MetalMatters: The Best Metal Albums of August 2025 » PopMatters

In August’s best metal, Malthusian focus on death metal, Kayo Dot continue to wander through the cosmos, and Catharsis return in fierce fashion.

I am going to get on my usual hobby horse about August supposedly being a slow month! And it covers the full spectrum! Starting from the outskirts, Abhorrent Expanse continue to abstract away death metal into drone and free improvisation, while the collaborative effort of Mendoze/fluke-mogul/Perez is a wild ride through the avant-metal headspace. In the same general area, there is, of course, Kayo Dot’s return, who keep the same level of quality, and Wreck and Reference, who have found their niche between post-metal and experimentalism.

In more traditional directions, Sallow Moth and Hexrot produce two solid works of progressive-minded death metal, while Unleashed return to their early days glory, and Castrator spit pure malice in their sophomore full-length. On the doomier side of the genre, Innumerable Forms and Anthrodynia relish the early Autopsy stench, passing it through the Winter meatgrinder. Malthusian refocuses their black/death stance to focus on the more deathly side, reaching new heights in the process. And of course, the underground is brewing with the blackened steel of Stangarigel, Collier d’Ombre, and Downward. That and much more, so dig in! – Spyros Stasis

The Best Metal Albums of August 2025

• Abhorrent Expanse – Enter the Misanthropocene (Amalgam)
• Amphisbaena – Rift (I, Voidhanger)
• Anchorite – Realm of Ruin (Personal)
• Anthrodynia – Unspeakable Horrors Emanating from Within (Nameless Grave)
• Blackbraid – Blackbraid III (Independent)
• Castrator – Coronation of the Grotesque (Dark Descent)
• Catharsis – Hope Against Hope (Crimethic/No Gods No Masters)
• Collier d’Ombre – Autumnal Fortress (Final Agony)
• Der Märtyrer – Der Märtyrer (NoEvDia)
• Dawnward – To Lurk As Fever (Katafalque)
• Fell Omen – Caelid Dog Summer (True Cult)
• Hexrot – Formless Ruin of Oblivion (Transcending Obscurity)
• Innumerable Forms – Pain Effulgence (Profound Lore)
• Kayo Dot – Every Rock, Every Half-Truth Under Reason (Prophecy)
• Malthusian – The Summoning Bell (Relapse)
• Ava Mendoza / gabby fluke-mogul / Carolina Pérez – Mama Killa (Burning Ambulance)
• Sallow Moth – Mossbane Lantern (I, Voidhanger)
• Stangarigel – Ze Striebornou Horou (Medieval Prophecy)
• Sulfuric Cautery – Killing Spree (Blast Addict)
• Theurgion – All Under Heave (Profound Lore)
• Unleashed – Fire Upon Your Lands (Napalm)
• Wreck and Reference – Stay Calm (The Flenser)

Abhorrent Expanse – Enter the Misanthropocene (Amalgam)

In 2022, Abhorrent Expanse joined a long tradition of technically adept musicians channeling their craft through extreme metal. Their debut record, Gateways to Resplendence, is fueled by John Zorn’s machinations with Naked City, Painkiller, as well as Blind Idiot God’s transformation of noise rock into dub forms. Their follow-up, Enter the Misanthropocene, does not deviate from this recipe, although some of its ingredients are recalibrated, adjusting the dosage. The death metal frenzy introduces the record, resembling the likes of Pyrrhon in its chaotic, animalistic approach. It even veers toward grindcore, amplifying the record’s initial impact.

Yet, this initial assault is something of a red herring, and what follows is a sparing use of death metal, as Abhorrent Expanse settle into their improvisational freedom. This free-jazz influence manifests subtly in “Crystal Proliferation in Subharmonic Space”, forming an esoteric ritual with the help of ominous drones. This is the record’s foundation, as it shifts through abstracted soundscapes, at times relishing a delicate sense of serenity that finally gives in (“Praise for Chaos”) or a more prolonged sonic exploration.

In the latter case, Abhorrent Expanse are at their strongest, with tracks like “Nephilim Disinterred” and “Ascension Symptom Acceleration” evoking stunning sound design, whether through contradictory, frenzied drums or musique concrète textures. So, Enter The Misanthropocene tames the wildness of Gateways to Resplendence. It still represents its morbid death metal fascinations and noise rock outbreaks, but there is a deeper meditative quality that prevails through the experience, perfectly encapsulated in the record’s epic closing track “Prostrate Before Chthonic Devourment”, a descent into the Anthropocene’s final, ritual exhalation. – Spyros Stasis

Amphisbaena – Rift (I, Voidhanger)

Conceived by prominent members of the Canadian black/death scene, Amphisbaena sought to transcend the genre’s confinements. Veterans of Antediluvian, Rites of thy Degringolade, and Weapon have little left to prove, and so they ventured into strange spaces. On their 2015 EP, doom and ambient elements laced the black/death chaos, while melody and progressive instincts unsettled the cavernous traditions. For a while, it felt like a single, fleeting chapter. Thankfully, nearly a decade later, Amphisbaena return with their debut full-length, Rift.

