#tymhm — Public Fediverse posts

This stunning debut comes to us via members from across the globe—from England to Spain to Czechia to Brazil. Despite somewhat limited experience between them, the sextet plays like they’ve been jamming together for decades. They bring an eclectic range of styles from their previous and current bands, from black metal to scatological heavy metal to melodic doom to gothic metal, in order to craft a gentle yet brutal piece of gothic doom metal. I would like to give a warm welcome to Opia and their powerful debut album, I Welcome Thee, Eternal Sleep.

Opia deftly balances the gentle with the crushingly heavy, resulting in a record of beautiful melancholy that would make My Dying Bride and Swallow the Sun proud. They achieve this with a dichotomy of soft arpeggios and heavy riffs, of tender cleans and harsh growls. This dichotomy amplifies the melancholic power of the music, and there’s an undeniable satisfaction when a song suddenly grows loud and brutal following a softer stretch. We hear this on tracks like “Days Gone By,” which opens with some nifty fretwork before exploding into heavier riffs. Opia flexes their true muscle on masterpieces like “Man Proposes, God Disposes” and “Silence,” where Tereza Rohelova’s cleans croon a melancholic melody before delving into such despairing heaviness that it’ll have you aching from the hurt. The similarly astonishing “The Eye” flips the melodic element on its head with a chorus where Rohelova’s growls deliver the beauty over top a soaring keyboard part.

I Welcome Thee, Eternal Sleep by Opia

As great as the compositions are, the heartfelt performances by all musicians elevate the material. As frontwoman, Rohelova sets the tone with an electrifying performance on the level of My Dying Bride’s Aaron Stainthorpe. Her cleans take on a haunting quality that adds a touch of the gothic, and while her growls don’t reach the muscular tone of Stainthorpe, they are nonetheless effective in setting a tone of brutality. The dual guitar work from Phoenix Griffiths and Dan Tregenna also dazzle. Their fretwork is so effective and creative, whether it’s the mellower arpeggios or crushing riffs, that there’s never a dull moment or a lull. Marcelo Teixeira, behind the kit, is also solid. He swaps between gentle drum and cymbal taps to pummeling blast beats on a dime. He really goes all out on a climatic moment on the finale, “On Death’s Door Part II,” that’ll leave you breathless. Important to setting up the gothic tone is keyboardist Jorge Afonso Rodriguez, who adds melodic depth as well as atmosphere. There’s a depth to the songwriting that opens up rewarding new avenues every time I give the record another spin.

Having been released in late April, I missed out on the opportunity to review I Welcome Thee, Eternal Sleep by just a few weeks. But when I first heard it, I knew it was special enough to save for a TYMHM. A debut this powerful should not be missed, and having spent this extra time with it late in the year, I believe I made a mistake by not including it in my end of year list. This is a promising start for a group who, I hope, continues to craft songs together for a long time to come.

Songs to Check Out: ”Man Proposes, God Disposes,” “The Fade,” “The Eye,” “Silence

This stunning debut comes to us via members from across the globe—from England to Spain to Czechia to Brazil. Despite somewhat limited experience between them, the sextet plays like they’ve been jamming together for decades. They bring an eclectic range of styles from their previous and current bands, from black metal to scatological heavy metal to melodic doom to gothic metal, in order to craft a gentle yet brutal piece of gothic doom metal. I would like to give a warm welcome to Opia and their powerful debut album, I Welcome Thee, Eternal Sleep.

Opia deftly balances the gentle with the crushingly heavy, resulting in a record of beautiful melancholy that would make My Dying Bride and Swallow the Sun proud. They achieve this with a dichotomy of soft arpeggios and heavy riffs, of tender cleans and harsh growls. This dichotomy amplifies the melancholic power of the music, and there’s an undeniable satisfaction when a song suddenly grows loud and brutal following a softer stretch. We hear this on tracks like “Days Gone By,” which opens with some nifty fretwork before exploding into heavier riffs. Opia flexes their true muscle on masterpieces like “Man Proposes, God Disposes” and “Silence,” where Tereza Rohelova’s cleans croon a melancholic melody before delving into such despairing heaviness that it’ll have you aching from the hurt. The similarly astonishing “The Eye” flips the melodic element on its head with a chorus where Rohelova’s growls deliver the beauty over top a soaring keyboard part.

I Welcome Thee, Eternal Sleep by Opia

As great as the compositions are, the heartfelt performances by all musicians elevate the material. As frontwoman, Rohelova sets the tone with an electrifying performance on the level of My Dying Bride’s Aaron Stainthorpe. Her cleans take on a haunting quality that adds a touch of the gothic, and while her growls don’t reach the muscular tone of Stainthorpe, they are nonetheless effective in setting a tone of brutality. The dual guitar work from Phoenix Griffiths and Dan Tregenna also dazzle. Their fretwork is so effective and creative, whether it’s the mellower arpeggios or crushing riffs, that there’s never a dull moment or a lull. Marcelo Teixeira, behind the kit, is also solid. He swaps between gentle drum and cymbal taps to pummeling blast beats on a dime. He really goes all out on a climatic moment on the finale, “On Death’s Door Part II,” that’ll leave you breathless. Important to setting up the gothic tone is keyboardist Jorge Afonso Rodriguez, who adds melodic depth as well as atmosphere. There’s a depth to the songwriting that opens up rewarding new avenues every time I give the record another spin.

Having been released in late April, I missed out on the opportunity to review I Welcome Thee, Eternal Sleep by just a few weeks. But when I first heard it, I knew it was special enough to save for a TYMHM. A debut this powerful should not be missed, and having spent this extra time with it late in the year, I believe I made a mistake by not including it in my end of year list. This is a promising start for a group who, I hope, continues to craft songs together for a long time to come.

Songs to Check Out: ”Man Proposes, God Disposes,” “The Fade,” “The Eye,” “Silence

This stunning debut comes to us via members from across the globe—from England to Spain to Czechia to Brazil. Despite somewhat limited experience between them, the sextet plays like they’ve been jamming together for decades. They bring an eclectic range of styles from their previous and current bands, from black metal to scatological heavy metal to melodic doom to gothic metal, in order to craft a gentle yet brutal piece of gothic doom metal. I would like to give a warm welcome to Opia and their powerful debut album, I Welcome Thee, Eternal Sleep.

Opia deftly balances the gentle with the crushingly heavy, resulting in a record of beautiful melancholy that would make My Dying Bride and Swallow the Sun proud. They achieve this with a dichotomy of soft arpeggios and heavy riffs, of tender cleans and harsh growls. This dichotomy amplifies the melancholic power of the music, and there’s an undeniable satisfaction when a song suddenly grows loud and brutal following a softer stretch. We hear this on tracks like “Days Gone By,” which opens with some nifty fretwork before exploding into heavier riffs. Opia flexes their true muscle on masterpieces like “Man Proposes, God Disposes” and “Silence,” where Tereza Rohelova’s cleans croon a melancholic melody before delving into such despairing heaviness that it’ll have you aching from the hurt. The similarly astonishing “The Eye” flips the melodic element on its head with a chorus where Rohelova’s growls deliver the beauty over top a soaring keyboard part.

I Welcome Thee, Eternal Sleep by Opia

As great as the compositions are, the heartfelt performances by all musicians elevate the material. As frontwoman, Rohelova sets the tone with an electrifying performance on the level of My Dying Bride’s Aaron Stainthorpe. Her cleans take on a haunting quality that adds a touch of the gothic, and while her growls don’t reach the muscular tone of Stainthorpe, they are nonetheless effective in setting a tone of brutality. The dual guitar work from Phoenix Griffiths and Dan Tregenna also dazzle. Their fretwork is so effective and creative, whether it’s the mellower arpeggios or crushing riffs, that there’s never a dull moment or a lull. Marcelo Teixeira, behind the kit, is also solid. He swaps between gentle drum and cymbal taps to pummeling blast beats on a dime. He really goes all out on a climatic moment on the finale, “On Death’s Door Part II,” that’ll leave you breathless. Important to setting up the gothic tone is keyboardist Jorge Afonso Rodriguez, who adds melodic depth as well as atmosphere. There’s a depth to the songwriting that opens up rewarding new avenues every time I give the record another spin.

Having been released in late April, I missed out on the opportunity to review I Welcome Thee, Eternal Sleep by just a few weeks. But when I first heard it, I knew it was special enough to save for a TYMHM. A debut this powerful should not be missed, and having spent this extra time with it late in the year, I believe I made a mistake by not including it in my end of year list. This is a promising start for a group who, I hope, continues to craft songs together for a long time to come.

Songs to Check Out: ”Man Proposes, God Disposes,” “The Fade,” “The Eye,” “Silence

This stunning debut comes to us via members from across the globe—from England to Spain to Czechia to Brazil. Despite somewhat limited experience between them, the sextet plays like they’ve been jamming together for decades. They bring an eclectic range of styles from their previous and current bands, from black metal to scatological heavy metal to melodic doom to gothic metal, in order to craft a gentle yet brutal piece of gothic doom metal. I would like to give a warm welcome to Opia and their powerful debut album, I Welcome Thee, Eternal Sleep.

Opia deftly balances the gentle with the crushingly heavy, resulting in a record of beautiful melancholy that would make My Dying Bride and Swallow the Sun proud. They achieve this with a dichotomy of soft arpeggios and heavy riffs, of tender cleans and harsh growls. This dichotomy amplifies the melancholic power of the music, and there’s an undeniable satisfaction when a song suddenly grows loud and brutal following a softer stretch. We hear this on tracks like “Days Gone By,” which opens with some nifty fretwork before exploding into heavier riffs. Opia flexes their true muscle on masterpieces like “Man Proposes, God Disposes” and “Silence,” where Tereza Rohelova’s cleans croon a melancholic melody before delving into such despairing heaviness that it’ll have you aching from the hurt. The similarly astonishing “The Eye” flips the melodic element on its head with a chorus where Rohelova’s growls deliver the beauty over top a soaring keyboard part.

I Welcome Thee, Eternal Sleep by Opia

As great as the compositions are, the heartfelt performances by all musicians elevate the material. As frontwoman, Rohelova sets the tone with an electrifying performance on the level of My Dying Bride’s Aaron Stainthorpe. Her cleans take on a haunting quality that adds a touch of the gothic, and while her growls don’t reach the muscular tone of Stainthorpe, they are nonetheless effective in setting a tone of brutality. The dual guitar work from Phoenix Griffiths and Dan Tregenna also dazzle. Their fretwork is so effective and creative, whether it’s the mellower arpeggios or crushing riffs, that there’s never a dull moment or a lull. Marcelo Teixeira, behind the kit, is also solid. He swaps between gentle drum and cymbal taps to pummeling blast beats on a dime. He really goes all out on a climatic moment on the finale, “On Death’s Door Part II,” that’ll leave you breathless. Important to setting up the gothic tone is keyboardist Jorge Afonso Rodriguez, who adds melodic depth as well as atmosphere. There’s a depth to the songwriting that opens up rewarding new avenues every time I give the record another spin.

Having been released in late April, I missed out on the opportunity to review I Welcome Thee, Eternal Sleep by just a few weeks. But when I first heard it, I knew it was special enough to save for a TYMHM. A debut this powerful should not be missed, and having spent this extra time with it late in the year, I believe I made a mistake by not including it in my end of year list. This is a promising start for a group who, I hope, continues to craft songs together for a long time to come.

Songs to Check Out: ”Man Proposes, God Disposes,” “The Fade,” “The Eye,” “Silence

This stunning debut comes to us via members from across the globe—from England to Spain to Czechia to Brazil. Despite somewhat limited experience between them, the sextet plays like they’ve been jamming together for decades. They bring an eclectic range of styles from their previous and current bands, from black metal to scatological heavy metal to melodic doom to gothic metal, in order to craft a gentle yet brutal piece of gothic doom metal. I would like to give a warm welcome to Opia and their powerful debut album, I Welcome Thee, Eternal Sleep.

Opia deftly balances the gentle with the crushingly heavy, resulting in a record of beautiful melancholy that would make My Dying Bride and Swallow the Sun proud. They achieve this with a dichotomy of soft arpeggios and heavy riffs, of tender cleans and harsh growls. This dichotomy amplifies the melancholic power of the music, and there’s an undeniable satisfaction when a song suddenly grows loud and brutal following a softer stretch. We hear this on tracks like “Days Gone By,” which opens with some nifty fretwork before exploding into heavier riffs. Opia flexes their true muscle on masterpieces like “Man Proposes, God Disposes” and “Silence,” where Tereza Rohelova’s cleans croon a melancholic melody before delving into such despairing heaviness that it’ll have you aching from the hurt. The similarly astonishing “The Eye” flips the melodic element on its head with a chorus where Rohelova’s growls deliver the beauty over top a soaring keyboard part.

I Welcome Thee, Eternal Sleep by Opia

As great as the compositions are, the heartfelt performances by all musicians elevate the material. As frontwoman, Rohelova sets the tone with an electrifying performance on the level of My Dying Bride’s Aaron Stainthorpe. Her cleans take on a haunting quality that adds a touch of the gothic, and while her growls don’t reach the muscular tone of Stainthorpe, they are nonetheless effective in setting a tone of brutality. The dual guitar work from Phoenix Griffiths and Dan Tregenna also dazzle. Their fretwork is so effective and creative, whether it’s the mellower arpeggios or crushing riffs, that there’s never a dull moment or a lull. Marcelo Teixeira, behind the kit, is also solid. He swaps between gentle drum and cymbal taps to pummeling blast beats on a dime. He really goes all out on a climatic moment on the finale, “On Death’s Door Part II,” that’ll leave you breathless. Important to setting up the gothic tone is keyboardist Jorge Afonso Rodriguez, who adds melodic depth as well as atmosphere. There’s a depth to the songwriting that opens up rewarding new avenues every time I give the record another spin.

