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: Technical death metal, brutal death metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Suffocation, Dying Fetus, Gorguts, Nile, Immolation
Country: Canada
Release date: 20 June 2025

Of all the technical death metal OGs, Cryptopsy remain at the top of my favorites list. Blasphemy Made Flesh and None So Vile—hell, I’ll even add Whisper Supremacy to this list—are ‘90s death metal essentials with one overarching ethos: uncompromising technicality fused with unyielding brutality. After those releases, however, things get… controversial. By the mid ‘00s the group began to introduce other genre flavors into their sound—Once Was Not’s brash guitar work and syncopation left a distinct mathcore aftertaste, and The Unspoken King’s embrace of melody and breakdowns gave a deathcore-tinged aroma. Fans lost it. Cries of “sellout!” echoed across various and sundry forums and comment sections.² Amid the backlash came several changes in the lineup—which the band was never immune to—but in 2012, they stabilized. Their self-titled album that year, with just one founding member left, was widely regarded (somewhat ironically) as a return to form. And since then? They’ve clung to that sound like a lifeline.

An Insatiable Violence continues to hang on for dear life. Or at least it wants you to do so. This is a continuation of Cryptopsy’s post-2012 era sound: intensely technical rhythms, breakneck tempo changes, and Flo Mounier’s hyper-complex drumming are all here. Right out of the gate, vocalist Matt McGachy lets loose his signature howl (which will never get old) and we’re off, tumbling through a hellscape of rhythmic contortions, dissonant melodies, and blast-beaten obliteration. For better or worse, the intensity rarely lets up. Across its eight tracks, Violence stays pedal-to-the-fucking-death-metal: all gas, no brakes, nor breaks. It’s Cryptopsy, after all.

Still, on every track Cryptopsy provides a moment of clarity when the band lets a groovy bridge or tempo change shine by taking a swinging, half-time riff and using it to transition between two scorching sections. “Dead Eyes Replete” and “Embrace the Nihility” are probably my favorites in this regard. Other tracks, like “Until There’s Nothing Left” and “The Nimis Adoration,” have moments where they bring Olivier Pinard’s bass forward in the mix to showcase a sickly melody, letting the bass come up for air to do more than just keep the songs heavy on the low end. I wish Cryptopsy leaned into that consistently, because it works. These reprieves don’t mean I’m trying to make a case for less brutality. On the contrary, a showstopper on this LP is the blistering vocal work. I’ve always been a fan of McGachy’s voice (and his flowing locks), and he delivers another fantastic performance on Violence. “Fools Last Acclaim” showcases McGachy’s inhuman prowess, letting his vocals run the gamut from demonically low gutturals to wraith-like raspy high shrieks. Likewise, the ferocious drumming on this LP is top tier. Flo is a bit of an icon in the genre, and his combination of brute intensity and flawless precision is present in all thirty-four minutes of the album’s runtime.

But, despite the clear technical brilliance that An Insatiable Violence puts on display, the lack of variety might be the biggest criticism here. And that sucks to say, because as mentioned earlier, fans revolted when Cryptopsy even peeked outside of their wheelhouse. I don’t mean to say that the songs blend together—nobody is going to confuse Christian Donaldson’s groaning riffs in “Malicious Needs” with his fiery assault in “The Art of Emptiness”—but rather that few, if any, moments step outside the tightly constructed box the band has kept to in this era. That’s the price of consistency, I suppose. No filler, but few surprises. The production on the album is also tight and clear—perhaps to a fault. Every note is crisp; every kick of the bass drum surgically accurate. The polish really helps showcase Cryptopsy’s technical prowess, but it also scrubs away that filthy feeling that helped form the appeal of those early albums. It’s a fair trade-off, and one that fits their current mode well, even though it risks coming off as clinical.

A certain paradox exists with being an establishing act in extreme metal. When you break new ground early on, many metal fans expect you to stay rooted in the foundation you laid, resisting changes in design or renovations over the years. Cryptopsy have weathered the backlash that often comes with defying those expectations, enduring lineup shifts and stylistic detours along the way. But they’ve emerged with a sound that feels both true to their roots and sustainable in the long term. For longtime fans, that might be enough. For those looking for more innovation in tech-death, An Insatiable Violence will seem a bit rote. As for me, I’ll keep coming back to it—because I love this band, and because even when they’re not reinventing the wheel, they’re burning rubber like few can.

