YOU SEE THE LIGHT? DO YOU SEE IT?? IT’S AT THE END OF A TUNNEL FILLED WITH RAPISTS, SATANISTS, PEOPLE WHO DON’T BELIEVE IN GOD’S LOVE. “SATAN IS A BITCH.” SEE THE LIGHT. SEE JESUS CHRIST. JESUS KNOWS THE WORLD CAN BE A BETTER PLACE. JESUS KNOWS THE WORLD NEEDS RIFFS. JESUS KNOWS THE WORLD DOESN’T NEED COPS. “GOD HATES COPS.” THEY STAND IN THE WAY OF GOD’S POWER. HUBRIS! JESUS KNOWS THAT WE’RE ALL BETTER DEAD THAN ALIVE. JESUS CAN KILL US ALL JUST FINE HE DOESN’T NEED COPS. DID YOU HEAR? DID YOU HEAR JESUS’ WORD?? WE NEED TO “BRING BACK THE GUILLOTINE” — WE NEED TO CIRCLE PIT AROUND THE SINNERS AND CHOP THEIR HEADS OFF. CHOP THEIR HEADS OFF!! THE ONLY WAY THEY’LL SEE GOD’S LOVE IS IF THEY’RE DEAD. DO YOU HEAR THE SCREECHING? THAT HIGH-PITCHED SQUIRMING? THAT THRASHY RHYTHMIC PULSE? THAT’S THE ONLY WAY WE’LL GET THESE SINNERS WHO HAVE BEEN “BAPTIZED IN PISS AND SHIT.” HAIL CHRIST! HAIL CHRIST!! WE HAVE SKANKS (BEATS)! WE HAVE MENTAL BREAKDOWNS! “JESUS GOT A BIG OL’ COCK” TOO! IF YOU DESIRE SALVATION YOU’LL WORSHIP CHRIST IF YOU KNOW WHAT’S GOOD FOR YOU. SPREAD JESUS’ LOVE LIKE HE’S SPREAD HIS SEED ACROSS THE WORLD. CANCER CHRIST HAS LAID THE PATH BEFORE YOU. DON’T LISTEN TO LESSER GOSPELS EVEN IF THEY SOUND SIMILAR. DEAD KENNEDYS ARE OLD BUT NOT AS OLD AS HIS WISDOM. CHILD BITE HAS NO CLUE OF THE PATH OF GOD. TRAP THEM DOESN’T EVEN KNOW HOW TO BUILD A CROSS LET ALONE HOW TO NAIL JESUS SINNERS TO ONE. COVER YOURSELF IN “THE BLOOD OF JESUS” TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM THESE DIRECTIONLESS GOSPELS WHO KNOW NOTHING OF THE LOVE OF GOD. FILL YOUR LIFE WITH MEANING. FILL YOUR LIFE WITH JESUS’ CUM. “GOD BLESS THE RAPISTS.” GOD IS THRASH. GOD IS NOISE. GOD IS LOVE. GOD IS VIOLENCE. HAIL CHRIST!!! HAIL!!!! CHRIST!!!!!5
Dear Hollow’s Magnanimous Muddle
Her Last Sight // Picture Perfect [January 19th, 2024 – Liron Avital Productions / Self-Released]
You see metalcore, you run? Well run, bitch, run. Cuz Her Last Sight is bringing back the 2000s metalcore that made Hot Topic-obsessed millennials go absolutely bananas. Being that this was my well-trod path to the harsher realities of metal’s more textured offerings, I was all for giving Picture Perfect after seeing the Israelis’ incredibly accomplished guitarist Ofek Asulin’s insane licks on TikTok. While completely acknowledging that this bad boy is not going to change your mind on metalcore, Picture Perfect is core nostalgia through and through. Parkway Drive’s fist-pumping brutality collides with As I Lay Dying’s wild technicality, fed through the riff-happy arpeggio machines of Killswitch Engage or Trivium with clean choruses and heart-wrenching melodies straight outta In Hearts Wake or The Amity Affliction. Breakdowns and wild riffs dominate tracks like “In Dying Light,” “Horizons,” and “R.I.P.”, while the soaring choruses of “Paralyzed,” “Careless,” and “Heart // Mind” remain seared in the mind. While the too-loud and frail clean vocals are too often a weak link, the album is overlong, and the sparse electronic trip-hop influence feels largely unnecessary, the formidable technicality and solid songwriting grant Her Last Sight a relatively guilt-free nostalgia trip with Picture Perfect.
