Am I in Trouble? – Spectrum Review

By Dolphin Whisperer

Tagging systems and organizational hierarchies tend to steer our ideas of genre classifications toward ins and outs, yeses and nos, boxes next to boxes, tags next to tags. In reality, though—and much in the way people go about describing things as being between x band and y band—genres do have their own spectrums. And in that spirit of living in an accumulation of converging aisles rather than following the merchandising plan, sole mind Steve Wiener (Negative Bliss, Ashenheart) debuts his Am I in Trouble? project as an homage to idiosyncratic acts of this splatter art nature. From his listening youth in the oddball ’00s black metal scene to his modern existence as an experienced, colorful auteur, will Wiener’s first outing as Am I in Trouble? earn him a spot at the top of the charts or in the time-out corner?

With one hand holding the play and whimsy of progressive music and the other gripping the flight of post-leaning drama, AIiT inserts various borrowed extreme elements as it sees fit across Spectrum’s prismatic run. At the cut of blackened melodies that sing with an Agallochified, sullen heart (“White,” “Black”) and the turn of spacey, eerie prog-Coded tails (“Pink,” “Blue”), AIiT finds many ways to show passion and reverence with a heart full of play. All too often, acts can get caught in their own lore, but as a project set out to recapture a remembered and studied sound, Spectrum swirls with its own shades in established, albeit eclectic, lines. In turn, Wiener possesses an equally shifting pipe set—never quite as goofy as early Arcturus bobblehead croons or as blood-freezing as searing Emperor cries—that remains unique enough to make the sound his own. And, with a few helping hands, cementing a more modern barked edge here and there keeps Spectrum from sounding dated in its tribute.

What continues to strike me most about Spectrum, though, is the sense of calm that persists around its extreme endeavors. Bookended by the acoustic and wistful melodies of “Yellow” and “Green,”1 AIiT manages to create a peaceful yet darting world with its jovial, marching open and lighthearted, whistling close. This sense of relaxing harmony pervades through fleeting melodies that warp into climbing yet restrained guitar leads (“White”) and heavily layered clean vocal layers that recall the buoyant nature of Lars Nedland at his cleanest (Age of Silence, White Void). Still, Wiener’s sense of stacking lines for atmosphere rather than anthemic impact allows his ventures into harsh switches to wedge a thicker slice of black metal fervor, both with guests2 and his own vicious shrieks (“Pink” and “Black” in particular).

This same floating character about the softer side of Spectrum’s compositions does cause a couple of hiccups along the way. It’s not that the ethereal nature of AIiT’s play with swelling, reverb-drenched chords (“Pink”) and shimmering patch swirls (“Black”) feel out of place in a black metal excursion of this nature—those elements stand as its highlights. With such careful focus on the expositional twinkle and conclusive prance, Spectrum can feel wanting and inhibited in explosive content. At just a touch over thirty minutes, its bursts feel like but splashes of color in the brilliance of cutting riffs and slithering screams. And with not a moment that needs removal—except for the break to silence in “Red” that bifurcates its movement a touch too long for my liking—Spectrum falls in the rare category of albums that could stand from an extra arrangement or two of AIiT’s broad, explorative palette.

Talent oozes through the meticulous web of studied, diverse black metal architecture that Am I in Trouble? possesses. And through Wiener’s variegated vision of what this style can be, Spectrum shows both its experimental roots and reverent presence. Atmosphere can be double-edged, though—both leaving me wanting more and allowing me to bend gracefully with its bows. I’m never sure whether one hit of Spectrum is enough. What I do know, though, is that I can feel the passion with which Wiener has embarked upon this journey, of one steady mind, and with help from friends, Spectrum makes me smile. I also know that with a debut of this fortitude, an installation of a grander, kaleidoscopic showing hangs in, hopefully, the not too distant future.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: PCM
Label: Self Release3
Websites: ampwall.com/a/amiintrouble4 | instagram.com/ami_in_trouble
Releases Worldwide: January 3rd, 2025

#2025 #30 #Agalloch #AgeOfSilence #AmIInTrouble_ #Arcturus #Ashenheart #BlackMetal #Code #EmberBelladonna #Emperor #IndependentRelease #Jan25 #NegativeBliss #PostBlackMetal #PostMetal #ProgressiveBlackMetal #ProgressiveMetal #SelfRelease #Spectrum #WhiteVoid

