Full Length Review: Old Ruins "Mount Arreat" (Sick Taste Records) by Dave Wolff

Band: Old Ruins

Location: Gelsenkirchen

Country: Germany

Genre: Black metal

Full length: Mount Arreat

Format: Digital, CD, vinyl

Label: Sick Taste Records

Release date: September 18, 2026

Alexander Czernik and Christian Krajewski founded Old Ruins in 2019, developing a dark, atmospheric sound that would become the soundtrack to something personal and special to them—something to spark their imagination.

Inspired by gaming culture, role-playing scenarios, and dark sword-and-sorcery fantasy, they based their material on the genre-defining video game series “Diablo,” a modern-day “Dungeons & Dragons.” The series depicts a perpetual war taking place in other realms between heaven and hell. With a complete backstory, a gothic atmosphere, dungeons, angels, demons and demon lords, it presents a world where you fight to save Sanctuary, formed by renegade angels and demons, from direful forces emerging from the Burning Hells to destroy it.

Drawing from their source material, the band becomes sorcerers, necromancers, and barbarians, battling Diablo, the Lord of Terror, and his satanic minions. Their sound shifts between black, classic, and doom metal, as well as Gothenburg-style melodic death metal. From the EP “Old Ruins” (2020) to the full-length “Always Heading East” (2023) and “Mount Arreat,” they follow the “chapters” of the “Diablo” storyline traveling the domains of the Kingdom of Khanduras. They take you on the journey they’ve borrowed from the source material, through Tristram’s catacombs, the deserts of Aranoch, the land of Kurast across the sea, and straight onward to hell’s gates to face Diablo himself.

The band points out that you don’t need to be familiar with the game, its narrative or its history to accompany them during their expedition, nor are the verses and scripts exhibited to ridicule the synopses written for the game. Everything is presented as serious drama here, and respectful to the plotlines thought up by the game’s originators and designers.

The way they construct and produce the songs in a theatrical, orchestral fashion to bring the chronicle to life, diversifying the temperament and ambiance, using the vocals to illustrate each character and sequence of events, “Mount Arreat” sounds and feels like a sword and sorcery epic spanning timeless worlds from “Excalibur” (1981) to the “Lord of the Rings” saga (2001-2003) and beyond.

The production is as roughhewn as the music is proficiently written and arranged, eschewing any modern digital approach, aimed at expressing the scope of the adventure and the malevolence of the adversaries our heroes face along the way. Each track is written like an epic in itself, the substantial organic sound of the bass and drums being a discrepancy to the coarse guitar and vocal sounds. The ambient resonance covering the songs is like a doorway through which you can immerse yourself in the adventure, pick up a weapon and fight the demons alongside the band.

As he assumed the responsibilities of recording, mixing, mastering and producing the album, German multi-instrumentalist Mario Dahmen relied on his experience and instincts to help tell the story in the most visual way possible. The cover art designed by professional German painter Timon Kokott resulted from a shared passion for the “Diablo” series and his experience designing covers for the band since their debut EP.

Bridging the chasm between extreme metal, analog production, high tech gaming and pure imagination, “Mount Arreat” displays the productiveness that can ensue when carried out with fondness and sureness. –Dave Wolff

Lineup:

Christian Krajewski: Lead guitars, vocals

Ersin Kara: Rhythm guitars

Oliver Krajewski: Bass

Mike Gelnar: Drums

Track list:

1. Once There Was Light

2. Gates of Harrogath

3. Call to Arms

4. Uileloscadh Mór

5. Nihlathak

6. Mount Arreat

7. Lord of Destruction

8. Tyrael's Despair

EP Review: Mythark "Broken Crown" (Independent) by Dave Wolff

Band: Mythark

Location: Saint Étienne

Country: France

Genre: Blackened symphonic death metal

EP: Broken Crown

Format: Digital

Label: Independent

Release date: September 15, 2026

Formed in 2011, Mythark present myths and legends gathered from different cultures from a literary perspective. Presenting their foundations in black and death metal through symphonic arrangements written to sound grandiose, they treat their music as a vehicle for historical and mythological stories, pushing them to a level as grand as their songwriting.

Being a metal band, of course, they make no effort to combine legend with something bright and accessible, no matter the sophistication accompanying it. Given the historical figures and old gods they reinterpret; from Aphrodite to Belzebuth to that old favorite Vlad Tepes, they play music as dense and harsh as it is ambitiously symphonic. Somewhere between “Excalibur” (1981), “Conan The Barbarian” (1982) and “The Omen” (1976).

