Here at AMG Industries, we strive to unearth as many underground gems as possible. Sometimes, though, we may get a bit carried away, as Master of Muppets once did in a TYMHM article wherein he crammed as many shoutouts to other groups as possible. As this solitary line1 has been the only coverage Nullingroots has received here so far, allow me to introduce them more formally. Based in Phoenix, Arizona, Nullingroots was originally formed by Cameron Boesch as an instrumental post-metal solo project. Various shades of black metal were added over time alongside additional band members. The current iteration of Nullingroots includes Alex Haddad, the founder of rising progressive death metal act Dessiderium.2 Now, Fourth Dimensional Dreamscape signals Nullingroots’ re-emergence after a six-year hiatus.

I don’t know the extent to which Alex Haddad participated in writing Fourth Dimensional Dreamscape, but it certainly sounds as if he had a hand in it. The breezy major key melodies that defined last year’s Dessiderium record can be easily discerned in the guitar, bass, and piano, albeit filtered through a post-black lens instead of progressive death. In this way, I prefer Fourth Dimensional Dreamscape to its 2019 predecessor, Malady’s Black Maw, which was much more uniformly blackened with fewer instances to breathe. The most compelling moments now come from the piano and various other keyboard effects, which add a crystalline luster much like the otherworldly stylings of Unreqvited.

Fourth Dimensional Dreamscape by Nullingroots

Nullingroots packed a lot into the 55 minutes of Fourth Dimensional Dreamscape. The guitar chords often straddle the line between consonance and dissonance (“Fourth Dimensional Dreamscape,” “Remember My Name”). Drum tempo shifts are plentiful to the point of feeling erratic rather than progressive. The most intriguing track, “In Reverie’s Embrace,” combines a mystical keyboard tune with something almost resembling a rap beat played on the virtual drum kit. The vocals are the only area that can sometimes feel monotonous. The fierce rasps fit better within faster-paced songs like “Remember My Name,” but don’t mesh as well with the gentler “Memoir of a Frail Past,” though there are brief instances of smoother, gentler growls (“Life Thief”). The biggest missed opportunity is the complete absence of clean vocals, as Haddad’s singing would likely have complemented much of the instrumentation well if given the opportunity.

Despite its busyness, Fourth Dimensional Dreamscape doesn’t accomplish as much as it could. More often than not, it presents a jumble of independent moments as opposed to a fluid whole. Some of these moments are, admittedly, impressive, such as the guitar shredding partway through “The Optimist.” “Memoir of a Frail Past” and “In Reverie’s Embrace” fare better thanks to recurring keyboard melodies, but the rest of Fourth Dimensional Dreamscape is largely disjointed and at times nondescript. With a minimum track length of 7 minutes, the listener needs more reinforcement to stay grounded, especially in a setting where song intros and conclusions are regarded as optional. Ultimately, I don’t feel guided so much as roughly dragged through the majority of these long-form excursions.

Fourth Dimensional Dreamscape is a promising new sonic direction for Nullingroots after an extended absence, though it’s not without growing pains. I am convinced by the band members’ instrumental prowess, but less so by the songcraft. The first half goes down more smoothly than the second half, but the entire package isn’t sufficiently focused or cohesive. While it’s tough to wholeheartedly recommend Fourth Dimensional Dreamscape, with some tweaks and tightening, there’s a ton of potential for something really good to come. I’m (Nulling)rooting for them.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: PCM
Label: Self-Release
Websites: nullingroots.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/nullingroots
Releases Worldwide: February 11th, 2026

UNREQVITED – Beautiful Ghosts (2021, Canada)

Continuing our journey through the epic Fedi-sourced catalogue of must-hear albums, our next spotlight is on number 187 on The List, submitted by HauntedOwlbear. This is the 6th album from this one-person project from Billy Melsness, a beautiful blackgaze-flavoured post-rock stop in UNREQVITED's otherwise metal-heavy discography.

