Dead Sun – This Life is a Grave Review By ClarkKent

He must be a music addict. I can’t fathom any other reason Rogga Johansson has so many heavy metal projects.1 Scratching his songwriting itch must require the slightly different flavors of death metal and variety of collaborators each project provides. This latest from his melodeath outfit, Dead Sun, marks, by my count, album number nine for Rogga this year alone, and it is also album number nine for Dead Sun since its formation. Rogga started Dead Sun back in 1996 as a melodic death metal outlet, but he put the project on hold after releasing an initial demo until recording the project’s first full-length LP in 2013. Since then, the band has been rather prolific, if also deeply underground. Dead Sun has never been covered here, and it doesn’t have the name recognition of Paganizer, Leper Colony, or Rogga’s eponymous one man band. Am I about to unearth a hidden gem from Rogga’s arsenal?

Picture a generic Rogga record and you’ll get a good idea of how This Life is a Grave sounds. Dead Sun leans more melodic, along the lines of Rogga Johansson or Eye of Purgatory, yet this is stripped down, bare bones, no nonsense melodeath. It has a muscular feel with pummeling blast beats and powerful, heavy guitar tones reminiscent of Bolt Thrower. Despite the bite-sized songs, each in the three-minute range, the sound is huge thanks to the big production values. Each track features a distinct melodic lead as well as Rogga’s formidable growls. Pair this with the same formula across nine songs and, unfortunately, you have a recipe for some uninspired melodeath.

This Life Is A Grave by Dead Sun

Dead Sun does nothing to mix up their sound across the record’s entire runtime, and Rogga is seemingly allergic to breaking things up with anything as simple as a quick guitar solo. On a casual listen, the songs blend into one another because there are so few standout moments to perk your ears up. One of these standouts is “Nighttime Butterfly.” It has a solid melodic riff and also the only catchy chorus on the record. It is pure Rogga poetry. He growls, “Nighttime butterfly / Your time has come to die / Nighttime butterfly / Now is not the time to ask why.” Using a butterfly as a metaphor for death is an inspired choice that should have our staff Reaper grinning ear to ear. Unless I’m misinterpreting the lyrics, and the one whose time to die is the nighttime butterfly. In which case, I do want to ask why. Joking aside, it’s a solid song and the one highlight amidst some very forgettable material.

This Life is a Grave makes for fine background listening. For those times you don’t really want to pay close attention to what’s playing in your ear pods but want something heavy and meaty blasting your eardrums, this’ll do. On occasion, the album rewards you with some decent melodies (“Embraced by the Succubus,” “Your Life is a Grave”) and energetic drum blasts courtesy of competent kit work from Thomas Ohlsson (House by the Cemetary, War Magic). The mid-tempo pace makes for good music to lift to, as songs rarely pick up or slow down the pace to throw off your rhythm. Dead Sun is consistent, if a little too consistent—it feels like Rogga’s just phoning it in. Where’s the inspiration, the creative spark that would allow the band to go off script or to at least play something that feels alive and not like it was just plugged into a formula and spit out?

It’s pretty sad that I’m ending 2025 by dishing out my lowest score of the year, and for an album that drops less than a week before Christmas no less. I can appreciate Rogga’s impulse to create, create, create because I also have that same impulse when I dive into something I enjoy. 2026 will likely see nine more Rogga projects—the man is a machine. For his sake, I hope he gets what he needs from this prolific musical output. For the sake of listeners, I hope next time he writes something more inspired than this.

Rating: 1.5/5.0
DR: 11 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Emanzipation Productions
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: December 19th, 2025

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Lotan – Yetzer Hara Review

By Samguineous Maximus

It’s always interesting to follow a band’s career arc through AMG reviews. The last time Lotan appeared in the hallowed halls of this fine site was in 2023, when my superior Thus Spoke took a righteous hammer to their debut. She found the Danish band’s take on the “trvest of stvles” underwhelming—citing unfocused black metal stylings, monotonous pacing, and lackluster production as key shortcomings. Now, Lotan is back with Yetzer Hara, a slab of blackened death inspired by Cain and Abel, with the intent to explore and embody “the destructive urges that define Humanity’s fall from grace.” Can Lotan surpass their debut and carve a name for themselves on the black/death pantheon’s gnarled mural?

