Armchair rhetoric on extreme metal
Cruel Force: HanedaOut 27th March on Shadow Kingdom Sits at the playful end of German thrash, emphasising the melodic elements of Destruction circa โMad Butcherโ. On the basis of this material there is a clear effort to align with the rough and tumble of 80s thrash via the period correct mix and throaty vocals, but... Continue Reading →
A.H.P: Alltid Imot DegOut 21st March on Purity Through Fire Drab, pessimistic black metal lurches between torturous drone segments bolstered by little more than stumbling, slow rhythms into bursts of linear speed and open, humming guitar lines that retain a lackadaisical energy despite the blast-beat foundation. Raspy, mid-range vocals attempt to enhance the sense of... Continue Reading →
A Monument I Shall Raise in FlameOut 20th March on Werewolf Promotion Polandโs Deathlike Dawn continue the direction set by their previous album โNoc czarna czerniฤ otchลaniโ, extending their tendrils further into semi-chromatic, dissonant territory for this latest release, sacrificing the hazy atmosphere coating 2024โs โAmong the Graves of the Archetypesโ for a more stripped... Continue Reading →
Sette Cornici di PurificazioneOut 27th February on Masked Dead Records The third album from this Italian entity is an expansive, cinematic, and ambitious work of hyper charged melodic black metal. It manages to salvage the Cascadian style from its terminal blandness by recontextualising its open, cathartic demeanour into a more clarified, sharper expression of energised... Continue Reading →
Overspace and SupertimeOut 27th February on Metal Blade Records Itโs been a slow rise for Leedsโs own Cryptic Shift. From clunky sci-fi thrash beginnings in the early 2010s to emerging as local scene darlings by the end of the decade. They were perhaps about to break into international renown by the time their debut dropped... Continue Reading →
In a recent episode of 2 Promoters, 1 Pod, co-host and Damnation Festival organiser Gavin McInally launched what some took to be an all out assault on the music press. His contentions were three fold. That the music press no longer does โrealโ journalismโ, i.e. following up on leads and breaking stories. Secondly, that its... Continue Reading →
Diabolus, Mecum Semperterne!Out 20th February on Terratur Possessions Dark, fluid, minimalist black metal creates a sense of grandeur by bolstering the near constant tremolo riffing with keyboard accompaniment. That, and the thick reverb covering the mix gives the music a degree of inertia, forcing it into rather simplistic themes that gain greater currency from the... Continue Reading →
Three Faced Trinity for a Two-Faced WorldOut 13th February on Horror Pain Gore Death Productions The obscurantist curveball that is Moonchapel continue their output apace. Following their harrowing debut โChasms of Ash and Inequityโ in 2025, they have since put out two more albums, โFamine Weaponizedโ released the same year, and now we have this... Continue Reading →
Psy-War: From Deep Depressions to the Borders of SuicideOut 27th November on La Caverna Records (originally released in 1992) Unsettling grindcore notable for shifting the traits of the genre โ the micro tracks, the frantic speed, bricks and mortar power chord riffing, and hardcore sensibilities โ to a bleaker, almost defeatist place. Basic, three or... Continue Reading →
Goat at SunsetOut 1st February, self-released Croatiaโs Petrale add to their significant run of releases with another subtle shift in direction. Where 2024โs โThe World Down Thereโ was technically dense but experientially a stripped back, nocturnal journey of dissonant surrealism, โGoat at Sunsetโ wrests this project in a more playful and melodically typical direction. Typical,... Continue Reading →
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