Daniel's Forum Threads
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.
Converge - Love Is Not Enough (2026)
Genre: Metalcore
Considering that I'm trying hard to diversify my 2026 chart more and I've already heard a good deal of metal for the year, there aren't many metal bands I'd break the rule for. But this year's got a couple banger bands I'm already huge on. This: it's a CONVERGE album. Even this late in their career, are we to expect disappointment? It's doing surprisingly well with the metalcore community, even nine years after their last studio album (not counting that collab in 2021). Having said that, this album is made up of many of the same elements that many previous Converge albums are driven on. We get the sludge, the crossover, the mathcore, and it manages to be some of the heaviest shit you'll ever hear without going into black or death, yet again. With every song feeling different from the last, this short and sweet album delivers the full Converge experience, which means the band is still in good form. However, what is the SONGWRITING quality in comparison to like albums from the past? Still good. Inspiring even, but like The Dusk in Us, it's more simplistic and less surprising overall. Of course, one interesting surprise was that 2.5 minute dark ambient track in the middle, which stands out from the choice of genre alone but is relatively just a somewhat interesting midtro to the album and intro to the track Amon Amok if anything. But despite this, all other aspects of Converge, including the ability to write completely different songs with the same identity, as well as their indomitable heaviness, remains the same. In their efforts to remain Converge, they've lost none of their identity. I may even put this in EXACTLY the same league as The Dusk in Us.
92
Pole - "CD 1" (1998)
The debut full-length from this German producer offers a lovely ambient, dubby take on the glitch genre that's done with enough class to leave me impressed. I didn't get as much out of this record back in the day but it would seem that I'm able to cope with the lack of clear structure in some of this material these days.
For fans of Deadbeat, Porter Ricks & CV313.
4/5
Roland Kayn - "Tektra" (1984)
Now, this release was a serious challenge given its enormous 292-minute run time which takes up 6 LPs or 4 CDs. It's taken me a full week (or more) to get through three full listens but the effort was thoroughly rewarded with one of the most forward-thinking, ground-breaking releases I've ever encountered. If you like drone then look no further because most of this material is utterly transcendent. I find it to be utterly ridiculous that "Tektra" was released way back in 1984.
For fans of Bernard Parmegiani, Eliane Radigue & Alvin Lucier.
4.5/5
Black Lodge - "Covet" (1995)
Ben & I jumped onboard with this one-off album from an obscure Norwegian doom/death outfit back around the time of release & both really enjoyed it. Black Lodge were a six-piece band that included female clean vocalist Monica Pedersen (Sirenia), bassist Halvor Larsen (Ljå) & drummer Frode Gundersen (Twin Obscenity) among others. Their sound was quite dirty & authentic while offsetting that filthiness with the beautiful vocals of Pederson whose contribution reminds me quite a bit of The 3rd & the Mortal. My Dying Bride were clearly an influence but Black Lodge give "Covet" their own unique flavour which is contributed to by the production job which features a guitar tone that wouldn't have seemed out of place on an Autopsy record. Highly recommended.
For fans of Paradigma, Unholy & Mindrot.
4/5
Wintersun - "Wintersun" (2004)
It has been over fifteen years since I last explored the debut album from this Finnish extreme metal duo but it didn't take long for me to remember why as I struggled with "Wintersun" in a similar way to that with which I did the two Children of Bodom records I revisited recently. Wintersun certainly had a little more meat on their bones though with the excellent blast beats of drummer Kai "the Grinder" Hahto (Nightwish/Cartilage/Enochian Crescent/Rotten Sound/Swallow the Sun/Trees of Eternity/Vomiturition/Wings) adding some genuine excitement to proceedings while the blackened snarl of multi-instrumentalist Jari Mäenpää (Arthemesia/Ensiferum) is also pretty gnarly. In fact, the clean power metal vocals are fairly well executed too but it's the consciously epic symphonics & cheesy Ensiferum-style folk melodies that I really struggle with though & I think it speaks volumes that the only two tracks I genuinely enjoy are those where Wintersun opt to steer away from their hybrid sound (see melodic power metal anthem "Death & the Healing" & my album highlight in melodeath number "Beautiful Death"). Unfortunately, I think I can't probably do without Wintersun in my life.
