Welcome back to MetalBite's Top 10 Albums of the Month! It was a bit of a thin month and we were all collectively recovering from our holiday hangovers, so this is coming out horrendously late, but never fear, we've still got a bit of love to give to those neglected December releases that tend to get shunned from year-end lists. Let's cut the shit and get to it.

-Nate

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Dwelling Below - Dwelling Below
Transcending Obscurity

If you're familiar with Acausal Intrusion, who offer some delightfully weird, angular death/black metal, this will likely appeal to you as well - and not just because it's the same guys behind Dwelling Below. The winding tower of nightmarish soundscapes, carefully tense dissonance and barely organized chaos still takes shape here. The musicians involved are ridiculously prolific - Jared Moran alone has dozens of projects to his name, and though some of them are inevitably similar, Dwelling Below retains its own distinct character, mostly owing to the drudging death/doom and restrained leadwork that pops up in songs such as 'Emergence Sublimation'. Recommended if you hate anything melodic.
-Nate

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Embryonic Devourment - Prime Specimens
Desidarius Recordings

I'm not sure why Unique Leader dropped these guys - maybe they didn't want to put out another album so soon after the one before it or something? I can't claim to fully understand the inner machinations and motivations of record labels.

It also surprises me because this reminds me more of Deeds of Flesh than anyone else on their active roster. This is stupidly technical, with constant scatterings of discordant (but cleanly played) guitar leads, a constant maelstrom of rapid-fire drumming, shifting time signatures and snaking motifs, and a general "fuck you, try and make sense of this" vibe that it puts onto the listener, with constant curveballs. They definitely didn't go over-budget on the production job, as the drums in particular are notably clicky and thin, with the vocals being reduced to a background trace, but on the flipside it does highlight just how ridiculous the riffs and drum patterns are. If you're the type that isn't too persnickety about your albums having the thickest guitar tone possible, you'll get into this fine.

New guitarist Donnie Small seems to have reinvigorated this band - he must have some hand in writing, as they've composed two full-lengths since he joined in 2021 when their last full-length had come out eight years before that. Perhaps this signals a new, abundantly productive era of this band - which I'm here for, because Embryonic Devourment play a style of technical brutal death that's been neglected in the internet metalsphere in recent years - even the very label that helped to establish the style seems to be turning its back on it.
-Nate

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Winterhorde - Neptunian
Noble Demon

I first became acquainted with this grandiose, all-encompassing progressive extreme metal group through their album Maestro, which still makes its way into my listening rotation every now and then despite me being pretty picky about albums in the style. They just nailed everything they attempted on that album: soaring, elegant clean vocals, powerful and flowing structures that covered a wide breadth of textures and emotions, and a general air of classines and intelligence that makes you refer to an album as being "composed" rather than "written". It feels like the kind of thing I actually wouldn't mind hearing in a proper old-school concert hall with a full backing orchestra (doesn't mean other bands should try - I'm looking at you, Sepultura…)

Neptunian has the difficult task of following up a masterpiece, and to throw an extra curveball into the mix, there's been a huge lineup overhaul in recent years, with a new drummer, guitarist, clean vocalist and keyboardist all providing contributions. The end result is, admittedly, not quite hitting the mark the same way Maestro did for me - there's just too many new cooks in the kitchen that aren't fully acquainted to the recipe yet - but by the same token, the folks that have been here since the beginning have been doing this for over 20 years and know what they want Winterhorde to be at this point. The approach changes a bit as well because to my knowledge, unlike the previous release, Neptunian isn't a concept album - or at least doesn't have prevalent themes that span multiple tracks, which does actually affect how long I want to listen to it.

It's hard to not compare Neptunian to the masterpiece that came before it, but it's still a very strong and capable extreme prog album by a very underrated band, so I'm still comfortable recommending you check this out - even if it's not typically the style of music you're drawn to.
-NateXXXXX

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Devil's Reef - The Droste Observer
The Artisan Era

There's a couple of neat little quirks about this - the gritty cleans are Alluvial-esque and provide nice contrast, and there's a surprising amount of slow builds and more midpaced, textural riffs (not quite djenty, but definitely hinting at it) that break up the flashy finger-fucker riffs, but even with those present, I find The Droste Observer struggles to separate itself from the "Artisan Era" sound that is becoming more and more typical with each new release by the label. I don't know if it's the production job, the riff selection or what, but I find this tough to distinguish from bands like The Ritual Aura, Aronious, Dessiderium, Apogean and Inanimate Existence. I suppose if you eat bands up in that style, though, you're almost guaranteed gonna like this. Being the tech-head I am, this is still a solid album and all, I'd just like a few more curveballs along the lines of Warforged and Greylotus to come out of TAE going forward.
-Nate

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METALBITE'S TOP 10 ALBUMS OF THE MONTH

 

10: Cryptworm - Oozing Radioactive Vomition
Me Saco un Ojo / Pulverised / Extremely Rotten

Us death metal folk are simple creatures. Give us some Demilich worship, skank beats and gurgles and you'll get all our disposable income without any protest or concern. Innovation is overrated - it can be just as effective to do a deep dive in a well of ideas that hasn't been completely saturated yet. Even if it is in a well-established genre, it doesn't really matter as long as the end result is a ton of fun to listen to, and that's definitely the case with Oozing Radioactive Vomition.

