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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Endonomos - s/t
02 Sep 2022 - Thorsten
(Death/) Doom MetalDeath meets Doom. A classic combination which is always somewhat promising to my ears as I have come to consider this one of my favorite genres of all time, because it mixes many things I like – melody, darkness, growls, heaviness, some blast-attacks. Austrian newcomers Endonomos deliver all of this on their self-titled debut full-length.
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Veldune - Veldune
01 Sep 2022
Rock, Art Pop, Desert NoirSabbath Assembly were unique. Conceived initially as a performance art collective, its rotating cast of devotees released several albums exploring the liturgy of the Process Church of the Final Judgment, a poorly understood 1960s religious movement that eventually fell prey to circumstance and exploitation. Was it Gnosticism, Satanism, Reformed Christianity? No one could seem to agree. (What if we just chucked it all to worship women and animals?) When its core membership emerged, the band wed its mysticism with materialism to explore new sounds over several more albums—somewhat of a contemporary intellectual merger of the metal-jazz stylings of Black Sabbath and folk-rock ethos of Fairport Convention. Sounds awesome? It was. So, when three wayward disciples announce they will congregate anew to recapture a certain songcraft, it’s natural to wonder: is this Sabbath Assembly 2.0? Decidedly not. On their eponymous debut, Veldune travel new westward routes, awash in the variegated colors of a sunset horizon as they chase the evanescent union of earth and sky.
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Death Bells - Between Here & Everywhere
31 Aug 2022 - Thorsten
Post-Punk, Synthwave, Progressive”I’ve been lookin, I’ve been lookin, believe me / I’ve been searchin’, I’ve been searchin’ for you” What sounds like one of the schmaltziest lines in music history ever, is actually delivered so well, that many, many people will be fallin, will be fallin in love with Death Bells. Whether again or for the first time doesn‘t matter. This record is a somewhat sunnier version of Post-Punk than what most people would expect but it delivers some of the warmest, brightest songs this side of “She‘s Lost Control“ or “Crystal“.
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Might - Abyss
30 Aug 2022 - Thorsten
Noise, Heavy Metal, Indie-RockEclecticism can be a two-sided sword musically. On the one hand it can be highly entertaining, if a band is able to master more than two or three or four different musical styles. On the other hand, then some other things must be well-done as well, like the tracklist, the arrangement and tonality of the songs and also the vocals. Northern Germany-based married couple MIGHT might have found a good way to give us another really great highly eclectic release, Abyss.
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Sarattma - Escape Velocity
29 Aug 2022
Experimental Post-Metal, Doom, Progressive RockSarattma’s debut full-length, Escape Velocity, is a tale of two albums. Alchemizing inconsolable grief, pain within and without, and the spiritual vagrancy that emerges when the very idea of home undergoes collapse, this is music conceived for the best and the worst of times. Throughout a suite of dynamic instrumental compositions interweaving a bevy of drums and guitars, the post-metal duo presents a Janus aspect: a large jaw set by past musical influences and fair face turned toward an uncertain future for terrestrial kind.
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Orochen - Anthroposcenic
28 Aug 2022 - Gene
Neo-Folk, Post MetalUnlikely, unexpected, and not to be overlooked, Anthroposcenic pursues an unworn path to aural enlightenment, paved with scathing social commentary and unforgettable hooks. Put Orochen on your ’top new artists to watch’ list!
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AEIR - A Frith Befouled
27 Aug 2022 - Thorsten
Post-Hardcore, Crust-Punk, SludgeMinnesang is a German literary term for a certain kind of medieval music with a singer accompanying himself on the lute or maybe even performing acapella. Mostly one must envision these singers composing songs about either love or some high nobility circumstances. Why am I writing this? Because to me, there is a certain parallel between Minnesang and the debut album by US/UK crust outfit AEIR. And that is not only due to the cover of the record but to several other things.
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Roji - Dual Gaia
26 Aug 2022 - Stephan
experimental, noise, jazzCome on! You can pretend to be all grown-up and mature all day, but I’m seeing right through you. Yes, your taste in music is super sophisticated, deep and diversified. And I respect that! But you cannot for the life of me tell me that there’s isn’t at least a part of you that deep down just regularily needs an eardrum-lambasting fix of new always louder and crazier extreme shit which just smashes your face and pummels your body in some form. And if there’s a noise that can scratch that itch while still maintaining its creativity and musical relevance, that’s even better, isn’t it?
