#aug24 — Public Fediverse posts

Record(s) o’ the Month – August 2024

By Angry Metal Guy

August of 2024 was a pretty good month. First, it marked my return from the Injured Reserve, where I’d been nursing a high ego sprain and nagging executive dysfunction issues. These aren’t perfectly fixed, but being back on the field has shown beyond a doubt that I’m still a force to be reckoned with. Second, August of 2024 was a particularly fecund month for potential Records o’ the Month. This surprised me.

I couldn’t remember August being a particularly productive month historically and as I went back through the archive, that seems sort of true. Between 2012—when the RotM was started—and 2023, the hit rate for August Record(s) o’ the Month landing on my Top 10(ish) list for the year is 73%. Only once has an August record reached the top spot—that would be Pale Communion—with Sophicide hitting #2 in 2012 and Lör’s In Forgotten Sleep getting a #3 spot in 2017. Turisas’ controversial Turisas2013 was a runner-up in August of 2013 and ended up at #5, while the actual winner—Witherscape’s excellent The Inheritance—took the #10 spot on that list. 2020 saw Havukruunu ending up at #7, and Crypta’s Shades of Sorrow took #9 last year. The rest is a sea of -ishes and honorable mentions: Cattle Decapitation (2015), Dialith and Eternal Storm (2019), and Pain of Salvation in 2020.

And in 2024? How many of these babies will follow me to the end of the year? I’ve got an inkling, but I’m curious to see what you think.1

Dawn Treader’s Bloom & Decay—out August 24th from Liminal Dread Productions [Bandcamp]—is one of the biggest surprises of 2024 so far. The ‘one-man black metal project’ is a minefield of absolutely terrible music that I tend to avoid at all costs. Yet the sophomore record from London’s Ross Connell is an album notable for its pathos, rich composition, and artistry. What makes Blood & Decay remarkable is how it draws inspiration from—and comparisons to—revered bands like Agalloch, Alcest, and Panopticon without falling into the common pitfalls. Typically, such comparisons raise concerns about excessive reverb, overly long songs, and toothless riffs. Yet Connell subverts these expectations by creating a dynamic, storytelling experience filled with emotional peaks and valleys, masterfully blending black metal’s rawness with atmospheric beauty. Connell’s addition of his own vocals for the first time elevates the project. His powerful delivery—and powerful use of samples—transforms each song into a vivid emotional journey. As Itchymenace gushed in his review: “Dawn Treader’s Bloom & Decay not only contains amazing songs that celebrate the highs and lows of the human experience, it also sounds great.” A surprisingly easy choice for Record o’ the Month.

Fleshgod Apocalypse // Opera [August 23rd, 2024 | Nuclear Blast Records | Bandcamp] — Fleshgod Apocalypse’s Opera, their first album since 2019’s Veleno, has marked a significant evolution for the band. Drawing from the Opéra Lyrique style, the album features soprano Veronica Bordacchini voicing characters like life, death, and hope, while her vocals have brought fresh dynamics to the band’s symphonic death metal sound. With a more streamlined, melodic approach, Opera leans into catchier, poppier elements without losing its technical edge. Songs like “I Can Never Die” and “Matricide 8.21” highlight this shift, adding emotional depth through Bordacchini’s diverse performances. Though some longtime fans may miss the more grand operatic and technical side—Opera is not King—the album is still a genuine triumph. Opera blends new ideas with the band’s established identity, creating a fresh, cohesive record that accomplishes both a stylistic shift and adds another great record to Fleshgod’s already well-respected oeuvre. As I vigorously exclaimed and defended in the comments, “Opera is simultaneously and undeniably fun, heady, and technically impressive.”

Amiensus // Reclamation Pt. II [August 30th, 2024 | M-Theory Audio | Bandcamp] — Amiensus’s Reclamation Pt. II, the companion to Pt. I released earlier this year, has marked a standout achievement in progressive melodic black metal. The album blends melancholic melodicism, blackened fury, and progressive elements to create a dynamic and cathartic experience. With tracks like “Sólfarið” and “Acquiescence,” Pt. II offers invigorating and emotionally charged compositions, Amiensus skillfully balances moments of atmospheric beauty with powerful black metal. While initially, Reclamation seemed disjointed in places, the album’s intricate songs and layered instrumentation grow with each listen, presenting some of the band’s most versatile material to date. Despite some production issues, the album features elite composition and great songs like “Orb of Vanishing Light.” Reclamation Pt. II stands as Amiensus’s current “magnum opus”—in tandem with its predecessor—and a highlight of the year’s metal releases. As Kenstrosity opined, “Reclamation Pt. II is a more energetic, smartly edited, and exquisitely arranged work that blooms brighter the longer I live with it.” That’s a fancy way of saying that it’s a grower.

