VENUS (Grècia) presenta nou single: "Uploaded Brains" #Venus #ProgressiveThrashMetal #Juny2025 #Grècia #NouSingle #Metall #Metal #MúsicaMetal #MetalMusic
#progressivethrashmetal
„This Godless Endeavour“ Nevermores geniale bisher letzte Großtat. Ein Meisterwerk des progressiven Thrash. Fein ziselierte Riffs, in den Refrains großartige Melodien und theatralischer Gesang.
Man weiß gar nicht, worauf man zuerst achten soll. Meistens packen dich die Hooks, aber dann gelingt es doch wieder, die detailreiche Gitarren- und Schlagzeugarbeit zu verfolgen.
Anspieltipps:
https://tidal.com/browse/track/52025862?u Born
https://tidal.com/browse/track/52025872?u
This Godless Endeavour
#metal #rezensionen #vinyl #music #nevermore #ProgressiveThrashMetal @metal
Stuck in the Filter: March 2025’s Angry Misses
By Kenstrosity
Spring is in the air, and with it comes… an insane number of cicadas! Yes, that’s right, Brood XIV spawned this year and is currently overwhelming my staff as they trudge through embuggened ducts to clear out the Filter of semi-precious metal. I bet it’s fucking loud in there…
…. eh I’m sure they are all fine. Just fine. Anyway, enjoy the spoils of our toils!
Kenstrosity’s Gloopy Grubber
Acid Age // Perilous Compulsion [February 28th, 2025 – Self Released]
Belfast’s wacky thrash conglomerate Acid Age came out of absolutely nowhere back in March, unleashing their fourth LP Perilous Compulsion and equipping it with one helluva van-worthy cover. This is some funky, bluesy, quasi-psychedelic thrash metal that pulls no punches. Riffs abound, bonkers songwriting pervades, immense groove agitates. From the onset, “Bikini Island” establishes Perilous Compulsion as a no-nonsense, balls-out affair which reminds me heavily of Voivod and a simplified Flummox informed by Atheist’s progressive proclivities, and expanded by a touch of Pink Floyd’s nebulous jams. Of course, thrash remains Acid Age’s hero flavor, as choice cuts “State Your Business,” “Revenge for Sale,” and closing one-two punch “Rotten Tooth” and “Hamster Wheel” clearly demonstrate. While their fearless exploration of style and structure maintains a sky-high level of interest, it also introduces a couple of challenges. Firstly, this material can feel a bit disjointed at first, but focused spins reward the listener greatly as all of Perilous Compulsion’s moving parts start to mesh and move in unison. Secondly, Acid Age throws a spotlight on a few brilliant inclusions that, over time, I wish were more often utilized—namely, the delightfully bluesy harmonica solos on “Rotten Tooth.” Regardless, Acid Age put themselves on my map with Perilous Compulsion. I recommend you put them on yours, too!
Owlswald’s Desiccated Discoveries
Verbian // Casarder [March 21st, 2025 – Lost Future Records]
It’s unjust that Portuguese rockers Verbian—who have been producing quality post-rock since 2019’s Jaez—haven’t received the attention they deserve. Fusing elements of post-rock with metal, psychedelic, and stoner, Casarder is Verbian’s third full-length and the first with new drummer Guilherme Gonçalves. Taking the sounds and inspirations of 2020’s Irrupção and enriching it with new permutations and modulations, Casarder’s largely instrumental character rides punchy riffs and roiling grooves—à la Russian Circles and Elder—to transmit its thought-provoking legitimacy. Dystopian and surreal séances, via echoing Korg synthscapes (“Pausa Entre Dias,” “Vozes da Ilha”) and celestial harmonies, permeate Casarder’s forty-three-minute runtime, translating Madalena Pinto’s striking Aeon Flux-esque cover art with precision. Ominous horn sections and crusty recurrent vocals (“Marcha do Vulto,” “Depois de Toda a Mudança”) by guitarist Vasco Reis and bassist Alexandre Silva underscore Verbian’s individuality in a crowded post-rock domain. Gonçalves’s drumming—with his intricate and enchanting hard rock and samba rhythms (“Nada Muda,” “Fruta Caída do Mar”)—adds a new dimension to Verbian’s sound, assuring my attention never falters. The group describes Casarder as communicating the “…insecurities of artistic expression and personal exposure when it comes to fearing being judged for something that is somewhat outside of what is done in each artist’s niche.” Indeed, Casarder reveals Verbian is unafraid to forge their own path, and the results are gripping.
