Carnosus – Wormtales Review

By Ferox

2023’s Visions of Infinihility landed in my lap via a Slack message from AMG Himself, and what a gift it was. Carnosus’s rollicking slab of tech death appealed to a broad swath of staff and readers. The Swedish quintet’s sophomore full-length took a star turn come Listurnalia, capturing the fourth slot on the staff’s aggregated top ten, the second spot on my own, and a full-throated endorsement from Angry Metal Guy as his Record o’the Year. Carnosus pulled this off while releasing their own material. The whole love affair was an example of what I’ve always seen as the site’s best function: the ability to connect talented bands on the margins of the machine with an audience.1 When the party ended, Carnosus woke up in bed beside Willowtip Records. Here they are, all grown up now and pregnant with their third album Wormtales. Can these exuberant Swedes steal our hearts again, or is it all best left back in the sticky mists of 2023?

Carnosus bills Wormtales as a “prequel” to Visions of Infinihility. The affectation makes sense, since Wormtales plays like a step on the way to the triumph that was its predecessor. The ingredients are the same: a bedrock layer of thrash-derived riffing in the vein of Revocation, atop which melodies skitter and twist. The new album forgoes some of the technical brio of VoI and leans hard into band’s affinity for melodeath and thrash. It’s darker, meaner, and less immediately appealing. Still, the act’s strengths remain intact. Here you’ll find dazzling and ever-evolving guitar solos that cast shimmering reflections on the songs they adorn. Jonatan Karasiak remains the most distinctive vocalist in extreme metal. This is a record that draws you in over time instead of kicking your doors down–but with repeated listens, Wormtales writhes out of the shadows and demands to be appreciated on its own terms.

The Carnosus of Wormtales plays with a nasty edge that’s missing from their previous work. There’s a new level of intensity to tracks like”Harbinger of Woundism,” and “Cosmoclaustrum.” The poison guitar tone on “Paradoxical Impulse” and “Within Throat, Within Heart” descends from so-called cavern-core acts like Chthe’ilist or Grave Miasma, even as the band keeps the tempo cranking. The solos of Rickard Persson and Markus Jokela Nyström intersect with the compositions in inventive and satisfying ways. You might prefer the scampering madlads of the act’s earlier work–it’s definitely what fans of Carnosus are used to, and it doesn’t help Wormtales that its ten songs are the least memorable set the band has dropped. Nothing jumps out as a future playlist staple here. This one’s all about breaking teeth and gouging eyeballs, and then relieving your pain with flashes of melody and skill.

Wormtales reveals Carnosus to be a band determined to interrogate their own shtick instead of just repeating what worked before. They are still operating the same contraption here, they just pull the levers in a new order and solder different wires together to make new connections. You can see this urge to tinker when they flirt with death-doom on closer “Solace in Soil,” or when vocalist Karasiak reaches into his Bag of Infinite Tricks to drop a slam-influenced squeal into “Within Throat, Within Heart.” You can see it in the improved production that drenches the long player in a distorted low end. Carnosus’s restless spirit should bode well for their longevity, even if the version of their sound that emerges on Wormtales can’t quite scale the same heights they did before.

It’s hard to be the younger sibling of the valedictorian, just as I’m sure it’s hard to follow a tour de force like Visions of Infinihility. Carnosus got on with it, releasing Wormtales eighteen months after its esteemed older brother. The new album might be an operating system that lacks a killer app in the form of an undeniable song–but it’s still a forceful and coherent statement that I suspect will stand the test of time. If you were aboard the delirious party express that was VoI, give this one a chance to take you on a journey of its own.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Willowtip Records
Websites: carnosus.bandcamp.com | carnosus.com
Releases Worldwide: October 18, 2024

#2024 #35 #Carnosus #ChtheIlist #GraveMiasma #MelodicDeathMetal #Oct24 #Revocation #SwedishMetal #TechnicalDeathMetal #ThrashMetal #WillowtipRecords #Wormtales

The Black Dahlia Murder – Servitude Review

By Angry Metal Guy

The Black Dahlia Murder lost a giant on May 11th, 2022, with the death of co-founding member Trevor Strnad, who had penned the lyrics and fronted TBDM across its nine-record discography. The question of how you replace someone as well-loved and well-respected as Trevor must have been a matter of some discussion internally. The solution from the veteran melodeath outfit was to keep the job in-house. Rather than bringing in a new face, guitarist and co-founder Brian Eschbach picked up the microphone, while he was replaced by Ryan Knight—who previously slung the six-string from 2009’s Deflorate to 2015’s Abysmal. Even though I appreciated this solution, it was still difficult to press play on 2024’s tenth The Black Dahlia Murder LP, Servitude. It felt strange to know that our affable, bearded, and dad-bodded metal nerd was no longer going to be screaming at me about lycanthropy. I wondered whether I could enjoy a Strnadless TBDM record or if it would change their sound irrevocably.

