death metal

"Death-punk", that's what the band calls their music but to me this is old school death metal, testicle ripping death metal even. I have no idea where the "punk" tag comes from, although I have to admit that there is a dash of that anarchistic attitude in here. Anyway, first things first. Hereza is a band from Croatia, formed in 2014. According to the info I can find, the band members moved to Germany and Ireland in 2016 but they still managed to record this delightful piece of brutal blasphemy.

What do you get on this album? Well, old school death metal, crushing guitars, a deep, growling voice (plus here and there a few punk screams) and mosh pit inducing tempos. From opener and title track 'I Become Death', these guys drags you into a whirlpool of distorted riffs and pummeling drums. That song reminds me of Dismember, which is probably the reason why I like this album so much.

Yeah, I do, me, the one who stopped listening to death metal after the classics by Entombed, Sepultura, Death, Suffocation and the aforementioned Dismember. But what Hereza is currently blasting through my speakers, is the one album that drags me right back in. Fierce tempos, insane guitars and an immersive speed. You don't need anything else to start that blood-gushing death metal orgy.

No, take it from me. This is one of the greatest death metal albums I've heard in years. It comes with a relentless groove. Songs like ''Homo Homini Lupus Est' and 'Full Moon Slaughter' are awesome beatdowns and they are far from the only ones on this album. On the latter, even the brilliant Götheborg scene comes to mind, improving the overall quality and level of variation. If you are a fan of death metal, you need this. If you don't like it, you might want to reconsider your musical preferences...


​Serge

death metal / black metal

Beyond This World’s Illusion is an album by Turkish black/ death metal group The Sarcophagus, released by Satanath Records on April 4. Almost forty six minutes long, the album has nine tracks: Reign Of Chaos, Ain Sof, Dymadiel,  The Profanity Rites, Sapremia Of Earthly Creatures, Triumphant Divine Terror, Armoured Death, Flaming Key To Divine Wisdom and Apocalyptic Beast. A marvelous and terrific album, with lancinating and protuberating guitar lines, exceptionally vibrating and effusively original, Beyond This World’s Illusion is a very original album. Although the underline core of its musicality is recognizable, their sound is so incredibly hallucinating, vividly colorful and vehemently spontaneous that almost seems to be pretty much alive. Precisely astute and formidably relevant, this record is a precious pearl of the genre. An ardent and superb masterpiece, Beyond This World’s Illusion deserves to be recognized by all the expressive qualities whimsically delineated in the expansive sonorous delusional science, displayed within the frontiers of its deleterious, but wonderful musical horizons.   

The songs in general are ferociously hostile, but there is such sentimental and lancinating sincere elements added to it, that you almost feel their exceptionally colorful harmonies ardently and fervently trespassing the components of your soul, to exponentially fuse – and infuse – each one of them into the infinite sonorous galaxy carried out by their music. And the songs have such an intrinsic vibrating cosmic rhythm and density that they appear to be sensibly alive, with all the sincere and supreme intensity carried out by the strike of their harmonic directions. 

An excellent album, with serious, direct and impeccable harmonies, beautifully conceived with amazing, incisive, conspicuous and interchangeable guitar lines, Beyond This World’s Illusion is one of the most authentic, solicit, wonderful, imponderable and visibly transcendental extreme metal albums of all time. Truly incorporating the genuine spirit of the genre, with sincerity, spontaneity, soul, motivation and a real sense of purpose, there is not a singular second on this album that is tedious, generic or weak. One of the most formidable albums of the century ever created in the history of black and death metal, Beyond This World’s Illusion is imperiously fantastic. From the very first seconds that I’ve heard this marvelous and incredibly brilliant album, I simply couldn’t believe what I was listening too. With an exceptional level of creativity, that simply goes beyond the normal standards, this is the record that I have heard that probably has captured in the best way possible the authentic spirit of extreme metal, with songs created in a crystallized shape, with a style and a structure that audaciously replicated the genre in its purest state, with a genuine sonorous fluidity that really has managed to evoke in the content of its peripheral sensibility a universal wave, forsaken and neglected by the abnormalities of the abhorrent spirit of the human nature.

Beyond This World’s Illusion is unmistakably one of the most marvelous albums ever created in the history of extreme metal. There is no doubt about it. The Sarcophagus really deserves to have a splendid, fruitful and prolific career. Better than play and create extreme metal, are the musicians that truly understand and replicate the spirit behind it.    

