Welcome back to MetalBite's Top 10 Albums of the Month. You know the drill by now (hopefully) - one of the most comprehensive round-ups on the internet of the best metal out there in a given month, if we do say so ourselves. Our cabal of writers tirelessly wades through online promos and sacrifices time, money and personal relationships so you don't have to. Appreciate it!

-Nate

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Skelethal - Within Corrosive Continuums
Hells Headbangers

Let's go deep in a dark, humid and narrow cave, where you'll feel claustrophobic, but in a good way! Within Corrosive Continuums, you'll find yourself exactly in that cave. Skelethal do not reinvent death metal or anything but they completely nail everything that makes that subgenre great. From the typical tremolos of death metal, to impressively heavy chugs and the straight thrashing riffs all of that surrounded by a menacing atmosphere and drums that are both technical but knows when to give the spotlight back to the guitars. But, this cave is full of not only narrow passages, filled with riffs and fast drumming, but also with plenty of small moments that take the foot of the pedal and open up space so you can breathe a bit, either as an intro or outro, one of them being jazzy and up-tempo. The album closes with a 12 minutes epic instrumental. It's good, but the fact that it is at the end and extremely long, you might be using the skip button on your following listen. All in all, this is extremely well-done death metal for fans of the more underground OSDM!
-Raphael

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Cephalotripsy - Epigenetic Neurogenesis
Independent

This is a weird one because it's a really good piece of slam, but by nature it's going to be inferior to its predecessor. Uterovaginal Insertion Of Extirpated Anomalies, the sole other full-length of Cephalotripsy that's 17 years old at this point, is a slam classic and one of the purest representations of the genre, up there with Devourment and Vulvectomy's debut albums. I, along with probably everyone else, thought Cephalotripsy was going to give their one album the Demilich treatment and just ride the clout of their one album into the sunset, recognizing that anything else they would put out couldn't possibly compare and would risk tainting their legacy. But, well, here we are.

There's a substantial amount more speed to this album, perhaps owing to the new drummer. He's much more of a conventional brutal death guy than the previous skinsman, who seemed like he was committed to only playing mid-tempo slams with a very occasional blastbeat thrown in just to remind you that he could be playing fast, but chooses not to in the interest of being as brutal as possible. While the brisk tempo does place this more in the realms of conventional brutal death metal, this is still better than 90% of the genre's contemporaries. Did it need to exist in the grand scheme of things? Probably not, but it's still pretty fun.
-Nate

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Black Lava - The Savage Winds To Wisdom
Season Of Mist

Damn, this is a catchy little bugger. It's got all the slick, professional qualities you'd expect out of a band full of well-established musicians - for some, it might be a little bit too rounded and middling, even, This is a group that clearly has the chops to play music more challenging than this, but Black Lava is the project they use to focus on a refined sound and memorable motifs. The main base is black metal, but there's a heaviness and groove present that throws a bit of thrashy death metal in, but the melody is prominent and the drumming/songwriting holds back enough to keep it sticking around in your head for a while. They've taken the sound they had on the last full length and expanded the songwriting, adding a few extra garnishes and diversions to fully flesh things out. I wasn't sure how I felt about this at first, but I keep feeling compelled to return to it, and it gets better every time I put it on. Give this album the time and space it needs and it will almost certainly reveal its magic.
-Nate

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Bloodcross - Gravebound
Personal Records

Bloodcross is Finland's answer to the question: what if Dissection made a heavy metal record? At its core it's still classic melodic black, with tremolo picking and blast beats but with an even bigger emphasis on melodies and the epic feeling of heavy metal. It also has a heavy metal quality production, so everything sounds clean and not recorded on a fisher price microphone but is still very organic sounding. Every instrument is clearly audible, the mix is well balanced and the overall sound retains a good level of rawness. It's crazy to think it's their first album!
-Raphael

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Krallice - Inorganic Rites
P2

I figured the unusually prolific streak Krallice has been on lately meant that the newer albums weren't worth a further listen, but I guess that's why you should never assume anything these days, especially when it concerns musicians as prolific as Colin Marston, Mick Barr and co. Inorganic Rites is a layered and complex slab of black metal-ish stuff that throws in a lot of weird ambient synth, surprisingly accessible dissonance and unexpected yet smooth transitions into very unique passages. This is clearly the work of seasoned pros - worth mentioning that Krallice hasn't had a single lineup change since 2008 and you can feel the chemistry and synchronicity between the band members. There's a lot to discover here, and it's made me realize how wrong I was to doubt the compositional genius of this group - fortunately, there's at least a half-dozen albums by this band I still have the chance to discover now!

