Cabal – Everything Rots Review

By Dear Hollow

The struggle between viciousness and velocity is a storied one in the realm of deathcore, and Cabal is no exception in its battle between tone-abusing slogs and blazing blastbeats. Enacting a blackened deathcore attack that neglects orchestral atmospheres and paper-thin symphonics in favor of thick filth that covers every surface lead and fills every chugging crevice, it flaunts an arsenal of blackened chord progressions that lend a horror appropriate to its occult theme. The band has nevertheless toiled between the trenches of stagnation and devastation. Four albums in, expect filthy chugging aplenty, dark electronic flourishes abound, and a tasteful array of guest vocalists, all in service of a darker power. Business as usual.

In spite of its unmistakable filth that separates it from the likes of Lorna Shore, Worm Shepherd, or any of the other Deathcore Borgirs of the world, Denmark’s Cabal has a bit of a rollercoaster of a discography since 2018. Debut Mark of Rot was a simultaneously too-clean and too-dirty blend of down-tempo deathcore with blackened flourishes and a sterile djent guitar tone. 2020’s Drag Me Down amped the tempo with an unfuckwithable cutthroat quality that kept things fresh and brutal with spotlights of guests from Polaris, Møl, and Trivium. 2022’s Magno Interitus amped the tone with a lightless and mammoth foray into dark electronics that kept things interesting, although its more experimental pieces damaged its consistency. In this way, Everything Rots more seamlessly incorporates it into an over-the-top and absolutely relentless deathcore romp caked with Cabal’s suffocating trademark filth.

Like “Tongues” or “Demagogue” from Drag Me Down, Cabal manages to balance its absolutely crushing weight with a tasteful novelty in Everything Rots. While you’re guaranteed to be bludgeoned by breakdowns infused with the weight of Magno Interitus and pulverized by Andreas Bjulver’s husky roars, a heavier usage of blastbeats adds to the frenzy and the guest vocals add a dosage of well-placed freshness, not unlike Aborted’s latest. Injecting a hardcore call-out badassery (Viscera’s Jamie Graham in “No Peace;” Nasty’s Matthi Odysseus in “Unveiled”), rapid-fire groove (ten56.’s Aaron Matts in “Still Cursed”), and thick brutality (Aviana’s Joel Holmqvist in “Stuck;” Distant’s Alan Grnja in “Beneath Blackened Skies”). “Sort Sommer” (featuring hip-hop/punk duo Fabräk) has the same feel as “Blod af Mit” from Magno Interitus in its sudden embarrassment of nu-metal riches, but has been safely relegated to bonus track this time around. Cabal utilizes novelty as a reprieve to the relentless density that comprises its more straightforward pieces.

What’s consistently refreshing about Cabal is that their deathcore novelty is bolstered by a smart songwriting style that balances the meatheaded and the menacing. The best songs are those that are securely Cabal’s – in spite of the army of guests elsewhere – from the sweet placements of icy blackened chord progressions to mammoth breakdowns (“Everything Rots,” “Hell Hounds”). Compared to its predecessor, Everything Rots returns to what the band does best: being completely unhinged. It’s all about adrenaline-pumping intensity, pure gym-core, unshakeable groove populating its digestible tracks with a cold and intense melodic template (“Redemption Denied,” “End Times”). The electronic influence is far less jarring, adding a surreal pulse in addition to (instead of in replacement of) the deathcore intensity (“Forever Marked,” “Snake Tongues”).

Everything Rots will not sway your opinion on deathcore. It’s a meatheaded foray with enough chuggy breakdowns, brickwalled production, and vomitous vocals to kill an adult horse:1 A faster Black Tongue perhaps or a more blackened Humanity’s Last Breath. But armed with a blackened filth and a vocalist who could pass as his own arsenal of guest vocalists, Cabal’s got a trademark sound and a great interpretation of it. It’s a return to form for a band known for its balance, thanks to a cutthroat intensity that recalls the grandiosity of Drag Me Down. Dwelling in hell-scraping tone worship and tempo ignorance only when it benefits its occult aims, Everything Rots is a suffocating listen, smartly designed with necessary reprieves, with a must more tasteful electronic presence. It’s a brutal blackened deathcore album without all the symphonic bullshit. Deathcore fans rejoice!

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 4 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Websites: cabalcph.bandcamp.com | cabalcult.com | facebook.com/@cabalcph
Releases Worldwide: April 11th, 2025

#2025 #35 #Aborted #Apr25 #Aviana #BlackTongue #BlackenedDeathcore #CABAL #DanishMetal #Deathcore #DimmuBorgir #Distant #Electronic #EverythingRots #Fabräk #Hardcore #HumanitySLastBreath #LornaShore #Møl #Nasty #NuclearBlastRecords #Polaris #Review #Reviews #ten56_ #Trivium #Viscera #WormShepherd

Phrenelith – Ashen Womb Review

By Alekhines Gun

In the early 2010’s, the world saw an explosion of the New-School-Old-School Revival of death metal. Spearheaded by outfits like Tomb Mold, Gatecreeper, Hyperdontia, and Undergang—to name but a few—this wave of bands represented taking the crust, filth, and savagery of your favorite genre founding fathers and launching them forth with wrath into of the modern era. Standing shoulder to shoulder near the front of this pack was Phrenelith, a Danish group whose debut Desolate Landscape made them scene darlings almost overnight. Unfortunately, sophomore release Chimaera opted for an increase in muck and atmospheric decor at the cost of some of their first album’s power, and was received somewhat divisively. Now, some four years later, Ashen Womb is prepared to drop like an anvil on their unsuspecting fanbase. Will they continue to dive into the murky wells, or has this womb been gestating a return to glorious, bone-powdering violence?

