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This Canadian duo first came to my attention around a decade ago through their 2016 "Marked by Malice" demo which I quite liked at the time. They've since become a mainstay of my war metal listening habits as their proper releases all took things to another level from that initial release but this is the first Profane Order record to receive a proper review &/or rating from me for one reason or another. Like many of the sizable Canadian troop of war metal bands, Profane Order is made up of just the two members in multi-instrumentalist & Spectral Wound drummer Illusory & guitarist/bassist L.A. who enjoys his very first appearance on a Profane Order release here. Profane Order is very much the passion project of Illusory though who has been consistently filling the world with hatred, hypocrisy & death since 2015. "One Nightmare Unto Another" is very fine example of that too.

For Profane order's second full-length, we find the duo partnering up in the studio with Illusory's Spectral Wound band mate & guitarist Patrick McDowall to produce a record that nicely balances the abrasive qualities of all good war metal with just enough clarity to keep everything audible. In saying that, the wall of sound is still quite compacted with Illusory's face-melting vocals & pummeling blast beats kept very closely tied to the rhythm guitars, although the fairly uneventful guitar solos do tend to stand out in the mix. When the chaos reaches its peak, you can struggle to make out the riffs for a few seconds but you're generally given the time to successfully pull them out of the musical cesspool before the duo change course again (as they regularly do throughout the short twenty-five minute run time).

With just seven songs on offer, "One Nightmare Unto Another" has a tendency to fly by in no time, although that's not generally a concern for a war metal release as your ears can only take this sort of battering for so long. The tracklisting is extremely consistent though so it's very hard to select highlights with the vast majority of the tracks being of a very similar standard. The one that stands out to me is actually the shortest of them in "Suppression", although I really enjoy closer "Of Bile & Malice" too. Each of the songs expresses a similar musical theme with both the black metal & death metal components playing a strong role in the holistic message, although a few of the thrashier riffs do display a strong affiliation with Slayer's classic era too. Despite that, it would be quite easy to simply label "One Nightmare Unto Another" as blackened death metal as it's so clearly a combination of the two but the sheer chaos of its execution sees it always maintaining its war metal integrity.

War metal nuts will no doubt enjoy the experience because its everything it claims to be on the tin with the outstanding cover art being very much in line with what you've come to expect from a high-quality war metal release. If you were already a fan of the group through releases like 2017's "Tightened Noose of Sanctimony" E.P. or their 2019 debut album "Slave Morality" then you'll no doubt find "One Nightmare Unto Another" to offer a similar level of appeal. If pushed, I'd probably suggest that I regard those two releases as being just slightly ahead of this one but there's not a lot between them & I've thoroughly enjoyed being flayed to within an inch of my life by Profane Order once again.

For fans of Antichrist Siege Machine, Antichrist & Pig's Blood.

It is hard for me to remember the last time I had anticipation for a black metal album. Part of the reason for that is newer acts have been boring it up with many of the same tired trends in modern black metal that have left a sour mark on the genre for years. I've certainly had records surprise me over the past year and a half, but the joy of expectations (and having them met) is a feat seldom felt. That's where Saidan comes in.

Coming into my radar in 2024 with Visual Kill: The Blossoming of Psychotic Depravity they left a noticeable mark after a year that was depraved of decent black metal. The combination of black metal with j-rock, with divergences into punk and thrash, it made for an uplifting release that was packed to the brim with riffs, melodic motifs and solid production. This time around, Saidan have moved away from the indie's and are signed with Avantgarde Music. With the transition comes their longest album to date, but also their most diverse and passionate.

And once again, Saidan nailed it. In fact I might even call this their best. The main riffing in the guitar is grandiose as it goes back and forth between soaring melodic leads and devastating chugging rhythms. The bass is prominent most of the time and gives the low end of the mix some weight and makes tracks like "Razorblade Temptation" and "Kara No Bara" unbelievable forward momentum. I love how the percussion is performed here; the black metal blast beats are strong and precise, but the switchbacks to the punk skank beats, while the guitars continue the same riffing as before, helps grow each tune to tremendous heights. The vocals are ferocious and relentless, while still leaving the listener with enough room to breathe and reflect.

The riffing on Fangdriller: Scars Beneath Memory's Wrist is in top form. The recurring motifs on "Ethereal Blood", "Her Lips Pressed Against a Coffin Nail" and "Kara No Bara" are some of the best I've heard in a while. The slower transitional periods are a wonderful change of pace on a normally blistering album. The interludes between "Stained Glass Sin/Fang Driller" and "Beat to Death" are stunning, however they give the impression that they belong to the overall song structure as well.

As a whole album, Fangdriller does nearly everything right as it flows between different song styles. It is still a black metal album, so variation can feel limited at times, however the revolving key changes prevent the album from becoming too derivative. And each melodic lead has just enough variation from the songs around it to give each one a fighting chance to stand up and be remembered. In summary, Fangdriller is the kind of black metal album that will knock you back with its intensity and determination, but will keep you wanting to come back for more with a impressive run of killer melodies and punchy riffs.

Best Songs: Razorblade Temptation, Immersed by Eternity's Blade, Kara No Bara, Her Lips Pressed Against a Coffin Nail, Ethereal Blood, Beat to Death

For Fans Of: Svalbard, Stormlord, Deafheaven

You know those Instagram/TikTok musicians who declare "We're bringing back 80s thrash!" Yeah, don't be like those guys. If you're gonna bring back an earlier sound, you gotta actually do what has made a genre great in the past, and whether or not it actually brings it all back is the listener's opinion. Don't say, just do. Fortunately, there's one band who, alongside Static Dress, may just be restoring the greatness of 2000s metalcore/post-hardcore, Concealer.

This Room Could Be Heaven is the band's debut after a couple EPs. All of the melody and emotion that has made metalcore and emo 20 to 25 years ago is in here, while making room for some modern heaviness in the riffing.

We already get some vicious intensity in "Vanity, a Fractured Promise", blended with ethereal melody. "Claymore" is an explosive track that would blow you away especially when played through one of the big loudspeakers. Another chaotic standout "Color Slowly Fading" throws in some sincere melody here and there. It sounds almost like if Skycamefalling didn't split up and instead make a second album.

Then there's an electronic interlude in "I", adding in some metal at the end to segue to the next track. "II" is a short heavy track that brings forward some of the electronics from that interlude. Next track "A Quiet Ending" is anything but quiet, showing how well the band master their formula.

Another interlude-ish track, "The Stillness Between Us" has some decent ambient trip-hop. "And the Sunlight Spoke" is one of the best tracks of this emo/metalcore revival. I can listen to that highlight as many times as I want and not get bored. "In This Moment" is one more brief interlude, nothing to do with the similarly-named band. The closing title track pretty much summarizes the greatness of this album and shall leave their listeners wanting more.

So would it be appropriate for Concealer to declare "We're bringing back 2000s emo/metalcore!" with this album? Again, it all depends on the listener's opinion. For me, I say it's a promising contribution to the revival. If they can make it big with this one and future albums, this could be the scene's new era!

Favorites: "Vanity, a Fractured Promise", "Color Slowly Fading", "A Quiet Ending", "And the Sunlight Spoke", "This Room Could Be Heaven"

Oh dear! What have we here I hear you ask? Well, this Brisbane-based trio were one of the earliest metal bands to come of my adopted home state of Queensland back with 1985's awfully titled four-song "Daddy's Little Girl" E.P. being their first proper release. Vice weren't exactly a household name in this country so I didn't get around to checking this relatively unknown release out until earlier this decade &, even then, it was only out of sheer completism. I would suggest that the cover art alone would have scared off the majority of punters from this century but, you know what, someone's gotta do it so I recently decided to take the plunge by returning for a second helping, purely in the name of the glorious Aussie metal scene that I love so much.

The horribly titled "Daddy's Little Girl" was released on the completely insignificant Sundown Records label right in the middle of the 1980's. One look at that cover will probably tell you that Vice were at least loosely associated with the glam metal movement &, if that was the case, then you'd be correct because a good half of their sound fits that description pretty comfortably. However, they also possessed a much tougher heavy metal edge at times & opening track "Morpheus" will no doubt have you second guessing yourself with its powerful, down-tuned, bottom-string chug riff that's been pulled straight off of Black Sabbath's "Children of the Grave". It's a great opener actually & I really enjoy it. It also sounds very different to other three tracks on the release. "Morpheus" is immediately followed by a very commercial sounding & misguided cover version of The Supremes "Stop ...in the Name of Love" which is certainly well performed & energetic but doesn't do a lot for me personally. The lengthier "Into the Night" sees things descending further with front man Peter Sharman's vocals struggling to find his feet amidst the glam/heavy metal instrumentation before the more than decent closer "Thriller Between the Sheets" rewards our patience with an up-tempo heavy metal feel that reminds me a lot of the punk-infused electricity of Iron Maiden's debut album. The variation in approaches across the four songs tells the clear story of a young band who were still trying to decide on what musical direction they should take so it can come across as unfocused but it does keep you on your toes nonetheless.

The production job on "Daddy's Little Girl" is more than acceptable for such an underground release of the time as it presents the band's strengths quite well. Peter Sharman would appear to be the main attraction with his big, masculine, powerful tone tending to make up for his occasional pitchiness with sheer charisma. The guitars of Dr Dave Warner (unfortunately not the former Australian opening batsman) are loud & proud while drummer Scott Allard would appear to be influenced just as much by hard rock as he is heavy metal, alternating between the two across the four songs. My enjoyment does tend to vary depending on how successful Sharman is at tackling each track though &, when he's in his element, Vice can be well worth hearing. I do think they were a significantly better heavy metal band than a glam metal one though so I've found myself enjoying the two more metallic inclusions a lot more than the two glammier ones. In fact, Vice don't really sound much like a glam metal act on the two songs that bookend this release which can only be a good thing in my opinion. Unfortunately, the two tracks that make up the middle of the E.P. do exist which has led to me deciding that "Daddy's Little Girl" probably isn't for me so I can't say that I'd recommend it to members who are looking for a hidden Aussie gem.

For fans of Twisted Sister, Axatak & early Kings Cross.

As I've gotten older, I have become less tolerant for long, overbloated records. I squirm at the idea of an album longer than fifty minutes, especially when it comes from the metalcore scene. And even more so when the album is as blatant a nostalgia grab as This Room Could Be Heaven. by concealer. 

But here's the thing: This Room Could Be Heaven. is concise and straight-to-the-point. "Vanity, a Fractured Promise" starts the album with a bang and the record keeps going for almost the entire time, minus a few atmospheric post-rock passages. Those sections are probably this albums greatest fault, because on a record that runs shorter than half-an-hour, there is no room for meandering. Many of my favourite metalcore and thrash metal albums of the past five years have a no bullshit policy that they follow almost to the letter, and while this record is short and concise, it does not really abide by that policy for long.

That being said, there are some interesting moments here. "Color Slowly Fading" is an early record standout with a nice chorus that could have been borrowed straight out of an old Underoath album. The same can be said for "...And the Sunlight Spoke", which includes one of the few examples of a post-rock bridge actually complimenting the songwriting. On the flipside, the combination of "I" and "II" does not really do it for me. If the band wanted to treat "I" as an interlude, it could have worked, but "II" creates the illusion of being this ruthless hardcore slam, only for that song to subdue into more post-rock nonsense and it becomes a massive letdown.

At the end of This Room Could Be Heaven. I was underwhelmed. I could tell that concealer. have a knack for production and could tell you every miniscule detail about The Opposite of December... A Season of Separation. What pains me is that concealer. do not have that much to say about themselves. 

Best Songs: Vanity, a Fractured Promise, Color Slowly Fading, ...And the Sunlight Spoke

For Fans Of: Skycamefalling, Poison the Well

The "beauty and the beast" vocal technique of female cleans and male growls originated in the 90s from gothic metal releases like the first 3 Theatre of Tragedy albums and Within Temptation's debut Enter. Nowadays, any band with heavy riffs and bombastic symphonics can do that vocal pairing. We already know that style was popularized in symphonic metal by Epica, but what about this Swedish band Eleine? This is their glorious second album Until the End!

