5.0

Maud the Moth – The Distaff Review

Maud the Moth – The Distaff Review

By Dolphin Whisperer on February 24, 2025 in Reviews, Progressive Rock, 160 comments

“We all take shape in the form that others prescribe—an embodiment that may run counter to how we see ourselves. Yet, in this world of heavy artistry whose inception rests in the bravery and drama and drive against the on-the-tracks trajectory of rock music—often too in sneer at traditional thought patterns—we search for freedom in amplified wisdom, reckless rhythms, and voices that soar above it all. Maud the Moth, in piano and vocal-based lamentations, appears to us not in the rev and leather that symbolize the traditional call of heavy metal.” Leave the lights on.

Kanonenfieber – Die Urkatastrophe Review

Kanonenfieber – Die Urkatastrophe Review

By Carcharodon on September 17, 2024 in Reviews, Atmospheric Black Metal, Black Metal, Blackened Death Metal, Death Metal, Melodic Black Metal, Melodic Death Metal, 360 comments

“When I wrote up Menschenmühle, the debut full-length by Germany’s Kanonenfieber, in late 2021, I described it as ‘stunning.’ The storytelling arc that it achieves, opening with the almost enthusiastic bombast of the early days of the Great War, through to the exhausted horror of No Man’s Land, is incredible. Cast in shades of blackened death metal, I ended up crowning it my Album of the Year, calling it a ‘masterpiece.’ So how does one write the follow-up to a masterpiece?” With one’s tongue, apparently.

Fellowship – The Saberlight Chronicles Review

Fellowship – The Saberlight Chronicles Review

By Eldritch Elitist on July 14, 2022 in Reviews, Power Metal, 318 comments

“I know that most of you have already eyed my score on this review, and have nearly broken your damn necks from the whiplash of rapidly scrolling up for answers. For many, this choice will come across as confusing and misguided, but as someone who’s listened to Fellowship’s self-titled EP on repeat for two years, it’s anything but. That EP might be the reason I survived the early pandemic days with my sanity intact. It’s a bottomless wellspring of joy, dominated by gorgeous melodies, exhilarating solos, and clever, heartwarming lyrical turns. On the strength of those three songs alone, Fellowship’s debut LP would have probably been my power metal album of the year. The fact that every song on the record is as good as or better than any song from the EP puts it in another class entirely.” Off to see the Wizzard.

Wilderun – Epigone Review

Wilderun – Epigone Review

By El Cuervo on January 7, 2022 in Reviews, Progressive Metal, Symphonic Metal, 417 comments

Wilderun’s Epigone marks the band’s first new material while signed to Century Media, but fourth record. Readers of this website will know that I think they are the best band of the 2010s, having composed progressive, deathly, folksy metal records that will stay with me forever. Their last two albums have both been my record of the year (and AMG Himself’s) and the band continues to accrue acclaim for their incredible sound and talent. Epigone is, without a doubt, an album that comes with high expectations from everyone. It’s interesting to note, then, that the title means “a less distinguished follower or imitator of someone.”

Impure Wilhelmina – Antidote Review

Impure Wilhelmina – Antidote Review

By Grymm on May 17, 2021 in Reviews, Doom Metal, Post-Metal, 177 comments

“Back in 2017, I was introduced to Swiss post-metallers Impure Wilhelmina via their sixth album, Radiation, having had absolutely no prior knowledge or experience with their brand of gloomy post-metal. If Katatonia was the metal equivalent of The Cure, Impure Wilhelmina is basically The Smiths, with guitarist/vocalist/main man Michael Schindl offering up his best velvet-smooth Morrissey-level crooning. I ended up loving Radiation… a lot. Not only did it grab the top spot in my 2017 year-end list, it’s held up ridiculously well over the years, with me pulling it out to give a spin when the mood strikes, which has been a lot lately. So when word dropped that their seventh, Antidote, was on the horizon, I honestly just wanted to like the album about as much as Radiation, tempering my expectations that topping Radiation would be a herculean task.” Purity is overrated.

Ad Nauseam – Imperative Imperceptible Impulse Review

Ad Nauseam – Imperative Imperceptible Impulse Review

By Kronos on February 9, 2021 in Reviews, 236 comments

“Ad Nauseam spilled into the avant-garde black/death metal scene in 2015 with Nihil Quam Vacuitas Ordinatum Est, a record that stood out for its audacity even among the most ambitious and experimental extreme metal records. Think Gorguts, think Baring Teeth, think Imperial Triumphant, and, yes, think Pyrrhon, but the Italian quartet are their own phenomenon.” Artisan sickness

Pyrrhon – What Passes for Survival Review

Pyrrhon – What Passes for Survival Review

By Kronos on August 8, 2017 in 2017, American Metal, Avante Garde, Death Metal, Grind, Reviews, Technical Death Metal, Throatruiner Records, Willowtip, Death Metal, Technical Death Metal, 199 comments

“Three years: a trial for many, an eternity for some, an unnoticeable instant of geology. But enough time for Pyrrhon’s The Mother of Virtues to become a landmark work in extreme music, the most forward-thinking and brazen death metal album of the decade thus far. When I reviewed it, I mused that “A more difficult album [was] hard to come by.” What Passes for Survival is that and more.” Worth the weight.