| 2023 |
| Hekatomb Korosta | 4.0 |
| Grave Gnosis Pestilence Crowned | 4.0 |
| The Sway of Mountains The Idle Universe Has Won | 3.5 |
| Sulfuric Hatred Sulfuric Hatred | 4.0 |
| Phobocosm Foreordained | 4.0 |
| Avrae Lvnae Ntdd Strl | 4.0 |
| Blood Serpent Bestial Extermination | 3.5 |
| Dwelling Below Dwelling Below | 3.5 |
| Sufferance (AUS) Spawn of a Dream | 3.5 |
| Suel Venomous Curse | 4.5 |
| Krallice Mass Cathexis 2 - The Kinetic Infinite | 4.0 |
| Abyssal Rift Extirpation Dirge | 3.5 |
| Varathron The Crimson Temple | 3.0 |
| Eitrin Eitrin | 3.5 |
| Hatred Reigns Awaken The Ancients | 3.5 |
| Sevo Aurora do Triunfo Herétiko | 3.5 |
| Pharmakeia Maenadic Ecstasy | 3.5 |
| Voidsphere To Infect | To Inflict | 3.5 |
| Cruciamentum Obsidian Refractions | 3.5 |
| Convocation No Dawn for the Caliginous Night | 3.5 |
| This is some ambitious doom/funeral doom, there's no doubt about that, I just preferred the first three tracks over the later two, but it is all really great. |
| Inner Void Adverse Emanations From the Tree of Death | 3.5 |
| Aeternus Philosopher | 3.0 |
| Sadus The Shadow Inside | 2.5 |
| TEMIC Terror Management Theory | 3.5 |
| Ceremonial Bloodbath Genesis of Malignant Entropy | 4.0 |
| Coliseum Infinity Shit | 2.5 |
| Vastum Inward To Gethsemane | 3.0 |
| Suffocation Hymns From the Apocrypha | 4.0 |
| Silent Planet Superbloom | 3.5 |
| Ch'ahom Knots of Abhorrence | 4.0 |
| Penitence Onirique Nature Morte | 4.0 |
| Carnal Tomb Embalmed in Decay | 3.5 |
| Fuming Mouth Last Day of Sun | 3.0 |
| Xoth Exogalactic | 3.0 |
| Melancholia Book of Ruination | 3.5 |
| Tetragrammacide Typho-Tantric Aphorisms From the Arachneophidian Qur'an | 4.0 |
| If you're not sure what to think about Typho-Tantric Aphorisms by artwork or opening track alone, just imagine some multi-limbed lurching beast with about eight high-speed titanium propeller blades attached to it spinning ridiculously fast in various directions, and it's completely intent on running toward you in some quasi-Ligottian nightmare shredding through entire forests in its path. Could bump up to a 4.5 depending on what else this year matches the intensity. |
| Galactic Twin Juvenilia | 3.5 |
| Malokarpatan Vertumnus Caesar | 3.0 |
| Year of the Knife No Love Lost | 3.0 |
| END (USA-NJ) The Sin of Human Frailty | 3.0 |
| Sentinels (US) In Limbo | 3.5 |
| Molecular Corporation Millions of Dead Menposters | 4.5 |
| Closure in Moscow Soft Hell | 2.0 |
| Vertebra Atlantis A Dialogue with the Eeriest Sublime | 3.5 |
| Baring Teeth The Path Narrows | 4.0 |
| Afterbirth In But Not Of | 4.0 |
| Dreamwell In My Saddest Dreams, I Am Beside You | 4.0 |
| Dream Unending/Worm Starpath | 4.0 |
| New Forms As Dust Collects | 3.5 |
| Loathe (AUS) Null and Void | 3.5 |
| Seraphic Entombment Sickness Particles Gleam | 3.5 |
| Sulphur Aeon Seven Crowns and Seven Seals | 4.0 |
| Blastocystia Upper Triassic Slamcataclysm | 3.0 |
| Depraved Flesh GOREROTIC | 3.5 |
| Free Throw Lessons That We Swear to Keep | 3.0 |
| Distaste Der Ertraeger und das Fleisch | 3.5 |
| Malum (NOR) In Nauseam | 3.5 |
| Decapitated Christ Glorious Tyrannizing of Human Rats | 3.5 |
| Novere Nothing Stays Hidden In Daylight | 3.5 |
| Koyo (US) Would You Miss It? | 3.5 |
| Moonlight Sorcery Horned Lord of the Thorned Castle | 4.0 |
| Dismal Aura Imperium Mortalia | 4.0 |
| Rorcal Silence | 4.5 |
| Disguised Malignance Entering the Gateways | 3.5 |
| Ruin Lust Dissimulant | 3.5 |
| Taproot SC\SSRS | 3.5 |
| Oreamnos The Granite Wall | 3.5 |
| Murdery Bloodshed | 2.0 |
| Spawn of Annihilation Illusory Orbit of Ominous Anomalies | 3.5 |
| Septiroth Wallachian Mystics | 3.5 |
| Nervosa Jailbreak | 3.5 |
| Staind Confessions Of The Fallen | 3.0 |
| Wormhole Almost Human | 3.5 |
| Acausal Intrusion Panpsychism | 4.0 |
| Bekor Qilish The Flesh of a New God | 4.0 |
| Dead Feathers Full Circle | 4.0 |
| Raging Sloth The Descent | 3.0 |
| Noctomb Noctomb | 3.5 |
| Permutation (DE) Transience | 3.5 |
| Suffer Yourself Axis of Tortures | 3.5 |
| 3TEETH EndEx | 3.0 |
| Arghoslent Resuscitation of the Revanchists | 3.0 |
| Geist (UK) Blueprints To Moderate Sedation | 3.5 |
| Wojtek Petricore | 3.0 |
| The National Laugh Track | 3.0 |
| Tideless Eye of Water | 4.0 |
| Tomb Mold The Enduring Spirit | 4.0 |
| Blood Incantation Luminescent Bridge | 3.5 |
| Fabricant Drudge To The Thicket | 4.0 |
| Altarage Worst Case Scenario | 3.0 |
| Great Falls Objects Without Pain | 3.5 |
| Explosions in the Sky End | 2.5 |
| Alkaloid Numen | 3.5 |
| Evil Corpse Nuclear Remains | 3.5 |
| Fossilization Leprous Daylight | 4.0 |
| Domkraft Sonic Moons | 3.5 |
| Excarnated Entity Mass Grave Horizon | 3.5 |
| Sylosis A Sign of Things to Come | 2.5 |
| Dying Fetus Make Them Beg for Death | 4.0 |
| Aelvica Aelvica III | 4.0 |
| Fluisteraars De Kronieken Van Het... - II - Nergena | 3.5 |
| Outergods A Kingdom Built Upon The Wreckage of Heaven | 3.0 |
| Reverence To Paroxysm Lux Morte | 4.0 |
| Quantum Void Escaping Reality | 3.5 |
| Orphalis As The Ashes Settle | 3.5 |
| Incantation Unholy Deification | 4.0 |
| Concordat sounds like such a ridiculously good album opener I'm gonna have to listen to this in the implied rearranged track order. |
| Asphodelus Sculpting From Time | 3.5 |
| Lepra (USA-ME) Devil's Blood in Her Tongue | 4.0 |
| Exmortus Necrophony | 3.5 |
| Celestial Sanctuary Insatiable Thirst For Torment | 3.5 |
| Transgressor Beyond Oblivion | 3.0 |
| Invultation Feral Legion | 3.5 |
| Worm Shepherd The Sleeping Sun | 3.5 |
| Lazarvs Blackest | 3.5 |
| Horrendous Ontological Mysterium | 4.0 |
| Dripping Decay Festering Grotesqueries | 3.5 |
| Hexenghul Hexenghul EP | 3.0 |
| Dead and Dripping Blackened Cerebral Rifts | 3.5 |
| Cystic Palace of Shadows | 3.5 |
| Kataklysm Goliath | 3.5 |
| Crypted Roots When Atoms Split | 3.5 |
| Tumulation Haunted Funeral Creations | 3.5 |
| Crypta Shades of Sorrow | 3.5 |
| Hallucinate From The Bowels Of The Earth | 4.0 |
| Teenage Wrist Still Love | 4.0 |
| Demonic Being Invocations From the Ancient Path | 4.0 |
| Cadaver Rite Mourned With Dead Flowers (Demo 2023) | 2.5 |
| Fleshvessel Yearning: Promethean Fates Sealed | 3.5 |
| Edenfall To Gaze Longer at the Earth | 3.5 |
| Mutoid Man Mutants | 3.5 |
| Nuclear Power Trio Wet Ass Plutonium | 4.0 |
| Arid (USA-IL) Abhorrent Reflections | 4.0 |
| Plastika Plastika | 2.5 |
| Outer Heaven Infinite Psychic Depths | 3.5 |
| Bootes Void Singularity | 3.5 |
| Gateway Galgendood | 3.5 |
| Mudness Mudness | 3.0 |
| Cadaver The Age of the Offended | 3.5 |
| Sorcia Lost Season | 3.0 |
| Embodied Torment Archaic Bloodshed | 3.5 |
| Dragoncorpse Dragonectomy (Chased Through a Dungeon) | 3.5 |
| Harlot's Nest Vasa Varicosa | 3.0 |
| Devoidment Cnidarian Synergy | 3.5 |
| Serpent Bite Army Of Darkness | 3.0 |
| Deitus Irreversible | 3.5 |
| Tech N9ne Bliss | 2.5 |
| Crown Magnetar Everything Bleeds | 4.0 |
| Lesath A Beautiful Dream | 4.0 |
| Desekryptor Vortex Oblivion | 3.5 |
| Calligram Position | Momentum | 3.5 |
| Purtenance The Rot Within Us | 3.0 |
| Sulphuric Death Beyond the Void of Doom | 3.5 |
| Nihil Invocation Blood Upon the Gates of Dawn | 3.0 |
| Hazing Over Tunnel Vision | 3.5 |
| Lauren Bousfield Salesforce | 4.0 |
| Necroticum Endless Nightmare | 3.0 |
| Ceromancy The Garden | 3.5 |
| Froglord Sons of Froglord | 3.0 |
| Black Wound Warping Structure | 3.0 |
| Serpent Corpse Blood Sabbath | 3.0 |
| Ch'ahom Ts'ono'ot | 3.0 |
| Depraved Flesh Depraved Flesh | 4.0 |
| Coffin Mulch Spectral Intercession | 3.0 |
| Serpent of Old Ensemble Under The Dark Sun | 3.5 |
| Serpens Lvx HENDECAGRAMICON: Adversarial Ethos Exoterically Un | 3.5 |
| Hig Geat Demo I | 4.0 |
| ostraca Disaster | 3.5 |
| Nothing But Thieves Dead Club City | 3.5 |
| Paroxysm Unit Fragmentation // Stratagem | 3.0 |
| Skull Bone Floor of Bodies | 3.5 |
| Burner It All Returns To Nothing | 4.0 |
| Mental Cruelty Zwielicht | 3.5 |
| Krigsgrav Fires in the Fall | 3.5 |
| Sworn A Journey Told Through Fire | 3.5 |
| From the Ages II | 2.0 |
| Sarmat Determined To Strike | 3.5 |
| AVKRVST The Approbation | 3.0 |
| Lanayah I'm Picking Lights in a Field | 4.0 |
| Incredible finale track, it suits the album appropriately and takes the little extra step you want it to. Score has potential to go up later if required cause I'll be re-listening shortly. |
| Skullpriest On the Verge | 3.5 |
| Human Harvest Death Storms | 3.5 |
| Nithing Agonal Hymns | 3.5 |
| Justified God Killing The Overthrow | 3.0 |
| So wait this isn't Randy Blythe? No hate, but damn if it isn't a mirror reflection. |
| Glass Casket Glass Casket | 3.5 |
| Legion of the Damned The Poison Chalice | 3.5 |
| Claustrum Claustrum | 4.0 |
| Tenhi Valkama | 3.5 |
| Vasculitis Masochistic Intestinal Eruption | 2.5 |
| Phlebotomized Clouds of Confusion | 4.0 |
| Mournful Congregation The Exuviae of Gods - Part II | 3.5 |
| Cloak Black Flame Eternal | 4.0 |
| Solt / Obsidian Shrine In Consortium Diaboli | 3.5 |
| Frozen Soul Glacial Domination | 3.0 |
| Blindfolded and Led to the Woods Rejecting Obliteration | 4.5 |
| Ascended Dead Evenfall of the Apocalypse | 3.5 |
| 'Passage to Eternity ' and the subsequent title track is the standout for this album. The title track itself could be considered one of the great dm songs of the year, but aside from 'Inverted Ascension's and 'Enveloped in Thorns' I thought the rest of the cuts were a little more of the standard fare. |
| Impetuous Ritual Iniquitous Barbarik Synthesis | 3.5 |
| Cattle Decapitation Terrasite | 4.0 |
| This site is basically what the incubatal stages of 'Terrasite' would be like. So congrats on that. I could see every user here being one of those roach hybrids acting as denizens of a myriad of mental illnesses, scurrying or crawling through a sunlit infested environment for the first time eating anything on sight because they no longer can identify by usernames. And yes, I said every. Only did it to yourselves. r |
| Esoctrilihum Astraal Constellations of the Majickal Zodiac | 3.5 |
| Pronostic Chaotic Upheaval | 3.5 |
| Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean Obsession Destruction | 3.5 |
| Eluvium (Whirring Marvels In) Consensus Reality | 3.5 |
| Omnerod The Amensal Rise | 3.0 |
| Hasard Malivore | 3.5 |
| Spinebreaker Cavern Of Inoculated Cognition | 3.5 |
| Nightmarer Deformity Adrift | 4.0 |
| Molested Divinity The Primordial | 4.0 |
| Extermination Dismemberment Dehumanization Protocol | 2.5 |
| Enforcer Nostalgia | 3.5 |
| Lunar Chamber Shambhallic Vibrations | 3.5 |
| The National First Two Pages of Frankenstein | 3.0 |
| Spotlights Alchemy for the Dead | 4.0 |
| Fires in the Distance Air Not Meant For Us | 3.0 |
| Allochiria Commotion | 3.0 |
| Decipher Arcane Paths of Resurrection | 3.5 |
| Bell Witch Future's Shadow I: The Clandestine Gate | 3.5 |
| This really picks up around the 1 hr 10 min mark, if you all were wondering |
| Atavistia Cosmic Warfare | 3.5 |
| Smoulder Violent Creed of Vengeance | 3.5 |
| Dozer Drifting in the Endless Void | 3.5 |
| VoidCeremony Threads of Unknowing | 3.5 |
| Poison Ruin Harvest | 3.0 |
| Purulent Shrine Nuclear Solstice | 3.5 |
| I get that there's prob not much on this disc for anybody to like. Little to no variation in most everything, opting for typical blasted out tunes with the snare being one of three speeds, most every song is indistinguishable from another.. no body to the vocals and little instrumental work in between... typically is close to what constitutes a three for me as these records are made with nonstop intensity in mind, but I'm feeling a little more gracious this morning to give it a bump up, though this isn't resemblant of anyone's average 3.5 record, so chances are that it'll be like and rated less by many/most. |
| Balance and Composure Too Quick to Forgive | 3.5 |
| Tribulation Hamartia | 3.5 |
| Wednesday Rat Saw God | 3.5 |
| Devangelic Xul | 3.5 |
| Asystole (USA-NY) Siren To Blight | 4.0 |
| Fit For An Autopsy / Thy Art is Murder / Malevolence The Aggression Sessions | 3.0 |
| Lurk Aegis | 3.0 |
| Nekus Sepulchral Divination | 3.0 |
| Death Portrait Morbid Curiosity | 3.5 |
| Hazeshuttle Hazeshuttle | 4.0 |
| Rotten Sound Apocalypse | 3.5 |
| Thron Dust | 3.5 |
| Kommand (USA-CA) Death Age | 3.5 |
| Spirit Possession Of the Sign ... | 3.0 |
| Lamp of Murmuur Saturnian Bloodstorm | 3.5 |
| Maze of Sothoth Extirpated Light | 3.0 |
| Ov Sulfur The Burden Ov Faith | 3.5 |
| Guts (FIN) Decay | 3.0 |
| Ne Obliviscaris Exul | 3.5 |
| Aphotic (ITA) Abyssgazer | 2.5 |
| Triumpher Storming The Walls | 4.0 |
| Kruelty Untopia | 3.0 |
| Skin Tension Celebrant | 3.0 |
| Contrarian Sage of Shekhinah | 3.0 |
| Invent Animate Heavener | 3.5 |
| Maruja Knocknarea | 4.0 |
| Ardent Nova Ardent Nova | 3.5 |
| Hyperdontia Deranged | 3.5 |
| Imperious Mortality Realm of Mortal Decay | 3.0 |
| Spotlights Seance | 3.0 |
| Astriferous Pulsations from the Black Orb | 3.0 |
| Ignominy (CAN) Imminent Collapse | 3.0 |
| Dirge Dirge | 4.0 |
| Gorod The Orb | 3.5 |
| Demon King Vesania | 3.0 |
| REZN Solace | 4.0 |
| Causeneffect Validation Through Suffering | 3.0 |
| Entheos (USA) Time Will Take Us All | 3.0 |
| At The Altar Of The Horned God Heart of Silence | 3.5 |
| Viscera (UK) Carcinogenesis | 3.5 |
| Poisoned Blood Sign of Final Massacre | 3.0 |
