The Asteroid Bullet Belt

Your boy H.P. Lovecraft is back at it again with the fish people. (Originally submitted to the Metal Archives on December 28th 2022)  2022 has been yet another productive year for the Sysoev twins. It's the second time where the duo has released full-length works across all three of their projects, those being Second to Sun, Grima, and Ultar. Truth be told, I don't much care for the first of the three, but I've been keeping tabs on the other two for quite some time, with Grima being my favourite of the bunch. That being said, Ultar is no slouch either, with their brand of post-black being an example of the genre being done right, in that they manage to explore new sonic ground while at the same time keeping the black metal core intact. 3 years after Pantheon MMXIX , the group has come back with their third full-length, At the Gates of Dusk , which I've been looking forward to ever since the first single was announced. The question remains though, was it w...

Eyes glaring from beyond. (Originally submitted to the Metal Archives on December 28th 2022)  Two years ago, I had covered the Horrific Manifestations split between Sedimentum and Phobophilic, two young bands without many releases to their name. In that review I had mentioned how I was looking forward to their eventual debuts whenever they’d come out. And wouldn’t you know it, they both decided to drop their full-length debuts in 2022 less than a month apart from one another. The topic of this review is Phobophilic’s Enveloping Absurdity , an album that turned out to be quite the pleasant surprise, especially when considering the fact that what I heard on the split hadn’t surprised me in any way. Like any self-respecting (quotation marks optional) death metal band in the 21st century, Phobophilic draws from the past in regards to its influences. What makes them stand out a little more compared to the average Entombedcore or caverndeath band is their tendency to lo...

Who is your daddy and what does he do? (Originally submitted to the Metal Archives on December 28th 2022)  Like many others who spend the majority of their time listening to music, I end up going on “archaeological expeditions”, scrounging up obscurities across a genre, in this case metal. I feel like listening to these types of recordings can provide one with a good amount of insight in regards to how a specific sound or scene evolved over time, and while the work may not be perfect, it can still make for an enjoyable listen. Such is the case with Poison’s very first demo, Sons of Evil , a shining example of a release forgotten by time, despite it being one of the very first examples of extreme metal. For one, this demo might just be one of the rawest recordings I’ve ever subjected my ears to. There’s heaps of ear-piercing feedback laced throughout every song here, with the guitars being reduced to a thin buzz that’s overpowered by the tinny drums, while the bass i...

[Insert terrible "Hammer time" joke here.] (Originally submitted to the Metal Archives on December 28th 2022)  It's no secret to anyone who has been following black metal over the 2010s that the Icelandic scene has, for lack of a better word, blown the fuck up in terms of popularity. For how small the country is, it has put out some of the genre's most notable works in recent times, thanks to their instantly recognisable brand of jangly but ever so slightly melodic take on the genre. Bands like Svartidauði and the topic of today's review, Misþyrming have managed to drop some truly excellent projects despite their relatively short lifespan. The latter in particular has managed to survive the pandemic and released their third album, Með hamri at the tail end of the year, inevitably snubbing themselves from many a person’s year-end lists. That being said, it's a project that anyone who will give their time to will find out that it's worthy of...

The house is on fire, and there's no key on the door. (Originally submitted to the Metal Archives on December 21st, 2022)  Despite the two genres occupying different spaces in the modern day, it’s no secret that punk and metal flirted with each other a lot in their heydays. Whether it’d be its latent influence on thrash and some early NWOBHM, or some more rollicking and extreme stuff like Motörhead and Bathory, there’s been a lot of crossbreeding between the two. Which makes it all the nicer when the two are brought back together 40 years later, both having at this point become full-fledged genres with subgenres of their own. Qwälen, and their debut, Unohdan Sinut is one such case, an album that combines two sounds in a way that wouldn’t have been possible without such a long history to look upon. As we’ve already established, Unohdan Sinut is a stylistic marriage of metal and punk, more specifically the black and crust variations respectively. It’s a uniquely c...