As it turns out, Phrenelith have opted for option C. The approach of Ashen Womb, in both music and sound, pitches for a merging of the melancholy of Chimaera with Desolate Landscape’s cement-shattering methodology to songwriting. The production sidesteps both previous releases, at once managing to be muddy in its tone with leads vibrant enough to cut through the mire. Making his LP debut, drummer Andreas Nordgreen quickly etches his identity into the band, flowing between creative drum fills from measure to measure, giving repeated refrains in “Chrysopoeia” and “Astral Larvae” an engaging quality. Much like the artwork adorning the cover, the more melodic tones are buried but bright, even as bassist Jakob plays in tandem with guitar leads rather than chords, laying riffcraft to savage the crust below. The atypically warm DR lets everything shine in this paradoxical sonic quagmire, creating the suffocating character Chimaera opted for without sacrificing the clarity of barbarity at work.

Older fans will be stoked to hear the return to immediate violence in the compositions. Lead single “Stagnated Blood” toys with a repeated riff at alternating octaves, stringing together hooks and character into a ruthless scorched earth assault. “A Husk Wrung Dry” rocks an infected 7/4 riff replete with whammy abuse and staccato-laced chords which slide from bouncy to bludgeoning. Guitarists David and Simon Daniel toy with bends, modulation, and sustained tapping sections recalling the more crystalline moments of Innumerable Forms, with Simon’s vocals a belligerent, reverb-soaked guttural soup. The vocals in particular are masterfully placed—both within the mix and the music—lyrical arrangement flawlessly adding titanic force to ruthless riffing while knowing when to be silent and let the music speak for itself.

Nonetheless, the specter of Chimaera looms betwixt the heavier moments, filling the negative spaces with gloom and somberness. Title track “Ashen Womb” and “Nebulae” end on repeated, haunting melodies, drawn out to a protracted conclusion. “Sphageion” serves as one of the better interludes I’ve heard, with tension-building distortion and Andreas breaking into a free-form drum solo which would go over swell in a live setting. Even the instrumental opener “Noemata” manages to carve an identity as a curtain-lifter rather than a pointless buildup, rendering Ashen Womb a journey rather than a mere collection of tracks. True, the atmospherics are sometimes heavy-handed; there’s no need to bookend songs with a cumulative couple minutes of Paysage d’Hiver-esque wind and sounds, and a minute could be trimmed off of both emotive fade-outs. Despite this, the mastery of seamless transitioning, rather than sandwiching of the disparaging elements gives Ashen Womb its own flavor in the Phrenelith landscape.

Few bands can manage to make each album its own time capsule of sound and style, but Ashen Womb accomplishes that and more, cementing Phrenelith as a band with chapters. Some may cling to the idea that Desolate Landscape is a collection of better songs, but Ashen Womb is a better album; a journey with highs, lows, and tension-building. By managing to merge the melodicism and mood with the brutality, rather than sacrificing one for the other, these Danes have continued to evolve their sound in an admirable direction. Who can say where the fourth release will take us? One thing’s for sure: it won’t be what any of us expect, other than a commitment to high quality, lethal weapons grade, unadulterated death.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Dark Descent Records
Websites: https://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/ashen-womb | https://www.facebook.com/phrenelith/
Releases Worldwide: February 7, 2025

#2025 #35 #AshenWomb #DanishMetal #DarkDescentRecords #DeathMetal #Feb25 #Gatecreeper #Hyperdontia #InnumerableForms #PaysageDHiver #Phrenelith #Review #Reviews #TombMold #Undergang

Maceration – Serpent Devourment Review

By Steel Druhm

Little known fact: All the best Swedish death metal comes from Denmark. Okay, maybe that’s not entirely accurate, but it makes for a helluva lede. Maceration hail from Hamletville and they’ve made it their business to mine Sweden’s Stockholm sound for all its worth, focusing on HM-2 pedal abuse and Entombed and Dismember worship. On their first few albums, they had the good fortune to recruit Dan “the Fucking MAN” Swanö to handle vocals (using an alias on their debut). Here on third outing Serpent Devourment, Mr. Swanö decamps and leaves vocal duties to Jan Bergmann Jepsen, but otherwise, the approach is the same: bulldoze the listener with buzzing riffs and pummel them with d-beaty death. There are worse battle plans since Swedeath is an enduring style that continues to yield satisfying results when done properly. Can Maceration get their material to the perfect level of moldy moistness?

Seconds into the opening title track you know this will be a riff-forward beast war with big Entombed / Dismember energy, traces of Bolt Thrower, and even a few choice nasty bits from uber-caveman US deathers, Massacre. Large, in-charge riffs stomp everything in their path, sending the weak to hurtle the dead. The tempos shift from thrash-blasting to heavy tank assault grinding and back again to shake the Jimmies, and over the top of the relentless axe fusillades, Jepsen bellows brutally in Kam Lee-esque style without a hint of subtly. This is the wet rub recipe Maceration marinates you in and though you’ve heard it countless times, it’s done here with enough conviction to give it the illusion of semi-freshness. “The Den of Misery” is thrashy, aggressive Swedeath by the numbers but it hits hard with big riffs and chonky doom downshifts. “The Corrosive Heart Fell Below” may sound like a lost Nevermore track, but it’s a standout moment of abject crushitude with HUGE grooves and heavy as fook riff action. This one is especially beefy, requiring not one, but TWO pairs of oversized cargo shorts to contain its ponderous girth.

As with any album of this particular ilk, there will be unavoidable highs and lows, but to their credit, Maceration keep the quality fairly consistent over Serpent Devourment’s sprawl, and even the “lesser” cuts bring a howitzer to the bake sale. You could sink a certain reader’s mega-yacht with the mammoth heft of “Where Leeches Thrive” and I fully support such efforts.1 “In Rot Unleashed” has a nerve-jangling lead riff that sets the pain receptors on edge and makes you want to remain violent. The least gobsmacking like “When Torment Befell My Pain” and “Revolt the Tyrant Dream,” but they aren’t a waste of time or skip-bait. At a trim 39-plus minutes, the album rolls roughshod and retires before you get overly fatigued. The production brings the guitars way forward and makes sure you feel their weight the whole time. This is a smart play as the riffs are the band’s bread and saliva butter.

