Auriferous Flame: The Insurrectionists And The Caretakers (2024)

Wrapping up extreme metal cassette week by moving away from the death/thrash and charting blacker waters. I definitely recall where I heard of Auriferous Flame, the one man black metal entity purveying in old school but decidedly anti-fascist black metal: Banger TV’s Cassette Cult – the top 10 underground releases off 2023. Mainman Ayloss is also the sonic mind behind Spectral Lore, but the music he peddles as Auriferous Flame is much more second wave worship, albeit with modern melodic flourishes, which is definitely my thing. The Insurrectionists And The Caretakers is listed as an EP with only three songs, but when your first track is an epic 15 minutes and the whole album clocks in at close to a half hour, those labels become meaningless. This thing rocks, so let quickly get into it.

ChrisMarch 7, 2025March 7, 2025Leave a comment

Cassette

Noxis: Violence Inherent In The System (2024)

Another day, another cassette. Another debut, this time Cleveland, Ohio’s Noxis, bringing forth the primal, grimy technical death with Violence Inherent In The System. Once again discovered combing through various end of year lists (pretty sure it was Last Rites) I was immediately taken with the cover art – some things never change. But then I heard the music, the band trotting out some supremely slimy Morbid Angel and other 90s inspired death metal and I was hooked. Had to have it, and cassette just felt like the perfect format.

ChrisMarch 6, 2025March 6, 2025Leave a comment

Cassette

Sovereign: Altered Realities (2024)

Yeah…remember when I mentioned DBC as a sonic touchstone when I reviewed the Demoniac album? That really should have been applied to Altered Realities, the debut from Oslo’s Sovereign. Echoing the best of late 80s, early 90s technical death/thrash, it’s a marvel of a metal record, so good that even though I caught really late in the year it made my overall end of year list. A little DBC, a little Leprosy-era Death and you have the makings of my favorite kind of album. 100% technicality tied with 100% groove and 100% badass cover art, making for 500% of pre metal glory, if my math is right…

ChrisMarch 5, 2025March 5, 2025Leave a comment

Cassette

Demoniac: Nube Negra (2023)

Even if you don’t get the homage to Peter Gabriel based on the cover to Nube Negra, the third full length from Chile’s Demoniac, you’ll feel that sense of restless exploration in the thrash band’s sonic assault. It can be a bit startling to hear where bands now are taking the genre I fell in love with 40 years ago; the music here seemed primed for a younger, more voracious mind. I can barely keep up, but that doesn’t mean I don’t thoroughly enjoy the attempt.

ChrisMarch 4, 2025March 4, 20251 Comment

CD, Vinyl

Opeth: Heritage (2011)

Make no bones about it. Heritage, the 10th “observation” from Sweden’s premier progressive death metal titans Opeth was the album they needed to make. Tired of trotting out the same (though unique to them) twisted melodic progressive death featuring incredible syncopation, lush keyboards and solos, and Mikael Åkerfeldt’s sublime death growls, the band needed to change gears to survive. So yes: there’s no arguing that this album needed to be made, and based on the – in my opinion – progressively more progressive and exploratory albums that followed Heritage absolutely succeeded in reinvigorating the band, whether you like the change in direction or not. Does that mean I actually like Heritage, though? On the occasion of the recent reissue of the album on vinyl I decided to wade back into the waters and see what I could find for myself.

ChrisFebruary 28, 2025February 28, 20251 Comment

Vinyl

Testament: Practice What You Preach (1989)

Where the lack of time and preparation may have marred portions (small portions, to be sure) of the sophomore effort by California’s Testament, the grind of tour/record/tour made the third time the charm. Practice What You Preach sounds fully realized, the band settling into their space, injecting more fusion and progressive riffs and arrangements while tightening the songwriting to produce the band’s most mainstream and successful album to date. Sure, you can hear obvious capitulations to getting on rock radio and MTV, but the anger and aggression of the heavy tracks are uncompromising, and as my introduction to the band it was the perfect entry point, allowing me to hear the balance between their earlier chaos and future major label tribulations.

ChrisJanuary 29, 2025Leave a comment

Consuming the Tangible

We are what we consume

Tag: metal

Auriferous Flame: The Insurrectionists And The Caretakers (2024)

Noxis: Violence Inherent In The System (2024)

Sovereign: Altered Realities (2024)

Demoniac: Nube Negra (2023)

Opeth: Heritage (2011)

Testament: Practice What You Preach (1989)