Five For Friday: March 10, 2023

Good morning, Decibel readers. I hope this list of new releases finds you well.

Please see new releases from the following bands attached for your review: Astriferous, Bastard Grave, Ignominy, Negative Prayer and Periphery. You can find them organized alphabetically. I hope this meets your standards for riffs, darkness and brutality. If not, we will continue to strive for excellence through our future efforts.

Kind regards.

Astriferous – Pulsations From the Black Orb

Costa Rica’s Astiferous wants to give you nightmares. Really cool ones with lots of riffs and reverb. The music is as chaotic and disorienting as the album cover. I think each creature represents at least three different ones that exist in nature. And of course at the center is the ORB. What does the orb do exactly? I guess you’ll have to listen to find out.

Bastard Grave – Vortex of Disgust

If you’re a fan of the stuff bands like Tomb Mold and Witch Vomit put out, you should be hungry to devour what Bastard Grave has put together here.

Stream: Apple Music

Ignominy – Imminent Collapse

I like how Transcending Obscurity goes through the trouble of indicating the exact subgenre on their Bandcamp pages. And it’s not wrong here. This definitely is Dissonant Death Metal.

Stream: Apple Music

Negative Prayer – Negative Prayer EP

Excellent, crunchy crust-core from former and current members of Chthonic Deity, Decrepisy, Thanamagus, and Vastum. I can’t wait to hear a full-length from these guys, as songwriting this good deserves more, more, more!!

Stream: Apple Music

Periphery – Periphery V: Djent Is Not a Genre

Of all the bands to emerge out of the early-2010s explosion of Meshuggah-loving bands and Sumeriancore hyper-compression, Periphery remains the most enduring. This is through their blend of technical mastery and pop sensibility, along with their insistence on not taking themselves too seriously. This isn’t my favorite album from them (Periphery 2 remains undefeated), but “Wax Wings,” “Everything is Fine!” and “Zagreus” are total bangers.

Stream: Apple Music