#tombmold — Public Fediverse posts

There are few concepts in the Western tradition as misunderstood as that of “the death of God.” It is not a triumphant proclamation, nor a call for apathetic nihilism. What has been coined in recent online discourse as a ‘meaning crisis’ is only barely getting the point. The Loss of Transcendence—some universal, ultimate, mind-independent Truth and set of values—is a beginning, an event that should prompt critical thought and action and confrontation of a human condition that we sedate ourselves out of with belief in a higher power or sense and reason in the universe; hope; or the rescinding of responsibility to the idea that ‘nothing matters.12 The Great Observer seem to have done their homework for the most part, with their debut channeling their thrashy blackened death into a philosophical call to action that blends Existentialism with Stoicism and Epicureanism. Fresh on the scene and immediately going all-in in aggression and storytelling, what can The Great Observer give to us?

On the face of it, Loss of Transcendence is standard black/death/thrash, with a rotating emphasis on each of those three components. Sticking primarily to up-tempo, gritty riffing in a vein somewhere between Necrophobic, Tomb Mold, and Morbid Angel—though a less flashy iteration—The Great Observer do nonetheless find time to linger in some cavernousness that vaguely recalls Disembowelment. They further emphasise their mean streak with a pervasive vocal echo that adds to the grime of the throaty howls and is compounded during the many instances when such vocals are multi-tracked or delivered as a group. But not all of this energy is used in service of evil; there’s a strong anthemic side to these choruses and a jaunty bombast to many a beat. In many ways, it gives off the aura of classical extreme metal—back when Black Metal was an album title, and ugliness, speed, and aggression were the name of the game in a fundamentally different way to how they are now. And yet, under the layers of dirt and behind the malevolence lie small seeds of nuance, and it is to Loss of Transcendence’s great detriment that they remain scattered seeds alone.

Loss of Transcendence flirts with many things—intrigue, atmosphere, tenacity—but never quite wins any of them over. Riffs generally check boxes for pugnacity, but even at their most brutish and slick (“The Great Observer,” “Impervious Creation”), they have no edge, no force. At the worst end, guitar lines are entirely blunt thanks to nondescript, generic-sounding melodies and patterns (“Herald of Thorns,” “How Far the Faithless will Venture”). It’s unfortunate that all of the best guitar sits in the record’s back half, with “Impervious Creation” and “The Weight of Being Free” delivering shimmying, sliding shredding capable of winning over the harshest of critics, and the latter track featuring a genuinely beautiful, buttery smooth solo that combines everything great about grimy yet gorgeous extreme metal. The frequent use of group vocals, which sometimes creates an impressive miasma of harrowing calls (“Impervious Creation,” title track), falls awkwardly flat when delivered as rousing shouts (“Sentenced at High Noon,” “At The Summit of Consciousness,” “The Weight…”) thanks to the latter’s surprising corniness. The Great Observer also experiment in an exasperatingly random manner with distortion, with a liquid, Worm-adjacent effect appearing in random snatches never to develop (“Parénklisis (Fallen Into Existence),” “How Far…,” “The Weight…,” title track); and the worst part is that it’s good! The pace, generally high, is also stymied by not one but two synth-heavy instrumentals as “Parénklisis…” opens the album with a gravitas that never appears again, and “Ékstasis (The Lonesome Path)” needlessly presses pause for two minutes of ambience and whispering.

In reality, Loss of Transcendence feels frustratingly lukewarm. A mix that pushes guitars erratically between the far background and the very forefront, and a baffling decision3 to layer vocal tracks and reverb like lasagna over these riffs (“The Great Observer,” “Sentenced at High Noon,” “The Weight…,” title track) makes what could be decent blackened death sound almost poor. Almost the only time the guitars sound good is when they sound great, soloing in sudden clarity (“Sentenced…,” “Impervious Creation”) and with fluent expressiveness (“The Weight…,”), and these highlights appear exclusively in the second half. Given this, it becomes harder to forgive the swing of strangely upbeat gang shouts (“Sentenced…,” “Herald of Thorns”) and a brusque attitude to riff-writing that tends to shy away from character.

It’s always a shame when a concept I’m particularly interested in is delivered in mediocre form. Loss of Transcendence strikes as an album that would have had heads spinning and Bibles being reached for in the early 90s but now its grit cannot make up for its shortcomings. Failing to develop their best ideas and sidelining their assets far too often, The Great Observer still haven’t seen how to capitalise on their strengths, and Loss of Transcendence loses more than higher values as a result.

Rating: Disappointing
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: BlackSeed Productions
Website: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: April 30th, 2026

Invictus – Nocturnal Visions Review

Five years ago, I highlighted Invictus’ 2020 debut LP Catacombs of Fear as part of our year-end death…
#NewsBeep #News #US #USA #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Music #2026 #4.0 #DeathMetal #DemolitionHammer #Depravity #Entertainment #Incantation #INVICTUS #Jan26 #JapaneseMetal #MeSacoUnOjoRecords #NocturnalVisions #Pestilence #review #reviews #TombMold
https://www.newsbeep.com/us/431327/

Invictus – Nocturnal Visions Review

Five years ago, I highlighted Invictus’ 2020 debut LP Catacombs of Fear as part of our year-end death…
#NewsBeep #News #US #USA #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Music #2026 #4.0 #DeathMetal #DemolitionHammer #Depravity #Entertainment #Incantation #INVICTUS #Jan26 #JapaneseMetal #MeSacoUnOjoRecords #NocturnalVisions #Pestilence #review #reviews #TombMold
https://www.newsbeep.com/us/431327/

https://www.europesays.com/uk/722416/ Invictus – Nocturnal Visions Review #2026 #4.0 #DeathMetal #DemolitionHammer #Depravity #Entertainment #Incantation #invictus #Jan26 #JapaneseMetal #MeSacoUnOjoRecords #music #NocturnalVisions #Pestilence #Review #Reviews #TombMold #UK #UnitedKingdom

https://www.europesays.com/ie/304767/ Invictus – Nocturnal Visions Review #2026 #4.0 #DeathMetal #DemolitionHammer #Depravity #Éire #Entertainment #IE #Incantation #Invictus #Ireland #Jan26 #JapaneseMetal #MeSacoUnOjoRecords #Music #NocturnalVisions #Pestilence #Review #Reviews #TombMold

Five years ago, I highlighted Invictus’ 2020 debut LP Catacombs of Fear as part of our year-end death metal roundup feature. Since then, the Japanese death metal trio toiled under the ground with a brutal live schedule and steadily wrote what might very well be my most highly anticipated follow-up in the death metal realm. Hot on the heels of killer releases from personal favorites like Depravity, and jumping just ahead of another highly anticipated salvo from Eximperitus, Invictus’ upcoming Nocturnal Visions has big shoes to fill and stiff competition to combat. But if anybody has the chops and the balls to do it, it’s Invictus.

Having only one previous album and a few scattered demos/singles to their name, Invictus haven’t messed with their formula very much since their inception. Boasting a killer combo of Demolition Hammer nastiness and Consuming Impulse-era Pestilence attack, Nocturnal Visions pushes 35 minutes of pure adrenaline. Nary a second faffs about with filler, fluffy atmosphere, or anything else that could be construed as something other than devout reverence to The Almighty Riff™. With each twist of phrase or shift in movement, guitarist/vocalist Takehitopsy Seki tears through an unrelenting assault of intense grooves, speedy thrashes, and writhing rhythms that don’t just open up pits, but rather rip open dimensional rifts straight to hell itself (“Altar of Devoted Slaughter,” “Wandering Ashdream”). Instead of relying on blasts for intensity, Haruki Tokutake’s percussive strategy focuses on machine-gun double-bass runs and thrashy skanks so brutally exacted upon my spine that I needed a back brace and headgear just to approach the second half—accommodations which in no way deterred my summary bodily encrushment (“Persecution Madness”). Bassist Toshihiro Seki clunks and clangs beneath the surface with a violent, hammering tone that, while not always as audible as it ought to be, nonetheless deepens the tonal quality of the record’s warm, slightly swampy production (“Nocturnal Visions”). Unlike many of those acts from whom Invictus draws inspiration, Seki’s vocals operate squarely inside the Incantation/Tomb Mold school of subterranean monstrosity. Counterintuitively, this sets the trio apart from their influences by hiding in plain sight with their contemporaries.

Nocturnal Visions by Invictus

Regardless of where you fall in the greater scope of metallic fandom, Nocturnal Visions is a magnificent showcase of energetic songwriting and devastating hookcraft. While the formula opener proper “Abyssal Earth Eradicates” utilizes feels and sounds familiar, Invictus executes it with a youthfulness, voracity, and dare I say exuberance that makes me forget for a moment the entirety of death metal’s history. As Nocturnal Visions progresses through its early movements, boasting killer tracks in “Altar of Devoted Slaughter,” “Lucid Dream Trauma,” and “Persecution Madness,” my ability to care about anything other than banging my head, grimacing like a gargoyle, and stomping my poor abused feet against the floor vanishes. What’s left is a mind-broken sponge reduced to primal instincts, with a vocabulary of one word, “Fuck!” exclaimed exclusively with each new swaggering groove or pummeling riff. Even after several dozen spins, pit monsters “Persecution Madness,” “Dragged Beneath the Grave,” and later highlight “Wandering Ashdream” received such frequent and aggressive verbal confirmation of their sheer awesomeness and perpetual energy that my coworker had to perform a wellness check. Even the daunting eight-minute closer “Nocturnal Visions” earns its keep here, switching up themes and reprising refrains just enough to keep my interest up and my engagement high.

That doesn’t leave much room for negatives, and indeed, few found purchase in my evaluation. Obviously, Nocturnal Visions exhibits nothing new or innovative; it’s simply doing classic death metal far better than most. Consequently, Invictus left some creativity and novelty on the table. They could easily pick up bits and bobs from that stack of potential ideas and bring an extra dimension to future efforts without sacrificing their core sound. Additionally, pacing Nocturnal Visions at such a blistering rate of speed so consistently across 35 minutes leaves a little to be desired in the way of songwriting dynamics. Tokutake in particular makes the most of his arsenal of patterns, fills, and tumbles to alleviate this condition, but not quite enough to cure it—see the otherwise ripping “Frozen Tomb.” Seki’s somewhat one-note vocal approach doesn’t always help matters in that respect, but his performance is rock-solid and dependable enough not to hurt either.

Of course, these critiques amount to mere nitpicks in the truest sense of the term. Nocturnal Visions is, simply put, a staggering monument to old-school death molded for the modern era. Invictus blasted my skull apart with their debut, but this sophomore effort is more than a worthy successor. Hear it!

Rating: Great!
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Me Saco Un Ojo Records
Websites: invictus3.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/Invictus
Releases Worldwide: January 26th, 2026

Five years ago, I highlighted Invictus’ 2020 debut LP Catacombs of Fear as part of our year-end death metal roundup feature. Since then, the Japanese death metal trio toiled under the ground with a brutal live schedule and steadily wrote what might very well be my most highly anticipated follow-up in the death metal realm. Hot on the heels of killer releases from personal favorites like Depravity, and jumping just ahead of another highly anticipated salvo from Eximperitus, Invictus’ upcoming Nocturnal Visions has big shoes to fill and stiff competition to combat. But if anybody has the chops and the balls to do it, it’s Invictus.

Having only one previous album and a few scattered demos/singles to their name, Invictus haven’t messed with their formula very much since their inception. Boasting a killer combo of Demolition Hammer nastiness and Consuming Impulse-era Pestilence attack, Nocturnal Visions pushes 35 minutes of pure adrenaline. Nary a second faffs about with filler, fluffy atmosphere, or anything else that could be construed as something other than devout reverence to The Almighty Riff™. With each twist of phrase or shift in movement, guitarist/vocalist Takehitopsy Seki tears through an unrelenting assault of intense grooves, speedy thrashes, and writhing rhythms that don’t just open up pits, but rather rip open dimensional rifts straight to hell itself (“Altar of Devoted Slaughter,” “Wandering Ashdream”). Instead of relying on blasts for intensity, Haruki Tokutake’s percussive strategy focuses on machine-gun double-bass runs and thrashy skanks so brutally exacted upon my spine that I needed a back brace and headgear just to approach the second half—accommodations which in no way deterred my summary bodily encrushment (“Persecution Madness”). Bassist Toshihiro Seki clunks and clangs beneath the surface with a violent, hammering tone that, while not always as audible as it ought to be, nonetheless deepens the tonal quality of the record’s warm, slightly swampy production (“Nocturnal Visions”). Unlike many of those acts from whom Invictus draws inspiration, Seki’s vocals operate squarely inside the Incantation/Tomb Mold school of subterranean monstrosity. Counterintuitively, this sets the trio apart from their influences by hiding in plain sight with their contemporaries.

Nocturnal Visions by Invictus

Regardless of where you fall in the greater scope of metallic fandom, Nocturnal Visions is a magnificent showcase of energetic songwriting and devastating hookcraft. While the formula opener proper “Abyssal Earth Eradicates” utilizes feels and sounds familiar, Invictus executes it with a youthfulness, voracity, and dare I say exuberance that makes me forget for a moment the entirety of death metal’s history. As Nocturnal Visions progresses through its early movements, boasting killer tracks in “Altar of Devoted Slaughter,” “Lucid Dream Trauma,” and “Persecution Madness,” my ability to care about anything other than banging my head, grimacing like a gargoyle, and stomping my poor abused feet against the floor vanishes. What’s left is a mind-broken sponge reduced to primal instincts, with a vocabulary of one word, “Fuck!” exclaimed exclusively with each new swaggering groove or pummeling riff. Even after several dozen spins, pit monsters “Persecution Madness,” “Dragged Beneath the Grave,” and later highlight “Wandering Ashdream” received such frequent and aggressive verbal confirmation of their sheer awesomeness and perpetual energy that my coworker had to perform a wellness check. Even the daunting eight-minute closer “Nocturnal Visions” earns its keep here, switching up themes and reprising refrains just enough to keep my interest up and my engagement high.

That doesn’t leave much room for negatives, and indeed, few found purchase in my evaluation. Obviously, Nocturnal Visions exhibits nothing new or innovative; it’s simply doing classic death metal far better than most. Consequently, Invictus left some creativity and novelty on the table. They could easily pick up bits and bobs from that stack of potential ideas and bring an extra dimension to future efforts without sacrificing their core sound. Additionally, pacing Nocturnal Visions at such a blistering rate of speed so consistently across 35 minutes leaves a little to be desired in the way of songwriting dynamics. Tokutake in particular makes the most of his arsenal of patterns, fills, and tumbles to alleviate this condition, but not quite enough to cure it—see the otherwise ripping “Frozen Tomb.” Seki’s somewhat one-note vocal approach doesn’t always help matters in that respect, but his performance is rock-solid and dependable enough not to hurt either.

Of course, these critiques amount to mere nitpicks in the truest sense of the term. Nocturnal Visions is, simply put, a staggering monument to old-school death molded for the modern era. Invictus blasted my skull apart with their debut, but this sophomore effort is more than a worthy successor. Hear it!

Rating: Great!
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Me Saco Un Ojo Records
Websites: invictus3.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/Invictus
Releases Worldwide: January 26th, 2026

Five years ago, I highlighted Invictus’ 2020 debut LP Catacombs of Fear as part of our year-end death metal roundup feature. Since then, the Japanese death metal trio toiled under the ground with a brutal live schedule and steadily wrote what might very well be my most highly anticipated follow-up in the death metal realm. Hot on the heels of killer releases from personal favorites like Depravity, and jumping just ahead of another highly anticipated salvo from Eximperitus, Invictus’ upcoming Nocturnal Visions has big shoes to fill and stiff competition to combat. But if anybody has the chops and the balls to do it, it’s Invictus.

Having only one previous album and a few scattered demos/singles to their name, Invictus haven’t messed with their formula very much since their inception. Boasting a killer combo of Demolition Hammer nastiness and Consuming Impulse-era Pestilence attack, Nocturnal Visions pushes 35 minutes of pure adrenaline. Nary a second faffs about with filler, fluffy atmosphere, or anything else that could be construed as something other than devout reverence to The Almighty Riff™. With each twist of phrase or shift in movement, guitarist/vocalist Takehitopsy Seki tears through an unrelenting assault of intense grooves, speedy thrashes, and writhing rhythms that don’t just open up pits, but rather rip open dimensional rifts straight to hell itself (“Altar of Devoted Slaughter,” “Wandering Ashdream”). Instead of relying on blasts for intensity, Haruki Tokutake’s percussive strategy focuses on machine-gun double-bass runs and thrashy skanks so brutally exacted upon my spine that I needed a back brace and headgear just to approach the second half—accommodations which in no way deterred my summary bodily encrushment (“Persecution Madness”). Bassist Toshihiro Seki clunks and clangs beneath the surface with a violent, hammering tone that, while not always as audible as it ought to be, nonetheless deepens the tonal quality of the record’s warm, slightly swampy production (“Nocturnal Visions”). Unlike many of those acts from whom Invictus draws inspiration, Seki’s vocals operate squarely inside the Incantation/Tomb Mold school of subterranean monstrosity. Counterintuitively, this sets the trio apart from their influences by hiding in plain sight with their contemporaries.

Nocturnal Visions by Invictus

Regardless of where you fall in the greater scope of metallic fandom, Nocturnal Visions is a magnificent showcase of energetic songwriting and devastating hookcraft. While the formula opener proper “Abyssal Earth Eradicates” utilizes feels and sounds familiar, Invictus executes it with a youthfulness, voracity, and dare I say exuberance that makes me forget for a moment the entirety of death metal’s history. As Nocturnal Visions progresses through its early movements, boasting killer tracks in “Altar of Devoted Slaughter,” “Lucid Dream Trauma,” and “Persecution Madness,” my ability to care about anything other than banging my head, grimacing like a gargoyle, and stomping my poor abused feet against the floor vanishes. What’s left is a mind-broken sponge reduced to primal instincts, with a vocabulary of one word, “Fuck!” exclaimed exclusively with each new swaggering groove or pummeling riff. Even after several dozen spins, pit monsters “Persecution Madness,” “Dragged Beneath the Grave,” and later highlight “Wandering Ashdream” received such frequent and aggressive verbal confirmation of their sheer awesomeness and perpetual energy that my coworker had to perform a wellness check. Even the daunting eight-minute closer “Nocturnal Visions” earns its keep here, switching up themes and reprising refrains just enough to keep my interest up and my engagement high.

That doesn’t leave much room for negatives, and indeed, few found purchase in my evaluation. Obviously, Nocturnal Visions exhibits nothing new or innovative; it’s simply doing classic death metal far better than most. Consequently, Invictus left some creativity and novelty on the table. They could easily pick up bits and bobs from that stack of potential ideas and bring an extra dimension to future efforts without sacrificing their core sound. Additionally, pacing Nocturnal Visions at such a blistering rate of speed so consistently across 35 minutes leaves a little to be desired in the way of songwriting dynamics. Tokutake in particular makes the most of his arsenal of patterns, fills, and tumbles to alleviate this condition, but not quite enough to cure it—see the otherwise ripping “Frozen Tomb.” Seki’s somewhat one-note vocal approach doesn’t always help matters in that respect, but his performance is rock-solid and dependable enough not to hurt either.

Of course, these critiques amount to mere nitpicks in the truest sense of the term. Nocturnal Visions is, simply put, a staggering monument to old-school death molded for the modern era. Invictus blasted my skull apart with their debut, but this sophomore effort is more than a worthy successor. Hear it!

Rating: Great!
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Me Saco Un Ojo Records
Websites: invictus3.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/Invictus
Releases Worldwide: January 26th, 2026

Five years ago, I highlighted Invictus’ 2020 debut LP Catacombs of Fear as part of our year-end death metal roundup feature. Since then, the Japanese death metal trio toiled under the ground with a brutal live schedule and steadily wrote what might very well be my most highly anticipated follow-up in the death metal realm. Hot on the heels of killer releases from personal favorites like Depravity, and jumping just ahead of another highly anticipated salvo from Eximperitus, Invictus’ upcoming Nocturnal Visions has big shoes to fill and stiff competition to combat. But if anybody has the chops and the balls to do it, it’s Invictus.

Having only one previous album and a few scattered demos/singles to their name, Invictus haven’t messed with their formula very much since their inception. Boasting a killer combo of Demolition Hammer nastiness and Consuming Impulse-era Pestilence attack, Nocturnal Visions pushes 35 minutes of pure adrenaline. Nary a second faffs about with filler, fluffy atmosphere, or anything else that could be construed as something other than devout reverence to The Almighty Riff™. With each twist of phrase or shift in movement, guitarist/vocalist Takehitopsy Seki tears through an unrelenting assault of intense grooves, speedy thrashes, and writhing rhythms that don’t just open up pits, but rather rip open dimensional rifts straight to hell itself (“Altar of Devoted Slaughter,” “Wandering Ashdream”). Instead of relying on blasts for intensity, Haruki Tokutake’s percussive strategy focuses on machine-gun double-bass runs and thrashy skanks so brutally exacted upon my spine that I needed a back brace and headgear just to approach the second half—accommodations which in no way deterred my summary bodily encrushment (“Persecution Madness”). Bassist Toshihiro Seki clunks and clangs beneath the surface with a violent, hammering tone that, while not always as audible as it ought to be, nonetheless deepens the tonal quality of the record’s warm, slightly swampy production (“Nocturnal Visions”). Unlike many of those acts from whom Invictus draws inspiration, Seki’s vocals operate squarely inside the Incantation/Tomb Mold school of subterranean monstrosity. Counterintuitively, this sets the trio apart from their influences by hiding in plain sight with their contemporaries.

Nocturnal Visions by Invictus

Regardless of where you fall in the greater scope of metallic fandom, Nocturnal Visions is a magnificent showcase of energetic songwriting and devastating hookcraft. While the formula opener proper “Abyssal Earth Eradicates” utilizes feels and sounds familiar, Invictus executes it with a youthfulness, voracity, and dare I say exuberance that makes me forget for a moment the entirety of death metal’s history. As Nocturnal Visions progresses through its early movements, boasting killer tracks in “Altar of Devoted Slaughter,” “Lucid Dream Trauma,” and “Persecution Madness,” my ability to care about anything other than banging my head, grimacing like a gargoyle, and stomping my poor abused feet against the floor vanishes. What’s left is a mind-broken sponge reduced to primal instincts, with a vocabulary of one word, “Fuck!” exclaimed exclusively with each new swaggering groove or pummeling riff. Even after several dozen spins, pit monsters “Persecution Madness,” “Dragged Beneath the Grave,” and later highlight “Wandering Ashdream” received such frequent and aggressive verbal confirmation of their sheer awesomeness and perpetual energy that my coworker had to perform a wellness check. Even the daunting eight-minute closer “Nocturnal Visions” earns its keep here, switching up themes and reprising refrains just enough to keep my interest up and my engagement high.

That doesn’t leave much room for negatives, and indeed, few found purchase in my evaluation. Obviously, Nocturnal Visions exhibits nothing new or innovative; it’s simply doing classic death metal far better than most. Consequently, Invictus left some creativity and novelty on the table. They could easily pick up bits and bobs from that stack of potential ideas and bring an extra dimension to future efforts without sacrificing their core sound. Additionally, pacing Nocturnal Visions at such a blistering rate of speed so consistently across 35 minutes leaves a little to be desired in the way of songwriting dynamics. Tokutake in particular makes the most of his arsenal of patterns, fills, and tumbles to alleviate this condition, but not quite enough to cure it—see the otherwise ripping “Frozen Tomb.” Seki’s somewhat one-note vocal approach doesn’t always help matters in that respect, but his performance is rock-solid and dependable enough not to hurt either.

Of course, these critiques amount to mere nitpicks in the truest sense of the term. Nocturnal Visions is, simply put, a staggering monument to old-school death molded for the modern era. Invictus blasted my skull apart with their debut, but this sophomore effort is more than a worthy successor. Hear it!

