Crotaline – The Embrace of Cloacal Desire Review By Grin Reaper

When it comes to snakes and music, I’m a simple man. I think of Testament’s Brotherhood of the Snake, High on Fire’s Snakes for the Divine, Deicide’s Serpents of the Light, and Sir Mix-a-Lot. And now Philadelphia’s Crotaline1 slithers in flaunting first-wave-of-black-metal ballads rife with references to snake genitalia. Black metal’s second wave garners most of the attention, having shaped what most consider to be the genre’s trve north, but Mayhem, Darkthrone, Immortal, and Emperor never would have become what they are without Bathory’s lo-fi virulence, Venom’s proto-thrashed, punk-informed edgelording, and Celtic Frost’s sinister atmospheres and doomy trudges. First-wave black metal fairly characterizes what Crotaline provides on debut The Embrace of Cloacal Desire, as it’s ridden with direct, unadorned riffing, torturous plods, and a classically DIY aesthetic. Crotaline’s debut sounds like a blast, and I hope it is—my anaconda don’t want none unless it’s got fun, hun.

In many senses, The Embrace of Cloacal Desire is a primitive album. Crotaline relates carnal tales of ophidian lust in straightforward spurts of stripped-down metal, preferring uncomplicated riffs and instrumentation to deliver their herpetological gospel. In this way, Crotaline reminds me more of Hellhammer than Bathory or Celtic Frost. Tom G. Warrior’s (Triptykon) first project,2 Hellhammer distinguished itself more for its chaos and enthusiasm than its execution. Similarly, The Embrace of Cloacal Desire attacks with zealous verve, flitting through nine tracks of intermittently thrashy and doom-laden black metal. Despite the bold mashup of genres, though, Crotaline never quite brings their fangs within striking distance.

The Embrace of Cloacal Desire by Crotaline

Two primary issues plague The Embrace of Cloacal Desire, and each boils down to the same root cause—simplicity. While the drums supply a commendable rhythmic thunder, mostly Crotaline’s performance either plays too safe or lacks the technical firepower to achieve big moments. After a protracted minute-and-a-half intro, opener “Breeding the End” gets properly started. Unleashing a classic thrash riff recalling Bonded by Blood-era Exodus, a peppy bass groove joins in to underpin the melody. The pace slows at the chorus, cutting to a second riff before wending back to the main one. “Widow’s Web” kicks in next, treating listeners to a Venom-meets-Bathory hook that, just like the preceding song, tamps the brakes for vocals and a bridge. The pattern wears thin quickly, and The Embrace of Cloacal Desire suffers from this constricted songwriting—particularly in the back half. Too many half-formed ideas reach for big moments, only to topple into funereal crawls. For an album dedicated to dangerous snakes and sex organs, too often I’m left unthrilled and unfulfilled.

Ultimately, the lack of memorable passages and songs leaves The Embrace of Cloacal Desire as drab and listless as a shed snakeskin. Solid building blocks reside in Crotaline’s DNA, but the shapes of their assembled structures never coalesce into more than their constituent components. Where varying tempos can effectively lead to dynamic pacing and musical climaxes, Crotaline’s overuse of the fast-to-slow momentum shifts undercuts their songwriting. “As the Serpents Feast” exits the chorus and launches into a punky bridge begging for a wailing solo, but instead delivers an understated, unconvincing lead lacking excitement and dexterity. “Red Moon of Despair” starts promisingly enough, yet drops to a two-minute slog of glacial pacing. The same framework repeats on “Beneath the Reeds,” and yet again on “Hemipenes; The Embrace of Cloacal Desire.” Rather than mirroring a narrative or cleverly subverting expectations, these pivots can seem haphazard or lazy, leading to either frustration or boredom.

In spite of a great album concept and comparisons to bands I enjoy, Crotaline’s debut fails to charm my snake. Predictable songwriting and uninspired performances make The Embrace of Cloacal Desire’s thirty-five minutes feel longer than they are, and no song manages to entirely sidestep these issues. Even so, it takes guts to write this wild shit, and even more so to memorialize these ideas in song. Venom lurks within Crotaline, but the band needs to retool their bite. Hopefully they can figure it out and give us a rousing sophomore resurgence. Until then, I’m left to wonder if maybe I’m bored with it, or maybe it’s Crotaline.

