While I didn't mind the allegedly classic 1994 "Verwüstung/Invoke the Dark Age" debut album from this Austrian black metal trio, I wouldn't say that I was totally convinced until their underrated 1995 "Orkblut - The Retaliation" E.P. which Ben purchased on CD at the time of release. I remember it distinctly because I went to leave the house to purchase it myself, only to discover Ben playing his new CD copy in his bedroom which saw much squabbling ensuing between us. It's been a while since I've listened to "Orkblut - The Retaliation" now but I remember it being a significant step up for the band, so by the time Abigor's sophomore album "Nachthymnen (From the Twilight Kingdom)" appeared just months later, the Austrians had our complete attention.

Time has shown us that "Nachthymnen (From the Twilight Kingdom)" has gone on to be Abigor's most highly regarded release over the years but I've never found it to be any more than a passing amusement personally & I still maintain that position now. I think it's just a bit too melodic & one-dimensional for my taste & it doesn't feel all that dark for a supposedly dark & evil black metal record. I certainly really enjoy the drumming of Thomas Tannenberger which is excellent throughout, particularly his brutal blast beats. I don't think the blackened shrieks of Silenius (Amestigon/Summoning/Die Verbannten Kinder Evas/Kreuzweg Ost/Pazuzu) are very good though & the synth work is really quite cheesy at times which perhaps shouldn't surprise me given Abigor's links to Summoning who I've always struggled with. Despite what some people may say, I do enjoy the clean female vocals which pop up from time to time, even if they do feel like they've been stolen from a gothic metal band while Peter Kubik & Tannenberger 's melodic tremolo-picked guitar interplay had become somewhat of a signature for Abigor by this stage but it can sound pretty samey after a while.

"Nachthymnen (From the Twilight Kingdom)" can easily be broken up into three three-song portions in terms of quality in my opinion. The first trio of songs are all pretty decent but things only really heat up for the middle section of the album comprised of "Dornen", "As Astral Images Darken Reality" & "The Dark Kiss" before things settle back into the sort of standard we heard earlier in the release for the remainder of the tracklisting. There aren't any obvious duds included but I wouldn't say there's anything particularly classic here either so I can't justify those sort of claims about the overall album. Still... I think most black metal fans will appreciate Abigor's second full-length, despite the flaws I mentioned earlier.

For fans of Emperor, Dødheimsgard & Lunar Aurora.

I never would have predicted that Orbit Culture, a band that I did not actually care for, could disappoint me after 2023's Descent, but boy did they ever with their newest album, Death Above Life.

My biggest critique of the bands previous record was that it sounded like hot garbage. The production choices were so atrocious that I had to step away from the album multiple times just to finish it. Which was a shame because from a compositional level, Descent  wasn't the worst. Sure, it has issues with its length, but it could be overlooked for good songwriting. But in 2025, Orbit Culture took all of the worst elements of both the production and the songwriting and amplified them to almost unlistenable heights. The drums could have been recorded in a separate room, in another country, on another planet, and they would still be the loudest thing in the mix! Vocals and guitar leads have been unceremoniously muted in favour of gargantuan fundamentals; whether it be the chugging guitar grooves or the unbearable bass drum. The melody has been stripped away from Orbit Culture.

And you want to know what makes it worse? Look at the liner notes of Death Above Life and you'll see exactly why this album was destined for failure. Record label? Century Media; the same record label that has published the last two Lorna Shore albums. Production? Buster Odeholm; primary songwriter for Humanity's Last Breath. Lorna Shore's biggest claim since the start of the 2020s has been turning every instrument in the room up to eleven and have everyone competing for the spotlight at the same time. Humanity's Last Breath has been releasing deathcore/djent whose sole objective is to be unlistenable. Orbit Culture saw this and thought: why don't we take both of these terrible ideas and combine them together? 

Best Songs: Hydra, Death Above Life

Bold statement incoming. I like the new Lamb of God album. I think it is good. That might class as two bold statements, but I think you get the gist of how this review is shaping up even at this early stage of proceedings. I am not Lamb of God’s biggest fan; in fact, I doubt that I have successfully navigated one whole album by them before the multiple listens that this opus has enjoyed. Just like this review, Into Oblivion starts off positively with the title track presenting a solid groove metal track to open things up with. Dashing riffs jab at the listener whilst Blythe’s bruising commentary land more direct blows. The slamming metalcore tropes of ‘Parasocial Christ’ are a welcome continuation of things, making it very clear that Lamb of God have not just turned up, they have rolled their sleeves up, adorned some sweatbands around their wrists and are already hard at it. After a slower start, ‘Sepsis’ soon sets in as its title suggests it would, turning into a dirty little fucker of a track, treating us to a breakdown also before leaving us sweaty and exhausted.

It is no secret that groove metal is perhaps one of the sub-genres that I struggle with and it is only the fact that I curate the playlist for The Pit that I have actually managed to seek out some alternatives to the single-track of Pantera records that I have been listening to (increasingly sporadically) over the last thirty-plus years. Machine Head’s debut was a treat of course and later day Exhorder are perhaps my only other consistent listen. Lamb of God have not had a look in until now. However, this is a mature sounding record that keeps the fun of the style firmly in play. This is not Pantera worship; whilst those elements are certainly there, I must listen attentively to formulate the influence. Nor do the grooves reach the infectious levels of Exhorder. Instead, I pick up a mixture of reflective, contemplative subject matters malformed into a blunt force trauma style delivery that benefits from restraint being applied. Into Oblivion, ironically, never fully forms into the threatened state of the album title. Lamb of God are fully aware of what they are doing.