You know how The Black Dahlia Murder sounds. Giving strong Gothenburgian vibes, Servitude still deals in the bounce of the Björriff (like “Panic Hysteria” or “Asserting Dominion”), but with the post-Ritual light chaos and groove that helped to transform and mature their sound (“Evening Ephemeral,” “Mammoth’s Hand”). The guitars anchor Servitude’s sound, held firm by sick riffs at breakneck speed, accented with unexpected melodies (“Servitude”), stadium solos (“Mammoth’s Hand”), Gorodian gymnastic harmonies on an Obscura vault track (“Transcosmic Blueprint”) and even 29 seconds of Opeth (“An Intermission”). While Ryan Knight and Brandon Ellis give a master class in metal guitars from neoclassical to thrash, the rhythm section of bassist Max Lavelle and drummer Alan Cassidy1 rumble and blast, driving the sound forward with an intensity that stems from Florida rather than Sweden.

Over the flurry of guitar gymnastics and blast beats, Eschbach’s growls and screams pace a familiar path. At first, my brain didn’t want to accept what it was hearing. When listened to actively, however, I recognized the lower screams and throatier gutturals. And then suddenly, Eschbach was just the vocalist; barking lightning (“Panic Hysteric,” “Evening Ephemeral”), working both his slightly condensed upper and lower ranges in the trademark style of which Trevor was master. While familiar, Eschbach’s approach to rhythm feels like a guitarist doing vocals. He works in lockstep with the groove being carried by the band to create staccato punctuations (“Transcosmic Blueprint”) and syncopated swings (“Asserting Dominion”) that make his performance stand out.2 While Trevor was freer with rhythm and expression, Eschbach’s performance is percussive and precise. The weakness in his performance can be found in the guttural vocals, which don’t reach as deeply or hit as hard. But when all is said and done, Eschbach’s performance sounds like The Black Dahlia Murder.

Servitude seems like an album written to succeed or fail based on the execution of a well-established sound. The devil is, therefore, in the details: the songwriting, the riffs, and especially the guitar solos. And in those places, The Black Dahlia Murder isn’t taking risks. The writing isn’t suddenly progressive, “Aftermath” starts in 7, but they revert to 4/4 and never change time signatures again for the rest of the album.3 There is no revitalization of Ritual‘s or Everblack‘s adventurous arrangements. Where the songs surprise is when they sound chaotic, giving Carnosus (who gives TBDM) or euro-tech and straying further from the Björriffs that propelled them to prominence (see “Evening Ephemeral,” “Utopia Black” or “Mammoth’s Hand”). And Knight and Ellis drop killer solos. “Cursed Creator” hits with shred and harmony, “Transcosmic Blueprint” gives jazz fusion, while “Evening Ephemeral” starts Servitude off on the guitar heroics that made Ryan Knight one of my favorite guitarists ever. Oddly, though, there are a couple of duds as well (“Asserting Domination” is bland, while “Servitude” is fine).

The core of The Black Dahlia Murder hasn’t changed, so the core of Servitude was going to be good. At 35 minutes of riffy, guitar-driven melodic death metal, it’s easy to surmise that The Black Dahlia Murder couldn’t fail on Servitude. And yet, there is a risk inherent to releasing a record following the tragic passing of one of the scene’s most beloved personalities. In a way, you could criticize Servitude for playing it too safe. It hits all the notes you expect it to hit with its Industry Standard Mastering Job™. The Brandon Ellis and Mark Lewis production is functionally indistinguishable from previous albums. And there’s a familiar-but-not-quite feel to certain riffs or melodies. Yet, as a whole, Servitude succeeds at both being very good—hitting extra hard on those last three tracks—and feeling like an honorable way to continue the legacy of one of melodic death metal’s premiere acts.

