This is the fourth album from Belgian post-metal band Briqueville.
IIII contains 39 minutes of dark, enigmatic music. Briqueville’s style is deeply atmospheric, and IIII is the sort of album that will drag you into the darkness as it hypnotises with its shifting walls of rich mood. Continue reading “Briqueville – IIII (Review)”
Furia are a black metal band from Poland and this is their sixth album.
I haven’t reviewed a Furia release before, so this offers a well-overdue chance to rectify this unfortunate situation, and cast a critical eye over what this idiosyncratic band are up to in 2023. Over time Furia have only gotten more individual and experimental, so what does Huta Luna have to offer discerning black metal fans? Continue reading “Furia – Huta Luna (Review)”
Rorcal are a Swiss post-black/doom metal band and this is their sixth album.
Rorcal have shown what they’re capable of very ably on previous releases such as their 2014 split with Process of Guilt, 2016’s κρέων (Creon), 2019’s Muladona, and 2021’s collaboration with Earthflesh, so I was eager to experience the punishment Silence inevitably held in store for me, whatever form it took. On this release we get 42 minutes of new material, and it is not to be approached by the unwary. Continue reading “Rorcal – Silence (Review)”
This is the third album from UK sludge/doom metal band Torpor.
Torpor play heavy, mood-focused music that crushes as much as it affectingly moves. Combining sludge, doom, and post-metal into 41 minutes of gritty material, Abscission is a record that is worth hearing if you’re partial to the style. Continue reading “Torpor – Abscission (Review)”
This is a collaboration between two doom bands, Rezn from the US and Vinnum Sabbathi from Mexico.
Silent Future is a 32-minute collaborative effort that’s effortlessly satisfying. Rezn and Vinnum Sabbathi work together with seamless ease, and the album is an exemplar of creative effectiveness. Continue reading “Rezn & Vinnum Sabbathi – Silent Future (Review)”
This is the debut album from Quiet Man, a doom/sludge band from the US who were formerly known as God Root.
Across 50 minutes Quiet Man bring an apocalyptic vision of darkness and extinction to the listener, rubbing their face into the contemporary horrors of existence as they unleash their wide-ranging sonic nightmarescapes. Continue reading “Quiet Man – The Starving Lesson (Review)”
This is the third album from German doom metal band Eremit.
More Eremit! More hulking great huge tracks of monstrous sludge doom! Yeah! Despite how massive 2019’s Carrier of Weight and 2021’s Bearer of Many Names were, (not forgetting the relatively brief EP Desert of Ghouls from 2020), Wearer of Numerous Forms finds Eremit bigger and bolder than ever before. Featuring just three tracks, but clocking in at a colossal 133 minutes, (!), Eremit have unleashed a doom odyssey. Continue reading “Eremit – Wearer of Numerous Forms (Review)”
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)”