Jakob Schultz and Robert Tengs come to kill with a body bag full of abrasive, chewy riffs and fat grooves. Some of these remind me of Black Royal and their ginormous axe work. Of course, their playing will remind you of the acts that did this style first, and there’s no avoiding that, but they bring enough of their own identity to the music and turn your brain into buttered porridge in the process. I especially enjoy the hammering chugs they lapse into at key moments to shape the battlefield. Jan Bergmann Jepsen does a good job replacing a living legend like Mr. Swanö. Sometimes he sounds like L.G. Petrov, at others Johan Hegg, and the rest of the time he’s all about that Neanderthal Kam Lee approach. He’s brutal for the sake of brutality and that’s good enough for me.

Maceration deliver a no-frills but satisfying slab of gym-ready death on Serpent Devourment and what it lacks in originality it partially makes up for with vicious rage and furious anger. This is high-octane, lo-brow death metal with one foot on the gas and the other in the Grave. That’s a deathstyle deserving of a loud blast session. Now let’s make some snake sushi!

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Emanzipation Productions
Websites: facebook.com/maceration | instagram.com/macerationdenmark
Releases Worldwide: January 31st, 2025

#2025 #30 #BlackRoyal #DanishMetal #DeathMetal #Dismember #EmanzipationProductions #Entombed #Jan25 #Maceration #Massacre #Review #Reviews #SerpentDevourment

Destabilizer – Monopoly on Violence Review

By Tyme

It’s hard to believe we’re almost twenty-five years into the thrashaissance that started in the early aughts, when bands like Warbringer, Evile, Bonded by Blood, and Municipal Waste hit the scene to breathe new life into a genre that had gone stale. Tons of new bands have formed over that period in an attempt to ride the wave of the revival, including Danish trio Destabilizer. Whiplashed into form in 2020, and after independently releasing two EPs, Destabilizer partnered with Horror Pain Gore Death Productions to release its debut album, Violence is the Answer, in 2023. Fast forward two years, and Destabilizer, in cooperation with new label Iron Shield Records, is ready to shred an unsuspecting public with its sophomore effort, Monopoly on Violence. So, should you rummage through the closet and dust off those skinny jeans, white high tops, and that favorite patch-covered denim vest? Let’s toss some cheap beers in a cooler, pop the bills of our painter’s caps, and head to the skate park to find out.

Nailing the aesthetic on the wrapper—see the pointy logo and colorful comic-book cover art?—the thrash inside Destabilizer‘s Monopoly on Violence is as straightforward as it gets. Devotees of Bonded by Blood and Pleasures of the Flesh era Exodus will have an excellent idea of what to expect from Destabilizer‘s sound, even though the production here is a bit slicker. Niels Sonne does an admirable job holding down all guitar duties, dropping riffs of shredding speed (“Rampage”) and mid-paced chuggery (“Monopoly on Violence”) with equal skill. In true thrash fashion, Kenneth Terkelsen’s kit work provides enough fabulous disaster to keep things recklessly unhinged without letting them go completely off the rails, while Thomas Haxen’s (Horned Almighty) beer bottle bass work, full of effervescent bubbles and plops that lay nicely in Quentin Nicollet’s mix, rounds out Destabilizer‘s rhythm section.

With all this stock-in-trade musicality, the vocal performances stand out most on Monopoly on Violence. A shared responsibility between Haxen and Terkelsen—the former taking the lead and the latter taking backup—the two create a thrashnicolor dream coat of vocal variability. Mainly miming the quirky deliveries of Vio-Lence‘s Sean Killian and Exodus‘ Paul Baloff1, Haxen’s approach adds maniacal energy to tracks like “Easy Prey” and “Pacific Holocaust,” which even contains whiffs of the late, great Dave Brockie2 from Gwar in its nuance. Add to that the occasional death growls and full-on gang shouts that prowl the nooks and crannies of tracks like “Kommander” or “Thrash or Fuck Off,” and Destabilizer manage to inject enough nostalgic mist into the midst of Monopoly on Violence to keep me engaged.

Destabilizer is in no way attempting to reinvent the steel here, however, and while holding a mirror up to the eighties thrash masters of old has always been a hallmark of the retro movement, it often leads to drop-in-the-bucket feelings of “meh.” With its mostly stock riffing and, at times, lyrical juvenility—”Kommander”‘s chuckle-inducing ‘Cuffed up tightly / Disarray I don’t take lightly / Dislocated shoulder / Anarchists getting bolder’ lyric a case in point—Monopoly on Violence doesn’t do anything to escalate itself into “must listen” territory. Combine these points with some atmospheric-via-brie synth intros (“Easy Prey,” “Kommander”), and you’re left with an album that is too explicitly catered, alienating what might have been a more discerning thrash-hungry crowd by producing nothing more than an exercise in thrash flash tattoo art.

Destabilizer doesn’t suck. Monopoly on Violence isn’t terrible. Depending on when you and your buddies start cracking beers, this album will have your sober friends nodding and your drunken buds bobbing. But when the hangover wears off, you’ll be left with some run-of-the-mill thrash metal. There is fun to be had, but it is mostly fleeting, which makes it interesting how difficult waffling over a simple half-point can be when trying to land on an album’s score. I’ve spent more time wrestling that fact with Destabilizer than I should have, but this is where I landed. Agree or disagree, though, it’s my review, so “Thrash or Fuck Off.”

