Mitochondrial Sun – Machine Dialectics Review

By sentynel

I am woefully, woefully late with this review. My excuse is that I wanted to avoid a repeat of my embarrassing under-rating of Mitochondrial Sun’s self-titled first album. In truth, though, it’s mostly because I’ve found it difficult to straighten out how I feel about Machine Dialectics. This is a sparse and purely electronic album; the modern classical piano and cello stylings of the self-titled don’t make a re-appearance. It’s also far from the black metal of Sju Pulsarer. There’s not even much percussion here, leaving almost entirely melodic synths of varying tones and textures. At first blush, I liked it, but felt like there was something missing.

Elements of earlier Mitochondrial Sun are certainly here. Songs like “To Those that Dared to Dream” and “The Fate of Animals” are moody, melancholy, or ominous. But it’s far sparser. Songs are very often a lead synth, a little rhythm or ambiance, and not much else. As an exploration of what you can achieve with nothing but a synthesizer and a knack for writing melodies, Machine Dialectics is quite impressive. Avoiding anything that might be described as even slightly dancy puts this in an unusual corner of electronic music. Working to constraints can produce interesting results, and that’s true here. At its best, the minimalism enhances the impact of the big melody lines when they happen, and Sundin really is an excellent songwriter.

As a title, Machine Dialectics suggests the experience of attempting to understand something a computer is doing and getting, well, largely inscrutable results. I am professionally deeply familiar with this feeling, and the record does as it portends. It wanders, and sometimes interesting things happen, but very often I’m still left scratching my head. I keep thinking – as this review grows later and later – that I’m on the cusp of getting it, but it hasn’t happened. I’m not getting the emotional impact I did from Mitochondrial Sun. There are long passages that only barely climb above ambient. The song construction is so sparse that the success of the entire album hinges on those moments when the melodic leads hit. They’re good, but they’re not quite good enough to carry the whole thing.

Despite that, I do enjoy listening to Machine Dialectics. On “The Fate of Animals,” melody and ambiance lines twist around each other, and the piece progresses from contemplative through ominous to a prettier, almost woodwind-like final movement. Closing track “The Child Sleeps in the Machine” is a bit longer than the others at 8 minutes, which gives it a bit more space to develop. “Trilobite Dreams” is the most immediate track, more urgent than the rest of the album, with a catchy, guitar-like melodic lead. But even here, the couple of different themes are all there really is to the track. I struggled to write much at all of note on some of the most ambient interludes (“Kepler-138 E,” Vast Expanses”).

I’ve regularly—and appropriately—reached for Machine Dialectics as a soundtrack when I’m working and need to think. As work music, it’s wormed its way into my head, and I find myself anticipating my favorite moments even when I don’t quite think I’m paying attention. But that lack of attention is a problem, and that makes it challenging to recommend. It’s slow and contemplative to a fault and there are few big payoffs. It ends with its questions left unanswered and me left largely unmoved.

Rating: Mixed
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Inertial Music
Websites: mitochondrialsun.bandcamp.com | mitochondrialsun.net | facebook.com/mitochondrialsun
Releases Worldwide: February 21st, 2025

#25 #2025 #Electronic #Feb25 #InertialMusic #MachineDialectics #MitochondrialSun #Review #Reviews #SwedishMetal

Ritual Ascension – Profanation of the Adamic Covenant Review

By Dear Hollow

Profanation of the Adamic Covenant represents catacombs dripping with putridity and filth, the blasphemy called against the heavens from far below ground. It’s an upheaval from beneath our feet, the crawling and coagulant rot that spreads from abyss to abyss. The filth and blood clots our eyes, hearts, and minds, driving us deeper and deeper into the madness until our lungs are filled with mud. Ritual Ascension is transcendence and enlightenment achieved through the reveling and swallowing of the grime-soaked entrails through a vicious and ancient ritual, the lumbering deity whose mammoth footfalls and cloud of plague require payment in full. It’s a ritual to the god of the mud and disease, and a fist slammed into the underside of heaven.

Death/doom has many heads, but the one Ritual Ascension rears may be the ugliest. The Denver collective, alongside sharing all three members with Aberration, is comprised of members of Suffering Hour, Void Rot, Feral Light, and Annihilation Cult, promising a psychedelic affair inspired just as much by the classic death/doom acts of yore as the more experimental devastators. You’ll certainly find homages to Incantation, diSEMBOWELMENT, and Winter in its ten-ton doom hammers, but atop it is an opaque and occult breed of dissonant insanity reminiscent of Portal and a palpable filth only touched by the likes of Stenched or Rotpit, only kept in the realm of humanity by a palpable groove that reminds me of Ataraxie. Ritual Ascension offers the depths in ways few can, a collective far greater than the sum of its parts.

Crawling, slimy chaos is one hell of a first impression. Overload of down-tuned and filthy tremolo guide mammoth processions, whose dissonant constructions and atonal dirges provide a hypnotic otherworldliness. As displayed lumbering out of the gates, its attack is slimy, slow, and devastating, ultimately a feeling or a place rather than a collection of highlights – as any good doom album ought to be. From the subtle and simple chord progressions that dominate more minimalist pieces (“Womb Exegesis”) to the groovy and monolithic chugs that grace the climaxes of lengthy runtimes (“Pillars of Antecedence,” “Cursed Adamic Tongues”), interspersed by passages of blastbeats ranging from blazing to contemplative. DH’s vocals are a crucial element to the album’s subterranean and blasphemous atmosphere, ranging from the commanding chthonic bellows you expect from this breed of devastation to the tortured howls and groans more indicative of black metal.

