BABYMETAL "Metal Forth" (2025)

Round five and were back on form with the triumphant Metal Forth! Not their fourth, unless your counting "metal" in the record title. Anyways, this latest installment is a lean thirty five minute, ten track blitz focused on creative collaboration. The likes of Poppy, Slaughter To Prevail, Polyphia and Spiritbox appear among other big names, lending their characteristic for a true crossover experience, something Metal has sorely lacked for decades. There's only three solo tracks Babymetal and one could be forgiven for thinking the closing White Flame featured Sabaton. Its a blazing roar of Power Metal might, executing all the tropes, practically a tribute to the sub-genre.

Interestingly, the remaining two solo tracks feel flat, recycling ideas the band have burned through before. That's why Metal Forth's merits rest on the synergy of its alliances. The creative partnerships genuinely cross a divide between sounds and birth a unique middle ground. Of course this all boils down to banging riffs and stomping grooves. The record fires on all cylinders in its stride but the point remains just how much freshness these uncommon unions provide. This is no "featured artist" but a firm commitment to integrating each others identities and it works so well.

Highlights include My Queen as the two bands jostle their heaviest aesthetics back and forth. Song 3 is another banger where the exchange yields a curious callback to Slipknot with its unhinged pinch harmonics and brutal riffage. RATATATA will likely stand out as a fan favorite. Electric Callboy's brand of tongue in cheek party meme metal a fun fit for the J-Pop influences. In a way it summarizes the overall mood, just a fun record about pumping out animated compositions embraces obnoxious grooves and lively melodies. Cracking record, falling just shy of something truly great.

Rating: 7/10

Hunt The Dinosaur "Nefarious" (2025)

 

Nefarious made quite the excitable splash upon impact. With my apatite shaped for the lighter sides of music, a throwback to playful extremities was on the cards. Despite having had my fun, repetition has exposed novelty as Hunt The Dinosaur's "over the top" fusion of Metalcore, Djent and rapid fire Rap screams runs its coarse. Sadly, this brief record fails to carve out a classic like Destructo from its octane insanity.

Across its six cuts we are bombarded by barbaric thumps of sound. Low end eight string guitar pound assaulting grooves between splashes of dissonant guitar noise. Snarling screams spit spiteful lyrics, occasionally hurtling into sprints of the distinct memorable shout raps. Lyrics play with foul themes and periodically reference classic Rap one liners and motifs. Ferocious drums rattle like a raging beast, foaming at the mouth, holding firm grooves, then sporadically hurtling into dizzying blast beats. Wedged between it all, alien dystopian synth occasional meld unusual textures, a subtle dressing often understated and easy to overlook among the ravaging madness.

My main takeaway is a lack of memorability. A lack of songwriting fails to land hooks and riffs in a way that sticks. Instead, Nefarious feels like a ceaseless barrage of ideas aimless assembled together, unable to forge a bigger picture beyond the sum of its parts. That, or perhaps I am growing tired of this Post-Deathcore race to the bottom.

Rating: 4/10

Behemoth "The Shit Ov God" (2025)

 

Thirteen albums deep, masters of craft, juggernauts within their niche, Behemoth have little to prove. Although the bands efforts have received mixed reactions in recent years, they are always an unshakable presence in pursuit of fresh satanic sacrifices upon the alter of Blackened Death Metal. Yet this latest offering feels surprisingly steady, a routine spin of intelligently composed forays into demonic darkness.

The Shit Ov God entertains us with its competency, setting a grimace tone, exploring its shadowy avenues with a cunning to avoid anticipations. Devilish riffs and ravenous, restless drums brim with creativity, exciting within constraints, yet never straying from a ghastly temperament. The resulting record screams for break aways that never arrive. We dredge through swamps of weighty burden, never to be relieved.

Lacking peaks and valleys on its path, these songs becomes a fierce monotone drone of sinister silhouettes, menacing at a distance, yet lacking that flash of color to bring it all to life. Guitar solo eruptions and breaks for plucked string melodies among other arrangements signal that attention but none of them break out of this sticky nefarious gloom. A solid concise listen but lacks a spark for greatness to define its purpose.

