Once upon a time, before I was a battle-jacket-wearing, corpse-paint-adorned, trve-metal warrior of the highest order, I was a high-school prog nerd. The djent wave was cresting just as I began to really delve deeper into music, and the hordes of technical, djenty bands with ultra-modern production and surprising amounts of melody still sit near and dear to my heart, even if I rarely reach back into the Sumerian-scented pile in my regular listening habits. 1 That’s why when I saw the promo for Hiraeth, the 2nd album by Brazilian prog metallers Abstracted, with comparisons to The Contortionist, The Human Abstract, and Between the Buried and Me, I couldn’t help but get a little excited at the prospect of newer music tapping into those formative sounds. Abstracted have been a band since 2013, and their long-gestating debut record, 2022’s Atma Conflux, was an effective and varied slab of djenty progressive death metal, marred by tepid production and less-than-stellar clean vocals. More than anything, though, it showed potential as a record brimming with ideas that was so close to being great. With Hiraeth, can the Brazilian group finally unify their influences into something more than the sum of their parts?

On Hiraeth, Abstracted demonstrates a thorough understanding of contemporary progressive metal styles and integrates them into something all their own. The band’s main sound is a djent-fueled take on modern progressive death metal, closest to early-era The Contortionist in its blending of odd-meter riffery, post-rock-influenced textures, and an enticing contrast between melancholic space-age cleans and technical 6-string chugs. Abstracted balance this with more traditional Haken-esque classic prog turnarounds and jazz breaks (“Sirens”), fast-paced Between the Buried and Me riff marathons (“To Quench This Insatiable Thirst”), and harmonic nuance within darker moments à la Persefone (“Requiem”). The result is a varied and dynamic set of tunes that glide effortlessly between impressive riff-fueled aggression and cathartic melodies. Songs like “The Utter End” and “The Barren Grave of God” demonstrate the band’s ability to naturally move from strength to strength without missing a beat, unfolding across expansive guitar arpeggios, delightfully off-kilter breakdowns, virtuosic solos, and powerful musical climaxes.

Hiraeth by Abstracted

This level of fluidity and genre cohesion on Hiraeth is only made possible by the high level of musicianship Abstracted display. Guitarists José Consani and Leonardo Brito give varied performances that successfully meld more djent-centric playing with classic death metal sensibilities and demonstrate keen melodic ears with dense jazz chords and powerful lead lines. Drummer Fernando Pollen blends Latin grooves with acrobatic modern metal flourishes, and the production’s more natural drum tone allows his dynamic nuances to guide several songs. 2 On bass, Riverton Alves turns in a thoroughly warm and jazz-based, Cynic-flavored performance that shines during quieter moments, while keyboardist Carol Lynn supplies plenty of atmosphere through subtle synth textures and steps to the forefront a few times with quirky, but effective synth lines reminiscent of Diego Tejeida. Together, this ensemble breathes plenty of life into a style of music that can often feel over-processed, and their performances help to unify this collection of songs into a cohesive whole.The only elements of Hiraeth that aren’t immediately impressive are the vocals and the production. Rosano Pedro Matiussi delivers an impassioned performance, and his vocal lines often fit the songs well, but his clean singing lacks a certain impact or personality to elevate good moments into great ones. Initially, this was enough to deter me from really digging deeper and appreciating the songcraft on display, but the singing grew on me quite a bit with time. Similarly, his death growls are solid, if not one-note, and they feel like they exist more so to fill a role than to accent particular sections. This could potentially be the production’s fault, as Hiraeth sounds generally good and more natural than the swaths of overproduced modern prog 3 but lacks a certain sonic clarity, occasionally making especially dense sections harder to parse. There’s a distinct lack of reverb on the harsh vocals, and I can’t help but wonder if a stronger mix could fit the layered clean singing a bit better. Matiussi’s vocals are far from bad, and there are parts like the somber intro to “Requiem” where he sounds great, but when everything else is operating at such a high level, they feel like a weak link.

With Hiraeth, Abstracted have delivered an impressive piece of modern progressive metal. This record is a grower for sure, with dense and layered compositions often revealing their clever construction and intense interconnectedness only after repeated spins. Even if the vocals leave a little to be desired, the Brazilian group has successfully combined the sounds of several of the best modern prog bands into something exciting and nuanced.

