8.2 - Excellent pagan / folk black over here. The voice doesn't seem to appeal everyone, but I think it fits the music perfectly. I particularly like how they manage to keep they riff ideas interesting through their songs by constantly evolving the arrangements supporting it. A very good album from start to finish, despite its length.

7.5 - Fun album that reminded me of Ulthima or Euphoreon. It felt even better on second listen. It does sound a bit cheesy at times though.. But still a good epic melodeath album.

8.3 It's quite rare that I give an album a second chance if it didn't convince me on first listen these days.. I did hear a lot of great things in this one on first listen, but more in an analytical, music nerd kind of way. The music itself didn't really move me and I didn't plan to come back to it. However, after seeing it in all eoy tops, I decided to give it another chance, and I am now glad I did. After 3 spins I am totally in love with it, both on the analytical and pleasure levels. Very varied, creative, and smart.

7.4 - Really like the slow and hypnotic atmosphere on this one. We need some black metal that's not going 100km/h once in a while.

8.0 - Excellent drumming on this one! I don't even really know how to describe it, the grooves, the fills, the sound texture, everything feels perfect. Definitely the heart of the music for me, but the whole album is great from start to finish.

8.0 Great doom release with a captivating atmosphere, very dreamy and melancholic. The sound design is amazing on this record, it sound thick, heavy, yet super clean. Greta job.

This might be my favourite death metal release of the year so far, at the least the most unexpected and surprising. I really love the atmosphere the synth creates, it sounds old school but clean, which is how I like my odsm, the songwriting has lots of interesting twists, and the singing is very powerful. Great album.

I love the sound of the bass on that record. It somehow feels like we hear the strings more than usual. Good and varied record overall, I like the different singing style that make the whole album remain interesting.

This album gets bashed for being too pop, and I usually hate things which are too pop, but I somehow like this one a lot. It has a lot of beautiful and emotional moments, and I think they manage to keep the darkness while becoming more accssible.

7.5 - Albeit not very original, this is top Metalcore to me. Way too many bands overuse cleans or fall on the pop side of things for my taste, Polar manage to remain darker, and do not user much cleans, but rather a slightly harsher version of them for the choruses. This plugs the hole Architects left in my library in the recent years.

7.9 I wasn't expecting this new Katatonia to be that good. It got me from the first riffs. It confirms the trajectory of Katatonia being more and more rock, though it still have very pleasant moments of heavyness here and there. Overall very nice and soothing atmosphere.

7.2 This is another Obitary album. No surprise, but I like their style so that album is alright for me.

Not the most exciting, but the sound texture is really cool, nice guitar tone, very cool vocals. I might come back to this.

7.4 Nice blend of traditional Norwegian black metal and post black metal. Cool riffs, nice tempo, good atmosphere.