Mære – .​.​.​And The Universe Keeps Silent – (Transcending Obscurity Records)

Reading time: 2 minutes and 25 seconds.

Experimental blackened death sequences…

Maere (stylized Mære) is a German Blackened Death ensemble with a flair for atonal/dissonant music. Although they are being advertised as a “normal” old school death metal band, they are not exactly like it.

Yeah, of course something that has been lost by the new bands and Mære brings it back is the atonal form of music, example: First Autopsy albums, but this is something rather new as in the All Those Things We’ve Never Been (The Grandeur of Nihilism) that brings separated chunks of strange riffs in a large repetitive phrases, that one can only understand by listening to several times, while in the second song, Traumlande (Ascending The Abyss), these parts are even more minimalist, mixing in one part spoken word, and on another, guttural riffs, mid-tempo blasphemies, buzzing guitars and whatnot. In earnest, they are more Satyricon (from Now, Diabolical phase) than Morbid Angel and that’s a fact! Everything is somewhat irritating and that’s the deal, I mean, the band really sounds true, heavy, cool and DISSCORDANT! There is no way to label them other than experimental progressive black doom metal, or something of sorts. Of course, this label makes no sense, and it serves only for the one’s who haven’t listened to their music as of yet to understand approximately what they sound like.

Okay I cited Morbid Angel because it is alluded to on the press release and the song The Darkness Is Your Mother, clearly has influence on Maerein in this particular track. But over again it sounds higher pitched then the overall death metal music, clearly with black metal signals in it. There are drums that sound that it was done with MIDI, but only to satisfy one part of the song, put on purpose on background when the riff is being played louder on the forefront, but of course this is just a mix trick to make an effect of minimalist band, whereas the “real” drum occasionally returns. Interesting.

In the strangest Zdrowas Mario (Building The Temple) everything from doom metal to death and black metal over again blend and the result is otherworldly. This one clearly has a more complex structure.

Think Of Me As Fire is the most elaborate and standout composition of the album with various pieces put together but not as a “free-jazz” song, however like a structure thought by crazy and demented minds. In a darker day I would say by this point of the album the things grew wearing but I prefer to say that it became multifaceted.

This a strange disc but it is up to the listener to classify it. It’s is strange and original though.

​And The Universe Keeps Silent is out on Transcending Obscurity Records.

Rating: 7/10

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Roderick Blutrache

REPLICANT – Infinite Mortality – (Transcending Obscurity Records)

Reading time: 2 minutes and 40 seconds

Technical band shows how to do a great job!

Hailing from New Jersey, this coolest band present us with their 3^rd full length of pure technical and Avant Garde brutal death metal, because may be if this one shows their skills it is not a soft biz by any means.

For example, to give an extra force to their heaviness the bass lines of Mike Gonçalves (who also handle the vocals) are destructive and gives an enhanced dose of infernality to this great band as showed in the track Acid Mirror and the segue Shrine to the Incomprehensible where all complexity of change of tempos and destructive drums takes over in a rhythmic labyrinthine drum fills and spellbinding riffs. The dissonant notes and the rhythmic tapestry they woven are nowhere to be found in coolness I mean. And if you ever thought about a “deathcore” modern band, FORGET IT! This is true death metal, very complicated, but it is pure death metal.

This album gets better on which spin an over again the intricacy of the instruments takes over on the ultra-headbanger track Orgasm of Bereavement whose progressions are matchless, and aggression is paramount. Dude, I get the urge to break my neck in extasy every time I hear it and the subsequent track Reciprocal Abandonment with its ineffable rhythm resounds bands like Gorguts for example. Some jazzy parts appear in the midst of all the great noise and the intricacy here plays in their favor not against them. It’s everything enjoyable, not just a “free jazz” musical proposal of sorts. There’s real music in here.

From the moment Pain Enduring enters the listener is already taken. It’s like the old days where the fans used to get psyched when a new and rad death metal album appeared. Yes, it is that cool! This great tune is a sonic assault, with its relentless aggression and bone-crushing heaviness until Nekrotunnel enters to add to the musical binge! Double bass drumming at all velocity and unbridled nuclear energy in vocals are all discharged here for the happiness of death metal savants and musical connoisseurs. The enthralling solos and riffs dominate the last part of the song.

