Nuclear Blast

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    Battle Beast - Steelbound (2025)

    cover

    Becoming one of the premier Heavy/Power Metal bands in the scene has been no small feat for Finland’s Battle Beast. With “Steelbound” the band showcases their sheer power and catchiness with nearly 40-minutes of high-octane music. Noora Louhimo signature vocals have made the band shine from the rest, and with this release she is ready to propel her band to new heights.

    Opening with the ridiculously catchy and speedy “The Burning Within”, the band makes a strong statement with crafty instrumentation and soaring vocal melodies. Giving some Nightwish-meets-Sonata Arctica vibes, songs like “Here We Are”, “Steelbound”, and “Twilight Cabaret” feature extremely engaging chorus sections and very engaging atmospheric elements, giving the band a mixture of epicness and playfulness that almost nobody else has.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    Testament - Para Bellum (2025)

    cover

    There are only a handful of bands in Thrash Metal that have legendary status and have continued to push the envelope with their music. Testament is definitely one of them as with each release they come refreshed and improved, never staying static and constantly evolving. With “Para Bellum”, the band continues to spread their devastating sound while trying new things and inducing massive amounts of headbanging.

    Opening with the brutal “For the Love of Pain”, we immediately had to make sure we were listening to Testament as this track is vicious and crushing thanks to its aggressive guitars and massive drumming. However, it’s the harsh vocals that got us confused, in a good way. Things come back to the band’s more ‘normal’ thrashing ways with “Infanticide A.I”, “Shadow People”, and “Meant to Be”, were Chuck Billy’s snarls come center stage alongside the vicious riffing of Eric Peterson and Alex Skolnick.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    Paradise Lost - Ascension (2025)

    cover

    Further going back into their earlier days, Paradise Lost returns with a hefty Doomy release that nicely balances their Gothic Rock/Metal side with their crushing earlier Death Doom days. Nick Holmes and company have mostly stayed with the same line-up (sans their drummer) since 1988, allowing them to reach back into their old bag of tricks and deliver one of their most (recently) heavy and misery-induced releases in a while.

    Opening with the piercing “Serpent on the Cross”, we kick off with Greg Mackintosh melancholic guitar leads, Holmes signature growl, alongside a heavy dose of catchiness and heaviness. Setting a very dark and moody vibe, “Tyrants Serenade" continues the band’s despondent journey with a more Gothic Doom edge thanks to the soaring clean vocals, and crafty bass and rhythm guitar lines. As one of our favorite tracks from the band in more than ten years, “Salvation” is definitely one gargantuan Doomy piece filled with desolate guitars and vocal melodies.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    Fallujah - Xenotaph (2025)

    cover

    It is quite impressive how far has Fallujah come, from their early Deathcore days, to their current Progressive/Technical Death Metal style. With “Xenotaph”, the band continues to polish their skills and delivers the best album to date. It is brutal, it is technical, it is fast, it is crafty, it basically has it all, and fans of the band and the genre will be blown away as to how good it really is.

    Setting the mood with “In Stars We Drown”, we get a very dreamy and ethereal piece, similar to Persefone cranks out, but with the distinctive Fallujah style. From here on, the rollercoaster ride begins with the crushing “Kaleidoscopic Waves” and its intricate guitar work, “Labyrinth of Stone” and “Step Through the Portal and Breathe”, and their Death-like tempo changes and crafty melodic interludes . The band’s abilities to craft songs that perfectly blend heaviness with melody and technical prowess have greatly matured over time and are beyond masterful here.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    Ghost Bath - Rose Thorn Necklace (2025)

    cover

    Fully going back to their roots, Ghost Bath unleashes another masterclass in melancholy and devastation. The band’s Depressive/Post Black Metal sound made a more prominent comeback in their previous release, “Self Loather”, and now they elevate it with the highly melancholic “Rose Thorn Necklace”. Featuring nine tracks and around 36 minutes of music, this album is very engaging, crushing, and yet walks a very fine line between sorrowful and intense.

