Armchair rhetoric on extreme metal
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 →
Beithioch: A Cold Eye on Life and DeathOut 14th November, self-released After the barbaric primitivism of the ‘Beowulf’ EP back in 2023, this latest single sees Beithioch reach for a richer, expressive panorama of blackened doom metal reminiscent of The Ruins of Beverast amongst others. The flow is somewhat episodic, a ten minute plus piece... 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 →
Malign ApotheosisOut 28th November on Hells Headbangers What ‘Malign Apotheosis’ lacks in fresh ideas it makes up for in just how tight and focused the music is. Vintage Tampa style riffing – most obviously Morbid Angel, but vestiges of fellow Morrisound regulars Malevolent Creation make their voice heard – collide with modernist percussive death metal,... 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 →
Good clickbait draws in an audience even when they know they’re being baited. Rick Beato recently did this to me with his ‘Is metal dead?’ thumbnail. As an experienced Youtuber with an audience in the millions, he’s an adept practitioner of this dark art. In this case he’s served up a kind of double baiting.... 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 →
Hate Meditations 