Sonny's Forum Replies

I should probably get more organised in this respect too. I keep making mental notes to check out bands or releases from the playlists and then I just forget who or what, so probably end up missing out on a ton of good stuff.

I watch very few TV series outside of scandi-noir crime shows like The Killing, The Bridge, Wallander and Beck, or "historical" stuff like Vikings and The Last Kingdom, but we recently started watching Stranger Things and really got into it. We are now waiting expectantly for the final series which I believe is due in November.

My wife watches many more series than I do (I tend to sit with my laptop and headphones on listening to music and typing the shit I subject you all to on here while she watches them) and she has been singing the praises of The Handmaids Tale after watching it recently. 

I just finished this Netflix sci-fi series & it was right up my alley. Cerebral space/aliens type stuff with plenty of twists & turns. I think you'll really dig this one Ben. I believe the second series is currently being filmed for a mid-2026 release too so I'm looking forward to that.

If you enjoyed the TV series I would heartily recommend the three books upon which it is based. The series was good, but the novels are better.

Arkhaaik - Uihtis (2025)

Arkhaaik are a Zurich-based three-piece who, as their name, a stylised version of "archaic" suggests, are interested in exploring pre-history, in particular the culture and practices of Bronze Age Europe. Their debut album, 2019's "*dʰg̑ʰm̥tós", was an exploration of the religion and deities of this culture, with the somewhat questionable claim to being sung in the long dead Indo-European language of the time. This 2025 follow-up takes as its theme The Hunt in both a literal and an analagous religious context.

Musically, this takes the form of blackened, old-school, cavernous death metal with death-doom tendencies, which often utilises pounding rhythms and horn-like effects to give the album a paganistic and sometimes ritualistic vibe. The tracks are fairly lengthy affairs, with the almost fifty minutes of "Uihtis" containg only four, varying from ten to fifteen minutes in duration. This affords the band plenty of leisure to build the atmospheres and vibe of arcane hunting ritual that they are striving for. Whilst metal is rightly most often judged on the quality of its riffs, and the album contains some very nice death metal riffs to be sure, I think the strength of "Uihtis" lies in its percussion and the tribalistic patterns and atmospherics that it conjures up. To this end I think drummer Vâlant deserves huge praise as his work is crucial to the album's success. The vocals also contribute massively with the bellowing roars and growls being supplemented by the whoops and howls of the (presumably successful) hunters alongside some nice native-like chants.

Despite all this aesthetical window-dressing and conceptual exposition, I guess what most metalheads want to know is, "Does it fucking slay"? I would reply with a resounding, "Oh yes, you fucking bet". I don't think it leans as heavily into the death doom side of the equation as the debut did, this being more in the vein of blackened Autopsy-style OSDM than true death doom, but with some pretty fucking brutal blasting sections and those hulking, tribalistic throbs this could indeed slay a woolly mammoth by sheer bludgeoning weight alone.

In conclusion I would say that if you are someone who loves old-school, cavernous death metal and would like to hear it used in a slightly different context then this is definitely a release you should wrap your ears around.

4/5

I recently got back in the BC thang after a hiatus.  Daniel has covered most of what I was going to say, however I like it stillas a platform for all music and have made some good idscoveries over the years by browsing other users collections.  My collection can be located below.

https://bandcamp.com/stiffncold

Quoted Vinny

Yeah, I have had a bit of a hiatus from BC for a while too and have only just got back into using it. It isn't just the "ethical" side of it, I do actually like it as a music platform. The only real bugbear is that browsing your collection if it is of any size, particularly on a tablet, can be awfully time consuming. Of course there is always the search function, but sometimes I like to just spool through and pick something out on a whim.

This weekend I have bought:

Raphael Weinroth-Browne - "Lifeblood" CD

Abduction - "Existentialismus" vinyl LP

Arkhaaik - "Uihtis" CD (postage from Germany made the vinyl LP £45, so I ended up going for the cheaper alternative because I ain't made of money).

Been listening to this again this morning whilst plodding through the soggy local woodlands with Koko and it still holds up pretty well, although I am going to trim back my original 4.5 star rating to a little less exhuberant 4.0. I don't think this is because of any real shift in my appreciation of the album, but more part of a recalibration of my perceptions over recent months.

Anyway, here is my original review written at the time of the album's release which I still generally agree with:

For anyone who is interested, Paysage d'Hiver's second official album continues the story of The Wanderer, who this time around meets beings from another dimension who he sees as ghosts. The kicker is that the extra-dimensional beings are us in our world and we are only able to contact The Wanderer through the Rites of Winter such as those practiced by a traditional mask cult from the Lötschental valley in Switzerland which, presumably, Wintherr is familiar with. One such mask is depicted on the album's cover and is indeed a fearsome-looking item. (I swear you learn all kinds of weird shit when you listen to black metal!)

This time around Wintherr has trimmed the length of the tracks, the longest, excepting the ambient closer, is under seven minutes, which is unheard of with this project. The style is much nearer to conventional black metal than the icily frigid soundscapes Wintherr usually conjures up. I would even go as far to suggest that at times it doesn't sound hugely dissimilar to early Darkthrone. I have a feeling this may upset some of the newly acquired fans that Im Wald garnered the project, but somehow I get the feeling that will bother Wintherr not one jot.

Despite the abbreviated track lengths this is still quite a formidable album, it's eleven tracks clock in at 70 minutes - a snip compared to Im Wald's two hours I'll grant but still a daunting duration for some not used to lengthy black metal excursions. Again, despite the shorter tracks, the album doesn't offer a massive amount of variety and heavily relies on repetition for it's effect so, once more, if you're not familiar with the style it may underwhelm and disappoint. For those of us more used to this style of black metal though, there is plenty to get your teeth into. The vocals are Wintherr's usual washed out shrieks that tear through the ether like a banshee wail and would freeze the blood were you to hear them during a nighttime forest hike! As mentioned previously the tracks really only serve as parts of a whole and it is the cumulative effect of the tracks' repetition and their more visceral savagery that is the album's real aim I would venture.

Overall, Geister is a brave move by Wintherr, released on the back of such a critically acclaimed album as Im Wald and yet deliberately moving away from what made that album so successful. While I must admit it doesn't scream "Masterpiece" in the same way as Im Wald, this is still a great black metal album and the day that a black metal artist like Wintherr starts doing what he feels is expected of hm then that is the day that black metal is truly lost. Luckily that day still seems a long way off.

4/5

Potentially but only if the release has paid for itself already. Most deals will require the labels costs to be paid for before the band starts earning any royalties at all & you'd be surprised by how few actual sales there are for lesser-known releases in the modern day.

That certainly helps to explain the high cost of vinyl nowadays. I was looking at the rate of inflation here in the UK since 1976 when I really started buying LPs and I was paying £1.25 to £1.99 for an album. This is the equivalent of £9.40 to £14.95, but most are now priced £25 - £35, although you can see some for less on Bandcamp. HMV record chain are a minimum £35 usually, or they may have a 2 for £50 offer on occasionally. That is more than twice as expensive, even allowing for inflation.

As far  as live shows go, in 1977 I paid £4.50 to see Pink Floyd on their Animals tour and in '79 it was £2.50 for Sabbath in our local venue in town. That would be £33 for a Floyd ticket today and the Sabbath tickets would be £16. It isn't like these were small bands at the time either - these guys were at the top. Zeppelin at the Knebworth festival, after four years since last playing in the UK, was £7.50 - the equivalent of 48 quid today for six bands with a three-hour Zeppelin set at the end of it!

