While I adored prior BW album The Witch of the North, it was definitely the band at their more relaxed and reflective, concentrating far more on NWOBHM and Euro-power storytelling than prior releases. It’s therefore been very enjoyable to see them take their excellent storytelling style from that album and reintegrate more of their trad heavy metal injected with glam stylishness and swagger here. Laura Guldemond demonstrates ably once more why she’s easily in my top 5 metal vocalists, turning on a dime between moodily emotional and psychotically brazen, and she’s backed by a ripping set of instrumentals from a group who seem to have really been able to gel and stabilize over the last two albums. Add to this some of their best slow jams yet that lean into punk and grunge aesthetics giving them a grit metal ballads frequently are devoid of, and this is a real stunner of an album. (Thomas Crane)
The sheer epitome of the phrase ‘aging like a fine wine’, grind legends Cattle Decapitation don’t quite expand their sound to new levels; rather, they take a step sideways. Whereas Death Atlas was dark, ominous and shrouded in melancholic night, Terrasite reveals the horrors of the daylight that follows the apocalypse. Even though it contains some utterly gorgeous sweeping melodies (though not as many as on previous efforts), it serves as a put-down to the naysayers who say they’ve forgotten how to grind. It’s disgusting and beautiful in equal measure. The likes of “We Eat Our Young” and the title-track sound fierce enough to melt the sun, whereas the moody “Solastalgia” and “Just Another Body” show their capability to structure an album with a sense of narrative flow. I just fucking love this band, they can do no wrong. Oh, and that artwork is surely the best of 2023. (Larry Best)
Rumbling ominously towards us at about the speed of a real glacier, everyone’s favourite ‘Cold School Death Metal’ band completely outdo themselves. Second album syndrome affects these Texans not one bit as they bulldoze (or bullfroze) everything in their path. Since 2021’s Crypt Of Ice, every aspect of their sound has been refined; from the harshly whispered growls of Chad Green, to the tighter mix and the songwriting prowess. Frozen Soul lean even heavier into their mid-paced chugathons this time round, and the result is impeccable – with so many climactic sludgy riffs at the ends of tracks. Infinitely more memorable, Glacial Domination means one of the most exciting bands of modern death metal has truly earned their nickname: Bolt Snower. Amazing how you can theme your entire band around the concept of…being cold. (Larry Best)
Already going on for more than 5 years, solo project Kostnatění seems just about to become a “next big thing” in black metal. This second full-length is constructed around boggling themes that posit “the human condition as a function of heat”, while all the lyrics are in Czech despite D. Lyons being a resident of the USA. Not only that, but the musical style pushes once again at the borders of common sense in extreme metal, fusing plenty of odd time signatures to a mix of folky and skronky rhythms in a hallucinatory beehive of weird tones and intriguing ideas. Do not listen to this while operating heavy machinery. (Edmund Morton)
It seems like every doom adjacent band eventually starts writing softer music. This still has many metallic moments, but there’s a lot more acoustic prog, and a lot more slow building. This album is more like proggy doom than sludgy hardcore like they usually are. Not that I mind, it’s just different. To be honest this feels like the kind of music they’ve wanted to make for a while. I can’t wait to really get to know this album because The Ocean pretty much never misses. (Ian Yeara)
US combo Oryad present their music as ‘progressive doom opera’, which may be already an ambitious descriptor, but only captures a small amount of the incredible array of influences the band managed to skillfully weave into their debut LP, Sacred & Profane. Guided by the outstanding talents of singer Moira Murphy and drummer Matt Gotlin-Sheehan, Oryad blend old and new sounds into their music with class and confidence, from extreme metal, to doom/gothic rock, to jazz and 19th-century American folk/gospel, conjuring up a rich and immensely satisfying listening experience. (Daniele Nosenzo)
The Bristol based quartet’s sophomore record finds them being even more playful and tongue in cheek than its predecessor and I consider myself lucky to be introduced to them through this new offering because, let’s be honest: this album is gorgeous. In equal parts light hearted and dead serious, while never losing grip of its caustic humour, notverynicecream is a record bound to get stuck in your head. Take the seminal first side with cuts like apples, icecreamwitch, sungazer or tortoise and be dumbfounded by the ease with which this band writes choruses that can only be classified as absolute earworms, or the second side with its more expansive songwriting and heavier sound palette culminating in two monstrous tracks that don’t let go until their final moments. This has to be one of the most exciting records I’ve heard all year and I became a fan before I’d listened to half of what this album contains. Easily one for my final top 10 of the year, it has cemented its place in that list from the very first spin. (Giannis Panitsas)
