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Weekly Rundown April 17 – 2026
Reviews of metal albums released April 11 – April 17
It’s a week for fresh and emerging bands that still manage to sound like they’ve spent a lifetime on the scene.
(From last, last week) Bragging Rights – A Comedy Divine
Genre: Progressive sludge/groove metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: I’ve a shoutout to make from a couple of weeks back that I was too disorganized to review in time for its actual release date. Continuing steady on the same trajectory as last year’s “Carpe Jugulum”, this is early Gojira (although I’ll insist I can hear some “Magma”- and “Fortitude”-stuff in there this time) style dark prog metal that’s sludge-d, and also kind of doom-ed, down to an even, crushing pace propelled by balled-fist anger.
My main critique is that there’s not a lot of development going on from start to finish in many of the songs, so you’re locked in to the same kind of mood and rhythm for fairly long stretches. But it’s also full of hard hitting moments, especially in the second half, so well worth checking out if my initial description intrigued you.
Doodswens – Doodswens
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: The sophomore release by three-piece Dutch black metal band Doodswens (death wish) takes you to a place where suffering is both expected and accepted. That’s not saying that it’s the sort of black metal that’s physically painful to listen to, but it invokes the feelings of being trapped in the darkness, addressing the different shades of agony that is your only companion.
The album deals with this through expressing wrath, bitterness and anguish through both vocals and instruments, delivering both full-on aggression with wicked riff assaults and more restrained, slow burn stewing. Compelling stuff that I hope can keep evolving into something even more distinct.Highlight: “Driven by Death”
Draken – Here Be Draken
Genre: Stoner metal/rock
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Here’s some genre bending stoner metal from Norway. Saying that you’re in for a bit of a trip and a truly diverse experience should be taken as me saying it’s really exciting and unconventional within reason, and not as a suggestion that this is some incoherent super-proggy whack-job.
The trio that is Draken utilize tons of spritely desert groove, some sludge and hardcore aggression, a bit of psychedelic and doom mood-altering, and plenty of heavy rock get-up-and-go-ness. The variety is great, and the creative effort both inspiring and engaging. The flow through the album becomes a bit tumultuous, as you get pulled in quite a few different directions, but at least to me that’s a big part of its charm.
Highlights: “Jólablót” and “Of Demise and Men”
Infestuous – Unfathomable Mutagenic Abominations
Genre: Technical death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Imagine the head-spider from “The Thing” on cocaine and flitting rabidly around biting and snarling at people while foaming copiously at the mouth, and that you’re watching it all played back at 3x speed. That pretty much sums up this brutal-style tech death debut album from Infestuous.
The duo behind the madness are usually preoccupied in The Black Dahlia Murder and Doctor Smoke, so you know there’s some talent involved, which becomes evident anyway if you just play the album. There are traces of melody and quite a few really clever rhythm transitions that took me by surprise, elevating it well beyond a randomly chaotic gore slinger. There’s definitely room for a lot more personality, but this is a solid starting point.Highlight: “Palace of Rot”
The Last Ten Seconds Of Life – The Dead Ones
Genre: Deathcore
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: The latest from these deathcore stompers is monumentally heavy, as you would expect, but judging by the way it moves I’d say that far from all of this heaviness is attained though muscle growth. It feels lumbering, dragging its boated mass along and occasionally rolling down a hill, as gravity would be the only thing capable of speeding it up. It’s pretty rad when it does, although painfully predictable rest of the time.
The Moon And The Nightspirit – Seed of the Formless
Genre: Melodic folk/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: A gothic-tinged, mildly progressive and silkily melodic kind of sound that exists vaguely inside a doom realm, but demonstrates too much flexibility and verve to be tied down to any one subgenre. There are dark trickles of black metal every now and then, but the vocals are mostly serenely beautiful, hovering between sadness and hopefulness. They do best in the middle of the extremes of aggression and solemnity, where the passion rolls steadily like waves and currents.
It fizzes out a bit towards the end, but there’s a good amount of energy further back, in between the calmer sections. Definitely one to get lost in.Highlight: “Astromorphosis”
Ordh – Blind In Abyssal Realms
Genre: Progressive death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Progressive death is an exciting niche these days, as it attracts a lot of really creative talent, and can surf on the wave of the massive OSDM resurgence. It’s challenging both for the artists and the listeners, but the guys in Ordh seem to have got it right from the start. Not that they’re newbie musicians or anything, but the formula for this swirling vortex of chugging riffs, semi-dissonant melody and atmospheric doom feels like it must have taken quite a bit of consideration to nail down.
At its best it builds organically to spine chilling highs, delivering both savagery and complex technicality with a warm yet space-y kind of vibe holding it all together. Other times it gets quite lost going on curious tangents, and at the end I’m actually left wishing for a more bone-jarring impact. Still, mighty impressive stuff.Highlights: “Apis Bull” and “Blind in Abyssal Realms”
Pilori – Sans Adieu
Genre: Black metal/hardcore/grindcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Pilori is a French mostly black metal project that uses hardcore and grindcore ferocity to spice things up, with a bit of death heft to add to the impact. They strike an appealing balance between catchy, aggressive riffage and hooded atmospheric skulking in the shadows. A few of the songs feel a bit too similar, and overall I could have wished for bigger contrasts and more intensity, but it’s nonetheless a hard hitting and coherent album.
Highlight: “Lèse Majesté”
Reeking Aura – On The Promise Of The Moon
Genre: Progressive/melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Reeking Aura’s brand of death metal isn’t progressive to the same degree that this week’s Ordh release is, but like a mycelium network it’s spread out beyond the controllable confines of the core subgenre and established connections with its neighbors. There’s a strong influx of insidious-toned melodeath, a bit of atmosphere and, to counter it, a good deal of brutal-style rhythm work and old school technicality. They weave it all together into a truly compelling whole that’s frankly unlike anything I’ve ever heard before, adding new layers and showing new sides of themselves pretty much every step of the way.
Although the vocals are, overall, quite versatile, they are also my main issue with the album, as the predominant style is the kind of unintelligible kitchen sink gurgle that could be fine poetry or a toad burping for all you know. I’ll likely never get the appeal, but that’s a personal problem. Even if you’re of the same opinion, you shouldn’t let it stop you from checking this out, as you’ll be missing out on a whole heap of excellence.Highlights: “What Only Worms Witness” and “Sifting for Fungal Inheritance (A Mildewy, Acrid Mulch”
Sabiendas – Puppeteer Of Doom
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: Straight up, nasty death metal from these Germans, delighting in the subgenre’s most classic thematic realm of visceral horror. What you’re in for is a steady parade of headbanger-friendly riffs, pummeling drums and serrated vocals. The menace is ever-present, the energy level is just right, and the balance between savagery and groove works very well. Production wise it lacks a bit of edge and force, and creatively it’s no revelation. Just good ‘ol ear candy for the morbidly inclined.
Highlight: “Freak of Nature”
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?
albums, black metal, Bragging Rights, death metal, Doodswens, Draken, grindcore, groove metal, Infestuous, metal, metal albums out this week, new metal releases, new releases, Ordh, Pilori, progressive metal, Reeking Aura, review, Sabiendas, the last ten seconds of life, The Moon And The Nightspirit, thrash metal -
Weekly Rundown April 10 – 2026
Reviews of metal albums released April 04 – April 10
Death metal seems to have staged a coup this week, as it’s broken out of the obscure shadows and into dominating positions in the headlines.
Archspire – Too Fast To Die
Genre: Technical death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: There must be some significant pressure for bands that are talked about in the music community as “the heaviest”, “the most brutal”, “the most evil”, and, in the case of Archspire, “the fastest”, to keep outdoing themselves. Thankfully, at least to me, that’s not become an all-encompassing obsession on “Too Fast To Die”, contrary to what the title might lead you to expect. In fact, the title track is among the furthest from crossing into comedy as a result of its pace.
But don’t get me wrong, relentless speed and brain-tenderizing technicality are what we all crave from these guys, and they deliver like an ant hive on Red Bull. Crucially, they’re able to see the silliness in the extreme velocity, and lean into it as a balance to the obvious dedication that’s evident from their super tight and dynamic compositions. There are a few tracks that sound a bit “same old, same old”, but nothing remotely bad, and a good few mind blowing monsters of envelope-pushing tech death.Highlights: “Carrion Ladder” and “The Vessel”
Battlegrave – Enslavement
Genre: Thrash/death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: This one took me by surprise, as I’d never heard of this Australian band before. What comes raging out of the speakers is a hyper aggressive strain of thrash that’s spread well into death metal and its neighboring extreme subgenres. Giving the band’s last, sophomore full-length a quick listen I instantly noted that “Enslavement” is a significant step up in production and tightness of the performances. I hear Scour-like blackgrind, Werewolves-style groove-forward death metal and the kind of deathcore-y tech death you’d expect from a band like Summoning the Lich.
It’s dark, with clear ambitions of expanding into an unsettling horror-themed soundscape. That’s not unwelcome, but ultimately the more atmosphere-loaded tracks in the second half of the album end up pulling in a slightly different direction than the high-energy, adrenaline-fueled tracks you get in the beginning, and so it feels a bit like a veering off from what initially built my enthusiasm. Still, it’s got great energy throughout and radiates a suitably foul mood.Highlights: “Bonesaw” and “The Grand Machine Of Despair”.
Immolation – Descent
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: It’s time for some death metal legends to step back into the spotlight. What’s immediately evident on their 12th full-length is that Immolation is the type of band that faithfully sticks to their core formula while not ignoring advances in production capabilities, and also not looking backwards in terms of technicality. This is a crisp and exceptionally tight sound that also rumbles like the advance of hell’s collected arsenal of siege engines. It knows exactly what it wants to be and doesn’t stray from the path or experiment.
But the guys have also far from given up on trying to impress. They strike a highly mature and confident balance between demanding sonic punishment and infernal groove that sounds well considered and convincingly ominous.Highlights: “Adversary” and “Descent”
Inferi – Heaven Wept
Genre: Technical/melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: This is not gonna be an unique take in the least, but Inferi sound like The Black Dahlia Murder if they decided to openly pursue tech death. In fact, I think that this description is so accurate that if a sufficiently devil-may-care mood struck me on the day, I could leave the entire review at that. But it is not (quite) this day. The band are by no means newcomers, which becomes quite evident from their world-class technicality and ability to write songs compositions that are both impressively complex and accessibly melodic.
