TRIBUNALIn Penitence And Ruin 20 Buck Spin (2025)Rating: 8/10 To the sound of creaking coffin lids, stormy nights and the chatter of bats from the belfry, majestic Gothic doom metal cult Tribunal issues its sophomore platter, In Penitence And Ruin. I rated the Vancouver, British Columbia-based band’s 2023 debut The Weight Of Remembrance highly, so […]
SIRENSIn Goat We Trust Self-released (2025)Rating: 7/10 This German outfit began life in the metal world back in 1995 when they issued their demo Approaching The Island, which was followed a year later by the EP Empire Of Clouds. In spite of the mid-to-late 90s being a somewhat tough time for heavy metal bands, Sirens […]
LIQUIFIEDChapters Of Cruelty EP Self-released (2025)Rating: 7/10 You can add the city of Nottingham to the burgeoning UK death metal scene now because festering combo Liquified have just issued their debut EP. Seventeen minutes in length, Chapters Of Cruelty features five tracks – ‘Skinned And Binned’, ‘Cranium Cocktail’, ‘Abhorrent Ascension’, ‘Septic Tank Sarcophagus’ and ‘Skeletal […]
DIABOLIZERMurderous Revelations Dark Descent / Me Saco Un Ojo (2025)Rating: 8/10 As if Nostradamus’ predictions of a forthcoming apocalypse weren’t scary enough, Turkish death metal tribe Diabolizer has opted to provide the soundtrack. There’s no point in running, the fires have already reached your door so you have just two options: jump in the fire […]
HIGH COUNCILCruel And Unusual Self-released (2025)Rating: 8/10 Twenty-two years after forming, US combo High Council finally gets round to issuing a sophomore full-length outing, although it’s been seven years since debut album Held In Contempt. Mind you, they did release an EP (their fifth, entitled Ember) in 2020. High Council have an intriguing aura it […]
RATTLESNAKESDeeper Shades Of Torment EP Self-released (2025)Rating: 8/10 I never saw this coming, but now it’s landed I’m blown away. Deeper Shades Of Torment is the debut EP from Nottingham, England-based metallers Rattlesnakes. Let me introduce you to this remarkable bunch: on powerhouse vocals we have Rowena Neale, and then there’s axe killers Jacob Shingler […]
MOONFALLOdes To The Ritual Hills Iron Bonehead Productions (2025)Rating: 6.5/10 Being the creation of Goatprayer (Ceremonial Torture / Archdemon / Darkera etc.) and Black Moon Necromancer (Beherit / Darkera / Funerealm Gloom etc.), Moonfall is a grim sounding black-doom act that wallows within the deepest recesses of the Finnish underground. If you like creepy, atmospheric […]
GARGANTUANAge Ov The Coffin Self-released (2025)Rating: 7.5/10 That’s an eye-catching album cover, this being the second full-length from Springfield, Illinois based act Gargantuan. These guys have been dishing out blackened death metal since 2018 and this new effort is quite the tirade. For 60 minutes the audience is swept up by a truly chaotic storm […]
BENEDICTIONRavage Of Empires Nuclear Blast (2025)Rating: 7.5/10 Has there ever been a steadier band than Benediction? Decades spent in a (to use a football reference) mid-table limbo, the UK death metal mongers comfortably mashed the brains of followers without ever hinting at a push for a (to make another football reference) European place among the […]
CHESTCRUSHΨΥΧΟΒΓΑΛΤΗΣ Self-released (2025)Rating: 8.5/10 The man responsible for the recent and brilliant Caustic Phlegm opus (Purulent Apocalypse) is the same nut job behind Chestcrush. His name is Evangelos Vasilakos and he seems a pleasant fellow, but the music he puts out alongside his band mates exists to quite literally slime, or in the case of […]
