#aethereus — Public Fediverse posts

Blighted Eye – Agony’s Bespoke Review

By Thus Spoke

In crafting their debut LP, Agony’s Bespoke, Blighted Eye claims to draw heavy inspiration from Jennifer Kent’s 2018 film The Nightingale. The film follows an Irish ex-convict seeking revenge on the British settlers who raped her and murdered her husband and infant child.1 Its honest portrayal of the hollowness of vengeance and the psychological impact of trauma are aspects Blighted Eye aims to transfer to its own interpretation of transformative tragedy. In the appropriately epic span of an hour, Agony’s Bespoke weaves a tapestry of hauntingly familiar progressive death and black metal that hides a few gut-wrenching punches in its deceptively cerebral folds.

The unlikely convergence of technical death metal and funeral doom gives rise to Blighted Eye’s stirring character. With members from Aethereus on guitars, vocals, and bass respectively, and a drummer from acts Mesmur and Pantheist, Blighted Eye’s pedigree is steeped in two very different interpretations of grandiosity and heady emotionality. Not that there’s more than a hint of doominess about Agony’s Bespoke, but the influence is noteworthy, as it helps produce an unusually affective strain of progressive extreme metal. I’m reminded of a hybrid of Hath and Alustrium, and even some Wake-isms rear their head, not purely in terms of literal sound, but in the intense feeling expressed in an otherwise niche, inaccessible musical style. From the many vibrant charges of frenetic, key-changing guitarwork and rhythmic complexity, to the swooping soloing and occasional moments of stillness, a strong thread of pathos runs unbroken through the album.

The use of intricate, extreme instrumentality to compel rather than alienate the listener is where Blighted Eye shows its mettle. Acrobatic solos don’t just dazzle with technicality, they impress in their development of the predominantly mournful themes (“In Enmity,” “A Feast for Worms”). Undulating, punctuating percussion isn’t just exhilarating and groovy, its tempo changes and crescendos sway the listener to the rhythm of Agony’s Bespoke’s tragedy, telling us when to breathe and when to release the tension wrought in clashing dissonance and torrential blastbeats (“The Wounding,” “Howls from Beyond the Mist,” “A Reverent Stillness”). And the key to it all is some of the most beautiful refrains technical death metal has to offer. With a shivery lick of excitement comes the tumbling main melody of opener “Tragoedia,” almost out of nowhere, yet inevitable from the restless anticipation of cymbal shuffling, and gradually intensifying riffs. With plaintive urgency, wailing lines (“In Emnity,” “Pallid,” and “A Reverent Stillness”) and blackened tirades (“The Wounding”) work together with vicious roars to smash open your ribcage and wrench your heart out of your chest, as the tempos batter you about in this tempest of emotion to the bounce of a fluttering riff (“Tragoedia,” “A Reverent Stillness”).

The only thing holding Blighted Eye back is ambition. As stirring as Agony’s Bespoke is, its strength is diluted by the runtime that overextends the reach of even the strongest tracks beyond their grasp. No song, save the short interlude, “Nightingale,”2 is less than six minutes long, and most could stand to lose a minute or so. There is the sense that the band had so many great ideas, they wanted to include them all. Take, for instance, the decisively dissonant death metal that characterizes “Pallid,” and the haunting, bleating cleans that arise here and there (“Howls from Beyond the Mist,” and the title track). The former is brilliantly executed, and leads to one of the best cuts on the album, though tonally it sticks out and is a little underdeveloped. The latter fits more naturally into the stylistic template but is a tad less strong. The music would also have benefitted from a more spacious mix that would allow its layered intricacies to allow the room to breathe and deliver the impact it is capable of. It’s nothing that can’t be improved upon and tightened up in the next release, though.

Agony’s Bespoke is, despite its flaws, a powerful record, and one for whom even the sin of an overlong runtime can’t truly detract from the impact it leaves on its audience. As it draws to a close, you do feel as though you’ve been on a journey, one whose peaks are worth its valleys. If this is what Blighted Eye can do in their debut, the scene had better be ready when they return to tell their next tale.

