Webzine

A long but rewarding climb up a mountain of synthesizers.
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Top 2020 album picks from the FCU conttibutors.
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I didn’t know rap could get this fuckn’ heavy.
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A genre defying masterpiece.
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Momentarily glorious yet underwhelming in entirety.
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The Borat of death metal has returned to spew sixteen years’ worth of darkness.
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Fall into the Sky.
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The Gen X legends are back with a dronecore odyssey.
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Captivatingly repulsive.
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A wynorrific wind on a wistful day
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Country for cenobites.
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Marching towards horizons more terrifying and otherworldly.
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An Undersea Storm.
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Remember shows? The new Ego Death record smashes their live energy right between your ears.
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Exquisitely disturbing.
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A cavalcade into depravity.
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A vortex, chaotic yet tinged with longing.
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Racists better get to running, because Dropdead’s back and banging the war drums.
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Their self-titled record is like getting a brain massage from a warbling synth and a trap snare.
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Fueled by folklore and guitar solos.
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This is a fearful record for sure, but it is a fear that cannot ebb away simply because you are not in control of it. In other words, paranoia.
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Taking the concept of catharsis to an unspoken place few dare to venture by infusing something rarely used in extreme metal: beautiful carnage.
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With the state of the world as it is, it’s really no surprise that so many new death metal bands are erupting onto the scene. 2020 has been bludgeoning us over the head since late February, so what better soundtrack to that metaphysical beating than some dank and disturbing death? The latest record to whip my ears into submission is the debut demo by Polish old-school death metal outfit Clairvoyance, whose belligerent riffing could very well be the background music to Satan’s torture pits. Demo ’20 is Clairvoyance’s opening salvo, their introduction to the world, and good god is it beastly. The vocals live at the very bottom of the throat, like Cthulhu itself is wrangling the microphone. From blastbeats to booming kick patterns, the drums are tight, technical, and terrifying. The bass fills the low end with sludgy fuzz while running up and down the neck. The guitars feel almost like percussive instruments with how aggressively they are played, yet there is no lack of finesse in those frenzied leads and crushing palm mutes. Clairvoyance clearly wear their heroes on their sleeves, but rather than simply emulating them, they’ve synthesized their old school idols into something fresh and fearsome.
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Filthy and Frenzied.
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Russia’s Dunwich remind us how even little brush strokes can shape a wholly haunting landscape.
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Excellent experimental ep from Lamb. A consolidation of anguish and growth.
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A well put together album that just didn’t hook me in.
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40 minutes of hardcore edging, but for your ears.
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Seeping atmosphere. A dirge for an undeserved death.
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The universe collapses. This is the soundtrack.
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Event horizon in music form.
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Accursed black metal, the sound of anathema.
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Transcendental sludge that grooves you into the floor.
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Well, it seems that there is an 80s metal revival party going on right now so I may as well jump on and enjoy the ride.
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Under the Pier are stoking the coals of the mathcore funeral pyre into a new and hungry inferno with their debut LP.
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Infant Island paint ugly truths with vibrant colors on their latest LP.
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A thoroughly fresh and original thrash band and should be listened to on merit alone and not on any musicological or nostalgic whims.
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I like the part with the guitar and the drums and the yelling.
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An open, relaxed, space-y, sound; very seventies, combined with deity-crushing, maddened, black metal. There is no band out there that sounds like Oranssi Pazuzu.
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Join me as we take a walk through haunted woods in album form.
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“Tvke It On The Rvn 666”
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WVRM’s riffs got me leaning into the crowbar right as it connects with my skull.
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Pure bliss and despondency.
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IDES break every single rule of punk and hardcore on their new LP, and it’s damn magnificent.
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“Bring back the plague.”
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Haunted by Cruelty sounds like the soundtrack to an army of demons marching towards heaven, ready to pull the angels down into the abyss.
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The embodiment of a bitter winter. Although it might be my open window, I feel a slight wind coming from the speakers.
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Viscerally raw yet dripping with mood, this new album from the Iraqi band Mulla hits hard and fast with all the glory of classic second wave black metal, but with something unique added to the mix.
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Members of The Body, Full of Hell, and Lingua Ignota combine to give us a lesson in restraint and trust on their debut LP.
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A metal record has never made me cry. Until Atna.
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An austere and majestic journey through the world of folk-inspired black metal.
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Midwest screamo outfit Snag shine a harsh but passionate light on climate change with their latest release.
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Bearing down upon your being like some looming catastrophe that lingers in the back of your brain, this split takes the shape of an oppressive, recurring nightmare that subconsciously gnaws through your sanity without you even realising.
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Although I have always been a fan of ‘shoe-gaze’ and ‘post’ styles of black metal, Alcest’s recent release leaves me thoroughly wanting.
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A cold yet bewitching adventure. Do not expect to come out of it unscathed.
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Have A Nice Life drag us down through murky and metaphysical depths on their latest LP.
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The layerings of melodic delays, reverbs, and filters blend together into a musical cocktail that is undeniably beautiful and lulls the listener into a dream-like state.
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To Be Gentle shine a bright beacon of light in the face of a dark year with their latest EP.
