Sonny's Forum Threads

Ben, have you experienced these errors when developing the upcoming new site? If you haven't, then let's hope for not just the new site to be completed and available for us to migrate, but also for a smooth error-free experience there.

New month, new Horde feature and it is my turn to select this month's offering. I have gone with the 2025 "Impelling Rebirth" EP from US dissonant death / black metallers Suffering Hour. Let us know your view on it either below or in review form.

https://metal.academy/releases/63105

Here we are in a brand new month and with a brand new feature release for The Pit, this month selected by me. I have gone for an album I have only recently discovered, it being the 1989 debut full-length "Bajo una luna cámbrica" from proggy chilean thrashers Dorso. Personally I think there is a fair bit on here that should appeal to many in the wider Metal Academy membership, not just members of The Pit. 

As always let us know what you think, below or in review form.

https://metal.academy/releases/46746

OK, another month rolls by and it falls to me to select the Guardians release this time around. I have gone for Iron Maiden's 2000 album "Brave New World", the album that marked the return of Bruce Dickinson to the band and which, it was hoped, would put them back on track after the less than overwhelming Blaze Bayley years.

As always let us know what you think of it either in a comment below, as a fully fledged review or both.

https://metal.academy/releases/94

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0R0a3qxSe1XkOMxBN6gkwi

1. Avulsed - "Abduction of Limbs" (from "Abduction of Limbs" [single], 2026)

2. Unleashed - "To Asgaard We Fly" (from "Across the Open Sea", 1993) [submitted by Karl]

3. Slaughterday - "Astral Carnage" (from "Dread Emperor", 2026) [submitted by Vinny]

4. Imperator - "Necronomicon" (from "The Time Before Time", 1991) [submitted by Sonny]

5. Fall of the Leafe - "Starfire" (from "Evanescent Everfading", 1998) [submitted by Karl]

6. Nile - "Annihilation of the Wicked" (from "Annihilation of the Wicked", 2005) [submitted by Vinny]

7. Rotten Sound - "Sell Your Soul" (from "Exit", 2005) [submitted by Sonny]

8. Ablation - "Lethal Abuse" (from "Lethal Abuse", 2026) [submitted by Vinny]

9. Aurora Borealis - "Millisecond Pulsar" (from "Disillusioned by the Illusion", 2026) [submitted by Karl]

10. Sadism - "Perdition of Souls" (from "Perdition of Souls Demo", 1989) [submitted by Sonny]

11. Devourment - "Mortiferous Dependency" (from "Pious Impiety", 2026) [submitted by Vinny]

12. Loudblast - "Turn the Scales" (from "Sublime Dementia", 1993) [submitted by Karl]

13. Ceremony of Silence - "Serpent Slayer" (from "Hálios", 2024) [submitted by Sonny]

14. Rotten Tomb - "Condemned Reality" (from "Vestiges of Tortured Souls", 2026) [submitted by Karl]

15. Desecresy - "Summoned with Necrolunar Telepathy" (from "The Secret of Death", 2026) [submitted by Karl]

16. Sanguisugabogg - "Rotted Entanglement" (from "Hideous Aftermath", 2025) [submitted by Vinny]

17. Nuclear Death - "Cremation" (from "Bride of Insect", 1990) [submitted by Sonny]

18. Atrocity - "Life Is a Long and Silent River" (from "Hallucinations", 1990) [submitted by Sonny]

19. Massacre - "Chamber of Ages" (from "From Beyond", 1991) [submitted by Karl]

20. ZOMBIESHARK! - "H3LLW0RLD_" (from "I Will Destroy You, Myself, and Everything I've Ever Loved.", 2020)

21. Six Feet Under - "Destroyed Remains" (from "Next to Die", 2026) [submitted by Vinny]

22. Putred - "Întâlnirea mortală" (from "Blestemul din adânc", 2026) [submitted by Karl]

23. Suffering Hour - "Inexorable Downfall" (from "Impelling Rebirth EP", 2025) [submitted by Sonny]

24. Allegaeon - "Of Beasts and Worms" (from "Damnum", 2022) [submitted by Vinny]

25. Effluence - "Putrefactive Symbiosis" (from "Psychocephalic Spawning", 2021)

26. Fleshcrawl - "Blood Dominion" (from "Epitome of Carnage", 2026) [submitted by Karl]

27. Desecrator - "Subconscious Release" (from "Subconscious Release", 1991) [submitted by Sonny]

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0Sw9mEcyXo1pGyFHR3znLT

1. Old Forest - "Grond - Hammer of the Underworld" (from "Into the Old Forest", 1999) [submitted by Sonny]

2. Mork - "Utryddelse" (from "Monolitt", 2026) [submitted by Vinny]

3. Dimmu Borgir - "Master of Disharmony" (from "Enthrone Darkness Triumphant", 1997) [submitted by Karl]

4. Svrm - "Попіл" (from "Мертвий край", 2026) [submitted by Vinny]

5. Valhalore - "Augury of Death" (from "Valhalore EP", 2015)

6. Hades Almighty - "Funeral Storm" (from "Pyre Era, Black!" EP, 2015)

7. Abysmal Lord - "Sabbat" (from "Disciples of the Inferno", 2015)

8. Vafurlogi - "Úr himinsölum" (from "Gneisti af eldi Guðs", 2026) [submitted by Vinny]

9. Drudkh - "Memory" (from "Thaw", 2026) [submitted by Sonny]

10. Vehemence - "En Quête du Graal" (From Assiégé Pour l'Éternité, 2026) [submitted by Xephyr]

11. Gehenna - "A Myth" (from "Seen Through the Veils of Darkness", 1995) [submitted by Karl]

12. Sakna - "Alltid" (from "De Syv Dødssynder", 2025) [submitted by Vinny]

13. VI - "La terre ne cessera de se consumer" (from "De praestigiis angelorum", 2015) [submitted by Sonny]

14. Siebenbürgen - "Om hösten död" (from "Loreia", 1997) [submitted by Karl]

15. Saidan - "Ethereal Blood" (From Fangdriller, 2026) [submitted by Xephyr]

16. Nyogthaeblisz - "Ordnance for Adamic Holocaust and Cosmocidal Entropy"(from "Abrahamic Godhead Besieged by Adversarial Usurpation", 2019)

