Leverage – Gravity Review

By Steel Druhm

Finland’s Leverage are one of those bands that always seemed to operate at the outer fringes of heavy metal. Their 2006 Tides debut showcased a strong 80s rock base with just enough of an over-the-top edge to make it plausible to call them a metal act. Most of the songs reminded me more of Survivor and Night Ranger than any specific metal act, but the writing was catchy enough that it didn’t matter. Follow-ups Blind Fire and Circus Colossus kept the template in place with only modest tweaks, and when very distinctive frontman Pekka Heino decamped, they replaced him well with Kimmo Blom. Blom passed away in 2022, and now Leverage return with a new frontman as they try to soldier on. For 6th album, Gravity, they also added a full-time violinist to expand their sound beyond their familiar rock/metal blueprint. Since I’ve enjoyed all the Leverage albums to some degree, I was curious if they could bounce back from tragedy and keep on delivering the earwormy goods.

I’m happy to report that Gravity is very much a typical Leverage outing in most regards. New singer Paolo Ribaldini (ex-Skiltron) sounds a lot like both Pekka and Kimmo, so there’s no real acclimation period for the longtime Leverage fan. Opening cut “Shooting Star” is everything you’d want and expect from them, with big, bombastic radio rock energy pinging off a tougher metal aesthetic and a vague country-western drawl, and the writing is designed to stick immediately. The chorus is catchy enough to ensure you wear it home like gum in your back hair. Paolo wins you over immediately with bold, forceful vocals that bring enough power to the 80s retro party. From there, Gravity blasts through a series of tracks that balance cheese with iron, radio rock with metal, and the emphasis is always on hooks. “Tales of the Night” belongs on the soundtracks for Rocky III AND IV, and you will want to create your own training montage to this thing. “Moon of Madness” is so Survivor it almost leaves no survivors, but the hooks are there, and the fiddle bits are odd, but interesting.

The band takes some chances and stretch their writing at times, as on “All Seeing Eye” which sounds like a Dio-era Rainbow song that’s been lost in a dusty vault until now. It has that 70s coolness factor and the same grandeur heard on cuts like “Stargazer” and “The Gates of Babylon,” and Paolo really comes into his own with a gritty, badass performance full of gravitas. “King Ghidorah” sounds like a mash-up of Nightbreaker era Riot and the more hard-charging Deep Purple classics, and that means a rabble-rousing good time. Hell, even the nearly 10-minute title track works for the most part, stealing some of Avantasia’s trade secrets on how to write ginormous power ballads crammed full of bombast and cheddar. It’s ultimately about 3 minutes too long, but it’s an entertaining tune at its core. The big set-piece tracks suffer some unsightly bloat, but the shorter, more immediate tracks power the album along at a brisk, breezy pace and keep you bopping along.

With the usual Leverage vets all in place and doing their thing, Paolo is given a solid foundation to work with and build from, and he impresses with his macho vocal efforts. He’s enough like past Leverage singers, but he has a few extra gears to reach for when needed. He does the whole Jorn/Coverdale hard rock growl well and brings enough of his own style to the table to sell the material like cupcakes outside a CBD superstore. Tuomas Heikkinen continues to marry hard rock and 80s rock idioms with harder-edged riffwork and makes it all work together. He can be flashy, but he’s the kind of guitarist that puts song before wank. New violinist Lotta Pitkänen is only noticeable at a few key moments, and the rest of the time she’s deep in the background behind the keyboards. I’m not sure she’s needed, but she does provide a nice gloss when audible.

I’ve never been disappointed by a Leverage album, though I have my favorites. Gravity is good enough to drop right in the middle of their discography with a few playlist-worthy cuts that demand poaching. If you like bands in the Brother Firetribe / The Night Flight Orchestra vein, Gravity should be right in your wheelhouse. It’s not quite a must-hear, but it packs enough entertainment value to be worth a flyer. I’m glad they’re still with us. R.I.P. Kimmo.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: NA | Format Reviewed: Fucking STREAM
Label: Frontiers Music
Website: facebook.com/leverageofficial
Releases Worldwide: June 20th, 2025

#30 #BrotherFiretribe #FinnishMetal #FrontiersMusic #Gravity #HardRock #HeavyMetal #Journey #Leverage #Rainbow #Review #Reviews #Survivor