Music fans are getting fucked nowadays and make no mistake.

I don't use Bandcamp myself but it is true that it gives more back to independent artists than other services, generally about 85% of the sale price in fact. It is worth noting that many of the releases that you see there have been posted by labels though & all bets are off in that situation as it depends on the deal the band has with their label as to how much they receive. We have a very fair deal going with Sphere of Apparition who make looking after their artists a priority but that may not be the case for other bands/labels.

Even via labels though, the artists must get more than the zillionth of a penny they get paid per stream on Spotify or the other streaming services.

Abduction (GBR) - Existentialismus (2025)

Derby's Abduction are one of those black metal bands who seemingly beaver away with no fanfare or support from the music industry at large, making me wonder how they keep at it. It isn't like the UK has exactly ever been overflowing with good black metal acts now is it? Anyway, Abduction is the brainchild of guitarist and vocalist Phil Illsley, aka A|V, with guest musicians providing drums, bass and additional guitars. I was well behind the band around the time of the 2018 album, "A Crown of Curses" which I have on cassette from the now defunct Death Kvlt Productions label, but I have lost touch with their progress over the last few years.

So here we are in 2025 and album number five. This is a well-produced and written slab of vicious and savage-sounding black metal that makes no pretence to the folky or celtic atmospherics which are often a staple of UK black metal, but which goes for the jugular in full-on attack mode. That doesn't mean the thin and tremolo-heavy sound of true raw black metal, the production is too thick and muscular for that, but it takes a more bludgeoning approach, in the vein of death metal. Even though this is still unambiguously black metal with pummelling blast beats and tremolo riffing, there is a fullness of sound that puts more meat on the genre's usually skeletal bones. The band sound very tight and the playing is excellent throughout.

A|V has an excellent vocal delivery with a howling savagery and angst-ridden desperation borne of emotional frustration that screams in the face of an uncaring universe. His lyrics are poetic and dense and I haven't had much time to sit down with them so far, but I am sure they are much deeper in meaning than I have as yet been able to ascertain. The killer riffs are powerful and are driven by a phenomenal powerhouse of a rhythm section as drummer Ed Gorrod and bassist Gavin Archer blast a path with the force of a high explosive drone strike. The tracks all flow nicely with decent variation of pacing, despite the overarching aggressive feel of the album. and the songwriting seems of as high a standard as the musicianship.

All told, this is a very good slab of UKBM and with, in my opinion, the recent decline of previous UK heavyweights such as Winterfylleth and Saor there is no reason why Abduction should not sweep in and claim the mantle of the premier UK black metal act.

4/5 

Thanks guys.

Raphael-Weinroth Brown - Lifeblood (2025)

Cellist Raphael Weinroth-Browne first showed up on my radar in 2015 as one half of the canadian neoclassical darkwave duo The Visit, alongside vocallist Heather Sita Black when their album "Through Darkness Into Light" attained the distinction of being one of a very exclusive club of non-metal albums to receive AOTY status from me. Despite this, I must admit that I haven't kept up with his solo work much since. He has tended to focus on releasing single tracks on Bandcamp, with 2020s World Within being his only other full-length prior to "Lifeblood".

The album is wholly instrumental and solely features Raphael's acoustic cello playing with the aid of amplifiers and effects pedals, apart from on a couple of tracks, "Pyre" and "Nethereal" which also feature a bass drum. He says in the Bandcamp blurb that this is his most personal album, with the theme of his relationship to his music and growth as an artist. The result of all this is a classical piece that has great crossover potential and, I believe, may well appeal to many a more open-minded metalhead. I mean, look at that cover, is that metal or what? There is a wide range of emotional scope presented within the albums runtime. As well as sweeping broad strokes that breathe air and life into things, there are moments of quiet reflectiveness and spells of fervent and rabid aggressiveness that complement and contrast each other effectively and are redolent with passion and feeling.

This passion and feeling are the two most apparent emotions I take away from "Lifeblood" and the album as a whole stands as a great testament to the compositional and technical virtuosity of a musician who, in this world of overhyped crap, by the sheer weight of his talent and passion, deserves to be heard by a much wider audience.

4/5

Here are some thoughts / notes on this month's playlist:

1. My Dying Bride - "Love's Intolerable Pain" (from "A Line of Deathless Kings", 2006) [submitted by Sonny]

I picked up a copy of "A Line of Deathless Kings" recently and I think it has become my favourite MDB album. It is one of their least theatrical-sounding and doomiest albums, which is always going to gain favour from me. The main riff on "Love's Intolerable Pain" is a fucking beast and may be their best ever.

2. High on Fire “Blessed Black Wings” (from “Blessed Black Wings”, 2005) [submitted by David]

I am a fan of HoF's stonerised sludge and their black-hole-collapsing sound seldom hits harder than on the title track to their third album. There is massive compression on the track, but I think it works in the tracks favour here, making it even more gravitationally massive. Oh, and those fucking drums man... awesome.

3. Monolord - "The Bastard Son" (from "No Comfort", 2019) [submitted by Vinny]

I've been a big fan of Monolord since 2015's "Vaenir", but must admit that "No Comfort" is one of my least favoured of their releases. Fortunately this isn't down to the opening track which is featured here, which is great (as are a couple of others), but is down to a serious drop off in the middle of the album that drags it down as a whole. This I like very much, though, a slab of what I like to call "trve doom".

4. Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou - “Ancestral Recall” (from “May Our Chambers Be Full”, 2020) [submitted by David]

I have only very recently checked this album out and thought ERR added a great new dimension to Thou's stonerised sludginess that played a little differently to their usual fare, giving them an even more desperate and emotionally polarised edginess.

5. Conan - "Dying Giant" (from "Horseback Battle Hammer", 2014) [submitted by Vinny]

Absolutely bowel-shaking, droney sludge from their first EP that sounds utterly crushing.

6. Coffinworm – “Sympathectomy” (from “IV.I.VIII”, 2014) [submitted by David]

Abrasive and ascerbic sludge that leans heavily into the genre's hardcore roots. Delivers a damn good savaging.

7. Ophis - "Temple of Scourges" (from "Spew Forth Odium", 2021) [submitted by Sonny]

This album was actually my AOTY for 2021 and it still holds up really well, I think. A hulking monster of peak death doom songwriting.

8. Windhand - "Tanngrisnir" (from "Grief's Internal Flower", 2015) [submitted by Vinny]

I am always glad for any excuse to put up Windhand tracks on these playlists, so thanks Vinny for this one. Quite hooky, despite its inherent heaviness. Windhand are the yardstick for female-fronted stoner doom metal.

9. Messa - "Reveal" (from "The Spin", 2025)

After beginning with a cool bluesy slide guitar intro, "Reveal" soon 'reveals' itself to be one of the heaviest and most dynamic tracks on Messa's latest with a driving main riff and a hyper-distorted solo. Great stuff all round.

10. Horn of the Rhino - "Weight of Coronation" (from "Weight of Coronation", 2010) [submitted by Vinny]

A slow and hulking piece of sludgy doom that has a grungy, bluesy vibe to it. Very nice, kind of like AiC meets Crowbar.

11. Convocation – Portal Closed (from “Ashes Coalesce”, 2020) [submitted by David]

I am a big fan of this album and have a vinyl copy on my shelf, so David is preaching to the converted with this one. Closing track of the album, it is an instrumental that goes from heaving funeral doom to a calm and meditative post-metal conclusion, as if the turgid turmoil of the album finally achieves a peaceful resolution.