Veilburner – The Duality of Decapitation and Wisdom Review

By Kenstrosity

Asheville, North Carolina’s motto, for the whole time I’d lived there, is “Stay Weird.” For the most part, we Ashevillians take that to heart. So, too, it seems, do Pennsylvania’s weird blackened death duo Veilburner. A studio project well regarded for their unorthodox songwriting style, Veilburner’s discography represents a masterclass on making weird and freaky music remarkably accessible without sacrificing grit or grime. The pinnacle of that exercise, Lurkers in the Capsule of Skull, saw Veilburner at their zenith, handily securing a top spot on my Albums o’ the Year in 2021. Follow-up VLBRNR fell shy of performing the same feat, and yet it still earned high marks. Consequently, I’ve come to rely on this duo for a good time, every time. Seventh in an unbroken streak of high-caliber strangeness, The Duality of Decapitation and Wisdom perpetuates Veilburner’s stalwart reliability.

No longer bound by the same thematic thread that strung A Sire to the Ghouls of Lunacy and Lurkers in the Capsule of Skull together, VLBRNR and Duality freely explore new concepts and concoctions. For Duality, Veilburner chose to expound on the mystical qualities and cultural significance of the number seven. Gimmicky? Arguably, but seven happens to be my favorite number, so I’m locked in like Monica Geller in “The One with Phoebe’s Uterus.” Seven songs. Seven minutes per song. DR score of seven. Numerous other compositional/lyrical nods to our whole number of the day. Veilburner committed, and it shows not just in their concrete cohesion of tones, textures, and themes. Duality contains an otherworldly, eerie, and distinctly ethereal character (even when compared to previous efforts); a laminar flow that allows forty-nine minutes of oddball blackened death to travel through a mere mortal’s nervous system like tea through a perfectly rendered clay kettle; and an infallible set of creative performances from Mephisto Deleterio (instruments) and Chrisom Infernium (vocals) that constitutes something just a bit different, but still unmistakably Veilburner.

Duality adeptly rebalances Veilburner’s two main draws, then accentuates them with subtle, but creative, adaptations to the format they’ve perfected over the course of their career. Opener “Tem Ohp Ab in Mysticum” isn’t particularly representative of those adaptations—however, listeners need not wait long before things get twisty. Standouts like “III Visions of Hex-Shaped Hiss, Behead the Howling Spirit” and “The Duality of Decapitation and Wisdom Pt. II” showcase a newfound emphasis on the psychedelic. Using this as the basis to form kaleidoscopic, yet hellish, atmospheres, Veilburner conjure up wild and writhing synths, bendy guitar leads, and staggering percussive rhythms. In concert, these tweaked elements coalesce into twisted visages of an alien nature that are at once terrifyingly tangible and invitingly incorporeal. No doubt, Chrisom Infernium’s scathing, psychotic rasps placed atop a rhythm that only occasionally aligns with the surrounding instrumentation strengthens the sensory power of this effect. Meanwhile, Veilburner penned some of their strongest hooks and most aggressive tempos to ground the aforementioned psychedelics. “The Duality of Decapitation and Wisdom Pt. I,” and album highlights “Shadow of a Shadow” and “Woe Ye’ Who Build These Crosses… Are Those Who Will Serve Us Death,” each embody the Hyde to Duality’s Jekyll, boasting extremely memorable riffs and motifs, grotesquely shimmering solo work, and, in the latter’s case, a downright thrashy energy that recalls old school Metallica if they hailed from the seventh circle of hell.

It’s unfortunate that Duality’s bookends are its weakest links. While the opener and closer fit extremely well within the context of the album and serve with a purpose innumerable bands struggle to capture, they lack zest on their own. “Tem Ohp…” is by-the-numbers Veilburner fare, which is a fine standard to hold as a starting point. However, Veilburner are not known for laurel-resting, and to hear, for the first time, material that could be transplanted on any of their last three records without much conflict gives me slight pause. Closer “V.I.I.,” on the other hand, veers a touch too far into experimental territory. Psychedelic and quasi-tribal in tone, but droning in nature, this closing act lives and dies by the percussive variety provided by the immensely talented Mephisto Deleterio. This alone prevents the song from falling into a repetitive pattern of admittedly sticky hooks and intriguing choral elements. Even so, “V.I.I.” prematurely saps momentum from Duality’s final moments.

