This post collects the reviews posted to Instagram for the week. They cover mostly metal, but other genres might be considered. Blog exclusive reviews from other writers are featured, as well.
[Note: This Week in Metal will go on a two week break for the winter holidays. We will return in the new year with the Year End Lists, Slamuary 2023 and more weekly writeups]
Scuttlegoat's Curmudgeonly Critiques
DJ Count Olkoth - ...Welcome to the Dungeon House
Genre: "Dungeon House"
Label: Grime Stone Records
Release Date: 12-12-2022
YouTuber Adam Neely once performed a live stream of a five hour major scale practice routine. When asked why anyone would do such a thing, he answered that it was a high effort/low outcome troll. The idea that you are putting a lot of effort into a joke that has minimal entertainment value - and whose punchline maybe isn't exactly clear - is as important for the joke as the joke itself. Whenever I listen to a release by Grime Stone records, I ask myself if the whole label is just such a high effort/low outcome affair.
With the proliferation of Dungeon Synth in this young decade, many microtrends within the genre have emerged. A lot of these - like comfy synth - seem to be both in opposition and in accordance to the genre, subverting certain tropes but fully embracing others. The only common trend seems to be the low-fi production, honestly. DJ Count Olkoth calls himself the "first ever known Dungeon-House artist". On a level of form, ...Welcome to the Dungeon House is in fact a house record, with many four on the floor beats and synthetic leads that assume the typical melodic framework. The production is fully at odds with this, as it is saturated with the usual tape hiss and warble. A lot of the production methods of house music or electronic music in general are absent, likely because it wasn't manageable to do with the software or hardware the artist was using. DJ Count Olkoth fails at making a danceable house record and he fails at making immersive, nostalgia tinged Dungeon Synth. It is a mediocre joke that took the artist likely multiple hours of work.
The question remains: Why do I return to Grime Stone records? I suspect that my obsession with completing their catalog has similar motives. I can say that I finished all of their 2022 releases, which is worth nothing. High effort, low outcome.
Rating: 4/10
Angmodnes - The Weight of Eternity
Genre: Funeral Doom
Label: Black Lion Records
Release Date: 30-09-2022
It is always tough when a genre you're passionate about has a weak year. Except for Mournful Congregation, who delivered the usual goods in an unusually slim package, nothing has really wowed me or lured out my inner Funeral stan. For this reason, it is only now during cleanup that I get to Angmodnes. I had been told repeatedly that they made one of the best Funeral Doom records of the year. It might as well be true - Angmodnes are definitely competent and good craftsmen. But in a year like 2022, being the best doesn't mean that much.
Angmodnes sit somewhere between the sorrowful sea sermons of Ahab and more symphonic acts like Evoken or Helllight. The piano takes a lot of space in their sound, but there are also the typical snaking leads that make the guitar driven acts so enjoyable. Sadly, Angmodnes commit to crushing heavyness very rarely. The soundscapes are pretty, gentle and often don't quite conjure up the weight of depression I associate with the best acts of Funeral Doom. Frankly, there are barely any harsh vocals on The Weight of Eternity and it really hurts the material. As enjoyable as the vocals are - even considering how derivative they are in delivery to Ahab's Daniel Droste - they are too uniform in delivery, note selection and timbre to sustain even just 36 minutes of Funeral Doom. Angmodnes lack contrast and direction and I would have loved if indvidual sections of the album could hold more individual meaning by being more distinguishable from each other.
Rating: 6/10
Gorepot - How Much is a Gram Over There?
Genre: Goregrind/Slam
Label: Fat Tub Of Lard x Brutal Mind
Release Date: 30-11-2022
I usually avoid list season until the very end. The season is just too long, with some outlets posting their lists in late july and usually containing only the most obvious industry plants and hype bands that make the lists fundamentally not worth reading. It is only in my weakest moments, where I am the most bored, that I consider reading the lists of the more mainstream outlets. To my surprise, a writer at Metalsucks picked The Dark Prison Massacre's Triple Insanity - a man of culture, I thought to myself. The same writer had also picked Gorepot for his list. I started doubting the refined taste of said writer almost immediately.
