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The final EP (to date) in this series ‘…:Grunsfoort’ harks back to the jangly tremolo and melodic gallop of Drudkh to kick things off this time.  Opening track ‘Sediment der Impressies’ again picks up where the previous EP left off some 18 months ago, trailing an air of accessibility and directness to its presence.  For the most part, this is a well-balanced track in terms of pace.  It measures the urgency of the tremolo with passages of thoughtful refrain and folky strings that really sound like they are grounding the track.  There is also a strong bass presence here as well which really does add depth to the slower parts.  The track does seem to lose its way about two-thirds of the way through, disappearing into an unexpected dark ambient section before racing back for the final meeting.  This feels disruptive, like they thought about ending the track there but changed their mind.

The strong, yet never intrusive bass, is retained on ‘Grunsfoort in de mist’.  Opting for a slower pace to start this time around the track also deploys acoustic strings to good effect, using them to herald the arrival of additional layers on proceedings.  This is the standout track on the release for me.  It is thoughtfully composed and builds up well.  The rich melodic aspects are never at the expense of the directness and despite the more softer approach, the band avoids ‘gaze’ territory in the main and still delivers a haunting and ethereal experience to draw the track to a close.

Whether this is the totality of the series or not, these three EPs are strong as a collective.  My criticisms are never items that necessarily diminish from my overall enjoyment of the series and they do showcase the talent, ability and influences of the duo involved here.  I would recommend playing them back to back to truly appreciate them but they do also work in isolation.

Landing just three months after the first EP in this series, Fluisteraars picked up on ‘…:Nergena’ pretty much where they left off on ‘…:Harslo’ back in March.  The dashing tremolos on opening track ‘De man, Zon van de Doden’ coupled with the erratic folk sounding instrumentation alongside more calming, clean and choral vocal sections make for an interesting start to proceedings.  Instrumentally, this EP feels a little more complex than its predecessor but it still manages to retain a rhythm that sticks in the brain making the opening track easy enough to follow.

When we get to the second offering here, ‘De Mystiek Rondom de Steen des Hamers’, we see a more direct approach.  This folky, chiming and pagan sounding track retains a catchiness that leaves me very much reminded of Havukruunu.  It is a very earthy sounding track that use melody intelligently to accentuate the softer nature to the bands sound.  It feels very relaxed in pace also and the jangly tremolo is less fuzzy here than on the opening track on the first EP.  It is kind of a chilled experience overall on this second track.

For me, I prefer the first EP over this one.  Whilst I respect the direct nature and earthiness that gets introduced here, I was kind of enjoying the more chaotic and eclectic elements that got called out in my review of the first release in the series.  Still there’s nothing bad here, just not as enjoyable as the first.

This two track EP from Dutch post-black metal outfit Fluisteraars, is the first of a trio of releases in the series (I am not sure how many there will be in the end, however the third instalment just got released in 2025).  Using the Dutch word for “Whisperers” as their band name is actually a good indication of how I find their sound.  Refusing to be drawn on exactly what type of a band they are in interviews, I find them to be a modern take on the the sub-genre of black metal in the sense that they infer a black metal aesthetic but seem to only whisper this.  There’s a definite Oranssi Pazuzu vibe to opening track ‘Dromen van de zon’ for instance.  The chaos of the guitar is underlined by a shrill tremolo that rides atop of crashing and dashing percussion and wild, shouted vocals.

The jangly edge to the tremolo does remind me of Drudkh somewhat, yet it retains a fuzzy, almost psychedelic and warm tone also.  There is also an intensity to the track that brings Wiegedood to mind.  That deranged edge to proceedings in particular draws this comparison.  Track number two on the release ‘ De konig de werd ontedkt tidens de blootlegging van de nieuwe dimensie’ has the vastness of ‘Blaze…’ or ‘Transylvanian…’ era Darkthrone to my ears.  It has a heavy atmospheric element to it also and touches on the horror of perhaps Leviathan or Xasthur too.

Whispered or not, there’s no denying the influence of black metal on the sound of Fluisteraars. The post elements fit well also, arguably being an extension of atmospheric black metal as opposed to outright post-metal.  There are chimes and and keys here that would not be out of place on a dungeon synth record and so I would say the influences here are far reaching, beyond what you may initially hear upon putting this on.

If I had my time again, I would start listening to black metal a lot sooner than I did. The peak of the scene was around the time when I was just turning into a teenager and there was no mention whatsoever of black metal amongst my metalhead mates at the time. We were all about death metal, thrash metal and heavy metal and I cannot recall the likes of Burzum, Mayhem, Emperor or Satyricon ever entering conversation even, across five years of high school. As such, I have always felt like I have missed out on the true essence of black metal, my initial, stronger, affiliation with death metal being largely because I was watching it grow in front of my very eyes. Whilst I have many memorable experiences listening to black metal in my adult years, some of the same emotions that I feel when listening to say De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, can never be the same as when I listen to Slowly We Rot. I guess then, that when I am looking for the ultimate experience of black metal when I get to a new release or one that I have not heard despite it being available for years, is that sense of true passion and excitement for the art that I feel I missed out on back in the day. Albums like the latest by Svartsyn.

It is all here for the taking for me. Themes of Satanism, death, ritualistic offerings and dark mythology are what help pique my interest on most metal records. When they are as well integrated into a wall of crawling, lumbering, threatening and menacing black metal music such as Vortex of the Destroyer, then this is the icing on the cake. Ornias sounds genuinely deranged on here, his vocals are as pestilent as the vilest of diseases, his riffs are relentless sorties of marauding layers of darkness hammered home by guest drummer Ignace Verstrate’s (the aptly nicknamed Hammerman) unabating pounding on the skins. It is the dead body the kids find out by the lake one day. Bloated with filth, hissing noxious gases from its orifices, its flesh infested with all manner of crawling things. If you need a quick teaser of VotD at its best, throw on the amazing ‘Utter Northern Darkness’ and you will soon be met with the type of barrage of fury you can expect from pretty much all ten tracks on offer here.

Whilst I will accept that sometimes the mix does lose elements of the instruments, it is a black metal record after all, so production values are not always the order of the day, let’s be honest. Not even this though can hinder the majestic grimness of the album. Clearly written from a place of passion for the darkest of arts, VotD has enough black metal heart to keep me freezing cold for the whole of 2025 alone. It is not polished, it does not rely on atmospherics, and it yet has a sense of balance to its chaos. It has borders to its disorder. With hints of black ‘n roll here and there, the pacing of tracks always feels measured, despite the often-raging intensity. This will be a go to record for me for some time to come.

I will confess to have been on the fence with The Great Old Ones for some time. I do not recall ever sitting down and giving anything of theirs to date a critical listen before spending a few hours with Kadath though, so I am unsure where this standoffishness came from. Picking up on some of the references to latter day, more progressive Enslaved did have something to do with it, I think. I am not progressive metal’s biggest fan, and so the prospect of having to follow such a trail (or trial as I often find progressive metal to be) did not bode well. However, on reflection, having listened through to the record multiple times, the progressive elements are a lot more subtle than I first feared. They represent a well balanced and unintrusive character in proceedings. Even at its most obvious the progression is not complex or jarring and so I find it more than palatable.

The fact is that I enjoy Kadath a lot more than I was expecting to. I have gotten into the habit of getting in bed at a reasonable hour and taking some bedtime listening with me. Kadath was my bedtime listen last night, and I completed a further run through this morning before work. These two more critical listens, done without the distractions of screens or work, proved to be key in my development of understanding the record better. For a start, it struck me that the three guitars are used intelligently and are not allowed to overwhelm tracks. In fact, they fill up space that would otherwise go unused, in the sense that if two of them are maintain the often-powerful rhythm of many tracks then melodies and atmospherics are done by the third guitar in the background, on the periphery of the main drivers of tracks or in the upper stratosphere of some of the more expansive moments on songs. Cleverly, they do this without creating any distractions. All three instruments fit together so well.

I hear little, if not any, synths or keys on the album either. Considering the nature of the music, this is surprising. The fact that I can be entertained by a fifteen-minute instrumental track, that I would normally hate, is testimony to how good the band are at creating atmosphere and tension using just strings and percussion. The only disappointment around the instrumental is the track prior to it. ‘The Gathering’ must hold some purpose from a narrative perspective as it does little else other than act as an intro for the instrumental. I just find this an odd arrangement choice.

Going back to that earlier Enslaved comparison. If I benchmark Heimdal against Kadath, then it is the latter that I hold in much higher regard. The comparison is most definitely relevant and justified but the French outfit here are far more entertaining and stronger sounding (which I grant is largely down to the third guitar). ‘In the Mouth of Madness’ has an almost epic heavy metal feel to the opening of the song and chaotic riffs of ‘Those from Ulthar’ are backed by wonderful percussion and those grim vocals superbly. This is top three material in the black metal release of the year so far and may supplant Grima for second spot with further listens. I should have perhaps taken more notice of TGOO before now.

Swedes Scitalis are new to my black metal radar with this, their sophomore album surfacing in January of this year. Since then, it has enjoyed a degree of frequency on my rotation list. It is an album that is based on the witch trials of North Sweden in the late 1600’s, and so it flows heavily on the themes of suffering and persecution. What we get therefore is a bm record that retains a real rawness to proceedings (especially the vocals, which I will come to later) yet the band are also unafraid to wheel out some melodicism at the same time and use it in an atmospheric way. The album feels very powerful at all times, and it leans on more than one medium to assert its strength.

Maledictum, is well written and equally as adeptly performed. The storytelling is logical and meaningful without being overly dramatic. The musical representation of the witch trials plays as a very honest and earthy representation of what went on at the time. The playing sounds tight and direct, maintaining consistency throughout the album duration. Whilst this does cause the album to stray into dangerous levels of repetition there are a couple of elements for me that still make it standout. Number one is the vocals. An internet acquaintance of mine pointed out to me that the vocals put them off this release, which was a real shame because they found everything else here to be ‘top notch’. For me the vocals are a real draw. Reminiscent of Nas Alcameth in Akhlys, they are a raspy, throaty whisper style that is not common, not in my bm catalogue at least.

Then we have the drums. Well-paced and kept simple for the most part, they endure the darkness on the fringes of the limelight here on this album to some degree. It is hard to hear past those vocals and the driving riffs but listen closely and the solid bash of the drums is hard to ignore. The blastbeats have a refrain to them almost that is giving the other instruments the space to stamp their authority on the story. They are almost gentle at times on ‘The Suffering’, even at the height of their blasting intensity. Whoever ‘W’ is, their drumming credentials are clear for all to hear.

Scitalis write good records, based on this release at least, and I cannot understand how they have escaped my radar until now. The melodic tremolos on ‘Seven Years ov Blood’ would give Drudkh a run for their money. The charge of the rhythm section is none too shabby either. As solid as it all is though, it does have something missing. There is almost an absence of some synths to add some real weight to proceedings, like the guitars try but can only go so far. For such a serious subject matter, the need for some cold atmospherics seems obvious to these ears. That having been said, Scitalis are deadly serious about their art, that much is clear from these seven tracks. This is a record written by knowledgeable guys and one that sets a high bar for Swedish bm so far in 2025.

Void of Hope have managed to churn out one of my favourite bm releases so far in 2025. As I walk through the dirge of releases this year there is a pattern emerging of me finding releases or artists that take me by surprise to the extent that I end up with whole discographies to check out. Void of Hope are a bit easy in that regard as they only have one album to date, and a mighty fine slab of depressive black metal it is. Howling vocals, tortured shrieks, menacing atmospherics, drawn out melodies and monotony to boot, all make for a challenging yet thoroughly entertaining experience.

Whilst researching the album it alarmed me how most blog reviews are basically a copy and paste job from the bio on the group’s Bandcamp page. Come on internet critics, up your fucking game and write some words about your actual experience of the record instead of just plagiarising the cool work of someone else. I don’t really care what temperature it was outside when they recorded this, there was clearly more than enough chill in the air in the studio when this trio laid down these six tracks. The title track is a black ‘n roll blast of iciness across the listener’s bows. Those vocals howl into the very void from which the band take their name. Whoever does the vocals here (guessing one of the guys from Ondfødt as two of them are in the line up) has the requisite amount of derangement in their kit bag to give an authentic level of credibility to them. That is, they have experienced the mental anguish that forms the subject matter of most of Void of Hope’s lyrical content.

There’s variety on this record to. Without ever once giving up on the levels of misery in their music to support their lyrical themes, Void of Hope pull in an eleven-minute plus track ('The Hollow Hymn') alongside a just under two-minute piano led palate cleanser immediately after it. The longer track goes through the whole gamut of black metal, from slower sections to blasting fury, atmospherics to blastbeats, melodic passages to driving, near epic sections. As I understand it, one of the guys from Moonlight Sorcery is involved and so I guess this explains the flavour of the epic and some of the expansiveness. There’s variety in the instrumentation too. Synths and keys permeate the space just behind the strings, vocals and percussion, giving a sense of density to the sound of tracks. These are well balanced, and they feel like they are in a true supporting role, breathing in some elements of atmo-black as they create this fog in the background.

