Reviews

How does life continue after the end of all flesh?

An album with a rather original and classic style at the same time, Seven Thunders Roar is close to the Black Sabbath style, but modernized.

Have you ever wondered what would have happened if Bruce Dickinson had been born in the Motherland?…

Another band that releases only one album and disappears so soon. The problem is that when they release a good album, their disappearance is all the more tragic.

The Search Won't Fall, for critically defiant thrash, anyway.

Of all the things to be merged with post-metal, I never expected... industrial hip-hop?

A marriage of bludgeoning death metal and blistering thrash metal at its finest.

Released in the middle of the northern hemisphere’s winter, Svdestada’s third album is a potent mix of genres that will set fire to your soul.

Don't count the hours, enter The Wishing Tomb now and become an emotional wreck.

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard with one of their best albums, always true to themselves.

Should brutal medieval torture really sound this fun? Well, Brodequin seem to think so.

“O Zorn!”—a cry of lamentation in the face of catastrophe, uttered by the rabbits of Richard Adams’ classic adventure novel Watership Down. From this, the US sludge band O Zorn! derive their name, and,…

In sound, it appears fairly streamlined and straightforward. It’s only when one begins peeling back the layers of the onion on paper that the true majesty reveals itself.

Our pal Rod already had to carry out his obligation to tautology by applying himself to the latest release from The Rods, so now it’s my turn to take on Screaming Steel. I’d just like to point out that…

Ten studio albums, and Necrophobic keep churning out high-quality, melodic, black/death metal like there’s no tomorrow. A reliably great band still at the top of their game. “Can you hear the songs sung…

For me, a good progressive album is one that makes you nostalgic for no reason, and Nightingale has captured that well.

The Australian band delivers their best performance through furious breakdowns and enraged vocals.

Exocrine is a French progressive technical death metal band formed a little over a decade ago in 2013. These metallers have been on an impressively consistent streak of releases since their debut Unreal…

We have here an album that presents us with the good and the less good: doom death metal without pretension, but without ambition either.

What Blink-182 would sound like if they were good.

What was that hit movie called again, Everything Everywhere All At Once? There’s a certain strain of math-oriented metal, characterized by the likes of Car Bomb and Frontierer, that feels like the musical…

‘Short but sweet’ isn’t really applicable to Deprecipice, as there’s little sweet about it, but this is a brief and belligerent rampage of hardcore-infused sludge.

Can VLTIMAS's sophomore really prove to be EPIC?

‘What’s the most obscure band you’ve ever heard?’ is a hard question to answer; anyone who’s been friends with musicians when growing up is doubtless going to have heard plenty of failed bedroom projects…

LVME are shrouded in mystery and shrouded in sin, and their sinister dissonant black metal casts a shroud of darkness upon anyone brave enough to listen to it.

Darkestrah offers here a very good interpretation of what a snake charmer would play if he were a metalhead.

One plus one makes two. One plus one... Can it make one? Darkspace strips down its formula; the negatives add up, and yet the cosmos remains as cold and unforgiving as ever.

Who would have thought that the Ecclesia Militans would make witch-hunting sound such great fun.

The Warp Speed Warriors of DragonForce bring all of their warped silliness and high-octane speed to the party in this latest instalment.

Sorta skulled.

Molten metal may scorch, but is not nearly as hot as the riffs on Molten's latest death/thrash installment.

Exhausted.

One of Betty White's limbs.

Why is there a metal album about shame but no metal album about happiness?

Just because you're knees-deep in the swamps of death doom doesn't mean you can't experiment with progressive and technical compositions. Slimelord show how it's done.

So, you want dissonant and disturbing death metal with ritualistic/cosmic horror undertones, but you are so tired of bands overusing lo-fi, echoing and cavernous production? Saevus Finis have got you covered;…

If you're someone that wakes up in foul Moods Early in the morning, then Early Moods have something here that'll lighten up the rest of your day in joyous headbanging fashion.

