Saxy S's Reviews

Okay, so I really tried to like the new Archspire album, even though it should be no surprise that it sits well outside my comfort zone of death metal. Dave Otero, the albums main producer, is an absolute beast here and has found his niche; producing several of the most recent releases by Cattle Decapitation and Allegaeon. Like those bands, this album is super clean and precise. Every single note in the guitars, bass and percussion is delivered with pin point accuracy and the bass carries a lot of the records intensity forward. 

Where the album falters is in its lyrical presentation. I'm just gonna come out and say it: I think that early Tom Arraya is ass, so why the hell would anyone want to try and replicate him? I can give Slayer a little bit of credit here, since Tom balanced it out with a few slower passages as well as dueling guitar solos. Archspire have taken the word vomit from Reign in Blood and put it on steroids! Shawn's vocals just sound like gargled mush. In a genre where the intention of the vocals IS to sound like gargled mush, why waste your energy? If it was meant to be a novelty/comedy album then maybe, but this is meant to be taken dead seriously, and the vocals are very technical and flowery. It seems like a poorly thought out idea to me.

Best Songs: Red Goliath, Carrion Ladder, Limb of Leviticus

For Fans Of: Cattle Decapitation, Shadow of Intent, Rings of Saturn

Moody, atmospheric shoegaze that should satisfy on those grunge, hazy filled days during the summer months. It's well performed, has a strong foundation and low end, which really emphasizes the style on display. Vocals have a carefree presentation that is reminiscent of Hum and their 2020 revival album Inlet. Besides that though, True Blue is lacking heavily in substance; a common issue that persists throughout the shoegaze genre of music, but this one is extra dazed. This sounds like Deftones on autopilot. However Deftones have proven that they can still make quality music when they are on autopilot into the 2020s so to be a step below that has to be concerning.

Best Songs: Levitate, Summer Skin, True Blue

For Fans Of: Deftones, Teenage Wrist, Astronoid

Well colour me surprised that I ended up with two technical death metal albums in the same week, but life can be funny that way sometimes.

Growth are a fresh new Australian band in the tech-death variety and, according to the early reviews of Under the Under, I got the impression that it was going to be in the style of early Ulcerate such as Everything is Fire. Now if you know me, that should come as a huge boost, since Ulcerate were the band that singlehandedly broke my shell when it came to technical/dissonant death metal. So I threw my headphones on, hopped onto Bandcamp, pressed play and what I was hit with was a fruitful display of technical/progressive metal, but sounding like Ulcerate? I don't know about that one.

When I think of that band, it comes with the expectation that the word "dissonant" can be taken very lightly. The songs are extremely melodic, make use of both its loud and soft spaces, and always backed by an atmospheric foundation. By comparison, Under the Under is much closer to the hardcore side of the genre that became popularized by bands like Cattle Decapitation and, more recently, Replicant. As a result, this album is lacking a fair bit in that discomfort that should be expected when the phrase "dissonant death metal" is used. As such, many of my returning criticisms of metalcore in general have made a return here: a lot of decent ideas that are kneecapped by the simple fact that, "hey we need a slow breakdown passage here!" and the use of clean singing as a point of melody feels forced.

But it isn't all bad for the Australian combo. Growth have some progressive chops that have been taken from the playbook of An Abstract Illusion and even some clean guitar intros/interludes that sound inspired by the same sections on Ulcerate's last album. Compositions have plenty of variety between them as they power through the gauntlet of emotions. The production is all done in house and executed remarkably well. so as to sound indebted to their inspirators, but not a full blown copycat.

I quite enjoyed Under the Under but I would be hard-pressed to call it great. It has plenty of great moments, but many of them feel muted by the metalcore influence and it leaves the album feeling hollow at times. Now is it disingenuous of me to critique this record as trying to be like Ulcerate when they are clearly NOT trying to play like Ulcerate? Absolutely! So if you're looking for some modestly accessible technical death metal, this record should aim to please. But those who are more familiar with the genre might be left underwhelmed.

Best Songs: Remember Me as Fire, Under the Under, Pain Is Never Far Away

For Fans Of: Ulcerate(?), Dillinger Escape Plan, Converge

Best Songs: Oath Ov Prometheus, Penumbrian Lament, Death Is Forever

For Fans Of: Sólstafir, Dreadnought, Heretoir

For an album typically categorized as blackgaze (including on the bands own Bandcamp page), I was shocked by how little reverb Subglacial was given in post-production. It gives the album a unique sense of raw and grounded emotion brought forth in the music and lyricism. However, the record's unique tonal quality might also be its biggest flaw, since the low end of the mix is painfully lacking throughout. Credit where it is due; there IS a bass presence that can be felt at times during the slower moving sections and the acoustic breaks, but when the guitars take over and start their tremolo picking, the bass is pitiful. And that turns out to be a huge shame because somewhere beneath the surface is a pretty solid album from Ashbringer. The stories told through the music are memorable, while also feeling engaging and immense. The transitions from soft to aggression are executed at the right time, the album isn't scared to flex its muscle in the long song department, without going overboard. But all of that feels like a mute point when the grounded bass lines are so flimsy and non-existent. It makes the whole concept of being grounded, back-to-reality, feel like a fools errand. In an attempt to swim, Ashbringer got their feet frozen underwater.

Best Songs: Subglacial, Send Him to the Lake

The newest album from Ice Nine Ki... wait... The Gloom in the Corner is a peculiar record and exercise in structure. Right out of the gate, it takes heavy influence from Ice Nine Kills and The Silver Scream records. It's littered with symphonic strings, bombastic and erratic song forms and sequencing and a heightened sense of grandiose. Unlike Ice Nine Kills, The Gloom in the Corner are making this to be it's own standalone movie. Royal Discordance is a concept album, but it's hard to get into the concept from the outset. It's an album that is explosive and at points, dank, so the sardonic and destructive nature of the lyrics and themes feel out of touch. The way the album progresses from "The Problem with Apocalyptic Tyranny" and ends with "Love II: A Walk Amongst the Poppy Fields" almost feels forced.

Part of that inevitably comes from the music as well. Like I said on the outset, because of how heavily influenced Royal Discordance is to Ice Nine Kills, it is a heavy album. Lots of heavy chugging guitars, fat percussion mixing and a healthy dose of aggression in the vocals. I personally think that the vocals are the albums glowing highlight because for every "Nope (Hollow Point Elysium)" there is an equally strong ballad like "Shadow Rhapsody II" and the balancing of the vocal styles is very well done. Besides those vocals, there isn't that much innovative or interesting through the instrumentals. You might occasionally hear a blast beat coming from the percussion which sounds cool and the hardcore riffs are fun, but without a truly special hook locking them into place, it just feels hollow. 

Despite the negativity, I didn't hate this album. Just know that it is not my cup of tea when it comes to the type of metalcore that I enjoy. If you like Ice Nine Kills but wanted them to make a concept album for a movie instead of tributes to classic slasher films, you might enjoy Royal Discordance.

Best Songs: You Didn't Like Me Then (You Won't Like Me Now), Short Range Teleportation (A Guide to Guerrilla Warfare), That's Life (Carry Me Home), Love II: A Walk Amongst the Poppy Fields

This was my first time hearing about this Djentcore band from Australia and I enjoyed my time with I Guess It Was Nowhere. My initial impressions were that Above, Below would be following in the footsteps of bands like ERRA with their down tuned guitars and chunky hardcore breakdowns. And while we get a fair bit of that here, Above, Below also throw in some progressive/atmospheric sections as well. Those sections serve as a nice change of pace for the record, so that when the next chunky hardcore breakdown hits, it connects with authority. 

I use the word "atmospheric" very strongly here because I believe this album could have used more of that. I kept thinking back to early Astronoid records while entrenched in a dreamy sequence and felt myself getting kicked out of it unceremoniously by the vocals. I like Jacob Wilkes clean singing, but his harsh vocals are too brash and unkept for the clean stylings of djent. I'm quite sure that this was part of the point; highlighting more of the hardcore influence through the vocals so maybe its just a difference of direction, but that doesn't excuse the vocal mixing, which is pushed so far back in the sequence. And Jacob did all of the mixing and mastering on I Guess It Was Nowhere too! Guess he really loves pumping his band up and not himself.

