So I thought I’d dig back into Jungle Rot, or as I like to call them, ‘America’s Benediction‘, and see what they were up to, and unsurprisingly, they still sound exactly the same as they did the last time I heard them.

Now, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Bolt Thrower, Dismember, Deicide, Benediction, Suffocation, etc.– all made careers releasing albums that didn’t move the needle at all, but they were just really good. Certainly, Jungle Rot isn’t in that category, but you have to hand it to them – they are consistent.

Sometimes, you are just in the mood for meat-and-potatoes, war-mongering death metal, and while that term is either overused or a bit of a slight, it fits the 11 songs here perfectly. If you’ve heard any Jungle Rot album from the last two decades, you know exactly what you are getting.

It’s generally mid-paced and groovy (“Manaical”, “Radicalized”, “When the Elders Rise”, “Hollow Husk”- which actually might be one of the best songs they have penned) with a few faster tracks (“Apocalyptic Dawn”, “Suffer in Silence”),  Dave Matrice has a decipherable growl, the Dan Swano master is nice and beefy, and overall, there are some chunky, enjoyable riffs here and there.

And you think my Benediction comparison is lazy and or cheap (or both) – Dave Ingram appears on “Horrors Vile”, and check out the riffs for the title track or “Blade of Betrayal”, and tell me those aren’t pure Benediction riffs. I’ll wait. And thats Ok, how many Suffocation, Dismember, and Cannibal Corpse clones are there? There’s a place for it, and if you enjoy it, go for it.

And while I personally sort of enjoyed Cruel Face of War. I can’t say I’ll be coming back to it anytime soon, or rush out to buy the CD. But if I saw it used in a few years, I’d grab it to add to my Jungle Rot collection, and throw it on every so often for some no frills, meat and potatoes death metal, as here, the descriptor is 100 percent spot on.

Starting with what appears to be the sounds of the troublemakers adorning the cover, “Bathing in Entrails” gets going a minute into things. My buddy, Tim King (Oppressor/Soil), sounds as killer as ever, maybe even a little more powerful on this. I did mention on their last album, Origins of the Deformed, production issues, specifically the exceedingly high drum volume. The drums are still a bit too loud; however, improvements to the overall mix, with an increase in the guitar tone and volume, make for a better balance. The song is over before it’s started, pretty much just bent on beating you to death.

“Zombified Infants of Roswell” is more of a mid-paced cruncher, and the song slays. Some excellent guitar harmonies are happening, with Scott Roberts laying waste to some killer riffs. Marco Fimbres allows for some killer drum galloping throughout, and the song has quite an old-school flair with some well-timed drum fills. Kenxi’s bass is flip-flopping, and I catch some plucking madness going on. Tim’s vocals sound filthy, brutal, and, quite honestly, I think this is the most brutal he has ever sounded on any recording. We get a little guitar solo tossed in to boot. All in all, this is one of the best songs the band has ever written. This song must be in their live set, especially with that hopping groove towards the end.

“Beheading the Infertile Surrogate” starts so stupidly brutal you’d better lower that headset. Holy Smokes! Again, Tim, sounds like he is picking up a body and slamming it to the ground over and over and over again! Stunningly vicious, this song will rip your liver out. The overly guttural tones are actually catchy, and that can be difficult with brutal, guttural death metal.

The title track ends this brutal offering with a clever intro of sorts, as it tells us the story of what is going on. The guitar riffing comes in, with this slow opening number, and there is a lot of ambience to the track. The monstrous double bass drums hit ever so often, with Tim bellowing, like he is one of the mutated. Excellent guitar harmonies are also present on this song. This song is a really good closer as it ties the entire album together. I was kind of glad this song let me breathe a little more, since all the prior songs are intense.

Rise of the Mutated beats their last album by quite a bit. I still would like the drums scaled back some, as they were perfectly mixed on the monstrous debut – Prophecies of the Conjoined. However, the mix and production are thankfully better than the last album. Embryonic Autopsy has increased its writing skills to coincide with the increase in brutality. The band is currently overseas touring with Six Feet Under, and as brutal and bludgeoning goes, Embryonic Autopsy has brought it once again. Awesome brutality!

But then nothing for 5 years, other than an instrumental digital-only EP and a single. But, as the saying goes, good things come to those who wait. And now on newly formed German label, Vesperian, and again produced/mixed by Arioch from Secrets of the Moon, I’m happy to report that The Nocturnes of Iswylm is indeed worth the wait, as the band continues on thier D & D inspired journey, and this time gets even more adventurous and confident.

As with the debut album, the band is still locked into 90s symphonic black metal with the usual suspects like Dimmu Borgir, Arcturus, Old Man’s Child, Abigor, and Emperor (heck, even the back panel of the album mirrors Emperor’s Nightside) as the base, and certainly at times, the development of the songs here mirrors Emperor’s growth from Into the Nightside Eclipse to Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk and IX Equilibrium, with shades of more progressive, controlled and adventurous song writing interplaying with the symphonic metal bombast.

Clear examples of this can be heard on “Saccharine Subjugation” and surprisingly restrained”Imperious Sanguine Eroticism”, where Otheyn Vermithrax delivers some Ihsahn-ish croons (which also appear on closer “The Ballad of a Fallen Star”).

But for the most part, the songs are classically inspired symphonic black metal, like “The Black Dragons of  Iswylm”, which has a pure mid-era Dimmu stomp or the Ancient – ish canter of “Echoes in the Vasts of Sequestration”. The more furious “Carnal Tapestries of Nailtorn Flesh” covers all the bases and inspirations, including a little thrashing Cradle of Filth, into the album’s most direct track.

And there may even be hints of power metal, just with harsh vocals – for example, the opener “The Taste of Immortal Blood”. That’s a power metal chorus right there.

As the rangy and varied 9 and a half minute closer “Ballad of a Fallen Star” wraps up the album, I’m left impressed, but I prefer the more classic keyboard style from the debut, and I’m still wishing the band would write those one or two genre or career-defining songs. All the songs are great, but they need that “Progenies of the Great Apocalypse”, or “Inno A Satana”, to cement their legacy a little more (I will say, “The Seer” from the last album is really close).

Hopefully, we won’t have to wait 5 years to get it on the all-important third album.

Japanese metal pioneers Sigh are back today with news of their new album ‘Goh-ka’; a new highlight of atmosphere, technical mastery, and meticulously arranged epics of metallic grandeur. Main-man Mirai Kawashima notes this as being as equally personal an album as ‘Shiki’, both musically and lyrically. From a musical perspective, if you were to place the main ingredients of Celtic Frost, Voivod, Black Sabbath, horror movies and Japan into a cauldron and stir it, you will get ‘Goh-ka’. Numerous additional spices such as psychedelic rock, prog rock and classical music are also evident over the album’s close to one-hour duration.

The album title ‘Goh-ka’ has a triple meaning, being: 業火 infernal fire scorching sinners, 劫火 a huge fire that burns down the world at the end of time, and 業果 karma.
The primary theme permeating the album is Kuso-zu; a series of Buddhist paintings or illustrations depicting the nine stages of a human body’s decomposition after death, created to encourage meditation on the impermanence of life, the inevitability of death, and the detachment from physical beauty and worldly attachment. It openly shows the harsh reality that no matter how beautiful you are, you’ll be dead and rot sooner or later. And Kuso-shi is a poem based on these paintings. The artworks on the cover and in the booklet of ‘Goh-ka’ are therefore Kuso-zu themselves.

Joining Mirai Kawashima and Dr Mikannibal along with guitarist Nozomu Wakai, are Frédéric Leclercq (Kreator) on bass, plus renowned US drummer Mike Heller.

Among the additional contributors to the album, Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth notably delivers a special guest guitar solo on the track, ‘Unputenpu’.

