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Weekly Rundown October 30 – 2026
Reviews of metal albums released October 24 – October 30
We’ve got both faithful reassurance, risk-taking and fresh surprises in store this final week of October.
Black Royal – Abyssian
Genre: Sludge/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: I had to check in with these guys because seeing their name I was immediately reminded of their 2022 album “Earthbound”, with its giant bear on the cover. It’s an album I’ve listened to several times since because it hit the spot between sludge, death and stoner in such a pleasing way to me. The same spirit is alive on “Abyssian”, but they’ve generally slowed things down and tweaked it with gothic-reminiscent moodiness. Unfortunately, going slower sort of deconstructs a lot of their riffs in a way that make them feel simple, and several sections end up rather repetitive. There’s more energetic, driving stuff on here as well, just not quite enough to keep me engaged throughout.
Highlight: “Suffocation”
Cirith Ungol – All The Shadows
Genre: Heavy/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: If this was a contest for standing out with the most distinct sound in the heavy/doom niche, Cirith Ungol would still be clear podium favorites, 55 years into their career. It hits you more or less the moment you put on seventh full-length “All the Shadows”, with Tim Baker’s demonic-eagle-scream vocals leading on and massively expanding on the muscle bound classic metal riffage and steady epic doom rhythms.
It’s a kind of sound that’s tempting to call bombastic, almost in the vein of Manowar, but there’s a grounded simplicity, paired with a dark fantasy theme and gloomy tone that gives it weight and stops it from filling up with hot air. There are moments on the album where the momentum dies off a bit and the vocals and instruments feel more disconnected than suits them, but the band remain true to their style and concept sounding almost refreshed, and miles away from fading into obscurity.
Highlight: “All The Shadows”
Cryptorium – Through The Bowels Of Ceaseless Dissonance
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: I’ll be honest: swedeath that goes heavy on the HM-2 distortion pedal (as perfected by Entombed) have a way of worming its way through a specially reserved, secret door to my cold metal heart. But the “sound” has to be followed up by the attitude, the production and, of course, the actual playing. This wasn’t quite the case with Cryptorium’s 2024 debut album “Descent Into Lunacy”, as it sounded like something recorded by accident through the studio wall while performed in the alley behind it. Major strides have been takes since then, though.
Their sophomore full-length is an absolute assault of crunch and hammering drums, like great chomping maws of hell consuming the surface above it at an infernal rate. There’s no real melody, but a tonal range that seems to borrow a fair deal from classic doom, which suits it. It loads on a bit too much noise and chunkiness for its own good at times, and it’s not what you’d call revolutionary, but if you’re into the style you’ll likely gulp it down ravenously – bowels and all.
Highlights: “Malodor” and “Revolting Obsession”
Darkest Hour – Suffer Divine
Genre: Metalcore/melodic death/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Darkest Hour is one of those bands that, even with me being the type of person who defends and even encourages bands to evolve their sound so as not to grow stale, I kind of just want to take me back to the same sonic space on every new release. Born out of the melding of melodeath and hardcore of the 90s, they’re pioneers of that early aggressive-yet-melodic metalcore sound, before it started to morph into emo and pop territory.
On this, their 11th full-length, they bring pretty much all of their stylistic influences to bear. Perhaps not in the most cohesive way imaginable, but also not in a way that feels like a disorganized sampler pack. There’s At The Gates-like melodeath, crossover thrash and metallic hardcore. It’s fast, precise and angry, just the way you want it. Completely devoid of clean vocals, and mostly avoiding big dips in energy output. It’s not without a few anthemic tendencies and fairly typical choruses, but as a fan I don’t mind a limited amount of that coming with the territory.
Highlight: “Gods of Decay” and “Everyday Horrors”
Dream Unending – Certain Uncertainties
Genre: Avant-garde doom/death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: If these sounds came to you from the deep desert, carried on the dry winds, would you follow them to their source? What’s in store is a mildly psychedelic trip of classic death doom meets desert rock and blues, with more than half of it going on benevolent instrumental tangents. It’s got no formula at all, so I wouldn’t advise going in with any particular expectations. For my taste a few too many of the rhythms are start/stop, and I can’t quite make some of the more atonal elements fit, but I think that if you give it some time it will blossom like a cactus flower.
Highlight: “Strained Sincerity”
Enslaved – Mið
Genre: Progressive black/folk metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: With Enslaved, at this point I feel utterly confident going in to a new album of theirs expecting it to be nothing short of magnificent. Yes, I realize that this is a dangerously high bar to set, but they’re one of the very few bands around that just keeps ageing like fine wine and, if not outdoing themselves every single time, at least evolving in a way that shows utter dedication to, and interest in, exploratory songwriting, while never fully abandoning their roots.
Like on 2020’s “Utgard”, “Mið” feels to a certain extent like a cosmic journey, with nods to spacey 70s prog rock, but it’s less overt this time and more of a vibe. The album starts in fairly traditional Enslaved blackened fashion, and then departs the expected step by step, culminating with the heavily Native American-leaning “Spirit Helper”. It ends up a deeply melodic and atmospheric album where the heaviness goes hand in hand with ambitious scope, that still manages to stay grounded thanks to outstanding instrumentation. It’s not quite black metal, not pure prog or folk metal. It’s Enslaved. It doesn’t quite reach some of the most awe-inspiring highs of their career, but it’s brave, considered and fresh in a uniquely recognizable fashion.
Highlights: “Solar Will” and “Parting”
Master Boot Record – Computer Metal
Genre: Electronic/industrial metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: I feel like I need to be in a particular mood to fully enjoy instrumental metal in general, but Master Boot Record has a way of coaxing out that mood within seconds of me playing any given song of theirs. This is likely largely due to Victor Love’s uncanny melodic affinity. The songs tend to go on insane solo melody tangents that has me getting weak in the knees in reverence of the sheer vibrancy.
A lot of that is thankfully still present on “Computer Metal”, but the news this time around is that more than ever before of it is… analog. In fact, there’s more actual instrumental use on the album than I thought was compatible with the concept, which might divide opinions. It’s also a tad heavier than what I’ve gotten used to from them, though still very much neoclassical in style, but also inviting in a few “core”- and slam-style rhythms here and there. It’s not as outstandingly creative as 2024’s “Hardwarez”, but then that was a genuine masterpiece, and it’s still plenty adventurous and fun.
Highlights: “PLUG AND PLAY” and “DOT MATRIX”
Ministry – Hate To Go (Take Out Or Delivery)
Genre: Industrial metal/rock
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: Time to say goodbye to another legend of the metal world. Al Jourgensen and Ministry are calling it a day, and going out focused on the message behind the music, which has been a defining trait all along. “Hate To Go” is full of voice samples and undisguised political statements, set to stripped-down, riff-forward heavy industrial rock. It’s not conceptual, or complex, or inventive. It’s distilled Ministry, and not really more or less than that.
Highlight: “Singularity”
Sarcator – The Ones We Follow
Genre: Black ‘n’ roll
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Is black metal going western gonna be like… a thing? I’m not exactly a scholar on the subject, but these last few months is the first time I’ve noticed it as a recurring phenomenon. And while some have used it as a subtle influence, Sweden’s young black thrashers Sarcator have dived in horns first. Where last year’s “Swarming Angels & Flies” was a snarling, ferocious beast that was constantly on the attack, “The Ones We Follow” is more of an opportunistic coyote by comparison.
It’s not really an overstatement that the band has drastically changed their sound since last time. The thrash relentlessness and beefy low end is all but gone, replaced with rock groove and western twang, though still with an obvious blackened edge. Something approaching fellow countrymen Witchery, although less heavy and more punky. I’m not against it at all, as it allows the band to show a completely different side of themselves – more melodic among other things. Unfortunately there are almost as many “alright” songs as there are highlights, which makes it difficult to defend the 50min+ runtime. Fun, daring, if a bit unfocused.
Highlights: “In Search of Oblivion” and “The Ones We Follow”
Vigil – Primordial Rites
Genre: Thrash metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Did you go into this week hoping to get your ass kicked, and it never sort of happened? Then you probably didn’t catch Vigil’s debut album “Primordial Rites”. This is the nastiest, snarliest, most bloodthirsty thrash I’ve possibly heard all year, only really contested by Skulld’s “Abyss Calls to Abyss” back in January, and that’s definitely death thrash.
The band go straight from the throat and sum up the totality of what they’re about within the first minute of the album – flesh ripping riffs, furious vocals and a vicious, blackened-death-reminiscent tonality – and yet they continue to both impress and massively entertain for the remaining 38 or so minutes. Speed and precision is matched by a punchy low-end – it feels perfectly fit for candle-lit, claustrophobic, underground bunker shows, without sacrificing impact. There’s tons of evil groove and demented solos, some of which are a bit coarse, but that’s okay. It’s not a reinvention of anything, but goddamn does it revel in its demonic bad-assery.
Highlights: “Blood Dust” and “At the Stake”
Xentrix – Allied With The Enemy
Genre: Thrash metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: This gang of veteran British thrashers have been going on and off since 1988, with a huge release gap between 1996 and 2019, but now seem to have hit their stride in this modern era of the band. 2022’s “Seven Words” was a thrash highlight of that year for me, and the same attitude and style is rekindled on “Allied with the Enemy”.
Led by Chuck Billy (Testament)-reminiscent barks and deadly barrages of riffs interspersed with wicked solos, the album presents a vision of apocalyptic dystopia, that might very well already be happening. The balance of bitter-tinged melody and aggression is done very well. I’m tempted to question the production, as the guitars feel a bit muddled and buried in the mix for my taste, and I’m missing the memorability of the previous album’s highlight tracks. However, this very much feels like a band that still mean business.
Highlight: “Allied with the Enemy”
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 October 23 – 2026
Reviews of metal albums released October 17 – October 23
What happens when you throw a little crazy into the gloom? You get the violent excitement of this week. And quite a bit of gloom, still.
Abyssus – The Reign
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Apparently we’re getting some spillover from last week, ’cause here’s some more death metal! This time it’s out of Greece, where they formed back in 2011 and are now on their third full-length. They don’t exactly play the “fun” variant of the subgenre, and the album struts with malice, but the playing is far from doom-laden or grungy. It’s crisp, fast paced and loaded with groove, thrashy riffs and high-flying solos.
Vocalist Kostas Analytis has a very strained, old school kind of proto-growl vocal style that suits their style, but is fairly limited in range and gets a bit monotonous after a while. The playing stays hungry and on the chase throughout, but varies a bit in inventiveness and finesse. “The Reign” is a tasteful modernization of the classic sound, that’s got a great engine on it and clearly invites you to get up and move to every single track.
Highlight: “Out of Reach”
Armory – Echoes Of The Astrolith
Genre: Speed metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: I was tempted to put “experimental” in front of the genre description on this one, ’cause it’s certainly not your typical bread-and-butter speed metal. As far as I can gather it’s not a concept album, but the band has a thing for dark science fiction, and their music leans into it far beyond the lyrical content. Apart from the obligatory use of spacey sound bites, there’s a good deal of unsettling dissonance and atmospheric elements that nudges the tonality out of the subgenre’s comfort zone. The vocals add a grounding, humorous touch with the inclusion of over-the-top falsetto and mild atonality. They will probably be the most divisive element on the album, but they certainly add character. It’s not quite as ferocious as I keep wanting it to be, although there are hefty riffs and traces of black metal throughout.
Highlight: “Interceptor Squadron”
Beaten To Death – Vntrve
Genre: Avant-garde grindcore
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Ready, set, perplexed! If the album cover wasn’t sufficient warning about the proudly insane nature of the contents within, then know that this will seriously challenge your perception of what grindcore can and/or should sound like. If you’re familiar with the band, this is old news. As on 2024’s “Sunrise Over Rigor Mortis”, which was my first encounter with them, they play beefy-riffed, half-angry grind with obvious hardcore and punk elements, as well as a fair bit of melody which fluctuates between the psychedelic, dreamlike, oddball or naïve.
