Sonny's Forum Replies

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.

In fact, the bottom end of my ratings database if littered with metal filth, most of it being far worse than Justin Bieber. 

Wow, that must be some seriously bad shit.

The only things I can think of that are even remotely that bad are Piledriver and Exterminator. In fact, out if my 3800+ ratings on the site I only have 8 with a 0.5 star rating and just over 100 with 2 stars or less, so I reckon I still have plenty of room for all the shit metal I haven't heard yet.

Onslaught - Killing Peace (2007)

I am a big fan of Onslaught's first two albums. Let's face it they were one of the very few thrash metal bands of any real consequence that hailed from the UK, so a bit of local bias came into play to endear them to me, even though those two albums are really good anyway. However, I have never listened to any of their post-reformation albums. Well, the intervening years between the 1991 split and 2004 reformation had seen the thrash world fall under the thrall of the groove gods, with the shadow cast by the likes of Pantera and Machine Head proving to be almost all-encompassing. In the 21st century it feels like the thrash world split into two distinct camps, the bands who embraced extremity and incorporated more death or black metal into their sound (let's call these the good ones) and those who sold their souls to the groove gods (for argument's sake we will call these the bad ones) in the hunt for increased record sales. Listening to "Killing Peace" it is obvious that Onslaught took the latter path, despite their earlier stuff suggesting they would be more likely to embrace the former. 

To be honest, after only a handful of tracks I had had enough of this, it's groove-oriented approach sounding far too much like a knock-off Machine Head for me to stomach it for long. I stuck it out until the end as I was out dog-walking and it was easier to keep listening than change it. However, come album's end I had the horrible empty feeling in the stomach that I get when I realise a band I once really dug has sold out and is nothing more than a trend-following shell of its former glory. In fairness only two of the guys who recorded "Power From Hell" were present on "Killing Peace", drummer Steve Grice and lead guitarist Nige Rockett who had even relegated himself to rhythm guitar in the new band, but even so, the latter album sounds like it was conceived and recorded by a completely different band, possibly one from a different dimension such is the lack of connection I make to it. For me, this is akin to the chasm in quality between St Anger and Master of Puppets.

On the plus side the production is super clean, as you would expect from an album recorded this century and there are a couple of quite gnarly solos, with opener "Burn" being a case in point. Steve Grice's drumming is very good too and is one of the only reasons to listen to this more than once, which I am doing right now, so dedicated am I to delivering a considered opinion! The lead vocals are pretty horrible though ("Destroyer of Worlds" is just painful), the gang backing vocals are even worse and those bouncy, groove-oriented riffs are anathema to all I hold dear. Add in yet another overused "I am become death" Oppenheimer sample and I have just about had it with this.

I originally had this pegged as a 2.5, but further listening has hardened my opinion agaginst it and I can't bring myself to go higher than a 2.0. I will definitely stick with Onslaught's 80s stuff and file their reform albums in the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet in the shed at the bottomof the garden marked "Do Not Listen - Ever".

Fucking bummer. As an ex-biker myself it always hits hard when I hear of someone killed in a motorcycle accident. RIP and ride forever on, man.

Straying from the original topic here, but I have been thinking about my ratings for a lot of stuff, particularly the more average scores, say 2.5-3.5 star ratings and I am starting to think that my ratings should be more severe here than they are on a general music website like RYM. Now stay with me on this, my reasoning is that if ratings measure 0.5 as the absolute worst music has on offer and 5 is the absolute best, then on a general website 0.5 includes some of the absolute worst monstrositites human art has ever inflicted on the world. I am thinking Crazy Frog, Joe Dolce, Justin Bieber levels of utter shite. As adevout metalhead, as I would expect most on Metal Academy to be, there are very, very few metal releases I would consider to be objectively as bad as those steaming piles, so I am thinking that maybe my criteria for rating on a specialist site such as this should be stricter, as I am better inclined on a genetic level to the music covered by the site. 

For example of what I am saying, this morning I was listening to Onslaught's 2007 album, "Killing Peace" album and I was thinking that it was very average indeed, "A definite 3 star" I thought to myself. But then I thought, "But on a site like Metal Academy where the standards and criteris for a metal album should be higher than on a general music site, I don't think this even stacks up as a 3 and 2.5 seems a far more appropriate rating".

Does this ring any bells for any one else and if not, do you have any comments to help me resolve this personal quandary?

I tend to spin this record about once a month and this recent remaster of The Gits' classic 1992 "Frenching the Bully" album is an absolute beauty so my vinyl order has just gone into Amazon. This is one of my all-time favourite US punk albums, up there with Bad Brains first, DK's Fresh Fruit and The Ramones "It's Alive". This remaster has given it a sharp cutting edge and cements it's place as a punk rock classic. The murder of singer Mia Zapata, apart from cutting short the life of a vibrant young woman, robbed the world of one of the best punk singers ever committed to tape. RIP Mia...

