I've moved on to 'Violent Portraits Of Doomed Eacape' by Black Crown Initiate.

I love this album so much.

One reason I loved Rivers Of Nihil last year is because of how much it reminded me of this album.

#metal #progressivemetal #BlackCrownInitiate

So some of the band members of Black Crown Initiate formed a band called Subterranean Lava Dragon… and released an album in January!

Let’s go!

#SubterraneanLavaDragon #BlackCrownInitiate #ProgressiveDeathMetal #Metal

Rivers of Nihil – Rivers of Nihil Review

By ClarkKent

With the decision to make their fifth album self-titled, Rivers of Nihil signal a rebirth of their sound—both a return to their roots and a new direction. This makes sense when considering that long-time lead singer Jake Dieffenbach departed in 2022. Taking his stead is bassist Adam Biggs, who was already a backup singer, and newcomer Andy Thomas (Black Crown Initiate), who lends his guitars as well as a significant vocal presence. It’s no secret that Rivers of Nihil’s prior albums haven’t met the warmest reception at AMG headquarters, but Kronos saw a clear improvement in their last two albums. Does Rivers of Nihil continue this line of progress, or does the new lineup take the band in the wrong direction?

In their latest iteration, Rivers of Nihil takes steps forward and some steps back. They largely strip away the progressive song structures that were successful on Where the Owls Know My Name and The Work. Tracks are more repetitive, coupled with industrial beats and simple chugging riffs. Not that many lauded Rivers of Nihil for their killer riffage—the inability to strum actual tunes was a constant complaint throughout Kronos’s reviews. The addition of Andy Thomas’s cleans and the return of the saxophone (handled by Patrick Corona of Cyborg Octopus) help offset this problem to an extent. Songs like “The Sub-Orbital Blues” work despite the simple guitar work due to its high energy on the drums, the seamless blending of Thomas’s and Biggs’s singing, and some sexy sax riffs. Rivers of Nihil is at its best when it embraces its proggy side. Songs like “Water & Time” and “House of Light” balance the gentle, the rough, and even the uplifting as Thomas belts out some stunning choruses.

Bringing Andy Thomas aboard was a brilliant move. His presence lifts good songs and even elevates some mediocre ones, like “Despair Church,” where his soaring croons deliver a gut punch. This isn’t to say anything against Adam Biggs, whose growls are punchy and effective. Rivers of Nihil are most effective when songs highlight the contrast between Biggs and Thomas. Also brilliant was giving Corona’s sax more play time. With the poor production values, the sax stands out in the mix better than the guitars and it adds layers and depth to the music. “House of Light” mixes the vocal and sax elements perfectly, with Biggs and Thomas taking turns demonstrating their strengths, and the sax adding melody over the guitars. Unfortunately, the inconsistent songwriting often lets Rivers of Nihil down.

While the front half is more mixed, the back half of Rivers of Nihil (except “House of Light”) takes a nosedive. Here, the band’s worst instincts rear their ugly head. With the slow tempo, uninspired guitar play, and anemic choruses, these songs could effectively replace your soporific of choice. The worst offender of this bunch is “American Death.” Its combination of blast beats and chug-a-chug riffs is the audio equivalent of a strobe light. Demonstrating a lack of imagination is the awkward chorus, whose lyric, “I can’t believe anything you say,” is word-for-word the same as the chorus on Mushroomhead’s “Eternal,” and the delivery is also uncannily similar. Even the album’s strongest elements fail to overcome the tedium of these final tracks. For example, the sax solo in “The Logical End” is an attempt to jazz up a dull song, but this has the same effect as trying to cover up a smelly poo with air freshener—it still stinks.

As a fan of Rivers of Nihil’s previous work, I had higher hopes when I plucked this from the promo bin. Rivers of Nihil likely won’t deter the band’s loyalest fans, nor will it sway its detractors. Those hoping for them to continue in the interesting direction of The Work will be largely disappointed, however. With one album under their belt, this new version of Rivers of Nihil is now at a crossroads. They can build upon the progressive foundations of “Water & Time,” or develop the energetic fun of “The Sub-Orbital Blues,” or continue the unimaginative performances of “The Logical End.” One can hope they can strike a balance between the first two options and leave the last one behind.

