Style: Progressive death metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Blood Incantation, Death, Morbid Angel
Country: Florida, United States
Release date: 25 July 2025

Between the summers of 2017 and 2018, I had the misfortune of living in the oppressively muggy hellscape that is Jacksonville, Florida. I was in my mid-twenties, fresh out of law school, and ready to complete a year-long gig that happened to be based there. Surely the coastal city—geographically one of the largest in the United States—has some nice areas and redeeming qualities, but those aren’t what I remember. No, the Dirty J was home to a dilapidated downtown area, characterless suburban sprawl, a rash of severe storms, and incessant swampy heat. I really can’t think of a better setting to inspire some winding, gritty, feverish death metal. And that’s exactly what we get from Jacksonville’s own Haxprocess.

The band’s sophomore album, Beyond What Eyes Can See, offers forty-five minutes of progressive death metal packed into four meaty tracks. Drawing clear inspiration from Blood Incantation, these Floridians place psychedelic twists among wandering riffs, all given life by a warm, old-school-tinged production. Haxprocess’s sound is heavy, but at the same time open and expansive—much like their overstretched hometown. In case you couldn’t tell, I wasn’t a fan of my year in Jacksonville. Will Beyond What Eyes Can See bring something good out of that godforsaken city?

Haxprocess’s style of death metal can be distilled down to two words: riff salad. Countless riffs comprise the band’s long, freeform compositions, frequently taking a core idea and permuting it several times over—rhythmically, in phrasing, and in texture. A captivating dual-guitar attack characterizes Beyond What Eyes Can See, as one guitar often strays from the other, comes back with harmonization, or unites fully for emphasis. The album holds plenty of strong leads and solos as well. Although the drums are consistently shifting and grooving, and the bass occasionally pokes out with some runs of its own, the guitars are clearly the central focus, and the album’s better for it. 

Once in a while, Haxprocess cease the heavy, greasy riffing and stray into psychedelic territory. The final few minutes of “The Confines of the Flesh” feature a few dreamier passages amidst the fray, and “Thy Inner Demon Seed” comes to a halt about halfway through and switches over to an infectiously trippy section built atop lighter, swirling guitars. Album closer “Sepulchral Void” pulls a similar trick around its midpoint as well, offering a compelling bridge of clean guitars and emphatic volume swells. Although the airy passages are a welcome break from the serpentine death metal, they could be incorporated a little more smoothly. These shifts to lighter atmospheres aren’t the only sticky compositional points on the album, either—across all tracks but with notable frequency in the closer, the band come to a hard stop simply to switch from one heavy texture to another. Despite being four long tracks, Beyond What Eyes Can See can feel like an album of bits and pieces. 

In a similar vein, the tracks’ lengths aren’t always fully justified. Opener “Where Even Stars Die” does a good job of stringing together strong parts cohesively and varying textures logically, but the other tracks aren’t quite as successful. “The Confines of the Flesh,” particularly, tests just how many similar pinch-harmonic-centered riffs a listener can endure as it wanders from part to part. And throughout the album, many riffs begin to sound the same—a shocking amount end with only slightly varying, choppy triplet phrases. On the whole, the songs tend to be a little bloated. That said, the Haxprocess do strike gold now and again: the harmonized, drawling riff that closes “Thy Inner Demon Seed,” as well as the track’s psychedelic middle bridge, are prime examples. It’s passages like these that pull the listener back in and keep the album engaging.

Ultimately, Beyond What Eyes Can See is a solid take on riff-centered, sprawling, and sometimes spacey death metal with old-school flair. Compositionally, the album leaves a bit to be desired, and the tracks’ component pieces aren’t always of even quality. Still, there’s plenty of guitar work to enjoy, and the highest points are full of creativity and intrigue. Haxprocess might not have done the unthinkable and redeemed Jacksonville in my mind, but Beyond What Eyes Can See is more enjoyable than anything else I remember of that wretched city.

Recommended tracks: Where Even Stars Die, Thy Inner Demon Seed
You may also like: Ancient Death, Horrendous, Bedsore, Felgrave, Tomb Mold
Final verdict: 6.5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives

Label: Transcending Obscurity Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Haxprocess is:
– Lothar Mallea (guitars and vocals)
– Shane Williamson (guitars)
– Davis Leader (bass)
– Adam Robinson (drums)

The post Review: Haxprocess – Beyond What Eyes Can See  appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Artwork by: Dmitry Rogatnev

Style: Avant-garde Metal, Brutal Death Metal, Deathgrind, Jazz Fusion (Harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Cattle Decapitation, The Number Twelve Looks Like You, The Red Chord, Pathology
Country: Russia
Release date: 13 June 2025

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you took insanely technical deathgrind, the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack, and a smoky jazz joint on the harbor, then shot them through the musical equivalent of whatever hellish industrial-grade contraption processes chum? Me neither, but apparently ByoNoiseGenerator did. These unhinged Russians have crawled out from the briny depths of Perm Krai after seven years away, dripping seaweed and sheathed in the viscera of multitudinous aquatic horrors, bludgeoned into pulp and ready to serve via the stern and merciless hand of avant-garde deathgrind. Break out your bibs and fetch the butter—time to chow down on the band’s third LP, Subnormal Dives.

