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Setentia - Darkness Transcend
A skillful incursion into the trampled, muddy wasteland where death metal meets tremolated dissonance and ragged sludge. Withered squandered their opportunity in 2016, but Setentia boldly step into...
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15 Favorite Albums of 2016
Without fanfare or commentary. Alphabetically:Beansidhe - MóntMónt by BEANSIDHEBlood Incantation - StarspawnStarspawn by Blood IncantationChepang - Lathi ChargeLathi Charge by ChepangFuneral Moth -...
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Temple of Abandonment - From Outer Spheres... Death
A deft and deathly trip to the funeral parlor. Demonstrates the elusive doom mojo that turns a tragic trudge transcendent. Slow motion serenades entwine melodies most satisfying. As majestic as the...
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Convulsing - Errata
Much like Sonne Adam or Altars, Convusing carve a coherent niche from roiling, downtuned, deathly weirdness. Turning these amorphous, pitch black materials into ingenious and engaging compositions is...
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Yith - dread
That feeling when you settle into a tremolated haze, surrendering yourself to the blackness of a blastbeaten storm. Here walk riffs of ponderous weight and majestic mien. Fielding more artillary than...
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Laster - Ons vrije fatum
Exceptional, idiosyncratic blackness. Adorns Agalloch-like opulence with bizarre bits of Bergraven oddity. Moving melodic overtures torched by excoriating vocals. Gorgeous soundscapes warped enough to...
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Epoch - Sacrosanct
Dials up a pleasing swath of the death spectrum. Decapitated tonality without the dry-heaving edge, Incantation diabolism without the drawl, crooked Immolation irruption with a need for speed, a touch...
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Fen - Winter
Gathers the captivating threads of their monumental debut, reconnecting the sinews of magnificent oddity forged many moons ago. Channels Eld era Enslaved, transforming many a meager arpeggio into epic...
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Falls of Rauros - Vigilance Perennial
Manufactured Americana as black metal crutch gets my goat. Falls of Rauros, however, rolled out from under an Appalachian rock fully grown with guitars in hand and a mind to record the songs of their...
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Sarcasm - Within the Sphere of Ethereal Minds
From a decades old footnote in Daniel Ekeroth’s Swedish Death Metal, Sarcasm ascend to sudden glory. Pitch-perfect, sinister, death-black melodies injected with a massive dose of Dissection. Nasty...
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Spectral Descent - Descending The Astral Plane
Raw, delectable death with killer instincts. An exceptional, encyclopedic emulsion of American death metal morphemes. Hammered on hemorrhages evoke quintessential Cannibal Corpse. Chugging convulsions...
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Fuoco Fatuo - Backwater
Abyssal death-doom that's not content to fill the funereal mold. Most certainly satisfies the urge to dirge, possessing the solemn sonic aesthetic of a Mournful Congregation or early Ahab. Drops...
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Mind Mold - Mind Mold EP
From the mind of one of grind’s foremost thinkers comes a vision of brilliant, dissonant doom. Whereas Wake mold grindcore into masterfully twisted forms, Mind Mold exploit and transfigure the...
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Suffering Hour - In Passing Ascension
A singular and staggering vision of extremity. Embodies the unbounded ambitions of The Chasm. Owns an utterly alien guitar sorcery akin to a Negative Plane or Howls of Ebb. Vibrato bar is abused in...
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Temple of Void - Lords of Death
A masterful death-doom hyphenation that swings mightily and wields a very large stick. The colon-quaking grooves and abyssal growls will certainly recall Hooded Menace, but the industrial slam-twitch...
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Hybreed Chaos - Entombed in Dark Matter
Wonderfully weird death-sludge with a soul of grind. Vibrates on heavier, more original frequencies than the sordid hordes of Luc Lemay jock riders. A yawning dynamic range allows low-end grooves to...
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Acephalix - Decreation
I wrote more than a few words about the tremendous new Acephalix album at Metal Bandcamp.
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Hreilia - Tongues
Unhinged, glorious, and grim guitar wizardry. As if As if Negative Plane recorded just outside that cavernous cathedral, or if Enslaved laid off the psychedelics circa Mardraum. Vibrato oddity bends...
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Demons of the Fall 2017
Haven't been much with the words lately, but here are the recent releases that have been frequenting my ears:Desecresy - The Mortal HorizonDense and devastating death-doom with perfectly sinister...
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15 Favorite Albums of 2017
My favorite albums of 2017, alphabetically:Aosoth - V: The Inside Scriptures V: The Inside Scriptures by Aosoth Desecresy - The Mortal Horizon The Mortal Horizon by DESECRESY Ekpyrosis - Asphyxiating...
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