VEILBURNER - Lurkers in the Capsule of Skull 9/10
Veilburner exists in the memories of your nightmares, Nihilistic thoughts tinged with darkness, lurking, probing revealing to you their music that haunts you, that you can’t fully describe, yet you remember how it marked you.
Lurkers in the Capsule of Skull continues their unique brand of Black/Death Metal. To call it dissonant is an understatement, the riffing is there yet it is left of the centre the chord structures that evolve, lurching back and forth like prey stalking its victim, revealing itself then assaulting you with sporadic time changes and some truly anguished vocals.
Dissonance in Bloom, Cursed, Disfigured, Amen! Are epic multi layered individual journeys that make up a whole, taking their unique approach to the utmost of their potential, nothing is straightforward, nightmarish musical passages that swirl at times almost recognizable yet give true meaning to the term dissonance and that everyone else using that moniker is pretending. Para-Opaque is another highlight, even the quieter moments are off camber, never comfortable, Veilburner’s approach is sure footed as you descent into their musical abyss.
Lurkers in the Capsule of Skull is a mesmerizing as it is disturbing, malignant and haunting. Extreme music has rarely been heard this exotic and visceral.
Pestilential Shadows- Revenant 9/10
Its been over seven years, But Australia’s Pestilential Shadows have returned With their blistering black metal , from opener Procession Of Souls through to the Apex that is Revenant, Pestilential Shadows march upon the weak and trample them with a style and sound that is pure and unrelenting, arisen much like their subject matter, not as a phoenix but as force of power laying waste to the pretentious of modern black metal, stripping it back and yet driving it forward.
Fearsome and without end, the descent is inexorable Balam’s vocals convey and torment among the myriad of themes of the unclean returned. Twilight Congregation is another haunting nightmare that ensures you within its grasp as you descent into its madness. Album closer Beneath The Dying Stars is more of the epic brilliant pure black metal they create. Conviction and intent is all the atmosphere you need to create brooding hostile work.
Revenant is aggressive and dark, melodious yet rotting, heavy and tormented. Essential listening
https://seancerecords.bandcamp.com/album/revenant
Virtue of Decay …. Only Now You Feel The Cold 8.5/10
…. Only Now You Feel The Cold is the first release of San Diego’s Virtue of Decay. It is a debut that’s mature and created in darkness. Velsingard’s composition’s take the basis of raw black metal and coat them in atmosphere, huge epic moments such as Within Great Emptiness benefit from the slow build and the use of Lucas Di Mascio’s keyboards and orchestration without sacrificing the core of the black metal and its bleak emptiness.
The sense of loss and anguish is almost tangible and the grief of Nothing For Us Here is palatable with some of the EP’s heaviest moments, At The Ends of Nothing is the epic closer that takes you to the edge and lets you go , to fall into its great riffs and sense of despair .
Virtue of Decay uses the keyboards without dipping into the symphonic, and its darkness without overindulging into DSBM. Insanely heavy and a rewarding journey through the nadir of sorrow
https://virtueofdecay.bandcamp.com/album/only-now-you-fear-the-cold
REPLICANT - Malignant Reality 8/10
From the opening moments of Caverns Of Insipid Reflection, two things are immediately clear, 1 this is perfectly executed American death metal, and 2? Well, Replicant are really, really good at it!
Malignant Reality takes all the best elements that are death metal and sharpens them to a point of finely honed execution. The huge headbanging moments are there, the guttural performance of Michael Gonçalves is excellent, the drumming, the intense guitar playing is all here, yet some of this is tempered by some quieter moments before unleashing their next moment of musical hell!
Relinquish The Self and Coerced to Be continues their memorable chugging mayhem that lurches and strikes, Ektoskull is another cracker, yet it is all not one dimensional, the massive The Ubiquity Of Time contains guest violin and takes a step back to add some haunting texture and depth to the passages that are followed by some brutally slow and that fast moments, the manic solo/jam is worth special mention near its conclusion.
Malignant Reality is surprising catchy as it is heavy, it is not trapped in the tropes of the past but pushes the genre and themselves forward with clear brutal intent!
https://replicantband.bandcamp.com/album/malignant-reality-dissonant-death-metal