“Fäghring is what you might imagine the soundtrack to be if you happened upon a pagan cult in the woods. Kind of “Number of The Beast” meets Midsommar. Birds play a prominent role, and you can almost imagine the canopy of trees gently bending with the breeze throughout. The album begins slowly with a chorus of birds before the chants and drums let you know something more sinister is going on.” Forest packages abound.
“Birmingham-based Alunah returns with their fourth album—Strange Machine—and second since the departure of founding members Sophie and David Day. As originally formulated, Alunah played straightforward—albeit folk-tinged—doom metal. Perhaps the biggest difference from doom in the vein of Saint Vitus is Alunah’s penchant for the bounce and swing of early Black Sabbath’s heavy blues.” Rage against the Strange Machine.
“”There is nothing new to be discovered here.” So reads the promo copy for Disfuneral’s debut full-length, which… look, Promo Copy Sir or Madam, we’ve all struggled with writer’s block, but let’s strive to keep things professional. Your job is to claim this album improves on both Left Hand Path and Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony; ours is to throw cold water on such claims so Steel will toss a few scraps of Mystery Meat our way come mealtime.” Tentacle Elmo.
“Promotional material is magical. Often it’s a poorly written, exaggerated exercise in alternate realities. That’s par for the course when you’re talking about marketing, and everyone who reads it knows what they’re getting into, but it’s funny how sometimes it works anyway. In the case of Resan, the debut full-length from the Swedish Urferd, it almost worked too well. By suggesting that Resan is “a journey through dark and olden Nordic forests” suitable for fans of Heilung, Myrkur, and Forndom, sole band member Daniel Beckman (Twilight Force, Ages) certainly caught my attention, but he also set the bar sky-high. And then… well, then he took me on a journey through dark and olden Nordic forests.” Nice forest package!
“The Ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus maintained that fear of death is irrational, for while we exist, our death is not, and when death comes, we do not exist. This hasn’t convinced Faceless Entity, whose brand of black metal they describe as “audial thanatophobia” (fear of death). The Great Anguish of Rapture represents an extension of their dour meditations to their most broadly philosophical release so far, following the more straightforwardly depressive early demos and 2017 debut In Via Ad Nusquam (On the Road to Nowhere).” Fear and loathing in The Netherlands.
“Here’s an interesting release for you. The Troops of Doom (likely named for the classic Sepultura song) are a new Brazilan thrash/kinda-sorta death metal act, having only formed in 2020. Despite the project’s relative youth, the various members are grizzled scene vets with years spent in many other metal acts. On their Antichrist Reborn debut, they offer an interesting blend of classic thrash and death influences full of righteous nods to the big names that influenced them. The core sound is very much in line with early Sepultura material like Schizophrenia and Beneath the Remains, but vintage Slayer riffs percolate throughout and inform the writing, and the band’s deep Celtic Frost appreciation also becomes apparent on several tracks.” Old dogs, nasty bites.
“Two albums in thirty years does not a prolific act make. But that’s exactly how Beyond Mortal Dreams’ story begins. 1992 saw the youthful Australian death metallers spawn upon this mortal plane, under the moniker Suffering. After changing their name to Beyond Mortal Dreams in ’95, the band…. well, disbanded until 2003. Upon reforming, Beyond Mortal Dreams extracted enough evil and grotesquery from the depths of hell to concoct their debut record, From Hell, in 2008. Now, fourteen years later, these hellish imps prepare to unleash their second tome, entitled Abomination of the Flames, accompanied by this wonderfully infernal visage beside this introduction.” Olden demons, scarcely known.
“Now, technically, Egregore’s full title is, ahem, The Word of His Law: An Address to Abraxas in His Time and Place, Through His Grand Viseer, Thine Pansychopompos. If that gives you any idea, this duo fuses their chaotic tunes with a shroud of supernatural haze that represents their occult nature. Punctuating aural punishment with layers of guitar, synth, and chanting, and undergirded by an unhinged aesthetic, you can expect your ears to bleed, but by, I don’t know, ghosts?” The Code of Harambe.
“Sympathy for the Ignorant is ten tracks and 38 minutes of groove-centric thrash metal. Misfire’s sound walks the line between pure thrash and crossover and really doesn’t care which side of the line you want it to stage-dive into. I hear similarities to some of the big-name crossover bands like Enforced and Power Trip.” Thrash til dive.
“Blood. Gate. BLOOD. GATE. BLOOD! GATE! If that isn’t a band name perfectly tuned for chanting at live shows, I don’t know what is. Yet in the online world, Cincinnati, Ohio’s Bloodgate, now two LPs into their career, is a virtually non-hyped entity. Perhaps a reformulation of their blackened thrash approach will help in that respect. While 2018’s Ambush and Destroy was a tantalizingly melodic slab of Skeletonwitch worship, Solace in Mourning, despite its more contemplative title, adds a heap of death metal to the mix and feels decidedly more aggressive and unhinged for it.” Open the gates!