My main personal gripe is that even in such an insanely busy album, I’m struggling to find anything that sounds genuinely fresh. It’s fairly loaded with stylistic tropes, particularly in the vocal department. But it’s also effortlessly expansive, and both majestic and sharply aggressive at the same time.Highlight: “Godless Sky” and “The Rapture of Dead Light”
Lord Of The Lost – Opvs Noir Vol. 3
Genre: Atmospheric black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Apparently Lord Of The Lost don’t think that there’s enough gothic metal being made these days (at least not good) and are intent on filling the void, as they’re already back with the third part in their “Opvs Noir” series, with both part 1 and 2 having been released last year. They still sound big, on the verge of symphonic, with the occasional leaning into industrial. Once again there are far too many ballad tracks for my taste, but the writing is mostly really good (although very on the nose), and a couple of the more attitude-laden tracks are probably gonna stick with me for a while.
Highlight: “My Funeral”
MIRE – Pale Reflection
Genre: Groove metal/metalcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: Existing somewhere between the technicality of Sylosis and the catchy groove of Bleed From Within, with the solid melodic sense of both, MIRE has finally followed up their 2021 debut “A New Found Rain”, which I had a pretty good time with. Their sound has been sharpened and added definition, and feels more emotionally charged this time around. There’s a heap of exciting tech-y guitar antics and some really cool riffs, but in the end the overall impression is not that of an inspired writing process, as it feels a bit stiff and unimaginative.
Highlight: “Pale Reflection”
Nukem – The Grave Remains
Genre: Thrash metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: The river of thrash, once nearly run dry, now surges stronger than perhaps ever, and has provided yet another feral, clawing animal of an album, this time from sunny California. Nukem sound as pissed of and impatient as a thrash band should, with strained, shouted vocals (that sound quite a bit like those of Obituary’s John Tardy) and the kind of tone that convinces you there’s plenty in the world to be mad about. They slap you around with savage, charging speed as much as locked-in riff execution, an active, agile bass and some surprisingly melodic solo sections.
Not every track hits quite as hard, but the ones that do really hit the spot. It took 10 years for them to follow up their debut with this. Let’s hope the wind blows in their favor and they get to expand even further on this bangin’ foundation.Highlight: “Torture, Murder, Mutilate!” and “Into the Kill Zone”
Skaphos – The Descent
Genre: Death/black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: EDIT: After publishing this review it came to my attention that this album is in fact a compilation of re-recorded songs from the band’s first two albums. It’s not immediately evident, as they’ve renamed the tracks, and production wise it’s such a massive step up that some of it is hardly recognizable unless you’re already well familiar with their earlier work. In either case, it won’t change my score, but it’s worth keeping in mind that this is actually not original material, and doesn’t necessarily indicate the band’s stylistic trajectory for the future.
Ready for some deep sea terror? Last year’s “Cult of Uzura” was not this French blackened death metal band’s first outing into abyssal dread (it was their third), but it was the first I’d heard of them, and the album made my top 100 list of the year. I found it to be a refreshingly “dangerous”-sounding alternative to the much more by-the-numbers “The Shit of God” released that week by subgenre peers Behemoth. In comparison, “The Descent” feels more cleaned up, technically minded and, dare I say, modern (yuck?).
It doesn’t have the strongest opening tracks, but you quickly get the gist of its theme, and soon you’re being pummeled by unforgiving heaviness, with increasing measures of tribal savagery and atmospheric oppressiveness. I suppose you could say we’re making a… descent… into the realm of unspeakable subsea horror where this band is at its most outstanding, and, whether you like it or not, you’re stuck here for the duration. A little less wild? Sure. Still unsettling and brilliantly punishing? Hell yes. Also, that album art is just perfect.Highlights: “Mireborn” and “Horror Squid”
Spirit Adrift – Infinite Illumination
Genre: Doom/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: For someone who just got into these guys, it’s sad to learn that this will be their last album, as they announced their split-up last month. 2023’s ultra groovy, upbeat and memorably melodic “Ghost At The Gallows” was one of my favorite releases that year. That was the band leaning strongly into the heavy metal iteration of their sound. “Infinite Illumination” sees a significant step back into classic doom, with an accompanying gloomy mood. The riffs are punchier, the tone darker, the tempos slower, and there’s a mournful tinge to Nate Garrett’s vocals.
All that’s not to say that you can’t have fun with it. There’s plenty of groove still, and the solos taste just as sweet. But while the last album felt very in the moment, this sends the mind wandering. It doesn’t have quite the same memorable quality, but functions solidly as both a well-balanced, purposeful heavy/doom album and a full-circle statement.Highlights: “Where Once There Was An Ocean” and “Window Within”
Voidchaser – Interstellar I
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Voidchaser is a prog metal band that play around in both the accessibly melodic shallows and more extreme deep end of the pool. Most of the time it feel a bit like a space opera that keeps being yanked out of its comfort zone by the pull of black holes, passing through asteroid fields and getting chased by curious and/or hostile alien vessels.
It’s playfully technical and dense with electronic atmosphere rather than being rhythmically challenging, and succeeds in circumventing the most glaring tropes of the subgenre. Melodically it’s a bit uneven, but the nature of it changes so often that missteps are soon forgotten.Highlight: “Welcome to Terra Corp”
Vomitory – In Death Throes
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Vomitory are here to BLUUURGH! all over your fine senses and hack all your sitting surfaces apart with an axe until you’ve got no other choice but to stand up and headbang your way into the unloving embrace of the firmest chiropractor available. For those unfamiliar, this is a Swedish death metal band blending old school brutality and crunchy groove with thrashing riffs. Everything is ultra tight and performed at close to technical perfection, but not without artistic flourish and a love for the vileness of the subgenre. It is both bafflingly impressive and stirringly primal, with a sky high entertainment factor and complete disdain for trends.
The track “For Gore and Country” is probably the closest you you’re gonna get to a brutal death metal anthem before taking on traits of parody, and there’s simply not any songs on this album that doesn’t at least partially hit you with the same kind of lethal, infectious bloodlust. Not a conceptual revelation by any means, but holy hell does it lay waste.Highlights: “For Gore and Country” and “Two and a Half Men”
Witch Ripper – Through The Hourglass
Genre: Progressive sludge/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5Review: Witch Ripper’s brand of progressive sludge inevitably prompts a few Mastodon comparisons, but as on 2023’s “The Flight After the Fall”, there’s no mistaking their stylistic distinctions if you spend more than just a few seconds listening. “Through The Hourglass” feels like a patient album where every song starts out in a different yet stable place and then goes exploring. And the band seems to know all the best places to discover entertainingly puzzling rhythm- and tonal shifts, and mind-nurturing, melodic rapture.
At its best it’s fascinatingly intricate, pleasant and satisfyingly grating at the same time. It feels highly mature and creatively challenging in a listener-friendly way, and the band is likely only a real “hit” away from blowing up at this point.Highlights: “The Portal” and “The Clock Queen”
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?
albums, Archspire, Battlegrave, black metal, death metal, grindcore, groove metal, Immolation, Inferi, Lord of the Lost, metal, metal albums out this week, MIRE, new metal releases, new releases, Nukem, progressive metal, review, Skaphos, spirit adrift, thrash metal, Voidchaser, vomitory, witch ripper -
Weekly Rundown April 03 – 2026
Reviews of metal albums released March 28 – April 03
Sludge, stoner, prog, doom, thrash, death and black – this week has most every flavor on the dark- and extreme metal spectrum, and only personal taste can truly decide what’s superior.
Anasarca – Achlys
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: We start off the week with some intense German death metal – not strictly technical, not distinctly old school, not overly brutal, but also not even slightly merciful. It’s apocalyptically menacing, chunky and precise, prioritizing darkness over fun.
Apolaustic – No Plenitude Without Suffering
Genre: Melodic black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: This Swiss melodic black metal project knows how to employ razor sharp technicality without slicing apart the grimness. Sure, this isn’t the bleakest or most misanthropic you’ll come across in its subgenre, but while there’s an epic quality to the tremolo-led melodies, it’s all shrouded in darkness. It digs its claws into you whenever you start to feel too serene, and lets off when you’ve been lashed adequately by the hurricane riffs and drums. The lead melodies aren’t the strongest, and overall I could’ve wished for more personality, but it’s an impressive debut that hits the sweet spot between tame and chaotic.
Highlight: “Fragments from a Misty Journey”
Bloody Valkyria – Requiem: Reveries Of The Dying
Genre: Melodic black/folk metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: When black metal gets all melodic and epic, the “folk” label is always sort of lurking, peeking out from behind the nearest tree trunk. When the black metal is also Finnish, you can practically taste the breath of the folk coming from right over your shoulder. This is at least how I’ll justify my applying it to Bloody Valkyria’s third full-length, even though, strictly speaking, there’s more epic doom and melodic death metal than there is folk. But absent it is not, and it has a distinctly medieval and perhaps surprisingly sentimental flavor to it. If you like the idea of Mors Principium Est clad in armor and draped in black cloaks, wandering steadfastly into the unknown of the great, open wilderness, then this album delivers. A bit too leisurely in the middle, maybe, but still grandiose in the best way and with a very strong finish.
Highlights: “My Beloved North” and “Always”
Corrosion Of Conformity – Good God/Baad Man
Genre: Stoner/sludge metal/punk
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Corrosion Of Conformity exists mostly outside the sphere of metal that I’ve actively listened to throughout my life, so expect no expert analysis of this, their 11th full-length. What they want you to have is unconventional, untamed stoner metal with a sludgy Southern feel, alternative mindset and plenty of punk rock energy. For me it’s a bit too uneven, like they’ve scattered a heap of tracks randomly across the record, that were all born of different states of mind. That being said, it goes perfectly with the band name. It’s rebellious, unbothered by expectations, free spirited and hard-hitting.
