#transcendingobscurityrecords — Public Fediverse posts

Endspace – First Contact Review

Death metal cornered the metal-and-SF market ages ago, but black metal has moved on its turf in recent…
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Death metal cornered the metal-and-SF market ages ago, but black metal has moved on its turf in recent years. Bands like Imperialist and Vorga adopt the aesthetic trappings and lyrical conceits of science fiction while trem-picking their guitars and blast-beating their drums. Others, like Labyrinthus Stellarum, go further, giving the music itself an alien, otherworldly quality by heavily incorporating electronic instruments. Checking all these boxes are Canadian duo Endspace: a cover that looks like the Tesseract from Interstellar, numbered “Transmissions” as song titles, a healthy dose of synthesizers and vocoders. And yet, Endspace seem to go even further, claiming they ‘create music that is light years ahead of what we’re accustomed to hearing.’ In deigning to make First Contact with us earthbound mortals, Endspace set extra-galactic expectations for their debut album.

To craft an experimental take on black metal, Endspace draw from veterans of experimental death metal. Shrouded in mystery (and masks [and shrouds]), a bit of internet research reveals that the band is comprised of 040118180514 and 102119200914. You might recognize these UPC codes from Fractal Generator, whose grindy brand of technical death incorporated touches of blackness. On First Contract, Endspace render black metal the centripetal force, though elements of its members’ necrotic origins orbit in the distance. The expected cacophony of blast beats and trem riffs initiates the call (“First Transmission”), but it doesn’t take long for a Krallicey version of black metal to surface (“Second Transmission”) and resurface (“Sixth Transmission”) via futuristic finger tapping. Endspace also know where the intergalactic slime lives, occasionally doling out some downright filthy riffage, reminiscent of Domination-era Morbid Angel (“Third Transmission,” “Seventh Transmission”). First Contact feels like black metal at its core, yet it doesn’t feel completely pinned down by it.

The big question is whether First Contact’s electronic instrumentation comes off as sci-fi style or substance. As a constant presence, the vocoders are constitutively substantive. Vocals usually mold an evil/aggro mood in black metal, so filtering the harshness through vocoders does give them a distinct artistic purpose within the genre. Indeed, the vocals read as radio waves: electromagnetic radiation wending its way through spacetime (“Fourth Transmission”). The synthesizers also ever-presently vibrate throughout First Contact, though Endsapce occasionally spotlight them. Midway through the “Fifth Transmission,” for example, the duo bust into an EDM-style bounce akin to …and Oceans, sure to get nightclubs on Nebulon 5 raving. The relatively dense production ends up being something of a Fermi paradox. Everything is discernible, but I can’t help but want more breathing room and, ergo, vaster soundscapes. And yet, I imagine Endspace wanted to capture the suffocating vacuum that is outer space. Despite the odds, they provide evidence of extraterrestrial civilization, though not as profoundly as advertised.

Endspace achieve a surprising degree of listenability for their experimental space-black by hitting a few Goldilocks zones. Concerning track length, no single “Transmission” feels like a fleeting intimation of weirdness, given the three-plus minute minimum. And yet, at a maximum of under five minutes, no “Transmission” feels like a desultory smorgasbord of ideas, either. Each possesses its own identity, whether it’s the floating guitar work of the “Second Transmission,” the house pulsations of the “Fifth Transmission,” or the creepy buzzings of the “Ninth Transmission.” Concerning album length, Endspace know not to overdo it on a First Contact, as evinced by the under 40-minute runtime. The album benefits from its plurality of vibes, even as its track naming convention suggests conceptual holism. The overt death metal stylings of the third and seventh “Transmission”s keep the album fresh without sounding like obtuse space junk. The name of the game is establishing lines of communication, some of which will pique a listener’s curiosity more than others.

And pique my curiosity Endspace did, continually. I wouldn’t go so far, though, as to categorize their debut as utterly avant-garde. First Contact challenges, but it readily engages more than it seems like it would. It consistently interests even as it lacks true standout moments (“Fifth Transmission” notwithstanding). This may be to Endspace’s future benefit, as the duo demonstrates focus on forging a unique sound, rather than forcing listeners to trace an arbitrary line between celestial objects. Endspace have a bigger, bolder transmission in them, it’s safe to say. For this, we patiently wait on Sol 3, with our antennas open to the callings of the cosmos.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Websites: Facebook
Releases Worldwide: October 2nd, 2026

Between reckless grooves, shimmering leads, and Byzantine riffs, those familiar with Dylan Cruz’s projects should have some idea of what Hanging Garden offers. Sophomore album Dream Death once again features New York’s Cruz as the band’s sole musical contributor, and while he’s acted as guitarist, bassist, and vocalist across various projects (Scumbag, Dissonance, and formerly Noxis), solo project Hanging Garden finds him supplying every piece of the sonic gamut. While Scumbag’s Homicide Cult featured Cruz’s low-end, knuckle-dragging heft, what usually stands out about his performances are the progressive-leaning, riff-centric guitar displays. Throughout Cruz’s projects,1 his creative application of six-string shenanigans never fails to cook up hooks, and Dream Death proves another worthy notch in his belt. Yet you need more than a few sick licks to keep listeners coming back for more. Does Dream Death offer enough to keep folks Hanging around?

Hanging Garden trades in densely clustered, bone-rattling compositions that whip and seethe in unpredictable paroxysms of melody and br00tality. In this way, it’s clear that Noxis’s Violence Inherent in the System shares DNA with Hanging Garden, as both walk the line between bursts of frenzied riffing and snaking leads. Second track “Ondine” most reminds me of Noxis as it cruises and bruises with a punchy intro and continues throwing haymakers throughout. Opener “Arete” leans closer to Scumbag early on, storming the Garden gates with an adrenalized ferocity that should set your headbangometer to ‘breakneck’ tout de suite. Unlike Cruz’s aforementioned projects, though, Dream Death ups the ante from Hanging Garden’s debut, The God That Made Them Bow, and emphasizes melodic backdrops and gazey layers alongside the whiplashing punishments of their deathly wares.

Though Cruz excels at master-crafting wicked riffs and searing solos, Hanging Garden gives him an arena to develop dimensions outside his other current and former projects. It’s no cause for alarm—the riffs and solos still thrill on Dream Death—it’s just that here they collide with vibrant textures, bestowing dynamic stratifications of sounds woven into an aural tapestry that billows and ripples with audacity. Though hinted at early on, swells of euphony unfurl as listeners delve deeper into Dream Death. “Dreamwoven” begins with beefy, slug ‘n’ chug tactics that’ll slap the stank right on your face. Then a jangle of notes rings out atop filthy grooves and blossoms over the course of the track, where almost-but-not-quite mellifluousness jostles against nasty barbarity. This give and take persists throughout Dream Death, where melody asserts more control through the back half, especially on closer “Suffering Radiant Memories,” even though the thuggery never dissipates completely.

Though Hanging Garden marshals forces primal and sophisticated on Dream Death, a few modifications could have commanded an even greater impact. Given the relatively compact instrumentation,2 the production doesn’t necessitate a huge dynamic range to let organic timbres and resonances through, yet the busy compositions occasionally ache for more space. The walls of sound, like those heard on “Arete” and “Endymion,” exact their toll across a tidy forty-one minutes, and while this isn’t a huge knock against, a little extra breathing room would allow Hanging Garden’s arrangements to cut deeper. More positively, Cruz presents a wide variety of atmospheres and riffs without anything ever feeling out of place. Considering the ground covered on Dream Death, this is no mean feat. And though I appreciate the assortment of sonic elements on tap, I wish there was a tad more cohesion amongst the bump and scrape of melody and wiolence. Not to suggest none exists, mind, as everything blooming in Hanging Garden bears fruit—only that putting a finer point on the balance between the two would take Dream Death to even greater heights.

Once again, Dylan Cruz makes his presence immediately known and appreciated, delivering a big success with Hanging Garden’s second platter. Dream Death takes a few listens to dig into and get a sense of what’s happening, but doing so is well worth the time. From the thrash-driven leads on “Tears of Lustful, Secret Desire” that collapse into post-addled textures to the tech death soloing and battery on “Carambola,” Cruz plants his prog death seeds deep enough to let your Garden groan. Amidst a rising tide of quality releases, Hanging Garden remains rooted in relevance and entreats you to dare to Dream Death.

Rating: Very Good
DR: 4 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram
Releases Worldwide: September 18th, 2026

Columbus, Ohio, is the home of the dynamic duo behind Abyssal Rift, and they’re the proud owners of a band logo so completely unintelligible that we could have used it during WWII to utterly flummox the Nazi codebreakers. On sophomore outing Relics of Great Ash, the twosome throw gnarly chunks of Immolation, Incantation, and Ulcerate at the slaughterhouse wall and then try to cram proggy ideas into the steaming caverncore shitpile they’ve unleashed. With talent aplenty, Abyssal Rift often try to do it all, wanting to have their scuzz-bucket cake and choke on some prog icing too. Is this a recipe to get death heads in thrall or stuck in the stall, eliminating all memories of what the band is laying down?

I’ll say upfront that when Abyssal Rift hit their stride, the vile poo-storm they conjure is awe-inspiring and overwhelming. Opener “Consummate Design” quickly displays this juggernaut of sound and knocks you on your ass. This is some seriously gourmet caveman shit, like a mash-up of Immolation and Incantation ideas injected with rabies and gas station dick powder. There’s a clawing, attacking intensity that makes you hunger for more, and just as your hunger grows, the band shifts to a dreamy, spa-friendly sound before transitioning to Incantation-esque death-doom plodding. These shifts offer diversity at the expense of crucial ass-beatery, and while the doom segments are effectively heavy, they aren’t as thrilling as the unhinged onslaught that precedes them. Certain movements get stretched out too long as well, and the song ends with a whimper as a minute-plus of soft, tranquil noodling and gentle keyboards closes things. It feels like a missed opportunity after the vicious throat punch delivered early on. The massive title track is an 8-minute experiment that smashes funeral doom into caveman death and proggy wanderings. The crushing doom segments hit hard and feel oppressive as subhuman belching vocals sound moist and corpse-pasty. However, there’s a long block of time at the midpoint spent toying with synths and wind effects, and it hamstrings the overall flow as things meander in a haze.

Abyssal Rift are at their best when coming after you like a bloodthirsty, rampaging beast in a crowded mall stocked with unsuspecting and overweight shoppers. This is where you hear and feel their talent and potential. Take “The Enlightenment (There Was Never Will)” for example. Here they keep the song length relatively short and hammer at you savagely with blastbeats and twisting, menacing riffs that feel sharp and dangerous. The mildly proggy sequences and time shifts add rather than detract, and things don’t get bogged down. “The Death of God” is the album’s high point, delivering crusty, scabby filth that feels simple and complex at the same time. I especially like the weird groans and moans that remind me of early Mayhem. Unfortunately, Abyssal Rift prefer to dabble outside these caveman circles more often than not, with diminishing returns. The last 12 minutes of the album are rather tedious, with closer “Sphere of Perpetuity” feeling especially flat and unfocused while offering little payoff. At 36 minutes, Relics feels longer, and there’s a serious bloat problem on multiple tracks.

