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Weekly rundown December 05 – 2025
Reviews of metal albums released November 29 – December 05
As most of the metal world shies away into its various caves as we head into December, there are always a few, brave stragglers that dare contend with the Christmas hits.
Bläkken – Swiatowstret
Genre: Black/death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: You might think “yawn, yet another Polish blackened death metal band”, but this one’s a little bit different. Sure, the vocalist snarls at you like you’re the scum of the earth and the melodic and atmospheric parts drip with bitterness. But then it suddenly changes gears and roar off on neck-breaking thrashy riffs, or shuffle unexpectedly into Gojira-like prog grooves. There’s enough of it that it doesn’t feel random, and not so much that it emerges completely from the blackened death metal pit. It’s got no less than five interludes, as well as an intro, which feels like an unnecessary attempt to add depth, but at least the main tracks usually get straight to business, and when they do they hit hard.
Highlight: “Słowa zatrute goryczą”
Blood Red Throne – Siltskin
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Didn’t expect Blood Red Throne to be back with new stuff this soon, although technically it’s been nearly two years since their January 2024 release “Nonagon” (which was a banger), but I’m sure as hell not complaining. This will be no less than their 12th full-length, and while there are definitely traces of the old school in the tone, feel and technical execution, this is very much up to date, leaning into tech death and aggressive melodeath in the vein of Black Dahlia Murder. If you’re here for riffs (no surprise if you are) then you’ll get stuffed to bursting point and beyond. Every track feels tight and purposeful, delivering heaps of punishing groove. Conceptually there’s not much to talk about, but there’s been a shift away from apocalyptic fury to the slightly darker and more sinister, which makes for a welcome, if slight, change of flavor.
Highlights: “Beneath The Means” and “Husk In The Grain”
Death Obvious – Death Obvious
Genre: Experimental death/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: Delving into the vast emptiness expecting nothing but hardship and calamity, this album will be the soundtrack to your suffering. It’s the debut album of this Finnish duo, and it’s clear that they’re trying to carve out a niche of their own. They do a lot of carving, but never really land anywhere, remaining floating and relatively undefined as the album comes to a close. They go a lot of interesting places on the way, but the question remains if there was any plan at all from the get-go.
Enthroned – Ashspawn
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Long-going Belgian black metallers Enthroned are not here to entertain you. While not piercingly dissonant or overly chaotic, hardly anything of the “Ashspawn” listening experience can be described as pleasant, catchy or harmonious. There’s very little in the way of melodic flow, it scores high on hostility, and the song structures feel ever so slightly disorienting. Personally I find just a tad too little to hold on to, but it stands out in the kvlt crowd and is undoubtedly well crafted, with a really cool album cover.
Ghoulhouse – Realm Of Ghouls
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: Very nearly on the day 1 year after their last album, Sweden’s Ghoulhouse dumps another truckload of zombie-horror, brittle-bone-crunchy death metal on your twinkly-lights-festooned doorway. For a death metal junkie it’s not all that much more than empty calories, but it’s tasty calories, and it hits the sweet spot. The vocals are ragged, the bass is meaty and the rhythms quite agile, just as it should be.
Hexjakt – Blessing Of The Damned
Genre: Doom metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: A bass-heavy, steady-moving caravan of Swedish classic doom. It borrows a bit of stoner groove and adds a lot of sludge roughness to its vocals, then explores both darkly epic, open expanses and the sinister shadows of buried ruins. It tends to get a little too comfortable grinding out the same kind of riffs for long periods of time, but manages both enveloping atmosphere and head-on confrontations to great effect.
Sepulchral – Beneath The Shroud
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: I don’t think I’ve actually come across Spanish old school death metal before, so this’ll be a first. It’s the kind that sounds both mad and kind of happy-go-lucky at the same time, as it hops along on eager, predictable rhythms, riding on warm, blunt riffs like a steadily revving engine. And yet the vocals and tone spell nothing but doom and suffering. This style of death metal feels old, like the notes were found in musty, ancient tomes. It doesn’t get lost in ritualistic atmosphere or experiment with the formula like the Veilburner album from a couple of weeks ago, but somehow seems like it comes from the same, forbidden place.
Highlight: “Blood, Phlegm, Black bile”
Skogskult – Skogskult
Genre: Stoner/doom metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Out from the Swedish woods rumble a compact behemoth of a doomy stoner record, dragging the parts of the forest spirit caught in its chunky tires with it. That’s not to say, like the band’s name might suggest, that this is some endlessly atmospheric, folk-stuffed kind of thing. Old school doom and heavy rock ‘n’ roll form the very center of its workings, and its patient groove pairs perfectly with the phenomenal, powerful vocals. The tempo varies from a slow trudge to enthusiastic chugging, matching the mood of the given song perfectly. The album starts a bit too slow for its own good, but picks up significantly, and manages a surprisingly wide range of melodic and emotional flavors throughout. And the best part is that it doesn’t quite sound like anything else.
Highlights: “Pakten” and “Jag Ger Mig Av”
Upon A Burning Body – Blood Of The Bull
Genre: Deathcore/metalcore
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: I was not familiar with the band prior to discovering their 2022 album “Fury”, but the album plays regularly in my earbuds at the gym. It was a great mix of driving groove and metalcore aggression, with a moderate melodic dimension. With “Blood of the Bull”, the band throw themselves headlong into the current metalcore and deathcore trends, with staccato riffs and rhythms, nu-metal stomps and rapping, and poppy melodic choruses. Losing a ton of character in the process. It’s not badly made at all, but also not the slightest bit distinct.
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 November 21 – 2025
Reviews of metal albums released November 15 – November 21
In a week of serious, nefarious, heavy-blow kind of stuff, it’s the cheerful and riff-happy stuff that wins out.
Bragging Rights – Carpe Jugulum
Genre: Groove/sludge metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Do you have a desire to immerse yourself into the turbulent, lightless currents of that “The way of all flesh”-era Gojira dark, slightly droning groove riffing, having it envelop and tenderize you by way of blunt force trauma? That’s more or less what you’re in for with “Carpe Jugulum”. Compared to the earlier mentioned inspiration, this is a less progressive, more focused kind of sound, going low and at a mostly unhurried pace, but with a feeling of unstoppable momentum. There is melody, but it’s scaled back, radiating up from the depths like a faint glow, then slicing through at times with the lead guitar. Each single song is a tad one-dimensional in scope, mostly revolving around a limited number of riff- and rhythm approaches, but overall you’re not left with a lingering feeling of repetition. More like a violent, nocturnal ocean voyage.
Highlight: “Prey”
Depravity – Bestial Possession
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Semi-technical, modestly melodic, but first of all ripping a gory path with a fierce sense of urgency, these Australian death metallers’ third full-length means business. It’s a crisp, lethal kind of sound with good low-end punch and plenty of aggression to propel it at a brisk pace. It’s a decidedly modern sound, but retaining the savagery of old and not leaning too hard on technical tropes. Personally I was missing just a bit of personality. I wouldn’t say it sounds too “clean”, but having just a few too many tracks fail to really grab my attention. Still, the playing is top notch, it’s a great blend of speedy groove and morbidity, and at it’s best it’s absolutely killer.
Highlights: “Call to the Fallen” and “Rot in the Pit”
Frozen Land – Icemelter
Genre: Power metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Borrowing some heft from melodeath, riff elements from thrash and groove, with rhythms from straight heavy metal, and infusing it with a highly eager, instrument-forward, Finnish melodic sensibility, this is a power metal album that’s bursting with fun-factor and adventurous spirit. It has a whiff of the neoclassical, and just enough of a vague hint of Children of Bodom synth-guitar interplay that my heart immediately starts beating faster. Yes, there are quite a few parts that sound quite recognizable from others of its ilk, and the vocal performance doesn’t quite reach the level of the subgenre’s best, but there’s not a single track on here that doesn’t at least make me smile and nod my head without even thinking about it.
Highlight: “Chosen, Corrupt and Cancerous” and “Dead End”
Gloombound – Dreaming Delusion
Genre: Doom/death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: We’ve had some pretty darn good funeral doom lately (Bell Witch/Aerial Ruin, Oromet), and this one still does enough to stand out. It manages the feat of combining the murkiness of old school, graveyard-death metal and the misty atmospheric sense of longing and overcast sadness of darkly emotional doom. It takes a while to get to the truly arresting moments, but be assured that they are there to be found, and worth your patience.
Highlight: “At the Precipice to Longinquity”
Morbikon – Lost Within The Astral Crypts
Genre: Black/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: This is blackened thrash that goes light on the groove and heavy on the un-holiness. There’s still shredding, to be sure, and the tempo is mostly high, with precise drum work and hairpin-turn rhythm transitions. But it draws heavily on the tone and feel of early, semi-melodic black metal. A fair bit of it reminds me of Abbath’s current solo project, which should be taken as a big compliment. It lacks a bit in uniqueness, but makes up for it with clear intent of creating something that’s constantly in your face and engaging.
Highlights: “Heavens That Burn and Eons Divided” and “Numeric Portal Ascendency”
Olde Throne – Megalith
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Going strong on the pagan vibes and leaning moderately into atmosphere, New Zealand’s Olde Throne play chilling and haunting black metal that where the harshness mostly stays clearly separated from the more melodic folk elements. They do both aggression and stretched-out, melancholy calm really quite well, which makes for a balanced and layered experience. My main issue is that the instances of jungle atmosphere and tribal instruments feel a bit misplaced, as they make promises of a different kind of flavor, when, in fact, the actual black metal is not that much different to the classic, northern European variant. But there are also songs on here where the style morphs and mixes with the folk influences, and that where you really get the character of the band shining through.
