Albums of 8/2/24

The most interesting releases of the week!

Brainsore play crunchy grindcore. The Grip Of The Naked Mind, released on Time To Kill Records, contains continuous pressure, short song lengths, and nice guitar bends. Some of these riffs would sound more at home on a doom metal record. These tracks all maintain a high level of aggression and interest regardless of whether the band focuses on twisting guitar intonation or blast beats, fast riffs, and mid-range growls.

Grindcore can be exhausting, and thankfully Brainsore don’t drag things on too long. Listening to The Grip Of The Naked Mind feels like a complete experience despite their short and concise writing. Sometimes variety is nice. Other times, like with Brainsore, relentless assault works wonders. Above all, listening to Brainsore is a fun and energizing experience.

For thirty years now, Carnophage have popped in, released an excellent tech death album, and then gone away for the rest of the decade. This decade’s release, Matter Of A Darker Nature, comes from Transcending Obscurity Records. The riffs and style of this album descend from Necrophagist, as does most of the genre. Carnophage‘s specific take here is that they’ve calibrated their sound to be a little darker, a little heavier, and to write songs that constantly sound as if they’re spiraling into hell.

By brutal/tech death standards, Carnophage‘s music doesn’t sound too dissonant. You get the bestial vocals, the guitar melodies that pop out of a constant, distorted chugging background, drums that sound too busy to be made by humans, and some depth from the rumbling bass. The band has a tendency to suddenly change tempo, which gives their songs some spice. While they’re nothing on Matter Of A Darker Nature to shock the listener, fans of brutal or technical death metal will be happy to have a new album in their rotation. I eagerly await their 2032 release.

Sometimes the side project eclipses the main band. I’ve never been a big fan of Poison Ruin. Their style of lo-fi punk just doesn’t do it for me for a variety of reasons. But Shadow Knell? Transfer the untamed energy to a mystical, shrouded land, and suddenly we’re connecting. Shadow Knell is a dungeon synth band that creates lush, full, contemplative sounds. This release falls closer to the “sit in a forest and contemplate your life while listening to classical music” end of dungeon synth rather than the “smoke weed and alternate between playing nintendo and reading obscure rpg rulebooks for seven hours” end.

You can hear the Summoning influence clearly at the beginning of “Procession.” But Shadow Knell are their own thing. The music on this album is stunning, requiring multiple listens that go by like sand through your fingers. For anyone who hasn’t given dungeon synth a shot yet, here’s as good a place as any to start. For fanatics of the genre, this may be your favorite release of the year. For those in between, such as myself, Shadow Knell have made something immersive and full. This is easily the best release of the week.