With 4 albums under their belt, you’d expect a level of confidence and expertise in the style, and you definitely get that on these 4 songs, which continue the story and themes from the two prior 2025 EPs, In This Silence and Broken Mind (the band will be releasing all three EPs together as one album, Darkest Light ).

With oodles of big, brash symphonics, multiple vocal styles (clean male and female croons and death metal growls)  delving into various narratives and moods, the 22 minutes of classically driven orchestration and riffs are brimming with theatrical, epic moments that kept me pretty entertained.

Whether it’s the opening waltzy, really cool riff of standout opener “Darkest Light” or the surprisingly heavy last two tracks “Dissonance – My Reality, Pt. IV” and Waganerian “Witch Hunt – Tragedy of Delusion, Pt. III”, Meteroa clearly are masters of their chosen style and certainly a new addition (for me) to the top level bands mentioned in the opening paragraph, but adding a little more heaviness to the style. Good stuff.

I never covered the original here, as I covered it for a different webzine at the time, but it made my year-end list for 2010, and still stands as my favorite Rotting Christ album, even with four albums released since then. They found that perfect balance between the hellenic, epic orchestration and burly but melodic black metal that they were starting to deliver a few albums earlier with the likes of Thegonia and Santos Diavalos.

But on Aealo, it all came together for a truly classic album (in my humble opiono of course), and now it’s been redone from the ground up, and like Sigh’s effort, it’s a bit of a double-edged sword. Production was never an issue in 2010, and on the original, and the additional horns, choirs, and keys were, back then, still pretty fucking lush and epic.

So how do they sound now? Well, it’s even bigger, brasher, and even more epic as Themis and Sakis, tuned everything up to 11, especially the hellenic, ethnic elements that were already pretty heavily featured. Right out of the gate, the title track (which had one of my favorite song openings ever) still has some downright fucking rousing female choirs, now with a few more layers and key changes.

Chunky second track “Eon Aenaos” also has a little more heft and girth, along with various degrees of background layers and synths, which just give the song a whole lot more depth. And that’s sort of how the whole album feels; there’s definitely more going on, certainly when you listen with headphones, and the overall sound is definitely clearer and more polished. But the original had a little more primal, raw energy.

“Δαίμονων βρωσης”, as it did 16 years ago, blends the more melodic, but moody riffage of A Dead Poem or Triarchy of The Lost Lovers, with some dramatic bombast, and now that bombast is just clearer and much more present. Other standout tracks from the original album are still of course standouts, such as the stern militant stomp of “Noctis Era”, now with more chants and choirs, the jaunty duo of “Dub-saĝ-ta-ke” as well as “Fire, Death and Fear”, and fierce closer “Santa Muerte”. All still killer tracks, just with a little more gloss and oomph.

The guest appearances from the original (Primordial’s Alan Nemtheanga on “Thou Art Lord”, Diamanda Galás on the cover of her “Orders from the Dead”)  reappear long with the new sound and artwork, which makes this at least worth a listen if you enjoyed the original.

Here’s one for you:

Expectations: Promos sheet that teased brutal death metal like Suffocation and Immolation, with added cinematic atmospheres, keyboards, and tales of brutal torture and serial killers, or specifically ‘a blood-soaked manifesto of riffs, madness, and horror, dragging the listener into a world of pain and cinematic carnage.!!’.  and ‘ Those who face this album won’t be spared. CALCRAFT hold themselves to their own brutal standard – and deliver death metal in its most relentless, uncompromising form”. 

Fuck me. Talk about a tease!!! I was expecting the likes of Spiritual Deception, The Monolith Deathcult, Agiel, Lykathea Aflame, and Scrambled Defuncts

The Reality: A slightly more brutal version of Germany’s Crematory with songs and lots of samples about serial killers and horror movies.

Now, depending on your view of Crematory and their early, less gothic albums like Transmigration and … Just Dreaming,  Calcraft (named after William Calcraft, a notorious English executioner- further teasing something special), that might have some allure for you, and certainly, there are some Ok moments here that fulfill the promise of the promotional information.

But otherwise, Calcraft falls a bit flat and tries a little hard (the imagery, the video above, the gimp masks outfits, etc) to be shocking and brutal, when the music doesn’t quite match up.

Opening satisfying “Satisfying Strangulation” is a perfect example of what’s going on here: a choppy industrial/nu metal riff, warbly synths, a spacey Mithras-y solo, climaxing in an indecipherable blast beat and atonal stomp and no real glimpse of the promotional tease. 1 song in and I am annoyed.

Now, things do get better with the second track, “Fuck Blade.” (Yes,  a sample from the movie Seven is used here), where some female choirs randomly show up, and the third track, “Slovakian Carnage”, where some Florida death metal and more extreme melodic death metal, but is still somewhat…. ‘blah’.

After a brief interlude, the last three tracks, “Purest Pain”, “Carving Flesh,” and “Outro”, deliver more of the same underwhelming, average music that isn’t even close to what the promotional materials hinted at, and I’m left pretty disappointed by the band and the album.

But some other lesser-known but really good bands have dropped or are dropping albums in 2025; To Obey A Tyrant, When Plagues Collide, Blinded by Hate, and Existentialist have all dropped killer EPs. Hate Within, Kneel Before the Death, Seilkanker, Sunscourge, and Sold Soul have also already released stellar efforts. And we finally have the long-awaited second album from Russia’s Sin Deliverance, arguably my second most anticipated album of the year, and hopefully an album from Australia’s Complexant.

Enter Nashville’s Ov Ruin, who formed in 2022, and have been on my radar since. They have dropped a few fine singles since forming, and recently, 4 tracks from this album over the last few months.  And boy is thier debut a scorcher of an effort that should instantly elevate the band well into that second tier of bands playing the style with the bands mentioned above as we well as Sin Deliverance, Eden Adversary, Bonecarver, Winters Gate, Worm Shepherd, Enemies Everywhere, Dismebodied Tyrant, Dethrone the Corrupted, Assemble the Chariots and such. (The big 4 still remain Lorna, Shadow, Mental Cruelty, and A Wake in Providence IMHO).

And what makes Ov Ruin sooooo good is the orchestral compositions, especially the choirs, rendered here by guitarist Devin Wade and Drummer Jake Thompson with some help from Hate Within‘s Harry Tayadon (which tracks now as Hate Within‘s recent Tomb of the Tormentor is fucking epic too). Seriously, these guys and guys like Hate Within, Winters Gate, Complexant, Sin Deliverance, and Assemble the Chariots are simply composing stunning, cinematically epic pieces to go with the blistering deathcore, which in this case leans heavily into the ‘blackened’ side, akin to Existentialist and To Obey A Tyrant.  And of course, clear, unabashed nods to the big 4 I mentioned – notably Immortal and ..AIRTN era Lorna Shore and the last Mental Cruelty album. And when armed with a Blake Mullens (Disembodied Tyrant) production, it all sounds simply fucking epic.

