Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

This is uniquely distressing in a way Ive not found musically in a long time. Not super into the vocals intially but they have their own charm and also contribute to that distressful urgency i mentioned earlier. Im a whore for this violin holy fuck

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

This is going to be one if those albums that Ill never really wrap my head around but will just fundamentally know its something amazing. Instrumentally this things insane

Album Rating: 4.7

Glad to hear it! Vocals take some time to get used to, but they rule hard. Make sure you check their other stuff too, it all rips.

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

They have always been somewhere in my back burner of "Oh yeah i need to check this out....oooo shiny new thing"



Vocally its a case of "these are fucking weird but idk what else would fit"

Album Rating: 2.0

Okay, I'm ngl, I thought this was pretty bad after 1 play. I normally don't rate albums after just one spin, and I'll play it again tomorrow to see if anything's changed, but I just fundamentally do not dig the vocals or lyrics.



"At this point the clowns are still in transit.

...Steady away boys! POOP POOP!

We shared a joke previous regarding ancestry,

failures and pits.

Perhaps too soon for you to consider your

children planted around the outskirts of all

of this?

Generation Loss.

Artistic licence revoked.

The spiders around my eyes would much prefer

to be grifting the flies than

Spinning perfect mysteries looped around

asphyxiation.

Another surprise disfigurement. A ticket to

ride. Buy your fucking own.

Here she comes, gawd bless her. A hearse

a'foam with facsimile clowns face up on blocks

amongst the cinders.

Castle of sand. Granny flat of glass.

Going down.

Damned if you do, my dearest vermin. And of

course, just so Damned if you don't."



Painful. Had to stop reading along while listening.



Also not sure how this is black metal. This sounds kind of like theatrical prog metal, bit of psych and other stuff in the mix. I know more than just vocals go into bm, and some of the passages fit that criteria, but the overall vibe and vocals are closer to a frantic Current 93 than anything resembling bm, to me at least.

Album Rating: 4.7

That makes me very sad. :[[[[



Also, this is more avant-garde/prog than it is bm, but the atmospheric bm elements are still very much in play instrumentally. The riffs kind of are in the background, but they're very much rooted in bm imo. The lyrics are definitely weird and that has always been a staple of the band. They're very off-the-wall in many ways lol.

Album Rating: 4.5

Didn't even realise there was a new Panopticon out, need to jam that soon, thanks Ect for making me aware!

Album Rating: 4.7

It's amazing, get on it Cloak!

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

Genre wise for this goes into the "i dont know man" bin. Instrumentally this is incredible, vocally its giving me the vibe of a paranoid 1800s man high as fuck on something running and yelling down the street

Album Rating: 4.7

Yeah, definitely a lot going on here.

Album Rating: 4.5

Definitely will Hawks! Panopticon are in my top 3 favourite Black Metal bands next to like WITTR and uhh Der Weg i guess lol.



Also yeah this thing is an easy 4.5 for me. Said this already but this year is so stacked, just winners after winners each month god damn.

Album Rating: 4.7

Fuck yeah bro!!! This year is definitely shaping up to be an amazing one. So much great stuff already.

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

This years just insane for releases. Im leaning to a 4.5 for this, dont think this is the kind of thing ill revisit a lot though. The fact this things basically one entire continious piece of music is impressive as hell, ive barely registered that ive moved onto the next track.

Album Rating: 2.0

I for sure hear those atmospheric bm elements here and there. There's a bit towards the end of Roots Circle Usurpers (best track imo) after the section with the female vox (like 7:30 I think) where the music is unmistakably reminiscent of classic bm



"vocally its giving me the vibe of a paranoid 1800s man high as fuck on something running and yelling down the street"



This is kind of my problem with it. It sounds like some drunken rambling, but it's super pretentious lyrically. Lyrics are the last thing in music I usually focus on during a first pass, but they're...distracting, to say the least lol. There are some vocal quirks I enjoy tho, like in Roots Circle Usurpers (fr this track is actually great) towards the end. Dude sounds almost hysterical but it somehow works for me here.

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

Theres also just so much happening in every track

Album Rating: 4.5

I wouldn't class this as bm, it's got elements of it but overall it's more avant/extreme metal, kinda in the same ballpark as that Ashenspire album from a few years ago but the instrumentation is a lot less bleak here.

Album Rating: 5.0

i don't see it as pretentious in the slightest - i feel it's supposed to tow the line between bewildering and humorous. the band are no doubt self-aware about it and embrace it. i don't think they intended for "an argument with processed meats" to be solemn and sincere lol.



i can understand it not being someone's thing but pretentious is an unfair comment in my view.



also i don't give the slightest shit what genre it's classified as, it's not a useful thing to get hung up on and spend more time making the argument of what an album isn't rather than what an album is.

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

Its delightfully strange. Lyrically i find it kinda similar to some Daoboys lyrics they are just kinda absurdist



Roots circle usurpers is my fav so far

Album Rating: 5.0

so difficult to choose a fav here but if a gun were held to my head i'd say not drinking water probably. the last half of the song is incredible.

Several spins in leaning towards a confusing and rather disappointing impression of an exceptional music made hardly enjoyable by vocals.

Agree it's as close to black metal as Oranssi Pazuzu is which is barely anything in common, and have to admit in both cases black metal vox make the music way worse and generally do not fit.

Morgul's insane vocals somehow fit way better.