UMUR "Determined To Strike" is the debut full-length studio album by US, New York based death metal/avantgarde metal act Sarmat. The album was released through I, Voidhanger Records in June 2023. Sarmat formed in 2020 and they released the "Dubious Disk" live EP in April 2023.

Stylistically the material on "Determined To Strike" is dissonant and technical death metal, but with an avantgarde twist and some serious journeys into jazz/fusion territory. While Sarmat can certainly be both brutal and quite extreme, their at times chaotic sounding music is ultimately quite sophisticated, not to mention very creative and intriguing. This is not just another dissonant technical death metal act. The jazz/fusion elements are too dominant and they are an integral part of the compositions. Add to that some pretty weird and adventurous guitar riffs, and the whole thing is quite impressive and at times also jaw-dropping. The vocals are also very well performed and the listener is exposed to both deep growling and snarling growling. The inclusion of piano and especially horns is a touch of genius, which Sarmat use as an integral element of their already eclectic music.

The question beckons...can this even be labelled death metal? or is it actually extreme avantgarde jazz/fusion music with technical death metal elements just being a part of the sound? "Determined To Strike" is both a highly challenging but also strangely accessible release. "Accessible is probably a wrong description of what´s going on here, but despite all the craziness and the chaos featured on "Determined To Strike", I personally still find it quite memorable.

Maybe it´s because the band have chosen a production style for their album, which isn´t overtly brutal and pummeling, instead aiming for a more detailed production, although the sound production is ultimately still quite raw. Upon conclusion "Determined To Strike" is definitely one of the more unique sounding extreme metal albums I´ve listened to in a while, and they deserve a lot of attention for being this creative and for pulling it off with what sounds like a natural ease. Honestly I´m a bit at a loss for words here...but I´ll tell you one thing. This is amazing and definitely gets a recommendation from me. A 4.5 star (90%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "The Gavel / Primal Code" is a split release between US, Illinois based death metal act Primal Code and US, Illinois based thrash/hardcore act The Gavel. The split was independently released in July 2023.

The Gavel opens the split with their two tracks "1000 Deaths" and "Frozen in Fear", which are both ultra heavy and brutal hardcore tinged thrash/death metal. The tracks feature a desperate mood and very aggressive and raw sounding vocalist in front. It´s music featuring brick heavy grooves and riffs, and it´s highly effective and definitely good quality music.

Primal Code are also featured with two tracks. Both "Angler" and "Ram" continue the heavy and brutal slow- to mid-paced old school death metal style of their 2022 demo and their 2023 EP. They can easily match the heaviness and brutality of The Gavel´s material, but they are not quite as aggressive and their grooves are a bit more conventional and straight.

The material of both artists is well produced and upon conclusion this is a good quality split release and it´s well worth the price of admission. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "Subliminal Master" is an EP release by US, Illinois based death metal act Primal Code. The EP was independently released in January 2023 and it follows the release of the July 2022 demo, which was the first release after the band formed in 2021. Primal Code is a trio consisting of Will Lindsay (bass), Jamer Farn (drums), and Gene Marino (vocals, guitars).

Stylistically "Subliminal Master" continues where the 2022 demo left off, with crushingly brutal, slow-to mid-paced old school death metal influenced by artists like Asphyx, Grave, and Bolt Thrower. Just like the case was on the demo, the sound production is meaty, massive, and brick heavy, perfectly suiting the equally brick heavy material. There is no compromise here and Primal Code are the kind of band who take no prisoners. There is no shaking on the hand in terms of experimentation or including unconventional elements. This is old school death metal to the bone.

So "Subliminal Master" is overall a good quality death metal release and it perfectly follows in the heels of the already great quality demo from 2022, making the promise of what a future full-length studio album will deliver that much greater. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "PowerNerd" is the twenty-second full-length studio album by Canadian progressive rock/metal artist Devin Townsend (if you include all releases by Devin Townsend, Devin Townsend Project, and The Devin Townsend Band). The album was released through InsideOut Music in October 2024. It´s the successor to "Lightwork" from November 2022 and it´s almost impossible to believe that there´s been almost two years between releases for Townsend, who usually is a very prolific with his output rate. There are several reasons for the break in output though, including touring in support of "Lightwork" and working on what is described by Townsend as one of the most elaborate and challenging musical projects of his career...the forthcoming album "The Moth". But in typical Townsend style he of course found time to write and record a stop-gap release which is "PowerNerd".

After having experimented with using an outside co-producer (Gggarth) on "Lightwork", Townsend is back to self-producing on "PowerNerd". He has said in interviews that it was a great experience for him working with an outside producer, but that he would probably never do it again, because as great the experience was, it was also uncomfortable for him to relinquish control of his product.

"PowerNerd" was recorded by Townsend (vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards, programming) with additional performances by session musicians Darby Todd (drums), Diego Tejeida and Mike Keneally (both keybaords), Jean Savoie (bass), Aman Khosla (vocals), Tanya Ghosh (vocals), and Jamie Jasta (vocals). So most of the recording was solely done by Townsend.

Stylistically the material on "PowerNerd" is predominantly melodic heavy rock/metal with huge memorable choruses (I could remember almost every track already the second time I listened to them, so this is arguably very catchy material). Although the music is very well produced, featuring Townsend´s signature multi-layers of instruments and vocals, it´s probably his most accessible and least progressive/experimental release yet. The tracks are all vers/chorus structured, 3-5 minutes long (except the even shorter "Dreams of Light"), and relatively simple, but still very effective and well composed. Think how a combination of the pop metal heaviness of "Addicted" (2009) would sound if you applied it to the atmospheric pop/rock of "Lightwork" (2022) and you´re halfway there. Fans of the most experimental parts of Townsend´s discography might find this a little light weight and maybe even a little shallow, but to those of us who found the two above mentioned albums greatly enjoyable and generally appreciate the more melodic and easier to access material from Townsend, "PowerNerd" is another great addition to our collection.

What´s interesting on "PowerNerd" compared to some of the other more accessible releases in Townsend´s discography is that there are almost no excursions into experimental territories. He usually can´t help himself add at least one or two tracks with an experimental/progressive edge even on the more melodic pop rock/metal oriented releases, but "PowerNerd" is almost completely devoid of that and it´s generally a very consistent release in terms of musical style...at least until the closing track "Ruby Quaker" where Townsend let´s loose with a little eclectic musical madness (mixing a cowpunk main song with death metal and epic symphonic parts). Probably just to remind his audience that he hasn´t lost his edge and have become completely domesticated.

Even within this relatively simple vers/chorus structured format Townsend is able to show his musical ingenuity and geniality. Although it´s not as apparent on "PowerNerd" as on other preceding more experimental releases, it´s still pretty clear that he is a one-of-a-kind genius, who is able to make even relatively staight forward music sound intriguing, energetic, and powerful. A 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.

siLLy puPPy Chugging buzzsaw guitars, lo-fi production fuzziness, demonic vocal rasping piercing the wall of shadowy din with adrenalized rampages altering with creeping advances. These are the now well established attributes of Tobias Möckl’s one man band PAYSAGE D’HIVER which since 1998 has continued to deliver the sounds of a turbulent winter storm with no end. This Swiss soldier in the black metal army (as well as key member of Möckl’s other well known band, Darkspace), returns with another whopping blast of Arctic chill with his newest release DIE BERGE, the German words meaning “The Mountains” thus showcased on a dismal album cover of grainy black and white vagueness. Unleashing another ferocious attack of ambient atmospheric black metal some 26 years after the debut “Steineiche,” PAYSAGE D’HIVER is up to album #15 this time around and follows in the footsteps of the more modern releases with a sprawling running time of almost 103 minutes.

Despite the lengthy sojourn into the frigid icy sonic swells that rumble on for well over an hour, DIE BERGE features a mere 7 tracks with every single track but one hitting the 11-minute mark with the grandest of sprawlers coming first in the form of “Urgrund” which slinks past the 18-minute playing time. Now that’s a lot of jagged wintery downtuned distortion to soak in but somehow once again Mr Möckl showcases his knack to craft hostile frosty soundscapes that march on through lengthy processions like an intrepid journey into the unknown during the hostile shivery moments of winter delivered in a demeanor as chilling and inclement as the inhospitable apices of the Swiss Alps. Appearing as the sole contributor under the moniker Wintherr, his compositions on DIE BERGE emulate a nasty blizzard lambasting the peaks in musical form with oscillating swells of lo-fi distortion and the blurred distinction between treble and bass accompanied by the pacifying melodic touches of the atmospheric keyboard runs that so gracefully slink in and out of the treacherous soundscapes. Blastbeats and tranquilized drum percussion trades off with moments of a unifying bleakness as the bantering guitar and bass swells deliver maximum bombast.

While the world of black metal continues to splinter off in a great number of variations, PAYSAGE D’HIVER offers that respite into the world of darkened lo-fi grittiness that launched the Norwegian second wave black metal scene some 30 years ago and retains that general vibe which has become somewhat diluted and altered with the advent of more progressive and experimental black metal of the 21st century. DIE BERGE like the general PAYSAGE D’HIVER canon offers that much needed transcendental escape into a nightmarish and ominous journey into the turbulent black metal disarray that tames chaotic soundscapes into melodic almost post-metal like cyclical loops that rumble on for long segments of time yet somehow never seem to grow stale as the chugging riffs and hypnotic repetitive motifs slowly churn on for minutes on end. It’s very much the black metal equivalent to laying on the ground and simply watching the clouds drift by with subtle variations oozing out at glacial speeds. The album’s seven tracks may be lengthy but each forges its own identity despite deriving inspiration from the same playbook. Despite the simplicity of the melodic structure, the album is utterly mesmerizing and casts the perfect spell to allow the protracted paragons to perform their wintery magic.

Don’t expect any Alpine folk interpretations or experimental touches. PAYSAGE D’HIVER isn’t one to throw curveballs but rather delivers comfort metal of the frigid variety for those accustomed to the long drawn out processions into gelid wintery soundscapes that Wintherr has possibly become the most adept at crafting. DIE BERGE may not differ substantially from PAYSAGE D’HIVER’s long and well-established canon significantly but nevertheless this guy really knows how to keep the consistency in his work without falling from grace. Black metal is a fickle beast and can easily be slayed by too much regalia adornment. In the case of PAYSAGE D’HIVER it seems that keeping it simple without too much excess fluff has been the magic bullet that has propelled Wintherr and his project well into the 21st century with no signs of running out of gas. While i wouldn’t call DIE BERGE any sort of advancement in the established stylistic approach, i can say that Wintherr has delivered another wickedly delightful slice of chillingly frosty atmospheric black metal that keeps his legacy churning along.

siLLy puPPy After a lengthy hiatus that found a whopping elapse of 13 years since its last full length album, the mighty MITOCHRONDRION has resurrected itself from a self-imposed slumber and slithered out of its hibernation chambers to unleash the third installment of its brutal bantering discography. While the band dropped an EP in 2013 and a split in 2016 showing continued signs of life, unexpectedly and turbulently this Victoria, BC based band has unleashed a massive sprawling double disc release in 2024 in the form of VITRISEPTOME. Delivering another esoteric and mysterious album title, this word like its predecessors “Archaeaeon” and “Parasignosis” has emerged like a linguistic Frankenstein of the band’s own making. Breaking down into the logical components, VITRI- possibly refers to the legit “vitic” which means relating to, resembling or having the nature of glass. SEPT most likely signifies the number seven whereas the TOME part could possibly refer to a book or set of books of several volumes featured in a scholarly fashion. So logically perhaps a “Seven Volume Tome In Glass?”

Whatever the fuck it means, VITRISEPTOME is a behemoth of a musical monstrosity that features 17 ear shattering tracks that sprawl on to a whopping one hour and 25 minutes! That’s a tall order for a band that consistently delivers some of the most frightening and energetic displays of technical disso-death metal in the modern realms of the ever-expanding universe of extreme metal’s most popular nook. So what’s new with MITOCHONDRION you ask? Well, dare i say melody? This band’s past is one of murky nebulous swells of sound that conjure up demonic forces that deliver astral terror. In many ways the band returns with a sound that’s business as usual with the expected rampaging guitar riffs distorted to kingdom come accompanied by blitzkrieg percussion gymnastics in a crushing cacophony that blurs the distinction between black metal, death metal and the avant-garde. Also once again MITOCHONDRION delivers hefty doses of preternatural aural assaults bedecked with ample touches of Lovecraftian surrealism.

VITRISEPTOME may resemble its heritage in the aforementioned carry over elements that make MITOCHONDRION sound like no other however beneath the dissonant display of bantering freneticism, this album is quite different in many ways with the most prominent feature being that of a more melodic approach that is implemented by the higher register guitar licks that accompany the brutal bombast of the rampaging riffing. Also notable is the more cavernous texture of the production and mixing which offers a more Portal-like effect that offers moments of pure blackened noise as heard on the combo back of “[ ]” and the title track which sound like an avalanche of amplifiers generating a feedback explosion. While the previous albums offered a more surreal blurry bleeding over of the instrumentation, VITRISEPTOME on the other hand delivers a more distinguished separation of guitars, bass and other elements such as the various tonal textures offered by such unorthodoxies as the timpani, flute, bone horn and singing bowl. As far as the guitars are concerned there is more of an old school Morbid Angel feel on many track with that classic guitar squealing effect emerging from the din. But don’t let these small details fool you. This is MITOCHONDRION raging on in fine form!

Despite the hour and a half playing time i found myself able to take in the entire shebang in one sitting and that’s saying something these days when i find many albums are tediously too long for their own good. Something about MITOCHONDRION’s multi-faceted delivery system that keeps things sounding uniform in style yet diverse in how the details define the sum of the parts. It’s a demanding listening experience but unlike previous efforts that only offered the gloomiest and doomiest musical excursions to be had, VITRISEPTOME feels like it adds a ray of light to the chaotic disso-death battlefield of instrumentation with digestible chunks of melodic victory prognosticating a triumphant outcome despite a bleak and seemingly hopeless outcome. Once again MITOCHONDRION successfully conveys a strange metaphysical scenario that while nebulous in nature offers a wild emotional ride through the incessant swarm of sonic entropy. Personally i still prefer the band’s first two albums as this one is less consistent in its overall effect despite in many ways pretty much following in the footsteps of the previous albums. I’m a bit underwhelmed that the band didn’t deliver 13 years of innovation however despite those nitpicky quibbles i have to say that VITRISEPTOME is still a freakin’ awesome display of 21st century techy blackened disso-death. For me just a smidge inferior to the band’s past but this very well could grow on me over time indeed.

UMUR "Absolute Elsewhere" is the third full-length studio album by US, Colorado based death metal act Blood Incantation. The album was released through Century Media Records in October 2024. It´s the successor to "Hidden History of the Human Race" from 2021, although the two full-length studio albums are bridged by the 2022 "Timewave Zero" EP. Three of the four members of the band have also been busy recording the second Spectral Voice album titled "Sparagmos", which was released in February 2024. Blood Incantation and Spectral Voice share all members except for the drummers of the two bands, who exclusively play in one of the groups.

While Blood Incantation have been brewing music since 2011 and have been relatively active since their formation, it wasn´t until the release of "Hidden History of the Human Race" that they had their underground breakthrough. Almost universally lauded for it´s intricate, progressive, and abstract death metal sound, "Hidden History of the Human Race" certainly made sure that Blood Incantation were placed firmly on the death metal map. It´s an interesting death metal release, because for all its sophistication, technical playing, and complex song structures, it´s still inherently an old school death metal release, featuring a gloomy and filthy brutality.

While a large part of the playing time of "Hidden History of the Human Race" was made up of the 18:05 minutes long "Awakening from the Dream of Existence to the Multidimensional Nature of Our Reality (Mirror of the Soul)", writing such a massive progressive death metal track obviously haven´t satisfied Blood Incantation´s cravings for abstract and complex death metal constructions, as "Absolute Elsewhere" contains only two 20 minutes plus tracks titled "The Stargate" (20:20 minutes long) and "The Message" (23:23 minutes long). Both tracks are subdivided into three shorter tracks, but you still get the experience of listening to two long tracks, as the sub-tracks seque into each other.