Unmerciful – Devouring Darkness Review

By Steel Druhm

I’ve said it before. I’m not the biggest fan of tech-death. Sure, some of it can be fun, inspired lunacy, but I prefer my death dumb, ugly, and violent. I don’t need someone twanging away on a fretless bass or shredding a 30-string axe while I get my graveyard gorilla on. Thusly, Kansas-based tech-death luminaries, Origin, always left me somewhat nonplussed. Enter Unmerciful, the brutal death metal project featuring former Origin members, Clinton Appelhanz and Jeremy Turner. Though very talented musicians, these fiends prefer smashing skulls over parading a cosmic fuckton of notes past you while toying with quirky and off-kilter tempos. What you get on their fourth album, Devouring Darkness is a large steel-toed boot up your arse courtesy of a truckload of vicious death giving nods to Suffocation, Hate Eternal, Cannibal Corpse and other beastly friends best kept in crawlspaces. I don’t know what’s in the water in Kansas, but it’s not FDA-approved. Are you ready to get pulpified?

Talk about a proper album opener! Lead track “Miracle in Fire” is a steel pipe with a grenade duct-taped to it, and the beatings commence with lusty gusto. This is blasting, pummeling insanity with a vile OSDM charm served up with the frenzy that only comes from the Monkey Rage Virus. It’s like Cannibal Corpse violently copulating with premo Suffocation and Deicide, with James Murphy ripping off arresting solos between rubs and tugs. The riffs are insane and chaotic, the drumming is oppressive and relentless, and the vocals are disgusting as fook. It’s hell in a handbasket, and I love it to pieces. “Unnatural Feocity” is brainless cavemen ooga booga death played at time-warping velocities, and the Suffocation influence is impossible to miss. The title track introduces a harsh black edge to the death maelstrom. Scathing, twisting riffs swarm in abundance as a strong Morbid Angel stench burns through the oppressive atmosphere, and vocals wander into reverb-drenched Rotpit territory. It runs a bit too long, but delivers a lot of grotesque goods along the way.

“Infernal Conquering” is another highlight, with blasting speed alternating with 6-ton grooves and beef-brained mega-chugs. At their best, Unmerciful offer high-octane insanity fuel for the dangerously deranged. Their unhealthy commitment to speed leads them into a Krisiun-type conundrum where everything bleeds together into a turbo-charged mush. This can make it challenging to discern one song from another at a certain point, though it sure keeps the blood pumping. Another issue is the cover of Origin’s “Vomit You Out.” It arrives mid-album and feels unnecessary, with its grindier approach enough of a departure from the rest of Devouring Darkness to make it stick out and disrupt. Lastly, closer “Vengeance Transcending” is a step down after an album’s worth of quality death metal shenanigans, feeling more generic than its album-mates. At 41 minutes, Devouring Darkness is about as much of this kind of death as you can process before your grey matter begins to break down into pond paste. As it stands, I’m barely hanging on by my ape nails by the time the album wraps. The production is good for the style, with drums forward enough to pulverize kidney stones without drowning out the riffs and vocals. It’s abusive, sure, but why else did you come here?

Talent abounds across the board here, as every member of Unmerciful is accomplished and impressive at what they do. Clinton Appelhanz loads the material down with approximately 500 million riffs, and they twist and corkscrew all over the songs in bizarre and unholy ways. He’s a one-man apocalypse of fretboard abuse and the main reason the songs work as well as they do. He’s got little bits of Trey Azagthoth, James Murphy, and Terrance Hobbs in his style, and he goes for the throat 100% of the time. Trynt Kelly’s kit-work is stupifyingly fast, savage, and convoluted, and it’s hard to miss all the chaos he causes in the backline. Through all the commotion, Josh Riley roars and croaks with reliably inhuman vocal cords, sounding like an unstoppable monstrosity from the primordial ooze. That’s a good thing.

Devouring Darkness is an unceasing beatdown of a death metal album where technicality takes a backseat to brutality. The chops are put in service of the songs and not the other way around, and that results in some entertaining ear fuckery. Unmerciful aren’t reinventing the steel here, but they are melting it down with their unrestrained savagery. There’s always a place for that kind of animalistic behavior in the Zoo House ov Steel. If you like your death fast, ugly, and brutish, you should make room for it, too. It will keep the missionaries and bill collectors away (along with everyone else). No mercy!