‘Goh-ka’  was recorded across multiple studios, and once again mixed and mastered by Lasse Lammert at LSD studios in Germany.

SIGH – GOH-KA

Kuso-shi 1, 2, and 3 – 09:11

Jigoku-Zoshi 1: Unkamusho – 03:55

Anzenshokon – 06:24

Kuso-shi 4, 5, and 6 – 07:21

Shoso – 00:56

Unputenpu – 05:41

Jinmenjushin – 06:14

Jigoku-Zoshi 2: Tokatsujigoku – 03:06

Kushukankyo – 01:47

Kuso-shi 7 – 01:56

Kuso-shi 8 and 9 / Mettaijakujo – 11:23

GOH-KA WILL BE RELEASED ON 4th SEPTEMBER ON A NUMBER OF COLOURED VINYL VARIANTS, CD AND DIGITALLY. PRE-ORDER HERE.

PRE-ORDERS OF THE ALBUM FROM THE PEACEVILLE STORE AND BAND STORE WILL COME WITH THE FREE ‘LEGACY OF HORRORS’ 10-TRACK SIGH SAMPLER.
Japanese metal pioneers Sigh formed in 1989/1990. Their genre-classic Black Metal debut ‘Scorn Defeat’ arrived in 1993, and with a subsequent journey through the strange and the psychedelic, incorporating a whole eclectic mix of genre styles & ideas throughout their career, Sigh has remained a vital creative force in the avantgarde field whilst maintaining their old school roots, as witnessed on the 2022 album (and first for Peaceville Records), ‘Shiki’. This was followed by the remaking of their ‘Hangman’s Hymn’ album as part of the band’s 35th anniversary celebrations, in the shape of ‘I Saw the World’s End: Hangman’s Hymn MMXXV’ (2025).
SIGH TOUR DATES

EUROPE OLD-SCHOOL SET (AS A TRIO)
07/09 DE Torgau In Flammen Open Air (Scorn Defeat Set)
07/10 DK Fredericia Metal Magic (Special Old School Set)
07/11 UK London Downstairs at the Dome (Special Old School Set)

US
07/26 Fire In The Mountains
07/28 Seattle WA El Corazon
07/29 Portland OR Star Theater
07/30 Sacramento CA Cafe Colonial
07/31 Berkeley CA Cornerstone
08/01 Los Angeles CA 1720

EUROPE
09/03 PL Aleksandrow Lodzki Summer Dying Loud
09/04 PL Cracow Zaścianek
09/05 CZ Ostrava Metal III
09/07 DE Munich Hansa 39 @ Feierwerk
09/08 DE Leipzig Moritzbastei
09/09 DE Berlin Badehaus
09/10 DK Copenhagen Beta @ Amager Bio
09/11 DE Hamburg Betty
09/12 DE Oberhausen Death & Damnation Fest
09/13 NL Leeuwarden Neushoorn
09/14 NL Utrecht DB’s
09/15 FR Paris Backstage By The Mill

For those keeping track, this is their 8th full-length album, and it’s another feather in these savage Nordic horde’s cap. These guys have stayed true to the Black Metal philosophy and continue to shred the faces of non-believers. With this new album, Monolitt, Mork is set to cleanse the earth with some proper Norwegian Black Metal.

I covered Syv in these hallowed pages back then, and it turned out to be my Black Metal album of the year if I’m remembering correctly. It had this ritual nature to it, and Monolitt expands on that with crushing intensity and high-powered riffs straight out of Hell.

First track “Under vekten av verden” seethes with unholy rage. They lock into a Satyricon groove alá Rebel Extravaganza (“Filth Grinder” to be exact), and it’s off to the races. Those blast beats are delicious, benefitting from excellent production that literally shoves your face in its furious glory.

“Ødelagt” is quick as fuck at the beginning and then slowly devolves into a crawling chaos with a snappy riff that reminds me of Old Man’s Child on The Pagan Prosperity. These songs are so diverse and so deadly that merely listening isn’t enough… You feel them in your bones. “Torden” comes rising on a diabolical set of riffs, almost Emperor level, the disjointed riffing reminding me of “The Prophet” from Prometheus: the Discipline of Fire and Demise. It’s unrelenting mid-paced delivery is unholy point throughout.

Syv had some killer moments on it, and there’s even more killer moments on Monolitt than you can shake a stick at. Like the slow part in “Skrømt” is like wading through a poisonous swamp where everything wants to kill you. One second, droning riffs are swirling around your ears like there’s no tomorrow, and the next peeling off blasting sections like a bandage from a septic wound.

“Ferdamann” crawls into your ears like the creatures in Star Trek 2. It’s slow-burning, merciless, and pure evil. This is one of my favorite tracks on Monolitt, it’s got a bit of a Gorgoroth-filled center… think Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam or anything from Quantos Possunt ad Satanitatem Trahunt.

“Inn I en annen saere” has an almost Dissection vibe to it, circa Reinkaos, with maybe a smidgen of Gorgoroth added for flavor and Immortal to give it suitable gravitas. Oddly enough, for me anyway, I sort of hear the refrain from “Diary of a Madman”, that background harmony just makes sense in this context.

“Martyr” is my second favorite track; it’s got a Doc Martin on your throat and is ridiculous fun while being beaten to a fucking pulp. The battering ram drums, competing with the lumbering guitars, are pulverizing. “Jutul” has some of that staccato riffing and artillery shells going off around the 1:36 point where the song just fucking rips open a hole in the space-time continuum to a place where demons mosh while they tear each other apart and eat each other back to life in a spray of blood and gore.

“Utryddelse” plays with tempos like a deranged kid with a pile of severed heads. One second it’s like listening to the screaming of the damned, the next it’s Borknagar-esque rhythms that could’ve been on The Archaic Course/True North. These songs bleed with the spirit of Norwegian Black Metal, and Mork has created a magnificent Norwegian Black Metal album. I keep highlighting the Norwegian part because I don’t really hear any other influences (besides that Ozzy one). No Dark Funeral, no Marduk, no Impaled Nazarene… just pure Norwegian darkness. That’s what we’re here for, right?

Go get this motherfucker, trample over your neighbors’ children to get to the record store before they do. Monolitt is a fucking beast of a Black Metal plague unleashed upon this unsuspecting world!

Leaning a little more into the death side of blackened death metal, Goholor’s sound is a rough and ready sort of gruff, semi-melodic, but more blasty version of the death metal played by House of Atreus, and (I CAN’T FUCKING STRESS THIS ENOUGH – IN SOUND ONLY), Arghoslent.

And while the safe comparison is the likes of Behemoth or Hate, when you listen to some of the more dissonant chord progressions about a minute into just the opener “Demonical Redemption”, or in the 5th track “Ominous Delusion”. You can hear it.

That said, all the tracks have similar hues of stammering, discordant yet layered, even somehow melodic riffs that are often simply killer. There are a few tremolo-picked riffs here that remind me of some of the 90s melodic black/death metal acts like Gates of Ishtar (i.e., “Divine Blood Incantation”, “Embraced by Demons Spell”) and such, but for the most part, you get these skronky off-kilter but somehow harmonic riffs like the one to start “Black Rising Suffering”, the 8-minute standout “Last Groan Devoured by Death”, or the albums most ferocious track, closer “Nihilistic Torments”.  There are so many great, rollicking riffs here, it’s a rare, play from start to finish type of album.

The gruff bellows of Anton (backed by guitarist Demo and his rasps), and a murky but cavernous guitar tone, keep things more death metal than black metal, as I mentioned earlier. And the end result is a gem of a record that many will overlook, but I urge you to seek this out and enjoy it as much as I did.