Symbiotic Growth // Beyond the Sleepless Aether [March 28th, 2025 – Self Released]
Beyond the Sleepless Aether, the sophomore effort by Ontario, Canada’s Symbiotic Growth, immediately caught my attention with its dreamy-looking cover. Building upon their 2020 self-titled debut, the Canadian trio hones epic and long-form progressive death metal soundscapes, narrating a quest for meaning across alternate realities in mostly lengthy, yet rewarding, tracks that blend technicality, atmosphere, and melody. The group frequently employs dynamic shifts, moving between raging brutality and serene shoegaze beauty (“Arid Trials and Barren Sands,” “The Sleepless Void”). This is achieved through complex and vengeful passages alongside atmospheric synth lines and softer piano interludes (“Sires of Boundless Sunset,” “Of Painted Skies and Dancing Lights”), cultivating an air of wonder, mystery, and ethereality that permeates much of Symbiotic Growth’s material. “The Architect of Annihilation” echoes the style of Ne Obliviscaris with its blend of clean harmonies and harsh growls meshed with tremolo-picked arpeggiations and catchy hooks (the guitar solo even features a violin-like quality). “Lost in Fractured Reveries” evokes In Mourning with its parallel synth and guitar lines giving way to devastating grooves that make it impossible not to headbang. Although some fine-tuning remains—the clean vocals could use some more weight and tracks like “Of Painted Skies and Dancing Lights” and “The Architect of Annihilation” overstay their welcome at times—Beyond the Sleepless Aether shows Symbiotic Growth’s burgeoning talent and signals the group is one to watch in progressive death metal.
Dear Hollow’s Drudgery Sludgery Hoist
Spiritbox // Tsunami Sea [March 7th, 2025 – Pale Chord Records | Rise Records]
From humble beginnings in a more artsy-fartsy djent post-Iwrestledabearonce world to becoming the darlings of Octane Radio, Spiritbox has seen quite the ascent. While it’s easy to look at their work and scoff at its radio-friendliness, sophomore full-length Tsunami Sea shows Courtney LaPlante and company sticking to their guns. Simultaneously more obscure and more radio-friendly in its selection of tracks, expect its signature blend of colossal riffs and ethereal melodies guided by LaPlante’s siren-then-sea serpent dichotomy of furious roars and haunting cleans. Yes, Spiritbox helms its attack with the radio singles (“Perfect Soul,”1 “Crystal Roses”) in layered soaring choruses and touches of hip-hop undergirded by fierce grooves, but the meat of Tsunami Sea finds the flexibility and patience in the skull-crushing brutality (“Soft Spine,” “No Loss, No Love”) and its more exploratory songwriting that amps layers of the ethereal and the hellish with catchy riffs and vocals alike (“Fata Morgana,” “A Haven of Two Faces”). It’s far from perfect, and its tendency towards radio will be divisive, but it shows Spiritbox firing on all cylinders.
Unfleshing // Violent Reason [March 28th, 2025 – Self Released]
I am always tickled pink by blackened crust. It takes the crusty violence and propensity for filth and adds black metal’s signature sinister nature. Unfleshing is a young, unsigned blackened crust band from St. Louis, and with debut Violent Reason, you can expect a traditional punk-infused beatdown with a battered guitar tone and sinister vocals. However, more than many, the quartet offers a beatdown that feels as atmospheric as it is pummeling. Don’t get me wrong, you get your skull caved in like the poor guy on the cover with minute-long crust beatdowns (“Body Bag,” “From the Gutter”) and full-length smackdowns (“Knife in the Dark,” “Final Breath”), both styles complete with scathing grooves, squalid feedback, climactic solos and punishing blastbeats, atop a blackened roar dripping with hate. But amid the full-throttle assault, Unfleshing utilizes ominous black metal chord progressions and unsettling plucking to add a more dynamic feature to Violent Reason (“Cathedral Rust,” “One With the Mud”). The album never overstays, and while traditional, it’s a hell of a start for Unfleshing.
Ghostsmoker // Inertia Cult [March 21st, 2025 – Art as Catharsis Records]
Ghostsmoker seems like the perfect stoner metal band name, but aside from the swampy guitar tone, there’s something much sinister lurking. Proffering a caustic blackened doom/sludge not unlike Thou, Wormphlegm, and Sea Bastard, the Melbourne group quartet devotes a crisp forty-two minutes to sprawling doom weighted by a crushing guitar tone that rivals Morast‘s latest, and shrieked vocals straight from the latest church burning. Beyond what’s expected from this particular breed of devastation, Ghostsmoker infuses an evocative patience reminiscent of post-metal’s more sludgy offerings like Neurosis or Pelican, lending a certain atmosphere and mood of dread and wilderness depicted on its cover. From the outright chugging attacks of churning aggression (“Elogium,” “Haven”) to the more experimental and thoughtful pieces (“Bodies to Shore,” instrumental closer “The Death of Solitude”), Inertia Cult largely feels like a journey through uncharted forests, with voices whispering from the trees. Ghostsmoker is something special.
