Artificial Brain

Burning Palace – Elegy Review

By Thus Spoke on March 17, 2025 in Reviews, Death Metal, Technical Death Metal, 49 comments

“I’m sure most people reading have experienced that exchange where a friend, colleague, or family member, having caught wind of one’s enjoyment of heavy music asks incredulously, “how do you listen to that?!” It’s an interesting insight into the strange phenomenon of artistic taste, how a complex and disharmonic combination of notes and time signatures can be “just noise” to one pair of ears and a thrilling musical experience to another. It therefore amuses me that I can sit here and talk about Burning Palace, who craft progressive, technical, dissonant death metal that’s brutal, loud and restlessly dynamic. But, who pitch it perfectly in that golden zone of melodicism and lethality.” How can you listen to burning?

Misanthropy – The Ever-Crushing Weight of Stagnance Review

By Kenstrosity on December 12, 2024 in Reviews, Death Metal, Progressive Metal, Technical Death Metal, 26 comments

“Apparently, Chicago progressive tech death quartet Misanthropy used to play thrash metal. Once I learned of this shift, it felt like I could suddenly hear a thrashy thread running through their newest release, The Ever-Crushing Weight of Stagnance. Having no prior experience with Misanthropy’s back catalog, I walked into their third record with an open mind, ready and willing to be probed by the wild and the wacky. Sometimes, unexpected changes make for unexpected pleasures.” Stagflation?

Immortal Bird – Sin Querencia Review

By Dolphin Whisperer on October 18, 2024 in Reviews, Black Metal, Crust Punk, Death Metal, Hardcore, 20 comments

“Always straddling the line between a blackened snarl, a deathly pummel, and a hardcore shuffle, Immortal Bird’s patchwork attack hits as equal parts curious and aloof with Sin Querencia landing no differently. As Amitay has found greater vocal expression over the years, with side ventures Errant and Wretched Blessing being closer to solo endeavors, a fuller range of techniques splatters Sin Querencia to give it fresh life against what came before.” Do androids dream of immortal birds?

Dreamless Veil – Every Limb of the Flood Review

By Dolphin Whisperer on October 1, 2024 in Reviews, Black Metal, Melodic Black Metal, 34 comments

“Dan Gargiulo, once of a celebrated period for Revocation and a leading force for Artificial Brain, finds himself at the nexus of one such budding—Dreamless Veil. Assembled with now bandmate Mike Paparo (Inter Arma, Artificial Brain) and Psycroptic kitsmasher Dave Haley, can these friends, all top-tier performers, implement the supergroup form honestly?” Band and superband.

Evilyn – Mondestrunken Review

By Dear Hollow on August 16, 2024 in Reviews, Death Metal, Technical Death Metal, 22 comments

“At first glance, it appears that international death metal act Evilyn only has your demise and destruction in mind. Mondestrunken is uncompromisingly heavy, riffs pushed to their shimmering limits like oil from the collapsing god machine, hellish growls from beyond the stars, and drums funneled through warp speed directly into the collapsing horror of a black hole. It feels like a background of cosmic noise, lifeless, unfriendly, and directionless, but patience yields results: obelisks emerge into the view. Not that they were ever absent, but that our eyes could not behold them.” Evil in dark spaces.

Conglaciation – Conglaciation Review

By Dolphin Whisperer on July 20, 2024 in Reviews, Death Metal, Technical Death Metal, 38 comments

“In emergence to the full-length foray now ten years ago, Artificial Brain launched into orbit a novel style of knotted and screeching death metal that brought with it a slingshotting mass of a tangible cosmic horror. And though it’s up for debate whether they’ve yet to best that offering, it’s easy to declare that the Artificial Brain attack is one that has largely remained singular, definitive, and pushing adjacent bands—like cousin Afterbirth—to corners of space not cast from shadow to light. But as a distant sun shines about the gravity of that modern act, time tells us that eventually, some satellite will drift into its orbit. As such, Conglaciation, in earshot of this pioneering sound has found a reveal along this dissonantly-carved path.” Arc of space and death.

Fractal Generator – Convergence Review

By Dear Hollow on June 14, 2024 in Reviews, Technical Death Metal, 18 comments

“Old habits die hard, and Fractal Generator should not let their hard-hitting blend of dissonant death metal and deathgrind die. They’ve always encapsulated crawling Portal-esque dissonant sensibilities and Gigan-inspired sci-fi avant-gardisms – but fed through the Benighted machine. Serocs is a fair comparison, complete with triumphant atmospheres amid blasting tempos, and Convergence finds a newly honed balance and enriched textures that make it feel more like a passage through fantastical alien worlds and unknowable dimensions.” Generating the horrors.

The Maryland Deathfest Chronicles

By Mark Z. on June 12, 2024 in Blog Posts, 63 comments

The Maryland Deathfest roared back over Memorial Day weekend and we get the gruesome details from a long lost staffer. Prepare for pungent stenches and thrown wrenches.

Afterbirth – In But Not Of Review

By Ferox on October 18, 2023 in Reviews, 111 comments

“It took Afterbirth more than two decades to launch their first deep space probe with 2017’s The Time Traveler’s Dilemma. The Long Island gurglers were worth the wait, as that album and 2020’s ingenious Four Dimensional Flesh sketched out the band’s vision of prog-enhanced brutal death metal. Kronos deemed Four Dimensional Flesh “one of the most charismatic and original death metal albums you’ll ever hear,” and in the wake of that triumph a new Afterbirth slab qualifies as a full-fledged Event.” Strong Islands birth strong sounds.

Wormhole – Almost Human Review

By Kenstrosity on September 20, 2023 in Reviews, Death Metal, Slam, Technical Death Metal, 135 comments

“WOOOOOORRRRRMMMMMHHHOOOOOLLLLLEEE!!! Indeed, my friends, the time has come for another installment of worm-y, hole-y goodness and in 2023, the Baltimore-based brutal tech-slam battalion is bigger and badder than ever. Armed with a new bassist (Basil Chiasson) and vocalist (Julian Kersey), the Kumar brothers’ Metroid and Doom inspired, sci-fi extreme metal project prepares a third advance of quality tunes entitled Almost Human.” The WHOLE Worm.