I put this record on rotation at the same time as the new Exodus release, fully expecting this one to fall foul of the two-way comparison and that I would be sat here writing a review on Holt and co’s latest instead. As it turns out, Into Oblivion is miles ahead of Goliath in my book. If anything, Lamb of God’s tenth studio album is still growing on me, after some four listens now, this is no mean feat. To still have the same levels of energy by track seven (‘Blunt Force Blues’) is not an accolade I am often able to dish out. Even the slower paced (ballad?), ‘El Vacio’ doesn’t derail things, despite being the weakest track on here for me. At under forty minutes, managing to maintain a high level of consistency throughout its runtime, Into Oblivion is a triumph of a record in a sub-genre that for me lacks many successes even. Nodding heavily back to their roots whilst applying an array of sonic textures along the way, this is a record I never expected to like, and I think it is outstanding. Bold statement to close as well.

With an album cover that looks for all the world like a forgotten soundtrack to an obscure French art film from the 1970’s, Hidden Fires Burn Hottest is not a record I was to find per se. An established Californian post-black metal/post-hardcore band, Bosse-de-Nage aren’t a band I would normally be looking to find either. As is sometimes the case though, unexpected finds can be the best. Although similarities persist with the likes of Deafhaven, Yellow Eyes and Agriculture, all acts I find to be usually well outside of my wheelhouse, there is something in the sound of Bosse-de-Nage that had me interested from the off.

Now, if you’re reading this thinking how I am now going to tell you what that “something” is, well sorry to have to report that I am still figuring that bit out. I mean, it could be that I am starting to more open to a wider palate of music that incorporates more post and gaze elements. Indeed, I have been listening to more hardcore recently as well as a host of other non-metal music also. So maybe the non-metal elements of Hidden Fires Burn Hottest appeal to me more than any semblance of any metal that is present does. If I am being honest, I am not actually trying all that hard to figure out what that “something” is. Instead, I find myself just going with the enjoyment of what I am hearing, paying little attention to how it got in front of me and hy I have returned to the album on a near-daily basis for the past couple of weeks.

The vocals are where the closest element of the black metal in the sound resides in the record. With the combination of spoken word and lurching, hardcore vocals alongside these, there is a distinctly jarring element to the record. Those jangling guitars and a fair but firm percussion section that build ‘Mementos’ before a fearless bass presence makes its first noticeable appearance are an early indication of the non-linear format to song writing that Bosse-de-Nage employ. This is an album with a real sense of a percussive drive being at the forefront of its direction, layered with a grim punk style attitude overall. Even the two interludes work, crafting a valid space for themselves in the track listing without becoming intrusive or disruptive as I often fear with such tracks.

Hidden Fires Burn Hottest lives up to its title billing as beneath the surface, the intensely burning light at the heart of the band that represents their passion for their art certainly can be felt by the listener. Considering at the point that I discovered this I was (probably) searching for black metal it is rare for me to embrace such an unexpected warmth in a record. That having been said, I would not say that this is a particularly happy or positive album. I can connect with the Neurosis tropes of ‘Underwater’ just as well as I do with the more direct bm approach to ‘Frenzy’ that immediately follows it. This variety in styles is very easy for the band to claim under a banner of their own individual sound I would say. Nothing sounds forced here, and we are not talking about Imperial Triumphant levels of chaos or KEN Mode style attempts at experimentation by comparison, yet the record is not standard anything in any sense of the term either.

It pains me to do this. I’ve been a Dream Theater fan since 2003, when they very quickly became one of my all-time favourite bands, a position they still hold to this day (well, top three, anyway!). Their career is literally one masterpiece after another. Until drummer Mike Portnoy left the band, that is. The first album without him, 2010’s ‘A Dramatic Turn of Events’ is still an incredible release, but 2013’s self-titled ‘Dream Theater’ started to see a decline in quality, and that then brings us to this, 2016’s two-disc concept album nerd convention, ‘The Astonishing’.

It’s naff.

I mean, I’ve tried and I’ve tried, but it just feels like the band is well and truly on autopilot at this point. There is nothing overly memorable about this album, just a couple of tracks here and there. But at a combined duration of over two hours, ‘The Astonishing’ is such a drudgery to listen to in one sitting, especially for such bare rewards. Of course, the musical performances are exceptional, as you’d expect, but the rest, kind of sucks. The lyrics are naff, the songs are mostly naff, and the story is naff, though to be honest, I zone out so often that I don’t really pay much attention to it anyway.

If I had to pick out any highlights, I’d say ‘The Gift of Music’, ‘A Life Left Behind’ and ‘Our New World’ are all okay. Not brilliant, but not terrible either. If they could have condensed this album onto one disc, it MIGHT have been listenable, but as it is, an enjoyable 14 minutes out of 130 just isn’t worth the effort.

As I’m getting older (at the time of writing this, I’m 39 years old!), I find myself having less and less patience for albums that don’t grow on me quickly enough. And considering how long this slog of a record is, I think it’s time to pass on this one.