RAGE A New World Rising Steamhammer / SPV (2025) Rating: 7/10 Twenty-six albums into the career of Rage and it’s fair to say that there’s not much to say about the band that hasn’t been said before. When it comes to reflecting on the incredible career of this German outfit one can only applaud the […]
LAST RETCH Abject Cruelty Time To Kill (2025) Rating: 8/10 With a very different style of cover art from 2022 debut Sadism And Severed Heads, the sophomore outing from Ontario, Canada-based deathsters Last Retch seems very in keeping with the current crop of kaleidoscopic horrors which numerous death metal bands are splattering their album covers […]
EVILCULT Triumph Of Evil Awakening (2025) Rating: 6.5/10 Snapping at your toes like a rabid rat, Triumph Of Evil is the musical equivalent of receiving lashings from a whip; you know what’s coming but it still stings! This is the third full-length from Brazilian maniacs Evilcult, who look like Sarcófago although there’s a lot more […]
PARADISE LOST Ascension Nuclear Blast (2025) Rating: 8/10 With autumn now upon it seems only natural that a new Paradise Lost album should filter through the carpet of orange leaves and swirl into the air like wisps of early bonfire smoke. Ascension is the return to for a band I’ve always craved, especially as I […]
SPECIES Changelings 20 Buck Spin (2025) Rating: 8.5/10 The press release for this release from Polish thrashers Species is such a joy to read as the author describes Changelings “…as if John Carpenter had co-produced Rust In Peace (Megadeth) behind the iron curtain”. Continuing to quote, the statement mentions how the album is “…bristling with […]
SÖLICITÖR Enemy In Mirrors Gates Of Hell (2025) Rating: 8/10 In 2020 these Seattle, Washington-based metallers released one of my favourite thrash debuts of the last few decades. Spectral Devastation was just a killer album from front to back, so when I heard that the clan were back with a sophomore I could hardly contain […]
THE DAMNNATION Eyes Of Despair Shinigami (2025) Rating: 7/10 The cover art is a bit misleading, because to me Eyes Of Despair has the look of a glossy and very much contemporary heavy metal or hard rock outing. However, The Damnnation is a Brazilian all-female thrash trio that’s been around in one form or another […]
NAEVUS Back Home Dying Victims Productions (2025) Rating: 8/10 Blessed with an engaging yet almost amateurish piece of cover art, Back Home is the newest release from a German band that has been on the block since the early 90s. This is only the third album from Naevus, who returned to the metal fray in […]
CASTLE RAT The Bestiary Blues Funeral Recordings / King Volume (2025) Rating: 8/10 With its rather snowy frontage, The Bestiary is the second full-length album from female-fronted cult doom act Castle Rat. The Brooklyn, New York-based band’s 2024 debut Into The Realm, although bolstered by theatrical dynamics mostly from vocalist The Rat Queen (aka Riley […]
HELSTAR The Devil’s Masquerade Massacre (2025) Rating: 8.5/10 Almost a decade after their last full-length slab, Houston, Texas-based cult metallers Helstar return from the darkness. If you’re reading this review then I assume you know who Helstar is because back in the 80s they released some killer albums, such as Remnants Of War (1986) and […]