Proof of Existence is not just depressive bm for the sake of it. Like a (good) Shining record, there has clearly been some thought put into this record both in terms of the content it wants to share and how it goes about sharing it. The piano and spoken word of ‘Inner Peace’ is possibly one of the most effective pieces of depressive bm I have heard in many years, and this is what makes PoE standout, I think. The band can be genuinely creative with their mental pain and create something that whilst is innately a negative experience, still comes out positive in the sense of the way it speaks to the listener and all the great things I have referenced in this review already. More please.

As I write this, I have a list of random albums I go through, and this year I'm trying to get through 52 albums from 2025. I also occasionally have trouble with earwax blocking my hearing. When I first fired up this album, it sounded like I was having that trouble. I could feel it in my ears. I turned the CD off, then listened to something else to confirm that I was not in fact, going deaf or something.
While this is a one man black metal act, this does not necessarily register as the kind of crap you'd expect to hear from one such act. No awful music recorded through a Fisher-Price microphone. There's pleasant riffing going on here, and the sound feels like it should work, but the album just puts a layer of earwax over itself that ruins it.
I say pleasant, but it's not exactly an earth-shattering experience. It's mostly just...average, expected, mundane. It has a few cool moments, but it doesn't make up for an experience that messes up with your hearing so much that other sounds in the room you're in are affected.
Borderline unlistenable owing to bizarre production choices.

As I waded waist deep into new black metal releases this year, a new album from Cryptosis raised an eyebrow when I spotted it in my search list. I double checked to ensure I had not tagged technical/progressive thrash metal into the criteria by mistake, but as it turns out the black metal aspects of Celestial Death are not even all that subtle. Vocalist Laurens Houvast has gone a few degrees colder with his grim voice on this album. This when put in the mix with some cloying atmospherics, Burzum style chimes (check out ‘Absent Presence’ for a dose of Filosofem), jangling tremolos and melodies all makes for a harsh and abrasive experience.

The mellotron is back again and this and the synthesisers do an excellent job of scoring the air around them with a futuristic, dystopian sorrow. That’s not to say that Celestial Death is an entirely slow and atmospheric outing, far from it in fact. The Dutch trio manage to add lots of bite to proceedings and fans of their debut album will welcome this; I am sure. That rabid pacing is still present and tracks like ‘The Silent Call’ manage to balance that scathing attack with the depth of the synths well. In short, Cryptosis’ sophomore is a cracker.

It did take a couple of listens for me to settle down with the action here. My first listen was whilst working and I had thrown this on to get some thrash going in the background and quickly found myself focusing more on the cold and melodic aspect of the record instead. Once I got a couple of more critical listens under my belt, things started to right-size for me a lot quicker. Celestial Death is a very mature sounding record, one that builds on the promise of the debut from some four years ago superbly. The guitar notes on the opening of ‘Reign of Infinite’ positively dance with excitement and the balance between the riffs and the synths and then the percussion is excellent.

I could do with a little more weight in the drums on the mix, but I still feel Marco Prij does a great job, pacing his patterns as the soundscape that continues to unfold requires him to. Houvast’s guitar work is great throughout. It is vibrant one minute, then cold and jarring the next. I have no major criticisms here in all honesty. I am still a little confused by the black thrash combo that relies more on atmospherics above all other things to emphasise that cold influence and it does still feel a little strange adding this into my The North list for 2025. However, it is absolutely a valid entry and is one of the best releases of the year so far regardless of which sub-genre sits as its driving force.

I gave the new Mental Cruelty album some listening and a review shortly after it first came out. I enjoyed the Lorna Shore-esque brand of epic deathcore, but I thought the symphonic black metal side was a little too much. Fast forward a couple years and my tolerance has grown immensely. I now find Zwielicht an awesome offering that's like Lorna Shore but more depressive, melodic, and blackened. The lyrics have a lot depth and death in them, and that's something modern extreme metal fans shall love!

Stepping in on vocals is Lukas Nicolai, replacing Lucca Schmerler after Lucca's firing due to sexual abuse allegations. As brutally good as Lucca is (despite the allegations), Lukas is a total powerhouse when it comes to growls and screams. He has even added an uncommon aspect in deathcore, clean singing.

"Midtvinter" is a dark ominous intro to get you ready for an epic journey. "Obsessis a Daemonio" is a total blaster which you might think it's Dimmu Borgir on steroids. At over the 3 and a half minute mark, Lukas attempts some clean power metal-like singing like some of the male guest vocalists of Avantasia. The earlier neoclassical soloing has its comeback in "Forgotten Kings" in clear prominence.

One of the most Lorna Shore-like songs here is "Pest" which is a brilliant highlight. Lukas is quite talented, though he can't surpass Will Ramos. No one can beat the epic deathcore vocal king! Then we have the slow-ish "Nordlys" which is kind of a brutal deathcore take on the more dramatic Scandinavian melodeath bands out there. "Mortal Shells" combines many elements of the band's previous albums to make one of the most diverse highlights in the album. Sinister guitar and vocals drifting through along with the crushing drumming for a powerful experience.

The title interlude is a German-sung Nordic folk piece than can easily fit well in an Elder Scrolls game. "Symphony of a Dying Star" has riffing and soloing sounding much closer to the epic melodeath of Insomnium and Wintersun. Greatly exemplifying the black/death metal drumming and guitarwork is "The Arrogance of Agony". The epic finale "A Tale of Salt and Light" has the symphonic death metal/core of Ex Deo and early Betraying the Martyrs to make one of the most glorious deathcore tracks ever!

How would I consider Zwielicht? F***ing awesome, that's what! This is symphonic melodic blackened deathcore with sharp riffing and mystical atmosphere freezing away the earlier brutal hellfire. Not to mention those fast blasting drums and Lukas' wide-ranged vocals. Their best work besides Purgatorium, maybe slightly more!

Favorites: "Obsessis a Daemonio", "Pest", "Mortal Shells", "Symphony of a Dying Star", "A Tale of Salt and Light"

Drudkh tailed off for me not long after Microcosmos. A Handful of Stars was a poor follow up to 2009’s triumph of a release and I progressively lost interest in the band. In writing this review, I looked back at some of my ratings for what has come after 2010 and found that on the few I had rated, I had little if any memory of what they sounded like (ratings on relevant releases have therefore been deleted from MA). Whereas I would have once looked forward to a Drudkh album, I found news of Shadow Play arriving landing with a less than muted applause. For me it almost feels like Drudkh have said everything I wanted to hear on their first few records. Those first four albums were the band’s golden run in my book and although they most certainly do have albums outside of that window of releases that I enjoy, I sensed that Shadow Play was not going to see me reaching for the higher end of the scoring range.

My fears were confounded by the frankly boring album opener ‘Scattering the Ashes’, a seven-minute plus track that is frankly one of the dullest pieces of music the Ukranians have ever written. I get the sound of the footfalls in the snow are of someone carrying an urn, however the track itself goes nowhere in between the footfalls that bookend the instrumental. Not a positive start then. Hold on though, both ‘April’ and ‘The Exile’ immediately get me interested in the album again with their driving rhythms and charging pace. The riffs seem to wrap effortlessly around one another, seemingly at home regardless of the tempo being deployed at the time. The rich melody that Drudkh are famous for is certainly still at the forefront of their music. The sound of the guitar alongside Roman’s grim vocals are familiar and welcome sounds. There’s a jangle to a Drudkh tremolo that sometimes sounds like a 60’s psychedelic rock jam. As we get onto the halfway point of the album, things are looking up.

I would go as far as to say that the previous two tracks are a couple of the best songs Drudkh have pulled together in a long time. Solid and memorable, urgent and pressing, as well as sounding like they are performed with passion and guile. ‘Fallen Blossom’ introduces a more aggressive sound, not dissimilar to the overall sound of album The Swan Road. Whilst the melody is still obvious, there is a harsher, colder edge to it on here. Even when the track seems to settle down into a rhythm, it still feels oppositional. The keys do little to soothe this abrasive edge, seeming to support its threat and intent with menacing atmospheres. The track builds into a tumultuous mass of tremolos and percussion, never taking its foot off the gas for the final third of the song. A more melodic opening greets us on ‘The Eve’, even if we are still seeing no signs of the pace letting up in the first instance. At this point I did start to wonder if some variety was missing here, but just as the demons started to have me doubting Drudkh, there’s a swell of accessible, more leniently paced melodies that is cleverly given space to breath and develop before becoming consumed again in the more raging torrents of the track. There is great use of pacing here, even though I missed this on my first few listens, it seems so obvious as I listen through on my review write-up.

Album closer, ‘The Thirst’ sounds like there may be some folk instruments at play in the raging mix that starts the track. I cannot see anything listed other than guitars and keyboards, so it may just be clever use of the keys, but I hear some light droning warbling in the background that seems to be a different pitch to the tremolo that I would normally attribute such sound too. In the end though, Shadow Play is not an album that needs much in the way of expansion. It says what it needs to say very well without much in the way of thrills being needed. It is one of the most consistent Drudkh albums that I have heard in a while and it really is only let down by that lifeless opening track which thankfully soon becomes a distant memory as the real quality of the album soon starts to take over.

Well I got this one wrong didn't I?

Returning to their atmospheric black metal form on records like Sunbather and Ordinary Corrupt Human Love, Deafheaven make their harrowing return in 2025. I heavily criticized the bands previous album, Infinite Granite, for axing its heavier sounds for its more post-rock style. Not because they were bad, instead because Deafheaven's principal feature was the uplifting nature of their black metal; a genre that is well known for being the antithesis of uplifting. I also said that I figured that this would be the direction that Deafheaven would continue down the foreseeable future. 

Well that didn't happen. Lonely People With Power is a monstrous album in both its length as well as intensity. Like previous albums, Deafheaven are not going to overwhelm the listener with a typical black metal display of relentless tremolo picking, blast beats, and vocal screeching for just over an hour. The album is filled with atmospheric breaks and interludes, the metal portions are diversified with half-time style changes and more melodic guitar leads, as well as clean vocals. And as someone who cares very much about padding on an album, this record does not falter. There may be sections that could have been trimmed down (such as the intro on "Winona"), but overall, Lonely People With Power has enough diversity to keep it interesting, but without a lot of the self indulgence that plagues modern progressive metal. 

The sound of this record is well done also. This is the first Deafheaven album published through Roadrunner Records. Now I've always viewed this record label as the "Gentlemen's Club" of metal record labels given their reputation. And even though Roadrunner is not particularly well known for its publication of black metal albums, Deafheaven fit right in. The albums have always sounded more mature and it continues here with the mixing. George Clarke's shrieking is still heavily condensed behind a wall-of-sound and acts more as a secondary instrument on songs like "Heathen" and it does work a little better than expected. Some albums like this put heavy emphasis on their vocals to make a statement, but here the vocals are more metaphoric in presentation and you don't really need them to get the full experience of this record.

All of that being said however, it's hard for me to enjoy Lonely People With Power more because it feels like Deafheaven are sinking into the status quo of modern atmospheric black metal. As I mentioned off the top of this review, Deafheaven are known for their uplifting textures and sharper tone quality. What I noticed here is that the tone quality has been quietly flattened; way more minor key signatures and chordal progressions, and more walloping foundational grooves. And even though the songwriting on this album is very good, it doesn't take long to realize that Deafheaven are seceding themselves to Alcest in that regard, when it was only a few short years ago their positions were reversed.

This is probably a nitpicky criticism of Lonely People With Power from me, but I think it is very important. The reason I constantly return to tracks like "Dream House" and "Canary Yellow" all of these years later is because of how unique they are within the black metal framework, and Deafheaven did this without incorporating a folk gimmick like Panopticon or Saor. Now, without that bottom line of "this is Deafheaven" for most of this album (only really saved by the final two tracks), it becomes harder to find songs here that are truly timeless. We shall see what the future brings but for now, Lonely People With Power  is a good record and deserving of its early praise, but it should be a lot better.

Best Songs: Magnolia, The Garden Route, Body Behavior, Winona

Orkalet (the main man behind Häxkapell) is a talented fella with a fascinating background in choral singing – working with Erik Westberg one of the greatest choir conductors in the world - who also uses a process of meditation-induced psychography, or automatic writing to write his lyrics. Basically, the guy writes his lyrics and doesn’t even recognise he’s written them. He can switch these states on at will which makes me think that the lyrical content of Om jordens blod och urgravens grepp could well be written by spirits from another realm. As well as the above, Häxkapell also utilises the services of Oraklet’s wife, Ida for violin, viola and her voice.

As you would expect then, this record is a transcendental affair. With progressive elements sat alongside conventional black metal fare, there is real depth to what Oraklet delivers here. The more pagan/folk elements compliment his baritone vocals perfectly, creating a wholesome and earthy sounding experience. The violin and viola create a classical style of atmosphere to the familiarly grim and gnarly black metal music also. Add in acoustic sections, choral passages and near epic, sweeping elements also and you soon know that you are in for a treat with Häxkapell’s sophomore release. The downside for some maybe that there is a loss of the traditional coldness to the sound that diehard fans of bm would harken for. The sound is hardly warm like say Hellenic bm would fashion in the traditional understanding of such a description, it’s more comforting even though the genuinely desolate and morbid elements are still plainly on show.