I re-read Mythark’s short interview from 2024 and Daniel Ryan’s review of their 2019 full length “Unleash the Darkness,’ described as absolutely beautiful to the point of madness, carried by operatics to a point of no return. I gather the band makes an effort to fill a void in music by pushing originality and creativity toward a state of mania.

Their debut EP from 2013, “The Ark of Myths,” is hard to find on any streaming outlets, and Mythark seems to prefer mystery when it comes to including lyrics with their streamed releases. Still, they display an idiosyncrasy bringing their bardic conceptions and instrumental scores to breathing animation. Their scheme goes beyond the majestic complexity and gothic theatricality Emperor and Cradle of Filth introduced to extreme music years earlier.

The songs Mythark wrote about the historical figures and old gods I mentioned are part of their debut full length “Unleash the Darkness” along with songs written about Apophis, the old Egyptian god of chaos, the Catholoc legend of Purgatory and another old favorite of legend, “Dante’s Inferno” from “The Divine Comedy.”

On that album the changeover from symphonious music to excessive black and death metal is as precise and unspoiled as their procedure of joining them mutually. For a band working on their first full length they tackle the task like musicians that have been practiced in metal and classical since the 1990s. Feeling it as deeply as possible, they put their imagery forward in a visual way that was hard to ignore from a new band just starting out in extreme music.

The band was on a roll when they released their debut album in 2019, but for some reason they took a long break until late 2023. The band’s fondness for storytelling was back in full swing when they started working on new material, but the subject matter experienced transformation of a sort. Their EP “Analgésie” (meaning disconnection from physical pain) conceptually held songs together about historical warfare, emotional detachment and existential darkness.

Mythark’s symphonic/technical formula was changed to put those ideas across in a striking, colorful way. Their technique was still present, but it was a stiffer, slightly more electronic sound, with the orchestral parts becoming more defined and the vocals sounding traumatized rather than straightforward and brutal.

Their most recent EP “Broken Crown” explores the ancient Greek myths of Persephone and Orpheus. With the title track these songs form a narrative of overthrown authority, shattered pride and a tragic descent into the underworld. Love and hubris, life and death are exhibited as metaphorical and literal duality.

Mythark wrote and recorded the material with closer leanings to an organic sound. It was still rough edged in some places, but quieter moments and operatic vocal harmonies frequently appeared as breaks in the symphonic heaviness. The band’s similarities to Cradle of Filth and goth metal in general were more subtly arranged during the recording process, adding more depth. The technical songwriting is decorated by occasional flourishes contributing more refinement to the songs.

Mythark doesn’t evolve as much as they mutate from form to form. Indulging in random experimentation gives them an unforeseeable edge. This makes their releases more entertaining as they keep you guessing what they’ll do next. –Dave Wolff

Track list:

1. Broken Crown

2. Persephone

3. Orpheus

EP Review: Nexus Inhabitum "Through the Eyes of Madness" (Independent) by Dave Wolff

Band: Nexus Inhabitum

Location: New South Wales

Country: Australia

Genre: Progressive extreme metal

EP: Through the Eyes of Madness

Format: Digital

Label: Independent

Release date: October 25, 2025

Nexus Inhabitum was formed by members of the Australian thrash/black metal band Insoulence that, as far as I know, released just one full-length, “Death of All Fools,” in 2016. The album is streaming on Insoulence’s YouTube profile, alongside demos and rehearsal clips. For a hidden gem that made little impact at the time, it’s a useful starting point for tracing the musicians’ earlier work.

Across nine tracks, “Death of All Fools” blended late 80s thrash, early-90s death metal and dark, atmospheric grit, foreshadowing the direction of Nexus Inhabitum’s debut EP “Through the Eyes of Madness.” On this album Insoulence favored rapid-fire riffs, thrashy hooks and intricate, slightly melodic structures, often colored by a goth-symphonic feel evocative of Cradle of Filth and Moonspell.

The songs had a flair for extravagant pageantry, with unexpected note sequences sometimes emerging mid-song. Rather than over-privileging anything, the band treated each subgenre they drew from as equally suited to the feel they sought to create. “Spiritual Deprivation” and “Death of All Fools” were the most forward-looking tracks, hinting at the resourcefulness Nexus Inhabitum would bring to their debut. Insoulence’s free form technique even made covering Cannibal Corpse’s “Hammer Smashed Face” seem like an easy task.

Nexus Inhabitum carries forward the dexterity and grandeur of Insoulence, writing enough into the four tracks of “Through the Eyes of Madness” to make the EP feel like a complete album. Originally formed as a memorial project for a friend who passed away from a botched surgery, they grew to a band paying tribute to subgenres of metal they grew up with. Like their previous band, Nexus Inhabitum is not partial to any particular subgenre, nor do they align themselves with any particular metal scene. Group think and the absence of critical thought are the reasons the band prefer to write for themselves.

