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Weekly rundown May 30 – 2025
A week that will please the brain as much as the heart, and make sure you get a proper neck exercise in.
Coltsblood – Obscured Into Nebulous Dusk
Genre: Doom/sludge metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5A misery-mired shuffle through a soundscape of cold, indifferent marvel, this is funeral-like doom with a raspy, jagged, blackened sludge core. It’s not one where you go through any real, significant shifts throughout each song, and so for someone lacking the required patience for several 10-minute single-path tracks, this can be a slog to get through. But if it’s a tonal landscape you feel at home in, or at least find rewarding to visit, you’re in good hands.
Death Rattle – The Moral Chokehold
Genre: Groove metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Rhythmic groove metal with very obvious Gojira influxes, to the point where it’s mildly derivative. Creatively though, it’s not really in the same league, but offers up some nice riffs, and the atmospheric touches make a decent effort in trying to pull you in.
Eschaton – Techtalitarian
Genre: Technical death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Fair warning: If the erratically busy nature of modern tech death is precisely what puts you off most examples of the subgenre, then this is most certainly not for you. This thing skips about like a hummingbird on speed – and with unrestrained teleportation abilities. It’s not the kind of thing you go to for measured buildups and a deeper sense of purpose. Neither is it an overly chaotic sort of beast. The drums in particular ensure a supercomputer-like level of control and precision, and while it’s not exactly immersive, it certainly can be fascinating. There’s not much melody outside of the guitar solos, but neither does it feel bleak or soulless. The instrumentation takes on a life of its own, like being enveloped in frantic and overlapping streams of communication in an alien language.
Highlight: “Antimatter”
Golem Of Gore – Ultimo Mondo Cane
Genre: Goregrind
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5I feel like goregrind will never be objectively “good music”, and perhaps it actually shouldn’t be. Bad taste is, in a way, inherent in the style. This one is too long at nearly 38 minutes. There are some awesome turns from all out instrumental hammering to punishing breakdowns, and you so love them when they arrive, but they are in the minority, and you can feel your brain numbing at the constant assault it suffers, leading to fatigue long before the end of the album.
Graceless – Icons Of Ruin
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Graceless manage the feat of both staying faithful and satisfyingly predictable within the sphere of old school death metal, and at the same time branching out and pulling in select elements from neighboring styles. When they slow down, it feels like a nod to epic doom. When they take the brutality down a slight notch, it feels like cracking open the door to melodeath. And when it’s time to step up the fun factor, they start toying around with early groove metal. Rhythm wise, it’s not terribly engaging, and they lack a bit of force in the low end to really knock your socks off. But the production is suitably grungy, and for such a style-conscious sound, it’s pleasingly varied.
Highlight: “Sanctified Slaughter”
Gridiron – Poetry From Pain
Genre: Rap metal/hardcore
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Rap metal isn’t the subgenre where you expect the most experimentation or variety, and for the most part Gridiron’s newest offering lives up to this “prejudice”, if you will. Their hardcore influences mixing with the straightforward street-hip-hop is fitting, but hardly a contrasting flavor. It’s a little more interesting how the heavier guitar and rhythm parts take cues from aggressive thrash, even death metal at times, and I wish that they would have allowed these influxes more room overall, instead of letting the predictable stomp-beatdowns dominate. All that being said, it’s hard to deny the energy and headbang-ability of this album, so if you’re just looking for a heavy metallic hardcore sound not too far removed from Body Count, then I don’t see why you wouldn’t enjoy the hell out of this.
Grin – Acid Gods
Genre: Sludge/stoner metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5In my mind, this is the optimal mix of sludge, stoner and psychedelia. The lazy, groove-loving rhythms bring a touch of comfort to contrast the clenched-fist, gravel crushing heaviness of the tone and vocals. Speaking of which, Jan Oberg sound like he’s straining his vocal chords to the point where I want to clutch my throat and chug ice water to alleviate the imagined pain. The upside of this is that he’s able to wring his voice into melodic gargle-howls not unlike the great Lemmy, which adds another dimension to the experience. While this is in no way a genre-bending sort of sound, with the subtle psychedelic elements feeling like a natural addition, the album feels meticulously and expertly shaped. There’s both darkness and levity at the extreme ends, and in the middle it’s a restrainedly soulful, slow-rolling thunderclap.
Highlights: “Nocturno” and “Beneath the Altar”
The Haunted – Songs Of Last Resort
Genre: Melodic death/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5If you haven’t listened to The Haunted before, firstly shame on you, and secondly I’ll try to sum up what you can expect on their latest release by way of name dropping. Think the songwriting excellence and heaviness of At the Gates with the restless groove of Lamb of God, some Cavalera Conspiracy ferocity, a bit of Destruction-style thrash shredding, and a touch of old school In Flames melody. If that sounds like the stuff of dreams, then you can start to appreciate just what you’ve been missing out on for the last 27 years. On “Songs of Last Resort” they go heavy on the thrash and groove, but always with the throat-ripping vocals and a ravenous aggression fueling the momentum. The start of the album is insanely strong, and it keeps the quality all the way though, although you do feel like you’re on a slight downwards slope in terms of freshness. Still, it’s an album packed with bangers, and the qualities that shaped the band still shine through as strong as ever.
Highlights: “In Fire Reborn” and “Warhead”
In The Kingdom Of Nightmares – Fading Light
Genre: Metalcore/groove metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Take some Unearth-style early metalcore and add some heavy, Kataklysm-style groove to it, as well as a bit of hardcore rhythm rigidity, and you should be able to clearly picture this stuff. It’s not the most three-dimensional songwriting wise, but will fill your craving if you’ve got it.
Obsidian Tongue – Eclipsing Worlds Of Scorn
Genre: Experimental black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Welcome to this otherworldly sermon to powers incomprehensible. Yes, this is in essence black metal, but it’s warm, curious, expansive and unpredictable in a non-jarring way, like it’s inviting you along to experience an undiscovered part of the universe. You get gentle, atmospheric melody, rich, friendly psychedelia, a tragic-epic tone and sweeps of snarling heaviness that feel both old school and grand in a tastefully understated way, without resorting to a garbage production. There’s not really a clear, coherent direction to the listening experience, and I find myself losing interest slightly on the second to last two songs, but then it soars back up with the final track, and all is well again.
Highlights: “Theater of Smoke & Wind” and “Orphaned Spiritual Warrior”
Obstruktion – The End Takes Form
Genre: Hardcore/death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5As a fan of metallic hardcore, this is kind of what I want all hardcore to do, which is to simply turn the riff power up to eleven. Allowing in a few other rhythm influences also doesn’t hurt, and pushing the vocals into raspy territory also really does it for me. This album has that monumental riff tone that makes death metal sound so ominous, and plenty of beat-heavy energy. A bit too many of the songs are overly one-dimensional, but it’ll still get your blood pumping.
Puteraeon – Mountains Of Madness
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Oh dear, it’s crunchy Swedish death metal. I can feel my objectivity draining away and my consciousness slipping into a happy place coma. This one even has some thematic depth to it… oh damn, I’m completely sold from the get-go. You can imagine my ecstasy at discovering that the melodic and rhythmic variety on this album is also more than decent. Let’s see if I can muster the mental fortitude to properly describe it to you. This is a Lovecraft-themed, fairly cold-toned, modestly melodic, Swedish old school death metal album that boasts a beefy production, playful rhythms and a constantly threatening tinge. The vocals are mostly all-out wet-snarling, but also does a few barks, and a couple of dips into clean. There is absolutely nothing missing from this in terms of pure, headbanging heaviness, but I will deduct some slight points for missing the opportunity to utilize some genuinely scary atmosphere. A few cues from death doom might have done it. But other than this, I find precious little to criticize.
Highlights: “Watchers At The Abyss” and “The Land of Cold Eternal Winter”
Quadvium – Tetradōm
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5A band of two bassists, essentially, this is a masterclass in instrumental prog metal, at least as far as technicality is concerned. Yes, there’s a bit of riffing and drums in there as well, but the bass is no doubt king. It’s got a warm, all-enveloping low end (as can be expected) and doesn’t go too crazy with the rhythm transitions, but it’s still a showoff through and through.
Rivers Of Nihil – Rivers Of Nihil
Genre: Progressive/technical death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5I both want to be more strict and more liberal with my rating of River of Nihil’s latest. From the point of view of a laid-back appreciator of technical proficiency and melodic variety, this is extremely enjoyable. The album explodes with force and verve, leaving behind almost all trace of the pensiveness of 2021s “The Work”. So if that one bored you, then it’s time to rejoice. But if you, like me, find yourself a bit disappointed with the near-abandonment of consequential thematic depth to the benefit of deathcore-levels of rigid, punishing chugs, metalcore-like choruses and electronic ambience, then, well, that’s disappointing. There are still plenty of recognizable elements though, like the riff tone and use of sax, so don’t worry. It’s still high quality melodic prog death, just not quite pushing the envelope for this highly competent gang.
Highlights: “Dustman” and “House of Light”
Svart Vinter – Isvind
Genre: Atmospheric black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5This is pretty much as straightforward as you can imagine atmospheric black metal to be. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it just limits the scope. It’s cold, snarly and with sweeping, tragic tremolo melody.
Vildhjarta – + där skogen sjunger under evighetens granar +
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5You should know that when a band that uses djent guitars as heavily and percussively as this still manages to win me over, they are truly doing something right. I think the key in this case being that they understand how to manipulate the sound into doing OTHER things than just drive the progression steadily and punishingly to the next, predictable breakdown or jarring rhythm shift. At it’s best, the guitar tone and riff structure mimic other music styles, making it feel like the whole song is morphing into some gleeful caricature. Don’t get me wrong though – while it’s certainly entertaining, it’s not silly or disrespectful, in fact it shows a fluidity of taste and musical understanding that is nothing short of admirable. And it somehow ends up meshing perfectly fine with the flow of the album. It’s a little long, and slightly repetitive at times, but well worth a listen for any prog enthusiast.
Highlights: “+ den spanska känslan +” and “+ kristallfogel +”
Zig Zags – Deadbeat At Dawn
Genre: Heavy metal/punk
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Playing a characterful blend of classic metal and punk rock that the band themselves like to call garage metal, there is no doubt that LA’s Zig Zags have a very specific expression in mind. Is it a bit narrow? Sure, but not more than usual for any of the subgenres in question, which also include a bit of speed and thrash. It’s a mid-tempo, back-to-basics affair that strikes a tasteful balance between lean and punchy. The album starts very strong, then dips into a slight creative lull, before coming back stronger towards the end. The overall length is only a bit over 33 minutes though, and there’s really nothing bad on here, so expect to be entertained throughout.
Highlight: “Altered States”
As always, if you think I’m completely off on an observation, unfairly dissed your favorite band, or need to give an album another shot, why not pop a comment down below?
albums, black metal, Coltsblood, death metal, Eschaton, Golem of Gore, Graceless, Gridiron, Grin, grindcore, groove metal, metal, metal albums out this week, new metal releases, new releases, Obsidian Tongue, Obstruktion, overview, progressive metal, Puteraeon, Quadvium, review, Rivers of Nihil, The Haunted, thrash metal, Vildhjarta, Zig Zags -
Weekly rundown May 23 – 2025
Caught in a rut? This is a rugged, rowdy week that will shake the dust off and not leave you indifferent.
…And Oceans – The Regeneration Itinerary
Genre: Symphonic/avant-garde black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5At its core, …And Oceans is “simply” a highly competent symphonic black metal band. Where they stand out though, is in the additional layers that are unveiled throughout the listening experience. You take in the first couple of minutes of a song and think you know exactly where this is headed, and then they change it up with a bit of synthwave, or an atmospheric break, only to continue in a new, interesting direction. Or at least that is the case with the strongest tracks on this album. Those looking for the full-on avant-garde experience might find this to be a bit too straightforward. The good news is that, for those just looking for a conceptually elevated, richly melodic, non-cheesy, grand black metal record, this is a stellar example of that exact combination.
