![Mother of Graves – The Periapt of Absence [Things You Might Have Missed 2024]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Mother-of-Graves-The-Periapt-of-Absence-01-768x768.jpg)
“If, like me, you’re a sucker for classic death doom and The Periapt of Absence is a Thing That You Did, in fact, Miss in 2024 then you’ll want to remedy that. Now. The second full-length by Indianapolis quintet Mother of Graves, it channels all those sweet, sweet sadboi vibes from early Katatonia, Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride, or even classic Swallow the Sun.” I dismember Momma.
![A Swarm of the Sun – An Empire [Things You Might Have Missed 2024]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/a0618388495_16.jpg.webp)
“”Imagine the best parts of Katatonia, Anathema, My Dying Bride and Agalloch all submerged into a minimalist post-metal miasma, so thick not even the faintest ray of hope can penetrate.” This is how Steel Druhm invited us to envisage Swedish joy vampires A Swarm of the Sun, in his review of their second album, The Rifts. That review introduced me to A Swarm of the Sun.” Despite being unflinchingly beautiful, The Rifts and its successor, The Woods, blanket and suffocate you. Fourth LP, An Empire, is no different.” Swallow your joy.
“The Panzerfaust tetralogy, The Suns of Perdition series, began all the way back in 2019 with Chapter I: War, Horrid War. Despite being a great record, delivered by a band showing huge promise, this massive saga wasn’t one that I really expected to ever see finished. Bands break up, get dragged into controversies or whatever. But, five years later, here we are, at the conclusion of The Suns of Perdition series and the end of the world.” Sundowning.
“The review game is a funny business. I genuinely don’t recall liking Endless Twilight of Co-Dependent Love, the last outing by Iceland’s post-metal legends Sólstafir, as much as I apparently did. It was a 2.5/5.0. Surely. But, as I prepared to tackle their eighth album, Hin helga kvöl (The Holy Suffering), I was shocked to learn that I’d 3.5ed Endless Twilight. And, wouldn’t you know, I was right! Yes, Endless Twilight was far too long. No, the production wasn’t good. And yes, Aðalbjörn Tryggvason’s vocals were more love-em-or-hate-em than ever. But, somehow, it held together as a very good album, something I re-discovered afresh delving back in after a four-year break. Speaking about Hin helga kvöl, Tryggvason said that one thing Sólstafir tried was to make the songs shorter but it’s “somewhat harder to write good short songs, so that was a real challenge.” Was it one the Icelanders were up to?” Time, faulty memory, and Icelandic weirdness.
“There’s a little bit of buzz about Montpellier, France’s Silhouette, ahead of their full-length debut, Les Dires de l’Âme. This is built on the undeniable strength of their 2022 EP, Les retranchements (which, passing the 30-minute / seven-track mark as it did, was arguably an LP but that’s by the by). There, the sextet blended various styles, including black and post-metal, and shoegaze to create a dark and dreamy atmosphere, which oscillated between ghostly beauty and harsh, post-black fury.” Tis the season of ghosts and gloom.
“I wanted to love Five the Hierophant’s last album, 2021’s Through Aureate Void. I really did. Alas, it was not to be. However, after seeing them play a great set at ArcTanGent in 2022, I revisited that record. While I stand by everything in that review, including the 2.0, which some viewed as harsh, the potential was clear and Five the Hierophant was tantalizingly close to delivering a worthy follow-up to their very good debut, Over Phlegethon. The British quartet’s brand of psychedelic, jazz-inspired, instrumental post-metal had elements of greatness marred by meandering, over-indulgent songwriting that lacked standout ideas.” Five or lower?
The Crown is back with its 12th album, Crown of Thorns, continuing a legacy of death-thrash fury. We at AMG Industries, LLC have been tongue-bathing these Swedish darlings since Doomsday King, their 2010 comeback following a six-year hiatus. Through three reviewers, and 15 years of reviews, The Crown has continued to garner high mark after high mark and an unusual amount of love from our cantankerous staff. Can Crown of Thorns live up to the high bar set by their earlier work, or are the cracks starting to show?
“For the most part, Eye of the Golem operates at the post-hardcore end of the post-metal spectrum. Nigredo majors in chunky, chugging guitars, underwritten by big, distorted bass lines and a lot of reverb. And within that, we are closer in tone to The Atlas Moth than we are to Cult of Luna or Isis.” Eye of golem, feet of clay.
“Albuquerque, New Mexico’s Blue Heron dropped their debut record, Ephemeral, in 2022. I remember briefly listening to it at the time, but it didn’t leave much of an impression. Dipping in again now, I think that was very much a Me Problem because Ephemeral was a solid slab of desert stoner rock, tinged with both blues and grunge. And I slept on it. Now back with their sophomore record, Everything Fades, whatever sort of journey Blue Heron wants to take me on, it’s one I’m determined not to sleep on!” Jacked up on Monster and ready to review some metal!
“When I wrote up Menschenmühle, the debut full-length by Germany’s Kanonenfieber, in late 2021, I described it as ‘stunning.’ The storytelling arc that it achieves, opening with the almost enthusiastic bombast of the early days of the Great War, through to the exhausted horror of No Man’s Land, is incredible. Cast in shades of blackened death metal, I ended up crowning it my Album of the Year, calling it a ‘masterpiece.’ So how does one write the follow-up to a masterpiece?” With one’s tongue, apparently.