12. Within Temptation - "Enter" (from Enter, 1997) [submitted by Andi]

I think this perfectly illustrates the divergence in our metal tastes Andi. This sort of symphonic / gothic bombast does absolutely nothing for me other than bring to mind some kind of Andrew Lloyd Webber musical.

13. Völur - "Es wächst aus seinem Grab" (from "Disir", 2016) [submitted by Sonny]

I picked up on these Canadians after a recommendation, from where I don't recall, but I am glad I did. They are a three-piece featuring Lucas Gadke, bassist of Blood Ceremony, on bass, vocals and keys. This is the droney, doomy instrumental opener to their 2016 debut EP, which features a fantastic bit of violin playing from Laura Bates. I love this.

14. KVLL - "Blood to the Altar" (from "Death//Sacrifice", 2020) [submitted by Vinny]

I notice that Vinny has picked this for his October Fallen feature and on the strength of this track I am looking forward to getting to grips with it and hopefully managing to rustle up a review at some point.

15. 16 – “Summer of ‘96” (from “Dream Squasher”, 2020) [submitted by David]

Angry and belligerent nihilistic-sounding sludge, as we have come to expect from the L.A. foursome. You pretty much know what you are getting with 16 and they deliver it here once more.

16. Mercy - "Pain of Golgatha" (from "Witchburner", 1985) [submitted by Sonny]

An early vehicle for drummer Messiah Marcolin. Yeah, that is right, Messiah (in those days known as "Eddie") was drummer for these swedish doomsters alongside his stint as vocalist. A quite basic mid-eighties doom sound derived from Trouble, Saint Vitus et al with Eddie's trademark vocal style. Even though he is not quite as bombastic here as in Candlemass. he still manages to stamp his mark all over this, although guitarist Andrija Veljaca contributes a really nice solo too. If you like a bit of 80's trad doom then "Witchburner" is definitely worth checking out.

17. Ahab - "Old Thunder" (from "The Call of the Wretched Sea", 2006)

I love me some Ahab and don't need much excuse to trundle out some of their early death / funeral doom magnificence. This is from their superb Moby Dick-themed debut and is as crushing as that old albino cetacean himself.

I wrote a review for this at the time of its release and I still maintain this view, so here we go:

I lived in ignorance of the existence of these german speedsters until getting an earful of their track "Realm of the Impaler" from this, their latest album, on the Guardians playlist for November 2024, where it leapt out at me from amongst the stuff I wasn't already familiar with. This wa the band's fourth full-length and it they already had quite an enthusiastic and loyal following, which I am sure this has only increased on the back of "Sentinels".

It is an album of infectious speed / thrash metal that leans heavily towards the speed side of that equation, with a strong link back to Maiden-esque heavy metal and early USPM. There is a lively enthusiasm about Vulture that suggests a particular love for the wider culture of metal worship, beyond the mere riffs and notes and deep into the core of the band's very being. This is definitely not thoughtful and contemplative metal, rather this is metal to be experienced and lived, each track a joyful and triumphant expression of metalhood. Hi-octane riffs, scorching solos and sing-along-at-the-top-of-your-voice choruses are the order of the day here. Vocalist Leo Steeler reminds me a fair bit of Exodus' Steven Souza with a raggedness to his normal vocals and a tendency to shift into a higher register at a moments notice. In fact early Exodus are a fitting comparison for the band as a whole, Sentinels ticking a lot of the same boxes as Bonded By Blood. The rhythm section of drummer Stefan Castevet and bassist Andreas "Irön Kommander" Axetinctör are really solid and maintain the propulsive momentum of the tracks with a tight and precise adhesion. Occasionally, especially during the solos during "Realm of the Impaler", the bass moves more to the fore and takes on a Steve Harris galloping quality, the twin guitar soloing not being the only touchstone with the Irons. The production is excellent, as is so often the case nowadays, and everybody gets to shine in their respective roles, due to top-knotch clarity.

You will be seriously struggling to find a more exhuberant celebration of metal than tracks like the aforementioned "Realm of the Impaler", "Death Row" or "Oathbreaker" and as a dyed-in-the-wool metalhead it is very difficult not to listen to Sentinels without a smile on my face and a yearning for a moshpit in my heart. An album like this reminds me very much how and why I got into metal in the first place in much simpler times, so very, very long ago.

4/5 (B+)

Apocalypse Orchestra - "A Plague Upon Thee" (2025)

Apocalypse Orchestra are a five-piece from Gävle in Sweden and they have a penchant for doom metal heavily coloured by european folk music. They seamlessly integrate medieval folk instruments such as hurdy-gurdy, mandola, cittern and pipes with the modern electrified instruments of doom metal in a way that feels perfectly natural and unforced. The slow, plodding riffs of doom metal are used as a foundation upon which the band interprete medieval folk melodies for a modern metal-loving audience.

I do love folk music, but I am often disappointed by its unsubtle use when utilised as a trope in metal, with a lot of folk metal sounding trite and just downright cheesy. I never felt that way once though whilst listening to "A Plague Upon Thee" because it is just so tastefully done, with an apparently equal reverence for both folk and metal. You would be forgiven for suspecting AO of playing a doom metal version of viking metal, given their swedish origins, but there is a distinct lack of the whiff of longship and battleaxe within "A Plague Upon Thee", with it often being more celtic-sounding à la Saor than the Norse influences of a Bathory or Wardruna. The doom metal side of the equation is quite functional and, in truth, it doesn't vary hugely from track to track, with most of the eight tracks following the same tempo. It is perfectly well executed, but is utilised more as a foundation or rhythm section if you like, providing the staging upon which the folk melodies and instruments perform their magic.

The lyrical themes revolve around the harshness of medieval life, plague and the ever-pervasive presence and domination of religion over the lives of the peasantry. The lyrics are beautifully delivered by voclist Erik Larsson who has a great line in clean vocals, supported by almost symphonic backing vocals provided by the rest of the band. Despite the inate heaviness and mournfulness of doom metal and the generally bleak tone of the lyrics, the music still often feels almost hopeful, as if, despite the harshness of life, there is still a ray of light or shred of comfort to be gleaned amidst all the darkness and hardship.

I really enjoyed "A Plague Upon Thee" and found its folk-centric take on doom metal to be a refreshing twist on what can often be a conservative and predictable genre. That it also avoids the trap of cringy cheesiness that plagues so much folk metal is testament to the band's skillful songwriting and reverence for their sources of inspiration. If you are looking for a different take on doom metal then I would heartily recommend this.

4/5 (B+)

Wow, thanks guys, I can get a nice early start on this one.

I'm sorry for the inconvenience, gentlemen! I went on vacation at the beginning of September and completely forgot about the playlist nominations... I'll post my suggestions for The North right away!

Hey, it's not a problem at all Karl. There is no pressure whatsoever to participate or not.

Warbringer - Wrath and Ruin (2025)

Forming in Ventura, California in 2004, Warbringer are a five-piece thrash band centred around vocalist John Kevill and guitarist Adam Carroll alongside a revolving door of drummers, bassists and second guitarists. However, they have managed to maintain a stable lineup since 2018, so "Wrath and Ruin" features the same five as previous album, 2020's "Weapons of Tomorrow". Now this may not necessarily be a good thing because I wasn't that impressed by "Weapons of Tomorrow". It was a bit too Exodus / Testament for my preference. Now there is nothing particularly wrong with either of those bands, but I like thrash that has a bit more bite, hence my love of recent chilean thrash alongside old favourites like Slayer and Kreator.