Hyloxalus // Make Me the Heart of the Black Hole [January 26th, 2024 – Self-Release]
For those of you who have read my reviews before, you know how much I am not a power metal guy. I reviewed Moonlight Haze twice to make myself more marketable when I first joined these halls, but it is far and away not my cup of tea. Thus, I was cautiously intrigued by the “dark power metal” tag of the Edmonton trio Hyloxalus. How this translates is that we are graced with the powerful operatic vocals of Nina Laderoute while instrumentalists Danial “AniMal” Devost and Mike Bell offer a noisy and relentless thrash riff-forwardness that feels both kickass and cold. Channeling Nightwish’s weirder and heavier moments, the trio rockets its sound to the cosmos, where we’re granted sounds expansive, exploratory, and epic (“Undead in Ward 6,” “Sailors Underneath the Waves”), while unforgiving coldness and isolation are constant reminders of the darkness (“He Dies in the Swamp,” “Severed from the Reborn Sun”). Don’t get me wrong, Hyloxalus is far from perfect in a tinny production and wonky mixing, while slower tracks like “Dream Chasm” and “Beyond the Soil” get bogged down by sluggish tempos. However, Make Me the Heart of the Black Hole is a ton of fun from a young band with a unique and weirdass sound that may just capture your heart.
#Aephanemer #Aether #AgesOfMan #Albion #AmericanMetal #AsILayDying #AustralianMetal #BigBigTrain #CancerChrist #CerebralPurgatory #ChildBite #ChineseMetal #Cognizance #ConveyanceInDeath #DarkOath #DeadKennedys #Deafheaven #DeathMetal #DissonantBlackMetal #DoomMetal #Dvne #Emperor #FallsOfRauros #FolkMetal #FrenchMetal #GodIsViolence #Gorgon #Grindcore #Hardcore #HeavyMetal #HerLastSight #Hoplites #Hyolaxus #IKProductions #Ilion #InHeartsWake #InfantIsland #IronMaiden #JohnZorn #Kardashev #KazakhstaniMetal #KillswitchEngage #KnockedLoose #LakesongsOfElbid #LironAvitalProductions #MakeMeTheHeartOfTheBlackHole #MelodicBlackMetal #MelodicDeathMetal #Metalcore #MoonlightHaze #Niemaracz #Nightmarer #Nightwish #Nothingness #ObsidianWreath #Panopticon #ParkwayDrive #Phantazein #PicturePerfect #PortugueseMetal #PowerMetal #ProgressiveBlackMetal #ProgressiveMetal #PsychedelicMetal #PupilSlicer #ResinTomb #Review #Reviews #Rhûn #Screamo #SecretVoids #SeeingRedRecords #SelfRelease #Slift #Sludge #StonerDoom #StonerMetal #StuckInTheFilter #SubPopRecords #SymphonicMetal #SymphonicPowerMetal #TechnicalDeathMetal #TheAmityAffliction #TheTalesOfTheDeepForest #TranscendingObscurityRecords #TrapThem #Trivium #UKMetal #VitriolicSage #Vredehammer #WhiteWard #WillowtipRecords #Ὁπλίτης #Παραμαινομένη
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Stuck in the Filter: January’s Angry Misses
By Kenstrosity
March is but a few days away (at the time of writing), so, naturally, we at AMG and Sons feel it’s finally time to leave 2023 behind. Entering 2024 with a fresh vat of anger juice to fuel our findings, we trudge through the thin metal walls of our ever-taxed filtration system. And boy howdy did we get lucky this month!
