#avantegardeblackmetal — Public Fediverse posts

While most people would argue that “black metal” was founded by bands like Venom, Bathory, and Mercyful Fate, the scene didn’t really become what it is without the creation of Norwegian black metal. Which, in turn, people will argue was founded by Mayhem, Burzum, Darkthrone, Immortal, and the like. But people forget acts like Ulver, Urgehal, Satyricon, and Gorgoroth (and others) that helped form the genre. If you know Grier, you know how much Urgehal and Gorgoroth mean to his youthful, black metal development. They are also home to two of his favorite black metal raspers of all time: Trond Bråthen (Trondr Nefas) and Kristian Eivind Espedal (Gaahl), respectively. Before Gaahl made his mark on Gorgoroth classics like Twilight of the Idols – In Conspiracy with Satan and Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam, he already had his own band: Trelldom.

Trelldom doesn’t get enough love. But Angry Metal Guy knew what was up when he went back in time to explore easily one of the genre’s greatest hits: Til et annet…. This record is a fucking masterpiece that shows a side of Gaahl you might not know. Those who have followed him throughout his various exploits know full well that Gaahl is a weird guy with some of the creepiest fucking vocals on the planet. But Trelldom’s trilogy of albums from 1992 to 2007 was untouchable. Fast forward to 2024, and the band returns with …By the Shadows…, an even weirder concoction of songs than ever before. Taking a darker direction with a new lineup of legends, …By the Shadows… represented an impressive comeback for the band, rebranded into something more diverse and heartfelt than before. Right on the coattails of that album comes this year’s …By the Word…. And it’s everything you’d expect from a follow-up.

Returning with the mighty Stian Kårstad (ex-Djerv, ex-Gaahls Wyrd, ex-God Seed) and kit powerhouse Kenneth Kapstad (Thorns, Goat the Head, ex-God Seed, and a billion other bands), Gaahl rounds out his lineup with practitioners of the bass, saxophone, clarinet, organ, Dobro guitar, bass harmonica, mandolin, Shankar guitar, and even the fucking Optigan to deliver one of the most unique records of his life. “When This Was Young” opens the record with proggy bass and drums, matching perfectly with Gaahl’s soothing cleans. When the chuggery kicks in, Kapstad’s drums let loose, showing off his impressive skills and giving the song (A) Senile Animal-era Melvins vibes. As it progresses, the effects intensify, melding themselves into the guitars and creating unnecessary madness throughout.

But the opener might be the “chillest” song on the record. By “I Speak Forgotten Voices,” you’ll know that …By the Word… is far more unhinged than its predecessor. The overlapping effects, unsettling vocals, and relentless, pounding drums remove any peace …By the Shadows… might have had. But it’s the mindfucking back-to-back closers, “The Word – Choose to Vanish” and “In There Outside,” that show just how far Trelldom has pushed their sound. Chock-full of all those different instruments mentioned before, “The Word – Choose to Vanish” doesn’t so much add layers as mold everything into the most grotesque monster I’ve heard in a long time. And when you think you’ve heard everything you could from Trelldom, “In There Outside” proves to be one of the more diverse on the album. Throwing you off immediately, the whining woodwinds are replaced with yet another alteration of Gaahl’s vox as the song builds on itself over and over again, resulting in more orchestral qualities than any other track.

…By the Word… is batshit crazy and cerebrally damaging. Where …By the Shadows… at least had moments of relief, this new record does not. Beyond the weird combination of guitars, saxophone, and clarinet screaming at you from all directions, it’s the bass and drums that cause the most damage. Mixed far too the front, the drums, in particular, are ear-shattering. That sounds negative, but it does a hell of a job keeping you off balance. Specifically, when it comes to the devastating “Folding the Mind.” It’s almost as if the band decided it was time to let Kapstad off the leash. …By the Word… is an interesting album that pushes beyond anything the band has done before. It can never be Til et annet… but that’s OK because they aren’t going for it. This new era is worth exploring and …By the Word… is a new benchmark.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Prophecy Productions
Websites: trelldom.bandcamp.com | trelldom.no | facebook.com/trelldom1992
Releases Worldwide: May 29th, 2026

https://www.europesays.com/ie/322324/ Agenbite Misery – Remorse of Conscience Review #2026 #4.0 #AcidBath #AgenbiteMisery #AmericanMetal #AvanteGardeBlackMetal #BlackMetal #CripplingAlcoholism #Éire #Entertainment #Feb26 #Hexrot #IE #Ireland #Music #NoiseRock #Portal #PostMetal #RemorseOfConscience #Review #Reviews #SelfReleased #SludgeMetal

