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Plague Curse – Verminous Contempt Review

By Spicie Forrest

We’ve all been told, once or thrice, not to judge a book by its cover. As a species, we’re pretty good at doing it anyway. In metal circles, band logos and album art often follow certain tropes that let us quickly identify what we’re about to hear and set expectations accordingly. Except when they don’t. When I first saw the cover art for Verminous Contempt, I thought I had it pegged. I mean, rats? Green mystery fluid? Skulls? This was sewage-drenched death metal for sure. I was, of course, wrong. For their debut, Plague Curse instead offers a highly polished platter of blackened death metal. Irregardless of genre, however, the only question that matters here is, does it slap?

The heart of Verminous Contempt beats death, but its blackened influences are plenty vital. Bolt Thrown riffs, courtesy of Joe Caswell (Burden of Ymir), and Neil Schneider’s fully automatic drums offer a tank tread massage on “In the Shadow of Hate” and “Procession of Dead,” while “Amidst the Devastation” and “Hate Fuck Of Fornication and Malice” get their meat hooks in you like Cattle Decapitation in an asylum. Guitar licks in the skeletal, dissonant veins of Morbid Angel or Pestilence add a hunted sense of unrest (“Nocturnal Cruelty,” “Callous Abomination”). This would make for a decent record on its own, but well-placed blackened tremolos coalesce and melt away throughout the album like specters in a fog. “Umbrage Earned” and “Of Fornication and Malice” open with hellish, blackened salvos of Archspired urgency, but what’s particularly noteworthy about the former—and true to varying degrees across all of Verminous Contempt—is the way the band twists and warps death metal instrumentation to fit over black metal structures. While much of this record sounds like death metal, “Umbrage Earned” reminds me more of Watain from a compositional standpoint. Verminous Contempt isn’t just black metal and death metal played next to each other; Plague Curse creates a true blend of the two.

The instrumentals on Verminous Contempt are nothing to sneeze at, and neither is Nick Rossi’s vocal performance. His lows evoke Suffocation or Septicflesh, while highs are closer to Cattle Decapitation or Mental Cruelty. Rossi even gets brutally low on “In the Shadow of Hate” and “Callous Abomination.” He’s got an impressive toolkit. And whether low, high, or somewhere in between, he’s phlegmy and wet, not unlike Lik. It brings an unrefined, unhinged edge to an album whose production is otherwise pretty clean. The added grit does wonders for Plague Curse’s sound, creating much-needed texture across Verminous Contempt. Rossi’s standout performance is occasionally a detriment, however, as a few instrumental sections struggle to hold their own in his absence (“Procession of Dead,” “Reigning in Ruin”).

Verminous Contempt is an energetic and dynamic album. Riffs abound, both searing like Spectral Wound (“Most Vile”) and crushing like Immolation (“Callous Abomination”). Whether slinging neoclassical hooks (“Most Vile”), creating blackened tension (“In the Shadow of Hate”), or expertly shifting tempo (“Reigning in Ruin”), Caswell can count on Schneider and bassist George Van Doorn to provide a solid foundation upon which to drive each track. Transitions are well-timed and flow seamlessly, making the album an enjoyable and smooth listen end to end. Even tastefully and sparingly added dissonance incorporates well into the broader picture (“Reigning in Ruin,” “Nocturnal Cruelty”). But with such obvious songwriting prowess and tight construction, it’s a little frustrating to trudge through several minutes that should have been left on the cutting room floor, including the last third of “Reigning in Ruin” and the entire outro “Oderint Dum Metuant.”

I picked up Verminous Contempt expecting Foetal Juice, but was instead treated to an impressive mix of some of metal’s meanest sounds. Like being blindsided with a brick, Plague Curse comes out swinging and, with the exception of a couple of competent slowdowns, never lets up. Between noteworthy vocals and frenetic yet controlled instrumentation, Verminous Contempt is an enjoyable and easily consumed album. On their debut, Plague Curse establish themselves as a vicious but accessible contender in blackened death circles. With a more enthusiastic scalpel and a little more attention paid to instrumental passages, Plague Curse could easily be a future cornerstone of the genre.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Adirondack Black Mass
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: October 10th, 2025

#2025 #35 #AdirondackBlackMass #Archspire #BlackMetal #BlackenedDeathMetal #BoltThrower #BurdenOfYmir #CattleDecapitation #DeathMetal #FoetalJuice #Immolation #InternationalMetal #LIK #MentalCruelty #MorbidAngel #Oct25 #Pestilence #PlagueCurse #Review #Reviews #SepticFlesh #SpectralWound #Suffocation #VerminousContempt #Watain

