SEEN AND HEARD: MÜTTERLEIN, CARONTE, CAUSTIC WOUND, AUSTERE, KORSAKOV, WAR MAGIC

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Mar 142025
 

(written by Islander)

I had a narrow opening in today’s schedule for a roundup of new songs and videos, and not a lot of time with which to fill it, so I won’t waste the time with further introductory remarks. We’ll get right to it, beginning with:

MÜTTERLEIN (France)

Ever since seeing the recent announcement of a new Mütterlein album a group of metal-loving friends and I have been greedily rubbing our blood-stained hands (contrary to rumor we don’t have talons and the blood is from paper cuts). The rubbing has become more intense since hearing the album’s first single (not that kind of rubbing, get your minds out of the gutter). Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ALZHAGOTH — “AD FINEM”

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Mar 132025
 

(written by Islander)

What is “pagan death metal”? It might be death metal that lyrically honors and celebrates old pre-Christian mystical belief systems, or current non-theistic ones, without much other connection between the music and what inspires the lyrics. Or the connection might be deeper than the words. Or the words might open doors to an imaginary cosmos of recent origin but ancient trappings, accompanied by music designed to reveal what lies beyond the door.

Which brings us to the Italian “pagan death metal” band Alzhagoth. Thematically, they have created their own cosmogony, a vast cosmogony of chaos and even monstrosity, and a cult devoted to the dark god whose name is the name of the band. As for the music, they’ve explained in a recent interview:

“For us, chaos isn’t merely random, but filled with potential. Each element can become part of a subtle order, crystallizing into a track that reflects the darkness of Alzhagoth. In this way, the music becomes an attempt to capture eternity in a single moment, transforming turmoil into something sublime, in the romantic sense of the word.”

What this means in more concrete terms is revealed in Alzhagoth‘s debut album Ad Finem, which will be released tomorrow through Inertial Music, and which we’re now revealing in its entirety. Continue reading »

IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT – GOLDSTAR

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Mar 132025
 

(Andy Synn welcomes another decadent dose of weirdness from Imperial Triumphant)

There comes a time in every band’s career… well, not every band’s career, let’s be honest… when they have to decide what to do with their success.

Do they allow it to change them, and their sound, in an attempt to chase the always alluring, ever-elusive dragon of fame and fortune (more the former than the latter, these days)?

Or do they stick to their guns, refuse to bow to outside pressure, and maintain their integrity, in the hope that success will continue to find them regardless?

Well, I’m sorry to say that with the upcoming release of their sixth album, Goldstar – which is neither a direct-to-video sequel to 2022’s Spirit of Ecstasy, nor a throwback to 2015’s breakthrough Abyssal Gods, but a special, third thing – it seems that Imperial Triumphant have decided that it’s finally time to cash in on their growing celebrity/notoriety and produce something with more artistic accessibility and marketable mass appeal.

That’s right everyone, Imperial Triumphant have finally “sold out”.

Continue reading »

CANTU IGNIS: “THE FATHOMLESS DOMINION”

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Mar 132025
 

(In mid-February the Colorado-based metal band Cantu Ignis released their second album, adorned by wondrous undersea cover art by Mark Erskine. DGR came across it and found the music pretty wondrous too, as you’ll see from his review below.)

Much as we would like to pretend that we are cooler than having a schedule or anything resembling a routine, the year in heavy metal has developed a flow to it. Some things you could set your watch by, while others are a bit more nebulous but are still guaranteed to happen. Metal’s obsession with water and chthonic depths is one such predictably recurring aspect. Even when used as base set-dressing for album art and title, there is some sense of a certain heavily-referenced mythos weaving its way in through the cracks. As cliffs will all eventually break down into piles of sand via the crashing of the waves, you can expect at some point within the year we’re going to head into the depths below.

If anything, what is shocking is that it took until the middle of February to stumble upon one, though you could argue that even then the kind of group drawn to it is to be expected as well. What is alien in the galactic sphere is also alien in the waters below, and if there’s anything the modern age of tech-death groups love it is something alien. They can bend realities to their will in song form and subject matter, and the latest to lap from that particular font of inspiration is Colorado’s Cantu Ignis with their second full-length album The Fathomless Dominion. Continue reading »

FROGG – ECLIPSE

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Mar 122025
 

(Andy Synn puts the debut album from New York weirdniks Frogg under the microscope)

Metal, as we all know, is a serious business for serious people.

And what could be more serious than a colossal cosmic amphibian attempting to devour the moon?

Honestly, it kind of puts all our common, everyday concerns into perspective, doesn’t it?

Continue reading »

SADIST: “SOMETHING TO PIERCE”

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Mar 122025
 

(What we have for you here is DGR‘s review of the tenth installment from Sadist, just released last week by Agonia Records.)

