Agonanist is the solo project of Tyler Henthorn from California, and «The Spirit of Gravity» is his second full-length album, released on August 28, 2026 by Transylvanian Recordings.
“`Country: United States
Style: Dissonant black metal, avant-garde black metal
For fans of: Deathspell Omega, Blut Aus Nord, Krallice
The title refers to Nietzsche’s «Thus Spoke Zarathustra»: the «Spirit of Gravity» is all the weight of modern life pressing down on the spirit, and the hero of the book fights it. Henthorn carries all that weight into a sound that does not let you breathe, with thirty-seven minutes of suffocating, atonal atmosphere.
He is not alone on the project. Vocals are handled by Andrew Lee of Houkago Grind Time, bass by Colin Marston of Gorguts, and drums by Kévin Paradis. Henthorn plays three instruments himself, and together they build a wall that recalls Deathspell Omega and Blut Aus Nord.
The album has nine tracks. The opener «Effacement» hits you with a noisy, atonal start, «Cry of Cages» steps up the speed and the technique, and «The Gateway» is the highlight, with vocals pushed to the limit and keyboards that open and burst like a night sky. «For Mia» follows, quieter, and then «Disruption and Decay», which lives up to its name. The closing track is «Collapse», eleven minutes with an atmospheric passage in the middle.
The album’s problem is its pacing. Genres like this thrive on long durations, and here the tracks average five minutes, with changes that arrive abruptly and ideas cut off before they can develop. «Collapse» has the room to unfold, but in its final third the production sinks and sounds like it is playing underwater.
Our take
The musicians here play at a very high level, with Paradis holding the technical side of atonal black metal with ease, and the atmosphere they create is genuinely heavy, as the genre demands. However, the way the album is cut into nine short tracks works against its own ambition: the ideas are there, but the changes do not have time to lock in. With three long tracks instead of nine short ones, «The Spirit of Gravity» would stand much better. For those who love difficult, avant-garde black metal it is worth a listen, while for everyone else it will be a heavy and tiring journey.
See also
See also: Krallice – Scour Order and Inferno – The Anthropic Sophisms.
