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.
Scuttlegoat's Curmudgeonly Critiques
Smoulder - Violent Creed of Vengeance
Genre: US Power Metal (USPM) / Epic Doom
Label: Cruz Del Sur Music
Release Date: 21-04-2023
Neither Smoulder's debut album Times of Obscene Evil and Wild Daring and their followup EP Dream Quest Ends, hit me right away when they came out. Yet both of them still stuck around in my rotation at the end of their respective years, with the debut even making my Year End List. My enjoyment makes sense considering what bands from which Smoulder draws inspiration. Bands like Omen, Candlemass and the mighty Cirith Ungol are an acquired taste themselves and their strength comes more from how solid and unique they are after one has gotten around the things that are maybe a bit thorny about the sound.
With the band's change of scenery, now based in Finland, it makes sense that the sound of the band has shifted ever so slightly. While the debut album was definitely weighted towards the Epic Doom side of the USPM equation, Violent Creed of Vengeance focuses on the faster, more aggressive side of the equation. There's more Omen to Smoulder's sound this time around, but the band is also more rocking and melodic too, especially in the lead guitars. Similarly, the band goes for a more typical production, with that dusty guitar sound and more reverb on the vocals than before—luckily without diving into actual lo-fi territory. However, this time around, the aspect I need to learn to love is Sarah Kitteringham's vocal performance. While I would argued that even on the debut she could improve on a level of composition, she picks up some vocal quirks on this new disk that are a bit distracting. Going into higher territory more often, her vocals often feel a bit more squeaky and pressed than before and not always focusing on the best aspects of her voice which is usually quite nice. She also goes a bit harder on the vibrato than she maybe should. In the end, this isn´t particularly surprising though—if she is inspired by a band like Omen or Cirith Ungol, then her vocals are not particularly outlandish. For now, I will give Smoulder a conservative score, even at the risk that an album I rated lowly worms its way back into my regular rotation.
Rating: 6/10
Metalligatorrr's Chomping Commentaries
Dødheimsgard - Black Medium Current
Genre: Avant-garde Black Metal
Label: Peaceville Records
Release Date: 14-04-2023
Dødheimsgard have been around for a long time during which they have remained fairly unknown outside their niche due to a very hit or miss esoteric style. With Avant-garde leaning bands like this, the question is usually not whether they are weird but rather whether they are good. My first reaction to Black Medium Current was disbelief, not as a protest to its weirdness but to the fact that its building blocks are very simple, and at a glance ill fitting for a band billed as Avant-garde. This album mixes some early second wave Black Metal that could be at home on Transilvanian Hunger (though remember these guys are Norwegian and released their debut in 1995) with classical music (even direct quotes) and Electronica. The band also slides neatly into a mode that exists somewhere Progressive Rock and Jazz in the instrumentation side. Unlike the car crash that this description could evoke, the Black Metal melts into the other genres as if a demon possessing them. The secret ingredient that makes it all work is some surprisingly great bass playing and production: Black Medium Current is a very groove driven album that sinks its teeth in further with each spin. It ends up taking on an hypnotic aura that makes me think of a more chilled out Schammasch, high on space mushrooms and drifting out into zero gravity.
"Et Smelter" starts things off with directly quoting Beethoven's "Piano Sonata No.14" (popularly known as the "Moonlight Sonata") before shifting through several genres and moods including Black Metal and Classical Piano and finishes off with a Rock solo and some slight Electronica. Album highlights "Interstellar Nexus" and "It Does Not Follow" impress with the former alternating between a Rock groove backed with electronic elements and breakdowns where the music turns sinister before finishing off by turning the Electronica as sinister as the rest. The latter couples a Progressive Rock bass groove with looping electronic sounds and Blackened Death Metal. The bass does for the sound, letting every element flow into each other, as most Black Metal bands opt to hide it in the lowest reaches of their basement. After an instrumental that recalls (or directly quotes?) Franz Liszt, the back half of the album veers into Doom filled moods and slows things down a notch. There are still some worthwhile ideas as the band starts playing with some Drone like elements and the Electronica stumbles into some Video Game Music like territory. "Den Tomme Kalde Mørke" even ends on a moment that sounds like a parody of a Florence an the Machine song. The back half has moments that do not always land and some parts could have been cut (see the last four minutes of "Abyss Perihelion Transit"). But going through Black Medium Current, I keep wanting to revisit it and the reason I am finding for doing so it that, like it's album cover, it throws interesting yet disparate elements at the wall and creates something with an eerie symmetry between them.
Rating: 8/10
They Grieve - To Which I Bore Witness
Genre: Atmospheric Sludge / Drone / Post Metal
Label: Silent Pendulum Records
Release Date: 24-2-2023
A dirty and/or noisy guitar tone, some ambiance and some marching drums all confirm the genre tags that describe They Grieve. To Which I Bore Witness is an album that aims for atmosphere and crushing riffs that mean to drag your face along the floor, slowly. Most of the songs are composed of builds that stretch for most of the song's lengths, not uncommon to Post Metal in itself. Suspended between this are some beautiful moments like the choral melody in opener "Wither" and the calm breakdown in the title track. A few of the tracks have novel ideas like some flickering (yet distracting) electronic sounds in "Under the Weight" and the huge climax to "Weakness". "If Light Should Appear" features a marching Cult of Luna vibe that builds throughout the song. Unfortunately, as much as To Which I Bore Witness spends its time building, I find myself wishing that it would develop some of its ideas more.