#2024 #Amiensus #Aug24 #BlackMetal #Blog #BloomDecay #DawnTreader #DeathMetal #FleshgodApocalypse #LiminalDreadProductions #MTheoryAudio #NuclearBlast #Opera #ReclamationPtII #RecordOfTheMonth #RecordSOTheMonth #RotM #Veleno

Record(s) o’ the Month – August 2024

By Angry Metal Guy

August of 2024 was a pretty good month. First, it marked my return from the Injured Reserve, where I’d been nursing a high ego sprain and nagging executive dysfunction issues. These aren’t perfectly fixed, but being back on the field has shown beyond a doubt that I’m still a force to be reckoned with. Second, August of 2024 was a particularly fecund month for potential Records o’ the Month. This surprised me.

I couldn’t remember August being a particularly productive month historically and as I went back through the archive, that seems sort of true. Between 2012—when the RotM was started—and 2023, the hit rate for August Record(s) o’ the Month landing on my Top 10(ish) list for the year is 73%. Only once has an August record reached the top spot—that would be Pale Communion—with Sophicide hitting #2 in 2012 and Lör’s In Forgotten Sleep getting a #3 spot in 2017. Turisas’ controversial Turisas2013 was a runner-up in August of 2013 and ended up at #5, while the actual winner—Witherscape’s excellent The Inheritance—took the #10 spot on that list. 2020 saw Havukruunu ending up at #7, and Crypta’s Shades of Sorrow took #9 last year. The rest is a sea of -ishes and honorable mentions: Cattle Decapitation (2015), Dialith and Eternal Storm (2019), and Pain of Salvation in 2020.

And in 2024? How many of these babies will follow me to the end of the year? I’ve got an inkling, but I’m curious to see what you think.1

Dawn Treader’s Bloom & Decay—out August 24th from Liminal Dread Productions [Bandcamp]—is one of the biggest surprises of 2024 so far. The ‘one-man black metal project’ is a minefield of absolutely terrible music that I tend to avoid at all costs. Yet the sophomore record from London’s Ross Connell is an album notable for its pathos, rich composition, and artistry. What makes Blood & Decay remarkable is how it draws inspiration from—and comparisons to—revered bands like Agalloch, Alcest, and Panopticon without falling into the common pitfalls. Typically, such comparisons raise concerns about excessive reverb, overly long songs, and toothless riffs. Yet Connell subverts these expectations by creating a dynamic, storytelling experience filled with emotional peaks and valleys, masterfully blending black metal’s rawness with atmospheric beauty. Connell’s addition of his own vocals for the first time elevates the project. His powerful delivery—and powerful use of samples—transforms each song into a vivid emotional journey. As Itchymenace gushed in his review: “Dawn Treader’s Bloom & Decay not only contains amazing songs that celebrate the highs and lows of the human experience, it also sounds great.” A surprisingly easy choice for Record o’ the Month.

Fleshgod Apocalypse // Opera [August 23rd, 2024 | Nuclear Blast Records | Bandcamp] — Fleshgod Apocalypse’s Opera, their first album since 2019’s Veleno, has marked a significant evolution for the band. Drawing from the Opéra Lyrique style, the album features soprano Veronica Bordacchini voicing characters like life, death, and hope, while her vocals have brought fresh dynamics to the band’s symphonic death metal sound. With a more streamlined, melodic approach, Opera leans into catchier, poppier elements without losing its technical edge. Songs like “I Can Never Die” and “Matricide 8.21” highlight this shift, adding emotional depth through Bordacchini’s diverse performances. Though some longtime fans may miss the more grand operatic and technical side—Opera is not King—the album is still a genuine triumph. Opera blends new ideas with the band’s established identity, creating a fresh, cohesive record that accomplishes both a stylistic shift and adds another great record to Fleshgod’s already well-respected oeuvre. As I vigorously exclaimed and defended in the comments, “Opera is simultaneously and undeniably fun, heady, and technically impressive.”

Amiensus // Reclamation Pt. II [August 30th, 2024 | M-Theory Audio | Bandcamp] — Amiensus’s Reclamation Pt. II, the companion to Pt. I released earlier this year, has marked a standout achievement in progressive melodic black metal. The album blends melancholic melodicism, blackened fury, and progressive elements to create a dynamic and cathartic experience. With tracks like “Sólfarið” and “Acquiescence,” Pt. II offers invigorating and emotionally charged compositions, Amiensus skillfully balances moments of atmospheric beauty with powerful black metal. While initially, Reclamation seemed disjointed in places, the album’s intricate songs and layered instrumentation grow with each listen, presenting some of the band’s most versatile material to date. Despite some production issues, the album features elite composition and great songs like “Orb of Vanishing Light.” Reclamation Pt. II stands as Amiensus’s current “magnum opus”—in tandem with its predecessor—and a highlight of the year’s metal releases. As Kenstrosity opined, “Reclamation Pt. II is a more energetic, smartly edited, and exquisitely arranged work that blooms brighter the longer I live with it.” That’s a fancy way of saying that it’s a grower.