Abyssal Rift is largely the work of Matt Auxier, who handles guitars, bass, vocals, and keys. He does a fine job across the board, unleashing caustic riffs and menacing harmonies that would even give Incantation themselves a few jump scares. His vocals are hideous and gruesome, and there are moments of repulsive beauty here that will impress those who spelunk in the depths. David Mahony mans the kit and delivers an endlessly berserk performance, running amok and shifting gears on a dime. The ability is here without doubt. It’s the writing that drags Relics downward from a must-hear to a maybe-hear. There’s too much time spent faffing with proggy ideas that don’t gel or elevate the material, and these efforts hurt the flow of the material. I keep wishing they would just put their heads down and go for broke and stop trying to be so fookin’ clever. Maybe that says more about me being an unevolved ape marinating in a rancid rotpit, but I am what I am.

Relics of Great Ash hints at something great, but the duo behind Abyssal Rift can’t pilot the ship to the promised land. With some restraint and a commitment to MOAR wanton brutality, big things could happen. For now, though, when the caverns come calling, and I’m cruising for ash, I’ll have to look elsewhere to satisfy my dank needs.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Transcending Obscurity
Websites: facebook.com/Abyssalrift | instagram.com/abyssal_rift
Releases Worldwide: August 14th, 2026

Viande – Monument aux morts Review

As I snatch their sophomore, Monument aux morts from the jaws of the dormant Shark, the irony of…
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https://www.newsbeep.com/uk/722365/

As I snatch their sophomore, Monument aux morts from the jaws of the dormant Shark, the irony of reviewing an act called Viande1 as a vegan is not lost on me. Fortunately, the meat they’re serving is of the metaphorical kind—brutal, nasty, chewy. After L’Abime dévore les âmes saw all souls eaten, a Monument to the dead comes in comiseration castigation for the misstep into that abyss. At first blush, Monument aux morts seems to follow also in its predecessor’s grimy doom-death-black stylistic tracks; but there’s more to the descent this time. Coming four years since Viande first crawled out of the earth, can it strike the death blow its predecessor narrowly missed?

Monument aux morts changes little about Viande’s culinary style, continuing to draw heavily from the Incantation school of death metal, though now with more prominent disorienting flourishes that vividly recall Thantifaxath (“Sacrifice Ardent,” “L’homme Brasier”). The atmospheric side leans closer to that of Praise the Plague—grand and menacing—on the slower end (“Linceul Immense,” “Une cage d’os”), and Ultha on the faster—vocals excepted—(“Germes de mort”). Together, these create a darker and more dissonant offering which in turn makes the omnipresent echo and whines of feedback that bleed tracks together feel even more smothering. Dense and heavy at fast as well as moderated tempos, Monument aux morts succeeds in creating a persistent aura of horror even as it wavers before the threshold of total envelopment.

Viande’s ability to unsettle has improved, thanks to deeper, more nuanced compositions. Guitars snake ominously and twist themselves into ever more gut-wrenching patterns (“Sacrifice ardent,” “Germes de mort,” “L’homme brasier”), whilst tremolos also slip more often into an eerie shiver (“Linceul immense”). The pervasive atmosphere uses reverb intelligently, without detracting from each song’s momentum, and often pulls in the horrifying sounds of screams (“Sacrifice ardent”) and strange synthetic whines (“L’esprit cachot”). Malevolent minor melody bleeds in as a short-lived, swaying foothold in the mire (“Une cage d’os”) of churning scales or feedback. Amidst the chaos, oddly compelling grooves take hold (“Linceul Immense,” “Cercueil de vase”). The culmination of these aspects is a consistently frightening texture, which peaks when it all combines to form thrilling, even darkly beautiful, shapes that step outside of a clear (sub-)genre boundary. At these times, Monument aux morts ceases to be merely a punishing, dirt-choked slab of blackened death-doom,2, but a consuming miasma of discordant scales and impossible drums (“Sacrifice ardent,” “L’homme brasier”), or a rippling, oddly mesmerising chasm driven deeper through layers of rhythm and almost-melody (“Monolithe de chagrin,” “L’esprit cachot”).

And yet, Monument aux morts fails to maintain the vice grip on the listener it periodically holds. This is partly down to production that’s fittingly crushing and filth-encrusted for the album’s brutal death leanings, but thereby flattens the more prominent atmospheric side. Aside from above-noted highlights, and the odd sharp turns into the unusual, the majority of Monument aux morts’ eight movements progress along the same lines. The shared components—lurching from resonant tremolos into gallops, retreats to minimalistic whining and half-present drums, recurrent sludgy stomping—are effective in themselves. The issue comes with their repetition across a runtime that approaches an hour, where overlapping song transitions cause things to blur still further into an indistinct mass.

Viande are getting closer to the masterwork of horror they suggest they’re capable of. Despite being longer, Monument aux morts holds a more commanding presence than their debut and the germs of dark brilliance have grown to larger aspects that are truly gripping when they take over. All that remains is for Viande to stitch them together and give them the richer master their depths deserve.

Rating: Good
DR: 63 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: July 31st, 2026

While any band, metal or not, would kill to have a classic in their discography, I often feel that having one can do their other albums a disservice. Some classics continue their perpetual status by virtue of self-fulfilling “this is good because we have been told it must be” prophecy (Tomb of the Mutilated), while some keep their status because fans refuse to accept anything else as even capable of touching this particular sound (None So Vile, Dopethrone, Destroy the Opposition) irrespective of the quality of follow-up releases. Over the last decade or so, Gorguts has usurped Meshuggah for the band everyone mines for inspiration, with fantastic results. Hailing from Denmark, Carbon Tomb are here to scourge the earth with their debut album Passage to a Neutron Star, and they too have thrown their hat in the Gorguts ring. Show of hands, who’s expecting an Obscura clone?1 Well, you’re wrong, and I couldn’t be more thrilled.

The backbone of Carbon Tomb plays heavily on Gorguts more straightforward yet just as foul From Wisdom to Hate. The discordant and oppressive approaches you expect are all present, but in a far more digestible form despite the raw ugliness of the notes. Alternating between grindcore-tier assault and full speed ahead spirit with sudden half-time slowdowns and twanging leads, Passage to a Neutron Star manages to draw from more than one spirit of disharmonic masters. The alien soundscapes of Artificial Brain collide with wailing and gnashing of Teeth (“A Hidden Creature”), oppressing the listener with haunting clashes of notes while always being ready to collapse into a foul riff or grim lead. “Reversed Head Renewal” channels the riff-centric Gorguts in all its glory, high trems riding out over a bass that clangs like The Iron Giant taking a jog. Title track “Passage to a Neutron Star” alternates between blast beats galore and sudden, brief measures of brvtal Ulcerate-isms before the vocals turn more throaty in style and the chord progressions become more slammy to follow suit. All of this should be a disjointed, inapproachable mess, but it is not, and at its peak, there are signs of some truly incredible things brewing in the Carbon Tomb camp.

Those signs find themselves in the album centerpiece, “The Dog Hunter” and “Of God’s Neglect.” These two songs are a perfectly complimentary pair of violence, fusing skull-liquifying riffcraft and supremely emotive introspection in equal turn. “The Dog Hunter” centers around a riff channeling Human Cull violence which slowly unravels with drummer Mikael rocking the bat-on-an-oak-tree sounding snare in various permutations, impossibly catchy without losing a drop of its oppressive atmosphere. “Of God’s Neglect” features a positively tear-jerking synth(!!) lead over more midpaced and mournful grooves, a flourish which appears completely out of nowhere and somehow fuses with the main spirit of the album masterfully, without ever seeming like an afterthought or unnecessary gimmick. This is the closest moment of raw melody on the entire album, and despite being a complete inversion of everything Carbon Tomb seem to stand for—ugly, dissonant notes and speed, suddenly slathered with slow, singable beauty—it doesn’t just work; it’s absolutely delightful and an instant contender for Song of the Year. A complete album with this dual approach would have me ready to give the highest marks, and it’s exciting to see that in an already very good album, ideas of proper greatness are gestating.

It helps that Carbon Tomb have a good ear for good production and album flow, with a decently dynamic master, especially for the genre. Drums are well articulated and clear despite the (usually) blast-heavy presentation, and vocalist/bassist Jappe Tander keeps his instrument center stage without ever overwhelming the depressed-alien riff construction of guitarist Richardt. Jappe’s vocal style also features some decent Gorguts nods, emulating Luc Lemay’s hoarse roar when not engaging in subterranean gutturals. The only big knock against Passage to a Neutron Star is that the mid-stretch is so S-tier that the back third seems to suffer a superficial dip in quality despite none of the songs themselves suffering from any serious bloat or superficiality.

Carbon Tomb have come out of nowhere and offered a devastating blow to listeners around the world with a debut of excellent quality and composition. I won’t yet go so far as to declare it an instant classic, but the giants it stands on are of some very broad shoulders indeed, allowing the band to reach where few young outfits could hope to tread. Passage to a Neutron Star has announced Carbon Tomb as big-time players in the world of grindy dissodeath, and I cannot wait to see what stars await us in the future.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Website: Album Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: July 17th, 2025

Review: Dysgnostic – End Whispers

Published by Clay on 2026/07/162026/07/16 Artwork by Belial NecroArts Style: Dissonant death metal, progressive death metal (harsh vocals)Recommended…
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https://www.newsbeep.com/uk/695039/

Each writer here in the Hall has their own ritual for fishing new promo from the sump. Some utter incantations to eldritch gods. Some engage in druidic rites under the full moon. Some offer blood sacrifices to our Ape Overlord and heed the direction of the splatters. While my own ritual is a closely guarded secret, I can tell you that Verdun’s genre tag, “blackened dissonant sludge,” bypassed all ritual requirements. I swiped the French four-piece’s third LP so fucking fast I got dizzy. Of course, the genre tags we glean from labels’ promo language have no objective connection to quality or reality. Does Abyssal Womb deliver the promised goods, or is it just another case of hollow hyperbole?

Abyssal Womb marks a substantial departure from Verdun’s earlier work. 2014 debut The Eternal Drift’s Canticles used the same crushing, long-form structures as Cough or Warhorse. In 2019, sophomore effort Astral Sabbath saw the band experiment more heavily with abrasive and blackened textures, but it would take seven years for those elements to be fully realized. On Abyssal Womb, Verdun is still fundamentally a sludge band—and has the groove to prove it—but they’ve dispensed with much of the atmospherics and psychedelia of previous releases in favor of a darker and more direct sound. Roughly 15 minutes shorter than its predecessors, Abyssal Womb gets in, delivers grit, groove, and unease in equal measures, then makes like a tree and fucking leaves.

Where blackened dissonance served as a decoration on Astral Sabbath, it suffuses nearly every second of Abyssal Womb. Whether vocalist David Sadok rasps in French (“La Lame et la Chair,”1 “Les Noces du Néant”2) or in English, he’s malevolently caustic. What surprised me most was how much more terrifying he is in French. The rhythm section often sways between exhausted, blackened plodding (“Silent Witness”), macabre processions (“Funeral of the Cosmic Knight,” “Rise of the Atomic Ghouls”), and sludgy grooves (“He Who Killed the Devil”), but Jay Pinelli’s strident leads curdle blood at every opportunity. Even when I know it’s coming, his dreadful solo in “Funeral of the Cosmic Knight” sends shivers down my spine, reminding me of the primal fear in Primitive Man’s Observance. This is one of my favorite moments on the album, along with the imperious march on the back half of “Rise of the Atomic Ghouls.” Drummer Geraud Jonquet violently punctuates Pinelli’s stomping, palm-muted chugs in a way that feels like I’m ascending the steps to the gallows.