Rating: Bad
DR: N/A | Format Reviewed: WAV
Label: Liminal Dread Productions
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: April 3rd, 2026

#15 #2026 #AmericanMetal #Apr26 #Bathory #BlackMetal #CelticFrost #Crotaline #Darkthrone #Deicide #Emperor #Hellhammer #HighOnFire #Immortal #LiminalDreadProductions #Mayhem #Review #Reviews #SirMixALot #Testament #TheEmbraceOfCloacalDesire #Triptykon #Venom

Review: Tre Pistoni – Lasciando i pensieri umani (Full album, 2025) | Atmospheric black metal

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://abmn.noblogs.org/tre-pistoni/

Review: ‘We Love Hating Each Other’ by Asthildr/There is No Light Here (Split, 2026) | Black metal

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://abmn.noblogs.org/we-love-hating-each-other/

Withering Soul – Passage of the Arcane Review

By Andy-War-Hall

Much has changed in the decade since Withering Soul last graced this website. I was in high school when Madam X placed a scarlet 2.5 on Adverse Portrait, a scoring I would agree with wholeheartedly.1 It was an enjoyable but unfocused work, and its Moonspell-akin gothic tendencies didn’t mesh well with the band’s Dissection worship. But in a development not covered here, Withering Soul leveled up with 2021’s Last Contact, dropping the Type O Negative vocals almost entirely and amping up their blackened core with beefier riffs and more engaging compositions. Some gothic elements remained, and what did felt far better integrated into their style than before. Withering Soul continue down this stylistic path through their fifth album Passage of the Arcane, centered on the theme of “human experiences traversing into cursed oblivion.” Have Withering Soul really discovered a path of subliminal qualities, or will Passage of the Arcane only lead to disappointment?

Passage of the Arcane is a sensible progression from Last Contact for Withering Soul. Sporting Dark Fortress atmospheres brute-forced to life through death-influenced Dissection riffage, Withering Soul have departed even further from goth rock than Last Contact in favor of even more blistering melodic black metal. Gone are the low, clean croons of Withering Soul’s past, with lead man Christopher2 relying entirely on his powerful, hoarse screams for vocals. But the songs remain snappy with strong, hooky riffs and seamless transitions between various musical ideas. Death metal grime stains Withering Soul’s sonic tapestry on “Grievance Eludes the Light” and “Among Covetous Eyes,” while the sheen of synthesizers coats “Gallery of the End” and “Burden of the Valiant.” Withering Soul are clearly a talented bunch and everyone gets a chance to shine on Passage of the Arcane; with guitarist Frank G. layering “Gallery of the End” with a bright, melodic solo; drummer Rick hitting slick fills on “Grievance Eludes the Light” and bassist Joel dropping fat, sneaky lines on “Trajectory.” Withering Soul don’t break the mold with Passage of the Arcane, but they did craft an album better than their last.

There’s real dirt in Passage of the Arcane. The opening one-two-three punch of “Attrition Horizon,” “Grievance Eludes the Light,” and “The Monolith Embodied” sees Withering Soul swing with heavyweight might as Christopher and Frank G.’s guitars pummel through power chord abusive, tremolo-heavy riffs of winding, thrashy and frost rimed-natures. Things get more exploratory as Passage of the Arcane progresses, but Withering Soul never let off that initial intensity. Passage of the Arcane’s punchy production makes Rick’s kick drums really thump, and Joel’s bass comes through big time in Withering Soul’s chuggier, groovier moments (“Trajectory”). There’s an embarrassment of good riffs here, and everything clear of fat until, unfortunately, the closer “Burden of the Valiant,” but even that song picks up eventually. Like the blackened counterpart to Dormant Ordeal from earlier this year, Withering Soul more often than not embody aggression, dealing out some truly cut-throat metal on Passage of the Arcane.

But Withering Soul is held back from greatness by a lack of variety in certain areas. Riffs are multitudinous, but almost every guitar lead on Passage feels identical, usually consisting of basic eighth note arpeggios overtop tremolo riffs that don’t really do much to spruce up the chords (“Attrition Horizon,” “Gallery of the End,” “Burden of the Valiant”). It just stinks that Withering Soul couldn’t bring the creativity they have for rhythm guitar to lead. Similarly (and a bit ironically), vocal monotony is an issue, as Christopher only uses one style of scream across Passage of the Arcane’s 41 minutes. Perhaps a little goth bass singing wouldn’t go amiss, as a treat? These complaints may verge on nitpicks, but they are prominent and persistent enough to somewhat sully my enthusiasm for Passage of the Arcane.

