#i-voidhanger-records — Public Fediverse posts

Numinous (adj.): evoking a sense of the mystical, sublime, or transcendent; awe-inspiring. Abditory (n.): a concealed location used for storage or to hide items (rare). Deflagration (n.): the act of deflagrating; an intense fire; a conflagration or explosion. Specifically, combustion that spreads subsonically via thermal conduction.1 Yup, it’s an I, Voidhanger release. Experimental industrial black/death band Saprovore is an eponymous solo project by the ringleader of Italy’s experimental group Strigiform, also supported by I, Voidhanger. Strigiform’s debut Aconite came out late last year and Saprovore’s debut Unuttered Aporetic Omen dropped this past March, so now I know who’s been hogging all the executive functioning around here. Now, Saprovore aims to build off their debut’s foundation with “a more refined and mindful approach to songwriting” on Numinous Abditory Deflagration. But can Saprovore evoke an awe-inspiring combustion of concealed mystical places with Numinous Abditory Deflagration?

Well, Numinous Abditory Deflagration certainly doesn’t sound conventional. A synth-forward, drum machine-heavy electronic affair driven by speedy blackened fury and cavernous deathly density, Saprovore fit well within the I, Voidhanger canon. Drums take on largely black metal stylings, blasting through loud, slightly off-kilter beats as the synthesizers play dueling, drawn-out symphonic parts and Saprovore wretches out heavily distorted rasps on occasion. I’d bet money that Saprovore had every instrument running through every effect pedal they have at some point on Numinous Abditory Deflagration, as every song is sopping wet with reverb, distortion, delays, etcetera. Though Saprovore touted tighter songwriting this time around, Numinous Abditory Deflagration is still free-form in nature, sloshing into and out of parts with minimal transition or (if you’re not listening closely) notice. All this to say, with Numinous Abditory Deflagration Saprovore doesn’t sound a thing like Manowar. Wimps and posers, you’re free to stay.

What’s flustered me this whole time with Saprovore’s latest is how something so off-beat from conventional songcraft can also be so bafflingly banal. Numinous Abditory Deflagration sounds like a wreck. An uninteresting wreck. With Saprovore, either almost nothing is happening, or everything is happening. Numinous Abditory Deflagration is either droning aimlessly or stacking unrelated synth leads over crushed drum loops ad nauseum. Saprovore’s melodies are also extremely rudimentary and tame, never reaching for soaring payoffs or even achieving all that much dissonance. This undynamic songwriting approach—echoed by its loud, blown-out lo-fi production—means Numinous Abditory Deflagration lacks true peaks and valleys. Meaning that songs and movements start to blend together after a while. Meaning that, after about a dozen listens to Numinous Abditory Deflagration, I still can’t fucking remember a fucking thing about it afterwards.

Numinous Abditory Deflagration’s biggest problem, however, is that Saprovore just runs out of gas after track one. You’ve probably noticed that I haven’t discussed any songs in specific this whole review; that’s because nearly any comment levied on any one song could just as accurately describe any other song off Numinous Abditory Deflagration. Barring the drum and bass break on “Chalice of Spectral Residue” or an eerie key refrain on “Threnody Pt. 1 (Hush-Born),” every song on Numinous Abditory Deflagration is built out of the same few, boring ideas. Listless synths, drawling drum loops, negligible vocals. Speaking of, Saprovore’s vocals exemplify Numinous Abditory Deflagration’s utter banality. Not only are there no variety in delivery, but all but one song uses exactly three blocks of three lines. Barring “Threnody Pt. 1 (Hush-Born),” an instrumental, you get nothing else. If what Saprovore had anything going with Numinous Abditory Deflagration, monotony killed any chance of it meaning anything.

I come away from Numinous Abditory Deflagration with the inescapable feeling—one that I know can’t be true, but I feel regardless—that Saprovore spent considerably more time and care with its naming than its composition. More than anything I’ve reviewed during my tenure at AngryMetalGuy.com—even that one—this was the record I loathed returning to the most. Somehow, it gave me less to think about with each listen. Worse, I know Saprovore can do better. Having gone back to Unuttered Aporetic Omen, I disagree that Numinous Abditory Deflagration is the more refined album. Saprovore’s debut has some of Numinous Abditory Deflagration’s problems—its drums sound terrible, too—but there’s identity between songs. Some, at least. It doesn’t feel like listening to a thoroughly busted microwave fuck up a bag of popcorn for nearly fifty minutes, anyway. Was that the real deflagration all along?

Rating: Unlistenable
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 257 kbps MP3
Label: I, Voidhanger Records
Website: saprovoredeath.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: August 7th, 2026

Critique requires work. This is a truth understood by the AMG reviewer, Hegel, and Labor of the Negative. An international black metal project, Labor of the Negative derives its name from Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit, which posits said labor as a cognitive antidote to romantic truths found via intuition. Not content to let Hegel be the only George Friedrich they cite, the band references The Triumph of Time and Disillusion, a Händel oratorio, for the title of their debut. Arriving via I, Voidhanger Records—the perfect home for Labor of the Negative’s heady brand of avant-garde black metal—the album draws philosophical inspiration from more than Hegel: Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, and especially Durkheim (as we’ll see).1 But I’ll be sticking with Hegel, letting his infamous dialectic—thesis, antithesis, synthesis—guide my analysis and evaluation of The Triumph of Time and the Disillusioned.

But first, some context. Boasting members from Portugal, the UK, Norway, and Egypt, Labor of the Negative cross-reference genre luminaries in assembling their own bizarre bricolage. Claiming roots in the avant-garde black metal of Virus, Arcturus, and Dødheimsgard, guitarist S. and drummer T.Z. lay a foundation of trem riffs and blast beasts, phaser-drenched disso-melodies and double-bass-fueled tom-work. Thankfully, bassist J.H. doesn’t get lost in the mix, especially in making pulsating shifts from menacing to jazzy gears. In these softer sections, brass instrumentation (presumably from guest musician S.L.) takes the spotlight, giving this otherwise chaotic album a counterbalancing sultriness.2 The artsiness of The Triumph of Time and the Disillusioned, however, primarily stems from the deranged vocals of M., who screams, howls, shouts, grunts, and coughs. M.’s performance, wielding the human voice as an abrasively multifaceted instrument, reminds me of how A Forest of Stars and Portal similarly embrace alienating vocals. Not as alienating as one might expect is the production, feeling legibly claustrophobic during the black metal maelstroms and organically spacious during the jazzy reprieves. The guitars do get a little buried at times, and snare pops occasionally prickle the ear. Nevertheless, The Triumph of Time and the Disillusioned succeeds at sounding like sculpted estrangement.

Turning now to my Hegelian thesis means turning to The Triumph of Time and the Disillusioned as a whole. Holistically, the album provides a mostly enjoyable experience, considering its subgenre. At 7 tracks in 34 minutes, Labor of the Negative smartly chose to make their debut a concise burst of avant-garde black metal. Six successive “Epoché”s structure The Triumph of Time, each being of similar, digestible lengths (4–6 minutes). An instrumental interlude (“151 – The Eternal Present and the Endless Dream”) breaks up the procession of epochs with feedbacky noise and variegated drumming. The album consistently ebbs and flows between scathing black metal and soothing jazz breaks that open (“Epoché II”), close (“Epoché IV”), and bridge (“Epoché III”) the madness. While this interplay keeps the album sonically dynamic, it also becomes a bit formulaic.

This holistic predictability leads us to my antithesis. When pressed upon, none of the individual tracks on The Triumph of Time and the Disillusioned stand out. Pre-release single “Epoché III” comes closest, with its eerie guitar shimmers and adventurous key changes. But ultimately, the album feels less like a sequencing of memorable songs and more like a collection of cool moments: the squealing brass solo in opener “Epoché I” comes to mind, as does the concluding drumroll of “Epoché VI.” One might think that diving into The Triumph of Time’s concept can clarify how the parts contribute to the whole. Alas, my exploration of the lyrics created more confusion. According to my research, “Epoché IV” twice cites Durkheim to convey crises of belonging and aimlessness. How this relates to a succession of epochs, or a fourth epoch in particular, I am unsure.3

Synthesizing the good album experience and the disappointing songwriting, The Triumph of Time and the Disillusioned ultimately landed for me as a mixed affair. While I never truly disliked any time I spent with Labor of the Negative’s debut, I also never found myself desiring to further unpack this album that, seemingly, invites unpacking. Fans of avant-garde black metal, however, should give The Triumph of Time a go. M.’s maniacal vocals strike me as a worthy intervention into the genre, as does T.Z.’s dexterous drumming. With more ears, perhaps the fruit of this international collective’s labor might positively reveal itself.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 10 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: I, Voidhanger Records
Website: Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: August 7th, 2026

Rain has started to leak into the ducts as Spring gets wetter and wetter. While I’m away, vacationing in a nice, dry, cloudy place, my minions are drenched and miserable. As it should be! But I’m still keeping tabs on their progress. Just because I’m having a great time somewhere else doesn’t mean these louts don’t have a quota to meet!

And meet their quota they shall, if only barely… BEHOLD!

ClarkKent’s Sci-Fi Soundbites

Epigram // Obsolescent [March 6th, 2026 – Self Released]

Combining the melodic black metal of Thulcandra and Dissection with the symphonics of Fleshgod Apocalypse and SepticFlesh, Epigram dropped a tasty little morsel with their debut, Obsolescent. The trio from Los Angeles puts on a spirited performance that borders on thrash. Tim Cauley’s display on the kit is a dominant force as he furiously blast beats his way from one song to the next. He turns “Wrath of Betrayed” into a piece of blackened thrash and proves tireless across Obsolescent’s 27-minute runtime. The lively vocal performance of Luis Echevarria adds further to Epigram’s charm. His low growls may seem underpowered, but his delivery is energetic and fun. He’s also the source of the symphonic instrumentation, via synths, though this aspect is secondary. Sure, there’s some choral chants (“Myrmidon,” “The Usurper’s Throne”), strings (“Hour of Gods”), and other vaguely symphonic sounds, but Epigram is most focused on the blackened melodic stuff. Shadi Absi throws together some great riffs, particularly on “Empires,” a work of pure black ‘n roll. The showstopper is “Hour of Gods,” with some sweet riffs and terrific energy. This song alone makes Obsolescent a worthy spin. Rounding out the musicians is Sanjay Kumar (Inferi, Wormhole), who plays solos on “Wrath of Betrayed” and “No Sin.” This is a promising debut for an eager new band.

Kal-El // Astral Voyager Vol. 2 [March 20th, 2026 – Blues Funeral Recordings]

Sporting the greatest band name of all time, Kal-El have been blasting listeners with stoner doom since 2012. Astral Voyager Vol. 2 is the follow-up to last year’s Vol. 1, and these pyschedelians’s seventh album overall. It’s been seven years since Witches of Mars was unfairly pummeled by a Kryptonian frog, and now I’d like to do the band justice by rescuing them from our filter. On this astral voyage, you get the pleasure of listening to six songs and 42 minutes of laid-back stoner tunes with plenty of fuzzy riffs—perfect for cruising around the cosmos. Their riff-centric approach puts them in the Black Sabbath camp, and the riffs on the likes of “Juno” and “The Prophecy,” which has a “Children of the Grave” vibe, are tons of fun. Further cementing the Sabbath comp is the vocal performance of Ståle Rodvelt, who carries a resemblance to Ozzy in his delivery. Longer cuts take more exploratory routes, akin to Sleep, yet still feature plenty to get your head bobbin’. “Asteroid” opens up with some sweet riffs that sustain its near eight-minute frame, while “The Nine” will still have you singing along in the final of its ten minutes. 1 So if you are in the mood for something chill that won’t put you to sleep, something that has the riffs without the risk of elevating your blood pressure, you should spend some time with Kal-El.