 
Wagner

ambient / experimental / shoegaze

metalcore / metal

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hard rock

classical / ambient

drum & bass / industrial metal

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progressive / thrash metal

nu metal

synthpop / new wave

techno / industrial

alternative rock

post rock

death metal

dark ambient / black metal

experimental rock

facebook

gothic / industrial metal

punk

death metal / black metal

Lebabvoid is an album by Portuguese blackened death metal group Epping Forest, released on March 10 by Unexploded Records. With ten tracks – Inception: Everblasting doom, Though-O-Matic: The pyramid and the exodus, Affair: The curse and the heal, Kria: Resistance is useless, lebaB Void: The universe in a machine, Foretoken: A mountain-gorges lullaby, Summoning: Three hundred out of the sky, Demise: Twelve times twelve sars, Hereafter: We are alone in the end and Cruel with us – Lebabvoid is a powerful and unmerciful album, one of the best that I have ever heard in the genre! Impressively cohesive, incredibly fast, inextricably impulsive, amazingly technical and sagaciously lucid, the sonorous style of Epping Forest is impeccably delirious and outstandingly hallucinatory. Its relentless sound is truly amazing and unique, especially given the fact that, although their sound is unforgivingly rapid, the instruments are perfectly distinguishable and discernible. Their sound is proficiently efficient, and they have a majorly original and authorial style, very interesting to hear and to analyze. 

The cohesion of the guitar lines is probably one of their strongest elements. Nonetheless, their overall musicality, the imposing force of their rhythms and the impeccable convergence of instruments in their massive melodies are wonderful accomplishments that only amazingly talented musicians are able to do. And their perfect domain of the genre, being so powerfully expressive, reveals the shaping of harmonies with so much grandiosity, vigor and intelligence, that it becomes easy to define Lebabvoid as a terrific and amazingly surprising album.     

Every track seems to have been dilapidated in a unique feature of restless and superior trace of creativity. Despite the fact that they have a very cohesive and incisive style, each track has its own identity, and they never repeat themselves, which makes every single track in Lebabvoid a wonderful surprise. Although in several moments they remember 90’s Rotting Christ, their style is virtually singular. You probably never heard something so powerful in the genre, ever in your life. With melodic elements masterly thrown in the mathematically ordained chaos of dilacerating melodies, each and every track in Lebabvoid is a universal call for redemption, done with the correct amount of sensibility and precision, which is something quite expected from a band of such a superior technical and creative category. 

While all the songs on the album are peculiar and effusively beautiful masterpieces by their own right, and I think that highlight one or two of them is terribly unfair, I need to point it out the sixth track, Foretoken: A mountain-gorges lullaby, as a beautifully poetic and surprisingly formidable song, filled with so much consistency, sentiment and sincerity – adorned by a cosmically dense and perpetually stringent melody – that the characterization of Epping Forest as a brutal, honest, genuine and original band does not seem enough to honor their astounding and greatly artistic level of competence. 

If you are a death/ black metal enthusiast, you can’t afford to miss Lebabvoid. I strongly assure you that this is a state of the art work! An amazingly powerful record, with potential to redefine and establish new standards for the genre, in such a level like you never thought it was possible before.


​Wagber

melodic metal / death metal

Sometimes it is as if the French live in a completely different universe than the rest of the world. Their music often follows different rules and restrictions than their American, English or even Belgian counterparts, which obviously makes French bands harder to categorize. Take this album by Arkan for example. It was delivered to me as a melodic death metal band. It's melodic, that is true. It also clearly belongs in the world of metal, but death metal? Don't you need growls and grunts for that? Is't death metal a genre that often goes fast?

Oh oh, that doesn't sound very good, does it?
Well, keep on reading.

Arkan was created in May 2005 by Foued Moukid (former member of The Old Dead Tree). His goal was to mix metal with oriental music. Their previous effort, 'Sofia'  was released by Season Of Mist and was quite well received. Yet, 'Kelem' takes on a different approach. Sarah Layssac has been replaced by Manuel Munoz (also from The Old Dead Tree) who, by the way, does a brilliant job. The death metal references have almost disappeared, making place for a modern melodic metal sound that focuses more on emotion than aggression.

When I listened to opener 'Kafir' for the first time, I was surprised. This gloomy and immersive mid-tempo song contains no grunts, no ferocious tempos, no shrieking solos. Yet, it thrives on this dynamic rhythm and massive riffs. Manuel's voice is excellent here. Somewhere rooted in extreme metal, this track is a prime example of modern day metal. 'Nour' eventually comes up with the grunts, and from there on the songs become more varied, ranging from a heavy version of Anathema to today's metalcore scene.

