Welcome, fellow netherfiends, to the second inscription upon the unholy tablet of the Riff Index. Herein we humbly offer cuts deeper than skin deep, names that are not often spoken outside whispers below the fog of the leathery underbelly. Fresh slabs just unearthed from the depths!
Row of Ashes drags post-hardcore through thick, bloodied mud, creating a muck monster that thrashes in the bog water. Elsewhere, Dr. Lipoma churns melodic death riffs and goregrind in a filthy medieval cauldron, his voice bubbling and pus-choked like the sounds of Dark Age surgery. Not to be outdone, Draugveil present potentially the most majestic and romantic album cover in recent memory. Do not be fooled by the blonde page boy coif or the bed of roses; the album delivers thunderous melodic black metal spurred by remarkably vibrant drumming.
There is and shall always be darker corners to explore. Dig through and dig deep. May you find yourself a treasure in the murk.
-ThyCrossAwaits
List of Recommendable Guitar Music:
June 9th – June 15th, 2025
Compiled, checked, and recommended by ThyCrossAwaits, Azazzel, and yours truly
Somnvs Mortis – Onírica Evocación de las Auras Condenadas
Genre: Chilean Black Metal
Streams: Bandcamp | YouTube
Karçaz – Estrela Palída do Silêncio Mórbido
Genre: Black Metal
Streams: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube
Ara – Mutterseelenallein und aus eigener Kraft
Genre: Raw Black Metal
Streams: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube Music
Deadland – The Incantation
Genre: Black Metal
Streams: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube Music
Verikaste – Verenvirta
Genre: Black Metal
Streams: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube Music
Draugveil – Cruel World of Dreams and Fears
Genre: Covercore Dungeon-Romance Black Metal
Streams: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube Music
Aeon Winds – An Ode to the Mountains
Genre: Symphonic Atmospheric Black Metal
Streams: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube Music
Raventale – CDXXXII Thousand Years of Crime and Murders
Genre: Symphonic Atmospheric Black Metal
Streams: Bandcamp | YouTube
Ars Moriendi – Leur esprit marche dans les ténèbres
Genre: Atmospheric / Progressive Black Metal
Stream: Bandcamp
Sun After Dark – Tatkraft
Genre: Gothic-Darkwave Blackened Metal
Streams: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube Music
Asura – Wielder of the Blacksword
Genre: Deathened Black Metal
Streams: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube Music
Orthostat / Precipício – Alchemical Veritas
Genre: Death Metal / Death Metal
Streams: Spotify | YouTube Music
Hatred Inherit – Void
Genre: Death Metal
Streams: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube Music
Deathgoat – Dragged into Realms Below
Genre: Scandi-Transitional OSDM
Streams: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube Music
After the Plague – Triad of Ruin
Genre: Death Metal
Streams: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube Music
Drēor – Hell’s Kitchen
Genre: Deep-Shell Marching Snare OSDM
Streams: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube Music
Mutilatred / Iron Front / Wretched Inferno / Dying Remains –
Dead & Buried: A Death Metal Compilation
Genre: Death Metal of Various Flavors
Stream: Bandcamp
Dark Matter Secret – New Matter
Genre: Instrumental Tech / Prog Death Metal
Streams: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube Music
Oksennus – Auringolla ei ole käsiä
Genre: Minimal Avant-Garde Death Metal
Stream: Bandcamp
Agabas – Hard Anger
Genre: Prog-Death Jazz / Hardcore
Streams: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube Music
Skelm – Belt Fed Assault
Genre: Death Metal / Hardcore
Streams: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube Music
Noth – Inhomogeneities
Genre: Brutal Death Metal
Streams: Bandcamp | YouTube
ByoNoiseGenerator – Subnormal Dives
Genre: Jazzy-Mathy Brutal Grind
Streams: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube Music
Faecalized – Craniopagus Parasiticus
Genre: Brutal Death Metal / Goregrind
Streams: Bandcamp | YouTube
GROG – Sphere of Atrocities
Genre: Deathgrind / Brutal Death Metal
Stream: Bandcamp
Lipoma – No Cure for the Sick
Genre: Melodeath / Goregrind (TBDM with Gore Vox)
Streams: Bandcamp | Spotify
Nightbearer – Defiance
Genre: Melodic Death Metal
Streams: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube Music
Stellar Blight – Eventide: Synod of the Dying Stars
Genre: Heavy Blackened Melodic Death Metal
