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elder: wow, this sure is an elder album. i don't think it does enough to differentiate itself from their last release, and sonntag is kind of bad, but the rest of this is pretty fine enough stuff. i don't really know if it needs to exist but i don't mind listening to it. i guess if i appreciated the technicality of this stuff a bit more i'd be more enthused about it, i dunno, i like it regardless though. just not wowed by it
mord'a'stigmata: this is a bit too underwritten, i could also kind of claim the same about ansia but it's even worse here, the opening track is 12 minutes and has about three different motifs. and they're all cool motifs, but, the tracks needed to be tightened up a little. and yet it's only 40 minutes. that being said it's still enjoyable sludgy black metal though there's really very little black metal here at all, but ehh whatevs. the ending is also great. i'm not in love with it but it's alright
venenum: woo boy. so. i checked this out basically on a whim not expecting to be too into it, but.... christ, this is a very strong AOTY contender. i guess the kind of death metal i need to check out more of is the 90's progressive death metal scene because boy do i dig this sound. yeah it has heavy prog leanings and some black metal leanings too but the core is very recognizably death metal, and damn what a core it is. the suite making up the back half of the album is the clear better half of this, each track brings great stuff to the table - the first part is the most intense and dissonant but memorable as heck unlike a lot of similar stuff i've heard, the second part is one of the best goddamn prog metal instrumentals i've ever heard without even being too wanky, and the third is a great, mostly instrumental epic with just some fantastic riffage and a great reprise of the album's intro at the end, i love it. the other tracks are great too though? the intro is prob the weakest track but i'm glad it exists to be reprised, the first metal track is a bit standard but dynamic enough to keep me interested, the third track has this really memorable speedup section amongst other things, and the fourth track has a great sludgy sound to it. honestly i still am dissecting and processing this one and i look forward to spinning it a dozen or more times yet, geez i wrote a lot but i love this, a lot