The newer bands like Eleine have helped stabilize symphonic metal in the past 10 years before this review. Madeleine Liljestam has a lot of strength and power in her vocals, greatly fitting in with the growls by guitarist Rikard Ekberg.

There's some of that heavier gothic vibe in "Story Untold", getting close to melodeath territory, though the symphonics and singing are what help things out. Cranking up the tempo is "Echoes". Madeleine stands her ground with her vocals, while Ekberg provides the ocassional growls whenever the time is right. "Sanity" punches through with some deathly groove, again balanced out with the symphonics. "From the Grave" continues that sound with a bit of spookiness to remind some of King Diamond (the band).

One of the best tracks to display that vocal pairing is "Whisper My Child", sounding heavy while staying bombastic. The title track is a perfect diverse cauldron of the oriental aspects of Myrath, the symphonics of Xandria, and a bit of the power metal of Heavenly and Iron Fire. The gothic ballad "Please" is all about emotion, not too much drama.

"Another Rite" may seem too pop-ish for heavier metalheads, but when you listen with an open mind, you can the vocal dynamics there. They especially shine in the catchy chorus, thus making another epic highlight. "Hell Moon (We Shall Never Die)" has more of those Therion-infused symphonics. "Prelude: Arise" is a brief break before the final track. "Break Take Live" unleashes heavy aggression including some soloing to top it all off. As much as the vocals are memorable, so is the instrumentation.

Until the End has showcased a heavier gothic-esque side of symphonic metal last heard from Epica. Eleine has strengthened that sound with their talent. Alongside other bands like Seven Spires and Beyond the Black, they shall reign in the new wave of symphonic metal!

Favorites: "Story Untold", "Echoes", "Whisper My Child", "Until the End", "Another Rite", "Break Take Live"

Sydney five-piece Critical Mass were a name that I saw floating around the live scene in my home city during the early 1990's but never had the opportunity of experiencing in the flesh as far as I can recall. I did, however, get the chance to check out this one-off album which would occasionally find its way onto the CD player of whoever's house the after party happened to be at though. Critical Mass had begun life as a cover band called Foreign Order in the late 1980's before changing their moniker & attempting originals but they didn't really amount to much before calling it quits around 1993/94. I was familiar with vocalist Greg Moore through the 1989 "Into Reality" demo tape from Sydney speed/heavy metallers Enticer (3.5/5) which I quite liked but the rest of the band didn't really come from any level of metal pedigree & it shows on their sole full-length.

The "Unholy Wars" album was released through Vampire Records in 1992 which surprises me really. Label owner Danny Kaleda was a well-known member of the local metal community thanks to his long-standing "Monday Night Metal" radio program on 2RRR (a show that I was a guest on at least once) & Vampire would be responsible for putting out high-quality extreme metal records like Sadistik Exekution's "The Magus" & the first couple of Nazxul releases. It seems a little strange to me that he'd associate himself with such a mild-mannered & fairly easy-listening metal release such as this one but that would appear to be the case. The production isn't anything to write home about either with the rhythm guitars being too far back in the mix & being over-powered by the rhythm section. For this reason, "Unholy Wars" sounds a lot like a self-financed affair.

Critical Mass' musical approach sits somewhere between Metallica's more chuggy, mid-paced thrash metal material & a more accessible heavy metal sound built around power chords & vocal hooks. Unfortunately the thrash riffs are so simple & generic that I can't help but feel that the band would have been better served by concentrating on their less intense side as they're certainly a little better at it with power ballad (& clear album highlight in my opinion) "Road That Never Ends" & the catchy heavy metal singalong "Nineties" being two of the more rewarding numbers. The lead guitar work is quite accomplished for such an inconspicuous release though & is definitely one of the better elements of Critical Mass' game although Moore doesn't possess the vocal chops to see the song-writing maximizing its potential. There are no genuine shockers included here but the peaks are rare & I generally find myself feeling a little underwhelmed rather than disappointed.

It's not hard to see why "Unholy Wars" might have drifted past most of the global metal scene without much fanfare because it's sound is simply a little too simple, generic & lightweight to raise too many alarm bells. I can't in good conscience score it any lower than three stars though as it certainly has its moments (such as thrasher "When..." which I quite like). It just feels a little flat & never really sees my heart-rate increasing which means that it was never going to amount to more than a blip on the radar of my metal journey.

For fans of Metallica, Nothing Sacred & Aggressa.

Melodic Death Doom, perfected. The Morning Never Came is the debut album of the Finnish lords of gloom, beauty and despair. While I adore all of Swallow the Sun’s albums, I must confess that their debut is my favorite of all. The band simply crafted the absolute peak of the genre on their first try.

The Morning Never Came is, like most Doom, dark, very melancholic, atmospheric, and somber. But it’s also passionate, lush, melodic, equal parts beautiful and crushing. Undercurrents of depressive hopelessness and apocalypse are lit up by moonbeams of longing and twinkling starlight of love from long ago. Riffs and leads on this album are phenomenal; every single song has multiple that could go down as some of the most iconic of the genre. The bass is amazing, smooth and melodic, which is rare for Doom; the mix does it wonders so you can hear the attention to composition in the basswork. Similarly, the drumming is nice and active, intelligent, swapping between funereal and punchy to serve the songs. The keys are that extra layer that bring this from S tier to SS tier; so beautifully lush, simple but very, very memorable, backing the chords and leads in a way that solidifies each song as extremely memorable. They never compete with the guitar leads, instead adding another layer of backing chords that also avoid competing with rhythm guitar by sticking to higher registers. Just genius compositional work. Last but certainly not least, fantastic vocals that can range from death growls to black shrieks, even some cleans here and there, and morose yet captivating lyricism.

The Morning Never Came is not only one of my favorite albums ever, but one of the most consistent and flawless. There isn’t a single thing about this album I could point out that I don’t love. Even the production and mixing are perfect. The reverb is wonderfully atmospheric but doesn’t sacrifice detail. The layering is just enough to make the album sound lush, but perfectly restrained to ensure every instrument is audible and serving a specific purpose. The craftsmanship here, on all levels, is masterful.

The thing about albums like this is, beyond all the technical aspects, the compositional aspects, the musicianship, the production, it still has one more thing going for it: the emotional value. These songs are deeply affecting, on every front. The melodies are heart-wrenching, the vocals are powerful, the keys provide that plastic synthetic beauty that contrasts so well with the crushing devastation of the rhythm section. The mood here is so damn gloomy. The gloomiest album I’ve ever heard. Every song sounds like finding that which is most important to you broken and buried in the snow. Some songs instill the wrath that follows, and others the grief, but there’s always loss, there’s always melancholy, and there’s always cold, bitter snow, with no sign of the morning in sight.

Well, this just proves how much of a sucker I am for Anders. I’ve also got a soft spot for this style of 2000’s Alternative Metal that fused elements of extreme Metal with commercial sensibility, and always came with heavy doses of angst. I was growing up in that era, so of course it’s nostalgic for me. When I found out a couple members from one of my favorite bands put out an album in this style two decades ago, my interest was piqued.

To be blunt, this is a very standard 2000’s Alt Metal album on the surface. The band takes a ton of influence from the American scene at the time, adding in some Nu Metal influence. The rhythm section is pretty simple, most of the riffs are standard chord-based fair, and the songs follow verse-chorus format. But below that, there are elements of quality and care that make this a very complete package. Subtle but interesting synths are used to create atmosphere or even underlying melodies, and work especially well during the softer sections of the songs. Niclas reminds us he is not just any guitarist, but the riffmaster of the most legendary Melodeath band ever by composing gentle lead guitar melodies (often clean) that instead of taking focus, provide extra layers of depth to the verses and playing off of Ander’s vocals very nicely.

At the end of the day, though, Anders takes the center stage. At this point in his career, he had never used primarily clean vocals on an album, but what a welcome surprise it is. His cleans have always been a point of contention among fans (though I have always adored them) but one thing that cannot be denied is, god damn, the man can write a hook. Fantastic vocal melodies, harmonized with multiple layers (and styles) of vocals, even crafted with lyrics that flow perfectly… the choruses here are monumental. The verses are similarly captivating, less focused on melody and more on using these either angry or melancholic lyrics to build the mood of the song. The instrumentation on this album is simple, but it is to give the man full focus and play off of his strengths, and that is done to perfection here.

A lost gem that should appeal to any fans of that early 2000’s Alt Metal scene or fans of Anders’ vocals.

Listening to Banquet for the Darkness, a Melodeath album that was released in 2003, I continuously found myself thinking “how has no one done this before?” The riffs and leads on this album are just so damn catchy, but at the same time… simple. And by simple, I don’t mean they are easy to play or anything like that, just… again… how had no one thought of these before?

Despite releasing a decade into the genre’s development, Banquet for the Darkness is filled with guitarwork that sounds like it should have been foundational to the genre. And yet, it doesn’t sound like they are ripping off contemporaries. Everything here sounds fresh, unique, and at the same time, classic. Now of course, over two decades since its release, the album IS considered a classic in the genre, but as someone who has listened to a lot of Metal releases chronologically, this truly sounds like something that would have come out in 1994 rather than 2003. It even has the mix of true OSDM in the sound that many of the earliest Melodeath still retained. 

What can I say specifically about this album? Riffs. Riffs. Leads. Riffs. Solos. Riffs. The rhythm section is great as well, and the vocals are fully serviceable growls that occasionally lean towards Black Metal shrieks, but God damn, those guitars. Every song here has a lick that could go down among the classics.

The only thing I can say against this album is that it’s not quite as good as the debut in my humble opinion. With the debut being the absolute masterpiece that it is, that’s like saying a juicy medium-rare ribeye steak is not quite as good as a cut of A5 wagyu, but I really wish it did have one track that stood up to the majesty of “Cannibal Sodom.”

This was the album that shot Dir en Grey to the semi-mainstream, thanks in large part to the music video for “Obscure,” which is, to this day, one of the most bizarre, graphic, and disturbing music videos ever made. It makes Tool music videos look tame and normal.

But let’s talk about the music. For an album with 15 tracks and a certain amount of eclecticism that includes influences from Hardcore Punk, Avant-Garde Metal, Gothic, and J-Rock, Vulgar is a surprisingly consistent record. Kind of a blessing and a curse of this album is that pretty much every song features some dissonant, aggressive or avant-garde parts as well as more melodic and accessible sections. Depending on which you prefer, it essentially evens out with every song being at least good and listenable, while none of them truly reach masterpiece status. But by and large, most of these songs are great.

Despite the album title, only a couple songs here are explicitly vulgar. Many of the songs, even the renowned “Obscure,” use poetic, symbolic imagery that paints a surreal picture. I was impressed with the lyricism on display here, and can only imagine it reads even better untranslated. Kyo’s unhinged vocals and writing were my favorite part of the record.

Sure it could benefit from some trimming, but I think the wild eclecticism works in the album’s favor. The “weaker” songs are songs I can easily see being some people’s favorite tracks depending on their taste – the album has a little bit of everything here, although every song is steeped in Dir en Grey’s graphic, bizarre style like a tea bag of rotten pomegranate.

This was the album that made me a Devin Townsend fan. Everything before this was too inconsistent, too bizarre, too unserious… here, everything comes together so well. His previous albums had moments of genius, songs that displayed an incredible potential, but he was too unhinged, and the songwriting was way too all over the place to put down a full album of quality material. 

On this album, Devin actually sounds like he wants to say something rather than hide behind cryptic lines about eating vegetables. A lot of these songs tie into love and relationships, as well as mental health. Devin’s still got his sarcastic sense of humor, but most of these songs are driven by genuine passion and serve to deliver a mood and message rather than just serve as a playground for him to experiment with 100 layers of sounds.

Speaking of layers of sounds… beautiful. Production is fantastic, density is immense, yet at the same time everything feels weightless, clean. Even that album cover evokes the immaculate era when we thought the future would look like Frutiger Aero. The album is a treat to listen to again and again thanks to every moment being loaded with undercurrents of melodies, chords, and ambience that can only be picked up on after multiple passes. 

