THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (BUT SHOULDN’T)

(Andy Synn presents four more artists/albums from last month which you may not have heard)

Would you look at that… it’s somehow November already. Which means, in a little over a month, I’ll be taking over NCS for a full week and publishing my lengthy round-up of all the Great, Good, and Disappointing releases of the year – the ones I’ve heard and feel at least semi-qualified to give an opinion of – culminating in my usual Critical and Personal top ten lists.

As always, it’s impossible for me to listen to, or cover, everything that’s released over the course of a year, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to try and squeeze in as many reviews and recommendations as I can before then.

Making the decision of who/what to include, however, seems to be getting harder and harder – albums which almost made the cut this month include END‘s absolutely devastating The Sin of Human Frailty, the stellar debut album from Voidescent, and the predictably excellent new record from Slidhr – but I’m confident that the four selections I’ve made, two of which were “surprise” released without any warning or fanfare, will be well worth your time (and mine).

A FLOURISHING SCOURGE – SICKENED SEED

A Flourishing Scourge‘s self-titled debut album was a solid piece of Progressive Death Metal which, while it didn’t necessarily knock my socks off, definitely hinted at a lot of as-yet-unrealised potential inherent in the Seattle trio’s sound.

But, over the course of the last six(!) years I had, I’m sorry to say, largely forgotten about them. Until, that is, they suddenly released their long-in-the-works second album, Sickened Seed, right near the end of last month, immediately reigniting my interest and – even better – showcasing that all that early potential definitely hadn’t been wasted.

Pushing the proggier side of their sound even further this time around, songs like instant-classic opener “Blood on the Map” (whose fluttering acoustics and shimmering strings serve as a perfect counterpoint for the hypnotic heaviness of the song’s metallic core) and the dynamic “Unfurled Spines” (whose poignant passages of proggy introspection have more than a hint of Porcupine Tree to them) quickly showcase just how far the group have expanded their sound across the spectrum, delivering a sound that’s simultaneously heavier, more melodic, and more expressive… and just generally more ambitious… than ever.

Like all the best albums of this ilk – and there’s no doubt in my mind after this that A Flourishing Scourge are right up there alongside the likes of An Abstract Illusion, Obsidian Tide, Disillusion, etc – it’s the captivating contrasts and clever interweaving of elements and ideas (as epitomised by the elegant ebb-and-flow of “In Miasmic Despair” and the outlandish extravagance of “Serial Eyes”) and the willingness to take chances (with the shapeshifting “Beneath Umbral Skies” both demanding and rewarding your full attention, and the searing intensity of “Woe” ensuring that the listener never gets too comfortable or complacent) that really makes Sickened Seed such a fantastic piece of work, and affirms that the last six years were well worth the wait.

GRAVENCHALICE – MESSIAH

Another surprise release came from enigmatic Black Metal collective Gravenchalice, a band about whom we’ve written a lot – and yet learned very little – over the last several years.

That mystery is part of the group’s allure though – not only does their use of Christian iconography and lyrical imagery have many people wondering about their religious affiliation, but their steady musical evolution means you can never quite predict exactly what you’re going to hear with each new release – and I’d imagine that anyone familiar with the band’s previous works will be both anxious and excited to hear what they’ve come up with on Messiah.

Whereas the first couple of Gravenchalice releases (2020’s Apparition and 2021’s Samael) were more notably and overtly “Black Metal” in sound and style, last year’s Via Dolorosa EP found them adopting a much more Death-Doom inspired approach, which – I hope you’ll be pleased to know – the band have continued to develop even further this time around.

At the same time, however, the doom-laden dissonance of “Eyelids Peeled” and the dense, brooding “Heavens Blotched With Ichor” possess a noticeably more “blackened” edge to them, which suggests that – whether consciously or not – Gravenchalice have attempted to strike more of a balance between their various Black, Death, and Doom-inspired inclinations this time around.