There's a bounciness to this, somewhat owing to the rubbery guitar tone and the wet yet papery snare tone, and it creates entrancing, catchy vibes that hit you right away and stick around even long after the album is done playing. Oozing Radioactive Vomition is more developed and has a fuller production than its predecessor, Spewing Mephitic Putridity - but with less than two years between the two albums, the end goal is still very clearly the same - catchy old-school inspired grooves with a sickening bounce. Demilicious!
-Nate

MetalBite's Rating: 8.2/10

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9: Revulsed - Cerebral Contamination
Everlasting Spew

I always look forward to the more technical albums that this label puts out - not that I'm not a fan of the cavernous death/doom they're a bit more partial to, but because the more techy albums are less common and usually have a little extra something going on that holds your attention. Fractal Generator, Goratory, Serocs, Engulf - and now Revulsed, who have the rare distinction of being one of those bands that you can legitimately compare to Defeated Sanity, standing out among the countless bands will cite them as an influence. A younger, more spirited Suffocation isn't the worst comparison either - this is snaking, obtuse, and eschews prominent melody in place of confounding patterns, pinch harmonics and a thick low end to add just a dash of slam into the mix. The more you examine the intricacies of this, the more it reveals its surprises to you - I've given this a month to marinate and with each listen I feel like new things pop out of the riffs I didn't hear before.

I listen to every Everlasting Spew album that comes out, and this is just another album in a long list of entries that perfectly exemplifies why. They give killer niche bands the attention they deserve.
-Nate

MetalBite's Rating: 8.2/10

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8: Nornir - Skuld
Northern Silence

For those who find latter-day Marduk just that little bit weak and experimental, Nornir's second full-length Skuld should provide a satisfying alternative. The Germans tear through just under an hour of savage black metal in furious style, offering the listener practically everything one could ask for from classic-sounding, orthodox black metal. The minor key melodies are as cold, grim and frostbitten as a trudge across the Arctic circle, the occasional flourishes of triumphant twin lead guitars provide just enough variation, and the vocals deliver the kind of wild-eyed, other-worldly domineering presence that Gaahl or Hoest would be more than happy with. While one can hear a significant amount of the aforementioned Marduk, and also At The Heart Of Winter-era Immortal in Nornir's sound – not least in the frequent and linear combination of galloping chugs with single note tremolos to generate a stately mid-tempo march – there is enough of the band's own personality shining through on tracks such as the superb 'Hel's Postulate' to ensure that this is not a simple retread of that which has come many times before. A worthy release, concluding 2023 in fine style.
-Benjamin

MetalBite's Rating: 8.3/10

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7: Cruciamentum - Obsidian Refractions
Profound Lore

*Note - this did technically come out in November, but it was late November, we missed it in that AOTM list, and it's the kind of thing that takes time to marinate anyways. It's my list, I'll do whatever the fuck I want, if you don't like it you can suck it.

This English (now international) group was part of a small group of flagship bands that signaled a new direction of death metal some time in the late 00s/early 2010s. I remember it with a decent amount of clarity, as that was around the time I was fully immersing my earbuds in underground metal. People were sick of modern tech-death and deathcore's oversaturation, and were reflexively turning to up and comers that reminded them more of the bands like Immolation, Incantation and Morbid Angel that got them into the genre in the first place. Dead Congregation, Disma, Grave Miasma, Funebrarum and Ignivomous could all be considered part of this "new wave of old school death metal" to one degree or another.

It started as a underrated, up-and-coming rebirth, turned popular and trendy as the heavy hitter labels started to take notice, and settled into a well-populated niche with the growth of labels exclusively dedicated to the sound - Memento Mori, Dark Descent and Me Saco un Ojo were all established in 2009-2010. Amidst the rise and proliferation of the style, Cruciamentum has quietly remained one of the best representatives of cavernous death metal, despite only having one EP, one full-length and a handful of scattered singles prior to this album.

Their riffing has always been visceral and energetic, thoroughly maintaining the cavernous atmosphere but never revealing too much too quickly, with ominous, purposeful, slow-build songwriting. Each riff is carefully thought out - not only in its own composition, but how it ties into the songs and the album on a larger scale. Though they avoid ever giving you any saccharine patterns to taste, the motifs of a song like 'Scorn Manifestation' are guaranteed to get any death metal fan's head nodding.

Despite some lineup overhaul, they transitioned into Obsidian Refractions carefully and made sure that the new contributors got the vibe before they did anything rash. There's a new second guitarist and vocalist/bassist, and both of them mesh seamlessly into the band fabric. Simply put, Cruciamentum knows how to write pure fucking death metal of the highest caliber. No genre splicing, no compromise, no adherence to trends - just steadily pushing the genre forward through grade-A riffing, well-thought out compositions and an unflinching commitment to hellish darkness.
-Nate

MetalBite's Rating: 8.5/10

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6: Demoncy - Black Star Gnosis
Dark Descent