This one feels a bit more minimalistic in terms of production and layering, which adds to its punky vibe, but robs it of a bit of drive. It’s a lot of fun if you’re on board with the fuck-around nature of it, but will likely get tiresome rather quickly if you’re not. It’s an explosion of flavor, ideas and varying levels of intensity, but can feel a bit disjointed and random at times. It’s stuffed with highlight moments though, so if you like when a band messes with you while packing on the heaviness, you’ll probably want to play it on repeat.
Highlights: “Sunburnt Satanist” and “Electrocuted by the Sky”
The Blood Mountain Black Metal Choir – Songs from a Dying Empire
Genre: Atmospheric black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: It’s not some obscure secret that black metal can sound beautiful, bleak and bitter all at the same time, but the metal world sure isn’t overflowing with bands that do it well. One-man project The Blood Mountain Black Metal Choir nail it though, on debut album “Songs from a Dying Empire”.
It sounds like it’s coming to you from a fair distance away, from within a soup-thick fog, and while it’s loaded with the snarly harshness of the classic, second wave origins of the subgenre, these are expertly balanced by piano-led, softly melancholic melody that pulls from a different wellspring of character than the typical Scandinavian folk-derived stuff. Just as you start to think that it’s getting too gentle though, it strikes with jagged riffs and a bit of ear-scratching tremolo. And the moment it you worry that it’s bordering on hopefulness, it dives into doomy pits of anguish.
Highlight: “Divinity Through Hardship”
Dragonland – Prophecies
Genre: Power metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Most of the major subgenres of metal have these classic sounds that simply invites you to appreciate its essence for the sort of basic feelings it was meant to invoke. Within power metal, I feel like almost every singly band in existence attempt to capture this sound, but the majority only manage to pull in a few strands.
Dragonland seem to simply exist at the source of power metal’s essence, as they employ the adventurous, playful, unabashedly fantasy-nerdy spirit of it seemingly effortlessly. I wouldn’t go so far as to call “Prophecies” an exciting album, but if you have any sort of affection for this style, then it will feel like coming home. It’s bright, hopeful, not too cheesy and stuffed with timeless melody.
Highlight: “The Call of the Wild”
Fvneral Fvkk – Indecent Idols
Genre: Doom metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Not being familiar with the band and only going off their name, you might think this is going to be some punky, barbed-wire-riff blackened grindcore kind of thing. But no, Fvneral Fvkk play a solemn, near-epic kind of doom that leans almost as much into folk-like calm as it does into heavy, crashing riffs. This makes it all the cooler that their dedicated theme is crime and hypocrisy committed by the so-called holy.
“Indecent Idols” is, simply said, a magnificent iteration of the band’s style of expression. They tackle a subject as despicable as child abuse in a manner that is both lamenting, accusatory and ironically reverent, which makes part of the experience feel uncomfortable, even suffocating. The music becomes a parallel to the systemic ugliness clad in uplifting, resplendent grace. Apart from this, the band balances gripping melody with surges of powerful, unyielding rhythms, with restrained elements of sludge, death and black metal. Rarely has a “clean” album sounded this heavy.
Highlights: “Bishop of the Iron Guard” and “Crosses to Gallows”
Ignea – Monumental
Genre: Progressive symphonic/groove metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Spotting this Ukrainian band on the release schedule for this week put a big smile on my face, as I remember having a great time with their 2023 release “Dreams of Lands Unseen”. And wouldn’t you know, they’ve managed to surpass my expectations with “Monumental”. It’s both fun, serene and catchy, but with a certain serious and angry streak to it that feels deeply earned considering the situation that their country finds itself in.
There’s a conceptual side to the album that, at least on a surface level, seems to deal with construction, architecture and manufacturing, and there are industrial elements in the music to match it. Other than this, what you get is prog metal with symphonic scope and groove/death aggression. The vocals vary between silky smooth cleans and brutal roars, and the intensity of the music matches this perfectly, with a good deal of folk elements added to expand the flavor. An exceptionally strong release by a band that deserves to skyrocket in popularity.
Highlights: “Dreams of Lands Unseen” and “Prefab”
Tony Iommi – From the Dark
Genre: Heavy/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: While Tony Iommi’s guitar playing “speaks” for itself, and I wouldn’t be mad about an instrumental album from this metal titan, recruiting Jorn for vocal duties was an inspired choice for this album. It does a huge deal for contributing the necessary bombast for the classic heavy metal portion of the album’s personality. But particularly on the calmer songs, Jørn also know how to dip into a solemn tinge to go with the doom.
While not crushingly heavy by modern technical standards, it has the perfect level of bluesy darkness to allow both moodiness and a measure of playfulness and verve from both the guitars and vocals. My main gripe is the rhythms. While well-performed, things get a bit too straightforward and repetitive at times, for my taste. The good thing is that they don’t try to steal any attention from the obvious stars of this gloomy show.
Highlights: “World Alone” and “Over the Violent Sun”
Mental Cruelty – Echoes Of A Forlorn Land
Genre: Blackened/symphonic deathcore
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Looking at the track titles on this album, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Amon Amarth dropped a surprise second album this month. But no, it’s German deathcore boys Mental Cruelty that are at it again, and have decided to dive into Norse mythology for their fifth full-length. It’s still (mildly) blackened deathcore with symphonic scope and melodic tendencies, but this time we’re marching off to war outside the walls of Åsgard.
As deathcore goes this is impressively varied, with rhythm- and riff styles genuinely switching into styles common for black metal and melodeath. You get a few sprinklings of traditional instruments, and the thing sounds appropriately lofty. To me, some of their more melodic and technical ambitions drown in the constant need for aggression and force, with a few too many elements competing for your attention at times. But when they get it right, which is most of the time, this thing is an epic skull crusher.
Highlights: “Blood For Blood” and “The Serpent Of Midgard”
New World Man – I Am The Machine
Genre: Experimental thrash metal/hardcore
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: If you’re partial to the weirdness of Voivod, but wouldn’t mind for it to take more of a crossover direction, then this is what the mad cyborg doctor shall prescribe. The album is bursting with kick-in-the-teeth energy, noise-loving technicality and more than a healthy dose of groove-loving thrash. Most of the time the pace feels frantic, and the impact brain-rattling. But it also knows to throw you for a loop with occasional leaps into prog rock, punk, industrial and other things, and they make it all work quite well within their ragged, dystopian sci fi theme.
If you’re mostly looking to headbang your neck off, there’s plenty of riffage in store, but some listeners might find their flow interrupted a bit too often by experimental antics to really get into it. I will argue though, that the unexpectedness does an important job in keeping you on your toes, forcing you to engage with the music and making sure you don’t get desensitized to the heaviness.
Highlights: “I Am The Machine” and “Hot Dog In Pigtown”
Wolves In The Throne Room – Estuary
Genre: Atmospheric black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Time to retreat to your coffin for some quality brooding to the tunes of one of the biggest atmo black metal bands out there at the moment. The band’s eighth full-length goes all in on capturing a specific mood. Something like wandering through ancient ruins and having the sad, rapturous, wretched and violent lives of its ghosts play out for you. Sound a bit gothic? That’s because it is, but not in a cheesy way. It’s a deeply layered album that manages to sound full and kinda low-fi scratchy at the same time. For some reason it fails to truly capture me. I’m not a huge fan of the vocals, and some of the more positively tinged melodies feel out of place to me. But if you want an album you can travel deep into and experience evil overtaking benevolence, this is a masterfully crafted one.
Highlights: “Ghosts Among the Obelisks” and “Knights of Tiamat”
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 October 16 – 2026
Reviews of metal albums released October 10 – October 16
If you can’t stand death metal then you might as well skip this week altogether, because it’s completely dominant and present in pretty much all its existing shapes.
Carnal Desecration – Ancient Malediction
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: The Belgian death metal scene is not to be overlooked, and from its churning innards here arrives a fresh beast in Carnal Desecration, bearing its second full-length album. It’s gloriously riff-heavy and moderately blackened in tone, sounding hungry and committed to tearing its prey into tattered ribbons. The mixing and overall composition is a little messy, with occasional elements smothered by the drums and bass, and some rhythm transitions leading seemingly nowhere. But if you want evil, groove-forward and relentless morbidity, there’s plenty to go around on this one.
Highlight: “The Casket Born”
Carnation – Symphony in Flesh
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: With an album cover and title straight out of Fleshgod Apocalypse’s wheelhouse, you’d be right to wonder if Belgian death metallers Carnation have picked up the violin, stepped in front of an orcestra and veered off their old school ways on fourth full-length “Symphony in Flesh”. Most will be pleased to learn that this is not the case. But while the riffs feel like grinding gears, and blood comes seeping out of every gap and seam in the machinery, this is also not a straightforward repeat of old glories.
The thing that strikes me above all with the album is how willing it is to dive into sinister, protracted, semi-melodic sections dominated by a piercing, near-mournful lead guitar. It exists somewhere in between the epic, the somber and the menacing, and provides strong overall character. To me there’s too much energy lost in these sections, especially in those cases where the melodies aren’t brought into the following brutal chugging. However, my preferences aside, the combination of groove, dissonance, raw savagery and doom-like depth makes this a release that offers both much of the same and also far more than your run-of-the-mill crunchy-riff death fest.
Highlights: “Kingdom of Dreams” and “Symphony in Flesh”
Fracturus – The Synthetic Path
Genre: Technical death metal/deathcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Brace your neck, or you’re in for a rapid series of whiplash. Taking tech death into melodic and deathcore-styled territory sounds like a surefire recipe for choking out the savagery of it, but while Fracturus don’t play the fiercest example of the subgenre, they achieve a great balance on their second full-length.
For one, the creativity of the songwriting doesn’t get buried in frantically scurrying drums and lead guitar, although the guys know how to crank the tempo when it’s suitable. The melodies are given presence without softening the impact too much. There’s great clarity and detail, and the low-end is tangibly present without becoming overly dominant. While it certainly doesn’t avoid all the tech tropes and has a few lulls in the excitement, it’s also far from just another instrumental show-off.
Highlight: “Roko’s Basilisk”
Iapetus – The Mother Void
Genre: Progressive/melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Iapetus have no issue making their cosmically oriented prog death sound appropriately vast. Nor is it lacking in vibrancy, or sheer mass. At 1 hour 9 minutes, this is an album you put on in order to vanish into it. While not complex, it travels a winding path of great highs and lows, with protracted atmospheric sections and several interludes, which I find to be largely unnecessary. For me the strengths are the sections that manage to combine force and melody, with the female vocals being a highlight feature. But too much of the straightforwardly aggressive or calm stuff sounds overly polished, toothless and similar to so much else in the same niche, that I simply find my interest slipping at regular intervals. But if the band’s expression speaks to you, you’re getting what’s probably their finest work to date.
Highlight: “Red Giant”
Insomnium – Netherworlds
Genre: Melodic death/doom metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: If there ever was a perfect band to accompany you as you finally let go of the last strands of summer and embrace the October gloom, it surely must be Finland’s Insomnium. During the course of the last few years they’ve played around with some conceptual twists and turns, but never strayed too far from their core sound of melancholic, melodic death doom. With their tenth full-length they make clear that the intention is simply to sound like themselves. Does that mean that they’re out of ideas?
While “Netherworlds” is pretty far from envelope-pushing – so much so that I actually hardly latched on to any of the songs on my first, casual listen – it finds the band pretty much perfecting all the things they’re good at. The melodies are exquisite and subtly characterful, the vocals are both serene and loaded with venomous anguish. The calm sections feel both engaging and well earned, and the buildups into the more intense parts are exquisitely executed. If you just want the best possible iteration of “that Finnish sad-epic sound”, this could very well be it.
Highlights: “Gleam in the Black” and “Shadowlife”
Lugubrious Garment – In The Wide Vale Of Uncreated Night
Genre: Blackened death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: This is the kind of band name that you’d expect to be hidden inside an absolute mess of spikes and thorns making up its logo design, but no, it’s actually quite legible. I suppose it refers to the tattered cloak of the reaper attached to it, but using it as the title of a hyper aggressive blackened death metal band is still peak understated humor. And the cool thing is that both its meaning and the irreverence of its use somehow also match the mood of the music.
