Well, after a marathon of reviewing Guardians classics, it's time to balance out my palate with something a lot darker and heavier. I encountered this Killwhitneydead album in a video the other day and decided to give it a shot. And compared to the other release I've reviewed, the debut Inhaling the Breath of a Bullet... WHAT THE F*** HAPPENED?!?

Killwhitneydead really went downhill in their second release Never Good Enough for You. The album cover of blood and nudity is bad enough, but for the music itself... There are still many samples used just like Inhaling the Breath of a Bullet. What made that EP acceptable was that release's length, which made the amount of samples still the same yet acceptable. When this music/sample alternation goes on for a half-hour, it gets boring and makes you wonder why the band has never been sued for the samples. The growls and riffing don't sound all that great, particularly when there could've been blasts where there are barely any. A few breakdowns are quite good though...

"You Will Get Exactly What You Deserve (and Not One Bullet Less)" gives me something special, a brutal breakdown similar to early Job for a Cowboy. "She Didn't Look Like She Had a Disease" is only one more track I like, and what a surprise! Several other tracks have melodeath leads, but here they go full-on power metal/grind/deathcore, with some clean falsetto singing! Who knew that was even a thing?! As for the rest, it sounds too flat. This sh*t is never good enough for me or anyone....

Favorites (only tracks I even slightly like): "You Will Get Exactly What You Deserve (and Not One Bullet Less)", "She Didn't Look Like She Had a Disease"

Not really a deathcore guy, not really a nu metal guy, so this "nu metalcore" that Wikipedia apparently has an article for doesn't really appeal to me beyond the fact that it's metal.  I checked out Slaughter to Prevail for a coworker and I politely told him that it was better than most of the deathcore I've heard, which isn't really untrue.  But it's only OK.  I didn't really expect much of a change when I heard about the new album.  But to be fair, each song had little tricks here and there that I appreciated.  Good portions of each song were built on these little tricks basically being major focal points.  Unfortunately, none of these aspects were really strong enough to differentiate this album from the vast majority of deathcore in the longrun.  Basically, this album manages to be catchy and edgy enough to get by on its own, with little amounts of creativity making it better than all the other generic nu metal and deathcore albums, but not a groundbreaker by any definition.

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I have a project list in my office for sub-genres I need to conduct a deep dive on. Pagan black metal is one item listed there as I have very little, formal knowledge of the sub-genre. When I come to a release that is tagged as “pagan” on the Metal Academy site I instantly think of folk metal, then I quickly remember that is a different thing. At least I think it is? Anyway, I won’t let the study of the tag take over the whole review, but if pagan black metal has more of what Aldaaron offer on Par-delà les cimes then I will be taking that deep dive sooner rather than later. The title of the album translates as “how pagan black metal differs to folk metal”. No, wait that’s wrong. “Beyond the Peaks” is the correct translation and the album is dedicated to their fallen comrade Thöl who covered bass duties in the band 2010-2012. Sadly, he passed away in 2022.

The album caught me off guard in two aspects if I am honest. Firstly, its potent aggression is vivid and striking from the off. The harrowing scream that starts album opener ‘Antediluvian Prophecies’ is an early taste of the venom of Aldaaron have coursing through their veins. The second item that was unexpected is how atmospheric and expansive the sound is here. Beyond those earthy tones there are soaring tremolos and majestic melodies that loop up into the air around them. Although the release has a thirty-six-minute duration, there are only four tracks here and with a couple of them stretching over the ten-minute mark it is important that the main duo of Ioldar and Voldr create some enchantment to these tracks. Thankfully they achieve this in bundles.

The choral passages are unobtrusive and befitting to the aesthetic of the album. Spaced well apart from the blackened material that drive the tracks in the main, these more ethereal sections are a clever contrast option. The charging tremolo of tracks such as ‘Chants d’hiver et de solitude’ are a joy to behold. Add into this mix, the thoughtful production job that allows each instrument some space to be heard. The vocals are superb throughout, with their ghastly edge creating atmospheres all of their own. The way you can pick out the bass on the final track, ‘Under the Icy Sky, Memories Fade Away’ is pleasing on the ear and the soaring lead work only adds to the allure of the track. A superb discovery, if not a little too short overall.