| Kraus Anything Else | 4.0 |
| Wretched Fate Carnal Heresy | 4.5 |
| Outer Head Delirium | 3.0 |
| Chunked Inhaling the Infestation | 3.0 |
| 7 H. Target Yantra Creating | 3.5 |
| Coffinborn Cadaveric Retribution | 3.0 |
| Lepra (BIH) Hellfire Madness | 3.5 |
| See You Next Tuesday Distractions | 3.5 |
| Ulthar Anthronomicon | 4.0 |
| Ulthar Helionomicon | 3.5 |
| Hellripper Warlocks Grim and Withered Hags | 3.5 |
| Pile All Fiction | 2.5 |
| Half Me Soma | 3.0 |
| Windows96 How To See Through Walls | 3.5 |
| In Flames Foregone | 2.5 |
| Deviser Evil Summons Evil | 3.5 |
| Negative Blast Echo Planet | 3.5 |
| Carnosus Visions of Infinihility | 4.0 |
| Storm{O} Endocannibalismo | 3.5 |
| Thin Dusk | 3.0 |
| Crippling Madness Władcy Nocy | 3.0 |
| Tentacult Lacerating Pattern | 3.5 |
| Sanguisugabogg Homicidal Ecstasy | 4.0 |
| Eye of Mensis Tulpa | 3.5 |
| Fvnerals Let the Earth Be Silent | 4.0 |
| Lolth Black Canticles | 4.0 |
| Carpet Bomb Awaken Terror | 3.5 |
| Profane Order One Nightmare unto Another | 3.5 |
| ...and Oceans As in Gardens, So in Tombs | 3.5 |
| Anachronism Meanders | 4.0 |
| The World Is Quiet Here Zon | 3.0 |
| Conjureth The Parasitic Chambers | 3.5 |
| Highblood Faces of Oglogoth | 3.0 |
| Scalp Black Tar | 4.0 |
| Nothingness Supraliminal | 4.0 |
| Our Last Crusade Death Wins | 3.0 |
| Dryad The Abyssal Plain | 3.0 |
| Turbid North The Decline | 3.5 |
| Re-Buried Repulsive Nature | 3.0 |
| Tribunal (CAN) The Weight Of Remembrance | 3.5 |
| Apokatastasis The Consecratory Secretion | 4.0 |
| Underneath Nothing Here is Held Sacred | 3.0 |
| Arnaut Pavle Transylvanian Glare | 3.0 |
| Primordial Serpent Adversary of God | 4.0 |
| Skullpture A Horrifying Death | 3.5 |
| Obituary Dying Of Everything | 3.0 |
| Slog Divination | 3.5 |
| Haxprocess The Caverns Of Duat | 3.5 |
| Incendiary Visage Salvage Gnosis | 3.5 |
| Iravu A Fate Worse than Home | 3.5 |
| Esoctrilihum Funeral | 3.0 |
| Beautiful Death Finis | 3.5 |
| Vile Ritual Caverns of Occultic Hatred | 3.5 |
| Phantom Menace Night Galleries | 3.0 |
| 2022 |
| Occulsed Parturition Of Adulteration | 1.5 |
| Veilburner VLBRNR | 3.5 |
| Sold Soul I Hope We Make It Out of This Alive | 3.5 |
| Qrixkuor Zoetrope | 4.0 |
| Tchornobog / Abyssal (UK) Tchornobog / Abyssal | 4.0 |
| Anna Mieke Theatre | 4.0 |
| Bonecarver Carnage Funeral | 3.0 |
| Dysgnostic Scar Echoes | 4.0 |
| Mother of Graves Where the Shadows Adorn | 3.5 |
| Vacuous Dreams of Dysphoria | 3.5 |
| Faceless Burial At The Foothills Of Deliration | 4.0 |
| Slipknot The End, So Far | 2.0 |
| Escuela Grind Memory Theater | 4.0 |
| Autophagy Bacteriophage | 3.5 |
| Prolong Anoxia Perpetual Murder | 3.0 |
| Phobophilic Enveloping Absurdity | 3.5 |
| Fallujah Empyrean | 4.0 |
| Escarnium Dysthymia | 4.0 |
| Reincarnated Of Boötes Void Death Spell | 2.5 |
| Vermin Womb Retaliation | 3.5 |
| Blind Guardian The God Machine | 2.5 |
| Russian Circles Gnosis | 3.5 |
| Osserp Els Nous Cants de la Sibil·la | 4.0 |
| Aronious Irkalla | 3.5 |
| Sedimentum Suppuration Morphogénésiaque | 3.5 |
| Molder Engrossed in Decay | 4.0 |
| Maul Seraphic Punishment | 3.5 |
| Psycada Hiking Lung | 4.0 |
| Exocrine The Hybrid Suns | 4.0 |
| Inanimate Existence The Masquerade | 4.0 |
| Artificial Brain Artificial Brain | 4.0 |
| Ophidian Memory The Stag | 4.0 |
| Heaving Earth Darkness of God | 4.0 |
| Sadist Firescorched | 3.0 |
| Sunami 2022 Promo | 3.5 |
| Morgue Supplier Inevitability | 3.5 |
| Writhing Shadows Writhing Shadows | 3.5 |
| Poisoned Dream All Dreams Are Poisoned | 3.0 |
| Tomarum Ash in Realms of Stone Icons | 4.0 |
| Haunter (USA-TX) Discarnate Ails | 3.5 |
| Patristic Apologetica | 4.5 |
| Dischordia Triptych | 3.5 |
| Inanna Void of Unending Depths | 4.0 |
| Disfuneral Blood Red Tentacle | 3.5 |
| Incandescence Le Coeur de l'Homme | 4.5 |
| This shit is really close to perfect. Anyone into this style of bm absolutely needs to give this album a spin. |
| Beyond Mortal Dreams Abomination of the Flames | 4.0 |
| Old Coven Mysteries of the Dark Occult | 2.5 |
| Spesimin Rotting on the Vine | 3.5 |
| Mors Principium Est Liberate the Unborn Inhumanity | 3.5 |
| Coagulate (USA-MN) Rehearsal Demo 2022 | 3.0 |
| Hallas Isle of Wisdom | 3.5 |
| Occult Obsidian Secrets Obscured in the Past | 4.5 |
| Vimur Transcendental Violence | 4.0 |
| Nekrogoblikon The Fundamental Slimes and Humours | 4.5 |
| Paimon Gate Seven Legions | 4.0 |
| This gets to be a lot of fun on the second play around. Was initially a 3.5 verging on 4, but this is some wicked spawn shit. Last track is sick but there are a few other highlights as well. |
| Meshuggah Immutable | 3.5 |
| It's like Disturbed's 'Indestructable' but better |
| Satan Earth Infernal | 3.5 |
| Flummox Rephlummoxed | 4.0 |
| Yo, this album is mad. Pretty much a mix of psychedelic, rock, grunge, technical metal, stoner, and idk whatever else falls between. The vocalist is of the multi-talented variety but also stays grounded in the traditional heavy metal style with that kind of belted singing, but still mixes it up. For a taste I'd recommend listening to the first track 'Flummoxing Act 1: Garbonzo's Leap' or the incredibly strong early highlight 'The Whispering Banshees'. Definitely going to be overlooked this year, if you've heard that Wait (USA) - The End of Noise record from this year then you'll probably like this. |
| Centinex The Pestilence | 3.5 |
| Paganizer March Of The Insane | 4.0 |
| Shrouded Infinity Through Caverns Unknown | 4.0 |
| Out of the Mouth of Graves Harbinger Uncerimonious | 4.0 |
| Rhine Atrocity The Pslamist | 3.5 |
| Skullcrush Bloodmoon MMXXII | 3.5 |
| Animals As Leaders Parrhesia | 4.0 |
| Mortify (CHL) Fragments at the Edge of Sorrow | 3.5 |
| Kvaen The Great Below | 3.5 |
| Helpless Caged In Gold | 4.0 |
| Virocracy Ecophagia | 4.0 |
| Great record, going to be extremely underrated and overlooked. |
| Absent In Body Plague God | 3.5 |
| Desolate Shrine Fires of the Dying World | 3.5 |
| A fair offering from the band, but I remember their earlier stuff being much more visceral. 'The Silent God', 'Cast to Walk...' and The Furnace of Hope' were my highlights from this. |
| Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard The Harvest (as MWWB) | 4.0 |
| Father Befouled Crowned in Veneficum | 4.0 |
| This is pretty standard, with a few tracks of course worth returning to. It's right on that 3.5/4.0 spectrum but I'm gonna bump it cause I believe in it. |
| Astral Tomb Soulgazer | 3.5 |
| Nite Voices of the Kronian Moon | 3.0 |
| Kontusion Kontusion | 3.5 |
| Pia Isa Distorted Chants | 3.5 |
| Dream Widow Dream Widow | 4.0 |
| Marijannah Music from and Inspired by GiantLands | 4.0 |
| Dark Circles Frantic Death | 4.0 |
| Chaos Invocation Devil, Stone & Man | 4.0 |
| Bleeding (UA) Infected Sanity | 4.0 |
| Deathspell Omega The Long Defeat | 3.5 |
| The top comment is ruff, in a ruffruffruff Scrappy Doo sort of way. How many edits will be there by the end of the week? |
| Kasturn Kasturn | 3.5 |
| Black Fucking Cancer Procreate Inverse | 4.0 |
| Aeviterne The Ailing Facade | 4.0 |
| Lunar Kingdom Gateway to Higher Mysteries... | 3.0 |
| Curse of Flesh Demo | 3.0 |
| Deha Decadanse | 3.5 |
| Hellbore Panopticon | 3.5 |
| Really verges on a 4 and there are some standout tracks (All Men, Terror Eyes, Necrocracy, Panopticon I and III), but at the same time it also unfortunately falls a little too much into the category of 'serviceable'. |
| Wraithlord Obscurity | 4.0 |
| Demon Morder Within the Rust and Chaos | 3.5 |
| Nefast MCMLXXIX Ad infernum, somnia | 3.0 |
| Cryptworm Spewing Mephitic Putridity | 3.0 |
| Persecutory Summoning the Lawless Legions | 4.0 |
| Kharon (NO) Shores of Acheron | 4.0 |
| Pestilength Basom Gryphos | 4.0 |
| Arkaik Labyrinth of Hungry Ghosts | 3.5 |
| Ghost (SWE) Impera | 3.0 |
| Haunted Shores Void | 4.0 |
| Konvent Call Down The Sun | 4.0 |
| As The World Dies Agonist | 3.0 |
| Mortuary Ghoul Corpse Exhumation | 3.5 |
| Dead Chasm Dead Chasm | 3.5 |
| Vehemence (FRA) Ordalies | 3.5 |
| Abolition Ritual Cosmonemesis | 3.5 |
| Wombbath The Weight of Reality | 4.0 |
| This band has been throwing any remaining listeners for a loop lately; firstly releasing two albums in 2020, one passable and one so overwhelmingly weak I wouldn't hesitate to consider it to be their nadir, then slapping back with a complete double album by the likes of 'Agma' in the last days of 2021, which most likely has gone completely overlooked but for those invested actually delivered a remarkably attentive package for something that was if I recall like an hour and a half long. Here we have four new songs, delivered in the wake of the conflict in Ukraine, sparked as a fundraiser with all proceeds going to UNHCR. Musically, it is solid as an EP alone though my favorite track was the short and sweet opener. Traditionally I would probably do this as a 3.5, but I'm willing to stand by the bonus points attributed and say this is worth your time spinning, and by extension if it was enjoyed why not take a look into Agma. |
| Malignant (USA) Reign of Decrepitude | 4.0 |
| Arid (USA) From Anthropophagic Waste... | 3.0 |
| Marillion An Hour Before It's Dark | 3.5 |
| Unru Die Wiederkehr des Verdrängten | 3.0 |
| Crowbar Zero And Below | 4.0 |
| I never really listened to Crowbar much before, but this album is fucking strong- competes with a ton of the other 2022 releases, and is the 12th album overall in their career. RESPECT, for real. |
| Godless Truth Godless Truth | 3.0 |
| Hath All That Was Promised | 4.0 |
| Vein.fm This World Is Going to Ruin You | 3.5 |
| Izthmi Leaving This World, Leaving It All Behind | 4.0 |
| Forbidden Tomb Flame of the Iniquitous Deity | 3.0 |
| Embrace Of Thorns The Pantheon I | 3.5 |
| Open Casket (MEX) Annihilation Summoning | 3.5 |
| Rotten Tomb Visions of Dismal Fate | 4.0 |
| Morbidism Until We Die | 4.0 |
| Xorsist Deadly Possession | 4.0 |
| Henbane (DE) Through the Sabbath Black Sky | 3.5 |
| Tuskar Matriarch | 2.5 |
| Eight Bells Legacy Of Ruin | 3.5 |
| Abraham Débris De Mondes Perdus | 4.0 |
| Ceremonial Castings Our Journey Through Forever | 4.0 |
| Blood Incantation Timewave Zero | 2.0 |
| Deathbell A Nocturnal Crossing | 3.5 |
| Insineratehymn Disembodied | 3.5 |
| Corpsegrinder Corpsegrinder | 3.5 |
| Deprived Existence Deprived Existence | 3.0 |
| Flaming Ouroboros Ethereal Timbre | 4.0 |
| Occumancy Augurium Senarius Umbrae | 2.5 |
| I deduct a .5 because I was really looking forward to this and it was a little too much of an unexpected letdown. :/ |
| HammerFall Hammer of Dawn | 4.0 |
| Venator (AT) Echoes from the Gutter | 4.5 |
| Bedrangnis Die Burde die Wir Tragen | 4.5 |
| This is a behemoth of an album. Every track has what it needs to come together as it lumbers massively to the finish line, declaring victory. |
| Gutrectomy Manifestation of Human Suffering | 3.5 |
| Brood of Hatred The Golden Age | 4.0 |
| Ritual Necromancy / Fossilization Split | 3.5 |
| Deathhammer Electric Warfare | 4.0 |
| Demoted Bounded to a Mortal Life | 3.0 |
| Cryptum Vile Emergence | 4.0 |
| Extinguished Vomitous Manifestations | 3.5 |
| Graveater ... of Harrowing Remains | 3.0 |
| Selfgod Born of Death | 3.0 |
| Anatomy of I The Los(t) Angered Session | 3.5 |
| Allegaeon Damnum | 3.0 |
| Ezkaton To Those Who Fell | 4.0 |
| Seeds Of Contemplation Contemplations on Hidden Meanings | 3.0 |
| Flagras Lohe | 3.5 |
| Emulsified Apocalypse | 4.0 |
| Highly effective and sufficiently played dm from this year. Nothing extraordinary by any relative means but I can see this passing by and is just a great listen for itself, in the time that the disc allots. A sleeper hit, but no grand revelation so to speak. |
| Svrm Червів майбутня здобич | 4.0 |
| Theoptia Undead Gods | 3.0 |
| Batushka Мария / Maria | 3.5 |
| Star One Revel in Time | 2.5 |
| Pike vs The Automaton Pike Vs. The Automaton | 3.0 |
| Pure Wrath Hymn To The Woeful Hearts | 3.0 |
| Immolation Acts of God | 4.0 |
| Wandelaars Verbroken | 3.5 |
| Maentra Kundalini Rising | 3.0 |
| Cryptic Hatred Nocturnal Sickness | 4.5 |
| Schizophrenia (BE) Recollections of the Insane | 3.5 |
| Helhest Venganza y Fuego | 4.0 |
| Sadness / Unreqvited Sadness / Unreqvited | 4.5 |
| Chagrin See You... Never | 4.0 |
| This is a strong 4 from me, but mileage will vary. I find it beautiful and striking; others could see it as typical, vanilla, or not very varying. It's somewhere around 52 minutes which can be overlong for something like this but for me it's totally worth it, because the back half is packed with strong cuts such as "Right from the start", "The world will not change". Great for waking up to a dreary morning such as this. |
| Smoke (USA-VA) Groupthink | 3.5 |
| The Devils of Loudun Escaping Eternity | 4.0 |
| Soulcarrion Infernal Agony | 4.0 |
| Amorphis Halo | 3.5 |
| Karmanjaka Gates Of Muspel | 3.5 |
| Cult of Luna The Long Road North | 3.5 |
| Napalm Death Resentment is Always Seismic... | 4.0 |
| Author and Punisher Kruller | 4.0 |
| Voivod Synchro Anarchy | 4.0 |
| WAIT (USA) The End of Noise | 4.0 |
| Near Death Condition Ascent From the Mundane | 4.0 |
| Mortuary Drape Wisdom - Vibration - Repent | 3.5 |
| Big Thief Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You | 2.0 |
| Corrupter Descent into Madness | 3.5 |