Rating: Good
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: M-Theory Audio
Websites: abstractedmetal.bandcamp | facebook.com/abstractedbr
Releases Worldwide: February 20, 2026

For @DXMacGuffin's #ProgTuesday:

#TheReticent: please

https://album.link/t/460242048

#ProgressiveDeathMetal #ProgressiveMetal

FFO #AnAbstractIllusion #TheContortionist #Nospūn (duh)

"An autobiographical album that delves into the heart of mental health battles from hiding one's illness all the way to the brink of oblivion" - with a little help from friends.

For @loewe's #MittwochMetalMix, a healthy dose of #djent:

#Unprocessed: Angel

https://album.link/t/449276750

#ProgressiveMetalcore

FFO #TheContortionist #Johari #TesseracT

Extortionist – Stare into the Seething Wounds Review

By Dear Hollow

Although my love for metal has its origins in the -core movement, it’s largely passed me by in the years since. New artists come and go, and the next thing I know, my favorite metalcore songs were all released in 2015 or earlier. Extortionist is also one of those bands I neglected, but when I first heard them, I immediately clocked it was not The Contortionist. With no prog in sight, Extortionist is known for their blend of deathcore, metalcore, and nu-metal, which has me running for the Tums right away. Oh, and they’re also known for supplementing their open snare tone by assaulting a metal beer keg with a baseball bat – beer to wash the antacid down, I guess. Anyway, here’s Extortionist’s fourth full-length.

If you clued in that Stare into the Seething Wounds looks like a Korn album cover, complete with warped symbols of childhood fed through the Tim Burton-on-weed machine, you’re dead-on. More than other “nu” acts like ten56. or Motionless in White, Idaho’s Extortionist sounds like these “on the kob” legends or Alice in Chains in its more subdued moments – complete with wonky guitar effects and vocalist Ben Hoagland’s best impression of Jonathan Davis. However, its less restrained identity enacts a brand of brutality seen in Bodysnatcher or The Last Ten Seconds of Life, weaponizing belligerent roars that recall Upon a Burning Body’s Danny Leal atop crushing breakdowns and thick riffs. Layering nu-metal’s wonky effects and lazy vocals with deathcore’s fat-bottomed tone abuse one song after another with the band’s signature drum production, the two faces of Extortionist are initially appealing, but by the end of Stare into the Seething Wounds, you’ll want to slap them both.

The subtler side of Extortionist is a more atmospheric and deadlier version of Korn’s melodies and Nirvana’s watery effects, focusing on drawling baritone vocals and short-lived random explosions into metalcore chugs. Achieving a sort of sonic haze through these means, the potential resemblance to Deftones in its layers of opaque instrumentals and minor chord progressions is a tempting one that ultimately falls flat. The dynamics are simply not there, as Extortionist will shift from the Davis drawl to a chuggy deathcore breakdown with Hoagland’s vocals providing the only crescendo. If heavier combinations of “Freak on a Leash” and “Come As You Are” sound like a good time to you, these tracks might satisfy (“The Break I Couldn’t Mend,” “Submit to Skin,” “Dopamine,” “Low Roads,” “Do You See It?”) – even if the band at large sorely lacks the charisma or songwriting chops to pull it off. These tracks end up being dull interludes between the slightly more interesting core exposés.

If being bored to tears is not your game, Extortionist’s numbskull brutality might appeal to you. Channeling a nu-metal-influenced, deathcore-forward breed of intensity that recalls early Crystal Lake or Alpha Wolf, the straightforwardness is at least unpretentious. Even then, some timing issues, usually tempo disparities between breakdown callouts and the breakdowns themselves, keep some tracks from achieving the soundtrack to the pit they so desperately strive for (“Cycle of Sin,” “Starve”). Even the more bulletproof metalcore/deathcore tracks (“Aftermath of Broken Glass,” “Detriment,” “Invisible Scars (Part III)”) offer no reason to listen to Extortionist compared to the plethora of -core rip-offs – these tracks are fast and solidly composed, featuring bone-crushing breakdowns but that’s about it: better incarnations exist in early The Plot in You and Loathe. A blessing and a curse, drummer and keg abuser Vince Alvarez’s performance is the clear highlight amid the sea of boredom and monotony, but that signature production and reverb manage to inflate the mix to something that clashes with the breakdowns and riffs, feeling lazy in the busy, overfilled attack.

