The Horde Release of the Year Contenders thread
Hi everyone.
With only one month to go until we announce our release of 2021 for each clan (which will once again be based on our site ratings), Ben & I thought it'd be worth highlighting five key releases contending for each title in order to give everyone the chance to investigate some (or all) of them this month if you wish to. These were some of the more highly regarded releases in the death metal & grindcore space last year:
Ad Nauseam - "Imperative Imperceptible Impulse" {Italian avant-garde tech death}
Atvm - "Famine, Putrid & Fucking Endless" {English progressive tech death}
First Fragment - "Gloire éternelle" {Canadian tech death}
Archspire - "Bleed the Future" {Canadian tech death}
Suffering Hour - "The Cyclic Reckoning" {US blackened death metal}
Can I just give a mention to Be'lakor's Coherence.
Ad Nauseam - "Imperative Imperceptible Impulse" (2021)
Every so often you'll discover a release that not only tries for an original sound but attempts to completely rewrite the book on what music is even trying to be & that's what we have hear. Every reviewer that I've seen give a negative or indifferent account of "Imperative Imperceptible Impulse" has tried in vain to make logical sense of it but if you try to do that you will fail dismally. The chaos & lack of traditional structure is the whole point. It's intended as a whirlwind of complex atonality & is meant to take the listener well outside of their comfort zone. If that's what you look for in music then welcome to an enthralling ride. If it's not then I'd suggest getting off the train immediately. Fans of Gorguts & Ulcerate will already be well versed in the art of dissonant tech death & this record isn't all that different to them on the surface but it's a superbly executed example of the style to be fair. I find it nothing short of mind-blowing that a band can sound like two dozen aluminum garbage bins rolling out of control down the steepest hill in town & still give the impression of being completely in control. The drum sound is spectacularly powerful & highlights a stunning performance to hold everything together. At the end of each listen I'm left wondering if what I've just listened to even qualifies as music but I've loved every second of it. I mean this might be what metal music will sound like in a hundred years time once we've exhausted all of our traditional subgenres & are left reaching further & further afield for creative inspiration. It's so impressive that it's been released in the current day & I have nothing but respect for the musicians involved. I can't even fathom how you would write this kinda stuff as it's just too out there. Amazing!
4.5/5
The Horde was tough for me this year. Everyone, their mother, and their mother's mother's grandmother has been going off about Imperative Imperceptible Impulse and it just never landed for me. I gave it multiple chances across the entire year and I completely get why people are so blown away (see Daniel's post above), but I couldn't make it work for me. So, that left me with the even harder task of parsing through the likes of Atvm and First Fragment, with First Fragment eventually winning me over to (maybe) no one's surprise. I did a pretty poor job giving albums like Famine, Putrid and Fucking Endless the amount of time they deserved, but that's how it goes down sometimes.
All of my other Death Metal picks are either too progressive-leaning or too thrashy to be fully Horde featured, like Epiphanic Truth or the newest Witches Hammer.
Ad Nauseam - "Imperative Imperceptible Impulse" (2021)
Every so often you'll discover a release that not only tries for an original sound but attempts to completely rewrite the book on what music is even trying to be & that's what we have hear. Every reviewer that I've seen give a negative or indifferent account of "Imperative Imperceptible Impulse" has tried in vain to make logical sense of it but if you try to do that you will fail dismally. The chaos & lack of traditional structure is the whole point. It's intended as a whirlwind of complex atonality & is meant to take the listener well outside of their comfort zone. If that's what you look for in music then welcome to an enthralling ride. If it's not then I'd suggest getting off the train immediately. Fans of Gorguts & Ulcerate will already be well versed in the art of dissonant tech death & this record isn't all that different to them on the surface but it's a superbly executed example of the style to be fair. I find it nothing short of mind-blowing that a band can sound like two dozen aluminum garbage bins rolling out of control down the steepest hill in town & still give the impression of being completely in control. The drum sound is spectacularly powerful & highlights a stunning performance to hold everything together. At the end of each listen I'm left wondering if what I've just listened to even qualifies as music but I've loved every second of it. I mean this might be what metal music will sound like in a hundred years time once we've exhausted all of our traditional subgenres & are left reaching further & further afield for creative inspiration. It's so impressive that it's been released in the current day & I have nothing but respect for the musicians involved. I can't even fathom how you would write this kinda stuff as it's just too out there. Amazing!
4.5/5
I missed this entirely last year and I have no idea why. On my "catch up eventually" list. Although your review makes me want to bump it near the top of the pile.
It is absolutely “imperative” that you get on this one with great urgency Vinny. It’ll be right up your alley.
It is absolutely “imperative” that you get on this one with great urgency Vinny. It’ll be right up your alley.
Less dissonant than the Ulcerate brand of auditory evolution that came from them last year and also not as immediate a connection as I find with Gorgut's output. If anything a bit too avant-garde and jazzy for me on first listen. Polypolyphony and polypolyrhythms probably sums it up best at this stage and certainly needs revisits before I cast final judgement.
Gotta applaud the effort though and the minute levels of detail are obvious but don't always compute, even in the off-kilter sense that they are intended. In a way it almost needs more promise of balance in order for it to completely hold my attention but I am still falling through it at present and will need more listens to find things to latch on to and help me enjoy it from within as opposed to this current fleeting journey sensation it leaves me with.
In terms of the other releases mentioned here. I quickly lost interest in ATVM after initial repeated listens and got next to nothing from that Suffering Hour release. Archspire sort of interest me initially in terms of that fucking ridiculous vocal delivery but then I soon find it becomes tiresome as if they are just a novelty. Having heard First Fragment on the playlist this month and already deciding that they need to calm the fuck down, I am unwilling to subject myself to the whole album.
Albums that deserve recognition:
Defacement - s/t - such a well controlled album in terms of a slow increase of tautness and anxiety as the album grows 4.5/5
Malignant Altar - Realm of Exquisite Morbidity - a late entry but a deserving one that shows such awareness and consistency to boot. 5/5
Cerebral Rot - Excretion of Mortality - an album with some truly unfathomable depths to try and excavate in order to fully appreciate. Butt-fuck-Autopsy ugly at times in terms of delivery yet also expansive as Demilich dare get at the same time. 4.5/5
Altarage - Succumb - frankly the album of the year. Just an absolute experience from start to finish, charting a horrific yet very measured voyage through squal-infested death metal whilst building to earth-shattering explosions of chaos. Only works in one complete sitting. No half-arsed listening rewarded. 5/5
Altarage's "Succumb" (I assume that's what you were referring to Vinny) was my AOTY too until this morning when the Fange record saw me changing my tune late in the game.
Altarage's "Succumb" (I assume that's what you were referring to Vinny) was my AOTY too until this morning when the Fange record saw me changing my tune late in the game.
Correct. Raging toothache at present so heavily dosed on ibuprofen 
and not typing to my best.