Albums Reviews

Every band’s name has its story and when Crippled Black Phoenix chose their name, they had no idea that it would fit them so well in the future. Crippled, without a male lead vocalist and keyboardist, at the beginning of “Ellengaest” tracking, the band still rose from what might have looked like ashes, as a [...]

Auðn is an atmospheric black metal band from Iceland. Maybe it’s the culture or the climate or the volcanoes, but currently Iceland is one of the most interesting countries in the black metal scene. After an exciting first release in 2014 and an excellent second release in 2017 (“Farvegir fyrndar”) which confirmed all expectations, Auðn [...]

As an Enslaved fan I was super excited with their new release, with almost 30 years of career and three years after “E” the norwegian group released their fifth album Utgard. In every album they try to introduce to the listener some histories about the nordic culture –  Utgard is no exception, referring to the [...]

While a lot of music fans are going through 2020’s new releases, some are still talking about last year releases and what maybe swept under their radar. Lamentations of the Flesh Bound is the debut full-length of the 6-piece technical death metal band from Pittsburgh (PA, United States). The album was released through Satanath Records [...]

Mork is an excellent tribute to old-school black metal, and proof that it can be done right, respecting the essence of the genre while simultaneously adapting to the performance and production demands of the 21st century. Their latest release, Det Svarte Juv (Peaceville Records, 2019) is proof of just that, and it might be the [...]

Oranssi Pazuzu is a Finnish psychedelic black metal band formed in 2007. This band is able to make you travel into dark environments. Although it can sometimes be a little suffocating, for those who like black metal and psychedelic, I strongly recommend listening to one of the most innovative bands in the world of the [...]

Hyborian is a group of loud sluggers coming from Kansas City. This band, who clearly took inspiration from Conan Barbarian mythology, released a ‘Volume II’ – as their second record. This is a following of their debut record from 2017 called (surprise) ‘Volume I’, which somehow slipped through my fingers (headphones). Therefore I was not [...]

Manticora is a Danish progressive power metal band formed in 1996. In the first decade of 2000 they were very active, releasing albums regularly, some of them of above average quality (like “Darkness with Tales to Tell”, “Hyperion”, “8 Deadly Sins” and “The Black Circus” double album). In 2010 they released the album “Safe” and [...]

This Californian duo composed by James Rauh and Phillip Gallagher released their first EP in 2018. It features songs from their previous demos, this time in a single release, and for the first time in a physical format. Gravecoven loses no time to show what they’re all about, after only a few seconds of listening, [...]

From Kraków, Poland, comes the extreme metal quintet Medico Peste, who have just now released their sophomore album “The Black Bile”, coming eight years after their debut. Featuring two live members of Polish metal giants Mgła (whose main songwriter M. has co-produced “The Black Bile”), Medico Peste present themselves as a band that “embrace a [...]

Consider if it was a good promotional idea to call an album “Virus” in the times we live in might be worth discussing. The album cover will pierce your eyes with yellow and the title… Let’s clarify if it’s really worth the purchase. As a matter of fact, Haken fans love everything the band does. [...]

Caligula’s Horse are known for delivering solid artistic music pieces over the years. They never got tired of re-inventing themselves and were everything but boring. With their new album they wanted to be more pure, as they claimed. The beginning of the album does not exactly support this theory, as the opening track “The Tempest” [...]

Pyrrhon’s much anticipated return and follow-up to 2017’s short-but-sweet “What Passes for Survival” is no less sweet than one would expect. The suffocating atmosphere of “What Passes for Survival” has been replicated on “Abscess Time,” perhaps even bettered, and this new outing swarms and churns throughout the record’s 12 songs clocking just under an hour. [...]

Naglfar is one of Sweden’s rolling stones when it comes to blackened death metal. They always followed their own path, never gave in to the newest trends, but created art in the way their heart and their instincts told them to. Their newest creature from hell is called “Cerecloth” which describes a waxed wrap around [...]