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Willowtip
Websites: unmerciful.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/officialunmerciful | instagram.com/official_unmerciful
Releases Worldwide: May 23rd, 2025

#30 #AmericanMetal #CannibalCorpse #DeathMetal #Deicide #DevouringDarkness #HateEternal #Krisiun #May25 #MorbidAngel #Origin #Review #Reviews #Suffocation #Unmerciful #WillowtipRecords

Mit der MS Trollfjord in die Polarnacht – Teil 1

https://xn--vilmoskrte-kcb.de/2024/01/07/reise-mit-hurtigrutens-nordkap-express-oslo-nordkap-bergen/

Cryptworm – Oozing Radioactive Vomition Review

By Steel Druhm

Cryptworm’s 2022 Spewing Mephitic Putridity debut completely satisfied my shameful desires for a death metal album sounding like someone vomiting gut slime and mega-maggots for 33 minutes. It was repulsive, obnoxious, stupid, and fun. It was also really heavy, borrowing key chapters from Autopsy and early Carcass. I go back to it regularly, so the UK-based blokes did something right. Now hot on the heels of this grisly triumph, we get a brand new splatter platter called Oozing Radioactive Vomition, featuring cover art depicting a pack of n00bs having their first AMG promo sump excursion. They’re so cute! There have been some changes at Camp Crypt since last time, and instead of operating as a gruesome twosome, now it’s Tibor Hanyi with a new bassist and drummer in support. You know these tomb moldy fucks haven’t evolved in the scant time between releases, so you can expect more of the same bloody glop and scuzzy gunk heard last time, full of moist and pasty sub-sub-basement vocals and heavy caveman grooves thick enough to resist tank munitions. But can you rely on this to meet your intrinsic vomitcore needs?

The same things that made Spewing so refreshing are still interred here. Tibor’s insane death croaks and gurgles are still a total blast and since he’s completely incomprehensible, sometimes he sounds like the Swedish Chef from The Muppet Show, and that’s just awesome. The opening title track is d-beaty, dumb, and fugly, with a loud, pongy snare that will annoy the fook outta most normal music lovers. People like us will love it though, along with the borderline slam tendencies, and wish they played this kind of stuff at the local mall and in office elevators. Huge chugs and fat, greasy grooves proliferate and over the top of it all lays Tibor’s repellant and infectious death gibberish. It’s a winning recipe here as it was on the debut. That said, the song feels like it runs too long at 5:45. This becomes a theme across Oozing, with every track in the 5-6 minute window. “Organ Snatcher” does quite a bit with its extended runtime, dabbling in Autopsy murder smut and Carcass gore with a jaunty, upbeat energy that makes the nastiness seem ironic, but it too feels too long in the end. “Necrophagous” fares fairly well despite the elongated lifespan, with a relentlessly vile, disgusting vibe full of slithering leads, bunker-busting grooves, and scuzzy, wet vocals.

The tendency to stretch out these highly toxic concoctions doesn’t work in the album’s favor. No selection is bad, but some tracks suffer more for their bloat than others, and nearly every cut feels like it should end before it finally does. At a slim 35 minutes, Oozing feels longer than it should due to the bloat, and that diminishes some good and very good death metal moments. The writing feels more formulaic this time as well, with certain tropes reoccurring across different tracks, giving the album a bit of a one-note vibe. The drum sound is another issue, with the snare set to “Pong Master Series.” It will work for some way more than others. Ultimately, it’s the combination of poor editing and homogenous writing that limits the impact Oozing has, though it remains an entertainingly raucous dose of Neanderthal death metal dipped in fresh poo-crust.

As with the last album, Tibor Hanyi absolutely kills it as a death metal vocalist, providing some of the most godawful, garbage disposal-esque vocalizing you’ll hear this year. I can’t get enough of his “trash monster with Covid” style and hearing him regurgitate his guts makes me smile every time. He’s more than a capable guitarist as well and there are some notably cool, sticky riffs splashed across the album. He has a real knack for sick grooves and mammoth chugs and these serve the material well. It does seem like he fell back on generic d-beat leads too often this time though, making the songs bleed together into soupy shit-Jello. New drummer Jamie Wintle (Seprevation) does a fine job despite the merciless pong assault and he lays in some interesting fills and rolls amid the chugging and brutish d-beating.

