Latest Reviews
There are way too many records released every week - which one should you listen to? We want to help you by reviewing lots of records every week and you can also check out a little teaser before reading the whole thing. And if you want to, you can also browse through our archive and have a look at the amazing records you might have missed out on.
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Mammock - Rust
04 Jan 2023 - Thorsten
Noise-Rock, PunkA few years ago, a British music-journalist argued that McLusky was the most underrated band ever to come out of the UK and a total “bands’ band” meaning that they were known by musicians all over the globe but not loved by enough fans to really have a shot at it. When listening to Greek outfit Mammock one might get the idea that they listened to the Welsh Noise-mongers because they share a love for flurry, hectic Noise-Rock songs on the one hand and some atmospheric Post-Punk elegies on the other hand. Enter their second full-length Rust!
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Brii - Corpos Transparentes
03 Jan 2023 - Brayden
Ambient Black Metal, Blackened Canterbury Prog MetalFans of Brii I tell you this: this is not the same band you knew. For a while now they’ve trespassed into the world of Ambient and Trance with their loud Black Metal, a feat that should not be undermined as their fusion is balanced, this was Brii on two of their three releases. Their metamorphosis is complete now, they have shed their cocoon and now fly into the world of progressive rock more exuberant than ever, abandoning black metal almost entirely; the journey to this point implies that this was their goal from the beginning. Corpos Transparentes is a 36-minute-tour-de-force commemorating the band that once was but a tribute to becoming the current band.
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Celestial Season - Mysterium II
02 Jan 2023 - Knut
Doom Metal/Atmospheric Doom MetalIn the beginning was Doom Metal, and the Doom Metal was with Black Sabbath and Doom Metal was Black Sabbath. The style morphed into Heavy Metal and countless sub-genres, but it began with the heavy doom-laden riffs from Iommi. Many bands were inspired and one of them was Celestial Season who took up the Doom baton, released a demo in 1992 and the first full length in 1993, thus beginning an impressive musical journey that 30 years later has led to Mysterium I and II, both released this year.
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Dream Unending - Song of Salvation
27 Dec 2022 - Ajay
Death Metal, Doom MetalGiven the chaos the world has been plunged into since a certain event swept across the globe in 2019, it is interesting how some musical artists/bands have managed their creative output. Some artists laid dormant, waiting for the chaos to pass so that they could step back outside. Others, such as Derrick Vella (Tomb Mold, Outer Heaven) and Justin DeTore (Innumerable Forms, Sumerlands), the duo behind Dream Unending, have had a very prolific period of musical output, putting out two albums under this project alone in the space of just twelve months.
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Elder - Innate Passage
14 Dec 2022 - Simon
Progressive rockElder seemlessly meld all facets of their sound into a glorious, cohesive whole and unleash the finest album of their illustrious career!
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Nordicwinter - Beneath the Fleeting Light
05 Dec 2022 - Knut
Atmospheric Black Metal, Depressive Black MetalFeeling a bit late to the party while digging this up from of my backlog. But better late than never, because this new mezmerizing album by Nordicwinter, really is for cold winter days and nights walking under a bleak sky at the shore of a small lake on one side and a frozen snowless wood on the other side. And if you walk there at night, the music certainly will give you a sense of belonging as you look up at the sparkling starry sky out there beyond the atmosphere.
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Qrixkuor - Zoetrope
04 Dec 2022 - Stephan
Symphonic Dissonant Death MetalThis EP consists of one track of twenty-four and a half minutes’ length. That could be just the time you need to find a spelling of the band name that you’re confident is correct. Qrixkuor’s Orchestral Death Metal inferno however isn’t willing to give you many breathers to quietly ponder over that question.
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Twin Drugs - In Now Less Than Ever
03 Dec 2022 - Thorsten
Shoegaze, Brit-Pop, Indie-RockThis record seems to have fallen through a wormhole out of time – straight from the 90s ear of Cool Britannia and to the USA today. It merges all the things that were and are still good about the 90s into a blend that yet doesn’t feel outdated but as fresh as the first cup of coffee in the morning. Rejuvenating and inciting.