Recorded over a period of two years, it starts with a straightforward black-metal mode, with simple chords, tremolo picking and a triplet beat, before moving toward blazing lead guitars and melodic vocal harmonies enhanced at the end of a line with guttural vocals. After two verses, just as you're convinced you know where things are going, things take an unexpected turn; classical acoustic guitars, light percussion, haunting whispers and keyboards usher in a mood of brooding sagacity. This gradually flows back to the earlier pattern, its restraint being an unusual counterpoint to the melodic vocals.

That was the EP’s opening track “…And United We Fall.” From there on, Nexus Inhabitum lean a little less on death and thrash metal, concentrating on blast beats, black metal chords and tremolo picking, punctuating their songs with unconventional lead guitars. They test new songwriting ideas with classical and neo-classical acoustic passages in two more tracks, “Ode to Kill” and “Defiance,” opening the latter track with shadowy, supernatural keyboards (this track likewise ends with a keyboard part that recalled Cradle of Filth.

The songs, inspired by the occult, divination, the unconscious, individuality, and lived experiences reflected in the conscious world, are generally longer than they were on Insoulence’s album, making room for embellishment, with whispered and melodic vocals frequently complementing the growled and rasped vocals. Nexus Inhabitum seem to be finding their footing, building on their earlier material with Insoulence, while making their black-metal foundations a little more accessible and stretching the songs toward epic length.

By far the closest they arrive at an epic hymn is “Beauty Through the Eyes of Madness,” a twelve-plus minute expedition into through scratchy doom rock, tremolo picking and goth-tinged vocals, offering no atmosphere to soften the ride. This track feels like being dragged over a cavern floor until the tempo surges into blast beats, abrasive black-metal chords and throaty vocals. The song shifts again into death metal, sustaining its assault until an abrupt stop is followed by a return to the doomy opening theme.  –Dave Wolff

Lineup:

Grace Daniel Cornelius Ruiter: Lead vocals, lyrics

Stuart James: Lead and rhythm guitar, drums/percussion, bass guitar, keyboards, acoustic guitars, lyrics, mixing, backing vocals

Simon Brown: Djembe on United we Fall, backing vocals on Ode to Kill

Track list:

1. ...And United We Fall - Final Master

2. Ode To Kill - Final Master

3. Defiance - Final Master

4. Beauty Through the Eyes of Madness - Final Master

Full Length Review: Gates of Kiev "Gates of Kiev" (The Laser’s Edge) by Dave Wolff

Band: Gates of Kiev

Location: Amsterdam

Country: Netherlands

Genre: Progressive rock

Full length: Gates of Kiev

Format: LP, CD, digital

Label: The Laser’s Edge

Release date: November 6, 2026

The garage band that could? It’s possible. Gates of Kiev was formed by a keyboardist and a drummer (Tomas Mesman and Hessel Braat) who were close friends for years beforehand. In high school, they indulged in their passion for inventive music, throwing around ideas during nocturnal garage sessions. It’s like something out of a Bill and Ted movie, in which an adolescent dream became a success story, one that can’t be denied due to an unconventional fusion of ideas exclusive to themselves and the musicians they made acquaintances with after starting out.

Assuming a seventies prog-rock style similar to Emerson, Lake & Palmer, with twists of psychedelic rock and garage punk, the band developed an intense, boisterous live presence. They brought that live presence and the grime of their garage sessions to the studio when they recorded their debut EP and their debut full length. Recorded in Holland, mixed and mastered in Norway, this album breaks rules of composing and arranging prog, incorporating their punk attitude not only into the occasionally gritty musicianship but also a seemingly disorganized, turbulent rhythm scheme that’s as erratic as it is proficient.

The informality of the garage practices stayed with the founding members as they became a full band. Their debut EP “Tales of Aion” from 2024, was structured in an orderly fashion, but they were already steering themselves toward songs that were volatile, interchangeable and epic length, with complex structure and keyboards assuming the roles of two instruments; keys and guitars. They were established with keyboard sounds that soared and dove, vocal harmonies that were beautiful and eerie, and steady bass heavy grooves under an animated succession of notes and aural effects.

On “Tales of Aion” this backbone upheld itself through each adjustment in trajectory, disappearing when a new attempt in ambient interludes took place, then re-emerged and reshaped itself. The band could go from the carnivalesque tunes of old to ELP to The Clash to something early sixties to something new and experimental, intersecting them and holding it all together with tribal drums, ambient and metallic key sounds and an unashamed sense of punk rawness. Sometimes you couldn’t tell where a song was going next; most times you couldn’t tell, and the band just kept you guessing.

