“With a lineup of New York experimental metal and prog veterans, it’s no surprise that the group glint and dazzle like so many subatomic scintillations, but the strength of Vonals lies in its subtle ebb of the ridiculous and the restrained.” Jazz monsters.
“Consisting of Italian vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Andrea Bruzzone and company, Bekor Qilish offers its debut Throes of Death from the Dreamed Nihilism. While it toes the line between full-length and EP at twenty-eight minutes, it manages to embody really fun “Voidhanger-core” to a tee.” Avant-guardians.
“If you make stuff, you probably make side-projects. No matter how much you like what you do, some things get too big, too stressful, to focus creative efforts on, and the creative urge trickles into one-offs that reflect what the main project cannot. Prospectors is one such oddity, formed by a couple black metal musicians leaning into their progressive tendencies. They take after Colin Marston projects—Krallice and early Behold… the Arctopus—but temper their oddities with more conventional structures.” Fertile soil.
“There’s a menagerie of experimental groups about the borders of the black and death metal scenes, tracing out their own paths without much regard for popular approval or commercial success. On occasion, these groups will sweep into the mainstream, but for the most part, their influence is more subtle, appearing in an adulterated form in the riskier songs of established artists. If your poison is black metal you can choose between the flavors of Krallice (ever bolstered by their lineup’s star power), Jute Gyte, Genevieve, and many others. If your neck is a bit larger in diameter, you might want to choke down Baring Teeth, Coma Cluster Void, or this week’s subject, Thoren.” Buffet of bitters.
“Krallice is a band that often gets misunderstood. Forcibly shoved into a conveniently labeled drawer of “black metal,” the New York group was an easy target of both the trve black metal kvltists, condemning them for “mocking and desecrating the genre,” and the mainstream public, that couldn’t stand such “noisy wankery.” They’ve been cynically called “controversial,” “divisive,” “hipsters,“ and “ostentatious,” often being mentioned in the same breath with the likes of Deafheaven and Liturgy, with whom they have little in common.” Notice how New York is becoming the Mecca of interesting black metal?
“New York City is the new home of French black metal. No, I’m not entirely fucking with you. Hear me out… back in 2013, Madam X reviewed Goliath, Imperial Triumphant’s two-song EP, and it impressed quite a number of us here at the offices of Angry Metal Guy. All of that is a moot point, for as promising as Goliath was, nobody was prepared for the ingenuity, the murkiness, and the sheer WTF Factor that their sophomore full-length, Abyssal Gods, would bestow onto our jaded ears.” New York City always had a significant WTF Factor.