Withering Soul assembled Passage of the Arcane out of common ingredients to the sub-genre, but tight songwriting and strong performances elevate the material. Though an immediate album in many ways, Passage was a grower for me, as repeat listenings revealed little details and how the pieces move. If you like your black metal riff-centric and melodic, this is an easy recommendation. Withering Soul may have reduced their sonic palette over the years, but the downsizing only made them leaner and meaner, and Passage of the Arcane is a lean, mean listen.

Rating: Very Good
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Liminal Dread Productions
Websites: witheringsoul.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/witheringsoulband | instagram.com/witheringsoul_77
Releases Worldwide: November 14th, 2025

#2025 #35 #americanMetal #blackMetal #darkFortress #deathMetal #dissection #dormantOrdeal #liminalDreadProductions #melodicBlackMetal #moonspell #nov25 #passageOfTheArcane #review #reviews #typeONegative #witheringSoul

Gruta – Hymnus Ad Atram Mortem Review

By Spicie Forrest

In his most recent visit to terrorize the unwashed masses known as writers, Steel gave me a choice: volunteer to cover Gruta or be voluntold to cover something (else) of his choosing. So it was that I found myself reviewing Gruta’s sophomore release, Hymnus Ad Atram Mortem. Hailing from Bogotá, Colombia, Gruta plays a style of black metal they’ve labeled “Chaos Black, a twisted gnarled amalgamation of black metal’s most vicious bits.”1 Between this description, loudly antifascist messaging, and opening the record by sampling the Dark Lord Sauron, my expectations were high. Does Hymnus Ad Atram Mortem deliver, or is Gruta just another passionate young band in search of their identity?

The core of Gruta’s sound straddles the line between black metal’s first and second waves. Although Hymnus Ad Atram Mortem opens bright and playful à la Slaegt, it quickly settles into something more traditional (“Niebla”). Drummer Flama unleashes blast beats and d-beat-laden assaults in equal measure, while guitarists Agnen and Garmr wildly oscillate between punky Bathory riffcraft and Immortally searing tremolos (“Oda a la Ruina,” “M.A.F.M”2). The resulting baseline is like a distant cousin to Darkthrone. Vocalist Dagnir is nearly a dead ringer for Mayhem, frog voice and all. Whether whipping up a crowd (“Ramas de Araña,” “Sword of Defilement”) or shouting incantations like Saruman over the winds of Caradhras (“Transfiguración”), Dagnir commands an impressive range of rasps, howls, shrieks, and croaks. Rather than choosing between black metal’s punky origins and the icy, atmospheric howl it became, Gruta uses both as a springboard for what they ultimately create.

“Chaos Black” had me expecting unhinged war metal, heavy dissonance, or traces of grindcore. Not so, apparently. While their blackened core is indeed closest to Darkthrone, Gruta incorporates DSBM atmospherics (“Stygos Tou Kosmos,” “M.A.F.M.”), heavy metal (“Oda a la Ruina,” “Ramas de Araña”3), Slayer-esque thrashing (“Al-Shuhada,” “Sword of Defilement”), punky piss and vinegar (“Ramas de Araña,” “M.A.F.M.”) and even emotive atmoblack structures (“Vorágine Espectral”). Rather than a caustic brew, the result shares much in common with Kvelertak. By injecting their formula with such wide-ranging styles, Gruta offers a fun and engaging ride. In crafting this refreshing take on black metal, Ataecina’s bass unexpectedly steals the show. Surprisingly forward in the mix, it’s vibrant and warm, very like Iron Maiden’s early releases. Ataecina weaves and dances around central riffs and rhythms, nimbly alternating between counterpointed leads and supporting Agnen and Garmr’s guitars (“Oda a la Ruina,” “Ramas de Araña”). Gruta is certainly black metal, but it is their ambitious maelstrom of influences that separates them from the pack.

Gruta’s biggest difficulty is in keeping their momentum up through the album. Opener “Niebla” struggles to get off the ground because of a false ending one minute in, and with a slow, atmospheric interlude that takes up a quarter of the track, “Niebla” feels more like a botched teaser than an actual song. “Stygos Tou Kosmos” suffers similarly. It downshifts from mid-paced, Mayhem-heavy black metal to haunting and eerie DSBM around 1:30, lingering there without clear purpose until it fades out two and a half minutes later. I hate to knock a song that literally screams “Death to Fascist Metal,” but “M.A.F.M.” has the same issue; the first half is an absolutely vitriolic barn burner, but the back half runs out of gas early and takes a couple minutes to eke across the finish line. I think if these songs were cut up differently, or perhaps ordered differently, this may not be as much of an issue, but as it stands, I find myself wanting to skip about a third of the album.