Like their mythical namesake, a creature with a head at each end, Amphisbaena are pulled by opposing forces. The opening track, “Rift I – Wading the Deserts of Earth”, reveals their taste for atmosphere, weaving clean guitar melodies into a serene soundscape. Elsewhere, they take different routes. “Rift III – Ruinous Godlike Simulacra” trades serenity for noise and distortion, while “Braying of 70,000” steps into a ritualistic, processional rhythm.

The band’s proximity to doom informs their sonic weight. The opening’s liturgical aura lingers through “Exponentially Falling… Upward”, which slips into a Sabbathian crawl. “Scaled Ekpyrotic Splinters” follows a heavier progression, anchored in the doom’s groove and tension. Yet, at the core remains the black/death flame, still fierce and ruinous, as on the explosive opening of “Ruinous Godlike Simulacra”. Even here, Amphisbaena stand defiant, with their lead work putting aside tradition in favour of the strange and sublime. It is progressive rock, not the schizoid legacy of proto-extreme metal, that shapes their lead language.

And so, Rift continues Amphisbaena’s off-kilter evolution, that of an act torn, drawn down divergent paths with equal conviction. If there is a downside here, it is the short runtime. For such ambitious ground, at just 30 minutes, it feels less like a complete cipher than a statement, remaining an unresolved enigma that begs for more. – Spyros Stasis

Anchorite – Realm of Ruin (Personal)

Founded in 2018 and split between Sweden, Malta, and Denmark, Anchorite are a fairly fresh name in epic doom metal, a world populated primarily by established acts. Appearances can fool, though, as the band’s members are veterans of various European heavy and doom metal scenes. Bassist Peter Svensson and drummer Marcus Rosenqvist play together in Sweden’s doom metal outfit Void Moon and individually in about a dozen other bands. Guitarist Martin Andersen is a member of heavy metal groups Meridian and Chalice of Sin. Meanwhile, vocalist Leo Stivala is best known for his work with Malta’s long-running Forsaken. 

Their second full-length, Realm of Ruin, brings all of their individual influences together into a whole that is rooted in epic doom metal but borrows heavily from related genres to excellent results. Starting from a bout of traditional but crunchy doom metal (“Realm of Ruin”), they soon move into more progressive, Evergrey-adjacent directions (“The Lighthouse Chronicles”), heavy anthems that sound like a meeting between Blind Guardian and Katatonia (“No Vestige of Light”), and aggressive, almost speed/power metal attacks (“Room In The MIrror”).

The musicianship is top-notch all around, but it’s Stivala who ultimately steals the spotlight with a stellar performance, whether whispering a ballad in lower registers or tearing the skies with his voice – Antonio Poscic 

Anthrodynia – Unspeakable Horrors Emanating from Within (Nameless Grave)

Another one from Canada, Anthrodynia is the project of Derek Orthner (Begrime Exemious) and Durrell Smith (ex-Mahria, ex-Kuroi Jukai). The two have collaborated multiple times through the years and across different genres, with the doom/sludge of Cygnus and the crusty stench of Falsehood being just two of these occurrences. Anthrodynia sees them descend fully into the suffocating trenches of death/doom, a genre they appreciate not only for its asphyxiating essence but also its hallucinatory capabilities.

Anthrodynia’s debut, Unspeakable Horrors Emanating From Within, does not waste time, and it plants its flag from the start of “Severed From Mundanity”. This is the epitome of death/doom, a lineage carried from Autopsy’s Mental Funeral. Staying tight between the death metal stench and doom reckoning, Anthrodynia unfold their nightmare through piercing lead work and heavy, determined grooves.

The glacial pace ensues in “Engulfed In Grief” with some majestic inclinations suggesting a move toward the more melodic side of the genre. But no, Anthrodynia double down like any self-respected death/doom band, instead unleashing a groove-laden, fervent assault akin to Incantation. “A Rotten Sun” is the best example of this, picking up the pace through its relatively short duration and exploding with a loose, organic violence.

However, what propels the record further is Anthrodynia’s keen understanding of death/doom intricacies. This sound must conjure a nightmare, something that the genre’s forebears understood well, wielding slow tempos and massive riffs as tools of distortion and dread. Toward that end, they sprout forth a bitter psychedelia, a fungus that slowly settles in the dark, consuming all that is buried beneath. While it appears throughout the majority of the record, it is with “Cathartic Dissemination” that it reaches maturity.

The clean guitars set the stage, but it is the plethora of effects that completes the picture, as flanging sounds fill the panorama and establish an otherworldly presence. It is an infernal descent, put together aptly through circular rhythmic patterns and guitar filigree. So, while Anthrodynia, much like their psychedelic fungus, consume from a decaying past rather than invent anew, their meticulous craftsmanship and spectral vision breathe necrotic life into a form too often stagnant.