If the first half of Profanation is subtle and crawling, then the second exists as utterly filthy slow-motion violence. I was initially disappointed that the Portal-isms were not as handily felt among the tracks of the first half, only gleaming in sporadic moments and within traditionally ominous diminished chord progressions. However, crossing into the second half with the scalding “Consummation Rites” and “Kolob (At the Throne of Elohim),” caustic slow-motion Ulcerate leads collide with the filthiest riffs Impetuous Ritual could muster, with DH’s most charismatic performances of the album. Unhinged and cutthroat are not words typically associated with doom, but the layers of overwhelm and dissonance meet the criteria with a bloodthirstiness and underlying craving for brutality. Looking back, it would have been relatively easy to incorporate the dissonant intensity in the first couple of tracks, but their later full fruition after a crawling crescendo makes them feel even more painful and overwhelming.

Even though the dissonance was not as immediate as I anticipated and the necessity for the patience required for this kind of beast goes without saying for its atmosphere – rather than a collection of songs – Profanation of the Adamic Covenant is transcendent. Encapsulating that crawling dread and ritualistic weight, monolithic groove, and dissonant layers in a tidy forty-eight minutes and held together by the dedication to unholy filth, it offers bounties aplenty for those willing to wade through the offal and mire. Bolstered by impressive performances in unpredictable percussion, riffs both mammoth and caustic, and vocals tortured and menacing, Ritual Ascension offers one hell of a debut. Get swallowed by the filth.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Sentient Ruin Laboratories
Website: instagram.com/ritualascension
Releases Worldwide: February 28th, 2025

#2025 #40 #Aberration #AmericanMetal #AnnihilationCult #Ataraxie #AvantGardeMetal #DeathDoomMetal #diSEMBOWELMENT #DissonantDeathMetal #Feb25 #FeralLight #ImpetuousRitual #Incantation #OldSchoolDeathMetal #Portal #ProfanationOfTheAdamicCovenant #Review #Reviews #RitualAscension #Rotpit #SentientRuinLaboratories #Stenched #SufferingHour #Ulcerate #VoidRot #Winter

Stress Test – Stress Test Review

By Dolphin Whisperer

Just as much as any genre that’s been around for 40-plus years, hardcore is not a monolith, not by a long stretch. As an unleashing of rough-and-tumble punk energy with an extra flash of sharpness and swagger, its permutations can run the gamut of high-tempo riffage, ragged vocal attitude, and instrumental histrionics, all while wearing the speed-loaded label. With a classic thrash attack and a dash of grind spirit, Stress Test wears the genre like a tattered and patched denim vest befitted with snappy pull-off runs, d-beat anthemics, and short bursts fit for a moshing audience. No one needs to reinvent the urge to start up the pit to have a good time.

Featuring the rhythm section of Unto Others, with Brandon Hill assuming guitar and vocals instead of bass for Stress Test, Stress Test lands with a polish and focus not typical of acts whose songs frequent the sub-two minute range. Though that energy presents in some of the harder-hitting cuts that Unto Others has to offer, Stress Test shares little but members in the kind of drive that this debut holds. Hill and co.’s understanding of the studio helps Stress Test find smart and punchy pockets for deep bass propulsions (“Coward,” “Bastard Behavior,” “Stress Test”), which go a long way in adding color to the snarl and shifty riffcraft that perpetuates its eighteen-minute run. And with colors that range from the early 90s death/grind of Napalm Death to the meatheaded aggro-crossover of Terror, Stress Test uses their experience to travel familiar paths with a skanking stride that sounds urgent.

Even though time-tested riffs and a cadence rooted in thrash history defines the simple appeal of Stress Test, its tracks flow with healthy variation to maintain a momentum that remains unbreakable and memorable. Embracing the smooth and sliding Exodus stomp with the brevity of Municipal Waste party bangers spells, on its own, an easy-to-enjoy, never-ending circle of punky abandon (“Coward,” “Bastard Behavior”). But that p-word attitude, alongside the other important p’s of pummel and political edge, also serves as its hissing core, fueling snarky sample punches (“Degrees of Violence,” “It Isn’t Real,” “God Sucks”) and unrelenting layered vocal assaults—a barking fervor and accompanying caveman-frenzied bellow—color the bouncing intensity as Stress Test progresses. Nothing that Stress Test rips from the sweat and beer-stained pages of thrash reads as new, but its in-and-out groove remains difficult to deny.

The choice to keep Stress Test svelte hinders how high it can fly, though. Stress Test knows their way around a whiplash tune and quick guitar hero cut-in to let accelerating tempos breathe (“Degrees of Violence,” “It Isn’t Real,” “Gullible”). And while these bite-size ragers take up a small percentage of runtime in this already low-commitment affair, they also make for the most interesting guitar parts that Stress Test can muster. Of course, it would be hard to call longer cuts like mid-album “Suffer” and “Bastard Behavior” slouching, as their vocal bite and rhythmic overload ensure swinging arms and cracking necks from start to finish. However, in their self-similar nature, along with “Stress Test,” they allow fewer avenues for Stress Test to leave a stronger identifying mark.