To anyone expecting the sultry and sophisticated sax-stylings of say, a Rivers of Nihil or Sleep Token, you may want to get back in your dinghy and row for the nearest opposite coastline. ByoNoiseGenerator, true to their name, are out here dropping sonic depth charges loaded to the gills with pure aural madness. Grooving slam breakdowns (“NULL.state = PERMANENT; return VOID;“), Primus-esque guitar funkery (“NoSuccessToday!”),  and skull-pulping grindcore all shoot through violent streaks of freeform jazz both manic and moody—often within the confines of the same track. For the first nine minutes,¹ ByoNoiseGenerator keep the pressure building as they cram multiple songs’ worth of ideas into tracks that nary crack the three minute mark. The band pull the listener deeper and deeper into this Subnormal Dive, gleefully assaulting our ears with a smorgasbord of hyper-processed violence perhaps only meant for the deepest of undersea dwellers.

It’s not until “LoveChargedDiveBombs” that we receive any surcease from ByoNoiseGenerator’s bio-organic brutality, with gentle radar pings, feathering drum and bass, and flickering saxophone doots creating an almost pleasant atmosphere. Denigrating chaos returns soon after via trampling blast beats and vocalist Tim’s inhuman growls, but the preceding forty-five seconds go a surprisingly long way towards letting me catch my breath before the band force me back underwater. The choice to slow things down in the song’s back half, showcases how—when it fancies them—ByoNoiseGenerator are capable of creating some rather captivating stretches of music. This characteristic defines more than a few songs across the platter (“Eb(D#),” “I’mNot20Anymore (21Ne),” “4-HO-DMTNzambiKult,”), and the band often nail the transitions in spite of the general atmosphere of mad-cap insanity and sonic whiplash that underscores their efforts.

Elsewhere and everywhere across Subnormal Dives, however, chaos reigns supreme. For twenty-three minutes, ByoNoiseGenerator toss and tumble the listener across heinous tempo and stylistic changes that would give even the most seasoned diver the bends. Songs are less-definable by any idea of coherent structure, and more by what fleeting strips of music that may qualify as identifiable (and palatable) to you. For my money, I love when the band cut away the deathgrind to revel in the smoky notes of playful saxophone and fluttering cymbal work that give Subnormal Dives its Bebop aesthetic. Whether that’s the funky drum-and-bass sections (“4-HO-DMTNzambiKult,” “deBroglieNeverExisted”) or back alley neo-noir vibes (“LoveChargedDiveBombs,” “5mgInspiredVibes”), these parts stand out as highlights of ByoNoiseGenerator’s glittering talent. For others, that satisfaction may come from the relentless grindcore butchery staining every cut.

Wherever you land, Subnormal Dives is a journey taken with the highest of caution. Even well-adjusted metalheads may struggle to decipher the band’s non-euclidean configurations, driven mad instead by ByoNoiseGenerator’s insistence on an almost blink-and-you’ll-miss-it approach to songcraft. There’s something to be said for not beating a motif, riff, etc. to death, but the opposite holds true, too. Take the scraping death metal ebb and flow at 1:38 in “IQ69Exaltations,” which serves well in hooking the listener—but just as you’re really starting to nibble, the moment is gone, a fish fry-flash in the pan, and we’re on to new flavors. Fortunately, with grindcore you’re never in for that long of a haul. Subnormal Dives’ twenty-three minutes fly by like a marlin on a mission. And when shit is this gleefully unhinged, it’s hard not to have a good time. Just… maybe don’t ask how they make the fish stix.

Recommended tracks: Eb(D#), LoveChargedDiveBombs, deBroglieNeverExisted, 5mgInspiredVibes
You may also like: Blastanus, Malignancy, DeathFuckingCunt, Diskord, Veilburner, Bloody Cumshot
Final verdict: 6/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives

Label: Transcending Obscurity Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

ByoNoiseGenerator is:
– M1t (bass)
– NOx (drums)
– Tim (vocals)
– HaL° (guitars)
– Sh3la (saxophone)

1.  That’s five whole tracks here. Grindcore is wild, I tell yah what. ︎

The post Review: ByoNoiseGenerator – Subnormal Dives appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: doom metal, progressive metal, progressive death metal, dissonant death metal, avant-garde black metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Tomb Mold, The Ruins of Beverast, Mournful Congregation, Ahab
Country: Norway
Release date: 25 April 2025

In the beginning was the Doom, and the Doom was with Metal, and the Doom was Metal. You all know the story: fifty-five years ago, metal was brought into existence in Birmingham by Black Sabbath. Taking psychedelic blues to previously unknown levels of distorted heaviness, the Brits’ style revolutionized rock and became the archetype of doom metal to come—slow, heavy, evil. And in the depths doom has stayed for half a century, content to drag down the stray thrash or death metal fan who seeks something even more punishing. Doom is the Charbydis of metal, and once you’ve been sucked into her grasp, escaping the sonic mass is near impossible. 

Felgrave, a one man Norwegian death/doom band, has returned after a long five years with his newest album Otherlike Darknesses, a hulking album of three beastly tracks—two eighteen-minuters and a twelver. I was ready to be painstakingly slowly crushed by the force of the tracks, have them extinguish any sense of hope or purpose like Spiine did last month. However, while at its core a doom metal record, Otherlike Darknesses claws its way upwards from the abyss and towards the stars, fighting against its own colossal weight all the way. “Winds Batter My Keep” starts by basking in grimy vulgarity like generations of doom bands have before, the riffs oozing forward like pitch. A few minutes later, the dirging doom pace speeds up to a death/doom clip, and Felgrave introduces the predominant riff style for the album: dissonant, entangled guitar lines. Their contorted bickering is a hideous aural spectacle but gripping, nonetheless. Alas, once you’ve accepted your fate of an aural beatdown, from within the distortion, an atmospheric synth creates room in the soundscape for M.L Jupe’s dramatic, heartfelt clean vocals to break through the murk. They’re a recurrent guide through Otherlike Darknesses, a beacon to follow once you get lost in the depths—which you will.

