(It would help if you included what album you're reviewing, and your rejection message.)


Just listen to the first two tracks. If you are not amazed, then listen to them again, because you are wrong (A belligerent claim. One I don't find inspiring). The intro is one of the most evocative folk tunes i have ever heard . And when the metal hits, it does with some of the finest production the genre has to offer. The guitars sound great. The tremelos are searingly high. When the guitars get heavy they have a nice base to it, sometimes a real crunch, and the drums are explosive. AND THE DRUMMING... masterful work... (grammar and proofreading, please. Also, see the rules on formatting because these paragraph separations need attention).
The sound of this record is overwhelming (Vague description). With a soft bed of distortion almost always in the background, and at times synths and choruses as well, in a couple of tracks you even have Bells. (Fragment sentence) The sound is just thick, weighty, and just extremely gratifying. And when the sound goes high, its like being suspended in air facing the cold sun, yeah the tension can get intense, and the pay-offs are rewarding (Run-on sentence). But a lot of the times these songs can be instantly gratifying, as i should have noted earlier, this is Melodic bm (Capitalization, run-on sentence, what does "bm" stand for? Full terms need to precede abbreviations or acronyms). This album is incredibly anthemic, full of soul. (Formatting)
The vocals are epic, and at times really mournful. Like the vocalist is trying so hard to overcome whatever it is he is saying... i do wish lyrics were posted, but its the sound that matters. (Grammar, proofreading, run-ons, elipses used for why?)
So many bm bands have tried to capture the essence of nature, of the wilderness, and Autumn Eternal (Italicize album titles) has depicted it perfectly. I can't get the scenery of rolling hills and mountains, falling leaves out of my mind when i listen to this. As corny as that sounds, the record portrays it so genuinely. (Formatting)
One of the best aspects of this album is how memorable, and unique it is. It's not avant-garde, but it truly has a sound of its own. A sound i havent gotten from other records, it has its own character . Each song has memorable compositions, textures, and some have surprise instrumentation, effects, and vocal deliveries. This album Does (Proofreading) not go stale for a moment. Each song is developed, and does overstay or understay its welcome (What?).
Atmosphere- Perfect
Instrumentation and Composition- Perfect
Production- Perfect
Cohesiveness and Variety- Perfect
Vocal Delivery- Perfect
(This format isn't a thing.)
Everything feeds into itself, everything complements itself, and provides an emotional journey through Panopticon's land that i will love to return to time and time again... just listen to it already. Did i mention this is a one man project... HOW? great job (A painful series of errors)

Thats it... yeah, pretty banal, whatever, ill just listen to the fucking record. god forbid i try to submit a simple review (Wish I'd read this beforehand. I wouldn't have fucking bothered.)

This album is very good to say the least. It's technical, heavy, and brutal and let's just say Vile peaked on this album. Their previous album "Stench of the Deceased" was very brutal but this album is more technical. Songs like the fourth track "Retaliation" and the title track have very heavy use of rapid harmonic minor scales. On the title track Depopulate the singer will growl, then the guitar will go down in a scale, then the singer will shift his voice slightly higher and the guitar lines will go up in the scale and it sounds very fluid in motion. On interrogation rites the guitarist plays a very beautiful solo, not atonal shredding but a very clean sounding solo with some whammy bar usage. The best thing about this album is the very meaty guitar tone. It has a lot of weight to it and is not light sounding at all which adds to the heaviness of the music.

The drummer on this album is truly phenomenal; he doesn't overdue the blast beats and he knows his way around the kit. Sometimes when the music slows down he just uses his tremendous double bass kicks with some steady beats, but when the music speeds up he throws in some very impressive blast beats. Honestly, the way the drums sound on this album reminds me a lot of Decapitated's Nihility which was "The" metal album of 2002. With very heavy use of double bass and when the songs speed up the blast beats kick in. The guitarists show a clear progression from the straightforward brutality of "Stench of the Deceased." Here they add a lot of neo-classical shredding in the riffs and solos. For example the last track is a classically styled instrumental which utilizes only acoustic guitar. The fourth track Retaliation has very heavy usage of harmonic and melodic minor scales in the opening riff played at very high speeds.