It’s a complex conglomeration that’s for sure, and not one that’s necessarily going to be easy for new listeners to pick up immediately (though the faithful will probably have an easier time of things), but it definitely rewards (and requires) a more intensive appreciation, with the tangled torrent of down-tuned riffs, delirium-inducing anti-melodies, and unexpected passages of poisonous atmospherics of tracks such as “Fields Plagued With Rust” and ornately-appointed closer “Qlipoth” revealing more and more of their mysteries the more you listen to them.

RIVERS ABLAZE – OMNIPRESENCE

Rivers Ablaze are not a band I was previously familiar with prior to stumbling across their fourth album, Omnipresence, but you can be sure I’m going to make time to delve back into their back-catalogue on the basis of what I’ve heard here.

Dealing in a strain of Technical/Melodic Death Metal that’s heavy on the “Prog” vibes (with a dash of subtle “blackening” around the edges), Omnipresence will doubtless grab the attention of anyone who enjoys the similarly adventurous and “epic” approach of bands like Enfold Darkness and Inanimate Existence, especially during tracks such as lightning-fuelled opener “Drone Apocalypse” and the similarly blast-fuelled (but even more eerily melodic) “Citadel of Antimatter”, with the former in particular demonstrating the band’s willingness to manipulate the formula to their own ends during the song’s significantly stranger and proggier second half.

But even when they’re not setting you up for a surprise twist (such as the soaring, synth-drenched back-end of “Undisposed Entaglement”) Rivers Ablaze are more than capable of keeping you on your toes through sheer, adrenaline-raising intensity alone, with the thunderous “Maddening Geometry” (whose hammering riffs and hypnotic melodies help make it one of the best Prog/Tech Death Metal tracks I’ve heard all year) and the virulently vicious “Drifting With Photons” epitomising the band’s ability to keep you right on the edge of your seat.

Sure, there’s the occasional moment where they become a little over-reliant on forgettable, Fallujah-esque ambience (with relatively insubstantial closer “Solar Wind” being the biggest offender in this regard), and not every track hits the same stellar heights, but when they stick to their guns and direct their not-inconsiderable abilities towards the more extreme end of the spectrum – marrying an emphasis on outlandish speed to their more progressive and intricately melodic ambitions – Rivers Ablaze prove themselves to be capable of some quite astonishing things.

THE VOYNICH CODE – INSOMNIA

I’ve not found myself loving the ‘core side of things much this year – certainly not as much as last year – as I’ve found a lot of the “big” releases to be, at best, overhyped or, at worst, completely lacking in substance.

The second album from Portugal’s The Voynich Code, however, has been a rare bright spot in an otherwise underwhelming twelve months, striking as it does a damn fine balance between rapid-fire, rivetingly technical riffs, sweeping, shred-tastic solos, and neck-wrecking pneumatic rhythms (with, for the most part, just the right dash of synthetic symphonics to add a more “cinematic” flair to the band’s sound) in a way that has successfully managed to both capture and keep my attention.

Sure, occasionally the synths get a little too pompous for their own good – I’m specifically thinking about the mid-section of “Insomnia” and the superfluous “Sleep Paralysis” here – but these really aren’t the focal point (unlike certain other “Blackened” Deathcore purveyors, many of whom have become over-reliant on letting their orchestral elements do all the heavy lifting).

No, the focus is primarily on the complex-yet-catchy riffage (and equally lithe and limber bass-work) which powers the likes of “Slaves to a Machine” and “A Dying Age”, or the lashings of lethally-infectious leads woven throughout songs such as “Homecoming” and “Hell’s Black Heart”, all of which deliver both bowel-quaking heaviness and head-banging hookiness (with “The Art of War” being a particular stand-out) in equal measure.

It helps, of course, that the drums are suitably over-powered – whether blasting away with pin-point accuracy or laying down a series of stuttering, staccato rhythms (which, for the most part, never quite cross-over into “breakdown” territory) drummer Daniel Torgal is an absolute dynamo behind the kit – and that the gargantuan gutturals of Nelson Rebelo burst out of the speakers with an almost-physical force, ensuring that Insomnia is pretty much guaranteed to keep you wide-awake and riveted from start to finish.