Recommended tracks: Malicious Needs, Fools Last Acclaim, The Nimis Adoration, Embrace the Nihility
You may also like: Malignancy, Brodequin, Serocs, Hideous Divinity
Final verdict: 7/10

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

Label: Season of Mist – Bandcamp | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram

Cryptopsy is:
– Christian Donaldson (guitar)
– Matt McGachy (vocals)
– Flo Mounier (drums)
– Olivier Pinard (bass)

1. Ex-vocalist of Cryptopsy from 2001-2003, who passed away in 2024 ︎
2. Which is just silly. Moving from one extreme metal genre to a variation on another extreme metal genre isn’t “selling out” by any stretch of the imagination, folks. ︎

The post Review: Cryptopsy – An Insatiable Violence appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: technical death metal, brutal death metal, deathcore (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Origin, Archspire, Benighted, Analepsy, Rings of Saturn
Country: Germany
Release date: 11 April 2025

For a week when I was younger, I thought Brain Drill’s Apocalyptic Feasting was the sickest thing ever; how on earth could anything be that technical? I quickly realized it’s the absolute worst form of tech death, the lads sacrificing any semblance of songwriting in favor of chaotic scale exercises. Cytotoxin are Germany’s answer to Brain Drill, but despite their unhinged technicality and brutality, the quintet don’t forget what songwriting is for the most part. Just like their four previous albums, Biographyte riffs, solos, and breakdowns through some of the most intense forty-seven minutes of metal you’ll hear all year.  

Opening in similar fashion to Viraemia’s legendary 2009 EP (that is, with an absolutely STUPID string run up and down a scale), Biographyte wastes no time to show what Cytotoxin are all about: being a radioactive force of destruction like an atomic bomb. Soon after the wickedly technical opening, a skittery, rhythmic riff propels the song forward, creating a serious risk of dislocating your neck at Mach-1. Guitarists Fonzo and Jason utilize the same recognizable style they’ve had since 2010 of mixing the grooviness of Soreption, the pulverizing brutality of Analepsy, and the technicality of Archspire. Their style is, in a word, br00tal. However, the riffs on Biographyte are leagues ahead of the leads. Each time Fonzo and Jason decide to really let loose their wank, it comes across about as mature as Brain Drill or Rings of Saturn, particularly because the guitar tones when they do it are frail and treble heavy in isolation. When Cytotoxin stick to the arpeggiated, staccato attack of tracks like “Biographyte” and “Transition of the Staring Dead,” the band are firing at their absolute best.

The immaturity of the noodly parts is in stark contrast to the lyrical themes which describe in a series of vignettes what happened to the abandoned city of Pripiyat after the Chernobyl disaster—a weighty topic the music isn’t quite serious enough to do justice. But ignoring lyrical content (as I so often do), Cytotoxin lean so far into excess it’s impossible not to be impressed. Some of the solos, while not always composed amazingly, are actually so insanely technical it’s hard not to be stunned (see “Transition of the Staring Dead” and “Eventless Horizon”). Moreover, the breakdowns throughout Biographyte are also so goddamn heavy I’d certainly be afraid for my life in a Cytotoxin moshpit. The band saves the heaviest, and surprisingly most melodic, track for last, “From Bitter Rivers,” and it’s a damn good closer, synthesizing every successful aspect of Biographyte into one six minute banger. 

Cytotoxin are fun and br00tal, but that’s all there is to them, and at forty-seven minutes, the schtick is played out—notice that the absolute masters of the unreally technical style, Archspire, never exceed thirty-five minutes on an album. That phenomenon is for a reason, and by the end of Biographyte, I’m needing some variety—the two interlude tracks are a breather but more annoying than anything. Despite the quality never noticeably waning—besides when the tracks lean too far into the obnoxiously technical leads like on chunks of “Bulloverdozed” and “The Everslave.” If Biographyte didn’t end with its strongest track, this length issue would be an even bigger problem, though.

