Spencer Wills

There's not really much I can say that will add meaningful discourse to this record. It's perfect for me. It combines everything I love about music from multiple eras of my listening / taste history, but also did not realize how much I need a 70s prog rock informed cosmic death metal record (yes I did). Believe the hype, this is going to be an all-timer!!

What a fucking cool Death Metal record. Super unique in the implementation of its posty elements. Insanely heavy riffs coupled with dark and foreboding string arrangements to create a nasty and grimy atmosphere. Extremely well done.

This is how you Death / Doom!! I find it hilarious that most of the guys in Blood Incantation just decided to make one of the best Death / Doom records ever made. Gross vocals, punishing riffs, the slow parts are slooooooow. I can't think of many examples where this is done better.

I think this is my favorite Mastodon record (at least at this moment in time). The flow of the album is great, the performances (especially the vocals) are great, the production is great. Honestly a pretty perfect record.

This record rewired my brain and expanded my horizons on what would constitute a very very good death metal record. The first time I heard this I passed it off as an okay record, but kept coming back to it and it eventually cemented itself as one of my favorite metal records ever. The technicality of the guitar riffs and how they seamlessly interweave themselves into each other is honestly a marvel of songwriting (for me). I listen to this record a lot while I'm working and my productivity dips down because I get lost in the atmosphere of structured chaos. I find new things about this record that I like every time I listen. It's truly, in my opinion,… More

This was my 2023 AOTY. I don't think you can make a record as perfect as this one. The fact that they did a hard pivot into prog death and executed it this well is insane. I had the fortune of being able to see them twice in the last year and it fully cemented that this is a truly special record that I think will go down as one of the best ever in all death metal.

This has been a heavy hitter in my general rotation for the last few months (I guess it's technically a 2023 release but didn't hit streaming services until earlier this year). It's just really good dissonant death metal with riffs that bludgeon your face into a bloody pulp and then some. It has some pretty overt Gorguts influence (especially in the vocals) which makes me love the record even more.