So here comes the good news, because it sounds like Warbringer have been bingeing Kreator albums in the last five years and that has given them a harder edge than previously, making me much more amenable to "Wrath and Ruin" than I may have been otherwise. A big contributor to this is that John Kevill sounds to be taking his vocal cues from Mille Petrozza this time around, with a ragged and howling bark that sounds significantly more aggressive than he has previously. The production has been a big help and its clarity has lent the riffs a more jagged, savage feel. The emphasis in the songwriting seems to have moved away from hooky melodicism towards upping the ante on aggressive riff writing and just letting rip. This doesn't manifest as an all out blitz, though, with the pacing of the tracks varying throughout from ripping high velocity salvos like "Strike From the Sky" and "The Jackhammer", through medium-paced chuggers like opener "The Sword and the Cross" and "Neuromancer" to the markedly slower menace and portentiousness of "Through a Glass, Darkly", which is possibly my favourite track here. The two guitarists, Carroll and Chase Becker, unleash some impressive solos, complementing each other really nicely with high-velocity stringwork that brings to mind some of Dave Mustaine's better work. The rhythm section is also damned impressive with drummer Carlos Cruz laying waste to whole city blocks with his relentlessly busy battery, ably supported by Chase Bryant's throbbing bass lines.

All in all, in 2025, Warbringer have managed to turn in a thrash album worth listening to that isn't from South America and once more giving the US a seat at the thrash metal table. I have to admit that I didn't think these Californians had an album this good in them, which just goes to show, never count anyone out and definitely not thrash metal which, despite its limitations, can still turn up diamonds occasionally.

4/5 (B+)

October 2025

1. At the Gates - "Slaughter of the Soul" (from "Slaughter of the Soul", 1995)

2. The Lurking Fear - "Teeth of the Dark Plains" (from "Out of the Voiceless Grave", 2017)

3. Grotesque - "Nocturnal Blasphemies" (from "Incantation EP", 1990)

4. Lock Up - "Dead Seas Scrolls Deception" (from "Hate Breeds Suffering", 2002)

5. Mörtual - "Divine Monstrosity" (from "Altar of Brutality", 2025) [submitted by Vinny]

6. Abhorrence - "Caught in a Vortex" (from "Abhorrence EP", 1990) [submitted by Sonny]

7. Kanonenfieber - "Z-Vor!" (from "Z-Vor!", 2025) [submitted by Vinny]

8. Warmen - "Untouched" (from Band of Brothers, 2025) [submitted by Andi]

9. Byatis - "Glorification of Life" (from "In Dark Abysses of Memory", 2002)

10. Phrenelith - "Conquering Divinity" (from "Desolate Landscape", 2017) [submitted by Vinny]

11. Fuck the Facts - "The Sound of your Smashed Head" (from "Stigmata High-Five", 2006)

12. Ecchymosis - "Aesthetic Devotion Towards Coprocraniotomy" (from "Ritualistic Intercourse Within Abject Surrealism", 2020)

13. ACxDC - "Paid in Full" (from "Antichrist Demoncore", 2014)

14. Nile - "The Burning Pits of the Duat" (from "Annihilation of the Wicked", 2005) [submitted by Vinny]

15. Replicant - "Acid Mirror" (from "Infinite Mortality", 2024)

16. Archspire - "A Dark Horizontal" (from "Relentless Mutation", 2017)

17. Brodequin - "Diabolical Edict" (from "Harbringer of Woe", 2024) [submitted by Vinny]

18. Waking the Cadaver - "Human Chop Shop" (from "Authority Through Intimidation", 2021)

19. Baest - "Colossus" (from " Colossal", 2025) [submitted by Vinny]

20. Venenum - "The Nature of the Ground" (from "Trance of Death", 2017) [submitted by Sonny]

21. In Flames - "December Flower" (from "The Jester Race", 1996) [submitted by Vinny]

22. !T.O.O.H.! - "Homokaz aneb blátivá je massa" (from "Pod vládou biče", 2003)

23. Brujeria - "Matando güeros" (from "Matando güeros", 1993)

24. Vale of Pnath - "Klendathu" (from "II", 2016)

25. Demigod - "Tears of God" (from "Slumber of Sullen Eyes", 1992) [submitted by Vinny]

26. Obituary - "Gates to Hell" (from "Slowly We Rot", 1989) [submitted by Sonny]

27. Autopsy - "Robbing the Grave" (from "Mental Funeral", 1991)

28. Sadistic Intent - "Asphyxiation" (from "Resurrection EP", 1994) [submitted by Sonny]

29. Morgue - "There Is No End of the Harvest" (from "The Process to Define the Shape of Self-Loathing", 2002)

30. Fallujah - "Step Through the Portal and Breathe" (from "Xenotaph", 2025)

October 2025

1. My Dying Bride - "Love's Intolerable Pain" (from "A Line of Deathless Kings", 2006) [submitted by Sonny]

2. High on Fire “Blessed Black Wings” (from “Blessed Black Wings”, 2005) [submitted by David]

3. Monolord - "The Bastard Son" (from "No Comfort", 2019) [submitted by Vinny]

4. Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou - “Ancestral Recall” (from “May Our Chambers Be Full”, 2020) [submitted by David]

5. Conan - "Dying Giant" (from "Horseback Battle Hammer", 2014) [submitted by Vinny]

6. Coffinworm – “Sympathectomy” (from “IV.I.VIII”, 2014) [submitted by David]

7. Ophis - "Temple of Scourges" (from "Spew Forth Odium", 2021) [submitted by Sonny]

8. Windhand - "Tanngrisnir" (from "Grief's Internal Flower", 2015) [submitted by Vinny]

9. Messa - "Reveal" (from "The Spin", 2025)

10. Horn of the Rhino - "Weight of Coronation" (from "Weight of Coronation", 2010) [submitted by Vinny]

11. Convocation – Portal Closed (from “Ashes Coalesce”, 2020) [submitted by David]

12. Within Temptation - "Enter" (from Enter, 1997) [submitted by Andi]

13. Völur - "Es wächst aus seinem Grab" (from "Disir", 2016) [submitted by Sonny]

14. KVLL - "Blood to the Altar" (from "Death//Sacrifice", 2020) [submitted by Vinny]

15. 16 – “Summer of ‘96” (from “Dream Squasher”, 2020) [submitted by David]

16. Mercy - "Pain of Golgatha" (from "Witchburner", 1985) [submitted by Sonny]

17. Ahab - "Old Thunder" (from "The Call of the Wretched Sea", 2006)

My mother just gave me a stack of Aldous Hunxley books to read through, even though I just bought Mystic River, Timeline and The Stand at Goodreads with a birthday giftcard.  So I'm gonna speedread one Huxley a day if I can and then send each one back to her.  She wants to get through them once I'm done.

Mystic River has fantastic prose and excellent characterization.  But the first act is a very slow drag that the movie thankfully fixed.  Might've been perfect if it had a better soundtrack.

I loved The Stand, but I haven't read it in donkey's years. Maybe it's getting time for a revisit. I do like the Mystic River movie but I haven't read the book. Is Timeline a Michael Crichton book?

I don't often read biographies, but I bet this is an interesting read. Does he speak about the case that Priest faced in the US when they were accused of their music causing the two kids to commit suicide?  That must have been a trying time for the band as they faced potentially very serious consequences for what was a tragedy not of their doing. 

Yes, he goes into some depth about that case which is really interesting.  He is also completely open about his sexuality & the challenges he faced during a time when celebrities couldn’t be as open about such things & also his substance abuse/addiction. Did you know that he never actually intended on quitting Priest after “Painkiller”? It was just a miscommunication that resulted in him being replaced.

