Reviews

This is one hymn you don't want to miss!…

For Thine Is The Kingdom Of The Flesh is the second release by the new and impressive solo Australian melodic black metal project Krvna. This was released exactly one year to the date of the release of…

So here it is: The Falling Tide, the fourth full-length installment by the well esteemed atmospheric black metal act Woods Of Desolation. Residing from the unlikely land of Australia, this dark atmospheric…

A smaller offering from South Korea's most unique metal export.

Vein.fm don't travel back to the 90s to be loved. That's just a potential side-effect.

Different Kinds Of Losses is the debut full-length album from Rioghan, the solo project-turned-band masterminded by Rioghan Darcy. Rioghan Darcy is the performing name of Jenni Perämäki; quite…

You've heard The Way Of All Flesh, but do you know The End Of All Flesh?…

There is a certain adrenaline rush when the tags ‘crossover’, ‘hardcore’, and ‘thrash metal’ are mentioned in the same sentence. High Command introduced a near perfect…

The djent craze at the beginning of last decade came in the form of two prevailing trends: the Periphery-style prog-metalcore and the guitar virtuoso solo projects. Concerning the latter camp, many of…

Now I know there's hundreds of stoner/doom metal bands out there that have been playing this particular style for a hefty span of time, but in recent years French stoner/doom metal act Witchfinder…

Hailing from a country that has mainly produced thrash metal, extreme metal, or ‘whatever Puya are classed as’ metal, Puerto Rico’s Avandra stand relatively alone in sharing a more sophisticated type of…

I’ve seen many Western media outlets discount Doll$Boxx as another post-Babymetal “kawaii metal” novelty. Five Japanese women in color-coded outfits playing treacly, energetic pop metal:…

So here's 1714, the debut album introduced to us by the newly formed Spanish heavy metallers Whirlwind. Traditional heavy metal with a touch of classic speed metal: that's how I can honestly…

Most of the comments on this album's stream from a black metal focused YouTube channel are complaining that this is not actually black metal. Contrast that with the fact that we nominated the band's…

Hoofmark's Evil Blues was already a very weird take on the recent country black metal surge, but Blood Red Lullabies makes proper genre categorization even more elusive.

"Western black metal had its turn now it’s time for western death metal." - a fellow user who was smarter before I was.

Here is Never Surrender, the sixth release by the blackened thrash act Deströyer 666, which yet again provides us with more stellar headbanging material, with some of the catchiest riffs and tastiest…

It’s unfortunate that Monolithe have become lodged in my head as ‘the band that does weird stuff with their song lengths’. Admittedly, the extent to which they have placed patterns in…

Another day, another black metal album with disturbing lyrical content recommended by Nejde. Jordfäst plays a stripped-down, thrashy sort of Viking black - sort of as if Moonsorrow copulated with…

Amusingly, I fired Smouldering Into Dust up for another round while typing the review and midway through the opening track, “On Rain And Thunder” a freak hail & thunderstorm set off, killing…

One of the murkiest, deadliest rituals of the year.

The soul bell is chiming, accompanied by melody-driven, cosily atmospheric black metal. With relatively long songs built by just a few different sections each, this is music that lives or dies by the quality…

On 18th November, I, Voidhanger Records, purveyors of all things esoteric and unconventional, dropped a trio of records, all of which were the debut offerings of the respective bands. Unsurprisingly, all…

So this here is the Italian doom metal band (EchO), bringing to you their fourth release, Witnesses, one that features a guest list of artists from bands such as Draconian, Evoken and October Tide. Witnesses…

At the 5-minute mark, the single 25-minute song making up Zoetrope quickly transitions from a staccato string-fuelled cavernous death mayhem into a somehow even intenser bad acid trip of dissonant lead…

Coal and gas forges are the way of the past; renewables are the future, so grab some biomass and heat up your Dirt Forge.

Derrick Vella of Tomb Mold and Justin DeTore of Innumerable Forms are diving deep into the world of dreams. Last year, Dream Unending’s debut LP was tagged as ‘dream doom’, and this term still very much…

Passion Of Depression, a concept album that portrays the pain, pleasure, joy and sorrow one experiences across the journey of life, deftly incorporates each of those emotions into an emphatic extreme prog…

Where do you go from, as a black metal band, after bursting on the scene with a pop covers album?

What if you took radio rock but made it mind-bogglingly intense?

Stuck in one gear... Unorthodox is ok, but lacks depth, variety and imagination.

Nana nana nana nana bad-man.

Beyond life and death.