GardensTale’s Paralyzed Spine
Spiine // Tetraptych [March 27th, 2025 – Self Released]
Is it still a supergroup release when half the lineup are session musicians? Spiine is made up of Sesca Scaarba (Virgin Black) and Xen (ex-Ne Obliviscaris), but on debut Tetraptych they are joined by guests Waltteri Väyrynen (Opeth) and Lena Abé (My Dying Bride). Usually, so much talent put into the same room does not yield great results. Tetraptych is one hell of an exception. A monstrous slab of crawling heaviness, Spiine lurches with abject despair through the mires of deathly funeral doom. Though I usually eschew this genre, my attention remains rapt through a variety of variations. The songwriting keeps the 4 tracks progressing, slow and steady builds, and the promise of momentary tempo changes working a two-pronged structural plan to buoy the majestic yet miserable riffs. “Oubliiette” is the best example here, going from galloping death-doom to Georgian choirs to a fantastic bridge where all the instrumentation hits only on the roared syllables. Xen’s unholy bellows flatten any objections I may have had, managing both thunder and deepest woe in the same notes. The subtle orchestration and occasional choir arrangements finish the package with regal grandeur, and the lush and warm production is the cherry on top. If you feel like drowning your sorrows with an hour of colossal doom, this is the album for you.
Saunders’ Stenched Staples
Ade // Supplicium [March 14th, 2025 – Time to Kill Records]
Sometimes unjustly pigeonholed as the Roman-inspired version of Nile, the hugely underrated Ade have punched out a solid career of quality death metal releases since emerging roughly fifteen years ago, charting their own path. Albums like 2013’s ripping Spartacus and 2019’s solid Rise of the Empire represent a tidy snapshot of the band’s career. Fifth album Supplicium, their first LP in six years, marks a low-key, welcome return. Exotic instrumentation and attention to history and storytelling are alive and well in the Ade camp, as is their penchant for punishing, unrelenting death, featuring a deftly curated mix of bombast, brutality, technical spark, and epic atmospheres. Edoardo Di Santo (Hideous Divinity) joins a largely refreshed line-up, including a new bassist and second guitarist since their last album. Line-up changes aside, familiar Ade tools of harrowing ancient Roman tales and modern death destruction remain as consistently solid as always. Top-notch riffs, intricate arrangements, fluid tempo shifts, and explosive drumming highlight songs that frequently flex their flair for drama-fueled atmospheres, hellfire blasts, and burly grooves. The immense, multi-faceted “Burnt Before Gods,” exotic melodies and raw savagery of “Ad Beastias!,” spitfire intensity of “Vinum,” and epically charged throes of “From Fault to Disfigurement” highlight more solid returns from Ade.
Masters of Reality // The Archer [March 28th, 2025 – Artone Label Group/Mascot Records]
Underappreciated desert rock pioneers and quirky stalwarts Masters of Reality returned from recording oblivion some fifteen-plus years since they last unleashed an LP. Led by the legendary Chris Goss and his collaborative counterparts across a career that first kicked off in the late ’80s, Masters of Reality return sounding inspired, wisened, and a little more chilled. Re-tinkering their familiar but ever-shifting sound, Masters of Reality incorporate woozy, bluesy laidback vibes featuring their oddball songwriting traits through a sedate, intriguing collection of new songs. The Archer showcases Masters of Reality’s longevity as seasoned, skilled songwriters, regardless of the shifting rock modes they explore. While perhaps lacking some of the energetic spark and earworm hooks of albums like Sunrise on the Sufferbus and Deep in the Hole, The Archer still marks a fine return outing. Goss’ signature voice is in fine form, and the bluesy, psych-drenched guitars, cushy basslines, ’60s and ’70s influences, and spacey vibes create a comforting haze. The delightfully dreamy, trippy “Chicken Little,” laidback hooks and old school charms of “I Had a Dream,” lively, quirky grooves of “Mr Tap n’ Go,” and moody, melancholic balladry of “Powder Man” highlight another diverse, strange brew from the veteran act.
