Search
330 results for “hadronized”
-
Calva Louise – Edge of the Abyss Review
By Angry Metal Guy
Genre is a funny thing. Calva Louise will almost certainly be called “Crossover.” Their sound is a combination of elements that, if I read each one individually, would make me cringe or shrug my shoulders. Seen grouped on the page, I might ask, “How would that even work?” What I wouldn’t expect is an album that excites me. The kind of excitement that drives one to spin the record again immediately. The kind of excitement that leads to sharing the record with anyone who will listen and lengthy discussions of the details of whether someone else noticed the Fleshgod Apocalypse piano arpeggios in track four.1 But Edge of the Abyss is a rare record that manages to feel wild, unpredictable, and yet addictive—evocative—all at once. And while it’s apparently a concept album, the real story that I’m following is the one told in the songs that add up to something greater than the sum of their parts.
The strength of Edge of the Abyss lies in its fusions, and I mean that in every sense. Calva Louise doesn’t blend styles; they smash them together. “Tunnel Vision” rips open the record with a sugar-rush hook, bouncing within three minutes from pop-chorus to dubstep drop to metallic groove. “W.T.F.” is exactly that: frenetic, agitated, and punky. “Aimless,” the album’s first single, is a real highlight, threading unpredictable melodies, classical piano runs, and crunchy metal riffage into something that feels like “Justice for Saint Marie” (Diablo Swing Orchestra) but with a dembow beat.2 Each song can be emphasized for such moments: “Hate in Me” swaps between Katatonia and Kate Bush without skipping a beat; “Under the Skin” gives Lacuna Coil while “Barely a Response” blends 3/Coheed and Cambria and Muse to create something that just vibes right—blending proggy post-punk with The Fall of Hearts.
The balancing act is accomplished by Edge of the Abyss being extremely well-composed. These songs, while poppy—slick, catchy, memorable—aren’t glued together Frankenpop. Instead, they’re meticulously assembled homunculi, each with its own little soul.3 There’s a sense throughout the first half of this record that you’re listening to something much more thoughtful than its surface chaos might suggest. I might be imagining things, but this is where frontwoman and primary composer Jess Allanic’s background in composition seems to play a major role. The fact that Calva Louise can evoke so many different bands, sounds, and seamlessly traverse genre boundaries in seconds—from harmonized vocals over Latin folk beats to crunchy groove to house in moments (“El Umbral”)—without seeming scattered speaks to a deep understanding of music.4
You can feel that deep understanding of music in Edge of the Abyss’s most daring material: its multilingual, rhythmically tangled, and emotionally exposed core. “Lo Que Vale,” which may be my favorite song, strips things back enough to let Allanic’s small-but-commanding voice—reminiscent of Catalina García (Monsieur Periné)—to shine. “Impeccable” evokes The Kovenant’s “New World Order” before erupting into harmonized guitar leads and New Wave vibes. These are songs with giant choruses, and while Allanic has a remarkable presence and extremely deft melodic sense, she never dominates the mix. Whether screaming, speaking, or singing, her voice is expertly integrated, capable of balancing Kate Bush and Jonas Renkse depending on where she is in a song (“Hate in Me”), with harmonic sensibilities that bring me back to 3‘s The End Is Begun. Her presence does for Calva Louise what Serj Tankian did for System of a Down or Trim for King Goat. But unlike the aforementioned vocalists, she’s playing guitar, piano, and writing songs.
Edge of the Abyss is not perfect, however. First, the record’s energy flags a bit in the back half, where “The Abyss” pulls its punches and “Under the Skin” leans too hard on its mid-tempo groove. Nothing here fails, but the band’s frenetic, genre-defying dynamism seems more concentrated in the first six tracks. Still, even at its weakest, Edge of the Abyss brims with detail—piano breaks, synth arpeggios, key changes—that keep it from feeling inert. And repeated listens have only deepened my appreciation for these later tracks. If the front half is where Calva Louise erupts, the back half is where the ash is beginning to fall. Second, while there is supposedly a concept here, I have no idea what it is. In the tradition of Coheed & Cambria, who famously have a massive story but lyrics that read like “girl doesn’t like boy and boy gets mad about it,” a lot of this just reads as angst.
Some records sound big, and some records feel big. Edge of the Abyss does both.5 It feels big because it has ideas, and it succeeds because it commits to those ideas with zero regard for genre gatekeeping, scene politics, or what guys like me think is cool. It’s weird, catchy, and gleefully sophisticated, with every song bringing something unique to the table. Every arrangement counts. It’s a banger parade, and it’s hard not to feel like it’s also smart as hell. Is it perfect? No. But it’s addictive, it’s fun, and it’s going to be the most controversial Record o’ the Month since Gazpacho.
Rating: Great!
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s CBR MP3
Label: Mascot Records
Websites: calvalouise.com | calvalouise.bandcamp.com
Release Date: July 11th, 2025#2025 #40 #CalvaLouise #CoheedAndCambria #crossover #DiabloSwingOrchestra #Dubstep #EdgeOfTheAbyss #Electronica #GrooveMetal #Jul25 #Katatonia #KateBush #KingGoat #MascotLabelGroup #MascotRecords #Metalcore #MonsieurPeriné #Muse #PopLatino #ProgressiveMetal #SystemOfADown #TheKovenant #Three #UKMetal
-
Calva Louise – Edge of the Abyss Review
By Angry Metal Guy
Genre is a funny thing. Calva Louise will almost certainly be called “Crossover.” Their sound is a combination of elements that, if I read each one individually, would make me cringe or shrug my shoulders. Seen grouped on the page, I might ask, “How would that even work?” What I wouldn’t expect is an album that excites me. The kind of excitement that drives one to spin the record again immediately. The kind of excitement that leads to sharing the record with anyone who will listen and lengthy discussions of the details of whether someone else noticed the Fleshgod Apocalypse piano arpeggios in track four.1 But Edge of the Abyss is a rare record that manages to feel wild, unpredictable, and yet addictive—evocative—all at once. And while it’s apparently a concept album, the real story that I’m following is the one told in the songs that add up to something greater than the sum of their parts.
The strength of Edge of the Abyss lies in its fusions, and I mean that in every sense. Calva Louise doesn’t blend styles; they smash them together. “Tunnel Vision” rips open the record with a sugar-rush hook, bouncing within three minutes from pop-chorus to dubstep drop to metallic groove. “W.T.F.” is exactly that: frenetic, agitated, and punky. “Aimless,” the album’s first single, is a real highlight, threading unpredictable melodies, classical piano runs, and crunchy metal riffage into something that feels like “Justice for Saint Marie” (Diablo Swing Orchestra) but with a dembow beat.2 Each song can be emphasized for such moments: “Hate in Me” swaps between Katatonia and Kate Bush without skipping a beat; “Under the Skin” gives Lacuna Coil while “Barely a Response” blends 3/Coheed and Cambria and Muse to create something that just vibes right—blending proggy post-punk with The Fall of Hearts.
The balancing act is accomplished by Edge of the Abyss being extremely well-composed. These songs, while poppy—slick, catchy, memorable—aren’t glued together Frankenpop. Instead, they’re meticulously assembled homunculi, each with its own little soul.3 There’s a sense throughout the first half of this record that you’re listening to something much more thoughtful than its surface chaos might suggest. I might be imagining things, but this is where frontwoman and primary composer Jess Allanic’s background in composition seems to play a major role. The fact that Calva Louise can evoke so many different bands, sounds, and seamlessly traverse genre boundaries in seconds—from harmonized vocals over Latin folk beats to crunchy groove to house in moments (“El Umbral”)—without seeming scattered speaks to a deep understanding of music.4
You can feel that deep understanding of music in Edge of the Abyss’s most daring material: its multilingual, rhythmically tangled, and emotionally exposed core. “Lo Que Vale,” which may be my favorite song, strips things back enough to let Allanic’s small-but-commanding voice—reminiscent of Catalina García (Monsieur Periné)—to shine. “Impeccable” evokes The Kovenant’s “New World Order” before erupting into harmonized guitar leads and New Wave vibes. These are songs with giant choruses, and while Allanic has a remarkable presence and extremely deft melodic sense, she never dominates the mix. Whether screaming, speaking, or singing, her voice is expertly integrated, capable of balancing Kate Bush and Jonas Renkse depending on where she is in a song (“Hate in Me”), with harmonic sensibilities that bring me back to 3‘s The End Is Begun. Her presence does for Calva Louise what Serj Tankian did for System of a Down or Trim for King Goat. But unlike the aforementioned vocalists, she’s playing guitar, piano, and writing songs.
Edge of the Abyss is not perfect, however. First, the record’s energy flags a bit in the back half, where “The Abyss” pulls its punches and “Under the Skin” leans too hard on its mid-tempo groove. Nothing here fails, but the band’s frenetic, genre-defying dynamism seems more concentrated in the first six tracks. Still, even at its weakest, Edge of the Abyss brims with detail—piano breaks, synth arpeggios, key changes—that keep it from feeling inert. And repeated listens have only deepened my appreciation for these later tracks. If the front half is where Calva Louise erupts, the back half is where the ash is beginning to fall. Second, while there is supposedly a concept here, I have no idea what it is. In the tradition of Coheed & Cambria, who famously have a massive story but lyrics that read like “girl doesn’t like boy and boy gets mad about it,” a lot of this just reads as angst.
Some records sound big, and some records feel big. Edge of the Abyss does both.5 It feels big because it has ideas, and it succeeds because it commits to those ideas with zero regard for genre gatekeeping, scene politics, or what guys like me think is cool. It’s weird, catchy, and gleefully sophisticated, with every song bringing something unique to the table. Every arrangement counts. It’s a banger parade, and it’s hard not to feel like it’s also smart as hell. Is it perfect? No. But it’s addictive, it’s fun, and it’s going to be the most controversial Record o’ the Month since Gazpacho.
Rating: Great!
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s CBR MP3
Label: Mascot Records
Websites: calvalouise.com | calvalouise.bandcamp.com
Release Date: July 11th, 2025#2025 #40 #CalvaLouise #CoheedAndCambria #crossover #DiabloSwingOrchestra #Dubstep #EdgeOfTheAbyss #Electronica #GrooveMetal #Jul25 #Katatonia #KateBush #KingGoat #MascotLabelGroup #MascotRecords #Metalcore #MonsieurPeriné #Muse #PopLatino #ProgressiveMetal #SystemOfADown #TheKovenant #Three #UKMetal
-
Calva Louise – Edge of the Abyss Review
By Angry Metal Guy
Genre is a funny thing. Calva Louise will almost certainly be called “Crossover.” Their sound is a combination of elements that, if I read each one individually, would make me cringe or shrug my shoulders. Seen grouped on the page, I might ask, “How would that even work?” What I wouldn’t expect is an album that excites me. The kind of excitement that drives one to spin the record again immediately. The kind of excitement that leads to sharing the record with anyone who will listen and lengthy discussions of the details of whether someone else noticed the Fleshgod Apocalypse piano arpeggios in track four.1 But Edge of the Abyss is a rare record that manages to feel wild, unpredictable, and yet addictive—evocative—all at once. And while it’s apparently a concept album, the real story that I’m following is the one told in the songs that add up to something greater than the sum of their parts.
The strength of Edge of the Abyss lies in its fusions, and I mean that in every sense. Calva Louise doesn’t blend styles; they smash them together. “Tunnel Vision” rips open the record with a sugar-rush hook, bouncing within three minutes from pop-chorus to dubstep drop to metallic groove. “W.T.F.” is exactly that: frenetic, agitated, and punky. “Aimless,” the album’s first single, is a real highlight, threading unpredictable melodies, classical piano runs, and crunchy metal riffage into something that feels like “Justice for Saint Marie” (Diablo Swing Orchestra) but with a dembow beat.2 Each song can be emphasized for such moments: “Hate in Me” swaps between Katatonia and Kate Bush without skipping a beat; “Under the Skin” gives Lacuna Coil while “Barely a Response” blends 3/Coheed and Cambria and Muse to create something that just vibes right—blending proggy post-punk with The Fall of Hearts.
The balancing act is accomplished by Edge of the Abyss being extremely well-composed. These songs, while poppy—slick, catchy, memorable—aren’t glued together Frankenpop. Instead, they’re meticulously assembled homunculi, each with its own little soul.3 There’s a sense throughout the first half of this record that you’re listening to something much more thoughtful than its surface chaos might suggest. I might be imagining things, but this is where frontwoman and primary composer Jess Allanic’s background in composition seems to play a major role. The fact that Calva Louise can evoke so many different bands, sounds, and seamlessly traverse genre boundaries in seconds—from harmonized vocals over Latin folk beats to crunchy groove to house in moments (“El Umbral”)—without seeming scattered speaks to a deep understanding of music.4
You can feel that deep understanding of music in Edge of the Abyss’s most daring material: its multilingual, rhythmically tangled, and emotionally exposed core. “Lo Que Vale,” which may be my favorite song, strips things back enough to let Allanic’s small-but-commanding voice—reminiscent of Catalina García (Monsieur Periné)—to shine. “Impeccable” evokes The Kovenant’s “New World Order” before erupting into harmonized guitar leads and New Wave vibes. These are songs with giant choruses, and while Allanic has a remarkable presence and extremely deft melodic sense, she never dominates the mix. Whether screaming, speaking, or singing, her voice is expertly integrated, capable of balancing Kate Bush and Jonas Renkse depending on where she is in a song (“Hate in Me”), with harmonic sensibilities that bring me back to 3‘s The End Is Begun. Her presence does for Calva Louise what Serj Tankian did for System of a Down or Trim for King Goat. But unlike the aforementioned vocalists, she’s playing guitar, piano, and writing songs.
Edge of the Abyss is not perfect, however. First, the record’s energy flags a bit in the back half, where “The Abyss” pulls its punches and “Under the Skin” leans too hard on its mid-tempo groove. Nothing here fails, but the band’s frenetic, genre-defying dynamism seems more concentrated in the first six tracks. Still, even at its weakest, Edge of the Abyss brims with detail—piano breaks, synth arpeggios, key changes—that keep it from feeling inert. And repeated listens have only deepened my appreciation for these later tracks. If the front half is where Calva Louise erupts, the back half is where the ash is beginning to fall. Second, while there is supposedly a concept here, I have no idea what it is. In the tradition of Coheed & Cambria, who famously have a massive story but lyrics that read like “girl doesn’t like boy and boy gets mad about it,” a lot of this just reads as angst.
Some records sound big, and some records feel big. Edge of the Abyss does both.5 It feels big because it has ideas, and it succeeds because it commits to those ideas with zero regard for genre gatekeeping, scene politics, or what guys like me think is cool. It’s weird, catchy, and gleefully sophisticated, with every song bringing something unique to the table. Every arrangement counts. It’s a banger parade, and it’s hard not to feel like it’s also smart as hell. Is it perfect? No. But it’s addictive, it’s fun, and it’s going to be the most controversial Record o’ the Month since Gazpacho.
Rating: Great!
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s CBR MP3
Label: Mascot Records
Websites: calvalouise.com | calvalouise.bandcamp.com
Release Date: July 11th, 2025#2025 #40 #CalvaLouise #CoheedAndCambria #crossover #DiabloSwingOrchestra #Dubstep #EdgeOfTheAbyss #Electronica #GrooveMetal #Jul25 #Katatonia #KateBush #KingGoat #MascotLabelGroup #MascotRecords #Metalcore #MonsieurPeriné #Muse #PopLatino #ProgressiveMetal #SystemOfADown #TheKovenant #Three #UKMetal
-
European Soil Database (Pedology 🟤)
The European Soil Database is the only harmonized soil database in Europe from which many other data information and services are derived. For instance, the European Soil Database v2 Raster Library contains raster data files with cell sizes of 1 km x 1 km for a large number of soil related parameters. Eac...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Soil_Database
#EuropeanSoilDatabase #Soil #Pedology #DatabasesInEurope #GeographyOfEurope #GeographicalDatabases
-
Carcharodon’s and Cherd’s Top Ten(ish) of 2023
By Carcharodon
Carcharodon
I’ve been tetchy in 2023. Little things I’d normally barely even notice—about people, records, life in general, Mrs Carcharodon‘s recent insistence that we buy an air fryer—have really irked me. I’m (just about) self-aware enough that I clocked this, only to get more irked when I couldn’t put my finger on why. Yes, I turned 40, so am officially Olde and probably have to start listening to Saxon soon but that doesn’t fully explain it. It’s been a pretty good year in the main. I’m in a new job I like, Shark Pup No 1 has adjusted well to starting school and Shark Pup No 2 continues to get larger(!). We’ve had some good holidays, both as a family and, as a 40th treat to myself, a great trip to Islay, where very large quantities of smoky scotch1 were consumed with three very good friends. So why was I so tetchy? Maybe I was just tired?
As the year drew to a close, however, I realized I wasn’t just tired, I was weary. There’s a difference and it’s an important one. While I’m very lucky in many ways, there’s also a lot going on in my life, lots of spinning plates, and I don’t really take any time for myself. That was a bit of a realization. I’ve never been much for self-care or introspection; if I’m quiet, it doesn’t mean that I’m having deep thoughts, I’ve simply powered down for a bit. So, my resolution for 2024 is to find a little time to do a bit more for myself. I want to up my exercise game. I want to start reading more again. In short, I need to make time to do things I want to do, not just things I need to do. Needy, hey?
