Putrevore – Unending Rotten Cycle Review

By Alekhines Gun

Inevitable. Perpetual. Eternal. Constant. And of course, Unending. All monikers appropriate for the supremacy of death, widely recognized by figures wiser than me as the most unifying of all our experiences. Whether your death is peaceful, disease-ridden, or a sudden explosion of macabre tragedy, it will come, and it will bear a face unique to your own experience. It’s fitting, then, that death metal too has such an inexhaustible supply of manifestations and sonic descriptors from which to draw from. There’s seemingly no end to the offshoots of subgenres and tributes and evolutions to be found around the world, but no matter how wanky or prog-infused the labels get, as time moves forward, death still awaits. Putrevore are a two-piece international outfit, one of innumerable side projects from Rogga Johnson (Paganizer) and Dave Rotten of Avulsed. Here to escort us through the cemetery on their fifth album, Unending Rotten Cycle, the question isn’t whether you will get out alive, but how mangled and abused your corpse will be by the time we’re finished.

That Putrevore offer up death metal is no surprise, but this is no bright sounding colorful death. Unending Rotten Cycle is that wet death, that freshly tilled, earthworm-infested, “the body is equal parts chunky and liquid” moist and cooled soil breed of death. With a tone like old Autopsy recorded in a cavernous depth, Putrevore offer up a smorgasbord of blasts and assaults devoid of anything offering reprieve or hope. Acoustic interludes? Melodic runs? Forget about it. Unending Rotten Cycle operates on a two-pronged assault of steamroller attacks which alternate into a crushing riff or groove that pulls from the well of all the maggot-infested giants of past and present, while Dave Rotten’s large-intestine-originated bellows holler from below and amidst the music, drenched in reverb and disgust.

Every song on display features a highlight worthy of note, and standouts really depend on which cadaverific presentation you’re most into. “Mortal Ways of the Flesh” features a devastatingly foul chuggathon slathered with just a whiff of hair-windmill inducing lead pulled from the book of Funebrarum, while “Morbid Procession” reminds one of the more frantic moments of Incantations Onward to Golgotha. “They Worship Disarray” has a shockingly accessible crowd-chant of a chorus with Dave Rotten’s voice paradoxically clear and enunciated despite sounding like bubbles erupting from a pool of miasma. The filth of Fetid is laced through blasts beats, and down-tempo lurches, while vintage Phrenelith destruction echoes through “The Cradle Replaced by the Grave.” Doses of Vastum, Demilich, Funebre, and Mortiferium leave their fingerprints across tempo changes, diseased-sounding scales, and one corpse sodomizing groove after another.

The final product results in Unending Rotten Cycle being a succinct, straightforward, and high-quality offering of the most decomposed breed of death metal. Guitarist/Bassist Rogga Johnson excavates riffs that manage to touch on so many flavors and sounds that I could burn my whole word count trying to name and list them all. The only real downside to this sort of presentation is that it threatens to become overwhelmed by the uniformity of what it sets out to do. And yet, brevity in song composition and album length help combat this, with each track coming in, throwing a slab of corpse meat at you, and running off before you have the chance to process how violated you are. “The Cradle Replaced by the Grave” does a good job at just grazing a shift in atmosphere to announce it as an album closer, featuring the most moody of its chord progressions and whiff of leads before leaving your coffin shattered and tattered. At a hair over half an hour in length, the listener has no opportunity to succumb to boredom as Putrevore wisely peace out at a timely moment, leaving you with the silence of the cemetery for company.

Unending Rotten Cycle stands tall as a testament to the inexhaustible possibilities of death. A glut of excellent riffs and a relatively short presentation ensure that, despite the (deliberate) stylistic limitations, Putrevore manage to squeeze the maximum amount of offal from this corpse. If you like death metal and you’re tired of overly polished wankery or needlessly humanized presentations, I cannot imagine this being anything but a ghastly joy to listen to. Death metal will always rule the roost, and while far from innovative, Unending Rotten Cycle reigns supreme in its fierce display of the genre’s might, impact, and staying power. Now, everyone grab a shovel, and start digging. Six feet should be more than sufficient for our needs…

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Xtreem Music
Website: Album Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: November 11th, 2025

#35 #autopsy #deathMetal #demilich #fetid #funebrarum #funebre #incantation #internationalMetal #mortiferium #nov25 #phrenelith #putrevore #review #reviews #unendingRottenCycle #vastum #xtreemMusic

Stuck in the Filter: August 2025’s Angry Misses

By Kenstrosity

The heat persists, but now the humidity comes in full force as storm systems wreak havoc upon the coasts. I hide in my cramped closet of an office, lest I be washed out once again by an unsuspecting deluge. However, I still send my minions out into the facility, bound by duty to search for those metallic scraps on which we feast.

Fortuitously, most all of those imps I sent out came back alive, and with wares! BEHOLD!

Kenstrosity’s Galactic Gremlin

Silent Millenia // Celestial Twilight: Beyond the Crimson Veil [August 26th, 2025 – Self-Release]

Have you ever seen such a delightfully cheesy cover? Probably, but it’s been a while for me. I bought Celestial Twilight: Beyond the Crimson Veil, the second raw symphonic black metal opus from Finnish one-man act Silent Millenia, on the strength of the artwork alone. Little did I know that what lay beyond this crimson veil was some of the most fun melodic black metal this side of Moonlight Sorcery. The same low-fi roughness that personifies Old Nick’s work grounds Silent Millenia’s starbound songwriting as it traverses the universe with an energetic punch reminiscent of Emperor or Stormkeep (“Awaken the Celestial Spell,” “Daemonic Mastery”). To help differentiate Silent Millenia’s sound from that of their peers, a gothic atmosphere ensorcells much of this material to great effect, merging eerie Victorian melodies with galactic adventurism in an unlikely pair (“Enthrone the Spectral”). Swirling synths and sparkling twinkles abound as well, creating blissful moments of interest as frosty tremolos and piercing blasts take full advantage of the false sense of security those entrancing clouds of synthetic instrumentation create (“Benighted Path to Darkness Mysterium,” “Reign in Cosmic Majesty”). Simply put, Celestial Twilight is an unexpected gem of a symphonic black metal record, bursting with killer ideas and infinite levels of raw, unabashed fun. You should hear it!