Right from the get go, with the fucking epic choirs that start “Infernal Flame” to standout closer “Suffer In Silence”, the album is a perfectly timed 38 minutes of genre perfection. Songs that I hadn’t heard before, like the utterly blistering favorite “Distant Memory”, “Cursed” all fit right in with the other killer tracks I had already heard, like “Flesh and Bone”, “Forsaken Soul”, and the stellar title track. The only track I was kind of lukewarm on was “Winter’s Night”, as it’s simply too repetitive and never goes anywhere, even with the dramatic choirs and keys.

As is the norm, there a a few guests that help out from the Brojob chaps, Casey Neeedler (Abbadonia) and Isiah Drisscoll (Befouled Tongue). But let’s be honest, everyone is trying to out-snarl and snort Will Ramos over an ever-slowing breakdown (i.e, “Distant Memory”, “Cursed”, “Eternal Lament”, and “Suffer in Silence”- all have them), so there’s little to differentiate. And I’m good with it, especially with orchestration and music this fucking good.

And finally, on a side note, good for Ov Ruin teaming up with Crestfallen Records (who are building a nice little niche in the genre) for making physical copies, something quite a few bands I mentioned above do not have.

After covering the Second Punic War with The Immortal Wars and Nero’s reign on The Thirteen Years of Nero, Ex Deo has moved to AD 69- the tumultuous year of .. well four emperors. Each of the songs is named after the respective emperors; Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian.

The formula is the same though, mid-paced chugging, excellently produced Kataklysm-ish death metal with a heavy use of keyboards a la Fleshgod Apocalypse, and such. “Galba” chugs along with commanding heft, while “Otho” is a massive lumbering number. “Vitellius” is more of the same, but a tad slower and it’s clear Ex Deo is a one-trick pony, even if that trick is pretty solid, but the band will never be on par with ADE.

That said, the last track “Vespasian”, is befitting of his Flavian Dynasty where Rome came out of the prior three emperors’ chaos to flourish and prosper for 27 years. The track’s triumphant, rousing riffs and epic synths come together to maybe make for Ex Deo‘s best track of their entire discography, and fulfill all that epic source materials potential finally. I hope the next full length continues the improvement.

Well, Like Lorna Shore back in 2020 with Immortal, Worm Shepherd‘s third album was already mostly recorded before the vocalist issues. The band (or lone remaining member Tre Purdue) decided to release the album with Duarte on vocals and add some session folks to help out with Harry Tadayon (ex-Immortal Disfigurement)  and Mental Cruelty‘s Nahuel Lozano on drums to help recording. However, it’s clear the band ( and their third logo) is now a studio project only (and a gentleman by the name of ‘The Orc King’ from Infectorium has been tapped as the new vocalist).

With The Sleeping Sun EP, released earlier in 2024, I felt a style shift coming with much more extensive use of clean vocals and slower moodier songs, and I’m glad to report that Hunger manages to merge the elements from the EP as well as their continued top-notch blacked deathcore into a stellar third album.

The band’s already established sound which is influenced by peers like Lorna Shore (Immortal era) and such, is perfected here. Make no mistake, much like bands like Enemies Everywhere and such they are doing the Lorna Shore blacked deathcore sound with nigh an original note, but they are clearly one of the best bands at it.

Not quite as orchestral or choir-filled as A Wake in Providence, but with the same sense of dramatic, building symphonic bombast, Worm Shepherd’s structural blackened deathcore backbone is solid, and when they get a little moodier such as parts of opener “The Anguished Throne, (where Duarte really shows how good he was) “Illuminate Oblivion”,  “He Who Breathes Fire”, the prior EPs hues shine through, even if Duarte’s clean vocals still don’t hit quite right (Purdue has come out publically saying that the band is done with clean vocals after Duarte’s departure).

Excellent tracks like “He Who Breathes Fire”, the very Meshuggah-ish title track, and the dramatic “The Whistles in the Cold”  and “Of Ruin and Banishment” all deliver the goods for fans of the genre like me, with ample bombast and huge crumbling, now standard breakdowns. But it’s the last third of the album where Worm Shepherd really shows off their ability.

The absolutely blistering standout “A Harrowing Dawn”, brutally gorgeous “The Waters of Lethe” and epic, contemplative 8-minute “And at the End of Fear, Silentium” while not related, come close to matching the gravitas of “Pain Remains” trilogy of songs from Lorna Shore‘s Pain Remains album.

Back in my review of A Wake In Providence‘s stunning I Write To You, My Darling Decay, I wondered who the Big 4 of Blackened Deathcore would be. I ultimately decided that A Wake in Providence should be the fourth act to join Lorna Shore, Shadow of Intent, and Mental Cruelty. But with Hunger, I question who I kick out to make room for Worm Shepherd. Or maybe it’s just a Big 5 now?

So, who is The Weeping Gate? Well, they hail from Little Rock, Arkansas. They started in 2007 as a melodic hard rock band but have since developed into a melodic death metal/metalcore band with a heavy keyboard presence and some clean-sung female vocals.

There are some crystal clear influences at play here. In the riffs and genre influences, I hear The Black Dahlia Murder, early Bleeding Through, Winds of Plague, some 90s symphonic/melodic black metal, and, due to the female vocals (along with dual rasps and growls of Alex Turpin), Germany’s Deadlock (circa 2005’s Earth. Revolt) and, more obscurely, Aversed and their 2022 album, Impermanent.

Then there are the keyboards of female singer Sydney Halcumb. Rather than the orchestral/ symphonic Lorna Shore mimicking hues of some of their peers, they are a little more ethereal, crystalline, and fantasy-sounding. As I mentioned above, at times I get wafts Winds of Plague (the non-suck albums). And while I’m sure the band is too young to even know them, here and there I get a Bal Sagoth vibe- not just in the keyboards, but some of the riffs too. Check out the opening minutes of “Cursed”,  “William of Norwich” or the galloping in the chorus of  “Deconstruction”. I half expected Lord Byron’s Plankton bellow voice to chime in with “THE RAVENS ARE ON THE WING!!”. (or maybe it’s just because I’ve been on a huge Bal Sagoth and Kull kick of late…).

Anyhoo, what I’m saying is, with all the bands I mentioned, which might turn a bunch of you off, I’m really digging it. It hits all the soft spots for me. From the blistering, straight-to-the-point opener “The Woods”, where Halcumb quickly establishes herself on keys and vocally, through “Beyond the Witchcloud” (is that a Bal Sagoth some title or what?) where Chaney Crabb of Entheos helps out, “Illuminate & Desecrate”, standouts “The Burial” (where Halcumb again shines) and aforementioned “William of Norwich” and “Deconstruction”, I’m simply really enjoying the entire album and every slightly cliched, familiar sound and trope it has to offer.

A couple of moments slow things down a bit such as “Lycanthropy” and closer “As Evil Transcends”, but otherwise everything has a well-produced balance that delivers fast, mid-paced, and slow riffs. The focus is really on the complete songs and songs where Halcumb shows up truly shine and make The Weeping Gate one of Arkansas’ best new metal bands….