Mors Principium Est – Darkness Invisible Review

By Angry Metal Guy

Mors Principium Est should, for longtime fans of Angry Metal Guy, need no introduction. Since 2003, these Finns have released eight full-length albums of top-notch melodic death metal. However, they really took flight in 2012 with …and Death Said Live!, which coincidentally is a year after Andy Gillion joined the band. Between 2011 and 2021, Mors produced melodic death metal that drew heavily on a strong Gothenburg vibe; guitar-forward, slick as fuck, and fun to listen to. Gillion was fired, however, in 2021. That was followed by the band releasing an album of re-recorded songs called Liberate the Unborn Inhumanity, which fans largely considered a half-measure. Darkness Invisible, then, marks the first truly new material since Seven. And I’ve been dying to know how this revamped Mors Principium Est would navigate the changes on album number nine.

Darkness Invisible presents a recognizable core sound that longtime fans will connect with, but its character reflects the shift in the lineup. With Ville Viljanen’s scathing roar still at the helm, the return of Jori Haukio and Jarkko Kokko on guitars reintroduces the early 2000s songwriting DNA, while bassist Teemu Heinola and (new guy) Marko Tommila give the rhythm section both drive and dynamic weight. Together, they summon a melodeath that is at once cinematic, technical, and blackened—evoking countrymen Children of Bodom or Kalmah. The themes that emerge are darker than before: a push toward massive symphonic density that occasionally brushes against Septic Flesh’s deathly grandeur, the arrival of deeper guttural vocals that tilt passages toward brutal death, and flashes of blackened riffing that lend a sharp edge. These elements intermingle across the album, creating a record that is both familiar and ambitious.

Much of Darkness Invisible’s character comes from its dark dynamics and cinematic presentation. The compositions weaponize contrast in vocals and atmosphere, making for a dynamic and entertaining record. Viljanen’s familiar bark remains the anchor of MPE’s sound, but the band now folds in cavernous gutturals that push closer to death metal extremity (“Summoning the Dark”), even contrasting these with operatic cleans and producing a clash of brutality and grandeur (“All Life Is Evil”). Additionally, there’s a frost that creeps into the riffs and drumming, with trem-picked riffs and blastbeats sharpening the band’s melodeath foundation toward something blackened and sinister (see: the chorus of “Venator,” or the end of “The Rivers of Avernus”). And even the more straightforward cuts employ these textures to broaden their weight, layering symphonic swells and bleak grandeur over increasingly technical riffing. The result is a record that sounds darker and denser than the glossy sheen of Seven. This expansion lends ambition and menace, though the density of choirs, gutturals, and orchestrations sometimes threatens to swamp the guitars that were the core of Mors’ sound.

For all its ambition, Darkness Invisible’s major drawback is that it’s undermined by an Industry Standard Production Job™ courtesy of Jens Bogren (mixing) and Tony Lindgren (mastering). Bogren has made dense orchestral metal soar before—think how cleanly he’s wrangled maximalist arrangements for acts like Fleshgod Apocalypse and Turisas—which makes this result unusual. The record is mastered loud and layered thick; climaxes hit hard,1 but the constant stacking of choirs, vocals, multiple guitar tracks, drums, and orchestration often clutters the field and can bury the guitars that most recently defined Mors Principium Est. On a proper stereo, the album sounds big and sinister—fully loaded with dynamics, pomp, and grandeur—but on earbuds and smaller setups, it can collapse into a busy blur. It’s been a long time since I popped in a new release and found it simply too crowded for casual listening—and it ends up being fatiguing to the ear at times. That busyness contributes to the album’s oppressive mood, but it also blunts individual performances. In reaching for monumental scale, the mix trades away clarity, leaving the listener torn between admiration for scope and frustration at execution.

Darkness Invisible has convinced me that this lineup can carry Mors Principium Est forward. The shift in sound works: the band leans harder into Children of Bodom and Dark Tranquillity on the melodic side, showing off fantastic guitar work while embracing a more cinematic and melodramatic identity. Without the bonus track, the album lands at a vinyl-friendly 46 minutes, and its structural pacing—variations in tempo, atmosphere, and density—make it a fun and dynamic listen despite the crowded mix. Darkness Invisible doesn’t bear much resemblance to the Gillion era, but that’s not necessarily a weakness.2 This darker and more melodramatic Mors Principium Est feels fresh, and tracks like “All Life Is Evil” and “The Rivers of Avernus” prove the style’s promise. So, I entered this review with concerns about what a Gillion-less Mors Principium Est would sound like, and I’m leaving it impressed and excited for what’s to come. I would call that a great success.