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Iron Shield Records
Websites: destabilizer.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/destabilizerDK
Releases Worldwide: January 17th, 2025

#25 #2025 #DanishMetal #Destabilizer #Exodus #Gwar #IronShieldRecords #Jan25 #MonopolyOnViolence #Review #Reviews #ThrashMetal #VioLence

Alkymist – UnnDerr Review

By Steel Druhm

What kind of an album title is UnnDerr? A weird one to be sure and maybe not the best for marketing purposes. The oddballs in Danish doom/sludge/prog project Alkymist may not care about such trivial capitalistic concerns as they attempt to refine and retool their heady blend of genres. Back in the Age of the Great Plague, we reviewed their sophomore outing Sanctuary and the dearly sabbaticaled Akerblogger had many good things to say about their balance of extremity and progressive wanderings. 2024 finds them back with a more streamlined approach accentuating the brutality while stepping back from the more esoteric angles. Unnderr is a raw, ugly beast mixing sludge intensity with doomy plods and harsh vocals to disorient and destroy the senses. If you can imagine Celtic Frost, Crowbar and Tiamat collaborating, this might be what you’d get. If that doesn’t get your unnderroos in a bunch, you live unnderr a very big rock.

Coming in with no prior experience with Alkymist beyond reading Akerblogger‘s review, I was immediately captivated by on opening track “The Scent.” The massive guitar tone is fucking great and the vocals heaving from a deathly bellow to blackened rasps and eerie spoken word feel evil as fook. The song is legitimately crushing but there’s just enough progressive flair to keep things interesting. It’s a great song and you know it on the first spin. That guitar tone could strip paint and it packs a vintage Celtic Frost punch I’m crazy about. “Digging the Grave” keeps the success rolling with a healthy dose of Tiamat and Another Messiah influences creeping into the riff-forward smash and smoosh. Alkymist batter you with simplistic but captivating riffs that weigh a cosmic ass-ton, but they’re careful to weave in atmosphere and mystery to round out the experience. Even the 10 minutes of the title track keep you locked in and along the way, you’ll encounter truly ginormous, gobsmacking riffs and The Fields of Nephilim-esque Gothic atmosphere even as death roars and evil cackles slime you with ectogoo. Could it be a few minutes shorter? Of course, but it doesn’t drag or bog down and it’s a winning combination of disparate styles.

“Light of the Lost Star” goes further down the Goth rabbit hole, with bits of The Cure-style guitar noodling mixed into an otherwise unstoppable world plow of a sludge doom beatdown. There’s even a trace of Black Royal in the riffwork to help you hail yourself. Large-scale closer “Master of Disguise” brings back the Fields of Nephilim atmospherics as a screen to hide the inevitable riff slaughter by the Celtic Frosted Flakes-encrusted death hammer. regrettably, there are some lesser moments mixed into the winning. “Fire in My Eyes” feels a bit underwhelming with the newly stripped-back approach going too far, making the song feel one-note and flat. Likewise, “My Sick Part” suffers similar maladies but less severely due to its short length. As far as the production goes, it’s really all about that fucking guitar tone. Serve that sound to me on nachos, tacos, pizza, and even my beloved breakfast bowl of Ape Nuts. I can’t get enough of that crunching, distorted war force.

Did I mention that killer guitar tone and the cavalcade of monster riffs? These come courtesy of Stefan Krey. Despite a painful recovery from a broken hand, he churns out a horde of memorable leads that will peel the enamel off your teeth and make your neighbor’s cat develop a hunger for human spleen. He’s the star of the show and his maniacal riff-bends are more inevitable than Thanos with 2 Mittens of Destiny. His forays into sullen Goth rock territory only make the punishing riffs more awe-inspiring when they hit. Beauty and the beast in six-string form, people! Major props also go to Peter Jørgensen for a wide-ranging and highly effective vocal tour-de-force. Whether he’s muttering like a deranged serial killer or roaring like a demon from the 38th Circle of Hell, the man possesses the Kavorka! His offbeat delivery adds intrigue and danger to the material while imbuing it with a unique character.

Alkymist evolved their sound from Sanctuary, and some of the material here would have benefitted from their former proggy tilt, but what remains is brutally addictive and unrelentingly oppressive in the best of ways. I’m highly impressed by this little band of Great Danes. You should blast this at unreasonable volumes and then dive unnderr their back catalog. You will not be unnderrwhelmed. No, I won’t stop it!

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Indisciplinarian Records
Website: facebook.com/alkymist
Releases Worldwide: November 15th, 2024

#2024 #35 #Alkymist #AnotherMessiah #CelticFrost #Crowbar #DanishMetal #DoomMetal #IndisciplinarianRecords #Nov24 #Review #Reviews #Tiamat #UnnDerr

VOLA – Friend of a Phantom Review

By El Cuervo

Denmark’s VOLA is one of the jewels in the crown of progressive metal from the last ten years. Three successive releases orienting around smart, technical, creative and catchy songs with few real weaknesses means they’re one of my favorite bands around at the moment. A reliable tri-annual release schedule meant that 2024 was due a new record and the band duly delivered. Friend of a Phantom is the output, with a one sheet promising a new approach to song-writing and a newer, more mature VOLA. How does it fare?

One of VOLA’s best qualities is their inventive genre-mashing, absorbing progressive metal, electronic, and djent – to the extent this can be described as its own genre and not just a way of playing guitar – into a cohesive, catchy whole. Although the band has consistently played with these tools, they’ve successfully staved off any accusations of repetition because they developed them across their discography thus far. Inmazes was the striking debut of this sound, while Applause of a Distant Crowd doubled down on each aspect to create a bolder, catchier, and better album. Witness saw a greater drift towards electronica, even featuring some trip-hop verses. Unfortunately, I’m forced to deliver the news that Friend of a Phantom sees the creative wheels spinning in the mud for the first time. It could be described as Witness 2.0 as it tonally and musically feels very similar, the closest of any of their albums.