Having been released in late April, I missed out on the opportunity to review I Welcome Thee, Eternal Sleep by just a few weeks. But when I first heard it, I knew it was special enough to save for a TYMHM. A debut this powerful should not be missed, and having spent this extra time with it late in the year, I believe I made a mistake by not including it in my end of year list. This is a promising start for a group who, I hope, continues to craft songs together for a long time to come.

Songs to Check Out: ”Man Proposes, God Disposes,” “The Fade,” “The Eye,” “Silence

You may be wondering what on earth I am doing willingly touching a black metal album, let alone complimenting one. Well, you know what they say: never let them know your next move. Mysterious Polish-Italian collective Amalekim garnered praise in these hallowed halls with their 2023 release Avodah Zarah, our own Thus Spoke calling it a highlight during a weaker year for the genre. Naturally, I disliked the album, which tends to be a good sign for the average black metal fan. I was nevertheless surprised to see Shir Hashirim released to little fanfare or label promotion after such a positive reception 18 months prior. One look at the ‘melodic’ prefix reactivated my optimist instincts; maybe Amalekim was worth another shot. Two years is a long time in music, let alone fleeting personal tastes.

Not much has necessarily changed with Amalekim’s vicious formula, but the refinements are significant. The core of the band’s sound still lies in the realms of early Gaerea but is also distinctly its own thing altogether. And contrary to Gaerea’s recent development,1 Amalekim isn’t planning to go metalcore any time soon. No, Shir Hashirim further improves on the band’s best qualities while retaining their identity, offering relentless speed and riffs for days (“Chant II: Shir Hashirim,” “Chant IV: Sodot HaYekum”). It’s what I like to call ‘violently melodic’ for all the right reasons, both the intense drumming by Ktulak and the demonic vocals of Mróz enhancing the spite present in the dueling guitars. Most importantly, Amalekim never lets their foot off the gas pedal on their mission to create hauntingly aggressive yet beautifully melodic music.

Shir Hashirim by Amalekim

Shir Hashirim’s success comes from its subversion of common black metal tropes without abandoning them. Gone is the overreliance on standard tremolo and blast beat abuse that I previously took issue with. Those elements are both still key to the album, but in a much more appealing and bite-sized, fresh context (“Chant III: Mesharet HaShilton,” “Chant VIII: Mishteh Malkhuti”). Amalekim’s songwriting has evolved into a much more varied beast with plenty of creative drum and riff patterns to show for it. It almost feels like there’s a bunch of death metal DNA in the band’s songwriting this time (“Chant VI: Tisha Daltot”); in this way, I could see it being the blackened mirror image of Dormant Ordeal’s newest. Where Shir Hashirim improves over Dormant Ordeal’s excellent release is the wonderfully warm and roomy production, a complete opposite of what many others in this scene go for. It once again shows that your album doesn’t need to be crushed or lo-fi to sound brutal—great production simply makes the performance all the more powerful and unyielding.

Shir Hashirim is the first black metal record in ages to catch my interest, and one of the best albums of the year at that. Violent, melodic, and extremely fast all at once, its 38-minute package of eight chants simply leaves me wanting to immediately replay the experience all over again. It’s tight and consistent in a way few other records this year are, and its form of melodic fury makes the album unintentionally catchy. Amalekim’s oppressive and angry atmosphere should satiate the usual suspects, but the breakneck pace and no-nonsense songwriting on Shir Hashirim are sure to appeal to a wider audience as well.

Track to Check Out: “Chant II: Shir Hashirim,” “Chant IV: Sodot HaYekum,” and “Chant VII: Haka’as HaNachash.”

About once a year, I find a technical thrash album I utterly adore. 2023 graced me with Xoth, and 2024’s Dissimulator debut was my favorite album of the year. In 2025, the premiere thrash platter belongs to Warsaw, Poland’s Species. Unfairly or not, thrash is an oft-maligned genre accused of being unserious and trite or stale and stuck in the past. On Changelings, Species’ sophomore offering, the band nimbly threads the needle between paying homage to thrash’s heyday while shaping a fresh sound that’s enchanting yet familiar.

Changelings confidently walks the elusive path between influence and originality. From the opening moments of “Inspirit Creation,” Species treats listeners to hooks stretched taut between early Testament pluck (think “Burnt Offering”) and Countdown and Youthanasia-era Megadeth. It’s a curious combination, as The Legacy has a distinctly unpolished edge, while early-to-mid-90s Megadeth condenses the sheer technicality of Rust in Peace into glossy, efficient leads. Changelings takes the above reference points and channels the grit and chops of bands like Chemical Breath and Obliveon1 to economically distill its riffcraft into thrashy white lightning. The tight musicianship and melody-countermelody tandem of guitar and bass smack of Rush, Cynic, and Mekong Delta, but don’t let all the influences fool you. Species evokes these bands and others, but Changelings is no mere retread. The album glimmers with invention, where each track possesses its own devilishly charming character and mood.

Changelings by Species

Following in the footsteps of esteemed power trios like Rush and Coroner, Species exhibits an acumen for composing dense and exciting music that feels natural and organic. Though bursting with talent, no moment on Changelings serves to grandstand Species’ technical wizardry. Guitarist Michał Kępka wends his way through the album, unleashing snazzy flourishes and palm-muted muscle as songs demand. His licks are sharp and precise, yet Kępka imbues an improvisational aura to his axework that keeps the music alluringly unpredictable (“The Essence,” “Terror Unknown”). Bassist Piotr Drobina delights as he plays beside Kępka while laying down vocals. It’s an impressive feat, considering the ground he covers on the bottom end. From octave hopping (“Born of Stitch and Flesh”) to beefy bass power chords (“Inspirit Creation”), Drobina is the perfect complement to Kępka for Species’ give-and-take stringed approach. Meanwhile, Przemysław Hampelski provides the rhythmic foundation for the band. He’s not as overtly ostentatious as Peart or Hoglan, but Hampelski impresses throughout Changelings, from laying down the groove-laced intro of “The Essence” to the simmering timekeeping on “Born of Stitch and Flesh.” All told, Species constructs an intricate musical experience where distinct ideas meld together to navigate an undeniably engaging aural exploit.

In a year where thrash’s harvest produced scant high-quality yields, Species delivered a cash crop of bangers.2 Changelings’ magic stems from the band’s penchant to zag when I expect them to zig. Finding moments to subvert listeners’ expectations keeps momentum and interest high, such as when the musical tension builds to an assumed climax, only to break to an understated solo before lurching back into high-intensity fulfillment. Species dazzles in this space, ever on the prowl to sink their claws further into your sonic psyche. In an efficient forty minutes, Changelings carves out an undeniable and relevant voice in a genre plagued by criticisms of stagnation and lack of innovation. If you crave music with originality, brawn, and fun, Species is a mandatory destination in your 2025 tour of metal.

Tracks to Check Out: “Inspirit Creation,” “The Essence,” “Born of Stitch and Flesh,” “Biological Masterpiece”

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

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

Mossbane Lantern by Sallow Moth

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

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

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

Moron Police is an odd band, if the moniker didn’t give it away. The first few albums were very comedy-oriented, but A Boat on the Sea suddenly saw the band tackling anti-war themes, without giving up the bright melodic sound that draws from progressive rock and anime soundtrack J-rock alike. Production on Pachinko was already on the way when drummer Thore Pettersen died in a car accident. After taking the time to mourn their friend, Moron Police soldiered on, aided by Dillinger Escape Plan drummer Billy Rymer. The result is an astounding album in every regard, an experience unlike anything I’ve heard in years. It’s also a concept album about a dude getting turned into a sentient gambling machine in Tokyo. Huh?

Pachinko by Moron Police

Everything about Pachinko is larger than life. It’s as colorful as its gorgeous cover, full of energy and possessed of an indomitable spirit, a quirky sense of humor, and endless love and compassion. The narrative, which seems to be inspired by isekai anime,1 is merely a vehicle for philosophical ruminations on the nature of life, fate and human connection in a world designed to wear you down to apathy. No two songs are alike or tackle these subjects the same way, and you can get snippets of darker lyrics dressed in bright colors (“King Among Kittens”), pure silly nonsense (‘Meee, I’m a techno boy’ in “Pachinko Pt. 1”) or melancholy reflections on the follies of power (the brilliant “The Apathy of Kings”).

Despite its colorful outer layer, Pachinko is more than just feel-good vibes. It’s a masterwork of both composition and technical wizardry. The melodies are intricate yet catchy, and never go exactly the way you expect. Nor do the songs themselves, because the way they weave together different moods, genres, and tempos is nothing short of staggering. Violins over blastbeats in “Cormorant,” melancholy synthpop in “Okinawa Sky,” jazzy whirlwind intro leading into big band brass for “Alfredo and the Afterlife.” And the title track suite turns it up to eleven for a combined 16 minutes of head-spinning avant-garde genre-hopping madness.

Yet for all this craziness, it’s remarkable how tightly woven and cohesive the hour-long album is. Songs frequently cross-reference each other to really emphasize the album experience, with “Pachinko Pt. 1” even referencing A Boat on the Sea directly. This peaks with the magisterial finale, which effortlessly binds snippets from across the album together into a gorgeous feast of reprise. It doubles as a heartfelt farewell to Thore, whose drums are used for the outro. Moron Police has taken their grief and turned it into a grandiose, madcap celebration of life and friendship with a wink, a smile, and a tear. An instant classic and one of the best albums I’ve heard this decade.

Tracks to Check Out: All of them, front to back.



To be perfectly honest, I no longer recall when or how exactly I encountered Germany’s Dagdrøm for the first time. There’s a pretty good chance it was a Discordian recommendation, or I discovered it organically while sifting through Bandcamp’s new releases feed. Either way, their debut Schauder regularly circulates on my listening rotation. Weirdly, it received very little fanfare from the commenters or other arenas of metallic discourse that I frequent. It’s a shame, because Schauder remains one of the coolest melodic black metal albums released this year.

Unlike the traditional second wave stylings of Sarastus or the cosmic exuberance of Silent Millenia, Dagdrøm’s style is emotional, propelled by chunky post-metal riffs, and uplifted by hopeful atmosphere. That’s not to say Schauder is happy by any means. While its riffs are groovy and sophisticated and its melodies sparkling and brilliant, the overall tone of the record is one of deep yearning and of grieving. Without access to the lyrics, or any understanding of the German language, I possess very little ability to confirm this, but it’s crystal clear to me that Schauder is a deeply personal work fueled by a bleeding heart and a desperate soul.

Schauder by Dagdrøm

Schauder’s greatest strengths are balance and fluidity. In every aspect of its compositions, clever shifts in texture and tone follow the natural progression of human emotion as they move through phases of love, of pain, of grief, and of remembrance. I listen to highlights like opener proper “Ascheregen,” mid-album heartbreaking duo “Atme” and “Flüsse,” or blistering chills “Tagtraum” and “Freund,” and I revel in sublime transitions that bring ascendant tremolo melodies down to earth with caustic, crushing riffs and thrashing percussive rhythms, the next airy lead launching me back to the stratosphere in short order. These moments reprise themselves two or three times in many songs, but not without evolutionary developments or variations informed by the passages that led them there (see the spine-tingling harmonies introduced in the final moments sending “Flüsse” off). As a consequence of such intentional writing, Schauder flows through its expansive 50 minutes with striking ease and makes repeat spins an effortless endeavor.

Don’t let Schauder’s beauty and smoothness fool you, though. Bursting at the seams with killer riffs of varying approaches, aggressive tempos, and venomous screams, Dagdrøm’s debut is a beast with claws and teeth sharp enough to rend flesh from bone. Early bangers like “Ascheregen” and late album rippers “Ära” and “Kalte Fliesen” handily demonstrate this, reinforcing that a black metal band in touch with their emotions is just as menacing, if not more so, than the aloof, the cold, and the distant. Schauder is none of these things. It’s intimate, vulnerable, and expressive while still delivering energetic, raucous, and compelling songs. That makes it special.

If you are ever looking to recommend something to me, especially in the ashen realms of black metal, let this be your litmus. Dagdrøm may be new on the scene and they may eschew some of the classic melodic black metal tropes that made the genre a staple, but Schauder is not to be overlooked. You miss this, you miss out!

Tracks to Check Out: “Ascheregen,” “Atme,” “Flüsse,” “Kalte Fliesen”

Blah blah blah, deathcore sucks, blah blah, okay, we got that out of the way. Now, for everyone who likes it, come close and hear about one of the bands doing shit right. Deathcore can be incredibly varied as a genre, and among the hundreds of doggy-doo bands out there, a few break the mold. As someone who listens to a lot of different deathcore groups (judge me, I don’t give a shit), North Carolina’s Sold Soul are out here making progressive deathcore that surprises as much as it crushes your skull. Even if you don’t like Lorna Shore or, like me, find their recent albums incredibly boring, Sold Soul is here for you. Their latest, Just Like That, I Disappear Entirely, is an amalgamation of slamming deathcore, inhuman vocals, raw emotion, and some true surprises. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it avant-garde deathcore, but it is close.

