All reviews below are written and executed by Drako
Wolfzahn – Lone Wolf Kommando (EP)
Decent Black Metal EP with hints of Folky elements.
So, got two reviews on here for you guys and we’re starting off here with a new black metal project that’s from the US. This band formed in 2024 and this is the debut EP from Wolfzahn and this is a short offering by them that’s titled: “Lone Wolf Kommando” and this features an old WW2 soundbite of hill 423 and this continues until blistering tremolo harmonies come in with a fukking barrage of blast beats and these are cold and melodic sounding, they then transition to catchy melodies and bouncy riffs for a time. There’s gunfire in-between these tremolo riffs and they go to alternate picked power chords really fast after these and they do add in a bit of groove as well in this at times; the drums aren’t always blasts, there’s some mid-paced stomps going on in here that’s done by “Kommissar Lutz” and I hear some slight eerie, chimey synths behind these riffs. When they let the riffs ring out slightly, they have this icy sounding fuzz to them.
This is FFO: Satanic Warmaster, Sargeist and a bit of Behexen too.
Some orchestrations come in next with some industrial sounds that reminds me of sci-fi/CoD video games that sounds like it was taken from a Two Steps From Hell piece and I really liked it. More tremolo riffs and harmonies come in that’s blistering and aggressive, these are somewhat catchy too. They add in a whammy bar dive and when they slow things down, they do so to chuggy riffs and harmonic grooves, then, they put in a few pinched harmonics and there’s sick riffs on here that will make you headbang and they add in these creepy ascending and descending melodies that sounds bleak and wintery and this also has bleak sounding chords in-between these catchy passages before diving straight back into tremolo chaos and blasts. You have Russian soundbites on the final track on here that’s a 9 minute closer that’s full of tremolo harmonies and killer, pulverizing blast beats and riffs that they slow down the tremolos a tad. These are definitely bouncy and catchy in flow as well and there’s some slight droning chimey synth notes added in-between these brutal tremolo harmonies too.
They then have these lovely bouncy wintery harmonies in-between these palm-muted grooves and they put in these continuous droning synths that sounds haunting over the tremolos in addition to the rest of them. This is from my favourite track, which is the title track: “Lone Wolf Kommando” and this then gives way to acoustic passages with more spoken word soundbites over them and the synths then come back in. The riffs and harmonies get grander and bigger towards the end of this absolutely awesome EP and they change the key towards the end of the track also; before ending back on the bouncy harmonies to finish. This is an awesome and unbelievable EP that has blistering aggression, wintery atmosphere, groove and droning synths. If you’re into Black Metal, then definitely check this out!
Rating: 8.7/10
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Azatoth – Carnal Lust of Blasphemy
Solid Finnish OSDM!
As promised, I have got a total of three new reviews for you guys. I almost added the new Static Abyss into this list, but Chris Reifert’s vocals this time around I wasn’t a fan of. Anyways, we’re starting out with this Death Metal band from Finland that’s called Azatoth and this project formed in 2020, this is a debut offering that’s titled “Carnal Lust of Blasphemy” and this debut offering has an eerie synth to start it off and it has some choirs behind it too that sound sinister and this is on my favourite track on here called “Flooding Human Remains” and it’s not often that my favourite track on an album is the opening track. This then opens with tremolo harmonies, melodies that are crawling and creepy in tone, then, they add tremolo riffs over them and blistering blast beats and they then transition to groovy tremolos, you have a whammy bar dive bomb in the midst of this; there’s groovy power chords thrown in with pinch harmonics in-between and they put in these creepy slide effects for eerie atmosphere again too, just like the tremolos. They add in killer riffs too and when they transition to the next part, they add in chunky riffs and these sinister growls come through that are kinda whispered and then, they go back to the killer riffs. If I still practiced dark shit, I’d play that song, as it’s one of the most evil one’s that I’ve heard in a long time; next, they put in bouncy rhythmic chugs and riffs that will get you banging your head and they take a pause to let the riff ring out before diving back into tremolos.
