ADVENT23/23_DEC23

Mistigram: you can communicate a lot of winter vibes with a cold palette of whites and greys, with maybe a splash of red for an accent. The green you can take or leave. @Nitron drew this #ANSIart screen for this date in last year’s ADVENT23 #AdventCalendar.

#23December #ADVENT23 #ANSIArt #Dec23 #Nitron

ADEPTAPRIL/DEC23

Mistigram: the family of author Daniel O’Keefe was celebrating the invented holiday of #Festivus 30 years earlier than the rest of us started to, after it featured in the S9E10 episode of #Seinfeld #TheStrike in ’97. AdeptApril drew this #ANSIart screen in observance of the occasion.

#23December #AdeptApril #ANSIArt #Dec23 #Festivus

Frostbite Orckings – The Orcish Eclipse Review

By Twelve

Frostbite Orckings may have claim to the most interesting premise in metal, at least in 2023. Based on recordings from hired session musicians,1 the project is a work of purely AI-generated power metal. The Orcish Eclipse is the project’s debut full-length release, and heralds itself as “the world’s first AI-generated heavy metal album.” For my part, I am resolved to not really care about that. I do not think AI in art is inherently a good or bad thing, nor do I believe that AI is incapable of creating something beautiful. So I will listen to the album in full, several times at least, and decide if I enjoy it based on the exact same factors as I have every other review I’ve ever written.

Unfortunately, my first listen through The Orcish Eclipse immediately challenged that resolution, because the album sounds so weird that you’re almost forced to remind yourself that most of its decisions weren’t made by humans. At first glance, it’s standard power metal, with chugging riffs and harsh vocals, and opener “When I Fall” sounds fairly straightforward. Then “Orcs Don’t Cry” opens with three seconds of synths before diving into a gritty riff that’s completely at odds with the song’s whimsical/nonsensical title and theme. It has one of the best choruses on the album, but the lyrics are so absurd that it’s hard to enjoy it. Then there’s “Beauty of the Night,” which opts to use a tremolo guitar that sounds so much like burbling2 I’m not fully convinced it’s really a guitar. This kind of thing keeps happening. Again and again, Frostbite Orckings makes bizarre, unexpected, off-putting choices that make it hard to ignore the fact that no humans were harmed in the making of this album.

The most unforgivable thing about The Orcish Eclipse, however, is its utter tepidity, its absolute lack of emotion, and its entirely unsuccessful attempts to make up for it. I have never listened to an album that made me feel nothing before this. It has all the right things in all the right places to emulate an energetic power metal experience—choral vocals layered over choruses, shouted ear-worm phrases, keyboard flourishes in all the right spots, all done with all the elegance of a paint-by-numbers kit. “Coming Home” is the worst offender, opening with robotic clean chanting (none of the clean singing on this album sounds natural) and replaying it every time the title phrase is shouted. It tries so hard to emulate folk metal, but it fails, because folk metal is sung and played with feeling. There’s a good song in there, but the actual performance does not live up.

An offshoot of this issue is the sterile songwriting and production choices that further rob the album of its energy. The drumming may as well have been done by MIDI for all the power it adds to the music, and the guitar chugs are little more than background noise. Meanwhile, the songs are predictable to a fault; each one ends on a chorus, sometimes modulated from the last one, and nearly every chorus ends with the name of the song. After a while, you get really good at predicting what’s going to happen next… until the curveball conclusion that is “Endless Love.” Here, we have a song that is so clearly AI-generated and so stylistically out-of-place from the rest of the album that it breaks through the tepidity of the whole in the worst way possible.

The Orcish Eclipse is fascinating. Played in the background, you wouldn’t notice anything odd about it. It hits all the right notes and emulates power metal well. The more you pay attention to it, the more you notice the cracks. You notice the basically-missing bass, the near-absent guitar leads,3 the weak drumming, and the fact that the lyrics rarely make any sense at all.4.= I believe that no one dreamed of making this album; it seems to exist only as an experiment, a premise, and for that, I am left extremely disappointed.