Highlight: “Ail Na Mireann”
Stone Nomads – Empires Of Stone
Genre: Doom/stoner metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: A Texan bunch of low-end groove appreciators that very successfully blend old school doom with crashing stoner riffs and that bulky Southern sludge. And while the style doesn’t sound all that original, this is not a straightforward, utterly predictable sort of release. A bit like with Pantera, they have a very clear idea for the purpose of each song, and aren’t afraid to take detours and quickly skip lanes to change things up, although always heading for the same destination. Some of the riffs on here are truly massive, and they vary the tempo and intensity to an extent you probably wouldn’t have expected for a doom project. It’s produced to sound big, like it’s inflating your skull as you listen, but it’s not complicated or overly layered – quite the opposite, and in the best possible way.
Highlights: “Desolate Sands” and “Mount Aras”
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 November 14 – 2025
Reviews of metal albums released November 08 – November 14
A week that might make you feel better about embracing the coming darkness of winter, with black and blackened metal delivering truly outstanding releases.
1914 – Viribus Unitis
Genre: Black/death/doom metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5Review: Music about WW1 should be grim, and there is little doubt that Ukrainian band 1914 agrees with me on that point. The three sides to their sound play different parts in setting the scene of warfare – the blackened presence of wasted life and hopelessness, the death metal roar of merciless, mechanized slaughter, and the doom lull of heart rending sadness and misery. Their fourth full-length exudes anger and bitterness, but also reverence. It’s extremely well balanced, and spins a dynamic tale that takes us through the entirety of the war, and chances are good you’ll come out the other end feeling things you might not have expected from a blackened death metal project.
Highlights: “1914 (The Siege of Przemyśl)” and “1918 Pt 3: ADE (A duty to escape)”
Bell Witch & Aerial Ruin – Stygian Bough Vol. II
Genre: Doom metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: It’s become a pretty safe bet that whatever lurches our way from the musty tomb Bell Witch surely record in is going to be top-notch. This time they’ve decided to make a sequel to the 2020 collaboration effort “Stygian Bough Volume I”, and once again they’ve teamed up with Aerial ruin. The good thing is that, unlike some collaboration projects, this genuinely changes the sound. Yes, it’s still funeral doom, but, despite the sorrowful tone and rather mellow vocal style, it feels like it’s (near) constantly on the move. It’s gripping, doesn’t take forever to build, and doesn’t feel repetitive for more than fleeting moments. It doesn’t quite send shivers down my spine with its peaks like they’ve managed in the past, but this is a dense, rewarding album that no doom fan should miss.
Highlights: “Waves Became the Sky” and “The Told and the Leadened”
Chairmaker – Leviathan Carcass
Genre: Grindcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: If nothing but the fastest and most furious will do for you, forget the movies and put this one on. Maybe on repeat, ’cause it’s over in less than 15 minutes. This is grindcore with death metal elements, that simply does not let up, yet calls attention to its technical riff- and drum work just enough for you to get half an appreciative nod in before it rages on. There’s a bit of dissonance and a few breakdowns just to jar your brain even further. The vocal style is a bit one-dimensional, and it’s not the most imaginative thing you’ll hear this week. But it sure as hell rips.
Highlight: “Pigfucker”
Lamp Of Murmuur – The Dreaming Prince In Ecstasy
Genre: Black/gothic metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Following up 2023’s excellent “Saturnian Bloodstorm” was never gonna be a walk in the park, but the L.A.-based solo project Lamp of Murmuur has risen to the task. It’s not exactly more of the same, but the style will be very recognizable, and it brings the same level of unholy enthusiasm, sounding almost gleeful in its unreserved instrumental approach. The symphonic, gothic and prog elements that were present last time around have now been boosted, making for a more melodic and stylistically varied sound. Slightly less sharp and aggressive, but still dramatic, and still undeniably black metal. Some listeners will likely bemoan the slight departure from the “Immortal sound” into something a bit more rounded, but it still feels daring, committed and conceptually solid.
Highlights: “Forest of Hallucinations” and “Reincarnation of a Witch”
Stellar Circuits – Phantom :: Phoenix
Genre: Progressive/alternative metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Here’s some moody, silky-melodied and djent-riffed prog metal for those who like it melodic and moderately emotional. I hear Chevelle, some Deftones, a pinch of later era Linkin Park and a tiny drop of Gojira – ingredients that all play together quite nicely, for a coherent and particular kind of flavor rather than a wild, adventurous mishmash. It does sound like they’re just coasting along in certain parts, but they certainly know how to pick it up and pour out some proper aggression and head-turning instrumentation. The vocals have great range, and overall the album feels highly mature and accomplished, while retaining a young and vital sound.
Highlights: “Bury The Ashes” and “The War Within”
Veilburner – Longing For Triumph, Reeking Of Tragedy
Genre: Progressive death/black metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Now on the 8th full-length release in 11 years, the maddened musical forges of Veilburner surely never run cold. Last year’s “The Duality of Decapitation and Wisdom” was the one that finally caught my attention, and I was both taken aback and enamored with how it sounded so different from pretty much everything else in the blackened death metal sphere. The weirdness thankfully lives on with this one. Instead of a forbidden, underground ritual, we’re now in the devil’s laboratory/workshop, where all sorts of abominations are born, altered and grafted to each other and all manner of impractical objects. It’s a riff-heavy release, with some solos and tasteful melodic work, which makes it extra fun, but it’s also got a patient, doomy side that does introduce a bit of repetition and slight stagnation every now and then. Still, it very much stands on its own and keeps up the highly impressive quality of this hard-working band.
Highlights: “Pestilent Niche” and “That Which Crypts Howls Grandeur”
Voidceremony – Abditum
Genre: Experimental death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: How about some death metal in the style of an experimental jazz jam, while being unpredictably pulled into a black hole? This is a dense sounding and fairly restless sort of listening experience, with any one approach rarely lasting more than 15 seconds. It’s well produced, and they haven’t drowned the instrumental performances in layers of atmosphere, which makes it surprisingly quick to get into if you’re of the mind to pay proper attention. If you’re not, then you might very well suffer a headache. Behind all the perceived randomness there’s some razor sharp technicality, and you’re definitely getting a well-measured and varied progression rather than just a wall of noise.
Highlight: “Seventh Ephemeral Aura”
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 November 07 – 2025
Reviews of metal albums released November 01 – November 07
A week that’s out to test your sanity, pulling you up, down, inwards and into several pieces.
Astronoid – Stargod
Genre: Progressive/avant-garde metal/shoegaze
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Let’s go on an adventure skipping through a selection of pleasant dimensions to the uplifting tones of 80s rock and heavy metal. There are notes of sadness involved, and a good deal of dreamy contemplation, but for the most part it’s cushioned by gentle-yet-expressive vocal work and warm melodies. The guitars are clearly present, offering gallops and chugs that draw from prog, hard rock and even a slight bit from black metal. But they rarely get to outshine the synth based atmosphere, which strongly sets the tone for the entire experience. There are a few too many mellow and un-challenging tracks on here for my taste, but it’s elegantly and cohesively crafted as a result of a very clear and well executed vision.
Highlights: “Love Weapon” and “Dream Protocol ’88”
Cold Steel – Discipline & Punish
Genre: Thrash metal/hardcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Dropping their debut full-length like an artillery-fired nail bomb, Florida’s Cold Steel are making sure it’s obvious they mean business. Their trade is crossover thrash of the harsh, percussive kind, in the shape of mid-tempo, chugging punishment rather than a blistering riff fest. It’s dirty, angry, heavy and slightly unhinged, bursting with character and delivering an awesome collection of opening tracks. The middle section of the album is a slight letdown comparatively, as it slows down and takes on very similar rhythms, but they bring back the intensity towards the end. It’s tight, purposeful and decently varied, promising great things for the future.
Highlight: “Blacksmith of Damnation”
Ildaruni – Divinum Sanguinem
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: This is Armenian black metal that emerges like an army of the dead from ancient and forgotten halls carved into the heart of the mountain. That’s not saying it’s locked in rigor mortis. On the contrary, it bristles with grim energy and strikes with both blade-edged fierceness and towering force. There is a definite epic quality to it, with a melodic approach that brings to mind solemn melodic death metal, but the snarling vocals and shivering tone keeps it rooted in the blackness. Its folk elements provide clear distinction, while it remains quite traditional in its instrumentation otherwise. There’s not a weak track on the album, and one or two more truly outstanding songs might have elevated it into undeniable greatness.
Highlights: “Forged With Glaive and Blood” and “Zurvan Akrane”
Norilsk – Gigantes Mortui
Genre: Doom/death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: While certainly heavy and boasting harsh elements straight out of bloodthirsty death metal, the temperament of this album feels mostly lifted from classic doom. Some of the rhythms are surprisingly light on their feet, bringing to mind stoner and even a hint of punk. But the tone remains mostly bleak and crushing, with only faded hints of levity present in the restrained melodies. At times it sounds massive and ancient, at times impatient and quite mobile. It stands out in the death doom subgenre as something that offers more than just crushing bulk, and while slightly uneven in structure and sense of purpose, it’s well worth your attention.
