In a recent discussion in the AMG halls, we shared some of the most obscure shit we have buried in our hard drives, burned to a CD, or kept hidden from the masses—hidden because we adore it too much to share or feel much shame. In this case, it’s the former. So, in an attempt to help the idiots on staff (and in the comments) who think an album ten years ago is iconic, I’ll share a gem you would be an idiot to ignore. While this piece could easily be a 90’s Weirdness bit, I am not here to shame the band members for making it. Evilution is the sole LP from quasi-supergroup Illwill. This odd band consisted of King Diamond and Mercyful Fate greats Andy LaRocque, Sharlee D’Angelo, and Snowy Shaw. While it’s common for these lads to form, join, or guest in many projects over the years, this might be one of the strangest collaborations in their storied careers.

Formed as a thrash band in 1993, Illwill puts a boot to the genre, each kick aiming for a different part of the body. The first kick is to the head from little-known vocalist Jonas Dahlström. This is odd because, at the time, Dahlström was the vocalist for Desert Plains, a Judas Priest cover band. While that would be odd enough for a thrash album, he goes apeshit on his approach to the music of Evilution, combining Judas Priest, Gwar, and other ungodly insanity. The second kick is to the balls by Snowy Shaw. When this dude is at the helm of any project, you know it’s gonna be fucking weird. And there’s absolutely no shortage of weirdness on Evilution. Even mentioning another thrash band as an influence would be a mistake. The last kick is to the throat. The lyrics alternate between tongue-in-cheek absurdity and downright hilarious to offensive-as-fuck and disgusting. So, stop reading if you’re easily offended by things that won’t hurt you.

You don’t have to wait long to hear Dahlström’s vocal approach as he counts down opener “Singh Hai” inappropriately. Beyond his vocals, you’ll notice the piercing guitar tone and drum master¹ as we explore the song’s torture story. As the thrashy licks change and evolve, the vocals become more chaotic, spewing obscenities and absurdities to the bitter end. If you somehow made it through the opener, it doesn’t get any easier from here. In a few minutes, you’ll stumble over “Six Sec Sex.” If you want to continue having good sex, don’t wander into the lyric sheets for this one. The song is even more disturbing with the staccato vocal approach that’ll burn those three words in your skull for decades to cum. A little later, you’ll collide with the droner known as “Bid Farewell to Welfare.” With its long sustains and dissonant chords, Dahlström warbles on about welfare and some shit, while Shaw’s odd drum work fucks with your mind.

Between all this chaos, there are some remarkably badass songs. These include the “Whether With or Without,” “Who to Trust?,” and “365 Reasons to Commit Suicide.” The first is a thrashy three-minute piece combining solid riffage and a punchy chorus. Next to “365 Reasons to Commit Suicide,” this song has the most memorable chorus on the disc—one you’ll use when yelling at small children. “365 Reasons to Commit Suicide” is not only the most addictive song but also one of my top ten favorite thrash songs ever. Its approach is similar to “Whether With or Without,” but the riffs are meatier, and the intensity cuts deep. On the other side of the coin, “Who to Trust?” is a stellar piece consisting of an Iron Maiden-esque attitude that lets D’Angelo explore his inner Steve Harris.

Even with all this absurdity, there are moments when Dahlström can use his pipes. These moments come in the form of the back-to-back “Eternal Sleep” and “K.A.O.S.” “Eternal Sleep” kicks off with a punishing march, and D’Angelo bass leads to guide us to the soaring, melodic Judas Priest chorus. “K.A.O.S.,” on the other hand, rips out your butthole with an opening trash lick that transitions to a similar death march as “Eternal Sleep.” But the melody shines when the vocals dress in a tuxedo. Though not as pleasing as the track before, the song’s internal beauty-and-the-beast struggle is wholly worth it.

If you can make it through fifty-plus minutes of this bizarreness, you’ll find a lot of hidden treasures. As always, Shaw puts on one hell of a performance behind the kit, fucking around where he wants and adding heft to the heavier material on the album. Though King Diamond isn’t exactly fast and hard, LaRocque ain’t afraid to be. We’ve seen that on Death’s Individual Thought Patterns and now again on Evilution. In particular, his blisteringly-fast performance on “365 Reasons to Commit Suicide” is delicious. Throughout the album, you’ll also find D’Angelo’s bass rising to the surface, toying around with clever licks, and adding unsettling atmospheres to some of the odder tracks. I’ve never heard Dahlström on anything else but Evilution. I can only imagine his voice can carry many Judas Priest tracks. But he doesn’t give a shit here. I guarantee most of you will hate his voice on Evilution, but I wouldn’t change it for the world.

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Unfortunately, my first listen through The Orcish Eclipse immediately challenged that resolution, because the album sounds so weird that you’re almost forced to remind yourself that most of its decisions weren’t made by humans. At first glance, it’s standard power metal, with chugging riffs and harsh vocals, and opener “When I Fall” sounds fairly straightforward. Then “Orcs Don’t Cry” opens with three seconds of synths before diving into a gritty riff that’s completely at odds with the song’s whimsical/nonsensical title and theme. It has one of the best choruses on the album, but the lyrics are so absurd that it’s hard to enjoy it. Then there’s “Beauty of the Night,” which opts to use a tremolo guitar that sounds so much like burbling² I’m not fully convinced it’s really a guitar. This kind of thing keeps happening. Again and again, Frostbite Orckings makes bizarre, unexpected, off-putting choices that make it hard to ignore the fact that no humans were harmed in the making of this album.

The most unforgivable thing about The Orcish Eclipse, however, is its utter tepidity, its absolute lack of emotion, and its entirely unsuccessful attempts to make up for it. I have never listened to an album that made me feel nothing before this. It has all the right things in all the right places to emulate an energetic power metal experience—choral vocals layered over choruses, shouted ear-worm phrases, keyboard flourishes in all the right spots, all done with all the elegance of a paint-by-numbers kit. “Coming Home” is the worst offender, opening with robotic clean chanting (none of the clean singing on this album sounds natural) and replaying it every time the title phrase is shouted. It tries so hard to emulate folk metal, but it fails, because folk metal is sung and played with feeling. There’s a good song in there, but the actual performance does not live up.

An offshoot of this issue is the sterile songwriting and production choices that further rob the album of its energy. The drumming may as well have been done by MIDI for all the power it adds to the music, and the guitar chugs are little more than background noise. Meanwhile, the songs are predictable to a fault; each one ends on a chorus, sometimes modulated from the last one, and nearly every chorus ends with the name of the song. After a while, you get really good at predicting what’s going to happen next… until the curveball conclusion that is “Endless Love.” Here, we have a song that is so clearly AI-generated and so stylistically out-of-place from the rest of the album that it breaks through the tepidity of the whole in the worst way possible.