It is something of a curiosity that, originating from the primordial soup of 1980s extreme metal, the strain of black metal that has come to define the genre in the minds of many is typically the blasting and sometimes symphonic tremolo attack of the Norwegian and Swedish bands of the mid-1990s. Demoncy, a name perhaps referenced more often than listened to, make a cogent argument for their brand of black metal as being a truer, more devoutly satanic mode of delivery than the technical wizardry of Scandinavia, favouring instead the kind of churning filth, and pulverising low-end found throughout the spectacular and bleak violence of Black Star Gnosis. The most obvious reference points are Von, Beherit and Profanatica / Havohej, but although the band share something with all of these legends, as well as war metal more generally, they conjure a hell of their own across nine tracks, which mix metallic brutality with black ambient soundscapes. Demoncy hit considerably harder than one might expect, with the feral aggression of tracks such as 'Ipsissimus Of Shadows' verging on old-school death metal at times, bolstered by a thick and tar-like low-end, a stark contrast to the treble-heavy screed of much primitive black metal. The band take the linear, chromatic approach to riffing of classic Von as a starting point, but what they do with it is deeper and arguably more disturbing, with Ixithra's rasping whisper an authentically terrifying voice that exudes filth and depravity. There should always be a place for the kind of single-minded horror that Demoncy are so adept at conjuring, and Black Star Gnosis is more than good enough to ensure that this will be the case for at least a little while longer.
-Benjamin

MetalBite's Rating: 8.6/10

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5: Vargrav - The Nighthold
Werwolf Records

The Nighthold manages to fulfill the high expectations, which were briefly teased with the Encircle The Spectral Dimension EP. It is a fine album that is worth listening from start to finish, without ever losing track of what is going on and always being on the edge of your seats wondering what is going to happen next. Like I said before, Vargrav stands the test of time, and The Nighthold is both like a fine wine and a living proof that they indeed deserved their status of worship.
-Vlad (full review here)

MetalBite's Rating: 8.7/10

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4: Varathron - The Crimson Temple
20 Buck Spin

Not one, not two, but three MetalBite writers reviewed this, the seventh album from one of the forefathers of Greek black metal. That's a sure sign this is worth checking out, and it's always impressive when a band can still remain this attention-grabbing this late in their career.
-Nate

MetalBite's Rating: 8.8/10

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3: Bull Of Apis Bull Of Bronze - The Fractal Ouroboros
Independent

This is a more developed album than the promising, intriguing full length Offerings Of Flesh And Gold - the production feels fuller and warmer, the songs aren't afraid to hold a theme for a few minutes at a time, and the bridges between the disparate parts feel more cohesive. For the uninitiated, Bull Of Apis Bull Of Bronze is modern anti-fascist black metal with a high-minded, ritualistic bent - think Ash Borer and Skagos if they were more inspired by the ill effects of capitalism than the lush landscapes of Cascadia.

My ADHD-ridden brain doesn't often gravitate to 1+ hour-long albums, but this band is a notable exception. Partially because atmo-black warrants it, but also because of the way this band doesn't have to do a lot to hold your attention. Even the ominous choral effects in the breaks between songs hint at a greater purpose and keep you interested in what's going to happen next. The stark and stoic ritualism meshes perfectly with long streams of vaguely discordant tremolo. It brings you back to that feeling when you were first getting into black metal and every band seemed to be made up of esoteric recluses who held seances on a weekly basis.
-Nate

MetalBite's Rating: 8.8/10

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2: Phobocosm - Foreordained
Dark Descent Records

This sounds like death. That should be more common than it is in a genre called DEATH metal, but turns out it's not a given a band is going to be able to channel an acute sensation of your imminent demise, even in a genre almost entirely focused on doing that. Phobocosm always sounded like they had the right idea, but never quite got the execution down on Deprived and Bringer Of Drought. Those are solid, interesting albums, but I always get the sensation when listening to them that the best is yet to come - the Quebec voidgazers have long been trying to find the proper tools to convey their otherworldly inspirations, and it's only on Foreordained that I feel that all-consuming completeness in their sound. It sounds like they finally developed the right chemistry and are creating the music they always wanted to for themselves.

The vocals are a subterranean, cavernous rumble that ritually urges the riffs forth, which themselves are sustained tremolos that give you a taste of melody, but never the full piece of pie. Each song is a long, treacherous march that builds to a climax with a slow trickle, and once you finally reach the summit, there's an all-consuming totality to the layers of noise and a cathartic release that feels like the last gasp from your lungs before all goes dark. There's an element of beauty to it, but it's also legitimately unsettling because you feel like you're coming to terms with your mortality in audio form. Simply put, this is not easy to do, much less so when you want to retain an element of musicality to go with it.

I can't really say that I enjoy Foreordained - it's more that I brave the experience of it. I get nervous to start, but once I do, I know i'm locked in for the ride, and I come out of the album a more focused and realized individual. That might sound pretentious as fuck, but I don't care. Listen for yourself and see what I mean.
-Nate

MetalBite's Rating: 9/10

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1: Geistaz'ika – Midnatsbøn Ved Djævelens Port
Signal Rex

Denmark's Geistaz'ika's second album, Midnatsbøn Ved Djævelens Port, is an enthralling and captivating work. The brief, folky introduction gives little indication of the forthcoming blizzard of blasting drums and trebly guitars that will ensue, but it serves to set the tone beautifully, immediately evoking the classic strains of Ulver and Abigor, while also bringing a medieval feel and sensibility to the band's sonic palette. The first metallic track, 'Bestaenkt Af Syndens Vievand' takes this feel and runs with it through forest and fjord, mesmerising with its epic length and balance of brutality and melody. It is a sound not unfamiliar to fans of key second-wave acts such as Setherial, early Enslaved, and Blut Aus Nord, but the unorthodox interplay between the expected black metal elements and a number of other compositional touches elevates their music well above conventional Norsecore. In particular, the off-kilter production that occasionally prioritises the chanting of the Moonsorrow-like clean vocals, together with the insertion of sometimes incongruous synth and string sounds is especially pleasing, and showcases the fascinating spectacle of a band that cannot quite control the elemental forces with which they are working. Geistaz'ika have found a real niche here, offering thoroughly memorable and majestic black metal, delivered with an utterly esoteric approach, with rich rewards in store for those who choose to venture deep enough to find them.
-Benjamin