Moreover, while the guitar parts are horrifically dissonant at times—swaths of “Winds Batter My Keep” and “Pale Flowers Under an Empty Sky” get close to the style of playing my Subway peers refer to as “car alarm metal”—they coalesce into melodic leads at others. Rewarding, indeed. The guitars climb ever upwards in complicated, twisting scales not unlike Thantifaxath or SkyThala, with rich tones reminiscent of funeral doom icons Mournful Congregation. When the maelstromic blackened trems break out, the riffs are transformed in a moment to dreamlike abstractions. The dynamic drumming courtesy of Robin Stone provides a dramatic levity to the sound, as well, liberating the death/doom from itself. 

The songwriting, too, is dreamlike—unpredictably stream of consciousness. There are rare reprisals, like the middle section and ominous ending of “Winds Batter My Keep,” but otherwise Otherlike Darknesses is wonderfully amorphous, the songwriting always imaginative and natural. Fans of face-scrunching riffs and cerebral dreaminess alike will be satisfied. Each track is a full saga, spanning the gamut from Warforged nightmarishness to Dessiderium-esque serenity.  

Otherlike Darknesses’ desperate climb into the heavens would carry significantly less impact were it not for Brendan Sloan’s (Convulsing, Altars) magic dissodeath fingers working the production. The bass is as equally important to Otherlike Darknesses as the wicked guitars, its vibrant, full-bodied tone another speck of brightness when the metal is at its heaviest—but the bass is also the heavy grounding when the clean vocals hog the foreground. The hazy atmosphere from the synths in “Winds Batter My Keep,” the Morningrise and Orchid inspired bits in “Pale Flowers Under an Empty Sky,” the spacious, all-enveloping chords of “Otherlike Darknesses,” the spine-crushingly heavy riffs everywhere… there is no detail in Otherlike Darknesses which doesn’t sound natural, beautiful, yet twisted.  

This is the most ambitious album I’ve heard from a one-man project since, well, Keys to the Palace by Dessiderium earlier this year, but it’s damn ambitious, and M. L. Jupe nails the takeoff and landing. I’ve never heard a doom record quite like this, lifting me from Tartarus to the heavens and back down. Maintaining sharp focus through such gargantuan, meandering tracks requires the mastery of harmony and dissonance that Jupe possesses. Breaking free from the chains of its genre to land in another plane of existence, Otherlike Darknesses is surreal doom metal far removed from metal’s roots but at the same time tethered to them.

Recommended tracks: Winds Batter My Keep
You may also like: Worm, Panegyrist, Chthe’Ilist, Dream Unending, Qrixkuor, Warforged, Dessiderium
Final verdict: 8/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page

Label: Transcending Obscurity Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Felgrave is:
Vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards and programming by M. L. Jupe

Drums by Robin Stone (Evilyn, Norse)

The post Review: Felgrave – Otherlike Darknesses appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Artwork by Erskine Designs

Style: Dissonant Death Metal, Death Metal, Black Metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Obscura, Ulcerate, Gorguts
Country: Canada
Release date: 28 February 2025

Dissonant death metal is having a tiny moment at the beginning of the year at the Subway. Less than one full month into 2025, we’ve already reviewed a couple of releases in this particular style, with a few waiting in the pipeline, too. So does Memories Fragmented get lost in the cacophony of its cohort? Or does it stand above the furious fray?

Crown of Madness’ first full-length release follows a string of earlier works: two EPs—The Void (2022) and Elemental Binding (2023)—as well as an appearance on a split, …Of Madness and Death, also from 2023. Memories Fragmented feels like a natural progression. The LP improves upon almost every element of its predecessors—particularly the guitar work, which for my money is some of the most inventive in this niche sub-genre in quite some time—shaping the dissonant aspects of the band’s sound into something both awe-inspiring and menacing. Guitarist (as well as vocalist and bassist) Sunshine Schneider has a real knack for weaving passages that feel like a writhing, world-devouring serpent slowly coiling around the senses, such as in “Ashes of Mine” or “Sea of Fangs.”

This stringed serpent isn’t afraid to bite, either. Tracks like ”Sovereign Blood” or the instrumental “Deafening” offer plenty of traditional death metal riffage to accommodate anybody who’s only dipping their toes into more experimental flavors of the genre—before they take the inevitable plunge. But the real magic remains in the dissonant, sad motifs: like in “Burdened,” where the guitar lines seem to diverge, change directions to come back and converge, and then overshoot each other to diverge in opposite directions yet again in hypnotic, ouroboric fashion.

The snake is brought to heel by drummer Connor Graham, whose four limbs—which I can only assume are nicknamed Heracles, Indra, Marduk, and Thor respectively—move with the strength and precision of mythical beings who have faced giant wyrms of their own. He is a beast on the kit and he wants you to know it. Yet, as with some of the most interesting mythical figures, a strength can also be a weakness. With only some exception, the drums are constantly “at ten.” For example, “When I Don’t Remember You” would have a lot more character if the drums weren’t an infinite ammo machine gun mowing down even the quiet bits (I know the snake is scary but please don’t kill it). It’s all physically and technically impressive—but also a tad distracting at times. By contrast, the vocals don’t demand quite as much attention. If you’re looking for standout vocal work that goes toe-to-toe with instrumental creativity and variety of Memories, you’ll be left wanting. That’s not to say they’re particularly bad in any way; they just feel like the most replaceable aspect on any given song. The gutturals and rasps are fairly one note, staying mostly in one register in their respective categories.

