(written by Islander)
Triskaidekaphobia is a recognized affliction, but no one should fear this 13th installment of our infectious song list. Instead, it should be relished, though in the case of some aspects of the following music it may be worth remembering that in the tarot deck, XIII is the card of Death, often depicting the Pale Horse with its rider. You’ll probably relish those aspects too. Continue reading »
(Our contributor Chile (that’s his nickname, not his country of origin) has chosen to review the recently released debut album by the Chilean band Oraculum, recently released by Invictus Productions.)
If there is one truth about any given year when it comes to metal, it’s that we are constantly on the lookout for greatness. Sometimes it comes unexpectedly like a stranger in the night trying to pass us by in a dark alley, and other times it rams you head-on like a raging bull stomping over your mangled body.
You know already where we are going with this. Some bands are all about stomping and show us absolutely no mercy, which is also the reason why we appreciate them for that very feeling of might and strength. That is the story of Chile’s (the country) Oraculum. Continue reading »
(written by Islander)
From everything we’ve read about the members of Barbarian over the last 15 years or so, they’re a trio of die-hard metal maniacs whose heads are filled to the brim with music from a variety of classic eras throughout heavy metal history. They have also consistently demonstrated a rare ability to let that array of influences almost instinctively flow through their own songwriting in ways that are familiar but never formulaic, so much so that you never know quite what they’re going to do from one album to the next, or even within individual songs, except you know it’s going to light a bonfire in your head.
Undoubtedly, the songwriting process of these Italians begins with riffs — because the songs are usually packed to the brim with them — but it’s also clear they devote a lot of care to refinement of their initial ideas, with the objective of leaving no one bored, and least of all themselves.
To repeat, you never know quite what’s going to happen, or even which inspirations might work their way into the music, but you can be damn sure the results will be interesting… and exhilarating… and heavy metal to the core.
Which brings us to Barbarian’s new album Reek of God, which we’re excited to share with you from start to finish today in advance of its January 23 release by their new label Dying Victims Productions. Continue reading »
(written by Islander)
I spent some time this weekend trying to figure out what I should add to this list after the three segments I’ve planned for the first three days of this week, which is as far as I’ve gotten. I thought I ought to pay more attention to songs from albums that didn’t make any of our year-end lists, and albums we didn’t even review, and songs I didn’t comment about in weekend roundups. I have a lot of listening ahead of me.
But today’s choices are all from albums we paid attention to in print last year. They were all on my radar back in late December when I started mapping out the first two weeks of this January rollout. They are all from albums we reviewed and that rightly received their fair share of acclaim during YE list season. Continue reading »
(Andy Synn gets his Death Metal on with the new album from Ectovoid, out now on Everlasting Spew)
Playing “Extreme Metal” – whatever your chosen flavour may be – is, as we all know, serious business.
That being said, it’s not a crime to have some fun while you’re doing it, and Birmingham, Alabamaniacs Ectovoid – whose line-up comprises members of serious death-dealers like Metaphobic, Father Befouled, and Seraphic Entombment – sound like they’re having an absolute blast (pun only marginally intended) on their recently-released third album, In Unreality’s Coffin.
(written by Islander)
Two days ago people in the tiny Spanish village of San Bartolomé de Pinares renewed a tradition that’s purportedly five centuries long — building bonfires in the central streets and riding horses through the flames. This is done on the eve of the festival of Saint Anthony the Abbott, the patron saint of domestic animals, because what honors domestic animals better than forcing some big ones to hurtle through an inferno?
I always look for photos of the event because they’re typically amazing and because they’re usually pretty good metaphors for people here and around the world trying to brave whatever fiery hells are burning around us. Lots of those to choose from these days.
Oddly, when I went looking for photos of this year’s ritual I had to wade through snowy photos of armed Greenlandic polar bears and sled dogs. What the hell was that about? (Well, I knew, and I guess it’s proof that AI is good for something besides kicking people out of work and threatening humanity with extinction.) Continue reading »
(written by Islander)
Thinking back on the last week’s domestic and international news, it sure looks like humanity is circling the drain at an increasing rate of speed and frothiness. (Speaking of which, if you haven’t listened to the new music from Circular Ruin you should, and not just because their name so perfectly captures the current moment.)
On the other hand, the flow of new metal during the past week was more like the opposite of that, a great spinning flow surging up and out of the drain like a reverse-whirlpool of dark waters flooding out of the underground. New songs spun out from bands with prominent names but also from groups whose names are dramatically more obscure (but should becoem better known).
Even with my high waders on, I was only able to divert a small amount of the surge into this weekly column, and it’s a rarity in that all but one of the bands are from the U.S. Hopefully I’ll be able to divert more of the surge toward your attention in tomorrow’s Sunday column, but the Seahawks are in an NFL playoff game tonight and I’m not sure what kind of shape my head and heart will be in come the dawn, so who knows? Continue reading »
(written by Islander)
“Circular Ruin is the ever-recurring end of everything once great, the endless cycle of temporary prosperity followed by death and devastation, and the inevitable demise of humanity by its own hand.”
Yes indeed, anyone with even a passing interest in human history could agree with that depiction of our past and our future, a recurring and millennia-long sequence of self-inflicted ruin in which no important lessons are ever learned and what we have to look forward to is a circling of the drain.
Apart from being a succinct encapsulation of where our species has been and where we are going, Circular Ruin is also the name of a Swedish extreme metal quintet whose debut album is about to be launched upon a helpless public.
That album, A Sermon in Tongues, follows up the band’s 2023 EP Future Graves, and it will be released by Vendetta Records on January 30th. One song from the album has already exploded, and today we’re premiering a second one — “Perisher“. Continue reading »
(written by Islander)
Almost one year ago we published our contributor Zoltar’s very insightful interview of veteran guitarist Uriel Aguillon, riff-writer of the Romanian death metal band Putred. The discussion included this revealing Q&A:
Do you think that Putred would have sounded different if you hadn’t been born in the first half of the ’70s, and thus had the chance to catch the whole death metal boom when it all started?
Absolutely! I’ve been in the metal underground since the mid ’80s and it is what I know how to do, it comes naturally, and I couldn’t continue listening to new stuff after 1996, so I got stuck in the past for good. Putred is old rusted murky and filthy rotting death metal based in that feeling/mood rather than anything else.
This is an honest claim, and an accurate one when it comes to the music of these Transylvanian ghouls. One year ago Putred had just launched their second album Megalit al putrefacției, and this year they’re returning with a new album titled Blestemul din Adânc that’s set for release in March by a trio of conspiring labels. What we’ve got for you today is a visualizer premiere for the record’s first single, “Devorat de Întuneric“. Continue reading »
(written by Islander)
After today there will be 10 days left to complete this series before I stop at the end of January (unless I panic and post a segment on a weekend). I’m guessing some of you are wondering when I’m going to include more of the 2025 songs you played most often, because I’m confident there’s no way we’ve hit everyone’s favorites so far — there’s just way too many good candidates out there. But I also suspect that this list is already serving as a reminder of that very fact.
My own mind has reached the boggled stage where I know I’m going to have to leave off a great many songs that really got their hooks in me (and you) last year. I also know I’m incapable of ranking the remaining candidates in any way that will make the decisions easier, even with 10 more installments to come after this one.
Well, I’ll leave those agonies for another day and focus instead on today’s trio of addictives tracks. Continue reading »