Rating: Very Good!
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3s
Label: Metal Blade Records
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: September 27th, 2024

#2024 #35 #Abysmal #AtTheGates #Carnosus #DeathMetal #Deflorate #Everblack #Gorod #Melodeath #MelodicDeathMetal #MetalBladeRecords #Obscura #Opeth #Review #Reviews #Ritual #RyanKnight #Sep24 #Servitude #Slugdge #TheBlackDahliaMurder #TrevorStrnad

AMG Goes Ranking – The Black Dahlia Murder

By Dolphin Whisperer

The life of the unpaid, overworked metal reviewer is not an easy one. The reviewing collective at AMG lurches from one new release to the next, errors and n00bs strewn in our wake. But what if, once in a while, the collective paused to take stock and consider the discography of those bands that shaped many a taste? What if multiple aspects of the AMG collective personality shared with the slavering masses their personal rankings of that discography, and what if the rest of the personality used a Google sheet nay, a Google FORM some kind of dark magic to produce an official guide to, and an all-around definitive aggregated ranking of, that band’s entire discography? Well, if that happened, we imagine it would look something like this…

The Black Dahlia Murder is a band I’ve had the honor of watching develop throughout its entire career. With its debut in 2003, an album that I think stands up much better than the chuckleheads below, the Michigan melodic death metal act has been with me for twenty years. I saw them opening for bands before anyone knew who they were, and I was buying each new release on release day. In 2024, The Black Dahlia Murder faces new challenges, moving on from the tragic loss of vocalist and scene giant Trevor Strnad and they will release Servitude on the 27th of September (that’s tomorrow, yes). So, before I unleash my Very Important Opinions™ on the world about the new full-length LP, we thought that a romp through the band’s discography seemed in order. Note that anyone who tells you that Ritual isn’t their best album is lying to you. – Angry Metal Guy

The Ranking(s)

Dr. Wvrm

#9. Unhallowed (2002). At first glance, you would be forgiven for thinking Unhallowed is by a completely different band. This album is three kids standing on each other’s shoulders and wearing a trench coat next to the other records in this catalog. But despite how far TBDM still has to go from this point, Unhallowed has its positives. Its take on 90s Gothenburg is interesting, if not always good, and it certainly doesn’t lack energy. “Elder Misanthropy” is the first entry into the pantheon of all-time TBDM jams, even if it’s a messy one. It’s a long way up from here for the boys from Michigan, but you can clearly see the seeds of what’s to come in this debut.

#8. Verminous (2020). That Verminous is the low point of modern TBDM despite being pretty good says quite a lot about the level of output this band has maintained for the last 20 years. The album maintains the reflexive phase started by Abysmal (more on that in a bit), feeling more like a down-and-dirty expansion of their ideas on Everblack at times. The execution, however, falls further down than I’d like. For a band with bangers aplenty, Verminous never finds its bonafide hit and feels stuck in first gear.

#7. Abysmal (2015). Don’t get me wrong—Abysmal features some of the strongest fretwork in TBDM’s catalog (with Ryan Knight still on board at this point, who is surprised by this?). But coming at the tail of an incredible four-album run, Abysmal’s return to hyperkinetic hooks and solos begins a third phase in the band’s catalog. Instead of pushing onward and outward from the progressive attitude of Everblack, TBDM refocuses and uses the lessons learned throughout their years of experimentation to revitalize their core sound. As a result, Abysmal feels more like a transition record between eras than anything else. In theory, it’s not doing too much differently from Deflorate, and unfortunately feels a bit stale by comparison. TBDM would find a way around the all-been-done-before feel by their next album, but with Abysmal, the retread weighs a bit heavier than you’d like.

#6. Miasma (2005). Miasma demonstrates instant growth over TBDM’s debut. If Unhallowed was a rough attempt at mid-90s melodeath, Miasma surges forward to the turn-of-the-century fusion of melodic death metal and mainstream metalcore production.1 Though they wouldn’t stick with this sound for long, there’s so much across Miasma to like, from the cleaner production and maturing songwriting to the charisma that is now starting to bleed through every facet of the music. Strnad’s famous dual vocals really come into their own here, and the rest of the performances aren’t far behind. Though there’s still one piece of the puzzle remaining, you can see the full picture starting to resolve.

#5. Deflorate (2009). This album proved not only that TBDM wasn’t a one-album wonder, but that they also weren’t a one-trick pony. Ryan Knight joined the band from Arsis and overnight launched TBDM’s lead guitar capabilities into the stratosphere. But what looked like Nocturnal on nitro on its face sees, under the hood, Brian Eschbach’s songwriting quietly started to push the boundaries of the band’s imagination and capacity. Closer “I Will Return” veers hard left from everything to that point, touching on patient development and melodic progressions in a way that we could have only guessed TBDM was capable of (“Warborn”). It may lack the highs of some other records, but Deflorate is where TBDM started to show the depths of their abilities.