The baritone vocals do not always land as well every time they are used and for me there are a couple of occasions where compositionally things are off in general but there are never any moments that make me reach for the skip button. At worst, some tracks seem to suffer from minor issues in terms of a lack of balance. In short, there are occasions where I want a little more black metal in all honesty. These moments are infrequent enough to stop me dropping the rating into the lower part of the range, at the same time however they hold it back from an outstanding score.

My high hopes for Kryptan’s debut full length are certainly met by the horrific edge to album opener ‘The Unheard Plea from Thousands of Broken Hands (Intro)’. The pleading voice in the background of the track sets off the old nerve-endings into a jarring frenzy immediately. The intro track then drops into the first proper track on the record and those guitars certainly make their presence felt early on. However, it does not take long for things to start to unravel. The drums remain audible but unintrusive throughout and as a result come across as lacking in power. By comparison the bass is virtually non-existent in the mix, which instead sees the synths, guitars and vocals get centre stage.

The main issue I have with Violence, Our Power though is the vocals. Whilst not horrendous by any means, I do question their suitability on more than one occasion. There are obvious Behemoth comparators in terms of the vocals, especially when the vocalist here deploys a kind of strained shouting style (‘The Miracle Inside’) which is not a bad thing, but I just do not feel that Alexander Högbom has the pipes for it to be honest. On the more grim, black metal style vocals he is fine, but this attempt at variation sounds a tad amateur to my ears.

This strained description is applicable to the whole record in all honesty. It strikes me that the music is being forced through something to get to the unappealing outcome we are presented with. The mix just sounds off to me, like it is stopping me getting at the true content that the band intended to share. My experience somehow feels muted and like I have constantly missed something. I do not sense that they are any artist capability issues here, just a not too kind mix job. That withstanding I still do not believe that the vocals fit the direction of the band overall. Stick to bm croaks guys, you sound much better.

2025 has seen me take the unusual step of tracking new releases for at least two of my clans. The Fallen and The North between them are keeping me highly entertained as it happens, and it seems that my usual reluctance to seek out new music had little grounds for the burnout I feared would occur. The real bonus though is the discoveries I am making. In the past three weeks or so, I have picked up on some real gems, with Norway’s Nachash being one such discovery. It is not unusual to find a black metal band from Norway that I like of course, however this trio blend a crude mix of thrash, speed and black metal that reminds me of both modern and classic reference points. There is just as much Bathory in here as there is Mortuary Drape for example. There is a warmth to the sound that reminds me of Varathron at times though. Equally, I could see these boys slugging it out with Nekromantheon or Condor in terms of the more recent examples of the sound explored here.

Eschaton Magicks manages to pummel the old ears consistently well for over forty-minutes. Showing a punk bounciness to some of the percussion at times, this is an album for any thrash/speed metal fan who likes a darker take on things. It unapologetically sticks to a quickly established blueprint, using guitar melodies to maraud the listener. Despite those Varathron vibes and the melodies described above, Eschaton Magicks still possesses a coldness all of its own. Whilst there most certainly is not any icy atmospheric black metal here, the coldness comes from the oppositional stance that the band postures with here. It feels like a punk album as well as occasionally sounding like one.

I enjoy the immediacy of this record, as well as its honesty to be able to stick to what it does best. Everything is clear in the mix without loss of the murk that you would expect from such a record in this sub-genre. You can hear the bass just as well as the drums, guitar and vocals. Each component part contributes to the urgent tempos and the overall threat of the record. Do not be fooled into thinking that this is a collection of three-and-a-half-minute blackened speed metal tracks though. We have some tracks here that go over the six and eight-minute mark. The band know how to write solid songs and can maintain their energy for as long as required. Listen to the high-speed rumble of the bass on ‘Death’s Mordant Blaze’ as it dances over the top of the drums and guitar, showing there is some real rattle and hum behind the sound (not a U2 reference though). Nachash have produced a real treat here on their second album. No sophomore slump here folks.

I have been spinning this one for a few weeks now.  Each time i feel like I have the meaure of it, I chnage my mind.  The enchanting blend of black metal and death metal keeps me coming back regardless.  Not that this combination is anything new by any means, but for all its flurries of keys and gang chants, Lost Legacy never comes across as pompous or grandiose.  It still feels earthy and unafraid to its sinew and bone.  Whilst it retains a lot of melody, this is not a record that you could easily pigeonhole as being simply melodic black metal.  Arguably a black metal record with a hefty dose of melodic death metal for good measure, the album uses the death metal elements to hone the intensity of the black metal experience.

It is riffier tracks such as 'Amanita Muscaria' that take on a blackened speed metal vibe. The melodicism here sounds almost an organic by-product of the speed influence as opposed to any notes released by the black metal element.  The croaky vocals leave the listener in no doubt where the band's heart truly lies though.  I liken the band's sound to Necrophobic, with the threat that they could tear off into Aura Noir territory at any moment (they don't btw). Tracks such as 'Samhain' are nasty slabs of riffing black metal, spliced with dazzling leads to add to the entertainment.

Sometimes though, I do find myself wanting the album to pick up on the intensity stakes.  'Inside The Wickerman' needs a little more than the skant tremolo against the drums treatment.  Often, I feel what is missing is some Spectral Wound style blasts to really hammer home the impact of the album.  That having been said, Lost Legacy still stacks up as a good black metal record.  Although it misses the quality of the Gràb or Grima releases this year (it is a different style of bm in fairness to Regnum Noricum) it packs enough punch to get four stars from me.

Truly atmospheric black metal all too often strays dangerously close to 'gaze' territory for my liking.  It is as if the true art of some serene and icy cold black metal, cloaked in dense atmosphere has been lost at times.  I can't pretend that some of the notes on Sacred Sound of Solitude would be out of place on an Alcest record (nobody is perfect) but the thought process overall here by Bloodbark appears to be very much orientated around black metal still.  If, like me, you schooled yourself on atmo-black via any of the Memoria Vetusta records by BAN, then Bloodbark is most definitely for you.  The snow here is pristine white, the air is clear and the atmosphere holds a density behind these endearing images.  The music still has a charge to it, a vibrancy to the tremolo that reminds me of some of Grima's album from this year also.  You would be hard-pushed to call this one a classic by any means and it certainly lacks the variation of Nightside by Grima, yet this record still possesses a charm all of its own.

Very little is known about Bloodbark.  The band chooses not to disclose details of the members - even shying away from confirming the geography that they are native to.  None of that really matters though as there is enough of an air of mystery to Sacred Sound of Solitude to keep me interested without having to speculate about how is responsible for the music.  It is clearly performed by capable musicians who know their way around the atmospheric and post-black metal scene.  As such they are able to create haunting music that fills the space you are listening to it in.  The BAN reference is most certainly valid but there's also nods to Summoning in the mix here to boot.

Where SSoS falls short is that it never truly gets beautiful.  It hints at the surreal appeal that winter landscapes can offer but those swan-like qualities never feel like they have become fully formed.  The clean singing and spoken word aspects to the vocals are a bit dull in all honesty and I think this is because they are not shrouded in enough mystery like the rest of the instrumentation around them.  In a way they are almost too obvious for their own good.  As I am listening through on my seventh or eighth visit to the record, I am now starting to sense that 'gaze' element more.  However, this is by no means of a threatening level to the more bm elements by any stretch and although the rating is not in the higher end of the spectrum, it is still a record that stands out from the pack in 2025 so far. 

I am making a few black metal discoveries of late. Some of them known to me as artists already, others - like Skaldr – being completely new to me. Hailing from Virginia, at first glance it looks like the band is made up of a trio of former live musicians who worked with the band Asagraum around 2022. However, vocalist/bassist Carey Vaughn was in the legendary Sacramentum on bass duties as late as 2023. Harry and Brent who cover guitar duties, seem to have settled on Skaldr as being their main project now touring duties with Asagraum are done with. On Saṃsṛ, the band show their experience well, producing a fine slab of melodic, folk-tinged bm in the process.

Mixed and mastered by none other than Dan Swanö himself, this record has a certain pedigree about it. Whilst it does get a little cumbersome in arrangement in places (opening track ‘The Sum of All Loss’ feels a bit rushed in places), overall, there is more than enough satisfaction here for my North clan tendencies. Walking that fine line between melodic yet not entirely accessible black metal, this is a record that shows strong elements of control and restraint to me. Although I cannot find the full instrument listing for the record, there is more being deployed here than just guitars, bass, drums and ghastly vocals. I hear a bayan at least once and I also suspect there is a banjo in the mix here somewhere on occasion.

That aside, the core bm elements are great. Lush tremolos and progressive bass lines take their place alongside galloping and charging tempos, led by blastbeats galore. Even the acoustic interlude, Liminal is well-placed on the track listing to give a brief respite before the final two tracks on the album get introduced. Album closer, and by far the standout track here, ‘The Cinder, the Flame, the Sun’ is a beast of a closing track that shows how effective well-written melodic black metal can be at over the seven-and-a-half-minute mark, and how it can retain that excitement for the full duration of the song. Saṃsṛ is an exciting record overall though, well-paced and yet it manages this without sacrificing intensity.

If like me, you found the whole Batushka thing a tad exhausting, you probably run the risk of not bothering with their records. Patriarkh are the Bartłomiej Krysiuk version of what once was his version of Batushka. I think. Thankfully, the music here is much less confusing than the origins of it. A suitably choral affair, given the religious themes of the group, Prophet Ilja (to give the album its English translation) is a different take on atmospheric black metal most certainly. Mind you there’s enough of the band to provide this variance from the norm.

There are three guitarists listed as being contributors on the record (does not sound like they are all deployed at once). As well as main vocalist Bartłomiej Krysiuk, I count another five (choral and otherwise) contributors. As a result, the album feels like it is growing from track to track. There is little variation to the format in all honesty, but the different vocalist appearances do add some welcome variation. This is not to say that otherwise the album is boring, far from it in fact. It stays true to an atmo-black metal record style and gives a solid acquittal of its credentials in the process.

I feel the pacing helps here, a lot. They know when to slow things down to emphasise the more ethereal elements of their sound or to enhance the harsher vocals in some sections. Equally they can use the softer, spoken word elements to introduce the quick switch to some more familiar black metal intensity. It is a tad predictable in the sense of where the record is going, but it is pulled off with a sense of panache. It turns out that the album is a concept album upon further research, and this explains the format of the album a little better. Prophet Ilja was the leader of a religious sect in the 1930’s and 40’s. His preaching about the coming apocalypse soon started to be questioned amongst some, whilst others were radicalized by them leading to the creation of New Jerusalem in the village of Wierszalin. New Jerusalem was never finished and eventually got eaten up by the forest.

Thankfully, unlike New Jerusalem, this album is a complete package that grows in the entertainment stakes with each passing track. Like Prophet Ilja to some of his followers, I am sold on the message of the album. It is a gentle black metal album that revels in storytelling However gentle it seems, it does retain enough intensity to please the black metal aficionados out there I am sure.

After many years of them floating around the periphery of my black metal sphere, dropping multiple albums in their wake that somehow did nothing wrong yet at the same time also brought nothing remarkable to the table either, I think Grima have finally come of age on the sixth album, Nightside.  That’s a bold statement to open any review with I know, but the fact is that Nightside is an absolute triumph of atmospheric black metal.  It is well written.  It is thoughtfully composed.  Heck, even the normally sub-par artwork of Girardi is actually almost passable this time around.  Once again we have a bayan (accordion) successfully incorporated into proceedings, and without it turning the whole album into folk-fest either.  Safe to say, I am rather smitten with Nightside.

I think what stands out most for me on the album is how mature it sounds.  This is a band who can layer different instrumentation into a perfectly complimentary arrangement.  That bayan never once sounds intrusive.  It is tempered perfectly by the tremolo riffs and balanced well in terms of atmospherics with the keyboards of Valentina Astashova.  When it does get sole playtime it manages to add welcome depth to the track (the end of Skull Gatherers).  But the expected instruments also put in a great shift.  A mention must go to the subtle yet effective work of guest drummer Vlad Yungman, who like Morbius and Villhelm is also of Ultar fame.  The drums are never a blasting frenzy, yet are interesting and in total keeping with the pace of each track.  The tremolo riff is strong here, complimented by strong melodies and leads also.  As I say, it is all so beautifully arranged to make tracks such as Impending Death Premonition take on such a haunting, ethereal mood just by this clever use of aggression and melody.

I might still be unconvinced by the tree masks gimmick but I can see well past this for the first time with Grima.  Nightside adds so much credibility to the band for me that I feel their aesthetic no longer is my main focus.  Whilst it is nearly fifty-minutes long, the album does not feel bloated, despite its largely consistent track format and staying true to the atmospheric tag for all ten tracks.  The passion here is clear, as is the ability to hone that into coherent and effective songs.  This might be the bands peak, but it is a a real treat nonetheless.  More please.

Heavenly Down is the ninth studio album from the Hungarian black metal band, Sear Bliss, and the first since 2018's Letters from the Edge. Now I do remember hearing Letters from the Edge in passing during that year and I do remember enjoying my time with it, but I can also admit that I do not remember much about it. What I do remember is that while it was a very melodic album, it also ran long as it was more inclined to bleed into the atmospheric. Heavenly Down does still retain that atmospheric touch, but they have been forced into the background once again. This album is much more straightforward of a black metal experience in that regard. The songwriting is more refined and precise and is maintained by a wonderfully mixed bass line that carries this whole record forward.

