“The Biolume trilogy is massive, not only in runtime but also in the scope of its storytelling. The records move from darkened subterranean halls on In Tartarean Chains, through a blinding desert of celestial light on The Golden Orb to stare at the haunting night sky, dimly lit by that same light reflecting off a dead satellite on A Fullmoon Madness. Perhaps it was always inevitable that, as we moved up through these levels, each would be vaster in scope and scale than the last.” Size matters.
“A Dialogue with the Eeriest Sublime is pure unadulterated Vertebra Atlantis at its finest. Blending blackened death punishment with the grandiosity of a crashing castle, the doom-laden contemplation of the awe its destruction invokes, the blackened attack that battles ice with fire, and the atmospheric ice that coats every surface, the Italian trio has stepped up everything that gave its predecessor, the great Lustral Purge in Cerulean Bliss, its signature blend of punishing and atmospheric.” Sublime mass destruction.
“No stranger to this trendy, oddball scene of death metal dependent on heavy use of dissonant harmonies, Baring Teeth smiles crooked once again. Gracing these halls not once but twice with commendable offerings, our own Kronos revealed that “Baring Teeth’s greatest strength is their peerlessness” and the Texas trio “shuns accessibility”—these veterans scream the nature of this high-brow form of technical death metal. Alien yet organic, obtuse yet hypnotic, the contradictions and shades of humanity that this boundary-agnostic act continues to find allow enough of a footing in an amorphous sound to drive a crowd from navel-gazing to circle-pitting at will.” TEEF!
“Last time we met Bekor Qilish, the one-man show was the thrashened epitome of what we like to call “Voidhanger-core:” black metal with a penchant for riffs, wonky rhythms, and a healthy slathering of dissonance. Honing in on a completely alien sound tossed with reckless abandon and a healthy amount of lighthearted fun, Throes of Death from the Dreamed Nihilism nonetheless suffered from a lack of surefire direction, just kinda bouncing around wonky dissonance and neat riffs for the hell of it. Over a year later, we are greeted with its follow-up, The Flesh of a New God.” Flesh is a gift.
“Acausal Intrusion verged on greatness with 2021’s Nulitas, touching the lip of the void but never quite accomplishing the swan dive into the darkness. Uncompromisingly complex, dissonant, and brutal through Nythroth’s unhinged axework, alongside more brutal elements like vocalist Cave Ritual’s subterranean growls and his tasteful pong snare, it was an album loaded with potential – uniquely accomplished through a strangely counterintuitive meditative quality.” Pardon this new Intrusion.
The boys of Summer were stuck ungunking the Filter for months. Salute them with pumpkin spice things as they emerge into a chilly Fall.
“What is prog metal? At times, it’s too easy to slap the label onto anything different and call it a day—I myself am guilty of using the phrase “progressive melodic death metal” as if it’s a thing. But every once in a while comes a record that’s so very prog, there’s just no way around it. Fleshvessel, who hail from the US of A, releasing their debut record Yearning: Promethean Fates Sealed is one such record. I’ve seen this called “experimental death metal,” but let’s be honest with ourselves here, when there are more than four times as many instruments as band members, we can call it progressive metal and then call it a day.” Prog the skin and flesh out the death.
“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!
We cleaned the Filter back in March, but it’s taken a while to process the objects we pulled from the webbing. We apologize for the crud.
“A project of San Francisco-based musician Robert Woods-LaDue and Bay-area session jazz musicians, Onkos is definitely metal, but like, what? Most akin to Barcelona flute/double bass bastards Inhumankind, Vascular Labyrinth can be best described as a chamber jazz act covering death metal.” In the veins of weirdness.