Rating: Great!
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Me Saco Un Ojo Records
Websites: invictus3.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/Invictus
Releases Worldwide: January 26th, 2026

Five years ago, I highlighted Invictus’ 2020 debut LP Catacombs of Fear as part of our year-end death metal roundup feature. Since then, the Japanese death metal trio toiled under the ground with a brutal live schedule and steadily wrote what might very well be my most highly anticipated follow-up in the death metal realm. Hot on the heels of killer releases from personal favorites like Depravity, and jumping just ahead of another highly anticipated salvo from Eximperitus, Invictus’ upcoming Nocturnal Visions has big shoes to fill and stiff competition to combat. But if anybody has the chops and the balls to do it, it’s Invictus.

Having only one previous album and a few scattered demos/singles to their name, Invictus haven’t messed with their formula very much since their inception. Boasting a killer combo of Demolition Hammer nastiness and Consuming Impulse-era Pestilence attack, Nocturnal Visions pushes 35 minutes of pure adrenaline. Nary a second faffs about with filler, fluffy atmosphere, or anything else that could be construed as something other than devout reverence to The Almighty Riff™. With each twist of phrase or shift in movement, guitarist/vocalist Takehitopsy Seki tears through an unrelenting assault of intense grooves, speedy thrashes, and writhing rhythms that don’t just open up pits, but rather rip open dimensional rifts straight to hell itself (“Altar of Devoted Slaughter,” “Wandering Ashdream”). Instead of relying on blasts for intensity, Haruki Tokutake’s percussive strategy focuses on machine-gun double-bass runs and thrashy skanks so brutally exacted upon my spine that I needed a back brace and headgear just to approach the second half—accommodations which in no way deterred my summary bodily encrushment (“Persecution Madness”). Bassist Toshihiro Seki clunks and clangs beneath the surface with a violent, hammering tone that, while not always as audible as it ought to be, nonetheless deepens the tonal quality of the record’s warm, slightly swampy production (“Nocturnal Visions”). Unlike many of those acts from whom Invictus draws inspiration, Seki’s vocals operate squarely inside the Incantation/Tomb Mold school of subterranean monstrosity. Counterintuitively, this sets the trio apart from their influences by hiding in plain sight with their contemporaries.

Nocturnal Visions by Invictus

Regardless of where you fall in the greater scope of metallic fandom, Nocturnal Visions is a magnificent showcase of energetic songwriting and devastating hookcraft. While the formula opener proper “Abyssal Earth Eradicates” utilizes feels and sounds familiar, Invictus executes it with a youthfulness, voracity, and dare I say exuberance that makes me forget for a moment the entirety of death metal’s history. As Nocturnal Visions progresses through its early movements, boasting killer tracks in “Altar of Devoted Slaughter,” “Lucid Dream Trauma,” and “Persecution Madness,” my ability to care about anything other than banging my head, grimacing like a gargoyle, and stomping my poor abused feet against the floor vanishes. What’s left is a mind-broken sponge reduced to primal instincts, with a vocabulary of one word, “Fuck!” exclaimed exclusively with each new swaggering groove or pummeling riff. Even after several dozen spins, pit monsters “Persecution Madness,” “Dragged Beneath the Grave,” and later highlight “Wandering Ashdream” received such frequent and aggressive verbal confirmation of their sheer awesomeness and perpetual energy that my coworker had to perform a wellness check. Even the daunting eight-minute closer “Nocturnal Visions” earns its keep here, switching up themes and reprising refrains just enough to keep my interest up and my engagement high.

That doesn’t leave much room for negatives, and indeed, few found purchase in my evaluation. Obviously, Nocturnal Visions exhibits nothing new or innovative; it’s simply doing classic death metal far better than most. Consequently, Invictus left some creativity and novelty on the table. They could easily pick up bits and bobs from that stack of potential ideas and bring an extra dimension to future efforts without sacrificing their core sound. Additionally, pacing Nocturnal Visions at such a blistering rate of speed so consistently across 35 minutes leaves a little to be desired in the way of songwriting dynamics. Tokutake in particular makes the most of his arsenal of patterns, fills, and tumbles to alleviate this condition, but not quite enough to cure it—see the otherwise ripping “Frozen Tomb.” Seki’s somewhat one-note vocal approach doesn’t always help matters in that respect, but his performance is rock-solid and dependable enough not to hurt either.

Of course, these critiques amount to mere nitpicks in the truest sense of the term. Nocturnal Visions is, simply put, a staggering monument to old-school death molded for the modern era. Invictus blasted my skull apart with their debut, but this sophomore effort is more than a worthy successor. Hear it!

Rating: Great!
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Me Saco Un Ojo Records
Websites: invictus3.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/Invictus
Releases Worldwide: January 26th, 2026

Pedestal for Leviathan – Enter: Vampyric Manifestation Review

By Kenstrosity

Depending on what you already know about the castle to your left and what it holds, this review will either come late, very late, or right on time (read: actually on time or only slightly late). That’s because Colorado’s goth-soaked symphonic brutal death upstarts Pedestal for Leviathan originally self-released their debut LP, Enter: Vampyric Manifestation, on Halloween. In short order, it was picked up for distro by Gurgling Gore Productions, who released it again digitally on November 14th (with physical cassettes dropping December 12th). Then, Personal Records also picked it up for yet another digi release, along with a compact disc release, set for December 12th. Having none of this information prior to picking up Personal Records’ promo for review, needless to say, I was confused and frustrated. However, Enter: Vampyric Manifestation was simply too cool not to write about, so here we are.

Pedestal for Leviathan is the answer to the question: how can I get truly superhuman gains in my Transylvanian vampire castle’s basement gym complex? Really, the question should be: how would I not secure superhuman gains when riffs muscular enough to impede movement are, in fact, often as strong as they look. Riff after beastly riff, in conjunction with positively ignorant percussive grooves, wreck spines and rip muscle fibers apart, while gothic organs, ominous bells, and plucky strings heal the damage wrought so efficiently that just as soon as it seemed like I was dead, I am reborn stronger than before. This is the core of Pedestal for Leviathan’s sound, and it’s a formula that bloody works. While the standard version of Enter: Vampyric Manifestation clocks in at a suspiciously tight 24 minutes spread across eight songs, the Personal Records edition boasts three extra bonus tracks, beefing the runtime up to a healthy 34 minutes. And, aside from a slightly tweaked guitar tone that shifts towards the blackened, each of these three additions fits perfectly in the sequence, making this version of Pedestal for Leviathan’s debut the most well-rounded and fleshed out choice.

That said, these ten tracks (excluding instrumental interlude “Snow Covered Monolith”) are a clinic in dark, but fun brutal death with a dramatic streak and a slammy attitude. Equal parts Tomb Mold, Rotpit, Bodybox, and Dracula, Enter: Vampyric Manifestation launches with two heavy-hitting beatdowns worth sinking my teeth into and drawing life essence from. With the downright sexy grooves churning out of “Summoning Sickness” and staining the whimsical sharpness of “Lycanthropichrist,” Pedestal for Leviathan deftly balance the cavebrained heft and guttural utterances of the br00tal with the rich and velvety textures of something more sophisticated in principle. With that balance comes lethality, as demonstrated by the sheer impact that late-album weaponized riff-machines “Karmic Recollection Mirror” and “Warlock Blacksmith” level upon my flesh and bone.

By taking something untamed and primal like brutal death metal, and using something softer and silkier to add shape and texture, the Colorado four-banger created an interesting, engaging, and above all, reconciled experience (“Sanctity of Retribution,” “Purgatory Displacement”). While a record in this category would work just fine without the organs, the strings, the choirs, and the bells (most of which are, expectedly, likely sampled sounds rather than real instruments), those extra baubles aren’t just for show. They add substance, character, and gravity to pivotal moments that punctuate riffs, contextualize phrase transitions, and enhance the spaces around metallic elements without crowding them unnecessarily (“Lycanthropichrist,” “Warlock Blacksmith,” “Nightshade Familiar”). The only exception is interlude “Snow Covered Monolith,” which amounts to pure fluff and offers little in the way of the aforementioned benefits.

Enter: Vampyric Manifestation falls shy of something groundbreaking, but reeks with weapons-grade stench on Pedestal for Leviathan’s behalf. If the group can capitalize on Enter’s bonecrushing successes while steering clear of pitfalls or missteps like “Snow Covered Monolith”—which disrupts as severely as it does in part due to the record’s brevity—or the odd shift in guitar tone in this version’s otherwise worthy bonus tracks,1 then I don’t see how Pedestal for Leviathan couldn’t alter the field in which they frolic. For now, though, be free and revel with great mirth under the shadowed, steepled glory that is Enter: Vampyric Manifestation.

Rating: Great
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Self-Release / GurglingGore / Personal Records
Websites: pedestalforleviathan.bandcamp.com | ampwall.com/a/pedestalforleviathan
Releases Worldwide: October 31st, 2025 (Self-Release) / November 14th, 2025 (Gurgling Gore) / December 12th, 2025 (Personal Records)

#2025 #40 #AmericanMetal #BlackMetal #Bodybox #BrutalDeathMetal #DeathMetal #Dec25 #EnterVampyricManifestation #PedestalForLeviathan #Review #Reviews #Rotpit #SelfReleaseGurglingGorePersonalRecords #SymphonicDeathMetal #SymphonicMetal #TombMold

Clairvoyance – Chasm of Immurement Review

By Maddog

Yes, I picked this up entirely because of its cover. Girardi’s gorgeous spiral of tombstones and skeletons conjures vintage highbrow death metal of the likes of Death. The title Chasm of Immurement grasps at brutal badassery in the vein of Suffocation’s Effigy of the Forgotten. Clairvoyance’s logo remains indecipherable even if you know the band’s name, suggesting kvltness galore. The promo materials describe lyrics that address the isolating effects of depression, foreshadowing a harrowing listen. In isolation, each of these judgments strikes at the truth but glances off. Chasm of Immurement is the debut album from Poland’s Clairvoyance, an unknown band comprising unknown musicians. Lying at the intersection of brainless death-doom and brainiac digressions, Chasm of Immurement is a powerful foray into death metal.

A first pass through Chasm of Immurement suggests primitive death metal with a dollop of doom. “Eternal Blaze” opens the album with a bang that recalls Faceless Burial’s Speciation. After grabbing me by the anus, Clairvoyance maintains its hold by alternating between mid-range Obituary riffs and lurching Autopsy-style death-doom. These lowbrow highlights feel both as slimy and evolved as an amoeba. With both its riffs and its guitar tone, Chasm of Immurement leaves a palpable layer of grime that justifies multiple colonoscopies. “Blood Divine” emerges as a late gem through riffs that are gory enough to draw blood and enormous enough to evoke Immolation. This isn’t isolated to a subset of the tracks; throughout its runtime, Chasm of Immurement alternates between a sixteen-wheeler and a used minivan without dulling its fun.

On your fifth listen, Clairvoyance’s experimental bent comes into view. The same doomy riffs you’d heard before reveal spooky foreground melodies (“Reign of Silence”). The same track that you’d interpreted as a caveman ditty blossoms in baffling melodic directions in its second half (“Eternal Blaze”). The same song that introduced itself as by-the-books death metal culminates in a monstrous doomy climax (“Fleshmachine”). The same sections that you’d dismissed as repetitive transform into home bases for grimy excursions, interfering with your sleep schedule and your family obligations. Adorning hefty riffs with sinister melodies, Clairvoyance recalls both Lovecraft’s Azathoth and Morbid Angel’s Trey Azagthoth. It took me a while to realize that I was doing Chasm of Immurement an injustice by pigeonholing it into old-school death metal. It is indeed that, but it’s so much more.

Clairvoyance’s varying ambitions both empower and dilute each other. Spanning 34 minutes across 6 tracks, Chasm of Immurement is a concise collection of lengthy tracks. Some of its pieces wander, especially at their simplest. For instance, despite being the second shortest track, “Blood Divine” feels lengthy because of its dearth of creative ideas. Similarly, the shortest song, “Eternal Blaze,” suffers from riffwork that’s decent but unimaginative, before eventually redeeming itself with more variety. Even so, these flubs are rare. The six-minute “Hymn of the Befouled” is the starkest counterexample, balancing length with girth by combining a vicious off-kilter main riff with melodic escapades that hold me rapt. Parts of Chasm of Immurement could do a better job of remaining engaging, but it’s hardly a fatal flaw.

Balancing thoughtful death metal and anti-intellectual death-doom, Clairvoyance’s debut is as weird as it is powerful. Neanderthals who need their fix should look here, as Chasm of Immurement’s crushing death metal riffs rival the best of old-school death metal. Conversely, fans of Morbid Angel’s wonkiness or Tomb Mold’s shapeshifting shenanigans will find just as much to love here. Chasm of Immurement is unlikely to dethrone Faithxtractor’s Loathing and the Noose atop my 2025 death metal ranking, as its occasional meandering loses my interest. But it’s a promising debut from a crew of talented Polish fiends.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Carbonized Records
Websites: carbonizedrecords.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/clairvoyancedeathmetal
Releases Worldwide: July 18th, 2025

#2025 #35 #Autopsy #BrutalDeath #BrutalDeathMetal #CarbonizedRecords #ChasmOfImmurement #Clairvoyance #Death #DeathDoom #DeathMetal #DeathDoomMetal #FacelessBurial #Immolation #Jul25 #MorbidAngel #Obituary #PolishMetal #ProgDeath #ProgressiveDeath #ProgressiveDeathMetal #Review #Reviews #Suffocation #TombMold

Re-Buried – Flesh Mourning Review

By Steel Druhm

My second discount ticket to Scum Town in one week and the third since July started, Re-Buried’s sophomore outing, Flesh Mourning, brings more gruesome death to wallow in. These cretins of the crypt left a favorable impression on Olde Steelio with their 2023 Repulsive Nature debut, courtesy of hideously inspired death vocals and crushing riff work. It felt massive, monolithic, and inevitable, and the sheer weight of it all overcame occasional gaps in their songcraft. Flesh Mourning is more of the same festering, moldy-oldey brand of death with one foot in the morgue and the other in the swamp, with vocals that sound like a dying hobo wrenching out the contents of his ulcerated stomach after a long night of on-the-cheap debauchery. And like the debut, Flesh Mourning is short, leaning toward anorexic. How can that recipe fail to earn a Michelin Star at the Slop House of Steel? Let’s poke the putridities with the pokey stick

Things open promisingly enough with vocalist Chris Pinto vomiting forth a feral hairball before the slime-flavored riffs kick in, and you get a standard yet basically effective mid-tempo death ditty without bells and whistles, but plenty of creepy atmosphere and phlegmy noises. It’s essentially Autopsycore, but lacking the jackhammer power heard at key moments on Repulsive Nature, and it feels a bit…safe. “Jagged Psyche” feels more brutish and nasty with extra vigor in the riffs, but the band seems stuck in a mid-tempo plod and struggles to kick into higher gears. This quickly becomes the story of Flesh Mourning as song after song duplicates these middling tempos with everything motoring along at a safe speed with too few bursts of speed and aggression. Worse still, the tracks aren’t as memorable as last time, and they all sound way too similar due to the consistent pacing and writing style.

“Rotted Back to Life” features some extra-heavy grooves that wake you up a bit, but it’s hard to shake the nagging feeling that this is all standard and recycled fare without an identity of its own. As things grind along in a “we have Bolt Thrower at home” manner with little variation in pacing, it falls to Chris Pinto to keep things interesting by deploying all manner of hideous sounds and monster moaning. He apes a staggering ghoul or a hospice patient in agony, and it’s impressive, but it isn’t enough to keep the material from bleeding into a big, greasy mush where one song becomes indistinguishable from the next. At just under 30 minutes, there isn’t much meat on the corpse bone, and things end with a 2-plus minute instrumental outro that’s all atmosphere and no payoff. It’s clear Re-Buried didn’t have a wealth of inspiration in the writing room and struggled to churn out a mere handful of basic, generic death ditties. That’s quite disappointing.

Chris Pinto is the star here, as he’s one of the most committed death metal vocalists out there. His weird body horror noises are wild, especially his hairball trick, which features prominently across the album. He’s a gem in search of a skilled jeweler, as the material he’s given to work with simply doesn’t deliver the knockout power his performance deserves. Paul Richards and Eddie Bingaman know all the death metal tropes and tricks and craft spot-on impersonations of classic Autopsy and Incantation fare, but so much of what they do here revolves around mid-tempo chugging and slight variations on the same kinds of swampy riffs, so it takes a hyper-intense listen to divine the differences between the individual tracks. If they wanted to create a 26-minute uni-glob effect, they accomplished it.

Flesh Mourning is a step backward from Repulsive Nature. The blunt force of the prior album is simply not here, replaced by a pornucopia of monotonous riffs and crazed cavern hollaring. It doesn’t stick or hold the attention, and while there are isolated cool/interesting bits and pieces, it’s really just off-brand Autopsy with Tomb Mold on it, and it’s devoid of songs that scream replay or demand dissemination onto playlists. It seems Re-Buried lack a potent muse and can’t craft a full-length album with consistently killer tunes, and they’re trending downwards early into their career. I hope for a speedy recovery, but the patient’s prognosis isn’t looking good.

Rating: 2.0/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Translation Loss
Websites: re-buried.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/reburieddeath | instagram.com/reburied_death
Releases Worldwide: July 18th, 2025

#20 #2025 #AmericanMetal #Autopsy #DeathMetal #Disma #Incantation #Jul25 #ReBuried #RepulsiveNature #Review #Reviews #TombMold #TranslationLossRecords #Undeath #Undergang

"With a Little Help from My Friends":

#Angerot Seofon

https://album.link/i/1822659881

#DeathMetal

FFO #MazeOfSothoth #Paganizer #TombMold

Disembodiment – Spiral Crypts Review

By Steel Druhm

It’s been a minute since I got my iron claws stuck into some rancid, cesspool-grade death metal, and I was badly jonesing for some. Along comes Quebec-based filth-death crew Disembodiment with their Spiral Crypts debut, and they put Steel right back in the rot pit! Featuring a former member of Serpent Corpse, these canucks bring the seeping offal to the public toilets with nary an ounce of excrement left unsmeared. Spiral Crypts is disgusting caverncore awfulness for the caveman death setters, and you’ll feel the toxic grime and gunk accumulating in your pores before you get through the first song. It’s every bit the unnatural mating of Incantation with Autopsy and early Tomb Mold, with bits of Cannibal Corpse and Suffocation stuck in the soft serve like corn. But is an unapologetic scuzz-bucket puke product enough to sell a cynical deathhead on what Disembodiment is hawking? Let’s dive in!

The album opens appropriately with the sounds of something wet leaking somewhere sticky as flies buzz and a woman whimpers and screams in abject horror. Soon the band shows us why, as they kick the basement door in and proceed to put the “fist” in fistula on “Morbid Infestation.” It’s chuggy OSDM with enough scab and pus on the sound profile to put off all but the twisted. The tempos skew wildly from doomy, oppressive plods and blasty, thrash explosions that reek of the late 80s/early 90s death landmarks, and at times, little strains of vintage Death surface from the primordial ooze. It’s not reinventing the wheel, but it’s gumming up the rotors with lots of raw sewage. The riffs are spicy and interesting, and the vocals approximate an overworked garbage disposal trying to process an entire Christmas ham. It’s a shitshow, but one you can’t look away from. The band demonstrates a bit more range on “Stygian Overture,” playing with mood and tempo for a more expansive sound, making sure the rubber boot never comes too far off the trachea as they slow things down and showcase impressive riff-sense. What’s most entertaining is the way the band tries to be more “proggy” while the vocalist seems to devolve into something even less human.

My favorite moment comes on “Larval,” where all the maggots come home to roost. This one kicks off with an insanely heavy, utterly brainless chug stomp that will flatten your ass. Those chug grooves are heavy enough to decimate a concrete bunker, and you will feel yourself regress to your most apeish nature as you blast this one. While some tracks hit harder than others, none disappoint or leave you feeling clean and safe spacey. Every tune is infused with swampy but sharp riffing and enough tempo shifts to shake your IQ downward several points. At a very reasonable 30 minutes, Disembodiment know that too much of a rancid thing may lead to cesspool fatigue, so things go down the drain before you retch up any organs you might really need. The production is a master class in muck, crust, sleaze and revoltingness. The guitar tons is nasty as fook, and the bass is booming and oppressive. My only complaint is that there are skips in the master where it sounds like someone cut a few seconds of the song out entirely. It only happens a few times, but it’s weird and disruptive.

Mathieu Breton is credited as the lead voKillizer, and he does a convincing job of sounding like he’s hurling up the biggest, wettest loogey-woogey in the history of mankind. He’s perfectly vile and repellant, and I love everything he does. Guitarist Chris unleashes a vast collection of scathing, scouring riffs and makes Spiral Crypts an exceptionally riffy death metal platter. His style is heavily grounded in the Incantation / Autopsy school but he wanders into the realms of Death and Morbid Angel as well. He has a great handle on atmosphere and mood, and he can craft a creepy doom riff that makes you feel legitimately uneasy. This is a crew that knows how to snake a shitter.

Spiral Crypts is one of the those fucking disgusting OSDM albums you hear and love on the very first salvo, and it offers everything you could want from this unclean, unsanitary style. Disembodiment are now on my radar and I’m eager to hear what they dump on the floor next. Someone wise once said, in a world of shit, be the grossest turd in the bowl, That’s the Disembodiment way. Get your face in this crawlspace and huff deeply.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Everlasting Spew
Websites: facebook.com/disembodimentdeath | instagram.com/disembodimentdeath
Releases Worldwide: July 11th, 2025

#2025 #35 #Autopsy #CanadianMetal #DeathMetal #Disembodiment #EverlastingSpewRecords #Incantation #Jul25 #Review #SpiralCrypts #TombMold

Stuck in the Filter: February 2025’s Angry Misses

By Kenstrosity

February comes down the pipe about two or three months after February. A perfectly normal thing to experience here at AMG HQ, this Filter’s tardiness is brought to you in part by my body getting stuck in one of the tighter conduits that lines the concrete interior of this confounded bunker. My minions are elsewhere, trudging through similar environs, and report their findings to me via eldritch beast telepathy. Since I obviously don’t speak eldritch tongue, I have to use my Codex of Enspongification to decipher these antediluvian transmissions. I’m sure you can imagine, that takes no small measure of time, especially when you’re stuck in this galvanized prison of rusting sheetmetal.

Until my ungrateful minions can find me and rescue me—something I don’t expect to happen anytime soon considering I give them no workers benefits or pay of any kind—you’ll have to make do with the selections of rough-hewn and sharp, but valuable, ore provided below. OBSERVE AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Kenstrosity’s Crusty Grab

Metaphobic // Deranged Excruciations [February 28th, 2025 – Everlasting Spew Records]

When Atlantan death metal quintet Metaphobic caught my attention with the megalithic riffs opening their debut LP Deranged Excruciations, I thought the stank face it brought out of me might be permanent. Nothing new and nothing sophisticated awaits here. Just brutalizing riffs delivered in a relentless sequence of destruction. Lead guitars squeal and scrape against the swampy ground underfoot, leaving a noxious slime trail behind “Mental Deconstruction” and “Execration” that tastes of Tomb Mold, Incantation, and Demilich to varying degrees. Guttural utterances and cacophonic—but accessibly structured—riffs offer the same infernal ferocity of the olden ways. However, in a similar manner to Noxis, their application here feels modern and fresh-ish (“Execration,” “Veiled Horizons,” “Hypnosis Engram”). Not nearly as nuanced as that comparison might suggest, Metaphobic are more than satisfied to use their brutish death metal as a cudgel for blunt force trauma. Nods to death doom in long-form wanderings like “Disciples of Vengeance” and “Insatiable Abyss” provide an appreciable variation in pace, though it doesn’t always work in Metaphobic’s favor. While those songs tend to meander too long on ideas unfit to support such mass for so long, livid outbursts like “Veiled Horizons” and “Reconstituted Grey Matter” more than make up for it. In short Deranged Excruciations commands my attention enough to earn my recommendation here, and my attention going forward.