17. Bizarrekult - " Blikket Hennes" (from "Alt som finnes", 2026) [submitted by Vinny]

18. Imperium Dekadenz - "Truth Under Stars" (from "Into Sorrow Evermore", 2023) [submitted by Sonny]

19. Christ Agony - "Urtica Diaoica Cultha" (from "Daemoonseth Act II", 1994) [submitted by Karl]

20. Silencer - "I Shall Lead, You Shall Follow" (from "Death - Pierce Me", 2001) [submitted by Sonny]

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2rSh9MnfQo9HmPLo2W5MBa

1. Age of Taurus - "The Bull and the Bear" (from "Desperate Souls of Tortured Times", 2013) [submitted by Sonny]

2. Khemmis – “Carrion King” (from “Khemmis”, 2026) [submitted by dk]

3. Kal-El - "Juno" (from "Astral Voyager Vol. 2", 2026) [submitted by Sonny]

4. Godthrymm - "Endure My Skin" (from "Projections", 2026) [submitted by Vinny]

5. Black Sheep Wall – “Nihility” (from “I am God Songs”, 2008) [submitted by dk]

6. Solystalgia - "Conflagration" (from "Solystalgia", 2026)

7. Monolord - "Iodine" (from "Neverending", 2026) [submitted by Vinny]

8. Crypt Sermon - "Christ is Dead" (from "The Ruins of Fading Light", 2019)

9. Crowbar - "Planets Collide" (from "Oddfellows Rest", 1998) [submitted by Vinny]

10. The Old Dead Tree - "It Can't Be!" (from "The Nameless Disease", 2003)

11. Dauðaró & Pantheïst - "Iron Dominion" (from "Af holdi og málmi", (2026) [submitted by Sonny]

12. WitchSorrow – “Hades Chains” (from “Hades Chains” single, 2026) [submitted by dk]

13. Flame, Dear Flame - "The Millennial Heartbeat Part I" (from "Aegis", 2021) [submitted by Vinny]

14. IAN – “Manuel” (from “Come on Everybody, Let's Do Nothing!”, 2025) [submitted by dk]

15. Melvins - "Queen" (from "Stoner Witch", 1994) [submitted by Vinny]

16. Ablaze in Hatred - "A Walk Through the Silence" (from "The Quietude Plains", 2009)

17. Messa - "Thicker Blood" (from "The Spin", 2025) [submitted by Vinny]

18. Khanate - "No Joy" (from "Khanate", 2001) [submitted by Sonny]

I lose track of Gorgoroth very easily I find. The early movement of vocalists proper gets confusing for me and by the time we get to this record there’s three of them doing the vocals. There are also four different drummers (albeit one of them only does track three – and it is the mighty Frost). Taking time to bring myself up to speed on Gorgoroth goings on, I can see legal battles, prison sentences, court appearances, trademark registration challenges, firings and assaults of band members. No wonder the line up appears to stick in my mind as being unstable then.

Aside from the fact that most people involved sound like abhorrent individuals, Gorgoroth have always managed to make vicious and scathing black metal that is pleasing to my ear. Aside from the fact that this album has a stupid title that screams immaturity, the content itself is most entertaining. Anyone who thinks that Gorgoroth are smash and grab, one blistering pace of black metal in the vein of Marduk style of band, will find evidence to the contrary on their fourth full length offering. There is variety of pace and tempo on this album and tracks like ‘The Virginborn’ employ a much more exploratory style of writing than I was expecting going into the record.

At the same time, there is still enough necro to keep the kvlt crew happy. Album closer ‘Slottet i det fjerne’ (a Darkthrone cover) caters for this element perfectly, awash with feedback and production values straight from 1994. Similarly, opening track, ‘Destroyer’ makes no bones about the lack of pleasantries to begin the album. Whilst I accept discomfort as being expected and acceptable on a Gorogorth record, there is elements of a little overkill here. It could be my subconscious playing with me a little, knowing that there are multiple different performers on a revolving platter contributing to the record, but the album at times does sound like it may be two different albums put together. Not in terms of the pace and tempos, just more in terms of the content of the album overall.

I cannot say it is a fault, or a criticism as such even, yet there is a sense of layering being applied that sort of catches me off-guard. ‘The Devil, The Sinner and His Journey’ is a bit of a weird track for inclusion in my book and I would argue that the album is at its strongest in terms of consistency through the middle section of the record onwards. There is also a tendency for a crooning, folk-tinged vocal effect to creep into tracks at times, which sounds a bit amateur in all honesty. Still, it is distinctly a Gorgoroth record at the end of the day so there is still plenty to enjoy overall, despite my little niggles with it.

3.5/5

Sacrilege and Onslaught aside, the UK's thrash output during the 1980's was pretty fucking woeful. It was almost as if we Brits just didn't 'get' thrash metal at all and struggled to get up to speed with this new, more aggressive style of heavy metal and those pesky Yanks and Europeans were just making us look lame and lazy by comparison. As a result I have been on the lookout for decent British Eighties' thrash metal albums ever since, with little to no real success, so I was stoked to see an underground band of thrashers from a north-west England seaside town pop up as a feature and hoped against hope that this would be some kind of underground classic. Oh well, you can't blame me for hoping! As you can probably guess, this falls a fair way short of my, admittedly unrealistic, expectations.

I am guessing that D.A.M. were huge fans of Anthrax's "Spreading the Disease" album, because I think that is what they seem to be striving for here. Vocalist Jason McLoughlin does his very best Joey Belladonna impression, rhythm guitarist John Bury attempts to reproduce Scott Ian's trademark choppy, chuggy riffs and the gang vocals on the choruses that the New Yorkers loved to employ are present and correct. Unfortunately they lack the two chracteristics that made Anthrax what they were back then - the infectious, sing-along choruses and the sheer effusive sense of excitement and fun that set Anthrax apart from their West Coast and European peers. Anyone who loves 80s Anthrax also knows how vital Charlie Benante's lively and energetic drumming was to the band whereas, here, the production has rendered the percussion limp and lifeless, sounding like someone leathering their kit with a couple of fish rather than drumsticks! Hell, "Total Destruction" even starts with a flat copy of Charlie's drum intro to "Indians".

Look, I don't want to sound too down on them for that because, to be honest, for a few years in the 1980s Anthrax bottled lightning and managed to make it work, through sheer force of personality, excellent songwriting ability and technical ability. So, without these essential, but mercurial talents, D.A.M. merely sound like cheap imitators and would maybe have been better advised to plough their own furrow rather than follow in the steps of a unique act like Anthrax. In truth, I actually don't hate "Human Wreckage" but, as someone who was (and remains) a big fan of "Spreading the Disease" and "Among the Living", I can't unhear D.A.M.'s Anthrax worship and so I just keep wishing I was listening to one of those albums instead. I am sure these guys were probably a blast in the metal pubs and clubs of England's North West back in the day, but in the stark, cold spotlight of recorded music they just come up a bit short and sound too derivative.

3/5

In my review of Saint Vitus’ self-titled debut album, I called out my enjoyment of Scott Reager’s vocals, highlighting their deranged style being a perfect fit for Chandler’s guitar sound. Just as with the debut album, Reager’s performance is front and centre on Die Healing also, yet this is never at the detriment of anything else on the record. For a guy who had straight up gone to ground for a decade, he appears to have just walked back into the studio like he had just nipped out for ten minutes to get a packet of cigarettes and some bourbon. There is no scenario in any parallel universe whereby Saint Vitus records this album with any other vocalist, and it works at all. He’s creepy to the point of having a skin-crawling effect. Tracks like ‘Dark World’, ‘Let the End Begin’ and ‘In the Asylum’ are perhaps unrivalled within my doom listening experience to date in terms of that true force being formed by this perfect marriage of the vocals and guitar.