For fans of Children of Bodom, Kalmah & Norther.
3/5
Oh it's a rabbit hole for sure there's an entire gigantic iceberg chart dedicated to it:
https://www.reddit.com/r/IcebergCharts/comments/1466qe1/experimentalavantgarde_metal_iceberg_500_entries/#lightbox
Damaged - "Passive Backseat Demon Engines" E.P. (1995)
While I quite liked 1993's "Do Not Spit" debut album from Ballarat extremists Damaged, I'd suggest that it offered more potential than it did class. It would be their second noteworthy release "Passive Backseat Demon Engines" from two years later that would see that potential finally coming to fruition as it's a better-produced & generally more exciting effort. The E.P. is simply better able to harness unadulterated violence of a Damaged live show in my opinion with Matt 'Skitz' Sanders' insane drumming & Jamie Ludbrooke's ultra-abrasive vocals being the main focal points. The signature Damaged sound from that period is a unique blend of death metal & grindcore with a noticeable groove metal component (that's obviously been borrowed from "Far Beyond Driven"-era Pantera) & an industrial edge to the guitar work. Forget about the links with metalcore/deathcore because they're totally misguided. This is the sound of a psychotic, out-of-their-mind, mullet-wearing ice-addict ripping through a porn shop in search of their next fix.
For fans of Blood Duster, King Parrot & Fuck...I'm Dead.
4/5
Dying Fetus - "Purification Through Violence" (1996)
I picked up the debut album from this legendary Maryland-based brutal death metal act through the tape trading scene at the time of release after quite enjoying (not to mention being influenced by) Dying Fetus' two early 90's demo tapes "Bathe in Entrails" & "Infatuation with Malevolence". "Purification Through Violence" offers more of the same (as does pretty much the entirety of Dying Fetus' recording career to tell you the truth) & suffers from the same limitations & failings which contribute to me awarding every one of their successive releases the same middling rating. Yes, the silly sweep-picking flourishes are here... so are the excellent hardcore-inspired slams... & don't forget those over-the-top dual vocals. Still... I'll always have time for this band, even in this more primitive form where their technical prowess is still clearly a work in progress. These boys played a big part in developing the brutal death metal sound that I was doing my best to replicate at the time, although I'd argue that I may have been doing it a little better than they were at this point if I'm being completely honest. Regardless, "Purification Through Violence" isn't Dying Fetus' worst record. It's not close to their best either but there's so little between their best & worst that it doesn't really matter too much. If pushed, I'd probably take "Purification Through Violence" over records like 2007's "War of Attrition", 2003's "Stop at Nothing" & even 1998's highly regarded "Killing on Adrenaline" sophomore record, not to mention the "Bathe in Entrails" demo tape.
For fans of Suffocation, Misery Index & Skinless.
3.5/5
Rammstein - "Herzeleid" (1995)
I've quite enjoyed the three Rammstein albums I've explored up until this point but I can't say that any of them are likely to receive a return visit. I simply don't think I can connect with the band on a stylistic level enough for that but it's enough of a connection to see me venturing back to their well-respected debut album for the first time this week & the results have been very similar. There's perhaps a stronger dance music influence on this material than on Rammstein's later releases which really cements their Neue Deutsche Härte crown while some of their thrashiest riffage adorns the stronger material on the tracklisting, even if it's still astoundingly basic in its construction. There are a couple of flat moments included here (see "Du riechst so gut" & "Laichzeit") but these are offset by two clear highlights in "Weisses Fleisch" & "Rammstein" which gives "Herzeleid" the same middling feel that I've found with records like 1997's "Sehnsucht", 2001's "Mutter" & 2004's "Reise, Reise". "Mutter" is still my pick of the first four Rammstein records but I've been pleasantly surprised to find that "Herzeleid" has now positioned itself into second position, mainly off the back of slightly greater consistency. Can I see myself venturing further into the Rammstein back catalogue? Yeah, probably.... but I'm also well aware that it's more of a box-ticking exercise than one that leaves me with genuine hope of finding anything that offers me anything longer-term.
