Battle Beast – Steelbound Review

By Grin Reaper

Steelbound, Battle Beast’s seventh full-length album, struts forth boasting bubblegum choruses and sticky refrains that, upon contact, are sure to plague your showers and commutes for days afterward. For the uninitiated, the sextet from Helsinki, Finland, plays pop-infused power metal with anthemic, uplifting gusto and broad appeal. Battle Beast simmers with talent, but it’s singer Noora Louhimo that steals the show with her powerhouse range and grit, the perfect voice to broadcast the positivity and pluck that Battle Beast engenders. After years of snacking on sweetmeats, though, has the candy coating left this Beast’s fangs riddled with cavities, or are the teeth still mighty enough to bring the pain?

Except for the time Steel fell head-over-monkey’s paw for debut Steel,1 Battle Beast has languished in mixed-to-good territory. The self-titled sophomore effort saturated its sound with Europop, and follow-up Unholy Savior tried to blend the styles of the first two albums, creating an uneven listen. Afterwards, guitarist Anton Kabanen left to form Beast in Black, and Battle Beast forged on with Brymir’s Joona Björkroth on six-string duty with nary a lineup change since. The subsequent albums have followed the tried-and-true formula of sub-forty-five-minute runtimes (less bonus tracks), concise track lengths and enough earworms to warrant a prescription for Ivermectin. Steelbound follows suit, adhering to the blueprint honed over the last few albums.

Every nook and cranny of Steelbound’s ten tracks drips with polish, where each second is crafted to be damnably catchy and take root in your earhole. From the chest-thumping mantra in “Here We Are” to the Latin-inspired rhythms in “Twilight Cabaret,” Battle Beast marches their aural cavalcade about town, tossing out fun-sized bites to on listeners by the fistful. Besides forgettable interlude “The Long Road,” each song is engineered to ensnare your attention with belt-along choruses and dancy grooves, harkening influences from ABBA (“Steelbound”) to Spice Girls (“Twilight Cabaret”). Finnish treasure Noora sinks her sonic barbs into your brain, but she’s not the only weapon this Battle Beast wields—guitar chugs, solos and drum fills ground Steelbound with metal roots amongst the synth-addled retro vibes. Knowing what to listen for, the Brymir injection is obvious and welcome, coating songs with succinct shredding that sparkles without ever approaching self-aggrandizement. Meanwhile, Pyry Vikki’s drumming suits the music perfectly, lurking in the pocket until summoned forth to unleash a drum break. The flamboyant keys (courtesy of Janne Björkroth) rarely allow you to escape 80s sensibilities, and the rhythm and bass guitar2 reinforce Steelbound’s mood without ever intruding or stealing the spotlight.

As ever, Battle Beast marries Eurovision-ready melodies with heavy metal to craft an accessible palette for any age or disposition. This is entry-level metal, and I don’t mean that derisively. There’s a path most of us take to blossom into the opinionated, fetid elitists we are today, and it’s not usually jumping straight from T-Swift to Portal in a single bound. Yet what makes Battle Beast so digestible is also what hamstrings the band—the song craft is too safe. Steelbound is at its best when toeing the line between danger and pop inclinations, but it happens too infrequently. Title track “Steelbound” features a calculated chorus that’s enchanting, and two-thirds through the song, there’s a call-and-response section where Noora musters her full grit and the music feels genuine, like it could almost go off the rails. It doesn’t, but this organic moment sticks out as one that hasn’t been carefully curated and vetted in a focus group. There’s undeniable talent here, but when every song feels like it’s manufactured rather than tailored, the end result lacks conviction.

Steelbound prioritizes hooks over substance, which proves out after repeated listens. The irrationally captivating “Here We Are” and other choice moments are instantly recognizable, but between entire songs, the fun can blur together. It’s a shame, because the band possesses all the pieces to write something truly special, but the reason I can rely on Battle Beast to be a dependable comfort listen is the same thing that holds them back. Avoiding any risks handcuffs their ability to move past the ceiling they’ve fabricated for themselves. Some of the songs on Steelbound will stick with you like sugary treats wedged between your teeth. They’ll be with you for a day or two, but eventually you dislodge the saccharine gob, brush your teeth, and find something with more sustenance.

