The center of the vortex held last week when Meshuggah, In Flames, and Whitechapel came to the casino and spun the wheel. Meshuggah It was an edgy Tuesday at Hard Rock Live in northern Indiana. The three bands playing were purveyors of latter-day metal, ranging from metalcore to deathcore to djent. If we think of an umbrella term for the music played, we might try to call it melodic progressive technical death groove metal. I like that – hope it catches on Whitechapel Whitechapel kicked off the show. The band started out in 2006, playing deathcore in Knoxville, and waking the younger crowd fro ..read more

Photos by Wayne Edwards. © Wayne Edwards Main article at FFMB, https://flyingfiddlesticks.com/2023/12/10/meshuggah-with-in-flames-and-whitechapel-at-hard-rock-live-gary-indiana-december-5-2023 ..read more

Death metal band Farsoth return with their sophomore long-player, Morbid Symphonies. Farsoth came together a few years ago in Sweden. They play a straight-ahead, aggressive form of death metal that appeals to fans both in and outside of the subgenre. Following up on their 2022 debut album, The Plague, the new record cranks up the power even more than did its predecessor. The band is Jari Kuusisto (guitar), Joakim Mikiver (vocals), Jonas Magnusson (bass), Florian Rehn (drums), and Johnny Nymark (guitar). “Hate” is a continual blast of overwhelming aggression from the first note to the last. It ..read more

Black metal reincarnates Third Storm blast out their second album, The Locust Mantra. The earliest version of Third Storm formed in Sweden in the 1980s. That episode was short lived, but it did produce a couple of demos. Nearly two decades on, in a reformation, Third Storm released the brief EP, Tarîtîya Me (2015), signaling that the fire was still burning, needing only to be fanned. Their debut long-player, Grand Manifestation, followed in 2018, and now we have confirmation with their sophomore full-length album that Third Storm is a going concern. The band is Heval Bozarslan (vocals), Hasse ..read more

Graveyard return after five years with a new, numerically titled, album, their sixth. Everyone got interrupted by the worldwide pestilence, and Graveyard was no exception. Speaking about the new album, the band remarks, “We had plans to start recording or writing an album before the pandemic started, but then everything shut down. Maybe we shut down too, you know? We couldn’t make any money from playing anymore, so everybody started getting jobs and stuff like that, and everything took a lot longer than was expected. During the recording we had a Covid scare and we had to cancel things for a ..read more

Death metal monarchs Feral and Crawl team up for a quick split, Made As Those Who Are No Longer Alive. Crawl and Feral are both bands from Sweden that play death metal, and they both released full-length records a few years back. They have come together now to bring their followers a few new tracks to hold them over until the next long-players arrive. Feral’s lineup includes Roger Markstrom (drums), Markus Lindahl (guitar), Viktor Klingstedt (bass), David Nilsson (vocals), and Sebastian Lejon (guitar). They put two radio-length songs into the split. “From the Ancient Tombs” gives a growl to k ..read more

Sweden’s Domkraft serve up a fourth round of psychedelic doom on their new record Sonic Moons. Domkraft is from Stockholm, Sweden, and they have been around for about ten years. I always think of them as a doom band, yet it is worth noting that their particular flavor of doom is unique, leaning into psychedelic territory and swirling in some sludge. Their self-titled EP came out in 2015, and since then they have released another one, a couple of splits, and three long-players, most recently 2021’s Seeds. The new record is an interdimensional journey filled with fuzz, doom, and revelations. Th ..read more

The fourth album from Sweden’s Eleine, We Shall Remain, furthers the themes and ideas the band established in their earlier work. Eleine is a symphonic metal band from Sweden. They have released two previous EPs and three earlier full-length studio albums. Their music is highly polished and is characterized by the juxtaposition of elegant elements against harsher, rough passages. The result is rich music that appeals to a broad swath of heavy metal fans. The band is Madeleine Liljestam (vocals), Rikard Ekberg (guitar, vocals), Filip Stålberg (bass), and Jesper Sunnhagen (drums). There are nin ..read more

Gothenburg doom folk band Ockra release their debut album, Gratitude. Ockra formed in Sweden in 2018 and is comprised of members of the stoner doom band Sulphur Dreams. The three wanted to stretch out a bit and explore related musical realms. The music they create floats between heavy and quiet, stoner and folk, pop and perhaps soft jazz. It is an interesting and uncommon combination. The band is Jonas Nyström (drums, percussion, mellotron), Erik Björnlinger (guitar), and Alex Spielhaupter (vocals, bass, mellotron). “Introspection” is a song that is perfectly titled, and a nice way to ease in ..read more

Death metal band Necrovation breaks back into this dimension with a new EP, Storming The Void – Starving Grave. Necrovation first stirred in Sweden twenty years ago. They laid down a string of reliable heavy metal releases including a couple of EPs, a demo, and two long-players, Breed Deadness Blood (2008) and Necrovation (2012). After that, they went on an extended recording hiatus. Until now. I am not sure what happened between now and then, and maybe it was nothing more than the musicians choosing not to record anything. Whatever it was, the new music is what is important today. The Metal ..read more