In 2019, I accidentally stumbled upon St. Petersburg’s wacko dark cabaret metal freaks Tardigrade Inferno’s debut Mastermind, depicting an adorable evil water bear as mascot. You can imagine that I was immediately hooked. Their legitimately heavy riffs and whimsical songwriting kept me coming back for more when Burn the Circus dropped four years later. That release doubled down on original material backed by a more focused metallic spirit, and all the better for it. Initially, it sounded like third installment, Hush picked up right where Burn left off. However, gone is my beloved little tardigrade. What could this mean?

While Tardigrade Inferno’s sonic formula remains largely the same as it was on Burn the Circus—albeit with the addition of accordions and kazoos and one very unexpected burst of blast beats (“I Am Eternal”)—it’s clear that they moved away from their titular character on Hush. A darkness follows that disappearance, reflected in the dour and morbid attitudes imparted throughout Hush’s 45 minutes (“Dead Fish Smile”). Absent the maniacal main character that gave Tardigrade Inferno’s music life, direction, and purpose, Hush’s storytelling feels aimless and shallow. Thankfully, those trusty hooks, bouncy riffs, and infectious choruses entertained me just enough as I navigated through an uncomfortable grieving period for the Tardigrade Inferno I once cherished.

Hush by Tardigrade Inferno

After a time, I felt ready to embrace Hush, knowing it wasn’t going to offer the same wacky storyline as previous records spun. However, I never escaped my disappointment that Tardigrade Inferno chose an album of vignettes, pulling from a wide gamut of fairy tales and ubiquitous monsters, as their solution. Cuts like “Deadly Fairytales” and “Goor” hammer that generic storytelling home musically as well, though there are small moments in each that make for a great idea or an ear-catching setup (see the howling vox and silent rests in “Goor”). Others like “All in Your Head” and “I.C.D.,” in contrast, expound upon the natural horrors that plague the human mind in the real world. While that topic works quite well in metal writ large, Tardigrade Inferno don’t sell it with the same compelling gravity or subversion as other acts who adopt this exuberant cabaret influence (like Pensees Nocturne or Sanguine Glacialis). Consequently, Hush lacks substance and excitement for a good chunk of its duration.

However, there are a number of cool ideas, new tricks, and fun details found here that Tardigrade Inferno could, and should, take advantage of on future endeavors. The title track is a certified bop, with a bouncy riff backed by fun synths and a sticky chorus that I can’t stop involuntarily repeating. “Subatomic Heist” is a bizarre little number that brims with vibrancy and energy as well, and it’s no surprise that it also calls back to those virtually unkillable microscopic creatures of past installments. Similarly, the proggy and doomy closer “I Am Eternal” foreshadows a tardigrade resurgence inside off-kilter melodies, unorthodox songwriting (for this band, at least), and gorgeous lead guitar work. Naturally, returning to the critters and characters that gave Tardigrade Inferno its primary appeal also gave this song the backbone and direction it needed to feel worthy and interesting. This, in turn, further exemplifies the issues that plague all of the songs on Hush that make no such return.

I’m not normally one to recommend a band revisit past ideas or themes. In fact, I am a firm proponent of a band sticking to their guns and finding their way whenever they make a potentially divisive shift from past work, either musically or thematically. In this case, however, I think killing off their main character and the silliness that came with it—not to mention the dearly missed conceptual storytelling—doomed Tardigrade Inferno’s third outing. Hush isn’t unsalvageable, as it has nifty ideas and some new songwriting tricks and fun instruments that fit well into Tardigrade Inferno’s sound, but it’s missing the direction and compelling arcs that made their first two records successful. My wish for Tardigrade Inferno is therefore to ditch the horror stories and rebuild the circus, for the show must go on!

Rating: Disappointing
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Self-Released
Websites: tardigradeinferno.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/tardigradeinfernomusic
Releases Worldwide: March 5th, 2026

One of the biggest challenges I’ve encountered as a music reviewer is trying to describe a band’s musical aesthetic when their discography is all over the place. Now, I know what you’re thinking: Blut Aus Nord, and you would be correct, but at least there’s an intangible thread connecting the various gnarled branches to their undulating, pulsing roots. Vaarwel, the mastermind and sole proprietor of Russia’s Frozen Ocean, takes his project to where it needs to be, and how he feels it should be delivered, musically. Over the course of 11 albums, as well as various EPs and splits, Frozen Ocean follows their own muse, without any musical correlation between them. It’s a big toss-up what you’re going to get per release, and I can’t help but respect the hell out of that.