Highlight: “La liberté aux ailes brisées”
Omnium Gatherum – May The Bridges We Burn Light The Way
Genre: Melodic death/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Finnish veterans Omnium Gatherum are now on their 10th full-length, but playing with the energy of a band half their age. What we get on this latest release is a vibrant, fairly accessible form of melodeath with undeniable Finnish traits and accompanying charm, and a good deal of swagger from classic heavy metal to go with it. There’s a lot to like, but pushing the envelope it most certainly is not, and that album cover does not do it any favors.
Oromet – The Sinking Isle
Genre: Doom metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: If you’re looking for funeral doom with the same kind of all-enveloping, seemingly endless scope as Bell Witch, then this is likely to sate your hunger. It keeps rising, and rising, and rising, and pulls you along with it to unseen domains of the skies. The bass is a constant, steady companion, and the patient drumming, like the footsteps of a titan, carry you effortlessly along. While, as expected, moving at a glacial pace, it’s a truly dynamic listen, bringing you the unstoppable force of a tsunami as well as serene calms of near-silence.
Highlights: “Hollow Dominion” and “Foresaken Tarn”
Pupil Slicer – Fleshwork
Genre: Mathcore
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: This is not your average, fiendishly complicated, rubbing-alcohol-flavored piece of mathcore. It’s aggressive, for sure, and certainly not straightforward. But there are layers to the harshness, and the band deftly maneuvers between them in a way that is both satisfyingly unpredictable and which produces a rich level of variation. There is noise and dissonance, but also groove, melody and experimenting with genre influences. It’s a band flexing its capabilities and expanding its repertoire, doing so confidently and fully committed to making it work within the flexible framework of their base style. The effort is there all the way, as it claws, snaps and roars at you in rhythmic outbursts.
Highlights: “Heather” and “Gordian”
Qrixkuor – The Womb of the World
Genre: Atmospheric death/black metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5Review: This will dissolve the ground underneath your feet and send you hurtling into a realm of shifting shadows, unsettling shapes and pure madness. In essence it is a strain of terrifying death metal, feeding on your fear and causing light itself to wither and die. An orchestra of beautiful malevolence plays in the background, while the vocals hiss like serpentine demons and the guitars thrash and writhe in blind rage and agony. Given the depth, it feels a lot like doom, and it bites with a blackened bitterness, but when the intensity builds there is no denying the rumbling, musty savagery. It keeps morphing and evolving, alive with corrupting potency. It’s a lot to take in, but never really becomes overwhelming, and the nightmare comes to an end after a little over 50 minutes, which is no more or less than it needs to leave you broken down yet in complete awe.
Highlights: “The Womb of the World” and “Slithering Serendipity”
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 31 – 2025
Reviews of metal albums released October 25 – October 31
This is a wild week, pulling from all kind of influences and taking you to weird, wonderful and terrifying places.
Aephanemer – Utopie
Genre: Symphonic/melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Mash up Children of Bodom, Finntroll, Arch Enemy, Yngwie Malmsteen, and perhaps a bit of An Abstract Illusion for a touch of that towering solemnity, and you should at least be approaching an accurate impression of what to expect from this band. It’s the lofty yet playful neoclassical style that the shred monsters of the 80s championed, and bands like COB took into the realm of extreme metal, now revived with aggressive melodeath fervor and a flair of prog death complexity. Added some distinctly Finnish-sounding folk melody and a touch of thrash riffing, this scores sky high on both distinction, vibrancy and richness, without sacrificing too much heaviness. The two-parter title track finish is a bit on the slow side, and tonally I think they could have aimed for even greater contrasts, but it’s plenty dramatic, and good for dozens of repeat listens.
Highlights: “La Règle du Jeu” and “Le Cimetière Marin”
Avatar – Don’t Go In The Forest
Genre: Alternative/groove metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Still doing their thing, rarely repeating tricks and never playing it predictable or safe, Avatar steadily forges on, and kindly allows us a slice of their current state. And it’s as entertaining and baffling as ever. Pulling from freaky alternative, stadium rock, industrial, classic heavy and aggressive groove with traces of Slipknot, among many others, the number of traits and influences is too long to keep listing. It’s got punchy tracks, but overall aggression has been scaled back for the sake of variation and an interesting album progression. Not as conceptual as “Feathers & Flesh” or “Avatar Country”, it still has a fairly coherent mood that’s distinct enough to clearly differentiate it from earlier releases. Not landing with quite the same impact as last time around on 2023’s “Dance Devil Dance”, it’s more endearingly weird, and feels like stronger storytelling. Like all Avatar albums it grows on you, and finishes about as strong as it starts.
Highlights: “In The Airwaves” and “Abduction Song”
Believe In Nothing – Rot
Genre: Blackened sludge/noise metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Get ready to go to a bad place, where no amount of happy thoughts can shake the steadily increasing discomfort. It creeps, it lunges, it scratches, screams and cowers, like a wounded animal slowly dying. It’s got the coarse, aggressive bulk of sludge with a blackened, doomy mood and an inclination for unpleasant noise. A bit uneven in production, and feeling a bit static in parts, it builds to chilling highs of violence that will leave you craving the warm embrace of the sun.
Highlight: “Fist Full Of Worms”
Burned In Effigy – Tyrannus Aeternum
Genre: Melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: These guys had an excellent debut in 2022 with “Rex Mortem”, laying the foundations for a melodeath sound mixing Black Dahlia Murder with At the Gates, and taking it in a tastefully restrained neoclassical direction. This latest album picks up where the last one left off, and keeps pushing the instrumentation in a slightly more technical and progressive direction. It’s a delight to listen to for a melodic extreme metal fan, although not quite as memorable as its predecessor.
Highlights: “Befouled Benefaction” and “Wage of Exile”
Cemican – U k ‘u’ uk’ankil Mayakaaj
Genre: Folk/melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: An explosion of Aztec folk flavor riding on massive groove- and melodic death metal, somewhat in the vein of Sepultura. There are traces of thrash and power metal as well, and they’ve got some light prog tendencies. It’s really cool as a concept and delivers plenty of ear candy, although technically it’s a bit messy, and the songwriting and production somewhat uneven. It doesn’t stand strong as a cohesive statement, but offers an energetic and fairly varied taste of the band’s distinct style.
Highlights: “KUKULKÁN WAKAH CHAN”
Despised Icon – Shadow Work
Genre: Deathcore
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5Review: Back after six years, Montreal’s Despised Icon make the wait plenty worth it. “Shadow Work” is an instant ambush assault of charging drums and demolishing guitars, rounded off with gut-punch grooves and a touch of bitter-sweet melody. The band’s hardcore influences are strongly represented throughout, and you also get a bit of slam and modern death metal, as if it wasn’t brutal enough already. There are a bunch of highlight tracks on this, standing strong as massive stone pillars, each bristling with furious energy and expressing it in a slightly different, yet equally punishing and impressive way. It’ll leave your brain rattled and senses overloaded.
Highlights: “Death Of An Artist” and “The Apparition”
Howling Giant – Crucible & Ruin
Genre: Stoner/psychedelic metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: On their third full-length, Nashville’s Howling Giant pull you into a harmonious, isolated world of understated wonders, and take you exploring in leaps and bounds as well as gentle treks. This is a gorgeous sounding album that will have you delighting in the classic, tasteful instrumentation as well as the enveloping atmosphere. There is a mild prog-ness to the rhythms, but nothing distracting or overly complicated, and a warm, doom-like patience to the progression. This will effortlessly capture your attention and likely leave you wanting more as it rounds off.
Highlights: “Beholder I: Downfall” and “Hunter’s Mark”
One Of Nine – Dawn Of The Iron Shadow
Genre: Melodic/atmospheric black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Tolkien-themed, epic black metal sums this up pretty well, but doesn’t quite prepare you for the scope of it. The album’s feel is incredibly cohesive, even as both sadness, anger and contemplation are projected, and also invited from the listener. The instrumentation is very traditional, and not this project’s biggest draw, but the lofty, longing, majestic atmosphere and melody truly fleshes out the sound and conjures images of the rich fantasy setting that it’s based in.
Highlight: “Quest of the Silmaril”
Outlaw – Opus Mortis
Genre: Melodic black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Brazilian band Outlaw follow up their excellent 2023 release “Reaching Beyond Assiah” with an equally solid effort in their fourth full-length. This is black metal that dares to dream, and even though these dreams drip with melancholy, it’s not the venomous nor overly nihilistic kind we so often get from Northern Europe. There are just enough hints of a grand vision to make you sense the deeper dimensions of the sound. It sounds earnest and serious, and sells it by staying relatively modest, while delivering rock solid performances based on carefully considered songwriting.
Highlight: “Those Who Breathe Fire” and “A Million Midnights”
Primitive Man – Observance
Genre: Doom/sludge metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: The sound of being buried alive, trapped inside a massive industrial drill that’s digging deeper and deeper into the earthy blackness. There is no salvation, no silver lining, only mounting pressure and despair. At its best, it offers grating, frightening texture to the mostly funeral-paced descent, but there is also droning noise and repetitive patterns that seem like attempts to drive you mad. It’s a very specific sort of misery that fans of this kind of nihilistic punishment will no doubt appreciate greatly.
Highlights: “Seer” and “Devotion”
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 24 – 2025
Reviews of metal albums released October 18 – October 24
This week we look at an album I shamefully forgot about, and a lot of playful and moody heaviness going up against each other.
