Album Reviews

Switzerland’s Coroner is one of the staples in the thrash metal scene since the early 80s. The band has been among my favorite acts, a part of Hellhammer, Celtic Frost, Alastis, and Samael. Coroner proved to be undisputedly relevant due to their distinctive style of combining technical guitar arrangements with maximum solid aggression. Over the three decades, Coroner released five studio albums, the raw sound that distinguished the debut full-length album “R.I.P.”, and other landmark studio records such as “Punishment for Decadence”, “No More Color”, and “Mental Vortex” served as a guide for the early wave of thrash metal.
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It’s been a good four years since Perturbator’s latest album. As the brainchild of James Kent, Perturbator has been at the forefront of the so called synthwave genre together with the likes of Carpenter Brut since 2012.
With a background in black metal, the man has explored the depths of eighties styled electronic music, creating soundtracks to sci fi cyberpunk movies that has never actually been filmed. Albums like ‘I Am the night’ or ‘Dangerous Days’ are today considered as essential classics in the genre. As it often goes with pioneers, they tend to tire at some point of the genre they helped create. With Kent this was especially apparent on the previous album ‘Lustful Sacraments’, where he distanced himself from the Terminator style cyberpunk tropes the genre has become synonymous with
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One of the real revelations for me this year for sure must have been the haunting witch doom of Frayle. The duo from Cleveland consisting of Sean Bilovesky and Gwyn Strang took me completely by surprise on their stint at Alcatraz this year. Now, as such this is not a new band. This dynamic duo already has a slew of EPS and 2 full lengths to their name since their inception nine years ago.
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German black metal duo Mystic Circle is back with an outstanding new album, 'Hexenbrand 1486', out via Reigning Phoenix Music on October 31st, 2025. Once again, Mystic Circle imposes on the melodic spectrum, drawing inspiration from 90s black metal. The musical composition on the eleventh opus draws elements from the band’s previous releases 'Mystic Circle' and 'Erzdämon'. The duo has bridged the melodic and the symphonic by emphasizing aggression with traditional heavy metal lead guitars.
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The Answer Lies in the Black void is a collaboration between Jason Köhnen and Martina Horvath. Jason is of course the drummer and one of the main creative forces behind one of my all-time favorite death doom bands, being Celestial Season, while some of you might recognize Martina from seeing the avant-garde troupe of Thy Catalfalque on stage.
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Within the sub-genre of symphonic black metal, no band can bring a feeling of eeriness to boost sonic dread like the symphonic black metal formation Carach Angren. The newest EP, “Cult of Kariba”, out via Season of Mist on October 17, 2025, forges the inspiration and identity that make it another grand entry in the band’s musical canon. Besides the duo's fascination with ghosts and haunting horror stories, the name Carach Angren is a reference from J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings", which means Iron Jaws in the Elvish language of Sindarin, indicating their interest in fiction.
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After countless albums covering the events of World War II and the last two albums about World War I the topic seems a bit exhausted, so it was interesting what Sabaton would do for their 11th studio album. And they delivered the perfect answer, an album in the same style as 'Heroes' - focusing on individuals instead of dates - dating far further back in time then ever before, all the way back to 1878 B.C.
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In the subgenre of funeral doom, the U.S. quintet Evoken reigns supreme alongside gigantic acts like Shape of Despair, Skepticism, Thergothon and Disembowelment. The band has presented itself as torchbearers of modern funeral doom metal. Their music conjured dreadful and morbid atmospheres which are well-embedded in studio works, such as 'Embrace the Emptiness', 'Quietus' and the masterpiece 'Antithesis of Light'. Evoken enshrined itself within an unprecedented sonic experience, unleashing darkness upon the listener, where the music summons unspeakable and spectral beings from unearthly domains.
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Since their founding 17 years ago, Battle Beast has continuously improved and reinvented their sound, and it's been a joy to watch them grow during the 13 years I've known this band. With 'Steelbound' they are ready to unleash yet another chapter of heavy metal madness. After a couple of listens, this album is now spinning relentlessly in my head non-stop.
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Melbourne-based death metal quartet Vile Apparition offers a classic brute delivery of Australia’s vile and monstrous profanity. The highly anticipated sophomore, “Malignity”, establishes its unique formula stemming from the band’s debut full-length album, “Depravity Ordained”, released in 2019. The ten songs are stacked with Suffocation-esque bass guitar, hammering riffs, and bludgeoning blast beats; despite the old-school flavor, Vile Apparition returns back with an impressive quality.
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