Although there is almost nothing left to show in terms of originality the subsequent Dwelling on the Threshold catalyzes the energy of the album so far and the last Planet of Skin with its 9+ minutes of music gives the listener a space for him/her (to) absorbs what the whole disc is. Sluggisher than other tracks it showcases all their dexterity little by little and it’s a hell of a grand finale.

Infinite Mortality by Replicant is a rare album where all technicalities and fresh ideas doesn’t sound extremely weird for the listener to get. It’s undeniable that these dudes are no ordinary band, but they play like they are metal fans and make their complexity enjoyable for those who just want to sit right back and dig some death metal music. They deserve more and more on each album because they are one of the best in this style.

Infinite Mortality is going to be released next Friday, April 19^th on Transcending Obscurity Records

Rating: 9/10

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Roderick Blutrache

VORGA – Beyond The Palest Star (Transcending Obscurity Records)

Reading time: 2 minutes and 30 seconds.

The outer space atmospheric experience is back.

Vorga returns with their sophomore album with many better black metal sounds that will melt one’s face away!

After the excellent album Striving Toward Oblivion released in 2022 they had the task to create something with quality and this new opus, Beyond The Palest Star, won’t let their fans down with a infernal cosmic attack on the opener called Voideath that shows melodic black metal played with passion for the style and although is difficult to find (or to explain) what is so special about tis track, it shows the dexterity of the band and the production definitely puts Vorga on the pantheon of the greatest Black Metal bands! Proof is the anthemic guitar in the very last part of the song which deserves more and more spins.

The second song brings the diverse nature of their music in the form of The Sophist, where the symbiotic instrumental show why Vorga is so cool… sometimes is not just about composition of the song, but how it is played and the sound of the drums alongside the change of several change of phrases makes this tune something special: gritty melodic music is what it is!

However Magical Thinking is a more obvious biz, with the music resounding a melodic Death Metal band and not a black metal one but this does not change the nature of the disc because at the end of the day the cohesive factor of the album prevails.

The Cataclysm brings more excellence and over again the notes on the song highlights their musicianship because the atmospheric melody in this one along with really heavy guitars matches their spatial proposal of the album. It’s a strange trip and when the following track – Tragic Humanity – enters, resounding Dark Funeral, it throws the listener in a state of levitation throughout the room. I said it is strange and by the end of the track the real black metal fan is finally hooked.

Fractal Cascade announces the final stretch of the album, and Vorga shows how to play a proper atmospheric black metal music and it’s a perfect blend of melodic, hypnotic and true black metal that oozes from the speakers in a delicious repetition that never gets boring.

The Terminal, the last song of the album, seems to be a summary of the album and the several pieces joins into one great track, and the highlight of the moment is he solo and by the second part of the song.

Vorga is not playing to be a band and they are serious about their intentions: for me, since the beginning they are in for the kill, and Beyond The Palest Star will be the corollary of a star that was born into greatness. This cats really take black metal the way it must be. If you don’t like them, soon you will, be aware of that.

Beyond The Palest Star is out now on Transcending Obscurity Records.

Rating: 8/10

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Roderick Blutrache

DEFECT DESIGNER – Chitin (Transcending Obscurity Records)

Reading time: 2 minutes.

A band that brings inventiveness to death metal

Okay, Deathgrind, Brutal death metal, technical death metal, this time around, one can call Defect Designer as he/she wishes because maybe they are everything in this new album called Chitin. Not that they throw a confusing musical abashment and leave people in awe just for the sake of it. They do make some good music, it’s a controlled craziness if you wish.

For example, in Uglification Spell they dare to divide the song in two parts leaving one wondering if the second track has just started. It’s a beautiful piece of deathgrind which is heavy and mental at the same time while To Ziggurat more insanity and even though the song not being the fastest of the album, it doesn’t’ stop to amuse by constant change of tempos and phrases on the guitar.

Simulacrum continues the brutal binge and it’s very interesting to try and guess what is going next in the song. They work in the sound textures all the time and with We Will Need Your Chitin is no different, they play with the concept of tempo, bringing thrashy parts, rock parts, a brutality at will and believe me when I say, It’s not random music.

The riff of We Prescribe is instantly recognizable not withstanding being the fastest song of the album, the production in this piece reflects the diligence of the band within the studio. Perfection.

Let’s jump to an interesting piece called Shine Shine that destroys the notion of death metal, because although all the heaviness in a mid-tempo piece this song is an excellent rock piece. No, it’s not deathcore, mind you. It’s just a great song. And somewhat is upbeat! The subsequent track called Story Of A Styrofoam starts with a jazzy intro and this one is the crazier on the album which I love. After some sleight of hand, the song explodes into a grindcore that will melt your face off!