While I am on the subject, here are my top ten Punk Rock albums:

1. The Stranglers - Rattus Norvegicus (1977)

2. Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables (1980)

3. Ramones - It's Alive (1979)

4. The Gits - Frenching the Bully (1992)

5. The Clash - The Clash (1977)

6. Bad Brains - Bad Brains (1982)

7. Misfits - Earth A.D. (1983)

8. Suicidal Tendencies - Suicidal Tendencies (1987)

9. Subhumans - From the Cradle to the Grave (1984)

10 Discharge - Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing (1982)

Caronte - Spiritvs (2025)

I am a big fan of this Parma five-piece and was stoked to see they had a new album out, with minimal fanfare from the metal world, a long six years since previous offering "The Wolves of Thelema". Their brand of doom metal sits smack-bang between the stoner and the epic, with a wide streak of occult psychedelia, in the vein of The Devil's Blood, running through it's dark heart.

They have a quite distinctive sound, chiefly down to mainman Dorian Bones' vocals which come on like a mixture of the gothic flavour of Paradise Lost's Nick Holmes and the expansive epicness of a Robert Lowe. Over the previous decade and a half they have also become exceedingly proficient at writing more memorable, uptempo doomy riffs that are likely to be rolling around your head for hours after the record stops spinning. The rhythm section is exceedingly solid, with both drummer Mike De Chirico and bassist Henry Bones solidly and unshowily driving the tracks along and providing a solid foundation on which everything else is built.

The opening one-two of the punchy and catchy "Scarlet Love" and the slower and doomier "Aiwass Calling" sees the album kick off in fine style with two of the album's strongest numbers. Most of the tracks are mid-paced affairs, but the band do include a couple of slower, more doom-laden numbers with the aforementioned "Aiwass Calling" and the penultimate "Fire Walk With Me" being well-placed to prevent the album from sounding too samey. I feel there is a bit of a drop-off in the middle, though, with side one closer "Antikristos" and side two opener "Beyond Daath" not really hitting the spot for me. "Antikristos" feels like the band are fishing to catch the Jex Thoth / Devil's Blood crowd and "Beyond Daath", despite having a decent riff, leans too much into the occult theatrics vocally. Luckily things pick up with the album's doomiest (and my favourite) track "Fire Walk With Me" imparting a bit of class before closer "Interstellar Snakes of Gold" rounds things out with a melodic chorus and nice riff.

As much as I enjoyed Spiritus, I find myself being reluctant to impart a top-tier score. The main reason for this is the lack of adventure the band display, particularly in the restraint with which the guitar leads are deployed and their willingness to stick to the same old formula which has, admittedly, served them very well over the years. I think the album is lacking a really good solo or two with the leads mainly used to add melody over the riffs when I couldn't help feeling that on a couple of occasions they could have really let rip, but feel constrained by the tight discipline of the songwriting. The closing section of the aforementioned "Fire Walk With Me" is the only really extensive solo and even that feels like it is being held in check when it should howl and soar.

In truth, I don't need a band to constantly be pushing the envelope and redefining themselves for me to enjoy them, but sometimes they can be found sitting just a little bit too comfortably and I feel like that about Caronte at this point in their career. There are some good tracks here, but it feels to me like there is a little too much filler too with "Antikristos", "Beyond Daath" and "Interstellar Snakes of Gold" almost feeling like a band going through the motions and I hate saying this about a band I enjoy as much as I do Caronte.

I'm afraid I can only award it a measly C+

I've made the move to Florida and I am immediately a much happier man. Sunshine everyday is nice after 10months per year of darkness up north. People are friendlier too and my wife is happier at her new school so far. I just have to get my own ball rolling. All in due time. 

I haven't felt inspired to write reviews for a while.

I got to see Crowbar live down here, and that was amazing, Kirk's wife was working merch, so I know he got the hallmark card from my wife and I.  Life is good  down in dixie.

I was wondering how you were getting on as we hadn't heard from you in a while and it is great to hear that things are working out well. Good luck with your new life.

-16- - Guides for the Misguided (2025)

I haven't listened to a whole lot from L.A.'s 16, but what I have, I have always found to be angry and confrontational, from a band railing at the world, their relationships and even themselves. Guides for the Misguided starts off in much the same vein with a couple of quick-tempo efforts, Bobby Ferry's anguished and angsty shouting almost making me suspect that they are trying to grab the attention of the metalcore crowd and the band coming off as the result of a cross-pollination of Crowbar and Converge.

However, things soon take a turn down a different alley with third track, "Blood Atonement Blues". Starting with a piano intro that is rapidly swamped by a really nice bluesy, howling lead. The track then turns down an unexpected gothic metal sidestreet, complete with a catchy chorus which isn't as good as the rest of the track, although that howling guitar lead does make a very welcome return. At this point I must admit I was now a bit thrown off track, thinking I knew what I was getting here, but subsequently having those expectations trashed. "Fortress of Hate" is a groovier slab of sludge metal that I would, once more, associate more with Crowbar than I would -16-. This groovier approach and the deployment of generally more catchy choruses continues with "Proudly Damned" and especially "Fire and Brimstone Inc" which has one of those choruses that you just can't shift from your head.