| Temple Of Nihil Psalms Of The Omnivorous Flame | 3.5 |
| Tattva Naraka | 3.5 |
| This ends really well and the last three tracks are super strong. Might bump up a .5 with another listen, it's really on the verge of a 4.0 atm. |
| Bleakwinter Shrine Inundation | 3.0 |
| The last track "Sea" is the strongest here, but unfortunately I felt too ambivalent about most of the rest even though it picks up cohesion and pace on track 3. Fells kinda split in two, an ok half in the first two tracks, and a decent to mostly solid half in the last two. |
| Abysmal Dawn Nightmare Frontier | 3.5 |
| Giving an extra .5 just 'cause. It's not a bad EP; one new song, one re-recorded, and two competent covers. Which btw they covered In Flames' 'Behind Space'. That song is always win but it's pretty much a carbon copy. But still though, the song is win and they didn't fuck it up. |
| Pestilent Reign Ascension | 3.5 |
| Persefone Metanoia | 4.0 |
| Rolo Tomassi Where Myth Becomes Memory | 4.5 |
| Yeah, this is really that good. Some absolutely stellar tunes and the closer is a gutpunch. This could be a 5 in time, depending on the amount of love one chooses to bury with it. |
| Krvvla X | 4.0 |
| In all honesty, this was over too quickly. I do not see this as a detriment but there is something about it that makes you just want a little more. All the main portion tracks are solid enough fare, but the penultimate "XVII" is by far the highlight here. Straight channels Rorcal and I am an absolute sucker for anything that resembles Vilagvege. It falls in the category of 4 for me and will mingle with my others in that tier throughout the year, and I suspect I'll give a shout-out to this later. Though it's not too harsh of a critique when saying "I liked it, but want to hear more", lol, even though I could see how it somewhat under-delivers to other listeners. |
| Mossgiver The Song Among Branches | 3.5 |
| Windveill There Inevitably Will Be Silence | 3.0 |
| Autosarcophagy Dolor | 4.0 |
| Deathless Void Deathless Void | 3.5 |
| When everything kicks in on track two after the dissonant ambience of the introductory opener, it starts to fucking rip immediately. What follows is a three minute scorcher and a 7 minute pummeler that leads out with a by now all too familiar melody in the last two minutes. So what you're looking at is just about ten minutes of music. The tracks themselves are strong but on the whole it feels a little too incomplete. Could certainly have used another track or two to give it more body. No doubt if this band continues it would certainly be competent, but the success lies in whether it can be distinguished enough amid an unfortunate saturation of the genre. |
| Black Country, New Road Ants From Up There | 1.5 |
| Deprecation Portrait of Mutilated Promo | 4.0 |
| Venom Prison Erebos | 3.0 |
| With each release I enjoy this band less, and less, and less. This scene is slipping back into parodic rather quick after the erect and small success of other recent hxc chompers/biters. Don't wear it too much on your sleeves guys/gals, even though [it] wouldn't be anywhere if you all of a sudden, didn't. |
| Anonymous Skull Anonymous Skull | 3.5 |
| Symphysiotomy Dissolution of the Body in Acid | 4.0 |
| I keep returning back to these songs. The short-lived grooves are infectious. Pretty good six minutes of brutal slam, and nothing out of the ordinary. |
| Serpent Dweller Demo II | 3.5 |
| Burned In Effigy Rex Mortem | 3.0 |
| Cryptivore Celestial Extinction | 3.5 |
| Devourer Raptus | 4.0 |
| Gasbrand Dishonor, Madness and Calamity | 3.5 |
| Night Hag (USA-VA) Phantasmal Scourge | 3.5 |
| Deathcult Of Soil Unearthed | 3.5 |
| Negativa (ESP) 04 | 4.0 |
| That dark, oppressive and dissonant bm atmosphere we've most certainly all heard by now, but the thing is, is that it's still good. And it lends itself a great hand in the making of the structure and compositions here, that the whole thing ultimately is stronger because of it. |
| Funeral Altar Intoxication of Satan's Tusks | 4.0 |
| Mur (USA-MN) Cut the Rivers Vein | 4.0 |
| Celeste Assassine(s) | 4.0 |
| Praying Mantis Katharsis | 3.5 |
| Krallice Crystalline Exhaustion | 3.0 |
| Blastanus Beyond | 3.5 |
| They hate us cause they *anus*. Hehe, gott'em. |
| Malefic Throne Malefic Throne | 3.5 |
| The Dali Thundering Concept All Mighty Men - Drifting Through a Prosthetic Era | 1.5 |
| Vile Rites The Ageless | 4.0 |
| Ectoplasma Inferna Kabbalah | 4.0 |
| Ravenous Death Visions from the Netherworld | 4.0 |
| Vrosaath Final Storm of the Tyrant | 3.0 |
| Abyssus Death Revival | 3.5 |
| Funestus Noxignis | 3.0 |
| Druid Lord Relics of the Dead | 4.0 |
| I could have swore I heard Grotesque Offerings already, but in any case, this album be doing it right. |
| 40 Watt Sun Perfect Light | 4.5 |
| Tomb of Annihilation End of Time | 3.5 |
| I would not mind if this was longer at all. Good job Dungeon! and I liked the vocal approach. Gonna listen a little more. |
| Aurora (NOR) The Gods We Can Touch | 4.0 |
| Boris W | 4.0 |
| Pensees Nocturnes Douce Fange | 4.0 |
| Graves For Gods The Oldest Gods | 4.0 |
| Nightrage Abyss Rising | 2.5 |
| Helvaetra Demo | 3.0 |
| Phreneticis Maze of Time | 3.0 |
| Escarnium Through the Depths of the 12th Gate | 4.5 |
| 1 song and a cover, but holy shit is this title track heavy as hell and rips mad hell through everything. |
| Ritus de Cruor Die Melancholie der Zauberer | 3.5 |
| Chaos Perversion Petrified Against the Emanation | 4.0 |
| Penny Coffin Σκελετικό Σκοτάδι | 4.5 |
| Hell yeah, check this. Jaws has a gripping ending. Skeletal Darkness, I don't even know- halfway through the shit just turns straight up into an evil spirit and gnaws you alive. Hell of a song this year. The last track is probably the weaker of the three, but it's not a letdown. I haven't given many 4.5's this year but I'm going to put one here for awhile. |
| Truculency The Dome Collector | 3.0 |
| Dodskvad Krønike II | 3.0 |
| Profane Ruination Demo 2022 | 3.0 |
| Night of the Vampire Eternal Night | 3.5 |
| Void Column Quiescence (demo) | 4.0 |
| Slowbleed The Blazing Sun, A Fiery Dawn | 3.5 |
| Nogothula Gore Vortex Ascension | 4.0 |
| Underoath Voyeurist | 1.5 |
| I thought on the last album they said "getoverit" like 14 times. Yeah, I'm over it. Whatever. Lost in the Sound is still their peak, guys larp on Disambiguation way too unnaturally. This band has been aging backwards like crazy lately, and this is the band that put out Chasing Safety mind you. |
| Enterprise Earth The Chosen | 3.5 |
| Worm Shepherd Ritual Hymns | 4.0 |
| Mizmor Wit's End | 2.0 |
| Bonobo Fragments | 3.5 |
| Toundra Hex | 4.0 |
| Aethereus Leiden | 3.0 |
| Animarum The Gaian Mind | 3.5 |
| First riff is Cynic incarnate which def rips and I think is repeated later on in Ambrosia to nice effect. The songs in themselves are a little "trope-ic" relying and may be slightly overlong in nature, but it's still a relatively short +/-25 min EP that's great for at least 1 spin. There are strengths here to pull off a full-length but it would be dependent on the level and amount of honing and focus required to be fully spectacular. |
| Mathan Darkroot Tzantza | 4.5 |
| Oh my god. What the fuck. Get tore up. This will absolutely be one of the most underlooked releases out of this year. |
| Verbum Exhortation to the Impure | 3.5 |
| Fit for an Autopsy Oh What the Future Holds | 4.0 |
| Shadow Of Intent Elegy | 3.5 |
| Grave Viper Crypts of the Foul | 4.0 |
| Meadows of Melancholy/Departer Disparition | 4.0 |
| Nothing else to say except this is an 'excellent' set of three songs, the first two by Meadows of Melancholy especially. |
| Gutricyde Gutricyde | 2.5 |
| Nocturnal Triumph Nocturnal Triumph | 4.0 |
| Resonant Filth Depraved State | 4.0 |
| Phlegmesis Sewer Pop | 3.5 |
| Void Odyssey Void Odyssey | 3.5 |
| Ancient Burials Shepherd of the Dead | 3.5 |
| Crypts of Wallachia The Witches of Hoia Baciu | 3.5 |
| Necrophagous In Chaos Ascend | 2.5 |
| Dark Millennium Acid River | 3.5 |
| Soichi Terada Asakusa Light | 3.5 |
| Needless The Cosmic Cauldron | 4.0 |
| OAR The Blood You Crave | 4.0 |
| Blackened doom makes you go hmmmmm? There's really no reason why this is barely scraping a 3.0 avg, this is fantastic. 1's and 2's make absolutely no sense, unless it's just once again another habit of piggybacking. |
| VoidCeremony At the Periphery of Human Realms | 3.5 |
| Kukailimoku Rehearsal Tape 2021 | 4.0 |
| Sallow Moth Failure to Find | 3.5 |
| Xurganuuth Cyberterroristic Explosion of the Inverted Triangl | 2.5 |
| Ulma Shadows of the Beast | 3.5 |
| Necrotum Hanging Above the Deadpool | 4.0 |
| Trenches Reckoner | 3.0 |
| Decoherence More Is Different | 4.0 |
| I seem to be the only one picking up what this band is putting down. I think others should be too. It's not revolutionary, but it's concise, effective and enjoyable disso-tunes to immerse into. |
| Demoted Away from the Living | 4.0 |
| Verberis Adumbration of the Veiled Logos | 4.5 |
| 2021 |
| Hadal Maw Oblique Order | 4.0 |
| Wombbath Agma | 4.0 |
| Call it a surprise, call it a comeback, where Wombbath is concerned it's both and a little more. Considering the past few subpar releases of the "revived" band, an odd pining towards the Internal Caustic Torment days, and some overly praise-ridden messaging by the label Transcending Obscurity to sell w/e they release be it a new album or comp from the band, at this point the odds were stacked against them. Coming out on the last day of the year too, guarantees a certain amount of overlook even amongst the most dedicated of listeners throughout the year. Billed as a double-album (really an hour and some change) too, tends to have it's drawbacks, especially in a dm context. All of what I said however, in terms of alluding to any potential consequence, somehow was subverted in regards to the final product. Somewhere between standard and stellar, this is a fantastic outing that for sure is not going to get the attention it deserves. Better than Asphyx's Necroceros and quite a few other acts of the same age that released this year, with heights of its own. Guitarist contributes violin on some tracks as well. Check this out, it will be worth it and flows way easy on the ears, passing the time like a breeze. Some good shit here. |
| Mental Devastation The Delusional Mystery Of The Self Part I | 4.0 |
| I wasn't liking it at first, but goddamn I enjoyed the ride this took you on from track 4 all the way to the end. The little acoustic stuff in the last two tracks were great. |
| Virulent Specter The Black Temple of Omniscient Manipulation | 3.0 |
| Thomas Giles Feel Nothing | 4.0 |
| Xurganuuth Abysmal Blood Particles of Thermonuclear Triumph | 2.5 |
| Demon Morder Black Magic Extermination | 4.0 |
| Necrobastard Massgrave | 3.5 |
| Funeral Mist Deiform | 4.0 |
| The Sway of Mountains All the Colour Stains the Light | 3.5 |
| Wound Serpent Crown | 3.5 |
| Ifernach Capitulation Of All Life | 3.5 |
| Pulverized Necrobrains Totally Pulverized | 4.0 |
| Vahrzaw The Trembling Voices of Conquered Men | 4.0 |
| Yeah I'm rating early but how else am I going to keep track of it all. This is coming out from Transcending Obscurity on Dec. 10. Check out the song "The Pessimist" for a taste of the blackened death/crust combo. |
| Cadaveric Fumes Echoing Chambers Of Soul | 4.0 |
| Malignant Altar Realms of Exquisite Morbidity | 4.0 |
| Ethereal Shroud Trisagion | 4.0 |
| Spaceslug Memorial | 3.5 |
| Gore Brigade Gore Brigade | 3.5 |
| Sacris Ritus Vermes Demo | 4.0 |
| This is straight Portal-worship, but wait- I didn't say that was a bad thing. If you like Portal but wished they cut to the chase a bit and can do without the abundant overlay of mystery, then give this 12 minute listen a spin. The second song is a rather effective segue with female choir vocals that is really pretty nice. Couldn't really find any additional information but seems like a one-man project, and of German origin. Give it a spin.rhttps://srv666.bandcamp.com/album/demo |
| Grizelda Grizelda | 4.0 |
| Darker Sun Adumbrated | 3.5 |
| Blasphemaniac Bestial Occult Ceremony | 3.0 |
| Under The Church Total Burial | 3.0 |
| Failure Wild Type Droid | 3.0 |
| Unanimated Victory in Blood | 3.5 |
| Thaumaturge Endless Antitheist Edicts | 2.0 |
| Coffin Dust Nightmare Vision | 3.5 |
| I wasn't going to do a soundoff to this but "Grave Euphoria (Coffin Dust II)" is an absolute MUST listen track. The following track "Ectoplasmic Meltdown" is also fantastic, and I enjoyed "Sick Shift" and "Feed Me" quite a bit too. The rest is pretty fair. It's like a 54 minute album. There's two tracks here from a previous EP; "Boneyard Rampage" and the aforementioned eponymous "Ectoplasmic". For real, listen to "Grave Euphoria" and Ecto, and the closer is alright but it's pretty long at 9 min and doesn't reach the highs of the better songs. |
| Ossuaire Triumvirat | 4.0 |
| This is really really solid, and benefits immensely from being relatively short. A great introduction if you haven't heard them before. |
| Lucifungus Clones | 2.5 |
| Savage Deity Decade of Savagery | 4.0 |
| Hypocrisy Worship | 3.5 |
It's hilarious, because when they said Album
Launch, they actually..... floated it up... to
space.. so, actual best album launch
confirmed.