Rating: Mixed
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Nuclear Blast
Websites: Website | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: October 17th, 2025

#25 #2025 #ABBA #BattleBeast #BeastInBlack #Brymir #FinnishMetal #HeavyMetal #NuclearBlast #Oct25 #Portal #PowerMetal #Review #Reviews #SpiceGirls #Steelbound #TaylorSwift

#ThursDeath this week is another older, broken up band that I've been digging lately. SLUGATHOR was from Espoo, Uusimaa, Finland, and was active from 1999-2010. They had a few LPs, but I think my favorite of theirs is 'Circle of Death', originally released in 2006 (this is the 2020 reissue). Grueling, cavernous OSDM here like the Finnish can really nail - the likes of which clearly influenced current bands like Degraved. Riffs, growls and dynamics for DAYS on this one.

https://vikingdigital.bandcamp.com/album/circle-of-death

#metal #DeathMetal #FinnishMetal #Finland #OSDM #Slugathor #2000sMetal #FinnishBands @HailsandAles @brian @rtw @swampgas @Kitty @c0m4 @guffo @flockofnazguls

Hooded Menace – Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration Review

By Steel Druhm

I’ve been hot and cold on Finnish doom-death act Hooded Menace over the years. I enjoyed the heavy, ugly sound of their early albums, but as they slowly progressed into more melodic realms, I felt they lost a bit of their primal sting. I enjoyed albums like Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed and 2021s The Tritonus Bell and respected their reset into more jaunty, trad metal melo-doom soundscapes, but it just felt like something was missing. That brings us to their latest release, Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration. They’re still moving in the melo-doom direction, and what you get is a wild mish-mash of 80s trad metal, Peaceville-esque Goth doom, and hard rock. It’s ambitious and skillfully executed, but it’s not without bumps and thumps along the way.

After a throwaway intro, Hooded Menace clubs you like an Easter seal with the 7-plus minute riff-o-thon “Pale Masquerade.” You will detect flavor notes of Sentenced, Cemetery, and Cathedral as the terrible trio rocks hard and rides free with more riffs than you can process, all backed by grunting death roars. It’s a wild trip as things twist from doomy passages to straight-up arena metal rocking and every stop in between. The transitions are smooth, and nothing feels duct-taped together as styles and genres ebb and flow. The problem is the length. At multiple times, I felt like another song had started, but nope, it was the same track meandering all over the map. It packs a lot into the 7 minutes, but it feels like too much. This is an issue across Lachrymose, despite a lot of cool moments in each song. “Portrait Without a Face” pays big homage to the Peaceville days of Goth doom with weepy cellos sighing alongside the heavy doom leads, and nods to Paradise Lost are impossible to ignore. Then, around the 3:40 mark, they dump all that in favor of hard-charging Black Royal-esque power chugs, and it’s glorious. It still runs too long, though.

Elsewhere, “Daughters of Lingering Pain” is painfully Paradise Lost in the guitar piece, but the vocals skew to Cemetery classics like Godless Beauty and Black Vanity.1 This one in particular packs a wicked nostalgia punch that takes me back to the early ’90s when Goth doom was new and shiny. “Lugubrious Dance” also goes back to the band’s early days of straight-up doom worship, and you get some massive riffs on what is the album’s high point and the only track (save for the shocking cover version) that doesn’t suffer for running over 7 minutes. Toward the end of the album, you’re graced by “Save a Prayer,” which took me about 3 minutes to realize is a cover of the classic 80s hit by Duran Duran. Somehow it works very well beaten into a Goth doom style, and as much as it shames me to admit it, it’s one of my favorite moments on the album. Closer “Into Haunted Oblivion” clocks in just shy of 10 minutes, and after an album of 7-minute epics, your ability to swallow another family-sized doom biscuit will be compromised. It’s not a bad tune, and parts remind me again of my beloved Cemetery, and the Peaceville cellos float back in for added atmosphere. It ultimately just tottles on for too long, and by the 6th minute, I start losing my mental grip. At just under 47 minutes, Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration feels considerably longer due to the bloatimus maximus.

Although I have issues with the overstuffed songs, I have only good things to say about Lasse Pyykkö’s wild guitar work. He’s an infernal riff machine, and his leads race across several genres. His launching pad is classic doom, but he’s more than happy to shoehorn in scads of traditional/classic metal influences as well as touches of arena rock. You can’t listen to this guy’s playing and not be impressed. I especially enjoy when his rocked out doom style approaches that of prime Cathedral. He’s basically a metal history tour guide, and he knows how to make a riff stick in your head. Harri Kuokkanen’s vocals are fairly one-note, but his rough death roars are effectively raw and grizzly. He does inject personality into the mix, though a few clean passages would be a boon. The template works well; it just needs a touch of restraint.