I had some misgivings seeing a new Cryptworm platter so soon after the last one, and maybe the rush to follow up Spewing is why Oozing Radioactive Vomition feels less impactful. Still, I love what Cryptworm are all about so I’ll have a goodly amount of fun with this regardless. You will too if you’re a cellar-dwelling death metal scum leech. Test your Worm tolerance and self-diagnose immediately.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Me Saco Un Ojo
Websites: cryptworm.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/cryptworm
Releases Worldwide: December 15th, 2023

#2023 #30 #Autopsy #Carcass #Cryptworm #DeathMetal #Dec23 #MeSacoUnOjoRecords #OoozingRadioactiveVomition #Review #Reviews #SpewingMephiticPutridity #UKMetal

Grau – Abseits des Lichts Review

By Twelve

I appreciate modern black metal. The original stuff is not for me at all, but there’s something about a well-polished flame of rage that just works for me. Stepping away from pure, often theatrical, hatred and into such things as emptiness, suffering, frustration—that stuff speaks to me. So when I read that Abseits des Lichts (“Outside of the Light”), the sophomore full-length from the German black metal Grau, lyrically focuses on “pain, emptiness, and the animalistic aspect of the human mind,” well, I was, to put it lightly, intrigued. Proposing a “more modern and complex approach” that mixes black, death, and doom metal, the band has lined up everything I could ask for in my black metal. Do they deliver the goods?

As the aforementioned promo material alludes, Grau does a very good job of blending black and death metal on Abseits des Lichts, incorporating touches of doom here and there to tie the whole together. Two tracks into the album, this dichotomy is on full display. “Einnerung” is the album opener, and, after a brief but effective intro, descends upon the listener with huge tremolos, blast beats, and M.K.’s vicious vocal assault. It works well, but so does the follower. “Niemy” opens with a sudden drop in tempo; the song feels closer to death-doom than black metal, despite the absolute assault M.B’s drums launch midway through. It’s a slower, more measured track that maintains the backdrop of black metal in a more immediate way. At first glance, these tracks may feel out of place next to each other, but there’s a beauty in Abseits des Lichts in that it all works anyway.

That beauty really lies in the atmosphere of the album; throughout, Grau craft bleak, angry, and, rarely, moving melodies that link each song together to form a cohesive album regardless of the stylistic shifts from song to song. It’s everywhere—in the adventurous black metal feast of “Fiebertraum,” the moody death metal ravaging of “Ohnmacht,” and the aforementioned assault of “Einnerung.” Everywhere you look, there’s a familiarity to Abseits des Lichts, a clear sense that this is one album, crafted under one idea, and everything is working together to perpetuate it. In this sense, the album performs extremely well; cathartic, familiar, and strong.

The main trouble I have with the album is really that the atmosphere, production, and mood are so prevalent that it winds up feeling overlong at 51 minutes. There are clear attempts to mitigate this, in the distant cleans in “Fraß,” the existence of interlude track “Wildnis,” and the album’s beautiful outro (“Outro”)—but in addition to being largely in the back half of the album, these moments also appear infrequently. The album’s production does a great job at emphasizing each instrument, but the songwriting is both too varied and not varied enough at once. There’s always a lot going on, but by the end of the album, despite the strength of “Fraß” as an individual song, it feels like more of the same. The feeling never fully shifts or wavers—as I said earlier, Grau does an excellent job of blending styles!

So on Abseits des Lichts, Grau come across as experts of their own music; this is an album that chiefly does one thing very well. Across the album, Grau crafts a thick, oppressive blanket of angry, bleak, and ferocious black metal. If, like me, that sounds like your thing, there is a lot to like here. I’ll look forward to the follow-up, and if I’m hoping now that there’ll be a little more nuance on it, that isn’t likely to stop me from returning to this release for some catharsis on a frustrating day.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Tragedy Productions
Websites: grau-band.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/grau.blackmetal
Releases Worldwide: December 1st, 2023

#2023 #30 #AbseitsDesLichts #BlackMetal #BlackenedDeathMetal #Dec23 #GermanMetal #Grau #Review #Reviews #TragedyProductions

Coven Japan – Earthlings Review

By Dolphin Whisperer

The past still lives around us—a phone booth dilapidated with its tethered telecommunications device extracted, an eerie, abandoned Sears parking lot, Def Leppard jammin’ for the 6:00 pm crowd at the grocery store. Even for new members of the heavy metal clan, the sounds of royalty—Maiden, Priest, Saxon—often line the path to whatever extreme they may later fall into. It’s no surprise, then, to read that new Japanese export Coven Japan declares themselves as a young band influenced by 70s bands like Angel Witch and 80s bands like Satan.1 It’s a dangerous proposition. When you wield such well-known and mighty names in your promo blurb, you better be ready to deliver the goods. Does Earthlings earn its place amongst the Gods?