I found myself locking in to the openness of the album. Lots of metal albums like to fill every single void with space through double guitar lines or synth breaks, but with Heavenly Down, that bass fundamental is paramount. The guitar during this record drops out a ton and it creates a new level of excitement and drive whenever it returns. The trombones on the other hand...

I think the band deserves credit for trying something new and I also believe that there are some moments when the trombone parts really emphasize the songs. Other moments sound really cheesy and blocky. The space ambient interlude "Forgotten Deities" would have been a great transition from "Heavenly Down" into "The Winding Path" if not for the trombones to ruin the calm moment with the blaring. And that is not to discredit the work or the timbre of the trombone's playing; it's just a loud instrument and during this passage, its presence was unnecessary.

Heavenly Down shows signs of brilliance in its songwriting; I really enjoy how the final track "Feather in Ashes" rounds out the album with a tempo, key and style that is reminiscent of the opener "Infinite Grey", while still retaining its melodic identity. I like the production of the purely black metal foundation, and I really enjoy the use of space throughout. However those trombones, while they have their moments, can also have moments where they feel like they've been added out of necessity rather than artistic purpose. Still, solid record from a severely underrated group.

Best Songs: The Winding Path, The Upper World, Feather in Ashes, Infinite Grey

Liverpool (UK) based black metallers, Ninkharsag caught my attention with their sophomore, The Dread March of Solemn Gods back in 2021. Claiming four well-earned stars for their efforts on that one, the future looked promising for what started out as a one-man project back in 2009 and had since grown into a four-piece band. Their brand of charging, rampant melodic black metal, instantly brought the likes of Dissection and Sacramentum to mind. Coupled with some Watain-like intensity, the sound of Ninkharsag soon found favour with these ears.

This EP nicely scratches my Ninkharsag itch as I wait for the next full-length. Continuing their themes of ancient history, magic and occultism, The Black Swords of Winter is a raging torrent of melodic black metal that ticks more than enough boxes for me over the six tracks on offer. Suitably opened by a moody and atmospheric intro track, the EP soon picks up the pace and barely lets up for the next twenty-two-minutes. Muhammad Candra’s artwork absolutely represents the icy content that lies within. As the flames of the dragon on the cover suggest, any burn here is a cold one.

It is nice to find a band in my local area that are forging a solid path through a ton of (mostly) unremarkable black metal releases so far this year. The nods to the Swedish bands mentioned above never feel like unbridled worship and they retain a freshness to the sound, like new life is somehow being breathed into a tried and tested formula. Looking forwards still to the next full length offering, if they can keep this standard up, it should be another winner.

I was around some thirty albums into a black metal in 2025 discovery trip this week and if I am honest, I was starting to despair. Other than a couple of brief glimmers of hope which I will save the detail of for some further reviews, I was starting to think that 2025 was going to be a barren year. Now, there are a couple of caveats to that initial view, the first being that in general I make no effort to stay on top of new releases. Secondly, I am solely going off the new bm releases added to MA, so there will inevitably be gaps at whatever point of the year I bother to look since we cannot possibly capture all releases in these output trigger happy days that we live in. Anyway, after sitting through two of Drowning the Light’s five albums they have released so far this year, and wondering why the hell I was bothering, I finally landed on German duo, Gràb (German for “grey/old”).

I have listened to a lot of black metal over the years and the albums that I hold in high regard all exude passion for their artform. In a sub-genre that champions the minimalist approach it is easy to become lost in a sea of raw, primitive and yet utterly emotionless music. There is absolutely a time and place for that, however with where I am at in my bm musings nowadays I like to hear some heart in what I am listening to. Luckily for me, Gràb are full of passion for what they do. Yes, the melodicism helps no end here. That smattering of doomy atmosphere also does much to enhance the experience. But at the very core of Kremess is the undeniable presence of musicians revelling in what they love doing and in turn letting the listener revel in the majesty of the music they produce.

The Bavarian lyrics may be completely undecipherable to me, but it does not matter one bit. I feel I can still connect with the whole experience of Kremess regardless. There is a lot going on instrumentally here as well. With viola, flute and dulcimer all being deployed alongside keyboards, guitar, bass and drums, Kremess offers a real gamut of instrumentation. Yet nothing is ever allowed to override the core bm offering of the band’s sound. As eclectic as some of the instrument choices may seem, they are cleverly deployed and incorporated into the overall aesthetic. Gràb know how to write songs, and it shows in abundance here.

Produced by Empyrium’s Markus Stock, the members of Empyrium contribute light touches to parts of the album. The choral elements Thomas Helm adds on Im Hexnhoiz (A Weihraz-Gschicht, Kapitel Oans) and Deifeszeig add real depth to both tracks with the former being one of the standout moments on the album for me. It would be easy to get fooled by the slightly amateur (yet still somehow charming) artwork on the album cover that this is a base bm record that will be full icy atmospherics, and do not get me wrong, they are there. However, Kremess possesses a majesty to the grim musings that make up the eight tracks on offer. My initial fear that it was too long at fifty-five minutes was soon dispelled as the arrangement of the album is just as top notch as the content.

Triumphs such as Vom Gråb im Moos (A Weihraz-Gschicht, Kapitel Zwoa) at the midway point of the record and on album closer Dà letzte Winter, make the duration seem more than worth it. This record ends as strong as it starts, something which I rarely feel listening to new music nowadays. Hands down the best release of 2025 so far, Kremess restores my faith in black metal amidst the slew of gazey, avant garde releases (who needs samba black metal??) that was starting to seem the norm so far this year. It does of course also set the bar high from here on in.

If you had just discovered Illidiance via their Damage Theory album or their later material and didn't know they started off as a symphonic black metal band, well, to quote that owl alien Kh'ymm from Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you." The evolution from symphonic black metal to cyber metal is similar to The Kovenant. You can consider Illidiance's debut their own Nexus Polaris. Insane Mytheries to Demise was recorded two years prior as a demo when the band was named S.C.A.R.D., but after that, bassist X-tillArise left the band and took the rights to that name with him. The album is actually a solid start, though having a couple missteps...

The guitars are typical for a band performing a Dark Funeral-esque melodic black metal style, ranging from crushing riffs to flaming tremolos to epic melodies. Frontman Tommy Syrex (back then known as Diamantum) performs harsh screams that can outshine even Dani Filth, though they have some uneven effects. His cleans bring the vocal range closer to Ensiferum than Soilwork.

The intro "Dimmysterium" gets everything set up in mystical atmosphere and neoclassical shredding, starting off pretty great. Then "Rebellion" blasts forward with the symphonic black metal Samael last had in part of their EP Rebellion later restored in Above. "Nocturnal Strains" has the guitar melodies of early Eternal Tears of Sorrow.

"Armageddon Conquest" is a earlier track that had its origins in one of S.C.A.R.D. demos (which I would consider the band's own In Times Before the Light). The song itself has the blend of extreme and symphonic that Xerath would later have. After all that fast fire, we head to the slow "Melancholy of a Dying World". Melancholic melodies from the synths crawl, only speeding up during the final minute sounding similar to old-school Underoath. "Into Everlasting Night" throws in some atmosphere from early In the Woods, sounding much different from the band's later Soilwork-infused material.

"...And Twilight Falls" is a shorter highlight. The guitar leads and pianos once again build up its strength. I really love the last full track "Burning Wings", especially those synths that shine the most in the end. I can enjoy the symphonic darkness without it going too pompous. "Above the Old Kingdom" ends the album the way it began with beautiful leads, albeit fading into ominous synths.

An early yet timeless classic for Illidiance, Insane Mytheries to Demise is worth enjoying for any symphonic black metal fan before the band's move to cyber/industrial metal later. Keyboards aren't overboard. The riffing is lovely. The vocals are an odd flaw, but if you can get past that, you have a strong unique demo-turned-album in your hands....

Favorites: "Rebellion", "Melancholy of a Dying World", "...And Twilight Falls", "Burning Wings"

A day after my Undying review marathon, I stumbled upon a song by Stormlord. I've actually first heard of this symphonic black metal band from Rome, Italy, nearly 10 years ago, but never gotten around in checking out because I was young and not ready to explore those dark blackened realms. Once I pressed play earlier today... HOLY SH*T, it has almost the same vibe as Undying! I'm talking about D-flat tuned epic heavy guitar melodies with occasional symphonic synths. Of course, both bands are worlds apart in terms of genre. Undying is melodic metalcore. Stormlord is symphonic black metal with power metal influences to go with both the epicness and the rawness.

What makes Stormlord stand out in the symphonic black metal pack is the lyrics centered around Italian mythology, and it fits well for when the music alternates between melodic and thrashy. At the Gates of Utopia is the band's second album and their first with the locally popular Scarlet Records after a decade in the underground. I'm just amazed by the greatness this band has with their power metal-infused sound!

Opening track "Under the Samnites' Spears" is that song I've mentioned above. After an epic keyboard march covering the first minute, the second minute has that melodic riffing that made me think of Undying. But when it slows down and the shrieked vocals come in, that's when Stormlord fans can recognize the band they know. Basically, an epic black metal structure of fast guitars and drums occasionally slowing down for a gloomy section. Even people like me who aren't into black metal that much can enjoy this power and glory. Starting off "I Am Legend" is some fast thrashy sections that then slow down for the usual bombastic sound. The power continues to rise in "Xanadu (A Vision in a Dream)" with some dramatic choir and male operatic singing. Still we have great speed in the guitars, bass, and drums, in conjunction with the epic atmosphere.

"And Winter Was" levels up the blast beats typically found in black metal while having some mid-tempo darkness. The title interlude is where the keyboards shine well sounding both dreadful and dreamy. Then we have the violent "The Curse of Medusa", in which the drums and vocals go brutal while still sounding epic.

"The Burning Hope" once again starts with mighty thrashy riffing then slows the tempo down. At this point, the more pompous side has already been done to death, but at least they still have that thrashy riffing later on in the song. "A Sight Inwards" has more melancholic melodies alongside those cool thrashy guitars. Here is where I get a little tired of the operatic singing, though it's manageable. Lastly, "The Secrets of the Earth" has the album's last chance of blending together epicness, gloom, and brutality, and the end result is the perfect ending to such an offering.

As amazing as At the Gates of Utopia is, I still don't feel up to switching back to the on side of my on-off relationship with black metal. Nonetheless, this is the best I've heard from symphonic black metal in a long while, particularly in some highly memorable tracks including the title intermission. As for a couple tracks, they rule too but could've had less forced ideas. With all that said, power metal-ish symphonic black metal might just be worth it for any metal listener!

Favorites: "Under the Samnites' Spears", "Xanadu (A Vision in a Dream)", "At the Gates of Utopia", "The Curse of Medusa", "The Secrets of the Earth"

The second of my most anticipated early black metal albums for 2025 is Ottawa's Unreqvited. I've been lauding this ensemble since Empathica in 2020 and 2021's Beautiful Ghosts was a atmospheric/post-metal marvel. I always appreciated how well the songwriting here was above all else, especially since the band always did it without traditional vocals. Rather than using words to depict meaning, the voice was always used as a complimentary instrument, which highlighted both the brilliant instrumentation/production, but also the focus squarely on the melody.

But in 2024 that changed. "The Starforger" was to be the first promotional single for A Pathway to the Moon and it surprisingly featured spoken word vocals. And while my initial reaction was trepidation, I did come around to them. "The Starforger" has all of the mannerisms that one would expect from an Unreqvited song. But within the context of the album, the consistency just isn't there. For some reason, the heaviness that persists on "The Anitmatter" just does not pair well with the vocal timbre, and it may leave some questions as to how these two songs can be paired together on the album? It isn't that the vocals are bad, but the cleanliness in some of the execution just feels off. Unreqvited have always pride themselves on dreamlike atmosphere, so a cleaner, almost metalcore production can be a huge red flag for some.

Unreqvited are not well known for their pummeling black metal roots; instead choosing Alcest tempered shoegaze for their foundation. And the foundation here is still wonderful. Some of those melodic lines on "The Starforger" and "Void Esssence/Frozen Tears" are enough to make even the most stone faced of metalheads fall to their knees and weep. And they always manage to do it with fantastic production. I know I'll be in the minority here, but I for one really enjoyed the 90s R&B synth infusion on "Departure: Everlasting Dream" (hello Sleep Token) and much of the albums more traditional synth work on "Into the Starlit Beyond".

But where the album loses me is the pacing. I always preface this by saying songs like "Into the Starlit Beyond" and "Departure: Everlasting Dream" will sound wonderful on their own, but as apart of a record, they do fall flat. This fumbling occurs because Unreqvited have too many softer, post-rock tracks in a row and the intensity of A Pathway to the Moon just grinds to a halt. Perhaps this is conceptual; as a matter of fact, the entirety of this album has the perception of becoming consistently slower from "The Antimatter" all the way to its conclusion. But even by those standards, this record could use a jolt of energy interspersed between the final three tracks.

The ending is a stylistically appropriate touch where Unreqvited revert back to textural singing and end the album on an uplifting note. Beautiful Ghosts was a record that found me at just the right time. It was a record that had no explicit meaning or themes, but given my position in 2021, Beautiful Ghosts left me breathless. In 2025, A Pathway to the Moon does not find me at such a vulnerable time, so it's easy for me to criticize it more for its shortcomings. Bur even at its worst, A Pathway to the Moon represents another wonderful album, one that I will gladly take the cosmic journey again.

