Seasons Beatings 2026

 

Happy a Happy Holiday season! Don't lace the turkey, milk and cookies. Thanks for reading and I'll see you in January!

-autothrall

Deceased - Children of the Morgue (2024)

Though I don't find myself listening to their first few records as often as I'd like, Fearless Undead Machines and all of the Deceased full-lengths beyond 1997 are regular staples in my listening rotation, ESPECIALLY around Halloween season where their tales of cult horror truly resonate. Queue the King Diamond, the Samhain, early Danzig, the Rob Zombie (laugh all you want), the Cradle of Filth, a whole lotta death metal and creepier atmospheric black metal, and then Virginia's finest for me. I didn't notice a strong reaction abroad to their latest, Children of the Morgue, but I was smitten as soon as I saw the collage of creepy dolls that make up the cover art, I knew we were going to those DVD/VHS racks and pulling out all the stops, so I turned the lights down, grabbed my popcorn and pressed PLAY.

In King Fowley I trust, for good reason, because Children of the Morgue is the same classy-as-fuck blend of heavy, speed, thrash and death metal that I've been loving for nearly 30 years. It doesn't ascend to the same heights as a Supernatural Addiction or Surreal Overdose, and you could argue that it plays it safe within those already-broadened margins of their sound, but Deceased is about songwriting consistency, and blending together the right level of atmosphere complementary to the themes with the classic metal across numerous genres that inspires them. So you'll get some dim, moody acoustics, cleaner narrated vocals from King, a lot that actually makes you feel like you're actually watching an obscure horror flick ("Terrornaut", for example), and it all blends seamlessly with the riffing variety, which ranges from the more melodic and welcoming to some of the old dissonance of The 13 Frightened Souls or Blueprints.

King has shifted more comfortably into his vocal role, which still sounds as great at it has on the last 7-8 albums. This allows Amos Rifkin to dominate the kit, on which he does a great job keeping in Fowley's down to earth style, maybe packing in a little more muscle. The riffs rarely disappoint, and even the less catchy ones feel like they're coming straight out of the Deceased playbook, while the leads maintain that memorable, workmanlike authenticity. Never too flashy, but fulfilling enough, with melancholic twists to them that suit the overall attitude of the recording. Children of the Morgue is clean, but they keep the instruments just raw enough in the mix that it doesn't suffer from polish that would leech away its underground aesthetics. It's a damn good album, and I like it as much as its predecessor Ghostly White, but it just happens that they've got four albums I enjoy even more. Still, if an album this good is the 'floor' of what they're capable of for the last couple decades...well, that's why they are one of our best American metal bands going today. Integrity in spades.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10]

https://www.facebook.com/deceasedofficial/

Profane Burial - The Rosewater Park Legend (2018)

The concept of 'orchestral black metal' with regards to horror or Gothic themes is one that has certainly been capitalized on heavily by England's Cradle of Filth, and they do a superb job keeping it riffy and grisly but threaded through with symphonic grace and twisted, poetic lyrics. That said, I'm glad there are usually a number of other acts trying their hands at it, with varying degrees of success. Profane Burial is a little known Norwegian band, a collaboration by members of bands like Images at Twilight, Haimad or Omnia Moritur, several of which also use the same sorts of symphonic components to accent other extreme metal approaches. The Rosewater Park Legend is a cohesive concept album, not sure if it's connected to the Silent Hill games or some local Norse event or urban legend, or something written just for this, but it's for sure consistent in tone across all 50 minutes.

The obvious comparisons will be bands like Limbonic Art, Dimmu Borgir and Emperor, but it's not nearly as sweeping as the middle choice nor as incendiary as the third. The symphonic ingredients are balanced quite evenly with the riffing, but there's also a kind of 'prog Wagner' vibe going on, where you get a lot of the bombast but it's broken up into a lot of start/stop and lurching moments. Ominous choirs will flow forth beneath the choppier march riffing in "The Soldier's Song", while "The Tale the Witches Wrote" has this ascending feel, once again Wagnerian but darker. The guitar riffs often have a rather pinpoint sense of technicality to them, they're never really lazy, but they do often descent into simple rhythmic chugging patterns which are one of my pet peeves with symphonic extreme metal, I want the guitars to really rival the orchestration. This is an issue I often have with bands like Septicflesh, even though I generally enjoy their material, they can occasionally go heavier on the bombast than the meat.

There's also a modular feel to The Rosewater Park Legend, as if the songs don't always have the best flow to them for emotional impact, but feel like they were all patched together. That doesn't take away from individual moments, but overall it can seem scattered despite its spooky, thorny tonal consistency. The vocals are more of a death metal guttural throughout, but they will occasionally spin off into more raspy black metal styles, and as tacky as it might seem, I wish there were some more spectral tones in them, male or female beyond just the choir sounds. But the musicianship is never under question here, merely the song structures which can often feel too cluttered for their own good. The Rosewater Park Legend has its moments, but it's not going to stick with you as much as other horror concept records like King Diamond's hot streak or the better-known symphonic black works from the band's countrymen.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

https://profaneburial.bandcamp.com/album/my-plateau

Celestial Sanctuary - Insatiable Thirst for Torment (2023)

Celestial Sanctuary came onto my radar with their 2021 debut Soul Diminished, it had some pretty distinctive artwork and fit right in with that death metal resurgence of bands like Tomb Mold, Cerebral Rot, Undeath, and Creeping Death, all cultivating old school sounds and then evolving them ever so slightly to become something refreshing. While that debut had a pretty solid, roiling, atmospheric production, Insatiable Thirst for Torment definitely operates with more clarity and maturity, not exactly changing up the style but delivering it in a way that might have more crossover appeal to a wider swath of the death metal audience. This is hardly novel stuff, the riff-set and general style reflect a plethora of influences, largely a twist on the Floridian death metal of yesteryear, but it's very well executed.

This is also measured stuff. The band can fire up the blasting speed when necessary, but they prefer to take their time and let you lay into a moderately paced groove. However, it's never stupid or simple, they will festoon the thicker rhythm riffs with squeals, atmospheric lead spikes, and all matter of variation in cuts like "Glutted with Chunder" or "Swivel Eyed and Gurning in the Shadow". Oh yes, the titles, these are some fairly literate gore hounds, but fear not, your scrubs will still be caked with blood by the time the double kick and blast of "Gutted with a Blunt Blade" resolves and you are permitted to escape. The drums are concise and killer, the bass has a nice fat tone to it, and the vocals are brutally restrained but always offer you that feel like they are being torn straight from the gut. Celestial Sanctuary is also unafraid to implement some atmospherics, like the gorgeous wailing that opens "Meandering Stream of Foul Fluid" or the tectonic, spacious doom dissonance in "Unquenchable Thirst...".

Pretty top shelf material from a band that knows how take simpler, choppier rhythms and then adorn them with enough character and atmosphere that they'll punch well above where you'd expect. It helps that the mix is phenomenal, you can really hear all these ingredients firing back and forth at you through your speakers while the central heaviness persists. It's not so catchy that I find myself thinking about it between listens, but when Insatiable Thirst for Torment is actually being pumped into my ears, I find it's another one that can fully captivate me. An easy recommendation if you're into any of the bands I listed above, or the heavier Blood Incantation stuff, or Vastum, Ulthar, or you want something to honor the legacy of groups like Morbid Angel, Incantation, and the like.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10]

https://celestialsanctuary.bandcamp.com/album/visions-of-stagnant-blood-2

Sacrilegion - From Which Nightmares Crawl (2022)

From Which Nightmares Crawl is a gem of a death metal record that must have passed me by initially; likely sitting in my promo folder and I just couldn't get around to it for a year or so after. The stunning cover art from John Quevedo Janssens heralds its opaque, abyssal sound quite well, and once into the music we're eviscerated by a choppy, semi-technical attack that seems to thread together inspiration from bands like Morbid Angel, Deicide and Vader, but never conforming too closely to any of them. I also felt like there was a dash of darker melodic death metal coursing through this, but rendered so diabolical that it would be unrecognizable from most of the Swedish precursors, and a pretty good comparison is Germany's Sulphur Aeon, although more on their death metal side.