Rating: Very Good
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s CBR mp3
Label: Beyond the Top
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: September 20th, 2024

#2024 #35 #Aethereus #AgonySBespoke #Alustrium #AmericanMetal #BeyondTheTopRecords #BlackMetal #BlackenedDeathMetal #BlightedEye #DeathMetal #Hath #ProgressiveBlackMetal #ProgressiveDeathMetal #Review #Reviews #Sep24 #Wake

Blighted Eye – Agony’s Bespoke Review

By Thus Spoke

In crafting their debut LP, Agony’s Bespoke, Blighted Eye claims to draw heavy inspiration from Jennifer Kent’s 2018 film The Nightingale. The film follows an Irish ex-convict seeking revenge on the British settlers who raped her and murdered her husband and infant child.1 Its honest portrayal of the hollowness of vengeance and the psychological impact of trauma are aspects Blighted Eye aims to transfer to its own interpretation of transformative tragedy. In the appropriately epic span of an hour, Agony’s Bespoke weaves a tapestry of hauntingly familiar progressive death and black metal that hides a few gut-wrenching punches in its deceptively cerebral folds.

The unlikely convergence of technical death metal and funeral doom gives rise to Blighted Eye’s stirring character. With members from Aethereus on guitars, vocals, and bass respectively, and a drummer from acts Mesmur and Pantheist, Blighted Eye’s pedigree is steeped in two very different interpretations of grandiosity and heady emotionality. Not that there’s more than a hint of doominess about Agony’s Bespoke, but the influence is noteworthy, as it helps produce an unusually affective strain of progressive extreme metal. I’m reminded of a hybrid of Hath and Alustrium, and even some Wake-isms rear their head, not purely in terms of literal sound, but in the intense feeling expressed in an otherwise niche, inaccessible musical style. From the many vibrant charges of frenetic, key-changing guitarwork and rhythmic complexity, to the swooping soloing and occasional moments of stillness, a strong thread of pathos runs unbroken through the album.

The use of intricate, extreme instrumentality to compel rather than alienate the listener is where Blighted Eye shows its mettle. Acrobatic solos don’t just dazzle with technicality, they impress in their development of the predominantly mournful themes (“In Enmity,” “A Feast for Worms”). Undulating, punctuating percussion isn’t just exhilarating and groovy, its tempo changes and crescendos sway the listener to the rhythm of Agony’s Bespoke’s tragedy, telling us when to breathe and when to release the tension wrought in clashing dissonance and torrential blastbeats (“The Wounding,” “Howls from Beyond the Mist,” “A Reverent Stillness”). And the key to it all is some of the most beautiful refrains technical death metal has to offer. With a shivery lick of excitement comes the tumbling main melody of opener “Tragoedia,” almost out of nowhere, yet inevitable from the restless anticipation of cymbal shuffling, and gradually intensifying riffs. With plaintive urgency, wailing lines (“In Emnity,” “Pallid,” and “A Reverent Stillness”) and blackened tirades (“The Wounding”) work together with vicious roars to smash open your ribcage and wrench your heart out of your chest, as the tempos batter you about in this tempest of emotion to the bounce of a fluttering riff (“Tragoedia,” “A Reverent Stillness”).

The only thing holding Blighted Eye back is ambition. As stirring as Agony’s Bespoke is, its strength is diluted by the runtime that overextends the reach of even the strongest tracks beyond their grasp. No song, save the short interlude, “Nightingale,”2 is less than six minutes long, and most could stand to lose a minute or so. There is the sense that the band had so many great ideas, they wanted to include them all. Take, for instance, the decisively dissonant death metal that characterizes “Pallid,” and the haunting, bleating cleans that arise here and there (“Howls from Beyond the Mist,” and the title track). The former is brilliantly executed, and leads to one of the best cuts on the album, though tonally it sticks out and is a little underdeveloped. The latter fits more naturally into the stylistic template but is a tad less strong. The music would also have benefitted from a more spacious mix that would allow its layered intricacies to allow the room to breathe and deliver the impact it is capable of. It’s nothing that can’t be improved upon and tightened up in the next release, though.

Agony’s Bespoke is, despite its flaws, a powerful record, and one for whom even the sin of an overlong runtime can’t truly detract from the impact it leaves on its audience. As it draws to a close, you do feel as though you’ve been on a journey, one whose peaks are worth its valleys. If this is what Blighted Eye can do in their debut, the scene had better be ready when they return to tell their next tale.

