Releases

Augury – Illusive Golden Age Review

By Kronos on March 30, 2018 in 2018, Canadian Metal, Death Metal, Progressive Death, Reviews, The Artisan Era, Technical Death Metal, 63 comments

“Before Beyond Creation, there was Augury. At the tail end of the 2000s, the Quebeckers were at the forefront of the proggy side of tech-death along with Anata and Obscura, and their 2009 LP Fragmentary Evidence is a too-often overlooked milestone in the genre – perhaps because so many contemporary tech death albums (Cosmogenesis, Those Whom the Gods Detest, Oracles, Everything is Fire) were just as good and bore follow-up releases. Yes, for a long time it seemed that Augury had been outright replaced by Beyond Creation, who snatched the torch of Montreal’s world-class tech death scene, but a bit shy of a decade later, here we are with Illusive Golden Age.” Back from the tech-dead.

Wake – Misery Rites Review

By Kronos on February 25, 2018 in 2018, Canadian Metal, Death Metal, Grind, Reviews, Translation Loss, Death Metal, 0 comments

“Pop quiz: off the top of your head, name five Canadian bands. If you’re a geezer of some sort, Rush will take top billing, whereas the more brutal among us will have rattled off a litany of Quebecios tech death acts. Few metalheads will think to include a grind act in their list, let alone one from the flyover provinces. And yet, here Wake are, poised to release their fourth LP of brutal grindcore from their hideout in Calgary.” Wake off, you hoser!

Holophonics – Fast Forward Review

By Kronos on February 8, 2018 in 2018, Alt-Metal, French Metal, Mighty Music, Reviews, Alt-Metal, 1 comment

“In an effort to expand my horizons, suppress my average scores, and prevent this blog from becoming a black- and power-metal only publication, I’ve decided to spend more of 2018 with the dregs of the promo bin; bands no one likes, no one has heard of, or no one has the courage to approach given their genre tag. With the questionable name of Holophonics and the even more questionable tag of ‘Alt Metal,’ I feared that Fast Forward was a product from the center of that Venn diagram.” Deep is the promo sump.

Yhdarl – Loss Review

By Kronos on January 12, 2018 in 2018, Belgian Metal, Black Metal, Doom Metal, Drone, I Voidhanger Records, Reviews, Black Metal, Drone, 33 comments

“Pulling off a long song — be it a ten-minute black metal piece or an hour-plus funeral doom opus — takes very deliberate pacing. Great drone and doom bands know this and know how to pull the listener rather than push them. If the song moves too fast, it can seem to lose structure, but if it moves too slowly, it can stagnate and sour the listener to its next idea. One has to have the pacing and space to keep themselves involved.” The long lurch into oblivion.

Devangelic – Phlegethon Review

By Kronos on November 9, 2017 in 2017, Comatose Music, Death Metal, Italian Metal, Reviews, Death Metal, 31 comments

“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).

Altarage – Endinghent Review

By Kronos on October 20, 2017 in 2017, Black Metal, Death Metal, Reviews, Season of Mist, Spanish Metal, Death Metal, 45 comments

“Altarage’s debut turned quite a few tar-covered heads, each new adherent drawn in by its tendrils of sticky ooze, a concoction of lo-fi hideousness that languished in the bogs somewhere between Portal and Teitanblood. Not the most original of albums, but it pounded a chord for metalheads oppressed by melody and clean production.” The sound of chunder.

Sándor Vály – Young Dionysos Review

By Kronos on September 19, 2017 in 2017, Ektro Records, Finnish Metal, Non-Metal Metal Things, Reviews, Not Metal, 56 comments

“Young Dionysos is that rare album which I feel almost incapable of reviewing. Not because it is boring, derivative, or unlistenable, but because it proves difficult to fit it into the ‘album’ category at all. A new addition to the impressive ouvre of Hungarian-Finnish artist Sándor Vály, the album Young Dionysos is itself only a small part of a larger body of works, including video, painting, decollage, and performance art, which constitute the entirety of ‘Young Dionysos.'” Art in strange spaces.

Magma Waves – …And Who Will Take Care of You Now Review

By Kronos on September 14, 2017 in 2017, Instrumental Metal, Narshardaa Records, Post-Rock, Reviews, Instrumental Metal, 24 comments

“Not all who wander are lost. In fact, many wanderers know exactly where they are – in the first two-thirds of a post-rock song. Love or hate it, the “crescendo-core” formula has been a successful one, and Magma Waves are not out to challenge it with their debut …And Who Will Take Care of You Now, a record that finds its groove somewhere in roads well-trodden by the likes of If these Trees Could Talk and God Is an Astronaut.” Building it up to tear it down.

Eaten – Eaten Review

By Kronos on August 15, 2017 in 2017, American Metal, Give Praise Records, Grind, Reviews, 16 comments

“Consumed; ingurgitated; devoured; all great verbs for your metal vocabulary. But too long for grindcore — too florid, too multisyllabic. Eaten? That’s more like it.” Eat, pray, grind.

Moral Void – Deprive Review

By Kronos on August 11, 2017 in 2017, American Metal, Black Metal, Crust Punk, Grind, Hardcore, Powerviolence, Reviews, Translation Loss, Hardcore, Powerviolence, 20 comments

“Last year’s Nails record was as blunt as they come. It’s rare that a band can generate enough hype — and then live up to it — that they can brazenly assert their superiority without being a laughingstock. But the trio did just that, leaving an open challenge to would-be peers in the title track of You Will Never be One of Us. When Moral Void heard the refrain, they thumbed their noses at the speakers. ‘Fuck you, Todd Jones,’ they said, ‘yes we will.'” Join or die.