#4. Everblack (2013). Those of you who know I love TBDM know why I love TBDM,2 and what I want isn’t in steady supply on Everblack. What is, however, is perhaps the pinnacle of TBDM’s exploratory songwriting and certainly the heights of Knight’s solo abilities (“Into the Everblack”). Everblack is a grower in a catalog of showers, operating in many ways like a prog death album in its attention to detail and willingness to fiddle with genre conventions. It’s also Strnad at his most diverse, leading an excellent full-ensemble performance from melodeath to straight death to black metal and back again. My personal predilection for beeg boi melojams is the only reason this isn’t placing higher on this list; on an objective quality scale, Everblack is aces.

#3. Ritual (2011). Now we’re talking. Everything up to this point had something holding it back for me, be it concept, style, or execution. Ritual is the first record on this list where any quibbles I have are so minor as to be unmentionable. Delivering on the promise of “I Will Return,” Ritual ain’t afraid to get a little weird. Off-kilter takes like “Den of the Picquerist” are exotic curios from a faraway land next to two prior records that spent 95% of their runtime turning your ass into tenderized steak. Here, a more interesting weapon of choice filters into the core proceedings of the record, with offerings like “On Stirring Seas of Salted Blood” providing the perfect chaser to the moonshine shot of “Moonlight Equilibrium.” This is the band’s most complete offering, giving you a taste of everything TBDM has dreamt up over their career, and I venture that Ritual would be one (or two!) spot(s) on this list higher… if I weren’t such a weenie.3

#2. Nightbringers (2017). But I am such a weenie.4 Is Nightbringers effectively Nocturnal with the world’s greatest spit shine? Sure is, and cui gives a shit? It’s got the most polished bow on it you’ll ever see. If you like riffs, and if you like hooks, and if you like them at the same time and in copious quantities, Nightbringers is all you’ll ever need. TBDM poured fifteen years of hard-won lessons and honed songcraft into revitalizing one of the most well-loved and well-regarded (by people with taste) albums in the genre. As such, it feels fresh and new and worth every second of your time, rather than like a lazy nostalgia mine. Most bands would be so lucky as to ape a classic album half as well as this, let alone have it be their own classic album. Speaking of…

#1. Nocturnal (2007). Simply put, Nocturnal is TBDM. This record is the culmination of every moment before it, to where every moment traces back. It was an instant star-maker at the time and a bonafide classic in hindsight. At the core of the band, when you strip off the years of experience and experimentation, the one constant is this sound. Like no other band, TBDM reclaimed the ’90s Swedeath buzzsaw riff and forged it anew in a bloodbath of nitro, horror-movie worship, and unfailing self-seriousness. As Nocturnal unfurls, each track seems certain to be impossible to top, only for the very next entry to do just that. Trying to pick just one Nocturnal song for a playlist (like the one below) invites an hour of “Well wait, what about…” That might not be the best reason to put an album (or two!) ahead of what is an unquestionably more well-rounded entry in Ritual, but it’s certainly the best reason to consider it among your favorite albums more than fifteen years later.

Dolphin Murderer

I don’t typically consider myself a fan of melodeath at large. But select acts that rest on what I would consider the more intense and/or techy side, Intestine Baalism, Arsis, Quo Vadis, Neuraxis, Anata, really grease my grumpy gears. And, among those, naturally, rests the oft-imitated, not quite-matched American giant The Black Dahlia Murder. I didn’t explore their catalog as they were first coming to light as I wasn’t allowed to. You see, I fancied myself a metalhead and all the -core kiddies liked bad music like Darkest Hour, All That Remains, Trivium, and The Black Dahlia Murder. So it took until sometime in my early 20s, sometime around Ritual, to even consider hitting this hallowed act. All because a cute girl with a forked tongue happened to be in my college public speaking class and wearing a sick The Black Dahlia Murder tee. Turns out she wasn’t into dudes. But I lucked into a different partner out of it all, one with sick riffs and vocal prowess that causes newcomers to think that these Michigan boys have two vocalists.

Riff in peace, Trevor.

#9. Unhallowed (2002). Armed equally with the weight of Carcass low-end harmonies and At the Gates Björriffs, TBDM hit the ground running with a gluttonous, thrash-loaded, melodeath pittin’ spree. This debut Unhallowed couldn’t have been more emblematic of the consistency that TBDM would embody throughout their career. As the start of a sound that would become part of the heavy metal dialogue, it’s really almost there in terms of quality. Strnad may not sound as comfortable in his shriek ‘em high and rattle ‘em low vocal attack, but with riffs as nasty as the latchkey turndown of “Closed Casket Reqiuem” and “Hymn for the Wretched,” he doesn’t always need to be the focus.

