Listening to this album, I was warm wearing a coat with the heat on in a car, but still felt a freezing chill fill the coat and I ended up turning the heat up higher. Sometimes people just say things like 'it sends chills down the spine' just meaning that it's something intense, but they should stop all that because an album like this can actually make the chill happen so there's no need for annoying humans who spit over-exaggerated junk out of their mouths.

Aara produced 3 albums as a tribute to a novel, and now they've drawn inspiration from the deadly history of the north face of the Eiger, a Mountain in Switzerland. Read up on the climbing history of the mountain's Mordwand, and you'll find nothing more black metal than the freezing environment and lethal stones & surfaces that killed so many people who proved to us how much more powerful nature is than a measly type of primates such as us.

Choosing something so extreme as a theme for Aara's album was an excellent choice, as it inspired such harsh sensations, almost debilitating to listen to. I can hear a real challenge in terms of stamina, mirroring the effort of so many climbers. I can't find any song even slightly weaker than the best black metal there is to hear. All the playing sounds in the moment and infused with visceral power as it rages, but there is an appropriate melancholy packed in too.

This is atmospheric black metal, but the sub-genre becomes a real peripheral concern as Eiger's intensity makes it hard to think about just about anything else. Absolutely one of Aara's best or their best so far. It's going to take some time for me to figure out more of what's going on in these tracks, and to figure out how they became so good. ... See More

While I expected this to be equal to or a skosh weaker than their later albums, I was in for a huge surprise. This by far the most enjoyable and emotionally engaging album I've heard from 3Teeth. It's like they raided their favorite memories and drew on influences like Minstry, KMFDM, NIИ, Marilyn Manson, and generally EBM and other kinds of electronica.

You can clearly hear how they're playing exactly what they love, and there's this fire fueling all these really motivated songs. The 2 days previous, I was listening to noticeably heavier genres like deathgrind & goregrind, but this Shutdown.exe felt even heavier & grabbed my attention even more.

Call me crazy all you want because of course that other stuff was heavier, but Shutdown.exe conjures a perfectly apocalyptic world of looming machinery, pollution, & barrenness through it's industrial riffing & trudging rhythms of despair. The bed of electronic elements imply automation & algorithms by networks of CPUs controlling this dystopia. The fiery emotion in the great vocal performance and the well-crafted melodies let my imagination run wild filling this world with life-or-death conflict & rebellion.

I think track 2 was the most powerful, but the best part of this album is that while you listen you'll feel cooler than anyone else in the world, so I highly recommend Shutdown.exe as an alternative to shopping for sunglasses because it can be so hard to find the right pair, you know? ... See More

This EP is lazy, uninspired, and messily over-produced. It's a big disappointment from a band that is supposed to be good according to the music industry, but probably about 300 metal releases were better than this in 2023.

The clean vocals get annoying, and the harsh vocals are pretty good, but the lyrics are sophomoric uneducated amateurish whatever. The softer not-so-metal parts sound like Dance Gavin Dance but minus all the emotion. The breakdowns are mid-tier, but that's supposed to be your specialty as a metalcore band, right? Dwarrowdelf had better breakdowns on his recent album, and that's not even his genre.

Also, if the singer is any good, then why are there so many effects and filters on her voice? People whined about effects on Ozzy Osbourne's voice on his 2022 album, but what's the age difference between Ozzy & Courtney? The stupidest choice by Spiritbox here was all of the overproduced synths & sound effects and electronica in the background. All that garbage is just tacked on without being integrated into the songs. They make an obvious effort to rip off the soundscape of NIИ's Downward Spiral. Wow, Spiritbox, you have street cred now. Was it even a band member or just some apathetic record label employee who added those sounds.

I guess the part that works best is the verses of the heavier songs when there aren't breakdowns, but overall this EP is a mess and it sounds like nobody cared about producing good music or even taking the time to focus their thoughts. It's not terrible but it's not good. ... See More

This is not a good album. I find it painful to say that because of the singer's gorgeous vocal tones and the pro musicianship by all members. However, the lyrics are full of clichés and the melodies and song structure are cliché as well. Jennifer misses opportunities to sing in the pocket and opportunities to belt out, so the singing ends up lacking motivation.

Another problem is that it sounds like it's designed to break into the pop market and get played alongside Taylor Swift, but this is neither good metal nor good pop. It started to feel like I was walking through a large corporate grocery store. I don't know if this safe poppy sound can make them any money, but either way I wish they wouldn't sound like this if I give them a listen.

Unpopular opinion of the day, delivered by me. ... See More

I was certain this was going to be another great album by Esoctrilihum, but it was better than I even hoped. Definitely the best I've heard from him so far.

This is blackened death metal but it's so unique and different from any other blackened death metal band I've heard. The mind-warping spectral feelings in the instruments and cryptic vocals bring mutating and unearthly images to mind. This album stands out because I started seeing more detailed and vast scenes than usual. This time it was opulent palaces full of the unexplainable technology of alien specters. There were clear stone structures, glowing objects, and light from unknown sources.

The style this time is the most similar to Dy'th Requiem for the Serpent Telepath, and the cover art foretells of that, and that painting could not be better. I wonder if anyone can find me a better use of a blue & red color scheme in any art anywhere. Sexy, scary, imaginative, and empowering.

This is 2 hours of music that will put to shame almost any combination of 2 or 3 other albums that add up to the same amount of time. From the first track to the last track, my thinking was, 'yes, more, more, more.' My last little note is that this artist plays around with existing language - weaving in imaginary language - with more creativity and flair than anyone else in metal. ... See More