Sonny's Reviews
We are all able to experience, to some small extent, the seemingly endless Siberian winter and it's snow and ice thanks to this impressive slice of russian atmo-black from duo Grima. Strong songs and nice pacing, with a couple of gentle interludes that end each of the album's two halves. Good stuff.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
Beginning with a comparitively gentle instrumental intro, the album then launches into it's ultra-heavy, doom-laden sludge, throbbing with menace, but also somehow managing to convey a sense of hope as it does. It's dual clean / harsh vocals, complex, though crushing instrumentation and esoteric lyrical themes make me believe this is the sort of album bands like Mastodon wish they could make.
Genres: Doom Metal Sludge Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
This is fundamentalist, doom metal orthodoxy, stripped down to it's absolute essence and yes, indeed, purified by the excision of any extraneous influences to leave exposed a doomed, yet defiant, soul.
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
This is a quite stunning debut album from Poland's Rosk. It's fifty minutes comprises four tracks of progressive blackened sludge that exhibit an impressive songwriting maturity that takes most bands many releases to achieve. Likewise, the musicianship is impeccable and their sound is very satisfying, with the faster sections presenting a huge wall-of-sound, yet it is still possible to hear all the elements and nothing is swamped. The quieter parts are crisp and clear and the whole has been expertly produced. Overall, an excellent addition to the progressive extreme metal canon.
Genres: Black Metal Sludge Metal Post-Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2017
These atmospheric epics have a cinematic feel to them like the soundtrack to a black metal Lord of the Rings.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2016
A.S.M., or Antichrist Siege Machine to give them their full name, as you may suspect from a band with a name like that, play blasphemous and unholy-sounding war metal, coughed up from the darkest depths of the abyss. It's quite loose-sounding for war metal, with a heavy influence from late old-school death metal, but it sounds filthy as hell.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
I must admit that about halfway through the first track, Promise of the Polis, I was thinking "oh no, another unlistenable pile of 'dissonant' shite". But after that initial blitzkrieg, it settles down to be a very solid album of edgy black metal with dissonant elements. There are some great riffs further in and the drumming, in particular, is impressive throughout. I found myself getting more and more into it as the album progressed and on second listen even the opener didn't seem quite as much of a racket as it did first time through.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
A sublime blend of black, death and doom metal that makes for a varied and textured release, all bound together by those eerie, disembodied, blackened growls. It's an interesting time to be an extreme metal fan at the moment, with the blurring of the lines between the various extreme genres and the ever-increasing maturity of the song-writing that's giving us some great albums, of which this is a particularly fine example.
Genres: Black Metal Death Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2017
An album of thoroughly modern, albeit old-school, black metal that explores the concept of Be’er Shachat (Pit of Corruption), the idea that we live a cyclical existence of destruction, purification and rebirth. This is a strong release that illustrates exactly what BM is about at this point of it's development, whilst still allowing it's origins to be heard.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
Mizmor's exploration of the existential conundrum that is man's insistence on trying to impose meaning on an existence that is ultimately meaningless, manifests itself as a suitably angst-ridden and hopeless-sounding miasma of blackened sludginess. Sheer futility exudes from the grooves of the record, the weight crushing out all lightness from the album's sound and sending the listener to the place occupied by the cover's hooded figure as it reflects endlessly on this soul-sapping paradox.
Genres: Doom Metal Sludge Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
Devil Master's debut full-length album sees them rip through thirteen tracks of blackened thrash-punk brimming over with vitality, aggression and horror.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
Really enjoyable blackened metal that, above all else, reminds us that metal can actually be fun to listen to!
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
By now everyone knows the story of the implosion of Батюшка [Batushka] and the ridiculous situation of two iterations of the band releasing albums close together. To be honest, to me, that's just so much bullshit that belongs in the pages of some worthless metal rag - what's really important is the music. Litourgiya was a refreshingly original release in the black metal world with it's combination of BM and liturgical chants, but now we have two interpretations of how this idea evolves. This, Krzysztof Drabikowski's version, takes the route of a greater emphasis on the metal aspect and incorporating the chants in a more subtle way. The result is a mighty fine melodic black metal album in a more orthodox sense, the chanting adding an additional dimension to the sound. Although I love the original album, this is a very good follow-up and should appeal to anyone who did enjoy Litourgiya (and loves melodic BM in general).
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
A riotously noisy blend of black, industrial and noise metal that is guaranteed to get your neighbours banging on the walls - although you're unlikely to notice!
