VOID Forbidden Morals Shadow Kingdom (2025) Rating: 8/10 Lafayette, Louisiana-based thrashers Void may boast one of the most uninspiring band names ever, but they most certainly catch the ears with their sound and the eyes with their cover art. Forbidden Morals is the follow-up to 2023 debut album Horrors Of Reality, but this time around […]
VICIOUS RUMORS The Devil’s Asylum Steamhammer / SPV (2025) Rating: 7.5/10 There’s no doubt in my mind that the best decade for heavy metal was the 80s. Many young kids like me were getting into the more popular bands of the era like Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth, and yet festering away awaiting discovery were a […]
CRIMSON BUTCHERY Stalker Iron Fortress (2025) Rating: 7/10 It’s now a hat-trick of albums in as many years for the Irish twosome of Shane “Red” Corcoran (vocals) and John Roche (guitar). Crimson Butchery surf the tumultuous wave that was originally formed by the likes of Cannibal Corpse, Cryptopsy and Brutality. Stalker is essentially a 90s […]
DEATHHAMMER Crimson Dawn Hells Headbangers (2025) Rating: 8/10 Let the stench of burning leather and hell fire suffocate your soul as Norway’s Deathhammer provides another unhealthy soundtrack to any current catastrophe or impending Armageddon. As if the rivers of Hades had overflowed and swallowed Earth, Crimson Dawn spills its contents to a soundtrack of tortured […]
HELLOWEEN Giants & Monsters Reigning Phoenix Music (2025) Rating: 7.5/10 Album number 19 seems a world away from the mystical charms of those 80s records, but Helloween remains a consistent crew driven by a power metal ethos. I’ll openly admit that as the early 90s hit and the dreadful Chameleon (1993) opus emerged, I completely […]
TENTACULT Synaptic Perfidy Transylvanian Recordings (2025) Rating: 9/10 I write this review just as summer is beginning to fade into autumn, and Tentacult is the perfect soundtrack for such a seasonal change as once fresh leafs begin to crisp and fall. Only the thunder of doom metal can truly accompany the season of the witch, […]
CMŸTER Ave Lucifer EP Tapes Of Terror (2025) Rating: 5/10 Heavily resembling an old Bulldozer album in looks, this is the debut three-song EP from Slovakian metal band Cmÿter, released on underground Czech label Tapes Of Terror. With its cover imagery and title I thought Ave Lucifer might boast a more extreme sound, but in […]
DESASTER Kill All Idols Metal Blade (2025) Rating: 8/10 Blackened thrash is the name of the game here, Desaster kicking off their tenth full-length platter with ‘Great Repulsive Force’, a sizzling hot dose of Satanic fury from a German band that’s been dabbling with the dark arts since the late 80s. Desaster features two longstanding […]
WHITE MANTIS Arrows At The Sun High Roller (2025) Rating: 8.5/10 Six years on from debut full-length platter Sacrifice Your Future, German thrashers White Mantis return with ten track sophomore album, Arrows At The Sun. Having formed 13 years ago it’s been quite the journey for original vocalist / guitarist Matthias Pletz who has seen […]
VINDICATOR Whispers Of Death Self-released (2025) Rating: 6/10 There was once a time (2005 onwards) when U.S. thrashers Vindicator, along with many others, were the new kids on the block, surging towards the crest of the new thrash wave. However, like so many of those other bands, for me anyway, the novelty wore off rather […]
