The debut full-length album from Helsinki death metal band Baron is Beneath The Blazing Abyss. Baron started almost ten years ago in Finland. They are a death metal band, and no mistake. They also introduce strong doom elements at times and do not shy away from hardcore levels of aggression. With two EPs and a demo in their history, Beneath The Blazing Abyss is their first long-player. The band is Tommi Astala (vocals, acoustic guitar), Jerry Tamminen (guitar, vocals), Teemu Karell (guitar), Toni Nisukangas (bass), and Juuso Hämäläinen (drums). There are seven stacked tracks on the new record ..read more

Revered doom band My Dying Bride release their 15th album, A Mortal Binding. For more than thirty years, UK doom band My Dying Bride has mesmerized fans. The past few years have been rough for the band, for the global reasons that affected everyone and for issues specific to My Dying Bride. Talking about the new album, vocalist Aaron Stainthorpe says, “This album was much easier than The Ghost of Orion. We were coming out of cancer with my daughter. That, naturally, was always playing on my mind throughout the recording. When the album was released, the world went into lockdown. Everything we ..read more

Swedish metalcore band Leach bring forward their fourth album, New Model Of Disbelief. Leach is a band with an evolving sound. In their earlier work, you might hear a melodic form of death metal, passing on to thrash and then perhaps metalcore, which is what I have labeled them. Any particular category is a bit simplistic for their sound, which has its own groove and is quite variegated across any album, most especially the new one. The band is Markus Wikander (vocals, guitar), Robert Karlsson (guitar), Anders Nordlander (bass), and Joachim Dahlström (drums). The set begins on the charge with ..read more

The Kvlt and Roll Tour with Early Moods and Morbikon stopped at Black Circle in Indianapolis, bringing menace and mayhem. Early Moods Black Circle is an excellent heavy music venue in Indianapolis that I have written about many times in the pages of this blog. There is an amazing array of bands that comes through the place – check out their website at the link below the article and have a look at their event list for yourself. If you are a heavy music fan anywhere near Indianapolis, chances are you spend a fair amount of time at Black Circle. One of the things the venue does that I haven’t see ..read more

Stoner doom wizards Temple Of The Fuzz Witch render new ponderings on their latest, Apotheosis. Detroit is the place of origin for the doom trio Temple Of The Fuzz Witch. In only a few years, they have produced an impressive amount of music, releasing an EP and two previous full-length albums, most recently, Red Tide (2020). I was lucky enough to catch the band live last Fall at Tennessee Metal Devastation, and their performance was a primary highlight of the festival. Apotheosis is another testament in what is sure to be an on-going story. The band is Noah Bruner (vocals, guitar, synth), Joe ..read more

Brutal deathcore trio Ingested expand their legacy on the new one, The Tide Of Death And Fractured Dreams. Ingested came to be in the mid 2000s. I always thought of them as a slam band back then, and I still have that in my head. You could also say deathcore, or brutal/technical death metal. Over the years they have released a strong of outstanding albums, the latest being their eighth. You can always count on a feral approach to heavy metal when you listen to an Ingested album. The band is Jason Evans (vocals), Sean Hynes (guitar, vocals), and Lyn Jeffs (drums). “Paragon Of Purity” starts th ..read more

Portland death metal band Witch Vomit conjure more fetid spells on their latest album, Funeral Sanctum. Witch Vomit got going in 2012 as a duo and immediately started creating a vile form of death metal all their own. Gradually, the lineup expanded and the group started releasing records, including three EPs and two previous long-players, A Scream from the Tomb Below (2016) and Buried Deep in a Bottomless Grave (2019). They are spreading their black wings a bit on the latest offering; the better to gather up more followers. The band is Tempter (guitar, vocals), Filth (drums), JG (bass), and C ..read more

Philadelphia symphonic death metal band Malphas release a new concept album, Portal. Malphas is a melodic death metal band from Philadelphia (not to be confused with the melodic black metal band of the same name from Michigan). They have been around for more than a decade, logging an EP, The Conjuring (2015), and a full-length album, The 39th Spirit (2018). The new record is a deep concept album, meaning that it is richly imagined. The band describes it this way, “It is a concept album about a man who makes a pact with Malphas to achieve his high political ideals; however, this backfires and ..read more

Death metal trio Suffer release a diabolical new album, Grand Canvas Of The Aesthete. There are many bands named Suffer – this is the one from South Dakota. They have been around since 1989/1990, and they have split and reformed a couple of times. The music is death metal, but it is its own lane, in my opinion, and you know immediately if you are listening to a Suffer song. They have one previous full-length album and two EPs in their history. The new record is their finest work yet. The band is Justin Aeschliman (guitar), C. R. Petit (guitar, vocals), and Jason Ellsworth (bass). There are ei ..read more

Moon Incarnate give the world saturating doom on their debut album Hymns To The Moon. Moon Incarnate is a German doom twosome whose music often focuses on gothic horror themes, as we might have guessed from the name of the band and the title of the record. Narrative is important to the execution of the ideas expressed on the record, and it is often deployed literally. The moon here is respected, celebrated, and also feared. The band is the duo Christian Kolf and Matin Vasari, with Peter Scartabello on drums. “Hymn to the Moon (Introduction)” is a beautiful and reverent overture to the majesty ..read more