Sonny's Forum Replies

In no particular order:

Motorhead - Overkill

Slayer - Raining Blood

Darkthrone - In the Shadow of the Horns

Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

Diamond Head - Am I Evil?

Iron Maiden - Phantom of the Opera

Autopsy - In the Grip of Winter

Daevar - Amber Eyes (2024)

Daevar are a german trio playing a version of stoner doom metal with female vocals that will be instantly familiar to any fans of Richmond's Windhand. Amber Eyes is their sophomore full-length, following hot on the heels of 2023's Delirious Rites debut. Thick and syrupy, heavily distorted, downtuned riffs are the order of the day here, crawling from speaker to ear like lumbering behemoths with such weight and heft that it feels like you can lose yourself in them and let them just carry you along. Vocalist and bassist Pardis Latifi has a very pleasant voice and croons and cajoles, mesmerising the listener into a hypnotic, dream-like state. In other words, this is the very essence of stoner doom and it is executed impressively. Pardis's elephantine bass lines and drummer Moritz Ermen Bausch's thunderous, but spare, drumming slowly heaves the tracks forward and provide the thick foundations required by the ponderous weight of the uber-distorted riffs. Guitar solos are quite sparingly used and are efficient in their execution, not becoming excessively noodling or swamped in psychedelic explorations.

The songwriting is very good and the tracks are quite catchy, particularly the title track and opener Lilith's Lullaby and these are the sort of songs that may find you humming them to yourself long after you have stopped listening to the album itself. Stoner doom can sometimes become self-indulgent, but Daevar's songwriting is fairly economical and none of the tracks are extended unnecessarily and never seem to drag, quite the opposite in fact. As I said at the beginning, they are very reminiscent of Windhand and some may say too similar, but if you are going to ape anyone's style then it may as well be the best in your given field and it isn't like blatant Band X-worship is rare in the metal world, is it? I enjoyed this far more than I expected to going in and with us entering the seventh year without a new Windhand album, then Daevar provide me with a nice warm and fuzzy hit of that particular doom metal drug I have been craving for so long.

4/5

Severoth - By the Way of Light (2024)

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.

4/5

Oh, man, I am so sorry to hear of your health issues Daniel. I fully sympathise as I have suffered with tinnitus for over thirty years, not just from listening to metal at high volume, but also from working in a steel rolling mill in the 80s when health and safety was less of a thing. I find I am often unable to tell what people are saying if I am not facing them directly, which is frustrating, so I understand your decision to protect your hearing.

I agree with Andi that I would love to keep the playlists and features going as they contribute a lot to what makes the site great, at least for me anyway. As a suggestion, how about changing the frequency of the playlists to every quarter, ie four a year, rather than doing away with them altogether. That way, if Vinny is willing to keep going with the Pit then I don't mind taking over the programming for the North and Horde playlists in addition to carrying on with the Fallen. As for the features, again we could change the frequency to every other month.

I think I speak for us all when I say that we apppreciate the amount of time and effort you have put in to making the site what it is, Daniel, and it is a sad day both on a personal level for you as a friend and for the site itself which will be much reduced by your absence. I sincerely wish you all the best going forward with whatever you do in the future.

I might give this a try as I have enjoyed one or two deathcore bands I have heard recently.

Pallbearer - Mind Burns Alive (2024)

I feel I need to recalibrate my approach to Pallbearer. Since their imperious debut, Sorrow and Extinction, they have moved further away from that album's massively crushing and melancholy doom metal in a more gentle, doomgaze-y direction that has found me becoming increasingly disappointed with the results. Mind Burns Alive continues that direction of travel and it is now apparent that the days of Sorrow and Extinction are well in the band's rearview mirror.

Firstly, the production has a light touch, without doom metal's usual focus on the bottom end and with a clear, clean sound that enhances the gentler material, but which, lightens the doom riffs when they hit, preventing them from attaining the overwhelming crushing weight which is most often the point of focus for doom acts. Songwriting-wise, it seems that Pallbearer are steering in a more post-metal direction, achieved by incorporating influences from 1990's and early 2000's alternative rock. A track such as "Signals", for example, has a very alt-rock intro, bringing to mind bands like Radiohead or REM and even when the doom riff kicks in, it feels as much like the heavier alternative or noise rock bands of the turn of the century as it does doom metal. It must be said though that Brett Campbell has the perfect voice for this style, his reedy and nasal delivery is very much suited to that particular alternative rock sound and feels just as much at home with the gentler material as it does the heavier.

I have a feeling that Pallbearer may be taking a leaf out of Patrick Walker's book and taking an emotionally redolent version of doom metal such as Walker perfected on Watching From A Distance and moving in a shoegazey, alternative direction, similar to 40 Watt Sun. As I said at the beginning, I think a reappraisal of Pallbearer is required at this point because, after multiple listens, by which time any lingering preconceptions have been shorn away, Mind Burns Alive is revealing itself to actually be an interesting album and may now even sit as my second-favourite by the band after the mighty debut. The previous few albums, certainly those after Foundations of Burden, have felt incomplete, like a band casting around for a signature sound without exactly knowing where they are heading, but I think Mind Burns Alive has seen Pallbearer arrive where they truly want to be and feels more complete and coherent as a result. Their's is now an emotionally-charged version of doom that builds from gentle, often non-metal, beginnings up to a crescendo whereby the heavy doom riffs act as a kind of catharsis for the fear or sorrow openly displayed during each track's earlier sections. The band are obviously very technically sound, but use this ability to build atmosphere and poignancy within their music, rather than to showcase their technical chops. The guitar solos, for example, sound mournful and full of yearning, used to elicit an emotional reaction rather than wow the listener with the musician's dexterity.

