#deathspellomega — Public Fediverse posts

I love me an honest promo blurb. In a world where every advertisement promises more brutality than a 20-year exclusive diet of doughnuts and American cheese, and more emotional trauma than walking in your parents whipping you up a sibling, there are points to be earned for labels real enough to simply tell us what this is and who it’s for. The sophomore album by one-man project Agonanist arrived with the very simple description that this was “…adjacent to dissonant black metal in the vein of Deathspell Omega, Blut aus Nord, Xasthur, and Krallice.” I happen to have some degree of appreciation for all those bands, ranging from acknowledgement of importance to unbridled fanaticism, so I couldn’t wait to get my paws on this. Toss in some info about hand-carved microtonal guitars in the spirit of Jute Gyte, and this sets the stage for a blackened slab of ugly indeed. Can The Spirit of Gravity possibly live up to such a pedigree?

No, but the Spirit is definitely there. Agonanist could have just as easily labeled The Spirit of Gravity as experimental atmo-black and still been on the money, as the expected ugliness and mind-warping generally take a back seat to heaps and heaps of spacey, ambient atmosphere. It helps that the whole album is deeply overlaid with synth work, softening the more abrasive edges (“The Gateway”) and offering up transitional passages of beauty (“Collapse”) while rarely turning into their own highlight reel. “Effacement” is the two-pronged statement of intent, beginning with the required ugly chords, murky and full and indeed carrying a whiff of vintage Xasthur, but then blending into much more beautiful, hypnotic notes reminiscent of a less peaceful Cosmosophy. This dual approach is found in the bulk of The Spirit of Gravity, as flirtations with genuine microtonal oppression always give way to something more ethereal, and, dare I say, meditative.

Curiously, Agonanist thrives most when it leans into those moments of beauty and atmosphere over the aggressive and ugly. “Silent Absent” takes on a near shoegaze quality in the riff style and tones, and “Disruption and Decay” features some prolonged simple melodies of melancholy and reflection. Featuring a list of guest instrumentalists from bands as diverse as Krallice, Ripped to Shreds, and even Benighted, the overall sound never wanders beyond the adventurous gardens of the more tranquilly inclined Bluts and Xasthurs of the world. “For Mia” tries to channel some real pathos, with a simple, thick chord progression applying some emotional heft in defiance of the expected cosmic perversion of sound, with decent results. The entire body of work across The Spirit of Gravity lends itself more to relaxing, sky-watching atmospherics, only pausing at times to remind us all of the unknowable everything waiting just beyond the view of the horizon.

It’s in those pauses that The Spirit of Gravity falters. “Cry of Cages” is the most straightforwardly ugly song on the album, lurching here and there without an immediately obvious structure or hook beyond its warped and mutated lead. This song is also a strange blip in the Agonanist experience, as the bulk of The Spirit of Gravity tries to wield its two tonal influences in somewhat equal measure. Most of the speed present on the album finds itself in the uglier bits, with the first third of “Collapse”, the beginning of “Disruption…” and “Silent Absent” using tempo modulations to emphasize the spiritual shift before eventually easing just a touch into more major progressions and softer notes. The greatest riddle of the album is found in “Collapse”, which uses its gorgeous synth interlude to segue into a full five-minute outro of the rawest, screechiest guitar feedback and drumming, reminiscent of Spektr’s Et Fugit Interea Fugit Irreparabile Tempus. Suddenly the fusion is achieved, as the most objectively raw piece of the album masters the introspective and ethereal mood teased at and grasped for throughout, and I’m left desperately wanting more of that. It shows that there are greater things waiting in the project’s future, if they can commit more to a lane or improve in their combination of such disparate ingredients.

Much as the art depicts a mass of bright light surrounded by so much darkness, The Spirit of Gravity is an enjoyable, but imperfect amalgamation of two moods. It isn’t the soul-burning exposure to horrors beyond I was expecting, nor does it turn so beautiful that it can be described as anything truly melodic. What it shows is a unique vision, a sign of promise from a fledgling artist with an already well-crafted and distinct flavor. I’d love to hear more consistency, in one direction or the other; a deeper commitment to the horrors beyond or the beauty within. For now, Agonanist have dropped an interesting release in the realm of dissonant black metal, so come take a dive down this gravity well and pray you land on the right side of the light.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 10 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Transylvanian Recordings
Website: Album Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: August 28th, 2026

Hexrot – Formless Ruin of Oblivion Review

By Angry Metal Guy

By: Nameless_n00b_604

“What’s past and what’s to come is strew’d with husks / And formless ruin of oblivion;”1