Tyme’s Unheard Annunciations
Doomsday // Never Known Peace [March 28th, 2025 – Creator-Destructor Records]
March’s filter means spring is here, mostly, which is when I start searching for bands to populate my annual edition of Tyme’s Mowing Metal. There’s nothing I enjoy more than cracking a cold beer, sliding my headphones over my ears, and hopping on the mower to complete one of summer’s—at least for me—most enjoyable chores. A band that will feature prominently this summer is Oakland, California’s crossover thrash quintet Doomsday, and their Creator-Destructor Records debut album, Never Known Peace. Doomsday lays down a ton of mindless fun in the vein of other crossover greats like Enforced and Power Trip. There are riffs aplenty on this deliciously executed hardcore-tinged thrashtastic platter full of snarly, spiteful, Jamey Jasta-esque vocals, trademark gang shouts, and, oh, did I mention the riffs? Yeah, cuz there’s a butt-ton of ’em. Leads and solos are melodic (“Death is Here,” “Eternal Tombs”). Within its beefily warm mix, the chug-a-lug breakdowns run rampant across Never Known Peace‘s thirty-one minutes (seriously, there’s one in every track), leaving nary a tune that won’t have you at least bobbing your head and, at most, causing your neck a very nasty case of whipthrash. I’m going to be listening to Never Known Peace ALOT this summer, on and off my mower, and while I don’t care that the lawn lines in my yard will be a little wavier this year than others, I’ll chalk it up to the beer and the head banging Doomsday‘s Never Known Peace instills.
Rancid Cadaver // Mortality Denied [March 21st, 2025 – Self Released]
Another filter, another fetid fragment of foulness; this month, it’s up-and-coming deathstarts Rancid Cadaver and their independently released debut album Mortality Denied. Adam Burke’s excellent cover art caught my eye during a quick dip into the Bandcamp pool and had me pushing play. A thick slab of murderous meat ripe with fatty veins of Coffin Mulch and Morbific running through it, Mortality Denied overflows with tons of bestial vocals, crushing drums, barbaric bass, and squealing solos, all ensorcelled within the majesty of Rancid Cadaver‘s miasmic riff-gurgitations (“Slurping the Cerebral Slime,” “Mass of Gore,” and “Drained of Brains”). Fists will pump, and faces will stank during the Fulci-friendly “Zombified,” a pulverizing slow-death chug fest with an intro that landed me right back on the shores of Dr. Menard’s island of the undead.2 This quartet of Glaswegians has plopped down a death metal debut that ages like wine, getting better and better with consecutive spins. Surprisingly, Rancid Cadaver is unsigned, but I’m confident that status should change before we see a sophomore effort, and you can bet I’ll be there when that happens.
Dolphin Whisperer’s Unsophisticated Slappers
Crossed // Realismo Ausente [March 21st, 2025 – Zegema Beach Records]
Timing means everything in groove. I know that some people say that they have a hard time finding that kind of bob and sway in extreme music. But with an act like Spain’s Crossed, whose every carved word and every skronked guitar noise follows an insatiable punky stride, groove lies in every moment of third full-length Realismo Ausente. Whether it’s on the classic beat of D (“Vaciar Un Corazón,” “Cuerpo Distorsionado”), the twanging drone of a screaming bend (“Monotonía de la lluvia en la Ventana”), or the Celtic Frost-ed hammer of a chord crush (“Catedral”), a calculated, urgent, and intoxicating cadence colors the grayscale attitude throughout. But just because Crossed can find a groove in any twisted mathy rhythm—early Converge and Dillinger Escape Plan come to mind on quick cuts like “Cerrojo” and “Sentirse Solo”—doesn’t mean that their panic chord-loaded crescendos and close-outs can’t rip your head clean off in banging ecstasy. Easy listening and blackened hardcore can’t go hand-in-hand, but Crossed does their very best to make unintelligible, scathing screeches and ceiling-scraping feedback hissing palatable against crunchy punk builds and throbbing, warm bass grumbles. Likewise, Realismo Ausente stabs into a dejected body tales of loathing, fear, self-rejection, and defeated existence—nothing smiles in its urgent and apathetic crevices. But despite the lack of light at the end of the tunnel of Crossed’s horror-touched vision of impassioned hardcore, an analog warmth and human spirit trapped inside a writhing and pleading throat reveal a presence that’s still fighting. It’s the fight that counts. If you didn’t join the fight last time, now’s as good a time as any.
Nothing // The Self Repair Manifesto [March 26th, 2025 – Self Released]
If you noticed a tree zombie heading steaming through its trepanned opening, then you too found the same initial draw I had to The Self Repair Manifesto. Nothing complex often can draw us to the things we desire, yet in Nothing’s particular attack of relentless, groove-based death metal, many nooks of additional interest exist. The Self Repair Manifesto’s tribal rhythm-stirred “Initiation,” in its bouncy play, does little to set up the double-kick pummel and snarling refrains that lurk in this brutal, Australian soundscape. The simple chiming cymbal-fluttering bass call-and-response of “Subterfuge,” the throat singing summoning of “The Shroud,” the immediate onslaught of “Abrogation”—all in under 30 minutes, an infectious and progressive experience unfolds. And never fear, living by the motto “no clean singing,”3 Nothing has no intention of traveling the wandering and crooning path of an Opeth or In Vain. Rather, Nothing finds a hypnotic rhythmic presence both in fanciful kit play that stirs a foot shuffle and high-tempo stick abuse that urges bodies on bodies in the pit (“Subterfuge,” “The Shroud”), much in the same way you might hear in early Decapitated or Hate Eternal works. With flair of their own, though, and a mic near the mouth vessel of each member (yes, even the drummer!) to maintain a layered harsh intensity, Nothing serves a potent blend of death metal that is as jam-able as it is gym-able. Whether you seek gains or progressive enrichment, Nothing is the answer.