MetalBite's Rating: 9.1/10

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Thanks for sticking with us and stopping by. If you're interested in catching up on 2023 releases, the links to all the previous AOTM lists are below:

November 2023

October 2023

September 2023

August 2023

July 2023

June 2023

May 2023

April 2023

March 2023

February 2023

January 2023

And, of course, Follow MetalBite on Facebook, Spotify and Instagram so you can be there right when the next Top 10 list drops!

Entered: 1/30/2024 4:09:12 PM

Previous Post Digging Through Past	Next Post South Of Heaven

Welcome back to MetalBite's Top 10 albums of the month! This list marks the three year anniversary of this column, when I (Nate) had a bunch of short reviews written for 10 bands in January 2021, stricken by boredom with the ongoing pandemic, and wanted to lump them all together and rank them because it's fun to nerd out like that.

Life got busier, but nonetheless we haven't missed a month in three years yet. Our lists are bigger than ever before - it used to be a struggle to think of 10 albums worth hearing in a given month all on my own, but now it's not uncommon for 20-30 albums per month to get write-ups, relegating tons of gems into the Honorable Mentions section. That's in no small part to our growing cabal of writers - we now have three additional regulars in Michael, Benjamin and Vlad feeding you the goods, all with different specialty genres and little overlap in taste, despite being obsessive metal freaks through and through. We've also had a handful of sporadic contributors fade in and out through the years, including TheOneNeverSeen and Felix among others i'm probably forgetting.

We've gotten thanks and gratitude from countless bands, both those well-known and dwelling in obscurity, and lots of label and media shout-out as well. We don't do this for the accolades, though, and we're definitely not doing it for the money - it's all for the love of the music and our desire to make the bands we adore more known and heard.

Thank you for being here and joining us for the ride, wherever or whoever you are. Heavy metal reigns supreme!!!

-Nate

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Resin Tomb - Cerebral Purgatory
Transcending Obscurity

This is heavy, viscous and abrasive all at once, owing to drawing from multiple wells of dissonant death metal, sludge and even a bit of grind/crust. Early Wake is not a terrible comparison, any Australian band that plays with dissonance is gonna have a bit of Ulcerate in there, and it's got that meaty, amelodic weight that Transcending Obscurity has a fondness for, as evidenced by bands like Warcrab, Jupiterian and Lurk on their roster. This sounds raw, but only in emotion, not in tone - the drum production in particular is thick as shit and beats every gnashing, buzzing riff into your brain with incomparable force.
-Nate

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Fantasma - Abomination Of Human Pestilence
Narbentage Produktionen

If you like German black metal bands like Darkened Nocturn Slaughtercult, then you might like the new coming two-piece band Fantasma as well. Fantasma returned 2 years after its debut with a new demo Abomination Of Human Pestilence that provides very misanthropic but atmospheric black metal that conveys a very macabre plague-infested vibe with an ominous feeling of evil presence. When a new coming black metal band comes out with a demo such as this, one could only wonder what awaits us when the time comes for a full-length album, which will definitely continue to incorporate songwriting that will once again call upon the reaper from the gloomy heavens.
-Vlad

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Abhoria - Depths
Prosthetic Records

Good modern melodic black metal. I could use a few more earworm riffs to solidify these in my memory, but there's nothing that feels shoehorned in or out of place. Not much I can say about this beyond that, worth a listen if you bump Dissection or other Prosthetic meloblack/death like Volcandra, Fires in the Distance, Nixil or Tomarum.
-Nate

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Knoll - As Spoken
Independent

This feels like the first band that has managed to capture the same essence as Full of Hell - the vocalist is a dead ringer for Dylan Walker, with a similar wet, prickly tone to his high, and the band takes a similar approach of adding heavier death metal and noise elements to a grindcore base to make their music sound claustrophobic, violent, and with a certain esoteric, evil undertone that both groups seem to relish in.

The perfect opener for a cryptic dissodeath band live, which is why it's no surprise Thanitfaxath tapped them for a run of shows happening as we speak (mid-February). This sounds lik a nightmare in all the best ways.
-Nate

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Vipassi - Lightless
Season Of Mist

Some really nice bass tones on this. Covers a lot of ground, kind of like an instrumental version of later Fallujah if you removed the deathcore tendencies. Ne Obliviscaris fans will get a good amount of mileage out of this, too (and not just because the two bands share a guitarist). It's got some heavier tendencies than Scale the Summit, but should still satisfy people who go for that type of sound, if that makes sense. If you like the idea of extreme metal but hate the vocals, this is probably right up your alley.
-Nate

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Savaged - Night Stealer
No Remorse Records

I guess there is just no escaping from traditional heavy metal excellence, is there? In the case of the Spanish band Savaged and their debut album Night Stealer, we have yet another very enjoyable heavy metal album with hints of speed metal here and there, providing a powerful and melodic work all throughout. Just like with the band Show N Tell, all the songs on this album scream 80's, and this is something made for the fans who just want some good old-fashioned heavy metal that will steal your soul the moment you press play.
-Vlad

