Winter Wetlands at Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge by Debra Martz

https://debra-martz.pixels.com/featured/winter-wetlands-at-salt-plains-national-wildlife-refuge-debra-martz.html

#winter #wetlands #SaltPlains #NWR #Oklahoma #landscape #blue #sunburst #sunshine #photography #PhotographyIsArt #BuyIntoArt #AYearForArt #WallArt #HomeDecor

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on #KEXP's #Expansions

Sunburst:
🎵 Far Beyond

#Sunburst

https://zrecords.bandcamp.com/track/the-sunburst-band-far-beyond-sean-mccabe-broken-down-rework

https://open.spotify.com/track/7c3B3YvellwsgCNVA68Igq

🎶 show playlist 👇
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5g2Aw5ZsDT3UaQgeEEu1nN

🎶 KEXP playlist 👇
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6VNALrOa3gWbk794YuIrwg

Type to Learn Jr.: New Keys for Kids

https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/type-learn-jr-new-keys-kids

One of the first steps to computer literacy is learning how to use the keyboard! With this exciting new program, students experience age-appropriate instruction that will help them use the computer

#macgarden #businessproductivity #2001 #scholastic #sunburst

#sunset #sunsets #evening #sculpture #lake #sunburst #nature #naturephotography #outside #outdoors #bluesky #sky #trees #ice #shoreline #lake

Cruise ship #Eurodam at sunrise in Halifax Harbour. I took several shots until I got the sunburst just right. #photography #cruiseship #ship #shipphotography #shipping #sunburst #sunrise #halifaxnovascotia #halifaxharbour #starburst #eastcoastkin

Shadows and contrast. Love it...

#StreetPhotography
#BlackAndWhitePhotography
#UrbanShadows
#SilhouettePhotography
#GoldenHour
#MoodyGrams
#ArchitectureLovers
#Minimalism
#DramaticLight
#Sunburst
#PerspectivePhotography
#CityVibes
#FineArtPhotography
#ShadowPlay
#BW_Lovers

#MonochromeMonday

Memories of warmer, #Summer days.
My friend, Scarlett & her old camper van.

#friends #portrait #VanLife #CamperVan #monochrome #BWphoto #photography #PeopleILove #sunburst #VancouverIsland #VanIsle #SunnyDays #RoadTrip #Comrades

Solarwinds wordt privé in miljardenovername door turn/river capital https://www.trendingtech.news/trending-news/2025/02/53794/solarwinds-wordt-priv-in-miljardenovername-door-turn-river-capital #SolarWinds #Turn/River Capital #cyberaanval #Sunburst #overname #Trending #News #Nieuws

Sunny Winter Day At The Lake by Debra Martz
Captured at the Great Salt Plains State in Oklahoma near Jet & Cherokee. What appears to look like a river is where the water from the lake is directed toward the spillway. Beyond that deep section of water is the frozen part of the lake covered with snow.
https://debra-martz.pixels.com/featured/sunny-winter-day-at-the-lake-debra-martz.html

#lake #river #bluesky #sunstar #sunburst #GreatSaltPlainsLake #photography #PhotographyIsArt #BuyIntoArt #AYearForArt #WallArt #HomeDecor

Sunshine On A Winter Day At the Lake by Debra Martz
Captured at the Great Salt Plains State Park in Oklahoma.

https://debra-martz.pixels.com/featured/sunshine-on-a-winter-day-at-the-lake-debra-martz.html

#sunshine #sunburst #sunstar #winter #snow #sunny #nature #GreatSaltPlainsStatePark #Oklahoma #photography #BuyIntoArt #WallArt #HomeDecor

incoming
#photography #wondervalley #twentyninepalms #california #sunburst #fujigfx100s

You’ll never guess where this painting is hanging #art #painting #sunburst #fuckdonaldtrump

GardensTale’s Top Ten(ish) Album Art of 2024

By GardensTale

Man, I am getting later and later with these each year. I’ve already spoken at length about my writing woes lately, so I won’t go into all of that, but I’ve also come to realize that a late delivery on this piece really is not a big issue. Case in point: it allowed me to include a piece from a TYMHM article that otherwise might not have made the cut. It’s not executive dysfunction, it’s functional laziness!

I feel that it’s been an overall good year for album art. There’s still tons of diversity in style and subject and medium, and also tons of big monsters looming over small people. That just seems to be a never-ending thing in metal. The only big name missing this year was Eliran Kantor, who has been in the top 10 every year and usually with multiple nominations (he and Adam Burke are the chief reasons for the ‘one entry per artist’ rule). Can anyone do a wellness check on Kantor? See if he’s doing alright?

If you have kept up with these in the past (and if you wanna catch up, here are the last six editions!) you might notice a new section to this article. Whilst last year I merely decried a rule against AI covers, I now shall battle actively against this most heinous trend, this lazy cheap cop-out that betrays a disregard for art as a whole. View this section as worse than the worst, because the worst at least put some effort into it. Though the AI Hall of Shame entries aren’t the only ones using machines to piss in the pool, they are the most blatant, soulless, and unimaginative AI monstrosities that got vomited from a generator onto a metal album this year.