The choruses here are great, and Devin’s voice is just fantastic. The screams are phenomenal. There’s passion, power, control. The songs are really atmospheric and dense, so the choruses work as the perfect earworms to work in tandem with the otherwise overwhelming songs.

One criticism I have is that almost every song on this album features one riff or chord progression that just isn’t good. I dunno what it is with this guy, but he seems to self-sabotage everything he does by throwing a garbage passage into his would-be fantastic songs. Every single song on this album has the potential to be a masterpiece, but most of them had parts that I really just wasn’t crazy about, dragging the song down a bit.

It’s not a perfect album, but it is a clear embrace of Devin’s strengths as a singer, musician, writer and producer. Terria, while inconsistent, proved to me he could write some fantastic songs; Accelerated Evolution proved to me the man can write a great ALBUM, and henceforth I’m incredibly excited to listen to all of his following works.

I always viewed Lamb of God as a sort of “2000’s Pantera.” Not only were they in the same Groove Metal gang, but they also were one of the biggest Metal bands of their respective decade, and shaped the trajectory of popular Metal as a whole in their early career. Yeah, and they also had the same southern tough guy attitude.

After really rough start as “Burn the Priest” for a few years and a completely unremarkable debut (another mirror to Pantera’s long-forgotten beginnings?) Lamb of God released a quite remarkable and game changing sophomore release in “As the Palace Burns.” This album is one of the founding albums of the modern Groove Metal style (not sure if it’s the very first, but it’s certainly the most popular and impactful).

By 2003, Groove Metal on its own had started to become stale and quite hated by the Metal community. Many fans had to watch their favorite artists stop playing good music to release Groove Metal slop in the late 90’s because that’s what was trendy. It was a dumbed-down version of what ruled the 80’s, featuring a lot of boring, simple riffs and repetitive, mid-tempo rhythms. On the flip side, Groove Metal was seeing IMMENSE success when merged with other genres like Nu Metal, Alt Metal, Metalcore, etc.

And so, Lamb of God very successfully joined and lead this new wave. They merged Groove with Metalcore to adopt a more modern sound accessible to more than just pure Metalheads. They injected a fiery dose of Thrash into their veins for energy, aggression, and riffage that was absent in most of the blander Groove Metal. And lastly, a seasoning of Melodic Metalcore to ensure guitar leads that were catchy enough to make the otherwise harsh and heavy songs memorable and slightly accessible.

And they had a winning formula. Even purists tend to like Lamb of God. And you can add me to the mix too, because this album has made me a Lamb of God fan. It’s not the most incredible album, but for what it is, the band pulls off everything they set out to do very well. All of the genres played, some of which I’m not the biggest fan, are played to a high degree of competency. I can’t help but enjoy it. This is a band I wasn’t really expecting to like that much, but came away from this album more and more impressed each time I listened to it. Simply enjoyable.

After the doomy intro “Thi13teen,” I was met with the first Type O Negative song I’d ever heard that sounded really, truly great. “I Don’t Wanna Be Me,” as simple as it is, is carried by a guitar lead that is, in essence, the perfect upbeat Gothic Metal riff. Drumming is bouncy, chorus is catchy, it’s full of melancholic energy, almost emo honestly.

Now, I also realized immediately that I’d heard this somewhere before, in fact I was quite certain Anathema did this song, and I was quite certain it was on Alternative 4… That’s right, it was track 3, “Empty.”

No, the songs are not identical, but it’s a very, very clear influence.

However, that’s not a bad thing. Type O Negative were one of the first Gothic Metal bands around, and one of the most influential. But “Life is Killing Me” is the first album that really sees them going from influencer to influenced, taking inspiration from the plethora of Gothic Metal that had arisen since their inception.

Since I think a good 95% of Gothic Metal bands that came after are way better than Type O Negative who influenced them, that’s a big plus for me.

Unfortunately though, “I Don’t Wanna Be Me” is far and away better than almost all the following material. Most of the other tracks fall victim to Peter Steele’s atrocious lyricism and goofy antics. There’s some nicely dense compositions going on here, and the band has all the right ingredients to make fantastic songs. Unfortunately, the band members work against one another. Peter Steele is constantly sabotaging any good songs with his embarrassing shenanigans. The keys/synths occasionally add in sounds that sound way too playful or just contrast the otherwise dark atmosphere. The guitar leads are great sometimes… but pretty much everytime the drums switch to doomy plodding, which is when a GOOD RIFF is most necessary, the guitars decide to be as boring as possible.

Thankfully, “Anesthesia” towards the end of the album showcases the band putting all their potential songwriting prowess to good use a delivering a genuinely melancholic masterpiece of gloomy, doomy, Gothic Metal. The density of this track is fantastic, and all the layers contribute to a hazy, moody atmosphere. Even Peter’s lyrics and delivery on this song are good! 

“The Dream is Dead” is a good closer as well, resulting in this album being a plethora of eclectic, dense, but ultimately mediocre Gothic Metal bookended by genuine quality and highlights among the genre.

Of course, if you like frat boy humor and less conventional songwriting in your Gothic Metal, I suppose you will probably just enjoy all of it. But I don’t.

Still, it is easily my favorite Type O release so far.

I’ve heard a lot of Neoclassical albums lead by “guy who is really good at guitar/keyboard.” And out of all of them, “Embrace the Galaxy”… falls somewhere in the middle.

This is an album with strong songwriting and performances. It’s not guilty of just having one instrument wizard who steals the show while the other members do the bare minimum. It SOUNDS like a fully capable band playing and constructing good songs. The vocalist is strong too, even if he sounds like his mouth is full of pizza most of the time.

The density is strong, with shimmering keyboard notes and spacey ambient pads adding layers of melody and ambience to the Metal instrumentation. The keyboardist Richard Andersson is smart in that he uses many different synth effects rather than sticking to one that becomes overdone by track 3. There are electronic synths, but also synthed strings, horns, harpsichord, and other sound effects. The core band sounds great, not unique, but not lacking in any way.

Why does this album fall in the middle then? Well, it’s got no real weaknesses, but it also doesn’t have any strengths separating it from contemporaries either. Of course the playing is phenomenal, but that goes for every Neoclassical Metal album (double for Progressive Neoclassical Metal like this). It doesn’t have any particular riffs, choruses or solos that blow my mind or get caught in my head. The composers are great at playing notes in key, but not great at playing notes that evoke feeling or emotion. Which is annoying, because in Richard Andersson’s previous band Majestic, ALL of those points were hit successfully. This has a space theme and sound, if that counts for anything, but aside from that it won’t break the ceiling beyond being more than another strong Neoclassical album.

The ever-persistent Sabbat are back again in the big ’03 delivering Blackened Thrash that still sounds fresh out of ’85. And that’s the appeal of Sabbat; a band that consistently delivers a specific sound from a specific era that is never influenced by the modern era even slightly.

That being said, if you’ve heard one Sabbat album, you’ve heard them all, so there’s not much to say. The album is fun, aggressive, energetic. It’s still got Sabbat’s signature Heavy Metal influence, but a bit less so than previous albums, with most tracks falling more squarely in the Blackened Thrash category. Lyrics, delivery, songwriting, same as always… honest to Satan 80’s extreme Metal.

There is only one misstep on this album, and that is the boring and goofy “In League with Devils” which has a tribal drumbeat and a very repetitive, annoying nature. The rest of the songs are extremely fun, bone-crunching, Satan-praising thrashers of dark occultism. “I’m Your Satan” in particular is one of the band’s best tracks, with nonstop Thrash drumming and a particularly sinister delivery overtop the better riffs of the album.

Sabbat had been releasing material very consistently since the mid 80’s if demos are to be included, but unfortunately after this album, their releases became much more sporadic, with full-length albums dropping only once a decade.

Doom Metal is a mood-driven genre of Metal that focuses on moody atmospheres and negative emotions like melancholy, mourning, or even misanthropic hatred. At its brightest, bittersweet and longing. It uses slow, plodding tempos to help emphasize the funereal atmosphere, evoking the lethargy of depression, a funeral march, or a dying villain’s last hurrah. The heaviness embodies the crushing weight of despair, solitude and alienation. Every aspect of the genre is an ingredient in emphasizing the darkest of human emotion.

Drone Metal is a texture-driven genre of Metal that focuses on building atmosphere using extremely slow, drawn out, and usually repetitive guitars, with special emphasis on the textural aspects that can be achieved with the guitars . Rather than evoking mood or theme, the style typically opts to home in on creating a droning wall of fuzzy, hazy, bassy guitars that provide a sort of “white noise” with their textural assault. Drone Metal styles commonly employ simple instrumentation and repeat patterns for extended lengths of time, compositionally sharing similarities with traditional Drone and Noise music.

If one can understand this, one can come to the sensible conclusion that Dopesmoker, despite being labeled with the disastrous misnomer “Stoner Doom,” is NOT at all a Doom Metal record, but hybrid Stoner and Drone Metal record.

I’m a massive Doom Metal fan. This album lacks every single quality I find enjoyable in Doom Metal. So it’s either A) the worst Doom Metal record ever (incorrect) or B) not Doom Metal (correct).

Who in the metal world hasn't heard of Iron Maiden? They're known as one of the most influential bands in all of metal, having developed the NWOBHM movement and sold millions of copies around the world. Is it surprising that I haven't thought of listening to and reviewing an entire album by this band until recently? Sure seems like it, but I've rarely had the incentive to check out full albums from the more popular classic heavy metal bands. And now I'm ready to take on this offering by these British metal legends.

Like other famous metal bands that have existed for around half a century, the 80s was known as the band's pinnacle of fame and glory, then the 90s was when the quality dropped and gradually withered into forgettable oblivion. And the second half of the decade didn't even involve the widely-revered vocalist Bruce Dickinson whose temporary replacement was Blaze Bayley. Then when Mr. Dickinson came back to the band along with guitarist Adrian Smith, the result for this album is what's been hailed by many as a return to their earlier form of melodic anthems. So let's enter this Brave New World to see if I can agree...

The track that kickstarts the album "The Wicker Man" is basically their way of telling the listeners that they haven't lost their earlier talent. This is especially true in the chorus with its guitar melody and Dickinson's inspiring line of "Your time will come!" Next track "Ghost of the Navigator" is an easy one for new listeners to get into. It works for riding your horse through fields of sorrow. The bass and drums also help make that track a highlight that's hard for other bands to surpass. The title track is another reason why the wait for this album was worth it for earlier Maiden fans, a perfect way to exemplify their sound. The soft guitar soon rises to distorted melody, as Dickinson brings his vocal power up. The chorus is so catchy, especially with Steve Harris' audible bass. The band has given fans a proper welcome back with that one.

The sorrowful "Blood Brothers" practically tells a tale of heroism and tragedy. A great funeral song for any metalhead, to say farewell to a brother of the metal brotherhood. "The Mercenary" is a more rock-on track. Once again, the chorus is slower and sounds more inspiring, as Dickinson encourages you to "show them no fear". The centerpiece of the entire album is "Dream of Mirrors", the first of 3 epics circling 9 minutes. It is quite progressive as it starts off sounding like a dreamy ballad ("The dream is true"), before rising gradually in the instrumentation, complete with power chords, reaching its explosive climax in a second chorus to appear before repeating the first one ("I only dream in black and white"). So powerful and mind-blowing! The song becomes faster in the second half, and while it makes the chorus sound a bit odd, I wouldn't change anything about that magnificent epic. "The Fallen Angel" is a short highlight to help get your mind set before more of those epics to come.

"The Nomad" is the second of the 3 long epics. It starts off fine and mid-paced though it may be off-putting for the speedier fans, then it gradually becomes heavier and more progressive. The Middle-Eastern vibes and the midsection are what make that song sound so great. The rest of that track though, it's OK but doesn't reach the same height as the other epics. "Out of the Silent Planet" is the one track that I think doesn't belong here. The melody is just a little too draggy, and the epics are much better executed when it comes to that. Case in point, "The Thin Line Between Love & Hate" ends the album with some of the best melody here. Truly an underrated track!