Highlights: “Förnyelse i Tre Akter” and “Prophetical Mercury Implement”
Animalize – Verminateur
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5I gotta say, it’s pretty damn refreshing to hear clean-sung metal in a language other than English every now and then. Regardless of this, French band Animalize nail the 80s glam-infused, melodic heavy metal sound, without resorting to tired clichés. It’s mostly a mid-tempo affair, but they shake it up with a few speed metal racers, which is where I find them at their best. They sound confident, and very comfortable with their chosen style, loading on the tropes in a way that keeps all the fun and none of the cringe. The melodies are strong, and most of the tracks build to memorable choruses.
Highlight: “Verminateur”
Balmog – Laio
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5This is stripped back black metal just the way I like it. Not reduced to a “listening to a broken toy speaker” experience by a low-fi production, but simply consisting of the necessary elements to shape their sound, and nothing else. It sounds malign, raw and genuinely like the work of devil worshippers, but with a snap to the rhythms and a hint of groove to the riffs and tremolo melodies. It’s honestly very close to a higher rating, just missing one or two songs that really stand out. Overall, it’s quality, evil black metal all the way, that can be appreciated for its individual style rather than it desperately trying to emulate the Scandinavian origin.
Highlight: “Tongue in pieces”
Chepang – Jhyappa
Genre: Grindcore
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Nepali(!) grindcore that mixes short-form, groove-laden death metal fury with unhinged dissonance and just enough folk elements to give it a distinct character. The riff tone reminds me a bit of Alien Weaponry, but the muddled production and undeniable ferocity of the thing clearly separates it from anything approaching listener-friendly. It serves up some truly killer, primal riff sections though, not terribly unlike something you’d expect from Soulfly. At 17 min 31 sec, it doesn’t overstay its welcome, and crucially doesn’t sound like the same couple of tracks on repeat.
Highlights: “Gatichad” and “Nirnaya”
Entheomorphosis – Pyhä kuilu
Genre: Ambient/avant-garde doom metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5A four-track, roughly half hour long piece of Finnish avant-garde doom madness. The first three songs feel like a very slow, ambient buildup to the final one, where everything seems to come together as a stretched-out climax, combining noise, black metal, sludge and other elements.
Feversea – Man Under Erasure
Genre: Avant-garde black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5A band standing about waist-deep in the inky mire og hopelessness that is black metal, very much letting it paint the scene of the soundscape, but directly communicating with you from a much more philosophically neutral and genre-unbound place. Clean, semi-melodic female vocals lead the way, occasionally replaced with some harsh wraith-snarling. They’re at their best when restless and really pouring it all into the performances, which is where serious-minded force meets emotion-laden melody.
Hellcrash – Inferno Crematörio
Genre: Black/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5There is never any shred of doubt as to what brand of metal this is, or what purpose it serves. It’s old-school, janky thrash played at speed tempo and given the classic, rough-edged blackened treatment. The production is predictably poor, but there’s no lack of enthusiasm. A few of the tracks get a bit one-dimensional, while others are surprisingly adventurous. It all sounds Venom-level evil, and early Exodus-level impatient and irreverent.
Moonlight Haze – Beyond
Genre: Symphonic/power metal
Subjective rating: 1.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5I can forgive a lot when it comes to power metal lyrics, especially when it’s clear that the musicians are in on the joke of just how cheesy they are. This is not the case with this album, where I’m pretty sure some of the lyrics would get laughed out of Eurovision. Add onto that an uneven and limp production and vocals that don’t quite have their note aim in, and… well, you get where this is going. Some of it is pretty catchy though, and the melodies aren’t half bad.
Ossuary – Abhorrent Worship
Genre: Death/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5If you’re up to utterly soiling your earholes, then let’s take this plunge into the suffocating deep and face the cruel, ponderous terrors that lurk in the earthy darkness. Ossuary offer up an intentionally painful listening experience, with the highlight being the ghoulish vocals, that manage to convey hate, revulsion, agony and a dark, threatening hunger through only slight variations in the same, gurgling vocal style. There is just enough reverb to create the sense of cavernous terror, and nothing but towering darkness to the tone. You don’t get more than a handful of standout moments, with some sections getting slightly repetitive, but stylistically they hit the target dead center.
Highlight: “The Undrownable Howl of Evil”
Poison The Preacher – Vs The World
Genre: Thrash metal/hardcore
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Been a little while since I’ve had some quality crossover thrash on my radar. This stuff is from Colombia, and they do let in just enough local flavor to clearly distinguish it from the typical North American street rascal sound. What they do serve up plenty of is that Power Trip-style, old school death metal-derived raspy brutality, and coupled with the fired-up, no-way-but-forward mentality of eager, short-form thrash, it sets off like a Mad Max-styled monster truck, mowing down everything in its path. There’s plenty of groove, squealy guitar antics and the occasional hardcore stomp section, and it all fits very well together.
Highlights: “Dying Every Day” and “Congelado en el Tiempo”
Thus Spoke Zarathustra – I’m Done With Self Care, It’s Time For Others Harm
Genre: Metalcore/deathcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5This takes me straight back to that early As I Lay Dying-style, “Shadows are Security” era rhythmic riffing, then adding on some heftier double bass drum work, gurglier vocals and a few heavy breakdowns. There’s lots of enjoyment to be had, but they fail to do anything spectacular, or even slightly unexpected with the stylistic setup they’ve got going.
Undecayed – In Death’s Image
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5Crunchy, meaty death metal with a sense of urgency. It’s a bit to preoccupied with constantly pumping out riffs and restless rhythms to land anything solid or particularly coherent, but if you just want a dose of grinding goodness, it might be worth a spin.
Unmerciful – Devouring Darkness
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Vibrating with the constant rumbling of bass drums and relentlessly hunting its way with chopping riffs, this is semi-brutal death metal that’s decently dynamic and has more tools in its arsenal than just pulverizing mass with which to annihilate its prey. For me, a lot of the songs are largely too similar, and the vocals a bit tedious with their lack of range, but there is no denying the practiced savagery. And for those ready to embrace the style, the band does change things up in terms of rhythms regularly enough to keep it interesting.
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 May 16 – 2025
A week where the heavy and complex goes toe to toe with the more easily accessible.
AntropomorphiA – Devoid of Light
Genre: Death/black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Dark, sinister death metal from the Netherlands that moves at a confident mid-pace, calling for you to join it in the catacombs.
Blood Monolith – The Calling Of Fire
Genre: Death metal/grindcore
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5This feels like the full force of the primal savagery behind all death metal unleashed, and further boosted by the ferocity of grindcore. Yes, it can be a bit overwhelming at times, but beneath the storm-whipped, turbulent surface grinds a steady wheel, steering the onslaught in a controlled direction. There’s an otherness to the tone, and meagre hints of melody that give the whole thing a slightly disconnected, unpredictable feel. If you can cope with the distressing nature of it, you might find it quite refreshing. It’s like a touch of industrial, but without the machine-like approach. It’s massively heavy, brutal in a non-caricatured way, and impressively constructed.
Highlights: “Prayer to Crom” and “Slaughter Garden”.
Confessions Of A Traitor – This Pain Will Serve You
Genre: Metalcore
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Distinctly modern metalcore out of the UK, going big and aggressive, but not overboard with effects or production. The riffs have some punch, and the melodies meld well with the harshness. The vocals are dynamic, and overall they seem very confident in their style. The main issue is that they seem to habitually coast along on unengaging, mid-tempo rhythms, which gives the album a slightly uninspired feel.
Death Whore – Blood Washes Everything Away
Genre: Death metal/crust punk
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Get ready for some real ear defilement. Death Whore is a French band that dresses crust punk in a thick layer of noise-tinged death metal, and seem poised to shake any stage apart with their monstrous, rumbling low end. The cool thing is that the rhythms are quite easy to follow, so you can headbang, jump and stomp your way through the whole goddamn thing. There’s a glimmer of levity beneath the brutality, which makes it all the more engaging, and allows you to accept it for not being all that conceptually fleshed out.
Highlight: “Infernal Terror Machine”
Détresse – Pessimismes
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Primitive and slightly thin, but not underproduced black metal with a medieval vibe. The tone has a tragic tinge to it, and the snarling vocals sound bitter in a mildly theatrical fashion. In short, it does a lot of things right, but very little new.
Drouth – The Teeth Of Time
Genre: Black/death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5If you find the black/death combo to have grown a little stale and predictable of late, then allow this album the opportunity to change your mind, ’cause it will. It certainly lands more firmly on the black metal side, which is echoed in the ever so slightly (and intentionally) muddled production. But this is by no means a “trve cvlt” sort of traditional-leaning thing. It has an adventurous and daring spirit to it, like the feeling you get from great epic doom and conceptually solid prog metal, and without borrowing any of the technical tropes. The riffs are more often on the heavy, grinding death metal end rather than the cold and sharp one, and there is real force to the bass. The drum work is quite active, but easily stands on the engagingly diverse side rather than being overly precise and distracting. A release that deserves a lot of listens to properly take it in. And the album art is simply fantastic.
Highlights: “The Teeth of Time” and “False Grail”
Executionist – Sacrament Of The Sick
Genre: Thrash/death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5With a sound best describes as a precise series of swift dagger strikes, this is technically sharp thrash metal with a bit of death viciousness. The melodies fall a little flat, it’s far too long and the vocals aren’t exactly dynamic, but they’ve got an infectiously aggressive energy.
Genune – Infinite Presence
Genre: Atmospheric black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Romanian atmospheric black metal that flies through bitter, stabbing hail showers as well as peaceful, sun-bathed breaks in the cloud cover. The music is guided by subtle melody that manages to be both melancholy and comforting.
Gigafauna – Eye To Windward
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5With this album, Swedish band Gigafauna try to be a lot of things at the same time, and casually transition between its different personalities whenever they please. Calling it progressive doesn’t quite cut it, and it’s not as experimental as it is a not-so-well organized potpourri of different influences, like Mastodon, Gojira and a few others. It’s fascinating in its variety, and not terribly executed, but lacks a clear vision.
LarcɆnia RoɆ – Extraction
Genre: Deathcore/brutal death metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5This is the sonic equivalent of stupidly vicious, power drill torture porn. It’s a bludgeoning mass of downtuned djent-riffs, animalistic vocals, ping-snare, a nightmarish tone and breakdowns. To me, it’s all the excessive brutality with none of the horror.
Highlights: “Desolation Hexx” and “Foeman’s Flesh”
No Raza – Tyrona
Genre: Melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5This band is originally from Colombia, and through its melodic modern death metal they spin tales of South American history and the current day repercussions. It’s technically tight and vigorous, if perhaps a tad too slick.
Pandemia – Darkened Devotion
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5It’s the first album in ten years for these Czech veterans, and while they don’t sound “modern”, they do sound up to date. This is tight, hard-hitting death metal with old school-ish leanings. The production allows for a great deal of force, and they do the darkly majestic tone quite well. There is not much in the way of distinctiveness, but it’s solid stuff.
Pridian – Venetian Dark
Genre: Metalcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Rhythmic, energetic metalcore out of Estonia that employ cinematic melodies. The vocals have great variety and range, and their groove tendencies remind me of Bleed From within.
Slow Fall – Blood Eclipse
Genre: Melodic groove metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5A typically melodic Finnish project that falls somewhere in between groove, melodeath, metalcore and plain modern metal. It goes big and small, slow and fast, violent and careful. At its best it’s a sound to get lost in, and for more casual listeners it should work very well as an introduction into the heavier side of the metal spectrum.