#2024 #Amiensus #Aug24 #BlackMetal #Blog #BloomDecay #DawnTreader #DeathMetal #FleshgodApocalypse #LiminalDreadProductions #MTheoryAudio #NuclearBlast #Opera #ReclamationPtII #RecordOfTheMonth #RecordSOTheMonth #RotM #Veleno

Record(s) o’ the Month – August 2024

By Angry Metal Guy

August of 2024 was a pretty good month. First, it marked my return from the Injured Reserve, where I’d been nursing a high ego sprain and nagging executive dysfunction issues. These aren’t perfectly fixed, but being back on the field has shown beyond a doubt that I’m still a force to be reckoned with. Second, August of 2024 was a particularly fecund month for potential Records o’ the Month. This surprised me.

I couldn’t remember August being a particularly productive month historically and as I went back through the archive, that seems sort of true. Between 2012—when the RotM was started—and 2023, the hit rate for August Record(s) o’ the Month landing on my Top 10(ish) list for the year is 73%. Only once has an August record reached the top spot—that would be Pale Communion—with Sophicide hitting #2 in 2012 and Lör’s In Forgotten Sleep getting a #3 spot in 2017. Turisas’ controversial Turisas2013 was a runner-up in August of 2013 and ended up at #5, while the actual winner—Witherscape’s excellent The Inheritance—took the #10 spot on that list. 2020 saw Havukruunu ending up at #7, and Crypta’s Shades of Sorrow took #9 last year. The rest is a sea of -ishes and honorable mentions: Cattle Decapitation (2015), Dialith and Eternal Storm (2019), and Pain of Salvation in 2020.

And in 2024? How many of these babies will follow me to the end of the year? I’ve got an inkling, but I’m curious to see what you think.1

Dawn Treader’s Bloom & Decay—out August 24th from Liminal Dread Productions [Bandcamp]—is one of the biggest surprises of 2024 so far. The ‘one-man black metal project’ is a minefield of absolutely terrible music that I tend to avoid at all costs. Yet the sophomore record from London’s Ross Connell is an album notable for its pathos, rich composition, and artistry. What makes Blood & Decay remarkable is how it draws inspiration from—and comparisons to—revered bands like Agalloch, Alcest, and Panopticon without falling into the common pitfalls. Typically, such comparisons raise concerns about excessive reverb, overly long songs, and toothless riffs. Yet Connell subverts these expectations by creating a dynamic, storytelling experience filled with emotional peaks and valleys, masterfully blending black metal’s rawness with atmospheric beauty. Connell’s addition of his own vocals for the first time elevates the project. His powerful delivery—and powerful use of samples—transforms each song into a vivid emotional journey. As Itchymenace gushed in his review: “Dawn Treader’s Bloom & Decay not only contains amazing songs that celebrate the highs and lows of the human experience, it also sounds great.” A surprisingly easy choice for Record o’ the Month.

Fleshgod Apocalypse // Opera [August 23rd, 2024 | Nuclear Blast Records | Bandcamp] — Fleshgod Apocalypse’s Opera, their first album since 2019’s Veleno, has marked a significant evolution for the band. Drawing from the Opéra Lyrique style, the album features soprano Veronica Bordacchini voicing characters like life, death, and hope, while her vocals have brought fresh dynamics to the band’s symphonic death metal sound. With a more streamlined, melodic approach, Opera leans into catchier, poppier elements without losing its technical edge. Songs like “I Can Never Die” and “Matricide 8.21” highlight this shift, adding emotional depth through Bordacchini’s diverse performances. Though some longtime fans may miss the more grand operatic and technical side—Opera is not King—the album is still a genuine triumph. Opera blends new ideas with the band’s established identity, creating a fresh, cohesive record that accomplishes both a stylistic shift and adds another great record to Fleshgod’s already well-respected oeuvre. As I vigorously exclaimed and defended in the comments, “Opera is simultaneously and undeniably fun, heady, and technically impressive.”

Amiensus // Reclamation Pt. II [August 30th, 2024 | M-Theory Audio | Bandcamp] — Amiensus’s Reclamation Pt. II, the companion to Pt. I released earlier this year, has marked a standout achievement in progressive melodic black metal. The album blends melancholic melodicism, blackened fury, and progressive elements to create a dynamic and cathartic experience. With tracks like “Sólfarið” and “Acquiescence,” Pt. II offers invigorating and emotionally charged compositions, Amiensus skillfully balances moments of atmospheric beauty with powerful black metal. While initially, Reclamation seemed disjointed in places, the album’s intricate songs and layered instrumentation grow with each listen, presenting some of the band’s most versatile material to date. Despite some production issues, the album features elite composition and great songs like “Orb of Vanishing Light.” Reclamation Pt. II stands as Amiensus’s current “magnum opus”—in tandem with its predecessor—and a highlight of the year’s metal releases. As Kenstrosity opined, “Reclamation Pt. II is a more energetic, smartly edited, and exquisitely arranged work that blooms brighter the longer I live with it.” That’s a fancy way of saying that it’s a grower.