So if "The Nomad" was trimmed to around 5 minutes in length instead of 9 and "Out of the Silent Planet" was cut entirely, Brave New World would've been perfect enough for me to listen to this band full-time. Nonetheless, the album is full of high-energy anthems that have made me understand how essential the band is. For many longtime fans, it is a comeback, but for the newer listeners such as myself, it's indeed a brave new world to explore....

Favorites: "Ghost of the Navigator", "Brave New World", "Dream of Mirrors", "The Fallen Angel", "The Thin Line Between Love & Hate"

Among Metal genres, Grindcore and its subgenres are often among my least favorite comparatively. Aside from Deathgrind, which usually features prominent riffs, I find the noisy, dissonant, chaotic structures laden with non-stop blast beating simply… unpleasant most of the time. Even when the riffs are good, they can struggle to be heard over the oppressive drumming, vocals usually screaming but buried, every aspect of the music competing with each other to be perceived resulting in a mess of noise.

Nasum has consistently been one of the stronger Grindcore bands I’ve listened to, but third album Helvete easily catapulted into my top Grindcore albums of all time. The entire album is played fantastically, with tremendous technicality and precision ensuring the music is manic, chaotic, but never messy. Some songs feature tempo changes, chord progression, lead guitar, calmer sections (by Grindcore standards), all things that are almost always absent from the genre. This prevents the album from ever becoming tiring or too oppressive. 

And goodness gracious, the production. This is the best production I’ve ever heard for a Grindcore album. I can hear every instrument clearly, even when the band is truly going for it. The vocals are powerful but not piercing nor buried, perfectly placed in the mix. And all this without sounding “clean” or sterile in the slightest. Magnificent job there.

Great songwriting. Great performances. Great production. No bad songs, no weak points. The only reason it doesn’t get higher marks is because, typical of a Grindcore album, it doesn’t feature any truly standout songs that I want to listen to forever. I can’t really fault the band so much as it’s just incredibly difficult to make a Grindcore song true to the genre that I really adore (although Pig Destroyer have managed to do it).

Lost Horizon are quite universally beloved for emerging onto the Progressive Power Metal scene, dropping two masterpieces in the genre within two years, and then hanging up their gloves. More realistically, they’ve been inconsistently active, with sparse announcements but no actual releases since.

Just like their first album, “A Flame to the Ground Beneath” is more of their technical, dense, maximalist Progressive Power Metal, with influences of Heavy Metal and Symphonic Metal throughout. It’s hard to praise any singular aspect of the music, because the band pretty much excel in every area, from every single instrument played, to the vocals and melodies, to the songwriting, technique, etc…

And they manage to do all that without making the music sound soulless. Quite the opposite, as Ethereal Magnanimus has some of the most powerful and passionate vocals ever, and lays down some incredibly triumphant vocal lines. The music melodies never once stop evoking “epic” and carry with them an encouraging wind of spiritual power. This may be technical progressive music, but it’s also music that makes your very essence brim with power.

And then, of course, I was hit with the meme moment. I had no idea it was coming. Blows my mind to think I had heard Lost Horizon probably almost 2 decades ago, before I was even into Metal on some random Youtube Poop. That technically makes Lost horizon one of the first Metal bands I ever heard.

Unfortunately, this sophomore album suffers from the exact same issue as the debut. There are 9 tracks here… and 3 of them are interludes. “The Song of Earth” is nice, but the others are boring, useless, and way too long. That really detracts from the full album. I cannot fathom why bands do this…

I did also notice that the album wasn’t actually that fast for Power Metal. There aren’t any moments of Speed Metal-style pounding double bass or tremolo picking. For me, that’s a negative, because that’s one of my favorite things to hear.

As amazing and majestic as the album is, I do find it… overrated. I can completely understand the praise, and by and large, it is deserving of said honor. But me personally? Well… there are many, many Power Metal albums I would rather listen to than this one. Though that’s less of a knock against this album as it is a declaration of how much I adore Power Metal.

The Lord Weird Slough Feg – a band celebrated for bringing back good old-fashioned Traditional Heavy/US Power Metal. Even the vocals to this band are reminiscent of Mark “The Shark” of Manilla Road, and thematics are typically rooted in literature or mythology with a healthy dose of sci-fi. Essentially, very “nerdy” Metal. 

Slough Feg do not try to be very dark or evil, nor do they go for overblown theatrics. The music is not layered with synths or symphonics, nor is it pushing any technical limits or progressive boundaries. Nay, Slough Feg is just Metal. It’s just fun. And for many, this has been enough to earn them praise, especially in a time where Metal bands were doing everything they could to be heavier, more experimental, more maximalistic, or even gimmicky. Slough Feg was just Slough Feg (Or The Lord Weird, if you will).

Anyway, about Traveller. Traveller is a narrative-driven sci-fi concept album about a smuggler-esque alien dogman. I mean, it goes way deeper than that, every detail based on the game of the same name. What, you haven’t heard of it? “Traveller is a science fiction role-playing game first published in 1977”! For the 72 people who have heard of this game, the album is (probably) an absolute treasure trove of deep and nerdy references. We follow our (anti) hero as he seeks revenge for the gene-splicing mutilation he’s forced to undergo, leading to galactic wars, and… yeah, it’s a fun time.

The music to Traveller is, as I mentioned before, pretty standard US Power Metal. And this is where I think the band starts to be a bit overrated. Traveller is definitely their best album, no doubt about that – not only does it have the fun concept, but it’s packed with energy, showcasing the band’s best drumming for sure and interesting songwriting choices. That being said, there are a very large number of USPM bands out there who have a “best album” that I’d put above this. It’s a good cut of the genre, but nothing I’d put in the USPM hall of fame or anything. The playing is good here, but in terms of memorable guitar melodies or choruses etc, it falls a bit flat.

Still, a great album, if overrated a bit. More fun than anything. Definitely rewards those who pay attention to lyrics. The best part of the album is probably the fact that is closes on the best song the band ever wrote, “Addendum Galactus.” Man, I love a good closer.

Very epic. Does an excellent job in putting the listener right where they want them – some ancient pagan winter where polytheistic Gods intervene for fun as mankind struggles against the natural threats of the wilderness. In every way, the atmosphere and sound succeed at what they set out to do.

The layers here are fantastic. Walls of heavy rhythm guitars are interspersed with folky acoustic guitars, choral and string synths, and more traditional instruments here and there. Vocals are also epically stacked for a powerful effect. There are plenty of quiet sections, but even those are beautifully laced with soft strings, pads, and quiet plucked traditional instruments.

The compositions and songwriting are strong as well. The progressions are satisfying, and despite the extreme length of some of these songs (the opener is over 13 and a half minutes) they never feel overlong.

So what’s lacking here? Well, when I’m listening to this kind of music (extreme Folk Metal?) I want to hear more darkness, more melancholy… more negativity. Like on the band’s Tämä ikuinen talvi demo. Harsh vocals plus jolly fanfare music doesn’t really mesh well for me. Some of these end up sounding like heavy drinking songs (which I hate).There are also some quieter, synthesizer driven sections that I feel clash with the otherwise very medieval/pagan atmosphere. Synthesized instruments are fine, but synths that just sound like electronics take me out of it a bit.

Also, your mileage may vary, but the last two songs are by far the weakest to me. I hate when albums have weak endings.

Overall a strong album with a wonderful number of layers to get lost in as the atmosphere takes you to another time and place.

After a lengthy period of quiet, Killing Joke return with their second self-titled album (so Killswitch Engage isn’t the only band who did this?) and what lies within is one of their heaviest and most aggressive records to date.

The political state of the world was a strong motivator for such an album. The war on terror had turned the Middle East into an apocalyptic zone, and the world was shaken after the events of 9/11. Killing Joke were not American, nor from the Middle East, but they still had a lot to say. There is a lot of anger and passion directed at those in power and the state of the world. Surprisingly, there’s not actually much about war specifically here, or even the events of the times; rather, the lyrics are pointedly timeless, aggression towards the same follies of corruption and power that have plagued humanity since Adam and Eve.

Musically… well, your mileage will vary, and obviously this is a very popular album, but musically the album really isn’t that special. The tracks are very repetitive, usually with one or two drumbeats that repeat the whole song, a simple, shallow riff that doesn’t really evoke much, and there’s probably bass too. The actual instrumental work on this album is lackluster. What improves the tracks are the effects, samples and layering thrown underneath the simple instrumentation that adds as a strong soundscape of industrial dystopia. 

What IS special are Jaz Coleman’s powerful, passionate, melodically shouted vocals. He’s got the perfect voice to deliver such venomous lyrics, and you believe every word. The way he can shout in such a gruff manner while also hitting notes and creating melodies is excellent. I WISH he had better music to shout over, cause the album would be so much stronger.

There is one song in particular I have to shout out – “You’ll Never Get to Me.” This is by far the best and most special song on the album, and maybe in the band’s entire career. This song is not political – it’s introspective, emotional, crushingly depressive but also impossibly uplifting and powerful. Instead of a boring riff, it relies on a melancholic chord progression evocative of Shoegaze material. The music, lyrics and vocal delivery all come together perfectly on this track.

Also, the scorching bonus track “Inferno” is better than every song that actually made the album except the aforementioned “You’ll Never Get to Me.” Don’t miss out on that one.

A nearly 13-minute orchestral darkwave overture is not how I’d prefer to start my METAL album, but the more one listens to this album in full, the more it becomes apparent that this is just barely a Metal album at all. Most, though not all, of the songs have electric guitars, but they are mostly just a supporting instrument, playing simple chords and not even featuring very prominently in the mix. The drums are similarly simple and never a focal point.

What IS a focal point are the orchestral compositions and vocal performances. And they are… good, mostly. Good. But not great. The compositions on this album are closer in style to the classical era of music. And I don’t mean this as a drag against the great masters like Mozart and Beethoven, but the classical era is a lot of sticking notes together that are in the same key, harmonize well, and evoke absolutely nothing.

The last thing I want from a Gothic Symphonic Metal record is a lack of emotion. But that’s really what this is – a few overblown songs with lush compositions and a bunch of notes that sound good together, but don’t really evoke anything. I want Gothic music to be sadder, more melancholic. But this leans more into the operatic side of the genre. The songs and soundscapes are epic, but again, the guitars and drums are usually quite boring, which makes it difficult to enjoy as a Metal album.

What about as a Classical album? Maybe it works? I dunno. I’m beginning to sound like a broken record, but I like my classical music to focus on mood and atmosphere, to highlight melodies that evoke something within me. Just not feeling that with this album.

It’s lush, and there’s a lot going on. Even the quieter moments are layered with soundscapes and melodies. I appreciate the compositions. With better drums and guitars, I may have really liked this. But the album is held back by the simplicity of the METAL aspect of it, despite the deep layering and complexity of the Classical elements.

“If You Don't Like the Style/Genre, Don't Review It. The point of a review is to give critique of the material on the album, as it pertains within it's genre. If you aren't into the genre, don't fucking rate it.” – BadFist from RYM, for their review on The Blessed Hellride.

I can understand this mindset. If a review is for the reader’s value, then it makes sense the reviewer should be someone who is into the genre being reviewed, who is interested in it, who wants to see the best in it, and can pass their opinion down to similarly minded readers with similar taste.

But, I have a few counterparts.

1. I don’t write reviews for readers. I write them for myself, and share them because someone somewhere out there might enjoy them.

2. I am a reader as well, and I write exactly the kind of reviews I like to read.

3. I go into every album with good faith and interest, even among genres I don’t like.

4. Sometimes, the opinion of someone discussing music outside their preferred genres can be even more interesting to read than someone within the fanbase.

I say all that because I am the person BadFist is talking about. Why? Well, because I’ve heard all of Black Label Society’s previous albums and didn’t find any of them that incredible. And despite loving Metal with all my heart, Southern Metal is easily one of my least favorite genres in the tree so far. So, why am I reviewing this?