There’s plenty to praise on Abyssal Womb. Unsettling blackened plucking opens “Silent Witness.” Florian Celdran’s bass cleverly caresses the gaps between sustained chords in “La Lame et la Chair,” and Verdun weaves a few surprisingly emotive passages through the album (“Funeral of the Cosmic Knight,” “The Man Behind My Eyes”). “Les Noces du Néant” opens on a powerful sadboi doom riff that resurfaces throughout, and the track serves as a great closer, leaving me suitably unsettled, anxious, and unsafe. There’s less to critique, but there is some. “The Man Behind My Eyes” feels like a low point, failing to coalesce as well as the rest of Abyssal Womb. There’s a bafflingly non-sequitous noir-shaded bass solo in “He Who Killed the Devil,” and several tracks shoot past ideal endings in favor of dedicated outros or reprisals (“Silent Witness,” “He Who Killed the Devil,” “The Man Behind My Eyes”). None of these are dealbreakers—or even close—but they can briefly shake me out of Abyssal Womb’s immersion.

I rolled the dice on Verdun, declining to listen to advance tracks or previous output and trusting in the genre tag alone. This strategy doesn’t normally yield the best results, but it certainly paid off here. Abyssal Womb sees Verdun venturing deep into unknown waters and dredging up something dark and grisly, something that sets the teeth on edge. Abyssal Womb isn’t without its faults, but they’re not calamitous, nor do they overly detract from the band’s exciting new direction. If Verdun’s trajectory is any indication—and I hope it is—Abyssal Womb could be the first few steps toward something buried even deeper in the lightless abyss.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320kbps mp3
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Websites: Official | Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram
Releases Worldwide: June 26th, 2026

Goreworm – Miasmic Solitude Review

After releasing debut LP Prodigy of the Grotesque in 2020, Canada’s Goreworm re-emerges from their burrow with follow-up…
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https://www.newsbeep.com/uk/639146/

Goreworm – Miasmic Solitude Review

After releasing debut LP Prodigy of the Grotesque in 2020, Canada’s Goreworm re-emerges from their burrow with follow-up…
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https://www.newsbeep.com/au/736440/

Goreworm – Miasmic Solitude Review

After releasing debut LP Prodigy of the Grotesque in 2020, Canada’s Goreworm re-emerges from their burrow with follow-up…
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https://www.newsbeep.com/ca/736507/

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After releasing debut LP Prodigy of the Grotesque in 2020, Canada’s Goreworm re-emerges from their burrow with follow-up full-length Miasmic Solitude. Prodigy of the Grotesque enchanted me when I ran across it a few years ago—sweeping guitars, slick bass grooves, and a deliciously vigorous percussive cannonade made for a tasty tech death treat. Now six years later, Goreworm has metamorphosed from the band that dropped Prodigy. Vocalist Jesse Suess and founding members drummer Sean Bruce and bassist Derek Gibbs bid adieu, leaving guitarists Jordan Estrela and Brent Moerschfelder to carry the torch. For Miasmic Solitude, Goreworm rounds out the ensemble with session drummer Robin Stone (Ashen Horde, Chestcrush), who flayed the skins on 2021 EP Plague of Shadows, and vocalist Robert Miller (Antheraea). With a revitalized crew and a fresh batch of jams in hand, can Miasmic Solitude worm its way into your heart?

Technical death metal can be a tough genre to craft thoughtful songs within. The most immediate hurdle is technical chops—if you can’t muster the dexterity to pull off instrumental mayhem, you’re sunk. Yet the ability to play at blistering speeds with robotic fidelity isn’t enough on its own; it’s merely the price of admission. To transcend in the genre as the best from Necrophagist, Obscura, and Archspire have, you need crystalline mechanics embedded within engrossing and memorable compositions. Goreworm’s brand of death metal lands amidst the likes of The Black Dahlia Murder, Vale of Pnath and Abysmal Dawn, sporting burly riffs played at head-spinning velocity with occasional splashes of neoclassical color. This, at least, ensures the price of admission has been paid in full.

Goreworm members old and new unleash the razzle-dazzle on Miasmic Solitude as they pump gallons of adrenalized ear candy into its compositions. Estrela and Moerschfelder beget a sinewy string section, uncorking spidery leads that dash along fretboards with muscle and venom (“Monuments to Murdering,” “Miasmic Solitude”). Moerschfelder pulls double duty on the low-end, too, clanging and banging with satisfying heft. I only wish he broke away more from playing under the guitars and locking into root notes. To be clear, this is a nitpick on style and not a comment on his ability to bring the thunder. It’s just that compared to Gibbs’ bass on Prodigy of the Grotesque, Miasmic Solitude loses a dimension that helped set Goreworm’s debut apart. Meanwhile, Stone supplies a magnificent performance behind the kit, unfettering smooth rolls à la Chris Adler (“Amor Vincit Omnia”) and hammer-smashing cavalcades that recall the ferocity of Cannibal Corpse’s Paul Marzurkiewicz fused with the grace of Dirk Verbeuren (“No Reprieve”). Robert Miller proves a capable vocalist, and though his performance isn’t particularly dynamic, he supports the music well and sounds credibly savage throughout.

Goreworm crackles with vitality throughout Miasmic Solitude, yet the entirety falls short of the promise of its performances. The production proves a mixed bag, allowing the guitars and vocals to shine at the expense of the drums, which sometimes cut through but often become muddled during furious blasts, obscuring the pop of robust drum tones I loved on the debut. Perhaps the intent was to thematically embrace what a cloudy, claustrophobic atmosphere achieves, shining the spotlight on a single focus at a time. If so, I can appreciate the attempt, but it fails to properly incorporate all the ingredients into what Goreworm is cooking. Besides the mix, the songwriting highlights Goreworm’s technical acumen without sharpening their hooks enough to reel me back in once the music fades. To be fair, Miasmic Solitude rips throughout its runtime and is a qualified neck-wrecker—I just don’t feel compelled to revisit it afterwards.

Ultimately, Goreworm exhibits a myriad of traits I love to hear in technical death metal. With a more well-rounded production and carefully honed compositions that transcend being platforms for flexing technical mastery, Goreworm bears all the potential to annihilate expectations. As it stands, after several listens through Miasmic Solitude, there’s no doubt that Goreworm possesses the prowess necessary to deliver on the technical front. I’m just unconvinced of the magnetism their material yields to keep me coming back past the pyrotechnics.

Rating: Mixed
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: June 12th, 2026

https://www.europesays.com/be-nl/81303/ Goreworm – Miasmic Solitude | Zware Metalen #2026 #alterbeast #Amusement #arsis #BE #België #Belgium #BoltThrower #Canada #death #DeathMetal #DyingFetus #Entertainment #fleshbore #goreworm #gorod #MiasmicSolitude #Music #Muziek #NapalmDeath #NibalCorpse #obscura #recensie #TechnicalDeathMetal #TheBlackDahliaMurder #TranscendingObscurityRecords #xenosis #ZwareMetalen

Review: Xenosis – Hermetic Transmutation

Published by Clay on 2026/06/052026/06/05 Artwork by Graphic Nightmare Style: Progressive death metal, technical death metal, death metal…
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https://www.newsbeep.com/uk/622895/

Though my first published review here at Angry Metal Guy was back in September 2024, it was on May 30, 2025, that I officially escaped n00bdom with my review of Rivers of Nihil’s self-titled album. As I approach my one-year anniversary, it seems appropriate to grab a promo that styles itself after the progressive tech-death of Rivers of Nihil. Thus, enter The Scalar Process with their sophomore outing, Agnomysticism. Not only do they sound kind of like Rivers of Nihil, but they even borrow Andy Thomas for a guest spot on one song. The Scalar Process formed in 2016, but didn’t release any material until 2021’s Coagulative Matter. It took another five years to release the follow-up, with a new drummer, additional guitarist and bassist. Having never heard these guys before, I picked up Agnomysticism in the hope of it being closer in quality to Xenotaph than Rivers of Nihil. Have the metal gods blessed these guys with supreme musical talent?

On Agnomysticism, The Scalar Process plays a synth-heavy tech death that blends speedy precision with calm ambiance. They have much in common with Fallujah and The Zenith Passage, though not the technicality in their riffs. The riffs featured here are largely of the bland chugging Rivers of Nihil variety, though with a few neat arpeggiated segments and solos here and there. Synths are omnipresent, adding a general atmospheric quality rather than hooks. Songs frequently begin with light atmospherics such as synths, trems, or arpeggios before diving into the heavy stuff. There’s less interest in creating original, catchy riffs of the kind you hear on Xenotaph or Datalysium. When songs get speedy and loud, they just sound flat—bland blast beats with non-descript riffs and Mathieu Lefevre’s monotone growls. Honestly, if it weren’t for the tempo changes, you’d hardly notice the passage from track to track.

Agnomysticism contains a collection of songs that are clean, clinical, and cold. With tech-death you expect to feel something of the sublime—the awe and wonder of musical passages (Stortregn’s Impermanence) or something that compels your body to move (Archspire). Yet, The Scalar Process appears content to emotionally distance themselves from their musical creation. The main ingredient in this distance is an apparent allergy to hooks. Any time a promising riff starts up, such as on “A Breathing Moment,” it just as quickly dissipates. The Scalar Process take their progressive structure and turn it into a sort of improvisational free-for-all where passages just don’t have room to develop. “A Breathing Moment” perfectly encapsulates this, as it ends on a disappointing fade-out just as it appears on the verge of going somewhere interesting. The Scalar Process do play some neat riffs now and then, with a solo on “Illness” from Justin McKinney (The Zenith Passage) being the best. But other attempts at hooks don’t work, such as a 30-second guest spot from Andy Thomas, whose cleans fall flat.

Could this just be another The Flesh Prevails? The compression on Agnomysticism is so crushed that the music—riffs, synths, drums, vocals—all become an indistinguishable mishmash until the quieter ambient segments. Where many times bands use these quieter moments to help build tension before a release of intense music, here the passages largely serve to give your ears a rest. Even on the lowest possible volume on my headphones, I found the loudness unbearable. The best-sounding songs are the full-length ambient instrumental interludes, “Affluent Marea” and “Sigil.” However, though they serve as a welcome rest for the ears, they sound more at home on an elevator than on a tech-death record. A better production would make this a more tolerable listen, but it would hardly fix all the issues plaguing Agnomysticism.

It’s rare that an album leaves me feeling so cold as Agnomysticism. It flies by in 45 minutes and leaves no real impression. I’ll give credit for a few impressive technical passages here and there, but otherwise, I’m not sure what The Scalar Process accomplishes. Where’s the passion? It just feels so aloof and meandering without purpose, and the mixing ensures you can’t properly hear it anyway. In the end, it’s a record you’ll struggle to recall as soon as you finish listening to it.

