Album Reviews

Hulder is a solo act formed by the originally Belgian, but now US-based multi-instrumentalist whose influence stemmed mainly from the European traditional black metal. Although Hulder’s first full-length album “Godslastering: Hymns of a Forlorn Peasantry” was well-received by many fans of the genre, the resulting hype ensured that Hulder would soon return with a brand-new album. The sophomore “Verses In Blood” is scheduled for a release date on February 9th, 2024 via 20 Buck Spin, the growing talent flecks in the chilling tremolo-picked riffs and exalting the true essence of the 90s black metal.
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French black/death four-piece Necrowretch are back with their 5th studio album “Swords of Dajjal” out via Season of Mist since February 2nd, 2024. Musically, Necrowretch captures the old-school vibe of black metal their sound can be chaotic fast, and blasphemous. “The Swords of Dajjal” is a savage and ominous soundtrack to the demons of hell. Now almost ten years after the release of the first studio album “Putrid Death Sorcery”, the band gradually evolved over the past sixteen years, but aesthetically Necrowretch developed more of an evil and darker sound within the bounds of black and death metal.
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Hailing from Oslo, Norway, Sovereign is a relatively newly formed band that plays death/thrash metal in the old school style of the 80s. Having formed in 2018 the band managed to release a single demo and one EP “Neurotic” in 2020, the line-up features present and former members from black metal and thrash bands like Den Saakaldte, Incinerator and Nocturnal breed. Sovereign’s first full-length studio album was released via Dark Descent Records on January 19th, 2024.
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Chilean death metal cult Unaussprechlichen Kulten has been around for over two decades. Since 2005 the band bestowed its devotion to the ancient cult, becoming one of the main acts in the underground scene in South America. The band’s evolution pursues the primordial sound of death metal with an inspiration crawling out from the Latin American method like Masacre, Mortem, and many more Unaussprechlichen Kulten’s 6th album “Häxan Sabaoth” is released via Iron Bonehead Productions on February 2nd, 2024.
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Portland, Oregon-based death metal four-piece Vitriol launched its second full-length album “Suffer & Become” on January 26th, 2024, via Century Media Records and while there is an interesting quality attributed to the insane drumming work, the band opted for a brutalized and blackened sound in general. Fronted by Kyle Rasmussen (vocals, guitars), Adam Roethlisberger (vocalist, bass), Daniel Martinez (guitars), and Matt Kilner (drums) Vitriol managed to keep its furious amalgamation of fast-paced guitar riffs and swift tempo changes in sync with monstrous growls. The bombastic guitar arrangements and the drums propel a hail of blast beats and the guitar solos, and the melodies share the spotlight the album is bloated and stuffed full of chunky riffs.
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The long-awaited second full-length album “The Deepening” by the Norwegian black metal outfit Vemod took the social media by storm, out now via Prophecy Productions since January 19th, 2024. After 12 years of absence, it may have seemed that the band has perfected the definite tone of melancholy by honoring their roots in black metal. Vemod is roughly translated as a pensive sadness about the past, and this is precisely what the second album imparts through its rich landscape and wrapping it up with a somber and meditative atmosphere.
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British heavy metal institution Saxon still stands with might, four decades have passed, and these veterans never run out of ideas striking their fans with every studio album. “Hell, Fire and Damnation” contains the blazing power of Saxon’s heavy guitars, thanks to the magnificent musicianship of guitarists Doug Scarratt and Brian Tatler, with Biff Byford’s charismatic vocals and Nigel Glockler on drums and Nibbs Carter on bass guitar foraying into the spirit of NWOBHM. The 27th album is a perfect example of Saxon’s traditional approach that holds to its classic roots and metallic sound, therefore offering potent dynamism that impose its catchy riffage throughout the album. As always, the production is top-notch where most of the songs bring the unsheathing power of Saxon’s formula.
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Indian-based black/death metal outfit Tetragrammacide launched its second full-length album “Typho-Tantric Aphorisms from the Arachneophidian Qur’an” via Iron Bonehead Productions on November 3rd, 2023. While transgressing beyond the boundaries of the Abrahamic religions the duo M. Opium (vocals) and Entropymurti (bass, guitars) with the assistance of the session drummer Davide Billia (Beheaded, Antropofagus and among others) improved the songwriting quality of their newest album to staggering levels.
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Slidhr is an international black metal band that was formed in 2005 by the Irish guitarist and vocalist Joseph Deegan, the lineup also features members from Icelandic black metal band Sinmara, and Almyrkvi Bjarni Einarsson (drums) and, Stefan Dietz A.K.A. Draghkar (bass guitar) from Crescent, Nocte Obducta and Suel. After hearing the band’s sophomore “The Futile Fires of Man” which in my opinion was a modern approach to black metal and was well received by fans of genre. The trio now return together for a third album “White Hart!” released on October 13th, 2023, via Debemur Morti Productions.
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Serpents Oath has been quite the revelation for the Belgian black metal scene, coming out of seemingly nowhere with their fiery debut ‘Nihil’. On closer inspection however, it's revealed that these aren’t newcomers at all. At least not to the broader extreme metal scene: at the helm of this cult we find vocalist Tes Re Oth, who is in his daily life nor other than James Criz, the frontman for death doom veterans Insanity Reigns Supreme.
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