Review by Michael on June 11, 2026.

Well, I haven't seen such an ugly cover for a long time, I guess (but at least it's not AI shit and the girl on the grim, sort of horny looking dragon has some nice boobs).

But what lies beyond this, physically the second full-length of Stormkeep called "The Nocturnes Of Iswylm", is some really amazing symphonic black metal stuff.

Their first EP "Galdrum" was already a very cool piece of music and its predecessor "Tales Of Othertime" another cool surprise, is this another giant leap forward in the discography of the Americans?

Keeping the atmospheric black metal clearly in the foreground, you can also recognize a lot of heavy metal influences in their songs. Especially in the opener "The Taste Of Immortal Blood" are a lot of other influences such as Blind Guardian back to their "Tales From The Twilight World"-era. The clear vocals and the catchy choruses are pretty much influenced by the Germans which doesn't mean that it doesn't fit into the whole. It is more an enrichment in the stylistic diversity Stormkeep show here.

But let us come back to the black metal influences a little bit more. Were there already some symphonic stuff on the previous albums, "The Nocturnes Of Iswylm" tops all this. Actually there are so many influences such as old Dimmu Borgir, Limbonic Art, Emperor or Old Mans Child (especially the harsh vocals remind a lot of them in the 90s) which makes the album a feast for everybody who still loves the old symphonic stuff from the mid-90s.

With the aforementioned heavy metal influences comes out a super catchy black metal album with a lot of surprises in the seven compositions. It has a great range from softer passages to furious black metal outbursts but still is quite focused in itself. Nothing appears to be a leftover or something that was baked only half-hearted.

This is quite remarkable because the songs have a running time range from circa five minutes up to almost ten minutes – we all know that there might be some lengths in this case. To be honest, the songs don't appear to be so long while listening to them. They are quite diverse and also very entertaining.

Also the production is quite tight and powerful, sometimes the drums sound a little bit too loud but that's something that can be put aside to find the fault with something on that album. Also, if you have in mind, that Otheyn Vermithrax (vocals, drums, keyboards, guitars) is nobody else than the Blood Incantation drummer Isaak Faulk, this might explain that focus.

After Worm's "Necropalace" this one is another monolithic release in the symphonic black metal scene in 2026 and I guess that the band will gain some new fans with this output.

Rating: 9 out of 10 horny dragons

Review by Norbert on March 12, 2026.

I really like all three Corpse Garden albums. Especially since each one was one of those albums you don't so much listen to as explore, like the remains of some ancient temple – like death metal, but full of strange corridors, psychedelic twists, and cosmic symbols on the walls. Unfortunately, the last one was released in 2017, and over time, I slowly began to accept the fact that I probably wouldn't see any new recordings from the Costa Rican camp. And suddenly, I felt like saying: the king is dead (Corpse Garden), long live the king (Corpse Garden) – albeit under a different name. Because "Nexus Teleport Fracture" – the debut album by Voidstar Nocturnal, released by Godz Ov War and officially released tomorrow – was created by the same guys, only apparently with a new map of the cosmos in hand and a fresh batch of ideas. It seems that somewhere between the humid jungle, the coffee plantations, and the surfers of Jacó, there's another Costa Rican specialty: death metal that sounds like someone performing an occult ritual at an astronomical observatory, tripping over a synthesizer along the way. "Nexus Teleport Fracture"—the title itself suggests this isn't going to be easy—sounds like a term from a quantum physics textbook found in a San José bar at 3 a.m.

If anyone's expecting classic death metal thrashing, "smooth, fast, kick in the face, and go home," well, they might be surprised sooner than a tourist who thought all the animals in Costa Rica were friendly to humans. Voidstar Nocturnal continue what Corpse Garden did best: taking death metal, disassembling it, and then reassembling it with a few elements they apparently found somewhere in another dimension. The opening track, 'Code Transmutation,' sounds for a moment as if someone decided to stage an avant-garde black metal spectacle in an abandoned planetarium. It's supposedly metal, supposedly dark, but at the same time, there's a sense of theatricality and a strange aura of experimentation—something that makes you wonder, instead of nodding your head, if you haven't just opened some interstellar portal. Besides, that word—"avant-garde"—recurs often. "Nexus Teleport Fracture" is an album where genres blend like the ingredients in a Costa Rican gallo pinto: everything seems to be there, but together they create something entirely new. 'Saffron Neon' starts out as classic, albeit twisted, black metal, only to veer into cosmic psychedelia. 'Holographic Neural Pathways,' on the other hand, sounds at times as if darkwave and post-punk fans had crashed a death metal party and found out they all got along perfectly. Synthesizers, guitars, rhythms—all of it swirls around each other like satellites around some very suspicious planet.

That doesn't mean the band has forgotten how to play heavy. When needed, Voidstar Nocturnal can pack a punch so hard that even the most seasoned headbanger will feel like they're in a tropical storm over the Pacific. The difference is that instead of just blindly charging in, the Heredia trio clearly has a plan. Each song feels like a small expedition into the unknown—sometimes more metal, sometimes more psychedelic, and sometimes so strange that you start to suspect the musicians recorded it after drinking something much stronger than coffee from Tarrazú.

The coolest thing, however, is that despite all this stylistic acrobatics, the album doesn't feel like a collection of random ideas. Quite the opposite – everything comes together into a whole, albeit rather hypnotic one. There are trance-like moments, brutal moments, and others that sound like the soundtrack to a cosmic, bad trip. And when the extended finale, 'The Tower,' arrives, the whole thing takes on an almost cinematic scale – as if the band decided to stop pounding the gas pedal for a moment and let the listener slowly drift away towards a black hole.

If Corpse Garden was once a death metal archaeological expedition into the cosmic occult, Voidstar Nocturnal sound like the same expedition, only equipped with a teleport and a much greater imagination. "Nexus Teleport Fracture" is a strange album, at times even very strange – but that's precisely its charm. Because once you get the hang of it, it turns out that instead of a typical death metal album, you've gotten something like a sonic expedition through the jungle, where behind every bush lurks either an ancient ritual or a portal to another galaxy.

And let's face it, that's definitely more interesting than another album with riffs that sound like a collection of "copy" and "paste" patents from the "Death Metal 101" textbook. After all, if you're going to go into space, it's best to go with Costa Ricans – they clearly know where the nearest portal opens.

I joined this jungle expedition a few weeks ago, and so far, I don't want to leave.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10