Omens was an album about which I had genuine reservations over certain features, and yet I ended up calling it my 2020 Album Of The Year; that is the kind of sheer talent we are dealing with in Elder,…

Djevel are a Norwegian black metal project that have managed to retain an underground presence for quite some time now, and it saddens me when such bands go unheard of in the wide metal world for a particular…

The Majesty Of Decay is Judicator's sixth release, and I have to say, judging by the quality of this release, there is no clear indication that this band will be letting their feet off the power pedestal…

The sky has turned grey. The soil has dressed itself with a coat of leaves. Autumn comes in full swing and Nekyia is the soundtrack to Nature’s funeral march.

Add Ofdrykkja to the list of metal bands having opted to cut out their metal elements in favour of pure neofolk. Their depressive suicidal black metal origins are here audible mostly through the introspective,…

If you happen to be familiar with the bloodthirsty deathgrind act Exhumed, you should know what to expect from them by now. This is a band that has always provided some solid deathgrind material, with…

In The Woods... very much had a voice of their own during their initial run; they’ve spent most of their reunion searching for a new one, but are perhaps zeroing in on one.

A 37-minute song-album about cosmos-travelling scientists experimenting on a telepathic insect hivemind species? Yep, you don’t need me to tell you that this is a prog album.

Fun fact: there are six bands named "666" on Metal-Archives. Ironic, innit?

In the melting pot of the 80s that would eventually birth death and black metal, genre lines were still a bit blurred. Everybody just wanted to outevil each other.

Apologies to anyone who was excited about a new release from Valve and was subsequently crushed at yet another year without Half-Life 3.

Brought Forth In Iniquity is the third release by the Norwegian death-doom act Abyssic. Unfortunately, in recent years, I've found death-doom to be an increasingly stale genre, with the same slow-to-mid-tempo-ranged…

The flame still burns.

Must... avoid... temptation... to... use... cliche...

There’s plenty of examples of metal bands that started off heavy and gradually softened up as their career progressed. Heiden belong to the smaller category of bands that started off heavy, softened…

What's in your DNA? Digital Noise Alliance apparently is in Queensrÿche's DNA. My take on it would have been "Do Not Assume" as this "new" lineup is capable of way more…

Perhaps I’ve been scarred by Rob Zombie: I’ve come to expect that when the title of a band’s new album reaches 16 syllables, it suggests a diversion of creative resources from the music.

While often it’s on albums 2 and beyond that a band truly finds their footing and their music is elevated a notch, witnessing the intrepid exploration of their very first steps can be as rewarding, in…

The paradigm shift of metal's extremity. A tape in Switzerland.

In a genre as saturated as stoner metal, one needs to do something fairly special to really stand out. With The Sapient, I don’t think Eye Of Doom accomplish that; however, that doesn’t mean that this…

Strata is the debut release by newly formed New Zealand-based doom metal act Remina, featuring no other than the queen of gothic doom herself, Heike Langhans, former vocalist of the mighty Draconian. Working…

So here's Ov Mournful Twilight, the debut album by newly formed melodic black metal band Morbikon, a band which features Municipal Waste's bassist Phil Hall and drummer Dave Witte, as well as…

If I had a nickel for every great dissonant death metal debut album in 2022 released by a band that was a reincarnation of another band that only released one full-length record before disbanding, I’d…

A cartoonishly large slab of concrete falls on top of you.

There was me thinking they were covering George Carlin.

Veterans such as Behemoth and Belphegor have made respectable entries into the blackened death metal oeuvre this year, but it’s a band whose reputation is arguably overshadowed by its members’…

Since the early '90s, you could say that Kampfar has remained pretty much in the background of things, despite managing to present us with a fairly strong and consistent discography. Well, hopefully…

The mad man is at it again.

A final shedding of black metal skin.

If you’ve spent the last few years mourning the break-up of SubRosa, then it’s time to rejoice, as a spiritual successor has emerged in the form of The Otolith.

It appears that Riot City have adopted the theme of laser-eyed, metalized animals for their album covers. Can’t complain really; they fit the music nicely.

Since their formation back in 2002, Drudkh have remained a consistent force and real household name in atmospheric black metal, creating many wonderful and memorable albums such as all time genre classics…

Considering the difficulties of hearing sound in space, one might wonder whether The Signal Heard Throughout Space is an ambient album; instead, it’s the latest record to send the prog fansphere…

Crippled Black Phoenix have always been a band of beautiful excess.

As far as metal is concerned, death metal seems to be the go-to style when dealing with horror movie fare; however, the oppressive, harrowing atmosphere of the best horror movies cries out for a doomier…

Just lay down, close your eyes and fall deep into the vortex of demonic psychedelia.

When a band triumphantly returns more than a decade after their obscure yet excellent debut, the last thing they deserve is to be shunned.