Kronos’ Unexpected Unearthments

Street Sects // Dry Drunk [August 15th, 2025 – Self Release]

Dry Drunk sticks to your inner surfaces, draining down like cigarette tar along paralyzed cilia to pool in your lungs until the cells themselves foment rebellion. Once it’s in you, you feel paranoid, wretched, and alone. So it’s the proper follow-up to Street Sects’ visionary debut, End Position. Like that record, Dry Drunk plumbs the most mundane and unsavory gutters of America for a cast of protagonists that it dwells in or dispatches with a mixture of pity and disgust, with vocalist Leo Ashline narrating their violent crimes and self-hatred in a mixture of croons, shrieks, and snarls that cook the air before the speakers into the scent of booze and rotten teeth. And like that record, Shaun Ringsmuth (Glassing) dresses the sets with a fractal litter of snaps, squeals, crashes, gunshots, and grinding electronics, caked in tar and collapsing just as soon as it is swept into a structure. And like End Position, Dry Drunk is a masterpiece. The impeccable six-song stretch from “Love Makes You Fat” through “Riding the Clock” ties you to the bumper and drags you along some of the duo’s most creative side-roads, through the simmering, straightjacketed sludge of “Baker Act” to the chopped-up, smirking electronica of “Eject Button.” Swerving between addled, unintelligible agony and unforgettable anthems, Dry Drunk, like End Position before it is nothing less than the life of a junkie scraped together, heated on a spoon, and injected into your head. Once you’ve taken a hit, you will never be quite the same.

Thus Spoke’s Frightening Fragments

Defacement // Doomed [August 22nd, 2025 – Self Release]

There’s music for every vibe.1 The one Defacement fits is an exclusively extreme metal flavor of moody that is only appreciable by genre fans, made tangibly more eerie by their persistent idiosyncratic use of dark ambient interludes amidst the viciously distorted blackened death. Audiences—and reviewers—tend to disparage these electronic segments, but I’ve always felt their crackling presence increases the analog horror of it all, and rather than being a breather from the intensity, they prolong the nausea, the sense of emptiness, and the abject fearfulness of head-based trauma. This latter concept grows more metaphorical still on Doomed, where the violence is inside the mind, purpose-erasing, and emotionally-detaching. The ambience might be the most sadly beautiful so far (“Mournful,” and “Clouded” especially), and the transitions into nightmarish heaviness arguably the most fluid. And the metal is undoubtedly the most ambitious, dynamic, and magnificent of Defacement’s career, combining their most gruesome dissonance (“Portrait”) with their most bizarrely exuberant guitar melodies (“Unexplainable,” “Unrecognised”). Solos drip tangibly with (emotional) resonance (“Unexplainable,” “Absent”) and there’s not a breath or a moment of wasted space. Yes, the band’s heavier side can suffer from a nagging sense of homogeneous mass, but it remains transporting. While I can appreciate why others do not appreciate Defacement, this is the first of their outings I can truthfully say mesmerised me on first listen.

ClarkKent’s Heated Hymns

Phantom Fire // Phantom Fire [August 8th, 2025 – Edged Circle Productions]

While I waded through the murky depths of the August promo sump, Steel implored me to take the eponymous third album from Phantom Fire. “The AMG commentariat love blackened heavy metal,” he said. I disregarded his advice at my peril, and while I ended up enjoying what I grabbed, it turns out this would have been solid too. Featuring members from Enslaved, Kraków. Hellbutcher, and Aeternus, Phantom Fire play old school speed metal that harks back to the likes of Motörhead and Iron Maiden’s Killers. Thanks to healthy doses of bass and production values that allow the instruments to shine, each song is infused with energetic grooves. The music sounds fresh, crisp, and clear, from the booming drums to Eld’s “blackened” snarls. Early tracks “Eternal Void” and “All For None” show off the catchy blend of simple guitar riffs and a hoppin’ bass accompanied by energetic kit work. While placing a somewhat lengthy instrumental track in the middle of a record usually slows it down, “Fatal Attraction” turns out to be a highlight. It tells a tragic love story involving a motorcycle with nothing but instruments, an engine revving, and some police sirens. The second half of Phantom Fire gets a bit on the weirder side, turning to some stoner and psychedelia. There’s a push and pull between the stoner and Motörhead speed stuff on songs like “Malphas” and “Submersible Pt. 2,” and this blend actually works pretty well. It turns out that they aren’t phantom after all—these guys are truly fire.

Burning Witches // Inquisition [August 22nd, 2025 – Napalm Records]

With six albums in eight years, Swiss quintet Burning Witches has really been burning rubber. While such prolific output in such a short time frame generally spells trouble, Inquisition is a solid piece of heavy/power metal. Burning Witches dabbles in a mix of speedy power metal and mid-tempo heavy metal, often sounding like ’80s stalwarts Judas Priest and Def Leppard. With Laura Guldemond’s gruff voice, they produce a more weighty, less happy version of power metal than the likes of Fellowship or Frozen Crown. While the songs stick to formulaic structures, tempo shifts from song to song help keep things from growing stale. We see this variety right from the get-go, where “Soul Eater” takes a high-energy approach before moving into the more mellow “Shame.” There’s even a pretty solid ballad, “Release Me,” that grounds the back half of the record. Songs of the sort that Burning Witches write need catchy choruses, and fortunately, they deliver. “High Priestess of the Night” is a particular standout, delivering a knock-out punch in its delivery. It helps that the instrumental parts are well-executed, from crunchy riffs to subdued solos to booming blast beats. Anyone looking for a solid bit of power metal that’s not too heavy on the cheese will find this worth a listen.

