Vinny's Forum Replies

My takeaways this month are Usnea and Boghaunter.  Another solid month.

Went through this today.  Although I am still not massively as in to death metal as I was I still took some recs in that Solstice album and Rotten Sound.  Good mix of classics and more modern stuff here which kept me listening whilst I was working.

Cool suggestions, Vinny, but David has already submitted a Smote track.

Probably be busy around the time for the next selections Sonny. Here are 3 around 29 minutes, leaving an extra 6 minutes for someone. 

Unearthly Trance – “Raised by Wolves” (from “Season of Seance, Science of Silence”, 2003): 9:39

Smote – “Lof” (from “Clyppan”, 2025): 9:33

Sumac – “Will to Reach” (from “What One Becomes”, 2016): 9:48

Thanks Andi.

Sonny please substitute that Smote track for ISIS - "The Other" (from "Oceanic", 2002)

Hi Sonny:

Smote - "The Linton Wyrm" (from "Songs from the Free House", 2025)

Neurosis - "Blind" (from "An Undying Love For a Burning World", 2026)

Purple Lung - "Beware the Bog Witch" (from "Mystic Vision", 2026)

Space Sugar - "Graveyard Keeper" (from "Ride Your Panic", 2025)

Oreyeon - "Nothing but Impurities Pt.2" (from "The Grotesque Within", 2026)

For May Sonny:

Kings Rot - "Fall of the Witch King" (from "The Shadow of the Accursed", 2021)

LVME - "Third Flame of Disorder" (from "The Blazing Iniquity", 2024)

Bosse-de-Nage - "Leviathan" (from "Hidden Fires Burn Hottest2, 2026)

Veter Daemonaz - "The Awakening" (from "Trivmph", 2016)

I was about two minutes into In Your Blood before I a) checked this wasn’t Biohazard and b) where Biohazard’s two first releases came out in relation to this one. By 1995, we had already had two Biohazard records, and I was a bit of a fan at that point, so the similarities were obvious to me from the start of this album. This got me to thinking about how close my listening tastes could have gotten too early metalcore had my teenage years been more driven by the internet. Then again, I am not sure how much of what passes as metalcore nowadays can be compared to this record, it certainly sounds more hardcore than the increasingly rap metal-based style of Biohazard, albeit those gang chants are still very much prevalent here also.

As usual with my forays into The Revolution clan features, if I am not totally alienated and horrified by what I hear on the first track then chances are that I am going to stay for the album duration and that I will have some positives to highlight, and this is the case once again here with Excessive Force. There is no point that I lose interest in In Your Blood, since it maintains a frantic and pummelling pace for its entire duration, it is hard for me not to be engaged throughout. The punk elements get room to shine (‘Backtrack’) whilst the metallic riffs remain the order of the day very much. I like how this stays true to that 90s hardcore sound whilst still being able to inject some new life into that sound.

Vocally speaking, the style is desperate sounding whilst still maintaining that very aggressive front at the same time. I don’t mind the gang chants, although I suspect my entertainment levels wouldn’t drop if they were absent. Whilst I will not pretend that In Your Blood is big on variation, it is one of the reasons why it works for me, I think. When I look at what carries the “metalcore’’ tag nowadays, I cannot help but feel it is a heavily distorted tag that is perhaps overused. If this is what 90s metalcore sounded like, then it is not very far away from a familiar format in all honesty. In Your Blood is most certainly under my skin, if not quite able to penetrate my veins as the title suggests. What it has done is opened my eyes and ears to a scene I had written off too early it appears.

3.5/5

The “boxes” argument used to come up quite a lot back on the old Terrorizer forum days. Any member trying to conveniently place anything even slightly eclectic into a specific genre, sub-genre, niche, thimble or mere tag usually found themselves suffering the ire of one or more of the regulars on that board. For a forum that was associated with the extreme metal and was billed as the” world’s most dangerous music magazine”, there was a surprisingly open-minded group of regulars present there and as such an album like this month’s The Fallen feature release would have proved to be a divisive discussion point.

Smote don’t have any recognition on Encyclopaedia Metallum: The Metal Archives. To be honest, I can almost understand why. As much as there is a heavy streak to Songs from the Free House, there is a lot of other elements for the listener to contend with. Drone, psych, folk and doom all occupy the forty-minute space in front of the listener. To my ear this record embraces a very similar sound to that of Wolvserpent, a band who despite my tendency to avoid drone metal, get regular revisits each year. When I pick up such reference points, I do wonder if it is just that Smote have simply not been put forward for submission at The Metal Archives as opposed to being outright rejected. Clearly, these tracks are not always arranged with the heavier elements in sharp focus; the chaos of psych often disrupts any sense of outright doom metal from topping the charts of influences driving the bus. You may easily find then that Songs from the Free House is a little too rarified a listen if there are no albums by Hawkwind in your collection.

At the same time, I do not think that you must be a fan of the output by Sunn O))), Earth or Boris to enjoy this release. The drone elements here possess an atmosphere I have rarely been able to pick up with the above artist’s releases that I have ventured into. The haunting pipes of ‘Chamber’ and those dense, droning keys and vocals create a real sense of immersion around me as I listen. But above all else, in comparison to other albums I have experienced across these multiple genres/sub-genres, there is still a sense of very definite start and end points to tracks. There is no blurring of all tracks into one and as such tracks are permitted a good expanse of individual identity.

I could use the word ‘enchanting’ to describe this record. It has a sultry, brooding appeal to it that lures me in; perhaps at this early stage of listening even without me being able to fully understand why it connects with me so well. There is something primal about the tribal percussion that is on display. The uncertainty of the deep drones and bass lines only seem to add to the allure of proceedings as opposed to alienating me from them. And so, it eventually comes back to the fact that there is no “box” to put this record in, which is sort of why I like it so much.

