Mur – Cut the Rivers Vein (Review)

Mur - Cut the Rivers VeinThis is the fourth album from one-man blackened doom act Mur.

Cut the Rivers Vein spends 51 minutes mixing together doom, post-metal, and black metal, with elements of folk, ambient, and drone, to great effect. Continue reading “Mur – Cut the Rivers Vein (Review)”

Sonic Assault – Neon-Lit Metropolis (Review)

Sonic Assault - Neon-Lit MetropolisThis is the debut album from Swedish progressive thrash metal band Sonic Assault.

Sonic Assault’s music contains elements of hardcore, (primarily in the vocals), and black metal, but mostly the style is one of progressive/technical thrash, played with conviction and skill. Continue reading “Sonic Assault – Neon-Lit Metropolis (Review)”

Tine – Mergae Maris Profundi (Review)

Tine - Mergae Maris ProfundiThis is the second album from US solo symphonic black/death metal act Tine.

Tine’s debut album – The Forest Dreams of Black – was one that I enjoyed a great deal, and I can’t quite believe that it came out seven years ago. I’m pleased to say that we now have a new album on the horizon – Mergae Maris Profundi – which provides us with 54 minutes of blackened death metal to hungrily consume. Continue reading “Tine – Mergae Maris Profundi (Review)”

The Mist from the Mountains – Monumental – The Temple of Twilight (Review)

The Mist from the Mountains - Monumental - The Temple of TwilightThe Mist from the Mountains are a Finnish black metal band and this is their debut album.

Monumental – The Temple of Twilight contains 38 minutes of 90s-influenced nature-inspired black metal. The promo blurb mentions bands from that era such as Old Man’s Child, Gehenna, Dimmu Borgir, and Borknagar, which, coupled with the enticing album art, meant I definitely had to give The Mist from the Mountains some of my attention. Continue reading “The Mist from the Mountains – Monumental – The Temple of Twilight (Review)”

Celeste – Assassine(s) (Review)

Celeste - Assassine(s)Celeste are a French blackened doom/sludge/hardcore band and this is their seventh album.

This is the follow up to 2017’s Infidèle(s), which I enjoyed a great deal. Clocking in at 41 minutes, this is on the shorter side for a Celeste album, and Assassine(s) finds the band focused and sharp. Continue reading “Celeste – Assassine(s) (Review)”

Dawn of Solace – Flames of Perdition (Review)

Dawn of Solace - Flames of PerditionThis is the third album from Finnish melodic metal band Dawn of Solace.

Blending elements of melodic, doom, and Gothic metal into a melancholic whole, Flames of Perdition is a mournful feast of emotive metallic delights. Bands such as Continue reading “Dawn of Solace – Flames of Perdition (Review)”

Label Roundup: Dying Victims Productions – Tension, Tangent, & Vicious Knights (Reviews)

Wonderbox Metal gets sent a lot of new music, (which is great), but there’s no way that everything can get covered unfortunately, (which is not so great). This new column hopes to redress this balance, if only slightly, by taking a look at a handful of releases that a record label has recently sent out that might have otherwise slipped through the cracks.

Have you heard of Dying Victims Productions? They deal mostly with traditional heavy metal, and the label is home to a number of great bands and great albums, (Witchseeker are just one such example). The below three releases all see the light of day on January 28th 2022, so I thought it’s a great to catch up with some of the label’s latest output. Continue reading “Label Roundup: Dying Victims Productions – Tension, Tangent, & Vicious Knights (Reviews)”

Standard Interrogation Techniques: Five Questions for Wilderun (Interview)

Although I’d ideally love to be able to conduct hard-hitting, in-depth interviews, who has the time these days? In lieu of this, I’ve thrown together the below question template, hopefully to gather some interesting and informative results, without taking up too much of anyone’s time.

Introduce yourself – who are you and what do you do?

My name is Evan, and I sing and play rhythm guitar for Wilderun. I am also sort of the main songwriter for the band, although it is a very collaborative process. I simply provide the skeletons of the songs, and the rest of the band helps arrange and colour them to make them what they are now. Continue reading “Standard Interrogation Techniques: Five Questions for Wilderun (Interview)”

The Last Ten Seconds of Life – The Last Ten Seconds of Life (Review)

The Last Ten Seconds of LifeThe Last Ten Seconds of Life are a US deathcore band, this is their fifth album.

I last heard The Last Ten Seconds of Life on their 2016 album The Violent Sound, which was an enjoyable excursion into rowdy metal waters. On their latest album the band have taken a slight step back with their their hybrid sound; it’s still part-deathcore, part nu-metal, part hardcore, and Continue reading “The Last Ten Seconds of Life – The Last Ten Seconds of Life (Review)”