Extol

Lamentations – Passion of Depression Review

By El Cuervo on November 18, 2022 in Reviews, Melodic Death Metal, 19 comments

“In 2015, Singapore’s Lamentations demonstrated real potential with a debut entitled Echoes in the Wind. I’d always kept a weather eye on the Lamentations social media, but it took nearly 7 years for the sequel entitled Passion of Depression. 2022 sees the frontman Danny Jacob now collaborating with the members of his sister band Monotheist, and boasting a host of guest musicians including members and ex-members of Cynic, Extol, and Black Crown Initiate. Their Bandcamp page suggests that the band may now be based in the US, and I remained excited to hear how things had progressed with such a long period of gestation.” Lamentations of the wicked.

Azusa – Loop of Yesterdays Review

By Kronos on April 7, 2020 in 2020, Experimental Metal, Hardcore, Indie Recordings, International Metal, Reviews, Solid State, Thrash Metal, Hardcore, 10 comments

“Loop of Yesterdays enters with a burly thrash riff that gives way in seconds to a lull of shady jazz chords. Two minutes later, Azusa are playing both at once. The record’s dichotomous approach spawns many such treasures, oddities that are hardly surprising considering the source. An Extol/The Dillinger Escape Plan supergroup could hardly produce a pedestrian sound.” The future is fleeting.

Voidfire – Ogień Pustki Review

By Holdeneye on March 2, 2020 in 2020, Black Metal, Polish Metal, Reviews, Self-released, Black Metal, 7 comments

“At a time when the faith of my youth was crumbling beneath me, my workdays were spent trying to make sense of seeing people in unimaginably horrible situations, and the question of life’s meaning weighed heavily upon me, Man’s Search for Meaning presented three ways through which humans can find meaning in this life: doing great work, knowing great love, or courageously facing unavoidable suffering. Poland’s Voidfire is hoping to channel both the first and last of those possibilities by creating a work that explores the idea of ‘finding artistic inspiration through suffering.'” Life (and music) is pain.

Cognizance – Malignant Dominion Review

By Holdeneye on September 15, 2019 in 2019, British Metal, Death Metal, Deathcore, Melodic Death Metal, Prosthetic Records, Reviews, Technical Death Metal, Death Metal, Deathcore, Melodic Death Metal, Technical Death Metal, 28 comments

“Until a few years ago, I didn’t realize that technical death metal was even a thing. Sure, I’d heard it before, but in my simple mind, tech-death was merely death metal that goes ‘clickity-clickity click and noodly-noodly nood, and sometimes has a bass that goes farty-farty fart.’ As you can imagine, I was relieved to find out that there’s a shorter way to describe this genre.” Commence the noodly-noodly!

Crimson Moonlight – Divine Darkness Review

By El Cuervo on February 19, 2016 in 2016, Black Metal, Death Metal, Endtime Productions, Reviews, Swedish Metal, Black Metal, Death Metal, 28 comments

“I was relatively surprised to find I wasn’t yet acquainted with Crimson Moonlight. Party to the ‘unblack’ metal scene emerging in the latter 90s in Scandinavia, their Swedish roots stretch back to the infertile earth of 1997, associated with the relative popularity of the likes of Extol and Antestor in their unorthodox fusion of black metal with Christianity. The 19 years since their first demo has only seen 2 studio albums and Divine Darkness is their first in 12. This leaves question marks over their contemporary relevance and lack of recent experience with the project: would they be able to harness the anachronistic spirit of their unblackened origins, wherein Christian black metal was almost as sacrilegious as black metal itself?” Can this much metallic irony be good?

Mantric – Sin Review

By El Cuervo on September 23, 2015 in 2015, Loyal Blood Records, Norwegian Metal, Progressive Metal, Reviews, Progressive Metal, 6 comments

“Composed largely of musicians from Extol’s old line-up, Mantric took up the progressive mantle with technical fervor on 2010’s The Descent. They’re now back with Sin – one of those difficult-to-categorize modern metal releases.” More prog for you wankers!