Hooded Menace have talent to spare, and when they hit their groove, you will be rocked muchly. The songs on Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration vary from very good to merely good, with the lesser tracks held back by their sheer length. If you want to do the rocking melo-doom thing, the songs need to be pared down to rock song lengths, and Hooded Menace refuse to do that. To their credit, this is still almost a 3.5. There’s a lot here to enjoy, but there’s also a lot here. Mileage will vary accordingly.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Season of Mist
Websites: hoodedmenace.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/hoodedmenaceofficial | instagram.com/hoodedmenaceofficial
Releases Worldwide: October 3rd, 2025

#2025 #30 #Cathedral #Cemetery #DeathMetal #DoomMetal #DuranDuran #FinnishMetal #HoodedMenace #LachrymoseMonumentsOfObscuration #Oct25 #Reviews #SeasonOfMist #Sentenced

Mors Principium Est – Darkness Invisible Review

By Angry Metal Guy

Mors Principium Est should, for longtime fans of Angry Metal Guy, need no introduction. Since 2003, these Finns have released eight full-length albums of top-notch melodic death metal. However, they really took flight in 2012 with …and Death Said Live!, which coincidentally is a year after Andy Gillion joined the band. Between 2011 and 2021, Mors produced melodic death metal that drew heavily on a strong Gothenburg vibe; guitar-forward, slick as fuck, and fun to listen to. Gillion was fired, however, in 2021. That was followed by the band releasing an album of re-recorded songs called Liberate the Unborn Inhumanity, which fans largely considered a half-measure. Darkness Invisible, then, marks the first truly new material since Seven. And I’ve been dying to know how this revamped Mors Principium Est would navigate the changes on album number nine.

Darkness Invisible presents a recognizable core sound that longtime fans will connect with, but its character reflects the shift in the lineup. With Ville Viljanen’s scathing roar still at the helm, the return of Jori Haukio and Jarkko Kokko on guitars reintroduces the early 2000s songwriting DNA, while bassist Teemu Heinola and (new guy) Marko Tommila give the rhythm section both drive and dynamic weight. Together, they summon a melodeath that is at once cinematic, technical, and blackened—evoking countrymen Children of Bodom or Kalmah. The themes that emerge are darker than before: a push toward massive symphonic density that occasionally brushes against Septic Flesh’s deathly grandeur, the arrival of deeper guttural vocals that tilt passages toward brutal death, and flashes of blackened riffing that lend a sharp edge. These elements intermingle across the album, creating a record that is both familiar and ambitious.

Much of Darkness Invisible’s character comes from its dark dynamics and cinematic presentation. The compositions weaponize contrast in vocals and atmosphere, making for a dynamic and entertaining record. Viljanen’s familiar bark remains the anchor of MPE’s sound, but the band now folds in cavernous gutturals that push closer to death metal extremity (“Summoning the Dark”), even contrasting these with operatic cleans and producing a clash of brutality and grandeur (“All Life Is Evil”). Additionally, there’s a frost that creeps into the riffs and drumming, with trem-picked riffs and blastbeats sharpening the band’s melodeath foundation toward something blackened and sinister (see: the chorus of “Venator,” or the end of “The Rivers of Avernus”). And even the more straightforward cuts employ these textures to broaden their weight, layering symphonic swells and bleak grandeur over increasingly technical riffing. The result is a record that sounds darker and denser than the glossy sheen of Seven. This expansion lends ambition and menace, though the density of choirs, gutturals, and orchestrations sometimes threatens to swamp the guitars that were the core of Mors’ sound.

For all its ambition, Darkness Invisible’s major drawback is that it’s undermined by an Industry Standard Production Job™ courtesy of Jens Bogren (mixing) and Tony Lindgren (mastering). Bogren has made dense orchestral metal soar before—think how cleanly he’s wrangled maximalist arrangements for acts like Fleshgod Apocalypse and Turisas—which makes this result unusual. The record is mastered loud and layered thick; climaxes hit hard,1 but the constant stacking of choirs, vocals, multiple guitar tracks, drums, and orchestration often clutters the field and can bury the guitars that most recently defined Mors Principium Est. On a proper stereo, the album sounds big and sinister—fully loaded with dynamics, pomp, and grandeur—but on earbuds and smaller setups, it can collapse into a busy blur. It’s been a long time since I popped in a new release and found it simply too crowded for casual listening—and it ends up being fatiguing to the ear at times. That busyness contributes to the album’s oppressive mood, but it also blunts individual performances. In reaching for monumental scale, the mix trades away clarity, leaving the listener torn between admiration for scope and frustration at execution.