An Abstract Illusion – The Sleeping City
Genre: Progressive/atmospheric death metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5Review: This one belongs to last week, but somehow I managed the feat of zooming right past it (I know, I just have that certain talent). And considering the band, I couldn’t just leave it. 2022’s “Woe” was on the top of a lot of people’s AOTY list, and while I wasn’t quite as obsessive about it, it certainly opened my eyes wide open to the band. With this one, it’s tempting to resist getting dragged along with the wave of praise it’s already received, but there’s really no point. It’s really, really good, and deserves all the praise it gets. On the dot an hour of runtime feels just right for this kind of sound, which is the kind where the interlude is 3 minutes 46 seconds. It’s got amazing melodic depth, feels completely organic, and builds beautifully, both rapidly and slowly, to intensely satisfying climaxes of intensity. It’s impressively heavy as well as hypnotically atmospheric, with the kind of pull that has you “waking up”, as if from a trance at the end of it.
Highlights: “Like A Geyser Ever Erupting” and “Blackmurmur”
The Acacia Strain – You Are Safe From God Here
Genre: Deathcore/sludge metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: You may be safe from god here, but certainly not the chug, chug, CHUGS. This thing wants to pulverize the powder that was your bones before you hit play. It’s stark and dark, hostile and impatient, at least up until the end and the near-14 minute closing track. A bit weird, and not entirely earned, but the overall runtime feels on point. I could have wished for a bit more meat on the bones of some of the mid-album tracks, but the force is there all the way through, and you can feel the churning, destructively calculating mind behind it at any time.
Highlights: “A CALL BEYOND” and “MOURNING STAR”
Bonginator – Retrodeath
Genre: Death/industrial metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: This is death metal that you can imagine being played at the arcade – the one that’s real lax about the “smoking” restrictions. It’s a real ode to the 80s, with plenty of audial references to movies in particular, but the actual metal part feels much more modern, at least if you don’t consider the murky, bass-heavy production. There’s hardcore all over this thing, a fair bit of catchy industrial rigidity and also some modern slam and brutality, but the heart of the matter is still those killer riffs. It’s too bad they’re a bit muffled under all the layers, but the force of them still comes through. It’s a retro blast that does away with most of the OSDM tropes, and injects life and character in their place.
Highlights: “All Cops Are Biomechs” and “Pizza Time”
Conjurer – Unself
Genre: Progressive sludge/doom metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Conjurer follow up their 2022 masterpiece of unease “Páthos” with a further study of what can be found in the dark recesses of the human psyche. This one is sharper, more technically progressive in its rhythm approach, but also prone to long, slightly disconnected doomy sections that either feel like explorations of alternative spaces or simply time-outs in the otherwise violent, fairly dissonant expressions. As before, there is frail melody to juxtapose the crashing harshness, and they craft the transitions between the two in a way that make them seem like two sides of the same coin rather than two clashing personalities, although the contrast is just as strong as you’d hope for.
Highlights: “There Is No Warmth” and “Hang Them In Your Head”
Elettra Storm – Evertale
Genre: Power metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: Italian power metal band Elettra Storm are already back with their sophomore release after last year’s really fun “Powerlords”. The highlights are still the strong vocals and adventurous, optimistic melodies. The playing is still moderately technical, approaching prog on certain songs, with mixed success, and they’ve got a decent amount of classic heavy metal groove. Still fun, ever so slightly more mature and varied, but perhaps not quite hitting the same glorious peaks as its predecessor.
Hostilia – Face the Fire
Genre: Thrash metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Compared to the Testament album a couple of weeks ago, this is very far from “mature” thrash metal. But is that really what you want out of your thrash? Those treasuring the youthful exuberance of the early pioneers of the genre will have plenty to appreciate on Swedish band Hostilia’s debut. This is all about badass riffs, solos, and barking vocals. The production’s a bit shabby and it doesn’t exactly hit like a wrecking ball, but it’s fast, mean and focused, with plenty of groove, a good bit of aggression, and just the kind of mischievous feel you’d hope for.
Highlight: “P.T.D.”
Nine Treasures – Seeking The Absolute
Genre: Folk metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Are The Hu not quite metal enough for you, but you enjoy the traditional Mongolian style? I’d give Nine Treasures a go if I were you. This is lively stuff, with acoustic instruments and folk melodies led by Mongolian vocals forming the core, then dressed with riffs and a bit of modern groove. It doesn’t “conform”, per se, to any sort of easily identifiable metal formula, nor does it feel particularly “wild” or “tribal”. There’s a good bit of rock ‘n’ roll, but also heaviness, and an organic progression highlighting the group’s songwriting talents. It’s the best of both worlds, really, with each track standing on its own and telling a different story.
Highlights: “Seeking the Absolute” and “Real Dream”
Phaeton – Neurogenesis
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: I discovered this little instrumental prog band back in 2023 with “Between Two Worlds”, and I’ll be the first to admit that it’s far from the boldest or most ambitious stuff out there. I just like it, and sometimes that’s enough. There’s a gentle simplicity to the melodies, and a curious, cosmos-gazing quality to the tone and feel of the whole thing. It’s not overly technical, so doesn’t feel like an extended jam session, but does leave you wanting a bit more substance.
Psychonaut – World Maker
Genre: Progressive/psychedelic metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Psychonaut’s third full-length flows steadily and constantly like an ocean current in the dead of night, carrying you along on a never-ceasing journey of sensory impressions you take in with your eyes closed and leaned back, floating under the stars. It is deeply immersive and gorgeously smooth, even when it builds to intense peaks. Therein also lies my biggest complaint, which is that it’s understated to the point where you’re left with blanks in your memory of the experience, simply because it doesn’t give you enough to pay attention to. It’s moderately complex and dreamily psychedelic, sacrificing some heaviness for the sake of said flow. It’s a pleasant and rewarding experience, if not the most memorable.
Highlight: “And You Came With Searing Light” and “Endless Currents”
Scorching Tomb – Ossuary
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Get ready to form the most savage stank face you’ve pulled in weeks. This thing was designed to detach your skull from the spinal cord by way of excessively forceful headbanging. What you’re in for is crisp, bloodthirsty death metal in the vein of Cannibal Corpse, but with a massive focus on meaty grooves. None of it is particularly original, but instead of digging themselves a deep, impenetrable and indistinguishable OSDM grave in a cemetery of hundreds just like them, they prioritize vocal and tonal definition, and modern production values that offer building-leveling power and translate the energy behind the performances brilliantly. As a bonus, if you wondered what the album title “Ossuary” actually means, the band has helpfully left the explanation in the title track.
Highlights: “Diminished to Ashes” and “Sanctum of Bones (Ossuary)”
Soulfly – Chama
Genre: Groove/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Soulfly’s latest can be fairly easily summed up as a kind of bubble or cloud made up of their signature tribal-vibe atmosphere, with a wildly thrashing multi-blade contraption at its core in the form of stark, rhythmically rigid riffs. There’s not all that much more to it honestly, and in the cases where the riffs either A: fall into some tasteful grooves, or B: go nuts and assault your with wild waves of rapid, ear-punishing chugs, it feels really worthwhile. But the rest of the time, there’s a bit too much purposelessness and empty calories for the whole experience to feel truly special.
Highlight: “Nihilist”
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 17 – 2025
Reviews of metal albums released October 11 – October 17
This is a week of big comebacks and massive crowd pleasers looking to slay monstrous beasts of the underground.
Age Of Ruin – Nothingman
Genre: Heavy/melodic death metal/metalcore
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: A long-going US metalcore/melodeath project that’s now on their fifth full-length. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that it feels disjointed, but stylistically it’s a meld of thrash, heavy, gothic, groove, metalcore and hardcore, aside from the melodic death center. The problem is that it doesn’t quite perform strongly in any individual one of these iterations of the sound. Melodically it’s a bit iffy, especially as far as the vocals go, but they’re significantly stronger going hard and rowdy, and serve up some cool riffs and solos.
Battle Beast – Steelbound
Genre: Heavy/pop metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Regular readers of mine will probably do a double take at me rating a pop metal album this highly. What can I say? It deserves it. It’s been a minute since I’ve encountered a start to an album that’s this much fun. Past the opening track, you’re served four energetic, modern- and retro-pop bangers in immediate succession, that’d get the sullenest trve cvlt basement dweller to start head bopping. Led by an awesome vocal performance and sprinkled with Finnish melodic shred, it really is a hoot of a time. I’m making a deduction for a less exciting second half of the album and a completely unimaginative album cover, but overall they’ve really won me over with this one.
Highlight: “Twilight Cabaret”
Carcosa – The Axe Forgets, The Tree Remembers
Genre: Deathcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: A bruising deathcore album that finds a middle ground between percussive harshness and symphonic, metalcore-melody. It’s tight, it’s sharply honed, and it’s not overly obsessed with chugs and breakdowns. I would say that there’s a bit too much filler around the big highlights, so non-diehards like me have to wade a bit to get to the big catch, but it successfully implements a bit of atmosphere and is varied enough to give off a dynamic feel, which certainly isn’t a given in this subgenre.