Steel Druhm’s Massive Aggressive
Impurity // The Eternal Sleep [ March 7th, 2025 – Hammerheart Records]
Impurity’s lust for all things Left Hand Path is not the least bit Clandestine, and on their full-length debut, The Eternal Sleep, they attempt to craft their own ode to the rabid HM-2 worship of the early 90s Swedeath sound. No new elements are shoehorned in aside from vaguely blackened ones, and there’s not the slightest effort to push the boundaries of the admittedly limited Swedeath sound. The Eternal Sleep sounds like the album that could have come between Entombed’s timeless debut and the Clandestine follow-up, and that’s not a bad place to be. It’s heavy, brutish, buzzing death metal with an OSDM edge, and it hits like a runaway 18-wheeler full of concrete and titanium rebar. One only needs to weather the shitstorm of opener “Denial of Clarity” to realize this is the deep water of the niche genre. It’s extremely heavy, face-melting death with more fuzz and buzz than your brain can process. Other cuts feel like a direct lift from Left Hand Path and/or Clandestine (“Tribute to Creation,”) and fetid Dismember tidbits creep in during “Pilgrimage to Utumno,” and these feel like olde friends showing up unexpectedly at the hometown watering hole. Swedeath is all about those ragged, jagged riffs, and they’re delivered in abundance over The Eternal Sleep, and despite the intrinsic lack of originality, Impurity pump enough steroids and Cialis into the genre archetypes to make the material endearing and engaging. Yes, you’ve heard this shit before. Now hear it again, chumbo!
#AcidAge #Ade #AmericanMetal #ArtAsCatharsisRecords #ArtoneLabelGroup #Atheist #AustralianMetal #BeyondTheSleeplessAether #BlackMetal #BlackenedCrust #BlackenedHardcore #CanadianMetal #Casarder #CelticFrost #CoffinMulch #Converge #CreatorDestructorRecords #Crossed #Crust #DeathMetal #Decapitated #DesertRock #DillingerEscapePlan #DoomMetal #Doomsday #Elder #Enforced #Flummox #Fulci #Ghostsmoker #Hardcore #HateEternal #HideousDivinity #Impurity #InMourning #InVain #InertialCult #InternationalMetal #ItalianMetal #iwrestledabearonce #LostFutureRecords #MascotRecords #MastersOfReality #Mathcore #MelodicMetal #Metalcore #Morast #Morbific #MortalityDenied #MyDyingBride #NeObliviscaris #Neurosis #NeverKnownPeace #Nile #Nothing #Opeth #PaleChordRecords #Pelican #PerilousCompulsion #PinkFloyd #PortugueseMetal #PostRock #PostMetal #PowerTrip #ProgressiveDeathMetal #ProgressiveMetal #ProgressiveThrashMetal #PyschedelicRock #RancidCadaver #RealismoAusente #Review #Reviews #RiseRecords #RussianCircles #ScottishMetal #SeaBastard #SelfReleased #SixpenceNoneTheRicher #SludgeMetal #SpanishMetal #Spiine #Spiritbox #StonerMetal #Supplicium #SymbioticGrowth #TechnicalDeathMetal #Tetraptych #TheArcher #TheEternalSleep #TheSelfRepairManifesto #Thou #ThrashMetal #TimeToKillRecords #TsunamiSea #UKMetal #Unfleshing #Verbian #ViolentReason #VirginBlack #Voivod #Wormphlegm #ZegemaBeachRecords
#NowPlaying #TheMetalDogIsNowPlaying
#Nevermore
Dead Heart in a Dead World
The River Dragon Has Come
YouTube Search:
https://youtube.com/results?search_query=Nevermore+Dead+Heart+in+a+Dead+World+The+River+Dragon+Has+Come
Songwhip:
https://songwhip.com/Nevermore/The-River-Dragon-Has-Come
Lyrics:
https://genius.com/Nevermore-the-river-dragon-has-come-lyrics
LastFM:
https://www.last.fm/music/Nevermore/_/The+River+Dragon+Has+Come
#thrashmetal #Progressivemetal #heavymetal #Powermetal #progressivethrashmetal
OSIRIS ”INEXTRICABLE REVERSAL” DEMO TAPE REVIEW (ELDRITCH ASSEMBLAGE #2, 1990)
