Mammoth Lakes, California's Sxuperion has returned with a new recording which shows the music going for an atmospheric and cosmic mixture of black and death metal and this is a review of his 2021 album "Auscultating Astral Monuments" which will be released in June by Bloody Mountain Records.
Spoken word samples and dark soundscapes start off the album before going into a heavier musical direction. Bestial death metal growls are also a very huge part of the recording while all of the musical instruments also have a very powerful sound to them while black metal screams are also utilized at times.
When the music speeds up a decent amount of tremolo picking and blast beats can be heard which also gives the songs more of a raw feeling. Throughout the recording you can also hear a decent mixture of slow, mid paced and fast parts along with some dark sounding melodies also being added into some of the guitar riffing.
Synths are also added into some parts of the recording along with the music also adding in a decent amount of war metal elements. When guitar solos and leads are utilized they are also done in a very dark yet melodic style as well as the music also adding in a good amount of sci-fi orientated sounds.
When guitar solos and leads are utilized they are also done in a very dark yet melodic style and as the album progresses the synths also start getting more ambient and cinematic sounding along with one song also adding in a brief use of choir style vocals. The production sounds very dark and raw while the lyrics cover Astral Travels, Chaos and Science Fiction themes.
In my opinion this is another great sounding recording from Sxuperion and if you are a fan of atmospheric and cosmic black and death metal, you should check out this album. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "Eyes of Gangkhar" "The Mote In God's Eye" "Initiative Reactor" and "Forever And Ever". 8 out of 10.
https://bloodymountainrecords.bandcamp.com/album/auscultating-astral-monuments
https://youtu.be/MLSBmBr6aGw