Rating: 6/10

Sleep Token "Even In Arcadia" (2025)

 

 Lingering on the cutting emotive sensations of Vessel, this newest chapter, Even In Arcadia, plays like poetry in motion, a dwell of personal exorcisms originating from a lyrical inception. This impression could simply speak to the frontman's charming R&B leaning vocal inflections. As their key song-writer, this synergy unites voice and instrumental with a deeper, intentional chemistry than most. Its a now familiar formula but on this occasion, Sleep Token nail the album experience from front to back.

Shy of an hour, it breezes by effortlessly. Look To Windward opens, immersing us in artistic heavies as the throws of Djent yield to a grand gravitas carrying its tensions into soaring melody. Emergence and Dangerous lend their swells of momentum to metallic atmospheres as do other songs like the gorgeous Caramel. Concluding with blast beats and shrill howls, its ever curious how they seamlessly bridge such a chasm from their catchy 00s Garage beats with Pop vocals to untethered extremes.

 I'd often considered Sleep Token a stealth vehicle for Pop sensibilities into a genre usually adverse to such musical pleasures. Only its title track passes without a swell of metallic energy, a curiosity given how all my impressions stem from Vessel's delightful voice and the emotive melodies that accompany him. Its a wonderful orchestration of sombre piano that dissolves in tightening airy ambiences as the songs resolves itself in a common swelling. The violin on exit is a fine touch of craft.

 The thematic dance played between beauty, pain and introspection wrapped in sunny melancholy defines this record. Its reflection from words to sound a delight. On reflection, I appreciate its swells of intensity so much more. Their natural progression had me overlooking the dynamic shifts on a casual listen. That can't be said of closer Infinite Baths. Its groovy revelry in filth, a shock and horror to remember, seeing the experience out as if its all been sucked into a black hole. What a cracking album by a band reaching new heights. Along with the Saturday headline slot at Download Festival, this a moment that could ascend their profile even further.

Rating: 8/10

Labyrinthus Stellarum "Rift In Reality" (2025)

 

Champions of last years musical discoveries, Labyrinthus Stellarum's exotic take on Atmospheric Black Metal runs its course, returning with little new to offer. Still firmly rooted in its symphonic extremities and songwriting ideals, this fresh crop of void hunting cosmic ventures hurtle by in a hypnotic whirl of colorful astral melodies, furious blast beats and groaning howls to be heard across the vast expanse.

Only title track Rift In Reality breaks the mold. Novel twisted oral distortions on spoken passages arise early on. Seeming cosmic interference, it compliments their drafty clean vocals. The songs conclusion erupts, breaking convention as crashing slabs of distortion guitar break up the gliding gallop of pace these tracks usually embark upon.

Other than that, they stick to their stellar blueprint, delivering face melting bangers like Cosmic Plague and Ravenous Planet along the way. Nirlakh ends the record on a positive. It plays as if guitars and drums were stripped out to be replaced with menacing bass synths. A curiosity driven instrumental interlude of sorts.

All in all, Rift In Reality is a firm record but one that doesn't offer anything new to this fan familiar with their Lovecraftian inspired cosmic horror architecture. Fortunately, my appetite for esoteric other-worldly terror is strong. Having failed to reach new heights, I think the band would be wise to seek an evolution in their sound on the next outing.

Rating: 6/10

Deafheaven "Lonely People With Power" (2025)

 

 Spinning out another web of shadowy shoe-gazing extremity, Deafheaven return from the captivating Infinite Granite with renewed spite. Lonely People With Power leans dark and grizzly, its songs plunder a devilish spell as the sway of shrill vocal howls and dense guitar haze become a routine focal point for its swells. Brooding through unfurling intensities, melancholic acoustic melodies spill into distortions as tensions mount, often arriving upon the dizzying sorcery of barbarous blast beat mania.

This format is true for much of the record, also housing emotive signals of melody that linger within these aesthetic constraints. After several spins, that textural power loses potency in the absence of transcendent song writing. Lonely People With Power plays as emotion entertainment, running its course swiftly as tracks bleed together. There is one exception! At the midpoint, Amethyst acts as a blade, cutting the record in half.