Ultimately, though, this was a pretty damn good debut that clearly deserved more attention than it got, with a fully developed and advanced style that ticks a lot of boxes. Gruesome gutturals that are often punctuated or accented with snarls, sometimes a little overbearing as you'd hear in more modern death or deathcore stuff, but really well structured alongside the riffing. That, though, the riffing, is the star of the show for me...evil, clinical hybrid of surging death metal and slicing, saturated death/thrash tempos, churning and chopping constantly, from spurts of tremolo-picked madness to dissonance banks of chords that feel like you're undergoing surgery on the deepest layers of the conflagration. There's always some sort of darker harmony or twisted melodic death/thrash lick that emerges and gets your head nodding amidst all the more intense battery, which is anchored down by a thundering, turbulent, blasting drum performance. You can hear some bass curving beneath the riff-storm but it does blend in somewhat.

Sacrilegion also has some good lyrical qualities, even in song titles like "A Terrible Pilgrimage to Seek the Nighted Throne", "Transfixed in Spiral Ambiguity" or "The Hollow Blue Eyes of Yomi at Twilight", there's a little more intellectual sophistication than you might be expecting, and it translates well onto the music, which is practiced and certainly not primitive, but never overly technical or self-indulgent. The consistent breaks to more melodic riffs help balance out the choking darkness of the album's themes, especially in the depths of "Legacy of the Impaler" and From Which Nightmares Crawl just has that range and capacity to provided the well-rounded sort of death metal experience I am always seeking out. Intensity and restraint in equal measures, really listenable and I'm excited to hear whatever a sophomore album will sound like.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10]

https://sacrilegion.bandcamp.com/album/from-which-nightmares-crawl

Fondlecorpse - Dark Contagion (2017)

Dark Contagion is the sophomore full-length outing from Dutch death metallers Fondlecorpse, who released a record some years before it that was notable for the myriad horror movie references in the artwork. As with Creaturegore, this album is an exhibition in chunky death metal with memorable artwork, however it has some differences from its predecessor in that they're not simply cooking up nostalgia, but trying to take a more structured approach. The song titles still sound like a plethora of horror/sci-fi B-movies: "Terrorvision", "Bugstomper", "The Mutant Chronicles" and "Lunar Cycle Maniac", so it's not like they've abandoned the themes that inspired them, but this is not at all a sillier sounding effort within the genre, it's much more well-rounded.

Perhaps part of that is that the core member, vocalist Silvester 'The Goregnome" has recruited the insanely prolific Rogga Johansson for the guitars this time, a guy who makes the whole genre seem like old hate, as he literally brushes his teeth with death metal, butters his death metal for breakfast. With a focused role as he has on Dark Contagion, he delivers a bevy of churning, hammering riffs which aren't terribly different than what he's performing in Revolting or Ribspreader, but in support of the Goregnome's gruesome, drawn out growls. This record kicks hard with its great Swedish guitar tone, thick and pumpkin bass lines, and Rogga also likes to spit forth these simplistic, almost melancholic leads that work well as a contrast against the meaty charge of the rhythms. I definitely get some vibes of Cannibal Corpse or Severe Torture, only not as complex as those two can occasionally get, with the lower octave chords and the percussive marriage of the brute vocals and riffs.

But those airy, sad little leads, the use of samples, and the overall aesthetic definitely hearken more to that whole Razorback scene of bands, or also that West cost 'fun' death metal stuff from the US. Crypticus, Blood Revolt, Splatterhouse, Frightmare, Ghoul, Cannabis Corpse. Fondlecorpse might not conform to strictly to any one of their sounds, but they belong in the same conversation, a self-awareness and deep love of genre capitalized upon by good performances of quality musicians. Dark Contagion is not an album that stands to win any accolades for its genre, but if you're into death metal without pretention or excess polish, you can take this one off the shelf, pop it into your CD player and have a pretty good time listening through it.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

https://fondlecorpse.bandcamp.com/music

Sepulchral - Beneath the Shroud (2025)

There are a bunch of sepulcher/sepulchral bands with similar names that often get confusing for me; this one is Sepulchral from Spain, a death metal act with a very throwback sound that seeks to trace itself back to the proud lineage of the late 80s/early 90s and perhaps put a splash of fresh viscera across the formula. Beneath the Shroud is their sophomore album, a simple, focused and evil affair which eschews nuance and novelty almost entirely to create a largely-upbeat tour of the audience's nostalgia for gruesome vocals, hugely produced riffs, and creepy tales of horrors supernatural and fleshy. They remind me of another Spanish band, Undead, who also have this stripped-down approach to genre, but more for their aesthetic purpose than actually sounding the same in terms of production or songwriting.

There's certainly a little of the ancient Swedish propulsion here from bands like Nihilist, Entombed and Dismember, but also a bit of the more primitive Dutch stuff circa Asphyx. But Beneath the Shroud also has a punky vibe to how its simple chord structures sail along, perhaps more like a slowed death grind as if you were stretching out earlier Napalm Death riffs. It's very often predictable, clubbing along at a safe pace, and lacks atmosphere beyond just the old school vibes that the music creates on its own, but they do address this with some silky smooth leads (at the climax of "Conflagration of Sacred Bones"), or a few doomier riffs like the one that inaugurates "Torchless Crossroads". I personally love the heavy saturation on the guitars, it feels like you are wading through a pool of flesh, while the bass lines are caustic and audible, and the drums give a workmanlike momentum to the raw riffing progressions.

The vocals are a bit blunt and bloody, but certainly resonate well with the music even if they have a few monotonous patterns across the verses. This is about as un-pretentious as you're going to get within the field of death metal, there is nothing progressive or complex or labyrinthine ever, you're going to figure it all out the first journey through the dirt, and how you feel about that is going to inform your reaction to this record. I find it pretty authentic in its pursuit of purity, and liked the grim glazings of the lead guitars and the bands willingness to offer some slower material to contrast the shuffling mid-pace that they usually churn along with. That said, I also found it a little bit too familiar with so much of the death metal I've experienced these last 37-38 years. Riffs that just sort of manifest but never go anywhere interesting. Production and style are already managed well, Sepulchral just needs to flex its creative muscles to compose some darker, more atmospheric stuff, dig down to those deeper graves.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

https://sepulchraldeathmetal.bandcamp.com/

Doctor Smoke - The Witching Hour (2014)

I might not cover it much on these pages, but stoner/doom metal and rock is something I spin often, almost as my own personal alternative to the repetitive hard/heavy rock radio stuff that holds little interest for me after the first few times I heard it. You'll often as not find me blasting some Corrosion of Conformity, Monster Magnet, Queens of the Stone Age and their ilk, and Doctor Smoke is a band that figures into that particular spectrum. Super catchy style reliant heavily on the grooving Sabbath style riffs but then making it their own, with more melody and harmony present. I am in turns reminded me of a 'cleaner' Uncle Acid, England's Green Lung or even the more obscure Swedish group Terra Firma who put out a couple records at the end of the 90s into the new millennium.

It's 100% guitar awesome-sauce here, every lick taking the familiar and improvising it just so slightly with a tasteful twist of note progressions. It flows more than crushes, so it's never verging on the drudge side of doom metal; at it's darkest, you'll get a bluesy burner like "Evil Man" which makes great use of the bass for the verses, perforated with little guitars that steer towards the chords of the chorus, or "The Seeker" which just burns you with great riffs and a hard rock structure. But it's never all that dark, which might seem a betrayal of the artwork, titles and lyrics, but that's about the only complaint. I'd say that the playing is more adventurous than your average stoner rock, there's just more going on, I don't know if it takes 'risks' per se but there's a bit more flair, like they don't want to be confined to the same conventions, and it always sticks to your ears, well-written and anchored by a flawless drum and bass combo that lets the riffing express itself but gives its some breadth and dimension.