Opening with a soundbyte of Sauron the Deceiver is a good foot to start on, but Gruta doesn’t really need it. Retro guitars, iconic vocals, a deliciously clever bass, and punky, energetic drums come together to honor the greats and forge a path all Gruta’s own. Far from the harrowing trip I expected, Hymnus Ad Atram Mortem has a classic, old school feel, decked out in fun, nostalgic threads. Gruta’s style does come dangerously close to the kitchen sink, and I’d like to see a smidge more focus and a keener ear toward holistic composition on future releases. But problems aside, Hymnus Ad Atram Mortem is a solid and exploratory sophomore effort from a passionate band, and I’ll be very interested to see what Gruta does next.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: WAV
Label: Liminal Dread Productions
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram
Releases Worldwide: November 7th, 2025

#2025 #30 #Bathory #BlackMetal #ColumbianMetal #Darkthrone #Gruta #HymnusAdAtramMortem #Immortal #IronMaiden #Kvelertak #LiminalDreadProductions #Mayhem #Nov25 #Review #Reviews #Slaegt #Slayer

To Escape – I Wish to Escape Review

By ClarkKent

As the eruption of the craft beer scene saw a proliferation of beer styles, brewers found a need to stand out from the pack. To do so they created variations on the staples, thus the proliferation in IPAs, from hazy to smoothie to west coast. I see a parallel in metal, where bands attempt to stand out with unique genre tags. Thus, there’s doom jazz or blackened thrash or various other combinations. That brings us Chile’s To Escape, a fusion of raw black metal and traditional Latin dance. Anyone drawn by something novel will immediately take an interest based on a description like that. One has to be cautious, however, because there’s a fine line between a well-executed blend of styles and a superficial gimmick. Does I Wish to Escape prove songwriter David Sepulveda a master brewer of eclectic tunes?

In true raw black metal form, To Escape is a one-man band, with all parts written and performed by Sepulveda. Sepulveda predominantly uses stark tremolos that produce a harsh, fuzzy guitar tone. Those same harsh tones, however, create evocative, memorable, and lively melodies. Remarkably, given the usually low production values of raw black, the bass is also a dominant feature, adding a complex layer of funk and soul. Then there’s the major selling point–the percussion. The promo materials promise “snaps, bells, maracas, shakers, and guiro.” While the loudness of the guitars sometimes hides these various instruments, when you can pick them out, such as the early moments of “Those Who Don’t Know,” they add charm, personality, and a desire to get up and shake your hips. Combined with the highly energetic blast beats, it becomes apparent how I Wish to Escape earns a tag as dance music.

If there’s one thing likely to alienate listeners, it’s Sepulveda’s vocals. He sings with such raw, naked pain that you worry about the state of his larynx. If you’re familiar with Wizard Keep or Vampiric Coffin, those will give you a good idea how Sepulveda sounds, only louder. He can sometimes reach a hysterical pitch, sounding like a pleading Gollum (“Desert in My Eyes, In Your Eyes I See”) or an eerie ghoul (“That Unbreakable Chain”), and on a few moments his emotional outpouring is so draining it leaves him wheezing for breath (“Path of Your Destiny”). In an astonishing moment on “The Infinite Chain,” he swaps the shrieks for some cleans–and he sounds quite good! Considering the lyrical content about death and the wish “to escape,” his pained vocal style makes sense. The rest of the music provides a contrast, almost a celebration, to these dark themes. The fast-paced drumming brings vivacity, and the up-tuned tremolos sound buoyant, opposite those of his fellow countryman, Sergio Catalan (Winds of Tragedy), whose tremolos are much more sorrowful.

To Escape displays impressive musicianship and capable songwriting. Much like the raw black metal of Old Nick, the music is catchy and will keep playing in your head long after it’s over. The icing on the cake comes in the final 20 seconds of the already terrific “I Wish to Escape,” where Sepulveda breaks into a triumphant Latin dance beat. There’s so much to discover on I Wish to Escape, providing plenty to surprise and reward with each repeat listen. I can find little to fault on the record, yet it still falls just shy of greatness. The vocal style can be a touch grating, and the guitars tend to be a tad too loud. The drums sound tinny, and the additional percussions, while novel in concept, fail to truly stand out. I found myself simultaneously mesmerized by the musicianship and repelled by the sometimes over-the-top noisiness of the record.

