Welcome back to MetalBite's Top 10 albums of the month! December is always a weird time in the music journalism business - it's much more manageable for new releases, but bands that do choose to put their music out tend to get buried in the Album of the Year list frenzy. But here at MetalBite, all albums are created equal. We stick to our steady monthly schedule, and as long as it's got riffs, we'll make sure it gets our glowing seal of approval. Nothing escapes our watchful eyes, and we pass our spoils on to you, the reader. Let's get to it.

-Nate

HONORABLE MENTIONS

A Dead Poem - Abstract Existence
Personal Records

Worship music can be overlooked and underrated - especially when the albums they're influenced by have a fertile well of musical ideas to explore. A Dead Poem doesn't keep its influences a secret - the band name alone is a dead giveaway, and the album promo makes it very clear that the sole purpose of this band was to recreate the sound of mid-90s melodic death/doom: the first two Katatonia albums, Paradise Lost and, of course, Rotting Christ. Fortunately, A Dead Poem is speaking my language: the album that they're named after is my favorite Rotting Christ album and Brave Murder Day was my gateway into Katatonia, who are a top-10 all-time favorite band.

The formula is well established, and it is so for a reason. The simplicity of the building blocks found on albums like Abstract Existence is a big factor in their effectiveness. Stripped-down rock beats with the occasional double-kick section, a strict adherence to a middling pace, and prominent, melodic guitar leads is the order of the day here. It's formulaic, sure, but tropes are tropes for a reason: they work, as long as the executor understands what makes them so effective. The underlying strength here is the effective songwriting. A Dead Poem holds onto an idea long enough to create a hypnotic loop in your head, but still have a wide enough sense of scope to be able to build momentum in the tempo shifts. You won't find a single blastbeat on this album, but the drumming is exactly what it needs to be - minimal fills and each beat a driving force for the somber, ethereal melodies. The production is dingey with an underlying warmth, which contributes to their ability to recreate the atmosphere of the 90s.

A Dead Poem breathes fresh life into a dormant style, and serves as a great reminder as to why this subsection of music was so good in the first place. It's a welcome addition to a walk on a cold, dreary winter day.
-Nate

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Monte Penumbra - Austere Dawning
Norma Evangelium Diaboli

Eerie, off-kilter black metal that falls in the same general region as Deathspell Omega, although there is more overlap in the general vibe it gives off as opposed to the riffwork and chord shapes. There's hints of putrid doom that help to add dynamics and variety - there are lots of unexpected twists and it all serves to drag you further into their nightmarish abyss. I get some Impetuous Ritual vibes from this, but that might just be me. Regardless, I imagine fans of them will get some mileage out of this.
-Nate

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Pandemic - Phantoms
Dying Victims Productions

Creative thrash, yes, in a genre that's been played a billion times, you can still come up with new ideas. Thrash is timeless and will remain an essential part of the scene. Also, Dying Victims Productions really know how to make an album sound organic and authentic but with a modern twist!
-Raphael

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Nocte Obducta - Hammergeddon
Supreme Chaos Records

Nocte Obducta have a nice little present for their fans – a new EP called Hammergeddon. Like the box of chocolates Forrest Gump talked about, you never know what you're going to get with this band. This time, they go dep into their history and play dirty, rough black metal mixed with some rock n' roll elements. The vocals are super sick and the atmosphere is very cold and dark. With "Blut, Bier, Dunkelheit" ("Blood, Beer, Darkness") they have a song title which sums it all up very well and pays some tribute to Motörhead. The last track is very different from the rest, very creeping and sinister black metal with disturbing industrial samples that reminds me I have to make an appointment with my dentist.
-Michael

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Svarttjern - Draw Blood
Soulseller Records

You have no idea how many black metal promos I get in my inbox - seriously, bands, unless you feel you have a really fresh take on the genre, stop making more generic ass black metal. The only exception to this rule is if you're Norwegian and have ties to some of the old guard like Carpathian Forest and Ragnarok, as this group does. Then you're allowed.