One of the first things I appreciate about Just Like That, I Disappear Entirely, is the lack of repetitive breakdowns. Songs rarely slow to a crawl for chug-time; instead, much of the brutality so inherent to deathcore is found through the thick atmosphere, rich production, and slamming speed. “As Whisper, Or As Bellowing” takes a minute to writhe in its unsettling tone, with high leads and piercing riffs, only to drop into a ripping gallop that calls to mind slam more than deathcore. Stevie O’Shaughnessy’s vocals are varied and powerful, and in another point in this record’s favor, he rarely spends much time gargling into the microphone just for the hell of it. Other than an offhand snort in the opening track, Sold Soul avoids much of the vocal breakdowns that have infected modern deathcore like a plague. In fact, Stevie occasionally busts out unique clean vocals that add to the atmosphere and feel right at home with the rest of the album’s tone. Again, Sold Soul bucks trends by avoiding the typical fry, scream-singing so common in deathcore, or crooning cleans that kill momentum. The clean vocals are used sparingly and feel like an integral part of the album’s core without overstaying their welcome.

Just Like That, I Disappear Entirely by Sold Soul

Just Like That, I Disappear Entirely has a strong emotional core bolstered by the consistent use of stringwork and piano to add to the already dense song structures. In another rarity for deathcore, the production isn’t crushed by the weight of its disparate pieces. Guitars come through clearly, strings have space to breathe, and the vocals don’t overtake the whole mix; you can even hear the bass. “To Spit Contempt on the Tail of Every Uttered Word” features a twangy lead that charges into a blistering, grooving verse bolstered by Stevie’s brutal vocals. One of the rare breakdowns on the album punches you straight in the teeth over and over, and is done as soon as it arrives; nothing on this record overstays its welcome. Before you know it, staccato bass and guest vocals from Kukeille take you on a journey back into the unique lead work and Stevie’s crooning howl.

Just Like That, I Disappear Entirely is rich, dense, and well worth delving into. The string work on “A Lament for an Abandoned Heaven All Us Who Lay Beneath” is downright gorgeous, and, despite the melodramatic song titles, the band isn’t afraid to have a sense of humor, as shown in a snippet of their recording session at the end of the album’s penultimate track. Sold Soul is doing deathcore right, don’t let the genre stop you from enjoying this monolith.

Tracks to Check Out: “For I Can Endure No Longer,” “A Lament for an Abandoned Heaven All Us Who Lay Beneath,” “That Stranger in the Red Suit, and the Many Things He Promised Me.”

Remember the Finnish melodic death and power metal fusion of the late ’90s and early ’00s? Bands like Children of Bodom,1 Kalmah, and Norther were all the rage for a short while. You even had stuff like Ensiferum for a folkier interpretation, or Catamenia2 for the blackened side of things. The truth is that it never really left.3 Suotana is one of the bands keeping this sound alive and well, and they have more history than one might think. They spawned in the mid-2000s but took until 2014 to start putting out material. Now, over a decade later, they’re on their fourth full-length, and Ounas II continues right where predecessor Ounas I left off two years ago. Judging them back-to-back, it seems the collective is only growing in strength.

Ounas II is chock full of great songwriting. Melodic death metal, power metal, and even bits of black metal collide in this crazy Finnish kitchen, with Children of Bodom remaining the clear number one influence. Founding members Ville Rautio and Pasi Portaankorva utilize the dual guitar attack in classic ’80s ways (“Winter Visions,” “Twilight Stream”), while Stratovarius sensibilities color their frantic touches of melodic power—both always positives in my book. The harsh vocals of Tuomo Marttinen are frosty and vicious, similar to their swamp brethren in Kalmah.4 Tommi Neitola’s keyboards are the cherry on top, adding a Bodomesque symphonic bombast layer that occasionally approaches Wintersun levels without going overboard (“The Crowned King of Ancient Forest,” “1473 Ounas”).

Ounas II by Suotana

Dealing with two-part concepts is always a challenging task, but Suotana came prepared. It feels like they’ve improved on all of Ounas I’s already strong qualities: the production has more breadth, the album’s layers delve deeper, and there’s more energy and variety in its songs (“Foreverland,” “Twilight Stream”). However, the most impressive thing about Ounas II is that it’s even denser than its sibling. The album clocks in at 39 minutes compared to the first part’s 41,5 which has the huge advantage of avoiding a bloated ‘B-sides’ feel so common with other double album concepts.6 And despite its tight runtime, the songwriting has plenty of room to flourish, as exemplified by “1473 Ounas.” Furthermore, to complement the Summoning cover that crowned the first part, Ounas II unleashes a cover of Children of Bodom’s “Hatebreeder” as its encore. Whether you imagine it as a proper track or a bonus, it’s a great way to end the record with a bang while honoring your influences.7

Suotana has had a long journey to get to this point, and it’s been more than worth it. Their songwriting is only getting faster and better, which further reinforces its catchy extremities. In many ways, Suotana feels like the melodeath-forward twin to Moonlight Sorcery’s excellent brand of power/black metal. Both bands dress to impress with big riffs, melodic violence, and keyboard bombast in all the right ways. Though the back-to-back experience is great, Ounas II is a package that works wonders on its lonesome too, and I think that’s another mark of success for the band. I’m excited to see what these self-aware wizards pictured above are going to summon from that lake next, Ounas or not.

Tracks to Check Out: “Winter Visions,” “Twilight Stream,” “The Crowned King of Ancient Forest,” and a special shout out to the excellent cover of “Hatebreeder.”

Dragon Skull – Chaos Fire Vengeance [Things You Might Have Missed 2025]

By Baguette of Bodom

Greece is a surprising hotbed for power metal-adjacent sounds, providing recent gems such as Sunburst last year and Sacred Outcry’s 2023 masterpiece.1 Dragon Skull is a newcomer to these fields of glory, introducing their burly heavy/power style on their promising self-titled EP as recently as 2022. Now, three years later, they were finally ready to unleash their debut Chaos Fire Vengeance on the world. And oh my, what an entrance it is.

Dragon Skull know how to riff like hell and craft anthemic, cataclysmically heavy tunes. In addition to the fist-pumping Manowar feel the band is going for (“Brethren,” “Skull Crusher”), the songwriting is further guided by the spirit of German power metal, something like Brainstorm further reinforced with later Blind Guardian bombast (“Nampat,” “Blood and Souls”). But what makes the instrumentation incendiary is how guitarists Panos Wallach and Chris Brintzikis take influence from several directions at once. This guarantees plenty of variety through the album’s eight tracks, ranging from the dual-harmonized NWoBHM of “Brethren” to the melodeath/meloblack-informed tremolos on “Shield Maiden.” To top it all off, the pummeling war drums of Teo Stamatiadis and gargantuan vocals of Aris Labos lend maximum grit to an already muscular record.

Chaos Fire Vengeance offers a refreshing mixture of ’80s heavy metal and ’00s power metal. Slower, anthemic annihilation is counterpointed by thunderous fury, often during the same song (“Dragon Riders,” Shield Maiden”). The extra melodic death metal DNA brings with it a welcome burst of harsh vocals as well (“War Drums,” “Skeleton Hand”), and the way it all gels effortlessly is impressive. Despite the amount of various elements and influences in the album, the end result is deceivingly simple and effective. It makes Dragon Skull’s style stand out in a similar way Triumpher’s shtick does, but the increased mass and grit of Chaos Fire Vengeance improves the formula from good to face-melting. Though the first half of the album is already potent, the second half is where the band’s ambitions are fully realized. The hooks in “Nampat” and “Skeleton Hand” are immense, and the gargantuan epic “Blood and Souls” is a serious Song o’ the Year contender. I mean, how can you not love a song with Elric and Tanelorn-themed lyrical homages to Cirith Ungol and Blind Guardian?2

Dragon Skull is single-handedly carrying the power metal torch this year. Sure, it might be more heavy/power, but who’s counting? The songwriting is superbly anthemic, and the band knocked it out of the park on their first try in 42 brief minutes. I’ve had some trouble getting all my writing done late in the year for countless reasons, and this album in particular felt difficult to write deeper analysis for. But maybe it’s not necessary. After all, what is a TYMHM but a long-winded way to say “this album rocks, go check it out?” Sometimes it’s just better to keep things short and simple, and all Chaos Fire Vengeance needs is a damn strong barrage of eight massive tunes. Better yet, it’s a brilliant blueprint Dragon Skull can use to further refine their songcraft.

Tracks to Check Out: “Nampat,” “Skeleton Hand,” and “Blood and Souls.”

#2025 #BlindGuardian #Brainstorm #ChaosFireVengeance #CirithUngol #DragonSkull #EpicHeavyMetal #GreekMetal #HeavyMetal #Manowar #PowerMetal #SacredOutcry #SelfReleased #Sunburst #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed2025 #Triumpher #TYMHM

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

By Creeping Ivy

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

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

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

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

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

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

Primitive Man – Observance [Things You Might Have Missed 2025]

By Spicie Forrest

It’s been a decade since Primitive Man last graced these halls with 2015’s tepidly received Home is Where the Hatred Is, but they haven’t been idle. In the meantime, the Denver trio has released 2 LPs, a full-length EP, a split with Unearthly Trance, and a collab with Full of Hell.1 Those ten years were spent experimenting, learning, and honing their sound into something so incredibly bleak that not even the promo pit could contain such hopeless darkness.2 Released on Halloween, Observance sees Primitive Man both doubling down and branching out to offer their darkest work yet.

To assuage any doubts early, crushing despair is still the foundation of Primitive Man’s sound. Observance feels like being imprisoned and forgotten in a lightless pit. In an inverted format reminiscent of funeral doom, vocalist/guitarist Ethan McCarthy’s axe predominantly serves as a foil for others. He lays a nearly riffless foundation of maddening single chords (“Social Contract”) and maggot-infested buzzing (“Devotion,” “Transactional”) upon which bassist Jonathan Campos and drummer Joe Linden drive these sonic interpretations of the abyss. Campos is patient, waiting for the perfect moment to savage listeners (“Seer”) or waterboard them with molten tar (“Natural Law”). Conversely, Linden actively stokes fear through the hunt. Whether invoking the ritualistic horror of Choir (“Devotion,” “Social Contract”) or closing in to suffocate his victims (“Water”), Linden keeps listeners trapped in a waking nightmare. McCarthy’s inhuman bellows, like tortured screams rent from a caged beast, round out Observance, at once malevolent, feral, and seething with impotent rage.

Primitive Man knew it wouldn’t be enough to just shove listeners into that lightless pit; they filled it with fresh horrors, too. Filtered through their singularly despondent style, “Seer” quickly launches into a punky downbeat rhythm before giving way to the Primitive Man’s iconic dissonant hammering. “Social Contract” concludes in similar fashion, but starts with sinister wooden clapping and an ominous sample of an angry mob slowly losing control. After a blackened opening, “Natural Law” unleashes a furious, grinding salvo that’s all the more terrifying for the vicious howls McCarthy weaves through it. Of everything on Observance, it’s a new element that threatens sanity most: McCarthy’s deranged, utterly fucked lullabies (“Devotion,” “Transactional,” “Natural Law”). As if desperately seeking a reprieve that will never come, his guitar screams to itself the nursery melodies that once brought comfort and safety, now tainted and defiled in madness.

Primitive Man’s refinement of their signature death sludge and warped departures therefrom speak to a greater accomplishment: Observance demands your attention for all 68 minutes. By incorporating new elements, Primitive Man makes the style they’re known for shine all the brighter. By slimming down the ambient interlude (“Iron Sights”)3 and spreading it out among the proper tracks, Observance offers moments to reset and pray for salvation between nightmares. Enthralling from end to end, Observance is a harrowing experience that teases the sweet release of silence before dashing those hopes in evil, sadistic brilliance. If you didn’t like Primitive Man before, I doubt anything about this record will change your mind. This is the most Primitive Man that Primitive Man has ever been. But if you, like me, enjoy begging for light and being denied, Observance is your ticket to decadent, hopeless agony.

Tracks to Check Out: “Devotion,” “Natural Law,” and “Water.”

#2025 #AmericanMetal #Choir #DeathMetal #DoomMetal #FullOfHell #Noise #Observance #PrimitiveMan #RelapseRecords #Sludge #ThingsYouMayHaveMissed2025 #TYMHM #UnearthlyTrance

Gloombound – Dreaming Delusion [Things You Might Have Missed 2025]

By Killjoy

Funeral doom metal is a subgenre that, when executed properly, is fertile ground for stimulating the listener’s imagination. Perhaps this is because the glacial pace offers ample room for the mind to wander. Perhaps it’s because the music focuses more on deliberate mood than mindblowing technicality. With the right album artwork to gaze at, the experience is particularly immersive.1 While the music that Gloombound plays may be sonically closer to death-doom, it is composed with the same painstaking attention to detail as the best funeral doom. And the fact that Dreaming Delusion is the debut record of this young group from Oslo, Norway, makes this even more impressive.

We tend to use the word cavernous a lot when describing death-doom, but the very compositions of Dreaming Delusion evoke an actual cave. This is particularly true of the guitarwork. Solitary notes and arpeggios trickle like drips of water from stalactites (“An Eternity of Complete Acquiescence”). The jagged death-doom surfaces melt into melodies that are smooth as the glassy surface of a subterranean lake (“Luminary Dissolution”). The lush yet explosive guitar solo midway through “Dreaming Delusion” hits like a sudden burst of sunlight after a rockfall, reminiscent of the fretwork in Worm’s Foreverglade. The sum total could very well be a sibling of Dream Unending’s dreamy despondency.