I Wish to Escape is a must-listen for fans of raw black metal. It’s not just because To Escape has crafted a unique blend of styles, but because Sepulveda has created an exciting and enjoyable record. Similar to the satisfaction of drinking a uniquely flavored stout and actually tasting the promised secret flavor, To Escape allows its various flavors to audibly stand out, mostly. For those who choose to let the raw vocals stand in the way of giving the album a listen, you may have to answer to Cherd. Singing in such a pained way against the backdrop of bright dance beats is an artistic choice that serves to highlight the coexistence between agony and jubilation. This is well worth a listen.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: N/A | Format Reviewed: Stream
Label: Liminal Dread Productions
Website: Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: July 11th, 2025

#2025 #35 #BlackMetal #ChileanMetal #IWishToEscape #Jul25 #LatinDance #LiminalDreadProductions #OldNick #RawBlackMetal #Review #Reviews #ToEscape #VampiricCoffin #WindsOfTragedy #WizardKeep

Lástima – A Pain Bloomed from My Lungs Review

By Twelve

I was first made aware of US-based Lástima, as is often the case around here, from a casual perusal in our Promo Pit. After reading way too many promo spiels in one sitting, I came across A Pain Bloomed from My Lungs. The aforementioned band’s blurb was in fact a personal account from a label executive, recounting how he was so blown away by their live performance “in one of the dingiest punk basements [he’s] had the pleasure of skulking in.” His description of a “vicious but hauntingly beautiful post-black assault” won me over, and here I am now, trying to repay the unique promo experience with a review. The story made me want to see Lástima perform in a dingy punk basement—can their debut full-length achieve the same?

With a clean polish and an affinity for harmony, A Pain Bloomed from my Lungs is the opposite of a dingy punk basement in many ways. It’s got all the makings of high-quality metal in the Deafhaven style—it’s got the post-, the -core, and the -gaze blended together through a black metal formula. One thing that will set Lástima apart is Thuy Nguyen, whose omnipresent violin gives A Pain Bloomed from my Lungs a neo-classical feel, even as vocalist Richie DeVon growls, sings, and shrieks his way through the journey. DeVon’s riffs, jointly with Eric Mauro’s, give bassist Hazel Whitman and drummer Sam Hyla much to keep up with, but the album’s pace is another one of its strengths. Another differentiator is Lástima’s influence from Latin culture, present in theme and occasional language choice, as in songs like “Al Cerro Ancón” and “Espantapájaros (1930).” Put together, it’s a strong sound that does not, at first pass, sound much like it is “only” a debut.

The greatest strength of A Pain Blossomed from my Lungs, however, is its affinity for emotional composition and Lástima’s for executing them. The gorgeous violin-guitar duo that kicks off “Al Cerro Ancón,” the clean singing that builds to a climax in “Redux,” and even the brief-but-gorgeous “Hazel Interlude” showcase Lástima’s significant potential. “Sin Sol” is another great example, a song with peaks and valleys from strong black metal, harsh and furious riffs, and quieter, classical moments. The ebb and flow of “Sin Sol” in particular suggests a seasoned approach that is frankly delightful to experience, and so much of it so heartfelt, leaning into the beauty of Nguyen’s violin and the emotional compositions.

So there’s a lot going on in A Pain Blossomed from my Lungs, much of it contradictory, as Lástima leans into juxtaposition to achieve emotional resonance. There are moments, however, where these opposites don’t attract, often because one style works so much better than another. DeVon’s vocals, for example, shift between hardcore shouts, plaintive cleans, and black metal screams. The trouble is, I love DeVon’s cleans more than his screams, and I like his screams much more than his shouts. Similarly, Nguyen’s violins are beautiful, but their constant presence detracts from the heaviest songs, “Lyla” chief among them. There’s a sense that Lástima wants Nguyen to always have something to do, but there are times when there is too much happening. This is especially the case in “Lyla” and “Septiembre,” both of which might have benefited from a more relaxed approach.