Nu, Pogodi! sounds a song off of a cartoon. Yeah and that’s it. Adorable.

But Orgone Accumulator is a bona fide dissonant technical death metal that will destroy your senses. The riff choices are on the spot in this one.

Defect Designer is not just technical bull and pell-mell notes. It’s also creativity, something that’s very important (and also very rare) on Death Metal. This album shows this band is about to be big!

Chitin is out TODAY on Transcending Obscurity Records.

Rating: 9/10

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Roderick Blutrache

FATHOMLESS RITUAL – Hymns For The Lesser Gods – (Transcending Obscurity Records)

Reading time: 1 minute and 30 seconds.

Dexterity in iteration.

Hailing from Canada (where else?) this is Fathomless Ritual debut album with 8 tracks of technical death metal clocking in at 38 long minutes.

An one-man band, B. Dean controls everything, even the drum programming which surprisingly has a good sound.

Well, Hecatomb for an Unending Madness has well produced sound showing the dexterity of B. Dean in managing confusing time signatures in bass and guitar and Exiled to the Lower Catacombs is no different although the songs are always at the same tempo.

By the third song, Gorge of the Nameless, the music starts to sound repetitive and the same happens with the fourth track Grafted to the Chambers of Mirth. Look, this is not the case of an album that shows knack for the sake of knack. B. Dean is really good and the soloing on the former is deliciously made, and only the oldsters will love it because it is real death metal.

Now the not-so-good surprise: all the songs sound the same by the middle to final of the disc: everything is fine until it is not. The intricacies find barren ground when confronted with the same tempo of the entire album, an inexcusable mistake because the listener starts to lose heart in which passing song , and they are not bad if listened separately.

Take the case Wielding the Bone Wand, that would have a brilliant future had it not been for aforementioned cause: iteration not in composition but in TEMPO.

A piece of advice to the listener: savor the tracks one at a different time. A piece of advice to B. Dean: start to play with other guys. Maybe the band gain momentum by some new and refreshed ideas.

Hymns For The Lesser Gods is out now on Transcending Obscurity Records.

Rating: 5/10

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Roderick Blutrache

TEMPLE OF SCORN – Funeral Altar Epiphanies (Transcending Obscurity Records)

Reading time: 1 minute and 50 seconds.

When death metal leads you to eternal ruins!

Temple of Scorn is a strange, extreme, doom-laden death metal band from Denmark and this release is their debut full length (the other being an EP called Preliminary Mass that has 3 songs of this album, Funeral Altar Epiphanies, but in different demo versions).

They seem to have no respect for humankind castigating the listener with a sound similar (but never an imitation) of Incantation, mainly on the vocals and the muddy mastering force feeding the listener to eternal disgrace and when the track Burden of Decline starts to play one will get his own face off, by the wall of noise that is degrading to the core, with some fast parts but mainly with snail paced ones… The same can be said of the song Begotten by the Envenomed (a magistral track) that inhumes the listener in the sands of a cursed cemetery! The sound is so heavy that it becomes a burden.

When the song Icons of Demonic Virtues start to play, one has the impression he has listened to it before. Never mind the originality in riffs, the thing here is the musical contempt that spurts from the speakers, leaving no room for neophytes and Portals of Dystopia lives up to its name, like a strike from the dead reaching out to your guts. Everything here is swampy, dark and disgraceful.

Title-track Funeral Altar Epiphanies is an ode to the doomest sounds out there, with evilness and even being snail-paced, played with gusto for the macabre and Wretched Inner Sanctum is not so different although it is faster than the former, over again bringing desolation in form of lethal death metal!

Burning Palace of Wisdom is the closer and although the album sounds a little bit worn out by then, it doesn’t lose its venomous effect and maybe the intention is no different to leave the listener in rags! Dissonant guitars all around, irritating and destructive.

Temple of Scorn mustered the best in grandiose death doom metal, and those who like to suffer, won’t forget this album so fast.

Funeral Altar Epiphanies is going to be out In November 24th on Transcending Obscurity Records.

Rating: 8/10

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Roderick Blutrache

VOMITHEIST – NekroFvneral – Transcending Obscurity Records

Reading time: 1 minute and 30 seconds.

