Armchair rhetoric on extreme metal
Elsinore: The Vengeful Ghost/Tombstone HexOut 5th December on Caligari Records Brief but tight EP that reminds us that death metal, even in its germinal form, was always melodic in some sense. Explicit references to early Death sit happily alongside the journeying primitivism of Celtic Frost. The presentation is cleaner than the vintage implied by these... Continue Reading →
Aurรซ EntuluvaOut 27th November on La Caverna Records Itโs been a while for Cรณndor, but I feel that with album number five this Colombian outfit have finally made a listener friendly album. Cรณndor articulate a form of ambient metal with tools normally associated with melodic death/doom. A liminal, veiled quality cloaks the music, as if... Continue Reading →
Good clickbait draws in an audience even when they know theyโre being baited. Rick Beato recently did this to me with his โIs metal dead?โ thumbnail. As an experienced Youtuber with an audience in the millions, heโs an adept practitioner of this dark art. In this case heโs served up a kind of double baiting.... Continue Reading →
The Conquering DarknessOut 28th November on Agonia Records Tampa death metal super group emerge with a continuity debut following their blue collar self titled EP back in 2022. Whatโs perhaps most surprising about this album is just how perfectly it articulates a synthesis of the traditions each of its members are known for. The violent... Continue Reading →
Verdadero PoderOut 19th November, self-released The second offering from this Chilean powerhouse of speed metal smooths off the rougher edges of the debut, seeing a more focused, weighty, yet no less frantic entity come into sharp relief. Letalis thread the needle of maturity by employing a fatter production, tighter songwriting, and a more intentional flow... Continue Reading →
Fessus: Subcutaneous TombOut 26th November on Darkness Shall Rise Productions Competent if unremarkable OSDM apes the playful bounce of Autopsy alongside the heavier malevolence of Incantation. As a listening experience, โSubcutanerous Tombโ is a โfill in the blanksโ album. Moments of creative surrealism โ usually expressed through the innovative lead guitar work โ populate an... Continue Reading →
The Descent of Mortals PastOut 14th November on I, Voidhanger Records Following the outpouring of material from the Midnight Odyssey camp in recent years itโs probably about time Dis Pater took his foot off the gas with his flagship project. Itโs not so much the amount of releases that was causing a problem but the... Continue Reading →
Gloombound: Dreaming DelusionOut 21st November on Gruesome Records Scrapes together the more downbeat elements of death/doom as a means of conjuring up a foundation for self-indulgent, achingly tedious balladeering. Much like Ahab before them, the pacing and content of these compositions is a hollow faรงade, leaning on depressed tempos to contrive tension and drama where... Continue Reading →
Pลรญliลกnost (Excess)Out 7th November on Willowtip Records Coming off the back of the adventurous โรpalโ in 2023, the latest offering from Kostnatฤnรญ is a case study in growing pains. Todayโs release incontinence epidemic has rendered the difficult second album a thing of the past. There is no build up of digestive materials before the ultimate... Continue Reading →
Death Summer 2025 was not kind to metal. The death of Ozzy was every bit as a dramatic and stage managed as expected. Somehow surprising us all despite the very literal realisation of the inevitable. The suicide of Nisse Karlen prompted me to undergo a detailed re-appraisal of Sacremantumโs discography. Their set at Septemberโs Cosmic... Continue Reading →
Hate Meditations 