Have you ever listened to Korn and thought “yknow what? This is an interesting idea, but I wish the execution was worse”?
Well boy do I have the album for you!
Normally I’m not a drone guy at all but I decided to check this out on a whim and it kind of blew my mind.
This is way more dynamic and evolving than I was expecting (as someone who knows nothing about the genre), which is a definite plus. It’s slow but it’s in constant flux.
I disagree with the sentiment that it “feels AI generated” solely because I can tell those slow changes are very deliberately designed in a way that holds interest while maintaining and ... read more
One of my proudest discoveries so far for my “wtf did I just listen to” list because this has truly been dredged up from the abyss of obscurity, maybe more so than anything else on the list. The only way I can describe the sound of this album is like POLYSICS mixed with deathgrind. In practice it is about as batshit as that sounds on paper. And though I wasn’t a fan of how it turned out personally (the constant electronic beeps and boops got annoying and the vocals kind of ... read more
The Glorification of All Things Light feels almost like Maurice DeJong wanted to make a Crystalline Thunderbolts album but forgot to stop taking his normal pills beforehand. It’s kind of a middle ground between black noise and the psychedelic synthesized batshit insanity his aforementioned Crystalline Thunderbolts project provides.
I actually really like the general vibe of this album. The drum sounds are like bubbling magma inside a volcano, and the synth usage is as masterful as one ... read more
I'd previously listened to Doxophobia's newest (at the time of writing) album, "Basic Intellect May Burn Out." It thoroughly impressed me, but I didn't get around to checking out her previous work until now. To be honest, part of it was that the album covers scared me off a bit -- I've listened to albums with similar cover art in the past and none of them were ever good. However, I'm so glad I finally checked this out. It proved two main things to me: (1) ... read more
I was going to write a review where I repeat every line
I was going to write a review where I repeat every line
But I got sick of it quickly
But I got sick of it quickly
Because it's fucking boring
Because it's fucking annoying
Repetition is at its strongest rhetorically when used to place emphasis on something. It loses potency as a device when it’s overused because if you place emphasis on EVERYTHING, you place emphasis on nothing.
And yeah yeah I know, in before ... read more
Idk if these are THE shittiest sounding drums I’ve heard all year, but they’re comfortably in the bottom 10 (which is telling if you look through some of the stuff I’ve listened to). The snare literally sounds like the noise that happens when one cartoon character pokes another cartoon character. I thought maybe it could grow on me like the snare in Submerged’s “Tortured at the Depths,” but it honestly got WORSE on the second run through the album. Outside of ... read more
(EDIT: just want to clarify I don’t have anything against goregrind in concept, a lot of it is just low effort and generic currently. I’m not complimenting Pulped Deity for “looking like goregrind but not actually being goregrind,” I’m complimenting it for BEING goregrind that actually TRIES.)
At first I thought Pulped Deity was just another mediocre, repetitive goregrind album, but there’s actually so much more going on here. The songs flow into each other ... read more
I honestly don't fully get the hype for Every Bridge Burning. Don't get me wrong, it’s not BAD by any means. It's pretty solid. It’s just also pretty standard, by the books grindcore and I’ve heard it done a lot better.
This is the metal equivalent of a Marvel movie. Any attempts at substance or emotional connection are almost laughable, but there’s enough budget poured into special effects that you can probably shut your brain off, grab a bucket of popcorn, and watch cgi shit explode for a while. Everything here is trying its best to sound “big.” Pretty standard for modern deathcore, but it does a much more convincing job of sounding big than many of its contemporaries. Basically it’s ... read more
Holy shit, it’s possible to make blackgaze that leans heavily to the shoegaze side of things like Sunbather actually sound GOOD?? And it had already been done years before Sunbather was even released? This blew my mind. I’m not being sarcastic about that, I’m 100% serious when I say I expected to hate Alcest at first. I listened to their 2024 album a couple months ago and was surprised to find it decent albeit forgettable (was fully prepared for it to be Sunbather but worse), ... read more
Difficult one to rate. There are some pretty cool ideas and moments, but the album has a bad habit of repeating itself a bit too much and not all the riffs hit. Second half of the album is definitely stronger than the first, feels like the album gets much more focused in a way that's hard to describe. I like the overall sound of the album and idea of what they're going for here, some little details just need refinement. I'll be keeping my eye on this band for sure though, there ... read more
How this hasn't gotten more attention is just absolutely beyond me. Pleroma is reminiscent of Colors by BTBAM in the sense that it's highly eclectic yet simultaneously extremely cohesive. The composition is incredible, stitching together all sorts of ideas into a smooth and organic flow. Everything this album tries, it's good at. Violins, Saxophone, clean vocals, long instrumental stretches, sub two-minute songs, nearly 20-minute songs... Orgone manage to make them all work ... read more
Insect Corpse, a one-man blackened sludge project by Cleveland’s Scott Stearns, oozes into the scene with one of my favorite underground releases of the year so far.
