What hasn’t changed is the band’s deft mix of multiple genres, from Bolt Thrower and Swedish death metal to some black metal, war metal, and some black/thrash, and even some Gothenburg death metal with damn solid results.

Those elements come together both between songs and smoothly within them. Case in point: the opening title track has a lot of everything thrown into one eight-minute mass of tumbling, rumbling riffs; the early  Entombed, “Revel in Flesh” styled gallop standout “Inexorable Slaughter”, the pure spikes-and-leather black thrash of “Fully Armed and Filthy”, the Bolt Thrower trundle of “Unto the Anvil of War” (which also has another “Revel in Flesh” type riff), the tremolo-picking riffs in “Warp Storm Imminent”. In all, I keep being reminded of fellow Kentuckians Abominant.

If my ears are correct, there is even some slight keyboard usage in “Penitent Engine”, and then in “Iron Within, Iron Without”, the album’s other standout, gets blasty with some Dismember-y melodies before the closer “Eternal Enslavement” wraps things up with a song that does a little of everything, but i would have preferred the album go out with a bit more of a memorable bang.

The production has a slight Swedish buzz to it, but I wouldn’t call it a full-on buzzsaw guitar tone, and vocalist/guitarist Conqueror Horus has a throaty rasp and shout, keeping things in that black/thrash realm, though the odd gruff bellow reminds you this is mostly solid, enjoyable death/black metal at its core.

But here is Australia’s A Night In Texas (I’d love for someone to comment on the band’s name origins), with their 4th album, The Darkest Side of Humanity, to rectify the situation. Surprisingly, I’m not overly familiar with the band, only having first heard them on 2024’s Digital Apocalypse, but in going back and checking out the band’s first 2 efforts, 2015’s God Delusion and 2017’s Global Slaughter, I see that they’ve been pretty consistent with their sound: technical deathcore with some symphonic elements scattered generously around.

Now, when I say blackened or symphonic deathcore, I don’t mean a full-on Lorna Shore, Shadow of Intent, or Worm Shepherd sound. It’s close, but the band’s primary sound is firmly rooted in the band’s thriving Australian deathcore scene (To the Grave, Thy Art is Murder, etc.), but adds symphonic elements at times. But when they do lean into the more epic/dramatic sounds, which seems like tangibly more than prior releases, it hits pretty hard, as they are delivered/composed by none other than Francesco Ferrini (Fleshgod Apocalypse), so I’d expect nothing less.

This increased orchestral and choral presence is used well to enhance moments in songs, rather than being present all the time, but when they do show up, they are super effective. It makes already stout tracks like “Fed to Death” the standout “Metastatic Misery”, ‘The Infinite Maw” (where Ryan Vail of Larcenia Roe helps out), or the closing killer title track pretty fucking epic. At times, I’m reminded of when Bonecarver’s sound changed on Carnage Funeral (in particular, the start of “Metastatic Misery” recalls “Morgue Desecrator” from that album).

But there is plenty of straight-up brutal, brutal deathcore for the Crown Magnetar folks, like “Rot From Within” or “A Primal Conditioning”, where the orchestration is a little less present or more understated, if still there (I mean, why would you hire Ferrini and not use him at least a little?). The only track that’s a bit of an outlier is “When the Sun Burns Out”, a moody sort of ballad with clean vocals that, while going for Whitechapel’s The Valley/Kin sound, doesn’t quite work for me.

The band’s own guitarist, Cory Judd, produced and engineered the album, as he has on past albums, and it sounds great, making the entire effort one of the better examples of the genre in 2026, though right now it doesn’t have much competition.

At the end of my review of The Star, I rhetorically asked if the band could return to the more blistering, scathing sound of the first two albums. Sure, Arkivet and The Star were amazing, but the more despondent and restrained hues just left me wanting more.

So I open the promotional email. And…. (sad trombone noise)… this is a 2-song, concept-based, 16-minute EP, not a new album.  And they didn’t read my review of The Star, as this continues the sound of the last 2 albums.

But, of course, it’s still brilliant, as both the songs on Å (‘stream’) deliver what you have come to expect from Wormwood: elegant, exquisite, but regally despondent melodic black metal.

The 9-minute “Yra/Extas” initially had me pumped as it comes out of the gate with a searing blast beat for a few bars. But over the next 9 minutes, it takes you on an emotional journey with riffs, emotional moments, atmospherics, and knee-wilting melodies (I mean, the last 3 minutes have a riff and solos that are just unfair).