Typically, my first experience with an album is the “morning test.” I get up to work out in the morning, and while I am preparing to do that, I turn on some music. This is also a kind of background test. I must admit nothing stood out to me upon the first morning test, as the production doesn’t have much heft. I do want to point out that’s not uncommon when I first listen to an album, so that’s no slight or snub.

Next, we have the headphones/workout test. This is likely self-explanatory, but I only wear headphones when I work out, so they go together like peanut butter and ladies. This is where the album starts to gel with me, and if it doesn’t after a few listens, it’s probably not going to resonate. However, Sons of the Abandoned did. Take for instance, the third track, which stopped me in my tracks due to the brief vocals/voiceover of Moonspell’s resident vampire, Fernando Ribeiro. I must admit my embarrassment at first because I thought it was Nergal of Behemoth. Otherwise, it’s an Arch Enemy-flavored melodic death metal banger with a galloping riff, sort of standard affair, until the quieter part with Fernando, which leads into a blazing fretboard guitar solo.

After that is the car test. I drive a convertible, so I enjoy having the top down and blasting some heavy metal. Does that make me an asshole? I’m confident I am with or without the convertible. “The Path That Never Ends” stood out during this test because of the driving main riff and Diva Satanica’s cavernous vocals. However, slightly past halfway, Laura Guldemond of Burning Witches appears with clean vocals and growls behind them. Of note are the cymbal crashes through those sections, making for another excellent change of pace.

The smell test: That doesn’t apply here, and I’m not even sure why anyone would ask.
Much earlier on the album, if you’re looking to stomp someone into the dirt, and I know you are, the title track “Sons of the Abandoned” will do the trick. The weeping lead during the chorus almost serves as an emotional reprieve, then it goes immediately back into the main ditch-digging riff. The smooth solos and leads throughout deserve a mention because of their consistent excellence as well.

Is Sons of the Abandoned a world beater or album of the year contender? No, but it scratches that melodic death metal itch I think most metalheads suffer occasionally. It took me probably far longer than it should to get these words and, therefore, the review out in the world. Rest assured, it’s indeed a banger worthy of your attention.

With a young and aggressive thrash band, I always want to make sure it’s not a one-hit wonder. Knowing Vivek’s love for all things metal and classic thrash, I was happy to hear there is no drop off in quality with their sophomore effort. After a brief, but foreboding instrumental, “The Portal”, the title track erupts, and the first thing coming to mind is classic Sepultura – think Beneath the Remains, as well as Sodom circa 1987-1992. Blistering speed and the 1.35 timestamp will start circle pits all damn day. The music has been tightened up a bit, with a greater emphasis on the production as well. The groove is pure 1988 and is most excellent until the fast blazing thrash returns with guitar solos. The vocals of Vivek and Jimmy, really add to the frenzied assault.

“Threading the Atom” is the longest song at still only 4.50. This song begins with a monster groove. Even has a little Municipal Waste to it. The speed erupts, and it really gets into Beneath the Remains territory, as well as moments of Sepultura’s Morbid Visions, with the crossover into death metal. This song has stop-and-start, very catchy moments, and the squealing Slayer-inspired guitar solos add to the character of the tune. This song is planted in the middle of the album and would go over well planted in the middle of their live set. One of the best songs Desolus has written.

“Visages of Death” shows the band is unafraid to show their melodic leanings, and then Vivek rips into a bass solo and right into the ripping thrash metal. While the band has tightened up their sound, I still like their “live” feeling to the record, and that has to do with the sheer energy the band brings to every song. This song is pretty darn ferocious, and the song slows down, eventually, towards the end with the melodic elements. The bass guitar is piped in a bit louder, which is important to point out, since the notes sound great. The song trails off, and it’s a very cool song ending.

Desolus then does an admirable job at covering Slayer’s “Show No Mercy”. A little more deathly with the raspiness of the vocals. Actually, imagine if Kreator covered this song during their Pleasure to Kill era, for you to get an idea of how this cover song sounds. All the elements of the classic song are intact, with varying vocal ranges to capture Araya’s crazy performance on that album.

“Nefarious Dominion” ends the album with a terrific Slayer-inspired opening guitar riff. A bit of a headbanging gallop takes us along for the ride. The speed is injected with a pounding and angry feel to it. This almost has a primitive quality to it in terms of the feel, and this is a great song to add into their live set.

As much as I enjoyed their debut, Desolus, has topped it with Dwellers of the Twilight Void. Better musicianship, songs, and production. This is what you want out of a young and hungry band. The band plays live shows and tours, and I foresee some bigger tours coming their way. They did just play MDF, and as the band continues along, they are injecting that old school venom back into thrash metal. Something that has been missing for a bit. Great album fellas!

And now, after 7 years, some tragedy (vocalist Sven “Svenson” Gross passed away in 2021), and some significant lineup changes (2 new guitarists in Christian Kalbrecht and former Revel in Flesh member Apu Justin Reisch, and a new vocalist in Borisz Sarafutgyinov), they are back again delivering more Dismember worshipping goodness on their 10th album, Epitome of Carnage.

Not much else really needs to be said. There are plenty of bands vying for Dismember’s crown, like front-runners Demonical as well as Iron Flesh, Come Sweet Death, Carnal Savagery, Lik, just to name a few, but on Epitome of Carnage, Fleshcrawl appear to be back at the top of the discussion with complete and utter commitment to the sound.

First off, the all-important guitar tone, here self-produced in the band’s own ‘Scumlight Studios’. It’s perfect; buzzing, fuzzing, and razor sharp, and when it’s isolated to start a song or riff or groove- it’s utterly killer. Second, the songwriting; it’s the perfect mid-era encapsulation of Dismember‘s Massive Killing Capacity, Death Metal, and Hate Campaign. There are oodles of semi-melodic razor-sharp riffs and equal amounts of groove.

Now, the album does take a couple of songs to warm up, as it’s not until pure Dismember, “Patrol 17” worship of the 3rd track “Grave Messiah” that the revamped line-up starts to catch my ear and deliver something more memorable. Then, after that, the album really takes off with scorchers like the stern, mid-paced march and somber lead work of personal favorite “Embers of Wrath” (which recalls Demonical’s “Välkommen undergång”), doomier, moodier “Committed to Suffer”, slicing “Reign Forever”, another “Patrol 17”-ish number in “Orphan God”, “Let the Napalm Reign”-ish “Path of Thorns”, and album ending “Of Fire and Flesh”, where they end the album on a more atmospheric, moody note similar to “Dreaming in Red” or “Life – Another Shape of Sorrow”.

This summer has seen two damn solid albums from some HM-2 death metal veterans, In Pain and Fleshcrawl, and I wholeheartedly recommend fans of the sound check out both.

With a very similar color palette, on the cover, like their last release, these newer cover designs, I feel, are a good look for the band. Shows some maturity, and these three songs, at least a few of them, will be in their upcoming tour setlist, with Hatebreed, for sure. Brad Fincher – drums, Ruben Rosas – vocals, Dave Spencer – bass all welcome to the fold, Marvin Ruiz, on guitars. Marvin is no lightweight when it comes to guitar work, as he is the guitarist for another brutal Texas death metal band – Stabbing! Marvin has now been with Devourment for a few short years and has the Devourment, slamtastic guitar sound down!

The title track opens with a film clip, which I think is the movie Evil Dead. Once the music hits, Brad gets into a monster blast beat, and Ruben’s vocals sound sooo vomitrocious. I love the filth. Clogged sewer pipe stylized brutality. There is an early slam, then right into a monster blast beat, equipped with 90’s era brutal pinch harmonics. I really enjoy Marvin putting in those harmonics, as it ties together some of the earlier material of Devourment. The mid-paced moments with the double bass will collapse chest cavities all over.. Once the slower slam hits at the 2.48 mark, this will level pits, on their tour. This is a most excellent song, and those sharp harmonics, towards the end of the song, will eviscerate your flesh, right off your skeleton.