Did I even mention the saxophone solo that jumps out at you during "Endless Place" yet? I'm not completely convinced said solo was entirely necessary, but it does help to illustrate that Mind Burns Alive is actually a lot better and more interesting than I originally gave it credit for. To properly appreciate it, however, I have had to shift my perspective on not only this, but the band as a whole. I wouldn't say this is a perfect album by any stretch, certainly not for my particular taste profile, but it finally sees Pallbearer getting comfortable with a particular sound that plays to their strengths and which is even capable of swaying the opinion of a cynical old bastard like me to their way of thinking. In all honesty, I had been getting a little bit bored of certain sections of the doom metal scene's predictability over recent months, so it is great to hear something that has defied and redefined my expectations.

4/5

Yeah, I don't mind them too much and still like the debut album, The Principle of Evil Made Flesh, along with my personal favourite Middian and Nymphetamine is OK. I don't really think they have been classed as black metal for many a year now, gothic metal being the most usual tagging for them. 

Hi Ben, can you add Cryptal Echoes and their s/t EP from 2024. It only has 15 ratings on RYM and it looks (and sounds) like a demo, but it is an official release with a CD version available on Morbid Chapel Records. Thanks in advance.

Cryptal Echoes - S/T EP (2024)

Cryptal Echoes are a young death doom band from Klagenfurt in Austria and this self-titled, almost thirty-minute, EP is their first release since forming in 2021. At the time of the EP's recording they were a four-piece band, but a couple of lineup changes have since seen them reduced to a trio. They worship at the altar of the old-school death metal gods, with a thoroughly filthy and cavernous sound, which is exacerbated by a very raw, little better than demo-quality, production job. Heavily distorted, lumbering riffs accompanied by deep-throated growls and bellows for vocals are very much the order of the day for the band, punctuated by more uptempo bursts of deathly aggression. This is very much death doom rooted in the genre's early-nineties beginnings with no concession to the progressive tendencies or external genre incorporation of more modern death doom bands, delivering a pure and unfiltered, genuinely old-school death doom experience.

When the band let loose and increase the tempo into out-and-out death metal territory, the raw production values and heavy guitar distortion see things getting a little bit messy and start to blur into one deathly rumble, with the snare drum being the main discernible instrument still propelling the tracks along. I don't necessarily have a problem with this, having listened to a lot of lo-fi stuff over the years, but it could well be a deal-breaker for those raised on modern, crystal clear production jobs. The riffs are decent, although if you are familiar with a lot of early 90's death metal then you won't find them at all original, although that is never the aim here. Cryptal Echoes know exactly what they want to do and that is recreate the original death doom sound as faithfully as possible, a feat they pulled off very convincingly.

Of the six tracks on the EP, four hover around the six minute mark and these are where the meat of the album lie. There is a bit of a departure with tracks four and five, with the sub-two-minute "Spiritual Torture" verging on grindcore and short instrumental, "Dreaded Chasm" being a gently noodling breather prior to closing track, the lumbering and hulking "Desolate Return" with which the band finish in great style. This is my favourite of the six, it feeling the classiest and most developed track with the release's coolest riffs left until last.

This is probably one for hardcore death doom fanatics with a penchant for the old-school, but if that is you then you may well find enough raw meat to sink your teeth into with this.

3.5/5

My first new album of 2025 gets the year off to a pretty good start:

Barshasketh - Antinomian Asceticism (2025)

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.

4/5

This 1997 album appears to be the only release from the Aussie hardcore punk / metalcore outfit, which is a great shame because this was a genuine surprise and I enjoyed it massively. I don't know what "real" metalcore fans think of it because, to my ears, this sounds first and foremost like a punk album with a metallic guitar sound, which is no problem to me at all. I'm not a large consumer of metalcore, but one of my bugbears with it being that so many of the modern bands sound alike and I have real trouble telling both the bands and their songs apart. But because of the marked punk component, this has a lot more character than some of the more modern metalcore bands I have listened to. In fact I am not even sure that some of the punk component even counts as hardcore, sounding catchy and melodic, more like second wave UK punk acts like Angelic Upstarts or Anti-Nowhere League, although elsewhere they do have a Minor Threat vibe going on. One of my favourite punk albums is Suicidal Tendencies' debut (their best by a country mile) and I found that springing to mind several times whilst listening to this. I must admit I didn't even realise that Callous were a christian-themed band until reading Daniel's review but, to be honest, I don't care one way or the other because I am more interested in the abrasive timbre of the vocal performance than the actual lyrics themselves and it still sounds pissed off and angry, no matter the lyrical content. In fact, let's face it, some of the straight-edge punks could be even more preachy than any christian act are ever likely to be.

I think that ultimately "In the Memory Of..." appeals to me so much because it has a strong individuality and character due to it having such a prominent early punk influence - a trait which is often just vestigial in more modern metalcore, leaving it often sounding very samey with everyone wanting to be Converge. Sadly it seems that most genres tend towards conformity at some point - and even punk itself fell into that trap with the endless stream of cookie-cutter skate / pop punk acts that proliferated in the wake of Green Day and Bad Religion's early success. If I am going to explore metalcore further with any chance of satisfaction, then I guess these earlier days of the genre are the best place for me to start.

4/5

I think that had I heard this at the time of its release then I would have enjoyed it far more than I do now. To me it sounds a lot like the early USPM of Manilla Road and Jag Panzer with some very cool riffs, lead work and interesting song structures. It falls down on a couple of points, the first being that the production is complete shite. As much as I enjoyed the guitar work, they are threatened with being drowned out by the bass for almost the entirety of the album. I don't have a problem with the bass sitting well up in the mix, but if it is drowning out the leads then there is a problem right there. My second issue is a perpetual one wirthin certain realms of metal and that is the constant strained sound of vocalist, Shane Southby, hitting his high notes every other second, especially when he has a perfectly fine "normal" singing voice. I know that is a bit rich coming from someone who enjoys King Diamond, but KD is so OTT that I see it as a reflection of his unique musical persona, whereas here it just irritated me.