Wounded Touch – A Vivid Depiction Of Collapse
Genre: Mathcore/metalcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Wounded Touch bring a confident, refined mix of moderate mathcore and non-melodic metalcore into something that manages to convey emotional depth while for the absolute most part going harsh and heavy. It’s rhythmically driven, yet kept from going stale or repetitive by impressively varied and beautifully transitioning drum work. It’s light on its feel, going for hardcore-levels of heaviness, with a rewarding complexity to the song structures.
Highlight: “The Damning Variable”
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 May 09 – 2025
Blackened death metal outnumbers all this week, but that doesn’t mean it’s the only flavor on offer.
Abysmal Rites – Restoring The Primordial Order
Genre: Sludge/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5A Finnish band crafting their sound from only bass, drums and vocals. It’s dark, ominous, and just as heavy as you would expect with the bass guitar performing all the riffs. Sometimes it’s a bit hard to tell where one track ends and another begins, but the mood they set is very effective.
An Tóramh – Echoes of Eternal Night
Genre: Funeral doom metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5I would say that this album has a gothic feel to it, but it’s certainly a very bleak and sinister one. There are wisps of melancholy carried on melody, but it feels faint and temporary – inevitably to be swallowed by the darkness before long. There isn’t much building up involved, only pauses in the slow, crushingly heavy riff procession, and so it’s not exactly a dynamic experience. But it does a good job of keeping any semi-attentive listener immersed.
Behemoth – The Shit Ov God
Genre: Blackened death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Ever since releasing the monumental “The Satanist”, I feel like Behemoth keeps being held to an impossibly high standard. That’s not to say that I think their subsequent releases have been masterpieces to even nearly the same level as their 2014 career highlight, but judging them for their independent qualities as works of blackened death metal, I would still argue that they reaffirm Behemoth’s status as subgenre greats. This album takes another step away from the conceptually driven subtleties and artistic intricacies of “I Loved You at Your Darkest” and goes for a much more direct approach. In fact, as Behemoth goes, it’s pretty straightforward. It sounds big, and has a symphonic volume to it. But there’s also plenty of aggressive drive, and some really excellent performances. It’s not mind blowing, but still showcases plenty of the band’s strongest qualities.
Highlights: “The Shit Ov God” and “Nomen Barbarvm”
Chainsword – Chapter XII
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5I will always listen favorably to a band that themes its work around Warhammer 40K, and on this one they seem to have gone in a distinctly Khorne direction. If that means nothing to you, then just ignore it, cause it really doesn’t matter in terms of the feel of the music. It’s semi-primitive, thrash-infused, old school death metal. If you were/are into Bolt Thrower, then this will appeal to you.
Escarnium – Inexorable Entropy
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5This is Brazilian death metal that takes the dark and horrifying route. Most everything about the sound is monstrous, but not in an over-the-top brutal, overproduced sort of way. It sounds like it comes from the deep, rumbling with hunger and feeling its way with slithering tendrils. It’s a thing that’s not instantly easy to wrap your head around, but you feel your understanding growing the further in you get, almost like you’re getting indoctrinated.
Highlights: “Revulsion of Carbon”
Exilium Noctis – Pactum Diaboli
Genre: Blackened death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Greek blackened death metal that pulls hard in the aggressive, abrasive direction, but doesn’t let go of the penchant for dark grandeur. Honestly, there is very little fresh about their sound, but if you want black-leaning, unholy heaviness that sounds evil despite an impeccable production, it will probably float your boat.
For The Pyres – At The Pyres of Sin
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5No, I can, in fact, not get enough of classic Swedish death metal. This is a lively one, with a heavy focus on those crunchy riffs, and vocals that sound like grinding gravel. It has an air of shadowy triumph about it, but it’s not really one that you take seriously as any sort of no-nonsense malicious statement of actual evil. It’s a non-stop headbanging good time, overflowing with groove and all the brutal bells and whistles you would expect from this style.
Highlight: “Let Their Blood Colour Our Swords”
Ghost Bath – Rose Thorn Necklace
Genre: Atmospheric black/gothic metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5If you’re into “healing by feeling”, then this might be the cure for you. It’s an album that pulls you down to its level, insisting that you immerse the misery, depression and suicidality. But at the same time, there’s a notion in here that it’s okay to feel this way, but you don’t have to. You can dream bleak, take in the hurt, and it’s fine. Ghost bath plays black metal with a non-stereotypical gothic flair to the melodies and atmosphere. It also taps into much lighter points of the musical spectrum, like ethereal rock. The metal is the force that wakes you from your reverie invoked by soft, dreamy interludes. I don’t think every song manages the balance as well as the best, but the most inspired material on here has the potential to stay with you for a long time.
Highlights: “Well, I Tried Drowning” and “Dandelion Tea”
Jade – Mysteries Of A Flowery Dream
Genre: Atmospheric/melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Like a storm sweeping over the peaks of a mountain range, the sonic turbulence resounding across the valleys below, this atmospheric death metal album rolls over you, forcing you to lean into it to keep your footing. There’s a feeling of primordial forces being invoked, a bit like the dark folk elements you might find on an Enslaved record. In that regard, there is a touch of black on it, like a calling from the shadows, but it never takes any sort of technical shape. It’s a heavy, austere sound that flows exceptionally well, letting in streams of melody that perfectly match the tone, feeling like transient glimpses into worlds beyond the veil of reality. Personally I could have wished for even more force when it comes time to put the foot down, but I’m completely sold on the immersion.
Highlights: “Darkness In Movement” and “Shores Of Otherness”
My Dementia – Premonição: Só Me Arrependo Do Que Não Vivi
Genre: Doom metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5A funeral-slow, riff-crunchy doom metal album from Portugal. There’s a strong whiff of death metal over it, but it prefers to keep it orderly and august, over raw and bloodthirsty. It’s a bit too repetitive to warrant the 1+ hour runtime, and although I normally don’t complain over a riff-over-atmosphere approach, this one could have benefited from a bit more variation.
Ominous Ruin – Requiem
Genre: Technical death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5As precise, agile technical death metal goes, this one feels almost restrained. It doesn’t go crazy with the speed of tempo shifts, there’s no vocal acrobatics worth mentioning, no glitch-out, insane guitar solos. It’s very to-the-point, and yet measured. It struggles to distinguish itself in any specific area, but should definitely please fans of the subgenre.
Skaphos – Cult Of Uzura
Genre: Blackened death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5If you thought that the Behemoth album this week was a bit too “safe”, then might I heartily recommend this monstrosity. Not that it’s some sort of out-of-control, ultra-harsh work of madmen, but it’s definitely on the raw and ever so slightly unhinged part of the blackened death spectrum. It dips into eldritch horror and ritualistic soullessness, but first and foremost it’s an utter assault of coarse riffs, canon-barrage drums and rusty, gurgled vocals. It does feel a bit long at almost 50 minutes of runtime, so could have used a bit of trimming, but the real ripper tracks are evenly distributed throughout, so it will keep a tight hold of you till the end.
Highlights: “Shaphism” and “Abyssal Tower”
Tetrarch – The Ugly Side Of Me
Genre: Nu metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Yes, this album sounds like an absolute guilty pleasures meld of Linkin Park, Korn and Static X, straight out of the late 90s/early 2000s, and please do tell me – what the hell is wrong with that? Yes, I know I’m biased having grown up with this stuff, but honestly I didn’t listen actively to most of the original nu metal bands until quite a while later, and even then it’s never really been “my” subgenre. But the feel you get on this album is simply undeniable. It’s so… pure. So saturated in that baggy-pants, spiked-hair alternative vibe that you can instantly conjure up your own cartoony, hyper-contrast-filter, cyber punk music video for each and every track. And the band absolutely revels in it. Yes, it’s fairly formulaic at certain times, but unless the thing repulses you from the very first minute, you will easily forgive it.
Highlights: “Live Not Fantasize” and “Anything Like Myself”
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 May 02 – 2025
This slightly more relaxed summer-ramp-up-week is dominated by blackened bands, but basically no straight black metal, instead going for the genre-bending approach.
Acherontas – Nekya – The Necromantic Patterns
Genre: Melodic black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Opening the week with some Greek black metal of the familiar, Hellenic variant, meaning it’s melodically expansive and epic, darkly dramatic and also dripping with venom. They tread a very well-trodden path on this album, so it’s no mind-opener, but certainly gets the job done.
Crematory – Destination
Genre: Gothic/industrial metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5I suppose you can call this gothic metal, at least tonally and slightly helped by a Type O Negative cover, but mostly it’s catchy industrial/electronica beats with synth melody and atmosphere, added a slight melodeath touch for heaviness. It’s fairly numbingly unoriginal, with what looks like an AI album cover.
A Flock Named Murder – Incendiary Sanctum
Genre: Progressive black/doom/death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5As suggested by its album art, this is a thing of massive scope, destruction and violent creation all at once. It takes the magnitude of atmospheric death doom and combines it with some of the nihilism of black metal, meaning it’s both sinister and crushingly heavy, but also has sections where the intensity sits back to simply observe the tranquil, gradual proceedings that take place in its absence. There’s melancholy and tragic, natural beauty under the turbulent storm cover that is the rumbling bass, charging drums and headstrong tremolo. It transitions organically into different iterations of itself like the weather on a particularly tempestuous day, and you get the feeling that it’s an elemental force that decides the fates of many. Despite this, it’s level-headed enough never to break out of its stride and shift into unexpected styles, so keeps you securely immersed in the same kind of soundscape throughout.
Highlights: “To Drown in Obsidian Tides” and “The Eulogy Fields”
Hangfire – Burn
Genre: Heavy metal/hard rock
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5A cool, scorched-groove, female-vocal heavy metal band with the catchiness of hard rock. It’s only moderately anthemic and ballad prone, a bit like 80s classic metal, but always returning to the riff, and it’s got a great tone to go with the highly talented vocals.
Hate – Bellum Regiis
Genre: Blackened death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Ready for some gargantuan blackened death metal to shake your walls? Hate delivers that brutal, riff-focused assault that brings to mind early Behemoth crossed with Vader. And as such it is highly satisfying, keeping up the pressure of taut aggression all the way through. It never feels understated, nor is it overdone. It’s not the slightest bit chipper or relaxed, but also not completely glum and stone-faced, delivering some wicked solos and moderately bombastic atmosphere every now and then. To me, the middle of the album feels a little uninspired. Still technically solid, and in no way sloppy or boring, just not really bringing anything new to the table. Overall though, it’s got you by the throat till the last note.
Highlight: “Bellum Regiis”
Herta – Crossing The Illusion
Genre: Progressive/groove metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5A Greek, aggressive prog band that mixes harsh groove with a modern, slightly synthetic melodic approach. It’s technically proficient, but doesn’t offer a ton more than odd-timed riffs with a strong Goijra vibe.
Kalaveraztekah – Nikan Axkan
Genre: Progressive/melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Whoa, where did this come from? Kalaveraztekah is a Mexican band playing progressive death metal that’s absolutely dripping with Mesoamerican instrumental folk elements, and is deeply steeped in folklore and ancient cosmology. The metal-centric elements are mostly brutal-style, modern-ish melodeath that snakes its way through explosive aggression, melodic triumph, technical showmanship and atmospheric breaks. What mainly separates it from pure excellence is the slightly uneven production that doesn’t allow the full force of the music to come through, and a fairly messy mix that just piles heaps of instrumental elements on top of each other. That being said, it makes for a saturated and highly distinct sound not quite like anything else I’ve ever heard. It hits damn hard, is highly varied, and just oozes potential.
