Wonderbox Metal

Year of No Light – Les Maîtres Fous (Review)

This is the latest release from French post-metal band Year of No Light.

Les Maîtres Fous is a single 29-minute track that finds Year of No Light at their most droning incarnation. For context for this record, I’m just going to reproduce some of the promo blurb – “Commissioned by Musée Du Quai Branly in Paris for their 2012 ‘L’Invention Du Sauvage’ exhibition, the trance-metal pioneers approached the ritual practices of the Hauka movement as depicted in the film and responded with their uniquely hypnotic heaviness.

Performed only twice, once at the exhibition on the 6th January, 2012 and again in Bordeaux on the 29th January, 2015; this release is a live recording of the second and final performance of ‘Les Maîtres Fous’. ” Continue reading “Year of No Light – Les Maîtres Fous (Review)”

Lera – Rêverie (Review)

Lera are an Italian post-metal band and this is their debut album.

Containing a graceful mix of post-metal, doom, and post-rock, Rêverie is a 40-minute journey into intricacy and heaviness. Lera have produced a record that is worth spending time with, unravelling its charms and secrets. Continue reading “Lera – Rêverie (Review)”

Holy Scum – All We Have Is Never (Review)

This is the second album from US industrial band Holy Scum.

Bringing together elements of noise, experimental, noise rock, punk, post-punk, and industrial, into a textured and engaging collection of tracks. All We Have Is Never is a 42-minute album that’s very enjoyable to listen to. Continue reading “Holy Scum – All We Have Is Never (Review)”

Iku-Turso – Wolfheart (Review)

This is the latest EP/mini-album from Iku-Turso, a Finnish/Dutch black metal band.

Brought to us by current/ex-members of From the Vastland, Khanus, and Order of Nosferat, Wolfheart contains 30 minutes of material, consisting of four original tracks and an Emperor cover. Iku-Turso play old-school black metal, steeped in the lore of the Scandinavian second wave. Continue reading “Iku-Turso – Wolfheart (Review)”

Darkenhöld – Le Fléau du Rocher (Review)

This is the sixth album from French black metallers Darkenhöld.

Following on from 2020’s Arcanes & Sortilèges, Le Fléau du Rocher gives us 48 minutes of new material from Darkenhöld. The band’s medieval black metal hits the spot, conjuring landscapes of blackened texture for the listener to explore. Continue reading “Darkenhöld – Le Fléau du Rocher (Review)”

Gaahls Wyrd – Braiding the Stories (Review)

This is the second album from Gaahls Wyrd, an avant-garde/dark metal band from Norway.

I really liked both 2019’s Gastir – Ghosts Invited and 2021’s The Humming Mountain, so the 42-minute Braiding the Stories is gratefully received. This is not music to be casually experienced, but an experience to be explored at length. Continue reading “Gaahls Wyrd – Braiding the Stories (Review)”

Sacred Noose – Vanishing Spires (Review)

This is the debut album by Sacred Noose, a black/death metal band from Northern Ireland.

Vanishing Spires offers up a 31-minute concoction of poisonous black, death, and doom metal, all poured into a think tar-like substance of misery, pestilence, and woe. Sacred Noose are like a shroud of horror and violence hiding a deeper malevolence that just wants everything to decay and wither away.

Continue reading “Sacred Noose – Vanishing Spires (Review)”

Aphonic Threnody – A Silence Too Old (Review)

Aphonic Threnody are a UK funeral doom band and this is their sixth album.

New Aphonic Threnody is always a gloomy, miserable treat. Of Loss and Grief, The Great Hatred, The All Consuming Void, and the colossal The Loneliest Walk were all exemplars of funeral doom, so make sure you check them out if you haven’t. This time around, the artist behind Aphonic Threnody gives us 64 minutes of darkness in the shape of A Silence Too Old, which, as an added treat, features the ultra-prolific Déhà on vocals. Continue reading “Aphonic Threnody – A Silence Too Old (Review)”

Rivers of Nihil – Rivers of Nihil (Review)

This is the fifth album from US death metal band Rivers of Nihil.

Ah, the eponymously titled album, so far into a band’s career always gives me pause. Does it mark a career-best record, a reinvention, or a lack of identity? The album even carries a song called Rivers of Nihil. What’s going on here then? Which way will the band go with this? Continue reading “Rivers of Nihil – Rivers of Nihil (Review)”

Weeping Sores – The Convalescence Agonies (Review)

Weeping Sores are a death/doom band from the US and this is their second album.

Brought to us by two members from bands such as Pyrrhon, Scarcity, and Seputus, The Convalescence Agonies contains 45 minutes of material. The style is death/doom, enriched with cello, keyboards, and on one track banjo. Continue reading “Weeping Sores – The Convalescence Agonies (Review)”