Entering the fray for Opera is drummer Eugene Ryabchenko (Banisher, Afgrund) and guitarist Fabio Bartoletti (ex-Hideous Dvinity, ex-Deceptionist), who sessioned on Veleno, now joins as a full-time member. But to help offset the loss of Rossi, Soprano opera singer Veronica Bordacchini has joined the band full-time. She has guested on numerous Fleshgod songs in the past, but now as a full-time member, she has a far larger presence. One thing that has stayed is the production/mix/master from Jacob Hansen (Delain, Epica, Sirenia, Volbeat, Epica, Arch Enemy), who really brings out the orchestral elements from the always fucking epic Francesco Ferrini.

Rather than mythology or history on some of the band’s past albums, Opera deals with a much more personal affair; Francisco Paoli’s near-death accident while climbing a mountain in August of 2021 where he suffered multiple fractures and had a long road to recovery. All of this comes together to form a killer album that continues what King and Veleno delivered; the band’s trademark operatic death metal, but even more dramatic gravitas.

If you don’t like Fleshgod, Opera won’t change your mind. It’s bombastic, epic, and of course, heavily orchestrated. One of the criticisms of the band’s sound was the underlying brutal tech/death metal (think fellow Italians like Bloodtruth, Vomit the Soul, and Hour of Penance, bands with which there is a heavy cross-member pollination). But as with King and Veleno, there is finally a little more restraint and variety- an issue that plagued early albums like Agony,( which I still love) Labyrinth.

With the more personal story, tracks like “Pendulum”, “Matricide 8.21”, “Till Death Do Us Part”, and to some extent “At War with My Soul” deliver slower, more poignant numbers where Bordacchini has a bigger role, especially the fitting closer “Till Death Do Us Part” and the emotional “Matricide 8.21”, where she appears to voice some sort of mother role. And indeed, as a result, the whole thing seems more….. operatic. As the album title suggests.

However, the band is still masters of blistering, blasting death metal with absolutely stunning orchestral arrangements from Ferrini. Opener “I Can Never Die”, “Bloodclock”, and particularly personal favorites “Morphine Waltz” and “Per Aspera ad Astra” (which are now up there with “The Fool”, “The Violation” and “The Betrayal” as my favorite Fleshgod songs) are fucking bombastic as heck.

As I said, this won’t convert critics of the band, but for fans, it certainly adds another album to their growing discography as it matches Veleno, King and Agony as their best offerings.

But I’m going with A Wake in Providence. I toyed with it after Eternity, but I Write To You, My Darling Decay absolutely fucking cements it.

On 2022’s Eternity, they showed they were not just ‘the band Lorna Shore’s Will Ramos used to be in’, as it was just a notch below Pain Remains for the best album of the year in my opinion. And now, moving pretty quickly to the follow-up, the deeply dramatic I Write To You, My Darling Decay, the band has shown Eternity wasn’t a fluke with an album that is just a cripplingly epic example of the blackened deathcore genre, and probably the bar to beat in 2024 and maybe beyond.

Everything has been turned to 11 here and I mean really cranked up. Especially the choral and orchestral arrangements which rival Fleshgod Apocalypse with the use of soprano opera vocalists to enhance the deeply personal story. Founder and guitarist D’Andre Tyre also has increased the use of clean vocals to complement Adam Mercer’s growls. But the clean vocals work here and complement all the emotional gravitas throughout the album. Downfall of Mankind could learn something here about clean vocals.

I Write To You, My Darling Decay is a special album, one that’s going to be hard to top in 2024, both in the genre or in any metal. And frankly, I’m not sure how the band even tops it as this is clearly their Master of Puppets or Reign in Blood, and comes close to matching Pain Remains as far as being a true, new genre classic.

Where do I even start? I already mentioned the increased Fleshgod levels of bombastic cinema-quality orchestral and choral arrangements that are emotional, dramatic, and truly breathtaking fitting the album’s story of pain and loss. The huge, brass and string Hans Zimmer moments and soprano vocal moments hit so hard it hurts. The songs are better written and more engaging than Eternity (which was brilliant in itself) and you can tell this is a deeply personal album for Tyre. The somber crooning choruses complement the blasting riffs and huge breakdowns (It is still deathcore after all), but it’s through a classical music lens the whole time (I mean listen to the interlude “Agony, My Familiar”). 

Single tracks are hard to break down here as, like movements of a symphony, the songs sort of blend and meld into each other seamlessly. In truth, the album plays better as one single hour-long movement rather than 10 songs. But certainly “Mournful Benediction” (with Shadow in Intent‘s Ben Duer helping out) “Agonofinis”, “In Whispers”, and the closer “I, the Mournful” standout and serve relisten to truly absorb everything that’s happening. Even the album’s almost 8-minute more moody title track delivers a deathcore gut punch with wilting emotional heft and depth

While Lorna Shore appears content to continue milking the momentum of 2022’s Pain Remains, the band that is forever tied to Lorna Shore due to vocalist Will Ramos, and who released the second-best album in the genre that same year in Eternity, is not content to sit on their 2022 album.  Instead, they have arguably released one of the best albums of 2024 and maneuvered into the conversation as the best band in the genre.

Surprisingly the band hasn’t changed their delivery a whole lot since their first single “Reflections” in 2009, other than adding some orchestral flare with 2017s The Sulphur Voids EP.

So what style does Assemble the Chariots play? well, that’s a complex question as they don’t really fit into a single category. On one hand, they fit under the symphonic deathcore craze (Shadow of Intent’s “Farewell” from Elegy comes to mind), on the other hand, they are melodic death metal, or even The Black Dahlia Murder styled metal and at times tech/prog death. And even at times, and especially on this album they  have a larger power metal influence (Dragoncorpse comes to mind). Especially with some of the chord progressions and the band’s extensive use of narrations (Twilight Force would be proud) and the Sweeping interstellar concept that Unyielding Light conveys. At times I even get a slight Bal-Sagoth/Kull vibe.

No matter the genre though, the album is fucking brilliant. Notably, the orchestration compositions of guitarist Kevin Apostol , which might be the most rousing I’ve heard in 2024 ( a bar that keeps getting raised since the likes of Atavistia’s,  Ensom’s and Lamentari’s respective releases earlier this year). They are truly movie/ score quality and could be featured in any Hollywood A-list sci-fi/action movie.

Starting with the intro “Aquilegia In Peril” (the planet at the center of the album’s theme), the first of many spoken word narrations introduce things before “Departure” sets the tone with a blistering, hyper-speed number that reveals the band’s many styles in downright epic spades. The song’s pace is frequented for much of the next 48 minutes with a few exceptions.

The next song “Admorean Monolith” is one such song with a mid-paced cyber chug, that I could hear on a Kovenant album. But “As Was Seen by the Augerers” returns things to the sweeping, blasting majesty.