No, I didn't. That is one hell of a miscommunication. I wonder if they would have maintained the quality of Painkiller or still produced the Jugulator/Demolition crap. At least he was never associated with those albums.

I always have two or theee books on the go at once with a complete collection of HP Lovecraft's work (a 1600 page behemoth) being one, a book about Elizabethan natural philosopher John Dee another and the fifth (and so far last) book of George RR Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series being my main read.

If you were a fan of the "Game of Thrones" TV show then this fifth in the series would deliver a few surprises, one of which had me literally shouting out aloud 'no fucking way' as I sat reading it in the car waiting for my wife to come out of the dentists. Looks like we will never see the ending the story deserves though as Martin either has writer's block or he has just got too comfy being lauded by all and sundry rather than sitting down and getting on with his day job. I would think that a writer would be desperate to get their story out there, but Martin seems to enjoy basking in the fame more than the desire to tell his story.

As I said in my recent review of Sodom's new album, I don't think that they get as much credit as they deserve. I will admit that Kreator are the benchmark for german thrash, but I would definitely place Sodom over Destruction whose claim to legendary status is much more dubious than Sodom's own. Both "Persecution Mania" and "Agent Orange" have five-star status in my own metal world and easily stand shoulder-to-shoulder with anything european thrash produced, except maybe "To Mega Therion".

I don't often read biographies, but I bet this is an interesting read. Does he speak about the case that Priest faced in the US when they were accused of their music causing the two kids to commit suicide?  That must have been a trying time for the band as they faced potentially very serious consequences for what was a tragedy not of their doing. 

So for the first time in what seems like an age, I have managed to listen to all nine feature releases within the month, so here is my ranked list. As befits the Academy's status as an educational facility I have provided grades for each release:

1. [Fallen] Worship - Last Tape Before Doomsday (A+)

2. [Horde] Sadistic Intent - Resurrection (A)

3. [North] Sinmara - Aphotic Womb (A-)

4. [Pit] Sodom - The Arsonist (B)

5. [Gateway] Chevelle - Bright as Blasphemy (B-)

6. [Guardians] Blazon Rite - Wild Rites and Ancient Songs (C+)

7. [Infinite] Vildhjarta - Måsstaden Under Vatten (C)

8. [Revolution] As Blood Runs Black - Allegiance (C-)

9. [Sphere] Circle of Dust - Machines of Our Disgrace (C-)

As you can see there are no failing grades here this month and I got at least something out of every release. OK, the top two are my own picks, but I do tend to pick stuff I like that I think others may want to hear, but Sinmara did come very close to pushing Sadistic Intent down.

My knowledge of these Illinois alternative metallers is solely restricted to their 2021 album "Niratias", an album that I quite enjoyed at the time, even if it was not the sort of fare I normally tuck into. So here we are again and they are back with a new album, their tenth in just over 25 years and I have to say I really enjoyed it. With loads of nu-metally bounce and some wicked melodies, despite some of the lyrical themes, I found this to be a fairly upbeat and uplifting experience. The brothers sound exceedingly tight and well-drilled as befits a band well into their third decade of existence. I must confess I never really look forward to the Gateway features very much as I find an awful lot of them to be a bit bland, but the melodic sensibilities and hook-laden quality of the songwriting on "Bright as Blasphemy", coupled with the guys' evident technical competence and a production job that is almost perfectly suited to the material made this a bit of a minor revelation for me. The first three tracks and especially the two-parter "Cowards", are a great beginning to the album and whilst the rest doesn't quite hit as hard as these, as a whole this sounds as good as anything I have heard from the Gateway over the last few years.

3.5/5 (in truth, somewhere between a 3.5 and a 4.0, but I always round down)

This is currently #1 on the RYM all-time Thall chart and it is easily the best Thall album I have ever heard. OK, so I had never even heard of Thall until a few minutes ago, so it hasn't had a great deal of competition in my listening world so far. To me it sounds like a very precise version of the Gothenburg sound that is heavily invested in technicality and progressive songwriting. Djent, the nearest approximation to this I am familiar with, isn't a style of metal I listen to much, it is such a technically precise sub-genre that in my limited experience I find it too sterile and unengaging for my particular taste and this is very much in that vein. Whilst the performers are obviously exceedingly adept musicians, this just doesn't stir too much within me and whilst I can appreciate technical mastery on an intellectual level, my preference is much more for music that resonates with me on an emotional and gut level. I would rather have a sloppy-sounding record that makes me fired up, emotionally drained, full of joy or bereft with sadness than such technical sterility. However, that is just me and if you are the kind of person who revels in such displays of instrumental dexterity and appreciate the fruits of obvious craftsmen at work then I would imagine that Vildhjarta are an absolute dream.

All this said, I still listened to the entire 80 minutes and never once felt the need to skip tracks or look at the clock to see how long might be left so, on some level, this must have tweaked something within my brain because I am normally very impatient with this level of technicality in metal. The riffs, a bit staccato as they are for my taste, still felt quite brutal and aggressive, whilst the post-metally bits complemented this controlled aggression very nicely. To be honest, this is an album that has interested me sufficiently that I may return to it at some point in the future as I feel that there maybe something here for me after all and perhaps it did stir more in me than I originally thought.

I'm gonna say a 3.5/5 for now, but with the potential for improvement at some future time.

Checked this out this morning whilst clearing the garden and I quite enjoyed it. I haven't got vast experience with The Revolution, but this was better than a lot of what I have heard in the genre. No tracks stuck with me partucularly, unlike albums like Trivium's "In Flames" or any number of Converge albums, which do feature some very memorable tracks, but as a whole I found it a pretty positive listening experience whilst carrying out a few routine maintenance tasks. One of the biggest bugbears I have with Metalcore and its offshoots is the vocals which often just give me a headache, but this guy is pretty decent and I never found his vocal delivery bothersome. This all might sound like damning with faint praise, but for me and the Revolution that is actually pretty good!

3/5 (a solid C)

Chilean metal + Darkthrone influence = Interest piqued!!

Edit: 30 seconds into the first track proper and holy shit, you weren't kidding about the Darkthrone worship Vinny (this is a good thing)!

Dust off those hand-painted lead figures, dig out the D20s and fill your personalised, engraved pewter tankard with foaming ale, because Blazon Rites are here with their Battleaxe of +4 Damage to deal righteous retribution to the evildoers and ne'er-do-wells that plague the lives of mere simple folk. Yes, Blazon Rites leave no uncertainty as to their love of fantasy with both their cover art and their, frankly, exceedingly cheesy lyrics. But, you know what, as a one-time table-top role player myself, back in my youth, I thoroughly enjoyed this romp through the wilds and taverns of fantasy stereotype.

