I was on an unplanned hiatus from death metal in 2025. The draw of death metal was starting to wear a bit thin unfortunately for me after some thirty-six years of listening to it. I mean I had heard all the classics already. Altars of Madness, Cause of Death, None So Vile, Dawn of Possession had all been on my turntable or in my CD player many times over the years. Cementing their place a little later than most of the above came Suffocation, with their brand of brutal and technical death metal hitting their peak on Pierced From Within. And so, in 2025, I soon found that my appetite for death metal had somewhat abated from what it was in its prime. Convinced that there was little out there to match anything I still bothered with, I took my attention to black metal and sludge/doom. Then Karl nominated this record for the feature in The Horde.

Copenhagen’s Iniquity were completely unknown to me going into this record. In fact, I don’t recall listening to much in the way of Danish death metal in my time. If it all sounds as good as Serenadium does, then I am 100% back from my death metal hiatus. This album is so much more than Suffocation worship as I have read some reviews suggest. Serenadium lacks the outright chaos of a Suffocation record and as a result has the better level of clarity around the riffs which do at times possess underlying promise of Swedish crunch, albeit never quite getting there. What does draw valid comparison with the New York masters of brutality is the technical aptitude of the artists performing as Iniquity.

This record barely puts a foot wrong in my opinion. Unafraid to vary the pace and the levels of brutality on display, Iniquity tread an exciting path, one which does make me wonder why this record is not spoken about more often. I guess that 1996 was simply too late for this record, with most of the established artists either off experimenting with their traditional death metal sound or just giving up due to the oversaturation in the sub-genre by this point. The fact is though; you will struggle find a better record than this from the mid to late nineties. It is so rhythmical and choppy at times that you cannot help but be totally enamoured with both the process and the outcome here. I have been sat here each time I played this record with a big shit-eating grin on my face, whilst struggling to type as I am headbanging along.

It is like listening to a more adept Cannibal Corpse at times, but I could honestly sit here and churn out comparators all day long. So just play it folks. For those of us around in the 90’s to enjoy the growth of death metal in realtime, take some time to discover a hidden gem. If you missed the action back in the day and are wondering what all the fuss was about at the time, put this on, and question answered, I am sure.

Marianas Rest come across my review desk this week with their third studio album from 2021 and you would be forgiven if you expected it to be more the same death doom metal. The tempos are slow and brooding, but they never feel like they are wasting the listeners time, production is very impressive and the vocals are quite diverse in their range. The songwriting can feel a bit lacking at times since doom metal at the best of times is about atmosphere rather than driving melodies, but that can be excused for the albums post-metal textures that peak their head in from time-to-time. The Agalloch/Rosetta style of atmospheric doom/sludge metal is usually a big sell for me and here it is no exception, I just wish that Marianas Rest could have included a few more memorable riffs or vocal lines into these songs instead of relying on atmosphere to carry them home.

Best Songs: Glow from the Edge, Sacrificial, Fata Morgana, Advent of Nihilism

One of the best things about metal is its diversity and the ability to combine different genres both metal and non-metal. Born of Osiris are the masters of combining metalcore with elements of djent and deathcore, and in their new album Through Shadows, they've added an alt-metal cherry on top! And writing for the album started around the same time as their previous album Angel or Alien that was rewritten after failing to be a companion for their incomplete album The Simulation.

As with many of their albums, Through Shadows is an excellent one with many twists and turns. The djent-ish alt-metalcore sound is so diverse and interesting. All you can expect here is the unexpected.

A robotic female voice that starts "Seppuku" leads to an explosion of sharp riffing and digital electronics. Everything's so simple yet futuristic. "Elevate" has an accessible rave-ish groove, and the chorus mixes together electronics and riffs quite well. The 5-minute title track is another journey for Born of Osiris. Impressive vocals here, both the screams and cleans! "The War That You Are" has both heaviness and melody cranked up. And holy sh*t, the riffing and vocals are as deathcore as their earlier material.

We also have some Middle Eastern vibes in "Inverno" along with some pleasant melody. On the flip side, "A Mind Short Circuiting" is a dissonant riff frenzy only for those experienced with the band and sci-fi action video games. "Burning Light" is a melancholic synth interlude to act as the album's intermission. It segues to "In Desolation" which has a similar vibe to some melodic metalcore bands, and that I really enjoy. "Torchbearer" is the first single for the album, released nearly two years before the rest of the album. They never cease to amaze me, and I might try exercising with this song on play.

Then we have the perfect "Activated", in which everything experienced so far is put together in a trancey metalcore fiesta. I love the guest vocals by Underoath's Spencer Chamberlain and the saxophone solo that can surpass "Careless Whisper". Then "Dark Fable" has more of the electronic synths and metal beats, and the clean vocals in the chorus sound so tranquil. "Transcendence" borrows some electronic experimentation for early 2010s Linkin Park. "Blackwater" ends the album with epic crushing sorrow.