To no one’s surprise, Coven Japan does not surpass the works of time-tested, riff-imitated classics. That doesn’t mean that Coven Japan can’t be fun, though, and that element of their 70s rock, 80s heavy metal stained sound shines through on Earthling’s most driving cuts (“Land of the Rising Sun,” “Apocalypse,” “Lost Humanity”). And among these tracks, which can remind me a little too much of hall of fame metalworks in riff identity for comfort (“Land of…” – “Aces High,”2 “Lost Humanity” – “Heading out to the Highway”), there lies the speed-driven, punky ambition of early Loudness and Anthem albums to keep Earthlings from being pure NWoBHM pastiche. In the same vein as their countrymen, Earthlings too possesses a warm, decently spacious production with crispy edges—not as clear and biting as the European bands that pioneered the sound. But that’s OK, this kind of louder, rawer construction channels the same windows down, knob-cranked attitude as you would expect from proper heavy metal.

Of course, as is the curse of many Japanese bands playing with this throwback temporal mindset—Significant Point and Risingfall come to mind—the vocals often can pose a hurdle. And, in a form true to this troubled expression, these issues come about most when the band dials back speed for ballad territory, the intro to “Night Flyer” posing the most challenging earuption of the run. The sing-song harmony has a quality to it that is fitting though, same with the quasi-ballad title track that follows. But really vocalist Taka’s wails shine best against an urgent bassline, jangling chords, and searing lead melodies (“What Goes Around Comes Around, “Apocalypse”). 2023 doesn’t need any more ballads.

What it does need more of are the rollicking, guitar-fueled excursions that Coven Japan brings to bookend the lesser clips throughout Earthlings. Good albums start with a bang, and the one-two burst of “Land of the Rising Sun” and “What Goes…” pack that same old school punch that you would find on scrappy classics like Iron Maiden3 or Fly to the Rainbow4 (Scorpions), right down to the leads that swell from thin amp pull to distortion flurry for maximum impact. The popping snare can get in the way from time to time, being one of the sounds borrowed from 80s and not in a great way. But when it comes to numbers that feel more of that time, the Satan-leaning “Apocalypse” or the stadium-ready “Return of the Souls,” it works well against loud riffcraft and bouncing, bluesy grooves. That overdriven heft helps the to-the-point closer “Lost Humanity” flourish in its reverb-soaked chorus chants and snappy twin-lead breakaway.

Coven Japan makes their fair share of missteps throughout this debut full-length outing—the repetitive epic “To Sanctuary – March for the Voiceless,” the over-balladization of a couple of choice tracks—but they do so with feet planted and volume set to rock. For an album that borrows so much from the elders of the halls of metal, Earthlings lands with scrapes and bruises of character from each stumble and success. To put it plainly, Coven Japan has heart and it pours through in every note, which goes a long way in pushing through some of the less-than-stellar moments. And did I mention how absolutely fantastic the cover is? If I remember nothing else of this later, I will remember lady demon with laser eyes. Likewise, if Coven Japan remembers tomorrow is a new day to shine, and that this outing is but a point of entry into future fan’s ears, then they’ll realize there’s no turning back on this path of heavy metal.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 7| Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: No Remorse Records
Websites: coven.site | coven.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/coven.japan
Releases Worldwide: November 24th, 2023

#2023 #30 #AngelWitch #Anthem #CovenJapan #Earthlings #HeavyMetal #IronMaiden #JapaneseMetal #JudasPriest #Loudness #NoRemorseRecords #Nov23 #Review #Reviews #Risingfall #Satan #Saxon #Scorpions #SignificantPoint