This also has the unique distinction of being the last album mixed/mastered in Marston's legendary Thousand Caves studio. RIP. I'm sure he'll find a way to keep producing, though, he's too renowned not to.
-Nate

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Blasfeme - Black Legion
Wulfhere Productions

As the marching rhythm and heavy metal melodies nicely build up the anticipation of the forthcoming destruction, it would not take long until the Hungarian-Ottoman wars commence with steel, bloodshed and carnage, as Blasfeme provides a very primitive and dark medieval form of black metal. It is indeed a very unsettling and extreme output that becomes gradually heavier as the album progresses, showcasing some standard musical formulas such as tremolo picking riffs, broken chords, blast beats and bloodcurdling harsh vocals, combined with some occasional doomy Celtic Frost styled riffing and mid-tempo drumming, which together form a quite rich musical cocktail. Although the music is stylistically very typical for black metal, without introducing anything extraordinary or unusual, it is nonetheless very engaging from start to finish and quite successful in maintaining your constant attention by throwing plenty of nice riff ideas and melodies that keep the strong and steady flow of the album. A couple of tracks like 'Czernobog' and 'Black Legion' could easily be considered as exemplary for being the most interesting out of the bunch, and I might consider them as personal highlights from the entire tracklist due to the high entertainment factor that they provide. What also compliments the musical output aside from the musicality is the eerie atmosphere which expresses various horrors and cruelties from the dark ages, varying from intense battles to the most gruesome tortures. It's no surprise considering that there are songs on the album that heavily center around count Ferenc Nádasdy, as well as his wife countess Erzsébet Báthori (Elizabeth Báthory), mostly evident on tracks such as 'Wolves Of Karpathia' and 'Čachtice 1611', where it thematically streches from their personal backgrounds to their wicked torture methods, all of which were very crucial events that left a big mark Hungarian history. If the album was successful at keeping you entertained all the way through, then I am pretty sure that you will definitely consider the acoustic outro track 'Bound By The Blood Upon Our Swords' as a very good conclusion to this dark medieval slaughter, especially because its musical magnificence further compliments the album's everlasting strengths. Songwriting-wise, the album has a lot of simplistic and straightforward deliveries in terms of the standard black metal musical ideas, but on the other hand it does have a lot of dynamics in the songs as well, which make the songs feel incredibly rich and expressive. I think that Black Legion wins a lot of points for me due to its stylistic consistency from start to finish, without ever feeling thin or dry even as you get into the second half of the album, but where it really won me over is the fact that the music radiates such atmosphere full of darkness and suspense, to the point where you can visually picture the historical events that this album delves into. For example, the third track 'Čachtice 1611' had a very unsettling violin intro that nicely captured the crimes and atrocities committed by countess Bathory, which was further built upon with the merciless and relentless black metal performance of Blasfeme, plus at on point you can hear a sound of a whip crack and woman's scream in agony which echo as if you are a servant passing by the corridor walls while hearing these terrifying noises. One of the main reasons why I got so curious to check out this album is because of the cover art, which depicts the infamous Black Army of Hungary coat of arms, along with an added background of decapitated heads on stakes and a burned village, and I have to say that this visual representation nicely captures the musical essence that Blasfeme expressed on the entire Black Legion album. I can safely say that I was very pleased how Black Legion turned out as a whole and it is without a doubt a journey worth experiencing. These days I rarely come across any black metal albums which express such darkness and savagery through the music, but on the other hand, Blasfeme's final result is an exemplary album that belongs in this aforementioned seldom seen category. Thanks to their raw and intense energy, Black Legion proved itself to be very effective with its simplicity and consistency, and I think you are going to enjoy it if you are into bands like early Gorgoroth, Satyricon, Negative Plane and such.
-Vlad

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Vimur - The Timeless Everpresent
Avantgarde Music

One of the most underrated US black metal bands going. Vimur isn't much for gimmicks and you won't hear a lot of black metal bands mention them, they simply deliver a steady stream of old-school, no-frills black metal with a slight modern touch. Their vibe has very slowly and gradually been refined with slight improvement in songwriting efficiency and staying power with each go-around, and The Timeless Everpresent continues their trend of slow, incremental growth. It's additionally impressive considering this is their third full-length in five years. Hopefully the pivot to Avantgarde and their recent tour as direct support for Sacramentum will expose them to some new audiences, because they definitely deserve it.
-Nate