Listen to the psychedelic musings on ‘Trail of Pestilence’ and just try and keep your jaw off the floor. Die Healing is a real all round band record though. For all the waxing lyrical I am doing about the vocals and guitar the album would not be anywhere near as successful without the drums of the late Armando Acosta and the bass of the also sadly departed Mark Adams. ‘Sloth’ might be one of the most appropriately named doom tracks in the history of the genre, it is so oppressively heavy it reaches the point of suffocation. It is albums like this that are the reason why I switched from The Guardians into The Fallen clan. The atmospheres here are so wonderfully threatening in such an effective yet completely inoffensive way; they are a genuine by product of the instrumentation, just so unforced sounding and organic in nature.

My only real criticism of the album is the lacklustre closing track. They should have closed the album with ‘In the Asylum’ in all honesty as anything trying to follow that was going to be struggling. ‘Just Another Notch’ is primetime filler unfortunately which even Reager’s vocals can’t save. Oddly, he sounds the tamest of all on this track in comparison to the others. Final track aside, there is much to be celebrated on Die Healing even if it marks the end of the band for at least a decade.

4/5

I hadn't heard of these Germans before seeing this nominated as a monthly feature, so went into it completely blind. A bit of background digging reveals that Slaughterday were formed in 2010 and for most of their career to date they operated as a duo with Jens Finger taking care of the six- and four-strings and Bernd Reiners the drums and vocals with a huge cast of supporting drummers, bassists and guitarists helping them out with their live shows. However, for this their fifth full-length, they have inducted reinforcements into their ranks and have expanded the band into a five-piece with Christian Wiesener taking over bass duties, André Janssen drums and Tobias Koops boosting the six-string attack as second guitarist.

So what do we have here? Well, this is pretty much meat and potatoes old-school death metal with obvious influence from usual suspects such as Autopsy, Bolt Thrower and Vader and I say that with no hint of sniffiness because that is exactly the kind of death metal that floats my particular boat. Sure, the more demanding death metal listener will likely feel unfulfilled by the lack of ambition displayed on "Dread Emperor", but I don't imagine that upsetting the Slaughterday guys that much. The performances are very solid indeed, the band obviously know their way around their instruments and have an excellent grasp of what OSDM is about. After a portentious instrumental intro track the band charge out of the blocks with opener proper, "Obliteration Crusade", and proceed to attempt to rip your face off with sheer riff power. Throughout this and the subsequent eight tracks they deploy a withering arsenal of riffs in order to batter down any resistance to their undemanding, but energetic, old-school blitzkrieg. Reiners' vocals are rough, gruff, roaring bellows and are plenty powerful while the rhythm section drive in the rhythmic piles upon which the individual tracks are built in an unshowy wholly dependable way. There is a significant amount of soloing present on "Dread Emperor" and it is with this that I have reservations. The thing is that the solos are actually quite melodic, even to the point of sounding like Maiden or Priest solos at times and I am not completely convinced that they suit the violence of the riffs and vocals, consequenly making the album as a whole sound a lot less aggressive and menacing than it should. I would have preferred more Kerry King and less KK Downing. I have been a big defender of James Murphy's contribution to Death's "Spiritual Healing" where a similar argument can and does get used, so this may be a bit of a hypocritical stance, but I think Murphy's skill was to enhance the more brutal aspects of "Spiritual Healing", where I find the melodicism of the solos here distracting.

Still, that aside, I love the riffs which still manage to give me that warm, fuzzy, OSDM buzz that I can just never get enough of so, derivative and unambitious it may well be and, in truth, I am unlikely to be running out to score a copy any time soon, but I actually quite enjoyed it and that is good enough for me. That cover is pretty badass too. I have been playing the Elder Scrolls Oblivion remake on PS recently and the creature on the cover is exactly like one of Oblivion's Nether Liches, tough bastards that they are!

4/5 [79/100]

OK, yeah, that seems to have done the trick, Ben. Thanks.

Cabinet - Deracinated Into Soiled Reliquaries (Sarcophagus Odyssey) (2026)

Genres: Bestial Black Metal, Black Death Metal

Lots of black metal bands like to kickstart their albums with some slow build up.  And then you have Cabinet, who's like, "Nope.  I'ma shove a dump truck full of dirt on top of your head.  Here's music that sounds like a corpse is digging back to the surface and growling while the earth keeps getting stuck in its mouth.  Then halfway through the first track, we get guitars that sound like the music that plays when flies are buzzing around you in the cartoons, expect the flies are gonna kill you.  But because of the heavier focus on the noise factor, there's less melody and more chugging than usual, at least there is when the war metal takes the stage.  When you have the doomy stuff with the creppy chanting in "Precipitating Pneumonoconiosis In The Cremation Cellar," (I totally copy/pasted that) there's more "songwriting" involved.  And out guy's going a little crazier with the sound effects this time.  He ends one track with the bubbling sounds of having your head forced underwater, one track ends with collecting wheezings and coughs, and there is one disturbing narration that I won't ruin for you.  But overall, this album may be more of the same at its core, but its war metal is dirtier and its clearer edges are smoother.  Definitely has a lot of replay value.