With an illustrious, enchanting melody, this Blackgaze blueprint breaths life, illuminating as the power of key motif swells with utter grandiosity. The tuneful resurgence from apt acoustic lulls between plays a delight every single time. A remarkable track, elevating its touch of genius through the ebb and flow of the music, a feat every other track on the record fails to emulate with exposure and familiarity.

This splitting of the record feels intentional. The proceeding tracks take a gnarly turn as temperaments plunge further into the black and pale strands of its makeup. Its Extreme Metal makeup gets harder and sections of ambience and acoustic sound dialed into deep rotting pains. Despite this apparent gravitas, I found myself losing connection to songs as they blended together in a haze. Ideas lack distinction over its one hour duration, creating a radical drone devoid of purpose to latch onto.

Rating: 5/10

Doomsday "Never Known Peace" (2025)

 

A few weeks on from discovering Crossover Thrash outfit Doomsday, a new record drops! In fact, Never Known Peace is their debut "full length", a trim, lean, concise thirty minutes of fiery metallic blasphemy! With a tight production in place, the band straddle Slayer worship with a modernized arsenal of slick sprinting riffs and roaring, evil evoking lead guitars. The latter aspect gets nail to the cross. Echoing King and Hanneman's dueling, unhinged guitar solos, the record's ten cuts flow with melodic chaos as the arrival of spurious shredding illuminates the tone, a consistent high point.

Oddly, its high tempo rhythm guitars chug and gallop chops to a lesser luminosity. They serve as the mood's aggressor, continuously grinding out stomping grooves in a menacing formality. Lacking surprise or novelty to seasoned ears, the ceaseless flow of rhythmic assault runs warm. When set up for a big breakdown, it lands somewhat soft. When the rhythm guitars aren't accompanied by face melting leads, things feel thin despite continuously punishing with notable touches of Hardcore dance groove.

 Stepping back from my analytical dissection, Never Known Peace is a heck load of fun. Despite being one mean best, its tone feels fun and uplifting, a dark demeanor for show, not to be taken seriously. The thirty minutes blaze by without a foot step wrong. Its surprisingly consistent, without a dull moment and nothing truly remarkable to rattle off on, although whiffs of potential linger. Only instrumental interlude track Extinction's Hymn gets a mention for its utilization of a sinister synth to add a textural flare to its main galloping guitar riff. A small footnote on a record that sticks firmly to its design.

Rating: 7/10

Doomsday "Depictions Of Chaos" (2022)

 

 

Having recently unearthed a modern scowling scene of Groove laden Thrash, tinged in Death and Crossover, Doomsday stuck me as pick of the crop. Breeding fast, ferocious, fiery bestial incarnations, their hellish forays of 80s inspired Metal re-imagined play a delight to this Slayer fan. With lead guitars wailing demonic sirens and galloping rhythm guitars balancing groove and sprint, Doomsday hit hard.

 

These six songs run an infectious route, endlessly pivoting from one riot to the next. Despite being dramatic, sinister and darkly, with front-man Carlos Velazquez howling graven pains, Depictions Of Chaos is upbeat and fun. The routine stints of groove an invitation to rock out on a hellish ride. Its a vision cast by legends before them, yet this classy updated execution attracts one to revel upon its ripe aesthetic foray into evil.

 

Rating: 6/10

Saor "Amidst The Ruins" (2025)

With foundations of extreme and cultural aesthetic resolute and intact, Saor embarks on this latest venture through the shackles of familiarity. Thus initial listens spun a lukewarm drone of routine blast beats exchanging duties with its symphonic layer. Comprised of strings, Violin, Cello and effeminate voicings, this heathen tapestry enriches Saor's music with the spirit of Scottish highlands and its cultural heritage.

The metallic counterpart, comprised of pummeling drums and angular distortion guitars, stands somewhat in contrast as expectant extremities offers little to the embellish narratives and server as obvious amplifications of intensity, swelling energy but rarely feeling warranted in contrast to the rich underlaying musical themes.

