Album Reviews

After a pretty decent demo ‘Lutum’ Transcending Obscurity, underground savy record label from India picked up this Costa Rican death doom troupe. Perishing’s debut album ‘Malicious Acropolis Unveiled’ fulfills on the promise of those initial recordings.
Read More >

'Leo Rising' will be the 12th album by Danko Jones. The Canadian rock band, led by the charismatic singer Danko Jones, is releasing a new hard rock album together with longtime band members drummer Rich Knox and bassist John 'J.C.' Calabrese. Danko Jones remains true to his style; this is a truly powerful, hard-hitting rock 'n' roll album with razor-sharp riffs, pounding rhythms, and infectious hooks. It’s exactly what fans expect from Danko Jones. This might be the best album since his release 'Wild Cat'.
Read More >

Tolkien-inspired black metal outfit One of Nine returns with their sophomore release, “Dawn of Iron Shadow”, out via Profound Lore Records since October 31st. The fantasy flair merges the gateways of epic, glorious atmosphere that evoke bands like Summoning and Stormkeep. One of Nine Aesthetics invokes the medieval tales of Middle-earth, but it is also steeped in the essence of the second wave of 90s black metal.
Read More >

Northern Silence Productions presents the highly anticipated first full-length album “When Night Rode Across the North” by the Swedish symphonic and melodic black metal formation Haimad. The band was established in 1994 and released its demo "A Dream Vision Vanished" one year later but before going on a long hiatus, Haimad released two EPs: “The Horned Moon”, and “Majestic” capturing an epic quality in the vein of Odium, Emperor, Mactätus, Obtained Enslavement, and Covenant.
Read More >

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.
Read More >

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
Read More >

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.
Read More >

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.
Read More >

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.
Read More >

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.
Read More >