Sicarius hit the ground raging in 2017 when the Californian black metal upstarts released their scathingly vicious debut album, Serenade of Slitting Throats, which captured the metal heart of AMG’s Diabolus in Muzaka, earning a coveted 4.0. Sicarius’s sophomore effort, 2020’s God of Dead Roots, didn’t fare as well; the band, adjusting to the departure of founding guitarist Argyris, ultimately turned in a less visceral, more workmanlike product. Then, when original drummer Brandon Zackay left to focus on his career in Whitechapel, and the other members exited, both voluntarily and not, Sicarius ostensibly died, leaving God of Dead Roots an unanticipated swan song. Fast forward to 2024, when Argyris reunited with original bassist Carnage and joined forces with new vocalist Akéfalos and session drummer Levi Xvl to begin recording a third album, Nex, which, after six long years, has arrived to reintroduce this risen phoenix iteration of Sicarius to the masses.

Sicarius the resurrected doesn’t sound much different than Sicarius the dead. Nex adheres to the same modern black metal formula as its predecessors, maintaining channels of influence drawn from Dissection, Dark Funeral, Urgehal, and, despite Mick Kenney’s departure from the booth, Anaal Nathrakh. In keeping with their monikers’ Latin translation, Sicarius brings an assassin’s cache of weaponry to bear. Argyris sounds rejuvenated and lethal, his armory of blistering riffage (“Cold Death,” “No Witnesses”), chaotically tremolodic leads (“Nex”), and nifty solo work (“Crashing Into the Abyss”) on full display.1 Newcomer Akéfalos adds a layer of frigidity to Nex’s surgical, cold-steel across a warm-throat sound, his icy, high-pitched screeches a mix of Abbath and Hat from early Gorgoroth, while his low-bellied growls are reminiscent of Rotting Christ. Nex has the sound of a band pissed, Sicarius attempting to bury the remnants of what was for something altogether more destructive.

Nex by Sicarius

There’s no doubt Sicarius is exceptionally capable of speed, but for my money, I connected most with Nex’s melodies and mixed paces. Beginning with a brooding, tremoloed guitar melody, “Opened Obsidian Gateways” uses Sargeistian levels of repetition to drive its earwormy chord progressions home, a variation employed during the verses and identically replicated during the bridge before sliding into a nice, mid-song chug section and then back again. Simple yet effective, the song’s a highlight as I found myself humming the melody randomly throughout the day. Also noteworthy are the slow-moving melodic chords of “Banshee,” which gave off Dissection vibes, and the mid-paced marcher “The Hunger We Cannot Sate,” as it gallops along in true Watain fashion, instigating black-n-roll levels of head bobbery over its 5:24 runtime. There’s a lot of musical nuance woven into the details of Nex; my many play-throughs tell me as much, which makes it all the more disappointing that it’s so hard to hear them.

“With a (t)reble yell she cried, NO more, more, more.” I’ve taken some slight liberties with Mr. Idol’s classic lyric to illustrate Nex’s most glaring flaw: a thin, imbalanced mix. Nex sounds much louder than its DR score might suggest. Serenade of Slitting Throats, for instance, with a DR lower than Nex’s, sounds light years warmer because Kenney was able to give Serenade’s lower tones some weight. Nex is nearly devoid of low end, completely negating anything Carnage is doing on bass and robbing much of Levi Xvl’s bass drum work of power, making for an extremely exhausting experience. I had to break my focused listening sessions up, in fact, because trying to listen through all 44:10 of Nex’s runtime left me so audially spent that I was reaching for aspirin. Whether this was a deliberate choice, I don’t know. It sure lends Sicarius an icier-than-thou edge, as much black metal of this ilk is known for, but it really robbed a large portion of my enjoyment, which sucks because, in bite-sized pieces, Nex is actually a pretty decent album.

Sicarius has returned with a vengeance and a we’re-not-fucking-around attitude, as evidenced in no small part by that brutally distinctive cover art. Alongside other bands like Impious Throne, Unholy Altar and Wuldorgast, Sicarius is bringing a sense of menace back to the US black metal scene. Nex is an album worth spinning, despite being hampered by a production that makes it too tiring to listen to in a single sitting, which left me to score it thusly. Still, I’ll be keeping my eyes and ears peeled for the next outing.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320kbps mp3
Label: Adirondack Black Mass | Bandcamp (album)
Websites: Bandcamp | Instagram
Releases Worldwide: April 10th, 2026

Picture “black metal.” What do you see? Frigid wastelands illuminated by burning churches? Damp crypts beneath gothic cathedrals? Varg’s stupid backyard vlogs? One band would have you consider the picturesque slopes of Tuscany’s sunbathed Calvana mountain region. The anonymous duo of Italy’s Calvana have raised hell in the name of their treasured namesake mountains for over a decade and across two records, delivering belligerent blackened arts they describe as “trend-free,” “rough and robust,” and “never recalling anything remotely modern nor much else from the darkest past.” Their latest opus, Sub Janus, aims to continue this mission of esoteric aggression and deepest darkness, sounding older than even the oldest black metals do. Can Calvana bring defiant pride to their mountains, or should Sub Janus be left in the present-past?

