#transylvanian-recordings — Public Fediverse posts

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stress Test – Stress Test Review

By Dolphin Whisperer

Just as much as any genre that’s been around for 40-plus years, hardcore is not a monolith, not by a long stretch. As an unleashing of rough-and-tumble punk energy with an extra flash of sharpness and swagger, its permutations can run the gamut of high-tempo riffage, ragged vocal attitude, and instrumental histrionics, all while wearing the speed-loaded label. With a classic thrash attack and a dash of grind spirit, Stress Test wears the genre like a tattered and patched denim vest befitted with snappy pull-off runs, d-beat anthemics, and short bursts fit for a moshing audience. No one needs to reinvent the urge to start up the pit to have a good time.

Featuring the rhythm section of Unto Others, with Brandon Hill assuming guitar and vocals instead of bass for Stress Test, Stress Test lands with a polish and focus not typical of acts whose songs frequent the sub-two minute range. Though that energy presents in some of the harder-hitting cuts that Unto Others has to offer, Stress Test shares little but members in the kind of drive that this debut holds. Hill and co.’s understanding of the studio helps Stress Test find smart and punchy pockets for deep bass propulsions (“Coward,” “Bastard Behavior,” “Stress Test”), which go a long way in adding color to the snarl and shifty riffcraft that perpetuates its eighteen-minute run. And with colors that range from the early 90s death/grind of Napalm Death to the meatheaded aggro-crossover of Terror, Stress Test uses their experience to travel familiar paths with a skanking stride that sounds urgent.

Even though time-tested riffs and a cadence rooted in thrash history defines the simple appeal of Stress Test, its tracks flow with healthy variation to maintain a momentum that remains unbreakable and memorable. Embracing the smooth and sliding Exodus stomp with the brevity of Municipal Waste party bangers spells, on its own, an easy-to-enjoy, never-ending circle of punky abandon (“Coward,” “Bastard Behavior”). But that p-word attitude, alongside the other important p’s of pummel and political edge, also serves as its hissing core, fueling snarky sample punches (“Degrees of Violence,” “It Isn’t Real,” “God Sucks”) and unrelenting layered vocal assaults—a barking fervor and accompanying caveman-frenzied bellow—color the bouncing intensity as Stress Test progresses. Nothing that Stress Test rips from the sweat and beer-stained pages of thrash reads as new, but its in-and-out groove remains difficult to deny.

The choice to keep Stress Test svelte hinders how high it can fly, though. Stress Test knows their way around a whiplash tune and quick guitar hero cut-in to let accelerating tempos breathe (“Degrees of Violence,” “It Isn’t Real,” “Gullible”). And while these bite-size ragers take up a small percentage of runtime in this already low-commitment affair, they also make for the most interesting guitar parts that Stress Test can muster. Of course, it would be hard to call longer cuts like mid-album “Suffer” and “Bastard Behavior” slouching, as their vocal bite and rhythmic overload ensure swinging arms and cracking necks from start to finish. However, in their self-similar nature, along with “Stress Test,” they allow fewer avenues for Stress Test to leave a stronger identifying mark.

Yet, as a feisty debut, Stress Test makes for a powerful, practiced statement. It doesn’t take a virtuoso to make music that is fast, loud, and angry. But, as Stress Test shows, steady (enough) hands and an ear looking for the right accents and accelerations will find a grace in wild tempos that mimics the fury of an untethered mind. With a varied pool of legacy influences, these Portland-based punks hold the potential to develop their low-frills sound in just about any way that they choose. And though Stress Test lacks in extreme choices that could hoist this fledgling act to a loftier status, Stress Test has taken aim at becoming a primary form of relief for those in need of boiled-over thrash madness.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Transylvanian Recordings
Websites: stresstest.us | stresstestpdx.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/stresstestpdx
Releases Worldwide: February 28th, 2025

#2025 #30 #AmericanMetal #CrossoverThrash #CrustPunk #Exodus #Feb25 #Hardcore #MunicipalWaste #NapalmDeath #Review #Reviews #StressTest #Terror #TransylvanianRecordings #UntoOthers