Style: Dissonant death metal, technical death metal (harsh vocals)
For fans of: Artificial Brain, Ulcerate, Gorguts
Country: California, United States
Release date: 21 March 2025

Dearest Chairman Christopher,

It has once again come to my attention that the Subway’s Division of Psychological Warfare has received its quarterly budget of six pesos. This, as I’m sure you are well aware, is down from last quarter’s nine pesos. You speak of misappropriation of research funds, yet I distinctly recall the commissioning of a statue of Garm in our new headquarters. Which we still have not found.. Furthermore, I find your incessant demand to “not continue research on IQ-dropping dissonant death metal” to be more than insulting. As such, I will be handing this in as a response to the research on 4/4-time signatures and major scales, a treatise on a hive-mind entity called Burning Palace and its byproduct known as Effigy. Please see the tape enclosed and listen to its contents as you read this letter. I give this to you not as a gift, but in hopes that you hate it so much, I can be free of this prison known as The Progressive Subway, and my talents in IQ-dropping phenomena can be appreciated elsewhere.

My co-researcher Andy promptly gave this to me after your vile letter of demands, and mumbled something about how “the British hate dissonant chords”. I must be honest, I don’t know what he says most of the time. After the incident last week, he merely sits and stares at the wall, occasionally making cooing sounds when he hears a nice riff. Fortunately, for both him and me, the most recent transmission on our docket had plenty. Its name: Elegy, and rest assured, you will hate this.

Allow me to explain this phenomenon to your soft, malleable brain. Burning Palace occupies the space of their aural brethren, Artificial Brain, with dashes of influence from the transmitters known as Sunless. This aural oddity has effected our test subjects in similar ways to the mighty Replicant, sending our unwilling participants into a blind, frenzied rage upon listening. Chairman, you do not understand the freedom that comes with hearing a riff like the one that starts ‘Birthing Uncertainty’. The absolute bliss of unlocking that primal state of man is something you and your “pop sensibilities” could never understand. You hear screeching guitar, gurgling and banging drums, but what I hear in this opening song is a knack for song structure.

Burning Palace are akin to Ulcerate in that structure and atmosphere triumph over all in dissodeath. Too often do these bands find themselves tangled in a web of their own minor intervals and tritones, forgetting that sometimes, a headbanging riff solves all. ‘Transversing the Black Arc’ gave our test subjects seven straight minutes of headbanging, arpeggiated riffing and blackened, foggy atmosphere. At approximately four-and-a-half minutes, one test subject burst into flames from the song’s title drop and the godly riff that’s underneath it. The transmission’s blackened atmosphere is on full display here, recalling barren technological hellscapes not unlike what the intern Justin’s office looked like after his first day. Despite the more cerebral nature of the seven-minute opus, Burning Palace proceed with ‘Suspended in Emptiness’ which rid our subjects’ brains of any wrinkles they may have had left. What starts as a jaunty bass riff becomes a rampaging, blast-beat laden verse that evolves into lead work that I’d dare to call catchy and melodic.

There is little fat nor filler to be found on Elegy, with the transmission being a tight forty-four minutes long. The only flaw I can possibly find is the sheer primal aggression of our subjects began to wane at the closing title-track, which may either be from exhaustion or recovery from the four-hit combo prior. ‘Sunken Veil’ is sure to leave you convulsing and bleeding from the eyes with its sprawling, heavy chugs and bass-tapping, so perhaps ‘Elegy’ is there as a means to attempt to recover one’s sanity at the end of this transmission. If you’ve made it that far and not lost your mind, dear Chairman, then perhaps you are stronger than I perceived.

Consider this my letter of emancipation from your clutches and “genre diversity”. You will rue the day you asked me to research anything but the most brutal music possible, and I hope this is a lesson to you and your kin. The Progressive Subway has made itself an arch-nemesis in my name, one who understands the inner complexities of transmission such as Burning Palace. You must understand, though you may hate this immensely, I find it to be a mark of what happens when your IQ drops low enough. You sit and talk of “no more metal”, but I then ask you, what would your world look like without chugs or screams? Think on it, Chairman.