#2024 #Amiensus #Aug24 #BlackMetal #Blog #BloomDecay #DawnTreader #DeathMetal #FleshgodApocalypse #LiminalDreadProductions #MTheoryAudio #NuclearBlast #Opera #ReclamationPtII #RecordOfTheMonth #RecordSOTheMonth #RotM #Veleno

Dawn Treader – Bloom & Decay Review

By Itchymenace

I love black metal—especially when it’s drenched in an atmosphere that soars between heroic highs and guttural lows. But, finding quality records with dynamic songs that resonate with me on an emotional level can be harder than finding a needle in a Norwegian blizzard. Jorn knows I’ve dipped my scabbed hands into the sump numerous times only to pull out some third or fourth-generation Emperor copy put together by a couple of kids who are in 300 other bands that I’ve also never heard of. Patiently, I’ve waited for a band that has the hood-covered chops to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the great atmo-black bands I adore like Agalloch, Alcest, Panopticon and, dare I say, Deafheaven.1 So, it was as if Odin himself answered my prayers when Dawn Treader steered its mighty Saxon hull into my harbor with an album that’s as fierce, beautiful, stirring, and memorable as anything I’ve heard in the past several years. What makes this album such a gem? Direct your black gaze forward.

Dawn Treader is a “solo, anti-fascist black metal project” from London native, Ross Connell. Bloom & Decay is the project’s second release and the first to include vocals from Mr. Connell, who proves himself a formidable and impassioned vocalist. He balances urgency and angst with an emotional nuance that elevates the songs above most of his contemporaries. His opening shriek on “Idolator” is blood-curdling in the best sense, but he channels that rage into the verse with a near-melodic delivery that will put your heart in your throat. On his previous release, 2021’s The Burial of the Dead, any vocalizations came in the form of soundbites from poems, namely T.S. Elliot’s “Wasteland.” Bloom & Decay still benefits from plenty of carefully curated samples, but the vocals add a much-welcome dimension to the landscape.

The majority of Bloom & Decay is instrumental, but you hardly notice because the music has such a storytelling quality to it. To paraphrase the release notes, it takes you through the “cycles of life and death, grief and glory, hope and melancholy.” And while most black metal bands promise some form of this, Dawn Treader delivers in spades. The opening minutes of “Sunchaser” offer a prelude of everything to come with delicate melodies that intensify into heroic tremolos that feel victorious one moment and mournful the next. The track segues perfectly into “Idolator,” which somehow combines compelling black metal riffs with a crushing, metalcore-style breakdown and a finger-tapping guitar solo. It works, check it out! Listening to Bloom & Decay, you can’t help but feel that it is building up to something. That something is the title track and one of the most uplifting and inspiring songs I’ve ever heard. It’s a monster album closer that soars through some of the best, most melodic blackened guitar work you’ll hear. But, the coup de grace is the masterfully placed sample of Charles Bukowski’s “The Laughing Heart” as read by Tom Waits. The poem, which emphasizes how life’s soul-crushing lows can be offset by glimmering moments of light, perfectly delivers an emotional climax that makes you want to wipe your brow, catch your breath, flip the record and start over.

A big part of me wanted to give this record a 5.0 but the objective voice inside my head (and the thought of Steel’s boot on my neck) persuaded me to step back and reconsider. As good as the good stuff is, there are areas that could be trimmed. Curiously, the first single “Sky Burial,” resonates with me the least. “Iron Price,” with its heavily political and meandering “fuck you” speech may turn off some listeners, but the ferocity of the second half delivers serious chills reminiscent of Panopticon. While I love “The Oxbow Incident,” the Henry Fonda speech included before the final track delays rather than builds my excitement. Still, at 53 minutes, Bloom & Decay is right in the pocket for this sort of epic black metal.

Bloom & Decay not only contains amazing songs that celebrate the highs and lows of the human experience, but it also sounds great. It has a bright and punchy production that submerges you just beneath every cascading note and crashing tidal wave blast. For fans of black metal and certainly post-black metal, black gaze and atmo black (and whatever other hip genre you want to add) Dawn Treader have released a must-have record. Prepare to set sail for greatness!

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 2116 kbps
Label: liminaldreadproductions.com
Website: dawntreaderuk.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: August 23rd, 2024

#40 #AtmophericBlackMetal #Aug24 #BlackMetal #Blackgaze #BloomDecay #DawnTreader #EnglishMetal #Review #Reviews #UKMetal

Dawn Treader – Bloom & Decay Review

By Itchymenace

I love black metal—especially when it’s drenched in an atmosphere that soars between heroic highs and guttural lows. But, finding quality records with dynamic songs that resonate with me on an emotional level can be harder than finding a needle in a Norwegian blizzard. Jorn knows I’ve dipped my scabbed hands into the sump numerous times only to pull out some third or fourth-generation Emperor copy put together by a couple of kids who are in 300 other bands that I’ve also never heard of. Patiently, I’ve waited for a band that has the hood-covered chops to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the great atmo-black bands I adore like Agalloch, Alcest, Panopticon and, dare I say, Deafheaven.1 So, it was as if Odin himself answered my prayers when Dawn Treader steered its mighty Saxon hull into my harbor with an album that’s as fierce, beautiful, stirring, and memorable as anything I’ve heard in the past several years. What makes this album such a gem? Direct your black gaze forward.

