This is the perfect mix of brutal death, thrash, doom, and prog with a little splash of black metal, and some Slayer-type grooves. It’s ferocious, heady, and engaging, and goddamn am I feeling it.

One of the things I love about Truck North is his ability to be visual and conceptual, and switch between those modes. He says, "Drug lords playing ball in they dress shoes,” which is a hell of an image, but then he sets it in time, place, and commentary, "back when talking about crack was the fresh move, new jacks play the city like a chess move, the search for the Black Bobby Fischer won’t make the news." Play the city like a chess move? It's slick, but descriptive. That's skill, there.

Once again, Truck North drops a record with insane lyrics. “This the beast beneath the boards, the end that was promised when they told you your demise will reach for you through the floor.” That’s a horror movie and a hard fact at once. “Four-finger Ringling Bros., a circus like none other, where clowns hop out of cars and shoot at single mothers.” For many MCs that would be the best lyric they ever wrote. Truck drops it on a mixtape. You need to hear this.

This LP is so versatile. The tempo changes on each track, like TN is showing every mode of spitting. On Asimov Cascade, he changes his flow up, a classic Big L move, but never sounds frantic. The mood changes every track, too, and TN expresses everything from G-type confidence to sorrow. The lyrics, wordplay, and metaphors bear days of unpacking, and every track has lines you won't forget. "High hopes from a low-life but here's the key-I ain't stuck in here with you, you stuck in here with me."

"Quick Tape" is a pun on mix tape, but this record isn't thrown together. The rhymes are as complex, allusive, and poetic as always, and the production is great--special shout out for the Albert King sample on "Crack Kitchen." But the lyrics especially shine. There are so many memorable moments and punchlines, like "They opened up shop, and gave his mom a present—her first born in a box. Then a statue of a fool was erected on the block.” Name a rhyme iller than that.

Truck North is so lyrical that virtually nothing he says is straight forward--everything is a metaphor, simile, comparison, reference, a clever tweak of a cliché, or a razor-sharp observation--so much so that his lyrics keep your brain working even after you have them memorized. I love this dude, and love this record. Truck North is better than your favorite MC.

When you listen to Truck North, you will immediately be struck by the breadth of knowledge he shows. He references Shakespeare, Black Sabbath, Upton Sinclair, Gorillaz, Philip K. Dick, Wu Tang Clan (many times), World War II battles, Johnny Quest, J.R.R. Tolkien, video games, comic books, old-school TV shows, the Bible, Game of Thrones, 80s pop, wrestling, Run-DMC, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and on and on. It'll keep your head spinning. Great record. Keep your wits about you and listen closely.

One of the things I love about aenorex is the endless complexity, and there's plenty of that here. I found myself counting guitar tracks. And CL seems to draw from an endless well of creativity, because there are changes on top of changes, and not just a new riff--a track will move from blast beats and tremolo picking to just drums and piano, or from straight metal to almost classical. I know this will sound strange, but it's immense music. It'll take over all the space in your head.

This may be my favorite aenorex track of all. It plays with dynamics and space in a very effective way, almost like it wants to give you a rest between more intense episodes, so you feel and understand them better, and the samples really add to the atmosphere. If you’re new to aenorex, this is a great place to start. It brings the metal, the atmosphere, the epic quality, and in the end the sense of satisfaction you should expect from a top-tier track. And the musicianship is unbeatable, too.

There are many haunting riffs on this record--sequences of notes with nothing behind them but atmosphere--that seem somehow related. I don't know if it's in my head or it's some kind of musical trick,but they seem so closely related that I found myself checking if the piano riff at 3:49 of funeral][am was the same series of notes at the beginning of dispassion, or if either of them was the same as the one in carri on. They're not, but they call each other to mind and unify the record. It's great

Though ænorex’s newest release, “apathia scale” came out in July, just three and a half months after April’s “ocahaen,” it is a different animal. “apathia scale” is a linear work that tends toward a large-scale climax in the final/title track. It pays to listen to it all the way through in one sitting.

This new ænorex release is outstanding. All six tracks are detailed compositions driven by shifting moods and complex arrangements that, while they remain distinctly goth metal, have an orchestral or epic feel to them. If you’re the type of person who needs a comparison, I’d say it’s something like One Second-era Paradise Lost crossed with Eclipse-era Amorphis.