As for the rules that haven’t been elevated into a full-blown public stoning, they remain by and large the same:

• Only albums we’ve reviewed will be considered
• One entry per artist, to keep diversity high
• No public domain art (Avernus had a very good one this year, though!)

AI HALL OF SHAME

#3. Tyraels Ascension // Hell Walker — It’s a new band and they also released an entire videogame to go with the album, so some leeway can be granted, but not much. The intricate logo is pretty cool, the border is tasteful, but the utterly generic-looking demon thing is just a load of washed-out bleh.

#2. The Nidra // Destination Locked — This one is just baffling to me. Am I to read this as an underwater mutated skeleton dance-off? Most of the bones are disconnected and the longer you look at it, the less sense the skeletons make. The glossy AI filter really makes it feel like a first-pass effort, too. The only thing I use AI image generators for is NPC’s for my Dungeons & Dragons campaign, and I put more care into those than these guys do. And PAPYRUS? Fuck off.

#1. Deicide // Banished By Sin — The other two entries, at least, are debuts. Struggling artists without much cash to speak of, I’ll be disappointed, but I won’t be angry. Deicide, on the other hand, are top of the food chain. Seeing a band of their stature use AI so brazenly makes my blood boil. Overtures of Blasphemy had pretty sweet art: hit whoever made that up, get a new piece from them, and pay your fucking artists! This is low even for Glen Benton. And the result just looks bad even at a glance, a monochrome mess of random shapes and details tacked together without vision because a machine doesn’t have vision, it just has an infinite grab bag of things to stick together. I’d say go to hell, but it’s Deicide, so that was probably already the plan.

THE WORST

#3. Tommy Concrete // Unrelapsed — Enough with the straight-up anger, time for some laughs! I’m not sure whether a grade school kid actually drew this or whether it just looks like it, but the daisy chain of spoon-toothed spines with one wing and one leg, going round to end up on a hysterical were-rat… It’s bad, even awful, but it does make me laugh. Perhaps if there were more of that and fewer random crayon colors for a background, I’d not judge this as harshly.

#2. Oscillotron // Oblivion— This is less than nothing. An entirely black cover with just the words on it would have been better than this. Is there some deeper meaning behind it? I don’t know, and I don’t care, it’s static in a box and it’s bad.

#1. Jeris Johnson // Dragonborn — But not as hilariously awful as this collage of 1999 gaming screenshots, cut from a frumpled magazine with imprecise kitchen shears and stuck together lazily for an arts and crafts project at school. The album is fucking awful and the cover does a great job of warning people to stay away. Good job, Jeris, here’s a gold banana sticker, now fuck off.

THE BEST

#(ish). Sidewinder // Talons (artist: Sophia Dainty) — I had to resort to asking the band directly who created this cover art, and I can’t really find other art from Ms. Dainty, which is a shame, as her talent is undeniable. The illustration uses techniques that evoke woodcutting, befitting the druidic nature of the imagery. An unusual but evocative image.

#10. Sunburst // Manifesto (artist: Vasilis Georgiou) — Mr. Georgiou is both the artist and the artist, as he leads Sunburst on vocals and created this dynamic, colorful cover art. The enigmatic figure dissolving into color as if snapped by a hippie version of Thanos makes for a striking bit of contrast, and I love the way the band logo has been incorporated into this artwork.

#9. Unhallowed Deliverance // Of Spectres and Strife (artist: Kaja Kumor) — Color and contrast are also the strong suits of Kaja Kumor’s burning cathedral that graces Unhallowed Deliverance’s album. The angelic blue overhead clashes beautifully with the fire. It matches the gradient of the subject matter: peace up above, growing into chaos and violence below. The two watching figures and the departing planes really add to the story depicted, too, rounding the piece off on multiple levels.

#8. Iotunn // Kinship (artist: Saprophial) — Saprophial’s art of Kinship is an unusual piece. The focus is off-center, not even in a golden ratio kind of way. The figure’s anatomy is strange and vague, largely hidden in the shadows. There’s something graphic novel-like about its contours, and a kind of roundabout anonymity usually reserved for the late Lewandowski. But zoom in and you see a highly intricate piece of sublime texture, perfecting the art of hatching in different styles to make the picture feel like you can touch it and feel the lines under your fingers.

#7. Vredehammer // God Slayer (artist: Simon Bossert as S. Bossert Art) — Though both seem to be drawn on a dark canvas and leave a fair amount of space beside their subjects, God Slayer is in every other way almost an antithesis to Kinship above, which reflects in the music of both bands. No mystery here: this is colossal, epic and violent, imagery that gets your heart racing immediately. What strikes me the most about this cover is the framing, the fish-eye lensing of the sea that seems to pulls the ship and serpent together, drawing the eye back to the center. One of the better monster pieces of the last few years.

