Releases

Aodon – 11069 Review

By Kronos on March 23, 2020 in 2020, Black Metal, French Metal, Releases, Reviews, Willowtip, Atmospheric Black Metal, Black Metal, 19 comments

“I don’t often review black metal – but, then again, Willowtip doesn’t often release black metal. Those familiar with the label know it for its commitment to releasing brutal and bizarre death metal. The label counts among its ranks such luminaries as Defeated Sanity, Unfathomable Ruination, and has a history with plenty of other bands who push the boundaries of death metal and grindcore. One wonders what Aodon have to do with all of that. Intrigued, and certain in the label’s ability to sniff out quality acts, I decided to find out.” One of these things is not like the others.

Aronious – Perspicacity Review

By Kronos on March 17, 2020 in 2020, American Metal, Death Metal, Progressive Death, Reviews, Technical Death Metal, The Artisan Era, Death Metal, Progressive Metal, Technical Death Metal, 20 comments

“Before the podium this week is the debut from Wisconsin’s Aronious, a prog/tech death outfit with impressive chops and no lack of ambition. Across Perspicacity, Aronious can’t relax, and nor can they yield, relent, or… uh… Anyway, they’ve heard every tech death band and will pretend to be all of them.” Pretensions to the throne.

Moloken – Unveilance of Dark Matter Review

By Kronos on February 5, 2020 in 2020, Doom Metal, Hardcore, Post-metal, Progressive Metal, Releases, Reviews, Swedish Metal, The Sign Records, Death Doom, Doom Metal, Hardcore, Post-Metal, Progressive Metal, 15 comments

“We pretend not to, but we forget about bands all the time here. I forgot about – what’s that band? – Fear Factory last week and just now forgot that my last introduction was also about forgetting. In part I have to blame the burning n00b fumes, skull pit wounds, and brain-hemorrhaging metalcore for the memory loss. Likewise, I could tell you that I forget stuff because my brain runs on eight-inch floppy discs, but in reality I made the transition to 3.5” years ago and am just bad at keeping current. Suffice it to say that I forgot about Moloken.” Remind him to always remember.

Ereley – Diablerie Review

By Kronos on January 27, 2020 in 2020, Czech Metal, Massacre Records, Progressive Metal, Progressive Rock, Reviews, Rock, Industrial Metal, Progressive Metal, Progressive Rock, 19 comments

“I kind of forgot about Fear Factor for a while there. I can give no particular reason for it, they simply slipped out of my mind and slunk through the front door, down the stairs, into the street. But a band with such a unique sound was bound to return, at least in doppelganger form, burrowing back into my head. It took a minute to get my thoughts in order, but after mentally crossing out Godflesh, I knew who Ereley were pushing back into my brain. It wasn’t the pure stuff though.” Strange bedfellows.

Unfathomable Ruination – Enraged and Unbound Review

By Kronos on November 19, 2019 in 2019, British Metal, Death Metal, Reviews, Technical Death Metal, Willowtip, Death Metal, Technical Death Metal, 66 comments

“Death metal is not a subtle art. Brutal death metal doubly so. Brutal, technical… well you get the point. Unfathomable Ruination exemplify this dearth of subtlety in name but belie it in their music. Their sophomore effort, Finitude, stands as one of the decade’s most punishing yet memorable death metal albums, punctuating each of its songs with a constricting riff or winding lead that seared it instantly into the mind. A great deal of the album’s success came from the band’s shrewd dispensation of show-stoppers, always releasing just enough brilliance to keep the listener wanting more. Apparently unwilling to rest on their laurels, Enraged and Unbound lives up to its predecessor’s unpredictable brutality.” Ruination as hobby.

Ledge – All I Hope For Review

By Kronos on September 3, 2019 in 2020, American Metal, Doom Metal, Hardcore, Powerviolence, Releases, Reviews, Sludge, Translation Loss, Hardcore, Powerviolence, Sludge, 6 comments

“Ledge is not a clever band and All I Hope For is not a clever album. Nuance and erudition have no place in this music, and there’s no shame in that; whom among us does not count lunkheaded and reductionist music among their passions? Whether it’s deathcore, slam, war metal, stoner rock, or today’s subject (lurching hardcore), most metalheads have a weakness for dumb fun of some variety. We want something stupid and heavy to complement our drinking, gym routine, vegetable chopping, etc.” Heavy shit, brah!

Hope Drone – Void Lustre Review

By Kronos on August 28, 2019 in 2019, Australian Metal, Black Metal, Moment of Collapse Records, Reviews, Black Metal, Drone, Post-Metal, 22 comments

“It was cold. We chased the sun downhill and West, out of the snowy peaks of the Sierras and across their weeping faces. It gleamed through the murmured rain on the windshield, beat the slick cliff sides and shattered on waterfalls loosed from the ice above. The only sound in the car, save the pelting rain, was Hope Drone’s Cloak of Ash. No other music could accompany the pounding, screaming beauty of the land. No other beat could choreograph the ferns below and firs above. It was art in conversation with the snowbanks and in time with the rushing streams.” Primal beauty.

Devourment – Obscene Majesty Review

By Kronos on August 21, 2019 in 2019, American Metal, Death Metal, Relapse, Reviews, Death Metal, Slam, 98 comments

“This album will take years off your life. It is exfoliant, defoliant, supreme scourer of the Earth. You’ve heard death metal before. Maybe you’ve even heard slam. Maybe you’re a total slam fiend; even then, you’re still not prepared for this record. Maybe, just maybe, you’re familiar with Christopher Scotes’s work mapping and visualizing continental drift through time. If you are, recall that about 80 million years ago the Indian subcontinent, until this point a background character in tectonics at large, suddenly jettisons Madagascar to the West and just books it North, plowing into Asia to create the geologic equivalent of the Vulgar Display of Power cover. That’s what Obscene Majesty is like.” Landmassive.

Krysthla – Worldwide Negative Review

By Kronos on August 20, 2019 in 2019, British Metal, Death Metal, Djent, PHD, Reviews, Death Metal, Djent, 32 comments

“In this decade, death metal doubled down on its inaccessibility and became all the better for it. Whether that inaccessibility finds expression through old school pummeling or the more abstract sounds of the genre’s new torch-bearers, it’s hard to see the scene as unhealthy or in any way tamed. It wasn’t always like this, though. The 2000s were not so kind to death metal and at the tail end of that decade a scramble to reinvigorate the genre produced acres of lackluster material that was largely defined by its relationship to Meshuggah.” Negative, Ghostrider.

Strappado – Exigit Sincerae Devotionia Affectus Review

By Kronos on August 12, 2019 in 2019, Comatose Music, Death Metal, Reviews, Slam, Spanish Metal, Death Metal, Slam, 24 comments

“Torture. As essential to death metal lyrics as it is to oppressive regimes the world over, the simple desire to exact pain has spawned countless obscene and horrific technologies. Strappado take their name from one in which the hands are tied behind the back and the victim is then suspended by them. There’s a lineage of bands out there named after torture devices that – as far as I know – starts with Iron Maiden, but Strappado are pretty far down the line from these forebears musically, instead acting as a sibling to the departed but influential Brodequin.” Welcome to the rack.