Rating: 2.0/5.0
DR: 4 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: Metal Blade Records
Websites: riversofnihil.bandcamp.com | riversofnihil.com
Releases Worldwide: May 30th, 2025

#20 #2025 #AmericanMetal #BlackCrownInitiate #CyborgOctopus #DeathMetal #May25 #MetalBladeRecords #Mushroomhead #ProgressiveMetal #Review #Reviews #RiversOfNihil

Stuck in the Filter: January 2025’s Angry Misses

By Kenstrosity

We enter January under the impression that our underpowered filtration system couldn’t possibly get any more clogged up. Those blistering winds that overwhelm the vents with an even greater portion of debris and detritus pose a great challenge and a grave danger to my minions. Crawling through the refuse as more flies in all william-nilliam, my faithful lackeys brave the perils of the job and return, as they always do, with solid chunks of semi-precious ore.

And so I stand before you, my greedy little gremlins, in a freshly pressed flesh suit that only the elite like myself adorn, and present January 2025’s Filter finds. REJOICE!

Kenstrosity’s Fresh(ish) Finds

Bloodcrusher // Voidseeker [January 9th, 2025 – Barf Bag Records]

The sun rises on a new year, and most are angrier than ever. What’s a better way to process that anger than jamming a phat slab of brutal slamming deathcore into your gob, right? Oregon one-man-slammajamma Bloodcrusher understand this, and so sophomore outburst Voidseeker provides the goods. These are tunes meant not for musicality or delicacy but for brute-force face-caving. Ignorant stomps and trunk-rattling slams trade blows with serrated tremolo slides and a dry pong snare with a level of ferocity uncommon even in this unforgiving field (“Agonal Cherubim ft. Jack Christensen”). Feel the blistering heat of choice cuts “Serpents Circle ft. Azerate Nakamura” or “Death Battalion: Blood Company ft. The Gore Corps” and you have no choice but to submit to their immense heft. Prime lifting material, Voidseeker’s most straightforward cuts guarantee shattered PRs and spontaneous combustion of your favorite gym shorts as your musculature explodes in volume (“Slave Cult,” “Sanguis Aeternus,” “Blood Frenzy”). If you ask me, that sounds like a wonderful problem to have. As they pummel your cranium into dust with deadly slam riffs (“Malus et Mortis ft. Ryan Sporer,” “Seeker of the Void,” “Earthcrusher”) or hack and slash your bones with serrated tremolos (“Razors of Anguish,” “Methmouth PSA”), remember that Bloodcrusher is only trying to help.

Skaldr // Saṃsṛ [January 31st, 2025 – Avantgarde Music]

Virginia’s black metal upstarts Skaldr don’t do anything new. If you’ve heard any of black metal’s second wave, or even more melodic fare by some of my favorite meloblack bands like Oubliette, Stormkeep, and Vorga, Skaldr’s material feels like a cozy blanket of fresh snow. Kicking off their second record, Saṃsṛ, in epic fashion, “The Sum of All Loss” evokes a swaying dance that lulls me into its otherwordly arms. As Saṃsṛ progresses through its seven movements, tracks like the gorgeous “Storms Collide” and the lively “The Crossing” strike true every synapse in my brain, flooding my system with a goosebump-inducing fervor quelled solely by the burden of knowing it must end. Indeed, these short 43 minutes leave me ravenous for more, as Skaldr’s lead-focused wiles charm me over and over again without excess repetition of motifs or homogenization of tones and textures (“From Depth to Dark,” “The Cinder, The Flame, The Sun”). Some of its best moments eclipse its weakest, but weak moments are thankfully few and far between. In reality, Skaldr‘s most serious flaw is that they align so closely with their influences, thereby limiting Saṃsṛ‘s potential to stand out. Nonetheless, it represents one of the more engaging and well-realized examples of the style. Hear it!

