The most interesting releases of the week!
From the opening sorrowful notes that lead into soft vocal harmonies, Antinoë does a great job hooking the listener and bringing them into…well. This is a dark folk album released on Karisma Records. Fans of Myrkur and Ulver will find a lot to love with The Fold.
Antinoë‘s sparse instrumentation serves as a strength. The majority of the album consists of piano and vocals and nothing else, which lets both instruments use their full emotional range. The piano shrinks down to a murmur that’s worth straining to hear, as vocals shift in and out in various arrangements full of angst, sorrow, and hope. As good as the songwriting is, the performances are close to perfect.
Both Shores of Null and Convocation have been making excellent doom metal for a few years now, albeit with different styles. A split between the two seemed like the sort of release worthy of celebration, and as it turned out, it was. Released on Everlasting Spew, Latitudes of Sorrow shows both bands crawling along the ground at all cylinders. Fans of Evoken, Esoteric, or Oromet may enjoy.
The most surprising part of this split is how much the two bands pull their sounds towards one another. Convocation lightened up their devastating funeral doom approach just slightly, allowing more mournful melodies and a softer approach to enter their music. And Shores of Null kicked it up a bit, writing something darker and denser than they’ve ever played before. Both bands elevate each other to create a triumphant release.
Bestial Possession, released on Transcending Obscurity Records, is Depravity‘s third straight successful offering of insane death metal. Fans of Hate Eternal and Nile may enjoy. As with the band’s previous albums, Bestial Possession sounds busy, with riffs and blast beats flying through the air with no regard for safety. The band’s aggression has worked against them in the past as it causes them to come off as one-note, but on Bestial Possession there is enough variety within violence to keep the sounds fresh.
Starting with opening track “Engulfed With Agony,” Depravity offer excessive flair. The constant churning of notes only works due to the band’s ability to create distinction through a well-timed solo, fill, or change in growl tone. Bestial Possession contains enough small twists in the music to let the band’s performances shine through, which is a relief because said performances are uniformly successful.
Egregious Defilement is the debut EP from death/doom act Decrepit Altar, released on Me Saco Un Ojo Records. This thing is short and nasty. With obvious similarities to bands like Spectral Voice, Borboropsis, and Worm, Decrepit Altar should find a ready and eager audience for their brand of filth. The band plays the style well.
Decrepit Altar‘s guitar tones alone are worth a listen, and the band knows it. Their riffs are seemingly written to allow notes to linger in the listener’s ear with a glorious buzz. The vocals are another highlight, with the vocalist displaying a surprising range for this style of cave gurgling. And while three quarters of the band seems to have played together in another death/doom group prior to Decrepit Altar, the cohesion that the quartet gives to their performances makes the music stretch out and tower over you more than it otherwise would have.
Lost Within the Astral Crypts is Morbikon‘s second full-length, and was released on Tankcrimes. The music sounds like an overstuffed combination of 75% Skeletonwitch and 25% Dark Tranquility. The writing is excellent, matching some of the catchiest riffs of the year with the flavor of aggression that only blackened thrash can give you. Combine that with virtuosic solos and some genuine-sounding emotion in the vocals, and you have quite the album.
I do wish that the production was a little less stuffy, but I suppose that’s just blackened thrash. There are a few moments where all the instruments drop out except for a blistering guitar line, and some of the effect is lost without a larger dynamic contrast. The drums could also sound sharper (in terms of production only, the actual playing fits the music like a glove). But these blemishes only matter because of the sheer heights that the songs go to, and I find myself not caring about any of that when the next stunning guitar solo or riff that is about to ruin my week hits.