#6. Vitriol // Suffer & Become (artist: Dylan Humphries) — If I had a nickel for every ‘stuff winding through a skeletal ribcage’ cover this year, I’d have two nickels. One of the earliest contenders, Humphries’ art for Vitriol is of the immediate eye-catching variety. The large and detailed skeleton and the vivid coloration of the snakes ensure the image grabs your attention. But a longer look gives a more forlorn feeling. The turned away pose, the approaching storm, the distant castle, the warrior’s items in the skeleton’s lap. All attributed to a sense of failure, a sense that something has gone wrong. I do love an image whose emotional response evolves as you study it.

#5. Feind // Ambulante Hirnamputation (artist: Jasper Swerts as Infested Art) — This year’s best black and white art without a doubt. Infested Art lives up to its name with this grueling piece of body horror, of which the emotional evolution goes from ‘nope’ to ‘NOPE’ to ‘FUCK NO.’ The linework here is sublime, with crisp contours and dotwork shading working together to create a highly precise account of all the horrifying things happening to the central torso. There are as many fresh horrors in this picture as there are details. We can leave it at ‘too many to count.’

#4. Uncomfortable Knowledge // Lifeline (artist: Reuben Bhattacharya as Visual Amnesia) — It’s a shame that Uncomfortable Knowledge doesn’t seem to be getting off the ground musically, because I love the concept they are going for with Visual Amnesia’s excellent art, continuing the tale of the Black Queen from the band’s debut. What would otherwise be a somewhat picturesque scene in the early 1900s is made disquieting with the skull robot masks and impossible day-night reflection, creating a sort of downplayed nightmare scenario. Subtle, elegant, and haunting in hushed tones.

#3. Anciients // Beyond the Reach of the Sun (artist: Adam Burke) — Adam Burke is a mainstay here, and it seems he is branching out of pure space pictures more and more. Though this striking scene is still largely on-brand, unlike the Burke runner-up for Hideous Divinity, it gets points for its sprawling surreal cosmic horror. It can be difficult to depict a figure larger than mountains that actually feels larger than mountains in 2D art, but this piece succeeds, and it wins Burke the coveted ‘big thing looming over small people of the year’ award.

#2. Pyrrhon // Exhaust (artist: Caroline Harrison) — Ms. Harrison and Pyrrhon have become fast friends, as few can depict ugliness as beautifully as either in their respective media. The art for Exhaust is a harsh and tragic depiction of death and the self-inflicted destruction of our environment, yet surrounded by the holographic rainbow of the oil spills that wash away in the rain, there is a strange sense of beauty here as well. The visceral and realistic horror is front and center, however, and it’s confrontational in a way few bands or visual artists dare to be.

#1. Dawn Treader // Bloom & Decay (artist: Francisco Abril and Nuria Velasco as WelderWings) — The duo known as WelderWings make some astounding surreal art that is beginning to be noticed by the metal community. Witnesses used another beautiful piece from their studio, but when I saw Dawn Treader’s, I knew it would be nigh impossible to top. The meadow is rendered in beautiful soft tones. Blur is applied with artistic precision, which makes the details on the focused elements pop better. But the way the skeletal figures contrast with this peaceful scenery is what truly makes this cover. It makes the quietude feel false, a decoy for something terrible. This is all the more effective with the absence of skulls or limbs, suggesting a kind of body horror we can only hope will remain as far in the past as the bones suggest. Endless imagination and pure artistry resulted in a gorgeous yet perfectly unsettling masterpiece, more than deserving of the title of AMG Artwork of the Year.

#2024 #Anciients #Avernus #DawnTreader #Deicide #Feind #GardensTaleSTopTenIshAlbumArtOf2024 #Iotunn #JerisJohnson #Oscillotron #Pyrrhon #Sidewinder #Sunburst #TheNidra #TommyConcrete #TyraelsAscension #UncomfortableKnowledge #UnhallowedDeliverance #Vitriol #Vredehammer

Sunset on moss

#Photography #Nature #NaturePhotography #Moss #Sunset #Sunburst #UK #Norfolk #Wymondham #WymondhamAbbey

#River #HopeBC #sunburst
#forest
#sunbeams
#nature
#trees
#green
#light
#photography #mountainrange
#naturephotography
#landscapephotography

Kenstrosity’s Top Ten(ish) of 2024

By Kenstrosity

When I think back on this year, a year of unprecedented stress and struggle for this sponge, one predominant emotion rises above the rest. Gratitude. I went through hardships I couldn’t possibly have anticipated; watched as harrowing events, both global and domestic, rocked our world; and trudged through time-dilating frights that I only previously experienced in some of my worst nightmares. And yet, I persist! I found myself asking, once again, why I was spared a worse fate where others weren’t? What have I done in life to deserve the good fortune I’ve received? In time I’ve come to believe that understanding the why of it all isn’t always the most important part. In some ways, the pursuit of an answer to “why” even blinds us to more enriching lessons we can learn from the experiences we share, both mundane and extraordinary. These things teach us how to be human, how to grow, how to thrive, and how to come together as a community. So, for what must be the first time of my life, I stopped asking why anything happened, as tempting as that spiral always looked from outside. Instead, I spent all of my energy prioritizing the moment, experiencing it, allowing it to change me and mold me, and to be present in it not just for me, but for my friends, my family, and my neighbors.

