Kenstrosity’s 2025 was a crazy year! He’s here to reflect, write Oscar-length thank you lists, and regale you with a list that’s devious in its intricacies!
Psychonaut
Sentynel’s and Twelve’s Top Ten(ish) of 2025
Sentynel and Twelve hit the streets with their Top Ten(ish) of 2025. You should read all about them.
Who Are These Clowns and Where Did They Put My Flesh Stapler? The AMG Staff Pick Their Top Ten(ish) of 2025
The AMG Staff Lists are ready for review, examination, and ultimately, rejection.
Psychonaut – World Maker Review
“Over the course of the last five years and change, my estimation of Belgian three-piece Psychonaut has only increased. Where I unfortunately missed out on Violate Consensus Reality for review duties, I didn’t let it slip outside of my listening rotation—certainly not after such an impressive debut, Unfold the God Man. I underrated that outing, citing bloat as the main drawback. Little did I consider that Psychonaut’s music often needs much more time than we’re given as our standard reviewing window to fully bloom. The psychedelic proggy post-metal purveyors boast a thoughtful and deeply layered songwriting approach that can’t be captured by a casual spin or three. Hence why I asked for World Maker, the trio’s third opus, early.” Letting the space brain flavors develop.
Hippotraktor – Stasis Review
“When your introduction to a band is a live performance, it can sometimes be misleading regarding their studio sound. Such was my experience with Stasis, the second album from Belgian up-and-comers Hippotraktor. Funky name aside, Hippotraktor’s already bowled me over twice in live settings on two different festivals. What stuck the most from those shows, aside from the fact that they were fucking excellent, was the band’s progressive sludge side, an aggressive ripping and tearing shark to Mastodon’s bigger and blunter white whale. What escaped from my impressions, but became abundantly clear as soon as Stasis began, is the hefty helping of djent that stumps and stutters its way into the band’s core sound.” Hungry, hungry Hipptraktors.
Divided – Light Will Shine Review
“Throughout the tapestry of shimmering tones, weighty riffs, and desperate fry vocals in Light Will Shine, a common thread courses, of vulnerability and tension. Belgium’s Divided offers a style not unlike Glassing, Amenra, and Envy, with crystalline melodies colliding with unforgiving heaviness, with a distinctly unfriendly guitar harmonic approach. However, it professes a soundtrack for anxiety.” Unite through division.
BRIQUEVILLE – IIII Review
“When I reviewed B R I Q U E V I L L E’s third record, Quelle, I got tetchy about all the spaces between the letters, and various other pretensions. However, the Belgian project’s mesmerizing brand of instrumental post-metal won me over. Its bleak, misery-drenched tones conveyed everything that slightly uncomfortable-to-look-at album artwork suggested it might, ranging from a sludgy Bossk to Godspeed You! Black Emperor in tone. At almost an hour in length, and with a few strange choices in its composition, Quelle did struggle a little under its own weight but it still held my attention. Although the spaces now seem to come and go, it would appear BRIQUEVILLE have found a new way to irk me with their fourth record, IIII.” B r i c k by BRIQUE.
TheKenWord’s and Carcharodon’s Top Ten(ish) of 2022
TheKenWord and Carcharodon bring their special sets of skills to Listurnalia and things get…interesting.
![Psychonaut – Violate Consensus Reality [Things You Might Have Missed 2022]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/a3982478728_10_1.jpg.webp)
Psychonaut – Violate Consensus Reality [Things You Might Have Missed 2022]
“Mixing slow-build dynamics, psychedelic excursions and cathartic crescendos with sudden explosions of fury, Psychonaut draws inspiration from the likes of The Ocean and Baroness (in that bygone era when Baroness wrote compelling music and didn’t crush their albums into unlistenable garbage at the production stage). Complex, sprawling, dense, and yet accessible, Violate Consensus Reality swirls around the listener.” Psychodrama.
Abest – Molten Husk Review
“Molten Husk is an album built on a balance of synchrony and glitches, a duel of cohesive riffs and splattering experimentation. We embark on a journey with Abest, witnessing this dichotomy and wondering what the hell we do with its lesson. As the journey dwindles to its final moments, Molten Husk fully succumbs to the chaos. A corrosive and unforgiving beast, whose growls are abruptly interrupted by a spare moment of humanity in the haunting “Possessor,” it pummels and unnerves in a soundtrack of breathing darkness. But this is no black metal, though it makes sporadic appearances. This is not death metal, although listeners may be reminded of it. Although based in sludge, density is eschewed for a palpable crunch instead of earth-shaking weight. At the end of Molten Husk, Abest will challenge what you think about post-metal.” Abeast.
