It took me a long time to fully appreciate the value of this album because Death was such a monument in the history of death metal that each work required quite some time to be digested in my soul. For the first impression, Spiritual Healing is quite mediocre, especially compared to the albums succeeding it. However, once you reclaim your mesmerized brain after the four albums the band put forward, you actually realize that Spiritual Healing is actually fed with so much raw emotion blended with old-school horror.

Lunatic asylums, hypocrite priests, medical nightmares, and a world full of conspiracies... A mind that is shattered between the morbidity of reality and the games of its own hallucinations.... This album is overall quite psychological as much as horrific. Rather than "healing", it is almost dissecting "spirituality". Both lyrically and musically, the album tells us how our spiritual existence and the material world surrounding it became a stage that degrades our physical and mental integrity, eventually "Altering the Future" within the world of "Genetic Reconstruction". Therefore, Spiritual Healing can be defined as the first album on which Death, or specifically Chuck Schuldiner (R.I.P.) starts to "philosophize" death metal themes. 

Years after this album, Schuldiner would say in an interview: "Reality is far more evil than a demon". Yes, Spiritual Healing is the beginning point of this realism.

In terms of the band's discography, Spiritual Healing plays a key role in the musical evolution of the band, as it was on this album that the first attempts at later experiments and progressive trends that would put Death into a legendary category were made. 

Musically, the highlight of the album is the lead guitar duels of Chuck Schuldiner and James Murphy. Such collaboration is exactly what makes the album quite melodic in both riff and solo arrangements, without sacrificing death metal identity.

It may not be one of the highlights of Death's career, yet it is definitely a "must-have", both for the band and for the fans.

Trivia: Chuck's vocals in this album are the favorite "Schuldiner vocals" for the ex-Morbid Angel frontman, David Vincent. If you carefully listen to the vocal style in Blessed Are The Sick, you can easily hear the influence.

I think it was possibly Knife’s debut album from 2021 which would mark the last time a speed/thrash metal record showed enough vigour and intensity to make me stop and take notice. For all the talk of regurgitation of old ideas, themes, styles and genres in modern metal, it is the likes of Vulture who give me the assurance that, if done well enough, the old-school can be worshipped and not come off as simple plagiarism. Whereas their fellow countrymen in Knife deploy a blackened edge to proceedings, Vulture are all about the shrieking, banshee wailing style of speed metal that you would associate with the likes of Razor or Exciter. Perhaps bordering on the power metal elements of Agent Steel also along the way, these Dortmund residents certainly know how to wear their influences on their sleeves.

Above all else, Sentinels is fun. It’s 80’s horror flick style album cover perhaps denotes a band with serious intent and I am not intimating for one minute that Vulture are a goofy band, more that they approach their art with a genuine enthusiasm, a passion that bleeds into their music. Leads soar over galloping riffs, vocals pierce the ears of anyone within a mile radius, yelled from lungs that swell with pride as they sing each lyric, and all the while the drums “thunk” along in the background. Never coming across as having much in the way of venom or bite, the drums are the most understated instrument on the record, to my ears at least. However, this is not necessarily a criticism as I think the production job does the sound real justice overall. Clean without being overproduced, the album has an atmosphere of a band playing live almost.

This is not my first venture into Vulture. I gave their 2019 album, Ghastly Waves & Battered Graves a four-star rating back in August of that same year, and I find Sentinels to be in the same ballpark of the ratings, albeit that I sense a step up in quality of musicianship, certainly in the leads department at least. I am not a massive fan of the hi-pitched vocals that are used here, although my tolerance of them during my listen through of this record was surprisingly good. It is the fiery riffs and blinding leads that reign supreme over the record for me though. The inclusion of an instrumental at track seven seems a bit of an odd choice if I am honest, and I struggle to fight the feeling that it is little more than filler, despite its best efforts.

Leave me with tracks such as the rampant ‘Death Row’ and I am much happier though. In fact, the section of the album that follows ‘Der Tod trägt schwarzes Leder’ is probably the stronger part for me. There certainly feels like an uptick in the quality for me over this backend of the record at least. Keep flying the flag for the old school fellas, it is appreciated.

The legendary debut of the Florida death metal band Deicide was not a small issue. Many extreme metal bands were around at that time, claiming the title of "the most satanic and blasphemous band the world has ever seen". Bands such as Morbid Angel, the early phases of Immolation, Incantation, the Norwegian and Finnish black metal circles, etc., indeed created some of the most devastating albums in support of that claim. However, let's admit that none could sound as furious, satanic, and possessed as the early era Deicide. Indeed, the early Deicide was something else.

As soon as you start to listen to Deicide, you open the gates of Hell and see how morbid, vengeful, dedicated, and scary could be the world of the Biblical Satan. Inspired by the atonal and cacophonic lead guitar work of Slayer, combining Dave Lombardo's style of non-stop attacks with blast-beats, and surrounding such instrumentation with the themes of Possessed's Seven Churches or Sarcófago's I.N.R.I. , Deicide became the epitome of "satanic death metal". Last but not least, you also have to give credit to Glen Benton for the identity of this album. Simultaneous manifestation of brutal and scream vocals together with vulgar and hyper-offensive lyrics delivered by Benton was even above the standards set by Morbid Angel via Altars of Madness. 