Apparently, I also needed a new list mate, after my emotional support sponge of several years ascended to a new name and (deservedly) to a new list status. Farewell Kenstrosity, I’ll miss you but maybe the real List mates are the ones we made along the way. In general, the USS AMG has charted a steady course through choppy waters in 2023, with Steel Druhm a steady, if stern, presence at the helm, while the editors dealt out the daily lashes and suspiciously cloudy grog. Thanks to them for all their efforts (only sometimes literally) whipping us into shape, and to all my fellow writers. You are all, to quote everyone’s favorite A.N.Gry Doc, idiots and I love less than half of you, half as well as you deserve but you are still better than many alternatives (like the Commentariat, who are awful(ly loveable)).
And with that, I have indulged myself enough. So, without further ado, here is the List of the writers who last year won the First Annual Killjoy Kudos for Best Taste Award (although, strangely, the statuette to which I assume I am entitled, has thus far failed to materialize…).
#ish. Omnivortex // Circulate – Tech death—indeed, death metal in general—isn’t really my thing, and the adulation heaped on Omnivortex’s 2020 effort, Diagrams of Consciousness, caused only bemusement for me. However, Circulate is a different beast. It’s interesting that my (now former *sob*) listmate Kenstrosity awarded Diagrams… his #1 spot in 2020 but, in his review of this year’s effort, said that it took Circulate a while to click for him, with the consistency of songwriting more pronounced here, over its predecessor’s spiky highlights. Perhaps that says something about the difference between what my erstwhile partner and I respectively look for in records. Perhaps it doesn’t. Either way, Omnivortex bullied and beasted their way onto this List because there was no force to stop them.
#10. Warcrab // The Howling Silence – Warcrab’s Damned in Endless Night made it to #6 on my first-ever List here at AMG, way back in 2019. Looking back now, it probably should have been higher. It’s been a long wait for The Howling Silence but it didn’t disappoint. Operating at that sweet intersection between doom and sludge, the UK veterans sound as filthy and pummelling as ever and, as Cherd pointed out, are now allowing elements of OSDM to bleed into their rumbling assault. The combination makes them as brvtal as they’ve always been but brings a sense of freshness and revitalized energy to Warcrab that I didn’t expect but loved to see.
#9. Leiþa // Reue – I had a sneaking suspicion that I underrated the second record from Leiþa, when I reviewed it back in January. This was confirmed when AMG awarded it ROTM in extremely timely fashion, on February 1st, declaring it to be a “masterful platter of great—potentially even excellent—black metal.” And so it has proved. It’s an album I’ve returned to over and over as the year went on. It’s hard to overstate the sheer raw, dark emotion that Reue’s creator Noise channeled into this record. For all that, the great songwriting brings a surprising amount of melody, although this only serves to heighten the sense of loss, remorse, and bitter self-loathing that drenches this (potentially) excellent album. It’s a devastating album.
#8. Vanishing Kids // Miracle of Death – It’s hard to put into words exactly what makes Vanishing Kids’ brand of progressive doom so damn good. Sure, Jason Hartman is a fucking great guitarist but he’s not completely alone in that. Nikki Drohomyreky’s vocals are hauntingly beautiful but again, other vocalists can achieve that. In his review of Miracle of Death, Steel highlighted the “graceful, ethereal, and dreamy atmosphere” conjured by the band from the opener “Spill the Dark” (also my undisputed song of the year) and that’s probably about as close as we’ll get to the pinning it down. The fact is that Vanishing Kids have that very rare something, that je ne sais quoi. Combining trad doom, psychedelia, 70s occult rock, and more, to create something truly unique requires genuine craft and these guys have it in spades.
#7. The Circle // Of Awakening – I only went back to The Circle to be sure I could cross it off my List’s longlist. After all, it only got a 3.5 from Dear Hollow, whose taste overlaps with mine to a fair degree. That was about six weeks ago and I’m here to tell you DH underrated it. Of Awakening has been in heavy rotation ever since. Drawing together the likes of Ahab, Dark Funeral, and My Dying Bride, this is a crushingly dark album, that, despite its beautifully trim runtime, has a real sense of grandeur and majesty about it. Contrary to DH‘s thoughts, for me, Of Awakening is so tightly written that The Circle can get away with being as pummelling as they want but there’s also a lot more nuance and refinement here than one might hear on the first spin. Trust me. I’ve spun this a lot.
#6. Convocation // No Dawn for the Caliginous Night – There’s a sweet spot in the year for dropping records. Too early and they may be forgotten; too late and people may not have enough time with them. November 24th definitely falls into the latter camp. With more time, No Dawn for the Caliginous Night could probably have laid siege to my top three but I just didn’t get to spend the same amount of time with Convocation’s massive slab of outstanding doom as I did with the other outstanding things you will read about below. Be in no doubt though, Cherd was correct2 to drop a 4.5 on this majestic beast of a record.
#5. Antrisch // EXPEDITION II: Die Passage – Atmoblack comes in for a lot of stick. Some of it is even justified. But, when it’s done right, it’s a thing of beauty and Antrisch undoubtedly does it right. Frigid atmosphere pours out of EXPEDITION II in icy waves but never at the expense of the music, which is killer. Every time I press play, Antrisch drags me away to a tale of terror in the frozen arctic wastes, woven in shades of deepest black. The tremolos cut through me and the rasping vocals cause the hairs on the back of my neck to rise. I feel this record, as much as I hear it and that’s exactly the way atmoblack should be.
#4. Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean // Obsession Destruction – Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean understand claustrophobia. When I listen to Obsession Destruction it feels like the walls are closing in, like the air is getting thick and hard to take in. The record feels like it’s pressing in on you. That is what sludge should do and Chained is drawing on inspiration from doom to heighten that sense. It’s beautiful, anguished, and bludgeoning all at once, and despite passing the hour mark, it’s compelling. I loved this record from the moment I heard it, even as it crushed the life out of me.
#3. Fires in the Distance // Air Not Meant for Us – I don’t usually accuse I have never accused Thus Spoke of underrating anything. Until now. The faintly progressive, doom-tinged melodeath of Air Not Meant for Us is not great. It is excellent. And I almost slept on it. For whatever reason, the first time I span this album, I didn’t even make it to the end and discarded it. But I came back, some months later, and was floored by this record. The deep seams of melody, the excellent use of keys, the soaring guitars, the whole package hit me with a force that only two other records did this year. Whatever was wrong with me the first time around has been scorched away, as Fires in the Distance burn with emotional intensity. The album is beautifully written and paced, which for all its weight and heaviness, also feels fragile and honest, revealing new depths on each revisit.
#2. Wayfarer // American Gothic – Wayfarer’s 2020 effort, A Romance with Violence, was so close. So close to fulfilling the promise of their Wild West black metal. But for all that it did well, as with their earlier two efforts, too many of the tracks went on too long, suffocating under their own weight. As Doom_et_Al said in his review, however, this year’s “American Gothic is the album Wayfarer have been threatening to make for years … Wayfarer take the violence and beauty of the land they inhabit and translate that to music that reflects that dichotomy.” I’m not sure there’s a better way to say it. American Gothic is the album where everything that Wayfarer has struggled to bring together for years finally clicked into place and it’s something truly special.3
#1. Cursebinder // Drifting – Poland’s Cursebinder kinda crept up on me. Since its April release, I have seen little acclaim for it, and my attempts to sell it to my fellow scribes have been met with non-committal murmurs of appreciation. But there is something about Drifting’s progressive black metal, borrowing heavily from both doom and post-metal, that just kept me coming back. Again. And again. There’s a shimmering intensity to the record, driven as much by the bright synth work, as Hubert Fudała’s crushing riffs and Maciej Proficz’ sulphuric vox, which means that I tend to find myself stopping whatever it is that I’m doing and simply staring into the middle distance while Drifting washes over me. It’s not the most technically complex thing on this list, nor is it a record that defies categorization. It’s simply the album that speaks to me in a way nothing else I heard this year did and what more can you look for in an Album of the Year?
Honorable mentions:
- Anti-God Hand // Blight Year – Blight Year took everything I liked about Anti-God Hand’s debut, Wretch, and refined it to a point where it still remained so harsh as to border on raw BM. Yet there is something about this album that I find kind of magical.
- BRIQUEVILLE // IIII – Finding a mid-way point between the melodicism and experimentation of ISIS’ Wavering Radiant and the slightly disconcerting edge of Celestial, BRIQUEVILLE’s excellent use of synths and samples, together with some sawing, jagged riffs is a winner.
- Downfall of Gaia // Silhouettes of Disgust – This is the record where Downfall of Gaia manages to blend most effectively all the disparate facets of their sound. Progressive and melodic, bleak and furious, this is a record to get lost exploring.
- God Disease // Apocalyptic Doom – With Apoclyptic Doom, God Disease delivered exactly that. This was the end of the world, cataclysmic stuff. What more can I say? If you lift and “Leper by the Grave of God” doesn’t help you hit a PB, I advise you to take up chess.
- Lo! // The Gleaners – I carelessly threw The Gleaners into April’s Filter after only a couple of spins, recognizing the quality on show but not having spent much time with it. Lo!’s abrasive sludgy post-metal / hardcore has stayed with me, however, as the sheer anger and intensity, and (surprising amounts of) melody kept me coming back.
- Saturnus // The Storm Within – In an incredibly strong year for doom, Saturnus turned in a great offering that I thought would be top 5 for sure. It didn’t have quite the staying power I thought it would—not least thanks to those sickly sweet spoken word parts—but it remains a great record, with one of the best SOTY in “The Calling.”
- Sworn // A Journey Told through Fire – Great Norwegian melodic black metal, channeling the likes of Vorga and Uada but also Insomnium, this record was just well written, beautifully paced, and fun as fuck.
Songs o’ the Year:
- Vanishing Kids – “Spill the Dark”
- Saturnus – “The Calling”
- Fires in the Distance – “Crumbling Pillars of a Tranquil Mind”
- Downfall of Gaia – “Bodies as Driftwood”
- Lo! – “The Gleaners”
- Inherus – “One More Fire”
- Cursebinder – “Drifting”
- Blackbraid – “Twilight Hymn of Ancient Blood”
- Aetherian – “Starlit Shores”
- God Disease – “Leper by the Grace of God”
- Moonlight Sorcery – “Yönsilmä”
Cherd
I’ve heard it said that the older one gets, the faster time seems to pass. That’s why your memories of childhood seem to take place over an interminable timespan, while your children seem to blast through developmental phases and clothing sizes faster than a grindcore song. Take the little goober directly to the left. He was six weeks old when AMG announced their open call for writers that would eventually lead to my tenure here. Now he’s five and a half and draws pictures of angry carrots and ninja-bread men (a subset of gingerbread men). Since gaining the summit of the Middle Ages, I now face the downward slope of life’s back half, with its ever-increasing velocity and promise of an abrupt end. All this to say, I don’t have any wry observations about 2023 because the fucking thing blew by way too fast.
Perhaps the only way to dampen the breakneck pace of life and reclaim one’s sanity is to partake in some nice, slow doom metal. In this respect, the universe was merciful as it gifted us with the finest year for down-tuned, down-tempo misery we’ve had in ages. There are no fewer than seven doom or doom adjacent entries on my list this year and another handful that only just missed the cut. Yearly disclaimer: if you read my list or any of the others, and wonder why you don’t see your pet record, remember that I am but one man with but one kindergartner who robs me of time and life force. I probably didn’t get to it. Or maybe I did and your taste is just terrible. I’d like to thank Steel Druhm for keeping the good ship AMG afloat through a combination of duct tape, bungee cords, and brutal yet dispassionately professional beatings, AMG himself for forgetting that I work here, thus ensuring I won’t be fired, and of course you for reading. With that, here’s my objectively correct list.
(ish) Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean // Obsession Destruction – This wouldn’t be a Cherd list without some sludge doom, and Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean put out one of the finest examples of the genre in 2023. Always a prolific EP band, Obsession Destruction is only their second full length of the last six years, but it sees the band finally shrug off their reputation as a Thou knockoff and come fully into their own. “The Altar” and “The Gates Have Closed and They Will Never Open” have forever entered my rotation of killer sludge doom tracks. The only band to beat them at their game in 2023 was Warcrab, but we’ll get to them in a bit.
#10. Xoth // Exogalactic – No one has more fun with cosmic horrors than Xoth, except maybe those of us who get to smash the play button over and over again on their albums. I got on the “Party Lovecraft” bus four years ago when I first heard Interdimensional Invocations, and while it may have taken a complete remixing of the album at the 11th hour to get there, Exogalactic does not disappoint as a follow-up. Songs like “Reptilian Bloodsport,” “Saga of the Blade,” and “Map to the Stars, Monument to the Ancients” take their rightful place alongside the band’s best work as they continue to hone their winning combination of blackened melo-death and tech-thrash.
#9. Oromet // Oromet – I’m always thrilled when a new band impresses me with their debut record enough to land a hard-fought spot on my yearly top ten. This year it happened twice. The first entry is Oromet’s self-titled LP of expansive, airy funeral doom. The album art of a dramatically jutting rocky peak piercing the firmament while bathed in golds and blues could hardly be a better visual representation of the music. This two-man project of Patrick Hills and Dan Aguilar is an exercise in judiciously balanced light and shadow, weight and buoyancy. There’s as much empty space on this record as there is tectonic heft, with overt beauty and ragged desperation embraced in equal measure.
#8. Big|Brave // Nature Morte – In the grand tradition of quoting myself out of laziness: “The most impressive thing about Nature Morte is its meticulous construction. No matter how sparse it gets, no matter how repetitive the drum strikes or how loose the guitar squalls, there’s no wasted space. None of the three out of six tracks that stretch past nine minutes feel remotely that long thanks to well-placed transitions, hypnotic rhythms, and the commanding presence of (Robin) Wattie’s vocals… Big|Brave delivers a stunning, unique statement on Nature Morte. Without changing the core of the band’s sound, it signals a remarkable refinement of vision a decade into their existence.”
#7. Curta’n Wall // Siege Ubsessed – Abysmal Specter’s MO has always been to knock down the castle gates with his goofy parade of wizards, knights, and witches riding ostriches and walruses while sneaking infectious melodies and riffs in through the kitchen servants’ entrance. This is true of Curta’n Wall, one of his dozen or so projects other than his flagship band Old Nick, but on Siege Ubsessed, the black metal mad scientist stands at his infernal machine, turns the knob marked “raw black metal” down to its lowest setting, and the knobs marked “accordion,” “bagpipes,” “harpsichord,” and “pan flute” to 11. This is jaunty, stupid medieval folk music and an absolutely essential release in Abysmal Specter’s ever-growing oeuvre.
#6. Warcrab // The Howling Silence – Warcrab is the premier death/sludge outfit operating today, and this is their most refined release to date. As I said in my review, “With The Howling Silence, Warcrab both re-instates their sludge doom bonafides and leans into proper OSDM in ways they haven’t before.” It’s quite the trick making not only one of the best death metal songs of the year in “Sword of Mars,” but also the best sludge doom song in “Sourlands Under a Rancid Sky,” but Warcrab pulls it off with aplomb. Even as more bands join this burgeoning style, none approach these Brits in terms of talent or execution.
#5. Agriculture // Agriculture – The second of my two favorite new bands of 2023, Agriculture’s “ecstatic black metal” is unlike anything else I heard this year, and I listen to A LOT of black metal. By turns stark and lush, these Californian’s debut record was forged in the fires of blazing black riff craft and the contemporary post-rock zeitgeist. While that usually means some form of black gaze, this is not remotely the case with Agriculture. There’s nothing laconic or detached here. The almost shocking earnestness may leave some a bit taken aback, but it’s not as if they’re any different in that regard than the countless self-serious black metal musician basement dwellers the world over.
#4. Carnosus // Visions of Infinihility – I’m sure many of my colleagues will fall all over themselves in their respective lists about how much good death metal came out in 2023. I enjoyed my share of it as well, with Dying Fetus, Fossilization, and the mighty Incantation all turning my head, but the only purely death metal record I couldn’t stop spinning was Carnosus’ tech-death barn burner Visions of Infinihility. Tight, vicious, and catchy, this record also features the second-best harsh vocal performance of the year behind only the one found on my number-one record. A lot of vocalists can oscillate between death growls and blackened shrieks, but precious few can give you four different tones in one song while putting affected spins on individual words the way Jonatan Karasiak can.
#3. Somnuri // Desiderium – I’ve been pushing this NYC progressive sludge band like a used car dealer with a quota to meet since they dropped their debut in 2017. They’ve rewarded my faith in them by improving on each subsequent release. From my review: “Somnuri has done exactly what you want to see a promising band do with their third record. Namely, take anything that worked with the first two, amp that up a bit, and commit fully to a new wrinkle to elevate the material. The addition of (Soundgarden-esque) throwback radio alt-rock into their roiling pot of hardcore and progressive sludge makes Desiderium these Brooklynites’ strongest outing to date. It’s rare that an album this aggressive and energetic goes down this smooth.”