The haunting child choirs from The Star kick off “Purposelessness Geometry”, a more restrained and mid-paced track that fully sounds like the last 2 albums. But it’s still damn good stuff, with some leads and riffs that just hit that despondent yet gracefully searing sweet spot, especially after the bluesy mid-song break where the choirs and moody riffs deliver the goods in all their somber glory.

I’ll try again, though; even though this is fantastic, can we get a return to the debut’s sound on the next full-length, please?

Anyhoo, hailing from Tasmania, The Absolution Sequence is a technical death metal band with some deathcore/djent leanings. Apparently, they started as a ‘groove/death metal’ band for a plethora of singles and demos since 2014, but on this debut album have developed a little more.

And the development into a more technical band is a positive one as all the players (some being around since the band’s inception in 2013, and some joining in 2020/2021) are skilled musicians, notably the two guitarists Luke Tucker and Steven Mason who are also in prog metal band Scoparia (along with bassist Alistair Boone, who isn’t quite fret less and twangy, but it shows here and there), and this injection of prog metal talent that has lead to the band being far more technical and intricate.

While not quite in that mathcore realm, some tracks like “The Sordid Miasma”, “Promethean Pilferage,” and “Diary of the Emaciated” certainly dip their toes in with choppy stuttering, chaotic rhythms.

But the large amount of solos, noodly twisty riffs, short atmospheric bridges, and light programming on tracks like “Diary of the Emaciated”, “The Nightmare Sigil,” and “Idols of Confraternity” keep things a bit more grounded in prog/tech realms.

That said, the vocals of Shawn Pybus and stammering, lurching songs like “Ghost Mantra” or “Grinding the Sphere” keep this partially in deathcore/death metal realms, as does the razor-sharp production. Think a sort of Psycroptic meets Periphery and a modern deathcore (i/.e. label mates and fellow Aussies Complexant or say bands like The Zenith Passage),

But when it’s all said and done, I’m not clamoring to re-listen to Dread Cycle. While the musicianship is top-notch, there’s no riff or song that I keep coming back to, but certainly many of you it there should and will enjoy and appreciate this much more.

Now, certainly, techno and dubstep beats/programming in metal, specifically deathcore, have been used plenty over the years ( The Browning, Beyond All Recognition), but Disfiguring the Goddess, I feel, is one of the first (I’d say The Berzerker, but while they used techno drums they had little dance/programming beats, and yes I know about Fear Factory‘s and Avulsed’s cyber efforts), to really lean into the dubstep influence, despite starting as a standard deathcore/slam band.

But of late, he and his more recent songs have been all over social media, with some even going a bit viral (namely the 2025 EP Galapagos). Especially with the popularity of bands like PeelingFlesh, Infectious Jelking, and Filth, where programming and rap are now commonplace.

So I went back and checked out post-Katerpiller albums like Softly With You, Blood Era and the Brutal Machine – and it’s all pretty consistent; massive, groovy slam/deathcore with oodles of samples, beats and programming. And that’s what Bloom offers, though it appears singing to Seek and Strike has given him a bigger production budget after being pretty independent for his career.

Most of you will hate this. But if you like the aforementioned PeelingFlesh, you will eat this up, as while not using rap, there are tons of dubstep beats and programming/samples amid the generally mid-paced, massive, loping slams. And those bite-sized slams (16 songs in 50 minutes) are pretty satisfying and head-bob-inducing; I imagine the likes of “Samba of the Faceless”,  “Echoes Fade, I remain”, “Deathcore Song”, “Mask off (feat. J-Figure)”, the lumbering “Goddess Box (feat. Bodybox)”, “Low Slam Low”, and “Black Widow Spider” would be pretty fun in a live environment.

That said, there are a few more ‘out there’ tracks like “AWOL”, “Sweet Dreams ” and “Dapper” (both feat. Four Stroke Baron)”, “Permission to be Claimed”, “Kiss the Dice” and reggae-laced “Pleasure Island” with either a lot more…. weirder? programming and some other vocal styles used than the brutal slam growl/burp.

Admittedly, 50 minutes is a bit long for this. Around “Pleasure Island”, the schtick wears off a bit, and I’ve heard the same riff a few times now (but I could see he t “Penance” being a live fixture). But like the albums before, this will be a random guilty pleasure of mine when I want something a little different if I want to shake my booty for a bit. (Ewwww, sorry for that visual).

There have been a couple of lineup changes, with Alex Taylor coming over from the now split-up Aklash. Still, the most impactful addition is Lydia Williams on soprano vocals, joining Freya and her hawkish screams and her own clean vocals. And it’s this brilliant duality that drives this 6-song, 42-minute gem.

