How #Black #Americans Are Getting Ready For The Apparent Return of #Jesus This Week;
Thanks to a viral video, many on #socialmedia were led to believe that the #rapture was taking place #Sep23 -24. But if you’re reading this, it may be too late for you!

https://www.theroot.com/jesus-is-apparently-coming-back-today-and-heres-how-2000063438

Subsignal – A Poetry of Rain [Things You Might Have Missed 2023]

By Mystikus Hugebeard

Subsignal, the German progressive metal/rock outfit that rose from the ashes of Sieges Even, has gradually evolved from “a band I quite like” into “a core tenet of my musical identity,” and it pains me that they’ve never been covered on this site. Granted, even at their heaviest, Subsignal’s style of progressive metal leans toward gentleness, but they’re still no less heavy than some other groups featured on AMG. I hoped that after all this time their newest opus might get a full review, and I was crestfallen that we never received their promo. I guess sometimes you’ve just gotta be the change you want to see in the world, and so it brings me genuine joy and catharsis to finally give Subsignal a spot on Angry Metal Guy with their excellent A Poetry of Rain.

Primary songwriter and guitarist Markus Steffen has woven an unusual, wet melancholy into Subsignal’s usual gentle prog. “Sliver (The Sheltered Garden)” hints at an ever-present gloom with eerily distant guitars and precise drumwork, while the burgeoning warmth of the keyboards in “Marigold” and “A Wound is a Place to Let the Light In” dispels the darkness. It’s worth noting that the careful restraint in Steffen’s songwriting makes A Poetry of Rain Subsignal’s most understated album to date, but no less impactful. Every song is a concise, individual experience that never overstays its welcome, allowing the album’s heart of soft sadness to always shine through. Steffen knows exactly when to let the energy rise or fall, until the music culminates in the sublime “The Last of its Kind,” a near-perfect apex of the album’s emotions whose final chorus (and killer saxophone solo) has cemented the song as one of my favorite Subsignal tracks.

It’s difficult to exaggerate how much A Poetry of Rain benefits from the irreplaceable vocals of Arno Menses. He is inseparable from Subsignal’s identity and appeal, and even if the music doesn’t resonate with you, I’d wager that Menses’ performance will move you all the same. His is that rare voice that sounds effortless in whatever he sings, be it during the powerful zenith of “The Last of its Kind” or in the solemnity of “A Room on the Edge of Forever.” A Poetry of Rain continues Subsignal’s liberal use of layered vocals with Menses’s voice mixed into those of the other members, and it sounds as excellent as ever. Some of the album’s best moments come from Menses singing atop the layered voices in “Impasse” and “Embers Part II: Water Wings.” Subsignal is full of talented musicians who are excellent at what they do, yet Menses’ masterwork pipes stand far above the rest.

The melancholy of A Poetry of Rain makes it an atypical Subsignal experience and a peculiar entry point to the band’s discography, but who cares? A Poetry of Rain still has everything that has always made Subsignal such an incredible band: poignant emotional clarity, subtle and skillful musicianship, and an unbeatable vocal performance from one of the best singers. I hope to one day be able to give them a full review, but even in this shorter format, it’s enough, and it’s everything. Please check this out, and then devour their whole catalog. And then do it again.

Tracks to Check Out: “Sliver (The Sheltered Garden),” “Embers Part II: Water Wings,” “Melancolia One,” “The Last of its Kind,” “A Room on the Edge of Forever”

#2023 #APoetryOfRain #GentleArtOfMusic #ProgressiveMetal #ProgressiveRock #Sep23 #SiegesEven #Subsignal #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed2023 #TYMHM

World’s End Girlfriend – Resistance & The Blessing [Things You Might Have Missed 2023]

By Dolphin Whisperer

For those unfamiliar, World’s End Girlfriend has been producing a unique brand of cinematic music rooted in classical composition, post-rock sound palette, glitchy and warped electronics since 2000’s debut Ending Story—very much a stepping stone on this long and forlorn path. Though there’s plenty to enjoy in this Japanese one-man exploration, it was 2007’s Hurtbreak Wonderland that first took my breath away and signaled a string of increasingly wide-viewed, somberly-toned albums that cemented me as a WEG die-hard. Having released only in spurts and singles since 2016’s Last Waltz, Resistance & The Blessing functions as a reinterpreted collection of those smaller works in the grand context of an epic that details the heart-breaking cycle of love, loss, and memory. What a tale it is.