The vocalist is one of the strong suits of this album. He has a very powerful low growl reminding me of Glen Benton and he has some very tasteful high screams. Not like those screamo bands which are annoying but very good high screams more in the form of old school melodic death metal like Carcass, old In Flames (not the new version), and The Black Dahlia Murder. The one thing that this album lacks is a bass. I know they have a bass player but he's practically inaudible, almost impossible to hear. The production on this album is very good to say the least. All the instruments (except the bass) are very clear and can be heard. The production on this album reminds me of Decapitated's Nihility and I bring up this comparison because they were released in the same year (2002), they both fit in the same genre, and they have that very heavy use of double bass, and very meaty guitar tone with heavy use of harmonic minor and melodic minor scales in the riffs and solos on both perspective albums.

In conclusion, this album is good. Noting genre defining but a strong, solid, album. Vile may have lost some of their individuality from their debut "Stench" but this album is more polished and the playing is more intricate and displays a growth from the players in musical composition and technical abilities. Another thing to note are the actually good movie samples used in the last track and Unit 731. They use samples from the awesome crime film Reservoir Dogs instead of some shitty low grade horror film or porn flick. Overall, you should give this a listen if you like technical, brutal, or just regular death metal.

When a band touts itself as the thinking man’s metal, it leaves more to question than it intends to tackle. Normally, such a case is an effort at best aimed at denouncing if not deriding metal clichés, and only a marketing thoughtful group would really care as much about it. Reason being—a thinking man’s metal is less concerned with typifying as opposed to to being one and letting whoever comes across it decide. At any scale, that should be Singularity. Compacting Singularity. By <b>Void Walker</b>, its progressiveness is the first pointer to this direction.

Damning as it is, space euphoria has superseded short impulsive lapses indulging myriad bands’ sleeve art only and captured this four piece—by a sleight-fully, timely, infinite grip. When all the right sounds align, they gravitate towards an up-swelling whole which takes pole position—and eargasm revolves such a perfect assemblage. Album art never escapes my exploration, because it is more than just a bonus. Here, it might as well surpass sound simulation. Really neat, surreal inception of far shores—conceiving a Saul Bass angularity and a Jon Anderson’s impact. Imposing to preformed ideas of outside space as it would best precede explorations—as sincerely speaking, most of high distance spatial images are reconstructions with a touch of informed predicaments. On such worlds, Void Walker would fare effortlessly—be it in their creations, laying down, conquistadatoring, exploration, sojourning. . . .

Musically pummeling on the unbound fringes of technical progressive Death Metal, it incorporates classically played keyboards in a style channeling a black metal atmosphere. Not exactly a recipe/symphony for destruction, given the measured approach in their embodiment and an affirmative setting—it falls in place as the build-up for the guitars and a support element once the riffs scaffold the song. Rightly mixed where others are content to prefer keys overshadowing accompanying musical sections. That is not to say it is a fully inclusive aspect, as it only keeps segmented in track 01, an instrumental break—the rest being minimal. Keeping an intact soundtrack aura . . . for the space opera. This was one of the rare times when I didn’t fully appreciate a band’s vocals—not a full flung growl, as a deeper one would be sleek—even though the backing’s compensate . They do betray the band’s age, but likely a fault not.

Void Walker is a rightful contender to quality beating quantity, even for an EP. Such is what I would really care about tech death. A mass of disorienting superbness over unseemly and non eloquent jarring with palpitating seeds—whose only promise is to blossom, never to heed anywhere. Fantastic work.

The warm radiance that is <i>Illuminance</i> shines its blissful intersection in a transmogrifying brilliant resplendence. From the way the Mad Mane Machine has been seeing technically inclined Death Metal bands lean towards glowing/bizarrely gleaming covers has been off-putting—it really recalls every quasi djent/deathcore aims at being super proggy and/or transcendent or something in that line. As a downside, Illuminance jumbled with such releases, barely labeled as progressive stands a huge disadvantage of being overlooked.

