Welcome back to MetalBite's Top 10 Albums of the Month! Yes this is several months late. There's no big reason why - shit just gets busy. Anyways, here's July, and we'll get caught up real soon for ya.

-Nate

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Abigail Williams - A Void Within Existence
Agonia Records

I remember, back in 08, when I heard Into The Ashes, I immediately loved it, the mix of symphonic black and metalcore, it was super original, at that time at least. Nowadays, not so much, let's say, with the many Lorna Shores of the world. Anyway, I must admit that I have not followed the band since, so I went in with an open mind. With an entirely new line up, except the main man, Ken Sorceron, they now have a sound closer to melodic black with a good dose of atmosphere. But I could still hear remnants of the "core" sound, mainly in the main riff of the song "Talk To Your Sleep", with its almost djent sound. But the song still contains cool atmospheric passages. There are also plenty of cool solos, great orchestration, furious blastbeats and a great vocal performance. They do not do anything new and for fans of black, they will probably be turned off by the polished production and the clean vocals of the last song but all in all, this was a pleasant experience, I probably won't listen to it a lot for the rest of the year but still, it's a good album.
-Raphael

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Crimson Shadows - Whispers Of War
Independent

Well ain't this more fun than a barrel of monkeys. Crimson Shadows has some fairly high pedigree attached to their name - they won the Wacken Metal Battle in 2013 which got them on Napalm Records, their blend of uptempo melodeath mixed with exuberant leads and clean singing choruses has just enough crossover appeal to appease extreme metal nerds and power metal dorks alike, they've toured with some high-profile bands and they share members with Lutharo, who are becoming a more known band in their own right that's blown up enough to get on the Big Band Tour Circuit in Europe. But Whispers Of War marks a new, daring frontier for the band in the sense they've opted to go the independent route and DIY several aspects of the album release. It's a tough path, but perhaps because they've grown through more traditional channels over the years, they figured they'd get more money in their pocket with this option.

If this album isn't a success, it's not based on a lack of musical merit. There's an overwhelming amount of STUFF that flies out at you, with dueling solos and leads, a versatile vocal performances that balances wailing vocals, mid-ranges growls and high rasps well, overlapping them at various points so you never fully expect what's next, and brisk rhythms full of double-bass that underscore and amplify music that's already overflowing with energy. I can't say this is my go-to style of metal, but it's got enough intensity to satisfy my extremophile tendencies and it's a ton of fun. Worth a look.
-Nate

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Recorruptor - Sorrow Will Drown Us All
Time To Kill

Recorruptor provides an answer to the perpetually confounding question: how many kick drum hits can you fit on a single album? Good gracious the amount of foot-tappin' frenzies on this thing is overwhelming (but ultimately satisfying for us speedfreaks).

Sorrow Will Drown Us All sits in an interesting middle ground, sandwiched between death metal styles in a way that is not experimental, but avoids categorization nonetheless. There's crushing, midpaced sections that resemble breakdowns, but this isn't deathcore or slam. There's an ominous, atmospheric touch, and some nasty, snarling high rasps, but to attribute a "blackened" tag to this would be erroneous. There's enough stripped-down intensity that you can't really consider this tech, but it's just too pulverizing and intense to land in the realms melodeath either.

At the end of the day, this is just punishing, startlingly effective death metal that will appeal to you, no matter what specific flavour you usually prefer.
-Nate

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Imperial Crystalline Entombment - Abominable Astral Summoning
Debemur Morti

Furious, apocalyptic, and undoubtedly frosty black metal. Mid-90s Immortal is a good comparable, albeit with less sloppy charm and more calculated precision. Perhaps a strange thing to listen to in summertime, but it might trick you into feeling a chill if your A/C is broken.
-Nate

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METALBITE'S TOP 10 ALBUMS OF THE MONTH

 

10: Disembodiment - Spiral Crypts
Everlasting Spew Records

My small hometown has a pretty good metal scene and has produced, what is maybe the greatest death metal band, ever, the mighty Gorguts, the pride of Sherbrooke! So, here comes Disembodiment, created in 2020 with guys from another great death metal band from Sherbrooke, Oath Div. 666, but here they opted to go with a filthier brand of death metal, flirting with goregrind and groovy death/doom, they create a truly disgusting and raw experience that still feels fresh while melting your face with heaviness. Plus, the truly disgustingly beautiful cover art by Slimeweaver is the gore cherry on top.
-Raphael

On the surface, this is just another slab of filthy, primitive, death metal - which is, of course, not a bad thing on its own - but a bit of careful listening reveals surprises within the oddly labyrinthine arrangements, howling shrieks that pierce through the murk, and additional layers of complexity and artistic refinement that gives Disembodiment an edge among the Human Centipede-esque line of Bolt Thrower clones that recycle the riffs, but somehow miss the essence that makes them so enduring. In staunch opposition to modern trends, there's very little direct hardcore influence here, so this also isn't another deathcore band doing OSDM cosplay either. Nonetheless, there's still plenty of obscenely heavy grooves here so you can get your freak on in the pit.
-Nate

