Tyme and Killjoy bring their Top ten(ish) lists to the public without fear or shame. Was that wise?
Cryptopsy
Alekhines Gun’s, ClarkKent’s and Owlswald’s Top Ten(ish) of 2025
Alekhines Gun, ClarkKent and Owlswald came out of the deep freeze to have a busy 2025. Now they get Big Boy Top Ten(ish) lists and things are getting real.
Record(s) o’ the Month – June 2025
“As we inch inexorably closer to relevance and timeliness, we must first cross the fallow fields of June. A weird month, June was differentiated by the sheer number of recommendations that I received from the staff. Some months will see the Groupthink kick in, and everyone will vote for the same three albums. But June had no clear standout.” Or did it? (It kinda didn’t.)
Cryptopsy – An Insatiable Violence Review
“We all know the score for Cryptopsy by now. It’s been thirteen long years since their apology letter/fan service/throne rebuilding mission statement attempted to right the wrongs in the brutal death stalwart’s camp. But the wounds were too deep, the fanbase’s rage too visceral, and in the end, an otherwise excellent album passed by without much of the fanfare it deserved. In subsequent years, two slabs of incredible EP’s and one monster full-length have worked to regain the graces of death aficionados the world over.” The long road back from sellout.
Defeated Sanity – Chronicles of Lunacy Review
Defeated Sanity spews back into the light of day for the first time since 2020. Such a grotesque eruption of proto-slime requires several important opinions of Chronicles of Lunacy.
Stuck in the Filter: July 2024’s Angry Misses
July was a lifetime ago. The July Filters were cleaned last week though. We live in filth at AMG.
Wormed – Omegon Review
“It awakens. Hope dies. Well-rested after an eight-year slumber since Krighsu, Wormed boots up. Programmed for violence, its processor whirs as it hones in on your location. It finds you in minutes; hiding in the alley behind St. Vitus wasn’t your best move. As soon as you spot its piercing red eyes, you realize the jig is up. In that split second, you see Wormed’s sculpted metal features gleaming in the midnight neon, like a steel diagram of the muscular system. You don’t know its Origin. All you know is that you have to run. So you run.” Run, hide, you’ll still get Wormed.
Noxis – Violence Inherent in the System Review
“Often I find that picking promo at random is the path to my most surprising finds. The last couple of years saw me picking up returning band after returning band, which over time made me forget the trials and joys of the blind grab—once my primary modus operandi. I missed it dearly these last few months. It is this strange sense of nostalgia that ultimately brought me to Noxis, a young Ohioan death metal quartet with whom I have no experience and for whom I have no preconceptions. It’s a beautiful feeling, coming into a new piece of media as an empty vessel. Now the only question remaining is can Noxis fill me with their debut Violence Inherent in the System?” Tabla Noxis.
Defect Designer – Chitin Review
“Where do you even start with a band like Defect Designer? Part Trollfest, part Diskord—one fewer part now that bassist Eyvind Wærsted Axelsen has moved on since his brief participation on 2022’s blasting EP Neanderthal—and three parts weird, this eclectic Russian-by-way-of-Norway export hasn’t defined one singular sound for itself over the years.” Genre inwasion.
Vltimas – EPIC Review
“International supergroup Vltimas crashed upon the Earth early in 2015, dropping their well-received debut roughly four years later. Comprised of Morbid Angel’s very own David Vincent at the mic, Cryptopsy’s Flo Mounier manning the kit, and Aura Noir’s Rune “Blasphemer” Eriksen slinging axe, the project deals in grooving, swaggering blackened death metal singing Satan’s praises and glorifying the destruction of all the world. You know, the usual.” Super epic?