Everything comes back to the guitars for me, though. A question that popped into my mind more than a few times while listening to this LP was: How can music so dissonant be simultaneously chock-full of beautiful melody? It feels like it should be against one of the laws of physics, possibly all of them. Could I get a scientist to go check on that for me? If you run tests on the closing track (and my personal favorite) “The Grand Design,” that should give you all of the data you need to formulate a working hypothesis.

Looking at the Crown of Madness Bandcamp page and seeing the various physical editions and merchandise options, I can’t help but think that Transcending Obscurity is betting that this album will live up to the label’s namesake. I don’t recall the last time I’ve seen so many things to buy from a group with fewer than 1,000 monthly listeners (as of this writing) on the biggest streaming platforms. I have no sense of what will make any particular artist or album successful, but Crown of Madness’ Memories Fragmented has made me a fan—so they’ll sell at least one vinyl.

Recommended tracks: “The Grand Design,” “Ashes of Mine,” “Sovereign Blood”
You may also like: Devenial Verdict, Hierarchies, Ingurgitating Oblivion
Final verdict: 8/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page

Label: Transcending Obscurity – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Crown of Madness is:
Sunshine Schneider – Guitar, Bass, Vocals
Connor Gordon – Drums

The post Review: Crown of Madness – Memories Fragmented appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Technical Death Metal, Deathcore (Harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Archspire, Psycroptic, Beyond Creation, The Zenith Passage
Country: Indiana, United States
Release date: 24 Jan 2025

Ah, paradise. Whether it conjures a relaxing day on the beach or an invigorating escape into the mountains, ‘paradise’ is a word that is universally evocative. On latest album Painted Paradise, Indiana-based band Fleshbore lay bare their interpretation of the word, and it looks like… technical death metal? Are we sure we have the right album here? The ethereal landscape and gentle rolling hills that grace Painted Paradise’s album cover read closer to Alcest than Necrophagist, but I suppose it’s not my place to judge a book by its cover alone. Let’s investigate what exactly paradise looks like for these Indiana boys.

A title like Painted Paradise may conjure pleasant vistas and beautiful melodicism, but Fleshbore’s latest output is anything but, relying on chaotic tech death as its base: higher-register guitars run back-and-forth relays across scales (“Inadequate”); drums are played at such a speed that counting the subdivisions is an exercise in futility (“Painted Paradise”); and room is made in the madness for at least one bass solo (“Wandering Twilight”). At this point, it’s cliché to invoke Archspire when discussing tech death, but Fleshbore’s style comes the closest of anyone I’ve heard—the rhythmic triplets and harsh rap flows that spontaneously emerge in Michael O’Hara’s vocal delivery instantly conjure Oli Peters and the neoclassical bent in Michael McGinley and Cole Chavez’s more melodic guitar moments evoke Dean Lamb on ketamine.¹ Additionally, Painted Paradise is tinged with deathcore sensibilities thanks to the inclusion of chuggy riffs (“Target Fixation”), bone-crushing breakdowns (“The World”), and gurgly low gutturals (“Setting Sun”).

Painted Paradise is at its best when it’s able to temper its brutality with melody and catchiness: while many of the heavier passages sufficiently fill every fold in my brain, what really gives the album staying power is its tactful variation between soaring guitar licks and skull-crushing heaviness. “The Ancient Knowledge,” for example, opens with a jittering start-and-stop frenzy before launching into a variety of harsh vocal flows and ominous guitar riffs, gluing the track together with repeated ideas; “Wandering Twilight” follows suit, containing an immeasurably heavy instrumental break that gives the bass a prominent role before incorporating melody in its latter sections through a gorgeous guitar solo; and “Inadequate” sees the chuggier riffs transcend their role as a tool for brutality and variation, showcasing a myriad of two-ton grooves before interweaving itself with the track’s throng of compelling solos. “Laplace’s Game” is Painted Paradise’s star highlight, though, utilizing a bouncy vocal rhythm in its verses and aggressive guitar rhythmics alongside some of the album’s catchiest moments, remaining remarkably varied without losing the plot.

I would be remiss to not talk about Painted Paradise’s vocal performance: Michael O’Hara delivers a deluge of different vocal styles, ranging from mid-register Vektor-style shrieks to lower-pitched bellows and switching haphazardly to anything inbetween. The fun O’Hara is having is palpable on tracks like “The Ancient Knowledge,” “The World,” and “Laplace’s Game,” where his rapid-fire flow gets the opportunity to interplay with guitar melodies and counteract chuggy grooves. Even though his performance may veer on indiscriminate, the bevy of styles never feel out of place, in most cases augmenting the chaotic atmosphere established by Fleshbore’s instrumentation.

However, there is indeed trouble in Painted Paradise: Fleshbore are occasionally wont to fall into deathcore tropes I don’t particularly love. “Target Fixation” suffers the most from this, over-utilizing brutal chugs and executing guitar parts that are interesting for their technicality but aren’t necessarily fun to listen to. Moreover, it has some of my least favorite vocal performances, opening with an awkward flow and incorporating grating sustained gurgles later in the track. Additionally, Painted Paradise’s chaotic songwriting clashes with its lack of a clear point of view: tracks like “Inadequate” and “The World” are an absolute blast moment-to-moment but are hard to follow as whole pieces, and this combined with an uncertain link between the music, lyricism, and idiosyncratic album name and artwork leaves me with a nagging feeling of incompleteness by Painted Paradise’s end. It’s lots of fun, it’s undoubtedly brutal, but outside of its relentless grip on my intensity-craving lizard brain, there is a missing piece that ties Painted Paradise together.