LISTEN TO THE DEMOTAPE ON OUR BLOG HERE:
https://defendersofoldschoolmetal.blogspot.com/2025/05/osiris-inextricable-reversal-demo-tape.html
#ThrashMetal #Demotape #TechnicalThrashMetal #ProgressiveThrashMetal
ACID AGE (Regne Unit) presenta nou àlbum: "Perilous Compulsion" #AcidAge #ThrashMetal #ProgressiveThrashMetal #Març2025 #RegneUnit #NouÀlbum #Metall #Metal #MúsicaMetal #MetalMusic
SUICIDAL ANGELS- Profane Prayer
https://eternal-terror.com/?p=66538
RELEASE YEAR: 2024BAND URL: https://suicidalangels.net/
Once again, I must admit that I have never heard any of the Greek thrash metallers’ previous albums, but, if their 8th album, Profane Prayer²⁰²⁴, released on March 1st via the mighty Nuclear Blast Records, is any indication, to quote “Pretty Woman’s” Vivien Ward, big mistake, huge! Frankly, I have never heard something this good […]
#Greece #NoiseArtRecords #NuclearBlastRecords #OldSchoolMetalRecords #ProfanePrayer #progressiveThrashMetal #SuicidalAngels #thrashMetal
CRYPTOSIS (Països Baixos) presenta nou àlbum: "Celestial Death" #Cryptosis #ProgressiveThrashMetal #Març2025 #PaïsosBaixos #NouÀlbum #Metall #Metal #MúsicaMetal #MetalMusic
SACROSANCT (Països Baixos) presenta nou àlbum: "Kidron" #Sacrosanct #ProgressiveThrashMetal #ProgressiveHeavy #ThrashMetal #Març2025 #PaïsosBaixos #NouÀlbum #Metall #Metal #MúsicaMetal #MetalMusic
🌊 Embrace the ritual! SACROSANCT's new album **"Kidron"** drops on March 07!
🔥 Dive into the depths of progressive thrash & support us 👉 [https://amzn.to/4hTBkVQ]
#metalreleases #Sacrosanct #Kidron #ProgressiveThrashMetal
Enter the sacred flow 🤘https://metalreleases.com
Die niederländischen Future-Metaller Cryptosis melden sich mit ihrem zweiten Album „Celestial Death“ zurück, das am 7. März 2025 veröffentlicht wird. #cryptosis #ThrashMetal #progressivethrashmetal
I am in a Vektor mood lately. I still can't fully grasp just how good they were.
I love their debut Black Future but then I put on Terminal Redux... it just offers everything I like in metal music.
🎵 Pillars of Sand by #Vektor
💿 Terminal Redux, 2016
▶️ https://song.link/y/7TEYGmOVm98
One song, nearly 32 minutes... The Spectrum of Human Emotion by Anarchÿ for @DXMacGuffin #ProgTuesday 🎶 🤘🏼
The song on bandcamp is here:
https://anarchythrash.bandcamp.com/track/the-spectrum-of-human-emotion
More sites to stream it on song.link here:
https://song.link/i/1649714550
Inner Strength – Daydreaming in Moonlight Review
By Dolphin Whisperer
The face of progressive metal has warped and splintered and mutated since its origins in divergence from heavy metal. From the theatrical and rifftastical charm of Savatage to the pomp and groove of Psychotic Waltz to the emotional and shifting tug of Fates Warning, progressive music holds roots in complex narrative structures that range in tone from whimsical fantasy to deeply and painfully human. In the American arena, technicality flourished through Watchtower—and eventually Dream Theater—virtuosic elements, and intrinsic thrash pedigrees to give rise to a 90s and 00s movement that birthed bands like Zero Hour, Control Denied, and Nevermore, each ranging between these extremities of noodle-noting and tear-jerking. But before them all, Inner Strength stood at the cusp of these advents with their lone 1993 full-length Shallow Reflections making an underground splash,1 which contained all the aforementioned elements laced together with an of-the-time funk metal groove. And now, another thirty years later, that smorgasbord of influences has crested into this newest Daydreaming in Moonlight.
