Who doesn't like a package from the weird Avantgarde and Extreme Metal specialist label I. Voidhanger Records? Here's my latest one. It contains four CDs, two of them in regular, the other two in DVD-tray-sized digipaks.
We're starting with the arguably most traditional release, a Death Metal banger from last year:
We're starting with the arguably most traditional release, a Death Metal banger from last year:
ODIOUS SPIRIT - The Treason Of Consciousness (CD) (2024)
Well, actually... Don't let yourself be fooled by my usage of the word traditional, since we're in very subjective territory here!
Because while in theory Odious Spirit are playing a quite oldschool brand of technical Death Metal with lots of sick lead guitars, blast and double bass attacks, their slightly Blackened Dissonant sound completely refuses to feel nostalgic - not due to some special shtick, but just because mastermind James Oskarbski has an oustanding flair for composing classicaly inspired riffs and melodies which somehow feel completely fresh, even though they are undeniably one hundred percent Metal and should all have been used by other artists decades ago.
An impressive proof of Death Metal not being dead at all - with the fitting and appropriately presented cover artwork.
Because while in theory Odious Spirit are playing a quite oldschool brand of technical Death Metal with lots of sick lead guitars, blast and double bass attacks, their slightly Blackened Dissonant sound completely refuses to feel nostalgic - not due to some special shtick, but just because mastermind James Oskarbski has an oustanding flair for composing classicaly inspired riffs and melodies which somehow feel completely fresh, even though they are undeniably one hundred percent Metal and should all have been used by other artists decades ago.
An impressive proof of Death Metal not being dead at all - with the fitting and appropriately presented cover artwork.
SARMAT - Upgrade (CD) (2025)
Obviously Sarmat's spiritual successor to the 2023 "Dubious Disk" EP is a very different beast. While their ferocious Progressive Death Metal is just as strong, the New Yorkers also make sure to bring the Jazz with trumpets, keytar (!) and upright bass. And yeah, they're bringing a lot of it, with a cast of musicians that knows exactly what it's doing.
Both the fourteen-minute title track, which includes themes from "Landform" of their full album "Determined To Strike", and the shorter, but even wilder trumpet trip "Serum Visions" are prime examples of how to merge creative Extreme Metal with Jazz Fusion and unhinged John Zorn school Avantgarde. Bonkers and brilliant stuff for everyone who would like a much jazzier and mr.bunglishly insane version of Imperial Triumphant (whose bass player is also contributing to this EP again).
You know I fucking love this shit - and you should too. How else could I possibly take you serious from now on?
Both the fourteen-minute title track, which includes themes from "Landform" of their full album "Determined To Strike", and the shorter, but even wilder trumpet trip "Serum Visions" are prime examples of how to merge creative Extreme Metal with Jazz Fusion and unhinged John Zorn school Avantgarde. Bonkers and brilliant stuff for everyone who would like a much jazzier and mr.bunglishly insane version of Imperial Triumphant (whose bass player is also contributing to this EP again).
You know I fucking love this shit - and you should too. How else could I possibly take you serious from now on?
THE OVERMOLD - The Overmold (CD) (2025)
Also an album which feels very much inspired by New York Avantgarde, but in a completely different way, much more akin to "Choirs Of The Eye" era Kayo Dot, is the self-titled debut of the Drone Doom duo The Overmold.
Drummer Tim Wyskida and guitarist / bassist Mick Barr open the album with a over twelve minutes of atmospheric rise and decay, crescendo and descent, over and over again... until finally you realize that a song has arrived. Or has it? It's almost to slow to tell. But don't think the whole thrirty-five minutes of this track will stay this way! No, this will soon go into much more agile directions you won't expect... The whole thing is a super dynamic and suspenseful unorthodox journey for friends of Toby Driver, Dylan Carlson, Insect Ark (where Wyskida is drumming too), but also Sumac, Swans and minimalist Experimental Jazz.
Even though on paper the three following - only four to six minutes short - pieces may look like an afterthought, but being a little more "to the point" and featuring more prominent vocals, they're actually an important completion of the album as a whole.
The Overmold demand patience and attention, but once you let their sound in it will captivate and fascinate you.
Drummer Tim Wyskida and guitarist / bassist Mick Barr open the album with a over twelve minutes of atmospheric rise and decay, crescendo and descent, over and over again... until finally you realize that a song has arrived. Or has it? It's almost to slow to tell. But don't think the whole thrirty-five minutes of this track will stay this way! No, this will soon go into much more agile directions you won't expect... The whole thing is a super dynamic and suspenseful unorthodox journey for friends of Toby Driver, Dylan Carlson, Insect Ark (where Wyskida is drumming too), but also Sumac, Swans and minimalist Experimental Jazz.
Even though on paper the three following - only four to six minutes short - pieces may look like an afterthought, but being a little more "to the point" and featuring more prominent vocals, they're actually an important completion of the album as a whole.
The Overmold demand patience and attention, but once you let their sound in it will captivate and fascinate you.
SLEEP PARALYSIS - Sleep Paralysis (CD) (2025)
You think we've already talked about the wildest release in this bunch? Think again! Conceptually Sleep Paralysis's debut is a very stringent work dealing with all kinds of nightly mental horrors. And musically there are also the clear leitmotifs of a base in Black Metal on one and a lot of piano on the other side.
That piano opens the album like the prologue to a silent movie, but remains a key element through most of album's eleven tracks. It seems inspired by Italo horror cinema and Classical composers, but it also swings, does the Honky Tonk or erupts in Free Jazz explosions like in the Deathjazz chaos of "Sarmat" (the album, not the band!) by Effluence.
With these pillars in place Stephan Knapp's solo project would already provide a sufficient reign of brilliant psychological terror, but like the randomness of a "Fever Dream" and the mind illogically jumping around during "Stress", Sleep Paralysis doesn't stop there.
At any given moment the album can also surprise you with Electronic stuff like menacingly glitchy beats in combination with Vaporwave (of all things!) keyboards or a hilarious use of a Windows error sound effect, which is really confusing when you're listening to the this the first time on your PC.
No, despite the bloodcurling idea this album doesn't shy away from musical humour. If you're still not over that possibility in a Black metal context in 2025, why are you even reading my blog? Hush and away with you! All others: Enjoy this fantastic phantasmagoric madness!
That piano opens the album like the prologue to a silent movie, but remains a key element through most of album's eleven tracks. It seems inspired by Italo horror cinema and Classical composers, but it also swings, does the Honky Tonk or erupts in Free Jazz explosions like in the Deathjazz chaos of "Sarmat" (the album, not the band!) by Effluence.
With these pillars in place Stephan Knapp's solo project would already provide a sufficient reign of brilliant psychological terror, but like the randomness of a "Fever Dream" and the mind illogically jumping around during "Stress", Sleep Paralysis doesn't stop there.
At any given moment the album can also surprise you with Electronic stuff like menacingly glitchy beats in combination with Vaporwave (of all things!) keyboards or a hilarious use of a Windows error sound effect, which is really confusing when you're listening to the this the first time on your PC.
No, despite the bloodcurling idea this album doesn't shy away from musical humour. If you're still not over that possibility in a Black metal context in 2025, why are you even reading my blog? Hush and away with you! All others: Enjoy this fantastic phantasmagoric madness!
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