Dusk – Dissolve into Ash Review

By Steel Druhm

Long, long ago (1995 to be exact), an unheralded Green Bay, Wisconsin act named Dusk threw their hat in the death-doom arena and dropped a short debut titled …Majestic Thou in Ruin. I stumbled upon it in a record store while in law school and bought it based entirely on its tranquil cover art. I was quite taken with what was inside too, and the band’s rough, raw, yet highly atmospheric style resonated deeply. Dusk walked the same morose and tortured territory as diSEMBOWELMENT, but they opted to stick closer to the doom side of things, at times almost venturing into early My Dying Bride / Anathema soundscapes. The album was quite striking for the time with beauty and charm all its own. I relied on it often as a de-stressor throughout the rigors of law school and especially loved playing it during snow storms while residing in upstate New York. As much as I enjoyed …Majectic, Dusk dropped off my radar after that since they never released a follow-up. Since then, a bunch of other bands have assumed the Dusk mantle, so when I saw the promo for Dissolve into Ash, it didn’t initially occur to me that this would be those mysterious Wisconsiners back after 28 long years. Yet back they are with almost the same lineup and newly inspired by the isolation of the COVID lockdown. With virtually no chance of this recapturing the oddball magic of a bygone era, I went into Dissolve into Ash with well-managed expectations but secretly hoped for another blizzard beast of a platter.

Whatever cryofreeze these cats were locked in, it certainly preserved them well, though their overall approach is somewhat different now. Opener “Beacon Obscured” is a shockingly good piece of doom with heavy riffs pounding you as death roars pair with ethereal female vocals. Though the debut featured female vocals too, they play a larger role here, making them sound like a meaner version of Draconian with traces of Novembers Doom. The writing wrings the most emotion and drama possible from the beauty and the beast vocals, and the riffs are heavy enough to balance out the dialed-up Gothic edge. This is way heavier and more grinding than the usual Gothic doom outing, and cuts like “The Dim Divide” and “Ancient Passage” are borderline sludge in their abrasive, raw delivery. The nearly 8-minute “Libations Offered” is a big highpoint, with a grinding pace and raw vocals creating a massive and hypnotic groove that feels inexorable and unstoppable.

The album has a well-thought-out pace and though things remain locked firmly in heavy doom dirge mode almost the whole time, effective writing largely keeps things interesting. More importantly, things are kept very heavy. “Shrouded in Mist” feels like a proper death metal monster that just got hit with a tranq dart and is fighting the effects as it keeps coming after you slower and slower. Sadly, at over 8 minutes, you may wish the beast fell sooner. While no track is bad or filler-grade, there is some bloat here and there, and some cuts are good, but can’t rise to that next level. It’s also striking how little this album sounds like the debut. That’s understandable after so long a gap, but I want more of the olden days sound to seep in. At just under 49 minutes, Dissolve into Ash just manages to escape feeling overlong, and a few minutes could be chipped off the longer cuts without harming them. I’m a big fan of the production here which gives the guitars a threatening largeness and the drums a bone-shaking force.

The riffs that churn and pulsate across Dissolve Into Ash are the star of the show. Tim Beyer and Steve Gross do a good job of finding that sweet spot between mournful doom leads and skull-crushingly heavy riffs that owe more to sludge and death metal. The interplay of these elements is the key to making the compositions hum, and this they generally do. There are slight touches of black metal around the edges and a rough, ugly feel is well maintained. Steve Crane’s raspy, raw death vocals go down well, though I sometimes want him to go more subterranean. Dana Ignarski has a lovely voice and imparts an air of grace and beauty to what is an ugly platter. She’s used sparingly and quite well.

I’ll chalk up Dissolve into Ash as a happy surprise and credit Dusk for sounding way better than they have a right to after being defunct for more than a quarter of a century. There’s enough here to make me hope to hear more from them, and this is good enough to garner attention and some new fans. That said, I’d still recommend checking out the debut. I’d call it a cult classic, but I’m not sure enough people know the album to form a proper cult. This should be remedied and now is as good a time as any. Give this a try and then get thee to the past.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps
Label: Dark Symphonies
Websites: duskusaofficial.com | duskusaofficial.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/duskusaofficial
Releases Worldwide: December 8th, 2023

#MajecticThouInRuin #2023 #30 #AmericanMetal #DarkSymphonies #DeathMetal #diSEMBOWELMENT #DissolveIntoAsh #DoomMetal #Dusk #MyDyingBride #NovembersDoom #Review #Reviews

Slow – Ab​î​mes I Review

By Kenstrosity

There was a time, not long ago, when I would’ve proclaimed myself an avid Slow fan. That was before I claimed the rights to cover the Belgian funeral doom duo’s ninth album, Ab​î​mes I. All this time, I had no idea Slow was so productive. In retrospect I don’t know why this surprised me, considering the prolific multi-instrumentalist Déhà is the project’s mastermind. Furthermore, I had no idea Slow spawned all the way back in 2007. My complete negligence regarding Slow’s origins and extensive back catalog qualifies me as the quintessential “false fan.” But rest assured, once I’m done with this write-up for Ab​î​mes I, I’m catching up post haste.

