RELEASE YEAR: 2024 BAND URL: https://facebook.com/burning.creation5/ My native country of Poland had always been a vibrant heavy metal scene but, with the exception of Acid Drinkers, Kat and Vader there had not been many of renown until the day Adam Michał “Holocausto” “Nergal” Darski recorded the infamous Eternal Damnation¹⁹⁹² demo signalling a new wave of…
RELEASE YEAR: 2025 BAND URL: https://www.archenemy.net/en/ Whenever you consider the band’s name, Arch Enemy (AE) (pronounced “arkenemy” like in “archangel”?), you’re bound to have questions. Who is that arch enemy? Is he or she real, symbolic or both, or, perhaps, the Amott brothers purposely keep it ambiguous so that everyone interprets it how they please?…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024 BAND URL: https://facebook.com/octoploidmusic/ It has become almost a custom among heavy metal (and rock) artists that members of well-established and successful bands either make solo albums or join other bands while remaining active in their main abode. It used to be (80s and 90s), due to time and space constraints (both now…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024BAND URL: https://goremageddon.be/ The Belgium-founded gore death metal quartet, Aborted, is one of those bands which are not amongst my favorites yet which I, nevertheless, have had a special relationship with for over 17 years, beginning with their 5th full length, Slaughter & Apparatus: A Methodical Overture²⁰⁰⁷, which I had obtained via the…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024 BAND URL: https://www.wordsoffarewell.com/ Sometimes it’s interesting to watch a band evolve from a genre typical act through being a lot of things at once with mixed results to, finally, come full circle and come up with something hard to define. A good example is German progressive melodic death metal sextet, Words Of…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024BAND URL: https://nightrage.com/ Although one of the Gothenburg melodic death metal three, In Flames, had stopped making music with the “wow” effect (to borrow from a commercial) after the fantastic Clayman²⁰⁰⁰, arguably they haven’t stopped making melodeath until after Reroute To Remain²⁰⁰², Soundtrack To Your Escape²⁰⁰⁴ where they started Kornizing their sound. It…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024BAND URL: https://nyktophobia.bandcamp.com/ As much as I appreciate complex and progressive direction in melodic death metal, sometimes I want my melodeath to be just a deluge of luscious melody as in Hypocrisy¹⁹⁹⁹, Insomnium’s Across The Dark²⁰⁰⁹ or Omnium Gatherum’s The Burning Cold²⁰¹⁸, and I am always happy to discover another fantastic album of…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024 BAND URL: https://omnivide.ca/ When Opeth gave up (thankfully, temporarily) on the “death” part in their progressive death metal stylings after Watershed²⁰⁰⁸ (now we know why so called) there came what usually comes after a legendary metal force mellows down: an onslaught of would be successors, some whom had started while Opeth was…
Last year I had the great pleasure of witnessing the hard-hitting Norwegian metal quintet known as Tessia live on stage in Bergen when they were competing in the Wacken Metal Battle semi-finals, and it was a night to remember. Not only was it a hugely memorable performance with the band firing on all cylinders and…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024 BAND URL: https://theabsenceofficial.bandcamp.com/ As is my custom, stated earlier, many times in my reviews, in order to gain a perspective on new material, I often listen through the back discography, especially with more known and established acts. I am sometimes surprised how my feelings about certain albums, especially those reviewed here, change…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024 BAND URL: https://onceupontheend.bandcamp.com/ One of the most interesting and innovative melodic death metal bands in recent memory, the French quartet is even uniquely named, Once Upon The End. After one EP and one full length, plus a change of vocalist, they have independently released (yet promoted by Imperative PR) another EP, the…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024 BAND URL: https://burndowneden.de/ Yahweh God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, so that he does not reach out his hand and ALSO take of the tree of life and eat, and live forever….” So Yahweh God sent him out from the garden of…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024 BAND URL: https://motherofallofficial.bandcamp.com/ Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy s@#t we don’t need…We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024 BAND URL: https://deceptionnorway.bandcamp.com/ A few reviews back, I had the pleasure to review the latest album from the Norwegian death metal stalwarts Blood Red Throne, Nonagon²⁰²⁴ as well as a chance to give my first 6/6 in a long time. Their new vocalist, Sindre Wathne Johnsen, is the founder of another Norwegian…
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://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://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://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://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://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…
