Monthly Overview – the Best of September 2018

Another month, another slew of quality metal releases. September has been a good one, so let’s take a look at some of the albums that really caught my attention.

We’ll start this month’s overview with Terrorvision by the mighty Aborted. What’s not to like here? Razor-edge brutality and catchy bloodshed are what this band do best, and their latest album is full of deathly delights. Top work from this veteran band.

It’s time for some Norwegian savagery now, as Attan unleash their serrated debut album on us. End Of is an impressive collection of gnarled heaviness and oppressive depth. I have been waiting for what seems like forever for this one, and the band have exceeded my expectations.

Skullcave’s Fear is a sprawling monolithic album full of heavy emotive presence and atmospheric weight. There’s a lot of potent ideas and well-delivered creativity on this release, and Skullcave’s progressive doom is definitely something to watch out for in the future.

Anaal Nathrakh‘s latests slice of venom A New Kind of Horror is one of the band’s best as far as I’m concerned. Catchy, brutal, scathing, nasty, abrasive, and many similar words; A New Kind of Horror is little short of devastating.

Malthusian’s Across Deaths is an equally nasty piece of work, although in a different way. This is ugly blackened death metal, combining atonal dissonance with blackened corruption to great effect. Layered in grime and filth, Across Deaths is poisonous and destructive.

Let’s move on to something a little different now – All Love Is True Love by The Primals. This is a record for any rock fan that lives for fuzzy, grunge-influenced rock. Also boasting an old-school punk influence, this album hit me harder than I was expecting, and it’s my great pleasure to recommend it here.

Speaking of pleasure, let’s now visit the exquisitely emotive doom metal of Promethean Misery. This one woman project is really on to something here. Her distorted violin-based doom is captivating and heartfelt, and I urge you in the strongest possible terms to check out Tied up with Strings.

The next band on the list will be no stranger to many, although on their latest album they’ve gone deeper into progressive death metal waters than ever before. The Outer Ones by Revocation is a treat for fans of complex, brutally aggressive music, and it’s an album that’s well worth getting to know.

There’s been more great death metal this month too in the shape of Serpent’s Curse by Heads for the Dead. What can you say about this album? It hits like a truck, has macabre atmospheric depths, and is packed with Grade A death metal tunes. Absolute top quality stuff.

September saw the release of the second Un album, and what a stunning collection of doom tracks it is. Sentiment contains beautifully rich and powerfully crafted music, the likes of which you don’t come across very often.

We’ll, (almost), end September’s roundup with In Lands Thought Lost by Paths. This is Scandinavian-influenced atmospheric black metal of the highest order. This really is an album to fall deeply into, one that you can absorb over time, getting lost in its rich melodies, dark introspection, and raw blast beat-driven hatred.