These are mere quibbles, of course. Duality remains a unique, and exceedingly cool, record in the rich metallic tapestry that represents 2024. It would have to grow strongly from here—in an unrealistically short period of time—to reach the same list-topping glory as did Lurkers. Nonetheless, listeners can rest assured that Duality reinforces Veilburner’s reputation for reliability and creativity in an extremely challenging field. To those who would disagree, I say, “off with their heads!”

Rating: Very Good!
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Websites: veilburner.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/veilburner
Releases Worldwide: November 15th, 2024

#2024 #35 #AmericanMetal #BlackMetal #DeathMetal #Metallica #Nov24 #ProgressiveBlackMetal #ProgressiveDeathMetal #ProgressiveMetal #PsychedelicMetal #Review #Reviews #TheDualityOfDecapitationAndWisdom #TranscendingObscurityRecords #Veilburner

AMG’s Unsigned Band Rodeö: Wist – Strange Balance

By Dolphin Whisperer

“AMG’s Unsigned Band Rodeö” is a time-honored tradition to showcase the most underground of the underground—the unsigned and unpromoted. This collective review treatment continues to exist to unite our writers in boot or bolster of the bands who remind us that, for better or worse, the metal underground exists as an important part of the global metal scene. The Rodeö rides on.”

Remember way back in the days of radio? You might have been on a road trip before with your family, and, freshly tasked with trying to find a station that works as you stray away from familiar territory, you turn the knob and land right in between two stations playing a song. It doesn’t sync up, but there’s a mystery to whether that noise worked. Try as you remember, though, you can’t find this balance between two stations again. Wist, I believe, feels this struggle, and with their sophomore outing Strange Balance, they explore the duality of their progressive and atmospheric black metal selves to see where it leads. Would you follow three black metal fans into the Epping Forest? What if they said their album only cost four pounds? Our brave riders thought it wise to say yes, and the results may surprise you. – Dolphin Whisperer

Wist // Strange Balance [June 24th, 2024]

Dr. A.N. Grier: London’s Wist is one hell of a weird atmoblack band. This three-piece outfit goes beyond the traditional Alcestian ways of working, introducing some rather interesting synth atmospheres that lend well to their weird progressive attitude. With their 2022 debut, Stone Still Settling, they only scratched the surface of their sound. With this year’s Strange Balance, they go for broke, shoving everything they can into this tiny album. The title track begins the album with a soothing, ethereal introduction that gets obliterated by a traditional frenzied atmoblack attack. Around the midpoint, it sidetracks to a bass and drum-heavy transition that feels overblown by the lofi production but stomps along all the same. After building for the next few minutes, the chaos fades and is replaced by gorgeous, reverberating acoustic guitars. For all of the opener’s diversity and interesting twists, “Betrayal” is the more divisive of the bunch. Opening with silly cackling the song erupts into gnarly guitars, gigantic, popping bass, and drum work that runs faster than a roadrunner. Using this simple riff structure, the band peppers it with reverberating guitars that feel like they are almost dancing over the surface. When the intensity peaks, the track fades away like its predecessor. In its wake doesn’t come acoustic guitars but Tangerine Dream-styled synth work. Unlike other bands of its caliber, this outro doesn’t have me gazing at my fat gut but instead has me looking to the dark sky to see if the stars are moving. And as if to signify that Strange Balance has always been here and we just walked into it, the instrumental closer, “The River Returning,” fades in with melodic, soothing guitars, adds multiple layers to the mix, and fades away as if driving down an abandoned dirt road. I wouldn’t say Strange Balance is balanced but it’s an interesting record with some unique twists I can get behind. Having never heard of Wist before, they are definitely on my radar and I’ll be looking to see what they do next. 3.0/5.0