On their full length they’ve kept the erratic quality of their variability, added to their fusion of styles, tightened the transitions and provided a steadier underlying groove. The material became less abrasive and more hard edged. The keyboards and bass work more closely together, time changes come at inopportune moments, songs change direction before you know it, and vocal harmonies are more pleasing and sinister. Bass lines are more pronounced and take more of an active role in directing the material. Longer instrumental sections elaborate on lyrics about private struggles and societal issues, carrying them farther with visuals complementing words.

If you like music with louder, edgier, more caustic guitars, this album may make you more interested in adding prog rock and experimental music to your playlist. -Dave Wolff

Track list:

1. Hamlet Burns

2. Baltazar’s Feast

3. Silhouette

4. Drunkship Of The Mice

Full Length Review: Die Entweihung "Worldwide Terror" (Morbid and Miserable Records) by Dave Wolff

Project: Die Entweihung

Country: Israel

Genre: Blackened heavy metal

Full length: Worldwide Terror

Format: Digital, CD

Label: Morbid and Miserable Records

Release date: August 7, 2026

Listening to Die Entweihung over several years reveals unpredictable growth, from subtle changes on reissued albums to radical shifts in the classic power and thrash metal that forms the cornerstone of "Worldwide Terror." Denis Tereshenko does more than revisit the past to redefine his project's future on this album, deliberately avoiding painting by numbers or resorting to formulaic writing.

He seems to intuitively recognize that relying on nostalgic nods to metal’s glory days or recreating the youthful energy of previous albums would be an obvious, and ultimately boring, move for a project becoming known for breaking molds. After a decade and a half, during which time he spawned eleven full lengths, Tereshenko gives a voice to the ongoing decline of human decency and righteousness, a steady emergence of moral corruption and indifference to suffering.

To just say he’s reflecting it would be oversimplifying things. Here the neurotic, unstable nature of the world around him seems to have seeped into his soul to illustrate. He’s not just setting himself apart but taking in the isolation of generation after generation, watching the decline grow steeper and harder to avoid. Watching people profess evolution while embracing a primitive mindset.

The vocal harmonies on "Worldwide Terror" are among the first clues that something is off, and much more than simply a retro imitation of '80s bands. A dual vocal presence emerges and reemerges from the first track, often featuring two melodic styles (sometimes with different pitches) overlapping, or a melodic vocal paired with a louder, more piercing one. This peculiarity works surprisingly well, creating a contrast with the musicianship and adding a bizarre twist to traditional vocal harmonies. These techniques often alternate and clash within the same track, like order thinly masking chaos, and there are moments when vocals take a back seat altogether to lengthy instrumental passages.

The song structure sounds guided by the conflict, confusion and disorder characterizing the times we’re living in, expressing disorganization as a call to clean the mess left by authority figures of the past, and maybe even to create something bold and new from the ashes. Tereshenko doesn't define Die Entweihung by bands he grew up with, bands he has listened to since starting the project or bands that rubbed off on him while writing and composing "Worldwide Terror." Instead, he defines it by how he arranges what he worked with and the unconventional, abnormal directions in which he took them.

Where most bands alternate between subgenres or blend them, Die Entweihung often manages to layer them; thrash over metal or thrash over power metal; and make these layers work effectively. The start and buildup of each song differ strikingly, taking varying amounts of time to prepare the listener for the lyrics. The instrumentals in “Generation of Pawns” and “The Brightest Night” carry the songs almost entirely on their own, without a need for lyrical content. The absence of traditional verses and choruses is compensated for by a reinforced narrative quality in the instrumentation.

Another contrast they achieve is a stripped-down sound, combined with blackened metal, folk metal and atmosphere to add rawness and breadth, complemented by strategically placed violin, cello, and saxophone. All these contrasts generate a feel of chaos and disarray, contained within a compact, intense sphere of energy. The dynamic tension, tightly focused, is more than enough to keep you on edge. For its subject matter, "Worldwide Terror" does not aim to overwhelm you at first listen. But after following it through once, you begin to grow accustomed to its numerous dissimilarities. With repeated listens, it gradually sounds less abrasive and more operatic, flaunting its complexity. –Dave Wolff

Lineup:

Denis "Terror" Tereschenko: All instruments

Alena 7: Vocals, vocal arrangements

Saxophone in track 1 by Thesaxpilot

Violin in track 3 by Nino Chikviladze

Saxophone in track 4 by Topesax

Cello in track 8 by Noelia Diaz

Lyrical assistance by Andrew K.

