This is Part III of the EP, Split, and Single Post. Part I is here and Part II is here.
The neglected, forgotten children; that’s what this post is about. Full-length albums are the proud first-born, strutting about with muscular arms and a beautiful face. But EPs? Spotty and malnourished. Splits? Siamese twins preventing the other from fully developing. Singles? A crooked arm sticking out of its mother. Demos? Malformed afterbirth. I’m an advocate for equality and it’s high time that we recognize those which were impaired from the womb. Please give generously. – El Cuervo
Sylvaine / Unreqvited // Time Without End – Time Without End is a split that I did not anticipate but that represents one of the most harmonious unions of musical voices I’ve heard. Sylvaine and Unreqvited pull together their separately immaculate interpretations of post-rock into an immaculate whole, featuring heart-breaking melodies, ominous tranquility, and brooding crescendos. I’m not typically one for post-rock but the sheer emotive power here holds me tightly across these 26 minutes. Despite comprising 2 tracks apiece, the split is stunningly cohesive package, opening with Sylvaine’s serenity and closing with Unreqvited’s crashing but uplifting finale. Perhaps the most beautiful release of 2020. – El Cuervo
Cosmovore // Into the Necropshere – Those with an appetite for destruction will find affinity with Cosmovore. The Germans take after Portal and Altarage but temper their obscurity with a greasy sheen. Unctuous guitars play phrases subtly warped out of familiarity with a slick crunch that recalls the aphotic deathcore of Humanity’s Last Breath. Into the Necropshere takes on a Geigerian aesthetic as ringing melodies glint off its rumbling obsidian mass, and its relentless crawl never feels as exhausting as it should. Though simplistic, Into the Necropshere’s take on cavern-core is sticky enough to drag listeners along for nearly an LP’s length. – Kronos
Nuclear Power Trio // A Clear and Present Rager – I 100% only found out about the Nuclear Power Trio because of the ridiculous video for the lead single, which I watched assuming it was a daft novelty. And then I hit “replay”, not for the video but for the music. And again and again. Playing catchy instrumental shred with a touch of Latin fusion classical guitar, this is far better than a novelty act has any right to be. Vladimir Putin turns in the bass performance of the year with some top-notch funky slap bass.1 Donald Trump (guitars) is also excellent, promising an exciting career ahead after leaving politics, and Kim Jong-Un (drums) ties it all together. These are genuinely talented musicians behind the masks, and an EP is a good length for the style, as it never gets repetitive or outstays its welcome. – Sentynel
Gutvoid // Astral Bestiary – Technically this dropped in 2019, but since Blood Harvest put it out physically this year, I’ll use that as my excuse to bring Gutvoid to your attention. You’ll thank me later. The young Toronto-based band plays weird, Finnish-style death metal that’ll remind you of what could be termed Demilich-core (think Chthe’ilist and their ilk). Gutvoid differentiates themselves by daring to be simpler and more straightforward in parts, such as in the huge chorus of “They Came Dripping from the Stars.” Don’t think they shy from complexity, though – “Entranced by a Frozen Dawn” is over eleven minutes of trudging, twisting, Lovecraftian death metal, from Finland via Toronto with love. Gutvoid is a creative and exciting new band, and Astral Bestiary is proof positive they’re worth keeping a close eye on. – Diabolus in Muzaka
Armoured Knight // The Sacred Flame – While the name suggests something big, midtempo, and epic, Armoured Knight play speed metal for people interested in axes and broadswords. If that’s you, then forge ahead accordingly. If that’s not you but you think it might be, ask yourself if you’d like speed metal more if it brought in some influence from Manowar and the legions they influenced and ride into battle accordingly. If that’s still not you, ask yourself if you want imperfect but charming vocals, great leads, and classic, old-school metal that’s well above average, and don your armor accordingly. If you’re somehow still not listening to Armoured Knight, go listen to Armoured Knight post-haste because The Sacred Flame rules, and this type of heavy metal never dies. – Diabolus in Muzaka
Dvne // Omega Severer – Asheran was one of the best progressive sludge albums to come out of the last 5 years, with its superb songwriting and riffcraft. Omega Severer continues and concentrates that line. In 2 tracks spanning 17 minutes, Dvne blows away the competition with an absolute masterclass in layering. Not satisfied with merely writing better Mastodon-style riffs than Mastodon have in decades, the riffs, rhythm guitars, solos, bass and drums all build upon each other to constantly morph the main thread, move the focus up or down and create a flow so natural and addictive it is almost physically impossible to stop spinning the album. It’s a cascading romp that forces you to air-drum all the way through until all the layers combine into a concussive avalanche that leaves you gasping. Dvne are unstoppable. – GardensTale
