Some things are acquired tastes—coffee, vegetables, Mrs. Forrest,1 to name a few. While some of us instantly and innately connect with metal, its loud and aggressive nature can make it tough for the initiate to effortlessly enjoy. Even for lifelong fans like myself, some bands still push the envelope. One such band is Apostle, a three-piece from Atlanta, Georgia, founded in 2017. They’ve always been a nasty, noisy group—if 2019 debut Sufferer is any indication—but 2021 saw the band undergo a significant lineup change. Evan Price continued to man the kit, but their founding vocalist departed, Murice White assumed vocal and guitar duties, and Michael Thomas moved over to bass. This shift spurred Apostle in an even more abrasive and emotive direction.

A Splinter in the Infinite Noumenon continues to explore what was first introduced on 2023 EP Liminal. Apostle maintains, from their early days, a harsh mix of grind and hardcore with occasional post-blackened flourishes, but 2026 sees them venture further into blackened territory, as well as explore ambient and post-rock elements. Opening salvo “Exiting the God Hologram” acts as a microcosm of all Apostle has to offer. A sample of a train gives way to full and vibrant percussion before atonal guitars grace your ears like a lead pipe graces a jaw. White’s deranged shrieks have a tenuous relationship with tempo, but always manage to link up with his bandmates on the downbeat. It’s a harrowing, unfettered style well-suited to Apostle’s sound. This cacophony eventually coalesces into an aching post-black fury in the last third, where Thomas’s throatier shouts augment the sound. “Exiting…” ends by unceremoniously silencing a gritty guitar solo flitting on broken wings—fitting for the rage and intentional inaccessibility on display here.

Those willing to brave Apostle’s chaos will find gorgeous flourishes through A Splinter in the Infinite Noumenon. Bright, descending, posty licks weave through “Illusion of Loss,” mirroring murky ascending counterparts. Violent plucking in “Swine” evokes Gorrch’s pitch-black dissonance, and its spiraling crescendo feels like something out of Imperial Triumphant’s playbook. True to its name, “Oscillating Polarities” swings wildly between discordant, hammering heaps and aching, blackened melodies. That ache is particularly exceptional on album closer “At Ease,” which opens with the same soulful lick that closes “Exiting the God Hologram.” With all this said, it did take several spins for me to start parsing out the subtleties and delicate decorations beneath Apostle’s torrent of aural catharsis. If I were casually spinning Splinter, rather than formally reviewing it, I’m not sure I would have stuck around long enough to find them.

Apostle’s claustrophobic, maximalist style is admittedly rad, but I do occasionally wish that the knobs weren’t all always snapped off at 11. Some of the moments above could have shone brighter, had the mix breathed a little easier and the spotlight been shared rather than functionally fought over. Even at an incredibly short 27 minutes, the sheer harshness and atonality of Splinter—especially on the front half—can be a lot to handle. There are some breaks, like the E.E. Cummings sample that opens “Distortions of Light” and the shoegazing that closes it, as well as the last few noir-shaded minutes of the album. I’m enough of a literature nerd to appreciate the poet’s cameo, even 70 seconds of it, but others may find it disruptive or unnecessary. Similarly, Thomas’s delightful bass riff anchors some beautifully moving swells in “At Ease,” but the same five notes for three minutes can get repetitive.

While preparing for this review, I listened to Apostle’s back catalog, and I can definitively say A Splinter in the Infinite Noumenon is a step above their earlier material. This new direction, while certainly harsher and more abrasive, has been a risk well taken. White’s unrestrained screams, as well as the band’s commitment to post-black trappings and interpretation of softer styles, tap into a wellspring of raw passion. It’s not the easiest to engage with, but Apostle has a clear and exciting vision that rewards commitment and repeat visits. Could druthers be had, I’d like to see their indiscriminate cacophony tempered and honed, but whatever they do next, I’ll be listening.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: Terminus Hate City
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram
Releases Worldwide: June 6th, 2026

Soothing music for the chaotic mind in this decaying world. 🖤

https://imperialtriumphant.bandcamp.com/album/goldstar-24-bit-hd-audio

#radio27 #music #ImperialTriumphant #ExtremeMetal #BlackMetal #AvantGardeMetal #DeathMetal #JazzMetal