'The Call' is one of my favorites. It's somewhat faster, comes with plenty of energy and the Arabian elements make this such a great listening experience. It's probably also the most death-metal one on this record. 'Cub Of The Caliphate' is also an awesome track, graciously inviting you to a decent headbanging session. 'Just A Lie', is another possible fan-favorite, another mid tempo masterpiece of melodic metal that will make heads bang and hip shake.

I'll leave the other songs up to you, dear reader. I will definitely recommend this to today's metal fans. Perhaps not to the old school death metal fan because he might find this thing a bit too modern and melodic. Yet, those who love decently written metal from an excellent technical level will easily appreciate this. In all, 'Kelem' is a splendid album, varied, stubborn and immersive. What else could you want?


​Serge

industrial metal

metal / hardcore

stoner rock / psychedelic

post rock / math rock / progressive rock

alternative rock / hard rock

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electronic / trip hop

post rock / electronic

stoner rock

metal

hardcore / black metal

death metal

dark folk / neofolk

Serge

stoner / doom / death metal

I have to admit, the death metal scene doesn't thrill me as much as it used to. There was a time when I devoured albums by Entombed, Dismember, Death, Amorphis and so on. Yet, in recent years, the genre seems to slip through my fingers. At first, I thought that that was age related. I'm just getting older and thus more interested in slow, calmer music. Yet, that doesn't seem to be the cause of my growing disinterest in the genre. The main problem seems to be a lack of originality. Many bands seem to fear trying new things, which results in uniformity. 

Enter Finnish quartet Altar Of Betelgeuze and their green smoke filled approach to the genre. Their new album 'Among The Ruins' is saving the genre for me, blending the harsh and abrasive nature of death metal with the monolithic riff capacity of doom and stoner rock. As if that is not varied enough, they throw in some clean vocals and even some psychedelic guitar solos. It's not often that bands like Black Sabbath & Electric Wizard come to mind while listening to a death metal album, but it sure is pretty damn bloody awesome.

Although opener 'The Offering' is a strong and immersive piece of music, follower 'Sledge Of Stones' is an absolute masterpiece. Somehow, Altar Of Betelgeuze managed to add the groove of bands like Entombed and Dismember to the thick sound of the bands I mentioned in the previous paragraph. At some point even Queens Of The Stone Age come to mind, along with some of their stoner rock colleagues. 'New Dawn' is another favorite, but more a vintage doom metal track than a death metal tune.

Another absolute highlight its 'Absence Of Light', a slow but brutal steamroller of a song, one that will have you on your knees in no time. There is a tiny bit Amorphis in here, enhanced with all of the above. Obviously, the majority of metal fans will classify this album as doom metal and I can't disagree with that. The overall tempo is quite slow. The riffs are almost touchable. The clean vocals remind me of the early days of the doom genre.

Basically, perhaps you can simplify classification by saying that this is "Conan with grunts" but that would be too easy. Fact remains that this is a well-written, well-thought-out and original album that definitely deserves a spot in your collection. So who to recommend it to? Well, doom fans of course. They will adore this thing, no doubt about that. Death metal fans will have to open their mind a bit, but once bitten, Altar Of Betelgeuze could easily become your favorites.


Serge
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death metal

Ubiquity is an album by French brutal death metal band Ogarya, released on February 15. Thirty seven minutes long, Ubiquity has twelve very objective and concise tracks, being them an Intro, Downgrading Redemption, Black Sun, Perennial Idolatrous Violence, Ubiquity, T-eraFormer, No wisdom possible, Engine, BiOniric Mechanization, Seven Sin-gularities, Those We Don't Want To See and Another World. A very rapid, brutal and explicitly grotesque album, Ubiquity is primarily fulfilled by all the classic death metal components: a hostile and malevolent style, a thoroughly aggressive sound, guttural vocals and a very explosive musical layout.

Ogarya manages to develop very well their own style, since Ubiquity – despite featuring as its main components the general elements of an ordinary brutal death metal feature –, really has a very original musicality, although eventually you feel yourself absorbed by a more generic pattern, within the uniform sonorous correlation deeply standardized into the songs. 

