Even though I believe in God, I've made a point of forgiving people for sins that don't really affect me. Now matter how much I bitch and whine, there will be people who disagree with me on philosophy, so might as well accept it as a part of the natural world while acknowledging the difference in philosophy. So I've heard all the Slayer albums, a good deal of Bathory, and am of the opinion that the best death metal band is Septicflesh.  But Behemoth really made their point of hatred towards religion a million times over, so do we really need it again?

Considering how familiar this album is, I'm going to have to say "not this time." Behemoth's "The Shit ov God" is obviously built specifically to get anti-religious people to buy the album, as if they're relying on edge factor. Newsflash: that's how people LOSE interest. Hell, Wes Craven used to think being edgy was what mattered most, and his early career was pretty downhill once he hated and disowned his own porn flick, and switched right to THEMES, which made his movies much better overtime. But Behemoth took the opposite route.

Now the two good things that can be said about this album are that the production is absolutely perfect. The crystal clarity is some of the finest in metal, but that's to be expected from veterans. As well, half the riffs are quite catchy, which really does help. I found myself really enjoying the bits that got quite proggy, like the midtro of O Venvs, Come. So there's a strong metal energy here that can help everything be at least fairly enjoyable to some, but this is also an extremely typical album for them. I said half the riffs were catchy, but the other half are so standard that you can pull them off of any obscure crap lost in the RYM charts. So only half the time does the production justify these performances. As well, taking a look at the lyrics, they feel thrown together and basic. The overabundance of old-timey / medieval phrasing seems to distract from that aggressive, angry nature that they're trying to promote so brutally, so the ancient vibes and the religious anger kind of contradict each other like matter and antimatter.

So this most recent entry in the Behemoth catalogue was an attempt at bringing back the vibes of their most beloved work, The Satanist, but the quality steers a bit closer to their middling debut, Sventevith. Fun moments and boring moments are heald together with a strong metallic presence and pure diamond production, so while it's perfectly listenable, it has its problems.

Now then, here’s an unexpected find in 2025. An album that reminds me of Enslaved, circa the noughties. Still with some of that Viking earthiness about them, but with an obvious smarter edge to their sound, Helheim’s latest offering takes me back to probably the last time I enjoyed an Enslaved record. With the pagan traits of Kampfar added into this mix that also has a rich melodic vein to it also (Windir, springs to mind) and the near clunky transitions of Borknagar, HrabnaR / Ad vesa soon starts to offer a lot in the way of charm to the experienced metal fan. Helheim themselves have been around as long as Enslaved (well, barring a year) and longer than Kampfar or Borknagar, so are hardly new to these sounds of course.

Album number twelve is described by the band as a “groundbreaking release” in the sense that the album was written in two equal halves. One half by V'gandr and the other half by H'grimnir, giving a “bold evolution” to the bands established sound. I will have to take their word for it as I have never listened to any other album by the band, so I can only comment on what I find on here. Whichever half of the record it is that I listen to, Helheim are unafraid to experiment with their established sound. With Hammond organ and grand piano both listed as instruments used on the record, we should not expect endless blastbeats and howls of icy fury throughout.

In this regard, there is an air of predictability to the experimental elements of the sound. Knowing they are traveling an expansive path does not necessarily result in the view being all that unfamiliar in the long run. That’s because they can stay true to their own roots whilst treading in the footsteps of the other mentioned bands already listed in this review. I do not say this as a criticism of the band or indeed the album, as I enjoy the record very much still. It feels accomplished without being cocksure, yet at the same time to call it a “groundbreaking” album seems a stretch in my opinion.

It is well played and produced to a high standard also, doing justice to the various ingredients of the music in terms of letting them all have their moment in the limelight. At forty-four minutes it does not feel too long and still manages to leave the impression of being a well-though out set of compositions that aren’t hurried along at any point. Whilst I cannot pretend to get lost in it, and I do struggle to retain a lot of what I hear (maybe it is a little too much like Enslaved on the backend of the album in particular to stimulate my brain cells much), it is a record that has seen me come back to it out of pure entertainment value. Whilst I may not remember it all, I do still recall it is a good record at least.

So, here is yet another example of the fact that I have no idea what I am talking about, or even what I like half the time. My only other exposure to Krallice was their 2015 album, Ygg Hur, to which I awarded a measly 2.5 stars. I remember said album as being a bit technical and a bit dissonant in the way that I didn't especially enjoy around that time. As such, I wasn't particularly enthused going in to this, but it is actually pretty good and I enjoyed it a helluva lot. It is made up of fairly lengthy and repetitive tracks of muscular black metal that seem to have a beefiness derived from employing death metal production techniques. With the repetitious nature of the riffs and lengthy runtimes you would be forgiven for filing this away as atmospheric black metal but it isn't really as I don't think the repetition is deployed in a way as to create atmospheric layers, but rather to bludgeon the listener and make them feel like they have taken a metaphorical punch on the nose. There is some dissonance involved, but nothing too egregious and certainly not enough to put even my sensitivity to it on alert, just enough to add a bit of bite and edge to the tracks to prevent them becoming too warm and fuzzy.

I don't want to give the impression that this is a boring slog of repetition, though, because the songwriting and composition of a track like "Telluric Rings" is much more accomplished and nuanced than that and is a fine of example of a band who want to make interesting black metal whilst still delivering on the darker side of the genre. The band employ two vocalists, the main one, I think, is guitarist Mick Barr whose vocals are a harsh bark in a more death metal style than the more familiarly thin shrieks of second vocalist, bassist Nicholas McMaster. Speaking of which, I must also make mention of McMaster's bass playing which is busily at work doing some serious heavy lifting for a fair bit of the runtime, not content to just follow the riffing, the bass weaves some quite complex patterns, adding some nice flavour to the musical mix.