Highlights: “Gimme Some Moore” and “Baad Man”
Forlorn Citadel – An Oath Undone
Genre: Atmospheric black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: If your D&D-campaigns are exclusively played by black metal fans, then this is what you need to have playing in the background. It’s all epic vibes with a bit of wraith-like snarling occasionally piercing through. Far too repetitive at times, and fairly odd in its contrasting moods of uplifting triumph and light-shy grimness. But pretty immersive if you’re in the right frame of mind.
Green Carnation – A Dark Poem, Part II: Sanguis
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: These Norwegian sad prog metallers are on a roll and already back after last year’s “Pt. I: The Shores of Melancholia”. For an album with the word “Melancholia” in the title, it’s in actuality quite upbeat in comparison to its successor. “Sanguis” is slower, and with several completely calm, acoustic songs and sections, so if you were missing energy last time ’round, you’re gonna find even less of it here. Look instead for melodic beauty and imaginative storytelling. The album takes you by the hand and guides you through a living maze of impressions – steadily rather than violently. If you’re all sold on the band’s style then you’ll absolutely love it. If you have doubts, then I doubt you’ll be convinced.
Highlight: “Sweet to the Point of Bitter”
Nervosa – Slave Machine
Genre: Melodic death/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: If Angela Gossow-era Arch Enemy at its most aggressive was your jam and you wish nothing more than for a return to that, then despair not – Nervosa have you covered. Oh, and I hope you like thrash, ’cause there’s a lot of that on here as well. “Slave Machine” (anyone else immediately thinking “Doomsday Machine”?), the band’s sixth full-length, starts overflowing with badass riffs already at the halfway mark, and there’s no letup after that. It’s staunchly aggressive, tight and suitably impatient. It’s in the songwriting department that it comes up a bit short. Once you’ve heard the first three or four songs, you’ve got the whole thing figured out. There’s no lack in energy though, nor in solos, nor in groove, nor in commitment.
Highlights: “Slave Machine” and “Beast of Burden”
Solnegre – Anthems For The Grand Collapse
Genre: Doom/death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: Take heed of where I’ve placed the “doom” in the genre description, as this is not where you want to go for “unspeakable abomination encrusted with the collected evil that seeps through the cracks of the earth” kind of death doom. This is deep, atmospheric, heavy because it’s weighed down by dark emotion, and expansively melodic. I don’t think that all the vocal style variations included work quite as well, and it does rag a bit at times, but as a maturing step for a promising young band it’s definitely heading in the right direction.
Highlight: “The Axiom – Song for the Inert Part II”
Toxic Shock – Future Is Calling
Genre: Thrash metal/hardcore
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: These Belgian crossover thrashers have been active since 2010, but only now are we getting their third full-length. Let’s hope their release frequency increases, ’cause I don’t think I’ll ever get enough of this kind of crisp, riff-happy, up-yours-attitude goodness. This stuff is all riffs, coarse shouting and eager drums, mostly at groove-centric mid tempo pace. While I appreciate the headbang-ability, I do think the whole album would sound better sped up, or at least with a good portion of more frantic, pedal-to-the-metal speed thrashing. So while it could probably benefit from being a bit more unhinged, I thoroughly enjoyed myself all the way through.
Highlights: “HQ” and “Reborn”
Vanir – Wyrd
Genre: Melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: If you’ve been listening to these Danes for a while (they’ve been at it since 2009), then I suspect that you know exactly what to expect on their latest offering. This is war-marching melodic death metal, kind of like Amon Amarth but a little less anthemic and without the occasional style-ironic antics. You get lots of cool riffs, rousing melody and dark-tinged aggression, but aside from its technical qualities it’s fairly by-the-numbers.
Void Of Light – Asymmetries
Genre: Atmospheric sludge metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: As debut albums go, this is an exceptionally strong one. What this Scottish band do is expand on Ghost Brigade-like crunchy and crisp heaviness with contemplative atmosphere and melody, and without overdoing it to the point of inviting tediousness. Everything feels measured, and the transitions organic. It’s powerful, hits like a brick but also flows like a firm breeze through tall grass. There’s melancholy and vulnerability, but also blackened harshness, although this is, crucially, also not overdone. I hear a bit of Cult of Luna, some Enslaved at their more straightforwardly atmospheric, but also hints of melodeath-like, on-the-hunt aggression, which suits it well. This is a cohesive yet multi-layered album that sets the bar high for the future.
Highlights: “Silver Mask” and “The Passing Hours”
(From last week) Zerre – Rotting on a Golden Throne
Genre: Thrash metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Most of the time I leave “misses” from earlier weeks lie, as I’ve usually got way too much new stuff to keep me busy. But this album greedily caught my attention and kept it in a vice grip throughout the entirety of its runtime. What we’ve got here is German old school thrash approaching crossover in the style of Municipal Waste and Power trip, with clear inspiration taken from early Anthrax and Metallica. It’s basically a non-stop assault of charging riffs and drums, with sharply barked vocals that fit the relentless, head-lobbing style perfectly. Whenever you think that they can’t possibly match the awesome riff you just banged your neck sore to on the previous track, they hit you with another. A pure shot of adrenaline that’s probably the best thrash I’ve heard since last year’s Warbringer record.
Highlights: “Deception of the Weak” and “Rotting on a Golden Throne”
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?
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Weekly Rundown March 27 – 2026
Reviews of metal albums released March 21 – March 27
This week is thick with quality, particularly in the cold and sinister part of the spectrum, but it’s far from all bleakness and misery.
Aggressive Perfector – Come Creeping Fiends
Genre: Speed/black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: This has got to be just about as rock ‘n’ roll that black metal can possibly get. Never mind that you’re probably being lured into sacrificing yourself for some unspeakable summoning ritual, if it sounds this fun then it’s probably worth it. This is a crisp, direct sort of sound that still has fullness, but lacking even a gram of excess fat. It’s speed and heavy metal with raw, shouted vocals, bursting with solos, licks and scorched riffs. While it’s more mid-tempo than speedy, it sounds like they’re giving max effort on every track, hell bound to entertain, but not sacrificing the throat slitting attitude for the sake of your listening comfort.
Highlights: “Dead Undead” and “Fiend in You”
Bekor Qilish – Consecrated Abysses of Dread
Genre: Experimental death/black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: If you ever wondered what death metal performed by a black metal musician might sound like when infected with a computer virus made by aliens, then here’s a likely answer. While Abbath-like croaking, technical death riffs and prog drumming are at the core of this madness, each track sounds like it’s frantically trying to explore what it might sound like in the style of two or three different other genres of music at the same time. And the actual human behind the instruments and levers has to put up a constant fight to reign it in. But it appears to be a losing battle, as the music seems to get increasingly unconventional the further into the album we get. Describing it as “spasmic” and “glitchy” becomes gradually more apt. It’s a bit aimless and uneven, but still very cool.
Highlights: “No Solace At The Eschaton” and “Emptiness-Wrought Cognition”
Black Label Society – Engines Of Demolition
Genre: Heavy/doom metal/hard rock
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: This gets more of a mention than a full review, as I’m a bit short on time this week, and it sounds pretty much exactly as you’d expect from Zakk and the rest of the biker gang. Crunchy, sludgy rock ‘n’ roll with punchy heaviness and doom groove, with quite a few ballad-y section thrown in in between. Oh, and there’s an Ozzy tribute at the end, which I can’t fault for being emotional, but would have liked to see contain some actual essence of what the Prince of Darkness actually represented, and still does.
Blasart – Depravatus Christianis Sacris
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Here’s some Chilean black metal that sounds like it’s bursting out of a yawning crack in consecrated earth, eager to corrupt and defile. It’s relentlessly aggressive but with a strong leaning into black ‘n’ roll, which grounds its rough presence and tumultuous progression in some easy-to-like groove and attitude. It’s lean, perhaps not demonstrating the tightest of performances, but that’s part of the charm, and it sound evil from horn tip to toe talon. And that album cover is one of the absolute best I’ve seen so far this year.
Highlight: “Ritus Impositionis Sacrilega” and “Vocatio Sanctis Phallus”
Chamber – This Is Goodbye…
Genre: Mathcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: I had a pretty great time with this band’s 2023 offering “A Love To Kill For”, and this is more of the same sonic punishment. In fact, it’s even heavier. What you get is mercilessly slamming mathcore with a shrill dissonant streak that makes it seem a bit like it was designed with noise torture in mind. It’s technically brilliant, but less clinical than just simply calculatingly violent. At it’s best it’s hugely dynamic and goes from a near-inanimate state to crushing skulls in a nanosecond. At it’s worst it’s a bit too much of the same – on the verge of becoming predictable. It doesn’t last for two long though, and all of a sudden it comes up from behind to snap you in half.
Highlight: “scarlet ink”
Hellripper – Coronach
Genre: Black/speed metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5Review: All hail the goat! Perhaps not the G.O.A.T., but if James keeps this up he’ll have some pretty strong arguments to make his case. The Scottich one-man-project Hellripper is back after 2023’s frankly god damn excellent “Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags” and judging by the album cover you might expect a slightly more reigned in, atmospheric and solemn approach on this one. Hell no, this is more epic and unapologetically face-melting than ever. I’d go so far as to say that several songs on here are pure masterpieces of balancing untamed, underground-feeling aggression with heavy metal likeability and timeless presence. It’s a fearless kind of album that dares to try different things and expand on the recipe, with great variation in tempos, playfulness and perceived level of darkness. This isn’t your standard flash fire of a blackened speed metal album that’s finished almost before you’re attuned to the inevitable production quirks. This is ambitious. It stretches out, perhaps a bit longer than some would find necessary, but there’s hardly a moment of pause, and certainly none wasted.
Highlights: “Hunderprest” and “Blakk Satanik Fvkkstorm”
Hexenhorde – Sempiternal Witchery
Genre: Death/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: A massive riff fest of a death thrash debut album, that just keeps on giving and giving and giving, its bloodlust never waning. There’s no real complexity or depth, it’s technically competent but much too preoccupied with delivering non-stop bad-assery to be particularly creative. It’s not the strongest in terms of songwriting, as several tracks kind of just even out or dip instead of peaking, but there’s so much groove and momentum that you can easily ignore it. It’s fast paces and over in just over 30 minutes, which feels spot on.