Coroner – Dissonance Theory
Genre: Progressive thrash metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5Review: What’s this? Thrash that requires you to think? Fans who have followed this band since the start in the 80s won’t be surprised at this, but not having released an album since 1993, they’ll have drifted beyond the radar for a lot of people today. What you get is rather stark, almost industrial-toned thrash with deeply considered rhythm control, and an atmospheric depth far beyond what’s to be expected from the subgenre’s riff-obsessed core. It’s almost dreamy in parts, sending your mind wandering, and I do think that it’s a bit energy-zapping at times. The production also feels a tad subdued for what this likely aims to be. But as you adjust your expectations it starts to make more and more sense, and on repeat listens it gets more and more engaging. It’s truly fascinating to get all this deadly riffage, Testament-like groove and Kreator-like, snarling vocal work deftly navigating their way through a complex, yet organic and surprisingly melodic system of ebb-and-flow energy, and subtly layered moods. A masterful execution making for quite the comeback.
Highlights: “Symmetry” and ” Consequence”
Defigurement – Endbryo
Genre: Technical grindcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: A dizzying assault of frantically racing riffs and drum beats, that’s somehow less technically minded than I had expected. A good portion of this is the kind of chaotic savagery that’s considered vanilla in this subgenre, and only in select parts does it go nuts with odd rhythms and spacey vibes. If you want a bit of a sonic challenge, this will do that for you, but there was a lot of potential for uniqueness that I think it failed to grasp.
Erdling – Mana
Genre: Melodic industrial metal/hard rock
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: I first discovered Erdling while they were still small and edgy, and I thought they balanced their ultra-catchy iteration of Neue Deutsche Härte with a fitting amount of alternative mood. Now, of the charm and novelty is gone in the pursuit of sounding as big and accessible as possible. It does its job quite decently, but there’s nothing interesting about it.
Evoken – Mendacium
Genre: Doom/death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Seven years after their last release, funeral doom staples Evoken drop their seventh full-length descent into terror. And while, yes, the abyssal death metal elements make for an ever-ominous presence in the pooling blackness of this album*s underbelly, it’s also what makes it shift forwards in lurches and lunges, on squealing guitars and pouncing drums. And the solemn, darkly medieval atmosphere is enough to describe an entire odyssey crawling through catacombs and castle dungeons. The pace is agonisingly slow at times, but it feels like just the right kind of emptiness and space in the soundscape, and only adds to the mood of despair and hopelessness. It’s epic in a way, but not fated for any sort of glory, wonder or conquest, only horror, decline and dark fascination.
Highlights: “None” and “Matins”
Grailknights – Forever
Genre: Power metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: Yes, you realize within the first five seconds that this is not to be taken seriously, and I’m sure the music videos are hilarious. But I don’t think they could have made the actual music much more predictable if they tried. It’s massively upbeat, cheesy as only the Germans know how to make it, and fun, outstanding tracks are offset by sleepy ballads.
Graveripper – From Welkin To Tundra
Genre: Thrash/black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Graveripper slapped me in the face in all the best ways with their 2023 debut “Seasons Dreaming Death”. It was an all-guns-blazing, rough-edged graveyard demolisher of a pissed-off blackened thrash album, promising great things for the future. Now they’re back, with a tone that’s clearly been hung to chill in the cooler, and a much cleaner and crisper production. Whether that’s a good or a bad thing I will leave up to individual taste, but some of the chaotic ferociousness has been lost in favor of precise, well-defined beats and riffs. It’s still highly aggressive, and definitely gets your head moving, track after track, but a few of the tracks do come off as fairly by-the-numbers blackened thrash. It’s a ripping good time, if not a bit too reined-in.
Highlight: “Bring Upon Pain”
Impermanence – Anicca
Genre: Technical death/black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: The debut album of a young, Polish blackened tech death band with plenty of instrumental chops, a good feel for tonal consistency, and no desire to play it safe. It comes off as experimental in the way it wriggles between different rhythm approaches and song sections. It’s not entirely bewildering, and somewhere in there might be a clear method, but there is a prevailing feeling of hesitance and disorganization, which the overall shape of the thing isn’t intentionally chaotic enough to absorb or mask. But the talent is clearly there.
Internal Bleeding – Settle All Scores
Genre: Death metal/hardcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Old school, brutal slam sent bursting out of the sewer drains. It’s gritty as all hell, with strong hardcore roots and a great sense for hard-hitting rhythms. To me it’s a bit too much of the same kind of thing repeated several times, but it feels vital, and just as ready to cause damage as you need it to be.
Kaupe – Destroyer of Worlds
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: A (mostly) instrumental prog metal band out of Florida, here presenting their third full-length. It feels grounded, not massive in scope, but still conceptually solid and coherent, with a dry, warm sound that bears elements of heavy metal, hard rock and sludge. It’s not your typical shred-fest of colorful melody, rather something approaching classic doom and stoner in mood. That’s not to say it’s particularly understated, but while it’s decently adventurous and groovy, there’s a certain stoicism about it as well, which I find characterful. It doesn’t really offer any massive hits, but no two tracks feel quite the same, and tickle the mind in ways that will take you to both soothing and exciting places.
Highlight: “Unresolved Trauma”
Ladon Heads – Steel For Fire
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: Retro fantasy-metal with traces of speed and thrash, this gets the vibe just right, with a galloping sense of adventure. describing familiar lands of legend. The vibe extends to the vocal and instrumental performances, but nothing here really blows your socks off. It’s a bit too mellow, too concerned with style to go anywhere new, and there isn’t quite enough enthusiasm shining through. Still, a good time.
Sabaton – Legends
Genre: Power metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Enough glorifying WW1, time to switch focus and create some crowd chants about tyrants and mass bloodshed from much further back in history. Templars are cool, right? And getting people all roused up about the exploits of Julius Caesar, Ghengis Khan, Napoleon and Vlad the Impaler sounds pretty much right on the money. There are few metal bands as epic-bombastic as Sabaton, and that hasn’t changed one bit on their eleventh full-length. This is all about the chest-beating feels. Forget that the lyrics are as dumb and wooden as the beach spikes in the “Troy” movie, forget the tedious realities behind the romanticized legends, this is about living a few minutes of phantom glory and belting your lungs out in front of a massive stage. And for that this is exactly what you want.
Sintage – Unbound Triumph
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: A glorious trip back to the 70s and the heyday of classic heavy metal. The raspy, high-pitched-vocals, galloping rhythms and soaring, feelgood solos – it’s all there. Just as depicted on the cover, this is stuff you imagine projected like a lightning bolt from the highest mountain peak, causing the denim-and-chains masses to converge in headbanging worship. The spirit is not quite as effectively evident in every single song on the album, but enough to be thoroughly convincing. It doesn’t go off the rails or really surprise you, but it stays on message and is willing to rock your socks off all the way through.
Highlight: “Electric Walls”
Tombs – Feral Darkness
Genre: Experimental sludge/black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: A style-indifferent, groove-amendable, crunchy, noisy and coarse amalgamation of sludge, black metal and a few other, related flavors into a beast of a record. It’s got grit pouring out of every crack and cavity, and a death-stare, anti-conventional gothic attitude radiating from the vocal performances and subdued melodies. It’s stronger the more aggressive and crushing it gets, with some of the atmospheric, spoken-word sections not feeling quite as convincing as they need to be compared to the blackened confidence of the harshness. But it provides character, and lets you know that there is more to this than just snarling nihilism and skull-grinding heaviness. It’s just unpredictable enough to keep you intrigued as well as feeling like wielding a sledgehammer.
Highlights: “Feral Darkness” and “Wasps”
Tribal Gaze – Inveighing Brilliance
Genre: Death metal/hardcore
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: On their third full-length, Tribal Gaze load on the stomps and breakdowns. It’s still very much old school death metal, and it’s just as chunky and grimy as you’d hope. But now there’s an influx of contemporary dissonance and slam-like rhythms, which transforms it into a much more urban-feeling kind of monstrosity than 2022’s “The Nine Choirs”, which I dug pretty hard. It’s not the direction I would have asked for, but in the end it’s up to the band, and they do as they intend with a highly convincing level of investment. There’s still a good bit of that savage Soulfly-feel to it, and while some of the rhythms get a tad predictable, there’s so much bone-crunching brutality going on, and plenty of skin-ripping riffage, that you can’t help but be in awe.
Highlights: “To the Spoils of Fate” and “Ruling in a Land with No God”
Wretched – Decay
Genre: Technical/melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: With their first full-length in 11 years, and fifth overall, Wretched want to savor your attention for as long as possible. This is melodic and technical death metal that doesn’t call undue attention to its musicianship, and doesn’t feel much at all like its Scandinavian genre peers. Those are both, at least in my book, two of its strongest qualities. Let’s just get it straight early on – this is an album that takes its time. At 1hr 5minutes runtime, it’s got no hurries getting to its destination, and while it’s not the richest, most moving or most intriguing hour you’ll spend listening to a metal record, it’s also not tedious. There’s always something going on, and it doesn’t feel tired or repetitive or unimaginative. There’s explosive aggression, rousing melody, doom-like atmosphere and intense technicality. And it all blends together really nicely. A bit lacking in focus, perhaps, but highly rewarding if you connect with it.
Highlights: “Decay” and “The Royal Body”
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 10 – 2025
Reviews of metal albums released October 04 – October 10
A week of strong mood swings – from doomy seductiveness to riotous outrage to homicidal frenzy – it’s all worth paying attention to.
All Hell – Sunsetter
Genre: Black/thrash metal/black ‘n’ roll
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: A no-nonsense, riff-driven black metal project with elements of thrash, hardcore and rock ‘n’ roll. As “unholy” metal goes, this is mostly preoccupied with creating engaging music. You get blast beats and dry snarls, but the crisp drum work and agile energy are all about getting your head moving. Falling somewhere in between the reckless abandon of thrash and the simplicity of punk, it’s entertaining and to-the point, without turning too many heads.