Best Songs: The Starforger, Void Essence/Frozen Tears, Into the Starlit Beyond, Departure: Everlasting Dream

I have been a big fan of the Lovecraft-obsessed Frenchmen since the release of their sophomore, Tekeli-li, back in 2014. They have always imbued their atmospheric black metal with post-metal and even atmo-sludge elements to add an additional emotional redolence to their tales of eldritch horror. Whilst this latest follows a similar template, the band are also moving in a generally more progressive direction, as exemplified by the ten-minute opener, "Me, the Dreamer" and even more pertinently by the lengthy instrumental "Leng". "Me, the Dreamer" begins in TGOO's recognisably dense atmospheric black metal style, but at midpoint it takes an even more menacing turn, introducing an air of dissonance that sees it covering similar territory to that heard recently on Ulcerate's "Cutting the Throat of God", before making a more triumphal-sounding procession to song's end. The fifteen minutes of "Leng" exhibits even more musical turns, being an epic piece that expresses the faded grandeur and looming menace of long-forgotten and abandoned alien cityscapes better than any amount of words could. This track in particular, without it's reliance on the human voice, reveals how adept the band are becoming at writing metal that can convey atmosphere and mood by instrumentation alone and is a seminal piece for the band. The three guitarists weave in and out of each other with wistful and lighter motifs alongside hulking and towering, darker riffs making this a beautifully constructed and expressive instrumental.

Not only on those two tracks, but throughout it's hour-long runtime, Kadath sounds more ambitious than the band's previous material and feels like a band stretching their wings, having grown more confident in their technical abilities and reaching for more tools to utilise in their quest to produce music that fully conveys the dark and ominous concepts of the Cthulhu Mythos around which they base their ethos. They have always produced epic-sounding black metal, but their new-found confidence in their ability to expand their sound has taken this to a new level, with increasingly light and dark shades contrasting each other to deepen the otherworldly atmospherics. This isn't by any means a sea-change in the frenchmen's sound, but rather an evolution in the way they express themselves, I guess in a similar way that Enslaved successfully managed on their releases during the 2000s. Like the Norwegians TGOO are unafraid to sometimes take a slightly more melodic route with several of their riffs proving to be decidedly hooky, the opening riff of "Under the Sign of Koth" for example, being a particular foot-tapper.

All this has not come at the expense of any inate heaviness, it must be pointed out. Well, maybe a little, but I think that the more reflective moments often serve to throw the heavier sections into even sharper relief and render them consequently more effective. Look, Kadath is not exactly the kind of album you would put on to work out some aggression or for a good headbanging session, but that doesn't mean that it can't shake the foundations occasionally and it possesses enough sonic gut-punches to appeal to any number of discerning metalheads. But that ultimately isn't the aim of the album, it is for reflection and contemplation of the unknown corners of the human psyche and the barely concealed horrors lurking therein, to which end it is reasonably successful, I would suggest.

Probably the most desolate and bleak Black Metal album recorded by the turn of the century. DSBM hadn’t fully come into its own as a genre yet, and so what we had here was a proto example of the genre. Atmospheric Black as well as straight Black Metal rule the barren fields that this album makes home while heavy doses of DSBM and Doom Metal bring the pain and suffering. A generous amount of Prog Metal and some sparce glimpses of Post-Metal and Drone bring together the full scene of dark devastation.

Just 5 tracks, each well over 10 minutes, is an almost unheard-of decision in Black Metal. But by God, what a treat they are. Repetition is heavy in this album, but so is the progression of sections, tempos, and atmospheres into different chapters of each song. I’m not usually a fan of repetition, but here it is done well, giving each song memorable motifs that keep the listener grounded amidst the chaotic assault of crushing density.

The persevering despair of the record keeps it in the darkest depths of the aural spectrum despite the almost grandiose, epic sound that the band achieves. While usually focusing on the standard fare of Metal instrumentation, there are near-symphonic parts and ambient soundscapes that elevate the music into much greater heights. The power and density of these extra elements both add weight to the compositions while also highlighting the lead melodies. They are also infrequent enough that when they do occur, they immediately grab your attention.

Across all 76 minutes of this album, there wasn’t a moment I didn’t revel in. Even the Drone outro to the final track was just so perfectly placed, I never had any desire to shut it off before it ended. Fully a masterpiece.

Thyrfing are one of the bands who started consistently leading the Viking Metal movement after Bathory briefly abandoned the sound. Urkraft is a style of the genre that remains quite Blackened and heavy, yet still Folky and mostly uplifting.

The band’s previous album was characterized by having a strong Power Metal influence, making it speedy and melodic. Cheesy, sure, but fantastic stuff. This album loses most of that Power Metal influence for focus on a more midtempo, folky and epic sound. It’s still heavy and cheesy, but in a slightly different way. The compositions are strong and even border on progressive at times, and have some nice layering of instrumental pieces. However, I find myself missing their more energetic stuff.

I think especially with the genre picking up more traction around this time, “Urkraft,” as solid as it is, fails to really stand out from other albums in the genre. Where their previous album had a unique blend of Power Metal melody and energy in the mix, this one is far closer to straight Viking Metal. Still very well played and composed, but less memorable and less unique.

Primordial’s debut Imrama was actually a favorite of mine in the genre of Black Metal. It’s got fantastic Doomy atmosphere and lyricism, some gentler Folky parts, and lots of energy and great riffs. I was confused seeing that the ratings for it seem to be quite underrated, but having heard their following two albums, now I get it. And no, it’s not because they’re better.

Primordial started playing a slightly different style after their debut, with more intricate and eclectic songwriting, but far less aggression and doominess, which were the things I loved about the debut. Each release, in total opposition to the general public opinion, has been less and less appealing to me.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Spirit the Earth Aflame is a very good album. It’s got a nice variety of vocal styles and poetic lyricism. The songwriting is strong, with a lush variety of instrumentation, and sections ranging from slow, to mid-tempo, to even some classic Black Metal blast beating. I totally get why most people prefer this, as it seems this style very much became the band’s identity.

For me though, I hear some great music, but I’m really missing that anger, that melancholy they had before. Sure the identity is stronger, it certainly sounds more unique among the ever-growing mass of Black Metal releases, but hey, what can I say. I’m a sucker for the raw emotion on their older stuff. Spirit the Earth Aflame is a slightly more “artsy” record and I appreciate it for what it is, but more than anything it made me realize why their debut is so special and why no one else seems to like it as much.

Six years ago, Barshasketh released their fourth full length album (s/t) and I sat looking at it everytime it played, unable to fathom why I kept coming back.  A few critical listens later (three years worth to be precise) and I finally settled on a four star rating for the Mgla influenced melodicism and Sargeist-like chaos of the album.  Come 2025 and Barshasketh have me in pretty much the same position with album number five.  I have been listening to Antinomian Asceticism for about three weeks in all (even plugging in some earphones for some rare close time with it) and will be the first to admit that I am very much on the fence with it still.  It is not like there is not much to like here, even during the first track I am already reminded of Aosoth (one of my favourite French bm bands).  As the album goes on, those Sargeist vibes are strong again and I even get a hint of Akhlys in the music here (one of my all time favourite bm acts).

Despite these pleasing outliers, I still have all these splinters in my buttocks from this fence.  Whilst there are most definitely bits that I do not like (those chants are a little too verbose for me - bordering on over-demented, if such a term exists), Antinomian Asceticism has some absolute bangers also with the likes of Lebenswelt Below and Charnel Quietism both doing a superb job of ensuring that the middle section of the record is a real high point.  Yet, it lacks any memorability for me.  Spectral Wound do a far better job of letting melodicism rule the day and write better songs as a result of it for me.  In a way, whilst I acknowledge that Barshasketh overall is a very different band in style and approach, they are still a bit lost on me I am sorry to say

When the album finishes, I have no desire to revisit it; almost as if it is too arcane in nature for me to justify the reward for the effort I put in to try and figure it out.  As tightly played as it is (these guys know how to play) and as meaty as the production job makes it sound this time around, iteration number five of Barshasketh still presents a challenge for me.  In many ways, I want to like it a lot more than I do and maybe the repeated plays throughout the next few years that I dedicated to their previous album will eventually glean a similar outcome in terms of the rating, however for now I just cannot fully get to grips with Antinomian Asceticism.

Canada's Revenge are not a band for fucking around - they burst in, drop their war metal ordinance which is designed to cause the maximum number of aural casualties and then they get the fuck out. It isn't pretty and it isn't melodic. It is vicious and nasty and is meant to provoke a reaction of repulsion from the general record-buying public - and even the majority of metal fans I would surmise. To say that a band like Revenge only play for themselves and their fans is no hyperbole. I can't imagine them giving a shit about what anyone says about them because they make no concessions to trends, they make no attempt to expand their sound to appeal to a wider audience and they exhibit no desire to stretch themselves artistically. And you know what, I can respect that because I always appreciate those who are comfortable in their own skin and who couldn't give a toss what naysayers think or say.

Then, on the other hand there is a counter argument which says, how many Revenge albums do you actually need if they all plough exactly the same furrow? How can you get excited about a new Revenge release when it sounds so much like all the others? These are both good questions and certainly have a validity. They are charging $9.99 for the digital version on Bandcamp, $16 for a CD and from $29 for the vinyl - even the cassette version is $18, so why should you pay that much for a further rehashing of the same old sound? I am sorry, but I don't have a nice, neat answer for you and if you need to ask the question in the first place then I would have to say dont bother and look elsewhere for your musical kicks.

So what is that sound I probably don't hear you ask? It is a pulverising deathly black metal cacophony that is typical of the war metal genre. It is abrasive and unrelenting - there are no lulls in the perpetual aural bombardment, no reduction in tempo, no dropping into the odd groove-laden riff or dishing up of the occasional hook to give the brain a fragment of flotsam to hold onto in a boiling sea of blood and steel. The vocals are distorted shouts and hideous growls that often don't even seem to be issuing from human throats, shearing away even that shred of human connection from the listener. The drums batter away with a basic brutalisation of blastbeats whilst the few guitar solos just sound like somebody torturing their six-stringer into acquiescence. War metal in general and Revenge in particular produce metal that is meant to test the endurance of the listener. It is meant to be a visceral, almost physical, experience that is supposed to leave you feeling worn out and spent, it isn't deep and contemplative, or designed to make you think, unless it is about unmentionable horror and fear. This is metal that is uncompromisingly primal, raw and uncaring, so if that sounds truly awful to you then don't waste your time here - Revenge wouldn't thank you for it anyway.

Very much a tale of two different listening experiences in the same week, A Pathway to the Moon has had a bumpy old ride with me this week.  The first run through was as a result of a late night exploration of new releases on Spotify as I struggled to sleep in a hotel.  In that scenario the rich tapestry of melodic guitars and gazey vocals, soothed my soul sufficiently to send me off on a peaceful sleep.  By no means a backhanded compliment to Unreqvited, this was a good first experience in that particular circumstance.  The second listen through was done in the car driving along a picturesque section of motorway in the north of England.  Again, this was a positive experience. The lushious instrumentation was the perfect accompaniment to the rolling hills of the landscape I was passing through.  My thoughts turned to listening experiences with the likes of Saor as those soaring leads and expansive soundscapes took me back to my early explorations of that group.  It is rare that I find myself being able to make such a connection between my surroundings and the music in my ears at the time, let alone find an album to be so endearing to me under two very different scenarios.

I know what you are thinking now, dear reader.  Why is this rating showing a paltry 2.5 stars if he loves it so much?  The fact is, outside of sleep impaired lucidity and breathtaking scenery, A Pathway to the Moon is repetitive to the point of being boring.  When listened to in the isolation of trying to appreciate the actual album content it is hard not to feel cheated in that the same ideas are just being repeated over and over again.  Tracks more or less are just built the same, using the same notes it sounds like, and as much as I cannot deny that this is really well performed stuff, clearly written by a very capable artist, the performance level is marred by the lack of variation in style.  There is, of course, something to be said for establishing a blueprint and sticking to it.  However, truly great albums need to work at a very basic level first of all.  Before A Pathway to the Moon can be (correctly) acknowledged for its ability to work in the tenderer moments of one's surroundings it needs to be putting down roots, and unfortunately there is little to get entangled with when you look past the aesthetics of the album.     

The overall experience is a little akin to meeting someone whom you believe at first engagement to be really exciting or possessing a large degre of intrigue about their character, only to find after a few minutes that they are just regurgitating the same script that is clearly well rehearsed.  Whilst I cannot go as far as to say Unreqvited are a fake, the interest levels lack much in the way of magnetism to truly keep them an interesting concept.

At the moment of writing this, I am sitting at my back window, staring out into the public park behind my home, enthralled by the sight of anywhere between 15-20 cm of snow, perfectly still, almost foreboding in a way. Suffice to say that I was in the perfect conditions to listen to the new Saor album. When I discovered Andy Marshall's Celtic/black metal band in 2016, it came at a wonderful time. I had just completed my undergrad and had spent the better part of two years not listening to any metal. That's when Guardians arrived and I was taken away to the plains of Caledonia and its atmospheric beauty, complimented by a monstrous album.