The core sound, musically, is still rooted in the 3 above-mentioned bands, and done really well, with some gorgeous, uplifting riffs, but when Williams and Freya play off each other, which is thankfully pretty often, it’s really special. Imagine a sonic representation of that elegant cover art.

It happens on most, if not all, the tracks. And it’s intertwined with the expected builds and moments of acoustic/atmospheric introspection, and some sumptuous riffage and solos. For example, Williams takes the lead for the majority of the largely very chill opener “Nervosa”, until the  7:18 mark where Freya jumps in, and the song explodes into a jangly, 6/8 canter.

Second track “The Guide” might be my favorite track, with an alluring sway early on before a shimmery bridge and eventual 6/8 crescendo at 6:07 that is truly stunning. The same sort of breathtaking light/dark structures appear in my second favorite track, “Wildfire”, an utterly perfect album closer, with riffs that could have come right off Deafheaven’s Sunbather.

 The emotive “Retrace” has a surprisingly feral, urgent explosion (as does the more Opeth-inspired “Dissociate”) around the 3:08 mark, and also delivers a pretty special transition at the 6:46 mark, after a few minutes of lovely acoustics and William’s vocals. The song ends with a really emotional bridge.

How these guys aren’t on AOP, Season of Mist, Northern Silence, or Personal Records is beyond me. Wilderness is a pretty much perfect example of the genre, and they seem like a nice group of folks based on my interactions with them a few years ago. 

Norway’s Dimmu Bongir is new to me, but you can tell by their moniker, the Hordanes Land-based album cover, and prior album titles like Hvis pipen tar oss and Dark Medieval Hash, what scene and bands they are parodying, all based around marijuana of course.

Even though the Jaldaboath songs are listed second, I’ll start with them. I thought they had called it quits after The Further Adventures…, They teased a comeback with three singles in 2023: the pub questing “Alehorn Battalions” (of which I am a member, owning the namesake shirt), bouncy “Fayre Robin”, and the catchy “Ogre of Ogmore” (though I can’t place the song it is parodying). Those three songs are contained here, as well as a new song called “Beefeater” (a very English food chain as well as the Royal Guard you probably know).

They deliver what you’d expect from Jaldaboath;  ‘Hammering Heraldic Metal’, \’Crusader-core’, ‘Tumultuous Teutonic Templar Thrash’. Their words, not mine. Though the first three are lacking the usual UK TV/ kids show stuff as before, they are still catchy, folky jaunts with sing-along moments. The new song “Beefeater”, however, does return to the band’s very English roots and references, even the child’s hymn “He’s Got the Whole World in his hands”, and another kids’ playground song you’ll recognize. I hope it’s a sign that a new album is in the works.

Dimmu Bongir‘s songs are all new, and as they have on their two albums (i.e “Bongblåst”), are much more pot parody-based, with song titles like “Her Ghost in the Smoke” and “Inno a Marijuana”. Of course, they play a tinny, early 90s form of Symphonic black metal, and it’s OK.

Early, more raw Dimmu Borgir is the backbone of the style, but certainly Satyricon, early Emperor, and Cradle of Filth are in their crosshairs. The keyboards are suitably and possibly intentionally hokey, but as they werer back then, they work. Sound-wise, if you didn’t know they were a parody band, you’d be forgiven for thinking they were just a band paying homage. Which they, of course, could be as well.

“Her Ghost in the Smoke” actually has nice riffs and synths I enjoyed (and a parody Dani Filth screech), and the mid-paced “Alt mekk er svunnet hen” is actually a pretty cool little song as well, with clear early Dimmu influences that could have been on Enthrone Darkness Triumphant. “Inno A Marijuana,” of course, has a take on the classic Emperor song’s clean chorus as well as a guest spot from The Grand Master Jaldaboath delivering his special take on TheLord’s Prayer.

I’m just glad to see Jaldaboath ‘back’, though they never officially went away. The Dimmu Bongir material was a pleasant benefit, if even if just for the sound they are parodying, as the whole weed theme didn’t do it for me.

So when I started listening to Apex, and got further and further into the album, and there were no keyboards or orchestration, I was a little disappointed, as it appears the band, going against the grain, has removed the ‘blackened/symphonic’ element, and gone for a straight-up technical death metal/ deathcore sound. And that’s Ok, so once I got over myself and listened to the album for what it is, what Complexant has delivered is a solid effort of that aforementioned sound.