Back to gratitude. More so this year than any other, I must express my deepest, most heartfelt gratitude for damn near everyone. When my roommate and I lost everything overnight, I felt completely and utterly overwhelmed by the response. Hands of friends, family, and community reached towards us, open to do whatever they could to help us up. AMG Himself, Steel Druhm, Sentynel, GardensTale, Twelve, Dolphin Whisperer, Maddog, Holdeneye, Cherd of Doom, Grymm, El Cuervo, Dr. Wvrm, Ferrous Beuller, Saunders, Eldritch Elitist, Doom_et_Al, Dear Hollow, Carcharodon, Felgund, Ferox, Thus Spoke, Iceberg, Mystikus Hugebeard, Itchy, the n00bs, a shit ton of Discord frens, all of my meatspace friends, Mom, Dad, my sister, some of my extended family, my work colleagues and acquaintances, random kind strangers, even Dr. A. N. Grier went above and beyond to help directly with our recovery. Every single member of staff here did whatever they could to give some relief, far beyond what I could’ve ever asked for, and it overwhelms my little heart to know they cared that deeply. My owlpal and great friend Rolderathis, writer and editor at Toilet ov Hell, unexpectedly swooped in via Discord to jump start our financial recovery by creating a crowdsourcing page for us—even as the admin for AMG planned to do the same. Instrumental to its dissemination and subsequent explosion,1 both AMG Himself and Steel Druhm made sure to aggressively spread the word via an official post on this very site, and in their own circles public and private. Friends and family did the same, to great effect. Toilet ov Hell even posted their own article, too, and I don’t even fucking write there. Incredible. My aunt and her husband helped us replace two full rooms worth of furniture without hesitation, and another close friend of mine provided yet another room’s worth on top of that. Our friends reached far and wide to find opportunities to get us shelter, food, essential items, and vital emotional support. FEMA did more than their part for us as well, and they continue to help us as we navigate the next stages of long-term recovery. My therapist stuck with me through the storm, helped carry me through some concerning emotional blockages shortly after, and continues to guide me now. The continuous waves of support and outreach blew me away, and motivated me to pay it forward in whatever way I was capable for those who were going through hell with us. I thank you all, from the bottom of my heart.

As if a hurricane wasn’t enough to bear, Mom was diagnosed with lung cancer just ten days after the storm hit. Still, there shined small silver linings that kept me going. It was caught very early, and she has already returned home after a resoundingly successful surgery, where they removed the tumor in block.2 As scary as the thought of losing my Mom right after everything else that’s happened was, I choose to emphasize the excellent treatment and attention to detail that allowed Mom to come home quickly and in decent health, all things considered. I choose to be with my family, to live in this moment through the pain, the fear, the uncertainty, so I can be there when the sun inevitably shines again, too. I want to extend a very special thanks to Dad, who remained constantly by Mom’s side and supported her through every stage of this development when I wasn’t able.

All of this merely scratches the surface of everything we’ve gone through in 2024. But we are still here!3 We are living the best we can, helping each other to survive, and perhaps soon to also thrive again. The sense of community I feel not just for my deeply wounded city, but also the people in my life, deepened significantly just in the last few months. These experiences have changed me, changed my outlook on life and on relationships. The fragility of life and the sheer power of the love that comes from the people in it sharpen my understanding of what’s really important. Life is about the people you have, the way you treat them, and how you conduct yourself in this world to try to improve it with your unique light, little by little. It’s about supporting your loved ones as they go through good times just as fiercely as when they go through hardship and change. It’s about growing every day into the very best version of yourself, and being there to witness and celebrate the same journey in those close to you. I understand that more today than ever before, and I am thankful that this lesson, above all else, is my takeaway from 2024.

It’s going to be a while before we can return home to AVL, but I’ve already returned full force to my home away from home, Angry Metal Guy! I’d like to thank Steel Druhm and AMG Himself again for keeping my spot warm for me and for being excellent taskmasters and blogrunners, to Sentynel for keeping things running smoothly on the back end and for being awesome in general at his job, to all the writers for continuously providing the internet with the best worst opinions on metal extant, and to Dr. A. N. Grier for deleting everything I’ve ever written so that nobody has to suffer my silly goofy ramblings.

With that said, everybody should probably snapshot this little Top Ten(ish) of mine before Grier deletes that, too. It looks mighty different to how it would’ve had the storm not happened, both because I couldn’t listen to any new music for a while and because the event itself ushered a sharp shift in my listening preferences. Regardless, I’m happy with my selections, and I fully expect the rest of you to rabble at my confounding omissions.4 Let it commence!

#ish. Elvellon // Ascending in Synergy – Elvellon holds a special place in my heart, and thanks to masterful songsmithing, Ascending in Synergy holds a well-deserved placement on my list. I simply haven’t been able to stop jamming it all year. Ascending in Synergy is everything I loved about metal when I first got into it, and it embodies much of what I love about metal today. It never hurts that the first eight songs are all megaton bangers. This record would have placed nearer the top if it weren’t for the monologue in the penultimate epic. Nonetheless, I love Ascending in Synergy.