The vocals are also really good, with a bit of that snide, acidic 'wasteoid' sound to them that we so love in Uncle Acid, but they're not as washed out or saturated. I think there are also some parallels to Swede hard rock/metal bands like Ghost or Chronus only the music here is far different beneath that piercing, melodic cleanness. Production is damn good too although this is something they'd improve with their  sophomore Dreams of the Dead a whole seven years later, an album that takes the concepts here and makes them richer, more complex and memorable; but make no mistake about it, The Witching Hour was a very solid start, an album I still come back to on occasion. Cool horror lyrics (even if the music doesn't contribute as much creepiness here), great riffing and singing make Doctor Smoke one of the more hopeful acts on the US scene that might be able to step into the footprints of the titans.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10]

https://www.facebook.com/doctorsmokeband

Exhumed - Beyond the Dead EP (2023)

To the Dead was another darn good album from a band that has yet to fail me, but I wasn't completely in love with the production as I was with the tunes, so it didn't scale the heights of Gore Metal, Slaughtercult, or Death Revenge, some of my favorites. Beyond the Dead is a shorter follow-up, in title and overall aesthetics, with just four studio tracks, some of which might have come out as B-sides or bonus tracks, but all new to me at this time. It definitely rights the ship a little, the mix here just sounds a little more clear and vital to me than its predecessor, and the songs are actually quite good if you're into their post-Carcass brand of thrashing death/grind. All the riffs punch hard, the vocals deliver in their gruesome brute/snarl exchange, the leads are well written and it just has that exciting feel I always get from their records.

One of the tunes, "Septic Five" is a shorter piece, like something off 2019's Horror, so I didn't enjoy that as much as "Lysergicide" or "Rapid Unplanned Disassembly", but it still packs a lot into its minute duration and bangs your head four you. As an added bonus, there are also four live tracks which sound absolutely awesome. I've seen the band (more in their earlier years) and they definitely deliver, but these tunes are taken from across their catalogue and sound super clean without losing the sewage bass-lines, saturated gory tone, lead-work and such. Whether it's "In My Human Slaughterhouse" from the chunky debut, or "Dysmorphic" from Necrocracy, everything is performed as an accurate representation of its studio counterpart and as a worthwhile bone thrown to the fans of one our longest-lasting, consistent USDM bands to emerge in the 90s. I think it's digital-only, at least for now, and I do hope that changes, but if you like their recent records like To the Dead and Death Revenge, you won't be disappointed.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

https://www.facebook.com/ExhumedOfficial

Eternal - Cryptic Lust (2024)

Is she summoning the undead forth from their slumber? Is she some sort of banshee who is just inhabiting the same crypt? Why do these things look like skeletons but still have flesh, veins, and some musculature? Are they revenants? Ghouls? So many questions, but one that Arizona's Eternal does answer for us with their first proper full-length review is that they are one badass newer death metal band that drags some old school influences wriggling and hammering into the new age. This one heads straight back to that formative Florida sound pioneered by Death in the later 80s, and then bulks it up at the gym with mightier drumming, denser bass lines, and vocals that go over the top with that early style of Chuck Schuldiner, Martin van Drunen or John Tardy growl.

It's not a 1:1 sort of tribute by any means. Whereas a band like Gruesome is trying to emulate certain albums or eras of its influence, Eternal is just extracting that DNA from the cemetery fossils and then mutating it into their own strain. A Jurassic Park of grisly old punishment that goes hard in using some percussive force to clout the listeners. This does have its faster outbreaks, but it's more about the groove after groove, claustrophobic tightness to the rhythm section but executed with such meaty tones that you really have no prayer of finding a salad anywhere. They excel at the slower-to-mid speeds, where the bass lines are creeping and oozing along in the bottom of your ear canals, they can process these huge crush doom/death riffs in there too like in the bowels of "Torture Chapel", or a rolling sort of groove as in "Spectral Immolation" which reminds one heavily of something like "Where the Slime Live" off Morbid Angel's Domination. There's also something aesthetically Swedish threaded through this, like an added level of armor inspired by Entombed or Dismember but not copying the precise tone.

The intro and interlude are cool, the former a wash of evil organs to herald "Doorway to Tribulation", the latter a more whimsical, almost haunted saloon vibe before the title track explodes. The lead guitars do not always land for me; as frilly, spectral atmospherics they excel, but a few feel like they could have been molded into more evil yet melodic dimensions, rather than sounding a little forced and messy. The riffs can also feel a little samey across a few tracks, but every song has at least a few good ones to offer, so this is a minor flaw that will be hammered out with more experience and variety. All told, Cryptic Lust is an album I'd easily throw out there as a recommendation alongside a Necrot, Extremity, or the earlier Skeletal Remains efforts. Old school in spirit, heavier for the times, digestible but destructive death metal which helps you appreciate where it all first exhumed from thrash. Some versions of this also have a cover of "Deathcrush" by Mayhem, which fits in pretty well though they switch to a more black metal vocal for some of it and I don't know that that was necessary.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://eternalaz.bandcamp.com/album/cryptic-lust

Denial of God - The Horrors of Satan (2006)

Denmark's Denial of God is a band I always felt I should have gelled with, but never quite got there. They have amazing cover artwork on their albums, clear occult/horror themes to all their releases, and they're frankly one of the most seasoned black metal bands out of that entire scene, having a long legacy of shorter EP releases before they ever even dropped this debut full-length, The Horrors of Satan, in 2006. They seem to feed a more theatrical vibe than many of their peers, almost like a King Diamond playing purely in the black metal realm, and this does translate onto their recordings, with a number of intro or interlude pieces like "The Witch - Now a Restless Spirit" which is a whispered narrative over an acoustic guitar. Synths, down-tuned vocal chants, all manner of embellishments give this debut a classic, creepy Gothic horror feeling.

The material here is solid if not totally impressive, aesthetically comparable to a lot of the 90s Scandinavian black metal that surrounded them on their earlier works. There's more melody than you'd think, in tunes like "The Curse of the Witch", which have some NWOBM or German heavy metal elements coursing through the tremolo picked riff choices. However, most of the patterns are pretty much standard stuff, just catchy enough to carry you along the thrust of the blasted drums and snarls, an occasionally eerie melody peaking above the ordeal (as in "The Book of Ouifael"). The beats are fast as hell with loads of fills, and the band does dynamically shift around so that the tracks never get boring, with segues like bells and the aforementioned chants or narrative to give it all a dark storybook feel. There's one tracks here, "The Iron Gibbet", that clocks in at over 11 minutes of slower black metal, and I don't know that this one quite earns its length, because they're aren't a lot of interesting moments or surprises. The epic titular closer is nearly 13 minutes, and this one is faster paced in general as has a lot stickier riffs and dynamics.

It's a little imbalanced, and probably about 20 minutes too long (almost an hour total), but The Horrors of Satan is certainly worthwhile to revisit. It's got a raw, sinister atmosphere to it created through the throwback mix of guitars and the horror trappings, gruesome vocals, and it's certainly the most savage of  the three full length albums although I can't speak for all the EPs. That said, the style here is actually carried out across the rest of their catalogue, maybe a little cleaner in production, doomier or more progressive. I got a little bored with the sophomore, Death and the Beyond, but this debut is more vital and exciting, a decent time if you're into the more traditional Satanic black metal of the 90s but with a little more cinematic/horror appeal. Haunted castles, witches dancing around bonfires, werewolves, old black & white horror films, sacrifices, Denial of God has your back on this one, it just needed an edit or two for when it became a little redundant.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

https://denialofgod.bandcamp.com/music

Evilcult - Triumph of Evil (2025)

Evilcult is another band that has continued to evolve its sound alongside the other blackened speed/thrash hopefuls across the globe and wound up one the most promising acts in that field, keeping things fierce and fun while ramping up the musicianship. Triumph of Evil is an album that emphasizes a lot of pure heavy metal influence and melody while it maintains that speed metal substrate and the harsher vocals of Lucas 'From Hell', which have more of a death metal grunt to them than a lot of other comparable acts. The result comes across much like the Germans Cruel Force on their latest, which completely blew away their earlier material that was a cruder black/thrash style also. The Brazilians live or die off their blazing guitar work, and they're far from the graveyard in that regard.