Why is the grindcore album making me sad? (Originally submitted to the Metal Archives on December 20th 2022)  Grindcore is a genre that I’ve grown quite fond of over time, but one that I always find myself being exceptionally picky with. For every band that puts together blistering riff assaults, there’s a handful that feel like shitposts that never go beyond making some fast 10-second tracks. Those obviously do have their place in the genre, but bands that focus on that miss the forest for the trees. That being said, the 21st century has treated the style kindly, as has been the case with metal as a whole. One of the bands that has helped the style immensely is Wormrot, the topic of this here review. The Singaporean trio has put out some of the most intense grind of the 21st century so far, all while at the same time evolving as musicians and expanding their sound. Hiss , their fourth release, is another chapter in this ongoing saga, and one that as of right now is...

Golden towers built upon human bodies. (Originally submitted to the Metal Archives on December 20th 2022)  There’s always a feeling of apprehension whenever an extreme metal artist is covered by a major outlet. Sometimes it’s genuinely worth the extra attention (even if a band has already produced quality material before) like Blood Incantation, or it’s something that has already been done by other musicians better but inexplicably gets pushed to the forefront, as seen with Deafheaven’s Sunbather . Imperial Triumphant is among those bands that enjoyed a surge of popularity after the release of Vile Luxury , thanks to reviewers like Anthony Fantano, but they mercifully enough don’t fall into the category of “quirky music for outsiders who think metal has stagnated”. The group’s music is inventive and unorthodox without being pretentious, their mix of avant-garde, black, death and jazz being a combination that you don’t see often. 4 years and one album later, we’ve arr...

Ordeals of the celestial warriors. (Originally submitted to the Metal Archives on December 20th 2022)  I’ll always find France’s black metal scene perplexing. Between the weirdness from bands like Deathspell Omega and Blut Aus Nord, and the fact that it’s as active and prevalent as it is, I’m astounded by just how much material they’ve put out over the years. Not only that, it’s a scene that has mutated from Mutiilation and Vlad Tepes to bands like the one we’ll be discussing here, Véhémence. The Frenchmen have made quite a splash with their 2019 sophomore, Par le sang versé , whose sweeping black metal propelled the album on a lot of people’s year-end lists. 3 years later we're met with the band’s third release, Ordalies , which was highly anticipated by those who were acquainted with their work. The question remains though: was it worth the hype? The answer is “yes”, for the most part. Just like their previous work, Ordalies is pure, unadulterated, bombastic black...

Darkthrone time travels to Tumblr circa 2014. (Originally submitted to the Metal Archives on November 14th, 2022)  The band that everyone loves to love and loves to hate is has returned, and they give just as little of a fuck for the world’s opinion as they did the last 30 years. Darkthrone is back ladies and gents, with their newest project Astral Fortress having come out last month. It’s been slightly over a year since their last release, Eternal Hails…… , which was one of the best things the duo had done in the 21st century, so I was curious to see what the future had for us in store after that. Lo and behold, we got new music completely out of the blue, with a very goofy and tongue-in-cheek cover that seems endearing when it comes from these guys. But what about the music itself, does it stack up to their previous works, yes or no? As one would expect from a band as divisive as Darkthrone, the answer lies somewhere in between. While there are songs here that wo...

Grima balls lmao gotem. (Originally submitted to the Metal Archives on November 14th, 2022)  Back in January, I covered what was at the time Grima’s most recent release, Rotten Garden . Its lean and straightforward approach to atmospheric black metal was quite the hit for me, and it sparked a genuine interest in where the band would go from here. Lo and behold, only a year and a half after their most recent work, Frostbitten is out. Between this band and Ultar, the Sysoev brothers are definitely keeping busy in 2022 across multiple projects. As is tradition with yours truly, I am fashionably late to reviewing this project, one that I’ve been having on the backburner ever since it came out, and seeing how the winter season is fast approaching, it feels fitting to write a review now.. One thing that becomes immediately noticeable before one even starts listening to Frostbitten is its length. Contrary to Rotten Garden ’s more lean and generally sub-6 minute approach ...

