Reviews

Aquilus returns to Bellum for an epic Part II; has he succeeded?

So, when are we getting paid?

Resident Human saw Wheel begin to establish an identity outside of Tool worship. On Charismatic Leaders, the band are now getting closer to landing upon a sound recognizable as their own.

When Bossk released their rather petite sophomore album Migration in 2021, it was rumoured that this was just the first of several new records in the immediate pipeline. As it is, the first release from…

A small sound in a small bottle.

Now that's the simplest shocking band name I've seen lately. Let's see what Whores. are about!

Hello Darkness my old friend.

While many bands seem to take the path of becoming a shitty legacy act, touring and making uninteresting "return-to-basics" albums until one of the members drops dead and nobody else has enough…

Ancst: crust punk maniacs, dark ambient worshippers, blenders of melody and ferocity. A band of many faces.

Last year’s Mountain Of Misery, the solo project of Spaceslug drummer Kamil Ziółkowski, served as a stop-gap amid a relatively long break between releases, but 2.5 years after Memorial, Spaceslug are back…

Heresiarch (/hɛˈriːzɪɑːk/): the founder of a heresy or the leader of a heretical sect. Also the name of a some sick ass blackened death metal band.

When I discovered Love Sex Machine nearly a decade ago, their appeal was that they were some of the most sickeningly crushing sludge metal out there. Trve is still all that, but the soundscapes are just…

Who's in for some traditional epic folk metal inspired by Turkish folklore, and with sprinkles of doom?

My Dying Bride are back, wishing to bind us mere mortals once again to their beautiful realm of melancholic death doom. I'm up for it, are you?

Damn it, Jim, I'm a critic, not an entomologist.

Upharsin is certainly a tricky word to interpret; thankfully the same can't be said about the rest of the album, as what we have is quite simply some of the finest black metal you'll hear this…

From the other side of the mirror, Glassing look a touch lighter.

Move over Tolkien, there's a new fantasy inspiration for black metal in town.

Atræ Bilis are a set of Canadian technical death metallers, so surely they should know a thing or two about the genre, am I right?

In their career thus far, As The Sun Falls have written melodeath that firmly conforms to the established trends in the Finnish scene. With Kaamos, that very much remains the case, but it’s a damn enjoyable…

Between 2022’s EP II and their full debut The Scorching Gaze, Urzah self-imposed moniker ‘earthy noise’ has been rebranded as ’earthen heaviness’. It’s a logical revision, as Urzah’s music is plenty heavy,…

As one of Poland’s more intriguing stoner/doom exports, Sunnata have defied easy categorization across their journey thus far, and with their latest offering, finding the right words to describe them still…

There’s really something to be appreciated about the singular, unrestrained creative vision that often emerges from a one-man project; with no need for compromise between band members, the songwriting…

‘Solemn’ is a word with two rather distinct meanings: ‘solemn’, as in grand, ceremonial and majestic; and ‘solemn’, as in sombre, pensive or dour. The regal figure depicted on Solemn’s cover art indicates…

Now that I'm done regretting the Roadburn sets I didn't see, there were some ones I do cherish seeing. Some of those ones have been sets of bands playing then upcoming albums in full. One of…

Now that I'm done regretting the Roadburn sets I didn't see, there were some ones I do cherish seeing. Some of those ones have been sets of bands playing then upcoming albums in full. One of…

Despondency Chord Progressions is a more than fitting title for Selbst's latest offering, as it takes those feeling worthless about themselves and plunges them ever deeper into a dark, intensifying,…

Has anyone told Glen Benton yet that Nietzsche already declared God dead?

There's nothing that says extreme metal quite like a man protruding from a demon's snake penis.

The Morgul Blade has struck again, unleashing a wave of pure headbanging action through its corrupted Heavy Metal Wraiths.

With Roadburn week over and me slowly going back to my usual routine, it's time to reflect and look back on what I ended up seeing and what I ended up skipping, and most importantly, to make amends.

With Roadburn week over and me slowly going back to my usual routine, it's time to reflect and look back on what I ended up seeing and what I ended up skipping, and most importantly, to make amends.

Griefgod teach us that it's no time to grieve—it's time to headbang!

This Vulcano has been spewing out hot death/thrash metal for over 4 decades now, but could this Epilogue spell the end of their lengthy eruption?

