Reviews

Greek mythology themed heavy/power metal might've had some misses, but an Italian band with the name of a Norse god might have more luck.

Die, die, my darling.

With the tragic finality of Children Of Bodom's end, and with other bands like Norther long time gone, one could say that they don't make 'em like they used to. Warmen now make them like…

Warning: fire hazard! Nixil can set you alight with their flamin' hot black metal energy!…

Does the thought of some ultra-melodic Finnish death doom sound pleasing to your ears? Well, if the answer is yes, then Asphodelus's Sculpting From Time shouldn't disappoint.

Can the heavy metal veterans U.D.O. pull off another touchdown performance after 36 years with their balls to the wall? Or should we Accept another squandered opportunity?

I generally try to review the debut album of each band I write about for Clandestine Cuts, but it’s hard to keep track of all the bands I’ve covered for those articles; it’s a good sign when a group releases…

Karwoche marks another chapter in Nocte Obducta's three-decade-long journey. This time around, they opt for a mix of straightforward riffing, melodic interludes, and grand atmospheres, although the…

‘Hiraeth’, from the Welsh language, is likened to a mixture of longing, yearning, grief or nostalgia for the past. On their latest album, Nott (USA) do a fine job of capturing the ugliness and pain underpinning…

Oxbow have always written love songs. But, due to people’s misconceptions about their dark, brooding, sometimes violent style, they decided to be more direct this time.

Grand Cadaver show us they're not just your typical old-school death metal act: Deities Of Deathlike Sleep provides the listener with that wee bit extra. But, with an impressively creative line-up…

The latter half of 2023 has seen a sudden rush of progressive sludge metal albums. First, there was Radiant Knife and their thick, contorted riffs; then came along The Gorge, who unleashed mathy, virtuosic…

Сука блять, Путин. Вторжение соседей обычно не одобряется. У Kypck есть четкий посыл, который я одобряю, и в нем содержится больше отсылок к Sentenced, чем когда-либо прежде.

Nearly 30 years into their run, Blut Aus Nord sure aren’t running out of ideas anytime soon.

With Blut Aus Nord's latest Disharmonium album unleashed upon the world, a new one-man band has emerged to give the experimental atmoblack masters a run for their money: Venomous Echoes. As such an…

Friday. The end of the work week. The time to party, the time for fun, the time for crust punk!…

Three years ago, I reviewed Nija by Orbit Culture and said that the record showed “hints of a potentially great record to come, rather than being a great record in and of itself”. Frustratingly, three…

If there’s one thing that Boris ain’t, it’s uniform; after sitting through a few dozen albums in as many styles, you can go into any release and have no idea whether you’re going to be relaxed or throttled.

It’s crazy to think that it’s now been over a decade since Horrendous first came onto the scene with The Chills; it was 2014’s Ecdysis, the record that saw them first advance from humble OSDM-esque beginnings…

The heavy metal spirit certainly hasn't drifted away for Spirit Adrift just yet. In fact, their spirit from the Ghost At The Gallows remains as strong as ever.

Cunabula’s debut album The Weight Of Sleep has some of same unpredictability and inconsistency as many of my dreams; however, while imperfect, there’s some very decent material worth exploring here.

Gods may fall, but Polish black metal is here to stay!…

Romancing The Ether is a new album from an Australian melodic progressive metal band opening with a long multi-movement title track that represents the continuation of an existing conceptual story... and…

You're probably going to need to keep some extra strong painkillers handy if you're planning on headbanging to this Cruel Force. They certainly Show No Mercy here with their latest blackened…

Slow and steady wins the race.

Are you feeling angry or frustrated by any chance? Well, this album will surely tip you over the edge. Just make sure no one's in proximity when your eardrums are going through this massively aggressive…

How can you tell if music is actually real?

At this point it's weird to think that I once thought of Dead Neanderthals as a primarily free jazz band, considering how much of their DNA is drone metal now. Even weirder to see them become so engaging…

If we're talking about the Survival Of The Fittest in a traditional heavy metal sense, then Thelemite are surely safe and sound.

“Life is a journey through a bleak, cold, harsh reality… that ends in a void of nothingness”. These are the words that The Crawling’s guitarist/vocalist Andy Clarke uses to describe All Of This For Nothing.

Here is some Montreal music that cools your blood. The unique blend of gothic metal and melodic death / black metal brought forth by Sanguine Glacialis has crystallized into a third album. Five years have…

Let’s just all agree to pretend that cover art doesn’t exist, okay?…

Grandmother, Bees Made Honey In The Vein Tree’s 2019 release, very much went under the radar; I discovered it too long after its release date to give it a proper review, although not too late to propose…

You Win Again Gravity, presumably named after the Futurama quote, are a bit less playful and more emotionally charged than one might expect from a group inspired by a sitcom (although, to be fair, one…

Agriculture deliver noisome black metal that's a danger to all who value their ears.