Overall I did get something out of it and Taramis were definitely trying to stretch their legs and move beyond the boundaries of traditional heavy metal with more complex song structures, the title track in particular standing out, but that production job is just so obstructive to my enjoyment that I find it hard to embrace Queen of Thieves with any more than a cursory nod.

3/5

Hmmm... the age old question. I thought the general consensus was that vocals alone don't contribute to genre selection. If an album has black metal "music" with clean vocals, it's still black metal. If an album has pop "music" with black metal vocals, it's still just pop. To move away from this logic creates all sorts of bad genre choices, particularly as death and black metal vocals appear across all sorts of subgenres these days.

Yes, that's generally been my stance over the years but this record isn't as straight-forward as that. You see, if you examine it in detail, you'll find that the vocals are the main thing tying this record to metal. The instrumentation is quite diverse & spends a fair bit more time outside of the metal scope so I don't think you could say that this is a straight-up "avant-garde metal" release as such. In fact, if you were to base your genre-tag solely on the instrumentation then this release may not even qualify for the Academy. The vocals are about as black metal as they come though & I don't think you'd find another metal release that's not tagged with at least a "blackened" prefix if they offered something similar. Given that the black metal component is the primary link to metal & it's prominent enough in the sound of the album to command a metal tag, I feel that an avant-garde black metal tag is the best fit for it. Have a listen for yourself though as I'm certainly open to other ideas if they're a better fit.

I initially thought no to a black metal primary, but contuinued re-listens have seen me soften my stance on that point. I think bands like OP who are now operating on the outer boundaries of metal  are able to throw a bit of a proverbial spanner in the works of the clan system. Undoubtedly the vocals are the most black metal aspect of the album, but tracks such as "Bioalkemisti", "Voitelu" and "Valotus" contain sufficient of a black metal vibe musically, within a wider black metal context, to be considered a part of the North. That the album as a whole is undoubtedly avant-garde is indisputable and if we use the dictionary definition of avant-garde, ie "the advance group in any field, especially in the visual, literary, or musical arts, whose works are characterized chiefly by unorthodox and experimental methods" and apply that to Muuntautuja, I think it is fair to say that Oranssi Pazuzu are in the vanguard of bands redefining exactly what black metal is or can be and it may be that we need to recalibrate our definitions too. Also ambient and electronic music has been a part of black metal since the earliest days of the second wave. So, yes, absolutely to avant-garde black metal for me.

Do you also hear a bit of an industrial sound here too, Daniel, particularly in the machine-like dehumanisation of tracks like the title track and "Ikikäärme"?

Sounds interesting Vinny.

Great review Sonny & vey much in line with my own feelings.  Tech thrash or not tech thrash?

For me, no. The drumming, yes. The riffs and solos aren't technical thrash to my ears, though. The solos are tortured, not technical and the riffs and song structures don't scream tech-thrash to me at all. 

Here's my review:

Invocator are a danish four-piece, formed in 1986, although this, their debut album, wasn't recorded and released until 1991. I had never heard of these guys before, so this is my first encounter with them and I must admit I quite like what I am hearing here. Excursion Demise is an album of prime brutal thrash, with the band endeavouring to play the most extreme version of thrash metal that they could. Unfortunately they have been a little hamstrung in that department by the production, which is lacking on bottom end, robbing the riffs of some of the blunt-force trauma they may have possessed otherwise and rendering them more lightweight than they deserve. This lack of riff power, though, forces the drumming more to the fore which, considering just how impressive Per Möller Jensen is behind the kit, is not such a bad thing. His technique is powerful and technical, with an impressive arsenal of percussive weapons up his sleeve. Busy and complex patterns weave together and provide the driving impetus behind the tracks, also bolstering the riffing to some extent.

Guitarist and vocalist, Jacob Hansen, is obviously the main draw here though. His vocal style is a rough, aggressive snarl that is reminiscent of Kreator's Mille Petrozza and well suits the blistering pacing of the majority of the tracks. It is, however, his six-string solos that, along with Möller Jensen's drumming, are the stars of the show. Taking the howling riffs of Hannemann and King and torturing them into ever-more distorted patterns and directions and sprinkling them liberally all over the album's runtime, boosts the violent brutality factor by an exponential factor.

Now I am always one for a good slab of brutal thrash metal and Excursion Demise is indeed a very solid example but, much as I enjoy it whilst it is blasting out of my headphones, there isn't a great deal that sticks with me afterwards, other than an impression of having had my ears sufficiently brutalised for nearly fifty minutes. I am not complaining and I feel that the failing in that respect sits with my lack of technical musical expertise not allowing me to grasp hold of specifics and, consequently, the album's unrelentingly fast-pacing and lack of memorable riffs and hooks only leaves me with a lingering overall impression of it's brutality rather than any specific outstanding moments. Look, this is far from the only album that I view that way and it doesn't prevent me from enjoying it massively whilst it is playing, I just wish I was able to take a bit more away with me afterwards is all.

4/5

I've been a fan of Adorior since their first album back in the late 1990's Sonny. They're always very consistent, even if they're not particularly prolific. I've really enjoyed my couple of casual listens to the new record over the last few months too & it may even be their finest work to date. Hopefully I get the time to review it before the end of January but the list is pretty long at this point.

I just finished reviewing the new Ulcerate album & it's fair to say that I can't see it being beaten for my AOTY.

I was sceptical as to whether the Ulcerate album would appeal to me, but it is a genuine era-defining release and I too was blown away by it. It is also my AOTY and I could see it being the metal release of the decade, ultimately. Unfortunately I was unable to score a vinyl copy and the scalpers on Discogs are asking silly money, so I got my CD copy today instead.

Adorior - Bleed on My Teeth (2024)

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!