https://youtu.be/uydkQnj8too |
| Cynic Ascension Codes | 3.5 |
| Okay, hear me out. This is like the aural equivalent of a SleepNumber pillow. A comfortable place to lay your head for sure, but wholly inoffensive in conforming to the space around you. It's there, basically. I'm glad Cynic had another go, but it's a little like coloring in the lines, and then erasing the lines afterward. I'm just saying, more often than not it's like Masvidal is afraid to actually play riffs on his guitar and just when it feels like it's getting there it pulls back. |
| Kaatayra Inpariquipê | 3.0 |
Dundararai is absolutely a standout track, as
well as the closer but wholly I feel like
this particular experimentation is a little
dry. But I must applaud the effort in creating
something so entirely different that the best
way I feel to describe it is tropical black
metal. Seriously. It's actually kind of
amazing in that aspect, but I'm just not big
on the first three songs. This the kinda shit
you can sit on the beach and drink pina
coladas to, lol. Watching various exotic birds
fly by. |
| Opera Diabolicus Death on a Pale Horse | 3.5 |
| Benothing Temporal Bliss Surrealms | 3.5 |
| Discordance Vertex | 4.0 |
| Rexul Erebus Virtuosus Alpha | 4.0 |
| Nekrovault Nachhut: Toward the Towering Tomb | 3.5 |
| Liquify Lost in Time | 3.0 |
| Zmarlym Druga fala | 4.0 |
| The second track with the hip-hop/trap into black metal is like whut, woah. Very intriguing combination, and the rest outside of it is just some good ol' rollicking black metal. Every song is a highlight in its own way but least favorite is probably Track Six. Tracks 3-5 are a good run though and Spacer kicks ass. |
| Abraded Abraded | 3.0 |
| Obscura A Valediction | 3.5 |
| I don't remember Obscura vocals sounding like this, but I love it. Gives an intense kick to their sound. |
| Abscession Rot of Ages | 3.5 |
| Plebeian Grandstand Rien ne suffit | 4.0 |
| Exodus Persona Non Grata | 3.0 |
| This is such a weird fking album man, lol. Like every song has moments that run from poor, great, good, very poor, great, excellent, poor...good.... Like wtf are you supposed to do with this lol. Don't get me wrong I'm not hating. It's just weird. |
| Converge Bloodmoon: I | 3.0 |
| Dream Unending Tide Turns Eternal | 4.0 |
| Maybeshewill No Feeling Is Final | 3.5 |
| Khemmis Deceiver | 4.0 |
| Teeth (USA-CA) Finite | 4.0 |
| This is two releases in a row where I am legitimately blown back by what these guys are doing. The Curse of Entropy was HIGH on my list in 2019, and this EP stands up to it and stares it straight in the eye. |
| The Temple (NZ) The Temple | 4.5 |
| This is very reminiscent of 'Vermis' era Ulcerate, and goddamn if Paul Kelland's vocals aren't distinct, because I picked up on them by the second song, checked and verified, and yep. It's quite an outstanding performance by him here, and he handles the guitars and bass as well. This shit seriously kicks off by track 2, and track 5 "Wolf in the Vortex" it's some ultimate shit. Was at a 4 initially, but the newfound information bumps it up a .5 EASILY. Paul is fucking underrated and amazing man. Simply awesome vocal performance with sick song progression and a clear and deviceable reason why this is everything akin to being Ulcerate's little brother. |
| Phthisis Upheaval of Infectious Mass | 3.5 |
| Vestigial (AUS) In the Void Between | 3.5 |
| Suffocation Live in North America | 5.0 |
| Legends deserve legendary recognition. I'll never forget this tour. The cassette version looks very very fucking dope. |
| Haalbuaer Mortal Ones Scream In Horror | 3.5 |
| Vertebra Atlantis Lustral Purge in Cerulean Bliss | 4.0 |
| Hyperdontia Hideous Entity | 3.5 |
| Psionic Madness Mortality Salience | 4.0 |
| This is impressively monstrous. I think its strongest section is in the first six tracks and the vocals in "Robed as Destinies" is questionable, but all in all pretty solid and will more than likely end up on my list. |
| Unleashed No Sign of Life | 4.0 |
| What the heck, I actually like an Unleashed album? |
| 200 Stab Wounds Slave to the Scalpel | 3.5 |
| Silent Planet Iridescent | 3.5 |
| Glorification Excruciating Odes Of Of Condemnation And Apostasy | 3.5 |
| Heuristica Paramount Symmetry | 3.5 |
| Devilkraft Black Book of Goetia | 3.5 |
| Gravevoid Fetid Corpse | 3.5 |
| Poppy Seed Grinder Faceless Atrocities | 3.5 |
| Mortiferum Preserved in Torment | 4.5 |
| Anticipated dm AOTY delivers with a sledgehammer to just about every portion of you that's there to exist. |
| Exsanguinated Millions of Tortured Souls | 4.0 |
| Visions From Beyond Drawing Down the Darkness | 3.5 |
| Vorus The Crypt Of Shadows | 3.0 |
| Outre-Tombe Abysse Mortifère | 3.5 |
| Impending Doom Hellbent | 3.5 |
| Mastodon Hushed and Grim | 3.0 |
| Archspire Bleed the Future | 3.5 |
| The two singles are the two songs that are a direct rip from Relentless Mutation, which is funny when people are saying they liked them better than anything off of that album. It's what initially put me off being excited about it, because RM is still as awesome as it comes but I don't want a duplicate. Luckily the rest of the album is actually a decent step and variation from that approach. Score could increase an increment over time, we'll see. |
| Kayo Dot Moss Grew on the Swords and Plowshares Alike | 4.0 |
| Burial (ITA) Inner Gateways To The Slumbering... | 4.0 |
| Sylvan Awe Transcend | 4.0 |
| Sunless Ylem | 4.0 |
| First Fragment Gloire Eternelle | 4.0 |
| Prophetic Scourge Gnosis - A Sorrower's Journey | 4.5 |
| Huronian As Cold as a Stranger Sunset | 3.5 |
| Congealed Putrescence Dissolved in Hyphae | 4.0 |
| Sulphurous The Black Mouth of Sepulchre | 4.0 |
| Apparition Feel | 4.0 |
| Dream Theater A View from the Top of the World | 4.0 |
| Worm Foreverglade | 4.0 |
| Slow Crush Hush | 4.0 |
| Cradle of Filth Existence Is Futile | 3.5 |
| 1914 Where Fear and Weapons Meet | 4.0 |
| Massacre Resurgence | 3.5 |
| Exhumed Worming | 3.5 |
| Deviant Process Nurture | 4.0 |
| Vildhjarta Måsstaden Under Vatten | 3.5 |
| Knocked Loose A Tear in the Fabric of Life | 3.5 |
| Iniquitatem Through Dead Forests, He Dwells | 5.0 |
| This is pure, raw, unadulterated doom. To me, this sounds like it is of the tolling effigy beladen to the funeral doom type but I've been told before that I am mistaken for what I consider funeral doom versus what is funeral doom. Be that as it may, you have all the paces of a plodding dirge laid out on the page before you, with 5-10 seconds of pause minimum between when stick hits crash and and stick hits snare, and that's when you're moving. Now here's the thing, doom/funeral doom isn't much my thing because it's hard to pick out nuances amongst these acts so when it comes to quality, is it great because of how standard it is as it sticks to genre? Or how exceptionally engrossing it is regardless whether you have heard it before? What is good if you have heard it expressed in the same manner and fashion whether it be 5, 10, or 100 times already before? For me, it's the conglomeration of these two acts, and for that I award it to thee- A Perfect Score. |
| Hellige Camino de agua | 3.5 |
| Trivium In the Court of the Dragon | 3.5 |
| Atrae Bilis Apexapien | 4.0 |
| Alda A Distant Fire | 4.0 |
| Norse Ascetic | 4.0 |
| The World Is a Beautiful Place... Illusory Walls | 4.0 |
| Creeping Death The Edge Of Existence | 3.5 |
| "Humanity Transcends" is the winner here. First three tracks are new, and the last three are newer versions of the Sacrament of Death EP. Track 3 "Humanity Transcends" is the ballripper of the bunch. |
| Karen Peris A Song is Way Above the Lawn | 4.0 |
| Magdalena Bay Mercurial World | 3.0 |
| Ministry Moral Hygiene | 3.0 |
| Abstracter Abominion | 3.5 |
| Venefixion A Sigh from Below | 3.5 |
| Full of Hell Garden of Burning Apparitions | 3.5 |
| Forlorn Aspect Visions of the Causal Source | 3.5 |
| Kinda gets more enjoyable halfway through so I'll bump the rating up a half. |
| Sadistic Christ Sticmatic Slave | 3.5 |
| Erz Erz | 3.5 |
| Tumba de Carne Decatexis // Perpetu Altar | 4.5 |
| This is definitely not going to get the attention it deserves. An extra .5 point because it's really good and should be tilted closer towards the 4 average. It's good shit, straight out the bog. |
| Wraith (USA-IN) Undo The Chains | 3.0 |
| Cognizance Upheaval | 3.5 |
| Morbid Messiah Disgorged in the Coffin | 3.0 |
| Invent Animate The Sun Sleeps, As If It Never Was | 3.5 |
| Decaying Crypt Demo | 3.5 |
| Putrid Tomb Putrid Tomb | 4.0 |
| Demonarchy Demo II | 3.5 |
| Occulsed Crepitation of Phlegethon | 3.5 |
| Mono Pilgrimage Of The Soul | 3.0 |
| Carcass Torn Arteries | 3.5 |
| Alien Weaponry Tangaroa | 3.0 |
| Infestment Evulsion of Mortal Birth | 3.5 |
| Aborted ManiaCult | 3.0 |
| Replicant Malignant Reality | 3.5 |
| Inferi (USA) Vile Genesis | 4.0 |
| Repulsive Mass Conjure Apocalyptic Pestilence | 3.5 |
| Andrew W.K. God Is Partying | 2.5 |
| Infested (USA-CA) Grotesque Remains | 3.5 |
| Wharflurch Psychedelic Realms ov Hell | 3.5 |
| Slimelord Moss Contamination | 3.5 |
| Iron Maiden Senjutsu | 3.0 |
| Antediluvian The Divine Punishment | 4.0 |
| Bestial Possession / Goatslaught / Profanación Sepulcral / Satanic Alliance of the Possessed Sepulchral Necro | 3.0 |
| Ruin Spread Plague Death | 4.0 |
| Leprous Aphelion | 2.5 |
| Hooded Menace The Tritonus Bell | 3.5 |
| Sculptured The Liminal Phase | 3.0 |
| Cosmic Dyscrasia MMXXIX | 4.0 |
| Kal-El Dark Majesty | 3.5 |
| Between the Buried and Me Colors II | 4.5 |
| This starts off so close to Colors with Monochrome/The Double Helix of Extinction it's almost scary. Straight dope into the veins, but the album becomes progressively more Automata as it reaches its end. The Double Helix of Extinction is life though, and really the entire album makes Coma Ecliptic look like a newborn infant compared to this monster. |
| Ulver Hexahedron | 3.5 |
| Deafheaven Infinite Granite | 3.0 |
| Tropical Fuck Storm Deep States | 4.5 |
| I don't know what the fck this is, but it's fucking amazing lol. |
| Putrid Evocation Eternal Gloom: A Void of Agony and Repugnancy | 4.0 |
| Lorna Shore ...And I Return to Nothingness | 3.0 |
| Quicksand Distant Populations | 3.5 |
| Qrixkuor Poison Palinopsia | 3.5 |
| Diskord Degenerations | 4.0 |
| Decrepisy Emetic Communion | 4.5 |
| Void Column The Chasmic Death (demo) | 3.5 |
| Lantlos Wildhund | 3.5 |
| When did Lantlos become Torche? Sounds like a straight sequel to Harmonicraft. Not that there's really anything wrong with that, per say. |
| King Woman Celestial Blues | 4.0 |
| Fetid Zombie Transmutations | 3.5 |
| Expunged Into Never Shall | 3.5 |
| Abolition Ritual Dark Visions of Torment | 3.0 |
| Intestinal Hex The Exalted Chambers of Abhorrence | 3.5 |
| Chasms (USA-PA) Necrotic Ossuary | 3.5 |
| Molok (MEX) Glioblastoma Multiforme | 4.5 |
| Galvanizer Prying Sight Of Imperception | 3.5 |
| Structures None of the Above | 3.5 |
| Sallow Moth Stasis Cocoon | 4.0 |
| Concilium (PT) Desecration | 3.0 |
| Drawn and Quartered Congregation Pestilence | 3.5 |
| Year of No Light Consolamentum | 3.0 |
| Dismal Aura Praesagia Tristia | 4.0 |
| Noctambulist The Barren Form | 3.5 |
| Swelling Repulsion The Severed Path | 4.0 |
| Ossuary (CO) Addicted To Human Flesh | 3.0 |
| Atonement (SWE) Merciless Blasphemy | 2.5 |
| Urne Serpent and Spirit | 4.5 |
| Pestilence Exitivm | 3.0 |
| Darkthrone Eternal Hails | 3.5 |
| Amenra De Doorn | 3.5 |
| Cerebral Rot Excretion Of Mortality | 4.0 |
| The Absence Coffinized | 4.0 |
| Light the Torch You Will Be the Death of Me | 4.0 |
| maybe the unsung hero of the entirety of 2021. I struggled with Revival ultimately rating it higher than it should be just because I still like that Howard is around doing vocals, but despite the most formulaic track times you can imagine for metalcore (every song is between 3:06 and 3:46 except the final) with a few tracks having identical track lengths, the songs come and go with plenty of decent flow. The album is ridiculously strong for the first seven tracks, and then it finally starts to wane after that, but the opening three tracks, as well as 'Living with a Ghost', and most importantly 'Death of Me' are wonderful in my opinion, with the latter especially feeling of that heartsick emotion we haven't heard so good since this side of Arms of Sorrow that I'd like to even call it a spiritual successor. It finally seems as if Howard has fully been fitted into the right shoes since his time after KSE II. I forgive the album's weaker second half, as the strengths of this record should at least be given more of a spotlight. |
| Witch Vomit Abhorrent Rapture | 4.5 |
| Fear Factory Aggression Continuum | 3.5 |
| Maha Sohona Endless Searcher | 3.5 |
| Helloween Helloween | 4.5 |
| Alustrium A Monument to Silence | 4.5 |
| Sun Eater Desecrate | 3.0 |
| Grotesque Hysterectomy Dødsavantgard | 4.0 |
| Crypta Echoes Of The Soul | 3.0 |
| Boss Keloid Family the Smiling Thrush | 2.5 |
| Encirclement Vacio Sepulchral | 3.0 |
| Typhonian The Cosmic Pendulum of Time | 3.5 |
| Biocide Inhibiting the Sludge Tomb | 3.5 |
| Portal Hagbulbia | 3.0 |
| Silver Talon Decadence and Decay | 4.0 |