Anyone who’s brushed against James Joyce’s modernist classic Ulysses has almost certainly encountered the phrase “remorse of conscience” before. A pivotal theme of the novel, remorse of conscience refers to more than mere guilt over a perceived ethical failure but the misery inflicted by it, its weight and torment. In the days leading up to receiving Remorse of Conscience, the independent debut from New Hampshire’s genre-blending Agenbite Misery, a record informed by Ulysses and “steeped in grief, alienation and the search for meaning in modern life,” I was experiencing that eponymous turmoil myself. Why?1 Because Agenbite Misery, along with bassist Cam Netland and drummer/primary vocalist Adam Richards, is the creative baby of guitarist/synth guy Sam Graff, AMG’s very own Samguineous Maximus. Promising as fair and impartial a review as I could muster to both my colleague and my merciless taskmasters, one terrifying question bit at me relentlessly between accepting the task and receiving the promo: “What if it sucks?”2

Among the myriad sub-genres influencing Remorse of Conscience, Agenbite Misery’s bread and butter is a complementary fusion of sludge and black metal. Songs like “Bellwether and Swine” and “Mnesterophonia” swing between second-wave blackened intensity and a washing of Acid Bath grime, while “Telemachean Echoes” wrecks house through hardcore-flexing sludge brutality and “Circe” bestows an atmospheric dreariness similar to Hexrot. This works: Agenbite Misery’s sludge influence adds weight to their blackened riffing while their black metal influence helps keep their sludge from plodding too long. Elsewhere, Agenbite Misery throw their weight around in “Cascara Sagrada” with Portalesque disso-death depravity, engage in melancholic electronic atmospherics on “The Twice-Charred Paths of Musing Disciples” and get downright danceable Crippling Alcoholism-style on the post-rock, synth-heavy “Whatness of Allhorse,” which sounds like something Blade would kill a roomful of vampires to. Remorse of Conscience rarely sits still, and with Agenbite Misery’s expert songwriting everything they try comes together cohesively.

Remorse of Conscience by Agenbite Misery

Balance is the key to Agenbite Misery and Remorse of Conscience’s success. Every song is crafted with superb dynamism, whether it be in “Circe”‘s shifting speeds, “Mnesterophonia”‘s oscillating sense of airiness and crushing oppression or “Whatness of Allhorse”‘s gradual escalation of heaviness. Vocally, Agenbite Misery mix it up between the three bandmates with shrieks, roars, squeals (“Bellwether and Swine”), barks (“Telemachean Echoes”) and (competently performed!) spoken-word passages (“A Charitable View of Temporary Sanity,” “Whatness of Allhorse”), suiting whatever mood the songs demand. The pinnacle of Remorse of Conscience’s balancing act is “A Charitable View of Temporary Sanity,” which across its over-thirteen-minute runtime swings from thoughtful, quiet bass arpeggios against sparse guitar notes to titanic doom riffs, from funeral dirge tempos to double-time death marches. Sometimes quietly disturbing, sometimes manically depressive, variety in style and approach keeps Remorse of Conscience from ever being boring.

Remorse of Conscience remains compelling through its entirety because of Agenbite Misery’s greatest balancing act: blending immediacy within slow-burn constructions. Despite the thematic density derived from its source material, Remorse of Conscience opens with a simple rager in “Telemachean Echoes” and loads “Whatness of Allhorse” and “Circe” with hooky synth and guitar leads respectively, affording the album casual listening appeal. Then there are Agenbite Misery’s epics in “A Charitable View of Temporary Sanity” and “Mnesterophonia,” which eschew conventional song structure for slow, Isis-like post-metal waves and sludgy, noise-rock menace, easy to become lost in as a listener. Both modes keep the pacing of Remorse of Conscience fresh, and the mix of short songs (“Telemachean Echoes,” “The Twice-Charred Paths of Musing Disciples”) with longform ones further dispels any threat of monotony creeping in. Both song-wise and album-wide, Remorse of Conscience is not only a rich, thoughtful exploration of guilt and turmoil but a really, really fun record, too.

“What if it sucks?” What if, indeed. Having spent so much time with this record, my old concern of winding up disliking Remorse of Conscience was replaced with the new anxiety over whether I’d gas up Agenbite Misery and Sam too much and come off as committing inter-AMG favoritism. To combat that fear: “Whatness of Allhorse” and “Mnesterophonia” get a bit long in the tooth,3 “Bellwether and Swine” ends a bit anticlimactically and the drum kicks and snares could be much punchier overall. But this is water under the bridge for a great album defined by adventurous songcraft and deep atmospheres. Even if you’ve never read a word of Joyce’s Ulysses, Agenbite Misery and Remorse of Conscience is worth the effort. It’s a lot easier to finish than Ulysses, at the very least.

Rating: Great4
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps MP3
Label: Independent
Websites: agenbitemisery.com | agenbitemisery.bandcamp.com | ampwall.com/a/agenbitemisery
Releases Worldwide: February 6th, 2026

THEOPHONOS - No Reprieve (official video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eURavlvDBEA&t=238

#music #metal #heavymetal #avantegardeblackmetal #theophonos #profoundlorerecords