The ebb and flow of the album tells the story (with a complete lore that is available on their website) as efficiently as any movie as the album shifts between epic battles, personal loss, and sacrifice and somber climaxes teasing the next chapter. In particular personal favorites, “Evermurk”, “Empress” and “Emancipation” (with full-on power metal vocals in the chorus from Dreamtale and ex-Battle Beast singer Nitte Valo) are just simply riveting tracks that left me as entertained as any video game, movie, or any other album I’ve heard so far in 2024.

The album is subtitled The Ephemeral Trilogy part 1, so I really hope the band continues this saga, even though the bar has been set incredibly high, with what is for me an Album of the Year contender.

It’s still, epic, bombastic Orchestral/Symphonic (I’m not 100% sure if there is a difference and what it is) death metal in the vein of fellow Italians’ Fleshgod Apocalypse and to these ears, Argentina’s Mortuorial Eclipse. The band has kept the exact sound (having all returning members helps) from the debut album, as this way too short, 4-song, 15-minute, Aleister Crowley-themed EP sounds virtually identical to the debut. But as you’d expect/hope, the band has improved a little in the 3-year gap, with 4 excellent songs that have mid-era Behemoth death metal heft and massive symphonic elements.

Opener and EP centerpiece “Ophidian’s Enthronement” starts things off with a bang with dramatic strings and choirs and a mid-paced stomp, before the song’s final few minutes deliver an absolutely stunning, epic bast beat backed with move score quality orchestration and choirs.

“The Divine Malice Conflagration” delivers stern, brass-heavy militant marches and blasts while the shorter “Enochian Abyss” has a choral bridge around 2 and half minutes in that’s simply glorious. The EP closes out with another short song “Hexed Katharsis”, a mostly mid-paced Middle Eastern bruiser that cements these guys as real up-and-comers in the genre with the potential to join fellow Italians Spiritual Deception and Fleshgod Apocalypse atop the heap.

And then more brutal bands like Luciferion, The Monolith Deathcult, Agiel, Lykathea Aflame, and Scrambled Defuncts started getting in on the act. They are far more commonplace now with bands like Singularity, Immanifest, Mordant Rapture and Fleshgod Apocalypse, who are arguably the bar for the style. And let’s not even get into the symphonic deathcore offshoot….

So here is Italy’s Spiritual Deception and they, like countrymates Fleshgod Apocalypse have taken more brutal, technical death metal that’s commonplace in Italy, and added an array of orchestration and choirs over everything. The end result inevitably imbues Fleshgod, but also a more chaotic, unhinged tone like the aforementioned Scrambled Defuncts.

Though formed from the ashes of metalcore band Humans Ablaze,  Spiritual Deception shows the band has some innate influence from their Italian brutal/tech death brethren like Vomit the Soul, Bloodtruth, Antropofagus and of course Hour of Penance (aided by a Stefano Morabito production/mix/master). But these guys aren’t quite on that level as far as the sharp, savagery of tech death elitism. But.. they are pretty good, and certainly a little more chaotic, discordant, and unpredictable.

And a lot of that chaotic tone is from the orchestration which is far more in the Scrambled Defuncts wheelhouse as opposed to the sweeping, cinematic Zimmer/score-like hues of say, Francesco Ferrini (Fleshgod). It’s a little more jarring and off-kilter, though still pretty epic at times, and certainly gives the discordant, churning death metal a unique flavor.

Luc Lemay (Gorguts) and Karl Sanders (Nile) show up to play some guitars on a couple of tracks, to give you some idea of some of the influences at play in the death metal backbone. And at times it really hits the spot such as in “The Days of Sleep”, Middle Eastern injected “Thousand Lives Within” (with Karl Sanders of course), “Individuality Dissolves” or 9 minute closer “…to the Coldest Decline (Decadence pt. IV)”. Even if the orchestration and choirs sound a bit programmed and (well, the whole production really) not truly organic or natural. And sometimes it gets a bit too chaotic or unstructured (i.e.”Beyond Perception and Matter”, “On the Edge of Sleep”), but it’s still enjoyable.

Ultimately Semitae Mentis has been one of my go-to albums for this early stage of 2024, I mean it has keyboards, of course, so I’m going to love it. We will see if it is in play and the end of the year and has enough lasting power when it comes time to albums of the year.

And it should come as no surprise, as founder Dale Urban (also of Dragoncorpse) has surrounded himself with all new/different members from the debut, and it shows. Notably veteran drummer Bryce Butler of Shadow of Intent ( and ex-The Faceless, ex-Contrarian, ex-Abigail Williams) and bassist Alexander Bryce of The Breathing Process. Two pretty heavy hitters in the genre. Also new to the lineup is guitarist Trevor Redmon, and vocalist Mitchell Martin, who both appear to be new to the scene.

This injection of new blood as well as Urban honing his guitar, and orchestral compositions skills to Fransceco Ferrini (Fleshgod Apocalypse, Shadow of Intent) ish levels of cinematic grandiosity has resulted in an exponential jump in songwriting quality and an album that puts the band in the same territory as the likes of Inferi, Foretoken, Mordant Rapture, Stortgren and such.

I say that, as this isn’t Lorna Shore-styled blackened deathcore, but a much more technical, shredding, and black metal and tech death metal-influenced release. The keys are very prominent, and Urban has really upped his keyboard game, with some really dramatic, stirring epic choral/orchestral moments as heard in the imposing title track, “In The Absence of Light”, “Manifesting Impurity”, “A Testament to The Void” and “The Glass Kingdom”.

But it’s not just the orchestration, the new players and Urban deliver top-notch, blistering, technical black/death metal behind the keys as heard on “Awaiting Their Hopeless Eternal”, “Eons Away”  and closer “The Glass Kingdom”, arguably the albums standout long with the title track.

My only minor gripe is the album’s short 30-minute runtime, but that said there isn’t a wasted note within the snarling, feral yet majestic compositions.

How these guys are not on The Artisan Era yet befuddles me ( mean c’mon that logo and artwork are straight out of The Artisan Era’s catalog). Next album maybe?

I was wrong.

Enter Countrymates Galundo Tenvulance (someone please help me with the band’s moniker- I can’t find any reference to what it might be? an anime reference I’m guessing?) and their killer debut album, Lunar Eclipture.

Though not quite as bat-shit bonkers and genre-crossing as ICDD (whose Ribyuhki provides the artwork here), Galundo stays pretty safely in the melodic death metal/ slightly metalcore/deathcore here and there realm, all be it very busy and elegantly energetic, full speed and with a massive symphonic presence.

Whereas ICDD was the love child of Sigh, Cradle of Filth, and Babymetal, with a more chaotic sound and more varied stylistic, ethnic elements and vocals,  Galundo is the love child of classic In Flames\Dark Tranquillity, Children of Bodom, and Fleshgod Apocalypse.

The keyboards are fully rooted in 90s classic melodic death/black metal akin to Skyfire,  Bodom and such, and speaking of Bodom, the dual guitars of Asukun and Dera are full-on Alexi Laiho worship, with solo and shred-filled songs that rarely take the foot off the pedal. And all of this is brought together to sound clear and punishing with the help of famed producer Zach Ohren (Light This City, All Shall Perish, Immolation, Exmortus, etc). And boy is it fun.