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Upon The Altar - Descendants Of Evil
Godz Ov War Productions

From the very get-go, this album already had a solid start by presenting itself as the eldritch abomination that it is, however the further it progresses with each track, it evolves into something much more menacing that will surely conquer the world of the living by the end of its evolution cycle. This is truly one of those examples of "the deeper you go, the creepier it gets", because the vile riffs further elevate the demonic atmosphere that surrounds Descendants Of Evil, showcasing that it definitely has an unsettling and horrifying black aura around it, giving out the vibe of witnessing a literal ritual of summoning unspeakable monstrosities that dwell in the underworld. There is one particular example, that being the fifth track 'Malicious Holiness' which includes some scary throat-singing chanting in the background, blending nicely with the blackened death metal output that in itself is like a moment of the great beast's ascension. It's a seldom seen or heard nowadays when a black or death metal band puts out something truly terrifying and intense to listen to, yet in the case of Upon The Altar, they basically didn't hold back to give extra edges to this headbanger of an album, with musical suspense and primitive musicianship building such a strong foundation, transforming itself into a forbidden relic that could literally drive insane the longer you stay in that realm, possibly bleeding through your nostrils or from your eye sockets. The nature of this album is so godless with its frequent delivery of relentless serenades in flesh and blood, but the fact that it's stylistically consistent all the way through, yet never uninteresting, is perhaps its strongest quality, because even halfway through it still feels like from the very beginning. By the time you reach the closing track 'Prolegomenon', it pretty much says directly that the great beast has reached its final form and that the end is nigh, giving a great sense of closure to this Lovecraftian and hellish chapter. Songwriting-wise, it is structurally very simplistic and straightforward which is traditional with most blackened death metal bands, but it still has plenty of tempo changes and a variety of ideas that were well put together, so it still manages to be slightly dynamic. The output is incredibly strong and powerful throughout the entire album, and the great thing is that it never fails on the delivery or that it never loses its charm, always maintaining that same level of heaviness. It may sound far-fetched and unhinged of me to say such a thing, but personally speaking, with an album such as this, Upon The Altar practically put bands such as Belphegor and Hate to shame, because their work here is so effective and well executed from start to finish, especially with the dreadful atmosphere that further compliments their musicianship. I rarely see any extreme metal band create something that can truly affect you psychologically by creating these scary scenarios in your head, because many bands in this subgenre branch rely too much on musical aggression and satanic lyrics which come nowhere near as close to Descendants of Evil, so I guess you can consider it a one-of-a-kind album. Descendants Of Evil is one violent and menacing beast of an album that should definitely be checked out by anyone who is on the lookout for something extreme and terrifying. I can't really say anything else about this album other than the fact that I enjoyed it and that I highly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of musical eldritch horrors.
-Vlad

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Nyktophobia - To The Stars
Apostasy Records

Epic melodic death metal that brings to mind the powerful melody of Insomnium mixed with the bravado of Amon Amarth, all the while having a certain cohesion and consistency that German metal is especially good at. I first discovered this band through a blind buy of their previous album in a used CD store, and it impressed me enough to keep an eye out for future material, and here we are. Nyktophobia is drenched in syrupy, pronounced emotion while retaining just enough heaviness to keep things grounded, avoiding the superficial, cheesy pitfalls that often accompany music like this.

This doesn't have any abrupt changes in direction from earlier works - they've found what they're good at and stick to it. With most of the members having connections in bigger bands and the strong foundation and solid fanbase they've established, I'm surprised they haven't caught the attention of a bigger label yet. Maybe that's by design, though. They're certainly doing fine on their own.
-Nate

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Void Witch - Horripilating Presence
Everlasting Spew Records

From the first ominous guitar notes to the furiously fast ending of the last song, Texas's Void Witch offers us a roller coaster of beautiful sadness and back breaking heaviness, all wrapped up in a concise 39 minutes. They do not reinvent the formula, which is a heavily Hooded Menace inspired death/doom, but they nail every single aspect of this sound. They can go slow and really heavy but go from 1 to 100 in a blink of an eye! They have the perfect ratio of those two elements and they never stay in one for too long so it never gets boring. It's probably not going to make my end of the year list but it is definitely a highlight of this summer and an easy pick for my July top 10!
-Raphael