I truly believe every Metal subgenre has a shining star that I can really enjoy, somewhere out there. I didn’t love any pure Stoner Metal album until I found Terra Firma [Album444503]. I didn’t love any Drone Metal album until I found Coma Waering [Album560273]. And so I scour every album in the tree, from the roots to the leaves, always with an open mind, searching for something to love on every branch.

…But The Blessed Hellride is not that album. The Blessed Hellride sounds identical to the previous three Black Label Society albums. As such, it adds absolutely nothing to the Southern Metal formula despite weaving between Heavy, Groove, Stoner, and even Sludge at times. And so, I review this album to say – this isn’t the one. This is a painfully average Southern Metal album, and unless you froth at the mouth for “oooh yeeaah”s and chuggy, crunchy guitars, you will not find anything worth keeping around here. It’s certainly not a bad album, it’s fun enough if you like fun, and dark enough at times if you like dreariness, but the music is consistently sub-par.

maudlin of the well released some of my favorite Avant-Garde Metal albums, a subgenre of Metal that is very hard to please me usually due to it either taking bizzarro experimentation way too far, or just sounding like circus Metal. maudlin of the well were very nearly guilty of the former, but the compositions were strong enough to offset the weakness, and the captivating, surreal atmospheres ensured everything was interesting.

Kayo Dot – at least on this album, the debut “Choirs of the Eye” – seem to have lost sight of that. Is there good stuff here? Absolutely. Is it sandwiched between long, droning droughts of meandering boredom or chaos? Absolutely.

Kayo Dot seem to continue the previous band’s trend of crafting songs that sound like dreams. Musically, lyrically, atmospherically, they succeed in this regard. The music sound like dreams. They are strange, ever-changing, jumping from one setting to another, random, surreal, spacy. Some are quiet, some are loud. Some are calming, some are frightening. And they all feel dreamlike. 

The issue is, plenty of us have dreams that are boring, or stressful, or nonsensical. Kayo Dot successfully captured not just the feeling of captivating dreams here, but also the mundane boredom of the dreams we forget, the stressful dissonance of dreams we rejoice upon waking up from, the fever dreams we find ourselves trapped in with a fever of 103.

…What I’m trying to say is, there’s a lot of fat here that could be trimmed off. I don’t want to feel bored or stressed out when listening to music, but “Choirs of the Eye” evokes just that often enough.

Of course, there’s also plenty of material that avoids that – calm and peaceful atmospheres of warmth, doomy dirges of darkness, dense layers of successful experimentation. The songs feel like surreal adventures. The adventures simply vary in enjoyability. 

A very unique album, a dense piece of work that rewards deep, in-depth listening. At the same time, a slight disappointment for someone who expected a bit more based on maudlin’s work.

According to The Infallible Denizens of RateYourMusic Dot Com, as of writing this review in the early winter of January 2026, “Boris at Last -Feedbacker-” is the *checking charts* 13th greatest Metal album of all time, and if recent years are anything to judge by, still rising. 

Here’s what I can tell you. Is this album one of the top 13 Boris albums of all time? Yeah, probably. Out of the ones I’ve heard, it’s easily one of their better albums, but they have like 69 albums so I can’t say for sure yet. Is it one of the top 13 Drone Metal albums of all time? Well, again, this album is labeled as a Drone Metal album by The Infallible Denizens of RateYourMusic Dot Com despite not having a single Drone Metal song on it, so, no, but if it counts, then it would possibly have a fair shot.

Boris at Last -Feedbacker- is inoffensive. It’s decent background noise. It does feature one guitar solo that is actually quite good. It features zero good riffs. It features zero interesting drumming, but the hypnotic, repetitive drumming on “Untitled” (2) works in the song’s favor. It features some vocals, but they aren’t special in any way, and most of the time they aren’t there. It probably features bass, but it didn’t do anything interesting. Sometimes the fuzzy, noisy textures are decent, often they are boring and entirely unevocative. “Untitled” (2) has a little bit of nice build up and progression in it, every other song goes absolutely nowhere, but “Untitled” (3) makes up for it a little by being the only song with a modicum of energy.

Instead of “Boris at Last -Feedbacker-” being in the top 13 Metal albums of all time, here are 13 Metal albums that I prefer to “Boris at Last -Feedbacker-” :

St. Anger – Metallica

Metal Magic – Pantera

Octagon – Bathory

Evolution – Disturbed

Cold Lake – Celtic Frost

Battles – In Flames (5-star album by the way)

Forbidden – Black Sabbath

Demolition – Judas Priest

Supercharger – Machine Head

Nation – Sepultura

Sounding the Seventh Trumpet – Avenged Sevenfold

Virtual XI – Iron Maiden

Volume 8 - The Threat Is Real - Anthrax

“Why did the bear sing to the rattlesnake?”

“I dunno, why?”

“Because it was Thursday!”

The two start to laugh heartily. And then, one by one, everyone around them begins laughing. The laughing evolves into hysteric hollering and cheering, and everyone in the room seems to concede that this was the funniest and best joke they’ve ever heard.

But I’m not laughing. I don’t get the joke. And it’s not because I missed some crucial detail, some hidden setup. No, it’s just because the joke doesn’t make sense to me. Really, I can’t fathom how it makes sense to ANYONE. But everyone else loves it. Is it just the bandwagon effect? Herd mentality? Did people start laughing just because they saw others laughing, or did they really think the joke was THAT funny?

And that’s how I feel about Akuma no Uta. Well, Boris in general, basically, but especially Akuma no Uta. Akuma no Uta is Stoner Metal with really bad production that is played decently enough. It’s pretty empty, with none of the psychedelic synths that can make Stoner music interesting. Only three people perform and it doesn’t sound like they overlay any extra layers, so the music is minimal and shallow sounding. They jam on a few tracks, and they’re okay at it, nothing transcendental. It doesn’t have any good riffs. The drumming is pretty fun, I guess. The lyrics are cryptic and the vocals are nothing special. It literally sounds like a group of friends started jamming in their garage and recorded it the same day. Not an exceptionally talented group of friends, just an average group of friends. 

But in the eyes of the world, this is a top 5 Stoner Metal album of all time. I have a sneaking suspicion that if this album were not released by Boris but instead by a band no one’s heard of from a country that isn’t cool (like the USA or England) no one would care about this. But I live in a world that worships Boris, so I guess this is the peak of Stoner Metal.

Washington grindcore act Magrudergrind really hit me hard when I first discovered them off the back of this debut album back at the time of release. I'd just returned to the extreme metal scene after spending the previous decade exploring electronic music & was looking for artists who could take me to new levels of extremity. The "Magrudergrind" record certainly did that & did it with a such a consistently high level of quality that I've found myself returning to it several times over the seventeen years that have elapsed since, even going so far as to claim a spot towards the top of my all-time grindcore release list in recent times.

Magrudergrind had been around for a while by the time the self-titled record became known to me, first forming back in 2002 with their original lineup of vocalist Avi Kulawy (Gravesend), guitarist Marc Levin & drummer Chris Moore (Repulsion/Coke Bust/Kontusion) having been maintained through to this sophomore album. It shows too as Magrudergrind prove themselves to be a finely-honed, well-oiled grind machine across these seventeen tracks, producing a wonderfully powerful release that sounds fantastic thanks to the well-credentialled engineering team of Scott Hull (Agoraphobic Nosebleed/Anal Cunt/Pig Destroyer/Suppression) & Kurt Ballou (Converge/Kid Kilowatt/Supermachiner). Each of the three contributors make their mark in emphatic fashion with Moore's precision extreme drumming display being right up my alley. It's the face-shredding vocals of Kulawy that are the real highlight here though as it's difficult to describe how vicious & maniacal he sounds while ripping into his higher register screams which were just what the grind doctor ordered in my opinion.

The tracklisting kicks off incredibly well with opening track "The Protocols of Anti-Sound" being arguably the best thing that Magrudergrind ever produced. You have to wait until the middle of the album for the quality levels to rise to those sort of heights again but the one-two punch of "Cranial Media Parasite" into "Excommunicated" brings things back to an elite class very nicely. I also really dig the untitled closing track which utilizes recordings of Reverend Jim Jones to great effect with Jones addressing his people just before the mass suicide/murder of over 900 members of the Peoples Temple in Guyana in 1978. It's a suitably unnerving, eerie way to end a release whose sociopolitical messaging is very much a part of the attraction. The rest of the album is all very solid & rarely dips below a compelling platform of blasting, punk-infused mayhem with only the novelty electronic components of "Heavier Bombing" seeing Magrudergrind's integrity dipping slightly. This should be essential listening for all grind nuts.

For fans of Wormrot, Insect Warfare & Nasum.

Woah!! Come to halt there and apply the handbrake, taking the car out of gear please. Did you just say, “drone metal”? I mean, I know what that is, and usually I don’t like it, but I have been nodding along appreciatively for the past few spins of this one. Maybe we should hit play again and go around the block a few more times to make sure one of us isn’t wrong? That, or I could just admit that my tastes are broader than I thought and we can all just get on with our lives. Either way, as it turns out, Damned is a great record, whatever it is.

Before I had even picked up on the details for this one I had picked up on the Hell comparison and was therefore delighted to see that MSW was involved in the record. Crawl certainly inhabits that same claustrophobic, smothering space that Hell revels in yet at the same time I get a lot of Primitive Man in Crawl’s sound, which is equally high praise also. Considering I had never heard of Michael Engle until this release, it was surprising that his output musically was limited to this solo project and him also being the one-time drummer of a progressive sludge band called The Grasshopper Lies Heavy. I can see that he also toured with Boris in 2022 on their US tour, so this is a man with some serious heavy credentials.

This combination of rattling bass and oppressive atmospheres that dredge their way through various elements of noise, doom and drone creates a unique sense of discomfort, of solid things being displaced. The opening track is little more than heavy atmosphere, but it works so well as an introduction to the rest of the album that it is in its own way, perfect. I don’t know that any of these tracks work particularly well in isolation, with my thinking being that they are best consumed as part of a whole album sitting. There are no finger buffet style pickings here, Damned is an experience to be immersed in. Herein could lie potential weaknesses for some listeners seeking a more immediate listening experience. It took me a few goes to understand exactly how to listen to Damned before its true majesty became obvious. Glad I got there though.

I have been all over Temple of Void for about a decade now. Their doomy and cavernous version of death metal has produced some of my favourite death metal albums of recent years, peaking with 2020's "The World That Was". What sets Temple of Void apart is their willingness to tweak and tinker with a well-established style of death metal and in so doing produce records that aren't entirely predictable, but which still contain plenty of what is recognisable of the old-school death and death doom metal philosophy. Needless to say I had high hopes for "The Crawl" and although I had sat on it for a few months following its release in March, it has certainly grabbed my attention now that I have finally got round to checking it out.

Opening track "Poison Icon" kicks off, straight out of the gate, in formidable style with a driving riff overlaid with a searing solo, ensuring that the listener's attention is grabbed from the very start. This isn't the whole story with "Poison Icon" though as it soon takes on a gothic flavour with a marked Paradise Lost influence, although it still remains firmly ensconced on the OSDM side of the fence. Further intense soloing leads the track out and it is apparent, even by the end of track one, that Temple of Void have stepped things up both in songwriting terms and in intensity of delivery. "Godless Cynic" features a more dissonant style of guitar lead laid over a mid-paced, chugging rhythm track that feels ominously hulking and portentious and in direct contrast to the opener, leaving us in no doubt that the band really mean business this time round and intend to stretch themselves more than ever. The title track is up next and is a slower, doomier affair with a riff that is almost as much rooted in traditional doom metal as it is death metal, weirdly like I would imagine Black Sabbath sounding if they played death metal! "A Dead Issue" is another slower-paced affair that begins with a spacey synth intro before launching into its melodic main riff and which features jangling, weirdly discordant leads that morph into soaring solos.

