Kenstrosity

Destroying AMG's metal cred from within.

WAIT – The End of Noise Review

By Kenstrosity on February 9, 2022 in Reviews, Progressive Metal, 24 comments

“Time WAITs for no sponge. This apparently holds true for my unfortunate green friend to my left, the sands of time quite literally gushing out of his be-hourglassed noggin. The oddly disturbing artwork depicting this surreal injury translates to the weird and wacky, grungy prog-death stylings of Baltimore’s WAIT (short for We are in Transit). A supergroup of sorts, the trio pulls from the pool of live performers who jammed for acts ranging from Cynic to Defeated Sanity to Obscura, so it comes as no surprise to me that debut album The End of Noise promises to be a twisted and technical affair.” Difficult commute.

Vorga – Striving Toward Oblivion Review

By Kenstrosity on February 3, 2022 in Reviews, Black Metal, Melodic Black Metal, 96 comments

“Space. Black metal. It’s a match made in heaven! People have been writing black metal albums about space for decades, and it doesn’t seem to matter how oversaturated that specific niche gets. Metalheads eat it up. I eat it up. Space is such a massive thing anyway that the possibilities are quite literally infinite to our comparatively minuscule imaginations, so in that way it makes sense that there’s always a new invader breaching the bulkheads. Enter Vorga and their debut full-length, Striving toward Oblivion.” Space inwaders.

Spider God – Black Renditions Review

By Kenstrosity on January 28, 2022 in Reviews, Black Metal, Melodic Black Metal, Pop Metal, 224 comments

“Every once in a blue moon, an album comes along that speaks to me so deeply that I break the rules to cover it. This year, that honor belongs to what is perhaps the most thoroughly unexpected album to ever grace these spongy orifices: UK one-man-band Spider God’s Black Renditions. I say mad science experiment because Spider God offers no new material whatsoever on Black Renditions—this, my friends, is a covers album. A pop covers album. I’m talking about Britney Spears, The Pointer Sisters, Backstreet Boys, among others.” Spider infections and burnt credibility.

TheKenWord’s and Carcharodon’s Top Ten(ish) of 2021

By Kenstrosity on December 28, 2021 in Blog Posts, Lists, 138 comments

TheKenWord and Carcharodon assembled these Top Ten(ish) lists and apparently they stand by them. You can judge if that is the right decision.

Khirki – Κτηνωδία [Things You Might Have Missed 2021]

By Kenstrosity on December 24, 2021 in Things You Might Have Missed 2021, Folk Metal, Hard Rock, Post-Grunge, 27 comments

“Hard rock and post-grunge are pretty much dead to me. After being a huge fan of that kind of stuff in the mid-aughts, my tastes started to branch out into other avenues. Once that happened, every new record in that scene sounded the same as the last one, regardless of what band released what album. Seeing no evolution or novelty anywhere just confirmed for me that there was nothing left to look forward to. Then Khirki arrives, and I’m all fucked up. How dare the Greek trio choose fucking 20-goddamn-21 to release a post-grunge debut record, entitled Κτηνωδία, that actually rocks hard back to front?!” Hellenic heroics.

Stuck in the Filter – November’s Angry Misses

By Kenstrosity on December 21, 2021 in Blog Posts, Stuck in the Filter, 45 comments

“November had a pretty solid assortment of quality releases, both covered by us truly and unnoticed by the ascendant elite. Luckily, the intellectuals and high-IQ-having filtration team successfully dug out sparkly gems from the gross mesh of the Filter this month. Whether you agree with or support these choices depends on your innate ability to understand music and its intricate nuance.” Filter and gold.

Hollywood Burns – The Age of the Saucers [Things You Might Have Missed 2021]

By Kenstrosity on December 18, 2021 in Things You Might Have Missed 2021, Electronic, Non-metal Metal Things, Synthwave, 26 comments

“You can probably already tell that this is not a metal album. Maybe you can’t, I dunno. Either way, I can attest that this here album is awesome. Hollywood Burns is far from a household name, but French darksynth upstart Emeric “Hollywood Burns” Levardon deserves a big reputation boost coming off of his latest opus, The Age of the Saucers. Alien abductions abound and riffy electronic buzzery surround, handily securing my attention as he serves everything I want in music through his unique synthwave lens.” Watch the skies.

Ethereal Shroud – Trisagion Review

By Kenstrosity on December 16, 2021 in Reviews, Atmospheric Black Metal, Black Metal, Doom Metal, Melodic Black Metal, 71 comments

“Trisagion, at its core, fits the mold of atmospheric black metal to a tee. However, only fools suggest that Ethereal Shroud settle for that core sound without layers upon layers of extracurricular influence to flesh it out. In 2021, that influence takes the form of a most depressive subset of doom, a network of melodic leads which alternate between chilling and radiant, and crafty drumming that handily combines post-metallic defiance of standard beats with traditional blasts and double-bass runs.” Ephemeral glory on the precipice of oblivion.

Celestial Swarm – Gateways to the Necroverse [Things You Might Have Missed 2021]

By Kenstrosity on December 6, 2021 in Things You Might Have Missed 2021, Black Metal, Death Metal, Slam, 10 comments

“It seems like I routinely encounter one album within the first week of the year that sticks with me to the end. In 2021, that honor belongs to Celestial Swarm’s immense debut, Gateways to the Necroverse. The international four-piece claim to innovate a novel subset of br00tality: “slamming black metal.” Given what I’ve spent an entire year absorbing, I think a better moniker is “brutal black metal,” but I suppose that’s splitting hairs.” At the Gateways.

Cutterred Flesh – Sharing is Caring Review

By Kenstrosity on December 2, 2021 in Reviews, Death Metal, 43 comments

“Indeed, Sharing is Caring! In the spirit of sharing, allow me to share my opinion on Cutterred Flesh’s cheekily-named fifth album’s artwork. It’s brilliant, and my current favorite piece of 2021. On the surface, it follows a common aesthetic approach endemic to brutal death metal. Look closer, and notice that the subjects’ roles are flipped. The innocent, fragile hoo-mahns are the ones doing all of the flesh-tearing, stabbing and vivisecting of the big, scary monsters.” We care a lot.