Overall it was pretty good. The time flew by and I enjoyed my time with I Guess It Was Nowhere. The band executes a decent variety of styles and are really good at giving the listener space before the next hardcore assault. Hooks are hit-and-miss; quite a few of them felt too much like alphabet soup instead of clear and concise phrases with catchy melodies, but the album is well played/performed and the mixing (minus the vocals) is superb.

Best Songs: Heat, Starbreather, Collapsing Eden, I Have Lost My Appetite for Spring

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

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

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

Best Songs: Hydra, Death Above Life

2025 was an absolutely brutal year for metalcore. Both in terms of the new music that was released as well as many of the older records that I got around to. This has been a consistent decline in quality for years and further exacerbated by metalcore being the dominant style of metal in the mainstream. So despite my best efforts to avoid metalcore in my spare time, I'm still beat over the head with disposable albums from Bury Tomorrow, Architects, Slaughter to Prevail, among others. But earlier in this year I heard Hit It! for the first time and was taken by surprise by how good it was! This is like if the electronicore of Electric Callboy was somehow infused with the more accessible stylings of Thornhill. And even that doesn't fully encompass every style/influence Vianova have on Hit It! Now to its credit, the album does have a solid flow. The intense djentcore elements are kept rather sparse and are used for artistic effect. The record has a smooth texture even through the style changes, such as the shoegaze "Future Nostalgia" that transforms into a quasi-Deafheaven groove. I think the biggest issue is in the production, and more specifically, how the songwriting hurts the low end of the mix. Many songs on Hit It! take inspiration from djent in its guitar riffing, but songs like "Melanchronic" have this off-putting groove where the bass just feels like its been pushed into the track unprovoked, which is a shame because the opening synth line hooked me in right away.

Despite this, I think that the pacing of Hit It! is excellent and does not run just status quo in the metalcore sphere. And that might turn a few people off of it entirely. But if you want a metalcore record where the songwriting is something worth a damn, then smash that play button and give it a try!

Best Songs: Future Nostalgia, Oh No (Believer), Whatever Alright, Obsolete

A step down from Shrine from a few years ago. The individual songs have become less focused and do not have any pazazz when it comes to ear catching melodies. The album undoubtedly feels more like a "vibes" album where the strong sound of a melodic metalcore foundation with a death metal tinge is going to be the aspect that listeners will remember the most. Zenith has ambitions of being a more complete project from Shrine and that comes through in some really intense production which is highlighted by a far improved vocal performance. Scott Kennedy's vocals have always been a bit of a presence when the harsh death metal screaming comes out, but his singing was quite lackluster on the previous record. This time around, the clean vocals are greatly improved; the rasp in the timbre fits well with the instrumental style and does not create this weird hybrid effect where it feels like you're listening to two songs at once. I wish that I could have enjoyed Zenith as much as Shrine, but the heightened expectations of how impressed I was by Shrine left me feeling a little bit empty here. The texture of the album can only work so much when your audience already knows your playbook. At some point, Bleed From Within are going to have to broaden their scope.

Best Songs: In Place of your Halo, Zenith, Immortal Desire, Dying Sun

The newest record from Swedish death doom duo Enshine is a pretty decent, if a little slow. I was worried about this album at first as the first two tracks didn't do anything for me. "Heartbliss" in particular had that really out of place transition between two different songs halfway through, before becoming a guitar solo for the remaining two/three minutes. "Distant Glow" was a bit of an eye opener. For one, it's entirely instrumental and secondly, it's the best track on the record. I was going to highlight this review with some snarky remark of "if you're best track on the album is the instrumental interlude, we're gonna have a serious problem" but that's not actually what happened. You see normally with these death/doom albums they start strong and lose momentum in the second half. As the album becomes more moody in its second half, it becomes considerably better. The slower tempos of "The Purity of Emptiness" and "Reignite" and the ample space given out by the vocals cause these songs to feel more lived in and do not feel forced like how "Heartbliss" or "Where the Sunrise is Felt" do.

This is a decent enough of an album if you can overcome the slog it takes to get going.

Best Songs: Distant Glow, The Purity of Emptiness, Reignite

Who had a Textures reunion and album on their 2026 bingo card?

I've enjoyed Textures in the past. Their brand of progressive djent metal was quite unique at the time where the rhythmic breakdowns were an integral part of the songs instead of being some kind of obtuse metalcore breakdown. Dualism is still annual listening material to this day and a go to recommendation when people ask me what to start with when listening to quality djent music (with it being so few-and-far between quality releases anymore). But Textures were a band who probably never got the respect they deserved when it came to songwriting and a decade long wait between Genotype and Phenotype left a lot of people what could possibly happen here? Judging by the album title, you might expect this to be some kind of sequel to the previous album, but one playthrough and you can tell that this is not Textures status quo.

It took me a while to figure out why I didn't like Genotype at first. My first instinct was that the songwriting had taken a tremendous downturn over the last ten years. Instrumentals that felt like they were full of character have been replaced with stock djent grooves and heavy vocal focus and layering. The vocals have become fry and exhaustive instead of the mellow and almost harmonic texture of previous releases. After a while, I started making comparisons to the band Northlane, specifically the 2022 record Obsidian. Northlane changed their sound considerably from a traditional metalcore with djent to something that was far more atmospheric with Obsidian. After that comparison was made, any attempts by Genotype to impress me were immediately squashed.

Northlane's Obsidian has influence from Textures if you know where to look. The songs were more pop oriented than Dualism, but they could get away with it thanks to heavier roots and strong vocal performances from Marcus Bridge. Textures tried mutating Obsidian back into a Textures album and the result is lacking; the fundamentals are very pedestrian, the vocals of Daniël de Jongh are uninspired; as mentioned before, lots of shrill high singing and harsh vocals don't fit Textures at all, and the melodies between the guitar and vocals are bland. 

In a way, I see Genotype as the antithesis to Tool's Fear Inoculum (I sure hope that I don't have to reference that album too many more times this year!) Textures are a band that had a good thing going. Then they disbanded, and then they came back trying to be something that they are not. The end result is disappointing. This band, who have been out of action for nearly a decade, try to keep up with the modern day progressive/djent trends and ironically, lost the feel of what Textures was all about.

Best Songs: At the Edge of Winter, Vanishing Twin, A Seat for the Like-Minded

Simple, But that Doesn't Mean it's Easy

By all accounts, Applause of a Distant Crowd shouldn't work. This is an album that is too simple for progressive music. The synth leads on this album are deliberately loud and at the top of the hierarchy of sound, while the guitars play a far more harmonic and rhythmic role. The albums song lengths are rather brief, even by comparison to some tracks from Inmazes. And yet, none of Applause of a Distant Crowd sounds simple. Songs on this record have a strong tendency to grow and develop over time, whether that be a quiet modulation in time signature, the main chorus being slightly altered over time, the percussion adding a complex drum fill in place of what was a standard groove previously. And most importantly, all of it feels like it belongs within the same walls of this album.

This is a record that I hear many people discussing when bringing up Sleep Token in the modern day. And having gone back recently to hear this album again, I completely understand why. My biggest concern with Sleep Token today, which I mentioned in my review of Even in Arcadia, is how pop and progressive don't mix well together. Sleep Token want to write pop songs with a progressive foundation, but forget that most people who listen to pop music can't pay attention for longer than three minutes at a time! VOLA gets this in spades on Applause of a Distant Crowd. While the songs themselves are not as pop centric from an audible point-of-view, the shorter song lengths mixed with beautiful sung choruses make it stand out. The progressive elements are not forced directly in front of the audience like how they would on a Dream Theater album. And the light touches of intensity from the percussion and the reserved scream vocals add the heavy metal and progressive punches that this album desperately needs.

It's a bit of a shame that VOLA have not been able to retain this niche into later albums. Recent albums have done away with the pop centric attitude and have become more "djentrified", especially on Witness and overbearing synth leads on Friend of a Phantom. I hope that this doesn't turn out to be a flash-in-the-pan type album, but with each passing release, it's looking more and more like that'll be the case.