| This has a good chance of making it pretty high up my year end list. It's reminiscent of the Manticora album that was released last year, but a little simpler and defined and not attempting the grandiosity in that endeavor. Either way, I found this to be deftly enjoyable and goes pretty hard at times. |
| Portal Avow | 4.5 |
| Black Midi Cavalcade | 3.5 |
| Alluvial Sarcoma | 3.5 |
| It's like a Fallujah meets Mastodon kind of thing. |
| Esoctrilihum Dy'th Requiem for the Serpent Telepath | 4.0 |
| Slithering Decay Aeons Untold | 3.5 |
| An Autumn For Crippled Children As The Morning Dawns We Close Our Eyes | 3.0 |
| Acausal Intrusion Nulitas | 3.5 |
| Vulture (DE) Dealin' Death | 3.5 |
| Ulcer Dead Souls Cathedral | 4.0 |
| Ambulance (MEX) Demo Rehearsal 2021 | 2.5 |
| Panopticon ...And Again into the Light | 4.0 |
| Moth Eaten Soul goes considerably hard. The bm featured on this is certainly quality. |
| Nihilanth Graceless Planet | 3.5 |
| Snet Mokvání V Okovech | 3.5 |
| Unearthly Rites Unearthly Rites | 4.0 |
| Caliban Zeitgeister | 3.5 |
| The Monolith Deathcult V3 - Vernedering: Connect the Goddamn Dots | 3.0 |
| Iosonouncane Ira | 4.0 |
| The track 'prison' and the whole album for that matter, is like The Seer's demented cousin which, is straight up commendable on that alone, but don't let my words get in the way of the intricacy and virtuosity that this anvils upon you. |
| Gastric Phantasm Gastric Phantasm | 3.0 |
| Dead and Dripping Miasmic Eulogies Predicating an Eternal Nocturne | 4.0 |
| Deadly Ritual Horrores De La Mente Humana | 4.0 |
| Jute Gyte Mitrealität | 3.5 |
| Morbific Ominous Seep of Putridity | 4.0 |
| Nachtlich / Grundhyrde Nächtlich / Grundhyrde | 3.5 |
| Gojira Fortitude | 3.5 |
| Manchester Orchestra The Million Masks of God | 4.0 |
| Plasmodium Towers of Silence | 2.5 |
| Clandestine Blaze Secrets of Laceration | 4.0 |
| Deathsiege Imago Blasphemiam | 3.0 |
| Thy Rites Nekrolatreia | 3.0 |
| Altarage Succumb | 3.5 |
| Bodom After Midnight Paint the Sky With Blood | 4.0 |
| Fucking shit, I haven't heard Bodom tracks as good as the first two on display here since... Hatecrew, easy. RIP. |
| Paysage d'Hiver Geister | 4.0 |
| Helslave From the Sulphur Depths | 3.5 |
| Meshum Enigmatic Existential Essence | 3.0 |
| Obsolete Animate//Isolate | 4.0 |
| Intonate Severed Within | 4.0 |
| This is fucking ripping. Now I just have to finish out the wordcount. |
| Cannibal Corpse Violence Unimagined | 4.0 |
| Hail the Sun New Age Filth | 3.0 |
| Graveyard of Souls Infinity Equal Zero | 3.0 |
| Abigorum Vergessene Stille | 4.0 |
| Gore Dimension Ethereal Realm | 4.0 |
| Zao The Crimson Corridor | 4.0 |
| Phlebotomized Pain, Resistance, Suffering | 4.0 |
| After a string of boring dull ass albums getting hyped to every degree, it's nice to hear something that has people actually playing instruments to make something similar to sound. |
| Inoculation Celestial Putridity | 4.0 |
| Effluence Ballistic Bloodspray | 2.5 |
| Phreneticum Der Stille Zerfall | 4.0 |
| Wode Burn in Many Mirrors | 4.0 |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor G_d's Pee AT STATE'S END! | 3.5 |
| Cryptic Void Post-Human Godhood | 4.0 |
| Fucking hell, this is a cybernetic blister with an overall fuck you type of heavy for what is only... 8 minutes. |
| Sphere (FRA) π | 3.5 |
| Fuoco Fatuo (ITA2) Obsidian Katabasis | 3.5 |
| Sanguisugabogg Tortured Whole | 3.5 |
| Celestial Sanctuary Soul Diminished | 3.5 |
| Genghis Tron Dream Weapon | 4.0 |
| Rapture (GR) Malevolent Demise Incarnation | 4.5 |
| Carnal Tomb Festering Presence | 3.5 |
| Sarkrista Sworn to Profound Heresy | 3.5 |
| Fossilization He Whose Name Was Long Forgotten | 4.0 |
| Nursing Self Care | 3.5 |
| This one's a tough 3.5 because it's got some really banger moments, but still feels like a 3.5 to me. Many people would totally dig this, so don't let me dissuade you. All the elements are there. |
| Serj Tankian Elasticity | 2.0 |
| Mvltifission Decomposition in the Painful Metamorphosis | 3.0 |
| Turris Eburnea Turris Eburnea | 4.0 |
| Gizmachi Omega Kaleid | 4.0 |
| After fifteen years of anticipation, and *literal anticipation*, since being hooked deep by their first release, what can be said besides letting the music speak for itself. There are changes, mostly small additional nuances to the sound, and while the oh so good and more "abrasive" metalcore sections, for all their charm, have been smoothed, there isn't any lack of aggression. Ultimately, a triumph and full album experience from one of the more promising, but hard turns of luck bands out there in the scene today. Toast up! |
| Autarkh Form in Motion | 4.0 |
| Eyehategod A History Of Nomadic Behavior | 2.5 |
| Sepulcros Vazio | 4.0 |
| This is some pretty straight death/doom. Track 4 "Magno Caos" is fantastic and absolutely a standout. The following and last full length track on the disc "Hecatombe" is pretty solid and closes the disc well enough for me to bump from a 3.5 to a 4. Check track 4 though for sure. |
| Rob Zombie The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy | 2.5 |
| The Crown Royal Destroyer | 3.5 |
| Cryptum Enter The Cryptum (demo) | 4.0 |
| Sulphurous Encircling Darkness | 3.5 |
| Anthropophagous Death Fugue | 3.0 |
| Coffin Rot Reduced to Visceral Sludge | 3.5 |
| Invultation Unconquerable Death | 3.5 |
| Vaticinal Rites Vaticinal Rites | 3.5 |
| I guess album artwork doesn't want to work today. :/ |
| Last Days of Humanity Horrific Compositions of Decomposition | 3.0 |
| Luminiferous Aether Luminiferous Aether | 3.5 |
| Bitter Loss (RU) Oblivion In Ceremonial Void | 4.5 |
| Epica Omega | 3.5 |
| Vektor / Cryptosis Transmissions Of Chaos | 3.0 |
| The final track, one of two handled by Cryptosis, lays down a pretty decent but simple groove which is one of the few things that doesn't feel inherently lifeless on here, but it also manages to become overused and redundant by the time the song finishes. Hm. |
| King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard L. W. | 3.5 |
| Vastatum Mercurial States of Revelation | 3.0 |
| The last track is killer, but alas I don't think the whole thing stands up that I would rate it anything higher than what I have here. |
| Abythic Dominion Of The Wicked | 4.0 |
| Voidwomb Altars of Cosmic Devotion | 3.0 |
| Ad Nauseam Imperative Imperceptible Impulse | 4.0 |
| Swampbeast Seven Evils Spawned of Seven Heads | 4.0 |
| Underoath UØ Observatory: They're Only Chasing Safety | 3.5 |
| Cult of Luna The Raging River | 4.0 |
| There's more CoL that I don't like, then CoL that I do. This release just ticks the boxes off for me I guess. Very solid. |
| Melancholia Static Church | 4.0 |
| Mefitis Offscourings | 4.0 |
| Swelling Repulsion Dissociation | 3.5 |
| Tribulation Where the Gloom Becomes Sound | 3.5 |
| Crystal Viper The Cult | 3.0 |
| Astral Tomb Degradation Of Human Consciousness | 2.5 |
| Visions From Beyond Eternally Bound, Whipped by Time | 3.5 |
| Dipygus Bushmeat | 4.0 |
| Altered Dead Returned to Life | 3.5 |
| Pythonissam From Beyond, From Below | 3.0 |
| Manifesting Obscenity Mahapralaya | 3.0 |
| Ellende Triebe | 4.0 |
| Asphyx Necroceros | 3.5 |
| Diocletian Darkness Swallows All | 3.5 |
| Radio Supernova Takaisin | 4.0 |
| Fractal Generator Macrocosmos | 3.5 |
| Gatecreeper An Unexpected Reality | 3.5 |
| Ancient Mastery Chapter One: Across The Mountains Of ... | 4.0 |
| Frozen Soul Crypt Of Ice | 3.5 |
| Celestial Swarm Gateways to the Necroverse | 3.0 |
| 2020 |
| Goatcraft (SK) Spheres Below | 3.5 |
| Diminished Existence Eulogies of Defilement | 3.5 |
| Primordial Throne Possessor | 4.0 |
| This sort of straddles the 3.5 and 4.0 line. But one thing is for sure, track 9 "Akrasia ad Imperium" fucking rips it. The release is rather long at over an hour, but it is another one-man piece so there's still much to be admired in that. It's mostly just some standard death with maybe a little more solo-y moments filled in the longer compositions. The vox are what you expect, in terms of a regular grumble, but still get the job done and are serviceable to the song. Once in a while they might break into an impressive moment or two. There's a cover of Demon of the Fall for you Opethers out there I think it's pretty good, and neat to have included. Fuck it, this certainly ends on a high note so I'll slap the 4 on it for now. Check that song Akrasia ad Imperium and see what you like. |
| Eminem Music to Be Murdered By: Side B | 3.0 |
| Grayceon Mothers Weavers Vultures | 3.5 |
| Wombbath Tales of Madness | 3.0 |
| Akhlys Melinoe | 4.0 |
| Yashira Fail To Be | 3.5 |
| Raat (IN) Raison D'être | 4.0 |
| Deeds of Flesh Nucleus | 4.0 |
| Seiko Oomori Kintsugi | 1.5 |
| Mortiferum / Hyperdontia Mortiferum / Hyperdontia (Split) | 3.5 |
| Samsara Blues Experiment End of Forever | 4.0 |
| SUMAC Two Beasts | 4.0 |
| Underoath UØ Observatory: Define the Great Line | 3.0 |
| Undergang Aldrig i livet | 4.0 |
| Respire Black Line | 4.5 |
| Growth (AUS) The Smothering Arms Of Mercy | 4.0 |
| Profanity Fragments of Solace | 3.5 |
| This bands earlier material looks interestingrand I'm not sure how it compares or sounds,rbut this is your standard yet competentrextremely modern tech-death. An 8 minute songrfollowed by a 9 minute one in the middle ofrthe tracklist is an interesting structure, butrnothing quite stands out amongst the album asra whole and I hate to say it, but it justrfeels like one whole long one. |
| Depravity (AUS) Grand Malevolence | 4.5 |
| Dawnwalker Ages | 3.5 |
| Cryptodira The Angel of History | 3.0 |
| Before I Turn Lovelorn | 2.5 |
| Gone Is Gone If Everything Happens for a Reason... | 3.0 |
| Soilwork A Whisp of the Atlantic | 3.0 |
| Within the Ruins Black Heart | 3.5 |
| Revolting The Shadow At The World's End | 3.5 |
| I consider this a 3.5 just out of rater bias. It's really like a 3.0 or maybe less for some others. It's all around pretty average and typical and I think the production is a little off. It's been a while since I've listened to Revolting but I've always given them good marks in the past. |
| Azarath Saint Desecration | 3.5 |
| Shores of Null Beyond the Shores (On Death and Dying) | 3.0 |
| If the death experienced was slow and long and carried on and on repeating itself, this could be very accurate, but the dramatics of this piece as it is instilled (along with the accompanying video) makes me realize that the speed and perfunctory-ness of grind is a closer depiction of most death, rather than the utmost brooding and long-standing reflection of the most common concepts of the topic dragged on and on throughout the whole duration, to the point where... you'll be wishing for something.. But I guess, even this is enough to capture adolescent's attention even if to me, it's just pantomiming something deep and grandiose, because I honestly just find it silly. |
| Plini Impulse Voices | 4.0 |
| Ondskapt Grimoire Ordo Devus | 4.5 |
| Sodom Genesis XIX | 3.5 |
| Bather Phantom Guilt | 4.0 |
| Cadaver Edder and Bile | 4.0 |
| Wharflurch Lurking Doom + Demo 2019 | 3.0 |
| GumoManiacs Morbid Tales of Terror | 3.5 |
| Killer Be Killed Reluctant Hero | 4.0 |
| Skelethal Unveiling the Threshold | 3.5 |
| Contrarian Only Time Will Tell | 4.0 |
| Liminal Shroud Through the False Narrows | 3.5 |
| Liturgy Origin of the Alimonies | 4.0 |
| pg.lost Oscillate | 3.5 |
| King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard K.G. | 3.0 |
| Omnivortex Diagrams of Consciousness | 4.0 |
| Dark Tranquillity Moment | 3.5 |
| Toxaemia Where Paths Divide | 4.0 |
| Alustrium Insurmountable | 4.0 |
| Communic Hiding from the World | 3.5 |
| Okay, I wasn't liking much of this at all until track four, but the last half of the album impressively digs itself quite out of the 3.0 grave it was going to rest in. Just ascends right up to the final track 'Forgotten', which is such a suiting closing track that it prevents it from being anything but. |
| Cabaret Voltaire Shadow Of Fear | 3.0 |
| Lie in Ruins Floating in Timeless Streams | 3.5 |
| Neige et Noirceur Bach - Preludium Minor | 3.5 |
| Voidsphere To Sense | To Perceive | 3.5 |
| Pneuma Hagion Voidgazer | 3.5 |
| Upupayama Upupayama | 3.0 |
| Hexis Exstirpo / Exsorbeo | 4.0 |
| Pyramaze Epitaph | 3.5 |
| Fuming Mouth Beyond The Tomb | 3.0 |
| Of Feather and Bone Sulfuric Disintegration | 3.5 |
| Omegavortex Black Abomination Spawn | 4.0 |
| This was quite nifty I must say, and pretty solid for a full-length debut. It meanders somewhere around the middle and up until the end, but the last track appropriately wraps it up as a complete package. Some decent twisty guitar work, thick as vines in some places. |
| Jesu Terminus | 4.0 |
| In Malice's Wake The Blindness of Faith | 3.5 |
| Uthullun Dirges for the Void | 3.5 |
| Vacuous Katabasis | 4.0 |
| Bloodsoaked Necrovoid Expelled into the Unknown Depths... | 3.0 |
| Darkenhold Arcanes & sortilèges | 4.0 |
| Deluge Ægo Templo | 4.0 |
| Dvne Omega Severer | 3.5 |
| System of a Down Protect The Land/Genocidal Humanoidz | 3.5 |
| Covidectomy Covidectomy | 3.5 |
| Dark Doom Mourning's End | 4.0 |
| Esoctrilihum F'htansg | 3.5 |
| Chainbreaker (AT) Relentless Night | 3.5 |