Fleshbore showcase a lot of ambition on Painted Paradise, weaving together the melodicism and speed of tech death with the abject brutality of deathcore and distinguishing themselves with a neurotic-yet-playful vocal approach. Painted Paradise is a tight release full of excitement and brutality, but its chaos leaves me wanting a more direct point of view, and a couple of the performances are either a bit rough around the edges or aren’t cohesively integrated. If your idea of paradise is a tech-death assault that barrels through ideas with abandon, then I strongly encourage you to get lost in its watercolor brutality.

Recommended tracks: Laplace’s Game, The World, Wandering Twilight, The Ancient Knowledge
You may also like: Aseitas, Misanthropy, Carnosus, First Fragment, Ophidian I
Final verdict: 7/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page

Label: Transcending Obscurity Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Fleshbore is:
– Michael McGinley (guitars)
– Cole Chavez (guitars)
– Michael O’Hara (vocals)
– Cole Daniels (bass)
– Robin Stone (session drums)

1. Which is to say, at a standard tech-death metal pace. ︎

The post Review: Fleshbore – Painted Paradise appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: dissonant death metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Gorguts, Portal
Country: United States
Release date: 17 January 2025

Our fine blog started when our glorious founder, Sam, wanted to share the fruits of his labor: searching for underground prog metal on the cesspit—and also excellent database—known as Encyclopedia Metallum. A universal experience of somebody who has become truly immersed in metal is trolling Metallum for finds in the benthos of the genre, and while our blog aspires to help you avoid that, we still have to do the dirty work for you. And sometimes pages for bands or people stick out to you for being particularly interesting; for instance, Voidsphere’s album and song naming convention has always amused me and my musical nemesis (but that’s a story for a different day) Kosm has a seriously insane release schedule. But I think Jared Moran, drummer and vocalist of Hierarchies, has the singularly craziest page I’ve come across. Like many, I became acquainted with his work through the dissodeath act Acausal Intrusion, but he is listed as being a member in well over 100 different projects, most of which are some form of death metal or grindcore with the odd black metal band sprinkled in. And he’s in so many projects that it seems he’s run out of English words to use for naming them: seriously, Qqgcguvhjn is a terrible band name. You’d expect somebody who drums, plays guitar and bass, and performs vocals in so many bands is absolutely wrung out creatively—he certainly is with naming his projects—but does Hierarchies reveal a lack of musical ideas or is it, against all odds, fresh? (And let’s not forget about the other two guys Anthony Wheeler and Nicholas Turner who also are in multiple projects but seem to be slightly more focused on the oddball doom band Dwelling Below as well as Acausal Intrusion). 

The trio’s style of dissodeath seems like they could release a million versions of this album because their choice of notes and rhythms is irrelevant—I suppose one could argue they have endless creativity in that regard. I listen to a lot of dissonant stuff, and the worthwhile releases from groups like Ad Nauseam and Ulcerate are incredibly intricately composed, as much Modernist classical music as death metal; similarly, the genre allows for ample room for artistic improvisation like the noise-jazz freakouts of Imperial Triumphant or acts like Ingurgitating Oblivion who border on so abstruse it may as well be improv. Hierarchies, on the other hand, seem like they don’t write at all, relying on jagged free improvisation techniques to generate their cacophony. This can work—heck, I like the music of Anthony Braxton, and John Coltrane’s Ascension is one of my favorite albums—but it requires a level of musicality Hierarchies completely lacks. I understand that achieving the level of hipster-y and artistic lunacy that Hierarchies aims for requires a level of “musical campness” where the rhythms and dissonance appear random and slightly off, but this just sounds like a group of skilled—but very, very high—teenagers trying to replicate Gorguts’s Obscura by memory. If that sounds like your thing (no judgement), you’ll pretty much love Hierarchies, but either the songwriting or performances (and preferably both) need to be tighter for this to work for me.

Heck, Hierarchies hardly stay in rhythm, and so when they try Ad Nauseam-esque sections like at 2:40 into “Vultures,” it sounds like poor pastiche rather than a legitimately interesting take on the genre. Hierarchies often falls into this same problem. The genre that they play is supposed to be boundary-pushing and “avant-garde,” but Hierarchies are remarkably comfortable at being a clearly inferior version of Gorguts and Portal. For all its inscrutable dissonance and its high bar for entry, Hierarchies simply lacks bite. 

I’ll give Hierarchies the credit that there are definitely riffs at least—many such nebulously dissonant acts lack even those. Even though it’s all a bit awkward, the first few minutes of opener “Entity” have plenty of sections with interesting “melodic” phrasing before the inevitable transition into pseudo-intellectual nonsense. Additionally, the chromatic shred at the start of “Dimension” and the changing-tempo wank near the end of “Abstract” are standout guitar solos from the haphazard chaos. Thankfully, Hierarchies also has intriguing production, and apart from a slightly too brutal death metal-coded snare tone, I can actually pick up the skronkiness of the intertwining guitar and bass—I cannot say the same of most unsuccessful dissodeath bands. 

Even with a couple friends, it’s gotta be near impossible to have novel ideas for riffs with a hundred different projects, so it’s natural that Jared Moran and co adopted a style of dissonant death metal that sounds spontaneously generated. But at the end of the day, why listen to high Gorguts (or drunken Ad Nauseam) when you could listen to the real thing?

