Japan’s envy has been at it for 32 years now,  and have over 20 releases (albums, splits, EPs/etc) to their credit. Their last album, The Fallen Crimson made my year-end list in 2020 in part to some utterly gorgeous female vocals enhancing the already mesmerizing, soaring post-rock/metal. Now, four years later, we get Eunoia (a […]

2022 has been quite the year for  Hoaxed. While maybe not a meteoric rise, per se, the virtually unknown Portland duo – armed with only a 4 song self-titled EP to their name – landed a surprise rotation on tour earlier this year with Amorphis, Uada and Sylvaine which, when you hear the band for the first […]

Holy Shit!, Here is a wonderful, unexpected surprise. Back in the mid 00s I was enamored with a band called The Pax Cecilia, who released 2 self-released and free releases with 2004s Ep, Nouveau and 2007s Blessed Are the Bonds, (which I covered back in the day at one of my other review sites Metalreview.com/ […]

As I write this review, it’s the second week of June – and so far in these two weeks, we’ve had a rainy, miserable weekend with a HIGH of 38 degrees, we’ve had a 3 day stretch of hot, sticky, humid 90s, and just about everything in-between. I’M OVER IT! Just give me normal summer […]

Back in 2016, New Hampshire’s Vattnet Viskar looked poised to break out in a BIG friggin’ way. While genre darlings Deafheaven were indeed the face and forefront of a blooming Blackgaze scene, the Granite Staters had made some giant strides to make a name for themselves in An increasingly packed field, leading up to 2015’s […]

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 […]

Sometimes, timing is everything. A song, an album, even a single melody, given the right circumstances or moment in time, can leave an indelible mark on your life. Nearly a year ago, such an album was added to a lifelong playlist of works that will forever hold a special place in my heart – Cattle […]

“Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.” -Denis Diderot. Hailing from the state of Washington, Bréag Naofa (Gaelic for ‘holy lie’) are a relatively new act comprised from members of other Washington based based acts Trial, Sinking Ships and Love Is Red. And for […]

Willowtip has scored yet another massive-sounding and terrifying band in Australia’s Beyond Terror Beyond Grace. If you want to know what they sound like, well, the name says it all. These guys have created a black/post-metal sound at once brutal and transcendent – full of terror, full of grace and yet beyond both. Nadir pulverizes you with […]