Darkness Invisible has convinced me that this lineup can carry Mors Principium Est forward. The shift in sound works: the band leans harder into Children of Bodom and Dark Tranquillity on the melodic side, showing off fantastic guitar work while embracing a more cinematic and melodramatic identity. Without the bonus track, the album lands at a vinyl-friendly 46 minutes, and its structural pacing—variations in tempo, atmosphere, and density—make it a fun and dynamic listen despite the crowded mix. Darkness Invisible doesn’t bear much resemblance to the Gillion era, but that’s not necessarily a weakness.2 This darker and more melodramatic Mors Principium Est feels fresh, and tracks like “All Life Is Evil” and “The Rivers of Avernus” prove the style’s promise. So, I entered this review with concerns about what a Gillion-less Mors Principium Est would sound like, and I’m leaving it impressed and excited for what’s to come. I would call that a great success.

Rating: Very Good!
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s CBR MP3
Label: Perception [Reigning Phoenix Music]
Websites: Facebook | Instagram
Out Worldwide: September 26th, 2025

#AndDeathSaidLive #2025 #35 #AndyGillion #ChildrenOfBodom #DarkTranquillity #DarknessInvisible #FinnishMetal #FleshgodApocalypse #JensBogren #Kalmah #MelodicDeathMetal #MorsPrincipiumEst #OrchestralMetal #Review #Reviews #Sep25 #SepticFlesh #Seven #TonyLindgren #Turisas

Ha! #musiciansday 😍

I'm the throat, a.k.a. singer, for Finnish old school #deathmetal band Abhorrence. We started in 1989 and after 20 odd years hiatus started again in 2012.

Our latest track, called "Old Age, Sickness and Death Metal", is a celebration of 40 years of death metal. A small way of respecting the heroes of our youth, and also many of our contemporaries in Scandinavia. It's Abhorrence saying thank you to all the great pioneers who changed our lives with their music.
https://song.link/OldAgeSicknessAndDeathMetal

Bandcamp https://abhorrencefin.bandcamp.com/
All relevant links https://linktr.ee/abhorrencefin

EDIT: to add, Abhorrence has their own account at https://metalhead.club/@Abhorrence

#music #metal #osdm #finnishmetal #musicians

Amorphis – Borderlands Review

By Steel Druhm

I’ve been an Amorphis fanboy since I first heard Tales from the Thousand Lakes. That album captured a special kind of magic, and to this day it remains a “desert island” release for Yours Steely. I loved them through their early days of perpetual evolution and was thrilled when Tomi Joutsen brought them new fire and force when he joined for 2006s Eclipse. Tomi’s first 3 albums with Amorphis resulted in what is perhaps one of the most potent trilogies in metal history, and though their output has been less consistently amazing since then, it’s hard to dislike anything they do. That said, I liked but didn’t love 2022s Halo effort despite really wanting to. Sure, it was Amorphis, but it felt a bit tired and like they were spinning their wheels at times. Obviously, I wanted Borderlands to reignite my love and affection for one of my favorite bands of all time, but is it fair to expect Amorphis to churn out another Silent Waters or Skyforger at this point? With cold logic tempering heated expectations, I approached the border, hopeful but world-weary and cynical.

Lo and behold, to my great delight, the first half of Borderlands is primo modern-day Amorphis, leveraging all their charm and guile to recapture the joyous hook-factor of the early Tomi days. Opener “The Circle” is classic Amorphis fare and exactly what I want from them. It’s comfortable like an old t-shirt in that it’s what the band has done since 2006, but that formula can still produce bangers that let Tomi drop his vocal magic. He does exactly that here on a big chorus supported by that bouncing, airy guitar work we all love. His croons and death roars are still vital and fit the melodic songcraft perfectly. And for a while, at least, the hits keep coming. “Bones” delivers excellently deep, crushing death vocals paired with uber-melodic and folk-inflected rock leads, and it’s like a follow-up to “Death of a King.” The album highlight comes early on with “Dancing Shadow,” which is the best example of the Amorphis magic in full effect. Those twinkling guitars pair so well with Tomi’s clean vocals, and he drops the death croaks into the mix as killer accents. This one reminds me why I’ve had a love affair with these guys for so many years.

You get five top-notch songs to kick Borderlands off, and by the time “The Strange” is over, you’ll be excused for thinking this is a big return to form after the somewhat somnambulistic Halo. While Borderlands never falls off the tracks, the back half is less stacked with goodies than the front. There are winners to be sure, like “Light and Shadow,” which feels like something from The Beginning of Times, and the title track, which delivers their classic sound very well. Yet a few songs like “The Lantern,” and to a lesser extent, closer “Despair” offer smaller amounts of sizzle and pop. They aren’t bad, but they lack the primal hooks that the earlier ones flaunt. Luckily, the balance is in favor of the very good, and Borderlands is a consistently entertaining platter.