| Miasmatic Necrosis Apex Profane | 4.0 |
| Visit Kalvhaga hardcore ambient | 3.0 |
| Audn Vökudraumsins fangi | 4.0 |
| Draconian Under a Godless Veil | 4.0 |
| Nuclear Power Trio A Clear and Present Rager | 4.0 |
| Midnight Odyssey Ashes From a Terrestrial Fall | 3.5 |
| Monstrous Dawnsleeper | 3.5 |
| Kinda continuing my trend of giving an extra .5 mark to average releases, just for a little distinguishability. It's not great but it's good. 29 minutes but it felt rather bland by the end of it. Could just be me. |
| Wombripper Macabre Melodies | 3.5 |
| Disburied Rituals Of Death | 3.5 |
| Loma Don't Shy Away | 3.5 |
| Ceremonial Bloodbath The Tides of Blood | 4.0 |
| Undeath Lesions of a Different Kind | 3.5 |
| Mors Principium Est Seven | 3.5 |
| Distant Dawn of Corruption | 3.0 |
| Sevendust Blood and Stone | 3.0 |
| Demoniac (CHL) So It Goes | 3.5 |
| Wake Confluence | 4.0 |
| Outer Head Cult Of Chaos | 3.5 |
| Goratory Sour Grapes | 3.5 |
| This is pretty sweet especially after such a long hiatus and just getting into Rice On Suede. |
| Edenic Past Red Amarcord | 4.0 |
| Chaos Divine Legacies | 3.0 |
| Kraken Duumvirate The Stars Below, the Seas Above | 3.5 |
| Benediction Scriptures | 3.5 |
| Arsebreed Butoh | 3.5 |
| Apparition Granular Transformation | 4.0 |
| Abyssal Ascendant Chronicles of the Doomed Worlds - Part II. Deacons | 3.5 |
| Disrupted (SWE) Pure Death | 2.0 |
| Necrophobic Dawn of the Damned | 3.5 |
| Radiant Knife The Ghost | 3.0 |
| Inferi (USA) Of Sunless Realms | 3.5 |
| Hexer (GER) Realm Of The Feathered Serpent | 3.5 |
| Impulso Feral sombra | 3.0 |
| Wharflurch Shitslime | 3.5 |
| Encenathrakh Thraakethraaeate Thraithraake | 3.5 |
| Tallah Matriphagy | 3.5 |
| Gorephilia In The Eye Of Nothing | 3.5 |
| SUMAC May You Be Held | 3.5 |
| Amiensus Abreaction | 4.0 |
| Six Feet Under Nightmares of the Decomposed | 2.0 |
| Coexistence Collateral Dimension | 3.0 |
| Skaphe Skáphe³ | 4.0 |
| Serpent Column Kathodos | 4.5 |
| This was my most enjoyable Serpent Column in terms of complete listen. Easy 4, and honestly probably rather accessible, but I'm just gonna give it that extra bump because I find this highly repeatable in listens. |
| Infesticide Envenoming Wounds | 3.0 |
| Anna von Hausswolff All Thoughts Fly | 4.0 |
| Douaumont String Quartet No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 110 | 2.5 |
| Deftones Ohms | 3.5 |
| Uada Djinn | 3.0 |
| Hexecutor Beyond Any Human Conception Of Knowledge… | 4.0 |
| Onirik The Fire Cult Beyond Eternity | 3.5 |
| Grotesque Ceremonium Sanctum of Demoniac Deviance | 4.5 |
| This just bangs, flat out. I was going to give it a four since it seemed it might get tiring and daresay overwhelming by it's end, but it's been a minute since I heard a dm release with some actual power behind it, so I'm gonna bump it up a .5. Mostly because the 4 is locked in and I already know that at least that's gonna stick. Each track just makes you want more and it's a good length. |
| The Ocean Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic | Cenozoic | 3.5 |
| Haunted Cenotaph Abyssal Menace | 2.0 |
| Gazpacho Fireworker | 3.0 |
| Napalm Death Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism | 4.0 |
| Sunken Livslede | 4.0 |
| Iress Flaw | 3.5 |
| Heathen Empire of the Blind | 3.0 |
| Hiidenhauta Riivin | 4.0 |
| Void Rot Descending Pillars | 4.0 |
| Mastodon Medium Rarities | 3.0 |
| Exhalants Atonement | 3.5 |
| Skeletal Remains The Entombment of Chaos | 3.0 |
| The Flaming Lips American Head | 4.0 |
| Jupiterian Protosapien | 4.0 |
| Messiah Fracmont | 3.0 |
| Burial Remains Spawn of Chaos | 3.0 |
| Cloudkicker Solitude | 4.0 |
| Unurnment Self-Immolation Suite | 4.5 |
| Haunt (USA-CA) Triumph | 4.0 |
| Cult of Lilith Mara | 3.5 |
| Desolator Sermon of Apathy | 4.0 |
| Dahlian Moonlit | 4.0 |
| Incremate Mortal Domain | 4.0 |
| Found Hanging Spilled Forth Despoiled Remnants | 3.0 |
| Spectrum of Delusion Neoconception | 3.5 |
| This is pretty regular and not all too crazy tech death that honestly feels pretty laid back compared to a lot else of the genre. The reason for this soundoff however, is that sweet Intronaut-esque bass that honestly sounds amazing, awesome and wonderful and was definitely the surprise least expected. The tone sounds legitimately straight off of Prehistoricisms, so if any are familiar with more bass that sounds like this aside from Obscura, hit me up. This would be a 3.0 by critical standards but that bass slaps an extra .5 easily. |
| Nocturnerror Last Seconds Of Resentment Required | 3.5 |
| Necrot Mortal | 4.5 |
| Brrrrrrrruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhh |
| Manticora To Live to Kill to Live | 4.5 |
| So, if there was an album that came out in 2020 that I could give the stamp of being unequivocally epic, it would fall gladly into the arms of this disc. Now, this is one of only a small few power metal records I've heard that came out in the year, but I think regardless, the attribution still stands. An immense amount of variation, and while I was going to comment on how the vocals periodically capture some of the best by our good old friend Hansi Kirsch, deeper into the record I realized that what this actually is, is the trademark of a quality Blind Guardian album that seems to have been missing from their very own catalogue for a number of years now. This is what stepping up to the plate actually sounds like. |
| Exist Egoiista | 4.0 |
| In Chasms Deep The Wind and Her Lament | 4.0 |
| Radiant Knife The Body | 2.5 |
| Karg Resilienz | 3.5 |
| In Flames Clayman (20th Anniversary Edition) | 1.5 |
| Katla (DE) Warmongering Luciferians (Chapter1) | 4.0 |
| The Tangent Auto Reconnaissance | 3.5 |
| Sun Eater Light Devoured | 3.5 |
| Kaatayra Toda História pela Frente | 4.0 |
| Incantation Sect of Vile Divinities | 4.5 |
| Ars Magna Umbrae Apotheosis | 4.0 |
| Atramentus Stygian | 3.5 |
| Protest the Hero Fabula & Syuzhet | 4.0 |
| Cut Copy Freeze, Melt | 2.5 |
| Unleash The Archers Abyss | 4.0 |
| Putrescent Seepage Dead And Demented | 3.5 |
| Excrescence Demo 2020 | 3.0 |
| Crust (RUS) ...And A Dirge Becomes An Anthem | 4.5 |
| Prosanctus Inferi Hypnotic Blood Art | 3.5 |
| Havukruunu Uinuos Syömein Sota | 3.5 |
| Ingested Where Only Gods May Tread | 4.0 |
| Primitive Man Immersion | 4.0 |
| Tom MacDonald Gravestones | 2.0 |
| Decoherence Unitarity | 4.0 |
| Seep Souvenirs of a Necrosadist | 4.0 |
| Pharmacist Medical Renditions of Grinding Decomposition | 3.0 |
| The Phantom Carriage 7-Year Epilogue | 4.5 |
| I'm supposing they're on Throatruiner, but either way what a freaking late miss, that's basically a home run. I know you guys like Plebeian Grandstand, but let this grab your attention. There's a few parts here that are lethal, and while the cleans are so-so they do an excellent job transitioning to parts. There's really not a second that is wasted or squandered here. |
| Bone Awl An Obelisk Marks the Line | 1.5 |
| Selbst Relatos de Angustia | 4.0 |
| Vassafor To the Death | 4.0 |
| Steve Von Till No Wilderness Deep Enough | 3.5 |
| Black Crown Initiate Violent Portraits of Doomed Escape | 4.0 |
| Krallice Mass Cathexis | 3.5 |
| The Microphones Microphones in 2020 | 3.5 |
| Batushka Raskol | 3.5 |
| Orbit Culture Nija | 3.5 |
| Messiah Fatal Grotesque Symbols - Darken Universe | 3.5 |
| spaace. invaaydirrs. spaayyce. invaaydeerrs. (50 character minimum). |
| Molested Divinity Unearthing The Void | 3.0 |
| We've all heard this album 100 times, to add another one in 2020 is the overstatement of redundant, but if we're rating it on consistent pummeling then it does indeed achieve that feat. The track Molesting the Divine does have a middle of the way groove somewhere buried beneath assault which mostly works. I guess if I had to compare it, it's like the audio equivalent of your everyday Cheerios in the morning. Gets the job done, but it's rather dry and you can't live off it for nutrition. You're gonna need something else but it gets you started. |
| Nug Alter Ego | 4.5 |
| oh my god you can just smell the high-grade dank coming off from these riffs. Just littered with little orange hairs around the whole thing. Songs take turns in ways where you can almost expect it but it still delivers the goods right to your doorstep in a manner that is still surprising and different, and most importantly pleasant. In an age where it feels like you've heard it all, this comes in fresher than cut grass. There's touches of some of the best from the likes of The Red Sea, Celestial and Oceanic by your favorite past post-metal powerhouse Isis, in ways previously done by others in the genre that doesn't always feel as fulfilling. This is what I expected from a lot of those other bands, new or old. The watermark clearly has been raised. Get this post-metal sluggernaut in your ears pronto, por favor. |
| Katalepsy Terra Mortuus Est | 3.5 |
| Resin Tomb Resin Tomb | 3.5 |
| Last two songs stomp, other than that I'd say look to a full length to see what these guys can do. It's pretty average as a hardcore/dm release. |
| Disavowed Revocation of the Fallen | 4.0 |
| Imperial Triumphant Alphaville | 4.0 |
| Visceral Mass Visceral Mass | 3.5 |
| Deathstorm For Dread Shall Reign | 3.5 |
| Shezmu À Travers Les Lambeaux | 4.0 |
| Death Vomit (ID) Dominion over Creation | 3.5 |
| Draghkar At The Crossroads of Infinity | 3.0 |
| Writhing (AUS) Eternalised In Rot | 3.0 |
| Crack Cloud Pain Olympics | 3.5 |
| Defeated Sanity The Sanguinary Impetus | 4.0 |
| Gaerea Limbo | 4.0 |
| Bedsore Hypnagogic Hallucinations | 3.5 |
| This is a tricky one, cause on one hand there isn't much like it, but on the other there's parts that are incredibly homologous. There's a sleepy overture type nature that is throughout all the songs aside from maybe Deathgazer, which is certainly fitting of the album's title, and really I haven't heard any osdm which places the slow creepy segments so frequently and abrupt amid the songs, that is interesting, but also drops you off and kinda leaves you nowhere at times. There's collectively about 4.5 minutes before you're really introduced to vocals on the album, at 1 minute and 30 seconds into the second song, and the album pretty much continues in that vein. Vocalist kicks back like Schuldiner at times, and has some really good tones in Cauliflower Growth, and I'd say the strongest parts of the album lie in the middle, from Deathgazer (track 3) to the aforementioned Cauliflower Growth (track 6). All in all, it definitely has the likes of 4rmaterial, but only through repeated enough listens will I be able to weigh in on that, so for now it's going to be kept at a comfortable 3.5. It is pretty cool though.r |
| Denominate Isochron | 3.0 |
| Spirit Possession Spirit Possession | 3.5 |
| Buried Realm Embodiment of the Divine | 3.5 |
| Homunculus Res Andiamo in giro di notte e ci consumiamo nel fuoco | 3.5 |
| Fides Inversa Historia Nocturna | 4.0 |
| DeadTrees (CN) Worldview | 3.5 |
| Nekus Death Nova Upon The Barren Harvest | 2.5 |
| Kommand (USA-CA) Terrorscape | 4.5 |
| Serene Dark Enantiodromia | 4.0 |
| Mystras Castles Conquered And Reclaimed | 3.0 |
| Khthoniik Cerviiks Æequiizoiikum | 3.0 |
| I kinda had some expectations from this that weren't quite met after hearing the first release. There seems to just be less variation all around and nothing strikes from the gut like on the debut. |
| Aseitas False Peace | 4.0 |
| Skeleton Skeleton | 3.5 |
| Ensiferum Thalassic | 3.0 |
| Static-X Project Regeneration Vol. 1 | 3.5 |
| Barghest Altars of Rot | 3.0 |
| Rebel Wizard Magickal Mystical Indifference | 3.5 |
| Land of Fog Morbid Enigmas | 4.0 |
| Skeletal Bitterness and Burning Hatred | 4.0 |
| Vampyric Where Light No Longer Reaches | 3.5 |
| Convocation Ashes Coalesce | 3.5 |
| Haunt (USA-CA) Flashback | 2.5 |
| Jesu Never | 3.5 |
| Ketoret Ketoret | 3.5 |
| Kuvotus Demo | 4.0 |
| Hyperdontia Excavations | 4.0 |
| Weird to give a two song sample a decently high rating when one of the songs is even a little subpar, but Cromlech is that good. |
| Somniate The Meyrinkian Slumber | 4.0 |
| Question Reflections of the Void | 3.5 |
| Thaetas Shrines to Absurdity | 4.0 |
| Thecodontion Supercontinent | 3.5 |
| Pilori (FRA) À Nos Morts | 4.0 |
| This is some pretty good blackened crust death and has some definite 4.5 moments here. Only a 23 minute listen but actually feels a bit longer considering the sludgy tempo and only three songs even reach the 3.5 minute mark. Definite rec all things considered. |
| Acherontas Psychic Death - The Shattering of Perceptions | 3.5 |
| Diabolic Oath Profane Death Exodus | 3.0 |
| VoidCeremony Entropic Reflections Continuum: Dimensional... | 4.5 |
This was a pretty fresh first listen. The "four" is strong with this one. Got some sticky Cynic
bass that pops up and a grimey instrumental cut on track 4. Kinda a combination of where the
cavern tech-death is going with some sludgey stops in the middle, but also a raw osdm layery
substance on top. Like a sweet marmalade biscuit. This may get jumped up to a 4.5 in time because
this is a top contender for one of the most favorite and memorable listens of the year so far.