4.5/5

Picked up on an album called Bleed on My Teeth by UK band, Adorior after a friend on RYM had it as his #1 of the year. They have been around for thirty years but have only released three albums. Unholy thrashy death metal with female vocals (singer Melissa Gray is the only remaining original member). Definitely worth checking out. Spotify have censored the cover for some reason - it is fairly blasphemous, but there are much worse metal covers out there.

https://metal.academy/releases/55181

Hi Ben, I have a few for you this time. Could you please add:

Horsehunter (Australia)

HVØSCH (Russia)

Insanity Reigns Supreme (Belgium)

Hi Ben, could you add UK sludge / doom band, Ghold please?

I haven't listened to Poppy before, but have seen her plastered all over RYM as she seems to be a darling of the cognoscenti over there. Well, I think it is fair to say that this is not aimed at me and so my opinion is irrelevant. To me this sounds like someone has made a mashup of Avril Lavigne, Kittie and Evanescence, thrown in a few recycled Slipknot riffs and Linkin Park backing tracks, then employed a world class marketing team and pursuaded people they are listening to something new and exciting. There is nothing for me at all in this and all I got out of it was disinterest. I hate giving out really low marks, but I asked myself if I listened to every metal album ever made, would this be in the bottom ten percent and I would have to say, yes it would, hence the score.

I want to try to expand my metal listening a bit this year and thought the clan monthly features would be a good source, but it hasn't exactly got off to a sterling start. I won't be writig a full review for Negative Spaces because it would be unfair on the strength of just one listen, but I just couldn't do it again. Sorry Saxy, I hate dumping on other people's picks, but I just don't get this at all.

0.5/5

FUCK, YEAH!!

Here's my review:

The NWOBHM produced some exciting and exilharating releases for the time, but it also produced it's fair share of utter dross too. Released in 1982, this four-track EP from Melbourne's Taipan showcases what would certainly have been considered one of the better releases from the NWOBHM - if they had been from Melbourne in Derbyshire that is, rather than Victoria. Anyway, fuck geography, because this is a terrific little release that brings Diamond Head's Lightning To the Nations springing to mind.

The riffs have that hard-rock-influenced NWOBHM catchiness that the best of the UK scene had to offer with a driving, propulsive quality that would guarantee maximum headbanging action. The riff of opener "Breakout" certainly wouldn't have sounded out of place on Diamiond Head's classic debut, such is it's quality. The guitar solos are supercharged affairs, reminding me quite a lot of Phil Campbell's Motörhead leadwork, coming thick and fast, just like the doctor ordered and are my favourite part of the EP. Most of the vocals are performed by guitarist Dave Zerafa who, has some variety in his delivery. On "Breakout" he has a punky, aggressive edge to his voice similar to Iron Maiden's Paul Di'Anno, yet on second track, "Lady" he sounds much more like Diamond Head's Sean Harris, with even hints at Robert Plant-esque seductive tones. The vocals on final track, "The Cellar" are handled by bassist Emilio Sarpa, however, who has a similar style to Zerafa, although I think D.Z. is technically the better singer.

As a metalhead who was well immersed in the NWOBHM at the time, I can confidently say that had these guys been supporting Maiden or Saxon back in '81 down at my local venue then they would have been lapped up by me and my mates, that's for damned sure. The riffs, the solos, even the production, scream a band that just "get" what was going on in the metal new wave of the 1980's and has an authenticity that many retro acts have tried unsuccessfully to emulate. This is indeed an early 80's metal hidden gem and is right up there with some of the best shit hitting the streets way back when. For fans of Diamond Head, Blitzkrieg and Saxon.

4.5/5

I think I may have a slightly different take to most, but here's my review:

In 1992 diSEMBOWELMENT released this three-track EP of material which would eventually show up again on the band's seminal "Transcendence Into the Peripheral" album, released the following year. The first two tracks, "The Tree of Life and Death" and "A Burial at Ornans" are quite rough and ready and are re-releases of rehearsal demos recorded in March of 1991, with only the last track "Cerulean Transience of All My Imagined Shores" being recorded specifically for release on this EP. I must be honest and admit that I have constantly struggled with the legendary status of "Transcendence Into the Peripheral" and there is something I find much more appealing here, particularly in the stripped-back versions of the first two tracks. Listening to the version of "The Tree of Life and Death" presented here alongside the later version, the drum sound is a lot less prevalent than it is on the album version, sitting more where I would expect it to in the mix of a doom metal album so that when the blastbeats hit they don't swamp everything else like they do on the album version. I think the generally more scuzzy production on the EP suits the material better as well, the heavy echoing effect of the album being unnecessary here, so that it sounds more natural than the album does. "Transcendence..." has a greater clarity for sure, but I am not convinced that that is to the benefit of the material because the foetid, abyssal nature of old-school death doom is really suited to lo-fi production values such as we have here on the EP.

OK, comparisons with it's younger and bigger sibling apart, what do we have here? Well, three fairly lengthy tracks of extreme metal that cover quite a few bases during their runtimes, from blasting death metal, through the hulking, ominous death doom that was taking off big time with certain sections of the early Nineties' extreme metal scene, to something even slower and more morbid-sounding, specifically during "A Burial at Ornans", which foreshadows the funeral doom of Thergothon's "Fhtagn-nagh Yog-Sothoth" demo, still six months in the future. The EP exudes a menace and primally evil aura heightened by Renato Gallina's abyssal demon's low, rumbling growl for a voice which may well induce nightmares in the mentally delicate. The skull-crushing weight of the simple, lumbering riffs may have been one of the heaviest things ever set down on tape up to that point in time, with a disgustingly filthy guitar sound that only adds to this gravitational magnitude. Both "The Tree of Life and Death" and "A Burial at Ornans" feel quite epic, involving multiple tempo changes during their runtimes, but epic in a huge, decayed and rotting carcass kind of way.