Yet, as a feisty debut, Stress Test makes for a powerful, practiced statement. It doesn’t take a virtuoso to make music that is fast, loud, and angry. But, as Stress Test shows, steady (enough) hands and an ear looking for the right accents and accelerations will find a grace in wild tempos that mimics the fury of an untethered mind. With a varied pool of legacy influences, these Portland-based punks hold the potential to develop their low-frills sound in just about any way that they choose. And though Stress Test lacks in extreme choices that could hoist this fledgling act to a loftier status, Stress Test has taken aim at becoming a primary form of relief for those in need of boiled-over thrash madness.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Transylvanian Recordings
Websites: stresstest.us | stresstestpdx.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/stresstestpdx
Releases Worldwide: February 28th, 2025

#2025 #30 #AmericanMetal #CrossoverThrash #CrustPunk #Exodus #Feb25 #Hardcore #MunicipalWaste #NapalmDeath #Review #Reviews #StressTest #Terror #TransylvanianRecordings #UntoOthers

Hirax – Faster than Death Review

By Dr. A.N. Grier

When Hirax’s newest record dropped, I thought, “These guys are still around?” That’s not me being a dick. They haven’t released a new album since 2014. I suppose that’s on par with the band considering they’ve been on and off since 1984—this year’s Faster than Death only being their sixth full-length release. With vocalist Katon W. de Pena being the only remaining original member of the band, it appears that once a record is complete, that lineup leaves, and the wait begins for a new one to pen another release. The same can be said for Faster than Death. Not only do we see a new lineup to support de Pena but a dedicated roster for live events. This is a shame because I feel the success of 2014’s Immortal Legacy was due to the crew’s performances and songwriting abilities. Because, believe it or not, Immortal Legacy is one of the band’s strongest releases. But Faster than Death proves that once Hirax gets onto something, they revert to their past and mess it up.

Case in point, this new record returns to the band’s days of yore where you can’t tell if a release is an EP or LP. Unlike the thirty-eight-minute Immortal Legacy—which provided plenty of breathing room to explore a riff or idea—Faster than Death lives up to its name with a nearly twenty-two-minute runtime. Not that I’m quite in a place to discover if I can die in that time, but I do know that my morning coffee shits take longer than it takes to listen to this record. With songs one to two minutes in length, even Hirax’s traditional speed-meets-thrash-meets-borderline-hardcore style struggles to provide a memorable and meaningful track. They were better at it in the olde days with Raging Violence and Hate, Fear and Power,1 but those who feel Hirax made a significant impact on the Bay Area scene are kidding themselves. That said, what they worked so hard for on Immortal Legacy is gone on Faster than Death.

“Drill into the Brain” kicks the album off with a standard Hirax thrash lick and de Pena’s classic cleaner vocal style that brings to mind the Anthraxes and Metal Churches of the scene. But it’s nothing more than a simple chorus and blistering solo in a one-minute expanse. So, naturally, I’m worried. Thankfully, there are some stellar tracks on Faster than Death, specifically “Drowned Bodies,” “Psychiatric Ward,” and “Revenant.” The first is a chugtastic piece with an Anthraxy riff and vocal performance. As the riff changes occur and the nifty blastbeats build the back half of the song back to Chugger Town, the band finds that raw intensity that makes their better songs so good. “Psychiatric Ward” is similar in approach but for all my disappointments with these shorter track lengths, it delivers the goods and brings some hefty shit to it’s mere minute-and-a-half runtime. “Revenant” is the longest track on the record and the most unique. Displaying some slick fretboard work and a sinister, eerie atmosphere, the track is the album’s pleasing black sheep—specifically when it ventures into Testament-like territories and the massive build to the end.

But that’s about all I can return to without getting annoyed. The opener flies by so fast that you can’t get a grip on what’s going on, “Armageddon” is forgettable, the title track is boring, and, while the closing “Worlds End” has its moments, the vocals feel uninspired and I’m already done with the album because of the closer’s predecessor. Why do you ask? Because it’s a re-recording of their 1985 classic, “Warlord’s Command.” The album is only nine tracks long. Did they really run out of ideas that require re-recording a song like “Warlord’s Command?” I have no idea but all it does here is disrupt the flow, cripple the closer—all for a heavier version of a track that few remember.2

Outside the handful of songs that I enjoy, the only redeeming quality of Faster than Death is that it’s short and dynamic as fook. If it were rawer, the master’s openness would make it feel like it came from the ’80s. But that feeling doesn’t last long because Faster than Death is pretty one-dimensional. While their older material and even Immortal Legacy displayed some original guitar, bass, and drum work, Faster than Death is centered predominately on chugging trash riffs. It works with some of the stronger tracks, but others become predictable and begin to blend. I wanted to like this new release because the previous one felt like a step in the right direction. But now we are pulled back down the rungs, and I’m too tired to climb the latter again.

Rating: 2.0/5.0
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Armageddon Label | Bandcamp
Websites: hirax.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/hiraxthrashmetal
Releases Worldwide: February 28th, 2025

#20 #2025 #AmericanMetal #Anthrax #ArmageddonLabel #FasterThanDeath #Feb25 #Hirax #MetalChurch #Review #Reviews #SpeedMetal #Testament #ThrashMetal

Act of Impalement – Profane Altar Review

By Dear Hollow

Nashville trio Act of Impalement’s sophomore release Infernal Ordinance, in spite of the low-hanging HOA jokes, was badass. Its unfuckwithable blend of death and crust styles led to a sore neck from endless headbanging, while its passages of doom tempos and thick weight did the sludge and doom influences justice. I still spin the likes of “Summoning the Final Conflagration” and “Erased,” reliving that pummeling that hurts so good again and again. You can imagine how excited I was, then, to discover Act of Impalement has a new album.