Want to read more? See the full spotlight on the Fediverse at https://linernotes.club/@1001otheralbu[email protected] or on the blog: https://1001otheralbums.com/2025/11/12/unreqvited-beautiful-ghosts-2021-canada/

Want to skip straight to the music? Here's the Bandcamp: https://unreqvited.bandcamp.com/album/beautiful-ghosts

Happy listening!

#Unreqvited #postmetal #postrock #blackgaze #instrumental #metal #Canada #music #1001OtherAlbums

UNREQVITED – Beautiful Ghosts (2021, Canada)

Our next spotlight is on number 187 on The List, submitted by HauntedOwlbear.

While this one-person project from Billy Melsness aka 鬼 started out as atmospheric/depressive black metal, by the time we get to this, the 6th UNREQVITED album, we’re pretty much firmly in post-rock territory, albeit blackgaze-flavoured. Hints of the project’s black metal beginnings are essentially only heard in Melsness’ wordless, incorporeal screams interspersed throughout the otherwise instrumental – and, dare I say, uplifting (or, vplifting?) – album. The metal (or, at least, post-metal) sounds return in full force in the following album, A Pathway to the Moon (2025), but this is a really beautiful stop in the UNREQVITED discography. And, seeing as the Chinese character Melsness has chosen as his stage name can mean “ghost”, it was perhaps inevitable that we would get an album with that word in the title.

• Bandcamp: UNREQVITED – Beautiful Ghosts
• Discogs: UNREQVITED – Beautiful Ghosts

#blackgaze #Canada #instrumental #metal #postmetal #postrock #Unreqvited

Dissocia – To Lift the Veil Review

By Carcharodon

Dissocia is the brainchild of multi-instrumentalist Daniel R Flys (of Persefone and Eternal Storm) and drummer Gabriel Valcázar (Wormed and Cancer). On their debut, To Lift the Veil, the duo set themselves a challenge: blend extreme metal with synthwave and dreamwave elements to create a catchy, yet unpredictable, blend of genres that come together into a progressive package. Were these two complete unknowns presenting that vision, one would rightly expect a horrifically unlistenable car crash. However, given Flys and Valcázar’s pedigree with their other outfits, I had somewhat higher hopes (albeit with expectations carefully managed) for Dissocia. I’m not entirely sure what dreamwave is, and synthwave is not my go-to, although it has its place1 but, mixed with extreme metal, I envisaged some sort of off-the-wall Devin Townsend craziness happening.

Straight out of the gate, the dancing arpeggio-like guitar line and swelling synths that open “Existentialist” make clear that To Lift the Veil is going to be a wild ride. And so it proves. Across a chaotic 41 minutes and change, Dissocia lurch between progressive melodeath, something that approaches deathcore in a few places (“He Who Dwells”), symphonic synth movements, dreamy Unreqvited-esque sequences and more, the whole often set to weirdly discordant, pulsing rhythms that border on industrial groove. All in all, the album’s structures have the same levels of predictability as the movements of a severely inebriated person crossing an ice rink. This need not necessarily be viewed as a bad thing though. Flys is both a talented guitarist and a versatile vocalist, his harsh vox often recalling Gojira’s Joe Duplantier (“Existentialist”), while his surprisingly delicate cleans, which occasionally wander into Caligula’s Horse territory (“Evasion”), offer a much-needed extra dimension. Similarly, Valcázar’s work on drums is stellar and the sheer unpredictability of this record is part of its charm.

The challenge for Dissocia is to somehow tie the numerous threads of To Lift the Veil into a cohesive tapestry, rather than a ball of yarn. At its strongest, they manage this well. There’s a rabid groove to “Samsara” that it’s almost impossible not to enjoy, while the slow build synth opening to “Zenosyne” gradually unfolds itself, the tension building, before the Flys’ guitar lets loose progressive death riffs and Valcázar unleashes overlapping broadsides behind the kit. This flows well into “The Lucifer Effect,” which similarly shifts between soaring moments of chaos and more reflective passages. While the turn-on-a-dime nature of the craziness does in some ways recall Devin Townsend, it’s not until the heavily distorted screams at the midway point of closer “Out of Slumber” that Hevy Devy really shows through in the vocals.