#8. Verminous (2020). Despite this release being the most recent of the bunch, it is also the one I recalled the least going into this ranking. When Verminous came to be it landed on my ears as a disappointment, though not necessarily a bad record. Frankly, I don’t think TBDM is capable of that. However, Verminous takes risks that other albums haven’t taken, like turning the classical lower-tuned harmonic riffs and scooping them closer to true thrash tones. Simultaneously, this allows stringslinger Brandon Ellis’ treble-focused leads to play about in a fashion that tiptoes the line between power metal cheese and melodeath flamboyance (“Godlessly,” “Removal of the Oaken Stake”). Couple that with Strnad essentially rapping at a couple of points (primarily in the percussive bounce of “How Very Dead”), and you’ve got a solid album after all with a few new wrinkles.

#7. Abysmal (2015). Similarly to Verminous, Abysmal crawls about specific production choices that highlight lead guitarist Ryan Knight’s neoclassical, virtuosic warbling. Namely, it’s louder and thrashier. While the album that came before it, Everblack, never wanted for more shred, its rhythm-focused drive—a more death metal-focused TBDM stance—did not allow sonic space for Abysmal’s inclusion of additional instruments like cellos and violins to have a place amongst the assault. Furthermore, with the increased focus on Knight’s playful prowess, each song includes easy-to-recognize marks of differentiation, whether it be a snappy intro (“Receipt,” “Abysmal”), a wicked solo (every song), or a Strnad-led crusher (“Re-Faced,” “The Advent”). It’s hard to get too much of Knight, Strnad, or TBDM when they’re this fun and tight.

#6. Everblack (2013). If you’re approximately my age, then certainly you’ve heard cries of TBDM ”not being metal” or “being metalcore.” Did you know that Metal Archives doesn’t even list metalcore as a past iteration of their sound?5 Well, if nothing to this point had convinced you, then Everblack would be the one to listen to. Listen, I’m not going to sit here and say you should like TBDM, but with Morbid Angel riffs crushing through slower-than-blast pace numbers (“Into the Everblack,” “Phantom Limb Masturbation”), bass rattle that won’t quick, and Ryan Knight still doing that “is he Yngwie or Greg Howe” shred to fusion-y blues thing, Everblack gives plenty of reasons why you TBDM is a death metal act first. Though the album starts a touch slow and runs long for an experience that subsists almost solely on riffs, it’s very hard to say that anything should go away. Just carve a little more time if you’re gonna jam this one.

#5. Deflorate (2009). Representing the ultimate crystallization of the TBDM sound to this point in their history, Deflorate is an absolutely consistent experience. In different hands, hands that have trouble crafting good songs, that might be an issue. But sticking true to the TBDM formula of harmonic overload, At the Gates / early-Carcass riffs, and Strnad giving a performance that no vocalist could match in this lane, Deflorate is also an easy-to-enjoy success. Notably, this is Ryan Knight’s first appearance (fresh from a stint with melotech legends in their own right, Arsis) at the helm of lead shred duties, which allows Deflorate to have a quality of guitar heroism that no album prior quite had. That’s not to say that past leadwork was subpar by any stretch, but when you hear the elegance of play on tracks like “Necropolis” or “Christ Deformed” against any of the solo breaks that came before them, it’s a whole different ball game. Ryan Knight kills it and keeps Deflorate from being just another riff-rippin’ TBDM album.

#4. Miasma (2005). From a very base stance, Miasma isn’t all too different in attack from the debut. But having already done it once at full-length, and even more on the road, TBDM took huge steps in the polish and tightening of their identity. In particular, the man, the myth, the legend Trevor Strnad steps into his role as the intensifier of already heavy-handed riffs with rolled snarls, bestial lows, and off-the-rails shriek sermons. From the lift-off of “Flies” to the narrative froth of “Dave Goes to Hollywood” to the artistic crackling of “Spite Suicide,” not a moment rings through where Strnad isn’t threatening the mic with a barely held-together glottal assault. I’ve noted on later-era albums that the acquired talents provided an extra panache to an already solid formula. Miasma, in its rawer and younger character, succeeds not through being smart and tidy but by executing TBDM’s vision of melodic death metal to the scraped limits of their abilities at the time.