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Morbus Grave - Feasting The Macabre
Memento Mori

It's not so common these days to come across a death metal band with intimidating music and morbid atmosphere that is not so ordinary and typical like many would come to expect. Such is the case with the Italian band Morbus Grave, that are still fresh in the scene despite being active since 2010, and their latest output would turn out to be a very welcome change for the modern-day world of extreme metal. From the moment it kicks into violent action, it nicely establishes the horrific direction that this album will be going with throughout its entirety, all the while delivering intense bangers and becoming even heavier with every new riff the further it progresses. The overall approach that Morbus Grave utilizes on Feasting The Macabre is a much more preliminary death metal from the late 80's and early 90's, somewhat similar to early Morbid Angel, early Bolt Thrower, Autopsy, Slaughter and Pestilence, which is less traditional in style and leaning more towards the use of harsh vocals as opposed to deep guttural growls. In some way it serves a nice throwback to the days when this subgenre was still in its starting phase and beginning to develop into something much meaner and darker, but executed with such honesty and without relying too heavily on a nostalgia factor just for the sake of pleasing. The songwriting on this album uses a lot of traditional death metal ideas in terms of heavy tremolo or slow doomy riffs, but its overall execution has a very dynamic range with all the frequent tempo changes that maintain that intensity and aggression. Aside from the riff work on this album, what I think nicely compliments Morbus Grave's output is the dark brooding atmosphere in the music, that nicely carries over from one track to another, with the strongest example being evident on 'Congregation Of The Exult'. I must say that I was very pleased with their oldschool approach that breaks away from the stereotypical death metal bands of today, and I think it just shows how one can still express that extreme heaviness and morbid vibe with a different than usual style. It's a rare case when a contemporary death metal band opts to take things in this direction, which was still rooted in 80's speed and thrash metal that formed into something much more extreme and wicked as time went by, but I personally feel that the work of Morbus Grave on this album proved to be very effective and well-thought-out. I would dare to say that this task is extremely difficult, especially with general familiarity and expectations of a subgenre such as this, but you can tell that the band was anything but pressured to give it all they got, and they did it rightfully with pure passion and dedication, without conforming to the subgenre's long-established standards. I have to say that I enjoyed Feasting The Macabre for its extreme death-thrashing violence that lasts throughout the entire album, but I personally have to praise it for the successful and brave execution of providing a less than usual death metal result. There's plenty of banger tunes on this album that are rich with atmosphere and darkness in the riffs, and the great thing is that once you become familiar with the established direction, it's pretty much everlasting in quality. A band such as Morbus Grave is a real breath of fresh air that turned out to be a pleasant surprise, and they obviously aren't trying to take the subgenre back to its earliest form like many people would be led to believe.
-Vlad

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Black Hole Deity - Profane Geometry
Everlasting Spew

Hits an interesting sweet spot between oldschool and modern - plenty of intricate flourishes while still retaining a relative level of ease and digestibility. It's like tech death for people that get bored quickly of the style, with enough balance between rapid tremolo and groove to retain your attention. Part of the smooth listening experience can definitely be attributed to Mike Heller, who puts on an absolute blastbeat clinic - did you really expect any less? It's also a product of the songwriting, though - though stimulating and full of speed and fury, Black Hole Deity knows when to pull back and rely on the art of the riff. It glues things into your head more.
-Nate

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Verni – Dreadful Company
M-Theory Audio

Here we go with the second solo album by D.D. Verni of Overkill fame. Looking at the cover you might get some dreadful (sorry for the pun) feelings - the black-and-white arrangements remind me of some terrible 90s albums (Fight – "War Of Words", Flotsam and Jetsam – "Cuatro", Napalm Death – "Fear, Emptiness And Despair"). I gave it a chance anyways, but be forewarned – if you expect some Overkill vibes here, keep scrolling. If there's any Overkill song/album this could be compared to, it's 'Old School' from the very mediocre 2005 album "ReliXVI".