Thus Spoke’s Tectonic Treat

Bong-Ra // Esoterik [March 20th, 2026 – Debemur Morti Productions]

Not having received promo, it was only upon visiting DM’s Bandcamp page while writing up Aversio Humanitatis that I realised Bong-Ra had released another album. Asked whether Esoterik would be leaning more into enigmatic doom or spiky industrial electronica, the shapeshifting Bong-Ra said “yes”. The music is built on layers of dense, gritty atmosphere undulating with bass, breakbeats, and distorted riffs. Vocals are maintained from Black Noise—half-spoken snarls blurred by noise, shifting between blunt tunefulness (“Serpentine Helix”) and gargling venom (“Machine Halo”)—but at least half of the space is devoted to the purely instrumental psychosis. The saxophone is back, adding bizarre elegance and chilling eeriness in equal measure. Sometimes, Esoterik seems to be pitting its sultry and acerbic natures against one another; that chamber jazz side can take one by surprise (“Pleasures of the Flesh,” “Duality of One”), sandwiched as it is between a more punishing industrialism, but Bong-Ra just about gets away with it. This could be down to Esoterik’s efficiency in establishing (new) grooves—rhythmic and stylistic. Opener “Harmony Cloak” dispels misgivings on its skittering electronic oddity with a chorus that strikes a stylish balance between melody and dissonance; “Machine Halo” later follows in its stride. It’s an album that earns its moniker, right down to the particular spelling, and is worth the dark diversion it requires.

Grin Reaper’s Kooky Curios

Surturian // II – Hessian Spears [March 13th, 2026 – Crawling Chaos]

A German thrash band named after the legendary fire giant and guardian of Muspelheim? And on their debut LP, they launch an unrelenting, venomous assault filled with sticky riffs and bopping bass grooves in under forty-five minutes? Sign me up! Surturian plays thrash that smacks of early Testament and Metallica fused with the epic melodies of latter-day Kreator—hell, vocalist Tim Krogull reeks of Mille’s rancorous vocals, even though his name hews closer to a Voivodian disposition. In addition to thrash influences, Surturian calls upon Maiden’s signature gallops (“Cimmerians Wrath”) and anthemic melodies (“⁠Night Stalker,” “Do What Thou Wilt”), inculcating a lofty grandeur throughout II – Hessian Spears. Further fanning Surturian’s flames, the outfit navigates a varied landscape that imbues each track with its own character while never straying too far from their core sound. Hard-hitting offensives (“Blood Witchery”), slinky licks (“Night Stalker”), and oddball songwriting (“Beneath a Dying Sky”2) unite into an album I’ve regularly returned to since discovering it. If you’re feeling unSurtain, take it from me—it’s always a good time for some Hessian aggression!

Barn // Crucibles [March 24th, 2026 – Self Released]

Thanks to a certain dude/guy in the comments section, Crucibles didn’t slip past me undetected. Despite their dubious band name, Barn dropped a humdinger slab of tech death back in March that oozes with references to Unquestionable Presence (Atheist), Focus (Cynic), and, to a lesser extent, Decrepit Birth.3 There are even moments that echo more subdued moments from recent Sallow Moth releases (“The Serpent’s Perpetual Shed”). Staccato bursts of guitar, pinch harmonics, and buttery, fretless bass glissandos epitomize what Barn offers, and they spread it thick and chunky all over Crucibles’ sixty-five-minute runtime. Rustic name notwithstanding, Barn’s latest sounds like a sci-fi adventure, supported by track names like “Black Hole Lens” and “Cymatics.” The fretless bass especially helps with the futuristic aesthetic, frictionlessly gliding through gusts of abrupt, otherworldly guitars that buffet tracks from all angles. Barn rarely offers reprieve during their unconventional onslaught, but tracks like “Forbidden Fruits,” “Cymatics,” and “The Defeater” achieve such heights that I don’t find myself needing one. In short, these Boise boys warp listeners to a different dimension on Crucibles, and though it runs a tad long, I haven’t been deterred yet from lighting up this Barnburner.

Dionysiaque // La Tourbe des Rêves [March 27th, 2026 – I, Voidhanger Records]

Dionysiaque dispenses a bizarre derivative of doom on La Tourbe des Rêves that’s sure to be equal parts captivating and divisive. Reaching into the bag of tricks defined by Cathedral, Black Sabbath, and Candlemass, Dionysiaque’s sophomore album lumbers and chugs with classic rock-inspired leads and firecracker songcraft that I find utterly enthralling. Songs like “Aaron,” “Hate Fruit,” and “The Two Headed Boy” spotlight Dionysiaque’s plaintive guitar wails, contributed by L.B. and Bruno Penserini, along with their savvy balance of somber atmospheres and rousing melodies. Buoying the guitar tandem, bassist Lethal lays down frolicking, fabulous thunder via absorbing countermelodies while drummer T.H. looses potent fills and rolls throughout. Soaring atop the instrumentation are N.C.’s unorthodox vocals, which will almost certainly be the sole determining factor in listeners’ ability to engage with La Tourbe des Rêves. His delivery recalls that of Mayhem’s Attila Csihar at his most operatically deranged, never lacking conviction yet occasionally overpowering and ostentatious. Still, I appreciate and enjoy the commitment to the unhinged performance, and although dialing it back a little would make Dionysiaque’s latest more accessible, I’ve come to love La Tourbe des Rêves without apology. So don’t be afraid to let a little love into your heart—go get debauched with Dionysiaque’s aphrodisiac.

Creeping Ivy’s Pandemonic Pleasure

Mammon’s Throne // My Body to the Worms [March 13th, 2026 – Hammerheart Records]

In advising his fellow fallen angels—recently expelled from Heaven—to turn Hell into a competing kingdom, Mammon projects that All Demons will ‘work ease out of pain / Through labor and endurance.’4 Satan doesn’t heed this advice, but the third LP from Mammon’s Throne arguably does. On My Body to the Worms, this Australian five-piece inflicts pleasurable pain upon metaldom via five filthy slabs of sludgy death-doom (plus two instrumental reprieves). Mammon’s Throne conjure Hooded Menace, Temple of Void, and (old) Worm in their proclivity for plodding tempos, swampy riffs, and gravely howls (“Elixir”). The album is also a labor of love for classic (death-) doom à la Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride, mixing gothy croons, ascendant melodicism, and haunting piano into the band’s sinister stew (“Every Day More Sickened,” “At the Threshold of Eternity”). Though the listener does need some endurance, as three of the five non-instrumentals hover in the 8–9 minute range, the record flows fluidly across an easy 42 minutes. If you ever wondered what metal in league with Mammon might sound like, give My Body to the Worms a spin.

https://www.europesays.com/be-nl/75960/ Junon – The Golden Citadel Of The Astral Sphere #albumreview #Amusement #BE #België #Belgium #BlackMetal #duitsland #Entertainment #IVoidhangerRecords #junon #Music #Muziek #TheGoldenCitadelOfTheAstralSphere #ZwareMetalen

Nearly a decade has passed since Italian black metal project Lorn last graced these halls. Arrayed Claws greatly impressed the sage Eldritch Elitist back in 2017, who praised its “caustic edge and sheer strangeness.” The man behind the project, Radok, seems to have been relatively quiet in the last nine years, but I don’t think he was idle. In the intervening years, I think Radok has been watching and listening, and he’s found the present lacking. In an endless ocean of new content, Radok sees naught but an arid desert, devoid of depth. On Lorn’s fourth full-length, Searing Blood, Radok promises to reject modernity’s vapid content singularity and conceptually return to black metal’s roots. Is Searing Blood an oasis in the desert, or is it just a mirage?

Those returning to Lorn will immediately notice some differences between Arrayed Claws and Searing Blood. First and foremost, Radok’s newest effort actually has a low end. Where Arrayed Claws was almost grating in its shrill and disquieting tone, Searing Blood rumbles and shakes the ground upon which it stands. This makes for a more physically enjoyable experience, avoiding the listener fatigue that threatened Arrayed Claws. Fans will also clock the shift from fairly distilled black metal toward the atmospheric variety. Radok’s 8-string guitar is still a deeply unsettling force to reckon with (“Haderburg”), but there’s an unexpected tenderness to Searing Blood. While it’s not uncommon for atmoblack bands to focus on the majesty of nature, Radok approaches it through a lens of disillusionment with contemporary life, weaving a sense of loss, betrayal, and impotent outrage into Searing Blood.

Change isn’t always a good thing, but it is on Searing Blood. While Lorn does pay homage to the past with brilliantly discordant melodicism (“Searing Blood,” “Leuchtenburg”), an increased prevalence of synths and the introduction of new elements well-suited to atmospheric spaces allow Lorn greater breadth of expression. “Leuchtenburg” channels Panopticon with metal-stringed chords that hint at a synth-backed, acoustic interlude. Draped in the gothic tones of Unto Others, picked leads on “Gallows” float in and out, evoking a beautiful sense of tension and anxiety. Airy, choral synths and ringing melodies bestow instrumental “Ordo Draconis” with a magical, otherworldly quality. Through it all, Searing Blood’s heart of aching tremolos and agonizing screams adeptly evokes the Romantic’s view of Modernity, an indictment of what is and a yearning for what was.

Lorn’s exploration of a new form isn’t without its stumbles, though. The acoustic interlude in “Leuchtenburg” is a little long, and the synths can distract from the strings. At over nine minutes, “Gallows” similarly sags under its own weight, and “Ordo Draconis” features a jarring transition that only leads to a mismatched back half. Sample usage is a bit heavy-handed,1 and Searing Blood wouldn’t suffer for their omission. Lorn also relies heavily on certain compositional decisions, robbing them of their impact. Short lulls that explode into a furious bridge appear far more often than they should, even multiple times in a single track (“Gallows,” “Threshold’s Tragedy”). And while I appreciate a good fade out, ending every song that way grows stale quickly.

Searing Blood isn’t what I expected. I had prepared to be unsettled and challenged, but I was instead guided through a poignant and emotive journey. Both novel and familiar, Searing Blood presents a surprisingly singular vision. Rather than simply refining Lorn’s particular flavor of dissonant black metal, Radok tills new soil with well-worn tools. Lorn’s new direction is compelling, missteps aren’t fatal, and there’s ample room for Radok to both improve and continue exploring this space. A tighter and more varied composition would aid any future efforts. Searing Blood won’t necessarily drop any jaws, but for those on the fence, it should convince you to keep an eye on Lorn.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps
Label: I, Voidhanger Records
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: May 15th, 2026

https://www.europesays.com/uk/894737/ Review: Bekor Qilish – Consecrated Abysses of Dread #2026 #75 #AvantGardeBlackMetal #EnglishLyrics #Entertainment #IVoidhangerRecords #Italy #March #MixedVocals #music #ProgressiveBlackMetal #ProgressiveDeathMetal #UK #UnitedKingdom

Review: Bekor Qilish – Consecrated Abysses of Dread

Published by Clay on 2026/04/142026/04/14 Artwork by STRX Art Style: Progressive black metal, progressive death metal, avant-garde black…
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https://www.newsbeep.com/uk/531223/

In case you’re unfamiliar, The Epic of Gilgamesh is an ancient Mesopotamian poetic narrative, whose first complete form is dated to approximately 1800 BCE. It follows a story of King Gilgamesh and his dealings with gods and other mythic monsters, culminating in a journey for the secret of immortality.1 What better way could there be to consume this rich, literary epic than have it interpreted by the collection of artists behind From the Waters of Death? Obscure black/doom duo Swords of Dis; death metal veteran and experimenter Serpent Ascending; Neptunian Maximalism’s darker, heavier incarnation Ôros Kaù; and ambient-black dreamer Midnight Odyssey. All are infamous—if you know who they are—for their strange, unconventional styles and love for long-form expression that borders on the self-indulgent, which may make them ideally suited to a Gilgamesh retelling. You may already be experiencing a sinking feeling of dread at those name-drops. But together these artists achieve something that exceeded my expectations even as it met them squarely.

While appearing to be a split, Waters is more of a collaboration as each individual contributes vocal or instrumental talents across multiple songs, including on those they wrote and take the lead in themselves. Spearheading the whole thing are Richard and Alice Corvinus of Swords of Dis, who have a hand in all lyrics and appear on every track. These lyrics, inspired by the words of the epic itself, consist of narration interspersed with dialogue between the various characters, and the five musicians rotate and share roles depending on who is involved in the corresponding part of the story. 2 This improves the album’s internal coherence—which might otherwise be hindered in a split format—whilst also allowing each movement to take on the personality of its lead artist. As a form of adaptation, the five tracks of reverb-filled, noisy, strange, melodramatically or demoniacally vocally-led, black-adjacent fringe metal lean into the grand, frightening side to the tale whose gravity us modern-age folk probably can’t appreciate properly. And it’s that excessive, almost absurd commitment to being different, which—and I can’t believe I’m saying this—actually works.

