#blackenedhardcore — Public Fediverse posts

ANCIENT FORMATION (Estats Units) presenta nou single: "Mooncaller / Vulture Descent" #AncientFormation #BlackMetal #Punk #BlackenedHardcore #Oi! #Juny2026 #EstatsUnits #NouSingle #Metall #Metal #MúsicaMetal #MetalMusic

Do you want to know how angry Lithuanians sound like?

#Erdve: Epigrama

https://erdvesom.bandcamp.com/album/epigrama

#BlackenedHardcore #DeathMetal #Thall

FFO #Aortes #Nightmarer #Yashira

Do you want to know how angry Lithuanians sound like?

#Erdve: Epigrama

https://erdvesom.bandcamp.com/album/epigrama

#BlackenedHardcore #DeathMetal #Thall

FFO #Aortes #Nightmarer #Yashira

Do you want to know how angry Lithuanians sound like?

#Erdve: Epigrama

https://erdvesom.bandcamp.com/album/epigrama

#BlackenedHardcore #DeathMetal #Thall

FFO #Aortes #Nightmarer #Yashira

Do you want to know how angry Lithuanians sound like?

#Erdve: Epigrama

https://erdvesom.bandcamp.com/album/epigrama

#BlackenedHardcore #DeathMetal #Thall

FFO #Aortes #Nightmarer #Yashira

HEATHE – Vir076: Control Your Souls Desire For Freedom
#Experimental #Rock #blackenedhardcore #darkfolk #doom #drone #posthardcore #Copenhagen
CC BY-NC-SA (#CreativeCommons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike) #ccmusic
https://virkelighedsfjern.bandcamp.com/album/vir076-control-your-souls-desire-for-freedom

HEATHE – Vir076: Control Your Souls Desire For Freedom
#Experimental #Rock #blackenedhardcore #darkfolk #doom #drone #posthardcore #Copenhagen
CC BY-NC-SA (#CreativeCommons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike) #ccmusic
https://virkelighedsfjern.bandcamp.com/album/vir076-control-your-souls-desire-for-freedom

Naturale – Vir031: Live 2018
#Drone #Experimental #Live #Noise #Recitation #Rock #blackenedhardcore #darkfolk #doom #drone #Copenhagen
CC BY-NC-SA (#CreativeCommons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike) #ccmusic
https://virkelighedsfjern.bandcamp.com/album/vir031-live-2018

Naturale – Vir031: Live 2018
#Drone #Experimental #Live #Noise #Recitation #Rock #blackenedhardcore #darkfolk #doom #drone #Copenhagen
CC BY-NC-SA (#CreativeCommons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike) #ccmusic
https://virkelighedsfjern.bandcamp.com/album/vir031-live-2018

Naturale – Vir031: Live 2018
#Drone #Experimental #Live #Noise #Recitation #Rock #blackenedhardcore #darkfolk #doom #drone #Copenhagen
CC BY-NC-SA (#CreativeCommons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike) #ccmusic
https://virkelighedsfjern.bandcamp.com/album/vir031-live-2018

Naturale – Vir031: Live 2018
#Drone #Experimental #Live #Noise #Recitation #Rock #blackenedhardcore #darkfolk #doom #drone #Copenhagen
CC BY-NC-SA (#CreativeCommons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike) #ccmusic
https://virkelighedsfjern.bandcamp.com/album/vir031-live-2018

Naturale – Vir031: Live 2018
#Drone #Experimental #Live #Noise #Recitation #Rock #blackenedhardcore #darkfolk #doom #drone #Copenhagen
CC BY-NC-SA (#CreativeCommons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike) #ccmusic
https://virkelighedsfjern.bandcamp.com/album/vir031-live-2018

ANCIENT FORMATION (Estats Units) presenta nou EP: "Primitive Valor" #AncientFormation #BlackMetal #Punk #BlackenedHardcore #Oi! #Març2026 #EstatsUnits #NouEp #Metall #Metal #MúsicaMetal #MetalMusic

Do you ever hear a punk song and think, “Sure, I’d also like to overthrow the establishment, but couldn’t you learn to play guitar a bit better?” Have you ever found yourself embarrassed to be banging your head to a sick black metal riff written and performed by one of the world’s most repugnant lowlifes? Yes. So have thousands of our brethren in every squat and co-op from Greece to Iceland; and as is their wont, they have taken matters into their own grubby hands, pressing a huge variety of records that radiate out from the collision of metal and hardcore in every hue and shade, from the bilious How Hate is Hard to Define to the cerulean Archivist. Rosa Faenskap, unsurprisingly, fit themselves into the long-wavelength end of that rainbow.

Practicing a particularly dark and frostbitten form of Euro-Lefty-Black-Hardcore, Rosa Faenskap find themselves between the vicious pallor of Thurm and the sanguine rage of Svalbard, on occasion reflecting a few fleeting tones from the early Plebeian Grandstand records. Emil Vestre grinds out icy tremolo leads as jagged as they come, crashing and crackling in coupled cacaphony with vocalist Håvard Solli’s snarling bass; in the pre-breakdown chug and pick-scrape of “Faenskap for alltid,” you’d swear you were standing six feet away from their amplifier in a damp Oslo basement. Drummer Anders Jansvik’s performance is likewise big and booming. Whatever the trio might lack, it’s not energy.

Ingenting Forblir by Rosa Faenskap

Though Rosa Faenskap are pretty green, this sophomore record is remarkably focused, holding its space through force and fury, hammering a few riffs as harshly as possible before their close. “Den Svake Mannen” rides a rung-out arpeggio so continuously that you can still hear it when Vestre switches over to tremolos, but I’m never disappointed to hear them return to it halfway through the song. “Faenskap for Alltid” pursues a more straightforward black metal at first, expertly executing a couple of stock tremolo metal riffs with a panache that I’m surprised to hear outside of a Spectral Wound record before the band shift from blackened to bruising, stomping through a breakdown and proclaiming “faenskap for alltid!” again and again.

Ingenting Forblir’s success stands in part on the band’s canny writing, but is far more indebted to its quality of sound. The record’s production and mix, handled by the band in collaboration with Oskar Johnsen Ryd and Torfinn Sommerfeldt Lysne, respects the vitality of the material, sounding live and livid. My only complaint is that Jansvik’s drums can get buried during busy sections, in part due to a muffled snare tone. Despite a low-DR master, the record is dynamic where it needs to be; when the band leave Vestre alone and pensive with their guitar, the quiet registers, and I feel myself slipping a bit closer in towards the record.

“Jeg Våkner Snart” closes Ingenting Forblir as the band’s most ambitious and successful song, layering tremolo leads over gang vocals, retreating into quiet, reverberating melody, and ending in a boiling conflagration of noise. For a sophomore record leaner and meaner than the band’s 2023 debut, it’s just the right ending. Ingenting Forblir hardly breaks new musical ground, but Rosa Faenskap’s sour determination will likely propel it into my regular listening rotation this year. In practice, I might not be up for faenskap for alltid, but I’ll happily recommend faenskap for lenge.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps MP3
Label: Fysisk Format
Websites: rosafaenskap.com | rosafaenskap.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: March 6th, 2026

Do you ever hear a punk song and think, “Sure, I’d also like to overthrow the establishment, but couldn’t you learn to play guitar a bit better?” Have you ever found yourself embarrassed to be banging your head to a sick black metal riff written and performed by one of the world’s most repugnant lowlifes? Yes. So have thousands of our brethren in every squat and co-op from Greece to Iceland; and as is their wont, they have taken matters into their own grubby hands, pressing a huge variety of records that radiate out from the collision of metal and hardcore in every hue and shade, from the bilious How Hate is Hard to Define to the cerulean Archivist. Rosa Faenskap, unsurprisingly, fit themselves into the long-wavelength end of that rainbow.

Practicing a particularly dark and frostbitten form of Euro-Lefty-Black-Hardcore, Rosa Faenskap find themselves between the vicious pallor of Thurm and the sanguine rage of Svalbard, on occasion reflecting a few fleeting tones from the early Plebeian Grandstand records. Emil Vestre grinds out icy tremolo leads as jagged as they come, crashing and crackling in coupled cacaphony with vocalist Håvard Solli’s snarling bass; in the pre-breakdown chug and pick-scrape of “Faenskap for alltid,” you’d swear you were standing six feet away from their amplifier in a damp Oslo basement. Drummer Anders Jansvik’s performance is likewise big and booming. Whatever the trio might lack, it’s not energy.

Ingenting Forblir by Rosa Faenskap

Though Rosa Faenskap are pretty green, this sophomore record is remarkably focused, holding its space through force and fury, hammering a few riffs as harshly as possible before their close. “Den Svake Mannen” rides a rung-out arpeggio so continuously that you can still hear it when Vestre switches over to tremolos, but I’m never disappointed to hear them return to it halfway through the song. “Faenskap for Alltid” pursues a more straightforward black metal at first, expertly executing a couple of stock tremolo metal riffs with a panache that I’m surprised to hear outside of a Spectral Wound record before the band shift from blackened to bruising, stomping through a breakdown and proclaiming “faenskap for alltid!” again and again.

Ingenting Forblir’s success stands in part on the band’s canny writing, but is far more indebted to its quality of sound. The record’s production and mix, handled by the band in collaboration with Oskar Johnsen Ryd and Torfinn Sommerfeldt Lysne, respects the vitality of the material, sounding live and livid. My only complaint is that Jansvik’s drums can get buried during busy sections, in part due to a muffled snare tone. Despite a low-DR master, the record is dynamic where it needs to be; when the band leave Vestre alone and pensive with their guitar, the quiet registers, and I feel myself slipping a bit closer in towards the record.

“Jeg Våkner Snart” closes Ingenting Forblir as the band’s most ambitious and successful song, layering tremolo leads over gang vocals, retreating into quiet, reverberating melody, and ending in a boiling conflagration of noise. For a sophomore record leaner and meaner than the band’s 2023 debut, it’s just the right ending. Ingenting Forblir hardly breaks new musical ground, but Rosa Faenskap’s sour determination will likely propel it into my regular listening rotation this year. In practice, I might not be up for faenskap for alltid, but I’ll happily recommend faenskap for lenge.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps MP3
Label: Fysisk Format
Websites: rosafaenskap.com | rosafaenskap.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: March 6th, 2026

Herba – ideación suicida
#Punk #blackenedhardcore #blackenedscreamo #blackenedskramz #emocrust #emocrust #emoviolence #screamo #skramz #Pontevedra
CC BY-NC-ND (#CreativeCommons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives) #ccmusic
https://herbaemoviolence.bandcamp.com/album/ideaci-n-suicida

Herba – ideación suicida
#Punk #blackenedhardcore #blackenedscreamo #blackenedskramz #emocrust #emocrust #emoviolence #screamo #skramz #Pontevedra
CC BY-NC-ND (#CreativeCommons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives) #ccmusic
https://herbaemoviolence.bandcamp.com/album/ideaci-n-suicida

Asteriæ – Miejsce, które nazywam sobą CD EP (D.I.Y. Kolo Records)

Let’s be honest, Poland has always been a special place for heavy music. It’s a country that has always produced some of the finest European bands, but while the world usually looks to the Polish scene for pure death metal and black metal, there is a bleeding-heart underground that is currently redefining what heavy actually means. Asteriæ’s second studio release, the EP Miejsce, które nazywam sobą, this five-piece has delivered one of the most intense, vulnerable, and technically impressive records I’ve heard in years. Released through D.I.Y Koło Records, it’s a 1000-watt spotlight on the internal struggle. If you’ve been following our blog, you know we have a massive soft spot for music that refuses to pick a lane. Asteriæ is the definition of that refusal. They work at the intersection of blackened hardcore, neocrust, and post-metal, mixing the frantic, nihilistic speed of black metal with the atmospheric sprawl of post-metal. It’s a volatile alloy that feels like it could shatter at any moment, yet it is held together by a level of compositional discipline that is frankly marvelous. This is music that serves as a vessel for every bad emotion, allowing the creators and the listeners to find some kind of peace in the aftermath of the noise.

Asteriæ has made the conscious, bold choice to forgo English in favor of their native Polish. English is often the easy route. It’s percussive, familiar, and a universal shorthand, but by sticking to Polish, Asteriæ has unlocked a level of raw, unfiltered emotional resonance that simply cannot be translated. You don’t need to speak the language to feel the weight of it. The phonetics of the Polish tongue add a rough rhythmic edge to the vocals that perfectly complements the music. It makes the internal struggle feel more personal, more grounded, and more authentic. Vocals sound phenomenal from scratch to finish. This is an exceptional, fierce performance that defines the blackened element of their sound. These are aggressive, soul-shredding screams that sound like they are being ripped directly from the chest. The delivery is relentless, guiding the chaotic blast beats and the spacious atmospheric sections with a hypnotic presence. There is a sense of desperate haste in the voice, a guiding authority that leads you through the labyrinthine emotional core of the record. It’s a human being placing every bad emotion into the microphone so they don’t have to carry it in their daily life. It’s catharsis in its purest, loudest form. The guitar work is absolutely marvelous and serves as the primary engine for the album’s shifting moods. Asteriæ mastered friction and consonance. On one hand, you have the furious, blackened riffs, themes, and lines that cut through the mix. On the other hand, the guitars frequently open up into these beautiful, spacious motifs. These post-metal-influenced passages are drenched in reverb and atmosphere, providing a much-needed breath of air before the next descent into chaos. This duality gives the EP its incredible dynamic range. The guitars are never just showy, because every arpeggio and every wall of noise is a carefully placed brick in the place they are building.

Asteriæ has wisely chosen to drown the entire project in distorted bass. The basslines are sludgy, raw, and abrasive, offering a thick, rumbling undercurrent that gives the music its massive physical weight. It injects a noticeable heaviness and warmth into the soundscape, acting as the essential glue that binds the high-pitched guitar melodies to the relentless drumming. The fuzz on the bass is delicious; it’s the sonic abrasiveness that makes the album feel so feral and real. Also, we are treated to impressive rhythmic maneuvers. The drummer handles the transition from frantic, breakneck blast beats to slow-lurching post-metal grooves with effortless precision. The fills are energetic and precise, filled with marvelous accentuations that highlight the shifts in guitar textures. The double-bass work is a rolling thunder backdrop that keeps the energy pinned in the red, but it’s the drummer’s ability to let the music breathe during the atmospheric sections that really shows their skill. They dictate the emotional tempo of the record, making sure that even in the most chaotic moments, there is a sense of intentional structure. Asteriæ created a singular, continuous burst of energy, a relentless exploration of what happens when blackened hardcore velocity meets post-metal’s soul. Despite the extreme nature of the music, the clarity of the production allows every instrument to cut through. You can appreciate the detail in the distorted bass, the intricacy of the drumming, and the layers in the guitar work, even as the whole thing attempts to steamroll you. Miejsce, które nazywam sobą is a comprehensive demonstration of how extreme music can be used as a tool for survival and self-improvement. Asteriæ crafted an album that will resonate with fans of progressive, blackened extremity across the globe. It is a mandatory listen for anyone who believes that the loudest music should also be the most honest. This is a must-have for your collection, a sludgy, abrasive, and beautifully crafted trip into the self. Get ready to lose yourself in Asteriæ’s world. It’s a masterpiece of modern emotional hardcore.

#ASTERIAE #BLACKMETAL #BLACKENEDHARDCORE #DIYKOLORECORDS #METAL #MUSIC #NEOCRUST #POSTMETAL #REVIEWS

Kikimora – Vir066: Kikimora
#Experimental #Rock #blackenedhardcore #darkfolk #doom #doomfolk #drone #Copenhagen
CC BY-NC-SA (#CreativeCommons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike) #ccmusic
https://virkelighedsfjern.bandcamp.com/album/vir066-kikimora

Kikimora – Vir066: Kikimora
#Experimental #Rock #blackenedhardcore #darkfolk #doom #doomfolk #drone #Copenhagen
CC BY-NC-SA (#CreativeCommons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike) #ccmusic
https://virkelighedsfjern.bandcamp.com/album/vir066-kikimora

Stuck in the Filter: March 2025’s Angry Misses

By Kenstrosity

Spring is in the air, and with it comes… an insane number of cicadas! Yes, that’s right, Brood XIV spawned this year and is currently overwhelming my staff as they trudge through embuggened ducts to clear out the Filter of semi-precious metal. I bet it’s fucking loud in there…

…. eh I’m sure they are all fine. Just fine. Anyway, enjoy the spoils of our toils!