Highlights: “Tonalli Nawalli (La Esencia y el Espíritu)” and “Xolotl Axolotl (La Negación del Sacrificio)”
Khôra – Ananke
Genre: Atmospheric/progressive black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Khôra is an atmospheric black metal band that wants a bit more than just the standard, traditional sound. The song structures go in moderately progressive directions that allow for good variation in rhythms and level of intensity, reminiscent of the work of Ihsahn to a certain degree. There’s also a bit of orchestral grandeur and some death metal heft to go with it, making for a layered experience. The production is full and rich, not low-fi in any way, but also not squeaky clean. It doesn’t have the same level of convincing darkness and misanthropy as some of the best of the genre, and doesn’t defy expectations in the same way as, let’s say Enslaved. But it’s solidly performed and really well thought out, making for a rewarding listening experience.
Highlight: “Wrestling With The Gods”
Labyrinthus Stellarum – Rift In Reality
Genre: Atmospheric/electronic black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Not one for the black metal purists this one, but if you’re a sci-fi geek that still wants your cosmically themed metal to be aggressive and moderately complex, this is absolutely for you. It’s an Ukrainian project that’s loaded with spacey electronica and favoring a modern, technical rhythm approach. At times it goes as far as approaching metalcore accessibility and melody, but it also has a far more aggressive, cold and black metal-faithful dimension to it that shines through at just enough instances to keep it genuine. It’s a flavor out of the ordinary, adventurous, vibrant, not at all pretentious, and not technically overdone.
Highlights: “Cosmic Plague” and “Voyagers”
Leper Colony – Those of the Morbid
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Flesh-tearing old school death metal not too unlike that of Obituary, but with a slightly leaner and crisper sound, a little more set on choppy rhythms, alternating with thunderous double bass onslaughts. The vast majority of it is not all that distinguishable from a lot of other OSDM bands, but it’s satisfyingly riff-focused and style-confident. It’s got a lot of cool moments, and gets the tone and production just right.
Highlight: “Those of The Morbid Inclination”
Master Charger – Posthumous Resurrection
Genre: Stoner/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5A mildly psychedelic, super fuzzy stoner project that leans just enough into the occult to fully earn its doom tie-in. The rhythms want to go in a more upbeat, groovy direction, but the tone keeps pulling it down, keeping it in a perpetual state of cruising the twilight, like the goat demon biker on the album cover.
Misfire – Product Of The Environment
Genre: Thrash metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5This Chicago-based band plays in-your-face, mid-tempo, old-school-leaning thrash metal that’s at its best when fully embracing the groove. You get extended, badass riff lines that will keep you headbanging till your brain gets bruised, accompanied by purposeful drum work and perfectly coarse vocals. The tone is definitely up to no good, landing on the outraged, malicious side rather than the mischievous-fun-loving one. There are a few songs that don’t really go anywhere interesting, but also a good handful of bangers.
Highlight: “Living the Dream”
Nightfall – Children Of Eve
Genre: Blackened death/gothic metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Up for a dose of symphonic, blackened, gothic, melodic death metal? Yes, that’s a lot of different styles in one, but I bet that just from reading them you can form a pretty god impression of just what this sounds like. For those who are unfamiliar with the band, Nightfall is a Greek, Hellenic death metal band not too far removed from Septicflesh, and definitely also related to Rotting Christ in style. Those looking for “dangerous”-sounding blackened death metal will not find that here. This is much closer to Dethklok than Behemoth. But think of it as really heavy, symphonic gothic metal, and you can have a lot of fun with it. To my ears the quality tracks are mostly bunched up in the first half of the album, making for a less engaging finish to the experience, but it never really lets you down either.
Highlight: “The Cannibal”
Your Spirit Dies – My Gnawing Pains Will Never Rest
Genre: Metalcore/hardcore
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5This is apparently what you get when you blend the melodeath-derived melodic metalcore of the early 2000s with modern, dissonant harshness and hardcore directness, and adding on a small dash of death metal brutality. It’s a potent mix for sure, giving you traces of As I Lay Dying and Hatebreed, but eschewing most of the soft, clean parts and the gang vocal-led crowd-chant-lyrics. It’s heavy and highly aggressive, with a ever so slightly blackened edge, but also not letting completely go of melodic tenderness, which ensures a dynamic soundscape. Considering that this is the band’s debut full-length makes it all the more impressive, as they not only manage to showcase quality performances and a hungry energy, but a welcome distinctiveness that avoids most of the big tropes and clichés of the subgenre.
Highlights: “Born Forsaken” and “Unjust God”
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?
A Flock Named Murder, albums, black metal, death metal, grindcore, groove metal, Hate, Kalaveraztekah, Khôra, Labyrinthus Stellarum, Leper Colony, metal, metal albums out this week, Misfire, new metal releases, new releases, Nightfall, overview, progressive metal, review, thrash metal, Your Spirit Dies -
Weekly rundown April 25 – 2025
God damn, did everyone just decide to ignore everyone else’s release schedule and rush to get their new stuff out before festival season? This is a week packed way beyond the brim, erupting metal of all flavors like an un-constipated volcano.
Ahamkara – The Harrow Of The Lost
Genre: Atmospheric black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5On this one the black metal elements are mostly always present, but slightly scaled back, given the low-fi treatment, and drenched in melancholy, longing melody. The aggression is there, but it comes from within a thick cover of mist. It flirts with some progressive rhythms twists, which isn’t done super smoothly.
Bark – The Time Has Come
Genre: Groove metal/death ‘n’ roll
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5This project reminds me a bit of the best parts of FFDP, meaning everything but the anthemic, on-the-nose slightly cringe-y melodic bits. It’s hard-rock-y, catchy rhythms with death metal-ish vocals and some heavy groove riffs that sometimes speed up into thrash. Lots of cool stuff for fun, adrenaline-boosting listening.
Behölder – In The Temple Of The Tyrant
Genre: Epic doom/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Gotta love it when someone manages to join the adventurous, bold qualities of heavy metal with the heaviness and gravitas of doom in such a smooth way that they’re seamlessly blended – always complementing each other and never pulling in different directions. Behölder add to it with the light-hearted fantasy-worship of power metal, but to such a moderate degree that it never breaks off from the purposeful, mid-tempo trot and dark-ish tone that is so important for the immersion. It’s being obvious about its D&D theme, and not at all taking it seriously, but also not treating it as silly, instead leaning into the role playing aspect and really getting stuck in the story.
Highlights: “A Pale Blood Sky” and “Draconian (SLAVE OR MASTER)”
Cadaver – Hymns Of Misanthropy
Genre: Experimental death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Essentially a collection of unreleased material from the band’s early career, it is based on a number of tracks first recorded roughly and unfinished back in 1991. These have now been revisited and given the necessary finish to complete the album such as it might have been according to the original vision. So new? Yes and no, but it is regardless both a fun look back into the band’s past, as well as a fully functioning and concise experimental death metal album for today. It leans significantly more into psychedelic and jazz-like free-spiritedness than 2023’s “The Age of the Offended”, without going completely bonkers. While not every song is quite as noteworthy, it’s a fun and nostalgic detour for the band that is certainly worth the effort of unveiling from obscurity.
Highlight: “From the Past”
Caliban – Back From Hell
Genre: Metalcore
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5These German metalcore veterans are back, big and bold, fully embracing the current state of the genre, but retaining some of the instrumental melody and groove of years past. It starts really well with some near-deathcore heavy and epically grand tracks with lots of guest artists, then unfortunately takes a bit of a nosedive as far as originality goes about halfway through, making a partial recovery with the last track, but leaving a disappointing unevenness in quality. To me, its too caught up with trends to be any interesting, but for fans it’s got some really satisfying material on it.
Cancer – Inverted World
Genre: Death/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Returning with their first full-length in seven years, long-time death thrashers Cancer serve up more old-school, morbid, threatening riffage, and if you’re in the mood for dark groove and cut-throat hooks, this album will serve you well. It’s a thematically and tonally coherent thing that balances pleasing, chunky riffs with lowered-head, sinister growls with a deep, full bass to back it up. The album doesn’t stand out in any particular way, but delivers solidly and evenly, not with an extreme sense of purpose, but certainly coming from a place of real genre understanding and appreciation.
Highlight: “Until They Died”
Caustic Wound – Grinding Mechanism Of Torment
Genre: Death metal/grindcore
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5You take one look at that depraved album cover and you know this is gonna be an ugly, ear-defiling abomination. You just hope that it’s gonna be a GOOD, ugly, ear-defiling abomination. Spoiler alert: It is. Caustic Wound play filthy, shadow-dwelling death metal first and foremost, but in the mayfly-attention-span-format of grindcore. Though, while it’s a savage, dirt-covered, rotting monstrosity to the core, it’s not completely inaccessible, nor does the production make it sound like an echo bouncing off a cave wall. The riffs are meaty, the squeals are sharp, the bass is very much present and menacing, and the vocals sound like they’re hacking up innards piece by shredded piece. The only real surprise is the 6:48-long finisher that dives into funeral doom for about three minutes, before returning to the manic assault.
Highlights: “Blood Battery” and “The Bleed Rail”
Changeling – Changeling
Genre: Progressive death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5This is a wild one. Combining the styles of such bands as Obscura, Fractal Universe, Devin Townsend and maybe even a little bit of Igorrr, you know it’s not gonna be a thing that goes easy on you. While it’s pretty easily definable as progressive, melodic death metal, it’s not even the slightest bit interested in sticking to the same kind of approach for more than a third of a song at a time. That doesn’t do wonders for its coherence, but that’s something that the people whom this thing was meant for won’t care too much about. Being mainly a solo project, but attracting musicians from several prestige projects, parts of it is pretty shreddy, but the overall feel is still not of this being a show-off-y thing. The compositions are adventurous, and the heavy bits genuinely heavy, although not exactly brutal. If you’re a fan of any of the aforementioned bands, I’m sure you’ll thoroughly dig this.
Highlights: “Changeling” and “World? What World?”
Coffin Feeder – Big Trouble
Genre: Death metal/deathcore
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5This album has different album art on Spotify, where a lot of the background details and characters are yellowed out, possibly for copyright reasons? It certainly needs to be seen in its original, Steven Segal-slaughtering glory to be fully appreciated, and matched with the unhinged sonic assault that awaits within. This is basically Aborted after a matchmaking with the more hardcore-derived elements of deathcore. And it really works. Yes, it’s massively brutal, but also refreshingly direct and rhythmically adaptable. It’s certainly on the precise, technical side, and not really bringing tons of new stuff to the genre, but it’s very clearly made to be enjoyed. It’s heaps and boatloads of fun.
Highlights: “Plain Zero” and “Porkchop Express”
Conan – Violence Dimension
Genre: Doom/sludge/stoner metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5Heeeeeeeaaavy. Conan is back, grinding out primal, bass-pounding stoner-sludge from the doomy lands where everything is rock hard and weighs just a little more than any mortal can lift. This is a band that truly nails their own style. If you liked 2022’s “Evidence of Immortality”, you have every reason to be ecstatic about this. It’s not exactly a nimble, shape-shifting thing, but it shows itself from a variety of angles, and presents as an absolute statement of songwriting. I want to like this more than I actually do, which makes me happy to be able to give it a higher objective score. For me it’s a bit too happy to get stuck pushing an entire mountain one millimeter at a time while banging its head against the cliffside, and while I admire the hell out of the artistic balls it takes to end the album on what is basically a 12 minute feedback-squeal track, it’s not really something I want to actively listen to.