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Saevus Finis - Facilis Descensus Averno
Transcending Obscurity

Dissonant death combines with Deathspell Omega -esque black metal to create a layered, weighty album that will take a few good listens to full peel back the layers. If you're looking for the chasm-styled hole that Abyssal leaves in you mixed with the tense tightrope walk that Nightmarer pulls off, this will check both boxes with aplomb. Full track premiere here.
-Nate

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Carnal Savagery - Into The Abysmal Void
Moribund Records

One of Sweden's most prolific exports, Carnal Savagery are back with their fifth album since April 2020. Again they offer us a lot of traditional HM-2 sounds without any compromise. Groovy riffs in the vein of Dismember, Entombed or Unleashed are in abundance and make for some good old fashioned chainsaw fun. Of course the lyrics aren't talking about flowers (unless they're decaying and maggot-infested, I suppose), but did you expect anything else? Into The Abysmal Void also features some tasty guest solos by Sebastian Ramstedt (Necrophobic) in 'Stench Of Burnt Decay' and 'Limb By Limb'.

If "Like An Everflowing Stream" or "Clandestine" are the death metal bibles to you, Into The Abysmal Void will be a good supplementary sermon. Amen!
-Michael

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Xion - Between Shadows And Gods
Dalapop

Although I doubt that I will once again experience the kind of warm feeling I had towards thrash metal, that still doesn't mean that I can't enjoy what it has to offer. Thanks to my friend Andjela, she introduced me to the Swedish thrashers Xion, who have released their debut full-length album Between Shadows And Gods that is all about the pumped adrenaline aggression and headbanging from start to finish. With an album such as this, I believe that the band Xion deserves to be in the ranks of modern thrash metal names such as Havok or Warbringer.
-Vlad

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Upon Stone - Dead Mother Moon
Century Media Records

If you still swear upon the first two releases by In Flames or 90s-era At The Gates, this is a must-have for you. Upon Stone resurrect the old spirit of these two albums perfectly. Harsh death metal vocals paired with catchy riffs and some folk-ish melodies make the album a very interesting one for those who miss the classic Gothenburg melodeath days. Some songs are a bit more straightforward, but that just leaves room to expand on future albums. For a debut, Dead Mother Moon is very solid.
-Michael

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Engulf - The Dying Planet Weeps
Everlasting Spew

One-man death metal with a nice helping of atmosphere, capable drum programming that's barely noticeable as such, and a nice John Tardy inflection to the vocals. You should know better than to doubt anything that comes out of Everlasting Spew at this point.
-Nate

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Deconsekrated - Ascension In The Altar Of Condemned
Iron, Blood And Death Corporation

The South American metal scene always tends to provide some of the most extreme death and black metal bands, and in the case of very extreme and brooding death metal, Deconsekrated from Chile is no exception. Their debut album Ascension In The Altar Of Condemned is an offspring of an eldritch being that was conceived from the foulest semen, proving that death metal in the modern world can still sound morbid, intimidating and evil. Modern day brutal death metal bands who like to flex their muscles should not mess with South American death metal bands, because these ones are natural born killers.
-Vlad

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Stuporous - Asylum's Lament
Void Wanderer Productions / War Production

Blackened-doom can be a tough beast to tame. Attempting to capture the sinister evil at the heart of black metal, with limited recourse to the visceral thrill of the speeding guitars and drums, it can easily descend into background music. Perhaps due to the deep black metal history of prime mover Floris Velthuis, the man at the helm of the good ship Stuporous, the Dutch trio never threaten to fall into this trap, their debut instead bringing a lush depth and complex harmonic approach to extreme doom, transporting the listener into eldritch, sylvan realms of glorious misery. The use of brass isn't totally novel in metal, but the addition of a French horn to the instrumentation here certainly sets them apart from other bands, and is deftly incorporated into the layers of guitars in a way that never seems forced, reminiscent of Tribunal's cello lines, or Skepticism's pipe organ, and both of those bands, in addition to the obvious influence of My Dying Bride, are good reference points for Stuporous. Like the famously jovial UK crew, Stuporous are equally as adept when they dial-up the velocity, which they do with great skill on the superb 'Never Let Me Go', and sparingly and effectively elsewhere. The jarringly upbeat 'Distorted Echoes' is perhaps a misstep, but overall, Asylum's Lament is a fine debut that promises much, and mostly delivers.
-Benjamin

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Drowned - Procul His
Sepulchral Voice

Out of nowhere, this low-key but highly regarded death/doom act releases their first album in 10 years. I haven't seen much buzz about this (not nearly as much as Spectral Voice, anyways) but there's a lot of the same key elements at play that make this good. There's a rigid adherence to the old ways of death metal reimagined in a modern lens - not reinventing the wheel, but Drowned still add their own touch to things that keeps the style moving forward. I've always thought that if you want high-caliber underground metal, Germany is your best stop. Even the third and fourth-stringers in the style are worth your attention - doubly so when the band has been active for over 30 years and has connections to Necros Christos, The Ruins of Beverast and Sijjin.