4/5

My review still seems correct following a revisit to this one tonight:

I posted Private Music in a thread on another forum I frequent and got asked by one of the regulars there to help them understand the appeal of Deftones. After a lot of words, I came to the overall conclusion that I respect Deftones because they never attempt to “be” anything. Their range of musical styles and influences could take up a whole paragraph of this review quite easily. However, the comparison I eventually made was that in my experience of metalcore/deathcore, there are some acts who like to step around inside Bilie Elish style electro-pop ecosystems for a few minutes before landing a twenty-second breakdown of crushing riffs to keep some semblance of metal relevant in their sound. For some of these acts, they could quite easily for go the metal parts and just stick with the non-metal if they do it well enough. However, although Deftones work with a blueprint, it is one that exists in such a size already that on their best records, the sky is literally the limit and metal may not always obviously be on the cards.

That having been said. I cannot recall the last time I actively waited for a Deftones album, let alone really enjoyed one in its entirety. Following the huge impact that Diamond Eyes had on me when I returned from a hiatus from metal in 2010 was realistically never going to be repeated, I know. When Koi No Yokan dropped some two years later, I lapped it up most definitely but my levels of fascination with its predecessor were never repeated. Working back from Diamond Eyes into their discography rewarded me with White Pony of course, which will go down as one of my all-time favourite alt metal releases, albeit I do not have an extensive listening history within that sub-set of metal music. When it came then to their more modern records, Gore and Ohms just failed to hold my interest and I drifted from the Deftones world of gazey, alt-metal, trip-hop, dream-pop music altogether.

With more of a focus on new music this year, I soon got wind of the singles ahead of the release of Private Music itself. Whilst neither ‘My Mind is a Mountain’ or ‘Milk of the Madonna’ bristled with any true sense of a reinvigorated intensity returning to the Deftones sound, I have hung fire passing any judgement until the album itself was available. Whilst they were both perfectly inoffensive tracks in isolation, I was more interested in how they fitted into the usual multi-textured layers of a whole album by Chino and co. It does not take long for me to find things that I like very much about Private Music. Whilst in isolation ‘My Mind is a Mountain’ is an appetiser, as an album opener it sets out the stall of the record well. Bold in the riff department, whilst also letting the percussion do its thing it marries perfectly with ‘Locked In’ which then follows a similar blueprint, leading into the chugging ‘Ecdysis’. Exploring the bass to get the pace going before establishing a very familiar sound to the Diamond Eyes era that I am such a fan of adds much needed familiarity for me to this track.

The stories within stories layering of the Deftones writing is alive and kicking still on Private Music. Watch the video to ‘My Mind is a Mountain’ and see Chino dancing to a very different theme to what is playing. This is a good thing for me, seeing the heavier end of their sound being embraced a little more whilst still having an agenda the listener must work on uncovering. Whilst far from perfect, the flow of tracks this time around feels more cohesive than it has in a while. Running the usual musical gauntlet over forty-two minutes there are still some golden runs of tracks, especially towards the end of the record. ‘Cut Hands’ through to album closer ‘Departing the Body’ springs to mind. Two up-tempo pieces followed by a more poised track to finish shows the maturity that the band clearly have at this stage.

Caution remains on calling this a return to form perhaps. If I was ranking the record against the last few over the past fifteen years, then Private Music sits in third behind Koi No Yokan and Diamond Eyes respectively. A large part of me doubts the band can achieve the heights they once enjoyed, but Private Music is evidence enough that the potential remains.

3.5/5

Hoping to get a couple of days away this weekend so this should be fine travel music to get me up and around Scotland.

Had a bit of a wake-up call this week. Last year I was feeling generally unwell and went to the doctor and they said I had very high blood pressure. I was resistant to being put on medication, so I changed my diet and increased exercise. I don't use gyms or anything organised, I have always had manually demanding jobs and walked a lot, so am reasonably fit for my age. Anyway, I shed over 20 lbs, improved my diet and felt a lot better. 

This week I went for a six-month check so they could see how I was doing. Annoyingly my blood pressure had gone up. The nurse took it four times to make sure then said it was worryingly high and she needed to speak to the doctor about it. She came back and said he had prescribed meds for me and I needed to take them straight away as I was now at very high risk of heart attack or stroke. I asked how this could be when I had done all that they told me to and she said that sometimes it is just genetics. 

So here I am stuck taking blood pressure meds and the cold reality that I am now officially old has slapped me in the face. I think it is that that pisses me off more than the actual health implications themselves. Hopefully the meds will work and I will still be here posting bollocks for a few more years yet!

Firstly, sorry to hear this Sonny.  Losing weight and improving your diet should have at least helped I would have thought, like you said.  The thing that annoys me about the response from the health care professional is that they appear to have done absolutely no investigation.  The culture in our health industry of “just take these pills” without looking to the root cause of the issue is just so frustrating.

I had a similar conversation last year when I had been unwell with some breathing difficulties and had been for some blood tests.  THREE MONTHS later the doctor’s surgery phoned me to say they had found some marginally high markers on my kidney function and that my cholesterol was higher than it should be.  Within 2 mins of the call the advanced nurse practitioner was talking about putting me on Statins.  I politely told him to Foxtrot Oscar.

I know they are trained professionals but they are only lapping up what big pharma funded studies tell them, or worse when it comes to diet they are just using data from research funded by food companies to justify their “healthly” products.  Just look up Ansell Keys and his “research” into how fat was bad for us all and so he undertook a study (paid for by Mr Kellogg and friends if memory serves me correctly) to show that meat, lard, butter and high fat content foods were bad for you.  He studied 22 countries.  15 of them disproved the theory as those with predominantly carbohydrate based diets all had similar health markers in their populations.  What did he do?  He kicked those 15 out of the study and therefore two thirds of his research base was just dismissed because it would not meet the criteria that his investors were looking for to justify pushing their branded diets.