Rating: 1.5/5.0
DR: 4 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Site
Releases Worldwide: May 29th, 2026

Review: Defect Designer – Depressants

Published by Clay on 2026/05/232026/05/23 Artwork by Ian Miller Style: Progressive death metal, avant-garde death metal (Mixed vocals,…
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https://www.newsbeep.com/uk/600324/

Decipher – ΘΕΛΗΜΑ (Thelema) Review

It’s not often I underrate something, but if there were ever a legitimate example, it might be my…
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https://www.newsbeep.com/uk/480932/

https://www.europesays.com/ie/390144/ Decipher – ΘΕΛΗΜΑ (Thelema) Review #2026 #35 #BlackMetal #BlackenedDeathMetal #Decipher #Dissection #Éire #Entertainment #GreekMetal #IE #Ireland #Mar26 #MelodicBlackMetal #Music #Review #Reviews #Svartidauði #Thelema #TranscendingObscurityRecords #Watain

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It’s not often I underrate something, but if there were ever a legitimate example, it might be my review of Arcane Paths to Resurrection, the debut from Greek black metal trio Decipher. Upon revisiting it recently, I experienced newfound intense appreciation for their slightly crusty melodic black metal, and this all stemmed from my initial spins of sophomore ΘΕΛΗΜΑ.1 Not overly atmospheric, not supremely dissonant or integrated into death metal, nor straightforwardly raw and aggressive, Decipher maintain a style in Thelema that’s as subtly intriguing and melodic as it is punchy and to-the-point. The word Thelema means will2 and while there’s no lyric sheet or storytelling in promo material to elucidate the concept, the snatches of audible references to Satan, and the generally extreme, yet anthemic vibe of the music broadcast defiant rebellion and the burden of being, which suit that word well.

Decipher’s sound is broadly the same as on Arcane Paths, a Watain-meets-Dissection viciousness tempered—if you can call it that—by a darker, eerier side that pulls more from Icelandic acts like Svartidauði. Whilst remaining committed to frequent use of group-chanted and screamed vocal lines and plenty of recognisably malicious blackened riffery, Thelema sees the band experiment a little more. While not meandering—with the possible exception of “Bound to the Wheel”—songs spread their themes into more variations (“The Black March,” “Towards Renaissance”) or uncanny soloing, whilst rhythms shift more often, and build tension for longer before unravelling and transforming. The barely five minutes added is enough for the compositions to have more presence, whether with energetic malevolence (“Return to Naught,” “Seven Scars”) or ominous finality (“Liturgy”). Skirting the precipice that would see a descent into atmo-black, there’s a relaxation and a layering to the melodic lines that deepens and darkens the sound.

ΘΕΛΗΜΑ (Thelema) by DECIPHER

Thelema demonstrates that Decipher’s command of rhythm, melody, and grit has only gotten better, as it compels with the joint force of hookiness and evil. Using recurring patterns of riff, vocals, and percussion that each cue one another, Decipher create a thrashing feeling of push-and-pull that’s downright magnetic. A group wail precipitating a gnarly descending arpeggio (“Seven Scars”); the way a guitar clambers up and down to the precise beat of the drums (“Return to Naught,” “Hail Death”). These manifest organically out of existing tempos—blast beat (“Seven Scars”), march (“The Black March”), or shuffling skitter (“Towards Renaissance”) alike, making the shifts seamless and the identity consistent. Perhaps this is black metal that’s not unusual on paper, but adorned with Decipher’s now recognisable bright yet sinister melodies, and continually layered vocals, it sounds freshly thrilling. The tingles that go down my spine when I hear the first riff on opener “Return to Naught,” the solo that ends “The Black March,” and the overlaid cries and urgent tremolo of “Litany” have not yet failed to materialise.

Thelema’s enjoyability and power over its listener is also bolstered by Decipher’s additional refinements in areas not lacking before. By severing any instrumental interlude or protracted intro, the energy—however it transforms—and momentum are maintained, and the album has a more robust through-line. Rhythmic and thematic shifts flex and emerge variously with emphasis and mournful or spiteful intensity. The wails are just as agonised and chest-emptying in the latter half as they are in the first. Decipher’s production has also expanded to accommodate their slightly more nuanced and exploratory sound. Thelema sports a roomy mix that keeps the interspersed vocal and guitar lines, and the proudly beating drums and crashing cymbals equally audible and striking.

I recall bemoaning a lack of zhuzh in Arcane Paths and, whether or not I still consider that justified, it definitely wouldn’t be here. For all the new layers and senses of intrigue, Thelema remains a black metal album with standout moments that threaten to overshadow and desaturate the more standard fare, and may strike some harder than others. It yet undeniably shows Decipher carving out a decisive space for themselves that adumbrates a dark, delicious presence. Thelema stands one step behind the inexorability that confers greatness in its sphere. But it’s a small step.

Rating: Very Good
DR: 11 | Format Reviewed: 320kbps mp3
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: March 20th, 2026

https://www.europesays.com/ie/342250/ Phasma – Purgatory Review | Angry Metal Guy #2026 #40 #american #AtraeBilis #BlackMetal #BrutalDeathMetal #CryptsOfDespair #DeathMetal #Deathcore #Éire #Entertainment #Feb26 #GreekMetal #Hardcore #Harm’sWay #IE #international #Ireland #Music #Phasma #Purgatory #Review #Reviews #TechnicalDeathMetal #TranscendingObscurityRecords #VampireSquid #Vimur #Whitechapel

Sometimes an album comes around ye olde promo pit that looks and smells familiar, but plays like something else entirely. Today’s entry into the “what the heck am I actually listening to?” hall of infamy is Phasma’s Purgatory. The third record from the Greek/US duo, and the first carried by a label—our beloved Transcending Obscurity Records—Purgatory continually subverted every expectation I had. In doing so, it became one of my biggest pleasant surprises in recent memory.

While early Phasma works boasted a songwriting style and sound that evoked a grotesque Whitechapel/Vampire Squid lovechild, Purgatory is a charred and venomous affair of only a tenuous relation to that concoction, and all the better for it. Conjuring a vision where Vimur, Harms Way, and Crypts of Despair’s first two albums merged into one mangled mass, Purgatory writhes and slithers through an unholy collection of brutal riffs, immolating tremolo flares, and swaggering grooves. While Phasma’s vocal approach largely carries over from early works, pairing a guttural roar with piercing screeches, but minimizing previously prevalent items like subterranean gurgles and glass-shattering squeals, it takes on an altogether more intimidating character here. Instead of showing off the full range of technical skills and range as this unit had to prove on their self-titled debut, Phasma took Purgatory as an opportunity to be as mean and concise as possible.

Purgatory by PHASMA

Simplifying their song structures, doubling down on memorable hooks, and restricting technical expositions to a minimum helped Phasma achieve their goal, resulting in a work that feels genuinely terrifying. Opening duo “I” and early highlight “II” prove this within thirty seconds of their introduction, but also create a delightful deviation from the usual songwriting tricks I expect from one phrase to another. For example, “I” makes me think a huge breakdown is about to drop right at the start, only to blast into the shadowed iciness of black metal, then dive seamlessly into a gym-ready hardcore groove. Subverting my expectations becomes a regular occurrence in Purgatory. “II,” “III,” and “VI” all venture deeper into doom-laden dungeons than I would’ve ever anticipated from a record as evil and high-energy as this. Harmonized melodies and layered guitar pyrotechnics only enhance this effect when things transition between paces and moods in a snap (“II”). By thusly offsetting their stripped-down writing with constant fiery twists and gnarly turns, Phasma crafted a remarkably exciting and rich experience that is an absolute joy to experience over and over again.

Despite its truncated 27-minute runtime, Purgatory burgeons with invigorating ideas all meticulously arranged, but initial spins suffer at the hands of a production of unforgiving loudness. “IV” in particular challenged my ability to appreciate the fantastic lead-into-chug-triplets and Vampire Squid riffs that bulge out from densely packed bass rumbles and glassy cymbals, in no small part because everything is so in-your-face as to flatten entirely. “V” feels a similar impact, though an eerie, bass-driven atmospheric break and subsequent Atrae Bilis-esque bridge briefly alleviates that effect. Understanding that the intended purpose of Purgatory is to oppress and destroy, a little more headroom in the mix and master would’ve allowed Phasma to hit harder and better highlight the myriad clever details distributed throughout.

Thankfully, the production isn’t so ruinous as to make my experience with Purgatory anything less than a delightful treat. As I spent more time with it, I loved it more, craved it regularly, and found additional moments to take home. Memorable beyond what I anticipated, and more engaging than I dared hope, Purgatory is a resounding success in all areas other than engineering. In some circles, that one weakness won’t matter much. In the end, it didn’t matter much to me either, such is the strength of Phasma’s songwriting.1 This is one trip to limbo you won’t want to miss!



Rating: Great!
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Websites: phasmaproject.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/PhasmaProject
Releases Worldwide: February 20th, 2026

Death Obvious – Death Obvious Review

By Andy-War-Hall

Back in August, I went goo-goo over an avant-black duo under Transcending Obscurity called Hexrot and, as a lowly N00b, awarded their debut Formless Ruin of Oblivion a “Great” designation.1 Flash forward, and sloshing through the promo sump comes an avant-black duo under Transcending Obscurity called Death Obvious, offering their self-titled debut. Composed of vocalist Lea Lavey and everything-else-er Sima Sioux,2 this Finnish duo reveal high aspirations with claims of “crafting music as it suits their demented vision in a recklessly intuitive manner” while pitching Death Obvious for fans of visionary acts like Blut aus Nord, Deathspell Omega, Veilburner and—looky!—Hexrot. My excitement in snagging Death Obvious was, like Death Obvious’ apparent expectations, quite high. Does Death Obvious live up to either?

With Death Obvious, you can pick out distinct moments of black, death and doom metal bubbling to the surface of Death Obvious’ style-soup. Death Obvious is sworn chiefly to the blackened arts, communicating primarily through Lavey’s hideous rasps and Sioux’s tremolo riffs and blast beats, with second-wave inspired ragers “The Third Eye Burning” and “Mercury Off Axis” making no bones about their caustic, reverb-heavy attack. Death and doom are the more secondary sounds of Death Obvious, with death appearing on the chunkier, mid-paced moments of songs like “Sanctuario” and doom manifesting into spacier, drawn-out passages like the start of “The Great Gate Theory,” which put me in mind, surprisingly, of Khemmis’ Hunted. When Death Obvious’ songwriting clicks, like on album highlight “Sanctuario” or portions of closer “Catechismus for the Plagued,” sounds really do hurtle in exciting, dangerous manners that makes Death Obvious a killer listen.

Most of Death Obvious is indistinct, however, due to Death Obvious’ directionless songwriting and murky production. Death Obvious relishes in dissonance both clean (“Total Heavenly Desolation”) and dirty (“Suffer the Spectacle”). But instead of building tension or suspense, Death Obvious creates tedium through dissonance, leading to neither release nor deeper discomfort but to a monotonous drone of black metal murk. This is exacerbated by Sioux’s guitar tone, which in Death Obvious’ faster moments can sound like a totally nebulous melange of reverb. To their credit, Death Obvious’ bass-forward mixing helps mitigate this somewhat, providing plucky, crunchy bass riffs like on “The Great Gate Theory.” It does nothing, however, for the busy, opaque mix that, damn the DR score, sounds boxed-in and flat. Death Obvious’ noise problem is encapsulated right off with “Mercury Off Axis,” opening with an excruciating, high-pitched drill sound that puts me in mind of the dentist and carries on well past its intro. It’s not pleasant, Obviously the point, but it’s not interesting either.

Death Obvious falters because Death Obvious simply doesn’t bring enough to the table. Not only is structure neglected on Death Obvious, but individual songs largely have little going for them beyond the black metal basics; over-repetition is chronic on tracks like “As Absence Expands over Everything,” and monotony abounds because of it. Beyond rare instances of effective piano and non-dental sound effects, Death Obvious blurs together in limited patterns played ad nauseam, making it an effort for the listener to stay focused throughout. Like how Death Obvious’ style issues were made plain by its opener, its songwriting woes are exemplified by its eight-minute closer, “Catechismus for the Plagued.” Half of “Catechismus…” anyway: the half that is one (1) riff, two (2) chords sharing one (1) root note hammered on and off at straight eighth notes with zero variation in dynamics or accent.3 The other half with creepy keys and an otherworldly soundscape shows what Death Obvious can be when playing inspired material. The one riff is what Death Obvious mostly offers: after a while, it doesn’t really sound like anything.