Yetzer Hara is remarkably consistent in both ferocity and misanthropic grandeur. Lotan have found their own sound by splitting the difference between mid-period Behemoth and Mgla while leaning into the knuckle-dragging heft of blackened death’s slower moments. This record consists of more than just blast beats and tremolos, with every song oscillating fluidly between satisfyingly ignorant chugs, wintery minor chord arpeggios and even Panzerfaust-flavored atmospheric pullbacks. These pieces are deployed sensibly and arranged with a keen sense of pacing that makes each tune’s blackened bounty a joy to partake in. Subtle differentiations like a menacing clean break (“Scorched Tyranny”), a thrash-infused breakdown (“Heksenat”), and a harmonized tremolo-led climax (“Violent End”) help inject just enough variety to prevent Lotan’s aural assault from growing too stale, though many of the songs tread fairly similar territory.

It helps that this vile batch of tunes is aided by a stunning production job that sounds modern and massive but not overproduced. Lotan clearly took the criticisms of their debut to heart and have corrected course with a Jakob Gundel (Blazing Eternity, Ethereal Kingdoms) mix and master that maintains brutality without sacrificing clarity. This allows vocalist Martin Rubini’s venom-drenched snarls to cut through with particular force on repeated choruses like “Crown of Rope” and “Righteous Fury.” Bassist Philip Kaaber provides a thick, grounding low end, while drummer Jon Elmquist shines with a dynamic, full-bodied drum tone that gives his blistering blasts and agile tom work a serious punch. This makes tracks like the 1914-tinged blood-pumping opener “Minenwafer” and blackened riff showcase “Omnicide Manifest” hit that much harder. Yetzer Hara sounds so great as to nearly mitigate its potential weaknesses.

I only wish Lotan brought a tad more originality or creativity in the construction of the parts themselves. Guitarists Lasse Heiburg and Andy Dragsberg deliver a solid showcase of riffs and offer some nice interplay between each other, but they lean too heavily on genre comfort zones. Yetzer Hara features no fewer than 5 distinct riffs that are only slight variations of the classic Emperor “Ye Entrancempereum” motif. This isn’t necessarily a cardinal sin (it’s a great riff to crib from and plenty of bands have), but alongside the occasional generic tremolo run or faceless chug, it can leave certain stretches of the album feeling somewhat anonymous. There are points where this approach works—like the “so-dumb-it’s-good” Oppenheimer “I have become death” sample into satisfyingly ignorant breakdown on closer “Righterous Fury”—but overall Yetzer Hara could use just a touch more inventiveness in its riffcraft to differentiate Lotan from the unwashed ranks of blackened death hopefuls.

Lotan have stepped up from their disappointing debut to deliver a solid slab of bludgeoning blackened death metal. Yetzer Hara is equal parts barbaric and treacherous, and its brisk 40-minute runtime makes it ideal for concentrated blasts of “kvlt” injections. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it sharpens the spokes and sets it on fire, which is sometimes enough. If on a future record, Lotan can bring more originality to their writing without sacrificing their newfound focus, they might just carve their name into the obsidian stone they’re so eager to chisel.

Rating: Good
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Emanzipation Productions
Websites: facebook.com/lotanband
Releases Worldwide: August 15th, 2025

#1914 #2025 #30 #Aug25 #Behemoth #BlackMetal #BlazingEternity #DanishMetal #EmanzipationProductions #Emperor #EtherealKingdoms #Lotan #MelodicBlackMetal #Mgła #Panzerfaust #Review #Reviews #YetzerHara

Puteraeon – Mountains of Madness Review

By Tyme

As embedded into the fabric of horror as the works of H.P. Lovecraft are, so too are the myriad contributions of one Dan “The Man” Swanö enmeshed into the Swedish death metal scene. These two titans’ paths cross on Mountains of Madness, the fifth long-player from Sweden’s Puteraeon, who’ve tread the left-hand path of genre forbears like Grave, Entombed, and Dismember, peddling Lovecraftian Swedeath since 2008. After debuting in 2011 with The Esoteric Order and through 2020s The Cthulhian Pulse: Call from the Dead City, Puteraeon has four albums of fair to middling Swedish death under its belt. With Mountains of Madness, its second album helmed by Swanö for Emanzipation Productions, Puteraeon has fully embraced the Cthulhu Mythos, penning an ode to one of Lovecraft’s most popular novellas. Some pressure comes with Dan Swanö’s quote, ‘I dare say this one will go down in the history books as one of the best Swedeath releases ever,’ yet these are the stakes for Mountains of Madness. All that’s left to hear is if Puteraeon has what it takes to honor one of horror’s most influential writers while leaving a lasting mark on a scene rich in death metal history.