Highlight: “Deceiver’s Oath”
Power Paladin – Beyond The Reach Of Enchantment
Genre: Power metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: The most important thing to know about this Icelandic band’s brand of power metal is that it’s good, honest, RIFF BASED power metal, which means that it’s possible to enjoy sober and not blasted from a festival stage. As the name suggests, Power Paladin know perfectly well who they’re making music for, and aren’t the least bit shy about it. It’s got D&D and classic fantasy pouring and radiating from it, and if you’ve got the slightest love for this genre I don’t understand how it couldn’t make you beam with happiness. It’s got great energy with some actual heft and hints of aggression, excellent technical performances and just heaps of nerdy-yet-rock ‘n’ roll-charm. Grab your sword and cape, you damn well know you want to.
Highlight: “Sword Vigor” and “Camelot Rock City”
Rivers Ablaze – Inexternal Dread
Genre: Progressive black/death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: This relatively fresh Hungarian band are already on their fifth full-length since their formation in 2019. With that kind of productivity you should expect a strong clarity of vision, and that’s evident on “Inexternal Dread”. What you get is a progressive black metal band that gazes as much into the cosmos as it does the dark, misty forests, and uses a lean, semi-technical form of death metal as a means of propulsion. It’s mostly quite harsh and gloomy, but allows itself the occasional drift into more serene melody that brings to mind folk-touched doom. There are both strong highlights on here as well as tracks that lack identity and is fairly easily forgotten, but if you’re ready for a hostile, fairly unsettling trip with tight instrumental work and moments of respite, then this will serve you well from start to finish.
Highlight: “Silent Orbit”
Varmia – lauks
Genre: Blackened death/folk metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: If you like your blackened death metal sounding unsafe and a bit like it wasn’t actually intended for human comprehension, then this is likely up your alley. I’ve a soft spot for Varmia’s chaotic blend of early Behemoth savagery and Baltic tribal influences. It sounds raw, wild, more real somehow. That being said, there are more songs on this album that feel outright messy than not, and the Behemoth likeness is at times borderline imitative. It will largely depend on your expectations, but I’d take this over something polished and safe any day.
Highlight: “dzień, pół nocy”
Winterfylleth – The Unyielding Season
Genre: Melodic black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Winterfylleth have already proved their ability to take melodic black metal into the realm of the atmospherically majestic without compromising on neither the aggression nor the bleakness on 2024’s excellent “The Imperious Horizon”. So it’s not really a surprise that they’re able to pull it off yet again on this one, but it still warrants saying. At times this feels like the very landscape of ancient, untouched lands swelling and then letting out an almighty sigh as the ground cracks, trees splinter and rivers vaporize. There’s ample aggression to counter the expansive melody, although if you’re not the patient kind, you’ll probably find yourself losing focus towards the end, as it does stretch out a fair bit. While I would have liked a more distinct difference in mood given the contrast in album art (snow covered mountain top vs burning forest) between this one and their previous effort, it’s still very much a continuation of what made that one great.
Highlights: “Echoes In The After” and “Heroes of a Hundred Fields”
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?
Aggressive Perfector, albums, Bekor Qilish, Black Label Society, black metal, Blasart, chamber, death metal, grindcore, groove metal, hellripper, Hexenhorde, metal, metal albums out this week, new metal releases, new releases, Power Paladin, progressive metal, review, Rivers Ablaze, thrash metal, Varmia, Winterfylleth -
Weekly Rundown March 20 – 2026
Reviews of metal albums released March 14 – March 20
This week had a lot on its mind, with bands big and small, young and old and styles ranging from the deeply melodic to the intentionally ugly.
Chalice Of Suffering – The Raven Cries One Last Time
Genre: Doom metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5Review: A funeral doom project that seeks to immerse you in lamenting melody, funeral bagpipes and all. The clean, instrumental sections work quite well, but the heaviness has no real… heaviness. Making the slooow buildups amount to not all that much.
Cultist – Spiritual Atrophy
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: Death metal does well being rough around the edges, as long as it it’s still competently performed and packs a punch. All of this checks out on Cultist’s second full-length. The production is kinda fuzzy and the vocals are buried in the mix, but there’s thunder in the low end, and a hunger to the riffs. Unfortunately, the songwriting is a bit all over the place, as they experiment with groove, dissonance, caveman barbarism, black metal evil, and more.
Crouch – Breaking The Catatonic State
Genre: Experimental sludge metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: Stark, hard-hitting sludge metal drawing from both hardcore and doom, and refusing to stick to any one rhythm approach for more than a few moments at a time. It’s dissonant, combative and unpredictable, which at its best feels intellectually stimulating, and at its worst quite tiresome.
Dawn Of Ashes – Anatomy Of Suffering
Genre: Electronic/industrial/black metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: Smear on your corpse paint but switch out your bullet belt with a bandolier of colorful vial shots. It’s time to rave for Satan. Dawn of Ashes is a Los Angeles-based industrial black metal band that’s completely embraced EDM/EBM on this, their 12th (!) full-length release. The synths are spooky, the beats are steady and the vibes are hypnotic. Not my jam, but I’d take this over pretty much any generic dancefloor music.
Decipher – Thelema
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Decipher are a Greek band playing a death-leaning, riff-driven variant of black metal with modest hints at melody, although nothing like the epic stuff you’d expect from fellow countrymen Rotting Christ, and certainly not Septicflesh. This is focused, bitter-sounding and actually a bit understated, although it’s not the type o thing that gets lost in a hazy forest lake of misery. I don’t quite find enough on it that really catches my attention, but all the right elements are in place, and performed without fault for that proper unholy feeling.
Highlight: “Return to Naught”
Dragsholm – The Bloodlines Of Bram
Genre: Black/death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: Although not demonstrating the very tightest of performances, this is growling, gutsy black metal with just enough epic-toned melody to call it entertaining, and more than enough crunchy death metal riffing to invite some serious headbanging.
Egregore – It Echoes In The Wild
Genre: Black/death metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: This one has a bit of that Veilburner madness to it, and I’m all here for it. While it sounds plenty demonic and enveloped in clouds of witch cauldron fumes, instead of diving for the abyss, this aims to captivate you with a seductive, complex dance of shifting rhythm patterns, charging riffs and heavy metal gallops and dive bombs that would be right at home on a blackened thrash or speed album. It channels a lot of that Venom-esque, rough-around-the-edges, “just go for it” kind of sensory overwhelming aggression that doesn’t need a lot of fancy production wizardry or dazzling technicality, but is rooted in classic techniques. Another thing that I love about it is that it just doesn’t tire. Apart from on the epic closing track, there’s very little, if anything in the way of atmospheric breaks or “restful” sections. It constantly moves forward, eager to shock, corrupt and amaze, and is filled to the brim with highlights.
Highlight: “Voice on The West Wind” and “Servants of the Second Death”
Empire Of Disease – While Everything Collapses
Genre: Melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5Review: If you’re into old school melodeath riffs, then this one is plain enjoyable from start to finish. That’s not to say that it’s without weaknesses – the vocals are a bit lacking in range and force, it’s certainly not rewriting any books in terms of originality, and they’re mixing modern and classic elements seemingly as the mood takes them. But the spirit of it is a real headbanger, and that I admire.
Evermore – Mournbraid
Genre: Power metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: No, not Nevermore. While this is on the slightly darker side for power metal, it’s still certainly not short on soaring vocals and epic choruses. It tries to add a shade of solemnity, but it’s mostly a veneer that’s easily broken through with thrashy riffs and vibrant solos.
Exodus – Goliath
Genre: Thrash metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: You know what time it is when Exodus enters the fray. Time to windmill-headbang your neck into a rubik’s cube-level puzzle for your chiropractor to solve while getting spitefully shouted at and pulled into the flames of damnation. That being said, if you were hoping for a ferocious, pedal-to-the-metal death race kind of thrash album, you might find your enthusiasm waning fairly quickly, as this is a distinctly mid-paced kind of affair. Suits me just fine, as the menace factor is palpable. This is not an experimental sort of Exodus record, as it sounds like they had a very good idea of what this should sound like, and so it feels confident and coherent. But not all of it is as memorable, and the 54-minute + runtime feels unnecessary. It’s a great riffing time with an awesome vocal performance, that’s a bit short on surprises.
Highlights: “3111” and “Promise You This”
Gaerea – Loss
Genre: Blackened metalcore
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Generally, I try to keep personal expectations from influencing my rating of a new album as much as possible, but with a track record like that of Gaerea, it’s hard to stay neutral. I completely adored their last two albums in particular. That adoration ruptures violently with “Loss”, as if the great eye on the cover of 2024’s “Coma” were to burst in a cascade of blood and gelatinous tissue. I don’t pay much attention to the lore or goings on of bands in between releases, or the singles they release leading up to a new album, as I want my reaction to be as raw as possible. So the stylistic shift I was presented with on “Loss” came as a miserable shock to me. What it makes me realize is that Gaerea was balancing on top of a precipice two years ago. A precipice they have now plummeted from the other side of. They have all but left the realm of black metal behind as if it was a relic, and embraced slick, emotional, symphonically majestic and at times even pop-oriented metalcore. And so, rating this as a darkly cinematic metalcore album, it’s solid in most ways. It sounds rich, melodically expansive, if a tad generic, and with a buttery smooth production, managing big highs and lows of intensity effortlessly, with obvious vocal and instrumental talent to back it up. But not quite enough hard-hitting aggression or awe-inspiring technicality to counter the towering mass of soft sentimentality – a balance that many now-peers in the sphere of metalcore and melodic deathcore really excel at achieving. As someone struggling not to look backwards, this to me feels like a sappy, trend-chasing dismissal of the actual tonal depth, complexity and heaviness of the past. Quite possibly my DOTY (disappointment of the year).
Highlight: “Hellbound”
Graufar – Via Necropolis
Genre: Melodic black/death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Mixing piercing vocals with classic tremolo, beastly death metal riffs and gloomy melodies, this feels like an old school melodeath album that died and resurrected as an undead in a long-forgotten necropolis. It worships at both the altar of primitive chugs and that of atmospherically backed grandeur, taking you on a tour of most of the elements that makes melodic black metal great. It’s not complex or what I’d call impressively layered, but it’s got the same consistent instrumental focus and sinister vibes all the way throughout, making it easy to like and very hard to get tired of.