I’ve been listening to Cytotoxin for a long time, and my reactions to each subsequent release sadly show how my music taste has matured; no longer do I think absurd technicality or heaviness are the pinnacle of music. But for a style I’ve largely moved away from, Cytotoxin are certainly one of the premier acts, and it brings me great satisfaction to say that Biographyte is still a good album despite its obvious flaws. And when I’m old and wizened, done with all the pretentious nonsense that tickles my fancy right now, I know I’ll be listening to Biographyte enjoying the simple pleasures of a good riff, solo, and breakdown.

Recommended tracks: Biographyte, Behind Armored Doors, Transition of the Staring Dead, From Bitter Rivers
You may also like: Brain Drill, Viraemia, Retromorphosis, Soreption, Spawn of Possession, NYN
Final verdict: 6/10

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

Label: independent

Cytotoxin is:
– V. T. (bass)
– Fonzo (guitars)
– Grimo (vocals)
– Jason (guitars)
– Maximilian Panzer (drums)

The post Review: Cytotoxin – Biographyte appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: brutal death metal, progressive death metal, technical death metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Hate Eternal, Cattle Decapitation, Job for a Cowboy, Rivers of Nihil
Country: Oregon, United States
Release date: 26 January 2024

From the very first guitar driven musings of opener “Shame and its Afterbirth,” one gets the sense that Suffer & Become is an album that needed to be made, as though Vitriol and its frontman Kyle Rasmussen were a cyst taut with all the anger and anxieties of the modern age ready to burst at slightest prodding. From each track, wickedly technical riffage and densely metaphorical lyrics spew forth propelled by the sheer rage of Rasmussen’s guitar and vocal deliveries, the absolutely gravitational drum performance by Matt Kilner of Nithing and Inquisitous Deeds, and the hefty bass and backing vocals of Adam Roethlisberger. While the pure density of riffs across this album is quite unlike anything—the nearest comparison I can draw would be Hate Eternal if Erik Rutan took a nap in a rapid evolution chamber for a few thousand years—the album toes the fine line between intensity and incomprehensibility.

As its title suggests, Suffer & Become is as transcendent as it is brutal, and it is from that friction that some of the best moments on this album are born. The solos on tracks like “Shame and its Afterbirth” and the “The Isolating Lie of Learning Another” (Did I mention this album has the hardest track names?) are such moments where Rasmussen’s almost desperate style of lead work hits the listener like the dawn after a long night of contemplating suicide. Be it the neoclassical sweeping that closes out “Shame…” or the aching upper fretboard stabs that occur in “The Isolating Lie…” Rasmussen treats each chance at a solo as though it were his swan song. Even the more chaotic solos a la Kerry King have a propulsion that pushes hard and fast into the song’s next passage, a regular failing of shred based solos. I could prattle on about the lead work on this album for a very long time, but to put it shortly it is refreshing to hear leads so unique in a genre as convergent as technical death metal. Besides, the leadwork is not the only thing providing this album’s sublime qualities. Tracks like “Survival’s Careening Inertia” and “He Will Fight Savagely” (Again with those song titles!) both feature building song structures where the awe comes not from single elements but from the heft of the band operating as a whole, much in the same way that several tracks off of Rivers of Nihil’s Where Owls Know My Name operate.

Working in tandem with the instrumentals are the album’s lyrics. While Rasmussen and Roethlisberger enunciate just enough for me to catch the odd word or two, I had to follow along with the lyrics to get the full picture, and I am sure glad that I did. Those familiar with my review style know how little weight I often place on lyrics, so it takes something special to make me pay attention. That being said, every single line features a unique and vivid turn of phrase that I can’t help but ponder long after I stop listening. The track “Nursing from the Mother Wound” is particularly notable for this; I’ll never again view disdain as anything other than a “burdening mantle.”

Ultimately, Suffer & Become delivers the full package. The harmony between its themes, lyrics, and instrumentals, the gorgeous artwork, and clearly meticulous effort that went into its creation all combine to create what is without a doubt my favorite album of 2024, a true testament to the genre of death metal and of music as a whole as a cohesive art form. The theme of evolution through hardship is one often attempted in the metal genre, but never before has it been so fully realized so truthfully and vividly. Vitriol has crafted a work that truly challenges the artistic boundaries of technical death metal. In a genre often obsessed with complexity for its own sake, this is a rare reminder of the raw emotion and storytelling that make metal an enduring art form. A masterpiece like this doesn’t deserve to be missed—it demands to be heard.