There’s been quite a bit of lineup shuffling for the band since their inception in 2017. And that might be part of the shift, notably, new vocalist Dan Greigsy replaces Brendan Clark. He’s a serviceable growler, but his semi-clean vocals don’t quite work (“i.e “No Angels Weep”, “Heretical Supremacy”), and some true singing makes the band a little more commercial than their early work.

So if you are familiar with when Whitechapel or Fit For an Autopsy went more experimental/commercial, you’ll have some idea of the still sometimes bludgeoning, technical but cleaner take on deathcore.

The mix/master from Crytopsy’s Christian Donaldson is, as you expect, tight, clean, and heavy. And the riffs from Shannon Zivkovic and Gavin Bradley are razor-sharp and tight when they go full force, like “Afterlife”, the more blackened “Swing Myself to Sleep” and “Cyclops”, a couple of minutes into “Critical Mass” and “Eye For An Eye”.

But as I mentioned, there’s a slightly more commercial, metalcore element here mixing with some more blistering stuff, and along with some of the clean vocals, some of which kind of bring killer songs to a halt (“Afterlife”), the album ends up being a little bit of a letdown for me personally.

I hate to be ‘that guy’, but it’s clear my bias based on a three-year-old EP and a single song the band put out 2 years ago is coming through here, despite my best efforts. The removal of the keyboards might be a boon to some, as that style is pretty saturated, so the band’s choice to remove them is to be praised, and fans of no-synths metalcore/deathcore should still enjoy this.

But at the same time, a track like the massive mid-paced closer “No Hope for Sanctuary” screams for some big orchestral bombast, and when they teased something as magnificent as “Your Sacrifice”, Apex is a bit of a let-down, as the band doesn’t stand out at all from the masses now.

And in 2024, Canadian act Apogean joined the roster and released Cyberestrictive, a perfect fit for the label, and now we have the relatively quick turnaround of the follow-up, Waste Where Life Begins, and they are still a perfect fit for the label, as the band’s second effort picks up right where the debut left off and delivers exactly what I stated in my opening paragraph.

Also, the fact that vocalist Mac Smith is involved here adds some real street cred to the band, as his involvement with bands like Decrepit Birth, Alterbeast, and the killer, Gears of War-themed tech-deathcore project Hammer of Dawn, ensures the vocals and lyrics are top-notch.

Generally, for me, 33 minutes is a tad short for an album, but here it’s the perfect length. The 8 songs, once again produced by Zach Ohren, are crisp, clear, and technical, with just a hint of keyboards here and there, and enough memorability to warrant multiple listens — often a problem with this tech style (i.e the recent The Absolution Sequence).

You get pretty epic blasters like opener “Daughter of the Oak” and “White Trees, Black Leaves”, some crunchier moments like the title track “Lie In Cinder”, the Jay Kristoff-inspired “Nassaru” and, of course, tracks that do some of everything – which, if I’m being honest, most do, but I’ll single out the killer “Hologram (Singing Silently on an Empty Stage)”.

The album’s final 2 tracks, the ambient interlude “Ritual” and “Black Smoke, Bleeding Earth”, add just a little more experimentation to an already complex album that should be on your radar if you like The Artisan Era bands or top-notch technical metal.

And now they have added another one with Austria’s Castiel (Hebrew for ‘God is my shield ‘………And also a character from the Supernatural TV show?).

Castiel has been on my radar for a while now since I heard the song “The Abyss” from 2024, and the subsequent EP Khaos, then backtracking and checking out the band’s album, Shadowlands from 2023. And they are a natural fit for Seek and Strike, if slightly different.

Yes, this is deathcore; yes, it has some blackened/symphonic elements; yes, it has the all-too-common, utterly demoic vocalist, so there is some appeal for the Lorna Shore, Shadow of Intent crowd. But for the most part, this is far more downtempo and brutish, having more in common with Humanity’s Last Breath, Praetor, Distant, and Black Tongue.

As a new label, introductory EP, this is only 4 songs and about 20 minutes, made up of 4 ‘acts’: “Defile//Denounce”, “A Festering Wound”, “Vile Spirits”, and “Empty Throne”. All four have the same lumbering, heavy, downtuned pace with a slight flocking of keyboards and atmospherics.

All 4 songs do sound pretty similar, and I wish there had been a standout moment or 2, but sadly, this is 20 minutes of continuous, suffocating, loping heft, notably on “Vile Spirits” and “Empty Throne”. Take that as a good or bad thing, but I would have liked just a little more variety personally.

Still, a solid introduction to a larger audience on Seek and Strike, nd I will still definitely check out the no doubt impending full-length album. And hope for just a little more.