Thus we have a record in peculiar imbalance. At a frequent pace, the collapses of roaring aggression give way to stunning arrangements of beloved highland melody. Beautiful in flow and holding grace with mother nature, a reoccurring sense of longing persists in these spirited melodies. They are the highlight in which to endure.

Sadly the majority of these earthly musical motifs rest in tandem between the two, layering in this gorgeous vision with familiar aesthetics that offer little new. Tired of bellowing screams and blazing blast beats, I found myself chiming with the serine acoustic guitar tones and cultured instruments, an aspect stunning on its lonesome.

The records most passionate passages emanate on their acoustic reverberations, often to be enveloped by that roaring beast. My tolerance of its metallic components rested on the whims of personal appetite. Sometimes energizing, at others a drain. Saor has matured strongly on a cultural  front to deeper meaning but foundations strip this expression of greatness in my opinion. However, its still a very enjoyable record.

Rating: 6/10

Blut Aus Nord "Memoria Vetusta I - Fathers Of The Icy Age" (1996)

Having tuned into Blut Aus Nord in recent years, my exploratory return into Black Metal origins had me picking out this first installment of the Memoria Vetusta trilogy. I'm some what astonished to find their unique character fully expressed this early on. The subtle touches of Psychedelia and Shoegaze had played like matured fine wine.

 

Yet here we are in 96, these fantastical, mysterious inflections, on a then fresh Black Metal sound, dominate a devilish spectacle. Roaring out from limited, fuzzy production, yet to figure out its aesthetic needs, we have trippy lead melodies, ungodly choral vocals and dexterous baselines converging on swells of sequestered darkly magic. Powered along by a barrage of animated drums, the duo sound unlike any other. Lengthy songs run ambitious, holding ones attention in its tension, as ripping guitars shell out dissonance that meanders into gratifying melodies.

 

Its a familiar expression but in this infancy feels daring and exciting. The band carry the hallmarks of northern darkness with their own flair, curious, majestic and sinister, feeling like a journey through an arcane societal order of the seven layers of hell. Memoria Vetusta is a mighty fine craft, I'm glad to have found it among the rubble.

 

Rating: 7/10

Entombed "Clandestine" (1991)

 

Here lies a classic from the early years of youthful Metal discovery that I fortuitously happened upon, a shadowy, venomous breed of dark, scowling heavy. Hailing from Sweden, the tuneful stains of an emerging melodic death metal lingers as whiffs of sinister melody trail this wild ride of ponderous riffs and pounding percussion.

The darkly atmosphere is Clandestine's key distinction. No atypical "meat and potatoes" grind of punching brutality. With a pair of unusual, bristling distortion guitars, a fuzzy menace bleeds a tonality that propels its arsenal of hard hitting riffs into a grimacing aura. Danger and death lurk around the corners of its intense sways.

Swinging from cunning grooves to axe grinding malevolence the music hurls with nonlinear momentum, jumping through iterations, finding pertinent moments to build suspense and roar with tuneful fire. Lead guitars erupt with brief flickers of chaos to guide its path, occasionally unraveling into open breaks, evil and atmospheric.

The drums clatter away with individuality, laying foundations for head banging beats whilst steering the ship with bespoke fills and rhythmic articulations to perk the ears in an embrace of its rough sincerity. Out front Nicke Andersson bellows and howls with a raw guttural cadence, stuck somewhere between Death and Thrash Metal.

Early on he punctuates apt moments with deep shouts amplified by timely reverb. Its gritty and menacing, shaping up a character that surpassing genre norms. So to do sprinklings of esoteric synth shape up this covenant of plundered spoils. Both melody and rhythm boldly embark on equal footing, shaping a consistent brood of songs.

Shadowy, conspiring, sequestered, a devious mood truly clandestine. Its a classic from my early journey of discoveries that's held magic over the years. My only critique? Perhaps it tires as its final couple of tracks lack the moments to break up a riff grind that kept the first half of the record so memorable. Imperfect, as is all art!