“Mortiferous Dependency” has monstrous blasts and then creeping slams, and the moment at the 30-second slam will level your neighborhood. I know. I saw your neighborhood and it looks like shit after this EP was blasted. The slam gets even slower and is just monstrous. The mid-paced moments are so bludgeoning that it may cause you to start punching holes in things. I wrecked a few houses while listening to this EP. One of the finest songs Devourment has written.

“Advanced Stage Decomposition” is crucial in the beginning, with vocals getting zoomed right in. This monstrous opening slam could cause a ruckus at the local five and dime, so keep your stereo at an acceptable volume. The slam at the 1.10 section is the Holy Shit moment. You know, with the quick buildup, it is about to hit. And son…does it ever hit. It’s so heavy it may cause the brown note in you. Brad tosses in a nice blast with a few tasty drum fills, as well. The 2.20 slam is yet another crushing wave of brutality!!

Geez! Pious Impiety is one helluva brutal slam release from Devourment. The three songs are so strong that they should rotate them all in and out of their sets on their upcoming shows. These songs are tight, played with precision, are brutal, and the slams hit and keep on hitting. There is no let up on this release. You have no time to catch your breath and that is what Devourment wanted to do. Especially with all these younger whipper snapper slam bands putting out release after release after release. But the masters have returned to basically say, F You all, we are here and we will continue to slay nonstop. Literally, a breathtaking display of how brutal slam should be written and produced!

Yeah, if this thing were any more New Yawk, it would say “I’m walkin’ here!!’ on every song.

So this supergroup sounds exactly like you would think a project from Suffocation and Dehumanized folks would sound. So, fans of Internal Bleeding and Pyrexia also take note.

Starting with the classic Tom Cruise ‘Scorched Earth’ rant from Tropic Thunder, this short but effective, 6-song, 16-minute EP, gets right to it with “Lethal Abuse”, and then proceeds to drop another 5 slabs of grooving, unmistakably East Coast, hardcore-tinged slamming death metal in bite-sized, 2-3 minute chunks.

The pinch harmonic blasts and tumbling, hefty grooves/breakdowns in all the tracks are pure NYDM, as is the Joe Cincotta production (Internal Bleeding, Catastrophic, Criminal Element, Dehumanized, etc.), so much so, you can smell the gabagool. Just listen to “Victim Kink”, “Sporadic Slaughtering”. “Indecorous Disembodiment”, or “Immersed in Carrion”, just once, and you’ll have a tracksuit and gold chain on before you know it. Even our Frank Rini said this was too much New Yawk for him….Just kidding. I’m actually surprised he or some of the other IB chaps didn’t appear on this. maybe for next release- hopefully an album?

Frank Mullen helps out on “Victim Kink” and “Eradicating the Feebleminded”,  and he still sounds great, but the strength of the EP is its complete immersion and recreation of the style, regardless of originality. And I’m all about it.

“I will massacre you. I Will FUCK YOU UP”.

Indeed.

I’ll get straight to it and, like this 25-minute bruiser, make it short. This is super beefy, metallic hardcore that will appeal to (sans the clean vocals) fans of Dying Wish, Boundaries, Kublai Khan TX, and most certainly Knocked Loose, down to the higher-pitched screams of Emile Dupitie, which might get grating for some folks after a while. Research and purchase of the band’s prior albums shows he used to mix it up with a gruffer bellow and a lower register scream, but it appears he does not do that anymore. Some gang chants break things up, though.

Musically, though, this is some tough shit. It’s got that earlier Gatecreeper/Fuming Mouth, almost Swedish death metal guitar tone, and wee hints of death metal (though not quite as much) like their countrymates Glassbone or even Bodysnatcher, and every single tune kicks you in the teeth with some sort of massive groove or breakdown.

Whether it’s opener “Dust Off”, trundling “Bystander”, “Never Ending War”, “Chaosystem”, “ANYONE” (even with its short atmospheric intro); “Kiss of the Cobra” (with arguably the album’s hardest hitting, albeit short breakdown), “Deadlock V”… fuck it,  all of them; they are all mid-paced, loping, lumbering tracks that are perfect lifting/workout tunes. Or tunes to start a revolution, too.

Get to it.

…By the Word… is a bit of a slower-paced album than 2024’s…By the Shadows… (which I covered in these hallowed pages back when it was released) dot, dot, dot. Anyway, it’s a stirring album coming in with a respectable 39:55 runtime that doesn’t feel rushed or anything like that. This is more of a somber pace with some scattered blasting, but it is reigned in to almost sparingly here.

First track “When This Was Young” is on the slow burning side, it picks up some speed towards the end. This being a Trelldom album, there is weird atmospheric things going on in the background, but for some reason these sounds tend to overpower the drums so I found myself sort of squinting my ears to hear what they were doing.

“I Speak Forgotten Voices” is a faster track, incorporating some insane blasting into the mix near the end of the song, but before that is the build-up, and what a build-up it is; haunting shit is going on in the background, and I dare say I might hear a saxophone somewhere in there…

“This Moment the Life of a Memory” is furious out of the gate, but then it gets almost somber and stays that way through the remainder of the song. Not quite DSBM territory, but pretty fucking close to it. The title track has these scatter-shot drums that are slightly unsettling, and jazzy as fuck to boot… in a good way mind you. The only way to really describe it would be like two armies standing toe to toe, just hammering the shit out of each other. The saxophone squeals like a pig in heat, capturing the animalistic nature of the beast Gaahl has created, and it all coalesces in a ritual of destruction and blinding chaos.

“Folding the Mind” is my favorite on …By the Word… and it all starts with drummer Kenneth Kapstad slapping his drums around as if they owe him money. This goes on for about two minutes before things slow down and shit gets serious. It brings out that slow headbanging where the music feels like a physical force hitting in waves of bleak sorrow.

“The Word – Choose to Vanish” brings some more soaring, discordance and downright insane effects that defy any nature-based lifeforms to not get caught up in the swaying, evil wind that this ship of cold Black Metal supremacy is riding on. “In There Outside” is that song that is the perfect way to close the album. I haven’t mentioned any other bands in this review, and this is the song that is the most Gorgoroth-ish on …By the Word… landing somewhere around “Carving a Giant” and “Rebirth”. In between those diseased folds of flesh is where the answer lies.

…By the Word… is a nasty Black Metal album. It maintained a suitably Kvlt atmosphere that got palpable the more and more I listened to it. It’s a soul shredding creation and earsplitting at times. Is it better than …By the Shadows…? Not quite. But it stands on its own psychotic merit and that’s okay too. For you sickos that worship Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam and can’t get enough of the weirdness that challenges the concept of what Black Metal is in 2026. What are you waiting for? Go get this album.

Turns out, after some research, it is a reunited band from the 90s, but it’s a progressive, atmospheric, almost Gothic death metal band from Poland that started in 1992, released 5 albums before splitting up in 2005. But being the consummate professional (other than misnaming bands), I powered on and listened anyway, and man was I glad I did.

So, I went back and listened to some of the band’s earlier stuff, and it’s a sort of melodic death metal thrash, then they went a bit more full Gothic metal, and that’s where I get an early Tiamat, Crematory vibe (Transmigration, ….Just Dreaming) due to the keyboards, mixed with some Atheist. It’s actually pretty good, ambitious stuff for its time, and I’m surprised they weren’t a bit bigger in the mid-90s.

So three of the OG band members reunited in 2022  (and added two fresh new faces on drums and guitar), and it’s their first album since 2004’s Sigma Draconis. And I’m really digging it, as it’s one of the most unique-sounding bands and albums I’ve heard in a minute.

