Kvaen

Eternal Evil – The Gates Beyond Mortality Review

By Iceberg on November 6, 2023 in Reviews, Black Metal, Thrash Metal, 33 comments

“Swedish upstarts Eternal Evil seek to plant their flag along the spectrum of modern thrash, a genre that has become a surprise hot-button issue around the AMG universe. Their 2021 debut album The Warrior’s Awakening…Brings the Unholy Slaughter! garnered a less than enthusiastic reaction from our resident pointy-ear Felagund, citing a sacrifice of “essential memorability for monotonous haste”. Apparently undeterred, the Stockholm quartet have swapped out their battle axes for a box of tapered candles and a nice hooded robe and unleashed a new platter of blackened thrash, The Gates Beyond Mortality.” Evil never dies.

Majesties – Vast Reaches Unclaimed Review

By Cherd on March 6, 2023 in Reviews, Death Metal, Melodic Death Metal, 102 comments

“Tanner Anderson, Carl Skildum and Matthew Kirkwood unofficially formed Majesties in 2016 with melodic death metal in mind and Gothenburg, Sweden in their hearts. It wasn’t until 2022, however, that their debut album, Vast Reaches Unclaimed, coalesced to present a classic conundrum for conscientious music reviewers: how do we talk about a really good pastiche?” Majesty and decay.

TheKenWord’s and Carcharodon’s Top Ten(ish) of 2022

By Kenstrosity on December 28, 2022 in Blog Posts, Lists, 127 comments

TheKenWord and Carcharodon bring their special sets of skills to Listurnalia and things get…interesting.

Huck N’ Roll’s and Cherd’s Top Ten(ish) of 2022

By Dr. A.N. Grier on December 28, 2022 in Blog Posts, Lists, 85 comments

Huck N’ Roll and Cherd have important opinions on what was the cream of the crop in 2022. Now you’re going to hear about it.

Nazghor – Seventh Secular Crusade Review

By Doom_et_Al on November 28, 2022 in Reviews, Black Metal, 42 comments

“Nazghor play old school black metal with the melody turned way up. Think classic Dissection mixed with the hyperactivity of Sacramentum. Since 2016’s Death’s Withered Chants, Nazghor have followed an ever-more melodic road without sacrificing their trve brand of old school satanism. Seventh Secular Crusade walks the path ever deeper without sounding like it has abandoned its black metal roots.” Satan Claws is coming to town.

Sacred Son – The Foul Deth of Engelond Review

By Kenstrosity on May 11, 2022 in Reviews, Black Metal, Doom Metal, 31 comments

“Sacred Son historically play black metal, plain and simple. Nothing fancy or especially complex factors into their compositions. However, The Foul Deth of Engelond sees the band exploring black metal through the lens of doom, trimming the edges with a light occult fringe somewhat recalling the folk-tinted Dewfall.” Nothing sacred.

Kvaen – The Great Below Review

By Cherd on March 25, 2022 in Reviews, Black Metal, Speed Metal, Thrash Metal, Viking Metal, 94 comments

“What’s there left to say about Kvaen beyond five little words, four of which are “fire?” Back in early 2020, Jakob Björnfot came out of seeming nowhere with a fully formed meloblack/speed metal aesthetic and a keen songwriting ear to deliver one of the the most vital sounding throwback records of the year. The Funeral Pyre had something going for it that a lot of good, even great records don’t. Beyond technical musicianship—which Björnfot most certainly has—beyond reverence for a genre’s history, that record was fun. As. Hell. It didn’t matter that no new ground was being broken, it only mattered that Björnfot was driving it like it was stolen.” Hell Alone 2: Electric Burning You.

Vorga – Striving Toward Oblivion Review

By Kenstrosity on February 3, 2022 in Reviews, Black Metal, Melodic Black Metal, 96 comments

“Space. Black metal. It’s a match made in heaven! People have been writing black metal albums about space for decades, and it doesn’t seem to matter how oversaturated that specific niche gets. Metalheads eat it up. I eat it up. Space is such a massive thing anyway that the possibilities are quite literally infinite to our comparatively minuscule imaginations, so in that way it makes sense that there’s always a new invader breaching the bulkheads. Enter Vorga and their debut full-length, Striving toward Oblivion.” Space inwaders.

Lhaäd – Below Review

By Maddog on December 15, 2021 in Reviews, Atmospheric Black Metal, 13 comments

Below is the debut full-length from one-person ambient black metal project Lhaäd. This description is likely to conjure up worrisome images of self-indulgent hours-long snoozefests that use tepid atmospheres to mask lazy writing. But Belgian multi-instrumentalist Lykormas, Lhaäd’s prolific mastermind, is not so easy to pigeonhole.” Pigeons without homes.

Feral Season – Rotting Body in the Range of Light Review

By Twelve on October 18, 2021 in Reviews, Black Metal, 19 comments

“Feral Season is a great band name, and Rotting Body in the Range of Light is an album title I can definitely get behind. It’s nice when a band is able to immediately tell you what you’re going to be in for before you’ve reached the play button, and everything about this package, from the promo text to the “black metal” label to the album art, looked promising.” Angry kitties and suspicious promises.