This is the debut album from US blackened doom band Qaalm.
So here we have a gargantuan, monstrous record. With only four tracks it’s a long-form foulness that’s on offer here, one that spreads across the 70-minute playing time like a virulent plague. Continue reading “Qaalm – Resilience & Despair (Review)”
Celeste are a French blackened doom/sludge/hardcore band and this is their seventh album.
This is the follow up to 2017’s Infidèle(s), which I enjoyed a great deal. Clocking in at 41 minutes, this is on the shorter side for a Celeste album, and Assassine(s) finds the band focused and sharp. Continue reading “Celeste – Assassine(s) (Review)”
Mastiff are a hardcore/sludge metal band from the UK and this is their third album.
Following on from 2019’s well-received Plague, Leave Me the Ashes of the Earth contains 32 minutes of anger and violence. Continue reading “Mastiff – Leave Me the Ashes of the Earth (Review)”
Lunar Ark are a blackened doom band from the US and this is their debut album.
Each of the three tracks on this 49-minute album is a hideous, heaving monstrosity of grim blackened sludge and malevolent drone doom. It’s deeply nasty stuff, yet not without redeeming features. Continue reading “Lunar Ark – Recurring Nightmare (Review)”
Erdve are from Lithuania and play blackened hardcore sludge. This is their second album.
Following on from 2018’s crushing Vaitojimas, Erdve have returned with 43 minutes of new material. Savigaila contains eleven songs, compared with Vaitojimas‘s six, yet is only five minutes longer due to the overall shorter duration of the individual tracks. Continue reading “Erdve – Savigaila (Review)”
Another month, another truckload of top tier metal releases. 2021 just keeps on giving when it comes to music. I struggled hard to limit the below list to the ones that I did, and could easily have included more albums from what was a very packed April. Continue reading “Monthly Overview – the Best of April 2021”
Oryx are a sludge metal band from the US and this is their third album.
Oryx combine waves of crushing doom with pulverising sludge groove. As a simple description of what you’ll encounter on this album, it serves, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. The band’s apocalyptic heaviness also contains moments of dark Continue reading “Oryx – Lamenting a Dead World (Review)”
This is the second album from US black metal band Lord Almighty.
Lord Almighty play a modern brand of progressive black metal that incorporates elements of blackened thrash, sludge, crust, and rock into its vibrant embrace. The press blurb invokes bands such as Darkthrone, Kvelertak, Thin Lizzy, Mastodon, Continue reading “Lord Almighty – Wither (Review)”
Yatra are a doom band from the US and this is their debut album.
Now here we have an album that’s infused with darkness; it’s almost tangible, but in a warm, smoky way. Mixing ugly doom, riff-hungry stoner, blackened sludge, and harsh drone influences into 45 minutes of material, Death Ritual showcases the dark underbelly of doom metal. Continue reading “Yatra – Death Ritual (Review)”
The Lion’s Daughter are a progressive blackened sludge metal band and this is their third album.
The Lion’s Daughter always seem willing to try out new things, enhancing their core of heavy sludge with all manner of different elements depending on their mood and interests at the time. Thus far, for me their most striking Continue reading “The Lion’s Daughter – Future Cult (Review)”
Wonderbox Metal 