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Aesthethica
by
Aesthethica Image
Metascore
72

Generally favorable reviews - based on 13 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.3

Universal acclaim- based on 15 Ratings

  • Summary: This is the second full-length album for the Brooklyn-based black metal band.
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Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 13
  3. Negative: 1 out of 13
  1. The A.V. Club
    May 17, 2011
    91
    Stacked against its predecessor, Aesthethica feels less like metal-black, post-, or otherwise--and more like Liturgy. And in this case, that's a great thing.
  2. Tiny Mix Tapes
    May 16, 2011
    90
    The band's aching for that contradictory limit can be felt quivering in every inch of Aesthetica. It is to their credit that one feels at peace through the record's most violent and cataclysmic moments.
  3. No Ripcord
    Jun 16, 2011
    90
    It's black metal for prog fans or math rockers, Liturgy's attention to arrangement and speed the sort of maddeningly precise output nerds like that eat up.
  4. Spin
    May 16, 2011
    80
    Repurposing tired metal tropes for ecstatic sensory trips, these songs are steel-tipped pointillist portraits of vitality itself.
  5. CMJ
    May 16, 2011
    70
    Aesthethica is jugular-grabbing black metal-startling, complex... and also quite long.
  6. The New York Times
    May 16, 2011
    70
    It's sonically assaultive, a riot of full-sprint drumming--by Greg Fox, increasingly this band's central nervous system--and guitar lines with the spasmodic precision of strobe lighting. But aside from the bleached gut-howl of Hunter Hunt-Hendrix, and the dark ritual the band so purposely invokes, the music doesn't fall cleanly within black-metal parameters.
  7. Kerrang!
    May 20, 2011
    20
    The album sounds like Liturgy tried to make a mathcore record, put two and two together and got three. [7 May 2011, p.52]
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See all 13 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 3
  3. Negative: 0 out of 3
  1. mrcseattle
    Dec 31, 2011
    9
    A truly singular record. First, the speed and intensity of the musicianship grabs your attention. Second, the elements of their sound: BlastA truly singular record. First, the speed and intensity of the musicianship grabs your attention. Second, the elements of their sound: Blast beats, screamed vocals consisting of short lyrical phrases, upper-register dueling guitars, and a fuzz-bass anchor, begin to coalesce into an original, expressive aesthetic. Third, you realize that beneath it all, half of the tracks are actually great SONGS. "Generation", "Tragic Laurel", and my personal favorite, "Glory Bronze", make up the top tier of the cuts here. Aesthethica rips open a hole to a new violent world, then forces you to remain there until the internal logic of the place begins to sink in. By then, though, you don't want to leave.
    P.S. Greg Fox, PLEASE rejoin the band so you guys can someday play "The Colbert Report".    … Expand
  2. enjoyablyC
    May 30, 2012
    8
    A good album, but will have trouble finding an audience. The black metal posers will undoubtely dub it "hipster black metal" and the hipstersA good album, but will have trouble finding an audience. The black metal posers will undoubtely dub it "hipster black metal" and the hipsters well...hipsters don't like black metal.… Expand

See all 3 User Reviews

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