For a very bloated forty-eight minutes, Extortionist blurs the lines between nu-metal, metalcore, and deathcore – their stark dichotomy of grungy drawling and brutalizing breakdowns ultimately boils down to boring and monotonous. However, if you ever forget that this is deathcore or metalcore, there will be a ten-ton breakdown to remind you. If you ever forget this is nu-metal, Hoagland will growl some off-beat “oh-oh,” “fuck,” or “yeah” faster than you can say “da-boom-da-da-mmm-dum-na-ee-ma.” All this to say, maybe I should have left Extortionist back in 2015 – peel away the cringe and novelty of Stare into the Seething Wounds and what looks so strong, so delicate.

Rating: 1.5/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Unique Leader Records
Websites: extortionist.bandcamp.com | extortionist.co | facebook.com/ExtortionistNW
Releases Worldwide: October 10th, 2025

#15 #2025 #AliceInChains #AlphaWolf #AmericanMetal #Bodysnatcher #CrystalLake #Deathcore #Deftones #Extortionist #Grunge #Korn #Loathe #Metalcore #MotionlessInWhite #Nirvana #NuMetal #Oct25 #Review #Reviews #StareIntoTheSeethingWounds #ten56_ #TheContortionist #TheLastTenSecondsOfLife #ThePlotInYou #UniqueLeaderRecords #UponABurningBody

Vildhjarta – Där skogen sjunger under evighetens granar Review

By Dear Hollow

You could make the case that Vildhjarta’s third full-length is too late to be relevant. There are few that djent as hard as the Swedes, and their own influence exists in pockets of tone-abusing youngsters and diehard veterans who just keep releasing shit: Tesseract, Periphery, and Animals As Leaders, for example. I’ve always thought that Vildhjarta is the more curious Humanity’s Last Breath, utilizing a similarly crushingly heavy bone-to-dust djent tone, dark atmosphere, and vocal attack,1 but with a shimmering ethereality more akin to Uneven Structure or older The Contortionist, heaven and hell alike. Regardless, you can bet your bottom dollar that Vildhjarta djents. Hard.

Vildhjarta has a fervent fanbase in spite of having relatively little music to speak of. Having coined the mysterious “thall!” battle cry and influencing a ton of “djentlemen,” Där skogen sjunger under evighetens granar is only their third full-length. The influential concept album Måsstaden was a landmark of djenty deathcore, but was immediately left almost entirely unanswered (apart from the Thousands of Evils EP in 2013) until 2021 with the release of Måsstaden under vatten (“seagull city underwater”). That album rekindled what made the act so formidable to begin with: downtuned choppy djent riffs, reverb-laden leads that sway between dissonant and hyper-melodic, and staccato overlapping rhythms. Där skogen sjunger under evighetens granar is undeniably Vildhjarta in this way, although it benefits from its more playful approach, streamlined songwriting, heightened atmosphere, and deepened weight, but it won’t change your mind about Vildhjarta in its one-note and overlong glory.

Vildhjarta has always been unique for its ability to take the novelty and highlights of djent and make an experience out of it. Där skogen sjunger under evighetens granar is the most pristine and positive of the band’s discography, reflecting its sanguine title,2 compared to the ominous ambiance pervading the dark fairytales of the Måsstaden suite. While its predecessors dove headfirst into the darkness, Där skogen... seems to embrace a more dreamy attitude reminiscent of post-rock bands like Sigur Rós or Hammock. Yes, the Swedes have amped the density and weight of their djent, but have also raised its hell-gazing heads to the cosmos. There are certainly moments of ominous dissonance (“Där mossan möter havet”), but most tracks feel downright cheery by comparison. Toss in some well-placed vocals that range from dreamy to powerful (“Sargasso,” “Där mossan möter havet,” “Kristallfågel,” “? regnet, the ?,” “Viktlös & evig”), and stargazing to djent never seemed so apt.