Best Songs: Ruby Pool, Applause of a Distant Crowd, We Are Thin Air, Alien Shivers, Still

The Tool Effect

It has been over a decade since the last official Karnivool album. A lot has changed in the world since Asymmetry. And even in the world of Karnivool, the release of In Verses is a long time coming, seeing as "All It Takes" was released as a promotional single in 2021. Now as someone who likes Themata and Sound Awake I had heightened expectations of what to expect out of In Verses. That may have been the wrong approach.

Having such a long window of time between releases, regardless of the reason, creates greater hype among the audience about what to expect. For bands that have progressive elements like Tool and Karnivool, I can only imagine that those expectations are heightened further. So when In Verses comes out sounding like a "vibes" album, I do not know if the fans of this band will be as forgiving.

I know that as an onlooker I will give Karnivool the benefit of the doubt over Fear Inoculum. But something still doesn't sit right with me. Karnivool have always been pretty strong songwriters and that is on display here. The first three tracks, "Ghost", "Drone" and "Aozora" all sound great with good choruses, nice thematic development and upbeat grooves. Even "Animation" has a decent flow to it, despite being one of the albums lesser tracks. But then comes the one-two-punch of "Conversations" and "Reanimation". I think that "Reanimation" has a strong build that carries throughout the runtime, while "Conversations" is musical pleasing. But both tracks have immense downtime. It reminds me of Tool where the band will just sit on a simple ostinato for a while without growing or making it more than just its foundation. And as I sat back on this album more, I felt the same way about songs like "Ghost" and "Salva" and even "Opal". 

Where I can give Karnivool credit is in their lyricism. Now a lot of In Verses thematic content revolves around disillusionment and escapism, which is commonplace in this kind of music and doesn't really stand out as a whole. But for individual tracks, the way in which Karnivool are able to manipulate lyrics from the beginning to the finish of each track is commendable. It helps tremendously with that growth that each song should have that is sometimes lacking in its instrumentals.

It was a long turnover for the band and I am glad that the ride is finally over. Now we all get to sit back and enjoy some Karnivool music. And it's honestly pretty good, if you can overlook some painful artistic directions. I would like to say that Karnivool are better equipped for "vibes metal" than a band like Tool are, but even with my guard lowered, I can't help but feel like Karnivool missed an opportunity here.

Best Songs: Drone, Aozora, Reanimation, Remote Self Control, Salva

Disarmonia Mundi are members of the quarter-century-club and at this point, it's safe to say that they will never learn how to produce an album properly. 

This was a struggle to listen to. Not because The Dormant Stranger is a poorly written album, but because the production is complete ass. The loudness war has taken full effect here and has been a staple of Disarmonia Mundi's music for a while now. So tracks that may have had potential like "Outcast" and "8th Circle" lose all of their grandeur by having brick wall soundscape. Nothing is allowed to breathe as the guitars just power away the entire time. The vocals are compressed to hell and only really ascend above the instrumental when the harmonies and vocal layering takes over. This would all be an issue on any record released in 2025, but could be forgiven if the mood was right, say for example this was a hardcore punk or metalcore record. The Dormant Stranger is not only neither of those things, but this record goes on for almost an hour! By the time I hit "8th Circle" at nearly seven minutes long, I was nearing the end of my rope. This band needs to streamline their albums OR write shorter songs more consistently. As it stands, it's an album that starts off underwhelming only becomes progressively worse the longer it goes on.

Best Songs: Illusion of Control, Crossroads to Eternity, The Dormant Stranger

My initial thoughts after hearing Zerfall was how much more progressive this sounds than the previous record. This kind of had that transition from pure atmospheric black metal to progressive that a band like Fen had from Winter to The Dead Light. Ellende unfortunately do not have the same highs as Fen does and this record, while still okay, is far from excellent. With this bands roots in DSBM, the first track, "Wahrheit" is very fast and groovy and the technicality in the percussion takes away a bit from that feeling of isolation. The record does get progressively more slow as it moves on, which is a similar trait that Todbringerin shared and later moments like "Zeitenwende" and "Reise" excel. But the major key of "Ode ans Licht" set a very unusual expectation for not just the track itself, but what followed later on in the album. 

As a whole however, I think that Zerfall is a record that has some experience and has learnt from Todbringerin's mistakes. The changes in tempos and paces make Zerfall feel like a much more complete project instead of a monotonous drone the whole way through. Some progressive elements and a knack for dark storytelling help this record stand on its own. It's about the same length as Todbringerin and yet it feels much more concise. That being said, I do hope that Ellende plan on doing something else with this sound in the future. As it stands, while Zerfall is just a simpler version of Fen's The Dead Light, I would find it difficult to appreciate this sound if it didn't try to distance itself more from that influence. 

Best Songs: Wahrheir Teil I, Übertritt, Zeitenwende Teil I, Zeitenwende Teil II

Last year I checked out the most recent album from the solo black metal project, Blackbraid and it turned out to be one of my more enjoyable metal records from the year. I figured that, since I do not partake in the extreme variety of metal as much as I would like anymore, now seems like a good a time as any to show some love for one of Blackbraid's formative albums; so let's go back and hear how 2023 Blackbraid differs from the modern day sound.

I must admit, this album took me a while to get into. This is not helped by the "Autumnal Hearts Ablaze" intro before the record beats you over the head with "The Spirit Returns". However, the main reason is because Blackbraid II just feels a little tardy. I can let some of that slide given this is an older record, but even for normal black metal standards, it does feel cheesy. Some of the transitions are so wacky that I honestly thought that they must be a joke. "Twilight Hymn of Ancient Blood" strikes me immediately as it begins with this sludgy, almost doom metal groove, which (if you ignore the interlude "Celestial Passage") is a great segue out of the high intensity, foot on the gas pedal of "A Song of Death on Winds of Dawn". But then, about halfway through the song, it switches gears and becomes a thrash anthem...without the anthem part. Sgah’gahsowáh retains their poetic delivery of the words rather than hammering home one particular line of dialogue as one would expect from a band like Warbringer, Havok, or Enforced. The shame is that it actually sounds really cool on its own, but as an extension of the first half of the track, it becomes corny as hell.

Not all the transitions on this record are bad mind you. "The Wolf That Guides the Hunters Hand" is a song that has an impactful punk flare to it, before gradually mellowing out for its conclusion down to a crawl. I enjoyed how "Moss Covered Bones on the Altar of the Moon" builds over its runtime, only to collapse right back down into a doom-y groove the same way it began. And I would be remised if I didn't mention the incredible chemistry between "Moss Covered Bones on the Altar of the Moon" and "A Song of Death on Winds of Dawn". The way the first one ends on a standstill before the next song ramps up the intensity at a blistering pace was well done. It was a shame that tempo could not be maintained throughout the first section of "A Song of Death on Winds of Dawn" though. 

I felt like, after a few listens, Blackbraid II grew on me. I can hear the vision and how that vision has evolved to the point where Blackbraid are now after Blackbraid III. The record does have some significant hurdles that need to be ascended in order to appreciate what is on the other side, but if you can weather the turbulence, you'll find a very respectable melodic black metal album.

Best Songs: The Wolf That Guides the Hunters Hand, Moss Covered Bones on the Altar of the Moon, A Song of Death on Winds of Dawn, Sadness and the Passage of Time and Memory

I have made my metal origin story public for quite awhile now but for those who are uninformed, I was not listening to metal early in my lifetime. It was not until I became a rebellious teenager that my musical interests broke off from the adult contemporary that my family was listening to. And I knew I did not want to listen to the mainstream pop of the Backstreet Boys, Destiny's Child, or the Black Eyed Peas. I didn't discover Alice in Chains or Tool until my first year in high school! But the thing was I still didn't feel like I fit in with the other "cool" kids in school because the metal I was listening to was so much different than theirs. So I asked "what are you listening to?" and they showed me a copy of The End of Heartache by Killswitch Engage. I did not love it at first, but as my ear for music changed, so did my appreciation for the album and the band who created it.

So, in 2006, As Daylight Dies comes out and the promotional single, "My Curse" is everywhere! And it's a great single too. Some might even go so far as to say its the greatest melodic metalcore song of all time. And with this year being the 20th anniversary of the album that changed metalcore, I went back and listened to it and checked to see how it stand up and... I mean, it's still a pretty solid mid 2000s melodic metalcore record, but perhaps my older (and wiser) ears have soured on it more than I thought they would.