I just wish it connected with me as well as The Prowess of Dormition did. Whereas Dormition was melodic black metal with a trip-hop undercurrent, Askdrömmar instead flirts with DSBM, rubbing shoulders with a trippier Lifelover bent. Opener “Mangata” leads off with some ambiance before a simple repeated melody takes over, followed by simplistic programmed drums, and finally other instrumentation. Vaarwel adopts more of a black metal rasp this time around, and just as the song starts to go somewhere, everything fades out, and you hear a sample of a young woman talking. Believing this would build to something, it instead leads into “Bortkastade dödsrunor,” the following track… which leads off with another sample.

The majority of what follows is a “wash-rinse-repeat” cycle among the remaining eight tracks, as they all follow a particular pattern: either a sample or piano twinkling, followed by a riff that’s more than a little reminiscent of mid-era Katatonia (“Kottkvam”), an atmospheric moment that sounds like a tremendous build-up that only goes back to the main riff, and then a sudden ending. Things start to get interesting when “Långt lopp genom mörkret” arrives, with its hyperactive keyboards and lively, energetic rhythms, but that’s track #8 of a nine-track album, and that’s just too far in the tracklisting to turn the ship around. Up until then, it’s just too formulaic and repetitive to leave a lasting mark.

The production also doesn’t help matters any, as it’s squashed and flat. The programmed drums sound like they were mixed a bit too far back, whereas the guitars, keyboards, and vocals are in-your-face, and those sound compressed within an inch of their existences. The biggest hurdle of this album lies in its conception and how it ties in with the Frozen Ocean discography. As a fan of Blut Aus Nord, I know mainman Vindsval will write whatever the fuck he feels like, and because of that, BaN’s discography runs the gamut of sounds and styles. However, the big difference is that you can still hear it’s BaN. Vaarwel doesn’t quite have that distinction when it comes to his music, as his releases are so spread out style- and quality-wise that it’s tough to find an underlying thread connecting any of it.

And that sucks to type, because I remember being impressed by The Prowess of Dormition when it released almost a decade ago. While I wasn’t expecting a repeat of that EP, I also wasn’t expecting to be bored by what’s on offer here. Vaarwel is a talented musician with great ideas, but I’m waiting for those ideas to land. With Askdrömmar, I will continue waiting.

Rating: 2.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 319 kbps mp3
Label: Apocalyptic Witchcraft
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: February 13th, 2026

#NowPlaying #TheMetalDogIsNowPlaying
#Skyforger
Sword Song
Where Will You Ride, Brother?

🎸 Live Stream:
https://nowplaying.themetaldog.net/

YouTube Search:
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LastFM:
https://www.last.fm/music/Skyforger/_/Where+Will+You+Ride,+Brother%3F

Listen on major platforms:
https://song.link/s/34z8AkNgvp6KEim0DFqdXo

#Skyforger #Alex #Igor #Anton #Sergey #FolkMetal #VikingMetal #NordicFolk #Metal2000s #RussianMetal

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SLAUGHTER TO PREVAIL Vocalist ALEX TERRIBLE's Mask Factory In Russia Partially Collapses

https://metalinjection.net/news/slaughter-to-prevail-vocalist-alex-terribles-mask-factory-has-collapsed

#SlaughterToPrevail #AlexTerrible #MaskFactory #Russia #FactoryCollapse #MetalNews #RussianMetal #Deathcore

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#Blabbermouth
Grizzly

https://blabbermouth.net/reviews/grizzly

#SlaughterToPrevail #Grizzly #AlexTerrible #Sumerian #RonnieRadke #Babymetal #RussianMetal #Deathcore #NuMetal #Metalcore

This week's #ThursDeath is the excellent new debut EP that Saint Petersburg, Russia's PUTRID REQUIEM just put out a couple weeks ago, 'Engulfed in Rot... You Lay'. This is a crusty, grody, growly and surprisingly dynamic and tight ripper with a dark, OSDM feel. And the last track is a Mortician cover. What else could you ask for.

https://putridrequiem.bandcamp.com/album/engulfed-in-rot-you-lay

#metal #DeathMetal #OSDM #RussianMetal #SaintPetersburg #RussianBands @wendigo @HailsandAles @rtw @umrk @lola

#ThursDeath this week is one I've been listening to a lot of, the new LP 'Desire for Murder' by Russia's NECROGENESIS. This one chugs and rips and has a lot of great dynamics, especially for death metal- there's a bit of brutal death on it sometimes, a black metal vocal or two for emphasis here and there, some great guitar and drum work. Give this one a listen-- it's a wild ride.