Kenstrosity’s Gloopy Grubber

Acid Age // Perilous Compulsion [February 28th, 2025 – Self Released]

Belfast’s wacky thrash conglomerate Acid Age came out of absolutely nowhere back in March, unleashing their fourth LP Perilous Compulsion and equipping it with one helluva van-worthy cover. This is some funky, bluesy, quasi-psychedelic thrash metal that pulls no punches. Riffs abound, bonkers songwriting pervades, immense groove agitates. From the onset, “Bikini Island” establishes Perilous Compulsion as a no-nonsense, balls-out affair which reminds me heavily of Voivod and a simplified Flummox informed by Atheist’s progressive proclivities, and expanded by a touch of Pink Floyd’s nebulous jams. Of course, thrash remains Acid Age’s hero flavor, as choice cuts “State Your Business,” “Revenge for Sale,” and closing one-two punch “Rotten Tooth” and “Hamster Wheel” clearly demonstrate. While their fearless exploration of style and structure maintains a sky-high level of interest, it also introduces a couple of challenges. Firstly, this material can feel a bit disjointed at first, but focused spins reward the listener greatly as all of Perilous Compulsion’s moving parts start to mesh and move in unison. Secondly, Acid Age throws a spotlight on a few brilliant inclusions that, over time, I wish were more often utilized—namely, the delightfully bluesy harmonica solos on “Rotten Tooth.” Regardless, Acid Age put themselves on my map with Perilous Compulsion. I recommend you put them on yours, too!

Owlswald’s Desiccated Discoveries

Verbian // Casarder [March 21st, 2025 – Lost Future Records]

It’s unjust that Portuguese rockers Verbian—who have been producing quality post-rock since 2019’s Jaez—haven’t received the attention they deserve. Fusing elements of post-rock with metal, psychedelic, and stoner, Casarder is Verbian’s third full-length and the first with new drummer Guilherme Gonçalves. Taking the sounds and inspirations of 2020’s Irrupção and enriching it with new permutations and modulations, Casarder’s largely instrumental character rides punchy riffs and roiling grooves—à la Russian Circles and Elder—to transmit its thought-provoking legitimacy. Dystopian and surreal séances, via echoing Korg synthscapes (“Pausa Entre Dias,” “Vozes da Ilha”) and celestial harmonies, permeate Casarder’s forty-three-minute runtime, translating Madalena Pinto’s striking Aeon Flux-esque cover art with precision. Ominous horn sections and crusty recurrent vocals (“Marcha do Vulto,” “Depois de Toda a Mudança”) by guitarist Vasco Reis and bassist Alexandre Silva underscore Verbian’s individuality in a crowded post-rock domain. Gonçalves’s drumming—with his intricate and enchanting hard rock and samba rhythms (“Nada Muda,” “Fruta Caída do Mar”)—adds a new dimension to Verbian’s sound, assuring my attention never falters. The group describes Casarder as communicating the “…insecurities of artistic expression and personal exposure when it comes to fearing being judged for something that is somewhat outside of what is done in each artist’s niche.” Indeed, Casarder reveals Verbian is unafraid to forge their own path, and the results are gripping.

Symbiotic Growth // Beyond the Sleepless Aether [March 28th, 2025 – Self Released]

Beyond the Sleepless Aether, the sophomore effort by Ontario, Canada’s Symbiotic Growth, immediately caught my attention with its dreamy-looking cover. Building upon their 2020 self-titled debut, the Canadian trio hones epic and long-form progressive death metal soundscapes, narrating a quest for meaning across alternate realities in mostly lengthy, yet rewarding, tracks that blend technicality, atmosphere, and melody. The group frequently employs dynamic shifts, moving between raging brutality and serene shoegaze beauty (“Arid Trials and Barren Sands,” “The Sleepless Void”). This is achieved through complex and vengeful passages alongside atmospheric synth lines and softer piano interludes (“Sires of Boundless Sunset,” “Of Painted Skies and Dancing Lights”), cultivating an air of wonder, mystery, and ethereality that permeates much of Symbiotic Growth’s material. “The Architect of Annihilation” echoes the style of Ne Obliviscaris with its blend of clean harmonies and harsh growls meshed with tremolo-picked arpeggiations and catchy hooks (the guitar solo even features a violin-like quality). “Lost in Fractured Reveries” evokes In Mourning with its parallel synth and guitar lines giving way to devastating grooves that make it impossible not to headbang. Although some fine-tuning remains—the clean vocals could use some more weight and tracks like “Of Painted Skies and Dancing Lights” and “The Architect of Annihilation” overstay their welcome at times—Beyond the Sleepless Aether shows Symbiotic Growth’s burgeoning talent and signals the group is one to watch in progressive death metal.

Dear Hollow’s Drudgery Sludgery Hoist

Spiritbox // Tsunami Sea [March 7th, 2025 – Pale Chord Records | Rise Records]

From humble beginnings in a more artsy-fartsy djent post-Iwrestledabearonce world to becoming the darlings of Octane Radio, Spiritbox has seen quite the ascent. While it’s easy to look at their work and scoff at its radio-friendliness, sophomore full-length Tsunami Sea shows Courtney LaPlante and company sticking to their guns. Simultaneously more obscure and more radio-friendly in its selection of tracks, expect its signature blend of colossal riffs and ethereal melodies guided by LaPlante’s siren-then-sea serpent dichotomy of furious roars and haunting cleans. Yes, Spiritbox helms its attack with the radio singles (“Perfect Soul,”1 “Crystal Roses”) in layered soaring choruses and touches of hip-hop undergirded by fierce grooves, but the meat of Tsunami Sea finds the flexibility and patience in the skull-crushing brutality (“Soft Spine,” “No Loss, No Love”) and its more exploratory songwriting that amps layers of the ethereal and the hellish with catchy riffs and vocals alike (“Fata Morgana,” “A Haven of Two Faces”). It’s far from perfect, and its tendency towards radio will be divisive, but it shows Spiritbox firing on all cylinders.

Unfleshing // Violent Reason [March 28th, 2025 – Self Released]

I am always tickled pink by blackened crust. It takes the crusty violence and propensity for filth and adds black metal’s signature sinister nature. Unfleshing is a young, unsigned blackened crust band from St. Louis, and with debut Violent Reason, you can expect a traditional punk-infused beatdown with a battered guitar tone and sinister vocals. However, more than many, the quartet offers a beatdown that feels as atmospheric as it is pummeling. Don’t get me wrong, you get your skull caved in like the poor guy on the cover with minute-long crust beatdowns (“Body Bag,” “From the Gutter”) and full-length smackdowns (“Knife in the Dark,” “Final Breath”), both styles complete with scathing grooves, squalid feedback, climactic solos and punishing blastbeats, atop a blackened roar dripping with hate. But amid the full-throttle assault, Unfleshing utilizes ominous black metal chord progressions and unsettling plucking to add a more dynamic feature to Violent Reason (“Cathedral Rust,” “One With the Mud”). The album never overstays, and while traditional, it’s a hell of a start for Unfleshing.

Ghostsmoker // Inertia Cult [March 21st, 2025 – Art as Catharsis Records]

Ghostsmoker seems like the perfect stoner metal band name, but aside from the swampy guitar tone, there’s something much sinister lurking. Proffering a caustic blackened doom/sludge not unlike Thou, Wormphlegm, and Sea Bastard, the Melbourne group quartet devotes a crisp forty-two minutes to sprawling doom weighted by a crushing guitar tone that rivals Morast‘s latest, and shrieked vocals straight from the latest church burning. Beyond what’s expected from this particular breed of devastation, Ghostsmoker infuses an evocative patience reminiscent of post-metal’s more sludgy offerings like Neurosis or Pelican, lending a certain atmosphere and mood of dread and wilderness depicted on its cover. From the outright chugging attacks of churning aggression (“Elogium,” “Haven”) to the more experimental and thoughtful pieces (“Bodies to Shore,” instrumental closer “The Death of Solitude”), Inertia Cult largely feels like a journey through uncharted forests, with voices whispering from the trees. Ghostsmoker is something special.

GardensTale’s Paralyzed Spine

Spiine // Tetraptych [March 27th, 2025 – Self Released]

Is it still a supergroup release when half the lineup are session musicians? Spiine is made up of Sesca Scaarba (Virgin Black) and Xen (ex-Ne Obliviscaris), but on debut Tetraptych they are joined by guests Waltteri Väyrynen (Opeth) and Lena Abé (My Dying Bride). Usually, so much talent put into the same room does not yield great results. Tetraptych is one hell of an exception. A monstrous slab of crawling heaviness, Spiine lurches with abject despair through the mires of deathly funeral doom. Though I usually eschew this genre, my attention remains rapt through a variety of variations. The songwriting keeps the 4 tracks progressing, slow and steady builds, and the promise of momentary tempo changes working a two-pronged structural plan to buoy the majestic yet miserable riffs. “Oubliiette” is the best example here, going from galloping death-doom to Georgian choirs to a fantastic bridge where all the instrumentation hits only on the roared syllables. Xen’s unholy bellows flatten any objections I may have had, managing both thunder and deepest woe in the same notes. The subtle orchestration and occasional choir arrangements finish the package with regal grandeur, and the lush and warm production is the cherry on top. If you feel like drowning your sorrows with an hour of colossal doom, this is the album for you.

Saunders’ Stenched Staples

Ade // Supplicium [March 14th, 2025 – Time to Kill Records]

Sometimes unjustly pigeonholed as the Roman-inspired version of Nile, the hugely underrated Ade have punched out a solid career of quality death metal releases since emerging roughly fifteen years ago, charting their own path. Albums like 2013’s ripping Spartacus and 2019’s solid Rise of the Empire represent a tidy snapshot of the band’s career. Fifth album Supplicium, their first LP in six years, marks a low-key, welcome return. Exotic instrumentation and attention to history and storytelling are alive and well in the Ade camp, as is their penchant for punishing, unrelenting death, featuring a deftly curated mix of bombast, brutality, technical spark, and epic atmospheres. Edoardo Di Santo (Hideous Divinity) joins a largely refreshed line-up, including a new bassist and second guitarist since their last album. Line-up changes aside, familiar Ade tools of harrowing ancient Roman tales and modern death destruction remain as consistently solid as always. Top-notch riffs, intricate arrangements, fluid tempo shifts, and explosive drumming highlight songs that frequently flex their flair for drama-fueled atmospheres, hellfire blasts, and burly grooves. The immense, multi-faceted “Burnt Before Gods,” exotic melodies and raw savagery of “Ad Beastias!,” spitfire intensity of “Vinum,” and epically charged throes of “From Fault to Disfigurement” highlight more solid returns from Ade.

Masters of Reality // The Archer [March 28th, 2025 – Artone Label Group/Mascot Records]

Underappreciated desert rock pioneers and quirky stalwarts Masters of Reality returned from recording oblivion some fifteen-plus years since they last unleashed an LP. Led by the legendary Chris Goss and his collaborative counterparts across a career that first kicked off in the late ’80s, Masters of Reality return sounding inspired, wisened, and a little more chilled. Re-tinkering their familiar but ever-shifting sound, Masters of Reality incorporate woozy, bluesy laidback vibes featuring their oddball songwriting traits through a sedate, intriguing collection of new songs. The Archer showcases Masters of Reality’s longevity as seasoned, skilled songwriters, regardless of the shifting rock modes they explore. While perhaps lacking some of the energetic spark and earworm hooks of albums like Sunrise on the Sufferbus and Deep in the Hole, The Archer still marks a fine return outing. Goss’ signature voice is in fine form, and the bluesy, psych-drenched guitars, cushy basslines, ’60s and ’70s influences, and spacey vibes create a comforting haze. The delightfully dreamy, trippy “Chicken Little,” laidback hooks and old school charms of “I Had a Dream,” lively, quirky grooves of “Mr Tap n’ Go,” and moody, melancholic balladry of “Powder Man” highlight another diverse, strange brew from the veteran act.

Tyme’s Unheard Annunciations

Doomsday // Never Known Peace [March 28th, 2025 – Creator-Destructor Records]

March’s filter means spring is here, mostly, which is when I start searching for bands to populate my annual edition of Tyme’s Mowing Metal. There’s nothing I enjoy more than cracking a cold beer, sliding my headphones over my ears, and hopping on the mower to complete one of summer’s—at least for me—most enjoyable chores. A band that will feature prominently this summer is Oakland, California’s crossover thrash quintet Doomsday, and their Creator-Destructor Records debut album, Never Known Peace. Doomsday lays down a ton of mindless fun in the vein of other crossover greats like Enforced and Power Trip. There are riffs aplenty on this deliciously executed hardcore-tinged thrashtastic platter full of snarly, spiteful, Jamey Jasta-esque vocals, trademark gang shouts, and, oh, did I mention the riffs? Yeah, cuz there’s a butt-ton of ’em. Leads and solos are melodic (“Death is Here,” “Eternal Tombs”). Within its beefily warm mix, the chug-a-lug breakdowns run rampant across Never Known Peace‘s thirty-one minutes (seriously, there’s one in every track), leaving nary a tune that won’t have you at least bobbing your head and, at most, causing your neck a very nasty case of whipthrash. I’m going to be listening to Never Known Peace ALOT this summer, on and off my mower, and while I don’t care that the lawn lines in my yard will be a little wavier this year than others, I’ll chalk it up to the beer and the head banging Doomsday‘s Never Known Peace instills.

Rancid Cadaver // Mortality Denied [March 21st, 2025 – Self Released]

Another filter, another fetid fragment of foulness; this month, it’s up-and-coming deathstarts Rancid Cadaver and their independently released debut album Mortality Denied. Adam Burke’s excellent cover art caught my eye during a quick dip into the Bandcamp pool and had me pushing play. A thick slab of murderous meat ripe with fatty veins of Coffin Mulch and Morbific running through it, Mortality Denied overflows with tons of bestial vocals, crushing drums, barbaric bass, and squealing solos, all ensorcelled within the majesty of Rancid Cadaver‘s miasmic riff-gurgitations (“Slurping the Cerebral Slime,” “Mass of Gore,” and “Drained of Brains”). Fists will pump, and faces will stank during the Fulci-friendly “Zombified,” a pulverizing slow-death chug fest with an intro that landed me right back on the shores of Dr. Menard’s island of the undead.2 This quartet of Glaswegians has plopped down a death metal debut that ages like wine, getting better and better with consecutive spins. Surprisingly, Rancid Cadaver is unsigned, but I’m confident that status should change before we see a sophomore effort, and you can bet I’ll be there when that happens.

Dolphin Whisperer’s Unsophisticated Slappers

Crossed // Realismo Ausente [March 21st, 2025 – Zegema Beach Records]

Timing means everything in groove. I know that some people say that they have a hard time finding that kind of bob and sway in extreme music. But with an act like Spain’s Crossed, whose every carved word and every skronked guitar noise follows an insatiable punky stride, groove lies in every moment of third full-length Realismo Ausente. Whether it’s on the classic beat of D (“Vaciar Un Corazón,” “Cuerpo Distorsionado”), the twanging drone of a screaming bend (“Monotonía de la lluvia en la Ventana”), or the Celtic Frost-ed hammer of a chord crush (“Catedral”), a calculated, urgent, and intoxicating cadence colors the grayscale attitude throughout. But just because Crossed can find a groove in any twisted mathy rhythm—early Converge and Dillinger Escape Plan come to mind on quick cuts like “Cerrojo” and “Sentirse Solo”—doesn’t mean that their panic chord-loaded crescendos and close-outs can’t rip your head clean off in banging ecstasy. Easy listening and blackened hardcore can’t go hand-in-hand, but Crossed does their very best to make unintelligible, scathing screeches and ceiling-scraping feedback hissing palatable against crunchy punk builds and throbbing, warm bass grumbles. Likewise, Realismo Ausente stabs into a dejected body tales of loathing, fear, self-rejection, and defeated existence—nothing smiles in its urgent and apathetic crevices. But despite the lack of light at the end of the tunnel of Crossed’s horror-touched vision of impassioned hardcore, an analog warmth and human spirit trapped inside a writhing and pleading throat reveal a presence that’s still fighting. It’s the fight that counts. If you didn’t join the fight last time, now’s as good a time as any.