The closing track of both this EP and the full-length, "Cerulean Transience of All My Imagined Shores", sounds more like it's later incarnation, minus the opening ambient intro. Obviously recorded at a different time to the first two tracks, it has a much clearer production which gives the lead guitar a chiming, ringing tone in contrast to the deep, bestial roar that passes for vocals and the thundering basswork. The drums are further up the mix than they were on the other tracks, but not to the extent of the album and are perfectly suitable. This is the track more than the others which foreshadows the advent of Funeral Doom on the extreme metal scene, it slowing to barely a crawl at times, predicting the arrival of the likes of Esoteric, who were formed the same year as this came out. Coincidental? I think not!

I am really glad to have had the chance to check this out because it has solved the irksome puzzle as to why I never got on board with "Transcendence Into the Peripheral" when it appears to be right up my street. The answer is, because of the production, which I find to be incredibly jarring, especially the almost St. Anger-level annoying snare sound. The actual material, as presented here on the EP, is excellent, so that is the only explanation for my resistance to the later full-length.

4.5/5

I would suggest Mayhemic's "Toba" - only discovered it yesterday mind thanks to Sonny, but it is superb blackened thrash metal.

I would second that pick. I had forgotten about it because I haven't rated it yet.

I will have to champion Fange from my list of just one industrial metal release from 2024.

The  only Revolution release I have on my list is Drown in Sulphur's "Dark Secrets of the Soul", which I actually dug quite a bit. I know, me and deathcore eh!

Critical Defiance are my year end favoirites in The Pit and Sovereign were good too. 

Pentagram Chile had a decent album out and Vulture's "Sentinels" was an enjoyable slab of speedy thrash.

Should the Darkthrone record be considered for The Guardians award guys or do you think it’s a stretch to call it a heavy metal release?

I think it's true place is in The Fallen, Daniel. I don't think it belongs in The Guardians or The North.

I really don't think Darkthrone's album belongs in The North to be honest.

Spectral Wound is my black metal AOTY, but Antichrist Siege Machine's "Vengeance of Eternal Fire" is a great war metal album.

Above Aurora, Darkspace and Departure Chandelier all turned in solid efforts in 2024 as well.

Hauntologist's "Hollow" is a nice slab of posr-black if anyone is up for that.

Oranssi Pazuzu's "Muuntautuja", tagged as avant-garde metal, is my obvious answer here. I haven't rated anything else that would qualify for The Infinite I don't think.

Ulcerate and Blood Incantation are sitting as my #1 and #3 releases of 2024 currently, so I would wholeheartedly support those two. 

I'm always a sucker for a Nile album and their latest, "The Underworld Awaits Us All" marked a bit of a return to form as far as I was concerned.

Elsewhere, Diabolic Oath, Abhorration and Invocation put out very good albums.

Grand Magus' latest, "Sunraven" is the first that comes to mind and Morgul Blade's "Heavy Metal Wraiths" was pretty good too. I quite liked the new Saxon, "Hell, Fire and Damnation" and for me it was a bit of a nostalgia trip.

Ataraxie's "Le déclin" is an absolute must for any fan of funeral doom and was shaping up to be my AOTY until I crossed paths with "Cutting the Throat of God".

Monolithe's death doom concept album, "Black Hole District" is also excellent and Scald's "Ancient Doom Metal" is where to turn for your epic doom fix of 2024.

Mourning Dawn's "The Foam of Despair" is my top-rated atmospheric sludge album of the year and The Flight of Sleipnir's "Nature's Cadence" is definitely worth a listen, as is Ponte del Diavolo's "Fire Blades From the Tomb".

This is quite a short album, so I managed four or five listen throughs this morning. Here's my take on it:

Carnophage are a five-piece from Ankara in Türkiye, forming in 2006 and "Matter of a Darker Nature" is their third full-length, following eight years after previous effort, "Monument". I haven't listened to the band before, but here they play a style of technical and brutal death metal, the likes of which I have not encountered too often. Now I sometimes have issues with both technical and brutal death metal and, at least in part, those issues are present on "Matter of a Darker Nature". Not so much with regards to the brutal DM side of their sound as that is actually very well presented, being aggressive and vicious-sounding with thick, juicy riffs and a suitably bellowing vocal performance from singer Oral Akyol. However, it is the technical aspect of their sound that I am struggling with, or more accurately, the technical complexity of the songwriting. I can stomach a certain degree of technical complexity in my metal, but at the point where it feels like technical dexterity and songwriting complexity become an album's prime reason for being, sacrificing the coherency of the individual tracks, then I tend to check out. Unfortunately, for me anyway, Carnophage are all-in on the technical side and, in my opinion, often to the detriment of the individual tracks. I found myself really getting into tracks like "Until the Darkness Kills the Light" or the ominous-sounding title track, but then sudden changes of phrasing and tempo interrupt the flow and make the tracks feel choppy and disjointed, for no apparent reason. I know that the issue here is mine and mine alone and I have to admit that the band do sound incredibly adroit technically, with a very tight and focussed delivery and when they start to lay down a brutal riff I'm thinking "yes, here we go", only to have said riff supplanted by an enforced tempo or directional change and me once more feeling frustrated with them.

Multiple listens have tempered my annoyance with the technical aspects and when the band hit it right I found them to be very impressive purveyors of the more brutal end of the death metal spectrum, but an album like this will always leave me with reservations as I find the staccato nature of the music incredibly wearying. Still, good luck to them because even though it isn't exactly my cup of tea, I can tell they are a talented bunch and for those who are in the market for what they are offering, I am sure they deliver the goods.

3.5/5

Thanks guys. No problems with those noms, Daniel, they should fit in just fine.