January’s Filter is stuffed to the gills with great options, sure to find a home in the arms of one of you despicable rascals lovely readers. If there was ever a Filter stocked enough to feed an entire readership in one fell swoop, it’s this one. Now, go! Feast!
Kenstrosity’s Scuzzy Slags
Dark Oath // Ages of Man [January 18th, 2024 – Self Release]
Portuguese symphonic, melodic death metal five-piece1 Dark Oath quietly dropped its sophomore effort Ages of Man to an unsuspecting public midway through January. After a whopping eight years since their debut When Fire Engulfs the Earth released, surely expectations for fans run high. As for me, this is my first foray, and this follow-up is nothing short of striking. Immediately recalling Aephanemer’s excellent Prokopton and Aether’s In Embers, riffs aren’t Ages of Man’s focus. Rather, epic guitar licks and leads command the charge with a cavalcade of orchestral layers forming an army of triumphant melodies and counterpoint just behind (“Gold I” and “Gold II”). Prominently featured and wonderfully effective, acoustic plucking from what sounds like a bouzouki evokes the magnificence and reverent tones of Gorgon’s Elegy, creating another core character for this epic journey that deepens the experience further (“Silver I,” “Bronze I,” “Bronze II”). While I occasionally pine for more engaging, groovy riffs to provide greater dynamics than the chugging gallops utilized instead, there’s no denying that Dark Oath’s infectious melodies and danceable rhythms punch far above the weight of forty-two minutes of lush, epic material (“Silver II,” “Heroic I,” “Iron”). At the end of the day, if you wanna go on cinematic adventures in the near future, queue up Ages of Man. It will be your guide.
Rhûn // Conveyance in Death [January 26th, 2024 – I.K. Productions]
Falls of Rauros’ founding member Aaron Charles, known for his emotive and vicious howls and creative guitar work, established solo act Rhûn back in 2021. Over the past year, a set of singles hinted at what debut full-length Conveyance in Death might hold for the Portland, Maine multi-instrumentalist. Now that it’s unleashed upon the world, this record proves to be a compelling amalgam of atmospheric black metal, post-black, and death metal. Opener “Morningstar” showcases all of these facets with aplomb, shifting from crushing riffs to a gorgeous trem-based ascension in the final third. Further down the line, Song o’ the Year contender “Bone Ornament” suitably shatters my bones with its awesome main riff, swaggering groove, and vicarious pacing. Other interesting forays into multifaceted modality and doom-laden marches help define the darker “Tomb of Andesite” and “Citadels in Ruins.” At a tight thirty-seven minutes of quality material, there’s little here that needs editing, although some lengthier passages in “Howl of Gleaming Swords” and closer “Night’s Glacial Passing” could stand a thirty-second trim here or there. Nonetheless, this is a strong launch for the fledgling project, and I can’t wait to hear how Aaron develops it in the future.
Niemaracz // The Tales of the Dense Forest [January 31st, 2024 – Self Release]
Hailing from Almaty, Kazakhstan, uber-obscure stoner doom black metal band Niemaracz doesn’t even have a date of establishment listed on Metallum. Pulling from fuzzy doom metal, languid stoner rock, folk-tinged heavy metal, and witchy black metal, debut record The Tales of the Dense Forest ushers in a sound I can’t say I’ve ever heard before. Icy and warm, rich and sharp, relaxed and blistering, these sprawling soundscapes challenge every preconception I held for not one, but four distinct styles. Yet, coming in at just under thirty minutes, this record marries them all as fluidly as a babbling brook glides over stone. With the immersive opener, “The Experiment,” Niemaracz’s high-fantasy fueled melodies and classic riffs impress with their uncanny synchronicity, while the fuzzy and warm production deepens the music’s cohesion. Album highlight, “The Faithful Horse,” manages to blend classic Iron Maiden gallops with the sort of furious black metal I’d sooner expect from Emperor, all wrapped up in stoned fuzz, and it’s fascinating. Sometimes, the clean baritones are far too forward in the mix, throwing that delicate balance of tones and textures way off. Thankfully, the consistently entertaining and novel songwriting makes it all worthwhile (“The Secret of Longevity”). Go check them out, and give their lone Bandcamp supporter a new friend!