#2. Hellish Form // Deathless – This record is special. In any other year, it probably would have been my number one. As I said in April, “Considering it embodies three of the most miserable subgenres in all of metal (funeral doom, sludge, and drone), the remarkable thing about Deathless is how powerfully hopeful it is. The themes of the album are pointedly heavy and political. It’s an admonition of an oppressive world delivered with withering vitriol by the aggrieved, but both musically and lyrically, (Willow) Ryan and (Jacob) Lee steadily fix their gaze upward.” I doubt there are any more affecting lines in metal this year than Ryan’s delivery in the title track of “You can take my life, but I am deathless. I am deathless.”
#1. Convocation // No Dawn for the Caliginous Night – What else can I say about the first 4.5 I’ve ever awarded on this site? “By the time you reach the halfway point in opening track “Graveless yet Dead,” you’ve heard swirling organs, ominous violins, harmonized choirs, riffs that measure their gravity on the scale of celestial bodies, and (Marko) Neuman’s enormous death roar. The whole thing keeps escalating like a light growing in intensity until, nearly blinding, a biblically accurate angel emerges with its six wings and concentric wheels full of eyes and multiple heads and burnished bronze appendages and it bellows in an inhuman voice, “B̴̧̈E̴͝ͅ ̸̫̈Ń̷̦Ò̸̭T̸̜̈́ ̸̟̄A̷͈͌F̵̯̊R̴̳̽Ā̷͇I̸̜͊D̶͈͛.”…With No Dawn for the Caliginous Night, LL and Neuman have completed their transformation from practitioners of impressive if well-trod death doom to a unique voice in the ranks of funerophiles. This is a towering celebration of death’s enormity, packaged in the heaviest and most shimmering of vessels.”
Honorable Mentions
- Gridlink // Coronet Juniper – Acidic but deceptively smooth grindcore from one of the best bands in the genre over the last decade plus.
- Stortregn // Finitude – Just because I was slightly disappointed in the direction these Swiss boys are going after releasing my favorite record of 2021 doesn’t mean this isn’t one of my fifteen favorite records of 2023. They may be moving more and more tech, but they’re still Stortregn and they still slay.
- AGLO // Build Fear – STAR TREK THEMED DEATH DOOM SLUDGE ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? COULD ANYTHING POSSIBLY BE MORE CHERD!?
- Vanishing Kids // Miracle of Death – I liked Heavy Dreamer a fair amount, but by leaning harder into classic doom, Miracle of Death rose to list-worthy. “Spill The Dark” is one of the very best songs of any genre this year.
- Bell Witch // Future’s Shadow Part 1: The Clandestine Gate – I’m reserving some judgment for when all three parts are revealed, but this single 83-minute track is plenty compelling on its own.
Songs o’ the Year
In alphabetical order by band:
#2023 #Aetherian #AGLO #Agriculture #AntiGodHand #Antrisch #BigBrave #Blackbraid #BlogPost #Briqueville #Carcharodon #CarcharodonSTopTenIshOf2023 #CarcharodonSAndCherdSTopTenIshOf2023 #Carnosus #ChainedToTheBottomOfTheOcean #Convocation #Cursebinder #CurtaNWall #DownfallOfGaia #FiresInTheDistance #GodDisease #Gridlink #HellishForm #Inherus #Leitha #Listurnalia #Lo_ #MoonlightSorcery #Omnivortex #Oromet #Saturnus #Somnuri #Stortregn #Sworn #TheCircle #VanishingKids #Warcrab #Wayfarer #Xoth
-
Carcharodon’s and Cherd’s Top Ten(ish) of 2023
By Carcharodon
Carcharodon
I’ve been tetchy in 2023. Little things I’d normally barely even notice—about people, records, life in general, Mrs Carcharodon‘s recent insistence that we buy an air fryer—have really irked me. I’m (just about) self-aware enough that I clocked this, only to get more irked when I couldn’t put my finger on why. Yes, I turned 40, so am officially Olde and probably have to start listening to Saxon soon but that doesn’t fully explain it. It’s been a pretty good year in the main. I’m in a new job I like, Shark Pup No 1 has adjusted well to starting school and Shark Pup No 2 continues to get larger(!). We’ve had some good holidays, both as a family and, as a 40th treat to myself, a great trip to Islay, where very large quantities of smoky scotch1 were consumed with three very good friends. So why was I so tetchy? Maybe I was just tired?
As the year drew to a close, however, I realized I wasn’t just tired, I was weary. There’s a difference and it’s an important one. While I’m very lucky in many ways, there’s also a lot going on in my life, lots of spinning plates, and I don’t really take any time for myself. That was a bit of a realization. I’ve never been much for self-care or introspection; if I’m quiet, it doesn’t mean that I’m having deep thoughts, I’ve simply powered down for a bit. So, my resolution for 2024 is to find a little time to do a bit more for myself. I want to up my exercise game. I want to start reading more again. In short, I need to make time to do things I want to do, not just things I need to do. Needy, hey?
Apparently, I also needed a new list mate, after my emotional support sponge of several years ascended to a new name and (deservedly) to a new list status. Farewell Kenstrosity, I’ll miss you but maybe the real List mates are the ones we made along the way. In general, the USS AMG has charted a steady course through choppy waters in 2023, with Steel Druhm a steady, if stern, presence at the helm, while the editors dealt out the daily lashes and suspiciously cloudy grog. Thanks to them for all their efforts (only sometimes literally) whipping us into shape, and to all my fellow writers. You are all, to quote everyone’s favorite A.N.Gry Doc, idiots and I love less than half of you, half as well as you deserve but you are still better than many alternatives (like the Commentariat, who are awful(ly loveable)).
And with that, I have indulged myself enough. So, without further ado, here is the List of the writers who last year won the First Annual Killjoy Kudos for Best Taste Award (although, strangely, the statuette to which I assume I am entitled, has thus far failed to materialize…).
#ish. Omnivortex // Circulate – Tech death—indeed, death metal in general—isn’t really my thing, and the adulation heaped on Omnivortex’s 2020 effort, Diagrams of Consciousness, caused only bemusement for me. However, Circulate is a different beast. It’s interesting that my (now former *sob*) listmate Kenstrosity awarded Diagrams… his #1 spot in 2020 but, in his review of this year’s effort, said that it took Circulate a while to click for him, with the consistency of songwriting more pronounced here, over its predecessor’s spiky highlights. Perhaps that says something about the difference between what my erstwhile partner and I respectively look for in records. Perhaps it doesn’t. Either way, Omnivortex bullied and beasted their way onto this List because there was no force to stop them.
#10. Warcrab // The Howling Silence – Warcrab’s Damned in Endless Night made it to #6 on my first-ever List here at AMG, way back in 2019. Looking back now, it probably should have been higher. It’s been a long wait for The Howling Silence but it didn’t disappoint. Operating at that sweet intersection between doom and sludge, the UK veterans sound as filthy and pummelling as ever and, as Cherd pointed out, are now allowing elements of OSDM to bleed into their rumbling assault. The combination makes them as brvtal as they’ve always been but brings a sense of freshness and revitalized energy to Warcrab that I didn’t expect but loved to see.
#9. Leiþa // Reue – I had a sneaking suspicion that I underrated the second record from Leiþa, when I reviewed it back in January. This was confirmed when AMG awarded it ROTM in extremely timely fashion, on February 1st, declaring it to be a “masterful platter of great—potentially even excellent—black metal.” And so it has proved. It’s an album I’ve returned to over and over as the year went on. It’s hard to overstate the sheer raw, dark emotion that Reue’s creator Noise channeled into this record. For all that, the great songwriting brings a surprising amount of melody, although this only serves to heighten the sense of loss, remorse, and bitter self-loathing that drenches this (potentially) excellent album. It’s a devastating album.
#8. Vanishing Kids // Miracle of Death – It’s hard to put into words exactly what makes Vanishing Kids’ brand of progressive doom so damn good. Sure, Jason Hartman is a fucking great guitarist but he’s not completely alone in that. Nikki Drohomyreky’s vocals are hauntingly beautiful but again, other vocalists can achieve that. In his review of Miracle of Death, Steel highlighted the “graceful, ethereal, and dreamy atmosphere” conjured by the band from the opener “Spill the Dark” (also my undisputed song of the year) and that’s probably about as close as we’ll get to the pinning it down. The fact is that Vanishing Kids have that very rare something, that je ne sais quoi. Combining trad doom, psychedelia, 70s occult rock, and more, to create something truly unique requires genuine craft and these guys have it in spades.
#7. The Circle // Of Awakening – I only went back to The Circle to be sure I could cross it off my List’s longlist. After all, it only got a 3.5 from Dear Hollow, whose taste overlaps with mine to a fair degree. That was about six weeks ago and I’m here to tell you DH underrated it. Of Awakening has been in heavy rotation ever since. Drawing together the likes of Ahab, Dark Funeral, and My Dying Bride, this is a crushingly dark album, that, despite its beautifully trim runtime, has a real sense of grandeur and majesty about it. Contrary to DH‘s thoughts, for me, Of Awakening is so tightly written that The Circle can get away with being as pummelling as they want but there’s also a lot more nuance and refinement here than one might hear on the first spin. Trust me. I’ve spun this a lot.
#6. Convocation // No Dawn for the Caliginous Night – There’s a sweet spot in the year for dropping records. Too early and they may be forgotten; too late and people may not have enough time with them. November 24th definitely falls into the latter camp. With more time, No Dawn for the Caliginous Night could probably have laid siege to my top three but I just didn’t get to spend the same amount of time with Convocation’s massive slab of outstanding doom as I did with the other outstanding things you will read about below. Be in no doubt though, Cherd was correct2 to drop a 4.5 on this majestic beast of a record.
#5. Antrisch // EXPEDITION II: Die Passage – Atmoblack comes in for a lot of stick. Some of it is even justified. But, when it’s done right, it’s a thing of beauty and Antrisch undoubtedly does it right. Frigid atmosphere pours out of EXPEDITION II in icy waves but never at the expense of the music, which is killer. Every time I press play, Antrisch drags me away to a tale of terror in the frozen arctic wastes, woven in shades of deepest black. The tremolos cut through me and the rasping vocals cause the hairs on the back of my neck to rise. I feel this record, as much as I hear it and that’s exactly the way atmoblack should be.
#4. Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean // Obsession Destruction – Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean understand claustrophobia. When I listen to Obsession Destruction it feels like the walls are closing in, like the air is getting thick and hard to take in. The record feels like it’s pressing in on you. That is what sludge should do and Chained is drawing on inspiration from doom to heighten that sense. It’s beautiful, anguished, and bludgeoning all at once, and despite passing the hour mark, it’s compelling. I loved this record from the moment I heard it, even as it crushed the life out of me.
#3. Fires in the Distance // Air Not Meant for Us – I don’t usually accuse I have never accused Thus Spoke of underrating anything. Until now. The faintly progressive, doom-tinged melodeath of Air Not Meant for Us is not great. It is excellent. And I almost slept on it. For whatever reason, the first time I span this album, I didn’t even make it to the end and discarded it. But I came back, some months later, and was floored by this record. The deep seams of melody, the excellent use of keys, the soaring guitars, the whole package hit me with a force that only two other records did this year. Whatever was wrong with me the first time around has been scorched away, as Fires in the Distance burn with emotional intensity. The album is beautifully written and paced, which for all its weight and heaviness, also feels fragile and honest, revealing new depths on each revisit.
#2. Wayfarer // American Gothic – Wayfarer’s 2020 effort, A Romance with Violence, was so close. So close to fulfilling the promise of their Wild West black metal. But for all that it did well, as with their earlier two efforts, too many of the tracks went on too long, suffocating under their own weight. As Doom_et_Al said in his review, however, this year’s “American Gothic is the album Wayfarer have been threatening to make for years … Wayfarer take the violence and beauty of the land they inhabit and translate that to music that reflects that dichotomy.” I’m not sure there’s a better way to say it. American Gothic is the album where everything that Wayfarer has struggled to bring together for years finally clicked into place and it’s something truly special.3
#1. Cursebinder // Drifting – Poland’s Cursebinder kinda crept up on me. Since its April release, I have seen little acclaim for it, and my attempts to sell it to my fellow scribes have been met with non-committal murmurs of appreciation. But there is something about Drifting’s progressive black metal, borrowing heavily from both doom and post-metal, that just kept me coming back. Again. And again. There’s a shimmering intensity to the record, driven as much by the bright synth work, as Hubert Fudała’s crushing riffs and Maciej Proficz’ sulphuric vox, which means that I tend to find myself stopping whatever it is that I’m doing and simply staring into the middle distance while Drifting washes over me. It’s not the most technically complex thing on this list, nor is it a record that defies categorization. It’s simply the album that speaks to me in a way nothing else I heard this year did and what more can you look for in an Album of the Year?
Honorable mentions:
- Anti-God Hand // Blight Year – Blight Year took everything I liked about Anti-God Hand’s debut, Wretch, and refined it to a point where it still remained so harsh as to border on raw BM. Yet there is something about this album that I find kind of magical.
- BRIQUEVILLE // IIII – Finding a mid-way point between the melodicism and experimentation of ISIS’ Wavering Radiant and the slightly disconcerting edge of Celestial, BRIQUEVILLE’s excellent use of synths and samples, together with some sawing, jagged riffs is a winner.
- Downfall of Gaia // Silhouettes of Disgust – This is the record where Downfall of Gaia manages to blend most effectively all the disparate facets of their sound. Progressive and melodic, bleak and furious, this is a record to get lost exploring.
- God Disease // Apocalyptic Doom – With Apoclyptic Doom, God Disease delivered exactly that. This was the end of the world, cataclysmic stuff. What more can I say? If you lift and “Leper by the Grave of God” doesn’t help you hit a PB, I advise you to take up chess.
- Lo! // The Gleaners – I carelessly threw The Gleaners into April’s Filter after only a couple of spins, recognizing the quality on show but not having spent much time with it. Lo!’s abrasive sludgy post-metal / hardcore has stayed with me, however, as the sheer anger and intensity, and (surprising amounts of) melody kept me coming back.
- Saturnus // The Storm Within – In an incredibly strong year for doom, Saturnus turned in a great offering that I thought would be top 5 for sure. It didn’t have quite the staying power I thought it would—not least thanks to those sickly sweet spoken word parts—but it remains a great record, with one of the best SOTY in “The Calling.”
- Sworn // A Journey Told through Fire – Great Norwegian melodic black metal, channeling the likes of Vorga and Uada but also Insomnium, this record was just well written, beautifully paced, and fun as fuck.
Songs o’ the Year:
- Vanishing Kids – “Spill the Dark”
- Saturnus – “The Calling”
- Fires in the Distance – “Crumbling Pillars of a Tranquil Mind”
- Downfall of Gaia – “Bodies as Driftwood”
- Lo! – “The Gleaners”
- Inherus – “One More Fire”
- Cursebinder – “Drifting”
- Blackbraid – “Twilight Hymn of Ancient Blood”
- Aetherian – “Starlit Shores”
- God Disease – “Leper by the Grace of God”
- Moonlight Sorcery – “Yönsilmä”
Cherd
I’ve heard it said that the older one gets, the faster time seems to pass. That’s why your memories of childhood seem to take place over an interminable timespan, while your children seem to blast through developmental phases and clothing sizes faster than a grindcore song. Take the little goober directly to the left. He was six weeks old when AMG announced their open call for writers that would eventually lead to my tenure here. Now he’s five and a half and draws pictures of angry carrots and ninja-bread men (a subset of gingerbread men). Since gaining the summit of the Middle Ages, I now face the downward slope of life’s back half, with its ever-increasing velocity and promise of an abrupt end. All this to say, I don’t have any wry observations about 2023 because the fucking thing blew by way too fast.
Perhaps the only way to dampen the breakneck pace of life and reclaim one’s sanity is to partake in some nice, slow doom metal. In this respect, the universe was merciful as it gifted us with the finest year for down-tuned, down-tempo misery we’ve had in ages. There are no fewer than seven doom or doom adjacent entries on my list this year and another handful that only just missed the cut. Yearly disclaimer: if you read my list or any of the others, and wonder why you don’t see your pet record, remember that I am but one man with but one kindergartner who robs me of time and life force. I probably didn’t get to it. Or maybe I did and your taste is just terrible. I’d like to thank Steel Druhm for keeping the good ship AMG afloat through a combination of duct tape, bungee cords, and brutal yet dispassionately professional beatings, AMG himself for forgetting that I work here, thus ensuring I won’t be fired, and of course you for reading. With that, here’s my objectively correct list.
(ish) Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean // Obsession Destruction – This wouldn’t be a Cherd list without some sludge doom, and Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean put out one of the finest examples of the genre in 2023. Always a prolific EP band, Obsession Destruction is only their second full length of the last six years, but it sees the band finally shrug off their reputation as a Thou knockoff and come fully into their own. “The Altar” and “The Gates Have Closed and They Will Never Open” have forever entered my rotation of killer sludge doom tracks. The only band to beat them at their game in 2023 was Warcrab, but we’ll get to them in a bit.
#10. Xoth // Exogalactic – No one has more fun with cosmic horrors than Xoth, except maybe those of us who get to smash the play button over and over again on their albums. I got on the “Party Lovecraft” bus four years ago when I first heard Interdimensional Invocations, and while it may have taken a complete remixing of the album at the 11th hour to get there, Exogalactic does not disappoint as a follow-up. Songs like “Reptilian Bloodsport,” “Saga of the Blade,” and “Map to the Stars, Monument to the Ancients” take their rightful place alongside the band’s best work as they continue to hone their winning combination of blackened melo-death and tech-thrash.