Dear Hollow: There’s a lot going on with Wist. It’s black metal, sure, layered with a thick smog of modular synths and overlaying psychedelia à la Tangerine Dream. It’s like Pink Floyd decided to make a black metal album, but really liked Opeth’s acoustic breaks. What makes Wist stand out is that they firmly follow the ambient stylings of black metal or blackgaze but do their damnedest to stay trve to the kvlt in debut Strange Balance—the blackened cackles at the beginning of “Betrayal” would make Immortal blush. “Betrayal” is the wildest and best collision of its ’70s synth and ’90s second-wave black metal palettes, with bouncy 6/8 pagan rhythms and a chill noodling guitar line, only to collapse into a full-on blackened attack. While closer “The River Returning” also features a tasteful repetition and fades that together feels like a modernized rendition of the depressive “My Dying Bride” by ColdWorld. However, the opening title track is nearly impenetrable and painful in its densest synths overlaying high energy blastbeats and shrieks, even if its concluding acoustic passage is decent, and “Grendel” feels incredibly directionless in its fusion of slower DSBM and spacy synths, with a wonky off-key synth conclusion being its only redemption. Ultimately, Wist has some cool ideas that periodically work, but Strange Balance lives true to its name in disproportionately dense and threateningly boring sounds, violently yoinking black metal’s cranky history for an album that feels imbalanced but promising. 2.0/5.0

Dolphin Whisperer: The experience that conjures from the mystical and dated synth layers that Wist pushes against the hazy and shrill is one of an otherwordly atmosphere. In this metal world which we so valiantly occupy, it’s rare to find an album that skews both so alien and terrestrial in scope—a way in which Strange Balance breathes its name. Akin to the new age swells of Tangerine Dream, or similar punctuated by textural guitar works with Fripp & Eno, Wist finds an electronic, oscillating moan to accompany it’s cutting black metal works (“Strange Balance,” “Grendel”). Similar to modern explorations in this world by recent Krallice albums, Wist often finds a forward movement through tightly wound, treble-loads fretwork—a fuzz-loaded squeal, a bend that’s ever so slightly off, a percussive palm-mute more reminiscent of a Cynic slide than any trv kvlt act would hammer—and warbling, nasally fretless bass whines. On heavier sections, and particularly on the horror-tinged mania of “Betrayal,” Wist’s progressive black metal attack feels chanting and bouncy against the lush synth layers in the same way you might, while star-gazing, hear Enslaved if Isa were playing on AM radio at the end of the tower’s nighttime reach. Strange Balance brings fog. Strange Balance brings intrigue. And, most importantly, Strange Balance brings an atmosphere to black metal that doesn’t rely on trem-loaded, trope-chomping sounds of the recent past. There’s a world where the first track is actually the last track, giving just that more weight to its lengthy endeavor. But I’m happy to be in a world, at least, where Wist exists to steal my attention again as they continue to grow. 3.0/5.0.

Iceberg: If I’m going to reach for lo-fi black metal, it sure as hell better have some small-batch, artisanal hot sauce drizzled all over it. Dolph knows this about me, so when he hawked Wist’s latest black-metal-but-with-other-stuff record for a Rodeö, I trusted his cetacean judgement. Strange Balance—you’d be hard-pressed to find a better name for this album—does a mostly brilliant job of oscillating between cavernous second-wave wailing and psychedelic sojourns with droning synths and ren-faire-ready acoustic guitars. The synth work reminiscent of Tangerine Dream (“Strange Balance”) and old-school NES soundtracks (“Betrayal”) makes for an odd bedfellow with the black metal it envelops; but it works! The band stays in a boisterous 6/8 meter for most of the record (“Grendel” especially), giving the music a swaying quality that reinforces the air of blackened whimsy. Listening on good headphones or a quality speaker set-up is a must here; the layering of the clean and harsh vox in “Strange Balance” and the discordant outro of “The River Returning” hold many treasures for the tuned ear. The only thing keeping Strange Balance from greatness is a tendency to harp a bit too long in transitional sections (“Strange Balance,” “Betrayal”), and a bizarre closer that—while well-performed—never seems to justify its existence. But don’t let these quibbles get in the way of a refreshing, unique take on ambient black metal. For those of you who like your shrieking weird and experimental, I have to recommend you check this out. 3.5/5.0

#2024 #AngryMetalGuySUnsignedBandRodeo #AngryMetalGuySUnsignedBandRodeo2024 #AtmosphericBlackMetal #BlackMetal #EnglishMetal #Enslaved #FrippEno #Krallice #Opeth #PinkFloyd #ProgressiveBlackMetal #ProgressiveMetal #StrangeBalance #TangerineDream #Wist

