Armchair rhetoric on extreme metal
Sallow Moth: Hydrophilous BroodOut 24th July on Willowtip Records Surrealist brutal death metal redrafts elements of โObscuraโ and post 2000s Suffocation, but as with most contemporary avant-garde progressive extreme metal, it conflates stylistic incontinence with a density of ideas. Sure, for solid stretches of this album Sallow Moth work the Rubikโs Cube of tightly packed... Continue Reading →
Towards RebirthOut 24th July on Dark Descent Records With its roots in Merciless or Massacra, but growing branches out to death metal with a more developed melodic palette comes the latest album from Chileโs Ripper. A stylistically far reaching effort that's nevertheless delivered in a tight package of neatly arranged riff pockets. Dense but traditionally... Continue Reading →
Death is the Master of this WorldOut 8th July on New Era Productions From the mind of Jan Kruitwagen of Sammath and Kaeck fame comes this new dark ambient project. Split neatly into two fifteen minute segments, in essence what we are presented with is a re-evaluation of ambient black metal. Paradoxically by removing any... Continue Reading →
Coprolith: PutrescenceOut 3rd July on Me Saco Un Ojo / Rotted Life Low effort death metal combines Incantation and Autopsy into a route one interpretation of death/doom, oscillating between slow and fast with no attempt to create tension and release as each transition is carefully prepared for. The album attempts to get by on the... Continue Reading →
Czechiaโs Brutal Assault just completed its twenty ninth cycle. And with festival season wrapping up, what better time to curse the nature of change by meticulously focusing on the gripes. 2026 was my fifth visit to Josefov, the 18th Century fortress in Jaromฤล that houses Brutal Assault. Itโs fair to say itโs changed a fair... Continue Reading →
A hundred death metal albums not from the USA The final period in this series is also the ultimate motivation for this little exercise. There are few who would deny that death metal peaked between 1991-92. The established narrative has it that the genre then wobbled throughout the rest of the 90s, with some bands... Continue Reading →
A hundred death metal albums not from the USA Between 1993 and 1994, death metal popped its head above the underground parapet to peek into the mainstream. From airplay on MTVโs Headbangers Ball, to Morbid Angel being the first death metal band to get major label backing with a signing to Giant Records, to bloody... Continue Reading →
Apocalyptic SteelOut 26th June on Season of Mist Underground Activists Say what you like about Nargaroth, but the guy dances to the beat of his own drum. In his earliest period Ash was simply content to write Nordic black metal fanfic, resulting in a surplus of flat, bloated material that bored more than it enraged... Continue Reading →
A hundred death metal albums not from the USA Where were you in 92? Well, I was being shepherded between various preschool childcare arrangements, blissfully unaware of the exploding death metal scene. Part I took us from the late 80s to 1991, and naturally Sweden dominated when you remove death metalโs other centre of gravity... Continue Reading →
Ultima RequiesOut 26th June on ATMF The third album from this Italian outfit relives the streaming lamentations of the Blazebirth Hall scene, but populates this infamously barren Russian style with stark features by which to navigate. Most obviously via rhythmic variation and clearly marked out phrasing, over and above the addition of rich keyboard decoration... Continue Reading →
Hate Meditations 