Rating: Very Good
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s CBR mp3
Label: Beyond the Top
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: September 20th, 2024

#2024 #35 #Aethereus #AgonySBespoke #Alustrium #AmericanMetal #BeyondTheTopRecords #BlackMetal #BlackenedDeathMetal #BlightedEye #DeathMetal #Hath #ProgressiveBlackMetal #ProgressiveDeathMetal #Review #Reviews #Sep24 #Wake

Blighted Eye – Agony’s Bespoke Review

By Thus Spoke

In crafting their debut LP, Agony’s Bespoke, Blighted Eye claims to draw heavy inspiration from Jennifer Kent’s 2018 film The Nightingale. The film follows an Irish ex-convict seeking revenge on the British settlers who raped her and murdered her husband and infant child.1 Its honest portrayal of the hollowness of vengeance and the psychological impact of trauma are aspects Blighted Eye aims to transfer to its own interpretation of transformative tragedy. In the appropriately epic span of an hour, Agony’s Bespoke weaves a tapestry of hauntingly familiar progressive death and black metal that hides a few gut-wrenching punches in its deceptively cerebral folds.

The unlikely convergence of technical death metal and funeral doom gives rise to Blighted Eye’s stirring character. With members from Aethereus on guitars, vocals, and bass respectively, and a drummer from acts Mesmur and Pantheist, Blighted Eye’s pedigree is steeped in two very different interpretations of grandiosity and heady emotionality. Not that there’s more than a hint of doominess about Agony’s Bespoke, but the influence is noteworthy, as it helps produce an unusually affective strain of progressive extreme metal. I’m reminded of a hybrid of Hath and Alustrium, and even some Wake-isms rear their head, not purely in terms of literal sound, but in the intense feeling expressed in an otherwise niche, inaccessible musical style. From the many vibrant charges of frenetic, key-changing guitarwork and rhythmic complexity, to the swooping soloing and occasional moments of stillness, a strong thread of pathos runs unbroken through the album.

The use of intricate, extreme instrumentality to compel rather than alienate the listener is where Blighted Eye shows its mettle. Acrobatic solos don’t just dazzle with technicality, they impress in their development of the predominantly mournful themes (“In Enmity,” “A Feast for Worms”). Undulating, punctuating percussion isn’t just exhilarating and groovy, its tempo changes and crescendos sway the listener to the rhythm of Agony’s Bespoke’s tragedy, telling us when to breathe and when to release the tension wrought in clashing dissonance and torrential blastbeats (“The Wounding,” “Howls from Beyond the Mist,” “A Reverent Stillness”). And the key to it all is some of the most beautiful refrains technical death metal has to offer. With a shivery lick of excitement comes the tumbling main melody of opener “Tragoedia,” almost out of nowhere, yet inevitable from the restless anticipation of cymbal shuffling, and gradually intensifying riffs. With plaintive urgency, wailing lines (“In Emnity,” “Pallid,” and “A Reverent Stillness”) and blackened tirades (“The Wounding”) work together with vicious roars to smash open your ribcage and wrench your heart out of your chest, as the tempos batter you about in this tempest of emotion to the bounce of a fluttering riff (“Tragoedia,” “A Reverent Stillness”).

The only thing holding Blighted Eye back is ambition. As stirring as Agony’s Bespoke is, its strength is diluted by the runtime that overextends the reach of even the strongest tracks beyond their grasp. No song, save the short interlude, “Nightingale,”2 is less than six minutes long, and most could stand to lose a minute or so. There is the sense that the band had so many great ideas, they wanted to include them all. Take, for instance, the decisively dissonant death metal that characterizes “Pallid,” and the haunting, bleating cleans that arise here and there (“Howls from Beyond the Mist,” and the title track). The former is brilliantly executed, and leads to one of the best cuts on the album, though tonally it sticks out and is a little underdeveloped. The latter fits more naturally into the stylistic template but is a tad less strong. The music would also have benefitted from a more spacious mix that would allow its layered intricacies to allow the room to breathe and deliver the impact it is capable of. It’s nothing that can’t be improved upon and tightened up in the next release, though.

Agony’s Bespoke is, despite its flaws, a powerful record, and one for whom even the sin of an overlong runtime can’t truly detract from the impact it leaves on its audience. As it draws to a close, you do feel as though you’ve been on a journey, one whose peaks are worth its valleys. If this is what Blighted Eye can do in their debut, the scene had better be ready when they return to tell their next tale.