From The Waters Of Death by SWORDS OF DIS

Drama is at the heart of oral poetic tradition, and it’s Waters’ drama that similarly grounds its best aspects. Utmost credit goes to Alice Corvinus and her fierce (“From Egalmah They Rode…”3, operatic (“Araru Births the Lord of the Wilderness,” “From Egalmah…,” “Blood Stains The Altar…”4), sometimes eerie (“Into the Wailing Darkness”5) vocal performance. Her presence dominates as she provides some narration in addition to voicing every female character (and there are a lot of goddesses involved). Dark, minor tremolo refrains and Middle-Eastern-inspired melodies support her delivery, and the theatrical, flowing style Swords of Dis employ lends itself to this expression perfectly. In a different vein, the inhumanly gurgling snarls of Guillaume Cazalet (Ôros Kaù) make for a barbed contrast to otherwise vague, even beautiful, passages (“Blood…”), and can be genuinely frightening (“Into The Wailing Darkness”). All vocals—clean or harsh—are odd to a degree, sometimes even off-putting (“Araru…”). Yet most breaches of the cringe line are brief, and ameliorated by interesting instrumentation (“Blood…,” “From the Setting…”6). Those totally averse to what we anaemically refer to as ‘avant-garde’ in extreme metal can beg to differ, but the back and forth between dissonance and harmony (“Araru…,” “Blood…”), and between uncomfortable slowness and sudden speed (“From the Setting…”), is not only well-performed, it makes sense for the record’s narrative concept. A journey represented through a monotonous pattern (“From Egalmah…,” “From the Setting…”), the fury of a deity by means of an operatic surge (“From Egalmah…”).

Waters embodies the manner of epic poetry so well, however, that its digestibility is harmed as well as helped. Whether appropriate or not, its near-90-minute runtime makes engaging with its entirety a daunting prospect, and this is a record that fares best when you do give it the time and space to immerse you.7 The very aptness of the compositional style—long repetitive sections on the one hand, and frequent switches between tempo, melody, and vocalist on the other—which mimics recitation amongst orators, can prove taxing. It creates a dynamic of brilliant moments and stand-out performances, scattered unevenly inside overextended filling. It’s perhaps not a coincidence that the album’s midsection—the two tracks led by masterminds Swords of Dis—is by far the best and most even in quality, whereas its final act—Midnight Odyssey’s—is the least engaging and unable to support its length.8

Though Waters cannot escape the idiosyncrasies of the artists behind it—and so inherently restricts its audience—as an expression of this epic poem, these approaches to black metal are surprisingly apt. If you have the time to go on this adventure with Serpent Ascending, Ôros Kaù, Swords of Dis, and Midnight Odyssey, there’s plenty to enjoy. But if nothing else, let it be an excuse to learn about the original myth that inspires such weird, sometimes wonderful music.

Rating: Good(!)
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: I, Voidhanger
Websites: Album BC | Serpent Ascending BC | Serpent Ascending FB | Ôros Kaù BC | Ôros Kaù FB | Swords of Dis BC | Swords of Dis FB | Midnight Odyssey BC | Midnight Odyssey FB
Releases Worldwide: February 13th, 2026

Missed Album Review: Strigiform – Aconite

Published by Andy on January 6, 2026January 6, 2026 Artwork by: Joonas Räsänen (EvM) Style: Avant-garde black metal,…
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https://www.newsbeep.com/uk/356624/

https://www.europesays.com/uk/679402/ Missed Album Review: Strigiform – Aconite #2025 #8 #AvantGardeBlackMetal #DissonantBlackMetal #EnglishLyrics #Entertainment #HarshVocals #IVoidhangerRecords #Italy #MissedAlbums #music #november #TechnicalBlackMetal #UK #UnitedKingdom

https://www.europesays.com/ie/244923/ Sallow Moth – Mossbane Lantern [Things You Might Have Missed 2025] #2025 #AmericanMetal #ArtificialBrain #Cynic #DeathMetal #Éire #Entertainment #Gonemage #IVoidhangerRecords #IE #Igorrr #IngurgitatingOblivion #Ireland #MossbaneLantern #Music #ProgressiveDeathMetal #SallowMoth #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed2025 #TYMHM

I don’t know if Garry Brents is the busiest person in metal, but he’s active enough that I worry for his work-life balance. In 2025 alone, Brents cranked out releases for multiple projects, including Sallow Moth’s latest platter, Mossbane Lantern. This is death metal for purveyors of the unrepentantly weird, especially those who indulge in sci-fi and fantasy. From a storytelling perspective, Mossbane Lantern takes an anthological approach in describing experiences that assorted characters have with the titular artifact.1 To capture these events through song, Brents casts a wide, chaotic net of sounds and influences. While it doesn’t fit neatly under either technical or brutal death metal, Mossbane Lantern cherry picks elements of each and infuses them with enough avant-garde, proggy nuttiness to trigger an allergic reaction. All told, Sallow Moth establishes a firmly singular take on death metal.

Though Sallow Moth has consistently embraced the unconventional, Mossbane Lantern ratchets up the stylistic fluidity from previous outings. In particular, the band takes Artificial Brain’s off-kilter, melodic sensibilities and inhuman gutturals, then weds them with Igorrr’s knack for unpredictable stutter-stops and abrupt musical shifts. With this foundation, Brents injects jazz-riddled Ingurgitating Oblivion accents and Cynic aesthetics under accelerated paces, giving Mossbane Lantern so many dimensions that juggling them would be disastrous in less-capable hands. Fear not, for Sallow Moth’s execution achieves the daunting vision laid out, beguiling with wackadoo impishness that’s as sure to bring a smile to your face as make you ask yourself, “What the fuck am I listening to?”2

Mossbane Lantern by Sallow Moth

Listening to Mossbane Lantern without context is a fun and brutal experience, but Sallow Moth’s true magic reveals itself once grounded in its world-building. Without getting too mired in lore, the eponymous Lantern allows users to teleport across distances great and small, though unexpected outcomes occur when the Lantern commingles with varied beings and enchantments. Musically, this allows a common thematic presence in the Mossbane Lantern itself while not strictly adhering to a single story. “Cauldron Brim Neurosilk” and “Runemilk Amulet” portray characters under chemical duress, urgently lurching between techy, fetid death metal and trip-hop, signaling when the pendulum of madness swings. Similarly, “Psionic Battery” and “Aethercave Boots” describe artifacts designed to aid with the Lantern’s use. When side effects emerge, psychedelic embellishments clue listeners in to the events’ warped natures. Through it all, Sallow Moth assaults listeners with fretless (and fretted) bass, guitar squeals, croaks, and more, keeping them off-balance as the music continuously evolves.

Such an absurd concept shouldn’t work this well, but Sallow Moth’s unhinged melting pot of jazzy intonations, bowel-churning gurgles, and genre-bending mayhem makes Mossbane Lantern a can’t-miss romp. As a fan of the bizarre and grotesque within metal, there are few (if any) facets of Mossbane Lantern I haven’t heard before, but the way Sallow Moth chucks the pieces into an industrial-grade blender and sets it to ‘Liquify’ is utterly novel and rewards multiple spins. Some listeners may find the adventure too jarring for their liking, but after spending time with Mossbane Lantern, I don’t find its components haphazard or incidental. Just the opposite—there’s a method to Sallow Moth’s madness, though it requires patience to appreciate. So grab your gear, head for Mossbane Lantern’s light, and prepare to get weird. It’s a trip you don’t want to miss.

Tracks to Check Out: “Icegorger Gauntlets,” “Psionic Battery,” “Cauldron Brim Neurosilk,” “Runemilk Amulet”

Weeping Sores – The Convalescence Agonies [Things You Might Have Missed 2025]

By Creeping Ivy

Pleasure—as Judas Priest, sadomasochists, and Flagellants teach us—can be found in pain. Doug Moore and Stephen Schwegler, the guitar/drum duo behind Weeping Sores, also teach this lesson with The Convalescence Agonies. As its title suggests, the sophomore Weeping Sores album chronicles Moore’s recovery from a shoulder injury that, quite unfortunately, prevented him from playing guitar.1 Quite fortunately for us, Moore sublimates his agony into the listener’s ecstasy with The Convalescence Agonies. Debut False Confession received high praise here, making the 2019 lists of Saunders (Honorable Mention), Cherd of Doom (#8), and Ferrous Beuller (#4). On its follow-up, Weeping Sores deliver a leaner, lusher, and eminently listable slab of death-doom.

On The Convalescence Agonies, Weeping Sores level up by scaling back. False Confession established that Moore and Schwegler of Pyrrhon fame could successfully craft a more plodding, brooding death metal, sounding like Morbid Angel making proclamations to My Dying Bride. At 56 minutes with multiple 9- and 10-minute songs, however, the album definitely fatigues. In comparison, The Convalescence Agonies clocks in at 43 minutes, energizing the listener by lurking towards its epic compositions. Moore’s climbing guitar and anguished screams in “Arctic Summer” segue into “Empty Vessel Hymn,” a heater showcasing Schwegler’s jazzy hands. The mid-album climax, “Sprawl in the City of Sorrow,” spreads chunky, blasty, and militaristic riffs across 9 breezy minutes. “Pleading for the Scythe” mixes delicate chords, lumbering beatdowns, and off-kilter shredding, setting the stage for the title track. “The Convalescence Agonies,” a 14-minute monster, boasts the stankiest, dumpiest chuggery on the entire album. Without compromising the scope of its songwriting, Weeping Sores have crafted a tighter, better-paced album than the debut.

False Confession stans might weep when learning that the violin of Gina Hendrika Eygenhuysen does not appear on The Convalescence Agonies. In its place is the cello of Annie Blythe, which directs a broader ensemble of ancillary instrumentation. Like Eygenhuysen’s violin, Blythe’s cello often occupies center stage, dramatizing sparse verses (“Arctic Summer”) and blasty tremolos (“The Convalescence Agonies”). Arguably, the deeper tone of the cello better suits the music, feeling like an extension of the scooped guitar tone. Weeping Sores also incorporate keyboards from Brendon Randall-Myers (Scarcity), which add a refined, almost proggy aura to caveman breakdowns and hyperspeed chugging (“Pleading for the Scythe”). There’s even banjo in “Sprawl…,” commingling with Blythe’s percussive cello to make a demented guitar lead far more unsettling.2 Some listeners will miss the brighter, more melodically commanding presence of the violin. The Convalescence Agonies more than makes up for Eygenhuysen’s absence, however, with its wider array of sonic textures.

As Moore howls on the title track, the body’s pain ‘teaches nothing…no gift / But the passion of transfiguration.’3 Pain may not teach anything to the suffering speaker or Moore himself, but The Convalescence Agonies teaches us that Weepings Sores is one of the most promising contemporary death-doom projects. Moore and Schwegler have transfigured False Confession into something more beautiful without sacrificing their disgustingly awesome death metal core. Sadly, this TYMHM treatment may not arrive in time to register during Listurnalia. Consider, then, The Convalescence Agonies an honorary Honorable Mention for me (and several others around here, I suspect).

Tracks to Check Out: “Arctic Summer,” “Sprawl in the City of Sorrow,” “The Convalescence Agonies”

#2025 #DeathDoom #DeathMetal #DoomMetal #IVoidhangerRecords #MorbidAngel #MyDyingBride #Pyrrhon #Scarcity #TheConvalescenceAgonies #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed2025 #TYMHM #USMetal #WeepingSores

https://www.europesays.com/ie/222002/ Fleshvessel – Obstinacy: Sisyphean Dreams Unfolded Review #2.5 #2025 #AmericanMetal #AvantGarde #BlackMetal #DeathMetal #Dec25 #Éire #Entertainment #ExperimentalMetal #Fleshvessel #IVoidhangerRecords #IE #Ireland #Music #Obstinacy:SisypheanDreamsUnfolded #ProgressiveMetal #Review #Reviews

https://www.europesays.com/uk/620232/ Fleshvessel – Obstinacy: Sisyphean Dreams Unfolded Review #2.5 #2025 #AmericanMetal #AvantGarde #BlackMetal #DeathMetal #Dec25 #Entertainment #ExperimentalMetal #Fleshvessel #IVoidhangerRecords #music #Obstinacy:SisypheanDreamsUnfolded #ProgressiveMetal #Review #Reviews #UK #UnitedKingdom

Fleshvessel – Obstinacy: Sisyphean Dreams Unfolded Review

By Spicie Forrest

Sisyphus is my favorite character in Greek mythology. It’s why I picked up Obstinacy: Sisyphean Dreams Unfolded, the sophomore release from US-based metal vanguard, Fleshvessel. You see, not only does Sisyphus cheat Death twice—which in itself is hella metal—but in being damned to eternally roll a boulder uphill, he becomes an allegory for the human experience. This endless toil and glorification of the struggle serves as the thematic foundation for Obstinacy, revolving around “our own stubbornness/persistence as human beings and how it can be both a detriment to, or deliverance from, our collective and individual struggle for a better world.”1 Fleshvessel has successfully handled such heady concepts in the past. Can they do it again?