New Great Falls comp released this month, Conscription.  Noise-rock/sludge turned up to eleven.

A new Darkthrone album out on May 8th entitled "Pre-Historic Metal".

The title track has been released as a preview single and, solely judging on this track, it sounds like a move away from the doomier stuff they have explored over the last two or three albums back to the crusty heavy metal of the 2010s.

I have listened to this track a couple of times today and I quite like it.  It sounds quite blackened to me, to begin with at least.  Holds some promise at least.

I am about a quarter way through "The Mercy of Gods", the first installment of the new space opera series from James S.A. Corey, the writers behind "The Expanse". Similar themes of political intrigue and humanity under threat are playing out so far and it is very readable, so anyone who did enjoy the earlier series should be well-served here too.

What's a "space opera"?  I have a feeling the immature image in my head of people singing loudly in space suits is actually far away from the reality?

I have done a fair bit of new and relistening over the last few days since I first published this list and have made some changes:

1. Mercyful Fate - "Melissa"

2. Iron Maiden - "Piece of Mind"

3. Slayer - "Show No Mercy"

4. Satan - "Court in the Act"

5. Metallica - "Kill 'Em All"

6. Dio - "Holy Diver"

7. Raven - "All For One"

8. Motörhead - "Another Perfect Day"

9. Sortilège - "Sortilège EP"

10. Acid - "Acid"

11. Warlord - "Deliver US EP"

12. Acid - Maniac

Even though I have learned to live better with King Diamond's vocals, I still would struggle to put anything he has been involved with in a top ten.  It is a very distinct style that I find is really hard for me to settle on the direction of.  Without the make up, I ask myself would it just come off as a bit shit?  Maiden definitely upped their game after "Number of the Beast" and I found "Piece of Mind" gave me exactly what the album titled inferred, settling me back into a place of faith in my (then - "then" being the 90's by the time I had discovered them) favourite band.  Great to see some love for "Another Perfect Day", an underrated Motörhead record.  As I read your list, I don't recall that I have ever listened to any Raven album other than "All for One".

Probably on your radar already Ben but can you please add the new Exodus record, "Goliath".

Last release left me a bit cold (and not in a cool bm way) but I recall them not really doing anything that different or wrong as such.  Maybe a change of style again could help me this time out.

Please add Annexation.

Already on https://metal.academy/bands/16319

There's only really Debemur Morti I have any faith in anymore but I haven't been purchasing a lot of physical stuff whilst I was waiting to see how my home situation panned out (turns out I am staying in this house so can start purchasing again).  Testing Amor Fati records with that Misotheist record I was loving yesterday to see how they fare.

I have the most recent Darkthrone albums on vinyl and thought I would like to get the earlier stuff on that format to. Nicely timed is the release of this beast of a boxset, a copy of which I have arriving tomorrow.

The Fist in the Face of God (2026)

The nine albums from "A Blaze in the Northern Sky" through to "Sardonic Wrath" in vinyl format with a shit ton of other stuff. Really looking forward to this baby's arrival!

So this finally arrived today - no fucking thanks to Amazon. Supposed to arrive Mar 6th. Nope - put back to Mar 13th. Nope - now due to arrive end of April. I have fallen for this shit with Amazon before and in the end they say they can't get hold of it anymore so you end up disappointed. Checked on the Peaceville online store and it was still available, so cancelled the Amazon order and bought it direct. Arrived in 3 days. Fucking Bezos!!

[It is every bit as great as I had hoped by the way.]

Yep, gave up with Amazon ages ago for this very same reason, although currently in dispute with Artoffact Records after the Mares of Thrace record I ordered directly at end of Dec 25 with a 7 Feb 26 delivery date has still not arrived.  Bandcamp can't even get an answer out of them either, four days left before I get a full refund ffrom Bandcamp and they deduct the cost out of future sales the label makes through the site.

Misotheist - "De Pinte" (2025)

Four albums into their career and I finally discover Misotheist. Hailing from the traditional black metal heartland of Norway (Trondheim in fact), their sound reminds me a lot more of Icelandic bm stalwarts Sinmara or Svartidauði with dissonant elements of DSO thrown in there also for good measure. This is the kind of chaotic, deranged black metal that grabs my interest nowadays. Quickly finding a foundation in the netherworld, this album stays in that territory for its full duration. The combination of solid riffs and suffocating atmospheres are a killer combo here. Make no mistake about it, Misotheist are here to do damage, and it is a lasting damage designed to inflict maximum suffering. After a year of keeping up with black metal releases last year, and toning that effort down somewhat this year, my attention is intended to be devoted only to exceptional black metal albums this year. De Pinte (“The Tormented”), absolutely qualifies.

Crawling and claustrophobic melodies do little to temper the threat of blasting fury that the artist can unleash forth at any moment. A feeling of unease permeates the slower tempos on display whilst the more aggressive sections soon activate the overwhelming flight mechanism as nobody in the right mind would want to fight against this sound. Tormented is a perfect description of how those vocals sound. With agonising cries against a constant sense of threat and menace, this is not intended to be a comfortable listen. Yet the dissonant aspect to the sound does help provide some stark comfort to me. On the title track it acts like some cold and dense fog enveloping my being, wrapping in me in the track itself as it scores a multitude of etchings upon my skin.

This is probably the darkest thing I have heard so far this year. It is not dramatic or theatrical as you might expect. Instead, there is just a real confidence behind the performance that exhibits a clear belief in their own ability and an absolute steadfastness in their devotion to their chosen artform. The title track that closes the album goes on for over twenty-one-minutes, but I love every one of those minutes. It builds so well and maintains such a presence when it does establish itself as fully formed; this is clearly written by a master of the genre. Misotheist have absolutely no hairs and graces about them, they are simply dedicated beyond belief and are able to produce one of the most organic, natural sounding black metal albums of the year so far.  