Right from the get-go “Red Raven” goes for the throat and pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the next short, sharp 9 songs ( and an outro), with a couple of exceptions. The speedy, borderline chaotic pace of the following tracks like “Crescharis”, standout “Lifeshaker” and “Leave This Nightmare” and “Solemn Oath” continually imbue classic Bodom with a modern slight metalcore/deathcore lean, and the excellent keys of Kenya Ueno (who also serve in a couple of unsinged symphonic and black metal bands).  The vocals are standard melo-death/metalcore growls and screams, with thankfully no clean vocals to ruin things (which the band dabbled with on past EPs and singles)

Now the pace can get a bit repetitive as the songs blast by, but Galundo does break things up just a little bit in the album midpoint with the likes of  “My Curse, Our Desire” or the excellent, more moody “Reminiscence Of Vanity”, which really leans into the 90s melo-death scene with a stern sway and really allows the keys to breathe even more, ns is a bit of a welcome break.

“Stake My Life” and other standouts “Jugulate”  and “Therefore I Am” brings back the urgency before the instrumental closer “Mystified Reiteration” ends the truly striking debut album (I forsee a deal with Cnetury Media/Nuclear Blast/Prosthetic in the near future), that like Imperial Circus Dead Decadence last year, came out of nowhere and will also be pretty high on my year-end list.

In truth, it’s all-too-easy for me to use any number of outside excuses to explain my growing resentment towards the world in general (one that seems hellbent on making existence for almost everyone harder and harder by the day) but ultimately, I also have to keep myself accountable. What am I doing to bring more joy to my life? How can I create a future self that I don’t already loathe?

Well, to start – maybe take a cue from Montreal’s Sanguine Glacialis, who seem to be having a blast defying norms and setting their own course in the world of metal.

This is my first foray into the world of Sanguine Glacialis, but straight-away a few things become clear. First, the band’s roots in Montreal’s unique Epic Metal scene show themselves almost immediately. This isn’t meant to draw exact comparisons, but their mix of soaring Melodic Death Metal, epic symphonic orchestrations and sprawling, picture-painting progressive tendencies certainly fall in line with the likes of Blackguard, Karkaos, and the technical weirdness of Quo Vadis. This is all mixed with the drama and pantomime of Fleshgod Apocalypse, Nekrogoblikon or Carach Angren that make Maladaptive Daydreaming a thoroughly engaging, highly entertaining listen. Tracks like “Immuration” or the especially playful “Resilience” make you feel as though you’ve stumbled into the world’s most demented, mind-bending circus after downing a few shots of ayahuasca, where every step further feels like another connection severed from the grips of sense and sanity.

Second, while every member of this outfit deserves their fair share of credit for creating this magnum opus, you can’t help but be especially in awe of vocalist and keyboardist Maude Théberge, whose angelic soprano is at constant battle with her demonic alter-ego, unleashing an impressive array of hell-born shrieks, screams and growls at a moment’s notice. Her ability to deftly bounce back and forth between moments of grace, grandeur and ghastly horror only further paint a picture of onset madness and inner quarreling. If you’re like me, unfamiliar with the band’s prior work, prepare to be hit square in the chest with her first terrifying screams on “Welcome,” which catch you totally off guard after a beautiful, soaring intro sets you up for a much different kind of experience. Follow-up “Immuration” only further cements her depth of talent, particularly in the song’s final 30 seconds where, after impressing with complex, operatic singing through most of the song’s duration, she unleashes some truly breath-taking screams that feel as though she’s reached even further into the nine circles of hell to create. I’m not just impressed, I’m a little scared! In the best way.

My fear only grows deeper with “Paracusia,” which sees Théberge storming out the gate with full-fledged ferocity, taking an extremely aggressive approach with her vocals that match the intensity of the song’s first movement beautifully. After a brief break, the band returns with more Parisian, circus-like music mixed with her serene cleans, as if she’s finally snapped and finds herself lost in a maelstrom of lunacy, fully embracing her own manic state as she deploys a dual-vocal attack of cleans and screams that all but tear the fabric of reality apart. There’s an undeniable darkness always bubbling underneath the surface, and yet the vibrancy in the band’s delivery still manages to inspire joy, putting a grin on your face with every hairpin turn.

As if her vocals weren’t enough to demand your attention, it’s also her well-balanced synth/piano work that really sets the entire scene of Maladaptive Daydreaming. It pulls off a clever trick of not being overbearing, while also making it difficult to image what this album might sound like without them – a perfect compliment to the chaos that help make what is a very emotionally-charged record, somehow bright and vibrant. That’s certainly not to suggest this record would be lost without that element – the rest of the band, including guitarists Jonathan Fontaine and Alexandre Lépine, along with bassist Marc Gervais and drummer Jérémy Racine, all turn in performances that would please fans hungry for the sheer technicality of Ne Obliviscaris or Cynic, or the earworm melodic brilliance of Be’Lakor or Kalmah. They can get downright brutal, too – with “Ars Moriendi,” closer “Resignation,” and plenty of others showcasing moments of utter heft ready to put your stank face on full display. The band’s ability to perfectly balance all the ideas bouncing around in their collective hive mind has the sort of artists’ touch that create a wholly cohesive, yet incredibly layered picture, not unlike the best works of art that can inspire different thoughts and emotions every time you see them.

I really, really dig what Sanguine Glacialis is offering with Maladaptive Daydreaming. The sense of whimsy and wonder, coupled with a very real sense of dread and foreboding under the surface, it all feels like the sort of balance I’d really like to find in my own life, because if I’m being truly honest with myself – the darkness in my life probably ain’t ever going away. Not completely. It’s as much a part of me as any physical trait. That said, it doesn’t have to be the definition of me, or some inescapable conclusion I’m fated to reach, and discovering an album like this only helps to steel my resolve not to let misery become my destiny. Life is short, and it seems Sanguine Glacialis isn’t wasting any of their time trying to follow anyone’s idea of what metal can or should be, and the end result on Maladaptive Daydreaming should carry them to brand new heights. Make this album part of your life pronto.

In fairness, A Wake In Providence was a pretty darn good band while Ramos was still in the fray, and their 2019 album, The Blvck Sun || The Blood Moon, is pretty damn good (and as I stated in my review on the latest Lorna Shore album, Ramos was nothing special on that album). So after Ramos’ departure and that whole thing, A Wake in Providence found a  replacement in Adam Mercer from Entombed in the Abyss, buckled down, and knocked out a fucking killer album of their own that gives Pain Remains a run for its money.

Eternity is REALLY fucking good. it may not come with the hype of Pain Remains, but I tell you what, it puts A Wake In Providence in the elite echelon of blackened/symphonic deathcore with Lorna Shore, Worm Shepherd, Shadow of Intent, and Sin Deliverance ( just my humble opinion of course). It does not come with the full orchestral bombast of some of their peers, but brilliantly infuses epic, rousing choral, and orchestral arrangements into a more progressive, ambitious form of deathcore.