A warped amalgamation of prog and avant-garde ambition, Fleshvessel occupies the most outer rim of death metal. As on 2023’s Yearning: Promethean Fates Sealed, Fleshvessel ranges far and wide for their vision. To realize Obstinacy: Sisyphean Dreams Unfolded, Fleshvessel calls upon over 20 instruments,2 cinematic and literary samples,3 and at least ten different musical styles.4 This dizzying array of instruments and influences allows Fleshvessel to create a unique kind of concept album. Rather than telling a single story among several songs, Obstinacy functions as an anthology, each track a vibrant and unique vignette. Even though “Am,” for instance, has a distinctly cyberpunk feel compared to the epic, symphonic bent of “It Lurched from a Chasm in the Sky,” all four songs still orbit the same Sisyphean motif.

Fleshvessel’s ability to beat this chaotic mixture into submission is impressive, to say the least. Each instrument, each musical passage blends and bleeds together with a compositionally brilliant hand. It may not always be subtle, pleasant, or intuitive, but there is an undeniable and masterful flow to Obstinacy. The frenetic death metal that opens “Mental Myiasis” quickly lays down in a cosmic mire, where a guitar solo, spiraling into a tortured register, transforms into synths so subtly that I often missed the transition. Later in the same song, a beautiful, symphonic passage smoothly whips up into psychotic synths, death metal, and a deranged, “Flight of the Bumblebee”-esque piano before ultimately concluding on a bluesy guitar solo served hard-boiled. A mid-song synthwave melody in “Am” heralds the coming guitar riff, while operatic vocals help smooth over the transition and maintain the song’s cybernetic atmosphere. After listening to Obstinacy, I don’t think there’s anything Fleshvessel couldn’t fluidly incorporate into their sound.

Twelve criticized the programmed drums and pacing issues on Yearning, but neither concern is present here. Unfortunately, Obstinacy’s got its own shortcomings. While Fleshvessel’s songcraft is architecturally astounding, that doesn’t necessarily make it enjoyable. “Cessation Fixation” features a bass solo like a Seinfeld transition and some noir ambience reminiscent of Final Fantasy VII, while “It Lurched from a Chasm in the Sky” houses some groovy space jazz and a Middle Eastern percussion solo.5 It all fits together from a technical perspective, but such experimental infusions often strain the limits of agreeability. Fleshvessel also introduces a new “heavy metal falsetto” vocal style that feels almost parodic. It’s objectively and intentionally bad. I am quite certain that it’s integral to Fleshvessel’s vision, but to these ears, it’s a bizarre and grating performance. As Mrs Forrest would euphemistically say, “it’s certainly a choice.”

Fleshvessel is unquestionably comprised of exceptional musicians and composers. Lesser hands could never weave such a vast and varied tapestry as Obstinacy: Sisyphean Dreams Unfolded. Gnarly time signatures and polyrhythmic instrumentation smash and stitch together what should be mutually exclusive elements in a beautifully disfigured testament to the human experience. But technically masterful though Obstinacy is, the scope and prevalence of its experimentation greatly hamper its subjective, emotional, or euphonic accessibility. Ultimately, Obstinacy feels like a proof of concept, showcasing the furthest reaches of possibility. Die-hard prog fans and those with a passion for music theory may get more mileage out of Obstinacy: Sisyphean Dreams Unfolded, but for most, this will reinforce that just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: I, Voidhanger Records
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram
Releases Worldwide: December 12th, 2025

#25 #2025 #AmericanMetal #AvantGarde #BlackMetal #DeathMetal #Dec25 #ExperimentalMetal #Fleshvessel #IVoidhangerRecords #ObstinacySisypheanDreamsUnfolded #ProgressiveMetal #Review #Reviews

Tzevaot – The Hermetic Way Review

Oh, to have half the confidence of the average solo artist dabbling in the esoteric. Their avant-garde opuses…
#NewsBeep #News #US #USA #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Music #1.5 #2025 #Avant-gardeMetal #BlackMetal #emperor #EnglishMetal #Entertainment #Esoctrilihum #EsotericBlackMetal #ExperimentalMetal #IVoidhangerRecords #Nov25 #review #reviews #TheHermeticWay #Tzevaot
https://www.newsbeep.com/us/301495/

Tzevaot – The Hermetic Way Review

By Thus Spoke

Oh, to have half the confidence of the average solo artist dabbling in the esoteric. Their avant-garde opuses can’t all be the status-quo-subverting masterworks of music and philosophy they claim to be. For some reason, I, Voidhanger keeps signing them, and for equally opaque reasons, we keep choosing to review their albums. Tzevaot is the experimental black metal1 project of an individual known only as The Orator, who in The Hermetic Way explores occult ideas purported to unveil “actual hidden mechanisms of reality,” with heavy inspiration from the magical tradition made popular by who else but Aleister Crowley. And while everything from the flowery promo blurb to the time-stamped lyrics2 and the solemn spoken-word poetry tries to convince you of its significance. The Hermetic Way completely fails to impart much more than consternation.

It’s difficult to know where to even begin with The Hermetic Way, and its brand of wisdom. At every turn, things somehow go wrong. The core sound is something akin to Esoctrilihum—barking screams, twisty guitars, and a propensity for echo on everything—only with a mix you’d barely forgive a bedroom project for, and a compositional style that makes said Esoctrilihum sound catchy. Tzevaot jumbles synths, piano, and guitars that seem to hit upon a genuine groove of Emperor-esque theatrics or Absu-level style completely by accident; the fact that the best melodies are never reprised only supports this theory. The drumming—which may well be a machine for all I can discern3—is flat and dull, buried by the wall of heavy reverb between the sharp stab of the vocals and the other instruments. This intensifies the feeling of aggravated confusion that defines the listening experience, as one struggles to keep up with the nonsensical rhythmic trades, sudden inclusion of solo synth or piano, and yet more spoken-word. This is not the nuanced placelessness of an intelligent, complex extreme metal, where discordance and strange rhythms develop impossibly but seamlessly into new forms; this is a mess.

As with many similar works of art, all of The Hermetic Way’s failures arise from the hubris of their creator. The indulgence of every idea, at the expense of their development, integration, and refinement, causes the record to swing pendulously between mind-numbing boredom and toe-curling cringe. Without fail, songs go in the most annoying possible direction, dropping tension like a hot potato and throwing out a rare good musical passage in favour of the most jarring refrains (“Solve et Coagula,” “Pyres of Meaning Light the New Aeon’s Way”), or another arrangement of noise to a jaunty tempo that makes a mockery of the previous composition (“Zosimos the Alchemist”). Elements are often so poorly integrated, that sections clearly designed for drama—stripped-back keys or solemn recitations—fail to land; the sample of famed occult author Lon Milo DuQuette is barely audible past the fickle interchanges of organs, riffs, and drums. The Oracle persistently delivers vocals in a monotonous, rapid-fire bark that gets grating fast, particularly when combined with Tzevaot’s fondness for stacking tempos and synth accompaniments like dominos one after another. But I would listen to hours of all the above barks rather than sit just once more through horror show “The Hero of Megiddo,” a skin-crawling ditty whose redemptive brevity is made moot by its being the only thing on the record with a memorable tune, causing the perverse singing and jangling chords to turn around in your brain like an inescapable merri-go-round.

Most painful of all is that The Hermetic Way could have been so much better. Tzevaot might try to borrow the label of “jazz” to elevate whatever’s going on with piano and cymbals at various points. While that’s not really justified, it’s nonetheless striking that every single isolated passage of good music on The Hermetic Way involves piano4 (“The Emerald Tablet of Thoth,” “Air Fire Water Earth,” “Metempsychosis”). These fleeting moments, which comprise approximately five percent of the runtime combine key slides and arpeggios in a stylish, interesting way that’s very cool, and variously reminiscent of Wreche, Vengeur, and once again Emperor. In an hour of music that is otherwise so exhausting, this is obviously not enough. By the time the best parts of the album arrive in closer “Metempsychosis,” you’re likely too checked out to care, if you’re even still listening.

The Hermetic Way’s title is apt. Not only as it divulges supposed profound truths through the visionary teachings of the self-imposed hermit, who has reached enlightenment through years of solitary contemplation. But also because that’s quite a good analogy for the solo metal musician of the esoteric bent. Maybe Tzevaot harbors real genius, and I’m simply too blind and deaf to see or hear it in their work. More likely it’s another case of talent foiled by delusion.

Rating: Bad
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 265 kb/s mp3
Label: I, Voidhanger
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: November 14th, 2025

#15 #2025 #avantGardeMetal #blackMetal #emperor #esoctrilihum #esotericBlackMetal #experimentalMetal #iVoidhangerRecords #nov25 #review #reviews #theHermeticWay #tzevaot

Tempestuous Fall – The Descent of Mortals Past Review

In 2012, Australia’s Dis Pater released the debut record for his third active—at…
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https://www.newsbeep.com/us/292235/

Tempestuous Fall – The Descent of Mortals Past Review

By ClarkKent

In 2012, Australia’s Dis Pater released the debut record for his third active—at the time—one-man project: The Stars Would Not Awaken You by Tempestuous Fall, a work of epic funeral doom. The following year, Pater released what might be the strangest split I’ve heard of: a three-way between his own active projects. It ended up being a “[three] men enter, one man leaves” kind of deal, with Midnight Odyssey being the lone survivor.1 In that time, he has contributed to several other bands, from a Greek black metal group, Kawir, to a Slovakian black metal group, Aeon Winds, as well as a whopping nine LPs for Midnight Odyssey. Yet something about the funeral doom of Tempestuous Fall must have called Pater back. Backed by classical symphonic elements, it turns out he had rather ambitious goals for sophomore album, The Descent of Mortals Past.

The Descent of Mortals Past is a concept album focused on six mythological figures and their unfortunate adventures to the underworld. With themes based in the classics, and even some lyrics in Latin, it should be no surprise that Tempestuous Fall takes a classical approach to the music. “Theseus – Encased in the Stones of Hades” opens with some gorgeous, serene strings before adding on the usual funeral doom trappings of a heavy guitar and glacial pacing. You’ll also hear the melancholic tinkling of piano keys on songs like “Heracles – Dark is the Home of the Underworld,” showing off Pater’s versatility and ingenuity. It’s remarkable the way he melds these classical elements with doom guitars and growls to create lush, hooky funeral doom. “Psyche – Temptation of the Divine” goes all out, bringing in church organs, choral chants and hums, and operatic vocals from guest singer Alice Corvinus (Swords of Dis). This beautiful tune provides such an enticing melody you might follow it to the gates of Hades.

Of course, on the classics you don’t hear singers using demonic growls, but Tempestuous Fall might make them rethink that choice. Pater takes a My Dying Bride approach—alternating between low growls and cleans. He may not be as powerful as Aaron Stainthorpe, but he’s still effective. His growls contrast with the classical melodies and deliver the lyrics poetically, while his cleans provide memorable choruses that make you want to sing along. When the heavy guitars first join the strings on “Theseus…,” it’s a shock to the system like taking the polar plunge in nothing but your underpants. But they add a darkness and melancholy that’s fitting for doomed trips to the underworld. The production is a bit of a let-down, however, as the guitars take on a buzzy quality rather than the muscle of Evoken. Yet there is a charm to this raw, lo-fi quality that takes me back to the earlier Opeth records like Morningrise.