Gorepot is the type of concoction of Goregrind and Slam where the actual music doesn't particularly matter. Everything on the album is a Slam but considering this, there is surprising variety and the material ain't bad. Similarly, I will admit that I enjoy the vocals quite a lot, which present a surprising amount of variety considering they're exclusively indecipherable squeals. As so often with this kind of music, it is the samples that are the issue. Every song starts on a sample and most often also ends on one. The issue with the samples go beyond the density, though. If the sample isn't making a satirical or humoristic point beyond its inclusion, by for example relating to the songs lyrics in some way, then its inclusion is basically meaningless and becomes self-serving. Furthermore, even if each one of these samples were funny, it is the sample that is funny, not the artist. It becomes a collage of jokes that the artist found online and laughed at. How Much is a Gram Over There? is little more than a group chat where you send each other memes, but it's a Goregrind album - why someone would need an album like this, I have never quite understood.
Rating: 3/10
Metalligatorrr's Chomping Commentaries
Ryth - Deceptor Creator
Genre: Death Metal
Label: Independent
Release Date: 01-12-2022
Ryth's artist description on their Bandcamp page proposes that they are influenced by bands like Gojira, Dark Fortress, Shining and Opeth, but what I hear mostly when putting it on is something resembling early era Amon Amarth with progressive touches here and there. This is mostly down to the marching riffs and the vocalist sounding close to Johan Hegg in his gruff delivery. Ryth should however not be reduced to their influences, proposed or perceived, as they still sound like they have their own style and way of writing songs. The band has apparently been around since 2008 but are releasing their debut only now. While I can only guess at the reason for this it is easy to tell that this was made by experienced musicians as the performances and general sound is tight, if a bit polished.
Surprise arrives as cleans suddenly break out on "White Portrait" and Ryth suddenly sounds like they are mixing Say Hello to Tragedy-era Caliban with Amon Amarth riffs. The way the clean vocals are used here adds a new layer to the song and tilts the impression it makes in tone. This is something I have not heard done before in quite this way and it is a worthwhile song. When the riffs are not on attack mode the band brings a sense of tragedy to the material that I enjoy, like the part that leads out "Spiral Flood". Interesting moments like this catches my attention on many of the songs. Alas, this leads me to my main critique of Deceptor Creator; when it goes into Death Metal mode it sounds a bit safe. Don't get me wrong, the album has a powerful feeling to it but I always get the impression that the songs are split into the "Death Metal part" and the "Experimental part". I advice Ryth to look to their influences and investigate how they construct their leads, bridges and riffs around the ideas in the songs as this is something that the band does not seem to have nailed down yet. This is fine for a debut, but if they find a way to work out their creative ideas better I think we'll be hearing a lot more about them in the future.
Rating: 6/10
Dødsengel - Bab Al On
Genre: Try-hard Black Metal
Label: Debemur Morti Productions
Release Date: 16-12-2022
Atmospheric, intense, eccentric, weird, occult, creepy - there are many ways you could elect to describe Bab Al On. I will settle for bloated, too reliant on black metal tropes and with laugh out loud funny vocal moments. Say what you want about Behemoth but they have over the years built up a certain ritualistic character to their sound that is hard to mistake for someone else. Dødsengel present a version of Behemoth circa The Satanist, but if you played it at half speed. It takes short moments that most Black Metal bands would only add for flavor in the middle or at the end of songs and stretches them into 5+ minute songs of ritualistic meandering ambiance. That is not to say that the Black Metal has more direction in its stock riffing and static quality, bringing the different songs closer together. I hear some Mayhem riffs here and some Darkthrone there, yet for what those bands were going for they often knew to be succinct and only use atmosphere where it hits best.
At 72 minutes, there is a lot of uninspired material to sift through here and that already makes my eyes glaze over. The vocals constantly wake me up, however, as they are impossible to ignore. In their standard mode, the vocalist has all the energy of someone that is mad that you cut in line at the supermarket. Often the vocals aim for sounding creepy, chanting and doing something odd like trying on a vibrato, with the same success of all those gifs/videos where someone tries to make a long dangerous jump and making it 1/5 of the way. Some moments here are so comical and out of tune I can't help but laugh and the only time I can stand it is when the vocalist goes into a decent sort of half growl. The most egregious example is "Agnus Dei", a song with the theatricality of a sad cabaret number. Look, I get it. Ritualistic atmosphere can be a really powerful tool in presenting spiritualistic topics that Black Metal often dabbles in, but compared to bands like Schammasch and yes, even Behemoth, Dødsengel just do not have the chops to pull this off. Bab Al On thinks it sounds like its gorgeous album cover but it rather just sounds like the audio version of a badmspaintalbumcover parody of it.
Rating: 3/10