The underlying 80's thrash/speed metal contingent here is what most modern bands forget to include - remember that this was a genre born out of kids listening to Slayer and Venom and wanting to make something a little bit more savage and extreme. It adds a catchy edge that gives Draw Blood some reply value. This is a bit goofy in its stark uber-seriousness (see the chanting of "suicide" at the end of one of the tracks), but it's classic Norblack, that's probably what you're here for. It's hard to knock it too much when the band knows what they're going for and execute it effectively.
-Nate

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Druparia - The River Above
Independent

Early 2000 melodic death and metalcore worship. It's fast, full of energy and the songwriting is creative so it's never boring. There are a ton of beautiful melodies that made me feel nostalgic of the "good ol days".
-Raphael

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Atra Vetosus - Undying Splendour
Immortal Frost Productions

Atmospheric black metal that feels…warm. Perhaps it's the inspiration drawn from Australian landscapes, but the prominent synths, fantasy-esque sense of marvel and wonder, and uplifting melodies make this feel like an album that's much more suited to a summertime walk than a dreary winter, galavanting through the woods instead of trudging about an alienating concrete jungle. Falls of Rauros, Woods of Desolation and Gallowbraid are good reference points, or even Be'lakor through a blackened lens. If you like it bombastic and epic, look no further.
-Vlad

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METALBITE'S TOP 10 ALBUMS OF THE MONTH

 

10: Becerus - Troglodyte
Everlasting Spew

At first glance, this gives the impression of a knuckle-dragger with fewer IQ points than digits, but when you start to pick apart the album there's a certain intelligence in how simple and effective the riffing and structuring is - and there's a underlying intricacy that shows Becerus is dedicated to their craft. Resembling early Deicide (with Satanism replaced by blunt force trauma via guitar), Cannibal Corpse and Aeon, this is no-frills death metal of a high caliber. There's a reason this style has endured for over 30 years now. The vocals benefit from the absence of lyrics, as it leaves them untethered and free to explore all sorts of unique and memorable vocal patterns, and Mario Musumeci has an underrated range in terms of the different sounds (grunts?) that he can deliver out of his throat hole. Sometimes, you don't need atmospheric brilliance or stupefying technical mastery - you just want to get skull-fucked. Becerus understands this.
-Nate

MetalBite's Rating: 8.2/10

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9: Old Forest - Graveside
Soulseller Records

James Fogarty (ex-In The Woods…) has been one of the pillars of the UK black metal scene since the mid-1990s, and Old Forest is his vehicle to recapture the spirit of 1994. After the misdirection of the warped, Slayer-esque intro, the rest of Graveside, the band's eighth full-length, in addition to a plethora of EPs, does exactly that, with an excellent set of synth-assisted grim hymns. While the timbre of the keyboards mean that there is an inevitable passing resemblance to Cradle Of Filth, a band Old Forest have previously been much compared to, this is an over-simplification. Old Forest's songs are generally built from monolithic passages of tremolo riffing, which features none of the twin-guitar classic metalisms of Dani Filth's crew, and in general Old Forest offer a convincing take on the unpolished, but still majestic symphonics of early Satyricon, and For All Tid-era Dimmu Borgir, with the spine-tingling 'Witch Spawn' a perfect example of the band's ability to tap into the kind of otherworldly power of those classic records. In the wrong hands, there's a danger that this kind of homage to old-school black metal could come across as hokey, but Fogarty's innate understanding of the sub-genre ensures that the album expertly avoids such pitfalls, and instead ensures that the listener remembers just how exciting it felt to hear the second-wave masters for the first time.
-Benjamin

MetalBite's Rating: 8.4/10

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8: Mavorim - In Ominia Paratus
Purity Through Fire

These Germans once again deliver some hateful and highly atmospheric traditional black metal. Baptist and Valfor present ten interesting anthems, each one totally different from the other, all songs kept in German language, which makes for a harsh and martial sound. The riffing is very smart and catchy, the drumming is powerful and thunderous and keyboards underline the epic atmosphere. There aren't any big surprises on the album but it is another solid entry in Mavorim's discography.
-Michael

MetalBite's Rating: 8.5/10

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7: Misanthropy - The Ever-Crushing Weight Of Stagnance
Transcending Obscurity

Riff salad tech death can turn into an incoherent mess very quickly, but this avoids those pitfalls with constant attention-grabbing motifs. This album never stays in one place for too long, but the transitions aren't jarring and senseless - there is a path that you can follow from riff to riff, but when you zoom out after a couple of minutes and reflect on the journey, you wonder how the hell you got where you are so fluidly. There's a healthy amount of Gorguts-styled dissonance but the way it's presented is surprisingly easy to get into. You won't remember any hooks, but you'll want to come back for the brain-scrambling madness and to challenge yourself to see if you can remember when the occasional off-kilter slam is going to kick in. I wouldn't say it was an especially strong year for tech-death, but nonetheless, this should be in any conversation about the best albums of 2024 in the style.
-Nate