The sinister sounding vocals return and you have lots of creepy harmonies on here that are topped off with eerie whammy bar accents, then, they include more chugs before putting in more sharp and jagged tremolos. When they slow down a bit, they put in slow harmonies and you can hear the bass behind these too and they add in this creepy distorted bass that works as an intro before these nasty riffs come in that are doomy and nasty, then, there’s awesome grooves with more tremolos done in-between them and there’s chunky power chord riffs added as well here. There’s some occasional trills before they dive straight back into blistering blast beats and riffs; more bouncy grooves are then included before they fade everything out again and let the bass back in for a short time.
This is FFO: Undeath, Incantation and then there’s elements added of Yattering too.
There’s artillery-like double kicks that fade in with whammy bar effects added on top, more killer grooves come in before they add more thrashy energy and the drummer and the guitarists, Daniel, Roni and Juuso are all beasts, as they absolutely crush it. There’s plenty of bouncy grooves on here and more sinister sounding tremolos are put in too again and those melodies and hooks are deliciously evil, they even put in choirs behind them. More slides happen and they put in more layers of groove and holy shit, when they play fast, it’s obliterating and they then put in these nasty pinch harmonics that they let ring out; a couple of synths appear next and the guitarists do a small nasty breakdown behind it and the interlude on this has industrial style synths, as well as sci-fi ones on it, along with the sounds of creatures retching. They put in some brutal death style riffs, like what you’d hear from the likes of Suffocation and even Joel does some brutal gutturals on this track, but mostly, he sounds like a mix between early David Vincent, mixed with Justin from Mörtual; they isolate these creepy and disturbing sliding riffs that have some sinister groove to them. The guitar solos on this absolutely evil offering are done in a melodic, but chaotic style, with shredding, whammy bar dive bombs, atmospheric and techy leads and even surprisingly a few sweeps too; some are slower and they appear in the same song more than once too and I find that cool, then, they put in more creepy soundbites and if you’re a fan of Incantation, Helslave, Undeath and Yattering, then definitely check this out and lastly, in terms of negatives on here, I thought that ‘Sulphuric Paths To Agony’ was quite filler.
Rating: 8.2/10
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Slime Dimension – Self Titled
Get slimed by this TBDM/Skeletonwitch inspired Melo Death act!
Next up, we have a fun and slimy Melodic Death Metal project from out of the land down under, Australia. This is Slime Dimension with their debut full length offering that’s a self titled. This band formed in 2022 and it has a drum roll to start it off, then, it erupts into groovy riffs and blast beats and then, they include groovy harmonies and palm-muted chugs in this as well. It has a couple of tremolo riffs and when they slow it down, they include doomy harmonies before adding in more groovy riffs and furious chugs to make you headbang; there’s some quick fire power chords and then, when they go to the harmonies again, they’re haunting and sinister. Blasty tremolos and machine gun blasts appear next for a short time, next, they isolate the harmonies, you have some slimy sound effects (well, the album’s about slime) and there’s just some crushing energy on here with tremolos and blast beats and these can be groovy too and fukking killer! More melodic grooves come in with tremolos in-between them and these are on my favourite track “Ineffable Ooze” and this has some great melodies, along with palm-muted chugs in it again too.
This is FFO: Skeletonwitch, The Black Dahlia Murder and add influences from In Flames too.
