And we're off
to the great void
Seeing the world devolve into misinformation and disinformation that rivals the dystopian futures of Orwell and Huxley, it is only appropriate this act out of Dayton, Ohio, Oldspeak work in a monolithic crush adorned with sci-fi textural sounds. Imagine a hybrid of Lesser Glow and LLNN and that is the sandbox Oldspeak play in: CultofNeurIsis gone to a hellish future of twisted concrete, metal and viral code.
Grounded to the present and looking at NY/NJ titans Deadguy and glassjaw as genetic material to mutate is Albany, NY’s Prize. Equal parts unraveling and tightly coiling. Noisy, melodic, caustic, bittersweet. You could imagine these guys are time travelers from the 90s or they are simply the new coming riot of crossover that is “Hard to Kill.” Someone pair these guys up with Mindforce and it’ll be the perfect tour to unite old and new scenes and generations.
Enough of unity. Fleshpress return and continue to distance themselves from their Grief, Eye Hate God primeval pool and evolve into an angular blackened beast. Given the zero degree of separation from DsO and Grunt there is no surprise given the scrap metal texture and fried electronics during the intro and the guitar noise that follows. For all the manic energy and force they do manage to incorporate the patented EHG unwieldy feedback into the fray adding to the cacophony. Can’t wait to hear this in its entirety.
Transcending Obscurity has Construct of Lethe A Kindness Dealt in Venom in the wings. “Denial in Abstraction/Flickering” is an excerpt from what is a 45 minute epic death metal journey wrought with atmosphere, punishing riffs, ubermensch technicality, harrowing vocals. Brains of the operation, guitarist/bassist/synth player Tony Petrocelly has beckoned drummer extraordinaire Kevin Paradis, vocalist/artist Kishor Haulenbeek, and lead guitarist Patrick Bonvin into the Construct of Lethe to compose and arrange the most ambitious, formidible recording the project has yet undertaken. Quite a daunting task and one accomplished with extreme prejudice. Not that I’m sitting down and counting riffs, but, this could very well match or exceed Time Does Not Heal 246 riffs in 67 mins, for those who remember the press junket. The other Gene Hoglan adjacent thing I could compare this to in an abstract way would be Strapping Young Lad’s City for the density and everything and the kitchen sink approach, but, with A Kindness Dealt in Venom there is more clarity and definition in terms of the instrumentation. The bass carries a lot of weight here within the layers of guitars that have been mixed with three dimensional depth. And, man, oh man, the solos here are particularly memorable embracing an Azagoth/EVH meets Rhoads headspace. High degree of musicality on display even down to the manner in which the vocals are arranged, lending a Queenryche Empire/Operation Mindcrime grandeur gone down the left hand death metal path. All of this binary spilled on tech drive and musicianship there is not at a loss of emotive drive given there is a palpable sense of aggression, despair, triumph and contemplation.
Hungary’s Damnation is down and dirty death metal that recalls the utterly fantastic Gorefest - False album and Japan’s Hellchild during that time period. Vocals sound like a cross between Jan-Chris de Koeijer and Tsukasa Harakawa from those acts given the deep pit growls that carry both weight and grit. Guitar tone is similar to False and Bareskin. Song writing is very straight forward, to the point and all about punishing a listener. Damnation prove to be a total throwback with titanic rhythms, grinding mid paces, big drums and mammoth vocals. This is one of the best straight ahead, no frills death metal releases I’ve heard in ages - nothing extraneous: simply tone, riffs, rhythms, vocals for maximum damage and death metal perfection.
Time to slow things down and breathe in industrial atmosphere and creepy crawly noise of Lux Sine Lumine. Lux Sine Lumine II is a masterclass of sound design where spectral voices whisper and groan amongst burning electronics, scrap metal percussion, electro-acoustic instrumentation. There almost always appears to be some rhythmic tether as a foundation, but, that doesn’t mean that guide will always be present. You know how crumbling architecture can be. Expect shifts and movement away from safety. These tracks play as diseased dirges toward Golgotha, detuned threnodies in a haunted funhouse, elegiac drones in abandoned concert halls long submerged under floods.
