Much like that weird week between Christmas and New Year’s where time doesn’t exist, there’s a similar fugue in the new year when it comes to reviewing albums at the end of the year/start of the year. We have plenty of 2026 releases to cover, but the tail end of 2025 still saw plenty of […]

After dropping not one, but two albums in 2024, including Graveworms, Cadavers, Coffins and Bones, Sweden’s Carnal Savagery elevated their status in the Swedish death metal ranks from being merely productive and OK, to a solid second-tier act. Especially as the increased Autopsy stench was far more prevalent on the last few efforts amid the […]

You are familiar with the expectations vs. reality memes, right? Here’s one for you: Expectations: Promos sheet that teased brutal death metal like Suffocation and Immolation, with added cinematic atmospheres, keyboards, and tales of brutal torture and serial killers, or specifically ‘a blood-soaked manifesto of riffs, madness, and horror, dragging the listener into a world […]

It’s been 10 years since I last heard the Chicago Black metal act Withering Soul. It was 2015’s Adverse Portrait, where the band delivered a far more aggressive and improved take on symphonic black metal, and dropped some of the more gothic/November’s Doom influences from the 2011 debut, No Closure. Now, I have not heard […]

There was some fine symphonic/melodic black metal towards the end of 2025 (Argesk, Mystic Circle, Maahes, Achathras, Rotting Demise, Gjallarhorn’s Wrath, etc), and as 2026 starts, there is still a trickle of excellent releases in the style that need your attention from 2025, like WitcherR‘s Öröklét or this effort from Haimad. A few years ago, […]

Back in 2022, I reviewed the solid third album, Lélekharang, from the Hungarian duo, WitcheR (not based on the Andrzej Sapkowski books or Henry Cavill show). It was a very well done style of Summoning-ish styled atmospheric black metal, focusing on more doomy, and moody pacing, complete with programmed drums and tinny guitars, just like […]

Here is salvo number 5 from Chicago’s Blood of the Wolf (with members of Withering Soul and Kommandant), and like 2022’s IV: The Declaration of War Eternal, and 2018’s II: Campaign of Extermination before it (I missed the EP III: Blood Legend), it’s a ripper of Midwest Blackened/death/war metal. At 31 minutes, Indomitable does not fuck […]

2025 has seen some excellent symphonic black metal, especially later on in the year, with releases from Old Machines, Gjallahorn’s Wrath, Maahes, Carach Angren, Argesk, Mystic Circle, Rotting Demise, Labyrinthus Stellarum, Mourniaty, Achathras, Execrari, Deconstruction Sequence, Haimad, and Withering Soul.  Add the third album from the Netherlands’ one-man (J.M.K.P) act, The Gloomy Radiance of the Sun. This […]

The internet told me Orm (‘serpent’) was an epic/atmospheric black metal band from Denmark that sang about Norse Mythology. Sign me up! The internet also told me they are/were known for sprawling 25-minute songs, but apparently they returned to the shorter songs of their 2017 self-titled debut on Guld, their 4th album. So how do […]

The 2022 debut from this Chicago-based neoclassical melodic death metal act, Rex Mortem, was a fine example of a blind promo grab and review, and added to that year’s melodic death metal revival. So I have been eagerly awaiting a follow-up. And here it is. For those unfamiliar, the band began as a more metalcore/progressive […]

Finnish Power Metal act, Battle Beast, announced yesterday that Noora Louhima will be leaving the band after 13 years and 6 albums. A new singer Marina La Torraca, was quickly announced: “Battle Beast and Noora Louhimo Part Ways After 13 Years After six albums and 13 incredible years together, we announce that Noora Louhimo is […]

If you, like me, were just a tad underwhelmed with Binah’s recent comeback effort, Onkos, (especially after an 8-year wait). I might have a bit of a stand-in album for you. Heteropsy is the side project of Japan’s Frostvore, who released one of the better Swedish/HM2 death metal homages in 2020s, Drowned In Blood. They […]