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ROOK - Infinite Empty
25 Aug 2022 - Thorsten
Synth-Pop, Post-Rock, Ambient DoomThe cupboard in C.S. Lewis’ Narnia realms. Platform 9 ¾ in the Potter-verse. The river in Heart of Darkness: spots in famous books where someone transfers from one sphere to another, from one form of existence to another. That trope is far too often applied to music - ”when listening to this track, you will be transported to another place”. Far too often and yes, we also used this one here on VoS already. However, for the very, very first time I have heard a track for which this might be really true: ”White Wall” opens ROOK’s debut full-length and man, after listening to this synth-ambient-psychedelia that is as much Amon Düül as it is Brian Eno, as much Bauhaus as 13th Floor Elevators, you are open enough for what follows next. I am pretty sure that one wouldn’t be without. It is quite overwhelming.
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Hush - Pornography of Ruin
24 Aug 2022 - Thorsten
(Funeral) Doom Metal, Post-MetalPhiladelphia is so much more than bad fans (which is not quite true, imo), a mighty cheese steak sandwich, Cold Case and Rocky – it is also home to some mighty interesting bands and one of them is Hush, who just released a strong outing in the form of their third full-length The Pornography of Ruin! A record that was more than five years in the making but which sounds like it was done in the last five months. Timeless (funeral) doom metal.
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Motorpsycho - Ancient Astronauts
23 Aug 2022 - Thorsten
Motorpsycho, Progressive RockNo matter if you like them or not, one has to admit that Motorpsycho from Norway are not only one of the more productive bands of our time (basically one album a year is their average) but that their output is also of a constantly high level. So the question for the new record Ancient Astronauts is not a level of quality but rather one of differentiation – what does this record different and/or better than the other umpteen records the trio has put out in their long history?
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Long Distance Calling - Eraser
22 Aug 2022 - Sebastian
Progressive Metal, Post-RockIt feels a bit weird writing this review just after releasing my interview with Jan from Long Distance Calling and I hope I don’t just repeat what we said about their new album. But man is this new record just amazing. It is so vastly different from their last one, that it is almost like a completely different band.
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Hexis - Aeternum
22 Aug 2022 - Knut
Blackened Hardcore/Post Black Metal/DarkwaveHowever long or short each fast-blasting Hexis-song is on this album, they always manage to bring on elements of elongated post-metal structures into their songs, even with dips into Darkwave. After numerous EPs, splits, two full-length albums and constant touring (800 shows and counting) since their inception in 2010, the pandemic forced the band and the world to a full stop. Now Hexis comes thundering and screeching back with their third full length and promises of new shows. Brace yourselves, for this is a breathless rollercoaster of an album seeping of urgent desperation and anger that in the end sink into eternal echoing.
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Pjusk - Svaberg
21 Aug 2022 - Skyler
Electronic, AmbientPjusk and Chihei’s new magical soundscape.
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Buried Under Sky - Darkest Corners
19 Aug 2022 - Knut
Melodic Hard Rock/Death MetalHaving day jobs, but wanting to make music in their spare time these seasoned musicians joined forces to make an engaging album with catchy melodies. Having gone through almost every genre on the heavy side of rock and metal, they fuse their influences into five songs with memorable melodic themes.
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Dalila Kayros - Animami
13 Aug 2022 - Stephan
Electronic, ExperimentalEarlier this year Dalila Kayros’ unmistakable voice already shone on the album Pyramiden by the equally unique Italian post djent (or whatever you’ll want to call them) band Syk. If you either missed that phenomenal release or just got addicted to the intriguing vocal perfomances on it - rejoice, because here comes more! And it’s a lot more, because on her new solo work Animami the vocals are front and center, left and right, and everywhere in between and all around.
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Russian Circles - Gnosis
12 Aug 2022 - Simon
Post-MetalRussian Circles return with their eigth album Gnosis which was written remotely due to the pandemic (unlike previous albums where they were all in the same place), which if anything has galvanised the band to even greater heights
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Gospel - The Loser
11 Aug 2022 - Thorsten
Post-Hardcore, Afrobeat, Progressive RockHas anyone ever investigated that little crack between At The Drive-In and The Mars Volta? No? You haven’t? You might want to do so, because in there you will find a pretty little solitaire ring with the name GOSPEL engraved on the inside. And that shiny diamond at the top of this classic engagement ring – when held against the light – will throw the glistening, glittery words The Loser onto the next surface it touches. A sight as miraculous as the record this review will talk about!