Tales From the Garden
Slift // Ilion [January 19th, 2024 – Sub Pop Records]
I am going to preface this glowing recommendation by saying that this fucking behemoth is far too long. It’s nigh-on 80 minutes of dense, twisting, and very French psychedelic madness, and the brain can only contain so much of that for so long. The reason I am posting it here anyway is that it is really good dense twisting French psychedelic madness. Slift became an underground darling after 2020’s Ummon, which got them enough acclaim to be Artist in Residence at the 2022 edition of Roadburn, where I first became acquainted with the Toulouse formation. Ilion is a feverish album, a chase through winding soundscapes that always change but never end, layers of vocals and synths passing in and out of view, the hefty riffs hammering your back and Frenchmen hollering at you from behind. Slift has been getting heavier with each release and now firmly finds itself in sludge territory. The phenomenal drums are the tone, the pace, and the foundation here, a colossal presence even if their sound isn’t massive per se. They remind most of the climactic sequences Dvne so excels at, a bludgeoning dynamic shuffle that feels like getting caught in an avalanche, but retaining their old-school jam-band roots. Thankfully there’s enough variation to mitigate the bloat a bit, from left-field saxophone intermissions to more mid-paced material like the excellent atmospheric doom of “Weavers’ Weft.” Ilion is a deep, deep well, but a richly rewarding one for fans of heavy psych.
Carcharodon’s Fanged Fancies
Ὁπλίτης // Παραμαινομένη [January 12th, 2024 – Self-released]
At this point, I am almost relieved that the Chinese black metal-making machine known as Ὁπλίτης (Hoplites, for those of us not well versed in Ancient Greek) resolutely continues to not send us promo. Such is his level of productivity and, crucially, consistency, that I fear I would spend a fair chunk of my time just writing >3.0 reviews for his various projects (Vitriolic Sage being another good one). A case in point, his latest offering, Ὁπλίτης, is another absolute banger. Παραμαινομένη actually offers something slightly different from previous outings. While still very much playing in the almost clinically harsh black metal space, there is a more present and more vicious bass groove to this (fifth track “Συμμιαινόμεναι Διονύσῳ Ἐλευθέριῳ”), as well as, more surprisingly, a lot of freeform jazz elements. Screaming sax and trumpets are a big component, particularly in the first half of the record, giving the whole a feeling of White Ward and John Zorn having a particularly raucous threesome with Vredehammer. There is nothing tender about what’s happening though; it’s furious, pummelling, experimental… at least one of which is a thing that a threesome should be. A punishing, relentless listen, with unexpected twists, Ὁπλίτης has once again cranked out a fascinating record, and in record time.
Infant Island // Obsidian Wreath [January 12th, 2024 – Secret Voice]
Infant Island is new to me but, apparently, not to all—I’ve seen a fair bit of buzz around these guys—and Obsidian Wreath is the Virginians’ third record. Probably best tagged as blackened screamo, this record has contradictory feelings of warmth and utterly despairing rage. The band themselves cite Panopticon and Deafheaven as influences. I can hear both in their sound, the melodic complexity of the former, and the atmospheric wall-of-sound style of the latter. However, there are a few other things going on in the mix, with something of the frantic, chaotic precision of Pupil Slicer (“Fulfilled”), as well as the haunted and melodic deathgaze of Kardashev (“Amaranthine” and “Kindling”). Guitarists Alexander Rudenshiold and Winston Givler create such a dense morass of sound, that it often feels like there are more than two guitar lines in play, while Kyle Guerra’s bass adds something faintly grindcore-esque to the mix. All five members are credited with the vocals, which are throat-shredding and packed with pain, mourning, and frustration. Obsidian Wreath is a brutal, percussive listen, that feels like it’s tearing open your ears so that it can scream directly into your brain. At the same time, dark and unsettling electronica and arrangements (“Found Hand”) play a part in lulling the battered listener, preparing you for the next assault, as does the mix, which is surprisingly rich for all the pummelling. Although Infant Island is a screamo band, they reach with confidence into other genres for inspiration, making for a much more interesting proposition.