Recommended tracks: Entity, Dimension
You may also like: Acausal Intrusion, Ingurgitating Oblivion, Jute Gyte, Evelyn, Maere, Ad Nauseam
Final verdict: 4/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page

Label: Transcending Obscurity Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Nicholas Turner – Guitar
Anthony Wheeler – Bass
Jared Moran – Drums, vocals

The post Review: Hierarchies – Hierarchies appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: technical death metal, brutal death metal, progressive death metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Archspire, Analepsy, Atheist, Devourment
Country: United States-IL
Release date: 13 December 2024

When December comes around and list-making season is upon us, album releases inevitably slow to a trickle. But in 2024’s dearth of Yuletide releases, Misanthropy are set to release their third full length album, The Ever-Crushing Weight of Stagnance; it is succulent manna from heaven in this dire time for a music fan. To hear this album in December overwhelms the senses like a rainfall in the Sahara, so plentiful the deluge of stellar riffs. It is my duty to caution every tech fan not to finalize their year end list yet: Misanthropy will be the best gift under the tree.

These Chicagoans aren’t subtle, from the most aggressive fretless bass tone I’ve ever heard to the solos which erupt out of the foundations of the song like bubbling magma with nowhere to escape, the pressure building up in a violent ejaculation of liquid stone. Within just the first song, “Of Sulking and the Wrathful,” the band has me asking several profound, life-altering questions… Is 2:30 what it would sound like if Devourment could gallop? Is the swing solo at 3:45 what First Fragment would sound like if their jubilance were turned into a deep hatred for mankind? Each moment is fresh and exciting because you know damn well whatever filth is imminent will pulverize you. The faster cuts are nonstop tech eargasms, but even slower cuts like “Descent” never relent their chokehold. “Descent” builds through slimy pinch harmonics and Ad Nauseamisms (you can’t tell me that little tremolo at 2:15 isn’t straight from III). And my goodness the riffs: I think “A Cure for the Pestilence” may contain my favorite since Horrendous’ Ontological Mysterium last year… until possibly only two tracks later at 4:00 into “Sepulcher.”

Keeping The Ever-Crushing Weight of Stagnance engaging throughout its forty-four minutes is the band’s engagement with differing tempos. The album spans the gamut of death metal from the crawl of Worm’s death/doom to Archspire’s legendarily hyperactive pace, and, even more miraculously, Misanthropy keep the package coherent with well-composed, hyper-organized transitions between riffs—there’s a calculated chaos in their sound not unlike Aseitas’ very solid album from earlier this year. To keep Misanthropy’s cadence honest, Paul Reszczynski (drums) and Mark Bojkewycz’s (fretless) monitor the rhythm section like Scrooge keeping track of his pursestrings—that is to say, they’re tight. Just listen to how Reszczynski beats up the kit at 3:40 in “Sepulcher.” Like any good prog/tech band, the guitarists are no slouches either: Kevin Kovalsky and José Valles excel at filthy breakdowns just as much as they do at face-melting shred. The four-piece operate as a hulking beast, loping with as much momentum as a planet-sized asteroid. 

Kovalsky is also quite the vocalist with squalid belches, gutturals, and growls, a fitting collection of brutal techniques. He even switches to predominantly piercing highs in “Sepulcher,” and I wish he made that switch more. While the instrumentation is incredibly varied with unceasingly mutating riffs, Kovalsky’s vocals get left behind to only a touch above serviceability—despite showing off he has the ability to spew vitriol like a demon. But besides the desire to hear more of his throaty highs, Kovalsky is well-balanced in the mix as are the rest of Misanthropy, and despite the punishing nature of brutality on the old tympanic membranes, The Ever-Crushing Weight of Stagnance is incredibly easy to listen to and doesn’t revert to lame genre tropes like the slam snare or the hyper-clean mix that modern tech death bands succumb to.

Overall, the production is wonderfully organic, probably even Fair Trade. 
Misanthropy have channeled their hatred for humanity into a hydroid beast, rippling with muscle and bristling with energy. I name dropped a lot of fantastic tech bands in the review, but while Misanthropy draws from many, they never feel derivative; The Ever-Crushing Weight of Stagnance transcends its influences to carve out its own niche in one of the most crowded scenes in the underground. Misanthropy is punishing and frenetic, a holiday gift that will uproot best-of lists and be on repeat well into 2025.

Recommended tracks: Of Sulking and the Wrathful, A Cure for the Pestilence, Descent, Sepulcher
You may also like: Carnosus, Replicant, Malignancy, First Fragment, Veilburner, Heaving Earth, VoidCeremony, Aseitas
Final verdict: 8.5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page

Label: Transcending Obscurity Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Misanthropy is:
Kevin Kovalsky – Guitar and Vocals
Paul Reszczynski – Drums
José Valles – Guitar
Mark Bojkewycz – Fretless Bass

The post Review: Misanthropy – The Ever-Crushing Weight of Stagnance appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: dissonant death metal, progressive death metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Ulcerate, Gojira, Gorguts
Country: Finland
Release date: 4 October 2024

Released just under two years ago, Devenial Verdict’s Ash Blind enraptured me upon first listen. Having already listened to the singles countless times, I knew what to expect from the full release, yet the album still hit me with such force, raw fervor, and dissonant sophistication that I couldn’t help but dub it a 9/10 and place it atop lists come year’s end. To this day, I stand by that score, so when Devenial Verdict announced their sophomore release Blessing of Despair, once again featuring gorgeous artwork by Mariusz Lewandowski, along with the lead single “I Have Become the Sun,” to say I was excited would be an understatement.

