With great flair and a gusto for the melodic, today we have Finland's Pestilent Hex and their sophomore release “Sorceries of Sanguine & Shadow”. With a sound evoking comparisons to outfits like Limbonic Art, Tartaros, and 90’s Emperor, this outfit delivers seven tracks and over 45 minutes of very crafty and engaging Symphonic Black Metal. Highly recommended for fans of the genre, this release is certainly one of the most bombastic, and yet harsh, of 2024, so don’t sleep on it.

Opening with the cinematic “Nocturne”, the band really shifts into high gear with the pummeling “Sciomancy and Sortilege”, thanks to its crafty atmospherics and fierce vocals. Perfectly leveraging both the symphonic and the Black Metal side of the equation, “Through Mirrors Beyond”, “Of Hexcraft and Lawas Three-fold” set a furious pace filled with incisive guitar work, blistering drumming, and very engaging tempo changes, keeping things fresh and dynamic.

Packing a lot of heat, today we have Turkey’s Persecutory and their crushing EP “The Glorious Persecution”. Featuring three tracks of total destruction, this release clocks in at 22 minutes of pure brutality. With a very incisive and yet refined sound, this outfit can be compared to the likes of Necrophobic and Necrowretch, creating some truly foul and punishing music.

Perfectly capturing that old-school magic of late 90’s Symphonic Black/Death Metal bands, Colorado’s Torn from Existence drop their high-octane debut full-length release “Hearken the Darkened Skies”. Featuring seven tracks and over 32 minutes of highly engaging and dynamic music, this release is highly recommended for fans of early Dimmu Borgir, Cradle of Filth, Vesperian Sorrow, and Tartaros, just to name a few.

Opening with the pummeling “Crawl From The Crypt”, we immediately hear the band’s DNA with lavish keyboards, hellish screams, and a wide assortment of engaging guitar riffs and even some shredding thrown into the mix. This wide palette of influences is very well mixed together, crafting a very dynamic and engaging sound that also features some theatrical influences as “Of Curse, And Covenant” and “Sorcery Against Mankind” deliver playful tempo changes and lush atmospheric arrangements.

Always pushing the envelope and creating some truly unique releases, Tamás Kátai’s Thy Catafalque returns with their latest opus “XII: A gyönyörü álmok ezután jönnek”. Featuring eleven tracks and over 50 minutes of very diverse and dynamic music, this release is truly an Avant-garde music lover paradise. With each track, the album explores a wide palette of sounds ranging from crafty folky elements to traditional Death/Black Metal, to more atmospheric and explorative pieces.

The release opens with the playful and dreamy “Piros kocsi, fekete éj”, which features live vocalist Martina Horváth alongside Attila Bakos, creating a dynamic and yet somewhat folky vibe. Shifting gears into heavier territories, “Mindenevö” delivers powerful guitars and harsh vocals, providing a nice contrast to the first track while keeping the band’s dynamic sound thanks to lush choir arrangements. This playfulness and exploratory nature continues as “Vasgyár” delivers more heaviness with some weirdness, “Világnak világa” keeps things atmospheric, and “Nyárfa, nyírfa” unravels that Folky catchiness that the band always exploits.

After eight years of waiting, Italian outfit The Foreshadowing is finally back with their gloomy and moody Gothic/Doom Metal with “New Wave Order”. Featuring nine powerful tracks, this release continues the band’s exploration of the darkest depths of the soul and masterfully delivers their signature moody and dark music. For fans of My Dying Bride, Moonspell, Swallow the Sun, and End of Green, this release is a can’t miss for any fan of the genre.

Opening with the mysterious “Vox Populi”, we instantly get masterfully crafted guitars, perfectly paired with Marco Benevento’s singular clean vocals. The song is quite crafty and nicely explores different rhythms and tempos, but always keeping the band’s characteristic somberness. The more dynamic “Judas Had A Friend” leads with some dramatic weeping guitar leads, melodic catchiness, and expertly delves into more melancholic and atmospheric territories thanks to Francesco Sosto’s keyboards.