So now, after 3 albums in 4 years, the band waited 6 years after Premonitions to release album number four, switching to Italy’s Avantgarde Music from Napalm Records, and also switching out long-time female singer/guitarist Chloe Bay and Lucia Amelia Emmanueli (female vocals) for a pretty recognized name in former Draconian singer Heike Langhans.

The result, though, is the same: absolutely top notch atmospheric/ symphonic, Gothic, melodic black metal.

I know the above stylistic description is a bit messy, but Sojourner pulls in from a wide array of styles from Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir to Summoning, Theatre of Tragedy, Insomnium, Draconian, and more obscure bands like Dismal Euphony or Duskmourn, just to name a few.

Either way, this is superb, and Mike Lamb (keyboards, guitars) and co. still know their way around a sultry, somber, but epic riff or hook, and with Langhans’ angelic voice adding some gorgeous throes to the proceedings (as Bray and Emmanueli did before her), it’s all just wonderfully emotive, enthralling and captivating.

Just listen to the chord progressions, vocal combo and keyboards of the gorgeous second track, “And the Paintings Fall” and “Lunar Tear” early on, and the absolutely knee-wilting closing standout “The Road Ahead”, which are all pretty heart-melting.

And while many of the choruses and elegant moments do lean a little harder into Gothic/Doom/Beauty and the Beast type moments (i.e. “Occultations”, “Epitaphs”), the band is still capable of delivering small bursts of more sweeping, death/black metal motifs as well to keep things just a little more biting (i.e “Dawnrays”, “Vvarfendell”).

In all, another fantastic release from Sojourner, who should definitely be a bigger player in the world scene and the style moving forward.

I had a pretty good online relationship with founder and drummer Rikard Wermen, and interviewed him a few times for other publications. But while listening to those albums, I thought to myself, “No one has really recreated that sound since”; That utterly savage but clean blend of brutal death metal and grindcore.

But here comes Denmark’s Genocide Doctrine, comprised of veterans of the Danish scene (Dreadlord,  Dysgnostic, Serpent’s Lair, Abscission, Carbon Tomb, Urkraft, to name a few), and the second opener, “Cesspit”, ripped into my ears; Deranged instantly came to mind.

It’s a nasty, blistering, unrelenting mix of brutal and technical death metal and Napalm Death/Nasum-y grindcore. But it’s got a sharp guitar tone, some nasty, demonic vocals, and a dense low end.

With 18 songs in 27 minutes, the grindcore brevity is condensed into a vicious death metal sound, with the longest songs at just under three minutes (“The Totalitarian” and “Bottom Dweller”). It blasts by with a complete disregard for memorability, just sheer teeth-shattering velocity and power cords as heard on “The Filth of Man”, “A Stain Upon Existence”, “Inside” and the 24-second “Sic Semper Tyrannis””

A couple of more throbbing, slower tracks like “Just Meat”, “Bottom Dweller”, “Iron Lung”, the groovy “Punishment Revoked” add a little reprieve, but not much, as the album will leave you reeling and concussed from start to finish.

The trio, comprised of Vollicide, Logan Mayhem, and Nemesis, don’t have much information out there about their background (except bassist /vocalist Vollicide, who has  The Design Abstract, Ut Interficias Inanis, and Violent Goat Rot under his credits), but deliver a very impressive style of chunky and technical death metal.

The focus is definitely on the ‘chunky’ aspect, as the production and the songwriting lend themselves to a very nice, hefty, stammering presence, bolstered by some solid, head-bopping songwriting and an authoritative bellow.

The promotional email references ‘groove metal’ and the likes of Gojira, Septicflesh, and Meshuggah, and that’s not a stretch; I’d throw in Decapitated’s more modern, chunkier moments (the main riff and guitar tone in “Primitive Voices I” gave me “Day 69” vibes), and maybe the Danish scene like Illdisposed and Dawn of Demise.

There’s also a tribal, sometimes industrial pulse and throb aspect to some of the material that adds just a little something I can’t quite put my finger on (i.e.,  “Atavistic Anarchy”, the intro/ interludes “Incipient Aeternam”, “Paleopraxia”).

The trio breaks out a blast beat or faster moment here and there, like the still-beefy “Primitive Voices I and II” and “Sequential Lifeblood” and even a little atmosphere to start and end “Primitive Voices III”. But it’s tracks like “Moulded By Emptiness”, the trundling “The Lifeless Black”, and “Sequential Lifeblood”, “Chaos Transcendent” and closer “Writhe” that will have you failing the ‘don’t head bang’ challenge pretty quickly.