The back half of The Descent of Mortals Past has some unfortunate inconsistencies that keep it from matching the fantastic first half. None of these songs are bad, just different. The first is “Ulysses – Requiem of the Sea,” a doom cover of Mozart’s “Lacrimosa.” It’s a very cool track, but it also feels unoriginal, especially since it is among the most played classical tunes in modern pop culture—almost to the level of parody. Similarly, “Orpheus – In Dark Deathly Grey” is also quite good, but its focus on acoustics makes it sound more at home on a Dolven record than a symphonic funeral doom set. The finale, “Aeneas – Guide Me Home,” is a return to form that fits in much better with the front half. Like these earlier songs, it has strings, doom, and some melodic leads and cleans that end the LP on an uplifting note. Yet, being the longest tune at eleven minutes, it’s the only one that feels like it drags on due to too much repetition. Individually, the songs on the back half are solid and probably keep the record from sounding stale, yet they also break a spell the first half weaves.

While it doesn’t quite reach the level of last week’s Oromet, Tempestuous Fall has written another worthy platter of funeral doom for 2025. With how The Descent of Mortals Past sounds, it is understandable why Pater wanted to return to this funeral doom project after a thirteen-year hiatus. He has an ear for epic yarns, and his injection of doom adds gravity to the classics. I just hope that he doesn’t wait another thirteen years to release the next one.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: I, Voidhanger Records
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: November 14th, 2025

#2025 #35 #aeonWinds #australianMetal #dolven #evoken #funeralDoom #iVoidhangerRecords #kawir #midnightOdyssey #mozart #myDyingBride #nov25 #opeth #oromet #review #reviews #swordsOfDis #symphonicMetal #tempestuousFall #theDescentOfMortalsPast

Review: Hasard – Abgnose – The Progressive Subway

Published by Andy on September 30, 2025September 30, 2025 Artwork by: Roy de Rat Style: dissonant black metal,…
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https://www.newsbeep.com/uk/171597/

https://www.europesays.com/uk/463954/ Review: Hasard – Abgnose – The Progressive Subway #2025 #6 #DissonantBlackMetal #EnglishLyrics #Entertainment #France #HarshVocals #IVoidhangerRecords #music #September #SymphonicBlackMetal #UK #UnitedKingdom

https://www.europesays.com/uk/408432/ Hasard – Abgnose Review | Angry Metal Guy #2025 #3.5 #Abgnose #BlackMetal #Entertainment #FrenchMetal #Fulci #Hasard #IVoidhangerRecords #IceNineKills #LesChantsDuHasard #music #Review #Reviews #Sep25 #SymphonicMetal #UK #UnitedKingdom

Hasard – Abgnose Review

By ClarkKent

Audiences flock to horror films or novels to see or imagine perilous situations that put lives in danger. There’s a thrill in vicariously experiencing that existential threat to one’s life. Horror in music is a little different. There are musical scores, like for Jaws and Psycho, that enhance the terror of the imagery, and there are also horror-themed albums, especially in metal. The horror in the latter mainly involves gory cover art or the use of frightening sound effects à la Fulci or Ice Nine Kills. Hazard, however, takes a different approach with his Hasard project: writing music meant to terrify in a real, non-campy way. His latest, Abgnose, features a creature on its cover that could find a home in a Guillermo del Toro fantasy horror flick. Instead of focusing on visceral terror, Hazard aims at a more philosophical, existential horror. The word “abgnose,” which Hazard coined, describes the idea of removing the divine from our lives and “leaving only the despair of having to live and not be rewarded for our actions in this world.” If that sounds like a good time, then dive right in.

Hasard’s debut, Malivore, impressed El Cuervo so much that he named it his favorite record of 2023. He hailed it both as “the year’s most thought-provoking music” and “the year’s most thought-crushing music.” While dissonant, “noisy” music isn’t usually my forte, I also found something about Malivore’s atmosphere and compositions beguiling. Abgnose continues where Malivore left off—horror-tinged symphonic black metal that uses jarring, dissonant instrumentals to get under your skin. Hazard recorded everything himself—the menacing strings, pummeling blast beats, suspenseful horns, eerie synths, and reverberating guitars that create an unsettling atmosphere. Hazard also shrieks and growls in otherworldly, sinister tones. This music is not for the faint of heart.

If you only know Hazard from his other project, Les Chants du Hasard, you’d be hard-pressed to recognize what you hear on Abgnose. Hazard’s strength in both projects is his song compositions. Though each track on Abgnose is at least 7 minutes, they rarely feel it. They are mesmerizing, action-packed, and exciting thanks to the fast tempo drums, synths, and strings. Dynamic tempo shifts and subtle variations in instrumentation keep each song fresh and engaging. The orchestrals make it easy to imagine Hasard’s work serving as the soundtrack to a classical horror film like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari or Nosferatu, while the booming bass drums and off-key percussion of “Senestral” could serve as the theme music for a Darth Vader-like villain. When those horns blare out their menacing tune on “Oniritisme,” it’ll bring you back to your childhood days when you hid under the covers during the scary parts. At this point, however, it has only just begun.

Hazard has composed an album of sheer, unnerving terror, and the first four songs are as brilliant as anything on Malivore. Unfortunately, Abgnose loses momentum on the final track, “Abgnose.” El Cuervo noted that fatigue and a “brickwalled master” held back his score on Malivore, but Hasard has addressed this latter issue with much better production values. Now with ten songs credited to this intense project, it seems the fatigue might be a more difficult issue to address. Having “Abgnose” as the final track doesn’t help. It relies much more on reverb and less on the strings and horns more prevalent in other songs, making it the least dynamic of the bunch. Hazard’s vocal style also changes, sounding louder and more grating. That constant noise and despair become wearying, and for ten minutes, you feel an oppressive weight. Perhaps, in a sense, “Abgnose” succeeds too well.

Hasard remains a singular experience. Much of what El Cuervo said about Malivore still applies, yet Abgnose doesn’t quite replicate its excellence. I can’t help but wonder where Hazard takes Hasard next. Will he continue in the same vein or bring in something new? He started Hasard, after all, due to fatigue following the third album from Les Chants du Hasard. But working on Hasard must have breathed new life into Les Chants du Hasard. In 2024, they released Livre Quart, taking that project down a more menacing path than prior records, and it’s a pretty remarkable album. It’s clear that Hazard is seeking to perfect his nightmarish sound, one way or another, and he has nearly done it on Abgnose.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: I, Voidhanger Records
Website: Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: September 5th, 2025

#2025 #35 #Abgnose #BlackMetal #FrenchMetal #Fulci #Hasard #IVoidhangerRecords #IceNineKills #LesChantsDuHasard #Review #Reviews #Sep25 #SymphonicMetal

Labyrinthine Heirs – Labyrinthine Heirs Review

By Tyme

Eclectic Texan quartet Labyrinthine Heirs is ready to float their self-titled debut album, partnered with I, Voidhanger Records, which has one of the most diverse rosters in the metalverse. All four musicians come from different musical walks of life, and given the label partner, I expected that the music on Labyrinthine Heirs would be off-kilter at a minimum. With Léon François Comerre’s excellent cover painting in view but very little to go on by way of Labyrinthine Heirs‘ history, I was intrigued by the promo blurb, which quoted vocalist Evan Sadler as saying, ‘The plan was to marry the sound of Touch and Go Records artists like The Jesus Lizard and Shellac with that of Celtic Frost and Virus.’ I was a big fan of Goat in the 90s and love Celtic Frost to this day, so I was excited to hear how Labyrinthine Heirs would attempt to pull this feat off.

Apropos and in keeping with I, Voidhanger tradition, the Labyrinthine Heirs‘ sound, an alternative mix of blackish death metal, presents a descriptive sticky wicket. Comparisons with The Jesus Lizard are valid here, and a fair amount of Written in Waters era Ved Buens Ende is at play.1 Samuel Kang’s (Cathexis) guitar work is distinctly crisp, full of plucky riffs (“Brick Refusers Quartered”), cascading shimmers of dissonance, and circusy leads (“The Loop of Human Flesh Told in Perpetuity”). In lock-step accompaniment is the slap-happy bass work of Bryan Camphire (ex Bloody Panda) and the understated drumming of Anthony Brownlow, all three creating a hypnotizing flow over which vocalist Evan Sadler can drape his raspy, spoken-word delivery. Labyrinthine Heirs certainly sounds impressive, but one of the problems with hypnosis is that the subject eventually falls asleep.

Colin Marston’s master of Labyrinthine Heirs is warm and inviting, highlighting the interplay between the guitars and rhythm section while providing enough wide, organic spaces to hear every separate instrument on its own and simultaneously. Like how a dog can smell each ingredient in that stew on your stovetop individually while still smelling the whole thing. The opening track, “Brick Refusers Quartered,” with the guitar and bass playfully splashing in puddles of dissonance, pulls you immediately into Labyrinthine Heirs‘ web and ushers you through the next thirty-seven minutes. Sadler strays from his go-to mono-rasp to bring some ear-catching dynamism in the form of screeching screams, vomits, chokes, and coughs (“The Loop of Human Flesh Told in Perpetuity,” “The Conceited Determination of Nimrod”) and this reminds me of the vocals from some of Nattefrost‘s nastier solo work at times. I was also thankful for these moments since they were some of the few to rouse me from my slumberous hypnosis.

Labyrinthine Heirs packs a fair number of ideas into Labyrinthine Heirs‘ five tracks.2 The biggest problem is that nearly every idea sounds the same. In its entirety, Labyrinthine Heirs never strays from the sonic palette introduced on the opening track. Nearly every time I arrived at the fifth and final song, “Yaldabaoth Gored to Blindness,” I was surprised to discover that almost 30 minutes of music had passed with nary a blip on my radar of interest to show for it, which brings us to the crux of my problem with Labyrinthine Heirs debut, and that is its overwhelming sense of similitude. All five songs suffer from reciprocating guitar techniques that, combined with the steady slap n’ tap bass, reserved drums, and raspily spoken lyrics, shroud the whole in a drone-like pall.

My relationship with I, Voidhanger, Records, is like a series of coin flips. There always seems to be a fifty-fifty chance I’ll enjoy what I hear or be equally content to let it pass. I’ve found many gems (Creature, Neptunian Maximalism, Yhdarl), to name a few, but I’ve discovered stinkers that balance the equation for each one. Labyrinthine Heirs may be deserving of their I, Voidhanger, roster spot. However, I don’t find this debut engaging enough to keep my attention, so I can’t fully recommend it. There are flashes on Labyrinthine Heirs that will have me on the lookout for its follow-up, but I prefer to pass on this.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 10 | Format Reviewed: 320kbps mp3
Label: I, Voidhanger Records | Facebook
Website: Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: March 28th, 2025

#25 #2025 #AlternativeMetal #AmericanMetal #BlackMetal #DeathMetal #IVoidhangerRecords #LabyrinthineHeirs #Mar2025 #Review #TheJesusLizard #VedBuensEnde

Venomous Echoes – Dysmor Review

By Grymm

I’ve told many friends, both online and in-person, that for death metal to connect with me these days, it’s got to go for my throat in unflinching, unapologetic ways, and that usually involves taking one of two avenues. Either the artist in question has to go all-out musically in a way that’s memorable yet uncompromisingly heavy, brutal, technical, chaotic, or all of the above, or the music has to come from a place of personal sincerity and experience. With Venomous Echoes, the project of sole mastermind Ben Vanweelden, it’s a maelstrom of frightening proportions brought on by Vanweelden’s personal struggles with body dysmorphia.1 Dysmor, the project’s third album, further explores a topic that far too many people experience in silence with unfaltering intensity.

In just a hair under 46 minutes, Dysmor tells the tale of an unfortunate soul trapped in a hell of their own mental and physical image. Riffs swirl and undulate like slimy, breathing walls trapping you within its calculating vortex, with Vanweelden snarling and screaming in a barely hinged fashion, recalling both The Curator (Portal) and Peter Benjamin (Voices) in delivery and intensity. Programmed blastbeats pummel you into and through the shattered earth. Even the saxophone that opens up “Walls of Memories and Despair” warns you that things aren’t going to be okay going forward. But these things alone, while all good and everything that metalheads love and crave, aren’t going to be enough to make a lasting impact.