This thing is like a tapestry of classic, melodic, licks which create atmosphere wherever they're integrated against the most driving rhythm section. Sure, many of the basic rhythms driving them are pretty typical for the genre, they don't go in any unusual or dissonant directions, but they always perfectly set up the exhibitions of NWOBHM-laced harmonies and other tremolo picked melodies which remind me of the more melodic direction bands like Running Wild took in the later 80s, which I happen to love. Leads are in general very good, tunes like "Midnight Ritual" and the title track leading the charge. The drums snap and gallop along while the bass pumps out a foundation, and the guitars stay airier and drifting about the fray in their eternal dance. The abusive vocals are an awesome contrast to such brighter music, I'd use Nite as a reference only these Brazilians are playing busier, more complex material, and the vocals are more multi-dimensional, which some more raving, loose lines to accompany the grunts.

The one part I wasn't thrilled with are the little falsetto screams which they use to often end verse lines,  this is just a cliche I've grown a little tired with this niche of bands, and while they work occasionally, they are the weakest part of the songwriting and execution here. Thankfully, there aren't enough of them to sour the experience more than a fraction. Triumph of Evil is well-produced, memorable, shakes things up with just enough variety (like the slower "Waves of Agony"), incorporates a light use of synths to great effect, and maintains a high level of consistency, with tail ender tracks like "Warrior of Doom" or "Nosferatu" hitting just as hard as not harder as the opening volleys, the latter with some barbaric guest vocals and lead from Armando Exekutor as well as some dope bass lines deep in the bridge. The lyrics all have the usual Satanic or horror cliche lyrics, but I'm not complaining because it all fits perfectly with the performances. As with Cruel Force, this is a 'next step' sort of record, more matured songwriting, fewer blemishes and one I'll be returning to for a long time.

Verdict: Win [8.75/10]

https://evilcult.bandcamp.com/music

Trog - Horrors Beyond (2024)

With a moniker like Trog, you'd probably expect knuckle dragging, primitive slam death metal, and for short bursts of Horrors Beyond, they have you covered. But in truth, this full-length debut (after a pair of EPs) from the Jersey brutes is surprisingly varied, with something to offer fans of numerous death metal niches. It's definitely rooted in the brutal death metal of the earlier 90s, with clear Cannibal Corpse parallels, but they'll also hurl an unexpected, sticky melody in your direction, or drop out of the burst of violent speed into one of those aforementioned slam grooves which seems primed for the pit. Where it can get punishing and intense, as if you were beating yourself with a brick at high speeds, there is always a solid songwriting structure which makes for a really well balanced listen.

Lots of highlights abound. "Horrors Beyond" itself has this lurching, Morbid Angel-like groove deep in the bridge where this nasty harmonies erupt alongside the vocals while the drums continue to batter along. "Ritual Corpse Division" has some clinical melodies deep in its belly which help offset the roiling double kick rhythms and evil tremolo picked rhythms that alternate into a thrashing gallop. "Eviscerate the Advanced" is highly melodic and glorious before it starts to groove out, and you can hear that bass guitar bouncing off beneath. "Interstellar Offal Dealer" is like Cannibal Corpse meets Bloodbath. The bridge of "Ontological Shock" takes you by surprise with the charging melodic death metal sequence and some synth-lines that work well to accompany it. Not only do they cover such a span of material in a great, compact 33 minute experience, but you get the impression they are only starting to tap into what full potential they have as musicians.

The rhythm tone is murky, saturated but still very clear and choppy, and I mentioned I like the springy sound of the bass, the insane drum performance, but I'd also draw attention to the vocals of Pete Colucci which cover all the bases from formidable, punctual gutturals to protracted snarls and growls. The cover makes this one look a little cheesy (in a good way), but the lyrics here are actually well thought out. They incorporate plenty of the brutal imagery to go along with the performances, but you can tell someone sat down and put some effort into them. Really, what we have here is an impressive USDM band that can hang with a whole lot of better-known peers, and while none of the individual components of this are original by any means, the way they are assembled here is a refreshing, punishing exhibition of well-sculpted carnage.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10]

https://trogdeathmetal.bandcamp.com/album/horrors-beyond

Cradle of Filth - The Screaming of the Valkyries (2025)

Cradle of Filth has provided such an embarrassment of riches over the last 17 years, since Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder ended that mid period slump, that I almost feel like I can't spend enough time ingesting it all. No, not every album is a masterpiece, few of them are, but they've all been packed with so much riffing, orchestration, creepy Gothic horror and Dani's smut spitting literature that I'm constantly overwhelmed. To that extent, their material does tend to blend together for me, I can forget where one record ends and another begins, but I'll keep buying them for the sheer amount of effort the band brings and the fact that they are unanimously a great listen whenever I'm in a mood for horror metal with an air of sophistication, Halloween season or whenever else.

The Screaming of the Valkyries continues that trend, twisting the Wagnerian imagery conjured by its title into Filth's explosive hybrid of black, thrash, Gothic, symphonic metal, whatever tag you want to place upon it. Though it's still clocking in at nearly an hour, and most songs eclipse the 6 minute range, this feels like one of their most 'compact' efforts in recent memory, perhaps because of how scrappy they get, with a lot of attention-grabbing, choppy thrash grooves that they permeate with the orchestration, theatrics and Dani's varied snarls, sneers, and growl. "To Live Deliciously" and "Demagoguery" are an epic one-two punch combination where the band is firing on all cylinders, reminding me of some of my favorite material from Cruelty and the Beast, only a little heavier due to the production. The band can mete out a semi-complex thrashing groove and then grace us with some melodies and harmonies all within the span of a minute and it fits together like a pale, vampiric hand and leather glove.

That busy, semi-technical death/thrash component is an important contributor through this album, and I'd argue that they use that style just as much as the tremolo picking or dissonant chord-streams we associate more with their black metal roots. I guess it sounds a little more 'modern' as a result, but the concise use of the symphonics, Maiden-like melodies, choir/gang-shouts ("The Trinity of Shadows"), female vocals, and of course Dani's voice and lyrics nail it straight into their discography. It's also not afraid to mellow things out with the morose "Non Omnis Morior" or the doomy passages in the epic closer "When Misery Was a Stranger". Screaming might not have knocked me over as fiercely as its predecessor Existence is Futile, but this is a damn good record which I'd happily rank in the upper half of their catalog, and I've spun it more than other modern fan favorites like Cryptoriana and Hammer of the Witches. Engaging, entertaining, emphatic of those thrashier elements without abandoning the rest of their envelope of sound, this is fun as hell.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10] (By the restless dusk reborn)

https://www.cradleoffilth.com/

Summer Sabbathical 2026

I'm off on a good long Summer Break. Keep your hands in the boats, your heads on your shoulders, and your coke away from the grizzlies. Grateful as always for you stopping by, and I'll be back for October horror metal reviews!

-autothrall

Coroner - Dissonance Theory (2025)

I was as shocked as any when it was revealed that Coroner was doing a tour in the US and releasing a new album. Yes, I know they'd gotten back together some 15 years prior for some gigs, and kept a low profile since that point, with nothing much on the horizon, but I didn't think much would ever manifest from that reunion other than a capitalization on the nostalgia that their brilliant original run of albums evokes. You see, this was one of my favorite underground acts in the late 80s/early 90s, as I'm sure it was for many, music so bloody good that you felt smarter than everyone else for listening. You weren't, of course, but it was at least great to feel that way as puberty was budding and you were continuing to shape your musical tastes and interactions with all the other metalheads around you. And back then, there were many.

