Nightmare Visions is a blackened grindcore debut from Michigan’s Theophonos, the brainchild of Jimmy Hamzey (Serpent Column). If that style label sounds unappetizing, don’t let that deter you. Theophonos took each laborious rock and metallic tune launched since 1967, crammed all of them right into a woodchipper, and assembled the mangled output right into a blackened 30-minute hydra. Miraculously, it really works. Whether or not you want black metallic, grindcore, previous-faculty laborious rock, velocity metallic, or demise metallic, Nightmare Visions has one thing for you. Magnificence, dissonance, and anger coalesce into probably the most artistic report I heard this yr.

The “blackened grind” label is a Malicious program; a fearsome military lurks inside. Warfare metallic riffs evoke Concrete Winds with their frenzied rhythms and their chromatic construction, whereas dissonance and gradual melodies construct an ominous ambiance. Sudden forays into subgenres like drone (“Misplaced One”) spherical out Nightmare Visions’ lightspeed tour of utmost metallic. However probably the most exhilarating sections are Theophonos’ digressions into previous-faculty heavy metallic. Nightmare Visions’ headbanging riffs recall Led Zeppelin’s “Black Canine” (“Thousand Imaginary Swords”), Motörhead’s “Ace of Spades” (“Go On to Your Gallows”), and Iron Maiden’s “Wrathchild” (“Of Days Previous”), with a blackened veneer that sounds distinctly like Theophonos. The album races amongst its sonic experiments at a grindcore tempo, however offers each sufficient house to shine, making it a pleasure for grind lovers and haters alike.

Each measure of Nightmare Visions flows completely into the following. “Nightmare Visionary” opens with gradual chugging, however drops breadcrumbs of velocity to steer you right into a battle metallic lure. Afterward, the moment when the tune’s fury collapses again right into a gradual sinister melody is a spotlight of 2023. Theophonos’ disparate types usually be a part of forces, like the way in which the serene guitar solo on “Of Days Previous” transforms its backing melody right into a black metallic assault. All through Nightmare Visions, the rhythmic gymnastics of the drums and bass assist fuse contrasting sections (“Misplaced One”). In the meantime, the callbacks between songs reward repeated listens, like when the calm “At Relaxation in Turbulence” resurrects a descending melody from the vicious “Misplaced One.” The album’s impeccable movement makes each twist and switch unforgettable, regardless of the daunting quantity of concepts on show.

Nightmare Visions is painstakingly composed, however it doesn’t come off as a mere technical train. The black metallic riffs are good previous-customary enjoyable, making the album a pleasure even in my mind-useless moments (“Maps of the Future”). However, nearer “Of Days Previous” makes me wish to each reminisce and flip over a desk, by its mix of sorrowful melodies and extremity. Upbeat melodies make occasional cameo appearances amidst chaos, a haunting approach that jogs my memory of 2022’s Ultha. I may go on and on. In brief, Theophonos’ mastery of climaxes, selection, and transitions drags me to hell, to heaven, and again once more.

Scripting this piece appears like describing an orchid to a Martian. Irrespective of how exhaustively I describe the petals, the range of Orchidaceae, or the fantastic thing about a bloom, it wouldn’t do justice to the expertise of seeing one firsthand. So sure, Nightmare Visions is black metallic, grindcore, laborious rock, demise metallic, The Velvet Underground, and extra; it’s evocative, indignant, hypnotic, unsettling, and enjoyable; it’s concise however expansive; it’s chaotic however meticulously written; it’s, as Wvrm mentioned of Æther Realm’s Tarot, “all that metallic will be”; it could be my favourite report of 2023. However most of all, it’s indescribable. Simply hear for your self.

Tracks to Test Out: “Misplaced One,” “Nightmare Visionary,” “Of Days Previous”

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