Your slave and enemy,

Head Researcher Zacharius

Recommended tracks: Traversing the Black Arc, Suspended in Emptiness, Awakening Extinction (Eternal Eclipse), Sunken Veil
You may also like: Afterbirth, Wormhole, Replicant, Anachronism
Final verdict: 8/10

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

Label: Violence in the Veins – Bandcamp | Facebook

Burning Palace is:
– Chris Derico (bass)
– James Royston (drums)
– Josh Kerston (guitars, vocals)
– Ian Andrew (guitars, vocals, keyboards)

The post Review: Burning Palace – Elegy appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Artwork by: Dr. Winter

Style: Dissonant death metal, technical death metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Ulcerate, Artificial Brain, Gorguts
Country: Austria
Release date: 28 March 2025

“Oh, how I crave a sweet, aching melody. Pinch up the atmosphere with a tinge of sadness and let that melancholy wash over me. Give me an emotive, borderline melodramatic singer who croons and trauma dumps all over me because only that pain, that longing, exhibits the emotions that matter. Give me warmth in the darkness to escape the cold of my mental state and bring forth catharsis to my sorrows.”

“Sir, this is a Dissodeath’s.”

“…right. I was well aware of that, thank you. Would you perhaps happen to have anything with strong melodies, and an atmosphere I can get lost in?”

“Err… we have dissonance, sir.”

“Yes, yes, of course. Well…”
Glances at the menu.
“I would like one large serving of Pillars of Cacophony, please. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“Right away, sir.”

Chuckles, faintly. “I’m in danger, aren’t I?”

Such a conversation may or may not reflect the process of me blindly claiming Paralipomena barely two minutes into the album. See, I am a melody guy. I want emotion, atmosphere, and vulnerability in my music. In a way, Pillars of Cacophony convey all of these things, but let’s just say that they do so in a more…visceral manner than what I tend to go for. From the get-go, Paralipomena melts your face off with stanky tech riffs, deep guttural vocals, and proggy drumming, all while sections of dissonance and strangely melodic harmonies permeate the songwriting. The record is versatile, too, showing elements of angular tech thrash, thick, slowed down riffs redolent of 90s death doom, and hypnotizing tremolos with a black metal tinge interspersed for atmosphere on top of the usual dissonance. Make no mistake though: pummeling your senses into mush is by far Pillars of Cacophony’s highest priority, and my weaksauce melody-seeking ass was not made for this level of spanking.

Writing about a genre you are unfamiliar with can be a difficult task, but certain things like production quality and structural cohesion are more universal. Paralipomena is fairly old school in sound with a dirty, slightly muffled lower end, fuzzy atmosphere, and organic guitar and drum tones, but it also maintains the clarity and polish of a modern production, which is especially poignant when the dissonant and/or black metal aspects come to the forefront. Some of the heavier, chugging parts also have a tasteful mechanical aspect, making them as heavy as possible without compromising on the cavernous old school vibe—I even noticed some pick scrapes! All things considered, the resulting soundscape is surprisingly light on the ears for how chaotic and vile the music can be.

But production is not the only component which makes Paralipomena so digestible: its pacing is also done quite well. Pillars of Cacophony will regularly drop the intensity completely for quiet, minimalist sections which relish in dissonance and, occasionally, melody. Sadly, these sections rarely provide sufficient musical nourishment—see, for example, the disappointingly underdeveloped Pink Floyd homage in “Mitosis” with a minimalist guitar solo that goes nowhere. But on the bright side, the mental and emotional cool down they provide from the onslaught is extremely welcome. This is much in contrast to a band like First Fragment, whose technical and emotional maximalism extends down to the melodic breaks, making even a masterfully performed album like Gloire Éternelle an exhausting listen. 

Cliff jumps in intensity aside, however, Paralipomena also shines in its frequent tempo shifts, keeping the listener engaged with cool transitions between different modes of neck breaking, thus allowing the band to smoothly incorporate all the different death metal flavors into their writing. In particular, Pillars of Cacophony do exceedingly well in releasing tension through slowing down the tempo for either massive, doomy riffs (“4 Degree Celsius”, “Retina”) or very deliberate, technical arrangements (“Cachexia”, “Landscapes of Permanence”), but are also capable of sharp intensity spikes or maintaining high momentum despite slowing down a tad. The pummeling did tire me out near the end, but for a good 80% of the album I was having a being blasted.  