Musically and, to a degree, aesthetically, they remind me somewhat of Solstice, or, to be more accurate, Rich Walker's short-lived side project, Isen Torr, whose Mighty & Superior EP may have been a touchstone for BR. Vocalist Johnny Halladay very much reminds me of Sami Hynninen, to the point where I had to check that they weren't yet another project of the Reverend Bizarre frontman himself (they aren't, they are from Philadelphia). Anyone thus familiar with old Witchfinder will also realise that, in a Maiden-esque, heavy metal set-up this means there are limitations in the vocal department. For me this isn't a problem, but anyone looking for power metal hystrionics (which you may well be justified in doing considering the album's optics) you are going to be severely disappointed. In truth, Blazon Rite aren't particularly sophisticated song writers, with the opener "Autumn Fear Brings Winter Doom" probably being the pick songwriting-wise and this is an area where they leave scope for improvement. That said, they do kick out decent, fist pumping heavy metal riffs and lead guitarist Pierson Roe delivers Adrian Smith-like leads with aplomb. What they do exude by the barrel-full, though, is enthusiasm and a seemingly genuine love of heavy metal and its fantasy trappings and that is not to be underestimated in a world where musical experimentalism and po-faced seriousness threaten to crush all sense of fun out of the genre. I think us internet metal nerds sometimes forget that metal can just be entertaining and fun without us feeling guilty about not pushing ourselves with every release we listen to, or not contemplating the depths of our psyche with every lyrical musing. So crack open a beer, kick back and feel a smile crawl across your face thanks to the simple metal fare that Blazon Rite have served up here.

3.5/5

Great album. As I said in my own review, I think the cleaner, modern production job allows the listener to really get under the hood of war metal, better than the muddy and often messy production of the genre's earlier classics. ASM's best to date.

Sadistic Intent were spawned in the big bang that saw the explosion of death metal in the late eighties and early nineties. Despite clearly having the ability to punch with the heavyweights, the stars never really aligned for the Cortez brothers, whether by bad luck, poor decisions or a mixture of both. An early dispute with the record label and continuing lineup issues that saw the band unable to perform live until 1993 all took their toll. They even changed their name to Possessed in 2007 when Jeff Becerra joined full-time, reverting back to Sadistic Intent when Becerra left in 2010. As of 2025 the band have never released a full-length album either, their discography comprising only EPs, splits and seven-inchers. All this points to a band with crazy underground kudos, with the Cortez brothers also owning Dark Realm Records, a record store in Downey, California that has been cited as a death metal equivalent of Euronymous' Helvete record store in Oslo.

So how do they sound? Exactly how I like death metal to sound is the answer. That old-school, still a little bit thrashy, style that packs a hell of a wallop is what SI deliver on this short and deadly EP. It is bookended by a couple of brief instrumentals that are lent a slightly sinister atmosphere by the thin-sounding synths so beloved of early 90's extreme metal acts. However when opener proper "Asphyxiation" kicks the door in we are left in no doubt as to the band's intentions. This is brutal and suffocating death metal that swarms around your head like flies around a ripe corpse with the primal, slightly echoing, production lending it a mouldy and purulent atmosphere. The riff-writing is excellent and they are exceedingly well delivered with the band sounding very tight and well-drilled. Drummer Joel Marquez is a bit of a monster behind his kit, with interesting fills and pummelling intensity. He and bassist / vocalist Bay Cortez drive the tracks with an energetic and dynamic velocity. Meanwhile Bay's vocals are deep growls that resemble subterranean sounding Balrog roars that threaten to immolate the listener. There is perhaps not as much emphasis on guitar solos as I would have liked to have heard, but this is really a minor niggle when the riffs are so damn good and are obviously where Sadistic Intent's strength lies.

I have to admit that I am genuinely flummoxed that an early 90's death metal band that sounded this good didn't manage to attain the heights of many of their peers because riff-wise this is as good a 90's death metal release as I have heard. "Resurrection" is a must for any fan of fiilthy and demonic early death metal and if you love Morbid Angel, Possessed et al and haven't heard this yet, then you really should.

4.5/5

I have had a couple of playthroughs of "Machines of Our Disgrace" now and, in all honesty, this kind of sample-strewn, electronica-heavy cyber metal is not my bag of charlie at all, yet I didn't actually mind this too much. The reason for this is that at its heart, when you strip all the industrial dystopian trappings away, this feels like a decent thrash album. Mainman Klayton seems to have a good ear for a hooky riff and his clean vocals are quite listenable. There is a bit too much going on with all the effects and samples and the production is right up in your face, all of which makes for a challenging listen for me, but digging beneath all the trappings there are some decent toons which saved it from the dreaded <<skip>> button and actually found me nodding along at several points. It isn't something I will be rushing out to buy and I most likely will never return to it, but it was an enjoyable enough experience while it lasted.

3/5 

Something that I have realised over recent months is that I am not necessarily averse to dissonance in black and death metal per se, only that I have an issue with it when it is used as an implement of torture rather than as a musical device. Recent dalliances with the likes of Imperial Triumphant most definitely sit in the former category whilst the likes of Deathspell Omega's entire discography or Ulcerate's "Cutting the Throat of God" show how dissonance can be used as an atmospheric device like any other musical instrument. Of course I am aware that the really dissonant stuff is only an issue for me because of my own mental set-up and I do understand on an intellectual level why some bands deploy it as an artistic device to illustrate a point, I just am unable to enjoy it is all.

I was under the impression that I hadn't encountered these Icelanders before, but it appears that I had, awarding 2019's "Hvísl stjarnanna" a four-star rating despite not being able to recall it now. Luckily for me this month's feature from Sinmara and its disonnant approach very much belongs alongside the likes of Ulcerate and DsO and has been a wholly positive listening experience for me over the past week or so. One of the main reasons for this is that at its heart "Aphotic Womb" is a blistering and brooding black metal album. The dissonance of the tremolo riffing effectively lends the tracks a frosty iciness that elevates the savagery on display to a new level, in a way that a less atonal approach would struggle to replicate. This results in a bitter and venomous-sounding album that channels all the best that the icelandic black metal scene has to offer. We are not talking thin and raw black metal here, it has a full sound with the rhythm section playing an important part in providing both impetus and foundation whilst the guitarists unleash their six-stringed, dissonant sorcery. Vocalist Ólafur Guðjónsson has a harsh growling bark very much in the vein of DsO's Mikko Aspa, providing more proof of the french pioneers' significant influence on Sinmara. The overlying effect of the album is of a suffocating busyness that threatens to bury the listener under layers of ever-shifting sound, like being caught up in a blizzard, whipped into fury by bitingly cold, gale-force winds.

So, in conclusion, I want to heap bountiful praise upon "Aphotic Womb" for providing more fuel for the fire on which I must burn my preconceptions and for helping me to grow into enjoying a musical style I would once upon a time have really struggled with. Excellent feature choice Vinny, I enjoyed it massively and will be looking to score a copy at some point soon. Now I had better revisit "Hvísl stjarnanna" to see how it stacks up against this sterling debut.

4.5/5 (solid A)

I am no great fan of Ghost, but this debut is a record I keep returning to because it is just so fucking catchy that I can't get enough of it. I am one of those who is not so sure about its metal credentials though. It is one of those records, like Blood Ceremony's debut which sits right on the boundary fence between metal and retro occult rock.

Messa - The Spin (2025)

Messa's previous album, 2022's "Close" was my AOTY for that year and is one of my favourite albums of the current decade. So expectations were high for their new full-length and while it would be going too far to say I was disappointed with it, initially it fell a little bit short of my undoubtedly unrealistic expectations. Now that I have had some time to really get to grips with it my early lukewarm reaction feels a bit reactionary because "The Spin" has grown on me massively and, whilst not yet quite up there with "Close", it has still proven itself to be a damn fine record.

Leaning more into gothic territory than previously, "The Spin" is not as heavy or doomy as "Close" and is more hook-driven than the earlier album, but the interweaving of various non-metal influences is still present. Whilst undoubtedly an entire band effort, I felt that vocalist Sara Bianchin was the star of "Close", but here I think the big draw is Alberto Piccolo's fantastic guitar work. He unleashes several scintillating solos with "Immolation" and "Void Meridian" being particularly sterling examples, his riffing is spot on and his jangling guitar work is so reminiscent of the 1980's UK gothic rock scene that you would swear that Billy Duffy or Wayne Hussey had guested on the album. Piccolo also plays blues rock under the name "Little Albert" and his slide work on penultimate track "Reveal" suggests he is also proficient in that scene too.

