Album Reviews Archives - Page 8 of 545

TOMBS – FERAL DARKNESS

Oct 222025

(Andy Synn isn’t shy about declaring himself a fan of the new album from Tombs, out now)

It’s funny, isn’t it, the ways in which we define ourselves? The ways in which “who we are” is so often bound up in the things we like (or don’t like).

It isn’t always healthy of course – toxic fan culture is a continuous blight, as we all know, and choosing to base your entire personality around your obsessive fandom of anything (or anyone) is a recipe for dysfunction and depression – but our likes and dislikes definitely form a distinct part of our self-image.

And yet it’s so easy for this image to become distorted or outdated.

Case in point, I’ve been a fan of Brooklyn-based Black Metal quartet Tombs for a very long time now – if you’d asked me I definitely wouldn’t have hesitated to describe myself as such – but it was only while working on my review of their new album that I realised that you’d have to go pretty far back (possibly even as far as 2017’s The Grand Annihilation) to find the last thing they did that I truly loved.

But, thankfully, with the release of Feral Darkness just last week, you no longer have to go very far at all to experience the band at their very best.

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): MIASMIC SERUM — “BETTER LEFT DEAD”

Album Reviews, Premieres No Responses »

Oct 212025

(written by Islander)

Last year we had the ghoulish pleasure of reviewing and premiering a full stream of Infected Seed, the debut album from the Italian band Miasmic Serum, which we called “one of the most thrilling and accomplished death metal assaults of the year so far.”

We are fortunate that Miasmic Serum are already back with a new EP named Better Left Dead that will be released on October 24th by Iron Fortress Records, and equally fortunate to be the bearer of another full streaming premiere.

Whereas that debut album was thematically focused on poisons, venoms, and hallucinogens, for this new EP the band have drawn inspiration from H.P. Lovecraft, and in particular his short story “Herbert West – Reanimator” and the cult 1985 film adaptation Re-Animator. The EP also features the band’s new vocalist Riccardo Marconato (Afraid Of Destiny). Continue reading »

OBSCURITIES – VOLUME XXI: HALLOWEEN & CHILLING RIFFS

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Oct 212025

(Daniel Barkasi is back with another monthly collection of carefully chosen obscurities, providing vivid and enthusiastic reviews of six fine albums released in September of this year.)

As I begin to write this in an airport, heading to Pittsburgh on a shockingly delayed flight – helping out the folks with a few things, seeing a great friend who has struggled with some awful health issues (love you, Darren), and the Under Appalachian Skies festival (which has concluded by the time you read this, and it was an incredible time) — it’s dawned on me how wild of a year it’s been, yet it’s gone by so damn fast. Hope everyone is hanging in there best you can!

I wanted to also give my deepest appreciation to those who gave their condolences for our dog Kaiya last month. Those kind words went a long way, and it meant a lot.

Halloween is rapidly approaching, and it’s the season of Reese’s peanut butter pumpkins and good horror flicks. If anyone has any good suggestions, I’m all ears! There’s a ton of Korean films and series that I want to check out, as some of the best productions are coming from there, and have for some time. We also went to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Orlando recently and had a blast! If anyone ever finds themselves in the swamp at this time of year, it’s definitely worth your time. Continue reading »

THE ACACIA STRAIN – YOU ARE SAFE FROM GOD HERE

Album Reviews 3 Responses »

Oct 202025

(Andy Synn embraces both the horror, and the hope, of the new album from The Acacia Strain, out Friday)

From “high art” to “low art” (and I’m sure there’s at least a few people out there who would absolutely consider The Acacia Strain to be the latter, at best) the one thing which truly makes art… well… art, is the emotion and intention which goes into its creation.

And while this seems to confuse some people – especially those “death of the author” types, for whom the only important thing is their interpretation – to me it just makes sense that art is all about what you put into it… and not necessarily what others get out of it.

Which is why it was so interesting to me to read The Acacia Strain‘s long-time lyrical mouthpiece Vincent Bennett talk about how much more personal their new album was and how this is the first time that he’s truly worn his heart on his sleeve (or, more accurately, in his words).

Because at no point in their career have I felt that Bennett, or the band, have ever tried to hold themselves back or settle for simply going through the motions… their rage has always read as something raw and visceral and uncompromising in both intent and delivery.

But perhaps what he meant is that, despite describing You Are Safe From God Here as the band’s “dark fantasy era” (based on the perhaps-not-entirely-fantastical premise that the entity we call “god” is something to be feared and avoided at all costs), what he’s actually doing this time around is exploring the roots of this rage… the desperation, the desolation, and the despair which feeds it and fuels it, for better or worse.

