News, Reviews and Interviews
Heavy Metal Around the Globe
Benthik Zone – εἴδωλον
This third full length by the Portuguese duo travels seamlessly through the strangeness of the deep and the dark.
Rz’s Top 35 Albums of 2021
but here I am, writing a top 35 and I couldn’t be happier about it. Looking forward to writing more reviews in 2022. Without further adieu, my Top 35 albums of 2021!
EXCLUSIVE TRACK PREMIERE: Hellfrost and Fire – Debris Wrought From Winter
Punishing down-tuned death metal riffs, belligerent drumming, and David Ingram’s trademark bellow.
Hayduke’s Top 50 0f 2021
Enjoy Hayduke’s Top 50 of 2021 list.
Vindicator – Communal Decay
I dead set thought I had accidently swtiched to a Voivod album. Now if that isn’t one of the finest compliments you can ever give a band, you may all kiss my lilly white arse.
Seven Nines and Tens – Over Opiated in a Forest of Whispering Speakers
“Over Opiated in a Forest of Whispering Speakers,” their third full length album, will be the band’s first with support from Willowtip Records. It comes out the first Friday of the new year, and I highly suggest you purchase a copy.
Sarke – Allsighr
Two dudes who love metal and living the metal lifestyle. What’s not to like?
Demonic Temple – Through The Stars Into The Abyss
Overall, this is occult black metal done right.
Funeral Mist – Deiform
‘Deiform’ will be released on Friday, December 17th, 2021 through Norma Evangelium Diaboli digitally and physically.
Tzompantli – Tlamanalli
This will not stop until all are crushed beneath it. Prepare for the end.
Dysthymia – Dysthymia
The ride is dark, and often hopeless. I also find it cathartic.
Lhaäd – Below
This debut album sucks all the air out of your lungs and holds you under for the entirety of its forty minute run-time.
Carnis Immortalis – The Ecstacy of Death
Quite frankly, I’m a little shook by how intensely good this album is.
EXCLUSIVE ALBUM STREAM: Noise Trail Immersion – Curia
This album is a masterpiece that will continue to unsettle me for years to come. Take note.
Bog Wizard – Miasmic Purple Smoke
Miasmic Purple Smoke (the album) is a sometimes caustic, sometimes psychedelic, always crushing journey of mesmeric riffs and ponderous rhythms.
EXCLUSIVE ALBUM STREAM: Ergholae Somptator – Mille vertiges fondent sur les âmes vides
Harsh earworms crawl through the sand of the listener’s psyche like shai-hulud in your brain, disturbing, disrupting, and defiling as they sizzle unnatural pathways.
EXCLUSIVE TRACK PREMIERE: Imperialist – He Who Mastered Shapes
Zenith flies deep into the furthest reaches of space. Will you take the voyage?
EXCLUSIVE TRACK STREAM: Wombbath – Divine Pain
Agma is a dark journey into the psyche. Punishing attacks lay over an ominous atmosphere that completely envelopes the listener.
EXCLUSIVE TRACK STREAM: Abscession – Prometheus Unbound
Thanks for showing us that the bare knuckle style is far from played out. We just need experts to show us the intricate brutality.
Sijjin – Sumerian Promises
Drawing heavily from old school, more thrash influenced death metal, they reject the caveman riff revival in favor of something more sinister.
EXCLUSIVE TRACK PREMIERE: Lähdön Aika – Hylkäys
Lähdön Aika may be tapping into the immense power of the earth itself, or maybe the consciousness of communal humanity.
Iskandr – Vergezicht
Vergezicht captures the sound of the Gelderland scene. Long, winding, and hauntingly medieval sounding tracks take the listener on a journey.
Crystal Coffin – The Starway Eternal
The Starway Eternal absolutely rips from note one until the final fade.
The Silver – Ward Of Roses
Ward of Roses wraps so many different things neatly into its palm, and it maintains its level of interest and intrigue from front to back with how well all of these different elements mix together. The vocal performances from both singers are utterly superb, and the instrumental performances are so damn tight.