All the usual stars are present and delivering what the people want. Tomi is his usual awesome self, charming and beguiling with his vocal prowess as he slips back and forth between clean vocal hooks and booming death roars. He’s one of those special vocalists who make everything he touches better, and Amorphis was blessed to find him since he’s still paying dividends 20 years later. Esa Holopainen and Tomi Koivusaari continue to refine and polish their otherworldly guitar style, blending metal, rock, and folk in a way no one else does to forge their signature sound. Their bright, open leads swarm all over the material, rarely dropping into heavy, beefy riffs, opting instead to soar above it all with glimmering beauty. Their lush noodling is accentuated by the melodic keys of Santeri Kyösti Kallio, and together they create the Amorphis experience and a collection of new hits.

When Halo hit, I had concerns that the Amorphis magic was slowly seeping away and we would eventually be left with recycled ideas and faded glories. Borderlands partially allays that fear, showing Amorphis can still summon their specialized sorcery when needed. Borderlands may be front-loaded, but the overall quality is there, the highs are high, the lows aren’t too low, and most songs leave an imprint on the ear. What more can an Amorphis fan ask for?1

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Reigning Phoenix
Websites: amorphis.net | facebook.com/amorphis | instagram.com/amorphisband
Releases Worldwide: September 26th, 2025

#2025 #35 #Amorphis #Borderlands #FinnishMetal #Halo #HeavyMetal #MelodicDeathMetal #ReigningPhoenixMusic #Review #Reviews

Stuck in the Filter: June 2025’s Angry Misses

By Kenstrosity

Sweat pours out of our pores. Heat blisters metal and scorches dirt. Power bills rise relentlessly, without mercy. These are the signs of summer in the brutal ductwork that is our hallowed Filter. But we continue onward in search of those metallic scraps that provide such unbridled joy to our masses. The only variable: who of my trusted team will survive this season, and who will perish in the service of this sacred duty?

We won’t know the answer until this article gets published. And when it is, the statistics will be fabricated and obfuscated accordingly. So ignore the death toll and instead peep the haul!

Kenstrosity’s Meanest Meanies

Shadow of Intent // Imperium Delirium [June 12th, 2025 – Self-Release]

For over a decade, Connecticut/Rhode Island melodic deathcore independents Shadow of Intent challenged the standards of the genre by offering album after album of ripping tracks filled with drama, clever songwriting, and demolishing vocal talent. In their catalog, Elegy was the one record of theirs that didn’t stick with me. However, Imperium Delirium rapidly righted the ship with 55 minutes of opulent, evil, and crushing melodic destruction. Raging through its first half without a single misstep, Imperium Delirium is a focused effort chock full of devastating heft, buttery smooth songwriting, and a favorable riffs-to-breakdowns ratio. The back half focuses on drama and orchestration just a touch more, but songs like “Feeding the Meatgrinder,” “Vehement Draconian Vengeance,” and “No Matter the Cost” still bring the violence required to annihilate entire planets. Championing this unending assault of killer tunes, Ben Duerr’s vocal performance is intimidating to say the least, easily reinforcing his rightful place as one of the very best extreme vocalists in the scene today. Of course, the record is still too long by about 10 minutes, and a fair amount of that bloat comes from the slightly overblown self-titled closer. Additionally, while I appreciate the reverent nod to the instrumental talent on “Apocalypse Canvas,” I don’t believe it adds enough to the story of this record. Nonetheless, Imperium Delirium might be one of my favorite Shadows of Intent, and I look forward to where it leads me next.

ClarkKent’s Literary Listen

Nightbearer // Defiance [June 13, 2025 – Testimony Records]

Anyone looking for a mashup of Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy and Gothenburg melodeath, look no further than the latest album from Germany’s Nightbearer. Defiance marks album number three in the band’s repertoire, and a continuation of their worship of fantasy epics.1 Right off the bat, the catchy harmonic guitar lead of “His Dark Materials” summons Dark Tranquillity and At the Gates. The guitar work by Dominik Hellmuth and Tristan Schubert is fantastic throughout–their creative melodies bring to mind lively outfits like Brymir. Michael Torka’s beastly growls and Manuel Lüke’s thunderous drumming add some brutality and weight to the harmonious riffs. A few songs even go full brutal death metal (“One Church Over All”, “Dying Knows No Bounds”). Perhaps the standout track comes from the 9-minute epic, “Ascension.” It starts with an eerie synth intro before breaking out into some of the best riffs on Defiance. Then, just as things settle down, the song builds back up and explodes into something straight from Blackwater Park-era Opeth. Overall, this is an impressive collection of songs that’s sure to scratch that HM-2 itch.

