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.

Throw in the fact that the members have been involved with Saor, arguably Scotland’s biggest black metal exports, and other bands I enjoy like Fuath and Ruadh, and I’m truly baffled that I haven’t been all over these guys.

As you have probably gathered, Cnoc an Tursa play a form of Scottish-themed, atmospheric, pagan/folk black metal that, of course, will appeal to Saor (though no pipes here, though there is a smattering of keyboards and acoustics), but also that very British/Irish/Scottish black metal sound played by the likes of Winterfylleth, Wodensthrone, and, of course, Primordial.

After the introductory number “Na fir Ghorma”, the album gets off to an absolutely rip-roaring start with “The Caoineag”, and I mean fucking rip-roaring. It’s one of my favorite album opening songs of the year (along with “Geisterflug” by Atronos) and just a downright, killer melodic black metal track that would have Vallendusk blushing. Throw in some raspy shouted vocals, nice pagan sways, an epic mid-paced bridge, and some female vocals from Karinne Tursa (she appears a few times on the album), and you have a fucking high bar for the rest of the album.

Now, the rest of the album is pretty solid, but of course, they never reach the perfect peak of “The Caoineag”. And truth be told, I had to force myself to stop simply playing that track over and over, and actually get to the rest of the album.

Tracks where Karinne Tursa appears, like the mid-paced “Baobahn” and the more urgent “Address to the Devil”, got my attention a little more, but there’s still a lot to like all over the album; the steady militant march of “Cailleach and the Guardians of the Seven Stones”, the sweeping majesty of “Am Fear Liath Mòr”, the Immortal/Abbath-ish gallop of “Alba in my Heart”. It’s all very clean, elegant, and enjoyable.

But still, my finger kept creeping towards the back button throughout.  It’s not as bad as the 90s, when you heard one song on MTV or Headbangers Ball and rushed out to buy the CD only to discover that the rest of the album sucks. This is still a good album, with a great song on it.

The band has been a tear of touring multiple times a year in North America and overseas. The band proudly wears the Bolt Thrower influence on their sleeves, and now, with album number three, No Place of Warmth, the band wears that influence from head to toe. The band has opted for an even more bombastic and fuller sound, and this creates an avalanche of heaviness. 11 songs in 35 minutes, and the songs pack a wallop.

Opening with the title track, the band opts to have a guest vocalist – Gerard Way, from My Chemical Romance. An interesting choice. Beginning with an atmospheric and epic buildup, you immediately feel those drums in your chest. The Bolt Thrower vibe takes us to the Warmaster sound. Punishing double bass and tank-driven heaviness, this folks is the closest you will ever get to a new Bolt Thrower record. This mid-paced song is vicious, as well as those guitar solos, calling to mind 1991. Chad Green’s gruff style harnesses the power of Karl from BT, and if you close your eyes you might think Karl is singing. Why Frozen Soul has not had him guest on their albums is beyond me. Gerard comes in towards the end of the song and his style actually flows pretty well.

The title track is a good opener, but it’s bested by the best song the band has ever written, the next song. “Invoke War”. This is the perfect song to do my Anatomy of a Song on. Robb Flynn from Machine Head/ex Vio-Lence fame guests on this song and I will just mention his part fits like a glove and he sounds amazing and pissed off. So this tune starts with the song title being belted out by Chad. The drum buildup, with the vocals, and song getting heavier, gets right into the Holy Shit moment when after Chad’s growl, he is briefly isolated, as he once again growls ‘I Invoke War’, at the 36 second mark. The bludgeoning heaviness erupting sends frozen chills down my soul every time I hear this. He sings the part a few more times, but I am telling you, this mid-paced rumbling, is going to cause sinkhole pits nationwide. Maybe it will lower the gas process, perhaps? The song gallops a bit and then the isolated moment and drums create the perfect part for Flynn’s vox then the duet of ‘I Invoke War’ is belted out. Monstrously heavy and kick ass. I am telling the band-you may want to put this song in the middle of the live set. Not in the beginning – it will wear out the crowd. This song demolishes and Samantha’s bass guitar crushes during these moments.

Devin Swank from Sanguisugabogg has a ‘Bogg like song to lend his guest spot to, with “Dreadnought”. I have nicknamed this song FrozenBogg. It has the caveman-like knuckle-dragging heft of Sanguisugabogg, and Swank’s vocals are perfect, as the ever-present bass guitar seems to be even heavier on this song. This is yet another killer song.

