Why 2021 was actually a great year

by Snyde on Wed, Jan 5, 2022

As long as you avoided music released in 2021

The State of the Vortex 2021 wrap-up post made things look pretty dire. All but heralding the death of music, we whined and complained about the state of current music and how it’s been going downhill for a while. This, however, presents us, dedicated listeners, with a choice: shall we continue to trudge through the seemingly endless mire of current releases or should we pause and reflect on whether this is a truly useful and rewarding way to spend our listening time.

Read more →

Independent Release Showcase: Bloody Cumshot - Nymphomania

by Aker, ferday, Tarbeaux on Sat, Dec 18, 2021

A review gangbang on this short melodic death metal release

First review by Tarbeaux With a name like this I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t give a serious shot at this release. You would expect some dumb slam, slimmy vox, D-tune guitars, a large load of chugs and a drums sounding like a tin can. But you couldn’t be more wrong, because instead we got a melodeath banger, full of pummeling riffs, furious drums and technical leads. The use of two distinctive voices, one for the screams and one for the growls reminds their Japanese comparse Intestine Baalism, but with a bit more grindcore focus.

Melodeath Japanese Independent

Read more →

business casual: 2021 in Review

by Planex on Tue, Dec 14, 2021

Planex rides the vapor waves from his favorite label

business casual is a vaporwave / future funk / electronic label that releases a new album each Friday. Some have claimed that my label run of all business casual releases in 2020 gave me irreparable brain damage. Now that I have listened to everything they’ve released for the second consecutive year, it’s getting difficult to refute their point. Bizcas seems to have raised their quality standards since 2020, as there have been fewer abject garbage albums this year.

vaporwave outrun bizcas

Read more →

Nightwish Discog Run

by Dethjesta on Thu, Jul 29, 2021

A trip through their 25 year career

Nightwish are the world’s foremost symphonic metal band. I’ve been a fan since first hearing Once towards the end of the 2000s. This is my take on their 25 year, 9 studio album discography. Angels Fall First: Debut albums always seem to either be one of a band’s best or one of the weakest and rarely middling; for Nightwish it’s on the weak side. The album starts well with Elvenpath which is a good song and is followed by Beauty and the Beast which could be really good but doesn’t quite work, partly as Tuomas performs the male vocals and he’s not much of a singer.

Nightwish discog-run

Read more →