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
Gateway - Galgendood
Genre: Death / Doom Metal
Label: Transcending Obscurity
Release Date: 21-07-2023
Atmosphere. The way metalheads use the word sends shivers down my spine and immediately, I associate it with lazy, repetitive writing and unnecessary amounts of reverb. Originally, this was a Black Metal phenomenon but it has begun to infest the unholy tombs where Death Metal dwells and any band that can sound slimy, murky and like it was recorded two rooms over gets instant accolades. I do understand the appeal here, to be fair: Death Metal is supposed to be heavy and the more cryptic, spacial sound that a lot of these bands have can be considered heavy in some way.
The issue however is how the sound dictates the writing in many ways. Speeding up too much can be an issue, as the music could become indecipherable and the amount of distortion and time based effects used means that more often than not, no harmonic exploration can happen. Gateway do pull from the usual bag of tricks, as well. Slow, often surprisingly chuggy riffs support reverb drenched atmospheric leads and vocals almost approach a pad in how they roar through their convolution reverb VST environments. Gateway are at their best when they marry groove, atmosphere and a sense of melody in their leads, with "Scourged at Dawn" being the best example. Yet, the album cannot really differentiate itself from other acts who do this. When aesthetic trumps writing, this is ultimately what we'll have to deal with again and again. I enjoy the sempiternal soundscapes Gateway weave here and I even occasionally settle into a relaxed headbang, but I will get a similar feeling when, in a month or two, the next Caverncore album of similar quality is released.
Rating: 6/10
Putridity – Greedy Gory Gluttony
Genre: Brutal Death Metal
Label: Willowtip Records
Release Date: 07-07-2023
Putridity is a group with some accolades, depending on who you ask. According to rateyourmusic.com, the band's 2015 Output Ignominious Atonement is the 7th best rated Brutal Death Metal album of the 2010's. There is nothing wrong with that album and I would argue it even is a solid outing of the genre, but I would probably not rank the album particularly high. BDM as a genre is less of a monolith than most people think and there are nuances, and it is perfectly possible that the style of BDM that Putridity play doesn't really connect with me all that much. This new EP, Greedy Gory Gluttony, is supposed to be a stroll through the past and showcase some of the best material Putridity have to offer, capping it off with two new songs and a Cannibal Corpse cover.
Ultimately, the EP showcases very well how I just don't connect with what Putridity are doing. The performances are tight, but ultimately lack nuance. On the other hand, the band just doesn't go hard enough into the caveman direction to activate the neanderthal sections of my brain. The band plays material that is challenging on a technical level, I am sure, but this technicality is in many ways lost on the listener. The material sounds uniform and even though guitar parts clearly utilize different techniques and are constructed around different ideas, they do little to differentiate themselves from each other on a sonic level. This is more apparent in a year such as this one, where Brutal Death Metal is actually performing well for once. Compared to bands like Nithing, Dehumanizing Itatrain Worship or 7.H Target, Putridity have very little that sets it apart from their peers. Worse, they don't really show a development, sounding rather similar throughtout their career. If I want classic BDM, I don't quite know why I would pick them, either.
Rating: 5/10
Metalligatorrr's Chomping Commentaries
Oromet - Oromet
Genre: Funeral Doom Metal
Label: Transylvanian Recordings
Release Date: 01-06-2023
2023 has already seen a slew of Mournful albums that makes one with that the Sun would just Slumber for the rest of the year. Running along to canon-ball the already big pile of Doom albums is Oromet, with their grand debut that seemingly came out of nowhere. Starting things off with a 22 minute song that sounds like an expanded version of Pallbearer's style on their debut album Sorrow and Extinction, this band show that they are equally adapt at making such long songs that develop properly and sustain the momentum of the moods contained. "Familiar Spirits" has some varied drumming and lead work in the guitar playing that keeps everything from feeling too static. Though it ends on 6 minutes of synth sounds and clean vocals so drawn out and distorted that you can hardly hear it is a human voice, the stage is well set. The vocals seem to be split between the two members of Oromet, one focusing on a deep growl and the other backing up with desperate shouts, making the vocals follow suit on variation. It is a neat trick that I do not recall hearing in other Funeral Doom.