Honest and decent OSDM from Swiss lands

Normally I don’t like the terminology OSDM (why not just death metal), oh well.

That being said, Vomitheist is a band that (over again) remembers Entombed and Dismember (more of the latter) with bits of Autopsy in this sophomore full length and they do a good work in making an honest form of death metal. The album clocks in at 44 minutes and has 11 songs, so I’ll just talk about the highlights.

For example, by mixing death and doom in the track Epidemic Disembowelment with a little of old Death from Scream Bloody Gore, Vomitheist brings the old feeling of the glorious days of Death Metal with a well thought guturallity, and riffs that will explode one’s mind in an accurate dose of putridity while Morbid Decomposition impresses with delicious guitar licks and mid-tempo torrent of riffs that have some axes to grind.

Putrefaktor doesn’t sound lackluster, instead the band ups the ante with double bass drumming, very headbanger indeed and Symbiotic Putrefaction mixes perfectly the Swedish and American schools of metal of death that doesn’t stop at nothing!

Tormenting Fungal Infestation continues the blood fest with infernal metal and tremolos that will leave the true old schooler completely head over heels and that’s for sure. Pure decomposing music to sore ears.

Gut Asphyxiation, as the silly name implies, returns to origins of the style in an attack of drums, guitars and heavy bass in a never-ending streaming of disgraceful sounds…

Title track, NekroFvneral, is one of the best tracks for sure, no compromising all the way, leaving a trail of death and destruction that will forever survive the trends.

To end the old school massacre, the 12-minute tune named Carnivorous Cult goes from death to doom gradually as the minutes pass, and there are a little of everything that the album is made of: velocity, headbanging, heaviness mi-tempo paranoia and it ends in a very snail-paced note leaving the listener in ruins.

All in all, this album, with a total of 12 tracks is a class of how metal was made in the old days, and although bringing nothing original it leaves no space for trends, poser, wimps and wannabes. Jump in or die!

NekroFvneral is out ow on Transcending Obscurity Records.

Rating: 8/10

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Roderick Blutrache

DECIPHER – Arcane Paths To Resurrection (Transcending Obscurity Records)

Reading time: 1 minute and 50 seconds.

When Greeks take over.

It’s undeniable that the Greeks are expanding their biz of black metal in the vein of Rotting Christ and Varathron in order to take over the world with Hellenic quality and the black metal practiced here by Decipher is of the Blackened Death Quality and It’s less Blasphemy and more Belphegor putting their Greek mark on their music.

That being said this album strangely didn’t get me on the first spins but it’d grew on me day after the day with trivial but mortal and above all HONEST sound, that puts them on a superior position when the poser bands appeal (to) more and more to inorganic music, something that Decipher denies to carry on. Here a guitar is a guitar ad a drum kit is a drum kit. 

Songs like Chants Of The Unholy and Lost In Obscurity follows the base of black metal with harsh vocals and tempos of death metal (old school) when there was no clear difference between them, everything being arcane and dark and fast.

On the track Enslaved To Be the band continues the binge of heaviness and earworm riffs, and although the production with a certain degree of dirtiness, the sound is audible, heavy, a punch in the face and the same can be said about Altar Of The Void with the ESSENTIAL riffs and tempo that one can not explain how can a normally simple idea can be so seminal without sound obvious… all I can really say in that this track is a constitutional part and parcel of the disc.

Then enters another massacre called Penance, which demonstrates fastness and gusto at the same track and what is the thing I admire the most is to take an obvious idea and to transform that into something with first rate quality.

Last track Sanctum Regnum is the obvious conclusion of the metal CLASS given here to the bands to come. This not “old-school” anything, this is headbangers making black and death metal for the sake of it.

This album will take those who don’t care about plastic sounds and want extreme metal the way it is.

Arcane Paths To Resurrection is out now on Transcending Obscurity Records.

Rating: 9/10

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Roderick Blutrache

IGNOMINY – Imminent Collapse (Transcending Obscurity Records)

Reading time: 2 minutes and 10 seconds.

Dissonant collapse of mind.

Ignominy is a Quebecois band that makes a lot of noise in this first and killer debut album called Imminent Collapse that will seriously cause harm of any type inside your helpless mind and let me say that this particular type of death metal has been taking my mind by assault as of late, pure chaos and destruction.

