No telling what you’ll pick as your favorite this week. There’s ratings, and then there’s personal preference, and there’s a bit for everyone this time around.
Ade – Supplicium
Genre: Melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Ade is an Italian band making death metal with an epic, distinctly Eastern melodic style. It’s fierce and modern, bordering on technical, but prioritizes groove and the occasional shift to traditional-instrument atmosphere. It’s a bit of a disconnect, hearing the roars and riffs coupled with what you normally associate as zen-style instrumentation, and I wouldn’t say there have been made great efforts to properly meld the two. But it’s an unique flavor, for sure.
Alzhagoth – Grievous Diorama
Genre: Melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Describing this as folk-leaning melodic death metal will tell you most everything you need to know about it. It’s got that Finnish knack for deft-handed heaviness, although the band is Italian. The melodic work is fairly heavy-handed on this one though, so it’s more about the vibes than any one outstanding quality.
Athiel – Maw Of The Curse
Genre: Melodic black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A playful, back-to-basics black metal project that utilizes a bit of thrash and heavy metal to stay spritely. Yes, it’s suitably low-fi, bitter and stabby to qualify as classic black metal, but it also can’t hide its love for solos and cool riffs. Deserves a fuller production and a bit more thought put into exactly what it wants to be.
Dessiderium – Keys To The Palace
Genre: Progressive/melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5
Take a quick listen to “Keys to the Palace” and ask yourself: Was this what you expected as a follow-up to 2021’s widely acclaimed “Aria”? And if the answer is no, then isn’t everything really as it should be? This is prog, after all. And if the answer is yes, then that probably just means you had high expectations, which also means that all is well. Dessiderium still play melodic, effortlessly complex extreme/death prog that explores its soundscape, sometimes like a curious little critter and sometimes like a frenzied predator. You get “part” tracks that stretch concepts over several songs, meaning that some will be more decidedly mild and some more decidedly harsh. It’s a delight to listen to from beginning to end, and while perhaps not as concisely hard-hitting and mind-blowingly inspired as its predecessor, it offers a different flavor and a different story.
Highlights: “In The Midst Of May” and “Keys To The Palace – Pt.3”
Manntra – Titans
Genre: Folk/industrial metal
Subjective rating: 1.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
I guess there’s a bit of fun to be had with this one… if you choose to turn your brain off. The most generic riffs, melodies and lyrics you can imagine – all of it fine tuned for (drunken) chanting audience interaction.
Nite – Cult Of The Serpent Sun
Genre: Heavy/black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
At what point does a blackened metal project become too much fun? I guess it depends on your definition of fun, but you’re probably in the danger zone when the word “happy” comes to mind. Compared to its 2022 predecessor “Voices of the Kronian Moon”, this album is almost, ALMOST happy in nature. It’s still whisper-snarling, gothic-toned and darkly themed, but some of the mysticism has gone missing. That aside, it’s still devilishly catchy in as tasteful a way as can be managed, and seems to absolutely revel in that spine-tingingly cool lead guitar work, reminiscent of the very best you get from Tribulation and Ghost. You get some pretty decent variation in intensity, with both entirely slow and entirely galloping tracks, and a generous handful of them are ones that will easily stick in your mind, and be very welcome to, at that. Nite should at this point be on anyone’s list of top blackened heavy metal bands, and they further cement their spot with “Cult of the Serpent Moon”.
Highlights: “Crow (Fear the Night)” and “Cult of the Serpent Sun”
Nomadic Rituals – Fust
Genre: Doom/sludge metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5
A thoroughly rancorous and unpleasant doom sludge project that get into half-hypnotic, half-ritualistic rhythm patterns, interspersed with outbursts of raw, gargling roars and screams. It can get ever so slightly clunky in the slow sections, and overall I don’t think they utilize their time to the utmost effect, but the expression is solid and effective.
Purified in Blood – Primal Pulse Thunder
Genre: Death/black metal/hardcore
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
It’s been a good long while since these gentlemen dropped an album – nearly thirteen years, in fact. They deal in hardcore-styled death- and black metal that’s raw, evil and punishing, but not completely stripped of finesse or melody. With this release you get the impression that they have a strong, uncomplicated vision for each song from the start, and then throw themselves at it with little intention of playing around with the formula. It doesn’t make for a lot of variation within each track, but for the most part they hit really quite hard indeed, and are born of more than enough unique intent to easily stand out. The slightly uneven production steals a little bit of force and fullness, but the band makes up for it with the visceral quality of their performances.
Highlights: “Primal Pulse Thunder” and “Portal”
Rwake – The Return Of Magik
Genre: Progressive sludge metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Another album this week that arrives after a 13-year gap is the latest by Rwake. It’s a mix of sludge and hardcore, with a blackened tone and a kind of dehumanizingly progressive approach. Not that it sounds industrial or rigid – quite the opposite in fact – but it’s as if there’s an otherworldly will behind the progressions, which rarely go anywhere that feels familiar. It doesn’t feel complicated, overwhelming or whimsical, just free-spirited and slightly detached. The mix between contemplative atmosphere and jagged aggression is very well considered, and never strikes me as jarring in an unintentional way. The last half of the album goes a bit heavy on the doom-like, unhurried approach, and so the impression of the energy fizzling out might be a letdown for some. But thematically it’s on point all the way through.