Stylistically Blood Incantation take their music to a new level. While still featuring loads of old school technical death metal parts, the album features just as many 70s influenced tripped-out space rock parts (Artists like Tangerine Dream, Eloy, and Pink Floyd haven´t lived in vain), which have nothing to do with death metal. So how does two such different music styles co-exist? It should be impossible, but it actually works incredibly well. Blood Incantation ensure that there is a good balance between death metal brutality, technical playing, progressive song structures, and the 70s progressive/space rock influences. "Absolute Elsewhere" is epic, melodic, and atmospheric, but also brutal, dissonant, and raw. Gloomy atmospheres are followed by epic melodic moments, and laid-back psychedelic journeys into space.

The growling vocals are cavernous, but higher in the mix than on the previous releases from Blood Incantation, which is a plus in my book. "The Message [Tablet II]" features a strongly Pink Floyed influenced section with clean singing in the Gilmour vein, and although they are relatively sparse and subtle, they provide a great contrast to the brutal growling vocals, which dominate "Absolute Elsewhere". The instrumental part of the album is well performed too, and the band are arguably a talented unit. It´s the multifaceted songwriting and unconventional progressive ideas which make "Absolute Elsewhere" such an interesting release though. These days you kind of expect that bands can handle their instruments, but it´s never a given that they can write intriguing music. Blood Incantation master both disciplines with ease. Featuring an organic, powerful, and detailed sound production "Absolute Elsewhere" is a high level release on all parameters and a 4.5 star (900%) rating is fully deserved.

UMUR "Manual Manic Procedures" is the second full-length studio album by US, Ohio based death metal act 200 Stab Wounds. The album was released through Metal Blade Records in June 2024. It´s the successor to Slave To The Scalpel from 2021, although 200 Stab Wounds did release the 2023 "Masters of Morbidity" stop-gap single (featuring two non-album tracks). There has been one lineup change since the debut album as guitarist Lance Buckley has been replaced by Raymond Macdonald.

Stylistically 200 Stab Wounds haven´t changed much since the last album, still playing an old school but still not too retro sounding type of death metal. Brutal and varied grooves, both death metal and thrash metal influenced riffs, and some brutal growling vocals in front. "Manual Manic Procedures" features a fat, heavy, and brutal sounding production job which along with the (for the style) relatively varied songwriting are the greatest assets of the album. The band are well playing too.

Upon conclusion "Manual Manic Procedures" is another good quality death metal release from 200 Stab Wounds and the greater emphasis on brutal grooves and breaks is an interesting feature of the album, which provide the music with something a little more unique than what many other contemporary death metal artists put out. When that is said, "Manual Manic Procedures" still use trid and true musical elements...they are just combined in an effectful and rewarding way. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

siLLy puPPy Dissonant and psychedelic tech death metal is killin’ it in the 2020s with long established bands coming of age and blowing away the competition en masse. Long timers like Pyrrhon, Ulcerate and Mitochondrion are continuing to up their game with each subsequent release and newer bands like Blood Incantation are perfecting all these elements with amazing precision. You can add the Tampa based GIGAN to that list which started as far back as 2006 and has continued to pummel the world of extreme metal ever since. Having taken a whopping seven year hiatus this power trio has returned with founder Eric Hersemann (bass, guitar, synthesizer, theremin) along with decade long drummer Nate Cotton and growler-in-chief Jerry Kavouriaris who returns for his second album with the band. GIGAN is back with yet another multisyllabic album, ANOMALOUS ABSTRACTIGATE INFINITESSIMUS which melds the now established worlds of sci-fiction debauchery with the blitzkrieg wizardry of world class disso-death metal.

Named after the alien cyborg kaiju who first appeared in the 1972 film “Godzilla vs. Gigan,” this ultimate weapon of the M Space Hunter Nebula Aliens which was deployed to Earth to aid the alien invader’s conquest of the planet proves to be the perfect namesake for this technically infused band that worships the alter of brutality and dissonance. While not the first extreme metal band to delve into the world of Lovecraftian horror fiction and strange diabolical fantasy, GIGAN has practically perfected its idiosyncratic style of surreal convoluted compositional constructs fortified by unrelenting tempos, bantering abrasiveness and strange twisted concepts. The album opens with the 8-minute “Trans-Dimensional Crossing of the Alta-Tenuis” which explodes like a bomb on Hiroshima with the turbulent drumming cacophony of Nathan Cotton who delvers some of the most demanding and demonic tech death performances in the biz. Oscillating waves of dissonant guitar riffing assail the senses as the band delivers a chaotic brutality that was woefully missing on the previous album (at least at this magnitude).

“Ultra-Violet Shimmer and Permeating Infra-sound” doesn’t let up with an even more brutal decibel rampage as the guitar riffing and bass bantering become every more chaotic with ever more complex percussive clamor and freaky slide guitar effects while Kavouriasis’ vocal style becomes insane asylum material. While taking the brutality to the next level the wild synthesized atmospheric note slides adds a touch of surreality to the whole shebang all graced by the off-kilter production techniques that take things even further into the abstract world of surreality and mind-fuckery. The most bizarre track of all comes with “Emerging Sects of Dagonic Acolytes,” a 10-minute excursion into the a bizarre tightrope act between extreme death metal acrobatics coupled with psychedelic rock techniques and free improvisation abstruseness. While starting off as a somewhat “normal” GIGAN track, things start to get weirder and weirder to the point where you feel like you’ve totally lost your sanity and all connection to reality as the band goes down one of its most surreal rabbit hole escapades to date.

And the Lovecraftian surrealism doesn’t stop there. Each track delivers another powerful punch of erratic techy death metal with freaky guitar solos and convoluted riffing patterns. “Erratic Pulsitivity and Horror” is like the closest thing to a musical seizure i’ve ever experienced while “The Strange Harvest of the Baganoids” offers some of the strangest twanging jangle guitar chops ever experienced and features a strange time signature dynamic that makes you feel like you’re traveling through a turbulent asteroid belt on the Millennium Falcon. As the album closes with “Ominous Silhouettes Cast Across Gulfs of Time,” the band engages in another lengthy near 8-minute battle of chaos and order only this time with a more doomy introduction with plodding guitar stomps and ominous distortion but then the track breaks into a bifurcated effect of rampaging death metal along with the plodding effects, yet another wild surreal display of creative craftiness or should i say Lovecraftiness.

Wow! Mind blown!!!! While i still loved GIGAN’s approach on the previous “Undulating Waves of Rainbiotic Iridescence,” it seemed like the band was toning down the intensity a bit from its previous “Multi-Dimensional Fractal Sorcery And Super Science” so in effect ANOMALOUS ABSTRACTIGATE INFINITESSIMUS was a make or break type of album for me although i could never totally write this top band in my collection. As it turns out this fifth installment of the GIGAN universe is its best effort yet and combines the perfect combo punch of brutal bombastic techy death metal drenched in dissonant disdain coupled with the heady mind-altering effects of psychedelia and surrealism. The band has outdone itself with this one with each track standing out as a testament to its creative prowess taken to the next level and beyond. Yeah, baby! This is what 21st century death metal is all about! Two listens in and i’m ready to push play again, something the last album didn’t quite coax me into doing. I’ve been a fan of this band for over a decade now and i’m utterly thrilled beyond measure that not only has the band returned to its avant-garde unorthodoxies from its beginnings but has delivered them all in such a brutal excellence that totally caught me off guard. I think this band has been raised a few notches on my favorite extreme metal band list.

siLLy puPPy Following the trajectory of the Finnish psychedelic black metal band ORANSSI PAZUZU is like experiencing an Earth based band fall into a wormhole and accidentally tagging along for the ride. While starting out as a somewhat recognizable black metal band all the way back in 2009 with its debut “Muukalainen Puhuu,” ORANSSI PAZUZU incrementally left the gravitational pull of our host planet and has taken a bonafide space journey into a world of its own making. This eclectic quintet has returned after a four year hiatus with its latest effort MUUNTAUTUJA which translates into something like “Transformative” or “Shapeshifter” which is exactly what this idiosyncratic and eccentric band has clearly become.

MUUNTAUTUJA marks another step beyond the once established parameters of black metal and takes the band into a bizarre web of neo-psychedelia that finds electronic influences taking a much larger role in crafting strange futuristic soundscapes that offer wild otherworldly spaced out effects. While the black metal hasn’t been totally usurped by gurgling synthesizers, trip hop based beats and ominous industrial sounds, any traces of Scandinavian kvlt majesty have been set way down in the mix as to leave only distorted guitar distortion rumblings and the band’s classic raspy vocal style as a beacon of light that points to its origins. Something like a modern day Ulver that never jettisoned the black metal furor, ORANSSI PAZUZU has reached the middle of its wormhole journey with one of its strangest albums yet.

One of the most inventive black metal bands to have emerged in the 21st century, ORANSSI PAZUZU set off like a voyage on the Star Trek Voyager and has crafted a truly unique sound that never remains stationary from album to album. While the earlier albums showcased a post-metal-like procession with cyclical riffs that slowly ratcheted up to crescendoing uproar, the band has always teased in psychedelic embellishments that have indubitably initiated a completely new genre called space metal. By the time the band got to “Mestarin Kynsi” it was apparent that these Finns were heading to the stars without looking back and boldly going where no black metal band has gone before. And the best thing of all is that these talented musicians actually created interesting song structures that made you want to tune in rather than send them off on their mission.

This band has always reveled in juxtaposing the most polarized opposite musical genres together and making strange bedfellows sound like a predestined fit. MUUNTAUTUJA only ups the ante as it takes you on a transcendental musical excursion into an alternate universe where Blut Aus Nord and Portishead commingle in darkened corners with Death Grips and Philip Glass with a touch of Massive Attack, Ministry and Mad Capsule Markets. From the very first oscillating tones of “Bioalkemisti” it’s clear that MUUNTAUTUJA is a completely different beast than what came before and another incremental leap down the avant-garde rabbit hole with surreal musical motifs that shapeshift from one track to the next that sample from a cauldron where the disparate worlds of progressive rock, black metal, trip hop, 20th century classical and industrial rock have been simmering in an undisclosed locus in the midst of the vast Finnish forests.

Along with Dodheimsgard, Ulver, Ved Buens Ende and Ram-Zet, ORANSSI PAZUZU has become one of Scandinavia’s most forward thinking bands and with the closing “Vierivä usva” totally drifting off into space and leaving the metal mojo behind one can’t help but wonder if this band is going to pull an Ulver on us and completely jump into the world of avant-garde electronica. Wherever this inventive band leads many of us avant-metal nerds will surely follow as it is virtually guaranteed that this band will take you somewhere you never knew existed. While i personally found the previous album to be more of my liking, this one is definitely a wild ride into the world of cosmos metal that will leave you gasping for air as you drift beyond the limits our Earthly realms.

Kev Rowland Dååth began their journey in 1999, releasing four studio albums and touring with Slayer, Nile, Cattle Decapitation, Dark Funeral, Cynic, Dragonforce, Goatwhore, Chimaira, Dying Fetus and others before going on hiatus in 2011. They have finally returned with their first album in 14 years, although founder/guitarist Eyal Levi has overseen a complete overhaul of the lineup, with only singer Sean Zatorsky still there from the old days. Together they have been joined by Kerim “Krimh” Lechner on drums, Jesse Zuretti on orchestration and guitar, Rafael Trujillo on lead guitar, and David Marvuglio on bass. In addition, there are numerous guests providing guitar solos including Jeff Loomis (Nevermore, Arch Enemy), Mark Holcomb (Periphery), Dean Lamb (Archspire), Per Nilsson, (Scar Symmetry, Meshuggah), Spiro Dussias (Platonist), and Dan Sugarman (Ice Nine Kills), while video game composer Mick Gordon (Doom Eternal) contributed sound design and synth to “Purified By Vengeance.” By the way, for those who are interested the name "Daath" is a Hebrew word meaning "knowledge", which is certainly much more interesting than their original name, Dirtnap.

I remember reading about Dååth when they were around first time, but I don’t think I had previously come across their music and picked this up due to a combination of name recognition and them being on Metal Blade, but I am so very glad I did as this is a belter. Having not heard their earlier material I cannot comment as to how much they may have changed musically, but what I can say is that here is melodic death metal which also relies heavily on huge arrangements and orchestration. In some ways they come across as a mix of Fleshgod Apocalypse and classic Dimmu Borgir, with complex layering of guitars, always driven from the back by a great rhythm section, orchestration over the top and some great growls out front. Zatorsky has been keeping himself busy with Chimaira and Sinsaenum, but this is where he is truly at home, with his relationship with Levi continuing on as if they have never been apart. They may have been away for well over a decade but Dååth are back with a vengeance.

adg211288 The US death metal act Blood Incantation has already established themselves as a major act of their genre. It was apparent, I think, from at least as early as their debut album Starspawn (2016) but really asserted on Hidden History of the Human Race (2019). They played progressive death metal but without over reliance on the technical death metal sub-genre. Absolute Elsewhere (2024) is their third studio album and although they've left it so long between their primary records Blood Incantation has been far from idle and in the intervening years has taken the time to explore other avenues of music, most notably space ambient on the EP (which is actually album length and was until Absolute Elsewhere actually their longest release) Timewave Zero (2022). They then released the maxi-single Luminescent Bridge (2023) which saw them combining elements from both their progressive death metal and ambient work. Luminescent Bridge's two songs are included on the deluxe edition of Absolute Elsewhere as a bonus disc as is a second completely ambient release not currently available elsewhere calls All Gates Open.

Absolute Elsewhere is a very different beast to either of the previous Blood Incantation studio albums and if you haven't been paying attention to what they've been doing since Hidden History of the Human Race, it may come as a surprise but if you have been you will know that Blood Incantation isn't content to be a one trick pony. This album features just two songs (broken up into three tracks each and branded as Tablets by the band) which see them combining all different kinds of music into their sound. Expect lots of shifts between their cavernous death metal sound and lighter music, including synth driven stuff which also included a guest spot for Thorsten Quaeschning, the current band leader of Berlin School giants Tangerine Dream. As an album Absolute Elsewhere owes as much to Pink Floyd as it does Morbid Angel. Both the songs or suites, if you prefer, cross the twenty minute border.

It is simply one of those albums where there are so many intricacies present that coming back to it for more time after time again reveals more and more about it. I'm already on my twelfth listen as of putting this review together. While it may need saying that they might be now too far gone for the more purist of death metal fans, for whom these continual let-ups in the intensity may serve as unnecessary distraction, I don't feel that Blood Incantation has moved into the world better described as extreme progressive metal as inhabited by Opeth or Ihsahn: they leave no doubt over their death metal allegiances when they're really giving it welly. This is death metal, just enhanced into a cosmic experience, taking you through stargates to deliver it's message. I am floored by it.

For me, Blood Incantation just released in Absolute Elsewhere not only their best album yet, but also one of the most outright interesting death metal albums to be released for a long time. It is the album that sets the standard for the rest of the year that other bands are going to have to better if they are to dethrone it from being my top album of 2024.

UMUR "Horror Beyond Horror" is the eighth full-length studio album by Japanese death metal act Defiled. The album was released through Season of Mist in September 2024. It´s the successor to "The Highest Level" from April 2023 and the two albums feature the same quartet lineup. After longer gaps between album releases in the past, Defiled have picked up the pace in the last couple of years and are now releasing albums within shorter intervals.

Defiled have evolved and experimented some over the years, but their unconventional technical death metal approcah is still present and accounted for. They have the same old school death metal approach to playing brutal technical death metal as an artist like Suffocation. Which also means that it´s the thrash oriented old school version of death metal that Defiled perform. I´d actually mention Ripping Corpse/Dim Mak as great influences too, because of the extremely aggressive and articulated growling vocal style of lead vocalist/guitarist Shinichiro Hamada. But as always Defiled are completely their own with abrupt tempo changes, unconventional rhythm patterns, and shifts in riff styles, which may on surface sound like business as usual to some, but if you listen a bit closer Defiled certainly aren´t your everyday death metal act. Defiled have always challenged the conventions of the genre, and they continue to do so on "Horror Beyond Horror".