What makes Sacriversum unique is the keyboards of Krzysztof Baranowicz (AKA Baran), who left the band after their debut, but returns here. His keyboards aren’t the usual orchestral/string/brass arrangements (though there are plenty here), but think of Thousand Lakes era Amorphis, in fact, Amorphis‘ “In the Beginning” or cover of The Doors’ “Light My Fire” and Gorefest’s “Electric Poet” from the divisive Soul Survivor album as a comparison. And more recently, Mausoleum Gate from last year. It’s that groovy 70s/Hammond/Vox Continental/ Gibson Kalamazoo-ish sound. And it rules.

It’s not used 100% of the time, but it’s on most of the songs, and it makes for some fun times amid the also very solid melodic death metal hues and gruff vocals of Remigiusz Mielczarek.

The album is bookended by two standouts that heavily feature the 70s-style keyboards. Opener “We’re Storming Through the Night” has a fucking killer keyboard-laden groove at about the 1:45 mark, as well as several other Hammond flurries that elevate the song into something really cool.

8-minute Closer “Chief of the Fearless” has everything: a chunky mid-paced riff, some cool vocal layering, yet another Killer Hammond breakdown/solo, a piano solo, and even a surprisingly fierce black metal blast beat to close the album out.

In between, there are still plenty of highlights: the groovy “Let Us Ride the World”,  and the pure melodic death gallops of “March of the Giants”, and “The Golden Gates of Valhalla” (with its unhinged piano solo). The title track has an Unleashed vibe to the riff and gait (now, come to think of it, the vocals also remind me of Johnny Hedlund), while “We Die, We Fly” and “The Chaotic Realm of the Sea” bring those keyboards back to the front and center for trippy, psychedelic death metal romps.

Before the Birth of Light is one of the more unique and fun listens of 2026 so far, and a nice tangent from my usual deathcore/symphonic black metal. Far out, man!

“Invocation of the Dreamer” opens the album and was the first single released. The song gets right into a nice thrash gallop with amazing vocals and guitar solos. The guitar harmonies and riffs from Ben and Phil are as exceptional as ever. We even have some dual-layering of vocals, and Zach still punishes the drums as if his life depended on it. After the thrashing, the tune settles into the doomier elements with some mystical moments too. This song goes perfectly with the somber album cover. A knight who has seemingly acquired riches, however, is melancholic due to probably how such riches were obtained. The song is helped out with a monster production to boot.

“Corpsebloom Garden” is also an aggressive number, with some polyrhythmic time changes and a doom-laden atmosphere with terrific soaring vocals early on. Very catchy, and the pitch is pretty good. I mean, the vocals do have reverb and EQ on them, but they do not go out of key. That is tough with these types of singers. I hear a lot of singers who are good, but not in key. The dual vocals of Ben and Phil continue to make Khemmis stand out from the pack in this genre of metal. Around the 2.10 mark, the ever-present gruff death metal vocals come in, which have been present across their releases, and add the extra oomph. Around the 3.25 mark, there are some guitar melodies taking us back to Helloween’s Keeper of the Seven Keys albums. Most excellent, and the guitar solos continue to get more creative on each album.

“Gilded Chambers” kicks things into thrashtastic fashion. Excellent opening drums and then right into the thrash. The song slows down for those soaring and epic vocals to resonate with the listener. Excellent vocal harmonies and intricate and melodic guitar work move the song along, as the doom metal takes over. The chorus and vocal tones will stay in your head, as well as the death metal vocals, midway through the song. They capture the emotion of the song, and after that moment, a most excellent guitar solo takes hold. Slow atmospherics permeate through the dense fog with acoustic moments and soft drum patterns. This section carries an Egyptian tone until the metal returns and the song ends soon thereafter.

“Benediction Tones” ends the album in an amazing, doom-like fashion. Heavy, brooding, emotive – the song takes no prisoners if you are listening to this on a depressing day. The vocal tones deliver huge on this track and are even more bombastic in the delivery. There are some spoken-type vocal parts in the middle of the song, all between the harmonizing. The song gets slower and quieter until trailing off, ending the album.

This self-titled Khemmis album is a monstrous metal album. They carry the torch of metal loud and proud. The production is top and the music is once again brilliantly delivered. They are leaving other bands in the dust, who are usually lumped into this genre. First is Visigoth. A most excellent band, but they have not released anything in seven years. Then, Eternal Champion with their Friend of War recent EP– quite honestly, that is a mess of sorts of an EP running over thirty minutes. One of the songs is an eighteen-minute-long ambient instrumental, and the title track is over thirteen minutes, which honestly goes nowhere – stinks cause their album owns.

Regardless of those bands, Khemmis are at the top of the pack and are one of the leaders of this style of metal. I would love for a bigger band to take them out on tour. Khemmis needs to be seen and heard on a bigger stage. What a great album and band.

The Steve Rathbone (7000 Dying Rats) led project, joined at times by the likes of Larry Herwig (Pelican), Chris Wozniak (Serpent Crown), Nate Olp (Demiricous), and others, kicked out 3 kickass albums and 1 DVD of pure metal that mixed thrash, sludge, black, and death metal into a battle vest-clad, testosterone-fueled ball of metal fuckery. They even found one of their songs (“Warlord” from 2010s Evil Power on a Tony Hawk video game.

But after Evil Power, the band broke up and took an extended hiatus until 2026, where Rathbone and Wozniak, now joined by Sanford Parker (Buried at Sea, ex- Minsk, ex-Nachtmystium) on bass, re-entered the fray to bring some no frills, no gimmick, no trends, no bullshit metal back into the scene.

The 30 direct as fuck minutes on I Hail I, as with the band’s back catalog, does not fuck about. It’s a burly, tumbling mix of styles that just encompasses all types of metal from grindcore, hardcore, to Celtic Frost, to Entombed’s Wolverine Blues, to fellow Chicago vets Cianide or Jungle Rot, Crowbar, Neurosis, and everything in between.

Rathbone’s gruff shout and the filthy guitars keep things extreme as the trio kicks out 9 tracks (and a sort of spoken word interlude) of unpolished, untriggered, unabashed chaos. It’s dirty, it has blast beats, it has slow churning grooves, it does everything a grizzled old metal head would want. Oh, and it’s all about Greek mythology, too. Fuck yeah! (*throws the horns up*).

You get the urgent gallop and stomp of the opener “Emperor of Dis”, the rumbling title track,  the massive groove of “Saturnus Reign”, the more blackened “Family Tree”, and the pure doom/sludge crawl of 7-minute closer “Tartarus Apocalypse”, and like there infleucnces- everything in between.

Dad’s? – You really wanna show your burgeoning metalhead offspring what real fucking metal was really like 16 years ago, not the metalcore/deathcore explosion at the time? This is fucking it.

Yeah, this is real Dadcore.™

There comes a time in every critic’s life when they’re torn on an album whereby on the one hand you have a good, compelling album with cool moments, but then there’s the feeling that it’s boring as watching flies fuck, and so you (as the critic) must be diplomatic.

A few listens later…

Well, it all starts with “Divinity”, a nice instrumental track that erupts into “A Red Dawn”, and it’s got a pretty good chug to it, kicking off with a sick roar that brings the brutality out. It’s not overly brutal as in say… It’s not Dying Fetus or anything like that. More like a Green Carnation meets Opeth meets later on Amorphis. That doesn’t make sense. Too fucking bad, this is sort of a choose-your-own-adventure album.

“Servant to the Sun” has this slow-burning sense of urgency, the melody kind of echoing Tales From The Thousand Lakes; while the following “Prophecy” brings in some gravitas in the form of another chill instrumental track.