Vinyl ordered.

4.5/5

There's a lot to unpack there.  Let me start with the similarities that I have from my experience of metal.  Did I enjoy metal more when I was starting out and had less music to pick from (internet for me was well into the late 90's before I got connected up)?  Abso-fucking-lutely I did.  Will I ever hear a new album and get the same sense of joy and utter passion for the music that I had when I first played Slowly We Rot, Killers, Seasons in the Abyss or Arise (as examples of formative albums for me)?  Abso-fucking-lutely not.

My amygdala is far too depleted nowadays to experience anything with the same levels of wonder and enrichment as I would have some 30 years ago.  That is how that part of the brain works unfortunately and it is why life/time seems to go faster the older you get.   Whether it is books, films, comics or metal music - music in general in fact - I will never experience  it the same again.  I recently started to be intrigued by symbolist art, having admired the style for years but not realising that it was a specific style of painting, to me it was just "dark" art.  I have started reading books and wiki's about the whole movement and some of the key artists.  It is probably one of the first times since passing the age of 40 that I have had such alevel of interest in something that genuinely resonates with me.  Would it be better if I had gotten into this level of discovery as a teenager?  Abso-fucking-lutely it would.

Getting old sucks, end of debate.  I can relate to the yearn for former glories from my youthful music and arts experience in general (I was at one point hooked on amatuer film making, for example) but I cannot go as far as to say that I consider any discovery process, or review mechanism as a "job".  That's not knocking your personal thoughts on the matter Sonny, it is just not something that I can connect with.  My review schedule here is pretty consistent at the moment and I like to think that this is because I genuinely enjoy writing them.  If I get into a headspace where I feel I am just writing for the hell of it then its usually a time to step back, reflect and go and do something else, maybe coming back later.

All of the above withstanding, I will say that some of my fondest memories of the internet age of music discovery have been when I start off with a specific album for the first time and then I am off on an afternoon of discovery of a whole discography or series of albums I have never heard before.  So I can take the rough with the smooth to some degree.  At the end of the day, I am finishing my second marriage, getting divorced, constantly fighting to stay in a job I fucking hate, looking after my elderly parents and trying to keep a whole host of other life-challenges in order, yet I have always had another constant alongside all the troubles (and joys) I have experienced.  Metal music.  It has been here for three decades plus and is probably going to be around for however many more I can wing on the planet.  I may fall in and out of love with it, and I most definitely will never be as embedded/invested as I was in my youth, but it serves it's purpose.  It does take a lot more of my time and concentration to get under the skin of new stuff and my time is increasingly precious, but it does still reward.

Hi Ben, can I please request you add Mammon's Throne from Melbourne, Australia.  You have quite a mixed bag here, def some doom/sludge here but also bm and death metal in some quantity also.

Time for the nerdy spreadsheet output for March's features. A tie for top spot this month with the psych-doom of Saturnalia Temple and the brutal core of Converge both getting 4.5 scores.  I have abstained from voting for The Gateway, Sphere and Infinite releases as I just found them too alienating for my tastes. 

1992 was around the time I was in my death metal heyday, although looking back I was still working with a very limited repertoire. I had discovered the terrifying sounds of Obituary’s Slowly We Rot some years prior and so it had begun. After devouring Deicide, Morbid Angel, Bolt Thrower and Carcass I was off onto thrash metal for a few years in all honesty and so a lot of the classics from the 90’s (and the hidden gems) death metal peak were to become later discoveries for me. Some of them falling well into the 2010’s even before I had heard the likes of Immolation and a full-length from Death even. At some point in that period, Baphomet’s sophomore came through my grubby little mitts as I played a major game of catch up on death metal releases, by that point some of them being from over twenty years ago. The Dead Shall Inherit is not a record I would ever give the accolade of “classic” or even “hidden gem” to, but it has worn well over the years still.

Now plying their trade as Banished due to some German band of the same original name, back in 1992 the band’s sound seemed to fit into that cross-section of “also-rans” in the death metal scene like Morta Skuld and Sinister. Listening through The Dead Shall Inherit for this review it is not difficult to spot the likes of Immolation, Deicide or even Incantation in their sound, with perhaps even a smattering of a much less technical or brutal Suffocation also. It was clear that when they put their mind to it, this record could punch with the heavyweights, for a couple of rounds at least. With the grisly artwork for the record done by former Sadus guitarist (and band co-founder), Rob Moore, Baphomet had the component parts for a good death metal record. A riffy affair overall, The Dead Shall Inherit has a strong likeness to early Cannibal Corpse, another band who were in their prime at the time of this release also.

Whilst it is hard to find specific criticism of the record, it is still not a record that I find massively exciting either. Whether it is because I came to it late and had already ingested a lot of death metal from this era by that point, or maybe because I am still not all that interested in death metal nowadays like I used to be, but there is just no spark overall for me here. The album is consistent and has ear-catching (but not catchy by any means) moments most certainly, but it never goes off on a solid run of tracks to bring it up to the standard of other releases of the time. My go to records of 1992 are very well-established albums in the genre, with The IVth Crusade, Onward to Golgotha, Legion, Tomb of the Mutilated and Slumber of Sullen Eyes already hogging the limelight. Baphomet really do no wrong with this album in some regards. They fall foul of death metals saturated state I guess whether generally or just with my tastes of the time.

3.5/5

I finally got around to this playlist and found it suitably gloomy and desolate for my tastes.  I like how the list ended on funeral doom, it just somehow seems really fitting for the end of The Fallen clan playlist to finish on such a sombre note.  I can't call out any really bad tracks, although I remain on the fence with Karyn Crisis as it was a little too gothic and that Noothgrush track dragged on a bit.  I am no fan of Witchfinder General though, I just don't get them.