Track list:

1. Worldwide Terror

2. Warriors of the Lie

3. Generation of Pawns

4. Newborn

5. (Not Sure) It's Really Your Life

6. Eight Billion Headed Whore

7. The Brightest Night

8. The Blackest Morning

Review of "Kings & Pawns - Remastered edition: by Brynn Kali StarDew

Review of "Kings & Pawns - Remastered edition" by Dave Wolff

Review of "Hypnotic Dreams (Remastered Reissue 2023)" by Dave Wolff

Interview with Denis Tereschenko of Die Entweihung by Dave Wolff

Review of "Strict Regime Country" by Dave Wolff

Full Length Review: Distorted Reflection "Doom Zone" (Iron Shield Records) by Dave Wolff

Band: Distorted Reflection

Location: Athens

Country: Greece

Genre: Epic doom metal

Full length: Doom Zone

Format: Digital, CD

Label: Iron Shield Records

Release date: February 27, 2026

If members of Candlemass and Celtic Frost recorded an album in 1986 or 1987, it might have sounded something like this. These bands were given inspiration from Tony Iommi's contribution to Black Sabbath, exploring new ways to express it in death and doom metal’s early years.

By a gradual, continual transformation process, Distorted Reflection offers a reinterpretation of the visions Candlemass and Celtic Frost pioneered. The journey they embarked on with “Doom Rules Eternally,” continuing with “Doom Zone,” is marked by transformation leading to self-discovery and liberation from religious concepts.

From the Biblical tale of the serpent of temptation to a dystopian future (3000 A.D. to be exact), disillusionment with imposed authority fuels a quest for individualism and authentic spirituality. Introspective and defiant, "Doom Zone" embodies the resolve to seek truth within oneself. Ringing of traditional metal with a healthy touch of dinge, an equally healthy prog-metal presence and an operatic motif in the vocals, “Doom Zone” is heavy, grimy, plodding in many places and skilled at hammering the listener.

But make no mistake, this heaviness is accompanied by harmonious and innovative characteristics. There are times the songs become surprisingly buoyant and optimistic, for all the dark themes infused into it. Indicating traces of St. Vitus and Cathedral, it also holds discernible eccentric indications you wouldn’t anticipate from a band aiming for doom and stoner rock’s target audiences.

At times a progression or vocal will sound a little off when juxtaposed with the rest of the song. The band’s dichotomy takes thorough form in the lyrics, personifying the struggle between disenchantment with supposed truth and thirst for knowledge and actuality. Each song is replete with dualism: gratitude and deep respect mixed with loss and grief, longing for spiritual strength and desire for vengeance, turmoil and the hope for renewal, idolization and self-respect, acceptance of mortality and despair, guidance and betrayal, dreams and nightmares.

The album seems to become more bizarre as it progresses, but for each reference to the darker sides of existence, there are hints of resilience and philosophical awakening. Again, loss and grief becoming nightmare and madness lead to existential reflection in its own way, as the last few tracks seem to indicate. What’s most important to remember is in the end, the overall message, the big picture, is about aspiring toward higher ideals. –Dave Wolff

Lineup:

Kostas Sal: Guitar, vocals

Vangelis Yal: Bass, synth, backing vocals

Thomas Zen: Drums

Jack Starr: Guitar solo on “3000 A.D.”

Track list:

1. 3000 A.D.

2. My Second Father

3. Gates Of Paranoia

4. Love On Earth

5. Asphyxiating

6. Certain Death

7. Diminished

8. Tower Of Dreams

9. Forecourt To Death

10. The Final Attempt

11. Morbid Reality

Full Length Review: Messa "The Spin" (Metal Blade) by Dave Wolff

Band: Messa

Country: Italy

Genre: Doom metal

Full length: The Spin

Format: Digital, LP, CD (see Bandcamp link for more information)

Label: Metal Blade

Release date: April 11, 2025

Recorded in a centuries old villa (about five hundred years) near their hometown of Bassano del Grappa, “The Spin” is indeed a spin metal, post-punk, new wave, and other genres. Working in separate locations and at different times, over the course of six weeks, Messa embraced spontaneity and inner focus throughout the process.

Unlike their previous album “Close,” which the band recorded together in the same room, they chose to record “The Spin” in isolation. This approach alleviated the pressure of synchronization, allowing the band to focus on refining their musicianship. Starting with minimal structure and emphasizing variety, they deliberately avoided repetition to keep the songs engaging. The result boasts sharper contrasts between genres, with each instrument creating dynamics with distinct personality.