Brutal, dissonant and sometimes groovy, technicality. This album sounds like what you would probably hear when you catch a glimpse of Cthulhu.
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 8.5/10

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6: Nogothula - Telluric Sepsis
Blood Harvest

Note: this originally came out in April 2024, but the vinyl release is in December, so we're still including it in this list. Get it in your ears if you missed it the first time around!

Since Blood Harvest brought Cryptic Shift and Snet to this listener's attention, their releases generate a little more anticipation than those of a lesser label. Cincinnati's Nogothula are relatively callow, with just a single EP to their name since their 2021 inception, but they've clearly been pouring all of their available time into the composition and recording of a debut album that is among the very best that 2024 has to offer in terms of death metal. While there is nothing regressive about the band's sound, their appealing mix of modern technicality and an old-school fondness for memorable riffs (of which there are approximately 25 in the magnificent 'Catacomb Cauldron' alone) means that the band perfectly synthesise the song-based approach of Morbid Angel, Suffocation and Deicide, with the precise and fleet-fingered fretwork of modern tech-death in a way that calls to mind Cattle Decapitation, Decapitated, or any other band whose name involves the separation of head from body. Telluric Sepsis (which sounds unpleasant, whatever it is), is a very solid first album indeed, the band's relentless brutality showing just enough personality and potential to ensure that one can be both excited about the force that they already are, and the monster that they may yet become.
-Benjamin

MetalBite's Rating: 8.6/10

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5: Aara - Eiger
Debemur Morti

It's haard to describe why Aara is aawesome, because they aaren't necessaarily aa unique baand in the aatmospheric blaack metaal reaalm - they just do it…better. Their aalbums aare caathaartic, graandiose aand irresistibly cold, with aa hypnotic sense of scaale aand pacing thaat taakes you on aa journey. Aaaaaaa this is aawesome.
-Nate

Beautiful and harsh, exactly like the mountain from which the album gets his name. You can feel the cold and harsh mountain winds while getting lost in the grandiose atmospheres and melodies.
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 8.6/10

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4: An Axis Of Perdition - Apertures
Apocalyptic Witchcraft

December is an unusually strong month for British black metal, although both Old Forest and An Axis Of Perdition both seemed determined to bury excellent albums by scheduling releases during the worst part of the year for generating interest in new music. The return of An Axis Of Perdition, one of the sub-genre's most perennially forward-thinking bands, is especially welcome, with their fifth album coming well over a decade after the release of its predecessor. Not that the extended break seems to have done the band any harm, as Apertures takes on the challenge set by the band's previously high standards, and meets it head-on. Although not as immediately experimental and unsettling as the band's first two phenomenal records, An Axis Of Perdition remain avant-garde in their off-kilter approach to black metal, with unconventional melody lines snaking their way around the complex rhythms that assail the listener from unexpected angles, while ambient electronics underpin a sound somewhere between Ved Buens Ende and the psychological despair of the last couple of Oranssi Pazuzu albums. This is black metal driven by urban decay, rather than expansive mountains and valleys, and this uncomfortable soundscape oppresses one in much the same way as the quotidian grind of big cities oppresses society, creating a modern hell in much the same way as other black metal practitioners wish to evoke a more supernatural horror. It's great to see them back.
-Benjamin

Remember these fellas? This industrial/ambient/black metal group had a knack for creating some of the most eerie and unsettling atmospheres in a genre where everyone is trying to do that. The album Deleted Scenes From The Transition Hospital is one that conjures feelings of walking in an abandoned mental asylum, slowly building tension as you're constantly turning your back, thinking you've heard a tortured scream from the apparition of a patient from long ago.