Rating: Very Good
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s CBR mp3
Label: Beyond the Top
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: September 20th, 2024

#2024 #35 #Aethereus #AgonySBespoke #Alustrium #AmericanMetal #BeyondTheTopRecords #BlackMetal #BlackenedDeathMetal #BlightedEye #DeathMetal #Hath #ProgressiveBlackMetal #ProgressiveDeathMetal #Review #Reviews #Sep24 #Wake

Vitriol – Suffer & Become Review

By Holdeneye

When our resident death metal professor, Ferrous Beuller, covered To Bathe from the Throat of Cowardice, the debut full-length from Portland’s Vitriol, he was struck by the sheer heaviness that dominated the record. And while he noted the enormous potential displayed by the band, he bemoaned the lack of balancing contrast, a lack that prevented the monstrous material from making the intended impact. Now, I like To Bathe… a lot more than Ferrous did, but as a fellow contrast-lover, I have to agree with his general assessment. And so, apparently, does the band. In the promo materials for follow-up Suffer & Become, vocalist and guitarist Kyle Rasmussen states ‘I wanted to have an album that had a stark duality to it. Very high highs and very low lows. I wanted the album to convey a sense of optimism that probably gets lost in the black maelstrom that is the first album.’ With this in mind, I pressed play on Suffer & Become, wondering if this new approach would still live up to the band’s name.

Boy, does it ever. Suffer & Become takes just about everything about To Bathe… and improves upon it ten-fold. Vitriol still carries a base sound defined by the Floridian über-heaviness of Hate Eternal, with bits of the bombastic blackened brutality of Behemoth, the crippling clinicality of Cryptopsy, and the acidic, anguished absurdity of Anaal Nathrakh, but this time around, the compositions (and production) allow for a bit more breathing room—and the album benefits greatly because of it. Embedded single “Weaponized Loss” is perhaps the best example of what Vitriol is offering this time around, with all of the aforementioned influences swirling together in the event horizon of the band’s immense heaviness.

From the opening notes of first track “Shame and Its Afterbirth,” it’s clear that Vitriol have embraced the need for a more varied approach for their auditory assault. A creepy, downcast intro paves the way, allowing the following onslaught to hit that much harder. Most of the rest of the track is relentlessly fast, but it contains a surprising amount of melody with some incredible guitar work. Next comes “The Flowers of Sadism,” a tune that begins with a much slower, groovier approach by employing some touches of the band’s deathcore roots. But the mid-track instrumental “Survival’s Careening Inertia” provides the most exquisite use of contrast on the record. The song begins beautiful and clean, and even when it ups the pace, there’s a triumphant tone to the music. But all of that changes around the two-minute mark when things take a turn for the darker, ending in a symphonic bludgeoning that would make Fleshgod Apocalypse jealous. New drummer Matt Kilner (Nithing) puts on an absolute clinic on the track, and it highlights just how much he brings to the table.

Suffer & Become is one of those rare records that works just as well when taken in as a surface-level cacophony as it does when judiciously consumed with attention to detail. Vitriol’s sound is overwhelming in the best way imaginable, and it’s incredibly satisfying to just lay back and absorb the beatdown. But if you want to put your headphones on and mine the nooks and crannies of these songs, you could probably listen to the album once a day for the next several months and still walk away with appreciation for some newly discovered lick, fill, vocal, or songwriting element. Co-vocalists Rasmussen and Adam Roethlisberger (who also gives an incredible performance on bass) are absolute monsters, and the virtuosity displayed by the band, not to mention the sonic palette, reminds me of another technically proficient Pacific Northwest band that I know and love: Aethereus. I’d list standout tracks for you, but quite honestly, each and every track here has something that makes it a highlight, and the whole package will yield far greater enjoyment when taken in as whole.

Rasmussen describes Suffer & Become as a ‘Jungian Dante’s Inferno,’ the product of a period of intense personal introspection for him—and the integration that occurred as a result. As such, the record shows that Vitriol, the band, has undergone the same transformation; the pure rage, born of suffering, expressed on the band’s debut has been metabolized, emerging with a healthy dose of perspective and nuance. And thanks to this contrast, Vitriol’s sound has become something altogether more powerful—and heavy—in the process.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 128 kbps mp3
Label: Century Media Records
Websites: vitriolwarfare.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/vitriolwarfare
Releases Worldwide: January 26th, 2024

#2024 #40 #Aethereus #AmericanMetal #AnaalNathrakh #Behemoth #BlackenedDeathMetal #CenturyMediaRecords #Cryptopsy #DeathMetal #FleshgodApocalypse #HateEternal #Jan24 #Nithing #Review #Reviews #SufferBecome #TechnicalDeathMetal #Vitriol

