This is the third album from US progressive metallers The Gorge.
Mechanical Fiction contains 45 minutes of modern, heavy music. The Gorge are an interesting band, in that they are ostensibly a band you’d give the tags of progressive metal and technical metal too, but they also incorporate avant-garde and jazz elements into their style, as well as having an underpinning hardcore/sludge influence that’s formative. Continue reading “The Gorge – Mechanical Fiction (Review)”
Urne are a metal band from the UK and this is their second album.
Having loved Urne’s 2021 debut album Serpent & Spirit, it’s safe to assume that A Feast on Sorrow has been one of my most anticipated albums of 2023. I’m very pleased to say that it has not disappointed. Continue reading “Urne – A Feast on Sorrow (Review)”
This is the debut album from UK post-metal band Mairu.
Sol Cultus brings together post-metal, sludge, and doom into a 49-minute feast of atmospheric heavy music. Mairu’s vision is a mood-rich immersive one, and Sol Cultus achieves their lofty ambitions. Continue reading “Mairu – Sol Cultus (Review)”
This is the debut album from US death/sludge metallers Thra.
Forged in Chaotic Spew is an ugly union of foul death metal and dirty sludge, which has resulted in a merciless 37 minutes of malevolent heaviness. If you’re into the dark underbelly of extreme music, then Thra have birthed a monster for you. Continue reading “Thra – Forged in Chaotic Spew (Review)”
Somnuri are a sludge metal band from the US. and this is their third album.
Following on from 2021’s enjoyable Nefarious Wave comes Desiderium, a 38-minute feast of multi-genre sludge metal. On this new album Somnuri showcase their evolving sound, one that heightens the heaviness and aggression, while still retaining the key aspects of who they were before. Continue reading “Somnuri – Desiderium (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)”
Boris & Uniform, the former an experimental doom/drone/metal/rock act from Japan, and the latter an industrial rock/metal band from the US, have teamed up together on this collaborative album.
I like Boris, and I like Uniform, so listening to this release was a given. Bright New Disease combines the two act’s talents into new and twisted ways, resulting in an album Continue reading “Boris & Uniform – Bright New Disease (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)”
This is the fourth album from US doom band Usnea.
After loving 2014’s Random Cosmic Violence and 2017’s Portals into Futility, I am so completely ready for a new Usnea album. Bathed in Light brings us not only their shortest album yet at 43 minutes, but also many of their shortest songs. What does this mean for the Usnea we know and adore? Continue reading “Usnea – Bathed in Light (Review)”
This is the second album from Radien, a sludge metal band from Finland.
Unissa Palaneet is a 46-minute album containing five tracks, where the a full 21 minutes of the total duration is made up of just the final song. Radien are not without ambition, and they have the skills to back up their vision for doom-heavy sludge music. Continue reading “Radien – Unissa Palaneet (Review)”
Wonderbox Metal 