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Angry Metal Guy<a href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/blighted-eye-agonys-bespoke-review/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Blighted Eye – Agony’s Bespoke Review</a>By Thus SpokeIn crafting their debut LP, Agony’s Bespoke, Blighted Eye claims to draw heavy inspiration from Jennifer Kent’s 2018 film The Nightingale. The film follows an Irish ex-convict seeking revenge on the British settlers who raped her and murdered her husband and infant child.<a href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/blighted-eye-agonys-bespoke-review/#fn-203043-1" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">1</a> Its honest portrayal of the hollowness of vengeance and the psychological impact of trauma are aspects Blighted Eye aims to transfer to its own interpretation of transformative tragedy. In the appropriately epic span of an hour, Agony’s Bespoke weaves a tapestry of hauntingly familiar progressive death and black metal that hides a few gut-wrenching punches in its deceptively cerebral folds.The unlikely convergence of technical death metal and funeral doom gives rise to Blighted Eye’s stirring character. With members from Aethereus on guitars, vocals, and bass respectively, and a drummer from acts Mesmur and Pantheist, Blighted Eye’s pedigree is steeped in two very different interpretations of grandiosity and heady emotionality. Not that there’s more than a hint of doominess about Agony’s Bespoke, but the influence is noteworthy, as it helps produce an unusually affective strain of progressive extreme metal. I’m reminded of a hybrid of Hath and Alustrium, and even some Wake-isms rear their head, not purely in terms of literal sound, but in the intense feeling expressed in an otherwise niche, inaccessible musical style. From the many vibrant charges of frenetic, key-changing guitarwork and rhythmic complexity, to the swooping soloing and occasional moments of stillness, a strong thread of pathos runs unbroken through the album.The use of intricate, extreme instrumentality to compel rather than alienate the listener is where Blighted Eye shows its mettle. Acrobatic solos don’t just dazzle with technicality, they impress in their development of the predominantly mournful themes (“In Enmity,” “A Feast for Worms”). Undulating, punctuating percussion isn’t just exhilarating and groovy, its tempo changes and crescendos sway the listener to the rhythm of Agony’s Bespoke’s tragedy, telling us when to breathe and when to release the tension wrought in clashing dissonance and torrential blastbeats (“The Wounding,” “Howls from Beyond the Mist,” “A Reverent Stillness”). And the key to it all is some of the most beautiful refrains technical death metal has to offer. With a shivery lick of excitement comes the tumbling main melody of opener “Tragoedia,” almost out of nowhere, yet inevitable from the restless anticipation of cymbal shuffling, and gradually intensifying riffs. With plaintive urgency, wailing lines (“In Emnity,” “Pallid,” and “A Reverent Stillness”) and blackened tirades (“The Wounding”) work together with vicious roars to smash open your ribcage and wrench your heart out of your chest, as the tempos batter you about in this tempest of emotion to the bounce of a fluttering riff (“Tragoedia,” “A Reverent Stillness”).The only thing holding Blighted Eye back is ambition. As stirring as Agony’s Bespoke is, its strength is diluted by the runtime that overextends the reach of even the strongest tracks beyond their grasp. No song, save the short interlude, “Nightingale,”<a href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/blighted-eye-agonys-bespoke-review/#fn-203043-2" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">2</a> is less than six minutes long, and most could stand to lose a minute or so. There is the sense that the band had so many great ideas, they wanted to include them all. Take, for instance, the decisively dissonant death metal that characterizes “Pallid,” and the haunting, bleating cleans that arise here and there (“Howls from Beyond the Mist,” and the title track). The former is brilliantly executed, and leads to one of the best cuts on the album, though tonally it sticks out and is a little underdeveloped. The latter fits more naturally into the stylistic template but is a tad less strong. The music would also have benefitted from a more spacious mix that would allow its layered intricacies to allow the room to breathe and deliver the impact it is capable of. It’s nothing that can’t be improved upon and tightened up in the next release, though.Agony’s Bespoke is, despite its flaws, a powerful record, and one for whom even the sin of an overlong runtime can’t truly detract from the impact it leaves on its audience. As it draws to a close, you do feel as though you’ve been on a journey, one whose peaks are worth its valleys. If this is what Blighted Eye can do in their debut, the scene had better be ready when they return to tell their next tale. Rating: Very Good DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s CBR mp3 Label: <a href="https://www.beyondthetoprecords.com/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Beyond the Top</a> Websites: <a href="https://beyondthetoprecords.bandcamp.com/album/agonys-bespoke" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Bandcamp</a> | <a href="https://www.facebook.com/BlightedEye/?locale=en_GB" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Facebook</a> Releases Worldwide: September 20th, 2024<a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/2024/" target="_blank">#2024</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/35/" target="_blank">#35</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/aethereus/" target="_blank">#Aethereus</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/agonys-bespoke/" target="_blank">#AgonySBespoke</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/alustrium/" target="_blank">#Alustrium</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/american-metal/" target="_blank">#AmericanMetal</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/beyond-the-top-records/" target="_blank">#BeyondTheTopRecords</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/black-metal/" target="_blank">#BlackMetal</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/blackened-death-metal/" target="_blank">#BlackenedDeathMetal</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/blighted-eye/" target="_blank">#BlightedEye</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/death-metal/" target="_blank">#DeathMetal</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/hath/" target="_blank">#Hath</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/progressive-black-metal/" target="_blank">#ProgressiveBlackMetal</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/progressive-death-metal/" target="_blank">#ProgressiveDeathMetal</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/review/" target="_blank">#Review</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/reviews/" target="_blank">#Reviews</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/sep24/" target="_blank">#Sep24</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/wake/" target="_blank">#Wake</a>

