Sonny's Reviews

Sabbathian riffs and 70's classic hard rock combine on this, Magic Circle's third album. One of the most Zeppelin-influenced doom albums I've heard - check out the No Quarter-like organ of Gone Again and the Bron-Yr-Aur clone Bird City Blues. Vocalist Brendan Radigan sounds like a hybrid of Ozzy and Dio, making this a must for Sabbath fans of both eras. A solid, well-executed trad doom release.

Superb songwriting, faultless musicianship and excellent production make this album essential listening in the funeral doom canon, like a kind of funeral Blackwater Park. Managing at the same time to be both ethereally haunting and oppressively heavy, they strike a perfect balance, succeeding where so many fail. The album feels like a solitary, moonlit walk through long-abandoned, ancient ruins. Epic, without being overblown, this is a masterpiece.

When they came onto the scene with this, their debut release, Candlemass were mercilessly derided by the mainstream music press (and even by a significant portion of the metal press), at least by those who chose not to ignore them entirely, yet this album still stands the test of time and is one of the seminal doom records, along with Sabbath and early releases from the likes of Saint Vitus, Pentagram and Witchfinder General. This is the album, however that gave doom it's epicness, with huge-sounding classics like Solitude, Crystal Ball and Under the Oak rendered even more awesome by Johan Lanquist's brilliantly OTT vocals. Candlemass were also hugely influential in making Scandinavia a real stalwart of the doom scene.
If you can get the remastered 2CD set, the second live disc, recorded with Messiah on vocals in 1988 in the birthplace of Doom (Birmingham, UK), would be a worthwhile release in it's own right and makes this an unmissable album for any doom fan.

Warning's masterpiece is not only my favourite Doom album, but one of my absolute favourite albums of any kind. Patrick Walker eschews all of the macho posturing that is so often part of Metal and offers us a recording that has come straight from the heart. The melancholy and longing are almost palpable and unremitting - there are no upbeat tempo changes to relieve the emotional pain. For me, this album is the truest expression of the Doom aesthetic and is a worthy addition to any real doom fans collection.

Formed in 2003 by multi-instrumentalist Chad Davis, Hour of 13 also featured veteran doom metal vocalist Phil Swanson on the first three albums, although he seemed to be in and out of the lineup fairly regularly. This debut full-length sees Davis taking on nearly all the instrumental duties, although the album's recording engineer Corey Leonard contributes leads on a couple of tracks, whilst Swanson handles vocal duties. Musically, Hour of 13 is pretty conservative, its traditional doom metal very much stressing the traditional with fuzzed-up, Sabbathian riffs and Swanson having a fairly high pitch and rough edge to his vocals in the vein of Ozzy with a similar intonation and delivery that suggests Phil very much modelled his vocal style on Birmingham's Prince of Darkness.

The production very much emphasises the riffs with the bass and, in particular, the drums sitting low in the mix and taking a back seat to the guitars and vocals. Obviously guitar and vocals are most often the focus but, especially in doom metal, the rhythm section usually has a deeper and more foundational feel than is present here and it would have been nice to hear a bit more depth and richness of tone in the backing track. There isn't a lot of focus on solos here either with Davis only really letting rip on "Grim Reality" and Leonard handling the solos on "Submissive to Evil" and "Allowance of Sin". I don't know whether Davis' reluctance to take on the leads is down to a lack of confidence on his part or it just being something he was less interested in than riffing his balls off. All that aside, those riffs are generally pretty damn good and although there isn't anything new or challenging, they deliver exactly what you would expect from a fundamentalist trad doom act and should satisfy any adherent of the style looking for a new fix. Phil Swanson's vocals suit the instrumentation exceedingly well and his doom metal credentials would have given the band a leg up in the doom scene that Davis would not have reasonably expected with a less well-known vocalist. Lyrically, once more the duo stick to the well-trodden occult path that is a feature / plague of trad doom lyricists since Ozzy intoned his words of doom on their eponymous opener, oh so many years ago.

Overall, I would have to admit that "Hour of 13" is unlikely to garner much attention outside of hardcore trad doom fanatics, but, despite a couple of reservations, I actually think this is a quite endearing example of the genre that is worthy of your time if trad doom is your bag and you just can't get enough Pentagram, Saint Vitus or Trouble. If you constantly need to be challenged or seek musical innovation, however, you should probably move along as there is nothing for you here.

Croydon's The River formed in 1999 and released several demos before this, their debut album, came out in June of 2006. They have since undergone an evolution into an alternative slowcore / post-metal act, but this was unmistakeably, female-fronted doom metal and a pretty good example of it at that. Built upon highly distorted, rumbling riffs that present a huge wall of sound, even back then they had a degree of a shoegaze influence, an example of what would be called doomgaze, albeit with a bit more bite than I usually associate with the term. Deep basslines that follow the riffs and fairly sparse and wholly functional drumming (with guitarist Christian Leitch doubling up behind the kit) underpin the lethargic riffing and provide a deep and formidable foundation. Over this wave of distorted rumbling, singer Vicky Walters' clear, clean, but oh so melancholy, vocals describe heartbreakingly of a life trapped in a cold, abusive relationship and the hopelessness and despair such a life means for the victim. It is well worth the time to read and get to know the lyrics because it really does twist the experience of the album into a whole new dimension and is as affecting and, frankly, upsetting as any doom metal I have ever listened to. It is heavy stuff, but doom metal shouldn't be afraid to face real-world suffering if it is serious about exploring melancholy and loss, not just loss of others, but of self also. You cannot fail to have empathy for someone who has been stripped of any identity of their own and who are left feeling empty and invisible.

As I said at the start, the band eventually went in another direction, with Vicky Walters leaving around 2010, but with this debut they released one of the most profound doom metal albums it has been my privelege to hear and it still stands as one of my favourite female-fronted doom releases.

Goatess were formed in 2009 as Weekend Beast by guitarist Niklas Jones and Chritus (Christian Linderson), veteran vocalist of Count Raven and Lord Vicar. They changed their name to Goatess in 2012 and released this debut album the following year. If you are famiiar with Chritus' previous bands then you will be on pretty firm ground here as Goatess have one foot firmly planted in the traditional doom camp of those bands, although the other is very much rooted in the stoner tradition of acts like Sleep and Kyuss. Chritus said after the album's release that the songwriting was done by jamming in the rehearsal room and I think you can feel that approach manifested particularly in Jones' trippy guitar leads which feel a lot like the more jam-oriented stoner grooves of those acts. The tracks are quite lengthy, generally from seven to eleven minutes, so there is ample scope for the laid-back six-string flights of fancy to weave their spells. 

The riffs are still mostly derived from the trad doom template, although a track like "Full Moon at Noon" is much groovier and more rooted in stoner metal and even desert rock than actual doom metal. Meanwhile the two-part "The Oracle" begins with its first section sounding like latter-day, psychedelia-obsessed Cathedral, although the second part is one of the heaviest and doomiest tracks on the album with the forceful drumming of Kenta Karlbom playing a significant role. Closing track "Tentacles of Zen" even features an extended eastern-flavoured instrumental breakdown that wouldn't sound out of place on "Sgt. Pepper". The result of this trade-off between heavy riffs and trippy guitar leads brings to mind 90s Electric Wizard, albeit without the dark edge I associate with Jus Osborne's crew and with Chritus sounding so unlike Osborne the comparison doesn't entirely hold up successfully, although I still feel it is valid. Overall I like how this dynamic between the heavy and the trippy works and it has produced an album that comes across as a little bit different and a band that has a definite and particular vision for how they want to sound.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I hadn't heard of these Germans before seeing this nominated as a monthly feature, so went into it completely blind. A bit of background digging reveals that Slaughterday were formed in 2010 and for most of their career to date they operated as a duo with Jens Finger taking care of the six- and four-strings and Bernd Reiners the drums and vocals with a huge cast of supporting drummers, bassists and guitarists helping them out with their live shows. However, for this their fifth full-length, they have inducted reinforcements into their ranks and have expanded the band into a five-piece with Christian Wiesener taking over bass duties, André Janssen drums and Tobias Koops boosting the six-string attack as second guitarist.

So what do we have here? Well, this is pretty much meat and potatoes old-school death metal with obvious influence from usual suspects such as Autopsy, Bolt Thrower and Vader and I say that with no hint of sniffiness because that is exactly the kind of death metal that floats my particular boat. Sure, the more demanding death metal listener will likely feel unfulfilled by the lack of ambition displayed on "Dread Emperor", but I don't imagine that upsetting the Slaughterday guys that much. The performances are very solid indeed, the band obviously know their way around their instruments and have an excellent grasp of what OSDM is about. After a portentious instrumental intro track the band charge out of the blocks with opener proper, "Obliteration Crusade", and proceed to attempt to rip your face off with sheer riff power. Throughout this and the subsequent eight tracks they deploy a withering arsenal of riffs in order to batter down any resistance to their undemanding, but energetic, old-school blitzkrieg. Reiners' vocals are rough, gruff, roaring bellows and are plenty powerful while the rhythm section drive in the rhythmic piles upon which the individual tracks are built in an unshowy wholly dependable way. There is a significant amount of soloing present on "Dread Emperor" and it is with this that I have reservations. The thing is that the solos are actually quite melodic, even to the point of sounding like Maiden or Priest solos at times and I am not completely convinced that they suit the violence of the riffs and vocals, consequenly making the album as a whole sound a lot less aggressive and menacing than it should. I would have preferred more Kerry King and less KK Downing. I have been a big defender of James Murphy's contribution to Death's "Spiritual Healing" where a similar argument can and does get used, so this may be a bit of a hypocritical stance, but I think Murphy's skill was to enhance the more brutal aspects of "Spiritual Healing", where I find the melodicism of the solos here distracting.