Sometimes your words come back to haunt you, and often sooner than you realize. Kind of like when you ask whether something can go wrong in a given situation. Or when you lambast a one-hundred twenty-four album of unearned epic proportions but end up falling deeply in love with a one-hundred forty-five-minute experimental electronic album that showcases a career’s worth of ideas and a lifetime’s worth of heartache. But I already knew that I was in love with World’s End Girlfriend before I hit play, that’s the way insanity works. And the more I listen to Resistance, the less I feel that any of it is out of place.

True to the nature of a work that looks back at an artist’s past as much as toward the future, long-time enjoyers of WEG will find little details that earmark already striking moments with a stronger sense of purpose. Opening on “unPrologue Birthday Resistance” plays on this most directly by taking a familiar piece from Hurtbreak Wonderland (“Birthday Resistance”) and fizzling it with scratchy obstructions and hard skips, as if a broken cycle threatens to turn again. And in closing it does, with the same melody picking back up, giving way to an ominous sample of a child’s birthday song, and then instead of fizzling out in wild guitar feedback like the Hurtbreak original, “unEpilogue JUBILEE” tumbles up a rising synth clamor that breaks away to what sounds like a heartbeat, amplified and cut away for a short and sweet goodbye message. Songs like “MEGURI” and “RENDERING THE TWO SOULS,”1 originally lacked context as statements of unwanted departure and frantic longing, but in their new respective positions (and with slight re-workings) can give movement to the fragments of emotion that surround them.

Despite the other nature of an album of this magnitude—it’s significant length—each movement of this piece has a powerful and entertaining identity. If you’ve a taste for the whimsy and naiveté of bright love, the initial swing up to “IN THE NAME OF LOVE” will waltz you between triumph and smile alike. If your dreams place you in a world inhabited by vocaloid choirs and reimagining the Edward Scissorhands ice dance in a tunnel of neon lights, the one-two flaying of “Reincarnation No.9”2 and “RENDERING THE TWO SOULS” will twirl you a fanciful landscape. “Blue/0/ +9” might be the best R&B ballad I’ve heard in ages, complete with a tasteful Isley Brothers-kissed, fuzz-filled solo wail. The “Black Box” duo, featuring Japanese footwork specialist CRZKNY, shakes the floor in a way that only hellish EBM can. And, if you make it this far, the final movement from the delicate “himitsu” through the dutiful but frightening rendition of “Ave Maria” leading up to “SEE YOU AGAIN” may cause a tear or twenty to drip from your weary and wondering eyes.

It’s entirely possible that Resistance & The Blessing is a masterpiece. It’s equally possible that it didn’t have to be this much all at once. However, when the heart bleeds with this kind of passion, the only proper reflection rests in staring at the sanguine pool and letting it be what it is. We only know snippets of what has occurred throughout World’s End Girlfriend’s life to release an album full of so much pain, catharsis, hope, and adoration. If Katsuhiko Maeda, the man behind the mask, could ever sit down and explain what each moment means to him, I’m sure words wouldn’t be enough. I’ll be listening to this one for a long time to see if I can get even that close.

Tracks to Check Out: Haha… All of them?3

#2023 #AvantGarde #Cinematic #CRZKNY #DannyElfman #Electronic #ExperimentalElectronic #Glitch #Industrial #ModernClassical #Noise #NonMetal #PostRock #Sep23 #SoundCollage #ThingsYouMayHaveMissed #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed2023 #VirginBabylonRecords #WorldSEndGirlfriend

Stuck in the Filter – September’s Angry Misses

By Kenstrosity

Fall is upon us at last. Here at my station, located far far away from AMG HQ due to my various injustices against the Score Counter, taste, and metal credibility over the past five years of writership, I monitor our minions’ progress scouring the headquarters’ overtaxed filtration system. As the leaves and cool mists infiltrate the guts of the machine to mingle with the stagnant refuse which lines the chutes and coats our poor, unfortunate laborers, I use my remote-controlled cattle-prod-equipped drone to motivate and maintain pace. We have a deadline to reach after all!

Ah, who am I kidding?! Deadlines are for poseurs, and we are well-known specialists of the late post. I just like torturing my subjects until they cough up the goods. And cough up they always do! So now, please, sit, and enjoy the spoils of not my labor, the best of the pretty good from September 2023!