    Opening with the dreamy atmospheric opener, “Grotesque Display”, the band sets a bleak mood that is masterfully continued with the piercing album title track. The harrowing screams perfectly flank intense tremolo picking alongside a very lively modern Post-Black Metal vibe, similar to Harakiri For The Sky and such bands. In “Well, I Tried Drowning”, the melancholy starts to ooze as the tempo slowly increases, flanked by crafty guitar leads and harsh growls. The atmospherics in this track give “Moonlover” vibes and we are all for it.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    Behemoth - The Shit Ov God (2025)

    cover

    Arriving like a freight train without any breaks, today we have Behemoth and their latest opus “The Shit Ov God”. Nergal and company never shy from controversy and unleash the most powerful music they can, and with this release, the band unleashes nearly 40 minutes of their most potent and yet highly polished songs. For a band that has been around for 34 years, these guys sound like no one else, without any signs of slowing down or just doing more of the same.

    Opening with the fierce “The Shadow Elite”, the band unleashes mystery and chaos at the same time with hellish atmospherics that lead to pummeling riffing onslaughts by Nergal and Seth. The drumming is massive, as it is always expected from Inferno, ripping through tracks like “Sowing Salt”, and the eerily atmospheric album title track. With a more ravaging Black Metal edge, “Lvciferaeon” is a crafty track that changes the tempo of the release a bit, while still unleashing the aggression and magick that the band always delivers.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    Eluveitie - Ànv (2025)

    cover

    Six years have passed since the last release from the Swiss masters of Celtic/Folk Metal Eluveitie and they sure make up for it with the awesome “Ànv”. Filled with their highly crafty and melancholic brand of Metal, this release delivers twelve tracks and over 40 minutes of the band’s highly refined music with a few extra more modern influences thrown into the mix.

    Starting with a mood setting atmospheric intro, the band quickly gets to business with the explosive “Taranoías”, a fierce track that sets a high-octane vibe from the get go. The hard-hitting “The Prodigal Ones” keeps the momentum going as Chrigel Glanzmann and Fabienne Erni deliver engaging alternating “Beauty and the Beast”-styled vocals, while the album title track changes the pace with an eerie ethereal piece that showcases Fabienne’s range.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    Epica - Aspiral (2025)

    cover

    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.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    The Halo Effect - March of the Unheard (2025)

    cover

    Unleashing an earlier contender for album of the year, The Halo Effect returns with the excellent “March of the Unheard”. Continuing their In Flames-meets-Dark Tranquillity explorations of the Gothenburg Melodic Death Metal sound, the band delivers twelve tracks and over 42-minutes of superbly catchy and engaging music with a certain softer tone to keep things more mellow and accessible.

    Opening with the bombastic “Conspire to Deceive”, we get the signature riffing of Niclas Engelin and Jesper Strömblad alongside Mikael Stanne’s snarls in a very catchy and engaging package. As the album progresses with “Detonate”, “Our Channel to the Darkness”, and “Cruel Perception”, the band showcases their signature sound while inserting some versatility with different tempos, dramatic guitar leads and an overall mastery of melody and pace.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    Behemoth - XXX Years ov Blasphemy (2024)

    cover

    If there is something that Nergal and company know how to do is to put out an intense live show. Now preserved for eternity, the band unleashes “XXX Years ov Blasphemy” an audio/video release capturing their 30th anniversary celebratory livestream. Covering all of the band’s large and illustrious career is tricky, but the band managed to capture most of their iconic tracks in this devastating package. This is definitely the best live release of 2024, so do not miss out.

    Split into three different acts, the band nicely sets up a nearly chronological approach to playing songs from their back catalog. Opening with “The Scorched Forest” act, the band delivers more refined and updated renditions of tracks like “Chant of the Eastern Lands”, which was on their debut release “Sventevith (Storming Near the Baltic)”. It is quite interesting to hear songs like “Pure Evil and Hate”, which have a more old-school Punk-infused Black Metal sound, showing how far the band has come over the years.

Pages

Recent Image Galleries