Death Obvious embodies the obtuse nature of avant-garde music with little of the adventurousness of its best practitioners. Instead of sounding unbound, it feels as though Death Obvious let the songs get away from them. I’m not sure if Death Obvious needs more editing, further drafting or both, but as is I can hardly pay attention for the entirety of one listen through. Death Obvious are a talented duo, and I believe they’ll have better material down the line, as moments throughout their debut hint at better things to come. However, not only did I not go goo-goo over Death Obvious, but I’m sure I won’t be returning to it much at all.

Rating: Bad
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps MP3
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Websites: deathobvious.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/DeathObvious
Releases Worldwide: December 5th, 2025

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https://www.europesays.com/ie/195811/ Depravity – Bestial Possession Review #2025 #4.0 #AtraeBilis #AustralianMetal #BestialPossession #BrutalDeathMetal #CannibalCorpse #DeProfundis #DeathMetal #Depravity #Éire #Entertainment #IE #Immolation #Ireland #MorbidAngel #Music #Nov25 #Review #Reviews #TranscendingObscurityRecords

Depravity – Bestial Possession Review

Since the release of Evil Upheaval in early 2018, I fell head over heels for Aussie death metal…
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https://www.newsbeep.com/us/307896/

Depravity – Bestial Possession Review

Since the release of Evil Upheaval in early 2018, I fell head over heels for Aussie death metal…
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https://www.newsbeep.com/ca/300540/

Depravity – Bestial Possession Review

By Kenstrosity

Since the release of Evil Upheaval in early 2018, I fell head over heels for Aussie death metal quintet Depravity. Evil Upheaval always going to be a difficult debut to follow, but Grand Malevolence did its very best and largely matched the debut’s sheer heft and vicious energy. Five long years spans the gap between then and now, with third salvo Bestial Possession, threatening to pummel me into dust. Little does Depravity know how badly I want it.

As if in smug answer to my “pummel me harder” challenge, Bestial Possession penetrates every pore of my body with wild abandon and zero concern for my internal organs. What I knew and loved from the brutal Evil Upheaval and the twisted Grand Malevolence coalesces here, forming a new evolution of Depravity’s sound that is at once devilishly cunning and fabulously infectious. A mangled amalgam of Cannibal Corpse bloodthirst, Immolation muscularity, and early Morbid Angel velocity, Depravity’s sound is familiar but instantly recognizable. The trick there is twofold. Firstly, Jamie Kay’s addicting vocal cadence and tonal attributes1 provide a singular voice that sets Depravity apart from the crowd. Secondly, guitarists Lynton Cessford and Jarrod Curley exhibit an uncanny ability to splice, fold, and connect tightly packed riffs together through kinky time signatures that snap my spine as easily as they trip me up (“Eunuch Maker,” “Blinding Oblivion”).

With these simple, but wildly effective, songwriting techniques—massaged by the smoothest transitions Depravity’s penned thus far—Bestial Possession quickly becomes a force to be reckoned with. Right off the bat, opening assault “Engulfed in Agony” launches the record with a devastating riffset; jaunty, subtly melodic, and bounding with verve. Oodles of arpeggiated scales and wriggling oscillations traversed by the lead guitars cohere beautifully with Louis Rando’s ballistic percussion and Ainsley Watkins’ clunky bass rumbles (“Call to the Fallen,” “Awful Mangulation”), forging a complex web of wizardry that stops just short of earning a “tech-death” badge but nonetheless ensures maximum stimulation. As a way to create balance and protect songwriting dynamics in every selection, Depravity explore a great variety of tempos and textures around Bestial Possession’s denser phrases. Grounding those variations to the band’s core mission of destruction, a palpable sense of groove tailor-made to incite ravenous pit activity also compels heads to bang with great intensity, as evidenced by turbo-bangers “Rot in the Pit,” “Aligned with Satan,” and “Legacy.”

There may be those who argue that the level of accessibility Depravity achieved with such brutal fare as this works against them, but I argue the opposite is true. Bands like Cannibal Corpse, De Profundis and even younger acts like Atrae Bilis expertly toy the line between accessibility and deadliness, and with Bestial Possession, Depravity earn their place in that elite category of death. This third installment in Depravity’s catalog is dense, brutally fast, and relentless. But it’s also refined, concise, and streamlined compared to their previous works. It’s loud, too, which holds it back from even higher acclaim, but its meaty guitar tones and well-balanced mix helps recover some ground on the production front. The only other nitpick I can muster against Bestial Possession is that, despite the incredible variety and scalpel-precise execution on hand, sometimes its strongest and most memorable cuts (“Eunuch Maker,” “Call to the Fallen,” “Rot in the Pit,” “Blinding Oblivion”) overshadow its album mates a touch too strongly. For some, that might create a minor bump in the road. Still, it’s unlikely to diminish the listening experience in any meaningful way.

As the dust settles and the flames of Depravity’s tear across the death metal landscape recede, Bestial Possession towers above many of 2025’s myriad releases. Even with my analytical eye in high gear, rooting for flaws and scrounging for blemishes, Depravity secured their rightful place as one of my absolute favorite meat-and-potatoes death metal acts active today, with Bestial Possession slotting at the top of their discography. It once more begs the question: how will they follow this up? To that I say, “Who gives a fuck?!” and smash the replay button to smithereens.

Rating: Great!
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Websites: depravityaustralia.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/Depravitydestroy
Releases Worldwide: November 21st, 2025

#2025 #40 #atraeBilis #australianMetal #bestialPossession #brutalDeathMetal #cannibalCorpse #deProfundis #deathMetal #depravity #immolation #morbidAngel #nov25 #review #reviews #transcendingObscurityRecords

Veilburner – Longing for Triumph, Reeking of Tragedy Review

By Kenstrosity

Boasting one of the most consistent discographies in the world of weird modern metal, Pennsylvania’s Veilburner toy with the boundaries between the strange, the twisted, and the accessible. From my introduction to their work, A Sire to the Ghouls of Lunacy, to their high-water mark Lurkers in the Capsule of Skull, and through The Duality of Decapitation and Wisdom, Veilburner defied Angry Metal Guy’s Law of Diminishing Recordings™. Considering that they draw from the same bag of blackened death tricks—albeit seen through the reflection of a fun house mirror—that’s no small feat. The question remains, can upcoming tome Longing for Triumph, Reeking of Tragedy pull it off once more?

Veilburner have gotten away with this for as long as they have, over the course of now eight LPs, because they continually find deceptively creative ways to use the tools at their disposal. Highly affected growls and eerie wails interlock in a delightfully mangled fashion with twanging lead guitars and bass plucks, while lightly syncopated drum beats and blasty fills create a solid rhythmic backbone for unexpectedly sticky blackened death riffs full of fun details and novel embellishments. This is the core of Veilburner’s sound, but the formula is wildly adaptable and modular. This, in turn, allows for countless iterations that all feel familiar without feeling rehashed. Longing for Triumph, Reeking of Tragedy notches nicely into Veilburner’s discography as another such iteration, this time stripping and slowing down compared to the vicious Lurkers or the whimsical Duality.

Floating in spooky soundscapes—almost psychedelic in its relaxed, wobbly compositions—Longing boasts a simplified riffset and a renewed focus on effective hooks that rely less on base repetition and more on subtle variation. One of the best examples to that point is third cut “Rigor & Wraith,” which is far less violent than the title implies, but still wildly successful. It leaves me in a trance just in time for its companion piece, “That Which Crypts Howls Grandeur,” to rip me apart with thunderous, oscillating riffs and shadowy rasps. It’s a murky tune, darker and more evil-sounding than the majority of Veilburner’s compositions thus far, once again showcasing the versatility of their style. Later highlights like “Ouroboreal Whorl” reinforce the strength of Veilburner’s leads and solos to elevate entire compositions with memorable decorations, vibrant shreds, and brain-scratching burls. In between these cuts, more “predictable” fare that follows precedents established by previous works, particularly Lurkers, prove that Veilburner can carry over familiar material and still impress on the strength of their bouncy, but immersive songwriting (“Da’ath Ye Shadow Portrait,” “Matter o’ the Most Awful of Martyrs”).

Yet, I can feel the effects of the aforementioned Law™ creeping in. As Longing launches, “Longing for Triumph…” and “Pestilent Niche” could be interchanged with material from VLBRNR or Sire and find a pretty welcoming home right away. This issue introduced itself for the first time on Duality, suggesting that Veilburner draws near now to the upper limit of versatility with this sound as it currently exists. Similarly, closer “…Reeking of Tragedy” could reasonably close out any of Veilburner’s records without feeling out of place (though it does have one of the coolest riffs on this record, and directly connects to the opener with a reprisal of sharp, ghostly chants, which helps its case). At 52 minutes, consistent with the duo’s discography thus far, Longing is also the first that feels bloated. This is likely due to the prevalence of slower tempos and more relaxed pacing than previous records endeavored, which brings too much attention to Longing’s average song time of over six minutes than benefits my listening experience. As a final note, Longing’s production shifts the sound towards the flat and the muted, which robs depth and weakens impact where it matters most.

Despite my laundry list of critiques, Longing for Triumph, Reeking of Tragedy remains a thoroughly enjoyable, riff-laden, and fiercely unique record in the deep pool of blackened death options. Not as progressive as previous installments, but still effective and interesting, Longing perpetuates Veilburner’s reputation for writing weird and wonky material with meticulous attention to detail and a high standard of quality. That it isn’t the strongest example of their style is but a byproduct of the number of iterations it’s gone through. Perhaps this is a sign for Veilburner to push the envelope, to find and exploit the next stage of evolution for their sound. Even so, Longing’s worthy of a spin or three!

Rating: Good!
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Websites: veilburner.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/veilburner
Releases Worldwide: November 14th, 2025

#2025 #30 #AmericanMetal #BlackMetal #BlackenedDeathMetal #DeathMetal #LongingForTriumph #Nov25 #ProgressiveMetal #ReekingOfTragedy #Review #Reviews #TranscendingObscurityRecords #Veilburner

Glorious Depravity – Death Never Sleeps Review

By Steel Druhm

Death metal from New York City is usually plenty ugly enough, but in the strange case of Glorious Depravity, things get even more grotesque due to the band members’ connection to acts like Pyrrhon and Woe. Their 2020 debut Ageless Violence was a solid if non-essential homage to the Godz of Floridan Death with plenty of Morbid Angel and Deicide DNA in its unnatural makeup. Five years later, they serve up Death Never Sleeps with a sound profile still wearing Orlando-friendly cargo shorts, and hidden in those oversized pockets are elements of grindcore. This is ugly, slimy death for fugly, unwashed folks who throw empty beer cans at meth heads for cheap thrills. The only thing remotely classy about it is the badass cover art from Dan Seagrave, and that’s just fine by me. I’m not here to attend Finishing School or my court-mandated Anger Management workshop. I’m here to blast death metal and scare the normies, and so is Glorious Depravity. Twinsies!

