Author: Zyklonius

Album Review: Thantifaxath – “Hive Mind Narcosis”

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Hearing Thantifaxath’s debut full-length Sacred White Noise for the first time in 2014 formed an epiphany, an immediate realization of witnessing the manifestation of an instant contemporary classic in the field of black metal, a work of art almost too strange, horrifying and beautiful to comprehend, and one that has stood the test of time. Those of us ravenously chasing the first high of experiencing the album got their fix in the form of 2017’s magnificent, and aptly titled, Void Masquerading as Matter EP. At long last, we have Hive Mind Narcosis, a new portal to the collective creative psyche of Thantifaxath.

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Album Review: Usnea — “Bathed in Light”

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One of my favorite experiences with metal is how a band I enjoy vanishes from my radar screen, remains removed from my consciousness for years and then makes a roaring return with an album that transcends their previous achievements. It’s been six long years since Usnea released their previous album, the towering Portals into Futility, and Bathed in Light reveals that the absence has only hardened the band’s artistic resolve as calamitous global events and personal tragedies of the intervening time have whipped them into a creative frenzy.

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Second Circle: Polymoon and Entropia

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In Dante’s Inferno, the second circle begins the proper punishment of Hell, a place where “no thing gleams.” It is reserved for those overcome with Lust, where carnal appetites hold sway over reason. In Nine Circles, it’s where we do shorter reviews of new (ish) albums that share a common theme.

It’s time for a heroic dose of heavy psychedelia administered by two of my old favorites that have found new imaginative pathways on their latest albums: Polymoon’s Chrysalis and Entropia’s Total.

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Receiving the Evcharist: Necrovation and Other Half Brewing’s Mylar Dust

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Receiving the Evcharist 2018

Excellent metal and beer continue flowing abundantly and the cup of heresy overfloweth. This week’s offering: Necrovation’s Storm the Void / Starving Grave and Other Half Brewing’s Mylar Dust.

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Album Review: Turbid North — “The Decline”

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Turbid North - The Decline

Memory can be a fickle thing. Too many years have passed since the release of 2015’s celebrated Eyes Alive and my recollections have admittedly become somewhat hazy, but I nevertheless recalled Turbid North sounding entirely different than the barrage of singles released ahead of The Decline, an album that contains a degree of ferocity and variety you don’t get to hear every day.

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