(Andy Synn presents another round-up of cool stuff you may have missed last month)
A couple of days ago I promised you a second one of these “Things You May Have Missed” articles… and here it is.
Of course, even with double the usual number of bands to cover I’ve still barely scratched the surface of what March had to offer, so if you have any extra time on your hands I’d recommend also checking out the new releases from Alkhemia, Cult of Occult, Defacing God, Dionysiaque, Dollhaver, Gorenado, The Oldest House, Qwälen, and Rivers Ablaze.
Before then, however, here’s four artists/albums – including two debuts – that I’ve personally selected as being particularly worthy of your attention.
ABKEHR – …DEM WILLEN ZUR MACHT UND DEM VERGESSEN
Following the completion of their early trilogy (In Asche, In Feuer, In Blut) took a longer break between releases – which is understandable, since they’d stuck to a pretty rigid “one record every two years” schedule since they dropped their first EP – which meant the antcipation for their third album, …dem Willen zur Macht und dem Vergessen, was even higher than usual.
Thanfully the band do not disappoint, as these six tracks – five “acts” and one “epilogue” – while just as raw as ever, also possess even more raw power this time around, from the opening blasting bombardment of “Sturz” all the way through to final fading notes of “Abgesang”.
In between the duo treat us to a veritable cavlacade of seething distortion and bleak majesty (“Zehrung”), depressive melancholy and doom-laden menace (“Verdikt”), and grim, gruelling groove (“Trutz”), all interspersed with passages of introverted, immersive atmosphere and topped off with an array of vicious, vituperative vocals that flip back and forth from primitive, punky belligerence to savage, suicidal anguish.
As harsh as it is hypnotic (and vice versa), there’s a roughness and a ruggedness to the album’s sound that makes every barbed riff and clattering drum beat feel incredibly tactile and tangible, with the eponymous “Abkehr” – with its iconic blend of intellect, intensity, and intricacy – being perhaps the perfect example of how Abkehr have managed to craft something here that feels both organic and spontaneous as well as artfully ambitious in the very same breath.
CONCEALER – THIS ROOM COULD BE HEAVEN
Sitting somewhere between the heaviness and harshness of early Metalcore (think bands like Poison The Well, whose new album you should also make time to check out, and One Eyed God Prophecy) and the fearless emotional urgency of classic Post-Hardcore acts like Thrice (especially their early works) and Alexisonfire (particularly when the band deploy a dash of crooning, clean-sung melody), Floridian quintet Concealer have made one hell of a statement with their debut album, This Room Could Be Heaven, that’s for sure.
Balancing the visceral vulnerability of songs such as emotionally intense opener “Vanity, a Fractured Promise” (which introduces the album’s almost Deftones-y sense of melodic melancholy really early on) and the spiky, soaring strains of “Color Slowly Fading” with the more explosive aggression of tracks like the aptly-named “Claymore” and the deceptively-titled “A Quiet Ending”, the group prove themselves to be masters of both worlds/sides of the equation in swift order.
At the same time, however, their flirtations with simmering electronic embellishments during the likes of “I/II” and “The Stillness Between Us” (the latter of which again invites some strong comparisons to Thrice, specifically their more experimental, early 00’s era) demonstrate a willingness to expand their creative palette that’s undoubtedly impressive at such an early stage in their career.
That being said, it’s ultimately the band’s combination of both sonic and emotional intensity on late-album highlights like captivating Metallic/Melodic Hardcore anthem “…And the Sunlight Spoke” and the crunchy, cathartic title-track that really drives home just how good… hell, how great… a debut album This Room Could Be Heaven really is.
GUTVOID – LIMINAL SHRINES
The issue I sometimes have with a lot of “Old School” Death Metal is the excessive focus on the word “old”.
Too many bands are content with just reproducing existing sounds with 100% fidelity, which often results in their output sounding overly dated and/or derivative (or both), without adding anything to the canon.
But there are efinitely ways to take an “Old School” sound and recreate, repurpose, and reinvigorate it for modern times – “what if OSDM, but now?” – that open up opprtunities for bands to put their own stamp on things, and that’s absolutely what Gutvoid have done here.
Oh, sure, the deathly DNA of bands like Morbid Angel, Edge of Sanity, and Dismember can be detected easily enough throughout tracks like “Spell Reliquary” and “Of Smothering Sea”, but – even on first pass – you can tell just how much of their own genetic material Gutvoid have also contributed to the music as well, especially when it comes to the soaring, swirling, subtly dissonant melodic leads that dominate both the aforementioned songs, as well as the constantly evolving, yet always engaging, songwriting, that finds the band twisting and deconstructing the classic tropes of Death Metal to suit their needs.
That’s not to say that Gutvoid are totally reinventing the proverbial wheel here – as much as a song like “Umbriel’s Door” presents a sharper, more cutting-edge variant on “Old School Death Metal” it’s still a recognisable (and welcome) addition to the genre’s long legacy – but they’ve definitely loaded it with a fresh set of tyres, and given it an extra spin (especially during the ambitious final pairing of “Lead Me Beyond the Sleeping I” and “Chasm of Displaced Souls”, with the latter in particular representing the band at their most crushing and creative) that makes Liminal Shrines a vital addition to the scene, despite its occasional over-indulgence(s).
MORDEO – MORDEO
Sludge/Crust/Death/Grind quintet Mordeo are the perfect example of a band who clearly aren’t in this to make friends or influence people… unless they’re trying to influence people to beat down fascists and burn down the system.
Comparable in sound and style to the likes of Dystopia, Trap Them and Black Breath (who are reforming and performing at this year’s Northwest Terror Fest, FYI), the band’s self-titled debut album is all about delivering only the nastiest, gnarliest riffs, neck-wrecking, bowel-shaking bass lines, and punchiest, most punishing percussive patterns – pulverising your ears with a veritable torrent of pounding d-beats and blistering blastbeats – as well as some of the most apoplectically aggressive vocals of the year… and that’s just in the first song (“Bring Back the Fear”)!
As ultra-aggro as the band’s modus operandi might be, however, they’re also not afraid of a bit of brooding introspection – parts of “Fight Your Friends” even remind me of early Neurosis in their prime – or doom-laden desolation (the gruelling grind of “No More Chances”, for example, would give even Primitive Man a run for their money), meaning that as rough ‘n’ ready as the album may be, it doesn’t just come at you from just one angle… it wrecks you just as much emotionally as it does physically.
That being said, as much as Mordeo‘s debut might be an unflinching, mostly unforgiving, assault on the senses (“Coward” is five-and-a-half minutes of pure sonic suffering) it’s also packed with ripping, saw-toothed riffs – the boiling chug and churn of “Prophets for Prophet” (which also ends with an unexpected dash of meditative acoustic melody) might just end up being one of the most disgustingly infectious songs of 2026, when all is said and one – that will help keep you coming back for more again and again like the masochists I know you are!