THE TOP 10 ALBUMS OF THE MONTH should be self-explanatory, an ordered ranking of ten albums that’d resonated most throughout this month. If you’re new to the site, the tendency is heavy and/or surreal music. Choices are selected based on temporal immersion, personal connection, impressive style, point of view, aesthetics and with consideration for the lasting value of each selection. All choices are ultimately personal and come without consideration for populism, nepotism, cronyism, or any outside factors including perceived “relevance”. Writing about music is a passion I afford as much time as is manageable and I am grateful to have so much to choose from. Thank you.

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I. This month on MystificationZine.com the tide once again turns toward death metal but I’ve included hits of melodic black metal, grindcore, avant-garde metal, and a modern progressive rock record to round things out. Otherwise I’d spent most of the month with a sinus infection, playing Nioh 3 and reading the first two Pynchon novels.

II. Consider following on YouTube, there should be a video up for this article by Friday afternoon.

III. As always I’d like to express my gratitude for the bands, labels and PR firms who choose to work with me. Thank you.

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This second album from Polish black metal trio Piołun focuses more readily upon melodic black metal movement while retaining the searching, headily atmospheric intrigue that’d marked their debut. The crossfade felt between existential dread and wonderment is familiar yet palpably stated, immersive at the very least, and quickly became one of my most listened releases of the month per this effect.

“Enraptured by the grand, morbid turning of the wheel as they muse upon the ephemeral nature of life Lublin, Poland-based black metal trio PIOŁUN greet nature as a true force of dangerous wonderment, viewing death as a spectacularly oppressive necessity on this sullen sophomore full-length album. A truly enriched sequel, ‘Exolvuntur‘ trades in rushing and riveting atmospheric clime in order to express the existential dreariness of the band’s muse, a voice which develops expressive melodic depth as its resound turns to melancholic-anthemic introversion. Though the emotionally driven waves created are not-so cryptically read in stages of torment and stoic reflection the greater sonic effect is torn between the softly hifalutin majesty available to moderne black metal’s faux cinematic aspirations and the attack of fundaments built off classicist interest.“

>> FULL REVIEW <<

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Much as I would tout stuff like stenchcore, early US/UK grindcore and even powerviolence first the grind revival and revisionism of the early 2000’s did ultimately yield some of my favorites in the sub-genre and I suppose this debut from Meltification recalls that era but without the agnosticism for hardcore punk structuring in general. Otherwise ‘Meltification‘ is a riff album, a one-after-another sort of chain-fed experience which throttles through a pretty sizable, neck-whipping chunk of doomsaying protest music.

“As tech-enslavement of the prole impends, nuclear war foments, and further pandemia is assured via the perpetuation of environmental obliteration the future of humanity couldn’t be more evocative of the corporation-stoked world downfall promised to us within the germinal function of classic grindcore. Copenhagen, Denmark-based duo MELTIFICATION naturally revive the spiritus and the sound in reaction to said cause within this tightly shredded through debut full-length album. Cut back to the most metallic origins of grindcore and resembling its more polished-up revival in the early post-millennium ‘Meltification‘ tracks as authentic, riff-heavy stuff which is believably referential of earlier metalpunk congealed deathgrind canon.“

>> FULL REVIEW <<

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With a classics-built foundation and a modern approach the return of Lagos yields an ace ratio of old-meets-new death metal ideation where shred, dissonance, and such gilds doomed moodiness and fiery aggression. ‘Vigil‘ is the sort of record that charms over the course of induction, work which worms into mind steadily for the sake of the glom of tastes it serves but ultimately convinces through a few key tracks. I don’t know if it will be one for the ages just yet but it is a best representative work from the band thus far.

