Thank you @Crack_Enjoyer for the recommendation, and for bringing so much attention to this incredible masterpiece of an album. The dedication to making this well known is genuinely so impressive. This is peak Shoegaze, very few projects sound so special and evocative. One of the most dynamic albums I've ever heard, switching up constantly yet remaining nostalgically familiar. Every song is incredible, the pacing is a bit long for me, but otherwise this is borderline perfect, and I love ... read more

This album fucking BANGS HOLY SHIT. This was a recommendation from my mother, and apart from Mr. Blue Sky I’d never heard a single track off it even mentioned. But oh my god this goes hard. There’s a slight dip in the middle of like 2 tracks that had me worried this would be frontloaded but absolutely not, it picks right back up with some of the best tracks in the 2nd half. Crazy good Synth/Orchestral/Classic Rock, man the 70s are goated. Also yes Mr. Blue Sky doesn’t crack ... read more

Pretty awesome first track, very hypnotic, Post-Rock/Noise that took me a few minutes to get used to but then I became obsessed with by the end, for sure deserves that long runtime. The second track however is kinda terrible to listen to. It’s Harsh Noise Wall I knew that going in (although I thought the first track was the HNW half lmao) but it still kinda hurt my head. Yeah that IS the point but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. I’ve heard some HNW stuff I’ve liked ... read more

AOTY had me thinking this was going to be nothing more than a Sunbather rip, I should’ve known better, but those release dates line up surprisingly well. Anyway, yeah this was incredible, not as emotional as some Blackgaze records I’ve heard, but melodically very interesting and it has its own sound within the genre. The usage of synths and melody-focused bass lines are fantastic, the screaming is well-mixed and not intrusive in the slightest and the songs just hit right, I was ... read more

Altar is near unparalleled atmosphere, it takes the best elements of Boris with their thoughtful and dense droning ambience and combines it with the strings and unrelenting loops (even within Drone) of Sunn O))). I may not have been a huge fan of Life Metal, I think that indulges a bit too much, but the ideas here are far more reigned in while still doing really cool stuff. As for Boris, they hardly ever miss, it’s not their peak but it’s damn good and has some showings that could ... read more

This is perhaps the darkest thing I’ve ever listened to, at least in terms of sound. By the end I was just blankly staring at the Spotify page. Every MTB album has been amazing but this one might be my favourite. Everything about how it sounds, how it makes me feel, it all works so well and makes me realise this is something special. I wish I could talk about it forever, but I kinda just don’t know what to say. I will get to her new project some time soon.

Favourite tracks: i. ... read more

Honestly just as good as Celestial Blues but in a very different way. This really leans heavier into the Sludge and it benefits from it, compared to their next album’s focus on melodic ideas. They both work and it’s cool to see them as two sides of each other, and of the band. Once again, Esfandiari’s voice is beautiful and just suits this style of Metal and due to being a bit heavier, her voice and the instrumentals contrast even harder and it works so well it’s ... read more

I knew I’d like Monotheist but holy shit this is good. It really does not sound like it was released in the mid-2000s. It has such a weird style and sound. Celtic Frost just has this ability that even some of the best Doom bands can’t do, where they take 2 or 3 very simple riffs or ideas and create a 5+ minute song that keeps you engaged the entire time. It’s stupidly impressive and just really cool. Also just the kind of lack of typical structure in all the songs, they go in ... read more

I'm not really one for redoing reviews, even if my opinions change I tend to just leave it because this is just a funny little website for numbers, but after a relisten of Forever Howlong almost on it's one year anniversary I felt like I wanted to properly convey why I don't like this record, just so I have it written down instead of floating around in my brain.

