The most interesting releases of the week! And the previous week. And the week before that. It’s been a busy month.
I absolutely loved Flowers of Evil when it released. Unfortunately, the years since have lessened its luster a bit. When I went back for another listen in preparation for the release of Ulver‘s thirteenth studio album Liminal Animals on House of Mythology, it felt lacking compared to some of the gems in Ulver‘s discography. While the instrumentation and melodies of Flowers of Evil remain entertaining and the lyrics remain meaningful, the album felt direct and blunt, especially compared to The Assassination of Julius Caesar. Blunt doesn’t equal bad. However, in Ulver‘s case, they’ve made other albums with more interesting crevices and weirdness sprinkled throughout. Flowers of Evil is still a good record. Both Assassination and Liminal Animals do more with this sound.
Ulver‘s brand of dark synth pop expands into some of those crevices on Liminal Animals, including some Nocturnes that harken back to a previous version of the band’s sound. Ulver meander quite a bit throughout this album, taking their time on synth instrumentals and choruses that didn’t need to exist. The meandering works. This feels like a more intentional, less stressed out version of the band that’s back to flexing their muscles and making whatever music they want. Sometimes it’s baffling, sometimes it’s incredible, always it’s interesting. Liminal Animals doesn’t rise to the level of The Assassination of Julius Caesar, but it’s worth a worthy release.
The Saberlight Chronicles was one of those ridiculous albums that just exasperated me. The earnestness, the fresh take on power metal using well-worn, comfortable cliches performed to perfection, the happiness exuding from every song. Fellowship‘s follow-up The Skies Above Eternity, also released on Scarlet Records, is basically Part 2 for better and for worse. The spectacular songwriting, amazing performances, and honest approach to music are all still present. The feeling of a unique spark lighting up in the distance is gone. This is another, great, power metal album, that features less suspension of disbelief.
Fellowship nail everything that could have been expected of there in The Skies Above Eternity. The singing remains fantastic, and the instruments all back up the vocals with a variety of sounds that firmly cement the band’s cheesy power metal approach. The music is deliberate, but with plenty of room for emotional expression and some heartwarming solos. The Skies Above Eternity is one of the best power metal albums of the year, it’s just not as far ahead of every other album as its predecessor was. Still, check it out and have a fun evening.
Every time Defeated Sanity release a new album, scores of people come out saying that it’s their best release ever. Chronicles of Lunacy continued this trend. I don’t know if this album, released on Season of Mist, is really better than The Sanguinary Impetus, Psalms of the Moribund, or any of Defeated Sanity‘s impeccable catalog (that is, impeccable if you ignore the bizarre blip of Disposal of the Dead // Dharmata). But it’s flashy and uncompromising, and I’ll be returning to it forever.
Chronicles of Lunacy features a Jackson Pollock approach to songwriting. The drums, guitars, bass, and vocals are always frantically switching through a variety of tempos, moving along at a blistering pace followed by a slow stutter followed by anything you can imagine. Often they move through these notes together as a band, but sometimes that feels optional. Defeated Sanity do an excellent job of creating illusionary chaos through a combination of intricate songwriting and precise performances. The staccato performances combined with these tempo shifts are marvelous. Chronicles of Lunacy is ridiculous, it’s heavy, and it’s another masterpiece.
I saw Nekus‘s 2023 debut release Sepulchral Divination get some hype, but that album didn’t quite hit for me. The grimy, lo-fi death/doom just didn’t match what I was looking for at the time of release. It was big, barbaric, and cavernous, and promised better things to come. Those better things are here. Death Apophenia, released on Sentient Ruin, builds on Nekus‘s promise and delivers a delightfully unfriendly death metal experience that makes me want to check my house for mold.
Opening track “Cadaverous Periphery” starts from nothing, and takes an eternity to even build up to a riff. Eventually the growls and the blast beats join in. From there, the listener is treated to a cold, distorted track that revels in its slow, un-catchy nature. The songwriting sounds somewhat repetitive, but Nekus use this repetition to strip away any attempt at finding handholds in their music. Death Apophenia is intense and immersive.
This release from Hypaethral Records is a compilation of blackened doom outfit Nepenthe‘s two EPs, with their 2020 release Elegies of Loss and Doom stapled onto the back of new EP The Fading Promise of Tomorrow. Nepenthe incorporate neo-folk and gothic metal into their blackened doom core. The songs are long and mid-paced, with a mix of clean vocals and growls. It’s a good style for winter.
Nepenthe nails tone and production here. The guitar solo at around the 4:55 mark of the opening track that bursts from the reverberating growls just shimmers with beauty. The tone and production support some emotive playing, with the band going for big effects rather than any sort of technical or songwriting flash. And whenever Nepenthe finally reach the point that they’ve been building towards, the band manages to soar, and whenever they collapse into a puddle and look at the mirror for a bit, they write some beautiful and memorable passages that sound fresh every time I listen to them. Some of the in-between stuff could be better. But the big moments warm my heart and make me forgive the flaws that the band may want to iron out in the future. I’m excited for what they’ll do next.