#10. Madder Mortem // Old Eyes, New Heart – Ever since Marrow, Madder Mortem successfully won me over where every other album in their back catalog failed to resonate. I can’t explain what exactly it was that captured my adoration all of a sudden, but Old Eyes, New Heart has my heart just as Marrow did before it. Smart compositions, earnest delivery, crystalline lyrics, lush sound, this record has it all. I’d be a fool not to award it placement on this list.

#9. Oceans of Slumber // Where Gods Fear to Speak – Oceans of Slumber carved out an ever-evolving, fearlessly creative, and unique sound for themselves since their inception, but always seemed somewhat inconsistent with the quality of their songwriting. Not so on their magnum opus Where Gods Fear to Speak. Immense, cohesive, and richly layered with detail and compelling songwriting, Where Gods Fear to Speak feels like the culmination of their entire career, fully matured and refined to peak form.

#8. Sunburst // Manifesto – There was a point in time that I was confident Manifesto would top this list. That was largely due to sheer excitement that a new Sunburst album, which I never thought I would see in the first place, actually turned out to be great. Rich compositions, sharp hooks, and a masterful performance from everyone involved, Manifesto solidifies Sunburst as one of the best bands out of the Greek power metal scene. I just hope that I don’t have to wait another eight years for the next one!

#7. Scumbag // Homicide Cult – This record is simply unfair. I had my Top 10 all sorted out, and then some bottle-nosed bastard with a dorsal fin and a propensity for beating up smaller mammals on the wrong side of the sea had me check this out, with the promise of killer riffs by the main Noxis guitarist. That bastard was right, this record absolutely rips. There are so many unbelievably filthy, stank-face inducing riffs on Homicide Cult that I had to get plastic surgery to look like myself again. Otherwise, I’d look more like my rotted-out friend on the cover.

#6. Noxis // Violence Inherent in the System – Death metal this good hits me in a special place. While embodying all of the skullcrushing ways of olde, Violence Inherent in the System represents one of the most creative, smart, and well-produced records in modern death metal currently. And while my review helped spike the hype, it still feels a bit like Noxis are running further under the radar than they deserve. Coming out of absolute nowhere and dropping the best straight-up death metal of the year? Unreal.

#5. Feind // Ambulante Hirnamputation – Grind, and all of its hybrids, never once made it on my proper Top 10. I’ve written here for six years. That’s how powerful Feind’s Ambulante Hirnamputation truly is. Immense fun, more quality riffs stuffed into less than twenty minutes than some of the best records can fit into an hour, and cheeky to boot, Ambulante Hirnamputation proves that Feind mastered the grindset. Let’s hope this isn’t the last I get to hear of Feind.

#4. Brodequin // Harbinger of Woe – In contrast to grind, I almost always have a brutal death metal record on my Top 10. It’s a style that resonates with me very easily, and there’s never a shortage of it for my personal enjoyment. Brodequin won the day in a year chock full of great options, with the immensely accessible Harbinger of Woe. The sheer level of groove brimming from this torture chamber sends my booty into overdrive, and the thick, nasty production only serves to enhance the entire experience. There’s very little else I could ask for to sate my brutal death cravings.

#3. Iotunn // Kinship – It’s been a banner year for our friend Jon Aldará. Where Iotunn’s Access All Worlds interested, but did not woo, me, follow-up Kinship absolutely rocked my socks. Every single track is a celebration of epic, melodic, and deeply immersive extreme metal. Gorgeous compositions, ascendant guitar work, ridiculous replay value, and stellar vocals propelled Kinship way up on my list of favorite records at a blistering pace, leaving me revelling in an idyllic honeymoon period. Even after investing more time marinating in its wondrous environs, I’ve only fallen deeper and deeper in love with it. I just can’t imagine how Iotunn are going to top this.

#2. Replicant // Infinite Mortality – This is the year for records that floored me where their predecessors didn’t. Replicant’s Malignant Reality was enjoyable, but couldn’t touch my Top 10 in its year. Infinite Mortality, on the other hand, made a valiant bid for Album o’ the Year from the very first riff kicking “Acid Mirror” into the stratosphere. Hardcore-tinged technical death metal for fans of the discordant and the unorthodox, Infinite Mortality is supremely memorable not just for its sound, but for its infallible, hook-laden construction. Infinite Mortality may not be the only record of its kind released this year, but it’s without a doubt the greatest.

#1. Myrath // Karma – Hurricane Helene took my home. It changed the ecology, geology, and pedology of the entire Asheville region, likely for all time. But one thing it couldn’t take from me is my spirit, my drive to survive, and my determination to thrive. Even during a long period where access to music was a rare luxury, Karma remained at the forefront of my mind. It held me from giving up and reminded me of the strength that burgeoned not just in myself, but also in my friends, family, and greater community as we rebuilt our lives together. If there was ever a record released this year that embodies that spirit of triumph over adversity, it’s Myrath’s incredible Karma. It was always going to be high on this list, thanks to its insanely memorable songwriting and passionate performances of univerally great songs. However, it wasn’t until I personally resonated with its empowering message in the context of a devastating natural disaster that I knew this would be, unquestionably, my Album o’ the Year.

