Whereas something like The Tenth Sub Level of Suicide intellectualizes suicide through a taxonomy to lead you through it, in a way that something like Dante's Inferno leads you through the circles of hell, this just throws you into the chaotic mental and aural landscape that maps on to a potentially lethal mental breakdown. It's a harrowing piece of art to sit with and a full realized expression of a taboo aspect of existence: the need for it end.

Also, that cover is fantastic.

Whether by powers of memes or irony, Grausamkeit have somehow made it into public awarenes (aka. the 3rd circle of Helvete for many Black Metal acts during the 90s). Nonetheless, it's kind of Andreas to show the importance of tuning the guitar at beginning on Krätze. Truly one of the intros of all time.

Eerie, haunting, then after what retroactively served as a 2 minute warning, it crushes you. What is most palpable is the weight that the guitars bury you under while the haunting vocals sing at you from above. There is an unrelenting quality to the album, but its not quite as impenetrable as it may appear. While for some listeners the ominous, deliberateness of doom juxtaposed with the soaring but bleak melodies of shoegaze can come off as a bit unexpected, it does try to be accommodating to ... read more

And here I thought I already knew what I'd choose as my top pick of the year. Austin, you've really outdone yourself with this one.
Will need to listen to it a bunch more to see if this gets up in my favorites, but this is a truly fantastic album.

Edit: Okay, I'm convinced.

I'm wheels

Returning to this album after a while, I had felt that perhaps I had judged it too harshly upon first listening - I had not. This album simply just fails at living up to the greatness of what precedes it beyond Epitomes VII and VIII, which very much follow directly from the soundscape of Sect(s), specifically its more melodic concluding note on Epitome VI. Epitome IX however ventures into almost introspective ambient territory which is a sharp left turn that feels both unearned and uncecessary. ... read more

Look, this album is not as bad as people make it out to be; just because it's not metal doesn't mean that it's automatically shit. Hell, even the rating here is not solely on the merits of how good or bad of an album this is when taken at face value. If you're playing a space themed D&D game, this would be a fine album to have playing in the background. However, when I regard it as an ambient album, I can't help but feel that Blood Incantation weren't certain ... read more

At some point, the task of describing the music with musical language becomes much too great for me. An attempt would sooner see me butchering the music rather than dissecting it to get at what makes it so great. Hence, rather than doing a disservice to the achievement of the art, I'd rather just describe its effect on me and if sounds interesting, give it a listen.

With that said, to make an analogy pertaining to rogue-like dungeon crawlers: this is less "Darkest Dungeon", and ... read more

Only since Nattens Madrigal as a teenager did an album take *this* long for me to come around to: To say that this is an extremely difficult album to get into is an understatement, and frankly I don't think BAN would disagree with that assessment. Especially given that nothing they did since this sounded quite so... Almost alien in its dissonance (which is really saying something about a band that has made albums about the eldritch). Until Epitome VI there is no point where most listeners ... read more

If you miss old Agalloch: Here is more Agalloch.

As a matter of fact, these guys are so Agalloch that they also just went ahead and decided to not release music anymore.

Thank you to @ezkaton2000 for the recommendation.

While the intro didn't blow me away, the second track was very impressive from start to finish and left me very intrigued to hear the rest of the album. The classic heavy metal influences are very apparent in the riffing and enhance the atmosphere, adding depth and nuance to the soundscape. Overall some pretty solid Polish black metal from a band that deserves more recognition.

Insofar as DSBM goes, for my money, this may just be the high-water mark of the genre. If there is something better, more consistent, more sincere to its own sorrow, and better executed, I have yet to hear it.

An absolute classic within Prog Rock, moreso however for the title track, which, while making up about half of the albums runtime, completely eclipses the second half of the album. Not that the other tracks aren't memorable, but they just fail to leave deep of an impression as 2112 does.

There's something both terrifying and alluring about the abyss, and DSO are eager to pull you into it. Set as the prelude to the events of the Book of Revelations witnessed in Paracletus, FAS is the fall of mankind as a result of humanity trying to grasp at knowledge outside of Divine scripture, thus following the rebellion of Si monvmentvm reqvires, circvmspice. The further we move towards our own individual enlightenment, the further we strive towards truth. So what happens when we cross ... read more

While I definitely get passages reminiscent of Atheist and Cynic, I find that this effort is significantly less focused (pun intended in the case of Cynic) than either of them in being able to execute upon a concept. That isn't to say that anything here is necessarily bad, there's a lot of good stuff here... Actually, there's probably too much stuff here. By the time you get to the 3rd track you start to feel the length of the album already, and sitting at a runtime of a whopping ... read more

If you listen to this with the Tribes of Neurot album "Grace" playing as well at the same time (there's one mix on youtube), which is the way that the band intended it to be heard, this album is a 10/10. Otherwise, it'd say its a strong 90.

Bruh I thought they were done; this is fucking outstanding.

First review of 2026 and we're off to a solid start so far. This is a fun album, Face of an Angel sounds like it could have been featured on the radio in GTA Vice City, the 20 minute opener doesn't feel like it's dragging, Bestiaus sounds like pretty generic insofar as rock ballads go, At the Summit sounds climactic.

The drum work and overally composition style however, very much leans on the safer side. It does feel like the drummer can do more but instead is playing it safe so ... read more

While this is sonically one of the most accessible Deathspell Omega albums, it continues the trend of being a philosophically dense labyrinth that you need to dedicate an afternoon to actually deciphering. To give you an idea of its subject matter however, this album largely focuses on The Book of Revelation. It uses it as a vehicle to communicate its thesis which is rooted in a mixture of controversial biblical interpretations, as well as themes of excess and degeneracy in a similar vein as ... read more

In the immortal words of Barry B. Benson "Ya like Jazz?", well if you do, this album has very prevalent jazz fusion elements (heh). Well... I say very prevalent, but this is definitely the most in your face about it, towards the point that I'd describe the sound of this album as more "Deathy Prog Jazz". If that isn't your cup of tea, that's totally understandable, Unquestionable Presence may already be too much for some listeners, this leans even harder into ... read more