I don’t buy the claim that Calvana are especially enigmatic in sound, but Sub Janus sounds distinct regardless. Evoking Celtic Frost darkness, serrating it with Venom rawness and supercharging it with Immortal aggression, Calvana play simple compositions brought to life by deep atmospheres and overwhelming force. Torrents of classic black metal tremolo blasts are a staple of Sub Janus, and songs like “My Prayer to Diana” and “Meine Süße Sternenkriegerin”1 rage with a take-no-prisoners attitude that showcases this mode of Calvana at their best. When not frothing over maddening speed, Calvana are practitioners of the slow and menacing, evident on the solemn death march of “Summer Storm” or the sinister, bowed string intro of “Carnivore.” Vocally, Calvana’s frontperson sounds like an old Universal monster, groaning and snarling slurred and theatrically all over Sub Janus, and accompanied by searing guitars and bottom-heavy bass Calvana sit in a niche thoroughly theirs while still playing within the tropes of the sub-genre.

Sub Janus by Calvana

Calvana draw from a refined selection of tricks for Sub Janus, lending the album both focus and, unfortunately, a feeling of déjà vu. Most songs move between two modes: starting slow and ending fast or starting fast and ending slow. Both “Twilight Song” and “Death of Pan” open with brief fanfare before bringing the hurt, folding arpeggios over cascading blast beats and walls of guitar before shifting halfway to a halftime pace. This approach is most effective on “Fear Makes You Tame,” where the slow turn sees most of the band drop out entirely while doomy strums and haunting tremolos ring out amidst a discord of tortured wails and screams. It’s silly, campy, but fun. Calvana’s approach of slow-to-fast works usually better, however, as “Summer Storm” and album-highlight “Sorry” build tension through subtle progression and eccentric rhythms that make their rise to full-speed riffage all the more cacophonous. This small playbook makes Sub Janus a repetitive affair. Songs with especially little going on, like “Meine Süße Sternenkriegerin,” “Twilight Song,” and the closer “Sub Janus,” feel substantially longer than their runtimes suggest. Calvana have something working with Sub Janus, but I wish that it had a little more going for that something.

But if Sub Janus is hampered by songwriting woes, then Calvana saved it with lively production and performances. Calvana’s analog production and emphasis on giving the full band a spotlight lends Sub Janus an earthy, full-bodied sound defined by enormity and dynamism. Everything feels just right in the mix, especially the bass guitar, which sounds burly and substantial. Black metal demands furious showmanship and Calvana deliver mightily, spitting hellfire on “Fear Makes You Tame” and lathering “Carnivore” in horror-film dread. This is especially true of the drummer, who plays out of their damn gourd on Sub Janus, pummeling lightning-fast fills on “Death of Pan,” exacting punishment upon their hated crash cymbals on “My Prayer to Diana” and thumping out one gnarly drum groove on “Sorry.” All of this, more than anything on Sub Janus, makes Calvana seem as ancient as they aimed to feel. Sub Janus feels like a relic lost to time, dug from the Earth, bearing an archaic dread and untamed vitriol still vital today.

Tuscany is a beautiful place, but Calvana would have you believe the sun never once shone there on Sub Janus. Its songwriting issues limit the replay value of Sub Janus, and my feelings toward the album have dimmed somewhat over the weeks, but the fire Calvana brought to it definitely makes me want to keep this band on my radar. A fun, dark, and decently paced romp, Sub Janus is worth the time of black metal fans who prefer their tunes musty and damp. Visit sunny blackened Calvana today!

Rating: Good
DR: 8 | Format: 320 kbps MP3
Label: Adirondack Black Mass
Websites: calvana.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/calvana
Release Date: March 20th, 2026

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

Pyromancer – Absolute Dominion by Fire Review

By Mark Z.

