Album Reviews

With an album title like this, you just know you’re up to your chain mail in a D&D territory. What you might not have expected is that genre wise ‘of Fire and Sorcery’ is no power metal, no NWOBHM, no new wave of US epic metal like Eternal Champion or anything even close to that. Instead and quite surprisingly, Cultic manifests a particularly raw strain of death/doom laced with some evocative dungeon crawling synth work.
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Death metal forerunners Jungle Rot have been following their own path of playing a warmongering style of death metal, since 1992 the Wisconsin quartet has achieved standard status in the underground scene in the USA. The 11th album “A Call to Arms” delivers an aggressive combo of hostility, in terms of the direction of the songs Jungle Rot give their fans exactly what they want. The lineup features Dave Martise (vocals, Guitars), James Genez (bass), Geoff Bub (guitars), and Spenser Syphers (drums).
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This release by Modern Terror has been around for a while and I have only just come across it. Sometimes it is nice to hear something that is just really good fun to listen to and I would definitely include this EP in that category.
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Cosmic Putrefaction is a solo band founded by the Italian multi-instrumentalist Gabriele Gramaglia. For his third album 'Crepuscular Dirge for the Blessed Ones( the sole composer has recruited drummer Giulio Galati (Hideous Divinity), and vocalist Riccardo Nioin (Vertebra Atlantis). Featuring seven tracks that fall somewhere between the atmospheric and technical death metal, Cosmic Putrefaction captivates great scale and dexterity which is handled by Gabriele Gramaglia. The range and the depth of experience in employing atmospheric elements allow the songs to meander through the solid riffing.
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Lovecraftian death metal act Inanna has finally returned after a decade of silence. The third full-length album 'Void of Unending Depths' delivers stunning musicianship from the Chilean quartet. Since its formation in 2000 Inanna has sprawled in the horrific sphere of the Chthulu mythos, with the cosmological themes that give their music a kind of complexity. The remarkable songwriting and craftsmanship position them as a top-tier band. The anticipated third album showcases their opulent and superb skills in writing catchy melodies.
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Swiss black metal innovators AARA return with theIr fourth album 'Triade II: Hemera' out via Debemur Morti Productions on May 13th, 2022. In the realm of atmospheric black metal the trio of Berg (all instruments), Flus (vocals, lyrics) and, J. (drums) have become pioneers in their craft, introducing both sublime melodies and neoclassical elements. The new album is based on the Gothic novel 'Melmoth the Wanderer' written by Charles Robert Maturin in 1820. Most notably the theme of the album has a molasses like charm in creating vast landscapes.
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This band has been tipped for big things and quite frankly after listening to this, their debut album, it is easy to see why. This is the best album I have listened to in a long while. A huge slab of sleazy garage grunge which is just sublime. It is full of swagger, bravado, confidence and great, great tunes. The Mysterines are vocalist and guitarist Lia Metcalfe, bassist George Favager, guitarist Callum Thompson and drummer Paul Crilly. Singer Lia possesses a terrific soulful, gritty singing voice that adds so much to these tracks. She stamps her presence all over this album.
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With their thirteenth studio album and debut for Napalm Records, Gothenburg's finest export of darkness for 25 years, Evergrey, delivers a follow-up to 'Escape of the Phoenix', their last album which was a bit underexposed due to the pandemic that hit the world. 'A Heartless Portrait (The Orphean Testament)' takes you on a journey through progressive heaviness, accentuated with melancholy inspired lyrics.

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Ignite starts strong and very punk rock with the first song on their self titled album ‘Anti-Complicity Anthem’. An energetic song that shows you Ignite’s new energy right from the start. According to bass player Brett Rasmussen, the energy that new singer Eli Santana brought to the studio was contagious.


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Hailing from Kalix, Norrbotten in Sweden Kvaen is a solo black/pagan/Viking metal band helmed by one Jakob Björnfot (all instruments). Like its predecessor 'The Funeral Pyre' the band’s sophomore full-length album 'The Great Below' achieves great songwriting standards in terms of delivery and musical execution. Although this time Jakob presents highly volatile elements extracted from different genres like Viking/pagan and speed metal, the songs are simultaneously melodic and fierce. The guitars are abrasive and driven by fiery bursts of percussion, they're determined by their robust formula.
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