Puteraeon takes an Azathothian leap forward with Mountains of Madness while still keeping the HM-2 pedal firmly to the metal. Jonas Lindblood and Rune Foss put a big fat checkmark in the Swedeath box, leveling tons of fat riffs blazoned in those tried-and-true buzzsaw tones while dotting this frigid landscape, too, with harmoniously melodic leads and solo work that sticks long after the last note has floated into the frosty ether (“The Nameless City”). Even as Puteraeon weaves in some icy black melodicism that casts Old Man’s Child shadows (“I Am the Darkness”), no one will mistake Mountains of Madness for anything but quality Swedish death. And while the Unleashed speed of the riffs on “Remnants” or the Bloodbathic cadence and horrific Sabbathian trills of “The Rise of the Shoggoths” may warrant comparison, Mountains of Madness solidifies Puteraeon in a sound all its own, one that is more engaging and mature, filled with cinematic majesty and excellent performances.

Shifting its aesthetic, Puteraeon has traded the thorny logo and cartoonish covers for a tasteful font and excellent artwork by Ola Larsson, both dripping with a seriousness that evokes a strong movie poster vibe. Similarly, the songwriting on Mountains of Madness draws listeners further into its harrowingly cinematic, Lovecraftian experience with an ever-flowing stream of atmospheric nuance. Whether it’s the creepy leads and monstrous chords that bring to life the “Horror of the Antarctic Plateau” or the delicate, trepidatious piano and swirling screams of “Gods of Unhallowed Space,” Mountains of Madness casts earthly realms aside, establishing Puteraeon‘s dominance and reminding us just how inconsequential we humans are. Within the span of its forty-minute runtime, and with nary a moment wasted, Puteraeon has opened a portal into a nether world, expertly manifesting Lovecraft’s vision through music that demands attention.

As Puteraeon‘s riffs and melodic leads swirl and swarm like a Cthulhian mist, Daniel Vandija’s bass and Anders Malmström’s devastating drums lurk beneath like hulking, tentacled behemoths. Swanö found the perfect amount of space in the mix to showcase this rhythm section’s talents. Vandija shines brightest with Steve Harris-like flair throughout Mountains of Madness. Whether coalescing with the harmonic leads in “The Land of Cold Eternal Winter” to create a crushing heaviness or laying the soft-handed foundation for the atmospheric interlude of “The Nameless City,” his contributions make both tracks absolute album highlights. Puteraeon‘s last cap feather belongs to Lindblood and his bestial throat work. In tandem with Foss’s backing vocals, whether guttural (“The Rise of the Shoggoths”) or clean (“The Nameless City,” “Watchers at the Abyss”), the two men deliver a devastatingly brutal performance that leans toward the inhuman. I found almost nothing of importance to critique other than perhaps a slight drop-off in the songwriting in the album’s second half, but that’s a near-inconsequential quibble.

Mountains of Madness succeeds as a cinematically dramatic, black-tinged slice of Swedish death metal, serving as Puteraeon‘s finest moment. Maintaining a consistent lineup since forming, Puteraeon has matured into a merciless machine intent on destroying your ears with Swedeathly intent. Whether or not it will stand as one of the genre’s best releases ever, only time will tell, but Mountains of Madness has withstood this Tyme‘s test and is thereby worthy of yours.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320kbps mp3
Label: Emanzipation Productions
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook | Puteraeon.com
Releases Worldwide: May 30th, 2025

#2025 #35 #Bloodbath #DeathMetal #EmanzipationProductions #May25 #MountainsOfMadness #OldManSChild #Puteraeon #Review #SwedishMetal #UnleashedMetal