The Depravity Boys come out hard on opener “Slaughter the Gerontocrats” with feverish riffs ripping skin and pasting bones as Pyrrhon’s Doug Moore vomits a world full of hate and venom on the listener. Some of the leads reek of vintage Mordid Angel, but this is more unhinged and closer to grind and even slam at times. Moore uncorks some truly rancid garbage disposal voKILLS and piercing shrieks, making this like an insane asylum in a hobo wine bottle. Things go a bit wonky on follow-up “Stripmined Flesh Extractor” with an awkward shuffling tempo that doesn’t fully work, thus squandering some of the crucial momentum created by the opener. From there, it’s a back and forth between well-executed death that hammer smashes your face and lesser cuts that have good moments but don’t disembowel you as they should. “Sulfurous Winds (Howling Through Christendom)” is a wild ride through the tombs where Morbid Angel buried their unused (and well-used) riffs, and Moore’s repeated roars about “SCIENCE” are fun in an old school Thomas Dolby way.1 “Scourged by the Wings of the Fell Destroyer” is also fine and dandy, hitting in that 1990 Floridan death way but with overtones of Kataklysm due to the screeching vocals.

My favorite moment arrives with “Necrobiotic Enslavement,” where the Morbid influence is especially notable in the heaving, lurching riffs that reek of overflowing ash Treys. While the good parts of Death Never Sleeps are respectable and entertaining, nothing here will completely blow your mind, and the lesser bits are Debbie Downers. “Freshkills Poltergeist” shoehorns in pinch harmonics that are more annoying than interesting, and “Carnage at the Margins” gets very screamy and ends up grating the nerves instead of power drilling the Medusa Oblongata. You end up with an album of mostly solid death with generic and underwhelming additions tacked on, which is disappointing for a band with the pedigree Glorious Depravity bring to the Geneology Council.

I’ll give Doug Moore props for his batshit crazy vocal performance. The guy is all over the lot with screams, shrieks, sub-basement gurgles, and standard death barks. He can do it all and proves it on every track, whether it’s needed or not. Sometimes he’s a dead ringer for Kataklysm’s Maurizio Iacono, and occasionally he sounds like young Mille of Kreator infamy. George Paul (Gravesend) and Matt Mewton (Woe) resurrect many riffs from the place where the slime live, and though it’s easy to spot their inspirations, I can’t fault much of what they throw down on the slab. There are a goodly number of face-melting leads and some completely insane solo pieces, too. Chris Grigg (Woe) brings a technical yet brutal force to the kit, pounding away like his life depends on it. The band is talented, but the writing sometimes lacks staying power and leans generic. At a tight 34 minutes, a lot of that can be forgiven as the good replaces the okay in short and savage order, but the lesser additions do drag the overall enjoyment factor down a few pegs.

Glorious Depravity gives a bunch of New York low-life bastards a chance to do things outside the lines of what their main gigs allow, and you can tell they’re having fun throwing shit against the subway wall. There’s nothing essential or “must hear” present, but it’s solid ratmeat and scumtaters for the diseased, and that may be enough for those fiends.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Transcending Obscurity
Websites: facebook.com/gloriousdepravity | instagram.com/gloriousdepravity
Releases Worldwide: November 7th, 2025

#2025 #30 #AgelessViolence #AmericanMetal #DeathMetal #DeathNeverSleeps #Deicide #GloriousDepravity #Gravesend #MorbidAngel #Nov25 #Pyrrhon #Review #Reviews #TranscendingObscurityRecords #Woe

Dwelling Below – Wearisome Guardians Review

By Spicie Forrest

The boys in Dwelling Below get a lot of facetime here at AMG. We’ve reviewed Hierarchies’ debut (Jared Moran, Anthony Wheeler, Nicolas Turner), all three albums by Acausal Intrusion (Moran, Turner), one by Filtheater (Moran), and we’ve done a filter piece on Feral Lord (Moran, Turner). It’s no wonder, as we tend to enjoy the angry, dissonant stuff they put out. I’ve been jonesing for something in that ballpark, so when I learned that Dwelling Below’s debut unnerved Thus Spoke enough to waive seniority, I quickly snagged their follow-up. Hoping it might hit the spot, I eagerly dug my grubby lil nubbins into Wearisome Guardians.

Dwelling Below was a filthy slab of long-form deathened doom, and Wearisome Guardians offers much of the same. Look at that cover art. It sounds exactly how you’d expect: like bathing in stagnant catacomb water. Cavernous, mad, and malevolent, Moran echoes through abandoned tombs, disturbing centuries of eight-legged architecture. On the skins, he nearly wakes the dead with frenetic onslaughts of double bass and unsettling cymbals. Turner’s guitar stillbirths an unholy union of Saint Vitus and Autopsy. Warped and abrasive riffs lumber forward, inexorable and lethal as a cave-in, while tormented leads scream psychosis from a neighboring cell (“Terminal Experiments,” “Sacraments”). Ever-so-slightly discordant basslines weave and coil around your ankles as Wheeler encourages a reexamination of your sanity. Like meeting a skinwalker, you know something’s off, but it’s hard to describe, and it’s fucking terrifying.

It’s a little oxymoronic to call 1.) dissonant 2.) death/doom 3.) metal accessible, but Wearisome Guardians is perhaps Moran’s most approachable offering yet. His aforementioned acts all shove their base genres through the same twisted, dissonant lens, but compared to Hierarchies or Acausal Intrusion, Dwelling Below is almost melodic. Between chaotic, atonal passages and vicious whammy abuse, Turner employs more traditional riffcraft learned long ago at Candlemass (“Wearisome Guardians,” “Terminal Experiments”). Leads in “Unfolding Universe” and “The Altar” reveal traces of Brocas Helm and Cirith Ungol, while “Sacraments” reaches further back, unearthing the legendary B.B. King for a solo, soulful, bright, and blue. These ancestral trappings are strung with care and shine brilliantly against Dwelling Below’s murky core. Wearisome Guardians offers these moments of reprieve from its oppressive violence, like guiding lights coaxing you deeper into the dark.

At 51 minutes, Wearisome Guardians isn’t terribly long for the genre, but with an average track length of ten minutes, it certainly isn’t a casual listen. Luckily, songcraft is not a weakness Dwelling Below suffers. Far from sedentary, Wearisome Guardians is in constant motion. Most riffs only linger a few moments before evolving into something new or reverting to a main throughline. Even when a riff tarries longer, the bass, drums, or vocals twist and shift, keeping things fresh and engaging throughout. More than this, each song seems built around clearly defined movements. Even on a first listen, I could guess my place in a song fairly well. There’s an intuitive logic to each track’s pace, allowing Wearisome Guardians to feel lean and efficient with no real fat to trim. Even the 90-second “Interlude” belongs. What initially feels like a respite reveals itself to be just as unsettling as the rest of the album. Bright and metallic, this moment’s tainted rest doesn’t let you forget what’s on the other side.

I wished for some grimy, cavernous filth, and I got it. Wearisome Guardians is a menace to experience. I honestly thought it hyperbole when Thus Spoke said their debut induced fear, but exaggeration it was not. Even with bright moments that fractionally lessen the tension, Dwelling Below is still deeply unnerving. These casket campers know what they’re doing, and they’re good at it. Wearisome Guardians is a strong success on both atmospheric and compositional fronts. Dwelling Below doesn’t just want to show you the dark. They want to leave you there without a torch and seal the tomb. This sophomore effort is claustrophobic, sepulchral, and evil. Wearisome Guardians is viscerally unsafe, and it’s here to break you if you’ve got the nerve to let it.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 10 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: October 31st, 2025

#2025 #35 #AcausalIntrusion #AmericanMetal #Autopsy #BBKing #BrocasHelm #Candlemass #CirithUngol #DeathDoom #DeathMetal #DoomMetal #DwellingBelow #FeralLord #Filtheater #Hierarchies #Oct25 #Review #Reviews #SaintVitus #TranscendingObscurityRecords #WearisomeGuardians

Hexrot – Formless Ruin of Oblivion Review

By Angry Metal Guy

By: Nameless_n00b_604

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

#2025 #40 #Aug25 #AvantGarde #AvantGardeDeathMetal #BlackMetal #Death #DeathMetal #DeathspellOmega #FormlessRuinOfOblivion #Hexrot #Review #TranscendingObscurity #TranscendingObscurityRecords #Ulcerate

Retching – Charming the Decomposed Review

By Saunders

Part of the appeal of my long-standing relationship with death metal is the sheer diversity of the genre and its many sub-genres. There is something for all moods. So while stylistic preferences remain, most forms of death I can happily jam with, whether it be old school primitive clubbings, tech shredding, gnarled dissonance, emotive melodeath, brutal slam, or successful forays of doom, blackened and prog influences into deathly frameworks. But in the end, it’s the genre’s simplified, core values and slimy, grimy atmospheres that warm the heart. Throwing their hats in the old school death revivalist ring, relative newcomers Retching explode out the rusty graveyard gates with a no-nonsense, pretension-free blast of old school death. Seeking to add their own spin and identity to separate themselves from the horde of old school aficionados, while leaving reinvention for other folks, the Rhode Island duo unleash debut, Charming the Decomposed. Let us explore whether Retching possess the songwriting smarts and tools of destruction to make an impact outside of aping the genre’s proud past.

Thirty-two minutes is all it takes for Retching to deliver eight slashing cuts of riff-driven, blasty, gore-soaked death, American-style. Charming the Decomposed is an old school brawler with a mean streak, chock to breaking point with parasitic grooves, gut-busting riffs, brutal percussive assaults, and appropriately grisly, brutal vocal eruptions. All that said, Charming the Decomposed doesn’t take itself too seriously, loading the rabid, bloodied collection with a variety of part goofy, part unsettling samples, adding to the album atmosphere, even if they are a little overdone at times (see bludgeoning opener “Moonlight Perversions/Gorging on Ecstasy”). Otherwise, efficient, high-energy cuts are the order of the day, drawing influence from the esteemed likes of early Exhumed, Mortician, Carcass and Cannibal Corpse.

“Shower Curtain Silhouette” builds from a rugged, grinding base, ratcheting up tension before exploding into speedy, punk-infused rampages, stomping verses, and skillfully fluctuating tempo shifts. The deceptive songwriting diversity poking through the muck and feral abuse adds a layer of intrigue to otherwise more traditional, blunt force beatings, amid a couple of less impactful tunes. Another of the album’s stronger examples, “Septic Entombment,” features a creative arrangement, allowing breathing space for the meaty, yet wickedly infectious riffs and bouncing grooves to ride shotgun with aggressive, blast-riddled surges. Retching operates effectively in high-speed savagery, yet the writing tends to appeal most when mixed with slower, malevolent tempos, lending a doomy, leaden weight to proceedings, such as the tormenting melodies and ominous vibes emanating from “Fetid Abattoir.”

Energy rarely drops, as brutality and raw-boned explosions of speed and blast-riddled mayhem ensue. Retching wisely integrate structural and tempo variety, coupled with razor-fine slivers of melody and raucous, crunchy riffs to stave off monotony and lend the album an infectiously headbangable streak. Along with the aforementioned tunes, this is further highlighted on the brooding, ominous swagger of ‘Vulgar Celluloid Trophy”. The anonymous duo of Latex (drums, vox) and Mondo (guitars) forge a powerhouse combo, perfectly suited to the lean, mean, and cutthroat nature of the album’s tight construction. Latex whips together a punchy, inventive performance behind the kit, proving adept at deploying slower, groovier rhythms and finesse to go with the rip-snorting blasts and thrashy tempos. His serviceable vocals get the job done, adding a gritty, guttural edge. Meanwhile, partner in crime Mondo serves up an unhealthy dose of meaty, genuinely catchy riffs, which, if maintained consistently across the album, may have elevated a solid experience into something more substantial. Still, there is some excellent axework and riffs to sink into.