Rating: 1.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Metalverse5
Websites: frostbiteorckings.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/frostbiteorckings
Releases Worldwide: December 22nd, 2023

#10 #2023 #Dec23 #FrostbiteOrckings #Metalverse #NorwegianMetal #PowerMetal #Review #Reviews #TheOrcishEclipse

Stuck in the Filter – November/December’s Angry Misses

By Kenstrosity

It is time for the new year, and yet we spend its initial moments reflecting on works of the past. That’s because the works of the past are clogging up our damn Filter, and we need that to breathe in this hellhole we call a headquarters. We toil in the snow and the slush, freezing as the gunk clings to our definitely OSHA compliant protective suits and face masks. All so that you can maybe like but more likely dunk on the nuggets of treasure we find here.

Regardless of whether you enjoy what we find, we expect payment for our services. You can submit tithes via Venmo, Paypal, Bitcoin, hobo wine, unicorns, and/or goat sacrifices. Anything less will result in summary dismissal from the Hall!

Kenstrosity’s Heaving Husks

Void // Jadjow [December 8th, 2023 – Brucia Records]

Weird shit is my shit. Challenging albums that dare to subvert my expectations of the music held therein will always garner my respect. Enter UK avant-garde black metal outfit Void and their fourth LP Jadjow. A bizarrely short window spanned between this release and their previous record—only two years compared to eight years between albums one and two, ten between albums two and three. Despite the tight turnaround, the quality of the writing here is nothing to dismiss offhand. Opening duo “Fables From a Post-Truth Era” and “Interdaementional” showcase twisted songwriting dynamics, haunting vocals, squealing black metal riffs, woody blasts, and funky transitions. Consequently, they remind me of Ved Buens Ende, DHG, and Khôra. Yet, Void prove that the art of the riff is not lost in a sea of weirdness, throwing in headbangable themes and windmill-worthy whirlwinds left and right (“Only For You,” “Self Isolation,” “Swamp Dog”). Striking this balance between engaging hooks (“Fables From a Post-Truth Era,” “Swamp Dog”), danceable grooves (“Oduduwa’s Chain”), and intelligent songwriting dynamics (“When Lucifer Dies,” “Iniquitous Owl”) is tricky business, and yet Void take on the task with effortless grace and poise. In turn, fifty-six minutes of oddball progressive black metal fly by in a flash. You blink, you miss it. Don’t blink!

Irityll // Schlafes Bruder [November 23rd, 2023 – Self Release]

Do you ever wonder what melodic black metal would sound like if it had the same HM-2 tone as the filthiest Swedeath around? I sure never have. Yet, Vienna, Austria’s Irityll chose that exact combination to craft their debut LP, Schlafes Bruder. Comprising of two musicians with notable experience in the deathcore and brutal death metal worlds (Spire of Lazarus, Monument of Misanthropy), Irityll unexpectedly nail the icy black metal sound which defines Schlafes Bruder, but enhanced by the novel twist of an HM-2 buzzsaw tone. Ominous melodies and vicious blasting abound, as choice cuts like “Leichnam aus Überzeugung,” “Deppade Leit,” and “Sternengeiβel” all demonstrate with aplomb. Written in the same epic style of bands like Immortal or Dark Funeral, Schlafes Bruder succeeds primarily thanks to a tasty combination of minimalist drama and riff-focused intensity. The way it ebbs and flows between soft passages and ripping black metal, blistering speed and militant marches, all feels natural, effortless, and leads to satisfying payoffs across the forty-four-minute runtime (“Schlafes Bruder,” “Reiter des Sturmes,” “Epitaphion”). And yet, it feels like just the beginning for Irityll. With more refinement and tightening of the screws, the duo could take even greater advantage of their novel sound profile with more distinct, individualized songwriting. I’m excited by that prospect, and you should be too.

Dolphin Whisperer’s Unparalleled Uncoverings

Closet Witch // Chiaroscuro [November 3rd, 2023 – Zegema Beach Records]

