Staff picks by nikarg

Without Jon Drenning but with a new vocalist who sounds like the second coming of Midnight, while still maintaining his uniqueness, the legendary Crimson Glory are back in studio discography after 27 freaking years. The album captures the essence and vibe of the band’s first two releases while expanding their sound to more progressive territory. Fascinating guitar melodies and choruses that are destined to stay imprinted on every listener’s brain forever can be found in every track, but it’s the triple attack of “Broken Together”, “Angel In My Nightmare”, and “Indelible Ashes” that make Chasing The Hydra the album that everyone expected after Transcendence. So, it’s finally here; better late than never.

From members of Sweven comes a progressive death, black, and heavy metal gem named Endarkenment, Being & Death. With a dash of Tribulation, a twist of Chapel Of Disease, a pinch of Morbus Chron, and some post-rock/metal touches thrown in the mix, the debut studio album by Speglas features all the ingredients that can make an irresistible extreme progressive cocktail. The songs have impressive flow with beautiful clean guitars, melancholic and aggressive tremolos, captivating leads and solos, haunting vocals, and a rhythm section that demands attention. The production job is stellar, matching the excellence of the songwriting department, the performances are top-notch, and there is really nothing that needs to be added or subtracted here.

The Crawl is Temple Of Void’s most engaging and 'complete' album to date. Doom death, gothic/post-punk death, sludge death, prog death, classic heavy death, melo death, old school death, grunge death; it’s all here. The band let both their metal and non-metal influences seep through the cracks, resulting in a diverse, all-encompassing, and hook-filled release that is destined to make year-end lists. Riffs and leads galore, organic and heavy as hell rhythm section, dungeon-esque atmosphere, inventive songwriting, and stellar production are all the ingredients responsible for a record made for endless replays.

Bergfried’s debut full-length mostly abandons the medieval folk elements of the previous EPs, and goes for a ‘70s/’80s hard rock and even AOR sound, with beautiful guitar work of the great school of Rainbow, Scorpions, and KISS, along some super-catchy vocal choruses that sound almost ABBA-esque. The Meatloaf-like theatricality that permeates most songs is a gorgeous touch and makes for an album that is easy to listen to, and even easier to love.

Exactly 40 years ago, The Return...... became the beginning. Whatever Venom, Hellhammer/Celtic Frost, or Mercyful Fate had done up to that point, Quorthon just made it darker, faster, and more sinister, releasing the first true black metal album that defined the genre and still remains one of the best. If anyone ever asks you ‘what is black metal?’, play them the song "Reap Of Evil".

Hells wrath spawn this night of judgment
Flames of evil snatch the skys
From pits of pure damnation
Satan rise…

In an imaginary world, Type O Negative, The Sound, The Mission, Deftones, and Killing Joke walked into a studio, they became one band called Hangman's Chair, and recorded one album, titled Saddiction. They created a world of contrasts, introspection, and gloom by taking the melancholy of modern urban life and transforming it into a musical journey, packed with emotional depth, bare honesty, and moody atmosphere. Saddiction is a cathartic soundtrack for the lives of those addicted to sadness.

By The Rivers Of Heresy is an album of dark and cinematic atmosphere, supreme melodies from the lead guitar, diabolical vocals in the form of throaty spoken word, furious blastbeats, gothic passages, and a progressive and avant-garde form of songwriting, without becoming overly complex or pretentious.

The debut album by Iron Maiden is the sound of every metalhead’s adolescence. It’s the sound of first discovery in the years of innocence, rebellion, and hope. It’s the emotional weight and the punk energy mixed inside a cauldron that shaped a new wave of metal. Paul Di’Anno’s voice will always be remembered by the child that still lives within each one of us; the child who used to sing alongside him: “Scan the horizon, the clouds take me higher, I shall return from out of the fire”.

R.I.P. Paul Di’Anno (May 17th, 1958 - Oct 21st, 2024)

It’s a known tradition to have Italian bands play out-of-the-box doom metal. The latest very noteworthy export from the boot-shaped country comes in the form of Ponte Del Diavolo and their debut album, Fire Blades From The Tomb. This is a blackened doom revelation, full of occult rock, post-punk, and darkwave sensitivities. Atmospheric nightly soundscapes, fierce aggressive leanings, medieval mysteries, and ritualistic invocations of evil find their place in this engrossing manifestation of menacing doom, while the haunting melodies, the dual bass attack, the evocative clarinet, and the Siouxsie Sioux-esque vocals make for a bold sound that is both familiar and uncommon in its nature.

A band with absolutely nothing to prove to anyone releases one of the best albums in their incredible career, 50 whole years after their debut. Next time someone tells you that you should lower your expectations and just be grateful when a legacy band puts out new music, even when that music is objectively subpar/shite, slap them in the face with this album.

Invincible Judas Priest.

With IIII (and not IV, for a reason), Solbrud have delivered a musical opus of epic proportions, a work of art based on the four elements of nature, with a magnificent cover art that expresses the individuality of each of the four parts of the album. Each band member individually composed the tracks featured in each vinyl side, yet the flow and the cohesion of IIII is exceptional. This is a musical journey that is breathtaking when it is thunderous and intense, and mesmerizing when it gets emotional and reflective. A unique blend of moods, melodies, and atmospheres, all brought together for a 94-minute experience that can only be defined as cathartic.

Beyond The Breakers is an album of fantasy tales about fanglors, warmoths, and other bizarre creatures, narrated alongside captivating heavy metal music that stays interesting despite the length of the songs' runtime. It is Dio who has resurrected in the form of a man named John Evermore.

Following Baron Blood's death, The Magus disbanded Necromantia and started a new project to express his musical and mystical journey, aptly called… The Magus. The band’s debut release Βυσσοδομώντας (Vissodomontas), actually meaning ‘building in the abyss’ but also ‘conspiring in darkness’, is a concept album about Lucifer being pissed off at the decline of humanity. The music is dark, diverse, and apocryphal, with choir arrangements by Christos Antoniou (Septicflesh), and it is an eclectic form of black metal that needs repeated listens to fully unpack and grasp. Above all, it is quite theatrical and almost ‘visual’ to the point that when listening to the final track, which is essentially a blues black metal song, it feels as if you can watch the band play in front of you.

Two of 20 Buck Spin’s most interesting bands join forces on the split release, Starpath. First, immerse yourself into Dream Unending’s sea of Pink Floyd-ish death doom, with guitar playing to die for. Then, let yourself fully absorb the chilling atmosphere, the blackened touches, and the gothic feel of Worm’s take on the genre. These bands play unique death doom metal that really stands out and mimics no one.

This version of Morbid Visions (and of Bestial Devastation for that matter) respects the raw energy and relentless brutality of the original take, but it is also an improvement in every possible way; the guitar tone is fantastic, and the guitars are actually in tune now, the vocal mix is excellent, and every riff is clearly heard in a way that one can now finally fully appreciate how high the death/thrash bar was set back in the mid-80s by these Brazilians. The Cavalera brothers took the material of their teenage years and re-recorded it in the present as mature and accomplished musicians, but without compromising its authentic ferocity one bit. With the help of producer Arthur Rizk, they crafted this so successfully that it resets the bar even higher today. And Eliran Cantor’s stunning artwork perfectly reflects how badass this album is.