Not everything on To Lift the Veil works though and, at times, it feels like Dissocia are losing their grasp on the myriad elements of the record. “He Who Dwells” is the most obvious example of this, as the progressive extreme elements, which often mirror opener “Existentialist,” stray into deathcore territory, particularly in Valcázar’s drumming. This simply doesn’t gel with the rest of To Lift the Veil. Equally, the drifting moods of “Evasion” seem rather aimless at times, while Flys’ vocals rather get away from him on closer “Out of Slumber,” which by its end feels like someone desperately trying to claw themselves out of slumber and into wakefulness. The production, also handled by Flys, doesn’t always help, with the drums sometimes seeming to disappear down a hole (middle of “He Who Dwells”) before roaring back to the front of the stage, and the whole thing feeling loud and slightly flat, despite the DR6.

You have to admire the vision and ambition on show on To Lift the Veil, which in other hands would likely have been a hot mess. Far from easing themselves into things on their debut, Dissocia have thrown everything at this record and some of it’s really good (“Samsara” and “Zenosyne”). The stunning artwork by Rein Van Oyen (Haken) gives a sense of the surreal, expansive journey you can expect, but perhaps not the chaotic nature of the ride. I hope Dissocia have a second album in them because, with just a little more refinement and focus to iron out some of the inconsistencies, as well as improve the production a little, there is a helluva lot of very interesting potential here.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Willowtip Records
Websites: dissociaofficial.bandcamp.com/album/to-lift-the-veil | facebook.com/dissociaofficial
Releases Worldwide: March 21st, 2025

#25 #2025 #AmericanMetal #CaligulaSHorse #Cancer #Deathcore #DevinTownsend #Dissocia #ElectronicaMetal #EternalStorm #Gojira #Mar25 #Persefone #ProgressiveMetal #Review #Reviews #Spanish #Synthwave #ToLiftTheVeil #Unreqvited #WillowtipRecords #Wormed

For #BlackMetalMonday by @HailsandAles:

#Unreqvited: The Antimatter

https://song.link/287zmdk6f03qd

#AtmosphericBlackMetal #Blackgaze #PostBlackMetal

FFO #Heretoir #Skyforest #VioletCold

Unreqvited – A Pathway to the Moon Review

By Carcharodon

Unreqvited and I have history. The excellent Mosaic I: L’Amour et L’Ardeur (2018) was just the third review I wrote here and also my first 4.0.1 Since then, I’ve reviewed the slightly creaky Mosaic II: La déteste et la détresse (3.0) and the very good Beautiful Ghosts (3.5). Now back with seventh album, A Pathway to the Moon, Unreqvited are the band I’ve reviewed more than any other, and the bright, expansive synth work, paired with post-black explosions and howled, wordless vocals feel almost like a comforting hug at this point. While retaining a core sound, Unreqvited’s albums have moved progressively away from the DSBM / post-black stylings that defined their early releases, moving ever further into an ambient post-space. However, A Pathway to the Moon, sees possibly the biggest shift to date, the introduction of vocals. Like, proper singing, with words and stuff. So, what does sole member 鬼 (Ghost) have to say?

While closer to a traditional album in structure than Unreqvited’s previous output, A Pathway to the Moon gives the impression of a cinematic soundtrack. Flowing between something that, at times, nudges up against Ihsahn territory (“The Antimatter”), synth-dominated ambient work and soaring guitar- and vocal-led pieces that could almost be Caligula’s Horse in places (“The Starforger”), there’s a lot to take in. It’s credit to 鬼 that the album retains a cohesive feel, despite its chameleonic mood shifts. Bookended by the percussion-free dreams of “Overture: I Disintegrate” and “Departure: Everlasting Dream,” A Pathway to the Moon has the feel of a journey, guiding the listener through shifting landscapes. Or moonscapes. For all the lush synth work and keys, there’s something desolate and sad about the album, which has a much more despondent feel to it than 2021’s Beautiful Ghosts.