When you get down to it, hell doesn’t seem like such a bad place. It’s warm. The decor is probably pretty metal. And presumably, you get to witness some of the worst people you’ve met in your life getting tortured. As for music that makes you feel like you’re in hell, let me introduce you to Absolute Dominion by Fire. This is the debut album of Pyromancer, a new-ish band out of Kentucky whose two members bring experience from numerous other groups, including Tombstalker and Apocryphal Revelation. With nothing previous to their name other than a 2015 demo and a split last year with the fukkin fantastic Perversion from Detroit,1 I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect from this record, but I figured it would probably be war metal.

Lo and behold, I wasn’t quite correct. While there are certainly bestial war whiffs present here, Absolute Dominion by Fire feels more like a trve black metal album that forgoes Nordic frost in favor of the sweltering air of the Bluegrass State. The overall sound here is hot and tortured, with a raggedy guitar tone serving as the foil for short, simple riffs that feel suffocating in their bluntness and yet entrancing nonetheless. Adding to the hellish feel is the dual vocal approach, with drummer “Master of Graveyard Torment” and guitarist “Conqueror Horus” trading off garbled rasps and monstrous roars. Other than the “hot” sound, perhaps the biggest difference between this and more traditional black metal are the varied tempos. While blast beats do appear on songs like “Hellish Visions,” Pyromancer more often choose to lurch forward on mid-paced beats that feel both commanding and inexorable. Combined with the occasional ominous synthesizers, the overall approach is like the bastard child of Profanatica, Fornicus, and Mystifier.

Absolute Dominion by Fire works because it stays within its comfort zone while exploring every nook and cranny of it. In other words, the album offers plenty of variety while maintaining thematic unity and avoiding misguided experimentation. While the first proper track, “Ancient Hatred,” is probably the most typical example of Pyromancer’s sound, “Unholy Cremation” soon mixes things up with its lurching groove and hammering half-time stomp that sounds a lot like the Australian black metal band Hunters Moon.2 The aforementioned “Hellish Visions” and the closer, “Volcanic Rapture,” use bouts of battering fury that evoke the war metal of Proclamation, while “Alchemical Red Death” employs a slow, anguished guitar line to drag your stupid fucking ass straight to hell. Later, the title track unleashes staccato, breakneck riffing that could pass for thrash in a different context, while “Perverse Immolation” serves as an early highlight with its searing tremolos and staggering, stompy midsection.

Though primitive black metal is rarely considered a nuanced style, Pyromancer have a keen sense of how to make it work. The largely instrumental opener “Igniting the Sacrificial Fire” sets the stage well with its brooding synths, blunt mid-tempo riffs, and wailing leads, while the interlude “Fireborn Witchery” serves as a nice respite with its crackling hellfire and looming ambiance. While the riffs may occasionally feel a little too rudimentary, the album’s 39-minute runtime keeps it from overstaying its welcome, and the fact that you get 12 tracks in that time means that no one idea lingers around too long. The raw and trebly production job is also commendable, as it helps conjure an infernal and cavernous atmosphere while keeping the riffs wholly discernible.

While Absolute Dominion by Fire may not be for everyone, this is an impressive debut for those who dabble in this kind of music. Pyromancer are clearly veterans of the scene and know how to take a style that could easily be a repetitive snorefest and turn it into one of the strongest black metal albums I’ve heard this year. The band’s use of different vocal approaches, tempos, and riffing styles keeps things engaging, and the dense atmosphere makes everything all the more captivating. If this is what hell sounds like, sign me the fukk up.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Adirondack Black Mass | Bandcamp
Website: facebook.com/pyromancerblackdeath
Releases Worldwide: May 9th, 2025

#2025 #35 #AbsoluteDominionByFire #AdirondackBlackMass #AmericanMetal #ApocryphalRevelation #Bathory #BlackMetal #DeathMetal #Fornicus #HuntersMoon #May25 #Mystifier #Perversion #Proclamation #Profanatica #Pyromancer #Review #Reviews #Tombstalker #Vomitor

Blasphemous – To Lay Siege and Conquer Review

By Alekhines Gun

Have you ever looked back on the grander, moister bands of yore and thought “Man, I sure do wish Immortal and Angelcorpse did an album together”? That’s okay, neither have I—apparently we have no imagination. Luckily, New Jersey blackened death outfit Blasphemous is prepared to uncork its fourth album, To Lay Siege and Conquer to show us what we’ve been missing. After releasing a pair of albums before breaking up in 2013, Blasphemous reformed with a refreshed lineup for 2018’s Emerging Through Fire, an album that seemed poised to make serious waves in the underground before a certain disease strolled up and ruined things for everybody. Fortunately, band founder/vocalist RK managed to keep the group together through the pandemic and got back to writing, and you can be assured the perpetuated lineup has paid serious dividends.