The one thing I will mention is that the guest vocal spots are within the first four songs. I think the band should have placed one towards the end of the album, because the album is so heavily front-loaded with these song placements. Just my wooden nickels’ advice.

“Ethereal Dreams” brings in some speed. Galloping heaviness and old school at the same time. There are some nods to the Mercenary era Bolt Thrower sound at the end of this song, and once again, the song structure is pretty strong.

“Killin’ Time (Until It’s Time to Kill)” ends the album and kinda rocks along in a hoppy fashion. Heavy, but it’s a fun, happy tune, IMO, until the crushing heaviness at the 40-second marker. Devastating. There’s even some isolated bass guitar moments, which are excellent. By the way, do not snooze on “Deathweaver”. A most excellent song that enters the doom/death genre.

Michael Munday and Chris Bonner upped their game with their guitar sound and riffing. Song after song has riff after riff and are catchier than the next. The pounding drums of Matt Dennard need to be mentioned, as his steady play and crushing double bass help elevate this album

No Place of Warmth sounds terrific, has amazing songs, and has that dense tank-like heaviness that will go over even better live. How they top this album is beyond me, but Frozen Soul, continues to crush and only a matter of time before we see the band headlining full fledged tours.

Hubris isn’t going to rewrite the Black Metal blueprint anytime soon, but that’s just fine. Acts of Sedition is a satisfying album, a meat and potatoes Black Metal album as it should be.

From the first track, “Call to Sedition”, they get right down to business. Most of Acts of Sedition hovers around the world of Gorgoroth/ Ov Hell territory, and since those bands are basically one and the same (by way of King Ov Hell from Gorgoroth). Anyway… they’re talented musicians, no doubt about that.

“Lightless Lantern” rips straight out of the gate with an ice-cold arsenal of riffs alá 1349, early Immortal style. Pretty fucking cool, and yes, there are some killer riffs to be heard. Melkorpse is the main vocalist (they’re all listed as vocals, but he’s the head dude), and his voice box must be fucking shredded after shows.

Savagery is unleashed with “Incantation of Death”, followed by “Boil of Humanity” with an intro slightly reminiscent of the first couple Reign of Erebus albums. I mean, there are beat downs, and then there are Buffalo, NY Black Metal beat downs and Hubris aren’t fucking around. The title track? Holy shit that’s the good stuff right there, like the riffs are on an Adderall speed ball… fucking excellent.

“Era of Hubris” has this crazy-cool center that’s incredibly enjoyable. “Pissed on Ambitions” is a full-speed-ahead instrumental that reminds me of “Violent Generation” by Brutality.

“The Great Division” and “Outer Space Satanic Torture: Hymn to Nuit in the Abyss” round out the last two, and of course, they take it out with a bang.

Hubris doesn’t appear to be conceited, as their name would imply, and Acts of Sedition is, indeed, a humble release. It wears its influences on its sleeves and there’s nothing wrong with that. Like I said, they’re not going to reinvent the Black Metal wheel, but they elevate the genre with Acts of Sedition. If you like the bands, I’ve mentioned then you’ll be over the moon for Hubris. Get this album now!

Guitarists Terrell Grannum, Rick Habeeb, and vocalist Will Smith, all welcome in new members, Hudson Barth on drums and TJ Coon on bass. Now, while I could make out some of the Monet inspired album art from the debut album, don’t even begin to ask me what on earth is happening on this album cover. At first I thought it was spilt milk. The album cover kinda goes along with the music. Regardless of the strange cover, we have nine songs in 32 minutes. The band writes short and concise death metal without wasting time.

“Concrete Basin Bath” start things in a monstrous fashion – right out of the starting gates a brutal fast moment with Will’s putrid vocals all over the place. This opening is quite powerful, and the slow down gets into that weird Reeking Aura element, which showcases how the band separates itself from the pact. This fast part has a huge Incantation vibe. The guitar harmonies and riffing are intricate and original. The stomp at the two minute part showcases the bass guitar sound and weird bending chords the band uses to bend our heads in two. This is one helluva way to open an album.

