Latest Reviews
There are way too many records released every week - which one should you listen to? We want to help you by reviewing lots of records every week and you can also check out a little teaser before reading the whole thing. And if you want to, you can also browse through our archive and have a look at the amazing records you might have missed out on.
-
Aluk Todolo - LUX
19 Sep 2024 - Stephan
Instrumental RockAvantgarde Metal●●• ••●●••••●●•●● ●●•●●•• ••●●••• ●●•●●••••●●•• ••●
Continue reading > -
Norna - s/t
14 Sep 2024 - Knut
Post MetalPost-HardcoreThis heavy high-velocity album will leave you dazed and confused. But it is a happy daze paired with confusion on a higher level.
Continue reading > -
Slomosa - Tundra Rock
12 Sep 2024 - Knut
Desert RockStoner RockIf you weld the fuzziness of Desert Rock with the heaviness of Stoner you get “Tundra Rock” as this vibrant sophomore album from Slomosa wants to show.
Continue reading > -
Pyrrhon - Exhaust
07 Sep 2024 - PBV
Experimental Death MetalExtreme Metal”You’re not going to Mars / Mars is coming here”
Continue reading >
…opens the chorus of the first track off Exhaust, the sardonic but devastating mood-setter bouncing and reverberating into the alleys through a dilapidated boombox. -
Spectral Wound - Songs of Blood and Mire
03 Sep 2024 - Thorsten
Melodic MetalBlack MetalSpectral Wound bring the fun back into Black Metal. No, not the Black‘n‘Roll kinda fun that we enjoyed with Kvelertak but the kind of classic Black Metal sound that is defined by angry, fast, raucous attacks and some real Punk attitude where the only alternative to fast is faster!
Continue reading > -
Solars - A Fading Future
02 Sep 2024 - Knut
Post-RockPost-Rock from the capital of Metal, Birmingham, UK. It is not surprising that Solars’ music is ladden with the timbre of the heavy riffs that originated in this city.
Continue reading > -
Lilacs & Champagne - Fantasy World
01 Sep 2024 - Gene
Post-ElectronicExperimental Hip HopThis is your brain on drugs.
Continue reading > -
Modern Rites - Endless
30 Aug 2024 - Knut
Once more the Swiss-American band Modern Rites releases a cascading crescendo, a genre-defying album. The music is as intense as it is dense. It contains some of the riffing warmth of Death Metal, the soaring beauty that can be found in the tremolos and synths in Atmospheric Black Metal, and the churning depths of Industrial Metal.
Continue reading > -
Alburnum - The Withered Roots of Reality
28 Aug 2024 - Lucia
Black Folk MetalBlack Metal is very familiar with paganism and mysticism, and Alburnum has managed to create a very ambitious mix of the ferocity of the genre whilst adding beautiful folk elements. The intricate melodies and arrangements make this a very distinctive sounding album. Not only do they deal with pagan and mystic themes, but they manage to add a personal touch to the music in The Withered Roots of Reality. Alburnum has achieved music that will be enjoyable for fans of the Black Folk Metal genre, with an obscure sound that is their own.
Continue reading > -
Partholón - The Ocean Pours In
27 Aug 2024 - Knut
Atmospheric Sludge MetalA stunning album following a trail somewhere along the highway of the mightiest forerunners of the genre. The album does not come out as an equal, but more as a sequel with its heavy weight that carries the music with maritime and celestial themes. The band is constructing towers of sound with the riffs, the bass, and the drums that embrace and push two growling vocalists into memorable harmonies.
Continue reading > -
Fulci - Duck Face Killings
27 Aug 2024 - Gökhan
Death MetalSometimes Death Metal doesn’t need to be elaborate or elongated - sometimes a quick slasher with the blade does the trick as easily as the more complicated chainsaw massacre. The Italian Death Metal guys in Fulci surely know about the usage of the blade just like The New York Ripper did. And now the former is back with a record about the latter. Intriguing!
Continue reading > -
Mamaleek - Vida Blue
22 Aug 2024 - Thorsten
Avantgarde Black MetalNext stop: The Birthday Party. What the anonymous masters of Avantgarde-Everything Mamaleek are doing on their latest record Vida Blue signifies a development which might only lead to the assumption that Mamaleek is the re-incarnation of Cave’s first significant band!
Continue reading > -
Föhn - Condescending
22 Aug 2024 - PBV
Funeral DoomAvant-JazzAs shadows slowly crawl across the worn skene of the Theatre of Dionysus, shifting the rays of the sun into low and heavy swirls of clouds, we witness the foreboding scene unfold — etched by Föhn in the ephemeral stage.