Yet, unlike Dream Unending, Gloombound seeks to crush the listener’s spirits just as much as their eardrums. Dreaming Delusion tantalizingly oscillates between despair and hope. The two vocalists, Mina Halvorsen and Emma Theneus Sønstebø, form a twisted, echoing call and response before the music slips into a psychedelic pool of keys and fretless bass (“At the Precipice to Longinquity”). These quieter, contemplative moments are crucial beyond merely adding beauty. Far from a meaningless acoustic guitar interlude, “Salvation” is instead a welcome respite from the psychic assault, for which the listener is punished more intensely by the rattling riffs and growls of “Luminary Dissolution.” Over the course of 44 minutes, the hope for escape gradually drowns, giving way to anguish and finally blossoming into serene acceptance during the final notes of concluding track “Dreaming Delusion.”

Dreaming Delusion is as psychological as it is emotive. It truly feels like the mental unraveling of a soul trapped in a metaphorical cave. Every element of the instrumentation, from the guitar structure to the haunting organs to the fretless bass, combine to create a rich sound that is somehow both full and cavernous. The vocals are both oppressive and harrowing, with lots of variation and expressiveness. I’m impressed by how mature Gloombound sounds in both songwriting and performance on their first attempt. What do you do when your mind betrays you? Dreaming Delusion offers no answers, only catharsis.

Tracks to Check Out: “An Eternity of Complete Acquiescence,” “Dreaming Delusion”

#2025 #Atramentus #DeathDoom #DreamUnending #DreamingDelusion #FuneralDoom #Gloombound #GruesomeRecords #NorwegianMetal #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed2025 #TYMHM #Worm

Halocraft – The Sky Will Remember / To Leave a Single Wolf Alive [Things You Might Have Missed 2025]

By Killjoy

I find the idea of double albums fascinating. While in many cases they may indicate an unchecked surge of inspiration or an unwillingness to self-edit, there are instances when the decision can feel genuinely appropriate. Halocraft, a (mostly) instrumental post-rock quartet from Greece, opted to split the final entry of a multi-album story into two parallel endings. According to their respective Bandcamp pages, The Sky Will Remember is the “imaginary happy ending,” whereas To Leave a Single Wolf Alive is the “true dark ending.” Aside from this brief description, the song titles, and sparse lyrics, Halocraft relies solely on their music to tell both sides of this narrative.

Halocraft’s “music first, atmosphere second” approach serves them well. It’s hard not to let oneself be borne away by the dreamy, leisurely guitar lines, which bear a fair resemblance to God Is an Astronaut or Black Narcissus. The Sky Will Remember is much closer to the cheerful, upbeat nature of Halocraft’s prior two full-lengths, with tons of tunes that are sticky-sweet but somehow never cloying. On the other hand, To Leave a Single Wolf Alive is a significant deviation from Halocraft’s usual style. Aside from its noticeably darker tone, it’s less reliant on hooks and, therefore, its slower burn took me a little longer to appreciate. Careful attention to both records will reveal subtle, whimsical bass counterpoints to the twin guitars.

The real strength of Halocraft’s songwriting is favoring clearly defined melodies over the sprawling free-form tendencies common in the post-rock genre. The songs loosely adhere to the tried and true pop structure, with verses and choruses that just happen to be instrumental in this case. I am, personally, partial toward The Sky Will Remember. Tracks such as “A Headful of Dreams,” “And in That Light, I Saw You,” and “Particle” never fail to lift my spirits. To Leave a Single Wolf Alive is there when I’m in the mood for something more melancholic but equally pleasant. While it does lean more heavily on repetition, there are moments that stand out, such as the slithering grooves of “And the Weak Suffer What They Must” and the faint goth-rock shades of “They Rest in Flames.” Though very different from one another, both albums are versatile enough to excel in the foreground and the background.

After spending nearly a year with both, I can confidently say that Halocraft has accomplished the difficult and paradoxical task of making two opposite yet complementary records. The Sky Will Remember and To Leave a Single Wolf Alive are a refreshing reversal of many instrumental post-rock norms, like meandering songwriting and lack of meaningful melodies. They are so easy to listen to and enjoy, no matter what mood I find myself in. I may connect with The Sky Will Remember more, but I appreciate Halocraft’s willingness and capability to expand their sound into darker avenues on To Leave a Single Wolf Alive. My hope is that on their next record they can take both of these disparate strands and weave them together. For now, though, you can’t go wrong with either choice.

Tracks to Check Out (The Sky Will Remember): “A Headful of Dreams,” “And in That Light, I Saw You”

Tracks to Check Out (To Leave a Single Wolf Alive): “And the Weak Suffer What They Must,” “They Rest in Flames”

#2025 #blackNarcissus #godIsAnAstronaut #greekMetal #halocraft #instrumentalMetal #notMetal #postRock #selfRelease #theSkyWillRemember #thingsYouMightHaveMissed2025 #toLeaveASingleWolfAlive #tymhm

Aephanemer – Utopie [Things You Might Have Missed 2025]

Something about neoclassical instrumentation forged between the hammer and the anvil kindles the embers of my w…
#NewsBeep #News #Music #2025 #Aephanemer #Amorphis #AU #Australia #Aversed #BuriedRealm #ChildrenofBodom #Entertainment #FrenchMetal #InMourning #Kalmah #Melodeath #MelodicDeathMetal #MorsPrincipiumEst #NapalmRecords #Norther #SymphonicMetal #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed2025 #TYMHM #Utopie #Vittra
https://www.newsbeep.com/au/305646/

https://www.europesays.com/ie/197620/ Aephanemer – Utopie [Things You Might Have Missed 2025] #2025 #Aephanemer #Amorphis #Aversed #BuriedRealm #ChildrenOfBodom #Éire #Entertainment #FrenchMetal #IE #InMourning #Ireland #Kalmah #Melodeath #MelodicDeathMetal #MorsPrincipiumEst #Music #NapalmRecords #Norther #SymphonicMetal #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed2025 #TYMHM #Utopie #Vittra

Aephanemer – Utopie [Things You Might Have Missed 2025]

By Grin Reaper

Something about neoclassical instrumentation forged between the hammer and the anvil kindles the embers of my withered Reaper heart. Whether tasting northern comfort with Children of Bodom, basking in festering swamp songs with Kalmah, or unleashing hell with Norther, Finland has long asserted a stranglehold on melodeath of the symphonic persuasion.1 That is, until a modest French foursome threw down the gauntlet. I first encountered Aephanemer between Prokopton and A Dream of Wilderness, and it was love at first listen. Their classical flourishes seamlessly converge with aggressive riffing to develop complex layers of hook-infested earworms so inescapable that no prescription can rid me of their iron thrall. Four years after their last outing, Aephanemer returns with a mature interpretation of their signature sonic stamp.

Grabbing the reins to shepherd listeners to new frontiers of what melodic death metal can sound like, Aephanemer reemerges to show us the way to Utopie. Evolving the neoclassical components of platters past, Aephanemer fully realizes a stunning merger of melodeath and symphonic orchestrations.2 On Utopie, the band crafts an experience that sounds like it was written with classical composition as its basis rather than as a reservoir of embellishments. Earlier albums comprised songs with classical ingredients, but on Utopie, Aephanemer sculpts a singular work with movements and motifs that unfold through its fifty-one-minute runtime, giving the album a degree of unity and cohesion that is sometimes sought yet rarely achieved in modern music.

Where Utopie’s soundscape exudes consonance, its composition is structured in two halves. The front bears quicker, sticky numbers while the back embraces longer-form, sweeping arrangements. “Contrepoint” appropriately serves as the intermediary between each half, though the track itself conforms to the fore’s characteristics. “Le Cimetière Marin,” “La Règle du Jeu,” and “Par-delà le Mur des Siècles” fashion an opening trio of gluey tunes that flow harmoniously into one another, surprising me with how quickly those fifteen minutes pass every time I listen. The final triad of tracks encompass half the album’s runtime and deliver the soaring majesty of epics while maintaining momentum. Throughout, Aephanemer’s galloping rhythms, arpeggiated leads, and bubbly tom rolls (plus intermittent flute trills and orchestral strings) sustain a vital energy, providing a pervasive sense of kinesis and grandeur. Martin Hamiche’s guitar tone is buoyant and silky,3 the perfect counterpoint to Marion Bascoul’s harsh rasps. Mickaël Bonnevialle underpins Aephanemer’s bombast with flurries of fills and rolls, always in support of the overarching sound while occasionally commanding well-deserved spotlight. Even as a three-piece, the band performs as tightly as ever.

Utopie is the sound of a band with a vision so crisp and vivid that all you need to do is close your eyes to be whisked away to paradise. Aephanemer oozes jubilance and confidence, harnessing the successes of previous albums and honing them to an eager edge, sallying forth with nary a concern for detractors. In a year where melodeath claimed two of 2025’s Records o’ the Month (Aversed and In Mourning), plus saw releases from Amorphis, Buried Realm, Mors Principium Est, and Vittra, Utopie claims the top spot of the genre in my humble (but accurate) estimation. Aephanemer in 2025 best embodies the spirit and triumph of what symphonic melodeath can do, mustering a celebration of undeniable charm and panache. Go forth and embrace bliss. Go to Utopie.

Tracks to Check Out: “Le Cimetiére Marin,” “Contrepoint,” “La Rivière Souterraine,” “Utopie (Partie II)”

#2025 #aephanemer #amorphis #aversed #buriedRealm #childrenOfBodom #frenchMetal #inMourning #kalmah #melodeath #melodicDeathMetal #morsPrincipiumEst #napalmRecords #norther #symphonicMetal #thingsYouMightHaveMissed2025 #tymhm #utopie #vittra

Aephanemer – Utopie [Things You Might Have Missed 2025]

By Grin Reaper

Something about neoclassical instrumentation forged between the hammer and the anvil kindles the embers of my withered Reaper heart. Whether tasting northern comfort with Children of Bodom, basking in festering swamp songs with Kalmah, or unleashing hell with Norther, Finland has long asserted a stranglehold on melodeath of the symphonic persuasion.1 That is, until a modest French foursome threw down the gauntlet. I first encountered Aephanemer between Prokopton and A Dream of Wilderness, and it was love at first listen. Their classical flourishes seamlessly converge with aggressive riffing to develop complex layers of hook-infested earworms so inescapable that no prescription can rid me of their iron thrall. Four years after their last outing, Aephanemer returns with a mature interpretation of their signature sonic stamp.

Grabbing the reins to shepherd listeners to new frontiers of what melodic death metal can sound like, Aephanemer reemerges to show us the way to Utopie. Evolving the neoclassical components of platters past, Aephanemer fully realizes a stunning merger of melodeath and symphonic orchestrations.2 On Utopie, the band crafts an experience that sounds like it was written with classical composition as its basis rather than as a reservoir of embellishments. Earlier albums comprised songs with classical ingredients, but on Utopie, Aephanemer sculpts a singular work with movements and motifs that unfold through its fifty-one-minute runtime, giving the album a degree of unity and cohesion that is sometimes sought yet rarely achieved in modern music.

Where Utopie’s soundscape exudes consonance, its composition is structured in two halves. The front bears quicker, sticky numbers while the back embraces longer-form, sweeping arrangements. “Contrepoint” appropriately serves as the intermediary between each half, though the track itself conforms to the fore’s characteristics. “Le Cimetière Marin,” “La Règle du Jeu,” and “Par-delà le Mur des Siècles” fashion an opening trio of gluey tunes that flow harmoniously into one another, surprising me with how quickly those fifteen minutes pass every time I listen. The final triad of tracks encompass half the album’s runtime and deliver the soaring majesty of epics while maintaining momentum. Throughout, Aephanemer’s galloping rhythms, arpeggiated leads, and bubbly tom rolls (plus intermittent flute trills and orchestral strings) sustain a vital energy, providing a pervasive sense of kinesis and grandeur. Martin Hamiche’s guitar tone is buoyant and silky,3 the perfect counterpoint to Marion Bascoul’s harsh rasps. Mickaël Bonnevialle underpins Aephanemer’s bombast with flurries of fills and rolls, always in support of the overarching sound while occasionally commanding well-deserved spotlight. Even as a three-piece, the band performs as tightly as ever.

Utopie is the sound of a band with a vision so crisp and vivid that all you need to do is close your eyes to be whisked away to paradise. Aephanemer oozes jubilance and confidence, harnessing the successes of previous albums and honing them to an eager edge, sallying forth with nary a concern for detractors. In a year where melodeath claimed two of 2025’s Records o’ the Month (Aversed and In Mourning), plus saw releases from Amorphis, Buried Realm, Mors Principium Est, and Vittra, Utopie claims the top spot of the genre in my humble (but accurate) estimation. Aephanemer in 2025 best embodies the spirit and triumph of what symphonic melodeath can do, mustering a celebration of undeniable charm and panache. Go forth and embrace bliss. Go to Utopie.

