post-metal

Nine Circles ov…2020: A Mid-Year Report

ChrisLeave a comment

1_European-Best-Pictures-Of-The-Day-June-13-Black-Lives-Matter-Rallies-Continue-Across-The-UK

I don’t think anyone expected the world to be where it was when 2020 kicked off.  To even attempt to put into words the surge of feelings around a global pandemic that refuses to go away, a wretched history of systemic racism, brutality, and ignorance being exposed and reckoned with in the streets all over the world, and everything else the first six months has brought to light is reckless and futile for me right now.  I continue to watch, listen, and learn as much as I can: to actively be part of a solution instead of passively being part of the problem.

In the moments between there is music, and if there’s even a glimmer of light right now, it’s in how good 2020 has been with regards to metal.  So let’s see where my penchant lies as we cross the halfway mark of year that feels like forever. Continue reading →

Album Review: Adzes — “No One Wants To Speak About It”

Charles Randall1 Comment

Adzes - No One Wants to Speak About It

If the opening thirty seconds of No One Wants To Speak About It by Adzes doesn’t immediately hook you, I don’t think we can be friends. Nothing hits the spot like heavy Isis-inspired riffs brutally nailed to a cross of harmonization and beauty. Sludgy and dark, angry and unforgiving, and bearing the unrelenting anti-capitalist and anti-fascist message, it is everything I want in my home-grown one man metal projects.

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Album Review: Arbrynth — “A Place of Buried Light”

IanLeave a comment

Arbrynth - A Place of Buried Light

It took a while for it to happen, but the weather here in Chicago finally reached the “endless gray and gloom” stage of winter, where every day feels exactly the same and there hasn’t been sunlight in what feels like months.  During these periods, I like to lean into the kind of music that embraces that chilly, desolate mood the snow and slush bring, and, just in time, Melbourne’s Arbrynth have released their sophomore album A Place of Buried Light.  The album perfectly encapsulates what a Chicago winter feels like: cold, dark but with a subtle hope for what’s next. Continue reading →

Album Review: Nero di Marte — “Immoto”

ZykloniusLeave a comment

Nero di Marte - Immoto

When a band takes over five years between albums, expectations can and should run wild, especially if your previous album stunned critics with its idiosyncratic style and unrestrained creativity, yet at the same time remained criminally unnoticed. Do you return with updates to your formula and double-down on your artistic approach or do you dilute the complexity of said formula to achieve a flavor more palatable to the masses? With Immoto, Nero di Marte tackle this dilemma decisively with mesmerizing results that reverberate hauntingly. Continue reading →

Album Review: The Osedax — “Meridians”

Charles RandallLeave a comment

The Osedax - Meridians

Is 2020 already crushing you with an overwhelming sense of doom and despair? An entire continent is on fire and an orange fascist is spinning up another war while planes full of innocent folk are shot out of the sky. So why not let Meridians by The Osedax bury you under the weight of an ocean as you sink into its sludgy embrace and post-metal soundscapes?

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