Gold Spire – Gold Spire (Review)

Gold Spire - Gold SpireThis is the debut album from Gold Spire, a death metal band from Sweden.

Featuring ex-members of the mighty Usurpress, Gold Spire contains 40 minutes of progressive death metal. In many ways this album is the next logical step on from Interregnum, which is great to hear as that was such a superlative album. Continue reading “Gold Spire – Gold Spire (Review)”

Sunless – Ylem (Review)

Sunless - YlemThis is the second album from Sunless, a death metal band from the US.

2017’s Urraca was a very notable and enjoyable release for me, even making it into that year’s end of year list. Progressive, technical, dissonant, avant-garde, psychedelic, and many other high-brow-esque appellations, Urraca was a multidimensional gateway to forward-thinking heaviness from a band who clearly knew their art well. Continue reading “Sunless – Ylem (Review)”

Atræ Bilis – Apexapien (Review)

Atræ Bilis - ApexapienThis is the debut album from Canadian death metal band Atræ Bilis.

Across 32 minutes of brutal darkness, Atræ Bilis explore various expressions of heaviness via roaring death metal. Continue reading “Atræ Bilis – Apexapien (Review)”

Æpoch – Hiraeth (Review)

Æpoch - HiraethThis is the latest EP from Æpoch, a Canadian progressive death metal band.

This EP delivers 19 minutes of Æpoch’s modern progressive/technical death metal assault. Laced with black and thrash metal elements, (but less than previously), and powered by melodic might, Hiraeth is a short but satisfying hit of metallic aggression. Continue reading “Æpoch – Hiraeth (Review)”

Burial in the Sky – The Consumed Self (Review)

Burial in the Sky - The Consumed SelfThis is the third album from Burial in the Sky, a death metal band from the US.

The Consumed Self contains 58 minutes of modern technical/progressive death metal. The promo blurb says that it’s recommended for fans of Rivers of Nihil, Fallujah, Black Crown Initiate, Virvum, and Alustrium, which should let you know the sort of waters that Burial in the Sky wade in. Continue reading “Burial in the Sky – The Consumed Self (Review)”

Alustrium – A Monument to Silence (Review)

Alustrium - A Monument to SilenceThis is the third album from US death metal band Alustrium.

Here we have 65 minutes of progressive technical death metal. Reading that statement you may be expecting a certain version of that style, but it’s likely that Alustrium will surprise; A Monument to Silence is much more melodic and emotionally resonant than many technical bands achieve or even aspire to. Continue reading “Alustrium – A Monument to Silence (Review)”

Ghastly – Mercurial Passages (Review)

Ghastly - Mercurial PassagesThis is the third album from Finnish death metallers Ghastly.

Ghastly specialise in death metal that has a sort of creeping, otherworldly malevolence to it. It’s atmospheric and sinister in ways that are unusual. You can hear the debt that has been paid to band’s such as Death and Autopsy, etc., but you can equally Continue reading “Ghastly – Mercurial Passages (Review)”

Alluvial – Sarcoma (Review)

Alluvial - SarcomaThis is the second album from Alluvial, a modern death metal band from the US.

Sarcoma contains 38 minutes of progressive death metal. Alluvial fuse their modern approach to the style with technical, progressive, and atmospheric flourishes, yet do so in a restrained song-based way. This results in songs that are atypical expressions of Continue reading “Alluvial – Sarcoma (Review)”

Monthly Overview – the Best of April 2021

Another month, another truckload of top tier metal releases. 2021 just keeps on giving when it comes to music. I struggled hard to limit the below list to the ones that I did, and could easily have included more albums from what was a very packed April. Continue reading “Monthly Overview – the Best of April 2021”