Funeral doom is one of metal’s dark arts. Incredibly difficult to write and play well, few artists dare to attempt. Moreover, selling fun-doom to the masses is often a futile effort, as its crawling pace and depressive tonality make for a difficult listen for many who are accustomed to breakneck speeds and blistering fury in their metal. However, if there was any act that could seal the deal, it’s Slow. Déhà’s flagship project reliably provides deep emotional charge, monumental scale, lush drama, and affecting musicality of similar caliber to genre stalwarts Convocation, Eye of Solitude, Clouds, and Un. Slow’s particular application of the style strikes at the heart, and Ab​î​mes I is no exception. More stripped down than the opulent VI – Dantalion yet more musical than V – Oceans, Slow’s first installment in their latest arc focuses on the metallic core of their sound more than ever. Propping Déhà’s bleeding heart lead guitars, tight drumming, and monstrous roars with Lore’s brobdingnagian bass on a well-deserved pedestal, Ab​î​mes I progresses Slow’s funereal doom forward with a subtle, but effective shift.

At a remarkably tight forty-four minutes across four songs, Ab​î​mes I is a testament to the power of editing, even in funeral doom. Song by song, Slow retains their trademarked sense of scale in full force, with its shortest track clocking in at eight-and-a-half minutes (“Abyss”), while its longest pushes a bit past fourteen (“Collapse”). However, Ab​î​mes I’s songwriting is so smooth and well-paced that it moves with the inexorable momentum of a tidal wave. Before I know it, the closing notes of the weeping “Collapse” ring with all of the affecting mournfulness my soul could ask for. Along the way, minimalist but clever bits of detailing penetrate deeply inside my memory—the awesome, and unexpectedly shreddy, solos in both “Barren” and “Abyss”; the incredibly catchy, roaring refrain of “I CLAWED MY WAY OUT” in “Abyss”; Déhà’s especially mammoth vocal performance and lush atmosphere in both “Implode” and “Collapse”—allowing each of these four death marches to stand out with their own respective voices, elevating a cohesive whole. As a result, not only is Ab​î​mes I unreasonably easy to spin on repeat for indeterminate amounts of time, but it is a joy to do so to despite the record’s woeful nature.

Ab​î​mes I offers much to the listener willing to give it the proper time to bloom, but it lacks the counterintuitive immediacy and devastating meteor impact of its predecessor—and its direct competitor this year, Convocation’s No Dawn for the Caliginous Night. Unfortunate as it is, there’s no avoiding the comparison and, in that light, Ab​î​mes I falls a bit short. Simple, minimalist songwriting works well for Slow more often than not, but in this case, the record’s restrained composition gives it a slightly underdeveloped feel. Compounding this issue, a few lead guitar lines in “Implode” and “Collapse” sound oddly similar to material found in Slow’s previous works. Of course, this may simply be a byproduct of Déhà’s frankly intimidating productivity diluting some of his trademark themes. Regardless, Ab​î​mes I could only be improved by massaging those areas which threaten self-plagiarism and including just a few more finishing details on the final product.

As an aside, I applaud Slow’s mixing and mastering of Ab​î​mes I. Proof that you can construct a disastrously heavy sound that’s impressively layered and pleasant to hear without unnecessary compression, this production may very well be one of the best I’ve heard all year. But I digress. The bottom line is that Ab​î​mes I is another rock-solid installment in a long-standing, reliable discography of quality funeral doom. It may not convert any newcomers, and it isn’t the top of its class this year, but it is still damn good and well worth my time.