Recommended tracks: Shame and its Afterbirth, The Isolating Lie of Learning Another
You may also like: Afterbirth, Hideous Divinity, Black Crown Initiate
Final verdict: 10/10

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

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

Vitriol is:
– Adam Roethlisberger (bass, vocals)
– Kyle Rasmussen (guitars, vocals)
– Matt Kilner (drums)
– Stephen Ellis (guitars)

The post Review: Vitriol – Suffer & Become 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, 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: brutal death metal, technical death metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Origin, Suffocation, Cryptopsy
Country: Madrid, Spain
Release date: 5 July 2024

The Spanish death metallers Wormed have returned from 2019’s Metaportal with Omegon, the latest installment in their sprawling brutal death metal space opera dubbed for the universe-altering substance central to its plot. Civilizations vie for power, galactic battles ensue, and the fate of the universe lies in the hands of Krighsu, a timeline hacker. But who are we kidding? We’re not here for convoluted sci-fi stories. I can’t even follow the lyrics if I’m staring right at them! We’re here for the convoluted brutal death metal! Thank goodness Wormed is just as good at it as they are at making my eyes glaze over from album liner exposition.

From the first notes of “Automaton Virtulague,” the type of album the Omegon is gonna be becomes immediately apparent; your neck will be sore by the time you’re done listening. Every riff locks into place with a neck-snapping heft, and each transition is punctuated by a piercing groove thanks to V-Kazar’s tighter-than-a-camel’s-ass-in-a-sandstorm drum fills and Guillemoth’s low-key bass grooves. In fact it’s these transitions, like in the ripper “Pleoverse Omninertia” and the standout “Protogod” that became my favorite moments on repeat listens. They always groove so damn hard. Admittedly, much of the content here is familiar territory for Wormed, but the level of maturity and nuance that each moment is approached with makes them worthwhile.

Recorded by Ekaitz Garmendia and mixed by the ever-amazing Colin Marston, Omegon is an utterly stellar and natural sounding album. Every song and moment has a veritable sheen of quality as each note played rings out clearly and each drum head hit reverberates organically and beautifully. However, this is where some of my issues with the album begin. While the mix found on Omegon may be technically sound (and is something that countless other underground bands would kill for), I do not think it is the best fit for a band like Wormed. For one, I can count on one hand the amount of times that the riffage on this album rises above the lowest octave possible on guitar; for the vast majority of the album, the guitars stay low, accenting the admittedly wicked drum patterns but the melodic content from one moment seems practically interchangeable with any other. With such a natural mix, the inconsequential nature of many of the riffs stands out in a way that I feel could have been avoided had a more heavy-handed production style been employed. To most, the organic mix will be non-factor and even more likely a plus, but I’d personally like to reserve this mixing style for the Ad Nauseams and Heaving Earths of the world. One positive of the mix, however, is that when Wormed chooses to add some melody back into their brutal death metal mixture, the result is often stellar.

There was a point in my first listen through of Omegon where I was completely enraptured by the potential of what Wormed had created thus far. The album’s first four tracks had been fairly straight ahead (at least in terms of technical brutal death metal), each building on the last’s complexity and intensity, but the interlude track “Malignant Nexus” showed a marked change. It took the deluge of riffage and blast beats that had run through the previous tracks and infused it with a vivid sense of atmosphere and melodicism. The blast beats were still there—this is Wormed we’re talking about—but they were now recontextualized. And this trend continued in the next track “Virtual Teratogenesis” which saw Wormed try their hand at a more straight ahead style melodic groove that I feel paid off immensely, mostly thanks to its masterful placement within the album.

Unfortunately, the trend signified by the previously mentioned tracks does not continue into the back half of the album, which instead feels comfortable treading the same territory as the front. On shorter tracks like “Gravitational Servo Matrix,” this is mostly fine; the music that Wormed creates is still high quality stuff, but on longer tracks like the closer and title track “Omegon” the formula becomes stale when surrounded by intros and outros seemingly padded for length than for any other creative reason. In a perfect world, Omegon would have been one or maybe even two tracks shorter and it would have delved farther into the melodic aspects that I felt it began teasing at its midway point, but as it stands the album is just decent, content treading similar territory to the band’s previous outputs and not adventurous enough to distinguish itself in its own merit.

