Fire and ice have always entangled themselves in a tug-of-war, a relationship as old as time. Together, fire, the more aggressive, grandiose element, and ice, the solid, more submissive counterpart, create a symphony of symbiosis. Upon the flames, ice sizzles away, transitions into vapor, drifts with the wind and is set free. In 2019, Australian melodic blackened death metal outfit King followed up their debut full-length Reclaim the Darkness with their sophomore effort Coldest of Cold. While Coldest of Cold was a significant improvement, this isn’t to say Reclaim the Darkn ..read more

Suotana is a Finnish melodic death metal band that I, and many others, discovered after the release of their sophomore effort, Land of the Ending Time, in 2018. I was on a Children of Bodom kick at the time. Hexed had been out about a month. I went on one of those “Similar Artists” searches. Or maybe it was a Bandcamp “sounds like.” Either way — that journey led me to this scathing sextet. Release date: March 17, 2023. Label: Reaper Entertainment If CoB, Catamenia, Kalmah, or Norther played any part in your introduction to extreme metal in the early-mid 2000s, dipping your toes into Suotana’s ..read more

Metal sees so many reformations and regroupings that genuine surprise is rare. Yet when it was announced that Mikael Stanne, Jesper Strömblad, Peter Iwers, Niclas Engelin, and Daniel Svensson had formed a band together my reaction was one of genuine surprise. Not that I assumed In Flames and Dark Tranquillity were mortal enemies or anything—but it seemed an unlikely union given Iwers and Strömblad’s then-present distance from melodic death metal and Stanne’s twenty-eight-year distance from In Flames. Once the shock wore off, my thoughts turned to what this band of ex-In Flamers would sound lik ..read more

Release date: June 3, 2022. Label: Independent. Too awkwardly dated and impure to be obviously cool in the social media age, melodic death metal (melodeath) revivalism is – compared to its metalcore cousin, and despite the loaded term – well, not a thing. Metalcore has Dying Wish, Wristmeetrazor, Vein.fm, Alpha Wolf, and SeeYouSpaceCowboy. Melodeath has, well, nothing quite so official. Though, unofficially, I’ve been more than satiated with Buried Realm since The Ichor Carcinoma five years ago. And this self-titled third album feels less like a tribute to times long forgotten, distilling ever ..read more

This has been a strange year in music. Blood Incantation announced their hour-long, ambient Century Media debut. Andi Deris proved the best bobbing head on the new and remarkable Helloween hydra. Melodic black metal not too far removed from Enthrone Darkness Triumphant-era Dimmu Borgir became the sound du jour. And a vinyl record now costs as much as a video game. And yet it’s also been an oddly familiar year in music. We’re still getting hot takes on COVID (and now Omicron) from musicians we don’t care about whose opinions we didn’t ask for. And magazines steeped in heavy metal tradition—like ..read more

The world is not lacking for metal bands. Between Bandcamp and blogs, there’s an endless supply of new discoveries at our fingertips. Though somehow we’ve heard and seen it all. Several times over. Yet once in a blue moon something like Vaelmyst’s Secrypts of the Egochasm comes along to reinvigorate our interest in an otherwise quiet corner of metal. For this jaded listener, it’s easily the surprise of 2021. First, it must be said that calling this album melodic death metal feels a little disingenuous. No doubt, it is death metal. And it is certainly melodic. But it’s closer to earlier Opeth t ..read more