Varaha are an atmospheric metal band from the US and this is their debut album.
This album contains 69 minutes of music that merges doom, post-black, Gothic, and post-metal together into a beguiling and affecting package. Continue reading
This is the debut album from Experior Obscura, a one man, (and session drummer), Italian black metal act.
Apparently this is a reworked, remastered, and generally revisited and updated version of a 2015 demo. I haven’t heard the original to comment on the differences, but this version of Iter in Nebula sounds good, both musically and production-wise. Continue reading
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
Heaume Mortal’s debut album Solstices is a monolithic slab of blackened doom, one which unveils more and more dark delights as you listen to it. Getting to know this sterling piece of work is a pleasure, and I heartily recommend taking the time to explore it.
The main artist behind this project is Guillaume Morlat, so let’s find out a bit more about what makes him and Heaume Mortal tick… 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
None are a black metal band from the US and this is their third album.
The artists behind None have released an album every April since 2017’s very enjoyable self titled debut. In 2018 we were treated to the superior and very well-formed Life Has Gone on Enough, which saw the band’s blackened vision improve even further. Now it’s 2019, and we have Damp Chill of Life, the apex of their development so far. 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