SHADES OF BLACK: THE STONE, NIMBIFER, SYLLOGOMANIA, RAAT, ANAGNEIA

Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET 1 Response »

Oct 192025

(written by Islander)

Only five selections today, but there’s still a lot here — three EP-length records and a complete album, in addition to a lead-off song by a respected Balkan band from their next full-length. (Having more time to pursue my own perfidious activities is one silver lining to the personal cloud of enduring my wife’s absence while she’s off partying with one of her two sisters in Nevada this weekend.) Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: WILD BEYOND, FELL RUIN, OF WOLVES, TENEBRIS, BELL WITCH & AERIAL RUIN, SOULFRACTURE

Album Reviews, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET No Responses »

Oct 182025

(written by Islander)

Life outside the doors of NCS reminded me again that there is life outside the doors of NCS. Which is to say that unforeseen occurrences pushed back the time I wanted to spend listening to and writing about new metal for this roundup, so I’m late finishing it. No need to go into detail but, well, a baseball playoff game last night and needing to get my wife to an early ferry boat this morning had something to do with it.

There’s no baseball playoff games today and my spouse is now out of town, just me and the cats holding down the homestead, so there’s a decent chance I’ll have a more on-time roundup of black(ish) metal ready for tomorrow. As for today’s selections, I think they’ll keep you off-balance as you move through them. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DET — “DESTRUCTIVE ELITE TERROR”

Album Reviews, Premieres No Responses »

Oct 162025

(written by Islander)

In case anyone is still puzzled by the meaning of the Finnish band DET‘s name, they’ve spelled it out in the title of their forthcoming debut album: Destructive Elite Terror.

The album is set for release by Dying Victims Productions on that most metal of dates, October 31st. It follows up DET‘s 2022 demo Death Night, their 2023 demo Vengeance, and their 2023 split with Krusifoitu. What we bring you today is the opportunity to hear — and get revved up by — the entire album. Continue reading »

BEST OF BRITISH: ASIDHARA / BEYOND EXTINCTION / CONJURER / DIMSCÛA

Album Reviews No Responses »

Oct 152025

(Andy Synn provides four, rather than his usual three, fantastic examples of British steel for you to enjoy)

Looking back at the year so far it appears that while I’ve been pretty regular with these “Best of British” articles I haven’t quite managed to do one a month, hitting January, but not February, then publishing one each in March, April, May,and June, before skipping July, and then just about squeezing one in during August and September.

For this edition (which might not be the only one in October, if all goes well) however, I’ve slightly mixed things up a little, including one album released all the way back in June (which, to my chagrin, I didn’t even get around to listening to until last month), one from the end of last month, and two from this month, one of which was already released, the other coming out next week.

So let’s see what delights this extended edition has to offer, shall we?

THE GRASSHOPPER LIES HEAVY: “HEAVY”

Album Reviews 3 Responses »

Oct 142025

(Here we have Todd Manning’s enthusiastic review of a new album by Texas-based The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, which is set for release on November 14th by Learning Curve Records.)

The Grasshopper Lies Heavy is the two-headed brainchild of founder and frontman James Woodward. One head is the cinematic, post-rock band responsible for releases such as We Shouldn’t Be Here and the 2017 film soundtrack Cavern. The second side of the band is the pummelling, nasty metal behemoth responsible for the group’s latest, the aptly titled HEAVY.

There’s no attempt to marry the two identities here. HEAVY specializes in mid-tempo assaults, lethal grooves, and cathartic explosions. They rip out of the gates with “Human Claymore” and “Lyrics Are Hard”, two tracks of vicious stomps. What these lack in tempo variation, they make up for in powerful, nuanced riffing. There is an efficiency to The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, each riff sounds like it has been created and shaped organically, not tech per se, but full of detail. It’s the sort of riff-writing acumen that made Mastadon’s Remission so infectious, but here it is filtered through the pummeling power of early Coalesce. Continue reading »

AN ABSTRACT ILLUSION – THE SLEEPING CITY

Album Reviews No Responses »

Oct 132025

(Andy Synn asks you not to sleep on the new album from An Abstract Illusion, out this Friday)

There are differing schools of thought about when/whether, as a reviewer, you should read what other people have written about an album prior to publishing your own take.

On the one hand, yes, there’s the danger of being overly influenced by the opinions and perceptions of others (something which often leads to a cringeworthy sense of “critical consensus” that largely relies on the fact that no-one wants to rock the boat or suggest that, just maybe, the emperor is a little bit naked).

But, on the other, there’s always the chance that another writer will stumble upon something insightful that could help inform your own unique thoughts and help you consider things in a different light.

Whichever side you land on, however (and, in general, I try not to read much/anything by other writers when I know I’m going to be reviewing something), it’s always worth remembering that any review is always in conversation with a lot of different things… not just the music itself, but also the artist’s history, their public perception, and their previous critical reception, meaning that you’re never fully writing in isolation.

And so, while I’ve tried my best to avoid seeing what others have written about The Sleeping City – though I’ve already spotted a couple of slightly hyperbolic 10/10s here and there – one thing I made sure to do was to go back and re-read my own review of the band’s show-stopping second album, Woe, simply because there’s no way to discuss the former without comparing it to the latter.

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