This debut is absolutely riff city and they include more power chord sections and at times, you can hear the bass on this; they even drop everything out to synths, then a beautiful guitar lead comes in with beautiful power chord sections behind them before they dive back into the chaos again; TBDM style harmonies come through and the guitar solos in this are mid-paced, melodic, shreddy and with a sweep or two even and add a couple of whammy bar dive bombs in addition to these. This has a lot of aggressive thrashy sections in this full length, then, for a time, they put in some doomy sections before diving back into aggression and groove and they isolate the guitar harmonies and put an effect on them at one point; they change key of the track at a section or two on a few tracks on here. Galloping tremolos are included next and there’s a few more pleasant melodies added in too, then, the vocals by ‘Slime Daddy’ has a wide range of doing high screams and low growls and consistently switches between the two, this is a seriously melodic and groovy album that’s got plenty of thrashy intensity in it. Slime Daddy even includes a couple of whispers in here as well in addition to the others; clean guitar passages appear again with some synths behind them and then, this goes to beautiful sounding alternate picked power chords before beautiful harmonies closes this out. This is an absolutely killer, thrashy and beautiful debut offering from this Melbourne born Melodic Death Metal act, this is crushing, absolutely check this out!
Rating: 8.75/10
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Dream Unending – Certain Uncertainties
Softer and cleaner than usual, but still good.
PR/Review: Alright, so, on my list tonight I’ve got three new reviews for you guys and we’re starting things off here with this personal project of Tomb Mold’s Derrick Vella. This is Dream Unending with their upcoming third full length offering that’s named “Certain Uncertainties” and this upcoming album has a clean diminished guitar and bass passage to start things off and these get more beautiful as they go along when the harmonies come in and then, Derrick switches to distortion and these big drawn out power chords come in with chugs and then some bouncy riffs are added too. There’s harmonic lead runs all over this upcoming full length and he has the addition of a vocalist who is Justin DeTore of Innumerable Forms who adds growls and some cleans on occasion as well surprisingly; there’s riffy gallops on this on occasion, then, these diminished slide harmonies come in too on here. Some meaty power chords get put in this also and this release has a few instrumental tracks that are pleasant and beautiful sounding with tasteful clean passages and there’s some acoustic guitar melodies being added in places also.
This is FFO: Paradise Lost, Opeth and add some Evoken in this too.
There’s the addition of saxophones as well that’s awesome, beautiful and surprising and this continues for a while, until they isolate these slow groovy bass drums before the beautiful harmonies come back in and he adds some string bends to give it some flavour and this is all on the title track and my favourite track “Certain Uncertainties.” They put in these groovy distorted riffs next, until more harmonies come in and these sound ugly and haunting; then you have some chord progressions and fretless bass appear too before these gives way once more to pretty melodies and hooks on here. Palm-muted harmonies are also on this occasionally and pinched harmonics too and some of these can be nasty; Justin isolates the kick drum in a track on this full length and this happens on track four and these are relaxed and slow paced. The soloing on this is delightful, clean, pretty and somber, they’re atmospheric and not very shreddy; they’re good, as Derrick doesn’t overdo it and play too fast, next, Justin does cleans on track five instead of growls and they’re pretty good, melodic and kinda reminds me of the Korn front man a bit. Clean guitars are at times isolated and so are the solos here and there before punkish rhythms come in for just a short time and Derrick puts in a couple more grooves to give this some more punch. This is some great upcoming Atmospheric Death/Doom that’s full of pretty harmonies, diminished riffs and chords and pleasant leads on top; if you’re into this, then check it out, but for me though personally, this upcoming album is not as good as their last.
Rating: 8.25/10
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Angoixa – Vida i Mort
More HM2 goodness FFO Dismember!
Lastly here, we have this Spanish based HM2 OSDM outfit that was formed in 2014 that’s named Angoixa and they’ve unleashed their fourth full length earlier this year that’s named “Vida i Mort” and this offering features the likes of thrashy buzzsaw riffs that cascade right off the bat and these are tremolo riffs too, you have pinched harmonics and quick dead notes in-between these too. The drums are frantic with blast beats behind these and they include chugs too among these, then, you have some slight haunting synths and choirs appear before they add in haunting harmonies and then, there’s awesome catchy trills thrown in too. They then go all doomy and let those harmonies ring out and this is when the keyboard shines with haunting and chimed harmonies before they drop everything out for a few seconds to include diminished passages and riffs, they then go to the chugs again and there’s more pinches added also. My favourite song off of this new album is named: “Innocéncia” which starts out with some eerie violins and it has the sounds of children laughing and playing before some eerie harmonies come in and they transition to include grooves that are palm-muted and these will definitely get you banging your head and for a short time, the bass duals with the riffs on this one; they then isolate the guitars to do these awesome riffs next.
