Already the tenth instalment of mini-reviews since our overhaul of the ill-named one-sentence reviews. That’s 80 new albums for you to discover! I certainly hope you found one or two that suited your tastes in there! Well, it doesn’t matter, we’ll keep churning them out!
Eschatos is a black metal band from Latvia with atmospheric black metal and post-metal elements. Their latest album, The Grand Noir, came out in May of 2015. It’s an okay album; it has its interesting bits, but they’re buried under the mass of forgettable material. Interesting fact: the band is female-fronted. Alas, it’s not interesting enough to keep me coming back.
Here’s some much more interesting material. Dolores Catherino is an Alaskan musician delving deep into microtonality, what she calls “polychromaticism”. She already did a TED talk about the subject. Her compositions are beautiful creations in different tuning systems. Recurrence is in 72 notes per octave, and I think it shines a light on microtonal music in a new and interesting way. Listen to this track and her other ones too!
Acidic Vaginal Liquid Explosion Generated by Mass Amounts of Filthy Fecal Fisting and Sadistic Septic Syphilic Sodomy inside the Infected Maggot Infested Womb of a Molested Nun Dying under the Roof of a Burning Church While a Priest Watches and Ejaculates in Immense Perverse Pleasure over His First Fresh Fetus, who often go simply by their acronym: “XavlegbmaofffassssitimiwoamndutroabcwapwaeiippohfffX”, is a brutal death metal band that is, from what I can tell, somewhat satirical, especially about some pornogrind or goregrind artists (and Harambe). However, despite what their name suggests, “Xavleg” are very listenable. Gore is indeed among the very good brutal death metal releases I’ve heard. It’s brutal and pointlessly profane, but there still are some amazing moments like the strikingly emotional guitar solo of “Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis”. Check ’em out!
Uncanny Din is a demo from Massachussetts band Den of Apparition. While they tag themselves as simply experimental, I’d categorize them more in the atmospheric black metal part of the spectrum. It’s dissonant and horrific, but there’s something lacking. Maybe it’s too monotonous and stagnant, it’s also oddly consonant for what it tries to achieve. Eh, better luck next time!
French band Dysylumn are releasing their next album, Chaos primordial, on October first. There’s six songs on the album, but only the title track can be streamed, now. It’s a slow-paced black metal release that fails to deliver, and does not reach the standard set by their debut album. While it wasn’t anything earth-shattering, it was a pretty good slab of atmospheric black metal. The very purpose of the band is in question, now, as their upcoming release is plain and blunt.
Let’s move into seldom-thread territory with the experimental pop album from Wartime Sweethearts, So Long Sparta. At best listenable, it’s an album that puzzles me as to its “experimental” labeling. I felt compelled to listen to it because other experimental and avant pop artists I’ve listened to have had a strong impact on me, but this feeling is completely absent from this release. While not bad per se, it has a great production and the songs are coherent and even interesting at times, they are in some sort of no man’s land; in-between the broad relatability of progressive pop and the sheer inventiveness of avant-pop, Wartime Sweethearts must make a decision and move in order to become relevant.

John Wesley is a new name to me, but he’s apparently been at it for quite some time. a way you’ll never be… is his upcoming album, out on October seventh on Inside Out Music. Fitting right in the midst of all these melodic progressive hard rock bands, this album does not connect with me at all. I have to say I have never been a big Porcupine Tree fan, but this reminds me of the band somewhat. His singing is good and the guitar solos are more than decent, but the rest of it, pretty much everything else, is something I find absolutely no grasp on, it just slips away without grabbing my attention. Maybe some of you will find the good in there.
And finally, Eggþér. They’re a black metal band from Denmark, and their EP Volume Null came out on the first day of August. While they’re pretty much everything I should like on paper – nihilistic, heavy, long songs… -, the finished product is nothing to succumb to. The atmospheric elements outweigh the progressive ones without even being noteworthy themselves. Some bands truly are masters of the creation of atmosphere in music, Eggþér should definitely take some lessons from them.