"Horror Beyond Horror" features an organic, brutal, raw, and detailed sound production, which suits the material well. Upon conclusion "Horror Beyond Horror" is a natural successor to "The Highest Level", but to my ears Defiled have made better production choices this time around, and therefore "Horror Beyond Horror" is a step up in quality from the last release (which itself wasn´t a bad release at all). Defiled just seem to thrive better when they apply more organic sounding productions to their music, like they do here. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

siLLy puPPy The Denver based BLOOD INCANTATION has wrested its way up to the top ranks of the world of technical death metal in the last decade through a meticulous melding approach of morphing the old school death metal magic of bands like Morbid Angel and Immolation with the retro space rock effects of 70s progressive rock, a trait that a few intrepid extreme metal pioneers like Opeth and Enslaved have been tinkering with for over two decades now. Finding itself at the right place at the right time just as the world of psychedelic death metal was poised to break through to the mainstream as the newest death metal strain to come of age, BLOOD INCANTATION was more than ready to slay the competition and declare themselves the kings of this adventurous hybridization that finds space rock cozily commingling with brutal death metal bombast laced with concepts of our suppressed history and science fiction (often proven to be science fact).

The band immediately made a splash with its 2016 debut “Starspawn” which showcased the band’s meaty metal hooks and technical wizardry but it wasn’t until 2019’s “Hidden History Of The Human Race” that the band really unleashed its true psychedelic potential with heady concepts wrapped up in psychedelic death metal splendor. The band while always technical in nature also proved to craft a mighty fine progressive metal album and the stage was set for this new extreme metal royalty to wear the crown. Despite the seeming certainty that BLOOD INCANTATION was in it for the long run, along comes the curveball release “Timewave Zero” in 2022 which found the band dropping all traces of metal music like a hot potato and rather totally rocketed off into space with a pure space ambient and progressive electronic style that took more inspiration from Berlin School giants like Tangerine Dream or Klaus Schulze. Had BLOOD INCANTATION gone the way of Leprous, Opeth or Ulver and completely shifted gears midstream?

It comes as great relief (as much as i love progressive electronic music) that BLOOD INCANTATION did nothing of the sort and rather was just allowing themselves to dabble in non-metal playgrounds while recharging their batteries for the next chapter of their metal mojo jounrey. Finally in 2024 we are treated to the newest installment of the BLOOD INCANTATION universe in the form of ABSOLUTE ELSEWHERE, a crafty conceptual sci-fi saga divided into two overarching 3 sections that are called tablets: “The Stargate” and “The Message.” While many were wondering if BLOOD INCANTATION had abandoned metal for the world of progressive electronic on “Timewave Zero,” it seems they were simply honing their chops to bedazzle their fans with an amazing fusion of their already masterful technical / progressive death metal with the more cosmic meanderings of 70s proggy space rock and Berlin School progressive electronic. Even Tangerine Dream member Thorsten Quaeschning appears for a cameo thus cementing this new development as a major leap in death metal ingenuity.

While such a collision of disparate musical worlds can result in a convoluted unconvincing disaster in the wrong hands, BLOOD INCANTATION has proven once again that this quintet of talented musicians can achieve the seemingly impossible on the same level as Opeth and Enslaved have done in the past. ABSOLUTE ELSEWHERE seems to have attained the perfect balance between the detached technical brutality of death metal and the more chilled excursions into the cosmos in the form of heady space rock. While the juxtaposition of these two seems rather dubious, somehow this band forges the perfect bridges to allow the disparate genres to trade off without a hitch. While “Hidden History Of The Human Race” was greatly praised and lauded as some sort of pinnacle of the style, i personally found the album to not flow as coherently as i had imagined however on ABSOLUTE ELSEWHERE the band seems to have ironed out all those peccadillos and forged a veritable masterpiece of progressive psychedelic death metal like no other. While Opeth has tackled both genres independently on different albums, BLOOD INCANTATION brings it all together in a most convincing way.

I think it goes without saying that psychedelic death metal has truly come of age and no better example exists than this latest BLOOD INCANTATION bombshell which produces a bountiful buffet of psychotropic bombast and kaleidoscopic calamity throughout ABSOLUTE ELSEWHERE’s six-track / 43-minute excursion into the realms of sci-fi fueled proggy death metal extraordinaire. Now if anyone told a hardened death metal fan back in the early 90s that someday a band would successfully meld the meaty metal bluster of Morbid Angel with the psychotropic expansiveness of Pink Floyd and the Berlin School scene, nobody could have imagined that such a thing was even possible but here in the calendar year 2024 BLOOD INCANTATION has taken such possibilities into the realms of plausibility with one of the most well-crated examples of psychedelic death metal to emerge. I think it goes without saying that BLOOD INCANTATION has not jumped the shark in any possible way but has only improved its unorthodox genre coalescing manyfold. For my liking there are no missteps on this one, no moments that seem out of place and even the production that links the various styles is impeccable. This is BLOOD INCANTATION’s finest moment yet!

UMUR "Servitude" is the tenth full-length studio album by US death metal at The Black Dahlia Murder. The album was released through Metal Blade Records in September 2024. It´s the successor to "Verminous" from 2020 and there have been a few lineup changes since the release of the predecessor. Firstly guitarist Ryan Knight has returned to the fold, having originally departed in 2016 after an eight year stint with the band. Secondly and on a more sad note lead vocalist/founding member Trevor Strnad took his own life in May 2022. A huge force on the post-2000 death metal scene Strnad could not be easily replaced, but guitarist and main composer (and co-founder) Brian Eschbach took up the challenge and performs the vocals on "Servitude" (Eschbach does not perform guitars on this release).

So it´s of course the number one question when listening to "Servitude", if Eschbach brings the goods like Strnad did on so many albums before this one...and the answer is yes. Strnad was a very unique vocalist and of course Eschbach can´t replace him one-to-one, but I think he steps up to the plate and brings his own version of the high pitched blackened snarling/deep growling death metal vocal style with success. Regarding the instrumental part of the music there´s nothing negative to say about it. This is more or less The Black Dahlia Murder as they have sounded since day one. Predominantly fast-paced, melodic (often neo-classical influenced) death metal with horror themed lyrics performed by an incredibly skilled band. The rhythm section deliver sharp, precise, and powerful drumming and bass playing, the guitarists play one fast-paced and sharp riff after another and deliver loads and loads of melodic lead themes and solos, and on top of it all Eschbach´s high pitched blackened snarling/deep growling death metal vocals.

"Servitude" still stands out a bit from the last couple of releases though, as The Black Dahlia Murder have gone for a slighly less polished and a generally more stripped-down production style, which I personally think suits the material well. It´s a more immediate and instantly effective release than anything they´ve released in the last 15 years. And that´s not a criticism of the releases which came before this one, because they are all great in their own right, but "Servitude" is just a bit more direct and in-your-face.

Faced with an immense tragedy The Black Dahlia Murder never wavered (at least not publicly) and almost immediately vowed to to return with a new lineup and keep the band going, and "Servitude" is the proof that they did the right thing. I´m sure Strnad would have been proud of the result. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

siLLy puPPy My current mantra has become “So much music, so little time” as the more i explore the vast universe of musical expressions that have been recorded i feel like the branches on the tree grow faster than i can count the leaves that have grown but such is the life of the intrepid seeker of sonic possibilities with yet another band that has eluded me for so long yet now am finally tackling only to find another veritable pool of talented that has escaped my radar. The Rochester, Minnesota act AMIENSUS has been churning out its unique style of progressive black metal since 2010 and has become one of those underground sensations where it takes the Enslaved post-Mardraum route of fusing raging black metal fury with the more nuanced compositional flair of modern progressive rock. This band has not exactly been prolific with only five albums under its belt since its 2012 debut “Restoration” but 2024 has been graced with not one but two new albums which most likely could’ve been released as a single double album but has become a two part set of albums instead.

Following in the footsteps of “Reclamation: Part 1” which was released in April is the second coming aptly titled RECLAMATION: PART 2 which came out in August. Shamefully i missed chapter one of this combo package separated by time but considering i find lyrics and concepts secondary to my musical exploration i decided to just take the plunge into the world of AMIENSUS and just check out the latest and what some consider the greatest of the AMIENSUS canon. Well, how’s it hold up? Remarkably well actually! This band has mastered the art of crafty dynamics which allows the brash bravado of black metal to sit peacefully in the same corner as dreamy atmospheric post-rock, clean vocal progressive metal majesty and moments of more “normal” symphonic metal that weave in sophisticated atmospheric constructs into the black ’n’ roll type of grooves that the band nurtures into thundering expressions of grandeur as the band explores the existential themes of philosophy, theology, psychology and mythological subject matter.

With a passionate exuberant musical display of instrumental competency and crafty compositional fortitude, AMIENSUS delivers a satisfying mix of black metal bombast with progressive constructs that allow the seven tracks of 38 1/2 to shine brightly with a rather satisfying black metal style alternating with moments of non-metal ambience whether it be post-rock, Middle Eastern inspirations or just more chilled moments of less frenetic progressive rock. The band has mastered the art of juggling all these elements without the feeling of being forced or stilted. In other words AMIENSUS crafts a continuity and consciousness flow that succeeds quite well in its approach as often these tightrope acts leads to a bumbling clunky musical procession that can often sound stilted and spurious. Probably better to think of AMIENSUS as a progressive metal band with black metal as its primary side sound rather than a black metal band per se as there are many moments where non-metal and just plain progressive metal styles dominate sometimes for entire tracks such as “The Distance.”

Considered AMIENSUS’ most versatile album of its career (although i can’t compare other albums as of yet), RECLAMATION: PART II may or may not provide the appropriate second half of the overarching double album concept but when taken alone as a sole experience it is indeed quite satisfying as a progressive black metal behemoth with uncompromising black metal aggression wrapped up in equally compelling atmospheric extravagance which is as vital an element to the overall AMIENSUS sound as the metal brashness. Of course kvlt purists will immediately diss this hybridization effect but for fans of modern Enslaved, Gris, Negura Bunget or Xanthochroid, this band will definitely appeal to your expansive sensibilities that incorporate black metal into a larger musical context. A lot to like with this one. Excellent black metal riffing that sometimes borders on death metal. Strong raspy vocals that sound like the perfect mix of prog and black metal. Nice interludes that offer breaks from the aggression and interesting atmospheric developments that independently exist beyond mere accent sounds. My first exposure to AMIENSUS was a great one and look forward to a deeper dive.

UMUR "Homicidal Therapy" is the second full-length studio album by Belgian death metal act Bleedskin. The album was independently released in September 2024. It´s the successor to "Blood Reign" from 2020. There have been a couple of lineup changes since the predecessor as only Céline Mazay (guitars, vocals) and Rémy Adam (bass, vocals) remain from the lineup who recorded the predecessor. New in the lineup is drummer/vocalist Logan Dykens, who completes the new trio lineup on "Homicidal Therapy".

Stylistically not much has changed since the debut album, as Bleedskin are still delivering technically well played US influenced death metal. Although they are not a US band, the Dutch in Sinister (who themselves have always been US death metal influenced) are probably the most valid reference. It´s relatively brutal death metal but in the old school fashion with ties to the late 80s brutal thrash metal scene. So Bleedskin are far from being another Suffocation clone, if the word brutal old school death metal should lead you to think that. A band like Deicide is probably a better old school US death metal reference (and to a lesser extent Cannibal Corpse).

Featuring 10 tracks and a total playing time of 30:44 minutes "Homicidal Therapy" is a relatively short release, but what it lacks in length it offers in effective quality death metal songwriting, strong and tight (yet still organic) musical performances, and a powerful, brutal, and raw sounding production, which perfectly suits the material. The snare drum has an odd sound, but personally I appreciate the way it sounds, as it adds a unique character to Bleedskin´s sound. So while Bleedskin won´t surprise you with anything you haven´t heard before on similar releases, they are the type of band who bring the goods. Power, passion, brutality... you get it all here and it´s delivered with the right amount of caustic aggression and conviction. A 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.

siLLy puPPy PYRRHON was one of the first dissonant technical death metal bands to catch the second wave after bands like Gorguts and Portal busted the doors wide open and bands like Gigan and Ulcerate soon followed. This New York City band formed in 2008 and has been haunting the extreme metal underground for well over a decade now since it first launched its debut EP “Fever Kingdoms” in 2010. Wow, what a difference a decade makes for this band’s development. I have never quite warmed up to this band due to the fact that after i picked up its second album “The Mother of Virtues” a few years back that i just wasn’t as blown away as i was with bands like Gigan, Portal, Mitochondrion or the king of disso-death itself Gorguts. After all the hubbub about its latest release EXHAUST however i decided to jump back on the PYRRHON bandwagon and give em another try.

Popular doesn’t always translate satisfyingly brilliant to my ears so with some intrepid hesitation i jumped right in and all i can say is WOW! These guys have clearly been practicing their little nut sacks off since i’ve last encountered them and the results have paid off handsomely. EXHAUST displays a massive leap in sharpening the band’s strongest attributes of clanging out discordant bombastic death metal riffage laced with all kinds of technically infused sidetracking and excursions into proggy labyrinthine excesses however this time around the band has honed its skills to create stronger song structures that ebb and flow in a more consistent manner all the while upping the game in their performances with faster razor-sharp guitar riffs and squeals and a frenetic yet precision controlled bantering of percussion and bass abuse. Vocalist Doug Moore also delivers a heightened sense of death metal mania that veers a bit into the world of grind influenced screams.

Many disso-death bands have tested the patience of their audiences in recent years with bloated albums that pummel your senses past an hour’s playing time which truly is exhausting for such intense uncompromising metal rampage. EXHAUST features ten tracks that comfortably sit at the 38 minute mark which is really the maximum playing time that can sustain most of our attention spans for music this wild and crazed without any moments of catching your breath. While the opening “Not Going To Mars” insinuates one of those classically orchestrated disso-death albums in the vein of Ad Nauseam the short intro quickly bursts into action with an incessant raging flow of blitzkrieg riffing and brutal unrelenting motif and cadence changes all wrapped up in the ugliest discordant harmonic combos possible. Basically the band has clawed its way up to the top ranks of disso-death royalty by displaying a massive leap in instrumental interplay infused with a fertile fecundity previous albums didn’t quite muster up.

This is extreme progressive technical death metal at its finest with a labyrinthine maze of twists and turns lashing out like a wounded dragon writhing about spewing fire as it perishes and taking down the town with it. The surge of creative fortitude lurking about in every abscessed disease ridden track of atonal angularity is simply off the charts making EXHAUST a very exhausting album indeed not because you struggle to stay away but rather the challenge of keeping up with the absolute terror emulating from this quartet of quality noise masters. The controlled use of dynamics, time signatures and tempo deviations take PYRRHON into the ranks of high quality progressive composers without sacrificing nary a nasty quality that makes this anarchic tumultuous stew of crazy crafty disso-death steeped in all the aggression and energetic outbursts that is humanly possible. By far the band’s effort to date and one of the top disso-death albums to emerge in the last few years although this entire branch of death metal has become the top dogs in keeping the tech death metal world vibrant and evolving into the next levels of despair and horrific ugliness. Great job guys!

siLLy puPPy American / Canadian band SUMAC has made quite a splash in the metal underground in the last ten years with its bizarre mix of post-metal, droning and free improvisation industrial feedback techniques. This project was founded in 2014 in Vashon, Washington by vocalist / guitarist Aaron Turner who has participated in a multitude of acts including Doolhof, Drawing Voices, Greymachine, The Hollomen, House of Low Culture, Isis, Jodis, Lotus Eaters, Mamiffer, Old Man Gloom, Ringfinger, Split Cranium, Summer of Seventeen, Thalassa, Twilight and Unionsuit and soon recruited drummer Nick Yacyshyn (Baptists, Cooked and Eaten, Erosion, Genghis Tron, Hard Feelings, Rotting Hills,, A Textbook Tragedy) and bassist Brian Cook (Botch, Onalaska, Roy, Russian Circles, These Arms Are Snakes).

Together this power trio has cruised through the last decade delivering a brash barrage of atmospheric sludge metal in the vein of Isis and other sludge legends however after the collaborative efforts with the Japanese free improv noise guru Keiji Haino, the band has turned to the more experimental, free form and avant-garde which began with 2018’s “Love Shadow” and has slowly ratcheted up the freak show ever since. The band’s latest effort THE HEALER may be about as therapeutic as sleeping on a bed of nails in a burning house yet features the band’s most extravagant journeys into the world of free form noise, feedback freakery and avant-garde extremism. With four tracks that ooze past the 76 minute playing time with the opening “World Of Light” and closing “The Stone’s Turn” hovering around the 25-minute mark, SUMAC has let its freak flag fly full staff in a relentless musical menagerie of sound.