Recommended tracks: Protogod, Virtual Teratogenesis
You may also like: Replicant, Malignancy, Afterbirth, Cytotoxin
Final verdict: 6/10

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

Label: Season of Mist – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Wormed is:
– Phlegeton (vocals)
– Migueloud (guitars)
– D-Kazar (guitars)
– Guillemoth (bass)
– V-Kazar (drums)

The post Review: Wormed- Omegon appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: brutal death metal, technical death metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Defeated Sanity, Suffocation, Cryptopsy, Nile, Atheist
Country: United States-NY
Release date: 14 June 2024

I live in a very high cost-of-living area, so eating out isn’t cheap. Accordingly, my friends and I love going out to this cafeteria-style udon place where we can get a huge bowl of udon for merely $10; it’s cheap, satisfying, and delicious. And you know why? It’s because of those big ass noodles—thick ones. Malignancy, like Marugame Udon, deal in chunky noodles: they play brutal technical death metal with one of the strongest collections of riffs 2024 has seen (rivaled only by Replicant). So buckle up, because the slurping’s gonna get messy.

First and foremost, Jacob Schmidt’s (Defeated Sanity) bass performance is ungodly and makes me feel profane bodily sensations. The guy uses oodles and oodles of tasty noodles, spidering his way up and down scales as a wicked counterpoint to the guitars, and the producer Lasse Lammert clearly loves the muscular stumps of a bassman, pushing Schmidt to the front of the mix in order for him to seduce me. His influence on Malignant is clear with the band sounding like an even more technical Defeated Sanity, and Schmidt perfectly complements Alex Weber (Exist) in the band. Alongside them, guitarist Ron Kachnic shreds all over with a never-ending onslaught of riffs. I lasted less than thirty seconds into note-taking of …Discontinued before writing that I wanted to smash my head straight through a brick wall; the album makes you feel invincible yet beaten to a pulp at the same time. I guarantee you that in the time it took you to read this sentence, Malignancy played at least three riffs no matter where you are in the album.

Last week I reviewed Replacire who had some groovy-ass, heavy tech death, but their grooves were intricate little pitter patters of chugs, flurries of explosive drums in knotted staccatos. Malignancy, on the other hand, take your skull, use a jackhammer on it, and then squeeze the remaining juices out of it to drink from your shattered cranium. There is no subtlety here; everything is gloriously as it seems. Technical, in your face, heavy, loud. Moreover, Malignancy’s remarkably smooth transitions between riffs displays songwriting as tight as their performances, and Mike Heller’s drumming is what ties the songs together. Remarkable in both speed and seemingly possessing six limbs, he blasts at light speed yet somehow keeps enough control to seriously vary up the style, fitting every riff with laser-precision. At points, he even overshadows the stellar performances of Schmidt and Kachnic with his cyborg drumming, the fills like at :25 into “Irradiated Miscreation” or 3:30 into “Oppositional Defiance” exceeding my brain’s processing speed. 

…Discontinued is a little unhinged (in a good way, of course), too. At points, the guitars feel unwieldy despite the effortless skill of Kachnich, playing with the reckless abandon of early tech death’s thrashiness—with riffs like the opening of “Oppositional Defiance” sounding almost like Atheist. Unlike Lord Worm (Cryptopsy), Danny Nelson’s vocal performance is a tad too legible for the style, and while his lows are utterly beastly, I think more variance with some shrieks would add more character to the performance, though he’s excellent at sounding like a vacuum cleaner (see the end of “Irradiated Miscreation”), and he does a damn good garbage disposal, too. 

I see few faults with …Discontinued; it’s about as refined a brutal tech death experience as one can have. Occasionally it’s cliche—I have no love for cheesy/edgy spoken word samples (“Ancillary Biorhythms”), and every single track except for “Purity of Purpose” being titled a variation of “Adjective Noun” is hilarious. Additionally, the genre as a whole is a massively crowded space (I mean just look at the FFO and YMAL), but every individual element here is performed with the highest degree of meticulousness. It’s imperfect if only because it doesn’t have the identity of Nile, the influence of Suffocation, the true insanity of early Cryptopsy, or the sick extra influences of something like the jazz fusion of Atheist, but as a honed-in riff machine, Malignancy are peers of any act. If Malignancy were to change one thing, though, I would absolutely love some killer guitar solos; …Discontinued feels a little devoid on that front when they could melt my face even further. If you like your metal to be heavy, you’d be doing a disservice not to add this to your library immediately.