I don't know what it is about As Daylight Dies that has changed over the years because all of the pieces are there for a solid metalcore album: the use of breakdowns to compliment choruses, a mammoth refrain led by the unmistakable vocals of Howard Jones, great bass presence and tasteful percussion, and a strong variety in keys, tempos and styles between the tunes. And yet, I'm not sure I feel the excitement from songs like "Break the Silence" and "Daylight Dies" as I did twenty years ago. Maybe it's... stagnation?

I do not listen to metalcore like I once did and that might be to its benefit. Because if I listened to a new metalcore album (or more) every week, I would be more likely to rate this album poorly, despite its cultural significance. So much of the modern melocore sound (i.e. Architects, Born of Osiris, Polaris, etc.) use Killswitch Engage, and more specifically As Daylight Dies, as the framework for their newest releases and there isn't a whole lot of innovation. And it leaves the whole genre as a whole feeling like it's been left behind. I know there are modern melocore bands who are growing from the As Daylight Dies era of Killswitch Engage, but even listening to this record twenty years later, I cannot help but feel like it has lost its grandeur... and I wish it hadn't.

Best Songs: This is Absolution, My Curse, Still Beats Your Name, Eye of the Storm, Desperate Times

Like I said with my Nailed to Obscurity album review last year, undercard death doom bands have a mountain to climb if they want to retain any sort of relevancy anymore. Ethereal Darkness' debut album, Smoke and Shadows is a mostly pleasant, if a little boring, project that provides no inspiration to a genre that has been fruitful in the last couple of years. Granted, some of my criticisms can be thrown away when you consider when this album was released, but even by those standards, I cannot see this as a good thing. The death doom on display here is predictable and does not do much to separate itself from contemporaries. The standard for this genre has been raised by Fires in the Distance, Red Moon Architect and Aeonian Sorrow of late and I see no attempts to stand out and carve their own path here. Smoke and Shadows feels like the kind of death doom album that you throw on as background noise or as playlist filler. It sounds okay in the moment, but give it anymore of your time and you'll start to regret it.

Best Songs: Forgotten Shadows, The Light That Fades, Time

This is just Wheel-lite

I did not want to go into this album with dampened expectations. Soen began their musical journey in the mid 2000s out of Stockholm and had a very Opeth-ian sound through their first three albums. After Lykaia however, this band took a more traditional approach and did away with their progressive songwriting, to the point that this album, Reliance, has almost no distinct features that make it sound like early Soen. I think that in some regard, that can be a good thing, because it shows a band not willing to sit still and release the same release endlessly for the rest of time (i.e. Dream Theater). On the contrary, starting off as progressive and leaning into a radio friendly alternative metal is quite the disappointment in relation to musical growth.

And trust me, Reliance is quite lacking in musical growth. I described it as Wheel-lite because all of these sounds and techniques used here are dumbed-down versions of what Wheel was doing on their debut album, Moving Backwards, seven years ago! The album has flow, but it's very monotone; it lacks a truly driving song to balance out all of the piano ballads and medium tempo alternative metal. As a result, the vocals of Joel Ekelöf are painfully lacking as well.

 The instrumentals as a whole are well produced at least. It does make for a mostly enjoyable listen for the forty-three minutes one has to endure. I just wish that there was more done with those instrumental backdrops, since the vocals were so underwhelming. The album lacks a lot of instrumental leads or even solos, which is why "Unbound" is the highlight of the album; it's one of the only tracks that features a technical (but still melodic) guitar solo and even throws in a keyboard solo during the outro. Besides that, nothing inside Reliance ever asks me to come back to it.

And that's why Reliance feels like a homogenous blob. Sure it sounds decent, but how much of it can you point out and truly identify once its finished? The reason my rating isn't any lower is because I see this album/band not as a progressive project anymore. Approaching this album in bad faith as a progressive album will lead you to massive disappointment. And that's okay! It's a lot for audiences to ask these bands to continue being boundary shifters after so many years. But for the love of god, please make something that stands out from the crowd instead of generic radio rock/metal that leaves me feeling more hollow than ever.

Best Songs: Unbound, Primal, Axis

Omnium Gatherum are one of those Scandinavian melodic death metal bands that formed out of the second wave during the early 2000s and I've always found them to be one of the standout groups of that time. The music was slightly more progressive than its mainstream contemporaries like Arch Enemy, but still very accessible to that same crowd. Well in 2025, May the Bridge We Burn Light the Way sees this band fully embracing the cheesy side of the genre to its full potential. To me, I don't view this as much of a deterrent because Omnium Gatherum have been able to make solid music for just over two decades and now, not having to worry about being ostracized by the old guard, the synth leads and the strings and choir are more pronounced than ever before. Make no mistake, this record sounds cheesy as hell!

That being said, I can also see May the Bridges We Burn Light the Way as having a very solid base with strong choruses and excellent flow. The songwriting has become more streamlined and far less wasteful than on earlier albums. However, this can also be viewed as a downgrade since as a whole, the record feels quite safe; this album does not have a "White Palace" or "Deep Cold" on it. Now I can give Omnium Gatherum some leeway here; they are entering their third decade and innovation becomes less of a requirement after that much time. This feels like the "let it ride" album where Omnium Gatherum are contempt to stay from now until they eventually call it quits. I hope that isn't the case because I know that this band are capable of so much more, but as a single record, it's very good. 

To me, May the Bridge We Burn Light the Way is AOR metal...and that is as much of a compliment as it can be.

Best Songs: The Last Hero, The Darkest City, Ignite the Flame, Road Closed Ahead

Heretoir are a German atmospheric black metal band that have been around for a surprisingly long time. I had never heard of them prior to being introduced to them late in 2025 and their new record, Solastalgia. And the only reason I gave it my attention at this point in the year is because I was told it was right up my alley in the style of black metal that I typically enjoy. Well, that friend was right because Solastalgia is like a modern day love letter to Agalloch's Ashes Against the Grain.

Now I do need to choose my words very carefully from here on out, because Ashes Against the Grain might be one of my favourite albums of all time. And Solastalgia does more than enough to separate itself from Agalloch. In fact, the main reason why I enjoy Solastalgia so much is because of how much it shares in common with a band like Svalbard. This is huge sounding atmospheric black metal, but with a hip, metalcore front. The promotional single "You Are the Night" and "Burial" are far less in common with Agalloch, but no doubt matching in instrumental beauty. The acoustic passages on "Seasons of Grief", the piano bridge on "Inertia" and the earthly tonal center of "The Heart of December" are undoubtedly Agalloch in presentation.

Perhaps it is ironic then that Heretoir named their album Solastalgia. A word whose etymology is a portmanteau of the words "solace" and "nostalgia". Nostalgia is a word typically associated with positive thoughts and emotions, whereas Solastalgia is the antithesis; where the places and people that you once knew and grew up with have all changed and have become affected by the passage of time. As such, it is less surprising that Heretoir are developing the sound of Agalloch to places that band could have never gone. And with this bands roots in depressive suicidal black metal, the grief and distress felt within the music and lyrics hits with its meta commentary that I never expecting out of a black metal album! Although, if I'm being nitpicky, a few of the lyrical choices to feel quite cliche and could have been written by nearly anyone.

Despite all my praise for the instrumentals so far, I do have to mention the obtuseness in the percussion. I think that it sounds fine and it's performed with an extreme level of precision, I just feel like the drums are mixed way too close to the front. At the beginning of "Dreamgatherer" it begins with a pleasant clean guitar with reverb and before you know it, the percussion is playing on top of you and the guitar melody has nowhere to go. It also becomes rather intrusive during blast beats like the bridge of "Solastalgia" among others.

All told though, I really enjoyed Solastalgia. The band really captured the essence of the word here; an album that has aspirations of Agalloch, brought into the modern age with metalcore and blackgaze textures. It will be a struggle for those who just want to enjoy Agalloch, but if you're willing to come to terms with Agalloch not coming back (and Ashes Against the Grain being nearly two decades old), then I can assure you that this album is a clinic in modern day post-black metal.

