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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