Nothing // The Self Repair Manifesto [March 26th, 2025 – Self Released]

If you noticed a tree zombie heading steaming through its trepanned opening, then you too found the same initial draw I had to The Self Repair Manifesto. Nothing complex often can draw us to the things we desire, yet in Nothing’s particular attack of relentless, groove-based death metal, many nooks of additional interest exist. The Self Repair Manifesto’s tribal rhythm-stirred “Initiation,” in its bouncy play, does little to set up the double-kick pummel and snarling refrains that lurk in this brutal, Australian soundscape. The simple chiming cymbal-fluttering bass call-and-response of “Subterfuge,” the throat singing summoning of “The Shroud,” the immediate onslaught of “Abrogation”—all in under 30 minutes, an infectious and progressive experience unfolds. And never fear, living by the motto “no clean singing,”3 Nothing has no intention of traveling the wandering and crooning path of an Opeth or In Vain. Rather, Nothing finds a hypnotic rhythmic presence both in fanciful kit play that stirs a foot shuffle and high-tempo stick abuse that urges bodies on bodies in the pit (“Subterfuge,” “The Shroud”), much in the same way you might hear in early Decapitated or Hate Eternal works. With flair of their own, though, and a mic near the mouth vessel of each member (yes, even the drummer!) to maintain a layered harsh intensity, Nothing serves a potent blend of death metal that is as jam-able as it is gym-able. Whether you seek gains or progressive enrichment, Nothing is the answer.

Steel Druhm’s Massive Aggressive

Impurity // The Eternal Sleep [ March 7th, 2025 – Hammerheart Records]

Impurity’s lust for all things Left Hand Path is not the least bit Clandestine, and on their full-length debut, The Eternal Sleep, they attempt to craft their own ode to the rabid HM-2 worship of the early 90s Swedeath sound. No new elements are shoehorned in aside from vaguely blackened ones, and there’s not the slightest effort to push the boundaries of the admittedly limited Swedeath sound. The Eternal Sleep sounds like the album that could have come between Entombed’s timeless debut and the Clandestine follow-up, and that’s not a bad place to be. It’s heavy, brutish, buzzing death metal with an OSDM edge, and it hits like a runaway 18-wheeler full of concrete and titanium rebar. One only needs to weather the shitstorm of opener “Denial of Clarity” to realize this is the deep water of the niche genre. It’s extremely heavy, face-melting death with more fuzz and buzz than your brain can process. Other cuts feel like a direct lift from Left Hand Path and/or Clandestine (“Tribute to Creation,”) and fetid Dismember tidbits creep in during “Pilgrimage to Utumno,” and these feel like olde friends showing up unexpectedly at the hometown watering hole. Swedeath is all about those ragged, jagged riffs, and they’re delivered in abundance over The Eternal Sleep, and despite the intrinsic lack of originality, Impurity pump enough steroids and Cialis into the genre archetypes to make the material endearing and engaging. Yes, you’ve heard this shit before. Now hear it again, chumbo!

#AcidAge #Ade #AmericanMetal #ArtAsCatharsisRecords #ArtoneLabelGroup #Atheist #AustralianMetal #BeyondTheSleeplessAether #BlackMetal #BlackenedCrust #BlackenedHardcore #CanadianMetal #Casarder #CelticFrost #CoffinMulch #Converge #CreatorDestructorRecords #Crossed #Crust #DeathMetal #Decapitated #DesertRock #DillingerEscapePlan #DoomMetal #Doomsday #Elder #Enforced #Flummox #Fulci #Ghostsmoker #Hardcore #HateEternal #HideousDivinity #Impurity #InMourning #InVain #InertialCult #InternationalMetal #ItalianMetal #iwrestledabearonce #LostFutureRecords #MascotRecords #MastersOfReality #Mathcore #MelodicMetal #Metalcore #Morast #Morbific #MortalityDenied #MyDyingBride #NeObliviscaris #Neurosis #NeverKnownPeace #Nile #Nothing #Opeth #PaleChordRecords #Pelican #PerilousCompulsion #PinkFloyd #PortugueseMetal #PostRock #PostMetal #PowerTrip #ProgressiveDeathMetal #ProgressiveMetal #ProgressiveThrashMetal #PyschedelicRock #RancidCadaver #RealismoAusente #Review #Reviews #RiseRecords #RussianCircles #ScottishMetal #SeaBastard #SelfReleased #SixpenceNoneTheRicher #SludgeMetal #SpanishMetal #Spiine #Spiritbox #StonerMetal #Supplicium #SymbioticGrowth #TechnicalDeathMetal #Tetraptych #TheArcher #TheEternalSleep #TheSelfRepairManifesto #Thou #ThrashMetal #TimeToKillRecords #TsunamiSea #UKMetal #Unfleshing #Verbian #ViolentReason #VirginBlack #Voivod #Wormphlegm #ZegemaBeachRecords

Stuck in the Filter: March 2025’s Angry Misses

By Kenstrosity

Spring is in the air, and with it comes… an insane number of cicadas! Yes, that’s right, Brood XIV spawned this year and is currently overwhelming my staff as they trudge through embuggened ducts to clear out the Filter of semi-precious metal. I bet it’s fucking loud in there…

…. eh I’m sure they are all fine. Just fine. Anyway, enjoy the spoils of our toils!

Kenstrosity’s Gloopy Grubber

Acid Age // Perilous Compulsion [February 28th, 2025 – Self Released]

Belfast’s wacky thrash conglomerate Acid Age came out of absolutely nowhere back in March, unleashing their fourth LP Perilous Compulsion and equipping it with one helluva van-worthy cover. This is some funky, bluesy, quasi-psychedelic thrash metal that pulls no punches. Riffs abound, bonkers songwriting pervades, immense groove agitates. From the onset, “Bikini Island” establishes Perilous Compulsion as a no-nonsense, balls-out affair which reminds me heavily of Voivod and a simplified Flummox informed by Atheist’s progressive proclivities, and expanded by a touch of Pink Floyd’s nebulous jams. Of course, thrash remains Acid Age’s hero flavor, as choice cuts “State Your Business,” “Revenge for Sale,” and closing one-two punch “Rotten Tooth” and “Hamster Wheel” clearly demonstrate. While their fearless exploration of style and structure maintains a sky-high level of interest, it also introduces a couple of challenges. Firstly, this material can feel a bit disjointed at first, but focused spins reward the listener greatly as all of Perilous Compulsion’s moving parts start to mesh and move in unison. Secondly, Acid Age throws a spotlight on a few brilliant inclusions that, over time, I wish were more often utilized—namely, the delightfully bluesy harmonica solos on “Rotten Tooth.” Regardless, Acid Age put themselves on my map with Perilous Compulsion. I recommend you put them on yours, too!

Owlswald’s Desiccated Discoveries

Verbian // Casarder [March 21st, 2025 – Lost Future Records]

It’s unjust that Portuguese rockers Verbian—who have been producing quality post-rock since 2019’s Jaez—haven’t received the attention they deserve. Fusing elements of post-rock with metal, psychedelic, and stoner, Casarder is Verbian’s third full-length and the first with new drummer Guilherme Gonçalves. Taking the sounds and inspirations of 2020’s Irrupção and enriching it with new permutations and modulations, Casarder’s largely instrumental character rides punchy riffs and roiling grooves—à la Russian Circles and Elder—to transmit its thought-provoking legitimacy. Dystopian and surreal séances, via echoing Korg synthscapes (“Pausa Entre Dias,” “Vozes da Ilha”) and celestial harmonies, permeate Casarder’s forty-three-minute runtime, translating Madalena Pinto’s striking Aeon Flux-esque cover art with precision. Ominous horn sections and crusty recurrent vocals (“Marcha do Vulto,” “Depois de Toda a Mudança”) by guitarist Vasco Reis and bassist Alexandre Silva underscore Verbian’s individuality in a crowded post-rock domain. Gonçalves’s drumming—with his intricate and enchanting hard rock and samba rhythms (“Nada Muda,” “Fruta Caída do Mar”)—adds a new dimension to Verbian’s sound, assuring my attention never falters. The group describes Casarder as communicating the “…insecurities of artistic expression and personal exposure when it comes to fearing being judged for something that is somewhat outside of what is done in each artist’s niche.” Indeed, Casarder reveals Verbian is unafraid to forge their own path, and the results are gripping.

Symbiotic Growth // Beyond the Sleepless Aether [March 28th, 2025 – Self Released]

Beyond the Sleepless Aether, the sophomore effort by Ontario, Canada’s Symbiotic Growth, immediately caught my attention with its dreamy-looking cover. Building upon their 2020 self-titled debut, the Canadian trio hones epic and long-form progressive death metal soundscapes, narrating a quest for meaning across alternate realities in mostly lengthy, yet rewarding, tracks that blend technicality, atmosphere, and melody. The group frequently employs dynamic shifts, moving between raging brutality and serene shoegaze beauty (“Arid Trials and Barren Sands,” “The Sleepless Void”). This is achieved through complex and vengeful passages alongside atmospheric synth lines and softer piano interludes (“Sires of Boundless Sunset,” “Of Painted Skies and Dancing Lights”), cultivating an air of wonder, mystery, and ethereality that permeates much of Symbiotic Growth’s material. “The Architect of Annihilation” echoes the style of Ne Obliviscaris with its blend of clean harmonies and harsh growls meshed with tremolo-picked arpeggiations and catchy hooks (the guitar solo even features a violin-like quality). “Lost in Fractured Reveries” evokes In Mourning with its parallel synth and guitar lines giving way to devastating grooves that make it impossible not to headbang. Although some fine-tuning remains—the clean vocals could use some more weight and tracks like “Of Painted Skies and Dancing Lights” and “The Architect of Annihilation” overstay their welcome at times—Beyond the Sleepless Aether shows Symbiotic Growth’s burgeoning talent and signals the group is one to watch in progressive death metal.

Dear Hollow’s Drudgery Sludgery Hoist

Spiritbox // Tsunami Sea [March 7th, 2025 – Pale Chord Records | Rise Records]

From humble beginnings in a more artsy-fartsy djent post-Iwrestledabearonce world to becoming the darlings of Octane Radio, Spiritbox has seen quite the ascent. While it’s easy to look at their work and scoff at its radio-friendliness, sophomore full-length Tsunami Sea shows Courtney LaPlante and company sticking to their guns. Simultaneously more obscure and more radio-friendly in its selection of tracks, expect its signature blend of colossal riffs and ethereal melodies guided by LaPlante’s siren-then-sea serpent dichotomy of furious roars and haunting cleans. Yes, Spiritbox helms its attack with the radio singles (“Perfect Soul,”1 “Crystal Roses”) in layered soaring choruses and touches of hip-hop undergirded by fierce grooves, but the meat of Tsunami Sea finds the flexibility and patience in the skull-crushing brutality (“Soft Spine,” “No Loss, No Love”) and its more exploratory songwriting that amps layers of the ethereal and the hellish with catchy riffs and vocals alike (“Fata Morgana,” “A Haven of Two Faces”). It’s far from perfect, and its tendency towards radio will be divisive, but it shows Spiritbox firing on all cylinders.

Unfleshing // Violent Reason [March 28th, 2025 – Self Released]

I am always tickled pink by blackened crust. It takes the crusty violence and propensity for filth and adds black metal’s signature sinister nature. Unfleshing is a young, unsigned blackened crust band from St. Louis, and with debut Violent Reason, you can expect a traditional punk-infused beatdown with a battered guitar tone and sinister vocals. However, more than many, the quartet offers a beatdown that feels as atmospheric as it is pummeling. Don’t get me wrong, you get your skull caved in like the poor guy on the cover with minute-long crust beatdowns (“Body Bag,” “From the Gutter”) and full-length smackdowns (“Knife in the Dark,” “Final Breath”), both styles complete with scathing grooves, squalid feedback, climactic solos and punishing blastbeats, atop a blackened roar dripping with hate. But amid the full-throttle assault, Unfleshing utilizes ominous black metal chord progressions and unsettling plucking to add a more dynamic feature to Violent Reason (“Cathedral Rust,” “One With the Mud”). The album never overstays, and while traditional, it’s a hell of a start for Unfleshing.

Ghostsmoker // Inertia Cult [March 21st, 2025 – Art as Catharsis Records]

Ghostsmoker seems like the perfect stoner metal band name, but aside from the swampy guitar tone, there’s something much sinister lurking. Proffering a caustic blackened doom/sludge not unlike Thou, Wormphlegm, and Sea Bastard, the Melbourne group quartet devotes a crisp forty-two minutes to sprawling doom weighted by a crushing guitar tone that rivals Morast‘s latest, and shrieked vocals straight from the latest church burning. Beyond what’s expected from this particular breed of devastation, Ghostsmoker infuses an evocative patience reminiscent of post-metal’s more sludgy offerings like Neurosis or Pelican, lending a certain atmosphere and mood of dread and wilderness depicted on its cover. From the outright chugging attacks of churning aggression (“Elogium,” “Haven”) to the more experimental and thoughtful pieces (“Bodies to Shore,” instrumental closer “The Death of Solitude”), Inertia Cult largely feels like a journey through uncharted forests, with voices whispering from the trees. Ghostsmoker is something special.

GardensTale’s Paralyzed Spine

Spiine // Tetraptych [March 27th, 2025 – Self Released]

Is it still a supergroup release when half the lineup are session musicians? Spiine is made up of Sesca Scaarba (Virgin Black) and Xen (ex-Ne Obliviscaris), but on debut Tetraptych they are joined by guests Waltteri Väyrynen (Opeth) and Lena Abé (My Dying Bride). Usually, so much talent put into the same room does not yield great results. Tetraptych is one hell of an exception. A monstrous slab of crawling heaviness, Spiine lurches with abject despair through the mires of deathly funeral doom. Though I usually eschew this genre, my attention remains rapt through a variety of variations. The songwriting keeps the 4 tracks progressing, slow and steady builds, and the promise of momentary tempo changes working a two-pronged structural plan to buoy the majestic yet miserable riffs. “Oubliiette” is the best example here, going from galloping death-doom to Georgian choirs to a fantastic bridge where all the instrumentation hits only on the roared syllables. Xen’s unholy bellows flatten any objections I may have had, managing both thunder and deepest woe in the same notes. The subtle orchestration and occasional choir arrangements finish the package with regal grandeur, and the lush and warm production is the cherry on top. If you feel like drowning your sorrows with an hour of colossal doom, this is the album for you.

Saunders’ Stenched Staples

Ade // Supplicium [March 14th, 2025 – Time to Kill Records]

Sometimes unjustly pigeonholed as the Roman-inspired version of Nile, the hugely underrated Ade have punched out a solid career of quality death metal releases since emerging roughly fifteen years ago, charting their own path. Albums like 2013’s ripping Spartacus and 2019’s solid Rise of the Empire represent a tidy snapshot of the band’s career. Fifth album Supplicium, their first LP in six years, marks a low-key, welcome return. Exotic instrumentation and attention to history and storytelling are alive and well in the Ade camp, as is their penchant for punishing, unrelenting death, featuring a deftly curated mix of bombast, brutality, technical spark, and epic atmospheres. Edoardo Di Santo (Hideous Divinity) joins a largely refreshed line-up, including a new bassist and second guitarist since their last album. Line-up changes aside, familiar Ade tools of harrowing ancient Roman tales and modern death destruction remain as consistently solid as always. Top-notch riffs, intricate arrangements, fluid tempo shifts, and explosive drumming highlight songs that frequently flex their flair for drama-fueled atmospheres, hellfire blasts, and burly grooves. The immense, multi-faceted “Burnt Before Gods,” exotic melodies and raw savagery of “Ad Beastias!,” spitfire intensity of “Vinum,” and epically charged throes of “From Fault to Disfigurement” highlight more solid returns from Ade.