Retching’s impressively no-nonsense debut won’t challenge the upper tier of death metal albums in 2025 or threaten many year-end lists. But what it does, it does well, with a no-fuss, belligerent charm that is easy to like. While there is little fat or unnecessary bloat to be found, the songwriting has room for improvement to live up to the quality of the album’s stronger cuts and create a more consistent, compelling listen. However, signs are bright and the potential promising for Retching to build something more formidable down the track.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Website: Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: August 22nd, 2025

#2025 #30 #AmericanMetal #CannibalCorpse #CharmingTheDecomposed #DeathMetal #Exhumed #Mortician #OldSchoolDeathMetal #Retching #Review #Reviews #TranscendingObscurityRecords

Floating – Hesitating Lights Review

By Dear Hollow

Back in ’22, your favorite AMG staffers butted heads and said “yeehaw” in a Rodeö whose scores were disappointing, very good, and everything in between. The band was a little Swedish oddity called Floating, whose collision of sounds compiled a library of post-punk’s sneering rhythms, post-metal’s ponderous hugeness, and doom’s lurching intensity, at heart beating with dissonant death metal blood inspired by Demilich and Ulcerate. I found myself on the more favorable side, a little put off by its inconsistencies and experimental quirks, but ultimately excited to see more, and my wish has been granted in follow-up Hesitating Lights.

While entirely more streamlined, a major difference between its predecessor, The Waves Have Teeth, is the heart that beats within it and the crescendo that it embodies. While it uses much of the same tricks, it feels more like a post-punk band doing death metal, punky blastbeats meeting an unfuckwithable bassline, providing the backbone of each track – a flaying guitar and scattered synth forming the amorphous flesh. A tale of two halves, whose stylistic differences are tasteful in a gradual shift from punky energy to death metal disintegration, Hesitating Lights soars in its carefully orchestrated experimental attack, leaving a bit more to be desired, but remains a step towards the greatness that Floating is clearly capable of.

The first half of Hesitating Lights deals in a post-punk style that is both impressively simple and mind-warping. Bass is the starting point in its rich and warm intensity that undergirds a deathened attack that is allowed to waver into various textures of dissonance and darkness, ethereality and irony. Taking cue from the ambivalent bumbling of acts like Cocteau Twins and Siouxsie and the Banshees, warm bass pairs with cold guitar in a collision that feels simultaneously ominous and energetic, taking cues from Ulcerate in contemplative sprawls and blastbeats (“I Reached the Mew,” “Cough Choir”), while motifs of dissonant stings and chiming tones inject a dose of morbidity apt to the descriptor “deathpunk” (“Grave Dog,” “Exit Bag Song”). The first half feels like a carefully curated experiment in punk percussion and bass and death metal melodics and vocals. The result is unique and atmospheric – a bit that feels too safe periodically, but its careful composition shows Floating’s songwriting prowess.

It’s only after the first act that Floating begins to fly off the rails in tasteful death metal dominance. Centerpiece of “Hesitating Lights / Harmless Fires” is a tour-de-force of the more synth-driven experimental tendencies, a patient sprawl that refuses easy categorization into either territory. A nearly post-metal crescendo anchored exclusively by the rumbling bass guitar descends into a noise rock climax not unlike Gilla Band or Lightning Bolt. Beyond that, tracks begin to utilize a cascading riff technique in which guitar rhythms fall apart incrementally across repeated iterations, leading to tasteful slivers of melody and ominous buildups (“Still Dark Enough,” “The Waking”), while doom makes a dirging appearance in the most pitch-black moment of the album (“The Wrong Body”). But even aside from more experimental flair, each track in the second half features a kickass riff that gets the head bobbing and anchors the track in some semblance of reality.

I felt like The Waves Have Teeth was a carpet bomb of ideas with glimpses of its deathpunk actualization shining through. Hesitating Lights feels like a much more fleshed-out beast, with the real teeth to speak of. The shifts between the more post-punk- and death metal-oriented halves can feel jarring, and perhaps that gradual descent into the abyss can be accomplished with a bit more finesse, but it shows the duo’s amorphous quality in a fantastic display for a young band. Ominous death metal atmosphere and rebellious punk energy are harnessed with a kickass bass performance and a shapeshifting percussion in a tidy thirty-six minutes, and it’s infectious. While certainly not the opus magnum Floating is capable of, you should have no hesitation in picking up Hesitating Lights.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Websites: floating-label.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/floatingdeathmetal
Releases Worldwide: July 11th, 2025

#2025 #35 #CocteauTwins #DeathMetal #Demilich #DissonantDeathMetal #Floating #GillaBand #HesitatingLights #Jul25 #LightningBolt #NewWave #postPunk #Review #Reviews #SiouxsieAndTheBanshees #SwedishMetal #TranscendingObscurityRecords #Ulcerate

Eschaton – Techtalitarian Review

By Thus Spoke

Imagine you are trying to get your friend into a genre of music you love. Perhaps that genre has some unfortunate tropes that even an untrained ear can discern as all instances being relegated to the denigrated status of the lowest common denominator. You know first impressions are crucial, and thus desperately want theirs to be of music that goes beyond those trappings so your friend can share your joy. Let’s say that genre is tech-death, and the album that your friend first comes across in their journey Eschaton’s third, Techtalitarian. The band’s discography heretofore has been solid, but unremarkable, and given a prior emphasis on something closer to deathcore, you feel justified unease. But with a signing by Transcending Obscurity, and an almost entirely fresh lineup to boot, you hope Techtalitarian can break through, to your friend as well as to the wider death metal community.

With chagrin, you acknowledge that Techtalitarian cannot escape its existence as a textbook instance of a tech-death stereotype, for better or for worse. Beyond its comically on-the-nose moniker and aggressively cyberpunk cover art, the music is exactly what you might expect. The fusion of a vocal style that hasn’t quite left deathcore behind1, with the hyperactive arpeggio riffing, and restless and restlessly fast tempo bouncing for which this particular approach to death metal is wedded to. But sticking to the core of a sound need not be a curse if a band either execute it to perfection, thus proving why it is so enduring, or with some subtle flair that makes it their own. In this regard, Eschaton cannot be said to avoid their curse, but Techtalitarian is not without merit, thanks in large part to its nature, which unwittingly or not borrows more than a little of the thrill for which you fell in love with technical death metal in the first place.

Riffs, riffs, and yet more riffs await as you explore Techtalitarian. Par for the course, but also a chance for new guitarist Christian Münzner2 to prove that he can indeed play a guitar really rather well; all the musicians here have great technical prowess. Just the act of pointing this out in preface to discussing the music’s actual substance exemplifies the subgenre’s cliché. The record’s shape evolves but little across its breadth, with the flutters and churning of guitar, and especially pointed percussive pattering melting into a haze of agitation where Eschaton ricochet between ideas. And yet you can’t pretend you’re not enjoying yourself, for at least large segments at a time. Though they evade true memorability, many melodies and chirruping acrobatic riffs, carried on accompanying tides of snappy drumming and rhythmic syncopation, tickle the brain just right (“Blood of the People,” “The Bellicose Duality,” “Antimatter”). In a fickle but not charmless way, Eschaton rotate between the malevolent grooves of The Black Dahlia Murder (“Devour the Contrarian,” “Techtalitarian,” “Castle Strnad”3), the twin guitar flutters of Within the Ruins (“Hellfire’s Woe”), and mixing slammy deathcore with an approximation of the melodic depth of, say, Allegaeon, minus the cleans (“Antimatter”). They can’t quite make up their mind, but they seem to have fun doing it, and you’ll likely have some fun listening.

As entertaining as these segments can be, when stitched together into Techtalitarian, they end up being surprisingly intangible. Once a slick, squealy, super-speedy passage is over, it’s over in order to make room for the next thing. This is compounded by the fact that these rhythmic textures and riffing structures are not even that brilliant—not brain-meltingly gymnastic, or manically groovy, or breathtakingly claustrophobic—but instead almost generic. What ought to be cool comes across as blasé because nothing lies beneath the flashy, snarling, blastbeating surface. And when Escahaton do incorporate something else, they do so with lukewarm commitment; symphonics and choir that occasionally appear (“Hellfire’s Woe,” “Econocracy”) reading exactly like something you’d hear in a Shadow of Intent song, but not even as dramatic. Add to this the inevitably low DR of 4, and the reasonable 45-minute runtime starts to crawl.

Though it feels absurd when the music is this energetic, skilled, and heavy—as is all tech-death—Techtalitarian is not what you want your friend to hear; not first anyway. Its insubstantiality is due to no fault of Eschaton’s talent, but rather their execution. With more imagination and focus, their abilities could blossom into some of the most potent of the subgenre. It already lends itself to a pretty fun time. Eschaton may have a great record in them, but it isn’t Techtalitarian.

Rating: Mixed
DR: 4 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Transcending Obscurity
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: May 30th, 2025

#25 #2025 #Allegaeon #AmericanMetal #DeathMetal #Deathcore #Eschaton #Jun25 #Obscura #Review #Reviews #TechnicalDeathMetal #Techtalitarian #TheBlackDahliaMurder #TranscendingObscurityRecords #WithinTheRuins

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

Felgrave – Otherlike Darknesses Review

By Thus Spoke

When a promo doesn’t adequately prepare you for what an album will sound like, one of two things is usually the case. Either the promo is poorly written, or the music is particularly description-defying. The promo for Felgrave’s sophomore, Otherlike Darknesses, while well-written, was insufficient to convey the music’s especially idiosyncratic nature. Despite the forewarnings that it “[melds] doom, black, and death metal in a way rarely done before,”1 and contains “intense and complex parts that wouldn’t be out of place on a technical death metal album,” Otherlike Darknesses is far stranger and deeper than expected.

In a fashion mimicking the genre of Felgrave’s early work—doom—Otherlike Darknesses consists of just three songs, each titanic in scope. But rather than steadily constructing towers of hefty riffs and crescendoing melodies, these songs erratically climb up and down the steep walls of already ruined castles, throwing the listener off the edge of a parapet to crash to earth or float down with chilling grace. Without abandoning compositional coherence, themes are not so much reprises as tethers that bind chaos into monstrous complex wholes. The twisted dissonance of guitars—accelerating and contorting discomfortingly, chirruping like alarms (“Winds Batter My Keep”), and walking in jerky rhythms—over a backdrop of variously whooshing and moaning synths (“Pale Flowers Under an Empty Sky”) is both confrontational and horribly transfixing. It’s a sound so vibrantly reminiscent of Thantifaxath, that I felt the need to confirm multiple times that no affiliation exists between them and Felgrave. But this similarity is only one side of Otherlike Darknesses. In a way that seems to amplify distress, Felgrave incorporate ample use of cleans and disquieting calm. While the latter heightens tension insidiously, the former do so overtly, as belted-out, half-sung wails, often multi-tracked until they are noisier than the instrumentation, or eerily intoned as a softly repeated refrain (“Pale Flowers…”). And yet, amidst the horror, there is also strange elegance and heart.