Highlights: “Desolation Hexx” and “Foeman’s Flesh”
Deserted Fear – Veins Of Fire
Genre: Melodic death/groove metal
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 3/5I first discovered Deserted Fear on their 2019 release “Drowned By Humanity” and became an instant fan, wowed by their mix of sinewy, yet groove-laden death metal and old school melodeath. If you, like me, was hoping for more of the same on “Veins of Fire”, you will be sorely disappointed. The band has veered dramatically off in a “In Flames at their most mainstream”-direction, basing everything on radio-rock, super energetic, nu-metal-like beats and rhythms. It’s catchy, but flows badly, and the fact that they’re still screaming and growling their throats out and giving the guitars all the crunch of a Swedish classic suggests a delusional perception that they can somehow win over the casual listener and diehard death metal fan at the same time. Pick a lane, guys.
Disfuneral – In Horror, Reborn
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5A young, promising, French death metal project that goes old school in a playful, thrash-y, riff-happy way. Yes, yes, all their songs are about horrors beyond the grave, and the tone is nice and malicious, but it’s very clearly played from a place of love for the genre, bringing about morbid happiness.
Echoes of the Extinct – Era of Darkness
Genre: Melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5This is Finnish modern melodeath with a dark tone and plenty of catchy groove. It’s a sharp, precise thing that, despite its constant melodic leanings, has an ais of seriousness about it. They try a few different prog tricks here and there, with varying success.
Employed To Serve – Fallen Star
Genre: Metalcore/groove metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5Combining the technical and melodic sensibilities of modern metalcore with the visceral aggression and snarling attitude of hardcore-flavored extreme metal bands like Venom Prison, and the jagged groove of the likes of Kataklysm, Employed to Serve join the ranks of actually heavy contemporary metalcore bands like Bleed from Within to claim highly deserved slots in the spotlight. “Fallen Star” vibrates with vigor, exploding with forceful performances and radiating positive, creative energy. It’s got some of the best fitting guest performances I’ve heard in a long time, with Will Ramos (Lorna Shore), Serena Cherry (Svalbard) and Jesse Leach (Killswitch Engage) lending highly welcome variation in flavor. A brilliant lighthouse of a release that will likely bridge the gap between the mainstream and the extreme for many.
Highlights: “Treachery” and “Last Laugh”
Eluveitie – Ànv
Genre: Folk/melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Delivering an absolute outburst of rage-fueled melodeath mixed with symphonic-like cleans and a bunch of enrichening traditional folk instruments, Eluveitie has produced a rousing, extreme-flirting folk album for the masses, the kind of which I can really get behind. Sure, there are more “genuine” folk bands out there, and the vocals and melodies can at times step a little bit closer to pop than what I would have liked, but it’s all performed with conviction, and retains an impressive gravitas throughout. The energy takes a bit of a dip towards the end, favoring melody and ambience, which makes the total experience a bit uneven. But the quality of the material remains high.
Highlights: “Premonition” and “Taranoías”
Felgrave – Otherlike Darknesses
Genre: Progressive death/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5A three-song 48+ minute album of slightly depressive-toned, moderately dissonant, rhythmically morphing death metal played in a doom format. Several, extended sections on here show great promise, and although the production is not the best, the performances are strong. It’s all just blends a bit too much together.
Game Over – Face The End
Genre: Thrash metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Italian thrash that bring to mind Anthrax and contemporary Metallica. It’s kind of happy-go-lucky, uncomplicated, mostly mid-tempo stuff with a satisfying riff tone, gang vocals and a good amount of groove.
Ghost – Skeleta
Genre: Hard rock/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5I’m not gonna spend a ton of space talking about Ghost’s latest release, as there’s more than enough said about the band out there already, and I’m not interesting in analyzing the arena rock revival elements of the album, defend the band’s cultural status or attack them for their shift in sound. This is a ballad-heavy, fairly mellow release that’s technically simple but deceptively layered in terms of songwriting, as always. To me the most satisfyingly subversive and melodically outstanding tracks are on the second half of the album. Think of it a bit like Tribulation’s stunt turn into gothic rock on their latest album, and you can ease into a chilled-out state of appreciation for what it is, letting go of expectations chained to the past.
Highlight: “Cenotaph”
The Great Sea – Noble Art Of Desolation
Genre: Atmospheric black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5As black metal goes, even the atmospheric kind, this is fairly gentle. Even with its raspy, primitive, Darkthrone-nodding side that is prevalent on most tracks, the edge of it is cushioned by layers of contemplative, dreamy melody. The tone remains hollow-eyed and fairly pessimistic, but travels far, reaching out for new horizons. It’s a blend of old and new that never sets off for too long in any distinct direction away from the core sound. It’s not experimental or particularly varied, but also certainly not devoid of force or pathos. It’s the kind that you can find yourself both headbanging to and getting glassy-eyed lost in.
Highlight: “No Peace Among Men”
Imminent Sonic Destruction – Floodgate
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Blending grunge-like straightforwardness with progressive hard rock and metal makes for an interesting sound that kind of wants to be both deadpan and showman-like at the same time. I wouldn’t say that the two clash exactly, but makes the thing seem a bit undecided.
Insineratehymn – Irreverence Of The Divine
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Old school brutal death metal that delivers on savagery and stylistic purity. You can’t quite escape the feeling that you’ve heard it all before, but it’s well produced, is suitably impatient, and when it finds a malevolent groove, it leans well into it.
Kardashev – Alunea
Genre: Progressive/atmospheric deathcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5I don’t often go in with as high expectations as I did with “Alunea”. Before even starting this entire weekly review session I fully expected Kardashev’s latest to claim the title of album of the week, such was my confidence in the band’s abilities, based almost solely on the accomplishment that is their astounding 2022 release “Liminal Rite”. Finally listening to the album, it was with an increasingly weighted heart I had to face the conclusion that it simply does not live up to its predecessor. Not even close. That’s not to say that it isn’t supremely competent, and might actually showcase the band’s dynamic range to a higher degree. But with “Liminal Rite” there was no doubt – you knew before you were even halfway through that it would stay with you for a long time. “Alunea” goes in a more technically progressive direction, with a slightly leaner production where everything isn’t cushioned in a layer of warm, unifying atmosphere. They handle the performances well, and might impress a whole new section of the metal fanbase. But it also brings a stark spotlight to some of the less original deathcore elements, and technically, it’s really not all that distinct. All of that said, it’s still a great blend of measured force and emotional depth that dares to go in a slightly new direction in the face of massive expectations.
Highlights: “Truth to Form” and “Speak Silence”
Landmvrks – The Darkest Place I’ve Ever Been
Genre: Metalcore/hardcore
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Landmvrks’ newest effort manages a quite difficult duality of feats, namely to be an effective, entertaining, hardcore-infused metalcore energy boost, and also convey tender emotion and expressions of hurt in a convincing, genuine way. Helped by the fact that some of the vocals sound quite a bit like the late Chester Bennington, and that rap is also among the wide spectrum of styles, there are some distinctly nu-metal-leaning parts on here that remind me a lot of Linkin Park. It’s a lot more than this though, and at its best it feels like a truly chameleonic experience, where the band shifts its style to suit its needs. While a few of the choruses won’t exactly blow your mind with their originality, and it touches upon a few tropes here and there, the craftmanship and sincerity on display here is worthy of high praise.
Highlights: “Creature” and “Requiem”
Machine Head – Unatøned
Genre: Grøøve metal/metalcøre
Subjective rating: 0/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Nope, the guys in Machine Head still aren’t done replacing O’s with Ø’s, which grants them another subjective zero rating from me. Why? Well, fellow Scandinavians will know that properly pronouncing song titles like “NØT LØNG FØR THIS WØRLD” sounds completely moronic, and ignoring this fact for the purpose of garnishing the album’s visual style speaks of a kind of ignorance that I simply cannot abide. If you’re wondering, think of the sound that the letter “U” makes in the word “burn”. Yep, that’s the “Ø”-sound. Now try to read a title like “BØNESCRAPER” out loud and keep a straight face.
Oh crap, there’s some music on here to review too I guess. “UNATØNED” finds the band at its most anthemic. It’s catchy as fuck, with earworm melodies fluffing out pretty much every song, moving the style a significant step in the direction of metalcore. As long as you accept this, and don’t care too much about the cheesiness involved, you will get your fill of energetic, groove-stuffed riffs, headbang-able rhythms and tight lead work. Just don’t expect any worthwhile artistic depth or intricacy.
Highlight: “UNBØUND”
Martoriator – Bloodpainted Visions Of Perpetual Conflict
Genre: Blackened death/war metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Set to the sound of air raid sirens and zipping bullets, Martoriator bring the carnage on their debut album. There is no joy to be found here, just the soul-and-body-crushing, hate-fueled onslaught of mechanized warfare. It’s a sound that leans over you, blotting out all light, and methodically pulverizes everything in its path with rumbling death metal force. A few of the songs are a bit one-dimensional in their execution, but it still goes along well with the theme of repetitive hopelessness.
Highlight: “66 Tons of Armored Hatred”
Opia – I Welcome Thee, Eternal Sleep
Genre: Gothic/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5A gothic funeral march headed into black-and-white, silent woods. That’s not to say that this is an all-quiet, dead tempo thing. Swathed in bleak, mournful melody, but peaking into raspy, bass-drum-boosted heaviness, this Spanish/British doom project lands somewhere between the horizon-gazing, tragic-epicness you might expect out of Finland, and the colder, classical gothic qualities of such acts as My Dying Bride.
Pagan Altar – Never Quite Dead
Genre: Heavy/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5NWOBHM outcasts Pagan Altar stick to their recipe of classic-doom-infused, 70s heavy metal. On “Never Quite Dead” they manage a highly refined expression where everything feels very considered and purposeful, and just a bit restrained. The sound isn’t exactly clean, but clear, full and detailed, while generously allowing the retro vibe to shine through. They take it quite easy at points, going into extended, understated single-instrument-and-vocals sections, with a bit of added atmosphere. It doesn’t do wonders for the progression, but it can be sublime to simply let trickle in through your ears. And then the riffs kick in again and you’re instantly charmed.
Highlight: “Saints and Sinners”
Phantom – Tyrants Of Wrath
Genre: Speed/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5These guys really get the faithful/fun balance of creating engaging speed metal. Yes, you shouldn’t take it too seriously, and just throw your wildest, rowdiest energy at it, and at the same time, in order to really level it up, you gotta know which elements to weave in that will complement the base style and add another dimension to the listening experience. For Phantom, that is thrash shred, heavy metal fantasy and a dash of death metal viciousness. There’s even the tiniest hint of a blackened edge, but it doesn’t do much to dampen the mood. Like the skeletal-demonic warrior on the album cover, it’s here to frantically swing the axe, laughing and shrieking gleefully in the process, and would love for you to join in.
Highlights: “The Tower of Seth” and “Thunderbeast”
Sacred Steel – Ritual Supremacy
Genre: Power/speed metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Charismatic, style-confident, gritty power metal with strong heavy- and speed metal leanings. The songwriting is largely on point, going from chest beating, mid-to-low tempo grooves to galloping rippers. There is, however, a bit to be said about some of the performances, and it’s a bit too uneven and bloated to really excel. But there’s more than enough cool moments on here to merit a listen, and you might find that it ticks a lot of boxes for you.
Sijjin – Helljjin Combat
Genre: Death/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Do you wish your classic thrash metal was a bit more evil, without breaking out of the early 80s style or becoming chaotically heavy or noisy? Sijjin has just the thing for you. It lights a bit of hellfire under that speed-like proto thrash sound, then half-morphs into the goat-demon shape of raw, blasphemous, old school death metal. It’s a very focused, unadorned, tunnel-vision kind of sound, so if it works for you for a minute, it will keep you engaged throughout. The guitar work is semi-intricate and certainly not content with the path of least resistance, and the drums and bass happily follow suit, making for an exploratory interplay that also knows when to settle into familiar, satisfying patterns. The production is a bit flat, but results in a fairly distinct, purposeful sound, so I’m not complaining. It’s plenty irreverent, and decently varied.