Honorable Mentions

• Amiensus // Reclamation Pt. II – Thoughtful, dynamic, and immersive, Reclamation Pt. II represents the pinnacle of what I like in progressive black metal.
• The Flaying // Ni dieu ni maître – Unsung melodic death metal heroes The Flaying offer up nonstop hooks and a crazy bass performance delivered at a feral pace.
• Hamferð // Men Guds hond er sterk – Empotionally compelling and monstrously heavy, Men Guds hond er sterk is death doom at its peak form.
• Khirki // Κ​υ​κ​ε​ώ​ν​α​ς – Massively dynamic hard rock that comes from the heart and the head, not the butt.
• Saidan // Visual Kill: The Blossoming of Psychotic Depravity – Fun, fast, ferocious, Visual Kill is an unqualified blast of killer hyper-melodic black metal.
• Unhallowed Deliverance // Of Spectres and Strife – Deathcore rarely offers this level of dynamics and quality in songwriting, and it hits like a runaway train full of unstable nuclear warheads.

Non-Metal Album o’ the Year

• Kali Uchis // Orquídeas – Simply put, this album is pure sex. Period.

EP o’ the Year

• Glassbone // Deaf to Suffering – Far and away the slimiest, crustiest, and bestest slam of the year. Absolute filth.

Song o’ the Year

• Elvellon – “A Vagabond’s Heart” – Easily my most listened to song of the year, “A Vagabond’s Heart” strikes a special chord in my spirit that embodies everything I used to love and everything I love today. Furthermore, it leaves me hopeful and excited for what the future holds. As a delightful bonus, it’s catchy as all get-out. I couldn’t ask for a better song to fit this slot.

Surprise o’ the Year:

• Nightwish // Yesterwynde – My original intent was to place this somewhere on my list proper, but the storm foiled that aspiration, as I rarely got to listen to any new music that came out in late September and pretty much all of October until it was way too late. But when I did get to spend time with Yesterwynde, it continually impressed me. Songs that felt novel and exciting, performances that brimmed with new life, and wonderful pacing from start to finish, Nightwish’s latest record feels like a return to form. I’m excited to follow them on this latest arc in their career.5

Disappointment o’ the Year:

• Vredehammer // God Slayer – The riffs are there, that’s for sure. But the album just doesn’t come together in a way that scratches my brain at all. Therefore, I had the most difficult time sitting through God Slayer. Shame, especially considering how much of a banger each of the previous two records were…

#2024 #Amiensus #Brodequin #Elvellon #Feind #Glassbone #Hamferð #Iotunn #KaliUchis #KenstrositySTopTenIshOf2024 #Khirki #MadderMortem #Myrath #Nightwish #Noxis #OceansOfSlumber #Replicant #Saidan #Scumbag #Sunburst #TheFlaying #UnhallowedDeliverance #Vredehammerð

Contrite Metal Guy: It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Wrongness, Volume the First

By Cherd

The life of the unpaid, overworked metal reviewer is not an easy one. Cascading promos, unreasonable deadlines, draconian editors, and the unwashed metal mobs – it makes for a swirling maelstrom of music and madness. In all that tumult, errors are bound to happen and sometimes our initial impression of an album may not be completely accurate. With time and distance comes wisdom, and so we’ve decided to pull back the confessional curtain and reveal our biggest blunders, missteps, oversights and ratings face-plants. Consider this our sincere AMGea culpa. Redemption is retroactive, forgiveness is mandatory.

As those of us who follow the Gregorian calendar and partake in Judeo/Christian cultural traditions prepare to face the final bosses of the holiday season, we experience a wide range of feelings. Anticipation, at the prospect of gorging on holiday treats as we shuffle from one party to another thrown by family and friends. Nostalgia, of course, as we uphold our traditions and reflect on the celebrations of yesteryear. And, for those who write music reviews for a non-living, contrition. Intense embarrassment and remorse as we prepare for Listurnalia, revisiting records we thought we had adjudicated accurately only to discover the depth of our wrongheadedness. Sometimes our self-reproach has nothing to do with impending lists. Sometimes, shortly after writing a review, an ember of doubt will ignite, smoldering just under our calm exteriors, growing until we want to shriek “Dissemble no more! I admit the deed! — tear up the planks! — here, here! — it is the beating of his hideous heart!” It’s been over three years since the last time we unloaded our disgrace onto you, the unsuspecting reader, so expect this to be a long self-flagellation session.

– Cherd

Sentynel

Powerhouse of contrition

Mitochondrial Sun is the big one for me. I had no idea what I was getting into when I picked up a weird side project from the Dark Tranquillity guitarist. Frankly, I underrated it at the time and it’s grown on me since. Yes, yes, the more ambient ten minutes between “Celestial Animal” and “The Great Filter” are not quite as interesting as the rest of the record. But this is a record to be experienced as a whole, and it’s rarely actually bothered me that the pacing could theoretically have been a little different. “Not quite as interesting” as something that’s absolutely stellar is still great. An incredible record, it draws on a lot of things I love while sounding little like any of them. Absolutely one of my favorites of this decade so far.