Moving on, "Diluvium" seems to deliberately contrast the variation of the first track with a very static build that almost only seems to move in the lead guitar at first. But when the drums get going a bit more at four minutes and then suddenly turn active at 7 minutes, the song blooms out in a gorgeous MENA scale riff that develops while drums thunder towards the end and like it was really an Inter Arma song in disguise all along. Finishing things off, "Alpenglow" plays around with a sense of finality and sentimentality by introducing some Post Rock influences and coming close to sounding like a Classically influenced piece around its middle. This song returns to the ample variation of the album's opener by augmenting its ethereal breakdowns eventually by adding sci-fi movie synths sounds and a Folk influenced second lead guitar playing the song out into samples of frogs croaking. Oromet is a fantastically paced debut album whose beauty earns it a place beside Slumbering Sun, Mournful Congregation and Inherus as the album to reach for when you need to dampen the hellish glow of the summer sun. Do not pass up the chance to climb its grand peaks.
Rating: 7/10
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation
Genre: Heavy Metal / Stoner Metal / Acid Rock
Label: KGLW
Release Date: 15-06-2023
King Gizzard is a band that is hard to hate but tough to love, much because they know how to have fun in a way that is infectious but are a bit too prolific for their own good, respectively. Since starting to follow their work in 2022 with Omnium Gatherum (at the behest of an enthusiastic co-worker), they have released four albums, not counting this one. Their work ethic is impressive and I have respect for it. At the same time, what little of their discography I have sampled it becomes apparent that chasing that lightning in a bottle approach rarely hits and makes for incomplete albums. But switching up genres as often as changing underwear can have a great effect on inspiration, and this is where PetroDragonic finds King Gizzard ca 2023. Turning away from their Pshycedelic Rock and Jazz aspirations, this album takes a sharp turn into more Metallic infused waters. PetroDragonic carries with it a Grunge attitude with some occasionally Thrashy drums and Tool like progressive digressions into groove. At times this album sounds like what White Zombie (vocals in "Motor Spirit" come close to Mr Zombie himself) or Ministry (listen to the refrain of "Converge") might have produced had they tried to make a modern Heavy Metal album. Now, I realize that tags for Tool, White Zombie and Ministry might scare away many a metalhead, but there is also the King Gizzard fun factor that skews the material away from sounding too much like the works of the bands I refer to.
And shying away from PetroDragonic because of this would be a shame, because what it tries to do with adopting a Heavy Metal epic-ness it does with aplomb. The back half of the album takes what could have been an amusing trip into heavy-and-other styles into something worthwhile, with the ridiculous but exceptionally fun "Gila Monster" playing its Kaiju inspired refrain into the riff-monster that is "Dragon". If someone outside of Metal were asked to make the most Metal song they could in good faith, this would be it. However, something that keeps the album from reaching its full potential is the occasional long song that drags the momentum down. While "Dragon" narrowly avoids this, it happens in "Motor Spirit", which otherwise is a decent song, and the mid-album "Witchcraft" that dwells on one riff for too long. But most of the songs produce riff after riff and keep the momentum going, diminishing the effect of this flaw. In contending with the flaws of PetroDragonic I was unsure how to score it, but in coming back to the album time and again and enjoying its fun charms it was eventually an easy answer. There has been a consistent flow of good albums out in Metal this year, King Gizzard looked at that trend and went "Hell yeah, let's join!".
Rating: 7/10
Cosmo's Chaotic Curveballs
Miserere Luminis - Ordalie
Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal
Label: Sepulchral Productions
Release Date: 24-06-23
I've covered a lot of Atmospheric Black Metal on this here review site, and I've been disappointed by mostly all of it. The time has come where I can finally recommend an album in this style that's quite good. Miserere Luminis, a band from Québec, is an offshoot of another good Québécois band, Gris, whose album À l'âme enflammée, l'äme constellée… has been recommended to me multiple times by our own Alice F. In fact, it was they who notified me of this band's existence, and after one listen, I knew this was something special. So how do Miserere Luminis compare to other bands in this largely meandering, long-winded style of metal?