An instance of unrepentant dissociation—by indiscriminately indulging overflowing, yet insane progressive Death Metal is what I'd term Illuminance. Solid songwriting, awe-striking musicianship, discipline in instrument handling—or a failure to let dexterity drive urgent points home. Outlasting an experience as this makes Virvum's efforts more effective and the album something to really dig into—without demanding one to wrap around its contents. Which really is a shame, as one tries figuring out why—though not present here—a bassist as Nikola Somborski would go ahead to form a band as mediocre as Cordyceps. Fitting of every Slam stereotype, and then some . . . fun? Saddening.

Asserting to say the high stature that is maintained here, right off the bat, down to the epic closure. Sonically suggestive to create (non queer) uplifting an atmosphere—one that could be enhanced to stimulate creative activities that stretch imagination; painting et. al. The mighty <i>The Cypher Supreme</i> has incredibly catchy leads which floors by clicks of considerable beauty. Even from first listen, it is a stand out that out-listening such craft's nary a point of regard. A jutting that foretells Virvum are not heady for an all-drawn-out orientation to the jugular. An album I'd vouch fro as a solid progressive Death Metal representative—heck, a testament to why progressive DM is better than technical DM, and more-so on instrumentally articulate progressive DM. Not to state that non technical Progressive DM is a paler strain, but it's less amusing trying to come around intense song assemblies competing with hooking tech death full of riffs not as impressive as on previous listen.

The tantalizing excellence conveyed is a constant, peaking with <i>II: A Final Warming Shine: Ascension and Trespassing</i>. Matter-of-factly the most appealing track appears to be the first—also containing one of some of the heaviest parts of the album, right at the track's end. Another heavy traction aids purge the title to iron melting magnitude. Drummer Diego Morenzoni is on a rhythmic urge to complete the snare catastrophe with a gushing speed. Nothing haphazardly spasmodic like Brain Drill, who demand intense follow-up to discern—even recall—their sound structure. This is an almost faultless release and it's sudden impressiveness on first listen fails to fade away. Aiming for that is only a formula to cater for an ADD audience. I'm willing to believe Virvum are above such—for clarity, it is not only hooks that make music something to recall, with neither of that here—although this album could sit on a couple shelves, gateway progressive DM being one. Which is completely assailed as a compliment.

Spacey Simplicity - 85%
TrachomaSlayer, December 16th, 2016
Written based on this version: 2016, CD, Pink Tank Records
Rather than push the boundaries of what can be done in the genres of doom and stoner metal, Orbit Dualkraut simply achieves a superior quality sound. This album has all the hallmarks that I’ve come to know as staples in the genre of stoner metal such as groovy riffs, spacey atmospheric sounds, plenty of fuzz, and vocals that sound like they’re coming from an aliens megaphone. That isn’t to say that the album sounds like every other stoner metal band out there, after all they definitely take some influence from doom metal with the slower heavier riffs and harsh vocals on the songs Hypergiant and Ape Apocalypse Monkey Doom. I think that the band ZQKMGDZ, german for “ten thousand square km against time”, does a fantastic job of pulling the best bits out of the two related subgenres to create very memorable tracks.

While it is hard for me to discern the subject matter of the songs, given that I’m American and the band is German, the band’s label has cleared some of it up for me. Pink Tank Records states on their website that ZQKMGDZ’s goal “was to create visions of time traveling between planets and to transfer this idea into a musical reality”. This vision definitely comes across on the album, and that great spacey sound is present throughout. I’ve always been a fan of doom/stoner bands using sci-fi for inspiration, and because of this my favorite band in the genre is Orange Goblin.

For a random pick off of the metal archives website for a totally unreviewed album, I got incredibly lucky! This band is making quality music and they seem to be almost totally unknown. They are truly a diamond in the rough.