https://coyoterecords.bandcamp.com/album/desire-for-murder

#metal #DeathMetal #RussianMetal #RussianBands #2025Albums #2025Records @wendigo @HailsandAles @rtw @BlackenedGreen @lola @umrk @Kitty

Grima – Nightside Review

By Carcharodon

Siberia’s Grima and I are old friends. Even though I only managed to snaffle reviewing rights on their last outing, 2022’s Frostbitten, each of their three releases since I started my indeterminate sentence here at AMG Industries has made my year-end Lists. From the raw, folksy, accordion-driven black metal charms of Will of the Primordial (2019), through the more grandiose (if ever so slightly tropey) atmoblack of Rotten Garden (2021) to pick-of-the-pack Frostbitten, Grima has my number. Keeping runtimes tight (apart from their 2015 debut, always in that 43-48 minute sweetspot), accordions high and temperatures close to absolute zero, brothers Vilhelm and Morbius (also of Second to Sun1) just know how to construct great albums. Since we last saw them, however, Grima has moved away from the great black metal label Naturmacht Productions, to join Napalm Records. While no doubt very good for the band, and deserved recognition of their labors, this left me doing infuriating battle with Napalm’s stream-only version of latest outing, Nightside. Have the repeated pauses and refusals to play2 dented my enjoyment?

At this point, it feels like Grima’s songwriting is quite deliberate. That may feel like an odd thing to say. Isn’t songwriting always deliberate? Well, yes. And no. Perhaps “reflective” would be a better descriptor. What I mean is that it seems like the brothers take time to digest their last work before tweaking the dials to lock in what worked while refining other parts. We saw the ‘atmoblack’ dial being cranked for Rotten Garden, while it was nudged back down again and the ‘speed’ knob twizzled for Frostbitten. For Nightside, the dial marked “accordion/bayan” has had a damn good thrashing (courtesy of Sergey Pastukh, once again) and, if there were an adjustment labelled “urgency,” that has also hit 11. Nightside feels vibrant, alive and dripping atmosphere (“The Nightside”), with guest drummer Vlad in propulsive gear (“Beyond the Dark Horizon”), while Vilhelm and Morbius’ dual guitar attack channels every crystalline, hoarfrost encrusted tremolo we could want (“Where We Are Lost”).

Taking everything that was great about Frostbitten, Grima has circled back to sweep up some of the more traditional influences on Will of the Primordial, combining them with liquid smooth pacing that shifts perfectly track to track. It seems unnecessary at this point to note that Vilhelm’s harsh vox are among the best black metal rasps available today, marshalling the iciest of tundra winds to shred your eardrums. On “Impending Death Premonition” and “Curse of the Void,” he is joined by guests Savely Nevzorov and Ilya Panyuko, who contribute deep, clean backing vocals that elevate the sound further. Echoing this vocal feel, in the slower moments of Nightside, there’s something teetering on the edge of a symphonic doom sound (the opening to “Flight of the Silver Storm” and mid-sections of “Skull Gatherers”). While, in the faster passages (including the accordion … riff? … that rears up during instrumental “Intro (Cult)”), there is a sort of rabid intensity that hits peak Grima (front half of “The Nightside” and back half of next track “Where we are Lost,” forming a great arc).

Mixed and mastered, as before, by Second to Sun guitarist Vladimir Lehtinen, Grima sound just as good on Nightside as they did on Frostbitten (subject to the caveats around only having a stream, yada yada, etc.). The guitars are quite forward in the mix but their crystalline tone means they don’t dominate, while the accordion is given a lot of space to do its wonderful thing. Vilhelm’s vocals are well-balanced and cut through like the proverbial icy wind, giving the whole an extra bite. Grima’s songwriting continues to progress, and Nightside feels like the most nuanced and best-paced outing to date. If I have one criticism of this record, it’s that I’d like it to just go a little harder in a few places. The one-two of mid-album cuts “The Nightside” and “Where we are Lost” is some of, if not the, best material Grima has ever written, and that is because they go hard.

So, did the stream ruin Nightside for me? Well, no, but it tried its bloody hardest. And I do think that, if I’d been able to enjoy this record’s obvious flow without it constantly stopping, refusing to play, and so on, the score could have been even higher than it is. While that may see Steel celebrating, and I hope the new deal serves Grima well, I don’t know why it’s so hard for labels—if they insist on sharing stream-only promo—to make those streams, I don’t know how to put this, um, work? Since it tends to be higher profile bands that are impacted by this, the labels are only harming their most valuable assets.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: N/A | Format Reviewed: Stream only
Label: Napalm Records
Websites: grima.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/grimablackmetal
Releases Worldwide: February 28th, 2025