Dawn Treader is a “solo, anti-fascist black metal project” from London native, Ross Connell. Bloom & Decay is the project’s second release and the first to include vocals from Mr. Connell, who proves himself a formidable and impassioned vocalist. He balances urgency and angst with an emotional nuance that elevates the songs above most of his contemporaries. His opening shriek on “Idolator” is blood-curdling in the best sense, but he channels that rage into the verse with a near-melodic delivery that will put your heart in your throat. On his previous release, 2021’s The Burial of the Dead, any vocalizations came in the form of soundbites from poems, namely T.S. Elliot’s “Wasteland.” Bloom & Decay still benefits from plenty of carefully curated samples, but the vocals add a much-welcome dimension to the landscape.

The majority of Bloom & Decay is instrumental, but you hardly notice because the music has such a storytelling quality to it. To paraphrase the release notes, it takes you through the “cycles of life and death, grief and glory, hope and melancholy.” And while most black metal bands promise some form of this, Dawn Treader delivers in spades. The opening minutes of “Sunchaser” offer a prelude of everything to come with delicate melodies that intensify into heroic tremolos that feel victorious one moment and mournful the next. The track segues perfectly into “Idolator,” which somehow combines compelling black metal riffs with a crushing, metalcore-style breakdown and a finger-tapping guitar solo. It works, check it out! Listening to Bloom & Decay, you can’t help but feel that it is building up to something. That something is the title track and one of the most uplifting and inspiring songs I’ve ever heard. It’s a monster album closer that soars through some of the best, most melodic blackened guitar work you’ll hear. But, the coup de grace is the masterfully placed sample of Charles Bukowski’s “The Laughing Heart” as read by Tom Waits. The poem, which emphasizes how life’s soul-crushing lows can be offset by glimmering moments of light, perfectly delivers an emotional climax that makes you want to wipe your brow, catch your breath, flip the record and start over.

A big part of me wanted to give this record a 5.0 but the objective voice inside my head (and the thought of Steel’s boot on my neck) persuaded me to step back and reconsider. As good as the good stuff is, there are areas that could be trimmed. Curiously, the first single “Sky Burial,” resonates with me the least. “Iron Price,” with its heavily political and meandering “fuck you” speech may turn off some listeners, but the ferocity of the second half delivers serious chills reminiscent of Panopticon. While I love “The Oxbow Incident,” the Henry Fonda speech included before the final track delays rather than builds my excitement. Still, at 53 minutes, Bloom & Decay is right in the pocket for this sort of epic black metal.

Bloom & Decay not only contains amazing songs that celebrate the highs and lows of the human experience, but it also sounds great. It has a bright and punchy production that submerges you just beneath every cascading note and crashing tidal wave blast. For fans of black metal and certainly post-black metal, black gaze and atmo black (and whatever other hip genre you want to add) Dawn Treader have released a must-have record. Prepare to set sail for greatness!

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 2116 kbps
Label: liminaldreadproductions.com
Website: dawntreaderuk.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: August 23rd, 2024

#40 #AtmophericBlackMetal #Aug24 #BlackMetal #Blackgaze #BloomDecay #DawnTreader #EnglishMetal #Review #Reviews #UKMetal

Dawn Treader – Bloom & Decay Review

By Itchymenace

I love black metal—especially when it’s drenched in an atmosphere that soars between heroic highs and guttural lows. But, finding quality records with dynamic songs that resonate with me on an emotional level can be harder than finding a needle in a Norwegian blizzard. Jorn knows I’ve dipped my scabbed hands into the sump numerous times only to pull out some third or fourth-generation Emperor copy put together by a couple of kids who are in 300 other bands that I’ve also never heard of. Patiently, I’ve waited for a band that has the hood-covered chops to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the great atmo-black bands I adore like Agalloch, Alcest, Panopticon and, dare I say, Deafheaven.1 So, it was as if Odin himself answered my prayers when Dawn Treader steered its mighty Saxon hull into my harbor with an album that’s as fierce, beautiful, stirring, and memorable as anything I’ve heard in the past several years. What makes this album such a gem? Direct your black gaze forward.

Dawn Treader is a “solo, anti-fascist black metal project” from London native, Ross Connell. Bloom & Decay is the project’s second release and the first to include vocals from Mr. Connell, who proves himself a formidable and impassioned vocalist. He balances urgency and angst with an emotional nuance that elevates the songs above most of his contemporaries. His opening shriek on “Idolator” is blood-curdling in the best sense, but he channels that rage into the verse with a near-melodic delivery that will put your heart in your throat. On his previous release, 2021’s The Burial of the Dead, any vocalizations came in the form of soundbites from poems, namely T.S. Elliot’s “Wasteland.” Bloom & Decay still benefits from plenty of carefully curated samples, but the vocals add a much-welcome dimension to the landscape.

