I'll never not be tickled that this cult Canadian tech-death outfit features the guitarist from short-lived Melbourne scatological slammers The Mung. At the same time, I shouldn't hold them to his past achievements when they've so clearly surpassed them, first on 2021's promisingly portmanteaued Apexapian and now on it's sonically murderous successor. As its Mung-worthy artwork suggests, Aumicide is a notably darker offering than its predecessor, adding some delicious dissonance and mid-period-Decapitated-style groove into the mix before departing for more contemplative and distinctly Ulcerateasque textures in its back half. The whole affair is lent extra weight by its crushing-yet-crisp production job, which comes courtesy of Cryptopsy guitarist Christian Donaldson and hints toward what Hadal Maw and other Ben Boyle projects might achieve, if they were given a similar sheen. It's still early days for the band, but Aumicide yet again proves that Atrae Bilis are definitely a band to watch out for when it comes to modern progressive and technical death metal.
Fierce Deity – A Terrible Fate (powerfully melodic stoner prog)
In amongst all the big names, today also sees the return of everyone's favourite Legend of Zelda-themed, one-man power stoner act Fierce Deity with their first full-length release, following 2021's outstanding Power Wisdom Courage EP. Suitably, and like Aumicide before it, A TerribleFate is a much more expansive effort than the band's previous offerings, taking the listener on a journey from stomping stoner metal through to epic power prog, all while maintaining an ongoing (and possibly original?)* narrative about a mysterious wanderer on some kind of sea of fate. Truth be told, its latter parts tend to loose me somewhat, but they are more than made up for by the triumphant opening combo of "LEViARCH", which we had the pleasure of debuting last year, and "A Life of Hate" which starts off sounding like Hellfire Club-era Edguy before transitioning into a thunderous, bass-driven stomp that would fit right at home on a Kyusss record or that one good Spiritual Beggars album and rivals "Wisdom" as the best single song Fierce Deity have put out to date. Psycroptic guitarist Joe Haley also shows up somewhere, which is cool, but lone band member Jonathan Barwick remains the star of the show and it is equally evident that he's hit on a pretty magical combination with Fierce Deity that hopefully only grows stronger with each release.
*Google suggests possible references to Elden Ring (2022) and Genshin Impact (2020) but nothing concrete and nothing anywhere else seems to mention a leviarch, whatever that is
Release Roundup
A Neverending John’s Dream – Coming Back To Paradise (progressive AOR?)
Alicate – Heaven Tonight (Whitesnake at home)
All Will Know – Parhelion (melodeath)
Antagonyze – Interpretations Of The Unknown Wilderness (blackened death metal)
Antichrist Siege Machine – Vengeance Of Eternal Fire (blackened deathgrind))
Ater – Somber (weird blackened death/doom)
Balance Of Power – Fresh From The Abyss (heavy metl)
Big|Brave – A Chaos Of Flowers (melodic drone)
Billy Morrison – The Morrison Project (punk/glam metal)
Blaze Of Perdition – Upharsin (epic black metal)
Blazing Eternity – A Certain End Of Everything (melowdeath/doom)
Bloody Falls – Amartia (blackened melodeath)
Bongripper – Empty (stoner doom)
Bythos – Chthonic Gates Unveiled (black metal)
Caeli Concept – Lunaison (weird death metal, goth doom)
Conquest – Paradox (production value)
Couch Slut – You Could Do It Tonight (noisecore)
Dayseeker – Replica (Spinefarm)
Dool – The Shape Of Fluidity (posty goth rock)
Dvne – Voidkind (not dvn’ it for me)
Earthblood – Witchburner (sludge thrash)
Enfermo – Trágico final (deathgrind)
Engulfed – Unearthly Litanies of Despair (death metal)