Although there is nothing extraordinary in Ubiquity, the album is good, and certainly has everything to be a favorite among death metal enthusiasts. As a record, in a more detailed and meticulous analysis, Ubiquity is as interesting as it is monotonous. Technically, there is a solid and vehemently ardent splendid proficiency, whose exceedingly high level of competence really demonstrates to the audience what brutal death metal truly is. Nonetheless, on the other hand, since the harmonies are voraciously fast all the way throughout the album, with little to no variations, the sound appears to be too uniform, and you eventually fall under the impression that they are playing the same song over and over again. 

Ubiquity is a polarizing album, that certainly has the potential to divide opinions.  Not a bad album, if you have a little patience, the expressive musical lines in general reveals very skilled musicians. Enthusiasts of a very extreme and brutal death metal sound probably will find the album a splendid and marvelous experience, since the voracious aggression literally gives you no truce, for the entire run of its thirty seven minutes.  

I really can’t say I found Ubiquity a marvelous work of art, but the record certainly has its merits, and they are not scarce. Although Ogarya does not promote a revolution in the way death metal is played, they seem to be fully compromised with the development of their own style. Evidently, Ubiquity has the potential to please the more ardent and extreme enthusiasts of the genre. There is no doubt about it.
 

Wagner

death metal

The Eclipse is an album released on February 8, by Japanese symphonic death metal band Serenity in Murder. A little more than forty minutes long, it has twelve tracks: Earthrise, A Torch For Avengers, Isle Of The Dead, The Revelation, Dancing Flames,
Genesis, The Sea Is…, Hybrid Evolution, Phalaris, Dreamfall, Land Of The Rising Sun and the eponymous title track, The Eclipse. A beautiful album, with amazingly melodic rhythms, an original style full of strength and vigor, and powerfully thrilling harmonies, The Eclipse is an interesting album, filled with fast guitars, enchanting solos and captivatingly intensifying vocals.

Despite the dense death metal atmosphere of the album, The Eclipse is distilled with a perfect mixture of symphonic and melodic musical elements. In a graceful layer of primordial components, exhilarated by the prevalence of exceedingly fast melodies, this album has on the originality of its compositions the full force – as well as the essence – of its soul. Astoundingly displayed in a panorama of majestic beauty, The Eclipse conquers the heart and the soul of the listener song by song, in such an infinite wave of poetic splendor, that you hardly remember that you are listening to a death metal album.

Grounded in a bastion of lucid sensibility and definite sagacity, Serenity in Murder has really outstood its capacities as a band, surpassing the beauty and the level of its artistry in the composition of this record, as well as the execution of the songs. A unique album in the history of symphonic death metal, The Eclipse can be more correctly defined as a collection of sad, poetic, emotional, transcendental and beautiful songs. 

Certainly a powerful album with potential to make history, The Eclipse represents a new wave of expressive vigor and authentic creativity within the genre. With a wonderful sonorous presence, an impressive musical consistency, a coherent pace of objective glory and a persistent stream of collective harmony, Serenity in Murder fully represent the victory and the celebration towards a new shape of creative wisdom. A marvelous album that gets very close of being considered a masterpiece, The Eclipse will cause an expressive turmoil in the underground scene. Full of astonishing qualities that will please each and every person that has profound affinity with the genre, the album balances perfectly softness and aggression, as well as the poetic cadence of its beauty, with the more hostile elements of its sincere despondency. A great work that you have to check it out for yourself, The Eclipse, by Japanese band Serenity in Murder, is destined to be classified as one of the best albums ever made in the history of symphonic death metal.       


Wagner

death metal

Altars of Devotion is an album by Harvest Gulgatha, to be released on March 15, by Nuclear War Now! Productions. With eight tracks – A Vision Unleashed, Unholy Cipher, Transcend the Wrathful, Trance of a Tormented Hymn, Serpentine Path,
Necromantic Calling, Ritual of Traditional Sacrifice and Blood of Creation –, Altars of Devotion is an interesting work. Harvest Gulgatha plays primarily an intriguing mixture of death and black metal, centered in the agony of slow and more dynamic rhythms, that manages to be quite exciting, never boring, and exponentially audacious on the verge of its technical intuition. With the prominence of some elements of traditional death and black metal – especially on the growling brutality evoked by pungent and sometimes explicitly sinister vocals –, despite little rhythmic variations, Harvest Gulgatha has an interesting style, that follows a pattern of its own.     

Don’t get me wrong. By no means this is a terrific or excellent record. It is full of elements that you have listened before in a thousand – if not more – brutal and extreme metal albums. Nonetheless, Harvest Gulgatha works with very peculiar components, masterly arranged and combined in the slow fury of its rhythms, which gives them, indeed, very unique characterizations. 