Highlights: “Blizzard and Blaze”
Gutvoid – Liminal Shrines
Genre: Progressive death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: This is old school death metal lured out of its cave with treats and led gloriously astray on a brain-spinning excursion through an unpredictably morphing landscape. It’s not quite as weird as I probably make it sound, but it’s certainly not straightforward. The gurgling, coarse brutality is constant, as is the rolling heaviness and the tone of utter menace, but it travels on progressive rhythms and picks up echoes of ancient atmosphere and deviously slithering melody. It’s not at all unnecessarily dissonant or chaotic, it feels patient and deliberate, but rarely fails to surprise with its numerous twists and turns.
Highlights: “Lead Me Beyond the Sleeping I” and “Spell Reliquary”
Hanging Garden – Isle Of Bliss
Genre: Melodic doom/death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Now in their 9th full-length, Hanging Garden aren’t anything near newcomers to the scene of Finnish melodic doom/death, but the fame of such similar-sounding peers as Insomnium, Swallow the Sun and Amorphis has so far eluded them. And while I highly doubt that “Isle Of Bliss” will be the album to break them into the mainstream, it certainly makes a strong argument for giving this 7-strong collection of solemn doomsayers the credit that they’re due. While not without force or scope, this is the kind of atmospheric extreme doom that you let carry you away into wispy lands of lamenting over what could have been, not the kind that ushers you to bellow your lungs out from a majestic mountaintop. It’s thickly layered in instrumental beauty, with some meaty riffs and varied vocal styles, and while a bit monotonous for short stretches, it’s far less ponderous than a lot of other contemporary doom projects.
Highlights: “Isle of Bliss” and “To Outlive the Nine Ravens”
Hautajaisyö – Surun paino
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: It would take some pretty shoddy craftsmanship for me not to have a good time with crunchy, old-school-style Scandinavian death metal, and Finnish band Hautajaisyö are in absolutely no danger of incurring my displeasure. Thrashy riffing, monstrous vocals and a relentlessly dark and threatening demeanor all work very well for them. The songwriting could definitely be stronger, with some slightly halting rhythm transitions and jumbled buildups, but the essence of it is pure menace.
Highlight: “Maan Nielemä”
Iron Firmament – In the Land of Pre-Human Kings
Genre: Atmospheric/raw black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: This is an album that, unless you are already familiar with Iron Firmament’s earlier work, will likely surprise you with its depth. What immediately strikes you is that this is raw black metal, so unless that is very specifically your jam, it will take a little time getting used to the speakers-muffled-by-a-thick-duvet sound quality. The album cover very aptly points to the thematic nature of epic dark fantasy, and hints to the fact that you’ll be invited to lose yourself in wanderings under the shadows of ancient ruins and among the debris of recent battlefields. I actually found myself caught off guard a couple of times at just how well the atmosphere is integrated with the cold, blasting bitterness, and found my appreciation growing steadily every minute that I spent with it.
Highlights: “Atlantis in Permafrost” and “The Coast of Worlds”
Karmian – Horror Vacui
Genre: Melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: An Italian melodic death metal band that pull strongly from that early Amon Amarth “marching of the horde”-sound, but also from classic death metal acts like Cannibal Corpse. In the end though, they transform this foundation with a mindset for modern, technical playfulness and a great love for groove. There are some real bangers on here, which are unfortunately offset by a few clear stumbles.
Necrogore – Ectoplasmic Rape Phenomena
Genre: Black/death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: The debut full-length of this Italian band, thrusting you face first into a mound of steaming gore and laughing as you gag. This is filthy, massively crusty old-school-brutal death metal without a shred of pity or remorse. It’s coarse, fairly chaotic and ugly, with little in terms of groove or steady rhythms to hold on to.
Papa Necrose – Anthropomorphy Execution
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: This hitherto unknown to me Brazilian death metal band reminds me a lot of Ripped To Shreds on this, their fourth full length, and in my book that’s a promising starting point to say the least. Extremely riff-happy, raw-throated and gleefully malevolent towards religion and the catholic church in particular, with a playful attitude to serving up a variety of engaging rhythm approaches, it’s making all the right arguments to turn to the dark side. Also packed with tasty solos and a splash of that Sepultura/Soulfly tribal vibe, the only real thing holding it back is a tendency to unnecessarily stretch out certain song sections, maybe intended as contrasting breaks in the ferocity. The result is perhaps not the best flow out there, but it keeps grabbing your attention and stays energetic and inventive to the very end.
Highlights: “Hammered in the Mind” and “Cathedral of Death”.
The Silver – Looking Glass Hymnal Blue
Genre: Progressive black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Sporting obvious talent from Horrendous and Crypt Sermon, and very little in terms of stylistic influence from those bands, The Silver is a sort-of-supergroup that plays progressive, atmospheric and slightly avant-garde melodic black metal, and it’s a hoot of a time. That being said, the tone is mostly on the cold and sorrow-tinged side, so it doesn’t come off as whacky or whimsical in any way, but it’s also far too agile and technically interesting to get you properly immersed in any sort of pool of misery. Mixing clean and harsh vocals and instruments into a complex, vital drama cast in blue moonlight, it’s a strong statement of creativity and versatility that has great potential for even further exploration.
Highlight: “Tendrils”
Via Doloris – Guerre et Paix
Genre: Atmospheric black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: What the realm of atmospheric black metal can’t claim to have in abundance is strong individual band personality. But, being the solo project of guitarist Gildas le Pape, you can very quickly hear the foundations of a strong melodic signature in the guitar work in particular, and it goes a long way by itself. Helped by a great production and avoidance of the biggest and most tired tropes of the subgenre, this is a beautifully flowing and subtly distinct piece of black metal that balances fluid melody with nocturnal ire.
Highlight: “Un Franc Soleil”
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?
albums, black metal, death metal, Decipher, Egregore, Exodus, gaerea, Graufar, grindcore, groove metal, Gutvoid, Hanging Garden, Hautajaisyö, Iron Firmament, metal, metal albums out this week, new metal releases, new releases, Papa Necrose, progressive metal, review, The Silver, thrash metal, Via Doloris -
Weekly Rundown March 13 – 2026
Reviews of metal albums released March 07 – March 13
Does Friday the 13th spell disaster for the weekly releases? Come on in and find out for yourself.
Blood RED Delusion – Bloodlust Awakening
Genre: Melodic death/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5Review: Those who are into Finnish melodic extreme metal will know what I mean when I say that this album feels like Mors Principium Est mixed with “Blooddrunk” era Children of Bodom, and added a pinch of Cavalera Conspiracy aggressive thrash riffing. At its best it delivers all you could hope for from that combo, but it’s also marred by a fair share of missteps, among them some pretty weak melodic choruses.
Bound In Fear – A Mind Too Sick To Heal
Genre: Deathcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: Stupidly heavy deathcore that’s completely knotted up in breakdowns, like it’s suffering from cramp-inducing seizures. There’s a bit more to it than that though, as you get slight detours into passages of unease, both on interludes and bits of calm on otherwise starkly violent tracks. You get big contrasts, not much in the way of melody, and enough punishment to leave you well and tenderized.
Fabienne Erni – Starveil
Genre: Progressive symphonic metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Fabienne takes the trappings of folk metal with her from Eluveitie and uses it to dress up her own take on mildly progressive symphonic metal. This is far more melodic than that other project, cleaner and more pop-oriented, but certainly not soulless. Where others might be happy to coast along on generic beats and de-prioritize instrumental performances in favor of massive, self-aggrandizing vocal choruses, this feels like silky, gently epic storytelling for those who don’t favor the bite of extreme metal’s aggression. It’s a bit much of the same towards the end of the album, but works very well for its intended purpose.
Highlight: “Stone by Stone”
Fallath – Nälkäiset aaveet
Genre: Black metal/punk
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: Like an overstimulated dog, Fallath bites down on black metal like it was an old ball and shakes it to shreds. You’re presented with both maniacal drum assaults and more primitive, marching rhythms, added some garage rock melody and groove. They don’t quite manage to land enough memorable moments for most of the tracks to really stay with you, but overall there’s enough there for an enjoyable listen and making a mark in the punky black metal niche.
Gluttony – Eulogy To Blasphemy
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Perhaps fitting considering the name, this sounds less like Entombed and more like the monstrous offspring that ate Entombed. Utterly ravenous for sinew-ripping, cartilage-crunching riffs, this flesh chomper sets off on a mid-paced rampage and just doesn’t stop, leaving a trail of steaming human paste in its wake. There’s no finesse, no real innovation, but also no slacking. No riff is overused, no one rhythm approach goes on for too long. It delivers massive grooves and plenty of tongue-in-cheek, grisly horror. It knows exactly what the fans are hungry for and delivers in bloody excess.
Highlight: “Hung From Entrails”
Lamb Of God – Into Oblivion
Genre: Groove metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: So, after 27 years LOG has finally ditched Papyrus and got themselves a shiny new logo. Thoughts on graphic design aside, does it also come with a brand new sound? Not quite, this is still unmistakably Lamb of God, but for those that feel like they’ve been a bit on autopilot for the last few releases, this does offer a slightly different approach. It’s leaner, more dynamic and willing to reach out beyond the signature groove-riff core that has defined and anchored them for most of their career. Does it work out for the best? Yes and no, depending quite a bit on individual taste. Because there’s more variation, it’s easier to pick out single tracks based on characteristics, and for me there’s a clear divide between the stuff that sounds energetic, well-flowing and/or conceptually inspired, and the stuff that either feels hollow or like them imitating bands that they themselves have inspired. In the end, this is an interesting spark in their discography, nothing crazy but kind of revitalized, with some massive highlights outweighing the stuff that I personally think the album would have been better without.
Highlights: “Parasocial Christ” and “Sepsis”
Mammon’s Throne – My Body To The Worms
Genre: Doom/sludge/death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: If you’re into the kind of non-abyssal, horror-infused and melodically touched death doom that the likes of Hooded Menace have been putting out recently, then this is indeed for you. Pulling from old school doom, sludge and black metal as much as death, it sounds stylistically confident without landing in a precise subgenre. It goes big on vibes, taking its time crafting curses and raising the dead from their graves one by one, but also doesn’t shy from mobilizing the whole undead horde and going on the attack every now and then.