Deathhammer // Crimson Dawn [August 29th, 2025 – Hells Headbangers Records]

Celebrating 20 years of blackened speed, Deathhammer drop LP number six with the kind of energy that exhausted parents dread to see in their children at bedtime. This is my first foray with the band, and I am in awe of the relentless level of manic energy they keep throughout Crimson Dawn’s 39 minutes. If science could learn how to harness their energy, we’d have an endless source of renewables. The two-piece out of Norway channels classic Slayer on crack and even has moments reminiscent of Painkiller-era Judas Priest. They play non-stop thrash cranked to 11, with persistent blast beats and some dual guitar parts that leave your head spinning from the rapid-fire directions the riffs fire off in. The heart of the mania is singer Sergeant Salsten. His crazed vocals are amazing—snarling, shouting, and shrieking in a way that took me back to the manic pitch Judge Doom could reach in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? He sings so fast that on the chorus of “Crimson Dawn,” it sounds like he says “Griffindor,” which had me searching confusedly for the Harry Potter tag. This was probably my favorite song, not just because of the Griffindor thing, but because that chorus is so catchy. Either way, it’s tough to pick a standout track because they all grip you by the throat and don’t let go. Crimson Dawn is a ton of fun and a must listen if you like your music fast.

Grin Reaper’s Bountiful Blight

Kallias // Digital Plague [August 14th, 2025 – Self Release]

Machine gun drumming, spacey synths, Morbid Angel-meets-Meshuggah riffing, Turian-esque barking and Voyager-reminiscent vocal melodies…what the fuck is going on here? The only thing more surprising than someone having the moxie to blend all these things together is how well they work in concert. Kallias doesn’t hold back on sophomore album Digital Plague, and the result is a rocket-fueled blast through forty-four minutes of eclectic, addictive prog. The mishmash of styles keeps the album fresh and unpredictable while never dipping its toes in inconsistent waters, and staccato rhythms propel listeners through eight tracks without losing steam. As with any prog metal worth its salt, Kallias brandishes technical prowess, and their cohesion belies the relatively short time they’ve been putting out music.2 The mix is well-suited to spotlight whoever needs it at a given time, whether the bass is purring (“Exogíini Kyriarchía”), the drums are being annihilated (“Pyrrhic Victory”), or a guitar solo nears Pettrucian wankery (“Phenomenal in Theory”). The end result is three-quarters of an hour filled with myriad influences that fuse into a sound all Kallias’s own, and it’s one I’ve returned to several times since discovering (also, credit to MontDoom for his stunning artwork, which helped initially draw my attention). Check it out—you’ll be sick if you avoid this one like the Plague.

Luke’s Kaleidoscopic Kicks

Giant Haze // Cosmic Mother [August 22nd, 2025 – Tonzonen Records]

Whereas many of my colleagues are bracing themselves for cooler conditions and harsh winters to come, in my neck of the woods, things are warming up. While my own wintry August filter proved scarce, there was one particular summery gem to lift moods with burly riffs and fat stoner grooves. Unheralded German act Giant Haze seemingly emerged out of nowhere during a random Bandcamp deep dive. Debut LP Cosmic Mother channels the good old days of ’90s-inspired desert rock, featuring grungy, doomy vibes via a groovy batch of riff-centric, hard-rocking and uplifting jams, evoking the nostalgic spirit of Kyuss, Fu Manchu, Clutch and perhaps even a dash of Danzig. Punching out raucous, groove-soaked hard rockers with skyscraping hooks (“Geographic Gardens Suck,” “King of Tomorrow,” “Panic to Ride”), summery, funk–psych jams (“Sunrise”), and bluesy, punk-infused fireballs (“Crank in Public,” “Shrink Age”) Giant Haze get a lot of things right on this assured debut. The songwriting is deceptively diverse and punchy, bolstered by solid production, tight musicianship, and the swaggering, ever so slightly goofy vocal charms and powerful hooks of frontman Christoph Wollmann. Inevitably, a few rough spots appear, but overall Cosmic Mother showcases oodles of budding potential, an impactful delivery, cheeky sense of humor, and infectious, feel-good songcraft.

Spicie Forrest’s Foraged Fruit

Bask // The Turning [August 22nd, 2025 – Season of Mist]

Last seen in 2019, Bask returns with fourth LP, The Turning, a concept album following The Rider as she and The Traveler traverse the stars. They still peddle the unique blend of stoner rock and Americana Kenstrosity reviewed favorably in 2019, but 2025 sees them looking up for inspiration. The Turning incorporates a distinct cosmic bent (“The Traveler,” “The Turning”) and post-rock structures (“Dig My Heels,” “Unwound”). These augmentations to Bask’s core sound are enhanced by the masterful pedal steel of new official member Jed Willis. Whether floating through the firmament or tilling earthly pastures, Willis creates textures both fresh and intensely nostalgic. The infinite shifting vistas of The Turning’s front half coalesce into singular timeless visions on the back half, supporting its conceptual nature in both content and form. Like a combination of Huntsmen and Somali Yacht Club, Bask weaves riffs and melodies heard across the plains and through the void above with an unguarded authenticity felt in your soul.

Dolphin Whisperer’s Disseminating Discharge

Plasmodulated // An Ocean ov Putrid, Stinky, Vile, Disgusting Hell [August 1st, 2025 – Personal Records]

Stinky, sticky, slimy—all adjectives that define the ideal death metal platter. Myk Colby has been trying to chase this perfect balance in a reverb-wonky package with projects like the d-beaten Hot Graves and extra hazy Wharflurch, but vile death metal balance is hard to achieve. However, An Ocean ov Putrid, Stinky, Vile, Disgusting Hell contains a recklessly pinched Demilichian riffage, classic piercing whammy bombs, and spook-minded synth ambience that places Plasmodulated with an odor more pungent than its peers. With an infected ear that festers equally with doom-loaded, Incantation-indebted drags (“Gelatinous Mutation ov Brewed Origin,” “Trapped in the Plasmovoid”) and Voivod-on-jenkem cutaways to foul-throated extravagence (“The Final Fuckening”). An air of intelligent tempo design keeps An Ocean from never feeling trapped in a maze of its own fumes, with Colby’s lush and bubbling synth design seguing tumbles into hammering deathly tremolo runs (“Such Rapid Sphacelation”) and Celtic Frosted riff tumbles (“Drowning in Sputum”) alike, all before swirling about his own tattered, trailing vocal sputters. Steady but slippery, elegant yet effluvial, An Ocean ov Putrid, Stinky, Vile, Disgusting Hell provides the necessary noxious pressure to corrode death metal-loving denizens into pure gloops of stained-denim pit worship. Delivered as labeled, Plasmodulated earns its hazardous declaration. We here at AMG are not liable for any OSHA violations that occur as a result of Plasmodulated consumption on the job, though.