A lot of the songs consist of a Sludgy opening followed by some calm and ethereal breakdown and then closes on what it started out with. There are some small developments but most of the songs end up feeling very static. Repetition and climax are staples of the Post Metal genre but they have to be used with purpose and I can not quite feel that behind these songs. Apart from the first and the last song, this album fades into the background and is just sort of there, not going anywhere. The tone is fine, the atmosphere is decent and it is sufficiently pretty, but the songwriting tells me very little. As the last song, "Weakness", reaches towards its end after building with a somber melody, it suddenly catches fire and delivers a huge moment that showcases what They Grieve could develop into if they keep sharpening their writing skills. They should give that some thought it they want their music to stay with me after the pretty atmosphere wears off.
Rating: 4/10
Cosmo's Chaotic Curveballs
Esoctrilihum - Astraal Constellations of the Majickal Zodiac
Genre: Psychedelic Black Metal / Death Metal
Label: I, Voidhanger Records
Release Date: 12-05-2023
Prolific French weirdo Asthâghul returns with his 10th studio album under the Esoctrilihum moniker since 2017. That’s certainly a lot of albums, with recent years seeing two or more releases a year. This year, our own Metalligatorrr already reviewed Funeral (which was 80 mins of Asthâghul experimenting with a nyckelharpa and clean chants in his songs). I, however, was enlisted to review what is undoubtedly Esoctrilihum’s most ambitious work yet—a two hour and ten minute triple LP. Triple albums are notoriously hard to pull off well, so is this one worth your time?
First and foremost, this album sounds very nice. Gabriele Gramaglia (Cosmic Putrefaction, Vertebra Atlantis, etc...) handled the production here, giving it a more organic sound than previous Esoctrilihum releases. There’s a heavy focus on synths here, but the orchestral nature of them fits well with the themes of (what I presume to be) three divine beasts competing for control of the universe. It comes off as very grandiose, with Asthâghul himself sounding like a demonic conductor of this apocalyptical orchestra. However, there certainly are problems throughout this. The most notable problem is the lack of variation in songs.
Many of the tracks here present identical sounding passages, and none of them go below five minutes in length, so it can be hard to ascertain which song is which. Each song is very structurally similar to one another, with the trademark “stop-start” playing used on every prior Esoctrilihum release showing up in full force. This is especially prevalent on the two closing tracks, which are both insultingly long, at 21 minutes each, which brings me to my next point and biggest critique: this album is way too damn long. There’s a reason triple albums rarely land well, and that reason is length. As good as a band might be, it’s a hard argument to convince me why I should listen to 130 minutes (or more in some cases) of—in this case—incredibly repetitive songwriting.
Overall, this album leaves me exhausted. It, like most Esoctrilihum, is fine in small doses, but I cannot see myself listening to this more than once in a blue moon, if that. Perhaps on the next release which most likely will see the light of day later in the year, Asthâghul will either edit or make more memorable songs. But Astraal Constellations of the Majickal Zodiac? I doubt anyone but the most diehard of Esoctrilihum fans will truly love this.
Rating: 4/10
Trans-dimensional Being of Extreme Punctuation's Time-skipping Tautologies
Black Orchid Empire - Tempus Veritas
Genre: Progressive Metal / Alternative Rock
Label: Season of Mist
Release Date:14-04-2023
You couldn't ask for a Progressive album that inspires less than Tempus Veritas. Does Black Orchid Empire embrace djent and syncopated rhythms? To some extent ("Hydrogen","Latimer"). Does Black Orchid Empire try to ride on the bluesy punch that similarly Rock/Metal skirting darlings Moon Tooth offer? To some extent ("Raven","Glory to the King"). Does Black Orchid Empire possess the sneaking technicality and moody soundscapes that offer Tool and Chevelle passing marks in the 'Alternative Rock that we call Progressive because we like it' camp? To some extent ("Last Ronin"). Does Black Orchid Empire have a face at all? No.
And therein lies the biggest problem: despite having the chops to write snappy, grooving songs, Black Orchid Empire use their abilities to make all the choices you'd assume. Outside of the modern chugalicious guitar tones that paint harder hitting numbers ready for alternative playlists ("Deny the Sun", "Vesuvius"), the rhythmic guitar screech and sudden chorus croon scream 00s Nu Metal with a melodic edge. Other jagged djent moments creep around the anthemic Metalcore of the early 10s ("Summit","Weakness"). Thankfully, they don't spend too long in ballad land (or anywhere really), with the lone weepy cut "Scarlet Haze" possessing at least a warm and pleasant layered vocal performance—no track lacks strong performances though. None, however, call me back to Tempus Veritas long enough for me to forget that I'd rather be listening to something else. Don't be surprised if you catch this act featured on Spotify or second staging a few summer festivals—heck you might even like 'em after a few beers. Do be surprised if you remember any of their music though.
Rating: 5/10