Still, that aside, I love the riffs which still manage to give me that warm, fuzzy, OSDM buzz that I can just never get enough of so, derivative and unambitious it may well be and, in truth, I am unlikely to be running out to score a copy any time soon, but I actually quite enjoyed it and that is good enough for me. That cover is pretty badass too. I have been playing the Elder Scrolls Oblivion remake on PS recently and the creature on the cover is exactly like one of Oblivion's Nether Liches, tough bastards that they are!

Dorso formed in 1984 and remain a going concern, releasing eight full-length albums with quite a wide range of genres from thrash/speed metal, grindcore, progressive rock, heavy metal through to black metal. "Bajo una luna cámbrica" was the band's debut full-length, being released in June of 1984 and featuring the only ever-present band member, bassist / vocalist Rodrigo "Pera" Cuadra, alongside guitarist / vocalist Gamal Eltit. Drum duties were shared by four guest/session drummers with Eltit also manning the kit for the track "Críptica visión".

What we have here with "Bajo una luna cámbrica" is principally a thrash metal album, but it is also a fair bit more than that with some quite impressive progressive touches. The album's longest track, "Cíclope" is a really nice piece of progressive metal with some legitimate Seventies' touches and a distinct latin flavour. The song writing is ambitious, certainly compared to their peers, with the band being more interested in keeping things interesting than trying to be as extreme and fast as possible. This certainly doesn't translate to the album being at all lightweight, they can be plenty aggressive and thrash with the best of them when the mood takes them with some pretty killer riffs, check out "Vuela en tu dragón" or "Hidra" and hear for yourself. It is just that, for this band that isn't the be all and end all. I guess this could be termed as technical thrash metal and the guys do seem to be technically very adept, but I think of it as being more progressive than technical with even a jazz influence at times. The short "Suite", for example, is basically a guitar workout in the vein of a heavy Robert Fripp or even Frank Zappa and Gamal Eltit's guitar solo work is generally excellent, utilising a number of variations of style and really shredding when required to do so.

Sadly, the production doesn't really do the guys a lot of favours and its muddiness does blunt the edge a little, but not enough to cause too much drama, being more of a niggle than a major issue. The songwriting really is fantastic and has impressed me mightily. I can't help wondering whether this was an influence on modern chilean thrash legends Demoniac and the curveballs they like to include in with their thrashing mayhem. I am really glad to have stumbled upon this and I would heartily recommend it to anyone interested in hearing a quite unique album from the Eighties' South American metal scene that offers a bit more than straight ahead metal charges.

I was a bit more sympathetic to the 'charms' of nu-metal back in its heyday, and regularly spun CDs from the likes of Slipknot, Korn and Spineshank. Mushroomhead's "XIII" was another that I picked up at the time of release. It appealed to me because it felt like it had quite a dark and ominous subtext to it, as opposed to the youthful anger and rage of the more popular nu-metal acts. However, as I succumbed more and more to the seductions of extreme metal, the rap-heavy and ultimately impotent anger of nu-metal dropped out of my metal diet almost completely.

It has been a long time since I last played "XIII" but hearing it for the first time in many years I am reminded of why it had a particular appeal to me in the first place. It kicks off strongly with the ascerbic-sounding "Kill Tomorrow" complete with its hardcore-derived vocals hitting hard from the off, threatening to rip the listener's head clean off. "Sun Doesn't Rise" buys more into the rap side of nu-metal, but it has that ominous atmosphere to it that initially drew me to the album way back when. This dark cloud of ominous uncertainty sets this album apart from the "Iowa"s and "Follow the Leader"s of the time and is much more in keeping with the kind of doom aesthetic that appeals to me most. Alongside this there is often a mechanical throb to the riffs ("Mother Machine Gun" and "The Dream Is Over" for example) a la Fear Factory that gives Mushroomhead's version of nu-metal an industrial feeling at times and which positions them as close to FF as Korn.

The band sound incredibly tight with chunky riffs and a throbbing bassline, although the drums sound a little thinner than I would have liked, particularly the snare which, whilst it is no St Anger, is still a little tinny. The dual vocals contrasts hardcore punk raging with a strong, and faintly bluesy clean style for a quite striking effect. They also had an uncanny ear for a catchy melody with "Nowhere to Go" surprisingly never released as a single, despite sounding more radio-friendly than the album's only actual single "Sun Doesn't Rise" and making me feel like I should be waving a Zippo lighter in the air whilst "Almost Gone" is such a groovy mutha that it may well make even a grumpy old metalhead like me want to start dancing! Obviously such a long album would be much better if it had finished after the 8-minute "Destroy the World Around Me", foregoing the inconsequential "Thirteen" which is quite annoying, particularly with the old 'scratchy needle' sound effect, and the cover of Seal's "Crazy" which feels out of place with the rest of the material here.

The last few minutes aside, listening to this now, over two decades after its release, it feels like it has aged incredibly well, unlike so many of its contemporries from the nu-metal scene and still sounds fresh and exhilharating. Thanks for putting this forward as a feature, Saxy, and allowing me to reconnect with an old friend that I haven't entertained in quite a while and who is actually better company than I remember them being.

First thing to note is that I didn't completely hate this. Yeah I know, no one was more surprised than me, but I was swept along by the obvious enthusiasm and energy of the band and kind of went along for the ride. The speedy riffs and shredding solos are pretty entertaining, the riffs to both "Scream for Me" and "Burden of Time" for example stood out as being much heavier than I would have expected. Vocalist Asami is a big plus, sounding both melodic and reasonably powerful, although I am not so keen when she reaches for those really high notes and becomes a bit screechingly ragged, although this seems to be a feature of power metal generally that I just can't get to grips with. It is power metal after all so, of course, it is larger than life and over-the-top with keyboard overlays and some layered backing vocals, but not in a terribly cringey manner, ultimately being more operatic than pantomime. I do think that the album runs out of steam after "Burden of Time" and tracks like "The Apocalypse", "Inspire" and the godawfully balladic "Edge of the World" (the album's nadir for me) sound more like the kind of power metal that I struggle with.

Look, in truth this isn't going to break into my top 500 (or even 1000) metal albums and I am unlikely ever to pass this way again, but while it lasted I found it entertaining enough and I got through the whole thing pretty easily without a single skip and remarkably few cringes. In fact, if it had ended with "Burden of Time" I would have thought even more highly of it. Damning with faint praise then? Yeah, probably, but for me and power metal this was an untypically positive experience with the guitars and vocals being sufficiently impressive to keep me on board and to allow me to forgive the album its other obvious excesses, not least of which is the ear-batteringly, over-compressed mastering that makes it feel like it is being rammed into your ears with a steamhammer - and not in a good way!

1995 saw the release of Saint Vitus' seventh full-length album, "Die Healing" and marked the return of original vocalist Scott Reagers to the fold. It followed what is widely considered the band's weakest album, 1992's "C.O.D." which, following the departure of Wino, had featured Count Raven's Chritus on vocals. Now, as much as I love Wino's grizzled vocals, I think Reager's more eccentric style actually better captures the soul of Saint Vitus, so his return was well-timed and he is on fine form here. "Die Healing" was intended to be the band's swansong (although that notion has consequently been proven premature) and it seemed apt for them to end as they began with Reagers behind the mic.

Kicking off with one of the band's best tracks, "Dark World", Die Healing immediately exorcises the ghost of "C.O.D.'s" mediocrity and points towards a band intent on going out in style. Dave Chandler has an ear for simple but effective doom metal riffs and he sounds unlike anyone else with an instantly recognisable and unmistakeable guitar tone that many have tried and failed to adequately reproduce. There is a certain rawness to the best Saint Vitus material, derived from their early days touring with hardcore punk bands, that makes them sound like the sort of band who have just rolled up in a rattling old Transit van, unloaded their own battered gear, plugged it in and just started playing. Now while I am certain that is far from the truth, it doesn't alter the fact that when they are at their best that is exactly how they sound and personally I love that about them.

The tempo here is generally pretty slow, although they sometimes switch it up a little to provide contrast. "Let the End Begin", for example, is one of the album's most sluggish tracks, but contains an uptempo mid-section where Chandler lets rip with a much more energetic riff and guitar solo before reverting back to the creeping grind of the opening section. In fact the guitar solos are generally pretty shred-like with DC going fret-crazy and teetering on the edge of feedback, almost Hendrix-like at times, as on "Trail of Pestilence" for example. The band are also unafraid to lampoon themselves and the wider doom ethos a little bit, with "The Sloth" telling an apocalyptic tale of a marauding Kaiju-like sloth creature slowly laying waste to all around it like a slow-motion Godzilla.