“Visions of a Crimson Moon” comes lurching forward and brings another roar to open the album. This one has more of a staccato riffing that makes it sound a bit progressive. This could have been a thrashing track, but that would be like putting a Polka song on a Mayhem album. I can picture a lot of crab walking going on around the midsection point where they get extra heavy.

The title track is like watching paint dry, however. It drags you along while being as dull as can be. This is that torn feeling I talked about earlier. I don’t like this song, but it doesn’t tarnish the album any more than “Meant to Be” did on the latest Testament album.

“Omen” has a cool intro riff but falls into mediocrity pretty damn quick. “Field of Reeds” is yet another instrumental that meanders like a drunk on the way home. It’s a pretty tune, but it’s a whatever track at the end of the day.

There’s probably a reason why I don’t usually review albums like this because, ultimately, it’s been done before and by better bands. Not saying that Black Sea of Trees is slouching on their instruments because they’re certainly not, but I think I wanted more than what I got with Cult of the Sun.

“Eclipse” and “The Dark Distance” round out the album, and I can’t really say it’s with a bang. I wanted to like Cult of the Sun, but alas, I don’t.

Having said that, if you do happen to like this sort of thing and you love the new sound of Opeth, then maybe this is for you. So, follow your heart and pick this up… if you want.

But after three good albums, including 2022’s Erwachen, I didn’t see this coming, as Gram (grief or sorrow) is going to be one of my very favorite black metal albums of the year, and is in serious running for one of my overall albums of the year.

Gram is absolutely fucking killer. Despite its more somber overarching theme of grief, anger etc, it’s still melodic black metal at its heart. It has that triumphant, Véhémence, Passéisme, medieval style. Still, without some of the wispy, fluty, folky atmospherics (there are a few keyboards scattered around, but noticably less than Erwachen), this is just epic, searingly melodic riffs upon riffs. And the songs are a bit shorter and direct than on Erwachen – no 8 or 11-minute songs here.

It starts with “Geisterflug”, an absolutely fucking banger of a track and one of my favorite tracks of the year; the blistering, main riff is perfect, the rousing, militant marches and vocals (Baptist delivers an array of gruff bellows, traditional black metal rasps, as well as monk-ish chants) are perfect. It just rips.

But whereas Cnoc Ad Tursa slightly struggled to keep things going after starting their recent album with a scorching opener (“The Caoineag”), Atronos just keeps the excellence coming for the next 45 minutes with song after song of just downright epic, rousing, blood-pumping black metal.

I could call out each song, as most of the following 9 songs after “Geisterflug” are unskippable. But certainly the almost black ‘n’ roll gallop of “Ein Raunen im Sturm”, the varied stomp and blast of “Kummertreiben”, yet another melodic scorcher in “Knochen”, with its angelic clean vocals/keyboard climax, the haughty, bouncy “Mit Hass im Aug’ und Stahl im Blut” (the transition around the 2:34 mark is just amazing), the somber but blistering “Titanisches Erbe”, the varied, but still rousing gallops of ” Richtschwert deiner Sünde” and rollicking “In Ketten” (with some Garm -ish clean vocals), all kick all sorts of ass.

I just wish closer “Zorn” had been a more emphatic endpoint, as the sudden ( and jarring) falsetto vocals and more thrashy tones, while still pretty rip roaring, don’t quite end the album on the high note I wanted.

I sort of had the upcoming Vallendusk album already pencilled in as my favorite melodic black album of 2026, but Gram is certainly going to make that much more questionable, as it’s been getting more playtime than any other album, of any genre, in 2026 so far.

The band suffered a loss two years ago when their bassist Erik Barrett passed away (RIP, brother). The band was able to soldier on, and Sean Martin is now on bass. Pete Morcey – vox, Rich Rosa – drums, and Jeremy Braddock/ Rick Brayall guitars round out the band as they’ve done for years. My boy Rick, used to be the guitarist for Tyrant Trooper out of Connecticut, btw. And we played some shows back in the 90’s when I was fronting Internal Bleeding. If you never checked out TT, you must do so pronto!

100 Demons is a downbeat hardcore band from CT and while they have gotten better on each of their albums, I am unsure if the world will be ready for this new monster. Embrace the Black Light is 12 songs in 37 minutes and is so fucking bludgeoning, the band may get locked up for releasing this album. It should be a crime due to how monstrous this actually is and the fact sinkhole pits will be forming from here to the Pacific Rim with this.

“The Nightmare” starts with some church bells in the background until the music hits. And the production is definitely the best the band has ever had on their albums. The mid-paced, ruthless groove hits, then we are hit with a blast beat and some galloping hardcore thrash moments. Super aggressive. The downbeat hardcore hits, and boy, does it ever hit. Hard AF! Pete sounds even better all these decades later. He sounds like he’s jumping through the mic to bodyslam you again and again and again. This is how you open up a comeback album, folks! “Made For Nothing” is next up and has a fast hardcore galloping beat that slows down with the song title being yelled at us, and the groove is just a monster. Total beatdown music.

“Through Seven Eternities” has some great opening drums, and you can tell the ‘Holy Shit’ moment is about to hit. Boom, right into a monster groove. The song gallops, then gets faster, taking us back to a hardcore beatdown groove. You will be swinging all damn day. You will want to create a whirlwind circle pit that creates tornado-like winds. The song gallops some more, and the slam hitting at the 2.20 section is criminal at best. No one will be left standing during this beatdown moment. It is beyond lethal.
“Nail It Shut” takes me back to those NYHC days with the ripping fast moment opening things up. Excellent riffs and heavy. Catchy bendy riffs with perfect tempos. At under two minutes, this song is not here to stay long; it makes a pounding impression.

“Spiritual Obliteration” ends the album with a slow and heavy buildup, almost as if the first song started with the music. Then the vicious hardcore-infused thrash speed takes over, then right into a mid-paced groove, which gets slower, really beatdown slow. The isolated riff at the 3.05 moment signifies the slam. And what a slam it is. Terrifically heavy and violent, this is how the music ends. A little atmospheric outro takes us to the end, and before you know it, you are playing the album again.

Embrace The Black Light puts the hardcore scene on notice. Creating an outstanding heavy AF album. This is the most aggressive and heavy album 100 Demons has released, and their other albums were killer. I am unsure if the band tours. They should. I would love to see a tour with them opening the tour and Emmure and Biohazard on the tour. I think that would be a monstrous tour which would bring some of the deathcore into the house with Emmure and I would call the Tour: The Sinkhole Tour.

I am being dumb, but at the end of the day, Embrace The Black Light has the best grooves of any 2026 release. The full motion cover on Apple Music is super neat with the swirling smoke and suns moving around. The production is insane and musicianship is stellar. This is how violent grooves and slams should be written. Outstanding!

Would it be their Master of Puppets or Reign in Blood? Or would it crumble under the pressure of following up such a great second album? Or would the band succumb to the pressure of the genre and change up style a la Paradise Lost’s, Shades of God, or My Dying Bride‘s The Angel and the Dark River? Especially with both bands being a clear influence on Fires in the Distance’s melodically tinged take on doom/death metal.

Come on down, Master of Puppets and Reign in Blood.

Now, to be clear, I’m not putting Circadian Promise in the same categories as those legendary, genre-defining, classic albums, but fuck me, this album is good; album of the year good, and in a few years, I think we will be talking about it as a hallmark album in the death/doom genre.

As with the last album, Randy Slaugh has been brought in to help the already talented composer, guitarist/songwriter Yegor Savonin, with some of the orchestral compositions, which, as before, are simply magnificent (although I don’t think the 4-piece string orchestra was brought back?). And also, as with the last album, it is front-loaded, and the back half of the album struggles a bit to catch up, but it does this time. But for crying out loud- how do you even top the opening two tracks here?