Dreamless Veil – Every Limb of the Flood Review

By Dolphin Whisperer

The supergroups of today’s widespread niche metal scenes look very different than the power collaborations that came before them. Once a result of prominent groups with big personalities that needed side expressions—like the punk-born MegaDave offshoot of MD.45 or Cavelera industrial conspiracy of Nailbomb—these kinds of acts came about less of intense creative need and more of freedom of available time and ideas. Really, that’s a long way of saying that the primary driving force behind these typically well-enough received by-products is not the same hunger that earned the primary incarnation its pedestal in the first place. So what then when the underground begins spawning permutations of its own outré offerings? Dan Gargiulo, once of a celebrated period for Revocation and a leading force for Artificial Brain, finds himself at the nexus of one such budding—Dreamless Veil. Assembled with now bandmate Mike Paparo (Inter Arma, Artificial Brain) and Psycroptic kitsmasher Dave Haley, can these friends, all top-tier performers, implement the supergroup form honestly?

Born not just of friendship and the urge to unleash artistic energy, both Gargiulo and Paparo suffered isolation together as roommates in the early days of pandemic reculsion, which thrust Dreamless Veil and Every Limb of the Flood into existence. Ever the busybody, Gargiulo stood at the ready with a bevy of riff structures in his trademarked expressive and sullen style. Much of what presents throughout Every Limb wouldn’t have sounded out of place as a companion to the heavily blackened sway of Artificial Brain’s 2017 release Infrared Horizon with “Dim Golden Rave” and “Cyanide Mine” falling right into that specific lane of space-frosted drama. And alongside dramatic and precise tremolo runs that clash about with a classic energy that recalls the progressive tendencies of an act like Diabolical Masquerade, Paparo’s kvlt-reverbed wail and Haley’s kick and blast beatings drill an equally bleeding and machine-like fervor into Every Limb’s most extreme passages (“Saturnism,” “Every Limb of the Flood,” “Dreamless”).

Despite the unquestionable proficiency of Dreamless Veil’s execution, it’s difficult to pin its highlights against the dense and textural choices that fill every second of space. Structurally, each song flows through verses, choruses, wonky modulations of already triumphant themes, and a recapitulation of each that almost always finds resolution in some form of fadeout, which renders the end of each statement a wash. As the lyricist and main mind for the actual story of Every Limb, a concept that follows a central character throughout its personal decay of mind and spirit, Paparo comes closest to filling the highlight reel with tortured wails and pathos-drenched cries (“Saturnism,” “Every Limb…”) that bely his door-smashing power that propels riff-weighted intros and escalations (“The Stirring of Flies,” “Dreamless”). But the backdrop as a continued stream of blistering, histrionic melodies and terraced counterpoints does little to differentiate the platform on which Paparo spills his devouring tale.

Yet that same quality which threatens to blend Dreamless Veil’s ideas into an intangible black mass also provides Every Limb with a compelling, tonally interesting environment. Gargiulo has shown his guitar prowess plenty in past projects, and all the same his subtle shifts in attack through recurring melodies—dreamy reverb excursions (“Dim Golden Rave,” “A Generation of Eyes”), tempo-jostled swinging time signatures (“The Stirring…,” “Cyanide Mine”), and a persistent dissonant lurch. And though packing these smart techniques in layers and layers of guitar, nary a solo nor flamboyant fill exists at any point of Every Limb. A carefully carved tone—a beauty on any listening device I have—and a cinematic drama carries the weight of each composition’s interest. None of this makes specific moments any easier to identify, but each adds up to Every Limb being a sonically pleasing experience worth returning to for ear candy alone.

Whether Dreamless Veil will be a one-off spurt of ideas tested, realized, and fulfilled matters little in the face of its simple success. As a concept album, its narrative isn’t wholly clear, but the forlorn spectacle that accompanies its reeling performances ensures that one at least feels the goal of dissolution for which it aims. Though Every Limb of the Flood fits neatly into a black metal box—almost too clean and curated in total package—its aspirations are more than kvltish khaos and confessional depressive monologue. And while Every Limb may not be the pinnacle of what a band that aims this high could offer in the world of storyboard sonic excess, its snappy and satisfying run remains difficult to disregard.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Relapse Records | Bandcamp
Websites: dreamlessveil.bandcamp.com | instagram.com/dreamlessveil
Releases Worldwide: September 20th, 2024

#2024 #30 #ArtificialBrain #BlackMetal #DiabolicalMasquerade #DreamlessVeil #EveryLimbOfTheFlood #InfraredHorizon #InternationalMetal #MelodicBlackMetal #ProgressiveBlackMetal #RelapseRecords #Review #Reviews #Sep24