I was super excited for this on its initial release, I listened to it with two friends at roughly the same time and ... read more

Amazing display of the peaks of Atmospheric Sludge Metal, it’s been one of my new favourite genres and the more I explore it the more I’m impressed. Although there are great songs in the second half, Celestial Blues really loses a lot of momentum after the halfway mark, the tracks just didn’t feel as engaging and I was ready for it to end long before it actually did. HOWEVER, the instrumentals are heavy as hell as all Sludge Metal is and some of the sections are downright peak ... read more

Raw as fucking hell, good lord. Being Grindcore-adjacent, this album blazes by with unfiltered and brutal instrumentals. It never slows down, barely giving you a chance to keep up and it’s perfect. The title track is far and away one of the best Cybergrind pieces I’ve ever heard and closes the album so well. And the vocals, oh my god the vocals. Ada Rook, the person behind Crisis Sigil, has such a good screaming voice, it sounds like agony, frustration, revenge and genuine hatred ... read more

Really scratched that CSH itch while I stall listening to CSH. Insane builds and fucking wild sections across this whole thing, those steady bass lines under the extremely overdriven guitars are so so nice, the drums have a fantastic tone and are so overpowering in the mix in a good way. No real weak points in the album, even the interludes which are generally just super short and pretty pieces work just fine and don’t detract in the slightest but the two longest (and best) tracks on this ... read more

Weird ass soundscapes. I’ve loved Cybergrind since I heard a few songs here and there that are classified by it, but this was my first full album of it. It’s really good, the whole genre goes hard when done right but this seemed especially unique. Like the Doom Eternal soundtrack mixed with Ultrakill’s. Which is what the whole genre is based on but it’s still awesome. I was originally intrigued by seeing the cover somewhere, and the song names were enough to get me to ... read more

Wow! I hate this! This EP saps you of every drop of energy you had in you, it’s unabashedly depressing. From the moment the opener ended, all I could do for the rest of the runtime was to slump over and listen. I have my grievances with ‘Slowcore’, such as the name, but also how derivative and tiring it can be. That shows through a bit with Sprain, but it mostly remains interesting and songs like Deliver Us bring something really special to the table. I think the biggest thing ... read more

This… was SO GOOD OMG. I by chance found drug bug through sometimes it gets worse and was then recommended Willy Rodriguez by two people instantly after and so I decided to look at more of their discography. This was an incredible shock, the first track didn’t immediately hook me but as the album progressed I began to love it more and more. 5th Wave Emo has been so so so good and to know this is one of the ‘less good’ projects out of this and related stuff is wild and ... read more

I’m already bad at writing long reviews, but MTB makes it even harder, so I gotta be short. This is really great stuff. The production is just as insane as her debut although in a bit of a different way. Tracks are just as haunting and desperate as usual, but I think I prefer the debut and it's more disconnected feel. I find it pretty hard to come back to a lot of her work, at least on anything that could resemble a regular basis, but that says less about the quality of the music and ... read more

My words can’t do an album like this justice, I don’t think anyone’s can, there is no way to explain how this sounds. I’ve never heard an album like this, any project can be sad, many are depressing, few are miserable, but I can only think of a couple that cement such a terrifying idea of despair. It almost hurts, in a way, to listen to. Regardless of how it makes me feel though, the sound of this album is unique in its own way, the noises and samples I was listening to ... read more

The Dreaming took a second for me to get. I was recommended this record by a friend and was expecting something wildly different to the point where it kind of ruined my first listen. After coming back to it though, I can appreciate the hell out of this, The Dreaming is a fantastic album and a sound I haven't heard anywhere else. Kate Bush might just be my favourite vocalist of all time, she has a crazy range but it's how she uses it. There are examples across the entire album but ... read more

Didn’t resonate with me like I expected it to. I don’t like calling things overhyped or overrated too often, because that means I’m a large outlier, but I kinda feel that here. It was good, and I get what it’s going for being all hypnotic and atmospheric, but that just didn’t really work for me. I’ve heard it done better and - while it’s probably not meant to be directly focused on - this didn’t keep me very engaged for a lot of it, I felt myself ... read more

Some nice Europop. I wanted to check out an ABBA album because I really love all their hits, I think that’s almost a universal thing. And surprisingly the full record held up pretty well. It’s for sure carried by said hits, but there were some gems apart from them and it wasn’t just the radio songs and their friends, it’s competent. I probably won’t ever revisit the full thing, but I did discover Our Last Summer, which is incredible and made the listen worth it, ... read more