GONZO’S HEAVY ROUNDUP, MARCH 2025

Forlorn

(Our Denver-based writer Gonzo is back with another monthly roundup of reviews and recommendations. Today’s varied collection includes four albums released in March and one from February.)

Well well, here we are again with a new month, and I’m writing this exactly a week later than I wanted to. Refused are officially fucking dead – at least, to everyone who saw them Tuesday night here in Denver – and I’m still getting my voice back after that show. “CAN I SCREAM” indeed.

It’s been quite the active week for heavy music around the Rockies. By the time this gets on our site, I’ll have likely already seen Meshuggah tear another hole in the space-time continuum, and I always look forward to that. I’m glad I managed to get this column out the door, though, as I’m headed to Roadburn in a couple of weeks for a much-needed break. Leaving the country, even if temporarily, seems to be the right move for now. There’s chaos and stupidity around every corner in the US, and I can only live in violent opposition to fascism for so long.

Since I don’t have high hopes for getting an April edition of this column out into the world, it’ll give you more time to dive into these 5 albums for March. You won’t be sorry.

 

Forlorn, Aether

When bands take a smattering of styles within the heavy music realm and rebrand it as a new subgenre, results may vary. Sometimes it’s enough to make me roll my eyes far enough into my skull to permanently lose my balance, and other times it can be downright transcendent.

In the case of the UK’s Forlorn, the blending of progressive, post-metal, folk, and paganism works exceedingly well on their debut album Aether. The rebrand here is “folk horror,” a term that accurately describes what you’ll hear. Vocalist Megan Jenkins can mercilessly phase-shift between Chelsea Wolfe-style cleans and bowel-shaking terror in the blink of an eye. Her breathtaking range is by far one of the highlights of this promising young band. “Funeral Pyre,” with its devastating riffs and crushing post-metal weight, is one of the best examples of this.

On the other hand, interludes like “Matrum Noctem” and “Veiled One” put the “folk” into “folk horror,” even when the music itself could be described as atmospheric and unsettling. Forlorn know exactly when to unsheathe their sword of malignance and slay the demons that need to be slain, and exactly when to dial it back and let it get a little weird. I appreciate that take in a new band.

Aether is an ambitious debut album that’s massively heavy and somewhat original, and doesn’t collapse under the weight of its blended styles.

https://weareallforlorn.bandcamp.com/album/aether
https://www.facebook.com/weareallforlorn/

 

Industrial Puke, Alive to no Avail

Despite the name, Sweden’s Industrial Puke are about as far from industrial music as you can get. Sound-wise, they’re closer to a middle ground between Doomriders and Disrupt, but there’s a nonzero chance Alive to no Avail might cause you to actually puke from excessive headbanging.

Featuring former Burst vocalist Linus Jagerskog, this album’s 12 tracks don’t spend much time fucking around. Jagerskog‘s ferocious bark powers the mayhem on songs that could double as paint thinner — namely “Hoax Mongers” and “The Regretful Climb.” There’s a distinct chaos to the band’s music. D-beat, punk, crust, sludge, HM-2 worship, and death metal all make their presence felt throughout the 28 minutes you’ll spend getting your face ripped off here. Hell, there’s even a glimpse of grind’s middle finger being waved around in defiance more than a few moments here. But whatever you’ll call the end result, it’s a formula that just fucking works.

Most of Avail is set at a galloping if not breakneck pace, and the faster it gets, the more urgent and intense it becomes. By the time you’re listening to “Inverted,” you can practically see the battle-jacket-clad dudes in some garage smashing into each other with reckless abandon. The farther the political pendulum swings to the right, the louder and more prevalent this brand of crusty deathgrind is gonna get. I guess that’s something to look forward to in an otherwise foreboding timeline.

https://suiciderecordsswe.bandcamp.com/album/alive-to-no-avail
https://www.facebook.com/industrialpuke

 

Pothamus, Abur

I’ve said this before, but Belgium might be the post-metal capital of the world now. Most people reading this will look at Amenra as the catalyst, and that’s perfectly fine. But the rise of other bands that navigate the post-metal realm just as skillfully as the OGs can no longer be ignored. This is where Pothamus join the chat.

