Top Picks
In Malice’s Wake – Profound Darkness (death metal/thrash?)
My love of In Malice's Wake is no secret. In fact, I'd say, with Sepultura stepping down shortly, Testament and Sylosis are the only bands left preventing me from declaring them the best thrash metal band on the planet (and also Machine Head I guess, depending on which day/album cycle it is). Another thing stopping me though is that In Malice's Wake don't really play thrash metal anymore.
Fifth full-length The Profound Darkness serves as the culmination of the shift I began toward a more purely (albeit lightly blackened) death metal sound on 2015's Light Upon the Wicked—having perfected their previous genre on 2011's The Thrashening—and all but completed on 2020's The Blindness of Faith. If there's any resemblance of thrash metal remaining on this album, then it's only to early Slayer and Sepultra. Gone are the underpinnings of Testament and Metallica-style grooves and melodies, and to that extent The Profound Darkness somewhat suffers in comparison to In Malice's Wake earlier offerings. The enhanced and unrelenting extremity has also rendered the songs a lot less memorable, which is something I was already feeling a bit on The Blindness of Faith. Moment by moment though, you still won't find a more masterful and ferocious slab of extreme metal going 'round.
There's also a seemingly unshakable authenticity about In Malice's Wake, which is especially refreshing in this current AI-aggravated hellscape. From the album's independent release and in-house artwork (handled once again by frontman Shaun Farrugia), to the videos for its lead singles being pure performance, this album and this band are an undeniable and compelling passion project. No sloppy AI interruptions no bullshit—just a bunch of blokes in a field, lighting a couple of bonfires and letting their riffs (and their drummer's biceps) do the talking.
Ashen Horde – The Harvest (progressive black/death/thrash)
Ashen Horde are a black metal band, apparently, but The Harvest isn't a black metal album. Or, at least, it isn't just a black metal album. It isn't just a lot of things, in fact. Sure, the frost-bitten tremolo riff and raspy croak that kick off the album are blackened enough, but it's not long before the clean vocals kick in and the band take a turn for more Opeth-sounding progressive death metal pastures. Second track "Entropy and Ecstasy" broadens their horizons even further bring in a tech-thrashy texture akin to later Death or early Atheist. It's these later, more technical and progressive elements that end up defining The Harvest and making for one of the more interesting and impressive albums I've come across this year.
Release Roundup
Aeonik – The Roamer Of Heaven And Hell (meloblack)
American Football – LP4 (indie rock)
Amulance – Return to Deutschland (heavy metal)
AntiHuman Industries – Accelerated Death Impulse (black metal)
Antirope – Bring Me To Zero (alt rock)
The Archest – Hymnus Regni Mortuorum (goth doom)
Beyond The Veil – Oblivion (progressive metal, mellowdoom)
Blossom Cult – Home (progressive metal)
Cage Fight – Exuvia (groove metal, deathcore)
Candarian – Trepanación (death metal)
The Claypool Lennon Delirium – The Great Parrot-Ox And The Golden Egg Of Empathy (psych rock)
Cognizance – In Light, No Shape (tech death)
Come Back from the Dead – Ad Nauseam (speed death)
Creeping Flesh – God’s Acres Rife with Flesh Adorned (death metal)
Crimson Steel – Show No Fear (heavy/power metal)
Dark Komet – Ghost of Silver Light (colourful black metal)
Detach The Islands – Concrete Jungle (post-hard/mathcore)
Devenial Verdict – Old Blood / Fresh Wounds (old? death metal)
Dream On Dreamer – Heavens (baddie-core)
Eveale – Enter The Woodland Realm (post meloblack)
The Funeral Procession – Carrion (blackened death metal)
Furnace Floor – Ceremonial Passage Through Fire (death doom)
Fyrdsman – The Free Man (progressive black metal)
Geoff Tate – Operation: Mindcrime III (please stop)
Gottlieb – The Far Fallen Fruit (punk, hardcore)
The Great Observer – Loss Of Transcendence (deathened black metal)
Grond – The Temple (death metal)
Haste The Day – Dissenter (metalcore)
Hiss Golden Messenger – I'm People (folk, country pop)
Hrob – Brána Chladu (death doom)
Immortal Form – Exterminatus Extremis (death metal)
Infected Dead – Invicta (techish death metal)
Jesus Crustus – El Crustadore (crust sludge, death-doom)
Kingsmash – The Heart Remains At Home (heavy metal)
Kissing Kaos – To Your Limit (not even with your lips)
Kneecap – Fenian (Irish hip-hop)
Lair Of The Minotaur – I Hail I (crusty death metal)
Malconstruct – Entanglement (prog death)
Malorshiga – Vento (meloblack)
Manøver – Insurrection (blackened death-doom/grind)
Melanie C – Sweat (sexy pop)
Metall – Chasing the Truth (heavy rock/metal)
Mistwalker – The Obsidian Gospel (blackened doom)
Mother Iron Horse – Mother Iron Horse (sludge doom)
Necropia – Our Kingdom Befouled (death-metal/core)
Putred/Decease – Decessus Putridus (deatg metal)
Resilia – By A Thread (progressive post-hardcore)
Ritchie Newton – Higher Power (heavy metal rules?)
Robot God – Onto The Afterlife (stoner doom)
Savage Master/Mystic Storm – The Power/Wandering Time (heavy/speed metal)
Sevendust – One (alt metal)
Severed Faith – Pillars of the Divine Rift (death metal)
Some Pills for Ayala – Incarnate (doom sludge)
Spell – Wretched Heart (gothy metal)
Strega – Mors Mortiys Morte (folky meloblack)
Stygian Mind – The Fear Machine (heavy metal)
Synthre – Thus Burns The House Of The Sun (blackened death metal)
35 Tapes – Veil On Life (post prog)
Tori Amos – In Times of Dragons (sad piano, indie pop)
Ultrabomb – The Bridges That We Burn (alt rock, punk)
Vansind – Hævnen (folk metal, mellowdeath)
Venom – Into Oblivion (shitty black/speed metal)
Wandar – Tiefe Erde (black metal)
Æonik – The Roamer of Heaven and Hell (meloblack)