The majority of Bloom & Decay is instrumental, but you hardly notice because the music has such a storytelling quality to it. To paraphrase the release notes, it takes you through the “cycles of life and death, grief and glory, hope and melancholy.” And while most black metal bands promise some form of this, Dawn Treader delivers in spades. The opening minutes of “Sunchaser” offer a prelude of everything to come with delicate melodies that intensify into heroic tremolos that feel victorious one moment and mournful the next. The track segues perfectly into “Idolator,” which somehow combines compelling black metal riffs with a crushing, metalcore-style breakdown and a finger-tapping guitar solo. It works, check it out! Listening to Bloom & Decay, you can’t help but feel that it is building up to something. That something is the title track and one of the most uplifting and inspiring songs I’ve ever heard. It’s a monster album closer that soars through some of the best, most melodic blackened guitar work you’ll hear. But, the coup de grace is the masterfully placed sample of Charles Bukowski’s “The Laughing Heart” as read by Tom Waits. The poem, which emphasizes how life’s soul-crushing lows can be offset by glimmering moments of light, perfectly delivers an emotional climax that makes you want to wipe your brow, catch your breath, flip the record and start over.

A big part of me wanted to give this record a 5.0 but the objective voice inside my head (and the thought of Steel’s boot on my neck) persuaded me to step back and reconsider. As good as the good stuff is, there are areas that could be trimmed. Curiously, the first single “Sky Burial,” resonates with me the least. “Iron Price,” with its heavily political and meandering “fuck you” speech may turn off some listeners, but the ferocity of the second half delivers serious chills reminiscent of Panopticon. While I love “The Oxbow Incident,” the Henry Fonda speech included before the final track delays rather than builds my excitement. Still, at 53 minutes, Bloom & Decay is right in the pocket for this sort of epic black metal.

Bloom & Decay not only contains amazing songs that celebrate the highs and lows of the human experience, but it also sounds great. It has a bright and punchy production that submerges you just beneath every cascading note and crashing tidal wave blast. For fans of black metal and certainly post-black metal, black gaze and atmo black (and whatever other hip genre you want to add) Dawn Treader have released a must-have record. Prepare to set sail for greatness!

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 2116 kbps
Label: liminaldreadproductions.com
Website: dawntreaderuk.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: August 23rd, 2024

#40 #AtmophericBlackMetal #Aug24 #BlackMetal #Blackgaze #BloomDecay #DawnTreader #EnglishMetal #Review #Reviews #UKMetal

In Aphelion – Reaperdawn Review

By Holdeneye

A celestial object is in aphelion when it is at the point in its orbit where it is farthest away from the sun. Good god, that sounds so nice right about now. Yes, I live in the temperate Pacific Northwest, and yes, my summer has probably been way cooler than yours, but that doesn’t change the fact that summer fucking sucks. Give me 40-50°F and rainy any day over this 80+ sunny bullshit. I blame my inability to handle warmer temperatures on DNA I inherited from my straight-outta-Norway great-great-grandad, Knut,1 and I can’t wait until fall and winter rear their damp, dreary heads and restore some goddamn order around here. In the meantime, it would be nice to have some sort of musical cooldown; yes, a fresh batch of icy black metal through which I could fantasize about wet, windy days and early falling nights would probably be just what the doctor ordered. Enter In Aphelion. These guys wowed me so much with their debut record Moribund that it earned a top-3 spot on my year-end list for 2022. Let’s see if follow-up Reaperdawn can follow suit and cure my horrendous case of swamp-ass.

Originally intended to be an outlet for Necrophobic guitarist Sebastian Ramstedt’s more progressive ideas, In Aphelion quickly auto-corrected its sound into that of a ferocious melodic black metal band. Ramstedt, who handles lead guitar and vocal duties for the project, quickly recruited Necrophobic’s other guitarist Johan Bergebäck to perform the rhythm parts and Cryptosis drummer Marco Prij, and after initially handling bass himself, this time Ramstedt has handed that job off to Necrophobic’s Tobias Christiansson. Needless to say, In Aphelion’s output has a strong Necrophobic bent while still maintaining it’s own unique identity. Embedded single “When All Stellar Light is Lost” shows the band’s Necrophobic sensibilities with its melodic tremolo intro, but injects a far more savage, thrashy attack than that more well-known band is used to employing. Ramstedt’s vocals are the perfect black metal utterances, and his solo towards the end of the song is spellbinding.

In Aphelion are definitely at their best when they lean into their strengths of laying down aggressive black metal laced with majestic, frozen melody. The title track is the perfect example. Like the aforementioned “When All Stellar Light is Lost,” it oozes Dissection-y energy and exhibits Ramstedt and Bergebäck’s considerable chemistry as a guitar duo. It’s the kind of song that hearkens back to the glory of Moribund, and I can almost feel myself howling from atop a snow-covered peak as I listen to it.

Unfortunately, most of the rest of Reaperdawn brings me back down to my sweltering reality. Moribund was so amazing because it had multiple Song o’ the Year contenders and the rest of its songs nearly matched those. That just isn’t the case here at all. The world-beater highs just aren’t present, and when they almost land (see the incredible conclusion to “They Fell Under Blackened Skies”), they often have a bit too much extraneous material smothering them. Reaperdawn is eight tracks and 50 minutes, and while it is shorter than its predecessor, the material doesn’t feel nearly as essential—alas, there’s not a single song on the level of “Let the Beast Run Wild” here. Many of these songs (“The Field in Nadir,” “A Winter Moon’s Gleam,” “Further From the Sun,” “They Fell Under Blackened Skies,” “Aghori”) could have been trimmed by a minute, or three, to enhance their effect, and I think that may have strengthened the entire album. “When All Stellar Light is Lost” and “Reaperdawn” are great tracks, but overall, Reaperdawn feels like it meanders too much—many of the atmospheric bits seem to add less to the equation than last time around—and I kept finding myself wishing the guys would just keep the pedal mashed to the floor.