For February, Vinny, please:

Celtic Frost - "Fainted Eyes" (from "To Mega Therion", 1985)

Kingdom of Hate - "Prayer" (from "The Search", 2009)

Massakre - "Red September" (from "Crematorium", 2005)

Mayhemic - "Triumph Portrait" (from "Toba", 2024)

Metallica - "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" (from "Master of Puppets", 1986)

Nimrod - "Mortality of the Sea" (from "Legacy of the Dead", 2023)

Possessed - "Burning In Hell" (from "Seven Churches", 1985)

Razor - "Edge of the Razor" (from "Violent Restitution", 1988)

For February:

Atomic Aggressor - "Faceless Torment" (from "Sights of Suffering", 2014) 

Blood Incantation - "The Stargate [Tablet III]" (from "Absolute Elsewhere", 2024) 

Coffin Curse - "Reeking Filth of Ages" (from "The Continuous Nothing", 2024) 

Diabolic Oath - "Oracular Hexations Leeching" (from "Oracular Hexations", 2024) 

Invocation - "Hypnosis" (from ""The Archaic Sanctuary" (Ritual Body Postures)", 2024)

January 2025

1. Black Sabbath - "War Pigs" (from "Paranoid", 1970)

2. Kyuss - "50 Million Year Trip (Downside Up)" (from "Blues for the Red Sun", 1992)

3. Anathema – “Eternal Rise of the Sun” (from “We Are The Bible” E.P., 1994) 

4. Acid Bath - "Jezebel" (from "When the Kite String Pops", 1994)

5. Pallbearer - "Mind Burns Alive" (from "Mind Burns Alive", 2024)

6. Ceremonium - "Into the Autumn Shade" (from "Into the Autumn Shade", 1995) 

7. Neon Nightmare - "Promethean Gift" (from "Faded Dream", 2024) 

8. Slomatics - "Tunnel Dragger" (from "Estron", 2014)

9. Enchantment – “Kneading With Honey” (from “Dance the Marble Naked”, 1994) 

10. Unkirk - "Sky" (from ".burial", 2017)

11. Christbait – “Loose” (from “Yeast” E.P., 1992) 

12. Black Oath - "Wicked Queen" (from "To Below and Beyond", 2022) 

13. My Dying Bride – “The Crown of Sympathy (Remix)” (from “I Am The Bloody Earth” E.P., 1994) 

14. Ataraxie - "Vomisseurs De Vide" (from "Le déclin", 2024) 

Get well soon, Vinny.

Hadn't heard about the new Messa album, but definitely looking forward to that one. Avatarium, not so much.

Seattle husband and wife, drum and bass doom duo Year of the Cobra return with a new album at the end of February. War Drop is the first promo.

Pentagram have an album out at the end of January too. The opening track, "Live Again" is the first single.

The UK's premier atmospheric black metal outfit, Saor, are back with a new album on 4th February, entitled "Amidst the Ruins". Although I thought the last album, 2022's "Origins" lacked bite, Andy Marshall is still a quality producer of epic and sweeping soundscapes, as evidenced on the promo for the album's title track.

Prog-thrashers Cryptosis have a new album due in March. I really enjoyed their 2021 debut, "Bionic Swarm", so I am quite looking forward to this one. "Faceless Matter" is the lead-off single and although it doesn't sound as brilliant as anything on the debut, I am still hopeful for this one.

Ulcerate - Cutting the Throat of God (2024)

Due to my inbuilt aversion to overtly dissonant or technical death metal I have been somewhat reticent about checking out Ulcerate's latest, but year end is looming and I can't let 2024 pass by without listening to what has been almost universally acclaimed as the number one metal album of the year. I'm really glad I did too, because "Cutting the Throat of God" is an amazing album. I guess in the hands of true masters, even personally challenging material can transcend the inbuilt resistance listeners may have to music that resides well outside their usual comfort zone. What enables Ulcerate to break through my own personal issues with this challenging style of death metal is that they never allow the technicality or dissonance to affect the flow of the tracks. Too often these genres are too choppy and compositionally messy for me, but here the tracks maintain a logical and organic development at all times, with the dissonance and technicality always serving as a tool to relate that which the band wish to communicate rather than becoming the be-all-and-end-all in an attempt to show how clever the musicians are. This is an atmospheric version of death metal that is composed of shades and textures rather than riffs and blastbeats (although those are present). Heavily influenced by acts like Neurosis, Ulcerate utilise the death metal toolbox to produce an emotionally-charged post-metal style of death metal.

The aesthetic of Cutting the Throat of God is based around existential anxiety and the ultimate futility of organised belief structures, hence the atmosphere of melancholic dread that permeates the instrumentation. I don't think that the slightly off-kilter clangourous nature of much of the guitar leads, suggesting the desperate chiming of church bells as if declaring their inability to provide solace, is accidental, but is proof of the band's attention to detail and is testament to their songwriting skills. The constant shifting of tone from introspective and morbid, to angered and explosively violent, further deepens the atmosphere of existential impotence.

Now this is not an especially new aesthetic within extreme metal circles, but very rarely have I encountered such a compelling and coherent expression of nihilistic dread. This success is entirely due to the adroitness of the musicians involved, both technically and compositionally. It is supremely evident that even though much of the album is meant to engender a feeling of chaotic confusion, the songwriting is supremely tight with not a single note out of place and is very far from being confused or chaotic in it's production or execution. Special mention must go out to drummer Jamie Saint Merat whose drum patterns are so complex and precise that I often found myself zoning in on them. So interesting do they sound that I have the feeling I could listen to the drum track in isolation and find it utterly compelling.

I don't wish to give the impression that this is a lightweight affair, because it is exceedingly heavy at times, but sheer heaviness is not the primary directive here and the lighter moments deepen the impact of the heavy. Paul Kelland's bellowing, gutteral roar also contributes to the album's surface-level heaviness, whilst perfectly encapsulating the philosophical frustration and existential dread expressed in the lyrics. The chiming leadwork, despite it's slight dissonant quality, is often deceptively hooky and melodic, with me finding some of the guitar phrases leaping unbidden into mind throughout the day, such is their memorability. The guitar phrasing is also such that it sounds very much like there are certain recurrent themes surfacing throughout the tracks, tying the whole album together.