This would be an acceptable position if their outrageous hooks had been redeployed, but this one is simply less fun and catchy than previous releases. There’s no track here that would obviously join an El Cuervo ‘best of VOLA’ playlist, though “Break My Lying Tongue” is the energetic highlight. Despite the band’s genre-blurring creativity, their real lifeblood was their melodies and grooves. And that blood is thinner here. I look to the opener called “Cannibal” as an example. It plumps for the fat grooves and catchy chorus that we’ve historically heard; no doubt its melodies are solid. An additional layer of harsh vocals lent by In Flames frontman Anders Fridén beef up the chorus and second verse. But among the big dual vocal performance and grooving lead, it’s actually the crisp drum rhythms that catch my attention. This isn’t a strength for a band like VOLA because I want the guitar, vocals and/or keyboard melodies to be the focal point. If I’m most engrossed by the drums then that tells me that I’m insufficiently engrossed by the bold instruments that should be engrossing me.

I’ve mentioned “Cannibal” and “Break My Lying Tongue” as two tracks that aren’t the best in their discography, but they’re at least energetic and easy to enjoy. But the run of tracks after this, from “We Will Not Disband” to “Bleed Out,” all open quietly, resulting in a languid, faltering pace across the first half of the record. While two of these tracks ultimately speed up with faster material, their chorus melodies are only okay and don’t really justify the time it takes to get to them. There are some tracks here that just aren’t particularly exciting and “Bleed Out” feels worse because it’s not particularly exciting for over six minutes. Likewise, the closing few tracks do little that isn’t done better elsewhere on the record, ending things on a limp note. Even if I get more from the beginning of the album, the weakness of the ending means I’m not compelled to hit replay when I get to the end. I’m usually excited and engaged listening to VOLA but this album slips to the background and is easy to pass when I’m choosing what next to listen to.

VOLA’s style is a style that fundamentally works for me; their core sound is fun. I think they’ll struggle to publish an album that I actively don’t like. But Friend of a Phantom is comfortably my least favorite of their work and – unlike prior records – an exceedingly hard sell for metalheads that don’t already enjoy some type of electronic music. To a lesser extent than previously it continues to demonstrate the band’s melodic strengths, but not much here sticks with me once it’s over. ‘Unmemorable’ was not what I wanted or expected for VOLA.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: N/A | Format Reviewed: Stream
Label: Mascot Records
Websites: volaband.com | vola.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/vola
Releases worldwide: November 1st, 2024

#25 #2024 #DanishMetal #Electronica #FriendOfAPhantom #InFlames #Nov24 #ProgressiveMetal #Review #Reviews #VOLA

Iotunn – Kinship Review

By GardensTale

When Jón Aldará does something, we pay attention. Between Barren Earth, Hamferð and Iotunn, the Faroese friend of the blog has been involved in banger after banger after banger the last few years with no signs of slowing down. Iotunn’s Access All Worlds was my well-deserved Album of the Year in 2021 and reached third place in the aggregate list, so expectations for Kinship are through the stratosphere. Not content to repeat the same trick twice, however, the theme has shifted from the expanse of space to the expanse of the soul, to human connection and their dissolution at life’s end. But does Kinship shift into a slump or does Iotunn remain stellar in the absence of the stars?

I’ll admit I was hesitant looking at the almost 70-minute running time. Access All Worlds was plump; Kinship was looking positively girthy. But by and large the musicianship and composition quality are astronomical, surpassing its much-vaunted predecessor across most of its running time. Introductory epic “Kinship Elegiac” does start off a little unsure, but it finds its footing as it unfurls into a sumptuous banquet of majestic progressive death. By the time it arrives at its conclusion, a bombastic yet anguished reprise of the song’s opening, it’s hard to believe 14 minutes have passed. This time-dilating effect is present throughout Kinship. Every track feels like an exhilarating adventure in its own right, very different yet a vital part of the whole, and none of them feel anywhere near as long as they are because of their impeccable composition. This goes as much for barnstormers like Song of the Year candidate “Earth to Sky” as it does for the blackened thrill-ride “Twilight” or the gorgeous introspective ballad “Iridescent Way.”

The musicianship of Iotunn’s members is stunning across the board. Drummer Bjørn Andersen has a knack for playing with minor variations between bars that keep the tracks lively, but he awes when pulling out all the stops for “The Coming End” or “Earth to Sky.” Of course, Aldará catches the ear immediately with his attention-grabbing baritone wail and crunchy growls, and he puts in a few of his best performances here, with the solemn majesty of “I Feel the Night” and the opener’s heartrending conclusion a few particular highlights. But the guitars are worth the admission price on their own, with a fantastic array of imaginative riffs, trills, and licks. In lesser hands, “Mistland” would not be so effortlessly grand, the subtle shifts in harmony creating a surge to the heart. We wouldn’t have the beautiful yet aggressive cascades through the chorus of “The Coming End,” nor its intelligent riffs that play with inversing ascending and descending scales, or the epic harmonic midsection. Not to mention the solos; I declared “Waves Below” to have the solo of the year last time, but half the tracks here could qualify to the same, such as the melodic rollercoaster leading up to the finale of “Kinship Elegiac” or the shimmering tremolos of “Mistland.”

If Kinship had stuck the landing, it’d be a shoo-in for my Album of the Year. Alas, “The Anguished Ethereal” draws a shrill contrast with all that precedes it. With too much repetition and a lack of life and energy, the 11-minute track is the only one that feels longer rather than shorter. It takes half its running time to develop into something interesting, and just when it really seems to start taking flight, it ends in a dull fade-out. It’s a disappointing finale, and its drag makes the overall length of Kinship weigh heavier. Replacing the closer with the opener would be the fastest way to make a great album into a nigh-perfect one. Even the production, Iotunn’s biggest prior stumbling block, has made strides, though there’s still room for improvement there. The master has a little more breathing room and the drums sound more natural, but the mix can still feel a little crowded at busier times, and the bass is buried altogether.