Unspeakable Horrors Emanating From Within does not attempt to reinvent death/doom. It reminds us that some horrors are best left to fester. – Spyros Stasis

Blackbraid – Blackbraid III (Independent)

Across his first two albums as Blackbraid, Jon S. Krieger, alias Sgah’gahsowáh, never quite lived up to the, frankly, insane hype that surrounded the project. After garnering mainstream appeal previously unfathomable for other aspiring black metal musicians, which included profiles in The New York Times and Decibel, he went on to lose a significant part of the initial goodwill due to questionable choices and uncomfortable findings.

The naive or willfully ignorant selection of sketchy collaborators, the dubious relationship with his alleged Native American roots, and the decision to tour with bands that cherish right-wing ties soured what was solid but not remarkable music to begin with.

Whether or not the buzz dying down a bit helped him to find new focus, Blackbraid III sounds like the album Krieger promised but never delivered before. To be clear, there’s not much fanfare or stylistic progression here, but the elements at hand—the scorching swirls of melodic black metal, the glimpses of mellower atmosphere to temper them—finally inhabit songs that have authentic power and very few weak moments.

Throughout, the album is propelled by a viciously dynamic rhythm section, one that feels alive and strangely organic for the genre. Meanwhile, an arsenal of stunning riffs and growls discharges above them, alternating Dissection-esque melodies with thrashing black metal of the Bathory tradition. – Antonio Poscic

Castrator – Coronation of the Grotesque (Dark Descent)

Castrator’s 2022 debut Defiled In Oblivion remains one of the strongest old-school death metal outings in recent years, let alone debuts. Yet, its follow-up, Coronation Of The Grotesque, somehow manages to seriously up the ante. Helmed by bassist Robin Mazen (also of Death-worshippers Gruesome) and drummer Carolina Pérez, Castrator nurture a no-holds-barred, flesh-melting take on death metal, equal parts outrageously filthy and furiously exalted, located somewhere between Cannibal Corpse and Vital Remains.

As before, Mazen and Pérez lay down a staggeringly heavy rhythmic backdrop for Sara Loerlein’s palette of infernal guitar licks—from twisted, twisting riffs in the vein of Morbid Angel to Slayer-esque leads and solos—and Clarissa Badini’s mercurial vocals.

Badini’s guttural growls and shrieks turn lyrics into bullets aimed at social injustice, alternately condemning explicit episodes like the murder of Mahsa Amini and the cruelty women have suffered since the beginning of time. Whether thrashing like Kreator on “Covenant of Deceit” or kicking up a whirlwind of brutality on “Deviant Miscreant”, the music remains absolutely relentless, wrapping everything up with an excellent cover of Exodus’ “Metal Command”. I seriously doubt that your favorite all-male band can reach this level! – Antonio Poscic

Catharsis – Hope Against Hope (Crimethic/No Gods No Masters)

Another most welcome surprise for 2025, Catharsis return with their first full-length in 26 years! Having released two monumental records of the 1990s in Samsara and Passion, the seminal North Carolina band continues this legacy with Hope Against Hope. The bleak perspective still informs their core, with the lines “The darkness before the dawn, it just goes on and on” echoing through the intro in “Nocturne”.

Still, what follows is not a defeatist attitude but a fervent, metallically tinged, punk-infused outbreak. The hardcore foundation is still key, as the D-beat progression in “Power” establishes an awkward rhythm, a marching anchor for their vitriol. It is an immediate application, stripped down to its most basic form through the old-school punk ethos of “We Live” and “Last Words”, where Catharsis tap into the primordial essence of the hardcore scene to inform their riff structure and rhythmic narrative.

The shift from Samsara to Passion hinted at post-metal’s expansive structures, which Hope Against Hope embraces even more directly. Here, the atmosphere is crucial, with the sparser parts of “Power” shifting the focus from aggression to introspection, the clean guitars and narrative vocals weaving together a darkened shroud. It continues with “Gone to Croatan”, as the violin heightens the tension, similar to the immense start to “Eremocene”.

In this mode, Catharsis conjure the mid-period Neurosis in their more energetic moments, à la “Locust Star”. In a way, it is a substantial change for the band, but because the kindling to this fire was already present in Passion, it does not feel out of place. It is a natural evolution, fully aligned with their ethos. Far from a nostalgic comeback, Hope Against Hope expands Catharsis’ vision. Furious, urgent, and atmospheric work that proves their fire still burns. – Spyros Stasis

Collier d’Ombre – Autumnal Fortress (Final Agony)

Collier d’Ombre draw from the earliest fully-formed strains of black metal, not the punk-adjacent or proto-extreme metal prototypes, but the lo-fi, atmospheric fire that marked its true beginnings. Their demos carried the same raw ambition that burned through Emperor’s Wrath of the Tyrant and self-titled EP, and Autumnal Fortress deepens that vision. To ease things in, their dungeon synth interludes continue to enrich their black metal form, breathing a medieval essence into the soundscape.