That being said, if drop-tuned djenty beatdowns interspersed with reverb-y leads, wild runs, and synth overlays are not your thing, that’s basically what Vildhjarta does for fifty-six minutes straight, which is downright brief compared to its predecessor’s eighty-one minutes. One riff to rule them all: variety and differentiation are not names of the game for Vildhjarta. Even tempo remains at a comfortable 90 bpm for the majority of the album; sudden blastbeats give the illusion of speed. Vilhelm Bladin’s harsh vocals remain predictable death growls with a climax of a shriek here and there aside from sparse, almost-spoken word (“Hösten som togs ifrån mig,” “Den spanska känslan”), although the cleans have much more range. Guitar work remains entirely predictable, aside from the pairing of melancholy plucking and its punchy polyrhythm call-back (“Viktlös & evig”) or some almost classical noodling (“Den spanska känslan”).

Yes, Vildhjarta is an experience of surreal proportions, particularly compared to the legions of their super-serious genremates. Där skogen sjunger under evighetens granar’s pristine atmosphere stands out among even its own shadowy discography, although it retains all the act’s trademarks. The act works better as a trio, as it forces them to cut the fluff into what works and what doesn’t. That being said, it does not justify why you should spend nearly an hour getting a djent concussion only to gaze up at the stars through newly encephalopathic eyes. Old habits die hard, and while mysterious and enigmatic, the Swedes’ formula is predictable, if not hella fun for the initiated. Ultimately, if you’re a fan, Vildhjarta is above-average djent; if you’re not a fan, Vildhjarta is average djent.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 4 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Century Media Records
Websites: vildhjarta.bandcamp.com | vildhjartastore.com | facebook.com/vildhjartaofficial
Releases Worldwide: May 30th, 2025

#25 #2025 #AnimalsAsLeaders #AtmosphericMetal #CenturyMediaRecords #DärSkogenSjungerUnderEvighetensGranar #Deathcore #Djent #Hammock #HumanitySLastBreath #May25 #Periphery #Review #Reviews #SigurRÃS #SwedishMetal #TesseracT #TheContortionist #UnevenStructure #Vildhjarta

Benthos – From Nothing Review

By Dear Hollow

It’s sexy when things you love collide with things you hate. My lust for mathcore is well-established – I go hard for that mind-numbing dyscalculic tinnitus any day – but if you put a slab of prog metal in front of me, I’m gonna go as flaccid as a gummy worm in a hot car faster than you can say “Wilderun.” That’s Benthos. The Italian collective slides a platter of progressive rock’s lush, ambivalent, and emotive movements alongside mathcore’s jagged edges and feral energy, and you’re guaranteed to find something you’ll love and hate – and get hot and bothered by. It’s core’s sellout and prog’s elitism personified in the dichotomy of the heavenly and hellish – yet in your divinely appointed and coarsely deadly free will, you decide which is which. In the words of the wisest, “yeet and yoink” with this particular Haken-themed hatefuck.

Benthos has been around since 2018, and gained recognition in their hometown of Milan by opening for The Contortionist and appearing in the Dissonance Festival in 2023. From Nothing is their debut full-length, although they released the ironically titled EP/mini-album II in 2021. Settled upon a foundation of lush melodies and evasive chord progressions before exploding into frantic Dillinger-inspired rhythm abuse, the act wavers between super serious and frantically silly, soulful cleans colliding haphazardly with demonic shrieks. From Nothing is ambitious in fusing two styles strangely congruous but also not at all, but in the end Benthos is exactly split down the middle, its arrhythmic beatdowns stealing the spotlight from masturbatory prog sections, blurring into some ambivalently erotic background.