90

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0Sw9mEcyXo1pGyFHR3znLT

1. Pillorian - "By the Light of a Black Sun" (from "Obsidian Arc", 2017) [submitted by Vinny]

2. Rotting Christ - "The Forest of N'Gai" (from "Passage to Arcturo", 1991) [submitted by Karl]

3. Satanic Warmaster - "Black Circle of Death" (from "Exultation of Cruelty", 2024) [submitted by Sonny]

4. Ulg - "Dark Woods" (from "Windark", 2017)

5. Dimmu Borgir - "Ulvgjeld & blodsodel" (from "Grand Serpent Rising", 2026) [submitted by Vinny]

6. Sammath - "Ferocious Mortar Fire" (from "Across the Rhine Is Only Death", 2019) [submitted by Karl]

7. Shining - "Claws of Perdition" (from "IV: The Eerie Cold", 2005) [submitted by Sonny]

8. Ancient Rites - "(Ode to Ancient) Europa" (from "Dim Carcosa", 2001)

9. Agastus - "Black Moon's Blood" (from "Dawn of Martyrdom", 1996) [submitted by Vinny]

10. Venusberg Cardinal - "Mundus Loss" (from "Atlas of Dungeons", 2023) [submitted by Sonny]

11. Serpent Lord - "Constrictor" (from "The Once Forgotten Ways of Old", 2026) [submitted by Vinny]

12. Violet Cold - "Mamihlapinatapai" (from "kOsmik", 2019)

13. Psicosfera - "Copulent (XII)" (from "Beta", 2018) [submitted by Sonny]

14. Firtan - "Innenschatten" (from "Innenwelt", 2016) [submitted by Vinny]

15. Octinomos - "Nuclear Blitz" (from "Welcome to My Planet", 1999) [submitted by Karl]

16. Heltekvad - "Ærbødig er den som sejrer" (from "Morgenrødens Helvedesherre", 2022) [submitted by Vinny]

17. Malefic Levitation - "Black Forest Worship" (from "The Ancient Plague EP", 2017) [submitted by Sonny]

18. Equilibrium - "Unter der Eiche" (from "Turis Fratyr", 2005)

19. Skogen - "I döden" (from "I döden", 2014) [submitted by Sonny]

20. Hirilorn - "Last Ride on the Winds of Eternity" (from "Legends of Evil and Eternal Death", 1998) [submitted by Karl]

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2rSh9MnfQo9HmPLo2W5MBa

1. House of Capricorn - "Ashlands" (from “Morning Star Rise", 2014) (submitted by Sonny)

2. Konvent - "Puritan Masochism" (from "Puritan Masochism", 2020) (submitted by Vinny)

3. High on Fire – “Lambsbread” (from “Cometh the Storm”, 2024) (submitted by dk)

4. Rorcal - "Extinguished Innocence" (from "Silence", 2023) (submitted by Vinny)

5. Candlemass – “Destroyer” (from “King of the Grey Islands”, 2007) (submitted by dk)

6. Devil Electric - "Jill & Jack Shit" (from "Tahlia", 2026) (submitted by Vinny)

7. Shades of Deep Water - "Death's Threshold Part 1" (from "Death's Threshold", 2019) (submitted by Sonny)

8. Crouch - "Hatchets and Hammers" (from "Breaking the Catatonic State", 2026) (submitted by Vinny)

9. Gorge - "Smoke Signals" (from "Village Raid", 2021) (submitted by Sonny)

10. Katla - "Satan" (from "Katla EP", 2018)

11. Body Void – “Human Greenhouse” (from “Atrocity Machine”, 2023) (submitted by dk)

12. Thorr's Hammer - "Norge" (from "Dommedagsnatt", 1998) (submitted by Vinny)

13. Khemmis - "The Bereaved" (from "Absolution", 2015) (submitted by Sonny)

14. Ritual Arcana - "Subtle Fruits" (from "Ritual Arcana", 2026) (submitted by Vinny)

15. Serpentcult - "Screams from the Deep" (from "Weight of Light", 2008) (submitted by Sonny)

16. Pyrithe – “Glioblastoma” (from “Monuments to Impermanence”, 2022) (submitted by dk)

17. Reverend Bizarre - "Strange Horizon" (from "Harbinger of Metal", 2003)

Here is my new, expanded review:

The Immortal Bird that recorded this 2015 album is very different from the three-piece that exists to this day with only vocalist Rae Amitay remaining. Drummer Gary Naples and guitarist Evan Anderson Berry left not long after "Empress/Abscess" hit the shelves, being replaced by Matt Korajczyk and Nate Madden respectively. Bassist John Picillo left in 2019 and hasn't been replaced with Madden doubling up on both four- and six-string guitars. It is good then that Rae Amity has remained as the only constant factor in the band because there is a rounded depth to her ravaged, bellowing shrieks that would be quite difficult for any other singer to replicate. She has a line in controlled fury that is distinctive and powerful and which would put the ineffectual bellowings of many metal tough guys to shame.

Immortal Bird play an amalgam of black and death metal that sounds immediate and confrontational with a suggestion of crusty sludginess that gives the material a further coating of grimy filthiness along with a twist of dissonance for added discomfort. With the five tracks on "Empress/Abscess" only nudging a hair's breadth over thirty minutes there is never any danger of attention wander, although the more timid listener may want to flee and lock themselves in the bathroom. Comfort is not something that Immortal Bird are interested in dishing up, they have a jagged and angular approach to songwriting that will keep you on you toes and which, with other bands, I often struggle. However just when it feels like the band are pushing you to the edge they have an uncanny ability to suddenly drop into a killer riff and sweep you away on a tide of moshpit fury. I get the feeling that the convulsive nature of the songwriting isn't to appear intellectually sophisticated or technically smug, which I feel is the case with some of the acts who write this way, but it is done with the aim of unsettling and disorienting the listener so that when they drop one of those killer riffs it hits all the harder.

So, overall, with a sometimes challenging but always interesting songwriting style, some genuinely exhliharating riffs and one of, if not the, finest female vocalists in all of metal there is plenty here on this short album to keep drawing me back to it time and again. Immortal Bird are one of those bands that I genuinely cannot fathom why they aren't bigger than they are.

4.5/5

Ethereal Tomb – standout track. Nasty sludge goodness.

Fortunate that I spotted that Sonny originally had the wrong song included I guess.

Another great playlist Sonny, ending on the customary funeral doom note. I need to listen to some more Slow (not sure I have heard all the albums).

Graves at Sea are a strange one for me, sometimes the vocals are a bit to much for me.

Both Smote albums from 2025 are really good, and that's another great track selection.

Other picks added to the further listening list: Opium Lord, Ophis, Wildspeaker  and Eternal Rot.

Oh and I'll wait for the album release before another Warning listen. Be good to listen again in the context of the full album, the track here bodes well.

I feel similarly about "Mind Wars" to be honest Vinny. As with Holy Terror's 1987 debut album "Terror & Submission" (which I'd suggest is more of a speed metal record than this one), I come away from it with a middling feeling of mild enjoyment without ever having that the deal has truly been sealed. I do think that "Mind Wars" was a slight improvement on "Terror & Submission", although I've gone with a 3.5 rating for both of them.

Damn, I already rated most of these.  The only ones I haven't rated are the ones I haven't heard yet.

Yeah, me too.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0R0a3qxSe1XkOMxBN6gkwi

1. Deteriorot - "The Bataan Death March" (single, 2026) [submitted by Karl]

2. Immolation - "Attrition" (from "Descent", 2026) [submitted by Vinny]

3. Monstrosity - "Veil of Disillusionment" ( from "Screams from Beneath the Surface", 2026) [submitted by Vinny]

4. Brodequin - "Theresiana" (from "Harbinger of Woe", 2024)

5. Cephalic Carnage - "The Isle of California" (from "Lucid Interval", 2002) [submitted by Sonny]

6. Oppressor - "Genocide" (from "Solstice of Oppression", 1994) [submitted by Karl]

7. Blood Incantation - "Slave Species of the Gods" (from "Hidden History of the Human Race", 2019) [submitted by Vinny]

8. Epitaph - "Engraving the Epitaph" (from "Seeming Salvation", 1992) [submitted by Karl]

9. Intestine Baalism - "Banquet in the Darkness" (from "Banquet in the Darkness", 2003)

10. Gibbeting - "The Cursed Fortress" (from "Execution Rampage", 2026) [submitted by Karl]

11. Discordance Axis - "Radiant Arkham" (from "The Inalienable Dreamless", 2000)

12.Foetorem - "Oozing with Pustulent Fluids" (from "Incongruous Forms of Everlasting Rot", 2026) [submitted by Vinny]