Saint Vitus are unquestionably my favourite of the very early doom metal bands and whilst Trouble, Pentagram et al have their moments for sure, I think SV are the most consistent, C.O.D. aside. Whether it is Reagers or Wino on vocals they just encapsulate that filthy, grizzled aesthetic that so typifies the earliest trad doom scene and which lends them an air of authenticity that feels like they could turn up to play at your local pub on any given night. Great band, great album check it out if you haven't already.

"Vaenir" is this Gothenburg doom trio's 2015 sophomore full-length, following relatively hot on the heels of the debut, "Empress Rising" from the previous year. They play lengthy distorted doom metal dirges with towering chords, sloth-like pacing and a 'washed-out' vocal style that feels like it is coming to you across huge cosmic distances. Despite the thunderously robust foundation laid down by bassist Mika Häkki and drummer Esben Willems and the undoubted weight of the riffs, the vocals impart a certain ephemeral quality to the atmosphere and act as a spiritual counterpoint to the immensity of the bottom end.

Monolord have a distinct blueprint for how they want to sound and pretty much stick to it throughout. There is very little variation in pacing within tracks, no sudden changes of gear to spice things up, these Swedes being pretty much fundamentalists when it comes to doom metal. If you are impatient for variety and innovation in your listening diet then chances are that Monolord will hold very little appeal for you and you may be better served moving on elsewhere. More recently I feel they evolved a slightly more lightweight sound with hints of psychedelia thrown in, but back in the heady days of 2015 they were all-in on the crushing repetitiousness of 'true' doom metal and were unrelenting in its delivery.

And that, not wishing to sound in any way dismissive, is pretty much everything there is to know about "Vaenir". How you feel about that depends on what you want from your metal. Me, I am more than happy with an album of heavy and uncomplicated doom metal done well and with an unpretentiousness that speaks to a band fully committed to shaking the cosmic walls.

I have been a casual fan of Khemmis since first coming across their sophomore "Hunted" back in 2016 shortly after its release. Consequently I checked out the debut and, at that time, I wasn't particularly knocked-out by it I must admit. So, a decade later and with a new album on the shelves, I figured time was ripe for a revisit.

Firstly it must be mentioned that this is much more doom metal oriented than their later material, with Pallbearer most often being justifiably cited as a touchstone. "Absolution" maintains a significant percentage of traditional heavy metal in its doom metal DNA, pushing it into epic doom metal territiory. The production and guitar sound is very much in the doom metal milieu however, with a deep and resonant fuzziness that is typical of traditional doom metal and with a certain bluesy feeling to the riffs. The guitar solos sound cleaner and clearer than the riffs and are enthusiastically deployed with an exuberant relish that hints that this is where the guitarists Ben Hutcherson and Phil Pendergast really get their kicks, giving off a Brian Robertson / Scott Gorham, Thin Lizzy vibe. The two also share vocal duties and this is probably the album's weakest point as they alternate between reasonable cleans and frankly unconvincing deathly growling bellows. The rhythm section of bassist Daniel Beiers and drummer Zach Coleman are solid enough, although they seem to be playing well within themselves and keeping it pretty simple.

I must admit that I found myself enjoying this better this time around than I did back then, although I still have reservations. Sometimes the soloing sounds divorced from the meat of the track itself and too often feels shoehorned in whilst I feel the clean vocals are strong enough to carry the material without resorting to the unnecessary and unconvincing death growls. The riffs are generally pretty cool though and when the guitarists do hit a sweet spot between riffs and solos, such as on "Burden of Sin" it is pretty engaging stuff. They saved the best until last and close the album out with the longest and best track, "The Bereaved", which is where the previously mentioned Pallbearer comparison is most apparent. Ukltimately this is a solid but flawed debut, but the band would get better next time around.

I have never made any secret of the fact that Warning's masterpiece, "Watching From A Distance" is my all-time favourite album, so I can probably be forgiven for going into "Rituals of Shame" with inflated expectations, although I must add that those expectations were tempered by equal parts trepidation that the band may drop the ball and turn in an album that sees them just going through the motions like so many acts returning after a long period away and so sullying their legacy. So now I have the beautiful oxblood red vinyl platter on my turntable the obvious first question must be, "do I think it is as good as WFAD?" Well, the answer to that is not so simple because it is impossible to compare an album that has been so meaningful to me for two decades with one that has been out mere days. So am I at all disappointed with this third Warning full-length then? Absolutely not and while it hasn't initially hit me on as deeply an emotional and personal level as its predecessor this is still an amazing piece of doom metal melancholy. Patrick Walker just 'gets' doom metal in a way that few others are able to. It isn't just about leaden pacing and towering riffs, Walker doesn't merely write songs that are sad and sorrowful, but also dig deeply into his emotional vulnerability, laying bare his soul in a way which will either resonate with the listener or it won't. If it does then a connection with the material is possible that transcends mere grooves on a plastic disc and if it doesn't it may be dismissed as overly sentimental.

The most striking thing about "Rituals of Shame" is that it doesn't at all feel like an album released two decades after its illustrious predecessor by a band that had been on hiatus for most of the intervening years whilst Patrick Walker concentrated on his 40 Watt Sun project. There is such a remarkable consistency of material between the two albums that you would be forgiven for thinking that it had been recorded in 2010 and only just seen the light of day. In fact the debut "Strength To Dream" is further removed artistically from "Watching From A Distance" than "Rituals of Shame" is, despite there only being a third as much time between the two. The really great thing, though, is that the latest isn't merely a lazy rehash of the former. Despite the similarities, "Rituals of Shame" isn't merely WFAD part two, it has its own character and feeling. Inevitably such a monumental album will cast a long shadow over its younger sibling, but I am convinced that in time it will emerge from that shadow and stand tall in its own right.

WFAD had an indefinably wistful quality despite the huge, doom-laden chords and foundational stolidity of the rhythm section, whereas RoS feels a little less ethereally affecting. This is partly down to the heavier-handed production and increased compression, but it is also due to the inclusion of second guitarist Wayne Taylor who has played live shows with the band since 2016, appearing on the 2021 Roadburn Live album, whose second guitar adds depth and rounds out the sound, making it feel more down-to-earth. Of course, the absolute core of Warning is Patrick Walker's vocal performances and this is where "Rituals of Shame" may even outdo its predecessor because, as I alluded to when reviewing the "WFAD Live at Roadburn" album, Patrick's voice seems to have got even better with time. His vocals sound more varied and expressive now in middle-age than they did as a young twenty-something and his ability to wring genuine emotion from the receptive listener with a mere twist of his voice is undiminished.

I have to say that I am more than happy with this new offering and it has rarely been off my turntable since it arrived. Whilst it is consistent with its predecessor it is undeniably an evolution rather than a rehash and in time I think it may take on a life of its own maybe being a new generation of doomheads' introduction to the band and becoming as significant to them as WFAD has been to me. So whilst "Rituals of Shame" has not deposed "Watching From A Distance" at the pinnacle of my top albums of all-time list, it has certainly pushed a large number of worthy contenders down another slot and has livened up a year that wasn't appearing too great on the doom metal front prior to its release.

The Immortal Bird that recorded this 2015 album is very different from the three-piece that exists to this day with only vocalist Rae Amitay remaining. Drummer Gary Naples and guitarist Evan Anderson Berry left not long after "Empress/Abscess" hit the shelves, being replaced by Matt Korajczyk and Nate Madden respectively. Bassist John Picillo left in 2019 and hasn't been replaced with Madden doubling up on both four- and six-string guitars. It is good then that Rae Amity has remained as the only constant factor in the band because there is a rounded depth to her ravaged, bellowing shrieks that would be quite difficult for any other singer to replicate. She has a line in controlled fury that is distinctive and powerful and which would put the ineffectual bellowings of many metal tough guys to shame.

Immortal Bird play an amalgam of black and death metal that sounds immediate and confrontational with a suggestion of crusty sludginess that gives the material a further coating of grimy filthiness along with a twist of dissonance for added discomfort. With the five tracks on "Empress/Abscess" only nudging a hair's breadth over thirty minutes there is never any danger of attention wander, although the more timid listener may want to flee and lock themselves in the bathroom. Comfort is not something that Immortal Bird are interested in dishing up, they have a jagged and angular approach to songwriting that will keep you on you toes and which, with other bands, I often struggle. However just when it feels like the band are pushing you to the edge they have an uncanny ability to suddenly drop into a killer riff and sweep you away on a tide of moshpit fury. I get the feeling that the convulsive nature of the songwriting isn't to appear intellectually sophisticated or technically smug, which I feel is the case with some of the acts who write this way, but it is done with the aim of unsettling and disorienting the listener so that when they drop one of those killer riffs it hits all the harder.

So, overall, with a sometimes challenging but always interesting songwriting style, some genuinely exhliharating riffs and one of, if not the, finest female vocalists in all of metal there is plenty here on this short album to keep drawing me back to it time and again. Immortal Bird are one of those bands that I genuinely cannot fathom why they aren't bigger than they are.

