Style: Technical Death Metal, Slam (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Devourment, Gorguts
Review by: Zach
Country: Maryland, United States
Release date: September 22nd, 2023

In every man, there is an innate urge to return to monke. You want to swing from tree to tree, eat banana, not have a care in the world. It’s the simple life. But did you know there is actually a way to return to monke on command? It’s called slamming death metal. Just a mere second of toilet bowl vocals and disgustingly heavy guitar riffs turns on this part of your brain called the Caveman Cortex. In a study done by Subway’s Division of Psychological Warfare, led by yours truly, we’ve discovered that enough exposure to slam can physically devolve you. Trust me, we’ve tried every band. Devourment, Analepsy, Disentomb, you name it.

But this album gave our completely willing participants an odd response. Instead of screeching at the top of their lungs and throwing fecal matter, they collectively worked together to convert our study room into a carpeted den, complete with a fireplace. They were all gathered ‘round the fire, wearing velvet robes they sewed themselves, and they kept talking about how “exquisite” the riffage was, all while patiently picking from an elegantly made charcuterie board.

My conclusion? This is the album for the caveman that discovered fire. Wormhole have always been near the top of my slam favorites, especially as they’ve been slowly making their way into more proggy territory with each album. Almost Human shifts directions slightly from the tech-slam union that was The Weakest Among Us, adding clear influences from Ulcerate and Artificial Brain. The result is slam for the thinking man, an album to start a pit to, and then sip wine to. 

Sanjay and Sanil Kumar have always been masters of the axe, but they take it to a whole new level with this. ‘System Erase’ begins with a sound that all my dissodeath lovers know well—  a riff straight out of Infrared Horizon accompanied by the most disgusting toilet bowl vocals I’ve ever heard. Slam is primarily a guitar and vocal driven genre, but the whole band brings their A-game here. This is not the usual techy approach of 300 BPM for the whole song. Wormhole know when they need to start shredding, and when they need to slow things down for a mosh-worthy breakdown.

The sheer talent among the Kumar brothers is nothing to be understated. From spidery arpeggios to some disgusting, disturbed melodies, they cover so many grounds on this album. The overall brisk runtime adds so much replay factor to this record. There’s something innately fun about this record, despite it being dissonant and brutal. It helps that Wormhole do not take themselves seriously in the slightest, going along with their tradition of adding Spongebob samples into their songs, and having Siri say “Tech slam” on the title track.

This is more than the average slam album. Unlike their contemporaries, Afterbirth, who’ve moved into a more journey-like, prog-adjacent structure of musicality, Wormhole have kept things disgusting in the best way. That’s not to say they haven’t advanced, and this album is a big leap ahead from Weakest. They’ve catapulted themselves into my favorites with this effort, and they seem to be popular with the test subje—er, participants, too.

Recommended tracks: Elysiism, Data Fortress Orbital Stationary, Almost Human
You may also like: Ulcerate, Artificial Brain
Final verdict: 8.5/10

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

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

Wormhole is:
– Sanil Kumar (guitar)
– Sanjay Kumar (guitars)
– Matt Tillett (drums
– Basil Chiasson (bass)

– Julian Kersey (vocals)

The post Review: Wormhole – Almost Human appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Brutal death metal, progressive metal (gurgle vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Devourment, alt rock and synth in your brutal death metal
Review by: Zach
Country: US-NY
Release date: October 20th, 2023

Think about your top band in every metal subgenre. I know Andy probably has his immediately recalled from memory or on an endless spreadsheet. Then, think about why they’re the best at what they do. Are they Opeth and did they do the coolest shit by mixing prog rock and death metal? Are they Dissection, and did they add beauty into icy black metal riffs? But brutal death is never a genre I’ve thought of super highly, so a favorite would probably be one of the long standers. Cryptopsy is always a good choice, and I’ve considered None So Vile to be not only one of the best brutal death metal albums but one of my favorite albums in general.

However, I’m a prog guy through and through. I need something genre bending, something that’ll floor me with its innovation. An album where I can say, “holy shit, I’ve never heard something like that.” Afterbirth isn’t exactly a band who’s sound I’ve never heard before. However, they may have just struck gold. Brutal, slimy, swamp-laden gold.

Let’s back up for a second. Afterbirth is considered a progenitor of the “toilet bowl” vocals the brutal death and slam genres are associated with. So, yeah, if I were the first brutal death listener in existence, that’s something I’d never heard before. But brutal death is very reliant on the standard CHUG-CHUG riffs, compressed production and programmed-sounding drums. I would be lying if I said I didn’t like a few generic BDM bands myself.

