“When I reviewed B R I Q U E V I L L E’s third record, Quelle, I got tetchy about all the spaces between the letters, and various other pretensions. However, the Belgian project’s mesmerizing brand of instrumental post-metal won me over. Its bleak, misery-drenched tones conveyed everything that slightly uncomfortable-to-look-at album artwork suggested it might, ranging from a sludgy Bossk to Godspeed You! Black Emperor in tone. At almost an hour in length, and with a few strange choices in its composition, Quelle did struggle a little under its own weight but it still held my attention. Although the spaces now seem to come and go, it would appear BRIQUEVILLE have found a new way to irk me with their fourth record, IIII.” B r i c k by BRIQUE.
Pelagic Records
Stuck in the Filter – April’s Angry Misses
April Filter scum brings May audio chum. Get yours while supplies last!
The Ocean – Holocene Review
“Twenty-twenty’s follow-up, Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic | Cenozoic, dragged us through the Triassic and Jurassic periods, bringing us to our current epoch of existence—the Holocene. Ending that album with ‘Holocene,’ the closer stood out among the rest. Its lavish textures and feel-good beauty separated it from the violent cacophony of the back-to-back ‘Triassic’ and ‘Jurassic.’ An approach that the band takes for almost the entirety of Holocene. Switching gears ever-so-slightly to a softer approach, this new epoch in The Ocean’s journey embodies birth, growth, and life. But does Holocene capture the true spirit of this final leg? Is it worthy enough to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Phanerozoic I and Phanerozoic II? As with all great things, only time will tell.” World building.
Psychonaut – Violate Consensus Reality [Things You Might Have Missed 2022]
“Mixing slow-build dynamics, psychedelic excursions and cathartic crescendos with sudden explosions of fury, Psychonaut draws inspiration from the likes of The Ocean and Baroness (in that bygone era when Baroness wrote compelling music and didn’t crush their albums into unlistenable garbage at the production stage). Complex, sprawling, dense, and yet accessible, Violate Consensus Reality swirls around the listener.” Psychodrama.
Abraham – Débris de mondes perdus Review
“I have struggled mightily with Abraham. At its core, is it still Neurosis-core? Sure. Any post-metal release is bound to be. But there’s something especially tortured about its swaths of monolithic riffs and vivacious in its vocal variety, but above all, patient. It feels like an otherworldly ritual, as the drums pulse and the guitars plod with hypnotic rhythms to the beat of otherworldly suffering. While its former releases felt shining and hopeful, clean and precise, fourth full-length Débris de mondes perdus feels gritty, soiled, and unforgiving – but above all, hopeless.” Death of the sun/son?
LLNN – Unmaker [Things You Might Have Missed 2021]
“Denmark’s LLNN—a name which I initially assumed must be an acronym—were unknown to me until I happened upon a rec in the comments on September’s ROTM. Now, I like to think of myself as a connoisseur of all things post-, so when someone touts anything with that tag, I am going to investigate, particularly if they describe it as ‘absolutely devastating.’ And holy fuck, they weren’t kidding.” Unmaker’s mark.
B R I Q U E V I L L E – Quelle Review
“B R I Q U E V I L L E. Yes, the promo blurb immediately reassures me, the “spaces between the letters are indeed part of their moniker.” And I roll my eyes and dispense with the spaces. Quelle is the third record from this Flanders, Belgium collective and the first to have a title, following 2014’s self-titled debut and 2017’s II. The title is a linguistic play on Quelle’s differing meanings in German and French, ‘source’ and ‘which,’ respectively, with the “theme of a ‘source’ and the ‘which’ linking it reflexively to our previous album artwork,” quoth the raven Nazgûl-robed, golden-masked BRIQUEVILLE member.” Another BRIQUE in the wall.
Bear – Propaganda Review
“How much good groove metal have we even heard in the last decade? Unto the Locust was, in my opinion, Machine Head’s last good album, and that’s about where it ends for me. Groove-influenced bands like The Haunted have worked much better than bands that use it as its core. Belgian quartet Bear seek to subvert that formula by stapling several genres to its creamy groove center.” Grizzly grooves.
Psychonaut – Unfold the God Man Review
“I love the color purple. Such a rich palette of hues lie within this particular segment of the spectrum, all of which pair well with an extensive array of complements. Purple can convey royalty, seduction, obliteration, depression, and damn near everything else provided a competent application thereof. Of course, that holds true for most colors, but just seeing purple is more exciting to me than seeing any other color. This brings us to Belgian post-metal trio Psychonaut, whose debut album Unfold the God Man features a gorgeous cover warmly ensconced in my current color of choice.” Do not tear, fold or mutilate.
Hypno5e – A Distant (Dark) Source Review
“Genres are one of the most contentious features of music in general, and metal in particular, considering the wide sprawl of sub-subtypes we have dug around ourselves. I won’t dive into the deeper discussion about the merits of this labyrinthine web here, but I will make the case for ‘cinematic metal’ to be the most useless genre tag in the metalverse. Bands ranging from power metal to black metal and everything in between have laid claim to it, and the argumentation for it rarely stretches beyond ‘there’s a story in the lyrics.’” Sourcing a feeling.