I'm glad that the new Born of Osiris album has come out and I got listen to it and review it once it got added to this site. Through Shadows is another amazing work of art from this unique band to appreciate. It's something diverse music listeners need in their lives, and let's hope they have another album in the writing works as we speak!

Favorites: "Seppuku", "Through Shadows", "The War That You Are", "In Desolation", "Torchbearer", "Activated", "Blackwater"

Apoptosis is the fifth studio album from Denver based technical/melodic/progressive death metal band Allegaeon, and the first that I listened to upon release. Previous albums were solid, but I missed them during my metal purge of the 2010s. Then suddenly, after graduation, a random recommendation of the bands cover of "Subdivisions" shows up and I was hooked. The rest of the album, Proponent for Sentience was a major wake up call for me in multiple ways. Not only was it one of the main contributors in reviving my love for the genre, but one of the catalysts to push me forward in exploring the extreme sides of the field. 

So going into Apoptosis for the first time, my expectations were sky high. And while I do feel a little let down by what was given here, it's hard for me to find all that much to criticize about it. My biggest issue with it was, now that the band had played their opus card on the last album, it would be hard to stay on the cutting edge without being predictable. And Apoptosis does become a little bit predictable, especially around "Metaphobia". Without the aspirations of being conceptual, the record instead becomes a wank fest. And in this case, I mean "wank fest" in the best way possible.

Someone once compared Allegaeon's songwriting to that of Dream Theater. And if you look at it from a pure, surface level perspective you might be right. But if you take that comparison anywhere beyond the guitar playing, you will quickly realize that their is no weight in that comparison. Allegaeon write well formed, balanced tunes that have a great blend and counterpoint of guitars, vocals and even bass from time to time. The percussion does a lot of great work here laying foundational ground for the melodic instruments above it. The mixing in the drums is very well done and when it's at the busiest it still does not bother me or interfere with the other parts of the mixing. 

This album might not be as connected as their last record, but Apoptosis does have a sliver of a concept running through it; that being the concept of controlled death. I think that "controlled death" is an appropriate description of Apoptosis as a whole. The album is vicious, fast and loud. Compared to other technical death metal bands like Cryptopsy, Gorguts and Suffocation, Allegaeon's songwriting is much more connected. These brutal sounds are not included for their own sake; they all contribute to telling the story of the record and I greatly appreciate that in a genre that is blissfully ignorant of that. Overall it is a strong, if a little same-y, record with lots of positives when taken on its own. In the greater discography I can see audiences getting fatigued by many of the same sounds. But how many other tech-death bands are making music as melodic as this? At that point, you might wonder if Allegaeon needs to change their sound at all.

Best Songs: Interphase // Meiosis, Extremophiles (B), Exothermic Chemical Combustion, Tsunami and Submergence

Featuring a cover, every bit as horrific as the content held within, Veneraxiom’s debut full-length is a somewhat aphotic affair in the sense that there is zero sign of light, hope or positivity throughout its nine hellish soundscapes. This is an album made for people who accept that there is no unspoken rule to the universe around fairness. Life is cruel and so is Veneraxiom’s music, so fuck you all. Leaning towards death metal more than being simply conventional black metal, Apocryphilia is ironically far from being questionable or inauthentic. The band achieve exactly what they set out to from where I am sat listening. Torturing the listener with crude black ‘n roll elements and then terrifying us the next with screams of unfathomable human suffering the next, this is an album that has no hidden depths and is stronger for it.

The trio hail from LA and have released a couple of EPs and a compilation to date (along with a split with Grand Bewitchment in 2023) before committing to a full album release some six years into their existence. Tracks lurch around, shrouded in morose melodies and mining riffs. Spoken word excerpts from films make appearances here and there to emphasise the direction of the music a little more clearly. There is a mocking undertone to this album, the sense that Veneraxiom are laughing at the order of society, its cultural norms and the comforts of modernity. Apocryphalia is not as uncomfortable a listen and it is supposed to be though. It has a punky catchiness to it in places, which although smothered by relentless blastbeats at times, is most definitely always around the mix of things.

The album’s Achilles heel is its longevity factor for me. By the time I get to track five, I get it, after which point I am zoning out more than a little bit. Whilst I do understand why a bit of variety here and there would kill the aesthetic they are trying to create; the spoken word sections don’t inject enough extra for me to focus on. Whilst ‘Et Demonio Ad Aternum’ does try to dial up the intensity immediately after the midway point, throwing some chaotic lead work into the music to jolt the concentration back on point, it is only a momentary reprise. For the final three tracks of the album, there is a sense that the band are just coasting to the end. In their stronger moments, I am reminded of Grave Miasma which is no mean comparison to be able to make, right? If we could stray into that brand of ordered chaos, then I feel I could stretch the rating on Apocryphilia somewhat. As it stands though, I will simply make note of them ready for if they get to a sophomore release.