Personality and an identity independent of any “scene” is core to this band. Drawing inspiration from early eighties goth rock, before it became a “scene,” they explore it freely, not merely referencing it but integrating its essence into their evolving musical palette. With the essence of dark ambient, black metal, punk, prog, blues and jazz, the incorporation of goth rock gives greater depth to something that doesn't directly compare to Sisters Of Mercy, Killing Joke, Mercyful Fate, Jimmy Page, Journey and Vangelis but synthesizes elements of all these artists with a massive and unpredictable sonic landscape.

From capturing heights of joy to depths of despair, Messa is known for a relentless work ethic bordering on obsession, constantly challenging themselves to craft music with a magical appeal. Their approach to diversity surprised me in many ways, proving to be far more immersive and impactful than I initially expected it to be. As I hinted, their method of songwriting makes a point of offering something new with each album, as each album reveals multiple shades of itself.

At first “The Spin” sounds like it may be typical electronica or industrial. However, it gradually shifts, subtly but markedly, first toward new wave, then toward doom metal. Throughout, lovely and soulful vocals emerge organically, blossoming from within and filling every space as they explore these constantly shifting soundscapes.

What makes Messa’s dark elements unique is that they’re not presented in a menacing or hostile way. Instead, they’re integrated thoughtfully, creating an atmosphere that invites curiosity and reflection, appealing to listeners with divergent tastes. The contrasts I mentioned can be likened to a spiderweb with threads woven together in irregular patterns, or a tapestry where each space equally emphasizes color and meaning, creating a rich, intricate fabric of scenery, or in this case sound and emotion.

The interplay of genre and mood, ranging from rough and smooth, bombastic and reflective, progressive and aggressive, angelic and feral, more or less reflects upon the complexities of being a human being. This interplay feels more profound than bands that depict good and evil as equal opposing forces. Angels and devils are not separate aspects of humanity; each person is both deep within. One side doesn't require the other to exist; both are the same complex entity.

To illustrate this, the drums, bass, guitars, and vocals work in tandem, allowing each shift in influence to flow organically. While they integrate, building on the themes they devised working separately, each band member retains their own distinguishable character, emphasizing the fluid complexity of the music and, metaphorically, of human nature itself. Together they create a breakthrough in doom metal that is diverse, compelling and inspirational. –Dave Wolff

Lineup:

Sara: Vocals

Marco: Guitars, bass

Alberto: Guitars

Rocco: Drums

Track list:

1. Void Meridian

2. At Races

3. Fire on the Roof 

4. Immolation

5. The Dress

6. Reveal

7. Thicker Blood   

Demo Review: Lord of Horns "Beneath a Broken Cross" (Independent) by Dave Wolff

Band: Lord of Horns

Location: Lodi, New Jersey

Country: USA

Genre: Black metal

Demo: Beneath a Broken Cross

Format: Digital

Label: Independent

Release date: May 14, 2026

Despite the continuous progress and refinement of black metal, marked by evolving styles and new interpretations, it’s always refreshing to see a band return to the basics and draw inspiration from early Darkthrone, Burzum, Emperor and obscure black metal bands like Belkètre, Countess, Vlad Tepes and Nåstrond.

What’s being referred to the classic sound here is intensely raw, featuring atmosphere-rich guitars evoking a foggy moor you can barely navigate, tremolo picking and bass like bladed weapons, frigid keyboards with airs like the thickening mist obscuring your eyesight, severe, jarring percussion and rasping, grating vocals that scrape at your consciousness.

I've talked extensively about black metal bands taking me back to a time when music was cult without the need to be kvlt or to rely on labels like Kvit to define themselves. When what they composed seemed to be invocations of all things dismal, unlit, and fascinating. When songs were less like traditional songs and more like mediums for channeling mysterious, hidden truths, bringing the secret stuff of mystery, secret depths of the unknown, or an apparition with illicit revelation about the future, into actuality to dispel the mundane.

The rawer and more aged the music sounded, the more it carried those mysteries from obscurity to conjoin with the listener's spiritual inclinations and sense of self. Demonic possession? Or another state of being, one long untouched from deep inside? Maybe a little of both is to be found in “Beneath a Broken Cross,” three demo tracks of songs planned for inclusion on Lord of Horns’ next full length “Cursed by the Horned Moon.”

The tracks released on this preview of the new album are designed to tear open the shroud between reality and an inscrutable supernatural world where the devil himself dwells, waiting to be invited into our world, if even for a brief period of time. Beyond that veil is a universe of delirium, turmoil and hysteria, almost beyond comprehension.

While I listened to these songs I kept thinking of John Carpenter’s Apocalypse Trilogy, especially “Prince of Darkness” and “In the Mouth of Madness.” I kept sensing a transformative vibe emerging from the combination of elements the band blended their sound with. I sensed this most strongly with the blend of atmosphere and a rigid industrial-black metal sound similar to Mysticum and Thorns. Exceptionally forceful, a lot like the dark force unleashed in “Prince of Darkness” and the altered perception of reality shown in “In the Mouth of Madness.”