I understood many of the detractors on Saor's previous album, Origins. It was less so a black metal album and dug its feet in with its Celtic folk roots. And while I never saw that as a bad thing, the songwriting did take a noticeable downgrade. And the first thing I noticed when turning on "Amidst the Ruins" for the first time was how well the folk roots blended with the revived black metal framework; it's even better than before! The hook on the title track is not only vibrant, but also carries a lot of weight through the entire thirteen minutes. Carrying into "Echoes of the Ancient Land", the grandeur picks up with lots of countermelodies flowing through the track. The harsh/clean vocal combo sounds wonderful and not indulgent in the slightest.

The one true issue I have is the interlude "The Sylvan Embrace" although calling it an interlude might be a misnomer. This track is over eight minutes long and, while beautiful, does not need that much time to simmer. This is Andy Marshall's longest album since Guardians so I understand the need for a reprieve. But Saor have never been of the brutal style of black metal that you might expect from Watain or Spectral Wound. For something as melodic and pleasant as this, I don't really see the need for extended breaks like this one. By comparison, "Exile" on Forgotten Paths would have made for a more acceptable length of break here.

"Rebith" lives up to its title by channeling a similar energy to "Monadh" from Forgotten Paths as well. It's pretty much two songs in one and both halves are given love and care. The first half brings back the black metal weight that was missing following "The Sylvan Embrace" and might be the most intense song that Saor have ever produced. The second half is this simple melodic motif that gradually swells over time and transforms into an epic conclusion. I will say that I think "Rebirth" ends a bit abruptly? I know, it just feel like with Parasomnia, this album should release its epic conclusion onto us in those final five minutes, but it leaves a bit more modest than I would like. Saor should leave the listener with a sense of wonder instead of wondering. 

I will admit, like with Origins, I don't think this album is bad. In fact, I would say that Amidst the Ruins is the proper comeback that fans of Andy Marshall deserve; a more revived focus on the atmospheric black metal, with a newly invigorated take on Celtic folk music. And each song has its truly epic moments in them. But as a whole? Amidst the Ruins loses steam in its final two songs. I'm still gonna bite the bullet and buy this record on vinyl and give it a high score, claiming it as one of 2025's first essential listens, but if I'm in the mood for Saor, I might go back to older albums like Guardians and Aura first.

Best Songs: Amidst the Ruins, Echoes of the Ancient Land, Glen of Sorrow, Rebirth

For once, my Spotify algorithm doesn't dogpile with endless droves of AI generated music and the same three albums since 2015. Oubliette originate from Tennessee and are quite small in their reach, with only a couple thousand monthly listens. For the bands third album, Eternity Whispers, the atmospheric, melodic sound has been tampered with in favour of some more death metal tendencies. Even though I would consider them as primary touches to enhance the album, the black metal portions are exquisite. I really enjoy the melodies in the guitars and how they modulate from tremolo picking leads to arpeggiated post-metal breaks. They create an excellent change in timbre as the percussion acts much the same way. Some slower grooves, some heavy blast beats as well as passages where the drums aren't playing at all. The vocals sound good mostly, my one issue with Emily's singing is that it can be a mixed game where sometimes they sound pronounced and explicit, while others, such as on "Dreams of Nevermore" they can be pushed pretty far back in the hierarchy. The album has an instrumental ("Ember's Embrace") that features Ben Karas from Thank You Scientist, and the albums closer ("Vanish") has quite a progressive flare, leaving room for growth in the future. It also shows growth as an album, which is far more progressive than the Berklee jazz slop that Dream Theater releases these days. The record surely isn't without fault, but for a short, pleasant piece of melodic black metal, it's a great listen.

Best Songs: Primordial Echo, Consumed by the Void, Desolate Path, Ember's Embrace, Vanish

They say that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, but there is nothing flattering about this sorry ass excuse for a Lacuna Coil clone.

Start with Lacuna Coil. 

Make the production absolutely ass-push the worst aspects of Lacunas music as far forward in the mix as possible. Now layer it to ridiculous proportions. 

Take that and run it through a talent strainer, because we can’t have anything good interfering with the pure septic essence that this thing is.

Some people are going to hear the unconventional instrumentation that comes on thick and heavy and become tricked into thinking they are hearing something special. Make them sit through the whole album, let that wear off, and see if they like it once that new and shiny feeling goes away.

This is obnoxious, grating, and irritating music mixed to torment. This is what plays 24/7 in hell. 

Ya know what? Each year I watch the annual Eurovision contest and without fail there is a country that sends that contests “metal” entry, and it’s always horrible and I always hate it-that’s what this sounds like.

This debut album is basically what would happen if a bunch of metalheads discovered real extremities for the first time, decided that Born of Osiris was just as good as Emperor, and then thought they would be the coolest thing on Earth if they decided to mash the two.  Well, they didn't end up the coolest thing on Earth, but it's not that bad of a debut.

The most important thing to keep in mind are the veterans these guys got to help with the album, notable a couple of metal veterans: Emperor drummer Tryn, and metal producer James Murphy.  High grade celebs.  The worst thing to keep in mind is the constant deathcore-infusion, which the symphonics can't quite drown out.  The writing itself is pretty good, going into a lot of complex and unpredictable parts while maintaining a constant vibe.  But with the album always switching between another blast beat, violins and the bare essentials that symphonic black metal needs, it pretty much becomes 46 minutes of the same thing; it's variations of the same song that gradually get less original and slightly worse overtime.  Now this doesn't mean the album eventually sucks.  In fact, the first two songs: The World Beyond and Acolytes, are actually very good.  Acolytes is almost incredible in a way, largely due to a keen awareness of what extreme metal needs to sound like.  Obviously, we have our two veterans to thank for that.  But eventually, the album bears the same originality as any Fleshgod Apocalypse album.  Thankfully, there's one shining example of great writing on side B: Empyrean.  That song really carries some of the Emperor spirit and is one of the heavier tracks.  I might even say it's my favorite song on that album.

So, starts of great, finishes decent, has instances of brilliance.  Stays brutally heavy throughout, and beautifully produced.

The Dark Hereafter was the fifth full-length from the Mancunian black metallers and marked a slight tonal shift for the band. It also courted some controversy amongst fans, not for its musical progression, but for the fact that it had a mere forty minutes runtime and only five tracks, one of which "Pariah's Path" was already available as a bonus track on the previous The Divination of Antiquity album. The closer, "Led Astray in the Forest Dark" is a cover of Ulver's "Capitel I: I Troldskog faren vild" from their iconic Bergtatt album, so The Dark Hereafter only actually delivered three new tracks, yet at full price!

Anyway, down to the music. Side one comprised three tracks of the sweeping and melodic atmospheric black metal we were familiar with from Winterfylleth's previous output. Opening with the title track, the pummelling blastbeats tell us we are on solid ground, especially when the expansive tremolo riff sweeps us away to windblown moors where opposing warrior bands face off against each other. The lyrics of this opener and also "Ensigns of Victory" feed very much into that aesthetic with tales of Anglo-Saxon resistance against Norse invaders in Dark Age England. Along with the aforementioned "Pariah's Path" these two tracks comprise side one, their familiarity easing us fans into the album. I must, however, point out at this point that I felt something a little "off" here and decided it comes down to the production which seems to mute the higher registers of the tremolo riffs and renders the cymbals almost inaudible. It's not a big deal as such, but it is sufficient to be noticeable.

With the two tracks on side two the Mancunians depart somewhat from their usual approach. "Green Cathedral" is a much slower affair than we are used to from the band, straying into post-black metal territory, spending much of its opening five minutes building from a sparse beginning with thin synths, a clean, almost liturgical chant and a hypnotic, chiming guitar phrase into a mournful-sounding middle section with plodding drumbeats and a ringing tremolo riff accompanied by Dan Capp's harsh vocals. The final third of "Green Cathedral" sees the synths sweep in and the liturgical voices join with the harsh shrieks to provide a quite epic and melancholy climax, eventually ending with a clean-spoken eulogy to a departed soul, which I personally found to be quite haunting and affecting.

The album then closes out with the Ulver cover, "Led Astray in the Forest Dark" which is faithfully reproduced by the Mancunians as a tribute to an album that they claim was very influential on them. It has a bit more meat on its bones than the thinly-produced Bergtatt original, but otherwise it is a faithful rendering of the Ulver classic. Small quibbles aside regarding whether this is worthy of full-length album status and a niggling issue with the production, it is nevertheless an interesting release in the Winterfylleth discography and is probably worth it for "Green Cathedral" alone, although the rest is certainly up to the band's usual standards musically. Interestingly, this is the first Winterfylleth album to involve Mark Deeks and, in light of some similarities between "Green Cathedral" and some of Deeks' work under his Arð banner, I can't help but wonder if he had a big impact on the band's songwriting at this point. It may also be salient to acknowledge that the next album was the pure folk album The Hallowing of Heirdom and The Dark Hereafter may have been a case of the band clearing the decks before a new phase in their development.

I'm at the point to where I could make a top 200 of great black metal albums, and as expected, many of the albums I first checked out seem to lose their originality overtime.  Summoning is one of the best examples of this.  Now, Summoning made a name for themselves by continuing the synth appeal of Emperor but with a more mystifying and ambient presence.  What with Minas Morgul working out well for them with less of the symphonics, this next album was step forward for them.  While other symphonic metal bands were screaming their asses off like Cradle of Filth, Dol Guldur cemented the fantasy epic style of slow and beautiful black metal that defined many bands to come.  Part of this style is the much more blatant usage of dungeon synth interludes, intros, backdrops, etc., and for a little while that set them apart.  My beef with this album, however, is that there doesn't seem to be any reason for every song to sound the same.  In other words, Summoning discovered who they want to be on the third album, and kept that sound going, but didn't bother doing anything else.  68 minutes of being good at only one thing is a little much, and in a few instances the metal and synths don't pair well, such as with Khazad Dum.  Thankfully, the instrumentation works, the vocals are great and the mood is certain and proud.

Wędrujący Wiatr are a polish duo comprising W. (aka Swaikstan), who is also a founder member of Sworz, and Razor (real name Tadeusz Jurzec). Both play guitar and contribute folk instrumentation with Razor performing vocals and playing drums and keyboards, whilst W. is the band's bassist.

"O turniach, jeziorach i nocnych szlakach" is black metal that is completely rooted in the natural world, its title translating as "About the Peaks, Lakes and Night Trails". From its panoramic, sweeping soundscapes with their pipe-like accompaniments to the restrained, clean-picked folk interludes and field recordings of natural sounds such as birdsong, wind and running water, this is a celebration of the Great Outdoors in all its splendour. There is a richness to the sound that gives it more solidity than the ephemeral and thin production often associated with the frostier versions of atmospheric black metal, as if to emphasise the permanence of the mountains and lakes when compared to the mere fleeting passing of seasons. The vocals contribute to this fuller sound, Razor's voice being a lower-pitched, ragged bellow rather than the harsh shriek often employed by black metal vocalists. It is still pushed down slightly in the mix to give it a more distant quality, as is common, but it retains sufficient power to bolster the depth of the overall sound.

Instrumentally, the tremolo riffs swell and recede like the mountain peaks they portray, with some gorgeous melodies that speak of the immense majesty of the natural landscape. The sound is filled out further with the incorporation of several folk instruments, particularly pipes, it appears, and with a restrained application of keyboards which gives several of the tracks, especially the opener-proper, "Wołanie z granitowych twierdz", a Celtic flavour, reminding me very much of Andy Marshall's Saor project. Razor's drumming is mostly blastbeats and cymbals, driving the tracks and adding impetus to the riffing to ensure the dynamic sweep of the tracks never flounders.

With "O turniach, jeziorach i nocnych szlakach" these Poles have turned in exactly the sort of album that hits my atmospheric black metal sweet spot, its paeons to the natural world being both uplifting and inspiring, this is black metal with a positive spirit for those who feel any kind of connection with Nature.

Despondency Chord Progressions is quite a tough album to dissect. I went into this album expecting it to more dissonant, as the opening track "La encarnación de todos los miedos" suggested. Afterwards, this album became far more of a progressive affair and the dissonance served more as a embellishment to stronger songwriting than I expected. Unfortunately for Selbst, nothing within this record feels like a true songwriting gem; rather the album has some strong grooves that are very enjoyable while I am listening to them, but not sticky enough to remain in the listeners memory for very long, or even the musicians ears. Any semblance of a true motif is hiding behind the wall of black metal reverb and effects, limiting the potential of both the guitar leads and the harsh vocals.

When these sounds are present, they sound great; it really feels like a well constructed blending of both melodic and dissonant tendencies, to go alongside a strong balance of pummeling black metal and restrained post-metal. But, my issue is that these two contrary ideas are just that: contrary. They are kept separated instead of blending the two together into a cohesive juggernaut of a metal album. Instead we are left with an album that is more disjointed and lost than I think Selbst would have liked.

I'm not saying that it's a bad record; far from it. As it comes to quasi post-black metal, there are a lot of ideas that work. But bringing them together is a real challenge and I'm not quite sure Selbst pull it off quite fully yet. I have a feeling this album will get better with a few more listens.