“A Forlorn and Frozen Vapor” is up next and no, no, no it’s not named after a fart I just ripped out. Double pounding speed, like the album opener, is fast, without getting into blast beat territory. The weird, ambient sounds, slows things down and I feel like I am floating in this weird mess of an album cover. Strange guitar riffs and the oft-kilter rhythm, during the mid-paced part, is extraordinary. The songs picks up the pace to an old school 90’s speed, great galloping moment. The time changes, during this song, are mind-bending and brutal.

“Gorged Beyond Grudges” has a hellaciously heavy opening sequence. The new drummer, is bombastic and the double bass is chest collapsing. The guitar melodies are excellent. Then the brutal tank-driven, mid-paced heaviness takes over. It is meant to crunch your bones into oblivion. Damn, this is heavy. Guitar solos whisping us away into the netherworld are in the distance. The song picks up the pace again, then back into the tank-driven groove. This moment will create pit havoc and busted faces. The bass guitar is ever present and adds a layer of complexity. The soft atmospheric moment erupts and I feel like I am in some smoke-laden jazz lounge. The metal gets back into business, then the faster moments erupt.

The band has some similarities to Will’s former band, Artificial Brain. After Will left that band, the band has had some difficulty recovering. Getting in a lot of new faces, but still no new album. Regardless, the similar moments are in the twisted, bending guitars, non-linear approach to death metal and incorporating atmosphere. Both bands are still different and also some of the best in all of death metal.

“What Worms Only Witness” has a creepy opening guitar riff. Sounds like it should be in a horror movie. The beat down riff, afterwards, will make you destroy your neighbors fence. A gallop engages the listener and the guitar riff is so original. The mid-section, with all the bellows and belches from Will, are just music to my ears, phenomenal. The lead guitar riff is enticing and catchy. The title track ends the album and is only 2.42 in length. It starts with a gallop, then gets into a polyrhythm beat down with some technical prowess. Intricate guitar riffing, then a nice sludgy isolated guitar riff, signifying the mid-paced beat down moment. Super heavy and wicked in its approach. The band fits a lot into such a short song.

On the Promise of the Moon benefits from a great production and strong musicianship. It is getting exceedingly tough to find good original death metal bands, yet, Reeking Aura is one of those bands. They continue to improve on each release and this album is fascinating in the song structures, brutality, harmonies and ambient atmosphere. There are numerous memorable elements to this album and suffice it to say, the death metal scene is put on notice. Reeking Aura is easily one of the best and most original death metal bands in the last five years. Crushing!!

The UK’s Ingested was the latest in a concerning, long, and consistent run of deathcore vocalists being douche-y, with Josh Davies, who replaced original vocalist and co-founder Jason Evans in 2024, being promptly removed from the band after barely 2 years for the allegations of …now stop me if you’ve heard this before….being a shitty human being. I hope I’m not denigrating him with that statement.

Unfortunately, the new album Denigration had been recorded, but the band decided to redo the vocals and replace Davies with new guitarist Andrew Viruetta, and OG guitarist Sean Hynes co-handling the vocal duties for the re-recording. Honestly though – I mean, it’s deathcore vocals; they have all the deep growls bellows and screams that are now required for the genre, and they both do pretty well. I doubt anyone can really tell.

Musically, Ingested seems to have mirrored Whitechapel’s more introspective forays (The Valley, Kin) with the last couple of albums, especially 2022’s Ashes Lie Still. But as with Whitechapel’s last opus, Hymns in Dissonance, Ingested has returned with arguably one of the more brutal and direct albums of their career, imbuing the likes of Level Above Human and Where Only Gods May Tread with simple, bludgeoning, breakdown-heavy deathcore.

The focus on Denigration is massive, almost down-tempo lopes and lurches, and boy, do they deliver. The Nicolo Beninato (Worm Shepherd, Art of Attrition, Hate Within, Immortal Disfigurement) production is absolutely devastating from opener “Dragged Apart” to closer “Cold Sun”.

Every single song here punches you in the fucking face. And while there are blast beats scattered around (i.e., “Beaten Beyond the Veil”, “Dredge The Dark”, “Cold Sun”). But like say, the last Signs of the Swarm album, they are just transitions until the next lumbering, grooving breakdown as heard on the huge opener “Dragged Apart”, “Watch You Fold”, standouts “Stitch by Stitch” and “Steel Toe Truth”, stammering “We Are All Inherently Evil”, and lumbering “Oaths Betrayed”. Don’t get me wrong, the pummeling gait is pretty similar throughout, but it’s oh so satisfying. And there are no ‘personal’ or introspective moments that Evans introduced on the last two albums, which were fine by me. This is just bruising, hateful, shoulder bobbing heft.