Talk about a long arduous journey where every juncture is spring loaded with crazy sludgy feedback that reverberates to kingdom come and back, the band ventures into moments of hardcore, pure noise as well as death metal and drone metal static overload. Sounding something like a mix of Isis, Eyehategod, Maudlin of the Well, Russian Circles and well, 1960s AMM, this band unleashes a noisy complex labyrinthine procession through a never-ending series of musical motifs that morph into something completely different without losing the sludge metal tones and timbres that keep it firmly planted in that camp. Discordant chords and atonal guitar squeals flitter alongside irregularly timed percussive outbursts, bass bantering and moody growling vocals with a pageful misanthropic demeanor reminiscent of classic Iron Monkey or early Neurosis. This is not an album to experience casually as it will leave you agitated and on the edge of your seat as it wends and winds through volitive unpredictable terrain.

Listening to THE HEALER is a true test in devotion to a craft that is as idiosyncratic and eccentric as a convention of those who love to consume furniture foam. It’s a knotty ugly affair that excels in nurturing all the most ugly and grating elements of sludge metal and couples them with nebulous indecipherable compositional flow, yet this whole chaotic stew is appealing in its unappealing nature. Far from mindless improv, THE HEALER is constructed of chunks of ideas that sort of metamorphose into a new batch of ideas with some stitching together in the context of sludge metal and others dabbling in chaotic noise swirls and droning monotony. While it comes off as pure free improv, the album is actually laced with musicality not only in the chord progressions and cyclical post-metal looping effects but also through order of seemingly chaotic embellishments.

Overall SUMAC delivers the ultimate difficult music listening album with THE HEALER as it ventures into territory that few metal bands have dared tread. The sounds of extreme metal formatted into the stylistic approach of European free jazz, brutal harsh noise improv and sound collages is certainly a difficult pill to swallow especially at such an excessive playing time but even though such albums can come off as ridiculously convoluted and excessively avant-garde for its own sake, i have to say that because SUMAC are such seasoned pros they infuse a vast array of musicality woefully missing from many similar styled acts. While definitely not music you want to play at your wedding, SUMAC delivers all the goods and if you’re into the idea of Khanate meets a more extreme version of Maudlin of the Well then this one’s gonna rock your world!

siLLy puPPy The sludge metal scene may have had its origins in 80s California hardcore punk bands and 90s Seattle grunge but no other place has nurtured it into the gloomy ugly beast that it has become like Lousiana, USA. After all if it weren’t for bands like Eyehategod, Crowbar and Acid Bath the genre never would’ve blossomed into the gift that keeps on giving to the modern era. Must be the swamp gas wafting off those Louisiana bayous or something! While the Baton Rouge based THOU wasn’t exactly part of the original cajun country scene, the band sprang to life in 2005 and has been quite productive releasing numerous albums, splits and EPs and garnering a wider audience as time passes as it takes the unadulterated sounds of brutal sludge metal into the 2020s. The band is the perfect example of modern sludge metal with captivating covert art and a rampaging extremism not heard since bands like Iron Monkey, early Mastodon or Neurosis with their other New Orleans sludge bros included in that list as well.

The band has delivered one of its finest albums of its career in 2024 with its sixth full-length studio album UMBILICAL which has been garnering rave reviews as one of the best metal albums to have emerged in recent years and while such claims seem to be a dime a dozen in this diverse day of varying opinions and array of tastes, in the case of THOU’s latest effort all the brouhaha around the band’s newest album is actually well founded. Like many of the band’s albums, UMBILICAL has been released with a variety of album covers, three in this case with completely different cover art for the CD and vinyl and yet another for the digital downloads. Personally i prefer the band’s album covers that depict black and white scenes from war times and other historical despair from antiquity. Preferring to call themselves grunge rather than sludge metal (well Ok whatever!), UMBILICAL does indeed display more aspects of its ancestry than other sludge metal bands with Alice In Chains chugs, good old fashioned Nirvana inspired self-loathing and at times a rather Stone Temple Pilots simplicity.

But let’s get real here, despite nods to the past in the course of ten caustic distortion-drenched tracks, THOU is the epitome of doom metal infused sludge metal delivering all the misanthropic attributes of what makes the genre distinct, unique and reverberating into the extremities of guitar feedback. THOU is also one of the most angry sounding of the sludge metal world by far with Bryan Funck’s raging screamed vocals that give you a sore throat by merely listening. Add to that the exaggerated use of creepy slow tempos out of the Eyehategod playbook with the occasional more energetic outbursts of adrenalized speedy romps. It’s classic 90s sludge metal through and through but done so well that it makes you remember the days when sludge metal was pure and impregnated with that classic 90s annihilation and pure depressive extirpation. In the modern era where most sludge metal has hybridized with prog, post-rock or dark ambient sounds, THOU emphasizes sludge metal’s punk and grunge origins better than most.

Sure experimental metal and avant-garde forays are always nice evolutionary branches to explore as they create completely different mood settings in hitherto unexplored soundscape crafting but there’s something about unadulterated sludge metal that just resonates so wickedly well with the psyche as if it is the absolute panacea of a cathartic release of pent up rage that goes along with living in the modern world where absolutely everything seems dysfunctional and in decline. While many acts such as Cult of Luna, Intronaut and even Neurosis jumped off this bandwagon decades ago, THOU has continued to remain true to its sludge metal origins and in the process has garnered a slow and steady ascent as one of the guardians of the old school of sludge metal majesty. And it’s not hard to hear why on UMBILICAL as the band delivers one amp splitting guitar squeal after another with vocals so insanely intense as to qualify as scary.

Oh how THOU hath delivered a multitude of musical majesties yond resonates liketh a flame beckoning for an airy gust of inspiration the likes of which bloweth aught competition by the wayside. Rejoice in the beckoning quipping of the art of musical resonance yond captivated by the incessant floweth of the exquisite resonating sounds of sludge purity. Heavy denseness suffocating thy senses liketh a blackened tornado of souls in anguish in pure musical form yond hath been unleashed onto the world in the finest of art forms called UMBILICAL so finely constructed yond coequal Shakespeare himself wouldst tremble in awe at the sheer magnitude of the album upon us anon. For alloweth t beest writ yond the reveled anguish unveiling itself through the pyroclastic floweth of torturous textures and melancholic malaise shall reverberate in the most pleasing of ways as THOU hath polished its musical charm liketh the finest of silver in all of the kingdom.

UMUR "Children of the Morgue" is the eleventh full-length studio album by US death/thrash/heavy metal act Deceased. The album was released through Hells Headbangers Records in August 2024. It´s the successor to "Thrash Times at Ridgemont High" from 2021, which was a covers album, and as "Thrash Times at Ridgemont High" was preceded by yet another covers album in "Rotten To The Core Part 2 (The Nightmare Continues)" from 2020, "Children of the Morgue" is actually the first album from Deceased featuring new original material since "Ghostly White" from 2018. There´s been one lineup change as drummer Dave Castillo who performed on "Ghostly White" died in a swimming accident in November 2018 and he has been replaced here by Amos Rifkin.

If you´re familiar with Deceased and just about everything they´ve released since at least "Fearless Undead Machines" (1997) (minus the covers albums), you´ll pretty much know what "Children of the Morgue" sounds like. The death metal influences are very limited (as they have been for years), and stylistically the material on "Children of the Morgue" is an old school thrash/speed metal style with a major traditional heavy metal influence. The rhythm section is pounding and organic, while the two guitarists play one heavy and hard rocking riff after another, and spices the whole thing up with some blistering leads and great harmony themes (both of which are absolutely brilliant). It can´t be said enough how well playing Deceased are and how engaging the instrumental part of their music is. Lead vocalist Kingsley "King" Fowley has a raw voice and a shouting hoarse delivery, which becomes a bit one-dimensional for the duration of a full album, but there´s still something incredibly charming about his storytelling style and his horror story lyrics which always save the day.

"Children of the Morgue" features a professional and for the most part well sounding production, but I do think the drums feature a flat and artificial sound, which doesn´t suit the otherwise organic tone of the remaining instruments and vocals. It´s not a major issue, but I hope they bring back a more organic drum sound on the next album.

When all is said and done, "Children of the Morgue" is yet another high quality release from Deceased. They have a cult following (including myself) which will adore this release as equally much as they´ve appreciated the previous output by the band, but "Children of the Morgue" is probably not the album which will break new ground for Deceased and at this point in their career I´m pretty sure that´s not their main goal either. These guys just want to play the type of metal that they love and occasionally make it available to their fans and they are arguably successful in doing that. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

Necrotica Starlight and Ash really should have been bigger. Oceans of Slumber managed to take their unique goth/prog/doom synthesis and channel it into a softer, more palatable sound with their fifth outing, and the results were often breathtaking. (Mostly) gone were the band’s usual crushing riffs, as they opted to deliver a beautifully haunting gothic rock sound with a heavy helping of Southern flavor. The songs were sweeping, cinematic, and – perhaps most importantly – proof that Oceans of Slumber could diversify their sound without losing the core of what makes their work so special. And you’d think this would all translate to more commercial success and expand their fanbase… but nope, Starlight and Ash mostly came and went. I’ll let frontwoman and chief songwriter Cammie Beverly explain:

“The thing is, we never said we’re never going to do something heavy again [...] people panic when a band puts out an album that does something different. It was a weird time. It came during a time when our music was different from everything else, and I think the record was a bit lost on some people - people that mattered in our realm. The fans got it, and it was received really well, just not by the label!”

That last part is particularly important, as Century Media were pushing the band to play it safe and stick to their signature prog-doom sound with Starlight and Ash – something they certainly weren’t interested in doing. Clearly a change needed to be made. Thankfully, they were scooped up by an unlikely savior in the form of Season of Mist, a label that actively encourages a more progressive, experimental approach to metal music. This must have felt like an absolute blessing to the Texas five-piece, as they’d effectively been given free reign to tweak and redefine their sound as they saw fit. Add a few lineup changes into the mix (which involved replacing both guitarists), and 2024's Where Gods Fear to Speak was already shaping up to be quite an interesting record from the get-go.

And what an interesting record it is! What we have here is effectively a balance between the Starlight and Ash sound and Oceans of Slumber’s older work – think The Banished Heart or Winter. The crushing, oppressive doom riffs are back in the band’s arsenal again; however, they’ve been given more sweeping cinematic backdrops for that extra gothic touch. As such, the group’s penchant for atmosphere is as strong as ever, something that’s evident right from the opening title track. A barren, podding guitar riff sets the stage for all the doom and gloom to follow, as Cammie’s commanding voice glides over the ever-shifting rhythms of the song. But if you listen closely, you might notice that the growled vocals aren’t quite the same as they were on previous records… and that’s because Cammie sung them herself this time around.

Yes, for the first time on an Oceans of Slumber album, her vocals are the only ones you’ll hear from the main lineup. She ain’t half bad at them either, as her gutturals and screams are suitably menacing and brutal; moreover, they provide a nice contrast to her soaring vibrato-laden cleans. The aforementioned title track is a great example of this, but “Poem of Ecstasy” takes the juxtaposition even further; what begins as a melancholic power ballad transforms into an absolute barnburner, punctuated by savage growls and blastbeats. And as with prior efforts, the other members are well-equipped to lay down a complex musical gauntlet behind her, especially in the case of Cammie’s husband Dobber Beverly. He runs through just about every tempo one could imagine, from agonizingly slow doom metal drumming to rapid-fire blast beats – all while displaying plenty of technical proficiency. For a track that captures every facet of his abilities, check out the proggy mini-epic “Don’t Come Back from Hell Empty Handed”.

Meanwhile, the new guitarists fit Oceans of Slumber just fine – almost as if there weren’t any lineup changes in the first place. Chris Jones and Chris Kritikos are certainly serviceable in their roles here, although I must admit that they don’t go beyond the call of duty; the same can be said for returning bassist Semir Ozerkan. Rather, Where Gods Fear to Speak primarily focuses on two things: the musical chemistry between Cammie and Dobber, and the atmosphere of each track. Whether it’s the haunting minimalistic piano work of “Poem of Ecstasy”, the dark brooding synth undertow of “The Given Dream”, or the unsettling dissonance of the guitars on “Prayer” (the latter of which features Mikael Stanne of Dark Tranquility!), the band really know how to set a compelling mood and continually expand on it. And while most of the tracklist fits within the “slow build, intense middle section, epic climax” framework, the closer is perhaps the most striking piece here for how different it is. “Wicked Game” caps off the record with a lovely barebones piano ballad, completely devoid of the heavy riffs and growls that preceded it – bringing the whole experience to a strangely soothing close.

What really impresses me about Where Gods Fear to Speak is that Oceans of Slumber didn’t outright forget or abandon what made Starlight and Ash so special. Instead, this outing inherits its best qualities and meshes them near-perfectly with the group’s tried-and-true sound. As a result, they’ve crafted a wonderful slab of progressive doom metal that puts intricate songwriting, stellar performances, compelling soundscapes, and crushing riffs on equal footing with each other. Where Gods Fear to Speak truly stands alongside The Banished Heart as one of Oceans of Slumber’s finest accomplishments to date.

Necrotica Of all the major bands who mix progressive metal and power metal, Evergrey have had one of the cleanest 50/50 ratios of the two. Sure, you can label Symphony X power/prog, but they clearly lean on the prog metal side; hence all the comparisons to bands like Dream Theater. On the other hand, groups like Blind Guardian and Kamelot – while having prog hallmarks like weird time signatures and elaborate arrangements – are still power metal at their core. But Evergrey? They meld the genres together in a near-seamless way, which is crucial to the atmosphere and aesthetics they’re going for. It allows them to explore a sound that’s equal parts propulsive and tragic; anthemic and haunting; upbeat and pensive.

Let’s take their most celebrated record for example. 2001’s In Search of Truth is a glorious marriage of complex songcraft, a haunting atmosphere, dramatic vocals, and a little dash of power metal cheese; the final result is one of the most compelling metal records of the 2000s. And frankly, that power/prog mix was a big reason that it worked so well. After all, how else could the band explore an outlandish concept (alien abductions), while exhibiting such an impressive sense of drama and mystery? For that last part, you can also thank frontman Tom S. Englund. The guy can read the damn phone book and make it interesting, as he’s adept at treating any subject with just the right level of grace and contemplation. And as Evergrey have soldiered on, Englund has applied this talent to a wide range of topics – be it religion, child abuse, personal strife, or cults.

The group’s newest offering Theories of Emptiness is largely a continuation of their trademark sound, but there are some notable tweaks to the formula this time around. The first change might not be immediately evident on opener “Falling from the Sun”, as this track is your quintessential Evergrey scorcher – rapid-fire chugs, anthemic chorus, impressive guitar wizardry, all that good stuff. But the second tune, “Misfortune”, reveals the record’s most standout feature: the fact that it sounds fucking huge. Much of this is attributed to the vastly improved production, which allows for a more spacious and panoramic take on the band’s sound. As the chasmic riffs of “Misfortune” lumber on, you can hear every little intricacy around you: the orchestral backdrop, the twinkling keyboard melodies in the verses, the subtly shifting bass lines, everything.

This larger-than-life approach applies to much of the tracklist, whether we’re talking about the sweeping gothic choruses of “Cold Dreams” (featuring Jonas Renkse of Katatonia fame!) or the soaring guitar harmonies of “One Heart”. But this isn’t to say the band watered down their sound in the process – the “Imagine Dragons-ification”, if you will. Instead Theories of Emptiness simply introduces a few new twists to their tried-and-true style. And while this is a decidedly less intense and heavy record than we might be used to from Evergrey, the moments in which they do exhibit that energy are as effective as ever. Take “We Are the North”, for instance: atmosphere and aggression collide, as the cinematic keys provide a backdrop for a series of off-kilter Meshuggah-esque chugs. Meanwhile, “Say” locks into an incredible midtempo groove for its main riff, which is equal parts heavy and catchy.

