Azoic- Gateways (2012)

Yes, goddamnit. Yes. I don't know about you, but all of this weird, dissonant, cacophonous and angular death and black metal that's coming out these days gets me all antsy in my pantsy. Deathspell Omega and Mitochondrion are two of my favorite bands on the planet right now and released my favorite albums of 2010 and 2011 respectively. Since I'm name dropping those two bands it shouldn't come as a surprise that Gateways will likely nab a high spot on my best of 2012 list. If you were to make a box and whisker plot with DsO as the lower extreme and Mitochondrion as the upper extreme, Azoic would fall somewhere in the interquartile range, between the median and the lower quartile (remember box and whisker plots? they ruled!). What makes this album even more impressive it that's it's the work of just two dudes, who based on the only picture of them that is on the internet look like they're 17. But who knows, maybe the delightfully mild Icelandic summers and hot springs keep inhabitants baby-faced into their 30's. Alright, enough inane rambling. Fans of the aforementioned bands, fans of Enslaved's more recent output and fans of modern black metal acts like Dodecahedron absolutely need to check this out. Highly recommended.

Get it here.

Not available in a physical format or as a legit download yet.