Tyme’s Missing Minutes

Caustic Phlegm // Purulent Apocalypse [February 28, 2025 – Hells Headbangers]

Caustic Phlegm is the filth project helmed solely by Chestcrush main man Evan Vasilakos, who joyously employed his HM-2 and RAT pedals to create the utter disgustingness that is Purulent Apocalypse. A far cry from the angsty, I’d-rather-see-humanity-dead blackened death metal of his main outfit, Caustic Phlegm is a throwback to the days when Carnage walked the streets of Sweden and Impetigo was melting faces and killing brain cells. Purulent Apocalypse is a platter of pestiferous riffs (“Fouled, Infected & Infested,” “Soft Bones,” “Blister Bliss”), so many it’s like sitting on a death metal toilet puking and shitting riffs ad nauseam. Evan’s drum work, replete with the occasional but very satisfying St. Anger snare tone, drives the mindless fun forward, and the 80’s zombie giallo synth work would have Lucio Fulci himself clawing out of his grave to eat your face. Vasilakos’ vocals are a fine litany of belches, squelches, and gurgles that sound like a colony of maggots cleaning the putrid flesh from a corpulent corpse. Caustic Phlegm is the foul stench of death and will have you reaching for the soap and steel wool as you try to rid yourself of the Purulent Apocalypse infection.

Vermilia // Karsikko [February 14, 2025 – Self Release]

Had the incomparable Darkher not released The Buried Storm in 2022, Vermilia‘s Ruska would have garnered my top spot that year, which put her on my radar for the first time. When I saw Vermilia‘s follow-up, Karsikko had dropped in February—sadly we didn’t receive a promo—I jumped at the chance to filter it. While Karsikko is a bit more straightforward than Ruska, it’s full of liltingly beautiful pianos (“Karsikko”) that give way to icy black metal riffs (“Kansojen Kaipuu”) and gorgeously rendered folk metal melodies (“Koti,” “Veresi”). Comparisons with Myrkur and Suldusk would be appropriate, but Vermilia continues to carve out her own space in the folk black metal scene, marrying beatific melody with beastly aggression. Performing all of the music on Karsikko, as is her one-woman calling card, renders her finished products even more impressive. The highlight has always been the voice, though, as Vermilia deftly transitions between angelic cleans (“Suruhymni”) and frosty rasps (“Vakat”), completing a circle that makes each of her releases a joy to listen to. It’s confounding that another of Vermilia‘s albums is an independent release, which might be artistically intentional or the result of bone-headed label execs. Either way, don’t miss out on Karsikko, as Vermilia shouldn’t stay unsigned for long.

Killjoy’s Drowsy Discovery

Noctambulist // Noctambulist II: De Droom [February 7th, 2025 – These Hands Melt]

Although I love blackgaze, I must admit that it can be challenging to find artists who stand out in the genre, whether through quality songwriting or unexpected twists. It turns out that the Dutch band Noctambulist1 offers both. Noctambulist II: De Droom is a fun and fresh blend of Deafheaven-adjacent blackgaze with a Molotov cocktail of post-punk energy. The power chord-driven guitar lines prove to be an unexpectedly compatible fuel source to propel the shimmering, gazey tremolos and blackened rasps to new heights. Many songs (particularly “Aderlater” and “Lichteter”) start with neat intro melodies that catch the listener’s attention, then build and ride that momentum throughout the remainder. A faint sense of loss—stemming from the achingly relatable theme of homeownership drifting further out of many people’s reach—pervades the record, but there is also an infectious cheerfulness. Despite their name, Noctambulist are hardly sleepwalking as they tread along a well-worn genre.

Thus Spoke’s Disregarded Diamonds

Sacred Noose // Vanishing Spires [February 2nd, 2025 – Breath Sun Bone Blood]

My experience with Irish extreme metal has been that it is all incredibly dark, twisted, and supremely, gorgeously dissonant.2 Belfast3 duo Sacred Noose make absolutely no exception to this rule. Vanishing Spires’ ruthlessly brief 31 minutes are defined by stomach-tightening twisted blackened death designed to cut to the heart of misery and fear. The lurching sensation brought about by rapid tremolo descents and sudden accelerations of ever more dissonant chords, impenetrable drums, and pitch-shifting feedback is nauseating (“Entranced by Concrete Lathe,” “True Emancipation”). The pure horror of the inhuman, high-pitched shrieks answering the already fearsome bellows is anxiety-inducing (“”Black Tempests of Promise,” “Moribund”). The near-constant buzzing of noise is oppressive (“Terminal Prologue,” “True Emancipation”); the creeping, malevolent scales unnerving. And Sacred Noose play with their victim, luring them into a trap of deceptively familiar cavern-core (“Sacred Noose”) before throwing a hood over their head and yanking them backwards into more horrifying mania; or perhaps they’ll start with the assault (“True Emancipation”). This more ‘straightforward’ edge to Sacred Noose is most akin to a faster Sparagmos, while their dominant, demonic personality I can compare most faithfully to Thantifaxath, if Thantifaxath were more death-metal-inclined. Vanishing Spires is the first time since the latter’s 2023 Hive Mind Narcosis that a record has genuinely made me feel afraid.

Crown of Madness // Memories Fragmented [February 28th, 2025 – Transcending Obscurity Records]

Life unfortunately got in the way of me giving this a proper review, but Crown of Madness deserve better than to slip by unmentioned. Memories Fragmented is the duo’s debut, but Crown of Madness is one of several projects both are already in.4. The ominous yet colourful sci-fi/fantasy cover art and spiky logo scream ‘tech-death’ and that is indeed what Crown of Madness deliver. At base, there is some damn fine technical death metal here that’s impressive and acrobatic (), but snappy, not outstaying its welcome—the entire record barely stretches beyond 35 minutes. But there is more to Memories Fragmented, and as a result, it is memorable.5 A drawl to certain refrains (), the tendency to gently sway to a slow, near-pensiveness (), the atmospheric hanging of some tremolos over a warm, dense bass (). There is depth. And it reminded me quite starkly of early Ulcerate. In this vein, the record leans towards the more meandering side of the subgenre, gripping not with hooky riffs and heart-pumping tempos, but an intricate kind of intensity. Memories Fragmented arguably goes too far in the indistinct direction, and as a result, loses immediacy. But the churning, introspective compositions presage the potential for true brilliance on future releases.

Vacuous // In His Blood [February 28th, 2025 – Relapse Records]

Full of youthful vigour, London’s Vacuous demonstrate their willing ability to evolve with their sophomore, In His Blood. While debut Dreams of Dysphoria, which I covered back in 2022, played more or less by the disso-death book, here they are already experimenting. Strange, almost post-metal atmosphere now haunts the boundaries (“Hunger,” “Public Humiliation,” “No Longer Human”), combining brilliantly with the band’s already cavernous death metal sound, and amplifying its fearsomeness. Crowning example of this is the gem Vacuous save for the record’s final act in closer “No Longer Human.” In His Blood also sees them flirt with a punkier energy that borrows more than a little bit of malice from the blackened handbook (“In His Blood,” “Flesh Parade”), backed up by d-beats, and contrasting well with their now less frequent crawls. At its most explosive, In His Blood feels downright unhinged, in the best way (“Stress Positions,” “Immersion”), but it never feels messy, and there’s potential in here for Vacuous to evolve into yet another, incredibly potent form of unique, modern hybrid extreme metal. I wish there were more than 30 minutes of this.

Dolphin Whisperer’s Bottom o’ the Barrel Boons

Pissgrave // Malignant Worthlessness [February 21st, 2025 – Profound Lore Records]

Though it may appear, at a glance, that I have gold-colored glasses for bands of rank and urological reference, I’d call it more of a chance happening that such miscreant acts have created intriguing works. And, truthfully, PISSGRAVE has leaned closer to filth first, function second with the war-leaning crackle (and brazenly offensive cover art) that relegates their lineage to corners of listening ears who need therapy with a high tolerance for guts and grime. Malignant Worthlessness, of course, is not accessible by any means, though, despite these Philly boys packing these nine ode to a failed society in a package that doesn’t cause immediate squirm. But with grooves trapped in an endless skronk and blast, and vocals shifted and layered to reflect the sound of a swarm of Daffy Ducks with a serious disdain for life, PISSGRAVE still embodies an endless swirl of unleashed aggression rendered in riffed and regurgitated form. Malignant Worthlessness lives on the dry and crispy side with most of its tones, which allows copious hits of quick delay and reverb on OUGHs and EEEEEEEUGHs to land with an extra psychedelic knocking when you least expect it. Little slows down the pain train here, with tracks like “Heaping Pile of Electrified Gore” and “Internment Orgy” taking brief detours into chunky guitar builds that feel within grasp of normalcy just before dropping back into an intensified flaying. Elsewhere, a martial urgency that reminds of Paracletus-era Deathspell Omega or the industrial-tinged pummel of Concrete Winds, stirs a twitching movement response, all while retaining a grinding death snarl and chromatic fury, leading its fused-by-hatred structures toward an explosive and fuming conclusion. Humanity has no place in the PISSGRAVE environs, and Malignant Worthlessness, in its celebration of a hostile world, does everything it can to reinforce that.

終末回路 // 終端から引き剥がす [February 20th, 2025 – Self Release]

For things that wander around the math rock world, nailing a vibe remains essential to enjoyment. It’s all too easy in this day and edge to fall into the comfortable trap of ambient tapping and comfortable posty swirls to pleasant crescendos that renders many modern acts to high brow background music (even including bands I like, to a degree, like Covet or Jizue). New Japanese act 終末回路,6 however, chooses to imbue their nimble and tricky instrumental center with the searing emotion and urgency of a noisy post-hardcore, with searing vocal inclusions adding a gravitas to passages that would otherwise threaten to flutter away in glee (“誤殖,” “知らねぇよ”). On one end, 終末回路 delivers a bright playfulness that swings with the pedal power and psychedelia of a young Tera Melos. Yet, weighted with a punk urgency and rawer Japanese assembly of tones, which give a physical clang to tight kit heads and blazing squeal to shrill loops and feedback, 終末回路 finds a constant momentum in their shorter form excursion that makes my lack of understanding of its introspective lyrics a non-issue. Packing plaintive piano melodies (“ご自由に “), speaker blowing synth cranking (“dgdf++be”), and prog-tinged guitar flutters (“知らねぇよ”) into one listening session isn’t easy, but with this debut outing of 終端から引き剥がす,7 終末回路 makes it seem as if they’ve been honing the craft for years.

Saunders’ Salacious Skeeves

Möuth // Gobal Warning [February 14th, 2025 – Self Release)

Veteran rockers The Hellacopters returned with a typically rollicking, fun album in February. Elsewhere, dropping with little fanfare, fellow Swedes and unsung power trio Möuth emerged with an intriguing debut rock platter, entitled Global Warning. Featuring more than meets the eye and flashing a dynamic rock sound, Möuth embrace both retro and modern influences, whipped into an infectious concoction of styles, ranging from Sabbathian lurches, doomy grooves, stoner vibes, and elements of psych, punk and hard rock. For the most part it works a treat, creating a welcome change of pace. Fuzzy, upbeat rockers (“Dirt,” “Appetite”) snugly reside amongst moody, psych-bending numbers (“Alike,” “Mantra”), and heavier doom-laden rock, such as powerful opener “Holy Ground,” and brooding, emotive album centerpiece, “Sheep.” Vocally, the passionate, Ozzy-esque croons hit the spot, matching up well to the band’s multi-pronged rock flavors. Compact and infectious, varied in delivery and featuring enough tasty rhythms, fuzzy melodies and rock punch to satisfy, Global Warning marks an intriguing starting point for these Swedish rockers.

Chaos Inception // Vengeance Evangel [February 21st, 2025 – Lavadome Productions]

Emerging from a deep slumber in the depths of the underground, Alabama’s long dormant death metal crew Chaos Inception returned with their first album since 2012’s The Abrogation. Third album Vengeance Evangel went under the radar, festering unclaimed in the promo sump. After the fact, the album’s crushing, controlled chaos smacked me upside the skull with a violent modern interpretation of the classic Floridian death metal sound, with the musty hues of Tucker-era Morbid Angel most prevalent. This is blast-riddled, relentless stuff, played expertly by the trio of Matt Barnes (guitars), Gray White (vocals) and session drummer Kevin Paradis (ex-Benighted). Incredibly dense, atmospheric, and blazingly fast, Vengeance Evangel is a brutal, knotty, technical hammering, punctuated by sick, wildly inventive soloing. While not traditionally catchy, Vengeance Evangel is the kind of intense, layered death metal album that gets under the skin, grafting a deeper impression across repeated listens. The insane tempo shifts, jigsaw arrangements, and wickedly deranged axework delivers big time. From the violent, intricate throes of opener “Artillery of Humwawa,” and disturbed soundscapes of “La Niebla en el Cementerio Etrusco,” through to the brutish grooves of ‘Thymos Beast,” and exotic, tech death shards of “Empire of Prevarication,” Vengeance Evangel does not neatly fit into any one subgenre category but ticks many boxes to cast a wide appeal to death fans of varied equations.

Steel Druhm’s Viscous Biscuits

Ereb Altor // Hälsingemörker [ February 7th, 2025 – Hammerheart Records]

Steel loves his epic metal. I was raised on the stirring odes to swordsmanship and ungovernable back hair from Manowar and Cirth Ungol, and in time, I took a place at the great table in Wotan’s Golden Halls to appreciate the Viking metal exploits of Bathory and later adherents like Falkenbach and Moonsorrow. Sweden’s Ereb Altor got in the game late with their epic By Honour debut in 2008, boasting a very Bathory-esque sound and emotional tapestry that felt larger-than-life and stirred the loins to begird themselves. 10th album Hälsingemörker is a glorious return to those halls of heroes and bravery. This is the large-scale songcraft first heard on Bathory albums like Hammerheart and Twilight of the Gods, and it’s most welcome to these ape ears. Cuts like “Valkyrian Fate” are exactly the kind of sweeping, epic numbers the band’s excelled at over the years. It takes the core sound of Viking era Bathory and builds outward to craft bombastic and heroic compositions that feel HUUUGE. It’s the kind of metal song that embiggens the soul and makes you want to take on a marauding horde by your lonesome and usurp all their battle booty. On “Hälsingemörker,” you get a fat dose of Moonsorrow worship, and elsewhere, Primordial is strongly referenced to very good effect. Hälsingemörker is easily the best Ereb Altor album in a while and the most in line with their beloved early sound. Strap on the sword and get after it!

#AmericanMetal #Arboreal #Benighted #BlackMetal #BlackSabbath #Blackgaze #BreathSunBoneBlood #Carnage #CausticPhlegm #ChaosInception #Chestcrush #ConcreteWinds #Coscradh #Covet #CrownOfMadness #Darkher #Deafheaven #DeathDoom #DeathMetal #DeathspellOmega #Demilich #DerangedExcruciations #DissonantDeathMetal #DustAge #EmbodimentOfDeath #ErebAltor #EverlastingSpewRecords #FolkMetal #GlobalWarning #Hälsingemörker #HellsHeadbangers #Impetigo #InHisBlood #Incantation #IrishMetal #JapaneseMetal #jizue #Karsikko #LavadomeProductions #MalignantWorthlessness #MathRock #MelodicBlackMetal #MemoriesFragmented #Metaphobic #MorbidAngel #Möuth #Myserion #Noctambulist #NoctambulistIIDeDroom #Noxis #OzzyOsbourne #Pissgrave #PostMetal #postPunk #ProfoundLoreRecords #PurulentApocalypse #RelapseRecords #Rock #SacredNoose #SelfRelease #SelfReleased #SermonOfFlames #Sparagmos #SwedishMetal #TechnicalDeathMetal #TerZiele #TeraMelos #Thantifaxath #TheHelicopters #TheseHandsMelt #TombMold #TranscendingObscurityRecords #UKMetal #Ulcerate #Vacuous #VanishingSpires #VengeanceEvangel #Vermilia #VultureSVengeance #終末回路 #終端から引き剥がす

Stuck in the Filter: February 2025’s Angry Misses

By Kenstrosity

February comes down the pipe about two or three months after February. A perfectly normal thing to experience here at AMG HQ, this Filter’s tardiness is brought to you in part by my body getting stuck in one of the tighter conduits that lines the concrete interior of this confounded bunker. My minions are elsewhere, trudging through similar environs, and report their findings to me via eldritch beast telepathy. Since I obviously don’t speak eldritch tongue, I have to use my Codex of Enspongification to decipher these antediluvian transmissions. I’m sure you can imagine, that takes no small measure of time, especially when you’re stuck in this galvanized prison of rusting sheetmetal.

Until my ungrateful minions can find me and rescue me—something I don’t expect to happen anytime soon considering I give them no workers benefits or pay of any kind—you’ll have to make do with the selections of rough-hewn and sharp, but valuable, ore provided below. OBSERVE AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Kenstrosity’s Crusty Grab

Metaphobic // Deranged Excruciations [February 28th, 2025 – Everlasting Spew Records]

When Atlantan death metal quintet Metaphobic caught my attention with the megalithic riffs opening their debut LP Deranged Excruciations, I thought the stank face it brought out of me might be permanent. Nothing new and nothing sophisticated awaits here. Just brutalizing riffs delivered in a relentless sequence of destruction. Lead guitars squeal and scrape against the swampy ground underfoot, leaving a noxious slime trail behind “Mental Deconstruction” and “Execration” that tastes of Tomb Mold, Incantation, and Demilich to varying degrees. Guttural utterances and cacophonic—but accessibly structured—riffs offer the same infernal ferocity of the olden ways. However, in a similar manner to Noxis, their application here feels modern and fresh-ish (“Execration,” “Veiled Horizons,” “Hypnosis Engram”). Not nearly as nuanced as that comparison might suggest, Metaphobic are more than satisfied to use their brutish death metal as a cudgel for blunt force trauma. Nods to death doom in long-form wanderings like “Disciples of Vengeance” and “Insatiable Abyss” provide an appreciable variation in pace, though it doesn’t always work in Metaphobic’s favor. While those songs tend to meander too long on ideas unfit to support such mass for so long, livid outbursts like “Veiled Horizons” and “Reconstituted Grey Matter” more than make up for it. In short Deranged Excruciations commands my attention enough to earn my recommendation here, and my attention going forward.

Tyme’s Missing Minutes

Caustic Phlegm // Purulent Apocalypse [February 28, 2025 – Hells Headbangers]

Caustic Phlegm is the filth project helmed solely by Chestcrush main man Evan Vasilakos, who joyously employed his HM-2 and RAT pedals to create the utter disgustingness that is Purulent Apocalypse. A far cry from the angsty, I’d-rather-see-humanity-dead blackened death metal of his main outfit, Caustic Phlegm is a throwback to the days when Carnage walked the streets of Sweden and Impetigo was melting faces and killing brain cells. Purulent Apocalypse is a platter of pestiferous riffs (“Fouled, Infected & Infested,” “Soft Bones,” “Blister Bliss”), so many it’s like sitting on a death metal toilet puking and shitting riffs ad nauseam. Evan’s drum work, replete with the occasional but very satisfying St. Anger snare tone, drives the mindless fun forward, and the 80’s zombie giallo synth work would have Lucio Fulci himself clawing out of his grave to eat your face. Vasilakos’ vocals are a fine litany of belches, squelches, and gurgles that sound like a colony of maggots cleaning the putrid flesh from a corpulent corpse. Caustic Phlegm is the foul stench of death and will have you reaching for the soap and steel wool as you try to rid yourself of the Purulent Apocalypse infection.

Vermilia // Karsikko [February 14, 2025 – Self Release]

Had the incomparable Darkher not released The Buried Storm in 2022, Vermilia‘s Ruska would have garnered my top spot that year, which put her on my radar for the first time. When I saw Vermilia‘s follow-up, Karsikko had dropped in February—sadly we didn’t receive a promo—I jumped at the chance to filter it. While Karsikko is a bit more straightforward than Ruska, it’s full of liltingly beautiful pianos (“Karsikko”) that give way to icy black metal riffs (“Kansojen Kaipuu”) and gorgeously rendered folk metal melodies (“Koti,” “Veresi”). Comparisons with Myrkur and Suldusk would be appropriate, but Vermilia continues to carve out her own space in the folk black metal scene, marrying beatific melody with beastly aggression. Performing all of the music on Karsikko, as is her one-woman calling card, renders her finished products even more impressive. The highlight has always been the voice, though, as Vermilia deftly transitions between angelic cleans (“Suruhymni”) and frosty rasps (“Vakat”), completing a circle that makes each of her releases a joy to listen to. It’s confounding that another of Vermilia‘s albums is an independent release, which might be artistically intentional or the result of bone-headed label execs. Either way, don’t miss out on Karsikko, as Vermilia shouldn’t stay unsigned for long.

Killjoy’s Drowsy Discovery

Noctambulist // Noctambulist II: De Droom [February 7th, 2025 – These Hands Melt]

Although I love blackgaze, I must admit that it can be challenging to find artists who stand out in the genre, whether through quality songwriting or unexpected twists. It turns out that the Dutch band Noctambulist1 offers both. Noctambulist II: De Droom is a fun and fresh blend of Deafheaven-adjacent blackgaze with a Molotov cocktail of post-punk energy. The power chord-driven guitar lines prove to be an unexpectedly compatible fuel source to propel the shimmering, gazey tremolos and blackened rasps to new heights. Many songs (particularly “Aderlater” and “Lichteter”) start with neat intro melodies that catch the listener’s attention, then build and ride that momentum throughout the remainder. A faint sense of loss—stemming from the achingly relatable theme of homeownership drifting further out of many people’s reach—pervades the record, but there is also an infectious cheerfulness. Despite their name, Noctambulist are hardly sleepwalking as they tread along a well-worn genre.

Thus Spoke’s Disregarded Diamonds

Sacred Noose // Vanishing Spires [February 2nd, 2025 – Breath Sun Bone Blood]

My experience with Irish extreme metal has been that it is all incredibly dark, twisted, and supremely, gorgeously dissonant.2 Belfast3 duo Sacred Noose make absolutely no exception to this rule. Vanishing Spires’ ruthlessly brief 31 minutes are defined by stomach-tightening twisted blackened death designed to cut to the heart of misery and fear. The lurching sensation brought about by rapid tremolo descents and sudden accelerations of ever more dissonant chords, impenetrable drums, and pitch-shifting feedback is nauseating (“Entranced by Concrete Lathe,” “True Emancipation”). The pure horror of the inhuman, high-pitched shrieks answering the already fearsome bellows is anxiety-inducing (“”Black Tempests of Promise,” “Moribund”). The near-constant buzzing of noise is oppressive (“Terminal Prologue,” “True Emancipation”); the creeping, malevolent scales unnerving. And Sacred Noose play with their victim, luring them into a trap of deceptively familiar cavern-core (“Sacred Noose”) before throwing a hood over their head and yanking them backwards into more horrifying mania; or perhaps they’ll start with the assault (“True Emancipation”). This more ‘straightforward’ edge to Sacred Noose is most akin to a faster Sparagmos, while their dominant, demonic personality I can compare most faithfully to Thantifaxath, if Thantifaxath were more death-metal-inclined. Vanishing Spires is the first time since the latter’s 2023 Hive Mind Narcosis that a record has genuinely made me feel afraid.

Crown of Madness // Memories Fragmented [February 28th, 2025 – Transcending Obscurity Records]

Life unfortunately got in the way of me giving this a proper review, but Crown of Madness deserve better than to slip by unmentioned. Memories Fragmented is the duo’s debut, but Crown of Madness is one of several projects both are already in.4. The ominous yet colourful sci-fi/fantasy cover art and spiky logo scream ‘tech-death’ and that is indeed what Crown of Madness deliver. At base, there is some damn fine technical death metal here that’s impressive and acrobatic (), but snappy, not outstaying its welcome—the entire record barely stretches beyond 35 minutes. But there is more to Memories Fragmented, and as a result, it is memorable.5 A drawl to certain refrains (), the tendency to gently sway to a slow, near-pensiveness (), the atmospheric hanging of some tremolos over a warm, dense bass (). There is depth. And it reminded me quite starkly of early Ulcerate. In this vein, the record leans towards the more meandering side of the subgenre, gripping not with hooky riffs and heart-pumping tempos, but an intricate kind of intensity. Memories Fragmented arguably goes too far in the indistinct direction, and as a result, loses immediacy. But the churning, introspective compositions presage the potential for true brilliance on future releases.

