#dec-24 — Public Fediverse posts on home.social

Mistigris computer arts, est. 1994 @[email protected] · 2025-12-24 · 18:13 UTC

ADVENT24/24_DEC24

Mistigram: far from being localised entirely within anyone’s kitchen, Codefenix of Constructive Chaos BBS drew this striking illustration of the #AuroraBorealis for this date in last year’s ADVENT24 #ANSIart #AdventCalendar.

#AdventCalender #ADVENT24 #ANSIArt #auroraBorealis #ChristmasEve #codefenix #Dec24 #northernLights

#adventcalender #advent24 #ansiart #auroraborealis #christmaseve #codefenix

Mistigris computer arts, est. 1994 @[email protected] · 2025-12-24 · 18:13 UTC

ADVENT24/24_DEC24

Mistigram: far from being localised entirely within anyone’s kitchen, Codefenix of Constructive Chaos BBS drew this striking illustration of the #AuroraBorealis for this date in last year’s ADVENT24 #ANSIart #AdventCalendar.

#AdventCalender #ADVENT24 #ANSIArt #auroraBorealis #ChristmasEve #codefenix #Dec24 #northernLights

#adventcalender #advent24 #ansiart #auroraborealis #christmaseve #codefenix

Angry Metal Guy @[email protected] · 2025-02-18 · 20:52 UTC

August Moon – Something Eldritch and Macabre Review

By Steel Druhm

Written By: Nameless_N00b_87

As Listurnalia hits these hallowed halls with the year-end release doldrums in full swing, scraping the pit to unearth one last juicy morsel before the holidays can be a fool’s errand. Luckily, I didn’t have to scrape much as August Moon’s debut Something Eldritch and Macabre was gifted to me from the bone pile. Conceived at the epicenter of Finland’s renowned 90’s death metal scene as a side project and think tank of avant-garde ideas not suitable for their main band, As Serenity Fades, August Moon are a testament to patience. After a brief one-year run and the release of two demos, the group disbanded in 1994 before re-emerging in 2014 to continue crafting their debut. Though it took another decade to materialize, their initial four-song EP finally saw the light of day at the start of the year. Impressed, Personal Records took notice and promptly commissioned five more tracks within twelve months. Now finally, through the clouds of decade-long breaks, Something Eldritch and Macabre arrives.

Rooted in the Scandinavian melodeath scene of olde, one might expect August Moon to be a mere revival of early Sentenced or Amorphis. Yet, there is more lurking in the shadows than meets the eye. August Moon blend black, thrash, and power metal with hints of 70’s rock, and even flashes of 80’s synth (“Journey to Other-Worldly Realms and Beyond”), to craft appealing, dramatic compositions that are both engaging and gratifying. Amongst Something Eldritch and Macabre’s core elements are swarming tremolos, Gothenburg harmonies, Hammond-style organ refrains, thrashy Omnium Gatherum-esque melodic hooks, proto-metal grooves, and power metal panache filtered through raw and unrefined production. Underpinned by Tom Hendriksson’s rock syncopations and boosted by great songwriting, Peter Viherkanto’s fiery shredding works in lockstep with Mikko Sorja’s sharp bass and demonic growls to render August Moon’s genre-bending arrangements.

Something Eldritch and Macabre’s success thrives on dynamic songwriting that balances ambition with restraint. Viherkanto’s creative riff craft frames gripping transitions, unexpected shifts, synth and organ overtures, and triumphant crescendos which balance tension and release. Soaring organ lines following heavy blasts in “Constellations Dislodged from the Night Sky” and driving thrash riffs amidst relentless tremolo in “As Cataclysms Swept Across the Cities,” create irresistible headbanging moments that highlight Something Eldritch and Macabre’s strength. Elsewhere, the familiar Gothenburg harmonies embedded within the bridges of “Exitus” or “Summoning of the Feathered Serpent” act to counterbalance the thrash-heavy staccato marches, menacing slides, and frequent stops and starts that resurface throughout the record’s nine tracks. Hendriksson’s measured strikes give Viherkanto’s fretwork space to flourish, employing stylish and inspired rock-centric syncopations with periodic blasts, gallops, and modest tom patterns that enhance August Moon’s tactful songwriting with a selective hand. Though precarious a line it may be to walk, August Moon avoids the pitfall of going for broke and risking Something Eldritch and Macabre becoming a haphazard mess.

But Something Eldritch and Macabre’s pacing falters early and stumbles late. Opener “In the Gallery of All Things Macabre,” and penultimate track “Something Eldritch Up in the Heavens Soon to Wreak Havoc Down on Earth” feel like underwhelming and ordinary bookends to an otherwise great album full of artistic vigor, while closer “The Vulture Stone (Pillar 43 to Commemorate the Apocalypse)” is an apathetic finale. Additionally, Sorja’s growls are jarring at times and struggle to find their place within a treble-heavy mix that lacks low-end heft. Exacerbated by inconsistencies with volume, the raw production would benefit from a more balanced mix to settle Sorja’s growls and give punch to Hendriksson’s kick. Nevertheless, August Moon maintains my interest thanks to the material’s powerful hooks coupled with its concise 39-minute runtime.