If you’re familiar with Closet Witch already, or the closely related in sound and style Cloud Rat, then you’ll know that the brand of caustically-styled, emotionally-chiseled grind that they represent wastes no moment. Equally weighted by the slowing churns of powerviolence and piercing tones of screamo, Chiaroscuro, a name taken from the classical art technique of shadow-use/darkness contrast that creates wholeness, depth, and tone in a piece, uses each of its identities to drill eighteen minutes of caustic music to your memory. Unfortunately for newcomers or passerbys to the sonic assault that Closet Witch embodies, either the fuzz-rattled and blackened riffage, the clanging and splashing kit abuse, or the shrill and shrieking throat sacrifice build like a wall of bleeding noise. But in practice, Chiaroscuro contains an uncanny ebb and flow, finding footing in rhythmic refocusing (“My Words Are Sacred,” “Well-Fed Machine”), noise-assisted tip-offs (“You, Me, and the Venus in Decay,” “To the Cauldron”), and pedal-down thrusts (“Haunting,” “Arlington Cemetary”) to dog ear its shifts and landmarks. In this case, a horror-synth “Intro” and de-escalating, crinkled found-sound “Outro” are necessary to respectively set the stage and close the curtains. You don’t want to go into this cold, but Chiaroscuro burns so hot that you need a cooldown.

Exulansis // Overtures of Uprising [November 17th, 2023 – Bindrune Recordings]

You ever sit there and wonder when you’re finally gonna find a melodic black metal album that’s actually cool? No? How about one that at least incorporates vibrant violin melodies, guitar identities outside of tremolo progressions, and actual growling bass presence? Well, if so, look no further than Exulansis, a folk-inspired four-piece who finds just as much home in the creeping doom of the string work that you’d hear in an old SubRosa jam as they do in the forested black metal of Wolves in the Throne Room. But in this case, Overtures of Uprising’s four tracks will require only thirty-two minutes (it’s not enough!!) of your hard-to-earn time, a healthy balance of two standard-length numbers against two longer explorations. Whereas their previous album, 2019’s Sequestered Symphony attempted to meld a lot more gothic folk into their sound, Exulansis went and trimmed that into a whole separate album (Hymns of Collapse) this go, which has left absolutely nothing to stand in the way of the bell-hammering drive of “Of Nature & Hatred” or the eerie and screeching “A Movement in Silence”.1 And when they do slow it down for the fanciful, classical violin melodies that signal the triumphant title track or the lurching doom of “Dawning,” Exulansis finds a way to capture the beat of an anxious heart. Unified by a melodic dread, Overtures of Uprising pushes this act closer to record that’ll grab me by the hand and never let go. Fortunately, I know these strong voices have more to say.

Saunders’ Slippery Subjects

Deathcode Society // Unlightenment [November 24th, 2023 – Osmose Productions]

My end-of-year filter was badly clogged amidst the rush to finalize Listurnalia and absorb the mammoth number of releases that either flooded through late or had been backlogged. Nevertheless, in the end-of-year wash-up, I stumbled across the sophomore platter from French symphonic black metal act Deathcode Society, and their powerful, bombastic LP, Unlightenment. Traditionally, I am incredibly picky with my modern black metal, and much of the overly symphonic variety tends to fall flat or overdo the cheese. Comprised of seasoned players, Deathcode Society balances the elements deftly to craft an intriguing platter, with modern sheen and orchestral flair roughened up by second-wave influences and whiffs of later-era Emperor. The sympho-black formula can sometimes veer too drastically into melodramatic territory, adding too much fluff to soften the black metal bite. Thankfully, Deathcode Society generally nail things just right. Within the style, Deathcode Society exhibit a versatile and confident approach, as their epic, carefully layered sound ebbs and flows through diverse pastures. A technical edge permeates material that blisters and tears with speed and aggression, contrasting these pleasingly vicious assaults with mostly tasteful symphonic layers, a varied vocal palette, and long, twisty arrangements. Highlights include the potent, blasty one-two opening punch of “Scolopendra” and “Shards” dominate with sheer scope, ferocity and memorability, while the stellar “Mazed Interior” and “Scales” offer in-your-face aggression and more ambitious, head-spinning turns with maximum impact.