Mercer delivers an excellent performance with ample bellows and screams and he’s aided by guitarist and orchestral composer D’Andre Tyre who delivers an element some of their peers don’t have;  emotive clean vocals and they are well placed and well done unlike Ben Duerr’s semi sung attempts on Shadow of Intent‘s most recent effort.

Musically, while Lorna Shore, is about a continual over-the-top bludgeoning, AWIP has a little more control and variety, and the symphonic elements are more black metal, cinematic and tempered as opposed to Lorna Shore‘s pure bombast. Just listen to the opener ” An Odyssey Through The River (Overture)” and its follow up “The Horror ov The Old Gods” or the personal favorites “We Are Eternity”, and  “The Book ov The Eldritch (Second Movement)”, where the symphonic elements build and ebb with dramatic, movie score like pacing. The choirs in particular are superbly used throughout the album to build up a subtle sense of dread and a more tense theatrical atmosphere for example “Siamo Legati Dal Terrore” and the start of “The Book ov The Eldritch (Second Movement)”.

Of course, the album has plenty of genre tenets… and by that I mean there are plenty of hefty breakdowns and blast beats, with a killer production but it’s wrapped up in really well-done, varied songwriting and structures, that honestly, Lorna Shore could learn a little from at times. And not to overdo the Lorna Shore mentions and comparisons, Eternity has an epic, damn good “Pain Remains, I, II, III”- like trilogy of its own in “The Hunt ov The Wraith (First Movement)”, “The Book ov The Eldritch (Second Movement)” and “The Court ov The Trinity (Final Movement)”…. so there’s that.

A Wake in Providence and Lorna Shore are going to be inextricably tied together for a while, but I have to hand it to A Wake in Providence, Unique Leader, and Adam Mercer, as Eternity is a brilliant album that stands alone regardless of those ties and comes really close to unseating Pain Remains as the year’s top effort in the blackened/symphonic deathcore genre.

And this concept is the brainchild of drummer/pianist Tobias Püschner, formerly of German thrashers Revolt. He is aided by guest musicians and friends Martin Simon (Kambrium) on bass/backing vocals, Fabio Rossi (Tryglav) and Francesco Petrelli on guitars and female vocalist Noga Rotem). And he manages to perfectly meld the frozen, harrowing concept of the story into a fantastic, grandiose, blistering yet darkly atmospheric, symphonic black/death metal album.

The promo states that this is for fans of Dimmu Borgir, Wintersun, and Fleshgod Apocalypse. And that’s pretty spot on, especially the Wintersun part, as there’s a definite Finnish vibe running through the more shredding, blackened power metal riffs, and higher register, rasped vocals.  Also, Püschnerman really flexes his piano training with the songs written exclusively for the piano first, so there is a larger focus on an ivory-based backdrop, rather than more bombastic full-on orchestration (like my other recent symphonic metal discovery, Xaon), though there is some of that as well. Throw in all sorts of somber, clean (sailor-y) choirs and storytelling elements, and the piano-based writing is enveloped in some top-notch other stuff.

Case and point, the second standout track “Icewind”, where the piano is front and center with delicate pacing amid the icy blast beats and climaxes with some angelic haunting vocals from Noga Rotem (who should have been used way more). But it’s not just great piano work, there’s some solid riff penning here as well, as heard on “Sail to the Stars”, and personal favorites  “Married to the Sea” and “The Empress” and “Poem in the Snow” (based on the Robert Frost poem “Once by the Pacific”), which highlights more excellent piano work in its final moments, and “Northlight” which gave me a bit of a Bal Sagoth vibe, and balladic closer “Melancholy” and they have a little restraint and pacing.

On the very minor downside, the production is a bit dry and you’d think a drummer by trade would have a less synthetic drum sound, as they sound very programmed, and the album does tend to get a bit samey with the blast beats. However, The Expedition is still a damn fine debut album and a killer addition to my symphonic metal discoveries in 2022.

Switzerland’s Xaon has been the most recent discovery with their third album, The Lethean, released earlier this summer. The band appears to be the brainchild of one Frenchman, Rob Carson ( also of melodic death metal act Bloodstorm) who has surrounded himself with a group of various musicians from the Swiss scene (all new members for this album apparently) and delivered an fucking epic spectacle of melodic, symphonic death metal that needs to be heard.

At its heart, Xaon is progressive, epic, symphonic melodic death metal, with influences that appear to cull from Edge of Sanity, Germany’s Disillusion, as well as France’s Kalisia, as I hear a lot of Crimson, and both Back to Times of Splendor and Cybion, all certifiable classics in their own right. But Xaon has a lot more of a bombastic, orchestral, and movie score-styled symphonic, and it’s fucking glorious.

Of course, The Lethean is concept-based, and the album covers all the moods that tell the story and covers all the melodic death bases, but with everything turned to 11. It’s not bat shit insane like Imperial Circus Dead Decadence, but if Cybion and Back to Times of Splendor are your jam, this is for you, but with added grandiose bombast.

All 51 minutes of the gorgeously produced album are glorious, as the band is able to deliver a plethora of metal elements in a diverse and extreme, yet often catchy way. There are soaring, clean choruses (standout “Wayward Sun”, throttling opener “The Hunt”, “If I Had Wings”), bombastic, blast beats (“The Hunt”, circus-y “And Yet I Smile”), dramatic Dimmu Borgir-ish choral orchestration (“A Golden Silence”), and big beefy riffs (downright epic standout “Wanton”, “A Kiss of Winter”). Though realistically all the songs ( except a couple of instrumentals and the closing ballad “Telos”) have all the aforementioned elements and all the songs are downright amazing. Also, Carson has ample growls, shouts, and screams to keep things nice and death metal-y, as well as solid clean vocals that imbue Dan Swano from his Edge of Sanity years.

The Lethean might not be quite the generational classic like Crimson,  Back to Times of Splendor or Cybion, but it’s for sure one of the best releases I’ve heard in 2022 if not the last few years.

Enter the UK’s Fellowship, a newcomer to the genre with current and former members of Power Force and Rezinwolf, and a promising newcomer to the genre. And along with fellow, similarly cheesily fun brits Grimgotts, show the UK can roll a 20 and unleash the +5 puffy shirt of catchy choruses and be just as good as their Mainland Europe brethren.

From the opening twinkle of opener “Until the Fire Dies”, (as well as their promo photos and the above video) it’s 100% clear that Twilight Force is the primary influence here, and they are having a lot of fun with it. This is sparkling, light-hearted, uplifting power metal with lots of shredding, keyboards, and sugary choruses that will get in your head from one listen.

