5 /5 - "And that's ultimately what makes Caregriever work so well. This is an album that isn't afraid to be uncomfortable. It isn't afraid to explore emotions that aren't easy to explain, and it isn't afraid to step outside the boundaries of what you might expect from a black metal record.
If you're looking for something that carries the emotional weight of the world—something uncomfortable, honest, real, and unafraid to experiment—Caregriever is waiting for you to dive into it."
"...unhinged riffing to wrenching vocals to the various post-production approaches meant to heighten the overall experience – deserves hours of your attention and oceans-worth of emotional energy. After just one trip through the songs, I was personally hooked, and on deeper inspection, the record welded itself high in my list of favorites this year. "
"The sounds may be bleak, but it is clear that they are derived from a place of processing grief giving these songs a weight that can only come from the fleeting and failing acts of love and kindness that comes from being human, touching, angry, and cathartic."
9 /10 - "In processing the emotions connected to watching the terminal decline of a family member, it transitioned to a bleak sonic display of this more organic experimental direction. The darkness presented here is much more real and honest than Black Metal bands that dressed things up in obligatory occult fashion, appropriating belief systems they are immersed in. This dark emotional honesty is what gives this album its heaviness."
"The album moves away from much of the symphonic scope of earlier releases toward a more immediate, abrasive sound, while its lyrics confront the complicated realities of caregiving, anticipatory grief, and loss. Kerr discusses how the music took shape, the importance of his collaborators, the decision to preserve the rawness of the original recordings, and what it means to bring these songs to the stage as the band prepares for an active 2027."
Pick of the Week - "Watching a human being fade into nothingness is a torturous experience, and Anagnorsis nail the emotion on “Caregriever,” as genuinely moving a black metal album as you’ll find. This is raw and real, something that digs into your psyche and forces you to face an unforgiving reality the can feel never ending. This album will hit hardest with those who have gone through such a thing, and for anyone who hasn’t, it’s a dark, sobering look into the future. "
"Raw, uncomfortable, and quietly devastating, this is the sound of a band who found their reason to return in the hardest place imaginable. If you have ever sat by a bedside and counted the hours, this one will find you. Turn it up and let it hurt."
4.5 / 5 - "With Caregriever, the band’s first album in 10 years, extreme-metal group Anagnorisis filter abrasive black metal through an industrial and emotional hardcore lens to create a record both bleak and harsh that nonetheless offers glimpses of beauty and hope while remaining sonically brutal enough to reflect the album’s harrowing, deeply personal subject matter."
"Caregriever is both a harrowing and sonically harsh listening experience, but also one with glimmers of hope and beauty within it, the latter somehow making the album all the more powerful and emotionally resonant."
Essential - "Caregriever is a powerful record. It’s hideously vibrant and relentlessly potent. Boasting a diversity of delivery that’s enviable, and powered by a heart of undimmed anguish, Anagnorisis have produced the type of record that will stop you in your tracks. If you’re reading this, seek out Caregriever immediately and dive deeply into its darkness."