#2023 #AvantGarde #AvantGardeBlackMetal #BindruneRecordings #BlackMetal #BlackenedDeathMetal #BruciaRecords #Chiaroscuro #ClosetWitch #CloudRat #DarkFuneral #DeathMetal #DeathcodeSociety #Dec23 #DHG #Emperor #Exulansis #Grind #Immortal #Irityll #Jadjow #Khôra #MelodicBlackMetal #MonumentOfMisanthropy #Nov23 #OrchestralBlackMetal #OsmoseProductions #OverturesOfUprising #ProgressiveBlackMetal #SchlafesBruder #SelfRelease #SpireOfLazarus #StuckInTheFilter #Subrosa #SymphonicBlackMetal #SymphonicMetal #Unlightenment #VedBuensEnde #Vøid #WolvesInTheThroneRoom #ZegemaBeachRecords

Spider God – The Killing Room Review

By Doom_et_Al

Some metal bands are, by their nature, divisive. This divisiveness can take many forms (a gross name, misanthropic actions, controversial statements) and may be intentional (as a way of garnering attention) or just part of who the band are. Spider God, a UK-based black metal outfit, fall into the latter category. They exploded on the scene in 2022 with Black Renditions, which took classic pop tracks, blackened ‘em up, and released them on an unsuspecting metal scene. It was audacious, it was confrontational, it was antithetical to what many consider one of the sacred tenets of black metal: namely that this is not saccharine music for the masses in general, and teenage girls in particular. Our own SpongeFren fell in love immediately. If you know him, you’ll know that nothing tickles his fancy quite like bold genre-splicing, so, unsurprisingly, he gushed like a fanboi. The follow-up, Fly in the Trap, was controversial for different reasons. Maintaining the debut’s hyper-melodic tone, this original material was based on a true crime, namely the mysterious death of a young woman found submerged in a hotel roof tank. The combination of overly clean production, weird tone, and the question of exploitation of real-life tragedy left me (and others) with mixed feelings. Now we have the third album. Will the divisiveness continue?

I’ve often felt that small changes can make a big difference, especially in music. The Killing Room, ostensibly, is very similar to Fly in the Trap, even down to its eerie and unsettling cover. Same hyper (and I mean hyper) melodicism, same “true crime” theme (we’ll get to that), same aesthetic… The concept this time is that ex-band member “Faustus” has gone missing under mysterious circumstances after becoming embroiled in a deadly online game known as “Possess the Devil.” The album features his lyrics before he disappeared, promising a mystery for the listener to solve. It is, in keeping with the trend of 2023, Part 1 of 2. Now, at this stage, you’re either intrigued or rolling your eyes hard. If you couldn’t handle the previous offerings, there’s nothing here that will bring you round. Similarly, if you loved the older material, this will continue to appeal. The interesting group are the unconvinced. The good news is that there are just enough tinkers and changes to perhaps persuade you.

The first major tweak is the band continuing to evolve away from black metal, and embracing either a more “black ‘n’ roll” aesthetic (“s.p.i.d.e.r.g.o.d.,” “The Black Web”) or going full pop on many of the tracks. If you removed the vocals from “Silicon Witch,” or “The Cloud of Unknowing,” both would fit nicely into any indie band’s repertoire. Crucially, Spider God hang onto the component that drew attention to them in the first place: their ability to marry insanely catchy hooks with harsh metal elements. This reaches its apotheosis on album centerpiece, and most impressive Spider God song to date, the 10-minute-long “The Killing Room.” It’s compelling, interesting, baffling, and confusing. In other words, Spider God is in musical form.

The second tweak is that moving away from real-life tragedy to artificial mystery removes the “ick” exploitation factor that pervaded the last album, making The Killing Room much easier to enjoy. It also eliminates some of the tonal mismatch of Fly in the Trap (nerdy mystery is fun, which suits the music). I still find it odd that Spider God want us to embrace an almost total pop aesthetic and a creepy and potentially violent story, but this is their schtick, and they cling to it. The overly clean production of its predecessor has been grimed up, which suits the material hugely, although I would love them to open it up a bit more and let the material breathe. The band has also wisely decided to push the vocals back and beef up the bass. All these small tweaks may be minor individually, but the improvement is notable.

