After a six year hiatus, the legendary Enthroned is finally back with one of their most hard-hitting releases to date. “Ashspawn” delivers nine tracks and over 50-minutes of demolishing Black Metal. Nornagest and company showcase that the band still has that vicious edge and craft one hell of a ride filled with massive drums, blistering guitars, and a hefty dosage of hellish screams.

Opening with the pummeling “Crawling Temples”, we get a barrage of riffs alongside pummeling drums and Nornagest’s highly energetic screams. The band’s vicious approach to the genre leaves the listener very little room to breathe as the onslaughts continue with crushing tracks like “Basilisk Triumphant”, “Stillborn Litany”, and the Death-metal-ish album title track and its chugging riffs.

The wait for one of the year’s most awaited releases is finally over. Blut Aus Nord returns with their epic “Ethereal Horizons”, unleashing over 51-minutes of nightmare inducing Atmospheric Black Metal. Constantly improving and expanding their sound over the years, from their more Industrial days, to their later Avant-garde/Atmospheric Black Metal influences, this release captures the band’s bombastic and yet hellish music in a very piercing and punishing way.

Opening with the dreamy Atmospherics of “Shadows Breathe First”, we get an hypnotic opening that quickly transitions into intense riffing and nightmarish shrieks paired with ethereal clean vocals, creating a very unique and yet pummeling vibe. The band excels in creating unsettling music as “Seclusion” and “The Ordeal” weave back and forth between crafty drumming, dramatic atmospherics, and engaging tempo changes, keeping the listener engaged and enthralled with the proceedings.

Portuguese one-man Black Metal battalion Irae returns this November with their latest offering “In the Key of Twilight”. Featuring eight tracks and over 40-minutes of hellish music, this release has that primordial viciousness and rawness of the genre, thanks to crafty atmospherics, fierce shrieks and pummeling riffs. If you are looking for that old-school retro Black Metal sound of the late 90s, this band will bring back some memories.

Opening with some melodic guitar leads, this album goes on a full-on destruction path with “Apex Predator” and its vicious onslaughts of blistering drums and fierce shrieks. The band’s musical core is very compact and it transitions brilliantly to melodic head-banging sessions thanks to incisive guitars. Featuring plenty of atmospheric elements and moody tempos, tracks like “Key to the Darkest Path”, “Forlorn”, and “There Will Be Wrath”, keep the listener fully engaged thanks to their cavernous vibe.

Perfectly arriving for when the days are dark and short, today we have a split release featuring Italian Melodic Death/Doom Metal outfit, Shores of Null, and Finnish Funeral Doom duo Convocation. Splitting almost evenly the duration of this split, we get a nice mixture of more ‘upbeat’ tracks from Shores of Null to then set the backdrop to two long and punishing pieces from Convocation. Definitely a great introduction to two excellent bands for any fan of the genre.

Opening with “An Easy Way”, Shores of Null unleashes catchy and guitar driven melodies with a nice blend of Melodic Death Metal, clean vocals (similar to old Before the Dawn), and hearty growls. The band’s style creates a very melancholic atmosphere, when combining weeping guitar riffs and very crafty tempos, as on our favorite “The White Wound”. Closing their side with “The Year Without Summer”, we get an excellent bleak atmosphere and plenty of headbanging passages.

Keeping the momentum going after the release of their killer sophomore album “March of the Unheard”, The Halo Effect is back with an EP filled with cover songs. Imprinting their signature style onto some iconic tracks, showcases the band’s fun and energetic, revamping some of your favorite tracks. While most songs here have been released as singles already, there is certainly a high replay value as the songs are as catchy as you can imagine.

Unleashing one of the most hellish Black Metal releases of 2025, today we have International duo Darvaza and their sophomore full-length release “We Are Him”. Delivering over 42 minutes of cavernous and nihilistic music, spread in seven piercing tracks, the band continues their onslaught with a crushing sound that is both visceral and punishing. For fans of raw and pummeling BM, this release sets a new bar for the band, once that sets them apart from the rest.