I am going to be checking out more from Ea, Ether Coven and Benthic Realm

Dangers - "Anger" (2006)

Picked up on these guys after the vocalist from Touché Amoré did a "most underated hardcore bands" thing on YouTube, which also led me to playing Touché Amoré most of the morning.

Occasionally, researching and programming the playlist for The Pit does still throw up something interesting. Mental Devastation being one such recent “something” to pique the interest levels of my ever-cynical brain, cynical when it comes to thrash metal in general at least anyways. Although technical thrash metal is not my usual bag, and vocals reminiscent of Sean Killian of Vio-lence or Russ Anderson of Forbidden are usually a massive turn off for me, there is something about Mental Devastation’s sound that carries appeal still. Considering that Alejandro Lagos’ vocals are not suited to my ears, or indeed all the tracks on this record, there is a level of proficiency to the playing that cannot be ignored. I wouldn’t say that there is all that much in the way of showboating on here either, just an obvious talent that knows it doesn't need ramming down the listeners necks.

Like other Chilean thrashers such as Critical Defiance and Parkcrest, it is hard not to acknowledge the prowess in the riff department but then the lead work here feels a notch above what I can recall from the other two acts. Vocally it is far too limited an offering for me to be considering any higher end marks going against the rating. Yet, despite showing progressive tropes it never strays into over-indulgence either. The album sort of occupies a middle ground in between the promise of progressive and aggressive thrash at the same time. Coroner seem an obvious comparison, but you won’t find much in the way of Voivod here. The attack is the driving force of the album with the progressive/technical trappings bringing up the rear. Some cool, bendy bass work from Alejandro helps make up for his rather one-dimensional vocals.

Drumming wise (as is often my criticism), the skins get a bit lost in the mix. ‘Mental Devastation’ sounds like the drums should be a lot further forward in the mix, but then again, the whole track sounds a little sterile to my ears. The bursts of lead guitar are a joy though. The energy they can bring into tracks can save some of the lesser appealing tunes on the record if I am honest. Nothing can save ‘Dõ’ however, that one is clearly filler and should have never made the album at all. It is quite disruptive to the final third of the record in fact. The final three tracks look like an attempt to bookend the title track at some eight minutes plus long, but they just feel like two short tracks thrown in there to beef up the track listing. However, I did reference this as one of those interesting albums from The Pit exploration, so I am by no means slamming this record, more making some critical observations.

3.5/5

Thanks Sonny.  The playlist is much easier to accomodate on a quarterly basis I find and I do still relish the challenge when I do it. 

I am not sure what Massacre were thinking when they made "Promise" but it is a fucking terrible record, so I tried to park that track as far into the list as I could.

Sorry, but no.

Hi Ben, could you please add the latest album from Bosse-de-nage.  I would suggest it is a lot more than just black metal, or even just blackgaze but certainly has a place in The North with their other releases.

I read somewhere recently that Jacob Bannon did not necessarily think that the world needed a new Converge record, but that the band themselves did. There was a time, not too long ago when I would have probably deemed that I never needed a Converge record at all, but that has been well documented on Metal Academy already. The tides have turned and I find myself on much less turbulent terms with some of the content of The Revolution clan, to the point where I can enjoy the harder sounding metalcore releases. As it turns out then, Love Is Not Enough is right up my street.

It sounds like a lot more of a riffy affair than I remember from previous outings with the band’s releases. The start of 'Bad Faith' shows this particular trait well I find. Likewise, the grinding sensibilities of 'Distract and Divide' is an absolute treasure. These short bursts of fury that cover the first four tracks of the album create a real sense of momentum early in the listening experience. As a result, the instrumental 'Beyond Repair' almost sucks some life from proceedings, However, I find it is a very clever little track. Its broken percussion befits the track title superbly when you take time to listen under a more critical mindset.

That raging aggression is soon back alongside those big riffs for the remainder of Love Is Not Enough. It is an accomplishment to cram such a rewarding listening experience into a little over half an hour. I find it has appeal for its scathing honesty and the bluntness of its messaging also. Love Is Not Enough as an album title tells you all you need to know really. This is a record with a lot of bitterness that is borne out of suffering, told by souls who no longer wish to stay silent on the matter. Probably the best metalcore album I have ever experienced.

4.5/5

As I listen to Gravity, I sense that there is a history of music represented here that I am not all that close too. The heavy-psych elements to Saturnalia Temple’s sound suggest to me at least one foot in the heady days of the 70’s and beyond, but at the same time I get a lot of modern Darkthrone in the sound as well. Add to this, aesthetic the creeping darkness of black metal that seeps into the occasional track and before I knew it, I was completely in love with this month’s feature release for The Fallen clan. In my weed smoking days (long, long since done with), I would have enjoyed Gravity on a whole different level, I am sure. It feels like a record that can, with the right tools deployed, unlock outer dimensions of the listener’s inner consciousness, if you know what I mean.

This transcendental potential is by no means wasted when listened to in an entirely clean and sober headspace mind. Using simple repetition and atmospheres, alongside a near-constant menacing rumble of bottom-end loaded bass, Saturnalia Temple make for an otherworldly experience without the need for chemical assistance. The whole album sounds a bit clunky to me, but this is part of its natural charm and is what helps keep it in the higher echelons of the appeal stakes. I can listen to the damaged soundtrack to a thousand sci-fi horror movies that is Elyzian Fields all day long, and the droning indulgence of Between the Worlds right after it help make the mid-point of the record particularly strong for me.

Although Gravity has many recognisable traits to it, I cannot help but feel that the album feels like an introduction to something new. Even though many if not all its roots are found in the past, somehow there is still an element of there being an aberration present in many regards. As the tracks pass by, they carve sigil like etchings into my brain, meaning the memorability factor is high. High enough in fact for me to be able to enjoy the record as both background music as well as a more critical listening session. Great find.