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But we can definitively say what the dead listen to—freight train blastbeats, distorted guitar melodies, and vicious vocals.
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Cloud Rat yank out the guts of grind to build a golem of new sound on their latest album.
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Frenetically visceral, unrelenting, and full of atmosphere.
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Following in the footsteps of giants.
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The Number Twelve Looks Like You incite elemental gods to war on their first release in a decade.
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Tool seems less interested in “pushing the envelope” and more concerned with creating a musical journey.
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Foxtails reshape the very concept of skramz on their latest release.
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Meth explore the potency of darkness and thematic tension on their new LP.
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Welcome to dying.
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Lingua Ignota uses sharp sound and expansive composition to carve an emotionally-grueling odyssey on their latest LP.
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Full of Hell point microphones into the bleak forgotten corners of existence on their new record, giving voice to a deep and frightening darkness.
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Patterns in Mythology outlines grand dips and swells, the balance always shifting between light and dark; a maelstrom of dissonance and harmony.
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What starts off sounding unique ends up melding into a memory of every melodic death metal album I’ve ever heard.
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After almost two decades of silence, skramz-kings Jeromes Dream kick open their tomb with a brand-new full-length of brutal and beautiful tunes.
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What sets Les Grandes Compagnies apart is its timbre. The sonic quality of the music, its overall texture, is so much more welcoming than the slicing distortion and overpowering drums (and sometimes terrible mixing) that are generally indicative of a traditional black metal album.
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Advent Varic is the soundscape to catastrophe; gloom, an ever-present and sobering effect.
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The Callous Daoboys wield heavy riffs and chaotic compositions on their new full-length, and absolutely demolish my former hatred of the violin.
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Baaaaaaaah.
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Spotlights use tone and layering to carve sonic mountains on their latest EP.
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The latest Intercourse EP personifies the bleak desperation at the bottom of every bottle, making “outlook not so good” the understatement of the century.
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The murky and washy texture of the music, the clean interludes, and the dismal tropospheric layering of blast beats and vocals competing for the title of the least clear sound in the mix lend to this positive and generally empowering aura Strävan exudes.
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When I first watched a video of Idle Hands that was recommended me on Youtube my first impressions were average. The video looked pretty cheesy and low budget, the music seemed dramatic and fairly simple but for some reason I was intrigued enough to check out the EP, Don’t Waste Your Time. I listened to it once through and wasn’t blown away but when it finished I had the urge to listen to the album again. Over the next week I probably listened to that short twenty minute EP about twenty times and was absolutely hooked on this band. It’s odd how music can work like that, often the music that catches your attention sooner seems to wear sooner whereas the bands you didn’t always seem to like initially are some of those that grow on and even stay with you. The songs planted a seed in my brain and before I knew it I couldn’t get enough. Mana is the first full-length from this Portland, Oregon based trio turned quartet that are now doing big tours around Europe to commemorate their debut album. The music of this band sounds both so familiar yet has an interesting edge that make
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Helms Alee find their groove in aggression on their latest full-length.
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Tårn delivers on so many fronts: it’s groovy, it’s heavy, and it’s catchy, a winning combo. Though Ruff Majik has never been as heavy as to be labeled a doom metal act, with each album they grow darker and more brooding and their sound here is a far cry from the stoner rock sounds heard on their debut, The Bear.
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Where some music reflects on loss, Part Island embodies it and causes nostalgia to well up in your throat
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Malignant Altar breathe unholy life into the exhumed corpse of OSDM with their debut demo.
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A glimpse into the new LP, Sufferer, from Georgia-based chaotic hardcore trio, Apostle.
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Death metal with thrash, slam, and hardcore influences, Samsara harbors an affinity for progressive writing that is both technical while also being engaging.
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Abstract expression? Innovative art? Or absolute shit? Drummer Ryosuke Kiyasu’s experimental live performances are pushing the very concept of percussion beyond definition.
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We reach a lull as the abrasive yet alluring wall of sound is broken by swirling keyboards and reverb-drenched guitar. This respite is accompanied by visions of lush, green, cold forests that seems to pass by as if in some sort of fevered dream.
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Magic Circle invoke the gods of doom metal on their latest release.
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Brutal, crushing death metal, riffs that you can’t help nodding your head to… Though Frozen Soul might not be redefining the death metal genre, they definitely know how to do it right.
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The saying goes: “In his house in R’lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.” After listening to “kOsmik,” I’m pretty sure Cthulhu’s writing vicious atmospheric metal.
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This sense of being pounded with a brick in your face does not end until you either put off the album or manage to make it to the final track.
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This album is just filled with so many great moments and while the writing manages to respect the time-honoured tradition of Candlemass’s well-known sound, the band really brings something new to the table with this release.
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Astronoid mixes aggression with ambience to make metal you can breathe.
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Blue Öyster Cult was wrong; you should fear the reaper.
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When listening to Heretics a few key words came to mind, those being: heroic, brooding, reverend and dare I say, heavenly at times.
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It’s Bullhead, bitch.
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Everything you ever wanted to know about the album Lysol by the Melvins.
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