Reviews

Capturing the essence of melancholia in grandiose fashion is a task frequently sought after, yet rarely achieved.

Radu asked me to review Grandeur as a favour; it turns out he was partially doing me a favour.

Dehn Sora is perhaps best known as for his one-man bands, either the black metal Throane or the dark ambient Treha Sektori. Here, he is the guitarist in a post-metal band.

A cocktail with many different flavours in it.

The best thrash record in years.

Shoot for the stars but gravity will hold you down.

Vengeance isn't the only thing that falls on this album.

Where one person's journey ends, another's begins. The dark Buddha is rising again.

A memory from another time and a potential still unreached.

I don't know why I ever doubted Mariusz Duda.

Remember when black metal bands wrote riffs?

Not a particularly memorable Arrival?…

A bite as strong as its bark.

Who knew the devil would make them do this and not Hell Awaits eh?…

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Megadeth's career going down the drain.

Celestial Season may not be exactly a household name, but they were among the first to embrace the death doom sound with a gothic twist that the Peaceville Three patented in the early '90s. Nearly…

Sunn O)))'s Stephen O'Malley exviviates two compositions performed by Romania's duovirate of pioneering spectralist composers.

The dying gasps of a once great band.

How can there be 5+ million votes from Georgia if the country only has a population of 3.7 million people?

The only way to feel the noise is when it's good and loud.

WTF.

The sting in the tail.

Guðmundur Óli Pálmason's abrupt departure from Sólstafir offered plenty of drama back in 2015; however, in terms of musical output, this split seems to have been a productive…

Another Sólstafir album, another pleasant but forgettable experience.

Death Cult is a strange and unique record. But surprisingly not in the way I expected?

The 45 seconds of traditional melody of "Karelia," capturing pristine nature with blue rivers and green forests, maybe isn't an attractive intro for an album in a genre like death metal…

It's been a while since John Haughm was rogue.

Still raging after all these years.

Worth the wait.

This has got to be a fever dream right? A Bring Me The Horizon record that is enjoyable? In 2020?…

I, too, like Be'lakor.

After the 2016 debut The Unrevealed Secret, Eternal Idol is back with their newest effort Renaissance. The literal translation of that title is "Rebirth". A fitting title because the band has…

Fuck it, let's talk about Black Anima... Lacuna Coil was once one of my favorite gothic metal bands of all time. This was back in 2014 while I was in high school, where my obsession with Lacuna…

Is it 2020, the late 70s, or the late Middle Ages? Yes!

While emphasis on atmosphere has played a significant role in the evolution of extreme metal's progression, so too has the balance between accessibility and exclusivity.

How subversive is it to reunite your cult classic band only to record your first demo that most people haven't even heard.

I never expected Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou to work that well together.

Epitaph is the latest album from the Danish power proggers Pyramaze. Now, I can say that I've liked every record from Pyramaze that I've listened to. However, the last record didn't really…

Time to call a ceasefire in the war.

Time to show that sky who's boss.

Sometimes a leopard does change its spots.

At this point in their career, The Answer should have been a much bigger act than they were; rather than perpetually building their reputation step by step, the band should have been going to bigger and…

A flower by any other name would be just as beautiful.

Stepping out of line off of a cliff.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH…

So, the members of Necrophobic gathered around the pit to watch the dancing hellfire, and with the flame tongues reflecting on their eyes' pupils they asked each other: can we make another album as…

Funeral doom is often competing with its black metal counterpart is kvltness, especially in Finland.

When looking at the sonic landscape that is post metal, Giant Squid have always been one of the more unique acts. As such, an album inspired by one of the most unique past cultures we know of makes for…

A change of personnel seems to have worked nicely for Draconian; Sovran reversed their seemingly downward trajectory, and this record should cement that change in direction.

I'm in somewhat of a dilemma. How can I simultaneously be so tired of all these up-and-coming OSDM band and also be fancying so many of them?

I'll give it to you in one sentence; Endarkenment is extreme metal extravaganza, an uptempo soundtrack to the end of the world and album of the year material. Continue reading if you want to know…

Return to the known.

Gather round children, this is what we used to call a concert.

Is it really a late-career album if you haven't released anything for the past almost 20 years?

What exactly makes a good late career album? And when I say late career I mean at least 40 years in.

Mors Principium Est are one of the most reliable bands in melodeath, and Seven has no plans of changing that reputation.

Sign in as you mentally check out.

Condition terminal? The vital signs are there but the life is starting to fade.

If you couldn't tell from the title and eye-catching artwork, Wake Of A Nation is a politically charged EP.

I keep track of former Anathema bassist Duncan Patterson's Facebook page and have learned a few things from his own perspective. He has dismissed Eternity and Alternative 4 as being part of metal…

Supergroup albums often don't live to the hype of the musicians involved. But there's another type of album to rival the supergroup album in the hype it can generate through the people involved:…

Transitus the latest record by the Dutch prog mastermind with way too many phone numbers in his mobile phone? Arjen Anthony Lucassen. Who did he call this time to perform on his latest record?…

Another supergroup, another lot of unfulfilled potential.

Expectations are met where previously bars were set.

What would it sound like if you mixed classic Finnish gloom, metal's fascination with shoegaze in the past decade, and the rise of Chelsea Wolfe-sque doomed folk?

Sacred Outcry formed in 1998 and they went into the studio in 2001 to record their debut full length Damned For All Time. Two years later the band came to a halt with only a rough mix left behind. I don't…

Don't you think I could save ya?

Who is that on bass again?…

If you ever want to broaden your knowledge of thrash and delve deeper than the releases that rose to the very top, then wrap your ears around Annihilation Of Civilisation by Evildead, a band whose success…

Taking flight.