Angry Metal Guy<a href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/eigenstate-zero-the-malthusian-review/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Eigenstate Zero – The Malthusian Review</a>By MaddogAfter a six-month hiatus from writing (and most everything else), I couldn’t resist reviewing an artist with eigen- in their name. My excitement for linear algebra drew me to Eigenstate Zero’s third record, despite my inkling that “eigenstate zero” was a nonsense phrase.<a href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/eigenstate-zero-the-malthusian-review/#fn-197905-1" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">1</a> Unsurprisingly, Eigenstate Zero is a solo prog project, and The Malthusian offers 78 indulgent minutes of off-kilter death metal from Sweden’s Christian Ludvigsson. The album is full of surface-level variety, mixing riffy goodness with keyboard melodies and copious genre experimentation. And yet, its strengths and weaknesses are exactly what you’d expect, for a 78-minute prog-death album with a sci-fi name.The Malthusian combines hit-or-miss death metal with hit-or-miss prog tropes. The death metal foundation of Eigenstate Zero’s sound is executed with mixed success. Even The Malthusian’s shorter straightforward tracks sometimes misfire with by-the-books riffs that lack the genre’s power (“Serfs & Zealots,” “Reset”). Conversely, The Malthusian slays when it remains laser-focused on engaging its listeners. The title track’s hefty riffs could hold their own against death metal’s best, while its creative rhythms and keys lean deftly into Eigenstate Zero’s prog sensibilities. Meanwhile, groovy bass lines (“Telomeres”) and thoughtfully ballistic drums (“Mindcrime”) make the rhythm section a highlight throughout. Despite those successes, The Malthusian struggles with prog idioms. Digressions like the waltz of “Spiritdebris,” the theatrical clean vocals of “Thingfish Diaries,” and the gratuitous wind sections of “Holomind” feel like weirdness for weirdness’ sake. Echoing Serdce’s craziness without Serdce’s writing prowess, The Malthusian’s proggy bits often lose my interest.The Malthusian’s frequent lack of cohesion makes it a jumbled listen. The album’s ambition is admirable, but it tends to long jump between disparate styles without the requisite effort to glue them together. The Malthusian’s proggy shenanigans often feel jammed between unrelated neighbors, like the cabaret melodies and keyboard detours of “Black Pages.” At their worst, these aren’t just isolated missteps; rather, tracks like “Orch Or” fall flat by cobbling together jigsaw pieces from different puzzles for their entire runtime. Still, The Malthusian’s choice cuts demonstrate songwriting excellence. Album highlight “Mindcrime” channels Alustrium with caveman riffs, proggy rhythms, an acoustic break, and soaring solos, blended together perfectly and tied up with a thoughtful bow. I wish the rest of the record had followed suit.Now for the elephant in the room: The Malthusian is elephantine. Even the better songs could use a trim, like the fluid but beefy ten-minute title track. The back half of the record is particularly bloated, housing all but one of the album’s chunkiest pieces. As a result, The Malthusian is a tiresome listen, extending for nearly eighty minutes with only enough compelling material for half of that. Adding to the excess, the album’s crushed production makes it difficult to identify interesting melodies above the din. Exhausted by both sonic clutter and a glut of content, I struggle to distinguish or recall much of The Malthusian. Indeed, it took me multiple spins to realize that the promo materials included an extra copy of “Telomeres” in place of “Reset.” Some more restraint would go a long way for Eigenstate Zero.While The Malthusian doesn’t have any single fatal flaw, its missteps hold it back. The album’s riffs and melodies suffer from inconsistency, especially when they veer into prog exhibitionism. On a macroscopic level, the lack of restraint in The Malthusian’s composition and production hampers the final product. The record’s apexes display a talent for melody and composition that’ll keep me hopeful for Eigenstate Zero’s next release. But despite its ambition, The Malthusian hasn’t left much impression on me. In the linear transformation of my ears, Eigenstate Zero’s newest release has eigenvalue zero.<a href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/eigenstate-zero-the-malthusian-review/#fn-197905-2" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">2</a> Rating: 2.0/5.0 DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3 Label: Self-Released Websites: <a href="https://eigenstatezero.bandcamp.com/music" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">eigenstatezero.bandcamp.com</a> Releases Worldwide: May 17th, 2024<a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/20/" target="_blank">#20</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/2024/" target="_blank">#2024</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/alustrium/" target="_blank">#Alustrium</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/death-metal/" target="_blank">#DeathMetal</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/eigenstate-zero/" target="_blank">#EigenstateZero</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/independent/" target="_blank">#Independent</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/independent-release/" target="_blank">#IndependentRelease</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/independent-unsigned/" target="_blank">#IndependentUnsigned</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/may24/" target="_blank">#May24</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/progressive-death/" target="_blank">#ProgressiveDeath</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/progressive-death-metal/" target="_blank">#ProgressiveDeathMetal</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/progressive-metal/" target="_blank">#ProgressiveMetal</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/review/" target="_blank">#Review</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/reviews/" target="_blank">#Reviews</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/serdce/" target="_blank">#Serdce</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/swedish-metal/" target="_blank">#SwedishMetal</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tag/the-malthusian/" target="_blank">#TheMalthusian</a>

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