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    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    True Black Dawn - Of Thick-circling Shadows (2024)

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    Finally! After an eight year wait, True Black Dawn is back with another incisive Black Metal release titled “Of Thick-circling Shadows”. Led by Wrath (Ex-Enochian Crescent), this outfit continues to push the boundaries of the genre, creating a very thick and enveloping atmosphere while keeping things raw and quite brutal for over 45 minutes. If you are a fan of BM that is forward thinking and incorporates interesting tempo changes, and a very sickening atmosphere.

    Opening with the vicious “Algol”, the band quickly sets a furious mood of harsh aggression with some restraints. After the opener, “The Depths of the Looking Glass”, “Night and Names”, and “The Wind from the Red Cloud” really show the band’s strengths in creating unique rhythmic patterns that go beyond your super repetitive tremolo-picking that is a staple of the genre. This allows for the music to be more sinister and incisive, and perfectly sets up Wrath to change the mood through his versatile vocals.

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    Uprising - III (2024)

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    Spawned as a side project from Jan van Berlekom mastermind of Waldgeflüster, this release delivers a swift and brutal onslaught of fierce Black Metal. With over 40 minutes of music, “III” unleashes six tracks of fierce music with a certain Uada/Mgła edge and crafty atmospherics. If you are a fan of uncompromising and yet well crafted and melodic BM, this is an interesting release to check out.

    Opening the release we have the oppressive guitar of “Eternal Mantra”, a fierce track that sets the tone for this high-octane and engaging release. As the crafty drums weave intricate patterns within the songs, we noticed that Austin Lunn (Panopticon) is actually performing them in this release, with tracks like “Uprise III” and “Raise a Glass” having interesting and engaging tempos. We appreciate that while the music is well polished, there are some experimental elements and melodic passages thrown into the mix to keep things interesting.

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    Mourners Lament - A Grey Farewell (2024)

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    Punishing the listener with a gargantuan slab of Doom, today we have Death/Doom outfit Mourners Lament, all the way from Chile, with their latest full-length release “A Grey Farewell”. With over 64 minutes of soul crushing music, this release delivers six tracks filled with ravaging riffs, inhuman growls, and a very mournful pace. For fans of Mourning Beloveth, Shape of Despair, Skepticism, My Dying Bride, this release is packed with sorrow and melody from start to finish.

    Opening with the moody “Towards Abandonment”, we get mournful guitars alongside solemn keyboards building up a very fragile and engaging momentum. With some solid slower interludes, weeping guitar leads, and excellent clean vocals, we got a nice vibe of early Lacrimas Profundere. Next up, we have a 13-minute onslaught of even more melancholy and elegant atmospheric arrangements, perfectly paired with pummeling harsh vocals and masterful tempo changes.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Occulta Veritas - Irreducible Fear of the Sublime (2024)

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    Unleashing an excruciatingly atmospheric release, today we have Occulta Veritas and their full-length “Irreducible Fear of the Sublime”. With a highly dissonant style, this outfit delivers six tracks and over 33 minutes of chaotic Black Metal with tense atmospherics and ravaging brutality. Like a mixture of NONE with Déhà and Acathexis, this release is violent, contrived, and yet extremely punishing and brilliant.

    Opening with the dissonance of “The Mirror Stage”, the mood is set with chaotic guitar work alongside furiously aggressive harrowing vocals. The song instantly creates a sense of desperation and uneasiness that is nicely flanked with a hefty dose of melancholy. The madness continues with piercing tracks like “The Sacred Horizons of Totality” and “Metonimia”, two songs that deliver intense guitar work alongside crafty drumming and hellish vocals.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Mountaineer - Dawn and All That Follows (2024)

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    Just like clockwork, The Bay Area’s Mountaineer returns after 2 years with their latest opus in melancholy titled “Dawn and All That Follows”. Not on LifeForce records this time, the band unleashes a hefty 50-minute release split into eight highly engaging and very dreamy tracks. For the uninitiated, the band’s mellow sound combines elements of Post-Rock/Post-Metal with some shoegazey influences and highly melancholic clean vocals, creating a very crafty and highly atmospheric release.

