The most interesting releases of the week!
I’m not usually a post-metal person. La Siagnee, the debut release from French post-metal band Zero Absolu, is worth attention anyways. Featuring just two, long, meandering songs, La Saignee brings to mind obviously groups like Cult of Luna and Solstafir, but also similarly weird bands inhabiting a post-space such as Portal to the God Damn Blood Dimension (different genre, same approach to music). La Saignee was released on AOP Records.
Zero Absolu play sharp notes with crisp production. You can really see for miles as you get lost in these massive tracks, glaciers melting around you. And while the progression of the songs doesn’t always hit, La Saignee maintains solid interest throughout and shows plenty of restraint. With Zero Absolu, you get plenty of black metal kick, plenty of introspective bitterness, and plenty of wallowing while looking towards the future.
Sidereal Malignancy is the debut EP from Brazilian death metal group Cosmophage, released on Blood Harvest Records and Me Saca Un Ojo Records this week. Sort of. The band previously released an EP under the name Utterance and Sidereal Malignancy originally came out in October 2024 but is being re-released on CD now. So outside of every detail, the first sentence is entirely correct. Cosmophage make death metal for people who got tired of cavernous death metal but still yearn for it. People who are too cool for Tomb Mold.
The promo material rejects the term “tech” for this music, instead opting for “fully fried.” And yes, the tech label doesn’t quite sit right. Instead you end up with rambunctious riffs that operate a bit closer to the wankery side of the genre than most non-tech colleagues, but the focus usually stays on mosh over technique. The songs stay brief, the vocals stay gutteral, and the EP feels like a brief glimpse into this band’s future.
Eschaton Magicks is second wave worship played straight in tone, if not in songwriting. Nachash‘s second full-lenth was released on Signal Rex. They nailed the balancing act of sounding aggressively jagged, like they had “mom’s basement” production levels, while also keeping all instruments clear and audible. You get clear death/thrash influnce on Eschaton Magicks. Atmsophere and tremolos are abandoned in favor of speed and distortion.
The production and initial impression of Nachash hide some deft song crafting skills. On Eschaton Magicks, the band inserts the little flairs into their songs that allow them to use standard song structures and styles and strengths and not as crutches. But you’re stuck with riffs and attitude as the entire point of the music, leaving you with something like a snarling demon driving a non-flashy luxury car. Nachash have been kicking around for almost 15 years now. Time to listen to them if you haven’t yet found them.
Lunar are a marvelous progressive metal group in the style of Tranzat, Haken, or Thank You Scientist. Tempora Mutantur is their fourth album and was released on Saibot Reigns. Their last full-length release, The Illusionist, came out in 2023 and is worth checking out if you haven’t already. Lunar makes prog music that feels exploratory. The sounds on this album feel like they shouldn’t hang together and sometimes don’t, but that never stops the band from trying to mash weird sounds or progressions together. I can appreciate music that tries and fails, but more often than not, Lunar try and wildly succeed.
Tempora Mutantur is big. Some tracks are quite long, the music covers a wide range of instruments and sounds, and everything feels busy all the time. Music piles on top of other music until you’re crushed and can’t remember how you got buried. It can be difficult to grasp the bigger picture while you’re frantically jumping from one note to another. And while the splattershot sound that you initially get from Lunar is worthy of attention in its own right, this band really thrives under repeat listens. You can hear the band drip effort and you can hear the cathartic payoff, and you get sick guitar solos and virtuosic, emotionally fulfilling full-group passages throughout. This album is a fully realized accomplishment.