You expect metal of this kind to be solemn, hateful, sinister and blasphemously brutal. And while all of those adjectives can be applied to Lugubrious Garment’s (try saying that with a straight face) debut album, it’s also not limited to them. The progression feels untamed, like you’ve tied a malevolent wraith to your carriage and it sets off in all the most hazardous directions in an attempt to tear free or shake you off. It feels moderately experimental, but never completely loses its way. There are elements of grindcore nuttiness and also clear traces of old school melodeath, both of which expand the dynamics of the sound. The production is the main limiting factor, with vocals, lead guitar, riffs and drums sometimes drowning each other out, and a general lack of crispness that takes a bit of getting used to. But once you have, you can start to appreciate just how creative this thing is.
Highlights: “Innocence As A Burden, Guilt As A Weapon” and “Eulogy Of Deliberate Malevolence”
Master – Among The Seeds Of Death
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: If you prefer your death metal old school and light on its feet, you’re probably already familiar with now-Czech band Master. With Obituary-style vocals, a smidge of that Death technicality and tone, and plenty of thrash impatience, they still carry the torch for that original, pioneering sound of the subgenre.
“Among the Seeds of Death” is not the album where the band breaks with the style, goes rogue and forges a new direction. Far from it. If you latched on to the band for what they started out as, you can rest assured that they’re still making death metal for the likes of you. It sounds ferocious yet morbid, playful yet focused, with lots of surprisingly technical riffing and nasty solos. It’s neither a step forwards nor backwards, but laudably vital considering the point that they’re at in their career.
Highlight: “Injustice and Lack of Remorse”
Mother Of Graves – The Light That Keeps Us
Genre: Melodic doom/death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Since you may already be curled up in a dark corner listening to this week’s Insomnium release, why not stay there a bit longer? This one will make you want to build a casket, and probably crawl inside it to hide from the world afterwards. While Mother of Graves also play a slowed down and melancholic form of melodic death metal, in contrast to the Finns they go further towards funeral doom in terms of mood and pace.
The best comparisons I can think of are Paradise Lost and early Opeth, with some “Colony”-era In Flames mixed in there as well, but the band manage a different melodic expression, and have their own way of fluctuating the intensity, like slow ocean swells. I was one of the few people in 2024 not to fall head over heels in love with their sophomore album “The Periapt Of Absence”, which probably deserved a higher objective score, but as with that one, I struggle to truly connect with the music. I simply don’t find the melodies captivating enough that my attention doesn’t start to drift in the slower sections. It all sounds sublime though, and the heaviness is both perfectly blended with the serenity, and executed with obvious passion.
Highlights: “Through the Pale Shade” and “The Beggar’s Allegory”
Otras – Na Krídlach Morovida
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: In a week dominated by death metal, this album strikes like a lightning bolt from a jet black sky. Perfectly matching its awesome album art, this is barbed-wire-wrapped, ultra-evil, punk infused black metal out of Slovakia. It’s the band’s debut full-length, but it sounds like they’ve been saving up spite and murderous intent for decades, only to unleash it all on here.
Let it be said that is very far from a pleasant listen (as if that’s anywhere near the point). This is the coarsest, buzzing, piercing ear-scourer I’ve heard in a good long while, and it’s a huge plus as far as producing a distinct sound and forming a jagged knife-edge to the aggression, which is already substantial. My only gripe is that the noise simply does not let up, so the slower, more atmospherically sinister parts are just as painful to listen to as the all-out-assault ones, which detracts a bit from the impact. Still, if you don’t mind your ears bleeding for a little while, this stuff will fire you up, and it makes me want to see them live more than anything else this week.
Highlights: “Kríže” and “Kropiť Polia Jedom”
Shores Of Null – Homesick
Genre: Melodic doom/gothic metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: It would appear that this week is out to crush your spirits. As if Insomnium and Mother of Graves weren’t up for the job by themselves, Shores of Null join the party of lamentations with their gothic-tinged doom. If you haven’t heard of them before, think Amorphis at their most melodic and sad, then cross it with My Dying Bride, and you should be pretty close. The vocals vary from death growls to straight up alt rock, and lay it on thick with the mournful emotion. Overall this is a bit too monotonously grief-stricken-yet-beautiful for my taste, and is fairly low on contrasts in general, but if the mood suits you and you feel like staying with it for a while, it will reward you with deep commitment and sublime performances.
Highlight: “Allies Before Defeat”
Temperance – Arcani
Genre: Symphonic/power metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: This is the place to escape to if the rage and misery of the week becomes a bit too much to bear. Temperance are an Italian symphonic power metal band with a highly proficient dual vocal approach, uplifting melodies and a magical mood. Sure, you get the odd chorus with primary school rhymes, and the album is fairly up and down in terms of originality. But the conviction and effort is all there, and a handful of really strong tracks go a long way towards winning me over. It’s flavorful, fairly varied and not at all too bombastic.
Highlight: “The Hanged Man: Petrichor”
Veilburner – All That Glimmers Is Gloam
Genre: Progressive death/black metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: The diabolic mindfuck theatre that is Veilburner forges on, pitiless and heedless of the inevitable turmoil caused by the reception of its revolting new form. Although there’s always a ton to unpack with a new release from these guys, the core of the chaos is undoubtedly blackened death metal, even as they lash you with progressive rhythm shifts, avant-garde stylistic jumps, haunted wails, unhinged atmospheric breaks and… wait… nu metal influences?!
Worry not, this is just a tiny part of the flavor spectrum on “All That Glimmers Is Gloam”, although a distinctly noticeable one. To me it’s a stroke of genius simply because it’s so unexpected, and plays its part in warping the album flow into new territory. It should feel borderline ill-advised, because a big part of the band’s charm is toying with your sanity and sense of safety. In this regard, if you’ve heard a few Veilburner albums already, it’s not what I would call a daring effort, but one that continues in the same vein and gradually explored new territory. If you, like me, can’t get enough of this particular type of madness though, you will almost certainly delight in it.
Highlights: “Vitriolic Hiss” and “Of Godslave and Blood Mortar”
Worm Altar – Pillars of Eternal Dusk
Genre: Death/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: If you think that the releases this week have been just a tad too hygienic, then listening this one will make them feel completely spotless and sniffing of roses by comparison. Worm Altar play death doom from the deepest, sulfur-clouded depths, devoid of any emotion save the smoldering desire to defile, corrupt and destroy.
Riding on a rumbling, world-shaking low end are deeply guttural vocals, squealing feedback and abyssal riffs. It really feels like the coming of the army of the underworld, with the very sky darkening to herald their arrival. It’s far from unique within its niche, and isn’t as instantly captivating as some of the best to do it, but offers just the right mood and solid consistency throughout.
Highlight: “Virescent Fire”
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, Carnal Desecration, Carnation, death metal, Fracturus, grindcore, groove metal, Iapetus, insomnium, Lugubrious Garment, master, metal, metal albums out this week, Mother of Graves, new metal releases, new releases, Otras, progressive metal, review, Shores of Null, Temperance, thrash metal, veilburner, Worm Altar -
Weekly Rundown October 09 – 2026
Reviews of metal albums released October 03 – October 09
Anger is the word of the week, delivered in the service of comedy, shock, authenticity and utter devastation.
Dawn Of Demise – Feed My Absurdity
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: The bread-and-butter approach doesn’t work with all subgenres of metal, and very rarely will it produce anything that stays with you for much longer than its own runtime. Danish band Dawn of Demise just want to play riff-based death metal, and it’s evident from the very first note on this, their sixth full-length. It’s coarse, it’s morbid, it’s a mutant abomination thrashing and charging around its musty cave system. It’s nothing new and a little repetitive at times, but it’s both decently varied and refreshingly fast-paced, and clearly crafted from a point of deep appreciation for the style. If you like death metal for what it is at its core, then you’ll dig this.
Highlight: “Ominous”
Esoctrilihum – Annochiül Xar Sorthïlazur
Genre: Avant-garde black/death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: The phenomenal cover art is what initially drew me to this album, then realizing it’s no less than the sixteenth full-length release by this French solo project since starting out in 2016. That immediately has me skeptical from the get-go, but the massive opening track of the album reawakens my fascination. Experimental albums like this will inevitably have its ups and downs, and the symphonic nature of this is perhaps its greatest strength. It sounds like an orchestra made up of equal parts angels and demons, then played in an open amphitheater floating in the clouds of a storm system. It’s wild and fairly unpredictable, with tons of different layers, but somehow doesn’t really move on too much from where it sets off. Also, the quasi-operatic falsetto vocals will inevitably prove divisive.
HateSphere – Guillotine
Genre: Groove/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: For me, it’s difficult to wrong with a combo of old school melodic death, groove- and thrash metal, and that’s still what we’re getting on Danish long-going band HateSphere’s 12th full-length. Which of the three styles that gets to dominate varies from track to track, and depending on your preferences that will likely dictate your pick of favorites. I would have liked to see even more ferocity out of the guys, as they don’t seem to know quite what to do with the slower, more sinister sections of the album, of which there are quite a few. The rhythms get a bit too predictable, and the playing in general too simplistic. Otherwise, there’s lots of treats to be had in the form of savage vocals, ripping riffs and At the Gates-like melody.
Highlight: “Dogma”
Left To Suffer – Unwelcome Guest
Genre: Deathcore/nu metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: I’m not really familiar with Left to Suffer, so I don’t know how much they’ve flirted with nu metal in the past, but on “Unwelcome Guest” we’re getting the harsh-rapping of early Slipknot, the turntable scratching of Linkin Park and more than a just few cues from Korn. including riff- and vocal style, at least partially. Fused to the core style of percussive deathcore, it produces a surprisingly playful (although ridiculously low-end-heavy) result that knows how to use both groove and atmosphere, although sparingly. There’s still too many well-used tropes on it for my taste, but it elevates itself above a lot of more straightforward projects in the same sphere with its variety and lack of pretentiousness.
Highlight: “STFU”
Leper Colony – Back To Primal Sludge
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: Time to top up the already overflowing bucket of Rogga Johansson-signature death metal (even though, according to Spotify, he seems to be trying to hide behind the pseudonym “Roger”). It’s got most of the things you want in an Obituary album, with some Swedish groove and crustiness added. It gets a mention because it’s reliably satisfying with a few highlights, although it suffers from an abundance of unimaginative filler.
Netherwilds – Peasant Rising
Genre: Avant-garde alternative metal/blackened hardcore
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5Review: Did you ever wonder what would happen if the two mud-hacking peasants in Monty Python and the Holy Grail got their own subplot, involving them staging a revolt? You didn’t? Well, this could (and should) be the musical iteration of that story. Trying to nail down the style of this project is pure folly, as the concept is far more important than what subgenres are involved. There’s lots of hardcore, a good deal of nu- and alternative metal, some folk (naturally) and a blackened edge to some of it. But none of that’s really important.
This is very clearly a humorous project, but as with Monty Python there are hidden messages and clever, episodic storytelling of wildly varying flavor. There’s introspection, rebellious stomping, bonfire partying, confused bumbling, and also plenty of straightforward riffs, screams and groove. There’s also a lot of silly interludes with amateurishly performed, themed dialogue, which will likely get quite tiresome on repeat listens, and to me there are a few too many holes in the album’s energy output. That aside, this is a supremely creative effort that’s extremely dedicated to the bit. It makes for one of the most outstanding albums in the last few years, that’s also a treat to listen to.
Highlights: “Siege Proof Hovel” and “Heretic”
Ram – Against
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Back after a seven year release break, Sweden’s Ram are back to headbutt you off your pedestal where you’re standing, nose raised at classic heavy metal. Take Judas Priest, Accept and WA.S.P., mix them all up in a witch’s cauldron full of skulls, ink and graveyard earth, and imagine what you’d like that to sound like now in 2026. Never mind, I’ll just tell you: You’d want it to sound like this.
