“Take a look at that cover and imagine for a second what sort of music album artwork like that might be trying to sell you. Can you hear those buzzsaws and blastbeats? Can you hear the imprecations against God, the divine order and all the fools that stand by it?” Can you judge this album by its cover? Eh, probably…
“While exploring Mudness, the curiously titled debut LP from Italian genre-benders Obsolete Theory, I thought of a lot of bands — and we’ll get to those comparisons in a moment — but more than sonic neighbors, I kept thinking about Alex Garland’s recent sci-fi/horror masterpiece, Annihilation. I found similarities not in terms of its soundtrack (although Annihilation does have a great fucking soundtrack), but rather in atmosphere and theme. Garland’s film is a grim, gorgeous examination of evolution at its most alien and unhinged; similarly, Mudness’ unpredictable, effortless genre-hopping skills, paired with its downplayed aggression in favor of a creeping sense of dread, feels unique and otherworldly.” Theory and practice.
“The creeping regularity of life has toppled many; for some, it’s the barrel of the next coffee-fueled third shift staring them down; for others, it’s another dreary adventure in cubeland. For me, it’s every death metal band that I’ve never heard of from Southern Europe.” South of the blunder.
“Back in 2016, Italy’s ghoulish Demonomancy released a split EP with Finland’s Witchcraft that was one of the first releases that I tackled as a scribe for the site. While the split didn’t have me feting either act I still wrangled a fair measure of enjoyment out of it, enough at least to warrant a closer look at Demonomancy’s new album, Poisoned Atonement.” Vote Hell.
“Some pain will last. In particular, those most formative of musical memories, the marriage of experience and DNA. Realm of Chaos and Consuming Impulse were the first to school me on how hard death metal could hit, and while Pierced From Within taught a lesson in climactic brutality, it was In Their Darkened Shrines that embodied the extravagance of extremity. These three tenets are what I champion in truly great death metal and, thanks to the latter, what can clumsily be described as “eastern” chord progressions have appealed to me ever since. Egypt’s very own Crescent know my needs, and their second album, The Order of Amenti, seeks to deliver just that.” Pyramid schemes.
“Sacrocurse’s 2014 debut Unholier Master holds a special place in my heart, but not for obvious reasons. If you’ll allow me to indulge in some selfish personal reflection. Unholier Master represented my first published piece here at Angry Metal Guy, so naturally, it has conjured up pleasant feelings of nostalgia as I prepare to sink my teeth into the band’s sophomore LP, Gnostic Holocaust.” And the AMG bathrooms have sparkled ever since.
“Altarage’s debut turned quite a few tar-covered heads, each new adherent drawn in by its tendrils of sticky ooze, a concoction of lo-fi hideousness that languished in the bogs somewhere between Portal and Teitanblood. Not the most original of albums, but it pounded a chord for metalheads oppressed by melody and clean production.” The sound of chunder.
“Before reading this here review, do me a huge and grab your nearest dictionary. Go on, I’m a patient man-cat. Scroll to the letter ‘E’ and look up the word “experimental” for me. ‘Experimental,’ by definition, relates to ideas never been used before, or lands never traversed prior. It means that whatever this amalgamation is, it’s something truly hasn’t been done before. It’s tough to pull off in metal music, but it does happen. So when the word ‘experimental’ (and next-of-kin descriptive noun ‘individualistic’) gets thrown about in a one-sheet promo PDF, the hairs on my neck stand on end.” Pavlovian neck hairs?
“Ever blackened, ever brutal, ever bothersome of livestock, Austria’s Belphegor have once again returned to necromance us with another flurry of panzer division extremity. I may not have gushed quite so profusely over the previous album, Conjuring the Dead, as Steel Druhm, but I certainly enjoyed the uptake in death metal that informed that record and still occasionally drop in when in need of a merciless bondage beating.” Hogtied and beaten sheepless.
“Our own Grymm poised no shortage of praise before Outre’s Ghost Chants in 2015, and that admiration for the album stuck long enough for it to post a respectable spot on his year-end list. I was too pissed off by the year’s dismal death metal output to look into the album at the time, but later listens revealed it to be just as described: a grating bramble of black metal, supported by a remarkably evil vocal performance. While Biesy’s Noc Lekkich Obyczajów isn’t exactly the album’s successor, it’s within spitting distance, also heavily reliant on sounds pioneered by Ulcerate and Deathspell Omega.” Spit in the city.