Tyme’s Juxtaposed Jotting

Lipoma // No Cure for the Sick [June 13th, 2025 – Gurgling Gore]

Melodic gore-grind. Yeah, it’s a thing. And California-based Lipoma’s new album, No Cure for the Sick, proves it’s a pretty fucking cool thing at that—the brainchild of one Max Pierce (aka Dr. Lipoma).2 Since going live in 2021, Lipoma has been insanely active, releasing a slew of splits and EPs along with two full-length albums: 2022’s Horrors of Pathology and 2023’s Odes to Suffering. And while Lipoma has steadily worked to make comparisons with fellow purveyors like Carcass, Lymphatic Phlegm, and Pharmacist less relevant, No Cure for the Sick moves things to a different ballpark, one full of Gothenburgian melodicism (“Cult of the Firehealers,” “Glory to the Blade”), post-metallic pop-punk optimism (“Cardiac Scars Forever,” “Psalms of Psoriasis”), indecipherable gurgles, and organ, which is what sets Lipoma’s No Cure for the Sick apart not only from previous efforts, but the pack in general. From the circus-like atmosphere shrouding opener “The Sea Surgeon,” Pierce’s use of organ permeates much of No Cure for the Sick’s forty minutes, buoying the melodic heaviness and excellent solo work with jig-like danceability (“Remedies of Pagan Medicine,” “Last Anatomy of Johan Ziegler,” “No Cure for the Sick”). Pierce’s melodically charged instrumentation, when juxtaposed against his gore-ground gurglings—a combo that works in a way it has no right to—sees Lipoma doing something I find wholly unique, a rarity in today’s digital age. I have had a ton of fun with No Cure for the Sick, and if you’ve not checked it out yet, do so post haste.

Iceberg’s Frosty Forget-Me-Nots

Puppe Magnetik // Laudans Deum [June 6th, 2025 – The Circle Music]

Laudans Deum is not for the faint of heart, if that album cover didn’t quite convince you. The debut compilation of Puppe Magnetik, the record dives deep into the recesses of the human psyche. Aina Virtanen weaponizes industrial metal, ambient, and drone, wrapped up in the stylings of the Weimar Republic. An accomplished classically-trained musician, Virtanen uses her clean vocals sparingly (“Who Will Sing This Sorrow,” “Labyrinth”) but to great effect, reminiscent of Diablo Swing Orchestra. But the accessibility stops there; Laudans Deum’s thirteen tracks are comprised of ambient meditations (“Moritat”), ear-splitting electronic barrages (“Suspendium, Rosarium et Crucifixu”), and mood music fit for a throwback horror movie (“The Pregnant Nun,” “Patient AV”). But within the graveyard are scattered moments of respite; the gorgeously rendered classical guitar of “Timeless Serenade” and the haunting vocals of “Laments From The Desert.” While the album is unforgivingly through-composed, making for an exceptionally difficult first listen, there’s something darkly endearing about it. I’m reminded of Sergei Prokofiev, the Russian composer whose music was often described as both grotesque and starkly beautiful. Puppe Magnetik have produced a challenging record, but it’s worth a listen for those who enjoy avant-garde music and the stranger, more terrifying corners of the aural arts.

All Men Unto Me // Requiem [June 27th, 2025 – The Larvarium]

A little more metal, but a lot more challenging, All Men Unto Me’s Requiem brings to bear the full weight of spiritual suffering. Requiem is a direct interpretation of the Latin Mass for the Dead, it’s eight tracks playing all the hits. Fuzzed out, half-time doom takes a supporting role in a record that heavily features pipe organ, acoustic guitar, and string leads. Rylan Greaves takes a unique approach here, subverting the natural tension and release of the rite by injecting clanging noise into passages normally reverent. Their vocal performance is the unrepentant star of the show, at times crystalline (“Introit”) at others sobbing (“Kyrie”) straining (“Agnus Dei”) and howling (“Sequentia”). The album takes its time to sink its claws into you, with long track lengths and extended droning chords requiring patience. But pay close attention to Greaves’ lyrics and you can’t help but be pulled into the raw, emotional drama of Requiem. The rising, ethereal sunset of “In Paradisum,” the falsetto whisper speaking “God knows what I’d be without you” against an impossibly high, ever so slightly off-key bell-tone. One’s left wondering the true meaning of that line as the track ends, and the dead remain silent. A powerful statement indeed.

