Band info
Band: Stochastic Reaper
Album: ‘The Wheel‘
Released: December 6th, 2024
Genre: black metal, experimental
Location: Czechia
Review 
For the second time on ABMN, we are pleased to present the Stochastic Reaper project to you. This time, it is a full album entitled ‘The Wheel‘ Let’s start by deciphering the name. The word “stochastic” itself is most often found in mathematics and literally means “something resulting from conjecture”, guesswork, sharpness, but also randomness. So that’s the kind of reaper it is.
Stochastic Reaper‘s sound is a skilful blend of different metal styles from death metal and grind to doom and much of black metal. Therefore, we have a style-diverse lead vocal backed by the rest of the band from time to time, a powerful and ominously rumbling bass, a guitar that plays different styles of metal and does it very well, and very finely programmed drums. Throw in some samples and electronics and we have the full picture. So there’s really a lot to discover here, definitely “The Wheel” is definitely an album that stays for a long time, this stochasticity perfectly describes the band’s music -it’s seemingly a bit chaotic, random but very much so- implicit, cleverly and intelligently played. As for the lyrics here, we have a wide range of topics that can be described as sociopolitical or personal. From criticism of education to anti-capitalist content more broadly, opposing religious indoctrination, consumerism or the absolute domination of the human species on this planet. So as with music in here, we have really a lot to explore too. Fortunately, the album’s Bandcamp page has the lyrics to all the songs. A very good and intriguing album, from which you can reveal a lot of interesting stuff. Definitely recommended.
Other links and platforms:
BC: https://stochasticreaper.bandcamp.com/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/StochasticReaper/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/stochasticreaper/