Subterranean Lava Dragon // The Great Architect [January 23rd, 2025 – Self Release]

Formed from members of Black Crown Initiate and Minarchist, Pennsylvania’s Subterranean Lava Dragon take the successful parts of their pedigree’s progressive death metal history and transplant them into epic, fantastical soundscapes on their debut LP The Great Architect. Despite the riff-focused, off-kilter nature of The Great Architect, there lies a mystical, mythical backbone behind everything Subterranean Lava Dragon do (“The Great Architect,” “Bleed the Throne”). Delicate strums of the guitar, multifaceted percussion, and noodly soloing provide a thoughtful thread behind the heaviest crush of prog-death riffs and rabid roars, a combination that favorably recalls Blind the Huntsmen (“The Silent Kin,” “A Dream of Drowning”). In a tight 42 minutes, Subterranean Lava Dragon approaches progressive metal with a beastly heft and a compelling set of teeth—largely driven by the expert swing and swagger of the bass guitar—that differentiates The Great Architect from the greater pool of current prog. Yet, its pursuit of creative song structure, reminiscent of Obsidious at times, allows textured gradations and nuanced layers to elevate the final product (“A Question of Eris,” “Ov Ritual Matricide”). It is for these reasons that I heartily recommend The Great Architect to anyone who appreciates smart, but still dangerous and deadly, metal.

Thus Spoke’s Likeable Leftovers

Besna // Krásno [January 16th, 2025 – Self Release]

It was the esteemed Doom et Al who first made me aware of Solvakian post-black group Besna. 2022’s Zverstvá was charming and moving in equal respects, with its folky vibe amplifying the punch of blackened atmosphere and epicness. With Krásno, the group take things in a sharper, more refined, and still more compelling direction, showing real evolution and improvement. The vague leanings towards the electronic play a larger role (“Zmráka sa,” “Hranice”), but songs also make use of snappier, and stronger emotional surges (“Krásno,” “Mesto spí”), the polished production to the atmospherics counterbalanced sleekly by the rough, ardent screams and pleasingly prominent percussion. Krásno literally translates as ‘beautiful,’ and Besna get away with titling their sophomore so bluntly because it is accurate. Melodies are more sweeping and stirring (“Krásno,” “Oceán prachu,” “Meso spí”), and the integration of the harsh amidst the mellow is executed more affectively (“Hranice,” “Bezhviezdna obloha”) than in the band’s previous work. Particularly potent are Krásno’s subtle nods and reprises of harmonic themes spanning the record (“Krásno,” “Oceán prachu,” “Mesto spí”), recurring like waves in an uplifting way that reminds me of Deadly Carnage‘s Through the Void, Above the Suns. Barely scraping past half an hour, the beautiful Krásno can be experienced repeatedly in short succession; which is the very least this little gem deserves.

Tyme’s Ticking Bomb

Trauma Bond // Summer Ends. Some Are Long Gone [January 12, 2025 – Self-Released]

Conceptualized by multi-instrumentalist Tom Mitchell1 and vocalist Eloise Chong-Gargette, London, England’s Trauma Bond plays grindcore with a twist. Formed in 2020 and on the heels of two other EPs—’21’s The Violence of Spring and ’22’s Winter’s Light—January 2025 sees Trauma Bond release its first proper album, Summer Ends. Some Are Long Gone, the third in a seasonally themed quadrilogy. Twisting and reshaping the boundaries of grindcore, not unlike Beaten to Death or Big Chef, Trauma Bond douses its grind with a gravy boat full of sludge. Past the moodily tribal and convincing intro “Brushed by the Storm” lies fourteen minutes of grindy goodness (“Regards,” “Repulsion”), sludgian skullduggery (“Chewing Fat”), and caustic cantankerousness (“Thumb Skin for Dinner”). You’ll feel violated and breathless even before staring down the barrel of nine-and-a-half minute closer “Dissonance,” a gargantuanly heavy ear-fuck that will liquefy what’s left of the organs inside your worthless skin with its slow, creeping sludgeastation. I was not expecting to hear what Trauma Bond served up, as the minimalist cover art drew me in initially, but I’m digging it muchly. Independently released, Summer Ends. Some Are Long Gone is a hell of an experience and should garner Trauma Bond a label partner. I’ll be hoping for that, continuing to support them, and looking forward to whatever autumn brings.

