Best Of 2025: Spencer Hotz – Slowly Smoothing Brain Syndrome
Dearest Reader(s?), I firmly believe the noodle soup in the can called my skull is starting to go bad. More than likely, you will agree with that sentiment when you finish reading this rather unhinged …
Phobocosm – Gateway Review
[Cover art by Lauri Laaksonen] Phobocosm’s fourth album, Gateway, is very much an album that sounds like its cover. It is a bleak, colorless, and intimidating swath of rocks with some room to breathe that …
Dead And Dripping – Nefarious Scintillations Review
[Cover art by sole band member Evan Daniele] I had a roommate in college who would regularly say, “I’m gonna spray noodles out your dome” after a few drinks (i.e. shoot your brains out of …
Stillbirth – Survival Protocol Review
[Cover art by Aghy R Purakusuma] If you’re reading this on the day it’s published, then it’s the middle of the week. Despite how popular that one Geico commercial was with the camel, real life …
An Abstract Illusion – The Sleeping City Review
[Cover art by Alex Eckman-Lawn] If you look at other pages and conversations about An Abstract Illusion, you’ll likely find that they are most often saddled with the progressive death metal genre tag. Surely, I’m …
Abraded – Ethereal Emanations From Chthonic Caries Review
[Cover art by Mihály Zichy] There’s certainly nothing wrong with grindcore that sounds like a violent raccoon orgy in a dumpster full of nuclear waste, but I tend to be ever-so-slightly more partial to those …
Hebephrenique – Decathexis Review
[Cover art by Grellach] One of the great joys of heavy metal is how often it forces you to learn random things. A little peek behind the Last Rites curtain for you: we have a …
Blast Rites: Scalp – Not Worthy Of Human Compassion Review
[Cover art by Ricardo Bettazzoni] I bet you were expecting Albert Pecans, or whatever that idiot’s name is, but he’s not the only one who listens to grind around here. Sure, he’s the only one …