Rating: 9.5/10

Behexen "Rituale Satanum" (2000)

Recently discovering Dimmu Bongir resurfaced a desire for more nefarious Black Metal. Spotify offered me up Finnish outfit Behexen, an act I'd not heard of before. Born in 94, they were clearly a product of cultural export from their Norwegian peers. This debut, Rituale Satanum, essentially encapsulates the next logical progression, taking fundamentals and dialing up the intensity. Its in their ridiculous, over the top vocals that Behexen find an edge, instilling terror though chord shredding screams and gravelly howls that can make your skin crawl. Paired with baritone deliveries of ritual chant, they invoke Satan with a seriousness I can only laugh off in bemusement.

The record is an unrelenting ride of hellish fright, pummeling rattling blast beats and shredding evil atonal power chord arrangements, this plays an atypical experience, delighting in a fiendish execution of wicked ideals. Shadowy melodies shrouded in intense aesthetics punctuate an ungodly mood. Manic bursts of frenzied paced led by ripping guitars liven up the closing tracks. Rare lulls between unending onslaught often come masked by esoteric vocal spectacles to illuminate a sinful atmosphere.

Without directly emulating its obvious inspirations, Behexen gracefully bestow their graven personality. Far from ground breaking but firmly their own beast, only Baphomet's Call plays out vibes reminiscent of the Black Metal pioneers, specifically early Immortal. Its mid-tempo busing is one of my favorite cuts across the record. The production is hard, often peaking with distortion guitars melding into a harsh fuzz. Somehow it works. A tad ridiculous with its thematic over the top embrace of satanism but then again isn't that the point? Worth a listen for fans of early Black Metal.

Rating: 6/10

Labyrinthus Stellarum "Vortex Of The Worlds" (2024)

  

Thematically esoteric with astral overtones, this stunning album art strips away any doubts to its lovecraftian cosmic horror influences. Shrill tremolo guitar leads, howling blast beats and elongated screams shrouded in reverb undoubtedly carry all the hallmarks of Atmospheric Black Metal. Tales Of The Void sounds unshakably familiar in design, yet excels with fresh excitement as a Post-Metal delivery of grand, scaling, epic melodies and an exotic symphonic component align for a very memorable listen.

Decent song writing underpins the experience, stellar melodies and a prevailing tunefulness solidifies its catchy ear worming nature. A cacophony of pummeling drums and void descending screams act as sways of intensity and tempo, the ebb and flow, stuttering between tense scenic breaks and descending cosmic eruptions. Together, among dense guitar noise, they guide the musics key component, synths.

Woven deep into the mix, their aesthetic offerings range from unusual and specular, to common and atypical for darkly space themed music. Sparks fly when delving into a mix of bell, woodwind and metallic toned virtual instruments. Foreign for this genre, an unusual fit mostly used to drive home immense cosmic melodies. The aforementioned atypical synths play the subtle role of reinforcing its atmospheric underpinnings.

Another well-earned merit goes to the heathen clean vocals that rise up underneath those howling dirty screams. Its another avenue for one to gorge upon these dazzling melodies they concoct. Initially a ghastly beast of extreme Black Metal, this prevailing tuneful charm becomes the key take-away, a keen triumph for a band in this lane.

 Its only blemish? What seems like programmed drums occasionally amplifies an repetitive drone in its rapid strikes, possibly intentional but definitely sounding stiff in patches. Tales Of The Void is a Stellar record, possibly my favorite Metal record this year? Well worth a spin for fans of extreme music with a crafty focus on melody.

Rating: 8/10

Bayonet Dismemberment "Carnage Of War" (2024)

 

Randomly stumbling into the smothering arms of Brutal Slam Death Metal again, I'm transported back to the scene days of 2008. That was among my first ventures into a filthy underworld of extremity blossoming alongside Deathcore. Here we are sixteen years later and I discover the scene is lively as ever, attracting a new generation of kids to swing their arms and legs in the most pits, as well as the musicians too.

Unsurprisingly topicality is grim. Through undecipherable grunts and guttural growls, an ever shining light on humanities worse focuses on the Iraq war as its flavor of critique. In texture and rhythm, these biting blunted howls land snug into a polished aesthetic that has barely aged in principle design. The production is warm, almost inviting as opposed to the ear abusing rattles some early records would deploy.