No, the real prize here is how well everything ties together thematically. It’s not easy to write music that’s barely tied together with the most frayed of twine, yet have it get its message across, but Vanheelden made it flow somehow. The odd groove that happens in the middle of “Walls of Memories and Despair” would have easily derailed the insanity that precedes and follows it, but it works. “Broken” starts of with a tranquil-enough piano melody before even that warps and distorts into something sinister and uncomfortable. Speaking of uncomfortable, the sad, subdued sobbing that punctuates just past the halfway mark of closing highlight “The Begetter” indicates that something terrible is going to happen, with the following riffs and closing atmospherics that would make The Great Old Ones proud pretty much confirming all suspicions.

Dysmor sounds appropriately grimy and discommoding, barely kissing against aural cacophony but not quite going beyond that line. With riffs slicing and julienning and a pissed-off drum machine laying waste to everything, anyone could see Dysmor getting swallowed up by a cyclone of its own design, but somehow it’s barely constrained enough to keep it together for the listener to hear. What can be a bit fatiguing is the length of some of the more atmospheric passages. By trimming some of the endings a bit (like the keyboard swirls that occur in the last almost two minutes of “Deafeated and Withered Creation”),2 it would help out a little with the overall impact.

But an impact this definitely made. I often worry whenever an artist writes music detailing a rather personal struggle, as it could very easily be heavy-handed or horribly delivered. But like An Isolated Mind before him, Vanweelden crafted an album that simultaneously crushes skulls and slices nerves. Ask anyone who’s ever experienced body dysmorphia, and they’ll tell you that no amount of external body shaming can compare to the hell of those who are beating themselves up,3 and Dysmor lays that all out to bare with amazing results. I sincerely both applaud Vanweelden for his bravery, intensity, and honesty in communicating his battles with body dysmorphia through his art, but I’m also pulling for his continued efforts in overcoming a silent, yet all-too-common, struggle.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: I, Voidhanger Records
Websites: Ampwall | Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: February 28th, 2025

#2025 #35 #AmericanMetal #AnIsolatedMind #BlackMetal #DeathMetal #Dysmor #Feb25 #IVoidhangerRecords #Portal #Review #Reviews #TheGreatOldOnes #VenomousEchoes #Voices

Stuck in the Filter: August and September 2024

By Kenstrosity

I am a stubborn bitch. I work my underlings hard, and I won’t let up until they dig up shiny goodies for me to share with the general public. Share might be a generous term. Foist upon is probably more accurate…

In any case, despite some pretty intense setbacks on my end, I still managed to collect enough material for a two-month spread. HUZZAH! REJOICE! Now get the hell away from me and listen to some of our very cool and good tunes.

Kenstrosity’s Turgid Truncheons

Tenue // Arcos, bóvedas, pórticos [August 1st, 2024 – Self-Release]

Spanish post-black/crust/screamo quartet Tenue earned my favor with their debut record, Anábasis, back in 2018. Equal parts vicious, introspective, and strangely uplifting, that record changed what I thought I could expect from anything bearing the screamo tag. By integrating ascendant black metal tremolos within post-punk structures and crusty attitude, Tenue established a sound that not only opened horizons for me taste-wise but also brought me a great deal of emotional catharsis on its own merit. Follow-up Arcos, bóvedas, pórticos deepens that relationship. Utilizing a wider atmospheric palette (“Distracción”), a shift towards epic song lengths (“Inquietude, and a greater variety of instrumentation (observe the beautiful horns on long-form opener “Inquietude”), and a bluesier swagger than previous material exhibited (“Letargo”), Tenue’s second salvo showcases a musical versatility I wasn’t expecting to complement the bleeding-heart emotional depth I knew would return. This expansion of scale and skillset sets the record apart from almost anything else I’ve heard this year. Even though one or two moments struggle to stick long-term (“Enfoque”), Arcos, bóvedas, pórticos represents an affecting, creative, and ridiculously engaging addition to my listening schedule. And for the low low price of NYP, it ought to be a part of yours as well.

Open Flesh Wound // Vile Putrefaction [August 28th, 2024 – Inherited Suffering Records]

Thicc, muggy slam with a million pick scrapes. Who could ask for anything more? Not I, and so it is with great pleasure that I introduce to my AMG fam Pennsylvania’s very own Open Flesh Wound and their debut LP Vile Putrefaction. Essentially the result of Analepsy’s and Devourment‘s carnal lovemaking, Vile Putrefaction is a nasty, slammy, brutal expulsion of chunky upchuck. Only those with the most caved-in craniums will appreciate the scraping swamp-ass riffs showcased on such slammers as “Smashed in Liquids” and “Cinder Block to the Forehead,” or the groove-laden thuggery of death-focused tracks like the title track, “Fermented Intestinal Blockage” and “Body Baggie.” Vile Putrefaction’s molasses-like production is an absolute boon to this sound as well, with just enough gloss to provide a deliciously moist texture which imparts an unlikely clarity to especially gruesome details in “Stoma Necrosis” and “Skin Like Jelly.” It’s dumb as hell, and isn’t doing anything new, but is an overdose of good, dirty fun. Simple as.

The Flaying // Ni dieu, ni ma​î​tre [September 5th, 2024 – Self Release]

I’ve been singing Canadian melodic death metal quartet The Flaying’s praises for almost six years now. And still to this day not enough people choose to sing with me. Why? Because they wouldn’t know sickeningly fun death metal if it hacked their faces right off. That’s okay, because The Flaying do hack faces right off regardless, and it feels so good to watch the faces of those who don’t heed my call get hacked right off. Third onslaught Ni dieu, ni ma​î​tre proves that once again, The Flaying are an unstoppable force of bass wizardry, riff mastery, and hook-laden songwriting. Opener “Le nécrologiste” perfectly encapsulates The Flaying’s particularly addicting brew of Cannibal Corpse, The Black Dahlia Murder, and De Profundis influences, shaken and stirred until the resulting cocktail blooms with a flavor all its own. Technical and brutally fast, follow-up track “L’enclave” continues the deadly rampage, featuring noodly bass lines guaranteed to elicit stank face in the even most prim and proper elite. A trim twenty nine minutes, spread over ten tightly trained tracks, Ni dieu, ni ma​î​tre boasts unbeatable replay value. Highlights “Ni dieu, ni ma​î​tre,” “Les Frondes” “La forge,” and “Noyau sombre” seal the deal by providing sharp hard points and memorable landmarks to which any listener would look forward. Simply put, this record rocks my socks and further proves that I am right about The Flaying, and those who ignore my recommendation are wrong.

Dolphin Whisperer’s All-Seeing Affirmations

Eye Eater // Alienate [August 1st, 2024 – Self Release]

In a post-Ulcerate world, the modern output of atmosphere-minded death metal has grown exponentially. With ringing dissonant chords and slow post-informed builds taking center stage, bands like New Zealand’s unheralded Eye Eater borrow plenty from the Destroyers of All sound. However, while many acts would be content to dial in the space or ramp up the dissonance to try and put their own twist on this growing post-death movement, Eye Eater looks to the laser-precise melodic tones of progressive, core-borrowing names like Fallujah and Vildhjarta to carve an identity into each of Alienate’s album eight sprawling tracks. Swinging sustained brightness in one hand about the grizzly chug-crush of the other, burly bangers like “Other Planets” and “Failure Artifacts” find churning, djentrified grooves that amplify the swell of the blaring melodies that swirl above the low-end clamor. And though the main refrains of “Alienate” and “Everything You Fear and Hope For” sound like loving odes to their Kiwi Forebears, the growth into sonorous and lush-chorded peaks lands much closer to the attraction of turn of the 10s progressive death/metalcore luminaries The Contortionist had they stayed closer to their heavy-toned, hefty-voiced roots. As an anonymous act with little social presence, it’s hard to say whether Eye Eater has more cooking for the future. With their ears tuned to the recent past for inspiration, it’s easy to see how a band with this kind of melodic immediacy—still wrapped in the weight of a brooding, death metal identity—could easily play for the tops of underground charts. To those who have been following the twists and turns of both underground and accessible over the past decade or so, Eye Eater may not sound entirely novel. But Alienate’s familiarity in presence against its quality of execution and fullness of sound makes it easy to ensnare all the same.

Dissolve // Polymorphic Ways of Unconsciousness [September 20th, 2024 – Self Release]

From the sand-blasted, monochrome human escaping the floor of Polymorphic Ways’ cover to the tags of technical, progressive, death that adorn the Bandcamp tags, it’s easy to put a band like Dissolve in a box, mentally. But with the first bent guitar run that sets off “Efficiency Defiled” in a run like Judas Priest more than Spawn of Possession, it’s clear that Dissolve plays by a different set of rules than your average chug and run tech death band. Yet true to their French nature, the riffs that litter Polymorphic Ways of Unconsciousness possess a tangible groove following the footsteps of lesser-known tricksters Trepalium and Olympic titans of metal Gojira (“The Great Pessimistic,”1 “Polymorphic Ways of Unconsciousness,” “Vultures”). And while too Dissolve finds a base in the low-end trem assault of Morbid Angel (“Ignorance Will Prevail”), there’s a thrash and bark energy at play that nets a rambunctious and experimental sound recalling the warped Hetfield-ian (Metallica) scrawl of Destroy Erase Improve Meshuggah, right down to the monstrous bass tone that defines Sonny Bellonie’s (Sanctuary, ODC) growling, extended range performance. As a trio it’d be easy for guitarist Briac Turquety (Smerter, ex-Sideburn) to rely on overdubs for saturation of sound and complexity of layers—and for solo cut-ins he definitely does—but equally as often his choice to let certain chords and notes escape a thrashy muting to ring in distorted harmony against snaking bass lines. And speaking of solos, Turquety’s prowess ranges from bluesy shred (“The Great Pessimistic,” “Ropes of Madness”) to noisy, jazzy explorations (“Polymorphic…,” “Shattered Minds of Evolution”) to Satriani on Slayer whammy abuse (“Bonfire of the Vanities”)—a true treat to lovers of tasteful shred. Turquety, Bellonie, and Quentin Feron (on drums, also of Smerter) sound as if they’ve been playing together for much longer than the year that Dissolve has existed. With a debut this polished, it’s anyone’s guess as to what kind of monster will emerge from the talent that appears so effortless in assembly.

Obsidian Mantra // As We All Will [September 27th, 2024 – Self Release]

Sometimes, a tangled and foreboding cover sits as the biggest draw amongst a crowd of death metal albums alight with splattered zombie remains, illegible logos, and alarm-colored palettes. And in the case of Obsidian Mantra, it doesn’t hurt that lead single “Cult of Depression” possesses a devastating, hypnotic groove that recalls the once captivating technical whiplash of an early Decapitated. However, rather than wrestle with tones that incite a pure and raw violence like that cornerstone act (or similar Poldeath that has followed in its legacy like Dormant Ordeal), Obsidian Mantra uses aggressive and bass-loaded rhythmic forms to erupt in spacious and glass-toned guitar chimes to create an engrossing neck-snapping (“Slave Without a Master,” “Condemned to Oppression”). Whether we call these downcast refrains a dissonant melody or slowly resolving phrase, they grow throughout each track in a manner that calls continual reinforcement from a rhythm section that can drop into hammering blasts at a dime and a vocal presence that oscillates between vicious snarl and reverberating howl. In its most accessible numbers (“Chaos Will Consume Us All,” “Weavers of Misery”), Obsidian Mantra finds an oppressive warmth that grows to border anthemic, much in the way like beloved blackened/progressive acts like Hath do with their biggest moments. As We All Will still never quite reaches that full mountainous peak, though, opting to pursue the continual call of the groove to keep the listener coming back. Having come a long way from the Meshuggah-centered roots where Obsidian Mantra first sowed their deathly seeds, As We All Will provides 30 minutes of modern, pulsating, and venomous kick-driven pieces that will flare easy motivation for either a brutalizing pit or a mightily-thrusted iron on leg day.

