This is the fourth album from German blackened metal act Mantar.
This is the follow up to 2018’s The Modern Art of Setting Ablaze, (if you ignore the band’s cover album from 2020), and contains 41 minutes of new material. Pain Is Forever and This Is the End is the next logical evolution of Mantar’s sound, bringing a more direct song-focused approach to the music, while Continue reading “Mantar – Pain Is Forever and This Is the End (Review)”
This is the debut album from Vomit Forth, a death metal band from the US.
Vomit Forth play brutal death metal that’s punishing and unforgiving. Across a very compact and lean 29 minutes the band deal out death and carnage to all that come before them. Continue reading “Vomit Forth – Seething Malevolence (Review)”
Candy are a hardcore band from the US and this is their second album.
I do so enjoy music that’s violent and punishing, and Candy’s scathing mix of industrial, metal, and hardcore is exactly that. Across 30 minutes the band demonstrate that they’re very capable in all of these arenas. Continue reading “Candy – Heaven Is Here (Review)”
This is the second album from UK sludge/post-metallers Conjurer.
This much-anticipated lab of heaviness is the 53-minute follow up to 2018’s punishing Mire.
A contemporary blend of sludge and post-metal, with elements of doom, hardcore, and progressive metal, Páthos takes the sound that Mire did so well and pushes it further, expanding on its core heaviness with a greater range of textures and emotions. It’s like a vicious nest of crushing riffs has been smashed together with a multifaceted collection of rich soundscapes, and I couldn’t be happier with the outcome. Continue reading “Conjurer – Páthos (Review)”
This is the second album from US grindcore band Knoll.
Metempiric is a 34-minute shot of feral adrenaline. It is rare I come across grindcore these days, and even rarer for it to be good. It’s a great style when done right, and a lazy, boring one when not. Suffice to say, Metempiric is one of the best grind releases I’ve heard in what seems like forever. Continue reading “Knoll – Metempiric (Review)”
This is the third album from French thrash/heavy metallers Heart Attack.
Described in the promo blurb as “the lovechild of Gojira, Machine Head and early Metallica”, this is a decent starting point for approaching Negative Sun. Across 45 minutes, (including a Genesis cover as a bonus track), Heart Attack unleash a mix of old and new thrash/groove/heavy metal, (with a touch of hardcore), and do so with passion and charisma. Continue reading “Heart Attack – Negative Sun (Review)”
Cave In are a US post-hardcore/rock band and this is their seventh album.
Following on from 2019’s Final Transmission, Heavy Pendulum is somewhat of a different beast to their last album. Whereas Final Transmission was short, (31 minutes), fragile, and emotive, reflective of the effects of tragedy and loss, Heavy Pendulum is long, (71 minutes), has greater range, (though still emotive), and more reflective of the band’s varied discography as a whole. Continue reading “Cave In – Heavy Pendulum (Review)”
This is the debut album from Black Void, a Norwegian black metal band.
Featuring members of Borknagar, Ihsahn, In Vain, Profane Burial, and Solefald, Antithesis delivers 39 minutes of furious black metal cut with harsh hardcore punk, black ‘n’ roll, and some unexpectedly anthemic influences. Continue reading “Black Void – Antithesis (Review)”
Malevolence are a metal band from the UK and this is their third album.
Malevolence play the sort of groove metal/metalcore hybrid that sounds like it should have been released in the mid-90s. If you take bands like Pantera and Hatebreed, and then throw in a touch of Crowbar, you’ll have a decent reference point for what Malevolence get up to on Malicious Intent; 38 minutes of Continue reading “Malevolence – Malicious Intent (Review)”
This is the debut album from Cage Fight, a metal/hardcore band from the UK.
Featuring a guitarist from Tesseract and an ex-singer of Eths, Cage Fight are here to smash your face unceremoniously into the concrete, over and over again. Prepare yourself. Continue reading “Cage Fight – Cage Fight (Review)”
Wonderbox Metal 