#2025 #Aeternus #AmericanMetal #Americana #AnOceanOvPutridStinkyVileDisgustingHell #Aug25 #Bask #BlackMetal #BlackenedDeathMetal #BurningWitches #CelestialTwilightBeyondTheCrimsonVeil #CelticFrost #Clutch #CosmicMother #CrimsonDawn #Danzig #DarkAmbient #DeathMetal #Deathhammer #DefLeppard #Defacement #Demilich #DigitalPlague #Doomed #DryDrunk #DutchMetal #EdgedCircleProductions #Emperor #Enslaved #Fellship #FinnishMetal #FrozenCrown #FuManchu #GermanMetal #GiantHaze #Glassing #Hardcore #HeavyMetal #Hellbutcher #HellsHeadbangersRecords #HotGraves #Huntsmen #Incantation #Inquisition #IronMaiden #JudasPriest #Kallias #Kraków #Kyuss #MelodicBlackMetal #Meshuggah #MoonlightSorcery #MorbidAngel #Motörhead #NapalmRecords #NorwegianMetal #OldNick #PersonalRecords #PhantomFire #Plasmodulated #PowerMetal #ProgressiveDeathMetal #RawBlackMetal #Review #Reviews #SelfRelease #SilentMillenia #Slayer #Sludge #SludgeMetal #SomaliYachtClub #SpeedMetal #StonerRock #Stormkeep #StreetSects #StuckInTheFilter #StuckInTheFilter2025 #SwissMetal #SymphonicBlackMetal #TechnicalDeathMetal #TheTurning #TonzonenRecords #Turian #Voivod #Voyager #Wharflurch

Last Retch – Abject Cruelty Review

By Alekhines Gun

Despite the core ingredient being completely the same, not all steaks are created equal. Marbleization, marination, seasonings, sauces, garnishes, lobster tail, and the right type of whiskey to chase it down are all equally important considerations in preparation for the final product, despite the cynics’ argument that you’re dealing with the same slab of beef. So too with death metal. Hailing from Canada, Last Retch are our chophouse today, offering up their second LP Abject Cruelty to appease your palate for all things medium rare, and if you’re one of those cynics who think death metal all tastes the same because of its ingredient base, you can get back to whatever soup-slinging hellhole you came from. Abject Cruelty is here to eradicate and destroy with extreme prejudice, and make sure you lick the plate completely clean by the time you’re finished.

As all good steaks should, Abject Cruelty sounds fatty and thick. Drummer Spencer Robson has his double bass rolls placed flawlessly in the mix, adding car-window rattling depth of sound to machine gun riffs (“Resinous Drip of Decay”,) while guitarists John Russell and Derek Brzozowski ride a fat tone which straddles the line between HM-2 and the more filthy production of Gutless. Vocalist Finlay Blakelock has a vicious croak reminiscent of a more revitalized John McEntee (Incantation) in its depth. These well-worn ingredients come together in a total package of high-grade death, where the riff is king and the sauce is boss tone stands supreme, resulting in an engaging listen which flows from high bpm assaults to brief respites of mid-paced atmospherics. The release sounds surprisingly organic given its low DR, and its truncated runtime allows it to entertain before ear fatigue sets in.

As for the meal on offer, what awaits is a generous offering of Bolt Thrower with garnishes via a smorgasbord of dalliances with other stylings. “Beasley Meth Merchants” rocks pit-igniting rapid chugs and simple but effective drum rhythms in the spirit of classic Vader, while “Resinous Drip of Decay” flirts with Incantation atmosphere. Nods to bands as divergent as Carcass and Demilich (“Disolved in Lye”) transition into moments that recall the chuggiest thuggiest moments of Skinless (appropriate given the heavy amount of samples) while working solos which are used more as moody set-pieces than opportunities for fretboard heroics. Last Retch have concocted an album that calls to the leaders of old and does their best to fill the footsteps of such giants.

Naturally, such a tall order has its stumbling blocks, though there’s hardly anything sabotaging the album as a whole. The samples do a good job breaking up the carnage, but some have obnoxious vocal filters, which makes them grate more than enhance the music, with “Dissecting the Leper” being the worst offender.1 The strength of Abject Cruelty is more in its composition than the technicality of its performances. Title track “Abject Cruelty” sports one of my favorite riffs I’ve heard in years as a centerpiece for the song, but the half-time verses can’t quite keep up the menace in the delivery. This isn’t to imply the band are poor in their instruments by any means, but they clearly have a vision for grand and epic death which is grazed more often than it’s grasped. They have the mood and the individual riffs down to a science, but a push to challenge themselves a bit in the technicality will give the full product the shot in the arm it needs to be in contention for the modern-day death giants of the world.

Nevertheless, the majority of Abject Cruelty is a good take on what I want out of the slightly crustier side of modern death metal. It’s succinct, every song has at least one riff worthy of living room moshing, the production is fat, and the tone violent. Last Retch is a good band, and this album is a good album with some moments of genuine greatness. During my listens, I found myself many times thinking “this would probably sound fantastic in a live setting,” and for music as cathartic and energetic as this, that is an important impression. If you’re on the quest to eradicate the kindness in your life and have a good time doing it, there’s plenty of cruelty to go around waiting for you here…

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Time to Kill Records
Website: Album Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: September 26th, 2025

#2025 #30 #AbjectCruelty #BoltThrower #CanadianMetal #Carcass #DeathMetal #Demilich #Gutless #Incantation #LastRetch #Review #Reviews #Sep25 #Skinless #TimeToKillRecords #Vader

#magicthegathering #mtg #Demilich #DanielZrom

Floating – Hesitating Lights Review

By Dear Hollow

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

#bändipaitaperjantai ja uusi #Demilich paita.

Ossuary – Abhorrent Worship Review

By Alekhines Gun

These days, it seems like people get their idea of what “cavernous” should sound like from people who read about caves in books. Incantation are supposed to be the torch bearers for the subgenre, but they have sounded more like a facsimile of the sound for decades, and even more filthy modern equivalents like Funebrarum or Vastum still manage to sound like a studio imitation of what should be a raw and organic aural depiction. Drilling through the limestone and sporting some concerningly bloody tools, Ossuary have arrived with their debut full-length Abhorrent Worship, with the promo itself promising the album will open up a cave for you, dear listener, to die in. I’m a big believer in being threatened with a good time, so grab your spelunking gear and watch out for the guano poisoning!

