Reviews

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.

For me, the main point of extreme art is to shock a person’s very core and make them question their surroundings. To distort someone's senses and make reality clash with their wildest dreams…

It's not you, it's me...or is it you?…

For an album that combines some of the denser genres within the metal spectrum, Weightless is not the most obvious title for Grief Circle’s debut.

Since their debut Time Insults The Mind in 2008, U.S. black metal band Black Anvil have pushed the boundaries of their dark gritty and edgy black metal capabilities, resulting in some of the finest music…

ColdWorld is a solo black metal project brought to you by Georg Börner, and here is this project's third release Isolation - appropriately titled I say. due to it being released on the fringes…

So here we have Finland's death metal prospect Devenial Verdict, a band that brings a fresh stylistic approach to the extreme genre of death metal, focusing heavily on atmosphere, as well as sheer…

In an unlikely turn of events, Peter Tägtgren produced a metal album for an overlooked classic hard rock singer.

There are portions in your life where you're so tired of everything, and you're so grateful for musicians who make it so easy for you to feel the emotional impact of their music.

How can an album longer than its predecessor nevertheless feel more immediate?

Birds In Row keep pushing the "post-" in "post-hardcore" further.

Splash mountain.

Madder than a badger in a forklift truck.

Caleb will come back for his revenge one day.

Disillusion dropped their previous album one week after Fear Inoculum, following a gap in releases almost as long as Tool’s infamous hiatus. Thankfully, it’s been a much shorter wait to hear what they…

Back around the start of the pandemic, I came across an album that I immediately recognized would be in contention for my 2020 Album Of The Year, only to then find that it wasn’t a 2020 release. Second…

So another year, meaning for us another Darkthrone album. This is not necessarily a bad thing I suppose, as this band have a fairly impressive and consistent discography to date, minus a few hiccups along…

Death, Where Is Your Sting is the fifth installment by the now well esteemed doom metal band Avatarium, a band that have proven to be much more than just a simple side project for Candlemass songwriter…

Wither On The Vine is the third full-length release by the Northern Irish doom metal band Darkest Era, and as it happens, this is only their first release in over eight years. So, has the enduring wait…

An apt title for sure.

Two Costa Rican musicians and a German drummer walk into a bar…

You could easily fool some that Gevurah are a Polish black metal band.

It has thus been decided that the bass is the instrument of the desert.

Marter is the third full-length album by the highly talented and unique German black metal band Firtan. At just shy of one hour in length, this album isn't exactly on the short side, but it's…

Wow, is it that time of year again already? Well, have you got your costume ready yet? Because if you have and you're in the spirit for Halloween this year, then I highly recommend a little acid trip…

For months, one of 2022's best doom albums has been travelling under the radar like a stealth submarine.

I admit that Kryatjurr Of Desert Ahd's desertification desolation hit different when the first two EP's were released in June and July's heatwave, but object permanence in regards to climate…

Ever wanted a drone version of "The Great Gig In The Sky"?

We've covered all the previous A.A. Williams releases in our non-metal feature. There's nothing fundamentally different about As The Moon Rests that makes it a metal album to be reviewed on the…

From the depths of the American underground come Cauldron Born, a band that first appeared in the worst time possible for the U.S. power metal style; the nineties. After two excellent studio albums, they…

Which gang? The Sugarhill Gang? The Ant Hill mob?…

I double-check their discography, and sure as rain, Leviathan II is no less than Therion’s 18th full-length studio album. You will not find anything truly new here, but it is greatly more varied…

Melodic thrash metal - to some, that might sound like an oxymoron. How can a musical genre all about aggression and speed leave any room for beautiful tunes? But the more open-minded listeners will remember…

Bound to the earth, Black Royal keep their ambitions grounded and steady, with respectable results.

“Ggu:ll is the vessel of the lost. A means of staring into the empty pockets of suffering. Enduring the lack of meaning and ground.” Since I’ve found nothing online explaining it, I will…

(Bloody) Hammer horror…

We all know music evolves; it's inevitable that, as is the case with any form of extreme metal, when you look back through the years you will notice a significant change in what we metalheads call…

After nearly 40 years, The Cult return to the studio where they recorded Dreamtime. Perhaps a more fitting image than the snake on the cover art would've been an ouroboros.