Highlight: “The Return of Magik”
Sanhedrin – Heat Lightning
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
If you can’t get enough of the classic heavy metal revival and don’t mind it when they take on a slight doomy edge, you are definitely in the target audience for Sanhedrin. What sets them apart from a good few others of their ilk are certainly not elements like the female vocals or retro riff style, but the lack of oddness. They have gone for a fairly clean production, and while certainly not slick or polished, there aren’t really any rough edges. For me, it’s a bit lacking in personality, but there’s also no doubt they’ve got a solid grip on the style.
Som – Let The Light In
Genre: Doom/progressive metal/shoegaze
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
It’s not often I hear a mix of progressive heaviness and silky smooth vocal style that works for me even a little bit, but the guys in SOM seem to have cracked the code. What you get is what sounds like the softest, balmiest parts of the Mike-Chester Linkin Park dual vocal approach at the helm of gentle, daydreamy melodies, on top of heavy, doom-laden riffs, that still carry a warm, embracing tone. Yes, this is certainly a sound you go to when you’ve had your fill of viciousness and brutality, and as a revitalizing wellspring of rich, uplifting-but-not-too-poppy, extremely well-produced, doomy shoegaze-prog, it works on a lot of levels.
Highlights: “Give Blood” and “The Light”
Tiktaalika – Gods Of Pangaea
Genre: Progressive thrash metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Okay, this is a bit confusing. Haken’s Charlie Griffiths has a solo project, with which he released the prog metal gem “Tiktaalika” in 2022. Now he’s back, and the project has been renamed to exactly that, Tiktaalika. Or is it supposed to be a new project? Because the music is now thrash all of a sudden. Proggy thrash, but still. On Spotify both the Charlie Griffiths project and Tiktaalika are registered as contributors to the album, so maybe it’s just a temporary, concept-minded thing that… you know what, fuck it, let’s just review the darn thing. Technically this is a highly pleasing effort, with awesome solos and sneaky-complex, yet groove-laden riffs. But I can’t shake the feeling that for a thrash record, there’s too much thinking going on. The tone is right, the vocal style is right, but it feels reigned in and overly controlled. Which leaves it as a thrash sounding prog album, and when you accept it as such, you can start to appreciate all the fun things going on in it. In the end, it’s very cool that this thing exists, but it comes up a bit short of being the best of both worlds.
Highlight: “Lost Continent”
Trold – I Skovens Rige
Genre: Folk metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
What happens if you take Finntroll, strip away the slight blackened veneer, change the language to Danish and up the party factor? No, it’s not, in fact, a great mystery. You get this. That’s what happens. This gang of merry trolls understand perfectly how to play around and have fun within the style, while both keeping it simple enough to not have to philosophize over, and also keeping it alive and varied with some actual great musicianship. There’s just enough melodic death metal in there to please people like me who drop out the minute it gets too silly, and a bunch of nods to classic folk tunes that they just irreverently throw in there to let you know that they’re not trying too hard. Yes, there’s a lot of crown-pleasing material, but it’s balanced out by wit, skill and actual humor.
Highlights: “Tusind År I Dvale” and “Med Høtyv Og Fakkel”
Warbringer – Wrath And Ruin
Genre: Thrash metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5
Whoa. A part of me wants to take a moment to reflect on how strong the metal genre truly stands when a thrash album can hit this hard in 2025. But that would mean diverting my focus from the music, which I really don’t want to do. This might be the most focused, best produced thrash metal release that I have ever heard. Pause for effect. And that isn’t even nearly the best part of it. Every performance is sharply on point. The vocals carve a jagged path of interjoined precision scythe cuts, and the instruments play a deadly, highly coordinated game of cat and mouse, like a squadron of elite fighter pilots systematically picking apart a flock of birds. There’s a hardcore directness to the style, as well as a melodic heaviness reminiscent of old school melodeath. While not quite as memorable on an individual song level as some of the titans of the subgenre, as a complete package this is very close to perfect.
Highlights: “Neuromancer” and “Through A Glass, Darkly”
Wombbath – Beyond The Abyss
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Swedish old school death metallers Wombbath serve up another slab of dark-toned, murky morbidity on this one, malevolent as can be, and stylistically on point. To me, it feels a bit heavy handed, almost forced at times, and the production kind of makes it sound like it’s being performed inside a barrel. It’s one you need to be in the right mind space for, as it doesn’t prioritize groove, but mood. It’s a trek across a shadowy graveyard with every crypt, mausoleum and tombstone crumbling from the pressure of unnatural, malignant force.
As always, if you think I’m completely off on an observation, unfairly dissed your favorite band, or need to give an album another shot, why not pop a comment down below?
The Metal Dispatch 