Vacuous // In His Blood [February 28th, 2025 – Relapse Records]

Full of youthful vigour, London’s Vacuous demonstrate their willing ability to evolve with their sophomore, In His Blood. While debut Dreams of Dysphoria, which I covered back in 2022, played more or less by the disso-death book, here they are already experimenting. Strange, almost post-metal atmosphere now haunts the boundaries (“Hunger,” “Public Humiliation,” “No Longer Human”), combining brilliantly with the band’s already cavernous death metal sound, and amplifying its fearsomeness. Crowning example of this is the gem Vacuous save for the record’s final act in closer “No Longer Human.” In His Blood also sees them flirt with a punkier energy that borrows more than a little bit of malice from the blackened handbook (“In His Blood,” “Flesh Parade”), backed up by d-beats, and contrasting well with their now less frequent crawls. At its most explosive, In His Blood feels downright unhinged, in the best way (“Stress Positions,” “Immersion”), but it never feels messy, and there’s potential in here for Vacuous to evolve into yet another, incredibly potent form of unique, modern hybrid extreme metal. I wish there were more than 30 minutes of this.

Dolphin Whisperer’s Bottom o’ the Barrel Boons

Pissgrave // Malignant Worthlessness [February 21st, 2025 – Profound Lore Records]

Though it may appear, at a glance, that I have gold-colored glasses for bands of rank and urological reference, I’d call it more of a chance happening that such miscreant acts have created intriguing works. And, truthfully, PISSGRAVE has leaned closer to filth first, function second with the war-leaning crackle (and brazenly offensive cover art) that relegates their lineage to corners of listening ears who need therapy with a high tolerance for guts and grime. Malignant Worthlessness, of course, is not accessible by any means, though, despite these Philly boys packing these nine ode to a failed society in a package that doesn’t cause immediate squirm. But with grooves trapped in an endless skronk and blast, and vocals shifted and layered to reflect the sound of a swarm of Daffy Ducks with a serious disdain for life, PISSGRAVE still embodies an endless swirl of unleashed aggression rendered in riffed and regurgitated form. Malignant Worthlessness lives on the dry and crispy side with most of its tones, which allows copious hits of quick delay and reverb on OUGHs and EEEEEEEUGHs to land with an extra psychedelic knocking when you least expect it. Little slows down the pain train here, with tracks like “Heaping Pile of Electrified Gore” and “Internment Orgy” taking brief detours into chunky guitar builds that feel within grasp of normalcy just before dropping back into an intensified flaying. Elsewhere, a martial urgency that reminds of Paracletus-era Deathspell Omega or the industrial-tinged pummel of Concrete Winds, stirs a twitching movement response, all while retaining a grinding death snarl and chromatic fury, leading its fused-by-hatred structures toward an explosive and fuming conclusion. Humanity has no place in the PISSGRAVE environs, and Malignant Worthlessness, in its celebration of a hostile world, does everything it can to reinforce that.

終末回路 // 終端から引き剥がす [February 20th, 2025 – Self Release]

For things that wander around the math rock world, nailing a vibe remains essential to enjoyment. It’s all too easy in this day and edge to fall into the comfortable trap of ambient tapping and comfortable posty swirls to pleasant crescendos that renders many modern acts to high brow background music (even including bands I like, to a degree, like Covet or Jizue). New Japanese act 終末回路,6 however, chooses to imbue their nimble and tricky instrumental center with the searing emotion and urgency of a noisy post-hardcore, with searing vocal inclusions adding a gravitas to passages that would otherwise threaten to flutter away in glee (“誤殖,” “知らねぇよ”). On one end, 終末回路 delivers a bright playfulness that swings with the pedal power and psychedelia of a young Tera Melos. Yet, weighted with a punk urgency and rawer Japanese assembly of tones, which give a physical clang to tight kit heads and blazing squeal to shrill loops and feedback, 終末回路 finds a constant momentum in their shorter form excursion that makes my lack of understanding of its introspective lyrics a non-issue. Packing plaintive piano melodies (“ご自由に “), speaker blowing synth cranking (“dgdf++be”), and prog-tinged guitar flutters (“知らねぇよ”) into one listening session isn’t easy, but with this debut outing of 終端から引き剥がす,7 終末回路 makes it seem as if they’ve been honing the craft for years.

Saunders’ Salacious Skeeves

Möuth // Gobal Warning [February 14th, 2025 – Self Release)

Veteran rockers The Hellacopters returned with a typically rollicking, fun album in February. Elsewhere, dropping with little fanfare, fellow Swedes and unsung power trio Möuth emerged with an intriguing debut rock platter, entitled Global Warning. Featuring more than meets the eye and flashing a dynamic rock sound, Möuth embrace both retro and modern influences, whipped into an infectious concoction of styles, ranging from Sabbathian lurches, doomy grooves, stoner vibes, and elements of psych, punk and hard rock. For the most part it works a treat, creating a welcome change of pace. Fuzzy, upbeat rockers (“Dirt,” “Appetite”) snugly reside amongst moody, psych-bending numbers (“Alike,” “Mantra”), and heavier doom-laden rock, such as powerful opener “Holy Ground,” and brooding, emotive album centerpiece, “Sheep.” Vocally, the passionate, Ozzy-esque croons hit the spot, matching up well to the band’s multi-pronged rock flavors. Compact and infectious, varied in delivery and featuring enough tasty rhythms, fuzzy melodies and rock punch to satisfy, Global Warning marks an intriguing starting point for these Swedish rockers.

Chaos Inception // Vengeance Evangel [February 21st, 2025 – Lavadome Productions]

Emerging from a deep slumber in the depths of the underground, Alabama’s long dormant death metal crew Chaos Inception returned with their first album since 2012’s The Abrogation. Third album Vengeance Evangel went under the radar, festering unclaimed in the promo sump. After the fact, the album’s crushing, controlled chaos smacked me upside the skull with a violent modern interpretation of the classic Floridian death metal sound, with the musty hues of Tucker-era Morbid Angel most prevalent. This is blast-riddled, relentless stuff, played expertly by the trio of Matt Barnes (guitars), Gray White (vocals) and session drummer Kevin Paradis (ex-Benighted). Incredibly dense, atmospheric, and blazingly fast, Vengeance Evangel is a brutal, knotty, technical hammering, punctuated by sick, wildly inventive soloing. While not traditionally catchy, Vengeance Evangel is the kind of intense, layered death metal album that gets under the skin, grafting a deeper impression across repeated listens. The insane tempo shifts, jigsaw arrangements, and wickedly deranged axework delivers big time. From the violent, intricate throes of opener “Artillery of Humwawa,” and disturbed soundscapes of “La Niebla en el Cementerio Etrusco,” through to the brutish grooves of ‘Thymos Beast,” and exotic, tech death shards of “Empire of Prevarication,” Vengeance Evangel does not neatly fit into any one subgenre category but ticks many boxes to cast a wide appeal to death fans of varied equations.

Steel Druhm’s Viscous Biscuits

Ereb Altor // Hälsingemörker [ February 7th, 2025 – Hammerheart Records]

Steel loves his epic metal. I was raised on the stirring odes to swordsmanship and ungovernable back hair from Manowar and Cirth Ungol, and in time, I took a place at the great table in Wotan’s Golden Halls to appreciate the Viking metal exploits of Bathory and later adherents like Falkenbach and Moonsorrow. Sweden’s Ereb Altor got in the game late with their epic By Honour debut in 2008, boasting a very Bathory-esque sound and emotional tapestry that felt larger-than-life and stirred the loins to begird themselves. 10th album Hälsingemörker is a glorious return to those halls of heroes and bravery. This is the large-scale songcraft first heard on Bathory albums like Hammerheart and Twilight of the Gods, and it’s most welcome to these ape ears. Cuts like “Valkyrian Fate” are exactly the kind of sweeping, epic numbers the band’s excelled at over the years. It takes the core sound of Viking era Bathory and builds outward to craft bombastic and heroic compositions that feel HUUUGE. It’s the kind of metal song that embiggens the soul and makes you want to take on a marauding horde by your lonesome and usurp all their battle booty. On “Hälsingemörker,” you get a fat dose of Moonsorrow worship, and elsewhere, Primordial is strongly referenced to very good effect. Hälsingemörker is easily the best Ereb Altor album in a while and the most in line with their beloved early sound. Strap on the sword and get after it!

#AmericanMetal #Arboreal #Benighted #BlackMetal #BlackSabbath #Blackgaze #BreathSunBoneBlood #Carnage #CausticPhlegm #ChaosInception #Chestcrush #ConcreteWinds #Coscradh #Covet #CrownOfMadness #Darkher #Deafheaven #DeathDoom #DeathMetal #DeathspellOmega #Demilich #DerangedExcruciations #DissonantDeathMetal #DustAge #EmbodimentOfDeath #ErebAltor #EverlastingSpewRecords #FolkMetal #GlobalWarning #Hälsingemörker #HellsHeadbangers #Impetigo #InHisBlood #Incantation #IrishMetal #JapaneseMetal #jizue #Karsikko #LavadomeProductions #MalignantWorthlessness #MathRock #MelodicBlackMetal #MemoriesFragmented #Metaphobic #MorbidAngel #Möuth #Myserion #Noctambulist #NoctambulistIIDeDroom #Noxis #OzzyOsbourne #Pissgrave #PostMetal #postPunk #ProfoundLoreRecords #PurulentApocalypse #RelapseRecords #Rock #SacredNoose #SelfRelease #SelfReleased #SermonOfFlames #Sparagmos #SwedishMetal #TechnicalDeathMetal #TerZiele #TeraMelos #Thantifaxath #TheHelicopters #TheseHandsMelt #TombMold #TranscendingObscurityRecords #UKMetal #Ulcerate #Vacuous #VanishingSpires #VengeanceEvangel #Vermilia #VultureSVengeance #終末回路 #終端から引き剥がす

Stuck in the Filter: February 2025’s Angry Misses

By Kenstrosity

February comes down the pipe about two or three months after February. A perfectly normal thing to experience here at AMG HQ, this Filter’s tardiness is brought to you in part by my body getting stuck in one of the tighter conduits that lines the concrete interior of this confounded bunker. My minions are elsewhere, trudging through similar environs, and report their findings to me via eldritch beast telepathy. Since I obviously don’t speak eldritch tongue, I have to use my Codex of Enspongification to decipher these antediluvian transmissions. I’m sure you can imagine, that takes no small measure of time, especially when you’re stuck in this galvanized prison of rusting sheetmetal.

Until my ungrateful minions can find me and rescue me—something I don’t expect to happen anytime soon considering I give them no workers benefits or pay of any kind—you’ll have to make do with the selections of rough-hewn and sharp, but valuable, ore provided below. OBSERVE AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Kenstrosity’s Crusty Grab

Metaphobic // Deranged Excruciations [February 28th, 2025 – Everlasting Spew Records]

When Atlantan death metal quintet Metaphobic caught my attention with the megalithic riffs opening their debut LP Deranged Excruciations, I thought the stank face it brought out of me might be permanent. Nothing new and nothing sophisticated awaits here. Just brutalizing riffs delivered in a relentless sequence of destruction. Lead guitars squeal and scrape against the swampy ground underfoot, leaving a noxious slime trail behind “Mental Deconstruction” and “Execration” that tastes of Tomb Mold, Incantation, and Demilich to varying degrees. Guttural utterances and cacophonic—but accessibly structured—riffs offer the same infernal ferocity of the olden ways. However, in a similar manner to Noxis, their application here feels modern and fresh-ish (“Execration,” “Veiled Horizons,” “Hypnosis Engram”). Not nearly as nuanced as that comparison might suggest, Metaphobic are more than satisfied to use their brutish death metal as a cudgel for blunt force trauma. Nods to death doom in long-form wanderings like “Disciples of Vengeance” and “Insatiable Abyss” provide an appreciable variation in pace, though it doesn’t always work in Metaphobic’s favor. While those songs tend to meander too long on ideas unfit to support such mass for so long, livid outbursts like “Veiled Horizons” and “Reconstituted Grey Matter” more than make up for it. In short Deranged Excruciations commands my attention enough to earn my recommendation here, and my attention going forward.

Tyme’s Missing Minutes

Caustic Phlegm // Purulent Apocalypse [February 28, 2025 – Hells Headbangers]

Caustic Phlegm is the filth project helmed solely by Chestcrush main man Evan Vasilakos, who joyously employed his HM-2 and RAT pedals to create the utter disgustingness that is Purulent Apocalypse. A far cry from the angsty, I’d-rather-see-humanity-dead blackened death metal of his main outfit, Caustic Phlegm is a throwback to the days when Carnage walked the streets of Sweden and Impetigo was melting faces and killing brain cells. Purulent Apocalypse is a platter of pestiferous riffs (“Fouled, Infected & Infested,” “Soft Bones,” “Blister Bliss”), so many it’s like sitting on a death metal toilet puking and shitting riffs ad nauseam. Evan’s drum work, replete with the occasional but very satisfying St. Anger snare tone, drives the mindless fun forward, and the 80’s zombie giallo synth work would have Lucio Fulci himself clawing out of his grave to eat your face. Vasilakos’ vocals are a fine litany of belches, squelches, and gurgles that sound like a colony of maggots cleaning the putrid flesh from a corpulent corpse. Caustic Phlegm is the foul stench of death and will have you reaching for the soap and steel wool as you try to rid yourself of the Purulent Apocalypse infection.

Vermilia // Karsikko [February 14, 2025 – Self Release]

Had the incomparable Darkher not released The Buried Storm in 2022, Vermilia‘s Ruska would have garnered my top spot that year, which put her on my radar for the first time. When I saw Vermilia‘s follow-up, Karsikko had dropped in February—sadly we didn’t receive a promo—I jumped at the chance to filter it. While Karsikko is a bit more straightforward than Ruska, it’s full of liltingly beautiful pianos (“Karsikko”) that give way to icy black metal riffs (“Kansojen Kaipuu”) and gorgeously rendered folk metal melodies (“Koti,” “Veresi”). Comparisons with Myrkur and Suldusk would be appropriate, but Vermilia continues to carve out her own space in the folk black metal scene, marrying beatific melody with beastly aggression. Performing all of the music on Karsikko, as is her one-woman calling card, renders her finished products even more impressive. The highlight has always been the voice, though, as Vermilia deftly transitions between angelic cleans (“Suruhymni”) and frosty rasps (“Vakat”), completing a circle that makes each of her releases a joy to listen to. It’s confounding that another of Vermilia‘s albums is an independent release, which might be artistically intentional or the result of bone-headed label execs. Either way, don’t miss out on Karsikko, as Vermilia shouldn’t stay unsigned for long.

Killjoy’s Drowsy Discovery

Noctambulist // Noctambulist II: De Droom [February 7th, 2025 – These Hands Melt]

Although I love blackgaze, I must admit that it can be challenging to find artists who stand out in the genre, whether through quality songwriting or unexpected twists. It turns out that the Dutch band Noctambulist1 offers both. Noctambulist II: De Droom is a fun and fresh blend of Deafheaven-adjacent blackgaze with a Molotov cocktail of post-punk energy. The power chord-driven guitar lines prove to be an unexpectedly compatible fuel source to propel the shimmering, gazey tremolos and blackened rasps to new heights. Many songs (particularly “Aderlater” and “Lichteter”) start with neat intro melodies that catch the listener’s attention, then build and ride that momentum throughout the remainder. A faint sense of loss—stemming from the achingly relatable theme of homeownership drifting further out of many people’s reach—pervades the record, but there is also an infectious cheerfulness. Despite their name, Noctambulist are hardly sleepwalking as they tread along a well-worn genre.

Thus Spoke’s Disregarded Diamonds

Sacred Noose // Vanishing Spires [February 2nd, 2025 – Breath Sun Bone Blood]

My experience with Irish extreme metal has been that it is all incredibly dark, twisted, and supremely, gorgeously dissonant.2 Belfast3 duo Sacred Noose make absolutely no exception to this rule. Vanishing Spires’ ruthlessly brief 31 minutes are defined by stomach-tightening twisted blackened death designed to cut to the heart of misery and fear. The lurching sensation brought about by rapid tremolo descents and sudden accelerations of ever more dissonant chords, impenetrable drums, and pitch-shifting feedback is nauseating (“Entranced by Concrete Lathe,” “True Emancipation”). The pure horror of the inhuman, high-pitched shrieks answering the already fearsome bellows is anxiety-inducing (“”Black Tempests of Promise,” “Moribund”). The near-constant buzzing of noise is oppressive (“Terminal Prologue,” “True Emancipation”); the creeping, malevolent scales unnerving. And Sacred Noose play with their victim, luring them into a trap of deceptively familiar cavern-core (“Sacred Noose”) before throwing a hood over their head and yanking them backwards into more horrifying mania; or perhaps they’ll start with the assault (“True Emancipation”). This more ‘straightforward’ edge to Sacred Noose is most akin to a faster Sparagmos, while their dominant, demonic personality I can compare most faithfully to Thantifaxath, if Thantifaxath were more death-metal-inclined. Vanishing Spires is the first time since the latter’s 2023 Hive Mind Narcosis that a record has genuinely made me feel afraid.

Crown of Madness // Memories Fragmented [February 28th, 2025 – Transcending Obscurity Records]

Life unfortunately got in the way of me giving this a proper review, but Crown of Madness deserve better than to slip by unmentioned. Memories Fragmented is the duo’s debut, but Crown of Madness is one of several projects both are already in.4. The ominous yet colourful sci-fi/fantasy cover art and spiky logo scream ‘tech-death’ and that is indeed what Crown of Madness deliver. At base, there is some damn fine technical death metal here that’s impressive and acrobatic (), but snappy, not outstaying its welcome—the entire record barely stretches beyond 35 minutes. But there is more to Memories Fragmented, and as a result, it is memorable.5 A drawl to certain refrains (), the tendency to gently sway to a slow, near-pensiveness (), the atmospheric hanging of some tremolos over a warm, dense bass (). There is depth. And it reminded me quite starkly of early Ulcerate. In this vein, the record leans towards the more meandering side of the subgenre, gripping not with hooky riffs and heart-pumping tempos, but an intricate kind of intensity. Memories Fragmented arguably goes too far in the indistinct direction, and as a result, loses immediacy. But the churning, introspective compositions presage the potential for true brilliance on future releases.

Vacuous // In His Blood [February 28th, 2025 – Relapse Records]

Full of youthful vigour, London’s Vacuous demonstrate their willing ability to evolve with their sophomore, In His Blood. While debut Dreams of Dysphoria, which I covered back in 2022, played more or less by the disso-death book, here they are already experimenting. Strange, almost post-metal atmosphere now haunts the boundaries (“Hunger,” “Public Humiliation,” “No Longer Human”), combining brilliantly with the band’s already cavernous death metal sound, and amplifying its fearsomeness. Crowning example of this is the gem Vacuous save for the record’s final act in closer “No Longer Human.” In His Blood also sees them flirt with a punkier energy that borrows more than a little bit of malice from the blackened handbook (“In His Blood,” “Flesh Parade”), backed up by d-beats, and contrasting well with their now less frequent crawls. At its most explosive, In His Blood feels downright unhinged, in the best way (“Stress Positions,” “Immersion”), but it never feels messy, and there’s potential in here for Vacuous to evolve into yet another, incredibly potent form of unique, modern hybrid extreme metal. I wish there were more than 30 minutes of this.

Dolphin Whisperer’s Bottom o’ the Barrel Boons

Pissgrave // Malignant Worthlessness [February 21st, 2025 – Profound Lore Records]

Though it may appear, at a glance, that I have gold-colored glasses for bands of rank and urological reference, I’d call it more of a chance happening that such miscreant acts have created intriguing works. And, truthfully, PISSGRAVE has leaned closer to filth first, function second with the war-leaning crackle (and brazenly offensive cover art) that relegates their lineage to corners of listening ears who need therapy with a high tolerance for guts and grime. Malignant Worthlessness, of course, is not accessible by any means, though, despite these Philly boys packing these nine ode to a failed society in a package that doesn’t cause immediate squirm. But with grooves trapped in an endless skronk and blast, and vocals shifted and layered to reflect the sound of a swarm of Daffy Ducks with a serious disdain for life, PISSGRAVE still embodies an endless swirl of unleashed aggression rendered in riffed and regurgitated form. Malignant Worthlessness lives on the dry and crispy side with most of its tones, which allows copious hits of quick delay and reverb on OUGHs and EEEEEEEUGHs to land with an extra psychedelic knocking when you least expect it. Little slows down the pain train here, with tracks like “Heaping Pile of Electrified Gore” and “Internment Orgy” taking brief detours into chunky guitar builds that feel within grasp of normalcy just before dropping back into an intensified flaying. Elsewhere, a martial urgency that reminds of Paracletus-era Deathspell Omega or the industrial-tinged pummel of Concrete Winds, stirs a twitching movement response, all while retaining a grinding death snarl and chromatic fury, leading its fused-by-hatred structures toward an explosive and fuming conclusion. Humanity has no place in the PISSGRAVE environs, and Malignant Worthlessness, in its celebration of a hostile world, does everything it can to reinforce that.

終末回路 // 終端から引き剥がす [February 20th, 2025 – Self Release]

For things that wander around the math rock world, nailing a vibe remains essential to enjoyment. It’s all too easy in this day and edge to fall into the comfortable trap of ambient tapping and comfortable posty swirls to pleasant crescendos that renders many modern acts to high brow background music (even including bands I like, to a degree, like Covet or Jizue). New Japanese act 終末回路,6 however, chooses to imbue their nimble and tricky instrumental center with the searing emotion and urgency of a noisy post-hardcore, with searing vocal inclusions adding a gravitas to passages that would otherwise threaten to flutter away in glee (“誤殖,” “知らねぇよ”). On one end, 終末回路 delivers a bright playfulness that swings with the pedal power and psychedelia of a young Tera Melos. Yet, weighted with a punk urgency and rawer Japanese assembly of tones, which give a physical clang to tight kit heads and blazing squeal to shrill loops and feedback, 終末回路 finds a constant momentum in their shorter form excursion that makes my lack of understanding of its introspective lyrics a non-issue. Packing plaintive piano melodies (“ご自由に “), speaker blowing synth cranking (“dgdf++be”), and prog-tinged guitar flutters (“知らねぇよ”) into one listening session isn’t easy, but with this debut outing of 終端から引き剥がす,7 終末回路 makes it seem as if they’ve been honing the craft for years.

Saunders’ Salacious Skeeves

Möuth // Gobal Warning [February 14th, 2025 – Self Release)

Veteran rockers The Hellacopters returned with a typically rollicking, fun album in February. Elsewhere, dropping with little fanfare, fellow Swedes and unsung power trio Möuth emerged with an intriguing debut rock platter, entitled Global Warning. Featuring more than meets the eye and flashing a dynamic rock sound, Möuth embrace both retro and modern influences, whipped into an infectious concoction of styles, ranging from Sabbathian lurches, doomy grooves, stoner vibes, and elements of psych, punk and hard rock. For the most part it works a treat, creating a welcome change of pace. Fuzzy, upbeat rockers (“Dirt,” “Appetite”) snugly reside amongst moody, psych-bending numbers (“Alike,” “Mantra”), and heavier doom-laden rock, such as powerful opener “Holy Ground,” and brooding, emotive album centerpiece, “Sheep.” Vocally, the passionate, Ozzy-esque croons hit the spot, matching up well to the band’s multi-pronged rock flavors. Compact and infectious, varied in delivery and featuring enough tasty rhythms, fuzzy melodies and rock punch to satisfy, Global Warning marks an intriguing starting point for these Swedish rockers.

Chaos Inception // Vengeance Evangel [February 21st, 2025 – Lavadome Productions]

Emerging from a deep slumber in the depths of the underground, Alabama’s long dormant death metal crew Chaos Inception returned with their first album since 2012’s The Abrogation. Third album Vengeance Evangel went under the radar, festering unclaimed in the promo sump. After the fact, the album’s crushing, controlled chaos smacked me upside the skull with a violent modern interpretation of the classic Floridian death metal sound, with the musty hues of Tucker-era Morbid Angel most prevalent. This is blast-riddled, relentless stuff, played expertly by the trio of Matt Barnes (guitars), Gray White (vocals) and session drummer Kevin Paradis (ex-Benighted). Incredibly dense, atmospheric, and blazingly fast, Vengeance Evangel is a brutal, knotty, technical hammering, punctuated by sick, wildly inventive soloing. While not traditionally catchy, Vengeance Evangel is the kind of intense, layered death metal album that gets under the skin, grafting a deeper impression across repeated listens. The insane tempo shifts, jigsaw arrangements, and wickedly deranged axework delivers big time. From the violent, intricate throes of opener “Artillery of Humwawa,” and disturbed soundscapes of “La Niebla en el Cementerio Etrusco,” through to the brutish grooves of ‘Thymos Beast,” and exotic, tech death shards of “Empire of Prevarication,” Vengeance Evangel does not neatly fit into any one subgenre category but ticks many boxes to cast a wide appeal to death fans of varied equations.