The Orcish Eclipse is fascinating. Played in the background, you wouldn’t notice anything odd about it. It hits all the right notes and emulates power metal well. The more you pay attention to it, the more you notice the cracks. You notice the basically-missing bass, the near-absent guitar leads,³ the weak drumming, and the fact that the lyrics rarely make any sense at all.⁴.= I believe that no one dreamed of making this album; it seems to exist only as an experiment, a premise, and for that, I am left extremely disappointed.

Rating: 1.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Metalverse⁵
Websites: frostbiteorckings.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/frostbiteorckings
Releases Worldwide: December 22nd, 2023

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By contrast? I’d advise you either create or consume short-form releases. They’re among my favorite things in the world¹. They convey their meaning expeditiously, prioritize quality over quantity and are far more economically viable for the artist². Grindcore acts learned this over 30 years ago and who am I to deny the immense popularity and evident commercial viability of grindcore? As if all this wasn’t enough, bands that favor EPs, splits, singles and collaborations are also more sexually desirable. Don’t question the science; just open wide and accommodate the following releases. –El Cuervo

This is part 2. Part 1 is here.

Blood Incantation // Luminescent Bridge – As much as I enjoy synth-based ambient music, Timewave Zero was a little too slow to represent more to me than a mere curiosity in Blood Incantation’s story. Luminescent Bridge is a more harmonious fusion of the band’s warped death metal and spacey, synth aspirations, a 19-minute EP bridging what was previously quite a wide gap. What results is the thinking man’s death metal; less fist-pumping and compulsive than previous albums, but just as thought-provoking and technically mesmerizing. What helps most is that the lilting interludes and synth elements are more purposeful and form the connecting tissue between the death metal aspects. The band constitutes an unmissable modern metal band with both elements in their sound. –El Cuervo

Shadowrunner // Ocean of Time – Rebirth and Oblivion – Shadowrunner are low-key the best post-The Midnight retrowave act. All of their singles and EPs to date – note, no full-length album – offer essential listening for lovers of all things synth, sax, and nostalgia. The Ocean of Time duo represents a strange choose-your-own-adventure take on music, levering the same opening four songs but closing with four different ones. While I question this marketing gimmick, I absolutely cannot question the quality of the new music available here. Rebirth is warm and welcoming, while Oblivion balances this with crisper tones and marginally darker themes. Two sides of the same coin, the pair constitute the best synth-based music of 2023. –El Cuervo

Wreathe // The Land Is Not An Idle God – If your group contains members of Fall of Efrafa, Morrow, and Arboricidio, you can expect some amazing d-beatened, passionate emokrust, and Wreathe’s debut EP The Land Is Not An Idle God definitely fits that bill gloriously. Based on vocalist Alex CF’s own grimoire, The Book of Venym; An Egalitarian Demonology, The Land Is Not An Idle God seethes with defiant energy and heartfelt passion, with “Enemy of All Reason” pummeling ruthlessly while “The Stumps Are Graves of the Land” channels the forlorn-yet-hopeful energy of Morrow’s best moments. If you’re at all a fan of any of the aforementioned bands and you somehow don’t pick this up… the fuck’s wrong with you?! –Grymm

Dream Unending/Worm // Starpath – The collaboration I believed only existed in my wildest fantasies. While Dream Unending wears their heart on their sleeve with soaring, ethereal melodies, Worm’s allure comes rising out of spooky, clamorous aggression. Yet the contributions of both are—literally—resonant with otherworldly grace, with Justin DeTore (DU)’s low bellows echoing over layers of cymbals and ascending guitar, and Phantom Slaughter (Worm)’s vicious rasps bouncing off spidery riffs and ominous drums. And when Worm’s blackened death metamorphoses into ascendant, glittering soloing, it’s easy to see how well these two artists compliment one another. Each, in the songs allocated to them, shows the impressive reach of their own individual style, and goes just a bit further than before. “So Many Chances” sees DU extensively using clean vocals, for instance, while “Ravenblood” includes what is probably Worm’s slickest and most beautiful solo. Absolutely unmissable for fans of either, let alone both. –Thus Spoke

Dragoncorpse // The Drakketh Saga – Power metal meets deathcore. We’ve seen this before with Shadow of Intent, but we haven’t seen it the way Dragoncorpse do it. These Aussies’ first foray into two genres that seem antithetical to each other results in one of the most fun and whimsical deathcore experiences I had this year. Granted, this idea is still in its infancy and hence lacks cohesion in songwriting, and is rife with way too many expositional interludes. But between the awesome vocal variety and cool songwriting, I find it hard to care about the disjointed nature of the journey. The choruses are huge, the riffs and breakdowns heavy, and the story epic. “To the Sky” and “UNDYING” in particular are huge successes, testaments to the potential Dragoncorpse’s style holds. Flawed though it might be, it’s worth taking notice of this EP as the promise of something new and exciting for the future of hybridized extreme metal. –Kenstrosity

Spider God // The Faith Trilogy – To avoid another bout of ire from the public, I won’t talk about Spider God’s expanded catalog of black metal pop covers, even though it is a literal metric ton of silly, raw fun—including several covers of famous ad jingles, of all things! No, instead I’m going to talk about The Faith Trilogy, a collected work that includes all three of Spider God’s original EP trilogy based on Ingmar Bergman’s trilogy of the same name. While this material is not new, having been recorded between October and December of 2020, this newly unified compilation still represents everything that I love about Spider God’s original material. Delightful melodies, hooky songwriting, and an entertaining contrast between blackened rawness and jubilant, poppy performances. Nobody sounds like Spider God, and that’s a great thing. Don’t believe me? Just check out “Still No Words,” “Fight the Raging Storm,” “The Echo-God,” “Blood and Water,” “Horrible Forces,” “Strangers and Tears,” and “Embrace Despair.” –Kenstrosity

The Ember, The Ash // Venerate / Abnegate – A side project from 鬼, the creative mind behind Unreqvited, past efforts from The Ember, The Ash simply have not clicked with me. It was unexpected, therefore, that a death metal EP, sounding slightly clinical, even synthetic, in tone, replete with stuttering synth notes and heavily distorted guitars, and vox, should be the thing that finally works for me. But work it does. Concussive and thunderous, but (particularly on “Abnegate”) carrying a grand, semi-symphonic note driven by the synth work, it’s both brutal and beautiful. And it’s perhaps through that lens that I really hear the EP’s roots, anchored in the gorgeous post-black of Unreqvited’s Mosaic I: L’amour et l’ardeur, but now transformed into a snarling, riffing DM beast. –Carcharodon