Blindfolded And Led To The Woods – The Hardest Thing About Being God Is That No One Believes Me
Genre: Technical/experimental death metal/deathcore
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: As has come to be expected from Blindfolded and Led to the Woods, this is a release with a lot to take in. Around random corners lurk shock-and-awe assaults of frantic, technical death metal, and moments of respite are filled with chant-y, staccato hardcore vocals, dissonant melodies and unpredictable rhythm approaches. The heavy parts take the form of barbarous death metal, chugging deathcore and abrasive metalcore, and they function as individual faces on a multi-headed beast, each one with a (at least partially) mind of its own, giving no warning of when it suddenly decides to cut in. It’s not as random an experience as I probably make it out to be – there is a method to the madness – but it’s not a style that lets you lean into one particular direction for very long. There’s awesome technical control, a good deal of groove, and it both rises into symphonic heights as well as dissolves into atmospheric mist. Above all, it’s punishingly heavy, and impressively dynamic.
Highlights: “Cafuné” and “The Hardest Thing About Being God Is That No One Believes Me”
Boltcutter – Still Broke
Genre: Slam/brutal death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Loaded beyond the brim with soundbites and ping-snares, this is slamming death metal that understands the assignment, though doesn’t much bother to shake up the formula. It’s tight, with a fittingly lean production, making for a direct, un-fluffed impact with plenty of playful attitude.
Dead Heat – Process Of Elimination
Genre: Thrash metal/hardcore
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: This thing screams Power Trip, but not in a derivative way. What I mean is that it takes some of the best aspects of that band as examples for its own way of performing, which comes through in the unfiltered attitude and raw energy that very clearly fuels it. This is a thrash-forward variant of southern Californian crossover, carrying elements of Slayer and Anthrax, among others. It delivers mid-and high tempo serrated-edge riffing with deadly accuracy, and to equally murderous levels of effect, which is a feat in itself. It doesn’t get repetitive or unimaginative, always pushing forward and, aside from a mid-experience interlude, never running out of steam. A pure banger with a killer instinct.
Highlight: “Hidebound” and ” By My Will”
Extortionist – Stare Into The Seething Wounds
Genre: Deathcore/hardcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Extortionist make deathcore with a mind for other things than just breakdowns. The foremost of the split personalities are stompy hardcore and gritty grunge, but there are also fragments of Deftones-esque alternative, and a bit of Slipknot-y nu metal. In that regard their sound reminds me of a (much) less experimental version of Tallah. It’s got much of the same raw-throat, beat-heavy aggression, and alternates it with reluctant-melodic, grungy semi-clean parts that bring to mind the calmer side of Machine Head. Lots of stylistic elements to speak of, but it results in a very cohesive sound.
Highlight: “Cycle Of Sin”
Frayle – Heretics & Lullabies
Genre: Atmospheric doom metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: Frayle have really mastered their brand of stylized doom metal with this one. Saturated with abyssal synth, bulked up with crashing riffs and led by silky-smooth dark elven vocals, it feels (and looks) like toned down and doom-ed version of In This Moment – it just doesn’t quite sound like it. The album exists in a shadow-realm of insidious, ponderous melodies, luring you in with cushy pleasantness, only to trap you in its world of half-materialized horrors. It’s tonally exquisite and extremely well produced, although a bit stuck in the same exact mood throughout.
Highlights: “Boo” and “Souvenirs Of Your Betrayal”
Heartlay – The Alteration
Genre: Industrial/alternative metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Review: Like a reserved, industrial-gothic and (per today) heavier version of Lord of the Lost, this is black-clad, slightly sad, metalcore-catchy alternative metal that feels well-rounded and able to avoid the biggest clichés.
Katakomba – The Second Death
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Imposing Swedish death metal that comes roaring out of the gutter-drains, hungry for living flesh. It’s an old-school-leaning thing, but doesn’t get lost in style-adulation, bringing a dark edge, with traces of hardcore, lots of grim energy and plenty of-low-end firepower. It feels ferocious, with a hunting predator’s demeanor, always advancing, be it prowling or bounding along. There’s plenty of raw groove, and some really strong choruses, with a more than decent level of variation in rhythm, tempo and playfulness between songs.
Highlight: “Atropos”
Morke – To Carry On
Genre: Avant-garde/melodic black metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Medieval-themed, and with a very specific, reverb-heavy and dreamy style, Morke stands on its own in the world of underground, atmospheric-melodic black metal. The un-harmonious-yet-serene, distracted-sounding melodies will not be for everyone (I simply can’t vibe with it), but it’s very likely not quite like anything you’ve ever heard before, and somehow matches very well with the bitter harshness that comes sweeping in every now and then.
Sanguisugabogg – Hideous Aftermath
Genre: Death/extreme metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Review: The Bogg is back, still downtuned, still brutally heavy and still outrageously grisly. But this is a step away from the style-faithful, grimy-brutal death metal that we got on 2023’s “Homicidal Ecstasy”. The ping-snare is there, but not quite as prominent. The chug-breakdowns are there, but not feeling quite as routine. It’s crisper, starker, more openly and sincerely hostile. It’s loaded with guest performances, and while they’re noticeable, it seems their contributions are very much in line with the vision for the album, because if you didn’t know about them, I doubt you’d be able to point it out on a blind listen. I’m gonna say it: It feels mature, if such a thing is possible with track titles like “Erotic Beheading”. There’s an industrial edge to a lot of it, even technical, giving a much more a feeling of considered songwriting rather than impulsive, live-oriented chug-piling. It’s a bit of a surprise, and still very much the kind of abomination I think the fans will go nuts over.
Highlights: “Felony Abuse Of A Corpse” and “Abhorrent Contraception”
Terjiz de Horde – Our Breath Is Not Ours Alone
Genre: Black metal/hardcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Harsh, strung-out, Dutch black metal with a hardcore. punk-oriented edge. It settles into driving blast beats for the majority of the runtime, using them as its main means of transportation and adding nuances in different moods of melody and levels of viciousness from the vocals and riffs.
Testament – Para Bellum
Genre: Thrash metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: From the very get-go, it’s clear that thrash old-schoolers Testament aren’t content with coasting along on old tricks and dusty laurels. They slap you in the face with blackened viciousness and shades of grindcore savagery, throw you for a loop with a full-on ballad, pull you along on a heavy metal joyride, and in between you get varying levels of thrashy groove and aggression. They’ve had ideas, that for sure. The question is if they’ve kept a few too many in, to the detriment of coherency and flow. The middle part of the album feels a tad directionless, as if they felt that the ferociousness of the first third (excluding the ballad) was getting too predictable. Things pick back up and return to more familiar territory towards the end, landing you good and loaded with impressions, with the highlights for the absolute most part overshadowing the flaws.
Highlights: “Infanticide A.I.” and “Havana Syndrome”
Ültra Raptör – Fossilized
Genre: Heavy/speed metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Review: Cyber-dinosaur, speedy heavy metal out of Quebec, Canada, and it’s pretty much exactly what you’d hope for. Epic, light on its feet, with hard rock groove and plenty of retro charm. The limitations of the vocals and so-so melodic work are a bit of a bummer for me, taking me out of an otherwise very fun experience, but if you’re less sensitive to this then you’ll likely have a blast.
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 03 – 2025
We’ve got a divide this week, between those veering off the staked-out course to travel unknown waters, and those sticking to, and improving on, well-established turf.
Bloodred Hourglass – We Should Be Buried Like This
Genre: Metalcore/melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5About as accessible as melodeath gets, this is superficial, metalcore-level heaviness on top of super-catchy, industrial-like beats, with plenty of synth-based melody as its centerpiece.
Breathe//Die – Gestalt
Genre: Death metal/hardcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Heavy, abrasive, hardcore-rhythm punishment with crunchy death metal riffs and a strained vocal style that gives the impression of teetering on the edge of frantic rage. It’s a bit one-dimensional overall, but has a really satisfying drive.
Cruentus – End Without End
Genre: Death/black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5A Swedish extreme metal projects mixing black metal sharpness and dark folk atmosphere with classic death metal roughness. It sounds like they’re on to something, especially in the mid-tempo sections where the mood tends towards doom, and they get to really explore what the music is supposed to be about.
Decayer – Memoirs Of Despair
Genre: Technical deathcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Decayer blends ferocity with symphonic loftiness on their newest album, meaning you get your obligatory, exceptionally hard-hitting breakdowns as well as a sense of monstrous scale. But in addition to the expected, gargantuan crashes, they also field an army of agile, furious fiends that both charge right at you and skip around to stab at your throat from unexpected angles. What I mean to say with that is that there’s a good deal of super-aggressive, speedy tech-riffing on progressive rhythms, and while some of it feels a bit forced and just for the show-off factor, it keeps the music feeling super-active, always on the move and never satisfied with the same approach for long. A few aspects of their sound does feel borrowed from what the big names are doing at the moment, but I feel like they’re on the cusp of really nailing their own identity with this one.
Highlight: “Opulence and Obsidian”
Dispossessed – Dêmocide
Genre: Doom/sludge/death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Dark, cumbersome sludge that’s half a step away from death doom, it’s near-inconceivably heavy, like a city-sized worm bulldozing its way through the roots of mountains. Lacking variation and contrast, it does make 32 minutes feel fairly long, but its temperament is just the way you want it – ominously smoldering.