Maceration – Serpent Devourment Review

By Steel Druhm

Little known fact: All the best Swedish death metal comes from Denmark. Okay, maybe that’s not entirely accurate, but it makes for a helluva lede. Maceration hail from Hamletville and they’ve made it their business to mine Sweden’s Stockholm sound for all its worth, focusing on HM-2 pedal abuse and Entombed and Dismember worship. On their first few albums, they had the good fortune to recruit Dan “the Fucking MAN” Swanö to handle vocals (using an alias on their debut). Here on third outing Serpent Devourment, Mr. Swanö decamps and leaves vocal duties to Jan Bergmann Jepsen, but otherwise, the approach is the same: bulldoze the listener with buzzing riffs and pummel them with d-beaty death. There are worse battle plans since Swedeath is an enduring style that continues to yield satisfying results when done properly. Can Maceration get their material to the perfect level of moldy moistness?

Seconds into the opening title track you know this will be a riff-forward beast war with big Entombed / Dismember energy, traces of Bolt Thrower, and even a few choice nasty bits from uber-caveman US deathers, Massacre. Large, in-charge riffs stomp everything in their path, sending the weak to hurtle the dead. The tempos shift from thrash-blasting to heavy tank assault grinding and back again to shake the Jimmies, and over the top of the relentless axe fusillades, Jepsen bellows brutally in Kam Lee-esque style without a hint of subtly. This is the wet rub recipe Maceration marinates you in and though you’ve heard it countless times, it’s done here with enough conviction to give it the illusion of semi-freshness. “The Den of Misery” is thrashy, aggressive Swedeath by the numbers but it hits hard with big riffs and chonky doom downshifts. “The Corrosive Heart Fell Below” may sound like a lost Nevermore track, but it’s a standout moment of abject crushitude with HUGE grooves and heavy as fook riff action. This one is especially beefy, requiring not one, but TWO pairs of oversized cargo shorts to contain its ponderous girth.

As with any album of this particular ilk, there will be unavoidable highs and lows, but to their credit, Maceration keep the quality fairly consistent over Serpent Devourment’s sprawl, and even the “lesser” cuts bring a howitzer to the bake sale. You could sink a certain reader’s mega-yacht with the mammoth heft of “Where Leeches Thrive” and I fully support such efforts.1 “In Rot Unleashed” has a nerve-jangling lead riff that sets the pain receptors on edge and makes you want to remain violent. The least gobsmacking like “When Torment Befell My Pain” and “Revolt the Tyrant Dream,” but they aren’t a waste of time or skip-bait. At a trim 39-plus minutes, the album rolls roughshod and retires before you get overly fatigued. The production brings the guitars way forward and makes sure you feel their weight the whole time. This is a smart play as the riffs are the band’s bread and saliva butter.

Jakob Schultz and Robert Tengs come to kill with a body bag full of abrasive, chewy riffs and fat grooves. Some of these remind me of Black Royal and their ginormous axe work. Of course, their playing will remind you of the acts that did this style first, and there’s no avoiding that, but they bring enough of their own identity to the music and turn your brain into buttered porridge in the process. I especially enjoy the hammering chugs they lapse into at key moments to shape the battlefield. Jan Bergmann Jepsen does a good job replacing a living legend like Mr. Swanö. Sometimes he sounds like L.G. Petrov, at others Johan Hegg, and the rest of the time he’s all about that Neanderthal Kam Lee approach. He’s brutal for the sake of brutality and that’s good enough for me.

Maceration deliver a no-frills but satisfying slab of gym-ready death on Serpent Devourment and what it lacks in originality it partially makes up for with vicious rage and furious anger. This is high-octane, lo-brow death metal with one foot on the gas and the other in the Grave. That’s a deathstyle deserving of a loud blast session. Now let’s make some snake sushi!

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Emanzipation Productions
Websites: facebook.com/maceration | instagram.com/macerationdenmark
Releases Worldwide: January 31st, 2025

#2025 #30 #BlackRoyal #DanishMetal #DeathMetal #Dismember #EmanzipationProductions #Entombed #Jan25 #Maceration #Massacre #Review #Reviews #SerpentDevourment