![Between the Buried and Me – The Blue Nowhere [Things You Might Have Missed 2025]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/a0023762103_10.jpg.webp)
“With their move to Inside Out Music and the departure of longtime guitarist Dusty Waring, another shift seemed inevitable, with longtime fans like me wondering if the band could deliver another impressive offering. I’m happy to say The Blue Nowhere sticks the landing. It’s an impressive record that finds BTBAM confident, energized, and willing to explore new ideas while refining the familiar.” The grave digging was premature.
December is the best time to browse through the October Filter flotsam, as they’re now heavily discounted like Valentine’s Day candy in August. They’re probably still fresh though. Maybe.
“Sisyphus is my favorite character in Greek mythology. It’s why I picked up Obstinacy: Sisyphean Dreams Unfolded, the sophomore release from US-based metal vanguard, Fleshvessel. You see, not only does Sisyphus cheat Death twice—which in itself is hella metal—but in being damned to eternally roll a boulder uphill, he becomes an allegory for the human experience. This endless toil and glorification of the struggle serves as the thematic foundation for Obstinacy, revolving around “our own stubbornness/persistence as human beings and how it can be both a detriment to, or deliverance from, our collective and individual struggle for a better world.”” Rock and a slanted place.
“I get the sense that the members of Asira are particularly meticulous. The last time we heard from this post/prog group from Reading, UK was back in 2017. In his review of their debut album, Efference, El Cuervo asserted that Asira was on the cusp of being the next Big Deal. Just four months later, he decided that they already were, invoking Contrite Metal Guy powers to amend Efference’s score from 3.5 to 4.5 (a Big Deal, indeed!). Perhaps Asira felt some pressure, because they took their time to craft the best possible follow-up.” Painterly blackness.
Ah, the pungent stench of autumnal Filters. Forget pumpkin spice and get you some Filter droppings from September!
![Citadel – Descension [Things You Might Have Missed 2025]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Citadel_Descension_01.jpg.webp)
“2025 has been a banner year for the long form in my book. With such high-ranking triumphs from Tómarúm, An Abstract Illusion, and Flummox in rotation, you’d think there wouldn’t be any time left for another. Yet, New Jersey trio Citadel dropped the lush and dramatic Descension upon the Earth back in late March, and it’s never left my rotation since.” Fortress of goodness.
“In the world of academia, the ‘monograph’ reigns supreme. A book-length study of a single subject, a monograph should synthesize essay-length analyses into one argument that contributes something new to the scholar’s field. To analogize the world of music to academia: the monograph stands in for the album, demonstrating an artist’s ability to cohere individual songs into one holistic listen. Monograf, a Norwegian post-rock collective, published its first monograph in 2019. Nadir made a novel contribution to post-rock by adding Norwegian folk music to soundscapes reminiscent of Godspeed You! Black Emperor.” Book smart vs. garage smart.
“Anguish is an emotion commonly portrayed in many metal subgenres. While other artists tend to convey it in a general or abstract sense, The Reticent’s brand of anguish is specific and viscerally personal. Huck N Roll bid them a somber welcome to this site in 2016 with On the Eve of a Goodbye, an introspective work about the suicide of founder Chris Hathcock’s close friend. In 2020, The Oubliette unflinchingly detailed the merciless deterioration of an Alzheimer’s patient from onset to demise. Now, after five long years, The Reticent returns with another progressive metal entry, this time to shine a light on the topic of mental illness and its causal relationship with suicide. Drawing from Hathcock’s own struggles and experiences, please promises to be as gut-wrenching as ever.” Pain is the mindkiller.
“Boasting one of the most consistent discographies in the world of weird modern metal, Pennsylvania’s Veilburner toy with the boundaries between the strange, the twisted, and the accessible. From my introduction to their work, A Sire to the Ghouls of Lunacy, to their high-water mark Lurkers in the Capsule of Skull, and through The Duality of Decapitation and Wisdom, Veilburner defied Angry Metal Guy’s Law of Diminishing Recordings™.” Veil fought the Law.
“Astronoid and I have a history. Their 2016 debut Air was one of those lightning-in-a-bottle releases that blew the doors off my early metal fandom. A delirious cocktail of shoegaze shimmer, sugar-coated harmonies, and blast-beaten bliss, it felt like nothing else at the time, and it sent me tumbling down the blackgaze rabbit hole. Add in the fact that these guys hailed from my quiet corner of New England, and I was all in.” Sugar-gazing.