Highlight: “Senseless Death”
Monstrosity – Screams From Beneath The Surface
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: There’s life yet in this old beast. Eight years after their last release, old school Florida death metallers Monstrosity are back to cause more mayhem. On it they mix in a bit of melodeath battle readiness with thrashy, technically tight riff- and rhythm work, dry vocals and a sprinkling of guitar solos, then soak everything in that unmistakable, classically morbid tone. Sometimes it really surges ahead, sometimes it drags, and not always on purpose. If you’re unfamiliar with the band, once you “get” their sound, you’re not really in for any surprises. It doesn’t flow beautifully, but has loads of that caveman bloodlust, and the technical chops to expertly dissect you once you’ve been clubbed in the head.
Highlight: “The Colossal Rage”
No/Más – No Peace
Genre: Grind/hardcore/death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: If you like your grindcore massively stompy, stark and prone to outbursts of axe grinding, lethal death metal riffage, then this stuff might as well have been tailor made for you. A strong adherence to hardcore rhythms has the band jump-jogging their way through this whole thing, only occasionally skipping into flailing fits of Napalm Death-like violence. It feels raw, thoroughly hostile and with exhausting live performances in mind. Those that prefer speed and all out ferocity coupled with massive grooves in their deathgrind might feel that this one comes up a bit short. but it will still thoroughly scratch that itch.
Highlight: “Choke Point”
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?
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Weekly Rundown March 06 – 2026
Reviews of metal albums released February 28 – March 06
To hell with navel-gazing doom and gloom, most of the release highlights this week are out to make triumphant noise and cause a bit of a stir.
Axe Dragger – Axe Dragger
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: On their self-titled debut, Axe Dragger combine mid-tempo, rugged-melodic heavy metal with hard rock cool and a bit of thrash riff-edge. This is a band that’s not lacking in character, offering plenty of tracks with strong individual personalities and an impressively versatile vocal performance. It’s not what I’d call silly, but it’s definitely feelgood in the sense that it invites you in to partake in a very specific kind of mood, radiating rock ‘n’ roll groove, pleasant melodies and antihero charm. Far from over the top, it actually feels a tad too laid back, lacking a bit of punch and urgency. Looking forward to more, perhaps with a slightly heavier foot on the gas pedal.
Highlight: “Give You the Rope”
Cogadh – Kingmaker
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: A stripped back but not at all terribly produced black metal album out of Canada, with a hardcore spirit that’s particularly noticeable in the vocal approach. It hits like good garage rock, but also has a good deal of depth when it counts.
Desert Storm – Buried Under The Weight Of Reason
Genre: Stoner/sludge metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Give heaviness a purpose, and suddenly it becomes a very versatile tool. England’s Desert Storm employ heaviness in mountainous heaps, well matched with rusty sludge vocals and tons of mid- to low-tempo groove. But these aren’t the sole features of their sonic landscape. Rather they are masses of rocky cliffs towering out of the ocean, for the waves to break on when the storm fronts hit. And the album offers up a wide range of weather patterns – from the tranquil to the tempestuous. In the end, it falls just short of feeling like a unified conceptual statement, but it’s still an awesomely heavy-hitting, engagingly dynamic experience that takes just as much time as it needs to kick ass and push enough buttons to leave a multi-layered impression.
Highlights: “Law Unto Myself” and “Woodsman”
Lost Society – Hell Is A State Of Mind
Genre: Heavy/nu metal/metalcore
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5Review: Finnish firecrackers Lost Society are back with more high-energy, symphonically boosted, catchy modern heavy metal crossed with Avenged Sevenfold/Bullet For My Valentine-style metalcore and groove-forward nu metal. Apart from a couple of highlights the material on here is mostly fairly predictable or suffering from an imbalance of weakly written parts sucking the momentum out of the fun ones.
Mega Colossus – Watch Out!
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Aside from the vocal style and kind of happy-go-lucky rhythms reminding me a whole lot of Weird Al, which makes it hard to shake the feeling of it being a parody, this is a kind of heavy metal album that mixes an adventurous tone and theme with very down to earth instrumentation and ironic lyrical and conceptual approach. There’s a decent amount of shredding, but nothing crazy, and the band seem more interested in crafting clever, well-flowing song structures, memorable choruses and restrained-yet-effective melody lines. It’s clean and stripped of unnecessary fluff, although perhaps feeling a bit too under control and reigned in.
Highlight: “Battlefront”
Miserere Luminis – Sidera
Genre: Atmospheric black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Like potent raw ingredients tapped directly from their natural sources, melodic beauty and hostile bitterness are joined with little restraint on Canadian band Miserere Luminis’ third full-length. The two sides clash as much as they mix and weave together in complex patterns. It sounds like a struggle for much of the duration, but not a chaotic or disturbing one. More like the organic conflict that goes into eventually finding equilibrium and achieving harmony in environments undergoing radical change. The dynamism and emotional depth on this album is truly profound, making it a must-listen for those in tune with this kind of harsh/atmospheric mix.
Highlight: “De cris & de cendres” and “Dans la voie de nos lumières”
Qwälen – Veri virtaa edelleen
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: Finnish black metal that can’t quite seem to make up its mind about whether it wants to be fast and rowdy, massive and oppressive or sinister and atmospheric. It tries all of the above, and sometimes all of it together, with somewhat mixed results. Each of the individual approaches work for them, particularly the more primitive and punk-inspired one, and it’s not really a confused sounding album, but it would likely be stronger walking down a single path at a time.
Temple Of Void – The Crawl
Genre: Melodic death/doom metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Here we’ve got another one of those bands playing the dangerous game of messing around with the formula that got them established. To be fair, 2022’s “Summoning the Slayer” was no straightforward death doom record either, but “The Crawl” sees Detroit’s Temple of Void not just loosening the stylistic belt a couple of notches but opening it all the way up in order to loop on a whole host of new and exciting accessories. What should be said is that in terms of riff- and vocal style, this is pretty much as classic death doom as it gets, and the guys keep laying into you hard and heavy all throughout the album. But it moves at distinctly different paces and mixes in various tones of melodies according to how the mood seems to strike it, taking on melodeath, goth, hard rock, epic doom, classic heavy metal, and other traits that liven up proceedings no end. It feels perhaps a bit under-planned and open-ended, leaving less of a solid statement and more of a collection of entertaining heaviness. But when it sounds as good as this, that’s more than fine with me.
Highlights: “Poison Icon” and “The Crawl”
Triumpher – Piercing the Heart of the World
Genre: Heavy/power metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: This is metal that forcibly marches you straight to the battlefield, spear in hand, by way of pure inspiration and rhythmic stimulation. Triumpher mixes the glorious, epic nature of power metal with the dark majesty of melodic black metal as fuel for its classic, gutsy heavy metal cavalry charge. On a casual listen it’ll probably sound like any run-of-the-mill bombastic, Manowar-esque thing, but invest just a bit of attention and you’ll start to pick up on the nuances and distinct characteristics that give it a strong personality. I had pretty much every track grow on me on the second listen, and even though I don’t find it as rousing or catchy as some of its peers, it’s full of conviction and not quite like anything else.
Highlight: “Destroyer”
Vreid – The Skies Turn Black
Genre: Melodic black metal/black ‘n’ roll
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Not unlike the Temple of Void album also releasing this week, this is not the place to go for faithful adherence to classic genre conventions. While the old school black metal roots are very much intact and lovingly maintained, this boldly stretches even Vreid’s black ‘n’ roll-interpretation of the style past previous boundaries. The riff and snarl are both very much alive and furiously kicking, supported by frosty melodic bits, and are contrasted by clean, electronic and acoustic parts that feel like detours sparked by curiosity, into pockets of related musical realms. This stylistic fluidity works quite well for the most part, adding an element of unpredictability that breaks up the sometimes overly straightforward rock riffs and rhythms. A rich and varied listening experience for those who can tolerate a bit of fun and games mixed in with their nihilism.
Highlights: “From These Woods” and “A Second Death”
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?
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Weekly rundown February 27 – 2026
Reviews of metal albums released February 21 – February 27
Finishing off February with a truckload of weirdness, both the kind that will cheer you up and the one that’s a bit looking to mess with your sanity.
Blackwater Drowning – Obscure Sorrows
Genre: Melodic/symphonic death metal/metalcore
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5Review: Here’s a modern melodeath band that employs pretty much every trick in the book. Metalcore rhythms, symphonic grandeur, progressive drum tricks, dissonant aggression, power metal melody… the list goes on. It’s not exactly messy, but feels very half cooked an indecisive, with so-so clean vocals and a distinct lack of groove to compensate.
Cemetery Reign – Confined To Time
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Black metal gets more than its fair share of punk crossover, but it also quite suits the mustier branch of death metal quite well, as evidenced by New Mexico band Cemetery Reign’s debut full-length. If someone decided to build a mausoleum in a dark, filthy back alley, and its occupants subsequently got possessed by flesh eating spirits, then this is probably the sound that would emanate. There’s a dark, doomsday-hailing tone to it, but the upbeat tempos and chasing riffs provide enough of a pull for it not to sag into death doom. There are a handful of highlights that make me wish there were more of them, but nothing’s really boring or weak either.
Highlight: “Spiral Eyes”
Cryptic Shift – Overspace & Supertime
Genre: Progressive death/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5Review: Get ready to leave the mundanity of earth so far behind that you’ll struggle to recollect what it’s like living here. Cryptic Shift speed boldly into the pure chaos of the still-forming cosmos and do their best to interpret through means of technical death- and thrash metal music what it feels like to be subjected to the forces and impressions they’re experiencing there. This is truly progressive music, as they enthusiastically tear apart formulas and employ the tools of the core subgenres to define feelings and sensations, as well as the journey itself into this realm of rule-unbound wonder. Far from whacky for whacky’s sake, and refraining from the extremes of dissonant hostility, you get massive, controlled shifts in intensity, completely eschewing traditional structures but allowing for a progression that’s not totally overwhelming, and continues to pull new tricks out of its space suit pockets until the very end. Takes a while to get into, but so very well worth sticking with.