The other shift found on Theories of Emptiness is in the lyrical content – which is to say that it’s a bit more obtuse this time around. Much like The Fall of Hearts by the aforementioned Katatonia, this offering opts for a more abstract take on Evergrey’s usual topics. But it still effectively communicates the same feelings of melancholy, despair, and – of course – emptiness. The album title is pretty apt, as each song seems to explore the concept of emptiness in its own unique way. “Falling From the Sun” sets the stage for this quite nicely, as it details the age-old fight against one’s own darkness and desolation. From there, we get themes of identity (“To Become Someone Else”), personal loss (“Ghost of My Hero”), and general hopelessness (“Cold Dreams”), before wrapping everything up with the closing title track. The lyrics will certainly not be for everyone, as they tend to be very bleak and somber; still, I can’t deny that they’re compelling all the same.

Despite the changes I mentioned, this is still an Evergrey album at the end of the day. It retains the group’s core power/prog sound – albeit slower and more atmospheric this time around – and delivers the same dark, brooding energy they’ve given us for decades now. Theories of Emptiness doesn’t quite reinvent the wheel, but at this point in their career, I don’t think the band are striving for a radical reinvention anyway. This is just an incredibly solid slab of melodic metal, delivered with the band’s signature technical prowess and haunting vibes. Or in other words, another worthy entry in the vast Evergrey canon.

UMUR "Every Bridge Burning" is the fourth full-length studio album by US, California based hardcore/powerviolence act Nails. The album was released through Nuclear Blast Entertainment in August 2024. It´s the successor to "You Will Never Be One of Us" from 2016 and there´s been an almost complete lineup change since the predecessor as only guitarist/lead vocalist Todd Jones remains from the lineup who recorded "You Will Never Be One of Us". New in the lineup are Andrew Solis (bass), Carlos Cruz (drums), and Shelby Lermo (guitars).

Stylistically Nails play a hardcore style with both influences from grindcore, crust punk, and sludge. It´s punchy and in our face music, loaded with caustic aggression and raw power. Jones has a shouting/screaming angry vocal style, which suits the music well. Featuring only 10 tracks and a 17:44 minutes long playing time, Nails haven´t made a long album, but it´s fully in line with album lengths of their previous releases, so this is what the seasoned listener expects. What is most noteworthy when keeping in mind that "Every Bridge Burning" is a very short album release, is how many different influences and varition Nails are able to pack into their otherwise one-dimensionally raw and aggressive music style. It´s always been one of their greatest assets, that you´re never bored when listening to their albums, as they always include something new or some little detail, that you didn´t expect (I was for example plesantly surprised by the few times guitar solos appeared). It´s not exactly progressive music, but the point is that Nails arguably put a lot of thought into their pretty extreme take on hardcore.

"Every Bridge Burning" features a raw, distorted, and considering their status on the scene, a relatively unpolished sound production, which suits the materal well. Nails understand that this type of music can´t be presented in a clear and polished sound production without losing integrity and authenticity. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

Kev Rowland The full title of this album is ‘British Disaster! The Battle of ’89 Live At The Astoria’, from which one might guess this is a live recording from 35 years ago when the band were promoting their third album, ‘Fabulous Disaster’. They may have lost Kirk Hammett to Metallica before their debut album, but they never let that small matter get in the way of them making huge waves in the thrash scene and by the time of this recording they had already been playing for a decade, and it shows. This is hungry, angry and in your face, showing exactly why thrash made such a huge impact when it hit.

Back then the line-up was Steve Souza (vocals), Gary Holt (guitars), founder Tom Hunting (drums), Rick Hunolt (guitars), and Rob McKillop (bass), and it really says something about the band that the first three can still be found in the current version of the band. They have obviously given the title they have as it was recorded in London on March 8th, 1989, and they were touring ‘Fabulous Disaster’, but this is certainly not what one might think given the title as this is a triumph from beginning to end. Here we have a thrash band who have often been touted as one of the ‘Big 5’ alongside Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax and there is a strong argument for them to be included as such given the impact and importance of what they were doing in the Eighties (and given that Metallica have done nothing of note since ‘And Justice For All’ I would personally happily kick them out altogether). Here we have a band who are out to attack the UK on the last night of their headlining tour (supported by Acid Reign), before heading back to the USA to open for Anthrax, and the 20+ gigs in just over a month had the band incredibly honed and battle ready.

Thrash rarely gets better than this, and one can only wonder as to why it has taken so long for the tapes to be released, but at long last we have them. If you ever wondered what Exodus sounded like in their heyday and why they are still deemed to be so important then put this on and crank it up, LOUD!

Kev Rowland Riot were a band who appeared in many ways to get more praise in the UK than they did in their home of New York, with both ‘Rock City’ and ‘Narita’ gaining lots of praise during the NWOBHM era although their sound was quite different. It was always Mark Reale’s band, and after his death in 2012 the question was whether or not to continue, but continue they did with a slight change to the name, and this is the third release with the same line-up of Todd Michael Hall (vocals), Nick Lee (guitars), Mike Flyntz (guitars), Don Van Stavern (bass), and Frank Gilchriest (drums). There may not be any original members left but both Stavern and Flyntz originally joined in the Eighties while Gilchrist was there more than 20 years ago, so while none played on the classics, they have every right to use the name.

This is American commercial metal with high vocals, some harmonies, all played in a style where the bottom end seems almost transparent and it all feels very Eighties, as if Bon Jovi had never really gone away. But you know what? I always enjoyed this style of music and felt the likes of Poison, WASP and the rest had far more musical chops than they were often given credit for, and these guys can trace their beginnings back to 1975 and a debut in 1977. There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that Riot deserved to be huge, and the reason that never happened was out of their control. In fact, Classic Rock wrote a great piece on them a few years ago which started with “In the late 70s, Riot were the Great White Hopes of American rock. But that was before the public ignored them, their label disowned them, and their singer quit. And then things got really bad…”.

Given what they have been through, there is no way Riot (V) should be here all those years later producing something which is a modern American hard rock/metal classic which brings back the days when they were young and hopeful, but they have. This is a superb release which made me smile the first time I played it, the grin getting wider with each song. This could well be their best release since ‘Fire Down Under’ more than 40 years ago, and that is saying something. Essential.

Kev Rowland Pathology are back with their twelfth studio album, and their third with the same line-up of Dave Astor (drums), Daniel Richardson (guitars), Richard Jackson (bass) and Obie Flett (vocals). Astor is the only person who has been there since the beginning and is also known for being a founder of Cattle Decapitation in the Nineties (where he provided bass and vocals). Since their inception in 2006, Pathology have created quite a name for themselves in the brutal death genre, and I was certainly a fan of their last album, ‘The Everlasting Plague’, and it is great to see just how strong this outfit have become since Astor undertook a reset in 2018 when he invited Flett back into the fold (he had briefly been in the band in 2010) along with two new members.

This release was designed, recorded and mixed at Sharkbite Studios by Zack Ohren (Aborted, All Shall Perish, Decrepit Birth) in June 2023, mastered by Alan Douches at West West Side Music (Origin, Cannibal Corpse, Cattle Decapitation) while the cover artwork is by Pär Olofsson (Exodus, Abysmal Dawn, Immolation), so even before putting this on there is a certain level of expectation. I am glad to say that is reached with a death metal release which is both pummelling and complex. The drums are everywhere, while the guitars are hugely complicated, providing both chords and runs in an intertwining pattern which is somehow melodic and massively over the top at the same time, with the bass switching between backing up the guitars and going into foundation mode. Then at the front we have the growls of Flett who appears to be at risk of losing his lungs at any moment. Given who was involved, it is no surprise that the sound is top quality, the result being an album which really rewards being played at high volume – there is a depth within which makes this powerful and easy to listen to, without ever remotely falling into anything like easy listening.

Over the years there has been a significant output from these guys (Astor’s old band, Cattle Decapitation, has released half the number of albums in the same period), yet there is no doubt that there is no reduction in quality as this is a blast from beginning to end.

siLLy puPPy Very few bands and artists thrill me to the point that i actually truly look forward to a new release but there are a few top dogs in my world that still give me that giddy euphoria that i felt as a teen utterly mesmerized by the majesty of their musical output. NILE is one of those top dogs and to my ears has never released a substandard album in its entire career although some albums are clearly stronger than others. This is a band that stridently strives for quality over sheer numbers so when i got word that a new release was hitting the scene in 2024, well, i just got the musical version of NILE fever! It’s been five years since “Vile Nilotic Rites,” which i personally loved but apparently didn’t quite resonate with the rest of the fanbase as strongly. The band’s newest attack of the senses comes from the pummelation overload of its tenth album THE UNDERWORLD AWAITS US ALL which adds a new member to the previous album’s quartet status. Guitarist Zach Jeter of lesser known bands like Doomsday Revival, Imperium, Lecherous Nocturne and Olkoth joins the team adding a whole new level of bombast to the team’s treacherous crocodile filled stream of sound.

The band is death metal royalty at this point in their career and has pretty much been so for well over two decades ago but like a handful of bands such as Enslaved, Incantation, Moonsorrow and Esoteric just to name a few seems to never run out of inspiration and a passion for delivering the highest caliber of metal in its retrospective field and even though NILE may dip a bit in overall quality from album to album, to my ears it’s always above average with an endless cornucopia of creativity sweeping the undercurrents of every brutally delivered guitar riff, bantering bass groove and guttural growl. Once again the band returns with what many are deeming the band’s best album in years however i find it simply to be yet another top notch feather in a well decorated cap. With the extra heft of a second guitarist, THE UNDERWORLD AWAITS US ALL unleashes a ridiculously full sound effect with dueling galloping guitar gymnastics and a frenetic beastly warlike percussive drive that has propelled George Kollias to the top of the heap for technical drummers in the modern world.

The album features 11 tracks that add up to about 53 1/2 minutes with the usual NILE characteristics of nerdy technically infused gnarled rhythms whizzing by like a blitzkrieg in Cairo with the occasional breaks into traditional Egyptian musical scales downtuned into an acoustic melancholy. To the uninitiated an incessant form of headache music that sounds like every other death metal migraine but to the fully indoctrinated into the cult of NILE, a massive upgrade in technique and expansiveness as the first five member album to appear since 2000’s “Black Seeds Of Vengeance.” The results is an even greater amplification of the sheer brutality the band has delivered since the beginning coupled with knotty labyrinthine riffing excursions and a slightly warped sense of reality through bizarre syncopated techniques and an unwavering weaving of a cross-section of contrapuntal anomalies. What sounds a bit new to my eras is that two guest vocalists add a bit of backing support from time to time which ushers NILE into the world of vocal harmonies albeit unpredictable where they will emerge and rather fleeting once they appear like a desert mirage.

Like every NILE release, the musicianship is top tier with razor-sharp guitar gymnastics leading the way supported by the most robust beefy bass bantering and technical drumming wizardry the world of technical death metal has to offer. Likewise Karl Sanders’ vocal growls sound as poignant as ever with the piercing precision of a hanged man delivering his last noose-necked utterances. The incessant flow is relentless which will please all the speed freaks out there who lament the fact bands like Ulcerate have slowed their frenetic death metal delivery system to a doomy dirge and other bands such as Gojira or Behemoth have ventured into the more commercial viabilities of catchy alternative metal based song structures. NILE remains true to its craft with an incessant dedication to the chaotic flow that it has always unleashed with a furor and even some 25 years after its earliest recordings still shows no signs of letting its foot off the gas.

While cries of treading water may come from many who find such rampaging attacks to be overweening and taxing on the ears, it should be remembered that such woes of despair emerge from those who can only handle death metal lite in all its watered down variations and that NILE is reserved for those who want their death metal to deliver the deathly goods without having to sweeten their caffeinated beverage into a trendy latte version of its former glory. I for one admire a band like NILE that forges ahead into the future fearlessly adhering to its Egyptian themed metal mania without compromising its basic principles of keeping death metal brutal and as friggin ugly and mangled as is possible. As with all NILE releases, the differences between the albums lie in the subtleties which for some may take a few spins to discern but to my ears this album is clearly different than what came before not just by the quintet status which gives the band a fuller more dynamic spectrum of sound but also in the musical motifs, clever cadences and use of clean vocal harmonies to add a touch of contrast. Pretty much every NILE is a winner in my book and this one is no better or worse than the majority of its canon. Simply another pleasing journey into the best of what brutal technical death metal has to offer and NILE is always a band that delivers.

Kev Rowland This is the 12th studio album from Finnish folk metal band Korpiklaani, or the 15th since Jonne Järvelä started on the musical journey which has seen a few name changes and a move from pure folk into folk metal. Given that my love of folk music is probably equal to my love of metal, this genre should be a match made in heaven for me, but while folk rock bands such as Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span have always managed to get the balance right, most bands in the folk metal genre somehow come across sounding a little twee and if they are playing at it as opposed to meaning it. Consequently, I have never been as much of a fan of this band as one might imagine, and when I saw this album had been released I was not exactly looking forward to it.

That changed as soon as I started listening to it, as I found that opening track "Kotomaa" grabbed my attention because it was as if The Levellers were being taken into a heavier direction. The metal was heavy, and both the accordion and violin felt like they totally belonged as opposed to being add-ons to the core sound. Comparing the line-up on this release to 2021’s ‘Jylhä’ one notes there has been just one change with violinist Olli Vänskä joining Jonne Järvelä (vocals, guitar), Kalle "Cane" Savijärvi (guitar), Jarkko Aaltonen (bass), Samuli Mikkonen (drums) and Sami Perttula (accordion), but musically we now have a band which are firing on every cylinder and the result is an album which to my ears is easily the best and most consistent they have released to date. The more I worked through the album I was amazed at how instead of having an album which I found jarring every now and then felt as if every part has been crafted together and it could not be imagined to have one without the other. There is a power here where the metal guitars and drums are enhanced by the folk meters and the use of violin and accordion as key soloists, yet they also provide some wonderful melodic harmonies when required. This means we can get a guitar/violin duel, with the accordion providing the riffs, or the six-strings competing against the four for dominance, and it is all vital and incredibly dynamic.

When I reviewed their last album I said it was a step in the wrong direction, but somehow they have totally changed course and instead have released an album which is essential and a highlight of the genre.

siLLy puPPy While symphonic death metal hasn’t exactly cornered the market in one of extreme metal’s most popular subgenres, a few bands have managed to rise to the top of the death metal game and deliver some of the most brutal technically challenging death metal chops accompanied by the most unlikely accompaniments of symphonic classical arrangements. One of the biggest of the lot, FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE has been at it for nearly two decades and has consistently delivered some of the most demanding death metal there is to be experienced however like many bands that get stuck into a rut, even this band has been pretty much running off the template set out as far back as 2009 with its debut “Oracles” and has been pretty much cranking out variations of that general theme ever since.

Well nothing like a near death experience to shake things up a little bit and after the band’s 2019 release “Veneno,” band leader and bassist / vocalist Francesco Paoli suffered an extreme mountain climbing accident that nearly snuffed him out like a candle in a category 5 hurricane. Emerging five years later, the band returns with its sixth album OPERA which upon first glance of the dubious title makes you wonder if they’ve gone full on Therion and abandoned their brutal death metal familiarity for some kind of modern rendition of Jacopo Peri. Well after experiencing FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE’s latest offering, i’m relieved that it’s not the case at all and that the band has indeed delivered another crazy adrenaline fueled dose of quality death metal but not without some substantial changes.

With the same lineup as “Veneno” with the exception of bassist Paolo Rossi who has been replaced by, well who knows actually since no bassist is credited but i’d bet Francesco Paoli most likely delivered the goods. However drummer Eugene Ryabchenko joins the team as the latest percussive monstrosity that pummels your senses away for the album’s 43 minute plus run. Superficially OPERA retains all the classic FLESHGOD GOD hallmarks that make this band stand out even amongst the symphonic death metal niche’s competition however changes have occurred. Firstly this album has lost a lot of the overt complexity and progressive nature which has kept this band at arm’s length of the general death metal fanbase simply by crafting musical compositions so twisted and technical that only the most devoted can make heads or tails of the band’s modus operandi.

In effect, FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE has opted for a more accessible even poppier sound that is more akin to albums like “Communion” from Septicflesh rather than the inaccessible torturous realms of Gorguts or Death. With a greater role laid out for soprano vocalist Veronica Bordacchini, OPERA takes on a more melodic approach at times sounding a bit like Nightwish or Epica with a few neoclassical nods to bands like Angra or Luca Turilli’s Rhapsody Of Fire. Likewise not every track is a ballbuster blastbeat laden speedfest but offers a bit of slower downtime with tracks like “Matricide” escaping death metal altogether and entering something more akin to Therion’s symphonic metal approach on classic albums like “Theli.”

