With a highly polished and equally crushing Progressive Death Metal/Grindcore sound, today we have Cattle Decapitation and their latest demoralizing release “Terrasite”. Unleashing 50+ minutes of music in 10 tracks, the band unravels their most punishing release to date. Aging like a fine wine, this outfit has constantly evolved their sound to be a great balance of brutality with technicality and atmosphere, creating some of the nicest sounding imposing releases in the scene.

Opening with the dramatic “Terrasitic Adaptation”, we get some chilling atmospheric keyboards, courtesy of Dis Pater, aka Tony Parker, alongside imposing riffs and the insanely dynamic vocals of Travis Ryan. We particularly love how the band goes from 0 to 100 in seconds, unleashing hellish drumming, diverse vocal styles and an overall sense of brutality unlike no one else. Perfect examples of this devastating style are songs like “We Eat Our Young”, the more traditional DM “The Insignificants”, to the extravagant bombasticness of “A Photic Doom”.

In the last few years we have increasingly gotten into Psychedelic/Occult Rock/Folk bands as the music is quite engaging and different to our regular dose of distorted guitars and harsh vocals. Sleep of Monsters falls in this category, with a very unique and intoxicating sound. Hailing from Finland, the band is ready to drop “ΓΓΓ”, featuring ten tracks and nearly 50 minutes of enigmatic music. For fans of bands like Sabbath Assembly, Årabrot, Hexvessel, King Dude, etc., this outfit will certainly haunt you with its gloomy moodiness.

Getting down to business with the sultry “Black Blacker Than Black”, the band sets a very mysterious and yet lively mood. With a multi-pronged vocal approach, the overlay of female and male clean vocals works wonders, adding depth to the band’s sound and creating some lush moments on songs like the gloomy “Language of the Birds”, or the more upbeat “Alexandia” and “Melinoe”. Aside from the band’s crafty vocal melodies, the instrumentation in this release is quite warm and fuzzy, creating very unique soundscapes, captivating the listener as hits like “Language of the Birds”, “The Singer”, and the mystical “Nyktophoros” roll around.

It has been a while since we had new music from Germany’s Heretoir and their dreamy post-Black Metal music, since 2017 to be exact. With the EP “Wastelands” the band unleashes three new songs and three live recordings, creating a solid mix of anticipation and insight into the band’s intense live performances. If you are a fan of the genre, or outfits like (older) Lantlos, Ghost Bath, and Alcest to some degree, you should not miss out on this excellent band and this solid release.

Opening with the expansive “Anima”, perfectly layering mellow vocal arrangements and the band’s signature guitars. We particularly enjoy the tempo changes and overall atmospheric brilliance of the song, creating a very engaging and yet dynamic soundscape. Our favorite track in this EP has to be “At Dusk” and its dreamy vocals overlaid over atmospheric arrangements, certainly having a very Alcest-ish vibe to it from their “Shelter” days.

Constantly delivering lush and bombastic releases, Morten Veland and Sirenia return once more with “1977”. In this album, the band further evolves by incorporating synthwave and even 80’s rock sounds to their already crafty and engaging music. For over 49 minutes, the band serenades the listener with a rollercoaster ride of emotions and tempos, creating for a very diverse and explosive release, filled with surprises for new and old fans alike.

Opening with the bombastic “Deadlight”, Sirenia kicks things off with one of their signature epically catchy tracks filled with engaging arrangements and the Gothic Metal darkness that we all love from them. Over the last seven years, Emmanuelle Zoldan vocals have been perfectly fitting the band’s explosive and yet introspective style, delivering soaring chorus sections and heartfelt ballads, as we can hear in “Wintry Heart”, “Nomadic”, to “Oceans Away”.

Few Melodic Death Metal bands have had the consistency and tenacity of Omnium Gatherum. Slowly building up their reputation when they were on LifeForce Records until their switch to Century Media, the band has gradually gotten better and better. With “Slasher”, the band reminds us of their quality with four killer tracks, one cover, two outtakes from their 2021 “Origin” release, and a brand new song. Be prepared to headbang non-stop from start to finish of this sweet EP, so be warned and be ready.