I was hoping for an arctic blast to the nether regions, but what I got felt more like a lukewarm soak. Like me, Reaperdawn bears incredible strength but suffers from a bit too much flab. It was always going to be hard for In Aphelion to match their magnificent debut, and while they muster up a couple of fantastic songs here, the rest get lost in a haze of excess. For my money, this year’s Necrophobic feels far more vital. Reaperdawn sounds like a band pushing against the boundaries of its identity, but in the process, that identity has become blurred and dulled. I hope these guys can hone things down and come for my throat next time.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 128 kb/s mp3
Label: Century Media Records
Website: facebook.com/inaphelion
Releases Worldwide: August 9th, 2024

#25 #2024 #Aug24 #BlackMetal #CenturyMediaRecords #Cryptosis #Dissection #InAphelion #InternationalMetal #Necrophobic #Reaperdawn #Review #Reviews

In Aphelion – Reaperdawn Review

By Holdeneye

A celestial object is in aphelion when it is at the point in its orbit where it is farthest away from the sun. Good god, that sounds so nice right about now. Yes, I live in the temperate Pacific Northwest, and yes, my summer has probably been way cooler than yours, but that doesn’t change the fact that summer fucking sucks. Give me 40-50°F and rainy any day over this 80+ sunny bullshit. I blame my inability to handle warmer temperatures on DNA I inherited from my straight-outta-Norway great-great-grandad, Knut,1 and I can’t wait until fall and winter rear their damp, dreary heads and restore some goddamn order around here. In the meantime, it would be nice to have some sort of musical cooldown; yes, a fresh batch of icy black metal through which I could fantasize about wet, windy days and early falling nights would probably be just what the doctor ordered. Enter In Aphelion. These guys wowed me so much with their debut record Moribund that it earned a top-3 spot on my year-end list for 2022. Let’s see if follow-up Reaperdawn can follow suit and cure my horrendous case of swamp-ass.

Originally intended to be an outlet for Necrophobic guitarist Sebastian Ramstedt’s more progressive ideas, In Aphelion quickly auto-corrected its sound into that of a ferocious melodic black metal band. Ramstedt, who handles lead guitar and vocal duties for the project, quickly recruited Necrophobic’s other guitarist Johan Bergebäck to perform the rhythm parts and Cryptosis drummer Marco Prij, and after initially handling bass himself, this time Ramstedt has handed that job off to Necrophobic’s Tobias Christiansson. Needless to say, In Aphelion’s output has a strong Necrophobic bent while still maintaining it’s own unique identity. Embedded single “When All Stellar Light is Lost” shows the band’s Necrophobic sensibilities with its melodic tremolo intro, but injects a far more savage, thrashy attack than that more well-known band is used to employing. Ramstedt’s vocals are the perfect black metal utterances, and his solo towards the end of the song is spellbinding.

In Aphelion are definitely at their best when they lean into their strengths of laying down aggressive black metal laced with majestic, frozen melody. The title track is the perfect example. Like the aforementioned “When All Stellar Light is Lost,” it oozes Dissection-y energy and exhibits Ramstedt and Bergebäck’s considerable chemistry as a guitar duo. It’s the kind of song that hearkens back to the glory of Moribund, and I can almost feel myself howling from atop a snow-covered peak as I listen to it.

Unfortunately, most of the rest of Reaperdawn brings me back down to my sweltering reality. Moribund was so amazing because it had multiple Song o’ the Year contenders and the rest of its songs nearly matched those. That just isn’t the case here at all. The world-beater highs just aren’t present, and when they almost land (see the incredible conclusion to “They Fell Under Blackened Skies”), they often have a bit too much extraneous material smothering them. Reaperdawn is eight tracks and 50 minutes, and while it is shorter than its predecessor, the material doesn’t feel nearly as essential—alas, there’s not a single song on the level of “Let the Beast Run Wild” here. Many of these songs (“The Field in Nadir,” “A Winter Moon’s Gleam,” “Further From the Sun,” “They Fell Under Blackened Skies,” “Aghori”) could have been trimmed by a minute, or three, to enhance their effect, and I think that may have strengthened the entire album. “When All Stellar Light is Lost” and “Reaperdawn” are great tracks, but overall, Reaperdawn feels like it meanders too much—many of the atmospheric bits seem to add less to the equation than last time around—and I kept finding myself wishing the guys would just keep the pedal mashed to the floor.

