CRYPTAL ECHOESCryptal Echoes EP Urban Lurk (2024)Rating: 7.5/10 Oozing from Austria’s sewer system is the foreboding sound of Cryptal Echoes, a morbid bunch of death-doom obsessive’s whose debut EP is the musical equivalent to suffering a slow and painful death by a crushing anaconda. What predator needs pace when all it has to do is […]
DEMONInvincible Frontiers (2024)Rating: 8.5/10 Eight years after their last album, Cemetery Junction, British rockers Demon coolly emerge again from the shadows like a veteran sports star sweeping the crowd up for another mercurial performance. Demon have been at it since the 1970s, and it was their early releases, namely Night Of The Demon (1981) and […]
HEMOTOXINWhen Time Becomes Loss Pulverised (2024)Rating: 8.5/10 It’d hard to believe that 14 years have passed since the first demo from Pittsburg, California-based progressive death thrashers Hemotoxin. Since that time we’ve been treated to more demos, an EP and three full-length albums, the last being 2020 release Restructure The Molded Mind. Brace yourself then for […]
BATUnder The Crooked Claw Nuclear Blast (2024)Rating: 7/10 Under The Crooked Claw is the first full-length studio outing in eight years for this Richmond, Virginia-based trio. What really turned me on to this clan was the music video I saw a few months back for the song ‘Rite For Exorcism’. The track is so damn […]
TZOMPANTLIBeating The Drums Of Ancestral Force 20 Buck Spin (2024)Rating: 9/10 If ever a record sounded like the musical equivalent to being hunted through the steaming jungle by an ancient clan of cannibals it’s this one, the second full-length heap from this Californian ensemble. I imagine vast mystical Aztec forest temples whose great stones and […]
GHOST KEEPERThe Dread Legion Self-released (2024)Rating: 7/10 Hailing from Manchester in England, Ghost Keeper is a thrash act that may have slipped under your radar since forming. So far they have released a brace of EPs and albums, including this latest enjoyable feast. Upon first listen, especially on the title track, I heard a lot […]
WARLORDFree Spirit Soar High Roller (2024)Rating: 8.5/10 Forty-three years after their formation, Los Angeles heavyweights Warlord release their fifth full-length studio opus, albeit an album featuring just one original member in the form of drummer Mark Zonder (aka Thunder Child). Having been with the band since 2013, bassist Philip Bynoe is now somewhat of a […]
KILL II THISVariant Revolver (2024)Rating: 4/10 It seems a long, long time ago that I was first introduced to UK experimental metalheads Kill II This. In fact, it was the bands 1998 opus Deviate which really got me hooked and a few live shows after. The band were a four piece at the time and […]
SEBASTIAN BACHChild Within The Man Reigning Phoenix Music (2024)Rating: 9/10 Forget about the youths going wild, the glorious return of former Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach in his mid-50s causes the same tingle down the spine as his solo monster Angel Down from 2007 as well as signalling another raucous step back into the fold. […]
RIOT VMean Streets Atomic Fire (2024)Rating: 7.5/10 The moniker may be modified, the cover art more contemporary and the line-up bereft of original members, but New York City’s Riot V (who began life as Riot in 1975) continues to rock hard, even if lead single ‘Feel The Fire’ is a bit of a mid-tempo plodder […]