Ossuary have conjured up an excellent presentation of the cavernous sound. Abhorrent Worship sounds positively vile, with every riff drenched in grime and slithering sounds. The big reason for this is the disgusting bass tone offered up by Matt Jacobs. While never getting any solos or spotlight, his bass is cranked up in the mix and hits brown noise levels of depth, with a rattle that sounds like it’s rotting out the woofer on my speakers with every spin. This gives the Malignant Altar styled bounce of “Instinctual Prostration” or the vintage Autopsy waltz of “Inborn Scourge Unbound” reverb and depth, masterfully unleashing the echoing abandoned cave aesthetic. The guitars are no slouches in tone either, with Izzi Plunket summoning the spirit of the gone-before-their-time Cavurn1 in riff style while channeling demo-era Demilich filth in presentation. Whiffs of Suffering Hour treble peppers occasional moments (“Barren Lamentation”) while never giving into anything which could remotely be described as melodic, with sustained chords digging deeper into the earth’s crust in depth and sound.

And when Ossuary gets to really digging, the ground opens up to swallow you whole. “Volitional Entropy” leads in with one of the single greatest death/doom riffs I have ever heard, a massive earworm which evolves from a droning lurch into a titanic mantle-chucker as it builds and swirls. “Forsaken Offerings (To the Doomed Spirit)” channels vintage Tomb Mold into a build that collapses into a chuggathon and hellish blasts. “Barren Lamentation” acts as the grand album finale with a slow-building curtain closer of a groove, which is rendered more intense by the drumming of Nick Johnson picking up the pace as the droning repeats. Each song in Abhorrent Worship functions as a build to a climax, with at least one high-caliber riff to be found in every menacing cut.

The only downside to a tension-and-release style composition is that you have to be uniformly interesting in your transitions as much as your explosions, and it is here that Ossuary stumbles. Many chugging sections go on far too long (“Forsaken Offerings…” being the biggest offender), and not every climax impales you on the same stalagmite2. There’s a clear hierarchy of quality from song to song, and while the atmosphere is unrelenting and nothing slips underneath “good,” discernible highs and lows in the composition detract from the overall body of work. Cavernous death is inherently a limited style by its nature, and the only way to make up for that is with the writing being as uniformly well executed in composition as it is in tone. Abhorrent Worship absolutely nails the sound and aesthetic, and at their best, offer up a hellish vision of the most cavernous depths, but it doesn’t have the clear sense of gold-quality from beginning to end needed to make it stand out in an inherently monochrome genre.

Nevertheless, I have emerged from the cave covered in bat poo and blood that is disconcertingly not my own with tales of delight. Ossuary have presented an enjoyable presentation of the cavernous sound, and despite its compositional flaws, I find myself somewhat smitten. If they can make every song hit with the same pic axe sharpness while maintaining the foulness of their production, future releases will offer us bleak horrors indeed. For now, if you haven’t gone cave diving in a while, I highly recommend joining in a chorus of Abhorrent Worship for a good spiritual cleanse. Just make sure you bring extra batteries for your flashlight…

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Me Saco Un Ojo Records
Websites: Album Bandcamp | Official Instagram
Releases Worldwide: May 23rd, 2025

#2025 #30 #AbhorrentWorship #AmericanMetal #Autopsy #Cavurn #DeathMetal #Demilich #Incantation #MalignantAltar #May25 #MeSacoUnOjoRecords #Ossuary #Review #Reviews #SufferingHour #TombMold

Stuck in the Filter: February 2025’s Angry Misses

By Kenstrosity

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

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

Kenstrosity’s Crusty Grab

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

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

Tyme’s Missing Minutes

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

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

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

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

Killjoy’s Drowsy Discovery

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

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

Thus Spoke’s Disregarded Diamonds

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dolphin Whisperer’s Bottom o’ the Barrel Boons

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

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

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

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

Saunders’ Salacious Skeeves

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

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

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

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

Steel Druhm’s Viscous Biscuits

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

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

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

Stenched – Purulence Gushing From the Coffin Review

By Steel Druhm

In the week when Rotpit makes their revolting return to the death metal sweepstakes, I also signed up to cover the debut by the unheralded one-man Mexican death metal project Stenched. All my enthusiasm was focused on a particular hole in the ground full of decay so thusly, I approached Purulence Gushing From the Coffin not expecting much. That’s until the bucket of week-old pig organs got dumped over my head by the abhorrent sounds Stenched brought to the corpse buffet. This is one extremely unpleasant and toxic cesspool full of the most horrible poo-goo the mind can imagine, and with zero sanitation protocols in place, even a few minutes with this scum-muck might make you feel like you’ve contracted a loathsome disease. In fact, you should count on it. But does rancid and offensive equal good in the death metal metrics employed by AMG Industries? Let’s sup the cess together.

Mere seconds into opener “Morbid Mass of Repulsive Purlence,” your initial instinct will be to recoil in terror. The sound features fearsome pustules of early Carcass and Disma, and there’s a heavy dose of Demilich floating in the managed waste too. This makes for a rank and fetid soundscape through which founder and sole occupant “Adrian” drags us kicking and screaming. Riffs slither moistly with great menace and Adrian’s vocals emanate from somewhere south of the sub-sub-basement near the sewer vent. If music ever felt mucilaginous, this does. But beyond sounding hideous, the song grabs hold of you with biting suckers and refuses to let go. It’s a freakishly compelling sound and once it gets hooks in, you’re truly fucked. When it’s over and you disentangle yourself from the tentacles of some unknown horror, you get slimed by “Mucus, Phlegm and Bile.” Yes, that’s the title and yes, it accurately conveys what’s coming for you. It’s like something off Carcass’ Reek of Putrefaction taken a few weeks past maximum decomposition and it’s fooking gnarly. I love it and am sickened by my love of it.