Killjoy’s Fabulous Find

Fabula Rasa // Tome II: The Beyond [June 13th, 2025 – Self-Release]

The words “fabulous” and “fable” are interconnected, both derived from the Latin word “fabulosus.” And since folk music and power metal draw heavily from fables and myths, the portmanteau Fabula Rasa is a fitting name for a group that blends both genres. Following the lead of forebears Elvenking and early Mägo de Oz, this spirited crew from Düsseldorf, Germany, infuses what would otherwise be standard—but good!—heavy/power metal with lots of violin. The violin and guitar trade off playing the lead melodies, though the former tends to have greater emphasis. But fret not, shred-heads, for the guitar solos are also exemplary in the more power metal-leaning songs, like “Dragon Rising” and “Vengeance Is Mine.” The violin often carves its own folksy space, the cheery, zippy fiddling akin to Dalriada (“At Full Moon,” “Anthem of the North”). Most songs are energetic, but “Burning Innocence” is a pleasant surprise midway through the record, with hand drums and the other band members’ vocal contributions creating an intimate group setting. Don’t miss this charismatic performance from these fabulous musicians.

Maddog’s Sludgy Selection

Dimscûa // Dust Eater [June 3rd, 2025 – Self-Release]

While sludge is a dime a dozen, few bands scratch the same itch as Amenra’s best work. The UK’s Dimscûa aims to correct this oversight. Dust Eater opens with “Elder Bairn,” whose rhythmic riffs evoke the meditative power of LLNN. After this appetizer, the album’s interplay between brawn and heart rivals Amenra. While Dimscûa’s muscular riffs drive the album forward (“Existence/Futility”), Dust Eater stands out through its hypnotic melodies. The heartache in these melodies is palpable, magnified by tortured vocals that recall Julie Christmas. Because of this ebb and flow, the album never feels bloated despite its eight-minute average track length. For instance, “Existence/Futility” abandons and then suddenly resurrects its driving main riff, adding unexpected variety and lodging into my memory. Dust Eater’s climaxes sometimes fall short, like the fizzle-out ending of “The Dusteater.” But despite its imperfections, Dimscûa’s debut is a powerful outing in a neglected style.3

Dear Hollaback’s Ain’t No B-A-N-A-N-A-S

Various Artists // KPop Demon Hunters [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack] [June 20th, 2025 – Republic Records]4

Okay, look. Look. K-Pop is not metal, I get that. But the gang over at Sony concocted what just recently earned the title of Netflix’s most watched movie of all time, and holy shit, what a soundtrack.. I’d like to use the classic “my daughter made me do it” schtick but she only likes “Takedown.”5 KPop Demon Hunters creates insanely catchy pop music that’s also focused and intentional, a commentary on the rigid and flagellant nature of K-Pop alongside feel-good messages of self-acceptance and healing (“Golden,” “What It Sounds Like”). The focal girl group HUNTR/X does most of the heavy lifting, also tossing in enough pop culture-inclined battle hymns to make the republic jealous (“How It’s Done,” “Takedown”). Their on-screen rivals Saja Boys offer entendre-layered sugary pop (the infamous “Soda Pop”) and sinister Gregorian-influenced choruses (“Your Idol”). Beyond the novelty is intentionality: clever chord progressions that feel continually transcendent rather than stagnantly by-the-numbers (“What It Sounds Like”), diminuendos of authenticity among bombasts of a glossy sheen (“Golden”), touches of dissonance paired with unsettling slant rhymes (“Your Idol”), and rhythmic complexity building to ethereal climaxes of soaring belts (“Free”). While yes, I’m telling you to give it a spin, I am also giving excuses for why my review count dropped to critical this summer. Fuck off, I’m gonna be, gonna be golden.

#2025 #AllMenUntoMe #Ambient #AmericanMetal #AtTheGates #AvantGarde #Brymir #Carcass #Dalriada #DarkTranquility #Deathcore #Defiance #DiabloSwingOrchestra #Dimscûa #Drone #DustEater #Elvenking #FabulaRasa #FinnishMetal #FolkMetal #GermanMetal #GurglingGore #HeavyMetal #HUNTRX #ImperiumDelirium #IndustrialMetal #Jun25 #KPop #KPopDemonHunters #LaudansDeum #Lipoma #LymphaticPhlegm #MägoDeOz #MelodicDeathMetal #MelodicDeathcore #Nightbearer #NoCureForTheSick #Opeth #Pharmacist #PowerMetal #PuppeMagnetik #RepublicRecords #Requiem #Review #Reviews #SajaBoys #SelfRelease #SelfReleased #ShadowOfIntent #StuckInTheFilter #TestimonyRecords #TheCircleMusic #TheLarvarium #TomeIITheBeyond #UKMetal #VariousArtists

Proscription – Desolate Divine Review

By Dear Hollow

Last we met Finland’s Proscription, an overwhelming amount of promise was almost as intense as their blackened death attack. While rerecorded songs from their 2017 demo such as “I, the Burning Son” and “Blessed Feast of Black Seth” singlehandedly tamed the experience with jarring simplicity and excessive repetition killing momentum, tracks like “Conduit” and “To Reveal the Word Without Words” were elite blackened death. The promise was insane, causing a bigger stir in the underground than the music itself. While Conduit was solid, Desolate Divine promises even bigger and better – and delivers.