Recommended tracks: Irradiated Miscreation, Oppositional Defiance
You may also like: Brodequin, Replacire, Anal Stabwound, Brain Drill, Serocs, Hideous Divinity, Wormed
Final verdict: 8/10

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

Label: Willowtip Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Malignancy is:
– Jacob Schmidt (bass)
– Danny Nelson (vocals)
– Ron Kachnic (guitars)
– Mike Heller (drums)

The post Review: Malignancy – …Discontinued appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: technical brutal death metal, dissonant death metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Nile, Hate Eternal, Rivers of Nihil
Review by: Cooper
Country: Italy
Release date: 22 March 2024

There are many barometers that one could use to gauge the quality of an album before even listening, but more often than not the most reliable indicator of an album’s quality is its artwork. In the realm of progressive/technical death metal, there are many ubiquitous artists providing the visuals for our favorite albums, but one who consistently rises above the rest, in terms of both quantity and quality, is Adam Burke. Gracing the albums of bands like Vektor, First Fragment, and Dessiderium, a cover done by Burke is as close to a seal of quality as we have in the progressive metal scene. And now, Hideous Divinity has joined that list with their most recent Unextinct, an album featuring what may be my favorite Burke piece ever. Let’s see if the music can live up to the artwork.

After the brief intro track of “Dust Settles on Humanity,” Unextinct quickly settles into what will be familiar territory for fans of Hideous Divinity with tracks “The Numinous One” and “Against the Sovereignty of Mankind” where the guitars are rapid and hefty, incessant in their performance; the drums are ever-blasting, a wash for which the equally speedy riffs to blend into; and the bass is stable, only erupting into its own during key moments, yet thankfully always audible. The style is reminiscent of what a modernized Nile would probably sound like. To this formula, Hideous Divinity adds the subtlest hints of dissonant death metal and a healthy amount of progressive song structures (see “Atto Quarto: The Horror Paradox”) that both go a long way in fortifying the bleak and mature tone of Unextinct. Still, I can’t decide whether the standout performance on this album is in the vocals or the guitar solos.

Vocalist Enrico Di Lorenzo perfectly accentuates this style of technical brutal death metal, and Unextinct may be his best outing yet. He has several different guttural techniques under his belt ranging from gurgly lows, shrill highs, and an impressive mid-scream that he often inflects to follow along with the guitar driven melodies as heard on tracks “The Numinous One” and “More Than Many, Never One,” the latter of which delves into a Rivers of Nihil-esque emotional climax around its midpoint. The solos, however, are often equally impressive and regularly cemented themselves as my favorite moments on the album thanks of course to, of course, the great lead work but also to the dynamic riffs atop which the leads rode astride. Both aspects must have been written in tandem for each compliments the other, making every solo much more memorable. The solos of both “Leben ohne Feuer” and “Quasi-Sentient” particularly reminded me of the style heard on Vitriol’s recent Suffer and Become, albeit a bit less frenetic and a bit more melodic.

Unextinct is Hideous Divinity’s fifth album since their debut released in 2012, and it shows. The level of maturity and refinement present here speaks to a band more than a dozen years into their career yet still willing to push their sound into new corners, and for the most part, these evolutions pay off. If I had to nitpick, I’d say that “Der verlorene Sohn” should have been nixed entirely; we already have an interlude track in the album’s back half which meanders much less. I’d also mention that the mix on Unextinct seems like a slight downgrade from their previous album Simulacrum, although it isn’t bad by any means; some details just get lost at louder volumes through shitty headphones. Other than that and a few cheesier moments like the sample that begins “Quasi-Sentient” and the yelled vocals during the album’s outro, Unextinct is a damn sleek album bursting at the seams with dense riffage and a wickedly dark vibe. It seems like Adam Burke sure knows what’s up in the metal scene because with Unextinct the list of great albums he has painted for has just grown longer.

