93rd part of short reviews.
IDOLOS – Ajchikaj
Year: 2023
Label: Acid Vicious
Rating: 8,1 / 10
Our Venusian friends have probably already realized the huge mistake they've made when they landed on our poor planet a few years ago and found themselves in this fucking mad world. On the other hand, it could have been worse - at least their ship landed in France, but they could've landed in Belarus! Anyway, the responsible aliens decided to finish their job and therefore finish their trilogy of music releases that tell about the relationship between the civilizations of Venus and Maya. After living on Earth, our guests got a little imbued with the local musical culture. If the first release was futuristic atmospheric metal with post- elements, the newer one also contains familiar notes of progressive rock and even stoner doom. At the same time, most of the errors and simply untidy decisions are in the past. As a result, we have a very worthy and very beautiful conclusion to the trilogy. I sincerely advise the authors of this wonderful music to light up the engines of their ship and return to their homeland as soon as possible, but if for some reason they decide to stay, I would like to hear a full-length album from them.
SPORAE AUTEM YUGGOTH – ...However It Still Moves
Year: 2023
Label: Personal Records
Rating: 8,4 / 10
Not only Venusian neighbors reach the Earth, but also mushroom spores from as far away as Yuggoth. They fell on the soil of The Great Metal Country of Chile, but, obviously, the SPORAE AUTEM YUGGOTH band did not immediately realize that these spores shouldn't be put into hookah, since the Chileans' first release was a rather frivolous Stoner Doom that masqueraded as Death / Doom. This time it turned out much better: we have a heavy, gloomy, afterlife sounding in the style of the early 90s, where there is a place for awesome riffs, morbid acoustic interludes and keyboard parts imbued with cosmic horror. Chile delivers again. Great work!
ARROGANT DESTRUKTOR – Written in Blood from the Blade
Year: 2023
Label: Awakening Records
Rating: 5,8 / 10
Them Brits, they're always like this. The band with the pretentious name ARROGANT DESTRUCTOR does not work out even half of the program to which it obliges. The first song flies by quite cheerfully, but then the album goes strictly down the line, piling the banalities above the stamps with each new track. As is most often the case with modern Brits, musicians try to show their aggression, but you can immediately hear that this aggression is due to style, not real feelings. Of the particularly negative aspects, I will also note the incessant keyboards, which at first look interesting, but after a while become unbearably tasteless and disgusting. Good side: everything is played and recorded quite well, especially the guitars that have this very harsh sound. But this doesn't change much, and I'm already tired of being surprised that a country that has had a decisive influence on the development of all the major types of rock and metal music today provides us with such shallow "products" nowadays.
THE EVIL – Seven Acts to Apocalypse
Year: 2023
Label: Osmose Productions
Rating: 7,5 / 10
The Brazilian band THE EVIL (where, let me remind you, Wagner Antichrist from SARCÓFAGO himself plays the guitar) impressed me 6 years ago with its debut, which offered a very unusual look at traditional doom. Not everything worked properly there, but it was also pretty good in the end, because a typical traditional doom is the most useless and tedious shit in the world. However, on the new album, the band decided that it is time to to stop with all the curiosities, and added to its incredibly fresh name an equally fresh concept of seven deadly sins, and reduced the music to a more standard doom with a bit of stoner. Nevertheless, the sound turned out to be quite elastic, heavy and gloomy; a-la BLACK SABBATH in their darkest moments, working not on marijuana, but on steroids. The quality of the music hadn't suffered a bit, on the contrary, it's even better now. Finally, there is fantastic vocals from Mistres Wournous, whose real surname, oddly enough, is Zamolodchikova. She sings almost like a female version of Glenn Danzig. Therefore, with all my negative attitude towards this type of doom, I can only admire this album. Yes, it's standard, but it's gold standard.
SÉPULCRE – Cursed Ways of Sheol
Year: 2022
Label: Invictus Productions
Rating: 7 / 10
The instigator of this young French band is a rather experienced character with the nickname Kev Desecrator, who plays drums in DESTRÖYER 666, was a member of NECROWRETCH, but, most importantly, at one time founded a great thrash metal band PERVERSIFIER, which you should definitely listen to. To be honest, SÉPULCRE can't offer anything special - it's a very good Death Metal with a characteristic otherworldly sound, which I am personally fed up with for the next 20 years minimum. If you are familiar with the roster of the Irish Invictus Productions, consider that you have already listened to it, too. On the other hand, “Cursed Ways of Sheol” lasts only 23 minutes - if the so-called “Old School Death Metal Revival” hasn't bored you yet, give it a chance.
English (UK) 
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