Rating: Very Good!
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s CBR MP3
Label: Perception [Reigning Phoenix Music]
Websites: Facebook | Instagram
Out Worldwide: September 26th, 2025

#AndDeathSaidLive #2025 #35 #AndyGillion #ChildrenOfBodom #DarkTranquillity #DarknessInvisible #FinnishMetal #FleshgodApocalypse #JensBogren #Kalmah #MelodicDeathMetal #MorsPrincipiumEst #OrchestralMetal #Review #Reviews #Sep25 #SepticFlesh #Seven #TonyLindgren #Turisas

Band photo of Mors Principium Est (2025), five members in black leather standing on a rocky shore under a cloudy sky.

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SEPTICFLESH – Pro-Shot Video Of Entire Summer Breeze 2025 Show Streaming

https://bravewords.com/news/septicflesh-pro-shot-video-of-entire-summer-breeze-2025-show-streaming/

#SEPTICFLESH #Pro #ShotVideoOfEntireSummerBreeze #deathmetal #concert #festival #EP #video #streaming #BraveWords #metal #music

Septicflesh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFDV5Vkv8nQ
#youtube_arteconcert #ARTE #Musique #Summer_Breeze_Festival #ARTE_concert #concert #Musik #Metal #Summer_Breeze #SBOA #septicflesh

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SEPTICFLESH Announce Second Performance Of Live At The Acropolis II Prometheus Unchained

https://bravewords.com/news/septicflesh-announce-second-performance-of-live-at-the-acropolis-ii-prometheus-unchained/

#SEPTICFLESH #II #AnnounceSecondPerformanceOfLiveAtTheAcropolis #PrometheusUnchained #deathmetal #EP #announcement #BraveWords #metal #music

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SEPTICFLESH Live At The Acropolis II Prometheus Unchained Sells Out In Less Than 48 Hours

https://bravewords.com/news/septicflesh-live-at-the-acropolis-ii-prometheus-unchained-sells-out-in-less-than-48-hours/

#Septicflesh #Acropolis #PrometheusUnchained #DeathMetal #Greece #Bravewords #LiveAtTheAcropolis #News #Music #Concert

SEPTICFLESH | LIVE AT THE ACROPOLIS II PROMETHEUS UNCHAINED SOLD OUT IN LESS THAN 48 HOURS. #septicflesh @septicfleshband

https://slrmagazine.com/2025/07/04/septicflesh-live-at-the-acropolis-ii-prometheus-unchained-sold-out-in-less-than-48-hours/

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SEPTICFLESH Announces Live At The Acropolis II Prometheus Unchained In September

https://bravewords.com/news/septicflesh-announces-live-at-the-acropolis-ii-prometheus-unchained-in-september/

#Septicflesh #Acropolis #PrometheusUnchained #Metal #News #BlackDeath #Greece #Concert #LivePerformance #Bravewords

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The Best Album by 11 Symphonic Metal Bands
Enter the beautiful cradle of symphonic filth and see the best album by 1 symphonic metal bands. Continue readingandhellip;

https://loudwire.com/best-album-symphonic-metal-bands/

#SymphonicMetal #Kamelot #Wintersun #Sirenia #WithinTemptation #Delain #XJapan #Moonspell #Septicflesh #JillianDrachman

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PASSENGERS IN PANIC Release Music Video For New Single “How To Breathe” Feat. SEPTICFLESH Guitarist CHRISTOS ANTONIOU

https://bravewords.com/news/passengers-in-panic-release-music-video-for-new-single-how-to-breathe-feat-septicflesh-guitarist-christos-antoniou/

#PassengersInPanic #HowToBreathe #Septicflesh #ChristosAntoniou #Athens #Greece #SleaszyRiderRecords #Amnesia #MariaKatsandri #AngelikiKalovyrna

Nightfall – Children of Eve Review

By Steel Druhm

Greek oddballs, Nightfall have always been unpredictable and difficult to pigeonhole to any one genre or scene. Though they came out of the same scene as Rotting Christ and SepticFlesh, their style wandered over the map much more, flirting with Goth rock, melodeath and various shades of blackened traditional metal. Every time a new album appears, you go in not knowing what to expect. 2021’s At Night We Prey was a dark, brooding affair borrowing from Moonspell and SepticFlesh without fully abandoning their quirks and intrinsic weirdness. Children of Eve stays more or less in the same general vicinity, adding more Goth broth to the pot as they walk the edges of multiple styles. Can they continue their streak of quality releases, or will the wheels finally come of your Rube Goldberg-esque musical contraption?