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Photos: BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME, IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT & FALLUJAH at The Rave

https://metalinjection.net/photos/photos-between-the-buried-and-me-imperial-triumphant-fallujah-at-the-rave

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There’s a lot of weird shit floating around the metalsphere, and that includes Voidthrone’s newest addition, Dreaming Rat. The Seattle quartet has been kicking around for a decade, and in that time have released three prior platters of escalating lunacy. Without question, Dreaming Rat is Voidthrone’s most unhinged concoction to date, and a quick look at their Bandcamp credits gives prospective listeners a window into the alchemical ingredients they cook with, including Otamatone, conch shell, jaw harp, vibraslap, digeridoo, spoons, and a fretless bass. Throw in vocalist Zhenya Frolov’s deranged vocal stylings, and you’ve got yourself a bona fide manic expression of dissonant blackened death metal. With so many disparate components in Dreaming Rat’s stew, does Voidthrone soothe the savage beast or unleash a waking nightmare?

Listening to Dreaming Rat is a bit like experiencing an auditory fever dream, where disconnected fragments congeal into lurid, atonal anarchy. Voidthrone didn’t arrive at this sound overnight, though. Debut Spiritual War Tactics whipped and frothed with the restrained vitality of Krallice, and follow-up Kur added jazz-informed touches in the vein of Imperial Triumphant. Physical Degradation evolved Voidthrone’s sound, integrating more unconventional instrumentation and pushing the band’s songwriting past its comfort zone. On Dreaming Rat, Voidthrone takes the blueprint laid out on Physical Degradation and indiscriminately expands the range for strange. The result sees Frolov stretching his vocal performance into frenzied tirades, covering the gamut from Replicant’s vomitous barks to Sigh’s oddball deliveries. The instrumentation also gets exponentially wackier, as it conjures the rabid wrath of Pyrrhon along with the chaotic instincts of Afterbirth, resulting in an unpredictable romp to the end of the world.

At Dreaming Rat’s core, Voidthrone details the life and death of a solar system through bleak eras, segmenting the album into present, past, and future. The arcs are presented in that order, with each one comprised of three songs. The present describes the apex of a civilization, harnessing the promises forged upon the hopes and chaos of the past. Meanwhile, Voidthrone paints a grim outlook for the future, specifically calling out ‘an extinguished, lonely death of the physical, spiritual, and cognitive.’1 The lyrics throughout Dreaming Rat read like the demented ravings of a madman’s manifesto,2 and while I don’t think I could have divined the album’s overarching concept from them alone, reading them amplifies the bedlam Voidthrone has crafted on Dreaming Rat.

Writing music this lawless may seem haphazard, but over repeated listens, I’ve begun to glimpse the method to Dreaming Rat’s madness. Without question, everyone in Voidthrone earns their stripes. Ronald Foodsack’s guitars drench Dreaming Rat with warbling dissonance, perpetually in flux so that there’s never a riff or refrain to inhibit the music’s incessant lurch. Whether moving at frantic paces (“III-I. Surfing the Abyss”) or decelerating to a plodding crawl (“II-II. Morbid Seagull”), Ron’s six-stringed blitz never stalls. Additionally, Gavin Brooks contributes acoustic guitar and solos while manning the glorious fretless bass.3 Technical death metal has hogged the fretless bass for too long, and I’m glad Voidthrone has the stones to add it to disso metal’s tool chest. Tracks like “I-I. Bergen” and “II-I. Homeless Animal” showcase the character the instrument offers, bolstering the ever-shifting nature of Dreaming Rat. Drummer Josh Keifer grounds the band ably, locked into a supporting role that allows the other instruments to take center stage while he keeps things on the rails. Frolov’s feral vocals and the host of unconventional instruments further enrich Voidthrone’s distinctive identity, establishing what sounds like it could be the death throes of the universe.

What Voidthrone accomplishes with Dreaming Rat is fascinating and unique, and merits everyone’s attention. Sure, some songs could be trimmed to make such a scathing album a bit shorter and more palatable, and the three arcs could use some musical cues to distinguish songs thematically from one another, but Dreaming Rat is a crowning achievement for the band. Voidthrone’s psychedelic psychosis makes bold promises on paper and completely delivers in fact, and when I’m in the mood to get really weird with it, this will be the album I reach for.