This ambient haze makes the perfect counterpart to the raw black metal assault that “Sorrow Emits Forth the Bastion” unleashes. Distorted guitars wreak havoc, cutthroat vocals claw upward from the abyss, and pummelling drums drive the momentum forward. The lo-fi production veils this violence in atmosphere, recalling the otherworldly spells of Gehenna’s First Spell. “Lance of the Heart of Ages” carries a chaotic, polemic energy, while “Scripture of the Wood (The Seer Cometh)” channels the icy barrage of early Immortal.

But aggression is only part of the story. An epic undercurrent runs through the album, giving rise to moments of striking memorability, most notably the opening lead to “Glades Demise to Ash”, a melodic flourish born of the Austrian scene’s medieval-fantastical leanings. These hooks are placed with care in “Wartorn by the Blinding Fear (Beckoning the Thrall)” as the track charges forward with heroic energy, while “…and Withers Dancing Through the Skies (Zkhinorvke)” lets more traditional heavy metal tropes sharpen and clarify the attack.

It shows a reserved technical aptitude that is used conservatively, but once applied, it can elevate the assault to new heights. Still, that does not detract Autumnal Fortress from its goal of becoming part of an endless, infinite black metal canon. Defined by lo-fi production, this work is aggressive and atmospheric, featuring a continuous flow that is best experienced over repeated, uninterrupted listens. One that can interchange unnoticed with Black Seared Heart and Hordanes Land without effort. – Spyros Stasis

Der Märtyrer – Der Märtyrer (NoEvDia)

Shrouding their existence in mystery, the anonymous collective behind  Der Märtyrer display a deep reverence for industrial music, both inside and beyond black metal’s confines. Still, on their self-titled EP, they immediately erupt with an energy that channels the obsidian brightness of In The Streams of Inferno and InnerCells. Their opening track is a stampede driven by mechanized rhythms and grinding propulsion, while their black metal is also heavily informed by Dodheimsgard’s Satanic Art EP, and in particular “Symptom”, whose cyclothymic riffing echoes here in spirit.

Yet, Der Märtyrer do not show a strict attachment to the black metal form, and are keen to traverse further out. In that mode, they project a hazy, hallucinogenic quality that owes much to The Prodigy, as suggested by the decadent beats and awkward, strange pacing in “III”.

It shifts again toward Atari Teenage Riot’s punk-infused digital violence in “IV”, where industrial backbone meets frenetic energy. However, it is “II” that unveils the depths of despair, as the ordered machinations and otherworldly sound design evoke the damned dystopias imagined by In Slaughter Natives (minus the neoclassical applications). Across just four tracks, Der Märtyrer cover substantial ground, circling their black metal core without being confined by it. It whets the appetite for what may follow, and leaves one hungry for a deeper descent. – Spyros Stasis

Dawnward – To Lurk As Fever (Katafalque)

The enigmatic figure of Sad-ist founded Downward back in the late 2000s, releasing the lo-fi Agony demo in 2009. Steeped in the DSBM tradition, the project would hibernate while Sad-ist continued with other endeavours, most notably I’m in a Coffin. Sixteen years after their demo, Downward return with their debut full-length, To Lurk As Fever, an ambitious work that turns the page for both the project and its creator.

The lineage of DSBM still radiates through the obsidian darkness, as the esoteric, ambient passages and the acoustic guitar in the opening track conjure a harrowing essence. In these moments, it is the subtler side of Shining and Silencer that pierces through, further enhanced by the ritualistic parts of “Spite” and the abstract, solitary guitar passages in “Agony”.

However, the most significant shift is the melodic inclination of To Lurk As Fever. The majority of Sad-ist’s projects have focused on the overwhelming, lo-fi-tainted side of melancholic black metal. But here, this is changed. “Fever” bursts forth in electrifying fashion, its structure densely packed and intricately layered, an approach that recalls the glory days of the Swedish black metal scene, and especially of Dawn.

Downward make all the right adjustments, contorting melodic lines into something discordant and overwhelming in “Agony”, while threading them through a more traditional black metal riff fabric. It is easy to see how a track like “Ruin” could cross into the melodic death metal space, but Downward’s grasp is tight, and they avoid this trap. These incorporation imbue their depressive take with a sense of drive and progression, a trait often avoided in the nihilistic stasis of DSBM.

This paradox becomes a strength, pushing Downward toward a more expansive vision, especially in conjunction with a piercing vocal delivery that oozes with exasperation. If there is a minor wrinkle, it is that the melodic tilt occasionally feels one-dimensional, and it would be nice to see Downward play with a few more atmospheric ideas to balance it out. Still, this is an excellent debut, one that fulfils a 16-year-old promise and sets the stage for a compelling new chapter. – Spyros Stasis

Fell Omen – Caelid Dog Summer (True Cult)

Even if you haven’t played Elden Ring—you really should if you can—Fell Omen is still an essential listen when it comes to stripped to the bones, lo-fi, and generally gnarly black metal. The videogame’s decaying and threatening setting, along with its punishing difficulty, informs Caelid Dog Summer’s medieval noir atmosphere. However, it’s Dimitris Corax Augoustinos, aka Spider of Pnyx, who understands what makes black metal truly resonate, further exalting this music.