From Scott Oliva’s (The Nightmare Stage, ex-Wind Wraith) vocal rasp and strained harmonies to guitarist Joe Marselle’s slightly down-tuned and dry twang, every bit of Daydreaming sounds unearthed from a 1995 time capsule. With a focus on open-stringed chiming, melodic chord-driven passages (“Daydreaming in Moonlight,” “Dearly Departed”) find a hypnotic legato that recalls aggressive later-era Rush or King’s X works. Whereas bluesy, pull-off riff tension that explodes into snappy and slinky solo work pushes the Rainbow-on-thrash energy that you can hear in the still developing muscular sound of The Damnation Game-era Symphony X. And when it’s not Marselle’s winding fretwork leading the charge, drummer Joe Kirsch in his Zonderful (ex-Fates Warning, Warlord)2 and classy, hi-hat accented approach provides all the rhythmic shuffle necessary to power the progtrain. Forward motion defines Inner Strength’s approach.
But where Daydreaming really finds its secret, aged sauce is in the application of varied sonic hooks in each song. Early album cut “Face Another Hero,” and the later “Truth and Lies,” Inner Strength finds a switch-up to its groove in Voivodian chord stabs that set up a need to resolve with later soaring, melodic capriciousness. And late album romp “War Song” in contrast to its muscle-forward name marches in a constant stumble guided by a sliding nasal bass line that finds a steady thump only during the closing solo and reprise. In Daydreaming’s most modern move, Inner Strength ties up the curtains with the mammoth “The Strength Within – Part II” which pulses a few tones lower—never djent, rather Train of Thought-era Dream Theater—to tie off a journey started so long ago, an aggressive and hammer-headed in contrast to its origins.
To the ears of a prog-head reared in a post-Meshuggah world, though, Daydreaming’s exact studio playbook may not land as quickly as bass-loaded contemporary production does. Choosing to highlight instead the play and intricacy of a ghost note bolstered rhythm section, and a rise and fall guitar aesthetic, its intricacy resides mostly in higher frequencies. Mid-album anchor (and song o’ the year contender) “Dearly Departed” showcases Inner Strength’s mission best with its smoky, extended guitar intro that crashes against Olivia’s time-worn snarl and full riff contraction, only to find a histrionic charm again as choruses expand with chiming guitar resolutions and reaching vocal harmonies. Steeped in technicality without ever being overbearingly so (have fun counting “Compelled” or following the snare and cymbal dance in the closer), this choice to remain in Daydreaming’s chosen sound pocket keeps the listening experience focused while exposing its many layers.
Being the product of thirty years of planning, living, loving, listening, and losing, Daydreaming in Moonlight could be a product of these name-drops here or none of them at all—a missing link in the prog annals that never was. Inner Strength in 2024 is just as much a reimagining of their own sound as they are a refinement and iteration of learned and borrowed tricks.3 With careful devotion to mastering their works for studio bolstering—multi-tracked guitar and vocal pieces that sum to an astounding whole—Daydreaming in Moonlight soars as the opus the band always knew they could create. Any lover of idiosyncratic and fully realized progressive missions, should take notice, as Inner Strength does not have wash away again in the footnotes of emergent sounds.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: N/A | Format Reviewed: Stream
Label: Divebomb Records | Tribunal Records4
Website: facebook.com/innerstrengthny
Releases Worldwide: July 19th, 2024
#2024 #40 #AmericanMetal #ControlDenied #DaydreamingInMoonlight #DivebombRecords #DreamTheater #FatesWarning #InnerStrength #Jul24 #KingsX #LongIsland #Nevermore #ProgPower #ProgressiveMetal #ProgressiveThrashMetal #PsychoticWaltz #Review #Reviews #Rush #Savatage #SunriseDreamer #SymphonyX #TribunalRecords #Voivod #Warlord #Watchtower #ZeroHour
For @derthomas' #ThrashThursday. Progressive thrash metal by hellix from Japan 🎶🔥
The album Montage on bandcamp is here:
https://hellixjpn.bandcamp.com/album/montage
#NowPlaying After I fell in love with Anarchÿ's recent release, The Spectrum of Human Emotion, I had to listen to their other releases... 🔥🤘
Here is a 26min track from their album Eyeclöser, called Eyes of Nihil: An Endless Sea, on bandcamp here:
https://anarchythrash.bandcamp.com/track/eyes-of-nihil-an-endless-sea
The Spectrum of Human Emotion by Anarchÿ for @Kitty's #MittwochMetalMix :ablobcatattention:
The album is on bandcamp here:
https://anarchythrash.bandcamp.com/album/the-spectrum-of-human-emotion
Nocturnus AD – Unicursal Review
By Steel Druhm
The memories of my first spin of Nocturnus’ seminal debut The Key way back in 1990 are still fresh in my ancient brain. In a time when death metal was still fairly new and evolving in different directions, the quirky and inventive sci-fi style of Nocturnus made an impression. Formed by Morbid Angel ex-pat Mike Browning, his brainchild was different and dynamic. It sounded like nothing that came before and promised a new world of musical adventure. Sadly, that promise was never completely fulfilled. 1992s Thresholds was less interesting, and by the time 1999 Ethereal Tomb showed up, the thrill was gone. When Browning reformed his project as Nocturnus AD and dropped 2019s Paradox, it ignited a fresh rush of possibility. Was this the long-awaited successor to The Key? Sadly, it was not, though it was a rip-roaring dose of proggy death with a grand scope. Now we get Unicursal and like its predecessor, the ambition is on full display as Browning and company strive to create a new world of unusual soundscapes. It’s an hour of wild time signatures, twisting tempo shifts, and enough technical chops to overdose on, but is it the Nocturnus album we dream about like so many electric sheep?