Punishment for Decadence and No More Color are two of the most perfect albums I own, for their dark and dingy lyrical content, stark and uniform cover imagery, and incredible power trio musicianship, in particular the baroque guitar wizardry of Tommy T. Baron, which stunned me with its scale-work and innovation. In fact, almost 40 years later, I can't think of many albums that can match them in that way. Sure, there are scores if not hundreds of other amazing guitarists who created their own niches, some I appreciate as much as Coroner, but his style was distinct. And with Ron barking and playing along formidably, and some great drumming from Marky, they were just so unstoppable. Granted, Mental Vortex took things to a more muffly, minimalist, accessible direction, still with some amazing guitar riffs spiking out here or there, and Grin was more experimental as Coroner aspired to adjust itself to the changing times around them, and also to progress rather than reproduced the perfection already achieved. Those were increasingly disappointing, but never bad, and still have standout moments I revisit.

I digress. So there was NO WAY Dissonance Theory was going to be on the level of Punishment or No More Color, and it's not, but I was nonetheless impressed with the lead single, and then even more so after I got a few spins through the album proper. This for me feels like an evolutionary stage that might have taken place between Mental Vortex and Grin, with the more groovy thrash and progressive, atmospheric ideas that were starting to dominate their compositions at that time. There are few of the brilliant guitar hysterics I would have given a limb to hear once more, but as a coherent, conceptual whole this album is smooth as butter, yet as brooding and dark thematically as any of their prior material apart from maybe R.I.P. which sounds like its being showered upon you from an antiquated European graveyard. There's an industrial, post-modern vibe to the material here, I'd aesthetically compare it to Kreator's Renewal, an album most people hated (that I love), but this is less depressive and a lot more atmospheric, and obviously has a much more fulfilling production.

Structurally, we've got a lot of simplistic riffing grooves, slathered in atmospheric guitars, and so well rhythmically measured that they immediately leave an emotional impact. The beats are throbbing and hammering along, giving it that industrial metal punch, soon joined by the chugging guitars in a tune like "Sacrificial Lamb" or "Cirsium Bound", which definitely feel as if they're modernized tracks from the cutting room floor of Mental Vortex. As the title would imply, there's plenty of dissonance here, like the intro to "Transparent Eye", or a lot of the chords they play to cap off the chugging guitar patterns, but there's also a warmth to a lot of the choruses and grooves, so Coroner is exploring a musical spectrum far wider than the cover art might hint at. I know I've read a lot of people citing that is nothing like Grin, but that isn't true whatsoever, a lot of those sorts of grooves are present here seem like they're muscled up versions of what have appeared there, only the overall weight of the album, the intrinsic ambience and melody helps flesh them out to a more memorable level.

But Coroner does still thrash where it needs to, as on "Renewal" or "Consequence". Tommy T. still has all the technical chops, you can hear them in spurts, but he chooses to relinquish them for the songs themselves, only writing what services their mood. The bass tone is swarthy and powerful, the new drummer Diego Rapacchietti fits right in with the sort of rigorous level of ability, and Ron sounds like he has been left in a cryochamber since the mid-90s, his vocals are still dark and simple barking, but have just the right level of reverb and effects on them to champion the emotional resonance that this album immerses you in. I daresay this is the most 'uplifting' Coroner album, which might not be for everyone, but while it might not hit the mechanical brilliance of the 1987-89 era, it's probably the best they've done outside of that. I've come away from this one super-satisfied, and eager to hear whatever they might create next.

Verdict: Epic Win [9.25/10]

https://coronerofficial.com/

Enforced - A Leap Into the Dark EP (2024)

A Leap into the Dark is a brief holdover for whatever Enforced is headed towards next, but with six tracks, it's at least a little more substantial than some 7" or EP recordings are. The highlights here are the newer tracks, which have a nice punch to them. Not far removed from how the band sounded on War Remains, they've got a slightly cranked up depth of the bass presence, some good leads and riffs that are at least the quality of that full-length. "Deafening Heartbeats" is the most intense of the three, with some death/thrash in the riffing, and some cool riff progressions which work well with the splatters of wild solos. There is also a remaster of the "Casket" single from 2021, which I hadn't heard, but sounds like it belonged on Kill Grid (same year), only the production is a little more violent and booming.

This is capped off with a pair of covers from some pretty difference sources. "Deadly Intentions" is from the Obituary debut Slowly We Rot, and though Enforced do play it pretty close to the original, I found it ironic that they make it sound more like a later 90s Obituary piece, when the Floridians were themselves leaning more into the hardcore that Enforced came from. This would have fit right in on Back from the Dead, but structurally they still nail it. The other tune is the English Dogs' "The Chase in On", which comes from their 1984 EP To the Ends of the Earth. Another fun parallel since that band transformed from punk and hardcore to a more heavy/speed metal style, but Enforced take that cut and brutalize it a little more so it sounds like Doom but with Knox singing. I'd say both of the covers are fun enough to maybe incorporate into a live set, but the more forgettable aspects of this EP, buried by the consistent quality of the three new original cuts. But if you've enjoyed the two albums prior to this one, the material is probably worth throwing the band a couple bucks so they can get coffee or fill the gas tank on a tour.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

https://enforced.bandcamp.com/

Enforced - War Remains (2023)

In many ways, War Remains just feels like a Part II of Kill Grid from 2021. The black & white cover artwork from Joe Petagno, which is cool but not as amazing as what he came up with for the previous album. The overall aesthetics continue to explore a more purely brutal thrash sound, although I think there are a couple moments here which offer a slight throwback to the awesome crossover of the debut. The lyrics aren't all warlike, as the title might imply, but you get that same impression of battlefield thrash that reminds one of Sodom, or maybe war/death metal bands like Frozen Soul and Bolt Thrower, despite the difference in genre. One difference here, that nudges this ahead of Kill Grid, is that the production feels a more more powerful, dynamic and vibrant, losing some of the dryness and bleakness I felt there.

Same crew, they just really get a mix here that fleshes out the guitars and gives Knox Colby's vocals a lot more of a gut punch. The drums sound heavier, the riffs all have much more impact even though they're not structured with any more nuance or technicality than those from a few years before. War Remains sounds like a blend of Exodus mid-paced material, sans their guitar tone, Sodom's speed and those viral evil melodic Slayer breakdowns that turned Reign in Blood into a household name. When they roil out some faster tremolo picked riffs you get a little more death/thrash ("Avarice", or the grown in the title track), and the leads are well written and more memorable here than on the sophomore. Everything is performed with pinpoint accuracy, but it by no means sounds technical or over-polished, just written and delivered for maximum neckbreaking impact, and if you're just newly getting into thrash or seeking out an example of contemporary production and effectiveness, this is one to track down.

But while I think it's a very good album, a little better than Kill Grid, Enforced still doesn't have the same distinct qualities that so many my favorite 80s thrash acts did. Whether you were just into the 'Big Four' or 'Big Three' of that era, or even exploring the second and third tiers of the genre, there were scores of bands that really stood out vocally and musically. Like a lot of their peers, this just comes off a gestalt of repurposed ideas performed and recorded at a highly professional level. The execution is unquestionable, but the personality isn't quite as present as their more hybrid debut album, and although you'll catch me nodding if not outright banging my head throughout the runtime experience of this, it's not one where I can pick out a lot of songs of riffs after its over. Now that they've established this sound so well, it wouldn't hurt to hear some progression or ideas out of left field.

