Top Pick
The Night Eternal – Cold Velvet (Amorphis-ised goth-metal/rock)
There are two bands that immediately spring to mind when pressing play on Cold Velvet. The first is Unto Others, whose similar retro aesthetic and goth rock posturing make them an obvious point of comparison. The second, less expected and ultimately more successful spice of The Night Eternal's ingredients is Amorphis. It's not only that vocalist Ricardo Baum resembles Tomi Jousten both sonically and physically, but the wiry lead melodies and ambient textures supplied by guitarists Rob Richter and Henry Käseberg also readily bring to mind that band's mid-period. Indeed, Cold Velvet could be something Amorphis had come up with themselves, had the chosen to pursue the darker, more alt-metal leaning sound of 2006's Eclipse, rather than gradually reverting to progressive, folk-tinged melodeath of the albums that followed.
Whereas Unto others put me off with their overcompensating aesthetics and affected vocals, The Night eternal ooze an effortless cool that comes through in their music as well. There's a sleek suaveness that characterises the aptly and enticingly named Cold Velvet, that makes every moment of its sullen transmission completely compelling and instantly memorable, even if its perhaps lacking a bit of the more forceful metallic textures that have made both Amorphis and Unto others more recognisable. If The Night Eternal can mix a bit more metallic grit into their sound, then we could truly be looking at the next goth metal juggernaut.
Release Roundup
Accursed Womb – Hymns Of Blasphemous Fornication (sludge death)
The Afghan Whigs – Soft Control (rock)
Argul – Soledad & Orgullo (posty doom)
Axty – The Pain Made Me Who I Am (nu-metalcore)
Azatoth – Carnal Lust Of Blasphemy (death metal)
The Barbarians Of California – Megatons (whacky metal)
Barbarossa – Tales of Cruelty (blackened death metal)
Burning Sun – Power To Survive (power metal)
Celophys – Neanderthal (doom drone)
Cemetery Echo – Civitas Lacrimarum (doom metal)
Chelsea Wolfe – The Dark (darkish folk)
Cobrafuma – Droga Total (crossover thrash)
Colliding Worlds – Iridescence (progressive melodeath)
Cvinger – Rites Ov Flesh (deathened black metal)
Deathgrave – Hell Is Evil (the grave that eats people)
Deceptor – Reign Of Terror (death metal)
Denzel Curry and Kenny Beats – II (hip-hop)
Faerie Ring – Faerie Ring (prog doom)
Fallweather – Because You Were There (metalcore)
Funerarya – A Kingdom Reborn (blackened death metal)
Fen – Elemental Part One: Mourning Earth (progressive blackened death metal)
God’s Hate – Won’t Be Disgraced (hardcore, groove metal)
Gloom – Reflexions (trad metal)
Grand – Guilty Pleasure (pop rock)
Humerror – Liturgy of the Synthetic Gods (death-metal/grind)
Hydra – DeHydration (AOR)
Jotungrav – Elegi (meloblack)
Joyous Wolf – In Between (rock)
Kindred North – Kindred North (melodic rock, prog metal)
Malamorte – Omen II (melodoom)
Martyrium – Malevolent (black metal)
Mind Affliction – No Future, No Light (deatheneed black metal)
Mob Rules – Stories From The Verdant Vale (heavy/power metal)
Nekrodawn – Covenant Of Carnage (blackened melodeath)
Nethergate – Sanguivoria (death metal)
Noumena – Maanääri (melodeath)
Nova Riot – Blood, Lies And Lullabies (who even listens to this?)
Noveria – Becoming After (prog metal)
Ocean Sleeper – Peace When I'm Dead (baddiecore, djent)
Oddland – Unilluminate To Illuminate (prog rock)
Pattern-Seeking Animals – Grimalkin (prog rock)
R.O.S.A. – No Peace For You (noise sludge)
Rapid – Enter The Realm Of Fire (speed metal)
Rebels Opera – Call Of The Night (rock)
Rising Insane – Deathrace (pop metal/core)
Ristridi – Ride The Storm (power melodeath)
Sakoya – World Gone Crazy (baddiecore)
Shabti – Haze, Cacophony, And White Light (weird/blackened prog-death)
Speed Stroke – Damage Control (heavy metal)
Street Tombs – Existence Is Corruption (death metal)
Suffering Quota – Sisyphean Life (grindcore, deathgrind) Review
Teratum – Ordnance of Spiritual Warfare (speed black)
Tetric Tone – Tetric One (heavy metal)
Thanatomass – The Rabid Dead (blackened crust-death/grind)
Tokyo Blade – Hoist The Colours High (heavy/melodic metal)
Triskelyon – Metalmorphosis (If I had a nickel…)
Untitled With Drums – Made Flesh (post alt-rock/gaze)
Utilize The Remains – Meaningless Existence (groove death)
Vrykolakas – Into Sunless Gravescapes (death metal)
War for War – Olověné sny (black metal)
Wicked – Go Rebel (hardish rock)