Stephen O'Malley is a name that is written large over the history of drone metal. Making a name for himself with legendary extreme doom outfit, Burning Witch and short-lived death doom project Thorr's Hammer, he also formed Sunn O))) alongside long-time collaborator Greg Anderson. Khanate was formed in 2000 after O'Malley met avant-garde musician and member of O.L.D. James Plotkin at an Isis gig. Plotkin recruited O.L.D. bandmate Alan Dubin to perform vocals for the new project with the four-piece being completed by drummer Tim Wyskida.

Well, when you dive down this rabbit hole, you'd better not be expecting Wonderland because here be monsters. From the off Khanate set out their stall to be a genuinely disturbing listen, taking the blueprint of Burning Witch's psychotic doom metal and stretching it further with increased repetition, glacially slow tempos, seismic rumblings and squeals of feedback that act as the backdrop to the outpourings of Durbin's troubled and troubling vocal protagonist whose screeching screams worm their way into your brain and sit there eating away at your sanity. Instrumentally quiet and gentle sections where his vocals are mere creepy-sounding whispers, are akin to the murmured secret exhortations to violence I imagine schizophrenic killers hear from the imaginary voices in their heads. A couple of lines from "No Joy", for example, read "No joy precious joy no joy, Eat that smile right off a face, your face, No joy only only eat stuff that grin down, down your neck no more eat no more, Breathe breathe don’t breathe please don’t breathe". I mean, what the fuck? This truly is a trip to the dark side of the human psyche and a disconcerting listen that leaves you with the impression that you have been witness to the outpourings of a genuinely troubled mind, like the innumerable notebooks that Mills and Somerset find in the room of the psycho in Se7en. Sure, Khanate aren't the only band that deal in disturbing lyrical imagery, but here there is no release with a catchy riff or a shredding guitar solo, all there is is the grindingly slow, dissonant throb of bleak inevitability unrelieved by any kind of positivity or hope.

I hate real world violence and horror, but there is a deeply primal and subliminal part of the human mind that is attracted to darkness in art, hence the enduring popularity of horror movies and true crime series. Obviously, drone metal is very much a niche sub-genre in the wider metal world, certainly when it is as disquieting as Khanate, so it obviously isn't for everyone, especially the impatient listener, but if you have a penchant for the darker and more uncomfortable reaches of extreme metal then Khanate are absolutely a required listen.

I must confess that at the time, back in the 1980s I gave Metal Church a wide berth, for no other reason than their name made me think they were a glam metal band and so were taboo as far as I was concerned. OK, yeah I know, but I have always been a bit of a dickhead, so more fool me. Even to this day this debut is the only album of theirs I have given much attention to. I have heard its follow up "The Dark" but it didn't make much imprssion on me so the self-titled remains my only real touchstone with the San Franciscan metallers. In addition to this I was never a very big fan of power metal, but since joining Metal Academy I have become converted to the joys of the US version which is less bombastic than its european counterpart and is much more to my liking.

"Metal Church" whilst often being touted as speed metal, or even thrash, is neither of those but rather a good example of USPM. Undoubtedly, when they put their feet on the gas, it is certainly pretty close to speed metal, the instrumental "Merciless Onslaught" for example, but overall the tempos are more varied and there is a bit more to it than the average Exciter album. The title track, (my personal favourite) whilst having a relentless riff, isn't an all-out blur of speed, but is a much more deliberate and considered medium-paced affair, meanwhile "Gods of Wrath" even has a balladic verse structure alongside a classic-sounding NWOBHM riff for the chorus.

Having formed in 1980, the band had been churning out demos prior to Metal Church and that experience served them well because I think they sound like a pretty tightly-knit unit here. Whilst the twin guitars of Kurdt Vanderhoof and Craig Wells are undoubtedly the star attraction, I think drummer Kirk Harrington deserves special mention for his performance which is pretty damn impressive and does a lot more than just keep time with his relentless and intricate drum patterns. Vocalist David Wayne has a tendency to become a bit screechy, but never to the point of annoyance, and he does inject some character with his voice. As I said earlier, though, it is those twin guitars that really dominate "Metal Church". Whether it is the charging of the rampaging riffs or the frantic shredding of the electrifying solos Vanderhoof and Wells impress with their energy and skill.

These were pretty exciting times to be a metalhead as the new wave of acts sweeping the metal world were stripping away the final vestiges of hard rock from their sound, pushing each other to be faster and more evil-sounding and with this debut Metal Church can hold their heads high with their contribution to the movement. In all honesty, though, I would have been perfectly happy without the "Highway Star" cover which feels like an unnecessary nod to the increasingly irrelevant old guard. By the way, is it just me, or is the title track a candidate for the "Influence or Coincidence, Inspiration or Plagiarism" thread because it sounds to me like Dave Mustaine ripped it off for the chorus of "Architecture of Aggression". It isn't like he was unaware of this album surely, they are contemporaries from the Bay Area and must have crossed paths in the 80s.

Ah, Motörhead. I can't tell you how heavily obsessed with this band I was in my secondary school days in the latter part of the 1970s. Lemmy, Eddie and Philthy were the absolute fucking peak of musical rebellion for me back then. Punks thought they were rebelling, but they were just glorified clothes horses. Nah, bikes, booze and speed as preached by this unholy threesome were where rejection of the system and true freedom really lay. Motörhead shows were special, they had a hardcore of fans who always showed up, particularly from the biker community and were a celebration for those who rejected and lived outside of the system. The band had been steadily growing their popularity with each release, but then, all of a sudden in '79 / '80, rock and metal became popular here in the UK and all manner of "normies" started taking notice. Pivotal in that metal explosion here was "Ace of Spades". It became popular here on a level that was unprecedented for UK metal bands (even Sabbath didn't really hit this level of popularity in the general populace). Shit, the 'Head were even there on Thursday night on Top of the Pops for fuck's sake. I was a naive kid and some part of my kid's mind felt betrayed by this sudden "sell out". Of course this was a great album, but my admiration of it was a bit grudging because, much as I loved it, I resented having to share something that had been so personal to me with all these newbies who had no history with the band. Stupid and naive, but my immature mind knew no better. Rather than revelling in the fact that my love of the band had been vindicated by so many others now discovering them, my connection now felt diluted.

So now, as an only marginally more mature-minded old man, what's my take on "Ace of Spades"? Well, I don't think its influence on the future of metal can be understated. Its influence on bands such as Venom is evident and therefore, by extension, on the whole extreme metal scene. It was certainly Motörhead's most truly metal album up to this point and is a long way from the material you would find on their earliest recordings such as the heavy rock 'n'roll of "On Parole". It is also one of the band's most consistent records with few real dips in quality, unlike a lot of their albums which always frustratingly seemed to have at least one "bum" track, think "Vibrator", Step Down" or "I'll Be Your Sister".

The tempo established by the iconic opening title track is maintained pretty consistently throughout the album with tracks like "Fire Fire", "We Are the Road Crew" and "The Hammer" while they shake it up with some variety of pacing as supplied by tracks like "Shoot To Win" and the brooding "Chase Is Better Than the Catch". And over all this booms Lemmy's unmistakeable, thundering basslines whilst Philthy lays into all around him like the "Animal" for which he is named, the duo combining into one of the most devastating and charismatic heavy metal rhythm sections of all times. From what I understand Eddie Clarke was already at this point becoming a little disillusioned with playing second fiddle to Lemmy, yet he was such a consummate professional that you would never guess it as this is probably his all-time best work and his riffs and solos are vibrant and energetic, playing the lightning to Lemmy and Phil's booming thunder. Sure, I will concede, sometimes Lemmy's less-than-serious lyrics can cause the odd grimace, but I think he wrote them with tongue firmly in cheek most of the time.

I don't know if they ever suspected that the title track would become the iconic track it did. I mean it is up there with songs like "Paranoid" and "Smells Like Teen Spirit" in terms of tracks that are so well known people actually become tired of hearing them over time. Whether they did or not, it is one of the best known British metal tracks ever. Hell, even my Elvis-loving mum could be caught singing it occasionally. To be fair she did once sweet-talk a bouncer into letting her in for the last half hour of one of the band's shows at our local fleapit when she came to pick me up. It blew her mind and she always loved Lemmy after that! I digress, but the material on "Ace of Spades" is so strong that even with such a titanic track opening the record, the remainder doesn't feel even remotely disappointing and a couple such as "We Are the Road Crew" and "The Hammer" are even better for my money. Ultimately the top and bottom of it is that this is one of the iconic albums of the UK metal scene alongside "Paranoid" and "Number of the Beast" and no matter what I or anyone else says that ain't changing any time soon.

On a more sombre note, I always use metal-archives as the resource for factual information about the albums I am reviewing and, rather poignantly, I thought, the full lineup page for "Ace of Spades" which includes producer Vic Maile, engineer Trevor Hallesey and even photographer Alan Ballard has R.I.P. next to each name. Fuckin' sad man.