Right off the bat, Murder Phobia grabbed my attention with its production. It reminded me a lot of one of my other favorite underground sludge albums, “Still The Wretched Linger” by Beldam, in the best way possible. Everything sounds downright NASTY, and I love it. This is my favorite type of sludge metal. ... read more
"You know it's bad when 'it's racist' is only like the fifth reason why it sucks"
-- random person from the comments of Brad Taste's Demondice "Snake Eyes" Youtube video
Only thing keeping this from being worst album of the year level material is the Summoning cover, which goes on for too long but is at least listenable.
If you want a surefire way to annoy the fuck out of me, making annoying ass sounds and repeating them over and over is a pretty safe bet.
Torture, but in a bizarre way, also one of the most inspirational albums I’ve ever heard.
I never feel as motivated to learn how to create music as I do directly after listening to something like this. It makes me wonder “could I REALLY not do better than this if I learned how to play and record music? Like I bet I could probably make something deserving of at least a 20 or so, right?” and for that, BloodHail, I thank you.
“We have Jute Gyte at home”
The Jute Gyte at home:
My biggest issue with this is the production. Why is it so clean? It works well at some points, like “Subduction” and the end of “Scorched Vision” in particular, but a lot of the album (especially the most dissonant bits) could really benefit from sounding more raw. The overly clear production undermines the “sharpness” of the dissonance at times.
A huge part of why albums like De Magia ... read more
Both sides were great, but Atvm in particular really kicked ass here. Can see this potentially growing on me even more in the future, definitely gonna come back to it
This sounds completely and utterly insane, like the closest comparison I can draw is Bríi but on acid (in a good way). I’m impressed as hell that Maurice Dejong managed to make something that sounded even remotely good to me with this project, the debut last year sounded like puking on a bad trip in gumdrop fairyland or some shit. I honestly don’t know if that much changed. It’s still weird af, but there are just slight tweaks here and there (I think mainly with the ... read more
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Recent Review Comments
On ps_vita_enjoyer's review of Peste Noire - La Sanie des siècles - Panégyrique de la dégénérescence
"Bergtatt is the best black metal album for beginners imo"
On Anomander's review of Bríi - Último Ancestral Comum
"The production is what makes this work so well for me tbh"
On MickyT's review of Slayer - Reign in Blood
"If you liked this album you’ll probably like Spectrum of Death by Morbid Saint, it’s one of the highest regarded thrash albums in the metal community. They took a lot of inspiration from Reign in Blood but dialed up the brutality further"
On Damandatnevrwas's review of Аспид [Aspid] - Кровоизлияние [Extravasation]
"Epidemic of Violence and Tapping the Vein were in 92 so something good from 93 doesn’t seem THAT crazy to me, but at the same time I can’t think of much other thrash from 93 lol"
On aelexi's review of Chepang - Jhyappa
"I might’ve been a bit harsh with my score, but it REALLY pisses me off how generic and bland this was after how brilliant their last 2 albums were. Seriously, go listen to Chatta or Swatta, they’re amazing"
On Assemble The Chariots - Unyielding Night
"@deathcorelover yeah I know a lot of people on this site think that, and to me Assemble the Chariots did a better job accomplishing what it seemed like Lorna Shore were trying to on Pain Remains. I’m prob the wrong person to be judging deathcore (and I’ve tended to focus more on other metal genres since making this review) but to my relatively untrained ear it sounded like something Lorna Shore fans may love"
On Dropkick Murphys - Blackout
"Not gonna edit the review but idk wtf I meant by “social and societal,” and I think I meant “struck a chord” not “struck a nerve” lmao"
On DJTigez's review of Hello Kitty Suicide Club - ^_^
"@Anypsotis imagine if Triumph of the Will was trying to be cybergrind instead of black metal"
On PhobixTheGuy's review of Hierarchies - Hierarchies
"If you want to check out an album meant to confuse and disorient you that I thought worked way better than this, listen to "Ship of Theseus" by Jute Gyte. I think it's what this album was going for except black metal and better executed in every way."
