Ha! You thought I was going to write a Top 10 list! No, I cannot be fucked with that shit.
At least, not any more.
We live in a non-linear present. If you listen to Spotify in playlists, what are the odds most of the tracks you are dished up are even from this year? Does it even matter any more if we’re trudging on a constant treadmill of Retromania and re-re-re-revivals of genres? How many times has thrash metal “been back” since the mid-1980s? More times than Backstreet’s been back, alright.
Also - who gives a shit?
MERCENARY - SOUNDTRACK FOR THE END TIMES
NoiseArt Records (2023)
Denmark’s Mercenary, around the time of their now TWENTY FUCKING YEAR OLD Century Media debut 11 Dreams, were showered in affection from the press and the new fangled internet as the torchbearers of melodic death metal for the new millennium. Two good albums followed (The Hours That Remain and Architect of Lies) and the band lost half of its songwriting team overnight with the departure of the Sandager brothers. Now kept in line by vocalist and bass player Rene Pedersen, Metamorphosis divided fans by embracing elements of ‘core, which was a Thing You Could Not Do™ back in 2011. (I really liked it, so what do they know.)
Ten years have passed since a rather forgettable Through Our Darkest Days. Thanks to inflation and their relegation to a micro-label and e-begging via Indiegogo, this disc cost me about $70AUD, most of it lining the pockets of various postal services.
Worth the money, though? Yes.
Burning in Reverse feels like that burst of energy we once felt in World Hate Centre, which opened 11 Dreams. All rage and noise yet tempered by processed cleans, it sticks to the brain…until the Matt Heafy (Trivium) helmed thrasher comes into view and again is displaced by Where Darkened Souls Belong, their most complete and ear-worming song since The Hours That Remain, an accomplished attempt at making non-sadboi melodeath as epic and cinematic as your average Insomnium track. Using both guitars to build intricate rhythms, an all-enveloping chorus teases what’s to come; summoning POWER through clenched fists ala Blind Guardian. Ten years of noodling around on one’s guitar makes for some real heroic shit - and this is where Soundtrack does not disappoint.
Sure, there are some stock-standard (as far as the band is concerned) songs like the Dark Tranquillity ripoff Anthem for the Anxious, cribbing the glass-drop piano sound, and the staccato hard knocks of Soilwork on banger Become the Flame, but it shits all over most melodeath being produced these days. Every track features guitar wizardry of some variation, something that seems so quaint these days. Of course, closer Beyond the Waves is nothing short of incredible. If you don’t have $70 to spare, check this release out on Spotify and leave it on loop until they hopefully break even.
Stormruler - Under The Burning Eclipse
Napalm Records (2021)
The Shine of Ivory Horns? Reign of the Winged Duke? What is this, some kind of metal fuckin’ album? Well, duh. Apocalypse rider on the cover art kinda gives it away. Though definitely a black metal band, it’s a masala album. A masala Bollywood film is bits of everything - romance, action, comedy - blended together into a rich creamy gravy; these Missourians (what?) are so adept at frostbitten Norse mimicry you’ll be hard pressed believing this platter came straight outta St. Louis.
Windmills and tremelo picking at the speed of hummingbird wings reigns supreme here, cribbing the ye olde sounde of Mayhem and Immortal. Other tracks like the title track and Blood of the Old Wolf infusing ambient keys and galloping cinematic sounds pioneered by Emperor and perhaps Dimmu Borgir. For self-serious black metal it’s a relatively easy listen, even with pensive instrumental intro padding. Die hards might scoff; but everyone else will find something rather beefy and complete. Kinda hard not to recommend.
Godthrymm - Reflections
Profound Lore Records (2020)
Death/doom? In my 21st century? Who woulda thunk it? Sure, My Dying Bride is still a thing and to a certain extent so is Paradise Lost, but tar-thick, black-veiled, glacially paced death/doom o’ the early-90s seemed to be a distant memory. Save for Yorkshireman Hamish Glencross (ex-MDB, ex-Vallenfyre, et. al.) who staved off the death rattle of the genre. He (and possibly Enchantment) has rejuvenated brittle guitar leads and mournful congregations of doleful riffs. His Bleakness treats us to a pallbearing march par excellence in first track Monsters Lurk Herein. It really is a continuation of pre-Host/34.788% Complete death/doom from gloomy Blighty, peals of lonely guitar chiming above Chasmic Sorrows about as warm and cozy as the hopeless thousand-yard stares seen in the equally cheery film Threads.
As haunting and funereal as Hamish and company’s compositions are, we find a minimalist take on The Grand Reclamation. The first two-thirds feature crashes of cymbals, a few scant bass notes, and Hamish screaming into the void. If that ain’t death/doom enough for ya, then I don’t know what is.
Saturnus - The Storm Within
Prophecy (2023)
I’m on a death/doom train and I don’t want to get off, EVER. Saturnus’ Danish take on the genre is bleak yet fresh, despite an 11 year wait between drinks. Like contemporaries October Tide and Novembers Doom (oh we’ll get to YOU in a minute) they prefer their riffs to breathe and twist in the wind, accompanied by pensive piano or licks that herald skinny-armed triumph, kind of like Insomnium on ketamine - the title track bearing all of those hallmarks and then some, including a (looooooong) pared back middle-8, the kind Edge of Sanity pioneered almost…checks paper - thirty fucking years ago?
Saturnus’ spoken word is more compelling than most bands’ gruff vocals, and in Chasing Ghosts, their early weapons-grade Anathema throwback is a curious exploration of “what if” the brothers Cavanagh ditched the paisley and peyote for black t-shirts and beer after the Judgement album. Just when you thought the spirits of Novembers Doom and Saturnus couldn’t be more kindred, a solemn piano n’ strings weepie Even Tide comes into focus with none other than ND’s haunting vocalist Paul Kuhr crooning behind the mic. Culminating in a seven minute epic Truth where all their songwriting powers combine, The Storm Within is a mighty comeback from another talented band destined to resurrect this dearly departed genre.
I already did Wytch Hazel, so…
Warcrab - Scars of Aeons
Transcending Obscurity/Black Box Records (2017)
First cut Conquest thunders in on marching armies of drums and a seven-note scale, fuzzed up beyond belief. It sounds more evil than Hades himself reading Mein Kampf while using kittens as logs for his fireplace. Riding a groove that’ll rip the Bayou a new one, Warcrab’s debut is the absolute opposite of fucking around. It’s so simple yet so addictive, especially when they begin a spine-crushing churn of three (three!) guitarists in tandem, vocalist Martyn Grant cremating everything within earshot.
You’ll be floored by just how raw this union of old school death metal and sludge metal can get. On bass-dominant Destroyer of Worlds their triple-attack will rend everything you love into ash. Well, it feels that way. Scars of Aeons feels like the Eyehategod/My Dying Bride/Obituary collab we could never dream of but are sure glad exists. It will bulldoze your soul and leave nothing good behind. Just how we metalheads love it.