Holdeneye and Cherd of Doom made these long-winded lists and now they’re your problem. No trade backsies!
Sumac
TheKenWord’s and Carcharodon’s Top Ten(ish) of 2020
TheKenWord and Carcharodon join the fray with tastes ranging from good, bad, and unfathomable.
Catatonic Effigy – Putrid Tendency Review
“Imagine, for a second, what could and would happen if musicians with backgrounds in free jazz, free improvisation, and modern composition became metalheads. What sort of music would they then make? Perhaps they would attempt a take on death metal, deconstructing the genre’s elements, perverting them, and piecing them back together into maddening soundscapes. A fantasy befitting of phase-shifted thinking and playing mechanisms. With their debut Putrid Tendency, Catatonic Effigy give flesh to this feverish reverie.” Choose the sound of the Destructor.
Reflex Machine – Interzone Review
“If you’ve been loitering in the Hall since the Great Muppet Invasion first began, you’ve probably noticed how great I am at promo selection rarely I wander too terribly far from my tried and trve metal wheelhouses. I’ve been burned by the bin before, I’m bitter and basically all but unable to believe that things could be better beyond the blackmosphere, but the burden ov objectivity and that big bastardly bully of a boss-monkey Steel have beckoned me to bid bye-bye to my beloved blackness and embrace being the bin’s bitch.” Monkey bin-ess.
Sumac – Love in Shadow Review
“Earlier this year, Sumac collaborated with the Japenese artist Keiji Haino. Haino’s abstract, free-form approach to music heavily influenced Love in Shadow. What you’ll find, when you open this Pandora’s post-metal box, is an hour of music split into four massive slabs. Structures, pre-rehearsed music is stitched together with passages of improvisation, recorded over five days in a single room, and carefully merged by Kurt Ballou. The goal: “Finding comfort in the negative spaces within each track’s borderland.”” Spaced jam.
Concert Review: Southwest Terror Fest, Tucson, Arizona – October 20th-23rd 2016
“It seems like all the greatest adventures begin with a phone call. This particular call came about a month ago. The gentleman on the line was one of my brothers. Brother Grier had called to inform me he had purchased tickets to Southwest Terror Fest in Tucson, Arizona. His plane ticket was purchased, the hotel reservation was set, and I had no choice but to join him (he had apparently bought me tickets too).”Tales of brotherhood, beers and grind.
Sumac – The Deal Review
“One of my favorite things about metal is just how small of a world it can be. Like all metalheads out there, I have my favorite bands and musicians. Many of these musicians have a tendency to venture out into new projects and/or genres and I stalk them from band to band and genre to genre.” And this creepy stalking has led him to a bad case of…Sumac.