As metal subgenre hybrids go, mixing up black and death metal is one of the most natural and challenging pairings out there. It’s natural in that musicians gravitate towards taking the more extreme genres and blurring the boundaries between them to try and push things further, but therein lies the challenge too. If you do too little, you don’t stand out in a crowded field; do too much and it just becomes over-dense and loses its edge. Anti-Peat might just be telling you to edge into the kraken’s butthole with Skaphos though. Dive in!
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Karg – Marodeur Review
Excursions into screamo have already convinced me that black metal and punk are naturally suited for hybridization, so why not explore further? As ideas go, it makes sense to Karg and it makes sense to Peat.
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Contemplation – Au Bord Du Précipice Review
Once upon a time, Anti-Peat found a great life hack in a restaurant review, and that hack is pick the weirdest thing on the menu. Either the restaurant can deliver and you have picked something truly special, or they can’t and you’ve got a good story out of it. Now serving King Tubby’s favorite snack: fat fucking riffs.
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The Infernal Deceit – The True Harmful Black Review
If there is one period and sound in metal history that gets Anti-Peat going like a small kid in a sweet shop, it’s 1990s Sweden. But can you get too much of a good thing? Join Anti-Peat as he tries to eat some German cuisine consisting of salty Swedish fish with a side of meatballs.
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Istapp – Sól Tér Sortna Review
When Anti-Peat saw a slew of people recommending melodic black metal of a cold and wintry nature, he had to stapp and take a look. Yes, that’s how he ended up pressing anti-stapp on Sól Tér Sortna by Istapp. That translates to pressing play. If you’d like us to stapp with the stapping, please read on.
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Cradle of Filth – The Screaming of the Valkyries Review
The Screaming of the Valkyries is a well-executed blast of catchy, escapist bombast that stands up to multiple listens. In particular, Anti-Peat can’t help but think how after many reviews complaining about overambitious writing and poor structure, Cradle of Filth’s songwriting drags his attention back time after time. The thing is while he’s a sucker for catchy, escapist bombast. Have you figured out what escapist bombast means to you yet, dear reader? You might just need to to get down with the CoF.
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Heathen Heretic – Whispers From The Abyss Review
Subconsciously, I wanted to see whether this was a band that shoved together elements that sounded cool without thought, or whether there was a more deliberate philosophy at work. The other part of hitting play on Whispers from the Abyss is that Heathen Heretic are touted as playing blackened melodic death metal, and as the resident melodeath hating melodeath lover, I can’t help myself from searching for a whisper of something good in that abyss.
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Aitheer – The Serpent Review
Many a reviewer will tell you that music PR is good mainly for laughs or danger warnings, but I find it a useful guide to a band’s intentions. You see, where most PR releases cite influential and benchmark bands, Aitheer’s mentions none and instead throws around words like cinematic and theatric. And just like that, I have a way to frame The Serpent.
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Crypts of the Unknown: Bergraven – Det Framlidna Minnet