Pothamus create some of the most haunting and engrossing music I’ve heard so far this year, with a focus on soundscapes and mood rather than riffs. Abur is a densely layered record that’s so atmospheric, it could cause hallucinations. Tracks like “Ravus” all but dare you to skip them, with pulsating drums, faint elements of electronica, and vocals that come in like a white-hot but slightly subdued roar. It’ll probably take a few listens to finally figure out how a band can sound like Heilung collaborating with Neurosis, but you’ll want to try. There’s post-metal, and then there’s this.

Personally, I’m still unwrapping the depths to which this album takes you. It’s a mind-blowing listen, and one that completely took me by surprise after I queued it up for the first time. I also have the good fortune of seeing this trio perform the entire album at Roadburn in a couple of weeks, and if Northwest Terror Fest doesn’t try to kill me directly afterwards, I might even throw in a post of highlights from the acclaimed Dutch festival.

https://pothamus.bandcamp.com/album/abur
https://www.facebook.com/Pothamus

 

Raging Speedhorn, Night Wolf

Even though they have one of the silliest names I’ve ever seen, I’ve been a fan of this jacked-up, loud-as-hell metal outfit for almost 20 years. Their inconsistent release schedule does swallow them up occasionally, but albums that are as much fun as Night Wolf give them a pass for that.

Exactly 32 seconds into leadoff track “Blood Red Sky” captures exactly what you can expect from this album: Huge grooves, adrenaline-fueled lyrics, and a thunderous but grimy rhythm section that sounds like Gabriel blowing his trumpet inside a dive bar. Everything this band does has always sounded like the soundtrack to a bar brawl during the apocalypse, so the motif here hasn’t lost a single step – even with 7 years gone by since the band’s last effort, Hard to Kill. Even though their formula is simple enough, there’s enough variety between the songs on Night Wolf to keep things interesting and never boring. “The Blood Code” slows the riffs down to a half-time, sludgy stomp, and “Can’t Stop” picks it right back up again with a tasty, rumbling bass lead that’s destined to get mosh pits rolling.

Speedhorn also may have found its new modern-day anthemic hit with “Every Night’s Alright for Fighting,” which also has a completely ridiculous music video that needs to be seen to be appreciated.

You know what? Fuck it, on that note, I’m linking you to the video below and we’ll end it here.

https://ragingspeedhorn.lnk.to/nightwolfalbum
https://www.facebook.com/ragingspeedhorn

 

Hypermass, Apparition Day

I was a raving fan of Empyrean, this band’s first full-length in 2022, and I’d been waiting with bated breath for something new. While this is only an EP, it almost doesn’t matter. Quality one-ups quantity anytime.

Each of the five tracks on Apparition Day seems hellbent on packing the most insane, angular melodeath riffs into a backbone that shares more than a little space with hardcore. Where it could easily be too much conceptually, the formula works beautifully. “Neovortex” wraps brain-melting, almost progressive riffs around muscular vocals. On top of that, the funky, psych-tinged breakdown halfway through the song scratches a very particular itch that only a few songs have been able to hit for me this year. “Cult Vendor” hits pretty similarly, and I’ll be damned if some of the blasty-to-ethereal transitions don’t remind me just a little bit of how Blood Incantation do it. Granted, Hypermass don’t sound very much like them at all, but the energy is the same in these types of transitions. Hypermass have more of an In Flames meets Harm’s Way vibe going, and either way, you bet your ass I’m here for it.

When they’re firing on all cylinders, Hypermass channel some names you wouldn’t expect. The sweet spot between death metal, hardcore, and prog metal isn’t easy to pull off, and whenever these Norwegians make it to this side of the Atlantic, I’ll be the first in line.

https://hypermass.bandcamp.com/album/apparition-day
https://www.facebook.com/hypermassmetal