Having just finished my Paralipomena meal, I sit at my table in silence, hazily processing all the madness my taste buds were exposed to these past forty-odd minutes. As I try to figure out how on earth I do not feel the need to puke, but instead experience an estranging form of contentment, that same waiter who took my order approaches me.

“So, how was your meal, sir?”

“It was…I survived—err, satisfactory in ways I had not anticipated.”

“Glad to hear that, sir. Would you like to order anything else?”

Chuckles, somewhat painfully.
“No, thank you—perhaps another time. I would like the check, please.”

With slightly contorted insides, I pay my bill and do my best not to stumble as I exit the restaurant. In the warm embrace of the afternoon sun, I make my way over to the local park and crash on the nearest bench. I open my phone and take a look at our spreadsheet to see what’s available for my next review, but quickly realize that I first really, really need to listen to some Adele to cool myself off again. What a day.

Recommended tracks: Of Plagues and Fibrils, Cachexia, The Discord
You may also like: Convulsing, Baring Teeth, Heaving Earth, Replicant, Anachronism
Final verdict: 7/10

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

Label: Independent

Pillars of Cacophony is:
– Dominik (vocals, all instruments)

The post Review: Pillars of Cacophony – Paralipomena 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.

Style: progressive black metal, avant-garde metal, dissonant death metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Gorguts, Charles Mingus, Oranssi Pazuzu, Blut Aus Nord, Ulcerate
Country: New York, United States
Release date: 21 March 2025

Imperial Triumphant have artfully captured life in the Big Apple with their music for over a decade now, and their music—like the city itself—is dichotomous, a portrayal of the vileness and luxury of life in the greatest city on earth. The band’s groundbreaking mix of discordant dissonant metal, atonal jazz, and gleaming Art Deco exterior is cerebral: Imperial Triumphant is an acquired taste like black coffee¹, grimy but energizing, for the working class and the elites alike. Dating back to my neonatal dissonant metal-loving form in 2020, I knew Imperial Triumphant would be a permanent favorite of mine². I’ve discussed them endlessly with unwilling friends and family, given them an uber-rare 10/10 for Alphaville³, and even written a thirteen-page term paper on the band and their usage of free jazz in metal as an embodiment of their NYC-centric philosophy. 

Goldstar is a conceptual and musical reframing for the New York power trio with an emphasis placed on how the material will sound in a live setting. This materializes as a punchier Imperial Triumphant: tighter song lengths, more cutthroat, riffier. While no stranger to the Almighty Riff on Alphaville and Spirit of Ecstasy, Imperial Triumphant lay down a new barbed focus on guitar parts and punchy rhythms on Goldstar, hitting with the force of King Kong. For example, “Gomorrah Nouveaux” opens with an intricate percussive rhythm courtesy of North African gnawa while Ezrin hypnotically chugs the pattern in disgusted agreement. The track never relents the punishing, Meshuggah-esque march except in a dramatic grand pause around a minute in. Thankfully despite the increased emphasis on staccato, precise guitar parts across Goldstar, Ezrin’s playing still uses atonal jazz technique to dizzying effect—as on the gritty “Rot Moderne” and the slow-burning “Lexington Delirium.” He also opts to play outright melodies more than on previous releases, his parts twice breaking free of the noisy chaos to recognizable tunes: a Handel motif weaves through the main melody of “Hotel Sphinx,” and the closer “Industry of Misery” ends with an extended jam around The Beatles’ heaviest track, “I Want You (She’s so Heavy).”

Recorded in only five days as the final project produced at Colin Marston’s legendary Queens-based Menegroth studio, the frantic, improvisatory moments scattered throughout Goldstar successfully capture the energy of a live performance. The Dada-ist grindcore track “NEWYORKCITY” is a thirty-second burst of sound, embodying the city that never sleeps with studio-adjusted improvised chaos. Sound clips of sirens, spoken word, and the ominous groan of buildings are also mainstays of Goldstar. You’re never left in doubt that you’re still in the city so nice they named it twice while listening to Imperial Triumphant. 

Steve Blanco on bass and Kenny Grohowski on drums are a rhythm duo from heaven playing in hell. Long my favorite drummer, Grohowski throws everything at this album from black metal blasts more common than on any previous release to unceasing Meshuggah rhythms, from delicate jazz cymbals to Brazilian Maracatu. He’s got backup from Thomas Haake (Meshuggah) on “Lexington Delirium” and “Pleasuredome” as well as from Dave Lombardo (Slayer) on “Pleasuredome” although neither is a highlight (I reckon no matter who you are it’s gotta be impossible to keep up with Kenny Grohowski). Blanco’s highlight occurs when he takes smooth leads from the jagged playing of Ezrin, such as on “Hotel Sphinx” or on “Lexington Delirium”—you can see him play the latter in the Chrysler Building itself in the music video for the track. 