Best Songs: The Ashen Falls, You Are the Night, Dreamgatherer, Solastalgia, Inertia

I knew within the first few moments of "12/23/93" that I was going to get along just fine with Poison the Well's debut record from 1999, The Opposite of December...A Season of Separation. It is exactly the kind of post-hardcore/emo infused metalcore that came out of the late 1990s with acts like Hopesfall and Skycamefalling that I really love. The rawness of these recording is really noticeable with how punchy a lot of the breakdowns are. Poison the Well have done excellent work with cutting out the fat that becomes commonplace in many a post-punk and post-hardcore band around the turn of the millennium. The vocals are relentless in their genuine anxiety and passion, almost as if the vocalist screams are about to break down into wails at any moment. But as a counterpoint, the catchiness of the guitar riffs alongside some of those repetitive vocal lines just pushes this record above the rest. It is a wonderful blend of metalcore intensity alongside post-hardcore's more progressive songwriting. 

Best Songs: A Wish For Wings That Work, Slice Paper Wrists, Nerdy, Mid Air Love Message, My Mirror No Longer Reflects

Earlier this year, I listened to the debut record from the Cleveland gothic doomgaze band 1692 and I found it a mostly enjoyable, if a little same-y listen. I had very little experience with this sound prior to hearing Frayle earlier this year, so my expectations as to what this style of music could sound like were very slim. It still has the strong foundational presence of a traditional doom metal album, but one listen to those monotone, and heavily modified vocals of Gwyn Strang and you can tell this is not standard procedure.

In relation to this album, I can tell that Frayle have putting in some modest work to improve this sound. Shoegaze is a genre not typically known for its sweeping development and growth so good on the band for taking that style to new heights. While the record is still doom metal, you will notice a few more contrapuntal melodies in the guitars that compliment the vocals very well. The percussion on Heretics & Lullabies also makes big strides forward with the subtle arrangements between the individual tracks; the record does have many similar tempos, but not all the songs feel like they are in the same style thanks to the percussion. And the vocals have some really cool touches; whether it be the Glados filter on "Demons" or the sparse, but effective harsh vocals on "Boo" and especially "Heretic" as a vocal layer instead of being its own segment.

The downside is that the record doesn't really maintain its momentum all the way through. Like with 1692, about half way through, Heretics & Lullabies gets caught in musical purgatory; where none of the songs provide enough distinction to make them stand out among the rest. I enjoyed "Glass Blown Heart", but then "Hymn For The Living" and "Run" sound remarkably dull by comparison. "Heretics" tries to get back on track, only for the final track "Only Just Once" to continue in the same vein as the last song! As for the first half, it's very interesting, but it can also be incredibly cheesy at times, most notably on "Boo". But hey, at least it got me to like a Lana Del Rey song...so that's a big win I guess!

Overall, the record Heretics & Lullabies is a solid improvement from the debut, but leaves me wanting more. Maybe that's asking for too much out of this style of doom metal, but the pacing is mediocre at best and many deep cuts lose their focus. The production is the highlight and keeps the record sounding solid from start to finish. It's an album that would fit right into my sleeping playlist with how peaceful it sounds...and maybe that was the point.

Best Songs: Walking Wounded, Demons, Glass Blown Heart, Souvenirs Of Your Betrayal

Throughout the years, I can honestly say that I've never had an issue with In Mourning. They have made some pretty solid progressive death metal throughout the 2010s, but every time I visit their music, it either comes at a time when I'm not really interested in that style of music, or another, more potent progressive death metal album has just released which keeps my attention longer. The Immortal is likely the first time I've been able to fully enjoy an In Mourning album and coming to realize just how good they are. The album might have progressive as a primary genre tag, but if you're expecting the kind of wonky, abstract prog metal of Dream Theater or Between the Buried and Me, you'll likely be let down. The songwriting is very solid with some very good melodic themes and dynamics. The growth of some of the themes might be a little lacking, but tracks like "Song of the Cranes" and the closer "The Hounding" show that fully developed motif. The album as a whole is a brisk listen with the expertly placed "Moonless Sky" interlude. My one complaint, which isn't so much of a complaint more than it is an observation, is Tobias Netzell's harsh vocals. For a death metal album, they do feel a little bit on the weaker side; they almost remind me of Matt Heafy of Trivium, which likely means the use of the fry vocal technique. It isn't a determent to the album; in fact, it probably gives the heavier sections a little bit more character than other similar death metal albums, it's just something I noticed that caught me off guard.

This record won't win any "heaviest albums of 2025" awards, but for a few moments, The Immortal was a captivating listen. The fullness of the instrumentation, combined with some very subtle progressive song structures make it stand out. Like In Vain last year, it's surprising that this album made it here as late into the year as it did, but better late than never I suppose!

Best Songs: Song of the Cranes, The Sojourner, North Star, The Hounding

P.S. I thought for sure that I had reviewed this album before once I saw the album cover. It bears a striking resemblance to ...And Oceans The Regeneration Itinerary. Just a friendly warning for those wanting to check this out.

At some point around the turn of the decade, I came to the unfortunate realization that old school black metal wasn't for me. The Scandinavian giants that pushed the genre to new heights during the 1990s (Darkthrone, Mayhem, etc.) had a flare for the cold and atmospheric, but lacked any of that cool songwriting stuff that made their material memorable beyond initial contact. The genre has grown throughout the years sure, but I've found that the type of black metal that I enjoy is not considered black metal by the consensus of its audience. And so, I've been forced into solitary confinement with atmo-black and progressive black giants until something a little less demanding comes along to sink my teeth into.

Enter Warmoon Lord, a modern Scandinavian black metal band whose influence is worn on the cover of the debut album, Burning Banners of the Funeral War. Now, four records in, I was hoping to see some growth through the music, or more specifically, if any of these songs had any staying power. After all, if bands are just going to release fluff pieces to their influences, why wouldn't I just listen to those bands instead?

Sacrosanct Demonopathy is a tough listen. I can tell that their is some effort going into it based on how its written. The songs themselves have direction and the flow of the album is quite well done. I like how the album bookends with deliberately slow and controlled instrumentals, before filling the remaining tracks with relentless original black metal. The record is concise and hooks are given some level of appreciation on each song, allowing them to stand out on their own. It's too bad it was all wasted on a black metal album.

I'm sorry, but the production on Sacrosanct Demonopathy is ass. I hate how the most authentic sounding portions of this record are the intros on "Warpoems & Tragedies" and "His Enigmatic Ways". The clean guitar intro sound full and driving, and then the electric guitar and percussion enters and it gets completely neutered. The guitar is compressed to all hell and the bass is practically non-existent. The vocals, which should be front and center, are viewed as an afterthought in how low they are in the hierarchy of sound. And the synth elements? While sparse in their delivery, the few times they do show up they get completely drowned out by the multi-tracked guitars and percussion.

I understand that a lot of my criticism of Sacrosanct Demonopathy and its production is what a lot of black metal like in this style of music. And I have, on occasion, enjoyed a compressed, muted black metal album in the past. What makes this one stand out among the rest is that Warmoon Lord were trying to make something that was more epic, with its power metal and thrash riffs on tracks like "Invoking the Retribution Eidolon" and the poor production does not do any favours. In the end, it's an album that tries to be more progressive and melodic, but the roots of the genre that Warmoon Lord try to keep severely kneecap whatever growth this record might have had.

Best Songs: Invoking the Retribution Eidolon, Tartaros Offering, Daemonic Supremacy Enthroned 

Dying Wish are a Portland based metalcore band who really surprised a couple of years ago with Symptoms of Survival with its balanced intensity. Two years later, the band is back with their third studio album and I can't help but feel like we've downgraded here. 

And for starters, I think we have to look at the individual song structures found within Flesh Stays Together. This album appears to be broken up into three distinct types of songs. The first is the full frontal assault of hardcore punk fun on "A Curse Upon Iron" and " Surrender Everything". The second is the buildup song; it starts with a clean guitar tone and Emma's softer singing timbre, while evolving over time into something that feels like a real payoff like on "Nothing Like You" or the title track. And then everything else falls into some kind of Spiritbox sounding status quo 2020s metalcore album. Taking influence from Spiritbox might not be a deterrent in theory, but the execution feels lacking in any sense of growth from it.