Altars of Devotion will appeal more to fans of slow extreme metal – something that seems to be a contradiction –, since the melodies rely a lot more on expectation, agony, anguish and sinister atmospheres, with intense guitar lines holding the base of the songs. Probably the strongest quality of the band is the deeply grunt, funereal and guttural vocals, extremely profound, soul ripping and exhilaratingly dreadful to the bones.   

There are some tracks – like the fourth, Trance of a Tormented Hymn – that escapes the pattern a little, featuring a more nervous and rapid rhythm. But generally, especially if you are a decades old veteran metalhead that literally has heard everything available in the underground scene, this album will hardly surprise you. Although it’s not a bad album, Altars of Devotion suffers deeply from the lack of new elements. Harvest Gulgatha highlights the pantheon of their music with the benefits, qualities and the advantage of having developed its own style. Nevertheless, the album has its share of monotonous moments. Not a bad album at all, but definitely, it is way more recommended to traditional extreme metal enthusiasts, with a strong passion for slow, sinister and macabre melodies.
 

Wagner
 

progressive metal

dark ambient

post rock

shoegaze / psychedelic

symphonic doom

grindcore

alternative / metal

dark ambient

indie rock / pop rock

punk rock

rock / blues

funeral doom / black metal

noise / drone / spoken word

heavy metal

death metal / black metal

Serge

death metal

Released on January 2, Legbah is the debut album of the eponymous Swedish melodic death metal band. With seven tracks, and a total length of only thirty one minutes – Sorg, Ignited By One, Words Will Not Return, Vision And The Void, Höstvisa, The Destroyer and Towards The Burning Path – Legbah definitely set higher standards for melodic black/ death metal. With powerful melodies, dramatically poetic at the same time, this album excels in originality, with a great amount of vision and dedication put into it, which becomes somewhat visible all the way through.

With reflexive melodies, there is little aggression, here, although rude and visibly strong guitar lines are present all the time. The harmonies are well-written, and apparently transcend time, corroborating its laconic and sincere approach throughout a cosmos of disillusion, that unravels itself in a set of perfectly conceived rhythms, that remembers technical death metal in great scale. With a vivaciously solid sound, built in the apex of a genuine amalgamation of genres, Legbah – the album – expresses the splendid vision of technical death metal as the appendix of a scenic and reliant sensibility, with the cohesion and the illusory discipline of melodic death metal.

With a genuine sound, that really has a multifaceted string of colors to offer, Legbah – the band – does an excellent work on their debut. A terrific album, despite being so short, you will be very delighted while hearing this great work of art. Although sounding a little repetitive some times, the album is solid, coherent, strong and incredibly lucid. Opening a new paradigm of style possibilities, Legbah as a record is a well-shaped conceived piece of artistry, that came to light to guide into a seriously new path these genres, that are so much in need for new inspirations. And Legbah does offer a whole new universe of possibilities, concerning their astounding level of creativity. 

With calm songs, fulfilled by the strength of a philosophic soul, the music of Legbah has everything to enchant its audience: amazing guitar solos, perfect melodies, poetic harmonies, imperial desolation and a distilled melancholy imprisoned at the heart of a delusional night, amongst many other qualities. But above everything, they achieve a formidable apex in what concerns technical and melodic death metal, being the most perfect amalgamation that I have ever heard on the genre. With carefully detailed harmonies, that sound spontaneous as well, Legbah is the future and the perfection for an entirely new category of death metal, that has started to develop, thanks to them.   



Wagner   

black metal / death metal

Volaða Land is the debut album of Icelandic blackened death metal band Draugsól, released on January 13. With six tracks – Volaða Land, Formæling, Bót Eður Viðsjá Við illu Aðkasti, Spáfarir Og Útisetur, Váboðans Vals and Holdleysa – what we have here is a proverbial and somewhat original album, that really amalgamates the greatest elements of death metal into a black metal musical context.

Although the album is not exactly a fantastic masterpiece, the sound lives in elaborate and rapid sonorous constructions, that the genre intensely demands. With constant, interrupted and stricken melodies, Volaða Land really manages to fulfill the unbound esoteric emotions of the harmonies, increasing the feeling towards a lugubrious and poetic outlook, that elevates this album to genuine and almost fabulous standards of artistry. 