Off the rip, Blessing of Despair sounds a lot like the Devenial Verdict we’ve come to know and love. The lyrics are concise and enunciated. The riffs have that sense of unfathomability signature to dissonant death metal. And despite their heft, the drums and bass are light on their feet, quick to shift from punctuative and authoritative pounding to simple backbeats that serve to highlight the immense amount of harmonic and dissonant information thrown at the listener. Where Ash Blind took this formula and often found itself in extended exploratory passages, Blessing of Despair instead keeps its feet on the ground, solidifying a formidable sense of groove across tracks like “Garden of Eyes” and “Solus,” the latter of which’s pull-off based riffage went so far as to remind me of the groove metal tendencies of bands like Gojira.

Thankfully, Devenial Verdict still finds ways to create the psychedelic and exploratory intrigue that I found so addicting on Ash Blind; more often than not, that exploration comes during the guitar solos. The solo of “I Have Become the Sun” for instance perfectly eschews the monotony of the song’s strophic structure and makes the return to the chorus that comes after that much more engaging. Additionally, the use of stereo delay on the lead guitar creates an addicting texture best experienced with headphones when layered atop its accompanying blast beats. The solos in “Moon-Starved” and “Solus” follow suit, featuring luscious harmonized lead work completely unexpected in dissodeath and truly catchy motif work respectively.

Unfortunately, not all of Blessing of Despair’s experimentation pays off. The title track, for instance, takes great risk in deploying several non-standard (at least in the realm of metal) drum beats that I’d argue prevent the track from ever settling into a groove. On an album where groove seems to have been the top priority, a track that fails to ever find its footing comes off not as a feature but as a flaw. Additionally, I fail to see the point behind certain tracks. For one, the inclusion of the interlude track “Shunned Wander” comes off as entirely pointless in an album with such variance in dynamic levels within single songs. And the closer, “A Curse Made Flesh” completely fails to deliver any of the elements that made any of the previous tracks great, instead delivering a funeral march of a finale, a drastic shift from the ripper “World Breaker” that closed out Ash Blind.

It’s a shame to compare Blessing of Despair to its predecessor Ash Blind so regularly, but when two albums are so tonally similar yet each seem so have had a completely different ethos underpinning their creation, comparison is warranted; and I just find myself liking Ash Blind more. No moment on Blessing of Despair is truly bad by any means; many moments even speak to greatness, the solos in particular, but the marked shift towards groove simply does not pan out across the entire album. To some Blessing of Despair will be a welcome evolution on the sound Devenial Verdict harnessed on Ash Blind, but I can’t help but feel it falls short of its potential.

Recommended tracks: I Have Become the Sun, Moon-Starved, Solus
You may also like: Replicant, Veilburner, Dysgnostic
Final verdict: 7/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page

Label: Transcending Obscurity – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Devenial Verdict is:
– Riku Saressalo (vocals)
– Sebastian Frigren (guitars)
– Okko Tolvanen (drums)
– Antti Poutanen (bass)

The post Review: Devenial Verdict – Blessing of Despair appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: dissonant death metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Gorguts, Ulcerate, Portal
Country: international
Release date: 16 August 2024

Another week, another dissodeath opus, this time from new-kids-on-the-block Evilyn (though they aren’t completely green as they have lots of experience in other Subway-friendly projects like Malignancy, WAIT, Ashen Horde, as well as a handful of other accomplished, Andy-approved bands). Anthony Lipari (Thoren) has assembled the talent necessary for Evilyn to twist and squelch through dense, Gorgutsian death metal—that’s for sure—so does Mondestrunken (named after a legendary Schoenberg piece) live up to the expectations?

Dense and cagey like Schoenberg or Gorguts, Mondestrunken certainly is, but its mysteries hidden until multiple listens through aren’t as well-composed nor brilliant as their forebears. After several spins, I gleaned more structure and hidden riffs within the overwhelming, claustrophobic mix of Coma Cluster Void’s Jeanne Comateuse, but they’re perpetually at a plodding walk, occasionally switching to a crawl or jog, and they punch with little force. Moreover, they aren’t as technically composed or played as others in the crowded scene, and I have little reason to return; I feel let down for similar reasons as I didn’t enjoy the previous Abyssal or Acausal Intrusion releases. Evilyn bleed little variation between tracks or even sections within tracks: we get thirty-six minutes of similar riffs only occasionally disjoined by whacky, chromatic solos. Normally I’m against gimmicks, but Evilyn could desperately use one to stave off their frankly boring riffs.

The worst problem with Mondestrunken (yes, worse than bland riffs) is the misguided attempts at being heavy as balls. Rather than write particularly crushing, meat-tenderizing riffs, they play lethargic and tepid doom metal ones and attempt to make it crushing by cranking the subhuman-register bass up and also downtuning the guitars to embarrassing levels. Paranoid used standard tuning and sure as hell feels heavier than Evilyn sans harsh vocals. Most detail also gets lost in the cavernous bass clacking. Unilaterally across Mondestrunken, the highlights are when the silly bass-tone is turned down and another instrument takes a more obvious lead like the chaotic solo to close out “Dread” or the lead riffs in “Bloviate” which take on a more natural tone, still full-bodied but allowing for much richer details to come through. These sections that the band likely intended to be the breaks from the onslaught of “heavy” sections ironically become the heaviest because the atmosphere doesn’t feel as forced, allowing for the instrumentation and songwriting to shine. Evilyn need not rely on faux heavy from forced, brickwalled, bass-heavy production because I know every member of the trio has played leaden heaters before—bassist of Evilyn Alex Weber had my favorite riff performance of the year with Malignancy, even.