I am then even more confounded by "Desperation Angel" which sounds like a sludge metal track that has been written by Dave Grohl and, even though it is more aggressive-sounding than most of the preceeding tracks with the harsh vocals coming back to the fore at last, it just doesn't quite hit hard enough for my liking. In fact it isn't until "Resurrection Day" that I get the anger and visciousness that I turn to a -16- album for, although the track is a little bit patchy in truth. This is followed, though, by the quite short "Give Thanks and Praises" which has much more of a hardcore feel and so is a better representation of what I personally look for from the band and which, despite it's brevity, is probably my favourite track. Admittedly the album does finish more strongly with "Give Thanks" being followed by the hulking "Kick Out the Chair".

In conclusion, "Guides for the Misguided" probably threw more curve balls at me than I was expecting. This may not be entirely out of character as this is only the third album I have heard from the band, but it does seem at odds with what I have heard previously, not with a massive departure exactly, but it feels like an album from a band toning down their aggressive tendencies in order to garner wider acceptance. Look, this is not a bad album and has some fine moments, it may turn out that this is one hell of a grower and I may look back in future days perplexed at my intital reactions, but at this moment in time I am a little disappointed that -16- have seemingly watered-down their venom.

3/5

Looking forward to it, Vinny.

Good feedback, Sonny! And sorry about those first two tracks affecting your plan to switch clans.

In truth, I never would have anyway, Andi. There are just too many of my all-time favourites in The Pit for me to abandon it, even if really great new releases are exceedingly few and far between.

I have been listening to and really enjoying a fair bit of Guardians-related stuff recently and I have even been toying with the idea of leaving the Pit and joining the Guardians instead. However, within the first two songs of this month's playlist I had put that notion away in the mental drawer marked "Do not open again - EVER!" Sabaton was bad enough but [checks notes] Battle Beast presented one of the worst, cringiest metal songs I have ever heard in my 50 years of metal patronage. The thing is that, after that, although the LoG Sabbath cover would have been better replaced by the original, this is a pretty damn good playlist with some familiar goodies and some unfamiliar crackers. Admittedly, after the Mercyful Fate track where a lot of the power / symphonic stuff was placed, I found less that appealed to me, but generally speaking after the opening ten minutes or so I had a blast with it.

I know I am a day late (I thought I had already posted a suggestion this month) and if you wish you can ignore it, Andi, but I would like to suggest Accept's "Shadow Soldiers" from 2012's "Stalingrad" album for September's playlist.

I can't comment on why artists use such images, only on what the images say to me. In terms of the power lines thing, I get a sense of connection as what I am seeing (even though I actively avoid gaze, where this appears to predominantly be the home of the trend).  Equally though, the pagan in me could also interpret them as mans intrusion on the landscape, in some of the more open landscape photos at least. 

A few years back I had a bit of a flirtation with photography with trees and woodlands being my favourite subject. One of my particular favourite photos from then is of a thick woodland with a set of powerlines running through it and it appealed to me for exactly the reason Vinny states above, the intrusion of man on the natural world. Now I don't know why these bands use these images, but seeing as a lot of the -gazey. post-metal bands are environmentally conscious, it is a distinct possibility.

For the interest of any aspiring, environmentally-conscious blackgaze act out there looking for a cheap album cover, here is that photo:

Thanks guys...

Here are my submissions for September, Vinny. Sorry I am a bit late.

Aggressive Perfector - "Devil's Bastard" (from "Havoc at the Midnight Hour", 2019)

Death Angel - "Truce" (from "Relentless Retribution", 2010)

Heathen - "Undone" (from "The Evolution of Chaos", 2010)

Kreator - "Coma of Souls" (from "Coma of Souls", 1990)

Necrodeath - "Graveyard of the Innocents" (from "Into the Macabre", 1987)

Parkcrest - "Impossible to Hide" (from "...And That Blue Will Turn to Red", 2019)

Sacrilege - "Lifeline" (from "Behind the Realms of Madness", 1985)

Torturer - "Arachnophobia" (from "Oppressed by the Force", 1992)

Just under 39 minutes, I think.

Great review Vinny. I don't feel that way about it myself, obviously, but your articulation of what it means to you personally is passionately and masterfully handled. I love hearing about music that means so much to someone, even if I am not so keen on it myself. 

If you are willing to take submissions from non-clan members, Saxy, then I would like to nominate

Threshold - "The Man Who Saw Through Time" (from "Legends of the Shires", 2017)

Hi Ben, could you add the latest album from Italy's Caronte, Spiritvs.

https://caronteoccultdoom.bandcamp.com/album/spiritvs

Thanks everyone.