First glances of Benthos are synth-heavy progressions and killer vocals. Gabriele Landillo has a formidable set of pipes, their post-hardcore-meets-Chino Moreno vibe lending a creeping sexiness (“Let Me Plunge,” “The Giant Child”) and a desperate belt that adds serious dynamic and show-stealing propensity (“From Nothing,” “Pure”), keeping the more uninteresting passages from descending into drearier monotony. Without careful listening, however, the proggier tracks blur together in a blurry pastel mesh in sprawling layered atmospheric rock tricks – serious synth on guitar action – with interspersed chuggy portions, feeling like a less nuanced songwriting a la (recent) The Contortionist or The Fall of Troy. Speaking of your favorite dark romance crooner Chino, From Nothing feels quite a bit like Deftones’ Gore in its decision to put include metal as a mere monument marker on the jaded journey to the pits of prog – ultimately, a bit of a cockblock. Benthos mixing is likewise stellar, Alberto Fiorani’s dummy thicc bass as audible as the cheek-clapping guitars and slamming drums.

Of its two audio halves, Benthos’ more chaotic mathcore attacks offer the best listening experience. After the vastly longwinded four-song introductory blur, the intro to “As a Cordyceps” introduces what makes From Nothing worth a bit more. Practically brimming with energy, the mathcore technicality and hardcore intensity finally kick in. This continues into the easy highlights that dispense the prog fluff into something that feels cutthroat and quirky, wonky leads weaponized with nimble and mind-bending rhythms (“Fossil,” “Athletic Worms,” “Perpetual Drone Monkeys”). These give Benthos more breathing room when the proggy sensibilities raise their ill-smelling feet, offering nuance to otherwise unwelcoming rooms. These also incorporate more of these chunkier vibes into more mundane moments, letting the rhythms inject a tasteful – albeit short-lived – dose of intensity (“The Giant Child,” “Pure”).

The best and worst part about From Nothing is that Benthos manages to sound both bored to tears and absolutely apeshit depending on which part you tune into. Its moments of unhinged insanity are too few and far between to warrant consistency or balance… or a solid recommendation. But if you’re like Dolphin Whisperer and like your music hot and heavy, while disrobing From Nothing’s many sexy layers and textured sprawls, take a cold shower before venturing out to pick up a copy.1 Benthos offers promise with the softness for the foreplay and the vigor for the penetration, but From Nothing has difficulty keeping it up across its forty-five minute runtime with too-long portions of pretty monotony2 and excessive indulgence,3 but armed with a vocalist both sexy and devastating and an instrumental presence as bonkers as it is patient… goddammit, I need a cold shower now.4

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Inside Out Music
Websites: benthosmusic.bandcamp.com | benthos-band.com | facebook.com/benthosbandofficial
Releases Worldwide: April 11th, 2025

#25 #2025 #Apr25 #Benthos #Deftones #FromNothing #Haken #InsideOutMusic #ItalianMetal #Mathcore #ProgressiveMetal #ProgressiveRock #Review #Reviews #TheContortionist #TheDillingerEscapePlan #TheFallOfTroy #Wilderun

#NowPlaying Language by The Contortionist 🎶

bandcamp link:
https://thecontortionistband.bandcamp.com/album/language

#Music #Metal #ProgressiveMetal #TheContortionist

Stuck in the Filter: August and September 2024

By Kenstrosity

I am a stubborn bitch. I work my underlings hard, and I won’t let up until they dig up shiny goodies for me to share with the general public. Share might be a generous term. Foist upon is probably more accurate…

In any case, despite some pretty intense setbacks on my end, I still managed to collect enough material for a two-month spread. HUZZAH! REJOICE! Now get the hell away from me and listen to some of our very cool and good tunes.

Kenstrosity’s Turgid Truncheons

Tenue // Arcos, bóvedas, pórticos [August 1st, 2024 – Self-Release]

Spanish post-black/crust/screamo quartet Tenue earned my favor with their debut record, Anábasis, back in 2018. Equal parts vicious, introspective, and strangely uplifting, that record changed what I thought I could expect from anything bearing the screamo tag. By integrating ascendant black metal tremolos within post-punk structures and crusty attitude, Tenue established a sound that not only opened horizons for me taste-wise but also brought me a great deal of emotional catharsis on its own merit. Follow-up Arcos, bóvedas, pórticos deepens that relationship. Utilizing a wider atmospheric palette (“Distracción”), a shift towards epic song lengths (“Inquietude, and a greater variety of instrumentation (observe the beautiful horns on long-form opener “Inquietude”), and a bluesier swagger than previous material exhibited (“Letargo”), Tenue’s second salvo showcases a musical versatility I wasn’t expecting to complement the bleeding-heart emotional depth I knew would return. This expansion of scale and skillset sets the record apart from almost anything else I’ve heard this year. Even though one or two moments struggle to stick long-term (“Enfoque”), Arcos, bóvedas, pórticos represents an affecting, creative, and ridiculously engaging addition to my listening schedule. And for the low low price of NYP, it ought to be a part of yours as well.