As is the norm nowadays, there is a host of guest vocalists from Skyler Conder of Cell, John Gallagher of Dying Fetus, Kyle Medina of Brand of Sacrifice, and PeelingFlesh‘s Damonteal Harris. But picking them out or the bits they do, don’t really jump out or add much to the burly, bludgeoning material.

In a slow year for killer, big-name deathcore, Denigration is going to be one of the top deathcore releases of the year, and kudos to the band for doing the right thing.

Fellow scribe Frank Rini said he would punch me if I didn’t quote him regarding this fantastic new offering from international mutilators (but mostly from Jerusalem/ Bethlehem, having relocated to the much more accepting Netherlands to avoid religious intolerance); I’m talking about Melechesh. Who did you think I was talking about? Nile?

Yes, you read that correctly: Melechesh have a triumphant EP called Sentinels of Shamash, and it is a fucking whopper. Having released their last album Enki back in 2016(!) I first heard them on their Djinn album back in 2001, and they followed that with the powerhouse albums Sphinx and the blistering hell of Emissaries. I don’t know what happened between 2016 and now. I’m not going to speculate about it… the result is Sentinels of Shamash, so I don’t care what they did for the last ten years. Maybe they played Cricket, who knows.

If you can’t already tell by the general tone of this review, I fucking love this new EP! It’s a culmination of the sounds from each individual album rolled into one brutal bastard. They come out swinging with the fiery first track, “The Seventh Verdict”, and it’s all there. Those riffs that skin you alive like a sandstorm, a Bedouin beat down if I may be so bold. The drums are AK-47 machine guns raised in defiance of tyranny, an epic 6:32-minute death roll. This mid-paced brutalizer throws you in the abattoir from the opening riff.

Melechesh in 2026 is a force to be reckoned with. The core members are back together: Melechesh Ashmedi (vocals), Lord Curse (drums), and Moloch (guitars), proving that they are the leading name in Mesopotamian Blackened Death Metal.

“In Shadows, In Light” is a complex maze of Black Metal torment (see what I did there). There’s a HUGE Behemoth breakdown at the 2:26 point that is absolutely massive, and then there’s yet another chord progression that spins your head 360 like Regan in the Exorcist. The solo at 4:10 is a banshee’s wailing call, then the song entwines you in its coils, it gets thoroughly thrashing as Melechesh heads for the conclusion of this maniacal track. The vocals are full of hatred and bile; it’s like that ten-year span didn’t even happen.

Finally, the last track, “Raptors of Anzu” blasts like Blackbraid, only there’s a venom to their delivery that Blackbraid could only imagine having in their arsenal. This song just sounds like it could be playing while a fucking Falcon rips off some poor bastard’s face. Deftly switching tempos from Black Thrash to shredding Black Metal, and the breakdown at the 4:59 mark is just chef’s fucking kiss.

Holy fucking shit, I can’t get enough of this EP. If this is what Melechesh has in mind going forward, I’m here for it! For the fans of Rotting Christ, Dimmu Borgir, and Blackbraid and anyone else, fuck it… Just go get this EP already. What are you waiting for?

But not much has changed other than a new guitarist. The style is still Middle Eastern-themed death metal, which isn’t quite as brutal as their more famous Egyptian-themed, South Carolina brethren Nile, but a more tempered, but beefy melodic death metal that has more in common with Hypocrisy, mid-era Behemoth (Zos Kia Kultus, Demigod, etc.), or Morbid Angel’s more churning moments, though certainly some Nile on the more intense moments.

The 4 song, 27-minute effort seems to continue from what I heard on Serpents of the Nile. Opener “Vow of the Sphinx” has a nice beefy grooving main riff with a smooth Arabic clean chorus, while “Hands from the Sun (Amon)” starts as a slower, moody number before delivering a pretty epic, orchestration-filled number.

The EPs standout is “Epistle of Secrets”, which melds some sweeping orchestration, some black metal, some choppy tech death, and burly death metal into a swirling sandstorm of a number before the EP is rounded out by “Monarch of Violence”, the EPs most savage but still epic and Middle Eastern tinged number.