Starting with Four-Dimensional Flesh, they added a few synths whirls here and there, and some spacey ambience. But that clearly wasn’t enough. We have the synths on this album, and they sound like something Vangelis would compose. We’ve got alternative rock riffs, post-rock sections, Voivod-esque thrash riffs, emotive guitar solos. All on top of the brutality at its core. There is so much diversity in this album’s guitarwork alone that it boggles my fucking mind. Everything from black metal trem-picking, slam-y chugs, and actual melody can be found here.

Opener ‘Tightening the Screws’ made me want to start a mosh pit in my apartment, but it was ‘Devils With Dead Eyes’ that made my jaw drop. This is a progressive epic squished into four minutes of brutal death metal, but giving it that label isn’t sufficient. I’ve talked about how I want prog to surprise me and how it rarely does that anymore. This album, though, is completely unpredictable. No songs sound completely alike, and each section of this winding, proggy odyssey of gurgle vocals left me nearly speechless.

No album this year has better riffs, all five-hundred of them on this album are downright incredible. The drumming is varied. Will Smith’s disgusting, frog-like vocals have never sounded better, courtesy of one of Colin Marston’s best production jobs. Some people will see this as a drawback of the record, but those people are cowards. This is the biggest leap I’ve ever seen brutal death metal take in joining the many prog styles as a mainstay for me. As I write this, I’m on my eighth or ninth listen, and I’m still finding so many new sections that I’ve missed. Never before has a slam album made me think “that’s a beautiful melody,” even though the entire genre of brutal death metal is to make you shrivel in disgust.

None of it should work. The switching between a beautiful synth right into gurgles in ‘Hovering Human Head Drones’ should be stupid and cheesy, but they’ve gotten it so right. And just as you think the album’s back to being standard brutality, they hit you with a lush atmosphere that wouldn’t sound out of place on an Alcest album. The title track sounds like Queens of the Stone Age! There were multiple points where I had to make sure I hadn’t accidentally switched albums.

I can safely give this a coveted score, because I genuinely believe this to be, right now, the best the genre has to offer. Afterbirth is the unlikely hero of this arc. Should they continue on with pioneering the genre, this album is going to be insanely difficult to top. However, they’ve proven themselves to be geniuses among cavemen riffs. The next one shouldn’t be any trouble.

Recommended tracks: Devils With Dead Eyes, In But not Of, Angels Feast on Flies, Time Enough Tomorrow
You may also like: Artificial Brain, Analepsy, Wormhole
Final verdict: 10/10

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

Label: Willowtip – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Afterbirth is:
– David Case (bass)
– Keith Harris (drums)
– Cody Dresser (guitars)
– Will Smith (gurgles)

The post Review: Afterbirth – In But not Of appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Brutal Slam/Death (harsh vocals)
Review by: Sam
Country: Serbia
Release date: 16-11-2018

NOTE: This album was originally included in the November 2018 issue of The Progressive Subway

This is the debut album of u/welyyt, a friend of mine of Reddit. He asked me my opinion of it a while ago, but I told him I saved it for November reviews instead, since there were enough prog influences.
If you are a prog head first and value clean production, stay far far away from this. He told me he was figuring out the production on the fly, and it’s certainly noticeable, to say in the least. This record is ugly, ugly as the depths of Donald Trump’s twitter account. On the virtue of welyyt’s demonic, incomprehensible guttural vocals and the muffled, but very weighty guitars, this sounds like it came straight out of a cavern. The drums (which are programmed) also do not come anywhere close to sounding good. Only thing that is clearly audible would be the mid and high-end of the guitars, which means you can still properly distinguish the riffs.

But at the same time that same all this ugliness is the record’s primary strength. Like I mentioned before, the vocals are hellishly brutal. Though technically they could certainly use some work, I like how they function in the music. A caveman doesn’t take singing classes either lol. The riffs are also ugly as hell, but you can properly headbang to them. The record is littered with slam breakdowns and there are also some Gothernburg stylings to be found. What’s jarring though, is the seemingly random placement of everything. Every song if filled with ideas, but the cohesion between them is definitely lacking.

This record is decent for if you need something brutal with riffs and have low production standards, but in any other case stay far away from this.

Recommended tracks: Anointing of the Sick
Recommended for fans of: I really have no idea.
Final verdict: 4.5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Metal-Archives page

Label: Independent

Ravaged Spleen Outburst is:
– A.D (All Instruments)

The post Review: Ravaged Spleen Outburst – The Church of Anemia appeared first on The Progressive Subway.