The guitars of Sam Browne Guitars and brad Wosko are front and center with lots and lots of extended bouncy leads and vocalist Matthew Corry, despite looking like the cool social studies professor you see at the coffees shop, has a unique set of pipes that alternates between a bit nasally for me, to really impressive when he truly belts something out (i.e “Glint”, “The Hours of Wintertime”). The keyboards are there and certainly a focal part of the music, but it’s not quite full-on choral or orchestral bombast like some of their peers.

The album’s 1 hour run time is a bit long, especially in the latter stages and it’s not all great, but along the way, the band hit on some truly infectious stuff like the aforementioned opener,  “Glory Days”, shred heavy “Oak & Ash”, the super goddam uplifting anthem of “Hearts Upon the Hill”, “Glint’, and gloriously uplifting “The Saint Beyond the River” which all absolutely got my heart soaring and my soul grinning. Or course there are slightly more restrained but still uplifting AOR/Prog numbers (“Atlas”, “The Hours of Wintertime”, “Still Enough”, closer “Avalon”) as well, and the requisite lighter waving ballad in “Silhouette”.

Now, where Fellowship is a shade different than their peers, is that rather than stories of high elves, wizards and questing, the overarching themes are positivity, mental health, and well-being, and a general sense of uplifting motivational amicability that’s infectious, and certainly in these dire times, a beacon of light we could all use right now.

Admittedly, the bait and switch worked on me. Hook, line, and sinker. I was hoping for an fucking epic mix of brutal, slamming, catchy, melodic, symphonic, shredding, Finnish metal. Instead, I got a pretty simplistic form of American, blasting/chugging death metal (not even close to Dying Fetus quality mind you)  with some keyboards here and there (so they sort of cover the Dimmu Borgir claim) . Not a lick of In Flames, Dark Tranquillity or Children of Bodom in sight…*sigh* (or yay?).

It’s not terrible, and occasionally when everything comes together there is some solid symphonic death metal on display here, but its clearly the work of two guys that have slightly bigger ambitions than what they can write. The keyboards (which give me an early Crematory vibe) are used here and there- so this isn’t Fleshgod Apocalypse-type bombast (but hey, they did not throw that in the FFO). And the death metal is a sort of mid-paced with occasional blast style, that sounds a bit too industrial for the symphonic element to gel naturally-and that could be the slightly synthetic production’s fault (the drums of Dustin Smith sound programmed as fuck, though they are not) as well.

But like I said, they occasionally deliver something I can get into, and that’s when they have some sort of more prominent orchestral backdrop to the death metal; In particular, the opening lurch of album starter “Not My Funeral” and the first few, very impressive minutes of closer “One Light”, show some potential. But there isn’t that much else in between with a sort of Kataklysm-y based pace and structure of death metal when there are no keyboards (“Angels Fade”, “Extinction”, “World War Now”). And attempts to be more ambitious fall a bit flat (“The Cage”).

But hey, these guys got together, wrote and recorded an album, got a record deal, and released an album, which is more than my lazy, critiquing ass has ever done. So kudos and keep at it guys.

Hailing From Denmark, Hanging the Nihilist has one EP, 2019s Crow to their name. It’s solid, but Prophetic Blasphemy, sees a marked improvement in all aspects of their sound as they’ve had a couple of years to see and hear what their many many peers are delivering. So they upped the ante, and I’m comfortable putting these guys in that tier with the above-mentioned bands, maybe even up there with Worm Shepherd, as Prophetic Blasphemy is an excellent example of a genre that shows no signs of letting up.

HTN delivers everything all the other bands do, so you know exactly what to expect; dual demonic vocals, massive breakdowns, blasts, etc.  All well played and well produced for maximum carnage. But where HTN has a little edge is the keyboards of Berna Baki, (who cut her teeth doing piano covers of deathcore songs on Youtube, i recommend you go look for them), as with Crow, she adds a more classical, piano-based, and more blackened atmosphere to the proceedings ( along with an array of choirs, strings, and brass). I get a bit of a Kristen Randall (ex Winds of Plague) or Adrienne Cowan (Winds of Plague, Seven Spires) vibe. And that is high praise indeed.  Sure, all the other bands have something similar, but where, say, Hurakan uses them as more of a backdrop, like the way Shadow of Intent uses Francesco Ferrini, here, it’s more cinematic and movie score sounding, and it works wonderfully alongside the standard, if still well done, pummeling deathcore.

It all comes together as something that definitely feels more classically ‘blackened’, not just deathcore with synths. After the requisite atmospheric instrumental intro, “Prelude to Prophecy”, which is one of the more epic ones I’ve heard in the genre, you get “Enter the Procession” and “Inevitable Dissent”, two absolute barn burners to start the album. “The Bloodwell Scriptorium” gives a little respite with more restrained pacing and ivory tinkling from Baki. However, its shortlived as “Labour of the Sacred Bodies”, delivers a blistering number with a killer, low end, piano-backed ending breakdown.

The rest of the album, is all pretty damn good, with the more dramatic, melodic “The Empress’s Wager”, one of those breakdowns that get slower and nastier in “Their Desired Ascension”, a little interlude for Baki to shine in “Defilement Ensued”, and bulldozing closer “Hunted Through hell”, where admittedly things run together a bit.

Prophetic Blasphemy is somewhere between Downfall of Mankind‘s  Vile Birth and Worm Shepherd‘s Ritual Hymns, which has been my favorite entry in the genre of 2022. But let’s be honest, they are all placeholders until Lorna Shore‘s next album.

And while those earlier efforts did have some spacy synths and (sometimes goofy) samples scattered around, on Via Aeterna, they have hired a composer, Philippe Parickmiler, to render the orchestration in a far more relevant, epic, and modern style, and the result is largely successful.

It’s easy to dismiss this ‘new era’ of Hurakan as a well-timed cash grab and jump to a genre that just fucking blown up over the last 2 years or so, but to their credit Via Aeterna is pretty solid. Not quite up there with the genre’s top tier acts like Lorna Shore, Carnifex, Shadow of Intent, Sin Deliverance or Worm Shepherd, (only my opinion of course), but certainly in that second tier ballpark with the likes of label-mates Downfall of Mankind or Victims, Hanging the Nihilist, Lie to the Silence, Dethrone the Corrupted, Third World Party, Gravewalker and such.

The more serious tone is well backed by Parickmiler’s dramatic orchestration, which while not Lorna Shore or Francesco Ferrini (Shadow of Intent, Fleshgod Apocalypse) levels of full-on, movie score grandiosity or the focal point of the music, it still delivers a nice sense of epic grandeur to the competent if standard deathcore that delivers ample breakdown-y bluster and blast beats, as well as the usual dual-layer growls and screeches in the vocal department (which also has a number of guest appearances for added credibility to the band’s makeover, thought you’d be hard-pressed to tell who appears where).

