“Echoes is the quartet’s third full-length since the act’s conception in 2010. While featuring the armaments and cavernous bellows of Incantation or Winter, it also is armed with a stoner doom fuzz and vocal influence from Candlemass. However, you can be sure that the “married iguana” haze does not subtract from Altar of Betelgeuze’s intention of crushing your skull in.” Betelgeuze!
“Part of the enduring thrill of this here reviewing game, is dipping into the toxic gunk of the promo sump to pull out a freshly untapped talent or obscure underground gem that knocks your socks off and gives reason to share the love with anyone who will listen. Of course, shit can go pear-shaped pretty quickly in a densely populated modern metal scene, where carving an impression and standing out from the overcrowded pack offers a stern challenge. Hailing from British Colombia, Decryptor formed as recently as 2020, plying their trade through underground dedication and refining their skills via a few demo releases. Imminent Ruin signals the band’s first foray into full-length territory. With minimal profile or web presence, let us see if these young upstarts have the songwriting goods and talents to stoke deeper interest.” Ambition and ruin.
“Last we met the secretive Basque duo Pestilength, they had released their second full-length Basom Gryphos, an album that was appropriately slimy and punishing but fell by the wayside due to its scattershot compositions and unashamed Portal worship. Its potential was there, lurking beneath the surface like eldritch grandiosity yet to be awoken, but the right combination of incantations and blasphemies were needed to truly wreak havoc on mankind. In many ways, what Pestilength does is braver than dissodeath acts of similar ilk, refusing to shroud its riffs in murk or atmosphere and letting the chord progressions do the talking – putting added pressure on the string attack.” Clorexing the murk.
“In the frenzied ritualistic worship of the god Dionysus, acolytes would often perform the violent act known as Sparagamos—tearing limb-from-limb a sacrificial animal, or human. What ecstatic human hands would enact, Spectral Voice conjures in their sophomore bearing its moniker, their attempt to reach “the moment in which – through sacrifice – atavistic wildness is unleashed, and the ultimate exaltation of life through death is realized.”” Giving voice to the void.
“We’ve been waiting for this for years. With only 2020 EP Death of the Cosmic to tide us over from Hinayana’s excellent 2018 debut Order Divine, which received the TYMHM treatment from the great and mighty Dr. Wvrm, it has been a dry spell. The Austin, Texas quintet’s sound lends itself to the melodic death/doom, notably Finnish, melancholy of Insomnium or Swallow the Sun, but with tight songwriting and a patient unfolding through relentless plodding of Amon Amarth, Order Divine became a bit of a sleeper hit for 2018. Featuring a tight and concise bite that will soothe your soul before forcing you to spit out broken teeth, will you invite follow-up Shatter and Fall’s slow-motion beatdown?” Soundtrack to Fall or stumble and fall?
“A Dialogue with the Eeriest Sublime is pure unadulterated Vertebra Atlantis at its finest. Blending blackened death punishment with the grandiosity of a crashing castle, the doom-laden contemplation of the awe its destruction invokes, the blackened attack that battles ice with fire, and the atmospheric ice that coats every surface, the Italian trio has stepped up everything that gave its predecessor, the great Lustral Purge in Cerulean Bliss, its signature blend of punishing and atmospheric.” Sublime mass destruction.
“Phoenix, Arizona’s Thorn, in spite of having a ridiculously generic name, has its trademark sound down to a science. Featuring a blasting and impenetrable wall of death metal, as cavernous as Cruciamentum and as sticky as Chthe’ilist, the sound has transferred neatly across the act’s three full-lengths – the only issue is just how fast to play it.” Thorn in the ears.
“Acausal Intrusion verged on greatness with 2021’s Nulitas, touching the lip of the void but never quite accomplishing the swan dive into the darkness. Uncompromisingly complex, dissonant, and brutal through Nythroth’s unhinged axework, alongside more brutal elements like vocalist Cave Ritual’s subterranean growls and his tasteful pong snare, it was an album loaded with potential – uniquely accomplished through a strangely counterintuitive meditative quality.” Pardon this new Intrusion.
The fusion of black metal and doom is a finicky one. With a vast repertoire in both reported palettes, the sounds and combinations are as diverse and unique. Spain’s Dantalion specializes in a blend of the Gothic doom enchantments of My Dying Bride or Saturnus and the lightless whimpers of Silencer or Lifelover. Their ninth full-length Fatum is as melancholic and hopeless as its themes suggest: the inevitability of fate.” Doom looping.
“Failure Will Follow is the album The Acacia Strain was meant to make. The second of two albums released on the same day, it is a revelation, an enigma. Like its art counterpart, Step Into the Light is the glimpse into the narrow lens of a natural if not gruesome scene: a robin feeding its chicks gore. It’s primal and strange, but not out of the realm of possibility. Failure Will Follow is the revelation, the feeding of its chicks from the massive decaying body of a deer – a graceful creature laid to waste and taken apart, its majesty a memory.” Strain, repeat.