With the same lineup that made Paradox such a wild ride, Nocturnus AD come out swinging with confidence and swagger on proper opener “The Ascension Throne of Osiris.” No time is wasted blasting you with frantic riffs that constantly mutate, and it’s easy to hear nods to the early days as the band runs amok. It’s satisfyingly heavy and quite linear, driven by a collection of effective riffs and Browning’s kinda-sorta harsh vocals. The keyboards are still very present, lending atmosphere and a cinematic dimension. It leaves you excited for what’s to come and shows the band is tight, mean, and hungry. “CephaloGod” keeps the positive momentum with a thrashy attack and a respectable number of twists and turns, but as things progress, Browning’s uniform, staccato shout-vocals start becoming tedious. Things don’t go completely prog-wonky until the nearly 9 minutes of “Mesolithic” arrive. Here we wander from tribal drumming through progressive tech-thrash segments that remind of Atheist one minute, and Mordred and Faith No More the next. As riffs swirl and corkscrew in dizzying patterns, cinematic keyboards swell and crest, making for impressive moments. As a song, however, it sometimes feels stitched and bolted together like some kind of space-age Frankenstein.
The best moments arrive on the back half of the album, which continues Paradox’s saga of Dr. Magus and his quest to conquer the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. “Mission Malkuth” runs heavier and meaner with references to The Key more obviously as it plows your lawn with wild riffs and ever-shifting tempos. There’s a grand scale to the music that commands your attention, the thrashy leads have bite and heft, but things run too long at over 7 minutes. “Hod, the Stellar Light” is the high point, with a thrashy energy that recalls Vektor’s best moments and the music also nods to Dimension Hatross era Voivod. “Netzach, the Fire of Victory” is probably the least impactful main track, with a sleepy, stop-start, slow-fast dynamic that never seems to evolve meaningfully. The instrumental outro that follows is also underwhelming and I’m not a fan of its 1950s sci-fi keyboards which read as cheeeball rather than quaintly retro. The combined 11-plus minutes of these so-so final tracks end Unicursal with a tired whimper. With an hour of dense prog/tech misbehavior, Unicursal feels like too much of a wild thing, and by the time I get to the end, I’m plenty fatigued. Excessive lengths partially undermine good songs, but this is prog so that’s to be expected. Some self-editing would have gone a long way regardless.
The talent here is unquestionable. Demian Heftel and William Koblak are insane guitar phenoms bringing endless streams of technical thunder to the material. They craft sharp thrash leads, amazing harmonies, and jaw-dropping solos. It would be hard to ask more of them. Josh Holdren’s keyboards are interesting and versatile, adding muted textures and prominent cinematic flourishes as the songs may require. At times the push-pull between the heavy guitars and the melodic keys can become awkward but more often it creates a fascinating tension. Unfortunately, Mike Browning’s vocals don’t add much to the musical maelstrom. He no longer does death vocals and his mostly powerless delivery sits between spoken word and monotone shouting. Where he used a blackened snarl on much of Paradox with backing guttural death roars from William Koblak, that’s all gone now. It’s the main weakness here and it saps vitality and danger from the sound.
I didn’t come in expecting Unicursal to recapture the magic of the past, though there are flashes of that ancient brilliance. Nocturnus AD isn’t really playing death metal anymore and I wish this was much heavier, but it’s a mostly fun, energetic outing sure to please fans of techy thrash. Now go blast The Key.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Profound Lore
Websites: facebook.com/nocturnusad | instagram.com/nocturnusad
Releases Worldwide: May 17th, 2024
#2024 #30 #AmericanMetal #Atheist #May24 #NocturnusAD #Paradox #ProfoundLoreRecords #ProgressiveMetal #ProgressiveThrashMetal #Review #Reviews #TechnicalThrashMetal #TheKey #Unicursal #Voivod
LOCRIAN - Solar Lodge (official video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ydj3EoW134I&t=15
#music #metal #heavymetal #progressivethrashmetal #locrian #profoundlorerecords
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