Thus Spoke’s Cursed Collection

Esoctrilihum // Döth-Derniàlh [September 20th, 2024 – I, Voidhanger Records]

We complete another orbit around the Sun, and Esoctrilihum completes another album; such are the inalterable laws governing each 365.25 Earth day period in our Solar System. Possessed by some mad, restless spirit, it seems they cannot be stopped. Ever the experimenter, sole member Asthâghul now picks up an acoustic guitar, a nickelharpa, and warms up his throat for more clean vocals to further bizarre-ify his avant-garde black metal. As we travel into the cosmos for Döth-Derniàlh, Esoctrilihumisms abound in the see-sawing strings and echoes of chanted singing and throaty snarls. The addition of more acoustic elements does bring some weird delicacy to moments here and there (“Zilthuryth (Void of Zeraphaël),” “Murzaithas (Celestial Voices)”), and it adds layers of beauty in addition to those already harmonious passages. it’s striking how well these new instruments blend with the overall sound: so well, in fact, that it almost feels like Esoctrilihum hasn’t evolved at all. This isn’t even a bad thing, because Döth-Derniàlh still feels like an improvement. Past albums have always had at least sections of perfection, where the scattered clouds of self-interfering chaos or repetition blow away and the brilliant light of the moon shines strongly. Döth-Derniàlh has more of these than ever, some extending to whole, 16-minute songs (“Dy’th Eternalhys (The Mortuary Renewal),”).2 If you have it in you to listen to one (more) album over an hour long, and you don’t already know you hate Esoctrilihum, sit down with a drink, and maybe a joint, and go where Döth-Derniàlh takes you.

#2024 #Alienate #AmericanMetal #ArcosBóvedasPórticos #AsWeAllWill #AtmosphericDeathMetal #Aug24 #AvantGarde #BlackMetal #BrutalDeathMetal #CanadianMetal #CannibalCorpse #DeProfundis #DeathMetal #Decapitated #Dissolve #DormantOrdeal #DöthDerniàlh #Esoctrilihum #EyeEater #Fallujah #FrenchMetal #Gojira #GrandMagus #GrendelSSÿster #Gygax #HarcorePunk #IVoidhangerRecords #InheritedSufferingRecords #JethroTull #JudasPriest #MelodicDeathMetal #Meshuggah #Metallica #MorbidAngel #NewZealandMetal #NiDieuNiMaîTre #ObsidianMantra #ODC #OpenFleshWound #PolishMetal #PolymorphicWaysOfUnconsciousness #PostDeathMetal #PostMetal #postPunk #ProgressiveDeathMetal #ProgressiveMetal #Punk #Sanctuary #Screamo #SelfRelease #Sep24 #Sideburn #Slam #Slayer #Smerter #SpanishMetal #SpawnOfPossession #StuckInTheFilter #StuckInTheFilter2024 #TechnicalDeathMetal #Tenue #TheBlackDahliaMurder #TheContortionist #TheFlaying #ThinLizzy #Trepalium #Vildhjarta #VilePutrefaction #WishboneAsh

Stuck in the Filter: April 2024’s Angry Misses

By Kenstrosity

The heat persists. Intensifies, even. We’re not even to the dead center of summer, where pavement melts and sinew sloughs off of bones. And yet, we toil. Endless trudges through the slime and grime of sharply angled ducts and beveled sheet metal characterize an average workday for my filtration minions, who do my bidding without question as I sip a piña colada in these run down and ragged headquarters. Alright fine, we don’t have piña coladas here, but a sponge can dream! A sponge can dream…

What was I saying? Oh, right. After many months of constant pep talks and gentle reminders with a cattle prod, my team of hack crack sifters managed a respectable haul from our April buildup. Dive in at your own peril!

Kenstrosity’s Sooty Slab

Exhumation // Master’s Personae [April 26th, 2024 – Pulverised Records]

Indonesian blackened death duo Exhumation never would’ve made it to my queue were it not for our burgeoning Discord server. Rollicking tunes, produced with a charming rawness that tingles my spine, task themselves with the summary destruction of that same spine and waste no time getting started. From the onset of opener “In Death Vortex,” Master’s Personae eviscerates with rabid teeth gnashing through my flesh. Ghoul (guitars) and Bones (vocals) display their respective talents vomiting souls out of their body and concocting sickening infernal riffs with aplomb—and made damn sure their session musicians could do more than just keep up on bass (Sebek), drums (Aldi), and lead guitar (J. Magus). With songs that kick as much ass-tonnage as highlights “Pierce the Abyssheart,” “Chaos Feasting,” “Thine Inmost Curse,” and late bloomer “Mahapralaya,” the only thing that could possibly stand in between you and total metallic indoctrination is the record’s gritty, extra-crunchy production. For some, that might even be its greatest selling point. Either way, Master’s Personae is, at its core, just a nonstop demonic party. Ipso facto, if you like fun, you like this. If you don’t, leave the Hall!

Thus Spoke’s Chucked Choices

Alpha Wolf // Half Living Things [April 5th, 2024 – SharpTone Records]

Aussie gang Alpha Wolf have always had an “angry” sound, but until now, they remained quite firmly smack dab in the middle of modern metalcore. With Half Living Things,1 however, the band move as far as they ever have into beatdown hardcore, albeit, a very glossy, and very metalcore interpretation of it. While many, myself included, think they sound better with a little bit of intrigue, a little bit of mournful melody and atmosphere, there’s no denying that this album does contain several bone-fide bangers. Opening run “Bring Back the Noise,” “Double-Edge Demise,” and “Haunter,” are a groovy set of smacks upside the head, and later cuts “Feign,” and “A Terrible Day for Rain” echo the same menace, safely keeping your head bobbing and your mean face on. The aggression can veer into the realm of cringe at points, not least on single “Sucks 2 Suck,” which includes the wild misstep of a thuggish rap bridge courtesy of ICE-T. But on the other hand, Alpha Wolf do show they have a heart, with surprisingly sadboi “Whenever You’re Ready,” and closer “Ambivalence.” It’s all pretty angsty, but questionable decisions aside, Half Living Things is worth at least the time it takes you to hear one or two of its best tracks. I’ll always be here for a little bit of adolescent ennui anyway.

Sarcasm // Mourninghoul [April 12th, 2024 – Hammerheart Records]

Whilst still a n00b, I reviewed Sarcasm’s previous album, Stellar Stream Obscured, and, to my initial surprise, really rather liked it. It was simply a quirk of circumstance that I didn’t pick up the promo for Mourninghoul. And looking back on that week, I wish I had. This thing is just as fun, just as furious, and once again the perfect balance between odd and straightforwardly blistering. Once again, they lace creepy organs and synthwork into death doom (“Withered Memories of Souls We Mourn,” “No Solace From Above”) to add a little mystique. Once again, they display some brilliant, beautiful, melodic black(ened death) metal riffery to lead refrains (“Lifelike Sleep,” “Dying Embers of Solitude,” “Absence if Reality”), not only soaking the listener in the nostalgia of the golden years of Dissection and Necrophobic, but memorable and moving in their own right. Overall, the album is a little slower and more atmospheric than its predecessor, but in this light perhaps a little more thoughtful. One to check out for anyone who dug Stellar Stream Obscured.

Dear Hollow’s Loudness Lard

Lord Spikeheart // The Adept [April 19th, 2024 – Haekalu Records]

Lord Spikeheart is the alias of Martin Kanja, one-half of grind/noise duo Duma, whose sole self-titled LP was received warmly back in 2020 by the gone-but-unforgotten Roquentin. Now a solo act, Spikeheart fully embraces the manic in his debut full-length The Adept, a fusion of noise, industrial, trap, grind, and hip-hop and tinged with native Kenyan instruments. – guaranteed to scare off unwanted listeners. Featuring a bevy of featured artists, The Adept is as jerky and unpredictable as you might expect from its laundry list of sounds. Including all, but not limited to, Author & Punisher-level of manufactured brutality (“Sham-Ra”), layers of jagged hip-hop a la Skech185 (“Emblem Blem,” “Djangili,” “33rd Degree Access”), and outright metal guitar solos and blastbeats (“Nobody”), as well as outright bananas explosive Igorrr-esque breakcore seizures and Kenyan percussion (“TYVM”) and ominous sprawls of haunting humid ambiance over manic beats (“Rem Fodder,” “Verbose Patmos,” “4AM in the Mara”), and there is little that is predictable about The Adept. Throw on Lord Spikeheart’s incredible charisma, shocking vocals, and evocative primal songwriting, and you’ve got yourself a tastefully insane and impressively uncomfortable slab of experimentation that feels dangerous and unrelenting in the right ways.

Whores. // War. [April 16th, 2024 – The Ghost is Clear Records]

Sometimes you just need a good concussion and drool out your brains to the curb because you got dinged around so much. Atlanta four-piece Whores. will provide mightily in more ways than one. Professing a riff-heavy noise rock/sludge metal combo reminiscent of Chat Pile or Iron Monkey, each of the tracks in War.’s 34-minute runtime is a thick-ass spanker with thick-ass riffs, bad-ass cymbal abuse, and mad-ass yells, and you’d be a fool to miss this broken-tooth abuse. Groove is embedded in the marrow of each bone, and the swill of riffs and noisy leads will get your head bobbing before you can learn how to pronounce opener “Malinches.” From the outright onslaughts of “Imposter Syndrome” and “Sicko,” to the bass builds and guitar squonks of “Quitter’s Fight Song” and “Hostage Therapy” or punky rhythms of “Hieronymous Bosch was Right” and “The Death of a Stuntman,” you don’t need to get all academic to abuse the drywall, and Whores. will set their teeth behind your bruised knuckles. The message is clear: get unga-bunga with riff.

Spit on Your Grave // Arkanum [April 12th, 2024 – Self Release]

You always run a risk when you change up your sound, even slightly. Mexican death metal peddlers Spit on Your Grave are familiar with it. Formerly bringin’ the slamz and gooey brutal shit to your court with unhinged insanity, Arkanum keeps the core sound while incorporating more tempo and nimbleness, making a blazing death metal album with some Behemoth-esque experimentation that keeps the album from falling into gnarly monotony and injects a necessary regality reflected in its art. Subtle plucking motifs grace opener “The Infection” and closer “The March of the Innocents,” chanting and choirs spruce up limper portions of “Into the Devil’s Realm,” and dancy rhythms and melodeath noodling kick up “Broken Hourglass.” In spite of the levels of experimentation, the riff reigns supreme throughout, made most plain in the no-holds-barred death metal assaults of “The Heretic,” “Dark Lullaby,” and “Self Sacrifice.” It’s somewhere between Behemoth’s wicked conjuration of crowns and Hate Eternal’s blazing scorched earth campaign, and while imperfect, Spit on Your Grave’s new direction is tantalizing.

Dolphin Whisperer’s Crossed Up Casting

Nuclear Tomb // Terror Labyrinthian [April 12th, 2024 – Everlasting Spew]

Filthy, frothing, furious, Nuclear Tomb embodies all that fueled the origins of the thrash and death movements, which actively rejected the tonal shift toward “pleasing” that pop-leaning forms of heavy metal were taking at the time. So, yes, it’s unsurprising to hear a punky and driven bass identity reminiscent of the overdriven pummeling of Dan Lilker in Nuclear Assault or Stéphane Picard in Obliveon. But though thrash rings true in the speed-needing assaults of “Fatal Visions” or “Vile Humanity,” death—the gnarled yet precise riffcraft you would heard in an early Pestilence summoning—feeds ugly and foul this acts hefty ambitions. Terror Labyrinthian gives exactly what its name promises: a sense of profound encapsulation and isolation in the density that Nucleur Tomb conjures alongside a sci-fi-informed fear and terror. Its ambition is such that it can fly off the rails a touch when it gets too moody (“Dominance & Persecution”), and its level of discordance can leave tracks feeling like intangible pulps of sick and snarling riffage (“Manufacturing Consent,” “Parasitic”). Despite these minor concerns, Labyrinthian Terror shakes enough to leave a worthy, full-length mark after two promising EPs. And with members of Nuclear Tomb floating around in their small scene with oddball grinders Ixias and the avant-minded Genevieve, it’s all but a promise that what comes next will be weird, frightening, and demanding.

Steel Druhm’s Rancid Requiems to Rotpitting

Engulfed // Unearthly Litanies of Despair [April 19th, 2024 – Me Saco Ojo]

Straight outta Turkey comes the vicious, face-melting death metal assault of Engulfed. Featuring members of Hyperdontia and Diabolizer and bearing hallmarks of both, Engulfed are a nasty savage on a war march to destroy all that lives and breathes. With a highly seasoned lineup and a lethal mission statement, Unearthly Litanies of Despair is a “not fucking around” kind of death platter full of blazing speed, thunderous blasts, and more sub-basement croaks and roars than you’d find in an illegal Balrog mining facility. All the old school legends get sound checked, with plenty of Vader, Morbid Angel, and Incantation-isms to be unearthed, but to my ears, Engulfed sounds most like brother band Diabolizer. That’s certainly not a bad thing, as anyone who heard 2021s Khalkedonian Death will attest. There’s not much subtly on display on Unearthly Litanies, and Engulfed are happy to blast away at Mach 9 for the bulk of the album’s runtime, only slowing down long enough to let slithery riffs do their tentacle things. It isn’t until the closing stanza “Occult Incantations” that they opt to get down and doomy, and though it runs way long at nearly 8 minutes, it digs up some nicely dark, gloomy textures. All in all a brutal trip to the belly of the beast feaster!