The first thing that caught the ear’s attention was how much better To Lay Siege and Conquer sounds than its predecessor. Whether by artistic intent or budgetary limitations, Emerging Through Fire had a much more raw, tinny, and thin approach, emphasizing the blacker half of the band’s sound at the cost of weight and power. To Lay Siege and Conquer has no such problems, crushing the listener with a modern productional heft worthy of Watain or Decrepit Birth and giving it the power of modern death without sacrificing an ounce of its blacker, acid-drenched melodies. Absolutely everything here is militant and bombastic, from the abused bass rumblings (“Son of the Forsaken”) to the attacked-by-killer-bees solos (“Spiritual Enslavement,” “Martyr Complex”), to RK’s constant vocal conducting, which rides atop but never drowns out the music. His performance in particular holds the album together, sounding like a much younger, far more pissed-off Thomas Lindberg (At the Gates), and though his vocal range may be a bit limited, his pitch manages to maintain its power and clarity without ever stagnating or growing boring.

To Lay Siege and Conquer is no vocalist’s grandstanding album, however, as Blasphemous takes a SWAT team approach to songwriting, with a “get in, wreck stuff, leave” mentality. Melodies and moments rarely repeat beyond their shelf life, instead evolving gradually around their melodic theme. The album’s title track is a prime example of this, with a rolling tank of a groove uncorked by Steve Shreve and Hal Microutsicos that alternates between rapid-fire tremolos and half-time chugs while drummer Mark Vizza adjusts his blasts to a thicker barrage to compensate. The drums are arranged to punctuate shifting riffs and intensity. Mark’s toolbox doesn’t really expand beyond the “blast, gallop, and groove” trifecta, but he masterfully ebbs and flows, pulling back into tasteful cymbal tempo-keeping as easily as uncorking an expected avalanche of snare abuse under leads that range from razor-sharp blackened harmonies to vaguely eastern flair (“Curse of the Witchchrist”) To Lay Siege and Conquer doesn’t want for a variety of engaging moments.

The only real flaw facing Blasphemous is consistency. Instead of being customarily frontloaded and fizzling out, To Lay Siege and Consquer is refreshingly bookended by its highlights, with the first and last two songs being the most engaging, while the middle stretch turns into a bit of a drag. Some of the slower moments (“Dead and Still” and “Martyr Complex”) remind of the punkier sounds of Sons of Northern Darkness without ever building to any kind of climax or theme, while “Spiritual Enslavement” can’t seem to decide what flavor it wants to be, causing otherwise effective riffs to lose momentum before the song suddenly ends. Still, Blasphemous wisely errs on the side of brevity, keeping things at a lean 29 minutes, before closing the album on a note of triumph with the anthemic closer, “Neverborn.”

To Lay Siege and Conquer is an enjoyable carpet bombing of riffy,[Ah yes, who doesn’t love a good… carpet… bombing? – AMG] throwdown, brodown blackened death goodness. Lovers of the style will undoubtedly find much to enjoy here, and Blasphemous is knocking on the door of something special. Maintaining the lineup has improved its cohesion and confidence, and the production highlights the power of the performances, ensuring many of the songs will level bars across the nation when played live. Keep an eye out for their fifth album to see if they can unlock the next gear in their compositional skills, and for now, enjoy laying siege to your neighbors.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: mp3
Label: Adirondack Black Mass
Websites: blasphemousphilly.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/blasphemousmetal
Releases Worldwide: October 25th, 2024

#2024 #30 #AdirondackBlackMass #AmericanMetal #Angelcorpse #BlackMetal #BlackenedDeathMetal #Blasphemous #DeathMetal #DecrepitBirth #Immortal #Oct24 #Review #Reviews #ToLaySiegeAndConquer #Watain

FULL FORCE FRIDAY:🆕January 20th Release #26🎧

THAUMATURGY - Tenebrous Oblations🇺🇸🔥

Debut album from Kansas, U.S Black/Death Metal project🔥

BC➡️https://adirondackblackmass.bandcamp.com/album/tenebrous-oblations 🔥

#Thuamaturgy #TenebrousOblations #BlackDeath #Adirondackblackmass #FFFJan20 #KMäN

DETH DEKK DOMINIONS:🎧🆕🎧

7 Track EP from Santiago, Chilean Death Metal outfit🔥

SKULLPTURE - A Horrifying Death EP🇨🇱🔥

WHIPPED➡️https://songwhip.com/skullpture/a-horrifying-death + BC➡️https://adirondackblackmass.bandcamp.com/album/a-horrifying-death 🔥

#SkullptureDeathMetal #AHorrifyingDeath #AdirondackblackMass #DDDJan15 #DethDekk #KMäN