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2018
Elegy sees Dead to a Dying World weaving beautifully atmospheric tales from the darkside, blending black metal with post-rock and even doom metal elements. The layers of sound include Hammond organ, Eva Vonne's viola and several guest musicians, including the cello of Tim Duffield, Thor Harris on percussion and several guest vocalists - in addition to the dual male/female vocals of Mike Yeager and Heidi Moore, Bell Witch's Dylan Desmond, Swans' Jarboe and Emil Rapstine of The Angelus all make vocal contributions.
Genres: Post-Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
The occult doom vibe of the debut has gone along with the departure of ex-Cathedral stalwart Gaz Jennings, to be replaced by a more hard rock oriented traditional metal sound. Luckily it's still a quality set of tunes on offer, and Johanna's vocals are still great.
Genres: Heavy Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2018
What a gorgeously crafted album of atmospheric black metal. The three tracks on offer here, blend atmo-black with elements of dark folk, post-metal and doom into an utterly heart-breaking cry from the soul for times, people or places long gone.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
Witchsorrow are nothing if not consistent. Anyone familiar with the band will know what to expect from this, their fourth album, Hexenhammer. For the rest of you, they are a no-bullshit british doom metal band that are almost fundamentalist in their adherence to the basic tenets of doom. After a few listens I would probably have to say this is my favourite, feeling just a bit more dynamic than their previous releases.
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2018
Witchsorrow are a band who make no-frills English Doom Metal and make no apologies for doing so, in the manner of a doom metal Motorhead. I'm sure this makes them the bane of a lot of modern metal fans, but it also garners them a small, but loyal, following. Sure this album isn't noticeably different to either of the previous two, but I'm sure they don't care (and neither do I) so more power to 'em!
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2015
I was a fan of Green Lung's Free the Witch ep, but this is a step up - a really assured debut full-length from a band who are obviously learning quickly. This is from the lighter end of the stoner doom spectrum, with it's quaint woodland imagery and more obvious hard rock influence, but don't be deceived, it still kicks as much ass as you could want!
Genres: Doom Metal Stoner Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
An album of stonerized thrash metal that isn't bad on the stoner front, but the thrashing just doesn't convince, the aggression has been blunted if you will! Still, it's got a lot of people buzzing, so maybe it's just me.
Genres: Stoner Metal Thrash Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
A decent black metal album that certainly isn't breaking any new ground, but what it does, it does quite well. Unlikely to stand out particularly from the mass of black metal released this year.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
Apparently this is the first of the band's albums to be recorded by Colin Marston and while it is undeniably an album of quality atmo-black compositions, I have reservations about the polishing of the band's sound which has toned down the urgency of the music and resulting in, for me, an album that feels a bit neutered.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
An album of Post-Rock inflected Atmospheric Black that has a little more going on than a lot of their contemporaries. Veering from melancholic to discordant to blisteringly heavy, this is sufficiently interesting to stand out in the crowded scene of nature-themed black metal releases and, for me, is the band's best album.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2017
Four tracks of thundering blackened doom with a real vitality, getting under the skin and taking hold like an itch you can't scratch.
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
This is DoG's fifth album and is an exploration of the philosophical idea that it is the finite nature of life that makes it worth living. This takes the musical form of atmospheric black metal in the vein of Saor or Winterfylleth. It's blasting is often counterbalanced by gentle, calming sections of acoustic recuperation before once more launching into their pummelling attack. The songs are nicely structured so that neither form overpowers the other and exist in a kind of balance, possibly representative of life itself.
Genres: Black Metal Post-Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
It's a great time for fans of female-fronted heavy, psychedelic metal. MWWB are another brilliant band ploughing this furrow. Jessica Ball's dream-like voice soars over the density of the heavy riffs and the Hawkwind-style, spacey electronics. Atmospheric doom of a very high calibre indeed.
Genres: Doom Metal Sludge Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
One of my favourite bands, that no one has heard of, is back with a hefty double LP of their trademark anarchic and demented stoner metal. There's a good variety of material on offer here, short, catchy and aggressive punky numbers, longer, almost doom-y tracks, heavy psychedelia, gentle acoustic breaks and some killer incendiary guitar solos. If you're unfamiliar with the band (and unfortunately most people are) then this is a great place to start. If you want to hear some good-time, crazed and energetic stoner metal that'll get you're feet tapping and your head nodding then give these guys a listen.
Genres: Stoner Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
Heavily influenced by late eighties/early nineties Slayer (even down to the Hanneman-esque squealing solos) this ain't a bad dose of retro-thrash at all. The problem, of course, is in trying to emulate such legends, they are inevitably bound to come up short. Still, there's no harm in trying!
Genres: Thrash Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2018
The banner of thrash metal still flies high over the southern half of the Americas and nowhere more so than Chile. Sins of the Damned are another in an increasingly long line of kick-ass Latin thrashers that are showing the rest of the world how to keep thrash fresh and exciting. With song titles like They Fall and Never Rise Again, Take the Weapons and Victims of Hate, the band rip through the album's seven tracks in 37 minutes of frenzied, yet focussed mayhem that allow you to travel back in time to the late 80's heyday even if only for a just over half an hour.