To accurately sum up Act of Impalement’s musical arsenal is an exercise in futility, and Profane Altar amps the obscurity – although the trademark groove remains stalwart. While Ethan Rock remains the band’s pivot point as primary songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist, a revamped lineup replacing bassist Jimmy Grogan and longtime drummer Zack Ledbetter emerges with its own streamlined take. As such, while Infernal Ordinance felt almost entirely like the one-man Ethan Rock show, Profane Altar finds bassist Jerry Garner adding more rumbling weight to the riffs while drummer Aaron Hortman brings a newfound manic energy and mania to the rhythms. While the influences remain the same in death metal royalty Bolt Thrower, Incantation, Entombed, and Asphyx – and the sound is deceptively straightforward – the streamlined approach, more pronounced black metal influence, and filthier riffs offer new planes for Act of Impalement.

Act of Impalement’s biggest change is a more cohesive fusing of its sludge and death metal influences alongside its newfound obscure black metal bleakness. While opener “Summoning the Final Conflagration” from its predecessor set a precedent of buzzsaw riffs driven to a sludgy end, Profane Altar opens with “Apparition” – while the groove and riffs are similar, they are absolutely suffocating, a swampy tar filling every crevice of the sound. Act of Impalement is down with the thickness, and it grants them a fluidity that kept the disjointedness of its predecessor from truly soaring. From ten-ton bruisers dripping with patient swagger (“Apparition,” “Final Sacrifice”), filthy 6/8 death metal waltzes (“Sanguine Rites,” “Gnashing Teeth”) to vicious crust punk-influenced black metal beatdowns laden with blastbeats and shred (“Piercing the Heavens,” “Deities of the Weak”), their potentially disconnected collection of blasting and bruising is blessedly woven together by its all-consuming weight.

Brevity is the name of Act of Impalement’s game, and it no longer feels like a one-man show. No track exceeds five minutes for a total of thirty-one minutes, which is absolutely reasonable and almost necessary for this breed of intensity. While the professed styles don’t feel particularly unique, Act of Impalement manages to lay them atop the incredibly sturdy foundation of groove, which serves the brevity extremely well – the album hits hard and fast and never overstays its welcome. Better still, Garner’s bass shines throughout and Hortman’s percussion feels both unhinged in its blastbeats and steadfastly reliable in its plodding groove – both members shining alongside Rock’s riffs and hellish roars. That being said, Act of Impalement offers a brutal riff-fest with elements borrowed from death, death/doom, crust punk, and black metal, a tribute to the hallowed halls of metal history – but the product is remarkably straightforward in its punishing groove.

If you’re looking for a nuanced album that showcases a rich and layered approach to its songwriting, Profane Altar is not for you. However, if you’re okay seeing all its influences as riders of the one-trick pony called groove, it doesn’t get much better than Act of Impalement’s breed of pummeling. Profane Altar is fucking heavy, simultaneously a more in-your-face and obscure release for a band renowned for their breakneck intensity. Balance and the bravery to embrace its disparate blend of influences sets it apart from its already formidable predecessor, even though the shortsighted groove makes it blackened, deathened, crusty, doomy ear candy. Infectiously groovy ear candy.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Caligari Records
Websites: instagram.com/actofimpalement | facebook.com/ActOfImpalement
Releases Worldwide: February 28th, 2025

#2025 #35 #ActOfImpalement #AmericanMetal #Asphyx #BlackMetal #BlackenedDeathMetal #BoltThrower #CaligariRecords #CrustPunk #DeathMetal #DeathDoomMetal #DoomMetal #Entombed #Feb25 #Incantation #ProfaneAltar #Review #Reviews

Grave Infestation – Carnage Gathers Review

By Steel Druhm

With so much classic heavy metal clogging up my review queue lately, I’ve been neglecting the baser caveman side of my reptilian brain. Canada’s Grave Infestation are back to fix that with their sophomore platter, Carnage Gathers. When they last slimed my doorstep in 2022 with the gruesome Autopsy and early Death worship on Persecution of the Living, they left a mucilaginous impression on my thick skull. Their grizzled and nasty take on old school death was exactly the kind of filth I love to wallow in. Not much has changed on Carnage Gathers, which is another putrid scuzzbucket full of grotesque sounds, primitive riffs, and an IQ below that of rudimentary tool users. It revels in the early days of the genre while fetishizing the lo-fi sound of Hellhammer. It’s all about ear abuse and carnal debasement, and I refuse to be threatened by a good time in the rot pit. Prepare to embrace the sump.

This is not a varied and complex work of art. It’s a tug of war between extremities as the band tries to crush your chestal cavity with ghastly doom segments and then shake your brain stem with bursts of speed and punky d-beats. The whiplash is intended to induce nausea, and it often does. Opener “Living Inhumation” has the bona fides to have appeared on Death’s Leprosy or Autopsy’s Severed Survival and fit right in like a bowel leech. It’s scabby, poo-encrusted offal of a high caliber loaded with jangled, discordant riffs and abysmal vocals. The guitar tone is absolute sewage, and everything is dank and reeking. The only downside is the length. At nearly 6 minutes, it overextends its welcome by the end. This is an unfortunately common trend here, with multiple songs of good construction outliving their trust funds of attention. I love many things about “Ritualized Autopsy,” especially the slimy riffs that ooze everywhere and make you feel unclean. I also appreciate its relentless, unstoppable assault. At points, the guitar work even reminds me of Destruction’s immortal debut EP, Sentence of Death, which is a very good thing. But it too plods on too long, losing some of its visceral impact.

Every track has things going on that I love. Grave Infestation have that sound I’m hopelessly drawn to, and the way they layer nerve-flaying fretboard abuse, bone-breaking grooves, stupid chuggs, and atmospheric noodling gets me every time. Lay some vomitous vocals and pounding drums over that shit and Steel comes to your yard for the gutshake. However, the band doesn’t know when enough is enough, and quality cuts with righteous moments like “Black Widow” and “Drenched in Blood” refuse to stop when they should. There are some absolute ball breaking though, like primal closer “Murder Spree” which just fucks up your shit with insane, panic-inducing riffs that won’t leave you alone. It’s like they took the best moments from Possessed’s timeless classic Seven Churches and sutured them roughly to early Autopsy demos. What more could you want? At 39:56 minutes, Carnage Gathers doesn’t feel too long, though certain tracks do. The production is perfectly mucky and raw, and the guitar sound is exactly the kind of abrasive my rusty metal heart wants.