Rarely does a so-called supergroup blow everybody away—expectations are too lofty—but Mondestrunken is a failed attempt at dissodeath. I’m easy to appease with skronky riffs and equivocal writing, but I need it to be a bit headier. If you took away the murky Portal-isms and obnoxious bass, this is simple at its core. I know these musicians have much more in the tank, so I’m left bitterly disappointed for an album I had Convulsing-level hopes going into. Also, what’s the story behind the band name? Is one of them hung up on an ex named Evilyn or something?

Recommended tracks: Bloviate
You may also like: Mære, Coma Cluster Void, Haar, Norse, Malignancy, Convulsing, Abyssal, Acausal Intrusion
Final verdict: 4/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Metal-Archives page | Facebook

Label: Transcending Obscurity Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Evilyn is:
– Alex Weber (bass)
– Robin Stone (drums)
– Anthony Lipari (guitars, vocals)

The post Review: Evilyn – Mondestrunken appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: technical death metal, progressive death metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Tomb Mold, Atheist, Cynic, Death
Country: Norway, United Kingdom
Release date: 12 July 2024

The 90s were a magical time (so I’ve been told). The Soviet Union fell; the internet rose; grunge and hip-hop hit the mainstream; iconic films and television released for those into such things. More importantly, though, some weird hippy kids from the Florida swamps decided that jazz and the nascent death metal scene needed to have some riotous sex to pleasure the universe’s ears. Spearheaded by Cynic and Atheist, those bass-forward, groovy, fusion-filled death metal albums in the early 90s were the most progressive heavy music the metal world had ever heard: they (along with Death’s The Sound of Perseverance) spawned a style of metal that was primarily aggressive death metal with an equally proggy accent. This style of death metal is where the split Bipolarities from labelmates Diskord & Atvm takes us. 

Playing stanky, jazz-infused death metal, Diskord warp their death metal riffs nearly beyond recognition, contorting structures in writhing bass lines and rhythmically jarring phrases. Their side of the split thrives on the chaotic energy yet incredible precision that made Atheist so special: this is unhinged. Leading the charge, Eyvind’s prominent bass forces the songs forward as he manically plucks with a jazz wizard’s hands, like Mingus. He’s not stagnant, not relying on some effete guitar princess to lead the way—it’s dirty, squelching death metal at its core and never forgets it. That’s not to say Dmitry’s guitar doesn’t deserve accolades or is second-class in Diskord; he embellishes the filth with opulent leads when he’s not riffing along with Eyvind—check out 1:40 in “Pass the Baton” or the fantastic solos around :55 into “Cogged Pother.” All across Bipolarities, Diskord effectively turn traditional head-banging riffs into the thinking man’s head-scratchers by contorting space-time around them. Twenty-five years into their career, Diskord still create fresh death metal.

On the other hand, Atvm are relative newcomers to the scene, playing for over a decade but without an LP under their belts until 2021. And, I’ll admit, I seemed to be the only one in the entire metalsphere who wasn’t wowed by Atvm’s debut, Putrid, Famine, and Fucking Endless. They fixed my qualms on Bipolarities, however, and they rival Diskord for best side of the split. Starting with a total Rushism in “Cancer,” they write longer-form death metal than their mates Diskord, twisting their twin songs’ ten minute run times as much as they write screwy riffs. Still, Atvm are a bit goofier than Diskord, and it works in their favor as much as against them. The album’s highlight is the amazing flamenco swing at 5:30 in “Morphine,” but then they also do silly things like the classic Ulrich trash can snare for a brief time in “Cancer” (thank god that’s not permanent). I also find H’s vocals to be lacking range, kind of the stereotypical Cookie Monster vocals of death metal, lacking the complexity of the music. The spiraling arpeggios and skittering drums don’t benefit from a sledgehammer, though I understand the long heritage of such vocals in death metal.

A split is only as strong as its weakest side, and neither band errs much; in fact, the two perform so well stylistically and energetically together you hardly notice a major transition between the two sides except from switching from Diskord’s marginally better riffs and writing to Atvm’s slightly more engaging, dynamic compositions. The two are in sync slinging out sexy, jazzy death metal. Colin Marston’s production also, obviously, makes both bands shine, and this is a truly stunning sound quality for the mix of high-minded progginess and grimy Florida-influenced death metal. The bands complement each other to elevate and highlight each other’s strengths rather than distract from their differences.  

This sort of amalgamation of death metal and prog was born in the 90s, but it’s had a revitalization in recent times—touring buddies Horrendous and Tomb Mold last year, the youngsters in Barn, StarGazer (who have been at it longer than the others), et al. Bipolarities is another strong entry into this canon and continues to bolster the subgenre’s claim as the best death metal has to offer.

Recommended tracks: Onward! To Nowhere; Shivering, as We Shed Our Hides; Cogged Pother; Morphine
You may also like: Horrendous, Imperial Triumphant. Lunar Chamber, Sarmat, Aseitas, Barn, StarGazer, VoidCeremony, Malignancy
Final verdict: 7.5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page

Label: Transcending Obscurity Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Diskord & Atvm is:
Diskord line up –
Hans Jørgen – Drums and vocals
Eyvind – Bass and vocals
Dmitry – Guitar and vocals

Atvm line up –
Tom – Guitars
Fran – Drums and percussion
Luke – Bass and percussion
H – Vocals

The post Review: Diskord & Atvm – Bipolarities appeared first on The Progressive Subway.