Masters of Reality // The Archer [March 28th, 2025 – Artone Label Group/Mascot Records]

Underappreciated desert rock pioneers and quirky stalwarts Masters of Reality returned from recording oblivion some fifteen-plus years since they last unleashed an LP. Led by the legendary Chris Goss and his collaborative counterparts across a career that first kicked off in the late ’80s, Masters of Reality return sounding inspired, wisened, and a little more chilled. Re-tinkering their familiar but ever-shifting sound, Masters of Reality incorporate woozy, bluesy laidback vibes featuring their oddball songwriting traits through a sedate, intriguing collection of new songs. The Archer showcases Masters of Reality’s longevity as seasoned, skilled songwriters, regardless of the shifting rock modes they explore. While perhaps lacking some of the energetic spark and earworm hooks of albums like Sunrise on the Sufferbus and Deep in the Hole, The Archer still marks a fine return outing. Goss’ signature voice is in fine form, and the bluesy, psych-drenched guitars, cushy basslines, ’60s and ’70s influences, and spacey vibes create a comforting haze. The delightfully dreamy, trippy “Chicken Little,” laidback hooks and old school charms of “I Had a Dream,” lively, quirky grooves of “Mr Tap n’ Go,” and moody, melancholic balladry of “Powder Man” highlight another diverse, strange brew from the veteran act.

Tyme’s Unheard Annunciations

Doomsday // Never Known Peace [March 28th, 2025 – Creator-Destructor Records]

March’s filter means spring is here, mostly, which is when I start searching for bands to populate my annual edition of Tyme’s Mowing Metal. There’s nothing I enjoy more than cracking a cold beer, sliding my headphones over my ears, and hopping on the mower to complete one of summer’s—at least for me—most enjoyable chores. A band that will feature prominently this summer is Oakland, California’s crossover thrash quintet Doomsday, and their Creator-Destructor Records debut album, Never Known Peace. Doomsday lays down a ton of mindless fun in the vein of other crossover greats like Enforced and Power Trip. There are riffs aplenty on this deliciously executed hardcore-tinged thrashtastic platter full of snarly, spiteful, Jamey Jasta-esque vocals, trademark gang shouts, and, oh, did I mention the riffs? Yeah, cuz there’s a butt-ton of ’em. Leads and solos are melodic (“Death is Here,” “Eternal Tombs”). Within its beefily warm mix, the chug-a-lug breakdowns run rampant across Never Known Peace‘s thirty-one minutes (seriously, there’s one in every track), leaving nary a tune that won’t have you at least bobbing your head and, at most, causing your neck a very nasty case of whipthrash. I’m going to be listening to Never Known Peace ALOT this summer, on and off my mower, and while I don’t care that the lawn lines in my yard will be a little wavier this year than others, I’ll chalk it up to the beer and the head banging Doomsday‘s Never Known Peace instills.

Rancid Cadaver // Mortality Denied [March 21st, 2025 – Self Released]

Another filter, another fetid fragment of foulness; this month, it’s up-and-coming deathstarts Rancid Cadaver and their independently released debut album Mortality Denied. Adam Burke’s excellent cover art caught my eye during a quick dip into the Bandcamp pool and had me pushing play. A thick slab of murderous meat ripe with fatty veins of Coffin Mulch and Morbific running through it, Mortality Denied overflows with tons of bestial vocals, crushing drums, barbaric bass, and squealing solos, all ensorcelled within the majesty of Rancid Cadaver‘s miasmic riff-gurgitations (“Slurping the Cerebral Slime,” “Mass of Gore,” and “Drained of Brains”). Fists will pump, and faces will stank during the Fulci-friendly “Zombified,” a pulverizing slow-death chug fest with an intro that landed me right back on the shores of Dr. Menard’s island of the undead.2 This quartet of Glaswegians has plopped down a death metal debut that ages like wine, getting better and better with consecutive spins. Surprisingly, Rancid Cadaver is unsigned, but I’m confident that status should change before we see a sophomore effort, and you can bet I’ll be there when that happens.

Dolphin Whisperer’s Unsophisticated Slappers

Crossed // Realismo Ausente [March 21st, 2025 – Zegema Beach Records]

Timing means everything in groove. I know that some people say that they have a hard time finding that kind of bob and sway in extreme music. But with an act like Spain’s Crossed, whose every carved word and every skronked guitar noise follows an insatiable punky stride, groove lies in every moment of third full-length Realismo Ausente. Whether it’s on the classic beat of D (“Vaciar Un Corazón,” “Cuerpo Distorsionado”), the twanging drone of a screaming bend (“Monotonía de la lluvia en la Ventana”), or the Celtic Frost-ed hammer of a chord crush (“Catedral”), a calculated, urgent, and intoxicating cadence colors the grayscale attitude throughout. But just because Crossed can find a groove in any twisted mathy rhythm—early Converge and Dillinger Escape Plan come to mind on quick cuts like “Cerrojo” and “Sentirse Solo”—doesn’t mean that their panic chord-loaded crescendos and close-outs can’t rip your head clean off in banging ecstasy. Easy listening and blackened hardcore can’t go hand-in-hand, but Crossed does their very best to make unintelligible, scathing screeches and ceiling-scraping feedback hissing palatable against crunchy punk builds and throbbing, warm bass grumbles. Likewise, Realismo Ausente stabs into a dejected body tales of loathing, fear, self-rejection, and defeated existence—nothing smiles in its urgent and apathetic crevices. But despite the lack of light at the end of the tunnel of Crossed’s horror-touched vision of impassioned hardcore, an analog warmth and human spirit trapped inside a writhing and pleading throat reveal a presence that’s still fighting. It’s the fight that counts. If you didn’t join the fight last time, now’s as good a time as any.

Nothing // The Self Repair Manifesto [March 26th, 2025 – Self Released]

If you noticed a tree zombie heading steaming through its trepanned opening, then you too found the same initial draw I had to The Self Repair Manifesto. Nothing complex often can draw us to the things we desire, yet in Nothing’s particular attack of relentless, groove-based death metal, many nooks of additional interest exist. The Self Repair Manifesto’s tribal rhythm-stirred “Initiation,” in its bouncy play, does little to set up the double-kick pummel and snarling refrains that lurk in this brutal, Australian soundscape. The simple chiming cymbal-fluttering bass call-and-response of “Subterfuge,” the throat singing summoning of “The Shroud,” the immediate onslaught of “Abrogation”—all in under 30 minutes, an infectious and progressive experience unfolds. And never fear, living by the motto “no clean singing,”3 Nothing has no intention of traveling the wandering and crooning path of an Opeth or In Vain. Rather, Nothing finds a hypnotic rhythmic presence both in fanciful kit play that stirs a foot shuffle and high-tempo stick abuse that urges bodies on bodies in the pit (“Subterfuge,” “The Shroud”), much in the same way you might hear in early Decapitated or Hate Eternal works. With flair of their own, though, and a mic near the mouth vessel of each member (yes, even the drummer!) to maintain a layered harsh intensity, Nothing serves a potent blend of death metal that is as jam-able as it is gym-able. Whether you seek gains or progressive enrichment, Nothing is the answer.

Steel Druhm’s Massive Aggressive

Impurity // The Eternal Sleep [ March 7th, 2025 – Hammerheart Records]

Impurity’s lust for all things Left Hand Path is not the least bit Clandestine, and on their full-length debut, The Eternal Sleep, they attempt to craft their own ode to the rabid HM-2 worship of the early 90s Swedeath sound. No new elements are shoehorned in aside from vaguely blackened ones, and there’s not the slightest effort to push the boundaries of the admittedly limited Swedeath sound. The Eternal Sleep sounds like the album that could have come between Entombed’s timeless debut and the Clandestine follow-up, and that’s not a bad place to be. It’s heavy, brutish, buzzing death metal with an OSDM edge, and it hits like a runaway 18-wheeler full of concrete and titanium rebar. One only needs to weather the shitstorm of opener “Denial of Clarity” to realize this is the deep water of the niche genre. It’s extremely heavy, face-melting death with more fuzz and buzz than your brain can process. Other cuts feel like a direct lift from Left Hand Path and/or Clandestine (“Tribute to Creation,”) and fetid Dismember tidbits creep in during “Pilgrimage to Utumno,” and these feel like olde friends showing up unexpectedly at the hometown watering hole. Swedeath is all about those ragged, jagged riffs, and they’re delivered in abundance over The Eternal Sleep, and despite the intrinsic lack of originality, Impurity pump enough steroids and Cialis into the genre archetypes to make the material endearing and engaging. Yes, you’ve heard this shit before. Now hear it again, chumbo!

#AcidAge #Ade #AmericanMetal #ArtAsCatharsisRecords #ArtoneLabelGroup #Atheist #AustralianMetal #BeyondTheSleeplessAether #BlackMetal #BlackenedCrust #BlackenedHardcore #CanadianMetal #Casarder #CelticFrost #CoffinMulch #Converge #CreatorDestructorRecords #Crossed #Crust #DeathMetal #Decapitated #DesertRock #DillingerEscapePlan #DoomMetal #Doomsday #Elder #Enforced #Flummox #Fulci #Ghostsmoker #Hardcore #HateEternal #HideousDivinity #Impurity #InMourning #InVain #InertialCult #InternationalMetal #ItalianMetal #iwrestledabearonce #LostFutureRecords #MascotRecords #MastersOfReality #Mathcore #MelodicMetal #Metalcore #Morast #Morbific #MortalityDenied #MyDyingBride #NeObliviscaris #Neurosis #NeverKnownPeace #Nile #Nothing #Opeth #PaleChordRecords #Pelican #PerilousCompulsion #PinkFloyd #PortugueseMetal #PostRock #PostMetal #PowerTrip #ProgressiveDeathMetal #ProgressiveMetal #ProgressiveThrashMetal #PyschedelicRock #RancidCadaver #RealismoAusente #Review #Reviews #RiseRecords #RussianCircles #ScottishMetal #SeaBastard #SelfReleased #SixpenceNoneTheRicher #SludgeMetal #SpanishMetal #Spiine #Spiritbox #StonerMetal #Supplicium #SymbioticGrowth #TechnicalDeathMetal #Tetraptych #TheArcher #TheEternalSleep #TheSelfRepairManifesto #Thou #ThrashMetal #TimeToKillRecords #TsunamiSea #UKMetal #Unfleshing #Verbian #ViolentReason #VirginBlack #Voivod #Wormphlegm #ZegemaBeachRecords

Stuck in the Filter: March 2025’s Angry Misses

By Kenstrosity

Spring is in the air, and with it comes… an insane number of cicadas! Yes, that’s right, Brood XIV spawned this year and is currently overwhelming my staff as they trudge through embuggened ducts to clear out the Filter of semi-precious metal. I bet it’s fucking loud in there…

…. eh I’m sure they are all fine. Just fine. Anyway, enjoy the spoils of our toils!

Kenstrosity’s Gloopy Grubber

Acid Age // Perilous Compulsion [February 28th, 2025 – Self Released]

Belfast’s wacky thrash conglomerate Acid Age came out of absolutely nowhere back in March, unleashing their fourth LP Perilous Compulsion and equipping it with one helluva van-worthy cover. This is some funky, bluesy, quasi-psychedelic thrash metal that pulls no punches. Riffs abound, bonkers songwriting pervades, immense groove agitates. From the onset, “Bikini Island” establishes Perilous Compulsion as a no-nonsense, balls-out affair which reminds me heavily of Voivod and a simplified Flummox informed by Atheist’s progressive proclivities, and expanded by a touch of Pink Floyd’s nebulous jams. Of course, thrash remains Acid Age’s hero flavor, as choice cuts “State Your Business,” “Revenge for Sale,” and closing one-two punch “Rotten Tooth” and “Hamster Wheel” clearly demonstrate. While their fearless exploration of style and structure maintains a sky-high level of interest, it also introduces a couple of challenges. Firstly, this material can feel a bit disjointed at first, but focused spins reward the listener greatly as all of Perilous Compulsion’s moving parts start to mesh and move in unison. Secondly, Acid Age throws a spotlight on a few brilliant inclusions that, over time, I wish were more often utilized—namely, the delightfully bluesy harmonica solos on “Rotten Tooth.” Regardless, Acid Age put themselves on my map with Perilous Compulsion. I recommend you put them on yours, too!

Owlswald’s Desiccated Discoveries

Verbian // Casarder [March 21st, 2025 – Lost Future Records]

It’s unjust that Portuguese rockers Verbian—who have been producing quality post-rock since 2019’s Jaez—haven’t received the attention they deserve. Fusing elements of post-rock with metal, psychedelic, and stoner, Casarder is Verbian’s third full-length and the first with new drummer Guilherme Gonçalves. Taking the sounds and inspirations of 2020’s Irrupção and enriching it with new permutations and modulations, Casarder’s largely instrumental character rides punchy riffs and roiling grooves—à la Russian Circles and Elder—to transmit its thought-provoking legitimacy. Dystopian and surreal séances, via echoing Korg synthscapes (“Pausa Entre Dias,” “Vozes da Ilha”) and celestial harmonies, permeate Casarder’s forty-three-minute runtime, translating Madalena Pinto’s striking Aeon Flux-esque cover art with precision. Ominous horn sections and crusty recurrent vocals (“Marcha do Vulto,” “Depois de Toda a Mudança”) by guitarist Vasco Reis and bassist Alexandre Silva underscore Verbian’s individuality in a crowded post-rock domain. Gonçalves’s drumming—with his intricate and enchanting hard rock and samba rhythms (“Nada Muda,” “Fruta Caída do Mar”)—adds a new dimension to Verbian’s sound, assuring my attention never falters. The group describes Casarder as communicating the “…insecurities of artistic expression and personal exposure when it comes to fearing being judged for something that is somewhat outside of what is done in each artist’s niche.” Indeed, Casarder reveals Verbian is unafraid to forge their own path, and the results are gripping.

Symbiotic Growth // Beyond the Sleepless Aether [March 28th, 2025 – Self Released]

Beyond the Sleepless Aether, the sophomore effort by Ontario, Canada’s Symbiotic Growth, immediately caught my attention with its dreamy-looking cover. Building upon their 2020 self-titled debut, the Canadian trio hones epic and long-form progressive death metal soundscapes, narrating a quest for meaning across alternate realities in mostly lengthy, yet rewarding, tracks that blend technicality, atmosphere, and melody. The group frequently employs dynamic shifts, moving between raging brutality and serene shoegaze beauty (“Arid Trials and Barren Sands,” “The Sleepless Void”). This is achieved through complex and vengeful passages alongside atmospheric synth lines and softer piano interludes (“Sires of Boundless Sunset,” “Of Painted Skies and Dancing Lights”), cultivating an air of wonder, mystery, and ethereality that permeates much of Symbiotic Growth’s material. “The Architect of Annihilation” echoes the style of Ne Obliviscaris with its blend of clean harmonies and harsh growls meshed with tremolo-picked arpeggiations and catchy hooks (the guitar solo even features a violin-like quality). “Lost in Fractured Reveries” evokes In Mourning with its parallel synth and guitar lines giving way to devastating grooves that make it impossible not to headbang. Although some fine-tuning remains—the clean vocals could use some more weight and tracks like “Of Painted Skies and Dancing Lights” and “The Architect of Annihilation” overstay their welcome at times—Beyond the Sleepless Aether shows Symbiotic Growth’s burgeoning talent and signals the group is one to watch in progressive death metal.

