“AMG’s Unsigned Band Rodeö” is a time-honored tradition to showcase the most underground of the underground—the unsigned and unpromoted. This collective review treatment continues to exist to unite our writers in boot or bolster of the bands who remind us that, for better or worse, the metal underground exists as an important part of the global metal scene.” Utility is strength.
“Never before had I met a Promo God-designated genre-tag so perfect: “silliness.” La Suspendida is a wildly experimental Silent Pendulum-backed collaboration of four artists – and I’m not gonna pretend I know each of the act’s respective history or discography. Mostly based in Brooklyn, Kilteris a jazz metal trio featuring Imperial Triumphant drummer Kenny Grohowski, Andromeda Anarchia is an opera soprano and also a member of the opera/black metal Folterkammer project, the Growlers Choir is a Montreal-based group of metal vocalists, and Seven)Suns is a “dystopian” string quartet dedicated to translating metal to strings.” Gang’s all here!!
“On the ranking of Things Ken Doesn’t Like™, circus music once lived just beneath the throne. For whatever reason, cabaret in all its forms annoyed me to no end, even in its natural environment. Why, then, do I find myself continually obsessed with Russian/Australian cabaret metal clowns Tardigrade Inferno and their particularly crunchy, creepy, crazed take on the cirque de métal?” Ten clowns, three rings,
“Oxx is a trio from Aarhus, Denmark, having released three full-lengths and an EP since 2012. In spite of easy recollections to mathy insanity, pigeonholing The Primordial Blues is unfair even to the act’s own discography, as the ominous sprawling of 2015 debut Bury the Ones We Love and Burn the Rest differs fundamentally to the frantic Dillinger-core of 2019’s The Skeleton Is Just A Coat Hanger.” Big, not so dumb OXX.
“Before picking this promo up, I had never heard of Sanguine Glacialis before, but I quickly fell head over heels for their wild extreme metal after checking out the kaleidoscopic blunderbuss that is Hadopelagic, their 2018 sophomore record.” Tastis the Glacialis.
“Nothing pleases me more than writing a review for a new Vulture Industries record. After getting the shaft from Seasons of Mist in 2017, I could only bring Stranger Times to the public via TYMHM. Dark Essence Records was kind enough to send us the promo for this year’s Ghosts from the Past, and ole Grier is happy in the pants.” Vultures, ghosts and happy pants.
“A project of San Francisco-based musician Robert Woods-LaDue and Bay-area session jazz musicians, Onkos is definitely metal, but like, what? Most akin to Barcelona flute/double bass bastards Inhumankind, Vascular Labyrinth can be best described as a chamber jazz act covering death metal.” In the veins of weirdness.
“Even for I, Voidhanger, Clarity Came with a Cool Summer’s Breeze is a hallucinogenic odyssey of unreal proportions. In its wild ways of whimsy, I catch whiffs of everything ranging from Ved Buens Ende, Blut Aus Nord, Vulture Industries, and even The Beatles. With an expansive stylistic gamut to manage, it’s bewildering that Tyrone not only concocted a compelling compound with it, but also condensed it into a tight and twisted thirty-seven minutes.” Shrooms with a view.
“Consisting of Italian vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Andrea Bruzzone and company, Bekor Qilish offers its debut Throes of Death from the Dreamed Nihilism. While it toes the line between full-length and EP at twenty-eight minutes, it manages to embody really fun “Voidhanger-core” to a tee.” Avant-guardians.
“Latin—language of ancient history’s classiest empire, known only by nerds with and without PhDs, and vernacular of choice for many a metal act. Somnium Nocte Mendaciis (Night’s Dreams of Lies) continues Ophe’s foray into the world of incomprehensible titles, and nearly as incomprehensible music. In the time since 2018’s Litteras Ad Tristia Maestrum Solitude, sole member Bargnatt XIX has only doubled-down on the weird. Now forgoing clean vocals entirely, as well as almost all things approaching a melody, the album is the exact opposite of easy listening.” Dead tongues and harsh language.