Tracks to Check Out: “Le Cimetiére Marin,” “Contrepoint,” “La Rivière Souterraine,” “Utopie (Partie II)”

#2025 #aephanemer #amorphis #aversed #buriedRealm #childrenOfBodom #frenchMetal #inMourning #kalmah #melodeath #melodicDeathMetal #morsPrincipiumEst #napalmRecords #norther #symphonicMetal #thingsYouMightHaveMissed2025 #tymhm #utopie #vittra

Aephanemer – Utopie [Things You Might Have Missed 2025]

By Grin Reaper

Something about neoclassical instrumentation forged between the hammer and the anvil kindles the embers of my withered Reaper heart. Whether tasting northern comfort with Children of Bodom, basking in festering swamp songs with Kalmah, or unleashing hell with Norther, Finland has long asserted a stranglehold on melodeath of the symphonic persuasion.1 That is, until a modest French foursome threw down the gauntlet. I first encountered Aephanemer between Prokopton and A Dream of Wilderness, and it was love at first listen. Their classical flourishes seamlessly converge with aggressive riffing to develop complex layers of hook-infested earworms so inescapable that no prescription can rid me of their iron thrall. Four years after their last outing, Aephanemer returns with a mature interpretation of their signature sonic stamp.

Grabbing the reins to shepherd listeners to new frontiers of what melodic death metal can sound like, Aephanemer reemerges to show us the way to Utopie. Evolving the neoclassical components of platters past, Aephanemer fully realizes a stunning merger of melodeath and symphonic orchestrations.2 On Utopie, the band crafts an experience that sounds like it was written with classical composition as its basis rather than as a reservoir of embellishments. Earlier albums comprised songs with classical ingredients, but on Utopie, Aephanemer sculpts a singular work with movements and motifs that unfold through its fifty-one-minute runtime, giving the album a degree of unity and cohesion that is sometimes sought yet rarely achieved in modern music.

Where Utopie’s soundscape exudes consonance, its composition is structured in two halves. The front bears quicker, sticky numbers while the back embraces longer-form, sweeping arrangements. “Contrepoint” appropriately serves as the intermediary between each half, though the track itself conforms to the fore’s characteristics. “Le Cimetière Marin,” “La Règle du Jeu,” and “Par-delà le Mur des Siècles” fashion an opening trio of gluey tunes that flow harmoniously into one another, surprising me with how quickly those fifteen minutes pass every time I listen. The final triad of tracks encompass half the album’s runtime and deliver the soaring majesty of epics while maintaining momentum. Throughout, Aephanemer’s galloping rhythms, arpeggiated leads, and bubbly tom rolls (plus intermittent flute trills and orchestral strings) sustain a vital energy, providing a pervasive sense of kinesis and grandeur. Martin Hamiche’s guitar tone is buoyant and silky,3 the perfect counterpoint to Marion Bascoul’s harsh rasps. Mickaël Bonnevialle underpins Aephanemer’s bombast with flurries of fills and rolls, always in support of the overarching sound while occasionally commanding well-deserved spotlight. Even as a three-piece, the band performs as tightly as ever.

Utopie is the sound of a band with a vision so crisp and vivid that all you need to do is close your eyes to be whisked away to paradise. Aephanemer oozes jubilance and confidence, harnessing the successes of previous albums and honing them to an eager edge, sallying forth with nary a concern for detractors. In a year where melodeath claimed two of 2025’s Records o’ the Month (Aversed and In Mourning), plus saw releases from Amorphis, Buried Realm, Mors Principium Est, and Vittra, Utopie claims the top spot of the genre in my humble (but accurate) estimation. Aephanemer in 2025 best embodies the spirit and triumph of what symphonic melodeath can do, mustering a celebration of undeniable charm and panache. Go forth and embrace bliss. Go to Utopie.

Tracks to Check Out: “Le Cimetiére Marin,” “Contrepoint,” “La Rivière Souterraine,” “Utopie (Partie II)”

#2025 #aephanemer #amorphis #aversed #buriedRealm #childrenOfBodom #frenchMetal #inMourning #kalmah #melodeath #melodicDeathMetal #morsPrincipiumEst #napalmRecords #norther #symphonicMetal #thingsYouMightHaveMissed2025 #tymhm #utopie #vittra

Aephanemer – Utopie [Things You Might Have Missed 2025]

By Grin Reaper

Something about neoclassical instrumentation forged between the hammer and the anvil kindles the embers of my withered Reaper heart. Whether tasting northern comfort with Children of Bodom, basking in festering swamp songs with Kalmah, or unleashing hell with Norther, Finland has long asserted a stranglehold on melodeath of the symphonic persuasion.1 That is, until a modest French foursome threw down the gauntlet. I first encountered Aephanemer between Prokopton and A Dream of Wilderness, and it was love at first listen. Their classical flourishes seamlessly converge with aggressive riffing to develop complex layers of hook-infested earworms so inescapable that no prescription can rid me of their iron thrall. Four years after their last outing, Aephanemer returns with a mature interpretation of their signature sonic stamp.

Grabbing the reins to shepherd listeners to new frontiers of what melodic death metal can sound like, Aephanemer reemerges to show us the way to Utopie. Evolving the neoclassical components of platters past, Aephanemer fully realizes a stunning merger of melodeath and symphonic orchestrations.2 On Utopie, the band crafts an experience that sounds like it was written with classical composition as its basis rather than as a reservoir of embellishments. Earlier albums comprised songs with classical ingredients, but on Utopie, Aephanemer sculpts a singular work with movements and motifs that unfold through its fifty-one-minute runtime, giving the album a degree of unity and cohesion that is sometimes sought yet rarely achieved in modern music.

Where Utopie’s soundscape exudes consonance, its composition is structured in two halves. The front bears quicker, sticky numbers while the back embraces longer-form, sweeping arrangements. “Contrepoint” appropriately serves as the intermediary between each half, though the track itself conforms to the fore’s characteristics. “Le Cimetière Marin,” “La Règle du Jeu,” and “Par-delà le Mur des Siècles” fashion an opening trio of gluey tunes that flow harmoniously into one another, surprising me with how quickly those fifteen minutes pass every time I listen. The final triad of tracks encompass half the album’s runtime and deliver the soaring majesty of epics while maintaining momentum. Throughout, Aephanemer’s galloping rhythms, arpeggiated leads, and bubbly tom rolls (plus intermittent flute trills and orchestral strings) sustain a vital energy, providing a pervasive sense of kinesis and grandeur. Martin Hamiche’s guitar tone is buoyant and silky,3 the perfect counterpoint to Marion Bascoul’s harsh rasps. Mickaël Bonnevialle underpins Aephanemer’s bombast with flurries of fills and rolls, always in support of the overarching sound while occasionally commanding well-deserved spotlight. Even as a three-piece, the band performs as tightly as ever.

Utopie is the sound of a band with a vision so crisp and vivid that all you need to do is close your eyes to be whisked away to paradise. Aephanemer oozes jubilance and confidence, harnessing the successes of previous albums and honing them to an eager edge, sallying forth with nary a concern for detractors. In a year where melodeath claimed two of 2025’s Records o’ the Month (Aversed and In Mourning), plus saw releases from Amorphis, Buried Realm, Mors Principium Est, and Vittra, Utopie claims the top spot of the genre in my humble (but accurate) estimation. Aephanemer in 2025 best embodies the spirit and triumph of what symphonic melodeath can do, mustering a celebration of undeniable charm and panache. Go forth and embrace bliss. Go to Utopie.

Tracks to Check Out: “Le Cimetiére Marin,” “Contrepoint,” “La Rivière Souterraine,” “Utopie (Partie II)”

#2025 #aephanemer #amorphis #aversed #buriedRealm #childrenOfBodom #frenchMetal #inMourning #kalmah #melodeath #melodicDeathMetal #morsPrincipiumEst #napalmRecords #norther #symphonicMetal #thingsYouMightHaveMissed2025 #tymhm #utopie #vittra

Aephanemer – Utopie [Things You Might Have Missed 2025]

By Grin Reaper

Something about neoclassical instrumentation forged between the hammer and the anvil kindles the embers of my withered Reaper heart. Whether tasting northern comfort with Children of Bodom, basking in festering swamp songs with Kalmah, or unleashing hell with Norther, Finland has long asserted a stranglehold on melodeath of the symphonic persuasion.1 That is, until a modest French foursome threw down the gauntlet. I first encountered Aephanemer between Prokopton and A Dream of Wilderness, and it was love at first listen. Their classical flourishes seamlessly converge with aggressive riffing to develop complex layers of hook-infested earworms so inescapable that no prescription can rid me of their iron thrall. Four years after their last outing, Aephanemer returns with a mature interpretation of their signature sonic stamp.

Grabbing the reins to shepherd listeners to new frontiers of what melodic death metal can sound like, Aephanemer reemerges to show us the way to Utopie. Evolving the neoclassical components of platters past, Aephanemer fully realizes a stunning merger of melodeath and symphonic orchestrations.2 On Utopie, the band crafts an experience that sounds like it was written with classical composition as its basis rather than as a reservoir of embellishments. Earlier albums comprised songs with classical ingredients, but on Utopie, Aephanemer sculpts a singular work with movements and motifs that unfold through its fifty-one-minute runtime, giving the album a degree of unity and cohesion that is sometimes sought yet rarely achieved in modern music.

Where Utopie’s soundscape exudes consonance, its composition is structured in two halves. The front bears quicker, sticky numbers while the back embraces longer-form, sweeping arrangements. “Contrepoint” appropriately serves as the intermediary between each half, though the track itself conforms to the fore’s characteristics. “Le Cimetière Marin,” “La Règle du Jeu,” and “Par-delà le Mur des Siècles” fashion an opening trio of gluey tunes that flow harmoniously into one another, surprising me with how quickly those fifteen minutes pass every time I listen. The final triad of tracks encompass half the album’s runtime and deliver the soaring majesty of epics while maintaining momentum. Throughout, Aephanemer’s galloping rhythms, arpeggiated leads, and bubbly tom rolls (plus intermittent flute trills and orchestral strings) sustain a vital energy, providing a pervasive sense of kinesis and grandeur. Martin Hamiche’s guitar tone is buoyant and silky,3 the perfect counterpoint to Marion Bascoul’s harsh rasps. Mickaël Bonnevialle underpins Aephanemer’s bombast with flurries of fills and rolls, always in support of the overarching sound while occasionally commanding well-deserved spotlight. Even as a three-piece, the band performs as tightly as ever.

Utopie is the sound of a band with a vision so crisp and vivid that all you need to do is close your eyes to be whisked away to paradise. Aephanemer oozes jubilance and confidence, harnessing the successes of previous albums and honing them to an eager edge, sallying forth with nary a concern for detractors. In a year where melodeath claimed two of 2025’s Records o’ the Month (Aversed and In Mourning), plus saw releases from Amorphis, Buried Realm, Mors Principium Est, and Vittra, Utopie claims the top spot of the genre in my humble (but accurate) estimation. Aephanemer in 2025 best embodies the spirit and triumph of what symphonic melodeath can do, mustering a celebration of undeniable charm and panache. Go forth and embrace bliss. Go to Utopie.

Tracks to Check Out: “Le Cimetiére Marin,” “Contrepoint,” “La Rivière Souterraine,” “Utopie (Partie II)”

#2025 #aephanemer #amorphis #aversed #buriedRealm #childrenOfBodom #frenchMetal #inMourning #kalmah #melodeath #melodicDeathMetal #morsPrincipiumEst #napalmRecords #norther #symphonicMetal #thingsYouMightHaveMissed2025 #tymhm #utopie #vittra

Dear Hollow’s Mathcore Madness [Things You Might Have Missed 2024]

By Dear Hollow

The equation above is AMG’s freakishly rigid and completely objective algorithm for scoring albums and determining quality. We incorporate statistics and abstract algebra, which I understand are very complicated maths, in order to get you the highest quality extreme music this side of the Hudson or Atlantic or Yangtze or wherever the hell you are. The trouble is, you bastards don’t listen to math (i.e. “hurr durr, Wilderun is so much better than this shit.”).1 So I listen to math because I’m a contributing citizen and patriot – I listen to mathcore for you. I wade through the cesspools of skronk and sass – RYM and Reddit – for the best of the best. I do it for the, like, three of you who dig it and the, like, eight billion of you who tell teens to turn it off before shuffling back inside for a bowl of Great Grains. What I do is super mathematical so you know it’s super serious. Mathcore is about as unlistenable and scathing as it is a total sellout – so you can offend nearly everyone who hears it. Random rhythms, migraine-inducing tempo shifts, painful squeals, no sense of melody or counting, vocals a la cheese grater to the throat – it’s skronk. So enjoy my bounties, you three. The rest of you can fuck right off.

Commence panic chords!!

Better Lovers // Highly Irresponsible – Last year’s barnstormer debut EP God Made Me an Animal set one hell of a precedent for Buffalo’s Better Lovers, and their debut full-length does not disappoint. Yes, it’s a revenge album against Keith Buckley’s lesser rival project Many Eyes, but Highly Irresponsible is soooo much more than petty Every Time I Die drama. Amplifying every facet of their sound, you get more manic barks and charismatic croons from legendary former The Dillinger Escape Plan vocalist Greg Puciato, more chunky riffage from Fit for an Autopsy’s Will Putney, and more of a southern fried good time from three-fifths of the defunct-and-dramatic Every Time I Die.2 While unafraid to embrace hooky rock sensibilities (“Deliver Us from Life,” “At), the punky, bluesy, and sleazy all-out assaults of tempo-abusing insanity (“A White Horse Covered in Blood,” “Love As An Act of Rebellion”) collide with fret-squealing riff fests of the highest caliber (“Lie Between the Lines,” “Future Myopia”) in an insanely catchy, dynamic, stupid heavy, and stupid fun album with legendary status awaiting.