#3. Nightbringers (2017). If Miasma sold the young and tattered vision that TBDM had of At the Gates riffs with campy and horror-tinged vignettes, Nightbringers sells the wiser version of it kissed by the fresh virtuosity of then-fledgling shredmeister Brandon Ellis. No riff wastes any time launching songs into chunked harmony, barked fury, and blistering solo-land. And despite the number of Björriff-forward tunes that TBDM has cranked over the years, each song here lands with its own weighty identity. Part of that is through Ellis’ neoclassically-cranked excursions that carry as much energy as any melodeath groove (“Kings of the Nightworld,” “As Good as Dead”). And, as with any TBDM outing, Strnad rips maniacally through macabre narratives with a brutal ease that possesses a memorability all its own (“Of God and Serpent, of Spectre and Snake,” “Catacomb Hecatomb” in particular). Truth be told, I’ve also spent more time with this album than any other in the TBDM catalog. When I acquired it, I was on the road more than any other time in my life, and this collection of melodeath bangers was my go-to on a sunless morning commute,6 where my weary eyes needed adrenaline to persevere. Nightbringers gives a dose that doesn’t quit until the last note.

#2. Nocturnal (2007). As much as I (and all the others here) have said the name At the Gates or Björriff7—a fate inescapable from simply the opening classic chord crush of “Everything Went Black”—it’s really the sneaking, tremolo groove Morbid Angel influence that rolls my eyes back on these hardest-hitting early TBDM numbers. This hefty American influence on the hooky and nimble Swedish sound allows monsters like “What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse” and “Of Darkness Spawned” to land with equal parts thrashy tumble and melodic sting. The addition of budding kit talent Shannon Lucas (ex-All That Remains) provides all the machine gun and tom-chattering rhythmic foundation for TBDM to excel in this realization of their early potential. Melodeath doesn’t get much more addictive than this…

#1. Ritual (2011). Well, at least melodeath doesn’t get more addictive than this until Ritual. But the craving that results from this crowning moment isn’t one of riff-indulgence, of fretboard mystery (okay, it is all of those things). Ritual has an atmosphere. The simple placement of dramatic cello lines at the onset signals a moodiness that continues through tones more bass-loaded and balanced than other efforts. I hate to praise engineer Jason Suecof for his work here as he ruined plenty of albums around this time.8 But everything here just works—the cut-ins to Knight’s wobbling and unpredictable axe action, the many layers of Strnad crisscrossing and connecting at group chants and shouts, the low-end weight which even propels the elevated basics d-beat ripping of “Den of the Picquerist.” Continuing to alternate between the Björriff, a churning groove, and a growing hyper-melodic attitude (“The Window”), TBDM finds more ways to hook with the same tools they’ve always had while adding subtle new elements. It’s eerie to listen to “Blood in the Ink” these days, though. Between the added tension of discordant violin lines, further swirling string accompaniment, and its all too real theme of ritual suicide, the foreboding closer is easily one of the best songs The Black Dahlia Murder ever penned. Ritual fades away in the closing echo of “Suicide is the only way out.” And it hurts. It hurt then because that kind of mental trap exists, and it hurts now because art and reality often reflect each other in the scariest and worst of ways. That intersection can breed great art though, and Ritual will live that truth so long as metalheads have ears.

Angry Metal Guy Staff Ranking

We’ve once again used our tallying magic to use a complex point system based on submitted rankings. Thank you to the staff who could offer opinions without words. You are treasured and valuable.9

#9. Verminous (2020)
#8. Unhallowed (2003)
#7. Abysmal (2015)
#6. Everblack (2013)
#3T. Deflorate (2009)
#3T. Miasma (2005)
#3T. Nightbringers (2017)
#2. Ritual (2011)
#1. Nocturnal (2007)

Angry Metal Discord Pile o’ Entitled Opinions

We did the same thing for our Discord users. They smell funny, but wouldn’t you know it, they like The Black Dahlia Murder too! Hopefully, you don’t agree more with this bunch though…

#9. Verminous (2020)
#8. Unhallowed (2003)
#7. Miasma (2005)
#6. Deflorate (2009)
#5. Abysmal (2015)
#4. Nightbringers (2017)
#3. Ritual (2011)
#2. Nocturnal (2007)
#1. Everblack (2013)

And what would this all be without a staff-curated playlist to accompany the celebra¬tion? Get to know The Black Dahlia Murder before their upcoming release Servitude, out September 27th, 2024 on Metal Blade Records.