Coffin Curse // The Continuous Nothing [April 22nd, 2024 – Memento Mori]

The sophomore offering from Chile’s Coffin Curse is 100% military grade old school death with enough rot and pus to win over any genre fancier. The Continuous Nothing is really a continuous something, and that something is gnarly, thrashing death goodness in the varicose vein of Autopsy with some Deicide and Morbid Angel in the gore batter. There’s absolutely nothing new here, but the enthusiasm with which Coffin Curse comes at the classic death style is refreshing and invigorating. You’ll be smiling early into opener “Thin the Herd” due to its oh-so-righteous blend of Autopsy and vintage Morbid Angel, and it’s tough to blast “Bacchanal of the Mortal” and not want to throw your BarcaLounger out the fucking window. This is meat n’ tatters gutter death that could have come out in the late 80s or early 90s, but that doesn’t lessen its vitality and impact since these cats know how to write a ripping tune. I’m especially enamored with the disgusting vocals of Max Neira who gives even the hideous Chris Reifert a run for his scuzz-vomit money. This thing is just good, gross fun!

Tombstoner // Rot Stink Rip [April 26th, 2024 – Redefining Darkness]

Staten Island-based death thugs Tombstoner came back to kill with second album Rot Stink Rip, showcasing a whole lotta New York attitude. With a sound mixing mouth-breathing caveman brutality with New York hardcore undertones, the menu items all come with brass knuckles and steel-toed boots to your fat face (no substitutions!). This is street-level tough guy death with a Biohazard/Pantera-level IQ and anything remotely intellectual is tossed in the dumpster like a carpet-wrapped corpse. Songs like “Sealed in Blood” will rot your brain stem as it curb stomps your skull, and the beefy death grooves are ugly, stupid, and dangerous. Internal Bleeding-isms rebound off Skinless idioms amid the brainless forward momentum of the title track, and the groove-busting, barroom-bullying nastiness of primal cuts like “Metamorphosis” and “Reduced to Hate” are made for Roids Appreciation Day at Planet Meathead. The riffs are hella weighty and the overall approach is lead pipe brutality. Don’t bother spinning this if you’re one of those fancy-dancy tech types. This one is strictly for the gashouse gorillas and pimpanzees.

Saunders’ Slimy Selections

Satanic North // Satanic North [April 19th, 2024 – Reaper Entertainment]

Featuring members of Ensiferum, Finnish black metal troupe Satanic North ripped out a seething slab of old school black metal on their self-titled debut. Although the album seemed to drop with minimal fanfare or notice, having been clued into its existence, Satanic North has since provided a helluva fun time. Satanic North pull no punches and dispense with flash or bombast, adding modern beef to an endearingly old school formula that stomps hard. Harnessing the raw, punky, Venom-esque attitude of ’80s black metal, along with distinctive second-wave elements, and dashes of Darkthrone and Goatwhore, Satanic North is a varied, aggressive and utterly addictive opus. Regardless of the mode of destruction the band chooses at any given time, the songwriting quality generally maintains the rage. Grim, icy atmospheres envelope blasting, viciously executed songs, loaded with a bevy of badass riffs and pissed-off attitude. The relentless, hammering blows on opener “War,” sit comfortably alongside the crawling, sinister melodies and infectious hooks of “Village,” while expert pacing and builds highlight epic later album gem, “Kohti Kuolemaa.” Satanic North throw down some awesomely thrashy barnburners for good measure on powerhouse nuggets of black gold in the shape of “Wolf” and closer “Satanic North.” One of 2024’s underrated gems.

Iron Monkey // Spleen & Goad [April 5th, 2024 – Relapse Records]

UK veterans Iron Monkey’s 1998 opus Our Problem is a sludge classic that I’ve held in high regard for many years. Sadly, the untimely death of raw-throated vocalist Johnny Morrow, a distinctive, glass-gurgling beast behind the mic, saw the band dissolve, until reforming and crafting a solid comeback with 2017’s 9-13. Stripped own to a trio in their second coming, with long-serving guitarist Jim Rushby doing an admirable job taking over the vocal slot, Iron Monkey sound as though the piss, vinegar, and hatred still flows in their veins. Spleen & Goad offers few surprises, continuing the trend of its predecessor while maintaining the signature Iron Monkey sound. And although Iron Monkey cannot quite match the esteemed heights of their early days, this modern, well-trodden incarnation of the band still bludgeons, grooves and seethes with sledgehammer force and infectiously diseased riffs. Channeling the bluesy Sabbathian meets NOLA mode of sludge, with a side of Grief, and a shit ton of spite, the Iron Monkey lads deliver the goods again. Noisy, feedback-drenched bruisers rule the day; as swaggering, drunken grooves, surly riffs, and feral vocals drive this unhinged hate machine. Spleen & Goad is victim to some creeping bloat, however overall, it’s a stellar return and addition to their storied catalog, as rugged, bludgeoning cuts like “Misanthropizer,” “Concrete Shock,” “Rat Flag” and “Lead Transfusion” attests.

Mystikus Hugebeard’s Filthy Finding

Diabolic Oath // Oracular Hexations [April 5th, 2024 – Sentient Ruin Laboratories]

Oracular Hexations is a blast. It is a chaotic, colossally dense album of what can ostensibly be called blackened death metal, but the music is just so fucking filthy it might as well be sludge. The fun thing here is that the guitar and bass are completely fretless; the riffs aren’t hard to parse but the guitars feel almost slippery. It allows the brutal riffage of a heavy track like “Serpent Coils Suffocating the Mortal Wound” to become borderline hallucinogenic, while still hitting like a truck. The slower, oozing riffs of “Rusted Madness Tethering Misbegotten Haruspices” and “Winged Ouroboros Mutating Unto Gold” have a real viscosity to them that always reminds me of the stoner doom stylings of Conan. This album is definitely a lot, but it’s an extremely satisfying listen. The fretless imprecision paired with the music’s intensity, the delightfully disgusting guitar tone, and the vocalist’s tectonic gurgles all give Oracular Hexations a ritualistic atmosphere so thick you can practically sink into it. There’s plenty one could say about the musicianship—the drummer deserves praise for his diverse, technical performance—but trying to dial in on any one ingredient is like trying to appreciate the subtle flavor undertones of sheep stomach in a plate of haggis. Just cram the whole thing in at once, man, because this is the kind of sensory brutalization that you’ve gotta just let happen to you.

Iceberg’s Singular Surfacing

Venomous Echoes // Split Formations and Infinite Mania [April 05, 2024 – I, Voidhanger Records]

Extreme metal’s penchant for horror and destruction never ceases to amaze me. It doesn’t matter how I came across Venomous Echoes second album Split Formations and Infinite Mania, one look at that album cover and the curtain rise of squelching music within had me transfixed. Brutal Floridian death metal meets the dissonant disintegration of Portal meets the crushing weight of funeral doom and they all come together in the unrated cut of a Cronenberg flick. One-man-band Benjamin Vanweelden takes the listener inside his own personal hell as he wrestles with body dysmorphia, making for an experience not unlike recent cuts by An Isolated Mind or The Reticent. This is challenging, highly uncomfortable music, abandoning pitch and rhythm at will, bending and twisting notes and smothering the listener with oppressive atmosphere. From the sickening stomping sound effects of opener “Ocular Maltosis ov Schizophrenia” to the ultra-dissonant ostinato and DSBM wailing of closer “Split Formations and Infinite Mania,” this album is the definition of the car crash you can’t look away from. Far outside any zone of comfort is exactly where Vanweelden wants his listeners, and I have to say this makes for a sickly impressive, revolting, yet mesmerizing experience.

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Thanatotherion – Alienation Manifesto Review

By Kenstrosity

As many of you well know by now, one of the quickest ways to my spongy little heart-hole is to bend and smash genres together. Hybridized monstrosities are my deepest love, and each time a new act promises such twisted, mangled barbs, I jump right into the tangled thicket without hesitation. Enter Virginia one-man deathened, lightly thrashened, raw black metal enigma Thanatotherion. Masterminded by Shelby Lemo of Ulthar and Vastum, Thanatotherion represents a heretofore unexplored side of his extreme metal predilections. With debut full-length Alienation Manifesto, can he secure my rapt attention?

While Shelby’s time with Ulthar and Vastum shines on Alienation Manifesto, particularly through his uniquely muscular riffs and burled songwriting, Thanatotherion is undeniably a different beast. Pulling raw black metal notes from Darkthrone, cribbing eerie atmosphere from acts like Khôra, and channeling a touch of second-wave Emperor regality, Alienation Manifesto compiles its inspirations and uses the resulting amalgam to crab-walk its own path through snow-capped forests. Twists of thrash metal and novel bits of synth work—highly reminiscent of Metroid and Stranger Things soundtracks—help diversify Thanatotherion’s sound even further without spreading Shelby’s ideas thin. In sum, Shelby’s latest project is cohesive, novel, and exciting—and just strange enough in application to earn its place on the I, Voidhanger roster.

A striking encapsulation of everything Thanatotherion does well, mammoth closer “Codex Crepusculum” swerves and swoops through twelve minutes of continuously entertaining blackened death metal. Never overstaying their welcome, its myriad riffs and lead guitar melodies provide a dangerous assortment of spine-wrecking tuneage with which one can occupy themselves. In between bouts of destruction, creepy atmospheric breaks lull the listener to a pit of gentle tension, only to be released a minute later into more aural violence. It’s an incredibly smart composition, showcasing songwriting intelligence that manifests similarly on more straightforward cuts like “Red Cathedral” and “Nuclear Womb.” Faster and more aggressive, even, than the epic closer, these highlights threaten the structural integrity of my entire skeleton—in no small part thanks to Black Fucking Cancer drummer extraordinaire Jason Bursese’s ravenous blasts, beats, and fills—and are guaranteed pit-destroyers in any live setting. In all of these songs, venomous rasps mix beautifully with the raw, but warm, fuzz of angrily buzzing guitars and the skull-shattering thunder of acrobatic percussion which themselves seem hell-bent on ripping faces asunder. Meanwhile, slightly lengthier tracks “The Raven and the Box of Stars” and “Wilczyca” interweave a compelling amount of story and character development into the record. Still thrashing with unbridled bloodlust, these rippers are content to play with their prey for a spell before inevitably consuming the flesh with wild abandon.

This strategy makes for a wholly compelling and remarkably dynamic experience. Even with synth-based instrumental interludes “Orb” and “Lament,” every moment on Alienation Manifesto feels purposeful and substantial. However, these eventful tunes could use a little more massaging. While undoubtedly part of the record’s charm, all of its tracks feel a bit unruly. Certain transitions lack grace (see those that introduce and dismiss the middle section of “The Raven and the Box of Stars”), and segments of the record’s more expansive works could stand some tightening to get more bang for the listener’s buck (“Codex Crepusculum,” “Wilczyca”). Additionally, while Alienation Manifesto sounds roomy and warm, I’d love a little more bass guitar presence and overall low-end heft. I understand this is likely a conscious decision in order to stay true to those raw black metal aesthetics, but I still maintain that a thicker low end would only enhance this material.

There’s a lot to get excited about with Thanatotherion’s debut. Clearly the product of a seasoned and talented musician with a concrete vision, Alienation Manifesto is a tight, twisted, raw ride through thrashy blackened death metal wastelands. It sacrifices some smoothness for the sake of creating a roller coaster of great moments, and Shelby missed a few opportunities to streamline some of the lengthier tracks and to fill out the record’s low end. Nonetheless, Alienation Manifesto is a rock-solid and vital debut. Even if you aren’t a fan of the raw stuff, this is uniquely accessible, immensely fun, and entirely worthy of your attention.

Rating: Very Good
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: I, Voidhanger Records
Website: thanatotherion.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: June 7th, 2024

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