2023’s cleaning protocols are finally complete, and here comes the Filter scrappings from November and December. Taste them all, then consult a funeral director.
Avant-garde Black Metal
![Theophonos – Nightmare Visions [Things You Might Have Missed 2023]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/a4256426977_0-768x768.jpeg)
Theophonos – Nightmare Visions [Things You Might Have Missed 2023]
“Nightmare Visions is a blackened grindcore debut from Michigan’s Theophonos, the brainchild of Jimmy Hamzey (Serpent Column). If that genre label sounds unappetizing, don’t let that deter you. Theophonos took every hard rock and metal song released since 1967, crammed them all into a woodchipper, and assembled the mangled output into a blackened 30-minute hydra. Miraculously, it works.” NightmareER!!
Ôros Kaù – Thanatos Review
“You may know Ôros Kaù’s sole member CZLT from experimental-free-jazz-black-death-drone project Neptunian Maximalism, or perhaps one of the half-dozen other extreme metal projects he’s part of. In his solo work he takes a distinctly more blackened and aggressive approach, though it’s not exactly your straightforward black metal. Thanatos—the first half of an announced diptych, with Hypnos to follow shortly—channels reflections on death and spiritual freedom through occult imagery and echoing avant-garde death and black metal. It’s about as impenetrably menacing as you might expect, perhaps more atmospheric, but denser than predecessor Imperii Templum Aries.” Neptune unbound.
Dødheimsgard – Black Medium Current Review
“If you were to ask me how to do avant-garde black metal, I would point straight away to Dødsheimgard. The trajectory of their sound from raw second-wave fury to electronic, industrial, jazzy, experimental black has been nothing short of thrilling to witness. 2015’s A Umbra Omega—my personal entry point—set a new standard in the avant-garde metal scene, demonstrating the weird, wonderful depths DHG could conjure, fully realized.” Odd fellows unrest.
![Zeal & Ardor – Zeal & Ardor [Things You Might Have Missed 2022]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/a0216729942_10-768x768.jpg)
Zeal & Ardor – Zeal & Ardor [Things You Might Have Missed 2022]
“Zeal & Ardor have always been a band of “buts” (with only one “t”!): individual songs have been great but previous albums haven’t quite coalesced into a consistent whole. The live show is fantastic but the energy is lost in the recording studio (compare the scintillating live performance of “Baphomet”—with its classic “Right hand up! Left hand down!” chorus—to the tame studio version). Their schtick of combining slave gospel with black metal is great but it’s also limited in its options and will become overdone soon. Which meant a great deal rode on their third album, Zeal & Ardor. Was the band going to fulfill its promise, or remain an interesting, if flawed, mishmash? A “but” band, if you will?” But rock.
Plebeian Grandstand – Rien ne suffit Review
“Rien ne suffit: nothing is enough. For Plebeian Grandstand, it might as well be a motto. The Toulouse have made their career defying categorization, and pushing each release to be something new, something more. How Hate is Hard to Define set a bar for blackened mathcore that no other record has come close to clearing, only for the band to sink into sludgy, dissonant black metal with Lowgazers. That muddy reek was fired with death metal oppression to make the gleaming False Highs, True Lows, and now, with Rien ne Suffit, it is shattered.” Enough is never MOAR.
Alkuharmonian Kantaja – Shadowy Peripherals Review
“I like my music weird. It’s a problem, and it’s great. You see, I don’t think there’s really a lot of truly “weird” in metal. Weird musicians, sure. Weird concepts, absolutely—how about those guys who write about mollusks?—but actual, genuine, weirdness? I don’t know. So when I see the fabled “avant-garde black metal” tag floating about in our pile o’ promos, I tend to take first and ask questions later.” Undue diligence done dirt cheap.
Alcest – Spiritual Instinct Review
“Throughout their career as Alcest and helped by gradual fluctuations in style, French multi-instrumentalist Neige and drummer Winterhalter have been cultivating a deep sense of beauty and unfiltered sentiment. An exploration of sonic poetry in the vein of The Lake Poets, unmistakably filled with a romantic ache, a longing, and an expression of beauty and infatuation with the world so deep it hurts. Looking back at their previous work, Spiritual Instinct appears as one of the purest manifestations of this search.” Let the spirit guide.
Trono Além Morte – O Olhar Atento de Escuridão Review
“Let me tell you something which you might already know but have most likely never heard stated directly: Master-baiting is incredibly easy. To set a Muppet trap, one only needs a handful of specific pearls to effectively get me off of one musical tangent and thrusted furiously into another. Slap the black metal tag on something, slather it in cvlt artwork and croon it to me in a foreign tongue and I’m about as sonically revved up as they come.” Muppets are cheap dates.
Throane – Plus une main à mordre Review
“In retrospect, Throane’s tantalizing début Derrière-Nous, La Lumière is one of those records whose piercing splinters, given time to gestate, have a tendency to deeply ingrain themselves into thoughts. Almost imperceptible at first, its monochromatic strokes paint uncomfortable rooms of the mind. Rooms filled with anguish and darkness, shaped equally by fears of the void and an existential dread of the mundane. Spaces hidden behind walls upon walls, repressed but always present. The idea of revisiting this world is one that is simultaneously exhilarating and frightening.” Splinters in the mind’s eye.