Hieronymus Bosch’s triptych masterpiece The Garden of Earthly Delights is iconic, but like Dante’s Divine Comedy, it’s mostly for the Hell part. It’s not hard to see why: it’s a singularly surreal, oppressively grim piece. Scholars aren’t certain about Bosch’s religious beliefs, but the consensus is that he painted this panel to warn viewers to steer clear of temptation or endure everlasting torment in Hell. Avant-garde duo Hexrot has chosen to adorn their debut LP Formless Ruin of Oblivion with a portion of this panel, but they don’t buy Bosch’s dilemma. Promising in its promo a “stylistic mélange of death, black, and thrash metal with inventive electronic experimentation,” Hexrot has woven an abstractly grim tale of a world rejecting Heaven and Hell by plunging reality into empty Oblivion. Classical in theming, modern in sound, it sounds like quite the undertaking.

Formless Ruin does a lot, and all of it contributes to Hexrot’s impeccable sense of exploration and adventure. The sales pitch doesn’t lie about Hexrot’s sound, but it omits the unpredictable, jazzy feel. Along with Deathspell Omega-esque discordant black and Ulcerate-like dissonant death metal, the duo of drummer/vocalist/electronics producer Melmoth and guitarist/bassist/vocalist Arkain possesses a bombastic, improvised-feeling chemistry akin to Imperial Triumphant. From the skittering drums and bass of “Consecrating Luminous Conflagration” to the trash-canned climax of the fifteen-minute monster title track to “What Lies Veiled” riffing on and modifying Death’s opening “Symbolic” riff like a jazz standard, Formless Ruin of Oblivion rages and writhes in jazz fashion as often as it does in metal. Hexrot’s rhythmic talents are top-notch, serving obscenely busy drumming on “Heavenward” and immense, thrumming bass on “Clandestine Haunt” at odd and changing time signatures. Meanwhile, winding leads on “Consecrating Luminous Conflagration” and jarring electronics on the title track keep Formless Ruin’s melodic identity difficult to pin down. It’s a wild ride down to Oblivion.

Hexrot plays heavy stuff, conceptually and sonically, but Formless Ruin is surprisingly easy listening. Across its thirty-five-minute runtime, Hexrot seamlessly ties its songs together to form a continuous stream of consciousness, like a live suite. Every song besides the interludes is replete with movements and ideas without committing riff salad, while containing just enough repetition to cement hooks into memory. Vocals sound raw and upfront, consisting of a twin attack of bellowing roars and banshee screams that—while they probably would become monotonous alone—duel and complement each other, adding variety to Hexrot’s palette. And everything just sounds great: Formless Ruin sports rich production and dynamic mixing that allows every wild and disparate idea to breathe. Despite its avant-garde nature, Formless Ruin feels immediate through its grounded, live feel.2

Sometimes this album doesn’t even sound real at all. Because Hexrot established such an organic sound, every instance of electronic music creeping into the mix is surprising and even unnerving. “Consecrating Luminous Conflagration” ends and gets absorbed and rewound by the following “Ghostly Retrograde I,” synths join arpeggiated guitar on “Heavenward” to build its eerie elegance, and the title track collapses into crushed static. If there’s one aspect in which Formless Ruin isn’t totally enthralling, however, it’s sometimes when the synths and electronics stand alone. “Ghostly Retrograde II” drags by the end, as does the droning conclusion to “Formless Ruin of Oblivion”; these are the only times my mind wanders. But when they work, they elevate Hexrot, lending haunting qualities that at times remind me of the atmospherics of Cryptic Shift’s excellent Visitations from Enceladus. Hexrot’s push and pull between the organic and artificial is captivating: aptly put on the title track’s lyrics describing a curtain of stars “entering stage right,” Formless Ruin of Oblivion draws attention to its own artifice, revealing the artifice of its story’s reality, justifying Oblivion.

Formless Ruin of Oblivion demands your attention. I’ve begun so many casual spins of this album, and almost all of them turned into deep listens by track three. Hexrot has that touch to take the most seemingly unapproachable stuff and somehow make it addictive. Grandiose, volatile, unconventional, and surreal, Hexrot drummed up some Hell on this one, and I for one will be diving straight into whatever Oblivion they open up next.

Rating: Great!
DR: 10 | Review Format: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Transcending Obscurity
Website: hexrot-label.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/hexrot
Release Date: August 29th, 2025

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