I’m a big fan of the guitar work from Graham Christofferson and “BC.” It’s their horrific string mutilation that makes the material throb, and they have a knack for skin-removing riffs and twisted flourishes. They create the soundtrack to a madman’s nightmare while paying homage to classic early death albums we all know and love. At times, their riffs sound like those on Bathory’s The Return, which makes me unreasonably giddy. Graham Christofferson’s vocals are a match made in Hell – horrid, repulsive, and full of gut-busting throat exertions. He reminds me of Chris Reifert (Autopsy) at times and, at others, Jeff Beccera (Possessed), but he’s always disgusting. The entire band is solid, but the lack of editing is a nagging defect.

I desperately wanted to give Carnage Gathers a higher rating because I dig so much of what Grave Infestation does. They play exactly the kind of death metal I love, and their commitment to appalling excess speaks to my crude ape brain. If they trimmed the blubber off the best cuts, this would rise in the ranking considerably. As it stands, Carnage Gathers is a quality death metal album sure to please the sick and deranged. It could have been MOAR though!

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Invictus Productions
Websites: graveinfestation.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/graveinfestation | instagram.com/graveinfestation
Releases Worldwide: February 28th, 2025

Kenstrosity

Formed from members of Canadian antifascist crust/sludge metal outfit Ahna and known death filthifiers Ceremonial Bloodbath, Grave Infestation helped pull me out of a skull pit intent on suffocating me under a mountain of bullshit and dumped me right back into a different skull pit entirely—this one teeming with rot and cadaveric bouquets. I suppose I should be thankful, as this is the kind of thing that fills my pores with what some might consider the scent of WICTORY. So, without further ado, I dive deeper into the corpse pile that is Grave Infestation’s sophomore record, Carnage Gathers.

Death metal is a known quantity. We all know it when we hear it, and can describe it without much conflict or confusion. Such is the case for Grave Infestation. Carnage Gathers represents death metal at its most rank, channeling equal parts Asphyx and Incantation, with a membrane of slick Autopsy sleaze surrounding its diseased skin. It’s a combination that works wonders for those who search tirelessly for the nastiest of the nasty, and in that respect, Grave Infestation don’t disappoint. Buzzing and boisterous riffs abound, slammed into the earth below by the crushing heft of doom-laden chugs and yanked back upright by a relentless barrage of squealing solos. Cheering on these deadly antics, a vomitous wretch, brutally projected from afar, echoes its sickening cry across Carnage Gathers’ necrotic scenery. Drawing the line just shy of the caverns from whence Tomb Mold’s early work spawned, Carnage Gathers boasts a sound that exudes old school death at its prime.

Of course, that means that I’m drawn to Carnage Gathers almost by instinct, an animal magnetism against which mental fortitude and willpower crumbles at the slightest breeze. Choice cuts “Inuman Remains,” “Black Widow,” and “Drenched in Blood” take full advantage of my weakness here. Bridging the gap between Incantation’s sheer heft with the vicious onslaught of Autopsy’s violent ways, these songs juggle riffs and grooves engaging enough to motivate the necks of even the staunchest death dissident. “Black Widow,” in particular, marks Grave Infestation’s high water mark, boasting a punky d-beat swagger in conjunction with screeching dive bombs that make an instant memory. Songs like these show that Grave Infestation not only understand the kind of songwriting that made death metal an international underground phenomenon but also identify and implement subtle ways to invigorate that well-worn, comfortable style for a modern audience.

However, Carnage Gathers demonstrates understanding and implementation inconsistently. Pulling from many of its doomier segments, Grave Infestation’s writing outside of their ravenous tears and mid-paced stomps leaves a lot on the table. “Ritualized Autopsy,” “The Anthropophagus,” and “Murder Spree,” among a couple others, routinely inject slower passages characterized by generic chugs and repetitive solos, thereby undermining Carnage Gathers’ strongest material with filler. Considering several tracks reach past five minutes with the inclusion of these insubstantial sections of languid doom death, it seems a clear weak point in Grave Infestation’s repertoire. The undeniable fact that their ripping, death-focused outbursts regularly demolish everything in their path each time they rear their ugly heads only further illuminates the flat, featureless nature of their doom-laden dalliances.

As I surface from the Carnage that Gathers to breathe deep of stale, putrid air, I rest easy knowing that despite its flaws, Carnage Gathers isn’t half bad. Its best moments are a ten-ton anvil of repugnant fun, and the doomed detours that fail to resonate in any meaningful way also don’t derail the experience entirely. Instead, these flawed moments serve as an opportunity for growth. Grave Infestation are still young and have a ton of potential. It wouldn’t take much for them to further refine and empower their sound, launching the quality of their output into higher echelons. For the moment, though, Carnage Gathers is a simple, fun platter of filth, and that’s fine with me.