13. Deathwards - "In Death I Become" (from "Towards Death", 2018) [submitted by Sonny]

14. Casket Grinder - "Celestial Devourment" (from "Trip to Oblivion", 2016) [submitted by Karl]

15. Drumcorps - "Cut & Grow" (from "Creatures", 2022)

16. Decapitated - "Mother War" (from "Nihility", 2002) [submitted by Vinny]

17. Wailing - "Crushed by Eons of Inequity" (from "Oracles of Devastation", 2026) [submitted by Karl]

18. Vacuous Depths - "Worshippers of Death" (from "Humiliation", 2022) [submitted by Vinny]

19. Malthusian - "Telluric Tongues (Roaring Into the Earth)" (from "Across Deaths", 2018)

20. Goemagot - "The Ethics of Omnipotence" (from "Eradication of Insignificant Beings", 2013)

21. Fluids - "Humanity Reviled" (from "Not Dark Yet", 2021) [submitted by Vinny]

22. Misery Index - "Plague of Objects" (from "Heirs to Thievery", 2010) [submitted by Sonny]

23. Vital Remains - "Dawn of the Apocalypse" (from "Dawn of the Apocalypse", 2000) [submitted by Karl]

24. Gates of Ishtar - "Where the Winds of Darkness Blow" (from "A Bloodred Path", 1996)

25. War Därmen - "Sector Alpha" (from "Colonization", 2022) [submitted by Karl]

26. Frozen Soul - "Wraith of Death" (from "Crypt of Ice", 2021) [submitted by Vinny]

27. Eye Eater - "Other Planets" (from "Alienate", 2024)

A new month, a new North playlist. It isn't exactly black metal weather here in Ol' Blighty at the minute, but if you do happen to check the playlist out, let me know what you think.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0Sw9mEcyXo1pGyFHR3znLT

1. Zeicrydeus - "Ten Thousand Spears Atop the Bleeding Mountains" (from "La Grande Hérésie", 2025) [submitted by Karl]

2. Khold - "Dødens grøde" (from "Phantom", 2002)

3. Krahnholm - "Scorching Storm" (from "Granting Death", 2018) [submitted by Sonny]

4. Primordial - "Empire Falls" (from "To the Nameless Dead", 2007) [submitted by Vinny]

5. Antaeus - "Devotee" (from "Cut Your Flesh and Worship Satan", 2000) [submitted by Karl]

6. Gorrch - "Vorago" (from "Stillamentum", 2026) [submitted by Vinny]

7. Helheim - "Jormundgand" (from "Jormundgand", 1995) [submitted by Karl]

8. Mist of Misery - "Epitaph of Penitence" (from "Absence", 2016)

9. No Point in Living - "Impatience" (from "The Cold Night", 2017) [submitted by Sonny]

10. Svartkonst - "Death Magic" (from "Black Waves", 2020) [submitted by Vinny]

11. Diabolical Masquerade - "Blackheim's Quest to Bring Back the Stolen Autumn" (from "Ravendusk in My Heart", 1996) [submitted by Karl]

12. Sig:Ar:Tyr - "Helluland" (from "Northern", 2016)

13. Misþyrming - "Ég byggði dyr í eyðimörkinni" (from "Söngvar elds og óreiðu", 2015) [submitted by Sonny]

14. Fire Magic - "Siege of Eternity" (from "Memories of Fire", 2026) [submitted by Vinny]

15. Majestic Mass - "Clandestine Supremacy" (from "Savage Empire of Death", 2018)

16. Graufar - "Buried in Flames" (from "Via Necropolis", 2026) [submitted by Vinny]

17. Xasthur - "Cursed Revelations" (from "Telepathic With the Deceased", 2002)

18. Thyrfing - "The Voyager" (from "Vansinnesvisor", 2002)

19. Crom Dubh - "The Invulnerable Tide" (from "Heimweh", 2015) [submitted by Sonny]

Here is my review:

Formed in 2015 by rhythm guitarist Brandon Corsair (Drawn and Quartered, Draghkar, Azath) Serpent Rider have been in existence for a decade now and following a couple of split releases, a 2021 split with Ezra Brooks and a four-way split in 2022 which featured the two tracks from a 2019 demo, the band's debut full-length album, The Ichor of Chimaera, is finally here. The five-piece play a traditional style of heavy metal that has its roots in the 1980s and USPM bands like Manilla Road and Cirith Ungol, but with the modern sheen and vitality of latter-day acts such as Smoulder and Eternal Champion. I mention those latter two in particular, because, like them, Serpent Rider feature a female vocalist, the splendid R. Villar, and also like to tip their hat to epic doom masters like Candlemass, Solstice and Solitude Aeternus.

The Ichor of Chimaera is an album that is steeped in the traditions of metal and is clearly the product of a band that is well-versed in that world. The riffs are great, from the rip-roaring, nitro-charged gallops of opener "Steel Is the Answer" and "Tyrant's March" to slower, more hulking and ominous doomy slabs such as "The Hero's Spirit". The guitar sound is thick and powerful and the lead breaks often provide some real highlights for me, as lead guitarist Paul Gelbach unleashes some full-blooded, white-hot solos that give the tracks a real keen edge. The five-piece don't shy away from inserting the odd catchy hook here and there either, with the choruses of "Radiant" and "Tyrant's March" refusing to stop bouncing around inside your brain long after the album stops spinning.

Lyrically Serpent Rider stick to the tried and tested formula of epic metal which inhabits the fantasy worlds created by the likes of Moorcock and Robert E. Howard and there is nothing wrong with that, but it is a very safe option to be honest. The vocals, provided by R. Villar are very much suited to the material and are exceedingly well-enunciated with barely a single word being missed, even by my tinnitus-ravaged hearing. She has a very classic-sounding delivery and has a really nice tone, often reminding me in a weird way of Morris Ingram on Solstice's New Dark Age, particularly on "Tyrant's March", a track which does display hallmarks of Rich Walker's phrasing. If I had one misgiving then it would be that sometimes the vocals sound a little bit reedy when pushed up against the thickness and depth of the guitars in full flow, but this is truly a minor niggle.

Kudos must also go to the rhythm section for the sheer depth and power of the band's sound with Brian Verderber basswork and Brandon's riffing combining to devastating effect. Drummer Drake Graves provides a bit more than just time-keeping with some interesting fills and more complex beats than you may expect - the title track for example has a really interesting drum track and is worth paying particular attention to.

I would heartily recommend The Ichor of Chimaera to anyone who has any love for heavy metal in general or epic metal specifically. Well-written and consummately executed this should tick all the boxes for fans of good, old-fashioned, fist-pumping metal. Sure, it doesn't address real-world horrors or the psychological pressures of modern life, but sometimes it is OK to just have a good time and forget about all that shit and at this minute I can't think of many better ways to do it.

