Impressive power doom that is crushing and bombastic! I don’t often consume doom, but when I do, I prefer…. Wait, this isn’t a beer commercial, and “the most interesting man in the world” doesn’t strike me as a doom connoisseur. However, it is true that I don’t gravitate toward doom as much as other genres, […]
Exxûl – Sealed into None – Album Review Read More »
A progressive metal opus spanning varied influences with a strong melodic and heavy delivery! I stumbled upon Swedish progressive metal band Servitude and their brand new full length “Smoke & Mirrors,” independently released earlier in January. I was not familiar with the band at all, but they apparently released 5 singles in 2020 and 2021,
Servitude / Smoke & Mirrors – Album Review Read More »
Melodic and catchy symphonic metal with pop and hard rock sensibility! I felt like 2025 delivered a number of great symphonic metal releases, and 2026 appears to be promising with quite a few on the horizon already. Germany’s Beyond the Black has the honor of kicking off this trend with their 6th full length album,
Beyond the Black / Break the Silence – Album Review Read More »
Power and traditional metal collide with soaring melodies and a lot of speed and heft! Let’s face it, vocalist changes can easily be the hardest for a band to weather. A good vocalist generally functions as the face and identity of a band, and a change almost certainly means a different sound and dynamic. Seattle
Greyhawk / Warriors of Greyhawk – Album Review Read More »
Frosty post metal from the frozen tundra of…Rochester, NY! Pâro hails from Rochester, New York, but I would have thought they were from the frozen lands of Scandinavia after an initial listen. Post metal is a genre that always intrigues me but, like many genres these days, isn’t necessarily prescriptive enough on what to actually
Pâro – Sketches of an Unseen Realm – Album Review Read More »
Atmospheric progressive death metal that envelopes and pulverizes! If you have read enough of my reviews, you know I have an extra soft spot for extreme progressive metal. There has been a lot of goodness in this genre to come out the past couple years, including favorites like the return of Anciients, An Abstract Illusion, In
Denominate / Restoration – Album Review Read More »
Escape reality with Italian prog power goodness! Italy is synonomous with a lot of things, and one of those is power and progressive metal. It never ceases to amaze me the sheer number of quality bands and releases that have their roots in Italy. Such is the case with Italian progressive/power metal band Walls of
Walls of Babylon / Aeons Apart – Album Review Read More »
Symphonic technical blackened death metal that will crush and immerse you! I am kicking off my 2026 reviews with something quite a bit heavier than I usually review, but this album caught me by surprise and wouldn’t let me go. I wasn’t familiar with US-based Null Existence prior to an Instagram ad letting me know
Null Existence / Cryptic Monolith – Album Review Read More »
Symphonic power metal with amazing melodies and plenty of shred! Back in July (2024), I got an early preview of Florida power metallers Seven Kingdoms new EP “The Square,” which officially dropped a couple of weeks ago. I wrote an immediate response mini-review then, but here is an update now that I have both had
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Post rock, screamo, progressive blackgaze, and more! Dawn of Ouroboros is a band I love, and they kicked off 2026 with a short West Coast tour with the bands Sadness and Life. I have no idea whether it was intentional or not, but at least in my head I have fabricated that this tour was
