Black Sabbath

Catafalque – Dybbuk Review

Catafalque – Dybbuk Review

“Good drone swallows you. Drone is not meant to invoke movement or adrenaline, but to evoke a mood or place. It sweeps away like the tides, not with rhythmic intensity but with mammoth weight, and dwells with you. A dybbuk is a Jewish mythological creature that sits on your chest while you sleep, and at its best this album attaches to you like a parasite. Wailing and gnashing of teeth echo across the fray, visceral and ritualistic, and as haunting as it is devastating. The place Catafalque takes you to is not the foot of great mountains or grey cityscapes, but a shadowy place that is as possessed as it is otherworldly.” Honing the droning.

Salacious Gods – Oalevluuk Review

Salacious Gods – Oalevluuk Review

“Second-wave black metal worship is like that regular at your local dive: omnipresent, predictable with their order, and armed with the same old stories for whoever happens to be within earshot. They’re not bad for business per se, but familiarity has been known to breed contempt. And few styles are as familiar as Norwegian black metal of the early ’90s, inspiring generations to revere and—occasionally—innovate upon that trademark of “trve evil.” Enter mercurial Dutch black metallers Salacious Gods, rising from the ashes of self-imposed exile to bring us their first record in 18(!) years.” Salacious layoffs.

Restless Spirit – Afterimage Review

Restless Spirit – Afterimage Review

“My native stomping grounds of Long Island, New York birthed such notable metal acts as Twisted Sister, Suffocation, and Dream Theater over the years. Hell, the legendary Chuck Schuldiner was born here, so that means we basically invented death metal too. It’s been a while since the area had a major metal champion to rally behind and support. Based on 2021s highly impressive Blood of the Old Gods release, I was ready to bestow that mantle on Restless Spirit. The band exists at the crossroads of several genres including sludge, stoner doom, classic metal, and grunge and their proprietary blend is nigh irresistible,” Horror on Strong Island.

REZN & Vinnum Sabbathi – Silent Future Review

REZN & Vinnum Sabbathi – Silent Future Review

REZN made a minor splash in Casa Dolph back in… March?! Wow, time flies! Psychedelic doom itself isn’t particularly known for getting anywhere fast, but these Chicago practitioners have an admirable hustle to earn yet another release to their name. This go around, though, they’ve partnered with the like-minded, Hawkwind synth-heavy doomsters from way down South in Mexico City, Vinnum Sabbathi.” Double doom.

Thunder Horse – After the Fall Review

Thunder Horse – After the Fall Review

Huck boldly covered the first 2 releases by this Texas-based doom act and he was quite taken with their 2021 Chosen One platter. He enjoyed its heavy Sabbath worship filtered through a burly biker doom perspective with sprinkles of classic rock and Crowbar-esque sludge. I was also a big fan, and might have rated it a bit higher than the miserly old sod did.” Olde horses and classic sounds.

Antirope – Amnesia Review

Antirope – Amnesia Review

“Alternative metal has a colorful history, running parallel with some of metal’s greatest upheavals and residing at the crib of nu-metal’s short but terrible reign. Nowadays the term is practically a relic, but every now and then a band comes along that hearkens back to that no man’s land between ‘true’ metal and radio rock. Antirope is such a band.” Alternative to what?

Stray Gods – Olympus Review

Stray Gods – Olympus Review

“The line between a homage act and a band heavily influenced by a more established outfit is a fine one. Greek metal warriors Stray Gods are located about 500 miles to the former side of that line. Beginning with their 2022 debut Storm the Walls, they showed that they loved one band above all others and that band was… Iron Maiden. The album was like an obsessive love letter to those elder warriors of NWoBHM and it worked well despite being Maiden fanfic. Just over a year later we get the follow-up, Olympus, and little has changed with Stray Gods’s predilections.” Re-up the Irons.

Saint Karloff – Paleolithic War Crimes Review

Saint Karloff – Paleolithic War Crimes Review

“The time-dilating effects of the pandemic reveal themselves when considering Saint Karloff’s latest effort. Paleolithic War Crimes follows 2019’s Interstellar Voodoo, a platter that consists of a single forty-minute track. Interstellar Voodoo feels like it came out either two weeks or two thousand years ago; I can’t always tell which, but I swear I just read Steel‘s rave for the first time and filed the record away as one to dig into whenever that mythical chunk of free time presents itself. That album’s combo platter of songwriting brio and Sabbath-ian, Kyuss-ite riffage captivated our Hairy Knuckled Underboss. Four long years (that somehow also feel like four short weeks) later, Saint Karloff returns with a new batch of progressive occult rock.” Quest for stone fire.

Wings of Steel – Gates of Twilight Review

Wings of Steel – Gates of Twilight Review

“Every so often a comment in a review regarding some act we didn’t receive promo from gets me curious enough to do some research. This is what led me to L.A.’s Wings of Steel. A young, unheralded duo made up of guitarist Parker Halub and vocalist Leo Unnermark, they unleashed a very ambitious, wide-ranging ode to classic 80s metal this month and it deserves attention. You see, this titanic twosome is highly talented and on Gates of Twilight they attempt a daring blend of traditional and epic doom metal with a side of cock rock that on paper simply should not work. Yet in the hands of these mad scientists work it does, and the monstrosity they create is 666% Steel bait!” Steel vs Steel.