I could argue that A Pain Blossomed from my Lungs is an uneven listen, but that would send the wrong idea—it hovers between being good and very good, between pleasant and active listening. I can see how Lástima won over a label from a single live performance—I’ll be keeping an eye out to see if they appear near me. A Pain Blossomed from my Lungs deftly balances styles and emotions. Whether you’re a fan of black metal or more of a -core/-gaze kind of listener, there’s something to check out here… so I recommend you do.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 4,608 kbps WAV
Label: Liminal Dread Productions
Websites: lastimamusic.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/lastimamusic
Releases Worldwide: May 16th, 2025

#2025 #30 #APainBloomedFromMyLungs #AmericanMetal #BlackMetal #Deafhaven #Lástima #LiminalDreadProductions #May25 #PostMetal #Review #Reviews

Weep – The Constant Strain of Life Review

By Cherd

My schooling and professional experience is in the making and teaching of visual fine art, and every once in a while this music reviewing gig reveals close parallels to consider. As I listen to Minneapolis-based one-man blackgaze project Weep and his debut full-length The Constant Strain of Life, I’m reminded of the differences between drawing and painting. Most artists who paint, draw, and vice versa value each medium for different reasons. Painting is a somewhat major production with lots of moving parts. There are layers. If you don’t like a mark, you paint over it, and it becomes part of a nearly invisible self-contained history. Painting builds or obfuscates spatial illusion in a push-and-pull process. Color theory has to be considered. Drawing is much more immediate. It can be detailed and meticulous, but it’s comparatively uncomplicated. There’s the hand, the tool, and the mark on the surface. It’s like seeing someone think out loud. Musical equivalents are like this: progressive death metal is painting. Raw black metal is drawing. Big band jazz is painting, but John Coltrane going on long improvised tangents on his sax is drawing.

The Constant Strain of Life is, in our dichotomy, drawing. Weep’s lone member, Cerastes, runs post-punk and shoegaze through a raw black metal filter but without the raw part. Comparisons can be made to fellow Minnesota bands Ashbringer or Wishfield, but this is a much more stripped-down, straightforward affair. How stripped down? If you had told me this was a demo, I wouldn’t have batted an eye. There are a few points of stylistic variation, like “Coffin Varnish,” which leans into doom tempos and solemnity, while “Desaturated Soul,” commits completely to shoegaze. One gets the idea that Cerastes has listened to a fair bit of screamo, but thankfully that influence on Weep is more residual than overt. The Constant Strain of Life spends the vast majority of its time squarely in that “post-black” space.

Cerastes’ “just the facts, ma’am” style contributes to both the album’s charm and its weaknesses. Production-wise, each instrument sits side by side with the others rather than combines with them. One can almost see every note played floating in space. This works fine on songs like the two that open the album. “Late Autumn” and “Must We Continue” both rely on buoyant indie rock guitar lines played over blackened rhythms to give them an immediate hook. When heft and urgency are needed, however, that space between elements becomes an issue. Take the title track. Once the song kicks into third gear and the chugging guitar riff starts at the 1:30 mark, it’s all too sparse a sound to convey the weight Weep is going for. It doesn’t do enough to raise the intensity, so the breakdown that follows also fails to land. This happens again with “The Sour Scent of Ozone,” as the chugging riff over the programmed drum d-beat comes off as flat-footed rather than energetic. More experimentation with the guitar tone could have potentially helped this. The tone, and indeed the riff, feel too stock-standard.

The issue of seemingly stock riffs emerges elsewhere, from “Late Autumn” to “Coffin Varnish” and “This is the End,” adding to the demo-like quality mentioned above. There are plenty of times listening to The Constant Strain of Life when I wonder why Cerates didn’t just commit to true raw black metal. It wouldn’t fix some of the writing issues, but it would imbue texture and atmosphere that the record could seriously benefit from. The Constant Strain of Life is best when it splits the poles between stark post-punk and black metal. “Must We Continue” is an early highlight and an example of the simple riffs coming off as effortless rather than uninspired. The strongest run starts with the one true shoegaze song “Desaturated Soul” and ends with another post-punk leaning song in album closer “Choosing to Live.” The clean vocals on “Desaturated Soul” are pitch-perfect for the style and I wish Weep would incorporate them more often for contrast and variety.

The Constant Strain of Life may be drawing in our drawing/painting dichotomy, but it alternates between drawing-as-finished-piece and sketchbook entries. Stark, blackened post-punk suits Cerates wonderfully, but more layers and color are needed when Weep reaches for bigger emotional payoffs, or when raging speed is required. There’s some good playlist material here, but as a full-length album, it could use some more time on the easel.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Liminal Dread Productions
Website: weep.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: October 25th, 2024

#25 #2024 #AmericanMetal #Ashbringer #BlackMetal #Blackgaze #LiminalDreadProductions #Oct24 #Review #Reviews #TheConstantStrainOfLife #Weep #Wishfield

Record(s) o’ the Month – August 2024

By Angry Metal Guy

August of 2024 was a pretty good month. First, it marked my return from the Injured Reserve, where I’d been nursing a high ego sprain and nagging executive dysfunction issues. These aren’t perfectly fixed, but being back on the field has shown beyond a doubt that I’m still a force to be reckoned with. Second, August of 2024 was a particularly fecund month for potential Records o’ the Month. This surprised me.