Best Songs: Chant of Self Confrontation, The Stench of a Dead Spirit, When True Loneliness is Experienced

Knowing nothing of Code, I did my due diligence and it turns out that they are from the UK, or at least founding member (and only remaining member of the lineup that recorded Nouveau Gloaming), Aort, is. He began the band as a solo project called Seaonal Code in 1998, recording a number of demos before shortening the name to Code and expanding the lineup by bringing in fellow Brit Kvohst as vocalist and recording a further demo in 2002. Further expansion to a five-piece with the addition of US guitarist, Vyttra and a norwegian rhythm section of bassist Viper and drummer AiwarikiaR, saw the release of this, their debut, in 2005.

An initial, cursory listen-through reveals something a little unusual with Nouveau Gloaming, which is the liberal use of clean vocals on what is, essentially, a black metal album. Not exclusively, to be sure, but enough to make the listener sit up and take notice. Kicking off with opener, "The Cotton Optic", things begin fairly conventionally with a very tightly-performed slice of conventional black metal which has a memorable, medium-paced riff that wouldn't sound out of place on a Satyricon album. Very soon, though, things take a different turn with second track "Brass Dogs" being the first to feature the aforementioned clean vocals. It starts and ends with a crackling sound and those clean vocals, recorded very thinly, as if playing on an old record player through cheap speakers. A fairly ominous and slow-tempo tremolo riff joins in along with sluggish drum beats to provide accompaniment to the, obviously deliberately, oddly-produced and slightly disorientating vocals. This is quite a stange track and it does have a kind of disconcerting effect on the listener, which, after the fairly conventional and accessible opener made me wonder where Code would be taking us next.

"An Enigma In Brine" has a post-black feeling to it, with the tremolo riffs forming a wall of sound, alternating clean and harsh vocals and a slow tempo, with lumbering drumbeats, eventually building in tempo and intensity. This is followed by "A Cloud-Formed Teardrop Asylum" which begins with a liturgical chant vibe and those increasingly familiar clean vocals before turning in a progressive black direction that feels a little like the kind of track latter-day Enslaved would be very comfortable with, sounding both epic and poignant, although I felt it ended a little too abruptly.

I think by now you get the picture that this is not exactly your typical black metal album, but something far broader in scope, with a diversity of structure and texture from track to track. It must be said, however, that the album as a whole, despite the individual tracks' diversity does have a coherent and cohesive tone and atmosphere, with a general feeling of discomfort and unease generated by the feeling that something is somehow amiss. I see that the band later went in a more progressive direction and that is certainly hinted at here in their earliest work as even this early on they seem to be seeking to breach the boundaries and constrictions of their chosen genre. Technically the band sound consumately accomplished to my untrained ear and their songwriting is forward-looking and ambitious, building a fairly unique atmosphere with their musical abilities rather than relying on production techniques to do the heavy-lifting atmosphere-wise as some are wont to do. The production is exceedingly clear and allows each member ample exposure in the mix.

I must admit I am very pleasantly surprised by Nouveau Gloaming as I was unaware of the UK having been the home of such a unique black metal release. It is both accessible and thoughtful, whilst still generating the kind of uneasy air that great black metal is so consummately suited for and is one of the UK's more interesting black metal efforts.

Following on from the success of Limbo, Portuguese black metallers, Gaerea continued that rich vein of form into Mirage some two years later, with the latter release achieving a full, five-star rating from me in 2022. Pipped to the post of AOTY for that year only by the might Messa with Close, Gaerea continued to show a great panache for performing some richly melodic and yet intensely focused black metal, even landing them the title of my favourite modern black metal band. Somehow during 2024 I lost complete track of the band and I subsequently missed Coma being released altogether. I do recall hearing the single, World Ablaze however and feeling underwhelmed which may have subconsciously thrown me off the trail of the album.

After a few listens through Coma there are a couple of points of note. The riffs sound like they have more bite than on previous releases and the trill factor of the tremolo seems to have increased also. This seems largely due to the addition of Sonia Schuringa on second guitar after Guilherme Henriques added vocal duties on top of his string responsibilities following the departure of original vocalist Ruben Freitas. The melodies seem to resonate stronger throughout the tracks this time around, creating something of a wall of melody that sits behind the pounding percussion and more aggressive vocal sections.

The change of vocalist has beefed up the sound of Gaerea in some regards, with a death metal style complimenting the blackened intensity of the guitar as well as providing a nice juxtapose to the more clean, post-metal elements. Yet in some way, Coma feels tamer than what has gone before it. It is as if this album is an experiment in to just what direction Gaerea will turn next as their career progresses, exploring those “post” elements whilst dialling up their vocal delivery, certainly hints that creativity flows strongly through the band’s veins. In doing so though, the delivery seems to be off this time around. For me at least, Coma is a frontloaded record. Once I get past the title track at the halfway point, I struggle to remember much of what I hear. I only remember Wilted Flower because it feels one of the most overtly “post” tracks here, with its whispered vocal section drifting dangerously close to “gaze” territory.

None of this makes Coma a bad record. I would argue you would struggle to find as creative and ambitious sounding band in black metal as what I hear over the fifty-minutes run time of this record. Whilst it is too early to be crying phrases such as “identity crisis”, Gaerea are evolving, and the direction might not be for all. For now, there is still enough quality on this album that covers black metal, blackened death and post-metal without alienating me.

Severoth is the atmospheric black metal solo project of Ukraine's Illia Rafalskyi, also known as Galdur (dungeon synth) and Morok (conventional black metal). I only caught up with this project with the release of previous album, Vsesvit, back in 2020, very much enjoying it's sweeping soundscapes that struck me as similar to Andy Marshall's Saor, a project I have an enormous amount of time for. By the Way of Light continues in similar vein, the shortest of it's five tracks being just shy of nine minutes in length, so ample time is allowed for the epic and expansive atmospherics of the tracks to take root and fill the imagination with images of wild and wind-blown, remote panoramas where nature is given full reign.

Instrumentally, the album consists of thin, repetitive tremolo riffs and programmed drums, overlaid with lush synths which provide added depth via their sonic layering. Skirling lead work suggests the accompaniment of folk instrumentation, such as pipes for a sweeping, folk-centric atmosphere which fans of Saor will certainly recognise immediately. The vocals are ragged howling shrieks, pushed down in the mix slightly suggesting distance both metaphorical and real, apart from a couple of clean sung sections, one in the second half of opening track, "Sunrise Will Come", and another during "To the Stars!" which are more to the fore and in an epic folk style.

It is impossible to listen to the album and read the lyrics and ignore the context in which they have been written. As a resident of Dnipro in Ukraine, Illia is obviously seriously affected by the war and the album, in particular the first two tracks, reflects the mindset of Ukrainians caught up in the horrors. "Sunrise Will Come" with lyrics such as "Sunrise will come, and with it’s own light reveals to us, this new brave world" is certainly a reference to the fact that the current situation cannot last forever and a belief that things will end well. "Sons of Steel Will", the album's most aggressive-sounding track, meanwhile pronounces, "In blaze of the battle, by heat of the bloodshed, We are Sons Of Steel Will" paying tribute to the Ukrainians' indomitability.

In truth, there isn't a whole deal you haven't heard many times before, but it is artfully put together and very competently performed with a steely heart that says, even in the depths of horror, hope and beauty can be found. I found it to actually be a very uplifting album, it's sonic depictions of wide-open natural expanses allowing the listener to metaphorically fill their lungs with the glory of nature in the midst of their busy everyday lives, which is a gift that none but the best can pull off this effectively. If a whole people can be inspired to this in the midst of war, then surely we can in the context of our (thankfully) humdrum lives. This is probably an album for the more romantically-inclined black metal listener rather than the trve kvlt hordes, but if you have any kind of empathy or love of the human spirit in your heart then give it a listen.

Barshasketh originated in New Zealand in 2007 and was comprised of multi-instrumentalist, Krigeist (Bròn, Belliciste, Sluagh) and drummer Maldoror. Sometime after the release of their debut album, Defying the Bonds of Cosmic Thraldom, Krigeist relocated to Edinburgh in Scotland, recruiting Cnoc an Tursa drummer, Bryan Hamilton, into the ranks and adding a second guitarist in Haar's Guillaume Martin. The lineup is nowadays a four-piece, Hamilton having moved on, with current drummer, Finland's Mika Kallio, of Seal of Beleth, also contributing vocals and keyboards and Falloch's Ben Brown on bass. I was quite the fan of the band's previous, self-titled, album released in 2019 with it's no-nonsense approach and resistance to any genre hybridisation that has plagued black metal in recent times, so was looking forward to a new release. Thankfully Barshasketh have delivered and may have produced their best release to date.

The first point of particular note is the more muscular production job which has boosted the bottom end and thickened the band's sound when compared to previous releases. I like how it adds power and heft to the tracks, although there may be some backlash from fans against the loss of the more typically thin and trebley sound of yore. Not to fear, the tremolo riffing is all still present and correct, but the rhythm section has definitely benefitted from the meatier production job and truly provide the roaring velocity behind the individual tracks.

Songwriting-wise, Antinomian Asceticism is quite a busy affair, with multiple tempo changes that sees the band switching into crawling doom metal mode on several occasions in amongst the swarming savagery of the tremolo riffs and withering salvos of blastbeats. Many of the riffs are fairly memorable and even, dare I say, melodic at times, but this is offset by a penchant for quite dissonant guitar leads that introduce some jaggedness into proceedings and prevents the tracks from becoming too catchy. This dichotomy at the heart of Antinomian Asceticism is further bolstered by the vocal performances. The main vocals are a harsh, gurgling shriek which are occasionally accompanied by solemn, chant-like cleans, providing a contrast to the aggressive harshness of the lead vocals and imparting emotional tension between peaceful, ritualistic reverence on one hand and chaotic aggression on the other.

Whilst still flying under the radar to some extent, Bashasketh are undoubtedly proving themselves to be a very tight unit. They are technically proficient, as well as being efficient songwriters with a consummate skill for producing high quality, uncompromising black metal, yet which embraces a modern sound that marks them out as more than mere 1990's copyists. Hopefully this new album will see the band emerging from out of the shadow of lesser lights and gaining the respect that their quality deserves.

Swiss atmospheric black metal solo-act Paysage d'Hiver has been somewhat of a mainstay of my extreme metal diet since first discovering Darkspace guitarist & Kunsthall Produktionen label owner Tobias Möckl (or Wintherr as he likes to known as) through the 1999 self-titled Paysage d'Hiver demo some ten years after initial release. While I do think that demo was a touch overrated as I'm not sure I can say that I believe it to be a genuine black metal classic, a number of Paysage d'Hiver's subsequent releases have seen me being taken further into the deepest depths of some of the darkest & most frostbitten Scandinavian landscapes in existence. I should highlight 2001's classic "Winterkaelte" demo & Wintherr's spectacular 2020 debut album "Im Wald" (my personal favourite) in particular as well as 2013's excellent "Das Tor" as essential examples of the atmospheric black metal sound although there is plenty of quality to be found across the vast majority of Paysage d'Hiver's esteemed back catalogue. Which leads me to the Swiss icons latest release, the 2024 sophomore album "Die Berge", another immense & undeniably lengthy slab of icy black metal designed specifically to take the listener to unfamiliar & very imposing places. My anticipation for this record was very high so I wasted no time in checking it out as soon as it was released a couple of months ago but knew full well that it would require a significant investment of time to fully understand so waited until my traditional January new release purge to review it in full.

"Die Berge" sounds very much as you would expect from a new Paysage d'Hiver record to be honest. Wintherr maintains complete creative control of his project, producing every second of the album himself & releasing it through his own label. The production is (unsurprisingly) as cold as ice, fully embracing the traditional lo-fi aesthetic that Möckl has played such a role in popularizing over the years to great effect with the textural guitars blurring together in a wall of fuzzy noise which sees the synthesizers often being tasked with maintaining the melodic component. Wintherr's vocals are certainly more deathly than you would usually expect on a black metal release, sitting largely in space that's usually consumed by the death metal crowd, but his truly monstrous tone & unnerving delivery is one of the clear highlights of this admittedly fairly indulgent release. My main gripe is an obvious one however. It's not surprising to find Wintherr employing a drum machine to produce the drum tracks as that's a very common thing amongst the atmospheric black metal crowd these days but it's the way that he's done it that bothers me a little. The slower material isn't such an issue but I can't deny that the faster pieces (particularly the relentlessly brutal "Ausstieg") are effected by the fact that the drums sound so obviously artificial & offer so little in the way of fills, rolls or variety. In a seventeen minute track that rarely ceases in its use of blast-beats, that can be a challenge & I can't deny that it's affected my overall score which is a testament to just how incredible Wintherr's understanding of the black metal genre is. You see, the rest of the music here is nothing short of historic with some of the pieces even challenging the great Burzum records of the mid-1990's for sheer dark & otherworldly atmosphere. I honestly don't think there is anyone in the modern scene that can touch Paysage d'Hiver in this regard.

The tracklisting is without blemish but there are a number of songs that need to be highlighted as genuine black metal classics in my opinion. The best of these can be found in the savage "Verinnerlichung" & the trance-inducing "Transzendenz III", both of which are about as perfect as representation of the black metal genre as you'll find. Opener "Urgrund" & the more stripped back, Burzum-inspired "Transzendenz II" aren't too far behind either & would surely be lapped up by any self-respecting member of our The North clan. Epic closer "Gipfel" is worth mentioning too as it takes an instrumental doom/death approach that stands out as being a bit different for Wintherr. It's done very well though & makes for a solid way to end the 103-minute journey through the some of the least habitable places on the planet.