After about a decade of inactivity, the group has emerged again, and while I would say they are past their peak, they haven't lost their innate ability to merge angular, discordant black metal riffs with hypnotic sample loops in a way that paints mental pictures. Even at 80% capacity, they're still creepier than 90% of bands this side of Portal.
-Nate

MetalBite's Rating: 8.7/10

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3: Pillar Of Light - Caldera
Transcending Obscurity

Super crushing sludge/doom but with beautiful post metal atmospheres and buildups. It's disgustingly heavy and beautiful.
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 8.8/10

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2: Moondark - The Abysmal Wound
Pulverised Records

Moondark has existed for about 14 years now and finally released their debut album, but they are by no means newcomers to the scene - members have played in bands such as Interment or Dreadful Fate and were involved in former Dellamorte back in the day. Given this, it is no big surprise that The Abysmal Wound is a rousing death-doom monster with a lot of references to Winter or old Bolt Thrower. Blastbeat attacks and lots of frosty riffs make this album a good pairing with a winter walk and some fresh air. If you like death-doom, this should not be avoided as it is a standout album in the genre.
-Michael

MetalBite's Rating: 9/10

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1: Skagos - Chariot Sun Blazing
Independent

When I was forging my lifelong passion for extreme metal as a teenager, Cascadian black metal was kind of a hip new thing. Wolves in the Throne Room was and continues to be one of the most prominent acts, but Skagos came up with groups like Panopticon, Ash Borer, Alda and Falls of Rauros. They are one of the lesser-known bands of the scene, but their naturalistic image and sound heavily rooted in the "Cascadian ethos" makes them one of the most powerful and representative acts. Their debut album still remains on my wantlist 12 years later, as it's hard to find for a price below 100 dollars. Honestly, I'm considering shelling out the benjamins for it.

Their return shows an expansion of palette and a broadened scope, with horn arrangements and other garnishes added for atmosphere. The black metal influences are as they were before - warm, earthy, and with a certain radiating positivity. You can tell why crusty black metal diehards hated this style when it first started making waves, but I'll take this over a million Grausamkeit demos any day. It brings out emotions you forgot you even had, almost connecting you with a buried inner self - when I listen to this and get lost in it, I want to sell all my possessions and go live in the woods.

The fact that they've gone 12 years and a significant overhaul in sound without missing a beat and remaining connected to their roots is incredibly impressive. It's as if they embraced a hermetic lifestyle and are showing us the results and how powerful this can be. Chariot Sun Blazing is the rebirth of Cascadian black metal, and brings forth memories of a time when the genre was a fertile landscape with endless possibilities to offer.
-Nate

MetalBite's Rating: 9/10

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Thank you as always for stopping by. Check out all of our previous 2024 AOTM lists here and get your year-end list cleaned up:

November 2024

October 2024

September 2024

August 2024

July 2024

June 2024

May 2024

April 2024

March 2024

February 2024

January 2024

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

Entered: 1/18/2025 3:39:19 PM

Previous Post MB on Spotify - January summary	Next Post MetalBite's Top Albums Of 2024

Welcome back to MetalBite's top 10 albums of the month! February was a quick month but nonetheless there was an array of extremely good releases in what can sometimes be a down month in terms of volume. But that just gives you more time to get familiar with the gems on this list. Enjoy!

-Nate

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Sepulchral Curse - Crimson Moon Evocations
Dark Descent Records

Atmosphere? Brutality? Melody even? Finland's Sepulchral Curse is a yes on all of it. Add fun and headbang worthy riffs, musical and technical solos and deep, guttural growls with occasional high-pitched shrieks (well, too rare in my opinion, that's my only criticism really, the lack of variety in the vocals) and you have the perfect blackened death metal album, summoning darkness and brutality, it's a complete work of extreme metal. For fans of Behemoth, Necrophobic, Kataklysm and for my Québécois underground enjoyers, Morgue and Korpius.
-Raphael

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Sinner Rage - Powerstrike
Dying Victims Productions

What do you get when you put fun riffs, a powerful voice, à la Geddy Lee and an incredible production courtesy of Dying Victims? You get Spain's Sinner Rage's incredible debut album Powerstrike, a masterwork of pure, old school heavy metal, filled with fun riffs, fun solos, fun vocals, fun drumming and have I mentioned it's fun?
-Raphael

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Grave Infestation - Carnage Gathers
Dark Descent Records / Invictus Productions

On the surface, this is ragged, primitive war metal, but there's a certain amount of care and control put into the compositions, an innate sense of melody and catchiness in the riffwork and wailing guitar solos, and overall this is a lot more accessible and inviting than you might initially think. That's not to say that this is comparatively less extreme or savage - Grave Infestation just knows their way around a memorable lick.
-Nate