Steel Druhm’s Viscous Biscuits

Ereb Altor // Hälsingemörker [ February 7th, 2025 – Hammerheart Records]

Steel loves his epic metal. I was raised on the stirring odes to swordsmanship and ungovernable back hair from Manowar and Cirth Ungol, and in time, I took a place at the great table in Wotan’s Golden Halls to appreciate the Viking metal exploits of Bathory and later adherents like Falkenbach and Moonsorrow. Sweden’s Ereb Altor got in the game late with their epic By Honour debut in 2008, boasting a very Bathory-esque sound and emotional tapestry that felt larger-than-life and stirred the loins to begird themselves. 10th album Hälsingemörker is a glorious return to those halls of heroes and bravery. This is the large-scale songcraft first heard on Bathory albums like Hammerheart and Twilight of the Gods, and it’s most welcome to these ape ears. Cuts like “Valkyrian Fate” are exactly the kind of sweeping, epic numbers the band’s excelled at over the years. It takes the core sound of Viking era Bathory and builds outward to craft bombastic and heroic compositions that feel HUUUGE. It’s the kind of metal song that embiggens the soul and makes you want to take on a marauding horde by your lonesome and usurp all their battle booty. On “Hälsingemörker,” you get a fat dose of Moonsorrow worship, and elsewhere, Primordial is strongly referenced to very good effect. Hälsingemörker is easily the best Ereb Altor album in a while and the most in line with their beloved early sound. Strap on the sword and get after it!

#AmericanMetal #Arboreal #Benighted #BlackMetal #BlackSabbath #Blackgaze #BreathSunBoneBlood #Carnage #CausticPhlegm #ChaosInception #Chestcrush #ConcreteWinds #Coscradh #Covet #CrownOfMadness #Darkher #Deafheaven #DeathDoom #DeathMetal #DeathspellOmega #Demilich #DerangedExcruciations #DissonantDeathMetal #DustAge #EmbodimentOfDeath #ErebAltor #EverlastingSpewRecords #FolkMetal #GlobalWarning #Hälsingemörker #HellsHeadbangers #Impetigo #InHisBlood #Incantation #IrishMetal #JapaneseMetal #jizue #Karsikko #LavadomeProductions #MalignantWorthlessness #MathRock #MelodicBlackMetal #MemoriesFragmented #Metaphobic #MorbidAngel #Möuth #Myserion #Noctambulist #NoctambulistIIDeDroom #Noxis #OzzyOsbourne #Pissgrave #PostMetal #postPunk #ProfoundLoreRecords #PurulentApocalypse #RelapseRecords #Rock #SacredNoose #SelfRelease #SelfReleased #SermonOfFlames #Sparagmos #SwedishMetal #TechnicalDeathMetal #TerZiele #TeraMelos #Thantifaxath #TheHelicopters #TheseHandsMelt #TombMold #TranscendingObscurityRecords #UKMetal #Ulcerate #Vacuous #VanishingSpires #VengeanceEvangel #Vermilia #VultureSVengeance #終末回路 #終端から引き剥がす

Stuck in the Filter: February 2025’s Angry Misses

By Kenstrosity

February comes down the pipe about two or three months after February. A perfectly normal thing to experience here at AMG HQ, this Filter’s tardiness is brought to you in part by my body getting stuck in one of the tighter conduits that lines the concrete interior of this confounded bunker. My minions are elsewhere, trudging through similar environs, and report their findings to me via eldritch beast telepathy. Since I obviously don’t speak eldritch tongue, I have to use my Codex of Enspongification to decipher these antediluvian transmissions. I’m sure you can imagine, that takes no small measure of time, especially when you’re stuck in this galvanized prison of rusting sheetmetal.

Until my ungrateful minions can find me and rescue me—something I don’t expect to happen anytime soon considering I give them no workers benefits or pay of any kind—you’ll have to make do with the selections of rough-hewn and sharp, but valuable, ore provided below. OBSERVE AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Kenstrosity’s Crusty Grab

Metaphobic // Deranged Excruciations [February 28th, 2025 – Everlasting Spew Records]

When Atlantan death metal quintet Metaphobic caught my attention with the megalithic riffs opening their debut LP Deranged Excruciations, I thought the stank face it brought out of me might be permanent. Nothing new and nothing sophisticated awaits here. Just brutalizing riffs delivered in a relentless sequence of destruction. Lead guitars squeal and scrape against the swampy ground underfoot, leaving a noxious slime trail behind “Mental Deconstruction” and “Execration” that tastes of Tomb Mold, Incantation, and Demilich to varying degrees. Guttural utterances and cacophonic—but accessibly structured—riffs offer the same infernal ferocity of the olden ways. However, in a similar manner to Noxis, their application here feels modern and fresh-ish (“Execration,” “Veiled Horizons,” “Hypnosis Engram”). Not nearly as nuanced as that comparison might suggest, Metaphobic are more than satisfied to use their brutish death metal as a cudgel for blunt force trauma. Nods to death doom in long-form wanderings like “Disciples of Vengeance” and “Insatiable Abyss” provide an appreciable variation in pace, though it doesn’t always work in Metaphobic’s favor. While those songs tend to meander too long on ideas unfit to support such mass for so long, livid outbursts like “Veiled Horizons” and “Reconstituted Grey Matter” more than make up for it. In short Deranged Excruciations commands my attention enough to earn my recommendation here, and my attention going forward.

Tyme’s Missing Minutes

Caustic Phlegm // Purulent Apocalypse [February 28, 2025 – Hells Headbangers]

Caustic Phlegm is the filth project helmed solely by Chestcrush main man Evan Vasilakos, who joyously employed his HM-2 and RAT pedals to create the utter disgustingness that is Purulent Apocalypse. A far cry from the angsty, I’d-rather-see-humanity-dead blackened death metal of his main outfit, Caustic Phlegm is a throwback to the days when Carnage walked the streets of Sweden and Impetigo was melting faces and killing brain cells. Purulent Apocalypse is a platter of pestiferous riffs (“Fouled, Infected & Infested,” “Soft Bones,” “Blister Bliss”), so many it’s like sitting on a death metal toilet puking and shitting riffs ad nauseam. Evan’s drum work, replete with the occasional but very satisfying St. Anger snare tone, drives the mindless fun forward, and the 80’s zombie giallo synth work would have Lucio Fulci himself clawing out of his grave to eat your face. Vasilakos’ vocals are a fine litany of belches, squelches, and gurgles that sound like a colony of maggots cleaning the putrid flesh from a corpulent corpse. Caustic Phlegm is the foul stench of death and will have you reaching for the soap and steel wool as you try to rid yourself of the Purulent Apocalypse infection.

Vermilia // Karsikko [February 14, 2025 – Self Release]

Had the incomparable Darkher not released The Buried Storm in 2022, Vermilia‘s Ruska would have garnered my top spot that year, which put her on my radar for the first time. When I saw Vermilia‘s follow-up, Karsikko had dropped in February—sadly we didn’t receive a promo—I jumped at the chance to filter it. While Karsikko is a bit more straightforward than Ruska, it’s full of liltingly beautiful pianos (“Karsikko”) that give way to icy black metal riffs (“Kansojen Kaipuu”) and gorgeously rendered folk metal melodies (“Koti,” “Veresi”). Comparisons with Myrkur and Suldusk would be appropriate, but Vermilia continues to carve out her own space in the folk black metal scene, marrying beatific melody with beastly aggression. Performing all of the music on Karsikko, as is her one-woman calling card, renders her finished products even more impressive. The highlight has always been the voice, though, as Vermilia deftly transitions between angelic cleans (“Suruhymni”) and frosty rasps (“Vakat”), completing a circle that makes each of her releases a joy to listen to. It’s confounding that another of Vermilia‘s albums is an independent release, which might be artistically intentional or the result of bone-headed label execs. Either way, don’t miss out on Karsikko, as Vermilia shouldn’t stay unsigned for long.

Killjoy’s Drowsy Discovery

Noctambulist // Noctambulist II: De Droom [February 7th, 2025 – These Hands Melt]

Although I love blackgaze, I must admit that it can be challenging to find artists who stand out in the genre, whether through quality songwriting or unexpected twists. It turns out that the Dutch band Noctambulist1 offers both. Noctambulist II: De Droom is a fun and fresh blend of Deafheaven-adjacent blackgaze with a Molotov cocktail of post-punk energy. The power chord-driven guitar lines prove to be an unexpectedly compatible fuel source to propel the shimmering, gazey tremolos and blackened rasps to new heights. Many songs (particularly “Aderlater” and “Lichteter”) start with neat intro melodies that catch the listener’s attention, then build and ride that momentum throughout the remainder. A faint sense of loss—stemming from the achingly relatable theme of homeownership drifting further out of many people’s reach—pervades the record, but there is also an infectious cheerfulness. Despite their name, Noctambulist are hardly sleepwalking as they tread along a well-worn genre.

Thus Spoke’s Disregarded Diamonds

Sacred Noose // Vanishing Spires [February 2nd, 2025 – Breath Sun Bone Blood]

My experience with Irish extreme metal has been that it is all incredibly dark, twisted, and supremely, gorgeously dissonant.2 Belfast3 duo Sacred Noose make absolutely no exception to this rule. Vanishing Spires’ ruthlessly brief 31 minutes are defined by stomach-tightening twisted blackened death designed to cut to the heart of misery and fear. The lurching sensation brought about by rapid tremolo descents and sudden accelerations of ever more dissonant chords, impenetrable drums, and pitch-shifting feedback is nauseating (“Entranced by Concrete Lathe,” “True Emancipation”). The pure horror of the inhuman, high-pitched shrieks answering the already fearsome bellows is anxiety-inducing (“”Black Tempests of Promise,” “Moribund”). The near-constant buzzing of noise is oppressive (“Terminal Prologue,” “True Emancipation”); the creeping, malevolent scales unnerving. And Sacred Noose play with their victim, luring them into a trap of deceptively familiar cavern-core (“Sacred Noose”) before throwing a hood over their head and yanking them backwards into more horrifying mania; or perhaps they’ll start with the assault (“True Emancipation”). This more ‘straightforward’ edge to Sacred Noose is most akin to a faster Sparagmos, while their dominant, demonic personality I can compare most faithfully to Thantifaxath, if Thantifaxath were more death-metal-inclined. Vanishing Spires is the first time since the latter’s 2023 Hive Mind Narcosis that a record has genuinely made me feel afraid.

Crown of Madness // Memories Fragmented [February 28th, 2025 – Transcending Obscurity Records]

Life unfortunately got in the way of me giving this a proper review, but Crown of Madness deserve better than to slip by unmentioned. Memories Fragmented is the duo’s debut, but Crown of Madness is one of several projects both are already in.4. The ominous yet colourful sci-fi/fantasy cover art and spiky logo scream ‘tech-death’ and that is indeed what Crown of Madness deliver. At base, there is some damn fine technical death metal here that’s impressive and acrobatic (), but snappy, not outstaying its welcome—the entire record barely stretches beyond 35 minutes. But there is more to Memories Fragmented, and as a result, it is memorable.5 A drawl to certain refrains (), the tendency to gently sway to a slow, near-pensiveness (), the atmospheric hanging of some tremolos over a warm, dense bass (). There is depth. And it reminded me quite starkly of early Ulcerate. In this vein, the record leans towards the more meandering side of the subgenre, gripping not with hooky riffs and heart-pumping tempos, but an intricate kind of intensity. Memories Fragmented arguably goes too far in the indistinct direction, and as a result, loses immediacy. But the churning, introspective compositions presage the potential for true brilliance on future releases.

Vacuous // In His Blood [February 28th, 2025 – Relapse Records]

Full of youthful vigour, London’s Vacuous demonstrate their willing ability to evolve with their sophomore, In His Blood. While debut Dreams of Dysphoria, which I covered back in 2022, played more or less by the disso-death book, here they are already experimenting. Strange, almost post-metal atmosphere now haunts the boundaries (“Hunger,” “Public Humiliation,” “No Longer Human”), combining brilliantly with the band’s already cavernous death metal sound, and amplifying its fearsomeness. Crowning example of this is the gem Vacuous save for the record’s final act in closer “No Longer Human.” In His Blood also sees them flirt with a punkier energy that borrows more than a little bit of malice from the blackened handbook (“In His Blood,” “Flesh Parade”), backed up by d-beats, and contrasting well with their now less frequent crawls. At its most explosive, In His Blood feels downright unhinged, in the best way (“Stress Positions,” “Immersion”), but it never feels messy, and there’s potential in here for Vacuous to evolve into yet another, incredibly potent form of unique, modern hybrid extreme metal. I wish there were more than 30 minutes of this.

Dolphin Whisperer’s Bottom o’ the Barrel Boons

Pissgrave // Malignant Worthlessness [February 21st, 2025 – Profound Lore Records]

Though it may appear, at a glance, that I have gold-colored glasses for bands of rank and urological reference, I’d call it more of a chance happening that such miscreant acts have created intriguing works. And, truthfully, PISSGRAVE has leaned closer to filth first, function second with the war-leaning crackle (and brazenly offensive cover art) that relegates their lineage to corners of listening ears who need therapy with a high tolerance for guts and grime. Malignant Worthlessness, of course, is not accessible by any means, though, despite these Philly boys packing these nine ode to a failed society in a package that doesn’t cause immediate squirm. But with grooves trapped in an endless skronk and blast, and vocals shifted and layered to reflect the sound of a swarm of Daffy Ducks with a serious disdain for life, PISSGRAVE still embodies an endless swirl of unleashed aggression rendered in riffed and regurgitated form. Malignant Worthlessness lives on the dry and crispy side with most of its tones, which allows copious hits of quick delay and reverb on OUGHs and EEEEEEEUGHs to land with an extra psychedelic knocking when you least expect it. Little slows down the pain train here, with tracks like “Heaping Pile of Electrified Gore” and “Internment Orgy” taking brief detours into chunky guitar builds that feel within grasp of normalcy just before dropping back into an intensified flaying. Elsewhere, a martial urgency that reminds of Paracletus-era Deathspell Omega or the industrial-tinged pummel of Concrete Winds, stirs a twitching movement response, all while retaining a grinding death snarl and chromatic fury, leading its fused-by-hatred structures toward an explosive and fuming conclusion. Humanity has no place in the PISSGRAVE environs, and Malignant Worthlessness, in its celebration of a hostile world, does everything it can to reinforce that.

終末回路 // 終端から引き剥がす [February 20th, 2025 – Self Release]

For things that wander around the math rock world, nailing a vibe remains essential to enjoyment. It’s all too easy in this day and edge to fall into the comfortable trap of ambient tapping and comfortable posty swirls to pleasant crescendos that renders many modern acts to high brow background music (even including bands I like, to a degree, like Covet or Jizue). New Japanese act 終末回路,6 however, chooses to imbue their nimble and tricky instrumental center with the searing emotion and urgency of a noisy post-hardcore, with searing vocal inclusions adding a gravitas to passages that would otherwise threaten to flutter away in glee (“誤殖,” “知らねぇよ”). On one end, 終末回路 delivers a bright playfulness that swings with the pedal power and psychedelia of a young Tera Melos. Yet, weighted with a punk urgency and rawer Japanese assembly of tones, which give a physical clang to tight kit heads and blazing squeal to shrill loops and feedback, 終末回路 finds a constant momentum in their shorter form excursion that makes my lack of understanding of its introspective lyrics a non-issue. Packing plaintive piano melodies (“ご自由に “), speaker blowing synth cranking (“dgdf++be”), and prog-tinged guitar flutters (“知らねぇよ”) into one listening session isn’t easy, but with this debut outing of 終端から引き剥がす,7 終末回路 makes it seem as if they’ve been honing the craft for years.

Saunders’ Salacious Skeeves

Möuth // Gobal Warning [February 14th, 2025 – Self Release)

Veteran rockers The Hellacopters returned with a typically rollicking, fun album in February. Elsewhere, dropping with little fanfare, fellow Swedes and unsung power trio Möuth emerged with an intriguing debut rock platter, entitled Global Warning. Featuring more than meets the eye and flashing a dynamic rock sound, Möuth embrace both retro and modern influences, whipped into an infectious concoction of styles, ranging from Sabbathian lurches, doomy grooves, stoner vibes, and elements of psych, punk and hard rock. For the most part it works a treat, creating a welcome change of pace. Fuzzy, upbeat rockers (“Dirt,” “Appetite”) snugly reside amongst moody, psych-bending numbers (“Alike,” “Mantra”), and heavier doom-laden rock, such as powerful opener “Holy Ground,” and brooding, emotive album centerpiece, “Sheep.” Vocally, the passionate, Ozzy-esque croons hit the spot, matching up well to the band’s multi-pronged rock flavors. Compact and infectious, varied in delivery and featuring enough tasty rhythms, fuzzy melodies and rock punch to satisfy, Global Warning marks an intriguing starting point for these Swedish rockers.

Chaos Inception // Vengeance Evangel [February 21st, 2025 – Lavadome Productions]

Emerging from a deep slumber in the depths of the underground, Alabama’s long dormant death metal crew Chaos Inception returned with their first album since 2012’s The Abrogation. Third album Vengeance Evangel went under the radar, festering unclaimed in the promo sump. After the fact, the album’s crushing, controlled chaos smacked me upside the skull with a violent modern interpretation of the classic Floridian death metal sound, with the musty hues of Tucker-era Morbid Angel most prevalent. This is blast-riddled, relentless stuff, played expertly by the trio of Matt Barnes (guitars), Gray White (vocals) and session drummer Kevin Paradis (ex-Benighted). Incredibly dense, atmospheric, and blazingly fast, Vengeance Evangel is a brutal, knotty, technical hammering, punctuated by sick, wildly inventive soloing. While not traditionally catchy, Vengeance Evangel is the kind of intense, layered death metal album that gets under the skin, grafting a deeper impression across repeated listens. The insane tempo shifts, jigsaw arrangements, and wickedly deranged axework delivers big time. From the violent, intricate throes of opener “Artillery of Humwawa,” and disturbed soundscapes of “La Niebla en el Cementerio Etrusco,” through to the brutish grooves of ‘Thymos Beast,” and exotic, tech death shards of “Empire of Prevarication,” Vengeance Evangel does not neatly fit into any one subgenre category but ticks many boxes to cast a wide appeal to death fans of varied equations.

Steel Druhm’s Viscous Biscuits

Ereb Altor // Hälsingemörker [ February 7th, 2025 – Hammerheart Records]

Steel loves his epic metal. I was raised on the stirring odes to swordsmanship and ungovernable back hair from Manowar and Cirth Ungol, and in time, I took a place at the great table in Wotan’s Golden Halls to appreciate the Viking metal exploits of Bathory and later adherents like Falkenbach and Moonsorrow. Sweden’s Ereb Altor got in the game late with their epic By Honour debut in 2008, boasting a very Bathory-esque sound and emotional tapestry that felt larger-than-life and stirred the loins to begird themselves. 10th album Hälsingemörker is a glorious return to those halls of heroes and bravery. This is the large-scale songcraft first heard on Bathory albums like Hammerheart and Twilight of the Gods, and it’s most welcome to these ape ears. Cuts like “Valkyrian Fate” are exactly the kind of sweeping, epic numbers the band’s excelled at over the years. It takes the core sound of Viking era Bathory and builds outward to craft bombastic and heroic compositions that feel HUUUGE. It’s the kind of metal song that embiggens the soul and makes you want to take on a marauding horde by your lonesome and usurp all their battle booty. On “Hälsingemörker,” you get a fat dose of Moonsorrow worship, and elsewhere, Primordial is strongly referenced to very good effect. Hälsingemörker is easily the best Ereb Altor album in a while and the most in line with their beloved early sound. Strap on the sword and get after it!

#AmericanMetal #Arboreal #Benighted #BlackMetal #BlackSabbath #Blackgaze #BreathSunBoneBlood #Carnage #CausticPhlegm #ChaosInception #Chestcrush #ConcreteWinds #Coscradh #Covet #CrownOfMadness #Darkher #Deafheaven #DeathDoom #DeathMetal #DeathspellOmega #Demilich #DerangedExcruciations #DissonantDeathMetal #DustAge #EmbodimentOfDeath #ErebAltor #EverlastingSpewRecords #FolkMetal #GlobalWarning #Hälsingemörker #HellsHeadbangers #Impetigo #InHisBlood #Incantation #IrishMetal #JapaneseMetal #jizue #Karsikko #LavadomeProductions #MalignantWorthlessness #MathRock #MelodicBlackMetal #MemoriesFragmented #Metaphobic #MorbidAngel #Möuth #Myserion #Noctambulist #NoctambulistIIDeDroom #Noxis #OzzyOsbourne #Pissgrave #PostMetal #postPunk #ProfoundLoreRecords #PurulentApocalypse #RelapseRecords #Rock #SacredNoose #SelfRelease #SelfReleased #SermonOfFlames #Sparagmos #SwedishMetal #TechnicalDeathMetal #TerZiele #TeraMelos #Thantifaxath #TheHelicopters #TheseHandsMelt #TombMold #TranscendingObscurityRecords #UKMetal #Ulcerate #Vacuous #VanishingSpires #VengeanceEvangel #Vermilia #VultureSVengeance #終末回路 #終端から引き剥がす

All eyes are on this one for #ThursDeath:

#AncientDeath: Ego Dissolution

https://album.link/i/1791728778

#DeathMetal #SimpleAsThat

FFO #BloodIncantation #ReekingAura #TombMold

All eyes are on this one for #ThursDeath:

#AncientDeath: Ego Dissolution

https://album.link/i/1791728778

#DeathMetal #SimpleAsThat

FFO #BloodIncantation #ReekingAura #TombMold

All eyes are on this one for #ThursDeath:

#AncientDeath: Ego Dissolution

https://album.link/i/1791728778

#DeathMetal #SimpleAsThat

FFO #BloodIncantation #ReekingAura #TombMold

All eyes are on this one for #ThursDeath:

#AncientDeath: Ego Dissolution

https://album.link/i/1791728778

#DeathMetal #SimpleAsThat

FFO #BloodIncantation #ReekingAura #TombMold

All eyes are on this one for #ThursDeath:

#AncientDeath: Ego Dissolution

https://album.link/i/1791728778

#DeathMetal #SimpleAsThat

FFO #BloodIncantation #ReekingAura #TombMold

For this week's #ProgTuesday by @DXMacGuffin:

#ImperialTriumphant: Goldstar

https://album.link/i/1783607072

#AvantGardeMetal #Weird

FFO #BloodIncantation #TombMold #Ulcerate

Grave Infestation – Carnage Gathers Review

By Steel Druhm

With so much classic heavy metal clogging up my review queue lately, I’ve been neglecting the baser caveman side of my reptilian brain. Canada’s Grave Infestation are back to fix that with their sophomore platter, Carnage Gathers. When they last slimed my doorstep in 2022 with the gruesome Autopsy and early Death worship on Persecution of the Living, they left a mucilaginous impression on my thick skull. Their grizzled and nasty take on old school death was exactly the kind of filth I love to wallow in. Not much has changed on Carnage Gathers, which is another putrid scuzzbucket full of grotesque sounds, primitive riffs, and an IQ below that of rudimentary tool users. It revels in the early days of the genre while fetishizing the lo-fi sound of Hellhammer. It’s all about ear abuse and carnal debasement, and I refuse to be threatened by a good time in the rot pit. Prepare to embrace the sump.