I couldn’t remember August being a particularly productive month historically and as I went back through the archive, that seems sort of true. Between 2012—when the RotM was started—and 2023, the hit rate for August Record(s) o’ the Month landing on my Top 10(ish) list for the year is 73%. Only once has an August record reached the top spot—that would be Pale Communion—with Sophicide hitting #2 in 2012 and Lör’s In Forgotten Sleep getting a #3 spot in 2017. Turisas’ controversial Turisas2013 was a runner-up in August of 2013 and ended up at #5, while the actual winner—Witherscape’s excellent The Inheritance—took the #10 spot on that list. 2020 saw Havukruunu ending up at #7, and Crypta’s Shades of Sorrow took #9 last year. The rest is a sea of -ishes and honorable mentions: Cattle Decapitation (2015), Dialith and Eternal Storm (2019), and Pain of Salvation in 2020.

And in 2024? How many of these babies will follow me to the end of the year? I’ve got an inkling, but I’m curious to see what you think.1

Dawn Treader’s Bloom & Decay—out August 24th from Liminal Dread Productions [Bandcamp]—is one of the biggest surprises of 2024 so far. The ‘one-man black metal project’ is a minefield of absolutely terrible music that I tend to avoid at all costs. Yet the sophomore record from London’s Ross Connell is an album notable for its pathos, rich composition, and artistry. What makes Blood & Decay remarkable is how it draws inspiration from—and comparisons to—revered bands like Agalloch, Alcest, and Panopticon without falling into the common pitfalls. Typically, such comparisons raise concerns about excessive reverb, overly long songs, and toothless riffs. Yet Connell subverts these expectations by creating a dynamic, storytelling experience filled with emotional peaks and valleys, masterfully blending black metal’s rawness with atmospheric beauty. Connell’s addition of his own vocals for the first time elevates the project. His powerful delivery—and powerful use of samples—transforms each song into a vivid emotional journey. As Itchymenace gushed in his review: “Dawn Treader’s Bloom & Decay not only contains amazing songs that celebrate the highs and lows of the human experience, it also sounds great.” A surprisingly easy choice for Record o’ the Month.

Fleshgod Apocalypse // Opera [August 23rd, 2024 | Nuclear Blast Records | Bandcamp] — Fleshgod Apocalypse’s Opera, their first album since 2019’s Veleno, has marked a significant evolution for the band. Drawing from the Opéra Lyrique style, the album features soprano Veronica Bordacchini voicing characters like life, death, and hope, while her vocals have brought fresh dynamics to the band’s symphonic death metal sound. With a more streamlined, melodic approach, Opera leans into catchier, poppier elements without losing its technical edge. Songs like “I Can Never Die” and “Matricide 8.21” highlight this shift, adding emotional depth through Bordacchini’s diverse performances. Though some longtime fans may miss the more grand operatic and technical side—Opera is not King—the album is still a genuine triumph. Opera blends new ideas with the band’s established identity, creating a fresh, cohesive record that accomplishes both a stylistic shift and adds another great record to Fleshgod’s already well-respected oeuvre. As I vigorously exclaimed and defended in the comments, “Opera is simultaneously and undeniably fun, heady, and technically impressive.”

Amiensus // Reclamation Pt. II [August 30th, 2024 | M-Theory Audio | Bandcamp] — Amiensus’s Reclamation Pt. II, the companion to Pt. I released earlier this year, has marked a standout achievement in progressive melodic black metal. The album blends melancholic melodicism, blackened fury, and progressive elements to create a dynamic and cathartic experience. With tracks like “Sólfarið” and “Acquiescence,” Pt. II offers invigorating and emotionally charged compositions, Amiensus skillfully balances moments of atmospheric beauty with powerful black metal. While initially, Reclamation seemed disjointed in places, the album’s intricate songs and layered instrumentation grow with each listen, presenting some of the band’s most versatile material to date. Despite some production issues, the album features elite composition and great songs like “Orb of Vanishing Light.” Reclamation Pt. II stands as Amiensus’s current “magnum opus”—in tandem with its predecessor—and a highlight of the year’s metal releases. As Kenstrosity opined, “Reclamation Pt. II is a more energetic, smartly edited, and exquisitely arranged work that blooms brighter the longer I live with it.” That’s a fancy way of saying that it’s a grower.

