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CRYPT SERMON To Release Saturnian Appendices EP In August

https://bravewords.com/news/crypt-sermon-to-release-saturnian-appendices-ep-in-august/

#CryptSermon #SaturnianAppendices #HeavyMetal #Philadelphia #TheStygianRose

Record(s) o’ the Month – June 2024

By Angry Metal Guy

As the summer sun scorched the earth, June delivered a cornucopia of crushing riffs, haunting melodies, and enough blast beats to rattle even the most hardened skulls.1 But finally, the time for the Record(s) o’ the Month for June has arrived! We understand there’s a certain impatience surrounding this, but to give you a peek behind the curtain here, the writers at AngryMetalGuy.com take great pride in the albums they reviewed being the Record o’ the Month. Thus, it’s important that we not hand out the award willy-nilly because we feel the writers should not be too easily rewarded. Such ease and timeliness make writers weak. And, you might be unaware of this, we aim to develop super reviewers; a class of reviewers with opinions and analyses so potent that your taste receptors will dance and sing upon checking out our recommendations.2

Long story short, these things take time. So, confidential details of our absolutely-IRB-approved-research aside,3 June turned out to be a surprisingly enjoyable month with a couple of albums that I had trouble leaving off the list. But the top slot? You almost certainly should’ve guessed it. So, without further ado (and before impatience metastasizes into a tantrum4), we present you the Record(s) o’ the Month for June of 2024.

Enjoy the flame war and list-making competition!5

Calling Ulcerate anything other than the world’s premiere modern death metal act would be a mistake. Unlike some bands, whose meteoric rise makes them feel overhyped, Ulcerate has slowly and steadily gained steam since their debut in 2008. Having been a fan since 2009’s iconic Everything Is Fire, it has been exciting to follow their trajectory from a dissodeath band appreciated by the Trve Connoissevr to every release being one of the year’s most anticipated albums.6 Over time, Ulcerate’s sound has continued to develop, and that evolution has increasingly distinguished them from the pack. Cutting the Throat of God [purchase on Bandcamp], which was released June 14th from Debemur Morti Productions, is a powerful continuation of their journey, achieving a perfect balance between the dissonant intensity that defines their earlier work and a newfound melodic sensibility that adds depth (and more importantly, contrast) without sacrificing brutality. This album doesn’t just revisit the themes of existential dread and philosophical inquiry that Ulcerate has always explored; it deepens them, bringing a profound sense of urgency and emotional weight to their music. The atmosphere is suffocating, yet there’s a sense of catharsis in the sheer ferocity and precision of their compositions. As Thus Spoke gushed with glee, “Ulcerate’s greatest manifestations of existentially anguished, veil-tearing truth and ambitious composition” are contained within Cutting the Throat of God, making it perhaps the most profound work to date.

Runner(s) Up:

Crypt Sermon // The Stygian Rose [June 14th, 2024 | Dark Descent | Bandcamp] — In a year devoid of quality doom, Philly’s classic doom mongers Crypt Sermon brotherly shoved themselves into the spotlight with their third opus The Stygian Rose. With the Candlemassive sound heard on their past records intact, Crypt Sermon loads in scads of traditional metal elements and flirts with more extreme elements as they put on an atmospheric doom composition clinic. The band continued to refine, and master, a perfect blend of crushing doom riffs and soaring, majestic melodies that evoke a powerful atmosphere. The Stygian Rose is bolstered by a commanding vocal performance, that when paired with the band’s intricate, and heavy, compositions, raises the bar for the genre. As Steel Druhm enthusiastically exclaimed, “If this isn’t the doom album of 2024, someone made a merger deal with the Devil.“

Noxis // Violence Inherent in the System [June 28th, 2024 | Rotted Life Records | Bandcamp] — If I’m honest, I couldn’t take this record seriously at first because it’s named after the thing that a certain anarchosyndicalist is yelling as he’s forcibly grabbed by Arthur, King of the Britons7 in one of Monty Python and the Holy Grail’s most iconic scenes.8 Yet, Kenstrosity and I have an uncomfortable level of overlap musically—when he’s able to contain his enthusiasm for bad things—and so I decided to give Noxis the ol’ College Try. Fortunately for Noxis, and the readers here, the ol’ “College Try” means something different when you have a PhD. Thus, I dug deep into the Violence Inherent in the System and quickly realized that I had chosen wisely. Not only does Noxis play a delightfully energetic form of death metal that doesn’t feel like a direct homage to any scene or band, but Violence Inherent in the System is well-produced fun, and it contains the first ever—as far as I’m aware also the only—bassoon solo on a death metal record. What have we ever done to deserve the bounty of the scene?