Iceberg’s Bleak Bygones

Barshasketh // Antinomian Asceticsm [January 9th, 2025 – W.T.C Productions]

My taste for black metal runs a narrow, anti-secondwave path. I want oppressive, nightmarish atmosphere, sure, but I also crave rich, modern production and technically proficient instrumental performances. Blending the fury of early Behemoth, the cinematic scope of Deathspell Omega, and the backbeat-supported drones of Panzerfaust, Barshasketh’s latest fell square in my target area. The pealing bells of “Radiant Aperture” beckoned me into Antinomian Asceticsm’s sacred space, a dark world populated with rippling drum fills, surprisingly melodic guitar work, and a varied vocal attack that consistently keeps things fresh. With the average track length in the 6-minute territory, repeat listens are necessary to reveal layers of rhythm and synth atmosphere that give the album its complexity. A throwaway interlude (“Phaneron Engulf”) and a drop in energy in the second and third tracks stop this from being a TYMHM entry, but anyone with a passing interest in technical black metal with lots of atmosphere should check this out.

Deus Sabaoth // Cycle of Death [January 17th, 2025 – Self-Released]

Deus Sabaoth have a lot going for them to catch my attention, beyond that absolutely entrancing cover art. Released under the shadow of war, this debut record from the Ukrainian trio bills itself as “Baroque metal,” another tag that piqued my interest. Simply put, Deus Sabaoth play melodic black metal, but there’s a lot more brewing under the surface. I hear the gothic, unsettled storytelling of The Vision Bleak, the drenching laments of Draconian, and the diligent, dynamic riffing of Mistur. The core metal ensemble of guitar, bass and drums is present, but the trio is augmented by a persistent accompaniment of piano and strings. The piano melodies—often doubled on the guitar—are where the baroque influence shines the greatest, echoing the bouncing, repetitive styling of a toccata (“Mercenary Seer,” “Faceless Warrior”). The vocals are something of an acquired taste, mainly due to their too-far-forward mix, but there’s a vitality and drive to this album that keeps me hooked throughout. And while its svelte 7 song runtime feels more like an EP at times, Cycle of Death shows enough promise from the young band that I’ll keep my eyes peeled in the future.

GardensTale’s Tab of Acid

I Don’t Do Drugs, I Am Drugs // I Don’t Do Drugs, I Am Drugs [January 27th, 2025 – Self-released]

When you name yourself after a famous Salvador Dalí quote, you better be prepared to back it up with an appropriate amount of weird shit. Thankfully, I Don’t Do Drugs, I Am Drugs strives to be worthy of the moniker. The band’s self-titled debut is a psychedelic prog-death nightmare of off-kilter riffs, structures that seem built upon dream logic, layers of ethereal synths and bizarre mixtures of vocal styles. The project was founded by Scott Hogg, guitarist for Cyclops Cataract, who is responsible for everything but the vocals. That includes all the songwriting. Hogg throws the listener off with an ever-shifting array of Gojira-esque plodding syncopation and thick, throbbing layers of harmonics that lean discordant without fully shifting into dissonance. But the songs float as easily into other-worldly soundscapes (“The Tree that Died in it’s[sic] Sleep”) or off-putting balladry (“Confierous”). BP of Madder Mortem handles vocals, and he displays an aptitude for the many facets required to buoy the intriguing but unintuitive music, his shouts and screams and cleans and hushes often layered together in strange strata either more or less than human. The combined result resembles a nightmare Devin may have had around 2005 after listening too much Ephel Duath. It’s not yet perfected; the ballad doesn’t quite work, and the compositions are sometimes a bit too dedicated to their lack of handholds. But it’s a hell of a trip, and a very convincing mission statement. A band to keep an eye on!

