It appears reports of the downfall of death have been wildly exaggerated. Good grief. What a time to be alive. It’s Death’s Door, and the genre coffers overfloweth.  I don’t know what evil spirit has possessed the world’s death metal practitioners, but the genre has been on an absolute heater over the past few months. Seldom have there been this many exceptional quality releases in such a short span of time, and based on the promos for future releases I’ve listened to from ye olde inbox we’re not close to being done yet. What a day. What a lovely day.  I won’t belabor the point. Jud ..read more

Black metal moves ever onward, and Kvlt Kolvmn is here to document the chaos.  As has been stated a few times this year already, the genre seems to be in a bit of a lull when it comes to sheer amount of standout releases. Which isn’t to say there’s an inherent lack of records that would be celebrated in any year, just that there seems to be less of them. But sometimes less is more, as evidenced by the exceptional records below. At least one of these records is highly likely to make my metal AOTY list at the end of the year, and we can easily vouch for the incredible consistency and highs ..read more

Top Picks Atrae Bilis – Aumicide (progressive tech-death) I'll never not be tickled that this cult Canadian tech-death outfit features the guitarist from short-lived Melbourne scatological slammers The Mung. At the same time, I shouldn't hold them to his past achievements when they've so clearly surpassed them, first on 2021's promisingly portmanteaued Apexapian and now on it's sonically murderous successor. As its Mung-worthy artwork suggests, Aumicide is a notably darker offering than its predecessor, adding some delicious dissonance and mid-period-Decapitated-style groove into the mix befo ..read more

A scream into the void can express many emotions; rage, despair, relief, heartbreak. But perhaps the most satisfying screams encapsulate a swirl of emotions, capturing both our darkest moments and most triumphant returns.  Such is the sound of Oathswan, an emerging band from Athens featuring members of Mask of Prospero, Gentihaa and Aetherian that plays a powerful mix of metalcore, post-metal, and progressive metal. Their upcoming debut EP, For Those Who Breathe From Darkness, is a cathartic homage to love and heartbreak.  Combining cinematic atmospheres with crushing guitars and em ..read more

Top Pick Adon – Adon (blackened groove death) Keeping it short an sweet this week, as I'm off to see Gatecreeper in a tiny studio venue this evening, and also because I don't actually have access to my top pick at the time of writing. Nevertheless, amid all the juicy death metal releases this week it's the unknown Adon's brand of aggressive blackened death metal that has lashed out and caught my ear. Just when you think there's only so many times Behemoth's "Conquer All" (itself a repurposing of Anthrax's "Be All, End All") can be repurposed, Adon come roaring out of the traps with the nastie ..read more

It's been a while since I premiered some good old psychedelic music and The Cosmic Dead definitely hit that mark. Infinite Peaks, their new album that drops tomorrow and which we are premiering here in full today, is another ambitious entry in the prolific Scottish band's discography. Like the rest of their releases, it is an unfurling and expansive work, two tracks that each span around the twenty minute mark and explore vast structures of feedback, reverb, ambience and groove. However, where other bands are satisfied with relying on that sheer mass to generate most of the appeal for their w ..read more

Hello my friends! It is time for the second craziest month of the year in music, the craziest being next month. As you can tell from the below, music has ramped up and is spitting out some of the best albums of this year. Death metal once again stands out, responsible for a sizeable majority of these excellent releases (exact number depending on your definition of death metal). But there are other genres in here as well, some of them even weird and original hybrids of styles. Regardless of their level of uniqueness, each release on here, as per usual, is well worth your time, so let's not was ..read more

Top Picks Wretched Death – Democide (blackened death thrash) I was in a shitty band once. We were alright. Our singer sucked and I didn't really know how to play, but we had fun. We used to joke that we were cool and played "blackened death thrash" when we really played some pretty rudimentary groove-metal/core. Point is, I wish we sounded more like Wretched Death. One-man black-thrash bands are a dime a dozen these days but, for whatever reason, Wretched Death are doing it for me, while recently lauded releases from the likes of Midnight and Hellripper have left me pretty cold. Is that reaso ..read more

So, uh….something big recently happened in the music world. Unless you’ve been living under a rock (no judgment, if that’s the case), you probably noticed that a small town superstar known as Beyoncé dropped a new album last week. As a purely musical endeavor, the album is a certified banger that pays thoughtful tribute to the history of country while putting Beyoncé’s emphatic stamp on the genre. As a cultural contribution, Cowboy Carter is nothing less than a bonafide phenomenon. From fashion to politics to everything, we’re living in yet another moment shaped by music. For us music nerds ..read more

Let’s be honest, we’ve all dreamt of putting on our own metal festival at some point. Stages stacked full of our favourite bands, playing non-stop bangers to adoring crowds of like-minded punters. It all sounds amazing, but most of us know that this dream will never happen and therefore leave it up to others to organise our beloved independent metal festivals. But who are these insane people? What drives them to do such a thing? And how many packs of paracetamol and bottles of cider do they require to get through an average week?  Organising and promoting a single night of live music can ..read more