#2003 #2005 #2007 #2009 #2011 #2013 #2015 #2017 #2020 #AmericanMetal #AMGGoesRanking #AMGRankings #Arsis #AtTheGates #Carcass #Carnosus #DeathMetal #MelodicDeathMetal #MorbidAngel #TheBlackDahliaMurder #TrevorStrnad #Xoth

Glacial Tomb – Lightless Expanse Review

By Cherd

I’m always surprised by what a hotbed for underground metal Denver, Colorado is. As a casual visitor, it’s such a clean, outdoors-oriented kind of place. It’s a place you go on your way to a mountain ski resort or to watch your sports team beat one of theirs. But beneath the clear Rocky Mountain air, the craft breweries, and the cannabis boutiques, something grimy stirs, belching forth established and ascendant underground darlings like Blood Incantation, Khemmis, Primitive Man, and Wayfarer. Meanwhile, bands like Doldrum come out of seemingly nowhere with records that land in my year-end top five.1 Denver death metal-ers Glacial Tomb have been plying their trade in the Mile High City since 2016. Their eponymous debut didn’t leave much of an impression around here,2 Will we see the light in sophomore follow-up Lightless Expanse?

Glacial Tomb’s brand of death on Lightless Expanse is brutal, somewhat blackened, sludgy, and sometimes toes the line just this side of tech death. The black comes mostly from vocalist Ben Hutcherson’s delivery, which falls into the now-standard contemporary death metal trope of half brontosaurus rumbles, half pterodactyl shrieks, but tremolo riffs also crop up, as on “Worldsflesh.” The sludge comes through in the viscosity of guitar tone built between Hutcherson and bassist David Small (both also of Khemmis), but there are also times, such as the midsection of “Voidwomb” and late in “Abyssal Host” when the band will drop their more technical death metal chops to fully embrace sludge metal structures. Songs like the excellent “Enshrined in Concrete” lean so hard this way they end up in beatdown hardcore territory. Lightless Expanse will at times call to mind Carnosus (“Stygian Abattoir,” “Seraphic Mutilation”), at others Warcrab (“Abyssal Host”), but ultimately they bring their own flavor to the ever-branching death-metal-plus genre.

Lightless Expanse is a record that gets better the more you marinate in it. That doesn’t mean it lacks immediacy. The surefire gym playlist addition “Enshrined in Concrete” struck me hard on first listen and has quickly climbed up my favorite songs of 2024 list. Meanwhile, opener “Stygian Abattoir” had to grow on me. Not because it’s a bad song, but because the three that follow it are so good that it’s hard to imagine making that the intro to the album. This is an album with two huge peaks surrounded by thankfully shallow valleys. The first peak, from the stomping “Voidwomb” to the deceptively melodic “Abyssal Host,” is tall enough to be littered with the corpses of those arrogant enough to attempt the summit. It’s a world-beating three-song stretch of brutality and tasteful songwriting. The second peak runs from the majestic “Seraphic Mutilation” to “Worldsflesh,” a song built for headbanging sure to get necks wrecked when played live, to “Wound of Existence.”

I mentioned above that opener “Stygian Abattoir” had to grow on me a bit, and the same can be said for the closing title track. It’s less immediate than the considerable high points elsewhere on Lightless Expanse, but Glacial Tomb were ultimately smart putting it last because it ends on a soaring guitar solo and breakdown that could have been the album’s pinnacle if sequenced in the middle. Instead, it closes the proceedings in a way that leaves you wanting more and helps you realize that the last 36 minutes have been spent in a very agreeable manner. If there’s one song that doesn’t quite live up to the standards set around it, it’s the album midpoint “Sanctuary,” but even that contains a memorable bass solo, and when played in sequence barely registers as a speed bump in an otherwise hard charging record.

I haven’t gone back to listen to Glacial Tomb’s debut, so I’ll trust Dr. Wvrm‘s assessment that it had its issues with integrating multiple genres and with songwriting. Whatever those might have been, I’d say they’ve thoroughly come out in the wash on their follow-up. This is a gem of brutality that I’ll be revisiting frequently, and another win for the Denver metal scene.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Prosthetic Records
Websites: glacialtomb.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/glacialtomb
Releases Worldwide: September 20th, 2024

#2024 #40 #AmericanMetal #Carnosus #DeathMetal #GlacialTomb #LightlessExpanse #ProstheticRecords #Review #Reviews #Sep24 #Warcrab

Amiensus – Reclamation Pt. II Review

By Kenstrosity

In the grand tradition of doing things late and in the wrong order, this review for interstate progressive melodic black metal outfit Amiensus‘ fifth album, Reclamation Pt. II, comes before any AMG coverage of its companion predecessor, Pt. I, released just this past April. How does something like this happen? It’s easy. We missed it.1 Life gets in the way, or promo came too late or not at all. Any number of scenarios lead to this result, but it is rare that we encounter such situations over the course of a single year. With so little time between releases, I ask myself what kind of album Reclamation Pt. II could be, and what kind of quality should I expect?