As with any Nightfall release, it takes a few spins to get a handle on what is going on and whether it works for you. Opener “I Hate” is like a forced marriage between Rotting Christ and SepticFlesh, and though it’s very bombastic and over-the-top, it still works at a core level through sheer blunt force. It’s heavy enough to satisfy, with hooks to tickle the brainpan, and vocalist Efthimis Karadimas’ death bellows work hard to keep you invested. The haunting female vocals that counterpoint his death roars are effective, and the song paints a dark, occult atmosphere. “The Cannibal” ups the heaviness significantly, approximating Behemoth at points while also dropping a chorus that’s so Amon Amarth, that they should start preparing for a raiding party to hit their town. From there things jump around and shift styles. “Lurking” has a grungy black n’ roll energy with more Amon Amarthing wedged in, and “For the Expelled Ones” sounds a lot like the Insomnium’s pairing with Rotting Christ on “White Christ,” with Efthimis mimicing Sakis Tolis vocally. Closer “Christian Svengali” goes for a kind of epic doom and pulls it off, creating a larger-than-life vibe full of drama with smart touches of Goth.

While every track contains moments I like, some simply don’t come together. “Seeking Revenge” adds pop-like female vocals to a groove-heavy melodeath attack that never really takes flight, and “With Outlandish Desire to Disobey” is a night club-friendly goth rocker with poppy female vocals that feels underbaked and flat. Elsewhere, “The Traders of Anathema” fuses epic moments with thrash and groove-metal and it falls short of success. The alchemy that carried them through the last few albums is less prevalent here, and though moments of inspired lunacy appear, only about half the songs really resonate with me and make me want to hear them again. After repeated spins, rather than coming together and making more sense, Children of Eve feels disjointed and patched together with Fruit Stripe gum and duct tape. You can almost hear the styles grinding against each other like tectonic plates rather than coalescing into something interesting. It’s a credit to Nightfall that even when things go pear-shaped, the songs are never outright bad, just tepid.

Efthimis Karadimas is the sole original member and he guides the ship. I’ve always enjoyed his vocals and his flair for the dramatic, and his booming death bellows still carry weight. He also wisely switches up styles enough over the album to avoid sounding one-note. Kostas Kyriakopoulos does a decent job dabbling in riffs from across the metal spectrum and there are high points where he steals the show, though too much of his riffage feels generic and basic. Fotis Giannakopoulos (Nightrage, ex-SepticFlesh) does a fine job brutalizing the skins, thundering along as the band shifts styles and genres on a whim. It’s not a talent issue this time, just a cohesive and memorable writing issue.

Nightfall have a long and unusual track record and they’ve had their share of hits and misses. This is the least compelling release since the early aughts, and though I doubt I’ll be returning to it, I can’t say it’s wholly lacking in merit. If you wish Rotting Christ was more adventurous and freaky, this might resonate, and there are a handful of interesting songs present. It just needs more…Gorilla Glue.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 192 kbps mp3
Label: Season of Mist
Websites: nightfall.gr | nightfallofficial.bandcamp.com | instagram.com/nightfallband
Releases Worldwide: May 2nd, 2025

#25 #2025 #ChildrenOfEve #GothicHeavyMetal #May25 #MelodicDeathMetal #Moonspell #Nightfall #Review #Reviews #RottingChrist #SeasonOfMistRecords #SepticFlesh

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NIGHTFALL Release “With Outlandish Desire To Disobey” Music Video; Children Of Eve Album Out Now

https://bravewords.com/news/nightfall-release-with-outlandish-desire-to-disobey-music-video-children-of-eve-album-out-now/

#Nightfall #ChildrenOfEve #GreekMetal #HeavyMetal #WithOutlandishDesireToDisobey #EfthimisKaradimas #SeasonOfMist #EliranKantor #RottingChrist #Septicflesh