Perhaps A Pathway to the Moon’s feeling of loneliness is driven by the vocals. It turns out that 鬼’s voice, previously a wordless, howling demon, is actually high, clear, and fragile, with an almost ethereal edge to it, especially when double-tracked (“Void Essence / Frozen Tears”). In places, I was reminded of Mark Garrett’s (Kardashev) cleans, which is a very good thing indeed. While clean vocals now dominate, both black metal rasps and DSBM shrieks have their place in the mix but, from the outset to the close, it’s Unreqvited’s new face that we see the most. Whether set to warbling electronica (“Into the Starlit Beyond”) or dancing guitar lines (“The Starforger”), it’s hard to see the focus as anything but 鬼’s voice. There may be a degree to which this is because A Pathway to the Moon shatters my expectations of what an Unreqvited album is but there is no doubt that, after six albums more or less instrumental albums, 鬼 has found his voice.

The prominent introduction, not just of vocals, but of clean singing, came as a surprise to me. However, on reflection, it is also a natural progression in Unreqvited’s sound from previous outing, Beautiful Ghosts. It also aligns with the shift into being more of a touring band. While 鬼’s (surprisingly) strong voice carries the transition, to a certain degree, the compositional focus has also shifted slightly away from the gorgeous soundscapes that were the hallmark of Mosaic I and Empathica. While “Void Essence / Frozen Tears” showcases all aspects of Unreqvited’s sound to excellent effect, other tracks (most notably “Into the Starlit Beyond”) feel almost like something was taken away to make space for the vocals. To put it another way, rather than the vocals embellishing or enhancing what was great about Unreqvited, what used to be achieved instrumentally, is now achieved through the vocals. It’s still very good but weirdly has the feel of treading water, rather than moving forward. The drums are also pushed way down into the mix to make space for the vox, leaving the percussion lacking a bit of impact.

If that last paragraph reads as heavily critical of Unreqvited, it’s not meant to. I really enjoy A Pathway to the Moon but I’ve been on something of a journey with it. I generally don’t listen to advance tracks of things I know I’m going to review, preferring to come into the album as a whole. This meant the shift to singing caught me off guard. After I got over my surprise, I loved it but, the more time I spent with the album, the more I missed some of the rich textures and dynamics from previous records, some of which were left on the cutting room floor. That said, this is a hugely enjoyable, emotively written record that I thoroughly recommend.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Prophecy Productions
Websites: unreqvited.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/unreqvited
Releases Worldwide: February 7th, 2025

#2025 #35 #APathwayToTheMoon #AmbientMetal #Blackgaze #CaligulaSHorse #CanadianMetal #DSBM #Feb25 #Ihsahn #Kardashev #PostRock #PostBlackMetal #PostMetal #ProphecyProductions #Review #Reviews #Shoegaze #Synthwave #Unreqvited

Meddl-Meddl-Meddl! #Unreqvited veröffentlicht am 07.02.2025 „A Pathway To The Moon“.
YouTube-Clip zu ‚The Antimatter‘: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4-N0eDwdfk

🔗 https://gloomr.de/#1511

#SymphonicBlackMetal #PostBlackMetal #NeuesAlbum

Fós – Níl mo chroí in aon rud Review

By Carcharodon

When I reviewed Irish duo Fós’ last outing, Rinne mé iarraidh (which translates as “I Tried”), back in 2020, I wanted to be spellbound. And I was, in parts. Combining traditional Irish folk sean-nós singing (courtesy of Orla Cadden Patel) with the drone, electronica and the vaguely post-metal stylings of multi-instrumentalist and main songwriter Fionn Murray, it had a deeply emotional core. It was also rare in offering something genuinely unique. At the same time, the duo were finding their voice on that record, and it showed. Cadden Patel’s voice was stunning but, at times, rather than coalescing with the music, the two felt discordant and disjointed, while the music itself was rarely memorable. Four years later, with a record deal and a new singer—Susan ní Cholmáin—Fós are back with Níl mo chroí in aon rud.1 The band say that this record places a greater emphasis on riffs and song structure, as well as bringing more densely layered arrangements. Can this deliver the spellbinding experience I so wanted from this band?