Kenstrosity’s Mildewed Masses

King’s Rot // At the Gates of Adversarial Darkness [September 22nd, 2023 – Hypnotic Dirge Records]

It’s been a fairly mediocre year for standard black metal in the House ov Ken. Most of the time, the good stuff hybridized with other things like death metal (Úlfúð), psychedelia (DHG), or power metal (Moonlight Sorcery). Alberta, Canada’s King’s Rot doesn’t quite change that, but they make a valiant effort of it with their sophomore outing, At the Gates of Adversarial Darkness. Its production marks a good start, perfectly straddling the fence between murky rawness and sparkling clarity. This in turn bolsters the quality of the music, which straddles the fence between melodicism and wretchedness. I’m most engaged whenever King’s Rot kick into high gear, evoking bands like Vimur and Imperialist, except this material prefers to revel in the hellish flames of the underworld rather than the coronas of distant stars (“Blazing Winds of Torment,” “At the Gates of Adversarial Darkness,” “Last Dance for the Eternal Flame”). However, they could use more of that perilous verve and swagger in those areas where the band take their sweet time building up to a blistering fury (as with the Cloak-esque “Twilight Breath Incantation” and “Obscure Awakenings”) in order to keep my interest rabid from start to finish. In sum, you could do much worse than At the Gates of Adversarial Darkness for your fiery, but chilling black metal fix.

Aortha // Monolit [September 8th, 2023 – Self Release]

How many vocalists is too many vocalists? International supergroup Aortha bring a new scope and scale to the question with their groovy heavy/thrash/power metal project by employing six individuals for mic duty (Exhorder‘s Kyle Thomas, Adamantia’s Diego Valdez, Voivod‘s Denis Belanger Snake, ex-Temperance’s Alessia Scolletti, Laurenne/Louhimo’s Netta Laurenne, ex-Scar Symmetry‘s Christian Älvestam). Supported by Jacob Umansky on bass, Hannes Grossman on drums, and Predrag Glogovac on guitars, Aortha’s debut LP Monolit boasts insane levels of groove, hook, and swagger. Bangers like “Those That Should Not Exist,” “Last of Our Kind,” “Forging the Locus” and “Divine Future” are guaranteed to kick your ass and take your lunch money, while every vocalist gets their chance to spit in your face (although it can be difficult to pick out who is who with 100% accuracy). It’s nearly impossible not to bob my head along with these tunes, as transitions constantly reveal a new trick up the group’s sleeve, whether that be another ripping verse hook (“Keep the Dream”), a sharp riff that has no business being as fun or interesting as it is (“Last of Our Kind”), or some fancy percussive work that one would expect from the world’s most sought-after drummer. It might be cheesy in places, ESL is everywhere, and some songs can feel a little long after repeat spins (“When All Around You is Madness”), but Monolit remains one of my most fun, compelling, and deceivingly cohesive surprises this year. You owe it to yourselves to try it!

Dolphin Whisperer’s Trench Treasures

SATSURIKU ROBOT // NO THRASH METAL, NO LIFE! [September 8th, 2023 – WormHoleDeath]

No Thrash Metal, No Life!—demanding and straightforward. It’s easy to imagine that the untested Japanese act would have constructed this outing as an homage to the blue-collar hammer-on, hammer-off tunes we all love so dearly.1 And to a certain extent the opening riffs to the Slayer-touched “THRASH NEVER DIE” and the Sodom-grooving “MAD THRASHER” have a normalcy to them. However, that basic appearance dissolves rapidly against a cranked-out, clangy-ass snare and a vocalist who’s channeling both a cat in heat and a pig greased for the chase. Honestly, I have no idea what the fuck he’s doing. On tracks like “殺戮ロボット – SATSURIKU ROBOT ” and “CARRY ON” he drops character for brief moments while channeling a punky bellow akin to fellow countrymen SEX MACHINEGUNS, which gives a little respite to his madness. For the most part though, he squirts and squeals with a rabid conviction while his bandmates do their best to churn out solid sing-along gang shouts amidst mighty solos (“ROBOT IN THE PANDEMIC,” “NO THRASH METAL, NO LIFE!”). Similar to the out-of-place nature of the hokey, nursery rhyme infusions you hear in a Macabre album, much of what SATSURIKU ROBOT accomplishes throughout this thoughtful mess of a debut should not work, but it does and it’s catchy as hell. Though I don’t think these folks could pull it off twice with as much shock value, but that matters little when you can enjoy this sneakily not-thrash ode to thrash. So what’re you waiting for? NO THRASH METAL, NO LIFE!!!