“Shredding apart the illusorily veiled schism applied by unseen inhuman force yields violent revulsion of the host, a dormancy shaken of its anesthetic fog and propulsed in retaliation as Phoenix, Arizona-based death metal quartet LAGO awaken for a third and most accomplished full-length album. Eight years beyond their last release but in a state of developmental rebuild since 2023 the band’s work on ‘Vigil‘ mounds signature volcanic spasming, creeping dissonance and ungainly shredding atop psychic isolation and disorder, echoing the plod of the modern post-pandemia hurled consciousness amidst growing states of psychic oppression and bewilderment. Their work here serves righteous example of “modern” death metal craft which builds upon canonical foundations with nuanced, nigh eclectic taste and years-accumulated style.“

>> FULL REVIEW <<

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By enforcing a limited palette within repetitious works Desecresy have engineered a unique signature form of atmospheric death metal rooted in the chasmic doom and gloom of Finndeath, Bolt Thrower and such. For this ninth album the fellowe hits the keyboards a few times, works in a number of impressively layered feats but ‘The Secret of Death‘ is armor, reinforcement atop ready prepared flesh which mystifies and steels the wearer more than it challenges them. Though I don’t find diminishing returns in this project beyond predictability I’ve definitely become somewhat lost for new things to say about it.

“The labyrinthine eternally abysm-bound spiraling of Helsinki, Finland-based solo death metal project DESECRESY and their ‘old school’ death metal loom weaves together for this purpose year after year, to grasp the timeless nature of Death and figure their own transcendental path through. On this ninth and no less righteous full-length album, ‘The Secret of Death‘, their efforts are set most squarely upon divination of the unknown, the unheard yet they’ve sustained signature in every sense. Taking yet another carefully informed step into greater capability allows their work to sustain self-built identity and clear purpose alike, making for a familiar yet no less principled entry into their long-running history.“

>> FULL REVIEW <<

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Much as I’d been taken aback by the seemingly unrelated, ante-nostalgic station of Trelldom‘s fourth album after a nigh two decade hiatus this fifth record is teeming with creative life which builds upon the last, an avant-garde and inherently psychedelic creation still rooted in the ghastly dark of black metal tonality. As a fan of everything from Ved Buens Ende to Oranssi Pazuzu I’d personally loved the surreal, noir bleakness of the scenery achieved herein from the first listen and still have not put it down beyond the review process.

“By the great humming breath of the beast what grunts its dark heat and huffing unease into the atmosphere Sunnfjord, Norway-borne avant-garde metal quintet TRELLDOM reawaken beneath smoke-flared nostrils and jagged tongues, wagging their possession into this heartily experimental fifth full-length album. A second delve into the unlimited potential of present-day dirge ‘…by the Word…‘ fittingly emboldens the voice of the maestro but also the psychedelia and jazz-fused rhythmus of the reborn act unto darker dimensional feats outside of time. The result curiously straddles challenging, fiery non-traditional muse and the luxury of maturing musicianship to a point of polished transcendental reverberation.“

>> FULL REVIEW <<

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Desolus step their gig up a bit more for this better concieved and stylized second album leaning into their maniac, throttle-wristed handle upon the riff-after-riff exaggeration of late 80’s extreme thrash metal action and sticking to it. Production is still raw, ear-crippling stuff and this album might have an even higher riff-per-song ratio than the last and for my own taste that is the right way to return for a second album. Only complaint here is that the monster emerging from the portal in the album artwork isn’t cool enough, feels like he’s a tutorial beast from a video game ready to dole out your starter deck.

“Possessed and gathering legions allied with the darkest souls abounding the worshippers of aphotic desire behind Washington D.C.-based thrash metal quartet DESOLUS now grow in numbers, extending their ritual hand for this even more maniac sophomore full-length album. Only the most mayhemic fandom would dare follow the stabbing wrath of ‘Dwellers of the Twilight Void‘ and its bloody-handed aggression, feats of carnage built on the sinister brutality of mid-to-late 80’s thrashing death. As their crew builds upon their debut with heavier, no less ambitious craft the mounting skill and tradition-stoked vision of the band only becomes more impressive.“

>> FULL REVIEW <<

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‘Through Zero‘ finds Elder at thier busiest, still feeling their breakthrough beyond 2020 within these bounding and ambitiously wrangled longform pieces. It all makes great sense as a heightened experience, storytelling which overwhelms a bit as it presses on, though the final two pieces feel vestigial and petering to the dramatic energy gushing throughout the first four songs. The evolution here is subtle in shape at a glance but potentially glaring to folks well indoctrinated with the bands discography.

