Album Reviews

Finnish melodeath legendary band Insomnium was founded in 1997 and my first encounter with them was in 2006 with their astonishing album 'Above The Weeping World' album. With each album they've grown themselves into the popular and consistently great band they are nowadays, and now we are back with full-length album number 9 called 'Anno 1696.' I'm curious what they have in store for us.
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Taking their name from H.P. Lovecraft's story 'The Cats of Ulthar', the U.S. black/death metal trio Ulthar has focused on themes of cosmic dread, establishing themselves as one of the promising acts in the genre of death metal. Ulthar,led by Steve Peacock (bass, guitar), Justin Ennis (drums) and Shelby Lermo (guitars, vocals), returns with a stellar two releases 'Anthronomicon' and 'Helionomicon' out on February 17th, 2023 via 20 Buck Spin. Within the last few years, the band has refined its range and complexity, developing an innovative approach to blackened raw death metal. Having cemented its sound with the debut album 'Cosmovore' Ulthar navigates the cavernous cosmic sounds of death metal with a very fresh and unique approach.
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Everlasting Spew Records is one of the underground labels that I trust when it comes to death metal. Although I had little knowledge about the Minneapolis-based death metal five-piece, Nothingness had recently released their sophomore 'Supraliminal' on January 20th, 2023. The band was formed in 2018 by guitarist Alex Walstad (Aberration) and vocalist Barclay Olson (ex-The Following) and released their debut album 'The Hollow Game of Death' in 2019. There have been some lineup changes in the past three years with Jon Grandel (guitars), Xen Hartzell (bass) and Erik Christianson (drums) joining the fold.
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The Vancouver doom/gothic duo Tribunal is a newcomer to the realm of doom and their debut full-length album 'The Weight of Remembrance' released via 20 Buck Spin on January 20th, 2023 has everything to offer to the fans of this genre. The duo Soren Mourne (cello, bass, vocals, songwriting, and lyrics) and Etienne Flinn (vocals, guitars, songwriting, and lyrics) maintain a gloomy backdrop between the beautiful cello segments and the trudging guitars, but what Tribunal truly covers on the seven tracks is the range of the dual vocals. The line-up also features Julia Geaman (drums), Jessica Yang (guitars) and Dallas (keyboards).
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Swedish black metal Grá took time in refining its sound to modern standards of black metal. For those who are not acquainted with the band, Grá is fronted by Heljarmadr vocalist of Dark Funeral, and Dimman (drums), Vediger (bass guitar) and Niklas (guitars). The band has released three albums in the span of thirteen years and now the quartet returns with their fourth album “Lycaon”. Grá brings plenty of aggression and a variety of riffs the album somehow eschews the style of Dark Funeral, and Marduk therefore it focuses on heavy-driven guitars with the drums restraining from blast beats.
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British death metal supergroup Memoriam returns with the fifth album “Rise To Power” released on February 3rd via Reaper Entertainment. Over the past six years Karl Willetts (vocals), Scott Fairfax (guitars), Frank Healy (bass), and Spikey T. Smith (drums) had laid the groundwork for becoming the true heirs of Bolt Thrower. “Rise To Power” delivers the utmost precision from these veterans who have continued to maintain the signature sound quality by fortifying their place amongst the best death metal acts today.
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Ohio-based death metal act Sanguisugabogg is back with the sophomore release “Homicidal Ecstasy” out via Century Media on February 3rd, 2023. Only two years after delivering their first full-length album “Tortured Whole” the quartet evolved as a cohesive unit. The 12 tracks reek of aural filth and gore-infested vocals and despite what critics may think of the band for sounding mediocre or generic the songs prove otherwise but don’t let the album cover fool you.
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In the last couple of years, we’ve seen a surge of U.S. black metal bands that play a conventional style of melodic black metal. Much like atmospheric bands like Chaos Moon, Ringarë, and Skáphe, Häxanu is a fine example of the brilliant talent of the multi-instrumentalist Alex Poole. Returning after three years of relative silence, “Totenpass” is the band’s second album which also features vocalist L.C. Musically the newest effort seamlessly tackles the Scandinavian modality. Even though “Totenpass” is a continuation of the same musical concept as the debut album “Snare of All Salvation”, the seven tracks are more fluid. And this is probably because the rhythm guitars and the furious drums deliver an emotional intensity.
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Having gone through innovative changes, the Greek black metal outfit Thy Darkened Shade has set the bar high for its third studio album 'Liber Lvcifer II: Mahapralaya' released via World Terror Committee on January 10th, 2023. Consequently, the duo Semjaza (guitars, vocals, bass) and The A (vocals) along with session musicians HG (drums) and Herc (Choirs) offers an outstanding mélange of modern and avant-garde black metal. The new album was mixed and mastered by V. Santura with Semjaza at Woodshed Studio, Thy Darkened Shade proves that their groundbreaking performance formulates the nature of their craft.

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Ten56. is a france metalcore band that releases their second EP called Downer Part.2, the follow-up of the earlier released EP called Downer Part.1. Putting those two together you get enough material worth one big release, so I was curious about the difference between the two.
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