"Thy Mountain Eternal" is a somewhat bombastic, progressive-sounding affair with several musical twists and turns, occasionally feeling reminiscent of late metal-era Opeth only with more Dave Gilmour-ish soloing, although for me this is the album's weakest offering. Penultimate track "Soulburn" is one of the band's most melodic and features riffs and verses that are almost catchy, especially with the synth overlay, once more reminding me of Paradise Lost and providing one of the band's more memorable offerings. Closing with longest track, "The Twin Strangers", the band go out in style with a track that kicks off with a brooding, rampaging death metal riff before hitting the brakes on a hulking end-section which builds with interweaving twin leads before fading into the cosmos in a haze of ambient synths.

Now, all this may make "The Crawl" sound like an eclectic and varied affair and, to a certain extent, it is but, to be clear, this is still an album that has its roots firmly dug into the OSDM ethos, no better illustrated than by Mike Erdody's vocals which never shift from their growling, gutteral death metal roar. I think the album actually strikes a nice balance between innovation and tradition, each track very much fitting together and complementing each other, making for a very rewarding listening experience that presents variation whilst still giving the OSDM fan plenty of their favourite poison to savour. The songwriting and technical prowess of the band is continuing to blossom, the production is crystal clear throughout, bass and drums getting every bit as much attention as the guitar and vocals and I think with repeated listens this may well establish itself as my favourite Temple of Void album, ultimately dethroning "The World That Was".

Fossilization are a band that have grown on me over time. I wasn't initially too enamoured with their debut EP and their first full-length "Leprous Daylight" took a while to click. I have put this down to elevated expectations as old-school death metal played by the guys from one of my favourite death doom acts, Jupiterian, should have hit harder, I felt. So going into sophomore "Advent of Wounds" I am more realistic with my expectations and feeling better disposed to it as a result. First thing to note is that there has been some changes in lineup since "Leprous Daylight" was released. Drummer Paulo Pinheiro left in 2024 and the percussion on "Advent of Wounds" was handled by guest Felipe Veiga, a veteran of several brazilian acts, most notably techdeath crew Scenic. Guitarist, bassist, vocalist Vakka (Thiago Oliveira) has also added a second guitarist with Fernando da Silveira, aka Zozi, from São Paulo thrashers Blackning joining in 2025.

"Advent of Wounds" clocks in at a touch under 36 minutes, following its predecessor with a short and (not so) sweet approach. It retains the intensity of the debut, but this time around the songs feel better written, with a bit more going on and they drop into doom-ridden territory more often here, a move which will always gain favour from me. Second track, "Disentombed and Reassembled by the Ages", for example, charges and rages initially like a rabid rodeo bull before being slowed down by a mountainously heavy, doomy groove whilst "Scalded by His Sacred Halo" opens with a pulsing and vertiginous riff that is ever so slightly unsettling, then hits a burst of blasting before descending into an almost funereal pace, ending with another surge of intensity that blasts like an open furnace door. Elsewhere, "While the Light Lasts" opens with another unsettling riff that seem to threaten dissonance whilst never actually tipping over the edge into full-on disharmony and also features multiple changes in tempo.

The album as a whole sounds generally heavier than the debut, mainly due to a deeper and richer production, but I suspect it is also due to the addition of that second guitarist. Vakka's vocals sound even deeper and more abyssal than ever, also stripping away flesh like a blowtorch when called upon as things increase in tempo and intensity. It is the quality of the songwriting and in particular the riffs, which seem much more memorable and varied this time around, that marks the biggest improvement for me. This is much more like the kind of album I expected from the band first time around and now it seems like the lofty expectations for them I initially had are being realised.

From the time I first heard 1995's "Gradually Melted" E.P. back in the underground tape trading scene of the mid-1990's, Californian brutal metallers Deeds of Flesh became a regular contributor to my more extreme musical moments. They joined an elite collection of bands who were shaping my musical taste & directing my own creative endeavours as their sound seemed to indicate a close artistic affiliation with my own. A couple of solid full-length albums later, I would drift away from the metal scene for around a decade, only returning to it with any level of commitment in 2009 when I would very quickly attempt to make up for lost ground. In order to find my feet, I wasted no time in catching up with the five subsequent albums that Deeds of Flesh had released during my defection with this third record "Path of the Weakening" being the most well-known of them. That experience would see me returning to the album semi-regularly over the years as it's never failed to deliver in terms of tight, relentless brutal death metal, a style that perhaps speaks to me more than it does to the majority of extreme metalheads out there.

Deeds of Flesh had been a band for around six years by the time "Path of the Weakening" hit the shelves, having been put together by guitarist/vocalist Erik Lindmark (Disgorge), bassist Jacoby Kingston & drummer Joey Heaslet back in 1993. Heaslet had taken some time out after 1996's "Trading Pieces" debut album, only to return again & replace Brad Palmer (Scythe) who had only contributed to the one full-length release in 1998's "Inbreeding the Anthropophagi". "Path of the Weakening" also saw Deeds of Flesh bolstering their sonic arsenal with a second guitarist in Jim Tkacz who had formerly been a member of fellow Californian brutal death metallers Vile, giving Deeds of Flesh a four-piece lineup for the first time. The results are very impressive too with the group pulling off a precision display full of tightly-executed death metal riffage, complete with techy rhythmic ideas & a plethora of high-quality palm-muted, tremolo-picked riffs. The album would be self-produced so it's not terribly glossy with the guitar tone perhaps lacking a touch of brightness but there's no doubt that it suited the bands image & concept at the time which was important given that "Path of the Weakening" would be the first release for Deeds of Flesh's own record label Unique Leader records.

The tracklisting on "Path of the Weakening" is seriously consistent with the boys generally sticking to a fairly limited formula. It certainly works though as I don't find myself waiting around for more restrained tempos until they drop the only slower tune right at the end in closer "A Violent God". Opener "Indigenous to the Appalling (Mutinous Human)" is an absolutely fantastic example of the BDM genre & is arguably Deeds of Flesh's signature tune to this day. I don't think that any of the other eight songs included ever get close to reaching those lofty heights again but they also never hint at dropping below a very solid degree of quality either so I never feel my interest waning. There are no wanky guitar solos or generic slam sections to be found here as Deeds of Flesh clearly possess a deep understanding of what it is that they're trying to achieve. Heaslet's drumming can be a little repetitive but his execution is really strong so it's hard to be too critical while Lindmark's dark death growl is unanimously effective in taking the listener to the darker end of the metal spectrum.

Ultimately, Deeds of Flesh have produced the sort of death metal that I find myself craving most on this record & have done a great job at it too. Perhaps the riffs aren't consistently catchy or unique enough to see me ever being tempted to claim "Path of the Weakening" as a classic release but I'm never left wanting either. A bit more variety of tempo would perhaps have added another dimension to the album but it's hard to complain about a release that so clearly & emphatically champions the same cause that I myself once promoted myself.

For fans of Defeated Sanity, Suffocation & Disgorge.

Despite having formed in 2014, only now have Lone Wanderer attracted my doom-hungry gaze. To date the german four-piece have released an album-length EP and three official full-lengths, with "Exequiae" being their latest and, at 72 minutes, longest. Kicking off with the almost twenty-five minute, "To Rest Eternally", Lone Wanderer set out their stall from the outset. The opener displays a quite clean version of funeral doom metal that, at times, almost feels like it strays into post-metal territiory. It doesn't always possess the sheer crushing immensity of an Esoteric or Ahab, but rather it utilises melodic guitar leads to provide some lightness to contrast with the churning morass of sluggish riffs and plodding percussion in order to present a more emotionally charged atmosphere. This doesn't mean that this is lightweight stuff, by any means, it is still fundamentally funeral doom after all, but it does feel like the band want to tug at your heartstrings whilst they smother and envelop you in their wall of sound. The foundation from which the guitar leads soar is further bolstered by the impressive rumble issuing from the throat of vocalist/guitarist Bruno Schotten who has got the archetypal funeral doom abyssal growl down pat. The songwriting is also of a high standard and, despite its length, "To Rest Eternally", doesn't get stuck in any particular rut and manages to keep itself sounding interesting and engaging with nuanced changes in melody and tempo, even calming to a gentle, spoken word section at one point from which it builds to its apotheosis.

This mighty opener is followed by the albums two shortest tracks, "Existence Nullified" and "Life's Lost Vanity" both of which sound quantifiably heavier and while their leads are still fairrly melodic in nature, they aren't as light or as airy as those on "To Rest Eternally", consequently reinforcing the depth of darkness of both tracks' tone rather than providing contrast to it. "Anhedonie" marks a return to the slightly lighter tone of the opener, but it doesn't quite hold together as well for me and does feel like it gets bogged down a little in the middle. It isn't a bad track by any means, but it doesn't resonate with me as much as the first couple of tracks, Closer "Epistemology of the Passed" is another lengthy affair, clocking in at over 16 minutes and is once more a trade-off between both light and dark musical motifs, the interplay and contrast between the two opposing forces ultimately being the core of the album and the engine which drives it pretty much from start to finish.

Overall I am an enthusiastic convert and whilst I do love me some really heavy and crushingly dark funeral doom, Lone Wanderer have managed to captivate me with their more contrasted style, chiefly because it is written and performed so damn well. I am certainly going to have to have a dig into the band's earlier releases, but for now this is destined to find its way onto my favourite funeral doom metal list and is sure to feature in my year end list too.

Protest the Hero return with just their sixth full length studio album and it left me feeling strange at first. I, like many of the early returns of Within, was entirely shocked by the bluntness and profanity ladened first two tracks "Mouthpiece" and "Fishhook". PtH (Protest the Hero) are a band well known for their flowery language and poetry on Keiza and Fortress that sounds very professional and thoughtful, whereas this sounds like it was written from the perspective of an eighteen year old who just attended their first political science course in university.

All that being said, something about Within really grips me on repeated playthroughs. It sounds more human and grounded in a real place rather than an imagined one. It reminds me in a way of two of my favourite records from 2020: Katie Pruitt's Expectations and Spanish Love Songs Brave Faces Everyone (quite the ironic comparison since PtH dropped undoubtedly their least juvenile record Palimpsest in the same year).

Within does become less vulgar as the record progresses, which does help it a little bit more. While later songs such as "Liberty Spike" and "The Mariner" also have the added benefit of reverting back to a nostalgic sound for PtH, its the middle section that stands out to me. "Grandfather's Axe" is quite the fun romp for a progressive metal band. And then there is "The Orchard", which also has nostalgic references to previous PtH material, but it's the lyrics that bring this song, as well as the entirety of Within together. Rody sings:

It may be hard to gauge this stanza under context, since PtH are a progressive metal band and not the easiest of music to digest. But many great political albums over the last five years have been excruciatingly challenging to approach and appreciate for how simple they are (basically the entirety of Tool's discography).

Thankfully PtH have made listening to this album a breeze with their compositions and production. "Mouthpiece" opens up the album angry and the vocal olympics being done here are superb, as well as on "Liberty Spike". The riffing in the guitar sounds epic and heavy without shifting too far away from the melody. "Grandfather's Axe" is another romp where the drumming of Mike Ieradi takes control. All the while Rody Walker's vocals adds some flare that sounds reminiscent of Daron Malakian. While the tracks "The Orchard" and "The Mariner" are more calm, they can still hit thanks to some marvelous mixing of the guitars and bass, which allows for those calming breakdowns at the end feel so much more rewarding.

What is found Within might be a shock for longtime fans of this band, or progressive metal in general. But given how juvenile the current state of affairs is, perhaps PtH are on to something here. People praise Rage Against the Machine for their raw and vicious approach to songwriting, why can't others do the same?

Best Songs: Grandfather's Axe, The Orchard, The Mariner, Mouthpiece

For Fans Of: The Dillinger Escape Plan, The Human Abstract, System of a Down

Melbourne four-piece Fair Warning played a short but valuable role in the early Australian metal story, shining brightly in the underground during the middle of the 1980's before unceremoniously disappearing along with so many others in a local scene that suffered from being so isolated from the rest of the world. Perhaps unsurprisingly given their moniker, Fair Warning began life as a Van Halen cover band in 1983, mainly in order to showcase the talents of guitarist Simon Hosford. They'd become a regular on the local live circuit but would only go on to produce a couple of demos/promos & this short four-song E.P. before calling it quits in 1987.

