“Just look at that cover! I didn’t quite care what it ended up being when I saw that brazenly bright, composite-faced figure with its many mouths open in… anguish? Excitement? Both? Of course, I knew it had to foreshadow noise to some degree—something so frighteningly stitched could only be the result of frequencies scraping the boundary between pique and pleasure.” Horse show.
“93696 is, apparently, the numerological representation of heaven. It is also the numerological representation of Liturgy with the dial turned to 11. If you aren’t familiar, explaining Liturgy is a challenge. It’s black metal meets avant-garde sparkliness meets weird trills meets progressive djentiness meets dissonant noisiness, all of which thunders uneasily around your brain.” Math and insanity.
“Despite the positive review we gave to Epistemology, Norway’s Keep of Kalessin polarizes the rowdy AMG staff. For reasons I can’t fathom, despite the band’s 30-year history and commercial success, nearly none of my peers has heard of them except Grier, who hates their guts. I enjoyed Epistemology when it came out. Keep of Kalessin’s over-the-top brand of symphonic black metal lacked consistency, but the best parts of the album steamrolled me with a vigor that I still feel eight years later.” Keeping the faith.
“UK’s mysterious Sermon burst from out of nowhere on phenomenal 2019 debut album, Birth of the Marvellous. The debut was an incredibly accomplished, polished jewel of intense and emotive progressive metal, boasting excellent production and top-shelf writing and performances from the duo. Sermon bided their time crafting the follow-up to an unexpected underground hit, with combined efforts and careful craftmanship resulting in another triumphant release.” Preaching to the choir.
“”Incendiary” is a good word to describe Whore of Bethlehem. I was introduced to the Austin act with sophomore effort Extinguish the Light, which was intense and burning for its time – same with its follow-up. Whether it be the moniker or album title, the cover art, or the fire that the quintet injects into its sound, Ritual of Homicide is incendiary. Fiery blackened death accomplished through the relentless gaze of brutal death, its intensity cannot be understated.” Whores d’oeuvres.
“Ne Obliviscaris hardly require introduction in these parts. The last decade established a pattern of bi- or tri-annual releases, opening with 2012’s inventive Portal of I and closing with 2017’s well-regarded Urn. One pandemic and an uncharacteristic wait later has revealed 2023’s Exul. Boasting a core fusion of progressive music, extreme metal and classical influences, these Aussies have always reveled in not just musical, but also thematic, excess. Accordingly, Exul appears to lever a loose Crusades theme.” Big Obliviscaris.
“Though I’ve explored every album and every song from these Finnish monsters (sometimes multiple times over the years), I do not fully enjoy their music. But, when I see a new Lordi release, my ignorance overcomes, and I snatch it open immediately. Why I do it, I don’t know. But it’s not like any other writer would dare touch it, thereby dumping unnecessary stress on myself to find it in the bin and claim it. But that’s what I do. Because no one seems to like this band, and I’m the only one stupid enough to review them. That said, you’re all idiots for reading this.” Lordi, Lordi.
“Finland—is there something in the water? Is the air cleaner, the skies bluer, the nighttime cooler? Really, I don’t know what it is, but when you put the words “Finnish” and “black metal” together, the result is, on average, just better. And no, I don’t have stats to back this up, and I don’t plan on finding any either. All I’m going to do here is explain that between that cover over there and that country over there, I have unreasonable expectations for Ounas I, the fourth full-length release from Finnish melodic black metal act Suotana.” Fin living.
“Angerot ventures deep into the Valley of Ov on The Profound Recreant, leaning hard into the strain of theatrical Satanism that ran through their first two albums. We’re defiling daughters here, swallowing other people’s mucous, and slaking the lust of the recently widowed. Choirs chime in to document the various blasphemies, with horns and keys dropping by to add occasional symphonic flourishes.” Devil by the tail.
“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.