Verdict: Win [8/10] (Olive branches build the arrows)

https://enforced.bandcamp.com/

Enforced - Kill Grid (2021)

With Kill Grid and their signing to Century Media records, Enforced moved on to a sound that was the more archetypal thrash that most would recognize them by. That's not to say they abandoned all of what defined their debut, but wrote a record that was a little less oriented towards the crossover/hardcover aesthetics and meant for sheer head banging mayhem. It's certainly a more aggressive and intense effort than At the Walls, with a mix of of the West Coast sound and, say, Sodom, but there is also a little bit of a death/thrash bite to some of the material, for instance the blazing opener "The Doctrine" reminds me a lot of the Possessed comeback album Revelations of Oblivion, and that's not the only instance, so I think fans of that would be thrilled to check this out.

I also feel like the band is a parallel to Texans Power Trip, whose CDs I picked up but never quite got into as others seemed to. However, they did have a cool, caustic sound to them which is mirrored by the crunch of the guitars and the visceral vocals. And let me tell you, Kill Grid is saturated palm mute heaven, one of the most purely 'thrash' tones you've heard in years, spliced up with loads of wailing mini-leads and then some of the real deal, with a compact, tight rhythm section that works in lock step. They're playing around with a selection of riffs that won't feel novel to any thrasher whose danced around the circle for a few years or more, but they invigorate the material with an infernal energy that is going to snap you to attention even if you forget the songs five minutes later. For thrash, it's pretty brutal and unrelenting, and at some of its best moments (like "Beneath Me" or the intro to "Curtain Fire"), they'll erupt into this Slayer-like pattern which will remind you of just how much you liked where that band was headed in the mid 80s with Reign in Blood.

Some of the riffing structures also give me some Atrophy or Devastation vibes, and elsewhere like "Malignance" you'll hear some vaguely death metal progressions. It all works into the warlike format of the lyrics here, and Kill Grid is entirely consistent, like a level theater of war that never quite reaches a lull or climax, but shells are firing back and forth the entire 41 minutes. It's not boring, ever, and I do think it's a competent and studied example of old school thrash being trampolined into the modern era, but I have to admit that I miss the more vibrant and dynamic debut, with its more effective gang shouts and breakdowns and slightly less monotonous guitar tone. I also felt that one was produced better than this, which is functional but a little dry other than the leads. That said, Kill Grid is not going to let you down if you're into Power Trip, High Command or other modern thrash exemplars with a long road ahead of them if they can continue to refine and entertain.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10] (Riot rhythms of a world take hold)

https://enforced.bandcamp.com/

Enforced - At the Walls (2019)

At the Walls was one of those first records I latched onto in the modern wave of thrash and death metal albums incorporating hardcore aesthetics to their songwriting. No, it was nothing new, bands had been crossing the streams for decades before this, notably the crossover scene which Enforced is often tagged alongside, and for good reason, but when I listen through this I feel more of a street tough, 80s NYHC vibe rather than the more punk/hardcore stuff that was threaded into the sounds of D.R.I., Cryptic Slaughter, and their like. Combine that with crispy, crunchy, EXPLOSIVE thrash metal and you've got one hell of a debut, and At the Walls remains my favorite record from the Virginians, since they'd take on a more caustic and warlike feel on the later efforts that felt more like Power Trip.

The production here is absolutely perfect, with its thick bass lines, peppy drums and that aforementioned crispness to the rhythm guitars which delivers the maximum impact whether they are galloping along or headed into a thrashing breakdown. The leads are wild, loose, short and perfect at adding another reckless level of atmosphere, while Knox Colby's vocals on this album are absolutely fucking rad, like Lou Koller if he'd been the front man for Nuclear Assault instead of Sick of It All. There's plenty of metal here, though, don't you worry, from the Slayer-like harmonies of "Retaliation" that lead into the breakdown, to the bevy of faster, crunchier thrash riffs that would make even Municipal Waste weep. All of it combines into an album so vibrant, full of energy and propulsion. I haven't been a 'mosher' since my teenaged years, I just got tired of having my big feet stepped on, never felt I had much leverage, but I tell you there's music that passes my desk which has me privately performing that very dance.

26 minutes is all it takes, concise and to the point and never faltering on any track as the band just blazes the fuck out its hybrid sound. You could listen to the whole thing on the way to work, or for a quick trip to the gym. I wouldn't even say there's a misplaced note here; the leads might not feel super memorable individually, and don't have a ton of confidence yet, but again they are present for effect, for that feel of testosterone about to fall off the hinges. The gang shouts rule, the vocals might be more hardcore-focused but they match the metallic guitars quite well, and it's just infectious, transporting me back to the 80s when I would be just as thrilled to listen to Killing Time and Gorilla Biscuits as I was Anthrax or Overkill. Interestingly, a lot of Enforced fans have an inverse opinion to mine, where they prefer the later records, but I think this smokes them (at least so far), much more youthful and vital.

Verdict: Win [8.75/10] (Sell out your oppressor)

https://enforced.bandcamp.com/

Craft - White Noise and Black Metal (2018)

Void arrived at a six-year gulf from its predecessor Fuck the Universe, and inevitably became a bit of a disappointment, if not remotely bad. White Noise and Black Metal, however, came after a seven-year break in studio releases, the longest wait in their career (until now, as we are approaching 8 years and counting); and I feel like this time must have been well spent since the songwriting and energy is quite refreshed. It plays within the same ballpark as their other material, but it doesn't feel quite so drudging or dreary as Void did, there's a more adventurous sense to the guitar riffing, and a lot more tasteful detail through repeated listening. Craft is an interesting band, because they are simple and easy to grasp, but their albums are always growers (one shrinker), and when White Noise and Black Metal came out, I picked up the CD, enjoyed it well enough, but didn't think much about it until the ensuing years of spins.

Today, I think it's pretty awesome. The sound is a little less bulky than its predecessor, I'd hate to say 'graceful' or 'vibrant' with a band as apocalyptic and evil as these Swedes, but a lot of the guitar tone is lighter and gives a higher-pitched feel, and that's where a lot of those details are. They are still largely a band that moves at that slower pace, and you get some killer churn riffs like in "Again" or the awesome "Darkness Falls". However, that space is filled in better here, especially by Daniel Moilanen's drumming, which is by far the most interesting that has appeared on a Craft record. While I wouldn't go so far as to call this material 'progressive', he certainly adds an element of that flexibility that he's brought to the recent streak of Katatonia releases, and it's another way in which White Noise stands out against the back catalogue. But the Joakim and John also keep the guitars interesting, with a bag of new BM tricks that poke through most of the tunes, and the added spaciousness to the mix and composition also allows the bass to have a stronger supporting role, a shadow thundering beneath the more ethereal guitars.

Nox does what he always does, one of the most formidably vile of the Swedish BM front-men, but again the scope of this album allows for his rasps to cascade about the atmosphere and create a lasting, resonant impact. The lyrics have been pretty top notch since the third album, but here they take on a more introspective feel, dark and ponderous but not as cliched or Satanic and anti-human as they were in the formative years. White Noise and Black Metal is a heater, and though it took some years to properly dig in, I'd now award it the silver metal, standing on the abyssal podium to the right of Fuck the Universe, with Terror Propaganda in the bronze. Great Swedish black metal that scratches the itch of their earlier work while giving you a lot more to think about.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10]

https://www.facebook.com/craftblackmetal

Craft - Void (2011)

Void is an album that had sort of the opposite affect on me as its predecessor Fuck the Universe. Here is one that I quite liked upon its release, but have gradually grown a little bored of throughout the years. It sort of mirrors that Darkthrone era from 1996-2006 in its bleakness, only I happen to find all of those records more memorable. Actually, I don't want to complete drag this one through the dirt, because there's a lot going on here that I do like aesthetically, more going on in fact than what's on those Norwegian records, and in the right setting I'll still spin it, but often I'll pick and choose particular tracks rather than crave the experience as a whole. I can promise that it is as grim and apocalyptic as anything else they've ever put out, so...no worries there.