In typical black metal fashion perceptions are skewed and transposed, and disparate modes of awareness emerge. With the band we journey through exile, carving a new path in desolation, separated from the world and divine grace. We start to see spiritual corruption within that grace, broken crosses suggesting disillusionment with classical religion, rotting decay and pestilence hidden beneath.

We hear invocations to darkness, ancient occult practices leading to transformation, reverence and power. When the devil appears it’s like a distortion, or maybe even a shredding, of the line between illusion and reality. From there comes the inevitable confrontation between good and evil, this time a conflict between institutional power trying to impose spiritual cleansing and a refusal to relinquish the self-awareness achieved through dark rites.

This is symbolized by traditional exorcism rites and demonic hordes, possibly raising the question: which side is the overwhelming evil seeking dominance? Which side emerges triumphant? For the answers, you should experience these tracks for yourself. –Dave Wolff

Track list:

1. Beneath a Broken Cross

2. I Conjured the Devil

3. Exorcism Denied

Interview with Vin Varg of Lord Of Horns by Dave Wolff

Review of "The Forest at Dusk" (MossCorpse Records) by Dave Wolff

Review of "Few Ever Survive The Night…" (Independent) by Corban Skipwith

Full Length Review: S.C.R.A.M. "Coma Filament" (Independent) by Dave Wolff

Project: S.C.R.A.M.

Location: Oakland, California

Country: USA

Genre: Synthwave

Full length: Coma Filament

Format: Digital

Label: Independent

Release date: September 23, 2026

Pranjal Tiwari who has been cutting his teeth on hardcore, doom metal and psychotropic techno, began the solo project S.C.R.A.M. (Safety Control Rod Axe Man) in 2020, writing instrumental pieces in isolation, taking enough time and space to manifest his imagination through ambient, electronic, cinematic experimentalism with immersive tension and vibes of horror and science fiction.

The isolation Tiwari worked in gave him enough room to envision entire movies and consider soundtracks that would most effectively work. In one of these sessions of thought he found a place where horror and science fiction met: light years beyond where mankind had traveled the cosmos. There he found an abandoned spaceship, just floating out there where no abandoned spaceship should be. No reason, no explanation of how it reached that far. An unexpected find that gripped his mind, becoming evocative and terrifying to where it became the inspiration for “Coma Filament.”

The idea he had sounds like a movie you’d have to exercise infinite patience to watch in its entirety. But it may also have elements of pure horror that would keep you fixated on the screen all throughout. Where constant hard-hitting action that seeks to grab you right from the beginning may be absent in such a movie, there’s existential alarm and dread stemming from the possibility that what’s floating in the farthest reaches of space may be a ghost ship of some kind. This sensation was inspired by the mystery and potential danger that was present in Andrei Tarkovsky’s sci fi film from 1972, “Solaris.”

Tiwari has a history of brainwaving through slow-moving, tension-building sci-fi and horror, inspired by films like “Blade Runner,” “The Terminator” and the works of John Carpenter and David Lynch. Drawing from “Solaris” for “Coma Filament” represents another step in his pursuit of the quintessential soundtrack. Also stimulated by composers Vangelis, David Horner, Brad Fiedel, and Eduard Artemyev, each of Tiwari’s releases has its own distinct sound and mood. The most bizarre of these is 2025’s “Desolation Radio: A Found-Footage Broadcast” which features instrumental pieces of varying durations. Lo-fi ambient and electronic tracks arranged so randomly, classification is impossible.

Named after a galaxy filament forming part of the galactic superstructure known as the Coma Wall, "Coma Filament" features songs named after actual planets, constellations, and galaxy clusters, likely to evoke a sense of realism on top of awe and dread. Seeming to borrow from each release over the past six years, the soundtrack composed for it unfolds scene by scene. The overall effect could also lie somewhere between the soundtracks of Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and Fulci's "Zombie."

A disembodied, mesmeric voice (contributed by artist/author Zeena Schreck) calls out across an insurmountable distance in the universe, beckoning across millennia until it finally reaches us. And a lone traveler follows this voice, signal, or whatever it is, toward whatever may be waiting. Tiwan records his material in a way that evokes both the mystery and the potential danger he intends you to feel. Finally reaching the ghost ship after what seems an eternity, he begins to make contact, or experience hauntings. As the soundtrack progresses, it becomes increasingly clear that Tiwari masterfully crafts tension and suspense, carefully selecting instruments and effects to heighten these feelings during recording sessions.

