In 2020 I reviewed Seattle’s atmospheric black metal band- Izthmi’s impressive debut The Arrows of Our Ways. The band had only released a prior demo and I had never heard of them before and was blown away by the debut album. Album #2 Leaving This World, Leaving It All Behind sees the band progressing in […]

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I blindly hit ‘play’ on Bexadde, on Germany’s FDA Records after getting the CD in the mail along with the new Slaughterday. With that moniker, I was maybe expecting some fuzzed-out stoner doom? But I certainly not modern atmospheric/post-black metal, not exactly what FDA Records is known for. […]

Can someone in the Norfolk (UK) area please go and check on NRE? Seriously, from what I’m hearing on his sixth and final album under his And Now The Owls Are Smiling moniker, he must have undergone some drastically emotional shit since 2021s Dirges, a despondent but still atmospheric and at times melodic black metal […]

Heading into 2022, I had no idea that this was going to wind up being my most heavily anticipated album of the year. Granted, I’d have to have been some kind of all-seeing mage or wizard or whatever, because, until the first day of this year, nobody knew Blackbraid even existed (ok, before someone writes […]

I’ve been a big fan of Maine’s Falls of Rauros for a while now with the band’s last 2 efforts, 2017s Vigilance Perennial and 2019s Patterns in Mythology making my year-end lists, with the former being in my top three for 2017. So it kind of pains me to say that that trend might end […]

Germany’s Vorga burst into the scene about 6 years ago and released an EP, but Striving Toward Oblivion is their debut full length album and showcases a trailblazing style of black metal. Opening this 8 song 45 minute album is “Starless Sky” and what an opening ripper of a lead off song. Massive blasting equipped with […]

Here’s a band and album specifically for those that want older/early Deafheaven back and thought the new album, Infinite Granite was ….not good (but that’s a whole other discussion…). And yes count me in that number. Møl (‘Moth’) is a Danish post-black/shoegaze band that finds itself on Nuclear Blast after a debut album, Jord back […]

“Good Things Come to Those Who Wait” – Lady Mary Montgomerie Currie. I’m not sure there is a more apt proverb than the above one when it comes to Dessiderium, (loosely meaning ‘an ardent desire or longing for something lost’), the solo project from Alex Haddad, also the guitarist/vocalist for tech-death metallers Arkaik. Both for […]

I’ve enjoyed Tacoma Washington’s Alda for a few albums now, particularly 2011s :Tahoma: and 2015s Passage, their last effort, on a match made in heaven label, Bindrune Recordings. But after 6 years of silence, and a split from Bindrune, I wasn’t sure where the band was at, considering some of their peers (Panopticon, Falls of […]

With helpful ghost bathing tips in mind, here is Ghost Bath with their fourth overall full length, Self Loather. I’ve never quite understood the hate these guys seem to get. While I never fell in love with them, I do own their last two albums and enjoyed them despite some minor quibbles. Luckily, they decided […]

So here’s an odd one, so bear with me here. I fell in love with this dreamy, ‘whispering’ Dutch atmospheric black metal duo with 2020s Bloem, which made my year-end list that year and subsequently purchased prior albums Dromers and Luwte.  I had no idea this album was even coming out until I found out […]

Do you like Summoning?  Do you llike long songs with epic orchestration over militant, mid-paced black metal with songs of ancient battles and distant lands played by a European duo? Do you wish Caladan Brood would hurry the fuck up and release a follow-up to Echoes of Battle? If you answered yes to any of […]

Let me start out by saying I’ve rewritten this intro and parts of the subsequent review 3 times now. That’s what happens when I have way too much time with an album and question the articulation of my thoughts. I’m always trying to write a funny, witty, creative, suitably childish intro, and sometimes when I […]

I wish I had heard Canadian, one person act Unreqvited, before I reviewed the excellent EP from Christian Cosentino earlier this spring as they would have been an excellent reference point for that review. And there are so few for this style of outside of the box, happy but despondent, organic shoegaze/black metal past the […]

I’m just gonna go ahead and start a personal series called “Dumbass Steve Discovers a Band That’s Been Around a Long Time but He’s Just Now Finding Out About.” I’ve officially made it a habit. In my defense, Pennsylvania/New Jersey’s Duskmourn (active since 2012) don’t appear to have any kind of super active social media […]

In theory, I should have been all over this release, the debut from Oregon’s Felled (formerly known as Moss of Moonlight). It’s Cascadian, atmospheric black metal with a violin. Not an occasional violin, but like My Dying Bride, Exulansis or Hung, a full-on, full-time, violin, courtesy of Tiffany Holliday who along with some of the […]

In May of last year, I review’s Skam’s Sounds of Disease – an album that perfectly encapsulated the times we were living in. A blistering, manic foray into a world of mental anguish and instability that just seemed more and more an appropriate soundtrack as the year went on. Nearly a year later, things on […]

I’m really enjoying what French label, Antiq Records is doing of late. I first discovered them with 2019s Par le sang versé from Véhémence, which made my 2019 year-end list. And now, here is 2021, they have a trio of excellent releases that could all end up on my year-end list from Hanteroz, Ascète, and […]

Listen, I’ll be quite upfront- Heralds of Strife is my most anticipated album of the year. Both the previous albums from this criminally underrated Indonesian black metal act, (2015s Homeward Path and 2018s Fortress of Primal Grace) were my top albums of the year respectively. So this review not going to be very objective, as […]

So first up, here is your early contender for the year’s most unreadable logo, right? I’m new to California’s Aylwin, though they have a pretty good amount of demos, Eps and splits under their belt since 2012, But the promotional email had buzz words like Alda, Ameseours, Wolves In The Throne Room, and ‘nature-centric atmospheric […]

I’m embarrassed to say I’m new to this Austrian atmospheric/post-black metal duo and their 4 prior albums, despite some familiarity with their previous band, Viking/Pagan themed black metal act, Bifrost. It appears to be a criminal oversight on my part, as I delved into the band’s back catalog to prepare for this review and the duo […]

I grabbed this promo based on 2 things; 1) the fact it’s on the UKs Clobber Records, who released the excellent Argesk debut last year, and 2) I’m still on my melodic/atmospheric black metal kick from 2020 that comprised of over half of my year-end list. Norfolk’s (not too far from my old Fenny stomping […]

So earlier this summer, I got 2 Quebec Black Metal releases to review from Sepulchral Productions, both beginning with ‘S’, both featuring members of other Quebec bands and both being pretty good, atmospheric black metal. First up was Sombre Heritage and the one-man debut Alpha Ursae Minoris, which is pretty solid, and then this debut […]

Ars Magna Umbrae’s previous album, Lunar Ascension, was a good, but not great representation of post black metal. One standout is that the cover looked like a duck-billed platypus. If you take one piece of information from this review, let that be it. You can’t unsee it. Once you’ve stopped laughing, you need to wipe […]

Sojourner hail from a lot of various countries, such as Sweden and New Zealand.  I admit to being a recent fan of their music and they have been around since 2015.  Their debut in 2016, Empires of Ash and follow-up in 2018 The Shadowed Road are both excellent.  The band blending atmospheric black metal with […]