Mortual // Evil Incarnation – Writhing, festering, booming, this disgusting Costa Rican death metal outing erupts the senses with overwhelming filth and unrelenting riffcraft. Mortual harkens back to a time when metal of this knuckle-scraping attitude reeked of frenetic thrash riffs and piercing whammy bombs—envision the Golgothan clamor of early Incantation trapped under the festering bed of the rainforest floor. Mortual abuses every microphone in the room to capture their hideously toned guitar drags and cavern-creaking kicks. Snarling, wide-cast tremolo rip and hammer-cast tom roll command heads to whip and bodies to flail. Succumbing low-end heft only for hideous solos (“Sadistic Obsession,” “Dimensional Chaos”) and half-time gut-punches led by murderous ride (“Morbid Thoughts,” “Master of Possession”), Evil Incarnation refuses to release you from the underbelly of its decay-imbued roars. In their own words, Mortual seeks to find through their amplified sermons the “ecstasy of death.” While I might still be standing, this loin-stirring EP has brought me, at least, to la petite mort. –Dolphin Whisperer

Spiritbox // The Fear of Fear – After the mainstream success of first full-length Eternal Blue and its singles “Holy Roller” and “Circle With Me,” Courtney LaPlante and company release an EP that sharpens the edges of their blurry debut. Heavier songs, catchier choruses, more guitar acrobatics, and LaPlante’s honed harsh vocal attack, incorporating growls alongside her already formidable pipes. Spiritbox immediately hits like a bomb with the frantic and mathy “Cellar Door,” a brutality further explored in “Angel Eyes.” Reconciling the heaviness and the ethereal quality, runaway singles “Jaded” and “The Void,” and closer “Ultraviolet” recall the act’s first two EP’s in dreamy guitar melodies and sultry choruses braced against brutal djent verses. Centerpiece “Too Close / Too Late” features LaPlante at her most vulnerable and charismatic, yearning lyrics taking front and center alongside a crescendo of a track. I don’t say this often, but with Spiritbox’s unique blend of ethereality and djenty brutality, The Fear of Fear is earning the Spotify fame in a spotlight surrounded by the Sleep Tokens and Knocked Looses of the world. –Dear Hollow

The Callous Daoboys // God Smiles Upon The Callous Daoboys – No one caught the feature-long joke in my TYMHM of The Callous Daoboys‘ Celebrity Therapist, and you bastards should be ashamed. Like, Nachos BellGrande ashamed. Here’s its fucking follow-up. God Smiles Upon The Callous Daoboys is the Atlanta six-piece’s first semi-self-titled offering, and God smiles ’cause it slays. “Pushing the Pink Envelope” and “Waco Jesus” are the carbon-dated slices of mania you expect from your favorite mathcore slayqueens, chunkier and heavier in its riffs but willing to snap your fingers snap your neck (not with Prong though, Steel Druhm) with whiplash, jerking you off from catchy choruses to panic chords to electronic beats to bone-crushing off-kilter chugs to salsa breakdowns (???) to piano trills – somehow conjuring the ghost of the memeworthy Iwrestledabearonce while sounding more cohesive. Closer “Designer Shroud of Turin” is where you take a hard left at Atlanta. Jazz, flamenco, and wildly intense electronics (courtesy of Netherlands DJ pulses.) infect the brutality and offers a new direction entirely. Go figure out my joke, then listen to this bad boy. No more Taco Bell for you. –Dear Hollow

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Initially, I did not think so. The electronic beat that kicks off “Disorder” and the hushed repeated ‘you’re eeeeevil, you’re eeeeevil’ reactivated my funny bone within seconds. As is tradition in corset-core, the music comes second to the vocals, which in this case belong to one Angela Di Vincenzo. To be fair, her technique is not terrible. She has good power, and in the lower registers, her timbre has a Doro Pesch-like quality. She doesn’t hit all the notes, which is worrying on a studio recording, but I’ve certainly heard worse. However, her performance is stuffed with squealy pop affectations, presumably intended to emulate emotional engagement. With a voice that already tends towards the shrill in the higher registers, the squeaks make for an uncomfortable listening experience as I find myself wincing every other sentence. Combined with equally overused and forced vibrato and unfortunate amounts of ESL,² the vocals overflow with pop excess that only becomes more off-putting the longer Uninverse plays.

But looking past the vocals and peeking under the hood, the songwriting is often surprisingly able. The focus is on the choruses, as expected, and across the album, those contain some strong vocal lines, which even Di Vincenzo’s over-singing can’t hide. Furthermore, beside the choruses, actual riffs dot the album, such as on “Time Zero” and “Gravity on Us.” The quality drum performance eschews the tedium of the standard snare-kick 4-count, adding fills and frills for a more dynamic style that brings actual variations in energy. Though the bass gets buried more often than not, a few passages allow it to shine. If it weren’t for most of the surface bullshit, a few excisions could have made this a passing power metal album.

But like a half-decent cake covered with a mountain of fondant, the surface bullshit ruins everything underneath. The vocals are only one symptom of this affliction. Several tracks give a leading role to the keyboard, and the keyboard is fucking garbage, an icepick assault to both eardrums even in short bursts. It is the leading cause of death of “Disorder”³ and has me afeared every time I see “I Am” or “From Null to Life” coming up in the tracklist. Between the keys, the pop-focus of the vocals, the clumps of electronic beats, and the flat, vocal-centered production all point to a band trying too hard to sound ‘modern’ and aging itself back to the cringiest leftovers of the 00’s.

I know you and I love a good takedown now and then. Hell, it was practically My Thing for a while here at AMG. Based on the cover art and the first track, Secret Rule seemed ripe for the plucking. But I couldn’t fully commit to the bash-fest here, because unpleasant though Uninverse might be, there is a modicum of talent hidden in the background that spills out through the cracks, which makes the end result more a tragedy than a comedy. Were this a younger band, I might express hope for their improvement in the future. But this is Secret Rule’s 8th proper album⁴ in 9 years. Hope is dead and the keyboards killed it. At least the band photos are a laugh.