Dreadful Company is actually more high school punk than anything else. Bands that come to my mind instantly are Green Day or The Offspring. Very easy-going melodies, straightforward riffs and drumming and a voice full of attitude make this album put you into a good mood. That's a cool, fun summer album!
-Michael

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Ironflame - Kingdom Torn Asunder
High Roller Records

US heavy/power metal band Ironflame are an awesome discovery for me, I'm usually more comfortable on the extreme end of the metal spectrum. Every now and then tho, I fall in love with a pure heavy or power metal album and Kingdom Torn Asunder is one of those! It doesn't reinvent anything, it's just 40 minutes of pure fun. Sometimes head spinning fast, sometimes with more traditional heavy pace with maiden-esque galloping riffs but always with a sing-along level of catchiness. I only need to read the title of the song to have its chorus immediately stuck in the head. Sometimes, the best way to get away from this awful reality is to sing-along with songs that talk about swords or riding dragons.
-Raphael

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Steinras - Steinras
Soulseller Records

If you like grim, traditional Norwegian black metal, Steinras will be up your alley. There's lots of influence from the glory days where the music was still mysterious and underground. 'En Kald Død' sucks you deep into the era when Gehenna were doing their "First" and "Second Spell" thing, Emperor weren't extreme prog yet and Hades (Almighty) were releasing "…Again Shall Be". Another cool track is 'Crawler Of The Crypt' with a lot of dirty black n' roll elements and some really cool catchy melodies. Apart from the cool, nostalgic vibe, the album also has guest features from bigger names in the scene: Thomas Erikson (Mork), Skagg (Taake, Gorgoroth), Dolgar (ex-Gehenna) and Nag (Tsjuder), just to mention a few.

Expectations were high for this album as such, and I wasn't disappointed. A couple of the songs run long, but that said this is a strong debut that has the potential to grow on you.
-Michael

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Liminal Shroud - Visions Of Collapse
Willowtip Records

As a label that's made a name for itself by primarily sticking to technical death metal (and grindcore in the early days), it's been interesting to see Willowtip pivot to including more atmo-black on their roster (Aodon, Katharos, The Mosaic Window). I'm not complaining, by any means - they already specialized in one of my favorite subgenres and now they're working with more of my other favorite subgenre, and it makes it so the label isn't as easily pigeonholed.

Compared to their stylistic contemporaries, Liminal Shroud has stronger musicianship - the drums in particular are comfortable switching tempos and turning on a dime to emphasize different parts of the rhythm. Raw, primitive black metal this is not. A mix of clear production values, multifaceted songwriting and a bit of clean singing here and there firmly entrenches this in the "modern black metal" category. Even compared to their previous full-length, All Virtues Ablaze, this is a step less aggressive and feels more intent on creating a lush, resonant atmosphere. If you're not too worried about keeping it true but still like your music to have interesting riffwork, this should check most of your boxes.
-Nate

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METALBITE'S TOP 10 ALBUMS OF THE MONTH

 

10: Wormed - Omegon
Season Of Mist

For whatever reason, Malignancy seemed to get a ton of attention for their return to the fold, but this flew under the radar. I suppose Malignancy fans had to wait 12 years between full-lengths, but Wormed faithful still had an 8-year gap themselves if you don't count their 2019 EP. You could argue any combination of factors - Season of Mist releases albums at an alarming rate and this may have just gotten last in the shuffle, Wormed just doesn't have as much rabid fervor behind them, despite being well-respected among their peers and genre aficionados, being one of the few true "technical brutal death metal" bands, as well as one of the only ones to integrate a cosmic theme in. Malignancy sounds like a Cronenburg monster with 80 different appendages all picking you apart at once, Defeated Sanity sounds like uber-intellectual jazz musicians obliterating you with slams, and Wormed sounds like the last few seconds of your life before you get ripped apart by a cold, unfeeling black hole.

You don't really enjoy Wormed - you just experience them, searching for the slightest amount of respite as you get pulled in several different directions. Wormed has always been particularly inaccessible, even for the style - but Omegon takes the space vibes and clinical approach to another level. It's not quite that it sounds like this was written by AI - it's more like an alien species listened to a few tech-death albums and tried to create one themselves. There's moments where this is impressive and just within your grasp, but all the while it feels genuinely inhuman to the point where it's unsettling. There was always a little bit of more grounded material, especially in their earlier work, but Wormed crossed the line and removed the last remaining organs from their cyborg and the results are…something.

