Egregore “Synchronistic Delusions”

 

    Nightmare like surrealistic sounding landscapes dominate the debut album from Utah’s putrid death metal/grindcore act, Egregore. On their debut full-length album, “Synchronistic Delusions,” the band violently hammers out some pulverizing riffs to launch an utterly sadistic sonic onslaught upon the global metal community. 

    From the frantic and gruesome guitar riffs to the unbelievably deafening blast beats, this band puts together one insanely intense listening experience. Fans of old school grindcore, death metal and crust punk will definitely be drawn into the abysmal and hope crushing sound that can be heard throughout the album. I think what impressed me the most was how the entire album flowed by perfectly weaving together all these cataclysmic compositions. Taking a page from old school extreme acts like Carcass, Napalm Death and Terrorizer, the songs are not very long in terms of length, but they sure as hell pack a mighty punch of ruthless inhuman aggression. 

    The opening of the album is very fascinating and the band uses a couple different audio samples to setup up the first song, “Synchronistic Delusions.” Without much warning the band dives right into a hurricane like arrangement full of adrenaline pumping drum parts and ear shattering malevolent guitar riffs. Also, the vocals perfectly compliment the overall hellacious soundscape by providing this sort of disgusted and unapologetic attitude. Songs like “Walk in Soul” and “Ligis,” have this sort of crust punk vibe, while still maintaining an utterly blistering old school death metal sound with some technical guitars parts thrown into the mix to give the music this unpredictable quality. I think the lead guitar playing on this album was extremely well executed, and the band did a solid job adding some vividly sinister sounding note patterns when needed. 

    Along with the strong guitar playing, I think the unique cinematic electronic noises used on certain songs like, “Incorporeal Vivisection,” made the music standout even more and complimented the album’s theme. Even though this style of metal music along with the riff structures are nothing new to the world of metal, I would argue that Egregore’s commitment to coming up with a creative release, as well as making sure the production on this album fit with what they wanted to get out of the songs they wrote, made this an enjoyable listening experience from start to finish. You even have acoustic guitar riffs thrown in at times like on the song, “Metaprogramming The 8th Circuit,” which started out by blending together these ambient celestial sounds before shifting over to an impressive acoustic arrangement. Even though the majority of this album places an emphasis on unleashing pure devastation with hellish offerings like, "Birth of Death and "Chaos Protocols," you do have these moments that makes this a very dynamic extreme metal release. 

    Working with Sentient Ruin, a label that you all should know by now if you read this blog, Egregore will be releasing, “Synchronistic Delusions,” on September 1, 2023. I am looking forward to seeing how fans take to this album, because the variety of extreme metal elements makes this an album that I do find can be of interest to a wide range of metal fans. Yes, the band takes significant influence from old school extreme metal acts, however, their ability to forge a very enthralling and monumentality savage album is something which allows them to really standout. Given that this is just the band's debut album, I look forward to what they might be able to record on future releases!

Check out the song "Birth of Death" below:

Sentient Ruin Bandcamp:

https://sentientruin.bandcamp.com/album/synchronistic-delusions

Concert Review: My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult with Special Guests ADULT. and Kanga

 

Sunday night August,13th in downtown San Jose, CA was one massive fanatical electronic/industrial gathering that featured three solid acts. Headlining was industrial/electronic music icons My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult along with openers ADULT. and Kanga. Performing at The Ritz, a venue that is extremely significant when pertaining to the music scene in downtown San Jose, I had a strong feeling that this would be an epic show. 

Hell, even before I arrived at the venue there was this buzz in the air as I walked through downtown, which seemed to be hosting some sort of festival/bloc party with street vendors as well as people dancing in the middle of the sidewalk. The atmosphere around the city and even inside the venue was unbelievably electric. Before the first act even took the stage I felt as though people were in good spirits just listening to the music being played by DJ Basura who was ecstatically rocking out in the DJ booth.  Even if some of these people were probably under the magic spell of a feel good type of substance, I'd rather have people in a positive mood before a show compared to a bunch of angry looking yokel ready to whack you in the back with a steel folding chair. 

The first act of the night was Kanga, a female synth pop artist from Los Angeles, who actually took me by surprise. I had checked out some of her material earlier in the week to get an idea of what she sounded like and to be honest the recordings that I heard were just not fully grabbing me. However, once she started performing and I watched her command the stage with such mesmerizing presence, I started warm up to her sound. Quite frankly, I am the furthest thing from an indie pop/synth pop fan, but I can respect the music and appreciate the creative talents that go into writing and arranging the songs. Also, I thought she had a really strong natural voice compared to a lot of these new artist that I hear who tend to drown their voices with unnecessary digital effects. One song that I like was, “Rehab” because Kanga really brought a tremendous amount of euphoric passion as she sang over the adrenaline pumping electronic beats. 

Kanga

Following Kanga was, AUDLT. , an electronic/synth wave duo from Detroit, MI. The band started the show by wrapping a piece of tape from one end of the stage to the other and then the singer, Nicola Kuperus, attached a wire that seemed to be hooked up to an effects pedal of some sort to create these unearthly sounds. As Nicola madly ran her hand up and down the tape to send these ear shattering noises through the speakers, Adam Miller, hammered out some thunderous rhythms to create this cold dark electronic sounding atmosphere. Throughout the band’s set I was extremely impressed by Nicola’s stage presence as she has this punk rock attitude where she come right up to the crowd and delivers the lyrics with such vivid tenacity. Also, I liked how at the end of their set she walked out into the crowd to perform the final song, while Adam just kept rocking out on stage with such a suave presence. 