While the album’s balancing of past brutal death metal glories and the more accessible sounds of more streamlined melodic compositions works quite nicely, unfortunately the band ends the album with its first veritable ballad in the form of “Till Death Do Us Part” which features a saccharin piano based performance with Bordacchini in the forefront. While her vocals are suitable for the task at hand, the track itself reeks of a push for overt commercial glories and is the death metal equivalent of an AOR crossover moment. The short title track that follows basically continues in instrumental form but together add a rather underwhelming weak moment to an otherwise satisfying album’s run.

While i personally prefer the uncompromising brutality and proggy technical excesses of yore, i am also a fan of melodic extreme metal and i have to say that FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE has taken a leap of faith into this new realm and crafted a nice chunky slab of melodic symphonic death metal. Fans of Septicflesh, Aephanemer and Brymir will appreciate this the most but those who crave a bit more brutal type of Nightwish or Epica will find lots to love here as well. A new beginning for the new FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE where the album delivers a more accessible range of melodic touches without sacrificing its sheer audacious death metal bombast. Only the last two tracks drag this one down for me but i have to say that i was surprised that this band that has evaded melody like the plague has done a great job in tackling a completely new aspect of its symphonic death metal possibilities. Oh and supposedly this OPERA has a theme and all that but whatever!

Kev Rowland There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that Darkthrone are one of the most important bands to ever come out of the black metal scene, and their early albums are triumphs from beginning to end. Fenriz and Nocturno Culto have followed their own path for many years now, forsaking the need to play live or use external musicians and instead wrap themselves into their own world. This is their twentieth studio album, and their seventeenth in the thirty years since the departure of Zephyrous left them as a duo. It is also their fourth in just five years, and while they were renowned in their early years of being able to have a very high output with no loss of quality, one wonders if the same can now be said all these years later.

This is not a bad album, far from it, but it is also not a great album either and one cannot help but wonder if the kudos being heaped upon it is due more to the name on the front cover than the music contained within. To my ears the sound is just too clean, and while there are black metal influences here and there, we also get plenty of doom and also some power metal, all of which comes across as somewhat boring and tedious. There is an impression at times (take “Black Dawn Affiliation” for example) where it feels the band are marking time while trying to work out what to do next. The use of clean vocals care of Fenriz also just do not tie in well with what Nocturno is providing, and I found myself getting quite confused as to what the Norwegians are trying to achieve. True, they have brought in many differing metal styles over the years, but this album feels almost as if ideas are being thrown onto a wall to see what sticks best. The result is something which is enjoyable while it is being played but there is little here to make me want to play it again.

adg211288 You Can't Improve Perfection...

...But You Can Do It Justice.

Blind Guardian re-recording Somewhere Far Beyond, one of their best and most beloved of albums that was originally released in 1992, has to be one of, if not THE most pointless of exercises that any metal band could set-out to undertake. The original album already has a remastered version done in 2007 and it still sounds as good as it ever did in 2024.

I get that the Revisited version of Somewhere Far Beyond is to be treated as something of a (slightly belated) 30th anniversary celebration but that is perhaps something better celebrated with the accompanying live version that is a full performance of the album. That has been released separately as a digital download otherwise it is found on disc in the boxset version along with a blu-ray of the same performance (Rock Hard Festival 2022) and one other (Hellfest Festival 2022). But there feels little reason to buy the Revisited album itself if you already own a copy of Somewhere Far Beyond. The original is power metal perfection. A new version just cannot compare.

But at the end of the day it is still Somewhere Far Beyond, one of the greatest power metal albums anyone ever made and giving it anything less than the full five stars would be mean-spirited. It's actually a cracking performance from a band who are more than three decades older and a couple of line-up changes down the line. They do it justice. There is a moment here and there where the ears pick up and something doesn't feel quite right but a lot of the time it can be forgotten that you're listening to a re-recording. The heaviness of the original hasn't been sacrificed. The production hasn't been too over polished in a modern way. Hansi Kürsch still sounds absolutely incredible, but hey, we knew that from their continued work including their last album The God Machine.

Is it worth owning? If for some reason you can't get your hands on a copy of the original album then absolutely. Definitely if you want the live stuff on disc and not just a download and doubly so if you want the blu-ray, which I think has to surely be the biggest draw the more expensive triple disc package. But I can't lie, I can't see myself personally choosing to listen to it over the original. Somewhere Far Beyond is one of my most played albums of all time. It ranks second on my Last.fm account where Blind Guardian is my most played band overall. To start listening to a new version more than it now would almost feel like some sort of betrayal. Not that Blind Guardian has betrayed their legacy by remaking it, but on a very personal level, for me, it would feel that way. Maybe other fans will get what I mean.

Kev Rowland I must confess to have never seen an album so universally slammed as this one, and while I do understand where the reviewers are coming from, I do believe it has been somewhat over the top. Encyclopaedia Metallum has had 11 reviews for this album, average rating 0%. I had to go and look at the individual reviews to check there wasn’t an error as seeing a score like this was new to me, but yes, that is what people are saying. But why such horror at this? Firstly, for those who do not know the history of the band, they were formed all the way back in 1986 and their first two albums are very highly regarded indeed. They then broke up in 1994, with guitarist/vocalist Patrick Mameli reforming the band in 2006. The current line-up includes Michiel van der Plicht (drums), Rutger van Noordenburg (guitar) and Joost van der Graaf (bass), with the longest serving being Rutger who joined in 2019. Mameli decided it would be a good idea to re-record the band’s “greatest hits” with the current line-up.

The main issue here, and the most obvious one, is that of production, particularly with the bass which sounds as if it belongs on another album altogether given how clean it is. Mind you, the none of the other instruments hang together as they should either, with the result being a feeling that everything was recorded separately and with a major argument going on as to which instruments should be up in the mix, so none of them are. Add to that the vocals which are not as threatening or powering as they should be, and the inclusion of some songs from their latest album (which featured the same line-up) one has to wonder what was really the point?

This is death/thrash which is not nearly as bad as some would want you to believe, but with only two other studio albums in more than a decade one must wonder if these guys are running out of steam. If you want to hear Pestilence at their best that probably seek out ‘Mallevs Maleficarvm’ or ‘Consvming Impvlse’ as this is not really a true representation of them or their music.

Kev Rowland It has been way too long since I heard Myrath, as the last album of theirs I reviewed was 2011’s ‘Tale of the Sands’ and there have been two more since, but at least I now have ‘Karma’ which is a blast of joy from the first note to the last. It is said that when the guys signed to Brennus to release ‘Hope’ back in 2007 they were the first band ever from Tunisia to be signed to an international label. I don’t know how true that is, but I certainly can’t think of any other bands from there (a quick check of PA’s charts for top albums from Tunisia finds them the only band listed). The only true description of their music is prog metal, but they have been through different styles and influences over the years and here we find them quite removed from their more folk influence norms, but they still find room for Middle Eastern touches here and there, plenty of orchestration and loads of polish. Guitarist Malek Ben Arbia has been at the helm for more than 20 years, founding the band originally under the name XTAZY (who released a demo in 2005), while bassist Anis Jouini played on the debut album, which was produced by Kévin Codfert. The following year they gained a new singer in Zaher Zorgati while drummer Morgan Berthet finalised the current line-up in 2011. However, before they started recording this album they lost keyboard player Elyes Bouchoucha, who originally joined XTAZY back in 2003 and had played on every release, but they found a guest replacement in Codfert. What this means is that since they became Myrath and a full recording unit they have had pretty a stable line-up, and that shows.

My only complaint with this is not in the songs, which are packed full of hooks, or the vocals (which are sublime) or any of the musicianship (which is superb) or even the use of strings to emphasise the Middle Eastern roots, but with the production. This has been polished within an inch of its life, and possibly more so, which means it is just too sweet and leaves something of an aftertaste in the mouth. It is still an excellent album, but if the production had been pared back and been less (dare I say it) American, then this would probably have been essential. It is an album which dares the listener to turn up really loud and join in, letting the music swirl as the beat and groove gets everybody dancing, but I just wish it was a little rawer and rougher around the edges.

What I do know is that it has been way too long for me to miss out on Myrath who are Angra taken in a different direction, and like the Brazilians are certainly worth discovering.

UMUR "WBRRR" is the seventh full-length studio album by Finnish black metal/dark ambient music act Beherit. The album was released through World Breaking Records in 2023. It´s the successor to "Bardo Exist" from November 2020. Nuclear Holocausto Vengeance continues to operate Beherit as a one-man act this time changing his name back to Nuclear Holocausto Vengeance (he worked under the NHV Beherit pseudonym on "Bardo Exist"). "WBRRR" was instead originally released under the NHV Beherit monicker, but it is widely considered part of the Beherit discography.

Stylistically the material on "WBRRR" contineus the dark and droning ambient music style of "Bardo Exist". So at least at this point the black metal of Beherit´s comeback album "Engram" from April 2009 is gone from Beherit´s music. It´s not unusual for Beherit to change style between releases, as their raw and savage early 90s black metal demo and EP releases were followed-up by an atmosperic black/doom metal style on their November 1993 debut full-length studio album "Drawing Down the Moon", and then two dark ambient music albums in "H418ov21.C" (1994) and the "Electric Doom Synthesis" (1996). So the music style on "WBRRR" is not a surprise, but compared to "Bardo Exist" I think it´s a slightly less interesting release. The more dominant emphasis on noisy and eerie dronescapes instead of the sci-fi ambience of "Bardo Exist" is not a good choice to my ears. it´s makes for a harsh and uninviting listen, and although that aestethic actually works well within the black metal parameters Beherit worked with in the early 90s, where they also produced some pretty raw, savage and uninviting music, the slightly more accessible "Bardo Exist" is just a more varied and intereresting release.

"WBRRR" is an album for those who can stomach a full album of noise and drone sounds. It´s well produced and if you look at it from that angle, it´s a good quality release. It´s just such a hard listen and not pleasant on the ears one bit, and it´s extremely difficult to sit through in one go. A 2 star (40%) rating is warranted.

UMUR "Toxic Grace" is the fourth full-length studio album by US, California based thrash metal act Evildead. The album was released through Steamhammer in May 2024. It´s the successor to "United States of Anarchy" from October 2020, which was Evildead´s comeback after reuniting a second time in 2016. Evildead formed in 1987 and released an EP and two full-length studio albums before disbanding in 1995. They had a reunion in 2008 which lasted until 2012 before disbanding again (this period spawned only one recording from the band in the 2011 "Blasphemy Divine" single). The quintet lineup who recorded "United States of Anarchy" is intact on "Toxic Grace".

The material featured on the ten tracks, 40:39 minutes long album is a continuation of the classic US thrash metal sound of the direct predecessor, performed by seasoned scene veterans. If I should make a direct comparison to another contemporary act it would be Death Angel, but Evildead are generally a bit harder edged. But it´s in that ballpark Evildead operate. To my ears the sound production is a bit sterile this time around and especially the drums feature a flat and clicky sound, which doesn´t suit the otherwise powerful music, but other than that "Toxic Grace" is a well produced release, featuring both sharp and powerful sounding guitar riffs, blistering leads, and raw thrash metal vocals.

Other than the cover of "The Death & Resurrection Show 2024" by Killing Joke, Evildead won´t surprise longtime fans with the material featured on "Toxic Grace". It´s solid US thrash metal (both fast-paced and mid-paced) with nods towards traditional heavy metal and it´s ultimately relatively formulaic. That doesn´t mean it´s bad...far from it. It just doesn´t step outside the boundaries of the genre. This is good quality US thrash metal and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "Schizophrenia" is a full-length studio album release by Brazilian death/thrash metal act Cavalera. The album was released through Nuclear Blast in June 2024. It´s a full re-recording of Sepultura´s October 1987 sophomore full-length studio album "Schizophrenia" plus the new original track "Nightmares of Delirium", which closes the album. Normally when the Cavalera brothers work together, they work under the Cavalera Conspiracy monicker (who have released four full-length studio albums), but they opted to release a re-recorded version of Sepultura´s November 1986 "Morbid Visions" debut full-length studio album in July 2023 under the shortened Cavalera name. The Cavalera brothers also re-recorded Sepultura´s December 1985 "Bestial Devastation" EP (or more correctly Sepultura´s part of the "Bestial Devastation / Século XX" split with Overdose). The re-recorded EP was released on the same day the the re-recorded "Morbid Visions" album. Apparently they were so satisfied with the re-recording process that they have now also opted to re-record "Schizophrenia".

The early Sepultura recordings were raw, savage, and unpolished, which are usually descriptors I would praise, but in the case of the early Sepultura recordings I always felt that something was missing, so I´m one of those who think it´s a pretty good idea to release these re-recordings (and I´m usually very much in opposition when artists do re-recordings of full releases). In the case of "Schizophrenia" it´s interesting suddenly to be able to hear all the details of the riffs and drumming, which were buried in the original mess of a sound production. The Cavalera brothers have however not destroyed the album by packing it in a polished and overproduced sound production. They have respect for the original recording, so this is still a pretty raw and hard hitting sound.

"Schizophrenia" features several powerful, fast-paced, and technically well played thrash metal tracks, and it becomes more obvious when listening to the re-recorded version of the album, that Sepultura were actually closer to the sound they would achieve on "Beneath the Remains" (1989), than what the original recording revealed. Upon conclusion this re-recording of "Schizophrenia" will divide the waters as all re-recordings do, but as written above I´m pretty satisfied with the result, and I think a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

siLLy puPPy Venezuelan guitarist FELIX MARTIN has been on the technical guitar music scene for almost 15 years now and still remains quite unique with his self-designed 12, 14 and 16-string guitars that he has perfected the art of finger tapping on. After studying at the Berklee School of Music in Boston and relocating to Los Angeles, MARTIN has been touring with other guitar wizards ranging from Bumblefoot (with Sons of Apollo) and Marty Friedman to Tony MacAlpine across the world. MARTIN has delivered a steady stream of nerdy instrumental albums since his debut “Bizarre Rejection” in 2010 and currently in 2024 he has released his latest power trio assault THE GATHERING.

For a guitar virtuoso MARTIN plays it cool and on the 10 tracks featured on THE GATHERING he definitely showcases his two-handed double-neck guitar tapping approaches with his collection of multi-stringed guitars and accompanying 10-strong basses but he integrates inspiration derived from progressive rock and metal along with medieval music, video game soundtracks, Japanese anime themes and an abundance of jittery math rock time signatures. Unlike other modern guitar gods such as Tosin Abasi who favor djent-fueled guitar heft, MARTIN offers a gentler approach making his music a bit more light and breezy despite the incessant flow of finger-tapping techniques permeating the album’s run.

Add to that MARTIN infuses his Latin musical roots into the mix and the entire album has a bit of the jazz fusion vibe that has been more prevalent on his previous albums. First and foremost MARTIN is dedicated to intriguing melodies and dynamic rhythmic drive with the virtuosity supporting the overarching theme, a trait lost on many virtuosos although that has been changing in the 21st century as gifted guitarists have found new musical avenues to incorporate their shredding skills into. Perhaps the most dynamic feature of MARTIN’s music is the fact that his 16 and 12-string guitars along with the 10-string basses offer a huge palette of sounds and technical possibilities. Add to that MARTIN uses two hands on two necks to craft contrapuntal guitar techniques, some of the most advanced technical wizardry possible.

Each track on the album includes its own artwork of an anime character that represents it as seen on the album cover art. While usually tucked into the world of progressive metal, THE GATHERING is less metallic than previous albums and offers a cleaner less distorted array of tones and timbres. The trio is flawless in its nerdy execution of the string attacks however i find the drummer to be the least interesting of the bunch as he basically only exists to maintain a steady beat with no outbursts of virtuosity in his own right although he doers offer some moments of interest. Even more exhilarating than hearing MARTIN play is to experience the visuals on his videos where you can marvel at the beefy excessively stringed guitars that he and bandmate Joan Torres double tap with amazing grace and ease.

