Sentient Ruin Laboratories

Aphotic – Abyssgazer [Things You Might Have Missed 2023]

Aphotic – Abyssgazer [Things You Might Have Missed 2023]

Abyssgazer presents as the kind of echoing incantation that must ring through ears from first to last note. No mere synthesis of the acts who fed Aphotic into existence, this sometimes blackened, sometimes funeral doom-weighted, always death metal assembly expresses itself in a peerless manner.” Abyss from a dead rose.

Golgothan Remains – Adorned in Ruin Review

Golgothan Remains – Adorned in Ruin Review

“Here’s one that stands astride the world like a colossus. With Adorned in Ruin, Golgothan Remains birth a slab of death metal massive enough to register on the Richter scale. Four years after their initial effort Perverse Offerings to the Void landed the coveted Kronos Seal of Approval, these Aussies stomp back over the horizon line with a sophomore offering that builds on the promise of their debut.” Ruined by death.

Pestilength – Basom Gryphos Review

Pestilength – Basom Gryphos Review

“Although divisive, Portal’s influence in the death metal world is undeniable. Featuring riffs that seem to crawl with murk and dissonance aplenty with an eldritch monstrosity roaring from the pulpit, there are few who can accurately channel this particular breed of otherworldly alienation. Many have tried and failed, but getting that squirming aesthetic just right is nearly impossible. Basque duo Pestilength is the latest to try their hand at the next Vexovoid.” Cake? No cake!

Void Rot – Descending Pillars Review

Void Rot – Descending Pillars Review

“Upon entering the kitchen the camera pans to a large, oily hole in reality. You can see time/space bend and slip at the edges. Jonathan and the woman stare into the nothingness and grow pale. A spackle knife is slowly being pulled into the vortex center, languidly circling between worlds. Jonathan turns to the woman. ‘You’ve got Void Rot.'” Pillars of the community.

Hell – Hell Review

Hell – Hell Review

“Hell isn’t a unique topic in the realms of heavy metal. Whether it’s scalding hot or freezing cold, overpopulated with sinners or barren like a desert filled with tumbleweeds and rattlesnakes, Satan’s home and permanent tourist hot-spot has been covered to death and undeath too many times to count. Many metal bands, from Black Sabbath to the kvltest of tr00 black metal, weaved so many tales of that realm that it’s become old hat now. M.S.W., the sole member of Salem, Oregon’s Hell, knows this.” Going down.

american – Coping With Loss Review

american – Coping With Loss Review

“This album rustles my jimmies. I’m not a big fan of black metal specifically, but I am a big fan of desolate and disturbing music in the general sense, which is why Indian’s black-doom-noise horror From All Purity hit me with near-tectonic force earlier this year. Despite what AMG himself will tell you, black metal and noise make excellent bedfellows, as the aforementioned Chicago doom-merchants and other acts like Gnaw Their Tongues will show. Naturally, american’s debut, Coping With Loss, billed as black metal noise, caught my eye.” If there’s a rustle in your jimmies, don’t be alarmed now.