This is not a varied and complex work of art. It’s a tug of war between extremities as the band tries to crush your chestal cavity with ghastly doom segments and then shake your brain stem with bursts of speed and punky d-beats. The whiplash is intended to induce nausea, and it often does. Opener “Living Inhumation” has the bona fides to have appeared on Death’s Leprosy or Autopsy’s Severed Survival and fit right in like a bowel leech. It’s scabby, poo-encrusted offal of a high caliber loaded with jangled, discordant riffs and abysmal vocals. The guitar tone is absolute sewage, and everything is dank and reeking. The only downside is the length. At nearly 6 minutes, it overextends its welcome by the end. This is an unfortunately common trend here, with multiple songs of good construction outliving their trust funds of attention. I love many things about “Ritualized Autopsy,” especially the slimy riffs that ooze everywhere and make you feel unclean. I also appreciate its relentless, unstoppable assault. At points, the guitar work even reminds me of Destruction’s immortal debut EP, Sentence of Death, which is a very good thing. But it too plods on too long, losing some of its visceral impact.

Every track has things going on that I love. Grave Infestation have that sound I’m hopelessly drawn to, and the way they layer nerve-flaying fretboard abuse, bone-breaking grooves, stupid chuggs, and atmospheric noodling gets me every time. Lay some vomitous vocals and pounding drums over that shit and Steel comes to your yard for the gutshake. However, the band doesn’t know when enough is enough, and quality cuts with righteous moments like “Black Widow” and “Drenched in Blood” refuse to stop when they should. There are some absolute ball breaking though, like primal closer “Murder Spree” which just fucks up your shit with insane, panic-inducing riffs that won’t leave you alone. It’s like they took the best moments from Possessed’s timeless classic Seven Churches and sutured them roughly to early Autopsy demos. What more could you want? At 39:56 minutes, Carnage Gathers doesn’t feel too long, though certain tracks do. The production is perfectly mucky and raw, and the guitar sound is exactly the kind of abrasive my rusty metal heart wants.

I’m a big fan of the guitar work from Graham Christofferson and “BC.” It’s their horrific string mutilation that makes the material throb, and they have a knack for skin-removing riffs and twisted flourishes. They create the soundtrack to a madman’s nightmare while paying homage to classic early death albums we all know and love. At times, their riffs sound like those on Bathory’s The Return, which makes me unreasonably giddy. Graham Christofferson’s vocals are a match made in Hell – horrid, repulsive, and full of gut-busting throat exertions. He reminds me of Chris Reifert (Autopsy) at times and, at others, Jeff Beccera (Possessed), but he’s always disgusting. The entire band is solid, but the lack of editing is a nagging defect.

I desperately wanted to give Carnage Gathers a higher rating because I dig so much of what Grave Infestation does. They play exactly the kind of death metal I love, and their commitment to appalling excess speaks to my crude ape brain. If they trimmed the blubber off the best cuts, this would rise in the ranking considerably. As it stands, Carnage Gathers is a quality death metal album sure to please the sick and deranged. It could have been MOAR though!

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Invictus Productions
Websites: graveinfestation.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/graveinfestation | instagram.com/graveinfestation
Releases Worldwide: February 28th, 2025

Kenstrosity

Formed from members of Canadian antifascist crust/sludge metal outfit Ahna and known death filthifiers Ceremonial Bloodbath, Grave Infestation helped pull me out of a skull pit intent on suffocating me under a mountain of bullshit and dumped me right back into a different skull pit entirely—this one teeming with rot and cadaveric bouquets. I suppose I should be thankful, as this is the kind of thing that fills my pores with what some might consider the scent of WICTORY. So, without further ado, I dive deeper into the corpse pile that is Grave Infestation’s sophomore record, Carnage Gathers.

Death metal is a known quantity. We all know it when we hear it, and can describe it without much conflict or confusion. Such is the case for Grave Infestation. Carnage Gathers represents death metal at its most rank, channeling equal parts Asphyx and Incantation, with a membrane of slick Autopsy sleaze surrounding its diseased skin. It’s a combination that works wonders for those who search tirelessly for the nastiest of the nasty, and in that respect, Grave Infestation don’t disappoint. Buzzing and boisterous riffs abound, slammed into the earth below by the crushing heft of doom-laden chugs and yanked back upright by a relentless barrage of squealing solos. Cheering on these deadly antics, a vomitous wretch, brutally projected from afar, echoes its sickening cry across Carnage Gathers’ necrotic scenery. Drawing the line just shy of the caverns from whence Tomb Mold’s early work spawned, Carnage Gathers boasts a sound that exudes old school death at its prime.

Of course, that means that I’m drawn to Carnage Gathers almost by instinct, an animal magnetism against which mental fortitude and willpower crumbles at the slightest breeze. Choice cuts “Inuman Remains,” “Black Widow,” and “Drenched in Blood” take full advantage of my weakness here. Bridging the gap between Incantation’s sheer heft with the vicious onslaught of Autopsy’s violent ways, these songs juggle riffs and grooves engaging enough to motivate the necks of even the staunchest death dissident. “Black Widow,” in particular, marks Grave Infestation’s high water mark, boasting a punky d-beat swagger in conjunction with screeching dive bombs that make an instant memory. Songs like these show that Grave Infestation not only understand the kind of songwriting that made death metal an international underground phenomenon but also identify and implement subtle ways to invigorate that well-worn, comfortable style for a modern audience.

However, Carnage Gathers demonstrates understanding and implementation inconsistently. Pulling from many of its doomier segments, Grave Infestation’s writing outside of their ravenous tears and mid-paced stomps leaves a lot on the table. “Ritualized Autopsy,” “The Anthropophagus,” and “Murder Spree,” among a couple others, routinely inject slower passages characterized by generic chugs and repetitive solos, thereby undermining Carnage Gathers’ strongest material with filler. Considering several tracks reach past five minutes with the inclusion of these insubstantial sections of languid doom death, it seems a clear weak point in Grave Infestation’s repertoire. The undeniable fact that their ripping, death-focused outbursts regularly demolish everything in their path each time they rear their ugly heads only further illuminates the flat, featureless nature of their doom-laden dalliances.

As I surface from the Carnage that Gathers to breathe deep of stale, putrid air, I rest easy knowing that despite its flaws, Carnage Gathers isn’t half bad. Its best moments are a ten-ton anvil of repugnant fun, and the doomed detours that fail to resonate in any meaningful way also don’t derail the experience entirely. Instead, these flawed moments serve as an opportunity for growth. Grave Infestation are still young and have a ton of potential. It wouldn’t take much for them to further refine and empower their sound, launching the quality of their output into higher echelons. For the moment, though, Carnage Gathers is a simple, fun platter of filth, and that’s fine with me.

Rating: Mixed

#25 #2025 #30 #Ahna #Asphyx #Autopsy #CanadianMetal #CarnageGathers #CeremonialBloodbath #Death #DeathDoom #DeathMetal #DoomMetal #Feb25 #GraveInfestation #Hellhammer #Incantation #InvictusProductions #Leprosy #Obituary #PersecutionOfTheLiving #Possessed #Review #Reviews #ScreamBloodyGore #TombMold

Grave Infestation – Carnage Gathers Review

By Steel Druhm

With so much classic heavy metal clogging up my review queue lately, I’ve been neglecting the baser caveman side of my reptilian brain. Canada’s Grave Infestation are back to fix that with their sophomore platter, Carnage Gathers. When they last slimed my doorstep in 2022 with the gruesome Autopsy and early Death worship on Persecution of the Living, they left a mucilaginous impression on my thick skull. Their grizzled and nasty take on old school death was exactly the kind of filth I love to wallow in. Not much has changed on Carnage Gathers, which is another putrid scuzzbucket full of grotesque sounds, primitive riffs, and an IQ below that of rudimentary tool users. It revels in the early days of the genre while fetishizing the lo-fi sound of Hellhammer. It’s all about ear abuse and carnal debasement, and I refuse to be threatened by a good time in the rot pit. Prepare to embrace the sump.

This is not a varied and complex work of art. It’s a tug of war between extremities as the band tries to crush your chestal cavity with ghastly doom segments and then shake your brain stem with bursts of speed and punky d-beats. The whiplash is intended to induce nausea, and it often does. Opener “Living Inhumation” has the bona fides to have appeared on Death’s Leprosy or Autopsy’s Severed Survival and fit right in like a bowel leech. It’s scabby, poo-encrusted offal of a high caliber loaded with jangled, discordant riffs and abysmal vocals. The guitar tone is absolute sewage, and everything is dank and reeking. The only downside is the length. At nearly 6 minutes, it overextends its welcome by the end. This is an unfortunately common trend here, with multiple songs of good construction outliving their trust funds of attention. I love many things about “Ritualized Autopsy,” especially the slimy riffs that ooze everywhere and make you feel unclean. I also appreciate its relentless, unstoppable assault. At points, the guitar work even reminds me of Destruction’s immortal debut EP, Sentence of Death, which is a very good thing. But it too plods on too long, losing some of its visceral impact.

Every track has things going on that I love. Grave Infestation have that sound I’m hopelessly drawn to, and the way they layer nerve-flaying fretboard abuse, bone-breaking grooves, stupid chuggs, and atmospheric noodling gets me every time. Lay some vomitous vocals and pounding drums over that shit and Steel comes to your yard for the gutshake. However, the band doesn’t know when enough is enough, and quality cuts with righteous moments like “Black Widow” and “Drenched in Blood” refuse to stop when they should. There are some absolute ball breaking though, like primal closer “Murder Spree” which just fucks up your shit with insane, panic-inducing riffs that won’t leave you alone. It’s like they took the best moments from Possessed’s timeless classic Seven Churches and sutured them roughly to early Autopsy demos. What more could you want? At 39:56 minutes, Carnage Gathers doesn’t feel too long, though certain tracks do. The production is perfectly mucky and raw, and the guitar sound is exactly the kind of abrasive my rusty metal heart wants.

I’m a big fan of the guitar work from Graham Christofferson and “BC.” It’s their horrific string mutilation that makes the material throb, and they have a knack for skin-removing riffs and twisted flourishes. They create the soundtrack to a madman’s nightmare while paying homage to classic early death albums we all know and love. At times, their riffs sound like those on Bathory’s The Return, which makes me unreasonably giddy. Graham Christofferson’s vocals are a match made in Hell – horrid, repulsive, and full of gut-busting throat exertions. He reminds me of Chris Reifert (Autopsy) at times and, at others, Jeff Beccera (Possessed), but he’s always disgusting. The entire band is solid, but the lack of editing is a nagging defect.

I desperately wanted to give Carnage Gathers a higher rating because I dig so much of what Grave Infestation does. They play exactly the kind of death metal I love, and their commitment to appalling excess speaks to my crude ape brain. If they trimmed the blubber off the best cuts, this would rise in the ranking considerably. As it stands, Carnage Gathers is a quality death metal album sure to please the sick and deranged. It could have been MOAR though!

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Invictus Productions
Websites: graveinfestation.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/graveinfestation | instagram.com/graveinfestation
Releases Worldwide: February 28th, 2025

Kenstrosity

Formed from members of Canadian antifascist crust/sludge metal outfit Ahna and known death filthifiers Ceremonial Bloodbath, Grave Infestation helped pull me out of a skull pit intent on suffocating me under a mountain of bullshit and dumped me right back into a different skull pit entirely—this one teeming with rot and cadaveric bouquets. I suppose I should be thankful, as this is the kind of thing that fills my pores with what some might consider the scent of WICTORY. So, without further ado, I dive deeper into the corpse pile that is Grave Infestation’s sophomore record, Carnage Gathers.

Death metal is a known quantity. We all know it when we hear it, and can describe it without much conflict or confusion. Such is the case for Grave Infestation. Carnage Gathers represents death metal at its most rank, channeling equal parts Asphyx and Incantation, with a membrane of slick Autopsy sleaze surrounding its diseased skin. It’s a combination that works wonders for those who search tirelessly for the nastiest of the nasty, and in that respect, Grave Infestation don’t disappoint. Buzzing and boisterous riffs abound, slammed into the earth below by the crushing heft of doom-laden chugs and yanked back upright by a relentless barrage of squealing solos. Cheering on these deadly antics, a vomitous wretch, brutally projected from afar, echoes its sickening cry across Carnage Gathers’ necrotic scenery. Drawing the line just shy of the caverns from whence Tomb Mold’s early work spawned, Carnage Gathers boasts a sound that exudes old school death at its prime.

Of course, that means that I’m drawn to Carnage Gathers almost by instinct, an animal magnetism against which mental fortitude and willpower crumbles at the slightest breeze. Choice cuts “Inuman Remains,” “Black Widow,” and “Drenched in Blood” take full advantage of my weakness here. Bridging the gap between Incantation’s sheer heft with the vicious onslaught of Autopsy’s violent ways, these songs juggle riffs and grooves engaging enough to motivate the necks of even the staunchest death dissident. “Black Widow,” in particular, marks Grave Infestation’s high water mark, boasting a punky d-beat swagger in conjunction with screeching dive bombs that make an instant memory. Songs like these show that Grave Infestation not only understand the kind of songwriting that made death metal an international underground phenomenon but also identify and implement subtle ways to invigorate that well-worn, comfortable style for a modern audience.

However, Carnage Gathers demonstrates understanding and implementation inconsistently. Pulling from many of its doomier segments, Grave Infestation’s writing outside of their ravenous tears and mid-paced stomps leaves a lot on the table. “Ritualized Autopsy,” “The Anthropophagus,” and “Murder Spree,” among a couple others, routinely inject slower passages characterized by generic chugs and repetitive solos, thereby undermining Carnage Gathers’ strongest material with filler. Considering several tracks reach past five minutes with the inclusion of these insubstantial sections of languid doom death, it seems a clear weak point in Grave Infestation’s repertoire. The undeniable fact that their ripping, death-focused outbursts regularly demolish everything in their path each time they rear their ugly heads only further illuminates the flat, featureless nature of their doom-laden dalliances.

As I surface from the Carnage that Gathers to breathe deep of stale, putrid air, I rest easy knowing that despite its flaws, Carnage Gathers isn’t half bad. Its best moments are a ten-ton anvil of repugnant fun, and the doomed detours that fail to resonate in any meaningful way also don’t derail the experience entirely. Instead, these flawed moments serve as an opportunity for growth. Grave Infestation are still young and have a ton of potential. It wouldn’t take much for them to further refine and empower their sound, launching the quality of their output into higher echelons. For the moment, though, Carnage Gathers is a simple, fun platter of filth, and that’s fine with me.

Rating: Mixed

#25 #2025 #30 #Ahna #Asphyx #Autopsy #CanadianMetal #CarnageGathers #CeremonialBloodbath #Death #DeathDoom #DeathMetal #DoomMetal #Feb25 #GraveInfestation #Hellhammer #Incantation #InvictusProductions #Leprosy #Obituary #PersecutionOfTheLiving #Possessed #Review #Reviews #ScreamBloodyGore #TombMold

Grave Infestation – Carnage Gathers Review

By Steel Druhm

With so much classic heavy metal clogging up my review queue lately, I’ve been neglecting the baser caveman side of my reptilian brain. Canada’s Grave Infestation are back to fix that with their sophomore platter, Carnage Gathers. When they last slimed my doorstep in 2022 with the gruesome Autopsy and early Death worship on Persecution of the Living, they left a mucilaginous impression on my thick skull. Their grizzled and nasty take on old school death was exactly the kind of filth I love to wallow in. Not much has changed on Carnage Gathers, which is another putrid scuzzbucket full of grotesque sounds, primitive riffs, and an IQ below that of rudimentary tool users. It revels in the early days of the genre while fetishizing the lo-fi sound of Hellhammer. It’s all about ear abuse and carnal debasement, and I refuse to be threatened by a good time in the rot pit. Prepare to embrace the sump.

This is not a varied and complex work of art. It’s a tug of war between extremities as the band tries to crush your chestal cavity with ghastly doom segments and then shake your brain stem with bursts of speed and punky d-beats. The whiplash is intended to induce nausea, and it often does. Opener “Living Inhumation” has the bona fides to have appeared on Death’s Leprosy or Autopsy’s Severed Survival and fit right in like a bowel leech. It’s scabby, poo-encrusted offal of a high caliber loaded with jangled, discordant riffs and abysmal vocals. The guitar tone is absolute sewage, and everything is dank and reeking. The only downside is the length. At nearly 6 minutes, it overextends its welcome by the end. This is an unfortunately common trend here, with multiple songs of good construction outliving their trust funds of attention. I love many things about “Ritualized Autopsy,” especially the slimy riffs that ooze everywhere and make you feel unclean. I also appreciate its relentless, unstoppable assault. At points, the guitar work even reminds me of Destruction’s immortal debut EP, Sentence of Death, which is a very good thing. But it too plods on too long, losing some of its visceral impact.

Every track has things going on that I love. Grave Infestation have that sound I’m hopelessly drawn to, and the way they layer nerve-flaying fretboard abuse, bone-breaking grooves, stupid chuggs, and atmospheric noodling gets me every time. Lay some vomitous vocals and pounding drums over that shit and Steel comes to your yard for the gutshake. However, the band doesn’t know when enough is enough, and quality cuts with righteous moments like “Black Widow” and “Drenched in Blood” refuse to stop when they should. There are some absolute ball breaking though, like primal closer “Murder Spree” which just fucks up your shit with insane, panic-inducing riffs that won’t leave you alone. It’s like they took the best moments from Possessed’s timeless classic Seven Churches and sutured them roughly to early Autopsy demos. What more could you want? At 39:56 minutes, Carnage Gathers doesn’t feel too long, though certain tracks do. The production is perfectly mucky and raw, and the guitar sound is exactly the kind of abrasive my rusty metal heart wants.

I’m a big fan of the guitar work from Graham Christofferson and “BC.” It’s their horrific string mutilation that makes the material throb, and they have a knack for skin-removing riffs and twisted flourishes. They create the soundtrack to a madman’s nightmare while paying homage to classic early death albums we all know and love. At times, their riffs sound like those on Bathory’s The Return, which makes me unreasonably giddy. Graham Christofferson’s vocals are a match made in Hell – horrid, repulsive, and full of gut-busting throat exertions. He reminds me of Chris Reifert (Autopsy) at times and, at others, Jeff Beccera (Possessed), but he’s always disgusting. The entire band is solid, but the lack of editing is a nagging defect.

I desperately wanted to give Carnage Gathers a higher rating because I dig so much of what Grave Infestation does. They play exactly the kind of death metal I love, and their commitment to appalling excess speaks to my crude ape brain. If they trimmed the blubber off the best cuts, this would rise in the ranking considerably. As it stands, Carnage Gathers is a quality death metal album sure to please the sick and deranged. It could have been MOAR though!

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Invictus Productions
Websites: graveinfestation.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/graveinfestation | instagram.com/graveinfestation
Releases Worldwide: February 28th, 2025

Kenstrosity

Formed from members of Canadian antifascist crust/sludge metal outfit Ahna and known death filthifiers Ceremonial Bloodbath, Grave Infestation helped pull me out of a skull pit intent on suffocating me under a mountain of bullshit and dumped me right back into a different skull pit entirely—this one teeming with rot and cadaveric bouquets. I suppose I should be thankful, as this is the kind of thing that fills my pores with what some might consider the scent of WICTORY. So, without further ado, I dive deeper into the corpse pile that is Grave Infestation’s sophomore record, Carnage Gathers.

Death metal is a known quantity. We all know it when we hear it, and can describe it without much conflict or confusion. Such is the case for Grave Infestation. Carnage Gathers represents death metal at its most rank, channeling equal parts Asphyx and Incantation, with a membrane of slick Autopsy sleaze surrounding its diseased skin. It’s a combination that works wonders for those who search tirelessly for the nastiest of the nasty, and in that respect, Grave Infestation don’t disappoint. Buzzing and boisterous riffs abound, slammed into the earth below by the crushing heft of doom-laden chugs and yanked back upright by a relentless barrage of squealing solos. Cheering on these deadly antics, a vomitous wretch, brutally projected from afar, echoes its sickening cry across Carnage Gathers’ necrotic scenery. Drawing the line just shy of the caverns from whence Tomb Mold’s early work spawned, Carnage Gathers boasts a sound that exudes old school death at its prime.

Of course, that means that I’m drawn to Carnage Gathers almost by instinct, an animal magnetism against which mental fortitude and willpower crumbles at the slightest breeze. Choice cuts “Inuman Remains,” “Black Widow,” and “Drenched in Blood” take full advantage of my weakness here. Bridging the gap between Incantation’s sheer heft with the vicious onslaught of Autopsy’s violent ways, these songs juggle riffs and grooves engaging enough to motivate the necks of even the staunchest death dissident. “Black Widow,” in particular, marks Grave Infestation’s high water mark, boasting a punky d-beat swagger in conjunction with screeching dive bombs that make an instant memory. Songs like these show that Grave Infestation not only understand the kind of songwriting that made death metal an international underground phenomenon but also identify and implement subtle ways to invigorate that well-worn, comfortable style for a modern audience.

However, Carnage Gathers demonstrates understanding and implementation inconsistently. Pulling from many of its doomier segments, Grave Infestation’s writing outside of their ravenous tears and mid-paced stomps leaves a lot on the table. “Ritualized Autopsy,” “The Anthropophagus,” and “Murder Spree,” among a couple others, routinely inject slower passages characterized by generic chugs and repetitive solos, thereby undermining Carnage Gathers’ strongest material with filler. Considering several tracks reach past five minutes with the inclusion of these insubstantial sections of languid doom death, it seems a clear weak point in Grave Infestation’s repertoire. The undeniable fact that their ripping, death-focused outbursts regularly demolish everything in their path each time they rear their ugly heads only further illuminates the flat, featureless nature of their doom-laden dalliances.

As I surface from the Carnage that Gathers to breathe deep of stale, putrid air, I rest easy knowing that despite its flaws, Carnage Gathers isn’t half bad. Its best moments are a ten-ton anvil of repugnant fun, and the doomed detours that fail to resonate in any meaningful way also don’t derail the experience entirely. Instead, these flawed moments serve as an opportunity for growth. Grave Infestation are still young and have a ton of potential. It wouldn’t take much for them to further refine and empower their sound, launching the quality of their output into higher echelons. For the moment, though, Carnage Gathers is a simple, fun platter of filth, and that’s fine with me.

Rating: Mixed

#25 #2025 #30 #Ahna #Asphyx #Autopsy #CanadianMetal #CarnageGathers #CeremonialBloodbath #Death #DeathDoom #DeathMetal #DoomMetal #Feb25 #GraveInfestation #Hellhammer #Incantation #InvictusProductions #Leprosy #Obituary #PersecutionOfTheLiving #Possessed #Review #Reviews #ScreamBloodyGore #TombMold

Grave Infestation – Carnage Gathers Review

By Steel Druhm

With so much classic heavy metal clogging up my review queue lately, I’ve been neglecting the baser caveman side of my reptilian brain. Canada’s Grave Infestation are back to fix that with their sophomore platter, Carnage Gathers. When they last slimed my doorstep in 2022 with the gruesome Autopsy and early Death worship on Persecution of the Living, they left a mucilaginous impression on my thick skull. Their grizzled and nasty take on old school death was exactly the kind of filth I love to wallow in. Not much has changed on Carnage Gathers, which is another putrid scuzzbucket full of grotesque sounds, primitive riffs, and an IQ below that of rudimentary tool users. It revels in the early days of the genre while fetishizing the lo-fi sound of Hellhammer. It’s all about ear abuse and carnal debasement, and I refuse to be threatened by a good time in the rot pit. Prepare to embrace the sump.

This is not a varied and complex work of art. It’s a tug of war between extremities as the band tries to crush your chestal cavity with ghastly doom segments and then shake your brain stem with bursts of speed and punky d-beats. The whiplash is intended to induce nausea, and it often does. Opener “Living Inhumation” has the bona fides to have appeared on Death’s Leprosy or Autopsy’s Severed Survival and fit right in like a bowel leech. It’s scabby, poo-encrusted offal of a high caliber loaded with jangled, discordant riffs and abysmal vocals. The guitar tone is absolute sewage, and everything is dank and reeking. The only downside is the length. At nearly 6 minutes, it overextends its welcome by the end. This is an unfortunately common trend here, with multiple songs of good construction outliving their trust funds of attention. I love many things about “Ritualized Autopsy,” especially the slimy riffs that ooze everywhere and make you feel unclean. I also appreciate its relentless, unstoppable assault. At points, the guitar work even reminds me of Destruction’s immortal debut EP, Sentence of Death, which is a very good thing. But it too plods on too long, losing some of its visceral impact.