Dear Hollow’s Gunk Behooval

Bloodbark // Sacred Sound of Solitude [January 3rd, 2025 – Northern Silence Productions]

Bloodbark’s debut Bonebranches offered atmospheric black metal a minimalist spin, as cold and relentless as Paysage d’Hiver, as textured as Fen, and as barren as the mountains it depicts, exuding a natural crispness that recalls Falls of Rauros. Seven years later, we are graced with its follow-up, the majestic Sacred Sound of Solitude. Like its predecessor, the classic atmoblack template is cut with post-black to create an immensely rich and dynamic tapestry, lending all the hallmarks of frostbitten blackened sound (shrieks, blastbeats, tremolo) with the depth of a more modern approach. Twinkling leads, frosty synths, and forlorn piano survey the frigid vistas, while the more furious blackened portions scale snowbound peaks, utilized with the utmost restraint and bound by yearning chord progressions (“Glacial Respite,” “Griever’s Domain”). A new element in the act’s sound is clean vocals (“Time is Nothing,” “Augury of Snow”), which lend a far more melancholy vibe alongside trademark shrieking. Bloodbark offers top-tier atmospheric black metal, a reminder of the always-looming winter.

Great American Ghost // Tragedy of the Commons [January 31st, 2025 – SharpTone Records]

Boston’s Great American Ghost used to be extremely one-note, a coattail-rider of the likes of Kublai Khan and Knocked Loose. Deathcore muscles whose veins pulse to the beat of a hardcore heart, you’d be forgiven to see opener “Kerosene” as a sign of stagnation – chunky breakdowns and punk beats, feral barks and callouts, and a hardcore frowny face sported throughout. But Tragedy of the Commons is a far more layered affair, with echoes of metalcore past (“Ghost in Flesh,” “Hymns of Decay”), pronounced and tasteful nu-metal influence a la Deftones (“Genocide,” “Reality/Relapse”), and more variety in their rhythms and tempos, reflecting a Fit for an Autopsy-esque cutthroat intensity and ominous crescendos alongside a more pronounced influence of melody and manic dissonance (“Echoes of War,” “Forsaken”). Is it still meatheaded? Absolutely. Are its more “experimental” pieces in just well-trodden paths of metalcore bands past? Oh definitely. But gracing Great American Ghost a voice beyond the hardcore beatdowns does Tragedy of the Commons good and gives this one-trick pony another trail to wander.

Steel Druhm’s Detestible Digestibles

Guts // Nightmare Fuel [January 31st, 2025 – Self-Release]

Finland’s Guts play a weird “caveman on a Zamboni” variant of groove-heavy death metal that mixes OSDM with sludge and stoner elements for something uniquely sticky and pulversizing. On Nightmare Fuel, the material keeps grinding forward at a universal mid-tempo pace powered by phat, crushing grooves. “571” sounds like a Melvins song turned into a death metal assault, and it shouldn’t work, but it very much does. The blueprint for what Guts do is so basic, but they manage to keep cracking skulls on track after track as you remain locked in place helplessly. Nightmare Fuel is a case study into how less can be MOAR, as Guts staunchly adhere to their uncomplicated approach and make it work so well. Each track introduces a rudimentary riff and beats you savagely with it for 3-4 minutes with little variation. Things reset for the next track, and a new riff comes out to pound you into schnitzel all over again. This is the Guts experience, and you will be utterly mulched by massive prime movers like “Mortar” and “Ravenous Leech,” the latter of which sounds like an old Kyuss song refitted with death vocals and unleashed upon mankind. The relentlessly monochromatic riffs are things of minimalist elegance that you need to experience. Nightmare Fuel is a slow-motion ride straight into a brick wall, so brace for a concrete facial.