Otherlike Darknesses is an intense listening experience. The moaning, discordant cries and throaty screams that narrate it respectively ring with haunting strangeness, and drip with malevolence. The endlessly shifting, slowing down, speeding up, lurching cacophony of tremolos and plucks and impossibly fast and flexible drums contains barely a few minutes of (relative) calm in all its near-50, and even these are menacing thanks to the cruel shifts between harmony and dissonance (“Pale Flowers…,” “Otherlike Darknesses”), and the spiderlike wanderings of fretless bass prominent against stripped-back ambience (“Winds Batter…”). It is nauseating and jaw-droppingly brilliant. Felgrave aren’t throwing things haphazardly at the wall to show off or shock; the pieces that appear scattered fit together into grand, compelling compositions, no matter how unconventional. It’s impressive and terrifying, given the wild places they go, just how easily and how organically Felgrave maintain such coherence. How a diabolical chaos can hide the subtle theme that hums in a later synth and manifests again as gut-clenching a series of chords (“Winds Batter…” “Otherlike Darknesses”); how a stillness can turn so quickly into a storm and singing fall into place so naturally beside them both (“Pale Flowers…). When at last, a mournful melody blossoms (“Otherlike Darknesses”) its brevity and natural fulfilment of its origins make it precious and magnificent. The acrobatic, terrifying things M.L Jupe is doing with guitars, and the profound distinction and interplay between the synths, creeping bass, and manic treble is frightening and wonderful, and never feel self-indulgent. The drumming—courtesy of Robin Stone (Evilyn, Norse)— is as insanely good as it is insane; often inhumanly fast, presciently dynamic, and in constant evolution.

In spite of my awe, it would be remiss not to admit that Otherlike Darknesses is still a bit much.2 Due to its structure, one must endure its itinerant movements without even the brief respite that comes from such music being split into more, shorter songs, and this can prove a little exhausting, considering their calibre. Felgrave’s clever weaving of disparate elements create just enough order to maintain integrity, and slips into snatches of quiet and melody just in time, and so manages to keep the derangement from becoming overwhelming. The congruence that this album possesses is, admittedly, of the sort grasped better through patience and repeated listens, but unlike many such unusual extreme metal works, its assets are so immediately transparent they make for powerful motivators to take up this mantle.

Otherlike Darknesses proved to be the best kind of surprise. Though following its trajectory can be daunting, Felgrave has created an experience that is consuming and thrilling enough to make that journey far easier than one might expect. Twisted and scary, but human and graceful, and nonchalantly epic, it’s not something I’ll soon forget.

Rating: Very Good
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: April 25th, 2025

#2025 #35 #BlackMetal #DeathMetal #DissonantBlackMetal #DissonantDeathMetal #Evilyn #ExperimentalMetal #Felgrave #Mar25 #Norse #NorwegianMetal #OtherlikeDarknesses #Review #Reviews #Thantifaxath #TranscendingObscurityRecords

Crypts of Despair – We Belong in the Grave Review

By Kenstrosity

When Lithuanian death metal outfit Crypts of Despair dropped All Light Swallowed back in 2021, I was impressed with their destructive riffs, dynamic songwriting, and oppressive tone. The record boasted a never-ending assault of killer passages and memorable atmosphere that, in time, only grew in depth. Unsurprisingly, I felt great excitement at the prospect of a new Crypts of Despair when Transcending Obscurity announced third LP We Belong in the Grave late last year. By that same coin, you can imagine my utter disappointment at what arose from this crypt.

What was once easily categorized as a brutal take on the blackened death metal blueprint now lies in ashes. Today, Crypts of Despair plays a thankfully still brutal take on deathcore. So stark is the difference that at first, I was certain I had mixed up my bands when I picked this up. I was shocked to learn I had not. How this happened, I am uncertain, as only their second guitarist changed between 2021 and 2025. Nonetheless, the ripping tremolos and buttery-smooth songwriting of All Light Swallowed are a thing of the past. In its place, chugging ruts, Deathcore Standard Eerie Background Melodies (DSEBM for short), monotonous guttural roars backed by stereotypical scathing rasps, and what sounds to these ears like a total lack of songwriting identity. I could easily pick Crypts of Despair out of a lineup four years ago. Now, I doubt my ability to discern. At least the pools of skronky death and core from which they pull are decent company—I hear notes of early Nightmarer, AngelMaker, and Fit for an Autopsy peppering We Belong in the Grave. Nonetheless, the stylistic whiplash proved a monumental obstacle to my enjoyment of this new record, an obstacle that vexes me even as I write this piece.

First the positives: Crypts of Despair are still well versed in the way of The Riff™. Early standouts “Terminal Dais” and “Expulsion to Purgatory” offer massively headbangable motifs that are guaranteed to crush the strongest of bone into dust. Back-half heroes “Undisillusioned” and “Precipitous” muster a stompy groove the likes of which threaten the structural integrity of any concert floor, certain to incur considerable repair expenses to any venue. Blackened touches and intimidating background atmosphere still exist in an effort to invoke Crypts of Despair’s apocalyptic character, giving otherwise boilerplate tracks “Obliteration of the Impure” and “Seizures” much-needed flavor. Many such elements are similar on the surface to what Crypts of Despair implemented in the past, but are applied a bit differently now. That’s not a bad thing, as it showcases Crypts of Despair’s willingness to experiment with their sound and grow accustomed to unexplored sonic territory.

The unfortunate piece of that journey here is the total lack of songwriting that came along for the ride. Even decent tracks like “Seizures” struggle to impress upon the listener a sense of story, character development, or substance. Opener “We Belong in the Grave” constitutes a dire misfire, feeling every bit as fluffy and forgettable as your average throwaway instrumental intro, and yet it is a fully equipped “song.” The problem is that it lacks any sort of distinguishing characteristics or movement to earn it the moniker. The same critique can be extended to the closing duo “Gaze of the Adversary” and “Burial of the World.” Neither exhibits any evidence of a fully fleshed-out idea, instead spinning their wheels deeper and deeper into the mucky byproduct of wasted time. The production reflects this lack of depth as well, imposingly loud and deeply polished with flat, modern tones that feel at odds with Crypts of Despair’s mission statement up to this point.

One thing that remains untouched: Crypts of Despair are as livid as ever at humanity writ large. And they are right to be, for any number of reasons! That said, nothing much else remains intact after this updated set of sonic, visual, and engineering aesthetics bulldozed what was once a powerful, distinct, and compelling identity. We Belong in the Grave represents a band trying something different and making a real effort to make an unfamiliar style work in their image. It also represents a band failing to back that new sound up with the same elevated songwriting that made All Light Swallowed a triumph. For those who enjoy the chugging breakdowns and mid-paced monotony of cookie-cutter deathcore, this might be a step up from what populates that rotation. Otherwise, if you are familiar with Crypts of Despair, prepare to despair. This adjustment is going to hurt.

Rating: Disappointing
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Websites: cryptsofdespair.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/cryptsofdespair
Releases Worldwide: April 18th, 2025

#20 #2025 #AngelMaker #Apr25 #CryptsOfDespair #DeathMetal #Deathcore #FitForAnAutopsy #LithuanianMetal #Nightmarer #Review #Reviews #TranscendingObscurityRecords #WeBelongInTheGrave

Shrine of Denial – I, Moloch Review

By Thus Spoke

I’m starting to think there might be something in the water over in Turkey. Not two full years after Serpent of Old and their phenomenal debut Ensemble Under the Dark Sun blew my tiny mind, Shrine of Denial threaten to do the same. Sharing a home country and a label and implying a similar sound to Serpent of Old in their one-sheet, it was easy to go in expecting a carbon-copy of the former. While certain quirks suggest the idea of a native style, Shrine of Denial have more than enough personality of their own, forming I, Moloch with blackened death metal channeled through a sound that feels as old and trve as it does fresh and unique.

I, Moloch is gritty, fast, and technical. Punchily-delivered vocals and fast, off-beat tempos that almost recall The Black Dahlia Murder, meet with menacing riffwork that mimics a faster Morbid Angel, and is most closely akin to last years’ Keres, and throaty growls barked or roared, often in unison. Lurking about the compositions are tones and some pretensions to atmospheric dissonance that sound—yes—a bit like Serpent of Old (“Climbing Through Nothingness,” “The Mesmer”). But Shrine of Denial eschew eerie ambiguity in favour of straightforward meanness, delivering their discordant harmonies through spidery fretwork and the occasional twisting, piercing line. The low-DR, new-school-old-school production that wraps guitar solos in delicious echo, pushes the percussion to the front and into the golden zone of satisfyingly crisp crashy-bangyness, and emphasises the roughness of the vocals is the perfect packaging. This sounds bloody fantastic.

Shrine of Denial excel at elevating the elements of their music in a way that injects new vitality and intrigue into old styles, but doesn’t denigrate their unvarnished heaviness. There is much that feels vaguely familiar on I, Moloch, but it is reinterpreted and reinvigorated through impressive performances and idiosyncratic habits that give Shrine of Denial instant individuality. Guitar lines threading through compositions are immediate and hooky (“Oneiros,” “Headless Idol”), but subtly they spin a more complex web that gives the songs depth, and take you almost by surprise as thematic reprise bursts into a thrilling solo (“I, Moloch,” “Pillars of Ice”). The drumwork is far more complex than it needed to be, but the effort pays off in spades, with the compositions becoming exhilaratingly energetic; my jaw was frequently on the floor in appreciation of the flicky precision and kicky fills (especially “A Sanctuary In The Depths Of The Realms,” “Pillars of Ice,” and “Oneiros”). Further, the way Shrine of Denial use syncopation between percussion, vocal delivery, and on-off riff patterns gives them that much more impact, where otherwise they might have shrunken under their technicality (“I, Moloch,” “Temple of the Corpse Misuser”). What few truly melodious passages there are shine when they do appear in the aforementioned solos, or in the hints of grace to certain quite OSDM-sounding refrains; the beauty of their high, cavernous resonance makes it that much more heartbreaking that they are so rare.

There is precious little wastage on I, Moloch. With a runtime this swift, but songs this compelling, it’s clear that Shrine of Denial are smart songwriters, knowing that to win over their listener, it’s better to leave them a little hungry. These 31 minutes are bursting with slick, thrilling, downright gnarly musicianship, and a presence that belies this brevity. Everything exudes a fresh and snappy approach to disso-death, and blackened death, and whatever subgenres they incorporate, that makes them more approachable, but keeps just enough conventionality, and more than enough brutality and technicality, to satisfy. The main problems, therefore, with I, Moloch are: a) I would like more, and b) I would like them to let their extreme tendencies play out a little further; that is to say—there aren’t any real problems. In seriousness, I, Moloch’s abbreviation and slight camouflage of seeming more straightforward than it is does let Shrine of Denial down a tad; but it’s early days, and I’m more than happy to wait for them to really let loose.

Really, I, Moloch does everything you could ask it to. It’s punchy and slick, with clear signs of powerful promise waiting to be capitalised upon once Shrine of Denial fully lock in. It’s a bite-sized helping of top-shelf blackened death that gets me very excited for the band’s future career, and it’s another impressive debut to come from a country with a growing reputation of fostering extreme metal talent.

Rating: Very Good
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Transcending Obscurity
Websites: shrineofdenial.bandcamp | facebook.com/shrineofdenial
Releases Worldwide: March 7th, 2025

#2025 #35 #BlackMetal #BlackenedDeathMetal #BlackenedThrashMetal #DeathMetal #DissonantDeathMetal #IMoloch #Keres #Mar25 #MorbidAngel #Review #Reviews #SerpentOfOld #ShrineOfDenial #TheBlackDahliaMurder #TranscendingObscurityRecords #TurkishMetal

Infinite Mortality from REPLICANT

https://replicantband.bandcamp.com/album/infinite-mortality

#NowPlaying #deathmetal #transcendingobscurityrecords