Rating: Mixed

#25 #2025 #30 #Ahna #Asphyx #Autopsy #CanadianMetal #CarnageGathers #CeremonialBloodbath #Death #DeathDoom #DeathMetal #DoomMetal #Feb25 #GraveInfestation #Hellhammer #Incantation #InvictusProductions #Leprosy #Obituary #PersecutionOfTheLiving #Possessed #Review #Reviews #ScreamBloodyGore #TombMold

Havukruunu – Tavastland Review

By Dr. A.N. Grier

For a band that’s only been releasing full-lengths for ten years, Havukruunu has been hella prolific, not only with releases in general but with great releases. Also, each album seems to be better than the next. The coolest part about their sound is that they’ve proved more can be milked from bands like Bathory and Immortal.1 Be it the melodic interludes, big Viking choirs, or endless riff changes, Havukruunu continues to bring inspiration with each new record. Which, as hinted at, is difficult to do with a style that has been around since the ’80s and ’90s. And it’s no different for this year’s Tavastland. It’s a fifty-plus-minute journey of Viking and metal culture that’ll have you banging your head, swimming in oceans of melodic beauty, and barking out anthems of an ancient time never forgotten.

The most unique aspect of Tavastland is that the band’s original vocalist and bassist has returned. But, by the time the debut record, Havulinnaan, landed in 2015, Humö only played a minor role in the band. Years later, he’s back to offer up his bass to the crushing riffs of Havukruunu’s sound. Never a band to dismiss the bassist when writing and mixing releases, Humö displays perhaps the strongest bass performance of Havukruunu’s career. Rumbling like a fucking madman, songs like “De miseriis fennorum” are made even more impactful by his bass performance. That is quite the feat with a band that’s always had stellar dual guitar performances and drum work that’s every bit as meaningful to the band’s success as the other instruments. So, crank up them cans and prepare to be blugdeoned to death by Tavastland.

As with most of the band’s output, Tavastland contains a specific theme in the lyrics and the track layout. Case in point, the opener and closer begin with spoken introductions before the chaos ensues. These two tracks are also the longest and, without a doubt, the album’s epics. The opening track, “Kuolematon laulunhenki,” invokes more Immortal than the rest of the album as an icy, black metal lick kicks into high gear before the inevitable riff changes begin. When it comes, it comes with a dual fretboard display that erupts into a heavy fucking riff supported with a vicious vocal performance. Immediately, you understand the bass influence as Humö tears the fucking roof down. When the Viking choirs arrive, the Bathoryisms creep in and get stronger with each iteration. “De miseriis fennorum” similarly closes the album but with stronger Bathory influences and some old-school metal elements. When it settles in, the punchy vocals emphasize the riffs as voice and instruments work together. One of the coolest transitions comes when the bass abandons the guitars in favor of blastbeating along with the drums. Fucking goosebump inducing. As the song builds, we are treated with old-school Mercyful Fate dueling guitar work and a soothing Viking outro that would make Quorthon smile from ear to ear.

Between these bookmarks, you’ll find even more to love about Tavastland. Be it black metal assaults, impressive solos, melodic passages, Viking choirs, or even thrash, Havukruunu is here to take you for a fucking ride. “Havukruunu ja talvenvarjo” fires out the gates with a bass-heavy, blistering-fast black metal charge that transitions into another surprising twist. This time, it comes with a slick build-up that includes alternating acoustic and distorted guitars that somehow work. As the relentless bass pushes on, another twist arrives in the form of layered growls that hit harder than ever. The title track is another fantastic song with a lot of heart—lyrically and instrumentally. Using the same layered vocal style as the previous track, it tramps along before the envelope cracks open to reveal gorgeous strings and Viking choirs, cementing this beauty into your brain. “Unissakävijä” is another unique piece for its odd combination of thrashy riffs, melodic wonderness, and massive Viking choirs that set up the track before the blitzkrieg hits—though it’s a bit on the long side.

Not only does Tavastland continue to show a band that never disappoints—and continues to get better—but it’s one of their best-produced records. While 2020’s Uinuos syömein sota still gets a lot of spins in the Grier household, the compressed master is my biggest complaint. Now that Havukruunu is with Svart Records, maybe that will change. Because Tavastland is quite dynamic, allowing all the elements I’ve mentioned to rise to the top and slip to the background as needed. In an album completely submersed in killer tracks, some, like “Yönsynty,” aren’t as strong as others. Though it’s still a strong song, it can’t stand up with the rest of the incredible tracks on the album. That said, Tavastland is an AotY contender (again), and fans of the group will love it.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Svart Records
Websites: havukruunu.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/havukruunu
Releases Worldwide: February 28th, 2025

#2025 #40 #Bathory #BlackMetal #Feb25 #FinnishMetal #Havukruunu #Immortal #MercyfulFate #PaganMetal #Review #Reviews #SvartRecords #Tavastland #VikingMetal

Marrowomb – Phisenomie Review

By Tyme

While you might not be familiar with the name Frank Lato, you may have heard some of the Chicagoan’s work. Contributing bass duties to the now defunct Polyptych in addition to the ongoing concern Headshrinker—the former was praised here in 2016 by Eldritch Elitist for Defying the Metastasis, while the latter’s Callous Indifference received a rare 4.0 from Steel in 2021—Mr. Lato has decided to slide out of the shadowy rhythm sections of his other projects to stand in the blazing light of judgment as a solo act with his new venture, Marrowomb. Alongside session drummer Kevin Paradis (ex-Benighted), who covers all the kit work, and a few friends contributing guest guitar solos, Marrowomb readies to independently release Phisenomie, a debut album nearly five years in the making. Reminiscing on many of the things I enjoyed from his previous contributions, Lato’s metal credentials excited me, but that doesn’t mean Marrowomb would get a pass. So I dove into Phisenomie with some reserved anticipation, ready to pounce if things went south.