Maybe a track too short, cause its over quick and I definitely wanted to hear more of what it was
selling. |
| Fordomth Is, Qui Mortem Audit | 3.5 |
| Inexorum Moonlit Navigation | 3.5 |
| Exocrine Maelstrom | 3.5 |
| Bell Witch and Aerial Ruin Stygian Bough Volume 1 | 3.0 |
| Paysage d'Hiver Im Wald | 4.0 |
| Thomas Giles Feel Better | 3.5 |
| Dessiderium Shadow Burn | 4.0 |
| Lantern (FIN) Dimensions | 3.5 |
| Hum Inlet | 4.0 |
| Voodus Open the Otherness | 3.5 |
| Cryptworm Reeking Guck of Abhorrence | 3.5 |
| Aversio Humanitatis Behold The Silent Dwellers | 4.0 |
| Protest the Hero Palimpsest | 4.0 |
| Mushroomhead A Wonderful Life | 2.5 |
| Vampire Rex | 3.5 |
| Bong Wizard The Bong Remains the Same | 4.0 |
| Insatanity Hymns of The Gods Before | 3.5 |
| Dearth To Crown All Befoulment | 4.5 |
| ЛЬОН З Живого Джерела | 3.5 |
| Since I added this here, I'll go ahead and include the Bandcamp link. https://soundfortress.bandcamp.com/album/- . It's pretty standard bm with some atmospheric influence and nothing that you wouldn't like. I think the band name translates to "Linen" but even if you copy and paste the name it doesn't show up here. Album comes out to about 26 mins with 5 tracks, one over 8 minutes. But it's all pretty much what you get from the first track, but the last one is a little different than your typical BM vibe in the rhythm section. |
| Nuvolascura As We Suffer From Memory and Imagination | 4.0 |
| Alarum Circle's End | 4.0 |
| Indricothere Tedium Torpor Stasis | 3.0 |
| Okay, this isn't as bad as it sounds, really. But uhm, it kind of f*cks with any attempt at rating. Like, on the surface there's stuff that comes off straight as a 2, or worse, but then that's only if you dissect it from it's context. This is just slow dm riffs played over tincan drums, all instrumental mind you, and to be honest the whole thing just feels slowed down by 25%. The drums I'm just gonna say, never sound like they are in time but whatever. If you have this playing on in the background, it's gonna come off sounding better than when giving any cognitive attention to it. It's like a single one-channel guitar over semi-random but not ever fast drums and harmonica sounding solos every now and then, and with a slightly better audio recording than from a garage. Like I said, it's better listening when you're occupied and not paying full attention to it. The musicianship I can't really comment on because I can't play shit but it does come off as being relatively simple. With that said, it's still kind of cool because it is rather non-intrusive background noise you can have on doing whatever. For that, I will rate it on my overall enjoyability without too much critical appeal forming the senses. I find a 3 to be fair. And like I said, it's *not* terrible if under the right circumstances. But for sure, some people will hate this. |
| Fornicus Sulphuric Omnipotence | 3.5 |
| Prison of Mirrors (ITA) De Ritualibus et Sacrificiis ad Serviendum Abysso | 4.0 |
| Sxuperion Omniscient Pulse | 4.5 |
| Ulthar Providence | 4.0 |
| Aversions Crown Hell Will Come For Us All | 4.0 |
| Valdrin Effigy Of Nightmares | 4.0 |
| Curse The Son Excruciation | 3.5 |
| Gia Margaret Mia Gargaret | 3.5 |
| Obscene (USA-IN) The Inhabitable Dark | 4.0 |
| Underoath UØ Observatory: Lost In The Sound of Separation | 3.5 |
| This Will Destroy You Vespertine | 3.5 |
| Darko (US) Dethmask, Pt. 1 | 3.0 |
| Purulence (UK) Morphogen | 3.5 |
| Various Artists Ancient Trip, Vol. 1 | 3.0 |
| Pharmacist Forensic Pathology Jurisprudence | 3.5 |
| END (USA-NJ) Splinters From An Ever-Changing Face | 4.0 |
| Sanctifying Ritual Sanctifying Ritual | 3.5 |
| Death Courier Necrotic Verses | 4.0 |
| Ormskrik Ormskrik | 3.5 |
| Xazraug Unsympathetic Empyrean | 4.0 |
| Lando & The Infinite Sadness Sands of Time | 3.5 |
| Naxen Towards the Tomb of Times | 4.0 |
| Urantia Vermis | 4.0 |
| Exhumed/Gruesome Twisted Horror | 3.5 |
| Almach Battle of Tours | 4.0 |
| Keleketla! Keleketla! | 4.0 |
| Grave Disgrace Rest In Peace | 2.5 |
| Necrotum Condemned to Burn | 3.5 |
| Saturno Menhir | 3.5 |
| Bleed from Within Fracture | 2.5 |
| It's basically impossible while listening to this that the thought of 'trying too hard' crops up at least once amid every song. That usually lends itself to some feeling of inauthenticity where the compositions feel more synthetically derived (i.e. implemented more as a product) rather than actually being natural. The clean cut image, especially that of the "prep turned hardcore" frontman doesn't seem to do any favors, at least for me anyway. This is just evolved mall-core with a prettier sheen to balance the "grit" but it still doesn't ever want to step away from the shrine of adolescence. |
| Sinister Deformation of the Holy Realm | 4.0 |
| The Ruins Of Beverast / Almyrkvi Almyrkvi / The Ruins Of Beverast (Split) | 4.0 |
| The Almyrkvi set of songs which open the disc are some incredible fare and has me considering going back to relisten to their LP Umbra. The Ruins of Beverast side was my first exposure to the band and while not of the same strong quality as the two songs preceding it, still fill out the Split well enough, having more of an atmospheric side rather than the full-on engagement of the Almyrkvi material respectively. |
| Centinex Death in Pieces | 3.0 |
| Mountain Witch Extinct Cults | 3.5 |
| Soilwork The Feverish Trinity | 3.5 |
| Sedimentum / Phobophilic Horrific Manifestations | 4.0 |
| Rannoch Reflections Upon Darkness | 4.0 |
| Cosmovore Into the Necrosphere | 3.5 |
| Old Man Gloom Seminar IX: Darkness of Being | 3.5 |
| Cauldron Black Ram Slaver | 3.0 |
| Esoctrilihum Eternity Of Shaog | 4.0 |
| So glad this one-man tour-de-force is continuously putting out awesome music and on a yearly basis. From the first album to now Esoctrilihum has been carving a unique niche in a genre which already prides on the subtleties of how it distinguishes itself, and his compositions carry through once again in increasing varying and differing ways, and needless to say are equally form-fitting. As a side-note, the album cover art is titled "The Dracula of Mars." The music is definitely a trip to Mars, in a Ray Bradbury black-metal spaceship, and complete with encounters with vampires. |
| Commando (SWE) Rites of Damnation | 4.0 |
| Dozethrone Eternal Cemetery | 3.5 |
| Caligula's Horse Rise Radiant | 4.0 |
| Unreqvited Empathica | 3.0 |
| Mouse On The Keys Arche | 3.5 |
| Protosequence A Blunt Description of Something Obscene | 3.5 |
| Exgenesis Solve et Coagula | 4.0 |
| Obnoxious Youth Mouths Sewn Shut | 3.0 |
| Devangelic Ersetu | 3.5 |
| Paradise Lost Obsidian | 4.0 |
| Even with the bonus tracks, this felt like an incredibly fast 56 minute listen. That's usually a strength- as is the case here. Can't say I heard more than two albums by Paradise Lost thus far, and it seems like I may be missing a larger part of their nuance in respect to their vast discography, but I feel like this could work as a good introduction to the band. I will certainly look into some more after some additional listens to this. |
| Charli XCX How I'm Feeling Now | 2.0 |
| Kardashev The Baring of Shadows | 4.0 |
| Trypanophobia Trypanophobia | 3.5 |
| Patrons Of The Rotting Gate Bathed In Ash | 4.0 |
| Biesy Transsatanizm | 4.0 |
| Changeling III | 3.5 |
| Weedevil Weedevil | 3.5 |
| Degrader The Wolf and the Serpent | 4.0 |
| Sojourner Premonitions | 3.5 |
| ...and Oceans Cosmic World Mother | 4.0 |
| Odraza Rzeczom | 4.0 |
| Aksumite Miserable Mentor | 3.5 |
| Cryptic Shift Visitations from Enceladus | 4.0 |
| Lykotonon Only Our Eyes Are Alive | 4.0 |
| Killswitch Engage Atonement II B-Sides for Charity | 3.5 |
| Cosmic Putrefaction The Horizons Towards Which Splendour Withers | 4.5 |
| Occlith Gates, Doorways, And Endings | 3.5 |
| An Autumn For Crippled Children All Fell Silent, Everything Went Quiet | 3.5 |
| Hell Gate Par-Delà l'Existence | 4.0 |
| Umbra Vitae Shadow of Life | 4.0 |
| Cerebral Desecration Further than the Bottom | 3.0 |
| Aether Realm Redneck Vikings From Hell | 3.5 |
| Bloodswamp Daylight Illuminates a Miserable World | 3.5 |
| Turpitude Brume hiémale | 4.5 |
| I was somewhat enchanted by this release. The music is straight up the album cover strangely, and there's still a background of lo-fi all throughout. Like the reviewer above, it is dense sounding but with depth . It's some fairly regular structure and typical BM pacing, but every once in a while it breaks into some more jagged and discordant angular riffing as small transition spots that really peak the song up. All in all, great atmosphere and everything was to my liking. It's got a mood for sure. |
| Havok V | 3.5 |
| Metrorrhagia Metrorrhagia | 3.0 |
| Karmacipher Introspectrum | 4.0 |
Not a clone particularly though I was reminded of material by the likes of Altarage though even
they have a different vibe as well. I enjoyed the first four tracks more than the latter half
though. Would like to see what they can do when they get a little more refined. |
| Order of Orias Ablaze | 4.0 |
| This is one of the most solid 4's of the year for a black metal release imo. |
| Ulcerate Stare Into Death and Be Still | 3.5 |
| Malist To Mantle the Rising Sun | 4.0 |
| Light Dweller Hominal | 4.0 |
| Azziard Exégèse | 4.0 |
| Solicitor Spectral Devastation | 3.5 |
| Divine Chaos The Way To Oblivion | 3.0 |
| Black Curse Endless Wound | 3.5 |
| Golden Light Sacred Colour of the Source of Light | 3.5 |
| Helfro Helfró (2020 Reissue) | 4.0 |
| The Wizar'd Subterranean Exile | 3.5 |
| Embodiment Palingenesis | 4.5 |
| Nyrst Orsök | 3.5 |
| Warbringer Weapons of Tomorrow | 4.0 |
| Blaze of Sorrow Absentia | 3.0 |
| Sentencia Solve Et Coagula | 3.0 |
| Katatonia City Burials | 3.5 |
| Trivium What the Dead Men Say | 3.5 |
| Auroch Stolen Angelic Tongues | 4.0 |
| Thin Dawn | 4.0 |
| Aborted La Grande Mascarade | 4.0 |
| Khemmis Doomed Heavy Metal | 4.0 |
| Ripped to Shreds 亂 (Luan) | 3.5 |
| Abysmal Dawn Phylogenesis | 3.5 |
| Funeral Leech Death Meditation | 3.5 |
| Azath Through a Warren of Shadow | 2.5 |
| Oranssi Pazuzu Mestarin Kynsi | 3.5 |
| The Black Dahlia Murder Verminous | 3.5 |
| Midnight Odyssey Ruins of a Celestial Fire | 4.0 |
| Vacuous Demo I | 3.5 |
| Obscure Of Acacia Eclipse. (Remastered) | 3.0 |
| Shards of Humanity Cold Logic | 4.0 |
| Nightwish HUMAN. :II: NATURE. | 2.0 |
| 200 Stab Wounds Piles of Festering Decomposition | 4.0 |
| Calligram The Eye Is the First Circle | 4.5 |
| The first three tracks almost run as one 12 minute long opener with awesome internal composure, and right when it would be beneficial to slow down and take a momentary pace car lap, tracks La Cura and Kenosis provide just that, ushering in a relaxing mid-point before the rather abrupt finale that in the end, makes me wish it was only half over. |
| Symbolik Emergence | 2.5 |
| Spell (CAN) Opulent Decay | 3.0 |
| Benighted Obscene Repressed | 4.0 |
| Galactic Mechanics The Ominous Quadrant | 3.5 |
| Buckethead Healing Inside Outside Every Side | 3.5 |
| Testament Titans of Creation | 3.0 |
| Live Burial Unending Futility | 3.5 |
| Methwitch Indwell | 3.5 |
| Dragged Beneath The River of Wrath | 3.5 |
| Weed Demon Crater Maker | 3.5 |
