April 2025

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In the Woods… - Otra (2025)

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As one of our favorite bands back in the late 90’s, In the Woods… is a band that has always been evolving and rediscovering themselves. Even with Anders Kobro being the only original member, “Otra” delivers yet another masterful release of highly melancholic Metal music with a healthy mix of melody and heaviness. Featuring seven tracks and 46 minutes of music, the band returns with their signature style and plenty of catchiness to release one of the most intoxicating releases of 2025.

Opening with “The Things You Shouldn't Know”, you get a healthy mix of the band’s ‘newer’ emotional sensitivities with fast paced heavy passages that bring back the “Omnio” and “Heart of the Ages” feeling. Bernt Fjellestad’s vocals again deliver those very dramatic and hypnotic clean vocals that he surprised everybody with on “Diversum”, after James Fogarty left the band. At first we were skeptical of this change, but he has demonstrated both live with the old material, and on the new studio album that he was the perfect fit for the job.

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Rotting Christ - 35 Years of Evil Existence - Live in Lycabettus (2025)

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Celebrating their 35 years of existence, Rotting Christ is unleashing a 25-track live release of their show in Lycabettus. If you have never seen the band live, the Tolis duo (and live musicians) always deliver a raw and powerful hypnotic experience that is very hard to describe. Luckily for all, this release brilliantly captures that energy and showcases the band’s very diverse and constantly evolving musical style with most of their popular songs.

Not banking on having an overproduced release, but rather a more organic and direct approach, this live release showcases the band’s crowd interaction and live antics that brings songs to life in slightly different versions (to the studio ones), as one can hear on “Sorrowful Farewell”, “Dies Irae”, and “Shadows Follow”, some of our personal favorite tracks. However, all those sick riffs and melodic passages are always there, and we can’t help ourselves from starting to headbang here and there.

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Epica - Aspiral (2025)

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Damn, it is the first word that comes to mind when listening to Epica’s latest effort “Aspiral”. Just when you think that a band can’t get any better, this Dutch outfit returns with eleven tracks and over an hour of some of their most explosive and bombastic music. Filled with signature Epica-style moments and tons of melody and catchiness, this release completely surpasses the level of awesomeness that the band delivered a few years back with “Omega”.

Instantly opening with the banger “Cross the Divide”, the band fully immerses the listener into their world of dramatic orchestrations, lush guitar work, and a very hectic and yet digestible pace that is masterfully led by Simone Simons talented vocals. In a very epic fashion, the band perfectly blends dramatic choirs with crafty tempo changes. Creating mesmerizing songs like “Arcana”, “Darkness Dies in Light - A New Age Dawns Part VII”, and the super bombastic and catchy “Fight to Survive - The Overdrive Effect”, one of their best tracks to date.

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Messa - The Spin (2025)

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Facing the herculean task of following up to their ground-breaking release “Close”, Messa returns with “The Spin” and manages to shake things up enough to create awe and excitement. After heavily touring the world after their previous release, the band took a different approach when recording this album, and managed to deliver another Doomy/Jazzy/Proggy offering with a few interesting surprises.

Quickly turning heads, the release opens with “Void Meridian”, a mysterious track that while having some of the band’s signature elements, it also introduces some intense Darkwave/Goth Rock vibes. With an eerie The Sisters of Mercy meets Tribulation meets Soror Dolorosa, the opener and “At Races”, and “Fire on the Roof” showcase the band’s on a different light, making them more dynamic and perfectly complementing their already hypnotic style. Sara Bianchin’s vocals are a perfect fit for such a style and are as haunting as ever, particularly on the solemn “Immolation”.

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Ahamkara - The Harrow of the Lost (2025)

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Hailing from the UK, today we have Atmospheric Black Metal outfit Ahamkara, with their sophomore release “The Harrow of the Lost”. With a more than 10 year gap between releases, this outfit nicely delivers four tracks and over 42 minutes of music that blends elements from outfits like Saor, Fen, Fellwarden, and Panopticon. Creating a very organic and effective sound, this band masterfully crafts immersive atmospheres that will capture the listener’s attention.

Creating a very mellow and intoxicatingly bleak atmosphere, “The Circle of Remembrance” opens this release with a slow burning approach that quickly is flanked by piercing riffs and harrowing harsh vocals. Austin Lunn of Panopticon fame handles the drums in this release, keeping things tight and very versatile as each track changes moods. The band’s atmospherics are subtle and never overbearing, thanks to Alexandra Blenkarn-Durning keyboards and effects, like on “Our Scars Shall Abide In The Thaw”, a very elegant track that blends in fierceness with Alcest-like dreaminess.

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