The stumble on the finish may have cost Iotunn the crown, but how well Kinship holds up in spite of it is a testament to the band’s peerless songwriting and craftsmanship. It combines a deeply compelling sense of melody with fluid, progressive songwriting and an overwhelming sense of grandeur that nonetheless evades pretentiousness. The thought that there may be a Iotunn album in the future that is as brilliant as Kinship’s first hour with even better production does moisten my loins, but the present is pretty fucking great as it is.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Metal Blade Records
Websites: iotunn.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/iotunn
Releases Worldwide: October 25th, 2024

#2024 #40 #BarrenEarth #DanishMetal #Hamferð #Iotunn #Kinship #MelodicDeathMetal #MetalBladeRecords #Oct24 #ProgressiveMetal #Review #Reviews

Stuck in the Filter: May 2024’s Angry Misses

By Kenstrosity

I thought the onset of summer would mean a total solar beatdown. Instead, it’s brought the rain. Absolutely chucking down rain. But, if you thought that bad weather leads to mercy from me, you’re dead wrong. In fact, I pushed my minions even harder to dredge up as many waterlogged nuggets of notable ore from our perpetually overtaxed filtration system.

And so, as my “staff,” who are definitely paid (don’t look into it) dry off in the industrial-grade wind tunnel, allow me to introduce May’s Filter entries for a public I truly don’t care about at all (don’t look into it). BEHOLD!

Iceberg’s Divisive Defenstrations

Cobra The Impaler // Karma Collision [May 24th, 2024 – Listenable Records]

Belgium’s Cobra The Impaler bill themselves as carrying the torch of classic-era Mastodon, a band hitting so many spectrums of metal comparing one’s music to theirs is a much safer bet than not. Led by primary songwriter and ex-Aborted guitarist Tace DC, the band sit somewhere in the murky grey between progressive and technical modern metal. The aforementioned Mastodon worship is strong here—especially in opener “Magnetic Hex”—although the crystal clean production by Jens Borgren really prevents the use of the term “sludge.” Elsewhere there are prog-metal moments of Virus/Vector-era Haken (“Karma Collision,” “The Fountain”) and some of the relentless, drums-in-front compositions of Gojira (“Karma Collision,” “The Assassins of the Vision”). Vocalist Manuel Remmerie’s also has his work cut out for him, delivering plenty of admirable cleans in both high and low registers alongside full-throated screams and somewhat less effective pitched growls. The instrumental performances here are top-notch, professional in the verse/chorus sections, and continuously—sometimes outstandingly—creative in the free-form bridges. There is some tightening to be done with the accessibility of the choruses—they fall flat against the superior instrumental sections— but there are moments of brilliance and a ton of potential in this five-piece.

Capstan // The Mosaic [May 24th, 2024 – Fearless Records]

Anyone who’s plugged into the post-hardcore scene should know that Florida’s Capstan transcend the—rightfully deserved—vitriol thrown at the style. I don’t think any Fearless band has ever been reviewed here, but Capstan’s latest opus The Mosaic deserves a shoutout to whomever hasn’t run screaming from these halls. Led by vocalist Anthony DeMario—sure to be a divisive figure with his unapologetic pop punk cleans—the band has continuously augmented their Warped-core sound with the mathy guitar noodlings of Chon or Polyphia, and an impressive triple vocalist attack for thick, elaborate harmonies. This album, clocking in at over an hour, doesn’t pull any punches, showcasing trip-hop, breakdown-laced numbers (“Bete Noire”), full throated anthems about self-loathing and heartbreak (“Misery Scene”) and even lighter, crooning ballads (“What Can I Say”). Synergy and professionalism are where the band shine; everything has is slickly produced and the performances—especially those vocals—are whip-smart. Plenty of editing could have been done, but you can tell how much fun the band is having. Anyone with a passing interest or nostalgia for 2000’s post-hardcore should check this out. Plus their drummer plays with traditional grip, and watching a jazz guy slam out breakdowns is pretty rad in my book.

GardensTale’s Dose of Decay

Strychnos // Armageddon Patronage [May 17th, 2024 – Dark Descent Records]

I don’t always check out albums that set the comment section and/or Discord abuzz, but when I do, it rarely results in anything less than interesting. Case in point, the bottomless evil of Strychnos, a Danish outfit that struggled to get off the ground in the early 00’s, eked out a single EP in the 10’s, and suddenly started shitting out heaving platters of malicious black/death since the pandemic. Armageddon Patronage is the second full-length off their new production line, and it brings every horseman along for its deadly ride. War is embodied by the lethal double feature that starts the charge, with swelling riffs battering the unjust to fertilizer. The unflinching and unfeeling brutality of Famine seethes from “Choking Salvation,” and out the beaks of “Pale Black Birds” pours Pestilence with slavering enthusiasm. Frontman Martin Leth Anderson, who also handles bass for Undergang, employs a bellowing growl that encapsulates hopelessness and suffering, and the excellent, malevolent riffs usher an effective aura of utter destruction. Death, however, comes not at the end, but during the doom-laden centerpiece, the despondent “Endless Void Dimension” with its atmospheric Gregorian chanting. I have no qualms becoming a patron to this spiteful chunk of armageddon.

Dear Hollow’s Shtanky Shwamp of Shrieks

Saidan // Visual Kill: The Blossoming of Psychotic Depravity [May 24th, 2024 – Self-Released]

Saidan do things a little differently. The Nashville duo’s themes rooted in Japanese folklore and the formidable and mysterious yokai in particular, combined with a relentlessly riffy and punk-driven tour-de-force of black metal proportions are always food for thought in the act’s brief and formidable history. Seamlessly transitioning between punk chord progressions and bouncy drums to blastbeats and kvlt tremolo to groovy riffs and rhythms, anchored by Splatterpvnk’s ripping vocals, it never shies away from punishment. However, interwoven with this assault is a distinctly melodic undercurrent that brightens the progressions and gives purpose and a sense of fun – a hyper-melodic black metal act would be jealous. You won’t be able to shake the grooves of “Desecration of a Lustful Illusion,” the symphonic black intensity of “Genocidal Bloodfiend” and “Veins of the Wicked” hit you like a cyclone, and the classic thrash solos and anime-theme-song vibe of “Sick Abducted Purity,” “Visual Kill,” and “Switchblade Paradise” are guaranteed to get your head banging – plus, the interlude “seraphic lullaby” and instrumental closer “suffer” ain’t half bad. Visual Kill is like if Powerglove wrote a black metal album that you could actually take seriously, backed up with the technicality, songwriting chops, and sheer unbridled energy to make it work.

