This is the debut album from Everest Queen, a sludge metal band from the UK.
Having enjoyed 2016’s self titled debut EP it’s good to have a full length from the band now. This is progressive sludge metal, with an imposing presence and plenty of riffs. The band’s promo blurb states that this is for fans of High on Fire, Om, Mastodon, and Isis, and it’s hard to disagree. Continue reading
This is the second album from US funeral doom band Chalice of Suffering.
2016’s For You I Die was an album I enjoyed, so it’s very agreeable to have a new slab of torment from the band. And what a considerable slab of torment and suffering it is too. Continue reading
Dead to a Dying World are a blackened doom band from the US and this is their third album.
2015’s Litany was a sprawling, ambitious album. It was also very good, although this new release is something quite new and special in some ways. The band have returned with the even more expansive and developed Elegy. Showing greater focus of delivery, (49 minutes vs Litany’s 73), Elegy is also wider ranging and boasts Continue reading
This is the second album from Spanish doom/heavy metallers Totengott.
This immense album is a hard one to describe with genre tags. It’s a mix of doom and thrash/heavy metal, but with elements of black, death, and progressive metal added in too, (as well as forays into dark ambient waters). The promo blurb mentions Continue reading
Inter Arma are a US post-metal band and this is their fourth album.
A new Inter Arma release is always welcome. 2014’s The Cavern was a stunning record that topped my end of year list, and although 2016’s Paradise Gallows didn’t ascend to the same heights, it was an album that I still deem as an essential listen, (and in hindsight should definitely have been higher up on 2016’s list). Continue reading
Blind Monarch are a UK doom band and this is their debut album.
Grim, foul, ugly, rotten, bleak, harsh…these and similar words can all be levelled at Blind Monarch’s colossal 56-minute debut album. Across four towering tracks the band embody all of these negatively charged words and more, all in the quest for the most despairing, hopeless doom they can find. Continue reading
This is the second album from Italian post-metallers John, the Void.
After the band’s 2014 debut EP they jumped forward in style and quality with 2016’s II, and now they’re back with 48 minutes of new material for the listener to become absorbed in. Continue reading
This is the fourth album from UK atmospheric/post-metal band Latitudes.
Having enjoyed 2016’s Old Sunlight, when Part Island made its presence felt I was compelled to sample its delights. I’m glad I did, as Part Island is a stunningly well-realised development of the band’s sound. Continue reading
Sloth Hammer are an experimental sludge/doom band from the UK. This is their second album.
No guitars, two vocalists, two electronicists, (is that a word?), two drummers, and plenty of bass, Sloth Hammer bring the pain on their second album across a colossal and punishing 78 minutes, recorded live and improvised. Continue reading
Illimitable Dolor are from Australia, and play atmospheric death/doom metal.
Following on from their split with Promethean Misery, I was keen to hear more from Illimitable Dolor. Well, now is that opportunity; Leaden Light contains 52 minutes of material, carved into five exquisite slices. Continue reading
