Relationships can make your spirit uplifted, and you’re invincible with your partner. But then something happens, and the spark goes out, there are accusations and distrust; both of you are trying to break each other down until you’re shells of your former selves. Loss, disconnect from the joyful aspects of life, and venomous anger are […]
The social media algorithm did its thing with Unverkalt. I can’t recall exactly which app, but an ad popped up showing them. I saw the band photo and the fact they’re on Season of Mist, which naively led me to believe they are a symphonic metal band, which is usually not something up my alley, […]
Norway’s Bizarrekult are back with their third album, Alt som finnes, with the band remaining intact with Adv on drums, Bizarre on guitars, bass, vox, D on vocals, and Ignat Pomazkov on guitars. I reviewed their sophomore effort in 2023, Den tapte krigen, and I really enjoyed their approach to black metal as well as […]
So, like Sigh’s I Saw the World End-Hangman’s Hymn MMXXV, here is another favorite album of mine from the 2000’s, this time it’s Rotting Christ‘s Aealo from 2010, getting a whole new recording and release. I never covered the original here, as I covered it for a different webzine at the time, but it made […]
Life is complicated. Reviewing albums can be complicated as well, especially if you’re torn between loving and just sort of liking an album. What’s even worse is when the band in question has been around forever and you’ve been a fan for a long time. Such is my dilemma with Hooded Menace and their 7th […]
Back in 2008/9, Dutch symphonic black metal act Carach Angren released their much-lauded, ghostly debut Lammendam. They followed it up with 5 more albums since, most excellent, some OK, but they are still widely regarded as one of the genre’s top acts. And now, 17 years later, the band is revisiting the local tale and […]
I’ve been a fan of Der Weg Einer Freiheit since their inception back in 2009. Born out of Würzburg, Bavaria, their self-titled debut took the world of Black Metal by storm in 2010. Since then, they’ve released five amazing albums filled with Black Metal venom. Each one surpasses the other in terms of raw emotion […]
It’s rare for me to be left speechless over an album. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a feeling that I’m used to and certainly has been felt due to a few other releases this year. As I was listening to A Dark Poem Part I: The Shores of Melancholia, I started to wonder why I […]
Sometimes it’s bloody difficult to find information about a band. Take Sowulo and their fifth (!) album: Niht. There’s nothing on Metal Archives about them at all, I mean, five albums in, you’d think there’d be something, right? Nope. So here I go into this with only the barest of information. It’s a good thing […]
What the hell am I listening to and why do I love this?? Our acclaimed site owner Erik “The Brave” Thomas did a bang up review of Impureza’s second album, La caída de Tonatiuh, in 2017 and it made his year end list as well. I overlooked the band, there are just too many bands […]
Canada’s most extreme metal band, Cryptopsy returns with their 9th full-length album, An Insatiable Violence. I have been a fan since the very early days. When I joined Internal Bleeding in 1994, Cryptopsy were just gaining steam, and we played a string of shows together with them in Canada and some fests here in the […]
Once upon a time, I thought of Melodic Death Metal as the Michael Bolton of the Metal community. It’s pretty, at times brutal as fuck; but ultimately one cancels out the other and it either sucks ass or kicks it. This is not the case with Greece’s Nightfall. I wasn’t expecting what I got from […]
After reforming after 18 years in 2020 and releasing one of the best reunion albums of recent memory with Cosmic World Mother, Finland’s enigmatic and genre-shifting…And Oceans wasted little time in releasing the follow-up, As In Gardens, So In Tombs, a mere 2 years later. And as I said in my review of As In […]
My fall down the Tech-Death rabbit hole continues. It’s been a wild ride, and it seems to have no end because another killer band has come across my radar. They are called Changeling, and this is a new project from Tom “Fountainhead” Geldschläger. Most recently he wrote “Weltseelee”, the 15-minute epic that he composed for […]
Wrath of Logarius was first named Martyr Logarius. It’s some video game character from a game called Bloodborne. The band started in 2021, released the Necrotic Assimilation ep in 2023, and then changed the name to Wrath of Logarius. The band logo is still the same style, however. This California based band plays a pretty […]
I don’t need to tell you all the ways that the isolation and uncertainty of the pandemic left marks on the world that, to this day, we’re still recovering from. In a lot of ways, I think most of us are still coming to grips with what we learned about ourselves and the people surrounding […]
Legendary is a word reserved for the elite. The bands that have endured throughout the many transformations that have run through Black Metal since It’s vile birth so many years ago. If you don’t know the history of Rotting Christ, go read a book. Seriously, there’s an official book written about them. I’ll wait. Okay, […]
“After hearing the chainsaws on a daily basis, we knew it was time to act”, says musician-turned-activist Sylvain Demercastel, “because the buzzing is only getting louder”. It’s no secret that the rainforest is essential for us to live. It’s been referred to as the lungs of the Earth for very good reasons; but due to […]
Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, this is 4/5 of Swedish tech death legends Spawn of Possession, reborn: Guitarists Jonas Bryssling and Christian Muenzner, vocalist Dennis Röndum and bassist Erlend Caspersen. And they welcome into the fold, the new dude, Odius Mortem drummer KC Howard. I loved Spawn of Possession and felt their final […]
Scotland’s Folk/Pagan Black Metal band Saor, under the sole guise of Andy Marshall, and guest musicians, return with Amidst the Ruins, their sixth album. This is their most adventurous and most expansive album to date. The 12+ minute title track leads the charge, opening this terrific album, with a long blast beat which has other […]
Back in 2020, along with fellow revered 90s Black Metal acts Naglfar and ..And Oceans, Sweden’s Mörk Gryning returned after a long hiatus to deliver Hinsides vrede, and it was, like their peers, a killer return to the fray. delivering a perfect 90s throwback to…. themselves? and of course, the other two bands mentioned above. […]
I love fall. I’m a very fall, winter, and spring type of guy (I’m available, all you single Metal Girls) my love comes in the form of quality avant-garde, extraordinarily heavy in so many killer Eastern European extreme metal ways… Kroda, Depresy, Blaze of Perdition. The other day I added one of the most insane […]
After a pretty extensive stay with Willowtip Records Defeated Sanity was snatched up by Season of Mist and Chronicles of Lunacy is their first release for their new label. This is their seventh full-length album and Defeated Sanity knows how to pack a solid uppercut with streamlined songs. It fits them best since they’re pretty […]
1349 is the year that the Black Death swept through Norway. It’s only fitting that a Black Metal band would eventually take such a brutal portion of time and name their band after it. 1349 came out of the ashes of Alvheim in 1997 with Ravn (vocals, drums), Tjalve (guitars), Seidemann (bass), and Balfori (guitars). […]
I love French Black Metal, and that goes back to the early 2000s when I first heard Mutiilation, Anorexia Nervosa, Deathspell Omega and Osculum Infame. From the press release: Gravenoire was formed in early 2022 by Maximilien Brigliadori (BÂ’A, Diablation, former Hyrgal), Emmanuel Zuccaro (BÂ’A, Verfallen, former Hyrgal), Vicomte Vampyr Arkames (Diablation (former Seth / […]