The middle of summer is rarely the best time for the metal release schedule. While there have been some notable July releases over the years, it seems like labels tend to fit their highest-profile releases into the Autumn. Still, for July of 2024, there was a slate of solid recommendations from the staff and readers, making this one of those months when it’s both good and hard to be the king. It’s been tough to choose, honestly. So rather than wasting your time crafting a long, comical intro, I’m just going to cut right to the chase.
Wormed released its fourth full-length entitled Omegon [Bandcamp], the first in eight long years, on July 5th from Season of Mist. In response, our Maddog wrote an epic that lifted my experience of Omegon even further. Omegon and its review share a feature in that they are both exceptional art. What differentiates them, however, is that Wormed’s long break finds the Spaniards having honed their unique brand of technical, chaotic, and deeply brutal death metal into something particularly caustic and effective. Both chaotic and gripping, Omegon assaults the senses and excites the imagination. And aside from any individual component in the music, Omegon succeeds, as Maddog explained, “because it flows so well, allowing its headbangability persist even through its stupefying time signature changes. Wormed’s irresistible blend of Stone Age brutality and Space Age technicality launches them into the ranks of Gorod, Archspire, and Revocation, despite sounding worlds apart from those bands. Throughout its 41 minutes, the spectacle of Omegon holds you rapt.”
Runner(s) Up:
Octoploid // Beyond the Aeons [July 5, 2024 | Reigning Phoenix Music]1 — Every time I write an Amorphis review, I comment on how nobody sounds like Amorphis except Amorphis (er, and Barren Earth). Well, I guess we need to add another band to that list: Octoploid. The reason why is obvious, written by bassist Olli-Pekka Laine, Beyond the Aeons has the characteristic sound he’s dragged with him wherever he goes. His particular tendencies—that psychedelic vibe from Elegy-era Amorphis mixed with an energetic melodic death metal that rests comfortably in 6/8 swings—make Beyond the Aeons both immediately recognizable and an addictive listen. With instantly memorable melodies, a host of guest appearances, and a 38-minute run-time perfectly suited for the music, Octoploid’s debut is an instant success and most definitely in my running for end-of-year considerations. Kenstrosity, who weirdly underrated something and doesn’t appear to know who Olli-Pekka Laine is, was still “unreasonably excited by Octoploid’s debut” because “it represents a side of the melodic and progressive death metal scenes that I don’t hear often, and I want so much more.” Should I tell him about classic Amorphis or nah?
Assemble the Chariots // Unyielding Night [July 22, 2024 | Seek & Strike Records | Bandcamp] — Back when deathcore was just tough guys who challenged me to fights in the comment section because I don’t like run-in-place breakdowns, it was easy to know what the genre was and it was fairly easy to ignore. Assemble the Chariots is apparently a deathcore band, but I wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t read it. To these Olde Metal Guy ears, they sound mostly like a mashup of Fleshgod Apocalypse, [(Luca) Turilli(’s) / Lione] Rhapsody [of Fire], and ’90s symphonic black metal. And yeah, I guess there are enough chug riffs, the drums sound heavily replaced, and the production is a brickwalled nightmare. Still, none of that stuff is enough to stop me from fully embracing the bombastic majesty that is Unyielding Night, which marks Assemble the Chariots’ debut platter. The unreasonably productive Dear Hollow is on the same page as me.2 He summarized it well when he wrote: “Subtlety is not a priority in Unyielding Night, and Assemble the Chariots offers an album whose intensity and pomp align impressively with the grandiosity of the tragedy of Aquilegia. As such, it’s long, over-the-top, constantly intense, and likely too much for some listeners. However, Unyielding Night is a powerful, energetic bombast that tastefully includes deathcore’s signature brutality without diving headlong into stagnation. Assemble the Chariots is something special.”
Seth // La France des Maudits [July 14, 2024 | Season of Mist | Bandcamp] — Seth’s La France des Maudits should help cement the band as a defining force in black metal, delivering an album that surpasses even their 2021 comeback La Morsure du Christ. With a blend of fierce trem-picked riffs, dynamic vocals, and rich atmospheres Seth captures both the rage and sorrow of revolution. The album’s intricate layers of melody and powerful emotional range elevate it beyond a standard black metal album, weaving themes of defiance with melancholic introspection. Seth masterfully balances aggression with poignant beauty, creating an experience that feels cinematic in its scope and affecting in its intensity. Every element, from the dramatic chorals to the blistering guitars, contributes to a soundscape that is both expansive and clear. From this fawning enthusiasm, you can tell that Thus Spoke was the unbridled lover of black metal behind this review. And it was obvious by the end of it, that she would go to the barricades for Seth when she declared: “Experience for yourself the phoenix-like rise in all its vitriolic, pathos-soaked glory, and join the revolution. ‘Tous, Marchons sur le monde!’” I can only imagine that got her landed on some watchlist. But she wasn’t wrong that La France des Maudits is worthy of our attention!
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