Frontierer // The Skull Burned Wearing Hell Like a Life Vest As the Night Wept – Look, I get that it’s a thirteen-minute EP released super late 2024, but, c’mon, it’s fucking Frontierer. Somehow seeming more punishing than usual across its four tracks, thick-ass slogs hit like sledgehammers to the temple – translating well across its more frantic moments and slower menace – while rhythms attack with the ferocity and doomed inevitability of a swarm of locusts and vocalist Chad Kapper spits blood, vitriol, and insanity into the mic. Channeling the glacial suffocation that coursed through Oxidized, it doesn’t matter if the tempo is more upbeat and energetic (“As the Night Wept”) or if it’s content sludging in its own muck (“Wearing Hell”), or indulging in both (“The Skull Burned”), the vibrant dissonance swirls in dizzyingly mechanical intensity and the down-tuned riffs smother with ruthless arrhythmic beatdown chugs. While comparable to Ion Dissonance, Car Bomb, and this year’s Weston Super Maim in emphasis on down-tuned mathcore punishment, Frontierer remains one of the genre frontrunners and trendsetters by a significant margin – in a short thirteen minutes.

The God Awful Truth // All That Dark & All That Cold – Denton, Texas’ The God Awful Truth is likely everything love or hate about mathcore. Dissonance spilling sloppily across its shaky breakdowns, deathcore gut-punches, vocal attacks as insane as the squawking panic chords that paint the background like Jackson Pollock on too much crack, and rhythms jolting about like a toddler on a go-cart. Alongside these traditional The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza-isms (“Hail Paimon,” “Street Rat”), there is a lighthearted banter guided by vocalist Jordan LaFerney’s cowboy vocals and resulting poppy rhythms, punky tempos, and loose grind-esque composition (“Symbology,” “Slicked Back,” “Bad Tooth”), though the menacing still manages to punch through when least expected (“The Rainmaker,” “Omelette du Fromage”). It’s brutal whiplash of an album, not a semblance of traditional melody to be found, with deathcore breakdowns acting more as the punchline of a song-long joke. You’ll get a headache, but you’ll have fun along the way.

meth. / See You Next Tuesday // Asymmetrics – Mathcore and noisecore have a lot in common, namely unlistenable blasting. Your favorite Michigan deathcore/mathcore darlings See You Next Tuesday teams up with Chicago noisemongers meth. for Asymmetrics, more a collaborative experiment than a split. Each band records three songs, then shares only the drum tracks with the other, who records another song over that drum track. Toss in guest spots from The Red Chord’s Guy Kozowyk and Memphis-based sludgecore act Nights Like These, and all elements practically topple under Asymmetrics’ blazing intensity and immense weight. CUNT’s influence in relentless blasters (“The First Steps of Suffering,” “Syntax Error”) and blasting deathcore chug-and-squeal-fests (“Breaking Under the Weight of the Heaviest Burden,” “Tomb of Woe”) collide with meth.’s more ominous slow burns (“Succumb,” “Guest,” “Willing Participant”) in a surprisingly well-rounded package, all wrapped up in a tidy – and fuckin’ noisy – twenty-seven minutes. It’s the best of both worlds!

Utopia // Shame – A breed of technical metal recalling the fretboard-frying abilities of The Human Abstract or Scale the Summit, this UK-based group (including prolific bassist Arran McSporran of Virvum) balances a jazzy warmth and lush atmosphere to balance out the Dillinger rhythmic attack and Psyopus-inspired shredding, made further vicious by vocalist Chris Reese’s attack of frantic fries, manic shrieks, and ghastly roars. From intense attacks of intensity and brutality (“Shame,” “Social Contracts”), wonkier exposes of dissonant motifs and jagged rhythms (“Never Argue With an Idiot,” “The Gift of Failure”), and lush vistas of warm fretless bass and jazzy chords (“Sun Damage,” “Zither,” “Moving Gently Towards the Grave”), the dark themes of shame and morbidity are offset by a truly transcendent atmosphere that ties Shame together into something beyond mathcore.

Missouri Executive Order 44 // Salt Sermon – Absolutely unhinged mathgrind with a religious theme both belying and echoing their LDS missionary aesthetic (short-sleeved white button-ups, ties, shorts, and bicycle helmets) and ominous black masks, anonymous Independence collective Missouri Executive Order 44 approaches a morbid history of religious intolerance with the goal of utter annihilation. Cramming eleven songs into a mere sixteen minutes like blasters Sectioned or Fawn Limbs, you can expect it to hit hard and fast, complete with unhinged mathy meltdowns that spill across the face of concrete rhythm, meatheaded powerviolence chugs (“Christian Pornography,” “They Built a Bass Pro Shop in Our Zion”), surprisingly groovy riffs (“The Unbuckling,” “Seven is a Holy Number”), tied together with vocalist Jarom’s cult leader shrieks and sinner wails, alongside wickedly distorted Mormon spoken word and gospel samples. Posing no stance of their own aside from the dethroning of tyranny, Salt Sermon stands with all its tragedy and iconoclasm, both utterly devastating and utterly enticing.

Shiverboard // Hacksaw Morissette – Aside from the silly genius of the album name, New York’s Shiverboard eludes easy definition. Most consistently planted in grind, art-punk, screamo, and mathcore sensibilities, Hacksaw Morissette deals with fifteen tracks that feel like a shotgun blast. Punk is a common thread coursed through this tapestry of asininity, ranging from Sex Pistols-with-animalistic-snarls (“All Black Snoopy,” “Stain Remover”), complete collapses into noisecore (“Cryptic Bismuth,” “Chastity Jeans”), over-the-top deathcore blares (“Chainsaw Fruit Punch,” “Angelina Shit Ton”), math rock and Midwest emo musings straight outta Delta Sleep or American Football (title track, “Drug Test,” “The Garbage Stork,” “Vitamins of Darkness”), and complete grind and mathcore meltdowns (“If I Can’t Have Love I Want Power,” “Torrential Drencher”) – there’s something for everyone aboard Hacksaw Morissette. With just enough dynamic to keep things interesting but not too much experimentation to throw listeners (thanks to the tasteful brevity), Shiverboard could stand to throw some more my way.

Traveller // Broken Home – Sometimes bumping mathcore is just an excuse to include djent, and Germany’s Traveller falls into this category. Utilizing Erra’s Impulse-era formula, Architects’ melodic sensibilities, a touch of Northlane’s ethereal moments, and a DIY grit whose “loud and ouchy” weight is sure to be divisive. Guided by ferocious roars, sporadic cleans, and “thicc thiccly” breakdowns galore it often emulates that mid-2000s metalcore that recalls a djentier Feed Her to the Sharks (“Never Cared (2002),” “Mismatch,” “Limbo”). Other times, it incorporates a groove and technicality that recalls the shenanigans of last year’s MouthBreather, making it a curb-stomping affair with an edge of the menacing melodies and ethereal keys (“Acheron,” “Orpheus”). Traveller is more djent and less mathcore, sure, but (1) you’re getting a lot more with Broken Home and (2) that’s why it’s at the end of this list.

#2024 #AllThatDarkAllThatCold #AmericanFootball #Architects #BetterLovers #BrokenHome #DeltaSleep #Djent #Erra #EveryTimeIDie #FawnLimbs #FeedHerToTheSharks #FitForAnAutopsy #Frontierer #Grindcore #HacksawMorissette #HardcorePunk #HighlyIrresponsible #ManyEyes #Mathcore #Meth_ #MissouriExecutiveOrder44 #Mouthbreather #NightsLikeThese #Noisecore #Northlane #Psyopus #Punk #SaltSermon #ScaleTheSummit #Screamo #Sectioned #SeeYouNextTuesday #SexPistols #Shame #Shiverboard #TheDillingerEscapePlan #TheGodAwfulTruth #TheHumanAbstract #TheRedChord #TheSkullBurnedWearingHellLikeALifeVestAsTheSkyWept #TheTonyDanzaTapdanceExtravaganza #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed2024 #Traveller #TYMHM #Utopia #Virvum #Wilderun

Dear Hollow’s Mathcore Madness [Things You Might Have Missed 2024]

By Dear Hollow

The equation above is AMG’s freakishly rigid and completely objective algorithm for scoring albums and determining quality. We incorporate statistics and abstract algebra, which I understand are very complicated maths, in order to get you the highest quality extreme music this side of the Hudson or Atlantic or Yangtze or wherever the hell you are. The trouble is, you bastards don’t listen to math (i.e. “hurr durr, Wilderun is so much better than this shit.”).1 So I listen to math because I’m a contributing citizen and patriot – I listen to mathcore for you. I wade through the cesspools of skronk and sass – RYM and Reddit – for the best of the best. I do it for the, like, three of you who dig it and the, like, eight billion of you who tell teens to turn it off before shuffling back inside for a bowl of Great Grains. What I do is super mathematical so you know it’s super serious. Mathcore is about as unlistenable and scathing as it is a total sellout – so you can offend nearly everyone who hears it. Random rhythms, migraine-inducing tempo shifts, painful squeals, no sense of melody or counting, vocals a la cheese grater to the throat – it’s skronk. So enjoy my bounties, you three. The rest of you can fuck right off.

Commence panic chords!!

Better Lovers // Highly Irresponsible – Last year’s barnstormer debut EP God Made Me an Animal set one hell of a precedent for Buffalo’s Better Lovers, and their debut full-length does not disappoint. Yes, it’s a revenge album against Keith Buckley’s lesser rival project Many Eyes, but Highly Irresponsible is soooo much more than petty Every Time I Die drama. Amplifying every facet of their sound, you get more manic barks and charismatic croons from legendary former The Dillinger Escape Plan vocalist Greg Puciato, more chunky riffage from Fit for an Autopsy’s Will Putney, and more of a southern fried good time from three-fifths of the defunct-and-dramatic Every Time I Die.2 While unafraid to embrace hooky rock sensibilities (“Deliver Us from Life,” “At), the punky, bluesy, and sleazy all-out assaults of tempo-abusing insanity (“A White Horse Covered in Blood,” “Love As An Act of Rebellion”) collide with fret-squealing riff fests of the highest caliber (“Lie Between the Lines,” “Future Myopia”) in an insanely catchy, dynamic, stupid heavy, and stupid fun album with legendary status awaiting.

Frontierer // The Skull Burned Wearing Hell Like a Life Vest As the Night Wept – Look, I get that it’s a thirteen-minute EP released super late 2024, but, c’mon, it’s fucking Frontierer. Somehow seeming more punishing than usual across its four tracks, thick-ass slogs hit like sledgehammers to the temple – translating well across its more frantic moments and slower menace – while rhythms attack with the ferocity and doomed inevitability of a swarm of locusts and vocalist Chad Kapper spits blood, vitriol, and insanity into the mic. Channeling the glacial suffocation that coursed through Oxidized, it doesn’t matter if the tempo is more upbeat and energetic (“As the Night Wept”) or if it’s content sludging in its own muck (“Wearing Hell”), or indulging in both (“The Skull Burned”), the vibrant dissonance swirls in dizzyingly mechanical intensity and the down-tuned riffs smother with ruthless arrhythmic beatdown chugs. While comparable to Ion Dissonance, Car Bomb, and this year’s Weston Super Maim in emphasis on down-tuned mathcore punishment, Frontierer remains one of the genre frontrunners and trendsetters by a significant margin – in a short thirteen minutes.

The God Awful Truth // All That Dark & All That Cold – Denton, Texas’ The God Awful Truth is likely everything love or hate about mathcore. Dissonance spilling sloppily across its shaky breakdowns, deathcore gut-punches, vocal attacks as insane as the squawking panic chords that paint the background like Jackson Pollock on too much crack, and rhythms jolting about like a toddler on a go-cart. Alongside these traditional The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza-isms (“Hail Paimon,” “Street Rat”), there is a lighthearted banter guided by vocalist Jordan LaFerney’s cowboy vocals and resulting poppy rhythms, punky tempos, and loose grind-esque composition (“Symbology,” “Slicked Back,” “Bad Tooth”), though the menacing still manages to punch through when least expected (“The Rainmaker,” “Omelette du Fromage”). It’s brutal whiplash of an album, not a semblance of traditional melody to be found, with deathcore breakdowns acting more as the punchline of a song-long joke. You’ll get a headache, but you’ll have fun along the way.

meth. / See You Next Tuesday // Asymmetrics – Mathcore and noisecore have a lot in common, namely unlistenable blasting. Your favorite Michigan deathcore/mathcore darlings See You Next Tuesday teams up with Chicago noisemongers meth. for Asymmetrics, more a collaborative experiment than a split. Each band records three songs, then shares only the drum tracks with the other, who records another song over that drum track. Toss in guest spots from The Red Chord’s Guy Kozowyk and Memphis-based sludgecore act Nights Like These, and all elements practically topple under Asymmetrics’ blazing intensity and immense weight. CUNT’s influence in relentless blasters (“The First Steps of Suffering,” “Syntax Error”) and blasting deathcore chug-and-squeal-fests (“Breaking Under the Weight of the Heaviest Burden,” “Tomb of Woe”) collide with meth.’s more ominous slow burns (“Succumb,” “Guest,” “Willing Participant”) in a surprisingly well-rounded package, all wrapped up in a tidy – and fuckin’ noisy – twenty-seven minutes. It’s the best of both worlds!