| Yeah, the moment @6 mins into the title track is one of the best out of leftfield hits of the year. |
| Loviatar Lightless | 3.5 |
| Consumer (ITA) Consumer EP | 4.5 |
| Pure Reason Revolution Eupnea | 3.5 |
| Skam Sounds of a Disease | 4.0 |
| Caustic Wound Death Posture | 3.5 |
| Kaatayra Só Quem Viu o Relâmpago à Sua Direita Sabe | 4.0 |
| O (ITA) Antropocene | 4.0 |
| I haven't heard something this unleashed since this side of Rorcal - Vilagvege, and that's really really impressive to say the least . The only track that deviates from the formula is the final doom-ridden paced closer, 'Era'. Everything which precedes is quite honorably sheer madness. This one was quite the surprise and is simply unconcerned with pulverizing and thrashing around any passengers who have decided to go along for the ride. Definitely do not skip this gem. |
| Anthropophagous Post-Natal Abortion | 3.5 |
| Martin Grech Hush Mortal Core | 3.0 |
| Sadness Alluring the distant eye | 3.5 |
| Wake Devouring Ruin | 4.0 |
| Perdition Temple Sacraments of Descension | 4.0 |
| Solothus Realm Of Ash And Blood | 4.0 |
| Warp Chamber Implements of Excruciation | 2.0 |
| The Ruins of Beverast/Mourning Beloveth Don't Walk on the Mass Graves | 3.5 |
| Vinnum Sabbathi Of Dimensions and Theories | 4.0 |
| There's a significant 'holding back' of the crunchy, distorted guitar bits, and the album is at its best when the whole band is actually kicking in and playing, as there is a lay period between tracks 2 and 5 that equals around 9 minutes of music where you're just waiting for the band to drop in with riffs, (and even track 2- Quantum Determinism takes its fair share of time before getting into it), but fortunately the final two tracks help to substantiate the urge just enough. It's definitely a laid back release and I have not heard their debut to compare it, but I do like the less aggressive, sorta leisurely approach to 'we'll jam it out when we get to it.' It's good instrumental background music at the least, and appear to be just a small band from Mexcio City. Gonna give it a 4 because it's easy for it to get some quick rotations and is just enough in terms of substance, but I could see why others would rate it lower. I would like to hear more in the future. |
| Mumrunner Valeriana | 4.0 |
| Spotlights We Are All Atomic | 4.5 |
| Nekrovault Totenzug: Festering Peregrination | 4.0 |
| Amnutseba Emanatism | 3.5 |
| Telepathy Burn Embrace | 3.5 |
| Aeternam Al Qassam | 3.5 |
| The track Ascension goes pretty hard for being a simpler structured song on the album, give that one a listen and see if you like. The album has some very well blended middle-eastern flair throughout. |
| Sorgelig Sørgelig | 4.5 |
| Omg dude these vocals are amazing lol. Like holy shit. I mean, they *are* funny as hell and a few times I laughed out loud like "the fuck dude" but by the middle of the second song I was sold no lie. And basically this just delivers some dark blast shit right to your door and the whole thing ends on a high note. Like, a screeching banshee high note that comes to a halt faster than 90 at a brick wall. Basically, you're either gonna love or hate this. |
| Lamentari Missa Pro Defunctis | 4.0 |
| Dark Doom Echoes | 3.5 |
| Malokarpatan Krupinské Ohne | 3.5 |
| Grift Budet | 3.0 |
| Wardaemonic Acts of Repentance | 4.0 |
| Christian Muenzner Path of the Hero | 2.0 |
| Ritual Contrition Ritual Contrition | 3.5 |
| Escuela Grind Indoctrination | 3.5 |
| Heaven Shall Burn Of Truth and Sacrifice | 3.0 |
| Ovid's Withering Terraphage | 4.0 |
| Ríoseco Principal rama, séptimo vástago | 4.0 |
| Klysma Mental | 4.0 |
| Eye Flys Tub Of Lard | 4.0 |
| Olhava Ladoga | 3.0 |
| Sweven (SWE) The Eternal Resonance | 3.0 |
| Thanatos Violent Death Rituals | 3.5 |
| Serpent Column Endless Detainment | 3.5 |
| Hyperdontia Excreted From The Flesh | 4.0 |
| Aronious Perspicacity | 4.0 |
| Lychgate Also Sprach Futura | 3.5 |
| Rotting Kingdom A Deeper Shade of Sorrow | 4.0 |
| Ruin Lust Choir Of Babel | 3.0 |
| Bone Church Acid Communion | 3.0 |
| Spectral Lore and Mare Cognitum Wanderers: Astrology of the Nine | 4.0 |
| Invent Animate Greyview | 4.0 |
| Sutrah (CAN) Aletheia | 3.5 |
| Afterbirth Four Dimensional Flesh | 4.0 |
| Vulcano Eye in Hell | 3.0 |
| Boneflower Armour | 3.5 |
| Ergodic Ergodic | 3.5 |
| Disembowel (USA-OR) Echoes of Terror | 3.0 |
| Earth Rot Black Tides of Obscurity | 4.0 |
| Viscera (UK) Obsidian | 4.0 |
| Psychonaut Unfold the God Man | 4.0 |
| Wombbath Choirs of the Fallen | 3.5 |
| In Flames I, the Mask (Arcade Version) | 3.0 |
| bruuuh uuu u u uuu uuuuhr |
| Satyrus Rites | 3.5 |
| Definitely a worthy group of songs. I mean, it's a little slow, but it's got some great melodic vocal pieces the songs seem to revolve around so it gives it that atmosphere. Last two tracks were some real highlights, but once the opener gets going you know what you're gonna get. Could have split the intro portion and opening track into two however, so it's not a bang-on 11 minute trek. |
| Scumeater Scumeater | 2.0 |
| Ambush (SWE) Infidel | 4.0 |
| Slift Ummon | 4.0 |
| Regarde Les Hommes Tomber Ascension | 4.0 |
| Beneath the Massacre Fearmonger | 3.0 |
| Old Sorcery An Inkling of Void | 3.5 |
| Insect Ark The Vanishing | 3.5 |
| Dark Fortress Spectres from the Old World | 4.0 |
| Neaera Neaera | 3.5 |
| Drown (US) Subaqueous | 4.0 |
| Fluisteraars Bloem | 3.0 |
| Intronaut Fluid Existential Inversions | 3.0 |
| Cerebral Rot Spewing Purulence | 3.5 |
| Night Crowned Impius Viam | 4.0 |
| Sentient Divide Haunted by Cruelty | 4.0 |
| Xenobiotic Mordrake | 3.5 |
| Sightless Pit Grave of a Dog | 2.0 |
| Raspberry Bulbs Before The Age Of Mirrors | 2.5 |
| Ritual King Ritual King | 3.0 |
| Lowrider Refractions | 3.5 |
| Satyr Locus | 4.0 |
| Slaughter Messiah Cursed to the Pyre | 3.5 |
| Saturnalia Temple Gravity | 2.5 |
| Nawaharjan Lokabrenna | 4.0 |
| Cult Of Fire Moksha | 4.0 |
| Cult Of Fire Nirvana | 3.5 |
| Wrekmeister Harmonies We Love to Look at the Carnage | 4.5 |
| Chaotian Festering Excarnation | 4.0 |
| Dola Dola | 3.5 |
| Conjureth Foul Formations | 2.5 |
| Bambara Stray | 2.0 |
| this was goddamn fucking awful and waiting for this album to end was basically a slow torture. Honestly surprised by a good portion of the user's votes here and feels suspiciously like bandwagoning. 'Stay Cruel' was about the only thing that didn't make me want to claw my eyes out and stick them in my ears instead. |
| Necrowretch The Ones From Hell | 3.5 |
| Dzo-nga Thunder In the Mountains | 3.5 |
| Plague (GR) Portraits of Mind | 3.5 |
| Black Royal Firebride | 3.0 |
| Shadow Witch Under The Shadow Of A Witch | 2.5 |
| Invictus (JPN) The Catacombs Of Fear | 3.5 |
| Psychotic Waltz The God-Shaped Void | 3.5 |
| Blaze of Perdition The Harrowing of Hearts | 4.0 |
| Anhedonist/Spectral Voice Abject Darkness/Ineffable Winds | 4.0 |
| Dozethrone Coronavirus | 4.0 |
| The Sway of Mountains Elasticity | 4.0 |
Since I added this, I'll write a blurb as
well. Instrumental band from South Africa that
plays a competent blend of progressive death
metal. Nothing mind-blowing but the song
structures are varied and the instrumental
nature is good enough to not feel bland or
dull for but a section or two here and there.
Idk, I kind of got a Scale the Summit circa
'Carving Desert Canyons' vibe but without the
crazy (or excessive) amount of frills, but
make no mistake it's still a complement to
both, but I think it comes from a similar
headspace of songwriting. I'd like to see what
they can do on a full-length for sure. Enough
blasts and double bass to qualify as
progressive dm, but I was yearning for a
little more of some syncopated rhythm
sections, but the last track especially the
first few minutes kinda hashes a bit of that
out. Give this a try, I'm sure anyone will
walk away with at least enjoying a song or
two.
https://theswayofmountains.bandcamp.com/album/
elasticity |
| Horresque Chasms Pt. I - Avarice And Retribution | 4.0 |
| Krosis A Memoir of Free Will | 4.0 |
| Gorevent Fate | 3.0 |
| God Dethroned Illuminati | 4.0 |
| Sylosis Cycle of Suffering | 3.5 |
| Atavisma/Void Rot Split | 4.0 |
| Svart Crown Wolves Among The Ashes | 4.0 |
| Envy The Fallen Crimson | 4.5 |
| Karg Traktat | 3.5 |
| Human Serpent All Return to Nothing | 4.5 |
| Ygg The Last Scald | 3.5 |
| Salem Burning Revelations | 3.0 |
| Desperate The Last Days of Humanity | 3.0 |
| It goes boom often, both when you want it to, and when you don't. Sometimes it goes boomboomboom. But mostly, it goes boom. The parts in between are give or take, but not overly imaginative if you know what I'm saying. |
| Carnal Tomb Descend | 3.5 |
| Crematory Stench Shrouds In The Mist | 4.0 |
| Of the 11 songs this band has so far released, these two are at the top for me. Taking a page from Disma and Co. |
| Cryptic Mass Psycho Crisis | 3.0 |
| Butcher 666 Goats Carry My Chariot | 3.0 |
| Deathwhite Grave Image | 4.0 |
| Fostermother Fostermother | 3.5 |
| Baardvader Baardvader | 3.0 |
| Panopticon/Aerial Ruin Panopticon / Aerial Ruin | 4.0 |
| Hallas Conundrum | 3.5 |
| Stomb From Nihil | 4.0 |
| The Conjuration Gospel | 3.5 |
| Guaranteed this will be one of the "weirder" avant garde death metal releases you'll come across in the year. |
| Lorna Shore Immortal | 4.0 |
| Cystic Sworn Enemy Of Life | 4.0 |
| Savage Necromancy / Genocidal Sodom Savage Genocide | 3.5 |
| Jordablod The Cabinet of Numinous Song | 3.5 |
| Worm Gloomlord | 3.5 |
| Death. Void. Terror. To the Great Monolith II | 4.0 |
| Konvent Puritan Masochism | 3.5 |
| Garroted Garroted / Calcemia | 3.5 |
| Zolfo Delusion of Negation | 4.0 |
| Major Kong Off The Scale | 3.5 |
| Defiled Infinite Regress | 3.5 |
| Thy Catafalque Naiv | 4.0 |
| Caspian On Circles | 2.0 |
| Venomous Skeleton Drowning in Circles | 2.5 |
| Purnama Flame of Rebellion | 3.5 |
| Necropsy Exitus | 4.0 |
| Human Serpent Shrouds | 4.0 |
| Pestilength Eilatik | 3.5 |
| Algiers There Is No Year | 3.0 |
| Eminem Music to Be Murdered By | 3.5 |
| Odious Mortem Synesthesia | 3.5 |
| Horned Almighty To Fathom The Master's Grand Design | 3.5 |
| Bleed the Sky This Way Lies Madness | 3.5 |
| Serum Abattoir | 3.0 |
| Kaoteon Kaoteon | 3.0 |
| UUBBUURRUU UUBBUURRUU | 3.0 |
| Sallow Moth The Larval Hope | 4.0 |
| Deadspawn (USA-AZ) Pestilence Reborn | 4.0 |
| Has a little bit of a shaky start, but there is some great work in the middle of the album and has a solid run between tracks 4-8 that I really enjoyed |
| Taphos Blood Plethora | 4.0 |
| Unreqvited / Sylvaine Time Without End | 4.0 |
| Dragged Into Sunlight Terminal Aggressor II | 4.0 |
| Snorlax II | 4.0 |
| Condemn Baptized In Heartache | 4.0 |
| Desolation (SWE) Where Darkness Dwells | 3.5 |
| Blighted (USA-TN) Silhouette of the Sun | 4.5 |
| Haunt (USA-CA) Mind Freeze | 4.0 |
| Desert Colossus Eyes and Tongues | 3.5 |
| Unbounded Terror Faith In Chaos | 4.0 |
| Yoth Iria Under His Sway | 4.0 |
| 1st song was feeling like a 3 but the last two songs rip, so benefit of the doubt I'll raise this to a 4. |
| Kvaen The Funeral Pyre | 3.5 |
| In'Sect How Much Does it Matter to the Stars? | 3.0 |
| Bodysnatcher This Heavy Void | 3.5 |
| Novae Militiae Topheth | 3.5 |