Keeping in theme with this release cycle’s live-performance focus, the trio once again unfurled new masks to up the theatricality—glossy Art Deco pieces at home within the architecture of the Chrysler Building. Yet despite the album title, donning of new golden masks, and finally recording at the Chrysler building like the band had dreamed of for years, Imperial Triumphant have lost some of the gilded luster of previous releases. Opener “Eye of Mars” has the brassy undertones of Vile Luxury’s opener “Swarming Opulence,” but it’s more drowned out by the guitar, losing the urbane impact of the brass. Goldstar lacks Steve Blanco’s regal piano-playing, opting instead for Krallice-y synths, and although they are awesome, they lack the glittery pizazz of high-life in The Capital of the World. In a similar fashion, I wish Goldstar had more of a jazz focus because while the influence is still clear—and this realization of Imperial Triumphant isn’t lacking anything—I struggle to acclimate to the relative lack of jazz. Goldstar doesn’t contain any tracks like the late-era John Coltrane-coded “In the Pleasure of Their Company” from Spirit of Ecstasy or the transcendent freeness of “Chernobyl Blues”—except for the thirty-second unconfined grindcore track, of course. 

Tightening up songwriting for a more approachable package—particularly with an emphasis on playing the tracks live—certainly doesn’t guarantee a band is selling out: Pyrrhon and Scarcity both placed highly on my year-end list last year despite a significant boost in their accessibility. Goldstar is still a complex and cultured metal record; Imperial Triumphant’s riffs are stronger than ever before; and at thirty-nine minutes the album is easy to listen to on repeat. So while Goldstar isn’t as transcendent nor stately as the golden packaging would have you think, basking in the filthy riffage and potent songwriting is luxurious in its own way.

Recommended tracks: Gomorrah Nouveaux, Hotel Sphinx, Rot Moderne, Industry of Misery
You may also like: Ashenspire, Pyrrhon, Krallice, A Forest of Stars, Thantifaxath, Dodecahedron, Kostnateni, Sarmat, Scarcity, Voices
Final verdict: 8/10

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

Label: Century Media Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Imperial Triumpahnt is:
Zachary Ezrin – Vocals, Guitar
Steve Blanco – Bass
Kenny Grohowski – Drums

1. Once, Imperial Triumphant released their own blend of coffee as merch (which I did purchase and brew). Isn’t that the coolest merch item ever, though?? ︎
2. Never mind that there is documented evidence of a younger and stupider version of me in the Angry Metal Guy comments of Alphaville calling the record appreciatable but not enjoyable, an “uncomfortable” experience. The love affair between Imperial Triumphant and me wasn’t immediate. ︎
3.  Strong 9.5 for the followup Spirit of Ecstasy ︎

The post Review: Imperial Triumphant – Goldstar appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: dissonant death metal, black metal, electronica (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Ulcerate, Gorguts, Morbid Angel, Gojira
Country: Arizona, United States
Release date: 28 February 2025

In my mind, the main feature (other than quality) that separates one dissonant death metal release from another is headiness. Some bands like Replicant are content to stay low to the earth, punishing any who come near with raw brutality, while others leave their earthly constraints and instead push dissodeath towards the cerebral; see Pyrrhon and Scarcity. In the middle, you get bands like Ulcerate and Convulsing that infuse elements from across the spectrum into their sound to create music equally confounding as it is crushing, and this alluring middle ground is where Light Dweller’s The Subjugate falls.