Rating: 1.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: Lucky Bob
Websites: secretrule.bandcamp.com | secretrule.it | facebook.com/secretruleband
Releases Worldwide: November 24th, 2023

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I just couldn’t turn down an album by a band called

Some of my favorite tech death albums from recent years strike a key balance: they’re able to whip plenty of technical wizardry at the listener without sacrificing emotion, accessibility, or (just a drop or two) of melody. Groups like Carnosus, Archspire, Obscura and a host of others have found success (in my own bold estimation) by implementing this approach to varying degrees. Neurectomy certainly whip technical wizardry at the listener, bouncing as they do from one skillful, mind-bending solo to another. The problem is that Neurectomy were so focused on reaching such lofty heights of proficiency that they forgot to make actual, memorable songs. Why write a compelling riff when you can toss in another squealing, lightning-fast solo? Why leave room for an atmospheric interlude when you can delve into another whirlwind of impressive, soulless guitar noodling? If this sounds harsh, it’s because I know Neurectomy can write more balanced songs, they just chose not to.

Case in point: album opener “Abducted for Research” kicks off in a grimy, fetid fashion before finding a wonky, almost dissonant groove that immediately grabbed my attention. Unfortunately, this interesting groove is quickly abandoned in favor of less memorable, speed-demon technicality. It returns again near the end of the track, but is once more unceremoniously replaced by more “look what I can do!” guitar work. Following track “Culinary Cadaveric Art” also hints at Neurectomy’s ability to compose music beyond an array of bright n’ shiny solos. This tune features a big, thick riff that caused my ears to perk up. Could they be going in a different direction? Are we going to get more than undeniably proficient but utterly unmoving musicianship? No. The aforementioned big, thick riff disappears almost as quickly as it arrives, to be replaced by a brief bass solo and more gratuitous guitar wankery.

And it’s here, after only two tracks, that Overwrought truly devolves into flamboyant futility. The band Rush have an instrumental tune entitled “La Villa Strangiato” from 1978 that has a particularly apt subtitle: “An Exercise in Self-Indulgence.” And that’s what the following 6 songs feel like to these battered eardrums: a 32-minute opportunity to prove to the listener just how talented these musicians are. I cannot deny that the oddly-named track “Dolphin” features a stellar opening that feels like you’re being sucked into a black hole. I will gladly report that mid-album number “Zombified” includes an unexpected, jazz-tinged section. And I’ll happily exclaim that closer “Crimson Tsunami” flirts with an honest-to-goodness riff as well as a slower, more moody interlude (featuring a solo, of course). But all of these brief, shining moments are merely minor exceptions that prove the rule. Add in percussive, deathened growls that only serve to further punctuate this dizzying display, and you’re left with an album that, like the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz, is plenty shiny but has no heart to speak of.

Sometimes an album isn’t bad because the band aren’t talented, but because technical prowess becomes the sole marker for success. If we were to award Neurectomy points for stellar musicianship, the score below would indeed be a lot higher. It’s not that what they’ve produced is unlistenable; far from it. But it’s also painfully forgettable. It’s mad scramble to produce more squealing notes, more solos capped off by more pitch harmonics is impressive, but it’s also excessive. Perhaps I find this slab all the more frustrating because it’s clear Neurectomy are capable of finding humanity amidst the wizardry, they just refused to go that route. And the result? A debut that is overindulgent, overproduced, and exceedingly Overwrought.

Rating: 1.5/5.0
DR: Best Guess | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Self-Released
Websites: neurectomy.bandcamp.com | instagram.com/neurectomy
Releases Worldwide: November 17th, 2023

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It is time for the new year, and yet we spend its initial moments reflecting on works of the past. That’s because the works of the past are clogging up our damn Filter, and we need that to breathe in this hellhole we call a headquarters. We toil in the snow and the slush, freezing as the gunk clings to our definitely OSHA compliant protective suits and face masks. All so that you can maybe like but more likely dunk on the nuggets of treasure we find here.

Regardless of whether you enjoy what we find, we expect payment for our services. You can submit tithes via Venmo, Paypal, Bitcoin, hobo wine, unicorns, and/or goat sacrifices. Anything less will result in summary dismissal from the Hall!

Kenstrosity’s Heaving Husks

Void // Jadjow [December 8th, 2023 – Brucia Records]

Weird shit is my shit. Challenging albums that dare to subvert my expectations of the music held therein will always garner my respect. Enter UK avant-garde black metal outfit Void and their fourth LP Jadjow. A bizarrely short window spanned between this release and their previous record—only two years compared to eight years between albums one and two, ten between albums two and three. Despite the tight turnaround, the quality of the writing here is nothing to dismiss offhand. Opening duo “Fables From a Post-Truth Era” and “Interdaementional” showcase twisted songwriting dynamics, haunting vocals, squealing black metal riffs, woody blasts, and funky transitions. Consequently, they remind me of Ved Buens Ende, DHG, and Khôra. Yet, Void prove that the art of the riff is not lost in a sea of weirdness, throwing in headbangable themes and windmill-worthy whirlwinds left and right (“Only For You,” “Self Isolation,” “Swamp Dog”). Striking this balance between engaging hooks (“Fables From a Post-Truth Era,” “Swamp Dog”), danceable grooves (“Oduduwa’s Chain”), and intelligent songwriting dynamics (“When Lucifer Dies,” “Iniquitous Owl”) is tricky business, and yet Void take on the task with effortless grace and poise. In turn, fifty-six minutes of oddball progressive black metal fly by in a flash. You blink, you miss it. Don’t blink!

Irityll // Schlafes Bruder [November 23rd, 2023 – Self Release]

Do you ever wonder what melodic black metal would sound like if it had the same HM-2 tone as the filthiest Swedeath around? I sure never have. Yet, Vienna, Austria’s Irityll chose that exact combination to craft their debut LP, Schlafes Bruder. Comprising of two musicians with notable experience in the deathcore and brutal death metal worlds (Spire of Lazarus, Monument of Misanthropy), Irityll unexpectedly nail the icy black metal sound which defines Schlafes Bruder, but enhanced by the novel twist of an HM-2 buzzsaw tone. Ominous melodies and vicious blasting abound, as choice cuts like “Leichnam aus Überzeugung,” “Deppade Leit,” and “Sternengeiβel” all demonstrate with aplomb. Written in the same epic style of bands like Immortal or Dark Funeral, Schlafes Bruder succeeds primarily thanks to a tasty combination of minimalist drama and riff-focused intensity. The way it ebbs and flows between soft passages and ripping black metal, blistering speed and militant marches, all feels natural, effortless, and leads to satisfying payoffs across the forty-four-minute runtime (“Schlafes Bruder,” “Reiter des Sturmes,” “Epitaphion”). And yet, it feels like just the beginning for Irityll. With more refinement and tightening of the screws, the duo could take even greater advantage of their novel sound profile with more distinct, individualized songwriting. I’m excited by that prospect, and you should be too.

