“Beautiful and melodious in equal measure, At One with the Night Sky occupies that stratospheric space where the most ethereal atmoblack resides, evoking more faithfully the ebullient tones of Skyforest and Deafheaven than the tumultuous desperation of Mare Cognitum. Delicate twinkling effects and peaceful dalliances with cosmic ambiance characteristic of Skyborne Reveries further embellish Lightlorn’s high-flying approach.” Platonic forms of beauty.
“We have an incredibly hungry, ambitious doom/death quintet in San Diego’s Tideless. Many of its members served time in other bands, so experience really isn’t the issue here. What is the issue lies in the fact that Tideless, on their second full-length, is punching well above their weight class. And nothing screams “punching up” quite like a 75-minute double album of Deafheavenly delights.” Low tide, high ambition.
“Let me just address the elephant in the room: Voidmilker? Sure, metal’s got lots of voids – don’t even get me started. However, milk is far from the most metal liquid, unless you thought Milking the Goatmachine was the most kvlt thing since Mayhem took a shit on the ashes of an unsuspecting Norwegian church. And kvlt Voidmilker is, because black metal is the name of the game.” Got void?
“Pupil Slicer really shook things up in 2021. While undeniably a slab of Converge-meets-Dillinger core with a nice dose of Botch, the trio’s debut Mirrors was a tour-de-force of grindy intensity, a neat balance between heart and callousness, and a marvel of songwriting. Songs like “Husk,” “Collective Unconscious,” and “Wounds Upon My Skin” still get regular plays in the Hollow household, with mad mastermind Kate Davies’ frantic vocals, insane axework, and boundary-pushing ideas taking center stage.” Eye on the prize.
“Australia’s Woods of Desolation makes metal to metaphor by. The band’s evocative style of blackgaze, preoccupied with the natural world and the passage of time, provokes strong reactions from their small but passionate cadre of fans. The Falling Tide is WoD’s first album since 2014’s As the Stars. That one dropped during what can be called Peak Blackgaze, when outfits like Alcest and especially Deafheaven briefly captivated mainstream audiences and divided the backpatch set with their twinkling takes on metal’s trvest subgenre.” All star gazers.
“Isolation is ColdWorld’s coldest album. In spite of the snowy fuzz that graced 2008’s debut Melancholie² or the decaying grim tones of Autumn, Isolation lives up to its name in the bleakest way imaginable. It nearly forgoes its depressive and atmospheric black metal roots entirely for an album with utmost restraint, organicity taking precedence over rawness or intensity. Encompassing more wintry post-rock soundscapes and doom tempos, Isolation is held high by the pillars of loneliness and patience.” The sadbois of winter.
“Death Spells was something special. Introducing us to the beautiful and devastating world of Holy Fawn, it showcased stunning restraint for an act with everything to prove. While undeniably built upon the foundation of My Bloody Valentine or Slowdive with saturated shoegaze drenching every movement, don’t be surprised if you’re surprised with swaths of electronica, climactic metal crunch, and a knack for heart-wrenching melody. Holy Fawn is undeniably metal, and like good metal, labyrinthine.” What is metal?
“Back in the primordial days of this here blog, we attempted something called “AMG’s Unsigned Band Rodeö.” The basic idea was to select a bunch of unsigned bands and give them the collective review treatment to find the most worthy buried gems. It was our humble effort to remind folks that the metal underground is still an important part of the world of metal.” Unsigned in the East.
“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.
“The metal scene has, for the last decade or so, been relatively stagnant in its progression. Though the genre thrives, large scale innovation has stalled. Deafheaven’s Sunbather and the rise of djent and argent metal have made a sizable impact, but otherwise the genre looks much the same now as it did a decade ago. But evolution doesn’t need to result in revolution; it can be a small scale experiment that thrives on novelty, executed with a bold, focused vision. Something like, I dunno, the death-y and melodic thrash metal of Necropanther mashed up with the drunken joy of Dropkick Murphys. And that’s exactly what Pillaging Villagers is.” It takes a pillage…
