Armchair rhetoric on extreme metal
Metal Archives got itself into a bit of a state recently over its poll for album of 2025, seeing an Italian goth/prog/yacht rock/grunge album make the top spot by quite a significant margin. Many were quick to point out the irony of a site like MA, with a reputation for being highly selective about what... Continue Reading →
2025 audit of the year Well, that was a year. Got sued for a book review. Got divorced. And I think underground metal had one of its best years in quite a while. It’s fair to say I’ve been on a journey in my attitude toward album of the year posts. From revulsion to begrudgingly... Continue Reading →
Una Lama D’ArgentoOut 12th December on Time to Kill Records Bracing, fluid death metal achieves a sense of power through ambient riffing that weaponizes repetition as a tool of malevolence. The album is defined by a wall of guitar noise that monolithically frames the parameters through which riffs can work, limiting them to basic, dry... Continue Reading →
This World we Live in…Out 12th December on Dolorem Records Mechanical death metal combines elements of clinical industrialism and prog informalities paced out in oddly pulsing sequences. Cryoxyd leverage repetition as an important compositional tool, creating a meditative, almost hyper fixated flow, only to lurch into soaring waves of melodic euphoria. This creates a sense... Continue Reading →
Benediction, Part IIOut 5th December on NoEvDia The second instalment of the Benediction series sees this Polish entity expand on their torturous, laboured brand of black metal ritualism, pitching a mood somewhere between depressive black metal and second wave Norwegian trademarks. Mayhem stands as an obvious influence through clever manipulation of ringing, open strings to... Continue Reading →
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 →
Aurë EntuluvaOut 27th November on La Caverna Records It’s been a while for Cóndor, but I feel that with album number five this Colombian outfit have finally made a listener friendly album. Cóndor 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 →
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, ‘Subcutanerous Tomb’ is a “fill in the blanks” album. Moments of creative surrealism – usually expressed through the innovative lead guitar work – populate an... 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 façade, leaning on depressed tempos to contrive tension and drama where... Continue Reading →
Hate Meditations 