OUR LIST OF 2025’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 8): THEMATA, VICTIM OF FIRE, HVRT

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2025  4 Responses »
Jan 132026
 

(written by Islander)

As I’ve repeatedly stated (to protect the innocent), this is MY list, not some kind of list of THE SITE. But while my own tastes and listening habits drive things, I do try to pay attention to what our readers have suggested, as well as what got our other writers pumped up. That’s pretty much what drove me to package these next three songs together:

Yesterday’s segment was likely to make DGR happy, and today’s installment should make Andy Synn happy… unless he thinks I fucked up and picked the wrong songs from these three albums. Well, we’ll see….

But what I really hope is that these selections will make YOU happy when you hear them. And to be clear, I’m still driving this bus. While my co-writers helped steer me toward these albums and songs, I genuinely did find them very catchy, memorable, infectious in different ways. Continue reading »

2025 – A YEAR IN REVIEW(S): THE PERSONAL TOP TEN

 LISTMANIA 2025  12 Responses »
Dec 122025
 

(Andy Synn finishes off “List Week” with a bunch of his personal favourites)

Here we are again folks, at the end of the road (for now, at least… I’ll probably still sneak in a few more reviews, including another “Best of British” and a “Things You May Have Missed”, before the end of the year).

And, as always, I’m finishing off “List Week” with my “Personal Top Ten”, i.e. the ten albums that have hit me the hardest, or stayed with me the longest, or otherwise just spent the most time on my regular playlist during 2025.

They aren’t necessarily the biggest names (several of them, in fact, are brand new bands making their first steps onto the wider stage this year), or even the “best” albums (some of them didn’t even make the cut for my “Great” list), but they’re definitely the ones (including some which came as a surprise to me) which had the biggest impact on my listening habits in 2025.

Of course there are lots of other artists/albums I wish I could have included here – honourable mentions go out to the likes of Tombs, Monolith, Crossed, Abigail Williams, and Terzij de Horde, all of whom were very much in the running for a place in my “Personal Top Ten” (the latter coming close to making the “Critical Top Ten” too) – but it should still give you some good insight into how my tastes have developed/regressed/mutated over the course of the year!

Continue reading »

THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (BUT SHOULDN’T)

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Sep 042025
 

(Andy Synn has four suggestions, taken from a long list, of stuff to check out from August)

August was a busy month for me, for a lot of different reasons, which is why it feels like I missed out on covering a lot of artists/albums I normally would have made/found more time for.

Those artists include – but are not limited to – Arrows (though at least Islander was able to give that a bit of a write-up), Innumerable Forms (hopefully someone will get to that?), Lowheaven (which I wish I had more space for… but Slow Crush took their slot in the end), Pilgrimage, Ethereal Wound (which I’m more and more gutted not to be including), Spire of Lazarus, Hexrot, and Porenut (whose new album I still might review, possibly next week) amongst many, many more, so I encourage you all to go check them out if/when you have time after reading this article.

Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: ESOCTRILIHUM, KAMRA, HUYA GENUS, YOTUMA, VICTIM OF FIRE, ESSES

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHORT BUT SWEET  No Responses »
Jul 262025
 

(written by Islander)

I got a late start on this Saturday’s roundup of recommended new music, and I feel the need to rush in order to keep it from appearing too late in the day. So my review-ish commentary will be somewhat briefer than usual (please hold your applause) and I’ll cut the rest of the introduction to just this:

I would suggest that this collection is a mix of brain-scramblers, bone-smashing punishers, muscle-twitching groovers, headlong racers, and seductive clean-sung sorcery, more or less in that order. Continue reading »