This is dense, slow, and atmospheric, with a selection of those simple Hellhammer/Celtic Frost derived grooves being sliced through by the tremolo picking parts. I'm glad for that exchange, actually, because it makes tunes like "Come Resonance of Doom" or "The Ground Surrenders" somewhat listenable. It isn't until "Succumb to Sin" where those leaden, thick rhythm guitar riffs really pull their own weight with an actually amazing riff, and that's my favorite track on the album with ease. A lot of the other patterns here just feel a little stale and leaning upon the atmospherics to get by. Another highlight are the eerie melodies in "Bring on the Clouds", but the latter half of Void is dominated by these longer songs in which I don't feel entirely fulfilled, they impress me in parts but can become a burden in their entirety. There is one track there, "I Want to Commit Murder" which has some faster riffing to break it up, but that one doesn't have a lot of payoff even when it slows back down with its thuggish bridge riff.

The vocals and consistency of mood here do a lot to keep it coherent; the former as resonant and evil as ever, though they do feel somewhat monotonous along the gray din of the songwriting. Yeah, this is an album you 'hear' by looking at the cover, and vice versa. It's certainly playing within the confines of Craft's tookbox, and suckers for its influences, or the slower, rawer side of black metal or black & roll will find that it stays pretty truthful to the aesthetics, but it hasn't aged for me as well as the albums on either side of it, and these days it's the last in their discography that I'm likely to revisit, though I'd throw "Succumb to Sin" on a condensed compilation of tunes if I were introducing someone to their music. It's competent, it's Craft, it's certainly not bad or even mediocre, the lyrics maintain the upgrade they got with Fuck the Universe; but it's down the trenches for now.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10] (Old, deformed and barren)

https://www.facebook.com/craftblackmetal

Morgue Supplier - Mastering the Disease (2026)

Driven by inhuman, mechanical blasting rhythms that collapse and contrast against its more meandering, atmospheric grooves, Mastering the Disease seems a fit evolution for the previous Morgue Supplier record, Inevitability and its subsequent single tracks. But where its stylistic frame is comparable, there's something even harsher and more 'checked out' sounding about some of this newest material. A collision of death, grind, industrial vibes, even some noticeable progressive elements in the structuring, they really swing for the fences. I'd liken it to a sort of 'cybergrind', only you replace almost all of the futuristic (or at this point, retro futurist) synths and sound effects with loads of dissonant, death metal guitars more central to that genre, and a gruesome vocal exhibition which is actually quite detailed and technical as it's laid out.

A good example of the varied carnage this band can create of its listeners would be "Pupils of Insularity", starting off with a pensive flow, cleaner melodic guitars and thick bass, almost Godflesh-like vibes, which escalates into a head-spinning, dissonant bender that feels like you're testing a drum machine to hear how fast it will go before exploding; all the while the other instruments crash along with abandon and Paul Gillis wretches and sneers and vomits all over the riffing. This is not for the faint of heart, anyone wearing a pacemaker, or anyone retaining a warm view of humanity. Other dizzying tracks include the psychotic "Annihilated Thinker" with its broken beats that descend into strange sampling and drugged, dissonant riffs that ooze around the meat of the distorted bass-lines. "Next World Consumes" is a harrowing endscape soundscape, oppression thicker than concrete, but by the time you hear that you're probably already either dead or suffering a severe headache.

Thankfully, if you DO survive that, the closer is a brilliant dark ambient track, "Indifferent Majesty", which is one of my favorites on the album, even though it's completely different to everything before it. Spacious but intense, it shows the flip side of what these creators are thinking but from an entirely different, non-percussionist perspective. The cover art here also reminds me a lot of the post-modern cyberpunk/body horror film Tetsuo: the Iron Man by Shinya Tsukamoto, and it unquestionably might serve as a sort of aural counterpart to that visual experience. This is the future, here, ugly as fuck, and not what we were hoping. While not as brilliantly riffy as the band's eponymous 2016 album, my favorite, and a little less sublime than Inevitability, Mastering the Disease is still very intense, with just enough devil in the details, especially the myriad abusive vocals and provocative bi-polar shifts between blasting and grooves that litter its debris-ridden labyrinth of noise.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100075977500489

Craft - Fuck the Universe (2005)

If you asked me to choose a favorite Swedish black metal for all time, I can't promise that this record would win the honors, but I'd absolutely be taking it down off the shelf to compare and contrast it against the other picks. Fuck the Universe elevated the band's nihilistic ravings to an entirely new level, as the Chaos symbol and title imply, we've gone beyond crushing mere humanity and/or Christianity to everything in all of existence, and I think that sentiment is reflected well by Craft's increased devotion to songwriting. I never really buzzed about this one enough back in the day or on my earlier lists; it was something I enjoyed upon first exposure, but has aged really well with time, and obviously grown on me more than anything else they've released. What's more, it does further distance itself from its more overt influences.

Yes, Hellhammer/Celtic Frost and Darkthrone still account for the DNA of the sound here, but it's been innovated upon, with a more layered and nuanced approach. Mood and melancholy are measured off against the grimness of the vocals and genre conventions, and the songs always give themselves enough time to express their ideas while absorbing the listener fully; we hear this in the 7+ minute "Thorns in the Planet's Side" with its spacious, doomy atmosphere, or the churning finale "Principium Anguis' with all its thundering fills and soul-crushing riffs. But another element that I really enjoyed here is that they started to incorporate a little bit of a black/thrash vibe ("Fuck the Universe") which reminded me of the direction Aura Noir had started to head in, or "Xenophobia" which has these similarly thrashy pulses and grooves which capitalize on the surging evil verse riffs. They explore far more material here than on the prior records, the 51+ minutes offering you a lot of range while also honoring all of what they brought to the table from 2000-2002.

Vocals still sound as nasty as ever, but they've got a lot more to compete with musically, which is where Craft have truly developed here. I think the drums and bass lines stand out more here too, there's just a more organic vibe to the entire recording that reminds me a lot of some of the black & roll stuff put out by a Satyricon or Sarke. It's robust and clean, but all of that sinister attitude from the band's riffing and singing is fully intact. Fairly refreshing when you consider that a lot of the 'necro' black metal bands shy away from such production improvements in order to retain the icy rawness. There's nothing wrong with that, mind you, but I don't feel as if it would achieve what Fuck the Universe does with this sort of atmosphere. A phenomenal album, the first off my shelf when I am in the mood for this band, with a good amount of content and plenty enough ideas to fill that time. Craft at their finest, with at least 4-5 songs ("Fuck the Universe", "Terni Exustae - Queen Reaper", "Xenophobia", etc.) that would make my highlight reel of their whole career. Also: better lyrics than the first two albums by far.

Verdict: Epic Win [9.5/10]

https://www.facebook.com/craftblackmetal

Craft - Terror Propaganda (2002)

Terror Propaganda is another of the early Craft records which has so many similarities to the earlier post-Soulside Journey Darkthrone material, back when those Norsemen were first exploring black metal, that it's not hard to understand why some were calling it a knockoff. But when you dig beneath just the surface impressions I think there's plenty going on here to enjoy...are they paying tribute to their more established peers? Absolutely. The black/white cover with the pose (but hey no fire breathing!). The entirely colorless, nihilistic lyrics and pure malevolence created through the riff progressions and vocals. The first song here is even titled "Ablaze". But it's a damn GOOD tribute, is the thing, and never tries to hide it, and in exploring this sound, once again develops a few ideas of its own that make it eminently re-listenable.

They did drop a bit of that Hellhammer influence here, especially in the guitar tone. Some of the slower, oozier riffs have disappeared, although not entirely, and you'll recognize it in songs like "Reaktor 4". In fact, much of the material here is still mid-pace cruise mode, but that's also where they come up with a lot of their darker guitar patterns ("The Silence Thereafter"). The tremolo picking guitars have evolved from the debut, and more confidently take the lead on some of the tunes, but they've also got some layers of atmospherics or melodies that will appear at the edge of perception to elevate the material. Some would say that the Hellhammer bits have transformed into the 'black & roll' school of riffing, and that's true, but once again one of my favorite parts of the recording, for example in "Hidden Under the Skin" these bad ass guitars balance out nicely against the more wistful melancholy of the licks in the mid-paced blasting sequence. And "False Orders Begone" is an amazing use of that Hellhammer vibe into something that feels fresh with Mikael's nasty vocals slathered all over it.

