Parts of this are incredible, but it has the same problem as Hin-Fort by Trist where probably over half of it is filler and it gets agonizingly boring at times. I will give this a higher score than that though, the filler is mostly less egregious and less prevalent than it is there. To be clear the length isn't the problem for me, it's just that it goes for long stretches where nothing interesting happens.

Some great ideas here. I would appreciate if the vocals weren’t fucking obnoxious even by grindcore standards, or even if they were just slightly lower in the mix and therefore easier to ignore. The vocals sound like a woman waking up to find out her head’s been superglued to the inside of a live horse’s anal cavity while said horse is simultaneously being set on fire. Improved for me a bit on the second listen so I may raise this rating in the future.

Holy SHIT. I'm now confident that sound can't kill you, because if it could, this album 100% would have found a way to do it. I had to check whether I still had eyebrows after listening to this. Not only is this extremely brutal and aggressive, but it succeeds in a critical area where most other war metal (even good war metal) I've heard falls flat -- it has substantial variety and repeatedly switches things up as the album goes on. Each of the 4 artists contributes their own style to the ... read more

I’ve seen 2 opposing circlejerks here: Brad fans thinking this is one of the worst albums of all time, and Brad haters thinking this album is some sort of misunderstood classic or at the very least actually good. Personally I think both camps are fucking stupid and overreacting.

To start off, it’s very quickly apparent that this is the sort of album that at BEST comes off as “endearingly annoying.” For better or for worse, many of the decisions here feel like they ... read more

This is actually some pretty damn good blackened goregrind/gorenoise, though that undersells it a bit imo bc it's unique in a way that's hard to describe. Given how good this is and how prolific the artist is, I really want to check out their other stuff to see if it's as good as this is. AMT was certainly a level above the two Serotonin Leakage projects I'd previously listened to (Scopolamine and JWH-018). I def recommend! EDIT: after relistening, 2C and especially Mescaline Power II do a ... read more

Actually some pretty good female cleans here, not in a technical sense or anything but in terms how they're used in the songs. Not overused (only remember them being in "Deep of the Sea" and "Whenever") and when they are used it feels like you're encountering some sort of undersea lifeform completely alien to humanity. Also the deep ocean is an environment that feels like it's made for atmospheric black metal and is very untapped -- cold, dark, inhospitable, and pristine ... read more

This album is insane. As a YTPer, this may be the most an album’s musical structure has reminded me of a classic 2008-2012 style YTP in recent memory. You read that correctly: not just the themes or topics, the MUSIC ITSELF AND SONGWRITING. It was released in 2009, near the peak of YTP’s cultural relevancy, so it may have even been inspired by it to some degree.
It has a song that has a bunch of samples related to Nightmare on Elm Street or something (“The Worst ... read more

Early in the year, but this is definitely the best doom metal I’ve heard so far in 2024.

Easiest way to describe this album is seismically heavy and proud of it. Like, if it was any heavier, it would collapse into a neutron star. Imagine a skyscraper somehow suspended 100 ft off the ground. Imagine it being on its side, orthogonal to the way it would normally be on the ground. Now imagine being trapped and unable to move out from under it as it’s slowly lowered to the ground over ... read more

Rating may be slightly biased due to major ‘00s metalcore nostalgia despite the album not coming out in the ‘00s, me being 6 years old when this album WAS released, and not having listened to any ‘00s metalcore until I was in middle school. Not this album specifically, but this type of music was one of my major gateways into metal.

Don't let the horrendous album cover dissuade you from checking this out, it's actually pretty damn solid blackened thrash. Fun, not super ambitious or anything, but it feels "honest." It gives the vibe of "yeah, this isn't really groundbreaking or anything. we know." and I respect that. Strengthens the identity of the album for me.

Idk what this is intended to be, but for me this is the most accurate musical description of nausea I've ever heard. If that's what you're looking for, you may actually enjoy this. If not, I don't recommend this lol

It's generally not a good idea to judge a book by its cover, but the proverb never says anything about judging a toilet by its lid. In this case doing so is pretty accurate, this is BAAAAAAAD. But can you blame me? I 100% was not expecting this to be even remotely good going in (and I was right) but I couldn't just say no to "toilet metal (the pee sides)" lmfao

Imo this is one of the first VERY strong contenders for worst metal album of the year. Like yeah Iron Front's album was bad, but this is on another level entirely. I honestly don't know whether this is 100% serious or whether it's pulling a Penith and thinks it's the funniest shit on Earth (tbf it is for like a song or two but it quickly devolves into an absolute slog). idk which option is worse really.

First of all, if you liked this, LISTEN TO “Basic Intellect May Burn Out” by Doxophobia. Like, now. DO IT.
Negatives: starting with these bc there honestly aren’t that many for me, and nobody else seems to be bringing up many.
The biggest for me may be that the metalcore is used as almost a central frame that the entire rest of the genre fusion is built onto, but it ends up being the “weak link” in the final product. The breakdowns are generally WAY less original ... read more

This is really good for most of its runtime, but the last song is SUCH a letdown. Was honestly about on par with Metanoia and better than Aathma before that, but yeah Abyssal Communication absolutely kills the EP for me. Still an early frontrunner for my “metal cleans of the year” award (especially bc the instrumental sets up such a good environment for cleans), but knowing what Persefone is capable of, this could’ve been SO much more.

If the first 5 songs of this album were released as an EP, I'd consider giving it a score in the high 70s to low 80s, but it falls off very hard in the second half. The 8th song in particular is AGONIZINGLY bad. That said, I definitely recommend checking out at least the first couple songs!

Imo there are some decent songs here, but the second track, "The gates of hell," absolutely ruins the album for me. Like it just drags the entire pacing to a crawl and feels like it lasts about 20 minutes (in reality it's only 8:55, but it's the longest 8:55 ever). Imagine if "The Gate of Nanna" from Beherit's Drawing down the moon was nearly a third of the album's entire runtime, and you'll start to understand what "The gates of hell" does to this album.

I'm going to have to deduct a couple points for rhyming "life" with "strife," but other than that decent-ish album

Not that bad on a technical level or anything, but it's almost like if you were trolling me and trying to custom tailor an album to piss me off in every way possible, this is what you'd make. You'd most likely enjoy it more than I did, but yeah I didn't like it at all lol

This album is INSANE. Quite possibly the most brutal album I heard from 2023. Comes complete with noise elements, drums that feel like getting punched in the face (in the best way possible), and incomprehensible vocals courtesy of a Blaze from Minecraft.
Highly recommend if brutal goregrind/war metal with noise elements sounds exciting to you