Ethereal Void and Primordial Dissonance aren’t doing anything particularly new or exciting, but there is something here that keeps bringing me back to it.

I missed the last full-length, 2023’s Global Worming, but I enjoyed the last album I heard, 2021’s Mount Carcass. The band was always one of the better Dismember clones around, and that is the same for this 5 song EP.

The four original songs cover the expected mid-era Dismember hues with aplomb. The guitar tone is spot on, and the focus on the more groovy Massive Killing Capacity-styled riffs is competently done, as it has been their whole career. Moments like the huge groove in the last third of “Enemies of Peace”, and the opening/closing riff of “Life Breeds Death” all nail the chosen and obvious inspiration perfectly.

Like most of the band’s efforts, there is a cover song here (the band has covered everything from Bolt Thrower and Megadeth to the Escape from New York movie theme); this time it’s David Hasselhoff’s “True Survivor”. Yep, you read that right, and it’s a hoot.

Godspeed Endseeker. Have you have indeed found the end you sought.

Then I thought that was doing a disservice to France’s Hrothgar, and also that if a reader has clicked on this link, they already know who the band is.

So, I’ll get right to it and tell you about Hrothgar’s second album, Tales of Valhöll.

It’s like Amon Amarth shadow dropped a new album.

Fuck.

So there are plenty of unashamed, spot-on homages, odes and borderline rip-offs littered all over the place in metal; Wizardthrone (Bal Sagoth), Forlorn Citadel and Urdôl Ur (Summoning), the countless Dismember clones, and of late, the Lorna Shore wanna bes. And the line between homage and rip-off is very thin. And it’s a line Hrothgar often comes close to, and blasts right over.

Along with the bands I mentioned above, Hrothgar is easily one of the more…… mimicking? Seriously, if one of these songs came on, and you were not paying attention, you could easily just assume it’s a song from any Amon Amarth album, old or new. Quentin Peyrouse is a dead ringer for Johan Hegg, and I mean a dead fucking ringer. The riffs are that rousing, chunky but melodic, Viking-tinged style, and the production is beefy but clear. Hell, even the album cover art.

The thing is…. I dig it. It’s as good as, if not better than, some of Amon Amarth‘s more recent efforts over the years, and certainly better than Amon Amarth‘s lazier efforts.  The riffs are absolutely on point in capturing that epic, rousing, beer hall or ‘Viking long ship ploughing through the waves’ mood. I mean, just listen to opener “Jörmungandr”, “Face to Face”, “Fight You Like a Beast”, “Ulfhednar”, and that’s just in the album’s first half…The second half has the likes of “Fenrir’s Tale”, but the overtly idolizing formula is the same. But also still enjoyable.

The album’s back end has more of that beefy melancholy similar to “As Loke Falls” or “Cry of the Black Birds” on songs like “Hræsvelgr”, “Giant”, “Blazing Shores”, “The Voyager”, and closer “The Kraken”, which actually kinda kills. Amon Amarth might wish they could have penned some of these riffs, as they are more entertainingly Amon Amarth than Amon Amarth can be at times.

They say imitation is the greatest form of flattery, well if that’s the case, Amon Amarth should be flattered into fucking oblivion by what Hrothgar has kicked out on Tales of Valhöll.

But never have I felt so vehemently bullish or confident about what I am about to say…

If you like Scotland’s Celtic black act Soar, you absolutely must check out Italy’s Duir, and their second album, Catarsi.

While Duir is Celtic for “oak”, the album, rather than about Celtic legends and lore, is actually about a soldier’s struggles during WWI. However, the music itself, especially when rendered with a pretty constant Hurdy-Gurdy and bagpipe presence, courtesy of Thomas Zonato, is where Soar fans will no doubt have their interest not just piqued, but shattered into smithereens.

The rangy 6 songs in 46 minutes don’t quite have the epic scale and scope of Soar, nor some of the cleaner moments and vocals, as Duir focuses far more on the more intense, galloping 6/8 tremolo-picked moments. However, there are still a few reflective, introspective slowdowns and mid-paced moments (i.e. start of “Del Giorno”).

It takes a couple of minutes for the Soar sound to jump out from the opener “Manifesto”, but when it does, the album never looks back as Zonato and cohorts deliver some top notch melodic/atmospheric black metal riffs and structures that have that Winterfylleth, Wolves in the Throne Room, Agalloch or recent Inherits the Void backbone, but the bagpipes and hurdy gurdy cement the Celtic tones with confidence and ease. The production is crisp and clean, and the vocals stay in a higher register rasp throughout.