We’ve reached an interesting period in heavy metal wherein it seems as if every Sadist release is going to be the last one, as if Sadist are held together by fierce determination and super glue – though it’s not clear which one is doing the most work.

At this point in their career the entity bearing the Sadist name has been reduced down to its two founding members: vocalist Trevor Nadir and multi-instrumentalist Tommy Talamanca. Drummer Romain Goulon seems to have bowed out after a four-year stint with the band – which, granted, brought us a pretty mean release in 2022’s Firescorched – and it does not appear that Sadist have settled on a permanent rhythm section since then.

The group nowadays seems to be largely reinforced by the Italian death and groove band Fate Unburied, with three of its four members taking up live duties with the band and its rhythm section performing session work with them as well. Which is the way we loop back around to how Sadist is being held together and what they consist of these days – because clearly someone believes in this band’s angular and bizarre take on death metal. A large part of the explanatory weight is left to the group’s newest material then, an early March unleashing of death metal entitled Something To Pierce. Continue reading »

SPIRITWORLD: “HELLDORADO”

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Mar 112025
 

(SpiritWorld‘s new album Helldorado will be arriving on March 21st on Century Media Records, and we have Gonzo‘s take on it today.)

I’ve often described metal as the perfect additive to any other type of music. When done right, it can be an incredible marriage of styles. Results may vary, of course, but the ongoing explosion of subgenres within the metal realm will prove the point either way.

This fact will undoubtedly be obvious to anyone reading this. But the fun part of such experimental alchemy that so many bands have tried over the years? It creates new sonic territory yet to be explored by anyone else.

Enter Stu Folsom and his bedazzled cowboy cohorts in SpiritWorld. I was (and still am) hopelessly hooked on their 2022 album DEATHWESTERN, with its furious Slayer-inspired riffs and paint-peeling vocals. The fusing of country, folk, and dust-crusted Sergio Leone-style storytelling made the album worth its weight in gold. Three years later, the big question about new album Helldorado is whether or not it holds up to its predecessor.

Let’s find out.

Continue reading »

SPIRITBOX: “TSUNAMI SEA”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule  1 Response »
Mar 102025
 

(Late last week the Canadian heavy metal band Spiritbox released their second album, and today we’ve got Wil Cifer‘s review.)

Before you throw the LaPlante out with the bathwater, it might be easy to write this band off as a pop act. After all, they are an evolution of Myspace metal. However, I might go as far as to say that this album is more inspired than Knocked Loose’s You Won’t Go Before You Are Supposed To, which was one of the heaviest albums since Sunbather to catch the ear of more mainstream audiences. It certainly takes more chances and employs a wider range of sonic colors, rather than hits you with blunt force you bob your head to.

If your eyes have skimmed any of the reviews I have done for this fine site or other of the more devious ones you might have stumbled across on the Dark Web, then you know this is outside of what I normally listen to. If you caught the trail of breadcrumbs that starts with Chelsea Wolfe covering one of their songs, then you might be getting warmer. Continue reading »

K L P S – K L P S

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Mar 102025
 

(What sort of difference does a name make? Andy Synn sets out to find out!)

Hands up… how many of you have heard of Danish existential extremists Kollapse?

Well, this is not that band.

How about Swedish Post-Metal noisemongers Kollaps\e?

Well, it turns out that the latter group, in an effort to differentiate themselves further from their fellow Nordic neighbours just across the water (who, in fairness, did have the name first), recently re-branded themselves as K L P S (still pronounced the same way) and decided that the best way to celebrate his new era was with a brand-new, self-titled album.

All of which begs the question, does a rose band by any other name still smell sound as sweet?

Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): NOMADIC RITUALS — “FUST”

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Mar 102025
 

(written by Islander)

It often happens that we, like everyone else, find our first exposure to an album in a single song provided in advance of the album release, even when we later find ourselves premiering the entire record. That is what happened here in the case of Fust, the apocalyptic fourth album by the sludge/doom band Nomadic Rituals from Northern Ireland that will soon be released by our friends at Cursed Monk Records.

One of their early singles from the album was “Change“. It greeted our ears with clobbering beats and demonic snarls, with vicious sizzling tones and shrill demented decibels. The song’s mangling low-frequencies lurch like some enormous primeval beast; the vocals scream and bay at the moon; the beats crack and tumble.

The music also pounds like a sledgehammer and seems to moan in agony, and the beasts come out in the doubled vocals too. It might have ended there, but doesn’t: the drums vividly clatter; the guitars go off like sirens; the low end brutally gouges with gruesome claws; the voices scream bloody murder.

As a welcome sign placed before listeners, “Change” was very fucking intense, an experience in rage and ruin, like a welcome sign made of skull and crossbones. How indicative was it of the album as a whole? You’re about to find out. Continue reading »

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