Rating: Good!
DR: 13 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Aural Music
Websites: slowdooom.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/slowdooom
Releases Worldwide: December 8th, 2023

#2023 #30 #AbîMesI #AtmosphericMetal #AuralMusic #BelgianMetal #Clouds #Convocation #DeathDoom #Dec23 #Déhà #Doom #DoomMetal #EyeOfSolitude #FuneralDoom #Review #Reviews #Slow #Un

Varathron – The Crimson Temple Review

By Doom_et_Al

“Always respect an old man still playing in a young man’s game,” the saying goes. “There’s a reason they’re still around.” With that in mind, it’s curious how little attention Greek black metal stalwarts, Varathron, generally receive. Formed 35 years ago in an era when many AMG staff had not been conceived, and Steel Druhm still had hair, Varathron were instrumental in establishing the famous “Hellenic black metal sound” alongside legends such as Rotting Christ and Macabre Omen. Perhaps it’s the frequent line-up changes, or the lengthy gap between albums (at 7 albums in 35 years, they’re no Rogga Johannson), or maybe it’s the long shadow cast by more famous contemporaries, but for whatever reason, these influential elders have long flown under the radar (only 2014’s Untrodden Corridors of Hades has been reviewed on this site). That’s a pity, because 2018’s Patriarchs of Evil was a fantastic slab of black metal goodness, crying out for TYMHM treatment. Now these legends are back with The Crimson Temple. Does the AMG Law of Diminishing ReturnsTM apply? Or does wisdom keep the inevitable at bay?

What’s always set Varathron apart from many pretenders is their willingness to incorporate elements of traditional metal into the black metal aesthetic. Yes, you’ve got the occult influences; yes, you’ve got the synths and the tremolos; but what you may not be expecting is the strong emphasis on riff-based melodies and a classic approach to songwriting. No long, pointless doodles or interludes… no, what we have here is verse-chorus-verse of the good stuff, with minimal bloat or drag. As their career has progressed, Varathron’s production have improved massively, with the music becoming more melodic and accessible. As we arrive at The Crimson Temple, we are, by black metal standards, in accessible territory, with Varathron continuing the trend of shinier production, catchier melodies, and a lighter approach. There’s also an embrace of slightly different styles (thrash, doom, and death metal all weave their way in). It’s with these explorations that things go slightly awry. While never unenjoyable, the new forays result in the band occasionally getting bogged down.

The Crimson Temple starts incredibly strongly, with three bangers right out of the gate. “Hegemony of Chaos,” “Crypts in the Mist,” and “Cimmerian Priesthood” highlight what makes Varathron such a potent outfit. There’s a perfect blend of evil atmosphere, catchy melodies, strong performances, and that uniquely Hellenic propulsion. These songs move, and they do so with purpose and momentum. I defy you not to tap your foot while listening to the chorus of “Crypts in the Mist.” Go on, just try it. If we’d had an album of these, we would all be rearranging our end-of-year lists. This approach isn’t completely abandoned in the second half, but only “Shrouds of the Miasmic Winds” comes close to capturing the early magic.

The Crimson Temple loses its footing when it marches gamely into realms Varathron aren’t as adept in. “Immortalis Regnum Diaboli,” with its emphasis on thrash, is only partially convincing, and that’s when the chorus steers back to black metal. “To the Gods of Yore” goes for a doomy, slower vibe that’s atmospheric, but boring. Varathron did this slow-song trick before, but whereas the more sedate parts on albums such as Patriarchs of Evil had gorgeous, melancholic synths, here we just have plodding guitars. It’s also a pity that most of the good material appears on the first half of the album, making it feel very unbalanced. There’s a noticeable loss of momentum as you head into the final quarter.

The Crimson Temple is incredibly frustrating to review. When it’s on fire, it’s excellent, highlighting what a potent and enjoyable band Varathron can be. I understand they wanted to experiment and avoid making an album of the same song repeated 10 times. But when that song is such a banger, I suppose I wanted them to do just that. The Crimson Temple shows that Varathron are not content to fly on autopilot in the twilight of their career. But sometimes, with age, comes wisdom. And wisdom is knowing what you’re good at and sticking with it. If there is another album in 6-7 years, I would love Varathron to consider that.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Agonia Records
Websites: varathron.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/varathron
Released Worldwide: December 1st, 2023

#2023 #30 #AgoniaRecords #BlackMetal #Dec23 #GreekMetal #MacabreOmen #Review #Reviews #RottingChrist #Varathron