This is FFO: Dismember Sweden, Maceration and I’m going to include my last review of Carnal Savagery too.
They add in these sick tremolo harmonies and put in pinch harmonics in-between them and then, they get all doomy once more and the harmonies are drawn out and these melodies are kinda lush in spots; they then thrash once more and next, there’s diminished leads until the riffs come back in. More of the haunting droning synths come back before they throw in chugs and the guitar players, Robert and Héctor certainly know how to write heavy ass riffs. More tasty hooks come in and there’s certainly a lot of thrashy intensity all over this and you have slower chugs that are doomy with diminished harmonies in-between them and this section gives me Morbid Angel vibes. There’s plenty more doomy energy on track four and this is when they throw in clean diminished passages and you have machine clunking and synths behind the intro to this song; there’s fast triplet chugs between catchy rhythms and these are bouncy too, they’re designed to get you moshing. They bring back the droning keyboard melodies on and off and they add some black metal atmosphere with diminished chord progressions slightly and the guitar players do these big riffs that sound sinister and they let them ring out too. The synths become more prominent on track five ‘Obsolet’ and there’s lots of tasty harmonies on this one as well, then, the solos on this killer album are melodic, atmospheric and are quite techy with tapping moments; there’s a few Middle Eastern flutes and choirs on the back half of this full length.
You have a couple of whammy bar accents in this too, then, they do more constant pinches and string bends before they isolate more grooves before they transition to more fun and sick riffs and you have a few mid-paced short leads in-between and once again, some solos appear twice on the same song. There’s these very brief ascending and descending harmonies that happen before the band isolate these beautiful sounding melo death style passages before bringing them back with riffs and drums behind them. This is some awesome HM2 Spanish OSDM, if you love buzzsaw, then this is definitely for you. Definitely go and give this banger a spin!
Rating: 8.45/10
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Carnal Savagery – Sickening Acts of Barbarity
Carnal Savagery return!
PR/Review: Up next, I have one of the most modern consistent HM2 bands for you guys, this is the OSDM outfit that’s Carnal Savagery and these guys formed in Sweden back in 2017 and this is the band’s upcoming eighth offering that’s titled “Sickening Acts of Barbarity” and this will drop on the 27th of November and this features a bass right from the get go with long drawn out riffs added in over it, then, this transitions into melodic early At The Gates harmonies that are tremolos, this then goes to thrashy blast beats and riffs until they bring back more harmonies that are catchy. There’s quick trills being put in-between the faster riffs on here and when they slow down, they do so to groove and these sound nasty too; they put in synth sections in-between riffs before fading back to end with the bass. They add in more thrashy sections with melodic riffs, before some pleasant melodies come in over them before they return to the aggression and then, they put in chuggy riffs in-between a couple of tremolos before they return to the pleasant sounding hooky sections. Next, they add in trills between these fast riffs and there’s fast chugging going on too, then, they bring the bass back and when isolated, it sounds nasty and they put in these mid-paced tremolos once more as well; there’s bouncy riffs going on too here and there that will make you mosh.
This is FFO: At The Gates, LIK – Sthlm and put in some Entombed definitely.