Parfaxitas // Weaver of the Black Moon [May 31st, 2024 – Terratur Possessions]

The minds behind Parfaxitas should need little introduction, although the moniker will likely not ring any bells. Representing three separate scenes and their respective contributions to black metal lore, two American stringsmen from acts Merihem, Suffering Hour, and Manetherean, Icelandic drummer B.E. from Almyrkvi, Sinmara, Slidhr, and Wormlust, and Norwegian vocalist K.R. From Whoredom Rife collide. Weaver of the Black Moon combines the blueprint of second-wave Norwegian black with the obsidian dissonance of Icelandic, and the experimental edge of American acts, making it a tour-de-force of both vicious sound and tortured atmosphere. Dissonance rains down like acid, a backdrop, and shroud of otherworldly sounds that shimmer and crunch in ways that recall both the winding passages of Suffering Hour and the psychedelic rawness of Wormlust simultaneously. Hammered by vicious blastbeats and guided by tortured barks, the guitar and meandering fluid bass guide listeners from untouchable intensity (“Thou Shalt Worship No Other”) to haunting and hypnotic atmosphere (“Ravens of Dispersion”) – stealing the show. Parfaxitas features a whole lot of firepower, culminating in epic closer “Fields of Nightmares,” a crescendo of punishing and otherworldly proportions.

Aseitas // Eden Trough [May 30th, 2024 – Total Dissonance Worship]

After Aseitas’ formidable 2020 album False Peace, which narrowly missed my AOTY’s, the Portland trio is back with another album – which could easily be classified as an EP in its tidy thirty-minute runtime. Eden Trough condenses the lofty and decadent ambition of its predecessor for an album devoted to complete takedown in winding riffs, punishing death metal, and ravaging vocals. From the thick and punishing signature shifts of “Libertine Captor” and “Alabaster Bones,” complete with shifting riffs and a liminal sense of melody, to the more droning and haunting “Break the Neck of Every Beautiful Thing,” to the epic and cosmic psychedelia of ten-minute centerpiece “Tiamat,” Aseitas’ shows its tantalizing and gradual progression to an echelon of indispensable in the world of dissonant death. Offering influences of convulsive mathcore, mammoth post-metal, and unhinged yet intensely calculated technicality, Eden Trough is a must-listen for the long-time fan, as well as proffering a snapshot to the curious of what makes Aseitas so special to begin with.

Dolphin Whisperer’s Progalicious Ponderings

Azure // Fym [May 23rd, 2024 – Self Release]

Are you way into high fantasy and exuberant, progressive albums that reflect that sentiment? If so, look no further than Azure’s third opus, Fym, which over its runtime recounts the tales of a mystical fox’s journey in a frightening and whimsical world. Normally I wouldn’t think twice about an album with such a storybook concept.1 But between Chris Sampson’s vocal navigations that ring as hyper-tenor and dolphin-like (“The Lavender Fox”)2 as they do sullen and heart-wrenching (“Kingdom of Ice and Light,” “Moonrise”), and Galen Stapley’s mystical fretboard wizardry that marries funk chords, soundtrack melodies, and dance-able shred, Azure packs too much sunshine in their prog for me to ignore. And at almost eighty minutes, they pack a lot of it too. However, each run through Fym’s pages finds a new rumbling bass bounce to propel a hop, a new vocal run to twirl my tongue (with notes that I couldn’t possibly hit), or a synthfully sinful refrain to stain my brain matter with happy juice—”The Azdinist // Den of Dawns” or “Agentic State” unite these ideas best—it’s truly a hard album to put down. Combining just about every era of Genesis with the acrobatics of Dream Theater, the play and ambition of the earliest of Pain of Salvation theatrics, and healthy dose of modern bastardizations (check the autotune/pitchshifting on “Doppelgänger”), Azure has made a mighty statement with Fym that I’m still digesting. And with as many inventive synth patches, harmonic vocal layers, and cinematic builds as this rainbow dose of prog pushes, it’ll be quite some time before I’ve made up my mind about it all. So I’ll continue in pieces. Or all at once. Whatever time allows because Fym is just that much fun.

PreHistoric Animals // Finding Love in Strange Places [May 16th, 2024 – Dutch Music Works]

And here we are with, what’s that, another prog concept album? This one’s a little less terrestrial though, featuring healthy infusions of a futuristic space drama and heavy-hitting synthwave doots and bounces. Over the course of their past couple works, PreHistoric Animals has found an ease in comfortable exploration with their King’s X-like tendency to grip with a barbed verse melody or chorus explosion, layered tastefully with harmonic vocal accompaniment and groove-heavy riffs. But, despite that comparison, it’s clear from the opening synth pulse of “The City of My Dreams” and “Living in a World of Bliss” that an electronic and hooky identity that’s caught between Toto and Yes imbues the edges of refrains that stick like honey to vocalist Stefan Altzar’s easy-on-the-ears narrative. Finding Love in Strange Places can get bogged down a touch in its word-driven nature, though, especially on the various interludes and certain longer tracks like “Unbreakable” and “Nothing Has Changed but Everything Is Different.” None of that fluff ever truly interrupts Finding Love’s heartbeat rhythms, which hold a steady if highly syncopated simplicity and form a hi-hat charming vessel that keeps the head nodding in progressive pomp. Oh, and it helps that guitarists Altzar and Daniel Magdic (ex-Pain of Salvation) have studied the slow-burn solo nature of greats like David Gilmour (Pink Floyd) and Brian May (Queen), with tasteful legato and searing ascensions aiding in earned crescendo at Finding Love’s best moments (“Living in a World of Bliss,” “The Secret of Goodness”). Having reliably churned out confident and catchy works every other years since 2018, PreHistoric Animals fly relatively low in the flock of modern prog, but these space-bound Swedes have earned a likely lifelong aquatic fan at this stage of their growing career. Give Love a chance!