#2024 #Blog #Candlemass #CryptSermon #CuttingTheThroatOfGod #DarkDescentRecords #EverythingIsFire #Jun24 #Noxis #RecordOTheMonth #RecordOTheMoth #RecordSOTheMonth #RottedLifeRecords #TheStygianRose #Ulcerate #ViolenceInherentInTheSystem

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Album Review: CRYPT SERMON The Stygian Rose
"The Stygian Rose is not only this band's strongest work, it's one of the top records of 2024 so far."

https://metalinjection.net/reviews/album-review-crypt-sermon-the-stygian-rose

#CryptSermon #TheStygianRose #DoomMetal #MetalMusic #AlbumReview

Crypt Sermon – The Stygian Rose Review

By Steel Druhm

Over the last few years, I’ve slowly morphed from the traditional/trve/doom metal guy into the rancid death metal guy. It seems 85% of the promos I grab these days are death-related or death-adjacent. Questionable tastes aside, I was still excited to change things up and bask in the latest from Philly’s doom wardens Crypt Sermon. When last we saw them nearly 5 years ago, they’d released their sophomore outing The Ruins of Fading Light. While I wasn’t as enamored with it as I was with their killer Out of the Garden debut, it had some stellar moments and it’s grown on me over the years. I hoped The Stygian Rose would trend more toward the debut, but instead, the band found a slick middle ground between the classic doom of the debut and the more exploratory style of The Ruins. The Stygian Rose reasserts the mighty influences of Candlemass and Solitude Aeturnus while allowing a large volume of traditional metal ideas to flow through the material like a refreshing blast of ice-cold beer. A slightly proggy edge surfaces at times too. In short, this is one fragrant corpse flower!

Opening monolith “Glimmers in the Underworld” wastes no time establishing its classic doom bona vides, sounding like a long-lost Solitude Aeturnus track with trve metal muscle included for added impact. The guitar work is stellar, switching from massive doom grooves to Judas Priest-esque dueling solos and Maiden-friendly harmonizing. Cutting through all this are the larger-than-life vocals of Brooks Wilson who sounds reborn, projecting might and majesty everywhere. Over the song’s 8-plus minutes, the band varies mood and tempo but never takes the boot off your neck or lets the momentum lag. It’s a triumph. The classic doom goodies continue on “Thunder (Perfect Mind)” which could have been on the debut. It sounds like a product of the doom revival of the late 80s/early 90s and the mournful guitars hit hard and chill the soul. Brooks completely owns this one with a tremendous performance, commanding the mic like a true Doom Lord.

The album highlight arrives with “Scrying Orb” where the band goes deep into classic doom for a massive, sweeping experience full of despondency and epic dimensions. There’s more feeling feeling here than on some entire doom albums and this is a Vegas-backed Song o’ the Year candidate. Brooks sounds wounded and vulnerable until it’s time to invoke the Elder Gods in a haunting, liturgical chant when the brilliant chorus arrives. This is a show-stopper and I can’t escape its wickedly mystical powers. Then comes the gigantic 11-minute closing title track to celebrate your interment in the mausoleum of metal excellence. Beginning with somber piano lines, things slowly climb toward doom grandiosity with Brooks joining the battle around the 3rd minute, delivering some of his best vocal work as he swings from leather-lunged raw bellowing to softer, poignant crooning. The guitar work is stunning and elegant, especially during the song’s final act. No song is weak, though the middle section is slightly less tremendous and a bit more proggy than the bookending moments. At 44:50, the album is the ideal length and even the long-form cuts avoid feeling fatty due to excellent structuring. The production by Arthur Rizk is spot on, giving the guitars mass and force and allowing tons of room for Brooks and company to hawk their sonic wares.

I couldn’t be more impressed by the guitar maelstrom generated by Steve Jansson (Daeva) and Frank Chin (also Daeva). They dig deep into Mount Doom for inspiration, plunging well below Balrog depths to reach the real gems. Their lusty infusion of traditional metal influences adds a glossy, vibrant coating to the heavy doom core, reminiscent of the glory days of Candlemass when Mats Björkman and Lars Johansson were on shred detail. The doom riffs are present and accounted for and all the extra embellishments are rich, meaty gravy. Brooks Wilson sounds completely renewed vocally. Where he sounded strained and thin at times on The Ruins of Fading Light, he sounds colossal and unstoppable here. He glides from strength to strength effortlessly while giving the material a ton of gravitas and power, like Rob Lowe in his prime sprinkled with Magic Dio Dust™. The songs are well thought-out, well-executed, and packed with sticky staying power.

I knew Crypt Sermon had better days ahead of them, and here they are. The Stygian Rose builds on the prior releases to create a towering doom edifice with an unshakeable foundation. If this isn’t the doom album of 2024, someone made a merger deal with the Devil. Now get to your morbid florist and buy a dozen of these long-stemmed doom wonders. Let the Sermon recommence.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Dark Descent
Websites: cryptsermon.com | cryptsermon.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/cryptsermon
Releases Worldwide: June 14th, 2024

#2024 #40 #AmericanMetal #Candlemass #CryptSermon #DarkDescentRecords #DoomMetal #HeavyMetal #Jun24 #OutOfTheGarden #Review #Reviews #SolitudeAeturnus #TheRuinsOfFadingLight #TheStygianRose

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The Stygian Rose
Doom metal may be extremely niche on one hand, and in spite of the early genesis of all metal coming from the grand daddies of them all — BLACK SABBATH, of course — doom metal hasn't garnered the highest of profiles. CRYPT SERMON has been among the American cream of the crop in less pronounced ways...

https://blabbermouth.net/reviews/the-stygian-rose

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CRYPT SERMON Drops Doom Banger "Heavy Is The Crown Of Bone", Announces New Album
Enter the world of a doomed lost love.

https://metalinjection.net/video/crypt-sermon-drops-doom-banger-heavy-is-the-crown-of-bone-announces-new-album

#CryptSermon #HeavyIsTheCrownOfBone #TheStygianRose #DoomMetal #BrooksWilson #SteveJansson #EnriqueSagarnaga #FrankChin #MattKnox #TannerAnderson #TheArsGoetia