Overall this like any MARTIN release is impressive on a technical level and even competent as far as painting interesting melodic developments and balancing the elements involved however even with all the attention focused on the songwriting with the finger tapping a secondary process, the album still comes off as a bit one-dimensional as the tracks don’t vary significantly enough from one another and by the time the album nears its final tracks the wow factor has diminished. While MARTIN has learned the discipline of toning things down and honing his skills into a greater sum of the parts, unfortunately the music isn’t diverse enough to maintain the interest of the listener for an album’s run but the craftsmanship is rather brilliant and the clean tones and timbres that MARTIN has eked out of his guitar army is quite pleasing indeed. Personally i prefer the faster tracks as the slower ones are a little too pandering to the non-techies but really there’s nothing horrible about this album other than a little monotony at times.

siLLy puPPy Approaching nearly 60 years together as a band, it’s true that only drummer Ian Paice has been with DEEP PURPLE for the band’s entire 56 year existence with other members coming and going over the decades but the band as a commercial entity has sold well over 100 million albums in its amazingly fruitful career not to mention an early innovator of hard rock and heavy metal. It’s hard to believe that these old timers now mostly in their 70s are still cranking out the same hard driving rock that they did in the 1970s but here we are in the year 2024 and band is releasing its 23rd studio album!

After the departure of long term guitarist Steve Morse who played with DEEP PURPLE from 1994-2022, the band sallied forth well into the 2020s with guitarist Simon McBride who has honed his bluesy hard rock skills in bands like Snakecharmer and Sweet Savage. Along with vocalist Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover, DEEP PURPLE is still 3/5 of its classic Mark II lineup and along with keyboardist Don Airey who has been cranking out his meanest organ playing skills 2002, the band is determined to keep going until every last member has taken his last breath.

=1 finds Bob Ezrin back in the producer’s seat who together with all the band members crafted 13 new tracks that evoke the spirit of classic DEEP PURPLE and delivered with a loose concept of the world rapidly becoming more and more complex. After the all cover song album of “Turning To Crime” one could easily assume that DEEP PURPLE was ready to call it quits but the band demonstrates that while not up to its peak as far as energetic performances are concerned, these seasoned veterans still have a knack for writing catchy hard rock tunes that find that perfect mix of boogie rock, bluesy guitar leads and organ bombast accompanied by Ian Gillan’s distinct vocal style which amazingly has held up quite well over the decades.

The album hits the ground running with the album’s opening “Show Me” which finds DEEP PURPLE in fine form for a bunch of guys now well past their prime. What the band lacks in its energetic drive that catapulted classic albums like “In Rock” and “Machine Head” to the top of the charts, the modern DEEP PURPLE rather compensates with emotive performances focused more on the melodic touches and the crafty soulful rendering of their classic sound brought to a new era. Unfortunately some of these slowed down versions of classic DEEP PURPLE are a little on the mopey side with the track “I’ll Catch You” falling into the dreaded AOR turf, something classic DEEP PURPLE never would’ve approached!

Overall this isn’t a bad batch of tracks by one of the most famous rock bands ever to have existed but it’s also a reminder that these guys’ best days are well behind them and now they are simply doing what they love in order to keep the old adage “use it or lose it” alive and well. DEEP PURPLE has definitely been a lot more interesting since 2013’s “Now What?” and in that regard the band continues to craft instantly catchy tracks that will appeal to any long time fans of classic PURPLE. While it’s hard to fault this album in any particular way it is hard not to compare them to their glory days when the combo pack attack of Jon Lord’s classically infused organ runs with Ritchie Blackmore’s neoclassical shredding were in full force.

This is a far cry from those days but nevertheless a pleasant slice of the band in its latest formation however it seems that the much younger McBride who is only in his 40s is kept on the leash and not allowed to crank out the serious energetic drive and guitar majesty that would kick this album’s energy level up a few notches with the exception of the excellent “Now You’re Talkin” which takes nine tracks to get to. While not bad, it’s also not going to go down in history as anything that stands out in the band’s canon but rather a testament to the band’s longevity and determination to sally forth no matter what obstacles lie in their path.

UMUR "Between the Worlds of Life and Death" is the third full-length studio album by US, Denver, Colorado based death metal act Vale of Pnath. The album was released through Willowtip Records in May 2024. It´s the successor to "II" from June 2016, although the two full-length studio albums are bridged by the 2019 "Accursed" EP (at 27:32 minutes it´s only 10 minutes shorter than this album, so maybe mini-album is a more correct label than EP). So it´s safe to say that Vale of Pnath haven´t been the most prolific act in terms of output. They´ve been marred by quite a few lineup changes over the years though and of course the COVID-19 epidemic probably didn´t do anything good for them either. On "Between the Worlds of Life and Death", Vale of Pnath work as the trio of Vance Valenzuela (guitars), Ken Sorceron (vocals, guitars, bass), and Gabe Seeber (drums). The latter two are new in the lineup since the release of "Accursed". Other than the performances by the permanent members of the band, "Between the Worlds of Life and Death" also features quite a few guest performances. Mainly a host of guitarists playing solos on the album, but also Wayne Ingram (Wilderun) who is responsible for orchestration on a couple of tracks (the album intro track and an interlude track later on the album), and Kakophonix who performs cello parts.

Stylistically the material on "Between the Worlds of Life and Death" is a continuation of the technically well played death metal style of the previous releases, but the more dominant use of keyboards and the blackened growling provide this particular release with a symphonic black metal element I don´t think I heard on the preceding output by Vale of Pnath. They´ve toned down the technical playing a bit too, and focus more on epic blackened atmospheres, although there are still plenty of technical playing and complex songwriting ideas on the album. At first it may seem a bit odd to have no less than five different guest solo guitarists play on the album, but the solos are generally very well played and provide the music with a couple of blistering virtuosic moments. They are nicely melodic too.

"Between the Worlds of Life and Death" features a powerful, detailed, and professional sounding production job, and it´s overall a well sounding release, featuring a sound production which matches the material. So upon conclusion "Between the Worlds of Life and Death" is another high quality release from Vale of Pnath. I must confess to being a bit confused regarding the band´s symphonic blackened edge, because that´s not at all how they started out in 2011 on their debut full-length studio album "The Prodigal Empire". Vale of Pnath have of course developed since and the "Accursed" EP also included some blackened elements, but with "Between the Worlds of Life and Death" they go pretty much all in in terms of incorporating symphonic black metal elements to their melodic and technically well played death metal style. While this is arguably high quality music, the development of Vale of Pnath´s style does leave me with the impression that they lack a personal style and musical direction, or that they are maybe just still searching for it. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

siLLy puPPy When it comes to insane batshit crazy avant-metal both Colin Marston and Mick Barr have cranked out some of the most unusual sounds that could still be tangibly connected to the metal universe. While their main gig KRALLICE seems to have become their stabilizing tour de force where they can exercise their experimental touches within some sort of traditional framework, this duo along with Lev Weinstein and Nick McMaster have also found a seemingly infinite number of directions to take this fearless intrepid band that lies in the murky bardo world between progressive, black and death metal. While the band took some time off in the 2010s so the members could engage in other projects, the 2020s have proven to be unusually prolific with the band releasing two albums in each year of 2022 and 2023.

Either the first or only album to emerge in 2024 is INORGANIC RITES, the 15th in the long and ever-changing canon of one of extreme metal’s most outrageously original acts of the 21st century. Following in the footsteps of last years disso-death fueled “Mass Cathexis 2 - The Kinetic Infinite” and the progressive space ambient fueled metal of “Porous Resonance Abyss” i wasn’t really sure what to expect but it seems that KRALLICE has opted for another dip into the world of progressively infused extreme metal with a heavy dose of progressive electronic and space ambient sounds to bring two distinct worlds together in a lethal dose of atmospheric metallic furor. With 10 tracks at over 66 minutes playing time, this is a lengthy beast that delivers all the expected trade marks of KRALLICE, namely knotty time signature rich progressive labyrinths of swirling sounds that erupt into black metal chaos as well as the deathened black metal vocal style that projects all the angst and gloomy despair you could hope for.

This time around though there is a LOT more focus on the synthesized parts with lengthy chunks of time dedicated to non-metal electronic space journeys that evoke classic Klaus Schulze and other Berlin School pioneers. While the band has always flaunted an atmospheric presence, on INORGANIC RITES they’ve taken it to the next level with entire tracks such as the 10 minute “Universe Ancestral Talisman” embarking on an astral plane journey complete unshackled from the lambast of blastbeats, tremolo guitar aggression and black metal dissonance. Fortified with trippy space ambient intros and intricately designed synthesized compositions that seem to overlap the metal constructs, INORGANIC RITES much of the time sounds like two separate albums played simultaneously only tailor made to overlap like a custom made sports jacket that fits in all those right places.

A strange and mondo bizarro album like pretty much any KRALLICE release has to offer, INORGANIC RITES takes the band’s progressive metal tendencies into overdrive and then fortifies it all with an almost orchestrated electronic layering effect. The results are electrifying and raising the bar in the limits of atmospheric accompaniments as often they are set so high as to become the dominant force. While the earlier tracks such as the early released “Flatlines Encircled Residue” seem to over-rely on the atmospheric touches as the primary focus, later tracks like “Fatestorm Sancturary” seem to get it right and allow the guitar, bass and percussive heft to rise to the top of the mix. The labyrinthine compositional structures are a bit hard to follow but they do unfold in a logical manner as they take the complexities of classic progressive rock and adapt them to the excesses of obnoxious extreme metal.

While this is considered black metal by some, there are moments where the band sounds more like Gorguts than anything in the black metal world but the vocal styles change it up offering even more diverse elements. While i could totally see the increased emphasis on the symphonic sounding space ambience as being annoying to some, in the crowded world of extreme metal it’s actually rather refreshing to hear something so dynamically different and not to worry extreme metalheads, KRALLICE loses none of its extreme metal intensity with all those brutal riffing sessions, moments of guitar squealing run amok and of course the bantering bass and drum furor. Fifteen albums later and KRALLICE seems like it’s just warming up and INORGANIC RITES shows the band still firing on all pistons.

Kingcrimsonprog V is the fifth full-length studio album by Black Country Communion, the band featuring “the voice of rock” Glen Hughes on bass and vocals, blues superstar Joe Bonamassa on guitar, ex-Dream Theater keyboardist Derick Sherinian and rounded off by Jason Bonham on the drums.

All of the band’s albums have an identifiable signature sound, and this one is no different. Its been seven years since their fourth album, but this album picks up right where they left off. The band do deliver the same kind of shamelessly Led Zep/Deep Purple flavoured hard rock with soulful moments and bluesy touches, but with big, thick, modern sounding production. If you like any of their other records, I can’t really imagine any reason why you wouldn’t lap this one up either.

Highlights include the first three tracks; the energetic opener “Enlighten,” the blatant Trampled-Underfoot evoking single “Stay Free” and perhaps the best song on the whole record, “Red Sun.”

Although, even though I mention highlights, its not like there are any low moments. The album is really solid and consistent, with no dips in quality and no skippable tracks. It may not be the most diverse album, with no real ragers, no ballads (there is a slower song but not quite a ballad), no intros, no epic long tracks, no instrumentals, no changes in musical direction, no experiments – just ten tracks of the band giving you exactly what you want. Some people may find that a bit boring sounding, but when its done this well it is just what the doctor ordered to be honest.

UMUR "Defectum Omnium" is the fourth full-length studio album by US thrash/groove metal act Exhorder. The album was released through Nuclear Blast in March 2024. It´s the successor to "Mourn The Southern Skies" from September 2019. There have been a couple of lineup changes since the predecessor as guitarists Vinnie LaBella and Marzi Montazeri have left. To replace them lead vocalist Kyle Thomas has picked up the guitar in addition to singing, and Pat O'Brien (Cannibal Corpse, Nevermore) has joined as the second guitarist. The split with especially founding member LaBella didn´t go down without some mud-slinging in the press, with LaBella saying that the current incarnation of Exhorder shouldn´t release music under the monicker without him in the lineup, as he was the main composer of the band´s music.

Thomas stepped up to the plate after LaBella left though, and he and his new bandmates (two of which also performed on "Mourn The Southern Skies" and have been with Exhorder since 2017) have managed to compose an album which sounds like Exhorder. Maybe the fact that none of the three predecing album releases featured a similar sound helps, because although you expect Exhorder to produce a heavy and groove laden thrash metal release, they never got to a point in their career of having settled on a sound. You could always hear that it was Exhorder playing but if you compare even the first two albums, which were released only a few years apart, they are very different in style.

Stylistically Exhorder still deliver a groove laden thrash metal style, but with both stoner, hardcore punk, and alternative metal influences. So they´ve spread their wings pretty wide on this one. Thomas has always been a powerful and skilled singer and his vocals are again strong and raw on "Defectum Omnium". The riffs are well written and the whole band deliver a sharp, heavy, and groove laden attack. Another feature which deserves a mention is the many well played guitar solos. Although slightly sterile the sound production is still of a good quality, and I especially enjoy the guitar tone and the vocal production. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

siLLy puPPy HAIL SPIRIT NOIR is a band that never fails to surprise you where it’s going next. These Greek avant-gardeners have consistently thrown curve balls with each and every release beginning with their psychedelically infused black metal debut “Pneuma” back in 2012. It’s only been a mere 12 years since the band made its splash on the world of experimental metal and has since released a total of six albums now that the latest FOSSIL GARDENS has emerged in the summer of 2024. Somehow i totally missed the 2021 “Mannequins” but upon exploration it seems to be one of those bonus albums for true fans that actually care about how a metal band can construct a non-metal electronic album. Personally i find these albums to be hit and miss but occasional can offer some insight into the band’s overall thought process..

A divisive band to say the least HAIL SPIRIT NOIR is either one of those bands that clicks with you or on the contrary totally rubs you the wrong way. As with most intrepid musical explorers that break all the rules and introduce strange chimeras to an established genre that many have settled on a comfort zone within, this band fearlessly steers its craft into strange musical worlds that have hitherto never been aurally integrated into the egregore of the greater black metal fanbase. Nevertheless HAIL SPIRIT NOIR sallies forth into the great unknown and delivers another slice of progressive black metal with a heavy emphasis on symphonic touches. While “Eden In Reverse” eccentrically and eclectically delved into the farthest reaches of space rock infused progressive rock that skimped a bit on the metal, FOSSIL GARDENS makes a retrograde into its roots.

On FOSSIL GARDENS the team has once again reinstated the black metal aspects and given the fans what drew them to its unusual style in the first place albeit encased in a psychedelic haze within a proggy framework. Sounding more like the weirdest experiments of Dodheimsgard than Darkthrone, the black metal returns but in a sort of musical truce kinda way. The album surprisingly starts of with clean vocals and spacey synthesizer ambience which suggests HAIL SPIRIT NOIR has totally gone Ulver on us and abandoned all notions of being a metal band but after a sensual baritone tribute to classic Dead Can Dance, HAIL SPIRIT NOIR unleashes its pent up black metal sensibilities and offers a blastbeat driven and tremolo guitar rampage complete with raspy vocal rage however the atmosphere remains thick and frigid and rather dominant but nevertheless, black metal HAIL SPIRIT NOIR has arisen like a phoenix form the ashes.

The rest of the album follows suit however the black metal isn’t as angsty as the typical second waver. This album finds the metal more in chord stomping mode for much of the time along with those jangly dissonant strumming sessions joining in for contrast’s sake. Guitar sweeps place this squarely into the melodic black metal camp with the eerie ambient backdrops never renouncing their presence for a second. Raspy tirades trade off with haunting clean vocal excursions into surreal spacey soundscapes that keeps the band firmly in the black space metal camp. This is progressive metal after all with the black metal a mere ingredient in the larger picture, a bane to black metal purists while avant-garde experimentalists will rejoice at the band’s audacity to meander through labyrinthine passages that include as much dreamy ambient pop motifs as it does adrenaline outbursts of black metal fury.