With tempestuous and unpredictable harmonies, Volaða Land is an adventurous listening, that lives by the fire of its own striking limits. With some abrasive guitar lines that puts fire in the sky with hazardous notes of hostility, the weaknesses of the album rely on generic genre passages, although their strong style and non-conformity towards an incredible relief of emotion is somewhat a formidable point of rupture in their case.       

With an aggressive outlook, and a hostile sonority, this album certainly honors the genre in a great deal of aspects, as blackened death metal is mostly a very uniform and predictable genre, and to be able to do it right is obviously no minor achievement. With amazing and excellent moments, that shows the greatness of their style, their striking and complex melodies reevaluates what the genre has as its best, showcasing in a certain level a purity of style that could teach a lot of musical elements to other bands of the genre.    

While I can’t call Volaða Land a magnificent album – do to its fair share of excessively generic passages – I can’t avoid thinking how this is, indeed, blackened death metal done right, with soul, consistency and technique. A heavy album, with amazingly well written aggressive passages, Draugsól really has taken a step forward into the genre, and I certainly see them achieving perfection on future albums. 

With a lot more positive aspects than negative ones, Volaða Land is a decent choice for enthusiasts of the genre. A fearless, strong and emotive album, combining aggressive melodies with poetic harmonies – and exceedingly pervasive guitar lines – this record has it all to be considered a cornerstone of the genre, undoubtedly! 


Wagner

black metal / doom

Now here is something to feed your ever growing insanity. Here is an album that is so overloaded with madness, distress, anxiety and rage that's is an extremely hard pill to swallow. Yet, those who dare and are experienced in the world of metallic extremes will probably find a pulverising blast in this sophomore effort by French act The Prisoner. I'll try to guide you through but like I said, it's not going to be easy.

The album opens with one of my favorite tracks here, the harsh and relentless 'Awake'. Although deeply rooted in black metal, this song reminds me of Napalm Death's 'Evolved As One'. Both songs breathe a similar atmosphere and thrives on this looming insanity. Then there is 'Emptied', a gut ripping piece of black metal, like Emperor maybe, but weird, complex and unimaginably deranged.

Besides black and death metal, there are some decent slabs of doom, sludge and hardcore to be found here, all of course dressed in this gritty, filthy and piercing sound. some of the songs even push the limits of harsh noise, away from any form of musicality. On other occasions, the whole thing gets a dark, almost gothic edge which is pretty amazing too. 'Still Here' somewhat feels like Tool blasting out some extreme sludge doom, to give you an example of how bizarre this thing really is.

It's long too, over an hour, which gives you plenty of time to scream out your inner demons and outer frustrations. I mean, that's pretty much what this whole album sounds like, an exorcism gone wrong and delivering massive amounts of agony to everyone involved. By the time the track 'Life Of The Mind' starts, this album will probably have you on your knees, crying, shouting and hair pulling. 

Who to recommend this too? Well, obviously to all extreme metal fans out there. Although there are few blast beats driven passages, this full-length has the same power, the same intensity as most of your favorite black, death and grindcore records, if not more. Other people, beware, if you are not very acquainted with stuff like this, this album will undoubtedly make you end up in a mental institution and it'll all be your own damn fault...


​Serge

black metal / industrial / death metal

"Oh dear, what a delightful heap of skull grinding noise this ep is". That was my first thought when I started listening to this first effort by Australian extremists Miserist. Right after hearing the first two songs, I opened the digipac again and I read 'This horrendous collection of noise was composed, recorded, assembled, mastered...", which made me realize that "noise" is pretty much all this horde is going for. No that I mind.

What Miserist delivers is an explosive and destructive blend of industrial, black and death metal, driving on a thick guitar sound and heaps of aggression. In a way, you can easily place this ep among your expanding collection of avant-garde metal releases as pretty much nothing is conventional and familiar. Here and there some vintage death metal riffs can be found and there's a decent amount of blast beats present as well.

Yet, the whole thing sounds like a sanity-battering melee that only the most experience musical extremists can and will survive. 'Horror Infinitum' is probably my favorite track on this ep. It's also the most varied one, opening with classical music and ranging from harsh noise over sludge to death metal, without uttering a single word. The rest of the album will probably haunt your dreams for years.

The verdict? Well, this ep is a hard pill to swallow. It showcases a dark and burdensome atmosphere. Play it loud enough, and tracks like 'Miserist' and 'Lung Rust' become overwhelming and crushing pieces of music. My advice? Get experienced in the vile underground of the metal industry before you give this one a shot. It will definitely be worth it because in all, this album is a pulverising blast.