From the first notes of intro “Déistin,” with pulsing electronica and deep, thrumming guitars, it’s clear that Níl mo chroí in aon rud is going to be a different record from its predecessor. And so it proves. Fós has focused not just on song structure but also album structure this time, with an overall flow to the music that strives to match the rise and fall of ní Cholmáin’s voice, which soars and dips and twists. Deftly combining everything from post-doom (“Bádaí na Scadán”) and rumbling drone-adjacent noise (“Táim i mo shuí”) to stripped-back neo-folk (“Molly na gCuach Ní Chuilleanáin”), Níl mo chroí in aon rud is a far more accomplished record than Rinne mé iarraidh. This sense is helped by the fact that ní Cholmáin’s voice is ever so slightly deeper and less ethereal (though no less beautiful) than her predecessor’s. Imbued with a rich silkiness, it somehow blends better with the music than Cadden Patel’s did.

The objective Fós set itself of blending traditional Irish folk singing, with a diverse array of almost-metal styles, was no small task. Yet it is one they have come close to achieving on Níl mo chroí in aon rud. Despite the heavy use of throbbing electronica and thudding percussion, there is a somber beauty and resonance to much of the material here, that leaves me with a deep sense of longing and loss after each spin. The album makes use of interludes (“Trua” and “Maolaitheach”), in addition to the intro, something I am not usually a fan of. However, in situ, these feel both integral and necessary to the album, with “Maolaitheach” bridging well from the fire-and-shadow neofolk tones of album highlight “Molly na gCuach Ní Chuilleanáin” to the bright, buzzing edges of album closer “An Mhaighdean Mhara.”

The change in singer, coupled with much more focused songwriting, has done wonders for Fós. Where Rinne mé iarraidh meandered, Níl mo chroí in aon rud feels focused and purposeful. Still tight at only 37 minutes, the clearer structures feel as though they were written with the vocals in mind, rather than simply acting as a sonic backdrop to them. That said, not everything works, with the first half of “Slán le Maigh” feeling aimless. Still, as the rumbling, distended chords give way to brighter synth work, which recalls Unreqvited in places, Fós recapture the magic they conjure elsewhere. Similarly, the down-tuned groove that dominates the first third of “Bádaí na Scadán” is a somehow jarring way to kick off the first song proper but they settle into their rhythm and these are really the only musical missteps on the album. Were the production better, Níl mo chroí in aon rud could have threatened the score safety counter. Although undoubtedly a step up from the last outing, feeling denser and more textured than the last album, the mix is off. The drums, in particular, are too far forward and feel over-defined, threatening to swallow the vocals in the record’s heavier moments (back end of “Bádaí na Scadán,” for example).

When I saw that Fós was back with a new album, I was genuinely pleased. Despite having dolled out a meager 2.5 last time, I found them genuinely interesting and packed with potential. After nearly four years, I assumed that was last we would hear of them. The fact that Níl mo chroí in aon rud not only arrived but delivered on the promise is fantastic. Fós have done exactly what I hoped they would, better blending the music with the haunting, poignant vocals (even if delivered by a new singer) and I hope we get more soon. Please don’t let Murray do the cover design again. I’m begging you.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Fiadh Productions
Websites: fosmetal.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/fosmetal
Releases Worldwide: January 27th, 2025

#2025 #35 #AmbientMetal #DoomMetal #Drone #Electronica #FiadhProductions #Fol #Fós #IrishMetal #Jan25 #NeoFolk #NílMoChroíInAonRud #Noise #PostMetal #Review #Reviews #Unreqvited

Discovered #Unreqvited yesterday in a #bandcamp feature. I'm in love! This is exactly the kind of darkness I need in my life.

#metal #blackmetal #atmosphericblackmetal #symphonicblackmetal