Euphrosyne – Morus Review

By Iceberg

Death is an omnipresent theme in metal, and art in general, but the subject matter is especially poignant when approached by survivors of its trauma. Post-black quartet Euphrosyne tackle the loss of a loved one, in this case songwriter Alex Despotidis’ mother, on their debut LP, Morus. Post-black seems an appropriate style for the Greeks, with a focus on atmosphere, melody, and stillness to balance black metal fury. While the lyrics are credited to frontwoman Efi Eva, all the music was composed by Despotidis, an unenviable but hopefully cathartic duty for someone who just lost a parent. Observing the grieving process always feels a bit intrusive, and Morus reveals itself to be an intensely personal collection of songs. Nevertheless, the motionless death shroud on Morus’ cover invites the listener into a journey of pain, death, and that which remains.

Euphrosyne isn’t content to paint themselves into a post-black corner. Efi Eva is a convincing, multi-faceted vocalist, and her chameleon-like vocal performance drives the different moods of Morus. Her clean soprano, not unlike Evanescence’s Amy Lee, guides the acoustic sections, featuring reverb-drenched piano melodies and simple, plucked guitar lines (“Morus,” “Valley of White”), while also unleashing impressive hardcore shouts (“Asphodel”) and black metal roars (“Lilac Ward”). Despotidis’ lead guitar acts as a counterpoint, his soaring melodies anchoring instrumental sections (“Funeral Rites,” “Mitera”). Euphrosyne’s rhythm section is dependable, deploying predictable blasting alongside less predictable odd time signatures and filtered grooves akin to Mer de Noms-era A Perfect Circle (“Valley of White,” “Eulogy”). At its heart, Morus is a narrative album, and Euphrosyne wisely employ different sounds and styles to shape the story as its told.

Euphrosyne excel at painting the tale of death with their music. From the pivotal moment of “July 21st” where Eva takes her ethereal clean tone and warps it into a furious snarl, the listener sits sidecar to Despotidis’ grieving process. The frustrated proselytizing of “Eulogy,” the spiraling guitar riff closing “Funeral Rites” (perhaps signifying the lowering of a casket), and the wailing guitar melody of “Mitera” that segues into “Asphodel” feels more at home in the theater than the recording studio. Spoken word, all in the band’s native Greek, humanizes the performance and reinforces the narrative concept (“Morus,” “Mitera”). While the production shows its limits in the black metal riffage, Euphrosyne know how to use silence and space when it counts, particularly at the edges of their songs (“Morus,” “Funeral Rites”). Morus is also edited well, running at a well-rounded 43 minutes with not much fat to trim. The slimmer run time allows the listener to fully appreciate the story on their first pass, and then discover layering and thematic through-lines on repeats.

Euphrosyne drip creativity with their more adventurous sections, but they seem to move to the tried and true side of melodic metal elsewhere. Eva’s performance is solid throughout, but the constant reliance on a clean vocal chorus becomes rote by the end of the album. The black metal passages of the album, while serving their role as a pressure valve for the music’s pent-up emotion, feel by-the-numbers and more like a bridge between the more exciting, less heavy moments. Production is handled by Psychon of Septicflesh fame, and while the mixing/mastering job lends the quieter parts of Morus breathing room, the crushed DR5 rips any sense of dynamic from the black metal blasting and trilling, an industry-standard approach that takes away from Euphrosyne’s unique take on the genre. Its difficult to pinpoint specific songs that work better than others since they all contain aspects of the “post and the black,” but it’s easy to see after a couple weeks of focused listens that Euphrosyne shine in the empty spaces when they’re less restricted to a post-black label.

Despite these gripes, Morus is a deeply affecting album, one that moved me more the longer I left it to marinate. I don’t know that singular pain of losing a parent, but I know the pain of losing someone very close to me, and Despotidis’ memoir has brushed that scar tissue. Though this score may seem to describe a somewhat middling listening experience, I highly recommend this album for fans of dark, weighty music that tells a story. I think with some fine-tuning, Euphrosyne have quite the mark to make in the post-black world. Until their next effort, I’ll keep Morus in my back pocket for the grey days when I need to commiserate with another wounded soul.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Black Lion Records
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: March 21st, 2025

#2025 #30 #APerfectCircle #BlackLionRecords #BlackMetal #Euphrosyne #Evanescence #GothicMetal #GreekMetal #Mar25 #MelodicMetal #Morus #PostMetal #Review #Reviews #SepticFlesh

