#apr26 — Public Fediverse posts

Few things at AMG Industries make us prouder than watching bands once scrutinized under AMG’s Unsigned Band Rodeö move on to greener pastures. In 2013, Seattle’s Witch Ripper endured our time‑honored hazing ritual, earning universally positive marks with their groovy, sludgy self-titled EP. Despite that early promise, lineup changes derailed the efforts of Curtis Parker (ex-Iron Thrones) and company for six years. Their patience finally paid off with debut LP, Homestead, in 2018 and with a solidified lineup, Witch Ripper continued to build momentum with their acclaimed sophomore record, The Flight After the Fall. Where Witch Ripper and Homestead captured the quartet at their heaviest and most sludge‑soaked, Through the Hourglass finds Witch Ripper finally hitting their stride, continuing their evolution toward melody, atmosphere, and emotional contour.

Picking up The Flight After the Fall’s narrative threads, Through the Hourglass leans into more hooks and musicality rather than sheer weight, all while staying within relatively traditional song structures. Operating at the nexus between modern Mastodon, Baroness and Anciients, Chad Fox’s and Curtis Parker’s guitars shift from rock chugs to swirling melodicism (“Echoes and Dust”), sparkling arpeggios (“The Portal”), bluesy refrains, and expressive solos (“The Spiral Eye”) as the duo assumes joint vocal duties with bassist Brian Kim. There’s a classic‑rock warmth woven through the riffs, and the foursome has trimmed some of the fat from earlier releases in favor of cuts with tighter runtimes and more focused, purposeful songwriting. Drummer Joe Eck is a force, adding battle‑tom flourishes (“Symmetry of the Hourglass”), shifting snare rolls, and polyrhythmic accents (“Echoes and Dust”) that elevate even the simplest riffs. Through the Hourglass doesn’t reinvent Witch Ripper’s sound so much as refine the traits they’ve been cultivating all along.

Through The Hourglass by Witch Ripper

Naturally extending its lineage that first emerged on The Flight After the Fall, Through the Hourglass carries forward similar melodic instincts and structural tendencies while still nodding to the heavier, riff‑driven roots of their early days. Once the unnecessary intro “Odyssey in Retrograde” fades, lead single “The Portal” sets the tone with Witch Ripper’s familiar blend of rock‑leaning riffs and soaring melodies, acting as a foundational bridge between records and serving as a proper setup to “Symmetry of the Hourglass,” a killer track that displays every strength Witch Ripper brings to the table. Its anthemic chorus, soulful, bluesy solo, and fully dialed-in songwriting keep circling back to its best ideas. Even a messy instrumental section in the second verse doesn’t stop my head from bobbing throughout. “Echoes and Dust” pushes these ingredients even further, pairing a fat modern‑rock groove with arpeggiated heft and high‑energy drumming at the record’s apex to drive the quartet’s best song to date. The record’s more experimental turns, like the somber Alice in Chains‑tinged ballad “Proxima Centauri,” or Irene Barber’s (Dust Moth) ethereal choral chants on “The Spiral Eye,” feel like natural extensions of the spacey, post‑rock textures they’ve flirted with before, even if the latter and “The Clock Queen” occasionally drift into repetition.

Fox’s singing and Parker’s sustained growls1 both sound more confident on Through the Hourglass, balancing each other capably while shaping the album’s expressive landscape. On earlier records, clean vocals were sparse-to-nonexistent, serving more as atmospheric color than a defining feature. Through the Hourglass places them front and center, taking control of Witch Ripper’s modern identity. Fox’s bright, emotionally charged vocal lines set the stage, with vibrato‑heavy phrases that sound strikingly expressive—particularly on tracks like “Proxima Centauri” and “Symmetry of the Hourglass”—yet also have a tendency to strain occasionally on higher notes (“The Clock Queen,” “The Portal”). Still, it’s an apt choice given how it elevates the material. And when it’s paired with Parker’s corroded roars, the combination creates a striking contrast that lifts the airy choruses higher even as the harsher tones periodically threaten to overpower them.

Witch Ripper has come a long way since initially grabbing the bull by the horns. Despite some uneven moments, Through the Hourglass shows Witch Ripper has grown more confident, more expressive, and more capable of balancing heaviness with melody in ways that feel both natural and earned. It confirms the band’s arrival after years of growth and recalibration, distilling the group’s evolution into a compelling, emotionally charged chapter that signals these Northwesterners have stepped fully into their identity. It’s a milestone that suggests Witch Ripper’s time has only just begun.

