Year: 2025Label: Rebellion Records/Cosmic Key Creations Metal and punk have never had a harmonious coexistence, though they have always cross-pollinated each other. Metalheads have sneered at the crudeness and perceived lack of musicianship in punk, and conversely punks have mocked … Continue reading STORM OF STEEL: Storm Of Steel
Year: 2025Label: Xtreem Music Some two years ago, we reviewed Colombian death metal act Funeral Vomit’s debut album (here). Our conclusion was that the band had nailed the style, but lacked the songs to carry their sonic aesthetic home. Now … Continue reading FUNERAL VOMIT: Upheaval Of Necromancy
Year: 2025Label: Obelisk Polaris Productions Death/doom is a wide spectrum, ranging from Winter’s crust/hardcore influenced lurching heaviness, to Coffins’ Hellhammer-style boneheaded heaviness, to beyond. In the larger spectrum, an odd sort of outlier is the romantic, gothic style of death/doom … Continue reading SOLUS REX: Scenes From Yonder Life
Year: 2025Label: Rot ‘Em Records To set the context of this review, I’m going to quote what the promo sheet says about this EP. Here goes: “Reincarnation is a tribute to old school death metal, while at the same time … Continue reading HELLWALKER: Reincarnation
Year: 2025Label: Prophecy I’ll be honest: prior to this album, I’d heard maybe one song by Hexvessel, so this review isn’t exactly based on an in-depth knowledge of their past discography. But then again, up until recently, the band played … Continue reading HEXVESSEL: Nocturne
Year: 2025Label: Dark Descent Records There’s a bit of a death metal revival going on in Finland. A lot of new bands are popping up, many of them with young musicians; some are still in their teens, some are in … Continue reading SEPULCHRAL CURSE: Crimson Moon Evocation
Finnish The Chamberlain’s debut album Draconian Magick (review) came pretty much like a bolt out of the blue in early 2025. We admit, perhaps to our own detriment, that here at ODIR we’d never even heard of them. All of … Continue reading Talking elitism and appeal with The Chamberlain
Year: 2025Label: self-released Whilst listening to MetaForm, Bulgarian Dimholt’s new album, I returned to my review of their previous album Epistēmē (here). I find that most all I wrote in the review still applies to the band, and describes quite … Continue reading DIMHOLT: MetaForm
Year: 2025Label: Inverse Records Already for decades, Finland has been a veritable breeding ground of black metal. Where in the 90’s Finland never really achieved the status our neighbours to the west did, despite having a couple of absolute primogenitor … Continue reading VALONTUOJA: Tulesta syntynyt
Year: 2025Label: Inverse Records Ah, the noughties. What a decade in Finnish metal that was. Both in the mainstream and in the underground, Finland truly and finally found its footing. It was a decade of unforeseen popularity and success. In … Continue reading MOURNIATY: Musta maa
Only Death Is Real 