#MittwochMetalMix

New #Insomnium song. Nice.

Insomnium – Shadowlife
https://musiccloud.io/PXgFW

#Music #Metal #MelodicDeathMetal
#t4sMusic

#TheMetalDogArticleList
#BraveWords
INSOMNIUM Release Music Video For “Shadowlife”; New Album Due In October

https://bravewords.com/news/insomnium-release-music-video-for-shadowlife-new-album-due-in-october/

#INSOMNIUM #ReleaseMusicVideoFor #Shadowlife #deathmetal #melodicdeathmetal #album #newalbum #newrelease #EP #video #musicvideo #BraveWords

YES! #Insomnium drop a new song and now everything is fine again!

#nowplaying
https://song.link/y/i5tMCCXKkD0

#TheMetalDogArticleList
#Blabbermouth
INSOMNIUM Releases Video For 'Shadowlife', First Single From Upcoming Album

https://blabbermouth.net/news/insomnium-releases-video-for-shadowlife-first-single-from-upcoming-album

#INSOMNIUM #ReleasesVideoFor #Shadowlife #deathmetal #melodicdeathmetal #album #newrelease #single #video #Blabbermouth #metal #music

The new #Insomnium kicks arse!

#newmusic #heavymetal #finnishmetal #nowplaying

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5tMCCXKkD0

INSOMNIUM - Shadowlife

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5tMCCXKkD0

#NowPlaying #FediRadio #UnoRadio #Music #Insomnium

I was initially surprised that Galvanist hailed from Bozeman, Montana, but I really have no right to feel that way. Based on its proximity to major outdoor destinations, I thought Bozeman would be like Jackson, Wyoming, where I briefly lived, but Google quickly disabused me of that notion. Suffice it to say, I have no idea what Bozeman’s music scene is like. But I’ll tell you what I do know. I know that Galvanist released debut Connection in 2022 and split Hollowtop with Ulm in 2024. I know they’re returning now with sophomore effort The Silence Between Stars. And after spinning this album every day for weeks, I know that all my expectations, like so much dust beneath the heel of an eldritch god, have been casually and utterly annihilated.

The promo material describes Galvanist as “blackened doom metal, progressive death metal, and experimental textures.” That may outline the canvas upon which Galvanist paints, but it does them little justice. Throughout The Silence Between Stars, I hear Animals as Leaders drowning in sludge (“Atrophy”) and Huntsmen channeling Thou (“Dreich,”1 “Spiorad”2). Woven into the fiber of their sound, I hear the swirling chaos of Ulcerate (“Hauntology”), creating a shifting maelstrom that denies me any safe or solid ground. Synths and keys, courtesy of lead guitarist Micah Tippit, lend Galvanist a threatening, extraterrestrial edge. Over it all, vocalist Tanner Erhart bellows with the raw intensity of acts like Ragana. Galvanist takes these ingredients and filters them through a clear and singular identity to create something entirely their own. Orders of magnitude greater than its descriptors, The Silence Between Stars is a journey by turns and at once deeply rooted in the homestead and violently flung to the darkest reaches of space.3

With every track but the 63-second intro4 clocking in at roughly 8–11 minutes, I worried The Silence Between Stars would suffer from bloat or overly aggressive proggery. My fears were unfounded. The Silence Between Stars demands my attention front to back, and at an easily digestible 40 minutes, I frequently find myself looping back for another spin. This isn’t so singular a work as Winter’s Gate or Mirror Reaper—there’s little need for gapless playback here—but each track flows so naturally into the next that I struggle to start anywhere but the beginning or stop anywhere but the end. I don’t know if this is a concept album, but it’s heady, interconnected subject matter5 demands more than just lyrical exposition. Galvanist is plenty capable, wielding mystifying time signature shifts (“Atrophy,” “Hauntology”), abrupt—but never jarring—compositional transitions, and mid-melody key changes (“Spiorad”) with aplomb. Galvanist adeptly handles such progressive elements to bake their storytelling directly into the music itself.

Even beyond its total disregard for my expectations, The Silence Between Stars continues to awe. Galvanist uses the soundstage to further cultivate that sense of being both grounded and in freefall. Bassist Kevin George’s mix leaves room for each instrument to breathe, but in a good way, only just. With a little added reverb, the result fosters that contradictory atmosphere even more, like suffocating in open air. Erhart’s rhythm guitars hang out on the wings, where microtonal variances between left and right ears create an incredible dissonance, a feeling of infinite liminality. Elements float in and out of the spotlight—like George’s bass at the midpoint of “Atrophy,” Chris Navarro’s drums at the end of “Hauntology,” or Tippit’s astounding leads on the back half of “Spiorad”—constantly redirecting my attention and driving me further into Galvanist’s labyrinth.