Once you listen to the songs like "Sacrifical Suicide", "Crucifixation", and "Carnage in the Temple of the Damned", you suddenly understand that this album is not a joke or a cartoonish satanic cookie monster. No... With this album, Deicide basically showed their middle finger to those who claim themselves "satanic" and said, "Really? Let's find out who really is...".

For some, the album may sound a bit repetitive after a few songs, but this also contributes to the overall ambience created by the album. Due to the intense and non-stop violence delivered by the band, the listener may easily become numb, like after consuming too much hot and spicy food, you can't feel your lips. This "satanic lethargy" is the purpose of the album. 

In the end, it would not be wrong to say that Deicide was one of the most, if not the most, evil-sounding and nefarious death metal records a band could create.

New Gods, New Masters is one of only a handful of death metal albums that I have entertained over the course of 2025. In a year that has only seen me focus on death doom as part of my discovery of new music in The Fallen clan, conventional, technical and progressive death metal has not been on high rotation over the past twelve months. If I am honest, Revocation hadn’t piqued my interest with any of the previous releases I had heard, although I cannot say with hand on heart that I recall listening to a full length of theirs in recent history. It was upon hearing the chug fest that is ‘Confines of Infinity’ on an interview with Dave Davidson that my ears pricked up to the promise of some hard-hitting death metal. Seeing that one of my death metal heroes, Luc Lemay was making an appearance only enhanced my urge to give New Gods, New Masters a listen.

Now, I cannot pretend to be a massive fan of technical death metal. Despite owning all Death albums on physical format, I do have to be in a particular mood to put on Individual Thought Patterns, for example. Whilst my guard was up going into this Revocation record, having heard many times how proficient a player DD is and fully expecting an expansive wank fest as a result, I was surprised at how riffy New Gods, New Masters is. Even the technical and progressive mastery is difficult to not be impressed with, to the point where my admiration even extends to acknowledging who well controlled those potentially alien elements are throughout the album. I will not pretend some of those dashing and clipped riffs that kick off ‘Sarcophagi of the Soul’ do not irritate me though, and I much prefer it when the track settles into more rhythmic territory.

Guests appear to have been queuing up to perform on the album with the likes of Travis Ryan (Cattle Decapitation), Jonny Davy (Job for a Cowboy), Luc Lemay (Gorguts) and even jazz guitarist, Gilad Hekselman making contributions to the proceedings. Surprisingly for me, it is Travis’ track that I find the most appealing of all. ‘Confines of Infinity’ has an infectious, hacking riff to it that contrasts with the more chaotic main parts to the track which also makes good use of some groovy riffs to temper the song back to that main riff. Leads/solos all have a crispness to them, and they benefit from the production job of DD, as you would perhaps expect. I am not as enamoured with the drum sound though, that instrument sounds a bit lost in the mix. The presence of Ash Pearson is still, somehow, unquestionable despite this injustice, and he gives a good acquittal of himself regardless.

I am pleased I found so much to enjoy from this record. It proves that there is still some interest in death metal for me beyond the confines of the more gloomy and funeral doom styles that I have focused on more this year. Retaining some of their death thrash elements of old most certainly has helped me with being able to connect so easily with this record also. The longevity factor remains in question for me, but for now I will just enjoy it whilst it lasts.

Popol Vuh is a total sonic assault on the senses for those who dare to delve into this latest release from the renowned main persona of the Black Twilight Circle, Eduardo “Volahn” Ramirez. It is a complex blend of atmospherics, scathing black metal and indigenous sounds that can be traced back to the Mesoamerican civilisation, the Mayans. Sang entirely in Spanish, these six tracks leave very little room for breath, charging at the listener with an unrelenting fury that is as dizzying as it is terrifying. Popol Vuh is quite the disorientating experience at first, and it took a couple of listens for me to grasp what was going on and understand that despite the raging intensity of the pace, it is a well-balanced record.

This is an album that sounds evil. Reminiscent of the smothering soundscapes of Akhlys at times, Popol Vuh has its roots embedded in the true extreme foundations of the black metal genre. From a guitar perspective, it rarely involves melody when it comes to laying down the grounds of its attack. Favouring acoustics for any requirement to bring the record into less offensive sounding territory, it is the use of native instruments that really sets the sound apart from probably most of what the average black metal fan has heard so far this year. Couple all of this with the icy sonics of Paysage d’hiver and you soon come to an understanding of the quality on offer here.

Absolutely resolute in its Mexican nationalism, this album commemorates “the anniversary of the Spanish defeat at the hands of the triumphant Guatemalan warriors” and heralds “the twilight of Mexican Independence”. The sound of the album portrays superbly the tumult of the history it shares and is delivered with a clear passion. There is a sense of mastery to the album that usually comes when the traditional instrumentation of an ancient civilisation is played so well alongside such an extreme facet of music as it is here. There is almost an astral element to Popol Vuh that I was not expecting to hear at the outset and as such it is an album that has caught me off guard in terms of how much I have ended up enjoying it.