"Die Berge" is another Tobias Möckl masterpiece as far as I'm concerned which makes the impact of the drum programming even more frustrating than it might otherwise have been. You see, I can easily see this record being one of the great black metal albums of all time but it's taken down a peg by those mechanical rhythms that often detract a little from the precision that Paysage d'Hiver goes about creating his transformative art. The rest of the instrumentation is simply so primitive with the vocals being summoned up from the very back of the darkest cave in all the world so the mechanical, artificial nature of some of the beats seems to fight against it to an extent. Thankfully, Wintherr is a master technician of his craft so I still can't help but to buy into the product he's pushing. No one has come this close to touching Varg Vikernes in all the years since 1996's life-changing "Filosofem" fourth Burzum album but I'll be damned if Möckl doesn't match him here on occasion which has resulted in my second-favourite Paysage d'Hiver release behind "Im Wald". "Die Berge" should be essential listening for devotees of the more atmospheric end of the black metal spectrum.

For fans of Darkspace, Lunar Aurora & Burzum.

Another 2024 catchup album and this one comes from the Portuguese black metal band Gaerea. Although calling Coma black metal might be of a false flag, since the album has more in common with the progressive side of death metal. At best, Coma might be one of those progressive death/black metal hybrid albums that are rare, but are becoming more common in circles I visit.

Nevertheless, Coma does have it strong suit moments. I really enjoy the production on this project; the dynamic shifts between the clean post-rock and the ferocious extreme metal passages is pulled off exceptionally well throughout the albums runtime. And despite the harsh vocals requiring some getting used to, I really enjoyed their texture. The vocals are pronounced (which is rare for black metal) and not over-compressed in a cavern of reverb. 

Unfortunately, this is an album that suffers from diminishing returns the longer it goes on. When the album begins, it's good; an elongated post-rock opening before "The Poet's Ballet" opens up into the aforementioned death/black metal hybrid that will become commonplace through the rest of the record. "Hope Shatters" is great and "World Ablaze" has a cheeky post-hardcore feel to it and reminded me of a Svalbard tune in the best way possible. But after the title track, "Coma", the album seems to revert to a very familiar sound and doesn't feel engaging with the audience; songs become formulaic and become interchangeable with the others, the main melodic motifs in the vocals and guitar become less emphatic and more post-metal texture rather than something memorable. The experimentation of song progression through "The Poet's Ballet" and "Suspended" is forgotten as shorter, more intense tracks become the regular.

Coma is a record that has aspirations that are pulled off mostly well. True black/death metal crossovers are much less frequent than you may think, so hearing one that is as blatant as this makes it a decent jumping on point. Although the album does fall into familiarity after a while, it still does leave some echo of uniqueness to it. 

Best Songs: Hope Shatters, World Ablaze, Unknown

Melechesh is a Hebrew/Aramaic word meaning King of Fire and the band began in Jerusalem in 1993 as a solo project of Ashmedi before expanding to a three-piece in 1994. The band's black metal is based on Assyrian occult themes and caused them much grief with the authorities in Israel where they were accused of "dark cult activities", ultimately leading to them relocating to Europe in 1998.

The Epigenesis is the band's fifth full-length album and was originally released in 2010. Its eleven tracks weigh in at a whopping 71 minutes, but I never really noticed the album's length (always a good sign) due to the high quality of the music on offer. I would hesitate to call this folk metal as only a couple of tracks feature traditional instruments heavily, but the black metal on offer here most definitely has rhythms and patterns more commonly associated with traditional Middle Eastern music. The majority of the album comprises medium-paced, melodic black metal, incorporating influences from progressive and technical death metal with those traditional rhythms helping to evoke an effective and vivid atmosphere - you can almost smell the hookah smoke as you approach one of the regions dusty and ancient monuments to people and deities long forgotten, invoking images similar to those of Max von Sydow in Iraq at the beginning of The Exorcist. There is an epicness on display here that speaks of the esoteric history of the lands of the band's beginnings and the long-forgotten occult origins that have since been replaced by more modern monotheistic religions.

The album kicks off with a killer one-two punch, the memorable black metal riffing of Ghouls of Nineveh then the thrashiness of Grand Gathas of Baal Sin with it's war-chant ending make for a top-notch start. Sacred Geometry takes up the torch and runs with it, pulling in influences from tech-death to add to the arabic rhythms of the track's black metal root. The Magickan and the Drones is one of the most savage-sounding tracks on the album, it's riff has an edge that could dismember the listener if they are caught unaware and Mystics of the Pillar is an epic monster with a slower pacing and a heavier arabic-folk influence, particularly in it's middle section. At this point the first of a couple of traditional-sounding arabic folk tracks is encountered, serving as a respite from the unrelenting heaviness of the album's first half an hour or so, this gives the listener chance to breathe and take in the atmosphere. Defeating the Giants is the album's shortest track and with a thrashing chug added to it's black metal savagery it buzzes round your head like a swarm of locusts. Now where most black metal album's would be thinking of calling it a day at this point The Epigenesis ups it's game and the final four tracks are possibly the album's best. Two guts and blood crackers in Illumination: The Face of Shamash and Negative Theology are followed by the second arabic folk track, A Greater Chain of Being, that perfectly sets up the epic, twelve-minute eponymous closer.

It must be said, the production on this is fantastic, every track and instrument is crystal clear so that the production process doesn't get in the way of the music's impact. Interestingly, the album was recorded in Istanbul and Ashmedi admits to recording the vocal tracks naked at night because "I wanted to feel as primal as possible to fairly represent the vocals."

Melechesh are most definitely one of my favourite modern black metal bands, their songwriting and mucisianship are superb and they certainly refuse to tread the same old furrows as some of their contemporaries. I love all the band's albums, but this is definitely my favourite, it's incorporation of other musical elements and an overall more technical and progressive feel are a departure from their earlier sound and feel like a band growing and stretching themselves whilst losing none of their bite. To produce an album that is at once savage, primal, complex and atmospheric is one hell of an achievement and I for one can't get enough.

Adorior are a death metal five-piece originally from Sutton in England's West Midlands. Formed in 1994, their recorded output is exceedingly sparse with just three full-lengths and a couple of splits to their name. The band have undergone several lineup changes in their three decades of existence, with vocalist Jaded Lungs (real name Melissa Gray) being the only remaining original member. I hadn't heard of the band prior to this, but on the strength of Bleed on My Teeth, it seems that Adorior are one of the UK's best-kept extreme metal secrets.

This is an album of thrashy death metal with blackened tendencies, but that genre description fails to convey the sheer evil-sounding chaos that is about to assault your eardrums when you put needle to record (or more likely press play on your chosen streaming service). The more I listen to Bleed on My Teeth, the more I am convincing myself that it is a war metal album, albeit with a clearer and less messy production than is often assosciated with the genre. A cursory investigation of their earlier albums reveals that they have toned down the black metal influence on this latest and it sounds even more muscular and bludgeoningly brutal as a result.

Vocalist Jaded Lungs is no angel-voiced siren, but a venomous and vituperative bitch-demon spitting blaphemous and violent tirades interspersed with piercing screams in an evilly disturbing vocal performance that would put the vast majority of her male counterparts to shame and alone makes checking this out mandatory for any connoisseur of the most evil-sounding singers in metal. The lyrics are often exceedingly disturbing, conjuring pictures of scenes I would rather not contemplate too deeply and which show a lot of extreme metal lyricists up for the cop-out wimps they are! Fortunately for us, great though Melissa's vocals are, they are far from the only thing worth hearing on Bleed on My Teeth. The deathly riffs are fast and furious in the main, although the band sometimes drop into more melodic thrash metal riffing, such as the recurrent riff of "Ophidian Strike" which act as an effective contrast to the chaotic mayhem seething around them and feel like a consolidation of all this primal chaos into more coherent and focussed moments when maximum headbanging action can be attained. The proliferation of solos provided by lead guitarist Assassinator feed into the album's chaotic nature, with searing dissonance and Slayer-like short, sharp shocks of screaming howls leaping out at the listener in blistering salvos. And that's all before we get to drummer, Molestör, who is an absolute fucking beast behind the kit. Withering blastbeats are followed by impressively proficient fills as the guy never succumbs to either complacency or fatigue, his kinetic stickwork constantly driving things along in technically impressive and aggressively imaginitive ways.

Despite all these components often giving the impression of chaos, Bleed on My Teeth is actually extremely tight and surprisingly complex for what sounds like such a primal recording. The technical chops of all concerned can be in no doubt and that, combined with the tight songwriting, makes me absolutely amazed that Adorior are not more well-known, especially here in their native UK where we aren't exactly overflowing with top-drawer extreme metal outfits. This is a must for any deaththrash maniacs out there and it's great to know that these British Isles can still put out an album that sounds as fucking me(n)tal as this and that with a cover that is too hardcore for Spotify to show to the public at large!

My initiation with London-based black metal five-piece Code came at around the time I returned to the metal scene in 2009. I was doing my best to catch up on & indulge myself in as much of the new extreme metal as I could get my hands on which saw Code’s brand-new sophomore record “Resplendent Grotesque” venturing onto my radar. I quite enjoyed it too with it’s forward-thinking & progressive take on the black metal sound showing the band to have a clear talent in both musicality & creativity. The experience saw me checking out Code’s earlier debut album “Nouveau Gloaming” from 2005 shortly afterwards, a record that I ended up slightly favouring over its younger sibling & one that I would ultimately become my Code release of choice over the decade & a half since. Admittedly, I haven’t really gotten into the later Code material I’ve heard to date much although I can’t recall ever checking out their 2015 “Mut” record which is supposedly more of a progressive rock release than it is metal. Regardless, I’ve been very pleased to revisit “Nouveau Gloaming” this week & it’s ultimately led to me discovering that my affection for the album has only grown in the many years since its release. I mean, Ben can occasionally be right about these things but don’t let him know that I said that, OK?

Although they’re generally claimed by the English, Code were somewhat of an international act which brought together members from not only Britain but also aboard. Lead vocalist Kvohst (Beastmilk/Dødheimsgard/Void/Grave Pleasures/Hexvessel/The Deathrip) & guitarist Aort (Hexvessel/Indesinence) are both English while second guitarist Vyttra was American & bassist Vicotnik (Manes/Naer Mataron/Dødheimsgard/Doedsmaghird/Dold Vorde Ens Navn/Strid/Ved Buens Ende…..) & drummer Aiwarikiar (Ulver/Uruk-Hai) were both Norwegian. As you can see, most of these individuals came from a strong metal pedigree & you can easily hear that in the class with which they go about their craft on this debut album as it’s a beautifully realised piece of work from a purely artistic point of view. The album was recorded in Savonlinna, Finland with Vicotnik handling the production duties himself. He’d already gotten a taste for production while co-producing Dødheimsgard’s 1999 “666 International” album & does an excellent job here too with the band’s sound achieving an imposingly dark atmosphere while also maintaining a level of precision in the performances. All of the instruments can be easily identified in the mix & I particularly enjoy the layers of bright, trebly guitars & the competently executed drums which cut through the mix extremely well. The way the clean vocals are presented is nothing short of splendid too & creates somewhat of a transcendental feel.

Code are often referred to as a progressive black metal band & those claims are not without merit when examining their later material either but I don’t feel that those sort of labels are appropriate when describing “Nouveau Gloaming” as it’s a bit more conventional, even though it certainly doesn’t stick to the tried & tested black metal mould. The majority of this material still clearly sits in the black metal space but it’s the clean vocals I mentioned earlier that give Code’s debut its unique character. I can only imagine that these were influenced by the presence of Vicotnik as they sound very similar to those from his highly acclaimed avant-garde metal project Ved Buens Ende….. & I find them to be just as impressive & powerful here too. Despite my feeling that “Nouveau Gloaming” sits best under a conventional black metal tag, there are a few tracks that see Code taking their creative endeavours a little further & it’s perhaps no surprise that the band would eventually go on to explore a more expansive sound in the future as these three songs are the clear standouts of the album. “Brass Dogs” sees them opting for more of an atmospheric black metal approach while “A Cloud Formed Teardrop” is perhaps the inclusion that best hints at what was to come for Code as I’d describe it as a genuinely progressive black metal piece. It’s closer “Ghost Formula” that is the most emphatic creative statement of the eight on offer though & I absolutely love its wall of melodic guitar dissonance & tension-filled post-atmospheric black metal format.

“Nouveau Gloaming” has really surprised me this week. I’ve always really enjoyed it but have rarely thought of it when reaching for the more elite examples of the genre. I think I’ve under-estimated it though as the base quality level is invariably very solid & the highlight pieces are significant enough to drag it up into modern-day classic territory in my opinion. Sadly, I’m not sure that Code would ever manage to equal their debut in terms of impact, at least not with the three subsequent full-lengths I’m across. There is, of course, another album as well as a number of E.P.’s that I’m yet to explore though so perhaps I need to pencil those in for future investigation.

For fans of Aenaon, Ved Buens Ende….. & Dødheimsgard.