Proto-punk expressions and light synth textures like those found on “Northern Lights Bomb” make way for the galloping thrash of “The Horrors Persist But So Does Steel”, then take a left turn into the punk-meets-NWoBHM of Killers-era Iron Maiden on “Poise on Rune” and embrace epically doomy vibes on “The Fire Is Still Warm”. For those wanting more after listening to Caelid Dog Summer, good news! Fell Omen’s other 2025 album, Invaded By A Dark Spirit, comes just as highly recommended. – Antonio Poscic

Hexrot – Formless Ruin of Oblivion (Transcending Obscurity)

Death metal is often a game of extremes. One group of bands takes the genre to radically progressive territories, resorting to clinical precision in their playing to get there. The other is happy to dumb things down to caveman levels. Massachusetts-based duo Hexrot prove you can actually do both at the same time. Their debut LP Formless Ruin of Oblivion first grips you with its fat, filthy tone and two-step attacks—guitar riffs dripping with miasma; pummeling drum fills and plump bass lines caught in an infernal rhythmic battle—and then starts revealing its hidden intricacies.

“What Lies Veiled” is elevated by faint ambient-like textures and melodic riffs à la Death circa Symbolic, “Consecrating Luminous Conflagration” is a revolving carousel of sludge and death-doom, and the 15-minute title track is an epic descent into hell whose flashes of airier riffs and expansive atmosphere only serve to deepen the growling, flailing despair around them. – Antonio Poscic

Innumerable Forms – Pain Effulgence (Profound Lore)

I view Innumerable Forms much like a Lovecraftian mystic, poring over ancient, indecipherable texts to summon the Great Old Ones. It is a fitting metaphor for the Boston act’s ongoing excavation of extreme metal’s archaic depths, a pursuit that began in 2010 and still thrives with their third full-length, Pain Effulgence. The death/doom star remains their guiding light, and the descent into darkness is immediate and overpowering, as evidenced by the sluggish progression of “Impulse” and the Winter-esque, agonized rendition of “Indignation”, with its slithering procession. A nameless, crawling horror made manifest.

However, Innumerable Forms do not only dwell in the sludgy crypts of American death/doom, they also look across the Atlantic, channeling the early majesty and gloom of Paradise Lost, most vividly on “Dissonant Drift”. Here, they weave intricate patterns of sorrow, a theme also prominent in the downtrodden and grand start to the title track. It always remains a gruelling affair, but it carries a fragment of the dark romanticism ushered by the Peaceville Three.

However, old-school death, in its doomed form, has equal footing in Innumerable Forms’ cookbook. Staying on the UK scene, they unleash something akin to early Bolt Thrower groove with “Blotted Inside”, but their bread and butter lives farther north. There is a Finnish heritage that defines the harsher moments of “Austerity and Attrition”, evoking the dreaded visions of Abhorrence and the circa Karelian Isthmus Amorphis. In its groove-laden form, it even brings in a touch of Demigod, before circling back to a core rooted in Autopsy’s primal death metal in “Overwhelming Subjugation”, where schizoid lead work conjures the disorienting spirit of proto-death metal.

Pain Effulgence is an homage to the past, to the darkest corners of the death/doom sound. Hidden from the sun and stars, Innumerable Forms have let it rot even further into its current, grand form. – Spyros Stasis

Kayo Dot – Every Rock, Every Half-Truth Under Reason (Prophecy)

The decision to reunite Kayo Dot’s original lineup two decades after their 2003 debut Choirs Of The Eye was released might suggest a sort of reactionary nostalgia or glory chasing—a turning to the good old days in search of a reality that never was. Yet, by even sporadically glancing at his work, it becomes plain as day that this sort of regressive approach would be antithetical to everything that Kayo Dot’s mastermind, Toby Driver, has done or stood for since then.

Rather than a return to the past, Every Rock, Every Half-Truth Under Reason appears as Driver taking inventory of his work, both solo and with Kayo Dot/maudlin of the Well, from his earliest metallic expressions to the chiaroscuro synthpop and goth rock of 2016’s Plastic House on the Base of Sky, then charting a new path into the future. As before, the music is as much driven by Driver’s principles, which bear the mark of a recognizable, confident composer despite all the stylistic shifts, as it is by what it doesn’t want to be: its shape bending to avoid repetition or familiarity, its progressions eschewing easy routes.

Any traces of metal on Every Rock are thus deceptive, an alien skin draped over a skeleton that has more in common with schools of contemporary classical and new music than with rock patterns. Ghostly growls and clarinet licks are left to reverberate and grow, colliding with massive formations of crashing cymbals and shimmering synths that recall Olivier Messiaen’s organ works, too present and incisive to be called ambient music yet too substantial to dissipate into noise. When the songs finally lock into a segment that sounds like an echo of a memory of a post-rock crescendo, the moments feel earned and cathartic, led by Driver’s simultaneously silky and soaring croon.