Stylistically, Light Dweller employs a shade of dissonant death metal on The Subjugate most similar to that of Convulsing’s masterful Perdurance from last year. Uniquely contrapuntal riffs weave in and upon themselves as the interminable drumming blasts away atop a bed of cacophonous atmospherics, but—like all the dissodeath I love—the album maintains a devotion to the mighty riff. From the harmonious guitar work of the opening track that sounds as though entirely different songs are playing from the left and right channels, to the tasteful ebb and flow of the breakdowns on songs like “Cessation of Time” and the Tool-like percussive riffage on tracks like “Fracturing Light” and “Passing Through the Veil,” there’s no shortage of unique and creative riffs on The Subjugate. In general, the riffs here feel more groove oriented, as if Morbid Angel’s sound never stopped evolving, and when Alex Haddad (Dessiderium, Arkaik) lends the album his tasteful lead work, the songs take on an even more technical edge. Even as the tracks venture into the realms of electronica with synthesized drum beats, haunting flute, and brainy synths, there’s always a killer riff waiting in the wings to bring it all back home to a familiar death metal base.

The balance between The Subjugate’s degenerate and cerebral qualities is what allows the album to truly shine. In fact, The Subjugate achieves an emulsification of metal subgenres here more successfully than any death metal act in recent memory, and I find my attention only broken by the unfortunately common additions of electronic drumming. There are certainly gaps in my electronic knowledge that keep me from fully contextualizing the ideas the album puts forth, but the manner in which the electronic drums never seemed to settle into a steady beat made each moment they appeared feel somewhat meandering, as if lacking a goal to push towards. There are a few moments like the spliced buildup of the intro of “Fracturing Light” that push the album towards a more cogent fusion of death metal and electronica, but these moments don’t outshine my distaste for the electronic drums as a whole.

Blessedly, the somewhat poor integration of the electronic elements into The Subjugate’s sound allows me to look past them and simply enjoy the dissodeath that the album has on offer, and it is really stellar stuff. I constantly find myself headbanging to every track, and by the time this rather lean album finishes up, I instantly feel the urge to spin it again, chasing those giddy glimpses into the album’s unfathomable riffage. As a fellow acolyte of the mighty riff, it truly warms my heart to see a band taking the riff heritage of bands like MorbidAngel—or Gojira for a more modern reference—and pushing it into the future. One inverted power chord and pick scrape at a time, Light Dweller, along with bands like Convulsing, Replicant, and Wormhole, are pushing metal riffing into the future, and there’s no telling where they may end up. Thankfully, we have The Subjugate as a stepping stone to help us along the way.

Recommended tracks: Adrift the Expanding Nothingness, Fracturing Light, Cessation of Time
You may also like: Convulsing, Warforged, Replicant, Sacrificial Vein, Luminous Vault, Artificial Brain
Final verdict: 7.5/10

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

Label: Unorthodox Emanations of Avantgarde Music – Bandcamp | Facebook

Light Dweller is:
– Cameron Boesch (everything)

The post Review: Light Dweller – The Subjugate 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: Avant-Garde Metal, Dissonant Death Metal (Harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Deathspell Omega, Wormed, Warforged, demented Jazz Fusion
Country: Germany
Release date: 27 September 2024

Ingurgitating Oblivion is a band with a long, tumultuous history. Throughout the band’s course, they have changed their moniker once, altered their fundamental sound twice, and have gone through so many lineup changes that Florian Engelke is the only remaining original member of the band. It’s taken a long time for them to truly come into their own, with a good number of middling albums in their wake that didn’t quite touch greatness, but this album, with no fewer than six session musicians, can be aptly described as their greatest moment so far with Florian truly coming into his own.

Ontology of Naught presents you with long epics that divide pulverising, demented chaos with moments of dark, twisted serenity. The end product sounds quite a bit like a technical death metal take on Fas – Ite, maledicti, in ignem aeternum by Deathspell Omega, mixed with a bit of I: Voice by Warforged, and a healthy dose of the darker strains of jazz fusion with some occasional classical leanings. Dark Ambient aesthetics are also present, with a bit of spoken word elements sprinkled in. The style of harsh vocals Florian Engelke employs on the album is adjacent to that of Deathspell Omega’s, and it holds a candle up to their work.

Polarization defines Florian’s vision on Ontology of Naught. For instance, the guitar tone is an almost divisive choice; it’s as if the tone chosen was designed to sound as massive, incoherent, and noisy as possible. Ingurgitating Oblivion isn’t really going for a clear, distinct, and precise sound, but more of a jagged, abrasive wall-of-noise that completely overwhelms the listener. Beyond that, everything else feels mixed reasonably well: the drums feel well balanced and they don’t sit too far forward or behind things, and the same can be said for the vocals, which don’t overpower the riffs while still being powerful in their own right.

