“Bamberg, Germany’s Noise is a busy man. By my count, he put out three EPs under his Kanonenfieber moniker—two of which I covered here—and a very good full-length with his Non Est Deus project in 2022. Alongside that, he was, it seems, producing, in all senses of the word, another record as his third alter ego, Leiþa.” The many faces of Noise.
“If you’re looking for thick-stringed pummel somewhere on the heady but heavy spectrum between Anciients and Today Is the Day with a kiss of Machine Head, you might be in the market for Turbid North. I know that sounds like mouthful, but these extreme metal frontiersmen make it a point to switch from Southern rock drones to chug-led beatdowns on a dime.” Trve north?
“The new year brings a fresh fervor to search out and seize interesting things from the ghastly promo sump. Having heard a bit of low-level buzz surrounding the debut by Vancouver-based gothic doom act Tribunal, I was interested to see what the fuss might be about. The promo sheet name drops My Dying Bride and boasts the presence of a classically trained cellist, and so I dove into The Weight of Remembrance hoping for something a bit more interesting than a MDB clone. And boy did I hit the goddamn motherload!” And justice for all.
“Anyone else ever find themselves forgetting that they like a genre of music? Doom metal is probably the most-often-forgotten stepchild of my psyche, and I rarely give the style a moment’s notice. But whenever I find myself exposed to those big, lumbering riffs, and haunted vocals, I’m always reminded just how awesome classic doom metal can be—emphasis on the classic.” Mountains full of doom.
“Who could have foreseen that I would grab an album with “steel” in the title before our Mighty Ape could get his banana-stained whore hands on it? Perhaps it was due to the absence of “swords” that I now hold in my sausage fingers the debut record from New Jersey’s The Gauntlet.” Stealing the steel.
“The trio has hovered in the background of a reliably scuzzy death metal scene, falling short of even the modest notoriety achieved by fellow Danes like Undergang, Phrenelith, and Hyperdontia. Apotheosis consists of nine more loogies of old school death, hawked up at the aptly named Phlegm Studios and spat upon the sidewalk in front of your home with consideration for neither property values nor your delicate constitution.” BLEEAARGHH!
“Let’s address the elephant in the room. Ropes inside a Hole is a weird name. The sexual connotations are impossible to escape (Just how many ropes fit inside this particular hole? for example). But the band appears to be playing things seriously, calling A Man and His Nature a meditation on (yawn) quarantine and the pandemic.” Knot your dad’s metal.
“Ah, the first week of a new year. A week of renewal. Of bitter resentment at work. Of new Rogga projects. Yes, the grimy foreman of the Swedish death metal factory is back with of course another new project. After releasing–by my rough Metallum count–seven full-length albums with various projects in 2022, Rogga returns this month with Leper Colony’s self-titled debut. Coincidentally, I’ll be the seventh writer to review Rogga for this here site. Might ye despair, lest Rogga sneer at your pleas that he just for once in his life slow down and make the death metal masterpiece that more than one reviewer suggested he’s capable of?” Pieces of genius.
“Hailing from the Netherlands, Defy the Curse do indeed play a mashup of death metal and hardcore, but they are in no way a stereotypical metalcore or deathcore outfit. This metal/core hybrid sounds like the rumbling Entombed-meets-Discharge style of a band like Black Breath.” Defy the d-beat.
“I am already a chronic daydreamer, but I can’t recall an album so powerfully inducing waking unconsciousness as Whiteout. This isn’t because it causes the listener to tune out. Rather, its immersiveness is so intense that they’ll find themselves dead to the world midway through the first track. This is the fifth full-length from the Viennese four-piece, with a slew of other musicians in tow, and it largely follows in their signature trajectory of post-metal meets dark ambient. However, perhaps more so than before, Phal: Angst emphasize the cinematic with long, subtly evolving pieces of deceptive simplicity.” Haze runner.
