This is the third album from Italian black metal band Earth and Pillars.
2016’s Pillars I consisted of four monolithic tracks that made a very good impression. A release full of dark delights, it was a memorable album that still holds itself very well three years later. Continue reading
This is the fourth album from Cloud Rat, a grindcore band from the US.
In my humble opinion Cloud Rat are one of the most forward-thinking, talented, and innovative grindcore bands out there, although simply labelling them grindcore is misleading and constricting, as their work frequently features so much more than your standard grindcore fare. Releases such as Qliphoth, and their various splits demonstrate this amply. Continue reading
This is the third album from US solo blackened doom band Mizmor, or מזמור.
Providing a lethal concoction of black metal, funeral doom, and drone across 57 minutes, this album is a harrowing and affecting journey into lost faith and existential crisis. It’s powerful, and an album that is clearly special upon even the first listen; repeated visits merely reinforce how exceptional it is. Continue reading
This is the debut album from Heathe, a blackened doom/drone project from Denmark.
Apparently created by a core of one person who was then aided and abetted by multiple others, this band have crafted here a single 38-minute track named On the Tombstones. It has apparently been recorded live, with a structure enhanced by improvisation in places, which is probably why the music feels so vibrant, albeit in a bleak, nihilistic ways. Continue reading
This is the fifth album from Italian doom band Nibiru.
This is occult, ritualistic doom, drawing elements of black metal, sludge, drone, noise, and psychedelia into itself and crushing it down into a super dense material that’s used to fashion the imposing tracks on Salbrox. Continue reading
Into Orbit are a post-metal band from New Zealand. This is their third album.
Having really enjoyed 2017’s Unearthing, getting to listen to a new album from Into Orbit is a treat, especially one as good as this. Continue reading
March proved to be this year’s strongest month for metal releases yet. I was hard-pressed to keep this list as short as it is, and any of the albums listed below are worthy of your attention. Continue reading
Sloth Hammer are an experimental sludge/doom band from the UK. This is their second album.
No guitars, two vocalists, two electronicists, (is that a word?), two drummers, and plenty of bass, Sloth Hammer bring the pain on their second album across a colossal and punishing 78 minutes, recorded live and improvised. Continue reading
This is the fourth album from 11Paranoias, a UK sludge/doom band.
This is the follow up to 2016’s Reliquary for a Dreamed of World, which introduced me to 11Paranoias’ drugged out psychedelic existence. Continue reading
This is a split between two US doom outfits, Primitive Man and Hell.
My love for and enjoyment of Primitive Man will be familiar to readers of this site. Suffice to say that I consider them to be one of the best purveyors of ugly, apocalyptic sludge/doom that there is. Continue reading
