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/