This Gift Is a Curse - A Throne of Ash (2019)^{Release ID: 9692}

An amalgamation of the blackest of metals and sludge with a strange, unsettling atmosphere which was seemingly enhanced by being recorded in an abandoned house near to Stockholm (I hope any others nearby were also abandoned or heavens knows what the residents would have made of the unholy cacophony issuing forth). I think this is a release that will take more than a couple of listens to properly sink in and I'm still on the fence with it. It is far from an easy listen, sometimes the aggression feels a bit too much, but I really love some of the sludgier tracks, such as Wormwood Star. One to keep coming back to I think and much respect for daring to step outside the BM-by-numbers artificial confines so many feel compelled to obey or lack the talent to transcend.