For many this one will elude them as it is by no means a conventional album. While slightly less abstract and freakishly alienating as “Eden In Reverse,” FOSSIL GARDENS nevertheless is no return to the black’n’roll bouncy grooves of “Oi Magoi” or “Mayhem In Blue” but rather delivers a veritable dip into progressive rock territory that just happens to incorporate black metal as the evil step-sister that keeps it from falling into complete ambient space rock terrain. As far removed though as FOSSIL GARDENS is from classic “normal” black metal, the contrasts make this a dynamic listening experience much like the world of Ihsahn, Enslaved or other formerly black metal dominated acts that now have successfully hybridized their caustic angst with a more pacifying structured layout that offers a true musical majesty behind all the weirdness. While i prefer the previous “Eden In Reverse,” i have to say that FOSSIL GARDENS doesn’t disappoint at all and rubs me in the right way which makes my tail wag in delight. In other words, NOT what i was expecting but in a good way!

siLLy puPPy Formed in 1999 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and then relocating to Leipzig, Germany, DARKESTRAH has delivered a unique strain of folk-infused black metal that stood out from the very beginning given its unorthodox infusion of Central Asian influences taking the world of Pagan black metal into completely new territory. The band led by drummer Asbath has undergone a ridiculous amount of lineup changes in its quarter century existence yet continues to sally forth like Gengis Khan conquering half of the Eurasian continent. The current year 2024 marks the 20th anniversary of the band’s debut release “Sary Oy” which launched DARKESTRAH onto the world’s stage of inventive black metal bravely reinventing itself in the 21st century from its second wave parent stock and in this calendar year we find the band returning after eight years with its seventh release NOMAD. The band did drop the EP “Chong-Aryk” in 2021.

The band featured the same lineup as 2016’s “Turan” only with newbie Charuk (vocals, percussion) delivers the expected mix of pagan infused black metal with frosty atmospheric backdrops, rasping vocals from beneath the din and the band’s knack for infusing traditional Kyrgyz folk sounds into the fabric of the metallic furor. DARKESTRAH has always delivered lengthy trotting tracks that emulate the procession of transversing the vast mountainous terrain and steppes of Central Asia and in that regard little has changed on NOMAD which continues the expected endless trajectory of lightning fast guitar riffing, blastbeats and moments of clean guitar contrast. The album features seven new tracks with four of them eight minutes or more. Atmospheric intros fueled with Kyrgyz folk melodies strummed on traditional instruments set the mood before the black metal bombast sets in. Throat singing technique yield to demonic black metal extremities. Yep, the DARKESTRAH formula is alive and well after all this time.

“Journey Through The Blue Nothingness” opens the album with the expected non-metal folk sequence before “Kök-Oy” begins the atmospheric black metal journey. After eight years the band is noticeably less vibrant than on past releases with the metal aspects set a bit back below the atmospheric melancholy. Likewise newbie percussionist and vocalist Charuk doesn’t seem as dynamic as former vocalists Merkith and Oldhan. Also noticeably missing are all those interesting contrasts within the tracks with most of them plodding along for their extended periods of time which makes me wonder if DARKESTRAH has finally run out of steam after two decades on the scene. The compositions are noticeably less complex in construct with simple guitar stomps punctuating a frigid atmospheric presence. Likewise the tracks don’t differ from each other as much as i would’ve expected with the title track sounding a bit too close to its predecessor. Dynamics, tempos and contrasts seem to evaporated like a life-giving water source during a drought.

This is a trend i find many long timers picking up lately. Deemphasizing the black metal intensity and setting it behind the atmospheric backdrop which now almost seems like the forefront, a sound that cheapens the overall effect and diminishes the value of the atmospheric contributions in the first place by showcasing how simplistic they are and why they are SUPPOSED to be set back in the mix. Overall DARKESTRAH has delivered a decent new slice of its classic pagan black metal with folk flavors but everything that made the band stand out all these years as been tamped down to a mere trickle and in the end this album comes off as a bit generic and lackluster. Sure the folk elements are weaved into the fabric of the music and the procession of black metal military march processions carry on but any element of surprise is sorely missing. Really the thing that bugs me most about this newest DARKESTRAH release is how the metal has been set back in the mix. It just doesn’t work for me. Add to that a rather by the books delivery of compositions and i’m not feeling the magic that this band once dished out in abundance. Despite that quibble, NOMAD is not a bad release at all even if not to my liking.

Kev Rowland It is strange to realise that Deicide will soon be celebrating their 40th anniversary, being formed back in 1987, with bassist vocalist/Glen Benton and drummer Steve Asheim still around. There have been a few changes in guitarists over the years, but Kevin Quirion has been there on and off since 2007 although there is now a new boy in Taylor Nordberg for what is only their second album since 2013’s ‘In The Minds of Evil’. I am having troubles working out if Deicide have decidedly mellowed since I started listening to them in the early Nineties, or if I just appreciate death metal that much more than I did when I was younger, but this album feels far more mainstream and polished than what I expect from the band. Some of the material feels quite commercial, and if there was a different singer then I am sure the music would be viewed in a quite different light. Mind you, it is hard to think of anyone but Glen at the front of this band, tying his bass in with the pummelling Asheim while still producing the guttural growls we are all so used to.

Part of me thinks Deicide are somewhat going through the same old styles, knowing the fans will enjoy it so they do not have to put too much thought into it (like apparently using AI to generate the cover image which is way too clean), while the rest of me thinks Deicide have found their groove and are continuing to go down the path they helped create all those years ago. It may not be as raw and vital as it once was, but Benton and Asheim are in their fifties now, and most people do change somewhat as they get older, but even though this has a commercial angle and is far smoother than one might expect, it is still incredible heavy and wonderfully brutal. Hopefully the next album won’t take as long as this one, and they can bed Taylor in on the road so they come back even heavier.

UMUR "Mehr Licht" is an EP release by German artist Rainer Landfermann. The EP was independently released in June 2023. It´s the follow-up release to Landfermann´s debut full-length studio album "Mein Wort in deiner Dunkelheit" from June 2019. As there have been no new releases from Pavor (Landfermann´s technical/progressive death metal act) since 2003, it´s not that project he has spend the last four years working on, but there´s of course been the COVID-19 pandemic, which slowed down a lot of artists. My impression of Landfermann is however more that he only releases something when he truly feels for it.

Stylistically the two tracks on the EP pretty much continue the avant-garde black/death metal sound of the preceding album release. So it´s still German language lyrics performed by a psychotic sounding and tortured screaming vocalist, and some very unconventional songwriting, which includes eerie keyboards (but also more uplifting parts, although this is pretty much a shrouded in darkness and pain type of release), fusion influenced bass playing, black/death metal brutality, and an overall high level of technical playing. This is neither better nor worse than the material featured on "Mein Wort in deiner Dunkelheit", but if you enjoyed the album I can highly recommend investigating this EP too. It´s just as weird and eclectic. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

siLLy puPPy New Zealand’s ULCERATE was one of a few intrepid explorative death metal bands to follow in the footsteps of early pioneering disso-death acts such as Immolation and Gorguts and after forming in the year 2000 spawned its own ugly flavoring of unhinged technical death metal run amok replete with all the atonality and discordant excess a human aural system can absorb. The band has delivered a string of consistently high quality albums in its near quarter century existence and in recent years has risen to the top tiers of tech disso-death royalty. After abandoning the incessant brutal bombast of its 2007 debut “Of Fracture And Failure,” the band has taken a more nuanced approach by spicing up the death metal savagery with more expansive atmospheric elegance and also by dipping into other metal realms ranging from sludge metal to darkened elements borrowed from the black metal universe.

After a four year lull since the critically acclaimed “Stare Into Death And Be Still,” ULCERATE is back to inflict the most harrowing gastrointestinal damage with its latest release CUTTING THE THROAT OF GOD. While the title may be pandering to the black metal crowds, i ask myself if an omnipotent creator of the universe exists in a physical form and therefore would God have a throat? Existential quandaries aside, ULCERATE steadily but surely over its seven album run has incrementally refined its unique brand of aggressive disso-death into an art form all its own. This seventh album in the ULCERATE canon takes a deeper dip into the world of atmospheric sludge metal with a wider breadth of stylistic approaches that were hampered by the incessant brutality on previous works that hammered it all out with authoritative ease.

Existing as a stable power trio since the band’s 2009 release “Everything Is Fire,” ULCERATE has become a well-oiled machine where these three musicians have fused into one frightening force and on CUTTING THE THROAT OF GOD showcase the newly established attribute of restraint as heard on the opening nonchalant slow burner approach of “To Flow Through Ashen Hearts” which focuses less on speed and turns up the burner for atmospheric constructs from simmer to fully fueled. By delivering slowed down tempos, the band keeps things firmly planted in the ferocity of the death metal camp by offering exotic guitar riffs delivered by Michael Hoggard, the dissonant bass counterpoints of Paul Kelland and the bantering drumming gymnastics of Jamie Saint Merat. Kelland’s guttural growls have changed little and he ferociously enunciates every sacrilegious syllabic utterance with all the brash bravado that ULCERATE has infused into its technical cauldron of steaming hot disso-death from the beginning.

The album features seven brand spanking new tracks that discordantly reverberate with heavy distortion for nearly 58 minutes of suffocating darkness and despair. While the band’s trajectory has been incrementally slow-paced in its evolution, CUTTING THE THROAT OF GOD is noticeably different than its predecessor in that it feels less rampaging even from the 2020 release “Stare Into Death And Be Still.” The mix is distinguishable as well with more distinct tones and timbres oozing out of the delirious din that advances in tenacious tumult only with a more controlled impulse to leap into frenetic displays of brutal savagery. In fact this is probably the least barbaric sounding of the entire ULCERATE discography although despite the somewhat cooling off effect in terms of unbridled speed and incessant pummelation of the senses, CUTTING THE THROAT OF GOD by no means sounds like a wimpy rendition of a once great band. No way.

This latest discharge of dissonant din is merely shifting around the dynamics a bit and focusing a bit more on atmospheric diversions from the one-trick pony penchants of a larger swath of technical death metal bands out there. Speed freaks worry not for moments of letting the rabid pit bull off the leash do occur. While many are acclaiming this release as the best of the lot, personally i favor the heavier adrenalized speedfests of the past. With no disparaging criticism in the least against this new flavor of ULCERATE’s established sound, it would appear to me that the sudden interest in propelling ULCERATE to the top of the disso-death camp is more a result of the greater metal world finding a nice comfort zone in the more extreme expressions of death metal. To my insatiable ears though this one sounds a bit tame by weeding out the many of the progressive tendencies and ear-splitting bombast of the past in favor of a more streamlined post-metal continuity. While not my ultimate ULCERATE experience, there’s no denying that these guys have mastered the art of this gnarled nasty niche of extreme metal and even with these changes makes CUTTING THE THROAT OF GOD an excellent relevant smattering of modern disso-death.

siLLy puPPy Germany’s VANDEN PLAS was one of the pioneering progressive metal bands forming as far back as 1984 and joining the ranks of Dream Theater, Psychotic Waltz, Mekong Delta and a bunch of others in the 1990s by delivering some of the most cutting edge metal meets prog the decade had to offer. The band has weathered the storms for well over four decades now and even produced four rock operas. VANDEN PLAS’ prog metal creds are undeniable and yet somehow this band has remained just outside of my grasp. Although i’ve heard of them for years and even checked out an album or two, there was just something about them i found off-putting. Well, sometimes it’s unwise to sample the proper nectar before one is ready to glean the benefits and i figured it’s time to once again dip into the musical world of VANDEN PLAS since the band is obviously in no hurry to set up a retirement plan.

Although the band debuted in 1994 with its first release “Colour Temple,” the band has never been in a rush to pump out as much product as possible. The latest album THE EMPYREAN EQUATION OF THE LONG LOST THINGS is the band’s 12th album and it’s absolutely amazing that this band has pretty much kept the same lineup since its 1994 debut. The exception to this long lasting stability was broken when keyboardist Günter Werno departed in 2023 and for the first time VANDEN PLAS had to scout out some new talent to fill his shoes. The band found a suitable replacement with Italian born Alessandro Del Vecchio who has been well seasoned in a number of bands including Alex Beyrodt’s Voodoo Circle, Sunstorm and Silent Force. Given his prog rock / power metal / hard rock creds, a perfect candidate for VANDEN PLAS’ classic prog metal sound that seems to remain firmly planted in the 1990s.

While the world of progressive metal has evolved exponentially since the 90s and branched out into every possible direction conceivable, VANDEN PLAS has retained its ties to the early heavy metal and power metal roots that spawned the more progressive metal variations that emerged in the 1990s. The band features the same style of guitar riffing and accompanying solos, melancholic atmospheres, frenetic keyboard runs, high pitched vocals and the typical melodic and rhythmic drive that made the earliest variations of prog metal so endearing. Not much has changed in the VANDEN PLAS camp as the same formulaic approach as always has been implemented. THE EMPYREAN EQUATION OF THE LONG LOST THINGS features six tracks and adds up to the 55 minute plus mark. The tracks are mostly on the longer side with every track clocking in at over six minutes and the lengthiest grand finale “March Of The Saints” approaching the 16-minute mark.

The album starts off with the title track and showcases beautiful piano rolls and the classic build of tension that merges into the prog metal thunder the band is famous for. Andy Kuntz still delivers clean and confident vocal workouts and the band is by all means a well-oiled machine at this point in their career and newbie Del Vecchio seems to fit in like he’s been a member of the band since the beginning. The tracks are all well-crafted and deliver veritable slices of that old school prog metal stylistic approach that will remind you of classic Dream Theater, Fates Warning, Symphony X, Threshold, Pagan’s Mind, Shadow Gallery and a gazillion others. In that regard little has changed in the VANDEN PLAS sound and the band carries on as if the modern world doesn’t exist. For some that may be a nice comfort zone and for others it conveys a band that remains staunchly committed to a certain stylistic approach that refuses to branch out into new turf. Whatever the case, VANDEN PLAS’ latest offering delivers a veritable slice of classic prog metal but doesn’t really do much more. Even the 16-minute closing “March Of The Saints” doesn’t deviate from the overall established sound of the band in any way.

Upon listening to THE EMPYREAN EQUATION OF THE LONG LOST THINGS i’m reminded why VANDEN PLAS never really clicked with me. Sure they are a more than a competent band that delivers all the prog metal goods in fine form but the band lacks imagination and a creative spirit that animates the music to a higher level. This album is very anachronistic and may serve as a form of comfort food for those who have been alienated by the world of prog metal seeping into the caustic arenas of dissonant death metal, black metal and extremist hybrids and for that it is perfectly suitable however i just find this band to be a bit too generic for my liking. There is not a single bad track on this album and the performances are impeccable with every keyboard run, every guitar riff and every drum roll teased out to perfection but there is a very clinical feel to the album as if VANDEN PLAS engineers its music through a microscope rather than allowing an organic process to inspire and evolve its style. It’s sure to be a fan pleaser for those who expect a band to remain consistent but after three decades i would expect the band to have at least evolved a smidge. Decent album but comes off as prog metal by the numbers.

UMUR "Killing for Revenge" is the eighteenth full-length studio album by US death metal act Six Feet Under. The album was released through Metal Blade Records in May 2024. It´s the successor to "Nightmares of the Decomposed" from 2020 and features the exact same quintet lineup who recorded the predecessor. With the 2017 addition of former Cannibal Corpse/Deicide guitarist Jack Owen, band leader (and former Cannibal Corpse vocalist) Chris Barnes found a new composer for his project. Barnes have had several other composers contributing to the songwriting over the years (just in the last 10 years the following have been composing music for Six Feet Under: Steve Swanson, Ola Englund, Phil Hall, Jeff Hughell, and of course Owen), but Barnes of course knew what he was getting when Owen joined, because of their shared past in Cannibal Corpse. Owen on the other hand needed a new project where he could be given the freedom to compose, because that was the main reason he left Deicide in 2016 after having been a member of that band since 2004.

As if the Cannibal Corpse connection wasn´t strong enough, Vincent Locke (Cannibal Corpse artwork artist) has also joined the project creating the artwork for "Killing for Revenge". Stylistically this doesn´t sound much like Barnes former band though. It´s a much more primal form of death metal with the occasional old school thrash metal oriented part thrown in. The tracks range from heavy stomping death metal to faster-paced more aggressive death metal. All very old school in style and execution. The heavy grooves of the past are only very rarely a part of the music. Barnes vocals are deep and brutal, but also predominantly unintelligible which makes them a bit one-dimensional. Although Barnes vocals on "Nightmares of the Decomposed" were generally pretty weak, at least you could make out the words.

"Killing for Revenge" features a good quality sound production and upon conclusion it´s a decent quality release from Six Feet Under, but I wouln´t count it among their better releases. I have great respect for Owen´s merits but to my ears his songwriting isn´t the most interesting. It´s all very straight forward with no surprises and a bit more variation (and not just shifts between mid-paced and fast-paced) would have been appreciated. But at least it´s a step up in quality from "Nightmares of the Decomposed". A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.