Kerberos – Apostle to the Malevolent Review

By Saunders

Symphonic death is a tricky subgenre to nail. While there are skilled exponents, bands peddling the dramatic style tread a fine line in balancing the ornate orchestral elements and heavy-hitting metal, without diminishing one or the other of the fused components. Such as the symphonic elements feeling tacked on or the metal edge blunted. Overall, it’s a mixed formula for yours truly, though I am certainly not opposed to the style when executed well (Fleshgod Apocalypse, Zornheym, Septicflesh, Dreamgrave). Hailing from Switzerland and sporting a bombastic, prog-infected symphonic death sound, unheralded act Kerberos aim to make their mark on the scene with their second album, Apostle to the Malevolent. Not one to do the style in half measures, Apostle to the Malevolent jams a multitude of orchestral elements and symphonic flair to otherwise traditional metal instrumentation, creating a colorful sound that on surface levels ticks all the boxes for a good time for enthusiasts of the style. Kerberos manage to cram all their sophisticated ideas, choirs and orchestra into a lean runtime, clocking in a shade under the half-hour mark. But can Kerberos back up the bombast and efficiency with gripping songwriting?

The first couple of the five tracks comprising Apostle to the Malevolent will likely weed out the non-believers. Opening instrumental “Praeludium in H Moli” plays into the band’s flair for orchestral dramatics with mixed results, setting the scene for first proper track, “Near-Violence Experience.” Apostle to the Malevolent credits a Kerberos choir and orchestra in addition to the core foursome. The elaborate nature of the band’s vision is reflected in the song’s crunchy riffs, busy arrangement, densely layered instrumentation, and dueling male-female vox; ranging from operatic female contributions and a strange mix of deep male clean singing and harsher growls. It’s an ambitious tune, if a little scattershot. The impressive musicianship, countered by the overstuffed and convoluted nature of the arrangement, prevents it fully lifting off.

Vocally, the male cleans come across as melodramatic and more than a little cheesy. However, Ai-lan Metzger’s stirring vocals and accompanying choirs lend the album a vibrant voice to match the swelling orchestral touches. When traded off with the harsher variations, the impact is more forceful. On the other hand, Félicien Burkard (who also handles guitars and fretless bass) clean vox are an unwelcome distraction. Kerberos lean further into the goth-tinged symphonic dramatics on “Alpine Sea,” another example of the band’s solid skills and exuberant talents, marred by a longer than needed runtime and questionable vocal transitions. The most successful example of Kerberos’ talents resides in mid-album cut “Liar Within.” it doesn’t greatly deviate from the rest of the album. However, the ingredients flow with greater fluency, while the increased aggression, speed and thrashy urges lend some extra punch to the soaring vocal hooks and lush symphonics.

Song length remains a recurring issue. As previously stated, the album is short and sweet, though several individual tracks struggle to maintain interest across their heftier lengths (including nine-minute closer “Apostle to the Malevolent”). On the plus side, some tasty material is scattered throughout, flashing the potential for Kerberos to deliver something more substantial and fully formed down the track. Importantly for any symphonic metal project, the orchestral elements don’t sound like tacked on afterthoughts, bolstered by a bright, dynamic production. However, occasionally the instruments seem to fight and jostle for space, creating a clunkier feel to certain sections, leading to some overkill and awkward results. This may present a case for Kerberos and their additional friends to refine and declutter their sound to more potent effect. The mixed bag vocals also require some work, the attempts at deeper growls and Burkard’s questionable cleans could use some tuning up.

Symphonic metal can go either way for me, and I am often especially selective with what floats my boat. Kerberos deliver an intriguing LP, featuring enough positives to find a solid audience on board with their particular brand of grandiosity and gothy-drama. Unfortunately, Apostle to the Malevolent is a messy affair, which feels unnecessarily bloated and convoluted despite its scant length. When they hone their songwriting focus into more aggressive, urgent realms and let the riffs do the heavy lifting, the band’s potential shines brightly. There remains some solid material and classy elements, with ample room for growth and refinement for Kerberos to match their ambitious vision with tighter songwriting chops.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Self-Released
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: March 14th, 2025

#25 #2025 #ApostleToTheMalevolent #Dreamgrave #FleshgodApocalypse #IndependentRelease #Kerberos #ProgressiveMetal #Review #Reviews #SelfRelease #SepticFlesh #SwissMetal #SymphonicDeathMetal #SymphonicMetal #Zornheym