This is the third album from Finnish death metallers Ghastly.
Ghastly specialise in death metal that has a sort of creeping, otherworldly malevolence to it. It’s atmospheric and sinister in ways that are unusual. You can hear the debt that has been paid to band’s such as Death and Autopsy, etc., but you can equally Continue reading “Ghastly – Mercurial Passages (Review)”
Noctule is a one-woman black metal band from the UK, and this is her debut album.
Brought to us by the singer/guitarist of Svalbard, Wretched Abyss is a 42-minute Skyrim-themed album that takes some of the darker and melodic elements you can hear in Svalbard’s sound, and wraps them around a blackened core. Continue reading “Noctule – Wretched Abyss (Review)”
This is the third album from German deathcore band Mental Cruelty.
This is the follow up to 2019’s Inferis, although A Hill to Die Upon is a different beast to its predecessor. Although the foundations are the same, they’ve been built upon and reshaped into a far darker, more blackened Continue reading “Mental Cruelty – A Hill to Die Upon (Review)”
This is the fourth album from Swiss heavy metallers Burning Witches.
I always enjoy hearing some new material from this band. Can they follow up 2018’s Hexenhammer and 2020’s Dance with the Devil with another slab of prime heavy metal goodness?
The answer is Continue reading “Burning Witches – The Witch of the North (Review)”
This is the second album from Alluvial, a modern death metal band from the US.
Sarcoma contains 38 minutes of progressive death metal. Alluvial fuse their modern approach to the style with technical, progressive, and atmospheric flourishes, yet do so in a restrained song-based way. This results in songs that are atypical expressions of Continue reading “Alluvial – Sarcoma (Review)”
Alastor are a Swedish doom metal band and this is their second album.
Onwards and Downwards contains 46 minutes of old-school music that sits somewhere between doom metal and psychedelic hard rock. Continue reading “Alastor – Onwards and Downwards (Review)”
This is the seventh album from Impure Wilhelmina, a Swiss post-metal band.
The music takes progressive post-metal/rock, post-hardcore, and indie/alt-rock, throws in a healthy amount of goth influences, and even has a blackened veneer in places. Continue reading “Impure Wilhelmina – Antidote (Review)”
This is the debut album from US hardcore band Tooth and Claw.
A band containing members of Earth Crisis and Sect couldn’t fail to get my attention. Across 22 minutes, Tooth and Claw provide us with a raging version of old-school metallic hardcore that also occasionally flexes some death metal muscles with some of the guitars. Imagine a mix of Earth Crisis, Merauder, and Obituary, and you’ll be on the right lines. Continue reading “Tooth and Claw – Dream of Ascension (Review)”
This is the latest EP from French sludge doom band Cult of Occult.
Ruin contains a single 22-minute eponymous track; a nightmarish monster of prodigious proportions. Not only that, but there’s also a bonus track in the form of a remix of the title track, which itself lasts 19 minutes. Overall, this release boasts 41 minutes of anguished blackened sludge doom. It’s nasty, but it’s also damn good. Continue reading “Cult of Occult – Ruin (Review)”
This is the fourth album from Jarun, a Polish progressive black metal band.
Both 2015’s Pod Niebem Utkanym z Popiołu and 2017’s Sporysz were very enjoyable blackened progressive/folk hybrids, and their newest album continues Jarun’s unbroken run of high quality releases. Continue reading “Jarun – Rok Spokojnego Słońca (Review)”
Wonderbox Metal 