![Phrenelith – Desolate Endscape [Things You Might Have Missed 2017]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Phrenelith-Desolate-Endscape-Cover-768x778.jpg)
“Three chimes. That’s how much warning Phenelith afford before Desolate Endscape steamrolls you into fucking oblivion. “Heavy” doesn’t begin to cover the Copenhagen quartet’s skull-obliterating debut, an album which elevates death metal from a mere musical style to a tectonic force.” You can’t outrun the Steamroller of Fate.
“It comes as little surprise that Finland, a country whose sun-cycle engenders circadian insanity, is host to a veritable pantheon of definitively heavy bands. Desolate Shrine stand proud amidst their ranks, hoisting aloft a looming colossus of atmospheric death metal to further blot out the sun. Standing on the shoulders of an already potent discography, fourth album, Deliverance from the Godless Void, weaves arcane Incantations through Thergothonian vistas for yet another evocative and doubly crushing outing.” Finland murders the Sun.
“In what is sure to be a heart-stopping shock to readers, I’m embarking upon a mid-length review of a brutal death metal album from Italy that I’m not terribly fond of. Gasp and swoon though you may, if you survey recent examples of Italian brutal death metal reviewed in this august publication, the Kronos name is not too thick in the ground, and that’s intentional. I’m a devout opponent of the style of brutal death pioneered by Hour of Penance and copied by so many of their Mediterranean peers and do my best to avoid reviewing death bands who play in the style simply because it’s a lose-lose situation.” Death in Venice (or nearby).
“The extreme genres of metal are utterly obsessed with war, death, and violence, suggesting the view that the human experience is one of cruelty largely restrained, with all of us united by the cold embrace of death. Extreme metal seems to explore these ideas intently, attempting to find a certain beauty or, at the very least, excitement in the worst impulses of man. Art, at its core, seems to try and explore and express a particular facet of the human experience and imbue it with some sort of message or worldview. We’re naturally repulsed by death and destruction, but, like the story of Leonitus looking at corpses in Plato’s Republic, we’re also fascinated by it: ‘Look for yourselves, you evil wretches! Take your fill of the beautiful sight!'” Man Unkind.
“Any reviewer is more experienced with one subgenre than another, and that experience gives a more focused sense of what’s worth hearing and what’s not so compelling. This is why you’ll often see a weird or almost non-metal record get a good review and decent death metal platter an underwhelming one; something merely decent can sound far better without a wide-ranging experience, as what is the benchmark? That begs the question of why you’d have anyone write outside of their wheelhouse, and the answer is simple: because a review is one opinion and not the final word on a record.” Opinions, man….
“Being a crusty Swe-death record, Decreation draws heavily on Entombed, Dismember, Nihilist, Grave, and the like, with the modern touch of Black Breath and their ilk. There’s little else to say…” Shortest. Review. Ever.
“Once again, Incantation have returned to drop another platter of death metal denser than the Earth’s mantle and more noxious than whatever genetic twist of fate finds us sharing a world with Kardashians. Previous album, Dirges of Elysium, was described by Steel Druhm – the one man guaranteed to bring a gun to a knife fight – as “accessible;” a relative term when discussing any metal band, but particularly one like Incantation.” Art in the abyss.
“Death/doom is a deceptively mercurial beast, possessed of a tangential tendency to meander in directions that range from the darkly romantic to the downright bludgeoning. Detroit’s Temple of Void are plainly with the latter and dole out the kind of stomach churning Asphyxiation that had me at hello.” Skull and void.
“Glance at the cover art for this grotesque slab of stripped-back brutality and immediately you get an insight into the album’s grimy and barbaric death metal aesthetic, unleashed in all its fury in what is likely to be one of the most gruesome releases of 2017. Crafted by the hands of Aussie underground scene veterans, Contaminated live up to their chosen moniker with uncomfortable ease and while the album has some issues and certainly isn’t for the faint-hearted, it’s a hell of a punishing ride.” Clean the Toilet ov Death.
“Of all the metal sub-genres to come to prominence in the last decade or so, perhaps the most frustrating is the so-called “caverncore” style. We’ve heard it time and again: murky guitars, gurgly vocals, and an unabashed love for Incantation in both sound and artwork. While it’s proven a successful sonic palette for bands like Cruciamentum and Dead Congregation (not to mention the recent Cemetery Urn album), many of these groups simply mire themselves in a riff-less murk that makes even Alestorm seem appealing.” When the crevice calls.