Original score: 3.5
Adjusted score: Excellent

Transient error

I haven’t really listened to Transitus since 2020, which is not a great vote of confidence in the 3.5 I originally gave it. I was vaguely dreading exactly how contrite I was going to have to be here. In my head this had turned into me getting overly excited about reviewing Ayreon and awarding a high score to an album with no redeeming features, but listening to it again it’s not actually that bad. Pretty much everything I said in my original review was right, and I stand by what I said about the actual music being very good. It’s just that without the review forcing me to listen to it, the flaws have been more off-putting than I thought they would be. The narration is too heavy-handed. The tonal inconsistences are too jarring. And, as is inevitable for an Ayreon record, it’s too long. The result is that it’s a drag to get through, for all that it’s musically a lot of fun.

Original score: 3.5
Adjusted score: Mixed

Inheritance taxed

Less egregious an error than the other two here, but an error nonetheless. I listen to Inheritance all the time. It is one of the prettiest and most quietly but insistently moving records I own. The other day their Bandcamp page linked a live recording of it (and a couple of other songs) and I just sat there transfixed for the whole thing. I knew when I reviewed it that it was something special, I just wasn’t quite brave enough to give what would have been my first 4.5 at this metal blog to a chamber folk record. Subsequently, Musk Ox have played shows the week after I left Canada on more than one occasion and I’m starting to suspect they’re deliberately avoiding me. I’m sorry! It was excellent all along!

Original score: 4.0
Adjusted score: Excellent

GardensTale

Glutton for punishment

I’ve announced my first downgrade last year, but now I finally got my chance to make it official. Foetal Juice is a bunch of Brighton boys who pump out some really solid death metal in the vein of Cannibal Corpse and peers. On my first brush with the juicy ones, I got a little carried away by their enthusiasm and uncommonly good production. While Gluttony is definitely a cut above the average in an overcrowded field, I never find myself grasping for it anymore. It’s simply not quite memorable enough for that. On replay, it’s easy to see why it got me as excited as it did; it sounds thick, heavy and gnarly, and the riffs kick all sorts of ass. Its longevity just hasn’t been anywhere befitting a 4.0, and so I will take it down a notch. Now officially.

Original score: 4.0
Adjusted score: 3.5

In this moment we are sorry

Most of the time, the commenters are idiots who don’t know what they’re talking about, unless they’re agreeing with me. In the case of Vuur, though, they had a point. In a classic case of wanting to like it more than I did, my tongue-bath of Anneke van Giersbergen’s Devin-influenced prog project had an unusual number of ‘this bit is not that great, but…’ disclaimers for a 4.0. While a select few loved In This Moment We Are Free – Cities as well, a lot of comments complained of a sterile production and unengaging songwriting. I may not agree with the severity of these complaints even now, but in essence, they are definitely valid, and I dismissed them far too easily. Anneke alone cannot compensate for these flaws to the tune of the score received, and listening back to the album I find myself enjoying it mildly, not greatly.

Original score: 4.0
Adjusted score: 3.0

Kenstrosity

Underrated Again!

Just a little over a year after I originally reviewed Chicago progressive tech-death cryptid Warforged’s incredible I: Voice, I submitted a Contrite blurb exposing my mistake of severely underrating its genius. It seems that very few others in the AMG community agreed wholeheartedly with me, save for a few unlikely supporters. Nonetheless, over the course of that year and change, I: Voice continued to grow, continually offering me new details to discover and challenging my perspective of what immersive songwriting and compelling storytelling mean in this sphere.

It’s been over four long years since that original contrite piece was published, and in that time Warforged’s immense debut only penetrated deeper into my psyche, blooming into a venerable monstrosity that has no equal. In every corner of the tech-death, progressive death, and even dissonant death metal halls, there lurks no other creature of the same grotesque form or fearsome presence as I: Voice. Its unique and inimitable character straddles the fence between tension and catharsis with such acrobatic finesse that I find myself in awe of its terrifying shape, reveling in the deeply disturbing environs it conjures and dreading the inevitable horror of its conclusion. For once it’s over, I am compelled by an instinctual, morbid obsession to venture back into this densely forested lair where those monsters that Warforged dared summon unto this mortal coil dwell. No other album before it, and no other album since ever drove me to this special kind of madness. If that doesn’t make I: Voice worthy of Iconic stature, then I don’t care to know what else would.

Original Score: Good.
Initial Adjusted Score: Excellent!
Final Adjusted Score: Iconic!

Overrated!

As many of our readers are undoubtedly aware, I am an overpowered hype train incarnate. Unsurprisingly, I also have a tendency to become hyperfocused and more than just a little fixated on things when I love or hate them. Naturally, I was predisposed to a particularly rapt interest in this year’s greatest surprise, a new Sunburst album. Fully ready to accept that I would never hear from these Greek power prog powerhouses again, Manifesto made me extremely happy for the entire time I spent reviewing it.

