Gorod

Exocrine – Legend Review

Exocrine – Legend Review

By Kenstrosity on January 24, 2024 in Reviews, Death Metal, Technical Death Metal, 42 comments

“Despite the middling average score French tech death quartet Exocrine earned on this here blog, I’m a staunch defender of the band’s style. I loved Molten Giant and The Hybrid Suns musically, and thought Maelstrom was an interesting, albeit flawed, exploration of their established sound. The biggest issue holding them back has always been production, cursed to gasp for breath and struggle for room inside a dense concrete block. It’s a shame because if someone else with a gentler touch helped them out in the mastering suite, I’m convinced Exocrine’s track record on this blog would be a more positive one. I picked up their latest, entitled Legend, in the hopes that it shifts that legacy in the right direction.” Of myth or of legend?

Orphalis – As the Ashes Settle Review

Orphalis – As the Ashes Settle Review

By Ferox on August 25, 2023 in Reviews, Death Metal, 24 comments

“Orphalis has everything a band could want–except for a bigger audience. Over the course of three prior albums, this German quintet honed their take on “brutal technical death metal” into a potent force. Their sound consists of chops and hooks served in roughly equal measure, riffs on riffs on more riffs stuffed into the sausage casing of three- to -five-minute song structures. The band flashes songwriting prowess alongside technique that never devolves into wheedly-deedly indulgence, and they coat everything with a shellac of genuine aggression.” Malice at the Phalis.

AMG’s Unsigned Band Rodeö: Fracturus – Versus the Void

AMG’s Unsigned Band Rodeö: Fracturus – Versus the Void

By Dolphin Whisperer on April 17, 2023 in Angry Metal Guy's Unsigned Band Rodeo, Death Metal, Deathcore, Technical Death Metal, 28 comments

“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. The Rodeö rides on.” Void fractions.

Gorod – The Orb Review

Gorod – The Orb Review

By Angry Metal Guy on March 14, 2023 in Reviews, Death Metal, Technical Death Metal, 85 comments

“Gorod’s assignment with The Orb is to figure out how to follow up 2018’s magnificent Æthra. This album’s predecessor, which followed on a string of excellent releases, is among the best albums that I have ever underrated. But Æthra brought change and continuing on this trajectory, The Orb is the band’s first fully independent release. And that raises the hackneyed, obvious question: is all this change good, actually?” Won’t somebody think of the riffs!?

Catalyst – A Different Painting for a New World Review

Catalyst – A Different Painting for a New World Review

By Kenstrosity on October 22, 2022 in Reviews, Death Metal, Technical Death Metal, 11 comments

“I completely forgot about French tech-death upstarts Catalyst. That seems to be happening to me more often lately, and it’s a double-edged sword. On one hand, I get the privilege of experiencing sudden bursts of excitement whenever announcements for a band I haven’t heard from in a while catch me by surprise. On the other hand, it feels like a betrayal by my own mind when a band I was interested in slips out of memory. Nonetheless, Catalyst’s debut The Great Purpose of the Lords was a cool slab of epic tech death, as recent revisits these past couple of weeks confirmed. Let’s see what the follow-up, A Different Painting for a New World, has in store.” Forget me not? Knot?

Ahasver – Causa Sui Review

Ahasver – Causa Sui Review

By Dolphin Whisperer on October 2, 2022 in Reviews, Black Metal, Groove Metal, Mathcore, Progressive Metal, Sludge Metal, 16 comments

“Have you ever heard the story of Ahasver, a forsaken quasi-biblical figure who ignored Jesus somewhere along the line? Now, he gets to wander around undying until the big guy comes back. That’s just a bit petty if you ask me, but if you ask Ahasver, the story functions as a much more brutal parable—a man must walk the earth in the face of all the terrors he has witnessed and ever that will unfold. But worry not, this isn’t a 90 minute rock opera nor a 60 bpm post metal languishing. This pedigree of furious Frenchman (including Julien Deyres of Gorod and Zubrowska fame) prefers to pontificate with chunky grooves, textured vocal aggression, and… a Carl Sagan reading?” Grooves and Stars.