Streams: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube Music
Ritual Awakening – Greed
Genre: Core-Infused Melodeath
Streams: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube Music
View From the Soyuz – Ubiquitous
Genre: JP Melodic Death Metal / Core
Streams: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube Music
Under the Ashes – Sacrifices Heaped
Genre: Deathrash
Streams: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube Music
Outergods – Dethroned & Devoured
Genre: Deathrash
Streams: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube Music
Daggr – Torn Veil of Existence
Genre: Cavalera-esque Thrash / Death
Streams: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube Music
Venus Star – Smokeless Fires
Genre: Black- / Death-Doom
Streams: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube Music
Hexvessel – Nocturne
Genre: Folky-Progressive Black-Doom
Streams: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube Music
Klesha – A Void Beyond All Comprehension
Genre: Atmospheric Sludged Death-Doom
Stream: Bandcamp
L’Impero Delle Ombre – Oscurità
Genre: Rocking Trad Doom
Streams: Spotify | YouTube Music
Lights of Vimana – Neopolis
Genre: Cinematic Prog-Doom
Streams: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube Music
Dolven – In My Grave…Silence
Genre: Acoustic Doom Dark Folk
Streams: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube Music
Afargang – Andvake
Genre: Folk Metal
Streams: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube Music
AVKRVST – Waving at the Sky
Genre: Progressive Rock / Metal
Streams: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube Music
Sargassus – Vitruvian Rays
Genre: Enslaved Prog / Post-Metal
Streams: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube Music
Row of Ashes – Tide into Ruin
Genre: Noisey Sludged Post-Hardcore
Streams: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube Music
Altesia – The Somnambulist
Genre: Prog-peth Haken / Leprous Metal
Stream: Spotify (Single only)
Masseti – Odds and Ends
Genre: Progressive / Power Metal
Streams: Spotify | YouTube Music
Insania – The Great Apocalypse
Genre: EU Power Metal
Streams: Spotify | YouTube Music
Social Index:
06.15.25
06.16.25
06.16.25
06.16.25
some other favorites from me this week:
Lights of Vimana was stunning the way it builds up really lush gothy structures with synths and cleans that elongate into waves of doom. Not as strained as post-metal or as derivative as post-rock, really accomplished for a debut
Sun After Dark also brought a unique blending of moody darkwave and goth of a blackened variety with memorable payoffs.
the way Stellar Blight punctuates their lurching take on Melo-Death with Heavy Metal infused rhythms really caught my ear, not just skating around candied scales. good stuff
I'd never heard of Raventale before this week but apparently they're a veteran group from Ukraine on something like their 10th album of consistently respected atmo-black. This one has a lot of symphonics but not the cheesy kind that draws attention to itself, it's all amplifying some ripping ferocious black fitting of the war torn cover.
pretty fickle about Power but I liked the earworm singles from Insania well enough but honestly the super cheesy and symphonic Fairyland record this week might be even better. couldn't bring myself to include it here but if you know that's your thing check it out.
Afargang's folk/metal record was nice, it's a professional musician fiddler and he carefully crafted a dynamic record around that, far from the simple and gimmicky pitfalls the genre is prone to.
-oh there's also a new 2 track Trhä release. continuing his progression into Buckethead with a big emphasis on slow clean guitar lead melodies
06.16.25
06.16.25
hey i know that guy!
06.16.25
Besides the ones I mentioned in the intro, both Ritual Awakening and Venus Star are super strong contenders this week. RA sounds like Darkest Hour gone completely off the rails, and Venus Star...imagine OSBM engorged with the fat, syrupy texture of doom. Great stuff.
06.19.25
06.19.25
06.19.25
06.19.25
06.19.25
I also saw rumors about the Draugveil cover AND music being AI, but could just be that, rumors instigated by the art and virality - it was everywhere over the weekend. I don't hear it, but I haven't checked in on what AI music is capable super recently. Probably easier than we'd like to reckon to produce some baseline riff salad and screams if they can sand off the giveaway quirks.