It is not often I have no complaints about an album, and rarer still, I have more praise than I can fit on the page. Had I time and space enough, I would still be raving about The Silence Between Stars long after the final keys of “Spiorad” fade to silence. From the cosmic violence of “Atrophy” to the striking bookends of “Dreich,” and from the spine-tingling keys of “Hauntology” to the magnificent, delirious climax of “Spiorad,” Galvanist has created something truly special. Like a will-o’-wisp or a foxfire trail coaxing you into the dark, The Silence Between Stars is disquieting yet tempting, unnerving yet comforting. I didn’t know what I was in for when I picked up Galvanist, but to shamelessly adapt my favorite line from the album,6 I crossed the threshold, and I found myself amidst worlds strange and wonderful.

Rating: 4.5/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Aeternitas Tenebrarum Musicae Fundamentum
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram
Releases Worldwide: May 27th, 2026

April is commonly known in many parts of the Northern hemisphere for bringing on the rain. It’s often a chilling kind of rain, bringing temps down and diffusing light such as to create a gloomy, but not uninviting, atmosphere. This year, it seems the rain came late, falling heavily into the first weeks of May, thus extending that cloudy aesthetic into the warmer months as they creep in. Enter Oregon’s Old Moon, a melancholic melodic black metal quintet whose sound perfectly fits this muggy season, and their upcoming debut LP, Home to Nowhere.

To those familiar with the sadboi side of the metal spectrum, Old Moon will sound quite familiar. Combining Insomnium with more atmospheric acts like Skyborne Reveries or Skyforest, but produced with the warmth of Izthmi, Home to Nowhere is diffuse and cinematic in its melancholy. Like much of the black metal scene, blast beats abound, but thankfully, there’s quite a variety of patterns, deathly and doomy that break it up—even going so far as to explore a gothic rock swagger at key junctures (“Obsidian”). A deep roar trades blows with higher placed rasps to complement Old Moon’s smooth and gradual shifts from sweeping melodeath riffs, weeping leads, and trem-picked atmospherics. Familiar pieces all, and in concert they bring great comfort to these ears.

It’s a shame that Home to Nowhere’s production conspires against that comfort at every turn. The biggest culprit of my woes in this space are the drums, which are placed so far forward in the mix, and adopt the sharpest possible tone for snare pops and bass kicks, that each hit registers as moderately annoying to mildly painful. You may think this an exaggeration, but a song like “Distance,” which flows gently and with the grace of a swan, succumbs entirely to those drums. “My Name is Death” similarly suffers, but its more aggressive songwriting and confrontational vocal mixing helps to offset the imbalance somewhat. Compounding the issue, Home to Nowhere’s boomy engineering offers no modulation in any instrument to give quiet moments breathing room or dramatic swells a sense of growth or depth. As a result, the whole furrows the brow as I struggle to relax into these songs and enjoy its musicality.

Once I did manage to accept Home to Nowhere’s production and move past my frustration with it, I finally began appreciating Old Moon’s songwriting. While nothing here is so exciting and fresh as to bring them into the same conversation as genre icons like Insomnium, songs like “Creations Undone” and “Distance” showcase a beautiful array of mournful melodies and gothic drama. Not to mention “Creations Undone” features one scorcher of a black metal riff that comes out of absolute nowhere and raises the hairs on my neck. Other songs like “A Rest to My Name” and “My Name is Death” boast strong ideas and compelling melodicism, but in their case, the whole feels underbaked. Even after nearly six minutes, I find myself wondering where the rest of “A Rest to My Name” in particular went as it fades to black. Thankfully, opener “Between the Stars” and the title track make up some of that missed potential with well fleshed out motifs that, while on the longer-form side at seven-minute territory, resolve into satisfying conclusions.

In sum, Home to Nowhere is a decent record with some very strong ideas, marred by a punishing production (that still somehow scores into double-digits on my DR meter). With softer drum tones, less volume,1 and a more nuanced mix that allows quieter moments to shine alongside more intense ones, Old Moon could find much greater success in future efforts. Until that time, best to look elsewhere for a melancholy pall to go with that April May rain.

Rating: Disappointing
DR: 11 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: M-Theory Audio
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: May 8th, 2026