Thus Spoke’s Reviled Ramblings
Cognizance // Phantazein [January 26th, 2024 – Willowtip]
As most of them are from Leeds, I would have expected Cognizance to know that the objectively correct, British spelling is Cognisance, actually.2 But what the Loiners3 might lack in grammatical precision, they more than makeup for in musical style. Finessing their brand of tech-death, which falls somewhere between The Faceless and Allegaeon, Phantazein realizes the convergence of grooviness, melodic catchiness, and technicality with panache. Stomping, neck-snapping, and irresistibly foot-tapping rhythms tumble over one another with precise eagerness (“Ceremonial Vigour,” “Futureless Horizon,” “The Towering Monument”). Punchy, satisfyingly urgent melodies lead the way in chunky, groovy guitar dances (“A Brain Dead Memoir,” “Shock Heuristics,” “Shadowgraph”). With the exception of the (unnecessary) echoing interlude “Alferov,” this thing wrestles and roils its way into and around your general head area. It’s snappy, slick, and smooth. Phantazein (I think) comes from the Greek meaning “to appear,” as in, to seem a certain way. It seems to me, at least, that Phantazein is a banger.
Resin Tomb // Cerebral Purgatory [January 19th, 2024 – Transcending Obscurity Records]
Having stolen this from Ferox‘s rightful hands due to his punishing work schedule, I find myself, not for the first, or the last time this year I’m sure, singing the praises of a Transcending Obscurity release. But Cerebral Purgatory deserves praise in its own right. Punishingly heavy, yet remarkably listenable, it sees Resin Tomb filter grindy percussive assaults and dissonant death metal through a hard/grind-core medium. Barking screams breaking across ringing, tremolo-ing descending scales and tempos from charge to crushing, headbanging groove. Clanging, twanging guitar beats aggressive and menacing patterns (“Flesh Brick,” “Scalded,” “Putrescence”). Sometimes, this makes for pleasingly slick, melancholic melodies, that play out with stalking grace (title track, “Human Confetti,” “Concrete Crypt”). Other times, relentless blastbeating or chonky bass chugging provides the background for the axe’s more dissonant angularity (“Dysphoria,” “Purge Fluid,” “Flesh Brick”). Like “a more hardcore-y Nightmarer,”4 or perhaps even an extreme metal Knocked Loose mixed with Nothingness. Seriously, just listen to it.
Mystikus Hugebeards’s Stupendous Scrolls
Albion // Lakesongs of Elbid [January 27th, 2024 – Self-Release]
I’ve been on a folk metal streak of late, yet I’ve struggled to find something that really gripped me the way I wanted. Thus did fate decree that some watery tart hangin’ about in ponds would lob a sword at me in the form of Lakesongs of Elbid, the debut album by the British folk band Albion. This album transposes Celtic folklore into lush, lightly proggy folk metal in the vein of Big Big Train, and is written like the music you hear in your head when you picture a grand quest to Camelot or the Isles of Avalon. “Arthurian Overture” begins the journey in earnest, the music cresting triumphant, orchestral hills and striding through valleys of flute passages, all to the rhythmic footsteps of the guitars. From there, Lakesongs of Elbid explores a wide array of musical locales that can range from direct, determined metal riffs (“Finding Avalon”), traces of British tavern rock (“Barret’s Privateers,” “Silvaplana Rock”), or somber, acoustic folk (“Camlann”). The quest is spearheaded by Joe Parrish-James, whose vocals effortlessly merge the buttery smooth cadence of a seasoned storyteller with a youthful yearning for adventure. That idea of adventure is the beating heart of Lakesongs of Elbid; I can think of a few bands that so easily transport the listener to a new world of vibrant color and sound. Adventurous, enchanting, tons of fun, and extraordinarily British.