A damn solid EP from a very underrated act, and at almost 30 minutes to boot, is good bang for your buck.

This group, with folks from Prezir, Protestant, Enabler, Shut in, Force, and others, continues to deliver a Revenge/ Blasphemy/ Angelcorpse-inspired form of vitriolic black death that fans of recent acts like Chaos Inception, Olkoth, Plague Corpse, Imperishable, etc, will gobble up in spike ‘n’ leather goodness.

I covered the 2017 self-titled debut, and really dug it, and the follow-up, A Flock Slaughtered, delivered more of the same, and to the surprise of no one, this is a third album of the same cacophony of noisy, chaotic, feral, and snarling black/death metal.

33 minutes, 10 songs with titles like “Standing in Depravity”, “Satanic Hammer of Justice”, “Ravenous Hellslaught”. And not a single moment of respite or gimmick from the hellish noise. Chris Ellis has a throaty bellow and rasp, and the guitars of Bubba Nitz and Mike Gamm are gritty, raw, and menacing.

This isn’t a game-changer of an album or even a memorable album. But I mean that as a compliment.  You just sit there and let tracks like “Power to Stop It…”, “Rabid Dogs”,  and “Aftermath” punch you in the face and smile while your teeth shatter.

One of the things I’ve always enjoyed about the band, and while it may seem odd, is the band logo. I find it pretty striking and cool to look at. While some of the band’s albums have been stronger than others, album #7, Heaven Wept, is the best one yet for Inferi. Check out the batshit insane album cover – it’s absolutely nuts, and coincides with the technical shredding, brutality, known as Inferi.

Along with main man Malcolm Pugh and vocalist Stevie Boiser, the band welcomes two new members, making the band ½ new. Spencer Moore on drums (Archspire) and Sanjay Kumar on guitars (Wormhole), complementing Malcolm, are among my favorite shredders. Additionally, if you’re unfamiliar with The Artisan Era label, then if you enjoy bands such as The Black Dahlia Murder, Wormhole, The Faceless, and Decrepit Birth, then you will love Inferi.

“The Rapture of Dead Light” wastes no time with a fancy schmancy intro. Brutality right off the jump. Ruthless. The guitar work, with Sanjay added, is an addition to propel the band even further. Vicious brutality and while there is a bit of Wormhole extra brutality, the Inferi sound remains intact, with respect to the noodling and extreme technical precision. Check out the double bass at the 2.15 mid-paced moment. It will run over you like a hungry, hungry, hippo. Tons of guitar solos and Stevie’s vocals are filthy, gruff and in your face. The extreme technical madness going on, is flawless. One of the best album openers all year folks.

The title track has a phenomenal opening sequence destined to start a monstrous pit in all the galaxies above. Heavy, slammin’ and crushing. This moment is like a tank just getting its treads started. After the groove, drum roll and right into the scorching blast and tempo changes. One minute there’s a blast, few seconds later some galloping, then a slowdown and the orchestral arrangements, from Malcolm, breathe life all over the place. The slow beat down groove erupts and the guitar riffing is most excellent. Harmonies over the rhythm, add even more light to this, then right into a scorching blast with keys abound all over this sucker. In some of the extreme madness, Inferi comes across as Rings of Saturn, especially the soloing at the 3.43 timestamp. Pure madness, christ almighty, technical ferocity!!

“Of Rotted Wombs”, starts excellent and then the blast beat with the harmonies and sheer brutal melodies are face ripping. Start and stop moments and orchestral choral vocal moments as well…this is another scorcher. The album ends with “Godless Sky”. Cutesy piano opening then right into the mid-paced crunching heaviness. Tempo shifts galore, like a charcuterie platter, much to choose from here. The drums at the 1.38 section are tremendous and I am feeling like I am being para diddled to death. Midway through the song, and the isolated riff and growl signifying the Holy Shit part, will rip you in half. Killer groove, then atmospheric melodies and beautiful musical compositions follow.

Heaven Wept is outrageously fun, brutal, melodic, punishing and mesmerizing. The musicianship is tremendous and song structures never get boring. This album is more noodly than previous efforts and is also Inferi at the top of their game. The face ripping brutality and speed makes me do my cardio 10x faster. Winning. The production and mix is loud with everything sounding punch you in your face worthy! In terms of technical precision and brutality Inferi, not only have upped their game, they have released an album tough to beat this year, in their genre of death metal.