Corbian // The Raven Cult – So, if you click the link there, you’ll notice an unusual tag—”hybrid metal.” Whatever that means, it caught my eye, as did the pretty artwork. But the groovy intro riff really hooked me in and then “Enemy Inside Extended” turns into classic In Flames-core, so I had to see where it went. The answer is fucking everywhere. Atmoblack tremolos? Slam gurgles from a vocal chimaera with no perceivable bounds? Riffs out the ass? Clean vocals? Symphonics? Vikings? It’s all here. Most of all, this unexpected chunk of metallic celebration transitions between styles and songs masterfully, reminiscent of the way Cephalic Carnage bent genres on Anomalies. As a result, the disparate methodologies mesh together when they absolutely should not. Don’t take my word for it. Hit the button! – TheKenWord
High Command // Everlasting Torment – In 2019, High Command blew me away with their relentless hardcore thrash assault on their debut full-length Beyond the Wall of Desolation. As far as I’m concerned, the release put the band straight into the top tier of American crossover bands, and that was before the scene was dealt an enormous blow this summer with the death of Power Trip’s Riley Gale. Not content to let a plague stall the momentum of their furious campaign, they’ve returned to harass their enemies with a short-and-sweet, two-pronged attack. Sporting the crushing rager “Everlasting Torment” and the atmospheric brooder “The Infernal March/Sword of Wisdom,” Everlasting Torment shows that High Command have not missed a beat and are merely biding their time until their next full-scale invasion can commence. – Holdeneye
Sadness // holding – American one-man music-making machine Sadness has generated something like three full-lengths a year since 2014. By that metric, 2020 – with only two EPs, an album, and a split – has been a slow year creatively but holding, the second of those EPs, is a beautiful piece of work. As drenched in misery and loneliness as one might expect from a project named Sadness, its three tracks span ambient soundscapes and droning electronica, post-metal, and DSBM, to evoke a journey of tortured heartache. As holding at times falls away to melodies and garbled electronics, with distant shrieking, it reminds me of the likes of Unreqvited, while at others moments Sadness creator Damián Antón Ojeda employs discordant post-rock melancholia. Throughout, Sadness delivers a gloriously unhappy time to anyone who cares to listen. – Carcharodon
Rise to the Sky // A Cold Embrace from Life – Did you think that just because I’d already reviewed an EP and full-length from Rise to the Sky you were done hearing about them for the year? As if. Turns out the one man behind the one-man project is an incredibly busy one, because A Cold Embrace from Life is their third release this year, and the quality just keeps coming. In many ways, this feels like an extension of Death Will Not Keep Us Apart, with the title track in particular borrowing themes from that album, while the whole continues to use piercing leads, heavy background strings, and low growls to create an extra-hopeless atmosphere. The acoustic touches in “Help Me Understand” help to give A Cold Embrace from Life an identity of its own, and solidify it as a doom EP well worth experiencing. – Twelve
Inferi // Of Sunless Realms – EPs tend to come in two shapes and/or sizes: the try-something-out-of-left-field variety or get-excited-for-the-next-album variety. Of Sunless Realms leans toward the latter, and it succeeds pretty handily. In the two years since releasing their dynamic Revenant, the Nashville outfit have a. revitalized their second album via a very strong remaster, b. toured with some of tech death’s finest acts, and now, c. released this fucking banger. Of Sunless Realms serves as a continuation of the upward ascent Inferi have been on to date, fusing the best of two genres with technical histrionics and winding, grand melodies. “Aeons Torn” is easily one of the best tracks in the band’s catalog, and the rest of the spin is the perfect summation of a band just entering their prime. Consider me excited for the next album. – Dr. Wvrm
Gulch // Impenetrable Cerebral Fortress – I don’t know how to classify this bizarre group out of Santa Cruz, but I’ve seem them tagged as everything from metalcore to grind. What the 15-plus minutes of Impenetrable Cerebral Fortress sounds like to my ears is an unhinged mash-up of early death metal, grind and The Accused. It’s a manic, hyper-kinetic blast from start to finish and features some of the most committed vocals you’ll hear this year. No, seriously, vocalist Elliot Morrow should be committed based on his performance here, which is completely batshit crazy. The songs all have a rough, raw, barely holding together vibe that makes everything feel way more intense and manic, and though I normally wouldn’t want to hear this kind of stuff, I find this EP oddly addicting in its primal ferocity. Buckle up and take a flyer on Gulch, I dare you. – Steel Druhm