Dear Hollow’s Drudgery Sludgery Hoist

Spiritbox // Tsunami Sea [March 7th, 2025 – Pale Chord Records | Rise Records]

From humble beginnings in a more artsy-fartsy djent post-Iwrestledabearonce world to becoming the darlings of Octane Radio, Spiritbox has seen quite the ascent. While it’s easy to look at their work and scoff at its radio-friendliness, sophomore full-length Tsunami Sea shows Courtney LaPlante and company sticking to their guns. Simultaneously more obscure and more radio-friendly in its selection of tracks, expect its signature blend of colossal riffs and ethereal melodies guided by LaPlante’s siren-then-sea serpent dichotomy of furious roars and haunting cleans. Yes, Spiritbox helms its attack with the radio singles (“Perfect Soul,”1 “Crystal Roses”) in layered soaring choruses and touches of hip-hop undergirded by fierce grooves, but the meat of Tsunami Sea finds the flexibility and patience in the skull-crushing brutality (“Soft Spine,” “No Loss, No Love”) and its more exploratory songwriting that amps layers of the ethereal and the hellish with catchy riffs and vocals alike (“Fata Morgana,” “A Haven of Two Faces”). It’s far from perfect, and its tendency towards radio will be divisive, but it shows Spiritbox firing on all cylinders.

Unfleshing // Violent Reason [March 28th, 2025 – Self Released]

I am always tickled pink by blackened crust. It takes the crusty violence and propensity for filth and adds black metal’s signature sinister nature. Unfleshing is a young, unsigned blackened crust band from St. Louis, and with debut Violent Reason, you can expect a traditional punk-infused beatdown with a battered guitar tone and sinister vocals. However, more than many, the quartet offers a beatdown that feels as atmospheric as it is pummeling. Don’t get me wrong, you get your skull caved in like the poor guy on the cover with minute-long crust beatdowns (“Body Bag,” “From the Gutter”) and full-length smackdowns (“Knife in the Dark,” “Final Breath”), both styles complete with scathing grooves, squalid feedback, climactic solos and punishing blastbeats, atop a blackened roar dripping with hate. But amid the full-throttle assault, Unfleshing utilizes ominous black metal chord progressions and unsettling plucking to add a more dynamic feature to Violent Reason (“Cathedral Rust,” “One With the Mud”). The album never overstays, and while traditional, it’s a hell of a start for Unfleshing.

Ghostsmoker // Inertia Cult [March 21st, 2025 – Art as Catharsis Records]

Ghostsmoker seems like the perfect stoner metal band name, but aside from the swampy guitar tone, there’s something much sinister lurking. Proffering a caustic blackened doom/sludge not unlike Thou, Wormphlegm, and Sea Bastard, the Melbourne group quartet devotes a crisp forty-two minutes to sprawling doom weighted by a crushing guitar tone that rivals Morast‘s latest, and shrieked vocals straight from the latest church burning. Beyond what’s expected from this particular breed of devastation, Ghostsmoker infuses an evocative patience reminiscent of post-metal’s more sludgy offerings like Neurosis or Pelican, lending a certain atmosphere and mood of dread and wilderness depicted on its cover. From the outright chugging attacks of churning aggression (“Elogium,” “Haven”) to the more experimental and thoughtful pieces (“Bodies to Shore,” instrumental closer “The Death of Solitude”), Inertia Cult largely feels like a journey through uncharted forests, with voices whispering from the trees. Ghostsmoker is something special.

GardensTale’s Paralyzed Spine

Spiine // Tetraptych [March 27th, 2025 – Self Released]

Is it still a supergroup release when half the lineup are session musicians? Spiine is made up of Sesca Scaarba (Virgin Black) and Xen (ex-Ne Obliviscaris), but on debut Tetraptych they are joined by guests Waltteri Väyrynen (Opeth) and Lena Abé (My Dying Bride). Usually, so much talent put into the same room does not yield great results. Tetraptych is one hell of an exception. A monstrous slab of crawling heaviness, Spiine lurches with abject despair through the mires of deathly funeral doom. Though I usually eschew this genre, my attention remains rapt through a variety of variations. The songwriting keeps the 4 tracks progressing, slow and steady builds, and the promise of momentary tempo changes working a two-pronged structural plan to buoy the majestic yet miserable riffs. “Oubliiette” is the best example here, going from galloping death-doom to Georgian choirs to a fantastic bridge where all the instrumentation hits only on the roared syllables. Xen’s unholy bellows flatten any objections I may have had, managing both thunder and deepest woe in the same notes. The subtle orchestration and occasional choir arrangements finish the package with regal grandeur, and the lush and warm production is the cherry on top. If you feel like drowning your sorrows with an hour of colossal doom, this is the album for you.

Saunders’ Stenched Staples

Ade // Supplicium [March 14th, 2025 – Time to Kill Records]

Sometimes unjustly pigeonholed as the Roman-inspired version of Nile, the hugely underrated Ade have punched out a solid career of quality death metal releases since emerging roughly fifteen years ago, charting their own path. Albums like 2013’s ripping Spartacus and 2019’s solid Rise of the Empire represent a tidy snapshot of the band’s career. Fifth album Supplicium, their first LP in six years, marks a low-key, welcome return. Exotic instrumentation and attention to history and storytelling are alive and well in the Ade camp, as is their penchant for punishing, unrelenting death, featuring a deftly curated mix of bombast, brutality, technical spark, and epic atmospheres. Edoardo Di Santo (Hideous Divinity) joins a largely refreshed line-up, including a new bassist and second guitarist since their last album. Line-up changes aside, familiar Ade tools of harrowing ancient Roman tales and modern death destruction remain as consistently solid as always. Top-notch riffs, intricate arrangements, fluid tempo shifts, and explosive drumming highlight songs that frequently flex their flair for drama-fueled atmospheres, hellfire blasts, and burly grooves. The immense, multi-faceted “Burnt Before Gods,” exotic melodies and raw savagery of “Ad Beastias!,” spitfire intensity of “Vinum,” and epically charged throes of “From Fault to Disfigurement” highlight more solid returns from Ade.

Masters of Reality // The Archer [March 28th, 2025 – Artone Label Group/Mascot Records]

Underappreciated desert rock pioneers and quirky stalwarts Masters of Reality returned from recording oblivion some fifteen-plus years since they last unleashed an LP. Led by the legendary Chris Goss and his collaborative counterparts across a career that first kicked off in the late ’80s, Masters of Reality return sounding inspired, wisened, and a little more chilled. Re-tinkering their familiar but ever-shifting sound, Masters of Reality incorporate woozy, bluesy laidback vibes featuring their oddball songwriting traits through a sedate, intriguing collection of new songs. The Archer showcases Masters of Reality’s longevity as seasoned, skilled songwriters, regardless of the shifting rock modes they explore. While perhaps lacking some of the energetic spark and earworm hooks of albums like Sunrise on the Sufferbus and Deep in the Hole, The Archer still marks a fine return outing. Goss’ signature voice is in fine form, and the bluesy, psych-drenched guitars, cushy basslines, ’60s and ’70s influences, and spacey vibes create a comforting haze. The delightfully dreamy, trippy “Chicken Little,” laidback hooks and old school charms of “I Had a Dream,” lively, quirky grooves of “Mr Tap n’ Go,” and moody, melancholic balladry of “Powder Man” highlight another diverse, strange brew from the veteran act.

Tyme’s Unheard Annunciations

Doomsday // Never Known Peace [March 28th, 2025 – Creator-Destructor Records]

March’s filter means spring is here, mostly, which is when I start searching for bands to populate my annual edition of Tyme’s Mowing Metal. There’s nothing I enjoy more than cracking a cold beer, sliding my headphones over my ears, and hopping on the mower to complete one of summer’s—at least for me—most enjoyable chores. A band that will feature prominently this summer is Oakland, California’s crossover thrash quintet Doomsday, and their Creator-Destructor Records debut album, Never Known Peace. Doomsday lays down a ton of mindless fun in the vein of other crossover greats like Enforced and Power Trip. There are riffs aplenty on this deliciously executed hardcore-tinged thrashtastic platter full of snarly, spiteful, Jamey Jasta-esque vocals, trademark gang shouts, and, oh, did I mention the riffs? Yeah, cuz there’s a butt-ton of ’em. Leads and solos are melodic (“Death is Here,” “Eternal Tombs”). Within its beefily warm mix, the chug-a-lug breakdowns run rampant across Never Known Peace‘s thirty-one minutes (seriously, there’s one in every track), leaving nary a tune that won’t have you at least bobbing your head and, at most, causing your neck a very nasty case of whipthrash. I’m going to be listening to Never Known Peace ALOT this summer, on and off my mower, and while I don’t care that the lawn lines in my yard will be a little wavier this year than others, I’ll chalk it up to the beer and the head banging Doomsday‘s Never Known Peace instills.

Rancid Cadaver // Mortality Denied [March 21st, 2025 – Self Released]

Another filter, another fetid fragment of foulness; this month, it’s up-and-coming deathstarts Rancid Cadaver and their independently released debut album Mortality Denied. Adam Burke’s excellent cover art caught my eye during a quick dip into the Bandcamp pool and had me pushing play. A thick slab of murderous meat ripe with fatty veins of Coffin Mulch and Morbific running through it, Mortality Denied overflows with tons of bestial vocals, crushing drums, barbaric bass, and squealing solos, all ensorcelled within the majesty of Rancid Cadaver‘s miasmic riff-gurgitations (“Slurping the Cerebral Slime,” “Mass of Gore,” and “Drained of Brains”). Fists will pump, and faces will stank during the Fulci-friendly “Zombified,” a pulverizing slow-death chug fest with an intro that landed me right back on the shores of Dr. Menard’s island of the undead.2 This quartet of Glaswegians has plopped down a death metal debut that ages like wine, getting better and better with consecutive spins. Surprisingly, Rancid Cadaver is unsigned, but I’m confident that status should change before we see a sophomore effort, and you can bet I’ll be there when that happens.

Dolphin Whisperer’s Unsophisticated Slappers

Crossed // Realismo Ausente [March 21st, 2025 – Zegema Beach Records]

Timing means everything in groove. I know that some people say that they have a hard time finding that kind of bob and sway in extreme music. But with an act like Spain’s Crossed, whose every carved word and every skronked guitar noise follows an insatiable punky stride, groove lies in every moment of third full-length Realismo Ausente. Whether it’s on the classic beat of D (“Vaciar Un Corazón,” “Cuerpo Distorsionado”), the twanging drone of a screaming bend (“Monotonía de la lluvia en la Ventana”), or the Celtic Frost-ed hammer of a chord crush (“Catedral”), a calculated, urgent, and intoxicating cadence colors the grayscale attitude throughout. But just because Crossed can find a groove in any twisted mathy rhythm—early Converge and Dillinger Escape Plan come to mind on quick cuts like “Cerrojo” and “Sentirse Solo”—doesn’t mean that their panic chord-loaded crescendos and close-outs can’t rip your head clean off in banging ecstasy. Easy listening and blackened hardcore can’t go hand-in-hand, but Crossed does their very best to make unintelligible, scathing screeches and ceiling-scraping feedback hissing palatable against crunchy punk builds and throbbing, warm bass grumbles. Likewise, Realismo Ausente stabs into a dejected body tales of loathing, fear, self-rejection, and defeated existence—nothing smiles in its urgent and apathetic crevices. But despite the lack of light at the end of the tunnel of Crossed’s horror-touched vision of impassioned hardcore, an analog warmth and human spirit trapped inside a writhing and pleading throat reveal a presence that’s still fighting. It’s the fight that counts. If you didn’t join the fight last time, now’s as good a time as any.

Nothing // The Self Repair Manifesto [March 26th, 2025 – Self Released]

If you noticed a tree zombie heading steaming through its trepanned opening, then you too found the same initial draw I had to The Self Repair Manifesto. Nothing complex often can draw us to the things we desire, yet in Nothing’s particular attack of relentless, groove-based death metal, many nooks of additional interest exist. The Self Repair Manifesto’s tribal rhythm-stirred “Initiation,” in its bouncy play, does little to set up the double-kick pummel and snarling refrains that lurk in this brutal, Australian soundscape. The simple chiming cymbal-fluttering bass call-and-response of “Subterfuge,” the throat singing summoning of “The Shroud,” the immediate onslaught of “Abrogation”—all in under 30 minutes, an infectious and progressive experience unfolds. And never fear, living by the motto “no clean singing,”3 Nothing has no intention of traveling the wandering and crooning path of an Opeth or In Vain. Rather, Nothing finds a hypnotic rhythmic presence both in fanciful kit play that stirs a foot shuffle and high-tempo stick abuse that urges bodies on bodies in the pit (“Subterfuge,” “The Shroud”), much in the same way you might hear in early Decapitated or Hate Eternal works. With flair of their own, though, and a mic near the mouth vessel of each member (yes, even the drummer!) to maintain a layered harsh intensity, Nothing serves a potent blend of death metal that is as jam-able as it is gym-able. Whether you seek gains or progressive enrichment, Nothing is the answer.

Steel Druhm’s Massive Aggressive

Impurity // The Eternal Sleep [ March 7th, 2025 – Hammerheart Records]

Impurity’s lust for all things Left Hand Path is not the least bit Clandestine, and on their full-length debut, The Eternal Sleep, they attempt to craft their own ode to the rabid HM-2 worship of the early 90s Swedeath sound. No new elements are shoehorned in aside from vaguely blackened ones, and there’s not the slightest effort to push the boundaries of the admittedly limited Swedeath sound. The Eternal Sleep sounds like the album that could have come between Entombed’s timeless debut and the Clandestine follow-up, and that’s not a bad place to be. It’s heavy, brutish, buzzing death metal with an OSDM edge, and it hits like a runaway 18-wheeler full of concrete and titanium rebar. One only needs to weather the shitstorm of opener “Denial of Clarity” to realize this is the deep water of the niche genre. It’s extremely heavy, face-melting death with more fuzz and buzz than your brain can process. Other cuts feel like a direct lift from Left Hand Path and/or Clandestine (“Tribute to Creation,”) and fetid Dismember tidbits creep in during “Pilgrimage to Utumno,” and these feel like olde friends showing up unexpectedly at the hometown watering hole. Swedeath is all about those ragged, jagged riffs, and they’re delivered in abundance over The Eternal Sleep, and despite the intrinsic lack of originality, Impurity pump enough steroids and Cialis into the genre archetypes to make the material endearing and engaging. Yes, you’ve heard this shit before. Now hear it again, chumbo!

#AcidAge #Ade #AmericanMetal #ArtAsCatharsisRecords #ArtoneLabelGroup #Atheist #AustralianMetal #BeyondTheSleeplessAether #BlackMetal #BlackenedCrust #BlackenedHardcore #CanadianMetal #Casarder #CelticFrost #CoffinMulch #Converge #CreatorDestructorRecords #Crossed #Crust #DeathMetal #Decapitated #DesertRock #DillingerEscapePlan #DoomMetal #Doomsday #Elder #Enforced #Flummox #Fulci #Ghostsmoker #Hardcore #HateEternal #HideousDivinity #Impurity #InMourning #InVain #InertialCult #InternationalMetal #ItalianMetal #iwrestledabearonce #LostFutureRecords #MascotRecords #MastersOfReality #Mathcore #MelodicMetal #Metalcore #Morast #Morbific #MortalityDenied #MyDyingBride #NeObliviscaris #Neurosis #NeverKnownPeace #Nile #Nothing #Opeth #PaleChordRecords #Pelican #PerilousCompulsion #PinkFloyd #PortugueseMetal #PostRock #PostMetal #PowerTrip #ProgressiveDeathMetal #ProgressiveMetal #ProgressiveThrashMetal #PyschedelicRock #RancidCadaver #RealismoAusente #Review #Reviews #RiseRecords #RussianCircles #ScottishMetal #SeaBastard #SelfReleased #SixpenceNoneTheRicher #SludgeMetal #SpanishMetal #Spiine #Spiritbox #StonerMetal #Supplicium #SymbioticGrowth #TechnicalDeathMetal #Tetraptych #TheArcher #TheEternalSleep #TheSelfRepairManifesto #Thou #ThrashMetal #TimeToKillRecords #TsunamiSea #UKMetal #Unfleshing #Verbian #ViolentReason #VirginBlack #Voivod #Wormphlegm #ZegemaBeachRecords

Stuck in the Filter: March 2025’s Angry Misses

By Kenstrosity

Spring is in the air, and with it comes… an insane number of cicadas! Yes, that’s right, Brood XIV spawned this year and is currently overwhelming my staff as they trudge through embuggened ducts to clear out the Filter of semi-precious metal. I bet it’s fucking loud in there…

…. eh I’m sure they are all fine. Just fine. Anyway, enjoy the spoils of our toils!