To make an album grappling with seriously unconventional forms and usages of dissonance, a variety of non-metal influences, and song lengths whose minimum starts at the ten minute mark is a deeply ambitious endeavor. However, what ultimately matters is whether or not what you are trying to do constitutes something that actually works—ambitions as lofty as these often fail at this step. The crux of what Florian is going for here is multifaceted, partly in how the chaos that is built into and granted reprieve from is justified, if the components of the chaos have enough of a diverse vocabulary in their insanity to not become monotonous or indistinct, and if they are balanced with more memorable motifs. Another important aspect is if the softer styles that contrast with the chaos are properly executed in a way that doesn’t feel cheap or amateur, and if the whole epic flows in a way that doesn’t feel completely incoherent or weak.

Florian takes a lot of risks in Ontology of Naught, and some of them do pay off. “Uncreation’s Whirring Loom You Ply With Crippled Fingers” is a great example, starting with an eerie ambience which introduces a simple motif that is expanded upon and returned to in the ensuing chaos. In “To Weave The Tapestry of Nought”, a great example of breakdown and buildup is shown at the midway point: A delirious gloom of vaguely jazzy harmonies swirl around a spoken word passage, which is followed by intricate rhythms below a choral accompaniment with a simple, soaring lead that serves as a bit of a motif. A solo builds before metal cacophony erupts and the solo explodes into almost atonal convulsions, after which the metal becomes much more brutal and rhythmic, like a machine gun being fired at your face.

Ontology of Naught is not without flaws and failed attempts, however. One of my biggest gripes with the album is its usage of spoken word elements, which while not inherently bad, are notoriously difficult to get right. Classic examples would be in death metal à la Carcass, who uses them to paint a gory scene, or Deathspell Omega, who employed them to great effect, staging them as if they were some kind of demonic, biblical sermon. On Ontology of Naught, however, the narration teeters on the precipice of pretension. Florian wants to evoke a sense of radical rebellion in these elements, as if you were listening to the ideologues that served as the vanguard of a revolution, but the effect isn’t quite as profound as he believes it to be.

In addition, there are questionable decisions in terms of flow at times. “The Blossoms of Your Tomorrow Shall Unfold in My Heart” is the biggest offender of this, with the track jumping into chaos that doesn’t really follow any intuitive sense, and then abruptly cuts to Florian’s take on jazz fusion. Following that is more chaos, which isn’t balanced by any motif nor coherently differentiated by other distinctions, as well as an attempt at choral intrigue followed by an ambient outro, none of which really work as a whole song.

Ontology of Naught is ultimately a noteworthy addition to the dissonant death metal genre. Questionable aesthetic and design choices do hold the album back to an extent, with a production job that is divisive, though not objectively bad. However, Florian manages to take on the difficult mantle of making unbridled bedlam into something memorable and distinct, and succeeds to a very commendable degree, with each epic balanced by their own unique aspects in both the extreme and the tranquil.

Recommended tracks: Uncreation’s Whirring Loom You Ply With Crippled Fingers, The Barren Earth Oozes Blood, and Shakes and Moans, to Drink Her Children’s Gore
You may also like: Ceremony of Silence, Mitochondrion, Acausal Intrusion, Defacement
Final verdict: 8/10

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

Label: Willowtip – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Ingurgitating Oblivion is:
– Florian Engelke (guitars, vocals)
– Norbert Müller (guitars)
– Lille Gruber (session drums)
– Chris Zoukas (session bass)

The post Missed Album Review: Ingurgitating Oblivion – Ontology of Nought 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: dissonant death metal, technical death metal, progressive death metal, brutal death metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Gorguts, Blood Incantation, Ulcerate, Devourment, Portal, Defeated Sanity
Country: United States-IL
Release date: 25 October 2024

Death metal’s evolution branches into two distinct paths: intelligent complexity or leaden heaviness. The boundaries are pushed from both of these sides. As far as complexity, bands try to one-up who can go fastest (it’s always Archspire) or create the most intricate compositions (Ad Nauseam, for my money), and for heaviness… well, it’s a steamrolling competition, punches thrown as various slams, breakdowns, and the like. Both sides are fun, and they often overlap (see Defeated Sanity, Nile); but that’s usually the tech/br00tal side, not the disso/brutal one. Chicago’s sci-fi death metal aliens Gigan, though, write music that’s firmly between Ulcerate and Devourment, an oppressive, monolithic blend of chaotic and crushing death metal. Is this the ideal blend of smart dissonance and smooth-brained heft? 