Highlights: “Overspace & Supertime” and “Stratocumulus Evergaol”
Ennui – Qroba
Genre: Doom metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Despite the name, funeral doom shouldn’t all have to be hopelessly bleak and slower than wind erosion of a rock. Georgian band Ennui allow for a generous portion of majesty on their fifth full-length, and it’s quite captivating. It builds, not just in intensity, but in melodic gravity, and feels like witnessing a slowly morphing series of dramatic weather phenomena. It has that Finnish natural connection and two-sided melancholy that can feel both crushing and comforting. Take care you don’t sink too deep into this one, or you might never resurface.
Highlight: “Becoming Void” and “Decima”
Mek Na Ver – Noctivaga
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: Italian, frigid black metal that sounds raw in the sense that it’s stripped back in terms of elements, and not intentionally ruined in the production. It employs a mix of straightforward, snarling aggression with ice water drips of symphonic melody, without adding a shred of bombast. It has a gentle side, but this feels more like representing the frail vestiges of life that are about to succumb in the merciless embrace of winter.
Necrofier – Transcend Into Oblivion
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: I first caught wind of Texan band Necrofier with the release of their 2023 album “Burning Shadows in the Southern Night”. I particularly enjoyed the unapologetic worship of darkness and evil, and thought they succeeded in following in the footsteps of the Norwegian greats while adding plenty of their own character to it. On “Thranscend Into Oblivion” they’ve gone conceptual on our asses, with three three-part suites and some long interludes to boot. It’s big, but unfortunately doesn’t sound very big, and it’s long, without fully justifying it. It’s an interesting journey overall with lots of elements and a consistent tone and feel, but just too few highlights to keep it fully interesting.
Highlight: “Servants of Darkness, Guide My Way I”
Necrosexual – Road To Rubble
Genre: Black/heavy metal/punk
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Sleazily alluring, chain-whipping and as scruffy as a cat that’s been through a sandstorm. Take one look at the album cover and you know more or less exactly what you’re getting. This is blackened punk injected with a decent dose of heavy- and thrash metal riffs, strutting with attitude and demanding your attention. This album is all fun, with clownery meeting highly competent musicianship. The main thing I’m missing is more speed, particularly in the second half, as the thing feels like it comes in for landing at least a couple of tracks before it’s actually finished.
Highlight: “The Brimstone Brothel”
Ruoska – Kade
Genre: Industrial metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: For those unfamiliar (like I was), Ruoska is a Finnish industrial metal band that was mostly active in the early 2000s, and are now releasing their sixth full-length after a whopping 18-year break. This is cybergoth meets Rammstein in a big way, with massive beats and marching riffs meeting techno melody and a goofy sci-fi theme. It’s definitely one to headbang to, and not something you hear very often, offering plenty of fun but not taking the concept nearly as far as I feel like there’s potential for.
Highlight: “Kettingit”
Slagmaur – Hulders Ritual
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: This sounds like the classic Norwegian black metal formula collapsed in on itself, and this is what can be heard if you put your ears to the ruins. I don’t know if it takes being Norwegian to realize it, but this stuff is about as serious as making letter pasta soup with only triplets of “6”s glued together. The guitars and drums are comically crushed in the production, and the concept is at least 90% vibes. For what it is, then, it’s pretty damn cool. Primitive riffs and rhythms accompany repetitive, almost droning tremolo melodies and perfectly coarse vocals. For me it’s too much of the same on repeat, but if you find that you’re into the idea, then you’ll likely love it.
Highlight: “Hexen Herjer”
Unverkalt – Héréditaire
Genre: Atmospheric sludge/black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Joining beauty and ugliness, particularly in the blast-beating world of black metal, takes a particular kind of affinity, and this is something Greek band Unverkalt evidently possess. This album feels in many ways like an intricately written lament, that allows in more emotions than just sorrow. There’s consolation, anger, persuasion and begging. Sometimes it feels like being commanded, and sometimes it feels like they’re reaching out for support. The use of traditional instruments and a wide variety of vocal and rhythm techniques makes for a bleakly rich listening experience that goes nowhere good, but also refrains from diving headlong into misery.
Highlights: Penumbrian Lament” and “Die Auslöschung”
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?
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Weekly rundown February 20 – 2026
Reviews of metal albums released February 14 – February 20
This week offers plenty for both the thinker and the doer, with both devil may care bravado and carefully considered, devil-in-the-details craftmanship.
Abstracted – Hiraeth
Genre: Progressive extreme/death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: Someone left the prog tap running while they went out shopping on this one. Apart from during some mellow buildups and choruses, your mind is hardly allowed a moment’s rest, as the riff and rhythm style, while tightly performed, seems almost petulantly unwilling to stick to any sort of cohesive pattern. If that’s how you like your prog, then great, this will likely tickle your brain in all the right ways. It’s a mix of death metal brutality and metalcore-ish emotion-tinged melody, with the clean vocals sounding a bit overstrained in parts.
Aeon Gods – Reborn To Light
Genre: Power metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: The sound of divine majesty, at least the fairly benevolent parts. This is polished, symphonic power metal that can get nice and riffy now and then, well performed, and otherwise reasonably sparkly-epic, and perhaps a tad too self-serious.
Atlas – Sunder
Genre: Melodic extreme metal/metalcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: Mighty Finnish metalcore mixed with modern, melodic extreme metal, moody to a near-gothic point and contrasting crashing highs of soaring aggression with melancholic-yet-pleasant calm. It’s beautifully produced, and exudes good energy, but the two extremes do sap some of the energy out of each other, and it’s overall a tad predictable.
Bizarrekult – Alt Som Finnes
Genre: Atmospheric black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Emotional, philosophical, sad-yet-hopeful black metal, steeped in melancholy melody and mastering the switches between classic, raspy harshness and vulnerable cleans. It’s the type of release that will have a bunch of reviewers and commenters going on about how it absolutely crippled them emotionally. And for those so inclined/prone, I can see this being quite impactful. It’s even-tempered, not particularly varied, but consistently well thought out.
Highlight: “Avmakt”
Coscradh – Carving The Causeway To The Otherworld
Genre: Black/death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: This stuff sounds a bit like if the guys in Mayhem all got possessed by actual demons while in the recording studio. It’s very clearly evil as all hell, and just unhinged enough that you know they don’t want you to feel comfortable while listening to it. Vocals and riffs are drowned in the mix, the drums and bass are absolutely frantic, and the solos are ugly. It’s very much on the cusp of war metal, although not quite as punishing as the real heavyweights of that subgenre. Conceptually and in terms of how it feels it absolutely nails the objective of being an actual unnerving blackened death album, and it might have had even more of an impact if it didn’t sound like it’s about to shake itself apart half the time.
Highlight: “Adhradh Dé Ghoac”
Daidalos – Dante
Genre: Symphonic black metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: A Divine Comedy-themed spiral into the pits of hell, in expectedly bombastic fashion. It’s a dark, grand, well performed variant of symphonic black metal, that perhaps pulls a bit too much from power metal for its own good. It sounds good and has no massive faults, but also gets fairly simple and predictable in parts.
Domhain – In Perfect Stillness
Genre: Atmospheric black metal/shoegaze
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: This album feels like it’s exploring and expanding upon a hidden world of gloom that can only be found at dusk. It has a stone-faced black metal core, and does put out a decent amount of aggression, but first and foremost it’s a flowing, meditative experience that pulls you into a tastefully dramatic soundscape and envelops you in folk-like melody and restrainedly progressive buildups and rhythm shifts. At its best it’s highly immersive, but I do find that it drags a bit at times. In total though, I find myself wanting more at the end of the roughly 35 minute runtime, and am looking forward to the continuation of this highly promising debut.
Highlights: “Talamh Lom” and “My Tomb Beneath The Tide”
Exhumed – Red Asphalt
Genre: Death metal/grindcore
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5Review: A gory death metal album about road accidents should carry some considerable speed, and Exhumed’s latest certainly does. Their fun-loving yet brutal brand of guts-wading, fairly shreddy old school morbidity does particularly well paired up with the impatience of grindcore. A lot of this is like getting Carcass with an axe and meat hammer instead of the array of scalpels, and it works perfectly for the high-tempo style they’re running with on “Red Asphalt”. The production is crisp and full, without an ounce of unnecessary fluff, and an improvement on 2022’s “To the Dead”, although that one did suit the more murky sound. This album just pulls, and pulls and pulls, showcasing an awe-inspiring range of vocal delivery, tempo control, groove, tonal nastiness and flirting with melody.
Highlights: “Shovelhead” and “Symphorophilia”
Incandescence – Hors Temps
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: On the border of turning atmospheric, Canada’s Incandescence keep up the misanthropic pressure all the way throughout their fifth full-length, and still scores high on immersion. It’s a solemn, subtly layered kind of sound that minutely changes character through minor tweaks in tone and tempo, sounding sincere and well-planted in their thematic realm. It sounds nothing like its Scandinavian counterparts, yet the differences are far from forced. It’s a steady march into darkness, with a gale made up of last breaths meeting you head on. Parts of it feel somewhat like death doom, but it doesn’t linger in any one direction for too long.
Highlights: “L’Enfer existe” and “Marasma”
Lead Injector – Witching Attack
Genre: Black/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: This is all about groovy, simple blackened fun. With a direct, sharp and thin sound, this sets off on a gleeful joyride across the graveyard, tossing around solos and knocking over tombstones with a thrashing baseball bat. It delivers no real surprises, and no massive highlights, but is a good bit of fun.
Nazghor – A World Ablaze
Genre: Melodic black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: Straight-to-the-point, crunchy-riff black metal that soars on bone-chilling winds of tremolo melody and straightforward rhythms and blast beats. To those who have heard a good deal of this kind of stuff, a fair bit of it will feel like re-used old tricks, but it’s effective and suits the style that they’re going for. It’s darkly epic and melancholy, as you’d hope for, and contrasts it with crisp aggression,
Highlight: “Bathe in Ashes”
Serpent Gates – The Veil Of Darkness
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: Finnish, mildly gothic heavy metal with plenty of groove and mid-tempo shred. The Bruce Dickinson-reminiscent vocals are a highlight, and they’ve got their style nailed down nice and confidently. Apart from the highlights, of which there are several, there are a few fairly unremarkable tracks that don’t add much but a few cool riffs and solos, but the overall delivery is on point and entertaining.