Rating: Very Good
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Magnetic Eye Records
Websites: witchripper.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/Witchripper
Releases Worldwide: April 10th, 2026

Hot on the heels of my first encounter with Alice Simard’s work (Luminesce), another notch in her roster dropped into my unsuspecting lap. Canadian brutal slam/goregrind trio Onchocerciasis Esophagogastroduodenoscopy (henceforth referred to simply as OE) spawned seven years ago from a mire of gore, and Fugue Gnawed from the Scabbed God Cerebrum marks their second full expulsion. Mere seconds after slamming that play button, viscous fluids so voluminous as to mismatch the mass of the entities that expel them flood the entirety of my being, overflowing gushingly into the surrounding environs with destructive force. The general public gazes upon this outlandishly fecund release with equal parts disgust and fascination. Despite the grotesque nature of it all, though, I can’t in good conscience call the experience unpleasurable. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Brutal in the same inhuman way as known slammers Epicardiectomy and Organectomy, absurd as a lot of material coming out of the Indonesian and Chinese scenes are, and irreverently creative enough to recall the novel songwriting of Wormhole, Artificial Brain, Unhuman, and Unfathomable Ruination, OE’s style is often a delight and moreso a challenge. Alice (who is here credited under guitars, songwriting, and drum programming), Jesse Agiomamitis (vocals, lyrics1), and the mysterious The Popu (drum programming, guitars, lyrics, songwriting, synth, vocals) shine as a collaborative team, delivering a deceptively wide variety to what is typically an extremely limited stylistic palette. All 33 minutes of Fugue fall neatly in the brutal slamgrind niche, but it’s undeniably one of the wildest executions of the style. That unhinged spirit affords the ballistic percussion a sense of immediate danger that belies its impossible technicality, the monstrously toilet-tastic vocals a sense of vibrant dynamics they absolutely should not have, and the multifaceted guitar work a kaleidoscopic personality that colors the entire record in vivid detail.

Fugue Gnawed from the Scabbed God Cerebrum by Onchocerciasis Esophagogastroduodenoscopy

However, and perhaps even as a consequence of these aforementioned traits, Fugue is a trial in music appreciation. Not for the faint of heart or the frail of ear, Fugue seems to wholly reject the idea of memorability as a virtue. Certainly, in its first half, before “Gutted & Corpsed” shocks me with an almost beautiful shift from relentless assault to thoughtful transitions and subversive intricacies, Fugue is hell-bent on punishing any listener that comes close. Gnashing with serrated teeth crowding a jaw capable of crushing diamond like Nerds candy, “Conquering Divinity” through “Entombed Within the Infinite Panopticon” bullies anyone that approaches with endless slam riffs (but fast), violent scrapes (“The Fallen Lament, Paralytikus Ascends”), fucked-up lead guitar atmospheres (“Severing What Makes Me Human,” “Apotheotic Apotemnophilia”), machine-gun blasts and double-bass abuse (“Entombed Within the Inifinite Panopticon”), and unreal spans of sustained phlegmy gutturals (name a song, any song). The addition of eerie bongs and bells adds to the sinister nature of these initial songs, but only minimally aids their memorability. Yet, they are all counterintuitively enjoyable in the same manner as discovering your first kink.

Thankfully, that first prolonged salvo of abject violence only takes 13 minutes, at which time Fugue shifts. It’s hard to expect creativity and thoughtful detailing to come into play with this kind of extreme fringe music. Undeterred by that reality, OE start integrating more purposeful dissonant flourishes, effervescent leads bordering against—but never quite crossing into—melody, and a downright airy atmosphere that together recall 50% Wormhole, 50% Afterbirth (“Heaven’s Empty Halls”). More Wormhole-isms abound in conjunction with Epicardiectomy madness and Artificial Brain-ed atmosphere as “Hurt Beyond Healing” and “Forged in the Blackest Reaches of Blasphemy” pair high-detail phrasing with terrifying brutalizations. While still escaping the realm of immediacy, memorability, or accessibility, Fugue’s second act shows OE’s greater range as songwriters in such a way as to compel me to revisit with great anticipation, enthusiastic for the deeper details I might uncover.

While far from easy to love, for any number of reasons all associated with the extreme nature of its composition and its over-the-top execution, Fugue Gnawed from the Scabbed God Cerebrum is an album of rare quality in the scene of disgusting, inhuman music. Many will balk at its cartoonish gurgle vox, its total lack of subtlety in the first phase, and the relentlessness of its dense and complex instrumentation. Those who weather that storm will discover something a bit more substantial underneath. I didn’t expect to find that substance myself, but here I am. Join me, if you think you can handle it!

Rating: Good!
DR: 42 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Stillbirth Records
Websites: officialonchocerciasis.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/OnchoOfficial
Releases Worldwide: April 3rd, 2026