There’s a lot of bass in this and I’m definitely not complaining, as Mikael does a great job at it and the riffs are cool and they’re clunking on and this is on my favourite track on this upcoming banger that’s named “Boneyard” it has creepy harmonies that aren’t as melodic as the others, nasty riffs with string bends in them and they’re pure stank face and will make you headbang and they then put in diminished isolated clean harmonies before transitioning back to the bass riff and groove. Then, this goes back in for your throat with blistering melodic harmonies and pummeling fast riffs over crushing blast beats once more and the tremolo riffs from track 6 on this that’s called “Ornaments of Death” is almost the same as the main riff to “Resurrected” which are both melodic and groovy tremolos and they just sound the same to me. There’s definitely lots of thrashy elements all over this and you have eerie, sinister harmonies that are slower paced with syncopated chugs and war drum-like hits done at the same time as them and they harmonise these slow riffs and put in choirs too; groovy chugs come in next for a time before they transition back to more harmonies and the solos in this are melodic and shreddy. You have some feedback noise occasionally before a track or two starts and I don’t mind that here and there’s some doomier songs on this upcoming release that are gnarly and filthy; then, some d-beat elements appear towards the back half of this and as well as some violin too. This is some groovy, thrashy and melodic buzzsaw Death Metal that has doomy songs on occasion, but the issue that I have on this is with the repetition, some riffs sound exactly the same as some tracks, but I’ll look past some of that because they’re groovy and killer. Add this to your upcoming releases list!
Rating: 8.3/10
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Eternios – Requiem For The North
Melodic Black Metal in the spirit of Dissection!
Just the one review on here for you guys tonight (more to come) anyways, this is the Melodic Black Metal project that’s known as Eternios and this is a Canadian one man black metal project that’s by Colin Ryley and this is his band’s sophomore full length overall and it’s titled “Requiem For The North” before I get into the review of this stellar full length, I want to thank my friend Xander C. Jones for letting me know about this one. Anyways, this project formed in 2024 and this album has an intro that’s comprised of choirs, synths and big arena style drums and then, some awesome harpsichord sections comes in and I personally love that instrument. Then, we go straight into melodic and wintery blasty tremolo harmonies and the riffs behind these are catchy right away and there’s chimey synths behind these too; tremolos come next, riff wise and the drums are crushing through this and hell, there’s some tremolo harmonies on this that reminds me straight up of Dissection themselves. He isolates these lush and cold wintery harmonies with acoustic guitars being done behind them for a time and these repeat too and when he goes back into the tremolos there’s harmonies that break it up in-between these and you have some sinister tremolo harmonies on this.
There’s groovy riffs added in this before Colin adds more pummeling tremolos and you have some fast and short lead sections in here. There’s bouncy synth passages if you listen hard enough behind the melodies and then, there’s the classic black metal tropes of diminished chords and harmonies thrown in before Colin puts in palm-muted trem harmonies along with the others and some sound haunting too; there’s some hammer-on and pull-off action that straight up reminds me of Children of Bodom. Some of the keys that are chimey and wintery give me obvious Wintersun vibes as well. Then, he adds in groovy palm-muted chugs with these synth harmonies in-between them, next, there’s some fun and bouncy Amon Amarth style sections put in.
This is FFO: Dissection, Wintersun (old) and some Moonlight Sorcery too.
There’s diminished fast paced power chords along with the tremolos and when these drop out, the harpsichord comes back briefly before more harmonies that are at times palm-muted again come back in and there’s a couple of dead notes in here too; there’s a few key changes going on. The drums aren’t always blasty, as there’s plenty of mid-paced fills and groovy hits too, then, this goes to eerie flutes before fast and groovy wintery passages kick in and this is when more thrashy energy comes back in for a brief time, until adding in these harmonies that are doomy and these ring out for a few seconds. Some groovy riffs with ice cold sounding diminished passages come in next, giving you an opportunity to headbang along to this stellar offering and lots of wintery atmosphere is added on this one. My favourite song on this full length is called “Moonless” and it has catchy tremolos, chugs in-between these harmonies, more groovy riffs to windmill to, this track is loaded with them. It’s got nasty triplet chugging in it with the wintery and chiming keyboard parts wedged alongside, next, he dives straight back into the grooves to finish it off before violins and choir end the song. You have some arpeggio sequences that sounds melodic and icy as fvck and the couple of solos that are in this are melodic and shreddy as a blizzard and there’s sweeps done in these too at times; then, there’s soundbites of animals and crunching snow, as well as breathing until some beautiful violins comes in with piano and he isolates catchy tremolo harmonies on this. This is a beautiful, wintery and atmospheric melodic black metal offering. If you’re into Dissection, Wintersun, Malice Divine and Sacramentum, then definitely don’t sleep on this stellar release!