​Serge

shoegaze / dreampop

stoner rock

electronic / ambient

Avian

post rock

black metal / hardcore

heavy jazz / noise rock

alternative rock

doom metal

heavy metal

power metal / heavy metal

hardcore / progressive

symphonic meal / gothic meal

techno

alternative / singer-songwriter

death metal / thrash metal

Serge

death metal / black metal

Metempsychosis is an album by Australian black/ death metal band Kaerulean, released on December 30, 2016. With eight tracks – The Unfurling, Prince of Deception, Parting Gift, Astral Migration, Heretic, Regression, Labyrinth and Mandala – this album follows the traditional ordeals of mixed genres: with the aggressive traits of death metal, but the abrasively digressive guitar lines of black metal, Kaerulean really manages to do a decent and emotive job on this album, although inevitably falling in some clichés, like exceedingly uniform songs (but only on minor occasions), that sometimes are too long, which makes you feel inevitably bored. Nonetheless, this record really has some remarkable features: with some elements of electronica, with progressive, symphonic and melodic components nicely introduced into their melodies, Metempsychosis is really an intriguing album. Although far from being a masterpiece, it has its fair share of qualities, and undoubtedly Kaerulean has a very unique style, decisively difficult to properly categorize.

With a peculiar set of qualities, and an undeniable inclination towards a vigorous and lancinating originality, these musicians are certainly skilled and creative, being able to elaborate curious melodies, upon which their musical universe revolves. With very strong points, that makes them quite resourceful and versatile, Metempsychosis has melodic, dramatic and insidious surprises, so curiously intriguing, that this album can be viewed as an unexpected lesson on creativity, especially for metal musicians.  

With a very insightful work, this album is marked mostly by firm lines of guitar, that holds the entire harmony throughout its run. With some marvelous pieces of music, the stringent and somewhat imperiously harmonic resonating guitar secures a set of tunes unique for the genre, which makes Kaerulean a very genuine and authentic band. Although the songs are not necessarily heavy – at least, not all the time –, their music is full of energy, the breakable pattern of the rhythms change frequently, and they are full of a splendid vigor, that simply never stops, and never gives away, for the entire run of the album.  

Definitely a work to be heard, analyzed and appreciated, Metempsychosis, by Kaerulean, is almost a splendid album (certainly, the more ardent enthusiasts of the band will see the record as perfect [which, at least technically, is true]). Interesting, intriguing and with a genuine proposal, amplified by a truly artistic overview of music, this album is a very good. Strongly recommended, at any given time!   

 

Wagner

doom / death metal

From so-called art-rock to atmospheric death metal, it's not an evolution a lot of bands make. Usually, it's pretty much the other way around. But for the Italians of Tenebrae, that is exactly what happened. Of course, a few line-up changes often trigger a band to reinvent themselves and explore other muscial paths. For these guys, that path runs through darkness and comes with loads and loads of atmosphere.

​So in a way, 'My Next Dawn' is a new beginning for Tenebrae, but one with past experiences and a wide musical background. In a way, this album feels like the band still wants to hold on to the "art" of making music, which obviously is a good thing. The music on this album is well varied, contains plenty of synths and both clean vocals and death growls. The band wants to tell a story and put a lot of effort in doing so.

That results in strong yet emotional metal songs with fingerlicking doom riffs and brutal death metal passages. The clean vocals also give the whole thing a power metal edge, which is nice. Bands that come to mind, include Amorphis, Anathema, Septicflesh, Swallow The Sun and November's Doom, which I think is a pretty damn good set of names to be compared with. Then there are the sometimes "gothic" keyboards, giving this album such a great nineties sound.

Picking out a favorite song isn't really easy, mostly because the album truly feels like a concept. However, I noticed that I'm exceptionally fond of 'The Fallen Ones', an epic piece of death doom. Here, the Swedish death metal scene also comes shining through, you know, In Flames and company. Another stunning epos is 'Lillian (Changing Shades)' and my third favorite could be 'Black Drape' but the jury is still deliberating on that.

​Fans of atmospheric metal can blindly trust Tenebrae to deliver the goods, that's for sure. So it's no wonder I recommend this album to all fans of the aformentioned bands. Defintiely not bad for a band that once started out as a cover band named Why Not. Check it out, you just might have discovered a new favorite to get you through the cold days of winter... ​

​Serge

death metal

Inritum is an album released by Romanian Melodic Death Metal band Era Decay. With twelve tracks – Intro, Beyond Delirium, Ferocious, Perfidious, Sharp Words,
Repugnance, Restlessness, Syncope, The Past is Mine to Bear, Faker, Becoming Unstoppable and Coming for You (The day I die) – what we have here is a very good and exceedingly solid work, extremely reminiscent of classics of the genre, like early Amorphis, In Flames and Dismembered. While the comparison is inevitable, Era Decay manages to deliver an amazing record, with an authentic presence and a subtle hostility, with a strong set of qualities of its own.

