Reviews

Every emotion your Heritage holds is in the very Structure of death doom itself.

Greater Than Death? I'd still take Scream Bloody Gore over this.

A legendary figure of Metal Storm used to say that “all music is atmospheric”. Well, the truth is that some bands are more atmospheric than others. My fellow metalheads, let me introduce you to ‘Jade emperor,…

I never really expected I'd get to review a Moor Mother album on the main page.

NevBorn refer to their compositions not as pieces as music, but as chapters of a story, with a narrative focus to their songs akin to a movie soundtrack. With such a self-declared outlook, I’m not sure…

It even has "grind" in its name!

In an alternate universe, the Daft Punk song goes like "Lighter, Better, Slower, Mellower".

Is Papa Emeritus one of the candidates to be the next pope?…

2024 was not only the year that Opeth returned to some slight semblance of extremity to collective astonishment, but it also featured multiple records from new bands heavily indebted to Opeth’s glory years.

Who knew that being trapped in a stellar labyrinth would be this fun?…

Having largely lost interest in the medium for a few years, I’ve gotten back into video gaming in the past few years, and in last year I played a game called Outer Wilds that sparked something of an obsession…

Violence is a theme not typically associated with stoner doom, but when Conan are involved, it certainly is.

A well-made album, but dry as a salty cracker.

Beyond The Sleepless Aether narrates a man’s journey through various alternate realities in a quest for the meaning of life, travelling from landlocked deserts to floating within the cosmos. Presumably…

It seems that Pagan Altar are Never Quite Dead, despite all the setbacks, and they might even be getting stronger too.

Venator are on the road to heavy success after coming from the gutter, but can they maintain their impressive form into the Psychodrome?

Somehow, some way, this album is still an underappreciated monument in the progressive / gothic / doom metal scene. While being far from the first to take on this niche blend of subgenres, Novembre very…

Folk horror has been a popular lyrical subject in hard rock and metal for much of the latter’s existence, particularly in genres such as occult rock, black and doom metal. However, progressive metalcore…

Balls To The Wall is one of the best heavy metal albums of all time. It did not need to be reloaded; it’s still loaded. And whatever Udo has in the chamber, it’s not what Accept was packing 40 years ago.

Between Eternal Storm and Persefone, Daniel R. Flys is currently active as part of two bands that can broadly be referred to as ‘progressive melodeath’; naturally, for his new side-project he’s opted to…

Tribunal wants to doom us further still with In Penitence And Ruin.

Michael Kogler has been busy this year, first releasing an impressive effort with Harakiri For The Sky, shortly followed by the latest album from his solo project Karg. The style of melancholic post-black…

This ain't old-school death. This is Ancient Death.

Kardashev turned an awful lot of heads, including my own, with their 2022 release Liminal Rite, an awe-inspiring demonstration of their self-labeled ‘deathgaze’ sound. As such, it appears to be a bold…

First of all, I should say that I don’t consider this album a masterpiece. It’s simply a very good album—almost very good (7.5/10).

Cave Sermon’s Divine Laughter was one of the big surprise discoveries of 2024, as mastermind Charlie Park brought a bunch of different extreme (and slightly less extreme) metal styles together to create…

Although it is less inclined towards such endeavours than other forms of art and media, music has had its fair share of ‘sequel’ and ‘spiritual successor’ albums across its history. Nevertheless, while…

I can't believe it's nøt kvlt.

If would-be tribute acts don't name themselves 'Mild Indifference', then they're missing a trick.

Scandinavian death doom has always been a bleak, grim, and melancholic subgenre, but now there's even a Famine to contend with.

Thankfully, you don't need to experience an exploding nuclear reactor by being in its vicinity, as Cytotoxin have done another grand job of recreating the brutal soundscape for you.

An overview of The Overview.

Although this is the debut album of Kazea, I. Ancestral is the work of experienced musicians, and one that aims to channel the whispers of primordial ancestors within a forward-thinking musical framework.

Dormant Ordeal took my world by storm near the end of 2021, blowing pretty much all of the rest of the year’s death metal offerings out of the water with their stunning The Grand Scheme Of Things. Tooth…

Something Is Rotten In Humanity. Ain't that the truth…

A reduced version of a band's sound on a shorter release, emphasizing certain aspects of it, is often called an EP. Let’s figure out why this is, instead, an album, and whether that was a good decision.