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Warlung - The Poison Touch
Heavy Psych Sounds

This is fuzzy classic heavy metal, as if you took Iron Maiden and put them in bong water and took a big puff. The musical performance is impressive, from the heroic guitars playing meaty riffs and shredding solos, that fat stoner rock bass sound, the incredible drum performance and the powerful heavy metal vocals, this is one hell of a good time, stoned or not. The melodies they craft are both catchy and emotional. An absolute must listen for everyone who loves anything heavy psych.
-Raphael

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Ofnus - Valediction
Naturmacht

We have recently observed the ever-increasing quality and depth of the UK black metal scene, with excellent recent releases from Abduction, Cistvaen and Fen all demonstrating that the British Isles are now as reliable a source of the black stuff as anywhere else in the world. On the basis of the magnificent Valediction, Wales's Ofnus can safely be added to that list. No longer can we discern any trace of the in-built sense of inferiority to Scandinavia that once afflicted output from the UK – across an expansive seven tracks, Ofnus set their ambitions high and effortlessly meet them, with complex and labyrinthine arrangements and densely layered symphonic elements combining to hugely compelling effect, but without diminishing the ferocity of their atmospheric black metal attack. There are no poor tracks on Valediction, but things really take flight on the majestic 'Proteus', on which guitarist Alyn Hunter's classical and soundtrack influences really come to the fore, with bittersweet string melodies supporting the rampant guitars, across numerous tempo and textural changes, evoking the kind of fertile, mountainous landscapes of the band's native Wales throughout a cinematic epic. The title track is similarly stirring, adopting a triumphant tone somewhere between Borknagar and ex-labelmates Havukruunu, with some adept guitar leads that adorn the track like fallen autumn leaves blanketing the forest floor. Despite the album's huge scope, Valediction is strangely concise and accessible, a testament to the immediacy of the band's melodic nous, and as a result, Ofnus have set a high bar for 2025.
-Benjamin

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Metaphobic - Deranged Excruciations
Everlasting Spew

Despite the cryptic emanations that often spew forth from bands in the "death/doom" category, the genre is one that can be a bit samey, or at the very least you need to be in a particular mood and have a stronger attention span to appreciate its subtleties. That is not the case with Metaphobic. Their take on the style is eclectic and varied, more of a "death metal with a good amount of slow parts" like Incantation or Asphyx instead of the crawling pace of Spectral Voice or Encoffination - but there's certainly enough moments that bring those bands to mind as well. There's Immolation influence in the discordancies of songs like 'Execration', but what gets me is how flawlessly this band moves between different modalities while building towards a greater, more ominous atmosphere. Everything works in tandem to conjure sickly, decrepit imagery, while the intricate riffwork vies for your admiration (and succeeds in obtaining it). Another solid output in the genre from one of the most reputable labels for this kind of stuff.
-Nate

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Norilsk - Antipole
Hypnotic Dirge Records

I think I just discovered a little gem of an album here and it's from fellow québécois from the band Norilsk. Death/doom is an incredibly diverse subgenre, it's usually slow and heavy but you can add melody, atmosphere, more or less of doom and/or death, make it sound murky and evil or polished and catchy. Antipole is on the more atmospheric and more doom side of the genre, provided by a strong post-metal presence everywhere, that gives rich layers of beauty on top of the heavier side. So, if you like your death/doom disgusting and purely heavy, this might throw you off a bit. But if you like "clean" and atmospheric death/doom, Norilsk created something special.
-Raphael

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Light Dweller - The Subjugate
Unorthodox Emanations

2022's Lucid Offering, the previous effort by this harrowing one-man project, was a pleasant surprise amidst a busy year. As a reviewer with a proclivity for dissonance, I get inundated with moderately impressive, but ultimately forgettable bands, but Light Dweller has enough technical proficiency and explorative guitarwork to help them stand out from the horde. Hints of quasi-melodic, eerie moments bring Artificial Brain to mind, helping to provide contrast to the generally spastic, suffocating nature of the music. Though there's a clear style and identity present in Cameron Boesch's ideas, Light Dweller is constantly mutating and venturing into differing themes, so you never really know what you're going to get.

