Hope Drone are an Australian post-black metal band and this is their second album.
This is easily one of my most anticipated releases of 2019. 2015’s Cloak of Ash was a colossal work, one which I’ve grown to enjoy more and more over the years, and a new album is long overdue. Delivering 64 minutes of material across five new songs, Void Lustre has been worth the wait. Continue reading
This is the third album form Swedish modern metal band Aktaion.
I’ve been a fan of Aktaion ever since their debut album Throne in 2015. They then followed this up with the improved The Parade of Nature a year later. The bigger gap between that album and Above Empires seems to have paid off, and the band’s third album truly sees them blossoming even bigger. Continue reading
Gurthang are a Polish black metal band and this is their sixth album.
Ascension contains 57 minutes of textured black metal modelled on the second wave, but mixed with some more modern influences and enhanced with doom elements in places. Continue reading
This is the second album from Swedish melodic death metallers Frantic Amber.
Boasting ex-members of Insision and Ice Age in their ranks, Frantic Amber play death metal that combines melody and brutality into songs that are well-written and tight. Continue reading
Killswitch Engage are a metalcore band from the US and this is their eighth album.
Killswitch Engage are one of the larger, more recognisable names out there in the metal landscape, and I’m sure they need little introduction. Suffice it to say that they’re a big deal in certain circles. Continue reading
This is the second album from Ragnell, a black/death metal band from Mexico.
This is an enjoyable mix of black and death metal, with the ratio skewed towards to the black side a bit more than the death one. Continue reading
This is the second album from Uniform & The Body, a collaboration between industrial rockers Uniform and experimental metallers The Body. Both are from the US.
I haven’t reviewed Uniform before, but I like 2018’s The Long Walk. As for The Body, you can see some examples of my appreciation for their work here, here, and here. Continue reading
Bound in Fear are a UK deathcore band and this is their debut album.
This is downtempo deathcore, which essentially means slow and heavy. Massive, thick chugging guitars crush and destroy, while the singer seems to be vomiting daemons with his absolutely monstrous growls. Continue reading
This is the debut album from Shock Narcotic, a grindcore band from the US.
Featuring current and ex-members of bands such as The Dillinger Escape Plan, Child Bite, and The Black Dahlia Murder, this is 19 minutes of nasty grindcore mixed with elements of chaotic hardcore and jagged metal. Continue reading
This is the second album from US black metallers Salvaticus.
2014 seems quite long ago, but that was when the very enjoyable Hidden Manna was released. I really, really liked that record, and it even made my end of year list for that year. Over five years later, the band have now returned with Ordo Naturalis, and it seems they have been busy. Continue reading