Matrass // Cathedrals [May 17th, 2024 – La Tangente Label]

And, last but not least from my assortment, Matrass hails from France to bring you Cathedrals, which is… yes, you guessed it, another prog concept album! If you’re worried about another album of the synthtastic and 80s prog-themed variety, though, don’t fret about what Matrass brings to the table. Playing closer to post than progressive waters, Cathedrals flitters about dreamy, lounge jazz guitar passages before crushing down with Cult of Luna riffs and Tesseract-inspired, low-end atmospherics. But most important to the groove and cinematic lilt that defines Cathedrals is the methods by which vocalist Clémentine Browne navigates jangling verses with gentle croons and accented, rhythmic spoken word before frying down with screeching and hissing fervor against heavy chord crushes. That talent for establishing and reinforcing mood lands idiosyncratic in the realm of post acts, so her exact methods may not fit the bill for all fans of the rise-and-fall aesthetic the genre offers. And though Matrass remains largely iterative of this mood through its hour-long run, it’s that successful idea of atmosphere that allows peak tracks “Shreds,” “Adrift” (which features Browne on saxophone instead), and “Cathedrals” to conjure such powerful and drifting thoughts in my head. And when you’re in its valleys? Matrass still maintains a textural backdrop that spells high potential for this young act.

Saunders’ Sulfuric Stash

Desolus // System Shock [March 10th, 2024 – Hells Headbangers]

Who’s up for some explosive, throwback thrashy goodness? Although hailing from the States, Desolus take plenty of inspiration from classic German trash titans Kreator, Destruction and Sodom. Throw in classic Dark Angel vibes, a heavy, modern edge and crunchy production job, and the band’s debut System Shock ticks all the boxes for a thrashing great time. This shit is seriously jacked with unhinged, old-school aggression, spitfire riffs and stampeding percussion propelling the album’s ten speed-driven assaults. An utterly deranged, ’80s underground-inspired vocal performance adds further steel-plated authenticity to a retro-minded sound that manages to sound fresh and inspired. Aside from rare moments of slower melodic nuance on the otherwise blistering “Sea of Fire,” and the aptly titled “Interlude” providing a handy breather, Desolus crank speed and intensity to the max, rarely breaking from their relentless stride. The opening one-two salvo of “System Shock” and bonkers lunacy of “From Man to Machine” set a savage tone and gritty platform from which Desolus launch assault after assault of high-octane thrash mania. “Cures of the Technomancer” is an absolute riff beast with groove and speed for days, while “The Invasion Begins” deftly puts you in a false sense of bouncy melodic security before jamming the afterburners into a typically ferocious attack. Exuberant, nasty stuff.

Terminal Nation // Echoes of the Devil’s Den [May 3rd, 2024 – 20 Buck Spin]

The second album from Pittsburgh bruisers Terminal Nation hits with sledgehammer force, obliterating any semblance of subtlety in favor of an extra beefy, in-your-face hybrid of death metal and hardcore. Echoes of the Devil’s Den features a searing, politically charged and seriously pissed-off bite. High-profile guest vocal slots seamlessly blend into the vicious attack, including strong turns from Integrity‘s Dwid Hellion (“Release the Serpents”), Killswitch Engage‘s Jesse Leach (“Merchants of Bloodshed”) and Nails frontman Todd Jones. Jones features on “Written by the Victor,” a vicious tune that harnesses thick, neck-wrecking grooves and punishing, doom-laden death grooves. The album’s hardcore influence and political slant may turn off certain listeners, but those who don’t mind some hardcore in their death stew should find plenty to like here. The gritty, muscular exterior features nods to Bolt Thrower and All Shall Perish, while the weighty, mid-paced crush, chunky riffs and breakdowns are balanced by tasteful melodic counterpoints and livelier bursts of speed (“Dying Alive”). Not all works; the provocative, anti-police song “No Reform (New Age Slave Patrol)” musically has its moments; however, the heavy-handed lyrical approach sticks out like a sore thumb. Nevertheless, Echoes of the Devil’s Den swings and slugs you more often than it misses.

Steel Druhm’s Sewer Tarts

The Troops of Doom // A Mass to the Grotesque [May 31, 2024 – Alma Mater Records]

For their sophomore outing, Brazilian death-thrashers The Troops of Doom took their vintage Sepultura-esque sound and juiced it up considerably from what we heard on 2022s Antichrist Reborn. A Mass to the Grotesque still sounds a bunch like classic Sepultura but it’s much more refined, developed and expanded in scope. Yet it’s still a frenzied, thrashing assault full of lyrics about evil, demons, and all things anti-Christian. It sounds like something that should have dropped in as the 80s thrash wave started mutating into proto-death, and that is a beloved era of music for yours Steely. Songs like “Chapels of the Unholy” and “Dawn of Mephisto” sit right on the bleeding edge of thrash and early death, with Slayer-tastic riffs colliding with early examples of death grooves. What makes this so entertaining is how the band reaches outside of the Sepultura homage bubble to drag in new elements to expand their sound. Some songs feel slightly progressive (“Denied Divinity”) while elsewhere they shoehorn epic doom into the massive “Psalm 7:8 – God of Bizarre.” The straight-up riffbeasts are my favorites though, with “The Imposter King” being a big, fat, sweaty highlight. While these cats are always going to get compared to classic Sepultura, they made real efforts here to stake out their own identity. This is a wild, testosterone-fueled ride featuring the maximum allowable Satan, and I support that.

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