Black Orchid Empire - Tempus Veritas
Review by musclassia

7.8

Season Of Mist are a label that I primarily associate with extreme metal, and when looking at their roster, there’s good reason for that. I was therefore somewhat surprised to find melodic alt/prog band Black Orchid Empire as part of their line-up when scouring recent releases; however, Tempus Veritas is more evidence that when the label branch outside of extreme metal, they pick wisely.

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Dawn Of Ouroboros - Velvet Incandescence
Review by musclassia

7.3

Dawn Of Ouroboros announced themselves as an act unbeholden to any one style in particular on their 2020 debut, The Art Of Morphology, a record that incorporated both elements of death and black into an unpredictable progressive metal framework. With Velvet Incandescence, they show no signs of regressing to a template.

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Ignea - Dreams Of Lands Unseen
Review by RaduP

 

It's safe to say that the "female-fronted" symphonic metal that dominated the 2000s is kinda saturated and there's few bands that still rouse interest other than the already established names. Well, Ignea never had much problems sticking out.

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Spotlights - Alchemy For The Dead
Review by RaduP

 

With a cover art that screams nu-ish post-grunge, Spotlights actually take alt metal in a more post-ish direction.

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King Potenaz - Goat Rider
Review by musclassia

6.2

King Potenaz have a psychedelic band logo, and their debut album is not only called Goat Rider, but features a goat riding a motorbike along a rainbow road (or, more accurately, the red end of the rainbow) on its cover. I feel like I probably don’t need to tell you that this record falls somewhere within the domain of stoner rock.

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Necronomicon - Constant To Death
Review by AndyMetalFreak

7.1

It would seem Necronomicon have done it again, that is, producing thrash... Constant To Death thrash.

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Blood Ceremony - The Old Ways Remain
Review by Netzach

8.0

Black Sabbath and Jethro Tull walk into a bar where Jimi Hendrix has just risen from his grave…

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Currents - The Death We Seek
Review by musclassia

6.8

I imagine most music fans have a few artists that they generally do not enjoy, but find one song that they click strongly with; the concept of a ‘one-hit wonder’ relies on this scenario. It’s easy enough to accept the one-off flukiness of such a situation; what’s more frustrating is when there’s 2 or 3 songs from a band that play perfectly to one’s interest, but then a failure to repeat this success with their other material. For me, one example of this is Currents.

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