Every track has things going on that I love. Grave Infestation have that sound I’m hopelessly drawn to, and the way they layer nerve-flaying fretboard abuse, bone-breaking grooves, stupid chuggs, and atmospheric noodling gets me every time. Lay some vomitous vocals and pounding drums over that shit and Steel comes to your yard for the gutshake. However, the band doesn’t know when enough is enough, and quality cuts with righteous moments like “Black Widow” and “Drenched in Blood” refuse to stop when they should. There are some absolute ball breaking though, like primal closer “Murder Spree” which just fucks up your shit with insane, panic-inducing riffs that won’t leave you alone. It’s like they took the best moments from Possessed’s timeless classic Seven Churches and sutured them roughly to early Autopsy demos. What more could you want? At 39:56 minutes, Carnage Gathers doesn’t feel too long, though certain tracks do. The production is perfectly mucky and raw, and the guitar sound is exactly the kind of abrasive my rusty metal heart wants.

I’m a big fan of the guitar work from Graham Christofferson and “BC.” It’s their horrific string mutilation that makes the material throb, and they have a knack for skin-removing riffs and twisted flourishes. They create the soundtrack to a madman’s nightmare while paying homage to classic early death albums we all know and love. At times, their riffs sound like those on Bathory’s The Return, which makes me unreasonably giddy. Graham Christofferson’s vocals are a match made in Hell – horrid, repulsive, and full of gut-busting throat exertions. He reminds me of Chris Reifert (Autopsy) at times and, at others, Jeff Beccera (Possessed), but he’s always disgusting. The entire band is solid, but the lack of editing is a nagging defect.

I desperately wanted to give Carnage Gathers a higher rating because I dig so much of what Grave Infestation does. They play exactly the kind of death metal I love, and their commitment to appalling excess speaks to my crude ape brain. If they trimmed the blubber off the best cuts, this would rise in the ranking considerably. As it stands, Carnage Gathers is a quality death metal album sure to please the sick and deranged. It could have been MOAR though!

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Invictus Productions
Websites: graveinfestation.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/graveinfestation | instagram.com/graveinfestation
Releases Worldwide: February 28th, 2025

Kenstrosity

Formed from members of Canadian antifascist crust/sludge metal outfit Ahna and known death filthifiers Ceremonial Bloodbath, Grave Infestation helped pull me out of a skull pit intent on suffocating me under a mountain of bullshit and dumped me right back into a different skull pit entirely—this one teeming with rot and cadaveric bouquets. I suppose I should be thankful, as this is the kind of thing that fills my pores with what some might consider the scent of WICTORY. So, without further ado, I dive deeper into the corpse pile that is Grave Infestation’s sophomore record, Carnage Gathers.

Death metal is a known quantity. We all know it when we hear it, and can describe it without much conflict or confusion. Such is the case for Grave Infestation. Carnage Gathers represents death metal at its most rank, channeling equal parts Asphyx and Incantation, with a membrane of slick Autopsy sleaze surrounding its diseased skin. It’s a combination that works wonders for those who search tirelessly for the nastiest of the nasty, and in that respect, Grave Infestation don’t disappoint. Buzzing and boisterous riffs abound, slammed into the earth below by the crushing heft of doom-laden chugs and yanked back upright by a relentless barrage of squealing solos. Cheering on these deadly antics, a vomitous wretch, brutally projected from afar, echoes its sickening cry across Carnage Gathers’ necrotic scenery. Drawing the line just shy of the caverns from whence Tomb Mold’s early work spawned, Carnage Gathers boasts a sound that exudes old school death at its prime.

Of course, that means that I’m drawn to Carnage Gathers almost by instinct, an animal magnetism against which mental fortitude and willpower crumbles at the slightest breeze. Choice cuts “Inuman Remains,” “Black Widow,” and “Drenched in Blood” take full advantage of my weakness here. Bridging the gap between Incantation’s sheer heft with the vicious onslaught of Autopsy’s violent ways, these songs juggle riffs and grooves engaging enough to motivate the necks of even the staunchest death dissident. “Black Widow,” in particular, marks Grave Infestation’s high water mark, boasting a punky d-beat swagger in conjunction with screeching dive bombs that make an instant memory. Songs like these show that Grave Infestation not only understand the kind of songwriting that made death metal an international underground phenomenon but also identify and implement subtle ways to invigorate that well-worn, comfortable style for a modern audience.

However, Carnage Gathers demonstrates understanding and implementation inconsistently. Pulling from many of its doomier segments, Grave Infestation’s writing outside of their ravenous tears and mid-paced stomps leaves a lot on the table. “Ritualized Autopsy,” “The Anthropophagus,” and “Murder Spree,” among a couple others, routinely inject slower passages characterized by generic chugs and repetitive solos, thereby undermining Carnage Gathers’ strongest material with filler. Considering several tracks reach past five minutes with the inclusion of these insubstantial sections of languid doom death, it seems a clear weak point in Grave Infestation’s repertoire. The undeniable fact that their ripping, death-focused outbursts regularly demolish everything in their path each time they rear their ugly heads only further illuminates the flat, featureless nature of their doom-laden dalliances.

As I surface from the Carnage that Gathers to breathe deep of stale, putrid air, I rest easy knowing that despite its flaws, Carnage Gathers isn’t half bad. Its best moments are a ten-ton anvil of repugnant fun, and the doomed detours that fail to resonate in any meaningful way also don’t derail the experience entirely. Instead, these flawed moments serve as an opportunity for growth. Grave Infestation are still young and have a ton of potential. It wouldn’t take much for them to further refine and empower their sound, launching the quality of their output into higher echelons. For the moment, though, Carnage Gathers is a simple, fun platter of filth, and that’s fine with me.

Rating: Mixed

#25 #2025 #30 #Ahna #Asphyx #Autopsy #CanadianMetal #CarnageGathers #CeremonialBloodbath #Death #DeathDoom #DeathMetal #DoomMetal #Feb25 #GraveInfestation #Hellhammer #Incantation #InvictusProductions #Leprosy #Obituary #PersecutionOfTheLiving #Possessed #Review #Reviews #ScreamBloodyGore #TombMold

When Pink Floyd meets Death Metal:

#BloodIncantation: The Stargate

The whole:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N4rLtjPzH0
- https://redirect.invidious.io/watch?v=6N4rLtjPzH0

The three parts:
- https://song.link/t3pt4s7wwgrrv
- https://song.link/cjm3kcrq3rnwq
- https://song.link/smtd2t58r7g62

#ProgressiveDeathMetal #TechnicalDeathMetal

FFO #Horrendous #SpectralVoice #TombMold

#OwlClub

For @HailsandAles' #BlackMetalMonday:

#Hellbutcher: The Sword of Wrath

https://song.link/8pr3rhcd8gvqc

#BlackenedThrashMetal #ThrashenedBlackMetal

FFO #Avmakt #SpectralWound #TombMold

The last one for #ThursDeath for this week is #FromTheVaults:

#SwallowTheSun: With You Came The Whole Of The World's Tears

https://song.link/2swzcthnb5v4v

#MelodicDoom

FFO #MotherOfGraves #TombMold #TreesOfEternity

Let's start filling the playlist of @Kitty's #MittwochMetalMix, so they'll have something to listen to early in the morning:

Blood Incantation: Obliquity of the Eclectic

https://song.link/i/1702049457

FFO #Horrendous #SpectralVoice #TombMold

El Cuervo’s and GardensTale’s Top Ten(ish) of 2023

By El Cuervo

El Cuervo

This list represents business as usual in Casa Cuervo. Four albums by bands that have previously hit my Album o’ the Year list. Four albums more-or-less fall into my preferred progressive death metal sub-genre. And one 80s-worshiping retrowave release. Only the very top and very bottom of my list feature acts outside my bailiwick.

You might think this would result in a year that I rate highly for musical releases. Sadly the opposite is true. I found it surprisingly easy to narrow down my list and surprisingly difficult to pick a real number one—both because there too few outstanding options to choose from. It says a lot that I reviewed two of my top three albums but I ‘only’ awarded these a 4.0. I admire all that’s been achieved by the entrants here but I can’t help but feel a little disappointed as we reach the end of 2023. Granted, my 2022 list was topped by two records that would be multi-year winners so the comparison was rough.

And yet, hope springs eternal. While it’s unlikely that 2024 will boast a list fitting so comfortably in my wheelhouse, I remain optimistic for a year full of new musical discoveries. Between now and then, enjoy the holiday season!

#10. Grails // Anches en Maat – Anches en Maat was my favorite music of the year to disconnect from reality and lose myself in a weird and wonderful world. There’s little left from the comparatively direct instrumental rock of early Grails, but their cinematic spectacle makes their recent music all the more intriguing. This one can loosely be bundled into post-rock but its range of influences, from blues to electronica to ambient to TV soundtracks, establishes a sound you won’t hear anywhere else. High-octane, minute-to-minute, and bursting with energy it isn’t. But what you will find is something endlessly evocative and endlessly repeatable in its lilting, laid-back spirit. I’m not a big post-rock nerd but I find everything released by Grails utterly engrossing.

#9. Svalbard // The Weight of the Mask – Svalbard have become more expressive and more creative as their career has progressed. While still firmly rooted in post-hardcore, The Weight of the Mask toys with musical boundaries more than ever. It features more of everything that has previously been a part of the Svalbard sound; from post-metal to post-rock to black metal. But it’s not the musical compositions that make these Brits so good. The emotive weight of their music makes each listen a passion-fuelled journey and I find myself returning for the feels it invokes above anything else. I’m not sure if I like Weight of the Mask more than When I Die, Will I Get Better? But, for those on the fence, it’s at least as good.

#8. Lunar Chamber // Shambhallic Vibrations – Few records from 2023 seemed as custom-built for this Cuervo as Shambhallic Vibrations by Lunar Chamber. Progressive? Check. Death metal? Check. Short run-time? Check. Incredible dynamism? Check. Buddhism?1 Check. Shambhallic Vibrations forges a new path through progressive death metal, leaning heavily on contemplative synths, impressive technicality, and doomy passages, all of which counter-balance the pace and ferocity of its core deathly style. Though shockingly varied for a release just running for 30 minutes, the release is unfailingly cohesive. From the breathy interludes to the brutal blasting, Lunar Chamber harmonizes their sounds into a satisfying whole. It isn’t a prerequisite for progressive albums to run for an hour or more. Shambhallic Vibrations does so much more with so much less.

#7. fromjoy // fromjoy – If you want to hear the coolest thing released in 2023, look no further than the self-titled EP by Houston’s fromjoy. It bottles insanity; conjures madness; flips the musical table. They do this with a fusion of various types of -core (grind, math, break) but streak this with winding, vaporwave synths. If this sounds like an unholy aberration, it is. But this aberration delights and energizes in equal measure. I’ve extracted more joy this year from these 26 minutes than full albums over twice that length. Almost every one of these ten tracks has a unique quirk; from wretched grind to stomping breakdowns to dancing trip-hop to smooth saxophones. fromjoy is a testament to pure creative energy and doing a lot with a little.

#6. Ulthar // Anthronomicon – Though it forms one side of a coin completed by its sister album Helionomicon, it was Anthronomicon that impressed me most of the concurrent release by pan-US collective Ulthar. What strikes me most are the compelling contradictions that Ulthar creates. Anthronomicon’s music is crushingly heavy yet repeatably memorable, while the instrumentation is oppressively other-worldly yet somehow human-performed. Blackened death metal cannot count itself among metal’s most penetrable sub-genres, but something about these warped arrangements hooks me. Ulthar might make strange, atmospheric music but Anthronomicon’s laser focus on outstanding riffs leaves a release I haven’t stopped spinning in nearly a year. It’s one of 2023’s most challenging but most rewarding listens.

#5. Tomb Mold // The Enduring Spirit – Why, after a run of critically acclaimed old-school death metal albums, is The Enduring Spirit the first Tomb Mold record to touch my AotY list? In short, because its music is far more inventive now. Switching out a cavernous aesthetic and unrelenting pace for tidier production and grandiose solos, The Enduring Spirit scratches that prog-death itch better than any other release from 2023. Though Tomb Mold has always been smarter-than-you-first-realize, this record represents a significant leap forward and feels like the next era of the band. Above all, it harmonizes Tomb Mold’s savage roots with newer, cerebral tendencies. While the immaculate transitions go some way to achieving this, the spacious soundstage and perfect instrumental tones ensure the release hangs together to my great satisfaction.

#4. Shadowrunner // Ocean of Time – Rebirth and Oblivion – For the first time, the Ocean of Time duo made me want to dislike a Shadowrunner release. Making the listener buy the same four songs twice in order to access the unique eight ruffled my feathers. But the music here is just so damn captivating that I can’t help but love the two sides nonetheless. Rebirth is as effortless and enchanting as any retrowave act from the last decade, while Oblivion is pure nostalgia bait. Warm synths, driving rhythms, smooth saxophones, and pleasant vocals; all are present and correct. Shameless pleasure and rose-tinted spectacles compel me to consistently choose something synthy for my AotY list and Shadowrunner made the best synth music of 2023. Do not sleep on one of the best acts in the scene.

#3. Sylosis // A Sign of Things to Come – I couldn’t be happier at my rediscovery of Sylosis since 2020’s Cycle of Suffering, and A Sign of Things to Come returns to deliver the goods once again. Despite the flack I took for describing Sylosis as how modern thrash should sound, I stand by that comment. 1986 already exists so go fucking listen to that again if you like. What this album will give you instead is music that fuses thrashy, melodic, technical, and hardcore influences into 10 super-charged tunes. They will fill you with rage, then re-energize you to exorcize that rage. For raw riff-craft, no other record was the match of this one. A sign of more things to come in the future? I fucking hope so.

#2. Sermon // Of Golden Verse – Only one other record this year feels as complete as Of Golden Verse. It is a consummate album, expressing its music and thoughts in the exact amount of time it requires. Despite its poignance and emotive qualities, it feels incredibly precise; a work created by masters of their trade. Even with 4 tracks approaching or exceeding 7 minutes, there’s nary a wasted second. That’s a tough feat indeed in the world of prog, and Sermon exemplifies all that is great in the genre. Their undulating songwriting style results in music that ebbs from steely, tense atmospheres and flows to passionate, cathartic explosions. Dramatic, sure; maybe even melodramatic. But exciting and varied as Sermon dabbles in progressive, alternative, and doom metal. Of Golden Verse represents a huge step forward from their debut.

#1. Hasard // Hypnocentrisme – Though Hypnocentrisme wasn’t a clear winner, its complete singularity pushes it above everything else in 2023. Hasard paints stark, abstract images in shades of black; it’s an impenetrable, challenging release, obscuring its immense qualities behind oppressive heaviness and bewildering arrangements. Through the record’s black metal crust hides an accomplished orchestral core that’s just as disturbing—in some ways, more so—as its metal aspects. Purposefully deconstructing the screeching guitars, arhythmic drumming, ominous synths, and erratic counter-melodies delivers the year’s most thought-provoking music. Passively wallowing delivers the year’s most thought-crushing music. While it may not be the most enjoyable record of the year, it is certainly the most striking. No other 2023 record affected me like Hypnocentrisme.

Honorable Mentions

• Myrkur // Spine – Spine is just as sonically varied—arguably inconsistent—as any Myrkur release2 but this time it’s all high quality. From the poppy chorus on “Like Humans,” to the blast beats on “Valkyriernes Sang,” to the gentle folk on “Menneskebarn,” I’m emotionally invested throughout.
  Ahab // The Coral Tombs – Ahab is an indomitable force of doom metal, and The Coral Tombs didn’t miss a step after eight years away. Judicious variety and grand arrangements ensure that this is the best doom of 2023.
  Ne Obliviscaris // Exul – Balancing poignant string sections with crunchy death and black metal, NeO remains a stellar progressive metal band. Exul proves that even a NeO producing their weakest album is better than most others.

Songs o’ the Year

1. Godthrymm – “As Titans”
2. fromjoy – “Helios” / “Icarus”
3. In Flames – “Meet Your Maker”
4. Theocracy – “Return to Dust”
5. Hasard – “Hypnocentrisme”
6. Sermon – “Golden”
7. Angus McSix – “Master of the Universe”
8. Saturnus – “The Calling”
9. Sylosis – “Poison for the Lost”
10. ADMO – “Always”

GardensTale

In previous years, I wrote at least one paragraph about how the year went for me. But for the last 3 years, those have been pretty depressing, so I’m just going to skip that. Let’s talk about the good stuff instead. It’s strange to think that black metal is one of the last genres I seriously got into, around 5 years ago or so. Beforehand, I always thought all black metal was akin to lo-fi second-wave shit that sounds like someone sucked up a marble with the vacuum cleaner. Years before, Belgian unknowns Axamenta3 laid some groundwork to prove my misconception wrong, and Mistur hammered it home. Now the conversion is complete, thanks to a year that’s been absolutely stuffed with quality black metal. I could have made a very respectable list of only black metal records, HMs included. But I still like other genres, too, so it was inevitable a couple of other-minded rascals snuck in for color. At least Doom_et_Al won’t hate my list as much as usual. Probably.

I gotta add though, whilst I’ve heard a lot of praise for this year in metal, I still feel like I am missing a true winner. The order of my top 6 or so feels entirely arbitrary, and I’m not sure an extra month of listening would bring the necessary clarity. I’ve had plenty to love (my shortlist reached 10 albums by March or so, partially thanks to an unusually strong January) but the only albums I have been truly ecstatic about are discoveries that were released before the pandemic and barely metal-adjacent4 But so it goes! Every year is so different, in both life and music. I already had a sneak peek of a likely lister for next year, so I know we’ll be off to a good start in that regard.

I must thank my colleagues and editors for putting up with my slacking ass.5 You are a good bunch and half the reason I’m still pouring my heart and soul into this site. The other half is the free promos. And what’s an end-of-year projectile vomit of thank yous and love yous without addressing the readers? If you’re still here and didn’t just skip through to the list, you have my thanks. If you did skip to the list, you still have my thanks, you just won’t know about it. Even those of you who just check the winners and move on. You are still part of the weird and lovely conglomeration of readers we’ve developed, so thank you as well. And I must give a shout-out to the Discord folks. Though I don’t pop in too often, you’ve made it a lovely and welcoming server, and uncommonly well-behaved! Now, who’s ready for the other half of the worst takes in AMG?

#ish. Xoth // Exogalactic – Xoth is back and thus back in my list, because Xoth remains every bit the cool as hell bunch of motherfuckers it’s always been. It’s a little bit more technical and a little bit less memorable compared to its predecessor, missing a “Mountain Machines” level riff, but I still have a really hard time sitting still in my chair when Exogalactic is playing. Too much bouncy fun and sick solos!

#10. Fires in the Distance // Air Not Meant for Us – I listened to an absolute ton of melodic death metal in my early metal years. I still have a soft spot for the genre, but it also needs to do something different to stand out for me these days. Fires in the Distance fully meets that criterium. The stern, strident tone, doom-adjacent pacing, and tasteful piano make Air an album of aching beauty. I’m reminded in part of Eternal Tears of Sorrow, but far more mature and with great emotional depth. The only reason it didn’t place higher is that it doesn’t keep me coming back somehow, and these lists are nothing if not places to go with my gut.

#9. Leiþa // Reue – Speaking of my gut, Reue was the first full-blown punch it received this year. It amuses me when people claim that all black metal screams sound the same because though the lyrics are as incomprehensible as ever, I feel every ounce of the bottomless pain and despair Noise conjures here. But on top of the throat-ripping gurgles of depression are some very sophisticated melodies and good use of dynamics between quiet passages and all-out raging desperation. Most one-man bands struggle to make one worthwhile project, meanwhile, this guy has Leiþa, Non Est Deus, and Kanonenfieber on his resume. I’d call it unfair if I didn’t love it so much.

#8. Megaton Sword // Might & Power – Traditional metal doesn’t often show up on my year-end list. Maybe Megaton Sword wouldn’t have either, although I do love me a batch of idiosyncratic vocals. But a medical situation in the family made the first half of the year an especially stressful affair, and Might & Power with its simple sense of fun was my main musical comfort in that time. But there’s more to it than that. So many strong melodies with few frills. So many fist-pumping horseback-riding sword-raising shield-carrying moments of triumph and awe. And all tied together by that uncommon voice, acerbically spraying dark heroism over the battlefield. The worst of the family situation is well behind us, but Might & Power still won’t leave my regular rotation.

#7. Carnosus // Visions of Infinihility – Is it unfair to say Xoth got out-Xoth’ed this year? It’s the obvious point of comparison, between the many-faceted vocals, high technical ability, tongue-in-cheek insanity, twisting multi-part riffs, and snaking bass. But if Xoth is the oblique unknowable architecture of cosmic horror, Carnosus is the fleshy depravity of body horror. It theatrically revels in its filth and cackles as the audience turns green around the cheeks. Most of the death metal highlights this year have been of the cavernous or slamarific variety, neither of which does much for me, but Carnosus has been an absolute delight that’s kept up my good cheers.

#6. Walg // III – The vast majority of my music recommendations originate here, but once in a blue moon, my partner will send me a link to something that popped up in her random music feeds and I just get blown away. That’s how I found this independent duo from Groningen, the Netherlands, who, without any black metal experience, started shitting out annual albums in the middle of the pandemic and manage to outdo most of their peers in the process. III is a furious album, with blast beats and histrionic screeching out the wazoo, but is tempered by a bevy of great melodic riffs and the occasional gothic chant. Because the lyrics are in Dutch, which really is not a good language for this kind of horrific imagery, there’s something endearing to the band as well. The combination makes for a very interesting, dark yet catchy experience and one I can well recommend.

#5. Wayfarer // American Gothic – Wayfarer was always one of those bands I kept hearing about and kept not hearing. No particular reason, either; I resolved to listen to them several times and it just didn’t happen. Then I finally heard them, by seeing them live at Roadburn. It was definitely a highlight of the festival, aside from an interlude that was far too long and not nearly interesting enough. Thankfully, American Gothic is more balanced, a perfectly tuned album that calls forth the man in black stalking the prairie on horseback. It’s an album redolent in atmosphere without forgoing a good hook, one that can carry tension on a single banjo string. In short, it has lived up to the hype and then some.

#4. Sermon // Of Golden Verse – Pure prog metal often gets a reputation for being wussy and weenie. Sermon does it differently. What attracts me to this album the most is the sense of threat. Sermon looms a great dark ominous wall that swallows the background and casts everything in shade. For an album to hold its breath even while beating you down takes some exquisite songwriting, and Of Golden Verse is jam-packed with it. Closer “Departure” really opens the floodgates, too, for a satisfying and bombastic finale.

#3. VAK // The Islands – I called The Islands one of the flat-out coolest albums of the year and I stand by it. If anything, my appreciation for VAK’s latest has only grown since then. When you’ve listened to a million albums, the ones that really stand out and stick with you are the ones with the strongest personality. If you’d send me an unlabeled song that didn’t make the cut on The Islands I would recognize it as VAK immediately, guaranteed. While so much sludge tries and fails to get under my skin with a hammer, VAK succeeds by taking a shortcut as it pries off my fingernails with a rusty screwdriver. It’s deliciously uncomfortable and I love it.

#2. The Circle // Of Awakening – This was surely the most heinous underrating of the year. The opener alone should earn the band its 4.0, a perfectly tuned piece of proggy black/death. One thing that strikes me is how good The Circle is at finding the right dosages. Every time it feels like one thing has run its course, something replaces or enhances it, from the versatile vocals to the use of symphonics and from blast beats to breathing room. I’ve revisited this one a lot since the summer, and for a while, I thought it was gonna top my list…

#1. Night Crowned // Tales – …until Night Crowned bum-rushed the stage. Whereas many of my listening habits this year have been decidedly un-brutal, in the metal sphere I have found myself drawn to the combination of melodic and intense music, particularly in the second half of the year. Tales is an exemplary album in this regard. The intense blasting and no-holds-barred shrieking always hold a melodic thread that makes it more than a wall of noise, whether it be from extra vocal layers, subtly interweaved symphonics, or a goddamn hurdy-gurdy that works way better than it should. The track where the latter features most prominently, “She Comes at Night,” is what drew me in, but every track has its own face; its deviations make it stand out from the others, like the clean vocals on melodic mid-pacer “Loviatar” or the Dimmu influence on the grandiose closer “Old Tales.” While I would not rank it as highly as the winners of previous years, you owe it to yourself to grab Tales if you haven’t already.