I was promised sea monsters on the cover. (Originally submitted to the Metal Archives on March 29th 2022)  There’s something really nice about bands evolving. It doesn’t have to be a radical shift in tone from one project to the next necessarily, but seeing an artist mature and grow in different directions, progressively expanding or changing their sound is always a treat. It’s for this reason that I’ve enjoyed following Ironflame over the past few years. Their transition from classic era Maiden worship towards high-energy, fist-pumping tunes has been quite the treat to observe, and Where Madness Dwells is yet another step in that direction, a successful one at that. Following 2020’s Blood Red Victory , the band has decided to further up the ante in terms of intensity, with more than a few songs here veering off into power/thrash territory. It’s something that was hinted at with some of the more upbeat moments of the previous record, but this newfound aspect of Ir...

.kcuf eht tahW (Originally submitted to the Metal Archives on November 14th, 2022)  Every once in a while, you end up encountering music that leaves you bewildered and scratching your head, making you think “What was the thought process here?”. It’s not something you encounter in metal music often these days, since most subgenres, even on the avant-garde ends of the spectrum have been established to the point where there’s cliches in being experimental. rehtaF ruO, with their goofy name and their album, Boiled in Goat Blood have managed to stump me in a way I haven’t felt since my high-school, pimple-ridden self listened to Death Grips for the first time. I’m gonna get one thing straight right off the bat. This album is incoherent, full stop. If you go into this expecting to hear anything resembling a well-structured song you’re going to walk off disappointed. Boiled in Goat Blood leaps around from hyper blasted tremolo segments to droning ambience at the drop o...

The waters of life drain to the Underworld. (Originally submitted to the Metal Archives on November 14th, 2022)  Panzerfaust is one of the more interesting black metal bands to have come out of the past decade. Their ability to write music that at times veers into jangleblack territory while also putting together crushing riffs has made the first two chapters of the The Suns of Perdition series some of the strongest albums to come out of the genre in the past few years. Not only that, but both releases had a distinct identity of their own, despite inherent similarities between them. Now, 3 years after Render Unto Eden ’s release we’re graced with the third chapter of this series, The Astral Drain . I’ve been looking forward to it ever since it was announced, and obviously I listened to it as soon as I could when it came out. 3 months later though, and I’m still not quite sure how to feel about it, for a variety of reasons. For one, The Astral Drain takes a more d...

The churning never stops. (Originally submitted to the Metal Archives on November 11th, 2022)  (Disclaimer: Aphotic Sonance was kind enough to send me a promotional copy of this album, but this review is in no way shaped by that gesture.) "Atmosphere" is a term that gets thrown around a lot in the context of modern extreme metal. Whether a band sounds “evil”, or the music is “cavernous”, there tend to be a lot of buzzwords that can tip someone off in regards to an album’s contents. There are many musicians who have made a name for themselves by way of their music being impregnable, and Harvest Gulgaltha could very well become one of them. Their sophomore record, Ancient Woods is one of the most obscure and murky releases I’ve heard this year. Problem is, the atmospherics are all it has going for it for the most part. The Arizona trio is capable of writing some churning and undoubtedly oppressive riffs, but there’s an issue when all of them sound the same a...

Beginning to think is beginning to be undermined. (Originally submitted to the Metal Archives on August 31st 2022)  It has taken me two and a half years, and a very inconsistent writing schedule, but we’ve finally reached 100 reviews. From albums I’ve loved to ones I detest, from the mainstream to obscurities, I’d like to think I’ve covered plenty of ground, though never as much as I’d have liked. Writing for the Archives has been a hobby of mine that I am honestly quite grateful I picked up, for a variety of reasons. For one, it has motivated me to discover and bring attention to more underground music, and it has also helped improve my writing somewhat (seriously, if you think my recent reviews are bad do yourselves a favour and don’t read my first 30). I didn’t start this without much thought outside of “Yeah I’ll write about my top 10 from 2019 and that’ll be it”. Seeing as I’m reaching an important milestone here though, I think it’s only fair that I finally co...