This review discusses AR, the new release from Kollapse... no, I’m not talking about KOLLAPS\E... no, I’m not talking about Kollapsed... no, I don’t know why Scandinavian post-metal bands are obsessed…

Night Verses concluded Part 1 of Every Sound Has A Color In The Valley Of Night last year with a track that was uncharacteristically soft and introspective; Part 2 opens with a sonic barrage, but ultimately…

It’s been a sticky road to release for Karma, but eventually Myrath’s newest effort has been let loose in thee world. Thankfully, after all the kerfuffle, this new album has turned out to be worth waiting…

Out of the weirdest sides of metal, an oddity comes out of hibernation. Welcome to the reopening of the Sleepytime Gorilla Museum!

Somehow dissonant death metal always seems to lean closer to the tech death side rather than the prog death side of the more intricate versions of death metal. That's not the case with Convulsing's…

On Wadera, Defying attempt to recreate an aura of years gone by, while still producing a record in a very modern style.

Ever wondered what a combination of atmospheric black metal, neofolk, post-rock, gothic doom, and shoegaze would sound like? Well, now you can find out, because Suldusk have done exactly that here on Anthesis,…

I know I left my glasses somewhere...

I would have preferred a concept album about Mandark rather than Mandrake. personally.

Even though it just happens that there's another wait for a new Alcest album, there might be more to Einvigi than being the Finnish Alcest appetizer before the main French meal.

The Messiahs of traditional death/thrash return once more, this time offering something much more.

Sonata Arctica promised a return to their roots, and while this return winds its way through some oddities the band has picked up along the way, they deliver. Fans of their earlier sound, rejoice. Now,…

Titled Russian Gothic, Yakor’s newest album delivers Russian Kypck!…

I’ve always felt that Fallujah are a band that more metal artists should take inspiration from; on Corryvreckan, Hand Of Kalliach demonstrate that they feel the same way.

A French band signed to an Italian label, with a Greek theme. Doom metal à la Méditerranée.

Previously standing out for how chameleonic they were, Fange are starting to grow into a mold.

An intriguing, powerful and original album that deserves more recognition.

Lunatics are running the Asylum.

An hour-long heavy metal classic that grabs you by the guts and moves them to the rhythm of its guitars.

Video game lore told through melodic black metal.

A hidden underground death metal gem just waiting to be discovered.

40 years running and still going relatively strong... ish

For the love of music, Jason Becker decided to challenge the greatest instrumentalists by showing us the limits of his instrument for just over 40 minutes.

Recruiting a vocalist of the calibre of Heike Langhans as a session musician on your debut album is quite a coup; having to tackle album number 2 without her is an intriguing challenge.

All things considered, 2023 wasn’t the most remarkable year for symphonic metal. However, in February 2024, an album has already come along that rivals much of what the previous year had to offer.

Manowar's made of steel, not clay, but age has not looked kindly upon them or their defiance, and this is one album that I seem to like less every time I listen to it in full. The Triumph Of Steel…

A Storm Of Light lie in limbo: is this an indefinite hiatus or ‘peace out’? Whether or not this project returns, many of its former members aren’t waiting around for it; with Guiltless, they have a fresh…

Instrumental stoner rock/metal may be extensively explored, but that doesn’t mean that everything worth doing in the genre has yet been done. As the adventurers of Schubmodul travel from the depths of…

Petrucci gives us here a mesmerizing instrumental experience. All he needed was a guitar to make this album; imagine if he had 4 arms (we can sometimes wonder).

There's no death doom in Funeral For A King, but traditional doom certainly got a whole lot heavier.

The Traveler's third destination is certainly a Prequel To Madness, but just how mad can it possibly be?

After a quarter of a century, Toadliquor pick up right where they left off: with piercing cries of torment and droning sludge to rattle your bones.

With Save Our Souls, Sujin aren’t in any need of saving; however, they could maybe benefit from a little bit of help.