Reviews

Ponder not over which cosmic womb the title is referring to exactly, nor the oddly cute expression on the interdimensional monstrosity adorning that lush Adam Burke-esque album cover. Instead, make haste…

After releasing what is (or at least what I consider to be) one of the more remarkable albums within the ‘blackgaze’ niche, Heretoir took a bit of a step backwards on the originality front with a very…

“Good things come to those who wait”, proclaimed a famous Irish brewery. When it comes to sludge metal, it seems a decade is just long enough to come up with an album rammed full of the best riffs in the…

Don't call it a comeback.

In Mourning have very much been a model of consistency over their journey to date (so much so that I riffed off it in my previous two reviews of their albums), evolving their sound steadily over the years.

There’s something intriguing about a band making a decade-long return with an album that felt like a taster of more to come, and then the same band releasing a record with ‘Part I’ in the title that feels…

We have Këkht Aräkh at home!

After 14 years, Bent Sea are no longer a Dormant Ruin. Their full-length debut is finally here, and it's total nostalgic grindcore, just like it was in the good old days.

Warning: this is hazardous black metal, listen at your own peril.

Suotana follow firmly in the legacy of many a Finnish extreme power/melodeath band, but unlike their compatriots in Wintersun, the sequel to Ounas I took 2 years to arrive, rather than 12.

For a band literally named "Black Magnet", I'm surprised it took three full length albums for them to finally put an actual black magnet on that cover art.

Psycho-Frame ensure that a distillation of deathcore would sound as heavy as humanly possible.

I'm not in familiar territory, but even limited exposure confirms that the term avant-garde black metal is on an inexorable - dare I say exponential - surge, especially in the last decade, but how…

Helloween was one of the more apt examples of self-titling a late-career record making complete sense, as it offered a first nostalgia-riddled celebration of the extravagant ‘Pumpkins United’ quasi-reunion…

Can Ihlo actually build a Legacy in progressive metal for themselves with this sophomore?

An easy listen, but an overall by-the-numbers experience.

Québec is one of the standout scenes within black metal, with the likes of Forteresse and Gris embodying some of the best that the genre has to offer. Vespéral themselves are not really newcomers to the…

Burning ambition.

System Of A Down's shadow still looms high.

We'll find out at Crimson Dawn whether Deathhammer have unleashed their deadliest blow yet.

Normally with Viking black metal, what you see is what you get, but in Månegarm's case what you get is usually pretty damn good anyway. Still, how worthy an album is Edsvuren to mark their 30-year…

What Impureza pitch is straight-forward: flamenco death metal. With Alcázares, maybe the third time is the charm.

Bright? Well, the warning signs are flashing.

I've seen that cover before, you just have to squint really hard when you have a floater in your eye.

Death doom comes in all sorts of Innumerable Forms, but one thing you can always guarantee is a bone-crushingly heavy experience.

Doomed is the state your mind will be in after listening to this.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

A different kind of Beast.

33 years into their Satanic careers, and Lord Belial have still got it!

Even after a decade’s worth of experiments, this album seemed too much to hope for – but we have in hand the revenge of the original Alice Cooper group, recording a whole LP for the first time since Muscle…

Hey, Nuvolascura, you'd better not be hinting at this being a final album with that title!

When a band, particularly one with sparse online presence, goes many years after releasing a debut album without further activity, one tends to suspect that said group disbanded without fanfare. However,…

How would meloblack metal sound like if it was basically just a heavy metal band playing black metal?

And the award for the longest post-rock song I've listened to this year goes to...

Is deathcore a joke to you?…

Mawiza’s debut album, Ül, is an impressive and colourful alternative metal experience, not only because of the intriguing musical and lyrical influences from the Mapuche people, but because there are so…

From being away for 8 years to releasing two records in one year, the extreme sludge project Hell have returned with a vengeance. Submersus might not be the most captivating album of this project, but…

How do Heaven Shall Burn fare after a quarter of a century of blending melodeath and metalcore?

The hammer of Thor has been Unleashed once more, but with Fire Upon Your Lands, is it all starting to become a chore?

Warmen are no longer a solo project but a Band Of Brothers, one in which the spirit of Children Of Bodom lives on.

Is this the pinnacle of creation?…

The Summoning Bell has finally awoken Malthusian from their 7-year slumber, but are the end results worth the wait?

Starting life as a venomous hardcore punk/noise rock band on debut album Bittervatten, Gothenburg’s Blessings subsequently spent a long while away from the recording studio reinventing themselves before…

Two wildly hyped albums in quick succession firmly put Blackbraid on the black metal map. After a year off, Blackbraid III arrives poised to maintain that skyward momentum.

This review touches on the whole discography of The Black Dahlia Murder, and concludes by explaining why Nightbringers is the peak release of the band. I'll go into the reasons why The Black Dahlia…

Forget about Sweden and the US for a minute: Maltese death metal could be the scene to really watch out for.

Hemelbestormer goes on a cosmic post-metal exploration towards The Radiant Veil, a destination where you should expect the unexpected.

While there have been a number of good albums in 2025, there are unusually few that I would consider to be great. In times like these, one starts to wonder if there’s a risk of new music generally losing…

As Frederik Nietzsche once famously wrote in a book whose name escapes me at the moment: "One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star".

This review reflects the album Oh What The Future Holds after a full discography listen.

Do you miss Bathory? Do you like Summoning? If your answer to both questions is a resounding “fuck yeah!”, I have very good news for you, because M., of Lamp Of Murmuur fame, has a new epic black metal…

With two hour-long albums across nearly a decade of existence, Ba'al are very much a band that store up all their musical ideas and unleash them in a big slab of engrossing music. Considering how…

When I started listening the debut of Periphery, I was soon dissociating from the experience, like my brain wanted to lock itself outside of the musical experience. I simply was not present anymore. How…

Thy Art is Murder is bouncy thumpcore - up to a point.

The light of hope shines true for Wytch Hazel. Even though Lamentations isn’t an instant hard rock hook-fest like their previous two albums, their songwriting abilities have become more refined.

Here's a Swedish death metal band that's Floating between many genres that you'd least expect.

Having A Crack In Everything that's doom, sludge, and stoner metal sounds good to me.

Twilight Force are at their best on Tales Of Ancient Prophecies.

This review reflects Chaos Of Forms by Revocation after doing a full discography listen-through.

The hated Silence In The Snow is Trivium's best album.

While remaining within the realm of black metal throughout their career, Abigail Williams have still been rather chameleonic across their journey to date, offering their own takes on the likes of Cradle…

This is The Trial Of Socrates expressed not through words, but instead captivating post-metal and doom instrumentation.

As Crust venture deeper towards a place Where Light Fears To Descend, they unleash an offering that's just as dark and immersive as the place itself sounds.

Ians everywhere, beware.

Billed as a “lost album”, The Manticore Tapes digs up some unheard bits of history to celebrate the 50th anniversary of one of the best rock’n’roll bands ever to rock or roll.

There’s something really rewarding about discovering a band midway along an exciting stylistic journey and then seeing them take that sound in even more satisfying directions; when the same band takes…

Being one of the most brutal methods of execution, Drawn And Quartered seems like a rather fitting name for a death metal band, and the Lord Of Two Horns makes sure that the band live up to that name through…

In 2022, The Hyperborean took us on a memorable journey to the untraversed lands of epic heavy metal; now prepare to journey once more, as Fires On The Mountainside await.

Not only does Near-Death Travel Services add Deadguy to the select club of bands that came out with new albums after more than three decades, but the reminder of how old their original material is explains…

The Eraserhead baby has competition for the most horrific babies ever.