Reviews – Page 315 – Wonderbox Metal

Sigh – Heir to Despair (Review)

Sigh are a Japanese black/avant-garde metal band and this is their eleventh album.

A new Sigh album is always somewhat of an event, and you never really quite know what you’re going to be getting yourself into with it. This latest album follows on after the symphonic blackened offering of 2015’s Graveward, but distances itself from its predecessor quite significantly by giving us 53 minutes of material that’s been influenced by folk and old/obscure progressive rock more than ever before. Continue reading “Sigh – Heir to Despair (Review)”

1914 – The Blind Leading the Blind (Review)

1914 are a Ukrainian blackened death/doom band and this is their second album.

I enjoy 1914’s work a lot, (check out Eschatology of War and their split with Minenwerfer, for example). With an appropriate concept for a band with this name, their latest creation is crushingly heavy and full of monolithic songs that devastate and destroy. Continue reading “1914 – The Blind Leading the Blind (Review)”

Burning Witches – Hexenhammer – (Review)

Hexenhammer are a heavy metal band from Switzerland and this is their second album.

Featuring a member of Ursinne, here we have 48 minutes of old-school heavy metal spiced up with elements of speed/thrash and power metal here and there. Continue reading “Burning Witches – Hexenhammer – (Review)”

Psycroptic – As the Kingdom Drowns (Review)

Psycroptic are an Australian technical death metal band and this is their seventh album.

I massively, hugely enjoyed 2015’s self-titled album, and the more I’ve got to know it over the years the more I’ve come to appreciate just how good of a record it is. Continue reading “Psycroptic – As the Kingdom Drowns (Review)”

Cult Leader – A Patient Man (Review)

Cult Leader are a progressive hardcore/crust band from the US and this is their second album.

A Patient Man gives us 48 minutes of dense, chaotic violence and intensity, but also much more than this. Continue reading “Cult Leader – A Patient Man (Review)”

Ohhms – Exist (Review)

Ohhms are a UK doom band and this is their second album.

Hot on the heels of 2017’s The Fool, we unexpectedly, (to me anyway), have a brand new album from Ohhms. The Fool was an album that I initially enjoyed a great deal, but soon proved itself to be a real grower, and over time truly revealed itself to be a rich, multifaceted, and hugely enjoyable release. Continue reading “Ohhms – Exist (Review)”

Unhold – Here Is the Blood (Review)

Unhold are a sludge/post-metal band from Switzerland and this is their fifth album.

2015’s Towering lived up to its name, and was a monolithic and notable record. I said that Towering offered Continue reading “Unhold – Here Is the Blood (Review)”

Thron – Abysmal (Review)

Thron are a German melodic black metal band and this is their second album.

Thron play professionally-recorded black metal influenced by the second wave, with bands such as Dissection, Dimmu Borgir, Naglfar, Necrophobic, and Marduk worthy of mention as decent starting points for Abysmal. Continue reading “Thron – Abysmal (Review)”

Bismuth – The Slow Dying of the Great Barrier Reef (Review)

This is the second album from UK doom/drone band Bismuth.

Ever since first hearing The Eternal Marshes I’ve been a fan of what Bismuth do. Over the years they’ve continued to develop their bass-drum-synth-low-end-heavy-doom-assault-on-the-senses approach to music. Every release essentially sees them rising to new heights of both extremity and nuance, and this has now culminated in this new colossal album. Continue reading “Bismuth – The Slow Dying of the Great Barrier Reef (Review)”

Witherfall – A Prelude to Sorrow (Review)

This is the second album from Witherfall, a progressive/melodic metal band from the US.

Featuring members and ex-members of various notable bands, including Iced Earth, this is 57 minutes of polished, dark heavy metal that’s a blend of exotic power metal, rich melodic metal, and progressive metal exploratory worldbuilding. Continue reading “Witherfall – A Prelude to Sorrow (Review)”