Kaarna’s reveries under golden skies
KAARNA: Kultataivaat, hopeaveet, unet helmiäistä Release year: 2022Label: Anima Arctica The eccentric and ever-shifting Kaarna have had a pretty steady release schedule. Since the one-man project’s debut album Comitatus Savolaxiae in 2019, the steady pace has been one album per … Continue reading Kaarna’s reveries under golden skies
Last call for the demon raid
DEMON RAID: Last Call Release year: 2022Label: Wreckin’ Bones Records If you are wondering what kind of music Finnish Demon Raid play, you only need take a look at the tracklist. The album kicks off with a nice, slightly tex-mex … Continue reading Last call for the demon raid
Keys to the three levels of decay
ABSOLUTE KEY: The Third Level Of Decay Release year: 2022Label: Signal Rex Previously, we reviewed Finnish one man act Absolute Key’s Sundust (here), calling its combination of industrial and black metal “an album of intriguingly twisted esoteric electronics”. The prolific … Continue reading Keys to the three levels of decay
Absolute keys to fire and dust
ABSOLUTE KEY: Sundust Release year: 2022Label: Nekrogoat Heresy Productions Describing something as a mixture of industrial and black metal will most likely conjure up all kinds of rather disparate images in people’s minds. Some will think of machinized beats and … Continue reading Absolute keys to fire and dust
From nothing, an abomination
ANZILLU: Ex Nihilo Release year: 2023Label: M-Theory Audio Those of you who frequent this site – all two of you – have probably noticed that we cover thrash metal relatively rarely. The obvious reason for that is that out of … Continue reading From nothing, an abomination
Nine yards of aggravation
THE AGGRAVATED: Whole 9 Yards Release year: 2022Label: D-Fens Records When a band from the US approaches us by describing their music as hardcore “on the old school side of things”, they’ve got my interest. As far as punk rock … Continue reading Nine yards of aggravation
Death in Juno
DEATH IN JUNE: Nada-ized! Release year: 2022Label: New European Recordings I don’t remember exactly when, but it was already a couple of years ago that I stumbled upon Miro Snejdr’s retrosynth-style remixes of older Death In June tracks online. I … Continue reading Death in Juno
A year in summation: 2022
It’s been a while since we did one of these. In fact, looks like in all of Only Death Is Real’s history, we’ve only done one year round-up. High time for a second one, don’t you think? So, here are … Continue reading A year in summation: 2022
A love letter to cassette culture
ADRIANO VINCENTI & PAOLO BANDERA: Ossido Di Cromo (Anamnesi Mediatica Ricostruttiva) Release year: 2022Label: Steinklang Industries As the liner notes of the thick booklet that accompanies this CD highlights, the cassette tape was a revolutionary musical format. On one hand … Continue reading A love letter to cassette culture
Origins of eastern darkness
SIGH: Eastern Darkness Release year: 2022Label: Peaceville Sigh from Japan are one of the original weirdos of black metal, who pretty much from the onset went left-field in their expression. Personally, I’ve mostly listened to their second album Infidel Art … Continue reading Origins of eastern darkness
Only Death Is Real 