Album Reviews

German heavy metal group U.D.O. has set the charts ablaze with its newest album “Touchdown” released on August 25th, 2023, via Atomic Fire Records. With their seventeenth album under their belt, Udo Dirkschneider proves to be one of the greatest vocalists in the heavy metal genre. After his departure as the vocalist for the German heavy/speed metal band Accept the man remains a legend with his charisma and powerful vocals. U.D.O. has had a great run since 1987 with impressive discography including classic albums like “Animal House”, “Mean Machine”, “Time Bomb” and more.
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Hailing from Northern New Jersey, Dead And Dripping is a solo project formed in 2016 by Evan Daniele (Sentient Horror, Anal Exorcism, and Vulnificus). Named after Cryptopsy’s song, the third album “Blackened Cerebral Riffs” incorporates the gore and brutal influence from classic death metal acts like Suffocation, Gorguts, Demilich, and Suffocation, and is the first synergy between the multi-instrumentalist and the Asian label Transcending Obscurity Records.
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A Life Divided have been described as the German Linkin Park and while that isn't wrong it reminds me even more on the early songs of The Rasmus. On their newest album, 'Down The Spiral Of A Soul', they go into a bit darker and harder territory. This album is strongly influenced by the current events, so it's certainly not a fun and sunshine kinda album. Let's get right into it.
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Returning for another successful outing Denmark’s death metal four-piece Undergang launches its brand-new EP 'De Syv Stadier Af Fordærv' out on Me Saco Un Ojo and Dark Descent Records on September 1st, 2023. Since its formation in 2008 Undergang managed to gain a respectable reputation for being top top-notch caliber in the underground scene. 'De Syv Stadier Af Fordærv' delivers a pulverizing set of organic and brutal songs. The recording is probably one of the best in the band’s discography.
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Swedish black metal war machine Marduk is ready to set the world ablaze with their most anticipated album titled “Memento Mori” out on September 1st, 2023, via Century Media Records. Among the many Scandinavian bands in the underground scene, Marduk manifests its formidable strength in creating a legacy as one of the longest-running bands in the history of black metal. Fronted by guitarist and founder Morgan Håkansson in 1990, the band’s fifteenth album grasps all the characteristics of sounding fast and furious. With vocalist/bassist Daniel Rostén (Funeral Mist and, Triumphator), and a new drummer Simon Schilling who makes his first appearance on the album.
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Through the past fourteen years, Philadelphia’s death metal outfit Horrendous etched an innovative style in the modern death metal scene. Each of their studio albums were crafted hand in hand with progression from old-school death metal to technical melodic sound. The fifth album “Ontological Mysterium” which was released on August 18th, 2023, via Season of Mist exposes the efficiency of the quartet in combining their progressive elements. Horrendous’ has always had a penchant for sounding technical, and probably their albums like “Anareta” and “Idol” showed the creative ability of songwriting.
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For years now Texan metal outfit Spirit Adrift has been known under the guise of doom metal, fronted by the multi-instrumentalist Nate Garrett who returns with the band’s fifth album “Ghost At The Gallows” released on August 18th, 2023 via Century Media Records. Spirit Adrift started as a solo doom metal project in 2015 on the first full-length album “Chained to Oblivion” taking a slow detour towards traditional heavy metal style music. While evolving into the domains of 80s classic hard rock, it seems that Spirit Adrift once again has topped its sound, with the new lineup featuring bassist Sonny DeCarlo, drummer Mike Arellano and, guitarist Tom Draper.
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‘Haunted Funeral Creations’. Now that is as apt a description for doom metal as I’ve heard in a long time. That’s what the California based death doom outfit Tumulation must have found as well, since it is the moniker for their debut album.
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French avant-garde black metal outfit Blut Aus Nord returns for the second part of the Disharmonium album series out on August 25, 2023, via Debemur Morti Productions. The sequel slithers into something more dreadful with a stench of horror, evoking the sonic work and thematic inspiration of H.P. Lovecraft. Mastermind Vindsval delves deeper into the uncanny dimensions of horror invoking the dark deities of the cosmos, “Disharmonium – Nahab” presents an intricate blend of black metal and eerie atmosphere with eleven hymns that summons the ancient darkness.
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U.S. death metal veterans Incantation returns with its new studio album “Unholy Deification” offers visceral and organic songs flawlessly helmed by guitarist/vocalist John McEntee, guitarist Luke Shively, bassist Chuck Sherwood, and drummer Kyle Severn. Being on the top of the genre along with bands like Immolation, Cannibal Corpse, and Autopsy, the four-piece show their expertness as proficient songwriters. Incantation opts for a brutal and diverse sound with a slew of guest appearances such as vocalist of Possessed (Jeff Beccera), vocalist/guitarist Henry Veggian (ex-Revenant), and guitarist Dan Vadim Von (Morbid Angel).
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