As you continue to listen, certain parts of the songs make you start slightly. It's not a jump scare reaction, but something more subtle, more implied, as if you're being watched by an invisible something from an unknown place. "Coma Filament" has a chilling effect very similar to that of darkwave, dark ambient, and dungeon synth art displayed in the 1990s, multiplied by a factor of ten or higher. Resulting from an infinite amount of thought and planning, "Coma Filament" is an album that Tiwari professes to be quite proud of. –Dave Wolff

Track list:

1. Forgotten Language

2. Derelict Spacecraft

3. The Hunter

4. UR.IDIM

5. Seven Mansions Of The Black Tortoise

6. Great Dragon Rouses

7. Haris al-Sama (The Keeper Of Heaven)

8. Flight Of The Vermillion Bird

Full Length Review: The Night Eternal "Cold Velvet" (Metal Blade) by Dave Wolff

Band: The Night Eternal

Location: Essen

Country: Germany

Genre: Heavy metal

Full length: Cold Velvet

Format: Digipak CD, digital, vinyl [180g black (US) Clear Purple w/ Black Smoke (EU – Ltd. 1000; includes 7”, slipmat, velvet bag, gas lighter) “Storm Cloud” Violet Blue Marbled (EU – Ltd. 700) Steel Grey Blue Marble (EU – Ltd. 500) Light Grey Blue Splatter (EU – Ltd. 300) “Black Dust” Crystal Clear (EU – Ltd. 200)]

Label: Metal Blade

Release date: August 21, 2026

Somewhere between classic power metal and The Sisters of Mercy lies The Night Eternal’s “Cold Velvet.” Or Queensrÿche and The Cure? Iron Maiden and Souxsie and the Banshees? I remember when those juxtapositions seemed irreconcilable, but today any of them seem more than plausible. Especially considering the appeal The Night Eternal had with audiences while sharing stages with Angel Witch, Michael Schenker and Blind Guardian.

They’ve achieved that appeal on their own terms, drawing not only from music of the ’70s and ’80s but also from qualities largely absent from mainstream metal of the 80s: drama and profound feeling. Finding the places where the twain meets, where classic metal shares something with gothic music and post punk, is much less of a stretch now that Moonspell, Lacuna Coil and Sirenia are well known underground and aboveground. Expanses of pitch-darkness far below the surface, the shared displeasure and despondency between genres, are found or pieced together, enlarged and driven outwards.

The result is a distinctly dark, captivating sound rooted in self-reflection, melancholia, apprehension and phantasmagoria, anchored by a ceremonial backbone, expressed through passion and sorrow. On “Cold Velvet,” The Night Eternal compels reflection through their songwriting and musicianship, channeling emotional weight into every instrument and vocal track. It’s like they rediscovered a time when music first communicated with them on an impassioned level.

Some say the band earned a reputation by inventing their own subgenre: melancholic metal. That may not be far from the truth as their vision becomes a musical opiate that projects persistent waves of gloom and shadow. The veil separating our world and the vast realms beyond is lifted again, again restating the idea that anything’s possible and there are no rules or standards when it comes to writing music.

To demonstrate this further The Night Eternal made a promotional video for the first track of “Cold Velvet,” “Where the World Ends” with nothing more than an eighties post-punk/new wave vibe and a shaded atmosphere. No overdone, overexaggerated close ups, no additional accoutrements, just the band playing in a dusky setting surrounded by fog. The point is to showcase the song, the thoughts and conceptions written into it, and the moving way they’re revealed. It’s purely portraying the band as serious musicians rather than attractive merchandising tools.

In doing so the band return to the basics of building songs, something that thrash bands reminded us of when music was becoming too commercial and image oriented. The Night Eternal’s image takes a back seat to the identity they establish after years of ripening their melodies, the way they harmonize sensitivity with guitar harmonies and vocal sections encouraging mass audience participation. The band has three more videos, "Eurydice (Don't Look Back)," “Caught in a Spell” and “The Veins of Time,” that pay close attention to their storytelling.

Michael Zech of Secrets of the Moon knew how to help achieve the band’s sound after working with Triptykon, The Ruins Of Beverast and Sulphur Aeon, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they keep finding new ways to build narratives of their material and appeal to more listeners when touring with more bands and making more festival appearances. –Dave Wolff

Lineup:

Ricardo Baum: Vocals

Robert Richter: Guitar

Henry Käseberg: Guitar

Aleister Präkelt: Drums

Track list:

1. Where This World Ends

2. Eurydice (Don’t Look Back)

3. Caught In A Spell

4. When The Last Candle Dies

5. The Veins Of Time

6. The Watcher Of The Burning Veil

7. Shape Of Sorrow

8. Dance On Crimson Ground