aghora: at first when i checked these guys out they didn't do much for me, then i went back and liked 'em a decent bit more, enough to pick up the album, which i found i didn't like much when i listened through it after receiving it, and now... just back to a "slightly above average" kind of feel i guess. the biggest issue is that their metal tends to be quite weak, all chug and crunch and no real power. and the vocals are very "fine". the real highlights here tend to come in a lot of the quieter moments, which actually tend to have a lot of nice guitar/bass/drum work that holds my interest a lot more. it's a bit emotionally dead though and the album certainly could serve to be shorter
a flourishing scourge: local band that's pretty interesting tbh, a bit rough around the edges but i'm not gonna criticize too hard considering this is a debut EP and it's a pretty damn solid EP. they play an interesting mix of proggy death metal and post-rock, or at least that's the sound i get from this. the third track is a bit weak/underdeveloped compared to the rest but there's a lot of nice, gorgeous quiet moments and some cool heavy grooves as well, i'd definitely be interesting in checking out a full album from these guys
neurosis: i tried. oh my god did i try. but i can pretty decisively assert at this point that neurosis is just, not for me. this album is... fine. doesn't really stand out much in either direction, it's okay post-metal at best but it's not really anything more? i think the issue is that they wallow too much in slower stuff to the point where it gets a bit monotonous. the first full track on the album has a moment halfway through where a great, energetic riff kicks in and provides some real power, and that's... the only time on the album that there's any moment like that at all, it's really quite disappointing. i think i'll just stick to panopticon and somewhere along the highway, most other straight post-metal has failed to do much for me and that's just disappointing. this was the only album these guys have that did anything for me at all checking out their stuff on youtube btw.
this was not really a great set of albums overall but nothing bad either, just a very meh feeling overall
also i'm way late on this one i try to get these out ~a week and a half after i start spinning them and it's been over 2 weeks for these oops