#9. Oromet // Oromet – I’m always thrilled when a new band impresses me with their debut record enough to land a hard-fought spot on my yearly top ten. This year it happened twice. The first entry is Oromet’s self-titled LP of expansive, airy funeral doom. The album art of a dramatically jutting rocky peak piercing the firmament while bathed in golds and blues could hardly be a better visual representation of the music. This two-man project of Patrick Hills and Dan Aguilar is an exercise in judiciously balanced light and shadow, weight and buoyancy. There’s as much empty space on this record as there is tectonic heft, with overt beauty and ragged desperation embraced in equal measure.
#8. Big|Brave // Nature Morte – In the grand tradition of quoting myself out of laziness: “The most impressive thing about Nature Morte is its meticulous construction. No matter how sparse it gets, no matter how repetitive the drum strikes or how loose the guitar squalls, there’s no wasted space. None of the three out of six tracks that stretch past nine minutes feel remotely that long thanks to well-placed transitions, hypnotic rhythms, and the commanding presence of (Robin) Wattie’s vocals… Big|Brave delivers a stunning, unique statement on Nature Morte. Without changing the core of the band’s sound, it signals a remarkable refinement of vision a decade into their existence.”
#7. Curta’n Wall // Siege Ubsessed – Abysmal Specter’s MO has always been to knock down the castle gates with his goofy parade of wizards, knights, and witches riding ostriches and walruses while sneaking infectious melodies and riffs in through the kitchen servants’ entrance. This is true of Curta’n Wall, one of his dozen or so projects other than his flagship band Old Nick, but on Siege Ubsessed, the black metal mad scientist stands at his infernal machine, turns the knob marked “raw black metal” down to its lowest setting, and the knobs marked “accordion,” “bagpipes,” “harpsichord,” and “pan flute” to 11. This is jaunty, stupid medieval folk music and an absolutely essential release in Abysmal Specter’s ever-growing oeuvre.
#6. Warcrab // The Howling Silence – Warcrab is the premier death/sludge outfit operating today, and this is their most refined release to date. As I said in my review, “With The Howling Silence, Warcrab both re-instates their sludge doom bonafides and leans into proper OSDM in ways they haven’t before.” It’s quite the trick making not only one of the best death metal songs of the year in “Sword of Mars,” but also the best sludge doom song in “Sourlands Under a Rancid Sky,” but Warcrab pulls it off with aplomb. Even as more bands join this burgeoning style, none approach these Brits in terms of talent or execution.
#5. Agriculture // Agriculture – The second of my two favorite new bands of 2023, Agriculture’s “ecstatic black metal” is unlike anything else I heard this year, and I listen to A LOT of black metal. By turns stark and lush, these Californian’s debut record was forged in the fires of blazing black riff craft and the contemporary post-rock zeitgeist. While that usually means some form of black gaze, this is not remotely the case with Agriculture. There’s nothing laconic or detached here. The almost shocking earnestness may leave some a bit taken aback, but it’s not as if they’re any different in that regard than the countless self-serious black metal musician basement dwellers the world over.
#4. Carnosus // Visions of Infinihility – I’m sure many of my colleagues will fall all over themselves in their respective lists about how much good death metal came out in 2023. I enjoyed my share of it as well, with Dying Fetus, Fossilization, and the mighty Incantation all turning my head, but the only purely death metal record I couldn’t stop spinning was Carnosus’ tech-death barn burner Visions of Infinihility. Tight, vicious, and catchy, this record also features the second-best harsh vocal performance of the year behind only the one found on my number-one record. A lot of vocalists can oscillate between death growls and blackened shrieks, but precious few can give you four different tones in one song while putting affected spins on individual words the way Jonatan Karasiak can.
#3. Somnuri // Desiderium – I’ve been pushing this NYC progressive sludge band like a used car dealer with a quota to meet since they dropped their debut in 2017. They’ve rewarded my faith in them by improving on each subsequent release. From my review: “Somnuri has done exactly what you want to see a promising band do with their third record. Namely, take anything that worked with the first two, amp that up a bit, and commit fully to a new wrinkle to elevate the material. The addition of (Soundgarden-esque) throwback radio alt-rock into their roiling pot of hardcore and progressive sludge makes Desiderium these Brooklynites’ strongest outing to date. It’s rare that an album this aggressive and energetic goes down this smooth.”
#2. Hellish Form // Deathless – This record is special. In any other year, it probably would have been my number one. As I said in April, “Considering it embodies three of the most miserable subgenres in all of metal (funeral doom, sludge, and drone), the remarkable thing about Deathless is how powerfully hopeful it is. The themes of the album are pointedly heavy and political. It’s an admonition of an oppressive world delivered with withering vitriol by the aggrieved, but both musically and lyrically, (Willow) Ryan and (Jacob) Lee steadily fix their gaze upward.” I doubt there are any more affecting lines in metal this year than Ryan’s delivery in the title track of “You can take my life, but I am deathless. I am deathless.”
#1. Convocation // No Dawn for the Caliginous Night – What else can I say about the first 4.5 I’ve ever awarded on this site? “By the time you reach the halfway point in opening track “Graveless yet Dead,” you’ve heard swirling organs, ominous violins, harmonized choirs, riffs that measure their gravity on the scale of celestial bodies, and (Marko) Neuman’s enormous death roar. The whole thing keeps escalating like a light growing in intensity until, nearly blinding, a biblically accurate angel emerges with its six wings and concentric wheels full of eyes and multiple heads and burnished bronze appendages and it bellows in an inhuman voice, “B̴̧̈E̴͝ͅ ̸̫̈Ń̷̦Ò̸̭T̸̜̈́ ̸̟̄A̷͈͌F̵̯̊R̴̳̽Ā̷͇I̸̜͊D̶͈͛.”…With No Dawn for the Caliginous Night, LL and Neuman have completed their transformation from practitioners of impressive if well-trod death doom to a unique voice in the ranks of funerophiles. This is a towering celebration of death’s enormity, packaged in the heaviest and most shimmering of vessels.”
Honorable Mentions
- Gridlink // Coronet Juniper – Acidic but deceptively smooth grindcore from one of the best bands in the genre over the last decade plus.
- Stortregn // Finitude – Just because I was slightly disappointed in the direction these Swiss boys are going after releasing my favorite record of 2021 doesn’t mean this isn’t one of my fifteen favorite records of 2023. They may be moving more and more tech, but they’re still Stortregn and they still slay.
- AGLO // Build Fear – STAR TREK THEMED DEATH DOOM SLUDGE ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? COULD ANYTHING POSSIBLY BE MORE CHERD!?
- Vanishing Kids // Miracle of Death – I liked Heavy Dreamer a fair amount, but by leaning harder into classic doom, Miracle of Death rose to list-worthy. “Spill The Dark” is one of the very best songs of any genre this year.
- Bell Witch // Future’s Shadow Part 1: The Clandestine Gate – I’m reserving some judgment for when all three parts are revealed, but this single 83-minute track is plenty compelling on its own.
Songs o’ the Year
In alphabetical order by band:
#2023 #Aetherian #AGLO #Agriculture #AntiGodHand #Antrisch #BigBrave #Blackbraid #BlogPost #Briqueville #Carcharodon #CarcharodonSTopTenIshOf2023 #CarcharodonSAndCherdSTopTenIshOf2023 #Carnosus #ChainedToTheBottomOfTheOcean #Convocation #Cursebinder #CurtaNWall #DownfallOfGaia #FiresInTheDistance #GodDisease #Gridlink #HellishForm #Inherus #Leitha #Listurnalia #Lo_ #MoonlightSorcery #Omnivortex #Oromet #Saturnus #Somnuri #Stortregn #Sworn #TheCircle #VanishingKids #Warcrab #Wayfarer #Xoth
-
Dragon Skull – Chaos Fire Vengeance [Things You Might Have Missed 2025]
By Baguette of Bodom
Greece is a surprising hotbed for power metal-adjacent sounds, providing recent gems such as Sunburst last year and Sacred Outcry’s 2023 masterpiece.1 Dragon Skull is a newcomer to these fields of glory, introducing their burly heavy/power style on their promising self-titled EP as recently as 2022. Now, three years later, they were finally ready to unleash their debut Chaos Fire Vengeance on the world. And oh my, what an entrance it is.
Dragon Skull know how to riff like hell and craft anthemic, cataclysmically heavy tunes. In addition to the fist-pumping Manowar feel the band is going for (“Brethren,” “Skull Crusher”), the songwriting is further guided by the spirit of German power metal, something like Brainstorm further reinforced with later Blind Guardian bombast (“Nampat,” “Blood and Souls”). But what makes the instrumentation incendiary is how guitarists Panos Wallach and Chris Brintzikis take influence from several directions at once. This guarantees plenty of variety through the album’s eight tracks, ranging from the dual-harmonized NWoBHM of “Brethren” to the melodeath/meloblack-informed tremolos on “Shield Maiden.” To top it all off, the pummeling war drums of Teo Stamatiadis and gargantuan vocals of Aris Labos lend maximum grit to an already muscular record.
Chaos Fire Vengeance offers a refreshing mixture of ’80s heavy metal and ’00s power metal. Slower, anthemic annihilation is counterpointed by thunderous fury, often during the same song (“Dragon Riders,” Shield Maiden”). The extra melodic death metal DNA brings with it a welcome burst of harsh vocals as well (“War Drums,” “Skeleton Hand”), and the way it all gels effortlessly is impressive. Despite the amount of various elements and influences in the album, the end result is deceivingly simple and effective. It makes Dragon Skull’s style stand out in a similar way Triumpher’s shtick does, but the increased mass and grit of Chaos Fire Vengeance improves the formula from good to face-melting. Though the first half of the album is already potent, the second half is where the band’s ambitions are fully realized. The hooks in “Nampat” and “Skeleton Hand” are immense, and the gargantuan epic “Blood and Souls” is a serious Song o’ the Year contender. I mean, how can you not love a song with Elric and Tanelorn-themed lyrical homages to Cirith Ungol and Blind Guardian?2
Dragon Skull is single-handedly carrying the power metal torch this year. Sure, it might be more heavy/power, but who’s counting? The songwriting is superbly anthemic, and the band knocked it out of the park on their first try in 42 brief minutes. I’ve had some trouble getting all my writing done late in the year for countless reasons, and this album in particular felt difficult to write deeper analysis for. But maybe it’s not necessary. After all, what is a TYMHM but a long-winded way to say “this album rocks, go check it out?” Sometimes it’s just better to keep things short and simple, and all Chaos Fire Vengeance needs is a damn strong barrage of eight massive tunes. Better yet, it’s a brilliant blueprint Dragon Skull can use to further refine their songcraft.
Tracks to Check Out: “Nampat,” “Skeleton Hand,” and “Blood and Souls.”
#2025 #BlindGuardian #Brainstorm #ChaosFireVengeance #CirithUngol #DragonSkull #EpicHeavyMetal #GreekMetal #HeavyMetal #Manowar #PowerMetal #SacredOutcry #SelfReleased #Sunburst #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed2025 #Triumpher #TYMHM
-
Dragon Skull – Chaos Fire Vengeance [Things You Might Have Missed 2025]
By Baguette of Bodom
Greece is a surprising hotbed for power metal-adjacent sounds, providing recent gems such as Sunburst last year and Sacred Outcry’s 2023 masterpiece.1 Dragon Skull is a newcomer to these fields of glory, introducing their burly heavy/power style on their promising self-titled EP as recently as 2022. Now, three years later, they were finally ready to unleash their debut Chaos Fire Vengeance on the world. And oh my, what an entrance it is.
Dragon Skull know how to riff like hell and craft anthemic, cataclysmically heavy tunes. In addition to the fist-pumping Manowar feel the band is going for (“Brethren,” “Skull Crusher”), the songwriting is further guided by the spirit of German power metal, something like Brainstorm further reinforced with later Blind Guardian bombast (“Nampat,” “Blood and Souls”). But what makes the instrumentation incendiary is how guitarists Panos Wallach and Chris Brintzikis take influence from several directions at once. This guarantees plenty of variety through the album’s eight tracks, ranging from the dual-harmonized NWoBHM of “Brethren” to the melodeath/meloblack-informed tremolos on “Shield Maiden.” To top it all off, the pummeling war drums of Teo Stamatiadis and gargantuan vocals of Aris Labos lend maximum grit to an already muscular record.
Chaos Fire Vengeance offers a refreshing mixture of ’80s heavy metal and ’00s power metal. Slower, anthemic annihilation is counterpointed by thunderous fury, often during the same song (“Dragon Riders,” Shield Maiden”). The extra melodic death metal DNA brings with it a welcome burst of harsh vocals as well (“War Drums,” “Skeleton Hand”), and the way it all gels effortlessly is impressive. Despite the amount of various elements and influences in the album, the end result is deceivingly simple and effective. It makes Dragon Skull’s style stand out in a similar way Triumpher’s shtick does, but the increased mass and grit of Chaos Fire Vengeance improves the formula from good to face-melting. Though the first half of the album is already potent, the second half is where the band’s ambitions are fully realized. The hooks in “Nampat” and “Skeleton Hand” are immense, and the gargantuan epic “Blood and Souls” is a serious Song o’ the Year contender. I mean, how can you not love a song with Elric and Tanelorn-themed lyrical homages to Cirith Ungol and Blind Guardian?2
Dragon Skull is single-handedly carrying the power metal torch this year. Sure, it might be more heavy/power, but who’s counting? The songwriting is superbly anthemic, and the band knocked it out of the park on their first try in 42 brief minutes. I’ve had some trouble getting all my writing done late in the year for countless reasons, and this album in particular felt difficult to write deeper analysis for. But maybe it’s not necessary. After all, what is a TYMHM but a long-winded way to say “this album rocks, go check it out?” Sometimes it’s just better to keep things short and simple, and all Chaos Fire Vengeance needs is a damn strong barrage of eight massive tunes. Better yet, it’s a brilliant blueprint Dragon Skull can use to further refine their songcraft.
Tracks to Check Out: “Nampat,” “Skeleton Hand,” and “Blood and Souls.”
#2025 #BlindGuardian #Brainstorm #ChaosFireVengeance #CirithUngol #DragonSkull #EpicHeavyMetal #GreekMetal #HeavyMetal #Manowar #PowerMetal #SacredOutcry #SelfReleased #Sunburst #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed2025 #Triumpher #TYMHM
-
Dragon Skull – Chaos Fire Vengeance [Things You Might Have Missed 2025]
By Baguette of Bodom
Greece is a surprising hotbed for power metal-adjacent sounds, providing recent gems such as Sunburst last year and Sacred Outcry’s 2023 masterpiece.1 Dragon Skull is a newcomer to these fields of glory, introducing their burly heavy/power style on their promising self-titled EP as recently as 2022. Now, three years later, they were finally ready to unleash their debut Chaos Fire Vengeance on the world. And oh my, what an entrance it is.
Dragon Skull know how to riff like hell and craft anthemic, cataclysmically heavy tunes. In addition to the fist-pumping Manowar feel the band is going for (“Brethren,” “Skull Crusher”), the songwriting is further guided by the spirit of German power metal, something like Brainstorm further reinforced with later Blind Guardian bombast (“Nampat,” “Blood and Souls”). But what makes the instrumentation incendiary is how guitarists Panos Wallach and Chris Brintzikis take influence from several directions at once. This guarantees plenty of variety through the album’s eight tracks, ranging from the dual-harmonized NWoBHM of “Brethren” to the melodeath/meloblack-informed tremolos on “Shield Maiden.” To top it all off, the pummeling war drums of Teo Stamatiadis and gargantuan vocals of Aris Labos lend maximum grit to an already muscular record.
Chaos Fire Vengeance offers a refreshing mixture of ’80s heavy metal and ’00s power metal. Slower, anthemic annihilation is counterpointed by thunderous fury, often during the same song (“Dragon Riders,” Shield Maiden”). The extra melodic death metal DNA brings with it a welcome burst of harsh vocals as well (“War Drums,” “Skeleton Hand”), and the way it all gels effortlessly is impressive. Despite the amount of various elements and influences in the album, the end result is deceivingly simple and effective. It makes Dragon Skull’s style stand out in a similar way Triumpher’s shtick does, but the increased mass and grit of Chaos Fire Vengeance improves the formula from good to face-melting. Though the first half of the album is already potent, the second half is where the band’s ambitions are fully realized. The hooks in “Nampat” and “Skeleton Hand” are immense, and the gargantuan epic “Blood and Souls” is a serious Song o’ the Year contender. I mean, how can you not love a song with Elric and Tanelorn-themed lyrical homages to Cirith Ungol and Blind Guardian?2
Dragon Skull is single-handedly carrying the power metal torch this year. Sure, it might be more heavy/power, but who’s counting? The songwriting is superbly anthemic, and the band knocked it out of the park on their first try in 42 brief minutes. I’ve had some trouble getting all my writing done late in the year for countless reasons, and this album in particular felt difficult to write deeper analysis for. But maybe it’s not necessary. After all, what is a TYMHM but a long-winded way to say “this album rocks, go check it out?” Sometimes it’s just better to keep things short and simple, and all Chaos Fire Vengeance needs is a damn strong barrage of eight massive tunes. Better yet, it’s a brilliant blueprint Dragon Skull can use to further refine their songcraft.