Now and then, an older album drops into my lap that makes me go, “jeez, what if I had kept missing out on this one?”. Well, the Sardinian one-man outfit Anamnesi certainly fits the bill, and…

A surprising number of fans have compared Shiki to Imaginary Sonicscape. That is incorrect. The only valid reference to that album is the one endorsed by Mirai Kawashima himself, whereby we remind him…

Threshold is the fifth release by the unconventional grindcore trio from Michigan, Cloud Rat. Yes, that's right, Cloud Rat. Now don't be fooled by the band being named after a furry, fluffy little…

At first, you'll hear shit all because all the intricacies of The Path Unseen are hidden behind a wall of overwhelming noise. Actually, at first you'll hear shit all because there's nothing…

I feel it. All of it. I feel it beneath my skin, I feel it deep in my viscera. The music is asphyxiating and bone-crushing. Viscera bathes me in a black sun and leaves me lost in an ocean of blood.

Shadow Of Intent really laid down the gauntlet to the army of symphonic deathcore bands right at the beginning of 2022… can Lorna Shore rise to the challenge?

The first new Stratovarius album in 7 years. The first new Blind Guardian album (excluding the Twilight Orchestra record) in 7 years. Now, the first new Dragonland record in 11 years: I can only assume…

After melting doom death metal into drone it was time for Dead Neanderthals to melt atmospheric black metal into drone.

Toads aren't the greatest source of protein. So why else would you eat toads? For a neat serving of atmospheric post-black metal, perhaps? German Toadeater started out as a crusty black metal band…

Hark the angels sing.

What Have I Done, indeed.

Dull to the point that I forgot I was going to write a review for it... Anyway, let’s proceed...

The worst, so far.

Cut my life into pieces, this is an Autopsy report; not Suffocation, not Internal Bleeding, can you believe what you're reading...

The omens were not good for post-Chris Adler Lamb Of God after 2020’s mediocre self-titled release. Thankfully, these Omens are better than expected.

Unbelievably, Teramaze went a whole year without releasing an album. However, that streak was broken an entire 1 day later.

I know we're stuck in the black lodge and all, but, excuse me, this is a damn fine cup of coffee!

A screamo band returning after more than a decade and adapting their sound to something less intense?! Where have I heard that before?!

In the beginning of 2021, we introduced you to Mother Of Graves via the Clandestine Cuts, where we featured In Somber Dreams, and proclaimed that it would be one of the best EPs you were going to listen…

Star One may well be one of Arjen Lucassen's most consistent endeavours of his prolific career. What was supposed to have been a one-off is now on its third album, although it's taken 20 years…

There's something about experimental music that reminds me of early man's first encounters with mushrooms, and figuring out which ones are good to eat, which ones kill you, and which ones make…

Ellenbogengesellschaft proves two things about German speaking people: their knack for unnecessarily long word concatenations, and their knack for atmospheric black metal.

This review of Wine From Tears is brought to you by Bitter From Beers. When last I left them they were Glad To Be Dead but they’ve returned from beyond the grave to tell us all I’m Fine.

Ernia have successfully reached out to so many styles of grindcore that they came up with a powerhouse of an album as colorful as its artwork.

Let me introduce you to Line Of Durin, another new Tolkien-themed atmospheric black metal band with some major folk influences. The band title is taken from the Royal Dwarven family, descendants of Dáin…

With the Gothenburg metal scene in Sweden in full swing during the early 90's, bands such as Dissection, Unanimated, Necrophobic, Vinterland and Sacramentum suddenly emerged, creating a new form of…

To activate KEN Mode, place all your inputs on NULL. This will result in 35 minutes of noise, nausea, and misanthropy.

I'm glad the album is called "Loud Arriver" instead of using "come" as a synonym for "arrive". That would've made things even weirder, especially for such a horny…

Loud synths, loud percussion, loud voices. Loud noise. Yet somehow more than that.

Do you like your doom metal witchy, hypnotic, and ethereal?

This is actually the ninth release we have in our database for Lungtoucher once you include EPs, splits and singles, so the title may well be very accurate; however, The Ninth Incantation is the first…