Utopia // Shame – A breed of technical metal recalling the fretboard-frying abilities of The Human Abstract or Scale the Summit, this UK-based group (including prolific bassist Arran McSporran of Virvum) balances a jazzy warmth and lush atmosphere to balance out the Dillinger rhythmic attack and Psyopus-inspired shredding, made further vicious by vocalist Chris Reese’s attack of frantic fries, manic shrieks, and ghastly roars. From intense attacks of intensity and brutality (“Shame,” “Social Contracts”), wonkier exposes of dissonant motifs and jagged rhythms (“Never Argue With an Idiot,” “The Gift of Failure”), and lush vistas of warm fretless bass and jazzy chords (“Sun Damage,” “Zither,” “Moving Gently Towards the Grave”), the dark themes of shame and morbidity are offset by a truly transcendent atmosphere that ties Shame together into something beyond mathcore.

Missouri Executive Order 44 // Salt Sermon – Absolutely unhinged mathgrind with a religious theme both belying and echoing their LDS missionary aesthetic (short-sleeved white button-ups, ties, shorts, and bicycle helmets) and ominous black masks, anonymous Independence collective Missouri Executive Order 44 approaches a morbid history of religious intolerance with the goal of utter annihilation. Cramming eleven songs into a mere sixteen minutes like blasters Sectioned or Fawn Limbs, you can expect it to hit hard and fast, complete with unhinged mathy meltdowns that spill across the face of concrete rhythm, meatheaded powerviolence chugs (“Christian Pornography,” “They Built a Bass Pro Shop in Our Zion”), surprisingly groovy riffs (“The Unbuckling,” “Seven is a Holy Number”), tied together with vocalist Jarom’s cult leader shrieks and sinner wails, alongside wickedly distorted Mormon spoken word and gospel samples. Posing no stance of their own aside from the dethroning of tyranny, Salt Sermon stands with all its tragedy and iconoclasm, both utterly devastating and utterly enticing.

Shiverboard // Hacksaw Morissette – Aside from the silly genius of the album name, New York’s Shiverboard eludes easy definition. Most consistently planted in grind, art-punk, screamo, and mathcore sensibilities, Hacksaw Morissette deals with fifteen tracks that feel like a shotgun blast. Punk is a common thread coursed through this tapestry of asininity, ranging from Sex Pistols-with-animalistic-snarls (“All Black Snoopy,” “Stain Remover”), complete collapses into noisecore (“Cryptic Bismuth,” “Chastity Jeans”), over-the-top deathcore blares (“Chainsaw Fruit Punch,” “Angelina Shit Ton”), math rock and Midwest emo musings straight outta Delta Sleep or American Football (title track, “Drug Test,” “The Garbage Stork,” “Vitamins of Darkness”), and complete grind and mathcore meltdowns (“If I Can’t Have Love I Want Power,” “Torrential Drencher”) – there’s something for everyone aboard Hacksaw Morissette. With just enough dynamic to keep things interesting but not too much experimentation to throw listeners (thanks to the tasteful brevity), Shiverboard could stand to throw some more my way.

Traveller // Broken Home – Sometimes bumping mathcore is just an excuse to include djent, and Germany’s Traveller falls into this category. Utilizing Erra’s Impulse-era formula, Architects’ melodic sensibilities, a touch of Northlane’s ethereal moments, and a DIY grit whose “loud and ouchy” weight is sure to be divisive. Guided by ferocious roars, sporadic cleans, and “thicc thiccly” breakdowns galore it often emulates that mid-2000s metalcore that recalls a djentier Feed Her to the Sharks (“Never Cared (2002),” “Mismatch,” “Limbo”). Other times, it incorporates a groove and technicality that recalls the shenanigans of last year’s MouthBreather, making it a curb-stomping affair with an edge of the menacing melodies and ethereal keys (“Acheron,” “Orpheus”). Traveller is more djent and less mathcore, sure, but (1) you’re getting a lot more with Broken Home and (2) that’s why it’s at the end of this list.

#2024 #AllThatDarkAllThatCold #AmericanFootball #Architects #BetterLovers #BrokenHome #DeltaSleep #Djent #Erra #EveryTimeIDie #FawnLimbs #FeedHerToTheSharks #FitForAnAutopsy #Frontierer #Grindcore #HacksawMorissette #HardcorePunk #HighlyIrresponsible #ManyEyes #Mathcore #Meth_ #MissouriExecutiveOrder44 #Mouthbreather #NightsLikeThese #Noisecore #Northlane #Psyopus #Punk #SaltSermon #ScaleTheSummit #Screamo #Sectioned #SeeYouNextTuesday #SexPistols #Shame #Shiverboard #TheDillingerEscapePlan #TheGodAwfulTruth #TheHumanAbstract #TheRedChord #TheSkullBurnedWearingHellLikeALifeVestAsTheSkyWept #TheTonyDanzaTapdanceExtravaganza #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed2024 #Traveller #TYMHM #Utopia #Virvum #Wilderun

Dear Hollow’s Mathcore Madness [Things You Might Have Missed 2024]

By Dear Hollow

The equation above is AMG’s freakishly rigid and completely objective algorithm for scoring albums and determining quality. We incorporate statistics and abstract algebra, which I understand are very complicated maths, in order to get you the highest quality extreme music this side of the Hudson or Atlantic or Yangtze or wherever the hell you are. The trouble is, you bastards don’t listen to math (i.e. “hurr durr, Wilderun is so much better than this shit.”).1 So I listen to math because I’m a contributing citizen and patriot – I listen to mathcore for you. I wade through the cesspools of skronk and sass – RYM and Reddit – for the best of the best. I do it for the, like, three of you who dig it and the, like, eight billion of you who tell teens to turn it off before shuffling back inside for a bowl of Great Grains. What I do is super mathematical so you know it’s super serious. Mathcore is about as unlistenable and scathing as it is a total sellout – so you can offend nearly everyone who hears it. Random rhythms, migraine-inducing tempo shifts, painful squeals, no sense of melody or counting, vocals a la cheese grater to the throat – it’s skronk. So enjoy my bounties, you three. The rest of you can fuck right off.

Commence panic chords!!

Better Lovers // Highly Irresponsible – Last year’s barnstormer debut EP God Made Me an Animal set one hell of a precedent for Buffalo’s Better Lovers, and their debut full-length does not disappoint. Yes, it’s a revenge album against Keith Buckley’s lesser rival project Many Eyes, but Highly Irresponsible is soooo much more than petty Every Time I Die drama. Amplifying every facet of their sound, you get more manic barks and charismatic croons from legendary former The Dillinger Escape Plan vocalist Greg Puciato, more chunky riffage from Fit for an Autopsy’s Will Putney, and more of a southern fried good time from three-fifths of the defunct-and-dramatic Every Time I Die.2 While unafraid to embrace hooky rock sensibilities (“Deliver Us from Life,” “At), the punky, bluesy, and sleazy all-out assaults of tempo-abusing insanity (“A White Horse Covered in Blood,” “Love As An Act of Rebellion”) collide with fret-squealing riff fests of the highest caliber (“Lie Between the Lines,” “Future Myopia”) in an insanely catchy, dynamic, stupid heavy, and stupid fun album with legendary status awaiting.

Frontierer // The Skull Burned Wearing Hell Like a Life Vest As the Night Wept – Look, I get that it’s a thirteen-minute EP released super late 2024, but, c’mon, it’s fucking Frontierer. Somehow seeming more punishing than usual across its four tracks, thick-ass slogs hit like sledgehammers to the temple – translating well across its more frantic moments and slower menace – while rhythms attack with the ferocity and doomed inevitability of a swarm of locusts and vocalist Chad Kapper spits blood, vitriol, and insanity into the mic. Channeling the glacial suffocation that coursed through Oxidized, it doesn’t matter if the tempo is more upbeat and energetic (“As the Night Wept”) or if it’s content sludging in its own muck (“Wearing Hell”), or indulging in both (“The Skull Burned”), the vibrant dissonance swirls in dizzyingly mechanical intensity and the down-tuned riffs smother with ruthless arrhythmic beatdown chugs. While comparable to Ion Dissonance, Car Bomb, and this year’s Weston Super Maim in emphasis on down-tuned mathcore punishment, Frontierer remains one of the genre frontrunners and trendsetters by a significant margin – in a short thirteen minutes.

The God Awful Truth // All That Dark & All That Cold – Denton, Texas’ The God Awful Truth is likely everything love or hate about mathcore. Dissonance spilling sloppily across its shaky breakdowns, deathcore gut-punches, vocal attacks as insane as the squawking panic chords that paint the background like Jackson Pollock on too much crack, and rhythms jolting about like a toddler on a go-cart. Alongside these traditional The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza-isms (“Hail Paimon,” “Street Rat”), there is a lighthearted banter guided by vocalist Jordan LaFerney’s cowboy vocals and resulting poppy rhythms, punky tempos, and loose grind-esque composition (“Symbology,” “Slicked Back,” “Bad Tooth”), though the menacing still manages to punch through when least expected (“The Rainmaker,” “Omelette du Fromage”). It’s brutal whiplash of an album, not a semblance of traditional melody to be found, with deathcore breakdowns acting more as the punchline of a song-long joke. You’ll get a headache, but you’ll have fun along the way.

meth. / See You Next Tuesday // Asymmetrics – Mathcore and noisecore have a lot in common, namely unlistenable blasting. Your favorite Michigan deathcore/mathcore darlings See You Next Tuesday teams up with Chicago noisemongers meth. for Asymmetrics, more a collaborative experiment than a split. Each band records three songs, then shares only the drum tracks with the other, who records another song over that drum track. Toss in guest spots from The Red Chord’s Guy Kozowyk and Memphis-based sludgecore act Nights Like These, and all elements practically topple under Asymmetrics’ blazing intensity and immense weight. CUNT’s influence in relentless blasters (“The First Steps of Suffering,” “Syntax Error”) and blasting deathcore chug-and-squeal-fests (“Breaking Under the Weight of the Heaviest Burden,” “Tomb of Woe”) collide with meth.’s more ominous slow burns (“Succumb,” “Guest,” “Willing Participant”) in a surprisingly well-rounded package, all wrapped up in a tidy – and fuckin’ noisy – twenty-seven minutes. It’s the best of both worlds!

Utopia // Shame – A breed of technical metal recalling the fretboard-frying abilities of The Human Abstract or Scale the Summit, this UK-based group (including prolific bassist Arran McSporran of Virvum) balances a jazzy warmth and lush atmosphere to balance out the Dillinger rhythmic attack and Psyopus-inspired shredding, made further vicious by vocalist Chris Reese’s attack of frantic fries, manic shrieks, and ghastly roars. From intense attacks of intensity and brutality (“Shame,” “Social Contracts”), wonkier exposes of dissonant motifs and jagged rhythms (“Never Argue With an Idiot,” “The Gift of Failure”), and lush vistas of warm fretless bass and jazzy chords (“Sun Damage,” “Zither,” “Moving Gently Towards the Grave”), the dark themes of shame and morbidity are offset by a truly transcendent atmosphere that ties Shame together into something beyond mathcore.

Missouri Executive Order 44 // Salt Sermon – Absolutely unhinged mathgrind with a religious theme both belying and echoing their LDS missionary aesthetic (short-sleeved white button-ups, ties, shorts, and bicycle helmets) and ominous black masks, anonymous Independence collective Missouri Executive Order 44 approaches a morbid history of religious intolerance with the goal of utter annihilation. Cramming eleven songs into a mere sixteen minutes like blasters Sectioned or Fawn Limbs, you can expect it to hit hard and fast, complete with unhinged mathy meltdowns that spill across the face of concrete rhythm, meatheaded powerviolence chugs (“Christian Pornography,” “They Built a Bass Pro Shop in Our Zion”), surprisingly groovy riffs (“The Unbuckling,” “Seven is a Holy Number”), tied together with vocalist Jarom’s cult leader shrieks and sinner wails, alongside wickedly distorted Mormon spoken word and gospel samples. Posing no stance of their own aside from the dethroning of tyranny, Salt Sermon stands with all its tragedy and iconoclasm, both utterly devastating and utterly enticing.

Shiverboard // Hacksaw Morissette – Aside from the silly genius of the album name, New York’s Shiverboard eludes easy definition. Most consistently planted in grind, art-punk, screamo, and mathcore sensibilities, Hacksaw Morissette deals with fifteen tracks that feel like a shotgun blast. Punk is a common thread coursed through this tapestry of asininity, ranging from Sex Pistols-with-animalistic-snarls (“All Black Snoopy,” “Stain Remover”), complete collapses into noisecore (“Cryptic Bismuth,” “Chastity Jeans”), over-the-top deathcore blares (“Chainsaw Fruit Punch,” “Angelina Shit Ton”), math rock and Midwest emo musings straight outta Delta Sleep or American Football (title track, “Drug Test,” “The Garbage Stork,” “Vitamins of Darkness”), and complete grind and mathcore meltdowns (“If I Can’t Have Love I Want Power,” “Torrential Drencher”) – there’s something for everyone aboard Hacksaw Morissette. With just enough dynamic to keep things interesting but not too much experimentation to throw listeners (thanks to the tasteful brevity), Shiverboard could stand to throw some more my way.