Open Flesh Wound // Vile Putrefaction [August 28th, 2024 – Inherited Suffering Records]

Thicc, muggy slam with a million pick scrapes. Who could ask for anything more? Not I, and so it is with great pleasure that I introduce to my AMG fam Pennsylvania’s very own Open Flesh Wound and their debut LP Vile Putrefaction. Essentially the result of Analepsy’s and Devourment‘s carnal lovemaking, Vile Putrefaction is a nasty, slammy, brutal expulsion of chunky upchuck. Only those with the most caved-in craniums will appreciate the scraping swamp-ass riffs showcased on such slammers as “Smashed in Liquids” and “Cinder Block to the Forehead,” or the groove-laden thuggery of death-focused tracks like the title track, “Fermented Intestinal Blockage” and “Body Baggie.” Vile Putrefaction’s molasses-like production is an absolute boon to this sound as well, with just enough gloss to provide a deliciously moist texture which imparts an unlikely clarity to especially gruesome details in “Stoma Necrosis” and “Skin Like Jelly.” It’s dumb as hell, and isn’t doing anything new, but is an overdose of good, dirty fun. Simple as.

The Flaying // Ni dieu, ni ma​î​tre [September 5th, 2024 – Self Release]

I’ve been singing Canadian melodic death metal quartet The Flaying’s praises for almost six years now. And still to this day not enough people choose to sing with me. Why? Because they wouldn’t know sickeningly fun death metal if it hacked their faces right off. That’s okay, because The Flaying do hack faces right off regardless, and it feels so good to watch the faces of those who don’t heed my call get hacked right off. Third onslaught Ni dieu, ni ma​î​tre proves that once again, The Flaying are an unstoppable force of bass wizardry, riff mastery, and hook-laden songwriting. Opener “Le nécrologiste” perfectly encapsulates The Flaying’s particularly addicting brew of Cannibal Corpse, The Black Dahlia Murder, and De Profundis influences, shaken and stirred until the resulting cocktail blooms with a flavor all its own. Technical and brutally fast, follow-up track “L’enclave” continues the deadly rampage, featuring noodly bass lines guaranteed to elicit stank face in the even most prim and proper elite. A trim twenty nine minutes, spread over ten tightly trained tracks, Ni dieu, ni ma​î​tre boasts unbeatable replay value. Highlights “Ni dieu, ni ma​î​tre,” “Les Frondes” “La forge,” and “Noyau sombre” seal the deal by providing sharp hard points and memorable landmarks to which any listener would look forward. Simply put, this record rocks my socks and further proves that I am right about The Flaying, and those who ignore my recommendation are wrong.

Dolphin Whisperer’s All-Seeing Affirmations

Eye Eater // Alienate [August 1st, 2024 – Self Release]