If Benighted had gotten pregnant during some ancient Anaal Nathrakhian sex rite, the child of that ceremony would share audial DNA with Marrowomb. While at first blush this might sound intriguing, ultimately, Marrowomb lacks the histrionic technicality of Benighted and the all-out, brain-searing intensity of Anaal Nathrakh. Still, it’s blast furnace riffs scourged over machine gun blast beats (“Sickness unto Life,” “Black Gossamer”) that primarily serve as the sonic foundation for Phisenomie’s hierarchy of blackened death. Marrowomb‘s slight forays into bass-moody interludes (“Vicarious Visage”), experiments with tech-twitchy riff patterns (“Veil of Cold”) and full-on deep dives into doom pools (“Despairloom”) combine with sparse synth work to bring atmospheric variation but ultimately fall short, a result of Phisenomie‘s most significant flaws, which are its construction and the mix.

Like its digitally assembled cover art,1the music on Phisenomie sounds cut and pasted together. Dissonant leads come out of nowhere (“Phantasia Kataleptike”) as do awkwardly incorporated solos (“Black Gossamer,” “The Mirror”) like tin-eared tails mistakenly pinned to a riff donkey’s neck. This immature cohesion and lack of integrality enshrine Marrowomb‘s guitar performances as weak, a negative further spotlighted by the mix. Phisenomie is pretty loud, and as a result, much of the bass and guitar work is left muddied. Solo work at the beginning of “Despairloom” suffers most from this mud-bog mix as much of the interesting guitar runs garble as if played through a wet towel.

As a general liker of things,2 I’ve perhaps been overly harsh with Marrowomb, but not everything here is as dire as I’ve portrayed. A case in point is Lato’s vocal performance. I’m not sure if he ever contributed vocals on any of his other projects, but he’s got a decent ability to spit growls and rasps alike. I hear more of Dave V.I.T.R.I.O.L. Hunt’s grunts and shrieks in Lato’s delivery than I do the “Reee Reee” stylings of Julien Trouchan, but suffice to say, the man’s voice is compelling. Paradis’ kit performance, another highlight, is full of pummeling double bass bashing, frolicking fills, and enough snare abuse to remind you that, yeah, this guy played on Ekbom. These things give me hope that not everything about Marrowomb is lost.

Marrowomb‘s debut album, Phisenomie, is not what you’ve been waiting for. I enjoyed Polyptych‘s output and look forward to hearing the next Headshrinker for sure, but Marrowomb hasn’t done enough to sell me, and I can’t recommend this album as a result. I am, however, a fan of Frank Lato’s ability, which is inarguable, and I respect him for taking this project on and getting more of his work out there. With a more fleshed-out guitar vision and the chops to back it up, there could be a promising release in Marrowomb‘s future; Phisenomie just isn’t it.

Rating: 2.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Self-Released
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: February 21, 2025

#20 #2025 #AmericanMetal #AnaalNathrakh #Benighted #BlackMetal #DeathMetal #Feb25 #Independent #Marrowomb #Phisenomie #Review #Reviews

Arion – The Light that Burns the Sky Review

By El Cuervo

One of the multitude of European power metal bands flying relatively low to the ground, Finland’s Arion (pronounced like Orion or carrion?) have seen coverage just once previously at AngryMetalGuy.com. The late, great Huck n’ Roll1 opined that their third record was competent but generic, seeking hits rather than their own sound. 2025 has arrived, and with it comes a successor release entitled The Light that Burns the Sky. Pitched as a “highly anticipated symphonic masterpiece,” and with a growing well of experience underpinning the band, I set appropriate expectations as I hit play.

Arion’s strongest quality is a legitimate chunkiness they boast in the face of Europower competitors that I usually find saccharine. Their compositions are appropriately maximalist, with reasonably dense layers of metal instrumentation fused with strings and faux choirs. But the songwriting and production generally elevate the impact of the guitars and drums in the mix above the symphonic elements; in particular, the guitars and drums benefit from a robust, battering tone while subjugating the keyboard elements. Likewise, the vocalist is sufficiently acrobatic to hit the necessary notes but prioritizes a gritty, shouting personality above a wailing vibrato. Finally, The Light that Burns moves at a quick pace, which, when paired with the compositions, coalesces into a sound that’s pretty heavy for power metal. The title track is an early highlight and exemplifies the qualities described above. Its speed and heft sounds something like Symphony X, with an appreciable brevity resulting in a song that passes instantaneously.

However, I find that The Light that Burns struggles to keep itself fresh. Despite its beefier-than-most style, the album becomes more repetitive and generic by side B. It contains ten proper songs (not including the short opener), and they all sound fairly similar. I find that my initial enthusiasm only persists for the first few songs; beyond this, the spark is extinguished. For example, “Blasphemous Paradise” is a pale imitation of the title track as it features stylistically similar but less enjoyable melodies. I query the purpose of songs that are simply lesser renditions of others. And the further into the album ventured, the more I struggled to maintain my focus; I was hard pressed to write any notes at all about the penultimate track called “In the Heart of the Sea.” I’ll happily listen to some bands doing the same thing ten times over, but only where they produce great music. By contrast, Arion merely produce serviceable music.

Where Arion attempt to generate the quality through variety I find myself craving, they still don’t quite achieve this. “Wings of Twilight” uses a female vocalist in its chorus who offers an ear-catching change of tone, but she’s ultimately less effective because her style is more generic than the main vocalist. This song also leans more heavily into synths. These two factors contribute to the song diluting the band’s personality and heaviness. Likewise, the closer runs for longer in an effort to reach something more epic. But what this practically entails is nearly two minutes of a repetitive introduction, extending what should be a sub-five-minute song to one that approaches seven minutes. By contrast, and despite my general enjoyment of the heavier songs here, a mid-album ballad might have worked better to refresh the sound of The Light that Burns for its second half.