There does seem to be a specific direction of travel to "The Spin". It begins with the emphasis very much on the gothic, specifically the opening brace of "Void Meridian" and "At Races" and the album feels as much about gothic rock as metal, with "Void Meridian" coming on like Siouxsie and the Banshees - tell me the opening bass line doesn't sound like the beginning of "Spellbound"! As the album progresses, though, it starts to move in a heavier direction, culminating with the one-two combo of the album's out and out heaviest track, "The Reveal" and the doomy "Thicker Blood". Along the way though we are treated to tracks that include the band's trademark dalliances with other diverse elements such as blues and jazz, meaning we are never going to get bored or complacent about where the band are going. They even reference Rush and in particular "La Villa Strangiato" from 1978's "Hemispheres" during the album's epic centrepiece, "The Dress" whilst the first half of "Immolation" is a piano ballad that Tori Amos would be proud of.

I sometimes get the feeling with some primarily metal artists who often look to incorporate a lot of non-metal elements that they are almost embarrassed to be tagged as metal, but I never feel that with Messa and despite their eclecticism they feel like a band who revel in their metal roots, even whilst it isn't the totality of their playbook. Sure, I am generally a bit of a caveman when it comes to metal. I love cavernous, old-school death metal, frigid and raw blasting black metal, crawling and monolithic doom, chugging thrash riffs and anthemic, singalong-at-the-top-of-your-voice classic metal choruses, but I am not a complete philistine and I am perfectly capable of enjoying bands who want to bring more to the table. I just prefer when they do it in a listenable way rather than making their albums into a test of the listener's endurance for discomfort. Thankfully, listenability is still an important quality to Messa and their eclecticism is not at the expense of accessibility. "The Spin" may not be an album that initially grabs the average metalhead by the throat, but it does reward those who spend time with it and ultimately reveals itself to be the product of a band who are eminently skillful musicians and songwriters that, despite weaving their metal with influences from bygone days, still produce exceedingly modern-sounding metal.

4.5/5 (A-)

Imperial Triumphant - Alphaville (2020)

I have tried with Imperial Triumphant, I really have, but someone is going to have to tell me what I am missing here because this is fucking horrible to my ears, especially the first half of the album. Admittedly from "Transmission to Mercury" onwards the album is better and if their writing was always in this more coherent style then I would be more on board with it. The first half, though, sounds like the art-school project of an internet edgelord and has zero musical value for me at all. It feels like the band listened to Mayhem's "Grand Declaration of War" and thought "anybody can do that" and this patently proves that they can't. It sounds to me like a group of guys wanted to be in a metal band but couldn't wrire a riff to save their lives, so they threw out some tuneless shite in the hopes that chin-stroking intellectuals could come up with some deeper meaning to justify its existence. Genuinely, I would like someone who digs this to explain to me what I am missing - hopefully without resorting to artsy bullshit words like "deconstruction" and "subversion".

Sorry, I really don't mean to upset anyone here, I am probably just angry that I have wasted another hour on this fucking band after being bitten on the arse by their previous album and not learning my lesson, but fuck this shit.

1.5/5

Here's my review:

I never really know how to approach an album like Sodom's latest. A band that are into their fifth decade and with a lengthy string of releases put out an album of familiar-sounding material that, nevertheless, I still find hugely entertaining. This leaves me wondering exactly what I can say about it that may be of any interest or value to anyone other than "here is another Sodom album where they do their thing". Whether you love it or hate it depends entirely on your already probably long-established opinion on the band because this is so typical of them that it won't budge your prevailing opinion one way or the other. In fact, Sodom are so established a name that most people had probably made up their mind about The Arsonist long before actually hearing it. I don't think the Germans always get the praise I feel is their due and when they do it almost feels grudgingly given compared to the plaudits for their countrymen like Kreator or Destruction. In that respect I kind of look on them as the german version of Anthrax. Personally I look on Sodom as a bit of a poseur-filter, by which I mean that I see them as a band beloved only by dyed-in-the-wool thrashers and not really being one for the casual genre tourist.

Anyway, on to the Arsonist. I have to say I have had a pretty good time with this over the last two or three days. Their aggression seems undiminished by time with Angelripper often sounding like he is about to burst a blood vessel such is the viciousness of his vocal delivery, they still dish out some titanic thrash riffs and unleash several pretty tasty solos. There are two or three real belters on here with "Trigger Discipline", "Sane Insanity" and "Twilight Void" being the tracks that particularly tickle my fancy. I don't feel the need to say that this is a great album considering the band has been in existence for so long, because that would be condescending, but I have to say that is a good album by a band who have been around the block many times and who know exactly what they are about and who their target audience is.

If there is one caveat to all this positivity then it is the album's production. The Arsonist is undoubtedly the latest casualty in the Loudness Wars, with massive compression that sees everything cranked up well beyond 11. The drums also feel pushed too far forward in the mix and even run the risk of occasionally drowning out the riffs. That aside though, this is a decent album that shows that Sodom can still deliver the thrash metal fix that some of us stubborn thrash-heads crave and for that I am extremely thankful.

4/5

I am loving the cover art on ths one - one of the best they have had.

Karl, please submit your suggestions by close of play on Monday if you want them included in October's playlist.

Vinny, Karl, can you please let me have your suggestions by the 15th September (35 minutes max).

@David, any suggestions need to be posted by 15th.

This issue has raised its head on a new list today, to the point where it has rendered the list unusable with multiple duplicate entries. The final entry was triplicated and there were 7 other entries duplicated out of only 50 entries. Deleting and re-adding didn't work, so in the end I have just deleted it altogether.

This is a long-standing funeral doom favourite of mine and my original review still holds up, so here it is.

Worship were a funeral doom duo formed in 1998 and based in Munich comprising Daniel "Pan" Vaross and Maximilien "The Impaler of Trendies" Varnier (aka Fucked-up Mad Max). They recorded this four-track demo in April of '99 and released it as a limited edition cassette via Max's own Impaler of Trendies record label. It was then picked up by Weird Truth and received another (very) limited cassette release. And so it would probably have ended, except that in June of 2001 Fucked-up Mad Max lived up to his name and commited suicide by throwing himself off the Edmonton High Level Bridge during a trip to Canada. The ensuing notoriety ensured that the demo had several more widespread releases on both vinyl and CD and word soon got around.

So to the actual music! Sometimes it is hard to come to a release without any bias, especially one as notorious as this, but in the realms of funeral doom, this is about as authentic as it gets. The production isn't great, obviously as it was a demo recording, but I don't ever consider that to be a problem in extreme metal, be it doom, black or any other type of metal for that matter. In fact, a rough sound can add a certain edginess or filthiness to a release that a cleaner production fails to deliver and is certainly the case here.

First track Whispering Gloom is an extremely well-written track and is probably the most interesting on the album, consisting of morbidly slow, sustained chords, Max's guttural growls and soaring lead work, which is then thrown into sharp contrast as the track pauses for breathe with a minimalistic spoken word section, before kicking back in, sounding even more desperate than before, the inate despair highlighted by a particularly mournful-sounding piano picking out single notes over the glacial central riff.

