The October Filter Report is here and we have some interesting things to break down for you. Get stuck!
Amenra
Rorcal – Silence Review
“Rorcal’s approach to auditory darkness is nonetheless unmistakable, post-hardcore and post-metal coursing through every vein. Dissonant and ominous, tar-thick slogs of drone/sludge contrast mightily with raw wounds of blackened shreds with impeccable balance.” Silent but deadly.
Dymna Lotva – The Land Under the Black Wings: Blood Review
“Art is a conduit for many things, but it’s particularly powerful when both its contents and very existence make some form of protest. A subversion of the status quo and illumination of its not-so-hidden darkness. Such is the case for Dymna Lotva’s third record The Land Under the Black Wings: Blood, a collection of stories of sorrow and injustice—both real and apocryphal—from their native Belarus.” Cries in the darkness.
Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean – Obsession Destruction Review
“Massachusetts quartet Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean (who, I assume, take their name from the 2007 song “Fucking Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean” by Louisiana sludge legends, Thou) have made a bit of a name for themselves on the sludge scene, despite having only one (short) LP to their name, 2017’s Decay and Other Hopes Against Progress.” Chained by an anchor?
Predatory Void – Seven Keys to the Discomfort of Being Review
“Voids are not an uncommon thing to discuss in metal. Somehow putting to music the vastness, the unfathomability, the colossus of nothingness is a feat in and of itself, and many have attempted to bring it to life. It’s the ultimate futility, the great vanity. While many have tried, from the mysterious Prava Kollektiv’s Voidsphere, the Swiss enigma Death. Void. Terror., and the dense death metal of Desolate Shrine or Abyssal, they are mere glimpses of the monument, the perspective of madness. When the cold nothingness attaches to the skull and does not shake, will Predatory Void provide the siren’s song sprinting to the early grave?” When voids attacks.
Dirge – Dirge Review
“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’s and Carcharodon’s Top Ten(ish) of 2022
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]
“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.
Gavran – Indistinct Beacon Review
“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.
Dysgnostic – Scar Echoes Review
“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.