{"id":97280,"date":"2022-10-01T00:00:35","date_gmt":"2022-09-30T23:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=97280"},"modified":"2022-12-22T12:23:19","modified_gmt":"2022-12-22T12:23:19","slug":"ep-review-selenoplexia-agony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/ep-review-selenoplexia-agony\/","title":{"rendered":"SELENOPLEXIA – Agony EP (2022) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

SELENOPLEXIA
Agony EP<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nSelf-released (2022)<\/span>
Rating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Agony<\/em> is the debut EP from this Chicago, Illinois-based band and the quartet brings an interesting mix of black thrash, death metal and even hardcore at times. The real versatility within this outfit emerges through the pipes of Courtney Vida who for the most part delivers a rasping, scratchy aggression while occasionally drifting towards a throaty bellow. This is interesting stuff but I wouldn\u2019t go as far to pigeon-hole Selenoplexia as \u201cblackened death metal\u201d as it\u2019s too restrictive, even though the dynamics are of that ilk.<\/p>\n

From opening track \u2018Liminal Dread\u2019 to closer \u2018Heathen Rite\u2019 there\u2019s an almost punky vibrancy despite the obvious clashes between the striking black metal aesthetics and deathlier chugs. The axe work of Daniel Vida is flexible enough to give the band a contemporary hardcore slant; it\u2019s often rough, fast and volatile but there are always numerous tempo shifts which really engage the listener. However, those apparent drops never reach a crushing death metal aesthetic, and instead there\u2019s something else going on like in the melodious streaks of \u2018I Have Already Begun To Decompose\u2019 which, whilst having its slow, nasty chugs, feels too edgy and zippy to be deemed death metal.<\/p>\n

I hope, dear reader, you understand what I\u2019m trying to put across here as the four-piece shifts at times into an almost industrial abrasiveness while also being happy to flirt with sludgier premises, but that\u2019s what makes the EP so riveting. A track such as \u2018Satyr\u2019 feels sort of doomy initially where the bass of Sawyer Fridel rattles nicely in tandem with the drums of Jonathan Morhaim. There\u2019s some interesting harshness throughout this EP, more so when Courtney goes on the rampage and stretches her larynx to hostile squawks, but even then I\u2019m hesitant to call it black metal.<\/p>\n

Agony<\/em> is a good little EP with some very destructive and jagged moments which really slam hard into the ears as deep, hardened grooves of malice. It\u2019s definitely worth the entrance fee.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SELENOPLEXIAAgony EP Self-released (2022)Rating: 7\/10 Agony is the debut EP from this Chicago, Illinois-based band and the quartet brings an interesting mix of black thrash, death metal and even hardcore at times. The real versatility within this outfit emerges through the pipes of Courtney Vida who for the most part delivers a rasping, scratchy aggression […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,5161],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-selenoplexia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97280"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97282,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97280\/revisions\/97282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}