Highlights: “Fear Not the Tormentor” and “Dakhma Curse”
Structure – Heritage
Genre: Atmospheric doom/death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5A heavily atmospheric, funeral-tempo, death doom album that comes as the debut full-length from solo(?) project Structure. It’s laden with tragic melody, and presents a very downcast tone, pointing to sorrow and loss but allowing for the slight chance of healing. The vocals are harsh and deep, and the riffs roll in like distant, crashing ocean breakers. I can’t quite escape the feeling that certain parts are overly slowed down, as if written for a higher tempo but then brought to a crawl to fit the style. But it’s gripping, well-considered and properly put together.
Trick Or Treat – Ghosted
Genre: Power metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5Italian power metal that’s coated thick in Halloween-level spooky-theme. It’s a lot of carefree fun, with some great performances and nice production to go with it. Perhaps a bit too often it takes the easy route and goes exactly where you expect it to, but it blends riff happiness with melodic vivacity and a healthy level of silliness.
As always, if you think I’m completely off on an observation, unfairly dissed your favorite band, or need to give an album another shot, why not pop a comment down below?
albums, Bark, Behölder, black metal, cadaver, caliban, Cancer, Caustic Wound, Changeling, Coffin Feeder, conan, death metal, Disfuneral, Eluveitie, Employed to Serve, ghost, grindcore, groove metal, kardashev, Landmvrks, machine head, Martoriator, metal, metal albums out this week, new metal releases, new releases, Opia, overview, Pagan Altar, Phantom, progressive metal, review, Sijjin, Structure, The Great Sea, thrash metal, Trick Or Treat -
Weekly rundown April 18 – 2025
A death and doom forward week, which makes it sound quite grim, but for its limited scope it’s actually pretty flavorful.
Ancestor Of Kaos – Animal Ritual
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5An aggressive and slightly ramshackle black metal project originally from Cuba, you get the slight feeling that these are all songs that were created as they went. In that regard, they feel natural – genuinely spirited and loaded with rebellious energy. The problem is that they don’t always go anywhere satisfying, delivering highlights of maliciousness sort of at random. Still, when they get it right, it’s really worth listening to.
Ancient Death – Ego Dissolution
Genre: Progressive death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5This isn’t your typical death metal experience. Although it’s loaded with old school riffs and that malevolent tone, it moves in a very different way. Elements of hardcore sometimes enter the rhythms, and it has a very open-minded approach to changing tempos and intensity, without really screaming “progressive”. Sometimes it slows things down completely into doom-like, even art-rock levels of melodic ease. Sometimes it’s full-on harsh-chaotic, sometimes it gets into heavy grooves and sometimes it skips unpredictably ahead on agile beats. It’s not extreme in its unconventionality, but does most things in its own way, like it’s mutated from a very recognizable shape into something more complex, while retaining most of its original aspects. It doesn’t feel pretentious at all, actually slightly understated all things considered. Dynamically and production wise it’s not perfect, but overall it’s a sound you are likely to remember and expect to keep developing.
Highlights: “Unspoken Oath” and “Ego Dissolution”
Anoxia – Revel In Sin
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Aussie old school death metal (cause no one outside of deathcore wants to make modern death metal these days) that really delivers on bass and guitar tone, with perfectly rip-throat vocals to go with it. The rhythm work is not quite as tight as I would have liked, and the solos/squeals are a little underwhelming. But it’s a solid base on which to build.
Crypts Of Despair – We Belong In The Grave
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Strike what I said in the last review, cause this is certainly not death metal of the old school variant. It pulls from brutal and slam, deathcore and has a bit of an atmospheric dimension as well. The riffs are of the mildly dissonant, moderately djent-y variant, the growls are very deep indeed, and the beats heavy, heavy, heavy. They’re going for an unnerving kind of mood on this record, definitely trying to overwhelm you just a smidge with the oppressive tone, but not really crossing over into anything chaotic or blackened.
Divide And Dissolve – Insatiable
Genre: Doom/experimental metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5This is a soundtrack that I think ought to be experienced in a small inside venue, completely in the dark, with the waves of bass-vibration being felt more than they are heard. It’s instrumental, experimental doom that feels like the machinations of the deep earth at work. It’s got a droning quality to a certain point, but it feels much more like a dark, sensory theatrical play than some sort of hypnotically repetitive, industrial thing. There are orchestral strings at work, as well as deep, beastly, ugly guitar, unrefined in just such a way that it feels like a massive being, or a force of nature. It moves slow, but it’s highly captivating, especially when it goes heavy, with the force of the riffs feeling like they might crumble the walls around you. As a detached listening experience, without the right context, its potential is not even halfway realized, and so it certainly demands full commitment from its listener. But it’s certainly utilizing the doom concept to its fullest in a distinct and rewarding way.
Highlights: “Provenance” and “Withholding”
Dormant Ordeal – Tooth And Nail
Genre: Death/black metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Dormant Ordeal are a Polish band that plays semi-technical, tonally blackened, austerely melodic death metal. This is not a project for people who like their DM raw and grimy, but as long as you’re looking for genuinely heavy, convincingly brutal extreme metal, it does a lot of things very right and very well. First of all, despite its jaw-clenched aggression, it’s impressively controlled and highly precise, without feeling like it’s being held on a leash. The melodies give it depth and reach, without deflating the force or disrupting the progression, because it’s so clearly well planned and integrated with the flow. The vocals have a very Nergal quality to them, and overall they do share more than just a trait or two with fellow Polish band Behemoth. But for the most part these are being utilized in a distinctly different way. This is not “fun” death metal, but it’s also far from so conceptually rigid that you can’t enjoy it on an individual song level. It’s tight, confident and engagingly varied.
Highlights: “Halo of Bones” and “Against the Dying of the Light”
Empyrean Sanctum – Detachment From Reality
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5A wild, melodic prog project that seemingly likes to try out as many different rhythm approaches a possible. At its best it delivers epic, rewarding, relatively concise compositions, and at it’s worst it’s very disjointed.
Exterminatus – Echoes From A Distant Star Part 1
Genre: Technical death metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5This one lives out pretty much all the clichés of modern tech death that is to find, but that’s not to say that tech death nerds won’t find enjoyment in it. It’s busy and almost comically restless, melodic in a superficial sense, and, of course, technically well performed.
Lik – Necro
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5This is groove-forward, tongue-in-cheek-brutal old school Swedish death metal for the pure enjoyment of it. Everything is stylistically spot on, from the hoarse, throat-rending vocals to the over-crunched guitars to the Sabbath-style-evil tone and the very moderately folk-derived melodies. It’s full of energy and sounds amazing, varying its tempo and rhythm approach more than enough to keep it interesting. Is it innovative in any way? Not really, but when you are this stylistically confident, it hardly matters. Bring on the resurrected corpses and let’s headbang till necks snap and heads tumble.
Highlights: “Morgue Rat” and “They”
Tigerleech – Bicephalous
Genre: Stoner/sludge metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5French sludgy stoner metal with punk and hardcore leanings. It’s got some really nice and crunchy riffs, but is much more interested in delving into off-kilter, lyric-centered mid-tempo sections of atmosphere and off-putting melody. The vocals are distinctly un-harmonious, which is not for me, but vibes with their unconventional type of expression.
Tribunal – In Penitence And Ruin
Genre: Doom/gothic metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Canadian dramatic doom metal driven by dual clean/harsh vocals, cello and darkly epic melody. In a few ways it feels like a morose mutation of Finnish atmospheric folk metal, like that of Insomnium. But despite some heavy riffing, a lot of the time this sounds like epic heavy metal with a gothic flair slowed down to a funeral procession pace. The problem with this is that not every part feels like it’s written to be slow, and so can get a bit unengaging from time to time, but it makes up for it with rewarding buildups that culminate with highlights of vocal performances and soaring instrumental performances. Style-wise it’s committed and consistent, drifting from mildly disharmonic melodic sections to sinister, crushing riff crawls.
Highlight: “A Wound Unhealing”
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 April 11 – 2025
A week where the melodic sneaks into every crack and recess it can find, coloring even the most extreme in shades of epic and emotion both light and dark.
Benthos – From Nothing
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5You know that point where prog gets so extremely… prog… that it invites the “experimental” label. The point where it’s barely coherent, and you can’t really decide when it’s going on tangents and when it’s on course. Yep, this album certainly falls into this category. It’s a mix of mathcore, prog rock and heavier, melodic chugging in the vein of Haken. The vocals are quite soft most of the time, which puts me off, but the playing can get quite intense and hectic.
Blood Abscission – I I
Genre: Atmospheric black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5With a name like Blood Abscission you’d probably expect more vivid album and track naming, but no. Maybe it’s on purpose then, as a way of subverting expectations, that the tracks are simply roman numerals, with the album title/numeral as a prefix. In any case, this is a synthetic-melodic, highly atmospheric black metal project. Very importantly, it doesn’t get lost in its distant wanderings, staying on course and getting both exultant and in an uproar at times. The hoarse-roar vocals are pushed way back in the mix, as is the bass, so they’re definitely contributing but feel quite blunt and soft. The lead guitar, cymbals and synth are much more distinct, and effectively chart the course. It’s cold, dark and cynical, but not overly hostile or sharp. The melodies carry faint elements of western tunes at times, as well as a bit of epic folk and doom, but it’s all suitably delicate, and doesn’t color the whole as going in any particular of those directions. It’s very well composed, not too long at just over 41 minutes, and surprisingly engaging for something this fluid.
Highlights: “I I – I I” and “I I – V”
Cytotoxin – Biographyte
Genre: Technical death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Cytotoxin is a German, brutal-styled tech death project that themes their music around nuclear disaster, more specifically the Chernobyl catastrophe. You might think you’re in for a near-unlistenable mass of incessant bass drum pounding, sink drain vocals and spasmic-city-sized-steam-roller riffs. But while you get most of those things (the vocals are actually borderline understandable), they are served out with an insane level of control and actual bit of restraint, cramming in huge amounts of groove instead, as well as a good deal of guitar solo melody. It’s busy, yes, but manageable, and with the added dynamism, it actually hits quite hard.
Highlight: “Condemnesia”
Elvenking – Reader Of The Runes – Luna
Genre: Power/folk metal
Subjective rating: 2/5
Objective rating: 2.5/5Okay, what am I not getting here? Sure, there are some magical instrumental details going on in the interplay between electronic and acoustic, and the tiny bit of old melodeath that’s dropped in is pleasing. But it’s poorly produced, the rhythm work feels tired, and the vocals are very often off key.
Epica – Aspiral
Genre: Symphonic metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Any fan of Epica can be very relieved that they’re getting more of exactly what made the band great in the first place: Divine vocals, effective melodies and a good mix of symphonic and catchy, committed aggression. Production wise, it’s excellent, and it manages to be both moving and a bit of good fun, throwing in a few prog elements to keep it interesting. There’s a bit of a gap between when they really deliver in terms of songwriting and when I feel like they’re a bit stuck in second gear, falling back on tropes to fill out the experience. There’s nothing bad though, and decidedly more stuff that’s really gripping than is mediocre, so no one should be disappointed. It’s an album that kept growing on me the more I listened to it, impressing at every significant turn.
Highlights: “Fight to Survive – The Overview Effect -” and “Metanoia – A New Age Dawns Part VIII”
Ghörnt – Bluetgraf
Genre: Melodic black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5This Swiss band mixes the aggression and bleakness of the more ferocious side of the black metal spectrum with epic melodic leads and pounding drum work that’s sometimes straight out of brutal death metal. The vocals are appropriately husky, but would have benefited from greater range to match the lively and contrasting instrumentals. Still, an exciting, hard-hitting listen.
