This is the fourth album from Blindfolded and Led to the Woods, a death metal band from New Zealand.
Blindfolded and Led to the Woods play a modern form of death metal that combines progressive, technical, and avant-garde elements together into a savagely impactful package. Rejecting Obliteration is 45 minutes of surprisingly rich extremity. Continue reading “Blindfolded and Led to the Woods – Rejecting Obliteration (Review)”
Ignominy are from Canada and play death metal. This is their debut album.
Ignominy are not a standard death metal act, and Imminent Collapse is not your run-of-the-mill death metal album. Rooted in the dissonant style, theirs is an avant-garde expression of dissodeath that incorporates blackened textures, technical flourishes, chaotic intensity, and atmospheric proclivities. Continue reading “Ignominy – Imminent Collapse (Review)”
This is the debut album from international death metal band Jade.
I’ve loosely called this death metal in the introductory sentence above, but The Pacification of Death provides more than this. I suppose blackened atmospheric death metal is more accurate; Jade excel in crafting music that combines 80s/90s death/doom and mood-heavy black metal, resulting in a 40-minute album that is more notable than most. Continue reading “Jade – The Pacification of Death (Review)”
This is the debut album from international black metal band Merihem.
Featuring members of bands such as Frostmoon Eclipse, Israthoum, Manetheren, and Suffering Hour, Incendiary Darkness contains 39 minutes of occult black metal.
These songs weep nightmare Continue reading “Merihem – Incendiary Darkness (Review)”
This is the third album from US black/death metallers Haunter.
Following on from 2019’s very well-received Sacramental Death Qualia, Haunter have now returned with 32 minutes of new material. The band’s style can be termed progressive black/death metal, and Continue reading “Haunter – Discarnate Ails (Review)”
Malthusian are from Ireland and Suffering Hour are from the US. Both play blackened death metal, and they have teamed up for this split release.
Malthusian start us off and offer up two tracks, with a total duration of 20 minutes. Continue reading “Malthusian/Suffering Hour – Time’s Withering Shadow – Split (Review)”
Yes, it’s that time of year again! 2021 gave us some very, very good metal, and I feel honoured to have been able to have listened to as much of it as I have done. There are some notable absences, (for me at least), from the below list, but there’s just not enough time or space for everything, dammit!
2020 was a very blackened year for me; I listened to a lot of black metal, and the list for that year reflected that. At the start of 2021 I decided I’d consciously try to ensure I cast my net a bit wider again, reconnecting more deeply with some of many other styles of metal that I enjoy. 2021’s list reflects this. However, I’ve still ended up with much more of a black metal presence in the list than I was initially expecting. What can I say? I’m a sucker for all of the myriad blackened flavours of the style. However, there’s also a lot of other stuff here that I hope you’ll dig into and enjoy too. I felt that there was a notable absence of grindcore in 2021, as well as some of the more extreme styles of doom. What do you think?
I hope you enjoy perusing some of my favourite records from this year, and I hope you find something new to tickle your fancy. What’s your number one this year? Continue reading “Wonderbox Metal End of Year List – Best Metal of 2021”
This is the debut album from US black metal band Feral Lord.
Recommended by the promo blurb for fans of bands such as Oranssi Pazuzu, Odraza, and Deathspell Omega, I couldn’t resist giving this a listen to see if it hooked me. Well it did, as you can probably tell by the fact I’m reviewing it. To the above list I’d also add parts of bands like Suffering Hour and Mourir as reference points for Purity of Corruption too. Continue reading “Feral Lord – Purity of Corruption (Review)”
As far as Februarys go, I found February 2021 to be quite exceptionally high in quality when it came to metal albums. Let’s dive in to some of the best from last month… Continue reading “Monthly Overview – the Best of February 2021”
This is the second album from Suffering Hour, a blackened death metal band from the US.
Now here’s a release I’ve been looking forward to. I’m a big fan of Suffering Hour’s past work, (2013’s Foreseeing Exemptions to a Dismal Beyond, and then 2017’s immense In Passing Ascension), and their newest album simply takes their musical progression so far to its logical conclusion. Having learned plenty of lessons Continue reading “Suffering Hour – The Cyclic Reckoning (Review)”
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