Like Ulcerate, Gigan are a three piece whose drummer is the hero: Nate Cotton of Gigan is an absolute monstrous presence behind the kit. While the other instrumentalist (guitar, bass, xylophone, theremin, synthesizers) Eric Hersemann makes a whole lot of noise to create a hazy labyrinth, Cotton goes ham atop it with relentless blast beats and often takes up the focus as a soloist of sorts. “Trans-Dimensional Crossing of the Alta-Tenuis” opens up with three minutes of atmospheric death metal guitars and bass while Cotton beats his drums in endlessly varied pitter-patters and explosive flurries of triplets. Other tracks like “The Strange Harvest of the Baganoids” start similarly, and the violent deluge of percussion is the highlight of Anomalous Abstractigate Infinitessimus. In addition to the ridiculously sick drum fills that permeate the album, vocalist Jerry Kavouriaris complements Cotton well with his percussive barks, and the science fiction tales he recites are engaging and fun.

Speaking of the lyrics, they’re often rather prescient and meta; for example, “Square Wave Cognition” opens with the line, “madness, disorientation and confusion / upended cognition.” This album will cause all of these effects on the listener. The album is complex and shifty like Ulcerate, it also is produced like you’re inside of a cement mixer being thrown around in the pitch black with liquid concrete and is suffocatingly heavy like Devourment. Occasionally Gigan become recognizably tech death like in “Square Wave Subversion” and there are prog flourishes like how Afterbirth are prog—the sci-fi metal classics of theremin and vocoder, specifically—but overall it’s murky and enveloping noise. Gigan utilize all sorts of whooshing sounds, background synths, and distorted guitars to fill the space, and it’s a weighty experience that drowns you in sound.

I certainly want my death metal to be overwhelmingly heavy, but overall Anomalous Abstractigate Infinitessimus is a collage of noise from which it’s almost impossible to extract melodies or memorable riffs, even the breakdowns being lost. The worst offender is the ten-minute centerpiece “Emerging Sects of Dagonic Acolytes” which takes a leap beyond the overwhelmingly chaotic death metal straight into several minutes of swirling noise—A LOT of swirling, disorienting, filthy noise. Noise can be good, creating chaos and the dramatic soundscapes this sort of music needs, but when it takes away from the death metal parts, it becomes a problem for me. Thus, while the inclusion of the sound effects and overly layered instruments are acceptable and would be a neat songwriting tactic to close out a track, the extended noise sections kill the album’s flow, making sections of the album drag on far too long (the doomy intro to closer “Ominous Silhouettes Cast Across Gulfs of Time” is another). This is Portal’s approach to extreme metal, especially on their most recent releases, so fans of the Aussies should love this, but I can’t count myself among them. Ironically, despite being so dense I can hardly figure out what’s going on at several points, I think Gigan suffer from repetitious bloat more than anything else. 

In theory, Gigan should hit me like two continental plates colliding and make me put on my thinking cap while I beg for more aural punishment, but Anomalous Abstractigate Infinitessimus can’t decide to what degree to be mercurial. I lose the plot in the buzzsaw of the guitars and the elaborate compositions, but I never find myself bewildered and beaten—just mildly bored waiting for the next distinct solo or riff, really anything that rises out of the turbulent murk. This album is certainly an anomaly, but it won’t be my go-to for brutal dissonance.

Recommended tracks: Square Wave Subversion, Katabatic Windswept Landscapes, Erratic Pulsitivity and Horror
You may also like: Artificial Brain, Mithras, Flourishing, Wormed, Diskord, Fractal Generator, Mitochondrion, Ingurgitating Oblivion, Warforged, Anachronism, Infernal Coil, Afterbirth, Wormhole
Final verdict: 6/10

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

Label: Willowtip Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Gigan is:
Eric Hersemann – All electric, acoustic and bass guitars, theremin, otomatone, synths, lyrics, concepts and madness.

Nathan Cotton – Drums, percussion and Sunny weather.

Jerry Kavouriaris – Vocals and violence.

The post Review: Gigan – Anomalous Abstractigate Infinitessimus 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.