Ram need no harsh vocals, frantic blast beats, tremolo or grungy production to sound sinister. And even as they succeed at it pretty much just with melodic tone and vocal character, they also have no interest in being a downer. The drums are Motörhead-level eager, the solos are soaring, and every now and then you get a bit of Mötley Crüe swagger or Iron Maiden epicness. This album brings together so much of what made non-extreme metal great in the 70s and 80s, and the band manages to make it completely their own.
Highlights: “Abattoir” and “Out of Control”
Smoulder – Witch Wife In An Alien World
Genre: Doom/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: This is an album that I wanted to love before hearing it, and still want to love in hindsight. The band’s attitude to art and creativity, their previous albums, the mind blowing album art – it all speaks in their favor. But the execution just doesn’t do it for me. The (intentionally) off-kilter (and off-key) vocal style is front and center, the rhythms are fairly plodding, and the pace just feels lackluster. I want to applaud them for taking some risks and making something that doesn’t quite sound like anything else. There’s a lot of fun things going on, but too few of them seem chosen because they actually serve the progression, and too many because they’re just cool and bold things to do on an album.
Werewolves – You’re Weak and You Know You’re Weak
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: When are these mad lycanthropes ever gonna run out of steam? At least not until 2030, according to their mission statement of releasing ten albums in ten years. There’s metal out there that’s all about conceptual depth, complex structures and gradual buildups. And then there’s bands like this, who pistol-butt whips you in the face in place of an introduction, and then proceeds to chase you around with a machete non-stop for a little over half an hour (yes, I take some inspiration from the album cover).
On a casual listen, there’s quite a lot of carry-over from the band’s other albums, and it might get tempting to jump to the conclusion that they aren’t interested in evolving their sound even a little bit. Style-wise I might agree that not a lot has changed, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t trying new things. The vocals are more varied than ever, as is the guitar tone, and there are subtle influences in riff style scattered throughout. The blackened grindcore energy is particularly strong this time around. It’s super tight and relentlessly technical, and yet this might be their most bestial-sounding work to date, without resorting to production tricks, breakdowns or incomprehensible gurgles. As long as they keep sounding as vital, spiteful and boundlessly aggressive as this, I will happily sing their praises.
Highlights: “Fields of Suicide” and “Uroboric Fuckwit”
Wolfbrigade – Howl from Underground
Genre: Crust punk/blackened thrash metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: What’s this, the week of the wolf? You won’t find me complaining. Swedish thrashy crust punkers Woldbrigade are back after 2024’s “Life Knife Death”, which was one of my favorite albums of that year. And whether you’ll prefer this new one to its predecessor will depend entirely on what you perceive as the “proper” style for the band.
Three of the main reasons why I liked the last album so much were its untamed aggression, its death-crunchy riffs, and its sinister melodic tendencies. All of those things have been scaled back on “Howl from Underground” in favor of putting the punky relentlessness front and center. And I’m not saying that’s bad at all. The guys excel at it, and the thrash is very much still there, with its ferocious speed and satisfying groove. It’s still dark, and it still feels kind of forbidden and authentic as fuck, which makes it worthy of its title.
Highlights: “Doomrunner” and “Fat Man Hellscape”
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 October 02 – 2026
Reviews of metal albums released September 26 – October 02
This week sees both veterans, up-and-comers and first-timers deliver career-highlight material, contributing both melody, brutality and darkness to the flavor gamut.
Amon Amarth – The Allfather Awakens
Genre: Melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: I won’t be alone in feeling that the Amon Amarth release quality has been on a downward slope since around the time of 2008’s “Twilight of the Thunder God”. That album seemed to solidify what they were supposed to sound like as a band, and too much material since then has sounded like increasingly watered down copies of the same formula. That said, the band members’ individual performances have always been up to snuff. It’s just that the songwriting kept them more and more tightly confined within their comfort zones.
I was therefore worried starting off with the big singles off “The Allfather Awakens”, not because they’re actively bad, but because they just sound like the 20th reshuffling of the same marching, drinking-horn-pumping, simple-riffed Viking anthems. Then comes the acoustic (!) “Upphaf” out of the blue (I don’t listen to the singles beforehand) and refocuses my attention, before the heaviest, most bloodthirsty song on the album “Die With a War Cry” has me reeling. There’s at least three more fantastic songs past this point – aggressive, dark, genuinely epic and with actual interesting playing. It’s the band at the best I’ve heard them for well over a decade. It makes for an uneven overall experience, but the latter half also makes me look back at the first more fondly, accepting the silly bombast as a prelude to what’s to come. There’s some fight in these old berserkers, yet.
Highlight: “Die With a War Cry”
Brymir – What We Leave Behind
Genre: Melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Yes, we’ve got more melodeath this week, and yes, the band name and song titles might lead you to believe that it’s another Norse saga in music form. But no. Brymir takes their ultra-melodic, power-leaning, polished death metal to the stars, with an album cover straight out of Warhammer 40K (so much so that I fear they might get sued) and a sound stuffed beyond the brim with synths and other electronica-derived elements.
The important thing to note though, is that the core of the band’s musical concept is intact. They play fast, big, technically advanced and vibrant, massively Finnish melodic death metal. Not able to stay serious for too long, they’ve tacked a comedy track on at the end, which might divide listeners on whether it’s fun or just distracting. The mood is all over the place, and the slower and moodier second half doesn’t quite deliver on the promises made by the first. Still, there’s a lot to enjoy on here.
Highlight: “Sleipnir”
Cyadine – Violence In Measure
Genre: Thrash metal/hardcore
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Do you remember the first time you heard Pantera? The raw strain? The filthy groove? The stank face you were stuck with for the rest of the week? I’m not saying that this stuff is quite as innovative, but god damn does it channel much of the same attitude and energy. As debut albums go, this is nothing short of a rocket launch.
Cyadine play a beat-heavy, brutal variant of crossover thrash that manages to combine the youthful rattiness of the 80s pioneers with the heaviness of more modern death thrash in the vein of Cavalera Conspiracy. The riffs are ultra crunchy, the squeals are savage, the vocals sound like tearing apart a fabric factory and the bass rumbles like a demonic engine from under ground. The songs have strong individual characters and offer a good amount of contrast in terms of speed and rhythmic tension. I won’t say that they manage to squeeze out every ounce of potential that the 21 minute runtime affords them, but boy is it close.
Highlights: “Spill Your Guts” and “No Place Like Home”
Dissimulator – Artifice Dissolves
Genre: Technical thrash/death metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5Review: There are unfortunately too few examples of bands following up an interesting, distinct debut album with something that both improves on it in terms of pure production and technical performance, and also refines and expands on the concept without diluting what made it special in the first place. This is, however, exactly what Dissimulator have managed with sophomore album “Artifice Dissolves”.
Gone is the slightly pretentious prog second personality of 2024’s “Lower Form Resistance”, replaced with a laser-keen focus on ripping, ultra-precise, hugely enjoyable thrash, while retaining that ragged, somewhat untamed death metal edge. It’s got an experimental, unhinged industrial side to it, but while it very effectively paints proceedings with texture and personality, it doesn’t get in the way of the true meat of the music. It’s hostile yet strangely inviting, complex yet super engaging, and somehow makes me welcome both an atmospheric interlude AND an instrumental track in close proximity. Do NOT sleep on this one.
Highlights: “Alloyed” and “Hungry Ghosts”
Dumal – The Trials of Existence
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: What we’ve got here is on-the-atmospheric-side black metal out of Pennsylvania, wasting absolutely no time getting started and offering no real breaks (apart from an interlude track) in the constant output of tidal riffs and melancholic tremolo. It’s not oppressive or particularly violent, just a constant flow of sadness-softened bitterness. I find it to be a little too stretched and repetitive in parts, but they’ve done an excellent job balancing a tastefully low-fi production with huskiness, aggression, restrained, dark emotion and the sense of open, fog-draped space.
Highlight: “Rendered Impotent by Glass”
Firtan – Helios
Genre: Blackened folk/death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: It takes a certain something to make your black metal sound truly mighty, without going the symphonic route or loading on empty-calorie effects like booming riffs, Gregorian chants or walls of dissonance. Firtan have managed to craft a sound for their fifth full-length worthy of naming it after an ancient deity. It’s effortlessly heavy and solemn without going stale or minimalist.
Included in their style are fairly restrained pagan and folk elements, and a willingness to dip into death metal for that added fullness and bestial hunger. Once they tone things down, you feel like you’re floating in a temperate forest pool, completely relaxed and in tune with the whispers of nocturnal life around you, aware that a violent storm is about to come crashing through the trees. The album isn’t without its protracted sections, but never gets dull, with effective and fluid mood transitions and a wide variety of textures, with the violin being a standout feature.
Highlights: “Kalika’s Tongue” and “Wide Open Eye”
Frozen Crown – The Legend Of The Six Kings
Genre: Power metal
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5Review: I remember discovering this Italian power metal band back in 2023 with their fourth full-length “Call of the North” and instantly digging it for its melodeath-rooted, unapologetically epic, vividly melodic but also aggressively energetic fireworks display of a sound. Very little of that remains on “The Legend of the Six Kings” though. The heaviness has evaporated, the melodies feel completely generic and most of the chorus lyrics are made up of primary school-level rhymes. Get it together, people. You’ve proven that you’re able.
Hippotraktor – Annihilist
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: I was unprepared for the impact that 2024’s “Stasis” by Belgian proggers Hippotraktor would have on me, which might be part of the reason why I liked it so much despite it inhabiting a stylistic realm that I don’t feel too much at home in. Now they’ve followed it up with “Annihilist”, which has bled off some of the heaviness of its predecessor, but not in an even fashion.
The album takes much bigger leaps, from absolute calm, soft serenity to Gojira-at-their-heaviest, crashing djent riffs with an otherworldly quality to the groove. The overall mood is bleak and grey, as before, but it bothers me a bit more with its uniformity this time around, perhaps because it comes stronger to the fore in the clean sections. Still, the buildups in intensity are highly rewarding, and fully showcase the exquisiteness of the band members’ abilities. If you’ve been fully on board with these guys’ vibe from the start, you will almost certainly appreciate the added breadth and level of detail found on here.
Highlights: “Oblivion Walker” and “Builder of Eden”
Miss May I – No Place For Me
Genre: Metalcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: I get a particular spark of joy whenever a hit of fresh, old school melodic metalcore comes my way these days. This isn’t pure goods, so to speak, as the band mixes classic melody and rhythm techniques with those of the modern era, but there’s enough nostalgia in here to get me hooked. The overall experience is unfortunately a bit mixed, with wavering energy levels and songs going from feeling run-of-the-mill, overly poppy or trend chasing, to actually embracing the style and loading on some aggression and groovy catchiness. There’s enough for a fan to feel satisfied overall, but probably not to convert any doubters.
Highlight: “Portrait of Pain”
Spirit Possession – Cathedral Speech
Genre: Experimental black/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Do not go off a description of this album being “blackened thrash metal” expecting nothing but scorched riffs, wild squeals, charging drums and snarled vocals. All those things are in there, but the way you get to them, and the stuff they’re wrapped up in is anything but conventional.
Spirit Possession play a completely freaked out, glitchy, frenzied-kabuki-theatre-on-acid kind of black metal with a strong penchant for speedy riffs. The whole affair feels properly damned, like it was meant to be something orderly and comfortably artistic but then got corrupted nearly beyond recognition. Some of it gets a bit too complacent and/or random in order to maintain a good listening flow, but if you let yourself get dazed to the point where everything starts to make sense, you might find that it pendulums between heaps of fun and something disturbingly profound.
Highlight: “Trinity Possessor (…In Ten Thousand Hells)”
To The Grave – Liberation Front
Genre: Deathcore
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: You know what you’re gonna get with these Aussies – an unstoppable landslide made up of boulders, butcher’s hatchets and demon roars, with the atmosphere of the Hostel films. They pull out all the stops on this one, clearly intent on hammering your brain into a gelatinous liquid. The shock and awe factor is immense, but unless you’re single-mindedly attuned to it, you’re going to be left numb after a while. With me, that happens pretty much three songs in. Too much of the time it’s just one crashing beat-riff after another leading into endless breakdowns, topped with cookie monster gurgles. There are truly awesome moments scattered throughout, but they’re a bit too few and far between to get properly hooked.