The angered music behind cosmetics is decent, exchanging drum blasts and guitar grinds of dissonance with apt erupts of groove and halftimes for the dance-floor too. Competently creativity within constraints, its as if a day hasn't passed, deploying all the same old tropes again for three sharp cuts of savage stomping brutality.

Rating: 3/10

Chaosbay "The Way To Hell" (2024)

 

Hopefully paving the path to a new record, German outfit Chaosbay have been dropping singles, now wrapped into this three track EP. Showcasing the next iteration of their high-octane Djent Metalcore fusion, a familiar epic of soaring sharp vocal crescendo over the shimmer of dense guitar chords reigns supreme between some plunges of aggression. Money, a collaboration with We Are Pigs, is thee fruitful affair here. Effeminate vocals unite for a catchy chorus hook that predictably swings for the fences with its preceding dirty breakdown. Its swift looping structure and screamed conclusion quickly becomes an ear worm. A shared approach for two of the three.

Fast and snappy, the straightforward strikes each aim for lands firmly. Interwoven electronics, attention to detail and wall of sound production lights up relatively simplistic songs. Only the title track has a progressive structure, brooding its dreary theme to a crunchy conclusion with dirty, slamming guitar stunts. It too clocks in an easily digestible three minutes, a notable attribute as the band seem to shoot straight with imminently enjoyable and appealing ideas fleshed out for easy appeal.

Rating: 3/10

Dream Widow "Dream Widow" (2022)

 
Birthed as a fictional band through the Foo Fighter's Studio 666 movie, mastermind Dave Grohl brings his youthful adorations to the limelight. An exuberant testament to the gods of Metal, Dream Widow plays as a love letter to Thrash and Heavy Metal. Churned out with a soft tongue in cheek attitude, this self awareness plays keen. Backed by a consistent onslaught of sharp grooving riffs, its evil thematic comes across fun and playful. Dressed up with moments of metallic extremities, the record initially feels edgier, clearly oldskool Black Metal on March Of The Insane before settling into its cruising altitude of mid-tempo Mastodon crooning Metal.

Dave is pretty fantastic at steering his unique musical voice to these comically darker directions. Half the record feels fully committed to sinister theatrics, yet the other melds his Alternative Rock roots in both singing and writing. This is no complaint, the middle ground is entertaining too but after the shock of its full throttle, screaming and stomping opener Encino wears off, its clear this intensity isn't its firm format. When stepping away from the atypical cheese over the top Metal provides, the music sways with delightful inflections of melody, exchanging verse and choruses that compliment through dynamic shifts from rhythm to lead and all expressions between the two. 

Dream Widow is a cracking record stretched between Dave's expectant self and a mischievous, metallic inner child. Ending with seventeen minutes of sludgy hell, Becoming and Lacrimus Dei Ebrius illuminate his genuine understanding of the craft, as cheesy themes give way to sinister mockeries of the light. Ultimately its forty two minutes are a solid listen. Thoroughly entertaining, yet showing these three or so approaches that could of individually been their own beasts.

Rating: 7/10

Arkhtinn "三度目の災害" (2023)

  

 Pulling no surprises, another intense installment of Symphonic Black Metal plunges into a familiar abyss. Using blast beats as its unrelenting propellant, rattling drums steer an unending wall of sound. Screams howl and distortion guitars roar. Choral keys gleam towards the night sky with an undying sense of rising epic. On occasion, glistening patterns of synths sparkle with astral wonder. The music sways, rarely taking its foot of the gas, predictably finding its way back to calamitous climaxes.

The second of its two twenty minute plus halves is more gratifying. The texture of its ferocity a dangerous concoction. Hopeful lead guitars tinge with shimmers of positive melody yet shrouded by a grim blackness. Its followed by glittery ascending, descending cosmic synths, an interesting arrangement stiring the pot on this frightening brew. After calms and void circling plummets pass by, the lead guitars return to unite the narrative, culminating in a last stand full of dying screams and relentless pounding that gives way to a bleak aftermath of pale distortions.

