“New year, new sponge, same gig. What a better way to kick off 2024 than with some brutal, slightly proggy, slightly technical death metal! How serendipitous it was, then, that Engulf finally dropped their debut LP The Dying Planet Weeps upon my eager lap. Complete with very nice artwork and a remarkably rich and warm production, The Dying Planet Weeps aims to make a mockery of my scoring average as early in the year as it possibly can.” Engulfed by overratings.
“Eight years ago, Australian brutal death duo Revulsed dropped one of the most overlooked slabs of quality murderizing, Infernal Atrocity. Dripping with grimy licks, slithering riffs, and enough pinch harmonics to pop your nipples right off your torso, Infernal Atrocity demanded the attention of all who would encounter it. The fact that it was the band’s debut outing makes it only that much more impressive. Now it’s 2023, going on 2024. Revulsed found their way into Everlasting Spew’s roster, and at long last sophomore follow-up Cerebral Contamination prepares for ultimate unleashment.” Irresistable revulsion.
“In the wretched realms of death metal, Finland’s Lauri Laaksonen is a known commodity. After a five-year stint in Sear, LL, as he’s credited on most liner notes, founded the beastly Desolate Shrine in 2010. We here at AMG have for the most part fawned in a most undignified manner over that project’s output. On the strength of that discography alone, LL could hold his head high among his most celebrated death metal contemporaries. But his impact on the genre doesn’t end there. Since 2018, LL has released some of the very finest slabs of demoralizing deathly doom in recent memory through his band Convocation.” Dark days in Finland.
“I’ve been listening to, thinking, and talking about Incantation a lot lately. If I had wanted a palate cleanser after our monumental ranking piece, I could have chosen a better promo than ,b>FossilizationLeprous Daylight. São Paulo’s V and P are no strangers to the AMG gauntlet, making up half of sludge doom outfit Jupiterian, whom we’ve favorably reviewed twice. For this project, the Brazilian duo, like their New Jersey forebearers, make grimy death metal full of searing tremolo riffs, disgustingly guttural vocals, and wretched doom stretches.” Incanting the remains.
May Day is upon us, in July! Join us as we demonstrate what focused spring/early summer Filter cleaning can accomplish when you have motivated technicians.
“Swedish goofballs Birdflesh return with another fun, uproarious and colorful explosion of old school grind on their sixth LP, Sickness in the North. The veteran trio smash out the follow-up to 2019’s thoroughly enjoyable, Extreme Graveyard Tornado, and all is good in the grind world.” Birds of a feather grind together.
“Established in 2009, Maze of Sothoth toiled underground, swirling amongst eldritch soil devoid of all life, carefully awaiting their time to emerge. Emerge they did with a twisted debut, Soul Demise, in 2017. Reveling in a grimy, horrid tech death reminiscent of Origin and Kronos, Soul Demise showed great promise for the fledgling band, fast and vicious were its crooked tendrils. Six years later, Maze of Sothoth emerge again from the inky void with the even grimier Extirpated Light,” Tentacle whap, tendril slap.
“Does a new year mean new pursuits? New ideas and new beginnings? Who cares? For me, a new year just means more death metal. As such, I’m starting 2023 off the way our forefathers intended: with a smattering of muck and more than a glaze of grime. With this being my goal, I figured I couldn’t go wrong with the sophomore album from Nothingness, a Minneapolis-based quintet who know how to craft a riff almost as competently as they can choose an album cover.” And Nothingness matters.
“Beyond its cover’s deceptively pastoral mountain scene, Altars offers something lurking underneath. On paper, the trio deals in a collision of dissonant death metal name-drops we’ve come to expect, and it would be easy to stop there. But we won’t, because there’s something else. Ascetic Reflection’s unique take settles in the negative spaces between lurching and punishing with clarity and nimbleness, allowing its meditative lurch to burrow into listeners’ skin. Holding mirrors of the self and the divine and the futility therein, the aptly named Ascetic Reflection deals in shredding pain.” Altars of radness.
“If you’ve read my reviews before, you know how cautious I am about the riff. While hordes of metal maniacs revel in it and many even choose metal entirely for it, I’m about the atmosphere. That being said, if the riff sticks, it sticks hard. Death metal albums like Dyscarnate’s With All Their Might and Infernal Coil’s Within a World Forgotten offer high octane insanity aplenty with just enough variety and atmosphere, giving further weight to the riff. Italian quartet Instigate invokes the riff – and hard.” Riffy sense.