In a post-Ulcerate world, the modern output of atmosphere-minded death metal has grown exponentially. With ringing dissonant chords and slow post-informed builds taking center stage, bands like New Zealand’s unheralded Eye Eater borrow plenty from the Destroyers of All sound. However, while many acts would be content to dial in the space or ramp up the dissonance to try and put their own twist on this growing post-death movement, Eye Eater looks to the laser-precise melodic tones of progressive, core-borrowing names like Fallujah and Vildhjarta to carve an identity into each of Alienate’s album eight sprawling tracks. Swinging sustained brightness in one hand about the grizzly chug-crush of the other, burly bangers like “Other Planets” and “Failure Artifacts” find churning, djentrified grooves that amplify the swell of the blaring melodies that swirl above the low-end clamor. And though the main refrains of “Alienate” and “Everything You Fear and Hope For” sound like loving odes to their Kiwi Forebears, the growth into sonorous and lush-chorded peaks lands much closer to the attraction of turn of the 10s progressive death/metalcore luminaries The Contortionist had they stayed closer to their heavy-toned, hefty-voiced roots. As an anonymous act with little social presence, it’s hard to say whether Eye Eater has more cooking for the future. With their ears tuned to the recent past for inspiration, it’s easy to see how a band with this kind of melodic immediacy—still wrapped in the weight of a brooding, death metal identity—could easily play for the tops of underground charts. To those who have been following the twists and turns of both underground and accessible over the past decade or so, Eye Eater may not sound entirely novel. But Alienate’s familiarity in presence against its quality of execution and fullness of sound makes it easy to ensnare all the same.

Dissolve // Polymorphic Ways of Unconsciousness [September 20th, 2024 – Self Release]

From the sand-blasted, monochrome human escaping the floor of Polymorphic Ways’ cover to the tags of technical, progressive, death that adorn the Bandcamp tags, it’s easy to put a band like Dissolve in a box, mentally. But with the first bent guitar run that sets off “Efficiency Defiled” in a run like Judas Priest more than Spawn of Possession, it’s clear that Dissolve plays by a different set of rules than your average chug and run tech death band. Yet true to their French nature, the riffs that litter Polymorphic Ways of Unconsciousness possess a tangible groove following the footsteps of lesser-known tricksters Trepalium and Olympic titans of metal Gojira (“The Great Pessimistic,”1 “Polymorphic Ways of Unconsciousness,” “Vultures”). And while too Dissolve finds a base in the low-end trem assault of Morbid Angel (“Ignorance Will Prevail”), there’s a thrash and bark energy at play that nets a rambunctious and experimental sound recalling the warped Hetfield-ian (Metallica) scrawl of Destroy Erase Improve Meshuggah, right down to the monstrous bass tone that defines Sonny Bellonie’s (Sanctuary, ODC) growling, extended range performance. As a trio it’d be easy for guitarist Briac Turquety (Smerter, ex-Sideburn) to rely on overdubs for saturation of sound and complexity of layers—and for solo cut-ins he definitely does—but equally as often his choice to let certain chords and notes escape a thrashy muting to ring in distorted harmony against snaking bass lines. And speaking of solos, Turquety’s prowess ranges from bluesy shred (“The Great Pessimistic,” “Ropes of Madness”) to noisy, jazzy explorations (“Polymorphic…,” “Shattered Minds of Evolution”) to Satriani on Slayer whammy abuse (“Bonfire of the Vanities”)—a true treat to lovers of tasteful shred. Turquety, Bellonie, and Quentin Feron (on drums, also of Smerter) sound as if they’ve been playing together for much longer than the year that Dissolve has existed. With a debut this polished, it’s anyone’s guess as to what kind of monster will emerge from the talent that appears so effortless in assembly.

Obsidian Mantra // As We All Will [September 27th, 2024 – Self Release]

Sometimes, a tangled and foreboding cover sits as the biggest draw amongst a crowd of death metal albums alight with splattered zombie remains, illegible logos, and alarm-colored palettes. And in the case of Obsidian Mantra, it doesn’t hurt that lead single “Cult of Depression” possesses a devastating, hypnotic groove that recalls the once captivating technical whiplash of an early Decapitated. However, rather than wrestle with tones that incite a pure and raw violence like that cornerstone act (or similar Poldeath that has followed in its legacy like Dormant Ordeal), Obsidian Mantra uses aggressive and bass-loaded rhythmic forms to erupt in spacious and glass-toned guitar chimes to create an engrossing neck-snapping (“Slave Without a Master,” “Condemned to Oppression”). Whether we call these downcast refrains a dissonant melody or slowly resolving phrase, they grow throughout each track in a manner that calls continual reinforcement from a rhythm section that can drop into hammering blasts at a dime and a vocal presence that oscillates between vicious snarl and reverberating howl. In its most accessible numbers (“Chaos Will Consume Us All,” “Weavers of Misery”), Obsidian Mantra finds an oppressive warmth that grows to border anthemic, much in the way like beloved blackened/progressive acts like Hath do with their biggest moments. As We All Will still never quite reaches that full mountainous peak, though, opting to pursue the continual call of the groove to keep the listener coming back. Having come a long way from the Meshuggah-centered roots where Obsidian Mantra first sowed their deathly seeds, As We All Will provides 30 minutes of modern, pulsating, and venomous kick-driven pieces that will flare easy motivation for either a brutalizing pit or a mightily-thrusted iron on leg day.