4/5

Finland’s Convocation are not exactly new to me, nor are they an artist that I have invested a lot of time with either. I recall trying them once and quickly finding myself distracted and off elsewhere on my to do list soon enough. Not that they necessarily did anything wrong, I usually find that aside from mood as an obvious influence over my enjoyment of a record, some music simply must be listened to from a critical perspective. No Dawn for Caliginous Night Is not background music and nor does it impose itself on the listener intentionally. Simply put, it is so well written, performed and arranged that to attempt to listen to it casually is very near to being an insult to Convocation.

I am a fan of both funeral and death/doom and to date, I do not recall that I have encountered an album that successfully combines the two sub-genres so eloquently. It is rare for the chug of the guitar that we get treated to around the six-minute and forty-second mark of album opener, ‘Graveless yet Dead’ to be present amongst such desolate sadness. Likewise, the poignancy of the melancholy of instrumental track ‘Between Aether and Land’ is uncharted territory across such a blended style of extreme metal.

 If I recall correctly, one of the guys involved in Convocation was (maybe still is) in Desolate Shrine, and I get snippets of their sound throughout this record. The definitively gloomy sound of Finnish funeral and death/doom permeates the record as you would expect. Finland has a proud heritage already in this field and No Dawn for Caliginous Night carries on that fine lineage. With such a well-produced album it is great to hear the rumble of the low end with just as much clarity as the slow-picked guitar notes, with even the harsh vocals receiving a great airing. Listen closely to ‘Lepers and Derelicts’ and appreciate the busy nature of the track as the guitars appear to chime a tune within the track. I have already lost track of how many times I have listened to this album now. Each time I do, I discover or notice something new. As if I needed any excuse to keep coming back, constant discovery is an added boon.

4/5

Made the most of the bank holiday and listened through this playlist today.  I can safely say that I never want to listen to Skyforest again as long as I live and I was a little put off by Fermenting Innards also.  But on the whole I enjoyed this one.  I have started to limit myself to four takeaways a month and my four this time are: Thus Defiled, Beltez, Crurifragium and Fides Inversa.  Agatus would have been ahead of Beltez probably but since "Dawn of Martyrdom" is on feature this month for The North, I will still get to it anyways.

The "obscure" bands still work best for me though Sonny so keep them coming.

Will do. 

I am becoming increasingly frustrated by the fact that so many aren't available on Spotify though. I will have to try a bit harder to promote some of them via reviews etc.

Bethlehem - "Dictius te necare" (1996)

I first encountered Germany's Bethlehem through the mid-90's tape trading scene through their 1993 demo tape & 1994 debut album "Dark Metal" (both of which I quite liked) which led me to track down their sophomore record "Dictius te necare" through the same channels once it hit the shelves. It saw Bethlehem adjusting their sound somewhat, mainly off the back of a lineup change that saw vocalist/keyboardist Andreas Classen (Darkened Nocturn Slaughtercult/Shining) being replaced by new front man Rainer Landfermann (Pavor) whose psychotic howls are the main talking point with this release. The blackened doom metal instrumentation isn't all that different to what we heard on "Dark Metal" but it's the over-the-top theatrics of Landfermann that the clear focal point & will ultimately decide on your reaction to "Dictius te necare" as I think it's fair to say that he's more than a little divisive. He is also the main catalyst for the album's DSBM credentials as he sounds like he's in all sorts of agonizing pain on these seven tracks. Personally, I think the album needs him too as the riffs & single-guitar lineup aren't all that exciting but I do really enjoy the deep, stripped-back atmospheric material that pops up from time to time on most tracks. The doomier material is also where I think Bethlehem are at their best with lengthy closer "Dorn meiner Allmacht" being the clear album highlight in my opinion. I can't subscribe to the general consensus that "Dictius te necare" is some sort of classic release but it's certainly worth a listen for those with a penchant for the doomier & more depressive side of black metal.

For fans of Silencer, Shining & Forgotten Tomb.

3.5/5

Thanks Daniel. I will give it a spin.

Edit: I must have been punch-drunk or some other synonym for fucking stupid yesterday because I thought you were suggesting an album titled "Orphaned Land" from a band called Israel. Luckily I mustn't be as dumb today because I just got out of bed and it popped into my head that you were actually recommending the israeli band Orphaned Land. In the words of a much smarter man than I - Doh!!

I can't remember having listened to them before, but I wil certainly check them out.

It looks like my picks this month have missed the mark, Vinny!! 😉

FALLEN: Candlemass

HORDE: Obituary

NORTH: Mayhem

PIT: Metallica

A good few pick ups from this month's list.  currenty spinning that Argentum album and have Solar Temple and Cabinet lined up for later also.  Good to see Drautran on the list, another band who put out one good record and then went on indefinite hiatus. Even more awesome is the Cirith Gorgor track from one of bm's more underrated albums.  That Misotheist album arrived on vinyl last week and is my bm record of the year so far.

You can't go wrong with Leviathan, ever.  I listened to that Woe track and remembered how great it was and then recalled how I went off the album really quickly (after about three listens), but still can't figure out why.

Not digging Caladan Brood or that Kostnatění track (was a bit too obscure for me and there was a saxophone on one of the tracks which also got an instant skip response.

A quick question: do you enjoy me picking more obscure bands that may not have had too much exposure (I have hundreds), or would you prefer to hear better established acts?

The former, every time.

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

Baphomet released this in 1992 then changed name to Banished to avoid confusion with the german death thrashers of the same name before promptly splitting in 1993. They did reform in 2013, but so what. Luckily they left The Dead Shall Inherit as their legacy and this is a great example of Nineties' death metal that sits between the cavernousness of Autopsy or Asphyx and the brutality of Cannibal Corpse and Suffocation and that really hits the mark for me. There is no technical wizardry or songwriting complexity on show here, this is unadulterated OSDM filthiness and menace that appeals to the animal, not the cerebral. Now that isn't enough for some metalheads I am sure, but when a band does these things right then there isn't much better in the death metal world as far as I am concerned - and Baphomet most definitely do it right here.

4.5/5

Funeral doom does seem to be well-suited for closing tracks on the playlists and it sometimes feels out of place when buried in the middle as it can result in a bit of a flat spot, whereas it gives a suitably mournful atmosphere with which to end when used as a closer.

I am happy to see some love for Ea, as they are one of my favourite funeral doom bands. They are a mysterious bunch though and have never revealed their identities. They sing in a dead Babylonian language that has been recreated by linguistic archaeology and variously claim to be from St. Petersburg in Russia, Wyoming and even Antarctica!