As a concept album, it needs to be listened to as a whole, and while the songs sort of carry shifts in the concept and story,  unless you understand Italian lyrics to follow along with our protagonist, you’d be hard-pressed to follow along musically. That said, I could at least fathom something coming to an end for the album closer “Oltre l’alba”.

But riff-wise, songs like “Di nessuno”, “Impeto” (which does have a little musical pathos), “Della Notte” (with its exquisite flute work), and the closer “Oltre l’alba” are all top-notch, enthralling songs that make for one of 2026’s better albums in the style.

Well, with Man Must Die and the short-lived Cerebral Bore calling it quits, the mantle of Scotland’s best death band was wide open, and some bands like Coffin Mulch, Party Cannon, Tyrannus, Penny Coffin,  and ChestCrush, have tried to take up that mantle, but Scordatura seems to be the logical choice (unless Korpse reunite?).

So with album number 4 and a shiny new, befitting label in Everlasting Spew, how would Scordatura rise to meet the challenge? Quite well, I’m happy to report, even if I’m not completely blown away.

Still playing a very American/Floridian version of brutal death metal, the band’s consistency shows up on this brisk and burly 28-minute beatdown. The fact that 3/4 of the members have been in the band since 2007 also shows (the only change is bassist Liam McCafferty joining the fray in 2024), with an album that continues the same sound as the prior three.

From opener “Doomed to Fate” to closer “Begging to Die”, you get repeated headbutts to the nose and mouth, leaving a shattered mess of teeth and bones. The pinch harmonic blasts deliver classic Suffocation-y, Cannibal Corpse-y, and Brutality-ish riffs with just a hint of The Code is Red... era era Napalm Death.

When not blasting your face in with the likes of “When the Red Moon hangs Low” or “Retali(hate)”, a few grooves kick in, but don’t expect breakdowns per se, just a few short pummelling bars of slower, more measured headbutting, as heard on the title track, “Existential Termination”, “Oppressed Repressed” or  “Maw of the Void”.

This is no frills brutal death metal that would have fit on Comatose Music stylistically, but is also an excellent fit on Everlasting Spew now.

The result is a pretty darn killer melodic black metal album that reminds me of fellow French solo artist Sühnopfer, but slightly less… ‘busy’, but certainly in that same super layered, shrill, but melodic wheelhouse, or a less medieval Passéisme.

I have not heard the prior three efforts, but I certainly will check them out, as Scholtès knows his way around a searing tremolo-picked melodic riff. That becomes abundantly clear towards the climactic ending of the opening track “The Sepulcher of Time”, where a gorgeously rendered arpeggio surfaces, and I’m fully vested in what the rest of the album offers.

Every track offers something to remember or go back to and relisten to. The layered riffs, subtle keys, as well as some cleverly layered vocal fx and clean singing, all deliver something brilliantly melodic and bitingly elegant. Whether it’s the blistering title track, or the familiar Immortal/ Abbath stomp that arises in the otherwise shimmering “Into the Shadow of the Falling Star”, the more moody, but still intricately layered moments of “The Last Cry of the Cosmos” (the riff at 4:40 is just perfect).

A sultry saxophone appears in “Wrath of the Endless Sea” and the almost nine-minute, varied and perfectly placed and structured closing track, “Inherits the Void”, just to keep you interested and throw a little curveball into the salvo of gorgeous, yet sharp riffs and structures.

The album sounds perfect for this style of music with a master from Spain’s Simon Da Silva, who has worked with everyone from Aversio Humanitas to Avulsed. And with all those thigns together, this is a must hear for fans of the style, and I will certainly be checking out the prior efforts.

Their last album, Mourninghoul, was back in 2024, which I never got around to hearing despite being familiar with and owning most of the band’s 5 efforts.

So here we are with album number 6, with the lineup largely intact except for the addition of Phillip Borg replacing Jonas Soder, but the result is the same- damn top-notch 90s era Swedish melodic black/death metal.

The 8-song, 50-minute affair gets right the Fuck to it with opener “Essence of Existence”; no intro, no atmospheric build-up or lead-in, just searing, razor-sharp riffs which deliver black metal frost and death metal fire into one tone, and harsh black metal rasps from OG member Heval Bozarslan.

Second track, “Altering the Perception”, might be even better with a perfect balance of melodic black metal and death metal savagery that recalls Grief of Emerald‘s It All Turns to Ashes, Necrophobic’s Bloodhymns, and Naglfar’s Diabolic, with the sheer blistering but melodic fury contained.