Genres: Thrash Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
This, the latest album from one of the leaders of the currently in vogue space black metal movement, is another terrific slice of atmospheric music, so suiting to accompanying a flyby of the solar system that if it had been out thirty-odd years ago then they would have had Voyager I playing it as it went off on it's journey to the outer reaches!
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
Despite the demo-quality sound of the recording (or maybe because of it), this manages to be both atmospheric and exceedingly heavy Sludge / Doom Metal that laid the groundwork for their brilliant 2017 debut full-length, Cosmic Doom Ritual.
Genres: Doom Metal Sludge Metal
Format: EP
Year: 2015
Gorge are a sludge / doom band from Connecticut who sing about the bloody and distant history of the North American continent. This tale of the earliest migrants into Alaska via the eponymous ancient land bridge from Eurasia is their first full-length release and, with a flash of inspiration, was recorded live deep within the heart of the Tariffville gorge. This has given the album a unique atmosphere, the sheer titanic enormity and timelessness of this geographical feature has lent it's gravitas to the crushingly huge riffs of the music these three delvers into prehistory have spewed forth like primordial lava oozing from the seas to form continents. A genuinely impressive debut release and one of the heaviest albums of 2019.
Genres: Doom Metal Sludge Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
Despite forming in 2009, these French doomsters have only now in 2019 released their first full-length album. Presumably they have spent the previous decade honing their song-writing skills because these are not songs written by fresh-faced, naive young musicians. These, instead, are carefully crafted and expertly performed, with their ambitious vision of blackened death doom producing songs of variation and complexity on a level with any Tarkus or Close to the Edge of yesterday's prog visionaries. The albums layout is very symmetrical (intentionally or not, I don't know), the central third track and metaphorical eye of the storm is a gentle acoustic piece that provides a soothing respite from the intensity of the rest of the album. Second and fourth tracks, Embers and The Downward Stream respectively are both ten minute pummellers, that incorporate elements of dissonance into their death doom vibe that owes much to the icelandic BM scene. The opener, Smouldering Darkness and closing track Monolithe both weigh in around the twenty minute mark. These two tracks, however, are no monotonous lumbering beasts, but are vital and complex in their structure as the band forge their entire sonic arsenal into a couple of hugely satisfying and impressive epics. The album as a whole flows superbly well and has an almost narrative feel to it, as if illustrating a particularly profound tale.
As a side note, the digital version is inexplicably "Name Your Price" on Bandcamp, so no-one has an excuse for not owning a copy!
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
Sabbathian riffs and 70's classic hard rock combine on this, Magic Circle's third album. One of the most Zeppelin-influenced doom albums I've heard - check out the No Quarter-like organ of Gone Again and the Bron-Yr-Aur clone Bird City Blues. Vocalist Brendan Radigan sounds like a hybrid of Ozzy and Dio, making this a must for Sabbath fans of both eras. A solid, well-executed trad doom release.
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
Melo-death-thrash that sounds like Vader run through a 90's-thrash filter. No bad thing in my book and I've heard a lot worse in recent times.
Genres: Thrash Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2018
This cracking slab of historical black metal is, surprisingly, only just now seeing the light of day despite being recorded way back in 2010. I don't know why this would be, but it certainly isn't because of any lack of quality. It catalogues the fall and rise of Napoleon Bonaparte, a tale that undoubtedly has a kind of affinity with black metal sensibilities. The music is both ascerbic and melodic, dealing up just over half an hour of synth-enhanced imperialistic savagery and majesty.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
This is one of two terrific thrash albums released on the same day, Kreator's Gods of Violence being the other, when usually we're lucky to get two in the same month. This harks back to those heady post- Reign in Blood days of the latter half of the 80's when a few thrash bands were beginning to evolve an even harsher, more brutal sound that would eventually mutate into death metal. I haven't followed the modern thrash scene too closely in recent times, but if this is indicative of what's on offer it's now time to return in earnest.
Genres: Thrash Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2016
Another of the early nineties classic down 'n' filthy death doom albums. Super-downtuned, bordering on subsonic with one of the most guttural growlers in death metal. Winter, Autopsy, Cianide, Rippikoulu, Ceremonium - great times indeed!
Genres: Death Metal Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 1994
Five tracks of blackgaze that triggers emotions of hope tinged with melancholy. Feels like when someone is undertaking a new stage in their life, filled with optimism yet thinking of a lost loved one and wishing they could share the experience with them - wistful black metal.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019