The album gets better and better as it pulls you deeper into the gunk and gloop. “Suppurating Cranial Cavity” is at a whole other level, harnessing a world-breaking mid-tempo plod that pulverizes everything and everyone you ever loved As Adrian wretches and vomits his guts over the bloody spectacle. The riffs are oily and noxious and leave scum trails everywhere. This may well be my Death Metal Song o’ the Year and I can’t get enough of this foul-tasting stuff. But wait, there’s more! The riffs on “Death Manical Obsession” are aces and turn an already effective tune into a raving flesh golem. Mr. Stenched does well to balance creeping doom with OSDM tropes and Swedeath d-beats in a way that keeps things unpredictable and fresh. “Eye Socket Pus Emanation” does this bait-and-switch especially well as it cycles through tempos and kicks your face completely apart in the process. At just under 32 minutes, Stenched pack a lot of sickness into a short symphony window and the writing keeps the individual tracks moving and gore-grooving. The production is full of murk, with Adrian’s guttural croaks and godawful noises buried in the mix, rising like some eldritch abomination through the blood and mud. The guitar tone is satisfyingly wet and punctures the brain stem in all the ways I love.

I can’t say enough about how well Adrian assembled this panoply of pestilence. His riffage is great and always grimy and scab-encrusted. You can almost picture the leads slithering under locked doors to get at you. His ability to jump tempos from funeral doom-esque to punky thrash and mid-tempo crushing is admirable and every time a song threatens to grow tedious, he makes something happen to hold interest. His vocals are often not much more than deep, indecipherable spoken words but they work very well and his little vomit accents are spun gold. He’s clearly a student of all things death and he uses every genre trick and trope to get his compositions across the finish line. It’s his writing that shines the brightest, as this style could easily end up sounding too one-note and muddy, but it never does here.

Purulence Gushing From the Coffin is Plato’s ideal form of a death metal album, and Steel is with that old toga-wearing bastard on this one. It combines everything I love dearly about Incantation, Carcass, Demilich, and Chthe’ilist into one savory mouthful, and brother, it is toothsome! This shit makes Rotpit seem entirely hygienic by comparison, and that’s no easy feat. Did I mention this album smells like feet? Olde, rotting hobo feet. Now smell the agony of dem feet and get fully Stenched.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Me Saco Un Ojo
Website: instagram.com/stenchedmetal
Releases Worldwide: November 26th, 2024

#2024 #40 #Carcass #CtheIlist #DeathMetal #Demilich #Disma #MeSacoUnOjoRecords #MexicanMetal #Nov24 #PurulenceGushingFromTheCoffin #Review #Reviews #Stenched

#TheMetalDogArticleList #MetalInjection Eight Old-School Death Metal Bands That Need To Release A New Record Demilich? Dismember? Grave? We need 'em. metalinjection.net/lists/eight-... #Demilich #Dismember #Grave #HateEternal #Martyr #DeadCongregation #Gorguts #Atheist

#TheMetalDogArticleList
#MetalInjection
Eight Old-School Death Metal Bands That Need To Release A New Record
Demilich? Dismember? Grave? We need 'em.

https://metalinjection.net/lists/eight-old-school-death-metal-bands-that-need-to-release-a-new-record

#Demilich #Dismember #Grave #HateEternal #Martyr #DeadCongregation #Gorguts #Atheist

Since I already put a Demilich song in my Thursday Five List for insects, I might as well hit up this week's #ThursDeath too.

Got a classic this week.

Do you like death metal even in the slightest? Well if you do, and you haven't yet, you should listen to Finland's DEMILICH.

I dig all their stuff really, but this demo from 1991 'The Four Instructive Tales... of Decomposition' is the one that got me hooked on em.

https://inv.tux.pizza/watch?v=zPkH0lstqls

#Demilich #metal #DeathMetal #90s #90sMetal #Finland #FinnnishBands

This week's #ThursdayFiveList is #TheInsect. I love bugs, although I never boost em (aside from maybe butterflies?) because I know people have phobias about em. So here's some rad songs about em instead.

The Briefs - C'mon Squash Me Like a Bug
https://inv.tux.pizza/watch?v=yuKKyPxowTY

Stone Temple Pilots - Vasoline
https://inv.tux.pizza/watch?v=s19ZyLZYCYI

Ashtray Babyhead - Bug
https://inv.tux.pizza/watch?v=LqUE1yHZ3_8

Skeletonwitch - Repulsive Salvation
https://inv.tux.pizza/watch?v=Gu0bzTuGwq4

Demilich - And the Slimy Flying Creatures Reproduce in Your Brains
https://inv.tux.pizza/watch?v=9H3jtlLSK8Q

#punk #metal #DeathMetal #PunkRock #TheBriefs #StoneTemplePilots #AshtrayBabyhead #Skeletonwitch #Demilich

Replicant – Infinite Mortality Review

By Kenstrosity

I was never a big fan of Replicant. The New Jersey quartet’s1 sophomore record Malignant Reality earned a high score on this here blog, but it failed to resonate with me at all. It featured solid enough tunes with big grooves and chunky riffs, but for one reason or another nothing stuck. However, every advance single for third LP Infinite Mortality struck a chord, so I snagged the promo in hopes that Replicant were about to turn the tables on me this time around.

Lo and behold, the turns have tabled massively. Still formed on the backbone of sounds established by legends Gorguts and Demilich, Replicant’s third assault throws its considerable heft towards even groovier, riffier, and more impactful material than ever before. Notable influences from brutal death metal, hardcore, dissonant death metal, and even a hint of slam inform much of what Infinite Mortality offers, but in no way do Replicant leave their uniquely intelligent and vitriolic character behind. In fact, these added traits serve exclusively to enhance what Replicant already did well, elevating their uncompromising songwriting to a new echelon of quality.