Tracks to Check Out: “Nampat,” “Skeleton Hand,” and “Blood and Souls.”
#2025 #BlindGuardian #Brainstorm #ChaosFireVengeance #CirithUngol #DragonSkull #EpicHeavyMetal #GreekMetal #HeavyMetal #Manowar #PowerMetal #SacredOutcry #SelfReleased #Sunburst #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed2025 #Triumpher #TYMHM
-
Dragon Skull – Chaos Fire Vengeance [Things You Might Have Missed 2025]
By Baguette of Bodom
Greece is a surprising hotbed for power metal-adjacent sounds, providing recent gems such as Sunburst last year and Sacred Outcry’s 2023 masterpiece.1 Dragon Skull is a newcomer to these fields of glory, introducing their burly heavy/power style on their promising self-titled EP as recently as 2022. Now, three years later, they were finally ready to unleash their debut Chaos Fire Vengeance on the world. And oh my, what an entrance it is.
Dragon Skull know how to riff like hell and craft anthemic, cataclysmically heavy tunes. In addition to the fist-pumping Manowar feel the band is going for (“Brethren,” “Skull Crusher”), the songwriting is further guided by the spirit of German power metal, something like Brainstorm further reinforced with later Blind Guardian bombast (“Nampat,” “Blood and Souls”). But what makes the instrumentation incendiary is how guitarists Panos Wallach and Chris Brintzikis take influence from several directions at once. This guarantees plenty of variety through the album’s eight tracks, ranging from the dual-harmonized NWoBHM of “Brethren” to the melodeath/meloblack-informed tremolos on “Shield Maiden.” To top it all off, the pummeling war drums of Teo Stamatiadis and gargantuan vocals of Aris Labos lend maximum grit to an already muscular record.
Chaos Fire Vengeance offers a refreshing mixture of ’80s heavy metal and ’00s power metal. Slower, anthemic annihilation is counterpointed by thunderous fury, often during the same song (“Dragon Riders,” Shield Maiden”). The extra melodic death metal DNA brings with it a welcome burst of harsh vocals as well (“War Drums,” “Skeleton Hand”), and the way it all gels effortlessly is impressive. Despite the amount of various elements and influences in the album, the end result is deceivingly simple and effective. It makes Dragon Skull’s style stand out in a similar way Triumpher’s shtick does, but the increased mass and grit of Chaos Fire Vengeance improves the formula from good to face-melting. Though the first half of the album is already potent, the second half is where the band’s ambitions are fully realized. The hooks in “Nampat” and “Skeleton Hand” are immense, and the gargantuan epic “Blood and Souls” is a serious Song o’ the Year contender. I mean, how can you not love a song with Elric and Tanelorn-themed lyrical homages to Cirith Ungol and Blind Guardian?2
Dragon Skull is single-handedly carrying the power metal torch this year. Sure, it might be more heavy/power, but who’s counting? The songwriting is superbly anthemic, and the band knocked it out of the park on their first try in 42 brief minutes. I’ve had some trouble getting all my writing done late in the year for countless reasons, and this album in particular felt difficult to write deeper analysis for. But maybe it’s not necessary. After all, what is a TYMHM but a long-winded way to say “this album rocks, go check it out?” Sometimes it’s just better to keep things short and simple, and all Chaos Fire Vengeance needs is a damn strong barrage of eight massive tunes. Better yet, it’s a brilliant blueprint Dragon Skull can use to further refine their songcraft.
Tracks to Check Out: “Nampat,” “Skeleton Hand,” and “Blood and Souls.”
#2025 #BlindGuardian #Brainstorm #ChaosFireVengeance #CirithUngol #DragonSkull #EpicHeavyMetal #GreekMetal #HeavyMetal #Manowar #PowerMetal #SacredOutcry #SelfReleased #Sunburst #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed2025 #Triumpher #TYMHM
-
Fluctuating DNA methylation tracks cancer evolution at clinical scale
Assembly and quality control of DNA methylation data We assembled and processed with a harmonized pipeline14 (v4.1; see…
#NewsBeep #News #Health #GB #Geneticinteraction #HumanitiesandSocialSciences #Hydrolases #Metabolicdisorders #multidisciplinary #Science #UK #UnitedKingdom
https://www.newsbeep.com/uk/128220/ -
New on our blog!
Fragmentation Remains Out There
In her opinion, Marìa Santillán argued that the recent Advisory Opinions of ITLOS, IACtHR, and the ICJ “mark a definitive shift from legal fragmentation toward a harmonized framework for state climate obligations.” She elaborates by debating that the “law of the sea and human right
#FragmentationOfInternationalLaw #InternationalEnvironmentalLaw #PublicInternationalLaw
https://voelkerrechtsblog.org/fragmentation-remains-out-there/
-
New on our blog!
Fragmentation Remains Out There
In her opinion, Marìa Santillán argued that the recent Advisory Opinions of ITLOS, IACtHR, and the ICJ “mark a definitive shift from legal fragmentation toward a harmonized framework for state climate obligations.” She elaborates by debating that the “law of the sea and human right
#FragmentationOfInternationalLaw #InternationalEnvironmentalLaw #PublicInternationalLaw
https://voelkerrechtsblog.org/fragmentation-remains-out-there/
-
New on our blog!
Fragmentation Remains Out There
In her opinion, Marìa Santillán argued that the recent Advisory Opinions of ITLOS, IACtHR, and the ICJ “mark a definitive shift from legal fragmentation toward a harmonized framework for state climate obligations.” She elaborates by debating that the “law of the sea and human right
#FragmentationOfInternationalLaw #InternationalEnvironmentalLaw #PublicInternationalLaw
https://voelkerrechtsblog.org/fragmentation-remains-out-there/
-
New on our blog!
Climate Change, Human Rights, and the Law of the Sea
Recent Advisory Opinions from the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR), and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) mark a definitive shift from legal fragmentation toward a harmonized
#InternationalEnvironmentalLaw #PublicInternationalLaw #SystemicIntegration
https://voelkerrechtsblog.org/climate-change-human-rights-and-the-law-of-the-sea/
-
New on our blog!
Climate Change, Human Rights, and the Law of the Sea
Recent Advisory Opinions from the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR), and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) mark a definitive shift from legal fragmentation toward a harmonized
#InternationalEnvironmentalLaw #PublicInternationalLaw #SystemicIntegration
https://voelkerrechtsblog.org/climate-change-human-rights-and-the-law-of-the-sea/
-
New on our blog!
Climate Change, Human Rights, and the Law of the Sea
Recent Advisory Opinions from the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR), and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) mark a definitive shift from legal fragmentation toward a harmonized
#InternationalEnvironmentalLaw #PublicInternationalLaw #SystemicIntegration
https://voelkerrechtsblog.org/climate-change-human-rights-and-the-law-of-the-sea/
-
EP/Split/Single Roundup of 2024, Part 2
By Mystikus Hugebeard
Are you one of many who never listen to EPs? Or splits? Or any other kind of short-form release? It’s a tricky realm to enter, honestly. The EP, for many, represents a maligned category of pieces too short to be satisfying from bands we love. Or, in other cases, too crapshoot an endeavor for a band to step outside their bread ‘n’ butter to play with synths and non-metal and other things that don’t involve motorbikes, swords, or battle. Worse, in modern times, an ‘EP’ designation on streaming services could be a collection of singles from an upcoming work—a ploy to stay on new release radars and playlists.
Thankfully, we here at AMG have a knack for finding the things you should listen to. No, sorry Cassandra,1 that does not mean that I listened to AVOWD yet. And, no random commenter #457, we did not listen to that raw black demo or post-polkacore release with one supporter on Bandcamp or that split that your friend was on or any of the other things you will suggest in the comments section below. That is your home though, so suggest away! In fact, we have the word split in the title, but all of us were too busy building our top 10s or writing reviews2 to cover the tasty Atvm / Diskord jam or the slammin’ Matriphagy / Wretched Inferno morsel or the skramzy Massa Nera / Quiet Fear piece—we snagged a couple splits! Though no one covered Cypherium‘s jazzy and brooding monstrous single, either—what gives? Well, in any case, we did cover the below releases, so enjoy what we have to offer. In this world where shorter form releases can be more economically viable for these underground acts that we cherish, maybe we should pay more attention throughout the year—two pieces at the end just isn’t enough!
And big thanks to my buddy Mystikus Hugebeard for assisting in wrangling these blurbs and carrying the massive weight of the heavy metal underground on the shelf that is his amazingly chiseled and massive shoulders. Check part 1 if you missed it. – Dolph
Underneath // It Exists Between Us – Riding on the coattails of the ambitious and punishing From the Gut of Gaia earlier this year, Pittsburgh quintet Underneath trims the fat into a lean, mean, killing machine humming on gears of deathcore, beatdown, and grind. It Exists Between Us is a distinct release from its predecessor because it leans into grind while still maintaining the act’s signature dissonance and organicity. Ferocity is the name of the game, riffs pummeling with swagger and gusto (“Habsburg Jaw,” “It Exists Between Us”), deathcore chugs dragging listeners to the pits (“Finishing Reconstruction,” “It Dies Within Us”), unhinged attacks executed through obscene tempos (“Absurdist,” “A Gun the Size of a Building”), and ominous and blessedly short bursts of noise and ambiance and samples (“Democratic Peace Theory,” the conclusion of “Finishing Reconstruction”). Vocals bounce between hardcore fries and death growls with reckless abandon, while the drums’ organic and snappy tone commands the brig with ferocity. It’s not all mindless in its experimental elements, but they sure as hell will not give up kicking your teeth in. For those who did not like Knocked Loose this year, Underneath is a pretty suitable substitute. – Dear Hollow
Synestia & Disembodied Tyrant (Collaboration) // The Poetic Edda – Look, I get that everyone and their deathcore dog have wanted to be Lorna Shore since like 2021, and some have succeeded (A Wake in Providence) and many have failed (The Sign of the Swarm, Worm Shepherd). In essence, the deathcore collaboration between Minnesota/Finland duo Synestia and Missouri-based solo project Disembodied Tyrant is Will Ramos-core, but it succeeds in being so much more than that. Classical arrangements, orchestra, choirs, and organs belie the curb-stomping punishment underneath, with breakneck tempos, shifting rhythms, adding a sense of urgency atop the slight blackened frigidity. While “Death Empress” and “I, the Devourer” execute excellent symphonic deathcore in their own right, the title track rips the brutality into a whole ‘nother mythology, thanks to the crescendo that ends with the devastating guest appearance of Shadow of Intent’s Ben Duerr. This songwriting carries over into the punishing closer “Winter,” as startling heaviness and clever uses of tempos give it a likewise backbreaking blend of mammoth and breakneck. The Poetic Edda is deathcore that follows the trends, but it’s a better-than-usual breed indeed. – Dear Hollow
Olde Throne & Paisaunt (Split) // Cearwylm & Misneachd – This split sees New Zealand’s Olde Throne team up with their former bandmate, Zannibal (also ex-Marrasmieli), in his guise as Paisaunt, to deliver a tantalizing sliver of raw, medieval black metal, with heavy folk influences. Paisaunt occupies the first half of the split, majoring in stripped-back, very lo-fi battery. He shifts between something that could easily be an early demo for Spectral Lore-side project Mystras (“Cearwylm”), screaming, screeching, yet eerily melodic, black metal, like Ancient Mastery played through a 90s games console (“Killicrankie,” a cover from Olde Throne’s very good In the Land of Ghosts), and something completely different. The something completely different is the highlight of the whole split: “Bjørgvin” sees all percussion ditched, leaving only picked guitars, mountains of distortion and croaking vocals to create something truly haunting and curiously beautiful. On their half, Olde Throne carry on from where they left off on In the Land of Ghosts, delivering folk-infused, harsh fare, with Harrison McKenzie’s razor-wire shrieks leading the charge. Their frenzied cover of Paisaunt’s “Nigh is Time,” amps up the folk instruments to great effect, while percussion-free folk ditty “Causantín mac Áeda,” ditches all vocals save for sparse female cleans that add an ethereal note to it. – Carcharodon
Daxma // There Will Come Tomorrow – Daxma’s Ruins upon Ruins, which was my first ever TYMHM here,3 was a starkly beautiful slab of post-doom and, since discovering it, I’ve been a bit of a Daxma fanboi. There Will Come Tomorrow is probably closer in tone to Ruins, than their last LP, Unmarked Boxes. Almost entirely instrumental, there is so much space on There Will Come Tomorrow, that it feels like you’re wandering across a vast desert beneath the stars. It’s not empty though, Jessica T.’s violin laps around you like the wind, while Isaac R. and Forrest H.’s guitars rise and swell like towering dunes. The drumming (Thomas I.) fades in and out, only shifting out of first gear occasionally, like on “Wings to Andromeda,” the back end of which raises the tempo and intensity as if a sandstorm is blowing in. The only vocals are the harmonized cleans (Isaac and Jessica) in the background of “Tower of Silence,” which, with the keys, give the closer an air of resigned finality. This stands at odds with the rest of the EP, which gives off a faint sense of hope and light, set against brooding skies. – Carcharodon
New Money // Dinero Nuevo – Groove is in the eye of the beholder, as the saying goes, and New Money has arrested my booty-shakin gaze with their debut EP, Dinero Nuevo. But despite their moniker of inexperience, both Christian Bonnesen (LLNN) and Niclas Sauffaus (Elitest) have grown from their underground grindcore Piss Vortex roots to reunite again in New Money, an amalgamation of furious Danish hardcore colliding with Meshuggah-toned noise rock groove. The steady lockstep of syncopating kick and fuzzed-out bass stomps maintains a pace through these seventeen minutes as if all eight tracks were one long, twanged-out head-bobber. In its perpetual stew of slinky shuffles and amp-shaking breakdowns, New Money finds standout moments in extra bass-loaded pit-churners (“Nithing Pole (Olé Olé),” “Performancer”), Pronged assaults on sanity (“Perpetual Stew,” “Hamleb”), and a fitting Doug Moore (Pyrrhon, Weeping Sores) guest spot that waves heavy the modern KEN mode flag. I’m not a bettin’ man, but I’d venture to say New Money is on the verge of wrecking necks with a grand scheme on a horizon rapidly approaching. Listen thrice and then some. It pays. – Dolphin Whisperer
PISSSHITTER // Human Toilet Garbage Piss – Just about every day the crowded halls of Bandcamp new releases brings forth untold potential for nuggets of enjoyment. At the same time, the pipeline finds clog in the warped bolus of meme-addled, sub-demo quality bedroom trash. However, at this intersection of flowing sound and crumpled talent, certain expressions, particularly those of the lower-brow kind like goregrind and slam, can find a smooth enough contraction to pass to those who need it. And, last January when Human Toilet Garbage Piss emerged, I needed it. This January again, I need it. After the extended push of list season, every writer needs to decompress in some way. For me, the constant toilet-sloshing gurgle, the incessant chromatic chuggery, and the programmed peristaltic rhythms that adorn the fifteen-minute filth that PISSSHITTER has chewed and churned brings an untold level of thought-free joy. And particularly in a short release, that’s all anyone really needs. Sometimes you piss, sometimes you shit.4 – Dolphin Whisperer
Velothian // Path of the Incarnate – Epic black metal can be a difficult thing to pull off, but that hasn’t stopped Velothian from debuting with one of the coolest pieces of epic black metal I’ve heard in a long while, Path of the Incarnate. It’s mid-tempo, highly accessible black metal with big chords, big melodies, and a shockingly pleasant, clean mix that breathes life into the layers of Velothian’s atmosphere. Just shy of 30 minutes spread across five songs, the Morrowind-inspired Path of the Incarnate explores an impossibly wide array of moods and tones, from the solemn determination of “Outlander” to the lonesome riffs and mournful wails of the lead guitars of “The Mire.” The slower pace, solid riffs, and focus on atmosphere both highlights and strengthens the music’s moodiness, and the brief moments of blistering aggression land all the stronger for their infrequence. This is a genuine musical journey that envelops and becomes you; the atmospheric layers and expansive melodies may speak of far-off mountains and slumbering gods, but the intimacy within the riffs of songs like “Outlander,” “Eye of Night,” and “Nomadic” grounds the music in a very tactile way—an epic journey this may be, but one that respects the ground you must tread to arrive at journey’s end. Fine by me, but Dagoth-Ur better have some sick loot. – Mystikus Hugebeard
Sedimentum // Derrière les Portes d’une Arcane Transcendante – With a third logo and sporting artwork looking like it was pulled from a forgotten ’90s Finnish death release, Sedimentum announce another subtle change in sound. Derrière les Portes d’une Arcane Transcendante replaces the anvil-heaving crush of their debut with a much slimier, grease-coated presentation. Drenched in vintage-sounding synths, the mood of “Vilénie” channels a ghastly, creeping abomination crawling out of your speakers, leaving ectoplasm and filth wherever its tendrils touch. But fret not, Sedimentum still know how to bring the pain, with monstrous chugging sections in “Le labyrinthe sempiternel” and “Inhumation céleste (Au carillon mordoré)” invoking the Incantation and worshiping at the Malignant Altar without sacrificing an ounce of the sinister atmosphere. Some might miss the teeth-to-powder assault of previous releases, but if Derrière les Portes d’une Arcane Transcendante is a signal for the future of Sedimentum, we might be in for a grotesque horror indeed. – Alekhines Gun
#2024 #BlackMetal #BlackenedFolkMetal #BlogPost #BrutalDeathMetal #CearwylmMisneachd #Daxma #DeathMetal #Deathcore #DerrièreLesPortesDUneArcaneTranscendante #DineroNuevo #DisembodiedTyrant #DoomMetal #epicBlackMetal #Goregrind #Hardcore #HumanToiletGarbagePiss #ItExistsBetweenUs #Mathcore #NewMoney #OldThrone #Paisaunt #PathOfTheIncarnate #PISSSHITTER #PostMetal #Sedimentum #Slam #SymphonicDeathcore #Synestia #ThePoeticEdda #ThereWillComeTomorrow #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed2024 #Underneath #Velothian
-
EP/Split/Single Roundup of 2024, Part 2
By Mystikus Hugebeard
Are you one of many who never listen to EPs? Or splits? Or any other kind of short-form release? It’s a tricky realm to enter, honestly. The EP, for many, represents a maligned category of pieces too short to be satisfying from bands we love. Or, in other cases, too crapshoot an endeavor for a band to step outside their bread ‘n’ butter to play with synths and non-metal and other things that don’t involve motorbikes, swords, or battle. Worse, in modern times, an ‘EP’ designation on streaming services could be a collection of singles from an upcoming work—a ploy to stay on new release radars and playlists.