Rating: Very Good!
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Self-Release
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: May 8th, 2026

Steve has just released a new solo record: "Shadow Arc Suite"

https://piefed.social/c/imperialtriumphant/p/1862513/steve-has-just-released-a-new-solo-record-shadow-arc-suite

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STEVE BLANCO Of IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT To Release Piano-Driven Shadow Arc Suite

https://metalinjection.net/news/steve-blanco-of-imperial-triumphant-to-release-piano-driven-shadow-arc-suite

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Michael Dorn has appeared on screen in more episodes of Star Trek than anyone else.1 His character, the mighty Klingon warrior, Captain2 Worf is known to greatly enjoy gagh, a traditional Klingon delicacy comprised of live, wriggling serpent worms. It’s fucking gross. It’s also the first thing I thought of when I saw the album art for Gorrch’s sophomore effort, Stillamentum. Founded in 2010 and hailing from Cavaso del Tomba in northeastern Italy, Gorrch is the unsettling black metal project of fraternal duo, Chrimsicrin and Droich. Now, a decade after 2015 debut Nera estasi, Gorrch plumbs the depths of the abyss, seeking to give voice to the primal fear and disgust of being covered in roiling, writhing masses of maggots.

Standard black metal isn’t dark enough for Gorrch. Stillamentum is about horror and dread. Opener “Nimbus” wastes no time burying you alive in a cramped wooden box. Guitars like clamoring bells ring with sanity-threatening dissonance while pummeling blast beats quickly deplete your limited oxygen. Droich viciously saws at palm-muted strings like the erratic, terrifying sprints of cockroaches exploring what’s in the box (you). A lull at the midpoint ushers in a spiraling riff, rising like your gorge in mortal terror. Heretical Gregorian chanting reveals your captors as zealots, and all hope of seeing the sun again dies. Deranged prayers ripped from Chrimsicrin’s throat (“Vorago,” “Angor”), metallic tones like snapping wires (“Vorago,” “Larvæ”), and ritualistic percussion (“Phlegma”) keep you locked in this waking nightmare. The blasphemous love child of Gaerea and Imperial Triumphant, Stillamentum is cacophonous, claustrophobic, and rapturously disturbed.

Stillamentum by Gorrch

Developing and fostering atmosphere through repetition is a common trope in black metal. Stillamentum is no exception, but Gorrch’s approach makes the assessment thereof a bit of a challenge. Each track begins with strong, fast riffs, either searing or psychotic, drawing me in and demanding my attention. Somewhere in the middle third, however, long passages featuring markedly less instrumental variation take over and guide the song to its conclusion. The result is two or three minutes of relatively repetitive instrumentals per track. This was not an issue while running errands or gaming or otherwise spinning Stillamentum in the background—and was in fact a boon—as I enjoyed basking in the consistent atmosphere, but on focused listens, these stretched sections can stall the furious momentum gained earlier in each song.

This same critique can be found mirrored in the structure of Stillamentum as a whole. The front half—“Nimbus,” “Vorago,” and “Larvæ”—as well as closer “Phlegma,” evoke a singular and impressive sense of fear. “Cryptæ” and “Angor,” however, feel less inspired, giving the album’s quality a parabolic shape. They’re not bad songs by any means; there are parts of each I particularly enjoyed. I loved the tempo shift at the midpoint of “Angor” and the clanging, descending riffs in “Cryptæ,” and the synergy between the ritual chanting and Chrimsicrin’s drum work on both tracks is very effective. Even so, they seem closer to boilerplate black metal than the rest of Stillamentum, their teeth notably blunter in comparison. As on the level of individual tracks, this structure works well in the background, but under scrutiny, it highlights opportunities for Gorrch to improve their pacing and direction.

Gorrch shines brightest at their darkest and most unsafe. On Stillamentum, theirs is an abyssal darkness, drenched in formicative3 horror and clothed in perverse piety. At their most oppressive, Gorrch is exactly my kind of black metal: suffocating, malicious, dissonant, and maybe a little blasphemous. Were I grading based on highlights alone, Stillamentum would score much higher. Alas, those peaks are saddled with overlong atmospheric passages, a slight overuse of chanting vocals, and mildly inconsistent quality. If Gorrch can distill their strengths from Stillamentum and hone them to delve even deeper into the void, they’ll unearth something truly unspeakable.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Avantgarde Music
Websites: Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: January 30th, 2026