For me, this is an example of technical dissonance with real soul, which is unusual for a style that I often find to be emotionally sterile. Now, in truth, I don't have the technical knowhow to properly dissect "Cutting the Throat of God" and I may have read too much into it's perceived themes and concepts, but all great art holds a mirror up to the beholder to some extent, so maybe this just resonates with something deep within me. Whatever the reason, this feels like one of the most personal and affecting metal releases I have ever heard and will now, despite some tough competition, almost certainly be my AOTY for 2024 and head towards the upper echelons of my all-time favourites list.

5/5

I completely agree that metal is in a very healthy state right now, Daniel. Only the future will tell if it is a golden age or not, but there sure have been plenty of top-tier releases over the last several years. This year alone has seen a fistful of albums that have pushed the boundaries of metal with Oranssi Pazuzu, Ulcerate, Blood Incantation and Monolithe all putting out amazing records. Along with high quality releases of a more conventional nature - the dominance of South American thrash, the resurgence of Darkthrone, a plethora of OSDM and black metal and the continuing high quality of several progressive metal acts all suggest that metal's blood is still strong and likely to remain so for some time. We are definitely a long way from the early 2000's doldrums now and long may it continue.

Diabolic Oath - Oracular Hexations (2024)

Diabolic Oath are seemingly a secretive three-piece from Portland with members named Chthonian Incursor, Ominous Void and The Temple, none of whose roles within the band are public knowledge. According to their Bandcamp page they use completely fretless guitars and a simultaneous triple vocal attack "to depredate the listener's psyche", so I think it is fair to say that we are not in melodic metal territory here. What we do have is a blackened death metal assault that is very close to war metal, in fact the first couple of tracks are very much in the vein of true war metal, with the cavernous, noisy and chaotic aesthetic of true war metal sitting very much to the fore. That isn't the totality of what is going in with Oracular Hexations, however, as the band explore a multifarious number of ways to achieve metallic extremity, even within these opening two tracks. As the initial war metal assault subsides, the latter half of opener "Rusted Madness Tethering Misbegotten Haruspices" takes on an almost tribal-sounding, hulking chug of a riff, and the second, "Serpent Coils Suffocating the Mortal Wound" at one point employs a weird, almost out-of-tune gothic rock guitar lick alongside the more usual disso-death guitar work.

Diabolic Oath lean towards the death metal end of the war metal spectrum and after these initial couple of tracks the death metal aspect dominates the album, with the blackened side mainly being represented by some of the vocals. "Winged Ouroboros Mutating Unto Gold", for example has an old-school feeling to it that hints at death doom, albeit noisier and more chaotic than, say, Autopsy, but displaying a similar approach to death metal. In a similar way, "Fragmented Hymns From the Globulous Cruciger" feels rooted in tech-death, but you have to take into accout the cavernous, noisy production of the album and dig in a bit to appreciate the more technical and tighter guitar and percussion work utilised here.

Each of these first four tracks clock in between four and five minutes, but the final couple are much longer affairs, with next track, "Gathering Hordes From the Outer Worlds" running for almost ten minutes and the closer, "Oracular Hexations Leeching", just over eight. These longer, final two tracks tend to veer between looming and ominous doominess and sheer unmitigated violence and actually constitute my favourite part of the album. A healthy serving of death doom metal is always likely to garner a thumbs-up from me and the way that it is interspersed by blastbeat-driven, outbursts of violent, high-tempo death metal makes for a very satisfying mix.

I have to confess that, for me, this wasn't an immediate attention-grabber, with my initial listen-through being a somewhat underwhelming affair as the dissonance and chaos overwhelmed me a little and found me starting to drift away, but this, certainly for me at least, is a release that rewards persistence. Once I got to grips with the noisy production and the trappings of the technical and dissonant aspects and got them lined up in my mind then it became much easier to appreciate the quality of what Diabolic Oath were attempting (and pulling off) here. That, I think, is to produce a real bamboozling piece of extreme metal that has the feeling of a chaotic and loose headlong charge, but which is, in fact, a highly controlled, tightly written and technically adept slab of extremity that explores the ominousness of threat and danger in contrast to the sheer explosive brutality of violence. Whether that is an apt interpretation or not, either way, this is an impressive and thought-provoking chunk of metal that certainly deserves more attention than it has currently been receiving.

(Strong)4/5

I've been checking out the playlist over the last couple of days and enjoyed it very much. It started off really strongly, I love the Abhorration, Resurrection, Bendiction, Disincarnate and Dismember tracks, a couple of which I already knew, but most I didn't. The Thorium, Obituary and Vomit Forth tracks were also brilliant.In fact most of the playlist was great, although only Ceremony of Silence out of the last five resonated much with me and the final track by Submerged left me scratching my head to be honest. Someone will have to explain the attraction of those squealing pig vocals to me one day! Overall though another sterling effort by all involved, so thanks guys and merry xmas to you all.

Blood Incantation - Absolute Elsewhere (2024)

Blood Incantation are back with their signature progressive, cosmic death metal sound after their detour into the world of ambient that was their 2022 Timewave Zero project. Absolute Elsewhere basically consists of two lengthy tracks, "The Stargate" and "The Message" that make up each side of the vinyl release, with each track being further split into three parts. This time around they have delved even further into progressive realms than they did with 2019's Hidden History of the Human Race, with recognisable influence from several legendary 70's progressive artists, most noticeably Rush, Pink Floyd, King Crimson and Tangerine Dream with TD's Thorsten Quaeschning's guesting on the second part of "The Message", which sounds just like an excerpt from the german progressive electronic crew's 1975 Rubycon album.