This track defines itself as the better of two but ultimately feels somewhat stale in the wake of all the other albums before it. Arkhtinn has mastered their own sound but now that mastery offers little new other than the comforts of returning to familiar footings.

Rating: 6/10

Ghosts Of Atlantis "3.6.2.4" (2021)

Following up on the competently executed yet mediocre Riddles Of The Sycophants, this debut record managed to grab more of my attention. Despite seeming a touch raw, its Melodic Death Metal leanings and keyboard driven symphonic elements play to its strengths. The latter coming as complimentary flare to primarily Metal songs that navigate the usual array of tropes with an overcast, stormy demeanor.

This metallic temperament allows for strings and orchestration, often muzzled by the guitars, to suggest a mystical swashbuckling theme. Songs feel frantic, at the mercy of howling winds, ocean waves and unending winds. Strip its symphony out and this could be an atypical Metal record for many stints. 2.6.2.4 frequently drops in with big riffs, stomping grooves, galloping chugs to steal the show from its watery theme.

Between it all, heathen clean vocals erupt with surges of epic intent that don't land with the gusto bands like Dimmu Borgir do. In the mid ground were aggression is subdued, a handful of symphonic melodies sway, mostly second fiddle to a rhythmic march, never a key focus. Its as if keys were written second to everything else.

As such, the songs rarely play with consistency but have moments that leap out. Halls Of Lemuria, The Curse Of Man, Poseidon's bow all leap out with roaring riffs not exactly inline with the usual template. In their infancy, this band had writing strengths that didn't fit their intended direction it seems. A curious listen, entertaining, energetic and fun, bustling with an energy lost in a better produced follow up.

Rating: 6/10

Dimmu Borgir "Inspiratio Profanus" (2023)

 

Far beyond the prime of their active years as a band, Dimmu Borgir blow the dust of old covers alongside new offerings. Its a release of minimal commitment, something to give fans in the meantime between Eonian and whatever comes next. Kicking off with Venom's classic Black Metal, an aging Shagrath offers mid ground between his own vocal extremities and the throaty shouts of that early 80s evil cheesiness.

Its such an obvious choice that's been done to death by many Black Metal bands over the years. Dimmu add little to the conversation. The vicious, blood soaked Satan My Master, from Death Cult Armageddon, still holds its cutthroat aggression and howling menace. The contrast highlights a chasm between past and present. With the rest of the album intermingling old a new, its a similar story with its two new covers.

Dead Men Don't Rape looses much of the originals stark and confronting nature. A harsh Industrial unsettling atmosphere descending through its unforgiving whispered lyrics, Dimmu's atmospheric cushion undoes that. An all to welcoming track within the Extreme Metal context. Its not all bad tho, between some cracking covers of old, Deep Purple's Perfect Strangers gets a fine treatment as the band twist its anthemic march with a darker stride that retains the power of the originals riffs and organs.

Rating: 3/10

Ghosts Of Atlantis "Riddles Of The Sycophants" (2023)

 

Even as I sit to write, the words don't come to me. Riddles Of The Sycophants is fantastically competent and yet distinctly generic. The evolution of Symphonic Black Metal, spurred on by late era Dimmu Borgir, has ventured into metallic and orchestral extremity. Weaving mightily angular and rhythmic guitars with stabbing gusts of nightly symphony, the genre's songwriting has escaped the chains of its foundations. No longer simplistic jabs of synth melody and rhythm guitars, the sound has taken on a vivid theatrical intensity, best realized on Shade Empire's classic Omega Arcane.

 Ghosts Of Atlantis failed to tell me why they are different. With the many spins, I've not felt a unique character emerge, or even defining moments in songs that grabbed my attention. Despite this, its lack of flair and originality hasn't hurt a single listen. Its been a welcome venture through turbulent terrain, traversed with elegance and a firm grasp on the dynamics of its varied instrumentation. They serve to aid its core vision, in doing so, lacks any individual magnetism. Its been quite the odd experience, a wonderfully executed record that fails to bring anything new to the table.

Rating: 5/10