Idle Heirs – Life Is Violence
Genre: Atmospheric sludge metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5I hope you’re into long, gentle buildups and big contrasts, cause that’s what this album is all about. It’s a mix of sludge, atmospheric doom and folk-like rock, with a heavy, driving low end and vocals that go all the way from soft, melodic shoegaze to rusty, roaring gutturals. It’s mildly melancholic in tone throughout, which is counteracted by snappy drum work and turns into both melodic beauty and ugly, dissonant crashes of heaviness. All in all, they do take their sweet time a tad too often, prolonging the experience beyond the strictly necessary. But it’s also very well composed, so not something you at any point really want to stop coming out of your speakers.
Highlight: “Rare Bird”
Imperishable – Swallowing The World
Genre: Melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5If I say “old school melodic death metal”, the well versed listener will form certain, fairly rigid expectations. A return to the “Gothenburg sound”. This is that, AND a bit more, which makes a significant difference. It’s heavily infused with Death era old school tech death as well, which means that, compared to the old Swedish classics, it’s really rather restless. It’s busy, but not overly so, and not in the modern, slightly artificial way. It’s more like taking the basic, raw, evil formula and shaking it up a bit. It feels almost hyperactive in nature, like it keeps changing its mind about which path to take, but retaining the same tone and attitude throughout. I’m not saying it’s the most meticulously planned out thing ever, and I am missing a bit of crunchy heaviness, but it’s a refreshing change and something that might open a whole new avenue for OSDM.
Highlights: “Blood to Bleed” and “Cenotaph of Dreams”
The Infernal Deceit – The True Harmful Black
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5This is direct, riff-centered black metal with both black ‘n’ roll playfulness and groove, a bit of speed metal energy and some death metal heft. The quality of the performances is excellent, and it’s plenty engaging. The main thing is just that it feels very familiar, like it’s walking in well established tracks.
In The Woods… – Otra
Genre: Progressive black/doom metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Take the gothic, melancholic doom of My Dying Bride, give it a boost of epic scope like that of Amorphis and some scorched, rhythmic black metal heaviness to top it off, and you’re most of the way there to the sound of this album. It’s a blend that takes some talent to pull off, which, thankfully, this band has no shortage of. It sounds bleak and mature, but never one-dimensional, and it never gets stuck in neither misery, misanthropy or contemplation for very long at a time. It feels confidently relaxed, flexing beauty, catchiness and depth like it’s second nature.
Highlights: “The Things You Shouldn’t Know” and “The Kiss And The Lie”
The Man-Eating Tree – Night Verses
Genre: Atmospheric metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Back after a 10-year gap, Finnish band The Man-Eating Tree serves up epic, atmospheric metal with a touch of symphonic grandeur. It’s melodically pleasing, smooth and easy to get lost in. But as you get closer to the end, unless you’re completely sold, you might start to feel like there’s nothing new on offer.
Putrid Offal – Obliterated Life
Genre: Death metal/grindcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Evil, evil, evil! These guys whip gory death metal into unnaturally upbeat life, like a cave-dwelling behemoth pumped full of stimulants. You get plenty of riffs and brutality with the expected impatience of grindcore. The tone is right, and it hits well most of the time, you just get the impression that it’s not all that well thought out.
Valhalore – Beyond The Stars
Genre: Folk metal
Subjective rating: 2.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5An Australian twist on the classic, semi-symphonic, highly melodic folk metal sound most often associated with the Finns. Distinctiveness is not its strong suit though. While technically it’s a well performed album, the melodies are unimaginative, and the dips into melodeath-like heaviness rather tame. It has a few highlights, and gets the job done.
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 April 04 – 2025
This is a week for instrumental achievements, where astounding technicality and modern production come together to stunning effect.
Allegaeon – The Ossuary Lens
Genre: Technical/melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5It must be daunting, going about crafting a tech death album in this day and age. Being technical virtuosos isn’t nearly enough, as there are such an overwhelming number of dizzyingly competent musicians out there that fans get exposed to. How do you find the space to sneak in some personality in between the ant hive-worth mass of notes? The answer for Allegaeon seems to be mainly one overarching strategy: Be purposeful. On every level. As extravagant, melodic tech death goes, this is a lean record, and with every song being immediately identifiable as chasing a slightly different goal along a different path, the result is mind-blowingly effective. It’s always moving forward, in leaps and bounds, scurrying along complex tunnel networks, prowling the shadows and taking jet-fueled flight. Melodically, it’s as vibrant as it is focused, which is a hard thing to pull off. A true highlight of their discography.
Highlights: “The Swarm” and “Dark Matter Dynamics”
Benediction – Ravage Of Empires
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Back again after a mere 5 years, proving they still got it, death metal veterans Benediction serve up more old school, thrash-riffed goodness. This is all about tone and bad-ass delivery – more of a style that’s very well established and doesn’t need to be reinvented. And the band’s dedication to this style is evident. There’s nothing fancy about this album, nothing surprising, just riffs, growls and lively drums. That being said, it’s unnecessarily long at over 47 minutes, as there are no “chapters” or detours in the experience, just the same, fairly narrow approach for song after song. The energy doesn’t run out though, so if you’re ready to eat it all up, you’ll be plenty full.
Highlight: “Crawling Over Corpses”
Bleed From Within – Zenith
Genre: Metalcore/groove metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5I jumped on the Bleed From Within fan train back when I discovered them with 2020’s “Fracture, which was evidently a good place to join in. I’m generally not the biggest fan of contemporary metalcore, but what got me about this band is that, while they’re not afraid to sound “modern”, as opposed to mimicking the old school early 2000s style, they employ healthy doses of groove- and melodic death metal, and that’s their way of “going heavy”. Which just feels so much more organic – borrowing elements of objectively heavier subgenres – than downtuning and adding strings to your guitars for a chunkier, over-distorted guitar tone with extremely on/off rhythms for maximum contrast. Even so, melody and catchiness is still a key part of their style, but even as they are clearly growing in popularity, they don’t surrender to their more accessible side. Instead, it sounds to me like they’re only getting heavier and more aggressive. I’ll definitely not be the only reviewer to say this, but “Zenith” has the band sounding more mature than ever. And even though there are a few tracks on here that are more miss than hit, the ones that pierce the bullseye are all radiant, vital examples of how to make youthful, melodic extreme metal that bridges the gap between light and dark.
Highlights: “Chained to Hate” and “In Place of Your Halo”
Buried Realm – The Dormant Darkness
Genre: Technical/melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5The melodic death metal equivalent of a shred album, this is the product of a one-man, technical melodeath project that involves quite a few notable guest appearances, like Björn Strid, Gus G. and Christopher Amott. It’s plenty fast, heavy and adventurous, and successfully bridges the gap between tech death and modern melodeath. But for people (like me) who are looking for more than impressive musicianship, it can feel fairly hollow, even boring at times. If you care less about character and conceptual depth though, this should prove plenty entertaining.
Fractal Universe – The Great Filters
Genre: Progressive metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5While their style is still easily recognizable, it seems like these French proggers are making a genuine attempt at diversifying their sound on this, their fourth full-length. They’ve been melodic and able to switch effectively between gentle and harsh before, but their technical, aggressive core has for the most part held the upper hand. This time around, the death metal elements are more scaled back, in favor of really exploring and expanding on the atmosphere. It’s a move that heavily relies on the band’s ability to write strong, memorable melodies and engaging mid-to-low tempo rhythms, and while certainly not bad, it’s still not their strongest suit. The heavy progressive work that remains has its ups and downs – both bold, attention-stealing innovation as well as fairly recognizable, odd-timed rhythms that feel like prog for prog’s sake. Still, the saxophone is well integrated, and it’s a step in a much more well-rounded direction.
Highlights: “Casualty’s Grip” and “Dissecting the Real”
Frantic Amber – Death Becomes Her
Genre: Melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5I first discovered all-female melodeath band Frantic Amber with their sophomore release “Bellatrix” back in 2019, and found their aggressive-epic approach to slot satisfyingly in between melodic heavyweights like Arch Enemy and Amon Amarth and more savage, sharp-edged bands like Goatwhore and Crypta. This is still true six years later, and “Death Becomes Her” is a more even, focused effort that’s technically a significant step up. But it’s also more revealingly on a tipping point between straight-up catchiness and cut-throat viciousness, not quite always getting the balance right. Still, it’s got some distinct highlights that are evenly spread throughout, making for an engaging listen that should further elevate the band.
Highlight: “Hell’s Belle”
Kiritsis – Kiritsis
Genre: Death ‘n’ roll/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5This is dirty, sludge-like death ‘n’ roll with a distinctly doom-like tone. It’s all about jumping from punishing, mid-tempo riffs into bounding hardcore-like rhythms, and then back. It’s uniformly dark, sounding like they’ve got their style nailed down. They need to utilize their time a little better, as some of the slower parts can drag along a bit, but the attitude is right and the punch is nice and heavy.
Luna Kills – Deathmatch
Genre: Alternative metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Been a little while since I’ve heard a young band manage the alternative metal sound as well as this bunch. It’s a balance between moody pop, nu-metal and techno-goth, with just a bit of rhythmic metalcore riffs on top. The album has its ups and downs, but the best of the melodic work is outstanding, and there’s a whiff of greatness over the mix of dark synth and haunting vocals.
Messiah Paratroops – Legions of Tomorrow
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5The debut full-length death metal album from a band that formed all the way back in 1989. The style also hails from that early era, being slightly muddled and riff-happy, with rusty vocals. It’s fun stuff, although a little uneven in execution.
Midnight Vice – Midnight Vice
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5A young band throwing themselves head first into the classic metal revival game, scoring well on both familiarity and character. The effort is all there, with the vocals ranging from falsetto to light grunting, and the guitars chasing eagerly along. Melodically, it’s not always a bullseye, or particularly distinct, but they pack onto it with cool, darkly fantastical atmosphere, that suits the style perfectly.
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – Death Hilarious
Genre: Stoner metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5Sure, knowing the tastes of the stoner metal fanbase, the seven pigs serve up fuzzy riffs aplenty on their latest release, and with a bit of doom rumbling to back it up, but they are also clearly not interested in making a straightforward album. You get a bit of psychedelia, some classic metal and a surprising bit of indie, but more significantly there’s an experimental tendency to mess about with the rhythms and genre-feel. A bit of punk anti-harmony here, some atmosphere-backed hypnotic repetition there, a dash if rap, and gliding fluidly in between light and dark, makes this an experience a little out of the usual. It’s not all immediately pleasing, as the album’s variation isn’t really felt on an individual song basis. But when taking the whole thing in, you can appreciate how confidently different it is to your typical stoner jam.
Highlights: “Blockage” and “Stitches”
Tómarúm – Beyond Obsidian Euphoria
Genre: Progressive black/death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5If you like your extreme prog metal busy, then this is absolutely for you. At 1 hour 8 minutes, this is a mammoth of an album. In true aggressive, technical prog fashion, it goes for the throat in a myriad of different ways, and loves to delve into adventurous, melodic tangents both energetic and dreamy. It’s with these vivid melodic sections that they really win me over, although by contrast, some of the more aggressive, frantic rushes feel overdone and jumbled to me, often employing disharmony to boost the feeling of alienating hostility. There is a lot to take in over the course of the album, almost like you’re getting two albums worth of material. It’s complex and technically brilliant, certainly a bit nerdy and show-off-y and not quite going the direction I would have liked following 2022’s more measured “Ash in Realms of Stone Icons”. But it’s a massive, content-rich effort that manages to blend in both darkness and brutality in an impactful way.
