APOCROPHEX: “SUSPENDED FROM THE COSMIC ALTAAR”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Mar 092015
 

 

(Austin Weber reviews the debut album by Apocrophex from New Jersey, which is being released on March 10.)

They say variety is the spice of life, but in a musical context, it’s how you arrange that variety and spice that makes the difference between music that’s merely a rehash and something that’s varying degrees of remarkable.

Instead of mixing all their influences into one singular synthesis dispersed in the same manner across every song, as many derivative tech-death bands do, Apocrophex shift between countless styles and technical death metal influences in separate contrasting passages and songs. In isolation, this can make some moments come across as too obviously close to their influences and thus seem weaker, but when taken as a whole in terms of how the music is constructed, Suspended From the Cosmic Altaar is very interesting and varied for technical death metal. And that’s especially when you consider that this is the band’s debut album, coming very soon after their initial two-song EP, Wheels Within Wheels (which I wrote about last year here at NCS). Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: APOCROPHEX — “THE GREY”

 Premieres  2 Responses »
Dec 192014
 

 

(We bring you the premiere of a new song by New Jersey’s Apocrophex, with an introduction by Austin Weber.)

Earlier this year at NCS, I wrote about a two-man technical death metal group called Apocrophex. They are a new band, having just released their first material in February of this year, a two-song EP entitled Wheels Within Wheels that I discussed in that earlier post. Hot off the heels of that introduction to their world, they are giving NCS the opportunity to showcase a tantalizing new song, “The Grey”, as a teaser to their upcoming debut full-length, Suspended From The Cosmic Altaar (featuring cover art by Raul Gonzalez).

While they only have two members, with Justin Buell handling the guitar, bass, and drum programming and Pete Colucci providing the vocals, their music really does sound like the expansive and multi-faceted work of a full band, which is a testament to both their skill and their songwriting craft. I was already hooked on them from their first EP, but figured they still had untapped potential that would keep us interested in what their future might hold. Well, “The Grey” shows them tapping into that potential. Continue reading »

RECALCITRANT ROUNDUP: A NEW FEAR YAWNS

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Mar 122014
 

(In this jumbo post Austin Weber puts the spotlight on recommended recent music from nine (9!) bands plus some tour news about a tenth.)

By now you know the drill, I’m going to throw a bunch of music your way and see if any of it sticks. While 2014 has seemed sort of slow, release-wise, so far, I managed to find a number of under-the-radar goodies and I’ve also included two established-band updates. As usual, you are free to loathe or love all or none of it. While I usually only listen to ambient grindcore, I’ve been branching out lately. So, lots of different kinds of music besides ambi-grind are included below. With deathqueef making up more of the music mentioned this time, but also delving into colostomy-bag-fueled post-electronic, instrumental scat, and nu-grunge.

EMBRYONIC DEVOURMENT

With their latest release Reptilian Agenda, Embryonic Devourment have even further embraced old school death metal tendencies into the fold of their technical brutal carnage that warns of the true reptilian nature of reality. This is a big step up for them, and fans of old school death metal should certainly give this a listen. In spite of its swarming Origin-meets-Malignancy veneer, a lot of the riffs are superbly evil, meaty, and groovy in an old school way.  Continue reading »