From a kingdom in fire to a home across the fog, the freshly formed folk/black metal project Bloody Valkyria is going from strength to strength in its nascent stages.

It’s cute to see a band comfortable being as intimate with one another as Håndgemeng seemingly are based off of that album cover; it must be all the devil worshipping.

The unnamed feeling.

Lots of good moments and a ton of potential, but ultimately a bit directionless.

Once you break through glass ceilings, rock bottom is littered with broken glass.

Frankly, my dear, I don't give a glam.

Will these Finns rightfully Urn themselves a significant position in the blackened thrash hierarchy with Demon Steel?

Judicator are much-changed coming into Concord as far as personnel is concerned, but as the power metallers tackle this new frontier with stories about the old frontier, the wheels aren’t in danger of…

Calyces was formed by vocalist/guitarist Manthos Stergiou in the wake of Tardive Dyskinesia’s apparent demise. For album number two, he’s reunited with former Tardive Dyskinesia bandmate Stavros Rigos,…

Rothadás’s second album delivers a solid doom-death combo with a satisfyingly evil vibe.

Since time immemorial, one of the most significant purposes of singing was to tell a story.

Cult Of Fire have never been a "trve" black metal band, partly because of their thematic approach also impacting their melodic sense, but they've never felt this melodic before.

I don’t know whether Messa listened to Fire Blades From The Tomb, the debut LP of fellow Italians Ponte Del Diavolo, but we now have two fresh bands from the boot-shaped country that mix doom metal and…

BEST. ALBUM. EVER.

Otra, the seventh album from In The Woods..., is remarkably the first record released by the band with an unchanged line-up from the preceding release. From listening to Otra, I get the impression that…

Mikael Stanne fans who weren’t wowed by Endtime Signals have subsequently had the opportunity to enjoy his voice in other settings, courtesy of Cemetery Skyline and The Halo Effect. Disappointed fans who…

What's weirder: reviewing a "part two" concept album without reviewing the first part, or reviewing an avant-garde music album about avant-garde art?

Jump aboard the Power Train!

Nortt’s triumphant death song, Dødssang, is the second and true comeback of the funeral doom veteran.

Loosely operating from a melodic death metal foundation, Aversed branch out in a few directions on their second album. Not every experiment is a success, but there’s more than enough hits here to make…

Already planning for Metal Storm 2025 Awards season.

Perhaps the Hexecutor will cast a hex on those who haven't yet succumbed to their blackened thrash charm.

If a corpse reanimates during necrophilia, is that a good thing or a bad thing?…

The Savage Master offers another Dark & Dangerous dose of high-octane traditional heavy metal, and it could be their strongest to date.

Wearing their influences on their battle jackets.

Tómarúm realized the promise of their first recordings with a blistering debut album in 2022; Ash In Realms Of Stone Icons was a full-pelt onslaught of progressive black metal, although it did leave some…

Faced with a dilemma following the departure of Riley McShane, Allegaeon revisited their past by bringing original vocalist Ezra Haynes back into the fold. However, while the band may be approaching The…

While it wasn’t a stylistic move appreciated by the purists, Deafheaven’s stark move with Infinite Granite away from the blackgaze genre that they popularized went down sufficiently positively within the…

For many bands, writing long songs is a challenge. However, an even greater one is to condescene your complex songwriting into shorter air-tight compositions. Avantgarde death metalheads Imperial Triumphant…

The phrase “here be dragons”, in the imaginative traditions of medieval cartography, denotes the perils of unexplored realms, warning of mysterious frontiers fraught with fantastical dangers. It’s an enchanting…

It’s kind of wild to think about how much stuff that sucks shares origins with stuff that rules. Like how Terry Pratchett and Adolf Hitler technically came from the same species. Or how the musical scene…

I started my stint as a Metal Storm reviewer with a review of Katla. Shortly afterwards another band by the same name popped up, but it was only now that the second Katla made it to the full length stage…

From the Tower, a voice shouted down: Let There Be Dark! Suddenly, a dark heavy metal album of the highest quality was unleashed.

What lies in Helldorado certainly isn't treasure, it's a SpiritWorld south of heaven and west of hell, full of zombified cowboys who unleash some of the most exhilarating hardcore/crossover thrash…