Roquentin

Nervosa – Perpetual Chaos Review

Nervosa – Perpetual Chaos Review

“While at one point it certainly seemed like Nervosa would become another bullet point in a long list of last year’s disasters, the Brazilian thrashers successfully survived 2020. They came out of it wounded like most of the world, sure, but still alive and kicking. If anything, the loss of the rest of her band (bassist and vocalist Fernanda Lira and drummer Luana Dametto) due to cryptic “personal reasons” seems to have viciously reinvigorated the group’s founder and frontwoman Prika Amaral.” Reborn in chaos.

Duma – Duma Review

Duma – Duma Review

“The self-titled debut by Kenyan duo Duma (meaning “darkness” in Kikuyu) is a most peculiar rara avis, carrying the sort of art difficult to distill into words, let alone narrow down to a single genre indicator. So while “grindcore” might be easiest to associate with the often rhythmically driven and dark work of Martin Khanja (aka Lord Spike Heart) and Sam Karugu, any expectations or points of reference go out the window within the first ten seconds of Duma’s opening track.” World metal.

Threadbare – Silver Dollar Review

Threadbare – Silver Dollar Review

Mimic, Guillermo del Toro’s 1997 creature feature, revolves around a mutated, highly evolved sort of insect capable of making itself look like a human being. Embracing a predatory strategy called aggressive mimicry – with people as their prey of choice – the insects’ appearance becomes an interplay of shadows and deception. Their humanoid silhouette is unstable and misleading, made of moving organs and chitin exoskeletons, yet strangely beguiling in its alienness. Silver Dollar, the debut record by Chicago trio Threadbare, is a similar creature in style, with a fluidly metallized, rocking, and faintly dangerous exterior projected from within a free jazz organism.” More than meets the ear.

ACxDC – Satan Is King Review

ACxDC – Satan Is King Review

““First to betray / First to disobey / First to stand up / Against tyranny,” screams Sergio Amalfitano on the title track of ACxDC’s second full-length Satan Is King. Delivered in one breath and against a grindcore wall of seesawing guitars and hammering drum blasts, these first few verses are a distillation of the Los Angeles-based powerviolence quartet.” I’m gonna get you, Satan get you!

Svart Crown – Wolves Among the Ashes Review

Svart Crown – Wolves Among the Ashes Review

“While Svart Crown have never shied away from ambitious concepts, Wolves Among the Ashes presents, for better or worse, the most direct sublimation of extramusical ideas in their style. Initially, the music is as demented as the psychological and sociological madness they choose to explore.” Wolves and madmen.

DarkTribe – Voici l’homme Review

DarkTribe – Voici l’homme Review

“Rather than a refreshed take on a démodé genre, DarkTribe’s music feels as if abducted from the late 1990s or early 2000s and put into stasis, trapped in that timeline and preserved in a pristine state forever. So powerful and candid is this stylistic anachronism that the band’s third LP Voici l’homme acts as a rotten Proustian Madeleine, eternally evoking yet never reaching the sonic imagery of first encounters with bands such as Labyrinth, Stratovarius, and Evergrey.” Lost tribes.

Sun Worship – Emanations of Desolation [Things You Might Have Missed 2019]

Sun Worship – Emanations of Desolation [Things You Might Have Missed 2019]

“Too much music is released and there is not enough time nor space to cover it all. Some publicists game the system and generate artificial hype for their artists. A certain uniformity in year-end lists plagues major publications. An echo chamber of taste ensnares the metal community. Some of these reasons and a plethora of others may be why bands like the Berlin-based (deathened) black metal duo Sun Worship fly under the radar.” Sun and black winter.

Blut Aus Nord – Hallucinogen [Things You Might Have Missed 2019]

Blut Aus Nord – Hallucinogen [Things You Might Have Missed 2019]

“Whichever the style, the quality of <'sb>Blut Aus Nord output never faltered. They could and have done whatever they wanted. Yet even in such a varied discography, their thirteenth LP Hallucinogen arrives as a sharp and expectedly unexpected detour. An ascendance to a higher celestial plane.” Black trip.

Dawn Ray’d – Behold Sedition Plainsong Review

Dawn Ray’d – Behold Sedition Plainsong Review

“Pyres become beacons as flames rise with a dangerously bright burn, lick the sky, and drape the green banks of the Sava river in a majestic red glow. It’s a transporting and defiant occasion: the roaring fires ignite our inner blaze and unite us in remembrance of Partisans like my grandfather that on May 8th, 1945 freed Croatia’s capital, Zagreb, from occupying Nazi (and collaborationist) forces. These memories of the Trnje bonfires flicker in my mind while I listen to Behold Sedition Plainsong, the second full-length of Liverpool black metal trio Dawn Ray’d. Because this is a music of awakening that sweeps away the waters of Lethe meant to make us forget what the liberation from occupation and similar historic moments stood for then and today.” Music with a cause.