Releases

The Algorithm – Compiler Optimization Techniques Review

By Kronos on November 15, 2018 in 2018, Electronica Metal, French Metal, Reviews, Self-released, Electronica Metal, Melodic Death Metal, 50 comments

“I’m a big fan of The Algorithm’s first two demos, both sprawling and unpredictable mash-ups of glitchy electronica and heavy riffing. Adventurous and eclectic, The Doppeler Effect and Critical Error have stayed in my regular rotation for the better part of a decade, but after 2012’s Polymorphic Code, Rémi Gallego’s strange project fell off my radar. It wasn’t that I lost interest in the music – I just had bigger, heavier fish to fry, and record companies at the time were not the best at making their products readily available for perusal.” It’s a synth.

Psycroptic – As the Kingdom Drowns

By Kronos on October 30, 2018 in 2018, Australian Metal, Death Metal, Prosthetic Records, Reviews, Technical Death Metal, Death Metal, Technical Death Metal, 120 comments

“In retrospect, Psycroptic’s self-titled album looks bland; safe, dependable, unexciting, the 9-to-5 desk job or upscale barista gig that kills time and pays bills until your creative career takes off again, you know? The danger in complacence loomed, and it became all too reasonable to predict that Psycroptic had donned their monkey suits and aprons, never to take them off again. Before we knew it, the band would have a fucking crossover SUV and a mortgage. And who could blame them if As the Kingdom Drowns turned out to be phoned-in?” Growing up technical.

Beyond Creation – Algorythm Review

By Kronos on October 9, 2018 in Canadian Metal, Death Metal, Progressive Death, Progressive Metal, Releases, Reviews, Season of Mist, Death Metal, Technical Death Metal, 135 comments

“After The Aura catapulted them up to the front of the tech death field, Beyond Creation have enjoyed continued success based on a surprisingly small oeuvre and touring with seemingly continuous regularity both as support and as a headliner. They took the success in stride, releasing Earthborn Evolution three years after the debut and capitalizing on the record’s fusion influence to produce an even more dynamic live show. Three records in, Algorythm tweaks the approach once more, producing a brooding and grandiose expanse that’s as honest in its execution as in its pretensions.” Just how pretentious is it?

Binah – Phobiate Review

By Kronos on October 1, 2018 in 2018, British Metal, Death Metal, Osmose Productions, Progressive Death, Releases, Reviews, Death Metal, Progressive Death, 51 comments

“Binah hope to align themselves with well-loved death metal bands like Morbus Chron and Horrendous who have spliced psychedelia into the classic death metal sound. It’s at once progressive and regressive, hearkening back to the genre’s early ’90s heyday while venturing far outside of the footprint of a typical death metal band. And while these Englishmen are not quite so adventurous as either of those touchstone bands, Phobiate still wraps itself around unexpected corners combining Swedish heft and a sprinkle of Finnish eccentricity.” Serious Binahess.

Soul Attrition – Vashon Rain Review

By Kronos on July 18, 2018 in 2018, Alt-Metal, American Metal, Reviews, Self-released, Alt-Metal, 45 comments

“I picked up promo from a band called Soul Attrition purely based on how much the name sounded like Storm Corrosion, one of the few artists I keep handy in my “socially acceptable” playlist used for road trips and the like. At best, I was hoping for a moody and atmospheric post-metal album. I suppose Vashon Rain counts as moody and atmospheric, but two adjectives can only get one so far in the quality realm.” Blame it on the rain.

Zeal and Ardor – Stranger Fruit Review

By Kronos on June 11, 2018 in 2018, Avante Garde, Black Metal, MVKA, Reviews, Swiss Metal, Black Metal, Blues, 165 comments

“It takes a lot to excite and intrigue jaded metalheads like me. As our recent expose demonstrated, we here at Angry Metal Guy Hype-Deflating Industries LTD. have become harder and harder to impress over the years, to the point where we keep our superlatives locked in a gun safe which requires written permission to be opened. Nevertheless, Zeal and Ardor’s debut, Devil is Fine piqued quite a few of us with its bizarre split personality and penchant for hooks. The follow-up to that Bandcamp smash-hit, Stranger Fruit has been anxiously anticipated here, where in our best hopes we imagined an album just as catchy and eclectic but more focused and complex.” Fruits and regrets.

Burial in the Sky – Creatio et Hominus Review

By Kronos on June 8, 2018 in 2018, Death Metal, Progressive Death, Progressive Metal, Releases, Reviews, Self-released, Death Metal, Progressive Metal, 99 comments

“Of all places, Pennsylvania has seen a strange upwelling of prog-death bands in recent years. It started with the much-maligned Rivers of Nihil, gained momentum with Black Crown Initiate, and finally got going with Alustrium. Burial in the Sky jumped aboard with their 2016 LP Persistence of Thought, an album very much in the progressive vein of those groups, tying in bits of classic prog-death a la Atheist and Cynic with the tropes of core-polluted modern death metal.” Penn-death.

Kenòs – Pest Review

By Kronos on May 30, 2018 in 2018, Death Metal, Italian Metal, My Kingdom Music, Reviews, 38 comments

“As with a good ninety percent of Mediterranean death metal bands, Kenòs predicate their style on a brutal but boring interpretation of American brutal death, accented with a drum sound that’s preened like a fancy pigeon and monotonous vocals. Somebody out there likes this stuff, I’m sure, but that person isn’t me. Doomed to review Italian death metal every three months like clockwork, I can at least thank Kenòs for trying something a bit different here.” Pasta and pretension.

Apocrophex – Æternalis Review

By Kronos on May 23, 2018 in 2018, American Metal, Death Metal, Progressive Metal, Reviews, Self-released, Death Metal, Progressive Metal, 40 comments

“It’s heartening to see musicians still figuring out the formulas and successfully imprinting their own identity on what is unquestionably the world’s greatest form of music. And in that vein, it’s time to unsheathe your wallet and supplicate the hard-earned fiat currency of your worldly region before Apocrophex.” A penny for the prog-death.

Poly-Math – House of Wisdom | We are the Devil Review

By Kronos on April 23, 2018 in 2018, British Metal, Lonely Voyage Records, Not Metal, Post-Rock, Progressive Rock, Reviews, Non-metal Metal Things, Progressive Rock, 36 comments

“With the recent reunion of At the Drive-In, hopes have never been higher for a rekindling of the fire under the asses of Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala – a fire which produced the best prog rock albums of the 2000s. And given the rate at which Rodríguez-López currently produces LPs (about one a month for the past two years), it might not be long before there’s a new The Mars Volta album collecting saliva on turntables everywhere. But that doesn’t mean substitutes aren’t welcome.” We take whats we can gets.