Recommended tracks: Quasi-Sentient, Leben ohne Feuer, More Than Many, Never One
You may also like: Vitriol, Arkaik, Hour of Penance
Final verdict: 8/10

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

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

Hideous Divinity is:
– Enrico Schettino (guitars, lyrics, songwriting)
– Enrico H. Di Lorenzo (vocals, lyrics)
– Stefano Franceschini (bass)
– Davide Itri (drums)

The post Review: Hideous Divinity – Unextinct appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Genres: symphonic brutal death metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Nile, Inferi, Hate Eternal, Gorguts
Country: Italy
Release date: 9 February 2024

It’s not every day that I come upon debut releases with features from both Luc Lemay and Karl Sanders of Gorguts and Nile fame, respectively. When I saw those names listed as features, I was immediately intrigued, but when I heard the alluring solo piano that begins this album, I was hooked and chose to pick it up for review. Thankfully, that piano continues to weave silky and snappy melodies throughout the album’s runtime, and combined with the incessant midi choir, it pushes Spiritual Deception’s standard brutal death metal fare replete with endless blast beats and blistering, difficult-to-discern riffage towards something more melodic and progressive, although summed up by the band as simply “symphonic.”

For most listeners, it will be the melodic content of this album that is the most immediately accessible, remaining so throughout repeated listens. The aforementioned piano is nigh ever-present creating eerie atmosphere and sneaking into key moments to juxtapose heavy-handed rhythmicity with tinkling subtlety. It also provides some levity to the dirge of buzzing guitars that–on par for this style of brutal death metal–rarely venture much higher than the fifth fret save for during solos, which actually provide some notable melodic content themselves. Always appropriately techy, nearly every solo finds it in its conscience to lean off the gas for at least a moment to provide an earworm or two, making each that much more engaging; the solos of “Thousand Lives Within” and “The Days of Sleep” particularly still rattle around in my head. This strong attention to melody even extends to interlude “The Night Opens” which sees the successful introduction of acoustic guitar and cello to the established formula of buzzy chugs and trems and ceaseless blast beats, making this interlude one of the better tracks on Semitae Mentis even if only as a brief reprieve from its more mundane and monotonous elements.

And, unfortunately, those elements are rather common. The guitar tone leaves a lot to be desired with its muddy buzz that leaves all lower ranged riffs–which comprise the vast majority–harmonically incomprehensible. The tone does emphasize the rhythm of the riffs however, but even that element isn’t very impressive, instead content to tread the well worn paths of bands like Hate Eternal and Nile. The attitude around the guitar tone extends into the general production leaving the whole thing generally unpleasant to listen to–although not impossible to get used to–since it can be difficult to pick out the genuinely good bits from the muck that surrounds them, leaving the whole thing sounding amateurish. Already, I’ve touched on the monotony of the midi choir which finds its way into every song, always panned subtly to the left and never providing more than a mere air of symphonicism, something already fulfilled by other instruments. It’s as though the choral elements were simply tacked on just to earn that “symphonic” moniker, and the album suffers for it. If the time spent on the choir had instead been spent refining the guitar tones and on a better mix/master, you’d likely be reading a very different review.

Semitae Mentis reaches some stellar highs thanks to its clever introduction of piano to brutal death metal in a manner that doesn’t feel tacked on as much as it feels integral, but those highs are built upon a shaky foundation that ultimately sees the album crumbling as it stretches into its back half, where each song feels like a rehash of something heard prior; not even the nine-minute closer “…To the Coldest Decline” with its recalled motifs and epic scope could draw me back in. I must commend Spiritual Deception for what they achieved with Semitae Mentis as it is certainly a strong proof of concept for what I would want to hear on subsequent releases if they are to come albeit with much improved production and a just as strong emphasis on the melodic elements.

Recommended tracks: Beyond Perception and Matter, The I Swells…, …To the Coldest Decline
You may also like: Equipoise, Stortregn, Resin Tomb
Final verdict: 6.5/10

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

Label: Amputated Vein Records – Bandcamp | Facebook

Spiritual Deception is:
– Mirko Frontini (vocals, guitars)
– Manuel Del Giudice (drums)
– Riccardo Maccarana (guitars)
– Billy Repalam (bass)

The post Review: Spiritual Deception – Semitae Mentis appeared first on The Progressive Subway.