“When we discuss this majesty in metal, common threads lead to Fleshgod Apocalypse and Septicflesh and their ominous orchestras, the strength of battle in the rhythms of Bathory and Amon Amarth, while colossal vastness grants Ahab its weight or Ataraxie its bleakness. Germany’s The Circle utilizes all of the above in its dense and expansive blend of melodic death, doom, and black metal, capped off by symphonic soundscapes and a Gothic vocal style.” Might, majesty, and muscle.
“Before picking this promo up, I had never heard of Sanguine Glacialis before, but I quickly fell head over heels for their wild extreme metal after checking out the kaleidoscopic blunderbuss that is Hadopelagic, their 2018 sophomore record.” Tastis the Glacialis.
“The niche within a niche label I, Voidhanger often scrapes the fringes of underground styles for acts embracing the weird, the strange, the vaguely musical—curious but rarely captivating for me. Par for the course, I’d never heard of Denmark’s Tongues before snagging up Formløse Stjerner, but something about the tumultuous landscape of the nihilistically nautical cover called to me like a Danish white whale, a hvidhval, if you will. Feel the Willies!
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“It’s no secret that the pandemic put the kibosh on the live music scene for quite some time, with aftershocks of that phenomenon still felt today. For the future of many artists releasing material late in 2019 or early 2020—like Cloak with their sophomore record The Burning Dawn—the inability to perform their latest material live to help support their reputation, their audiences, and their financials caused great strain and much uncertainty. Thankfully, Cloak dedicated every spare minute unceremoniously granted to them by the pandemic to focus on writing and perfecting new material.” Cloaking tiger, hidden flame.
“Somethin’s a brewin’ down in Nawlins, and it’s not just the festering street sludge that remains from this year’s Mardi Gras bash that has gone and passed. In fact, despite the region’s historical connection to the genre of that festering namesake, Anareta hasn’t an ounce of that groove and vitriol-fueled sound in their DNA—Fear Not comes with its own determined sense of dread and horror, though. You see, this sextet of stringed things and a drum kit play a form of gloomy and rollicking blackened metal led by the screech and saunter of a chamber orchestra trio—cello, viola, and violin fill the air of this grief-laden venture.” Crouching ferocity, hidden chamber pot.
Our promo sump feels piled these days, a good thing! And, it may be my attention to these distinctions that has grown over the year that I’ve now been with AMG, or it might just be the world we live in, but the independent release sub-pool seems to be growing drop by drop every day too. This fledgling, self-guided troupe, who funneled from afar to Australia, hasn’t even yet landed on the Encyclopedia Metallum (though they qualify), but they’ve graciously given us 2.4 gigabytes of WAV files to review for their debut outing The Spiritual Beast.” Forest packages available.
“Hanging Garden is that “other” Finnish melodic doom-death act that often gets overshadowed by the likes of Amorphis, Insomnium, and Omnium Gatherum. They’ve been around since 2004 and cranking out gothy melo-doom since 2007, and though they’ve been somewhat inconsistent over their career, the last few albums have been quite good with great moments scattered about. I was especially impressed by 2021s Skeleton Lake, which delivered exactly the kind of weepy, sadboi doom death I appreciate.” Hanging in the garden of sadz.
“Portuguese symphonic death metal outfit Godiva founded in 1999. Between that year and 2007, the fledgling band released a couple of demos and an EP, only to go on hiatus until their resurrection in 2018 with a revamped lineup and a new single, “Empty Coil.” Now, after 24 long years of toil underground, Godiva ready their first full-length LP, Hubris, in a rather saturated market for symphonic and gothic death metal.” Not just for dessert anymore.
“Gothic and symphonic metal, as with all metal, are sub-genres beset with mediocrity. Nowhere more so than Italy, a country known for painfully-earnest musical excess and silliness. A few years ago, Italy’s Dismal unveiled a record which was, kindly, shit. Quinta Essentia tried to pull together classical and metal sounds into a moody gothic atmosphere but it roundly failed to do so, principally due to jarring songwriting and half-baked production. Now in 2023 Via Entis is their next effort.” Truth in advertising.