Thankfully, we here at AMG have a knack for finding the things you should listen to. No, sorry Cassandra,1 that does not mean that I listened to AVOWD yet. And, no random commenter #457, we did not listen to that raw black demo or post-polkacore release with one supporter on Bandcamp or that split that your friend was on or any of the other things you will suggest in the comments section below. That is your home though, so suggest away! In fact, we have the word split in the title, but all of us were too busy building our top 10s or writing reviews2 to cover the tasty Atvm / Diskord jam or the slammin’ Matriphagy / Wretched Inferno morsel or the skramzy Massa Nera / Quiet Fear piece—we snagged a couple splits! Though no one covered Cypherium‘s jazzy and brooding monstrous single, either—what gives? Well, in any case, we did cover the below releases, so enjoy what we have to offer. In this world where shorter form releases can be more economically viable for these underground acts that we cherish, maybe we should pay more attention throughout the year—two pieces at the end just isn’t enough!
And big thanks to my buddy Mystikus Hugebeard for assisting in wrangling these blurbs and carrying the massive weight of the heavy metal underground on the shelf that is his amazingly chiseled and massive shoulders. Check part 1 if you missed it. – Dolph
Underneath // It Exists Between Us – Riding on the coattails of the ambitious and punishing From the Gut of Gaia earlier this year, Pittsburgh quintet Underneath trims the fat into a lean, mean, killing machine humming on gears of deathcore, beatdown, and grind. It Exists Between Us is a distinct release from its predecessor because it leans into grind while still maintaining the act’s signature dissonance and organicity. Ferocity is the name of the game, riffs pummeling with swagger and gusto (“Habsburg Jaw,” “It Exists Between Us”), deathcore chugs dragging listeners to the pits (“Finishing Reconstruction,” “It Dies Within Us”), unhinged attacks executed through obscene tempos (“Absurdist,” “A Gun the Size of a Building”), and ominous and blessedly short bursts of noise and ambiance and samples (“Democratic Peace Theory,” the conclusion of “Finishing Reconstruction”). Vocals bounce between hardcore fries and death growls with reckless abandon, while the drums’ organic and snappy tone commands the brig with ferocity. It’s not all mindless in its experimental elements, but they sure as hell will not give up kicking your teeth in. For those who did not like Knocked Loose this year, Underneath is a pretty suitable substitute. – Dear Hollow
Synestia & Disembodied Tyrant (Collaboration) // The Poetic Edda – Look, I get that everyone and their deathcore dog have wanted to be Lorna Shore since like 2021, and some have succeeded (A Wake in Providence) and many have failed (The Sign of the Swarm, Worm Shepherd). In essence, the deathcore collaboration between Minnesota/Finland duo Synestia and Missouri-based solo project Disembodied Tyrant is Will Ramos-core, but it succeeds in being so much more than that. Classical arrangements, orchestra, choirs, and organs belie the curb-stomping punishment underneath, with breakneck tempos, shifting rhythms, adding a sense of urgency atop the slight blackened frigidity. While “Death Empress” and “I, the Devourer” execute excellent symphonic deathcore in their own right, the title track rips the brutality into a whole ‘nother mythology, thanks to the crescendo that ends with the devastating guest appearance of Shadow of Intent’s Ben Duerr. This songwriting carries over into the punishing closer “Winter,” as startling heaviness and clever uses of tempos give it a likewise backbreaking blend of mammoth and breakneck. The Poetic Edda is deathcore that follows the trends, but it’s a better-than-usual breed indeed. – Dear Hollow
Olde Throne & Paisaunt (Split) // Cearwylm & Misneachd – This split sees New Zealand’s Olde Throne team up with their former bandmate, Zannibal (also ex-Marrasmieli), in his guise as Paisaunt, to deliver a tantalizing sliver of raw, medieval black metal, with heavy folk influences. Paisaunt occupies the first half of the split, majoring in stripped-back, very lo-fi battery. He shifts between something that could easily be an early demo for Spectral Lore-side project Mystras (“Cearwylm”), screaming, screeching, yet eerily melodic, black metal, like Ancient Mastery played through a 90s games console (“Killicrankie,” a cover from Olde Throne’s very good In the Land of Ghosts), and something completely different. The something completely different is the highlight of the whole split: “Bjørgvin” sees all percussion ditched, leaving only picked guitars, mountains of distortion and croaking vocals to create something truly haunting and curiously beautiful. On their half, Olde Throne carry on from where they left off on In the Land of Ghosts, delivering folk-infused, harsh fare, with Harrison McKenzie’s razor-wire shrieks leading the charge. Their frenzied cover of Paisaunt’s “Nigh is Time,” amps up the folk instruments to great effect, while percussion-free folk ditty “Causantín mac Áeda,” ditches all vocals save for sparse female cleans that add an ethereal note to it. – Carcharodon
Daxma // There Will Come Tomorrow – Daxma’s Ruins upon Ruins, which was my first ever TYMHM here,3 was a starkly beautiful slab of post-doom and, since discovering it, I’ve been a bit of a Daxma fanboi. There Will Come Tomorrow is probably closer in tone to Ruins, than their last LP, Unmarked Boxes. Almost entirely instrumental, there is so much space on There Will Come Tomorrow, that it feels like you’re wandering across a vast desert beneath the stars. It’s not empty though, Jessica T.’s violin laps around you like the wind, while Isaac R. and Forrest H.’s guitars rise and swell like towering dunes. The drumming (Thomas I.) fades in and out, only shifting out of first gear occasionally, like on “Wings to Andromeda,” the back end of which raises the tempo and intensity as if a sandstorm is blowing in. The only vocals are the harmonized cleans (Isaac and Jessica) in the background of “Tower of Silence,” which, with the keys, give the closer an air of resigned finality. This stands at odds with the rest of the EP, which gives off a faint sense of hope and light, set against brooding skies. – Carcharodon
New Money // Dinero Nuevo – Groove is in the eye of the beholder, as the saying goes, and New Money has arrested my booty-shakin gaze with their debut EP, Dinero Nuevo. But despite their moniker of inexperience, both Christian Bonnesen (LLNN) and Niclas Sauffaus (Elitest) have grown from their underground grindcore Piss Vortex roots to reunite again in New Money, an amalgamation of furious Danish hardcore colliding with Meshuggah-toned noise rock groove. The steady lockstep of syncopating kick and fuzzed-out bass stomps maintains a pace through these seventeen minutes as if all eight tracks were one long, twanged-out head-bobber. In its perpetual stew of slinky shuffles and amp-shaking breakdowns, New Money finds standout moments in extra bass-loaded pit-churners (“Nithing Pole (Olé Olé),” “Performancer”), Pronged assaults on sanity (“Perpetual Stew,” “Hamleb”), and a fitting Doug Moore (Pyrrhon, Weeping Sores) guest spot that waves heavy the modern KEN mode flag. I’m not a bettin’ man, but I’d venture to say New Money is on the verge of wrecking necks with a grand scheme on a horizon rapidly approaching. Listen thrice and then some. It pays. – Dolphin Whisperer
PISSSHITTER // Human Toilet Garbage Piss – Just about every day the crowded halls of Bandcamp new releases brings forth untold potential for nuggets of enjoyment. At the same time, the pipeline finds clog in the warped bolus of meme-addled, sub-demo quality bedroom trash. However, at this intersection of flowing sound and crumpled talent, certain expressions, particularly those of the lower-brow kind like goregrind and slam, can find a smooth enough contraction to pass to those who need it. And, last January when Human Toilet Garbage Piss emerged, I needed it. This January again, I need it. After the extended push of list season, every writer needs to decompress in some way. For me, the constant toilet-sloshing gurgle, the incessant chromatic chuggery, and the programmed peristaltic rhythms that adorn the fifteen-minute filth that PISSSHITTER has chewed and churned brings an untold level of thought-free joy. And particularly in a short release, that’s all anyone really needs. Sometimes you piss, sometimes you shit.4 – Dolphin Whisperer
Velothian // Path of the Incarnate – Epic black metal can be a difficult thing to pull off, but that hasn’t stopped Velothian from debuting with one of the coolest pieces of epic black metal I’ve heard in a long while, Path of the Incarnate. It’s mid-tempo, highly accessible black metal with big chords, big melodies, and a shockingly pleasant, clean mix that breathes life into the layers of Velothian’s atmosphere. Just shy of 30 minutes spread across five songs, the Morrowind-inspired Path of the Incarnate explores an impossibly wide array of moods and tones, from the solemn determination of “Outlander” to the lonesome riffs and mournful wails of the lead guitars of “The Mire.” The slower pace, solid riffs, and focus on atmosphere both highlights and strengthens the music’s moodiness, and the brief moments of blistering aggression land all the stronger for their infrequence. This is a genuine musical journey that envelops and becomes you; the atmospheric layers and expansive melodies may speak of far-off mountains and slumbering gods, but the intimacy within the riffs of songs like “Outlander,” “Eye of Night,” and “Nomadic” grounds the music in a very tactile way—an epic journey this may be, but one that respects the ground you must tread to arrive at journey’s end. Fine by me, but Dagoth-Ur better have some sick loot. – Mystikus Hugebeard
Sedimentum // Derrière les Portes d’une Arcane Transcendante – With a third logo and sporting artwork looking like it was pulled from a forgotten ’90s Finnish death release, Sedimentum announce another subtle change in sound. Derrière les Portes d’une Arcane Transcendante replaces the anvil-heaving crush of their debut with a much slimier, grease-coated presentation. Drenched in vintage-sounding synths, the mood of “Vilénie” channels a ghastly, creeping abomination crawling out of your speakers, leaving ectoplasm and filth wherever its tendrils touch. But fret not, Sedimentum still know how to bring the pain, with monstrous chugging sections in “Le labyrinthe sempiternel” and “Inhumation céleste (Au carillon mordoré)” invoking the Incantation and worshiping at the Malignant Altar without sacrificing an ounce of the sinister atmosphere. Some might miss the teeth-to-powder assault of previous releases, but if Derrière les Portes d’une Arcane Transcendante is a signal for the future of Sedimentum, we might be in for a grotesque horror indeed. – Alekhines Gun
#2024 #BlackMetal #BlackenedFolkMetal #BlogPost #BrutalDeathMetal #CearwylmMisneachd #Daxma #DeathMetal #Deathcore #DerrièreLesPortesDUneArcaneTranscendante #DineroNuevo #DisembodiedTyrant #DoomMetal #epicBlackMetal #Goregrind #Hardcore #HumanToiletGarbagePiss #ItExistsBetweenUs #Mathcore #NewMoney #OldThrone #Paisaunt #PathOfTheIncarnate #PISSSHITTER #PostMetal #Sedimentum #Slam #SymphonicDeathcore #Synestia #ThePoeticEdda #ThereWillComeTomorrow #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed2024 #Underneath #Velothian
-
EP/Split/Single Roundup of 2024, Part 2
By Mystikus Hugebeard
Are you one of many who never listen to EPs? Or splits? Or any other kind of short-form release? It’s a tricky realm to enter, honestly. The EP, for many, represents a maligned category of pieces too short to be satisfying from bands we love. Or, in other cases, too crapshoot an endeavor for a band to step outside their bread ‘n’ butter to play with synths and non-metal and other things that don’t involve motorbikes, swords, or battle. Worse, in modern times, an ‘EP’ designation on streaming services could be a collection of singles from an upcoming work—a ploy to stay on new release radars and playlists.
Thankfully, we here at AMG have a knack for finding the things you should listen to. No, sorry Cassandra,1 that does not mean that I listened to AVOWD yet. And, no random commenter #457, we did not listen to that raw black demo or post-polkacore release with one supporter on Bandcamp or that split that your friend was on or any of the other things you will suggest in the comments section below. That is your home though, so suggest away! In fact, we have the word split in the title, but all of us were too busy building our top 10s or writing reviews2 to cover the tasty Atvm / Diskord jam or the slammin’ Matriphagy / Wretched Inferno morsel or the skramzy Massa Nera / Quiet Fear piece—we snagged a couple splits! Though no one covered Cypherium‘s jazzy and brooding monstrous single, either—what gives? Well, in any case, we did cover the below releases, so enjoy what we have to offer. In this world where shorter form releases can be more economically viable for these underground acts that we cherish, maybe we should pay more attention throughout the year—two pieces at the end just isn’t enough!
