Category: Reviews

An Abstract Illusion – The Sleeping City Review

[Cover art by Alex Eckman-Lawn] If you look at other pages and conversations about An Abstract Illusion, you’ll likely find that they are most often saddled with the progressive death metal genre tag. Surely, I’m

Abraded – Ethereal Emanations From Chthonic Caries Review

[Cover art by Mihály Zichy] There’s certainly nothing wrong with grindcore that sounds like a violent raccoon orgy in a dumpster full of nuclear waste, but I tend to be ever-so-slightly more partial to those

Amorphis – Borderland Review

You do something for thirty-plus years, and you get pretty good at it. Case in point: Finland’s thirty-five-year-old progressive metal wizards Amorphis. After starting out in a more death metal direction, over the last few

Paradise Lost – Ascension Review

It might be hard to believe, but Paradise Lost’s return to their doom/death roots on The Plague Within is now a full decade old. This makes them almost double veterans of their own sound, now

Slomatics – Atomicult Review

[Artwork by Ryan Lesser] It starts softly. “Obey Capricorn,” the opener of Slomatics’ eighth album, Atomicult, begins with drummer/vocalist Martin Harvey all by his lonesome. “Behold: the moon, the sun, the stars, the sky,” Harvey

Hebephrenique – Decathexis Review

[Cover art by Grellach] One of the great joys of heavy metal is how often it forces you to learn random things. A little peek behind the Last Rites curtain for you: we have a

Species – Changelings Review

[Album artwork by Aleksandra Pawłowska] Earlier this year, I finally grabbed the limited edition CD reissues of the early works from Montréal, Canada’s very excellent Obliveon—one of those oft-overlooked projects that arrived somewhat late for

Krigsgrav – Stormcaller Review

In 2023, Texas metal quartet Krigsgrav released an album that resonated with me more than any that year, clinching the top spot on my AOTY list. A beautifully sinister cacophony of melodic black and doom