Opening with dramatic atmospherics, “Holy Blood” quickly transitions into raw and in-your-face riffing onslaughts. Wraath’s snarl is as piercing as always, modulating between a harsh stance and some more demented screams. The band’s furious pace makes tracks like “A Last Prayer in Gethsemane”, “Lazarus”, and “Chaos.Fire.Devotion” be as pummeling as possible, with some masterfully crafted tempo changes and momentum building passages.

Unleashing a timeless ode to the early days of Symphonic/Melodic Black Metal days, today we have Lamp of Murmuur and their latest opus “The Dreaming Prince in Ecstasy”. Featuring a sound reminiscent of Tartaros, (early) Limbonic Art, and most recently Moonlight Sorcery, this release unleashes nine tracks of superb catchiness and haunting melodies with a hefty dosage of rawness.

Setting a very dark and sinister mood with the opener, the album quickly escalates with the crafty “Forest of Hallucinations”. In this track we get that old-school sound of the genre, perfectly captured by lively keyboards/synths alongside M’s harsh snarls around engaging tempo changes. The playfulness behind tracks like “Reincarnation of a Witch”, and “Hategate (The Dream-Master's Real)” show the band’s timeless influences of gaudy (to some extent) atmospherics alongside fierce Immortal-esque riffing onslaughts.

Hailing from Ukraine, 1914 has been unleashing their very atmospheric and emotional Blackened Death/Doom Metal for over a decade with great success. Focusing on World War I and related themes, the band’s music is piercing, emotive, and very well crafted. Delivering ten tracks and nearly 60 minutes of music, “Viribus Unitis” showcases the band’s sonic evolution, perfecting their signature Doomy style with more poignant atmospherics and craft vocal arrangements.

After a mood setting atmospheric, “1914 (The Siege of Przemyśl)” blows open this release with fierce riffing and blistering drumming. The mood setting intros on each song perfectly frame the stories the band portrays providing context to tracks like “1915 (Easter Battle for the Zwinin Ridge)”, “1916 (The Südtirol Offensive)”, and “1917 (The Isonzo Front)”. Blending punishing onslaughts with more melancholic sections and great guest appearances like Aaron Stainthorpe (ex-My Dying Bride) on “1918 Pt 3: ADE (A Duty to Escape)”

Unleashing one of the most demoralizing and gut-wrenching releases of 2025, today we have Bell Witch pairing with Aerial Ruin to deliver the second volume of “Stygian Bough”. Featuring four tracks and nearly one hour of monumentally crushing Funeral Doom Metal, this album is as bleak as they come. Erik Moggridge of Aerial Ruin perfectly complements Bell Witch, creating a very punishing and lush release that won’t easily be forgotten.

Opening with the moody vocals of “Waves Become the Sky”, they perfectly blend into the weeping Doomy riffs, creating a very desolate and punishing atmosphere. The tempo slowly drowns the listener in misery as the opener seamlessly blends into the bleakness of “King of the Wood”, a more atmospheric piece. The band’s ability to create slow and very uneasy soundscapes is just magical, as these tracks fly by and they are over 12-minutes each.

Unleashing a massive double full-length release, Waldgeflüster showcases their multiple facets in a very emotional and devastating manner. With the first album clocking in at nearly one hour and the second around 50 minutes, we get to hear the band’s heavier and more complex amalgamation of Black Metal with Post Metal/Rock elements in the first, and a more stripped down version of them in the second. Very emotionally charged, this release is truly a journey into the band’s psyche and trajectory.

Opening the first album with “Krähenpsalm”, we get lively Post-Black Metal riffing and massive atmospherics, reminding us a bit of outfits like Austere, Heretoir, and Harakiri for the Sky. This style is very predominant in this first album, with highlights of very emotional tracks like “Bamberg, 20. Juni”, the hypnotic “Von Hypnos und Thanatos”, and the dreamy “Lethe - Der Fluch des Schaffenden”. The mixture of harsh screams, fast riffs, is very nicely offset by lush clean vocal arrangements, and crafty atmospherics.