Something Eldritch and Macabre is a pleasant surprise and a strong way to close out the year. While production issues and a few weaker tracks evidence that some fine-tuning remains, August Moon’s songwriting and unique blend of aggression and melody give me everything I want in a melodeath record. August Moon has proven that their decades-long journey has been worth it, and this first offering has only whetted my appetite for more.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Personal Records
Websites: Too Kvlt for da Webz
Releases Worldwide: December 13th, 2024

#2024 #30 #Amorphis #AsSerenityFades #AugustMoon #BlackMetal #DeathMetal #Dec24 #FinnishMetal #MelodicDeathMetal #OmniumGatherum #PersonalRecords #PowerMetal #Review #Reviews #Sentenced #SomethingEldritchAndMacabre #ThrashMetal

#amorphis #asserenityfades #augustmoon #blackmetal #deathmetal #dec24

Tom's Hardware Italia @[email protected] · 2024-12-10 · 13:45 UTC

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Angry Metal Guy @[email protected] · 2024-12-10 · 12:04 UTC

The Old Dead Tree – Second Thoughts Review

By Dolphin Whisperer

The hibernal cool-down of December brings with it the urge to succumb to an early setting sun and frozen morning air.1 And with this desire for thick socks, fuzzy blankets, and warm, spiced beverages no matter the hour comes a call from the gothic and downtrodden. In both those words The Old Dead Tree lives, having waved the dark and morose flag since 1997 inconsistently through a minefield of break-ups and hiatuses. In fact, their 2019 EP The End—also a tribute to one of their founding members, Frédéric Guillemot, whose life came to a tragic end before The Old Dead Tree could grow—stood as an alleged conclusion to their idiosyncratic, sorrowful career. But a tree cannot stop growing just because it wants to, even if it’s old and dead.

Ambition overtook hesitance to allow Second Thoughts to be not a second wind but a rebirth for the French sadbois. While the lyrics still deal with subject matter like personal loss, mental struggles, and an unavoidable malaise for life, a thread of adventure colors the journey with footstep recordings, heavy breathing, clock tower gongs, scattering dog barks, and distant lightning, laying a pleasant, engrossing mulch world around The Old Dead Tree. This living soundscape against founding vocalist Manuel Munoz’s vibrant, weeping crack and croon builds a narrative that doesn’t need to be on the page in front of you to dive straight into your heart. And as The Old Dead Tree cycles through timeless, pathos-drenched passages like the alt-y, breathy yodel of “Better Off Dead” or the sudden mic-distorted, volume-loaded cry that opens “Story of My Life,” it is clear that the dramatic urgency that defined the draw of their past works hasn’t skipped a beat.

More than a reliving of The Old Dead Tree’s past, Second Thoughts appears with plenty of new wrinkles that anchor important energy shifts. In a move informed by his time with melodic death/folkers Arkan, Munoz has brought on a few friends2 to lend tension-building barks to driving stomps and snarling diffusions (“Without a Second Thought,” “OK,” “The Worse Is Yet to Come”). And though that more aggressive harsh vocal stomp serves both thematic contrast and tonal divergence, long-time guitarist Nicolas Chevrollier maintains a twangy, petulant six-string strut that paints the bluesy waltz of Wovenhand in a light equally gothic but triumphantly troubled (“Don’t Waste Your Time,” “OK”). The diversity throughout makes for little downtime across Second Thoughts’ fifty-minute journey.

Despite its excursions into those more novel and often proggier territories, The Old Dead Tree keeps a firm footing in the established goth playbook for several cuts. The tremolo chord overlay that opens Second Thoughts, along with plenty of other wistful riffs, give hits of late ’90s Katatonia/Anathema guitar-forward melancholy that paints a frown long before any words can (“The Lightest Straw,” “Luke”). “Fresh Start,” on the other hand, leads with reverberating piano hits that morph into a throbbing bassline that swells with the mopey dance floor energy of One Second era Paradise Lost—you can take the Docs off the goth, but you can’t truly escape the urge to drag around a good beat. To class up some of the more rote and melodramatic musical conclusions that build with “The Trap” and “Solstalgia,” Second Thoughts invites the gifted cellist Raphaël Verguin (Psygnosis) to lay sullen lines against Chevrollier’s classically mournful melodies. All of this leads to a finale that too feels of the Paradise Lost playbook, albeit more of the lingering Mackintosh guitar wail, but Munoz’s ability to hold a comfortable yet discomforting tune keeps its roots firmly in The Old Dead Tree.

As a true return to the fray, The Old Dead Tree’s updated take on a well-tread but not widespread sound feels as fresh as it does nostalgic. Like a cozy blanket on a shiver-inducing night, Second Thoughts wraps the listener in a believable tale of emotional turbulence and life-informed loss. For those enamored enough by its scattershot, moody shuffle, the highest points of histrionics will hit that deep-seated sadboi within. It’s hard to say whether that same approach lands as a true boon, as some of the lesser moments feel unnecessary on repeat listens. But this sort of episodic narrative also means that you can pick up Second Thoughts from just about any point and let its gothy charms take over.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Season of Mist | Bandcamp
Websites: theolddeadtree.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/theolddeadtree.official
Releases Worldwide: December 6th, 2024

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