The "Love to Rock 'n Roll" E.P. is a familiar yet generally enjoyable listen. Much like Tasmania's Tyrant who were also floating around at the time, Fair Warning's sound sits right in the middle between the classic Aussie hard rock sound & a more shreddy 80's heavy metal one. It's fairly well produced for the time with all of the band members proving themselves to be quite capable musicians. The opening title track is the clear highlight & sees the boys having a crack at the classic AC/DC stadium hard rock sound with front man Bob Topping (S.A.S.) doing a great Brian Johnson impression & bass player Harold (Tyrus) maintaining a lumbering mid-paced thump throughout. "Too Late for Love" seems to be a more metal attempt at David Lee Roth-era Van Halen while up-tempo burner "All's Quiet" is the most metal of the four songs on offer & reeks of Judas Priest. The fairly dull "Pass This Way" is the only disappointment as it doesn't quite pull off the AC/DC feel they were going for.

I didn't get around to checking out "Love to Rock 'n Roll" until early this decade but, while I'm not gonna claim that I'd been missing out to any major extent, it's definitely worth a listen & compares fairly well with some of the international heavy rock outfits that were applying their trade on a much grander scale at the time.

For fans of AC/DC, Van Halen & Judas Priest.

This is pure steel — the blueprint for European speed metal and a perfect fit for my lane. The tone is dry, the riffs are tight, and the energy is mechanical from start to finish. Udo’s vocal attack is razor‑sharp.  No warmth, no gloss — just precision, aggression, and structure. It’s one of my most important records for the cold‑drive heavy metal aesthetic.

Fast As A Shark *****

Demon's Night *****

Flash Rockin' Man *****

A cold, occult NWOBHM classic that fits my lane almost perfectly. The tone is dry, the riffs are sharp, and the atmosphere stays dark without drifting into warmth or gloss. It’s melodic in places, but the production keeps it raw and metallic. The record feels haunted and mechanical — exactly the kind of early heavy metal that shaped the cold‑drive aesthetic I look for. 

Angel Witch ****

Sorcerers ***** 

Gorgan *****

I lose track of Gorgoroth very easily I find. The early movement of vocalists proper gets confusing for me and by the time we get to this record there’s three of them doing the vocals. There are also four different drummers (albeit one of them only does track three – and it is the mighty Frost). Taking time to bring myself up to speed on Gorgoroth goings on, I can see legal battles, prison sentences, court appearances, trademark registration challenges, firings and assaults of band members. No wonder the line up appears to stick in my mind as being unstable then.

Aside from the fact that most people involved sound like abhorrent individuals, Gorgoroth have always managed to make vicious and scathing black metal that is pleasing to my ear. Aside from the fact that this album has a stupid title that screams immaturity, the content itself is most entertaining. Anyone who thinks that Gorgoroth are smash and grab, one blistering pace of black metal in the vein of Marduk style of band, will find evidence to the contrary on their fourth full length offering. There is variety of pace and tempo on this album and tracks like ‘The Virginborn’ employ a much more exploratory style of writing than I was expecting going into the record.

At the same time, there is still enough necro to keep the kvlt crew happy. Album closer ‘Slottet i det fjerne’ (a Darkthrone cover) caters for this element perfectly, awash with feedback and production values straight from 1994. Similarly, opening track, ‘Destroyer’ makes no bones about the lack of pleasantries to begin the album. Whilst I accept discomfort as being expected and acceptable on a Gorogorth record, there is elements of a little overkill here. It could be my subconscious playing with me a little, knowing that there are multiple different performers on a revolving platter contributing to the record, but the album at times does sound like it may be two different albums put together. Not in terms of the pace and tempos, just more in terms of the content of the album overall.

I cannot say it is a fault, or a criticism as such even, yet there is a sense of layering being applied that sort of catches me off-guard. ‘The Devil, The Sinner and His Journey’ is a bit of a weird track for inclusion in my book and I would argue that the album is at its strongest in terms of consistency through the middle section of the record onwards. There is also a tendency for a crooning, folk-tinged vocal effect to creep into tracks at times, which sounds a bit amateur in all honesty. Still, it is distinctly a Gorgoroth record at the end of the day so there is still plenty to enjoy overall, despite my little niggles with it.

It’s one of the few live albums that actually feels like you’re standing in the crowd getting blasted in the face by the PA. Loud, messy, fast, and completely unfiltered. The band sounds half‑feral in the best way, Lemmy’s bass is basically a weapon, and the whole thing moves like a runaway truck. Not perfect, not polished, but absolutely alive — and that’s why it still hits.

It’s rough, loud, and totally unpolished, but that’s the whole point. The raw energy is there, the riffs hit hard enough, and a few tracks really pop — especially “(Gonna) Fill the World With Fire,” “Love Slave,” and “Wild White Horses.” It’s not a clean or consistent release, but it’s a cool snapshot of early heavy metal before anyone bothered smoothing the edges.

LOVEBITES are easy to underestimate at first. The polished white outfits and sleek presentation might suggest something lightweight, but the music is fast, aggressive and technically serious. Midori and Miyako deliver a sharp twin-guitar attack, Haruna drives everything with relentless drums, and Asami’s clean, high vocals give the band a dramatic power-metal edge. At their best, especially on songs like “Break the Wall,” they sound like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Helloween pushed through modern Japanese precision.

Sacrilege and Onslaught aside, the UK's thrash output during the 1980's was pretty fucking woeful. It was almost as if we Brits just didn't 'get' thrash metal at all and struggled to get up to speed with this new, more aggressive style of heavy metal and those pesky Yanks and Europeans were just making us look lame and lazy by comparison. As a result I have been on the lookout for decent British Eighties' thrash metal albums ever since, with little to no real success, so I was stoked to see an underground band of thrashers from a north-west England seaside town pop up as a feature and hoped against hope that this would be some kind of underground classic. Oh well, you can't blame me for hoping! As you can probably guess, this falls a fair way short of my, admittedly unrealistic, expectations.

I am guessing that D.A.M. were huge fans of Anthrax's "Spreading the Disease" album, because I think that is what they seem to be striving for here. Vocalist Jason McLoughlin does his very best Joey Belladonna impression, rhythm guitarist John Bury attempts to reproduce Scott Ian's trademark choppy, chuggy riffs and the gang vocals on the choruses that the New Yorkers loved to employ are present and correct. Unfortunately they lack the two chracteristics that made Anthrax what they were back then - the infectious, sing-along choruses and the sheer effusive sense of excitement and fun that set Anthrax apart from their West Coast and European peers. Anyone who loves 80s Anthrax also knows how vital Charlie Benante's lively and energetic drumming was to the band whereas, here, the production has rendered the percussion limp and lifeless, sounding like someone leathering their kit with a couple of fish rather than drumsticks! Hell, "Total Destruction" even starts with a flat copy of Charlie's drum intro to "Indians".

Look, I don't want to sound too down on them for that because, to be honest, for a few years in the 1980s Anthrax bottled lightning and managed to make it work, through sheer force of personality, excellent songwriting ability and technical ability. So, without these essential, but mercurial talents, D.A.M. merely sound like cheap imitators and would maybe have been better advised to plough their own furrow rather than follow in the steps of a unique act like Anthrax. In truth, I actually don't hate "Human Wreckage" but, as someone who was (and remains) a big fan of "Spreading the Disease" and "Among the Living", I can't unhear D.A.M.'s Anthrax worship and so I just keep wishing I was listening to one of those albums instead. I am sure these guys were probably a blast in the metal pubs and clubs of England's North West back in the day, but in the stark, cold spotlight of recorded music they just come up a bit short and sound too derivative.

I would disagree with this opinion (Daniel) regarding AXATAK. This band, the only one standing out in the heavy-glam genre, best reflects the metal scene of 1981-86. This band is the only golden cousin of KISS, who were noticed for their original and classic rock playing (since 1984), as well as for their image; like KISS, they have numerous live concerts at Club Richmond and Ormand Hall. This author, Daniel, who spoke extremely negatively about AXATAK, apparently hasn't seen their live concerts, which (for the record) were recorded back in 1983, when AXATAK was still performing as KISS-CLONES. Most of the live concerts were recorded in 1984; for example, type in (Axatak - Club Richmond, concerts - 09.04.84, 05.03.84, 12.03.84 - three of my favorite concerts, which I've listened to many, many times). That's the first point. Now the second point - what album of (mythical) origin "SHOCK ROCK" from 1984 is Daniel talking about? There are so many myths and inventions circulating about this album that even one of the band members has personally written that such an album doesn't even exist. They have officially released "Sneak Attack" from 1984 and the original EP "Axatak" from 1985. Most of the tracks that unfortunately couldn't be included in the original albums, such tracks as - Demolution, Boys In Rockin Town, Get Me High, Lipstik And Leather, Living On A Stay, Now Are Watching In Your Name?, Slayer, Pandemonium, Half Bitch For Leather, Rockin Tonight, Hellraisers, Rock n Roll and covers of KISS tracks (Strutter, Duce) or the famous Queen song (We're Want Rock You) - all these tracks are PRESENTED in their Live-concert, which I mentioned, exactly in those three concerts (Axatak - Club Richmond, concerts - 09.04.84, 05.03.84, 12.03.84) and there can be no talk of any mythical album "SHOCK ROCK". So where is the evidence of its publication??? All Axatak Live-concerts are available on YouTube, type the name, listen and watch them. That's where you'll find most of the tracks unreleased on their albums. There's also a recently released live concert (Axatak Live In Melbourne 1985), which includes a couple more unreleased tracks (Instrumental, Destroyer, Darkness-Death). The author (Daniel) has little understanding of this band, comparing them not even to KISS fans, but to the worst versions of Mötley Crüe or even otherworldly, unrelated artists who are more aggressive than KISS themselves. AXATAK's sound is classic, veering toward classic heavy metal or heavy glam, with light but harsh (in the classical sense) rock undertones, but with a heavy glam attitude. Not a single little-known band, not even the Bengal Tigers, has as many live concerts as AXATAK. This band has been performing live concerts since 1983-1985. Listening to them is a pleasure. Now, a special mention of their EP "Axatak," which Daniel also more or less mentioned. He's not well-versed in Axatak's work and positions himself as a newcomer (an amateur, to his taste), but not a connoisseur of the band's genre. This is no longer an argument. Comparing them to bands that had no connection to Axatak (WASP, Boss, Bengal Tigers) and classifying connoisseurs and fans as those bands, not the founders of AXATAK, is the worst and most incorrect opinion about this band, as expressed by the author of a comment from July 16, 2026. This EP contains tracks (in my personal opinion) that introduce drive, a classic rock style, and lead to a reference to their fathers, KISS, but more metal than rock. The tracks "Shock Rock," "Let The Beast Run Wild," and "Live Out Your Dreams" are the best three tracks in their driving work (but I recommend exploring their work in more detail in their live concerts), which I referenced. As for the song "You" (from their EP), the author (Daniel) apparently didn't even look at the photos of their vinyl record and doesn't know that John Mallouch sang the vocals on this song PERSONALLY, without Andy Zouman. The lyrics on the vinyl record clearly indicate who sang on which song. As a connoisseur of their work, I can say that this band, across their entire discography, is suitable for both connoisseurs and fans of the metal scene and classic rock, capable of both charming and exciting, and you can have a pleasant time with them listening to their music.