Dolphin Whisperer’s Slippery Sermon
Cancer Christ // God Is Violence [January 5th, 2024 – Seeing Red Records]
HAIL CHRIST! HAIL CHRIST!! DO YOU SEE THE LIGHT? DO YOU SEE IT?? IT’S AT THE END OF A TUNNEL FILLED WITH RAPISTS, SATANISTS, PEOPLE WHO DON’T BELIEVE IN GOD’S LOVE. “SATAN IS A BITCH.” SEE THE LIGHT. SEE JESUS CHRIST. JESUS KNOWS THE WORLD CAN BE A BETTER PLACE. JESUS KNOWS THE WORLD NEEDS RIFFS. JESUS KNOWS THE WORLD DOESN’T NEED COPS. “GOD HATES COPS.” THEY STAND IN THE WAY OF GOD’S POWER. HUBRIS! JESUS KNOWS THAT WE’RE ALL BETTER DEAD THAN ALIVE. JESUS CAN KILL US ALL JUST FINE HE DOESN’T NEED COPS. DID YOU HEAR? DID YOU HEAR JESUS’ WORD?? WE NEED TO “BRING BACK THE GUILLOTINE” — WE NEED TO CIRCLE PIT AROUND THE SINNERS AND CHOP THEIR HEADS OFF. CHOP THEIR HEADS OFF!! THE ONLY WAY THEY’LL SEE GOD’S LOVE IS IF THEY’RE DEAD. DO YOU HEAR THE SCREECHING? THAT HIGH-PITCHED SQUIRMING? THAT THRASHY RHYTHMIC PULSE? THAT’S THE ONLY WAY WE’LL GET THESE SINNERS WHO HAVE BEEN “BAPTIZED IN PISS AND SHIT.” HAIL CHRIST! HAIL CHRIST!! WE HAVE SKANKS (BEATS)! WE HAVE MENTAL BREAKDOWNS! “JESUS GOT A BIG OL’ COCK” TOO! IF YOU DESIRE SALVATION YOU’LL WORSHIP CHRIST IF YOU KNOW WHAT’S GOOD FOR YOU. SPREAD JESUS’ LOVE LIKE HE’S SPREAD HIS SEED ACROSS THE WORLD. CANCER CHRIST HAS LAID THE PATH BEFORE YOU. DON’T LISTEN TO LESSER GOSPELS EVEN IF THEY SOUND SIMILAR. DEAD KENNEDYS ARE OLD BUT NOT AS OLD AS HIS WISDOM. CHILD BITE HAS NO CLUE OF THE PATH OF GOD. TRAP THEM DOESN’T EVEN KNOW HOW TO BUILD A CROSS LET ALONE HOW TO NAIL JESUS SINNERS TO ONE. COVER YOURSELF IN “THE BLOOD OF JESUS” TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM THESE DIRECTIONLESS GOSPELS WHO KNOW NOTHING OF THE LOVE OF GOD. FILL YOUR LIFE WITH MEANING. FILL YOUR LIFE WITH JESUS’ CUM. “GOD BLESS THE RAPISTS.” GOD IS THRASH. GOD IS NOISE. GOD IS LOVE. GOD IS VIOLENCE. HAIL CHRIST!!! HAIL!!!! CHRIST!!!!!5
Dear Hollow’s Magnanimous Muddle
Her Last Sight // Picture Perfect [January 19th, 2024 – Liron Avital Productions / Self-Released]
You see metalcore, you run? Well run, bitch, run. Cuz Her Last Sight is bringing back the 2000s metalcore that made Hot Topic-obsessed millennials go absolutely bananas. Being that this was my well-trod path to the harsher realities of metal’s more textured offerings, I was all for giving Picture Perfect after seeing the Israelis’ incredibly accomplished guitarist Ofek Asulin’s insane licks on TikTok. While completely acknowledging that this bad boy is not going to change your mind on metalcore, Picture Perfect is core nostalgia through and through. Parkway Drive’s fist-pumping brutality collides with As I Lay Dying’s wild technicality, fed through the riff-happy arpeggio machines of Killswitch Engage or Trivium with clean choruses and heart-wrenching melodies straight outta In Hearts Wake or The Amity Affliction. Breakdowns and wild riffs dominate tracks like “In Dying Light,” “Horizons,” and “R.I.P.”, while the soaring choruses of “Paralyzed,” “Careless,” and “Heart // Mind” remain seared in the mind. While the too-loud and frail clean vocals are too often a weak link, the album is overlong, and the sparse electronic trip-hop influence feels largely unnecessary, the formidable technicality and solid songwriting grant Her Last Sight a relatively guilt-free nostalgia trip with Picture Perfect.