There are some decent sounding hooks/melodies inside Affliction Vortex, but they are very tricky to find since they are interspersed in between some painfully generic gothic doom metal. Dawn of Solace seem to be stuck in a creative divot where every track on this record uses the same tonal center and similar tempo. I would imagine that listening to this from top-to-bottom would be an absolute chore. When taking the album apart, the promotional singles of "Fortress" and "Invitation" were solid, but when thrown into the gauntlet, they lose much of their splendor. Even in comparison to recent death doom/gothic doom albums I've reviewed in recent memory, they all seemed to have some kind of unique flare to them; whether that be the bands overall sound, or they liked to play around with styles between the individual tracks. Dawn of Solace have none of this and it hurts Affliction Vortex in a big way.

Best Songs: Fortress, Into the Light, Invitation

To me, I liken a good doom record to the looming threat of a thunderstorm. The smell of that electricity in the air that crackles along your nasal passages, causing your ears to strain in the distance for that first rumble of thunder or have you reach for the light switch to plunge the room into darkness so your eyes can catch that first flash of lightning. This record gives me that vibe. It is not that I am expecting a full-blown thunderstorm experience from the record, far from it. Grief’s Internal Flower holds me in that pensive, excited and anticipatory state nicely. Whilst it would be a push to call it the calm before the storm, it is still an enjoyable experience for the looming presence it creates. Abated by the almost hushed, monotone of Cottrell’s vocals layered like pasta sheets in a fuzzy lasagne the album lulls me a little, giving a false sense of security. Then, on the strike of a drum or the dancing melody of a lead, the sky lights up in the distance. A big, bold wall of sheet lightning makes its appearance known and I switch my focus to the rumble of some thunder from the bass or rhythm section overall.

Tracks like ‘Tanngrisnir’ open big and loud yet possess some regimented nature in the tightness of the bands sound still. It is not necessarily a catchy record in the strictest sense of the term, yet the head is banging, and the foot is stomping along to the funereal death march of the drums and the monolithic chug of the guitars. It is an infectious sound to my ears at least, the competency of the artists in a style of music that feels inherently laid-back carries a devoted level of intensity still. The Electric Wizard influence is strong, unavoidable in fact. But it is such a genuine representation of that sound that I cannot help but lap it up.

Having recently discovered Cottrell’s solo work (which debuted the same year as this record), I am a fan of her non-metal stuff. However, the ballad, ‘Sparrow’ does very little for me here. It is well positioned in the album, giving a change of pace in the middle of the record but I am so caught up in all this thick doomy goodness that I find it an unnecessary distraction almost. Of course, by this point we are shaping up for the run into the album’s conclusion. Two lengthy tracks await us, with both clocking in at over fourteen-minutes. ‘Hesperus’ may have a glacial pace to it, but it is so harrowing in its delivery that it just would not work in a shortened format. As a track, it does shift restlessly at times and the way it just cuts off in full flow at the end is baffling to me. ‘Kingfisher’ is borderline a stretch too far for me at this point. There’s just too much to process at the back end of the album with these two tracks laid side-by-side in the running order. Whilst there are obvious differences between the two tracks from a structural perspective, it is still two massive tracks backloaded onto the album together.

In isolation, even on separate albums if not at least at opposite ends of this one, the tracks are not poor. However, they do not complement each other well. Acoustic album closer, ‘Aition’ serves some soothing purpose almost by proxy, but I sense that closing the album with ‘Hesperus’ is a missed trick unfortunately.  So a mixed bag in all for me on this one, still undeniably well performed and well written, even though the arrangement does leave a lot to be desired overall.