Unleashing seven cavernous Ambient Black Metal tracks, today we have Paysage d'Hiver with “Die Berge”. For the uninitiated, this one-man outfit from Tobias Möckl, one of the masterminds of Darkspace has been lurking in the underground since the late 90’s with countless demos and EP’s until their debut full-length “Im Wald” in 2020. Featuring a relentless Burzum-esque vibe, this release is dense and slow burning, delivering maximum punishment for a whopping 100 minutes.

Most songs in this release are over 11 minutes long, opening with the piercing “Urgrund”, where a thick and pummeling atmosphere is masterfully crafted alongside raw harsh vocals and very crafty tempo changes. The opener hooks the listener with its atmospheric undertones and its rawness, paving the way for “Verinnerlichung” and “Transzendenz” part 1, which keep an hypnotic pace, while laying everything on their path to waste.

Unleashing one of the most fierce Black Metal releases of 2024, today we have Chaos Invocation and their latest opus “Wherever We Roam…”. Featuring members from outfits like Darkened Nocturn Slaughtercult, Darvaza, Porta Nigra, Ahnenkult, to name a few, this outfit takes on the genre with rabid ferocity and delivers eight tracks and nearly 45 minutes of pure destruction in this release.

Quickly delivering the first strike, the album title track blasts away with pummeling drumming and incisive guitar work. The band’s sound is punishing and yet masterfully crafted, creating haunting dual guitar melodies alongside an intense bass guitar line. The ferocity continues as “Ideal Sodom”, “Golden Gates and Terrene Light” and “Bridges Aflame” unleash aural devastation with their sinister atmospheres and blistering intensity.

Continuing the momentum gained with their 2023 release “Dark waters”, Delain is back with a bombastic EP, titled “Dance with the Devil”. Showcasing the new incarnation of the band’s synth driven sound, this EP is far from a regular one as it delivers two brand new tracks, two reworked fan-favorites, nine live tracks, and two instrumentals. Packing plenty of bang for your buck, this release also foreshadows the band’s return to North America with Xandria in 2025, so be prepared for a party.

Opening with “Dance with the Devil”, we get the new bombastic and playful Delain with the charismatic Diana Leah settling into the band’s sound with her talented vocals and Martijn Westerholt really going wild with the synths. The lush “The Reaping” continues with a very crafty Synth-wave vibe alongside a hefty dose of distorted guitars and a good amount of catchiness. The band’s sound in these two new songs is quite explosive and leverages Diana’s vocals even better, creating masterful Symphonic Metal music.

Delivering waves of crafty Post-Black Metal, today we have Austria’s Anomalie and their latest effort “Riverchild”. Keeping things simple, catchy, and polished, this release unleashes nine tracks and over 50 minutes of intense music filled with melody. Far from your traditional Post-Black/Progressive Black Metal outfit, this one-man band is hard to describe as it explores different aural palettes with a hefty foundation of Black Metal elements.

Opening with “Mothers of Stars”, an hypnotic offering filled with crafty vocal arrangements and incisive guitars, there are certain familiar elements from the band’s previous offerings with additional polish and refinements. Slowly building up in pace, “An Unforgiving Tale”, “Perpetual Twilight”, and the funky “Heart to Beat” give a more progressive feeling, similar to Enslaved’s current period, where clean vocals deliver engaging atmospheres while the harsh ones provide contrast as the music sets different moods and tempos.

One thing not on our bing card for 2024 was Nachtmystium and talented fraudster Blake Judd making a comeback with a new full length release. “Blight Privilege” is the band’s first release since the 2018 EP “Resilient”, and marks an interesting return to the scene with seven crafty tracks that are both catchy and powerful, making them quite engaging. With a certain Uada flair to itself, this release is a good addition to the USBM ever evolving movement.

The release kicks off with the crafty atmospherics of “Survivor’s Remorse”, perfectly paired with engaging riffs and a very melodic vibe. This masterfully continues on “Predator Phoenix”, a very catchy and fun track that gives us serious Uada vibes, and on the more melancholic and twangy “A Slow Decay”, a more experimental piece with very sultry atmospherics. Nachtmystium has always been an interesting band with a solid take on the genre and not afraid to experiment, it is refreshing to hear that is still the case.