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Head in Hand - Unnatural Providence
10 Aug 2022 - Thorsten
Blackened Sludgey Post-HardcoreHow can we describe the sound of the earth? Does earth have something like its own sound? Can we synesthesize any given sound with that somewhat primal element? Until today that was nothing that set my mind in motion, but since listening to Head in Hand’s miraculous record Unnatural Providence I have this feeling of associating it with the feeling of dirt and sand, of stones and grit. Why? No idea.
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Omegashift - Doctrine of Dust
09 Aug 2022 - Knut
Heavy Doom Metal, Hard Doom RockInspired by the 80s Doom Metal and Hard Rock scene, the Norwegians of Omegashift released an album earlier this year with some modern twists. What if the giants of the 70s and 80s had used clear and strong female vocals like the ones on this album, would they have sounded like this? Probably not, but it is nice musing about while listening to the band unfolding five well performed Heavy Metal songs induced with Doom and Hard Rock.
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Locrian - New Catastrophism
08 Aug 2022 - Dan D.
Ambient, Electronic, Death Metal7 years. 7 long years. That’s been the time since LOCRIAN’s Infinite Dissolution. The world is now a very different place than it was in 2015. Our planet is a more fractured and dangerous place than it was. The rise of egotistical bigots has made fascists feel they can now scurry out of their dank, insipid hovels. We are faced with the real threat of nuclear annihilation at the hands of ‘leaders’ not stable or of sound mind enough to have access to such power. An unprecedented, and seemingly inevitable, global environmental crisis casts a grim spectral shadow over Earth. How long humanity has left in its current guise is anyone’s guess, but one thing is for certain, when I do go, I want the audio accompanying my demise to be LOCRIAN.
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Effluence - Sarmat
07 Aug 2022 - Brayden
Avantgarde Free Jazz, GoregrindAfter hearing Effluence’s Sarmat I can say it’s becoming increasingly difficult to believe the blueprint to metal was founded by the likes of Black Sabbath. There have been fundamental bands decades later that too are abjected comparatively to Effluence.
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Drift Into Black - Earthtorn
06 Aug 2022 - Thorsten
Doom Metal, Krautrock, Psychedelia“We have made engine start. Four, Three, Two. … 60,000 cases in a single day, it is the longest number of new cases, a new record. … A plane has crashed into one of the World Trade Center. … Dann tritt für mich ein, so wie ich für dich eintreten werde. … Without power. … A Day which will live in infamy. … The United States of America is suddenly at war. … has exploded in mid-air” Speech samples lead into Drift into Black’s new album Earthtorn. Combine them with the title and you got a good idea what they are trying to tell you! Important!! Warning!!!
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Alburnum - Buitenlucht
06 Aug 2022 - Knut
Post Black Metal, Folk Black Metal, BlackgazeBetween the outer hard bark of a tree and the heartwood there is a soft part called alburnum or sap wood, the lightest and the youngest part of the tree trunk. Such a band name gives some expectation when the band is branded in the realm of the Black Metal genre. And yes, it is a magnificent debut release from this Dutch band that brings thirty minutes of riffs, tremolos, arpeggios accompanied by diverse drumming and folk related instruments as they sweep along the melodic themes and embrace the harsh and clean vocals.
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VAURA - Vista of Deviant Anatomies
04 Aug 2022
Experimental Metal, New Wave, GothEach summer day has its flies, but lately they seem unremitting, deliberate even. Like bombardiers they careen across sunlit afternoons, incessantly buzzing and wringing their…hands?…as if plotting nefarious deeds or relishing those accomplished. Like noontide demons sent to despoil the midday calm, their clamorous buzz festers, looms—an aural sign of something poorly repressed resurfacing. Even these spent carcasses on the windowsill—the crushed velour of their brilliant jackets now fading—still tremble with cryptic meaning: Ɐ A Ɐ A A What could they possibly signify? What dark mote perdures in this summer sky? These can mean only one thing: today we reckon with the length of cold shadows cast by an unheralded January offering, VAURA’s Vista of Deviant Anatomies.
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