April and May have, like most other months in the modern era of music, brought many new albums to the attention of hungry listeners. Some (most) more forgettable than others, but we’ve selected what we have been listening to more frequently than others. Be sure to check these all out. We’ve also included some general fun favorites from years past and will continue to share whatever we feel deserves attention, new or not. Per usual, a quick update on upcoming Death Sculpted releases will be at the bottom of this post as well as a reminder of our upcoming busy show calendar, plus one UNNANOUNCED show we are sharing specifically here with Ampwall Zine readers. Enjoy the “spewings''.

TLDR/Rollup:

Devoid of Thought - Devoid of Thought (Unorthodox Emanations, Avantgarde Music) - avant-garde death metal

Athame - All is Vanity (Crucial Blast)

Staff Pick 1 (X) - Devoid of Thought - Devoid of Thought

Fine Details at Metal Archives

(X) - The world has had its “hot beds” for certain styles of music throughout the years. Norwegian black metal, Floridian death metal, New York hip hop - you name it. Countless other geographic regions, cities or countries have had their name tied to a certain subgenre of music. When these conversations come up, I always bring up the same region to be a catch-all for incredibly unique and memorable extreme music - the Mediterranean. My undying love for Hellenic black metal and brutal death metal aside, the peninsula of Italy has been another incredibly prolific and fertile area for extreme metal of all forms to thrive, consistently birthing some of my favorite albums. The second full length album from Devoid of Thought is no exception. Their debut effort was a favorite of mine, as well as their splits and early demos so I was thrilled to see another musical offering from them.

The band’s self titled sophomore full length album makes a statement not only from the title but the art only cover it bears. Most of the band’s previous works are void of multicolored covers, leaning heavily on black and white to paint their grim artistic direction in front of the music. This intriguing change in visual direction is accompanied by a logoless cover, to boot. Why open a review with such heavy commentary on the artwork? In many cases past, an art-only cover leaves much open to interpretation as the listener digests what they are hearing, specifically for the uninitiated. With no title and no logo, virgin ears may know not what they are getting into, and are left vulnerable to what is in many cases, a challenging and intriguing listen. Devoid of Thought’s decision to leverage this form of visual decoy bears genius.

The first word that came to mind before clicking play on this was ‘colors’. The cover bears many swirling and dynamic variants of the full color spectrum, which harkens similarity to the shifting and ever changing styles that Devoid of Thought leverage throughout this ~36 minute journey. Their riffing style heavily leverages dissonance and atypical picking patterns all interweaved with swirling and shifting time signatures. The uncomfortable atmosphere that the band successfully and masterfully creates is certainly not for the amateur extreme metal listener. Additional layers of sound(s) and breaks into atmospheric sections with no real flow or tempo allow the band to express themselves in a more “left handed” fashion than many traditional extreme metal acts do. The real beauty I found in this whirlwind of a release was the use of more traditional sounding instrumentation and structures to reel you back in after what feels like repeated probes with sharpened alien spears from another dimension.

In most cases I would offer a comparison to other acts who play a similar style of music, but for this I will avoid doing so in the interest of allowing you to go in blind, as the near 36 minutes of battering, uncomfortable and challenging death metal Devoid of Thought have created is best served and digested cold and with no audial enzymes.

“Skronk” fans, rejoice. Your AOTY is here.

Staff Pick 2 (Cremm) - Athame - All is Vanity

Fine Details at Metal Archives

(Cremm) - True, cold, and furious black metal that emerges from the snow-drenched woods to curse its usurpers and kill its enemies. This release seems to combine the 2 styles of each of their full-lengths: a trance of evil and a rush of Marduk-like bombardment. The American answer to Craft, but instead of a malnourished, gangly crew of converse wearing punks you see orcs draped in armor and death. I’ve know these dudes for a long time and their material continues to stay the course for evil, merciless, spell-weaving chaos.

General Spewings

May is, as usual, a very busy month in the northeastern United States. The Death Sculpted team is doing our fair share of participation as a part of “Murderous May”. We may go into hibernation next May, as the oversaturation is hard on people’s wallets, but who knows. We do what we want.

Acts of note for this late spring/early summer:
Necroticgorebeast- first international band of the year, top tier modern sounding slam. Great live band and a Philly favorite every time they come through. International bands appearing in the states is getting harder and harder, so make it worth your while.

Evoken - godfathers of funeral doom, to be performing their first Philly show in 6 years. Playing alongside Churchburn, who hasn’t played the city in quite some time either (exclusive appearance).

Rollup and ticket links below to everything we’ve announced thus far (as well as one other unannounced show!)

5/14 @ Bonk’s (Tickets)
Necroticgorebeast (CAN)
Atoll (AZ)
Compulsed
Disarticulate

5/22 @ Kung Fu Necktie (Tickets)
Laceration (CA)
Glorious Depravity (NYC)
Hematoid

6/20 @ Milkboy (Tickets)
Evoken (NJ)
Churchburn (RI)
Blood Spore

6/24 @ Nikki Lopez (Tickets)
Goetia (DC)
Cemetery Filth (GA)
Nuclear Tomb (MD)
Cavern Womb

7/19 @ Bonk’s (Tickets)
Ancient Death (MA)
Reeking Aura (NY/NJ)
Wild Beyond
Cavern Womb

8/22 @ Bonk’s - YET TO BE ANNOUNCED!
Viogression (WI)
TBA
Gaffed (NJ)
Spesimin