Album Reviews

Los Angeles-based death metal quintet Kommand returns with a brand new 'Death Age' album out via 20 Buck Spin on March 31st, 2023. The band’s second outing takes a huge step in the evolution of perfecting their oppressive and raw trademark sound. Combining streamlined guitars and crushing drums in the vein of Bolt Thrower, the plodding percussion and the rotten guitars immediately unfold a creepy, cavernous experience.
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Avantgarde Music presents the first full-length album “The Ravening” of the symphonic black metal project Argenthorns. Draped in the cinematic luxurious style of baroque black metal, the multi-musician Lord Vrăjitor (Warmoon Lord) opens the portal to a realm of wonderment. And for the most part of this debut offering Argenthorns music echoes in the symphonic form of black metal a la Bal-Sagoth, Limbonic Art and Tartaros.
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The supreme inauguration of the internationally-based death metal act Hyperdontia quickly placed itself in the category of one of the brutal death metal bands in the genre today. The four-piece Malik Çamlıca (bass), Tuna (drums), Mustafa Gürcalioğlu (lead guitars), and, Mathias Friborg (guitars, vocals) released two albums and three EPs and shifted their style from cavernous death metal to more brutal sound. The newest EP “Deranged” released by Me Saco un Ojo Records (vinyl), Dark Descent Records (CD), and Dessicated Productions (Tape) on March 15th, 2023 defines the technical skills of the individuals, the four songs cement the classic gory style of U.S. death metal.
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Suicide Silence is an American deathcore band founded in 2002 with Mitch Lucker. Sadly, their frontman and face of the band passed away in a motorcycle accident in 2012. The band picked up the pieces and after a year of silence they came back with Eddie Hermida from All Shall Perish as new vocalist of the band. And now they're back with their 7th album the fourth already with Hermida.
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I think it takes balls to attempt a cover of a David Bowie song. L.A. based Classless Act must have pretty enormous ones as they not only cover 2 of Bowie's songs, but songs that are very iconic and pretty much sublime in their original form: Starman and All The Young Dudes.
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“Obiasot Dwybat Ptnotun” is the fifth album by the São Paulo trio Anarkhon that features members from the Brazilian black/thrash metal Power From Hell. Although the new album is the most accomplished work by the trio since the predecessor “Phantasmagorical Personification of the Death Temple” the songs on the album are imbued with thematic sepulchral mood, eerie melody, and brutal tempos.
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Costa Rica death metal four-piece Astriferous is among the rising talents in the Central American continent. To those who are not familiar with the band, Astriferous debuted its EP “The Lower Levels of Sentience” in the year 2020. After signing a worldwide deal with Me Saco un Ojo and Pulverised Records, the first full-length album “Pulsations From the Black Orb” was released on March 10th, 2023 and captures the cacophonous sound of old-school death metal. The band’s lineup consists of José María Arrea (drums), Federico Gutiérrez (guitars, vocals), Felipe Tencio (guitar, vocals), and José Pablo Phillips (bass, vocals).
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The U.S. trio Majesties hits the jackpot in their debut full-length album “Vast Reaches Unclaimed” released via 20 Buck Spin on March 3rd, 2023. Consisting of members from Inexorum and Obsequiae the lineup includes Mathew Kirkwold (bass guitar), Carl Skildum (guitars), and Tanner Anderson (vocals, guitars, and drums). In this beautiful piece of nostalgia, we are rather confronted with superb guitar hooks transporting you to the mid-nineties era of what was known as the glorious years of Gothenburg melodeath metal.
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Japan’s FesterDecay is a four-piece band that seems to be inspired by the goregrind era of the late eighties. The band was formed in 2016 and has released two demos and a single compilation. Even though it's their first full-length album, “Reality Rotten to the Core” has turned into a damn filthy record, build on the classic core of bands like Carcass. A quite impressive feat by the Japanese quartet, released via Everlasting Spew Records on February 24th 2023.
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Featuring former members of Deströyer 666, Cemetery Urn and Deluge, Lumen Ad Mortem is a newer band that recently caught my attention. Their style demonstrates how black metal can sound relative to a more 90s approach. The debut 'Upon the Edge of Darkness' was released on January 27th, 2023 via Bitter Loss Records has its own unique identity. Lumen Ad Mortem was established in 2019 and released a single demo containing three tracks which are also featured on the debut.
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