“Apparently, I’m the only one ’round these parts who gets excited to see the band Dirge in the same sentence as “post-metal.” I’m like, “they’re back, baby!” and I lose my goddamn mind. The French masterminds of such classics as Elysian Magnetic Fields and Wings of Lead Over Dormant Seas were a force to be reckoned with, but then I realize: this is the other Dirge, the one from India.” International doom.
TheKenWord and Carcharodon bring their special sets of skills to Listurnalia and things get…interesting.
![Psychonaut – Violate Consensus Reality [Things You Might Have Missed 2022]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/a3982478728_10_1.jpg.webp)
“Mixing slow-build dynamics, psychedelic excursions and cathartic crescendos with sudden explosions of fury, Psychonaut draws inspiration from the likes of The Ocean and Baroness (in that bygone era when Baroness wrote compelling music and didn’t crush their albums into unlistenable garbage at the production stage). Complex, sprawling, dense, and yet accessible, Violate Consensus Reality swirls around the listener.” Psychodrama.
“Submitting a new metal record for review in December is a hard row to hoe. The List Industrial Complex is gaining critical velocity, which means folks in our position are re-listening to the albums that most impressed us over the last 11 months and catching up on the highly regarded albums we haven’t yet heard. Unless you’re bringing your A game – or maybe the A game of a better band than yours – there’s a really good chance your album is going to be underwhelming by contrast. Dutch sludge doom band Gavran boldly present their sophomore full-length Indistinct Beacon this first week of December, the official start of EOY activity.” Indistinct scheduling.
“Under the moniker Defilementory, this Danish four-piece offers a debut that feels like a continuation of its last outing, The Dismal Ascension, but dispenses with the brutal death obsession with dismemberment and excess entirely. Dysgnostic, as a result, sets forth on its own path – a descent, if you will.” De-evolution.
Two members of the esteemed AMG staff attended the ArcTanGent Festival in Somerset, England. How many returned? Read the journal entries we recovered and pray for those we lost.
“While Hexis undoubtedly draws much comparison to the blackened hardcore/sludge of Celeste, Oathbreaker, The Secret, and even Amenra, there’s a liturgical element about them. Although its lyrics draw from the well of blasphemy and trod the well-worn path of nihilism, pitch-black reverence settles like cancer in the blood.” Hex marks the sore spot.
“Molten Husk is an album built on a balance of synchrony and glitches, a duel of cohesive riffs and splattering experimentation. We embark on a journey with Abest, witnessing this dichotomy and wondering what the hell we do with its lesson. As the journey dwindles to its final moments, Molten Husk fully succumbs to the chaos. A corrosive and unforgiving beast, whose growls are abruptly interrupted by a spare moment of humanity in the haunting “Possessor,” it pummels and unnerves in a soundtrack of breathing darkness. But this is no black metal, though it makes sporadic appearances. This is not death metal, although listeners may be reminded of it. Although based in sludge, density is eschewed for a palpable crunch instead of earth-shaking weight. At the end of Molten Husk, Abest will challenge what you think about post-metal.” Abeast.
“Dälek is a duo from Newark, New Jersey, having quietly added to the late-90s burgeoning industrial rap scene with debut Negro Necro Nekros. Hip-hop courses through this crew’s veins, their compatriots the likes of Death Grips,clipping., and JPEGMAFIA, but metal’s battle jacket graces members MC Dälek and Mike Manteca’s shoulders.” Lethal futures in flimsy wrapping.
“Cover art can be misleading, but here it’s a clue. Reflecting that twisted marine merging of human and coral, Pyrithe’s sound is chaos, artfully displayed. To their sludgy post-metal concoction, they add the use of coconuts, egg-shakers, kantele, and literal trash as musical elements. They also favor a disjointed, dissonant approach to songwriting, taking a leaf out of the more experimental edges of death metal, and beyond. In fact, they’ve even roped in Doug Moore of Pyrrhon and Seputus, the influence of which acts is quite evident. It’s heavy, it’s multifaceted, it’s a tiny bit mad, but is it any good?” Permanence and impetuousness.
