Imperial Triumphant

Kilter/Andromeda Anarchia/Growlers Choir/Seven)Suns – La Suspendida Review

Kilter/Andromeda Anarchia/Growlers Choir/Seven)Suns – La Suspendida Review

By Dear Hollow on March 19, 2024 in Reviews, Death Metal, 48 comments

“Never before had I met a Promo God-designated genre-tag so perfect: “silliness.” La Suspendida is a wildly experimental Silent Pendulum-backed collaboration of four artists – and I’m not gonna pretend I know each of the act’s respective history or discography. Mostly based in Brooklyn, Kilteris a jazz metal trio featuring Imperial Triumphant drummer Kenny Grohowski, Andromeda Anarchia is an opera soprano and also a member of the opera/black metal Folterkammer project, the Growlers Choir is a Montreal-based group of metal vocalists, and Seven)Suns is a “dystopian” string quartet dedicated to translating metal to strings.” Gang’s all here!!

Owdwyr – Receptor Review

Owdwyr – Receptor Review

By Dear Hollow on October 20, 2023 in Reviews, Classical, Death Metal, Deathcore, Groove Metal, Mathcore, Technical Death Metal, Thrash Metal, 18 comments

“The “for fans of” line in any given promo is a true test of character. While most bands crank out their faves, there are intriguing blends that grab attention. Most of these are disappointments, often running the gamut of extreme metal buzzwords only to be the latest act to sound exactly like In Flames, but there are others whose combinations are pretty accurate, like the tantalizing combination that the California-based Owdwyr boasts in its debut Receptor: from Car Bomb, Human Remains, and Fleshgod Apocalypse to composers like Bach, Allan Holdsworth, and Heitor Villa-Lobos. In essence, Owdwyr may be genius or not, but this trio is always batshit crazy.” Owdwyr812.

Bekor Qilish – The Flesh of a New God Review

Bekor Qilish – The Flesh of a New God Review

By Dear Hollow on October 10, 2023 in Reviews, Black Metal, Death Metal, Thrash Metal, 17 comments

“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.

SARMAT – Determined to Strike Review

SARMAT – Determined to Strike Review

By Thus Spoke on June 20, 2023 in Reviews, 45 comments

“They say you can never have too much of a good thing. But they’re wrong. Everything eventually becomes stale. As the age-old complaint/joke about technical death metal highlights, there is definitely such thing as too technical and complex. While it differs from person to person, everyone has a threshold beyond which music stops being enjoyable due to its dissonance, technicality, and complexity. With this preamble, I introduce New York progressive technical death metal group SARMAT, whose debut Determined to Strike is likely to approach if not leap beyond the threshold of many listeners.” Prog Depot.

Imperial Triumphant – Spirit of Ecstasy Review

Imperial Triumphant – Spirit of Ecstasy Review

By Grymm on July 21, 2022 in Reviews, Death Metal, 152 comments

“We already know what’s going to happen here: I review Imperial Triumphant’s fifth album, Spirit of Ecstasy, and the comments section here will explode with remarks from the peanut gallery, explaining how much they can’t stand this type of music and how it’s “hipster drivel” of the highest magnitude. Ah, yes… the most divisive band we’ve ever reviewed that’s not named Impure Wilhelmina, Fellowship, or Wilderun, New York’s guttural black-death-jazz miscreants have no less stirred up the masses here in such a tizzy that you’d half-expect them to have somehow personally violated your dog. But no, all they did was make music.” Opulence amid the decadence.