TORTURE HAMMER Dormant Horror (2024) Some seriously heavy death metal comes your way with this four-song demo from Santa Cruz, California-based Torture Hammer. This is another heavyweight act to add to the repulsive roster and while they may not be as swampy as so many, the crushing tidal riffs more than make up for it. […]
ACRID DEATHAbominable Presence Of Blight Rising Nemesis (2024)Rating: 6/10 Formed during the pandemic of 2020 and featuring members of Synchronic, All Its Grace and Driven By Entropy, Germany’s Acrid Death embark on their debut full-length release. Abominable Presence Of Blight is a feisty, if somewhat colourless album that comes across like a mix of a […]
DURBINScreaming Steel Frontiers (2024)Rating: 7/10 With song titles like ‘Made Of Metal’, ‘Screaming Steel’, ‘Power Of The Reaper’, ‘Beyond The Night’ and ‘Tear Them Down’ one could be forgiven for thinking they were reading the song titles off a Judas Priest opus. However, this is in fact the latest release from Durbin, a band spearheaded […]
THREATWarped Reality Self-released (2024)Rating: 7/10 Sofia, Bulgaria-based act Threat may struggle to make any headway within the thrash genre with such a dull and overused moniker. Even so, the debut full-length outing from this combo has its moments and is consistently fast and belligerent although it does lack identity. Like a lot of this sort […]
THE OBSESSEDGilded Sorrow Ripple Music (2024)Rating: 8.5/10 It’s criminal when so called critics compile their lists of their favourite doom metal bands and so often exclude Maryland’s The Obsessed. These guys have been treading the boards longer than most having started back in the mid-70s under the name Warhorse before changing their name to The […]
PESTILENGTHSolar Clorex Debemur Morti Productions (2024)Rating: 7.5/10 Basque Country duo Pestilength returns with their third full-length album. Solar Clorex is another slab of horrifying deathliness, one which I enjoy musically but not vocally. It’s often tough to review albums when there is one particular detail that doesn’t sit comfortably with me, and in this instance […]
WAR PACTSavagery Unbound EP Self-released (2024)Rating: 8/10 This three-track EP is the debut offering from Santa Clarita, California-based combo War Pact who began life as Pain Catalyst in 2022. In fact, this EP was originally released in 2023 under their old name, but has been re-recorded here to introduce the band’s new moniker. Nate Wiener […]
REPELLEDEATHRepelledeath Self-released (2024)Rating: 7/10 Is that Sylvester Stallone on the front cover battling four ectoplasmic manifestations? It’s certainly a striking 80s styled illustration and contained within is a vicious slice of Québec City thrash. I don’t know much else about this slab but the cover art makes more sense when you discover that there is […]
VAEXUSEnd Of The Line Self-released (2024)Rating: 7/10 Nestled somewhere between Prong, Nailbomb, groove metal and hardcore is Vaexus, the solo project of Saratoga Springs, New York-based musician Dana Allison. This debut offering makes for an entertaining experience, especially when I had jumped to conclusions beforehand that this would be an abrasive tech death outing. Right […]
SCAREFIELDA Quiet Country Self-released (2024)Rating: 6/10 This self-produced debut full-length album is the creation of duo Markus Kristoffersson and Simone Manuli, hailing from Sweden and Italy respectively. The platter comes hot on the heels of December 2023’s Nightmare Stories EP and is a melodic mix of thrash and power metal. I’m not sure if it’s […]
