“Never one to shy away from political themes, Wheel has taken to a theme rather than a full-blown concept with Charismatic Leaders, decrying populism and the cult of personality across 6 tracks and an interlude. In the band’s own words, this is intended as their metal album, the heavier, angrier version of the predecessors.” The Wheel of idealogy.
“Aquilus occupies a place of special importance in my music collection. One or two exceptions aside, 2011’s Griseus and 2021’s Bellum I offer the best fusions of symphonic music and heavy metal that I’ve heard. Now in 2024 Bellum II completes the puzzle started by its predecessor. A gap of just 2.5 years, compared with 10 years, is far more digestible and strikes while the band remains fresh in my mind.” Another night at the symphony.
“We’ve covered Flamekeeper mastermind Marco S. before, under his blackened death metal project Demonomancy. It stands to reason, then, that Marco knows what black metal sounds like, but there is almost no trace of it in Flamekeeper. An occasional dalliance with quicker gallops verifies some measure of power metal heritage as well, but at the core this music is tailor-made for raising swords and pumping chests in the traditional way—think less Morgul Blade and more Manowar.” Epic flames of burnt ciders?
“No one does music quite like Austin’s Glassing. Nearly impossible to pigeonhole in its blend of jagged riffs and crystalline melodies, critics have conjured the likes of post-metal, post-black, post-rock, mathcore, shoegaze, sludge, noise rock, screamo, and post-hardcore to describe it – none ever quite sticking the landing.” Square pegs, round holes. FIGHT.
“The Montreal trio has always offered what they coin “massive minimalism,” and A Chaos of Flowers represents its most minimalist offering. Big|Brave does away with earthshaking, mountainous compositions of drone riffs in favor of an evocative, simmering, and otherworldly experience.” Stop and kill the flowers.
“Unearthly Rites are a new kid on the block in Finnish death metal, with only an EP to their name prior to the release of debut full-length, Ecdysis. Formed by scene vets with time spent in Sink, Hexhammer, and Fuck-Ushima, they bring plenty of experience to the party. What Unearthly Rites offer is a ghastly amalgamation of raw old school death, grind, and crust, curated and designed to cave in your face with the resulting unnatural sound profile.” Earth as mass grave.
“Crawl, to put it simply, sounds pissed off. Not one to fuck with, Crawl’s sound hearkens to those HM-2 legends we all know very well (Entombed, Dismember), but filtered through the punky swagger and unlimited ire of acts like Goregäng and Vomitheist. Knowing all three of those things—HM-2 pedals, Goregäng, and Vomitheist—found a warm bed in the death mansion that is the prolific Transcending Obscurity Records, most of our readership automatically know what to expect from Altars of Disgust.” HM-2 and YOU.
“As per usual with Darkthrone these days, a new record arrived without any notice and NO ONE got the promo until after its release. So, here I am trying to toss together a review at the last second for a band whose process is so annoying that I don’t even want to review them. But, I love Darkthrone.” When the smackins beckons…
“Ossilegium, “[o]ne of the best-kept secrets of Chicago’s metal scene,” are a duo hoping to come out of the crypt with panache, playing a brand of black(ened death) metal that hearkens back to decades past. No frills, all ferocity. Going for old-school means high expectations for catchiness and bite, if not intrigue.” Bring out your death.
“If you’ve been following the modern grindcore scene in any fashion over the past fifteen years, then you’ve at least heard of Maryland’s high-output, low-trend grindmongers Full of Hell. Collaborating or splitting space with everyone from tough punks Code Orange to Japanese static spinner Merzbow to pneumatic pulse demons The Body, Full of Hell scrapes ideas from every corner in the extreme music space to fuel the iterative process of the twenty to thirty-minute burners that are their “full-length” releases.” Hell is home.