Highlights: “Shed This Erroneous Skin” and “The Final Pursuit of Light”
Warfield – With The Old Breed
Genre: Thrash metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5German band Warfield serves up impressively consistent, mean-tempered, battlefield-thrash that’s both bitingly ferocious and heavy on the shreddy groove. Immediately establishing a malicious tone and a headstrong, impatient approach to song progression, the guys deliver on this promise on track after track. Sure, not every single one is as memorable, but the reckless attitude, fronted by the snarling vocals, is infectious, and never lets up, ensuring a visceral feel even when they slow down to a mid-tempo trot. Tight drum work and a nice, punchy bass make for an excellent counterpart to the slicing guitars, filling out the sound and adding to the impact. At times perhaps feeling a tad too controlled, the utter devotion to the riff, the dark tone, gang-vocals and bared-teeth aggression make this thrash to the bone.
Highlights: “Appetitive Aggression” and “Inhibition Atrophy”
Wrath Of Logarius – Crown Of Mortis
Genre: Black metal/deathcore
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5An attempt at combining the bitter hostility of black metal with the distinctly modern, technical and visceral brutality of deathcore. On a surface level it absolutely succeeds, although much of the ominous “ugliness” – that chilling core of black metal – is buried under the massive onslaught of thundering drums and rumbling riffs. And as a blackened deathcore project it’s perhaps a tad too stark. Still, if you just want to be flattened by darkness, it does that job quite well.
Zeolite – L’Appel Du Vide
Genre: Technical/brutal death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Eschewing most of the symphonic elements of their debut, 2021’s “Proselytism”, Zeolite still deliver big on over-the-top heaviness and precision. It’s also still a dark, menacing sound, in the typically unsubtle kind of way that usually goes with modern, brutal death metal, but it’s a bit more raw and sharpened this time around. The utter abandon of no-holds-barred, brain-shaking aural devastation of its predecessor has been reigned in somewhat, which is a bit of a shame. “L’appel Du Vide” is more mature, more focused in purpose, and sounds more genuinely ominous. The apocalyptic, slamming delivery certainly hasn’t been abandoned though, and while a bit of the fun is lost, the contrasts are greater, making for a more dynamic listening experience.
Highlight: “Impetus”
As always, if you think I’m completely off on an observation, unfairly dissed your favorite band, or need to give an album another shot, why not pop a comment down below?
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Weekly rundown March 28 – 2025
The underground rises up and overshadows the big frontrunners of this week, offering both simple pleasures and acquired tastes.
Alien Weaponry – Te Rā
Genre: Groove metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5The riff-happy trio from under down under are back. Their third full-length has them sounding like a big, matured and experienced band, both in good ways and not. Those hoping for a return to the simple thrash/groove riff worship and shouted Māori lyrics of the early days will be pleased with this one. Those hoping for something more conceptual and story-driven that builds on the uniqueness of the band’s sound might be a bit disappointed. I find myself avoiding the big single tracks, as they feel consciously crafted for wider appeal, closing in on metalcore-like territory. BUT, that being said, there are a good few heavy and aggressive tracks on here, and a couple of careful forays into prog as well. It’s a well rounded album that pleases in a lot of ways, not taking any risks, but also showing promising growth.
Highlights: “Tama-Nui-Te-Rā” and “Te Riri o Tāwhirimātea”
Arch Enemy – Blood Dynasty
Genre: Melodic death metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5As a longtime fan of this band, I hold them to a fairly high standard, as is only appropriate for a band this size anyway. I have certain expectations for what an Arch Enemy album should sound like, with an open mind for shifts in style, as long as they’re honestly committed to it. In this regard, “Blood Dynasty” exists in a kind of void, offering morsels of actually ferocious, actually inspired, melodic death metal in the style that they honed and championed for at least a couple of decades, and a few attempts at incorporating other styles, like heavy metal and punk. But they are overshadowed by the obvious prioritization of anthems and big, accessible riffs. As a whole, the album is still quite entertaining and pleasantly varied, but I call it neither bold nor faithful.
Deafheaven – Lonely People With Power
Genre: Avant-garde black metal/blackgaze
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5As a complete outsider to this band’s history, I cannot compare their latest effort to former work and styles, but the short story of this album is that it offers both some of the most gripping black metal/blackgaze I’ve heard in a while, and also some of the more unengaging dips into dreamy ambience in comparison. What I will say though, is that the contrast leaves a real impact, and offers an intriguing depth. You have to be prepared for both the harshest that the blackened metal world has to offer, as well as some of the more sedate stuff out of the realm of shoegaze and art rock. I’ve definitely heard way weirder and more experimental stuff before though, and a consistent tone ties it all together. It will shake you and it will soothe you, and it will not leave you indifferent.
Highlights: “Magnolia” and “Revelator”
Decrepisy – Deific Mourning
Genre: Death/doom metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5Whatever creature of the gloom this music personifies, it’s not something you want to run into during a late night river stroll. This is dark, monstrous, murky death doom that seeks to envelop and crush you under impenetrable, obsidian misery taken physical form.
Desert Smoke – Desert Smoke
Genre: Psychedelic/stoner metal/rock
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5A warm, alluring vibe is what this band go for on their second, self titled full-length. It’s instrumental psychedelic rock with the heaviness and groove of stoner metal, and for the absolute most part they do perfectly fine without the usually leading and heavily character-influencing element of vocals. The progression forms an elegant dance that, for the most part, keeps moving forward at a moderate pace. The rhythms are engrossing and the lead guitar work seductive.
Doomsday – Never Known Peace
Genre: Thrash metal/hardcore
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5Straight-to-business crossover thrash, with an emphasis on the thrash part. I was a big fan of their 2022 release “Depictions of Chaos”, which technically only qualified as an EP, making “Never Known Peace” their debut full-length. You probably wouldn’t guess listening to it though. It sounds mature, despite its rowdy energy, knows when to play it fast, when to go heavy and when to give it the beans and charge off. Apart from some technically excellent playing, it’s not particularly complicated, and some of the riff sections might be a bit too predictable for some. But they successfully add an epic dimension to the sound with the guitar-led melodies and solos, and the fuck-it-all attitude shining through every seam makes it difficult not to like.
Highlights: “Never Known Peace” and “Remnants of Spite”
Gallower – Vengeance & Wrath
Genre: Black/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5An endearingly rough-edged dive into chaotic, fantastical medieval war and witchery, courtesy of the Polish blackened thrashers of Gallower. While it’s undeniably dark and fairly aggressive throughout, there’s a sense of adventure and “just go for it” attitude that has command of the reigns, throwing you into one spirited charge after another. It’s just janky enough that you quickly understand the level of fun you’re supposed to have with it. The riffs have real personality, and are served up in tight, rhythm-driven sections that bring to mind Anthrax. Not all of it screams “unique”, but any fan of playful thrash, speed and black metal should get a real kick out of it.
Highlight: “Relentless Retaliation”
Hexecutor – Where Spirit Withers in Its Flesh Constraint
Genre: Black/thrash/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5What an oddball album! These French speed-thrash cultists know how to make blackened metal with a flavor of its own. Utterly restless, it morphs between bitter blast beats, unhinged speed riffing and morosely epic classic metal melodies. The tempo can shift suddenly from mid- to frantic, and a lot of the time disharmony is used to maximize the touch of madness that colors proceedings. On top come unrefined, barking, snarling and shrieking vocals, further adding to the eccentric nature of the sound. Sometimes you might find yourself asking if this music has any direction at all, until the next soaring lead guitar part comes sailing in, and everything makes a bit more sense for a few brief moments.
Highlight: “Les Lavandières de la Nuit”
Industrial Puke – Alive To No Avail
Genre: Crust punk/death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5Take the buzzsaw guitar riff tone of classic Swedish death metal and add it to pretty much any genre – it’s going to get real heavy, real fast. Combining it with crust punk is hardly a new invention, but it’s a proven formula that, when done right, is an effective shortcut to getting your blood boiling and head bobbing. Industrial Puke do it right, and while there’s nothing on “Alive to no Avail” that should surprise a regular metallic hardcore or death metal listener, they keep serving up track after track of short-lived, fierce sonic beatings that keep you engrossed by way of chokehold.
Highlight: “Biblical Corpse”
Lucifer’s Child – The Illuminant
Genre: Melodic black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5A Greek, epic-sounding black metal project led by sharp vocals and precise drumming, with a thrumming riff-tremolo wall propping it up and a rumbling low end forcing it all forward. Perconally I can’t find quite enough that feels new and piques my interest, but it’s undeniably solid work that will appeal to the more “serious” end of the melodic black metal fan base.
Paths to Deliverance – Ten
Genre: Progressive black metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3/5A technically progressive, traditionally toned black metal project that clearly has a concept, or at least a strong theme, in mind. There’s a hint of dark dementia attached to the sound, although it never blossoms into anything profound. In the end, it’s a bit too long and unfocused, failing to hone in on that core trait that will separate it from the herd, but there’s a lot of great musicianship, and promise, on here.
Savage Master – Dark & Dangerous
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5A back-to-basics female-led heavy metal project with thrash-leaning riffs and a doom-leaning tone. It’s peppy and prioritizing effective, memorable hooks and melodies. The hilariously silly album cover should tell you most of what you need to know about the band’s style, although don’t be fooled into thinking that they’re doing it unironically. For me, it’s a bit too rhythmically rigid and decidedly mid-tempo, but it offers plenty of tantalizing guitar work, great atmosphere and cool vocals.
Teitanblood – From the Visceral Abyss
Genre: Black/death/war metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5This is the sound of abyssal hatred and horrifying, monstrous evil. If you go in expecting “traditional”, Behemoth-style blackened death metal, you’ll probably be taken aback by the level of violent noise and unrelenting dedication to unsettling, hostile darkness that leaps out at you. This is a sound you have to surrender to. Let it in and allow it to corrupt your senses until you accept it as the only reality, with no hope of light at the end of the tunnel. You simply cannot take this album in on a superficial level, because it will only sound like an untamed, unrefined cacophony. But listen attentively, and you will find that it breathes, builds, rises and hunches, like a terrible beast, the appearance of which you can only gleam as a black contour. If you think that the vast majority of dark extreme metal is too safe, then this is for you.
Highlights: “Strangling Visions” and “From the Visceral Abyss”
Telepathy – Transmissions
Genre: Avant-garde/progressive metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3/5This instrumental album immerses you in expansive electronic ambience and mid-strength progressive sludge. Each song is a different little tale, taking you on journeys of different duration. It’s a sincere kind of sound that goes from gentle to dramatic, managing an impressive, cinematic scope. The rhythm work doesn’t always flow as smoothly as it should, and certain sections are less gripping than others, but if you first get into it, you will very likely want to stay with it for the duration.
Wretched Path – Sea of Death
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5This one took me by surprise, because there seems to be very little attention paid to this band. It’s a clearly old-school inspired, crunchy-riffed, groove-heavy death metal album treading the border into classic melodeath, without ever crossing over fully. What separates it from the expected is just how goddamn catchy it is. Completely stuffed to the brim with skull crushing riffs, served out on easy-to-follow rhythms that sometimes take on a hardcore-like flavor. If it wasn’t for the awesome riff tone, roaring vocals and delicious solo work, I’d be tempted to call it one-dimensional, but it has all the right elements to make me a pure addict. A bit of added complexity and distinct atmosphere would probably elevate it beyond the highly enjoyable into something truly outstanding, but for now I’ll be happy that it exists in its current form.
Highlights: “Wretched Path” and “Sea of Death”
As always, if you think I’m completely off on an observation, unfairly dissed your favorite band, or need to give an album another shot, why not pop a comment down below?
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