“Received as a glowing, sunlit cracking-open of their machine this seventh full-length album from the dramatic wandering hand of Berlin, Germany-based heavy psych/progressive rock quartet ELDER seeks to convey traversal through the liminal, an impossible threshold crossed and the otherside examined. ‘Through Zero‘ is fittingly surreal in voice as heavy nodes of thoughtful reflection and keen realization are threaded within their signature, a restless craft which now goes about infusing prominent, high-active synth/keyboard inflection throughout. Familiar to the devout and likely overwhelming to the uninitiated these pieces speak effortlessly to a broad-set ouevre in idiosyncratic voice, a band engrossed in their wrangle of concerted forms and thrilling tangent.“

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Oslo, Norway-based mystical Satanic death metal crew Nedgravd arrive heavily dosed with the youthful possession of records like Infester‘s ‘From the Depths of Degradation‘, Imprecation‘s ‘Theurgia Goetia Summa‘ and Absu‘s ‘Barathrum V.I.T.R.I.O.L.‘ where quasi-blackened aesthetics and bizarre penis-forth posturing make for a demented, overlong stay in a cursed-dimensional experience. It’d make sense to give a cross-eyed thumbs up and call the band Infester worship but a closer look at ‘Ascension‘ reveals ambitious streaks of ‘old school’ informed death metal songcraft, a sort of eerie and spastic riff-salad gunked in the minds of folks who appear to delight in the edge-case psychosis that’d defined the late 80’s/early 90’s extreme underground. Something to chew on while we all wait for Desolation Realm to re-emerge.

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Though I’d enjoyed the previous LP from Consecration I can’t say I’d been fully on board with their craft ’til I’d spent some quality time with ‘Exanimis‘, a neatly cut and riff heavy vision of somewhat melodic death/doom metal which roots itself in the thrust of the early 90’s. Known for longform often meandering pieces pocked by abrupt intensity the quintet’s efforts here tighten into mid-paced intrigue, their most engaging material to date which recalls the less thrashing side of USDM alongside the doomed death metal from the post-‘Lost Paradise‘ spectrum in the UK. Strong production values, plenty of valid doom metal riffcraft, and a ditchless eight-song experience held this one in mind long after the review process had ceased.

“Compelling an impossibly bleak scene set upon the wandering laze of the ancient dead, a grey spotlight upon movements informed by the dark remnants of ancient beliefs Norwich, England-based death/doom metal quintet CONSECRATION bring stoic romanticism to this brilliantly paced and riff-intensive fourth full-length album. By far the most self-entrenched and classicist release from the band to date ‘Exanimis‘ accentuates the ‘old school’ early 90’s death/doom metal tone and tension of their work through increasingly concise well-differentiated pieces. Though we lose the lost and estranged atmospheric scattering of their prior releases here the trade for easier-read tracts of mid-paced death metal nihil, doomed introspection and eerie melodic statement is well-warranted, a boon overall.“

>> FULL REVIEW <<

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Who among us hadn’t lost faith in the third coming of Funebrarum in the years before it’d been announced? Though I wouldn’t say their new-found lineup hadn’t been validated back in 2016 the last decade of silence provided no indication that they’d found fusion or inspiration enough to have recorded an absolutely brilliant return in 2019… and shelved it ’til now. ‘Beckoning the Void of Eternal Silence‘ brings enough newfangled feature, ancient irreverence (and reference) to provide enough spectacle to make up for the lack of signature writing/performances that’d left beyond their second album. That is to say that it isn’t such an idiosyncratic underground venture but a high modern standard for pan-European ‘old school’ death metal stoked craft backed by fantastic taste in warped riffs, paralyzing doom, and immense rotten atmosphere.

“Thought to have resigned to the painful seize of death in the decade past Clifton, New Jersey-borne death metal quintet FUNEBRARUM thunder as they rise, an auld and great monolith of death rebuilt for the purpose of this engrossing and diabolic third full-length album. Entranced into the dark by noveau configuration yet steadfastly developed to resemble long-held signature ‘Beckoning the Void of Eternal Silence‘ is perhaps self-aware in some sense but no less committed to the abysm of revivalist death metal they’d helped to popularize ages ago. Well-delayed as it may be their work here proves unnervingly immaculate as a result, meticulous as possible in craft and expression per the dramatically graven saunter through the realm divulged within.“

>> FULL REVIEW <<

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