Dolphin Whisperer’s Unparalleled Uncoverings

Closet Witch // Chiaroscuro [November 3rd, 2023 – Zegema Beach Records]

If you’re familiar with Closet Witch already, or the closely related in sound and style Cloud Rat, then you’ll know that the brand of caustically-styled, emotionally-chiseled grind that they represent wastes no moment. Equally weighted by the slowing churns of powerviolence and piercing tones of screamo, Chiaroscuro, a name taken from the classical art technique of shadow-use/darkness contrast that creates wholeness, depth, and tone in a piece, uses each of its identities to drill eighteen minutes of caustic music to your memory. Unfortunately for newcomers or passerbys to the sonic assault that Closet Witch embodies, either the fuzz-rattled and blackened riffage, the clanging and splashing kit abuse, or the shrill and shrieking throat sacrifice build like a wall of bleeding noise. But in practice, Chiaroscuro contains an uncanny ebb and flow, finding footing in rhythmic refocusing (“My Words Are Sacred,” “Well-Fed Machine”), noise-assisted tip-offs (“You, Me, and the Venus in Decay,” “To the Cauldron”), and pedal-down thrusts (“Haunting,” “Arlington Cemetary”) to dog ear its shifts and landmarks. In this case, a horror-synth “Intro” and de-escalating, crinkled found-sound “Outro” are necessary to respectively set the stage and close the curtains. You don’t want to go into this cold, but Chiaroscuro burns so hot that you need a cooldown.

Exulansis // Overtures of Uprising [November 17th, 2023 – Bindrune Recordings]

You ever sit there and wonder when you’re finally gonna find a melodic black metal album that’s actually cool? No? How about one that at least incorporates vibrant violin melodies, guitar identities outside of tremolo progressions, and actual growling bass presence? Well, if so, look no further than Exulansis, a folk-inspired four-piece who finds just as much home in the creeping doom of the string work that you’d hear in an old SubRosa jam as they do in the forested black metal of Wolves in the Throne Room. But in this case, Overtures of Uprising’s four tracks will require only thirty-two minutes (it’s not enough!!) of your hard-to-earn time, a healthy balance of two standard-length numbers against two longer explorations. Whereas their previous album, 2019’s Sequestered Symphony attempted to meld a lot more gothic folk into their sound, Exulansis went and trimmed that into a whole separate album (Hymns of Collapse) this go, which has left absolutely nothing to stand in the way of the bell-hammering drive of “Of Nature & Hatred” or the eerie and screeching “A Movement in Silence”.¹ And when they do slow it down for the fanciful, classical violin melodies that signal the triumphant title track or the lurching doom of “Dawning,” Exulansis finds a way to capture the beat of an anxious heart. Unified by a melodic dread, Overtures of Uprising pushes this act closer to record that’ll grab me by the hand and never let go. Fortunately, I know these strong voices have more to say.

Saunders’ Slippery Subjects

Deathcode Society // Unlightenment [November 24th, 2023 – Osmose Productions]

My end-of-year filter was badly clogged amidst the rush to finalize Listurnalia and absorb the mammoth number of releases that either flooded through late or had been backlogged. Nevertheless, in the end-of-year wash-up, I stumbled across the sophomore platter from French symphonic black metal act Deathcode Society, and their powerful, bombastic LP, Unlightenment. Traditionally, I am incredibly picky with my modern black metal, and much of the overly symphonic variety tends to fall flat or overdo the cheese. Comprised of seasoned players, Deathcode Society balances the elements deftly to craft an intriguing platter, with modern sheen and orchestral flair roughened up by second-wave influences and whiffs of later-era Emperor. The sympho-black formula can sometimes veer too drastically into melodramatic territory, adding too much fluff to soften the black metal bite. Thankfully, Deathcode Society generally nail things just right. Within the style, Deathcode Society exhibit a versatile and confident approach, as their epic, carefully layered sound ebbs and flows through diverse pastures. A technical edge permeates material that blisters and tears with speed and aggression, contrasting these pleasingly vicious assaults with mostly tasteful symphonic layers, a varied vocal palette, and long, twisty arrangements. Highlights include the potent, blasty one-two opening punch of “Scolopendra” and “Shards” dominate with sheer scope, ferocity and memorability, while the stellar “Mazed Interior” and “Scales” offer in-your-face aggression and more ambitious, head-spinning turns with maximum impact.

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Y’all ready to skronk? Cuz it’s ’bout to get skronky. I had a realization about midway this year that all I was doing was contributing mathcore releases to Kenstrocity’s Stuck in the Filter pieces. So instead of painting myself as a one-trick pony who can only do math three times a month, I decided to reveal my cards as a mathcore sellout by the end of 2023. I have been given an incurably bad taste this year, and a spotlight under which I stand alone while commenters and colleagues alike chuck tomatoes and copies of Mercyful Fate’s Dead Again and Saxon’s Rock the Nations at me (saying, and I quote, “get some culture, you sellout”). See, when the inimitable Kronos left, he took with him the taste for the mathy skronk. I suppose Dolphin Whisperer has some math love built into him, but we’re too busy squabbling over details most of the time.¹

Thus, I have compiled a list of some mathcore releases you might, uh, tolerate! Because I have filtered and expressed opinions over acts like See You Next Tuesday, Sleepsculptor, Soulkeeper, and Squid Pisser (I’m not sure why I picked all mathcore acts that start with S, but here we are) you can go find ’em yourself if you’re soooo upset why I didn’t include them. Without further ado, let’s get skronky (another S!).

Better Lovers // God Made Me an Animal – Look, I get it’s an EP, but when your band consists of the instrumental section of the defunct Every Time I Die, the guitarist of Fit for an Autopsy and End, and the vocalist of the legendary The Dillinger Escape Plan, we can make some exceptions. Charisma and sleaze drip through the southern-fried leads of these four songs, while Greg Puciato’s unmistakably charismatic vocals rip across, formidable cleans gracing melodic noodling with a catchiness that contrasts with the dense groove. Speaking of the groove, they hit at just the right moments, recalling I Am Hollywood-era He is Legend in “Sacrificial Participant,” while punk speed graces “30 Under 13” with a franticness, while the riff in the title track is absolutely mammoth. Quite the lineup, and while the sound is what you’d largely expect from its ranks, the five-piece makes its debut EP just damn good mathcore.