Their quality over quantity approach works well and is evident in the atmosphere that drips forth - every riff, drumbeat and vocal line seems to be carefully cultivated to maintain the occult atmosphere. The musicianship is far from mindblowing - the blastbeats are never overly speedy and rely on traditional drumming techniques, the leads and solos are more of the slow, feelsy kind rather than the shreddy kind - but this doesn't have to be flashy to get its message across. The chemistry and shared vision between the members serves these songs well enough to get by. You get the sense that every single one of these exclusively listen to the dankest OSDM and absolutely nothing else, lest they spoil their musical broth.
-Nate

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Show N Tell - The Ritual Has Begun
No Remorse Records

If there is a fact about me and traditional heavy metal music, it's that I just simply can't get enough of it. Show N Tell's debut album The Ritual Has Begun gave us plenty of heavy bangers and catchy tunes, that vary between pure speed metal and rocking out heavy metal. This album is pretty simple in its structure, yet that simplicity is highly effective, showing that its execution is not a misfire, not by a longshot.
-Vlad

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Madder Mortem - Old Eyes, New Heart
Dark Essence Records

Madder Mortem return in 2024, with their seventh full-length, and are presumably wondering as they must with every release, whether this will be the one that sees them finally grow their cult following into the kind of wider success that the quality of their progressive metal surely deserves. In Old Eyes, New Heart, the Norwegians have authored another excellent entry into a stellar back catalogue, and their existing audience will no doubt clutch the band even closer to their heart, safe in the knowledge that they, at least, have acknowledged the ongoing brilliance of Madder Mortem in good time. Once more, the band continue their gradual refinement of a sound that has allowed them to carve an ever deeper niche since at least 2003's Deadlands. Juddering djent-adjacent riffs share space with gargantuan choruses that soar eternally on the wings of Agnete Kirkevaag's never less then bewitching voice, and often, Madder Mortem are the spellbinding equal of The Gathering, or Amorphis's more gentle moments. It is reassuring indeed to find the band maintaining their customary high standard, which they do effortlessly with another set of unforgettable songs. The eyes may be old, but this heart now beats just a little bit harder.
-Benjamin

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Master - Saints Dispelled
Hammerheart Records

Paul Speckmann is back with his 15th Master album. Can we expect anything new? No, not really. Saints Dispelled mixes up death, thrash and heavy metal with a healthy dose of D-beats, making for an entertaining listen with those old school vibes. Not every Master album is a home run, admittedly, but I can confidently say this is one of the band's best albums. Right from the start you have that straight-to-the-face, punchy immediacy, and the songs being punkish at their core makes for a very catchy listen. Mr. Speckmann turned 60 last year, but he still sounds as pissed and aggressive as he was in 1990. To quote an Accept song from 93 – 'Sick, Dirty And Mean'!
-Michale

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Saxon - Hell, Fire And Damnation
Silver Lining Music

Heavy metal legends Saxon return with a strong album that can be shortly summarized with the song 'Fire And Steel'. Hell, Fire And Damnation is a very monstrous and awesome album from start to finish, in my opinion it is miles better than Carpe Diem, which is no surprise considering the fact that the band's lineup was updated when Brian Tatler stepped in the shoes of longtime guitarist Paul Quinn. This album reminded me why I loved Saxon so much in my teenage days when I would do nothing but blast NWOBHM classics at full volume, and I think that I'll be coming back to Hell, Fire And Damnation more often throughout this year, and many years to come.
-Vlad

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Cognizance - Phantazein
Willowtip

These English-based folks have steadily been putting out some of the nastier technical melodeath in recent years. They're not flashy at the level of Inferi, nor technical at the level of Archspire, but they live in the same ballpark, executing well and always writing to serve the song. The verse riffs and solos are incredibly tasty, but they don't lean on them too hard, instead keeping your chops primed for the next one while smoothly transitioning between those themes with relatively simple bridges. Metal-archives suggests a deathcore influence, but I think that's just because their sound is firmly planted in modern death metal archetypes - maybe their earlier stuff had a bit more of a Faceless thing going on? There's also a heavier bites to the less techy grooves that hints at that - but it's little more than a mere hint. As a whole, this is definitely a band you marvel at more than mosh to live. It helps having Obscura's current drummer adding that proggy flavour to the mix as well. Willowtip is starting off the year strong!
-Nate

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METALBITE'S TOP 10 ALBUMS OF THE MONTH

 

10: Into The Ashes - Consumed By The Negative Dimension
Pathologically Explicit Recordings

Old school brutal death metal is becoming more and more codified as a sound as the early releases of bands like Deeds of Flesh, Gorgasm and Disavowed fade further into the rearview mirror. We're now at the point where these late 90s-early 2000s albums could be considered "retro" (feel old yet?) and as such it seems like niche boutique labels like Comatose, New Standard Elite and Pathologically Explicit are rolling out another wave of bands in this style. There's a lot of bands in this general realm of sound - the members of Into The Ashes alone have like two dozen current and former projects between them - but few of them are able to stand out and properly recreate the essence of what made the blastbeat-saturated hyper-brutality so groovy and tasty.

