Death Metal

Carnal Savagery – Into the Abysmal Void Review

Carnal Savagery – Into the Abysmal Void Review

“I’m a sucker for a gnarly album cover. Give me a detailed image of a zombie, ghoul or otherwise undead creature holding a bladed instrument for use in committing appalling acts, and I’m a happy guy. It was this passion for putridity that led me to choose Into the Abysmal Void, the fifth album by Gothenburg, Sweden-based death metallers Carnal Savagery.” Void noids.

Job for a Cowboy – Moon Healer Review

Job for a Cowboy – Moon Healer Review

“Arizona’s Job for a Cowboy garnered significant buzz and division within the metal realms when they dropped their 2005 debut EP, Doom. The brawny slab of deathcore impressed those inclined, before gradually transitioning into a modern death metal act with tech leanings, largely dispensing with the core influences. Fairly nonplussed by the band’s earlier material, Job for a Cowboy’s pivoting career trajectory blindsided me on fourth LP, Sun Eater, released nearly a decade ago. Signature technical proficiency, testosterone-charged aggression, and bludgeoning, slickly produced modern death remained, however, the unexpected integration of progressive structures and complex compositions, offering a hefty thump of aggression and brutality, largely impressed.” Cow tipping, gun slinging.

Counting Hours – The Wishing Tomb Review

Counting Hours – The Wishing Tomb Review

“Tears freezing in the cutting winter winds. Life’s blood staining the freshly fallen snow. These are the things that bring Steel to the graveyard. Naturally, I love my sadboi doom as well, and the long-defunct Finnish act Rapture in particular. Their style of highly melancholic melodoom resonated deeply in my cold dead chest cavity, and though they’ve been gone since 2005 I still go back to those albums regularly. When the two guitarists of Rapture reunited to form Counting Hours and dropped the excellent debut The Will back in 2019, I was ecstatic. It was as close to getting new Rapture material as we were ever going to get and they hit all the same grim feelz as they fused the early days of Katatonia with Dawn of Solace into a cold grave of an album. Now a few years later we get the eagerly anticipated follow-up.” Counting hours and tears.

Eternal Storm – A Giant Bound to Fall Review

Eternal Storm – A Giant Bound to Fall Review

“I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating: unless you make funeral doom, you probably don’t have a great reason for making a 70+ minute metal album. Yes, there are exceptions to every rule, like the Spectral Lore/Mare Cognitum double album a few years back. That one worked because A) the material, against the odds, kicked ass throughout, and B) the concept was to write an album about the whole goddamn solar system. It was cosmic in scale, literally. But for every Wanderers: Astrology of the Nine, there are 10 more Esoctrilihum records that I will never listen to, at this point on principle. In completely unrelated news, Spanish melodeath-ers Eternal Storm grace us this week with their highly anticipated second album, A Giant Bound to Fall. Thankfully, they keep their album length to a reasonable (checks notes)…oh dear.” Giant-sized Storm front.

Blood Red Delusion – Ruthless Behaviour Review

Blood Red Delusion – Ruthless Behaviour Review

“Riff-focused yet stuffed to the gills with exuberantly melodic leads, Blood Red Delusion’s second salvo strikes me as something fans of classic melodic death metal albums by In Flames and At the Gates—along with more modern records like Parasite Inc.’s Time Tears Down—might flock towards. Ruthless Behavior’s no-frills, no-nonsense, and aggressively death-metal-forward approach to the genre forgoes all traces of the sweeter and smoother caresses of lushly adorned modern melodic death metal records.” Blood and poor behavior.

Pestilength – Solar Clorex Review

Pestilength – Solar Clorex Review

“Last we met the secretive Basque duo Pestilength, they had released their second full-length Basom Gryphos, an album that was appropriately slimy and punishing but fell by the wayside due to its scattershot compositions and unashamed Portal worship. Its potential was there, lurking beneath the surface like eldritch grandiosity yet to be awoken, but the right combination of incantations and blasphemies were needed to truly wreak havoc on mankind. In many ways, what Pestilength does is braver than dissodeath acts of similar ilk, refusing to shroud its riffs in murk or atmosphere and letting the chord progressions do the talking – putting added pressure on the string attack.” Clorexing the murk.

Chapel of Disease – Echoes of Light Review

Chapel of Disease – Echoes of Light Review

“Evolution is hard to avoid. Humans evolved over the eons, and each individual evolves as they grow older and experiences the outside world (except for Steel and Doc Grier). Bands inevitably evolve as well as members grow in ability and outside influences creep into their sound. It seems evolution eventually finds every band to some degree (except Sodom). That brings us to the fourth album by Germany’s Chapel of Disease.” Going through changes.

Spectral Voice – Sparagmos Review

Spectral Voice – Sparagmos Review

“In the frenzied ritualistic worship of the god Dionysus, acolytes would often perform the violent act known as Sparagamos—tearing limb-from-limb a sacrificial animal, or human. What ecstatic human hands would enact, Spectral Voice conjures in their sophomore bearing its moniker, their attempt to reach “the moment in which – through sacrifice – atavistic wildness is unleashed, and the ultimate exaltation of life through death is realized.”” Giving voice to the void.

Tanin’iver – Dark Evils Desecrate Review

Tanin’iver – Dark Evils Desecrate Review

“Immersing myself in the twisted, feral cauldron of Dark Evils Desecrate and its relentless assault, Tanin’iver appear hellbent on writing the most ugly, evil, and uncompromising anthems as possible to soundtrack a fiery apocalypse. Bells, whistles, and gimmicks are jettisoned for an old school underground sound converging in the dankest underground corners where raw black metal brawls with death and thrash influences.” Dark for darkness sake.