Blighted Eye – Agony’s Bespoke Review

By Thus Spoke

In crafting their debut LP, Agony’s Bespoke, Blighted Eye claims to draw heavy inspiration from Jennifer Kent’s 2018 film The Nightingale. The film follows an Irish ex-convict seeking revenge on the British settlers who raped her and murdered her husband and infant child.1 Its honest portrayal of the hollowness of vengeance and the psychological impact of trauma are aspects Blighted Eye aims to transfer to its own interpretation of transformative tragedy. In the appropriately epic span of an hour, Agony’s Bespoke weaves a tapestry of hauntingly familiar progressive death and black metal that hides a few gut-wrenching punches in its deceptively cerebral folds.

The unlikely convergence of technical death metal and funeral doom gives rise to Blighted Eye’s stirring character. With members from Aethereus on guitars, vocals, and bass respectively, and a drummer from acts Mesmur and Pantheist, Blighted Eye’s pedigree is steeped in two very different interpretations of grandiosity and heady emotionality. Not that there’s more than a hint of doominess about Agony’s Bespoke, but the influence is noteworthy, as it helps produce an unusually affective strain of progressive extreme metal. I’m reminded of a hybrid of Hath and Alustrium, and even some Wake-isms rear their head, not purely in terms of literal sound, but in the intense feeling expressed in an otherwise niche, inaccessible musical style. From the many vibrant charges of frenetic, key-changing guitarwork and rhythmic complexity, to the swooping soloing and occasional moments of stillness, a strong thread of pathos runs unbroken through the album.

The use of intricate, extreme instrumentality to compel rather than alienate the listener is where Blighted Eye shows its mettle. Acrobatic solos don’t just dazzle with technicality, they impress in their development of the predominantly mournful themes (“In Enmity,” “A Feast for Worms”). Undulating, punctuating percussion isn’t just exhilarating and groovy, its tempo changes and crescendos sway the listener to the rhythm of Agony’s Bespoke’s tragedy, telling us when to breathe and when to release the tension wrought in clashing dissonance and torrential blastbeats (“The Wounding,” “Howls from Beyond the Mist,” “A Reverent Stillness”). And the key to it all is some of the most beautiful refrains technical death metal has to offer. With a shivery lick of excitement comes the tumbling main melody of opener “Tragoedia,” almost out of nowhere, yet inevitable from the restless anticipation of cymbal shuffling, and gradually intensifying riffs. With plaintive urgency, wailing lines (“In Emnity,” “Pallid,” and “A Reverent Stillness”) and blackened tirades (“The Wounding”) work together with vicious roars to smash open your ribcage and wrench your heart out of your chest, as the tempos batter you about in this tempest of emotion to the bounce of a fluttering riff (“Tragoedia,” “A Reverent Stillness”).

The only thing holding Blighted Eye back is ambition. As stirring as Agony’s Bespoke is, its strength is diluted by the runtime that overextends the reach of even the strongest tracks beyond their grasp. No song, save the short interlude, “Nightingale,”2 is less than six minutes long, and most could stand to lose a minute or so. There is the sense that the band had so many great ideas, they wanted to include them all. Take, for instance, the decisively dissonant death metal that characterizes “Pallid,” and the haunting, bleating cleans that arise here and there (“Howls from Beyond the Mist,” and the title track). The former is brilliantly executed, and leads to one of the best cuts on the album, though tonally it sticks out and is a little underdeveloped. The latter fits more naturally into the stylistic template but is a tad less strong. The music would also have benefitted from a more spacious mix that would allow its layered intricacies to allow the room to breathe and deliver the impact it is capable of. It’s nothing that can’t be improved upon and tightened up in the next release, though.

Agony’s Bespoke is, despite its flaws, a powerful record, and one for whom even the sin of an overlong runtime can’t truly detract from the impact it leaves on its audience. As it draws to a close, you do feel as though you’ve been on a journey, one whose peaks are worth its valleys. If this is what Blighted Eye can do in their debut, the scene had better be ready when they return to tell their next tale.