The Vision Bleak holds true as a title for this duo, who tell such Weird Tales of sorrowful blackened gothic misery.

Making up for lost time.

When he first launched High On Fire, Matt Pike had to learn to push beyond the doomy confines of Sleep and let loose. Over two decades of ripping thrashy sludge later, High On Fire seem to have shifted…

This Castle Rat is here to take you Into The Realm of the most obscure traditional doom.

Last year, J.L. seemed to be the busiest black metal composer around. While the production and some of the musical ideas in this new album need to be more developed, it is safe to say that Ὁπλίτης (Hoplites)…

Runaljod - Yggdrasil is a true ode to Norse mythology, the musicians won VIP seats for Valhalla.

It seems Týr have been away at battle for the last 5 years, as they now return with glorious Battle Ballads to sing.

Khirki unleashed a debut of spiritually epic proportions, taking many of us by surprise; however, they've now set themselves a high benchmark with Κυκεώνας. Can their sophomore possibly live up to…

It would perhaps surprise certain users to see their Auntie Sahar (formerly known as “Apothecary”) reviewing an album of this nature. Yet would you all dare to believe that, prior to my coronation as Metal…

Arð is a Northumbrian project masterminded by Mark Deeks (also of Winterfylleth), who is a piano teacher, author, and a choir arranger and conductor, among other things. The band’s music is described as…

I spent a lot of time in my review of Nocturna’s debut album referring to Nightwish, but while the band still clearly belongs to that symphonic power metal lineage, they are successfully forging their…

As I mentioned when reviewing the recent Rolo Tomassi album, releasing a seminal record brings its own challenges in having to sustain that standard going forward. It’s a challenge that Rolo Tomassi ably…

Lost in the dissonant void.

Invincible Shield is to Firepower what Defenders Of The Faith was to Screaming For Vengeance: reaffirmation of the recovery, capitalization on the success, the follow-through on a trailblazer. Judas Priest,…

“Dance with the fuzz now, baby. Feed your desire!”

The Mexican death metal gods deliver one of their best performances with their fourth album.

By Medieval law, it would surely be an act of violation against traditional occult heavy metal if you were to miss out on this, an act that The Witchfinder would likely punish by burning at the stake.

A good fusion of two genres that at first glance have nothing in common, or at least not enough to make you think that a band would one day decide to merge them.

As one of the older apes in the jungle, Iron Monkey return to lay down the law on how nasty and groovy and monke sludge metal should be.

As stated by John Steinbeck in The Winter Of Our Discontent, "It’s so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone", and this is true for Cistvaen; here, they…

What better way is there for Darkestrah to mark their return than by giving you an insight into the life of nomadic Kyrgyzstan?

Remember those "original Trve Kvlt surf music" vids on YouTube of surf music versions of black metal? What if a band did that for an entire record, but with original music?

A tale in four chapters. An image of man cast into the house of Abaddon.

This album is almost flawless from start to finish.

If you think you've heard all that atmospheric black metal has to offer, it's time to give the lively and ethereal style of newcomers Labyrinthus Stellarum a go.

The future looks as bright for the Finnish folk metal duo Riitasointu as their music is blackened.

A Brit is critical of the Germans, a tale as old as time.

"For winter's rains and ruins are over, and all the season of snows and sins; The days dividing lover, the light that loses, the night that wins; And time remembered is grief forgotten, and…

Dissonant black metal was, at one point, at the avant-garde of metal. But full decades have passed since then, and now it's a sound that has became quite commonplace in metal. Pushing it back towards…

This is Locrian doing what Locrian do best; just keeping on being Locrian while once more redefining just what Locrian means on the surface, yet never abandoning the roots that make them such a unique…

Kvadrat will drag you into the disturbing depths of dissonant, blackened death metal… and will probably keep you trapped in a tight box, kvadrat, or something. Hey, at least you'll have excellent…

After being lost at sea for years, an apparition, dripping wet, shows up at your door.

Horndal, the metal historians dedicated to chronicling the story of the hometown from which they took their name, cover another chapter in the small town’s history, and once more set it to a backdrop of…

Let sleeping dogs lie.

I get by with a little help from my friends.

How does life continue after the end of all flesh?