For fans of OOMPH!, Megaherz & Eisbrecher.
3.5/5
Kreator - Krushers of the World (Released 13/01/26)
Since the turn of the century Kreator have taken to releasing a new album every four or five years and here we are at the beginning of 2026, with the world turning to shit, and the Teutonic Titans delivering full-length number 16. With Mille and Ventor both turning 60 this year, it would be overly optimistic to expect that they will ever reproduce the bile and venom that they unleashed with their classic period which spanned from "Pleasure to Kill" to "Coma of Souls". Indeed, they haven't really issued anything essential since 2005's "Enemy of God". This does not, however, mean that a new Kreator album deserves to be ignored. No, far from it because, although "Krushers of the World" is inconsistent and patchy, occasionally a brief glimpse of former brilliance does shine through.
There are riffs a-plenty and there is a decent energy to the album, but on the whole this latest is a little too groove-laden for my particular taste with choruses that often seem to have been written with optimum catchiness in mind and, as such, it lacks the biting venom of the band's best work. Some of the best moments come from the guitar solos which are deployed more sparingly than I would like, but when they are used, such as during "Barbarian and "Combatants"," they elevate the tracks with a level of intensity that the riffs and vocals don't quite encapsulate. For my money, the clear highlight of the album is "Psychotic Imperator". It sounds the closest to classic-era Kreator with an added choral section and a searing guitar solo that elevate it to head and shoulders above the rest of the album.
I guess that "Krushers of the World" delivers pretty much what you would expect from a Kreator album at this stage of their career, being cast into shadow by the monumental magnificence of their best and trying a little too hard to capture listeners with sometimes overtly catchy choruses. I am sure there are many who couldn't wait to tear this apart and I have no wish to join them as nothing here is actually poor but, apart from the aforementioned "Psychotic Imperator" I can't hear too much that will keep me returning to this either.
3.5/5
I am pleasantly surprised by this album if I am honest. I was so pissed off by their last studio album that I gave it a 2.5 rating, and it fucking deserved it. This one is a different beast to my ears, the melodeath elements combine with the thrashing intensity we have come to expect of Teutonic thrash almost perfectly. I cannot say the record is absent of filler and I am not a fan of the track with the singer from Hiraes on it either, but album number sixteen is a solid affair, well played, memorable and carrying some thankfully familiar levels of intensity.
Basic Channel - "Q 1.1" E.P. (1993)
The second E.P. from this legendary German techno duo is almost as impressive as their first but is perhaps a touch less consistent. It sees the dub techno godfathers veering away from their dubbier sound towards more of a traditional techno one that offered me just as much appeal. I can vividly remember playing A1 & B1 (my personal favourite) in my club DJ sets & receiving very strong responses while I also took A2 along with me on occasion but are not sure I ever got around to dropping it. I love the organic drum machine sounds of old & they're masterfully layered over smooth synth stabs here which ensures that "Q 1.1" E.P. should be essential listening for any aspiring techno nuts out there.
For fans of Maurizio, Cyrus & Porter Ricks.