Highlight: “EYESTALK ABLATIONS”
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 September 25 – 2026
Reviews of metal albums released September 19 – September 25
This week, with a few notable exceptions, is all about carnage, destruction and overpowering heaviness. Wear something tear resistant.
Barren – Verderf
Genre: Grindcore/death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: If you seek the cathartic feeling of ripping something to pieces, but don’t have anything suitable handy, then this will provide the sonic equivalent. Barren are a Belgian band combining the ferocity of grindcore with the merciless crush of death metal. There are elements of both the crusty old school and bass-booming modernity, with bestial vocals and rhythms often at mid-tempo. Even at a sub-19 minute runtime, the album does feel like it’s repeating itself ever so slightly now and then, and it’s not exactly a beacon of originality, but both in terms of energy, production and performances, this is top notch.
Highlight: “Abase”
BRAT – Manslayer
Genre: Hardcore/death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: BRAT are back to split some skulls, burst some eardrums and stomp a few holes in the floor while they’re at it. The first thing you need to know is that “Manslayer” represents a slight change of course since 2024’s “Social Grace”. Gone is a significant amount of the grindcore relentlessness – replaced with hardcore scuffle-rhythms and a bit of the dissonance and breakdown focus of slamming brutal death metal.
The good news (if you don’t consider the previously mentioned news to be good) is that the attitude is still very much intact. Even with a fuller, more well-defined production and longer runtime, the album feels ragged and constantly in your face, just as it should be. My main issue is that it seems unhurried, which makes certain parts feel repetitive, almost pedestrian. There are several highlights, but also a fair number of songs that never really go anywhere. Well worth a listen, if ever so slightly trend-chasing, although certainly not unimaginative or safe.
Highlight: “Speculum Bleed”
Burner – No One Is Coming To Save Us
Genre: Metalcore/death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Last week, England was showing off some of the finest of its doom heritage, and now it’s time for a convergence of its distinct metalcore and death metal scenes. Those thinking that modern metalcore has lost all of its savage edge need to give Burner a serious chance, as they pair metallic hardcore and deathcore with both classic, melodic and technical death metal, not miles away from fellow countrymen Sylosis (who make a fitting guest appearance on the album).
To say that the result is hard-hitting is an understatement. While there are melodic and emotional tendencies, as is only befitting the bleakly existentialist themes, the main impression is of crashing riffs and thundering, razor-precise rhythm work, with throat-rending vocals. For my taste it’s a bit too severe, uniform and unsurprising, but for those sold on the style it’s both technically impressive and compellingly fervent.
Highlights: “Blood River” and “Accelerationist”
Cloven Hoof – Never A Prophet In Your Own Land
Genre: Heavy/power metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Cloven Hoof were late to the NWOBHM party, and didn’t make it further than 1990 before splitting up. They reformed in 2001 and have been through numerous lineup changes since then, although releasing a number of albums. This is only the second instance of me devoting any significant time to them, and I wasn’t expecting much. Most of that original wave of trad-metallers are running on the mere whiff of fumes creativity-wise these days.
Consider me surprised then, when I find the band’s 11th album to be loaded with charm and melodic playfulness – not simply rehashing a style of yesteryear, but actually having fun with it. The Deep Purple-esque use of the organ is a particularly nice touch. It sounds vital and cool, if not particularly full or punchy. A little short on energy, but just the right amount of bravado.
Highlight: “Never A Prophet”
Critical Defiance – Rivers of Blood
Genre: Thrash/black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: “Visceral” is the first word I can think to use to describe Chilean band Critical Defiance’s brand of ultra-aggressive thrash metal. It takes cues from old school Slayer, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. I also hear bands like Gorgoroth at their most teeth-baring, with intensity pushing all the way into war metal at times. But in addition to being very furious, it’s also very fast, and loaded with savage riffage and dive-bombing solos.
Interestingly, the fury is balanced out by traditional, acoustic melody, but not in any elegant or sophisticated way. It’s kind of just thrown in there. Some of it works well, while some of it feels misplaced, at least to me. The production isn’t great, and structurally the whole thing feels kind of distracted – pulling in this direction and that without really fully accomplishing any one thing. If you’re looking for an album that’ll tear apart anything in its path though, this will certainly do the job
Highlight: “Agonal Shining”
Crown Magnetar – The Hollowing Of Godlesh
Genre: Deathcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: If any of the heavy releases this week deserves to be likened to an all-devouring monstrosity, this is surely the one. A lot of thought and effort seem to have gone into making Crown Magnetar’s third full-length feel imposing above all else. And one of the smartest moves they’ve made in order to achieve this is steer clear of many of the tropes of modern brutal death metal – the ones that even the fanbase would describe as silly, or at least over the top.
Don’t get me wrong, this rightfully earns being tagged as brutal-style deathcore, with djenty guitars, bass booms, and every song leading into a massive breakdown. But they manage to worm in some actually sinister atmosphere, and the vocals are low and bestial rather than squealy (at least most of the time), and the technicality of the thing feels like being mercilessly dismantled by a house-sized, out-of-control assembly line robot. I personally find it too hard to tell many of the tracks apart and am left slightly numb by the lack of dynamics, but if you’re looking for actually heavy, aggressive and well-crafted deathcore, this is the stuff for you.
Highlights: “Shut Up and Bleed” and “Desecrate Infinite”
Godflesh – Decay
Genre: Industrial/experimental metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Many a thing can be said about this album, but I’ll keep it fairly brief, because it needs to be experienced in order to get any proper idea of what it’s actually about, and I feel like most of the descriptions I can come up with will sound pretentious once the thing has taken a hold of you. If you’re not familiar with Godflesh, then know that they play a dark, doom-oriented and experimental form of industrial metal. Nothing at all like Rammstein, and still not really close to bands like Ministry.
The album feels like a living entity with a corrupted, artificial mind. It doesn’t go haywire, but steadily and calculatingly plots our collective downfall. You’re meant to be pulled in and overtaken by despair. For me personally it doesn’t do this quite as effectively as some of the best death- or blackened doom out there, but if the more pitiless parts of reality terrifies you, you will be this album’s preferred victim.
Highlights: “Consume Me” and “Feral Colony”
Hænesy – Esentia
Genre: Atmospheric black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Hænesy are a Hungarian band playing sweeping, atmospheric black metal where the harshness gets understated in favor of horizon-gazing melodies. The vocals in particular feel like whispers on the wind, and the violence of the instruments are like the distant clamor of a storm taking place far out on the ocean, the visual spectacle of which dominates the entire skyline. Esentia is an album to get deeply lost in – more serene than anything else, but not without some force behind it as well. To me it’s not distinctly different to other projects of similar tonality, and a bit too intangible for me to get a good grasp on. But the immersion is great, and it’s a pleasant soak for you mind.
Highlight: “The Glimmering Expanse”
Lacrimas Profundere – Lay Me Down O Silent Fear
Genre: Gothic metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: German sad-romantic goths Lacrimas Profundere are back and pulling out a number of tricks in order to create a sound that feels both cinematic, symphonic, all-enveloping and engaging both in front of the stage and pulsing out of your headphones. The production, as well as the mix of bombastic loftiness and hard rock catchiness, all work towards achieving this, and the clearly Finnish-inspired melodic heaviness doesn’t hurt. But in terms of writing, hooks and overall feel, especially for the choruses, this is like the absolute least inspired material of Stone Sour and Insomnium mashed together. Not terrible, but nothing special.
Massteron – Second In The Spheres
Genre: Black/death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: This Polish project falls somewhere in between the unpolished fun of blackened thrash and the diabolic danger of muddled blackened death metal. Let’s jut get it over with at the start: The production on “Second In The Spheres” is pretty crap. Parts of it definitely sound like they were recorded live at a grungy basement show, but I suspect that it’s at least partially intentional, and mostly work pretty well for what it is. It’s full of wild riffs and solos, with some actual depth to the melodies, and an infectiously enthusiastic, underground-unholy mood.
Highlight: “Strife Eternal”
Noctule – Extinguish Thy Flame
Genre: Melodic black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Elden Ring has inspired its fair share of recent releases, and why not? Particularly for the epic-melodic and aggressive-virtuoso kind of sound of ex-Svalbard vocalist/guitarist Serena Cherry’s one-woman project Noctule, it’s just the right kind of over-the-top, darkly fantastical yet reality-inspired universe. It’s definitely nerdy, but not silly, and even concept-outsiders like me should be easily susceptible to its immersion factor.
If you like a band like Volcandra, then this should be right up your alley. It tends to get a little too lost in its own melodic tangents, and feels perhaps overly symphonic-bombastic at times, in a way that steals away some of its character. It’s a little short on great riffs, but the vocals and lead guitar work are top notch and genuine highlights of the experience, and confidently lead you through the grim adventure.
Highlight: “Devour the Gods”
The Ocean – Solaris
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: One or two things have happened in The Ocean (Collective) since 2023’s “Holocene”. Apart from main man Robin Staps and bassist Mattias Hägerstrand, every member has been replaced, and there are now two vocalists, allowing for a male/female dynamic that serves the storytelling aspect of the album surprisingly well. Surprising no one familiar with the band, this is long-form progressive metal that demands your attention and does nothing on the short term.
The intensity of the album ebbs and flows, but doesn’t reach a peak until about halfway into the experience, so if you’re looking for instant gratification, this is certainly not the record (or band) for you. I’d say it takes a bit long regardless, and I find my attention waning during the course of 17+ minute “Simulacra”, but that does allow next track “Belligerence” to hit all the harder. Both the instrumental and vocal performances are stellar. Some of it takes a bit getting used to, and some of it reminds me a lot of the multi-vocal approach of Mastodon, almost distractingly so. But the vocal ranges are great, and really helps the album expand and contract. While there are lots of news, it doesn’t feel like a daring project for the band, but it lingers and evolves the more you listen to it.
Highlights: “Ultima Esperanza” and “Light Pollution”
Tombstalker – Chaos Monolith
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Considering how well death metal matches up stylistically with the forces of Chaos in the Warhammer 40.000 universe, I’m a bit surprised that there aren’t more bands taking that thematic route. Well, Tombstalker are certainly here to do their part in filling that gap. Loaded up with Bolt Thrower violence and old school Swedeath crunch, they set out to corrupt, slaughter and burn.
This is in no way a “neat” death metal record, but to me that’s part of the appeal. It squeals and crashes, creaks, howls, twists and turns. There’s heft, but it could probably be even beefier, and I’d welcome even more groove. But the aggression, eagerness and variety keeps things relatively unpredictable and entertaining all the way through. And if you’re a 40K fan, you’ll dig all the references, as well as appreciate the hell out of the radiating appetite for pure havoc.
Highlights: “Penitent Engine” and “Inexorable Slaughter”
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, Barren, black metal, brat, Burner, cloven hoof, Critical Defiance, crown magnetar, death metal, godflesh, grindcore, groove metal, Hænesy, Lacrimas Profundere, Massteron, metal, metal albums out this week, new metal releases, new releases, Noctule, progressive metal, review, the ocean, thrash metal, Tombstalker -
Weekly Rundown September 18 – 2026
Reviews of metal albums released September 12 – September 18
This week got spookier and moodier than I had expected, but not in the way that makes you want to hide under the covers. More like watch an old school horror movie.
Anthrax – Cursum Perficio
Genre: Thrash metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: With the amount of great thrash metal rolling out these days, you can’t really afford to rest on your laurels if you want to stay relevant. It’s a little different for bands like Anthrax, who have proven their ability to come back strong and remain true to a concept and sound that’s not really being done any better by anyone else. That being said, I have never understood the hype around this band. I appreciate their image, but don’t connect to the music. Will that change with 12th full-length “Cursum Perficio”?