Honorable Mentions

• Aetherian // At Storm’s Edge – Contrary to my point with VAK, this album doesn’t do much particularly new but it’s the embodiment of Finnish style epic melodeath done really, really well.
• Somnuri // Desiderium – Who knew Mastodon-style sludge could be improved with grunge?
• Mutoid Man // Mutants – Wild, reckless fun with more depth than a first glance betrays.
• Genus Ordinis Dei // The Beginning – Narrative albums aren’t easy, but Genus Ordinis Dei has that shit in the bag. Easy to listen to, easy to love, and feels like a complete, well-rounded movie in the guise of an epic metal album.
• Laster // Andermans Mijne – It’s deeply strange and gets at all the bits of my brain that have been gathering dust for years, but I can’t deny its continuous pull.

Disappointment o’ the Year

This is the first paragraph I’m writing this year because it’s the easiest. I always used to like Soen. With Lotus, I even loved them. Imperial was a clear step-down, branching out in the wrong directions, but it was still enjoyable in its own right, just not approaching list material. They put on some good live shows this year, too. But Memorial goes off the deep end like Thelma & Louise. The remaining semblances of progressive rock and metal are gone, replaced by refried alternative rock. Even Joel Ekelöf sounds downright bad, his buttery smooth croon awkwardly squished into a grungy mold that doesn’t suit him. It’s like the band members collectively decided to challenge themselves by trying to make an album without doing any of the things they’re actually good at. The experiment failed, boys.

Song o’ the Year

Last year I discovered Norwegian artsy prog rock outfit Major Parkinson and fell deeply in love with their quirky, bombastic, gloomy aesthetic and thoughtful, varied songwriting. Not long into this year, I found out that enigmatic vocalist Jon Ivar Kollbotn had suffered a massive heart attack in the middle of a concert in October. Though he managed to finish the set, he flatlined backstage. By some miracle, police officers happened to be just outside the building and they managed to restart Kollbotn’s ticker. When he was sufficiently recovered, the band re-wrote and recorded an old live track named “Take the Prescription” to commemorate his survival. The result is as addictive as prescription drugs, an upbeat and offbeat artful piece of prog-pop with an infectious whistled tune, beautiful smooth bass usage, and the band’s signature dark undertone. Kollbotn sounds as coarse and moody as ever, and new permanent member Peri Winkle offers an outside perspective to the frontman’s near-death experience. And even if the track hadn’t been one of the sweetest things I’ve heard this year, it’d still be my favorite track of 2023. If only because he was still around to record it.

#2023 #Aetherian #Ahab #BlogPosts #Carnosus #ElCuervoSAndGardensTaleSTopTenIshOf2023 #FiresInTheDistance #fromjoy #GenusOrdinisDei #Grails #Hasard #Laster #Leitha #Lists #Listurnalia #LunarChamber #MegatonSword #MutoidMan #Myrkur #NeObliviscaris #NightCrowned #Sermon #Shadowrunner #Soen #Somnuri #Svalbard #Sylosis #TheCircle #TombMold #Ulthar #VAK #Walg #Wayfarer #Xoth

El Cuervo’s and GardensTale’s Top Ten(ish) of 2023

By El Cuervo

El Cuervo

This list represents business as usual in Casa Cuervo. Four albums by bands that have previously hit my Album o’ the Year list. Four albums more-or-less fall into my preferred progressive death metal sub-genre. And one 80s-worshiping retrowave release. Only the very top and very bottom of my list feature acts outside my bailiwick.

You might think this would result in a year that I rate highly for musical releases. Sadly the opposite is true. I found it surprisingly easy to narrow down my list and surprisingly difficult to pick a real number one—both because there too few outstanding options to choose from. It says a lot that I reviewed two of my top three albums but I ‘only’ awarded these a 4.0. I admire all that’s been achieved by the entrants here but I can’t help but feel a little disappointed as we reach the end of 2023. Granted, my 2022 list was topped by two records that would be multi-year winners so the comparison was rough.

And yet, hope springs eternal. While it’s unlikely that 2024 will boast a list fitting so comfortably in my wheelhouse, I remain optimistic for a year full of new musical discoveries. Between now and then, enjoy the holiday season!

#10. Grails // Anches en Maat – Anches en Maat was my favorite music of the year to disconnect from reality and lose myself in a weird and wonderful world. There’s little left from the comparatively direct instrumental rock of early Grails, but their cinematic spectacle makes their recent music all the more intriguing. This one can loosely be bundled into post-rock but its range of influences, from blues to electronica to ambient to TV soundtracks, establishes a sound you won’t hear anywhere else. High-octane, minute-to-minute, and bursting with energy it isn’t. But what you will find is something endlessly evocative and endlessly repeatable in its lilting, laid-back spirit. I’m not a big post-rock nerd but I find everything released by Grails utterly engrossing.

#9. Svalbard // The Weight of the Mask – Svalbard have become more expressive and more creative as their career has progressed. While still firmly rooted in post-hardcore, The Weight of the Mask toys with musical boundaries more than ever. It features more of everything that has previously been a part of the Svalbard sound; from post-metal to post-rock to black metal. But it’s not the musical compositions that make these Brits so good. The emotive weight of their music makes each listen a passion-fuelled journey and I find myself returning for the feels it invokes above anything else. I’m not sure if I like Weight of the Mask more than When I Die, Will I Get Better? But, for those on the fence, it’s at least as good.

#8. Lunar Chamber // Shambhallic Vibrations – Few records from 2023 seemed as custom-built for this Cuervo as Shambhallic Vibrations by Lunar Chamber. Progressive? Check. Death metal? Check. Short run-time? Check. Incredible dynamism? Check. Buddhism?1 Check. Shambhallic Vibrations forges a new path through progressive death metal, leaning heavily on contemplative synths, impressive technicality, and doomy passages, all of which counter-balance the pace and ferocity of its core deathly style. Though shockingly varied for a release just running for 30 minutes, the release is unfailingly cohesive. From the breathy interludes to the brutal blasting, Lunar Chamber harmonizes their sounds into a satisfying whole. It isn’t a prerequisite for progressive albums to run for an hour or more. Shambhallic Vibrations does so much more with so much less.

#7. fromjoy // fromjoy – If you want to hear the coolest thing released in 2023, look no further than the self-titled EP by Houston’s fromjoy. It bottles insanity; conjures madness; flips the musical table. They do this with a fusion of various types of -core (grind, math, break) but streak this with winding, vaporwave synths. If this sounds like an unholy aberration, it is. But this aberration delights and energizes in equal measure. I’ve extracted more joy this year from these 26 minutes than full albums over twice that length. Almost every one of these ten tracks has a unique quirk; from wretched grind to stomping breakdowns to dancing trip-hop to smooth saxophones. fromjoy is a testament to pure creative energy and doing a lot with a little.

#6. Ulthar // Anthronomicon – Though it forms one side of a coin completed by its sister album Helionomicon, it was Anthronomicon that impressed me most of the concurrent release by pan-US collective Ulthar. What strikes me most are the compelling contradictions that Ulthar creates. Anthronomicon’s music is crushingly heavy yet repeatably memorable, while the instrumentation is oppressively other-worldly yet somehow human-performed. Blackened death metal cannot count itself among metal’s most penetrable sub-genres, but something about these warped arrangements hooks me. Ulthar might make strange, atmospheric music but Anthronomicon’s laser focus on outstanding riffs leaves a release I haven’t stopped spinning in nearly a year. It’s one of 2023’s most challenging but most rewarding listens.

#5. Tomb Mold // The Enduring Spirit – Why, after a run of critically acclaimed old-school death metal albums, is The Enduring Spirit the first Tomb Mold record to touch my AotY list? In short, because its music is far more inventive now. Switching out a cavernous aesthetic and unrelenting pace for tidier production and grandiose solos, The Enduring Spirit scratches that prog-death itch better than any other release from 2023. Though Tomb Mold has always been smarter-than-you-first-realize, this record represents a significant leap forward and feels like the next era of the band. Above all, it harmonizes Tomb Mold’s savage roots with newer, cerebral tendencies. While the immaculate transitions go some way to achieving this, the spacious soundstage and perfect instrumental tones ensure the release hangs together to my great satisfaction.

#4. Shadowrunner // Ocean of Time – Rebirth and Oblivion – For the first time, the Ocean of Time duo made me want to dislike a Shadowrunner release. Making the listener buy the same four songs twice in order to access the unique eight ruffled my feathers. But the music here is just so damn captivating that I can’t help but love the two sides nonetheless. Rebirth is as effortless and enchanting as any retrowave act from the last decade, while Oblivion is pure nostalgia bait. Warm synths, driving rhythms, smooth saxophones, and pleasant vocals; all are present and correct. Shameless pleasure and rose-tinted spectacles compel me to consistently choose something synthy for my AotY list and Shadowrunner made the best synth music of 2023. Do not sleep on one of the best acts in the scene.

#3. Sylosis // A Sign of Things to Come – I couldn’t be happier at my rediscovery of Sylosis since 2020’s Cycle of Suffering, and A Sign of Things to Come returns to deliver the goods once again. Despite the flack I took for describing Sylosis as how modern thrash should sound, I stand by that comment. 1986 already exists so go fucking listen to that again if you like. What this album will give you instead is music that fuses thrashy, melodic, technical, and hardcore influences into 10 super-charged tunes. They will fill you with rage, then re-energize you to exorcize that rage. For raw riff-craft, no other record was the match of this one. A sign of more things to come in the future? I fucking hope so.

#2. Sermon // Of Golden Verse – Only one other record this year feels as complete as Of Golden Verse. It is a consummate album, expressing its music and thoughts in the exact amount of time it requires. Despite its poignance and emotive qualities, it feels incredibly precise; a work created by masters of their trade. Even with 4 tracks approaching or exceeding 7 minutes, there’s nary a wasted second. That’s a tough feat indeed in the world of prog, and Sermon exemplifies all that is great in the genre. Their undulating songwriting style results in music that ebbs from steely, tense atmospheres and flows to passionate, cathartic explosions. Dramatic, sure; maybe even melodramatic. But exciting and varied as Sermon dabbles in progressive, alternative, and doom metal. Of Golden Verse represents a huge step forward from their debut.

#1. Hasard // Hypnocentrisme – Though Hypnocentrisme wasn’t a clear winner, its complete singularity pushes it above everything else in 2023. Hasard paints stark, abstract images in shades of black; it’s an impenetrable, challenging release, obscuring its immense qualities behind oppressive heaviness and bewildering arrangements. Through the record’s black metal crust hides an accomplished orchestral core that’s just as disturbing—in some ways, more so—as its metal aspects. Purposefully deconstructing the screeching guitars, arhythmic drumming, ominous synths, and erratic counter-melodies delivers the year’s most thought-provoking music. Passively wallowing delivers the year’s most thought-crushing music. While it may not be the most enjoyable record of the year, it is certainly the most striking. No other 2023 record affected me like Hypnocentrisme.

Honorable Mentions

• Myrkur // Spine – Spine is just as sonically varied—arguably inconsistent—as any Myrkur release2 but this time it’s all high quality. From the poppy chorus on “Like Humans,” to the blast beats on “Valkyriernes Sang,” to the gentle folk on “Menneskebarn,” I’m emotionally invested throughout.
  Ahab // The Coral Tombs – Ahab is an indomitable force of doom metal, and The Coral Tombs didn’t miss a step after eight years away. Judicious variety and grand arrangements ensure that this is the best doom of 2023.
  Ne Obliviscaris // Exul – Balancing poignant string sections with crunchy death and black metal, NeO remains a stellar progressive metal band. Exul proves that even a NeO producing their weakest album is better than most others.

Songs o’ the Year

1. Godthrymm – “As Titans”
2. fromjoy – “Helios” / “Icarus”
3. In Flames – “Meet Your Maker”
4. Theocracy – “Return to Dust”
5. Hasard – “Hypnocentrisme”
6. Sermon – “Golden”
7. Angus McSix – “Master of the Universe”
8. Saturnus – “The Calling”
9. Sylosis – “Poison for the Lost”
10. ADMO – “Always”

GardensTale

In previous years, I wrote at least one paragraph about how the year went for me. But for the last 3 years, those have been pretty depressing, so I’m just going to skip that. Let’s talk about the good stuff instead. It’s strange to think that black metal is one of the last genres I seriously got into, around 5 years ago or so. Beforehand, I always thought all black metal was akin to lo-fi second-wave shit that sounds like someone sucked up a marble with the vacuum cleaner. Years before, Belgian unknowns Axamenta3 laid some groundwork to prove my misconception wrong, and Mistur hammered it home. Now the conversion is complete, thanks to a year that’s been absolutely stuffed with quality black metal. I could have made a very respectable list of only black metal records, HMs included. But I still like other genres, too, so it was inevitable a couple of other-minded rascals snuck in for color. At least Doom_et_Al won’t hate my list as much as usual. Probably.

I gotta add though, whilst I’ve heard a lot of praise for this year in metal, I still feel like I am missing a true winner. The order of my top 6 or so feels entirely arbitrary, and I’m not sure an extra month of listening would bring the necessary clarity. I’ve had plenty to love (my shortlist reached 10 albums by March or so, partially thanks to an unusually strong January) but the only albums I have been truly ecstatic about are discoveries that were released before the pandemic and barely metal-adjacent4 But so it goes! Every year is so different, in both life and music. I already had a sneak peek of a likely lister for next year, so I know we’ll be off to a good start in that regard.

I must thank my colleagues and editors for putting up with my slacking ass.5 You are a good bunch and half the reason I’m still pouring my heart and soul into this site. The other half is the free promos. And what’s an end-of-year projectile vomit of thank yous and love yous without addressing the readers? If you’re still here and didn’t just skip through to the list, you have my thanks. If you did skip to the list, you still have my thanks, you just won’t know about it. Even those of you who just check the winners and move on. You are still part of the weird and lovely conglomeration of readers we’ve developed, so thank you as well. And I must give a shout-out to the Discord folks. Though I don’t pop in too often, you’ve made it a lovely and welcoming server, and uncommonly well-behaved! Now, who’s ready for the other half of the worst takes in AMG?

#ish. Xoth // Exogalactic – Xoth is back and thus back in my list, because Xoth remains every bit the cool as hell bunch of motherfuckers it’s always been. It’s a little bit more technical and a little bit less memorable compared to its predecessor, missing a “Mountain Machines” level riff, but I still have a really hard time sitting still in my chair when Exogalactic is playing. Too much bouncy fun and sick solos!

#10. Fires in the Distance // Air Not Meant for Us – I listened to an absolute ton of melodic death metal in my early metal years. I still have a soft spot for the genre, but it also needs to do something different to stand out for me these days. Fires in the Distance fully meets that criterium. The stern, strident tone, doom-adjacent pacing, and tasteful piano make Air an album of aching beauty. I’m reminded in part of Eternal Tears of Sorrow, but far more mature and with great emotional depth. The only reason it didn’t place higher is that it doesn’t keep me coming back somehow, and these lists are nothing if not places to go with my gut.

#9. Leiþa // Reue – Speaking of my gut, Reue was the first full-blown punch it received this year. It amuses me when people claim that all black metal screams sound the same because though the lyrics are as incomprehensible as ever, I feel every ounce of the bottomless pain and despair Noise conjures here. But on top of the throat-ripping gurgles of depression are some very sophisticated melodies and good use of dynamics between quiet passages and all-out raging desperation. Most one-man bands struggle to make one worthwhile project, meanwhile, this guy has Leiþa, Non Est Deus, and Kanonenfieber on his resume. I’d call it unfair if I didn’t love it so much.

#8. Megaton Sword // Might & Power – Traditional metal doesn’t often show up on my year-end list. Maybe Megaton Sword wouldn’t have either, although I do love me a batch of idiosyncratic vocals. But a medical situation in the family made the first half of the year an especially stressful affair, and Might & Power with its simple sense of fun was my main musical comfort in that time. But there’s more to it than that. So many strong melodies with few frills. So many fist-pumping horseback-riding sword-raising shield-carrying moments of triumph and awe. And all tied together by that uncommon voice, acerbically spraying dark heroism over the battlefield. The worst of the family situation is well behind us, but Might & Power still won’t leave my regular rotation.

#7. Carnosus // Visions of Infinihility – Is it unfair to say Xoth got out-Xoth’ed this year? It’s the obvious point of comparison, between the many-faceted vocals, high technical ability, tongue-in-cheek insanity, twisting multi-part riffs, and snaking bass. But if Xoth is the oblique unknowable architecture of cosmic horror, Carnosus is the fleshy depravity of body horror. It theatrically revels in its filth and cackles as the audience turns green around the cheeks. Most of the death metal highlights this year have been of the cavernous or slamarific variety, neither of which does much for me, but Carnosus has been an absolute delight that’s kept up my good cheers.

#6. Walg // III – The vast majority of my music recommendations originate here, but once in a blue moon, my partner will send me a link to something that popped up in her random music feeds and I just get blown away. That’s how I found this independent duo from Groningen, the Netherlands, who, without any black metal experience, started shitting out annual albums in the middle of the pandemic and manage to outdo most of their peers in the process. III is a furious album, with blast beats and histrionic screeching out the wazoo, but is tempered by a bevy of great melodic riffs and the occasional gothic chant. Because the lyrics are in Dutch, which really is not a good language for this kind of horrific imagery, there’s something endearing to the band as well. The combination makes for a very interesting, dark yet catchy experience and one I can well recommend.

#5. Wayfarer // American Gothic – Wayfarer was always one of those bands I kept hearing about and kept not hearing. No particular reason, either; I resolved to listen to them several times and it just didn’t happen. Then I finally heard them, by seeing them live at Roadburn. It was definitely a highlight of the festival, aside from an interlude that was far too long and not nearly interesting enough. Thankfully, American Gothic is more balanced, a perfectly tuned album that calls forth the man in black stalking the prairie on horseback. It’s an album redolent in atmosphere without forgoing a good hook, one that can carry tension on a single banjo string. In short, it has lived up to the hype and then some.

#4. Sermon // Of Golden Verse – Pure prog metal often gets a reputation for being wussy and weenie. Sermon does it differently. What attracts me to this album the most is the sense of threat. Sermon looms a great dark ominous wall that swallows the background and casts everything in shade. For an album to hold its breath even while beating you down takes some exquisite songwriting, and Of Golden Verse is jam-packed with it. Closer “Departure” really opens the floodgates, too, for a satisfying and bombastic finale.

#3. VAK // The Islands – I called The Islands one of the flat-out coolest albums of the year and I stand by it. If anything, my appreciation for VAK’s latest has only grown since then. When you’ve listened to a million albums, the ones that really stand out and stick with you are the ones with the strongest personality. If you’d send me an unlabeled song that didn’t make the cut on The Islands I would recognize it as VAK immediately, guaranteed. While so much sludge tries and fails to get under my skin with a hammer, VAK succeeds by taking a shortcut as it pries off my fingernails with a rusty screwdriver. It’s deliciously uncomfortable and I love it.

#2. The Circle // Of Awakening – This was surely the most heinous underrating of the year. The opener alone should earn the band its 4.0, a perfectly tuned piece of proggy black/death. One thing that strikes me is how good The Circle is at finding the right dosages. Every time it feels like one thing has run its course, something replaces or enhances it, from the versatile vocals to the use of symphonics and from blast beats to breathing room. I’ve revisited this one a lot since the summer, and for a while, I thought it was gonna top my list…

#1. Night Crowned // Tales – …until Night Crowned bum-rushed the stage. Whereas many of my listening habits this year have been decidedly un-brutal, in the metal sphere I have found myself drawn to the combination of melodic and intense music, particularly in the second half of the year. Tales is an exemplary album in this regard. The intense blasting and no-holds-barred shrieking always hold a melodic thread that makes it more than a wall of noise, whether it be from extra vocal layers, subtly interweaved symphonics, or a goddamn hurdy-gurdy that works way better than it should. The track where the latter features most prominently, “She Comes at Night,” is what drew me in, but every track has its own face; its deviations make it stand out from the others, like the clean vocals on melodic mid-pacer “Loviatar” or the Dimmu influence on the grandiose closer “Old Tales.” While I would not rank it as highly as the winners of previous years, you owe it to yourself to grab Tales if you haven’t already.

Honorable Mentions

• Aetherian // At Storm’s Edge – Contrary to my point with VAK, this album doesn’t do much particularly new but it’s the embodiment of Finnish style epic melodeath done really, really well.
• Somnuri // Desiderium – Who knew Mastodon-style sludge could be improved with grunge?
• Mutoid Man // Mutants – Wild, reckless fun with more depth than a first glance betrays.
• Genus Ordinis Dei // The Beginning – Narrative albums aren’t easy, but Genus Ordinis Dei has that shit in the bag. Easy to listen to, easy to love, and feels like a complete, well-rounded movie in the guise of an epic metal album.
• Laster // Andermans Mijne – It’s deeply strange and gets at all the bits of my brain that have been gathering dust for years, but I can’t deny its continuous pull.

Disappointment o’ the Year

This is the first paragraph I’m writing this year because it’s the easiest. I always used to like Soen. With Lotus, I even loved them. Imperial was a clear step-down, branching out in the wrong directions, but it was still enjoyable in its own right, just not approaching list material. They put on some good live shows this year, too. But Memorial goes off the deep end like Thelma & Louise. The remaining semblances of progressive rock and metal are gone, replaced by refried alternative rock. Even Joel Ekelöf sounds downright bad, his buttery smooth croon awkwardly squished into a grungy mold that doesn’t suit him. It’s like the band members collectively decided to challenge themselves by trying to make an album without doing any of the things they’re actually good at. The experiment failed, boys.

Song o’ the Year

Last year I discovered Norwegian artsy prog rock outfit Major Parkinson and fell deeply in love with their quirky, bombastic, gloomy aesthetic and thoughtful, varied songwriting. Not long into this year, I found out that enigmatic vocalist Jon Ivar Kollbotn had suffered a massive heart attack in the middle of a concert in October. Though he managed to finish the set, he flatlined backstage. By some miracle, police officers happened to be just outside the building and they managed to restart Kollbotn’s ticker. When he was sufficiently recovered, the band re-wrote and recorded an old live track named “Take the Prescription” to commemorate his survival. The result is as addictive as prescription drugs, an upbeat and offbeat artful piece of prog-pop with an infectious whistled tune, beautiful smooth bass usage, and the band’s signature dark undertone. Kollbotn sounds as coarse and moody as ever, and new permanent member Peri Winkle offers an outside perspective to the frontman’s near-death experience. And even if the track hadn’t been one of the sweetest things I’ve heard this year, it’d still be my favorite track of 2023. If only because he was still around to record it.

#2023 #Aetherian #Ahab #BlogPosts #Carnosus #ElCuervoSAndGardensTaleSTopTenIshOf2023 #FiresInTheDistance #fromjoy #GenusOrdinisDei #Grails #Hasard #Laster #Leitha #Lists #Listurnalia #LunarChamber #MegatonSword #MutoidMan #Myrkur #NeObliviscaris #NightCrowned #Sermon #Shadowrunner #Soen #Somnuri #Svalbard #Sylosis #TheCircle #TombMold #Ulthar #VAK #Walg #Wayfarer #Xoth

#TheMetalDogArticleList
#MetalInjection
SUFFOCATION, BLOOD INCANTATION, TOMB MOLD & More Among Metal Injection's Top Tracks Of The Week
Check out our top 50 songs of the week!

https://metalinjection.net/playlist/top-tracks-of-the-week-playlist/suffocation-blood-incantation-tomb-mold-more-among-metal-injections-top-tracks-of-the-week

#Suffocation
#BloodIncantation
#TombMold
#MetalInjection
#TopTracks
#WeeklyPlaylist

#TheMetalDogArticleList
#MetalInjection
TOMB MOLD To Release Their First Album In Four Years This Friday
The Enduring Spirit. Coming on September 15.

https://metalinjection.net/upcoming-releases/tomb-mold-to-release-their-first-album-in-four-years-this-friday

#TombMold #ProgressiveDeathMetal #FourthAlbum #ExtremeMetal #FridayRelease #FourYears