A personal favourite of mine is the closing track (of the tape version anyway), Worship, a sheer titan of a track that crushes any clinging hopefulness out of the listener before album's end. The CD also features a bonus track, Keep On Selling Cocaine to Angels, which was released as Worship's side of a split EP with belgian grindcore act, Agathocles and features more of the same utter misery which is great to hear, although I do prefer the original tape ending with Worship's chaotic climax.

There are, arguably, few better examples of the true expression of funeral doom metal than Last Tape (or CD, or Vinyl) and it's unremittingly bleak vision, completely lacking in solace or, indeed, any positive emotion whatsoever. If you're adverse to introspection then you're probably best advised to steer clear of albums like this, but if you have no fear of gazing into the abyss then you really need this *record / tape / disc (*delete as necessary). Possibly the best doom metal demo ever released.

5/5

September 2025

1. Emperor - "Towards the Patheon" (from "In the Nightside Eclipse", 1994)

2. Hades - "An Oath Sworn in Bjorgvin" (from "...Again Shall Be", 1994) [submitted by Karl]

3. Nattverd - "Hvisk Deg Vekk" (from "Tidloes Naadesloes", 2025) [submitted by Vinny]

4. Aara - "Todesbiwak" (from "Eiger", 2024) [submitted by Saxy]

5. Satyricon - "The Pentagram Burns" (from "Now, Diabolical", 2006)

6. Wode - "Celestial Dagger" (from "Servants of the Countercosmos", 2017) [submitted by Vinny]

7. Sühnopfer - D.S.F.R. (from "Nous sommes d'hier", 2023) [submitted by Karl]

8. Waidelotte - "Celestial Shrine" (from Celestial Shrine, 2024) [submitted by Andi]

9. Odium - "Towards the Forest Horizon" (from "The Sad Realm of the Stars", 1998) [submitted by Karl]

10. Vorna - "Maa martona makaa" (from "Sateet palata saavat", 2019)

11. Deafheaven - "Honeycomb" (from "Ordinary Corrupt Human Love", 2018) [submitted by Sonny]

12. Profane Order - "A Sombre Passage" (from "One Nightmare Unto Another", 2023)

13. Gorgoroth - "Maaneskyggens slave" (from "Pentagram", 1994) [submitted by Sonny]

14. Infernal War - "Crush the Tribe of Jesus Christ" (from "Terrorfront", 2005) [submitted by Karl]

15. The Great Sea - "The Maze" (from "Noble Art of Desolation", 2025) [submitted by Vinny]

16. Primordial - "No Nation On This Earth" (from "To the Nameless Dead", 2007)

17. Sinmara - "Shattered Pillars" (from "Aphotic Womb", 2014) [submitted by Vinny]

18. Obtained Enslavement - "Soulblight" (from "Soulblight", 1998) [submitted by Karl]

19. Krallice - "Telluric Rings" (from "Diotima", 2011) [submitted by Sonny]

September 2025

1. Mizmor & Hell - Pandemonium's Throat (from "Alluvion", 2025) [submitted by dk1]

2. Marble Orchard - "A Life Not Worth Living" (from "Ruminations of Ruin", 2025) [submitted by Vinny]

3. Caronte - "Sagittarius Supernovae" (from "Spiritus", 2025) [submitted by Sonny]

4. Bloodhorse - "Illumination" (from "A Malign Star", 2025) [submitted by Vinny]

5. Thou – Floyd the Barber (from "Doused in Mud, Soaked in Bleach", 2016) [submitted by dk1]

6. Evoken - "Grim Eloquence" (from "Atra Mors", 2012) [submitted by Sonny]

7. Throne - "Tortura" (from "Ossarium", 2025) [submitted by Vinny]

8. Yob – Prepare the Ground (from "Atma", 2011) [submitted by dk1]

9. Paradise Lost - "Silence Like the Grave" (from "Ascension" [preview], 2025) [submitted by Sonny]

10. Pentagram - "Lady Heroin" (from "Lightning in a Bottle", 2025) [submitted by Vinny]

11. Alunah - "Awakening the Forest" (from ""Awakening the Forest", 2014) [submitted by Sonny]

12. Mantar - "Church of Suck" (from "Post Apocalyptic Depression", 2025) [submitted by Vinny]

13. Black Sheep Wall – White Pig (from "I'm Going to Kill Myself", 2015) [submitted by dk1]

14. Hell - "Mortem" (from "Submersus", 2025) [submitted by Vinny]

15. Mourning Dawn - "Blue Pain" (from "The Foam of Despair", 2024)

16. Monolord - "Cursing the One" (from "Vaenir", 2015)

17. Worm - "Murk Above the Dark Moor" (from "Foreverglade", 2021)

As I mentioned previously, I have only had a brief, but exceedingly positive, association with Aeternus. Their 1995 "Dark Sorcery" EP is one of my favourite black metal EPs and their 1997 debut album "Beyond the Wandering Moon" isn't bad either, so I went into this in a positive frame of mind. Luckily, this uncharacteristically positive attitude wasn't misplaced and this is a nice slab of medium-paced, melodic, norwegian black metal that was very easy to get into with Immortal being an obvious touchstone for me.

A striking atmosphere is set with the introduction to the epic opener, "There's No Wine Like the Bloods Crimson" which starts off with a warrior's raging and a brief snatch of liturgical singing before giving way to a martial drum beat which sets the conflict-riven battlefield scene where most of the album's events take place. The theme here is the horrors and glories of war, particularly toe-to-toe, whites-of-their-eyes, blood and guts medieval warfare. The riffs are fairly melodic and memorable enough to catch yourself humming along occasionally. The odd riff also has a folk metal component to it, with second track "As I March" containing a prime example. The sound is pretty thick, not the lo-fi, washed out and icy thin sound often associated with nineties black metal, but with a noticeable death metal influence which is well-suited to the blood-riven theme of the album. I always love a good drum track and Vrolok's percussive contribution is well-handled here. The track "Blodsverging", where he really gets to let rip, is a great example. I am not clued in enough to know how technically good Vrolok is, but the drums sound absolutely brilliant and I love what he was doing with the aggressive, but well-controlled, battering that he is visiting upon his kit. There is some fairly sparse utilisation of keyboards, but they are subtly handled and never smother the riffs, merely adding a thin atmospheric layer to proceedings.

I am not going to claim that "...And So the Night Became" is a top-drawer norwegian black metal classic or anything, but it is very good and I found it exceedingly easy to get into with a musical consistency and atmospheric integrity that showcases the songwriting skills of all involved. Aeternus may not get a huge amount of credit or acknowlegement in the black metal world, but here they reveal themselves to be a very accomplished black metal act that almost certainly deserve more plaudits than they receive. There is some really good stuff on here and this is definitely an album I will return to in the future.

4/5

https://metalinjection.net/news/zoe-federoff-posts-her-contract-with-cradle-of-filth-details-how-little-she-was-paid

Wow! Not a great look for Dani Filth & management.

All that + a collaboration with Ed Sheeran = zero credibility.

Hi Ben, I am going through all my Fallen ratings to see which bands are missing that I have any familiarity with, so I may have a few suggestions upcoming. No rush for these as most are pretty obscure.

Could you please add:

Aathma (Spain)

Akem Manah (USA)

Albez Duz (Germany)

Albino Python (USA)

Altareth (Sweden)

Archon (USA)

Attalla (USA)

Atten Ash (USA)

Averon (Sweden)

Well, that's the "A"s done anyway!

I have checked out the three-track preview EP on Spotify and it's not bad. Possibly leaning a bit more into death doom than they have for a while.