AXENSTAR: Chapter VIII Release year: 2023Label: Inner Wound Recordings Power metal is one of those genres I usually don’t give the time of day to. I had a brief stint in the late 90’s and early noughties, when I dabbled … Continue reading Axenstar’s heavenly symphonies
Release year: 2023Label: Xtreem Music With a name like Funeral Vomit, there’s no need to guess what these Columbians are about. Oh yeah: death metal. And taking a look at the cover, it’s easy to pinpoint their stylistic trappings even … Continue reading FUNERAL VOMIT: Monumental Putrescence
SARDONIC WITCHERY: Barbaric Evil Power Release year: 2024Label: War March Records/Nekrogoat Heresy Productions/Abyssal Productions/Aniquilacion Satanica Productions The promo sheet drops names such as Judas Iscariot, Celtic Frost, Darkthrone and Venom as references. Well, in the grand scale of things, all … Continue reading Sardonic barbarity
Black Sabbath’s Technical Ecstasy is a document of a band losing its way, lost in a maze of fame, success and above all: drugs. Already their previous album, 1975’s Sabotage started showing some serious cracks in the mirror, but on … Continue reading From the Vaults #5: Technical Ecstasy
VISION MASTER: Sceptre Release year: 2023Label: Gates Of Hell Records Nietzsche wrote about the concept of eternal return; the idea that things and phenomena will repeat in perpetuity – and of how one should overcome the fear of this. Now, … Continue reading Vision Master peering into the past
Do you remember the first CD you ever bought? Do you remember when it was? I certainly remember mine. It was Babylon Zoo’s The Boy With The X-Ray Eyes, in the summer of 1996. Our family had just bought our … Continue reading From the Vaults #4: Dehumanizer
KAUNIS KUOLEMATON: Mielenvalta Release year: 2023Label: Noble Demon I’ll level with ya. The style Finnish Kaunis Kuolematon represents – melodic extreme metal with doom elements and clean vocals aplenty – isn’t my cup of tea. In fact, it’s the kind … Continue reading Beautiful undying
PERMANENT SOLUTION: Permanent Solution Release year: 2023Label: Misantropia Records Sometimes a bit of obscurity can be a good thing. It can lend a sense of mystery or excitement to something. At other times, it may be even counterproductive. Ultimately, Finnish … Continue reading Solutions of a lasting nature
YRITYS: Delusion(s) Release year: 2023Label: Misantropia Records The name Yritys has caused chuckles among Finnish audiences – and for good reason, too. You see, the Swedish band were, I assume, trying to convey depressed, nihilistic and misanthropic images with a … Continue reading A last attempt
V/A: Oi! Ain’t Dead Vol. 8 – Chaos In Nederland Release year: 2023Label: Rebellion Records Long running oi! label Rebellion Records’ latest compilation ties together many strings. First of all, it’s the eight entry in their Oi! Ain’t Dead series, … Continue reading Oi! ain’t dead in The Netherlands
Only Death Is Real 