ANGELUS APATRIDA – Aftermath

RELEASE YEAR: 2023 BAND URL: https://facebook.com/angelusapatrida Angelus Apatrida’s eponymous²⁰²¹, which I reviewed here (5.5/6) was a fantastic slab of modern thrash metal with hints of groove and metalcore so, when I saw the Century Media Records alert for the brand new video “Cold” I could hardly wait to sink my ears into it. Indeed, “Cold”…

DEMOLIZER – Post Necrotic Human

RELEASE YEAR: 2023 BAND URL: http://www.demolizerthrash.com/ Something I have not presented in a good while here is a thrash metal album and it just so happens that the Danish quartet Demolizer has released their 2nd (after Thrashmageddon²⁰²⁰ 2 years after conception as Demolizer) full length creepily named Post Necrotic Human²⁰²³ on July 4th on Mighty…

ASTRALBORNE – Across The Aeons

RELEASE YEAR: 2023 BAND URL: https://astralborne.bandcamp.com/ Other than the perfect debut from Majesties Vast Reaches Unclaimed²⁰²³ I reviewed here I have not run into a melodic death metal album recently that would so clearly echo the Gothenburg founding fathers of the genre (At The Gates, Dark Tranquillity and In Flames) while remaining fairly unique, that…

MEDEVIL – Mirror In The Darkness

RELEASE YEAR: 2023 BAND URL: https://medevil.bandcamp.com/ The Canadian progressive power thrash metaller’s debut Conductor Of Storms²⁰¹⁶ was already a fiercely original record although the influences were also quite easy to point out. I thought what made Medevil original was their approach to metal: they clearly loved it and were inspired by it but it wasn’t…

OVERKILL – Scorched

RELEASE YEAR: 2023 BAND URL: http://wreckingcrew.com/ Overkill or Over Kill? Looking at the covers of the 30 (!) full lengths by the New York and New Jersey thrash and groove metal legends it seems more the former but the name is actually one word: Overkill, just like Motörhead’s second album it was named after in…

ENFORCER – Nostalgia

RELEASE YEAR: 2023 BAND URL: https://www.enforcerofficial.com/ There’s a mildly funny personal story connected to this 6th album by the Swedish speed and traditional heavy rock and metal quartet Enforcer. I had heard of them before with the Death By Fire²⁰¹³ album review by a former ET reviewer Matt Coe but had never actually took the…

LEPER COLONY – Leper Colony

RELEASE YEAR: 2023 BAND URL: https://lepercolonydm.bandcamp.com/ The mighty death metal warrior Roger “Rogga” Johansson (bass, guitars) whose musical contributions to the genre run for four lines on Encyclopedia Metallum, is back with another slab of classic extremity, here infused with substantial amount of doom, thrash, groove and even traditional metal, joined by Marc Grewe (vocals)…

CATALYST – A Different Painting For A New World

RELEASE YEAR: 2022 BAND URL: https://catalystfr.bandcamp.com/ The wide spread rumours of heavy metal supposedly dying vehemently militate against reality and vice versa, especially when it comes to extreme yet melodic metal. Case in point, the French progressive technical death metal quartet Catalyst which consists of Jules Kicka (guitars, vocals), Florian Iochem (guitars), Jefferson Brand (bass)…

FORETOKEN – Triumphs

RELEASE YEAR: 2023 BAND URL: https://foretoken.bandcamp.com/ I seem to be reviewing a lot of melodic death metal recently and that not on purpose but, here we go again, this time a Virginian symphonic melodeath duo on the occasion of their sophomore album “Triumphs” released earlier last month. What we have here is a somewhat traditional…

BODYFARM – Ultimate Abomination

RELEASE YEAR: 2023 BAND URL: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bodyfarm/107945989258106 The last Asphyx full length “Necroceros” was an album that proved that classic death metal (with plenty of melody) does not have to sound antiquated but can excite like those well-known by Death or Obituary, especially since Asphyx was born in/into the same time. Their fellow countrymen Dutch purveyors…

FROZEN DAWN – The Decline Of The Enlightened Gods

RELEASE YEAR: 2023 BAND URL: https://facebook.com/truefrozendawn I have just finished a series on the Spanish metal scene and it seems right around the time one of the finest Spanish bands, the progressive blackened melodic death metal trio Frozen Dawn, consisting of Daniel “Dani” “Grinder” Álvarez (vocals, guitars), Antonio Mansilla Tolosa (bass) and Arjan Van Der…

BRAN – Odcházení

RELEASE YEAR: 2022 BAND URL: https://bran-bohemia.bandcamp.com/ When is the last time you heard something as good as Emperor’s 2nd album “Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk”? True, Dimmu Borgir tried to get there on “Enthrone Darkness Triumphant” and Cradle Of Filth on “Cruelty And The Beast”, and those are just the ones I can think…