Male Patratis Sunt Atra Theatra ParataOut 28th June, self-released Condemner take a sledgehammer to the already crumbling edifice of death metal, smashing the lavish facades and elaborate archways, vestiges of a genre that has strayed far from the path of lucidity, relevance(?). Selecting only the most essential foundational stones from the rubble, the project of... Continue Reading →

Something that’s often misunderstood about the underground ethos is its desire to stay underground. Success itself is not a source of resentment, but popularity dilutes nuance. This is not simply a case of selling out. Complex works can become immensely popular (the enduring popularity of Morbid Angel and Burzum testify to this). But in this... Continue Reading →

Final Wrath – The Early Hymns of LobotomyOut 13th June on vicrecords In archaeology they use a technique called field walking. It involves systematically walking up and down a field, collecting any fragment that may be of significance, which is later inspected by a finds expert, who will verify if any shards of pottery could... Continue Reading →

We are back, we are arguing, and we are drinking. Tier list picks are based on a mix of classics, personal favourites, and wildcards released in 1996. Full lengths only. Where possible we've excluded bands we've already covered, or bands where our ranking would be predictable. It's our longest episode covering 20 albums, there are... Continue Reading →

Jo Quail is an interesting case study in what happens when the metal crowd get their teeth into a free floating, genre agnostic artist. This solo cellist taps into a recent trend of artists who use the instrument to bridge the gap between modern chamber music, drone, ambient, and *shudders* world music. Live, the use... Continue Reading →

El Era Del JaguarOut 29th May on Soman Records Progressive overtures in metal are notoriously hard to pin down on paper. That being said, most listeners of a certain vintage would be confident in picking them out in a lineup. In terms of the facts on the ground, the history of progressive death metal is... Continue Reading →

Black Wound: Warping StructureOut 31st May on Chaos Records It often amazes me the lengths some bands will go to cloak a lack of content. This new “blackened death/doom” outfit is anything but. They are essentially a sludge/noise/post hardcore affair with the occasional off-the-shelf death metal riff thrown in to garner followers from the extreme... Continue Reading →

We look back on the year so far, 2024 has undoubtably been a period of time that we have all lived through, where things have happened, some of them even worth commenting on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqJgT5In4LE

Closer to the SkyOut 4th June on I, Voidhanger Following the epic, bloated, unfocused, but nevertheless praiseworthy Biolume trilogy, itself creaking under the weight of nearly five hours of music across three albums, hitting the reset button seems like the only sane thing for Midnight Odyssey to do at this point. A modest half hour... Continue Reading →

The Blaze of AbbadonOut 4th June on Ordovician Records This album is archetypical of death metal musicians composing black metal, with all the pros and cons that come with this process. As a rule of thumb, death metal is the more composed form of extreme metal. It relies on dense, ordered, intricate, and at times... Continue Reading →