In the months that followed, several major events in my life, at work, and elsewhere conspired to take me away from many of the records I loved. However, I made a concerted effort to revisit Manifesto as often as I could. Unfortunately, those efforts revealed a bit of a nagging feeling that I had been blind to some of this record’s flaws—namely, bloat. It’s not egregious, and it doesn’t ruin any song, but it does occasionally make fifty minutes of high-octane, high-IQ power metal feel closer to an hour. This is by no means a deal-breaker, and every song is still a banger. There’s no denying that Manifesto is a great album, and I still love it dearly. But, after removing my delicately rose-tinted glasses and looking at Sunburst with a more realistic eye, I recognize that by giving in to my infallible enthusiasm for a record I couldn’t have hoped for, I failed to fairly assess its quality in comparison to the many other fantastic records 2024 had to offer.

Original Score: Excellent!
Adjusted Score: Great!

Underrated!

Elvellon’s Ascending in Synergy underwent the inverse trajectory of Sunburst—while I cooled a touch on Sunburst, I heated up for Elvellon. In a bizarre twist of fate, the challenges I faced in life this year put much about who I am as a person and as a music enjoyer into perspective. With that came a desire to rediscover the qualities in metal that made me fall in love with it in the first place, and to honor the journey that joining this blog gifted me—explosively expanding my horizons in the greater metalverse in the process. This introspection and reflection allowed me to, rather unexpectedly, recognize how I unfairly underrated these German symphocheese standouts.

Everything that I mentioned in my coverage of Ascending in Synergy remains true, for the most part. The most significant change between then and now is how much its flaws actually bother me in relation to how absolutely enamored I am with its virtues. The first eight songs and the closer remained a staple of my listening rotation far beyond the month I spent reviewing this record, and I’ve entirely stopped feeling the urge to skip the monologue-heavy penultimate epic. While I still could do without that speech and consequential bloat, I just can’t escape the vice grip those massive hooks that litter the entirety of this hour of lushly ornamented symphonic power metal have on my heart. I truly and wholly love this album. While far from most unique or the most complex record released this year, it is undoubtedly one of my favorites. It should then be rated to reflect that. So it shall be!

Original Score: Very Good!
Adjusted Score: Great!

Cherd

Baby, I done you wrong

Back in September, I ran roughshod over the poor score counter, proclaiming the blackened, sludgened death metal of Glacial Tomb’s Lightless Expanse a towering achievement befitting the band’s geographical location high in the Colorado Rockies. I still believe that the combo of “Voidwomb/Enshrined in Concrete/Abyssal Host” is “…a world-beating three-song stretch of brutality and tasteful songwriting.” However, I’ve come to realize some of the other material on the album doesn’t live up to the kind that should break the score counter’s back heart. So score counter, if you’re reading this, baby I love you. I’ve been such an ass. Please take me back? I promise it won’t happen again for probably a couple months.

Original score: 4.0
Adjusted score: 3.5

Mistakes made in the dark

Sometimes when you spend a lot of time with an album, you experience a kind of Stockholm Syndrome. You enter the world conjured by the sound and atmosphere and you become more amenable to its charms than you did on first impression, even if that impression was right. This past June I went spelunking into the ridiculously grimy death metal depths of Black Wound’s Warping Structure. It could have been the acrid air or the lack of sunlight affecting my judgement, but something about it captured me in a way it doesn’t as I revisit the album. Don’t mistake me, despite the commentariat finding the raw production a bridge too far, I still think it’s a fun, filthy time. It’s just that as I swing my head lantern around, things that once looked menacing in the dark are in reality a bit less imposing.

Original score: 3.5
Adjusted score: 3.0

What’s in a score?

Six years ago, during my n00bdom, I was hazed most egregiously when Steel Druhm assigned me A Hero for the World’s Winter Is Here. Ostensibly the second part of a “rock opera” by one Jacob Kaasgaard, this album was in fact 90 minutes of Christmas classics and a single original song–in three versions–presented in the weeniest of weenie power metal styles. While Kaasgaard was clearly a competent instrumentalist, his singing veered into the unintentionally comical, and his ability to self-edit, and for that matter any self-awareness, was non-existent. I gave it a rare 1.0 and attempted to move on. Kaasgaard, however, wasn’t done with me. My wife and I decided that Christmas to put on Winter Is Here for shits and giggles as we decorated the tree. Then we did so the next year. The year after that, we decided to welcome the Yuletide by playing the album the day after Thanksgiving. We introduced it to friends of ours, who like us, laughed at the earnest disaster of it all, but, like us, they began using it to kick off their holiday festivities every year since. Something about the clear joy Kaasgaard exudes as he plays and sings these classic songs–and his earworm original–has lowered our critical defenses. Winter Is Here remains a bad album. But it’s a bad album we enjoy a little less ironically with every passing year.1

Original score: 1.0
Adjusted score: 1.0
Sentimental score: 4.0

#2024 #AHeroForTheWorld #AscendingInSynergy #Ayreon #BlackWound #ContriteMetalGuy #Elvellon #FoetalJuice #GlacialTomb #Gluttony #IVoice #InThisMomentWeAreFreeCities #Inheritance #LightlessExpanse #Manifesto #MitochondrialSun #MuskOx #Sunburst #Transitus #Vuur #Warforged #WarpingStructure #WinterIsHereAHolidayRockOperaPt2