Luckily for me, I only have to wait a quarter of one second before Infinite Mortality smashes my skull in with an unfathomably ruinating opening quartet of songs. “Acid Mirror” through “Reciprocal Abandonment” show me new worlds of weird, swaggering death metal overburdened with unstoppable riffs and face-ripping solos—some chunky (“Acid Mirror,” “Shrine to the Incomprehensible”), some slithery (“Acid Mirror,” “Orgasm of Bereavement”), and some subtly atmospheric and technical (“Reciprocal Abandonment”). As the album progresses into its second half, more purposeful dalliances with dissonant atmospheres and post-hardcore flourishes function not only as effective spacial reprieves from what would otherwise be a relentless crush, but also as memorable landmarks that help give these songs distinct definition without compromising thematic unity (“Dwelling on the Threshold,” “Planet of Skin”). Even here, though, Infinite Mortality houses some of the record’s hardest-hitting and infectious riffs in this second act, like those burgeoning from album highlights2 “Pain Enduring” and “Nekrotunnel.” This, in turn, further accentuates Infinite Mortality’s wonderfully fluid ebb and flow as one of its great strengths.

Replicant’s tight and expressive performances match one-for-one Infinite Mortality’s buttery smooth songwriting. With such focused skill and immense talent on tap, the band as a unit gains greater flexibility to explore and develop their compositional ideas to their maximum potential at every turn (“Acid Mirror,” “Nekrotunnel”). Granting those ideas a fearsome rhythmic power, James Applegate’s destructive kit work harkens to the blunt force of hardcore, enriched by the frantic verve of brutal technicality (“Reciprocal Abandonment”). Michael Gonçalves’ howling vocals and punchy guitar and bass support play their part as well, primed to engage the fight, flight, or freeze response of anyone who dare approach (“Pain Enduring,” “Planet of Skin”). Peter Lloyd and Itay Keren lift massive weight with their guitars (and, in Itay’s case, also vocals), delivering destructive riffs and weaving together colorful layers of deceptively beautiful harmony (or frightening dissonance) to leads, accents, and solos as any given song requires.

500 words in, and I suddenly realize how difficult it is to come up with anything negative to say about Infinite Mortality. Initially, I believed closer “Planet of Skin” to be overlong at just over nine minutes, and even now instrumental interlude “SCN9A” doesn’t offer much in the way of useful content. I later came to at least appreciate “Planet of Skin” as a horrifying epic through eerie, twisted soundscapes, which eased the impression of bloat significantly, but not entirely. If I were to strain myself reaching for more nitpicks, I could note that most of Infinite Mortality’s six-plus minute songs could also be trimmed to further maximize impact. However, even as I type that line, I lack conviction, debating whether or not I actually believe those words or just feel compelled by a sense of duty to include one more point of critique. The simple truth is that Replicant have me head over heels for Infinite Mortality. It’s brutal, it’s smart as hell, and it’s a novel entry in the wild world of skronky death. You’d be remiss to let it pass you by.

Rating: Excellent!
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Websites: facebook.com/replicantnj | replicantnj.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: April 12th, 2024

#2024 #45 #Apr24 #BrutalDeathMetal #DeathMetal #Demilich #DissonantDeathMetal #Gorguts #Hardcore #InfiniteMortality #Replicant #Review #Reviews #TechnicalDeathMetal #TranscendingObscurityRecords

Fathomless Ritual – Hymns for the Lesser Gods Review

By Ferox

One develops a strange relationship with the concept of “accessibility” in this gig. Take Fathomless Ritual’s debut Hymns for the Lesser Gods. This slab of murky death metal plunges you right into the maelstrom with furious opening track “Hecatomb for an Unending Madness.” The rest of the album is full of riffs that land like an oddly shaped object dropped from a third-story window: they bounce around unpredictably, and if you’re not careful they might just hit you in the face. My point is, no one will play Hymns for the Lesser Gods as the soundtrack to a spin class. Why, then, does the phrase “like a more accessible Demilich” recur in my listening notes? B. Dean, who does everything here, draws a deep lungful of inspiration from the Finnish pioneers of the weird. He then sweetens up their sound with a never-ending blitz of catchy riffs and the strategic application of groove. Is Fathomless Ritual onto something here, or are we wandering in the wilds of Tribcore?

That which challenged us yesterday becomes today’s canon. B. Dean seems to understand that the collective metal audience has long since digested the off-kilter innovations of Demilich’s Nespithe. Fathomless Ritual breaks no new ground here, content rather to deliver a fleet and exhilarating tour of what are now the tropes of a certain subsect of Olde-School Death. B. Dean’s penchant for groove asserts itself early on tracks like “Exiled to the Lower Catacombs” and “Gorge of the Nameless.” Hymns for the Lesser Gods boasts enough variety to keep things entertaining throughout its forty-minute span. A winding lead guitar line that doubles the central riff invigorates “Grafted to the Chambers of Mirth;” the amazingly titled “Wielding the Bone Wand” boasts ever-transmuting riffs and is the best song on the set. Dean’s vocals, which live somewhere between a burp and a growl, are mostly just background noise, and he could have used another ear to handle the undistinguished production. Still and all, fans of the genre should happily burp along to these Hymns.

B. Dean’s other projects (Pukewraith, Fumes, etc.) have yet to rawdog my earholes, but he acquits himself well as a songwriter. The album roars out of the gate, builds momentum with the aforementioned right-left combo of “Exiled to the Lower Catacombs” and “Gorge of the Nameless,” and never relinquishes its grip. The longer pieces here (“Gifts for Aranaku” and “Grafted to the Chambers of Mirth”) sometimes feel like Fathomless Ritual is running the same playbook to diminished effect, but the songs are packed with enough variety to keep things generally spry. Hymns for the Lesser Gods’ rollicking run-through genre tropes recalls the reliably infectious Cryptworm. Little here to tax or challenge, but hints of a guiding vision do pop up and there’s plenty to keep your knuckles dragging along for forty minutes.

Hymns for the Lesser Gods sets its own ceiling, then does a decent job hovering near the apex of its ambitions. B. Dean’s mixing and mastering is a consistent drag on his own songwriting. It’s not disastrous, but there’s a nagging sense that these songs could be showcased more effectively. My ear had to root around in the mix to find the riffs. This sort of murk used to be part of the fun of committing yourself to metal fandom. Fortunately, technology has brought us a long way, and Fathomless Ritual’s production is not to modern standards. The vocals share in the shortfall. Here as elsewhere, B. Dean owes an obvious debt to Antti Boman of Demilich. But where he energizes the music with some new ideas, Dean’s gutturals land as perfunctory.