I was hoping for an arctic blast to the nether regions, but what I got felt more like a lukewarm soak. Like me, Reaperdawn bears incredible strength but suffers from a bit too much flab. It was always going to be hard for In Aphelion to match their magnificent debut, and while they muster up a couple of fantastic songs here, the rest get lost in a haze of excess. For my money, this year’s Necrophobic feels far more vital. Reaperdawn sounds like a band pushing against the boundaries of its identity, but in the process, that identity has become blurred and dulled. I hope these guys can hone things down and come for my throat next time.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 128 kb/s mp3
Label: Century Media Records
Website: facebook.com/inaphelion
Releases Worldwide: August 9th, 2024

#25 #2024 #Aug24 #BlackMetal #CenturyMediaRecords #Cryptosis #Dissection #InAphelion #InternationalMetal #Necrophobic #Reaperdawn #Review #Reviews

In Aphelion – Reaperdawn Review

By Holdeneye

A celestial object is in aphelion when it is at the point in its orbit where it is farthest away from the sun. Good god, that sounds so nice right about now. Yes, I live in the temperate Pacific Northwest, and yes, my summer has probably been way cooler than yours, but that doesn’t change the fact that summer fucking sucks. Give me 40-50°F and rainy any day over this 80+ sunny bullshit. I blame my inability to handle warmer temperatures on DNA I inherited from my straight-outta-Norway great-great-grandad, Knut,1 and I can’t wait until fall and winter rear their damp, dreary heads and restore some goddamn order around here. In the meantime, it would be nice to have some sort of musical cooldown; yes, a fresh batch of icy black metal through which I could fantasize about wet, windy days and early falling nights would probably be just what the doctor ordered. Enter In Aphelion. These guys wowed me so much with their debut record Moribund that it earned a top-3 spot on my year-end list for 2022. Let’s see if follow-up Reaperdawn can follow suit and cure my horrendous case of swamp-ass.

Originally intended to be an outlet for Necrophobic guitarist Sebastian Ramstedt’s more progressive ideas, In Aphelion quickly auto-corrected its sound into that of a ferocious melodic black metal band. Ramstedt, who handles lead guitar and vocal duties for the project, quickly recruited Necrophobic’s other guitarist Johan Bergebäck to perform the rhythm parts and Cryptosis drummer Marco Prij, and after initially handling bass himself, this time Ramstedt has handed that job off to Necrophobic’s Tobias Christiansson. Needless to say, In Aphelion’s output has a strong Necrophobic bent while still maintaining it’s own unique identity. Embedded single “When All Stellar Light is Lost” shows the band’s Necrophobic sensibilities with its melodic tremolo intro, but injects a far more savage, thrashy attack than that more well-known band is used to employing. Ramstedt’s vocals are the perfect black metal utterances, and his solo towards the end of the song is spellbinding.

In Aphelion are definitely at their best when they lean into their strengths of laying down aggressive black metal laced with majestic, frozen melody. The title track is the perfect example. Like the aforementioned “When All Stellar Light is Lost,” it oozes Dissection-y energy and exhibits Ramstedt and Bergebäck’s considerable chemistry as a guitar duo. It’s the kind of song that hearkens back to the glory of Moribund, and I can almost feel myself howling from atop a snow-covered peak as I listen to it.

Unfortunately, most of the rest of Reaperdawn brings me back down to my sweltering reality. Moribund was so amazing because it had multiple Song o’ the Year contenders and the rest of its songs nearly matched those. That just isn’t the case here at all. The world-beater highs just aren’t present, and when they almost land (see the incredible conclusion to “They Fell Under Blackened Skies”), they often have a bit too much extraneous material smothering them. Reaperdawn is eight tracks and 50 minutes, and while it is shorter than its predecessor, the material doesn’t feel nearly as essential—alas, there’s not a single song on the level of “Let the Beast Run Wild” here. Many of these songs (“The Field in Nadir,” “A Winter Moon’s Gleam,” “Further From the Sun,” “They Fell Under Blackened Skies,” “Aghori”) could have been trimmed by a minute, or three, to enhance their effect, and I think that may have strengthened the entire album. “When All Stellar Light is Lost” and “Reaperdawn” are great tracks, but overall, Reaperdawn feels like it meanders too much—many of the atmospheric bits seem to add less to the equation than last time around—and I kept finding myself wishing the guys would just keep the pedal mashed to the floor.

I was hoping for an arctic blast to the nether regions, but what I got felt more like a lukewarm soak. Like me, Reaperdawn bears incredible strength but suffers from a bit too much flab. It was always going to be hard for In Aphelion to match their magnificent debut, and while they muster up a couple of fantastic songs here, the rest get lost in a haze of excess. For my money, this year’s Necrophobic feels far more vital. Reaperdawn sounds like a band pushing against the boundaries of its identity, but in the process, that identity has become blurred and dulled. I hope these guys can hone things down and come for my throat next time.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 128 kb/s mp3
Label: Century Media Records
Website: facebook.com/inaphelion
Releases Worldwide: August 9th, 2024

#25 #2024 #Aug24 #BlackMetal #CenturyMediaRecords #Cryptosis #Dissection #InAphelion #InternationalMetal #Necrophobic #Reaperdawn #Review #Reviews