Vibora // Zaldi Beltza [September 29th, 2023 – Zegema Beach Records]

Anthemic, throat-ripping, cathartic as a cold bath with the curtains drawn—Zaldi Beltza (The Black Horse) is the skramz you need in your life. With a bass overdriven for noise rock and a scrapped mic that reminds me of regionally-adjacent sadbois Tenue or ragers Crossed,2 Vibora’s brand of screeching metalcore comes with highlights that swing effortlessly between tough guy throw-downs and major swing crescendos (“Eraikin Zurie,” “Le Fleur”). Though Vibora drops tempo for a few melancholy post-hardcore romps (“DANA,” “La Casa, 20”), the burn through Zaldi Beltza’s nine tracks in twenty-three minutes never feels too long drawn on its less aggressive elements. Appropriate levels of hissing amp feedback and nut-shaking bass (“La Casa, 8,” “Ez Ziguten Maitatzen Irakatsi”) ensure that these Basque core-kiddies never stray too far from a forward-moving path. I gotta level with you though, this is true screamo, and if you’re not accustomed to the fuzz-filtered, nasally, digging yelp that typically accompanies this world, Vibora doesn’t do anything to change that. But Zaldi Beltza, in its close-to-roots expression of bright-chord Daïtro-flavored post-hardcore with extra hardcore delivers a modern sad-ggression that’s building a movement of its own.

Thus Spoke’s Tarnished Trinkets

Ash Prison // Future Torn [September 22nd 2023 – Sentient Ruin Laboratories]

Ash Prison are basically everything you want blackened industrial music to be—or at least they’re everything I want it to be. This weird, warpy, wacky work sees resonant, electrified bass wrap around jittery tempos, accompanied by echoing, snarling croaks, and a plethora of other strange sounds. You’ve taken the pill the shifty guy by the club toilets gave you, that you probably shouldn’t have, and now the gothic electronica is warping around you, and the walls are starting to melt. The come up was a bit aggressive (“Archangel”), but at the same time, incredibly, weirdly danceable, in a jagged sort of way, as is much of Future Torn. And the way groovy, boppy beats slide in out of the noise (“Death Reborn,” “No Return,” “Collapse”) is almost as unsettling as the heavier, actually scary stuff. This mood swing happens whiplash from song to song, “Voidhead,” “Black Horizon,” and “Weep in my Shadow” each smash onto the scene with fast, clipped tempos and a lot of static and distortion. And then there’s “Scorn,” whose skipping, echoing voice sample and scarily low hum create a spine-chillingly powerful sense of dread before the beat picks up to turn it into a mad, unhinged bop. This album terrifies me, and I love it. Why not give it a try?

Steel Druhm’s Seasonal Slashing:

Lord of Shadows // Echoes of Yore [September 1st, 2023 – Meuse Music Records]

Lord of Shadows is the work of one Mike Lamb, and on the debut full-length Echoes of Yore, the multi-instrumentalist tackles the Peaceville sound made famous in the 90s by My Dying Bride and Anathema. And to make sure you know he’s deadly serious about his passion project, he recruited none other than My Dying Bride’s Aaron Stainthorpe to handle vocals for him, alongside Heike Langhans (Remina, Light Field Reverie, ex-Draconian). Over 42 minutes, Lamb and guests paint the night pitch black with effective Gothic doom loaded with drama, pathos, and despondency. The man knows his chosen genre well and appoints it with a captivating array of forlorn riffs, weeping pianos, ethereal female vocals, and booming death croaks. The songsmithing is above average and the lengthy compositions keep you in thrall as they suck all the joy from your downtrodden soul. Cuts like “Faith of Thy Beloved” and “At the End of Our Eclipse” will win you over to the morose cause, and the nine-minute “Through Memories, I Gave Her Life” will carry you off to sadboi glory. Is it derivative of its source material? Naturally, but the adroit blend of My Dying Bride and female-forward Gothic doom like Draconian works well. With Winter banging at the door, this is the optimal time of year for what Lord of Shadows are selling, so stock up now! DOOM!

#2023 #Adamantia #Aortha #AshPrison #AtTheGatesOfAdversarialDarkness #BlackMetal #CanadianMetal #Cloak #Crossed #Daïtro #DHG #EchoesOfYore #Exhorder #FutureTorn #HeavyMetal #HypnoticDirgeRecords #Imperialist #Industrial #IndustrialMetal #KingSRot #LaurenneLouhimo #LordOfShadows #Macabre #MelodicBlackMetal #Metalcore #Monolit #MoonlightSorcery #NoThrashMetalNoLife #PowerMetal #SatsurikuRobot #ScarSymmetry #Screamo #SelfReleased #SentientRuinLaboratories #Sep23 #Slayer #Sodom #StuckInTheFilter #Temperance #Tenue #ThrashMetal #Úlfúð #VIbora #Vimur #Voivod #WormHoleDeath #ZaldiBeltza #ZegemaBeachRecords

#sep23 ► Pop Rock ◄ Mann aus Marseille, Critique Automatik #KAPULinz #Linz
https://www.kapu.or.at/event/2023/09/23/mann-aus-marseille-critique-automatik