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Tchornobog /Abyssal - Split
02 Dec 2022 - Thorsten
Avantgarde Death MetalSometimes a quick description is simply the best, right? Okay: If a record begins with a song called “The Vomiting Choir“ and this songs again starts with the overlapping sounds of several vomiting “sessions”, then you’d better not expect dreampop, right? But if there are more than 20 minutes following this initiation point, then one should also not expect pure 20 minutes of metal massacre of the steady blastbeat-kind. And lastly, if that track is released by any Markov Soroka-project, then it’s surely clear that we are gonna get quite a thrill-ride!
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Zwischenlichten - Dämmerschwellen
01 Dec 2022 - Thorsten
NeofolkA new sparkling star can be found adorning the firmament stretched out by German Dark Folk or Neofolk and that star is Zwischenlichten, and the gloom illuminating their ascend is their debut full-length Dämmerschwellen. If acoustic guitars are not your thing, please pass along. But if you like seminal records initiating a round dance in the shadows of the cabin deep in the forest behind the village – then this record will be the candle to your autumn and winter flames.
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Gavran - Indistinct Beacon
30 Nov 2022 - Knut
Sludge Metal/Atmospheric Doom Metal2020, March 20: the Dutch trio Gavran releases their debut album Still Unavailing and then - the world closed. And there seems, unfairly, not to be much coverage of the album. It must have been very frustrating, it could have made anyone just leave and forget about making music. But this release shows that Gavran impressively never gave up as the band releases a new monolithic, heavy album that will give you shivers. In a good way.
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FJØRT - Nichts
29 Nov 2022 - Thorsten
Post-Hardcore, Indie-Rock, "The Wave"Anybody who really knows me, has heard me lamenting over the fact that I still did not get my first tattoo. But connected to that is the usual question what it should be? A symbol for the insiders? A picture of my family? A drawing of a personally important building? Or a quote? No, nobody should get a quote, because what about discovering whether the person quoted will always remain a hero in one‘s own eyes. Nevertheless, if I ever had a quote engraved on my body in black I know for damn sure, which line it has to be: Ich hab’ 1933 Gründe, schwarz zu sehen! by German Post-Hardcore band Fjørt. And now the trio got a new record out! Excited!
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Isafjørd - Hjartastjaki
28 Nov 2022 - Knut
Post RockIceland. Music. Mention those two words and many ears prick up whether it is floating Ambient, Art Pop, Indie or any form of Metal. And Post Rock, of course. It is amazing how much impact the music from this country with about 370K inhabitants has gained through the years. And here is a new one: Isafjørd release an album filled with Post Rock songs where each song has the ability to give you an earworm for days.
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Nostromo - Bucephale
27 Nov 2022 - Thorsten
Hardcore, MetalcoreIs it a bad thing if the best tracks of an album are the ones with contributions from other artists? Probably depends on several things: how much better are these tracks, who is the collaborato or on the overall quality of the album. In the case of Nostromo and their new album Bucephale we must assess that the overall quality is high, the collaborators are mind-blowing and therefore these two tracks simply play in a class of their own – like SuperLeague compared to ChampionsLeague, ay?
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Schneider Collaborations - Schneider ...
26 Nov 2022 - Stephan
Jazz, Noise, Experimental, AmbientIf the entirety of music is a vast cathedral, then I often find myself drawn to the candlelight of its obscure cult niches. One of those places of worship particularly dear to my heart lies at the point where the arches of Jazz, Metal and Noise experimentation meet. So with the first of the four Advent Sundays approaching, let me invite you there with not a single, nor a double, but a quadruple review! The festively golden thread - or your personal Santa Chaos for this holiday season - is a German guy with the common-or-garden name Jörg Schneider.
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Euphrosyne - Keres
26 Nov 2022 - Knut
Atmospheric Black Metal, Ethereal Black Metal, Post-Black MetalIt is always exciting to go treasure hunting in our site´s promo inbox. The thrill of opening a new chest full of sparkling diamonds. And the delight of finding one with gems that glimmer and sparkle, resting on layers of black velvet like this debut release from Euphrosyne. It is pure relish. They call it an EP, but that´s an understatement. They describe themselves as Post Black Metal and that´s also an understatement.