I have got to say, I am quite impressed by Diotima and feel that maybe I have been unjustified in giving Krallice short shrift in the past. Every track is strong, but the aforementioned "Telluric Rings" sounds like something special to me and is possibly heading towards becoming a firm black metal favourite of mine.

Somehow flying under my radar to date, Finland’s Havukruunu have been causing waves in metal for a few years. It has taken me about ten listens to Tavastland before I could order my thoughts into some semblance of coherence, such was my surprise at just how much I enjoyed their unique brand of imperious blackened heavy metal. I mean, I have heard pagan black metal before, Moonsorrow and Kampfar immediately spring to mind, but nothing quite feels as invested as Tavastland does and certainly nothing sounds as passionate as it does. Telling the story of the Tavastian people’s rebellion against the Catholic church in 1237, the album carries the angst and unrest of the story well on its broad shoulders. The storytelling as a result carries an authenticity a sincerity even, to it. Far from relying on furious blastbeats and raging tremolos, Havukruunu construct the narrative with well-thought through structures. Unafraid to lean on melody and catchy, chant-driven chorus lines to captivate the listener, the Finns show a versatile and pleasing array of variety across the eight songs here.

I am captivated by the time the chants start on opening track ‘Kuolematon laulunhenki’, only to be further hauled into the baying mob by the mining riffs of ‘Havukruunu ja talvenvarjo’. The choral elements of the latter track disperse into the song unexpectedly, without dispelling the more aggressive and driving rhythm that constitutes the main part of the track. I think this is one of the key areas of success for Tavastland. Despite showing a clear penchant for the more extreme parts of metal, the band always keep that apron string back to that very traditional metal sound that their art is built on, very much in reach still. The pagan influence does not get lost either, the title track being heavy with that content across both instrumentation and vocal context also.

There is a cello, and numerous sections of keys deployed on Tavastland, meaning the interest levels are easy to maintain throughout for me. I cannot pretend to be pagan metals biggest fan but when an album is put together this well, it is hard not to be onboard. The lead work is sublime. Richly melodic and still completely unintrusive, in fact it is most welcome when it does make an appearance on tracks. The notes all sound crisp and clear against the more urgent backdrops of the music they are so often layered over. With such a heady sounding review thus far, it is perhaps unsurprising that I have not hinted at any negatives. The truth is, I don’t have any criticisms, no duff tracks and no moments where I reach for the skip button. This may be down to it being an excellent album that moves at such a relentless pace that you cannot help but be taken along by it. Is the last track a stretch too far at nearly eleven minutes? Well, maybe for some. However, to me it sounds like a final glorification of the great content that precedes it and so I love it just as much as I do the rest of the record.

This year’s exploration of new releases has seen me approaching the early signs of burnout as we reach the halfway point of 2025. With some two hundred and fifty albums already listened to, many of which soon got dismissed before ever being considered worthy of a second listen, it was starting to get a little tiresome. I am grateful though of the releases that still transcend this creeping sense of tedium. The ones that manage to still leave more than a mere dent in the plethora of releases in the year so far. These albums and EPs have something about them, an essence of some strength beyond their grim content and corpse-painted faces. Whilst they don’t always have to be soaked in progressive tendencies, albums such as Incendiary Sanctum are what have kept me largely going this year.

These Canadians come from a strong pedigree of black metal bands, with the country already being responsible for giving me Spectral Wound, Nordicwinter and Panzerfaust, to mention but a few. They are different to pretty much most of what I have heard come out of Canada to date though, deploying a strong death metal element as well as having a post-metal vein running through their sound. It is easy to look at an album with track lengths that extend to nearly nineteen minutes and be discouraged. Indeed, I would go as far as to say parts of Incendiary Sanctum look daunting. However, my experience of these lengthy tracks has thankfully not been one of progressive wankery or grandiose showmanship. Even without that imposing nature to performances it is clear beyond any doubt that everything is remarkably well played here. Equally the album is arranged very intelligently, and yet even with this order to proceedings, especially with that post-metal element being so strong, the dynamics of the sound do not suffer. Arguably the most obtuse thing about the band for me is their ridiculous name.  A Flock Named Murder?  Really?

The four tracks that run over the hour and three-minute duration are all delivered with a maturity and a sense of patience being applied to the song development. This is not just four tracks of post-metal that grow into raging black metal crescendos at the halfway point, to be then taken into some death metal section before fading away into more minimalist pastures to end. The structures here are varied and are kept interesting throughout the longer than usual runtimes. Think the clever songwriting of Cult of Luna coupled with the innovation of Enslaved and then throw some Agalloch in there to temper everything and you are absolutely on the right track. I would argue that this is more entertaining than anyone of those bands in isolation (notwithstanding that I am not Agalloch’s biggest fan by any means) and being able to take the better elements from just three such well established artists show a talent in itself of course.

Incendiary Sanctum is one of the better-balanced releases that I have heard in 2025. Where it does lean into prog it does so without managing to lose me. The death metal element is strong throughout and whilst there is little room for black metal, what is here is still of excellent quality. It does start to lose some traction with me if I listen in one sitting and I do find that splitting the album in two does tend to reap the better rewards for me. I cannot think of anything else I have heard this year to compare this with and as such it stands out from the pack well in what has already been a very busy year.