Dec 24, 2024
Show 2, Best of 2024, with my #1 band, Spectral Wound (CAN)!
1:46-7:26
SPECTRAL WOUND
(CAN), album - Songs Of Blood and Mire
The Horn Marauding
— Magical black metal that is
despaired, intense, and powerful.
8:03-13:40
MODERN RITES
(US/Swiss), album - Endless
Veil Of Opulence
— Melodic black metal crashing down
from a storm of clouds.
14:14-21:29
IOTUNN (Denmark),
album - Kinship
The Coming End
— Thunderous vocals in a complex and
epic death with grandiose, melodic compositions backed by an insane
drummer playing with proggy, intricate rhythms.
21:58-26:22
KERES (Italy),
album - Homo Homini Lupus
Void and Silence
— Ear-worm fun tech melodic death
with a maelstrom of hurtling drums, and complex, writhing
guitars.
27:19-34:24
LUUSÄKKI (Finland),
album - S/T
Fifth of the Fifth
Columns
— A one-person black and death metal
with wretched vocals set against creepy noise and bleak
black.
35:05-40:13
NIGHTWRAITH
(Denver), album - Divergence
Perpetual Night
— Proggy melodic and flying guitar
solos, 70s keyboards and flute with the incredible throaty vocals
that we love.
40:39-44:56
THE MOSAIC WINDOW
(CA), album - Hemasanctum
Incantation to Summon the
Unstable
— Moody meets groove. Flying thrash
guitars and an impassioned vocalist leading us through moments of
zen.
45:33-51:11
MÚR (Iceland),
album - S/T
Múr
— Lush black metal for the blackest
of skies and the thickest of stars, broken by lurching tempos and
rocking riffs.
51:33-57:16
DISLOYAL (Poland),
album - Divine Miasmata
Religion Of Warfare
— Thunderous death, sweeping riffs, a
sly and ominous lead vocalist and proggy, dynamic and intricate
compositions.
57:44-1:04:07
SEAR BLISS
(Hungary), album - Heavenly Down
The Winding Path
— 70’s style majestic synth and horns
that add to their ambient black metal, evolving to chomping, fist
pumping earworm and a touch of sludge.
1:04:47-1:10:23
ANOXIDE (UK),
album - Morals & Dogma
Age of Austerity
— Vocals are a punch within uneasy,
blistering death with sticatto, djent additions.
1:10:50-1:14:19
CHAT PILE (OK),
album - Cool World
Shame
— Retro-leaning moody melodic
hardcore modernized with sludge and noise and 90s indie
guitar.
1:14:46-1:19:17
CABINET (US),
album - Hydrolysated Ordination
Hydrolysated Ordination
— Immediate malevolence of death
suffocation, but in a meditative lovely way.
1:19:52-1:25:49
BLOOD INCANTATION
(Denver), album - Absolute Elsewhere
The Message [Tablet I]
— Their furnace death metal cut with
instrumental twists and 70s krautrock and a splatter of Pink Floyd
that creates floating bubbles of synthy metal
candy.
1:26:14-1:31:29
VORGA (GER),
album - Striving Toward Oblivion
Starless Sky
— Plenty of heartstrings pulled with
chilling notes in hypnotic arrangements, and cool spacy synth
creating beautiful melodies.
1:32:07-1:35:52
REPLICANT (NJ),
album - Infinite Mortality
Nekrotunnel
— A best of 2021 band with members in
Putrascension, a best of 2023 band. Baritone and screech
charges like a warrior within octane intricate technical death and
angular tempos.
1:36:23-1:39:36
SUMMONING THE LICH
(MO), album - Under The Reviled Throne
The Forest Feasts
— An incredible live performance, and
more of the topnotch dueling vocals and technical at the speed of
light.
1:40:12-1:46:57
AKLASH (UK),
album - Reincarnation
Cossack
— Doom, melodic black, psychedelic
and folk with horns and accordion that is intense and satisfyingly
groovy.
1:47:26-1:51:58
KARKOSA (IN),
album - Esoterrorcult
Shattered Throne
— Compressed rasps and
tumbling-forward vocals with an avalanche of lyrics in a wickedly
paced black metal with tech death elements.
1:52:24-1:57:29
VOLCANDRA (KY),
album - The Way Of Ancients
Not Even Death
— Knife vocals and bludgeoning
baritones create an epic, moody black and death with catchy thrashy
awesomeness.
1:57:54-2:04:06
CARRION VAEL (IN),
album - Cannibals Anonymous
Savage Messiah
— In my Best of 2022, this is more
excellence. Slaughtering vocal in an explosive tech death with
undulating guitars and a raging drummer. The sweet clean
vocals add to the dynamic mix.
2:04:30-2:11:58
SELBST (Chile),
album - Despondency Chord Progressions
The One Who Blackens
Everything
— Rich instruments stack and become
jammy. Epic, plaintive and demanding with vocals that beat
its chest on a mountain.
2:12:26-2:21:42
ANTE-INFERNO (UK),
album - Death’s Soliloquy
Towards Asphyxiating
Darkness
— Ripped apart by vocal fury, and
soothed with deeply disturbed melodic compositions.
2:22:02-2:25:51
SERVANT (GER),
album - Death Devil Magick
Devil
— Rippling guitar in a moody mix of
tremelo-heavy black metal and an expressive lead singer.
2:26:18-2:34:09
HIDEOUS DIVINITY
(Italy), album - Unextinct
Atto Quarto: The Horror
Paradox
— A balance between a show of power
with badass savage riffage and intricate noodle-y compositions.
The vocals are a ride.
2:34:33-2:40:55
OUBLIETTE (TN),
album - Eternity Whispers
Desolate Path
— Roars over organic and erupting
textural melodic black metal drenching you in its
beauty.
2:41:36-END
WORMWITCH (CAN),
album - S/T
Godmaegen
— Best Blackened Death in 2019.
Another hit into the galaxy of groove and shrapnel hitting
you right in the face.