Vitriol – Suffer & Become Review

By Holdeneye

When our resident death metal professor, Ferrous Beuller, covered To Bathe from the Throat of Cowardice, the debut full-length from Portland’s Vitriol, he was struck by the sheer heaviness that dominated the record. And while he noted the enormous potential displayed by the band, he bemoaned the lack of balancing contrast, a lack that prevented the monstrous material from making the intended impact. Now, I like To Bathe… a lot more than Ferrous did, but as a fellow contrast-lover, I have to agree with his general assessment. And so, apparently, does the band. In the promo materials for follow-up Suffer & Become, vocalist and guitarist Kyle Rasmussen states ‘I wanted to have an album that had a stark duality to it. Very high highs and very low lows. I wanted the album to convey a sense of optimism that probably gets lost in the black maelstrom that is the first album.’ With this in mind, I pressed play on Suffer & Become, wondering if this new approach would still live up to the band’s name.

Boy, does it ever. Suffer & Become takes just about everything about To Bathe… and improves upon it ten-fold. Vitriol still carries a base sound defined by the Floridian über-heaviness of Hate Eternal, with bits of the bombastic blackened brutality of Behemoth, the crippling clinicality of Cryptopsy, and the acidic, anguished absurdity of Anaal Nathrakh, but this time around, the compositions (and production) allow for a bit more breathing room—and the album benefits greatly because of it. Embedded single “Weaponized Loss” is perhaps the best example of what Vitriol is offering this time around, with all of the aforementioned influences swirling together in the event horizon of the band’s immense heaviness.

From the opening notes of first track “Shame and Its Afterbirth,” it’s clear that Vitriol have embraced the need for a more varied approach for their auditory assault. A creepy, downcast intro paves the way, allowing the following onslaught to hit that much harder. Most of the rest of the track is relentlessly fast, but it contains a surprising amount of melody with some incredible guitar work. Next comes “The Flowers of Sadism,” a tune that begins with a much slower, groovier approach by employing some touches of the band’s deathcore roots. But the mid-track instrumental “Survival’s Careening Inertia” provides the most exquisite use of contrast on the record. The song begins beautiful and clean, and even when it ups the pace, there’s a triumphant tone to the music. But all of that changes around the two-minute mark when things take a turn for the darker, ending in a symphonic bludgeoning that would make Fleshgod Apocalypse jealous. New drummer Matt Kilner (Nithing) puts on an absolute clinic on the track, and it highlights just how much he brings to the table.

Suffer & Become is one of those rare records that works just as well when taken in as a surface-level cacophony as it does when judiciously consumed with attention to detail. Vitriol’s sound is overwhelming in the best way imaginable, and it’s incredibly satisfying to just lay back and absorb the beatdown. But if you want to put your headphones on and mine the nooks and crannies of these songs, you could probably listen to the album once a day for the next several months and still walk away with appreciation for some newly discovered lick, fill, vocal, or songwriting element. Co-vocalists Rasmussen and Adam Roethlisberger (who also gives an incredible performance on bass) are absolute monsters, and the virtuosity displayed by the band, not to mention the sonic palette, reminds me of another technically proficient Pacific Northwest band that I know and love: Aethereus. I’d list standout tracks for you, but quite honestly, each and every track here has something that makes it a highlight, and the whole package will yield far greater enjoyment when taken in as whole.

Rasmussen describes Suffer & Become as a ‘Jungian Dante’s Inferno,’ the product of a period of intense personal introspection for him—and the integration that occurred as a result. As such, the record shows that Vitriol, the band, has undergone the same transformation; the pure rage, born of suffering, expressed on the band’s debut has been metabolized, emerging with a healthy dose of perspective and nuance. And thanks to this contrast, Vitriol’s sound has become something altogether more powerful—and heavy—in the process.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 128 kbps mp3
Label: Century Media Records
Websites: vitriolwarfare.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/vitriolwarfare
Releases Worldwide: January 26th, 2024

#2024 #40 #Aethereus #AmericanMetal #AnaalNathrakh #Behemoth #BlackenedDeathMetal #CenturyMediaRecords #Cryptopsy #DeathMetal #FleshgodApocalypse #HateEternal #Jan24 #Nithing #Review #Reviews #SufferBecome #TechnicalDeathMetal #Vitriol