Khanate are a doom/drone band from the US and this is their fifth album.
The unthinkable has happened. Utterly impossible. After 14 years, a new Khanate album has arisen from the depths of untold bottomless horror to grace an undeserving planet with its unique form of grim darkness. How and why it has appeared now is anyone’s guess, but surely it must be a sign of the end times? Continue reading “Khanate – To Be Cruel (Review)”
Hellish Form are a doom/sludge band from the US and this is their second album.
Embrace the atmospheric nightmare sludge of Hellish Form. If you do, you won’t regret it. Featuring members of Body Void, Elder Devil, and Keeper, Deathless contains 48 minutes of the good stuff. If by good stuff you mean a compelling mood-focused mix of funeral doom, sludge, and drone, of course. Continue reading “Hellish Form – Deathless (Review)”
Orme are a doom/drone band from the UK and this is their debut album.
Orme, (featuring a member of Everest Queen), play long-form droning doom, and on their debut album they haven’t held back. Orme only has two tracks, but there’s still 96 minutes of music here. Nazarene is 42 minutes long and Onward to Sarnath is 54 minutes long. Either one of these would have sufficed as the band’s debut album, but apparently Orme don’t do things by halves. Continue reading “Orme – Orme (Review)”
Big | Brave are a doom/drone band from Canada and this is their sixth album.
I haven’t caught up with Big | Brave since 2017’s Ardor, so Nature Morte‘s alluring cover is good enough of a reason to catch up with what the band are doing once more.
Neutraliser are a drone project from the UK and this is their debut album.
Featuring a member of 11Paranoias and Bong, Capsule Bowed Space is a single 79-minute track of experimental drone soundscapes. Continue reading “Neutraliser – Capsule Bowed Space (Review)”
This is the second album from Рожь (otherwise known as Rye), a one-man post-black metal band from Russia.
Across 47 minutes Всё provides a compelling and utterly absorbing journey into dark feelings and blackened emotion. Honestly, this is not one to miss if you enjoy highly emotive blackened immersion. Continue reading “Рожь (Rye) – Всё (Review)”
So here we are again. It’s December, and year end lists are flying around like shrapnel. Due to the inherent subjectivity of music it’s always interesting to see what people have made of the preceding year.
For me, I made a concerted effort to drag myself away from the depths of black metal’s always-enticing abyss to spend some more time with other genres and styles that I also love. I said something similar last year, but I feel this year I was more successful in achieving that end. Of course, I still love black metal, still listen to it constantly, and you’ll still find some great examples of the blackened arts in the list below.
2022 was a strong year for death metal for me, and I enjoyed more death metal bands in a deeper way than I have done for some time. In every year there are standout releases, but I felt this year the standard was raised throughout. Possibly I was simply more receptive to it. Either way, you’ll find more death metal-related acts, and in higher spots, in this selection than you’ll have seen in my lists for a while.
As with last year, grindcore was largely absent from my year, disappointingly, as was hardcore. Additionally, the sort of lengthy, ugly, abyssal doom that I love so much has been largely lacking too. It’s all probably out there somewhere, but I didn’t catch it.
The top two spots this year are both claimed by albums/bands/styles that I simply could not have predicted would be at the pinnacle of my list by the year’s end, (one of the bands I hadn’t even heard of in January). I hope you enjoy these excellent records even half as much as I do.
Lastly I just want to say a big thank you to any and all that might read this site. It’s only a small endeavour, and I do it purely for the love of all things METAL and to support bands that I enjoy in whatever minor way I can, but if this is you, a heartfelt thank you for enduring my scribblings.
On to it! Continue reading “Wonderbox Metal End of Year List – Best Metal of 2022”
This is the second album from US doom band Forlesen.
2020’s Hierophan Violent was a strikingly individual record, one which, for some reason, I never expected a successor to. Well, I’m happy to be wrong; Black Terrain is flush with 59 minutes of new material from this exceptional act. It’s almost double the length of its predecessor, so do Forlesen make good use of this additional running time? Continue reading “Forlesen – Black Terrain (Review)”
This is the second album from Ggu:ll, a blackened doom band from the Netherlands.
Featuring ex-members of Dodecahedron, Ex Est contains 45 minutes of music that’s sharp, bleak, and harsh. With the promo blurb stating that Ex Est is for fans of Mizmor, Bell Witch, Lord Mantis, Bongripper, and Funeral Mist, I couldn’t help but be intrigued. Let’s dive in… Continue reading “Ggu:ll – Ex Est (Review)”
September was a particularly difficult month to have to limit my choice of key metal albums to just five. As such, I’m going to skip over both An Abstract Illusion’s Woe and Gaerea’s Mirage; both are great records and are getting abundant, richly-deserved praise elsewhere, allowing me to focus on lesser-known releases. Even with this though, I still struggled with having to omit so many other worthy albums… Continue reading “Monthly Overview – the Best of September 2022”
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