The Best Thing I’ve Heard All Week: Kilter – La suspendida


I’ve been a huge fan of the progressive metal band Kilter since their Axiom album back in 2020, and they’ve kept busy with the amazing Sys album and, coming in March, La suspendida. This upcoming album is an experience on a whole other level.

First off, the album is sold as a jazz-metal opera about a woman discovering herself through death, and for this occasion they brought together Folterkammer singer Andromeda Anarchia, the impossibly cool Growlers Choir, and the Seven Suns string quartet, and that’s without mentioning dancers Fanny Coulm and Yutaka Nakata, who are central to the … Read more

Ariadne – Stabat Mater

On 27 October, New York’s experimental electronic multimedia duo Ariadne will release their long-awaited fourth album, titled Stabat Mater. While I wasn’t initially fond of their previous release, Tsalal, it grew on me tremendously, leading me to believe I might simply have not been ready yet for this sort of experience. On Stabat Mater, however, Christine and Benjamin take things to a whole new level. Here, songs are shorter, but there are a lot more of them: twenty, in total – but it could be argued that there is only one, a fifty-minute giant split into various … Read more

EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE: Les chants du hasard – Chant I: Le théâtre

French avant-gardist black metal project Les chants du hasard release their debut, self-titled album on June twenty-third. We’ve already reviewed the amazing and forward-thinking album right here, but, today, we team up with the band and I, Voidhanger Records to bring you a new song in anticipation of the release.

‘Chant I: Le théâtre’ is the album’s first track, and it puts all on the table. You’ve got the whole orchestra with their melancholic and slightly dissonant beauty, the gravelly and pitiless vocals, as of a decadent opera, sing hopeless lyrics in this devoid of any light chant. It … Read more

Les chants du hasard – Les chants du hasard

Les chants du hasard is a mysterious solitary project from France that’s throwing the traditional metal instruments by the window in favour of a completely orchestral work. The classical instruments are joined by the delirious voice of the so-called Hazard, only soul behind the ambitious project. The synthetic orchestra is convincing enough, except a rare few occasions where their electronic nature pierces through; the main culprits are the percussions. Easily disregarded, this minor detail should not obscure the whole work, because missing such a grandiose piece would be detrimental to you only! The texts are written in French prose and … Read more

Review: Zelophilia – Lust, Loathing, & Love

You want crazy? You get crazy! First of all I think you have to know that zelophilia is when you are sexually aroused by jealousy. The more you know… They label themselves as a “so called ‘band'”, yes, the “so called” is part of their self-description, and they say of themselves that they sound like “a childishly simplified, watered down combination of Meshuggah, The Locust, Dillinger Escape Plan, and Daughters.” Which bears some truth. I’ve also read the term “avant-garde baroque” about them. What’s more, they even made a commercial for their debut album (see below)!

The album’s a mess … Read more