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

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

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

4.5/5

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0Sw9mEcyXo1pGyFHR3znLT

1. Lamentari - "Dies Irae" (from "Missa pro defunctis", 2020)

2. Sorhin - "Misantropi och död" (from "Apokalypsens ängel", 2000) [submitted by Karl]

3. Immortal - "Wrath From Above" (from "Damned in Black", 2000) [submitted by Vinny]

4. Craft - "Kill Everything" (from "Total Soul Rape", 2000) [submitted by Vinny]

5. Morrigan Wargoddess - "Morrigan, Warrior Queen" (from "The Legacy of a Warrior Queen", 2021) [submitted by Sonny]

6. Graveland - "Raise the Swords" (from "Following the Voice of Blood", 1997) [submitted by Karl]

7. Givre - "Louise du Néant (1639-1694)" ( from "Le Cloître", 2024) [submitted by Vinny]

8. Black Witchery - "Ascension of the Obscure Moon" (from "Inferno of Sacred Destruction", 2010) [submitted by Sonny]

9. Left Alone... - "Coldly as Embers Rise" (from "Empty Moment", 2016) [submitted by Sonny]

10. Ancestral Shadows - "Stronghold of the Black Abyss" (from "Wolven Mysteries of Ancient Lore", 2019) [submitted by Karl]

11. Judas Iscariot - "Benevolent Whore, Dethroned for Eternity" (from "Dethroned, Conquered and Forgotten", 2000) [submitted by Vinny]

12. Kriegsmaschine - "None Shall See Redemption" (from "Enemy of Man", 2014) [submitted by Sonny]

13. Ragnarok - "My Hate Is His Spirit" (from "Arising Realm", 1997) [submitted by Karl]

14. Tsjuder - "Daemon's Journey" (from "Kill for Satan", 2000) [submitted by Vinny]

15. Mithotyn - "King of the Distant Forest" (from "King of the Distant Forest", 1998)

16. Blaze of Sorrow - "Ascensione" (from "Eterno Tramonto", 2011) [submitted by Vinny]

17. Lifvsleda - "Fjättrad" (from "Det besegrade lifvet", 2020) [submitted by Karl]

18. Bestial Warlust - "Within the Storm" (from "Blood & Valour", 1995) [submitted by Sonny]

19. Évval - "Alone in November" (from "A Train in Desolation", 2016)

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

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

I didn't get much from this one.  Unfortunately the belicose vocals of Veronica Freeman lack authenticity for me, often sounding forced.  I cannot understand the near spoken word style she adopts for the cover of 'Heaven and Hell', it just seems an odd choice.  The guitars are steady if not unremarkable on Uncreation and I find it hard get anywhere near in the swing of the music , even though it is still clear that they know how to write a song.  The independent/strong female themes are done to death also (and that is coming from someone who is an advocate of such ideals).  Not for me this one.

3/5

Thanks for the votes of confidence guys.

I am in agreement as regards "Tempelschlaf". It is perfectly fine for what it is, but it doesn't feel like classic Ruins of Beverast and I would take earlier albums such as "Exuvia" or "Rain Upon the Impure" over it every time.

I have aleady reviewed this one:

The French have a penchant for popping up at unexpected points in my music library. I mean thrash metal (or more death/thrash in this case) doesn't automatically take one's mind to France when we talk about a European scene, with Germany firmly at the forefront of the genre here. But when I stumbled across Agressor recently I was more than pleasantly surprised.

The mention of Teutonic thrash just now draws some reference to Agressor's sound as they do border on some of the rabid paced thrash of Kreator (for example) during the forty minutes of Neverending Destiny. The album feels like a late eighties thrash album, notwithstanding the big and clunky drawing that adorns the album cover that reminds of the kind of stuff I used to draw on my school books, it oozes that style of the period with the band having been around since 1986. By the time they got aorund to a debut full length they had numerous demos under their belts. They honed their sound to give plenty of weight to the thraashy side of things but as mentioned above there is a massive amount of death metal influence here also which serves to feed that rabid nature that I also have pointed too already.

Reminiscent of the ferocity of Massacra or Merciless who also released great records in the same year, Agressor channeled their efforts into a similar wall of razor sharp riffs and frenzied tempos that rivalled their fellow French and Swedish artists. They could pull a neat solo out the bag too and maintain that rampant pace at the same time. All the while the military sounding drums of Thierry Pinck brought up the levels of intensity to even higher proportions. Alex Colin-Tocquaine's vocals were a raspy and gruff affair full of threat and menace that sat perfectly in the mix here, not drowned by the raging inferno of guitars and drums around them nor at any point stealing the show.

As with most death/thrash records the levels of intensity are as much a gift as they are a curse. The thing that keeps this rating under four stars is the fact that there is very little variation in the album which over eleven tracks becomes a bit of a slog in the long term. That having been said there's enough entertainment here to still make this is a riot to listen through.

3.5/5

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0Sw9mEcyXo1pGyFHR3znLT

1. Burzum - "Feeble Screams from Forests Unknown" (from "Burzum", 1992) [submitted by Karl]

2. Immortal - "The Call of the Wintermoon" (from "Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism", 1992) [submitted by Sonny]

3. Aara - "Zurück zur roten Fluh" (from "Eiger", 2024) [submitted by Vinny]

4. 1349 - "Sculptor of Flesh" (from "Hellfire", 2005) [submitted by Sonny]

5. Thornium - "Emperor of the Carpathians" (from "Dominions of the Eclipse", 1995) [submitted by Karl]

6. No Hand Path - "Βάπτισμα (Baptism)" (from "Μυστικισμός Της Ενηλικίωσης", 2025) [submitted by Vinny]

7. No Point in Living - "Impatience" (from "The Cold Night", 2017}

8. Les Chants de Nihil - "Danse des mort-nés" (from "Le tyran et l'esthète", 2021)

9. Gehenna - "Angelwings and Ravenclaws" (from "First Spell EP", 1994) [submitted by Sonny]

10. Blut Aus Nord - "The Fall Opens the Sky" (from "Ethereal Horizons", 2025) [submitted by Vinny]

11. Malacath - "Eternal Roar of the Thunder and Rain" (from "Eternal Roar of the Thunder and Rain", 2025) [submitted by Karl]

12. Endalok - "Holdgerving andskotans" (from "Úr draumheimi viðurstyggðar", 2017) [submitted by Sonny]

13. Craven Idol - "Iron Age Devastation" (from "Forked Tongues", 2021)

14. Al- Namrood - "Xenophobia" (from "Enkar", 2017}

15. Volahn - "Reencarnación triunfante" (from "Popol Vuh", 2025) [submitted by Vinny]

16. Ildjarn-Nidhogg - "I anmarsj gjennom grangrunn" (from "Svartfråd", 1996) [submitted by Karl]

17. Fuath - "Possessed by Starlight" (from "III", 2026) [submitted by Sonny]

18. Alcest- "Percées de lumière" (from "Écailles de lune", 2020)

Continuing this for 2026:

Inspired by several members' allusions to their own spreadsheet lists, particularly Ben and Daniel, since new year I have been transferring all my ratings into spreadsheet form. I am about halfway through my 6500 or so RYM ratings and it has only now hit me exactly how much I listen to that I either actively dislike or which I find mediocre at best. So another new year resolution is to try to actively seek out better music to listen to and stop wasting my time on crap.