And big thanks to my buddy Mystikus Hugebeard for assisting in wrangling these blurbs and carrying the massive weight of the heavy metal underground on the shelf that is his amazingly chiseled and massive shoulders. Check part 1 if you missed it. – Dolph
Underneath // It Exists Between Us – Riding on the coattails of the ambitious and punishing From the Gut of Gaia earlier this year, Pittsburgh quintet Underneath trims the fat into a lean, mean, killing machine humming on gears of deathcore, beatdown, and grind. It Exists Between Us is a distinct release from its predecessor because it leans into grind while still maintaining the act’s signature dissonance and organicity. Ferocity is the name of the game, riffs pummeling with swagger and gusto (“Habsburg Jaw,” “It Exists Between Us”), deathcore chugs dragging listeners to the pits (“Finishing Reconstruction,” “It Dies Within Us”), unhinged attacks executed through obscene tempos (“Absurdist,” “A Gun the Size of a Building”), and ominous and blessedly short bursts of noise and ambiance and samples (“Democratic Peace Theory,” the conclusion of “Finishing Reconstruction”). Vocals bounce between hardcore fries and death growls with reckless abandon, while the drums’ organic and snappy tone commands the brig with ferocity. It’s not all mindless in its experimental elements, but they sure as hell will not give up kicking your teeth in. For those who did not like Knocked Loose this year, Underneath is a pretty suitable substitute. – Dear Hollow
Synestia & Disembodied Tyrant (Collaboration) // The Poetic Edda – Look, I get that everyone and their deathcore dog have wanted to be Lorna Shore since like 2021, and some have succeeded (A Wake in Providence) and many have failed (The Sign of the Swarm, Worm Shepherd). In essence, the deathcore collaboration between Minnesota/Finland duo Synestia and Missouri-based solo project Disembodied Tyrant is Will Ramos-core, but it succeeds in being so much more than that. Classical arrangements, orchestra, choirs, and organs belie the curb-stomping punishment underneath, with breakneck tempos, shifting rhythms, adding a sense of urgency atop the slight blackened frigidity. While “Death Empress” and “I, the Devourer” execute excellent symphonic deathcore in their own right, the title track rips the brutality into a whole ‘nother mythology, thanks to the crescendo that ends with the devastating guest appearance of Shadow of Intent’s Ben Duerr. This songwriting carries over into the punishing closer “Winter,” as startling heaviness and clever uses of tempos give it a likewise backbreaking blend of mammoth and breakneck. The Poetic Edda is deathcore that follows the trends, but it’s a better-than-usual breed indeed. – Dear Hollow
Olde Throne & Paisaunt (Split) // Cearwylm & Misneachd – This split sees New Zealand’s Olde Throne team up with their former bandmate, Zannibal (also ex-Marrasmieli), in his guise as Paisaunt, to deliver a tantalizing sliver of raw, medieval black metal, with heavy folk influences. Paisaunt occupies the first half of the split, majoring in stripped-back, very lo-fi battery. He shifts between something that could easily be an early demo for Spectral Lore-side project Mystras (“Cearwylm”), screaming, screeching, yet eerily melodic, black metal, like Ancient Mastery played through a 90s games console (“Killicrankie,” a cover from Olde Throne’s very good In the Land of Ghosts), and something completely different. The something completely different is the highlight of the whole split: “Bjørgvin” sees all percussion ditched, leaving only picked guitars, mountains of distortion and croaking vocals to create something truly haunting and curiously beautiful. On their half, Olde Throne carry on from where they left off on In the Land of Ghosts, delivering folk-infused, harsh fare, with Harrison McKenzie’s razor-wire shrieks leading the charge. Their frenzied cover of Paisaunt’s “Nigh is Time,” amps up the folk instruments to great effect, while percussion-free folk ditty “Causantín mac Áeda,” ditches all vocals save for sparse female cleans that add an ethereal note to it. – Carcharodon
Daxma // There Will Come Tomorrow – Daxma’s Ruins upon Ruins, which was my first ever TYMHM here,3 was a starkly beautiful slab of post-doom and, since discovering it, I’ve been a bit of a Daxma fanboi. There Will Come Tomorrow is probably closer in tone to Ruins, than their last LP, Unmarked Boxes. Almost entirely instrumental, there is so much space on There Will Come Tomorrow, that it feels like you’re wandering across a vast desert beneath the stars. It’s not empty though, Jessica T.’s violin laps around you like the wind, while Isaac R. and Forrest H.’s guitars rise and swell like towering dunes. The drumming (Thomas I.) fades in and out, only shifting out of first gear occasionally, like on “Wings to Andromeda,” the back end of which raises the tempo and intensity as if a sandstorm is blowing in. The only vocals are the harmonized cleans (Isaac and Jessica) in the background of “Tower of Silence,” which, with the keys, give the closer an air of resigned finality. This stands at odds with the rest of the EP, which gives off a faint sense of hope and light, set against brooding skies. – Carcharodon
New Money // Dinero Nuevo – Groove is in the eye of the beholder, as the saying goes, and New Money has arrested my booty-shakin gaze with their debut EP, Dinero Nuevo. But despite their moniker of inexperience, both Christian Bonnesen (LLNN) and Niclas Sauffaus (Elitest) have grown from their underground grindcore Piss Vortex roots to reunite again in New Money, an amalgamation of furious Danish hardcore colliding with Meshuggah-toned noise rock groove. The steady lockstep of syncopating kick and fuzzed-out bass stomps maintains a pace through these seventeen minutes as if all eight tracks were one long, twanged-out head-bobber. In its perpetual stew of slinky shuffles and amp-shaking breakdowns, New Money finds standout moments in extra bass-loaded pit-churners (“Nithing Pole (Olé Olé),” “Performancer”), Pronged assaults on sanity (“Perpetual Stew,” “Hamleb”), and a fitting Doug Moore (Pyrrhon, Weeping Sores) guest spot that waves heavy the modern KEN mode flag. I’m not a bettin’ man, but I’d venture to say New Money is on the verge of wrecking necks with a grand scheme on a horizon rapidly approaching. Listen thrice and then some. It pays. – Dolphin Whisperer
PISSSHITTER // Human Toilet Garbage Piss – Just about every day the crowded halls of Bandcamp new releases brings forth untold potential for nuggets of enjoyment. At the same time, the pipeline finds clog in the warped bolus of meme-addled, sub-demo quality bedroom trash. However, at this intersection of flowing sound and crumpled talent, certain expressions, particularly those of the lower-brow kind like goregrind and slam, can find a smooth enough contraction to pass to those who need it. And, last January when Human Toilet Garbage Piss emerged, I needed it. This January again, I need it. After the extended push of list season, every writer needs to decompress in some way. For me, the constant toilet-sloshing gurgle, the incessant chromatic chuggery, and the programmed peristaltic rhythms that adorn the fifteen-minute filth that PISSSHITTER has chewed and churned brings an untold level of thought-free joy. And particularly in a short release, that’s all anyone really needs. Sometimes you piss, sometimes you shit.4 – Dolphin Whisperer
Velothian // Path of the Incarnate – Epic black metal can be a difficult thing to pull off, but that hasn’t stopped Velothian from debuting with one of the coolest pieces of epic black metal I’ve heard in a long while, Path of the Incarnate. It’s mid-tempo, highly accessible black metal with big chords, big melodies, and a shockingly pleasant, clean mix that breathes life into the layers of Velothian’s atmosphere. Just shy of 30 minutes spread across five songs, the Morrowind-inspired Path of the Incarnate explores an impossibly wide array of moods and tones, from the solemn determination of “Outlander” to the lonesome riffs and mournful wails of the lead guitars of “The Mire.” The slower pace, solid riffs, and focus on atmosphere both highlights and strengthens the music’s moodiness, and the brief moments of blistering aggression land all the stronger for their infrequence. This is a genuine musical journey that envelops and becomes you; the atmospheric layers and expansive melodies may speak of far-off mountains and slumbering gods, but the intimacy within the riffs of songs like “Outlander,” “Eye of Night,” and “Nomadic” grounds the music in a very tactile way—an epic journey this may be, but one that respects the ground you must tread to arrive at journey’s end. Fine by me, but Dagoth-Ur better have some sick loot. – Mystikus Hugebeard
Sedimentum // Derrière les Portes d’une Arcane Transcendante – With a third logo and sporting artwork looking like it was pulled from a forgotten ’90s Finnish death release, Sedimentum announce another subtle change in sound. Derrière les Portes d’une Arcane Transcendante replaces the anvil-heaving crush of their debut with a much slimier, grease-coated presentation. Drenched in vintage-sounding synths, the mood of “Vilénie” channels a ghastly, creeping abomination crawling out of your speakers, leaving ectoplasm and filth wherever its tendrils touch. But fret not, Sedimentum still know how to bring the pain, with monstrous chugging sections in “Le labyrinthe sempiternel” and “Inhumation céleste (Au carillon mordoré)” invoking the Incantation and worshiping at the Malignant Altar without sacrificing an ounce of the sinister atmosphere. Some might miss the teeth-to-powder assault of previous releases, but if Derrière les Portes d’une Arcane Transcendante is a signal for the future of Sedimentum, we might be in for a grotesque horror indeed. – Alekhines Gun
#2024 #BlackMetal #BlackenedFolkMetal #BlogPost #BrutalDeathMetal #CearwylmMisneachd #Daxma #DeathMetal #Deathcore #DerrièreLesPortesDUneArcaneTranscendante #DineroNuevo #DisembodiedTyrant #DoomMetal #epicBlackMetal #Goregrind #Hardcore #HumanToiletGarbagePiss #ItExistsBetweenUs #Mathcore #NewMoney #OldThrone #Paisaunt #PathOfTheIncarnate #PISSSHITTER #PostMetal #Sedimentum #Slam #SymphonicDeathcore #Synestia #ThePoeticEdda #ThereWillComeTomorrow #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed2024 #Underneath #Velothian
-
Moondark – The Abysmal Womb Review
By Tyme
Thirty years is a long time to spend brewing up a debut album, but for Sweden’s Moondark, it’s taken precisely that. Neither the result of sloth nor overwrought perfectionism, Moondark‘s cadre of musicians—composed of current members from Interment and October Tide—have put in plenty of work during this time, contributing to some of Sweden’s heaviest hitters like Katatonia, Centinex, Necrophobic and the tragically short-lived Trees of Eternity.1 Not so hot on the heels then of their independently released Demo #1 in 1993, which Xtreem Music reissued as The Shadowpath in 2015, Moondark and label Pulverised Records are finally ready to serve up debut proper The Abysmal Womb to the masses. Will it shine brightly as a beacon at night, or would it be better for this lunar body to remain eclipsed?
Moondark trades the HM2 pedals and melodicism of their day jobs for a pummeling, straightforward death-doom style on The Abysmal Womb. Solo-less and stripped of technicality as it is, the simple harmonized leads layered over crushing power chords rend the ears and do most of The Abysmal Womb’s damage. Johan Jansson’s and Mattias Norrman’s deliberately restrained yet devastating guitar work conjures strong Bolt Thrower vibes (“Suffer the Dark,” “Infernal Genocide”), as well as whiffs of Bloodbath (“Palliative Dusk”) and sludgy sprinklings of early Crowbar (“Sterile Earth”). Combined with Allan Lundholm’s beefy bass lines and Kennet Englund’s crushing drums, Moondark leaves listeners battered and bruised, as if having survived a ruthless session of sledgehammer flagellation.
Don’t let its near holiday release fool you, there’s no joy within the cavernous confines of Moondark’s creation. The Abysmal Womb’s opening salvo is a one-two punch to the solar plexus and the album’s highlight. “Where Once Was Life,” with its almost Cathedral-esque doom bluesy swagger, will have your head bobbing and your face stanking while the dismal dirge of follow-up “Suffer the Dark” steamrolls you into submission under tank treads of skull-crushing riffs. You’ll be left pining for General Willets and his army of Warmasters to come to the rescue as The Abysmal Womb continues to march, one boot-stomping riff after another. Decimating the last bastion of hope then, and perfectly placed in Peter Bjärgö’s warm and hearty mix are the brutishly discernible growls and icy rasps of vocalist Alexander Högbom, whose Peter Tätgren-does-Ofermod delivery solidifies the relentless atmosphere Moondark is trying to achieve.
However, as The Abysmal Womb crawls past its midpoint, it becomes painfully clear that the horse has been annihilated, yet the beatings continue. Moondark’s firm commitment to plodding pace and nothing-but-bludgeoning riff patterns sees fatigue set in by the end of “Infernal Genocide,” rendering the remainder of The Abysmal Womb a nearly indistinguishable collection of mid-paced riffs as opposed to individually diverse songs. And while I wouldn’t categorize The Abysmal Womb as overtly bloated at just over forty-six minutes, it could benefit from some sloughing. The final track, “Immersed to Crypts,” is the prime example of trimmable fat; with its funeral-like pace and near eight-minute run time—two minutes of which are an ambient outro—spoiling what could have been a stronger outing had the album concluded with the title track.
Scouring the promo pit in December can be tricky, and if you asked me whether I’d enjoy an album made up entirely of mid-paced Bolt Thrower-core and “Eaten”-like Bloodbathery I would immediately tell you, “Hell yes!” But too much of a good thing can sometimes be too much. The Abysmal Womb is a good album, but it suffers under the weight of its commitment. With a dash of the speedy ferocity from Interment and a pinch of October Tide’s melodicism, Moondark might have a masterpiece in its future; the cachet of its members suggests as much. I just hope we don’t have to wait another thirty years to find out.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Pulverised Records
Websites: moondark666.bandcamp.com | pulverised.bandcamp.com |
facebook.com/moondark666
Releases Worldwide: December 20th, 2024#2024 #30 #Bloodbath #BoltThrower #Crowbar #DeathMetal #Dec24 #DoomMetal #Moondark #PulverisedRecords #Review #Reviews #SludgeMetal #SwedishMetal #TheAbysmalWomb
-
Moondark – The Abysmal Womb Review
By Tyme
Thirty years is a long time to spend brewing up a debut album, but for Sweden’s Moondark, it’s taken precisely that. Neither the result of sloth nor overwrought perfectionism, Moondark‘s cadre of musicians—composed of current members from Interment and October Tide—have put in plenty of work during this time, contributing to some of Sweden’s heaviest hitters like Katatonia, Centinex, Necrophobic and the tragically short-lived Trees of Eternity.1 Not so hot on the heels then of their independently released Demo #1 in 1993, which Xtreem Music reissued as The Shadowpath in 2015, Moondark and label Pulverised Records are finally ready to serve up debut proper The Abysmal Womb to the masses. Will it shine brightly as a beacon at night, or would it be better for this lunar body to remain eclipsed?
Moondark trades the HM2 pedals and melodicism of their day jobs for a pummeling, straightforward death-doom style on The Abysmal Womb. Solo-less and stripped of technicality as it is, the simple harmonized leads layered over crushing power chords rend the ears and do most of The Abysmal Womb’s damage. Johan Jansson’s and Mattias Norrman’s deliberately restrained yet devastating guitar work conjures strong Bolt Thrower vibes (“Suffer the Dark,” “Infernal Genocide”), as well as whiffs of Bloodbath (“Palliative Dusk”) and sludgy sprinklings of early Crowbar (“Sterile Earth”). Combined with Allan Lundholm’s beefy bass lines and Kennet Englund’s crushing drums, Moondark leaves listeners battered and bruised, as if having survived a ruthless session of sledgehammer flagellation.
Don’t let its near holiday release fool you, there’s no joy within the cavernous confines of Moondark’s creation. The Abysmal Womb’s opening salvo is a one-two punch to the solar plexus and the album’s highlight. “Where Once Was Life,” with its almost Cathedral-esque doom bluesy swagger, will have your head bobbing and your face stanking while the dismal dirge of follow-up “Suffer the Dark” steamrolls you into submission under tank treads of skull-crushing riffs. You’ll be left pining for General Willets and his army of Warmasters to come to the rescue as The Abysmal Womb continues to march, one boot-stomping riff after another. Decimating the last bastion of hope then, and perfectly placed in Peter Bjärgö’s warm and hearty mix are the brutishly discernible growls and icy rasps of vocalist Alexander Högbom, whose Peter Tätgren-does-Ofermod delivery solidifies the relentless atmosphere Moondark is trying to achieve.
However, as The Abysmal Womb crawls past its midpoint, it becomes painfully clear that the horse has been annihilated, yet the beatings continue. Moondark’s firm commitment to plodding pace and nothing-but-bludgeoning riff patterns sees fatigue set in by the end of “Infernal Genocide,” rendering the remainder of The Abysmal Womb a nearly indistinguishable collection of mid-paced riffs as opposed to individually diverse songs. And while I wouldn’t categorize The Abysmal Womb as overtly bloated at just over forty-six minutes, it could benefit from some sloughing. The final track, “Immersed to Crypts,” is the prime example of trimmable fat; with its funeral-like pace and near eight-minute run time—two minutes of which are an ambient outro—spoiling what could have been a stronger outing had the album concluded with the title track.
Scouring the promo pit in December can be tricky, and if you asked me whether I’d enjoy an album made up entirely of mid-paced Bolt Thrower-core and “Eaten”-like Bloodbathery I would immediately tell you, “Hell yes!” But too much of a good thing can sometimes be too much. The Abysmal Womb is a good album, but it suffers under the weight of its commitment. With a dash of the speedy ferocity from Interment and a pinch of October Tide’s melodicism, Moondark might have a masterpiece in its future; the cachet of its members suggests as much. I just hope we don’t have to wait another thirty years to find out.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Pulverised Records
Websites: moondark666.bandcamp.com | pulverised.bandcamp.com |
facebook.com/moondark666
Releases Worldwide: December 20th, 2024#2024 #30 #Bloodbath #BoltThrower #Crowbar #DeathMetal #Dec24 #DoomMetal #Moondark #PulverisedRecords #Review #Reviews #SludgeMetal #SwedishMetal #TheAbysmalWomb
-
Moondark – The Abysmal Womb Review
By Tyme
Thirty years is a long time to spend brewing up a debut album, but for Sweden’s Moondark, it’s taken precisely that. Neither the result of sloth nor overwrought perfectionism, Moondark‘s cadre of musicians—composed of current members from Interment and October Tide—have put in plenty of work during this time, contributing to some of Sweden’s heaviest hitters like Katatonia, Centinex, Necrophobic and the tragically short-lived Trees of Eternity.1 Not so hot on the heels then of their independently released Demo #1 in 1993, which Xtreem Music reissued as The Shadowpath in 2015, Moondark and label Pulverised Records are finally ready to serve up debut proper The Abysmal Womb to the masses. Will it shine brightly as a beacon at night, or would it be better for this lunar body to remain eclipsed?
Moondark trades the HM2 pedals and melodicism of their day jobs for a pummeling, straightforward death-doom style on The Abysmal Womb. Solo-less and stripped of technicality as it is, the simple harmonized leads layered over crushing power chords rend the ears and do most of The Abysmal Womb’s damage. Johan Jansson’s and Mattias Norrman’s deliberately restrained yet devastating guitar work conjures strong Bolt Thrower vibes (“Suffer the Dark,” “Infernal Genocide”), as well as whiffs of Bloodbath (“Palliative Dusk”) and sludgy sprinklings of early Crowbar (“Sterile Earth”). Combined with Allan Lundholm’s beefy bass lines and Kennet Englund’s crushing drums, Moondark leaves listeners battered and bruised, as if having survived a ruthless session of sledgehammer flagellation.
Don’t let its near holiday release fool you, there’s no joy within the cavernous confines of Moondark’s creation. The Abysmal Womb’s opening salvo is a one-two punch to the solar plexus and the album’s highlight. “Where Once Was Life,” with its almost Cathedral-esque doom bluesy swagger, will have your head bobbing and your face stanking while the dismal dirge of follow-up “Suffer the Dark” steamrolls you into submission under tank treads of skull-crushing riffs. You’ll be left pining for General Willets and his army of Warmasters to come to the rescue as The Abysmal Womb continues to march, one boot-stomping riff after another. Decimating the last bastion of hope then, and perfectly placed in Peter Bjärgö’s warm and hearty mix are the brutishly discernible growls and icy rasps of vocalist Alexander Högbom, whose Peter Tätgren-does-Ofermod delivery solidifies the relentless atmosphere Moondark is trying to achieve.