From whichever direction you approach Kayo Dot and Toby Driver’s work, Every Rock presents a challenging listen, one that hints at threatening things moving beneath the surface but that never fully come into focus. Music that you absorb and let yourself be absorbed by. – Antonio Poscic

Malthusian – The Summoning Bell (Relapse)

Thomas Robert Malthus hypothesized an existential crisis in which exponential population growth, bound to finite resources, inevitably leads to famine and war. A dark future perfectly suited toward black/death aesthetics, as Ireland’s Malthusian would tell you. Seven years after their debut record, Across Deaths, the band returns with their first Relapse record, The Summoning Bell. A record of maturity, The Summoning Bell sees Malthusian further hone their style, evolving from the cavernous black/death of their earlier days toward fully-fledged death metal.

The impact is immediate in “Red, Waiting” with schizoid leads that echo the US death metal lineage. They convey an imbalanced essence, an unpredictability rooted in Morbid Angel’s legacy, imbuing the music with a quasi-elemental form. A force of nature that cannot be tamed or contained. Yet this time, Malthusian appear almost mathematical. Shedding their black/death murk for a purer death metal form, they have gained a striking precision. It gives an unyielding characteristic to the title track, keeping the reins tightly even when the endeavour descends into madness, as with the spectacular drum parts in “Eroded Into Superstition”. 

Being able to control these crazed moments is vital, and also explains how Malthusian can aptly transform as they descend into extreme death/doom narratives. The start of the 15-minute-long opus “Amongst the Swarms of Vermin” channels this lineage, its slow pace establishing the overwhelming and asphyxiating space. Then come the psychedelic elements. The transformation is complete, tortured, and near-cosmic.

In these moments, Malthus’s theory becomes a reality, as you peek into an unrecognisable world. To accommodate this near-apocalyptic vision, Malthusians rely on their slower pace, as with “Between Dens and Runs”, but also their blackened heritage. Both “Isolation” and “Chaos, Exult” craft towering ambiance through slithering processions and eerie leads, while the full-blown dissonance of “Eroded Into Superstition” offers a more bitter pill.

The Summoning Bell is a triumphant return, an evolution sharpened through fire. Malthusian honour their black/death roots while fully embracing death metal’s brutal calculus, and in doing so, they forge a vision both apocalyptic and exhilarating. – Spyros Stasis

Ava Mendoza / gabby fluke-mogul / Carolina Pérez – Mama Killa (Burning Ambulance)

It’s 2025, and the barriers between music scenes have mostly come apart. Black metal tropes have been accepted even by the traditionally conservative academic circles. The tenets of new music have been steadily seeping into sonically extreme styles. While there are plenty of examples of cross-pollinations between metal and free improvisation—Abhorrent Expanse, Catatonic Effigy, and Threadbare come to mind—it is often musicians from the latter scene who spearhead these efforts.

The participation of US guitarist Ava Mendoza and violinist gabby fluke-mogul on a new-music-cum-metal project like this one isn’t all that surprising, then, but it’s the inclusion of death metal drummer and Castrator co-founder Carolina Pérez that turns Mama Killa into something unusually potent.

Above all, Mama Killa is an exploration of how metallic elements behave when mixed with other influences and the varied and exciting music these alchemical reactions can produce. Take opener “Puma Punku”, for example. The cut roars to life, carried by a steady groove, with Mendoza vocalizing and coaxing her guitar into making riffs that sound like a gravel crunching machine, only for fluke-mogul’s insistent, revolving bowed lines to lead it into a tar pit of stoner rock and sludge metal. Then, the tone shifts.

“Mama Huaco” is all incipient noise and grumble, reminiscent simultaneously of the textural avant rock of Caspar Brötzmann Massaker/Richard Pinhas’s Heldon and the heavy jazz fusion of Hedvig Mollestad. Elsewhere, we encounter traces of blues, country, and American roots music, all blended with a sort of punk energy: melody and rhythmic drive dissolving into Tony Conrad-esque microtonal yelps.

The album is an utterly exciting listen, front to back, with Pérez bringing a sense of uncertainty to the proceedings as the struggle between her death metal conditioned muscle memory and attempts at surrendering to the flow create an effervescently dynamic tapestry of rhythms; blast beats collapsing into loose syncopations, soft cymbal touches building into steady cadences. Magical stuff from a trio that I hope will become a permanent thing. – Antonio Poscic

Sallow Moth – Mossbane Lantern (I, Voidhanger)

You know those people who receive an email with multiple questions and respond with just one word? I suspect that Dallas, Texas-based multi-instrumentalist Garry Brents might be one of them. Sallow Moth, the latest of his numerous projects, sounds like Brents replying ‘yes’ to questions that weren’t meant to be binary.