Opener “Of Radiance and Levitation” is about as good as it gets for delicate hues blended with a stern mid-paced trundle and some chord progression to simply die for. The little post-verse arpeggio at 2:18, which repeats a few times, is just knee-wilting. The song also introduces new guitarist/vocalist Brendan Hayter (Obsidian Tongue, Thrawsunblat) and his clean croons, which appear a few times on the album and are spectacular. His growls and rasps are not quite as commanding or low as his predecessor’s, but the music here is the star of the show as the band leans into their tangible Insomnium, Opeth, Rapture, Swallow the Sun, Katatonia, and such.

And speaking of Insomnium, the second track, “To You, Author of My Fade”, is by far my favorite song of the year so far. It’s the most urgent track the band has penned, with an utterly stunning opening riff that has a fiercely melodic canter that would make Insomnium or even bands like In Flames, At The Gates, Dark Tranquillity, Wolfheart, or Countless Skies blush. Another svelte Hayter chorus adds a level of deep introspection.

The third song, “Lightless Days of a Songless Bird”, has a tough 2 acts to follow, but holds up with a more airy, elegant pulse and lope, with a main riff culled straight from Paradise Lost‘s more gothic rock phase. We then get “By This Time Tomorrow”, which features Johan Reinholdz of Dark Tranquility on a guest solo; it’s the album’s first more pure doom track, with a wondrous, swaying main riff and sonorous melody that you would hear on a My Dying Bride song, and when it transitions from the little spoken word/sample to the epic lead solo- it’s truly breathtaking.

The more lumbering, choppy “Once the Silence Takes Your Place”, while still a solid track, is probably the only song that has no moment or riff that made my knees weak, and the little programming part about 5 minutes in is a bit out of place (but the riff that follows it is damn good). But it’s a solid, despondent, Rapture-ish number that again highlights Hayter’s clean vocals perfectly.

The album ends (albeit too suddenly for my liking) with “Agonal Dreaming”, a brilliant, gorgeously somber track, where the delicate piano interplays with a riff similar to the opening song, just a perfect, perfect blend of sternness and melancholic beauty. Just listen to that riff at 3:31, and then the subsequent orchestral bridge/solo, and staggeringly emotive blast beat. My god. Just fucking perfect.

Circadian Promise is a perfect album in every way, and is indeed their Master of Puppets or Reign in Blood. It’s going to be a sure-fire AOTY contender for me, and for many folks I imagine. One can only hope they follow it up with an … And Justice For All or South of Heaven.

Mastering the Disease is the band’s fourth album, and Stephen Reichelt once again joins in on bass guitar. We also get guest vocals from James Lee (Face of Oblivion/Pathology) on the song “Blood Prints” and Danny Lawson (Usurper) for “Pupils of Insularity”. The band was looking for a drummer who could capture Paul’s latest and greatest vision, and for this album, enter none other than Marco Pitruzzella (Six Feet Under, Anomalous, Sleep Terror, ex-Vile, ex-The Faceless, ex-Brain Drill). Marco had a good ‘ole rock n rolling fun time recording the newest Six Feet Under. Now was he able to let loose like his gravity blasting bad ass self-did with Brain Drill? No. Did Paul unleash the beast that is Marco, on this latest album? You bet your ass he did!

“Swelling Revulsion” starts things off with a little feedback, then with some maniacal start and stop drumming and Paul screaming his head off. All nice and fun until the 34-second moment. Gravity blasts, gravity blasts, gravity blasts. I will go on record as saying these are the fastest gravities I have ever heard. Faster than Brain Drill. Faster than Origin and faster than Rings of Saturn. Out of control. I was just mentioning to Paul recently that gravity blasts have gone away, and I was happy to hear them return. I just was not prepared for this onslaught. Towards the end of the song, it’s nice to hear some bass guitar strumming, which is heard throughout the release.

The title track is next. Beginning soft and quiet until the maniacal drumming returns. Fast, Faster, Fastest, than onto inhuman capabilities. More of the isolated drumming around the 1.15 mark, where it’s a fast double pounding method, is mixed in perfectly as the guitars take a back seat. Ferocious. The song slows down, and bass guitar plucking is ever-present, as the guitars take on a dissonance, not unlike that of Ulcerate. Paul has played around with dissonance before, with elements containing some later era Brutal Truth with discordant riffage and noises. The slow moments take on an almost drone-like, doomy sound. The speed returns with some weird-ass guitar soloing with terrific alternating vocals. The gravity blasting returns, and even I get tired from all the air drumming I am doing during the speedy parts.

“The Gnashing of False Teeth” has a damn good bass guitar intro and this moment resembles Godflesh. Yeah, Paul, I picked that out fast. Paul is a huge Godlfesh fan, like me. Think of Godflesh doing their doomy, depressive, discordant moments. That is what we have going on here. This is a good breather and you can feel Marco is like, Paul, come on bruh, let me loose again. The doomy drone effect erupts into a gravity blast around the 2.25 section and I swear they are even faster than the previous gravities and they go on for quite some time. Some ethereal, behind-the-scenes types of screaming than growls coming in. The abrupt speed of so slow to ungodly lightning speed, is so much fun!

“Depersonalized Realization” gets into some double pounding speed early on and varying degrees of vocalizations. The slow doomy dissonance is ever present and there are a lot of nods to Carbonized on this album. Just weird spastic blasting, weird noises, non-linear chords being strummed. This song is another example of the weirdness that is inside Gillis’ musical brain. The album, as a whole, is akin to watching the weird ass movie and one of my faves, Being John Malkovitch.

Mastering the Disease is an inhumanely creative and experimental journey into grind, doom, industrial, death metal and technical death metal. Morgue Supplier is not an easy band to just headbang to. It’s like thinking man’s metal. Paul pushes the boundaries and definitely getting Marco has been a huge advantage in this album. There are a few production, mastering issues. Songs will end with several seconds of silence before a song begins or a song will take several seconds to begin, when it’s just silence.

The production is good, however, there is no real bottom end, therefore this is very trebly sounding. The album cover is most excellent and goes wonderfully with this over-the-top sounding album. Because I listen to a lot of weird shit I really dig this album. I commend Paul for pushing the boundaries of extreme metal and also experimenting even more on his craft. This album will force you to consider, what is extreme? Utterly monstrous!!

With only a 4-year wait, this time, but the same lineup as Ritual Violence, Armed For Apocalypse delivers the goods once again with another massive slab of sludgy doomy metal that will shake your bones.

Whereas the recent sludge effort by Stalemate of Wills missed the mark a little, Highgate who are a litle more black metal sludge, or Tarlung, who leaned a little more into the death/doom side of things, AFA, is straight-up, nasty, crawling, loping sludge metal with nods to Crowbar (albeit less soulful/southern), High on Fire, Conjurer,  and of course, other bands they came up with, like Beaten Back to Pure, The Abominable Iron Sloth, and Black Cobra.

I’d venture to say they have a little hardcore in here as well, with some slightly faster gallops here and there, as heard on “Spellbound”, “Lost Without a Light”, “Keep Up Appearances”, and “Lurk”, which even has a blastbeat.

The eleven songs veer away from longer, sometimes atmospheric, sludgy tropes, often getting right the fuck to it, with a couple of tunes barely over 2 minutes, and the longest song being the 6-minute closing title track. But man, they all contain some fucking beefy moments, aided by the crumbling Kurt Ballou production,

Whether it’s the feedback on the opener “Drown”, the absolute beatdown of one of those short tracks, “Spellbound”, sickly lurch and haunting acoustics of “Immortal”, the disgustingly dirgey instrumental “Bathed in a Tepid Pool of My Own Filth”, or even the slightly more introspective closing title track, the whole album drips with grimy menace and heft, making it yet another standout addition to the band’s solid discography.