They still use some of the crazy screams here, and they feel more bloody and fresh-killed than on the debut, adding more depth to the heights. I would say that the overall structure of the album is slower, but they never become boring, always exploring some ideas to flesh out the compositions which are usually only 3-5 minutes to begin with. The drums are tinny and efficient as was popular for this necro niche of black metal, but I didn't notice a lot of bass presence throughout, it's certainly taking more of a back seat than Total Soul Rape, but not absent. We've still not hit the peak of the Craft yet, and this one isn't quite so diabolically fun as the debut, but I'd say musically it's one I place just a stride beyond that. It's a little colder, more atmospheric, and numbing, but still has tasteful evil melodic licks and dark, powerful grooves.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10] (We are messengers)

https://www.facebook.com/craftblackmetal

Craft - Total Soul Rape (2000)

Craft was such a cool band to see at the turn of the century because they were already playing this retro brand of necro black metal only a decade or less since the originals. The Darkthrone parallels were obvious here, from the black & white photography on the cover to the sound that was heavily reminiscent of Hellhammer and early Celtic Frost. That said, they've got plenty of personality unto themselves, with a few creative riffing ideas that they were adding to that legacy, some truly nasty vo-kills and an unapologetically dark and depressive attitude that is on full display throughout the lyrics. The debut Total Soul Rape was my first exposure, and while I enjoyed it to an extent, the years have definitely given me a greater appreciation for its brash charisma.

You've got that fuzzy rhythm guitar tone circa Hellhammer, the difference is that Craft will burst out into these tremolo picked evil riffs or blasted messes that were taken from the earlier second wave stuff. The stuff is pretty saturated, the drums rocking out with a nice crash and clutter to them as the bass lines just churn back and forth below. The vocals have this hideous presence front and center, as I think was the intention, but everything else is also pretty clear and loses no potency against Mikael's formidable rasp. Most of the tracks have this really memorable feature to them, also, like the frilly, whipping leads in "Death to Planet Earth", the climactic dissonant grooving riffs of "(Desolation) Death", or the doomy Hellhammer riffs in "Past, Present, Dead". The band might seem purposefully raw and unrefined on the surface, but they were good songwriters even from this earlier stage, even the debatable choices on this record like the weird wailed vocals that occasional appear seem deliberate and effective atmospherics.

Lyrically it's bleak; not in a 'bad' way (is there a good way?), but just about every song here is apocalyptic in scope, supremely nihilistic and misanthropic, whether it's teabagging Satan or not. So in other words, it's your average 90s black metal approach which earns the tile of 'grimness', and let's face it, when we gaze upon its Darkthrone-like title with the splash of red/orange in the logo/title, that is exactly what we would expect. Total Soul Rape is not my favorite release from them, but it's also got a lot more longevity to it than your typical newspaper-tone necro-black metal recording, of which there have been countless released since this one (and a lot before it too). This really holds up, and I had fun listening to it here in 2025 as much or more than ever in the past. It's like A Blaze in the Northern Sky if you turned off the air conditioner and cranked up the evil instead.

Verdict: Win [8/10] (purest noxious water)

https://www.facebook.com/craftblackmetal

Sarke - Endo Feight (2024)

Sarke has always had those weird, interesting album titles, but Endo Feight ("End of Eight") is either the best-planned, or most purely prophetic of them, since this would prove the last of their studio efforts and it might have been set up that way before it was even recorded. Fear not, though, this album is an absolute banger, a celebration of all that had come before it, with a few hooks of its own but largely serving to solidify their consistent track record. The lineup is still the four 'classic' guys that had been with the band the most: Nocturno Culto on the vocals, Sarke on the bass, also returning to his traditional drum role from his other bands; Steinar on the guitars and Anders on the keys.

Everything is on the table here, the structured and simplified black/thrash which is more drawn from that old Swiss school than so many of the other bands in the style which mimic your Venoms, Slayers or early German thrash records. The proggy influences here aren't always worn on the sleeves so much as they are packed into the meatier riffing progressions, but you also get a lot of those amazing synths and pianos, showing the same restraint Anders always does. These create the dramatic atmospheres the guitars themselves wouldn't be capable of in their current configurations, without ever stepping on anyone. There are some choppy tunes here with a lot of chugging, like "Death Construction", or darker, bluesy grooves as in the closer "Macabre Embrace", and they even toss us an almost pure trad black metal track with "In Total Allegiance" which only adds to the sort of ouroboros vibe of keeping their endgame consistent with their opening salvo, or in this case, their roots.

Nocturno sounds amazing, and I will truly miss his voice in this project, even though I can still experience his work in Darkthrone. But that's the weird thing about Endo Feight. I usually feel some loss when a band I love dissolves. In this case, I feel like Sarke, NC and company really explored this dimension they wanted to splice up between black, thrash, doom, 70s rock, prog, and so forth. Nothing more is owed. Or needed. The closing tolls of "Macabre Embrace" say it all. They gave us EIGHT albums that I've ranked from merely 'very good' to superb, and other than a small handful of tracks which one might relegate to the 'just okay' category, I could listen to any of these in its entirety without needing to skip anything. That's pretty high praise, and the fact that these albums are stamped with a timelessness through their blend of styles and top notch production ensures they are nothing I will ever leave behind. I salute you, gentlemen, one of the best and most consistent bands most people hand and will have never heard of. Success in all your other projects, and thank you for this amazing slew of music that I can never repay in more than praise.

Verdict: Win [8.75/10] (Resting in the damp ground)

https://sarkeband.bandcamp.com/

Sarke - Allsighr (2021)

Allsighr is the first Sarke album where I detect a hint of color to the cover choice. Maybe it's just my imagination that there's a bit of blue painted in there with the blacks and grays and whites, maybe even a little brown, but it makes a little bit of aesthetic since as the band seems to have become so confident and proficient in its sound that it's almost like they are emerging from some larval stage. I don't think one is as expansive to their sound as Gastwerso, but its clearly one of their best-rounded, memorable efforts that takes all which has come before as a toolset to write some entirely kickass material which, for me, almost rivals Viige Urgh.

Yes, the whole enchilada of the Norwegians' sonic package is brought to bear upon their fanbase, and anyone else who has the pleasure of encountering their incredibly underrated catalog of music. The first clip of "Bleak Reflections" will have you thinking they've embraced their more traditional black metal roots, but that is merely a ruse, as they will soon dial it back into the mix of minimalistic thrash aesthetics, black & roll stylings, a little progressive rock in the use of several of the synths and song structures, and that doom vibe which has never taken over their style completely but deserves mention in the conversation. The tunes here are very well composed, balanced, always possessive of the band's unique mystique ("Funeral Fire", "Through the Thorns"), and never shying away from trying a riffing pattern they haven't hit upon before. Cato Bekkevold (ex-Enslaved) does the drums here and they sound as crisp and professional as any of his forebears.

Allsighr is pretty amazing. The production is clean and effective, every note hitting exactly where it needs to on your aural palate, and every instrument and vocal mixed with lethal clarity. The album thrives in both its harsher, grooving moments and the calms, of which there are a number in the intros/segues as well as the ambient/piano piece "Sleep in Fear". It's extremely accessible, which is another reason I'm shocked that this band never got much huger than they did. Perhaps it's just not 'extreme' enough if we're talking about the black metal genre as a whole. It's not going to spin heads off necks, it isn't blasting at a million miles an hour, the vocals are cutting but never overbearing, the symphonic ingredients are a minor embellishment and not a Wagnerian tour de force. But this is SONGCRAFT, by experts, who catch vibes from the aether and ride them to dark, pleasurable heights.

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10] (Obsessed with what's below)

https://sarkeband.bandcamp.com/