Kenstrosity’s Gloopy Grubber

Acid Age // Perilous Compulsion [February 28th, 2025 – Self Released]

Belfast’s wacky thrash conglomerate Acid Age came out of absolutely nowhere back in March, unleashing their fourth LP Perilous Compulsion and equipping it with one helluva van-worthy cover. This is some funky, bluesy, quasi-psychedelic thrash metal that pulls no punches. Riffs abound, bonkers songwriting pervades, immense groove agitates. From the onset, “Bikini Island” establishes Perilous Compulsion as a no-nonsense, balls-out affair which reminds me heavily of Voivod and a simplified Flummox informed by Atheist’s progressive proclivities, and expanded by a touch of Pink Floyd’s nebulous jams. Of course, thrash remains Acid Age’s hero flavor, as choice cuts “State Your Business,” “Revenge for Sale,” and closing one-two punch “Rotten Tooth” and “Hamster Wheel” clearly demonstrate. While their fearless exploration of style and structure maintains a sky-high level of interest, it also introduces a couple of challenges. Firstly, this material can feel a bit disjointed at first, but focused spins reward the listener greatly as all of Perilous Compulsion’s moving parts start to mesh and move in unison. Secondly, Acid Age throws a spotlight on a few brilliant inclusions that, over time, I wish were more often utilized—namely, the delightfully bluesy harmonica solos on “Rotten Tooth.” Regardless, Acid Age put themselves on my map with Perilous Compulsion. I recommend you put them on yours, too!

Owlswald’s Desiccated Discoveries

Verbian // Casarder [March 21st, 2025 – Lost Future Records]

It’s unjust that Portuguese rockers Verbian—who have been producing quality post-rock since 2019’s Jaez—haven’t received the attention they deserve. Fusing elements of post-rock with metal, psychedelic, and stoner, Casarder is Verbian’s third full-length and the first with new drummer Guilherme Gonçalves. Taking the sounds and inspirations of 2020’s Irrupção and enriching it with new permutations and modulations, Casarder’s largely instrumental character rides punchy riffs and roiling grooves—à la Russian Circles and Elder—to transmit its thought-provoking legitimacy. Dystopian and surreal séances, via echoing Korg synthscapes (“Pausa Entre Dias,” “Vozes da Ilha”) and celestial harmonies, permeate Casarder’s forty-three-minute runtime, translating Madalena Pinto’s striking Aeon Flux-esque cover art with precision. Ominous horn sections and crusty recurrent vocals (“Marcha do Vulto,” “Depois de Toda a Mudança”) by guitarist Vasco Reis and bassist Alexandre Silva underscore Verbian’s individuality in a crowded post-rock domain. Gonçalves’s drumming—with his intricate and enchanting hard rock and samba rhythms (“Nada Muda,” “Fruta Caída do Mar”)—adds a new dimension to Verbian’s sound, assuring my attention never falters. The group describes Casarder as communicating the “…insecurities of artistic expression and personal exposure when it comes to fearing being judged for something that is somewhat outside of what is done in each artist’s niche.” Indeed, Casarder reveals Verbian is unafraid to forge their own path, and the results are gripping.

Symbiotic Growth // Beyond the Sleepless Aether [March 28th, 2025 – Self Released]

Beyond the Sleepless Aether, the sophomore effort by Ontario, Canada’s Symbiotic Growth, immediately caught my attention with its dreamy-looking cover. Building upon their 2020 self-titled debut, the Canadian trio hones epic and long-form progressive death metal soundscapes, narrating a quest for meaning across alternate realities in mostly lengthy, yet rewarding, tracks that blend technicality, atmosphere, and melody. The group frequently employs dynamic shifts, moving between raging brutality and serene shoegaze beauty (“Arid Trials and Barren Sands,” “The Sleepless Void”). This is achieved through complex and vengeful passages alongside atmospheric synth lines and softer piano interludes (“Sires of Boundless Sunset,” “Of Painted Skies and Dancing Lights”), cultivating an air of wonder, mystery, and ethereality that permeates much of Symbiotic Growth’s material. “The Architect of Annihilation” echoes the style of Ne Obliviscaris with its blend of clean harmonies and harsh growls meshed with tremolo-picked arpeggiations and catchy hooks (the guitar solo even features a violin-like quality). “Lost in Fractured Reveries” evokes In Mourning with its parallel synth and guitar lines giving way to devastating grooves that make it impossible not to headbang. Although some fine-tuning remains—the clean vocals could use some more weight and tracks like “Of Painted Skies and Dancing Lights” and “The Architect of Annihilation” overstay their welcome at times—Beyond the Sleepless Aether shows Symbiotic Growth’s burgeoning talent and signals the group is one to watch in progressive death metal.

Dear Hollow’s Drudgery Sludgery Hoist

Spiritbox // Tsunami Sea [March 7th, 2025 – Pale Chord Records | Rise Records]

From humble beginnings in a more artsy-fartsy djent post-Iwrestledabearonce world to becoming the darlings of Octane Radio, Spiritbox has seen quite the ascent. While it’s easy to look at their work and scoff at its radio-friendliness, sophomore full-length Tsunami Sea shows Courtney LaPlante and company sticking to their guns. Simultaneously more obscure and more radio-friendly in its selection of tracks, expect its signature blend of colossal riffs and ethereal melodies guided by LaPlante’s siren-then-sea serpent dichotomy of furious roars and haunting cleans. Yes, Spiritbox helms its attack with the radio singles (“Perfect Soul,”1 “Crystal Roses”) in layered soaring choruses and touches of hip-hop undergirded by fierce grooves, but the meat of Tsunami Sea finds the flexibility and patience in the skull-crushing brutality (“Soft Spine,” “No Loss, No Love”) and its more exploratory songwriting that amps layers of the ethereal and the hellish with catchy riffs and vocals alike (“Fata Morgana,” “A Haven of Two Faces”). It’s far from perfect, and its tendency towards radio will be divisive, but it shows Spiritbox firing on all cylinders.

Unfleshing // Violent Reason [March 28th, 2025 – Self Released]

I am always tickled pink by blackened crust. It takes the crusty violence and propensity for filth and adds black metal’s signature sinister nature. Unfleshing is a young, unsigned blackened crust band from St. Louis, and with debut Violent Reason, you can expect a traditional punk-infused beatdown with a battered guitar tone and sinister vocals. However, more than many, the quartet offers a beatdown that feels as atmospheric as it is pummeling. Don’t get me wrong, you get your skull caved in like the poor guy on the cover with minute-long crust beatdowns (“Body Bag,” “From the Gutter”) and full-length smackdowns (“Knife in the Dark,” “Final Breath”), both styles complete with scathing grooves, squalid feedback, climactic solos and punishing blastbeats, atop a blackened roar dripping with hate. But amid the full-throttle assault, Unfleshing utilizes ominous black metal chord progressions and unsettling plucking to add a more dynamic feature to Violent Reason (“Cathedral Rust,” “One With the Mud”). The album never overstays, and while traditional, it’s a hell of a start for Unfleshing.

Ghostsmoker // Inertia Cult [March 21st, 2025 – Art as Catharsis Records]

Ghostsmoker seems like the perfect stoner metal band name, but aside from the swampy guitar tone, there’s something much sinister lurking. Proffering a caustic blackened doom/sludge not unlike Thou, Wormphlegm, and Sea Bastard, the Melbourne group quartet devotes a crisp forty-two minutes to sprawling doom weighted by a crushing guitar tone that rivals Morast‘s latest, and shrieked vocals straight from the latest church burning. Beyond what’s expected from this particular breed of devastation, Ghostsmoker infuses an evocative patience reminiscent of post-metal’s more sludgy offerings like Neurosis or Pelican, lending a certain atmosphere and mood of dread and wilderness depicted on its cover. From the outright chugging attacks of churning aggression (“Elogium,” “Haven”) to the more experimental and thoughtful pieces (“Bodies to Shore,” instrumental closer “The Death of Solitude”), Inertia Cult largely feels like a journey through uncharted forests, with voices whispering from the trees. Ghostsmoker is something special.

GardensTale’s Paralyzed Spine

Spiine // Tetraptych [March 27th, 2025 – Self Released]

Is it still a supergroup release when half the lineup are session musicians? Spiine is made up of Sesca Scaarba (Virgin Black) and Xen (ex-Ne Obliviscaris), but on debut Tetraptych they are joined by guests Waltteri Väyrynen (Opeth) and Lena Abé (My Dying Bride). Usually, so much talent put into the same room does not yield great results. Tetraptych is one hell of an exception. A monstrous slab of crawling heaviness, Spiine lurches with abject despair through the mires of deathly funeral doom. Though I usually eschew this genre, my attention remains rapt through a variety of variations. The songwriting keeps the 4 tracks progressing, slow and steady builds, and the promise of momentary tempo changes working a two-pronged structural plan to buoy the majestic yet miserable riffs. “Oubliiette” is the best example here, going from galloping death-doom to Georgian choirs to a fantastic bridge where all the instrumentation hits only on the roared syllables. Xen’s unholy bellows flatten any objections I may have had, managing both thunder and deepest woe in the same notes. The subtle orchestration and occasional choir arrangements finish the package with regal grandeur, and the lush and warm production is the cherry on top. If you feel like drowning your sorrows with an hour of colossal doom, this is the album for you.

Saunders’ Stenched Staples

Ade // Supplicium [March 14th, 2025 – Time to Kill Records]

Sometimes unjustly pigeonholed as the Roman-inspired version of Nile, the hugely underrated Ade have punched out a solid career of quality death metal releases since emerging roughly fifteen years ago, charting their own path. Albums like 2013’s ripping Spartacus and 2019’s solid Rise of the Empire represent a tidy snapshot of the band’s career. Fifth album Supplicium, their first LP in six years, marks a low-key, welcome return. Exotic instrumentation and attention to history and storytelling are alive and well in the Ade camp, as is their penchant for punishing, unrelenting death, featuring a deftly curated mix of bombast, brutality, technical spark, and epic atmospheres. Edoardo Di Santo (Hideous Divinity) joins a largely refreshed line-up, including a new bassist and second guitarist since their last album. Line-up changes aside, familiar Ade tools of harrowing ancient Roman tales and modern death destruction remain as consistently solid as always. Top-notch riffs, intricate arrangements, fluid tempo shifts, and explosive drumming highlight songs that frequently flex their flair for drama-fueled atmospheres, hellfire blasts, and burly grooves. The immense, multi-faceted “Burnt Before Gods,” exotic melodies and raw savagery of “Ad Beastias!,” spitfire intensity of “Vinum,” and epically charged throes of “From Fault to Disfigurement” highlight more solid returns from Ade.

Masters of Reality // The Archer [March 28th, 2025 – Artone Label Group/Mascot Records]

Underappreciated desert rock pioneers and quirky stalwarts Masters of Reality returned from recording oblivion some fifteen-plus years since they last unleashed an LP. Led by the legendary Chris Goss and his collaborative counterparts across a career that first kicked off in the late ’80s, Masters of Reality return sounding inspired, wisened, and a little more chilled. Re-tinkering their familiar but ever-shifting sound, Masters of Reality incorporate woozy, bluesy laidback vibes featuring their oddball songwriting traits through a sedate, intriguing collection of new songs. The Archer showcases Masters of Reality’s longevity as seasoned, skilled songwriters, regardless of the shifting rock modes they explore. While perhaps lacking some of the energetic spark and earworm hooks of albums like Sunrise on the Sufferbus and Deep in the Hole, The Archer still marks a fine return outing. Goss’ signature voice is in fine form, and the bluesy, psych-drenched guitars, cushy basslines, ’60s and ’70s influences, and spacey vibes create a comforting haze. The delightfully dreamy, trippy “Chicken Little,” laidback hooks and old school charms of “I Had a Dream,” lively, quirky grooves of “Mr Tap n’ Go,” and moody, melancholic balladry of “Powder Man” highlight another diverse, strange brew from the veteran act.

Tyme’s Unheard Annunciations

Doomsday // Never Known Peace [March 28th, 2025 – Creator-Destructor Records]

March’s filter means spring is here, mostly, which is when I start searching for bands to populate my annual edition of Tyme’s Mowing Metal. There’s nothing I enjoy more than cracking a cold beer, sliding my headphones over my ears, and hopping on the mower to complete one of summer’s—at least for me—most enjoyable chores. A band that will feature prominently this summer is Oakland, California’s crossover thrash quintet Doomsday, and their Creator-Destructor Records debut album, Never Known Peace. Doomsday lays down a ton of mindless fun in the vein of other crossover greats like Enforced and Power Trip. There are riffs aplenty on this deliciously executed hardcore-tinged thrashtastic platter full of snarly, spiteful, Jamey Jasta-esque vocals, trademark gang shouts, and, oh, did I mention the riffs? Yeah, cuz there’s a butt-ton of ’em. Leads and solos are melodic (“Death is Here,” “Eternal Tombs”). Within its beefily warm mix, the chug-a-lug breakdowns run rampant across Never Known Peace‘s thirty-one minutes (seriously, there’s one in every track), leaving nary a tune that won’t have you at least bobbing your head and, at most, causing your neck a very nasty case of whipthrash. I’m going to be listening to Never Known Peace ALOT this summer, on and off my mower, and while I don’t care that the lawn lines in my yard will be a little wavier this year than others, I’ll chalk it up to the beer and the head banging Doomsday‘s Never Known Peace instills.

Rancid Cadaver // Mortality Denied [March 21st, 2025 – Self Released]

Another filter, another fetid fragment of foulness; this month, it’s up-and-coming deathstarts Rancid Cadaver and their independently released debut album Mortality Denied. Adam Burke’s excellent cover art caught my eye during a quick dip into the Bandcamp pool and had me pushing play. A thick slab of murderous meat ripe with fatty veins of Coffin Mulch and Morbific running through it, Mortality Denied overflows with tons of bestial vocals, crushing drums, barbaric bass, and squealing solos, all ensorcelled within the majesty of Rancid Cadaver‘s miasmic riff-gurgitations (“Slurping the Cerebral Slime,” “Mass of Gore,” and “Drained of Brains”). Fists will pump, and faces will stank during the Fulci-friendly “Zombified,” a pulverizing slow-death chug fest with an intro that landed me right back on the shores of Dr. Menard’s island of the undead.2 This quartet of Glaswegians has plopped down a death metal debut that ages like wine, getting better and better with consecutive spins. Surprisingly, Rancid Cadaver is unsigned, but I’m confident that status should change before we see a sophomore effort, and you can bet I’ll be there when that happens.

Dolphin Whisperer’s Unsophisticated Slappers

Crossed // Realismo Ausente [March 21st, 2025 – Zegema Beach Records]

Timing means everything in groove. I know that some people say that they have a hard time finding that kind of bob and sway in extreme music. But with an act like Spain’s Crossed, whose every carved word and every skronked guitar noise follows an insatiable punky stride, groove lies in every moment of third full-length Realismo Ausente. Whether it’s on the classic beat of D (“Vaciar Un Corazón,” “Cuerpo Distorsionado”), the twanging drone of a screaming bend (“Monotonía de la lluvia en la Ventana”), or the Celtic Frost-ed hammer of a chord crush (“Catedral”), a calculated, urgent, and intoxicating cadence colors the grayscale attitude throughout. But just because Crossed can find a groove in any twisted mathy rhythm—early Converge and Dillinger Escape Plan come to mind on quick cuts like “Cerrojo” and “Sentirse Solo”—doesn’t mean that their panic chord-loaded crescendos and close-outs can’t rip your head clean off in banging ecstasy. Easy listening and blackened hardcore can’t go hand-in-hand, but Crossed does their very best to make unintelligible, scathing screeches and ceiling-scraping feedback hissing palatable against crunchy punk builds and throbbing, warm bass grumbles. Likewise, Realismo Ausente stabs into a dejected body tales of loathing, fear, self-rejection, and defeated existence—nothing smiles in its urgent and apathetic crevices. But despite the lack of light at the end of the tunnel of Crossed’s horror-touched vision of impassioned hardcore, an analog warmth and human spirit trapped inside a writhing and pleading throat reveal a presence that’s still fighting. It’s the fight that counts. If you didn’t join the fight last time, now’s as good a time as any.