With strong guttural vocals, heavy, but fiercely melodic rhythms, and aggressively obscure, but poetic guitar lines, Inritum is a solid work in the genre of Melodic Death Metal. Beautiful guitar solos and very objective songs are trademarks of the band, that has a very characteristic style, completely spirited into the values of the classic features of the genre. Nonetheless, the record is not only interesting, but very concentrated, amalgamated into a ritual of dissonant deliverance, that never passes unobserved. Without being dispersive or monotonous, the album presents to its audience a remarkable sonorous outline, extremely vivid in one hand, full of beauty and ardor, but with a pronounced and permanently obscure shift, on its more dark and sinister side.

All tracks are very interesting, and, although each one of them have its own beauty, the work, after all, is bounded by a sonorous identity, and a cohesive style that abide the band to a formidable sense of genuine sensibility, that guarantee to their work a place of honor into the pantheon of the greatest contemporary bands of Melodic Death Metal. With a brutal and conspicuous style, yet sensible, dramatic and beautiful, Era Decay really knows how to deliver true and marvelous Melodic Death Metal, honoring in the process not only their predecessors, but all of their influences. 

Finally, Inritum can certainly be described, with all words, as a very good and authentic album, able to perpetuate the strength, the beauty and the majesty, as well as all the virtues of the genre. A work splendidly done, to be proud of, certainly this album will achieve a lot of important features in the career of Era Decay, being such a mature, sensible and significant work, that not only aggregates important values to the genre, but disseminates the integrity of a sonorous soul that will never disappear. In other words, an album that emancipates the genre as something stronger than the music itself.   


Wagner

black metal / death metal

Kepler is a full length album by black/ death metal band Aksaya, released on November 15, by a conjunction of three different labels: Satanath Records, More Hate Productions and The Ritual Productions. With eight tracks – Kepler, Laїka, Fractale, Anomalie, Prélude À La Découverte, Tau Ceti E, Syn 1.0, K-701.04 and Non Morietur – this is a highly energetic, spiritual and effusively concentrated metal work, probably more explosive and higher than everything you heard in the genre before.

With an impressive level of rapture, precise and beautiful guitar lines, symmetrical heterogeneous harmonies, and cutting razor blade furious black metal vocals, Kepler is a very appealing, amazingly creative and impressively constructive album; the harmonic and musical hard lines, even when are not heavy, are exceedingly brutal, but you feel them as crafted carefully, and composed in such a level of precise audacity, that is impossible not to feel suddenly captivated by Aksaya’s tremendous and yet universally organic sound. Beautiful guitar solos are also an essential feature, with all the right elements masterly combined, to create a surreal atmosphere of aggressive anthems filled with a lucid objectivism, that doesn’t lose itself in vague obliqueness or futile dispersive thoughts. 

A work like Kepler not only standardizes and strengthens your faith in black metal, but slowly creates the future of the genre as well, with an imperial wrath that rescues the integrity of the music in a solid path of poetic beauty, that amplifies the confidence and the truth they dedicate integrally to the genre. With songs founded in a very cohesive structure, spiritedly gifted in a coherent ground of musical technique, their sound is not only promising, but understands and assimilates black metal so perfectly, that Aksaya departs from a very peculiar development of the genre as well, according to their own point of view, as each and every track became a surprising feature, one after another, and you feel them in your soul. To contemplate their musical greatness, all expansions of sound, subtly done in an exceedingly malleable musical shape, are masterly done maintaining intact the core, the values and the sensibilities of the genre.  

Despite what appears to be a simple premise, their sound is inherently arranged in a complex layer of elemental intuition, although their music is pretty well organized in a very systematic feature at the same time. Nevertheless, what we have here is undoubtedly a real solid and remarkable work of art. Kepler is a treasure, delivered to each and every true black metal enthusiast in the world. A work effectively done with competence, technique, soul, passion, essence and heart, this record represents the great evolution by which the genre is passing right now, to be better than ever. Completely reformulated, rebounded and reshaped, and yet, being more true to its foundations than never before.   


Wagner