New Age-tinged, jazzy death metal in the vein of Cynic? Yes. Keep the jazz, but add more technicality and intricate progressions, à la Atheist? Yes. Wormed’s mind-grinding brutal death metal? Yes. How about the Swedish old-school of Dismember or Entombed? Yes. Slant it melodically, like Edge of Sanity? Yes. Throw in a bit of Gorguts’ dissonance? Yes. Yes! YES! 

Here’s the kicker: for all the cornucopia of styles mashed together, there is nary a moment on Mossbane Lantern that feels self-indulgent or forced. Rather, the album’s flow is nothing short of spectacular, navigating between styles then superimposing them as textural layers. This approach yields some magical moments, such as the combination of flowery jazz syncopations and slamming brutality on “Icegorger Gauntlets”, the hilariously good juxtaposition of yacht rock chill with mean blast beat/tremolo/growl attacks on “Aethercave Boots”, and the outrageous fusion-gone-technical-death-metal of “Runemilk Amulet”.

To make things even better, the sheer amount of musical information crammed into the tracks means that every playthrough is slightly different, depending on which elements your attention latches onto. A ‘choose your own adventure’ experience where every path is an absolute blast. – Antonio Poscic

Stangarigel – Ze Striebornou Horou (Medieval Prophecy)

Led by Malokarpatan guitarist Adam Sičák and vocalist/drummer Stalagnat, Stangarigel conjure a black metal that bridges the melodic and the atmospheric, the pagan and bitter, without ever losing sight of its heavy metal lineage. Their sophomore record, Ze Striebornou Horou, stays on the path and immediately opens with a pagan theme, as “V Sedemdesiatej Siedmej Krajine” moulds subtle melody with a grimmer, more dramatic sense of tragedy.

This is only the beginning. As the record unfolds, Stangarigel descend further into a folk-enchanted soundworld, evoking the windswept majesty of monuments like Bergtatt and Dark Medieval Times. It is subtle at first, a flirt with the atmospheric in “Žulové Tvrdze Tatranských Šarkanov” with the keyboards adding depth to the scenery, but soon enough they awaken a dark, mystical majesty.

This is especially strong in “Sedem Modrých Ohňov Plejád”, which echoes Summoning’s ethos, as the medieval part halfway through suggests. Stangarigel excel at summoning these moments of rupture and revelation, exposing the traditions that have informed and defined their sound. The fully fledged folk overture halfway through “Kde Kladiva Obrov Rozmetali Hory” is such an instance, a magical lifting of distorted reality, a return to an unplugged past.

Still, the duo press onwards. The melodies remain front and centre, sublime in expression, infused with a sorrowful, melancholic essence. At times, this melodic instinct reveals its roots in classic heavy metal. “Žulové Tvrdze Tatranských Šarkanov” carries the swagger of 1970s tradition, while “Turoni a Chriapy Obchadzaju Snehom” erupts with an ecstatic Iron Maiden-esque charge. But the darkness is never far. Stangarigel wield a blackened steel forged in the fires of early Abigor, as the bitter onset of “Aragonitove Siene V Lone Zeme Pt. I” suggests.

This current flows into  “Hrad Vil V Stratenej Doline Pt. I”, where the duo channel a dark romanticism inspired by the hymns of the night. And so concludes the arc of Ze Striebornou Horou, an album that may seem straightforward on the surface, but reveals a trove of wonder and intricacy beneath. – Spyros Stasis

Sulfuric Cautery – Killing Spree (Blast Addict)

You know this scene in Breaking Bad, where Walter and Jesse stand in the hallway while watching the hydrofluoric acid eat through the ceiling? Right before body parts drop with a thump to the floor? I have pretty much the same reaction in anticipation of the new Sulfuric Cautery record. The noise-fascinated, goregrind act returns with another brutal, horrifying, and annihilating record in Killing Spree.

This is relentless grindcore that nods to its foundations in early Carcass, but quickly pushes beyond them. Still, it is difficult not to feel the reek of putrefaction coming through, especially in moments where the death metal self gets the best of them. “Utterly Hopeless Existence” and “Uncontrollable Bleeding” showcase this lineage, the slower parts providing a clearer (somewhat) definition to the guitars. It is all a ploy, of course, highlighted in “Broken Shell of a Man”, where the slow start is sardonically taunting you before the real fun begins. 

Because Sulfuric Cautery’s heart is not with the early grindcore pioneers, but with their noisier offspring, aka Last Days of Humanity. The swamp-gurgled vocals opening “Toe Tag” make that connection unmistakable. The tight snare sound, a constant, ringing reminder of annihilation and mayhem, is inescapable. The main change from Sulfuric Cautery’s previous records is a newfound, technical nuance, mirrored primarily through the erratic rhythm structures.