I'm not going to get into the divisive nature of King Diamond's vocals here, I am sure I have addressed that issue elsewhere. Let's just accept for now that I actually do enjoy his idiosyncrasies and move on. The simple fact was, and remains, that Mercyful Fate wrote some absolute killer metal tracks. They gave Iron Maiden and Judas Priest-like melodic riffs a more evil bent with overtly occult lyrics, although still firmly in the literary or cinematic realm rather than the Anton LaVey serious satanism of later black metal bands. This, coupled with KD's histrionic vocals and early version of corpsepaint gave the impression that the Danes were pushing the envelope of sheer metalness ever further. MF were undoubtedly a major influence on the early exponents of extreme metal and the metal landscape may have ended up sounding quite a bit different without them.

I absolutely love the band's debut album, "Melissa" and it has several of not only my favourite Mercyful Fate tracks, but favourites of traditional heavy metal as a whole. Songs like "Evil", "Into the Coven" and "Satan's Fall" have riffs with the ability to get my head nodding and feet tapping whilst King Diamond's vocal hystrionics simultaneously set the hairs on the back of my neck on end. I think it is more than fair to say that there hadn't been anything quite like Mercyful Fate before. The band had a big task on their hands, then, to follow such an impactful record with one of similar quality that would cement their legacy as metal frontrunners. Ten months later they dropped "Don't Break the Oath" onto an expectant public and the rest, as they say, is history.

I think the first thing that hit me about "Don't Break the Oath" is that KD seems to have dialled back the vocal excesses and delivers a more controlled performance behind the mic. That doesn't mean that he took a conventional approach to his singing duties by any means and if you didn't like his vocals on the debut, then this is unlikely to change your mind as he still hits those theatrical falsettos fairly regularly, just not in as over-the-top a manner as on "Melissa". What about the riffs then? Well, DBtO is as jam-packed with riffs as a Snickers bar is with peanuts and every one registers pretty fucking high on Sonny's patented head-bangability scale. These riffs will be bouncing around your brain long after the record has ended, probably getting you very strange looks should you be using public transport at the time. On top of this Shermann and Denner's guitar work is exemplary with an energy and vitality that sounds genuinely thrilling whenever they let rip with those dynamic solos. The songwriting here also sounds more mature than on the debut, the tracks resolving themselves with a little more complexity than before. This ain't prog though and the memorable hooks are still there in vast numbers, they are just not the be all and end all on this album.

This is certainly a worthy follow-up to "Melissa" and is arguably a better record, even though the hooks on the debut are incredible, but there feels to be a bit more meat on the bones here which, when coupled with King's more restrained performance add up to one of the best traditional heavy metal records of the 1980s.

Riot kind of passed me by at the time, never penetrating my 1980s musical bubble and, frankly, this doesn't possess the energy or aggression that is likely to to draw much of my attention all these many decades later. To me this sounds like a product of its time with way too much hard rock catchiness for my comfort. I mean, come on, "Feel the Same" and "Don't Bring Me Down" are Aerosmith tracks surely. This feels like AOR metal to me, written with US FM radio play in mind and not to provide any aggression or adrenaline as that may negatively affect record sales. Basically this is SAFE and safe is not a word I want attached to my metal listening thank you very much. I guess you want a bit more from me but, frankly, I don't want to waste too much time on this because listening to it is like staring at a blank wall for thirty-seven minutes. It gives me nothing and I shall return that with nothing of my own. If this is what was passing for metal in the US back in the early 80s prior to the thrash boom then I can understand why Def Leppard became so big over there (and you were welcome to them).  I guess "Swords and Tequila" is kinda fun and "Run for Your Life" is passable, but the rest is anodyne and meaningless to me. 

I have only listened to a handful of albums from Running Wild, from various points in their career and with mixed results. Of those I have heard, for me, this stands head and shoulders over the rest. Their later "pirate metal" schtick doesn't really track and feels a bit too goofy to take seriously, whereas "Gates to Purgatory's" speed metal influenced, occult-themed trad metal is much more to my taste. They appear to have been initially influenced by the early-80s metal coming out of the UK, particularly Venom who, considering their influence here and on the likes of Sodom and Kreator, must have been huge in Germany around this time. They sound more technically adept and tighter than the Geordie trio for sure, but the influence is definitely there. Another obvious touchpoint for me is Tank with Rock 'n' Rolf's vocals sitting very firmly in the same ballpark as Algy Ward. However, with their more melodic sensibilities, twin guitar attack and proficient soloing, the additional influence of english heavyweights Iron Maiden and Judas Priest can't be understated either. In fact I suspect they are named for the Priest song of the same name from "Killing Machine" which seems to be exactly the kind of track that this album's foundations are built upon. For me this dichotomy makes for a nice balance that lends the hooky riffs and proficient guitar work a suitably raw edge that pushes it into the more aggressive regions of the speed metal world and away from the pomposity of power metal.

It isn't all headlong speed metal charging, though, with the pounding and hulking "Preacher" having more of a doomy riff and slower tempo, putting the brakes on and allowing a pause for breath after the opening dual salvo of "Victim of States Power" and "Black Demon" before diving right back into the even more adrenaline-fuelled headrush provided by "Soldiers of Hell" and "Diabolic Force". Meanwhile "Genghis Khan" does sound awfully Maiden-esque and I may be imagining it, but it feels a lot like the spiritual successor to the identically-titled instrumental from the Irons' "Killers" album. It is, however, one of the album's weaker tracks, sounding a little bit messy at times. I'm not convinced by the closer, "Prisoner of Our Time" either. I like the anthemic chorus and the soloing, but the verses just feel a bit flat in comparison.

So how does it stack up then? You know what, I am actually a bit pissed off that I never got wind of this album at the time of its release because tracks like "Diabolic Force" and "Adrian S.O.S." were exactly the kind of burnt rubber, fuel-injected riots that a bike-crazy, speed junkie like I was back then would have absolutely drooled over. A couple of misfires aside I really like this and I would certainly take it over the band's later stuff. Maybe I would be a bit more disparaging of it if I had a history with the band, but I don't so I unashamedly give this a thumbs up.

Finland's Satanic Warmaster is a solo black metal project of Lauri Penttilä, aka Werwolf, who is ex-vocalist of Horna (as Nazgul) and the current lead vocalist with Vargrav, amongst a million other projects. I haven't heard all of SW's releases, but what I have heard has a fair bit of disparity in quality, particularly due to quite a wide variation in production. "Exultation of Cruelty" isn't too bad as far as the production goes, but it certainly isn't the crispest, clearest black metal you will ever hear, exhibiting some degree of muddiness that does blunt the sound a little. The reverb is also set very high and impacts the clarity further.

Music-wise the playbook for most of the tracks sees them lurching from mid-paced, kind-of-melodic black metal riffing to more savage sounding blasting, these switches in pacing providing a dynamic impetus to the tracks that gives the impression of song progression even though there is a fair bit of repetition in the riffing. Occasionally the repetition just reaches the point of outstaying its welcome when, thankfully, Werwolf inserts one of these dynamic shifts and in so doing hits the refresh button before things become tedious. The tracks are actually quite lengthy for this conventional style of black metal, most hitting the 7-9 minute mark, timings more usual in the atmospheric black metal world, so he actually does a pretty good job of preventing staleness from setting in.

The playing is fairly precise, exhibiting none of the sloppiness that poor production values and excessive reverb sometimes attempts to mask and it is evident that Werwolf is a guy immersed in the black metal scene who just "gets" what it is about and how to deliver it in an authentic and uncomplicated manner. There are no surprises here, but rather a well-conceived and executed album of fairly straightforward black metal. If you are looking for a challenge in your black metal listening then you would be best served looking elsewhere, but if you just love the old-school black metal ethos and aesthetic then get ready for an hour of leather and spikes, unholy blasphemy and spitting in the eye of "the Man".

Saxon were on a roll in 1980. After a lacklustre debut album hadn't really gone anywhere the Yorkshiremen shed the more rock-oriented aspect of their sound and sharpened things up for its follow-up "Wheels of Steel". This, aided by the unlikely chart success of the lead single "747 (Strangers in the Night)", thrust them to the forefront of the burgeoning NWOBHM scene. Obviously surfing on a creative high and not wanting to lose any momentum "Strong Arm of the Law" hit the streets a mere five months after its predecessor and only a couple of weeks after their appearance at the inaugural Monsters of Rock festival at Castle Donnington, an event that was pivotal for the rock and metal fraternity here in England and which added extra impetus to the metal explosion taking place across the country.

"Wheels of Steel" was an album with some incredible peaks, "747..." and the title track in particular being NWOBHM classics, but taken as a whole I think "Strong Arm.." is the more consistent record with fewer dips in quality than its predecessor. Side One is a collection of four cracking staples of NWOBHM glory with riff after riff of headbanging magic, kicking off with the uptempo, fist-pumping anthem to metal fandom, "Heavy Metal Thunder" the band stick their sword in the ground and say, "on this we make our stand, who's with us?" Biff's nasal vocals soar over everything with his tales of life on the road that paint a picture of a band that genuinely love their fans and really get a kick out of bringing metal joy to a country that in those days was stuck in some very grey times. Saxon have always come over as a really genuine bunch of fellas who would probably still play even if no one came to see them and who don't need drugs because they get high on playing for their fans, as they say on the title track, and that integrity is yet one more reason to get on board with these plucky Yorkshiremen.