Short answer? No, it doesn’t. There’s a laudable vigor behind the guys’ performances, and some obvious effort has gone into crafting individually outstanding songs. As has traditionally been the case, the band mostly employ mid tempo, fairly rigid hardcore- and hard rock-leaning rhythms. There’s a bit more variation than I had expected, but it’s not an album that ever gets more than a brisk jog on. A fair amount of the riffs hit hard enough, and the vocals exude both the required force and character to inject proceedings with memorability. For me though, too many tracks leave me unengaged, with some questionable melody lines jarring my listening flow. It does, however, convince me that the band has more in store, and could yet soar higher before coming in for permanent landing.
Highlight: “It’s For The Kids”
The Bleeding – Godless Communion
Genre: Death/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: When you’re presented with an album where there’s little undead characters armed with gore-choked chainsaws as part of the band logo, parts of your brain immediately relaxe, as you no longer really need wonder too much about what you’re in for. And sure enough, this is classic, brutal death thrash firing on all cylinders, belching flames and flailing articulated circular saws.
Despite a grim tone, relentless drums and grinding-machinery vocals, this is absolutely one of those death metal sounds that I’d classify as fun above all. It’s thick with groovy thrash riffs, varied and eager rhythms, and completely saturated with a “let’s just try it” attitude. It’s somewhat uneven in terms of engaging song structures, and feels a bit messy production wise, but that doesn’t stop me from wanting to turn up the volume further and further the longer I listen.
Highlights: “Altar of the Ram” and “Praise of the Succubi”
Blodtår – Monark
Genre: Melodic black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Blodtår are a Swedish duo playing folk-melancholic, semi-melodic black metal, and seem to have really honed in on their particular spin on the subgenre with this, their second full-length. On it they expand upon fairly simple but effective, sorrow-tinged folk melodies with steady rhythms, ragged-bellow vocals and tremolo, making for a solemn, tastefully understated affair.
The flip side to this understated-ness is a certain lack of variation. Some of the aggression of the previous album is missing, making for a more flat and even listening flow. Several of the songs take a good while to get started, but for the absolute most part this feels earned. The melodies are distinct and allowed to the fore, with no clutter to distract from what’s important. I’m not left in awe, but it certainly pulls at a few strings.
Highlights: “Till min sista viloplats”
Early Moods – Ready For The Grave
Genre: Doom/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: California classic doom metallers Early Moods are back with their third full length. On it we get more tasteful Candlemass and Sabbath worship, but also clear nods to early heavy metal. The mood is just right – wicked yet groovy, with a real 70s feel to the melodies and guitar work, although it’s modernized in terms of beefiness and clarity. The songwriting is strong, with memorable choruses and spine-tingling lead guitar melody lines. It’s a bit slow in parts, but it suits the theme.
But what in the actual hell is going on with the vocal mix? Either Alberto Alcaraz developed a severe lisp since their self-titled debut album (I notice the same tendency on “A Sinner’s Past”), or the production is to blame. In either case, the moment I hear vocal deliveries like “no one help me out of thithh methhh” and “shackled in thethhh chainthh”, I’m no longer able to take the album thheriouthhly (sorry). I’ve not seen anyone else reacting to this, so maybe it’s just me, but my headphones and two sets of my speakers all tell the same story.
Highlight: “Inquisition”
Krallice – Scour Order
Genre: Avant-garde/technical black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Krallice are one of those outstanding underground bands that have managed to silently pass me by, even though they’ve been concocting dizzying, yet traditionally rooted black metal at a staggering rate since 2007, and are now on their 15th full-length, non-collaborative album. Compared to some of their earlier material (of which I’ve so far only had the time to skim the surface), “Scour Order” feels somewhat stripped down, like a forest of naked trees shivering, blurring and casting morphing shadows in response to unseen forces.
The technical complexity on the album is fascinating in the way that it feels wild and uncontrolled without devolving into randomness. The tone is bleak, cold and oppressive; I’d go so far as to call it alarming at times, like you’ve been transported to a place where you’re witnessing incomprehensible cruelty, with the danger of being discovered at any moment. The issue is that this mood completely dominates the entire 1 hour+ listening experience, and so it starts to lose its potency well before you get to the end. Perhaps not the best introduction to the band, but still an impressive technical achievement.
Highlight: “Agonal Shining”
Maunah – Hjarta
Genre: Doom/folk metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: You hear “folk-influenced, Scandinavian doom”, and I’d easily understand if your thoughts immediately go to Heilung-esque, old Norse-inspired, pagan-ritualistic theatre. But while there are traces of the atmosphere employed by acts like Wardruna in Danish band Maunah’s debut full-length, there are few other reasons to suggest that they’re trying to walk the same path. This is melodic doom fist, but with strong sonic ties to forested nature.
In their sound I hear similarities to Katatonia, Enslaved and Green Carnation, but with the progressive elements largely removed. The vocals are mostly clean and soulful, with great range, and a particular mournful tinge that somehow reminds me of both Anders Fridén of In Flames and Serj Tankian. In any case, it fits the kind of neutrally dark, hidden-among-the-roots-and-leaves mood that defines the album. It’s slow and patient, but doesn’t feel sluggish, nor do they try to drown the clarity of the individual performances in the production. It’s not hugely varied, but changes up rhythms and intensity often enough that very little feels like it blends together. I can see great things in the future for these folks.
Highlights: “Heimaland” and “Theinajau”
Nasty Insects – Bite ’til They Bleed
Genre: Thrash/industrial metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: Quite fittingly, these bite-y insects hail from down under – the land of most things crawly, venomous and generally unpleasant. To match their band name, Nasty Insects have crafted a creepy, crusty, barebones thrash sound with strong elements of Ministry-reminiscent industrial, as well as grindcore and punky hardcore.
The approach is fairly straightforward, with simple-ish riffs and eager, non-fancy drum work and coarse, slightly unhinged vocals. Instrumentally it doesn’t knock my socks off, but it gets up to enough antics to keep me on my toes and grinning all the way throughout. I feel like it needed to be wilder at times to deliver the real shocks to the system that they might have been going for. It’s appropriately nasty and fun, if not quite the jump-in-your-face menace that it gives the impression of aiming to be.
Highlight: “Not My Rat”
The Noctambulant – Revival
Genre: Melodic black/gothic metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Black metal needs to make room for those who just want to enjoy some unholy groove and a bit of blasphemous theatre, without getting too flippant. To me, bands like Witchery make some of the most enjoyable extreme metal out there – it’s full of contempt and harshness, but in the spirit of black metal trickster god Abbath, you don’t need to take it so damn seriously all the time. Florida’s The Noctambulant seem to agree, and have dropped perhaps the most entertaining blackened album of the year in “Revival”.
From start to end the album is packed with thrashy riffs, bluesy groove and gothic melody, with a bit of death metal chunkiness added for a punchier impact. The southern gothic theme that they’ve fully embraced visually isn’t quite as evident in the music as I’d have hoped for, and overall they’re not reinventing really any part of the subgenre, but if Tribulation meets Vltimas meets Dimmu Borgir sounds like a winning recipe to you, then this will likely deliver everything you expect and more.
Highlights: “Bring the Sorrow” and “Skeleton Key”
Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats – Shapes Of Midnight
Genre: Psychedelic rock/doom metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5Review: The UK are on a roll with excellent spooky-doom albums, and Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats want you to know who are the kings of the graveyard. Every aspect of their sound seem to come together just right on “Shapes Of Midnight” – the retro style, the groove, the irreverence and the occult theme. If you loved the idea and vibe of Ghost’s “Infestissumam”, but found it a bit lacking in technical execution, then this is probably exactly what you were hoping for.
For us metalheads, this is not what you’d call heavy. The band describe themselves as a sort of proto-metal, which makes sense given their early-doom-meets-70s-psychedelia, pre-Judas Priest heavy rock style of mostly mid-paced riffs and rhythms, with plenty of strong hooks and alluring solos. Pretty much every track stands out with a character and story of its own, and the overall flow is not only organic but highly entertaining. It’s not too much tongue in cheek, nor is it too serious or confined by a narrow stylistic scope. I’d have liked a pinch more force and darkness here and there, but that really is nitpicking. This is how you do it, folks.
Highlights: “Shapes of Midnight” and “Psycho On The Loose”
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 September 11 – 2026
Reviews of metal albums released September 05 – September 11
Overwhelming brutality, adrenaline-pumping bad-assery and devilish charm are the main flavors on this week’s menu.
Cartilage – Operating Altar
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Contrary to what the album cover might lead you to believe, this is not some nightmarish, lightlessly monotone descent into the choked-up sewers below an abattoir. This is the slicing and dicing and tossing-intestines-at-each-other-for-fun in a back-alley operating theater populated by orcs. Think deathgrind in the vein of Carcass, just more chunky, thrashy and flippant.
While the album is mostly played at high tempo, it doesn’t feel quite as concise and focused as your typical grindcore project. Nor is it quite structured or tonally consistent enough to fall fully within death metal. And apart from the highly entertaining vocal and instrumental performances, this unconventionality is probably the album’s greatest strength. It’s perhaps a bit short on standout moments, but if “a gory good time” sounds appealing to you, then don’t hesitate.
Highlights: “S.C.D. (Sudden Cardiac Death” and “The Operating Altar”
Dreadnought – Wars Of Spirit // Wards Of Light
Genre: Progressive doom metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Time to float around in space for a while. Don’t worry though, it’s not out in the black nothingness, but pulled along the trail of comets and sitting back to observe planetary weather systems, solar storms and the spin of the galaxy. The format is atmospheric, progressive doom – moving slow but sounding serenely melodic, with occasional churns of aggression and darkness. The use of industrial-style electronica suits the theme, and the vocals provide clean and sharp distinctiveness. It’s an album to relax into, where I find my attention waning slightly at times, but always pulled back in.
Highlight: “The Archive”
Green Lung – Necropolitan
Genre: Heavy/doom metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Smash together Black Sabbath and Deep Purple in your mind, and you should be building the right kind of expectations for this album. Green Lung take the cheerful occultism of Ghost and injects in into a bluesy, groove-happy merging of old school doom and NWOBHM. Critically, the music remains more important than the concept, and so we’re treated with memorable, focused instrumentation aplenty.
The crunchy riffs, solos and organ-assisted, adventurous melodies are the standouts on the album. It strikes a line between rock ‘n’ roll peppiness and spooky, witching-hour tonality that would be difficult to pull off without the level of commitment we get from the vocals. I find some of the main melody lines to be a bit similar, and could probably wished for a bit more variation in rhythm, but then that might have compromised the thematic consistency. It’s a great, unholy time among the gargoyles.
Highlights: “Black Magick Radio” and “Ozymandias”
Harlott – Exsequiis
Genre: Thrash metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Harlott’s “Detritus of the Final Age” was my favorite thrash album of 2020, so when I saw the Australians pop up on the release calendar I snapped right to attention. No need, really, as the album will demand your attention whether you like it or not. Past a short, tone-setting into, the album explodes with precise aggression, a raging fire which keeps blazing till the last note, as if they’ve tapped into some endless, infernal wellspring of the stuff.
The playing is incredibly tight, almost mechanical, and might have felt a tad rigid if not for the absurdly infectious grooves carried upon the regularly shifting rhythms. There’s a blackened edge to the angrier parts of several of the songs, but they remind me more of Kreator or Slayer than any pure black metal act. The barking vocals are a true standout, delivering heaps of character, and matching the marching, powerfully rhythmic progression perfectly. It doesn’t feel like they’re taking any big chances with “Exsequiis”, but it’s refined, drawing the maximum potential of the band, and delivering ripper after merciless ripper.
Highlights: “Void” and “Kleptogenesis”
Space Chaser – Razorblade Bay
Genre: Thrash metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: More riff-o-licious thrash this week? Yes please! This is German sci-fi adventure thrash, throwing an army’s worth of badass riffage at you, but expecting you to get up and jump rather than crumble in submission. It’s a tad indistinct in terms of melodies and generic in terms of rhythms, with the vocals lacking a bit of determination in order to match the ripping guitars. But the tone is suitably light, and it keeps surprising throughout with fresh grooves and bursts of attitude.