Chamber // A Love to Kill For – Nashville’s Chamber enters the fray with a sound that weaponizes mathcore for maximum punishment, a tad like Frontierer meeting late-era The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza in a knife-fight behind the old Kmart: down-tuned thuggishness, chunky and bruising rhythms, noodly riffs, and squealing leads.² Vocalist Jacob Lilly offers a vicious performance, his roars and fry vocals dripping with vitriol, while the cutthroat axework collapses and crushes around him, and drummer Taylor Carpenter hits the kit balancing rock-solid anchoring and pure mania. A Love to Kill For is a relentless metalcore attack barbed with hardcore punk, mathcore, and hints of deathcore: carefully calculated, intensely brutish, and worth every concussion Chamber can muster.

Euclid C Finder // The Mirror, My Weapon, I Love You – A balanced affair unafraid of the noisemaking, Baltimore’s Euclid C Finder (presumably named after the Fallout weapon) releases a grind-tinged math attack of viciousness and oddity in equal measure. Nineteen minutes of wonky rhythms, blasting percussion, manic dissonance, panic chords aplenty, and insane vocals greet the ears with the subtlety of a five-car pileup. It would be easy to dismiss The Mirror… as just another Dillinger– or Converge– worshiper, but then the groove hits. The trio balances its treble trouble with a chunky hit of downtuned intensity and gruff barks that gives respite to the million-miles-per-hour of noodly technicality. It’s a toothy and intense affair that never takes itself too seriously (i.e. “Jonathan Davis 10000 BC”) and never overstays its welcome.

Telos // Delude – What makes Copenhagen’s Telos unique is its blackened and noisy take on mathcore. Or, if you please, a mathy take on blackened hardcore – whatever floats your boat. A bit like if Hexis (with whom they released a split this year) and Botch had a scary-looking baby. Misanthropy oozes from every orifice and hostile noise fills negative space, ominous leads and dissonant plucking wearing haunting grooves into the brain. Tracks like “Bastion,” “I’ve Been Gone for So Long,” and “As Atlas Stumbled” are full-on assaults of intense proportions, while the more subdued ritualism and atmosphere in “I Accept / I Receive” and “Throne” show the depths of Telos’ lurching and rumbling depravity. Fans of mathcore and blackened hardcore would do well to do a headlong dive into this particular abyss.

Thin // Dusk – Mathcore gone grind. Reveling in tight descending patterns of insanity, with a fearlessness of skull-caving death metal, New York City’s Thin will beat you senseless with every weapon in its arsenal. A wall of noisy noodling, panic chords, and squalid feedback is erected with every attack, collapsing for death metal-inspired weight and dissonant plucking throughout that feels like homage to this year’s Asystole. Screamo orientation fuels the fire and brevity is the name of the game, but toss in formidable performances from all forces involved, with howling screeches giving way to gravelly gurgles, groovy riffs giving way to frantic tremolo, and the rhythm section cutting through the darkness. As the cheery acoustic strums of closer “Mangrove” sound in final respite, Thin revels in its sonic and lyrical pairing of nostalgia and trauma – a dark night of the soul.

Dead Soma // Pathos – A more rhythmic and atmospherically spidery but nonetheless viciously punishing take on mathcore. Best described as Loathe covering Converge songs, the sepia-toned and mysterious Deftones influence is unmistakable, but Sweden’s Dead Soma is unafraid to embrace the intensity. Hinting upon djent not unlike countrymen Vildhjarta and weighty rhythms like Car Bomb, the grooves are palpable and punishing, guided by the dead hands of electronic glitches and pinch harmonics and dragged by manic barks and screeches. Chino Moreno-esque whispery cleans and subdued mumbles add to the glitching and warm synthwork in the more laid-back tracks, which add further dynamic to the relentlessly fat riffs and mathy noodling (see: “Life and Limb” to “Error Blemish”). Warmly atmospheric, it carries a vintage tone by the vocals and synth, but is ultimately uncompromising in its brutality.

MouthBreather // Self-Tape – This one is less mathcore by sound and more by name. The Boston collective’s debut LP I’m Sorry Mr. Salesman (another filter cleaning I contributed to) was Coalesce-meets-Converge-core through and through in a groovy take on mathcore, but after a come-to-metalcore-Jesus moment they go straight for the jugular with a nu-infested, groove-infected -core sound for Self-Tape. The viciousness is front and center, with aggression and fury spewing from every chug and growl, with its storied mathcore history offering its energetic bite. Now featuring more deathcore weight and nu-metal influence to slam into your sorry-ass ears alongside the ghosts of Christmas skronk, Self-Tape reflects a descent into madness through its very reasonable twenty-three minutes of film references. Maybe you’ll think it’s just metalcore with no mathcore in sight, and you’d be right, but (a) that’s why it’s at the end of this piece and (b) your head will be bobbing so hard you won’t care.

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I’ve often felt that small changes can make a big difference, especially in music. The Killing Room, ostensibly, is very similar to Fly in the Trap, even down to its eerie and unsettling cover. Same hyper (and I mean hyper) melodicism, same “true crime” theme (we’ll get to that), same aesthetic… The concept this time is that ex-band member “Faustus” has gone missing under mysterious circumstances after becoming embroiled in a deadly online game known as “Possess the Devil.” The album features his lyrics before he disappeared, promising a mystery for the listener to solve. It is, in keeping with the trend of 2023, Part 1 of 2. Now, at this stage, you’re either intrigued or rolling your eyes hard. If you couldn’t handle the previous offerings, there’s nothing here that will bring you round. Similarly, if you loved the older material, this will continue to appeal. The interesting group are the unconvinced. The good news is that there are just enough tinkers and changes to perhaps persuade you.

The first major tweak is the band continuing to evolve away from black metal, and embracing either a more “black ‘n’ roll” aesthetic (“s.p.i.d.e.r.g.o.d.,” “The Black Web”) or going full pop on many of the tracks. If you removed the vocals from “Silicon Witch,” or “The Cloud of Unknowing,” both would fit nicely into any indie band’s repertoire. Crucially, Spider God hang onto the component that drew attention to them in the first place: their ability to marry insanely catchy hooks with harsh metal elements. This reaches its apotheosis on album centerpiece, and most impressive Spider God song to date, the 10-minute-long “The Killing Room.” It’s compelling, interesting, baffling, and confusing. In other words, Spider God is in musical form.