It’s probably not surprising to anyone who regularly follows my reviews to hear that a Bandcamp bio opening with ‘a 4-piece thrash band’ doesn't immediately get my blood pumping; however, subsequently…

Smile? This is metal, I'll stand at the back and frown with my arms crossed, thank you very much.

Before Haar bring their short-lived career to an end, they've made sure to leave their mark with the uncomfortable and unforgettable dissonant terror that is Ouroboros.

Let's travel back to the very beginning, to the beginning of the first wave of black metal, during which time thrash was all the range. Körgull The Exterminator transport listeners to that very dark…

In a deathcore scene increasingly dominated by artists of either a symphonic, blackened, technical or pure beatdown persuasion, Humanity's Last Breath black hole-summoning heaviness stands out more…

Pelagic Records: they just don’t miss, do they? It feels like every time a potential year-ender album comes along from a band I don’t know, there’s a significant chance that they’ll be on the label; at…

The new EP from Drune is called Drown; with a band-album title combo that features two semi-rhymes of ‘drone’, you might expect this to be a drone release. Anyone making that assumption is vaguely along…

Mizmor, master of blackened doom, has opted for a slightly new approach. Is this simply another experiment or a lasting shift in the band's style?…

This Mutoid Man will brighten your day the headbanging way! Well, Mutants or not, this mighty Mutoid Man trio can definitely play!

The title of Japanische Kampfhörspiele's 11th album sure is a mouthful, but does it actually have a lot to say?…

‘Forged in spew’ probably appears on fewer dating profiles than several other ‘forged in...’ statements; however, it’s very fitting for the title of a sludge metal band’s debut album.

If you thought Echoes of the Soul was hard-hitting, then think again. Crypta have returned once more, this time adding an extra dose of brutality, as they continue to strive to nail their classic old school-meets-modern…

Don't be fooled ladies and gents, behind the Nuclear Power Trio's outrageous masquerade is a set of extraordinarily talented musicians that put on a masterclass display in instrumental progressive…

The psychedelic voyages through time and space have been replaced by meditative rituals in hidden temples. Even though I don’t think this was the best idea, no one can deny Astral Tomb’s sense of ambition…

Against Myself is a symphonic metal band from Spain, formed in 2009. At the time of writing, they have released four studio albums, along with the odd single and their debut EP. The first two of said studio…

"What say you now, Goliath? Without your hair, you no longer possess your fantastic strength!" "That's Samson, idiot!"

Urne-ing your attention.

There’s just something about cybergrind in the morning that tends to go excellently with your waffles or breakfast cereal. No? OK, maybe it’s just me.

The disbandment of The Dillinger Escape Plan has left a slight void in the world of mathcore; there’s still Car Bomb and Frontierer unleashing frenetic violence, but with some other acts in the genre consigned…

Asthâghul, you had French black metal by the ballz. What the Hell happened, man?

How do you make heavy metal interesting in 2023? Well, you lace it with some melodic U.S. power metal, some bluesy hard rock, and you have a guitar god playing guitar, while an unbelievably gifted vocalist…

Metal bands have drawn extensively from fiction literature for lyrical inspiration; however, there’s probably not many that have look towards Richard Brautigan’s In Watermelon Sugar for such inspiration.

Few bands get nominated for the Metal Storm Awards for their first album; far fewer get nominated just for their first song, but that’s what the maniacs in Fleshvessel accomplished in 2020 with the one-song…

A new band has erupted from the Land of Ice, offering an unnerving, psychedelic atmosphere with captivating, experimental melodies and agony-stricken vocals.

Imagine suddenly coming back from a decade long pause with not one...

...but two albums.

It seems, ladies and gentlemen, that U.S. hard rock is back with a Bang.

Most albums have stuff like album titles, track titles, or at the very least, a credited band. And then there's the more formless entity / label Rhinocervs feeling like black metal that is intentionally…

Radiant Knife keep delivering solid, enjoyable, progressive sludge metal. And if you haven't heard of them yet, now's the chance to give them your attention.

Yep, this album is from Outer Heaven, alright. If you want brutal and heavy death metal, well, you certainly have plenty of that here.

How these guys aren't more well-known is beyond me. They combine melody with technical proficiency in a way I've never heard before. This is one my favourite tech death bands ever, and No Tolerance…

Chris Hercules - the one-man band passionate metalhead - can't stop producing original epic metal masterpieces. The amount of ideas and momentary epic riffs in such a small time frame is so unbelievably…

Seeing as metal has reached a point where it feels like there’s no more seismic leaps into hitherto unknown genres left to take, one is left to ponder which novelty fusion band has the potential to inspire…

With System Of A Down and Rage Against The Machine both sort of reunited but not really making new music, the task of continuing that sound seems to have fallen upon three Indonesian girls.

You know those zombies hanging around on the cover of Scream Bloody Gore? Imagine handing those undead buddies some guitars, a drum kit, and a microphone. Now ask them to play some doom death. What is…