The Best Debut Album
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A pentagram-shaped peg that refuses to fit nicely in any round genre holes. Altar Of Betelgeuze are a riff factory that combines stony vibes with doomy riffs, and a variety of harsh and clean vocals. They toss in enough bursts of speed as a bitchslap to keep the listener in their place.
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Finding blackened doom bands that strike a pretty 50/50 blend between the two is rare in the style's tradition, but not so with the Englishmen of Bast. Slow and brooding from the doom perspective, yet also aggressive and ensnaring from that of the black metal, with this powerful debut Bast are proving themselves as a band to keep an eye on, and a force to be reckoned with.
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With a dash of djent in their prog sound, Benevolent instantly made a name for themselves outside of Kuwait with this first full-length release. The Covenant is an upbeat, catchy, aggressive and pretty damn heavy album that doesn't negate melody, complexity and atmosphere. It is the proof that accessible doesn't always rhyme with watered-down and that creativity can be found in every genre and country.
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No two ways about it - this is a soulful, bluesy, psychedelic monster of a record, best enjoyed in conjunction with a lava lamp and the year 1970. Led by a stalwart frontwoman and filled out by a gang of groovy mules fresh out of the time machine, Blues Pills play it so old school that they make Black Sabbath look like a bunch of crazy, little punks. If you've ever wondered what would happen if Janis Joplin sang for Jimi Hendrix and they hijacked Led Zeppelin's rhythm section... now's your chance to find out.
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Clouds have made one of the strongest entrances into the doom world in recent memory with Doliu, an hour-long odyssey of atmospheric misery. The bitterly emotional, deeply personal vocal delivery - a mix of powerful cleans and somber growls - calls to mind the great Pat Walker. It's a haunting, overpowering dirge building up layer after layer of thunderous, grief-stricken doom in the vein of Eye Of Solitude (which shares vocalist Daniel Neagoe) or Saturnus.
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Whether you believe it or not, elegant, varied, funky and intelligent grindcore isn't a series of oxymorons. It exists, and even if it didn't, Corrupt Moral Altar would have invented it with their pummelling début rightfully titled Mechanical Tides. Let yourself drown in successive waves of the finest punk-and-sludge-inspired grindcore.
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From the underground scene around Frankfurt, Germany, Deadwood suprised us with their debut Picturing A Sense Of Loss this year. Atmospheric guitar sceneries connect with harsh and crushing blast beat parts to form an unique sound of post black metal. While a bunch of original ideas blend in, still some old-school approaches can be heard. The result is definitely terrific and leaves us yearning for more.
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Are you too happy? Is your stable mental health making you too boring? Do you feel as if you'd be better at picking up chicks if you had that demented serial killer look? Prayer For Terrene is exactly what you need! With its never-heard-before mix of dissonant mathcore madness and noise, you'll get the full benefit of two years in an sensory deprivation chamber in just thirty minutes! Thank you Idylls!
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Clocking in at over 1,000 years of bitter torment, Nasheim's stellar debut treats us to a good, hard slog through the marshlands of utter darkness. Sometimes it's plodding through a vast sea of infinite-sounding riffs and tortured vocals; other times, it's furiously racing through a maelstrom of biting bleakness. These four tracks seem to last forever as they envelop you slowly in the forlorn atmosphere of Nasheim's melancholy existence.
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To leave a mark in the over-populated world of instrumental post metal the music better be fresh and contagious. Fragments Of Uniforms achieves lofty hierarchy by way of beautiful hooks and melodies in perfect synchronization and production. The auditory numbness that transpires with each build-up and climax will send chills down the spine.
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