Lunar Ark are a blackened doom band from the US and this is their debut album.
Each of the three tracks on this 49-minute album is a hideous, heaving monstrosity of grim blackened sludge and malevolent drone doom. It’s deeply nasty stuff, yet not without redeeming features. Continue reading “Lunar Ark – Recurring Nightmare (Review)”
This is the latest EP from Æpoch, a Canadian progressive death metal band.
This EP delivers 19 minutes of Æpoch’s modern progressive/technical death metal assault. Laced with black and thrash metal elements, (but less than previously), and powered by melodic might, Hiraeth is a short but satisfying hit of metallic aggression. Continue reading “Æpoch – Hiraeth (Review)”
Runespell is a solo black metal band from Australia, and this is his fourth album.
I like a bit of Runespell. I’ve enjoyed watching the band develop from 2017’s Unhallowed Blood Oath, through 2018’s Order of Vengeance, to 2019’s Voice of Opprobrium. It’s now time for a new offering, and Verses in Regicide contains 38 minutes of the good stuff. Continue reading “Runespell – Verses in Regicide (Review)”
This is a split between two death metal bands from the Netherlands, Grim Fate and The Sombre.
Grim Fate get the ball rolling with three songs that last 23 minutes in total. Continue reading “Grim Fate/The Sombre – From Ancient Slumber/The Horrid Silence Thus Began – Split (Review)”
This is the latest EP from UK death/thrash metallers Dominicide.
This four track EP has a duration of 24 minutes and showcases Dominicide’s brand of modern metallic assault. The music mixes death and thrash metal, while also incorporating at various points across the EP elements of deathcore and even symphonic enhancements. Continue reading “Dominicide – The Architecture of Oppression (Review)”
Thecodontion are an italian blackened death metal band, and Vessel of Iniquity is a solo UK black metal act.
Thecodontion present us with two songs lasting 12 minutes in total. Continue reading “Thecodontion/Vessel of Iniquity – The Permian-Triassic Extinction Event – Split (Review)”
Defacement are a blackened death metal band from the Netherlands and this is their second album.
Featuring members of Earth and Pillars and Cryptic Shift, Defacement contains 41 minutes of material, but only four of the eight tracks are actual songs. The remaining four are intro/interludes that I was expecting to dismiss as pointless as most of their ilk are, but I was Continue reading “Defacement – Defacement (Review)”
This is the second album from UK death metallers Beyond Grace.
2014’s Monstrous showed buckets of promise, which 2017’s debut album Seekers delivered upon. It’s now 2021 and Beyond Grace have returned with 47 minutes of new material. Is the time well spent? Continue reading “Beyond Grace – Our Kingdom Undone (Review)”
While August was a slower month than some others have been this year for first class metal albums, it was still home to more than enough top releases to warrant this list. Continue reading “Monthly Overview – the Best of August 2021”
This is the debut album from US death metal band Wharflurch.
Across six tracks and 35 minutes, Wharflurch deliver a doom-infested slab of malformed, rancid death metal.
Wharflurch’s death metal contains an experimental edge that’s been dulled by humid rot, but is no less striking and potent for it. Continue reading “Wharflurch – Psychedelic Realms ov Hell (Review)”
Wonderbox Metal 