Reviews across all categories: albums, books, movies.
Year: 2025Label: self-released Although Finnish Altar Of Despair have been at it for a while already, ever since 2018 in fact, to the best of my knowledge this is their first release in a physical format. The band, still unsigned, … Continue reading ALTAR OF DESPAIR: Severance
Year: 2026Label: Bestial Burst Finnish Annihilatus have a long history behind them, but not a very long discography. Since their inception in 1999, the group have released only three albums, a mini-album and some sundries. One obvious explanation might be … Continue reading ANNIHILATUS: Exterminate
Year: 2026Label: New Approach Records The ever-amorphous, ever-unpredictable Absolute Key return with another album that sees them shift form. Experimentalism has always remained a core element of the Finnish one-man project, but within that loose context, they’ve explored a width … Continue reading ABSOLUTE KEY: Facets Of War
Year: 2026Label: Zoharum Where the previous Wieloryb album we reviewed – Ritual (here), also released on CD recently by Zoharum – was a massive affair, God’s Final Breath is much more accessible in just about every way. The least of … Continue reading WIELORYB: God’s Final Breath
Year: 2026Label: Zoharum Once again, I am on the outer fringes of my musical expertise, and actually well beyond it. This is no uncommon occurrence when a new batch of promos from Polish Zoharum lands in my mailbox. Which, as … Continue reading POPSYSZE: Powięź
Year: 2021/2026Label: Antyscena/Zoharum This is a massive album. No beating around the bush: Polish Wieloryb’s Ritual in Zoharum’s expanded edition is massive to the point of being ludicrous. With three bonus tracks, this edition has a running time of almost … Continue reading WIELORYB: Ritual
Year: 2026Label: Long Live Evil I wonder… is there a jab in a certain direction in the title of this album? Might Alla Xul Elu have some twisted turns of phrase to direct against some former co-operation partners? Ah, fuck … Continue reading ALLA XUL ELU: No Masters
Year: 2026Label: Awakening Records/Futhark Records Here’s a group with an unfortunate name – Metal Archives knows three other artists named Cultist plus a small throng of alternate spellings, Discogs knows six Cultists, some with releases antedatring the current Cultist. Especially … Continue reading CULTIST: Spiritual Atrophy
Year: 2026Label: self-released I’ll be honest, I almost skipped this album in my promo queue because the name of the band sounded silly. I know, that’s a stupid reason to ignore a band, but when you’ve got hundreds and hundreds … Continue reading FUNERAL PILE: Summoning
Year: 2026Label: Century Media Seven years ago, Norwegian black metal pioneers Mayhem released their sixth studio album, Daemon (review). The album saw them abandon the decidedly progressive and experimental territory they’d explored on previous albums Esoteric Warfare (2014) and Ordo … Continue reading MAYHEM: Liturgy Of Death
Only Death Is Real 