Side Two is bookended by two fantastic tracks in "20,000 Ft" and the Kennedy assassination-themed "Dallas 1 PM", and although "Hungry Years" is a decent, if somewhat basic track and "Sixth Form Girls", despite being a bit cringey lyric-wise, has a great main riff and an unpretentious solo, these two feel like a bit of a dip when sandwiched between two such monsters in the band's repertoire. "Dallas 1 PM" in particular sees the band stretching their wings with a little more ambition in the songwriting. The throbbing bass intro and opening bars of the riff remind me very much of The Sensational Alex Harvey Band's excellent "Faith Healer" and the solo that begins after the sample of the assassination commentary is one of my favourites from the band. This, when coupled with the striking subject matter, makes "Dallas" a bona fide NWOBHM classic and is a fantastic way to end the album on a high.

Saxon may not have had the publicity of some of the more notorious metal crews over the years and may even be seen by some as being a bit naff, but these guys were writers of great riffs, consummate entertainers and all-round good guys, which may have seen them overlooked by the more image-conscious metal fans, but the loss is their's, not Saxon's. I saw them play live many times in the early 80s and they were genuinely one of the brightest lights of the NWOBHM and deserve the respect of metalheads everywhere.

I did get into Scorpions a little bit around 1979, mainly because of their association with Michael Schenker who had completely transformed english hard rockers UFO, a band I was quite a fan of at the time, especially on their "Strangers in the Night" live album. I bought Scorpions' "Lovedrive" album and caught them on the subsequent tour but, in truth, I always considered them no more than second tier rockers. I don't remember listening to "Taken By Force" at that time, so my view on it is completely in hindsight.

What have we got here then? Well, I really think it is a stretch to label this as a metal record, it is hard rock pretty much through and through with "I've Got to Be Free" and "Your Light" even sounding like funky, psychedelic Jimi Hendrix tracks. The band can write some catchy melodies for sure and they are a reasonably tight unit, but that is pretty much all there is to them. The lyrics tend towards the corny, "Steamrock Fever" being particularly egregious, especially with the kids' backing chant of "Steamrock band, Steamrock band" - what the fuck, are you serious?! Also whilst I would concede that Klaus Meine does have a distinctive and instantly recognisable voice, his singing doesn't appeal to me all that much and I don't think he projects as much energy or emotion as, for example, a Ronnie James Dio with whom I have seen him compared in the past.

I would agree with the common consensus that side two opener "The Sails of Charon" is by far the best track, but even that feels like it has been truncated so as not to become too demanding on the listener. "He's A Woman - She's A Man" is a decent attempt to pump some adrenaline into proceeding, but to label it proto-thrash as some have is wishful thinking at best and delusional at worst. Then there are the awful ballads, with "Born to Touch Your Feelings" having me itching to press the skip button but, being the dedicated individual I am, I stuck it out and suffered for completions sake. But the truth is I hated this fucking song intensely and closing the album with it only leaves a lasting feeling of resentment towards the album as a whole.

There is no denying that Uli Roth is a talented guitarist and without his contributions I think this would hardly register a blip on most rock or metal fans' radars. His guitar work tranforms a track like "We'll Burn the Sky" into something far more interesting and energetic than it at first appears and he was responsible for writing "The Sails of Charon", so kudos to the guy for that at least. As I said earlier he also does a decent Hendrix impression, especially on "I've Got to Be Free" which, in the right context, I could quite enjoy, but I haven't come here to hear Jimi Hendrix, if I wanted to do that I would go to the man himself. I have never listened to Roth's solo material, so maybe I should as he is obviously the main talent in the Scorpions' camp.

Overall I would have to say this reinforces my view of Scorpions as second tier hard rock / proto-metal, several streets behind the likes of Priest, Motorhead and Thin Lizzy and they always feel to me like they had their eye on gaining radio play and the popularity that would entail. There next two or three albums were better but, for me, they will always be nothing more than a footnote in my musical world.

Ah, Manowar eh? If we are talking about the early years of metal then I suppose we have to talk about Manowar. Loud, crass, bouyed on by a giant, unshakeable ego and somewhat comical, Manowar were the Donald Trump of heavy metal and, as such, were equally divisive inspiring adoration and loathing in equal measure. Also, if you were a metalhead in the 80's, very much like the orange one today, you certainly couldn't avoid them. They were everywhere in the metal press because, let's face it, they were a music magazine's dream with their bold statements and distinctive (some may say cartoonish) visual aesthetic. I was initially interested in Manowar not because of any of this press hype, but because of the involvement of Ross the Boss, who had been a member of US punk / hard rock band The Dictators of whom I was a big fan and whose "Bloodbrothers" album I still spin occasionally. I actually didn't take the plunge with the band until "Hail To England" was released when I finally succumbed to the marketing and got myself a copy from my local rock and metal shop. To be honest, I wasn't particularly impressed and I certainly didn't feel it lived up to the hype and that LP has lived in the nether regions of my collection ever since, hardly ever seeing the light of day.

So, forty years on, it is time for a revisit and to see how it sits with me now, so much water having flown under that particular bridge. The thing that jumps out at me most about "Hail to England" is that it is more mid-tempo than the hi-octane riffing of the comtemporary USPM that it is usually associated with. There are few headlong charges, but rather a more hulking throb, emphasised by Joey DeMaio's basslines which, when coupled with Scott Columbus's uncomplicated, pounding drumming, provide most of the album's forward momentum. "Kill with Power" is the only track that comes close to hitting the turbo chargers, but even that wasn't going to leave the upcoming Slayers and Metallicas of the world in the dust. However, that is fine because that isn't the point here. In a metal world that was becoming obsessed with playing faster and faster with speed and thrash metal gaining in popularity daily, the title hints at Manowar's intention to pay homage to the early progenitors of metal such as Black Sabbath rather than the up and coming young bucks from their own side of the Atlantic. The opening brace of tracks, especially "Each Dawn I Die" even have a tribal-sounding rhythm track that feels almost like a native american raindance or some such ritualistic backdrop. Eric Adams is a pretty solid vocalist and he is quite adept at delivering some really cool vocal melodies, although some of his higher reaches do grind on my ears a bit.

I have to say that in revisiting this I may have been unduly harsh on Manowar in the past. Sure, I still think their whole "real men play on 10" and "death to false metal" schtick was cringeworthy, but listening to this now and with the distance of time putting all that PR bullshit to rest, this is actually a solid album of epic and melodic metal tunes that are as anthemic as they are simple, this uncomplicated infectiousness being the album's real heart and strength. I used to think that Manowar were just embarrassing metal cliches, a pantomime metal band, but truth is they were actually skilled at writing memorable metal tunes that crowds could belt out at full volume with the band at their live shows. In other words, Manowar were a band who were out to have a good time and to let their live crowds have a good time with them, presenting themselves with tongue firmly in cheek and playing with a determination to entertain. Sometimes that is enough and I stand here now, head bowed and admit I was probably wrong about them all along. "Black Arrows" is still a load of bollocks though and is the only real fly in the ointment here.

If I am going to listen to power metal, which I have started doing a bit more than I used to, then it is invariably the USPM version I turn to. I have come round to USPM rather late in life as I have spent an awful long time concentrating on extreme metal genres like doom and black metal, so I haven’t really got any contemporary history with the early USPM classics. The latter part of the eighties having saw me diving down the thrash metal rabbit hole and quickly abandoning traditional heavy metal styles almost completely. This is a great shame because there is a lot that appeals to me in any number of the earlier classics of the genre.

Standing tall amongst the formative USPM releases is Jag Panzer's debut full-length, “Ample Destruction”. It took the more uptempo riffs of Judas Priest and Iron Maiden and, taking its cues from the energetic, fast-emerging thrash metal scene, cranked it all up to 11 and delivered an exuberant celebration of heavy metal thunder as a result. Any vestige of hard rock that had survived into the NWOBHM era had been well and truly exorcised by the Americans in this fresh new take on the traditional style, giving it a more epic, harder and just downright more metal edge as a result. The riffs come thick and fast and are generally memorable, fist-pumping bangers. When these riffs are then complemented by some electrifying and exhilarating solos and an effusive vocal performance by Harry Conklin, it is surely impossible for anyone with a true metal heart not to be stirred into headbanging ecstasy.

 Coming to this after decades of being immersed in the extreme metal scene feels kind of liberating in a life-affirming way with the rediscovery that metal doesn’t always have to be po-faced and depressing or just so damned intense, but can actually be joyful and celebratory too, with absolutely no loss of integrity. It may sound a bit hyperbolic, but I am finding albums like “Ample Destruction” to be revelatory, their sheer infectious effusiveness providing some degree of relief from the daily assaults on mental wellbeing that modern living entails.

You know what, I have never really been the biggest fan of these german heavy metallers. There, I said it. I know for an awful lot of worshippers at the altar of traditional heavy metal these guys are the dog's bollocks, but I have never managed to board that train. I never listened to them much in their 80s heyday, so I have no nostalgic attachment and over the last three decades or so I have been interested in the more extreme ends of the metal world, so any exposure to Accept has been only in passing.