The Wounded Kings were a traditional doom metal band from Dartmoor in Devon who never really gained much traction outside of hardcore doom metal enthusiasts, which is a great shame because they were really great exponents of the doom metal ethos and were superior to many better known acts. They formed in 2004 and released five consistently strong full-lengths and a great split with Cough before calling it a day in August of 2016. Released in 2010, "The Shadow Over Atlantis" was the band's sophomore release, following 2008's very solid "Embrace of the Narrow House" and, for me, is the band's best release. They had a lineup which underwent several membership changes, with the first two albums being produced by the duo of the band's only ever-present member Steve Mills (guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, vocals) and George Birch (guitar, vocals). Mills was actually the original drummer with Lords of Putrefaction, the death doom precursor to Electric Wizard that featured Jus Osborne on guitar and vocals and so has a certain degree of doom metal underground cred too.

"The Shadow Over Atlantis" is essentially a concept album that is a lament to the passing and destruction of ancient civilizations with Atlantis being the metaphor for the eventual passing of all societies, although there is a suggestion in final track "Invocation of the Ancients" that, through the deployment of dark arts, these ancients can be exhorted to return. The band strives for an epic scope as befits the span of the concept, with the album featuring four fairly lengthy, huge-sounding tracks to drive the narrative while a couple of gentle interludes provide some contrast and respite from the lumbering rumble of the meat of the album. Even though the riffing is pretty much relentlessly huge and slothful it does have an inherent melodicism which is also mirrored in the vocals which are entirely of the clean variety and have a really nice, washed-out gothicness to them. Generally the tracks start off with the riff and vocals dominating the early part and then the guitar leads taking over the latter part and it is at these points that the material is given an epic twist. The leads take flight, soaring with mesmerising fluidity in psych-filled flights of fancy that seem to carry the listener above the doom and destruction that is being wreaked on the unfortunate world below, often feeling quite jam-like, although from the sheer professionalism of the sound I guess they are perfectly composed to sound that way.

Production-wise, the sound is quite crisp and clean and even the distortion on the riffs comes through surprisingly clearly. One criticism, if I were to go that far, would be that the bottom end and the rhythm section in particular doesn't sound as deep and foundational as maybe we have come to expect from this style of doom metal. That, however, is nitpicking a little because the material here is so strong and well-performed that it feels curmudgeonly to try to pick too much fault here. Essentially, for me, "The Shadow Over Atlantis" is a top drawer doom metal release and wouldn't be out of place alongside the best albums from the likes of Pallbearer or Monolord, so if you enjoy either of those two I would strongly urge you to check this out. Unfortunately it is impossible to find on streaming, so YouTube may be the only source available outside of physical media.

In my review of Saint Vitus’ self-titled debut album, I called out my enjoyment of Scott Reager’s vocals, highlighting their deranged style being a perfect fit for Chandler’s guitar sound. Just as with the debut album, Reager’s performance is front and centre on Die Healing also, yet this is never at the detriment of anything else on the record. For a guy who had straight up gone to ground for a decade, he appears to have just walked back into the studio like he had just nipped out for ten minutes to get a packet of cigarettes and some bourbon. There is no scenario in any parallel universe whereby Saint Vitus records this album with any other vocalist, and it works at all. He’s creepy to the point of having a skin-crawling effect. Tracks like ‘Dark World’, ‘Let the End Begin’ and ‘In the Asylum’ are perhaps unrivalled within my doom listening experience to date in terms of that true force being formed by this perfect marriage of the vocals and guitar.

Listen to the psychedelic musings on ‘Trail of Pestilence’ and just try and keep your jaw off the floor. Die Healing is a real all round band record though. For all the waxing lyrical I am doing about the vocals and guitar the album would not be anywhere near as successful without the drums of the late Armando Acosta and the bass of the also sadly departed Mark Adams. ‘Sloth’ might be one of the most appropriately named doom tracks in the history of the genre, it is so oppressively heavy it reaches the point of suffocation. It is albums like this that are the reason why I switched from The Guardians into The Fallen clan. The atmospheres here are so wonderfully threatening in such an effective yet completely inoffensive way; they are a genuine by product of the instrumentation, just so unforced sounding and organic in nature.

My only real criticism of the album is the lacklustre closing track. They should have closed the album with ‘In the Asylum’ in all honesty as anything trying to follow that was going to be struggling. ‘Just Another Notch’ is primetime filler unfortunately which even Reager’s vocals can’t save. Oddly, he sounds the tamest of all on this track in comparison to the others. Final track aside, there is much to be celebrated on Die Healing even if it marks the end of the band for at least a decade.

2026 was shaping up to be a sparse year on the black metal listening front.  After an exhausting 2025, keeping up with as many new releases as I could in black metal, I decided that 2026 would be a leaner year by all accounts.  In a month that has seen me purchase the new Mork album for my collection, it was not long before I could feel that familiar chill in my bones that could only be tempered by more chilling black metal music.  As my bm rotation began to grow, I soon found the international supergroup, Doedsvangr in front of me with their third album, Within Flesh.  Now, I must confess that I did not take an immediate shine to this record.  As my first foray into the band’s music, I was not feeling the vocals at all.  The spoken word aspect of them at first came across as sounding a bit dreary and dull as opposed to menacing.  Yet, soon enough, it was clear that the vocals are all part of the ravishing grimness of the record.  In fact, I would go as far to say that there are not many other styles of vocals that could outdo these in all honesty.

The real resplendent qualities of the record lie in those urgent tremolo riffs that dominate tracks such as ‘Omnipath’, or in those drums that appear straight forward in the first instance but are actually hitting some interesting patterns.  Then there’s the looming menace of ‘Blodskam’ with those spine-chilling choral keys that create atmosphere galore in the background.  Then I realised that this is the real sweet-spot for those vocals as they work like recitals of incantations that when uttered in the correct dialect can bring forth the darkest of evil from beyond.

Then artwork may possess some disappointment (incidentally the artwork clearly references the opening track on the record, ‘Devil Bites Man) but there’s very little of that spreading into the record it is pleasing to note.  Within Flesh has a fully formed sound to it.  One that I would expect to hear from a collective of such seasoned pro’s such as Shatraug, Sanrabb and Doedsadmiral.  It is a shame that I have no knowledge of prior releases to benchmark this one against.  As such it is able to be rated entirely off the back of its merits as a standalone record and is one that shows that when done correctly (most importantly by the correct people), black metal doesn’t have to be warped, combined with other styles or dumbed down by sterilising melodies to be effective.

I believe Ben showed me Emperor's third full-length while I had already entered the early stages of my decade-long hiatus from metal but I wouldn't fully explore "IX Equilibrium" for myself until a good decade after its release. I remember really liking it too, as I do now after revisiting it several times over the last decade & a half. It's certainly not the undeniable classic that 1994's wonderful "In the Nightside Eclipse" debut album (4.5/5) was but it compares fairly well with 1997's "Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk" sophomore release (4/5) & Emperor's split album with Enslaved (4/5) in my opinion.

Emperor were just a trio by this point with their iconic frontman Ihsahn (Hardingrock/Peccatum/Thou Shalt Suffer/Zyklon-B) being supported by only rhythm guitarist Samoth (Scum/The Wretched End/Arcturus/Gorgoroth/Satyricon/Thou Shalt Suffer/Zyklon/Zyklon-B) & drummer Trym (Enslaved/Zyklon) but their sound still has plenty going on. The Norwegians had toned down the symphonic component by this stage in their evolution so this is more of a conventional black metal record, although we are starting to see some more progressive elements starting to take shape here & there. If I'm being critical, I'd suggest that Trym's drum sound is far too clicky which highlights his deficiencies in timing but there can be no denying his sheer speed when he conducts his trademark blast beats. The otherworldly atmosphere that Emperor have built their careers on is still here but I don't think Ihsahn's vocals are quite as effective as they have been in the past & there certainly aren't as many highlight tracks. Closer "Of Blindness & Subsequent Seers" is the obvious exception & it takes you to all manner of weird & wonderful outlooks. "The Warriors of Modern Death", on the other hand, seems to be nothing more than a Viking-period Bathory tribute (complete with intentionally chaotic guitar solos) & is comfortably the least effective piece on the album, even if I do still kinda like it.

Ultimately, I can't deny that Emperor were still a class act but I don't think "IX Equilibrium" (or "Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk" for that matter) are tier one black metal releases. They sit very comfortably in the middle of the second tier which is still a more than respectable place to be. Let's just not kid ourselves that they retained their position at the top of the black metal pecking order for more than a few years. If pushed to choose sides, I would place "IX Equilibrium" slightly behind its predecessor & the Enslaved split but comfortably ahead of the 1992 "Wrath of the Tyrant" demo tape. I don't think it'll leave too many The North members disappointed & I'll continue to revisit it for years to come but I don't think it's the outright classic that many of you were probably hoping for after the huge success of "Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk".

For fans of Limbonic Art, Ihsahn & Enslaved.

6 years is a long time to wait for a new album. When that happens, some bands try to make the ultimate comeback album. However, there are times when a band would just return with a short amount of tracks that may, in theory, disappoint fans. The new offering by these Canadian progressive metallers Protest the Hero, Within contains 6 full songs in just 36 minutes, almost like the EP Pacific Myth, but slightly longer and adding in two interludes which I guessed help cement it as a full-length studio album.

I don't blame the band for the somewhat slow progress, considering the turbulence in their lineup and health. But now, they can still display the heroes within them that shall be appreciated and never protested! Within reigns in excellent triumph despite its aforesaid short length and independent release.

"Mouthpiece" is an energetic rapid-fire way to kick off the album. The riffs and melodies will get you hooked, and d*mn, those lyrics hit hard, "In a world of vivid colour, our eyes are beaten grey". Then "Fishhook" is more punky in the music and attitude. The instrumentation and lyrical narrative really catch my attention. "Above" is the first interlude, sounding so emotional in the symphonics.

"Grandfather's Axe" is another kick-A track, adding in some thrash/speed aspects. The vocals by Rody Walker still impress me. "The Orchard" soars through as a pleasant standout. It ends with a soft serene outro sung by Jadea Kelly who has collaborated with the band in the past. Her most beautiful performance since in their debut Kezia!

"Below" is one more interlude to get you seated for what comes next. "Liberty Spike" accelerates through fast instrumentation and captivating lyrics, "A second song, for my first friend, whose loss this time, is permanent". Finally, "The Mariner" is the ambitious 7 and a half minute finale. Walker has clearly improved since his vocal issues that occured right before recording Palimpsest, and the lyrics and musical grandeur throw back to that album's highlights. Another album ends on an inspiring note!

Although Within can't beat the glory of the band's earlier albums like Kezia, it exemplifies their talent and passion within the music and lyrics. It shows that Protest the Hero are standing strong and powerful in just 36 minutes, which isn't that bad of an album length if you're up for repeated listening. They continue to hold their prog-metal ground!

Favorites: "Mouthpiece", "Grandfather's Axe", "The Orchard", "The Mariner"

I was originally introduced to these Dutch death metallers through Neuropath vocalist Mark Wangmann via their incredibly raw & intense 1992 debut album "Cross the Styx" (4/5) which I really enjoyed. This led to me picking up Sinister's classic 1993 sophomore record "Diabolical Summoning" (4.5/5) shortly after it was released & finding that the band had taken things to another level with that release becoming somewhat of an all-timer for me. For that reason, I was first in line to pick up Sinister's third album "Hate" as soon as it hit the shelves & it left me more than satisfied. In fact, I'm gonna suggest that it's Sinister's best release overall these days &, for that reason, you can probably find photos of me wearing a "Hate" t-shirt on stage during the middle of that decade. "Hate" sees the trio returning with a more controlled & mature sound that may be a touch less frantic & brutal but more than makes up for it in class & tightness. There's a major Cannibal Corpse influence throughout but this is a step up from anything those Buffalo extremists had produced to the time. The first couple of tracks are utterly devastating & so is closer "The Bloodfeast". Front man Mike van Mastrigt's (Houwitser) vocal delivery is powerful yet intelligible throughout, the riffs of Bart van Wallenberg are angular & interesting & the beats of drummer Aad Kloosterwaard (Houwitser/Thanatos), who is the MVP for me personally, are pummeling & super-tight. This is peak-time, elite-level mid-90's death metal at its finest & should be essential listening for all of our The Horde members.

For fans of Cannibal Corpse, Deicide & Monstrosity.