#2025 #40 #AtmosphericBlackMetal #BlackMetal #Feb25 #FolkMetal #Grima #NapalmRecords #Nightside #Review #Reviews #RussianMetal #SecondToSun

Pyre – Where Obscurity Sways Review

By Dear Hollow

Swedeath is one of those games I have zero skin in, but its close overlap with hardcore-influenced death metal and death ‘n roll makes that relationship complicated. Like I could not be bothered by Left Hand Path, but Wolverine Blues is a stalwart among my music collection; Bloodbath is regrettably not an act I return to regularly,1 but I consider Black Breath one of those rare successful intersections of grind, death metal, and death ‘n roll. My point is, I don’t know where the line is drawn between these styles but I know I like some of it and then can’t be fussed about the rest of it. With Pyre, the jury’s still out.

Where Obscurity Sways is the Saint Petersburg quartet Pyre’s third full-length, and it wavers between full-on Entombed worship and something resembling Fuming Mouth. Professing a frigidity more closely resembling black metal coursing throughout, Pyre offers chunky riffs, feral vocals, tense tremolo and chuggy shreds, and a bouncy sense of ubiquitous buzzsaw and passages of doomier tempos, alongside a wailing lead guitar whose rip-roaring solos are owed to multiple members’ contributions to the traditional heavy metal sister act Blazing Rust. Pyre throws the kitchen sink at us, blurring the lines between hardcore- and Swedeath-influenced death metal, boasting that black metal chill and no-holds-barred attitude – only for Where Obscurity Sways to go in one ear and out the other.

That’s not to say you won’t swing your fists and break your neck across Where Obscurity Sways. Big groovy meatheaded fun is front and center with Pyre, a monosyllabic approach that’s as effective as its moniker, despite its various experimentalisms. In the sweet spot that finds itself between chunky riffs, wailing leads, and punishing weight at the mercy of the shifting tempos (“Murderous Transcendence,” “Writhing Souls”), the album pumps adrenaline, utilizing sticky chugging riffs as both capitalization of crescendo and simmering burn. When black metal rears its despondent head (“Murderous Transcendence,” “Prognostic of the Apocalypse”), the sound is transported to a cold second-wave atmosphere that it aims for. Composition is precise and effective, as a smart use of shifting tempos and proper utility of punk beats lead to satisfying conclusions of both intensity and doom (“Where Obscurity Sways,” “Pestilential Fumes”). Barked and howled vocals, provided by bassist Dym Nox, land squarely in crusty territory throughout, although the isolated occurrence of death metal gutturals (“From the Stygian Depths”) is a welcome change of pace for Pyre.

Pyre’s monotonal vocals and inconsistent uses of tempos keeps it from achieving its true potential. The Russians run quite similarly into the same issues as Arizona’s deathgrind/death-doom band Thorn, in which the atmosphere and weight is communicated well enough, but nothing more breaks through the surface. Where Obscurity Sways is entirely inconsistent, Pyre’s tracks blur together in monotonous doom sprawls, but then utilize different tricks for each half of the album: the first half weaponizes wailing leads and ominous melodies, while the second dwells entirely in darkened tremolo. Each has its highlights (“Where Obscurity Sways,” “Pestilential Fumes”) and their droning sloggers (“Domains of the Nameless Rites,” “Chanting Ancient Incantations”). While the two instrumental pieces are decent enough to establish a semblance of atmosphere, their motifs are not utilized across the rest of the tracks for it to stick. In true crusty fashion, Pyre saturates its sound into a crusty, HM-2, Swedeath goo, so it’s easy to let the album at large settle into the background.

Apart from “Murderous Transcendence” and “Writhing Souls,” the whole of Where Obscurity Sways hangs out in relatively decent yet ultimately forgettable territory. Somehow Pyre makes the album seem too long even at a very reasonable thirty-six minutes, but when several songs blur together into a featureless expanse, it’s difficult to track. Some tracks are smartly composed, others painfully dull. Despite its attempt to blend Swedeath, hardcore, doom, and black metal, it keeps tripping itself up with inconsistent tempos and motifs. Utilizing more death vocals, sticky chugs, and black metal, Pyre will have a winning formula. As it stands, Where Obscurity Sways stays obscure.

Rating: 2.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Osmose Productions
Websites: pyredeathmetal.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/pyredeathmetal
Releases Worldwide: January 31st, 2025

#20 #2025 #BlackBreath #BlackMetal #BlazingRust #Bloodbath #DeathMetal #DeathDoomMetal #Entombed #FumingMouth #Hardcore #Jan25 #OsmoseProductions #Pyre #Review #Reviews #RussianMetal #Thorn #WhereObscuritySways