The one-man act obviously affords a creator the opportunity to port their musical vision right into your ears. Fathomless Ritual knows what it’s going for, and they deliver an enjoyable debut that I’ll spin again. Hopefully, B. Dean will find someone to challenge him in the right ways on future efforts. Until then, Hymns for the Lesser Gods is a solid slab of death metal that’s unlikely to engage you much past the length of its run-time.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Transcending Obscurity
Websites: fathomlessritual.bandcamp.com | instagram.com/fathomlessritual
Releases Worldwide: March 1, 2024

#2024 #30 #CanadianMetal #Cryptworm #DeathMetal #Demilich #FathomlessRitual #HymnsForTheLesserGods #Mar24 #TranscendingObscurity

Arthouse Fatso – Sycophantic Seizures: A Double Feature Review

By Dolphin Whisperer

First, 2024 gave us NASCAR-themed heavy metal, then shortly thereafter Mortal Kombat-themed heavy metal. In this world of extreme tunes and extreme niches, artists look even more granularly into their fascinations for artistic inspiration. In turn, Arthouse Fatso, chooses Orson Welles—acclaimed and controversial American filmmaker—as its hammering theme for an industrial deathgrind adventure. It’s not often that such a grimy genre finds a muse in a figure that’s not a serial killer or something fictional and equally macabre. But Fatso seems ready to revive Welles as an industry outsider fit for patch-vested punk fixation . “The classy gangster is a Hollywood invention.”

Stylized in name similar to an old film feature, Sycophantic Seizures: A Double Feature covers the unlikely ground of cinema-guided industrial deathgrind with a levity and irony-laced humor that rarely features outside of silly titles in the grind world. True to the gritty and punky arts it follows, Fatso chooses various samples from a Welles reading of his own 1943 essay Moral Indebtedness to frame the central character as an idealistic man in a power-ravaged, capitalist society. And throughout the album’s run, Fatso’s sole credited member, The Director, makes sure to echo Wellesian thoughts, like criticism of the increasing corporate presence in the film industry (“Endless Trash”) and exploitation of vulnerable groups in affluent societies (“The Royal Adventures of Andy and Jeff”).1

Sycophantic Seizures, thankfully, eschews being a sermon by supplying loads of funky fresh riffs with diverse accompaniment. Rather than leaning on anything overtly techy, Fatso uses the weight of jaunty but groovy Macabre bounces (“A Message to Ben…,” “a Limerick”), the scrawling fervor of Discordance Axis (“Scandinavian Delicacies,” “Famous and Unfunny”), and the tough guy grind of Terrorizer (“Suburban Suffocation,” “Sycophantic Seizures”) to display a breadth of intense riff-cabulary. I’d imagine The Director fancies themselves a guitarist first, many of the skronky six-string lines and relentless rhythmic pummelings find either full harmonies or extra forward pulse from warm, popping basslines, very much in the school of Demilich oddness—no burps, only brees though. Well, brees, many scattered backing barks, and sudden but welcome clean vocal gang choirs (“Sycophantic Seizures,” “Imperialist! Dream Burst!”)—the unpredictable incorporations in each track go a long way to solidify memorable identities. Yes, that includes an incredibly warped guest violin solo on “A Message to Ben and His Lovely Sister Abby.”2

Either by choice or necessity, Fatso has also leaned into its drum programming as an industrial feature. On grind-speed numbers, the kick layers render so fluttered that they’re a stuttering wall of sound (“Suburban Suffocation,” “The Royal Adventures…”), but Fatso knows when to throw back still with an engorged, punctuated groove (“A Message to Ben…,” “Tweets of the Sane”). Sycophantic Seizures finds its most experimental position in “[INTERMISSION],” though, which starts with an olde-timey call for popcorn and devolves into a hissing, screeching noise-addled manifesto that feels like it fell off a Full of Hell/The Body collab. And, in a move that we’ve heard a couple of times recently in adjacent death metal corners, the journey concludes with an industrial hip-hop beat under a Welles diatribe, lifting his legacy as a rebellious auteur—at least in The Director’s eyes.

Again, many of this album’s inherent traits that could easily manifest as flaws for listeners—the abrasive programmed drumming, the noise diversions, the reliance on an incredibly strange niche. Why, not too long ago, Bloodbox came about with a similarly contorted industrial grinding piece that landed mixed in these halls, but not for me. Arthouse Fatso leans into exactly what it is: riff-forward deathgrind that centers around the mystique and controversy of Orson Welles and warps his character with left-field death metal and gritty electronics. Most importantly, though, Sycophantic Seizures in its presentation of certain grind tropes—sub-twenty-second songs, a paragraph-length song title,3 humorous samples, a high-concept cover art with a low-brow joke—ensures that it never quite takes itself that seriously. However cynical The Director may seem, and however self-deprecating Welles might exist in this fictional re-imagining, Sycophantic Seizures maintains a core of wild riffs and structured swells. It may not be Citizen Kane, but I think Welles would forgive that.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Horror Pain Gore Death Productions | Bandcamp
Websites: facebook.com/arthouse-fatso | arthousefatso.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: March 8th, 2024

#2024 #35 #ArthouseFatso #Bloodbox #DeathMetal #Deathgrind #Demilich #DiscordanceAxis #FullOfHell #GermanMetal #Grindcore #HorrorPainGoreDeathProductions #IndustrialMetal #Macabre #Mar24 #Review #Reviews #SycophanticSeizuresADoubleFeature #Terrorizer #TheBody

https://daily.bandcamp.com/features/demilich-nespithe-interview honestly Antti Boman of #Demilich seems like such a lovely chap #DeathMetal #metal #music #bandcamp

Video highlights from the Porazium, Krypts, and Demilich gig. 🔥🤘

#Porazium #Krypts #Demilich #deathmetal #deathmetalmusic #livemusic #gig #Mochvara​ #SubsiteTV

https://youtu.be/KZFRNO7VK6c

Tonight Porazium almost stole the show opening for the legendary Demilich, which were great, and Krypts, which abso. fucking. lutely. killed. it.
🔥🤘😳🔥

#Porazium #Krypts #Demilich #deathmetal #deathmetalmusic #livemusic #gig #Mochvara

Warming up to get pummeled next week part one. #Demilich #deathmetal
https://demilich.bandcamp.com/album/20th-adversary-of-emptiness