Thus Spoke’s Cursed Collection

Esoctrilihum // Döth-Derniàlh [September 20th, 2024 – I, Voidhanger Records]

We complete another orbit around the Sun, and Esoctrilihum completes another album; such are the inalterable laws governing each 365.25 Earth day period in our Solar System. Possessed by some mad, restless spirit, it seems they cannot be stopped. Ever the experimenter, sole member Asthâghul now picks up an acoustic guitar, a nickelharpa, and warms up his throat for more clean vocals to further bizarre-ify his avant-garde black metal. As we travel into the cosmos for Döth-Derniàlh, Esoctrilihumisms abound in the see-sawing strings and echoes of chanted singing and throaty snarls. The addition of more acoustic elements does bring some weird delicacy to moments here and there (“Zilthuryth (Void of Zeraphaël),” “Murzaithas (Celestial Voices)”), and it adds layers of beauty in addition to those already harmonious passages. it’s striking how well these new instruments blend with the overall sound: so well, in fact, that it almost feels like Esoctrilihum hasn’t evolved at all. This isn’t even a bad thing, because Döth-Derniàlh still feels like an improvement. Past albums have always had at least sections of perfection, where the scattered clouds of self-interfering chaos or repetition blow away and the brilliant light of the moon shines strongly. Döth-Derniàlh has more of these than ever, some extending to whole, 16-minute songs (“Dy’th Eternalhys (The Mortuary Renewal),”).2 If you have it in you to listen to one (more) album over an hour long, and you don’t already know you hate Esoctrilihum, sit down with a drink, and maybe a joint, and go where Döth-Derniàlh takes you.

#2024 #Alienate #AmericanMetal #ArcosBóvedasPórticos #AsWeAllWill #AtmosphericDeathMetal #Aug24 #AvantGarde #BlackMetal #BrutalDeathMetal #CanadianMetal #CannibalCorpse #DeProfundis #DeathMetal #Decapitated #Dissolve #DormantOrdeal #DöthDerniàlh #Esoctrilihum #EyeEater #Fallujah #FrenchMetal #Gojira #GrandMagus #GrendelSSÿster #Gygax #HarcorePunk #IVoidhangerRecords #InheritedSufferingRecords #JethroTull #JudasPriest #MelodicDeathMetal #Meshuggah #Metallica #MorbidAngel #NewZealandMetal #NiDieuNiMaîTre #ObsidianMantra #ODC #OpenFleshWound #PolishMetal #PolymorphicWaysOfUnconsciousness #PostDeathMetal #PostMetal #postPunk #ProgressiveDeathMetal #ProgressiveMetal #Punk #Sanctuary #Screamo #SelfRelease #Sep24 #Sideburn #Slam #Slayer #Smerter #SpanishMetal #SpawnOfPossession #StuckInTheFilter #StuckInTheFilter2024 #TechnicalDeathMetal #Tenue #TheBlackDahliaMurder #TheContortionist #TheFlaying #ThinLizzy #Trepalium #Vildhjarta #VilePutrefaction #WishboneAsh

Let's see, what else do we have here for @Kitty's #MittwochMetalMix...ah, this one is excellent:

#Allt: Memory of Light

https://song.link/zwq2pm4ksq5zx

#Djent #ProgressiveMetalcore #Thall

FFO #TheContortionist #HumanitysLastBreath #Polaris

And finally, something a bit more aggressive for @DXMacGuffin's #ProgTuesday:

#Allt: Echoes

https://song.link/jqzvfvb6ftzmb

#Djent #ProgressiveMetalcore #Thall

FFO #TheContortionist #Polaris #TransitMethod