The programmed drums don't hinder the music in any way - if anything, they open the door to some new modes of expression, even incorporating hints of electronica and breakcore, things which would be nigh-impossible to pull off with a human behind the kit. It stings a bit that I may never get the chance to witness a Light Dweller live performance, but fortunately, Boesch has a few other vessels to perform in front of an audience, including Dessiderium and Nullingroots.
-Nate

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METALBITE'S TOP 10 ALBUMS OF THE MONTH

 

10: Crown Of Madness - Memories Fragmented
Transcending Obscurity Records

Crown Of Madness are a death metal group/duo from British Columbia, consisting of Sunshine Schneider on guitars and vocals and Connor Gordon on drums. As a huge fan of the last two Ulcerate albums, this hits the bullseye of my taste. It's the dissonance and technicality of Gorguts meets the atmospheres and the beauty of post-metal. The drums are somehow "soft" and technical, while still having power. With an incredible vocal performance by Schneider, she blends deep guttural growls, raging shrieks, and even soft aethereal cleans. It's dissonant but beautiful at the same time!
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 8.5/10

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9: Gràb - Kremess
Prophecy Records

Black metal with Bavarian lyrics isn't the trendiest. Although there were a few releases with this very special dialect of the German language, it's not too prevalent, but now Gràb is going to give it another try with Kremess. The result is quite remarkable, just don't try to decipher the lyrics. even for me - a German - it's almost impossible.

The album offers melodic black metal with a lot of keyboard sounds reminiscent of old Emperor. Operating mostly at mid-tempo, Gràb creates a very dense, sinister and vaguely epic atmosphere. All eight songs are unique, diverse and entertaining. Arguably one of the best German black metal releases in some time.
-Michael

MetalBite's Rating: 8.5/10

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8: Mantar - Post Apocalyptic Depression
Metal Blade Records

With their new album, Mantar continues to offer a rough, unpleasant, noisy mixture of grunge, sludge and (black) metal. The vocals are harsh as always and the production gives the album a certain grimy flair. The songs are groovy but never get too pretty due to this. Sometimes the songs really test the listener's nerve because of the noisy mixture (like in "Principle Of Command"). But that is what they intended to provoke and I would say that their mission is accomplished. Post Apocalyptic Depression probably isn't the best album for a stressful day - it will just make you feel more uneasy.
-Michael

MetalBite's Rating: 8.5/10

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7: Saor - Amidst The Ruins
Season Of Mist

Something of a spiritual sister of Wales's Ofnus, Scotland's Saor also release their latest record during the same month as that band's Valediction. Having been around for rather longer, Amidst The Ruins is Saor's sixth full-length, and it's difficult to argue that mainman Andy Marshall hasn't absolutely perfected his craft by this point, delivering another heart-wrenching set of folk-inflected black metal. More than ever, the non-metal instrumentation dominates the mix, with delicate pipe melodies, and rich strings (played by instrumental star Jo Quail on the fantastic 'The Sylvan Embrace') bringing a timeless quality to Saor's lush and epic noise. There is a melodramatic tinge to Saor's blend of fragility and iron-clad strength that recalls Alcest in feel, even if melodically the bands are not closely related, and the surging guitar lines of the standout 'Echoes Of The Ancient Land' are full of the same yearning power as Neige's crew, as if Marshall is forever reaching for something that remains just out of his grasp, a restless spirit that cannot be sated. A truly superb album ends on a huge high, 'Rebirth' building to a series of peaks, before unfurling an utterly blissful and unmistakeably Scottish melody via some exquisite female vocals, layers of strings augmenting this with euphoric harmonies to leave the listener happily and emotionally exhausted at the conclusion of a spectacular piece of work.
-Benjamin

Amidst The Ruins is grandiose and epic. It is a very atmospheric listen that really stimulates the senses. There is an emotional, moving aspect to the music that makes it appealing. Similarities to Agalloch allow for a rich, dynamic sound. Guitars are both abrasive and folky at the same time, creating an intriguing mixture. The drums are pounding and form a nice background. The vocals are harsh, and further contribute to the ethereality.
-Adam