Highlight: “Blade Serpents”
Tygers Of Pan Tang – Electrifyed
Genre: Heavy metal/hard rock
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: This bunch of NWOBHM veterans sound for a few brief moments like they’ve got a second wind on “Electrifyed”, with optimistic rock ‘n’ roll swagger oozing from a good portion of the tracks. The album feels relaxed, which works for them, rather than trying to coax out energy that’s probably wouldn’t come off as heartfelt anyway. It’s not overly anthemic, and brings to mind both the groovier side of AC/DC and more fun-loving side of Led Zeppelin. But the melodies have little staying power, and overall there’s simply too much forgettable material crowding the decent stuff.
Vulgar Mephitis – From Dust
Genre: Brutal/technical death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Forget all notions of “melodic” and orderly that you might connect with tech death, for this stuff only wants to pulverize you through the erratic application of cold, unfeeling force, weight and pressure. The band applies all the savagery and monstrous overkill you’d expect from brutal death metal, but delivers it with murderous precision in patterns designed to knock you off balance and completely overwhelm you.
Many of the slam tropes have been set aside or are only utilized restrictively. Breakdowns with bass booms and frantic drums are to be found all around, but not overused. The riffs are ridiculously chunky and the vocals relatively varied. But it’s the sheer control that the band is able to demonstrate over what would normally be an apocalyptic level of chaos that is most impressive. It’s a bit difficult to tell apart songs, and the band’s personality gets kind of buried in the mayhem, but it’s a highly promising and head-scratchingly competent debut from these guys.
Highlight: “Gorging Greed”
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 September 04 – 2026
Reviews of metal albums released August 29 – September 04
The experimental, progressive and avant-garde seize power through subversive means this week, leaving only a few select slots for the more conventional.
Castle – Carrie Chains
Genre: Heavy/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: On their seventh full-length, this US/Canadian duo let the fist-raising heavy metal part of their sound win out, even as the doom lingers in riff tone, vocal style and theme. As with a speed/black metal pairing, one part of their style contributes the cocksure, no-way-but-forward fun factor, while the other supplies the grit and depth, and plays a big part in setting the overall mood.
The songwriting is unusually characterful for a band in this niche, keeping things simple in terms of layering, but allowing distinct, individual elements to the fore at select moments where they have the strongest effect possible, as well as changing up rhythm style to significantly alter the flow and feel. As before, the off-key tendencies of the vocals are a turn-off for me, but they’re offset by great attitude and lots and lots of great playing.
Highlight: “3 Knocks”
Devil Master – Bloody Dreams
Genre: Gothic/black metal/punk
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Strange yet alluring noises are emanating from your old VCR up in the attic. If you’re partial to a bit of devilry though, you need not worry. Devil Master have added a substantial coating of gothic charm on their third full-length, and cleaned up their production substantially. Oh no, are they trying to copy the Tribulation glam-goth stunt from a couple of years ago? Not quite – this is still fairly coarse and sinister, just a tad more fun.
The simplicity of punk meets the desire for conceptual consistency and creativity on “Bloody Dreams”, with short tracks full of restless rhythms, squeals and ear-scraping vocals contrasting a spoken-word storytelling interlude and a near-11 minute marathon track at the end. It doesn’t not work, but I’m missing standout musical moments throughout to serve as counterweight to the conceptual stuff. In the end it’s all pretty entertaining, if a bit unremarkable compared to similar, cheeky blackened speed/punk projects.
Highlight: “Sex with Succubus”
Februus – Construction Of Conflict
Genre: Progressive death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: There’s no shortage of weirdo death metal these days, which makes it all the harder to stand out. Swedish one-man-project Februus is certainly deserving of notice though. For those unaccustomed (or simply not partial) to the dissonance factor in hostile prog death, this will take a little time getting acclimated to, but if you enjoy music that slowly unfurls as you go, revealing unexpected depth, you should definitely not sleep on “Construction of Conflict”.
The album features old-school, tunnel-drilling riffs and relentless drums, but doesn’t hide behind a muffling production. It’s not crystal clear, but it’s not coated in grime, either. There are parts of it that sound like they belong deep down in a lightless cave system, but yet more that charge freely through the woods or raise a contemplative gaze across a solitary lake or up at the wispy, amber clouds of a golden hour sky. There’s a bit too much apparent disharmony just for the sake of it for my taste, but this ugliness stands as a nice contrast to the more organic and pleasant.
Highlights: “The First Limb is Cut” and “Suppressing the Future”
Fog Wall – Gloomweaver
Genre: Technical death metal/deathcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: It’s nice to get some tech death that’s not entirely preoccupied with astrophysics, science fiction or existential philosophy. This one’s deep into fantasy, with Lord of the Rings soundbites peppered throughout, among other lyrical references. And yet it doesn’t quite go for the loftiness or epic scope to match its high fantasy theme. It remains dark, brutal and fairly oppressive throughout.
The low end in particular is a dominating presence that goes a long way towards defining the listening experience. The riff- and rhythm styles are recognizably tech death and deathcore in execution, and at times these become a tad generic. There are some chilly Black Dahlia-style melodic tendencies to contrast the savagery, but it’s rather understated overall. The intention of writing outstanding-yet satisfying, modern, themed death metal is clear, and for the most part the duo that is Fog Wall succeed. A strong debut, indeed.
Highlight: “Frantic Orb Wielder”
Godslut – The Art Of Deconstruction
Genre: Death/groove metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: It’s not every day you see guns so prominently featured on metal album covers, but don’t worry, this isn’t some numbnuts “right to bear arms”, war-glorifying thing. What you get is Polish death metal of the thrashing and groove-forward variant. It’s supremely aggressive and mostly as energetic as you’d hope for. There are a few parts that feel a little too close to Decapitated to claim mere inspiration, and overall the writing is not particularly original. But it’s got the right attitude, and easily got my head moving.
Highlight: “Druglust”
Green Carnation – A Dark Poem, Part III: The Messiah Complex
Genre: Progressive doom metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: It’s time for the conclusion to the album trilogy that is “A Dark Poem”, which started with “Pt. I: The Shores of Melancholia” almost exactly one year ago. And I am very glad to report that the Norwegian doom proggers have opted for the epic variant. Counting only three “regular” tracks and an entirely orchestral bookend, they still make the runtime count.
While this is still sorrow-tinged, heartstring-strumming, deeply melodic and folk-rooted doom across the board, each track takes on a distinct character of its own. confidently led by a standout vocal performance (which I admit I have questioned the quality of before). Even when reduced to the bare acoustics, this feels rich, vast and vibrant. The album spreads out across an already established landscape, painting it in a new light and exposing new nooks and crannies, as well as the way out. My main criticism is that it’s simply so short that it doesn’t quite work as a standalone full-length, but then I suppose, in this case, that’s not quite the point.
Highlights: “The Messiah Complex” and “Unconditional Artificial Chemistry”
Grimner – Stormvingar
Genre: Folk metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: “Oh great, another drink-along-sing-along, bombastic, viking-cosplay in musical form” you might think. And while that description isn’t entirely inaccurate, there’s a bit more to it than that. Grimner bring in the snarly aggression and slight tongue in cheek of bands like Finntroll and Ensiferum, and bring a touch of darkness and solemnity to go with it. The issue is that the generous handful of solid, original-feeling tracks are offset by an equal number of fairly generic ones, with some questionable clean vocal parts. Still, if these don’t bother you too much, I recommend sticking with it.
Highlight: “Irrbloss”
A Night In Texas – The Darkest Side of Humanity
Genre: Deathcore
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Been a moment since I had this good of a time with a deathcore record. For those unaware, this band is not, in fact, from Texas, but from Brisbane, Australia. Their style is a tech’d up maiming machine, somewhere between the violence of Thy Art Is Murder and the symphonic scale of Lorna Shore.
Where most percussive-riffed deathcore typically gets real predictable real fast, these guys seem determined to keep changing things up and present alternatives to the easy and well-traveled path. While as relentless and precise as you’d expect, with the familiar penchant for topping off tracks with breakdowns, no tricks are overused, and whenever I hear something a little too recognizable, it generally passes me by before I have time to dwell on it. It’s a beast of an album, that manages an ideal balance between pure punishment and dark majesty.
Highlights: “Rot From Within” and “A Primal Conditioning”
Sigh – Goh-Ka
Genre: Avant-garde black/folk metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5Review: Japans’ Sigh are one of those bands that you think would be much bigger than what they currently are – 36 years after their founding. But perhaps it is for the better (at least for us, the listeners) that they’ve remained more of an underground act, allowing them the creative freedom to write music as unbound as the one we find on “Goh-Ka”.
Avant-garde doesn’t truly cover it, but it’s also not inaccurate for the purpose of adjusting your expectations for what’s in store. On the album, black, doom, heavy, prog and psychedelic metal meets traditional folk with natural and electronic/industrial ambience. You never know if the next track is going to be a spooky-toned ripper or a serene, acoustic interlude. Compared to earlier releases, there’s perhaps not so much grim-, or ugliness as you’d expect from a predominately black metal-rooted act, but it’s also very far from tame, and certainly not without coarseness. Although I personally find the mood and thematic feel of the album to be a tad too diffuse, I’m left completely in awe at the band’s versatility. It’s an album I get a strong desire to stay with after only listening for a few seconds, and it doesn’t stop rewarding that decision for the duration.
Highlights: “Kuso-shi 1, 2, and 3” and “Jimmenjushin”
Sun Guts – Supervoid
Genre: Mathcore/progressive metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Sun Guts is a one-man, instrumental project combining the straight-up riff bad-assery of metallic hardcore and thrash with the unconventional structures of mathcore and Meshuggah-style extreme prog. At its most whacky and electronica-boosted I can hear some Igorrr in there too, but for the most part it’s a bit more focused than that.
Yes, in essence this could be called a “shred” album of sorts, as there is limited melodic depth, and only a few measures more in terms of atmosphere. But apart from the undeniable, mind-bending riff gymnastics, there’s also a unifying, industrial theme to it, and the progression through the album feels considered, constantly unlocking new sides to the dystopian madness. It may not stay with you for days on end, but it’ll sure shake you up in the moment.
Highlights: “Jaw Maze” and “Redactor”
Sworn – Null Crowned The Infinite
Genre: Melodic black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: I feel like a fool realizing that for the last 21 years, this band from my home town of Bergen, Norway, have completely eluded me. In its current state, five albums in, they play cosmically oriented, rather lofty melodic black metal that reminds me of fellow countrymen In Vain at their most “conventionally” blackened.
This is an album that, although containing its fair share of blast beats and riff attacks, feels like its movement is tethered to the rotation of the planet, yet somehow perpetually caught in darkness, gazing out at the infinity of the night sky. It’s grand yet solemn, melodic yet cold and grim. I find myself really impressed by it, but must take a slightly harsher stance for my objective rating, as I simply don’t find the band’s style to be all that distinct. The majority of melodic and instrumental elements, as well as the vocals, are quite recognizable from similar bands in the black and doom realms. They’re all well utilized though, so if what you’re mainly concerned with is the quality of the execution, then you should definitely dive in.
Highlights: “The Starless Origin” and “Fracture of Aeons”
Venomous Echoes – Ŋvęŧş: Violator Of Mater
Genre: Experimental death/black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: If you can’t get enough of maddening I, Voidhanger-releases, then boy is this the time for you, as fresh horrors seem to seep out of cracks in reality on a near-daily basis. For someone like me, who’s not in tune with experimental metal by default, these releases are wildly polarizing. Every now and then, one hits just right, and yet other times I find the good and interesting to outweigh the weak and obscenely random. This album falls into the latter category.
My main issue with this album is the production, which causes the death metal instrumentation to sink into the atmospheric and dissonant-melodic elements to such a degree that it all blends together into a tumultuous mass, and ends up feeling flat. This isn’t true for every track though – there are several instances where the chaos feels as contrasting as it needs to in order to leave a mark. And at its best it feels like being sucked through a tunnel of smoke, multicolored light, fluids and shapes conjured forth from the deepest parts of your imagination.
