RELEASE YEAR: 2024 BAND URL: https://www.benighted.fr/ The French purveyors of (currently) death metal grindcore have been around since the dusk of the last century but are getting only tighter and better as if in spite of their name, Benighted, which means “pitifully ignorant or in a state of contemptible intellectual or moral ignorance” or “overtaken…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024 BAND URL: https://thermalitysweden.bandcamp.com/ I wonder if In Flames founders Anders Frieden and Björn Gelotte had been privy to listening to fellow Gothenburg melodeathsters Thermality’s independently released (3 years after formation) very good debut album Before I Get To Rest²⁰²³ when the former contemplated the direction of Foregone²⁰²³, which was released on that…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024 BAND URL: https://www.ulcerate-officia.com/ Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? – Epicurus As soon…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024 BAND URL: https://eternalstorm.bandcamp.com/ The debut album by the Spanish progressive melodeathsters Eternal Storm was a perfect blend of the melodic and the brutal with both aspects as genuinely in its proper extreme, and I heralded that fact in my review here. There is always trepidation and anxiety that accompanies any band’s sophomore…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024 BAND URL: https://www.facebook.com/BloodRedThroneOfficial https://bloodredthrone.bandcamp.com/music I’m going to go on the record and say something this review will prove beyond reasonable doubt: if you don’t like Blood Red Throne you don’t like death metal. Blood Red Throne (BRT) is a band whose music I know intimately thanks to their main founder and one…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024 BAND URL: https://fractalgates.bandcamp.com/ The French progressive melodic death metal ensemble is a debutante on our website, at least as far as reviews are concerned, even though they have been at their craft for 18 years but only 3 full lengths: Altered State of Consciousness²⁰⁰⁹, Beyond The Self²⁰¹³ and The Light That Shines²⁰¹⁸,…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024 BAND URL: https://invainband.bandcamp.com/ While Nocturnus’ The Key¹⁹⁹⁰ is widely regarded as the first progressive death metal album, it is arguably Death with its third album Spiritual Healing¹⁹⁹⁰ who had paved the way for Edge Of Sanity (whose debut record, Nothing But Death Remains¹⁹⁹¹ was still standard death metal fare) who then helped…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024 BAND URL: https://antagonyzemetal.bandcamp.com/ Old school death metal is going through a Renaissance. There are countless labels signing bands influenced by old Death, Obituary and the first two Kreator records. Additionally, some labels specifically promote just old school death metal, which also doesn’t hurt. However, there are few bands who can pull off…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024 BAND URL: https://highonfire.bandcamp.com/ Admittedly, I have never been the greatest fan of the Californian sludge and stoner heavy metallers High On Fire (HoF), preferring their peers they influenced, Mastodon. To be perfectly honest (and I gave it plenty of time and patience) The Art of Self Defense²⁰⁰⁰, Surrounded By Thieves²⁰⁰², Blessed Black…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024 BAND URL: https://www.darktranquillity.com/ You hear that, Mr. Anderson? That is the sound of inevitability. It is the sound of your death – Agent Smith in “Matrix” As we inevitably approach the end times (with hindsight 2020!) we need and receive more warnings, especially in music, and, where else can we find it…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024 BAND URL: https://stormbornmetal.com/ Far too many power metal albums just flash the, admittedly fantastic if not virtuosic, guitar leads atop big choruses without paying much attention to writing quality songs, most just sounding like copies of Helloween or Gamma Ray. There are exceptions, for instance, the Italians Temperance whose third album The…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024 BAND URL: https://www.flamingwrekage.com/ Melodic death metal was the eagle of choice for the hardcore bands of the late 90s and early 2000s who had decided to save heavy metal from its successful grunge, alternative and nü metal triple attack, bands like Shadows Fall, Killswitch Engage, Unearth, Darkest Hour and, later, Trivium, who…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024 BAND URL: https://teramaze.com.au/ The one genre where I have always found it hard to find works worth listening to twice has always been progressive heavy metal. When I bought CDs I usually had few albums in my collection, some early Dream Theater, some early Queensrÿche, Tool (of course) an occasional unknown band,…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024 BAND URL: https://tomorrowsrain.bandcamp.com/ With all the excitement of getting a new My Dying Bride album after 6 years, as good as A Mortal Binding²⁰²⁴ is, it’s easy to overlook other albums coming out on the same date, April 19th, such as the 2nd full length Ovdan²⁰²⁴ (released on AOP Records) by the…
RELEASE YEAR: 2023 BAND URL: https://www.paradogmata.com/ It’s becoming harder and harder to come up with a clever name as all the Megadeths, Medevils and Cryptopsies and Darkanes have already been taken. Paradogmata, presumably adressing fake dogmata, contradictory dogmata (as we will learn) or dogmata as it were, is an Norwegian progressive melodic heavy death metal…
RELEASE YEAR: 2023 BAND URL: https://hyperiametal.bandcamp.com/ Hyperia is a Canadian technical heavy thrash metal band founded in 2018 and they have just released their 3rd (after Insanitarium²⁰²⁰ and Silhouettes Of Horror²⁰²²) full length The Serpent’s Cycle²⁰²³ on November 17th, independently but courtesy of two promotors Jon Asher & Asher Media Relations and Sonja Schlicht &…
RELEASE YEAR: 2023 BAND URL: https://dyssebeia.bandcamp.com Dyssebeia is a brand new (2020 inception) Swiss progressive technical melodic death metal quartet consisting of Alexandre Bu Sotirov (vocals), André Bogado Merlin (guitarist), Duran K. Bathija (bass), Samuel Jakubec (drums) whose debut album Garden Of Stillborn Idols²⁰²³ was released on November 16th via the ever mightier Transcending Obscurity…
RELEASE YEAR: 2023 BAND URL: https://empireofdisease.bandcamp.com/ I admit that it’s been a while since I reviewed an Xtreem Music release so I’m starting the righting of the Universe’s balance with the 2nd album from the Spanish melodic groove death metallers Empire Of The Disease, Shadows In The Abyss²⁰²³, released on November 7th two years after…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024 BAND URL: https://mydyingbride.net/ My Dying Bride (named after the middle sequence words in the debut album’s closer “Return Of The Beautiful”) is a British death doom metal band with a penchant for progressive writing which needs no introduction to anyone familiar with the so called British Peaceville Three, along with Anathema and…
RELEASE YEAR: 2023 BAND URL: https://www.ironaltarband.com/ One of the albums I’ve been meaning to get to reviewing in 2023 but something always got in the way was the 2nd (after the independently released Pillars Of Blood²⁰¹⁸) full length by the Scottish progressive metalcorers Iron Altar, Promethean²⁰²³ released on September 29th via Trepanation Recordings. Despite it’s…
