Posts Tagged ‘2025’

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

Guttural Slug is a brutal slam death metal band hailing from Denmark. With three full-length albums under their belt and having not released anything since their last album, Plague of Filth, in 2019, here comes the Ulcers in the Flesh of Thought EP. Much has transpired since the last album. Guitarist Mikkel Sørensen hired a […]

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

Today we’re going to Sweden. It’s a free trip; all you have to do is read this review. That’s easy enough, right? I’m not asking for anything too crazy, just two minutes of your precious time. I picked Havamal with the hope that I would get a Falkenbach type of thing, because Falkenbach has a […]

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

Well, that’s 2025 in the books. And as 2026 looks to be starting off with a literal bang ( or war), here is the music our staff enjoyed on 2025.

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

I could just address the elephant in the room and talk about the artwork for Subcutaneous Tomb, and if that’s what happens, then it happens. That’s the most important part, right? Not how the album sounds, but whether or not it resembles Gorguts’ eponymous debut, Considered Dead, and the artwork for that album… That’s silly. […]

I was pretty darn upset when Malignant Altar called it quits. I reviewed their Realms of Exquisite Morbidity debut album. So awesome. Memorable. Doomy, brutal and dark death metal. Well, slap me in the face and say stop all that cryin’, because Terror Corpse contains former Malignant Altar members. That’s right, folks. Hailing from Houston, […]

I didn’t know that I needed Decrepit Altar in my life… until now. I love the cavernous, murky, and downright swampy vibes that these Croatian death/doom dealers are spewing out into the unsuspecting world. Egregious Defilement is their brand spanking first EP, and let me tell you what: IT’S FUCKING GREAT! I probably didn’t need […]

Mausoleum Gate is a pleasant Finnish surprise I recently came across. They have two prior albums and an EP. Space, Rituals and Magick continues their brand of metal, which combines the very early metal sounds from the 70s and early 80s. Think bands like Black Sabbath/Ozzy, Angelwitch, Mercyful Fate and Iron Maiden. Hell, even The […]

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

I recently got to see Los Angeles’ Lamp of Murmur with Dödsrit and the mighty Blackbraid. It was my first exposure to their brand of Black Metal craziness, and I wasn’t disappointed, not only are they fun to listen to, but they’re insane live. The Dreaming Prince in Ecstasy is their 4th full-length after a slew […]

Phobocosm, hailing from Montréal, Quebec, have been slinging their brand of darkness since around 2008, but did not pop onto the scene with a release until their debut album, Deprived, in 2014. All of their releases have been on Matt Calvert’s awesome Dark Descent Records. Gateway is the band’s fourth studio album, and we get […]

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

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

Garde is an interesting ‘new’ band, even though they formed 25 years ago, and Harbinger of Revenge and War is their only release. So you know they took a really, really long time to get this sucker out to us. Vocals are done by Dan Capp, the newest Solstice (UK) singer. He’s been with them […]

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

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

Decaying Human is a young Indonesian brutal death metal band that reactivated last year, after forming in 2021, but was dormant. Brian, owner of Ossuary Industries, knows brutal death metal and has his ear to the scene morning, noon and night, kinda like this fella, right here. There are all forms of extreme metal and […]

I’ve heard some weird shit this year, admittedly, I hear weird shit every year because that’s what I look for on promo day. Weird shit. Well, I got super excited this last time because guess what I got? The promo from the Czechian legends, Master’s Hammer, entitled Maldorör Disco… YEAH, BOY! I’m about to admit […]

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

Comatose Music is killing it towards the end of 2025 with quality brutal death metal releases. Massachusetts-based brutal slam/death metal act Dysentery has not released an album in 10 years. The last one was their third album- the absolutely savage, Fragments. I’ve known vocalist Scott Savaria and guitarist Peter “Blue” Spinazola (Fit for an Autopsy) […]

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

Demoniacal Genuflection was a death metal band based out of Houston, Texas, who released a series of splits, demos, and one full-length album in their ten-year existence. The band called it quits in 2015. This compilation titled Darker Lamentation contains their 2010 debut album The Ministers of Lamentation and four songs which were included on […]