What Miserere Luminis does that intrigues me compared to what other bands do is effectively captivate the listener with their blend of traditional metal instruments, but also add in the less-used violin and saxophone, especially on instrumental interlude "Les couleurs de la perte", which is a gorgeous transition piece and serves as a welcome addition to the rest of the Black Metal present. This group also focuses more on combining atmosphere with meaningful riffs, rather than solely relying on an endless deluge of tremolo picking. There's substance and depth within that makes the instrumental breaks so much more rewarding to listen to than your run of the mill Atmospheric Black Metal band, with the nice touch of piano adding a profound melancholic nature to the affair. I think this band is onto something here. This is their second album, since 2009's self-titled, but maybe one day they'll return again with more of their profoundly gorgeous blend of Atmospheric Black Metal that more bands should attempt in their own work. Plus, the cover art is one of the best I've seen this year.
Rating: 7/10
Sacrenoir - Comme des Revenants Parmi les Ruines
Genre: Black Metal
Label: Sepulchral Productions
Release Date: 24-06-23
Comprised of two individuals from a bevy of Black Metal bands in the Québec scene, Sacrenoir arrives with their debut album. Touted by the label as being a mix of various second wave bands, such as Darkthrone and Gorgoroth, this is an album that promises a throwback to the 90s with its icy style of Black Metal. However, does it fulfill that promise? Or has the ice melted, leaving nothing more than a tepid puddle on the ground?
Sacrenoir's style is indeed very heavily inspired by the second wave bands of the 90s, but they don't really make any attempts to make it sound interesting. Songs are very similar sounding, and there aren't very many efforts to switch up the sound into something perhaps a touch more intriguing than the bands they take influence from. Any attempt at writing something that sounds a bit more like Forteresse, where both of the members play, is quickly replaced by another set of trem-picked riffs that sound like outtakes of a Gorgoroth album. I find myself apathetic towards this album, as there isn't really much of a purpose in listening to it when I could listen to their influences (I won't, but that's another story). Perhaps Sacrenoir will release something that makes more of an attempt to stand out from the formless sea of second wave worship, but I am not holding my breath.
Rating: 5/10
Trans-dimensional Being of Extreme Punctuation's Time-skipping Tautologies
Ixias - Compulsive Trance
Genre: Grindcore / Noise
Label: Independent
Release Date: 01-07-23
Though Brutal Truth pushed the boundaries in the early days of grind, particularly with the Industrial and Noise Rock tinged Need to Control, it's not all too often you find a modern grind band that looks back at it for direct inspiration. Now, I have no way of knowing whether that's the case with Ixias, but amongst the hairpin turns between brooding and manic, the forceful noise and ambience junctions, and, of course, the Grind, we have enough evidence to say that these Washington D.C.-based weirdos might be of a similar mind.
Whatever the hell that means.
Compulsive Trance, after all, is a god damn mess. But in this frenzy of mouth noises that might have lyrical poignance ("Expressions of the Spirit", "Fragments"), Ixias manages to find a careful, if not readily obvious, flow between tension and release. Cutting synth interjections help clear the soundstage at the end of full band freak outs ("Produce", "Regenerate") with the penultimate "Untitled" both reprising various noise elements and further lending a hand to the madness of the closer that follows. True to the Grind nature, not too many tracks have a lot of meat on them, but the ones that do ("Wings of God", "Fragments", "Harbinger of Remorse") manage to muster some serious off-kilter groove, recalling the grindier, noisier tracks that you encounter on Pyrrhon releases. Compulsive Trance too finds an extra clarity in expression by featuring a wildly organic and well-placed rhythm section, with a low-boost kick and dry, snappy bass pulse that leash movement along the way.
I haven't a clue what the future holds for this band. But with some hot guest solo work on the closing track by Takafumi Matsubara (Gridlink), and some local shows planned out in their area, Ixias has ambitions. Give their noise a chance.
Rating: (high) 6/10