4/5
Ben bought me a copy of this book for my 50th birthday last month & I finished it this morning. Its structure is really unusual as it's written in a chronological bullet-point format but it works for its intention which is to highlight every significant event in the building of what we know as heavy metal, starting at the earliest hints of darkness in music & ending with 1971 when Popoff claims the answer to his question had finally been undeniably confirmed. I'd suggest that Popoff's definition of what constitutes "metal music" is different to my own & I think that's driven by his age as he was involved with heavy music that was referred to as metal throughout the 1970's whereas I came to this music when there was more definition between rock & metal in the mid-to-late 1980's (although still not nearly as much definition as we understand today). For example, he talks about late 60's records by The Stooges, Blue Cheer & MC5 as being basically metal when I feel that is stretching the friendship by a considerable margin. At the end of the day though, he ends up coming to the same outcome as my own & it was interesting journey to get there. This book is worth a read for those of you who are interested in how this music came about.
Carcass - Reek of Putrification (1988)
Genres: Goregrind
In an earlier review for Carcass's second album, Symphony of Sickness, I mentioned that there was less of the melodic strength that made the third and fourth albums so beloved. In this early goregrind release, as well as their debut, there's even less of that. This is one of those somewhat common examples of early 80's metal albums compensating for lack of creativity with absolute brutality, the way earlier movies by Wes Craven were. "Mature" content over substance. Now the funny thing is, like Wes Craven, the band grew as their career progressed, so by the mid-90's this was basically nothing more than a historical example of how much they grew. Despite a few cute tricks here and there, I predicted how the whole album would go after listening to Symphony of Sickness. Now there may be some charm to have in the lo-fi production. It's certainly a heavy piece. But the production also muddles things that shouldn't be muddled, which cements yet another weak point in comparison to future works. Basically, this overly "adult" album amounts to little more than an imitation album made by a bunch of children who think all it takes to be the best is to be different and "true to yourself" by "not giving into radio capitalism" or some shit like that. Fortunately, this was the last time they ever sounded like this. With 22 short tracks, they found a way to make a 37-minute album way too damn long.
52
Cancer - "Black Faith" (1995)
I picked up a CD copy of this much-maligned stylistic diversion at the time of release & felt considerable shock to find the English death metallers' signature sound had been completely dropped. "Black Faith" has generally been absolutely slammed ever since but those criticisms are totally unfounded in my opinion. Sure, the third-tier, meat-&-potatoes death metal of the band's early days is nowhere to be found here, having been replaced with a groove metal sound that incorporates thrash metal, alternative metal, industrial metal, progressive metal & even metalcore influences. But if you can separate yourself from your expectations for a few listens, you'll soon find that the quality of the metal on offer here isn't any weaker than records like "Death Shall Rise" or "The Sins of Mankind". In fact, I'd probably take "Black Faith" over the latter if I'm being completely honest. Don't expect anything terribly essential but this is certainly worth a listen, despite the inclusion of a dodgy cover version of Deep Purple's "Space Truckin'".
For fans of Pantera, Prong & post- "Arise" Sepultura.
3.5/5
Here's my updated Top Ten Groove Metal Releases of All Time list:
01. Coroner – “Grin” (1993)
02. Grip Inc. – “Nemesis” (1997)
03. Nevermore - "Dead Heart in a Dead World" (2000)
04. Gojira - "Magma" (2016)
05. Pantera – “Vulgar Display Of Power” (1992)
06. Pantera – “Cowboys From Hell” (1990)
07. Mnemic - "Mechanical Spin Phenomena" (2003)
08. Sepultura – “Chaos A.D.” (1993)
09. Pantera – “The Great Southern Trendkill” (1996)
10. Anthrax - "The Sound of White Noise" (1993)
https://metal.academy/lists/single/175
Zbigniew Preisner - "Trois couleurs: Blanc" soundtrack (1994)
The second film in the "Trois couleurs" series once again offers a beautiful classical score from Polish composer Zbigniew Priesner. It's perhaps even more stripped back & minimal than its more popular predecessor "Trois couleurs: Bleu" although, if pushed, I'd suggest that I slightly prefer this one. Neither are on the same level as Preisner's classic 1991 "La double vie de Véronique" though which remains my favourite of the Preisner work I've heard to date.
For fans of Arvo Pärt, Yann Tiersen & Michael Nyman.
4/5