Albums Reviews

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, [...]

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 [...]

In these nasty times of Covid-19 artists must be creative regarding how to advertise their music to the metal fans, especially if it is a new project that doesn’t have a label yet. Luckily, Bandcamp offers the possibility to pay exactly the price you want for a certain online download. None other than Naglfar’s guitarist [...]

Barishi’s peers are justifiably blamed for missing the point when it comes to bypassing the black metal genre’s indispensable wickedness, but the Vermont trio has never repelled from discomfort. Quite the opposite, in fact— their singular strength of technical musicianship has unlocked new levels to smothering anxiety that would have persisted closed to a more [...]

Vancouver metal quartet, Heron, continue their mission as one of the last few saving graces who pursue to reconstruct the genre of sludge metal and what it has to offer. While their 2015’s self-titled and 2016’s “Fire Twin” EPs proved their prowess to embody a span of genres from doom metal assaults, to psych rock [...]

Saint-Etienne, France’s death metal/grind outfit Benighted have garnered a respectable amount of recognition over the past two decades in the large metal arena. Not conservative enough to be called grind and not focused enough to be deemed as pure death metal, Benighted bestride the opening between the two genres. Their latest offering “Obscene Repressed” is [...]

In a country mainly known for both its black and death metal, it’s strange to learn that this Funeral Doom one man band hails from Poland. However, Thorns of Grief makes its Debut in 2019 with “Anthems to my remains”, a five tracked album illustrated with quite an interesting artwork. “Anthems To My Remains” is [...]

Swiss extreme rockers Bölzer are back with the “Lese Majesty” mini album, three years after releasing “Hero”. Consisting of only two members, drummer HzR and guitarist/vocalist KzR, Bölzer’s lineup mirrors that of German neighbours’ Mantar. Both projects try to squeeze out all the sonic ferocity they can from the spare set of single percussion, single [...]

For several times France has proven to be an authentic black metal foundry, especially Les Acteurs de l’Ombre Productions (LADLO) who graced all of us with amazing releases. In 2017, “Au peuple de l’abîme” was issued. The first full-length album from the Ocitanian quartet “Heir”, who had already shown their face with both a split [...]

Coffin Torture is a sludge duo hailing from South Carolina, USA. Their music development started under the name Tsavo which evolved into Cave Dweller to finally get the shape of Coffin Torture. Their first full-length record “Dismal Planet” follows the release of several EP’s and live albums throughout the years. So… it starts as expected [...]