On VVVase's review of Tougher Than Nails - Delusional Blasphemies Destroyed
"@Hekamusic I mean the video he featured Tougher Than Nails in was literally called “Worst Death Metal Band I've Ever Heard” so I’d say it’s like the opposite of a suggestion lmao"
On SotisGaze's review of Ahab - The Call of the Wretched Sea
"Check out the live version of this (“Live Prey”) if you get a chance! I liked it even more than the original, and I liked the original a lot"
On PhobixTheGuy's review of Black Sabbath - Master of Reality
"“If I had a nickel for every time a classic metal band had an album title starting with, “Master of…”, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice!”
Ah yes, this and Master of the Rings by Helloween"
On Grelle (Taz)'s review of Vetharn - Netherrack Barbarity
"I think I had the opposite opinion actually, thought it was cheesy but in an endearing way which was most of the appeal of the album for me."
On Dsnikles's review of Bull of Heaven - 299: Self-Traitor, I Do Bring the Spider Love
"Personally I’m partial to 344, but this is easily top 3"
On Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power
"@knewnie Thank you! I’m always surprised when anyone else cares abt these bc I mainly just do them for myself, but I’m glad you like them!"
On Trisumun's review of Bolt Thrower - Those Once Loyal
"@Raskol124 ahhh, makes sense, I knew I was forgetting one!"
On Trisumun's review of Bolt Thrower - Those Once Loyal
"Interesting perspective, I actually like the back half of the album a lot more. Still incredible all around. Also idk if you’ve listened to other Bolt Thrower albums but that intro to Killchain is a recurring motif throughout some of their other songs (there may be more but ik it’s in Embers and Cenotaph off the top of my head). Kind of makes the song even cooler to me in a way bc it’s almost like they called their shot, it’s like a musical way of saying ahead of time “yeah this one’s enough of a banger we’re including it into this lineage” and then absolutely delivering"
On spaceashes's review of Deafheaven - Sunbather
"Ahahaha yes, join us on the dark side… we have good riffs! >:)
jk but yeah I didn’t get it at all either, none of it worked for me. Idk why ppl think this is better than Alcest"
On redsus's review of Trivium - Ascendancy
"If you liked this you may enjoy Mindtricks by Disarmonia Mundi, imo it’s a little closer to Soilwork’s sound than Trivium’s but it’s pretty well done and worth a listen if you’re into Gothenburg-sounding melodic metalcore"
On Maddy's review of Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
"How different is this from Sunbather stylistically? I didn’t like Sunbather at all but it might be worth giving them another chance if it’s different"
On CaptainSquirrel's review of Chat Pile - Cool World
"“The Healer” by Sumac is another sludge metal album from 2024 with a completely different approach (that I honestly liked way more tbh). It’s admittedly not the most approachable album at 76 mins for 4 songs, but it absolutely justifies it imo.
If that’s too slow for you I also really enjoyed “Murder Phobia” by Insect Corpse, which is one of the rawest albums I’ve ever heard."
On Doxophobia - Basic Intellect May Burn Out
"@DeathOfHumanMus also when it goes hard, it goes HARDDD. The other guy who reviewed this so far (sickriffsman) is the guy behind Defaced, who made Opium Angel, one of the heaviest albums I heard all year. For you to make something that he of all people considers "mind-blowingly intense" while being so multifaceted that it doesn't even feel like being as brutal as possible was a major focus is damn impressive to me at least."
On Doxophobia - Basic Intellect May Burn Out
"@DeathOfHumanMus it's an amazing album!! Sorry I meant to make an actual review for this at some point but haven't gotten around to it yet. I will say I'm pretty sure Magnets and Astronomy is somewhere in my top 3 songs of 2024, and I've listened to a TON of stuff this year. I LOVE how at times it sounds proggy but like almost 70's prog rock style proggy while still being metal, not regular "prog metal" prog if that makes any sense lol. What I liked most is just that the album is so versatile but everything fits together and still feels really cohesive."
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