4.5/5

Not interested in brotherhood is my blunt response. I choose my own path nowadays and if there’s anyone else on it, good for them and I hope they find what they want. Social participation sounds awful to me as I get far more from solitude.  Slowly reducing the people in my life (some of that is natural, organic generational stuff) as well as realising I need a lot less than I had been conditioned to think I did.  

I am not knocking anyone in the thread btw, just my position on the subject.  Aware it sounds like quite an isolationist standpoint but it genuinely works for me.  I have stated on here before that I have the subconscious (if not completely skewed) view that metal is just for me, or it is mine somehow.  Shooting the shit occasionally on here is great but I can find solace in the music without the interaction easily enough nowadays.

Enough alienating behaviour for one day methinks.

Canada continues to be a consistent source of quality black metal for my listening requirements. I keep going back, looking for more discoveries, believing on each visit that the well is surely close to running dry by now. However, upon each dip of my toes into the icy cold depths of the unfathomable lake of black metal that the country seems to have, I come away with a new discovery. This time around, Givre are the gift I have been given, and the present comes in the form of their 2024 album, Le Cloître. A forty-one-minute plus exploration of the atoning side of pain in Christian history, the tracks are the titles of six female saints, with the lyrical content being created from their hagiographies (which are all in French). Clearly a band who put a lot of research into their music, Givre are an instant source of intrigue for me. In taking such a niche subject matter for their album theme and embodying it in such an impassioned display of raging black metal, with elements of dissonant death metal as well as resonating post-metal, Le Cloître soon made the short journey from my Bandcamp wishlist and into my collection.

This is an album that somehow suggests an intimacy with the pain it explores. It is after all a record that is telling stories and thus it should carry some stimulus from the lives of these women that resonates with anyone who has experienced suffering. It is not just an album of choral chants and atmospheric keys by any means (although they do both make an appearance of course), instead there is a robustness to the messaging of this album, and as a result it comes across as a very modern sounding take of its historical content. Givre do not just relay the stories and written content, they put real emotion behind the performance. Most obvious in this is the harrowing and at times demented vocals of all three members of the band who contribute across the album. The shriller cries are the same individual I suspect, whilst the more death metal orientated vocal signatures belong to another member altogether, I would guess. David Caron-Proulx seems to be undertaking the bulk of the heavy lifting on the record with him credited with songwriting, claviers (any stringed keyboard instrument – harpsicord, clavichord etc), guitars and vocals. The research duties seem to sit with drummer and vocalist Jean-Lou David whilst bass and vocals reside with Mathieu Garon.

This contained unit digs into the depths of black metal and beyond, to the point where you can almost hear all the effort they have gone to research, record and release this record. Le Cloître feels like a very complete experience, dare I say a journey by the time you reach the end of it? It sounds mature without being boring or too arty even. It exudes an authenticity in its subject matter exploration, one that only adds to my enjoyment. Perhaps only guilty of not having any real standout moments over the record it is hard to find any other real fault with this record.

4/5

Here you go big man:

Archvile King - "Le carneval du roi des vers" (from "Aux heures désespérées", 2026)

Ensanguinate - "Angel of a Thousand Poisons" (from "Death Saturnalia (With Temples Below)", 2026)

Misotheist - "Blinded and Revealed" (from "De Pinte", 2026)

Woe - "Far Beyond the Fracture of the Sky" (from "Legacies of Human Frailty", 2026)

This one is a bit lost on me I am afraid.  Not being progs biggest fan to start with, I took a risk giving this one a full run through really.  It is all over the place to my ears and the sense of frustration only seems to grow as when they do occasionally settle into some semblance of flow it can be quite interesting.  I am leaving this one well alone.

Any choices you wish to submit are fine by me Karl. Vinny has got the latest releases covered pretty well, so all in all we should have good coverage of all death metal eras.

Old school rules Karl baby!

Never heard of these boys before, but an early listen through of this yesterday has certainly piqued my interest.  Not as straight forward a doom/stoner act as I had expected and so will look forwards to getting something into a review for this one.

Never heard of these boys before, but an early listen through of this yesterday has certainly piqued my interest.  Not as straight forward a doom/stoner act as I had expected and so will look forwards to getting something into a review for this one.

As per the other thread Sonny, ask and you shall receive:

Valdur - "Drinking from the Chalice of Banishment" (from "Gilded Abyss", 2025)

Vorum - "Current Mouth" (from "Current Mouth", 2015)

Voidhämmer - "Cadaveric Bloat" (from "Noxious Emmissions", 2026)

Void Monuments - "Invocation" (from "Posthumous Imprecation", 2026)

Architectural Genocide - "Stuffed Under Floorboards" (from "Malignant Cognition", 2026)

Carrion Vael - "Truth or Consequences" (from "Slay Utterly", 2026)

Ectovoid - "Formless Seeking Form" (from "In Unreality's Coffin", 2026)

Fossilization - "Servo" (from "Advent of Wounds", 2026)

I have this teed up for a listen this weekend actually Andi.  Off out in the car shortly so planning on giving it a blast to clear the Sunday morning cobwebs.  There was a time when I would have never thought of even looking at a Converge album, but my issues with Bannon’s vocals have gone nowadays and I am also much more open to some strains of core.

