News, Reviews and Interviews
Heavy Metal Around the Globe
EXCLUSIVE TRACK STREAM: Bull of Apis Bull of Bronze – Annihilation
Allow the annihilation.
Oerheks – Valkengebed
Both hold that tension of the hunt, while also being suggestive of natural beauty.
Paint It Black – Famine
I’m embarrassed to say that Famine is serving as my introduction to the band, but these eight tracks across less than twenty minutes have placed them firmly on my radar.
Seder/Galdr – Tranquilities II: The Air, The Silence, The Vast Array of Emptiness
Deeply mesmeric compositions drew us each into the depths of our souls, to the most contemplative layers, where we experienced epiphanies which are hard to put into words.
EXCLUSIVE TRACK PREMIERE: Revulsed – Nefarious Devourment
This is the foulest of foul, and one of the rare releases of this style that doesn’t bore me to tears.
Closet Witch – Chiaroscuro
The band continues in a niche side of extreme music that takes the original, anti-musical ethos of grindcore seriously.
Furia – Huta Luna
The musicianship here is as you’d come to expect for the band, top notch and tight. All these songs are driving, super fast paced rippers.
Magnitude – Of Days Renewed…
This album is a banger and I’m very confident the band would keep the pit absolutely hopping.
V/A – Coma Regalia – The One Who Became Many
This makes the compilation highly listenable as a continuous experience (I do not always find this is the case with various artist compilations).
Lucifixion – Trisect Joys Of Pierced Hearts
Band: Lucifixion Album: Trisect Joys Of Pierced Hearts Country: USA Genre: Black Metal Release Date: June 30, 2023 Label: Sentient Ruin Laboratories Author: Michael Litteral Lucifixion comes out of the shadows unknown to give us their debut album, Trisect Joys...
EXCLUSIVE TRACK STREAM: Aterrima – Lily of the Valley
Enjoy every jolt, reprieve, attack, and sharp turn.
EXCLUSIVE FULL ALBUM STREAM: Sepulchral Curse – Abhorrent Dimensions
The next time someone asks you to explain what death metal sounds like, just play them this album. They will likely be hooked. I know I am.
Tulus – Fandens Kall
Smiles, jamming, and shredding are offered to entice the audience, and with a band like Tulus, it worked like a charm.
Tumultuous Ruin – An Abscess on the Heart of the State
The vision of the world seen between the riffs is bleak, but there is strength and spine there too – enough to rise up with each cadence to move inexorably forward and fight back!
Ôros Kaù – Thanatos
Thanatos isn’t casual, and it shouldn’t be treated as such.
Bihargam – Executioner Star
Though it’s only three tracks long, and one of them is a Soundgarden cover, this EP still feels like a meaty offering.
Altari – Kröflueldar
Putting all of these experimental tendencies together, we have an album that you will return to regularly.
Body Void – Atrocity Machine
Atrocity Machine is a revelation – an evolutionary leap forward for a band that has essentially a perfect discography prior to this album.
Critical Defiance – Misconception
I hear a resurgence of the past with a spiked fist clenched on the future.
EXCLUSIVE TRACK STREAM: Dyssebeia – Black Swarm
The album is elegant, flowing seamlessly from traditional heavy metal riffs to djent worthy chugs to tremolo riffing to soaring melodies to…well, you get the idea.
EXCLUSIVE FULL ALBUM STREAM: Seraphic Entombment – Sickness Particles Gleam
It lives within the boundaries of the style (with some blackening, but that’s not so abnormal), but does so with a unique putrefaction that makes it stand out above the rest.
Cannibal Corpse – Chaos Horrific
Don’t mistake their longevity for complacency: This Cannibal Corpse is still hungry. VERY hungry.
Riversleem – A Second Release By Riversleem
In just two short EPs, Riversleem has joined the ranks of some of my favorite currently active bands with a short but unrelentingly intense genre-spanning style of hardcore.
Sacral – Three of Cups
Make no mistake. This is legitimate black metal music. It just chooses to follow a different path than the grim, corpse-painted, spike laden creature of the night that so many black metal musicians cosplay as.