As you might guess based on its inclusion on this AOTM list, Consumed by the Negative Dimension has exactly the qualities it needs to separate itself from the pack. Snaking low end riffs, drumming that's fast and blast heavy but never overwhelming and impossible to follow, a healthy, throaty low rasp - it's almost like the folks involved have decades of experience making this music behind them or something. Oscar Ortega has a keen ear for brutal death metal and even though each member of the band is in a different country, they're all seasoned enough musicians and understand the end goal well enough that it sounds like they're in the same room. 2023 was stacked with brutal death metal: Nithing, Molested Divinity, Dead and Dripping, Paroxysm Unit and Wormhole were all comfortably within my top 20 for the year, and 2024 is already well on its way to be right there with it.
-Nate

MetalBite's Rating: 8.5/10

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9: Exocrine - Legend
Season Of Mist

Everyone knows it takes tech-death bands forever to write and release new music, so the fact that Exocrine has put out six albums in nine years is stupefying and absolutely unfair. There's no way a band this prolific should consistently be putting out material this high quality.

I'll admit I glossed over the past couple works, but they just keep announcing new albums and now they've got me doing a whole deep dive and wondering why I overlooked them before. This is extremely tasty and groovy - the riffing reminds me a lot of Archspire (they do a lot of those stuttering dual guitar trade-offs that Dean and Tobi love), while the catchiness and memorability is bringing Gorod to mind, but as much as I can make those comparisons, this has a flavour all its own, with garnishes of gritty cleans and brass instruments giving a little extra something to mull over. It's amazing how quickly 38 minutes go by when this is on, with not a second wasted but also careful attention paid to emphasize different layers at different times so as to not completely overstimulate.

Exocrine have firmly cemented themselves in the upper class of French death metal right in the midst of their creative apex, and show no signs of slowing down any time soon. Get these dudes on a North American tour pronto!
-Nate

MetalBite's Rating: 8.6/10

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8: Vemod - The Deepening
Prophecy Productions

With The Deepening, Vemod are awarded the trophy that definitely exists for the most Prophecy album ever to be released on Prophecy. It is no criticism of the utter majesty that it contains, but the Norwegian's second full-length sounds exactly as one would expect. It is a testament to the enduring nature of their atmospheric take on black metal, that twelve years after their similarly excellent debut, they have not dated in any way. The Deepening looks and sounds totally contemporary, and maintains Vemod's supremacy within a crowded scene. From its first moments, the album envelops the listener in a cocoon of tragic beauty, waves of ringing chords inducing a melancholic joy and yearning in the heart of the listener, a feeling that remains for the entirety of a wonderful record. Less accomplished practitioners of this brand of black metal, which certainly approaches the borderlands of post-, and on occasion encroaches on its territory, are often adept at conjuring beauty, but little else. Vemod, on the other hand, not unlike Afsky, access a wider and more primal emotional range, and utilise greater dynamic extremes, which makes for a significantly more profound listening experience. The coup de grace is applied by the stunning title track, which closes the album via sixteen minutes of dramatic and sweeping minor chords, huge swells of sound rising from the depths, before dissipating back into the void from whence it came. Magical.
-Benjamin

At long last, Norwegian black metal band Vemod has finally released their new album The Deepening, 12 years since the release of their debut Venter På Stormene. It's a very mesmerizing work of black metal that will hypnotize you from the first track and make you transcend into the fog, possibly wandering on a cold mountain in a lonely midday, gazing at the grey skies. It is a very deep album in terms of its musical output, with many songs conveying emotions that reflect on man's instinct of escapism, fleeing into mother nature, and this the kind of vibe that you will get from The Deepening.
-Vlad

MetalBite's Rating: 8.9/10

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7: Sacrofuck - Święta Krew
Godz Ov War Productions

Polish death metal Sacrofuck came in with their second full-length album Święta Krew like a reaper with the scythe, striking hard with full force. This album is raw, primitive and absolutely insane from start to finish, with every song annihilating, leaving no man walking nor breathing. Everything about this album screams musical brutality, and what it has to offer is just the kind of death metal that I've always been a big fan of. Should you decide to check out this beast of an album, be prepared, because you are about to witness some merciless death metal annihilation.
-Vlad

MetalBite's Rating: 9/10

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6: Soulcarrion - Enthrone Death
Godz Ov War Productions

Another polish death metal album by Godz ov War Productions to make it on this list? I guess I must have been craving this sort of death metal for so many years. Soulcarrion's second full-length Enthrone Death is an incredibly brutal, satanic and atmospheric death metal album that has a handful of diabolic and morbid songs that possess some form of Lovecraftian feel to them. From one song to another, it's like an eldritch being that slowly evolves into becoming a great beast that will devour the earth to the last man walking. What people call brutal death metal these days, should really reconsider by giving this album a listen, because they will discover something truly horrifying, grotesque and yet so beautiful.
-Vlad

MetalBite's Rating: 9/10

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5: Prognan - Sjene Nad Balkanom
Independent

Last year, Prognan had a successful return with their first full-length Naši životi Više ne postoje, which was met with overwhelmingly positive reviews from fans and critics in the Balkans and across the globe. However, the band would once again prove triumphant with their follow-up album Sjene Nad Balkanom, that not only takes everything that was great about the previous album, but they also manage to elevate it and surpass it in every way possible. The album has a heavy emotional rollercoaster with a powerful but gloomy storytelling from start to finish, with a dynamic curve that has a strong grasp that doesn't let go. This time, their cinematic elements blended with black metal are executed wonderfully, and you will also experience a couple of surprising moments on this album which you should witness for yourself.
-Vlad

MetalBite's Rating: 9.1/10

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4: Vitriol - Suffer & Become
Century Media Records

This has been getting praised pretty incessantly by most metal media outlets, and I'm here today to tell you why that hype is completely justified and then some.