March 2026

1. Wildhunt – “In Frozen Dreams” (from “Aletheia”, 2026) [Submitted by Vinny]

2. Crucible – “Deathdealer” (from “Hail to the Force”, 2025) [Submitted by Vinny]

3. On Fire – “Allegiance to None” (from “Bite the Blade”, 2025)

4. Dart – “Nothing to Lose” (from “Speed Days”, 2025)

5. Graveripper – “Hexenhammer” (from “From Welkin to Tundra”, 2025) [Submitted by Vinny]

6. Aura Noir – “Conqueror” (from “Black Thrash Attack”, 1996)

7. Violator – “Cult of Death” (from “Unholy Retribution”, 2025) [Submitted by Sonny]

8. Annihilator – “Human Insecticide” (from “Alice in Hell”, 1989) [Submitted by Andi]

9. Dark Angel – “Merciless Death” (from “Darkness Descends”, 1986) [Submitted by Sonny]

10. Morbid Saint – “Assassin” (from “Spectrum of Death”, 1990) [Submitted by Sonny]

11. Incubus – “Blaspheming Prophets” (from “Serpent Temptation”,1988) [Submitted by Vinny]

12. Nuclear Tomb – “Offer Your Life” (from “Offer Your Life”, 2022)

13. Deviants – “The Buried Parts of the Past” (from “Legion”, 2022)

14. Celtic Frost – “Suicidal Winds” (from “Emperor’s Return EP”, 1985) [Submitted by Sonny]

15. Metallica – “For Whom the Bell Tolls” (from “Ride the Lightning”, 1984) [Submitted by Sonny]

16. Testament – “Infanticide A.I.” (from “Para bellum”, 2025) [Submitted by Sonny]

17. Kreator – “Psychotic Imperator” (from “Krushers of the World”, 2026) [Submitted by Sonny]

18. Game Over – “Lust for Blood” (from “Face the End”, 2025) [Submitted by Vinny]

19. Zero Tolerance – “Point Blank” (from “A Test of Strength”, 2025)

20. Trastorned – “Reborn Through Hate” (from “Into the Void”, 2023) [Submitted by Sonny]

21. Cold Steel – “The Coldest Death” (from “Discipline & Punish”, 2025) [Submitted by Vinny]

22. Enforced – “Avarice” (from “War Remains”, 2023) [Submitted by Sonny]

23. Bloodletter – “Night Terrors” (from “Leave the Light Behind”, 20250 {Submitted by Vinny]

24. Species – “Born of Stitch and Flesh” (from “Changelings”, 2025)

25. Mental Devastation – “Primitive Paths” (from “The Delusional Mystery of the Self Part II”) [Submitted by Vinny]

26. Upon a Burning Body – “Killshot” (from “Blood of the Bull”, 2025)

27. Massacre – “Black Soil Nest” (from “Promise”, 1996)

28. Pantera – “13 Steps to Nowhere” (from “The Great Southern Trendkill”, 1996)

Ask and you shall receive, Sonny.  Thanks.

Triptykon - "Myopic Empire" (from "Eparistera Daimones", 2010)

Kylesa - "Drop Out" (from "Spiral Shadow", 2010)

Lone Wanderer - "Anhedonia" (from "Exequiae", 2026)

Indian - "Banailty" (from "Guiltless", 2011)

 man that cover is awful

Fossilization - "Advent of Wounds" (2026)

This one is getting some praise on the internet and it is not hard to see why.  Full of the best bits of Dead Congregation, Incantation and a selection of death/doom acts to boot this is pretty intense stuff from these two Brazilians.  Justin Stubbs of Encoffination fame makes an appearance to provide additional vocals on track three.  It's right up my street this one is as I have been finding a renewed interest in death metal this year and this one has made a real splash after three spins.  Might get around to a review at some point.  Also reminds me of early Altarage (opening to 'Scalded by His Sacred Halo', especially). 

I have been on an exploration of The Fallen clan releases from 2010 and sound found myslef back with Wolvserpent also:

Wolvserpent - "Blood Seed" (2010)

In terms of my exploration of The Fallen clan, one sub-genre that is noted as “not for me” is drone metal. Unable to fathom the appeal of Sunn O))), Earth or Khanate despite numerous attempts, I soon got to the opinion that this was never an area of music that I was going to gel with. Then I remembered Wolvserpent. I recalled how I had become lost in the ethereal beauty of their Perigaea Antahkarana and Aporia:Kala:Ananta releases from over a decade ago. How the haunting strings of violins played by a seemingly melancholy soaked set of troubled spirits had soothed my frantic thoughts before a crashing riff came in to wipe away any lingering fears in my soul.

As soon as I put Blood Seed on recently, I quickly found myself in the exact same space. This is the debut from the now defunct duo, from back in 2010 when the pair had been around for five years prior as Pussygutt. Brittany McConnell handled the drums as well as that tormented violin sound and Blake Green covered guitar and vocals. Not that vocals play a big part in the debut (or indeed any other release from Wolvserpent), the band have always been about the music, and this was set out very clearly on their first release. Side A is a single track, ‘Wolv’ and the ‘Serpent’ track makes up side B. I can imagine a wolf or two padding around some dark forests, hunting for prey, searching for signs of life to take from unsuspecting animals to the first track. The choral style howls and guttural gurns perhaps imitating the language between the menacing pack of predators (or maybe the screams of the victims?). At over twenty-two-minutes long, this track requires attention to fully embrace the magic of it, yet I find this a very easy ask to comply with.

‘Serpent’ lands a little shorter in duration at the eighteen-minute mark. Straight out the blocks, I can envisage a coiled snake, slowly unfurling itself to the nightmarish atmospheres that open the track. Brittany’s violin is accompanied by some distant howls (the ‘Wolv’ I suspect) courtesy of the guitar of Blake and a tense atmosphere permeates between the instrumentation. You may have noticed by now dear reader, that for someone who opened this review by remarking how little they like drone metal, I have managed to wax lyrical about a drone metal release for over two paragraphs thus far. In my defence, I think Wolvserpent are a different offering to any of the other bands that I mentioned above. They have more obvious “sections” to their tracks, incorporating varied elements of sludge (around the six-minute mark of track 2), doom, dark folk, chamber music as well as drone also of course.

Although repetition is still a mainstay here, there is enough going on at any given time to keep me focused entirely on Blood Seed, which is the similar experience that I have of their other releases I am familiar with. In short, all of drone may well not be a write off for me after all.