There are substantial strengths in the core sound of The Light that Burns, and there are a couple of strong songs, but Arion are just not compelling enough to warrant anything more than a neutral award. While I admire the trend towards heavier material, the songs are insufficiently distinct to carry a 45-minute album. And though this release may not be quite as generic as the last, my overall summary can still go no further than “competent”.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps MP3
Label: Reigning Phoenix Music
Websites: arion.com | facebook.com/arion
Releases Worldwide: February 28th, 2025

#25 #2025 #Arion #Feb25 #FinnishMetal #Review #Reviews #SymphonicPowerMetal #SymphonyX #TheLightThatBurnsTheSky

Ruinous Power – EXTREME DANGER: Prototype Weaponry Review

By Kenstrosity

As I get older, I grow ever more tired of labels. Yes, it’s helpful to have a baseline frame of reference for what something is, but lately, I find myself abandoning these kinds of single-use terms in favor of something more substantial and descriptive. So, when Canada’s Ruinous Power entered my review rotation, I allowed myself more room than ever before to interpret what they craft outside of the multitudinous boxes in which they could fit. A newer outfit comprised by members of Egregore and Mitochondrion (among many other bands) in 2021, Ruinous Power incubated their debut record EXTREME DANGER: Prototype Weaponry until its inevitable escape from the confines of twisted minds into meatspace, where it corrupts all who would encounter it.

Based on the lore and aesthetics of the Warhammer 40k franchise, Prototype Weaponry takes what on the surface sounds like blackened death metal, endows it with a raucous thrall of thrash, and imbues within it an eerie, synth-woven atmosphere. Comparisons to both Mitochondrion and Egregore are apt, placing Ruinous Power comfortably inside that family tree of skronked-up up blackened death pedigree. However, that extra dose of mutated thrash allows a twist of The Outer Limits Voivod to pulse beneath the skin, while Ulthar‘s unearthly, necrotic limb hovers just over Ruinous Power’s writhing flesh. Juggling long-form excursions into the murky abyss with violent expulsions of a much more expeditious nature, Ruinous Power embodies Prototype Weaponry with a restless, anxious energy and equips it with lethal armaments liable to destroy us all.

Prototype Weaponry wields those armaments with aplomb despite its unpredictable nature, expertly balancing impenetrable discordance with highly accessible rhythms and infectious repetition. Ten-minute opening epic “But What of Sacred Mars?” takes tumbling, scraping riffs in stride, sticking the landing with a proggy companion motif that ripples with lean power. Pumping that momentum for five minutes, this track takes its rest and allows a bass-led, Mare Cognitum-esque second act to immerse the listener with lush instrumental developments. In doing this, Ruinous Power prepare the listener for what’s to come, and what’s to come is unchecked destruction. “The Long Game,” “Kneel,” and album highlight “+++ Engine Kill +++” represent Prototype Weaponry’s most vicious salvos. All three toss the listener clear across a dystopian battlefield with tearing leads evoking a sooty and scrawled Portal-ish visage (“The Long Game”), relentless riffs that refuse to adhere to either death metal or thrash metal conventions while still inheriting many of their physical traits (“Kneel,” “+++ Engine Kill +++”), and an uncanny sense of melody that defies Ruinous Power’s inhuman lust for aural obliteration (“The Long Game”). So as to not deprive the listener of a cohesive experience, Ruinous Power stitches these divergent anatomies together with strange, but never unfamiliar, connective tissue in such a way that transitions between seemingly incompatible segments provide the context necessary to justify their positioning at every joint.

In this way, Prototype Weaponry proves that Ruinous Power’s experience with the weird and wild pays dividends even when crafting more straightforward material than their more notable main projects. However, a few nagging concerns remain. Though its myriad riffs and motifs feel fresh and vital in the context of the greater metalverse, Protoype Weaponry also toys with self-plagiarism a little too closely in its album-wide microcosm. “The Descent of the Host” inherits an assortment of its constituent building blocks from the motifs introduced by “But What of Sacred Mars?” and “+++ Engine Kill +++,” and some of the arpeggiated wiggles and runs featured on “Cerebrum Malefice” feel all too familiar to those on earlier cuts like “Kneel.” On a separate note, with an album as tight as Prototype Weaponry—a mere thirty-one minutes, rounding up—instrumental interludes like the title track provide very little outside of superficial atmosphere, taking away from the whole rather than bolstering it.

As the dust clears and the bodies are counted, Prototype Weaponry stands strong and victorious, but the battle left a few weak points exposed. Not to be deterred by mere flesh wounds, Ruinous Power used their extensive past experience crafting dense, oppressive extreme metal to make a bold statement inside a more accessible framework. Thus, Prototype Weaponry earns my overall recommendation. Its riffs break necks as easily as they invite spirited imagination. Its dynamic structures immerse as readily as they immolate. Its presence enthralls as deeply as it terrifies. If that entices you even in the slightest, and you crave EXTREME DANGER, secure yourself some Prototype Weaponry today!

Rating: Very Good
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 192 kbps mp3
Label: I, Voidhanger Records
Website: Too Kvlt for Webz
Releases Worldwide: February 28th, 2025

#2025 #35 #BlackMetal #CanadianMetal #DeathMetal #DissonantBlackMetal #DissonantDeathMetal #Egregore #EXTREMEDANGERPrototypeWeaponry #Feb25 #I #MareCognitum #Mitochondrion #Portal #Review #Reviews #RuinousPower #ThrashMetal #Ulthar #VoidhangerRecords #Voivod