Dissona – Receptor
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5While you’re never in doubt about which subgenre of metal this belongs to, the band makes a commendable effort to instill personality into the music, and keeping it feeling vital by constantly tugging at the rhythmic, tonal and stylistic reigns. The sense of direction suffers a bit as a result, but It’s always going somewhere, and purposefully so. And the more you get to meet the different shades of its disposition, the less you care about the destination. It’s all about what comes around the next corner. It’s an album that is both frivolous and solemn, technical and atmospheric, vicious and gentle. All the while, it retains substance, suggesting that there always was a twisted vision for its final form, or at least the different flavors that would bloom out from its core identity.
Highlight: “Incisor”
Enragement – Extinguish All Existence
Genre: Technical death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Better hold on to something, it’s about to get hairy! Entrapment is a Finnish death metal band that plays a technical, modern-brutal and intensely fierce variant of the subgenre. I had nice things to say about their 2022 release “Atrocities”, and I’m delighted to be able to repeat the praise this time around. The production is crisper and more detailed, it’s even more ferocious than before, which is saying something, and it doesn’t get lost in technical showmanship. While not quite as convincingly malevolent as last time around, it makes up for it with sheer aggression, leaving nothing but devastation in its wake. Delivering massive riffs, a good variation of harsh vocal styles and just the right amount of precision vs. savagery, it’s a beast of a record that will most likely leave you spent and in need of a sonic time-out.
Highlights: “Natural Mass Asphyxiation” and “Harbingers of Degradation”
Gorotica – Daily Grind Of The Medieval Age
Genre: Grindcore/death metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5I have a soft spot for grindcore that knows how to have fun, and this thing is just riotously entertaining. Don’t get me wrong, it’s hyper aggressive and savagely heavy, but instead of starting each short track with the intention of simply causing damage in a slightly different, but equally punishing and straightforwardly chaotic way, these French(?)-Australian lads craft an 18-long series of flavorful, outstanding chapters in a mildly unhinged tale of cannibalism and medieval sadism, that’s about as serious as a Tarantino-film. While retaining the coarseness and relentlessness of deathgrind, the songs are structured like, or otherwise infused with, hardcore, punk, garage rock, melodeath and classic heavy metal. From acoustic, folk-instrument interludes to absolutely frantic outbursts of roaring fury, this is a massively enjoyable feast of tongue-in-cheek morbidity.
Highlight: “Connoisseurs Of Human Flesh” and “Nothing Left To Penetrate”
Hangatyr – Sumpf der Fäule
Genre: Atmospheric black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Not to disparage the craftmanship, but this is pretty much what it says on the packaging – German atmospheric black metal. You get snarls and howls, plenty of blastbeats and icy, mournful melodies carried on winds from the desolate mountaintops.
Hooded Menace – Lachrymose Monuments Of Obscuration
Genre: Death/doom/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Now, I’m in no way a Hooded Menace expert, but it doesn’t take a deep familiarity with their discography to tell that this is a bit of a departure from well-established ways. Yes, it’s still old school death doom at its core, but a far cry from funeral-paced abyssal misery. The main differentiator is the appearance of a highly influential classic metal spirit that ups the tempo, groove, sense of adventure and occasion, and the use of guitar solos. It’s got that mildly synth-y 80s feel plastered all over it, with the horror feel of that era as part of the package, which suits the style very well, and it’s not overdone. Speaking of which, you get parts where they seem to be holding back in honor of their past almost as much as parts where they really let go, and embrace the galloping ride-to-battle bravado. The inclusion of a Duran Duran cover on a mere 7-track album underlines the offshoot thinking of the project, and while I’ve certainly heard far less tasteful flavor blends than this, I’ve also heard them less muddled.
Highlights: “Pale Masquerade” and “Into Haunted Oblivion”
Ofermod – Drakosophia
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5This thing must be like 90% blast beats. While being very riff- and drum-focused, the main draw of this band’s style is the darkly mythical feel that permeates every song on the album. For me there’s too much of a feeling of repetitiveness with how the songs feel and progress, but if you’re into cult-y fantasy black metal, then you’ll likely find this to be a solid, confident effort.
Orbit Culture – Death Above Life
Genre: Groove/melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Orbit Culture continue to utilize their talent for successfully combining the catchiest elements of heavy groove, melodeath, deathcore and metalcore into moderately anthemic, wall-shaking, systematized shockwaves. Not too harsh, not too soft, they strike a near-perfect balance of uncomplicated, energizing modern extreme metal that’s not too extreme for beginners and not too cringeworthy for the thoroughly initiated. The cleans and choruses are, at least in my book, their foremost weakness, lacking in both dynamism and originality, and like before my overall impression comes from weighing the appeal of massive bangers against far more lackluster and generic efforts. In the end, the entertainment factor is far too great to ignore, and it scores massively on the most important areas of chugging grooves and headbang-ability, but with their single tracks being some of the least interesting, they’re approaching a point where they’re in danger of growing stale. But not yet.
Highlights: “Bloodhound” and “The Storm”
Ribspreader – As Gods Devour
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5One of them many, many projects that bears the Rogga Johansson signature, you know very well that you’re in for solid crunchy, murky, groovy old school Swedish death metal. Apart from being fairly poorly produced, this one absolutely has its moments, but not quite enough to dispel the slight feeling of fatigue.
Rotting Demise – The Unholy Veil Of Silence
Genre: Black/death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Offering a mix of gothic-like blackness and driving death metal ruthlessness, Rotting Demise aims for those that are attracted to the catchier and more melodic side to blackened death metal. More technically minded and less conceptually fleshed out than Rotting Christ, it’s got traces of thrash, save for the playfulness.
Sothoris – Domus Omnium Mortuorum
Genre: Blackened death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Polish blackened death metal that’s technically tight, working through lightly chaotic, unholy sections of blast beats and ritualistic harsh-chanting to get to ripping riffs and sharp solos. Nothing massively outstanding, but a good hit of scorched anger and blasphemy.
Vimic – Open Your Omen
Genre: Groove/alternative metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Sadly not to be finished in his lifetime, it is finally time for the debut album of Joey Jordison’s Vimic to see the light of day, Being the product of a tumultuous creation process and, now, being less about an actual, coherent starting point for the band and more of a service to fans, there’s no denying it’s a mixed bag. A bunch of ideas and stylistic inputs are represented on this 15-track, 64 minute chunkster of an album, and while the production is quite good, it could definitely do with a bit of editing. Forceful, enthusiastic, technical brilliance has to co-exist with unfocused, lackluster material that sometimes sounds like it’s by a different band altogether. But aside from the lack of a strong, guiding creative vision, there’s plenty to enjoy. Bursting with groove, alternative edge and moody, grunge-like melody, it’s hard not to think about what this could have formed the foundations for.
Highlight: “Parasite Persona”
Wode – Uncrossing The Keys
Genre: Black/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Wode are back with their fourth full-length, and, to a significantly higher degree than on 2021’s “Burn In Many Mirrors”, they’ve paired their jagged black metal core with a strong influx of classic heavy metal, in mildly experimental fashion. A good deal of the primal. hard-hitting savagery of earlier releases has been sacrificed in favor of a nimbler, leaner and more flexible sound. When supported by doomy groove and riff-happy cool, this really works, fully proving the potency of the style shift and the band’s versatility. But they also tend to get lost in meandering, wander-tempo aimlessness and contemplative, warm-toned melody that contrasts rather oddly with the sharp, mean-spiritedness of the dominant aggressive sections. Overall, it’s a bit uneven, but still a highly worthwhile listen for blackened heavy metal fans.
Highlight: “Under Lanternlight”
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 26 – 2025
A week for those who think that extreme metal needs as many notes and riffs as possible, and to preferably be saturated in melody.
Abraded – Ethereal Emanations From Cthonic Caries
Genre: Death metal/grindcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5This is harsh, unyielding, merciless punishment, on the verge, I would say, of crossing into war metal. Some would probably say it’s already there. It’s deathgrind of the ferociously aggressive variant, like a frenzied gang of rabid, demon-possessed dogs let loose inside a packed mall. If it didn’t have perhaps the most annoying snare sound I think I’ve ever heard, I would give it a higher rating.
After Earth – Dark Night Of The Soul
Genre: Melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5I had a great time with the band’s 2023 debut album “The Rarity Of Reason”, finding it to be a sweet-spot modernization of the early 2000s melodeath sound, blending modern and more traditional elements with some ultra catchy riffing and plenty of aggressive energy. Unfortunately, perhaps in an attempt to sound grander, this album is slower, with a more solemn feel, which highlights some fairly unimaginative riffs and rhythms, and lacking the melodic playfulness to make up for it.
Amorphis – Borderland
Genre: Melodic folk/death metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Let me just preface this review by stating that I’m both a massive fan of melodeath in general, and a decently big fan of this band. For some reason I never took the time to properly listen to 2022’s “Halo”, so my last real reference point is 2018’s “Queen of Time”, which I loved. With all that being said, I’m struggling to find almost a single song on this album that elicits more of a reaction from me than “that’s nice, I guess”. And I insist it’s not entirely because this is a very, very soft and bright iteration of the band we’re getting on “Borderland”. I find most of the rhythms unengaging – many of them pop/rock-oriented and mid-tempo, and the melodies, while vivid, pretty and emotional, mostly remind me of stuff I’ve heard from them before. Some of the choruses are straight out of a mediocre symphonic metal album, and at that point you’ve lost me. Objectively, there’s not a lot the band is doing wrong, and for what it is, it does sound rather good, but apart from the mellow direction there’s very few surprises to be had. It’s like the embrace of an early, lightly breezy Finnish countryside summer morning.
