Album Reviews

The British prog masters of Haken are bringing their already seventh album to the world. 'Fauna' seems an unusual title in all the dark and depressive album titles we come along in the metal world. Let this not surprise you, 'Fauna' consists of multiple themes like the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, dark lyrics on failed relationships (hence the link to the black widow) to name a few. Each song has also an animal assigned to it, for which Haken has a meaning on how this relates to the real world and to the song's composer. Sounds quite challenging, isn't it ?
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Texan old-school death metal five-piece Frozen Soul unleashed its sophomore release “Glacial Domination” on May 19th, 2023, via Century Media Records. Taking their sound further into a heavy blizzard slab of raw death metal, the lineup of Samantha Mobley (bass guitar), Michael Munday (guitar), Chan Green (vocals), Matt Dennard (drums) and Chris Bonner (guitar) deliver a gripping power through the eleven new tracks. “Global Domination” defines the coherence of its riffing artillery by maintaining the energetic groove and the sheer quality of fusing galloping riffs into oppressive heaviness.
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Invent Animate is an American progressive metalcore band formed in 2011. After releasing 2 great albums called 'Everchanger' (2014) and 'Stillworld' (2016) longtime vocalist Ben English decided to leave the band. But they searched for a replacement and found it in the form of Marcus Vik and released 'Greyview' in 2020 and their fan base became even bigger. And now here is album number 4. Everybody knows that with their 4th album you can make it or break it, so let's see, shall we.
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Mat McNerney is a musical centipede. It’s actually mind-boggling if you stop to think what a wide range this artist has, and in how many quintessential albums he’s actually been involved in. From his early career in transforming Dødheimsgard from straight-up black metal to the avant-garde hydra it became later on, to the psychedelic folk of Hexvessel, and now the gothic post-punk of Grave Pleasures.
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Finnish black metallers Ondfødt will drop its newest album “Det Österbottniska Mörkre” on May 26th via Black Lion Records. Formed in 2013 by Dario Kåll (guitars) and Owe Inborr (vocals, guitars) with new members joining the fold in 2023 such as Joel Notkonen (bassist) and Tommi Tuhkala (drums). Over the last decade, Ondfødt went through some musical changes, but there seems to be a fundamental aim to take the music to the next level and this is what makes the fourth album a great achievement for the band.
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Burying Point is the first album by Darker Days and it is steeped in the history and traditions of where they are from. If you are going to perform in the horror punk genre, I guess that coming from the Halloween capital of the world, Salem, Massachusetts, gives you some significant credibility.
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International progressive death metal four-piece VoidCeremony returns with their follow-up release 'Threads of Unknowing' out since April 14th, 2023. The band consists of renowned members from U.S. and Australian death metal bands like Ascended Dead, StarGazer, and Chthe’ilist. Three years after releasing their first studio album 'Entropic Reflections Continuum: Dimensional Unravel' VoidCeremony conveyed a broad-ranging and highly technical skills to their jazz-infusion death metal style.
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California’s progressive death metal/grindcore five-piece Cattle Decapitation is back with a brand-new album “Terrasite” out on May 12th, 2023 via Metal Blade Records. The tenth endeavor represents significant sonic complexity and tracks in hyperspeed. While the previous album “Death Atlas” had a theme of apocalyptic atmosphere, the latest opus provokes such visions interpreted in the melodic direction of death metal/grindcore. The lyrical contents take place in an urban world and prophesize scenarios of death and destruction, Cattle Decapitation’s line-up is fronted by vocalist Travis Ryan, rhythm guitarist Belisario Dimuzio, lead guitarist Josh Elmore, bassist Olivier Pinard, and drummer David McGraw.
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Redemption is a band that has been already around in the metal scene for over twenty years. Really never followed this band, untll now as a friend told me to check out this new album 'I Am The Storm'. Nick van Dyk is the main songwriter and has the ability to express himself through music with on the one hand melancholic and on the other hand hopeful melodies. With Tom Englund ( Evergrey ) as the new singer who replaces the even more iconic Ray Adler from Fates Warning, Redemption shows us that Tom is the right man for the right job.
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With the release date on April 7, 2023, Powerwolf was just in time for the Christian Holiday Easter to release their new album 'Interludium'. On this album we will find 6 new tracks and 4 rare tracks that were previously released, but only on certain limited edition versions or only in certain regions. Now those are all together on one album.
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