Saor (pronounced "Seur") is a Scottish atmospheric black metal band that heavily features traditional instruments such as tin whistles, low whistles, uilleann pipes and violins, creating rich and magnificent melodies, that produce the same feelings that you get on a mountain summit, looking at vast natural landscape, that pure feeling of aw in front of nature's grandeur. Tho, if you just feel like banging your head, Saor got you covered, with endless blast beats, furies of tremolo pickings, powerful kick drums and on top of all that delicious extreme metal, a pristine production, making the impact of the music even more powerful. The 'Sylvan Embrace' is a beautiful acoustic piece, full of atmospheres, featuring soft whispers and angelic cleans. It's a nice intermede before the grandiose, 14 minutes black folk epic that closes this record with angelic Celtic folk melodies, plenty of harsh vocals and aethereal cleans, blast beats for days and rich atmospheres.
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 8.5/10

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6: Jinjer - Duél
Napalm Records

Wasting absolutely zero time with full speed riffs, blast beats and Tatiana's divinely savage growled vocals, Jinger begins their new full length making a statement, you haven't seen us at our heaviest yet! Usually when bands get older, they tend to soften up a bit, well, this is definitely not Jinger's case. For longtime fans, do not worry, there are still plenty of softer jazz moments to give that great contrast, à la Pisces, showing the immense range of Tatiana's voice. I swear, she's only rivaled by Mikael Åkerfeldt. But she's not the only prodigy in the crew, the rhythm section is also something else, Eugene's bass lines and Vladislav's syncopated drum beats truly come together to create magic! They end the album with 'Duél', a progressive masterpiece, condensing everything that makes Jinger best with an extra layer of complexity, for all the fans of their prog side. Another album that cements Jinger as one of the greatest bands of my generation.
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 8.6/10

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5: Retromorphosis - Psalmus Mortis
Season Of Mist

After the disappointing new Obscura record (it's not bad but it's missing a certain tech death je ne sais quoi), you must crave a more old-school sound. Well, what if I told you guys from Spawn of Possession joined forces with other tech death titans? Jonas Bryssling on guitars reunited with Dennis Röndum on vocals went to get help from bassist extraordinaire Erlend Caspersen and ex Decrepit Birth drummer KC Howard. Christian Münzner is also back, whose work includes, other than Spawn of Possession's Incurso, Obscura's Cosmogenesis and Necrophagist's Epitaph. This unholy alliance of tech death prodigies spawned Retromorphosis, a fierce tech death super group that is basically the mutated offspring of Spawn of Possession, that filled me with nostalgia, crazy solos, complex riffs and reignited my love for this subgenre.
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 8.6/10

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4: Dream Theater - Parasomnia
InsideOut Music

Dream Theater is my comfort music of choice, you get the same feelings from when watching Olympic level athletes excelling in their sports, the "holy shit how can a human being do that" moments are everywhere. But what I like about DT is they do not forget the emotional component of music, yes, they're flashy with technicality, but they always weave beautiful melodies in between the showing off of technical prowess. So, what's new on Parasomnia? Well, as everybody knows, it's the return of Mike Portnoy on drums and holy hell, what a performance! Mike is a human metronome, his playing is powerful when it needs to be, subtle and softer to let other instruments shine when appropriate and always technically insane! Speaking of technically insane, John Petrucci, the riff and shredding machine is on a different level of musicianship. Sometimes I wonder if he can stretch his fingers to any lengths he desires. After 52 minutes of the heaviest material DT put out, almost ever, the album ends with the 19 minutes and 30 seconds long epic, 'The Shadow Man Incident'. First you hear someone crank up a music box, followed by a great prog riff and then goes into a section that sounds like Mars, from Gustav Holst's Planet Suite and then throws a bluesy solo. All of that takes about 5 minutes and then James LaBrie's soft voice embarks and from now on, it's 15 minutes of nonstop virtuosity that never gets boring. Dream Theater is truly, la crème de la crème of progressive metal!
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 8.7/10

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3: Celestial Scourge - Observers Of The Inevitable
Time to Kill Records

This reminds me of Carnosus - not sound-wise, more that it's a group of younger (20-something) musicians that are starting to break out and make their mark on the wider tech-death scene. Granted, these Norwegians are already well-connected: 3 of them have been a part of Blood Red Throne in some capacity, and there are also ties to longer-running groups that include Gehenna and Skeletal Remains, so seasoned musicians already know these dudes have chops.

