Bear Mace ‒ Charred Field Of Slaughter Review
Fast Rites: because sometimes brevity is fundamental. The easiest way to sell someone on Chicago’s Bear Mace would be to simply say that they often sound a lot like Bolt Thrower and their name is …
Atræ Bilis ‒ Divinihility Review
Canada’s Atræ Bilis has the sound of a band made up of pretty diverse tastes within its ranks. Well… let’s walk that back for a second and say that the diversity in tastes is still …
Mystras ‒ Castles Conquered and Reclaimed Review
[Cover illustration by Loukas Kalliantasis] Considering the extremely wide range of styles Ayloss has brought to Spectral Lore over the years (atmospheric black metal, electronic, chamber, a general progressive mindset, etc.), it might come across …
Descend ‒ The Deviant Review
Metal may have sprouted from just a few places on the globe, but it’s been decades since it became a truly global phenomenon. As it grew and spread, clearly identifiable sounds and scenes popped up …
Creature – Ex Cathedra Review
Creature is the type of project that happens when one man gets out his heavy metal blender and decides that there’s no real limit to the ingredients he’s willing to take for a spin. Some …
Firewind – Firewind Review
Few would argue against the point that the true heart of power metal is fun. Powerful fun. Triumphant fun. Escapist fun. Uplifting, unbridled fun. The fun, even when delivered in half-baked and stock songs, is …
…And Oceans – Cosmic World Mother Review
The evolution of …and Oceans from an excellent but fairly standard symphonic and melodic black metal band in the late 90s to a group incorporating plenty of industrial and avant-garde influences was not entirely unlikely …
Cryptic Shift – Visitations From Enceladus Review
If you wander over to the Bandcamp page for Cryptic Shift’s full length debut Visitations from Enceladus, you’ll easily glean the expected bits of information: genre tags (death, thrash, progressive, technical, etc.), location (Leeds, UK), …