Nothing // The Self Repair Manifesto [March 26th, 2025 – Self Released]

If you noticed a tree zombie heading steaming through its trepanned opening, then you too found the same initial draw I had to The Self Repair Manifesto. Nothing complex often can draw us to the things we desire, yet in Nothing’s particular attack of relentless, groove-based death metal, many nooks of additional interest exist. The Self Repair Manifesto’s tribal rhythm-stirred “Initiation,” in its bouncy play, does little to set up the double-kick pummel and snarling refrains that lurk in this brutal, Australian soundscape. The simple chiming cymbal-fluttering bass call-and-response of “Subterfuge,” the throat singing summoning of “The Shroud,” the immediate onslaught of “Abrogation”—all in under 30 minutes, an infectious and progressive experience unfolds. And never fear, living by the motto “no clean singing,”3 Nothing has no intention of traveling the wandering and crooning path of an Opeth or In Vain. Rather, Nothing finds a hypnotic rhythmic presence both in fanciful kit play that stirs a foot shuffle and high-tempo stick abuse that urges bodies on bodies in the pit (“Subterfuge,” “The Shroud”), much in the same way you might hear in early Decapitated or Hate Eternal works. With flair of their own, though, and a mic near the mouth vessel of each member (yes, even the drummer!) to maintain a layered harsh intensity, Nothing serves a potent blend of death metal that is as jam-able as it is gym-able. Whether you seek gains or progressive enrichment, Nothing is the answer.

Steel Druhm’s Massive Aggressive

Impurity // The Eternal Sleep [ March 7th, 2025 – Hammerheart Records]

Impurity’s lust for all things Left Hand Path is not the least bit Clandestine, and on their full-length debut, The Eternal Sleep, they attempt to craft their own ode to the rabid HM-2 worship of the early 90s Swedeath sound. No new elements are shoehorned in aside from vaguely blackened ones, and there’s not the slightest effort to push the boundaries of the admittedly limited Swedeath sound. The Eternal Sleep sounds like the album that could have come between Entombed’s timeless debut and the Clandestine follow-up, and that’s not a bad place to be. It’s heavy, brutish, buzzing death metal with an OSDM edge, and it hits like a runaway 18-wheeler full of concrete and titanium rebar. One only needs to weather the shitstorm of opener “Denial of Clarity” to realize this is the deep water of the niche genre. It’s extremely heavy, face-melting death with more fuzz and buzz than your brain can process. Other cuts feel like a direct lift from Left Hand Path and/or Clandestine (“Tribute to Creation,”) and fetid Dismember tidbits creep in during “Pilgrimage to Utumno,” and these feel like olde friends showing up unexpectedly at the hometown watering hole. Swedeath is all about those ragged, jagged riffs, and they’re delivered in abundance over The Eternal Sleep, and despite the intrinsic lack of originality, Impurity pump enough steroids and Cialis into the genre archetypes to make the material endearing and engaging. Yes, you’ve heard this shit before. Now hear it again, chumbo!

#AcidAge #Ade #AmericanMetal #ArtAsCatharsisRecords #ArtoneLabelGroup #Atheist #AustralianMetal #BeyondTheSleeplessAether #BlackMetal #BlackenedCrust #BlackenedHardcore #CanadianMetal #Casarder #CelticFrost #CoffinMulch #Converge #CreatorDestructorRecords #Crossed #Crust #DeathMetal #Decapitated #DesertRock #DillingerEscapePlan #DoomMetal #Doomsday #Elder #Enforced #Flummox #Fulci #Ghostsmoker #Hardcore #HateEternal #HideousDivinity #Impurity #InMourning #InVain #InertialCult #InternationalMetal #ItalianMetal #iwrestledabearonce #LostFutureRecords #MascotRecords #MastersOfReality #Mathcore #MelodicMetal #Metalcore #Morast #Morbific #MortalityDenied #MyDyingBride #NeObliviscaris #Neurosis #NeverKnownPeace #Nile #Nothing #Opeth #PaleChordRecords #Pelican #PerilousCompulsion #PinkFloyd #PortugueseMetal #PostRock #PostMetal #PowerTrip #ProgressiveDeathMetal #ProgressiveMetal #ProgressiveThrashMetal #PyschedelicRock #RancidCadaver #RealismoAusente #Review #Reviews #RiseRecords #RussianCircles #ScottishMetal #SeaBastard #SelfReleased #SixpenceNoneTheRicher #SludgeMetal #SpanishMetal #Spiine #Spiritbox #StonerMetal #Supplicium #SymbioticGrowth #TechnicalDeathMetal #Tetraptych #TheArcher #TheEternalSleep #TheSelfRepairManifesto #Thou #ThrashMetal #TimeToKillRecords #TsunamiSea #UKMetal #Unfleshing #Verbian #ViolentReason #VirginBlack #Voivod #Wormphlegm #ZegemaBeachRecords

Akira – Demo 2008
#BlackenedCrust #Experimental #ambient #blackmetal #blackenedhardcore #crust #crustpunk #darkhardcore #drone #hardcorepunk #neocrust #noise #punkrock #screamo #sludge #Saratov
CC BY-NC-ND (#CreativeCommons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives) #ccmusic
https://boilyourangel.bandcamp.com/album/demo-2008

Akira – Demo 2008
#BlackenedCrust #Experimental #ambient #blackmetal #blackenedhardcore #crust #crustpunk #darkhardcore #drone #hardcorepunk #neocrust #noise #punkrock #screamo #sludge #Saratov
CC BY-NC-ND (#CreativeCommons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives) #ccmusic
https://boilyourangel.bandcamp.com/album/demo-2008

Akira – Demo 2008
#BlackenedCrust #Experimental #ambient #blackmetal #blackenedhardcore #crust #crustpunk #darkhardcore #drone #hardcorepunk #neocrust #noise #punkrock #screamo #sludge #Saratov
CC BY-NC-ND (#CreativeCommons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives) #ccmusic
https://boilyourangel.bandcamp.com/album/demo-2008

Akira – Demo 2008
#BlackenedCrust #Experimental #ambient #blackmetal #blackenedhardcore #crust #crustpunk #darkhardcore #drone #hardcorepunk #neocrust #noise #punkrock #screamo #sludge #Saratov
CC BY-NC-ND (#CreativeCommons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives) #ccmusic
https://boilyourangel.bandcamp.com/album/demo-2008

All out now from #SatanNotHatin participants - Ancst with album 'Dominion', Lähdön Aika with single 'Teuraaksi Kastettu' and Voland with album 'The Grieving Fields'. All on Bandcamp #Music #NewMusic #MetalMusic #BlackenedHardcore #BlackMetal #s8nnoth8n #ProtectedByThePitchfork

Prefix Suffix – Vir053: Qualities of Naught
#Experimental #Rock #blackenedhardcore #darkfolk #doom #drone #Copenhagen
CC BY-NC-SA (#CreativeCommons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike) #ccmusic
https://virkelighedsfjern.bandcamp.com/album/vir053-qualities-of-naught

Prefix Suffix – Vir053: Qualities of Naught
#Experimental #Rock #blackenedhardcore #darkfolk #doom #drone #Copenhagen
CC BY-NC-SA (#CreativeCommons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike) #ccmusic
https://virkelighedsfjern.bandcamp.com/album/vir053-qualities-of-naught

Throwe – Vir065: Forfald
#Experimental #Rock #blackenedhardcore #darkfolk #doom #drone #posthardcore #Copenhagen
CC BY-NC-SA (#CreativeCommons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike) #ccmusic
https://virkelighedsfjern.bandcamp.com/album/vir065-forfald

Throwe – Vir065: Forfald
#Experimental #Rock #blackenedhardcore #darkfolk #doom #drone #posthardcore #Copenhagen
CC BY-NC-SA (#CreativeCommons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike) #ccmusic
https://virkelighedsfjern.bandcamp.com/album/vir065-forfald

зелёный дядя u сёрферы чёрной дыры (Green Uncle and the Black Hole Surfers) – Vir063: In the Animal World
#Experimental #Rock #blackenedhardcore #darkfolk #doom #drone #krautrock #neopsychedelia #synthpunk #Copenhagen
CC BY-NC-SA (#CreativeCommons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike) #ccmusic
https://virkelighedsfjern.bandcamp.com/album/vir063-in-the-animal-world

зелёный дядя u сёрферы чёрной дыры (Green Uncle and the Black Hole Surfers) – Vir063: In the Animal World
#Experimental #Rock #blackenedhardcore #darkfolk #doom #drone #krautrock #neopsychedelia #synthpunk #Copenhagen
CC BY-NC-SA (#CreativeCommons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike) #ccmusic
https://virkelighedsfjern.bandcamp.com/album/vir063-in-the-animal-world

Tommy Concrete – Unrelapsed Review

By Ferox

Written By: Nameless_N00b_87

Scottish solo artist Tommy Concrete (aka Tomas Pattison) has a proclivity for creating music that is experimental, rebellious, and seldom boring. Since 2001, the avant-garde musician has self-produced a surplus of releases dipping into punk, progressive metal, doom, black metal, hardcore, industrial, and almost everything in between. 2021’s Hexenzirkel found the Scot experimenting with epic long-winded prog compositions á la Devin Townsend. It was received negatively by AMG’s resident Frog. Fast forward three years and Tommy is back to give it another go with his tenth full-length Unrelapsed,1 and this time he’s using blackened hardcore as a therapeutic means to cope with his struggles with addiction. Considering Tommy’s affinity for genre-hopping and complicating his music, I approached Unrelapsed with the hope that he had found a more focused sound.

Unrelapsed proves that old habits die hard. In typical Tommy fashion, the epic prog of Hexenzirkel has been napalmed by an eclectic mix of blackened hardcore that oscillates between industrial (“Anger”), black metal (“Denial”), thrash (“Ambivalent”), drum and bass (“Depression,” “Unrecognisable”) and even trip-hop (“Debt”).2 For Unrelapsed’s thirty minutes, Tommy blazes through twenty-two songs of short, emotionally violent arrangements that are frenzied and chaotic. Tommy’s guttural and dissonant vocals convey hostility (“Psycho”), anguish (“Relapse”), depression (“Blame”), and even desperation (“Lost”) as they drift over technically proficient—yet asymmetric—instrumentation that fuses Imperial Trimphant’s experimental chaos with The Locust’s breakneck fluctuations. Piercing drums—with enough snare to wake the dead—form the core of Tommy’s madness, sitting center stage in a peaking mix as the interplay of effects, subtle organ passages, and meandering guitars further amplify the intense emotions that beleaguered Tommy’s journey to sobriety. Together, these elements forge an intensely personal record rooted in adversity, reflection, and catharsis.

Intense and personal may be the point, because Unreleapsed is a whirlwind of chaos and disorder. Tracks like “Paranoia” and “Abandoned” arrive and disappear rapidly without any sense of direction. Many others barely hold any semblance of song structure before buckling under their own weight and crumbling into audible storms of phaser (“Lying”), odd noises (“Blackout”), wandering guitar (“Unrecognisable”) and hectic beats (“Depression”). And in the instances when Tommy manages to settle into a coherent song structure for longer than thirty seconds, he frequently derails everything with nomadic jazz fusion or psychedelic guitar noodling that drains Unrelapsed’s scant reserves of flow and momentum.

Accordingly, Unrelapsed is a difficult and toilsome listen that drove me to contemplate my exit within ten minutes of pressing play. Although Tommy Concrete’s performances show prowess and the underlying emotion is derived from real-life experience, the frenetic energy of the compositions, coupled with Tommy’s deeply personal themes, creates an overwhelming experience. While the potent one-two punch of Unrelapsed’s themes and its avant-garde assembly should be a strength, they become too overpowering too quickly, leaving me feeling frayed and confused instead of appreciating Tommy’s authenticity and creativity. Tommy’s choice to remain self-produced was also dicey but, ironically, the album’s production may be its saving grace. Yes, the drums are overpowering and everything is way too loud, but the mix is balanced and adds some much-needed depth and complexity to Unrelapsed’s sonic onslaught.

Unrelapsed offers a cathartic exploration of addiction and little else. It’s a chaotic and fragmented frenzy that quickly exhausted me by its lack of cohesion, overwhelming pace, and constant sensory overload. At the same time, however, Unrelapsed mirrors a struggle that many have endured but few can comprehend, and I genuinely hope Tomas found solace in its creation. Perhaps that alone should be deserving of a higher score. But the fact remains that Unrelapsed is plagued by persistent troubles— both old and new— and will only resonate with those who have a high tolerance for disorder and raw emotional expression.

Rating: 1.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Howling Invocations
Websites: tommyconcrete.bandcamp.com | instagram.com/TommyConcrete
Releases Worldwide: November 1, 2024

#10 #2024 #BlackenedHardcore #DevinTownsend #Hardcore #HowlingInvocations #ImperialTriumphant #Nov24 #Review #Reviews #ScottishMetal #TheLocust #TommyConcrete

Tommy Concrete – Unrelapsed Review

By Ferox

Written By: Nameless_N00b_87

Scottish solo artist Tommy Concrete (aka Tomas Pattison) has a proclivity for creating music that is experimental, rebellious, and seldom boring. Since 2001, the avant-garde musician has self-produced a surplus of releases dipping into punk, progressive metal, doom, black metal, hardcore, industrial, and almost everything in between. 2021’s Hexenzirkel found the Scot experimenting with epic long-winded prog compositions á la Devin Townsend. It was received negatively by AMG’s resident Frog. Fast forward three years and Tommy is back to give it another go with his tenth full-length Unrelapsed,1 and this time he’s using blackened hardcore as a therapeutic means to cope with his struggles with addiction. Considering Tommy’s affinity for genre-hopping and complicating his music, I approached Unrelapsed with the hope that he had found a more focused sound.

Unrelapsed proves that old habits die hard. In typical Tommy fashion, the epic prog of Hexenzirkel has been napalmed by an eclectic mix of blackened hardcore that oscillates between industrial (“Anger”), black metal (“Denial”), thrash (“Ambivalent”), drum and bass (“Depression,” “Unrecognisable”) and even trip-hop (“Debt”).2 For Unrelapsed’s thirty minutes, Tommy blazes through twenty-two songs of short, emotionally violent arrangements that are frenzied and chaotic. Tommy’s guttural and dissonant vocals convey hostility (“Psycho”), anguish (“Relapse”), depression (“Blame”), and even desperation (“Lost”) as they drift over technically proficient—yet asymmetric—instrumentation that fuses Imperial Trimphant’s experimental chaos with The Locust’s breakneck fluctuations. Piercing drums—with enough snare to wake the dead—form the core of Tommy’s madness, sitting center stage in a peaking mix as the interplay of effects, subtle organ passages, and meandering guitars further amplify the intense emotions that beleaguered Tommy’s journey to sobriety. Together, these elements forge an intensely personal record rooted in adversity, reflection, and catharsis.

Intense and personal may be the point, because Unreleapsed is a whirlwind of chaos and disorder. Tracks like “Paranoia” and “Abandoned” arrive and disappear rapidly without any sense of direction. Many others barely hold any semblance of song structure before buckling under their own weight and crumbling into audible storms of phaser (“Lying”), odd noises (“Blackout”), wandering guitar (“Unrecognisable”) and hectic beats (“Depression”). And in the instances when Tommy manages to settle into a coherent song structure for longer than thirty seconds, he frequently derails everything with nomadic jazz fusion or psychedelic guitar noodling that drains Unrelapsed’s scant reserves of flow and momentum.

