Review by Saxy S for Autonoesis - Moon of Foul Magics (2022)

Progressive thrash metal is a genre that I typically view with a concerning eye. Part of my reasoning for this is of how drastically different these styles are. What I appreciate in a thrash metal album is something that can be punchy and direct, while progressive metal is usually elongated with uncommon song structures and conceptual formats. Given my recent thrash metal tastes in recent years, you can clearly see why this subgenre sounds interesting, but leaves me with very little substance. 

Of course, I also like melodically sound tunes that are well constructed, which leads us to Autonoesis and their 2022 sophomore record, Moon of Foul Magics. This record has some really good ideas that are being played and experimented with throughout its hour runtime. From a purely thrash perspective, the riffage on the title track, "Nihility, Endless Winter" and "The Conjurer" are very good and have a catchiness to them. Sure some riffs don't feel as exciting, however they have a uniqueness to them that, if this was the whole album, I'd be ready to call one of 2022's best.

But that's not what we get here. Progressive metal has a terrible habit of trying to blend multiple songs together and almost never pays off the way that the band expects. And so when this philosophy is brought over to a thrash metal idiom, it turns a record into Riffs: the Album with no connectivity. Autonoesis does a better job of this than most, but that simply because they are following the Vektor formula of slow-fast-slow. How do they change it up? Simply invert the tempos! It's a very basic way of writing progressive music, which in a way, does help Autonoesis with their thrash metal foundation. Tunes like "Raise the Dead" and the closer "Descending the Void" are decent, with varying levels of developing the riffage beyond the initial annunciation of the theme.

Another aspect that makes Autonoesis stand out is the heaviness. This band has clearly come out of the Possessed school of thrash with many elements sounding close to death metal, and even more tricks of the trade out of black metal. Acoustic interludes throughout the album such as "Vahöll" have a Saor-esque timbre, while the bridge of "Descending the Void" sounds closer to early Opeth. It honestly kills a lot of the momentum that has been building for passages prior, but many of them pick that intensity back up throughout and many of them sound excellent.

I will not admit to loving this, but I did enjoy my time with Moon of Foul Magics. The sound is rough and fowl at times and plays into the records benefit as both a thrash and extreme (blackened death) metal record. The riffing is above average and also knows how to balance (a)tonality. But the record could have been trimmed, many ideas are cut off before a conclusion because that's what the slow-fast-slow songwriting formula tells us to do, and momentum drops for much the same reason. I want to like this more since it seems like a thrash metal record targeted for me, but I feel like its missing something.

Best Songs: Moon of Foul Magics, Nihility, Endless Winter, The Conjurer, On Black Wings of Eternity