I’ll confidently put Binah’s debut Hallucinating in Resurrecture as one of the best albums in the Swedish death metal revival of the last 10-15 years, up there with the likes of Entrails’ first few efforts, Disfuneral, Abscession, Necrom, Horrendous, and Demonical’s albums, and a slew of others. However, the follow-up, Phobiate, must not have resonated […]

Occasionally, believe it or not, I listen to things other than deathcore, death metal, or symphonic black metal. Yep- even I have to have a palate cleanser or reset or guilty pleasure, or whatever you want to call it. And for me, it’s super cheesy power metal. And not normal power metal- I fall hard […]

When it comes to regional, geographical sounds and styles in metal, except maybe Stockholm, I don’t think there is any more distinct and recognizable sound than the New Orleans/Louisiana sound; Crowbar, Down, Eyehategod, Thou, Soilent Green, Acid Bath, Goatwhore, etc. That swampy, moist, fuzzy sound. You know it. So when I got a promo for […]

So I wrote a draft of a review for Last Retch‘s Abject Cruelty, but decided to let fellow scribe J Mays handle it. But I still gave that album lots of spins. So, when I got the promo for Montreal’s Scorching Tomb, also a Canadian death metal band on the Italian label Time To Kill […]

Argesk is a symphonic black metal band hailing from Manchester, England, and they should be on you radar if you are a fan of one of the UK’s more prominent bands in the genre, Hecate Enthroned, as Argesk features former Hecate drummer Bob Kendrick, who played on lauded albums such as Redimus, Kings Of Chaos, Dark […]

Hailing from the Netherlands, Terzij De Horde (loosely meaning ‘away from the horde’), is a veteran black metal band that has been around since 2010 with a slew of singles, EPs, splits, and two full-length albums up until this point. However, this album, their third, is the first time I have heard them. But will […]

I don’t know what you expect from a new band comprised of three former and founding Amon Amarth members: Anders Biazzi (whom I am very familiar with in projects like Gods Forsaken, Just Before Dawn, and Blood Mortized), Niko Kaukinen, and Fredrik Andersson. Then throw in session bassist  Tobias Cristiansson (Necrophobic, Grave, Dismember, etc) Power Metal? Deathcore? Prog Rock? […]

Some pretty good black/death metal has come out this year and last year: Imperishable, Hate, Keres, Black Hole Deity, Chaos Inception, Patristic, Nekodeus, and Proscription, to name a few. But the debut from this international project with members of  Drowstorm, Vahrzaw, Vintertodt, Burden of Ymir, Calling of Phasmic Presence (none of which I am familiar […]

In psychology, the term ‘Shadow Work’ is used to describe the process of exploring the unconscious reasons behind your feelings or behaviors, particularly uncomfortable emotions that seem out of character or beyond your control. Like, “Why do I hate my co-worker?”?. Yay! I finally used my college degree. So what is Despised Icon trying to […]

If you were a fan of Germany’s Rotting Demise and their 2023 self-released debut, My Whole Wrath, you might be in for a bit of a shock for the follow-up, The Unholy Veil of Silence, also self-released. Not a bad thing, but the band’s style of chuggy, sometimes Bolt Thrower-y death metal has all but […]

Long Island’s Internal Bleeding has been through it; from arguably being one of the progenitors of ‘slam’ death metal with their first two albums, (featuring our own Frank Rini on vocals) then mixing even more hardcore elements, which seemed to divide fans, then lots of member turnover, label jumping, a 10 year hiatus where they […]

I don’t know anyone who just ‘sorta likes’ Sabaton. They seem to be one of those ‘love it’ or ‘hate it’ bands that truly divide heavy metal fans. Personally, since I heard “Winged Hussars” back in 2016 from The Last Stand ( still my favorite Sabaton album), I have fallen on the ‘love it’ side. Unashamedly […]

There has been some excellent symphonic black metal released this fall: Old Machines, Gjallahorn’s Wrath, Maahes, Carach Angren, Argesk, Mystic Circle, Rotting Demise, Mourniaty, The Gloomy Radiance of the Moon, Echoes of Gloom, Execrari, and Withering Soul.  But if you want something that truly and authentically imbues the 90s nostalgic spirit and sound of Emperor, Gehenna, Ancient, […]