Vitriol was already a group that was becoming increasingly notorious for their intense live performances, devastatingly crushing extreme metal, and Kyle Rasmussen's guitarface in playthrough videos, and now they have a new album that takes all of those qualities and expands on them, creating an album that's more multifaceted than to Bathe From The Throat Of Cowardice - yet somehow Suffer & Become is no less extreme, despite more leaning on higher-register melody. It's even more intense because of the increasing number of avenues this Portland-based group uses to pummel you. That no is accomplished with no small thanks to Matt Kilner, whose solo project Nithing was a top-5 AOTY in 2023 - this guy is the real deal, and one of my favorite current blasturbators, with an incredible groove and texture to his playing while still being focused on fuckin' SPEED above everything else. His impossibly skilled work is a huge part of why this is able to capture so many different textures and themes.

The main reason why Suffer & Become is going to get a lot of praise from a really long time, though, is that it somehow pushes the envelope of extremity in an era where it often feels like death/black metal had said everything it possibly can. There is something so…pure about the anger and emotion displayed on this - a visceral intensity you feel much more accurately than it can be described. The tremolo riffing feels like it's lifting your organs out of your body, the production's added clarity giving more weight to the intentional bends, solos and pinch harmonics while the venomous snarls and throaty growls urge the riffs forward in a warlike fashion.

It's rare that an album gives me that same giddy feeling I had when I was first getting into death and black metal - you know, when you first "got it" and unlocked a whole new map of musical ideas that expressed those intense teenage emotions you never had a proper outlet for. It felt like there were no limits to what death metal could do - much like it feels like there's no true ceiling to how far Vitriol can take the unmistakably powerful essence they've tapped into. This is an early AOTY candidate for sure, and something you need to check out if you're even remotely interested in extreme music. Believe the hype.
-Nate

MetalBite's Rating: 9.1/10

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3: Dissimulator - Lower Form Resistance
20 Buck Spin

Dissimulator are the new band from Chthe'ilist and Atramentus members Antoine Daigenault and Claude Leduc, and impressively, they are the equal of these phenomenal acts, without sounding anything like them. Dissimulator's chosen form of metal is a furious take on technical thrash – Vektor with the lysergic psychedelic edge replaced by a biomechanical concept - and their debut, Lower Form Resistance manages to achieve what many bands in the genre grapple with, but fail to master, creating music that is a catchy and memorable as it is warped. They unselfconsciously celebrate a form of metal that evokes serious nostalgia in anyone that bemoans the lack of weird progressive thrash and tech-death of the type that seemed to abound during a short stretch of the early 1990s. The chunky low-E chugging, dizzying flurries of fleet-fingered modal runs, and stabs of jazzy dissonance cannot help but recall Voivod, Coroner and Atheist, but the most appealing aspect of Dissimulator's debut is the way in way the band's technical flair at no point becomes the dominating element of their attack, with the visceral thrill and excitement of thrash sacrificed at the altar of self-indulgent experimentation. Lower Form Resistance is not groundbreaking, but it is an almost flawless, and ingeniously addictive, take on technical thrash, breathing new life into a niche sub-genre, and immediately places the band within the exalted company that they clearly revere.
-Benjamin

MetalBite's Rating: 9.3/10

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2: Oathbringer - Tales Of Valor
RTR Records

Oathbringer's debut Tales Of Glory was one of the biggest and highly anticipated albums in the Serbian metal scene, and that was met with very positive feedback from the NWOTHM fanbase, as well as music critics. Now the time has come to once again witness the epic saga, with their second full-length album Tales Of Valor. Whilst the last album hinted more towards melody and epic tunes, this one has a bit more of an aggressive output with even heavier bangers that strike like a Warhammer to your skull. Fans often debate whether Tales Of Valor is better than Tales Of Glory, and I think it is simply impossible to conclude that discussion, however I think we can all agree that Oathbringer started out strong and are still going strong, especially now since they expanded to a five-piece. Like I said already, Tales Of Valor to me is like the video game Diablo 2, it has a lot of the same things as its predecessor, but it is a sequel that is much sharper around the edges.
-Vlad

MetalBite's Rating: 9.4/10

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1: Lucifer - V
Nuclear Blast Records

Kicking off with a sweet lick that brings "Children Of The Grave" to mind, Lucifer introduce their 5th full-length album. This group is the brainchild of Johanna Andersson (The Oath, Vinterkrieg), and her partner in crime Nicke Andersson, whom you might recognize as the classic Entombed drummer. Apart from the great, catchy riffs, Johanna's siren vocals grip you immediately. On V you can feel the 70s hard rock / heavy metal vibe everywhere, especially in the more rousing tracks like 'At The Mortuary', but each song comes with a healthy dose of morbidity and sadness. Like Sabbath, Lucifer are often influenced by a more bluesy sound (like in 'The Dead Don't Speak'). When all is said and done I feel pretty confident calling this the hard rock/heavy metal AOTY, even though we're only in January - this is that flawless and timeless.
-Michael

MetalBite's Rating: 9.5/10

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As always, thanks for stopping by. Comment to let us know what we missed, check out December 2023's AOTM list to get sucked into a rabbit hole of monthly choice cuts, and never stop supporting metal!!

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Entered: 2/14/2024 7:07:14 PM

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