So, has listening to "Restless and Wild" forty plus years after its release had any impact on my tinnitus-wracked ears? Well, kinda, but its impact is more of a ripple on a pond than a tsunami. I can't fail to register the infectious nature of the riffs and the anthemic choruses but, in all honesty, these sound just like a german Saxon to me and that style of metal only has a very limited appeal now and at least I have the benefit of a nostalgic attachment to the Yorkshiremen's early stuff. Added to that is the fact that I find Udo Dirkschneider's voice pretty annoying. Now I am not so picky when it comes to metal singers, enjoying King Diamond and even Cirith Ungol's Tim Baker, but there is something in Udo's screechy singing that is a bit like fingernails down a blackboard to me. In fact, I actually enjoy some of the later Accept albums without Udo more than these earlier ones.

Guitarist Wolf Hoffmann undoubtedly knows what he is about, his solos are concise and effective and he is obviously a master writer of memorable riffs, but it all sounds so safe and I never find anything here that ignites my passion or soul. It is just kind of there and even though I may occasionally find my toe-tapping or my head nodding it never feels even close to setting the hairs on the back of my neck on end, being more of a Pavlov's Dog kind of a reaction to a catchy riff than any kind of deep engagement with the art. Now, it isn't that I dislike this album, or the band as a whole, in fact I have respect for their contribution to 80s metal and the adulation they inspire in their fans, it is just that I am unable to share in it. If I had been more exposed to their early albums at the time of their release then I may well feel better disposed towards them but, as things have panned out, they are just a footnote in my metal listening history, a band I respect more than enjoy.

I apologise in advance dear Reader, if you feel that this review is excessively autobiographical, but it is kinda relevant to my long-term relationship with glam metal generally and W.A.S.P. specifically, so here we go anyway:

I really didn't get much out of glam metal at all in the 1980s, it's celebration of "life on the Strip" just held no meaning for my life in a dirty, industrial town in northern England. The likes of Motorhead, Iron Maiden and Saxon had far more resonance with my life trying to get by, having left home in 1981 whilst still a teenager and desperately trying to pay my rent or mortgage on a young factory worker's wage. But whilst the likes of Poison and Motley Crue meant absolutely fuck all to me and just pissed me off with their poser attitudes and aesthetics, there were a couple I had a bit more time for. The first was Twisted Sister's Dee Snider. I felt TS were actually a pisstake of the whole glam scene because, not wishing to be too cruel, they were uglier-looking m-fs and the makeup and shit just seemed like a parody to me. The second was Blackie Lawless who I had heard of when he briefly joined The New York Dolls. My first wife's little sister was a big glam metal fan and talked me into taking her to see W.A.S.P., probably around '85, and you know what, they were fuckin' good and, against my expectations, I really enjoyed the show and came away with a lot of respect for how expertly Blackie worked the crowd and how effortlessly charismatic a character he was.

I later picked up The Last Command after hearing a track on the obscure late-night metal video show I used to watch on TV on Friday Nights after coming in from the boozer, the name of which I can't recall. The main draw for me was Blackie's voice which, whilst having quite a high register, also has a ragged edge that gives it a savage roughness and makes it sound way more evil than the Vince Neils or Bret Michaels of the world. And that was my sum total of involvement with W.A.S.P. pretty much up until my time here with the Metal Academy, since when they keep popping into my view from time to time in the forums or on playlists. To be honest I can take 'em or leave 'em, but it is probably a sign of a bit of a shift in my taste lately that listening to this debut album for the first time in quite a while, it is obvious to me that I am enjoying it far more than my original 2.5 star rating would suggest I did back whenever.

One thing is certain from the outset and that is that W.A.S.P.'s debut has far more metal credentials than most of the other glam metal acts of the Eighties who, in the most part, were glorified rock acts for my money. This is certainly bona fide heavy metal we are listening to here, not some lipstick-smeared version of hard rock. Even the band's glam aesthetic seemed more Alice Cooper inspired shock horror than the poor, sleazy drag acts than many of the other glam metallers aspired to. The riffs drive the tracks and whilst there is little you haven't heard before here riff-wise, they are memorable and catchy and filled with an energy and drive that becomes infectious as they thunder from hook to hook. Over all this Blackie snarls and bellows his heart out with tales of schlock and whores (sorry I couldn't resist the pun) that would act as rage bait for Tipper Gore and the tight-assed PMRC, which will always get a thumbs-up from me. The guitar soloing is decent although, again, the solos aren't really unlike many you have heard before, but are well executed and transform a track like the balladic "Sleeping (In the Fire)" from being a bit of a downer into a far more positive experience, whilst adding the icing on the cake to a top-knotch track like "Tormentor". The pacing of the album is just about spot-on too, varying from the breakneck charge of tracks like "Hellion" or "The Torture Never Stops" (my favourite here) to the more considered mid-pacing of "Tormentor" and the aforementioned ballad-like reflection of "Sleeping (In the Fire)". It isn't all good news, however, as indicated by my mid-level rating, with side one petering out badly from a strong start with the brace of "B.A.D." and " School Daze" sounding like the more usual iteration of glam metal that I dislike so much. The cringe-inducing lyrics to "On Your Knees" also ruin a perfectly good riff-led track and are a turd in the swimming pool of the otherwise much stonger second side.

On reflection I have got to say that I am rather pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed listening to this again and I feel I have a bit more of an understanding and respect for what Blackie and co. were doing here (probably alongside the letting go of some of my long-held musical prejudices). I am gonna call this one a win.

Thin Lizzy could sometimes be a great hard rock band and Phil Lynott was as much a lyrical poet for the common man as Bruce Springsteen across the pond. Good though most of their albums were, with some really anthemic songs in their repertoire, I don't think that their studio albums ever really captured their live energy suffciently. This is a viewpoint that I think is borne out by how much esteem people attach to the Live and Dangerous double live set. I managed to catch them on the Black Rose tour in 1979 and got to see that energy and vitality up close and was lucky enough to witness exactly how Lynott worked an audience and got them eating out of his hand. As the NWOBHM swept across the UK during the early '80s Phil and co started to develop a harder edge, both lyrically and musically with tracks like "Killer on the Loose" and "Angel of Death", which has even been covered by polish death metallers Vader, coming to the fore. Inevitably then, that they would react to the musical zeitgeist and issue an album that occasionally pushed their long-established hard rock sound over into heavy metal territory. Now let us not overstate things, Thunder and Lightning certainly isn't a "Piece of Mind", "Court in the Act" or even a "Holy Diver, it is still recognisably Thin Lizzy with more than one of its feet still in rock territory, but as the title track explodes from the speakers following a short, typically 80s synth intro, then it is obvious that the band have upped the ante on the aggressiveness of their attack. I think a significant event that contributed to this change was the replacement of the laid-back Snowy White with Tygers of Pan Tang guitarist John Sykes, a six-string slinger who had obviously grown up and paid his dues in the heart of the NWOBHM and whose harder-edged guitar style was much more suited to the younger metal audience than the bluesy, Clapton-esque White. Of course Sykes was only one half of the twin guitar attack with long-time member Scott Gorham still most definitely present. When Sykes lets rip though, even on a track like "The Holy War" then he makes it sound more metal than it actually is, so when applied to a more fundamentally metal track like "Cold Sweat" then the effect is multiplied tenfold.

I wonder exactly how much "Thunder and Lightning" can really be considered metal because, apart from those already mentioned, contemporary albums were "Kill 'Em All", "Show No Mercy" and "Melissa". Now is T&L even close to being as metal as any of those albums? No of course it isn't and the majority of the tracklist is still under the rock umbrella for my money, but Sykes' contribution and the songwriting of tracks like "Cold Sweat" and the title track hint at a more metal aspiration, probably just naturally absorbed from the audiences and support acts the band interacted with in the Brave New Metal World of the early 80s in the UK and Ireland.

So, considering this only as a Thin Lizzy album, irrespective of its metal credentials, how does it compare to past glories? Well, for me, Lizzy albums were always a little bit patchy, even classics like "Jailbreak" with Phil Lynott's excessive sentimentality sometimes getting the better of him and being reflected in the odd soppy track that really didn't do too much for me. I would say that this was a big improvement over the unremarkable "Renegade", but doesn't touch the likes of Jailbreak and Black Rose, at least as far as the songwriting goes, but it is certainly enlivened by Sykes guitar work which raises it a knotch or two in quality. Inevitably, because that is just how it was back then with legacy acts, the album also has that eighties' stadium production sound with accentuated percussion and synths that I find a little bit kitsch nowadays and which I generally struggle with (see Judas Priest's entire eighties' output for further examples) and which also drops it in position in Lizzy's overall discography for me. So once more a patchy release, but when it is good and the stars align, it is very good.

This latest release from the ukrainian atmospheric black metallers is a three-track, twenty-minute EP and it exudes an air of melancholic reflectiveness that is reminiscent of the opening instrumental from previous album, 2025's "Shadow Play". This may well be all-new material, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if it turned out to be leftover tracks from that album because it fits in so well as a companion piece. This turn in tone from Drudkh is unsurprising given the situation in Ukraine over the last four years, particularly around the band's hometown of Kharkiv which has seen some of the war's most intense fighting. Who wouldn't become pensive in such a situation? Although they don't address the war directly in their lyrics I think lines like "Only their silhouettes, Touched once by an indifferent hand, Take up faded places, In memory" (from "Memory") are fairly unambiguous in their sentiment.

