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 →
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 →
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 Sacremantum’s discography. Their set at September’s Cosmic... Continue Reading →
SAD: Fullmoon’s Bestial AwakeningOut 31st October on Purity Through Fire SAD continue their quest to appropriate generic second wave black metal sweet-nothings into what is essential punky rock ‘n’ roll. Despite the length of this album, and indeed the considerable girth of the tracks within, there is little to suggest they have expanded into a... Continue Reading →
Ialdabaoth: G.O.A.T. / S.C.O.P.E.Out 13th March on All Is Threat Lo-fi, frantic black metal pulling from the futurist undercurrent of the genre, here reimagined as a random, feral entity, defined by illogical fits of violence, laboured interludes of despair, and uncanny structuralism. Despite the demo quality production – something utterly incapable of containing the flamboyant... Continue Reading →
(There are only four) Metal subgenres don’t exist. I think we’ve imagined them all. I’ve run the numbers, and by my count there’s only ever been four. “How could we have been so wrong about this?” you ask. I don’t know, but I’m going to expend considerable effort wildly speculating regardless. I curse my spare... Continue Reading →
Poems of SpellcraftOut 24th October on Chaos Records The debut album from this German entity draws on a thread of UK black metal (such as it is) most infamously expressed by Cradle of Filth and Hecate Enthroned, later by Old Corpse Road and A Forest of Stars. Histrionic, gothic, and unconcerned with what the listener... Continue Reading →
Hate Meditations 