Highlight: “Ẅęrð”
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 August 28 – 2026
Reviews of metal albums released August 22 – August 28
When it rains it fucking pours. Summer is officially over and the releases are seemingly dropping from the sky in alarming numbers. Let’s feast!
Apocælypse – Fænix
Genre: Groove metal
Subjective rating: 0/5
Objective rating: 1.5/5Review: Just taking the opportunity to throw some shade at this absolute turd of an album. Aside from some tasty solos, this is a highlights reel of worn-out ideas, poor vocals, weak melodies, unimaginative rhythms and AI slop. And on top of that I’m easily giving them a “0” subjective rating for the ignorant, nonsensical use of the Scandinavian letter “Æ”, making their band (and album) name sound like it’s being bleated by a sheep.
Black Spikes – Ydos
Genre: Alternative/industrial metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: A bit of theatricality and panache will go a long way to grab you some attention in the metal world, but if you want to keep it you better have the musical chops to follow it up. This isn’t an issue for Lithuanian band Black Spikes. They combine the alternative-style allure of In This Moment with the modern technical aggression of bands like Jinjer, and expand upon it with electronica and hip-hop-elements, effectively courting the industrial and nu metal crowd simultaneously.
The music is highly melodically inclined and certainly on the accessible side, but not nearly to the degree where it feels dumbed down or too streamlined (although underground purists will probably disagree with that last statement). They play around with rhythm shifts and breakdowns without getting progressive or djent-y tunnel vision. They’re as much a visual spectacle as they’re an explosion of energy and trend-conscious flavor, and anyone not taking themselves or the genre too seriously should absolutely check it out.
Highlight: “AUREA”
Exumer – Death Mask Messiah
Genre: Thrash metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Exumer are one of the lesser-known OG-ish teutonic thrash bands, getting started in 1985, going on hiatus for most of the 90s and 2000s, then returning with a vengeance in the 2010s. This is their first full-length in seven years, so has the absence produced rust or hunger? In my opinion, it’s a bit of both.
“Death Mask Messiah” is the least pretentious thing I’ve heard in a good while. After a few seconds sharpening its axe it sets off burning rubber, and doesn’t stop until there’s no more asphalt to scorch. It’s lean, groove-heavy and eager. The barking vocals match the steadfast, driving rhythms perfectly. the lyrics are surprisingly well-considered and the fun factor is substantial. In terms of memorability though, it has much less to offer. A lot of the songs feel same-ish and written simply for the love of the style, which is fine, but has the album steering well clear of greatness.
Highlight: “Allocated Savagery”
Flotsam And Jetsam – Rats In The Temple
Genre: Power/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: These guys obviously have a solid fanbase, and it’s not too difficult to see why. They’re faithful to their own style, and they continue to be able to inject genuine effort and energy into the music. It’s not what you’d call fresh, but much like with old school death metal and classic black metal, that’s not what the target audience wants. My personal issues remain the tired lyrical content, the heavy-handed rhythm changes and the general feeling of “heard it before”. There’s plenty of cool riffs and solos to sate your craving, but for every mildly interesting turn, there one that just seems to be running in circles.
Highlight: “Harvesting The Hate”
Gorod – The Ember Gone
Genre: Progressive/technical death metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Need a break from the relentless tech death drag race (as in “who’s fastest”, not “who’s most fabulous”) but still want your socks knocked off by the musicianship? You know Gorod has you covered. While the French band’s 2023 release “The Orb” was an excellent showcase of their capabilities, I didn’t find that it helped them stand out too much in the subgenre. It was fast, aggressive, precise, varied, although a bit “textbook prog” at times. With “The Ember Gone”, that’s changed.
Their eighth full-length is still complex, and still plenty angry at times, but the melodic and atmospheric scope had been upped, and it sounds bigger and richer. Not in a polished, superficial way, but in a way that allows subtleties to make as much of an impact as the crashing, roaring extremes. The album goes through clean buildups, interludes and instrumentals as well as riff fests and brain twisters, bringing to mind some of the most mature material of bands like Gojira and Trivium. It might be a tad too restrained, even tame, for some, but I find that the melodies really connect with me, and the effect of the technical savagery, as a contrast to the rest, is a lasting one.
Highlights: “Remains” and “Devise”
Kamelot – Dark Asylum
Genre: Symphonic/power metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: Going into an album called “Dark Asylum”, you’d normally expect some doom and gloom, but one look at the band name and/or the album cover and you quickly realize that’s not gonna be the case. Sure, there’s a bit of a gothic flair, but that’s certainly not out of the realm for Kamelot. No, this is big, rousing, dramatic and big-production-theatrical symphonic metal very much like you’ve come to expect it. That’s not to say that it’s completely run-of the-mill. A few of the melodies are actually quite gripping, there are moments as glororious as you could possibly hope for, and most of the guest performances truly suit the tracks and leave a distinct flavor. The problem is that for every mature, solid highlight there’s a bland, Eurovision mid-table contender or anesthetic-level clean ballad to go with it.
Highlight: “Ashen World”
Mastodon – Marrow Deep
Genre: Progressive sludge metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5Review: With the loss of Brent Hinds, it wouldn’t feel unnatural for “Marrow Deep” to follow in the gloomy footsteps of 2021’s “Hushed and Grim”, but as with 2009’s “Crack the Skye”, going solemn and understated is not the way that the band has chosen to deal with grief this time around. While I wouldn’t go so far as to use words like “majestic” or “fun”, the album is bursting at the seams with creative energy.
While there are many aspects of the band’s multifaceted style at play, I feel confident in stating that this is the sludgiest and heaviest I’ve heard them in a good while. There’s real anger in the vocals, the drums are at times truly ferocious, and the riffs bite and tear like a hungry predator. Even the calmer, atmospheric tracks eventually build to crashing peaks. All this is not to say that the guys have made “just” a straightforward ripper though. The flow shifts often and unpredictably, opening the melodic taps at opportune moments. The mood moves on its own plane, transitioning slowly and subtly throughout the runtime. It’s a rich and layered experience that keeps offering new impressions till the last second.
Highlights: “Your Ghost Again” and “In The Ruins”
Mindwork – Adrift
Genre: Progressive extreme metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: If this week’s Mastodon release feels too grounded for you, then let this Czech project whish you away into dimensions unimagined. Mindwork play technical, semi-aggressive prog with traces of death, black, thrash and groove. I hear some Ihsahn in there, but this is even less focused than his solo project shenanigans.
When it all comes together, it really hits well, combining precise harshness with satisfying heaviness and oddball, spacey melody. I don’t count the clean vocals as one of its strengths, some of the lyrics are a bit typical, and overall it’s a bit too much “prog for prog’s sake” for me, but that will almost certainly be less of an issue for a more in-tune audience.
Highlight: “Breach the Cosmos”
Miscreance – Reminiscence
Genre: Progressive/experimental thrash/death metal
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: This is one of those albums that proves the usefulness of my subjective/objective rating split. Miscreance know how to run wild within and beyond the realms of progressive death thrash. This hearkens back to early, unhinged tech death, both in terms of tone, vocal style, production and instrument use. Listening is like being yanked in a dozen different directions while watching a kaleidoscopic visualizer in VR-goggles. The style is nailed down and the precision scary.
Subjectively though, I find this to be nigh on unlistenable. Half the time I feel like the progression is inspired by a toddler hitting random notes on a piano, then ever so slightly cleaned up, added some wild thrashing and ridiculous hoarse-howling, fat-tongue vocals. In the end, this caters to a very specific audience, that will no doubt love it. I am more than happy to abstain.
Highlight: “Oracle’s Rift”
Ninth Realm – Damnation’s Veil
Genre: Thrash/death metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: In short terms, this album feels like being skewered on the spiky shoulder pads of the knight on the cover and torn along on a ferocious gallop through battlefields, blizzards and monstrous duels. This is death thrash of the magnificently pissed off variant, set in a dark fantasy realm and added elements of hardcore and melodic black metal.
The vocals are like absurdly coarse sandpaper, to scour away accumulated bullshit coating the walls of your mind. The riffs are like mechanical, serrated scythe strikes, and you get peppered with speed-style solos. The drums are so eager that they actually feel like they’re stumbling over themselves at times. The performances certainly aren’t squeaky clean, but in a way it would feel wrong if they were, and the production is perfectly rough for the style. You get the furious fun of thrash, the lethality of death metal, and just enough conceptual depth to make it memorable.
Highlights: “Cohorts of the Abyss” and “All Hail Treachery”
Russian Circles – Nine
Genre: Progressive sludge/black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: There’s a lot of great prog-but-not-JUST-prog coming out this week, and Russian Circles don’t want to be left out of the party. The slightly washed-out sound and most of the blast beats of 2022’s Gnosis have gone, so those looking for strong black metal influences will be disappointed this time around. There are still traces of blackening on the album, and overall it’s not exactly what you’d call cheerful. But this is a more expansive album, flexing its force not just in terms of riffing heaviness (though there’s plenty of that), but in its contrasts, powerful melody lines and strategic, deadly accurate rhythm work.
For those unfamiliar with the band, this is an instrumental, progressive project combining gentle atmosphere with sludgy heft and coarseness. Tonally it stays fairly solemn, but touches on sadness and pessimism as well as hopefulness and elation. For such a relatively short album, which is a welcome change in this subgenre, I find that it moves perhaps a little too patiently through some of the second half, but I wouldn’t really want them to take any of it out either.
Highlights: “Empath” and “Borehole”
Static Abyss – The Dying Hunt
Genre: Death/doom metal/hardcore
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: This is one of those albums that can’t make up its damn mind, but it’s (mostly) to the benefit of you, the listener. On it, old school, ragged death metal wrestles with its other personalities to keep some sort of equilibrium between raging hardcore and cosmic, dread-inducing doom. But judging by how both sides are strongly prevalent throughout, also within individual songs, it’s somewhat of a losing fight.
The cool thing is that, thanks to the grimy tone, rusty vocals and groove-heavy riff breaks, it’s all somehow brought together. Sure, it’s a bit mad and disorganized, to the point where you wonder if it’s occasionally repeating itself because it forgot what it was doing five minutes ago, but if you like the slightly bonkers, carefree and style-experimenting side to death metal, that still feels faithful to the subgenre’s origins. then I think you’ll have a great time with this.
Highlight: “The Dying Hunt” and “Sinew Leech”
Sunscorched – Blood of the Badlands
Genre: Atmospheric black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: When I first got the gist of what this album’s concept was gonna be, I immediately suspected superficiality and gimmickry. Atmospheric black metal with an American old west theme? News flash: banjo playing in black metal has already been done. But my delight was great when I found the concept to be well considered and executed.
The album feels a bit like a tale of misery, toil, existentialism and horror, told in the hot blackness of the prairie night, with only the vast starry canvas above as illumination, and the smoke of the burned out campfire still stinging your nostrils. It sounds a bit crap production wise, most of which I expect is on purpose, but other than that, the less I say about it further the better. Saddle up and give it a ride.
Highlight: “Stranger’s Land”
Triosphere – Oceans Above, Stars Below
Genre: Power/melodic prog metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: I had a chance to see Triosphere at a festival this summer, in their home town of Trondheim, Norway, no less, but I prioritized a different stage. Listening to their fourth full-length, which brings a twelve-year release drought to an end, I firmly regret giving them a miss. On it is a seamless and vibrant mix of power-, prog-, heavy- and thrash metal, spearheaded by a stellar, truly forceful vocal performance.
The album goes big on drama, but doesn’t leave the planet surface behind like 99% of all power metal bands. It’s all properly guitar based, with epic and thrashy riffs abound, and even more jaw-dropping solos. The rhythm work isn’t exactly challenging, but impressively technical, and still plenty fluid enough not to interrupt the flow. They don’t quite stand as much out from the crowd on every single track, but there’s a generous handful of highlights, and whether it goes for fun, exultation, awe or simply pleasantness, it succeeds at pretty much everything.
Highlights: “Of Tyrants” and “Orpheus’ Bane”
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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