Napalm

Sammath – Grebbeberg Review

Sammath – Grebbeberg Review

Sammath’s style isn’t my usual cup of tea, but Godless Arrogance still wowed me nearly a decade ago. Avoiding any pretense of variety, the Netherlands’ Sammath played war metal in the truest sense. Monotony can be hit-or-miss, but Sammath made it work through the emotive power of their music. Godless Arrogance both sounded and felt like being in the trenches during a losing battle. Its successor Across the Rhine Is Only Death shattered the underpaid Score Safety Counter in 2019, leaving me with high expectations for 2023’s follow-up Grebbeberg.” Back to the front!

Thulcandra – Hail the Abyss Review

Thulcandra – Hail the Abyss Review

“A confluence of circumstances made this review an eon late. Napalm sent us a late stream, and none of my lazy co-writers checked if we’d gotten a promo until I did so last week. But I was happy to save the day, as usual. Germany’s Thulcandra has been freezing up a melodic blackened death storm since 2003, and their past work earned high marks from the Ape Himself, but we’ve mysteriously missed their last twelve years of material.” Ressection.

Stuck in the Filter – June’s Angry Misses

Stuck in the Filter – June’s Angry Misses

“So here’s a segment you all likely are too young to remember/never thought you’d see again. And it comes from the most unlikely source to boot—me! I discovered this feature through one of our monthly staff review calls/execution ceremonies, and I thought it was a shame we don’t use it more often. This comes on the back of a month where many of us were swamped with life events, massive overtime at work, and other such stressors. Naturally, we missed a bunch of releases, both ones we received promo for and ones we didn’t.” No filter!

Stälker – Shadow of the Sword Review

Stälker – Shadow of the Sword Review

“Last year in our EP edition of TYMHM, I waxed eloquent about a great little proto-thrash demo from some Wellington, NZ upstarts, Stälker. Their Satanic Panic cassette was such a nasty bit of early speed metal that it garnered the attention of Napalm Records, and this power trio was set to record their full-length debut this year. Enter Shadow of the Sword.” Only a big sword casts a shadow you can enter.

Troll – Neo Satanic Supremacy Review

Troll – Neo Satanic Supremacy Review

Troll is the side project of former Dimmu Borgir bassist current The Kovenant vocalist Nagash (aka Lex Icon), but it also has the honor of being the first project he was ever involved with at the very young age of about 14. However, after the band fell apart it soon became his solo project and has gone through some various incarnations over the year. If one were to give Neo-Satanic Supremacy a cold listen, one would not every know that a major transformation had taken place in the band’s history. No, instead one would assume that Nagash had quit Dimmu Borgir to produce this very record. Because, well, frankly it sounds like the band circa 1998.