From Samara, Russia wander Abysslooker. “Eternal” is a post metal journey through time and space on a Tarkovsky mission of madness full of seasick rhythms, maniacal vocals, hints of folk bent and twisted into diseased form. Bass work is absolutely exceptional and given great tone and voice. Dual guitars keen and bray. The vocal attack is seriously a thing of lunacy - powerful to wretched agony to shrieking in absolute terror. Drumming here is relaxed yet busy - sort of Ward groove with dextrous fills. This long form track makes me think of Blindead (circa 08-16) crossing swords with Mastodon (02-09), expert musicianship coupled with atmosphere and dread. Tremendous return off Dramaturgy.
From the refined and methodical to the ugly and abominable… Unholy Thorn Reliquary offer a death doom monstrosity in the form of Peverted Genesis. A three song slurry of cavernous death and plodding doom. Thergothon, Winter meet Abyssal. First track is a sea-sick lullaby to Shub-Niggurath’s 1000 Young. Second track dials up the tempo to a lurch and primitive sub-human skin beating while a creature bellows from a chasm. Third track is somewhere torn between a dirge and lurch and feral war metal pounding. You’re either all in on this stuff or completely turned off by the too kvlt embrace of primordial death doom atavism.
I’ve championed Venomous Echoes on this site on more than one occasion and mastermind Ben Vanweelden more than deserves this jump up to the ranks of I, Voidhanger. If there was ever a home for what this mad scientist cooks up this laboratory in Palermo, Italy is it. Cover art for Split Formations and Infinite Mania, is something to behold. Two tracks on display at the time of writing. “Miscreated Pustules” wends its way with a Portal insectoid riffage meets Pyrrhon wet fx vocals and unhinged Black Flag freak outs by way of Gorguts Obscura alien reverse tech. “Mucous Slathered Face Morphed into Tsathoggua” continues the Gorguts-ian, Portal discordance and spins it into Cronenberg body horror squelching noises and alien propagation.
From Iceland Pthumulhu comes as glacially paced smoldering magma. Funeral doom emanations punctuated with short bursts of caveman ferocity across 42 minutes. Having no information on Pthumulhu this could very well pair up quite nicely with the UK’s Modern Technology or Canadian wrecking machine Sawlung with its bass/drum/vocal thrust. This recording could have guitar, but, it may simply be overdriven bass frying under effects and distortion. Minimalist and utterly destructive. Hypnotic at spots and pumelling in other. All across the board caustic and heavy.
Lo and behold, new Combat Astronomy. Instant purchase for me. Maybe for you? I dunno. You like huge bass that rattles foundations? How about tribal rhythms - which this album is leaning into? Then, maybe you’ll be down with this instrumental attack. Maybe you’ll think this is a bit Meshuggah or Tool? You’d be wrong, but, that won’t be the first time. More Morkobot and Magma or Godflesh trapped in krautrock loops.
Desecrator of Ichor. Greek bestial war metal attack. Guitar tone somewhere between left hand path Entombed gravel and Celtic Frost heft given the Blasphemy war journal to work off. Get crushed, killed, destroyed.
As we fly away… please support: Everything Went Black, The Metal Dad and his fiendish five podcast, No Clean Singing, Stereogum: The Black Market, The Devil’s Mouth, Aversionline, Invisible Oranges, Horror Wolf 666, Into the Necrosphere, Sol Nox Podcast, The Book of Very Very Bad Things, Plague Rages, Thrown to the Abyss Podcast, Freedom Has No Bounds, Machine Music, Dreams of Consciousness, Doktor Dismemberment’s Midnight Murderplex and Crucial Blast’s Warhead…. most of these sites update more frequently than I.