There are few albums that span almost every possible genre of Metal, in a cohesive and creative way. Today, Vintersea manages to achieve the near-impossible with their latest opus “Woven Into Ashes”. Further expanding their Progressive Death/Black Metal core, the band throws in some Doom/Djent/Goth elements to the nearly 50 minutes of music split in eight tracks. If you liked the band’s previous effort, “Illuminated”, you will certainly love this one.

Opening with crafty guitars and very lively tempo changes, “Unveiling Light” gives us that Into Eternity vibe from their “Buried In Oblivion/The Scattering of Ashes” days. Things get quite heavy, in a very Death Metal way on “Devil’s Churn”, with quite brutal and intense opening that suddenly waves back and forth melodic clean-vocal sections. Avienne Low is a very talented vocalist that perfectly transitions between hypnotic clean vocals and powerful harsh screams as the blistering “At the Gloaming Void” and “Lonesome Tide”.

Unleashing a monumental nightmare-inducing behemoth of a release, today we have Hasard and their chaotic opus “Malivore”. Filled with intensity and lunacy, this release delivers five tracks and roughly 45 minutes of some of the most disturbing music ever created. With elements from bands like Blut Aus Nord and Ævangelist paired with the theatrics of Devil Doll and Elend, this release is both punishing and haunting.

The release kicks off with the foul “Hypnocentrisme”, and its cavernous first few minutes. Mixing creepy and harsh vocals with lush and over-the-top orchestral arrangements, this album quickly sets a haunting vibe as it gets under your skin. Both “Vicivers” and the album title track slowly creep on you with funky atmospherics and heavy Black Metal onslaughts, creating a very visceral and disturbing atmosphere that few have dared to craft.

North America’s finest Post-Black Metal band returns with another brilliantly melancholic and crushing release titled “Earth Will Shed Its Skin”. Featuring six tracks and exactly 42 minutes of misery-inducing music, the band further hones their trade delivering a masterful mixture of melancholy and aggression, paired with bleak atmospherics. If you liked the band’s earlier efforts, this release will be right up your alley as it is more refined and yet maintains the band’s core sound.

Opening with the mellow “Forward”, the band sets a very moody and engaging tempo that is both aggressive and yet catchy, thanks to its weeping guitars and atmospherics. As “Under the Weight of a Billion Souls”, we get additional catchiness mixed in with intricate bass guitar lines, shoegazey passages, and crafty vocal arrangements. The band’s sound is quite dynamic as it weaves back and forth between fast and punishing to introspective and melancholic, as we can hear in pieces like “The Long Rope” and “What Desperate Looks Like”.

Unleashing somber waves of catchiness and a very engaging vibe, today we have Grave Pleasures and their latest opus “Plagueboys”. Featuring a very unique mixture of Post-Punk with some darkness to it, and even some elements of Surf/Indie Rock, this band has been captivating audiences for nearly a decade now (with this name), and they just keep getting better and better. If you are looking for something ‘slow’, dark, mysterious, and non-Metal, this release will be to your liking.

Starting strong with the memorable “Disintegration Girl”, we get that gloomy signature vibe from the band, particularly when Mat McNerney’s signature vocals come out. The playful interplay between Juho Vanhanen lead guitars and Valtteri Arino dominant bass guitar line is another strength from this band, making sounds like “Heart Like A Slaughterhouse”, “When The Shooting's Done”, and “High On Annihilation”, just extremely catchy and very diverse.

Featuring a pummeling intensity, today we have International outfit Outlaw and their third full-length release “Reaching Beyond Assiah”. With a huge Dissection/Thulcandra vibe, this band delivers seven memorable anthems that clock in at around 45 minutes. Filled with melody and explosiveness, this release is certainly for Black Metal fans that want to be headbanging for almost an hour straight.

Opening with the blistering intensity of “Bliss of Soul”, we get a nice balanced onslaught of melodic riffs and a hectic tempo. The Dissection worship starts with the epic “To Burn This World And Dissolve The Flesh”, a track filled with very familiar sounding riffs, but nicely arranged to fit the band’s relentless style. We particularly enjoyed the lead guitars in the aforementioned track and other melodic standouts like “Beyond The Realms of God” and “The Unending Night”.