Spectral Voice‘s sophomore album Sparagmos (Dark Descent Records) is possessed by a dark anguish that draws you in. A decade or so ago this brand of Atmospheric Death Metal was labeled “occult death metal” and referenced bands like Necros Christos who follow Incantation’s lead down into the doomier depth of death metal. Continue reading
Delving into No Name Graves (Unique Leader), a constant quickly becomes evident.
The majority of the songs on the latest effort from Deathcore outfit The Last Ten Seconds Of Life feels introductory. Which is to say the tracks routinely edge listeners by delivering about seventy percent but never really breaks the surface.Continue reading
Music that’s right here, right now, with echoes of glories past. A dream of an album that takes off fast, edgy, in a punky rush, sounding like … a punky Rush!
The title of Hiraes’ new album, Dormant (Napalm Records), caught me a bit off guard.
The word “dormant” conjures images of calm, rest, inactivity. Yet, I’ve seen them play and listened to their first album numerous times, and nothing led me to believe that the band would be entering such a period or engaging in such a manner. Continue reading
The sign of a confident album is when the guest appearances bolster rather than salvage the work put in by the primary artists. Thus, Enterprise Earth’s Death: An Anthology (MNRK Heavy) is a certified scorcher in which the 11 featured tracks stand tall, both independently and as an aggregation of technically aligned Deathcore.
The wealth of intricacies and variety is but the starting point for this behemoth. So let’s get into it.Continue reading
Whilst Los Angeles’ Ashen Horde may have favoured a more Northern European tint their Black Metal sound, members of that band have gone on to form Abhoria. On Depths (Prosthetic Records) they continue to uphold their legacy of legitimacy seamlessly. This means they can create an authentic mood to translate this sound tangibly, however, there still is the question… can you write a song?Continue reading
The one-man riff-driven Atmospheric Black Metal act Malist consists of none other than the ever-talented multi-instrumentalist Ovfrost, who “believes that evil dominates the world”. The project is notable for featuring recurring themes that circulate around tyranny, war, and reclusion. To this day, Malist has released four full-length studio albums in a relentlessly belligerent pace, with the fifth full-length, Of Scorched Earth coming via Avantgarde Music.
Of Scorched Earth also marks the start of a new journey that Malist embarks on with the label.Continue reading
Two years after Russian post-Black Metal duo Olhava released Reborn, they return with Sacrifice (Avantgarde Music), their sixth full-length record which is no mean feat considering their self-titled debut only arrived in 2019.
So the word “prolific” might be somewhat of an understatement, as would the words “Long-Player” – as Sacrifice comes in at a whopping eighty-six minutes, quite the run time considering it features just four fully fledged tracks, and four synth/drone interludes. Continue reading
In 2024, opening your album with a song about warheads falling from the sky is not only timely but casts you as the needed herald of this year’s coming apocalypse and Almost Dead proves themselves to be up for the job on the aptly titled, Destruction Is All We Know (Innerstrength Records).
While they mix thrash and hardcore influences, an important detail when you take into consideration the thrash bands whose names stood the test of time, are those that did so by writing songs that were not only memorable, but employed singers whose voices stood out and did not default to having the vocals a mere obligatory afterthought. Something that metal strayed from over the past decade, but Almost Dead don’t fall prey to.Continue reading
In the beginning … there was Lucifer! And now this fifth full-length outing for the “occult metal” outfit proves to be a thoroughly satisfying, good ol’ heavy rock ’n’ roll album which, at its very best – the outstanding “Slow Dance In A Crypt” – can be downright beautiful and utterly beguiling.
With song-writing nous, all-round playing chops and excellent production, including a superb, crunchy guitar sound, Lucifer V (Nuclear Blast Records) has at its heart the clean, clear, commanding voice of Johanna Platow Andersson.Continue reading