Do I like this and will I listen to it constantly? Probably not. But there's definitely people out there who will, and regardless of your thoughts on it, it's a monolithic statement of an album that deserves to be heard in some capacity, even if it's not your thing. This sort of pure clinical tech death along the lines of Deeds of Flesh, Desecravity and early 7H Target is not easy to come by, and it's hard for me not to view it as a pinnacle of musical achievement.
-Nate

MetalBite's Rating: 8.5/10

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9: Werewolves - Die For Us
Independent

This listener has studiously ignored Werewolves for some time, on the basis that they have the audacity to inject some humour and irreverence into the very serious world of blackened death-grind, which is a difficult to blend successfully. However, the insanely prolific Australians have clearly decided that if they keep pumping out new albums at the rate that they have since their inception, they will ultimately become impossible to ignore. And so it has proven at the fifth time of asking, and I have finally succumbed to the charms of Die For Us. To rub caustic acid into the gaping wound, Werewolves immediately prove just how foolish the campaign of ignorance has been, because this album is an utterly thrilling barrage of ugly, triumphant noise. From the technical onslaught of 'Beaten Back To Life', to the crust-thrash of 'Spittle-Flecked Rant', and then the utter mayhem of 'Under A Urinal Moon' (see what they did there?), and 'We All Deserve To Be Slaves', Werewolves push everything into the red, and keep going to the pure black hole that lies beyond. Die For Us is a knowingly ludicrous slice of pure violence, and this listener is now a gibbering mess.
-Benjamin

MetalBite's Rating: 8.8/10

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8: Wormwitch - Wormwitch
Profound Lore Records

I rarely feel patriotic but when I discover a new incredible Canadian band, I get the urge to sing Oh Canada for some reason! Nah… I would never, I'm too much of anti-colonialist, woke soy-boy for that. Anyway, I discovered Wormwitch really recently and I'm already a fan. Their style of savage, crusty black metal, sprinkled with beautiful melodies and an almost rock 'n' roll style at times, is something truly unique. Their new album came out on July 26 and is a statement of who they are now. It's a relentless assault of black metal intertwined with amazing solos, beautiful melodies, a little folk and a touch of black n roll. The album rarely slows down but when it does, it gives us a break before the speed and brutality comes back. The album has great pacing, keeping the best for last, the incredibly named, 'Draconick Sorcerous Canadian Witchknights', which is a full intensity banger that will melt your face as soon as it starts! Great black metal album from beginning to end!
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 8.9/10

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7: Mayhemic - Toba
Sepulchral Voice

There is something about the kind of primitive thrash that Mayhemic play that prevents it from appearing too obviously retro or revival, even though the excellent Toba could have been recorded any released in virtually any year from 1984 onwards, and evokes more than anything else the early work of Kreator and Destruction from Germany, as well as Morbid Saint and Sepultura from further afield. Possibly it's the obvious sincerity with which they ply their trade, together with the growing realisation that, in fact, this form of metal should be the only form of metal, and all progress and development is ultimately pointless. Further proof that the Chilean thrash scene is, by a distance, the most vital and productive in the world, Toba features everything you would want from a raw thrash album – the tight, but ramshackle sound of a band playing at the edge of their capabilities, serrated tremolo riffs punctuated by chunky mosh sections, and a frenzied vocal performance. They will no doubt be a sensation live, if they ever leave their native land, but in the meantime, this listener urges you to place an order immediately.
-Benjamin

"Over 70,000 years ago, an event of horrific proportions brought earth's life to the edge of existing. Known as the Toba eruption, a monstruous supervolcano spat forth brimstone and fire and put the world under the fangs of a massive volcanic winter." Now imagine what this eruption sounds like and you'll get a pretty good idea of what this album sounds like. It's a blistering whirlwind of blackened thrash assault, the kind that never takes the foot of the pedal. It's 37 minutes jampacked with headbanging riffs, virtuoso level musicianship, heart pounding solos and even catchy bits and pieces. I swear, these four Chileans are probably on speed or on ungodly amounts of coffee. After releasing a few demos and EPs, it's their first full-length and it's amazing how good it sounds. The drums, guitars and bass are perfectly mixed with the shouted, piercing screamed vocals. It feels raw and organic. I usually like my metal a bit more dynamic but for this album, the relentless assault to your eardrums actually feels nice.
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 8.9/10

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6: Arx Atrata - A Reckoning
Independent

The warm and reassuring melodies and atmospheres of the UK one-man band Arx Atrata will have a soothing effect on any spiritual ailments you might have. Ben Sizer, the man behind everything in Arx Atrata, created a magnificent and sorrowful journey through the reckoning of one's past griefs. Musically, they fit in the atmospheric/post variety of black metal with a real "doom" approach in the composition. This means the songs go from slow to mid paced compositions with the occasional, blackened burst of speed. It's 51 minutes that will do wonders for your mental health, as good at full volume as it is in the background while you do other work.
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 9/10

