“The first thing that interested me about Nuclear Winter is that they’re from Zimbabwe. I don’t know much about Zimbabwe, and I’ve never reviewed or even listened to a record from Zimbabwe, but I thought that maybe metal produced there would have some unique sounds and textures. I quickly found that not to be the case. Seagrave sounds like a thousand other European symphonic power metal-type records.” Uranium graves and winter burials.
“While black metal is not my go-to, I find myself from time to time eager to discover the next blackened diamond in the rough. Enter Washingtonians Progenitor. With an Emperor-inspired logo and hailing from the same gray, Pacific Northwest climes as fellow black metallers Agalloch, it seemed reasonable to assume that the Progenitor gents had, at least on paper, the influences (and rainy weather) needed to produce a solid release.” Wet, moldy, and mossy.
“Phoenix, Arizona’s Thra start with that syrupy death metal reduction and ask themselves, “How can we make this even uglier and stupider?” The answer: with sludge, of course. Yes, the one metal form even less concerned with hygiene, boasting the highest aural density and the lowest dynamic range.” Where the sludge live.
“Emerging from the primordial sludge of Los Angeles, Arch Blade brandishes a sound that harks back to the salad days of classic metal, blending the spirit of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal with streaks of thrash metal’s intensity. Kill the Witch is their debut release, featuring an ensemble cast of father/son co-founders, a Ukrainian vocalist, and the powerful beats of an ex-Dark Angel drummer.” Dadcore.
“If there was an Ol’ Reliable of the musical world, it would be death metal. While the core sound has seen some evolution over the years, the timeless ideology remains unchanged: to inflict sonic blunt force trauma. Inhumed, a young trio-turned-quintet from Canada, aren’t interested in any fancy subgenre qualifiers that might dilute the pure death metal ideology; no, they’re here to hurt you.” Injured or hurt?
“Symphonic metal is an overstuffed genre with precious few top-tier acts. Success depends on compelling vocal performances, ear-worm choruses, apocalyptic orchestral arrangements, and diligent production to meld it all together. Not even a year old and recently signed to Scarlet Records (alongside last year’s power metal standouts Fellowship) Greece’s Mystfall has wasted no time in bringing forth their debut album Celestial Vision.” Bombast in the myst.
“When you’re Signs of the Swarm, and the last ten years have been one big battle with PR, you can finally breathe after 2021’s impressively solid Absolvere. Shady human beings have been booted and one solid album free of allegations in, the Pittsburgh now-quartet can instead focus on being terrible for being a deathcore band.” Goals.
“The niche within a niche label I, Voidhanger often scrapes the fringes of underground styles for acts embracing the weird, the strange, the vaguely musical—curious but rarely captivating for me. Par for the course, I’d never heard of Denmark’s Tongues before snagging up Formløse Stjerner, but something about the tumultuous landscape of the nihilistically nautical cover called to me like a Danish white whale, a hvidhval, if you will. Feel the Willies!
“Panspermia refers to the hypothesis that life exists all throughout the universe, distributed by comets, space dust, or, most controversially, spacecraft. It is this final idea that grounds the concept for Wyrgher’s sophomore album, Panspermic Warlords. An intentional, maliciously-motivated seeding of life by the titular rulers. In weaving their drama, Wyrgher’s brand of cosmic black metal harbors a marked disso-death streak and an uneasy warped atmosphere that wraps everything with an unsettling otherness.” Sowing the seeds of weird.
“But since the departure of Summer and Kiilerich, each new album finds the band with a wholly rebuilt lineup around bassist/keyboardist Michael Enevoldsen. And, as one can predict, the outcome is not always the best. Especially because fans have to get used to a new death metal vocal approach and the inevitable debates if this new drummer is as good as Kiilerich. And, for Panzerchrist’s eighth record, Last of a Kind, everyone is out, and a new group of players is here to deliver.” Panzer attacks change people.