Rating: Very Good
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s CBR mp3
Label: Beyond the Top
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: September 20th, 2024

#2024 #35 #Aethereus #AgonySBespoke #Alustrium #AmericanMetal #BeyondTheTopRecords #BlackMetal #BlackenedDeathMetal #BlightedEye #DeathMetal #Hath #ProgressiveBlackMetal #ProgressiveDeathMetal #Review #Reviews #Sep24 #Wake

Hail Spirit Noir – Fossil Gardens Review

By El Cuervo

I copped significant flack for daring to suggest that the last Hail Spirit Noir outing deserved a mere 2.0 score; perhaps more flack than any other score I’ve ever awarded. Numerous – unwashed – commenters informed me that my opinion (formed over several weeks prior to release, versus their two listens on release day) was, in fact, wrong, and possibly even biased. The passage of four years has firmly validated my opinion. I re-listened to Eden in Reverse while preparing for these Greeks’ return. As previously described, it’s not terrible; just terribly lethargic and dreary. This stuck out from a quirky, inventive discography before 2020. Rest assured that in 2024 they offer a predictably unpredictable experience with Fossil Gardens. Though the bar for my formerly high expectations had been lowered, I now find myself enjoying them once more.

Hail Spirit Noir are never a band to rest on their laurels and Fossil Gardens pushes back towards blacker territory than we’ve heard from them in a decade. It features a couple of passages of blast beats and/or tremolo-picked guitars per song (just listen to the badass introduction to the title track!), save for the odd-but-enjoyable interlude called “Ludwig in Orbit.” On first brush, it could almost hoodwink you into thinking this is primarily a black metal release. Despite its blackened influences, it’s far more progressive, textured, and varied than anything out of Norway in the 90s. Describing the band as anything other than progressive metal wouldn’t be accurate. This is no bad thing; as stated previously, I have absolutely no qualms with proggy bands divesting themselves of their former, extreme metal homes. But the heavier crunch here comprehensively stamps out the torpor I experience from Eden in Reverse.

So what sort of progressive music does Fossil Gardens offer? It eschews slow builds and gradual development in favor of immediate energy and dynamism. “The Road to Awe” is the giant anchor track and the best representative of what this album tries to be. It emerges from a distant star system with the types of cosmic synths that I love, layering whining guitars and other synths as the introduction progresses. Surprisingly compelling soft singing later fills the front of the mix; the singer’s croon is stronger than ever and ties together with solid vocal hooks. The inevitable blast beats command the song within a few minutes, bolstered by the overarching synth melodies sitting above. Things escalate with heaviness before an album-highlight vocal transition from 5:10 that flips into a slower passage with chants. Likewise, the second half of the song blends a variety of heavier riffs and brief pauses. In short, Hail Spirit Noir offer grand, ambitious song-writing. It’s hard for me to fault the desire to create imaginative, dynamic music here.

The varied, kinetic songwriting and numerous instrumental layers results in Fossil Gardens being an exceptionally busy album. This busyness is always represented efficiently by the immaculate mix and solid mastering. Layers of synths and guitars are well-defined, such that their melody but also their crunch permeates the music. However, this doesn’t really soften the blow of the overly-mercurial songwriting. Insufficient attention is given to individual moments that stand out; from the opening lead on “The Temple of Curved Space” to the vocal hook in the middle of “The Road to Awe,” it feels like the highlight passages are too fleeting. The songs move on, or fail to return, such that it’s difficult to form a strong emotional connection with them. Fossil Gardens therefore feels a little less than the sum of its parts. There’s a lot of admire throughout but I don’t feel as enthused to re-begin as I should once I reach the end.

Even after ten full listens, I feel like I lack the final piece to the puzzle of Fossil Gardens. The one which means I understand how all the component pieces fuse into the overall picture it paints. If this hasn’t happened after so many listens in as many days then maybe it’s not going to. New listeners should know that Hail Spirit Noir haven’t released something straight-forward for easy consumption. What I can’t deny is the record’s boldness. It has bold songwriting, bold instrumentation, and bold production. It offers progressive metal with an especially dramatic flair, thereby flirting with the 3.5 score. It may not be perfect, but it will command your attention and make you ponder its purpose.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: Agonia Records
Websites: www.facebook.com/hailspiritnoir | hailspiritnoir.bandcamp.com
Releases worldwide: June 28th, 2024

#30 #BlackMetal #FossilGardens #GreekMetal #HailSpiritNoir #june24 #ProgressiveBlackMetal #ProgressiveMetal #Review #Reviews