Highlight: “Light And Shadow”
Cosmic Reaper – Bleed The Wicked, Drown The Damned
Genre: Doom/psychedelic metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Here’s some dark, crushing psychedelia, which I feel like I haven’t been able to dig into for quite a little while. This is absolutely doom, with noticeable traces of stoner, but the way the tone of the riffs and solos flows and swirls around the bass, being pressed forward by the drums, feels a bit like a mind-warping spiral slowly descending into the deep. It’s crunchy and solidly heavy, with a vocal style that brings to mind a blank-eyed, joyless Ozzy. Which fits the vibe of the music perfectly well. It keeps up the quality throughout, even though you feel like you’ve heard the full range of the ambitions for the album a little before it concludes.
Highlight: “Hammer”
Darkness – The Death Squad Chronicles
Genre: Thrash metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5A speed-loving, classic German thrash album that bounds and gallops along, serving up plenty of tasty riffs on the way. It’s to-the point, suitably coarse and aggressive, and has some decent, if not mind-blowing solos. But at over 52 minutes, being far from the most varied of thrash experiences, it could definitely do with some track trimming .
Demiurgon – Miasmatic Deathless Chamber
Genre: Technical death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5This is technical death metal, but not “tech death”, if you know what I mean. It’s being driven by some very precise, violently forceful and rhythm-focused instrumentation, but it’s also very much about the savage, malevolent feel. It attacks you like some titanic, thousand-maws-and-claws predator, but not directed by a thousand different minds. It’s fairly mono-tracked in its destructive pattern, even as it brings a number of murderous limbs to the task at once. Not outstanding among its peers in any major way, it’s still a really well crafted and impressively hard-hitting effort that I’d love to see evolve into something slightly more distinct.
Highlight: “Aspiring to Omnipotence”
Dying Wish – Flesh Stays Together
Genre: Metalcore/hardcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5If you don’t mind your metalcore wearing some barbed wire fighting gloves in the shape of crunchy, chugging riffs with a bit of deathcore/death metal heaviness and aggression (think Venom Prison), but still want a good share of clean choruses, melody and jump-around hardcore rhythms, then this is your kind of band, and absolutely your kind of album. While there are elements on here that I find formulaic, particularly the predictable, staccato breakdowns, and I think that Emma Boster still needs to work a bit on her harsh vocals to bring them further away from hoarse hissing and towards actual roars (her cleans are great), this is a concise, mature and hard hitting statement of a record.
Highlights: “Revenge In Carnage” and “Moments I Regret”
Hei’An – Kiss Our Ghosts Goodbye
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5To me this feels a bit like a mix between Haken and Leprous, just less caught up with instrumental acrobatics and with an alternative metal twist. It’s vibrant and young, but with a concise, stargazing tonality and great production. There’s a bit of pop and electronica and a cinematic scope, some of it reminding me of “A Thousand Suns”-era Linkin Park, but you also get metalcore-like aggression. In the end, it’s a little bit let down by its sometimes simplistic choruses and vocal lines, as they compete with expansive atmosphere, exciting melody lines and genre-fluid rhythmic twists and turns.
Highlight: “What a Shame”
Korypheus – Gilgamesh
Genre: Progressive/groove metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Korypheus are a young prog metal band out of Ukraine, playing an aggressive-yet catchy, riff-focused variant of the genre, bringing in elements of modern groove and metalcore. It reminds me of Fractal Universe, perhaps with a splash of Jinjer thrown in there, and a bit less conceptual and atmosphere-minded. While it’s not quite at a point yet where it stands clearly out in its own crowd, it does a lot of things right while building on familiar elements. It’s eager to play around with instrumental flourishes and different rhythm approaches, while staying on target and constantly moving forward, with an appetite for solos and a good mix of vocal styles. Perhaps not quite as mature as some other stuff you’ll hear this week, but I was left both entertained and impressed.
Highlights: “Sleeper” and “Odysseus”
Last Retch – Abject Cruelty
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5It’s been a while since a straight death metal band has scored this high on my banging-riff-o-meter. What is otherwise a perfectly murky, malevolent, mid-tempo affair with dry-gurgling vocals, almost sinking into doom on a few occasions, will on most of its tracks set off on a riff rampage that, at times, feels almost comically eager. Thanks to the tone and slightly more reigned-in drums it never really breaks character, and instead takes the best of the headbang-ability and groove from a death thrash sound and couples it with proper, cave-dwelling morbidity, It doesn’t score big on originality, but god damn is it a brutally good time.
Highlights: “Beasley Meth Merchants” and “Dissolved in Lye (Down to Rot)”
Mors Principium Est – Darkness Invisible
Genre: Melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5As a long-time fan, you’ll always find me thrilled at a new release from these Finns. Back with their first original album since 2020, It doesn’t take long to confirm that the band is on top form, certainly in terms of virtuoso technicality and their signature meld of vibrant, grandiose melody and ferocious riff-and-growl attack. It also doesn’t take all too long to conclude that, despite a few new flavors, it’s not what you’d call a daring effort. The familiarity factor is quite high, but, crucially, not to the point where it gets unengaging. Aside from a few tracks that do little but re-knead old glory, there are several genuinely fresh-sounding songs where different melodic and instrumental tonalities, tempos and levels of scope and aggression are utilized to great effect. I’d say that the gang is unquestionably at their best when going all-out fast and furious, but the extremes are more effectively highlighted with the use of contrasts, which is absolutely the case on this album. For people like me, who desire both more of what I’ve loved previously and attempts at branching out and evolving, this is like a personalized gift basket.
Highlights: “Beyond the Horizon” and “Of Death”
Overt Enemy – Insurrection
Genre: Thrash/groove metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Texas thrash metal that’s piled on some groove heft and hardcore attitude. The album brings to mind Incite and Kataklysm, but doesn’t go to the same level of heaviness, preferring to stay light on its feet and almost obsessively riff-focused. It’s not great on variation, and feels a bit stiff, but it’s got loads of energy.
Paradox – Mysterium
Genre: Thrash/power/speed metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5Veteran Teutonic thrashers Paradox has one of the most inconsistent release patterns I think I’ve ever seen, but I suppose that comes with the territory of popping in and out of activity. This is their 10th full-length, and it’s also far from the most consistent thing you’ll hear this week. It tries speed, attitude, loftiness, groove and and a bit of prog, and only really succeeds at half of it. What works is cool, but the rest simply contributes to a bloated runtime.
PeelingFlesh – PF Radio 2
Genre: Brutal/slamming death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: ?/5This is less of a review and more of a declaration of capitulation in terms of my ability to review slamming, brutal death metal. I’ll freely admit, I simply don’t get it. Take away the clip-on spoken-word soundbites, and to me this literally sounds like the same couple of tracks on repeat, just cut to slightly different lengths. I don’t dislike it, and I get that the main purpose of this is to be played live, but… there must surely be more tricks in the slammin’ tool box than this. If you’re into this band, you might as well go ahead and ignore every word I have to say about it.
Rage – A New World Rising
Genre: Heavy/power metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5A blazing fireworks display of a fun-focused, groovy-as-hell heavy metal album from these German veterans. The melodic vocal work is hilariously stunted, the choruses straight off the assembly line, and the lyrics hopelessly clichéd, but if none of that matters to you. it’ll light a fire in you.
Revocation – New Gods, New Masters
Genre: Technical death/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Following up 2022’s “Netherheaven” was always going to be tough, but then pretty much everything Revocation does sounds like they’ve set themselves some sort of high-bar, intricate challenge. On first listen of “New Gods, New Masters”, my overall impression was that they’ve overdone it, losing sight of the importance of flow, sense of direction and listenability in favor of instrumental and structural showmanship. Indeed, a lot of what goes on sounds like a kind of complex task-solving, and I must conclude that it’s not as consistent or overwhelmingly pleasing as its predecessor. But it’s not far off, and in some ways it’s more interesting – more layered, allowing you to appreciate different facets of it on each new listen. And when the groove aligns with the technical fury, it’s a beast like no other. While not mind-blowingly amazing, I still find it to be excellent, even considering this band’s sky-high standards.
Highlights: “Cronenberged” and “Dystopian Vermin”
Sundrowned – Higanbana
Genre: Atmospheric sludge metal/blackgaze
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5A gentle, atmospheric sludge/blackgaze album out of Norway that sails along on soul-nourishing, wistful melodies. The harsh vocals feel a tad forced at times, in that they whisk the surface of an otherwise pristine, harmonic pond, but work much better when the intensity builds.
Vintersorg – Vattenkrafternas Spel
Genre: Folk metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5After eight years, the blackened folk project that is Vintersorg re-emerges from the deep of the Swedish forests to deliver an hourlong insight into their world of pagan nature tales. Particularly given the distinct vocals of Andreas Hedlund, this is not a sound you easily mistake for anything else. It sets off on often peculiar rhythms and sudden transitions, and strikes an odd balance between primitive black metal riffs and epic, patiently trotting melodies complemented by mostly clean vocals that love to really draaaaag its words out. It doesn’t quite vibe with me, but it works on most levels for what it is, and fans will almost definitely enjoy it.
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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