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The Callous Daoboys - Celebrity Therapist
24 Nov 2022 - Brayden
Metalcore, HardcoreIt is no secret that Metalcore has been struggling as of late. At first, the Iron Maiden Melo-Death At the Gates worship crossed with Hardcore breakdowns bands were fun and interesting (ahem Killswitch Engage, Shai Hulud and Misery Signals ahem) but many will agree when I say this: the sound has gotten very old, it is somewhat tired and the dead horse has been beaten so fiercely I’m not sure lyrics from a Carcass song could describe it. Corporate mongers have robbed us of the youthful spirit and angst of Metalcore and replaced them with unrewarding choruses, lazy breakdowns and several other formulaic bastardizations that boil the genre down into a cliche. If you miss the old genre, the ‘straight from the go’-genre, look no further than the Callous Daoboys (a play on the Dallas Cowboys) on their newest LP Celebrity Therapist.
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Feed Me To The Waves - Apart
23 Nov 2022 - Sebastian
Post-RockPost-Rock is one of the broadest musical genres out there. It can range from haunting and creepy over electronic ecstasy all the way to dreamy soundscapes. Feed me to the Waves are surely over on the dreamy side of the spectrum. Their newest work Apart is out since last week and it is time for me to take a dive into the waves.
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Black Space Riders - We Have Been Here Before
21 Nov 2022 - Thorsten
Progressive Psych-RockHow good can a band become over the course of their career? How much better? Is it at all possible for a band to improve over let’s say 15 years? Most of us often consider our first contact with a band to be ‘their best ever’, just think of the discussions over LOA’s first two records. Well, Münster, Germany’s Black Space Riders have just shown that a band can get better and more diverse over time. Need proof? Listen to “We Have Been Here Before”!
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Gospelheim - Ritual & Repetition
17 Nov 2022 - Thorsten
Dark New-Wave, Blackened Gothic RockWhen a band is called Gospelheim one can either expect a strange, rhythm-less German Gospel choir or some kind of run-of-the-mill Nordic Black Metal combo. But there is a band from Manchester, UK, which is neither, that likes to play with expectations and goes its own path. A highly intriguing and seductive one, might be added.
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drowse - Wane Into It
16 Nov 2022 - Dan D.
Shoegaze, Indie, Ambient, The FlenserI’ve been a long-time follower of San Francisco based record label The Flenser. They release some of the most interesting and emotive music around. Be it experimental black metal in the form of Bosse-de-Nage and The Botanist, Chat Pile’s caustic noise rock or the sensational synth stylings of Black Wing - they never disappoint. Anyone familiar with the label will also know that they have a very strong roster of artists with shoegaze and slowcore sensibilities. Planning for Burial and Midwife have released some of my most listened to albums over the past few years and for good reason. They freaking rule! Another artist of a similar ilk who has massively impressed me is Kyle Bates, aka drowse. Cold Air and Light Mirror both left a lasting impression, so I was chomping at the bit to hear the new album, Wane into You.
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Huracán - We Are Very Happy
15 Nov 2022 - Simon
MetalHuracán unleash an album of restless propulsion which sweeps you up in its grandeur!
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Behind Closed Doors - Caged in Helics
14 Nov 2022 - Thorsten
Instrumental Post-Metal, MetalcoreWriting reviews is somewhat of the ultimate nerd thing – you (normally) do not get paid, will hardly ever hear real feedback, speak somewhat into the void and very often talk about stuff that 99% of the now 8,000,000,000 people on this earth will gladly not care about. The upside? It can be a lot of fun. As with listening to Behind Closed Doors‘ debut
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ef - We Salute You, You and You!
11 Nov 2022 - Thorsten
Cinematic Post-RockThe grandmasters are back. ef from Sweden give the people what the people need – and in these times of need and uncertainty, fear and disenfranchisement, loss and neglect there might be nothing more important than art which soothes our uneasy cores. ef are back and they are here for us.
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Worm - Bluenothing
10 Nov 2022 - Thorsten
Progressive Doomy Floridian Death MetalSometimes it takes a record to show up connections between genres. Maybe those links existed before but went unnoticed – and then this one record is published and exemplifies these bridges one had not heard before. WORM’s latest ‘EP’ titled Bluenothing is able to do just that – exemplify the connections between Funeral Doom and Prog Rock.
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