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5: Cryptic Hatred - Internal Torment
Time To Kill Records

Cryptic Hatred released, earlier in July, a little death metal gem. I first heard of this album from a bangerstv review made by Blayne Smith. In the review he kept mentioning that the band members were all 20 years old and how they were either not alive or incredibly young for most of death metal's history. Every era is therefore fresh to their ears and it might be why it's such a unique and interesting take on death metal. In my head I was like: yeah yeah, whatever old man but quickly realized I was like two years younger than Blayne... After a little depression and a few more white hairs in my beard, I proceeded to listen to the whole album and yes, it definitely defies subgenres and trends. Don't get me wrong, this is 100% pure death metal but is it modern death metal? Yes, is it OSDM? Yes! It's both but it's even more! During these 38 minutes, you'll hear thrashing riffs, straight up slamming brutality, sometimes a solo, (coming directly from 1994 Sweden's In Flames) sometimes, ominous sounding keyboards at the end of a song or a few piano notes here and there, giving an incredible atmosphere. And other times, a shredding heavy metal solo. Everything is played with so much confidence, their potential is almost limitless. Will they go to prog, technical or even go beyond the genre? Any way they go, the future is exciting and I truly hope they stay together for a long long long time! Yep, the kids are all right!
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 9/10

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4: Laceration - I Erode
20 Buck Spin

When I first saw that band logo, I ignored Laceration completely because I thought this was some boring brutal death metal shit. But a few days later I read a review and found out it wasn't what I thought. So I had to check I Erode out and fuck, this is really cool! They delve into the mid-era of Malevolent Creation with some thrash elements, but it's mostly really fast neck breaking death metal with harsh, angry vocals that sound a little bit like Martin van Drunen. The guitar solos are sick and remind me a lot of old Morbid Angel. When they lower the tempo a little bit (like in the midst of 'Sadistic Enthrallment') you get the full range of this album's crushing brutality.

This is like a caterpillar slowly crawling over you while you are lying helpless on the street. A real death metal inferno and one of the best US death metal albums in 2024.
-Michael

MetalBite's Rating: 9/10

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3: Vanhelgd - Atropos Doctrina
Dark Descent Records

Whenever I decide out of curiosity to take a look at the latest metal releases on the Swedish isles, I pretty much never come across anything lackluster or boring, in fact it actually turns out to be surprisingly great and highly enjoyable. Had it not been for some of my Swedish friends, I would have not known about the excellence of the death metal band Vanhelgd, which had released their sixth full-length album Atropos Doctrina on July 14, 2024 via Dark Descent Records, which I've seen being teased on social media and talked about couple of times before it was officially out in the world. Although generally unfamiliar with the previous works of Vanhelgd, I still wanted to give this album a try, because I always have very high hopes when it comes to Swedish death metal. So, is there really anything I could possibly lose? Atropos Doctrina is one dark and melodic work of death metal with a lot of emotions that flow through the solid riff work with frequent tremolo picking, double-bass drumming with occasional blast beats and intense shouting vocals, showcasing some contemporary approach for the subgenre with a lot of complexity and creativity that nicely carries over from one song to another. Aside from the extremity in the band's very tight and heavy performance, there is also a lot of extremity in terms of the powerful emotions that each song expresses, especially when it comes to the slower doomy parts like on 'Ofredsår' and 'I Ovigd Jord'. The interesting thing about Atropos Doctrina is that it has a real death-defying vibe to it, especially because of the eerie and foreboding atmosphere that courses throughout the entire album, which is quite evident on a couple of tracks like 'Galgdanstid' for example, where you truly feel like you're being eaten from the inside. The further you progress with the album, the more it starts to feel like a real gradual descent into madness, as the songs slowly turn into the soundtrack to your life, where you're feeling beaten down and on the verge of dying, questioning your own being with every second while persisting in this agony. Atropos Doctrina definitely has got a strong psychological factor that haunts the listener from start to finish, and right before you know it, this album has transformed itself into a very heavy turbulent journey that's split into multiple chapters, where it only gets heavier by each chapter. I remember when someone mentioned that heaviness isn't just about the musicality and the way you're playing as a band, but also in the way how you express the emotions through your music, and I can definitely see Vanhelgd as an example that successfully utilizes that approach throughout the entire album, especially because they managed to nicely balance it with their intense performance. Like I said before, this album has a lot of complexity, which applies a lot to its songwriting that structurally has a dynamic range of ideas with frequent tempo changes. Even though the album has a very strong stylistic consistency in its entirety, it never feels boring or soulless, because it always manages to hook you onto the songs so strong that it never lets you go, keeping you on the edge of your seat sweating with anticipation. There is no denying that Atropos Doctrina has a very grand sense of delivery to it, especially because you have ton of melodies on this album that further build up on those high expectations, while successfully expressing such heavy emotions, even on the final track 'Gravjordsfrid' that serves as a great closure to this journey. It would be foolish to think that this album is one-dimensional or monotone, because it sure as hell isn't, not with all the great tunes on this album that can really switch the mood between banging your head like crazy and then contemplating life itself, so it's easily one of its biggest highlights. I honestly didn't know what I was getting myself into, but holy shit was I left amazed with what I stumbled upon. Atropos Doctrina is one powerful and amazing album with such quality work of death metal that is really unlike anything I have heard lately. It's easily one of the most chilling releases of this year that successfully fulfilled its task of entertaining and engaging you fully from beginning to end. If you haven't yet checked it out, I highly recommend that you do, because words are not enough to describe its majesty and the might of Vanhelgd.
-Vlad