#2024 #Amiensus #Aug24 #BlackMetal #Blog #BloomDecay #DawnTreader #DeathMetal #FleshgodApocalypse #LiminalDreadProductions #MTheoryAudio #NuclearBlast #Opera #ReclamationPtII #RecordOfTheMonth #RecordSOTheMonth #RotM #Veleno

Conglaciation – Conglaciation Review

By Dolphin Whisperer

In emergence to the full-length foray now ten years ago, Artificial Brain launched into orbit a novel style of knotted and screeching death metal that brought with it a slingshotting mass of a tangible cosmic horror. And though it’s up for debate whether they’ve yet to best that offering, it’s easy to declare that the Artificial Brain attack is one that has largely remained singular, definitive, and pushing adjacent bands—like cousin Afterbirth—to corners of space not cast from shadow to light. But as a distant sun shines about the gravity of that modern act, time tells us that eventually, some satellite will drift into its orbit. As such, Conglaciation, in earshot of this pioneering sound has found a reveal along this dissonantly-carved path. However, the stars don’t seem to be the destination for this fresh face—its layers feel equally icy as the vast cavern of galactic emptiness but terrestrial all the same.

So what is it that separates this New York-based trio from both that which paved the way and that which is mostly related?1 That would be none other than a love for the beloved Pokémon game series. What? Was that not what you expected? As it turns out primary composer for these tunes Cotter Champlin (SARMAT, Galactic Empire)2 has a passion for both studied and shredding guitar antics as well as the “gotta catch ’em all” grind of battle monsters. And this matters as the tracks of Conglaciation, by osmosis or intention, each lurch forward with a harmony-edging melody against gurgle-burp vocal hypnotism—equal parts Demilich jagged riff-belching against restrained yet virtuosic fusion-colored solos—much in the same way a game’s incidental background tracks will intensify if you stand around and let them.

Where heavy dissonance use often aims to attract via repulsion, Champlin’s sense of long-form and recursive melody functions, instead, as an anchor that gains weight throughout each piece. Certain numbers open with these kinds of creeping and snaking plays (“Asunder,” “Atrementous,” “Congruency”), the pace of which slogs in intentional contrast to frenetic blast beats and percussive grumblings flitter under and through a slowly weaving web. Always upfront in the mix, the frequently shrill and ear-stumping refrains remain more static in primary attack than drifting, allowing additional layers of Champlin’s instrumentation to flourish—terraced bass groans, Holdsworthian scale-bending fretplay, doubled melodic climbs with new accents (“Sublimate” has the largest growth in this regard). Conglaciation sticks to memory much easier than other works of this level of technical acclaim.

Despite Conglaciation’s thoughtful construction, its charm has the appeal of a classical study piece, which conflicts with its true death metal moments in ways that scatter its attack. For an album so absolutely loaded with toothsome and jaw-dropping performances, it feels odd for Conglaciation to drop a seven-minute instrumental piece, “Sketch”,3 smack dab in the middle. Especially after the twisted Neuraxis-force groove that bolts down “Conglaciation” and gnarled, resplendent riffage of “Sublimate,” that choice for a tip-toeing, pizzicato imitating intermission, as creative as it may be, stands tall and in the way amongst its peers. In terms of execution and memorability though, “Sketch” still wins accolades in its over-atmospheric approach. Even Champlin’s solos can land this way in the context of how tight songs could be without them—warm in tone, they rarely soar above the eerie and frozen landscape that surround them.

More étude than banger, Conglaciation opens this project’s career to the ears of the curious and dissecting. Too heady on average for the hammer-throwing hooligan, yet riff-loaded enough to incite some scattered pit riots (“Conglaciation,” “Ameliorate”), it flashes brightly enough all the same to catch those who feel the itch for a unique kind of sonic adventure. Nestled away in the relaxing and technical world of tension-masters like Convulsing and Altars, Conglaciation deserves a moment with its head just above the underground. And as they continue to master the craft of chiseling defined peaks in their work, it will be hard for any progressive death metal lover to look away.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: PCM4
Label: Liminal Dread Productions | Bandcamp
Websites: conglaciation.bandcamp.com | instagram.com/conglaciation
Releases Worldwide: July 19th, 2024

#2024 #30 #Afterbirth #Altars #AmericanMetal #ArtificialBrain #Conglaciation #Convulsing #DeathMetal #Jul24 #LiminalDreadProductions #Neuraxis #Pokémon #ProgressiveDeathMetal #Review #Reviews #SARMAT #TechnicalDeathMetal