#2025 #AmericanMetal #AntinomianAsceticism #AtmosphericBlackMetal #AvantgardeMusic #BarfBagRecords #Barshasketh #BeatenToDeath #Behemoth #Besna #BigChef #BlackCrownInitiate #BlackMetal #BlindTheHuntsmen #Bloodbark #Bloodcrusher #BrutalDeathMetal #Converge #CycleOfDeath #CyclopsCataract #DeadlyCarnage #DeathMetal #Deathcore #DeathspellOmega #Deftones #DeusSabaoth #DevinTownsend #DoomMetal #Draconian #EphelDuath #FallsOfRauros #Fen #FitForAnAutopsy #Gojira #GothicMetal #GreatAmericanGhost #Grind #Grindcore #Guts #Hardcore #IDonTDoDrugsIAmDrugs #Jan25 #KnockedLoose #Krásno #KublaiKhan #MadderMortem #MelodicBlackMetal #Minarchist #Mistur #NightmareFuel #NorthernSilenceProductions #NuMetal #Oubliette #Panzerfaust #PaysageDHiver #PostBlack #ProgressiveDeathMetal #ProgressiveMetal #Review #Reviews #SacredSoundOfSolitude #SamSr_ #SelfRelease #SharpToneRecords #Skaldr #Slam #SlovakianMetal #Sludge #Stormkeep #StuckInTheFilter #SubterraneanLavaDragon #SummerEndsSomeAreLongGone #TheGreatArchitect #TheVisionBleak #TragedyOfTheCommons #TraumaBond #UKMetal #UkranianMetal #Voidseeker #Vorga #WTCProductions

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#BraveWords
Today In Metal History 🤘 August 7th, 2024🤘
BRUCE DICKINSON, PETE WAY, BLACK SABBATH, EXTREME, BEHEMOTH

https://bravewords.com/news/today-in-metal-history-august-7th-2024bruce-dickinson-pete-way-black-sabbath-extreme-behemoth

#BruceDickinson #PeteWay #BlackSabbath #Extreme #Behemoth #IronMaiden #Samson #Helloween #UFO #Waysted #IanGillan #TonyMacAlpine #AntagonistAD #ReverendBizarre #TheAbsence #DrowningPool #StillRemains #Throwdown #Behemoth #Memorain #CattleDecapitation #FearFactory #Krisiun #MissMayI #Avatar #Batushka #BlackCrownInitiate

Replacire – The Center That Cannot Hold Review

By Dolphin Whisperer

No matter how much money and success that an Angry Metal Guy review can help bestow upon a band, sales play only part of the hard-to-achieve role of financial forwarding in a band’s life. Back in 2017, the esteemed Kronos demanded not once but twice that you turn to Massachusetts-born death troupe Replacire with open minds and wallets to find a fruitful footing. But the journey from then to today has been hard for many. Just as Replacire seemed to be taking hold of the road and recording future, a tour-less 2020 emerged and heavily stalled the album they have finally delivered here, The Center That Cannot Hold. Born of that strife, setback, and the persistence of Replacire’s heart, guitarist Eric Alper,1 this follow-up from its extended incubation oozes with an extra layer of sophistication.

Replacire has always held a tactical yet jaw-dropping array of tricks, though, as Alper himself formed the act pulling from his Berklee College of Music companions. And while none remain from the initial line-up, that educational connection has gifted most of the current cast, who—lead guitarist Poh Hock aside (ex-Native Construct)—also forms the majority of Black Crown Initiate’s performing pieces.2 Notably, at the mic, James Dorton (Black Crown Initiate) displays a visceral and frothing growl-bark on tracks that would leave a lesser vocalist gasping (“The Center That Cannot Hold,” “Inglorious Impurity”), amongst it all breaking into dreamy and forlorn clean passages that give this loaded landscape some breathing room (“Drag Yourself Along the Earth,” “Hoard the Trauma Like Wealth,” “Uncontrolled and Unfulfilled”). Together, each member breathes in crooked time with the other as if they’ve been doing it all for years—in truth they have, at this point. For as dizzying as The Center is, its twists present addictive challenges.