Production is also taking a minor downgrade from Symptoms of Survival. For starters, Emma's harsh screams sound a lot less focused than the previous record; a lot of her syllables start to blend together and it causes the rest of album to lose its punch. The opening track "I Don't Belong Anywhere" sets the album off on the wrong foot by having Emma scream with spotty execution. The instrumentals are mostly good; the bass does have a strong presence throughout the record especially during the albums choruses and buildup tracks like "Heaven Departs". But on others, Dying Wish like to implement the tritone dissonant chord in the chugging guitars during the breakdown and for some reason, the bass just kind of disappears? The only other egregious production error was on the heavy track "Revenge In Carnage" where the instrumentals re-enter after a full stop and the mix cannot handle all of the additional noise all at once.

I do not dislike Flesh Stays Together by Dying Wish, however something about it just feels off to me. It feels like the band needed to cave into some arbitrary heaviness code in their contract and as a result, lost some of their identity as a metalcore band in the process. Groups with female vocalists will inevitably be compared to the likes of Spiritbox in the current metalcore climate, but Dying Wish were never trying to be Spiritbox. But with Flesh Stays Together, they might just be.

Best Songs: A Curse Upon Iron, Nothing Like You, Empty the Chamber, Flesh Stays Together

It's albums like Generation of the Void by German death doomers Nailed to Obscurity that leave me feeling strange. I can tell that all of the foundations are here, great death doom production, a solid driving bass to carry the album forward, guitar variation and a pretty good vocal range. This album reminds me of the recent gothic side of Katatonia, but where Nailed to Obscurity move away from that is the death growls from the vocalist; it gave the record the feeling of a Swallow the Sun type record. The tracks themselves are pleasant to listen to with plenty of enough variety to keep the album flowing and not become overbearing.

And despite all of that, I feel a sense of indifference towards Generation of the Void. Perhaps it's the burden of higher expectations with bands like Fires in the Distance, Swallow the Sun and Red Moon Architect that have projected the death doom metal genre to ceiling shattering heights that Nailed to Obscurity just do not have here. I for one, was anticipating when the harsh vocals that were commonplace on the opening handful of tracks ("Glass Bleeding" and "Liquid Mourning") to be pushed back as the clean singing takes center stage, and the harsh vocals serve more as embellishment instead of the main attraction. And when that happened on "Generation of the Void", I felt a sense of simplicity; it still sounds good and is one of the records bast songs, but the Katatonia influence takes over and it becomes hard to separate the influencer from the influencee. 

It's still not a bad album. My time with Generation of the Void was mostly enjoyable with good fundamentals and a strong sense of belonging within this style of music. However, without a true standout moment or idea for Nailed to Obscurity to latch onto, I'm afraid that this record (and band) lose my interest. This void is quite a dull place when you really think about it.

Best Songs: Overcast, Generation of the Void, Misery's Messenger

Full disclosure, Blessthefall are not my cup of tea when it comes to metalcore. When I was growing up with the genre, I stayed closer to the groovier side of the genre with bands like Trivium, All That Remains and Shadows Fall rather than the more scene side. A lot of these bands gained prominence during the 2010s while I was in university, during my metal purge. GALLOWS by Blessthefall certainly feels nostalgic for that time frame of bands like Silverstien and Pierce the Veil. And you know what? For a pretty short piece of run-of-the-mill 2010s metalcore slop, it actually isn't that bad.

I enjoy how songs like "Venom" and "Y.S.A.B." aren't totally generic buildups/breakdowns and choruses within this subsect of mainstream metalcore. The choruses themselves can be quite catchy like "Wake the Dead" and "Light the Flame", provided you can tolerate Beau Bokan's vocal timbre, both in his screaming and singing. The foundations are extra djent-y and sound like a lot of fun, especially the occasional melo death riff that sneaks it way in between the palm muted riffage. And the record does not become too redundant all at once. Guest features from Story of the Year on "Fell So Hard, Felt So Right" and Alpha Wolf on "Drag Me Under" break up the early runs of similar sounding key centers and tempos. While the closer "This Ends With Us" has some decent brooding to wrap up the record.

I mean, it's hard for me to not enjoy GALLOWS from Blessthefall. Yeah I doubt it will end up in my year end rotation for 2025, and the record has a couple of duds, but the few moments that stand out are a shining example for the target audience of a time once passed. For a style of music that I don't frequent/enjoy very often, this one caught me off guard.

Best Songs: Wake the Dead, Drag Me Under, Light the Flame

I was not expecting much out of a new Mors Principium Est record in 2025. Hailing from Finland, they came out late in the 1990s as one of the premiere 2nd wave Melodic Death metal bands after the success of the Swedish neighbours. Now running on for over two decades, much like their 1st wave contemporaries, I did not know how much a band like this would be able to provide. Well colour me shocked that Darkness Invisible is one of the best melodic death metal records I've heard in 2025 so far. This band has a way to write some immensely catchy choruses alongside groovy and unique riffs. The album is heavy with its percussive blast beats and strong foundation, and while the record does feel a little padded with the symphonic inclusions, I would say most of this record's poorest sounds come by the way of messy synths that double and harmonize with the lead guitar, but their presence is muted throughout so it isn't that big of a deterrent. The individual songs all sound great, but the length of tracks like "Summoning the Dark" and "The Rivers of Avernus" feel bloated. The penultimate track, "All Life is Evil" has this doom tinged pivot, almost as if a progressive style album closer, which I'm not opposed to, but the inclusion of clean symphonic singing just felt out of place; nowhere on Darkness Invisible is the idea of death doom or clean symphonic singing even been hinted at. And so when they make their first appearance on the final moments of the record, it feels like wasted opportunity. Still, I had no idea that Mors Principium Est were still making high quality melodic death metal two decades later.

Best Songs: Venator, Monuments, Beyond The Horizon, In Sleep There is Peace

As I grow older, and my catalogue of music listening grows, fewer things surprise me. ...And Oceans surprised me with some great melodic black metal on Cosmic World Mother in 2020, they surprised me again in 2023 when the album As in Gardens, So in Tombs flew entirely under my radar, and in 2025, The Regeneration Itinerary made it to my review bench with industrial and cyber metal elements!

Now long time fans might find this less than surprising since the band has dabbled in electronics before on albums such as Cypher. But I wonder just how well the electro-industrial tinges will actually work with a band that is already pretty bloated with symphonic orchestras. And here's the thing: I'm not trying to say that ...And Oceans don't deserve some credit for being ambitious, but sometimes the pendulum swings way too far in the opposite direction. In short, The Regeneration Itinerary is an album trying to redirect everything wrong with Lorna Shore's discography, but it ends up becoming too drastic.

While Lorna Shore litter their albums from top to bottom with every single instrument screaming at you nonstop for over an hour, the main criticism is that albums like Pain Remains have no leveling. Conversely, ...And Oceans have the same problem, but the compression here is drastic. And while it certainly makes for a more enjoyable project than anything Lorna Shore has done, I cannot help but feel like the intensity is missing. The necessity by ...And Oceans to compress this album as much as they did is part of the problem; every part of the record sounds purposeful and given attention. When the electro-industrial parts of "Inertiae" and "The Form and the Formless" come out they are present, but when the guitars and drums re-enter, they sound timid. And that carries even more so into Mathias Lillmåns' vocals. 

I won't call it a bad record. Compositionally, The Regeneration Itinerary is a well constructed release with plenty of variety between the individual tracks. But the way in which it has been mixed and mastered does no favours. It's more pleasant than listening to a Lorna Shore album in 2025, but ...And Oceans are left feeling like they are not playing up to their full potential.

Best Songs: Chromium Lungs, Bronze Optics, Prophetical Mercury Implement, The Ways of Sulphur, The Terminal Filter

The melodeath stuff on Heimat is not too bad for a band that has been doing it for almost twenty-five years, but the metalcore elements are overly forced and take away whatever momentum those songs may have. I was expecting a bit more of a progressive pivot after the first track "War Is the Father of All", but instead, Heimat just kind of treads its feet along the dirt road and becomes quite predictable. Luckily, Heaven Shall Burn know how to properly mix a bass on this album, so even though the grooving is forgettable, at least it drives. The crustiness in the percussion gives the record some old school death metal appeal, but that's about it. "A Silent Guard" is the only saving grace near the albums conclusion.