Accordingly, Unrelapsed is a difficult and toilsome listen that drove me to contemplate my exit within ten minutes of pressing play. Although Tommy Concrete’s performances show prowess and the underlying emotion is derived from real-life experience, the frenetic energy of the compositions, coupled with Tommy’s deeply personal themes, creates an overwhelming experience. While the potent one-two punch of Unrelapsed’s themes and its avant-garde assembly should be a strength, they become too overpowering too quickly, leaving me feeling frayed and confused instead of appreciating Tommy’s authenticity and creativity. Tommy’s choice to remain self-produced was also dicey but, ironically, the album’s production may be its saving grace. Yes, the drums are overpowering and everything is way too loud, but the mix is balanced and adds some much-needed depth and complexity to Unrelapsed’s sonic onslaught.

Unrelapsed offers a cathartic exploration of addiction and little else. It’s a chaotic and fragmented frenzy that quickly exhausted me by its lack of cohesion, overwhelming pace, and constant sensory overload. At the same time, however, Unrelapsed mirrors a struggle that many have endured but few can comprehend, and I genuinely hope Tomas found solace in its creation. Perhaps that alone should be deserving of a higher score. But the fact remains that Unrelapsed is plagued by persistent troubles— both old and new— and will only resonate with those who have a high tolerance for disorder and raw emotional expression.

Rating: 1.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Howling Invocations
Websites: tommyconcrete.bandcamp.com | instagram.com/TommyConcrete
Releases Worldwide: November 1, 2024

#10 #2024 #BlackenedHardcore #DevinTownsend #Hardcore #HowlingInvocations #ImperialTriumphant #Nov24 #Review #Reviews #ScottishMetal #TheLocust #TommyConcrete

Tommy Concrete – Unrelapsed Review

By Ferox

Written By: Nameless_N00b_87

Scottish solo artist Tommy Concrete (aka Tomas Pattison) has a proclivity for creating music that is experimental, rebellious, and seldom boring. Since 2001, the avant-garde musician has self-produced a surplus of releases dipping into punk, progressive metal, doom, black metal, hardcore, industrial, and almost everything in between. 2021’s Hexenzirkel found the Scot experimenting with epic long-winded prog compositions á la Devin Townsend. It was received negatively by AMG’s resident Frog. Fast forward three years and Tommy is back to give it another go with his tenth full-length Unrelapsed,1 and this time he’s using blackened hardcore as a therapeutic means to cope with his struggles with addiction. Considering Tommy’s affinity for genre-hopping and complicating his music, I approached Unrelapsed with the hope that he had found a more focused sound.

Unrelapsed proves that old habits die hard. In typical Tommy fashion, the epic prog of Hexenzirkel has been napalmed by an eclectic mix of blackened hardcore that oscillates between industrial (“Anger”), black metal (“Denial”), thrash (“Ambivalent”), drum and bass (“Depression,” “Unrecognisable”) and even trip-hop (“Debt”).2 For Unrelapsed’s thirty minutes, Tommy blazes through twenty-two songs of short, emotionally violent arrangements that are frenzied and chaotic. Tommy’s guttural and dissonant vocals convey hostility (“Psycho”), anguish (“Relapse”), depression (“Blame”), and even desperation (“Lost”) as they drift over technically proficient—yet asymmetric—instrumentation that fuses Imperial Trimphant’s experimental chaos with The Locust’s breakneck fluctuations. Piercing drums—with enough snare to wake the dead—form the core of Tommy’s madness, sitting center stage in a peaking mix as the interplay of effects, subtle organ passages, and meandering guitars further amplify the intense emotions that beleaguered Tommy’s journey to sobriety. Together, these elements forge an intensely personal record rooted in adversity, reflection, and catharsis.

Intense and personal may be the point, because Unreleapsed is a whirlwind of chaos and disorder. Tracks like “Paranoia” and “Abandoned” arrive and disappear rapidly without any sense of direction. Many others barely hold any semblance of song structure before buckling under their own weight and crumbling into audible storms of phaser (“Lying”), odd noises (“Blackout”), wandering guitar (“Unrecognisable”) and hectic beats (“Depression”). And in the instances when Tommy manages to settle into a coherent song structure for longer than thirty seconds, he frequently derails everything with nomadic jazz fusion or psychedelic guitar noodling that drains Unrelapsed’s scant reserves of flow and momentum.

Accordingly, Unrelapsed is a difficult and toilsome listen that drove me to contemplate my exit within ten minutes of pressing play. Although Tommy Concrete’s performances show prowess and the underlying emotion is derived from real-life experience, the frenetic energy of the compositions, coupled with Tommy’s deeply personal themes, creates an overwhelming experience. While the potent one-two punch of Unrelapsed’s themes and its avant-garde assembly should be a strength, they become too overpowering too quickly, leaving me feeling frayed and confused instead of appreciating Tommy’s authenticity and creativity. Tommy’s choice to remain self-produced was also dicey but, ironically, the album’s production may be its saving grace. Yes, the drums are overpowering and everything is way too loud, but the mix is balanced and adds some much-needed depth and complexity to Unrelapsed’s sonic onslaught.

Unrelapsed offers a cathartic exploration of addiction and little else. It’s a chaotic and fragmented frenzy that quickly exhausted me by its lack of cohesion, overwhelming pace, and constant sensory overload. At the same time, however, Unrelapsed mirrors a struggle that many have endured but few can comprehend, and I genuinely hope Tomas found solace in its creation. Perhaps that alone should be deserving of a higher score. But the fact remains that Unrelapsed is plagued by persistent troubles— both old and new— and will only resonate with those who have a high tolerance for disorder and raw emotional expression.

Rating: 1.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Howling Invocations
Websites: tommyconcrete.bandcamp.com | instagram.com/TommyConcrete
Releases Worldwide: November 1, 2024

#10 #2024 #BlackenedHardcore #DevinTownsend #Hardcore #HowlingInvocations #ImperialTriumphant #Nov24 #Review #Reviews #ScottishMetal #TheLocust #TommyConcrete

#SerotoninZero • La Casa Fantom 📣 @adapulawska • 16.10

https://youtu.be/8oBXUvwApDY?si=hzzUu-9MvNGFM9-x

Więcej info https://songkick.com/concerts/41942369-la-casa-fantom-at-ada-pulawska

#blackenedhardcore #darkhardcore #muzyka #hardcore #musicvideo #warszawa

#SerotoninZero • La Casa Fantom 📣 @adapulawska • 16.10

https://youtu.be/8oBXUvwApDY?si=hzzUu-9MvNGFM9-x

Więcej info https://songkick.com/concerts/41942369-la-casa-fantom-at-ada-pulawska

#blackenedhardcore #darkhardcore #muzyka #hardcore #musicvideo #warszawa

Apes – Penitence Review

By Dear Hollow

In the preface of Herman Hesse’s Faust-inspired novel Steppenwolf, an unnamed narrator (simply called the Nephew) details a series of encounters with main character Harry Haller. Haller is described as extremely intellectual and arrogant, but ultimately alienated by and disillusioned with the bourgeois-dominated society of twentieth-century Germany. Hesse’s narrative culminates in a scene in which the narrator and Haller, now friends, attend a lecture from a philosopher, one of Europe’s brightest minds. Haller gives a fleeting glance at the narrator: his expression is described as cutting through the pomp and pretense of human society, a look that is described as melancholic, dismissing the words and their speaker. “It said: ‘See what monkeys we are! Look, such is man!’ and at once all renown, all intelligence, all the attainments of the spirit, all progress towards the sublime, the great and the enduring in man fell away and became a monkey’s trick!”

Apes is a six-piece from Montreal, having released one LP and a series of demos and EPs since its inception in 2012. 2017 debut full-length Lightless introduced the band’s now-signature sound, a blend that continues in its sophomore effort Penitence seven years later: a blend of black metal and grindcore. While easy comparisons would be the sinister cutthroat attack of older Anaal Nathrakh or the unhinged intensity of Siberian Hell Sounds, Apes resides in a blackened interpretation of Nails, Trap Them, or Mammoth Grinder. Crusty riffs and blazing blastbeats are the backbone of Penitence, atop which elements of atmospheric black metal, doom, and noise are introduced. An unbearably suffocating and filthy listen that hits hard, fast, and menacingly, Apes seamlessly offers riffs and grimness in equal measure through an animalistic intensity, its lyrics and atmosphere a constant hopeless reminder of humankind’s futility.

For all of twenty-five minutes, Apes does not waste a single second, thanks to its impressive contributors. Vocalist Alexandre Goulet offers a hardcore-inspired bark that collapses into a primitive howl, further emphasizing the themes present on Penitence, guiding a swarming triple-guitar beatdown that descends into blackened suffocation and climactic solos throughout that settles into a doom-inspired groove periodically, while blastbeats, powerful kicks, and tom-heavy buildups hit at just the right moments. Painted across the album at large is a tapestry of noise, adding a density and rockiness that feels like the suffocation of confession and shame – covered in the darkness of misanthropy. It lacks the clarity of Nails or Trap Them, but its suffocating aims are far better served in this palette.

“Coffin” is a good opener with its filthy crust, amplified by guest Madi Watkins from Year of the Knife, but the track almost serves as a misdirect in its upfront gooey slam-inspired breakdown and thunderous grooves: meatheadedness before the storm, if you will. While the riffs and chugs are present throughout Penitence, they serve as elements among many to Apes’ dynamics. The best examples of this are “Bottom Feeder,” “Shadow Walker,” and “Echoes,” through which moments of clarity offer relentless beatdown, but otherwise focus on down-tuned riffage and tremolo while atmosphere pervades. The title track is likewise a stellar offering because it features an unshakeable riff before slowing the tempo incrementally to a nearly death/doom Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire-esque crawl by its conclusion, achieving a nearly unbearable density in closer “Pillars” alongside a scathing melodic motif. “The Great Fire” and “Closure” are more forgettable pieces in comparison, but undeniably crucial to the soundscape that Penitence builds: less a scenic vista and more a path to get to the outlook.

Closer “Pillars” looks out upon the scorched earth of man’s futility with a punishing and animalistic grind-inspired, crusty, blackened, and riffy take on grind. Apes wears its theme firmly on its sleeve, as portrayed in the Werner Herzog sample at the end of “Closure” best summarized in this: “there is no harmony in the universe.” Penitence is a heavy album, balancing bouncy riffs, chugging guitars, and an evocative atmospheric prowess alongside its blackened tendencies – a slowly unfolding album with plenty of secrets to unveil in spite of its extremely brief runtime. While comparisons to Anaal Nathrakh, Nails, and Outergods are fair, they are ultimately incomplete, favoring riff or atmosphere. In this way, Apes soars in an album that’s unafraid to whisk you away to a place dark and unsettling only to kick you to the curb while laughing maniacally at mankind’s achievements. See what monkeys we are, truly.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Secret Swarm Records
Websites: apesqc.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/apesqc
Releases Worldwide: June 14th, 2024

#2024 #40 #AnaalNathrakh #Apes #AtmosphericBlackMetal #BlackMetal #BlackenedHardcore #CanadianMetal #ClingingToTheTreesOfAForestFire #CrustPunk #DeathDoomMetal #Grindcore #Jun24 #MammothGrinder #Nails #Noise #Outergods #Penitence #Review #Reviews #SecretSwarmRecords #SiberianHellSounds #Slam #TrapThem #YearOfTheKnife

Apes – Penitence Review

By Dear Hollow

In the preface of Herman Hesse’s Faust-inspired novel Steppenwolf, an unnamed narrator (simply called the Nephew) details a series of encounters with main character Harry Haller. Haller is described as extremely intellectual and arrogant, but ultimately alienated by and disillusioned with the bourgeois-dominated society of twentieth-century Germany. Hesse’s narrative culminates in a scene in which the narrator and Haller, now friends, attend a lecture from a philosopher, one of Europe’s brightest minds. Haller gives a fleeting glance at the narrator: his expression is described as cutting through the pomp and pretense of human society, a look that is described as melancholic, dismissing the words and their speaker. “It said: ‘See what monkeys we are! Look, such is man!’ and at once all renown, all intelligence, all the attainments of the spirit, all progress towards the sublime, the great and the enduring in man fell away and became a monkey’s trick!”

Apes is a six-piece from Montreal, having released one LP and a series of demos and EPs since its inception in 2012. 2017 debut full-length Lightless introduced the band’s now-signature sound, a blend that continues in its sophomore effort Penitence seven years later: a blend of black metal and grindcore. While easy comparisons would be the sinister cutthroat attack of older Anaal Nathrakh or the unhinged intensity of Siberian Hell Sounds, Apes resides in a blackened interpretation of Nails, Trap Them, or Mammoth Grinder. Crusty riffs and blazing blastbeats are the backbone of Penitence, atop which elements of atmospheric black metal, doom, and noise are introduced. An unbearably suffocating and filthy listen that hits hard, fast, and menacingly, Apes seamlessly offers riffs and grimness in equal measure through an animalistic intensity, its lyrics and atmosphere a constant hopeless reminder of humankind’s futility.

For all of twenty-five minutes, Apes does not waste a single second, thanks to its impressive contributors. Vocalist Alexandre Goulet offers a hardcore-inspired bark that collapses into a primitive howl, further emphasizing the themes present on Penitence, guiding a swarming triple-guitar beatdown that descends into blackened suffocation and climactic solos throughout that settles into a doom-inspired groove periodically, while blastbeats, powerful kicks, and tom-heavy buildups hit at just the right moments. Painted across the album at large is a tapestry of noise, adding a density and rockiness that feels like the suffocation of confession and shame – covered in the darkness of misanthropy. It lacks the clarity of Nails or Trap Them, but its suffocating aims are far better served in this palette.

“Coffin” is a good opener with its filthy crust, amplified by guest Madi Watkins from Year of the Knife, but the track almost serves as a misdirect in its upfront gooey slam-inspired breakdown and thunderous grooves: meatheadedness before the storm, if you will. While the riffs and chugs are present throughout Penitence, they serve as elements among many to Apes’ dynamics. The best examples of this are “Bottom Feeder,” “Shadow Walker,” and “Echoes,” through which moments of clarity offer relentless beatdown, but otherwise focus on down-tuned riffage and tremolo while atmosphere pervades. The title track is likewise a stellar offering because it features an unshakeable riff before slowing the tempo incrementally to a nearly death/doom Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire-esque crawl by its conclusion, achieving a nearly unbearable density in closer “Pillars” alongside a scathing melodic motif. “The Great Fire” and “Closure” are more forgettable pieces in comparison, but undeniably crucial to the soundscape that Penitence builds: less a scenic vista and more a path to get to the outlook.

Closer “Pillars” looks out upon the scorched earth of man’s futility with a punishing and animalistic grind-inspired, crusty, blackened, and riffy take on grind. Apes wears its theme firmly on its sleeve, as portrayed in the Werner Herzog sample at the end of “Closure” best summarized in this: “there is no harmony in the universe.” Penitence is a heavy album, balancing bouncy riffs, chugging guitars, and an evocative atmospheric prowess alongside its blackened tendencies – a slowly unfolding album with plenty of secrets to unveil in spite of its extremely brief runtime. While comparisons to Anaal Nathrakh, Nails, and Outergods are fair, they are ultimately incomplete, favoring riff or atmosphere. In this way, Apes soars in an album that’s unafraid to whisk you away to a place dark and unsettling only to kick you to the curb while laughing maniacally at mankind’s achievements. See what monkeys we are, truly.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Secret Swarm Records
Websites: apesqc.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/apesqc
Releases Worldwide: June 14th, 2024

#2024 #40 #AnaalNathrakh #Apes #AtmosphericBlackMetal #BlackMetal #BlackenedHardcore #CanadianMetal #ClingingToTheTreesOfAForestFire #CrustPunk #DeathDoomMetal #Grindcore #Jun24 #MammothGrinder #Nails #Noise #Outergods #Penitence #Review #Reviews #SecretSwarmRecords #SiberianHellSounds #Slam #TrapThem #YearOfTheKnife

ELDER DEVIL - ENDLESS NEED (OFFICIAL VIDEO)

https://youtu.be/uOrMvBCBGuY

#music #metal #blackenedhardcore #elderdevil #prostheticrecords

ELDER DEVIL - ENDLESS NEED (OFFICIAL VIDEO)

https://youtu.be/uOrMvBCBGuY

#music #metal #blackenedhardcore #elderdevil #prostheticrecords