At the Gates is one of the more familiar names floating around the melodic death metal world and rightly so. Since 1990, they have maintained almost the same line-up and have a distinct sound that has set them in to the highest echelons of Swedish metal. Not a band to...
Sadistik Forest is about to release their third album Morbid Majesties and it’s an unrelenting torrent of high octane, punch you in the throat death metal. It’s fast and heavy with wailing technical guitar solos and deep gutturals, everything that a death metal fan could want. Touches of classic death...
Even on a hot spring day the second full length Life Has Gone On Long Enough from Portland’s NONE can make you feel cold. Fuzzy distortion and depressive vocals lure you into the bleak world of misery and grief and swallow you. You can feel yourself being sucked into a...
Starting in 1995, a dark cloud emerged over Jyväskylä when Alghazanth was formed. A name taken from within a dream of Gorath Moonthron delivered to him by a ‘death bringer spirit in the shape of a white wolf’. After 3 demos and a split Alghazanth released their first full length...
Et Moriemur (Latin for “And we will die”) is a doom band hailing from Prague, Czech Republic. Since conception in 2008, the group has produced four releases including the latest Epigrammata. Self-described as existentialist doom, this album gives nods to black and death metal accompanied by enchanting atmospheric melodies. If...
Maybe it’s just me, but Swedish death metal bands can almost be put at a disadvantage sometimes if they are constantly compared to the Swedish greats that came before them. It can be a daunting task to try and emulate these predecessors while creating a distinctive, original sound. Sweden’s Demonical...
The first thing to notice about Dark Archive’s Cultivate Our Blood in Aeon are the coherent harsh vocals. The argument could be raised that it’s not trve black metal with those kind of vocals, but that argument subsides as soon as the face fucking by blast beats begins. Even the...
Altars of Grief are masters of crafting absolutely beautiful blackened doom metal since 2013. The cornerstone of doom metal from the Canadian Prairies, Altars of Grief is preparing to release their second full-length Iris this year on Hypnotic Dirge Records. With lyrical themes of the well-known struggles of addiction...
Verikalpa (Finnish for Blood Épée) is a folk metal band hailing from the northern city of Oulu, Finland. Self-described as “troll/beer” metal, they incorporate the standard folk elements: bouncy, catchy melodies and high energy riffs and lyrics that are easy to sing along to, provided you speak Finnish. It took...
Overall, Repressed by Finland’s Asylum 8 is pretty weird. Although that’s weird mainly in a good way. A strong promising electronic start with typical industrial metal elements open up, the synths, the pounding 4/4 beats with distorted uncomplicated guitars; Coarse vocals, that remain clear and coherent but occasionally bordering on...