Traveller // Broken Home – Sometimes bumping mathcore is just an excuse to include djent, and Germany’s Traveller falls into this category. Utilizing Erra’s Impulse-era formula, Architects’ melodic sensibilities, a touch of Northlane’s ethereal moments, and a DIY grit whose “loud and ouchy” weight is sure to be divisive. Guided by ferocious roars, sporadic cleans, and “thicc thiccly” breakdowns galore it often emulates that mid-2000s metalcore that recalls a djentier Feed Her to the Sharks (“Never Cared (2002),” “Mismatch,” “Limbo”). Other times, it incorporates a groove and technicality that recalls the shenanigans of last year’s MouthBreather, making it a curb-stomping affair with an edge of the menacing melodies and ethereal keys (“Acheron,” “Orpheus”). Traveller is more djent and less mathcore, sure, but (1) you’re getting a lot more with Broken Home and (2) that’s why it’s at the end of this list.

#2024 #AllThatDarkAllThatCold #AmericanFootball #Architects #BetterLovers #BrokenHome #DeltaSleep #Djent #Erra #EveryTimeIDie #FawnLimbs #FeedHerToTheSharks #FitForAnAutopsy #Frontierer #Grindcore #HacksawMorissette #HardcorePunk #HighlyIrresponsible #ManyEyes #Mathcore #Meth_ #MissouriExecutiveOrder44 #Mouthbreather #NightsLikeThese #Noisecore #Northlane #Psyopus #Punk #SaltSermon #ScaleTheSummit #Screamo #Sectioned #SeeYouNextTuesday #SexPistols #Shame #Shiverboard #TheDillingerEscapePlan #TheGodAwfulTruth #TheHumanAbstract #TheRedChord #TheSkullBurnedWearingHellLikeALifeVestAsTheSkyWept #TheTonyDanzaTapdanceExtravaganza #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed2024 #Traveller #TYMHM #Utopia #Virvum #Wilderun

Gigan – Anomalous Abstractigate Infinitessimus [Things You Might Have Missed 2024]

By Maddog

Back in the early 2010s, Gigan wooed me with their lovably absurd album titles, like 2013’s Multi-Dimensional Fractal-Sorcery and Super Science. Luckily, Gigan had the musical chops to back it up. Their distinctive blend of brutal death metal, skronky technicality, and alien atmospheres made me a cult megafan. Anomalous Abstractigate Infinitessimus interrupts a seven-year silence, and the only staffers thrilled about its arrival were myself and Alekhines Gun. In retrospect, this is understandable; AAI is a weird album by a weird band, and it’s unlikely to win over anyone who isn’t already so inclined. While Gigan’s newest is a lot to chew on, it offers a great glimpse into why I’ve stood gaping for over a decade.

If Mithras is Morbid Angel in space, then Gigan is Wormed in space. Eric Hersemann’s guitars lay the foundation, playing Defeated Sanity riffs at an Archspire pace. However, in its melodies, its composition, and its production, the album is foremost an atmospheric journey, not a riff-fest. Hersemann’s guitar and bass lines sound otherworldly through their dissonance and sudden transformations (“Erratic Pulsitivity and Horror”). Eschewing simple song structures, Gigan’s uneasy odysseys take several focused listens to make any sense. Straying from the genre’s typical clinical production, AAI opts for a reverb-laden wall of noise that resembles a muddled Mithras. This remains my biggest gripe, as the album’s cloudy guitar sound untooths its impressive melodies. Conversely, AAI’s highlight might be its drumming. Nathan Cotton’s world-class performance excels in its raw technicality, its frenzied evolution, and its cockpit role in the album’s ebb and flow. But most of all, it wows through its raw humanity. On highlights like “Trans-Dimensional Crossing of the Alta-Tenuis,” the attention to detail in Cotton’s performance shines through every beat and can only be described as beautiful. While that word isn’t common in brutal death metal reviews, it’s a testament to Gigan’s singular sound.

Anomalous Abstractigate Infinitessimus is a wild journey. Gigan steamrolls the listener with brutal riffs, appealing to idiots like me without devolving into idiocy themselves (“Square Wave Subversion”). On the other end, Gigan’s skronky adventures are grand slams. The latter half of “Trans-Dimensional Crossing…” blends light-speed brutality with Morse Code guitars that remain the album’s highlight, while “Emerging Sects of Dagonic Acolytes” captivates me with The Velvet Underground-style chaos. Armed with bulletproof melodies in their right hand and chaos in their left, Gigan’s compositions feel like Lovecraftian narratives. Most strikingly, the shrieking melodies and distorted drum-led chorus of “The Strange Harvest of the Baganoids” evoke visceral terror for the plight of those poor Baganoids.1 Gigan fares less well when they sacrifice riffs for amorphous meanderings, especially on longer tracks (“Emerging Sects…”). But when AAI wields riffcraft and atmosphere in unison, it stands unmatched. For instance, the closer “Ominous Silhouettes…” wows with what sounds like a Deeds of Flesh riff being played by a depressed Martian, leading into dual-guitar screeches à la Pyrrhon. Engrossing and ever-evolving, Anomalous Abstractigate Infinitessimus immerses the listener in its saga.

While snippets of Gigan bear the signatures of other bands, no one else has ever made music like this. Although its bloat and its muddy sound hold it back, Gigan’s comeback is a rewarding specimen of their unconventional brand of brutal death metal. Dissonant, brutal, grimy, and alien, Anomalous Abstractigate Infinitessimus is tough to digest even for the Gigan-initiated. Ears shall be split, brows shall be furrowed, and poseurs shall be (strangely) harvested. Few will survive. But those that do will have quite a story to tell.

Tracks to Check Out: “Trans-Dimensional Crossing of the Alta-Tenuis,” “The Strange Harvest of the Baganoids”

#2024 #AmericanMetal #AnomalousAbstractigateInfinitessimus #AtmosphericDeathMetal #BrutalDeathMetal #DeathMetal #DeedsOfFlesh #DefeatedSanity #DissonantDeathMetal #Gigan #Mithras #Pyrrhon #TechnicalBrutalDeathMetal #TechnicalDeathMetal #TheVelvetUnderground #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed2024 #TYMHM #Wormed

Johnny Booth – Moments Elsewhere [Things You Might Have Missed 2023]

By Dear Hollow

The phrase “metalcore” strikes fear in the hearts of the most hardened metal fans.1 Breakdowns and faux badassery collide in the most listenable shit this side of the pond. New York DIY metalcore abusers in Johnny Booth know this. While yes, there are breakdowns, one-liners, and enough technical wankery to make a Converge fan drool, every element is weaponized to the full extent to accomplish an unhinged and vicious quality (“loud and ouchy” in the words of inimitable Dolphin Whisperer) that recalls acts like Knocked Loose, Sworn In, and Frontierer – without committing to either cumbersome down-tempo hardcore or headache-inducing mathcore. Encapsulating just enough reprieve from the devastating pummel, through a tasteful sprinkling of jazzy keys, skronky electronics, and subdued cleans, third full-length Moments Elsewhere’s weight is through its expertly dynamic writing.

Contrary to the squeaky-clean stereotype of modern metalcore, Johnny Booth embraces weight and filth through its self-released aesthetic. Guided by Andrew Herman’s desperate fry vocals and soothed by his croons, the true stars of Moments Elsewhere are guitarists Adam Halpern and Ryan Strong and their impressive repertoire. While rooted in the chunky chug-happy metalcore template, nearly every moment feels like it might fly off the rails or is enhanced by impressive dynamic songwriting. In perhaps the best example this dynamic, “Only By Name” starts off with a rather unassuming and harmless wonky Dillinger-esque riff that guides the proceedings before cascading into a devastating riff that slides like a semi-truck on ice. Even the cleanly sung tracks like “Why Becomes How” and interlude “The Mirror” inject their respectively subdued approaches with both scathing melody and vocal harmonies or earworms and enough heft to move the album along. More balanced tracks like “Collapse in the Key of Fireworks” and “The Ladder” are tasteful in their fusions of melody, skonk, and catchy choruses. Bassist Steve DiModugno contributes technical fills and noodles to “Bright Future” and a jazzy runs in “The Mirror,” and drummer Adam Ingoglia is a rock-solid anchor throughout, constructing intricate rhythms while derailing them across the board.

This dynamic allows tracks to gather enough for the punishing storm, and breakdowns are realized to their fullest potential and never overstay their welcome. In easy highlight “Full Tilt” an opening distorted cheery sample and a later passage of a trip-hop beat offer respite, only to tread the path of Loathe with an absolutely stellar buildup and utterly satisfying closing breakdown.2 “Why Becomes How” is immediately followed up by the no-holds-barred hardcore-infused “Ring Light Altar” and the somehow heavier “Gatekeeper”3 and the unhinged “No Comply” whose morphing math-inflected riffs add a jolt of viciousness. Closer “Modern Dialogue” features a tasteful range of guitar tricks that align perfectly with the percussion, adding grueling punishment and dynamic across the board.

What makes Moments Elsewhere is its nearly untouchable range of tracks – only the mathy Risecore caricature “Bright Future” is a bit of a weak link in its lack of tangible weight. Don’t let the “metalcore” tag scare you: Johnny Booth offers some of the most punishing tracks of the year. Amplified by a smart inclusion of dynamics and homage to influences that avoid mimicry, it somehow feels heavier than could possibly offered when the atmospheric passages implode into skull-crushing weight. Contending with 2023’s heavy hitters Sylosis, MouthBreather, and The Acacia Strain is no easy feat, and they do so on their own terms in a handcrafted album with a unique sound – one of 2023’s best.

Tracks to Check Out: “Full Tilt,” “Only By Name,” “No Comply,” and “Modern Dialogue”

#AmericanMetal #Converge #Frontierer #Hardcore #JohnnyBooth #KnockedLoose #Loathe #Mathcore #Metalcore #Mouthbreather #SelfRelease #SwornIn #Sybreed #Sylosis #TheAcaciaStrain #TheDillingerEscapePlan #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed2023 #TYMHM

Johnny Booth – Moments Elsewhere [Things You Might Have Missed 2023]

By Dear Hollow

The phrase “metalcore” strikes fear in the hearts of the most hardened metal fans.1 Breakdowns and faux badassery collide in the most listenable shit this side of the pond. New York DIY metalcore abusers in Johnny Booth know this. While yes, there are breakdowns, one-liners, and enough technical wankery to make a Converge fan drool, every element is weaponized to the full extent to accomplish an unhinged and vicious quality (“loud and ouchy” in the words of inimitable Dolphin Whisperer) that recalls acts like Knocked Loose, Sworn In, and Frontierer – without committing to either cumbersome down-tempo hardcore or headache-inducing mathcore. Encapsulating just enough reprieve from the devastating pummel, through a tasteful sprinkling of jazzy keys, skronky electronics, and subdued cleans, third full-length Moments Elsewhere’s weight is through its expertly dynamic writing.

Contrary to the squeaky-clean stereotype of modern metalcore, Johnny Booth embraces weight and filth through its self-released aesthetic. Guided by Andrew Herman’s desperate fry vocals and soothed by his croons, the true stars of Moments Elsewhere are guitarists Adam Halpern and Ryan Strong and their impressive repertoire. While rooted in the chunky chug-happy metalcore template, nearly every moment feels like it might fly off the rails or is enhanced by impressive dynamic songwriting. In perhaps the best example this dynamic, “Only By Name” starts off with a rather unassuming and harmless wonky Dillinger-esque riff that guides the proceedings before cascading into a devastating riff that slides like a semi-truck on ice. Even the cleanly sung tracks like “Why Becomes How” and interlude “The Mirror” inject their respectively subdued approaches with both scathing melody and vocal harmonies or earworms and enough heft to move the album along. More balanced tracks like “Collapse in the Key of Fireworks” and “The Ladder” are tasteful in their fusions of melody, skonk, and catchy choruses. Bassist Steve DiModugno contributes technical fills and noodles to “Bright Future” and a jazzy runs in “The Mirror,” and drummer Adam Ingoglia is a rock-solid anchor throughout, constructing intricate rhythms while derailing them across the board.

This dynamic allows tracks to gather enough for the punishing storm, and breakdowns are realized to their fullest potential and never overstay their welcome. In easy highlight “Full Tilt” an opening distorted cheery sample and a later passage of a trip-hop beat offer respite, only to tread the path of Loathe with an absolutely stellar buildup and utterly satisfying closing breakdown.2 “Why Becomes How” is immediately followed up by the no-holds-barred hardcore-infused “Ring Light Altar” and the somehow heavier “Gatekeeper”3 and the unhinged “No Comply” whose morphing math-inflected riffs add a jolt of viciousness. Closer “Modern Dialogue” features a tasteful range of guitar tricks that align perfectly with the percussion, adding grueling punishment and dynamic across the board.

What makes Moments Elsewhere is its nearly untouchable range of tracks – only the mathy Risecore caricature “Bright Future” is a bit of a weak link in its lack of tangible weight. Don’t let the “metalcore” tag scare you: Johnny Booth offers some of the most punishing tracks of the year. Amplified by a smart inclusion of dynamics and homage to influences that avoid mimicry, it somehow feels heavier than could possibly offered when the atmospheric passages implode into skull-crushing weight. Contending with 2023’s heavy hitters Sylosis, MouthBreather, and The Acacia Strain is no easy feat, and they do so on their own terms in a handcrafted album with a unique sound – one of 2023’s best.

Tracks to Check Out: “Full Tilt,” “Only By Name,” “No Comply,” and “Modern Dialogue”

#AmericanMetal #Converge #Frontierer #Hardcore #JohnnyBooth #KnockedLoose #Loathe #Mathcore #Metalcore #Mouthbreather #SelfRelease #SwornIn #Sybreed #Sylosis #TheAcaciaStrain #TheDillingerEscapePlan #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed2023 #TYMHM