From dramatic opener “Imperium” (featuring Kyle Anderson of Brand of Sacrifice) through lumbering “Abyssal” (featuring Filip Danielsson from Humanity’s Last Breath) to closer “Via Aeterna” (feat. Raphaël Verguin from Psygnosis, Spectrale & Rïcïnn), the 9 songs all rumble and blast with ample heft, with the orchestration being more of a steady, ever-present subtle backdrop. But occasionally, when they are brought to the forefront such as the nice strings that start the moodier, instrumental title track, or the final stages of one of the album’s better tracks “Resurgence”, it’s pretty effective. That said, I’m not clamoring to revisit certain songs or moments as I have been with some of their top-level peers mentioned above (i.e. I’ve listened to Lorna Shore‘s “To The Hellfire”, many, many, many times).

A solid entry to a genre that’s in danger of oversaturation pretty soon, so the timing is just right and along with Downfall of Mankind‘s upcoming Vile Birth, show Lacerated Enemy as a solid player in the now vastly popular genre.

As I mentioned in my Aethereus review, there are some shared members between the two bands; Scott Hermanns (who plays guitars here as opposed to bass in Aethereus) and vocalist Vance Bratcher, and stylistically the bands certainly share some tech death DNA and use keyboards. But The Devils of Loudon, as on their 2 EPs have a much more neo-classical, sweeping, pomp filled 90s/00s based, melodic black metal style of keyboards like Children of Bodom, Lothlorien, Skyfire, etc, or modern peers Assemble the Chariots, Winters Gate or label mates Singularity (whose Jack Fliegler drops a guest solo on “The Scourge of Beasts”) as opposed to some of the pure orchestral, bombastic, and dramatic stylings of some of their blackened deathcore cousins like Carnifex, Lorna Shore and Shadow of Intent.

With 10 new songs, Escaping Eternity is going to appeal to the tech death crowd, the blackened deathcore crowd, and the symphonic black metal crowd as there are elements of all going on here. And the album seem to get better the further you get into it. The guitars, especially the many solos, that also have that neo-classical vibe (i.e “Anamnesis”) that mirrors the keyboards of Ben Velozo, which are present for virtually every shreddy moment of every shreddy song, this isn’t piecemeal or just used here or there, like Aethereus or Inferi (another stylistically similar band).

And those moments make for a pretty busy, but still enthralling listen from start to finish, with a few ‘wow’  moments thrown in for good measure in tracks like “Ex Nihilo”, “Evolving Wilds”, mid-song stomp of “Praise the Eternal Nightmare”, vastly varied, 8 and a half minute standout “Abysswalker”, more brutal, the blistering tech-death shred of “Formless” and closer “Arcana Imperi”, which ends the album with the most epic and memorable of the 10 tracks.

This was well worth the 6-year wait, and considering the sudden explosion of symphonic bands in tech death/deathcore, etc, perfectly timed. And after a killer 2021, The Artisan Era is off to a rip-roaring start to 2022 with this, the more progressive WAIT, and the tech-death masterpieces from Aethereus, and Arkaik, all dropping in the first 3 months of the year. Let’s hope they keep the quality of releases up.

And based on some of my random listening of the label’s roster, Crusade of Bards is arguably the best of the bunch with an often rather enjoyable bounce and crunch that lies somewhere between Epica, Grai, Feuerschwanz, Brothers of Metal, and due to the seafaring nature (the album is a concept is 2 songs based on each of the seven seas) of this second album, Alestorm. That said there are a few times on the rather long 14 song affair that induce a few minor cringes.

The whole affair has big, lush production with lots of layered orchestration backing Eleanor Tenebre, Paolo Andreotti and Eduardo Guilló’s vocals, (who deliver operatic crooning,  death metal growls and Moonspell -ish male cleans respectively) as well as some guests (including Fabio Leone of Rhapsody Of Fire fame and multiple members of fellow symphonic Spaniards Last Days of Eden) and covers the expected array of paces and moods from pure, almost death metal bombast (“The Northwest Passage”, “An Ocean Between Us Part III – A New World”),  gothic sugary pep (“Vento Aureo”, “Hasard”), to sea shanties (“Dunkirk Privateers”), to more sweeping epic ballad-y score type numbers (“Samudr Ka Mandir”, “Lies & Ashes”, “Leap of Faith”., “The White Witch”)  and plenty that mix everything, like “Naupaktos” and the albums best cut,  “The Red Charade”, which is a pretty good encapsulation of everything the band delivers.

Like I said, at times it’s pretty enjoyable, the orchestration is epic and rousing, the maritime themes are fun, but the three vocalists don’t quite sit with me as well as I’d like. And ultimately, while this is a genre I generally enjoy, I’m not likely to crave or seek Crusade of Bards out or anticipate future or past releases, despite some fun moments that I enjoyed while reviewing Tales of The Seven Seas.

I’ll cut to the chase, Epigone is really good, exceptionally good in fact. It still delivers the template of Veil of Imagination, but I have to say it’s not quite as good. It’s got all the things that made Veil so good, but never quite reaches that perfect level of brilliance in mixing absolutely rousing choral and orchestral arrangements (still arguably some of the best to grace these ears), proggy noodling and solos, and a touch of Opeth-ian death metal bombast. It’s possibly even more ambitious than Veil, and that might be what sets it back just a tad.

Despite clocking in at almost the identical hour and 6-minute run time as Veil, Epigone feels longer. It took me several listens to get through the album, and rarely could do it in one sitting. There is A LOT to sift through and A LOT of it is filler. Not bad filler, per se but for example, after the almost 5-minute,e acoustic introductory track “Exhaler”,  we get the 14-minute “Woolgatherer”, which itself is heavily acoustic for the first few minutes, the 10-minute “Passenger” and 11-minute “Identifier”. That is a lot to take in on the album’s front end, and while there are moments of pure musical bliss buried in that initial 30+ minutes, and that’s just it- it’s buried in there.

It’s almost 5 minutes into “Woolgatherer” that you get a brilliant death metal explosion, but then more lengthy introspection before another more fierce salvo 11 and a half minutes in. It’s a bit of a slow start for the album. However, “Passenger” delivers an early Opeth-ian stutter and stomp and graceful proggy wafts, blending perfectly together, highlighting how ‘on’ they can be when they get to it. And I hate to sound cliché, but yes, I want more growls. “Identifier” has one of the album’s best, longer-lasting actual riffs, with a cool

It’s not until the 4 songs that make up “Distraction” that things get a little more direct and immediate. Part I delivers a mid-paced dramatic intro  with a killer symphonic black/death metal climax, which I wanted more off before it transitions to part II which is the most direct, death metal sounding number for its entirety. Part III is a more sumptuous mid paced number that feels like the album’s natural endpoint before “Distraction Nulla” ends with a furious, dare I say surprisingly brutal, death metal closing cacophony. There’s a tacked-on Radiohead cover (“Everything in Its Right Place” and some versions of the CDF have another version of the opener “Exhaler”.

All that said there is still nothing on Epigone that gives me goosebumps quite like “O Resolution” or “Far From Where Dreams Unfurl” or even instrumentals like “Scentless Core (Fading)”, despite some of the best choral and orchestral use in metal. They could still use a little self-editing, and possibly end up as one of the genre’s truly elite bands when it’s all said and done.