Best Songs: A Silent Guard, My Revocation of Compliance, A Whisper from Above

I never want to hear another complaint about my harsh criticism of modern Dream Theater ever again!

BTBAM (Between the Buried and Me) showed us three years ago that they may have been running out of collective ideas with Colors II. I can thank the first Colors record for being one of the key contributors for allowing me to enjoy new extreme metal genres like death metal and metalcore. Colors II felt like a return to that style following a couple of releases where the band decided to take a more accessible route on The Great Misdirect. Colors II while a good album as well as a hybrid of styles, it just did not resonate with me that much. So much of my discourse surrounding The Blue Nowhere came from figuring out how the formula would adapt.

The Blue Nowhere is not your typical BTBAM record. This album is much more avant-garde and less metalcore than ever before. I was taken aback by how much intentional dissonance was given to the record, but the record flew by despite its over seventy-minute runtime. The bands ability to write theses long, complex song structures, while still making them feel connected is just as good as it was during the late 2000s. "Absent Thereafter" and "Slow Paranoia" immediately stand out among the rest. The first promotional single and leadoff track, "Things We Tell Ourselves in the Dark" has a remarkable sense of pacing as to not overwhelm the listener with too much of the avant-garde obtuseness right out of the gate. Then "God Terror" hits you like a ton of bricks and reminds you that BTBAM used to play a rare progressive metalcore. The pacing of The Blue Nowhere with interludes like "Pause" and "Mirador Uncoil" serve their purpose so well, and the final run of four tracks is incredible. Two eleven minutes epics with "Psychomanteum" and "Slow Paranoia", which are both heavy, avant-garde and surprisingly concise, before dropping everything down for "The Blue Nowhere" and "Beautifully Human" to a cool, calm and reflective pace as the album circles back on itself. BTBAM sense of pacing is as good, if not better, than it has been since The Great Misdirect.

This is what progressive music should be; these acts should not be sitting idly by and rereleasing the same album ad nauseum for a quarter of a century because "that's what got us popular in the first place". Meanwhile, bands like Sleep Token, who are not progressive, are spinning circles around the so called "giants" of the genre. BTBAM are not going to settle making cookie cutter progressive metal and The Blue Nowhere proves that. This is BTBAM for a new era. Even if this turns out to be a one off project and they return to sounds closer to The Great Misdirect after this, at least they will have this one late era gem.

Best Songs: Things We Tell Ourselves in the Dark, Absent Thereafter, Slow Paranoia, Beautifully Human, Door #3

Nightfall's eleventh studio album comes as a bit of a surprise. While serving as longtime Athenian giants in the Hellenic Black Metal scene, their contributions to the overall genre have been severely lacking in comparison to contemporaries like Rotting Christ and The Elysian Fields. They are a group that leans much closer to the Gothic textures and a rougher version of melodic death metal. You can hear blast beats, tremolo guitars on songs like "I Hate" and "The Traders of Anathema" sure, but the textures that engulf "With Outlandish Desire to Disobey" tell a different tale. These drastic changes in style can be overwhelming at times, but for the most part, I feel like Nightfall have done an adequate job of making the transitions between these sections feel less obtuse and jarring than perhaps their contemporaries.

The production of Children of Eve is pretty good. The album has a lot of low end and is carried heavily by its thunderous guitars. As the sound shifts from tremolo guitar counterpoint, to death metal chugging as well as big open chordal progressions during the gothic segments, the timbre of the guitar is always kept at the front of mind for the band and the mixing. The record even sneaks in a couple of death metal style guitar solos as well. The percussion, while janky at times, is very solid as well. The biggest issue I have with records like this is when they shift from blazing blast beats at a million miles a minute, to slow, brooding segments, it can feel like something is missing in the very foundation of the songs themselves. As for the vocals, I can see the appeal; again death metal style vocals with low gutturals most of the time, but the words being used are fragmented at best, and cringy at worst.

This was an okay album. It's major strengths are its intensity while still maintaining a strong melodic base. It's major downsides are that these transitions between melodic and technical passages are usually quite janky, and the album does not waver too much outside of a well established comfort zone early on. Even then, Children of Eve is yanked down for having a eerily similar theme to Rotting Christ's The Heretics. 

Best Songs: The Cannibal, Seeking Revenge, For The Expelled Ones, With Outlandish Desire To Disobey

The one thing that will always be Green Carnation's calling card is their songwriting. The Nordic giants of Gothic Progressive Metal blew me away with Light of Day, Day of Darkness over twenty years ago and I was pleasantly surprised when they returned in 2020 with Leaves of Yesteryear. Progressive songwriting has always struggled when it came to towing the line of being overtly technical for its own sake, and writing tighter, more concise tunes to be more easily digestible. Green Carnation are the band that prove to me that you don't have to pick one or the other.

When I saw that The Shore of Melancholia was a multi-part release from the band, I became very excited. I was even more excited when I saw the track listing to part 1 or A Dark Poem and saw shorter runtimes. And that excitement came to a climax when the final notes of "Too Close to the Flame" reverberated out as that final reminder that my expectations had been met and then some! I love how this album starts with "As Silence Took You" and "In Your Paradise"; clearly harkening back to a gothic doom style of My Dying Bride, with the vocals from Kjetil Nordhus feeling like an absolute gut punch. I really enjoyed the pacing for the first half of the record, feeling progressive at times, but not overwhelming to the listener with endless solo breaks and uncommon time signature technicality.

"The Slave That You Are" will take some getting used to. Starting off with blast beat percussion, open guitar chords and Enslaved's Grutle Kjellso providing guest vocals, the stylistic flip is jarring to put it lightly. However, the first three tracks on the record are not just status quo gothic doom metal; there is something brewing underneath the surface and when it explodes on "The Slave That You Are" it feels so good! The title track, "The Shores of Melancholia" comes up next and even though the intensity has been pulled back, it still does not sound like the first handful of songs. The final track, "Too Close to the Flame" is the closest thing to a modern progressive power metal song. The instrumental sounds phenomenal even if the mixing does feel a little too overwhelming in the final minutes. Even then, the buildup to that finale is sweet and leaves the record feeling like a near perfect story with a buildup, climax and resolution. 

The way in which Green Carnation continues to impress this many years after their magnum opus is remarkable and the way they continue to develop their sound throughout the years remains one of progressive music's most surprising mysteries, in a genre where the main faces would rather repeat the same mistakes of their contemporaries.

Best Songs: As Silence Took You, Me, My Enemy, The Slave That You Are, The Shore of Melancholia

I've mentioned on a handful of occasions that I struggled with Sumerian Records back in the day. Djentcore was in its early stages of development and this record label was destined to pump out as many metalcore and djent bands as they possibly could through the early 2010s. Born of Osiris were just another one of the fairly unoriginal bands of the time, but as the years pass they modulate closer to the Veil of Maya sound. I've personally never cared for them, but as an inoffensive modern metalcore/deathcore/djent band, I cannot admit to ever switching the channel when they come on. A large reason for that was the songwriting, which was short and direct to the listener.

Short projects like The New Reign and The Simulation play into the groups strengths as being fat-free, straight-to-the-point metalcore/deathcore. Albums like Angel or Alien and more recently, Through Shadows on the other hand, are too long and drawn out for the band. Promotional singles like "Elevate" and "In Desolation" have decent ideas, but both feel cut short; "Elevate" and the opener "Seppuku" in particular feel like their final chorus is missing.

If this was a normal, formative Born of Osiris album, I probably would not mind as much. But in 2025, Through Shadows is a hair under fifty minutes in length. Combining that with shorter than average songs makes for a major issue in the structure of this release. When the band experiments with longer song structures like "A Mind Short Circuiting" and "Transcendence" it feels like two separate song ideas stitched together. The record is just not that well meshed and a large portion of that might come from the bands continued pivot towards electronica.

At the least the sound is nice. Since Born of Osiris are from that formative djent era, Through Shadows is super groovy. The percussion is precise and compliments the vocals very well as well as the occasional guitar lead. I did not find the guitar/bass work to be very impressive; this definitely still has that Sumerian blockiness to it. And vocals are mostly okay; Ronnie continues to move away from harsh screaming as frequently and they can be hit-or-miss, but I do appreciate how not every track on this record has a sung chorus.