Highlight: “Down The Cross”
Stam1na – Apnea
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Finnish Stam1na is just one of those bands that have somehow flown screaming past my radar in a moment of inattention. Actually, they’ve managed to do so 10 times, because this is in fact their 11th full-length album. Not being familiar with their discography, I’ll focus on what’s in front of me, which is thrashy prog metal, and the impressive part is that it sounds as experimental and whacky as you’d expect from a band that’s only just getting started. There are big contrasts in intensity – everything from rabid shredding and demonic snarls to soothing dips into pools of warm melodic bliss. And it all feels, somehow, both expertly controlled and organic, like they just came up with it on the fly, only nailing the cohesion thanks to massive talent and rock solid experience. Consider my attention well and fully captured.
Highlights: “Golem” and “Satiiri”
Sylosis – The New Flesh
Genre: Melodic/technical death/groove metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: I’ve been a Sylosis fan for some time, and this is probably the least like themselves I’ve ever hear them. Blistering technicality has always been at the forefront of what they do, tempered by a great melodic sense and a healthy portion of groove. These two aspect of their style have been given much stronger reign on this, their 7th full-length, and it’s, at least to me, leaning further towards metal- and deathcore than previously. Normally I would find this worrying, but so much of the thrashing signature style of the band is prominently intact that this feels more like flexing the borders of their expression. I’m not a fan of the ballad (!) that sort of just shows up on here, but other than this you’ll be swimming in infectious aggression delivered with commanding vocals and mind-blowingly tight instrumental performance.
Highlight: “The New Flesh” and “Spared From The Guillotine”
Zepter – Zepter
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: Retro metal out of Austria, that hit perfectly on vibes and deliver plenty of gobble-up riffs. Melodically, it’s a bit more sketchy, and the vocal performance is really not for me. But if you just want to be transported back to the late 70s/early 80s, riding on a wave of enthusiasm, then dive right in.
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?
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Weekly rundown February 13 – 2026
Reviews of metal albums released February 07 – February 13
Considering the date, horror, gloom and dark fantasy all accompany an appropriately high number of this week’s releases.
Ashbringer – Subglacial
Genre: Atmospheric black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Minnesotan sad, sad atmo-black metal band Ashbringer are unloading another collection of melodically devastating, depressive bitterness, this time eschewing clean vocals and going hard on the aggression as a contrast to the serenely flowing atmosphere. There’s plenty to get lost in, and the balance of intensity works very well. Too bad I, personally, can’t get past the (probably intentionally) awful production.
Highlight: “Subglacial”
Converge – Love Is Not Enough
Genre: Metallic hardcore/mathcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Veteran bands wondering how to sound vital 30 years into their career should take notes from Converge. The energy level on “Love Is Not Enough” is fully on par with more fresh-faced peers, and while the album doesn’t set out to establish any new stylistic paths or show the band from any revelatory new angles, it’s an impressively well-balanced mix of menacing grooves and in-your-face harshness. That being said, I wouldn’t say that it excels at neither mosh-friendliness nor math-y complexity, and leaves a few gaps where it seems slightly unwilling to fully commit to either. Still, a very solid release.
Highlights: “Force Meets Presence” and “Bad Faith”
Eye Of Purgatory – Darkborne
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Soon it’ll be more helpful pointing out the Swedish OSDM bands that don’t have Rogga Johansson contributing than doing the whole “Rogga… again?!”-acting-surprised-at-his-inhuman-productivity-thing. Here he’s working with a couple of Americans to make some appropriately spooky stuff for Friday the 13th. It’s riff-driven, fairly high tempo death metal stuffed with horror-movie synth, both as atmosphere and driving melody, and propelled by some distinctly light-footed drum work. It’s nothing hugely out of the ordinary, but is just the right degree of flippant and retro-oriented to allow for a whole heap of fun. Could’ve needed some more punch in the low end, but it’s not a glaring deficiency.
Highlights: “The Slithering” and “Formless Figures Dance”
Fossilization – Advent Of Wounds
Genre: Death/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: If I was to describe the effect of this album in one word, it would be “imposing”. This is slow-moving, abyssal-toned death metal whose rumbling presence seems to destabilize your spine to have you slither across the floor in supplication. It’s plenty ominous and consistently dark and oppressive, although not overly unsettling. The band would seemingly rather have you filled with awe than outright unease. The progression feels controlled and gradual, although certainly not missing heft or brutality. The production is excellent, and the only real things I find myself missing is bigger contrasts in mood and intensity.
Highlights: “Servo” and “Cremation of a Seraph”
Frostmorner – Orbital Kaos
Genre: Death/black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: Space-horror blackened death metal with modern, chunky chugs, a bit of prog otherness, and very sparse, spooky vocal work mostly half-lost in the atmosphere. It’s interesting enough as a concept, with a cool meld of sinister riffing and spacey synth, but ends up lacking in impactful songwriting.
Frozen Ocean – Askdrömmar
Genre: Atmospheric black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: Moody-melodied, Swedish atmo-black metal that adds some spacey electronica elements for a sense of otherworldliness to its otherwise fairly grounded approach of straightforward rhythms and classic, snarly harshness. Well crafted and fairly distinct, but feeling a bit repetitive.
Greyhawk – Warriors Of Greyhawk
Genre: Power/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Adventure time! This is the kind of album that instantly triggers that childish, starry-eyed, stick-fencing dreamer in you. Greyhawk returns with a new vocalist on their third full-length, and certainly doesn’t come out lacking in that department. Be it fist-pumping battle charges or clifftop serenades to the heavens, the energy of the moment is perfectly matched by the vocals. The playing is tightly performed, vibrant, solo loving and suitably epic, grounded by 80s heavy metal riffs the likes of Accept. It’s obviously not meant to be serious, but is so competently performed, varied and highly enjoyable that it sort of demands your attention. The album starts off very strong, and even though it doesn’t quite keep that up for the entirety of the perhaps over-long runtime, I’d say there are no noteworthy missteps on here.
Highlights: “Ascension” and “Warriors of Greyhawk”
Overtoun – Death Drive Anthropology
Genre: Experimental death/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: This thing is not quite like anything I’ve ever heard before, and that in itself is pretty exciting. The fact that they’re using death and thrash as the base ingredients for their bold, style-melding experimentation is a further endearing factor in my book, and the choice of stretching conventionality pretty far, but not all the way to the breaking point, has resulted in an album that, although a bit uneven, will catch you off guard more than a few times, while also allow you to enjoy yourself. You get a punk-y disdain for rules, with a jazz-y, prog-y attitude to rhythm-, melodic- and mood shifts, adding a thrash- and hardcore-derived love for crisp beats and riffs and a splash of death metal savagery on top of that. In between are traces of black metal, and an overall strong influx of traditional Latin American music. The album flow does suffer a bit from all this stylistic wriggling, but there’s also clearly some strong ideas behind it all, with each track serving a different purpose. Takes a bit to get used to, but in the end I find myself loving it exactly because it’s a bit of a hodgepodge.
Highlights: “Death Drive Anthropology” and “Dur Khrod”
Ponte Del Diavolo – De Venom Natura
Genre: Doom/black metal/punk
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: This Italian band quickly won me over with their debut album “Fire Blades From The Tomb”. It took the slightly tongue-in-cheek occultism of early Ghost and took it to a gloomy, forbidden place, infusing it with black metal chilliness, but keeping the classic doom pace and relative accessibility. On their sophomore release, Ponte Del Diavolo have refined their sound, cleaned up their production and boosted the punk tendencies that were also present on the debut. The downside is that it simply doesn’t sound as mystical or shady as before, but on the plus side it’s got a wider range and stronger sonic impact, with most of the occult vibe still intact, now with a slightly more gothic flavor. The first two thirds of the album are really strong, then it feels like they ran a bit low on new tricks towards the end. Still, this is a band that still very much understands what makes them unique, and probably trying to nudge themselves ever so slightly closer to the spotlight without fully abandoning the shadows.
Highlights: “Lunga vita alla necrosi” and “Il veleno della Natura”
Slaughterday – Dread Emperor
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Slaughterday is a German, mystical horror-leaning death metal band that’s been going for a little while now, and are now on their fifth full-length. They deliver a meaty, ominous sound with good crunch to the riffs, and some eager solo work. It’s nothing unique, but solid stuff with a generous handful of standout moments that is sure to please fans of both traditional and more melodic death metal, bringing to mind Vader if you were to take the thrash out of their style. The album is a bit short on grooves for my taste, but delivers big on menace, energy and coherence.
Highlight: “Dethroned”
Sundecay – The Blood Lives Again
Genre: Doom metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Canadian band Sundecay know how to move around in the classic doom space in a way that brings in elements that highlight their strengths, forging a sound of their own, without breaking out of the genre confines and becoming a hybrid. This is slow, solemn stuff with a dark tone, but with flavors of prog, psychedelia, sludge, stoner and a touch of alternative. There’s measured melody with a certain epic flavor, which builds the scope without taking off and leaving the earth behind. There are a few slightly stagnant sections throughout, but also sort of not more than you’d expect for something moving at this pace. It offers both engaging riffs and drifts into soulful calm, making for a highly impressive, style-confident debut full-length.
Highlights: “Here Comes the Wizard” and “The Tyranny Rushes In”
Worm – Necropalace
Genre: Black/doom/death metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5Review: For most underground extreme metal bands, attempting to retain that charming murkiness and edge of experimentation, that “new to all this” wonderment and eagerness of stretching the foundational form of expression, doesn’t easily go hand in hand with maturing. In fact, it can probably seem contradictory. Not so for Worm. With “Foreverglade” and the EP “Bluenothing” raising expectations stratosphere-high, the solution seems to have been to start in the place they left off and stake out a fresh, but strongly related new course, that’s very much in the musical and thematic wheelhouse. And that course is symphonic, strongly gothic-tinged black metal, overarching, but far from completely overpowering the death doom that dominated before. There’s no subtlety about it. It’s as darkly epic as it’s damn near possible to imagine, while still hostile and just the right level of nerdy, with massive fun factor coming from the insanely strong melody and solo work. And it’s still heavy, ominous, expansive and moderately unpredictable. It would seem we’re in safe hands.
Highlight: “Witchmoon: The Infernal Masquerade” and “Necropalace”
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 