Rating: 9.25/10
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Plague Ritual – Where Souls Go To Die
My Death Metal AOTY, so far!
Last, but certainly not least is this absolutely fukking stellar debut offering that’s got killer production on it is an album by a new band named Plague Ritual; this band formed in California, US and this is another Melodic Death Metal band that has groove influences. This album features the likes with a chanted intro with choirs and the sounds of crows and dongs of bells that continue until the next track and before this ends, a voice comes in, spoken word that’s talking about pestilence. Then, this goes to absolutely killer groovy riffs that will just make you bang your head, these get faster too, until they slow things down to palm-muted chugging and next, they add in some harmonies in-between these chuggy grooves and some catchy power chord movements come in next and when they isolate these bouncy riffs, it’s fukking killer! The harmonies that they put in next are eerie and haunting, then, bouncy chugs come in next and they throw in an occasional pinched harmonic in-between these as well as some diminished runs as well and they then do a couple of nasty hammer-ons/pull-offs in-between riffs and the drums behind these are blasty for a short time until, the drummer, Mark slows them down slightly.
They throw diminished passages in here too as well as adding in some colder passages in-between them too and you get a creepy voice next about holding a knife as a soundbite next and there’s these sharp, cascading riffs that come in-between open palm-muted strings that are ascending and descending. Then, they unleash tremolo chaos that’s blistering with more blast beats in it and there’s some fast, snappy power chords in here too; these riffs are fucking killer and they’ll have you moshing and banging your head to them as they’re unmerciful, next, there’s some nasty and meaty OSDM style chugs and dual harmonies added in on parts in this banger; there’s some fast individual notes being played on this and then you get some melodic tapped harmonies in addition to the others in this.
This is FFO: INFERI, Revocation and obviously some The Black Dahlia Murder influence all over this.
They even add in killer breakdowns now and again for extra crushing heaviness and it’s a must to headbang to these, as they’re so filthy; they then isolate some tremolos for a short time and meaty harmonies get added in next that dual with the riffs and some creepy tremolo harmonies are put in this also that repeats and they get a little beautiful towards the end of them. The chugs and the grooves get time synced with each other, then, another soundbite comes in saying “Scorched Earth motherfucker, I will massacre you” there’s plenty of synchronized drum stomps with the guitars on here and they add in some grand melodies and hooks to finish some tracks off. A few tracks do fade out, but it doesn’t matter. There’s some diminished cleans on this offering and track seven definitely gives me later TBDM vibes with a few diminished passages going on in it, until they change key and add in these evil sounding tremolos that are just bloody nasty; there’s trills going on now and again in a section or two also in addition to the melodies and there’s even isolated vocals and Kevin says: “Can you feel your soul escaping?” They got Phil Demmel to do a solo on here and the solos in general are chaotic, shreddy, technical and with sweeps and whammy bar dive bombs. There’s even a pacman noise on one as well, next, they add in these nasty, doomy power chords that they let ring for extra creepiness and they put in some blackened dissonant chords too, which they isolate them further on.
My favourite track on this absolute masterclass of an album is named: “Till’ Dawn” and it has chunky chugs with dissonant chords thrown in-between them that sounds like arpeggios, then, they add in quick harmonies next, before repeating the chugs and arpeggios and they put in more trills again as well and the solo is melodic and mid-paced, with shredding and sweeping in it towards the end of the lead; they put in more than one solo in a single song and you guys know that I love that, next, they isolate a couple of whammy bar accents and dive bombs. This is an astonishing and crushing debut offering in every sense of the word, this has awesome, crunchy production, killer riffs across the board, eerie harmonies and eerie, technical solos. Definitely check this out, it’s essential to do so, as it’s an outstanding masterpiece!
Rating: 10/10
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