In addition to this, it has become apparent to me that some of my higher ratings, particularly ones I have had for a long time, are as much based on nostalgia, memories and emotion as much as on actual quality and I have forgiven flaws in some of these older albums that I wouldn't have to releases with lesser personal relevance. In the interests of fairness then, I intend to re-evaluate a lot of my long-standing higher ratings, based purely on musical quality and not emotional redolence, over the coming months, so expect to see a shift in the scores of some of my significant ratings soon.

I've decided to resurrect this thread, but this time only include albums that were out so far this century, inspired by this video:

So here are my top albums for each year of the new century (including the year 2000):

2000: Eighteen Visions - Until the Ink Runs Out

2001: Converge - Jane Doe

2002: Killswitch Engage - Alive or Just Breathing

2003: Kayo Dot - Choirs of the Eye

2004: Unearth - The Oncoming Storm

2005: Trivium - Ascendancy

2006: Mercenary - The Hours That Remain

2007: Becoming the Archetype - The Physics of Fire

2008: All That Remains - Overcome

2009: Trail of Tears - Bloodstained Endurance

2010: High on Fire - Snakes for the Divine

2011: Trivium - In Waves

2012: Make Them Suffer - Neverbloom

2013: Northlane - Singularity

2014: Beartooth - Disgusting

2015: Intronaut - The Direction of Last Things

2016: Insomnium - Winter's Gate

2017: Unleash the Archers - Apex

2018: Ice Nine Kills - The Silver Scream

2019: Shadow of Intent - Melancholy

2020: Code Orange - Underneath

2021: Trivium - In the Court of the Dragon

2022: Lorna Shore - Pain Remains

2023: Mutoid Man - Mutants

2024: Ryujin - Ryujin

2025: Lorna Shore - I Feel the Everblack Festering Within Me

Initially, I dismissed this album when pulling together my list of bm releases for last year. In hindsight, I think I was having a bad black metal day and was far too dismissive of this album, basing my distaste solely on the clean vocals that are at best occasional across the track listing. Having spent much more time with Existenialismus over the past week, there have been times when I have considered whether I missed a hidden gem in my haste to expunge the album from my listing. That is not to say that I don’t still have challenges with the cleaner elements that can appear quite amateurish (‘Truth is as Sharp a Sword as Vengeance’ being the main bug bear I have), however whilst they do peg the rating back somewhat, it is more than a little dramatic of me to dismiss the album outright on the basis of their existence alone.

The fact remains that Abduction are a fantastic modern sounding black metal band. The record strays well into territory already occupied by the likes of Mgla, Gaerea and even the chaotic black/death of Grave Miasma. With all these acts being brought to mind whilst listening to Existentialismus. The Derby outfit (appears to be one main member and some guest/session musicians on this album) put in an accomplished performance, sounding like a band who have been at it for a decade or so who have used that time to hone the listeners experience of them. I could not go as far as to call Existentialismus perfect, but it is still a treat of black metal extremity.

Able to apply melody and at times subtle groove (‘Blau ist di Farbe der Ewigkeit’) to the riffs on the album alongside wonderfully squally tremolos shows versatility in the kit bag. Whilst the cleaner sounding aspects do still alienate me, their appeal to fans of the lighter sounds of the genre is not lost on me either. With tracks like ‘Razors of Occam’ leaning into BAN territory, Abduction keep stretching their legs right until the album’s final, and best track, ‘Vomiting at Baalbek’. If more of the tracks sounded like this one the rating here would be even higher.

4/5

Like its predecessor, Lead and Aether has proven a great accompaniment on winter walks this weekend as the northwest of England sees its first snow of the season. That is not to say that this is a cold sounding record by any means, in fact I find the exact opposite experience to the record. To me this is the sickening warmth of a hug from the arms of death itself. It is comforting to witness, how I imagine the release of all worry, stress and adversity of life would feel at the very moment of conscious expiry of one’s existence. Far from finding the funereal keys and monolithic melodies oppressive, I take a great solace from this album, therefore.

This record plays as an instrumental in my head, the vocals are so low in the mix, consciously so I would guess, that I am almost ignorant them for much of the album. Normally I would find this as a negative point, a key missing feature almost, but here I think it works perfectly. Good funeral doom to me is about letting the music build the aesthetic and atmospheres, the vocals are just a complementary element in comparison. Equally, I think Skepticism got the placement of the drums correct here. Whilst not as absent from my mind as the vocals are, the drums provide the very definition of a subtle supporting role here. How many bands can say that they have successfully used drums o create space and atmosphere on a record?

There is always a danger that with such a minimalist approach to music, particularly extreme genres like this, that the recording can end up sounding amateur. I would argue that the opposite is in fact true here. This sounds like a thoroughly professional album, composed with care and thought for overall arrangement. Maintaining that gloomy warmth for me over the entire album duration is a real win here, but there are a couple of moments where tracks seem to end up a little disjointed (album closer, ‘Aether’ stands out for this) which just takes the perfect score aware from an otherwise brilliant release.

4.5/5

Thanks Vinny, I really appreciate the feedback. I feel obliged (as with all the playlists that I compile) to include some sub-genres that I am not the biggest fan of. With the North this is often the symphonic, black 'n' roll and folk metal entries, although I have found stuff to enjoy in each of those too. I also think it adds some variety and acts as a nice illustration of the breadth of material within the North. 

I will also try to supply more commentary on each playlist going forward.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2rSh9MnfQo9HmPLo2W5MBa

A happy new year to all the Fallen playlist listeners. May doom and gloom reside only in your listening habits during the coming year.

1. My Dying Bride – “Your River” (from “Turn Loose the Swans”, 1993) [submitted by dk]

2. Khemmis - "Bloodletting" (from "Desolation", 2018)

3. Sleep - "Marijuanaut's" (from "The Sciences", 2018) [submitted by Vinny]

4. Wren - "Scorched Hinds" (from "Black Rain Falls", 2025) [submitted by Vinny]

5. Chrch - "Portals" (from "Light Will Consume Us All", 2018) [submitted by Sonny]

6. Primitve Man - "Devotion" (from "Observance", 2025) [submitted by Vinny]

7. Paul Chain Violet Theatre - "17 Day" (from "Detaching From Satan", 1984) [submitted by Sonny]

8. Black Sheep Wall – “Ren” (from “Songs for the Enamel Queen”, 2021) [submitted by dk]

9. Heteropsy - "Memento Mori" (from "Embalming", 2025) [submitted by Vinny]

10. Age of Taurus – “Sinking City” (from “Desperate Souls of Tortured Times”, 2013) [submitted by dk]

11. The Answer Lies in the Black Void - "Sine Morbo" (from "Transcendental", 2025) [submitted by Vinny]

12. Salome - "White Tides" (from "Salome", 2008) [submitted by dk]

13. BlackLab - "Monochrome Rainbow" (from "In a Bizarre Dream", 2022)

14. Atavist - "Loss" (from "III: Absolution", 2020) [submitted by Sonny]