The rest of the 6 tracks follow suit (other than a couple of acoustic parts here and there and the more restrained, keyboard filled track, “A Concept Older Than Time”) with downright scorching effectiveness, whether it’s “Crumbling Mind Edifice”, where about 30 seconds in, it takes skin flesh from bone, “Plunged into a Paradox” with its more menacing lurching last third, or shredding lead filled closer “Empirical Life Metaphysical”. It’s all killer stuff.

As he did on Mourninghoul, Lawrence Mackrory’s (Aeternus, Baest, Darkane, Lik, In Pain, etc) delivers a mix/master that is as sharp as the riffs, making Lifeforce Omnibound another killer addition to the band’s fine catalog.

But occasionally I’ll throw on Liquid Metal just to see what’s going on, or listen to Ian Christie’s ‘Roots’ show, and I have, every so often, I have heard a new band or song I have dug, which has led to checking the band out further. One such example is Arizona’s  Wyrmhaven. I thought the name was cool, and the song was “Unrelenting Storms”. I found the song on Spotify, added it to my liked songs playlist on Spotify, and followed the band on social media.

Lo and behold, a few weeks later, the full album shows up in my mailbox, so I had to check it out. And what we have here in this confident, solid debut is a modern metal mix that does a little 00s metalcore, a little melodic death metal, a little black metal, a little death metal, a solid production and master ( from Zach Ohren), and some decent songwriting that ties it all together.

When listening to the album’s brisk 35 minutes, with all those elements, I get hints of The Black Dahlia Murder, Revocation, Darkest Hour, All Shall Perish, Uphill Battle, early Poison The Well, and other 00s metalcore pioneers. It’s not quite the pure homage as say, Victim of Fire from last year, as it’s cleaner and more solo-filled.  And while they do all of those genres quite well, it’s a ‘Jack of all trades, master of none’ sort of situation.

Vocalist Steve Naemark has a higher register rasp, with the occasional bellow, and the two guitarists, Travis Skye and Nick Cown (Gravecarver), have listened to plenty of the above genres, and the songs are rife with solos, and as I mentioned above, Zach Ohren’s mastering sounds crisp and sharp, as all his 00s and 10s albums were.

The lead single “Unrelenting Storms” and “Beneath the Pale”  succinctly sum up the band’s many influences, while other songs like “Violent Afterglow” and the more balladic closing duo of “Lifeless Oceans” and “Obsidian Gold” lean a little more blatantly into the 00s metalcore sound, or the more technical, melodic death sounding “Nightshade’s Embrace” stomping “Morning Star”, and burly, dommier “Pendulum faces”.

A solid debut, and I look for marked improvement on album number 2 should they stick together and keep making music.

The band has always been a Wintersun/Ensiferum-worshipping entity, but now, with a distinct lean toward more Viking/Pagan themes and lyrics, rather than cosmic, mystical, or nature themes, the transformation is complete. Song titles like “Raise All Thy Horns”, “Mystic Tavern”, or the Swedish sung “I skogens djup” (in the depths of the forest).

I know, they have always been sort of folky/pagan-y on some of their songs, notably on The Winter Way, but the last album was called Cosmic Warfare. But here, the song structures, while still certainly absolutely bombastic as fuck, and still with some of the most rousing keyboards around, are even more…..folky? The album just feels and sounds more like Ensiferum than ever before – but on steroids.

Especially vocally, where there are more beerhall-y cleans, choirs and chants. Which was a pleasant change, as I felt they were getting darker and heavier on Inane Ducum, and new member, backing vocalist Spencer Budworth, is far less involved with his deeper bellows than on the EP.

What you have on Old Gods Awaken is a peppier, bouncier, and, dare I say, ‘happier’ Atavistia. Along with Wintersun and Ensiferum, they line up even more with some of their Canadian contemporaries like Blackguard and Nordheim. Just listen to “Seeker of Time” (which could be an Ensiferum or Turisas song), “To A New World”, or “Goddess of My Dreams”, both more restrained and controlled tracks.

It’s still epic as fuck, and again, the keyboards of founder Matt Sippola are just downright brilliant. And the band still delivers 300bpm bombastic madness with tracks like “Mystic Tavern”, “Riding the White Storm” or rollicking “I skogens djup”, which feels like Finntroll on crack.

The epic 11-minute (the album’s sole ‘long’ song) album ending title track has a Finnish-sung chorus and delivers all sorts of folky atmospheres, riffs, and vocals blended in with the band’s core blistering pace and delivery, and it ends another great Avatistia album perfectly.

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.

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.

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.

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.