Featuring members of Finnish Black Metal royalty (True Black Dawn, and …And Oceans, to name two). Accelerated Death Impulse is a striking debut, and it’ll be interesting to see if AntiHuman Industries continues to album number two; for now, though, this album isn’t fucking around.

I used to think that Industrial Black Metal started and stopped with Aborym. Give me shit, I don’t care. I now know that there are numerous bands under the banner of that sub-genre, so yeah, I’ve been educated. AntiHuman Industries is as cold as the name sounds. I love their take on Industrial Black Metal and hopefully will hear more from them in the future.

That being said, they’re painting the walls with blood on “Loop of Cosmic Horror”, a merciless display of violence overpowered with battering drums and a guitar tone that sizzles like acid on bare skin. “Error: Human” is nihilistic as they come; the clinical level of extremity is palpable as AntiHuman Industries carve out furrows in your eardrums.

“Brain Noise” sounds kind of familiar… like the chord progression sounds like, and forgive me if I’m wrong, it sounds like “Towards the Pantheon” from In the Nightside Eclipse, but if it was played the way that Crionics covered “The Loss and Curse of Reverence”… at least that’s what I’m hearing. I don’t know about you. This is my experience, haha!

OK, so next track “Eerie Curiosity” is full-on guts-fucking Black Industrial Metal. That’s it. Put your head in a cement mixer, and you’ll get the physical feeling of this nightmarish song. The production on Accelerated Death Impulse is pretty fat; it hits hard when the moment calls for it, which is the whole goddamn album, honestly.

The title track is suitably raw, mirroring the sound that 1349 had on Liberation, the godly blasting reaches levels of unbridled ecstasy, and it’s followed by “Renounce-Resist-Revolt”, which has a mix of the True Black Dawn from the Blood for Satan album and Disciplin on Anti-Life. It shakes furiously, shrieking in reckless abandon.

“A.H.I. (Syndicate Dolls)”, is a magnificent My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult/Electric Hellfire Club Industrial, ichor-pumping dance track (yeah you read that right). “Lucid Dream” is like “Lucid Fairytale” if Napalm Death were Black Metal, it’s short and white hot fast.

Final track “Grief” is accurate to the stages one goes through. Some lovely female vocals start it off and it burns for a few seconds as it gathers intensity and then there’s the discharge and it’s full speed ahead, take no fucking prisoners.

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Accelerated Death Impulse and if you love True Black Dawn, 1349, Crionics or E.H.C. you need to get this bastard of humanity now!

Eight songs in 42 minutes. “Gorge of the Dead” was the first single released for the album and opens the album, too. Bludgeoning riffage and Desecresy have their own guitar sound. Of course, it is rooted in Finnish lore with traces of Bolt Thrower, which is something many Finnish bands incorporate. The interesting guitar harmonies are what set Desecresy apart from other countrymen. Around the 2.28 marker, the song picks up the pace. 90’s era speed, some isolated bass guitar is thrown in as well. The song slows and is pounding heaviness at its finest. Tommi’s rough growls are all over this, too.

“By the Slowing Vortex of Time” has an ambient, yet short intro. Start and stop speeds, and Tommi having his growls all over this one. If you are unfamiliar with his vocal style, think Chris Barnes during Butchered at Birth, as well as Will, from Mortician. Deep bellows! Some slower moments ignite the depressive and dense fog that is Desecresy. Luminated around a shroud of atmosphere and creepiness, this song is most excellent. The guitar tone is also fleshed out a bit better on this recording. Some organic and powerful double bass erupts around us, too. Yet another winner of a song.

“Rotting Ghouls” opens with a really nice growl, and the song mellows a bit with the guitar harmonies and drums. The bass guitar comes in every so often, with monstrous distortion, too. It’s heavy, maybe the heaviest distortion Tommi has used in a while. It also does not sound like a wall of mud, thankfully. There are some excellent guitar riffing moments and pounding and slow depressive, heaving heaviness. He uses multiple guitar tracks as well, which creates a full sound. Hearing the harmonies over some of the riffing is pure signature Desecresy. Faster moments develop, but this song is mainly rooted in dark, creeping, crawling terror.

“Vanishing Existence”, at close to seven minutes, closes out the album. Synth-laden intro is piped in quite loudly, so be prepared. This melts right into the slow pounding and heavy music of just drums and bass guitar. The guitars and vocals eventually are incorporated. Double pounding speed and excellent isolated guitar riffing create quite the cavernous tone on this song, along with the deep vocals. Excellent harmonies and some brief guitar soloing as well. More excellent growls and pounding beats! The song ends as it began with the synths.

The Secret of Death is a top album from Desecresy. Memorable, heavy, depressive, and great organic recording. Captures the heaviness quite well. One thing you may not realize is throughout all the band’s albums Tommi has drawn all the album covers. He is precise with his usage of color. Each album boasts a theme and a main color. This one is a deep blue. It would not be a Desecresy album without skulls so he drew a few of them in for ya. The Secret of Death is one killer death metal album!

But with 2019’s Embrace of the Godless Aeon, Joe Stamps was brought in on vocals, and he delivered a true homage to original Hecate Enthroned co-founder, vocalist, and  former Cradle of Filth member, Jon Kennedy (RIP), with his high-pitched screams and bellows, and thusly, the band returned to the style that they started with, with stellar results

Now, with the second album with Stamps, would the band stay true to their style, or dabble back with thrash and death metal? Well, I’m happy to report that Hecate Enthroned are still back to the sound of the first two albums, and as I said in my review of Embrace the Godless Aeon, considering the line-up and style change with Cradle of Filth, these guys sound more like classic COF than COF does.

Driven by original members Nigel Dennan and Andy Milnes (guitars) and bassist Dylann Hughes, as well as long-time keyboardist Pete White, the classic, bombastic Hecate Enthroned sound is in full force again, and at times it’s brilliant. Of course, Stamps’ shrieks, as Kennedy’s were all those years ago, as well as Dani Filth’s, are an acquired taste, but the songwriting (and production) here is top-notch.

Starting with “Spirits Stir Within Our Ancestor’s Tombs”, which, around the two-minute mark, gets a truly classic moment going, and the album never lets up for its near-hour run time. Standouts include “Steed of the Still Water”, with its stern opening stomp, then another truly classic 90s Slaughter of Innocence/Dark Requiems moment at around the 3:45 mark, as well as the savagely majestic “A Gallery of Rotten Portraits”, where Stamp’s deeper bellows dominate the vocals, and the emotive chord progressions near the track’s climax are really well done.

Another killer track, “Deathless In A Dryad Glade”, might be the most ferocious song the band has delivered, and the bridge into a regal arch at 3;25 is pure, classic Hecate Enthroned gold. And closer “Into the Vale of Endless Snow” really shows off Pete White’s synths with regal, sweeping intensity and bombast.

Only the 6-minute “Pwca” loses my interest a bit as it’s sort of a mid-album interlude and largely acoustic/ instrumental spoken word. And the band still tends to linger on a song’s intro/outro for a little too long (i.e., “The Boreal Monastry”). Get the fuck to those killer riffs, man (which “Into the Vale of Endless Snow” absolutely does).

I’ll come out and say it, this is waaaay better than Dimmu Borgir‘s Grand Serpent Snoozing, which I have not listened to, since I wrote the review. Also, with other former Hecate Enthroned members delivering 2 fine, expectedly Hecate Enthroned-sounding albums since 2019 with Argesk, Hecate Enthroned needed to come back strong and deliver a killer album, and indeed they have.