Continue reading > -
Dirty Three - Love Changes Everything
17 Aug 2024 - Daniel Gorman
Post-RockJust when I thought it was a done deal that we weren’t ever getting a new Dirty Three album, they drop Love Changes Everything, their first LP in twelve years!
Continue reading > -
Sumac - The Healer
16 Aug 2024 - Stephan
Post MetalAvant-GardeOn The Healer Sumac delivers a big bold stroke with a deafening yet subtly textured brush.
Continue reading > -
Missouri Executive Order 44 - Salt Sermon
12 Aug 2024 - Thorsten
GrindcorePowerviolenceAs poisonous as the inland taipan, as crushing as a boa constrictor, as intelligent as the king cobra – that could be said about Missouri Executive Order 44, one of the new up and coming hardcore bands from the Midwest. One could also say the same thing about institutionalized religion and hey, that’s the idea behind the band from Kansas City, Missouri. No co-incidence!
Continue reading > -
Vesperine - Perpétuel
11 Aug 2024 - Simon
Post-HardcoreVesperine deliver the goods on their stunning new album Perpétuel
Continue reading > -
And So I Watch You From Afar - Megafauna
09 Aug 2024 - Thorsten
Math-RockPost-RockSometimes one might stumble across an album that is so elegantly seductive that you do not even notice your own inner excitement about it. When then recognizing the latter and being unable to explain why – then you might be listening to Megafauna, the new record by Math-Post-Rock magicians And So I Watch You From Afar
Continue reading > -
Kurokuma - Of Amber and Sand
04 Aug 2024 - Thorsten
SludgeThe hourglass, itself being one of the track titles on Kurokuma’s second record, Of Amber and Sand, is the best possible metaphor for said record by now-international group formerly based in the UK, now spread across Europe. This difference between “then” and “now” also defines their new work, as it is its main focus thematically; however, their new-found lifestyle also largely influences and diversifies their sound still mostly channeling the ideas of Sludge, Death and Doom Metal. Behold the behemoth Kurokuma coming at you.
Continue reading > -
Camerata Mediolanense - Atalanta Fugiens
03 Aug 2024 - Thorsten
Neo-ClassicalNew WaveHow hard can it be to define the sound of a band? For near 30 years this question has been taken to new levels by Camerata Mediolansense. Is this Baroque New Wave? Or New Classical Punk? Are we talking about World Chamber Music? Can we classify them as Blackened Choir Music? Know what - all of these are possible. Whether one should listen to this record only has two answers: Yes, if you like your music different. Yes, if your musical taste is not bound by genres, historical periods or even languages. If (one of) these things matter to you, then you can stop here - for all the others: Welcome to the world of Atalanta Fugiens!
Continue reading > -
Ainu - s/t
29 Jul 2024 - Thorsten
Heavy PsychPost-MetalIn 1831, Katsushika Hokusai painted the famous painting The Great Wave off Kanagawa - and for some reason or other I feel a certain kinship between this painting and the cover of Ainu‘s self-titled debut just as I also see the thematic similarities to a band like Ahab. Does that lessen the five songs on Ainu in any way? No, surely not, because their Heavy Psych meets Post-Metal sound is really fresh even though some might see paralells to the genre predecessors, which I do not deny but also do not mind!
Continue reading > -
Defacement - Duality
24 Jul 2024 - PBV
Atmospheric Death MetalBlack MetalAs though colossal mountains shifting with cascading lava pouring down in the cracks, Duality strikes down into the earth, the quick haste carrying the remains of genre’s past in its wake.
Continue reading > -
Mountainscape - Iridescent
21 Jul 2024 - Simon
Progressive MetalPost-Black MetalMountainscape smash the sophomore album curse with the spellbinding Iridescent
Continue reading > -
The Depressick - Faded.exe
20 Jul 2024 - Lucia
Post-Black MetalDSBMInspiration can be found in many things, and also in our own environment. Such is the case with The Depressick’s Faded.exe: this album provides us with a glimpse of the bleakness, gloom and hopelessness that surrounds them in their area, which is a historically impoverished suburb of densely populated Mexico City called Nezahualcoyotl. This album will hit you to the core - its bleakness will give you not only a glimpse into what they experience on a daily basis, but also move you with the beauty of the music they have created which is full of pain and anguish, so let’s drown in the agonising sounds of Faded.exe.
Continue reading > -
Amarok - Resilience
18 Jul 2024 - Thorsten
Blackened DoomWhat does it take to come up with a devastating and crushing yet intricate and beautiful extreme Funeral Doom record? A lot of things and yet not too many – need a good example? Listen to Amarok‘s second full-length Resilience! It might serve like a great tutorial in minor keys, sad moods and cathartic soundscapes!
Continue reading >