Bear are a progressive hardcore/metal band from Belgium and this is their fifth album.
When the promo blurb states that an album is recommended for fans of bands such as Dillinger Escape Plan, Botch, and Norma Jean, how can you not check it out? Besides, I’m already a fan of Bear’s work, as both 2017’s /// and 2020’s Propaganda were very enjoyable slabs of angular heaviness. Continue reading “Bear – Vanta (Review)”
Aortha is a metal project based in Norway, and this is their debut album.
To best explain who/what Aortha is, let’s turn to the promo blurb – “AORTHA is new metal project/band founded by Predrag Glogovac . He was guitar player from known metal band in ex.Yugoslavia called MONOLIT which was active from 1988-1992 until war broke in country and band ceased to exist. Reunion in 2006-2008 and one fine album released on One Records from Belgrade «Arcana Balkanica» in 2008. Predrag has played in Norway with some known metal musicians for years. In 2020 with a lot of unreleased music and songs he started to gather old friends & musicians for project and album you have in hand is born.” Continue reading “Aortha – Monolit (Review)”
This is the fifth album from UK metalcore band Heart of a Coward.
Following on from 2019’s The Disconnect, Heart of a Coward have now returned with another slab of modern heavy music. Running to a lean 36 minutes, This Place Only Brings Death finds the band stripping back their sound somewhat, and refining their focus. Continue reading “Heart of a Coward – This Place Only Brings Death (Review)”
Tesseract are a UK progressive metal band and this is their fifth album.
This is my first time listening to Tesseract since their debut EP Concealing Fate back in 2010, (which appears to be one of my earliest reviews too). It seems that the band have developed and evolved very nicely since their humble djent-injected beginnings, and new record War of Being is leagues ahead of the material on that release. It seems I have some catching up to do at some point. Continue reading “Tesseract – War of Being (Review)”
This is the sixth album from UK metal band Sylosis.
Bringing together metalcore, thrash metal, melodic death metal, and a touch of progressive metal into their crunchy, punchy, modern metal framework, Sylosis have been doing good things with the style for many years now. A Sign of Things to Come provides us with a lean 43 minutes of new material, and finds the band on absolute fire. Continue reading “Sylosis – A Sign of Things to Come (Review)”
This is the third album from Swedish sludge metal band Vak.
The Islands contains 50 minutes of progressive sludge metal. Taking in parts of doom, sludge, stoner, psychedelic, and progressive rock, Vak build musical structures that are unusual and impressive. Continue reading “Vak – The Islands (Review)”
This is the third album from Greek melodic thrash/death metal band Bio-Cancer.
Strap yourself in and get ready for a wild ride. This isn’t the thrash metal of the 80s, although it’s absolutely influenced by it. Imagine early Kreator, only with increased intensity, and then throw in a energetic melodic death metal influence, and you’ll have a rough idea of where Bio-Cancer operate from. Continue reading “Bio-Cancer – Revengeance (Review)”
This is the third album from thrash metal band Demoniac, from Chile.
Demoniac are back with more ripping thrash that’s memorably enriched with non-standard ideas and songwriting, as well as clarinet, Moog, and accordion. The band’s idiosyncratic style was very nicely demonstrated on 2021’s So It Goes, and on Nube Negra they spend 42 minutes showcasing their individual style once more. Continue reading “Demoniac – Nube Negra (Review)”
This is the the debut album by US extreme metal band Till the Dirt.
Brought to us by the singer of Atheist, Outside the Spiral contains 46-minutes of atypical extreme metal. It has a death metal base, but this is spliced with a few different influences to create something a little outside of the norm. Continue reading “Till the Dirt – Outside the Spiral (Review)”
This is the fourth album from Noveria, a progressive power metal band from Italy.
Containing 108 minutes of material, The Gates of the Underworld is a feast of music for fans of luscious and rich progressive power metal. As a rough guide, think of a mix of bands such as Threshold, Evergrey, and Pagan’s Mind. Continue reading “Noveria – The Gates of the Underworld (Review)”
Wonderbox Metal 