Both The Killing Room and Spider God have grown on me enormously in the 2 weeks I’ve been listening to them. The band likes metal. It also likes pop. It takes a while to wrap your head around this combo, but it certainly is unique, especially when the band is as committed as Spider God. In addition, the band has tinkered and adjusted itself in response to the criticisms of Fly in the Trap. This will not appeal to everyone, and there will be the usual gatekeeping nonsense from some quarters. But if you’re willing to open your mind, you’ll find much reward in The Killing Room.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Repose Records
Website: spider-god.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/spidergodband/
Releases Worldwide: December 25th, 2023

#2023 #35 #BlackMetal #Dec23 #ReposeRecords #Review #Reviews #SpiderGod #UKMetal

Bull of Apis Bull of Bronze – The Fractal Ouroboros [Things You Might Have Missed 2023]

By Dear Hollow

Last we encountered Bull of Apis Bull of Bronze, they dwelt in relative obscurity, creating a dark marriage of ritualistic atmospheric black metal and unabashed social platforms – anti-fascist and anti-capitalist – in the Colorado trio’s debut Offerings of Flesh and Gold. The trio has since sharpened and solidified their stance, that the act exists “as a knife pointed to the throat of any who seek to maintain oppressive systems of white supremacy and fascism that continue to fester in our societies.” Lyrics are layered with the occult, furthermore enhancing the obscure sound they proffer. Pulsing percussion, patient ambiance, thunderous doom, and cathartic explosions of vicious black metal are all fed through the jaws of ritualism in sophomore effort The Fractal Ouroboros – even more so than its predecessor.

Bull of Apis Bull of Bronze manages to create a mammoth hour-and-fifteen length that takes its precious time before crushing your soul with calculated second-wave intensity. The swell and lull of its atmosphere has its time and place, thus lending The Fractal Ouroboros its immense but supremely organic feel, each track moving fluidly among its influences and giving each track a unique identity to fuse into the tapestry of the album’s pitch-black palette and atmosphere – dark and unholy places constructed under godlike suns. Tracks like opener “Trophy,” “Suffocate O Earthen Lungs; They Now Lungs of Ash,” and closer “Ekstasis, Enstasis, and The Fractal Ouroboros” feature pummeling black metal passages, sinister atmosphere, and minimalist passages of plucking and thunderous percussion, giving climax and violence to the dense ambiance.

Because the album takes its time at well over an hour, the atmosphere must be front and center. Bull of Apis Bull of Bronze does not disappoint in this regard, weaponizing an array of synth tricks to concoct such a relentlessly dark aura throughout. “A History of Cages and Broken Bones” and “Our Overt Apocalypse” are mammoth tracks of jolting doom and scathing tremolo that crash through the thick ambiance, while fiery vocals guide the movements. The quiet climaxes of “Annihilation” and “Liberation Ritual” showcase the stolen weight of the darkness, dwelling heavy and dense smoke-filled atmosphere, existential dread coursing through every fiber of the slow-burning movements. The ambient swell of the former transitions neatly into the shamanistic drumming of the latter, constructing a darkened tabernacle that feels more authentic and human, a whisper, than its explosive tendencies.

While Offerings of Flesh and Gold was an immensely promising offering, Bull of Apis Bull of Bronze becomes another beast entirely with The Fractal Ouroboros. The trio previously dwelt in dark atmospheres, pulsing percussion, and second-wave expressions – a powerful but relatively predictable album of atmospheric black metal. However, tracks like “Suffocate O Earthen Lungs; They Now Lungs of Ash” and “Annihilation” blindside listeners with an animalistic ferocity and shimmering fury that contrasts with the tidy spiritual trademark of shamanism that pervaded their last album. While its message is anything but obscure, the dichotomy of its activism and its maddening take on black metal ensures that inequality and injustice will not be left unpunished. Had The Fractal Ouroboros been given an earlier release date, it would have listed everywhere, because it cements Bull of Apis Bull of Bronze as one of the most dangerous acts in contemporary black metal.

Tracks to Check Out: ”Suffocate O Earthen Lungs; They Now Lungs of Ash,” “Annihilation,” “A History of Cages and Broken Bones”

#2023 #BullOfApisBullOfBronze #Dec23 #FiadhProductions #TheFractalOuroboros #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed2023 #VitaDetestabilisRecords

Memo an mich selbst: Künftig die #Lichterkette für den #Tannenbaum vor dem 23.12. Testen  

#xmasfail #lichterketten #dec23 #Keinachtsbaum

Day 23

Hollywood and Sansome are busy looking for Santa Claus today, so they give him the of who's been naughty or nice.

They didn't find Santa, but bumped into one of his workers in Omagh.

They posed for a photo with McClements and give the list to him, to deliver to Santa.

#MWAelves #Disabled #Disability #Dec23