Where, in the past, they would simply steamroll with little variation, here they become more unpredictable, lashing out in a spasmodic manner to increase volatility. As is the case with their past, this is the closest that metallic or punk-ish music can get to the noise genre. And lucky us, Killing Spree is the grotesque blob we did not know we needed. – Spyros Stasis

Theurgion – All Under Heave (Profound Lore)

Another project from A.P. (Chaos Moon) and R.F. (Collier d’Ombre), following Osgraef’s Reveries of the Arcane Eye and Ichors Glaive’s Jormungandr demo. This time, they are joined by vocalist/drummer L.C., and they step away from black metal. With Theurgion, they delve into the epic side of melodic doom/death, drawing in all the majesty and pathos that the genre produced in the 1990s.

The opening is particularly unexpected with “Mourning Tide” channeling the downtrodden, gritty, yet deeply romantic side of Solitude Aeternus. The slow pace allows the lead work to flourish, sinking its hooks into your ears, while its long-form, steady progression, in particular on the title track, gazes beyond the crimson horizon.

Still, the foundation of Theurgion’s debut, All Under Heaven, is found in a darker aesthetic. Following the intro’s epic tonality, “Lavender and Silver” descends into a melodic doom/death motif, which owes much to Katatonia circa Discouraged Ones and early October Tide. Here, the rocking quality becomes addictive, as Theurgion channel its energy into something unmistakably mournful. It is a powerful device, defining entire tracks, such as “Thrice-Named”, or used tastefully for additional impact.

Yet, there is another layer that Theurgion evoke, and that is the Peaceville Three sound, as the subtler moments of “Thrice-Named” conjure the moving melodies of early Paradise Lost, and some of the despairing tones of My Dying Bride. Similarly, “The Storm” echoes with the heavier grooves of The Silent Enigma, with Theurgion looking even further up north to the Finnish shores, aptly assimilating some of Tuonela‘s atmosphere.

All Under Heaven is steeped in a glorious tradition, yet it does not merely rehash its influences. Instead, Theurgion reinterpret them with care and conviction, weaving epic doom and melodic doom/death into a fluid and immersive whole. – Spyros Stasis

Unleashed – Fire Upon Your Lands (Napalm)

It might sound like a made-up story in these days of (too) easy access to musical riches, but getting a hold of metal albums by anyone not named Iron Maiden or Metallica was often a torturous endeavor back in the 2000s. As a result, you would take anything you could get your hands on, cherishing even ho-hum music as if it had been brought up from hell by your personal guardian demon. For this reviewer, a copy of Unleashed’s 2002 Hell’s Unleashed, pinched for pennies during a CD shop’s closeout sale, became a benchmark against which all other melodic death metal would be measured for years to come.

Looking back, it’s obvious that the album in question found the Stockholm outfit at the lowest point of their career. Trying to keep up with the groove and hardcore influences that started plaguing Swedish melodeath, they became stuck between the old-school death metal of their early days and the more melodic, Viking-themed music they would make later. It brings warmth to the heart, then, to see the quartet in more or less their original formation firing on all cylinders in 2025. Like 2021’s No Sign Of Life, Fire Upon Your Lands finds Unleashed in great form, comfortable playing a modern vision of death metal but adorned with a certain experiential jaggedness and grit.

The opening cut, “Left For Dead”, is all thrashing atmosphere and buzzsawing guitars. “The Road to Haifa Pier” tightens the rhythms to near grindcore levels and drops some truly bombastic riffs, enabling “Loyal To The End” to later shake things up by adding splashes of doom metal and blackened tremolos. Meanwhile, “To My Only Son” reaches back to the heyday of 2000s melodeath and trad D-beat, giving that final bit of flair that makes Fire Upon Your Lands recall a mix of At the Gates and Amon Amarth, while easily besting both bands’ recent outputs. – Antonio Poscic

Wreck and Reference – Stay Calm (The Flenser)

Continuing with the theme of deconstruction, transformation, and subversion of metal (see above: Abhorrent Expanse, Castrator, Kayo Dot, and Mendoza/fluke-mogul/Pérez), Wreck And Reference’s Felix Skinner and Ignat Frege have been probing and experimenting at the outer limits of the genre since 2008. Today, on the duo’s latest LP Stay Calm, there is very little left of the industrial metal sludge that characterized their early days and the 2012 debut No Youth. They stretched and burned and mutated until anything metallic lost its essence and became something entirely new.

Although it appears alien, at least superficially and sonically, this new set of material still nurtures a thin thread that leads back to the past, a trail of suffocating tension, heaviness, and anguish that now takes the shape of electronic beats, revolving synthesizer riffs, lo-fi ambient vibes, and Skinner’s mangled croon-cum-scream. It appears almost as a form of paradox, music that feels metal but is not metal at all.

At times delirious and raving (“Healthy Instinct”), at others doomily atmospheric (“Burning”) and imposingly noisy (“The Cup”, “Be Careful”), Wreck And Reference now exist in a niche of their own, not quite belonging to the metal world they left behind nor the proto-punk electronic architectures of groups like Suicide, which, if you squint hard enough, their songs sometimes evoke. – Antonio Poscic