The second tweak is that moving away from real-life tragedy to artificial mystery removes the “ick” exploitation factor that pervaded the last album, making The Killing Room much easier to enjoy. It also eliminates some of the tonal mismatch of Fly in the Trap (nerdy mystery is fun, which suits the music). I still find it odd that Spider God want us to embrace an almost total pop aesthetic and a creepy and potentially violent story, but this is their schtick, and they cling to it. The overly clean production of its predecessor has been grimed up, which suits the material hugely, although I would love them to open it up a bit more and let the material breathe. The band has also wisely decided to push the vocals back and beef up the bass. All these small tweaks may be minor individually, but the improvement is notable.

Both The Killing Room and Spider God have grown on me enormously in the 2 weeks I’ve been listening to them. The band likes metal. It also likes pop. It takes a while to wrap your head around this combo, but it certainly is unique, especially when the band is as committed as Spider God. In addition, the band has tinkered and adjusted itself in response to the criticisms of Fly in the Trap. This will not appeal to everyone, and there will be the usual gatekeeping nonsense from some quarters. But if you’re willing to open your mind, you’ll find much reward in The Killing Room.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Repose Records
Website: spider-god.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/spidergodband/
Releases Worldwide: December 25th, 2023

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By contrast? I’d advise you either create or consume short-form releases. They’re among my favorite things in the world¹. They convey their meaning expeditiously, prioritize quality over quantity and are far more economically viable for the artist². Grindcore acts learned this over 30 years ago and who am I to deny the immense popularity and evident commercial viability of grindcore? As if all this wasn’t enough, bands that favor EPs, splits, singles and collaborations are also more sexually desirable. Don’t question the science; just open wide and accommodate the following releases. –El Cuervo

Asidhara // Echoes of the Ancients – There’s little that’s complicated about the pleasure I derive from Echoes of the Ancients by Asidhara. Riffs. Riffs. More riffs. Within 2023, these 4 tracks contain a concentration of top-drawer guitars bettered only by new the new Sylosis record. 20 minutes of straightforward thrash in April was exactly the headbanging salvo I required when compared with a March characterized by reviews of proggy material. I would compare these Welshmen to Power Trip due to the razor-sharp leads, energized vocal attack and crossover sensibilities. It’s a metallic tour de force and one you’d be idiotic to miss if you like guitar music. –El Cuervo

fromjoy // fromjoy – Few releases from 2023 delighted me as much as fromjoy’s self-titled EP. It represents 26 minutes of a shockingly vital fusion between grindcore, breakcore and vaporwave. No other band comes close for genre-bending ingenuity and cathartic insanity. I love each form of their sound, from the wretched, chaotic grind on “Accela,” to the gurgling, stomping breakdowns on “Docility,” to the dancing trip-hop on “Eros,” all the way through to the massive closing duo “Helios” and “Icarus.” The first of these fuses smooth saxophones and sexy synths with brutal breakcore, while the latter levers clean singing over vaporwave synths before closing the release with emotionally charged roars over fat riffs. These 5 minutes are worth the price of entry alone, but what comes before is so compelling that you’ll not want to stop listening. fromjoy and fromjoy are both essential. –El Cuervo

Glyph // When the World Was Young – I was probably predestined to enjoy the output of brand-spanking-new power metal band Glyph, because I’ve loved at least one album that each member has been a part of at one time or another. Comprising the vocal talents of R.A. Voltaire (Ravenous), the axe-wielding of Rob Steinway (ex-Skelator, Greyhawk), the low-end rumble of Darin Wall (ex-Skelator, Greyhawk), and the keyboard wizardry of Jeff Black (Gatekeeper), Glyph specializes in over-the-top power metal that should please fans of Rhapsody, Sabaton, and Gloryhammer. This demo sports three tracks of distinct styles and moods, nicely showcasing the band’s abilities and giving us a good idea of what to expect from future releases. When you take into consideration the music and the band’s social media output, it’s apparent that this project is meant to be fun, and I’m already smiling thinking about a Glyph full-length release. –Holdeneye

Strigoi // Bathed in a Black Sun – Because nobody got enough of Strigoi’s vampiric take on doom-tinged death metal from last year’s monstrous Viscera,³ Gregor Mackintosh and company are back with a brisk, brutal five-song, fourteen-minute EP chock full of heavy riffs and, in most cases, ludicrous speed. No really, “Beautiful Stigmata” says more in its scant 42 seconds than most songs of greater lengths. Besides the title track, all the other four songs were extras from the Viscera sessions, but don’t think this isn’t essential. In fact, besides the menacing “A Spear of Perfect Grief,” the songs on display are more than happy to rip your head clean off. –Grymm

Insomnium // Songs of the Dusk – What 2021 EP Argent Moon was to Heart Like a Grave, Songs of the Dusk is to Anno 1696. Specifically, it’s far superior to the respective most recent full-length release. Only three songs and twenty-odd minutes long, it nonetheless makes an impression through Insomnium’s own brand of dreamy, ballady melodeath. Those key changing, soaring choruses (“Flowers of the Night,” “Song of the Dusk”), and impassioned, flighty surges of dancing riffery (“Stained in Red”). Songs of the Dusk also leans heavily into atmosphere in ways not seen since Shadows of the Dying Sun at least, with glossy riffs fading in gracefully (“Song of the Dusk”), mournful, echoing tones backing up key refrains to give them a deep and shadowy presence (“Flowers of the Night”), and echoing clear guitar and piano over stripped-back synth. It never gets particularly lively, but fans of the band’s doomier, dreamier side will be very happy. –Thus Spoke

Vampire Squid // Plasmic – The previous three Vampire Squid outings all represent delightfully weird, skronky, mathy deathcore. Unreasonably heavy chugs, proggy song construction, and whimsical FX combine with Andrew Virrueta’s disgusting voKILLs to form submerged horrors unlike any other in the metalsphere. Then, Plasmic dropped in February and changed everything. Essentially Vampire Squid’s interpretation of brutal death metal with a slam kink, Plasmic is an inky pool of primordial slime for whatever this band is planning on unleashing next (“Cosmic Seepage,” “Wormholes Collide”). Stomps abound, enhanced by a wonderful pong snare, extra-filthy gurgles, and stripped-down, straightforward songwriting that reeks of Bolt Thrower (“Lurking Mystic”). If you’ve got fourteen minutes to spare, and I know that you do, dive deep into Vampire Squid’s horrific undersea world with Plasmic.⁴ –Kenstrosity