    Opening with the devastating “Cradlesong”, the band quickly unleashes their powerful riffs alongside a thick and demoralizing atmosphere, perfectly paced to inflict maximum pain as the mopey clean vocals of Miguel Meza come into play. There are definitely some crafty Doom/Sludge influences in the band’s sound, as tracks like “Hypnos” and “Prism” continue to develop the crushingly melancholic atmosphere, similar to Katatonia, but more ‘alternative’.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Amorphis - Tales From The Thousand Lakes (Live at Tavastia) (2024)

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    As one of our favorite albums of all time, “Tales From The Thousand Lakes” was the release that turned us more into Melodic Death Metal and the use of keyboards in Metal music. Fast-forward 30 years, yes, it has been that long, Amorphis has decided to release a live version of this release, recorded at the legendary Tavastia club in Helsinki, Finland. While not just a carbon copy of the original release, this version has some subtle enhancements and also features Tomi Joutsen handling the vocal duties.

    Starting from “Thousand Lakes” and “Into Hiding”, we quickly noticed some slight differences in the keyboards. Santeri Kallio has come a long way and his style has evolved and some of this seeps into the older songs. Our all-time favorite track, “Black Winter Day” is flawlessly delivered, luckily we have seen the band play the track here and there in the live setting, but it is still nice to have it on disc with a very crisp and clear mix.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Octoploid - Beyond the Aeons (2024)

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    Being huge fans of Amorphis, we always wondered what would they sound like now if they would have kept the core style behind “Tales from the Thousand Lakes” and just made refinements over time. Luckily for us, Olli-Pekka Laine, former and again current bassist from the band, unleashes Octoploid and their debut release “Beyond the Aeons”. For eight tracks and around 45-minutes, this release delivers excellent proggy Melodic Death Metal music with a very familiar style and a whole lot of catchiness.

    Opening with “The Dawn in Nothingness”, we are quickly treated to playful riffs, enthralling keyboards and Mikko Kotamäki handling the vocal duties. “Coast of the Drowned Sailors” and the opening track will quickly bring back the days of early Amorphis as it has a mixture of elements from “The Karelian Isthmus”, “Tales..”, and “Elegy”, particularly because Tomi Koivusaari handles the growls on this second song.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Limbonic Art - Opus Daemoniacal (2024)

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    Limbonic Art was definitely one of our favorite bands growing up, with their fantastic Symphonic elements back in those days, their sound was revolutionary. After breaking up for some years, Daemon brought back the band to life with a more guitar driven approach, slowly chipping away at the atmospherics that made them stand out. Featuring seven tracks and nearly 50 minutes of music, this release is pretty solid if you expect a certain old-school Norwegian Black Metal sound without the synths.

    Opening with the blistering “Ad Astra et Abyssos”, we hear that Daemon has not lost a step in delivering some truly impressive riffs and crafty melodies. This whirlwind approach permeates tracks like “Deify Thy Master”, “Consigned to The Flames” and “Vir Triumphalis”, creating a very high-octane vibe while unleashing those old-school Black Metal elements that we all love. This release sounds like it could have been released in the late 90’s, early 2000’s and we love it for that.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Amarok - Resilience (2024)

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    Unraveling a gargantuan Doom/Sludge Metal release, today we have North America’s Amarok and their punishing sophomore release “Resilience”. In the same vein as outfits like Bell Witch, Nizmor, Usnea and Lycus, this band crafts some of the most oppressive and soul crushing long and demoralizing songs we have ever heard. Five tracks and nearly sixty-five minutes of music are a testament to this.

    Opening with the emotional rollercoaster that is “Charred (X)” the band quickly sets a very bleak and desolate soundscape, filled with Sludgy riffs and hellish vocals. If your soul did not get crushed by the 17-minute opener, the 18-minute “Ascension (XI)” will surely achieve that. This track has an even slower pace, throwing Funeral Doom vibes as the weeping guitars make way for slow snarls and piercing growls. Filled with crafty tempo changes, this track is definitely one of the finest of its kind, and a new personal favorite.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Midnight Odyssey - Closer to the Sky (2024)

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    Always consistent and oozing creativity, Dis Pater and Midnight Odyssey return with an epic EP titled “Closer to the Sky”. In this five track, thirty-three minute outing, the listener is treated to magical ambient soundscapes that are masterfully adorned with harsh screams and relentless Black Metal onslaughts. Filled with quality music and engaging atmospherics, this is yet another triumphant release from the band.

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