Reviews of metal albums released December 20 – December 26
A late one just to wrap up 2025 and enter the new year wrapped up in a small bundle of gloom. Happy new year everyone!
Abysmal Grief – Taetra Philosophia
Genre: Doom/gothic metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Review: Spooky! If you’re thinking of celebrating new year’s at the graveyard, then consider bringing this album with you. Who knows, you might end up summoning some undead company. This is Italian gothic doom metal band Abysmal Grief’s seventh full-length, and while there’s absolutely black lace theater all over this thing, it’s not like it’s not doing its job of creating that occult underground mood. My mind goes to black-and-white horror films and robed rituals of possession. The riff- and rhythm style can get a bit repetitive, but at its best it’s reminiscent of classic Black Sabbath and Ghost’s first album. There’s some sweet solos in here too, just in case you worried it was getting too serious.
Highlight: “Corpus Mortuum”
Consanguine – Worlds Hidden Behind Vision, Rituals Hidden Behind Dream (EP)
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5
Review: Some noisy black metal to thoroughly purge any merriment that might have slithered in to clog up your neural pathways. This is noisy and fairly chaotic stuff that sort sounds like its its been wrung, to rid it of any unnecessary layers and leave it nice and stretched. It feels long and painful, which is no doubt the idea.
St. Unholyness – Through High Holy Haze
Genre: Stoner metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5
Review: You know the world’s collectively a little fed up with cribs, shepherds and angels when even the stoner metal is unholy. Technically, it plays as normal, with crunchy riffs, lazy rhythms and a muffled production. But the tone and lyrical content is less chilled out and more “let’s paint the living room black and light some candles”. The problem is that it doesn’t see quite content to stay there, as it constantly sneaks into the kitchen to take a puff. A little messy in its performances, not very confident in its style, but an interesting sound none the less.
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 