The opener is indeed a reflective piece that, whilst still sitting comfortably under atmospheric black metal has such a melancholy air to it, emphasised beautifully by some subtly applied keys, that it also feels like it has one foot in the post-metal camp. The second track, "Somewhere, Sometime" is an instrumental that possibly feels even more wistful than the opener with its main melodic theme having a reflective, folky air, as if looking back fondly on simpler times now lost. Add in some picked guitar lines and, again, those subtle, melancholy-sounding synths and you have a fairly simple, melodic and exceedingly effective instrumental break at the heart of the EP.

The closer, "A Moment in Eternity" is probably the track most recognisable to long-standing Drudkh fans, being a more conventional slice of atmospheric black metal. Even here, though, the vicious bite that used to hone the edge of Drudkh's sound feels muted, as if the sorrow being felt by the musicians is so great as to infuse their very being and leave them changed as a result. Once more, even though the track is of a higher tempo and has a traditional black metal structure, the air of wistful reflection still permeates it and rather than being a celebration of ukrainian culture and history as a lot of Drudkh's past work seemed to be, this is more like a eulogy to something that has been lost, possibly for ever.

I understand if some long-time fans were to be unsure of this direction the band have taken as it is quite different to their best-loved releases but, as someone who is often drawn to the more downbeat and melancholy in metal, I have to say that I actually really like this, even though, unfortunately, its sentiments may well be rooted in real world tragedy which i am sure we all wish had never happened.

I love thrash metal and I love punk rock but, in truth, I am not all that enthusiastic about crossover thrash. Maybe I haven't heard the right albums as a quick look at my ratings sees me amassing less than 20, so I can hardly call myself an expert. One of my problems with crossover thrash is that far too often it just doesn't seem serious and feels like more of a "party" sub-genre like glam metal. Even outside of fatally unfunny shit like SOD, bands like Gama Bomb, DRI and The Accüsed sound a bit frivolous to me. Before you all call me out on this, I know that this is probably an unreasonable stance to take and you may well be justified in calling me a miserable old fucker, but it is genuinely how I feel. All that said, I am more than happy to say that Zerre have blown that stance completely out of the water with "Rotting on a Golden Throne".

One thing is for sure, these guys are deadly serious about this shit. Having begun life as a hardcore punk outfit, they definitely have the grounding in the punk side of things, bringing a serious level of hardcore aggression and vitality to proceedings. Despite their punk origins, however, they don't come up short in the metal department either with some barnstorming riffs and quite thrilling soloing from dual guitarists Dominik and Rocco. Interestingly, vocalist Nico Ziska, who was previously bassist with black metallers Der Weg einer Freiheit, is not the singer from their punk rock days, yet he still has quite an aggrressive, bellowing vocal style that may lead you to assume he had a previous grounding in hardcore. The gang backing vocals are also expertly handled and don't ever come off as lame or naff, which can't always be said about a crossover album The speed and aggression never lets up and I can imagine a pit at a Zerre show is a hell of a place to be.

The tightness of this five-man outfit is certainly impressive and the guys are evidently skilled musicians, the two leads in particular impressing with their abilities, both technically and artistically. These are genuinely some of the best, high-octane thrash riffs I have heard from outside of Chile for quite some time. The drumming on final track "No Alibi" is also some of the most Animalistic (as in the Muppet drummer) craziness I have heard on a thrash track. There isn't really a weak track on the album, but the run of four tracks from "Deception of the Weak" through to the title track is just insanely good. It is still early days yet, but I am becoming increasingly convinced that this is my all-time favourite crossover album (unless "Among the Living" counts).

Anonymous Massachusetts four-piece Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean are back with a 28 minute EP of their trademark, noise-drenched, sludge metal that, characteristically slams into you like a sledgehammer to the forehead. I don't know if I was in the wrong frame of mind for it during my initial listen-through because it just kind of washed over me and felt draining to listen to the first time, with a really heavy noise influence that gave it a cloying uniformity I really wasn't in the mood for. Subsequent listens have left me feeling more positive although, in truth, it seldom approaches the level of awesomeness I attributed to their 2023 "Obsession Destruction" LP. Things kick off in fine style with the longest and, for my money, best of the four tracks, the 9-minute "An Abundance of Mercy". This is a hulking slab of reverb-drenched sludge metal with a memorable and doomy main riff that crushes like a runaway steamroller and caustic vocals that could double as paint stripper. A couple of noise and feedback-soaked breakdowns fill out the track and provide a counterpoint to that comparatively melodic main riff.

"Upheaval" is the EP's shortest and most vitriolic-sounding track with a fairly quick tempo and a marked noise component that pushed a bit too far in that direction for my particular taste and may well have been the source of my initial reticence towards the EP as a whole. I am on much more comfortable ground with the remaining two tracks, "An Adornment of Light" and "Execution" with their doomier and resultingly more crushing atmospheres. I must make mention of the drumming as it is of particular note, driving and pummelling, even on the slower, doomier sections with the nameless skinsman's performance on "Execution" being an especial standout.

Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean are evidently emerging from under the shadow of their main influence, Louisisana's Thou, and are forging their own identity with an even more abrasive and noisy style of sludge designed not so much to get under the listener's skin, but rather to strip that skin away completely.

I'm no expert on the industrial side of metal, but I could swear that underneath all of the brushed steel and polished chrome of the cyber-industrial, hot-rod production job, there throbs an old-fashioned, sulphur-spewing death metal motor. Hell, at times I'd go as far as to say that, to these battered old ears, it sounds like machine-reproduced old-school death doom, with Ghost in the Void being the most impressive example. In the end though, the industrial shenanigans just get too overbearing for my taste, the vocals being particularly problematic for me and by album's end I had heard enough. Unlikely to get too many respins I'm afraid.

Ennui were formed in Tbilisi, Georgia in 2012 by guitarists David Unsaved and Sergi Shengelia with the former also contributing vocals and keys and Sergi playing drums and bass in addition to their six-stringed day job. In 2015, for their third album, "Falsvs Anno Domini" the duo added Daniel Neagoe (Shape of Despair, Pantheist amongst many others) on bass and drums. However, he departed before the next album, "End of the Circle" and they reverted to a duo with John Devos (Pantheist, Comatose Vigil A.K.) showing up as guest drummer. Onto Qroba then and they have now expanded into a five-piece with no less than four guirarists, the original duo being joined by Andrey Azatyan and Kakhi Kiknadze with the drum stool being filled by Alexandr Gongliashvili. Unsaved also covered vocals and bass duties as well as panduri, which is a three-stringed traditional georgian folk instrument.

Qroba is not the most monolithic or repetitive example of funeral doom that you will ever hear and at times it is even quite melodic and atmospheric. This does not translate as "not heavy" by any means because it assuredly is, but there is a bit more to the songwriting than merely trying to write the slowest, heaviest-sounding doom metal on the planet. I would compare it to the early albums from France's Monolithe, but without the extreme track lengths. The hour here presented consists of five tracks, from ten to fourteen minutes in length, giving each plenty of time to establish its rhythmic tides and atmosphere without ever outstaying its welcome. Thematically it is fairly typical funeral doom fodder. According to the band themselves it is concerned with "coming to terms with the inevitable, told through melancholy and contemplation" and although this traversal from light to darkness is common subject matter in doom circles it is addressed so effectively both atmospherically and lyrically that it transcends the feelings of triteness that these overused tropes sometimes elicit in the ardent funeral doom listener. The track "Down, To The Stars" is based upon and uses the words of the poem of the same name from highly respected 20th century georgian poet Terenti Graneli and is a beautiful expression of the album's concept, but this is no anomaly and the band's own lyrics are also some of the most thought-provoking I have heard for a good while.

The songwriting is excellent and it is obvious that these guys have been round the doom metal block a few times because they are able to explore and stretch the funeral doom genre without ever threatening to dilute what makes it so appealing to its adherents in the first place. This is not some Frankenstein's monster genre hybrid, but genuine, lovingly-crafted, purely refined funeral doom metal with a breadth and scope deserving of respect. Alongside expert song and lyric writing these guys are evidently talented musicians and, to my uneducated ears, Qroba sounds technically perfect with some gorgeous guitar lines, yet it never feels staid or stilted, but oozes with feeling and passion, each track developing in an organic and natural manner so that nothing ever feels forced. Unsaved's vocals are the deep, abyssal growls expected from a funeral doom vocalist, yet he seems to wring an expressiveness and emotional resonance from them that I have very rarely encountered from an extreme doom metal singer.

In summary this must be one of the most affecting and haunting funeral doom albums I have heard and, despite its often melodic approach to the sub-genre, it is so skillfully executed that there is no compromise made as regards to sheer heaviness. In the extreme doom world, where sludge and noise-based releases seem to be the only kids on the block anymore, it makes my heart soar to know that there are still acts out there who can fire my soul in a genre that seemed like it had passed its peak some time back. Each play sees me falling in love with this more than the previous one.