ADULT.

Once AUDLT. finished their set and cleared the stage, it was time for the night’s headlining act, My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult. The band’s second full-length album “Confessions of a Knife…” is without a doubt one of my favorite albums, so when the band opened with the song “Burning Dirt” I started singing along as well as most of the audience in attendance. There was this thrilling electricity in the room as the band performed that allowed you to get lost in the infectious electronic sounds coming from speakers. Buzz McCoy was rocking out from behind his keyboards, while Groovie Mann delivered the lyrics with his distinct voice and charismatic stage presence. Also, Mimi Star is a solid bassist and her tone made songs like, “A Daisy Chain for Satan” and “Sex on Wheels,” sound even more brilliant when hearing them live. Plus, Justin Thyme did a great job behind the kit and in my opinion was one reason as to why the band had such a tight overall sound. 

My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult

I thought they played with such passion and the audience was really going all out as the band continued to deal out some groovy sinister electronic cuts like, “Ride the Mindway” and “And This is What the Devil Does.” For their final song of the night the band played, “Kooler Than Jesus,” to a massive pop from the crowd and it perfectly capped off the evening. From the start of their set until the end, the band seemed to be fueled by the audience's passionate support, which made this such a thrilling experience. 

Once the show was over and I made my way out of the Ritz and onto the streets of San Jose I felt exhausted, but also really elated as I walk back to my car to make my trip back home to the mundane suburban confines of San Ramon. Seeing this show reminded me of how strong the connection can be between a band and its fanbase, and I do believe it is why My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult has continued to thrive for so many years, as well as the band's unique and passionate creative mindset. All around this was a great show and if you have the chance to see them when they perform near you, I'd highly recommend going as they have more stops on the tour. Only complaint of the evening was going home a section of the 680 freeway was closed because of road work and I had to take a detour, but that is what you get living in this chaos carnival known as the Bay Area. 

Check out the show if it comes to your town, or if there is a stop close to where you live! 

Pale Cremation “Malevolent Cosmic Forms”

    Whenever the aliens decide to meet our leader they will not be asking for Joe Biden, but instead they will be wanting to meet, Matt Lasserre, the mastermind behind Pale Cremation. On Pale Cremation’s new release, “Malevolent Cosmic Forms,” Matt takes listeners completely off course by conjuring up some songs that sound as if they came from another galaxy far far away. 

    I would best describe Pale Cremation as a one-man doom act that throws in some other rock/metal elements as well, thus delivering a hauntingly groovy hard hitting sound to jam through your speakers. However, the two new tracks featured on this release sort of venture down a different musical path compared to previous releases, which I think makes the new music vividly jump out at you right away. Instead of classic sounding doom metal coming at you with thunderously monumental riffs, you are pulled into this chaotic sounding science fiction themed cinematic realm that is utterly unpredictable. 

    The opening song, “Malevolent Cosmic Forms,” is a sadistically warped musical creation featuring at first some death metal elements as well as some industrial metal elements to create a fearsome piece of music. Matt’s harsh distorted vocals confidently growl over the cataclysmic instrumental destruction to add to the hellacious sounding arrangements. All of a sudden the music stops and transitions into this cosmic hallucinogenic electronic atmospheric world where you feel as though you are floating through an alternate universe and are slowly melting away in the galactic oblivion.  

    The second song on the new release, “Phobos Lab,” is more of an electric cinematic composition that compliments the whole science fiction theme Matt has going on with the new music. If you were to tell me that this is where Pale Cremation would go musically after the first release, “EP I: Pale Cremation,” I would have thought you were crazy and needed to be locked up in the loony bin along with Charlie Sheen. After listening to this new music a few times I find everything to be very creative and really fascinating given the experimental nature which Matt decided to pursue on both of these new recordings. The following tracks definitely continue to focus on the cinematic electronic elements of the second song with the third track, "Shodan," reminding me of something you might hear from an 80's science fiction film. 

    On the album's fourth track, "Containment Zone," I could hear a lot of industrial elements that reminded me of industrial icons, My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, especially the pertaining to the way the entropic electronic noises somehow come together to create a very hypnotic and catchy sounding atmosphere. The final song, "Salvation Initiative (Phase II)," is a very somber piece of music which is definitely a departure from the previous three tracks by putting more of an emphasis on this very eerie melody. I really liked the rough distortion setting Matt used and how it complimented the riff as the music eventually faded into the cold lifeless sounding void. The final noises you hear are these extraterrestrial like noises as if you have finally made contact with a species from another planet and in the end you wonder, why would anyone want to visit our toilet of a planet...

    I would highly recommend that people check out, “Malevolent Cosmic Forms,” if they are into extreme music mixed with some cosmic electronic noises that all come together to tell this surrealistic science fiction tale. Hollywood might want to reach out to Matt and get Pale Cremation to help score the next big blockbuster film, because they sure as hell need help right now given all the crap they have been putting out lately. Maybe Pale Cremation can create some music for my idea of a film, “The Day Barbie was Disintegrated by Visitors From Mars.” 

Check out the album via 666MrDoom's channel below :

Pale Cremation Bandcamp:

https://palecremation.bandcamp.com/album/malevolent-cosmic-forms