In this post, I collect my instagram reviews for the week for albums released in 2022. All my non-2022 reviews are gathered in a post as soon as a decent number has accumulated. I listen to mostly metal, but I do not limit myself to any genre. Furthermore, this post contains blog-exclusive reviews of recent albums by other members of the site.
Karl Sanders - Saurian Apocalyspe
Genre: Pseudoegyptian Cheese
Label: Napalm Records
While I love Nile dearly, Sanders solo output has always been more wonky. The two 'Saurian' albums before this one clearly fall into the realm of atmospheric background noise, which isn´t an issue by itself - having something in the background while doing chores is common and Sanders music wasn´t too attention grabbing. Albums like these are incredibly hard to rate, however. Do I have to listen actively? If so, I would have to give it a bad rating, as it just isn´t as engaging as a normal albums. If I have to basically do a "Not Listening" listen of it, just being aware of it playing while I do other things, did I really perceive the album though? And could I not have played anything else? Occupying the same realm that game and film music falls into for a lot of people, I just can´t really see being excited about an album like this or buying it.
'Saurian Apocalypse' tries to be more attention grabbing than the two preceding albums, though. Sanders shreds his ass off on some of these tracks off on some of these tracks and this makes me believe that he was aware that his previous efforts were, in some way, rather banal. This pushes the album further into the realm of "I have to actively listen to this", though - and it just doesn´t perform well on that stage. I simple do not like listening to an hour of what is basically Nile interludes and when the last, ten minute track finishes, I am absolutely exhausted. Ironically, if the album were more banal, it would have probably fared better.
Rating: 4/10.
Cara Neir - Phantasmal
Genre: Black Metal / Chiptune / Grindcore / Emoviolence
Label: Zegema Beach Records
Garry Brents is a busy man. Cara Neir is already reasonably active having released the flawed but charming album "III/IV" in 2019 and two albums I was less enthusiastic about in 2021. Another project of his, Gonemage, is on their second release this year with another one set to release in the near future. His last active project, Homeskin, takes this to the next level with albums literally being made in a matter of days. Regarding Homeskin, I have stopped counting. Brents seems to favor a lightning in a bottle approach to songwriting, where the spontaneous act of creation is more of a focal point than complicated structural or compositional concerns - an approach I can understand, to a degree. Of course, there is a danger that this workflow produces more hits than misses and while I can´t say Brents has made anything outright horrible, there also is not much that deeply connected with me.
'Phantasmal' is more immediately gratifying than any of the previous Cara Neir releases. The aggression is amped up heavily and there is a distinct Grindcore and Emoviolence influence on the record (which sadly led to the Genre-Gore you see at the top of this review). The lo-fi chiptune aesthetic works well here and, unlike a lot of "Nintendocore acts", isn´t fighting with the rest of the music. The record manages to be both unpredictable in their songwriting choices - tapping into many different ways of constructing riffs, atmospheric sections and inbetween - and in their production where the guitars appropiate the mangled aesthetic of old videogame chips that were so limited in what type of wave sounds they could produce and that did so only in a very impure way. The way the guitar sounds get deliberately fucked up is inventive, creative and always serves a purpose beyond just pure gimmicky. Maybe Cara Neir´s best record.
Rating: 7/10.
Scarcity - Aveilut
Genre: Avantgarde Black Metal / Drone
Label: The Flenser
The influx of decidedly abstract Black Metal bands in the 2010s has been as much of a curse as it has been a blessing. I certainly enjoy the idea that Metal can attempt to be more than just braindead entertainment and seek out similar ventures as classical music and jazz have done so before. On the other hand, I find a lot of them to be sadly wholly unenjoyable. The ivory tower intellectualism of a Jute Gyte connects with me as little as the linear Big Apple hipsterism of a Krallice. Certain acts have pulled it off, of course - I love Imperial Triumphant, for example. But often, the intellectual concept will not gel together with the musical choices to form a cohesive whole. Scarcity´s 'Aveilut' has been compared to Krallice and Jute Gyte, and I do understand why. in my opinion, Scarcity succeeds where those two acts fail.
Similarly to lots of Jute Gyte´s experiments, 'Aveilut' is an experiment in microtonality without the abstract serialist or mathematical considerations. 'Aveilut' is at its heart a blackened Drone record and seems very aware of what the emotional content of the textures they produce are. The album appears as a continuous track being broken up into sections and the flow of the album is very well done, feeling like a continuous flow of different textures and emotions while the individual sections are identifiable. The album remains easy to grasp because traces of rhythmic engagement remain. In a way, it reminds me of Blut Aus Nords 'The Work Which Transforms God' but while 'TWWTG' is a challenging work that mostly conjures up unease and anxiety in me (albeit in a good way), 'Aveilut' is strangely relaxing. As it if understands, maybe mirror my unease, 'Aveilut' provides some kind of catharsis. My score might grow in time. I find Drone hard to score and it requires a relaxed headspace, which I am in far too rarely nowadays.
Rating: 7/10
Metalligator´s Additional Album Assesments
Ancesthor - White Terror
Genre: Thrash Metal
Label: RipRide Records
Most thrash bounces off me as, apart from a few classics, it seems to be a genre that solidified early into a style with some very set rules most bands follow. It was in a sense retro OSDM before it became a thing. Yet in the last two years I'm learning that there is a scene that refuses to follow these rules and that is the South American thrash scene. Last year had a fantastic album out by Demoniac, making the case for the clarinet as a genuine metal instrument. This year Ancesthor put out a thrash album I genuinely enjoy. At first glance what Ancesthor are doing on White Terror might not seem much out of the ordinary. Introductory song Lady Lazarus shows off a production that favors a little more bass presence than I'm used to hearing in modern thrash.
What I like about this album is its slightly progressive structures that demonstrate the bands capabilities for subtle builds and shifts into headbanging moments. The album starts to grow into something unexpected at the end of Ghostly Wails, however, where a calmer section in La Lorna gives way to a to some folk singing by guest vocalist Ana Cristina Durán. It's a left field moment that works as a small break. But they don't stop there. The following song opens up with some more trad/power influenced sections that were only hinted at before.
The whole album has a sense of drama like this that gives it a character of its own. I think it's a bit early for me to decide if this is merely an interesting footnote of 2022 or if this is an album I'll be spinning till the end of the year and beyond. But it's clear that Ancesthor are on to something with their brand of thrash and I think they could hit gold in the future if they keep developing their individual expression.
Rating: 7/10
Black Death Cult - Diaspora
Genre: Blackened Death / War Metal Label: Profound Lore
Describing Diaspora accurately is quite a challenge. At its heart it's a record that utilizes funeral doom-like hypnotic rhythms to pull you in before crushing you with frantic bursts of death metal. Yet it's more than this because of a heavy occult like atmosphere and one of the weirder vocal performances I've heard this year. I've been spinning it on and off while being distracted and each time come out of it intrigued. The atmosphere it conjures is not like anything I've heard in a while and when it hits, it hits hard. Moments as the sustained guitar playing in River of Death and the hypnotic parts of Neon Cross impress.
But when carefully examined the formula falls apart slightly. This might be a question of taste but to me it feels like the three main numbers here (Neon Cross, River of Death and The Fractal Conspiracy) received the most work. Surprising as it is, the shorter songs are the ones that drag. Knights of the Headless order drag things out with uninspired meandering death metal, for instance. And Bloodworms feels like a stub of a song that goes nowhere. I'd liked to have had a longer more worked out song in their place. As a result I like this album less than I should and only find it to be interesting. But interesting enough to try BDC next time. Anyone needing some murky occult weird in their life right now should at least try it.
Rating: 6/10
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