Despite only being in existence for about four years, Celestial Scourge's sound is developed and realized. Influences are evident: there's clear nods to Soreption and Origin, and a couple of Suffocation comparisons are unavoidable in this style, but Observers Of The Inevitable takes these sonic cues and makes them their own. The choppy tremolo grooves pass through your like butter combined with the steady, rolling double-kick work, and there's a more slammy undercurrent (check out "Exterminated") that pushes this right on the line between brutal and technical. This is a lean, meaty record and doesn't wander or diverge from its goal of domination via riffs at any point, but despite the lack of garnish, there's plenty of natural push-and-pull in the songcraft and enough dexterity in the lead melodies to maintain your attention, and at just over half an hour it doesn't overstay its welcome. Much like their "parent band" Blood Red Throne, this is no-frills extreme metal that never forgets its purpose and executes well.

I haven't heard many albums in 2025 that keep me coming back for repeated listens (yet - I know it's early and things typically pick up in the spring/summer) - but this is a noted exception and a pleasant surprise. Observers Of The Inevitable is one of the best things I've heard in the year, an early AOTY contender, and an album that should establish Celestial Scourge among the upper ranks of young tech-death bands. Get familiar with them before they inevitably blow up!
-Nate

MetalBite's Rating: 9/10

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2: Havukruunu - Tavastland
Svart Records

I somehow feel the need to wear a coniferous crown, go out at night in the glow of a winter moon and purge my land of the catholic scum. And if that sounds like fun to you, let me talk to you about Tavastland from the Finnish black metal band Havukruunu. First of all, this is a pagan black metal record, so expect folk songs melodies weaved in the harsh black metal song structures, clean choirs that elevates the epic feel and creates incredible atmospheres and that black metal aggressiveness that pairs so well with anything pagan themed. Tavastland tells the story of the uprising of the Tavastians, an ancient Finnish tribe, that rose up against the catholic church in the winter of 1236 - 1237. This album speaks of "him, who has become a prisoner of his home, alienated from the land of the forest and is now afraid of the dark". Terribly relevant subject matter. Free Palestine!
-Raphael

Finland's Havukruunu have been bubbling away in the underground for some time now, releasing three albums and the same number of EPs over nigh on twenty years, long threatening to make the leap into mainstream consciousness. While their crossover potential isn't immediately obvious, the fact that they operate at the confluence of several related sub-genres, harnessing black metal fury, folk-metal melody, and classic metal majesty, creates the kind of pan-genre appeal that doesn't come along very often. Now signed to Svart Records, Tavastland might just be the album that propels Havukruunu (and what a ridiculously satisfying word that is to roll off the tongue) out of the metal clubs, and onto the bigger stages that their epic sound is built for. Longstanding fans will be pleased to note that Havukruunu have in no way diluted their potent brew, but their sword blades have been sharpened further, trimming any remaining fat from their sound, each track remorselessly finding its target. Every scything riff is an ice-storm assailing the listener, played with a fearsome do-or-die intensity, and when Havukruunu ease back a little, a series of triumphant lead guitar melodies, both new and somehow familiar, take up the slack, before the stirring choral swell of the band's instantly recognisable clean vocals somehow drives the songs to ever more ecstatic heights, as on the frankly incredible 'Havukruunu Ja Talvenvarjo'. Havukruunu can re-awaken the dormant spirit in the jaded metalhead, supplying the kind of thrill that one might once have felt when first discovering Iron Maiden, Bathory, or Candlemass, so all-consuming is their mighty magic. Tavastland is a towering release, the best of 2025 thus far, and perhaps even a future classic.
-Benjamin

MetalBite's Rating: 9.3/10

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1: Pissgrave - Malignant Worthlessness
Profound Lore Productions

Pissgrave belong to the genre of underrated and undesired bands (at least in my living room when my wife is present). First of all the disgusting cover artwork (hundreds of maggots eating something unknown…not that I want to know) makes this album (and band) a polarizing affair. But if you dare to listen, you get an audial dose of urine, and festering feces into your ears. In comparison to the predecessors, nothing has changed in their style, only the production has become a little bit clearer. It is still fast, barbarian death metal without much repetition, only here and there you get some grindcore grooves in their songs (like early Napalm Death did), for example on the title track. The vocals are heavily distorted and sound absolutely terrible, just like the music - and I mean that in a good way. This is a feast for everybody who loves Revenge, first Carcass or Incantation.
-Michael

MetalBite's Rating: 9.5/10

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Thanks as always for stopping by. In case you missed it, check out January 2025's top 10 list while it's still manageable and you don't fall too far behind.

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Entered: 3/22/2025 1:22:46 PM

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