4/5

Another month of feature releases and I managed all of them again (although I had already listened to The Pit, The Infinite and The Gateway offerings beforehand).

It was a solid month from the site members, although I struggled to get much from most of my non-clans.  The pick of the bunch (as I knew it would be) for me was the Swallowed album from The Horde that I nominated.  I actually pegged it back from a perfect score though as it did push me a bit too far in the end.

Here's my review, I am particularly interested to hear Sonny's take on this one as I suspect it might push him a little out of his confort zone as he continues to stretch his legs in The Horde.

“Caverncore”, the 2010’s movement borne out of bands taking the sounds of Incantation and maxing out the reverb was my bag at the time. Having notched up around two decades of listening to death metal already, this sub-genre at least gave me something new to listen to that walked the fine line between blackened death metal and death doom. Except, depending on the levels of saturation the average death metal fan was willing to go to into this realm, the frantic squall of Portal was to be found in the darkest corners of this new soundscape. Bands like Finland’s Swallowed, had zero qualms about taking the extremity of metal’s most alienating sounds and incorporating them alongside more traditional tropes.

My theme for the feature releases I have picked this month has been single album bands who split thereafter. A “tragedy” themed month, I guess. This certainly resonates with Swallowed. The duo of Ville Kojonen (drums and vocals) and Samu Salovaara (guitars and vocals) employed a dirge of bassists for Lunarterial as well as guest drummers, guitarists and vocalists. In essence they created a real moment in time record given that not all those same musicians (five of them) would likely be in the same studio as the two mainstays of the band. As such, Lunarterial is a one-of-a-kind record within a one-of-a-kind sub-genre. I have no idea who is babbling the tormented vocals on each track, who is torturing the guitar, punishing the drums or contributing to the maelstrom of chaos that constitutes this beastly record.

Far from being a total abandonment of order, Lunarterial had a very set and individual path set out for itself. The fact that this path may have been an aberration to many potential listeners mattered not. You can easily hear the death metal, you can track the doomy pacing and reel at the blackened, caustic guitar sounds, but can you fathom the depths of depravity behind the heinous mix that is done across the record? Unlike an art-based project, which is how I view Imperial Triumphant, Swallowed simply strive to immerse the listener in chaos, leaving them to fathom what they can. Tracks like the twenty-five-minute closer, ‘Libations’ are a stretch too far even for me, yet I absolutely am not surprised that this album not only takes me to the limits of my love of extremity but also seeks to push me out of my comfort zone.

4.5/5

Sweden, home to Bathory, Morbid, Nifelheim, Marduk, Dissection, Svartsyn, Vinterland and Sorhin. The latter band on that list is the one I am perhaps least familiar with, and so the feature release for The North is truly expanding my horizons. I did get them confused with Dawn at first before I got into Apokalypsens ängel proper, although the similarities are more than obvious. Sorhin, on what has to date been the last full-length release from the band, treat the listener to “101” blueprint of how black metal should be done. Grim, ghastly vocals? Check. Scathing guitar riffage? Check. Blistering drums? Check. For an album released at the turn of the century, it could easily be from the height of the second wave

Holding a largely stable lineup for the duration of their career, with vocalist, Nattfursth and guitarist/bassist (and latterly drummer also) Eparygon having been constants since the band’s inception in 1993, Sorhin sound cohesive. Yes, there is a strong element of a celebration of chaos in their music; obvious throughout Apokalypsens ängel in fact, but this is not a band who are all over the place with their timings and tempos. Sorhin have mastered the art of ordered chaos, taking the charge of Marduk but pairing it back with lashings of melody to keep those hooves from running too rampant. Therefore, Apokalypsens ängel manages to stand out from the dirge of other black metal albums in the traditional style.

Coupling maturity with stinging attack, measure and balance with intensity and burning passion for their artform is the key to Sorhin’s success here. I did have to take a few listens to the album for it to click, but at the third or fourth attempt, it all fell into place nicely enough. The drumming of Zathanel is also worthy of a mention (he is no longer listed as being in the band nowadays), as he gives an assured performance in the background, the mix perhaps not always doing him justice as it does favour the guitar and vocals more. However, he does manage to peak through on occasion, if only to let us know he is still there.

I do have a couple of criticisms of the album however, that peg it’s rating back somewhat. Firstly, it is too long with the version on Spotify having an extra track at the end that takes the whole experience to over fifty-four-minutes. This adds a further problem in that on this version the two longest tracks are at the end, and as such the impact of album closer (proper) ‘Utmarsch - den nya Messias’ is somewhat lost. The arrangement therefore seems to have this sense of slipping over the last two tracks on the record. With most other tracks under five-minutes the concise consistency of the album does tend to come to an abrupt end unexpectedly and the ending experience is disappointing as a result.

3.5/5

Sonny has been on form this month.  I am rediscovering some appetite for death metal after the last 12 months has been dominated by black and doom metal.  The playlist in The Horde this month has only added fuel to that flame.  I found it easier to run at the list in thirds this month and took time to check out the releases that individual tracks came from where they jumped out at me in the list.  Nefarious, Broken Torso, Knoll, Embalmer and the absolute find of the list, Ceremony of Silence all fell into this category.

I revisited Altars but still cannot get on with that record despite the featured track here being a banger.  You can’t go wrong with a Macabre track in my opinion though. Here is a band who manage to take the true macabre essence of people at their worst and put a comedy slant on it without sacrificing the quality of the music.  Good to see Angelcorpse getting a run out to alongside some of the more household names like Incantation and Morbid Angel.  Speaking of which, Karl’s selection of that track from that album not only led me to discover a great album I had somehow never listened to until this month but it also put me on a Morbid Angel trip for two days solid whilst I was away working and spending a couple of nights in a hotel.