Frantic Appeasement starts midtempo and with an alarm-like guitar like in Sepultura’s Chaos AD which is somewhat the leitmotif of the word dissonant here that will dominate the WHOLE album but don’t fool yourself, this band is NO Sepultura, soon, the sound starts to go to an ultra velocity, brutal guitars, and unforgiven guttural vocals that rips one’s brain to shreds while on the second song – Defaulting Genetics –  the same guitars appear over again with variations of vocals, technicality and delicious confusion. This stuff is heavy!

A menacing “alarming guitar” announces the track called Reminiscence of Hatred and thereupon the whole thing explodes like grenade sending shrapnel in your direction. And then everything goes to a menacing mode again, and, as a matter of course, everything gets back to knock you cold with a blatant end.

Nightmare Bacteria is no different even it being more doom like and that’s the quality of this album: it changes the tempo, the phrases, but never the momentum they’ve created along it so far. It’s full of bleak passages along with groovy death metal somewhat resounding a heavier version of Decapitated, but they’re original enough for comparisons. The noisy and noisome end will disturb your neighbors for sure but just when you think it’s over, they come back for more with the track Visceral where those alarming guitars reign absolute in a midtempo beginning that gives space to more layers of perturbing sound leaving the listener downtrodden. Maybe the quieter parts are so well done that one even doesn’t notice that the noise has somewhat ended to give space to the grand finale again. It’s fine setting.

Visuals announces the end of this demented disc, the sound being not so different from the other songs, and this time around the album start to go through the motions but fear not, it sounds like it HAS to be there, it must be this way.

Infernal is a bland word to describe it. This album is a tour de force in a style that if is not good explored may sound like shit, and clearly that ISN’T the case with the great Ignominy.

Imminent Collapse is out now on Transcending Obscurity Records.

Rating: 8/10

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Roderick Blutrache

DYSGNOSTIC – Scar Echoes (Transcending Obscurity Records)

Reading Time: 2 minutes and 40 seconds.

The complex universe of the Danes

Danish band Dysgnostic is not exactly new. They are a continuation of the brutal death metal band called Defilementory. This is the debut album of Dysgnostic album though.

I’ve seen on interwebz someone calling them “boring death metal”. It’s not exactly that. The fact that this band is different and has a convoluted sound make the danes hard to understand in one or two spins. There is something very special about them and they aren’t just “dissonant death metal” if labels cold explain anything.

Fact is one has to give it one million spins and the album gets better by the rotation.

For example, the opener called Dysgnostic (hohoho), is very slow paced, almost a doom metal, but for me it works as an intro as the final track Darkest Muse sounding like the very same theme, works as an outro.

That explained let’s delve into the work of Dysgnostic: second track called Silvery Tongues, it’s a like a vortex of originality, the riffs (as in the whole album) being extended and lengthier than the drums. This is not a kind of polyrhythm or whatever, like Meshugga or Frank Zappa (although it may have influences of). The phrases here as (mainly) in the 3rd song Beneath Abyssal Plains really causes a vortex sensation but that is from the way phrases and tempos are played, drum fills and all the jazz. By the way the latter is a great song and it causes a confusion in the head!

There is an effect, like an alarm, that persecutes all the songs, and in the Oceans of Grey is not different, and it serves as a guide to the craziest constant change of tempos. It’s a like a clockwork symphony where nothing can be wrong but the sound is heavy as hell although not necessarily brutal death metal. As it is proved in the next song called Nothing’s Embrace. When one dares to listen to this album like several times, this one song starts to become a staple. Interesting as hell, the trick here is to mentally join what it sounds spare parts into one cohesive thing. The guys know what’s going on. The listener has to figure it out. But, sure, there are parts that are fully comprehensive.

Scion of Absence sounds like a deconstruction of something, not a musical deconstruction, but a musical representation of this deconstruction therein. Abstractly one can image bricks being separated on a universe (no I’m not on drugs) while the drums and riffs are being spiraling. The solo by the end of it brings an elegance that is an icing in the cake.  After that, the track Eternal Recurrence is not exactly a contrast of the former one, but is not a continuation as well, it is something in between (no, I’ve told you folks, I’m not into drugs!). The musical vortex takes over everything.

This album is not for everybody which means that is not a bad album. This is excellent by the way. It’s original, and that may or may not pleases you. That doesn’t mean they aren’t first rate in what they do, and no, they aren’t another dissonant death metal band.

Scar Echoes is out now on Transcending Obscurity Records.

Rating: 9/10

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Roderick Blutrache