Hyloxalus // Make Me the Heart of the Black Hole [January 26th, 2024 – Self-Release]
For those of you who have read my reviews before, you know how much I am not a power metal guy. I reviewed Moonlight Haze twice to make myself more marketable when I first joined these halls, but it is far and away not my cup of tea. Thus, I was cautiously intrigued by the “dark power metal” tag of the Edmonton trio Hyloxalus. How this translates is that we are graced with the powerful operatic vocals of Nina Laderoute while instrumentalists Danial “AniMal” Devost and Mike Bell offer a noisy and relentless thrash riff-forwardness that feels both kickass and cold. Channeling Nightwish’s weirder and heavier moments, the trio rockets its sound to the cosmos, where we’re granted sounds expansive, exploratory, and epic (“Undead in Ward 6,” “Sailors Underneath the Waves”), while unforgiving coldness and isolation are constant reminders of the darkness (“He Dies in the Swamp,” “Severed from the Reborn Sun”). Don’t get me wrong, Hyloxalus is far from perfect in a tinny production and wonky mixing, while slower tracks like “Dream Chasm” and “Beyond the Soil” get bogged down by sluggish tempos. However, Make Me the Heart of the Black Hole is a ton of fun from a young band with a unique and weirdass sound that may just capture your heart.
#Aephanemer #Aether #AgesOfMan #Albion #AmericanMetal #AsILayDying #AustralianMetal #BigBigTrain #CancerChrist #CerebralPurgatory #ChildBite #ChineseMetal #Cognizance #ConveyanceInDeath #DarkOath #DeadKennedys #Deafheaven #DeathMetal #DissonantBlackMetal #DoomMetal #Dvne #Emperor #FallsOfRauros #FolkMetal #FrenchMetal #GodIsViolence #Gorgon #Grindcore #Hardcore #HeavyMetal #HerLastSight #Hoplites #Hyolaxus #IKProductions #Ilion #InHeartsWake #InfantIsland #IronMaiden #JohnZorn #Kardashev #KazakhstaniMetal #KillswitchEngage #KnockedLoose #LakesongsOfElbid #LironAvitalProductions #MakeMeTheHeartOfTheBlackHole #MelodicBlackMetal #MelodicDeathMetal #Metalcore #MoonlightHaze #Niemaracz #Nightmarer #Nightwish #Nothingness #ObsidianWreath #Panopticon #ParkwayDrive #Phantazein #PicturePerfect #PortugueseMetal #PowerMetal #ProgressiveBlackMetal #ProgressiveMetal #PsychedelicMetal #PupilSlicer #ResinTomb #Review #Reviews #Rhûn #Screamo #SecretVoids #SeeingRedRecords #SelfRelease #Slift #Sludge #StonerDoom #StonerMetal #StuckInTheFilter #SubPopRecords #SymphonicMetal #SymphonicPowerMetal #TechnicalDeathMetal #TheAmityAffliction #TheTalesOfTheDeepForest #TranscendingObscurityRecords #TrapThem #Trivium #UKMetal #VitriolicSage #Vredehammer #WhiteWard #WillowtipRecords #Ὁπλίτης #Παραμαινομένη