Overall I found Through Shadows to be a fairly inoffensive album, just like the rest of Born of Osiris' discography. They are certainly talented when it comes to writing killer grooves and the occasional catchy hook, but given the albums length and continued push towards the progressive leaves this band in an odd predicament. Singles bands can be fine in small doses, but as far as I can tell, Born of Osiris are still chasing the shadows of Veil of Maya.

Best Songs: Inverno, Activated, Blackwater

For a record being published through Nuclear Blast, March of the Unheard is a remarkably clean sounding death metal album. The guitars and bass have just enough grit to give these tracks some much needed excitement because the songwriting surely does not. The Halo Effect is a Swedish supergroup of In Flames alumni and you would think that with this kind of starpower, that The Halo Effect would be a little bit more interesting?

There are pockets of quality within March of the Unheard but they are drowned out by a very uninspired palette. I get a lot of modern Arch Enemy influence out of this album and even some newer Dark Tranquility. But the record feels like it lacks direction. Considering how much In Flames background there is, I don't hear much The Jester Race, or Whoracle, or even Clayman. If anything, this record sounds closer to the In Flames of the 2010s; alternative metalcore. The album feels monotonous and would have benefited from having a key change or a guitar solo once in a while...which is why it's so baffling that the record DOES have these modulators. March of the Unheard feels to me like an album that thinks it can draw you in on name alone (it did for me) and nothing else. 

Best Songs: Cruel Perception, Forever Astray, Between Directions

In my most recent attempt to rekindle a bond with extreme metal, I have been met with enough suggestions than I know what to do with! Unfortunately, what I appreciate in the music is very different than what most of my colleagues enjoy. One name that has always returned to me has been Blackbraid, a solo melodic/atmospheric black metal project from the state of NY. While I have only truly listened to Blackbraid in passing, songs such as "The Spirit Returns" and "Sadness and the Passage of Time and Memory" have stuck with me, so I figure that now is as good a time as any to dig in with a new album just released this month!

It does need to be said right out of the gate that Blackbraid III is a great album. I believe that the drummer, Neil Schneider, is the albums producer and mixer and the sound of the album is nothing short of spellbinding. For an artist that is as fiercely independent as Blackbraid claims to be, Blackbraid III has better mixing than many of the modern day "mainstream" black metal artists. I'm sure that there are record labels who specialize in black metal that would be salivating to have Blackbraid join their catalogue one day. The album has tremendous blending between the guitar, bass, percussion and vocals. The guitar in particular has a crucial role on this endeavour; carrying some of the albums most infectious moments. The riffing is varied and unique, and play great chemistry with the vocals.

The record has plenty of Native American and traditional Americana flavour added to keep things interesting. I would not be surprised if Sgah’gahsowáh came out and listed Austin Lunn as a source of influence for their music, because the mimicking of Panopticon's sound is undeniable. Whether that be in songs like "God of Black Blood", the opening of the record "Wardrums at Dawn on the Day of my Death" or any of the acoustic interludes interspersed with nature sounds of campfire cackling, rivers flowing or wolves howling, however cliche that might sound.

That influence from Panopticon is also felt in the lyrics. The lyrics are painted with a level of continuity between the tracks as themes of "fading light" the "forlorn of the dark" and "sacred offerings" are referenced frequently throughout Blackbraid III. "The Dying Breath of a Sacred Stag" is one of the more heart-twisting tunes on the album as the title stag, the "great keeper of twilight", grows old and passes away from the mortal world into the moss covered ground and nightfall engulfs the sky. The Lord Belial cover of "Fleshbound" that ends the album tells of the protagonist tearing their flesh from the body so that the pained soul can be free. It is an album of dark meaning, but delivered in such a way to make it sound just as wonderful to the listener as it would to a devote believer. (I personally do not know which Indigenous nation Sgah’gahsowáh is associated with, so that last statement is purely speculation).

The biggest issue with Blackbraid III is probably its interludes. The record has three (four if you count "Dusk (Eulogy)") interludes, but Blackbraid could have easily gotten away with just two. The interlude "The Earth Is Weeping" does not really do that much for me at this point in the track list. "Traversing the Forest of Eternal Dusk" is great with the inclusion of a electric guitar solo, while "Like Wind Through the Reeds Making Waves Like Water" serves as a nice change of pace in between the albums two longest tracks.  As well, even though I already mentioned how good the main melodic songwriting is, this album does have a tendency to shift styles a little too frequently. One of my least favourite examples is the quasi thrash riff that consumes most of the middle section of "And He Became the Burning Stars..." but the doom riff that ends "Tears of the Dawn" is wonderful.

Blackbraid III is a nice little project that shows signs of progress. I think as a collective, this album has the worse production than Blackbraid II, but the benefit of better songwriting. This record is more precise with shorter songs and a slightly more brisk runtime, as well as more impactful themes.

Best Songs: Wardrums at Dawn on the Day of my Death, The Dying Breath of a Sacred Stag, Traversing the Forest of Eternal Dusk, Tears of the Dawn

There are some decent sounding hooks/melodies inside Affliction Vortex, but they are very tricky to find since they are interspersed in between some painfully generic gothic doom metal. Dawn of Solace seem to be stuck in a creative divot where every track on this record uses the same tonal center and similar tempo. I would imagine that listening to this from top-to-bottom would be an absolute chore. When taking the album apart, the promotional singles of "Fortress" and "Invitation" were solid, but when thrown into the gauntlet, they lose much of their splendor. Even in comparison to recent death doom/gothic doom albums I've reviewed in recent memory, they all seemed to have some kind of unique flare to them; whether that be the bands overall sound, or they liked to play around with styles between the individual tracks. Dawn of Solace have none of this and it hurts Affliction Vortex in a big way.

Best Songs: Fortress, Into the Light, Invitation

I may have been overly harsh toward Deftones in 2020 with Ohms. I could tell that it was a serviceable project with enough solid moments, but I just could not see it as a standout amongst a discography that includes White Pony and Diamond Eyes. But upon further inspection, songs like “Genesis” and “Pompeji” were stronger than I remember them and Ohms also had a strong production to wipe the slate from Gore.

This new album, Private Music, features the return of Nick Raskulinecz as primary producer. This excited me, since Koi no yokan was also produced by Nick which, while considered a fan favourite, I hold Diamond Eyes in higher regard. And Nick’s presence can be felt almost instantly on Private Music with “My Mind Is a Mountain” having that distinct, early 2010s Deftones sound that was more melodic and atmospheric. Later tunes like “I Think About You All the Time” and “Souvenir” feel deliberate but not boring, leaving the listener in an almost trance-like state; something Deftones are very proficient at.

Deftones are a band that do not have to reinvent the wheel that often given their blend of shoegaze and metal music, even this far into their careers. And sure, Private Music might not be much of a progressive marvel for the group but like with an album such as The Sin and the Sentence by Trivium, you can hear Deftones maneuvering their way through their catalogue in a nostalgic kind of way. I already mentioned how Nick Raskulinecz’s production gives the album a feeling of nostalgia for those early 2010s albums, but as the album gets slower and more longing, pieces of White Pony start to show their face. And of course, you have tunes like “cXz”, “Cut Hands” and “Metal Dream” which feel closer to the original Deftones sounds of Adrenaline and Around the Fur.

Compositionally I really enjoy this record. It is more atmospheric than I would have liked, so I found that some of the truly mesmerizing hooks in the guitar or Chino Moreno’s vocals were a little lacking, but Deftones use space incredibly well. There are sometimes where the guitar work sounds a little bit oppressive through endless wall-of-sound soundscapes, but whenever you have a break as in the outro of “Souvenir”, or the intro riff to “I Think About You All the Time”, it sticks the landing. Also, Chino’s vocals are as pronounced as ever and sound even less like ASMR.

Private Music is just a solid album. For a couple of thirty-five-year-old veterans, Deftones know how to keep a fanbase entertained. Even in their legacy years, Deftones can pull from their past without having it sound derivative. They also have sections that pay homage to the groups influenced by them (i.e. Thornhill on “Milk of the Madonna”). Highly recommended even as a legacy project.

Best Songs: My Mind is a Mountain, Infinite Source, Souvenir, I Think About You All the Time, Departing the Body