To put it in simple terms, Amiensus’ sound is equal parts compelling and immersive. A wondrous foundation of In Mourning sadboi melodicism coalesces fluidly with vicious White Ward-ian black metal and a touch of progressive proclivities to form a dramatic, dynamic, and tightly written conclusion(?) to the Reclamation suite. Where Reclamation Pt. I offered a more introspective quality to its storytelling, Reclamation Pt. II is more cathartic. Shifting sands of airy cleans often telegraph the impending, swirling storms of blackened fury just over the horizon, only to settle once again into that mournful pall that ensconces me so completely I feel as one with it. Exploring varying song structures and durations, Reclamation Pt. II ebbs and flows between its movements with a rare grace I generally don’t associate with progressive metal or black metal. Yet, here we are.

As if to pick up directly where Reclamation Pt. I left off, Reclamation Pt. II opens with Amiensus’ most invigorating material. Between the stomping black n’ roll of “Sólfarið” and the shredding flesh-rend of “Acquiescence,” Reclamation Pt. II wastes no time and takes no prisoners. However, these pieces aren’t relentless, mindless attacks. Moments of peaceful atmosphere, particularly effective in SotY contender “Acquiescence,” conjure a thematic tether to Reclamation Pt. I with beautifully plucked melodies and wonderfully layered vocal lines. Miraculously, not even a hint of mimicry or self-plagiarism exists during these dalliances with the light. Weeping strings then enhance the emotional topology of Reclamation Pt. II’s compositions in instrumental interlude “Disconsolate,” only to release beastly progressive black metal triumphs “Decaying God Child,” “The Distance,” and regal closer “Orb of Vanishing Light” unto a world lulled by a false sense of security. These numbers constitute some of Amiensus’ most versatile material yet. Utilizing riffs that express the better traits of melodic black and death metal; post-metal leads and atmosphere reminiscent of Latitudes’ introspective style; shifting rhythmic structures commonly pursued in the progressive metal scene; then pairing them with transcendent solo work and multifaceted vocal performances, these tracks stand out vividly without sacrificing cohesion to the whole.

The sheer quality of Amiensus’ music here makes it increasingly difficult to pinpoint weak spots, especially as the album grows with time. At first, the aforementioned interlude seemed overlong at just under three minutes. Additionally, “Leprosarium” initially felt somewhat out of place with its Carnosus-like riffset and aggressive swagger. As I lived with Reclamation Pt. II, however, these former detractors started to coalesce with the greater picture the record paints for me. Just like that, my complaints melted away. Of course, that doesn’t mean other listeners won’t align more closely with my initial reactions even after investing time here. Aside from those compositional quibbles, my biggest nitpick is one of production. Boasting a rather flat and compressed mix and master, Reclamation Pt. II deserved more room for its beautiful layering to make a greater impact—and give their bass guitar bigger presence. Especially evident on the magnificent final moments of “Orb of Vanishing Light,” which evokes …and Oceans’ wondrous combination of ethereal atmospherics and rippling black metal riffs, Reclamation Pt. II’s production leaves some to be desired.

Nonetheless, Amiensus’ songwriting throughout the Reclamation suite represents their current magnum opus. Not only do both records showcase the band’s best material to date, but they also represent a standout work of art in this year’s catalog of metal releases. Of the two installments, I prefer Pt. II, as it’s the more energetic, smartly edited, and exquisitely arranged of the two. As a bonus, it only blooms brighter the longer I live with it. With that I say go forth, invest some quality time with Reclamation Pt. II, and rejoice!

Rating: Great!
DR: 62 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: M-Theory Audio
Websites: amiensus.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/Amiensus
Releases Worldwide: August 30th, 2024

#AndOceans #2024 #40 #AmericanMetal #Amiensus #Aug24 #BlackMetal #Carnosus #InMourning #Latitudes #MTheoryAudio #MelodicBlackMetal #PostBlackMetal #ProgressiveMetal #ReclamationPtII #Review #Reviews #WhiteWard