However, as The Abysmal Womb crawls past its midpoint, it becomes painfully clear that the horse has been annihilated, yet the beatings continue. Moondark’s firm commitment to plodding pace and nothing-but-bludgeoning riff patterns sees fatigue set in by the end of “Infernal Genocide,” rendering the remainder of The Abysmal Womb a nearly indistinguishable collection of mid-paced riffs as opposed to individually diverse songs. And while I wouldn’t categorize The Abysmal Womb as overtly bloated at just over forty-six minutes, it could benefit from some sloughing. The final track, “Immersed to Crypts,” is the prime example of trimmable fat; with its funeral-like pace and near eight-minute run time—two minutes of which are an ambient outro—spoiling what could have been a stronger outing had the album concluded with the title track.
Scouring the promo pit in December can be tricky, and if you asked me whether I’d enjoy an album made up entirely of mid-paced Bolt Thrower-core and “Eaten”-like Bloodbathery I would immediately tell you, “Hell yes!” But too much of a good thing can sometimes be too much. The Abysmal Womb is a good album, but it suffers under the weight of its commitment. With a dash of the speedy ferocity from Interment and a pinch of October Tide’s melodicism, Moondark might have a masterpiece in its future; the cachet of its members suggests as much. I just hope we don’t have to wait another thirty years to find out.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Pulverised Records
Websites: moondark666.bandcamp.com | pulverised.bandcamp.com |
facebook.com/moondark666
Releases Worldwide: December 20th, 2024#2024 #30 #Bloodbath #BoltThrower #Crowbar #DeathMetal #Dec24 #DoomMetal #Moondark #PulverisedRecords #Review #Reviews #SludgeMetal #SwedishMetal #TheAbysmalWomb
-
Very successful week with another paper published: Steffen Zacharias et al.: Achieving Harmonized and Integrated Long-Term Environmental Observation of Essential Ecosystem Variables - The eLTER Framework of Standard Observations.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2025EF006743
Combining a suggested set of essential ecosystem variable with measurement protocols and associated costs.
-
Very successful week with another paper published: Steffen Zacharias et al.: Achieving Harmonized and Integrated Long-Term Environmental Observation of Essential Ecosystem Variables - The eLTER Framework of Standard Observations.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2025EF006743
Combining a suggested set of essential ecosystem variable with measurement protocols and associated costs.
-
Very successful week with another paper published: Steffen Zacharias et al.: Achieving Harmonized and Integrated Long-Term Environmental Observation of Essential Ecosystem Variables - The eLTER Framework of Standard Observations.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2025EF006743
Combining a suggested set of essential ecosystem variable with measurement protocols and associated costs.
-
Very successful week with another paper published: Steffen Zacharias et al.: Achieving Harmonized and Integrated Long-Term Environmental Observation of Essential Ecosystem Variables - The eLTER Framework of Standard Observations.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2025EF006743
Combining a suggested set of essential ecosystem variable with measurement protocols and associated costs.
-
Tómarúm – Beyond Obsidian Euphoria
By Kenstrosity
Over the past three years, I’ve come to appreciate Tómarúm’s surprising, mature debut Ash in Realms of Stone Icons at a deeper level than I had hoped to reach in the mere two weeks provided at the time. While I stand by my overall score—and by my critiques—my relationship with that record grew more meaningful and rewarding with time. Tómarúm’s spiritually charged, introspective point of view speaks volumes of suffering and strife, while the complexity of their musical compositions reflects in uncompromising clarity the fluid order that governs a turbulent chaos of the soul and of the heart. With this fresh in mind, I approach follow-up Beyond Obsidian Euphoria with great curiosity and equal anticipation.
Occupying a niche of progressive metal most commonly associated with acts like Ne Obliviscaris, but also connected to newer groups such as Amiensus, An Abstract Illusion, and Dawn of Ouroboros, Atlanta quintet Tómarúm boast an especially fluid and emotive sound. Progressive structures and ever-shifting phrases abound, yet never intrude, obstruct, or interrupt. Technical prowess reminiscent of Fallujah and Lunar Chamber creates additional dynamics most noticeably felt in the bass guitar, lead guitar, and drum performances. And, to my great delight, a new twist of machine-gun burst riffing pulled from Warforged‘s I: Voice playbook grants a palpable, terrifying presence. Beyond Obsidian Euphoria takes all of these elements, intrinsic to Tómarúm’s identity, and implements them with the same finesse and refinement of the last record, but with an altogether more hopeful tone. While still dealing with subjects of profound anguish and emotional turmoil, Beyond explores further the catharsis borne of dedicated, dogged persistence against those internal demons which would otherwise have your singular light extinguished from this mortal coil.
Nothing better exemplifies this shift in tone than the one-two punch of standout duo “Shallow Ecstasy” and “Shed This Erroneous Skin.” Epic sweeps of ominous shadow collide with shimmers of brilliance as menacing pummels advance their campaign against soaring leads and righteous solos. Those blackened rasps that voiced past work join the fray again as crooning cleans provide motivating counterpoint to fuel the flame of continuing life. A vivid chiaroscuro of composition personifies every moment across this 16-minute span, but the surrounding environs offer just as many dynamic moments of beauty and beastliness. The remarkably short and savage “Blood Mirage” deals massive damage to the cranium as it executes a brutal assault of riffs and tech-y oscillations, while “Halcyon Memory: Dreamscapes Across the Blue” evokes an Hail Spirit Noir-esque airiness that belies its double-bass propulsion and quasi-bluesy harmonized solos. The gamut of sounds, styles and textures malleate as soft putty in Tómarúm’s talented fingers, which allows their unfaltering focus on story and character to shine ever brighter on Beyond’s second immense suite of epics, “Silver, Ashen Tears” and “The Final Pursuit of Light.” Any impression of bloat falls to the wayside in the face of such nuanced and well-realized musical design, as melody, pace, substance, and technicality find a kaleidoscopic harmony striking in its multifaceted vibrancy.
At just under 70 minutes, Beyond Obsidian Euphoria daunts any audience with a monumental investment. The dividends, however, more than make up for the sacrifice. That is, if the listener is willing and ready to dig deep and find those moments most intimate and vulnerable. That delicate pluck of the string in a phrase flanked by vicious scrapes; the contrabass frequency that stimulates the spine as starry tremolos dot the sky; the desperate howl of pain and of shattered spirit that preludes an epiphany of truth and of healing; the miraculous congregation of hook and sophistication moving in tandem towards a shared apex of sound and story; all find a place in this wonderful piece, and each piece has its place. Unlike my experience with Ash in Realms, my experience with Beyond is one of complete and utter immersion. There is hardly a moment I would change, barely a segment I would cut—save for the fluffy interlude “Introspection III,” appearing too early on to leave a lasting mark by the close.
Occasionally, I find myself unable to dedicate the time necessary to engage with Tómarúm’s latest opus. I expect that others will experience the same unfortunate circumstance. While that certainly poses a question to the value statement of an album this long, specifically because its individual chapters can’t be separated without compromising the integrity of the whole, Beyond Obsidian Euphoria feels like a rare record that needs every second it consumes. The passion and personality Tómarúm exude in this work demands the price of time to bloom. If you give it the space to do so, what awaits can only be described as euphoric.
Rating: Excellent!
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Prosthetic Records
Websites: tomarum.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/TomarumBM/
Releases Worldwide: April 4th, 2025#2025 #45 #AmericanMetal #Amiensus #AnAbstractIllusion #Apr25 #BeyondObsidianEuphoria #BlackMetal #Cormorant #DawnOfOuroboros #DeathMetal #Fallujah #HailSpiritNoir #LunarChamber #MelodicBlackMetal #MelodicDeathMetal #NeObliviscaris #ProgressiveBlackMetal #ProgressiveDeathMetal #ProgressiveMetal #ProstheticRecords #Review #Reviews #TechnicalDeathMetal #Tómarúm #Warforged
-
Tómarúm – Beyond Obsidian Euphoria
By Kenstrosity
Over the past three years, I’ve come to appreciate Tómarúm’s surprising, mature debut Ash in Realms of Stone Icons at a deeper level than I had hoped to reach in the mere two weeks provided at the time. While I stand by my overall score—and by my critiques—my relationship with that record grew more meaningful and rewarding with time. Tómarúm’s spiritually charged, introspective point of view speaks volumes of suffering and strife, while the complexity of their musical compositions reflects in uncompromising clarity the fluid order that governs a turbulent chaos of the soul and of the heart. With this fresh in mind, I approach follow-up Beyond Obsidian Euphoria with great curiosity and equal anticipation.
Occupying a niche of progressive metal most commonly associated with acts like Ne Obliviscaris, but also connected to newer groups such as Amiensus, An Abstract Illusion, and Dawn of Ouroboros, Atlanta quintet Tómarúm boast an especially fluid and emotive sound. Progressive structures and ever-shifting phrases abound, yet never intrude, obstruct, or interrupt. Technical prowess reminiscent of Fallujah and Lunar Chamber creates additional dynamics most noticeably felt in the bass guitar, lead guitar, and drum performances. And, to my great delight, a new twist of machine-gun burst riffing pulled from Warforged‘s I: Voice playbook grants a palpable, terrifying presence. Beyond Obsidian Euphoria takes all of these elements, intrinsic to Tómarúm’s identity, and implements them with the same finesse and refinement of the last record, but with an altogether more hopeful tone. While still dealing with subjects of profound anguish and emotional turmoil, Beyond explores further the catharsis borne of dedicated, dogged persistence against those internal demons which would otherwise have your singular light extinguished from this mortal coil.
Nothing better exemplifies this shift in tone than the one-two punch of standout duo “Shallow Ecstasy” and “Shed This Erroneous Skin.” Epic sweeps of ominous shadow collide with shimmers of brilliance as menacing pummels advance their campaign against soaring leads and righteous solos. Those blackened rasps that voiced past work join the fray again as crooning cleans provide motivating counterpoint to fuel the flame of continuing life. A vivid chiaroscuro of composition personifies every moment across this 16-minute span, but the surrounding environs offer just as many dynamic moments of beauty and beastliness. The remarkably short and savage “Blood Mirage” deals massive damage to the cranium as it executes a brutal assault of riffs and tech-y oscillations, while “Halcyon Memory: Dreamscapes Across the Blue” evokes an Hail Spirit Noir-esque airiness that belies its double-bass propulsion and quasi-bluesy harmonized solos. The gamut of sounds, styles and textures malleate as soft putty in Tómarúm’s talented fingers, which allows their unfaltering focus on story and character to shine ever brighter on Beyond’s second immense suite of epics, “Silver, Ashen Tears” and “The Final Pursuit of Light.” Any impression of bloat falls to the wayside in the face of such nuanced and well-realized musical design, as melody, pace, substance, and technicality find a kaleidoscopic harmony striking in its multifaceted vibrancy.
At just under 70 minutes, Beyond Obsidian Euphoria daunts any audience with a monumental investment. The dividends, however, more than make up for the sacrifice. That is, if the listener is willing and ready to dig deep and find those moments most intimate and vulnerable. That delicate pluck of the string in a phrase flanked by vicious scrapes; the contrabass frequency that stimulates the spine as starry tremolos dot the sky; the desperate howl of pain and of shattered spirit that preludes an epiphany of truth and of healing; the miraculous congregation of hook and sophistication moving in tandem towards a shared apex of sound and story; all find a place in this wonderful piece, and each piece has its place. Unlike my experience with Ash in Realms, my experience with Beyond is one of complete and utter immersion. There is hardly a moment I would change, barely a segment I would cut—save for the fluffy interlude “Introspection III,” appearing too early on to leave a lasting mark by the close.
Occasionally, I find myself unable to dedicate the time necessary to engage with Tómarúm’s latest opus. I expect that others will experience the same unfortunate circumstance. While that certainly poses a question to the value statement of an album this long, specifically because its individual chapters can’t be separated without compromising the integrity of the whole, Beyond Obsidian Euphoria feels like a rare record that needs every second it consumes. The passion and personality Tómarúm exude in this work demands the price of time to bloom. If you give it the space to do so, what awaits can only be described as euphoric.
Rating: Excellent!
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Prosthetic Records
Websites: tomarum.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/TomarumBM/
Releases Worldwide: April 4th, 2025#2025 #45 #AmericanMetal #Amiensus #AnAbstractIllusion #Apr25 #BeyondObsidianEuphoria #BlackMetal #Cormorant #DawnOfOuroboros #DeathMetal #Fallujah #HailSpiritNoir #LunarChamber #MelodicBlackMetal #MelodicDeathMetal #NeObliviscaris #ProgressiveBlackMetal #ProgressiveDeathMetal #ProgressiveMetal #ProstheticRecords #Review #Reviews #TechnicalDeathMetal #Tómarúm #Warforged
-
Tómarúm – Beyond Obsidian Euphoria
By Kenstrosity
Over the past three years, I’ve come to appreciate Tómarúm’s surprising, mature debut Ash in Realms of Stone Icons at a deeper level than I had hoped to reach in the mere two weeks provided at the time. While I stand by my overall score—and by my critiques—my relationship with that record grew more meaningful and rewarding with time. Tómarúm’s spiritually charged, introspective point of view speaks volumes of suffering and strife, while the complexity of their musical compositions reflects in uncompromising clarity the fluid order that governs a turbulent chaos of the soul and of the heart. With this fresh in mind, I approach follow-up Beyond Obsidian Euphoria with great curiosity and equal anticipation.
Occupying a niche of progressive metal most commonly associated with acts like Ne Obliviscaris, but also connected to newer groups such as Amiensus, An Abstract Illusion, and Dawn of Ouroboros, Atlanta quintet Tómarúm boast an especially fluid and emotive sound. Progressive structures and ever-shifting phrases abound, yet never intrude, obstruct, or interrupt. Technical prowess reminiscent of Fallujah and Lunar Chamber creates additional dynamics most noticeably felt in the bass guitar, lead guitar, and drum performances. And, to my great delight, a new twist of machine-gun burst riffing pulled from Warforged‘s I: Voice playbook grants a palpable, terrifying presence. Beyond Obsidian Euphoria takes all of these elements, intrinsic to Tómarúm’s identity, and implements them with the same finesse and refinement of the last record, but with an altogether more hopeful tone. While still dealing with subjects of profound anguish and emotional turmoil, Beyond explores further the catharsis borne of dedicated, dogged persistence against those internal demons which would otherwise have your singular light extinguished from this mortal coil.
Nothing better exemplifies this shift in tone than the one-two punch of standout duo “Shallow Ecstasy” and “Shed This Erroneous Skin.” Epic sweeps of ominous shadow collide with shimmers of brilliance as menacing pummels advance their campaign against soaring leads and righteous solos. Those blackened rasps that voiced past work join the fray again as crooning cleans provide motivating counterpoint to fuel the flame of continuing life. A vivid chiaroscuro of composition personifies every moment across this 16-minute span, but the surrounding environs offer just as many dynamic moments of beauty and beastliness. The remarkably short and savage “Blood Mirage” deals massive damage to the cranium as it executes a brutal assault of riffs and tech-y oscillations, while “Halcyon Memory: Dreamscapes Across the Blue” evokes an Hail Spirit Noir-esque airiness that belies its double-bass propulsion and quasi-bluesy harmonized solos. The gamut of sounds, styles and textures malleate as soft putty in Tómarúm’s talented fingers, which allows their unfaltering focus on story and character to shine ever brighter on Beyond’s second immense suite of epics, “Silver, Ashen Tears” and “The Final Pursuit of Light.” Any impression of bloat falls to the wayside in the face of such nuanced and well-realized musical design, as melody, pace, substance, and technicality find a kaleidoscopic harmony striking in its multifaceted vibrancy.
At just under 70 minutes, Beyond Obsidian Euphoria daunts any audience with a monumental investment. The dividends, however, more than make up for the sacrifice. That is, if the listener is willing and ready to dig deep and find those moments most intimate and vulnerable. That delicate pluck of the string in a phrase flanked by vicious scrapes; the contrabass frequency that stimulates the spine as starry tremolos dot the sky; the desperate howl of pain and of shattered spirit that preludes an epiphany of truth and of healing; the miraculous congregation of hook and sophistication moving in tandem towards a shared apex of sound and story; all find a place in this wonderful piece, and each piece has its place. Unlike my experience with Ash in Realms, my experience with Beyond is one of complete and utter immersion. There is hardly a moment I would change, barely a segment I would cut—save for the fluffy interlude “Introspection III,” appearing too early on to leave a lasting mark by the close.
Occasionally, I find myself unable to dedicate the time necessary to engage with Tómarúm’s latest opus. I expect that others will experience the same unfortunate circumstance. While that certainly poses a question to the value statement of an album this long, specifically because its individual chapters can’t be separated without compromising the integrity of the whole, Beyond Obsidian Euphoria feels like a rare record that needs every second it consumes. The passion and personality Tómarúm exude in this work demands the price of time to bloom. If you give it the space to do so, what awaits can only be described as euphoric.
Rating: Excellent!
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Prosthetic Records
Websites: tomarum.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/TomarumBM/
Releases Worldwide: April 4th, 2025#2025 #45 #AmericanMetal #Amiensus #AnAbstractIllusion #Apr25 #BeyondObsidianEuphoria #BlackMetal #Cormorant #DawnOfOuroboros #DeathMetal #Fallujah #HailSpiritNoir #LunarChamber #MelodicBlackMetal #MelodicDeathMetal #NeObliviscaris #ProgressiveBlackMetal #ProgressiveDeathMetal #ProgressiveMetal #ProstheticRecords #Review #Reviews #TechnicalDeathMetal #Tómarúm #Warforged