Proscription in a way, feels like a blackened death metal underdog story. The band’s constituents are assembled from the fringes of Finnish black/death, most prominent likely being formidable vocalist/guitarist Christbutcher of Maveth, Cryptborn, and Excommunion fame, although caliber from Brutal Torment, Tramalizer, and Ominous offer their relentless services. This background in more brutal stylistic tendencies pairs neatly with the mountain of sound that Proscription offers. Unlike its predecessor, which dwelt in hints of insanity and riffy mid-tempo crunch, Desolate Divine is a streamlined and no-holds-barred brutalizer of an album, bordering on war metal. Paired with a uniquely blackened death obscurity that appears in haunting leads and hints of atmosphere, Proscription offers a winning formula that is slightly held back by its brickwalled production but ultimately improves upon its predecessor in every way.

If it’s intensity you want, Proscription has it in droves. Haunting leads and blackened tremolo are often the only tether to sanity, their only sense of tangible in their blasting of Behemoth-through-the-war-metal-machine. Bottom-heavy beatdowns are aplenty, with an old school riffy death metal template a la Morbid Angel or Bolt Thrower with the insanity of blastbeats and panicked rhythms (“Bleed the Whore Again,” “Behold a Phosphorescent Dawn”), while overlapping leads, flaying technicality, and wild solos cut through tremolos both down-tuned and blackened (“Gleam of the Morning Star,” “Entreaty of the Very End”). Centerpiece “The Midnight God” (a previously released track in a 2023 split with Sulphurous) and closer “The Great Deceiver” (also from a previously released 2023 demo) offer nearly perfect overlapping of relentless beatdown, blackened grime, and riff – both expertly placed throughout the album. It’s refreshing that previously released material is a highlight rather than a hitch.

Desolate Divine is a bit of a tale of two halves. Proscription goes off the rails in the first half, forsaking every act of subtlety for sheer violence, while the second half is a much more ominous affair. Don’t get me wrong, these tracks will rip you a new one, but at their core is a much more plodding and stable approach, focusing on an almost marching rhythm throughout, making their more obscure and haunting qualities that much more impactful and downright epic when the technical insanity and rhythmic heft collide (“Heave Ho Ye Igneous Leviathan,” title track). Even synth makes appearances in haunting, spacious overtones in this second act (“Behold a Phosphorescent Dawn,” “Not But Dust”), capitalizing on the more haunting attack.

Desolate Divine is dense and unforgiving and certainly imperfect. The brickwalled production and the jarringly start-stop songwriting (not uncommon for other acts like Belphegor or Adversarial) make it difficult to uncover the treasures amid the muck; the central melody of “Behold a Phosphorescent Dawn” sounds too much like Inspector Gadget, and ambient interlude “Not But Dust” feels out of place. However, it’s a step up from Conduit in that its previously released material is a highlight, and there are no bad songs aboard this uncompromising album. It seamlessly blends deathened viscera and blackened flaying in ways that few else can, with stunning brand-setting performances across the board from largely unrecognized Finnish black/death veterans. The potential on Desolate Divine is almost as suffocating as the blackened death metal Proscription wields.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 4 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Dark Descent Records
Websites: proscription.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/proscriptionhorde
Releases Worldwide: August 29th, 2025

#2025 #35 #Adversarial #Aug25 #Behemoth #Belphegor #BlackMetal #BlackenedDeathMetal #BoltThrower #BrutalTorment #Cryptborn #DarkDescentRecords #DeathMetal #DesolateDivine #Excommunion #FinnishMetal #Maveth #MorbidAngel #Ominous #Proscription #Review #Reviews #Sulphurous #Tramalizer

#ThursDeath this week was an easy choice, I've been playing a ton of this ridiculous new LP 'Vermian Death', the debut record from worm-rotted Finnish band GRAVE HEX. This is some truly great, dynamic, nasty, churning, grueling, grody OSDM-inspired death metal. Yet again, the Finns don't miss.

https://gravehex.bandcamp.com/album/vermian-death

#metal #DeathMetal #FinnishMetal #GraveHex #2025Albums #2025Records #ODSM @brian @HailsandAles @rtw @guffo @umrk @Kitty @flockofnazguls @swampgas