Kanonenfieber // U-Bootsmann – At this juncture, it’s really not worth me pretending that I am anything other than an avowed Kanonenfieber fanboy. However, despite that, I assure you that the latest EP from German creator, Noise, is well worth your time and modest investment. In instantly recognizable form—from the practically trademarked orange cover art, through to the rasping roar of the dual-tracked vocals—the two tracks relate the tale of the crew of a First World War German u-boot, as they surge forth on their first mission (“Kampf und Sturm”), to their watery grave in an iron tube (“Die Havarie”). As with previous Kanonenfieber releases, there is something hopelessly mournful about the arc of the story told, from its initial, almost anthemic stomping blackened death on the first track, searing tremolos leading the charge, to an exhausted, fatalistic melo-black sound on the second. The production is excellent as ever, as is the use of samples, including the sonar pings and spoken word passages, which, whether original or not⁵, add a now-familiar feeling of authenticity to the piece. –Carcharodon

Grub Nap // God Pile – A clanging kit, a squealing guitar, two voices yelping, yowling in asynchronous pain—these values string-slinger Dan Barter (Dvne) and stick-abuser Steve Myles (Groak) hold true with Grub Nap. Though Barter’s name carries a refined yet trudging sludge weight, his fat tone knob guides lurching, hissing Melvins-edged grooves through Myles’ bare, rattling boned kit-tensity. Ever the elegant riff machine, the snaking refrains of tracks like “Closerer” and “Wire Mother” slink about with the snappy play that you might hear in a more loaded Deadguy tune. But more importantly, Barter’s hypnotizing, gain-soaked strums land in concerted attack with each full snare snap, each mechanically resonating crash, each strained throat cry (“Sticky Back Uranium,” “Tin Banshee”) to maintain a violent, marching fullness that understates its two-man nature. God Pile’s six-song, fifteen-minute run will test your neck-bobbing endurance—repeat sets recommended for maximum vibe gains and/or quick catharsis. –Dolphin Whisperer

Haru Nemuri // INSAINT – I know what you’re thinking. Doesn’t Haru Nemuri make that weird, art rap, pop-punk-y, pseudo-J-Idol music suited for matcha latte enjoyers?⁶ Yes, 2022’s SHUNKA RYOUGEN pulled an extended mess in too many directions despite a few entertaining ideas. INSAINT, however, leans on the straightforwardness of punk and low-frills post-hardcore, albeit colored by the bounce of J-pop and bright-guitar punk acts like 9mm Parabellum Bullet. It’s not a dig to say that the anthemic build of “Destruction Sisters” or the chime-assisted drive of “Flee from the Sanctuary” could find a home in hopeful, comedic, coming-of-age anime. Still, trickier rhythm cuts “I Refuse” and “Inferno” contain a pop-informed, brooding attitude akin to Nemuri’s other work. But framed in the context of this rock band arrangement—minimal synth accompaniment across INSAINT—Nemuri’s many vocal identities instead weave and exchange placement to balance the weight leading up to the furious-kick closer “No Pain, No Gain Is Shit.” If you need rapid-delivery, life-affirming injection to float your work day, consider a little INSAINT in your membrane. –Dolphin Whisperer

Celeste // Epilogue(s) – The French collective has made some of the most caustic and filthy music since their first album Nihiliste(s) in 2004, and the progression towards the more blackened furor of 2022’s Infidele(s) has been a natural one, translating that densely challenging filth and venomous vocals into strangulation by barbed wire rather than beaten by a rusty hammer. Follow-up EP Epilogue(s) acknowledges its predecessor but also takes its own course completely, Celeste offering three tracks that maintain the scathing quality while also dwelling in pummeling meditation with the two tracks while also tossing in their first cleanly and heart-wrenchingly sung, and in English, track “With idle hands.” Celeste kicks open the door of possibilities with this release, refusing to pigeonhole themselves into the caustic filth with which we are familiar – showing a glimpse of humanity beneath the grime. –Dear Hollow

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As such, Abyssgazer presents as the kind of echoing incantation that must ring through ears from first to last note. No mere synthesis of the acts who fed Aphotic into existence, this sometimes blackened, sometimes funeral doom-weighted, always death metal assembly expresses itself in a peerless manner. The cavernous kick pummels that split air to render space for discordant guitar screeches recall the thunderous energy of a lurching Immolation. The breakaways into bouncing rhythms with layered and resonant vocal chants recall the anthemic black metal of Rotting Christ, albeit with a bend toward the psychedelic. The hypnotic kit hammering and looped lead melodies exist as a twisted Godflesh instance manifested as a death metal sacrifice. In hands less mindful, and in engineering fine-tuned by Esoteric’s Greg Chandler—a mind of similar persuasion but much longer in phrasing—Abyssgazer could have flown off its experimental rails.

Instead, disarmingly so, Abyssgazer flows naturally from idea to idea, with each long-form statement having a strong central identity. A trio of world-building breaths intersperse the heaviest moments: “Endzeit I,” a slow percussive build before a shattering blast beat open; “Endzeit II,” an eerie, reverberating acoustic segue before an even squirmier post-informed eruption; “Endzeit III,” a menacing synth-scraping the hisses toward the punishing conclusion. As contemporaries to Bölzer and Tongues, Aphotic finds its death metal rooting not in loud, chunky chords but rather in snaking progressions that rumble through low-end tremolo drills (“Spectral Degredation,” “Depths Call Depths”) and whip with phasing arpeggio force (“Cosmivore,” “Chasmous”). Nothing summons the dark lord like a lumbering, hazy legato.

On early listens, though, equally due to loaded layers of ambient electronic and modulated metal elements, Abyssgazer may struggle to brand its choices into memory. It’s the journey that forms first: the brutalist bashing that kicks off the descent (“Spectral Degradation”), the bellow and choir that won’t stop ringing (“Deathward and Beyond,” “Horizonless”), the summoning dirge that announces collapse (“Chasmous”). The swinging riffs and recursive melodies stitch these points together (“Cosmivore,” “Abyssgazer”). Until a martial spirit reveals itself along the path (“Cosmivore,” “Horizonless”). Everything always moves forward.

Abyssgazer reads less like a grand novel and more like a short story, ultimately. Its tools well worn and non-gratuitous, the time that elapses over this debut’s course never feels overstayed. Aphotic has the power to warp time in their meticulous and death-carved hands. So as exciting as Abyssgazer lands, and much, in the same way, it lures the listener along, the next step along this band’s career promises even more.

Tracks to Check Out: “Spectral Degradation,” “Depths Call Depths,” “Chasmous”³

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