This trained and talented cast leans toward technicality often, as any follower of Replacire would expect, but few are the moments throughout that lead without a firm and fervent rhythmic center. Whether this album comes from a different blend of influences than 2017’s Do Not Deviate, The Center leans on the kind of aggressive groove you would hear poppin’ off in an early Decapitated plug (“Living Hell,” “Inglorious Impurity”) or Terra Incognita-era Gojira chug (“Transfixed on the Work”). Don’t get me wrong, that math-y, tempo-jostled tug-and-shove riffcraft still presents itself aplenty—have fun counting the teeth-shattering blast that whips “Bloody-Tongued and Screaming” macerates your meatuses. But, as that tumble too shifts, moments of neck-challenging riffs bleed into mathematically sensible passages for the yin to the yang that so often overloads the spirit of this strain of death metal. The title track even flirts about a simple yet devious breakbeat before settling and hammering in a frantic, grind-minded, out-of-breath riff-sprint.

However, holding true to the tenets set forth by the genre’s forefathers of excess and execution, The Center remains dense enough to both create its own gravitational pull and potential collapse. At the surface, Replacire has pulled back on certain types of experimentation—piano backings and the like—but both Alper’s percussive playfulness and Hock’s virtuosic whimsy ensure that each cut comes loaded with enough guitar sounds to load replays with pauses, squinting ears, and wonder. Particularly after “Drag Yourself…” Hock’s quantity of snappy, melodic fills and Greg Howe-flavored, never over-placed solos increases at a breezy and bewildering pace, allowing the back half of The Center to grip in a different manner. In an album this packed, a couple of the lesser tracks drift into the background as each new flurry of alien notes and terrestrial chord stabs blinds the senses—but one slammer’s lull may be another’s fixation.

As a labor of years delayed through a time period that felt like decades, The Center That Cannot Hold unravels as a smorgasbord of rifftacular, heartily-stewed ideas. The creative process can be such that fusing grand Opeth-ian ideas into the jagged and tight structure of a Veil of Maya (“Living Hell,” “Hoard…”) groove yields both heavy hits and deep confusion. But Replacire lives for the climb, and famously slick engineer Jens Bogren has bestowed an extra meaty sheen to this overstuffed platter. Those who fiend for the chomp at a polyrhythmic puzzle that’s equally mosh-ready as it is quiz-ready will find deathly flesh and noodly marrow aplenty. Don’t forget to chew, though.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Season of Mist | Bandcamp
Website: replacire.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/replacire
Releases Worldwide: June 21st, 2024

#2024 #35 #AmericanMetal #BlackCrownInitiate #DeathMetal #Decapitated #Gojira #GregHowe #Jun24 #Opeth #ProgressiveDeathMetal #Replacire #Review #Reviews #SeasonOfMist #TechnicalDeathMetal #TheCenterThatCannotHold #VeilOfMaya

An old favourite surfaced from the abyss of YouTube.
For @DXMacGuffin's #ProgTuesday:

Rivers of Nihil: Clean

https://song.link/j5hpqznqjvpz7

FFO #Allegaeon #BlackCrownInitiate #Fallujah

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#MetalSucks
12 'Must Listen' Albums from the Last Ten Years
The last ten years have seen some truly innovative, kick-ass releases from bands of all genres.

https://www.metalsucks.net/2023/12/26/12-must-listen-albums-from-the-last-ten-years/

#AnAbstractIllusion
#CannibalCorpse
#MorbidAngel
#BlackCrownInitiate
#Suffocation
#DefeatedSanity
#Archspire
#Heilung
#Wormrot
#RiversOfNihil
#Dyscarnate
#RejoiceTheLightHasCome

Might as well hear some more of Andys singing and continue with #BlackCrownInitiate and Selves We Cannot Forgive. #MetalMonday

https://songwhip.com/black-crown-initiate/selveswecannotforgive