Of course, after their dalliance with a wholly ambient release last time out, most metalheads want to know if the band still have their hearts in the metal world and the answer is, undoubtedly they do and death metal is still the basis upon which their more expansive sound is built, but they are also on a mission to expand the horizons of the genre and bring in other influences so that it can continue to evolve, thus giving it an even brighter future and allowing it to reach out to a wider audience. Just within the opening segment of "The Message" we are treated to a Rush-like intro, with Geddy Lee-like staccato basslines and Alex Lifeson-influenced lead work leading into a ripping death metal riff, thundering blastbeat and Paul Riedl's growling vocals. These soon subside into a Robert Fripp-style gentle guitar and synth break which itself morphs into a short mellotron-led section (reminiscent of the synths Queen produced for the Flash Gordon soundtrack) which is then supplanted by a Dave Gilmour-esque solo. That then makes way for an eastern-flavoured death metal riff that could have come from the Nile songbook - and we are still only eight minutes into the damn thing! This may sound like a whole lot of disparate influences being jammed together and on paper may not seem that appealing, but the skill of the songwriting is that it takes these multifarious threads and weaves them together into a seamless tapestry of varying colours and textures in an entirely organic and unforced manner, with faultless and seemingly logical transitions, even between the most brutal and gentle passages. The opening extravaganza merely illustrates the ambitious vision that Blood Incantation have for their version of progressive death metal, with a fully-formed science fiction concept behind the album and a wide-reaching pallette of sonic pigments with which they illustrate this vision, metal alone being insufficient to convey exactly the feeling they require.

It is easy, I suppose, to get into a game of I-spy-the-obvious-influence, and on the intitial playthrough I was probably as guilty as anyone of that, but when you become more acquainted with the album I think the technical mastery and skilled songwriting make all that irrelevant and when heard as a coherent entity, rather than the sum of it's parts, that is when it hits the listener as to exactly how good this is. Despite all the progressive tendencies, it is still the effectiveness of the metal constituents upon which the success of the album ultimately rests and we are certainly in safe hands there because when the band let rip then they absolutely nail it with impeccable timing, consummate technical skills and some lethal riffs. The third part of "The Message" is probably one of the most "metal" parts of the album with a devastating set of blastbeats, some complex tech-death shennanigans and a deadly and brutal main riff, complemented with some nice eastern motifs that does more than cement the band's death metal credentials.

I was initially a bit sceptical as to whether Absolute Elsewhere was deserving of all the accolades being poured upon it, but this is undoubtedly one of those albums that increases the returns dependent upon what you put into it. Multiple listens are mandatory to really appreciate exactly what Blood Incantation are delivering here and it is gaining in stature with me as I uncover a little bit more of it's complexity and quality with each playthrough. As a metal album this is a cosmic-themed triumph, being at times exceedingly brutal and heavy, at others complex and cerebral, but it is also much more than that, thought-provoking and visionary with a willingness to embrace influences from outside the metal sphere which lend it an accessibility that will undoubtedly draw in new acolytes to the world of extreme metal and surely that is a good thing.

I find a lot of cutting edge metal to be a bit beyond my capacity to enjoy, particularly the excessively dissonant or avant-garde, but Absolute Elsewhere has opened up a brave new world of ambitious and forward-thinking metal made from distinctly recognisable parts that is as listenable as it is ground-breaking. It is hard, if you really listen to this, to not feel refreshed and energised by the possibilities this opens up for the future of death metal inparticular and extreme metal generally. I am sold.

4.5/5

Capilla Ardiente are a five piece from Santiago, Chile and features a couple of members of doom crew, Procession, along with vocalist, Felipe Plaza Kutzbach, of Deströyer 666, who also provided vocals for this years "Ancient Doom Metal" album from legendary russian epic doomers, Scald. They play epic doom metal, and I mean with an emphasis on the EPIC. Only one of the four tracks on offer here clock in at less than ten minutes and musically and aesthetically they have as much in common with power metal as they do doom. Sure, the riffs are pure epic doom metal, but the overwrought and histrionic vocals, the shred-like guitar solos and the melodramatic songwriting all scream power metal to me. I can hear where they have clearly taken influence from the likes of Rich Walker's Solstice or Solitude Aeternus, in fact Kutzbach has toured with Solstice as the band's live vocalist on a couple of occasions, but where the great epic doom acts succeed is that they keep the inbuilt pompousness and excess of epic metal under control and exercise restraint when utilising the more overblown aspects of the genre, whereas here the chileans give free rein to all the most bombastic elements of their sound. Make comparison, for example, between Felipe Plaza Kutzbach's performance here compared to that he turned in for "Ancient Doom Metal" and I think that most people would agree his performance is more OTT and less controlled than that he gave on the Scald album. sounding eminently more like a power metal singer than a doom metal vocalist. For my money, epic doom is best when built around the aesthetic of a mournful and sombre yearning for lost glories, whereas "Where Gods Live and Men Die" feels more like power metal's grandiose and bombastic celebration of hegemony.

This certainly isn't a bad record by any means, when they get it right, such as with the hugely mournful riffs and more reflective vocals of "Now Here. Nowhere." it is actually very good, but too often it emphasises the epic side of the genre at the expense of the doom-laden and that will always illicit are more negative response from me. Performance-wise, the guys are technically very good and the production is nice and meaty, occasionally allowing the more doomy moments to shine through. The songwriting is quite good, although they go for a bit more complexity than is the norm for the genre, giving the individual tracks somewhat of a progressive feeling. Undoubtedly, it is a more memorable affair than the previous album with some very effective riffs, but its overly bombastic approach leaves me unlikely to be returning to it too often in the future I think. Still, if your tolerance for this more overblown approach is higher than mine, then there may well be plenty of meat for you to get your teeth into here but for me it's all a bit too much.

3.5/5