MetalBite's Rating: 9/10

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2: Uprising - III
AOP Records

Uprising is the band of one German man, Jan van Berlekom aka Winterherz. When I checked the band's metal-archives page and saw some of the lyrical themes were anti-fascism and Marxism I was both surprised and excited! In a subgenre plagued with Nazis and other like minded scum of the earth, it's always a welcome sight. Now, you do not get a theoretical, in depth, dialectical materialist analysis of class in the capitalist system. that could be jarring for the normal metalhead. Instead, you get well written, to the point lyrics with an authentic interpretation of Marxist principles, that anybody can enjoy. For example: "people losing all hope and will, livelihood and existence endangered, by a virus that randomly kills, except those who have plenty, living happily ever after, like the leeches that they are, nourishing on the blood of the many" There, it's a beautifully simple way of saying that the capitalist class is living on the oppression of the working class and that they do not get affected by the problems they usually create, like climate change or the inability of our system to deal with natural disasters, like a virus. He also does a great job of conveying the urgency to act of our times. And, most important of all, the music accompanying these lyrics is so good, you can enjoy the album even if you don't care about lyrics, because let's be real, all of that theoretical stuff is for nerds, let's get to the metal! I would describe the overall sound as a very melodic but still raw, black metal. His vocals in particular, you can just feel the pure rage when he screams like a demon in the microphone, and boy, does he have a lot of rage! Even his clean singing, which he doesn't use that often, feels incredibly epic giving extra weight to his words. He can obviously go really fast, with plenty of blastbeats and wrist destroying tremolo picking, but he can also slow down, giving more space for heavy riffs or more melodic and atmospheric passages. So, to sum up everything, incredible music and incredible lyrics make for an incredible album. With the perfect run-time of 40 minutes, you will get a lot of replay value.
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 9.5/10

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1: Aeons - The Ghosts Of What We Knew
Sliptrick Records

Strap yourself in for a long ride, through a masterclass of all that modern progressive metal can offer. A colossal offering of 1h07min of at times beautiful, at times catchy, but always with virtuoso levels of playing and songwriting. But melodies are only one of the many offerings Aeons bring to the table. You can tell these guys are just capital "P" prog lovers. From Periphery, Dream Theater, Between the Buried and Me and Opeth, to name a few, you'll hear it all! But, not divided in individual songs that each draw from one different influence at a time, rather here you get unique songs that do not simply emulate the sound of their influences but rather, take small building blocks of different bands, add their own twist, and create an original sound, in the most homogenous way possible. This is truly expert songwriting! I think to prove my point, I only need to give the example of the song 'Ghost', a 19 minutes behemoth of a song, that does not feel any longer than 9, maximum! With its Opeth sounding intro, its epic, metalcoreish melodic riffs, passing by shredding solos, acoustic guitars and djenty rythms, it's an emotive and headbanging adventure through pure musicianship. And it's not even the last song, you get 2 more after that, including the epic 10min21sec closer, 'Collapse'.
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 9.6/10

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Entered: 8/11/2024 6:24:16 PM

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