MetalBite's Rating: 8/10

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9: Shadecrown - 0
Inverse Records

Finnish melodic death/doom. The end. Ok, I'll go a bit more in detail then that: get ready to be enveloped in melancholic melodies that will pull on your heart strings, for fans of Swallow The Sun, Insomnium or Officium Triste. This particular brand of Finnish metal perfectly encapsulates feelings of sadness and grief and 0 does it so well, mid paced melodic death metal that is often sad but in the most beautiful way, sometimes hopeful, sometimes dense, dark and heavy but never forgetting the melody. Often using strings to accentuate the beautiful melancholy, solos are always filled with purpose and Jari "Jarska" Hokka's vocal performance is the perfect low guttural growls intertwined with higher raspy growls, making the vocals not suffer from being one note and boring. Add in occasional cleans, both male and female, and you have the perfect mix of varied vocals typical for the genre. This is an album enjoyable from beginning to end, best enjoyed in a complete listen.
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 8/10

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8: Dephosphorus - Planetoktonos
Selfmadegod

More people need to know about this buried Greek treasure. Heaps of blackened intensity within a grindcore base, underscored with d-beats, a delicious shrieky vocal performance, and a tinge of esoteric emotion. Best enjoyed with a medium dose of shrooms and walk through the midnight stars. Early Oathbreaker is a decent comparison, but there's no underlying delicate beauty within Dephosphorus - once you peel back the decadent layers, there's nothing but unrelenting terror. Perhaps it's a metaphor for the infinite horrors of our massive cosmos? Maybe I'm just reading into it too much. Anyways, this bangs.
-Nate

Dephosphorus calls their unique musical style "astrogrind" and it gives a pretty good idea of how they sound. Inspired by The Expanse novel series by James S.A. Corey, they create "a vision of a sustainable future where humanity not only survives but thrives in harmony with its biosphere—and even with AI". And to tie these cool lyrics, they play a savage mix of death, black and grindcore coupled with a few screeching electronic sounds, made by an EBow, that gives a great cybernetic feel to the music. Overall, it's a record that feels fresh and has a great feel of urgency, plus the cover is so sick, courtesy of Graphic No Jutsu.
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 8/10

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7: As The Sea Parts - Psychosis
Independent

Hailing from the small town of Woodbridge Virginia, As The Sea Parts released a demo in 1995, playing the genre newly created by In Flames, At The Gates, Dark Tranquility and Carcass, then, pretty much nothing, until this year, as they released their first full length album. Psychosis is a true early Gothenburg worship, with meaty riffs, super melodic leads and solos and a funky bass that pops out in the mix. Sometimes approaching doom territories, without going full death/doom, they expertly craft a raw and heavy sound, yet still full of gorgeous melodies. The cover art by the legendary Mark Riddick was the first thing that drew my attention and I'm so glad I judged a book by its cover!
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 8.3/10

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6: Temptress - Catch The Endless Dawn
Dying Victims Productions

Temptress is a heavy metal band from Italy, composed of three veterans of the Italian metal scene and for their first full length they crafted an album that is the epitome of what great heavy metal should be. Good headbanging riffs, infectious chorus, great solos, all of that with a perfect sounding production! It sounds organic, the cymbals are crisp, the bass is fat, the guitars are bright, and the vocals are full of reverb for that extra epic feeling. An overall perfect heavy metal album.
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 8.3/10

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5: Ba'al - The Fine Line Between Heaven And Here
Road To Masochist Record

There is a fine line between heaven and hell, and we live directly on it. The music of Ba'al also sits directly on that line, full of warm atmospheres and emotional build ups, but at times cold, harsh and even downright hellishly heavy. Think of Agalloch but instead of folk metal elements, it's super low and heavy sludge metal that crushes your soul. Vocally Joe Stamps navigates between piercing shrieks, low growls and tranquil cleans following the many roller coasters of this emotionally charged piece of music.
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 8.4/10

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4: Impureza - Alcázares
Season Of Mist

What do you get when four French metalheads (three of them of Spanish descent) form a metal band? If you said flamenco infused death metal, you are correct! In what is the definitive metal album of the summer, you'll be mesmerized by the warm and captivating melodies of flamenco intertwined by ferocious and highly technical death metal. Honestly, these boys are absolute musical virtuoso, not only playing death metal of the highest quality separated by a few flamenco interludes but actually fusing their riffs with flamenco style scales and often cutting songs with traditional acoustic guitars, bass, percussion and Esteban Martin's magnificent clean vocals. Also, all the lyrics are of course sung in Spanish giving it extra authenticity.
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 8.5/10

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3: Floating - Hesitating Lights
Transcending Obscurity

Death metal merged with post-punk seems like one of those haphazard hybrid projects where a band jams disparate sounds together in a feeble attempt to seem novel, but this avoids that pitfall. It's a bit unnerving how well the catchy deathrock motifs work with an extreme metal backdrop - and that bass! It cuts through the mix like a machete slicing butter, grounding and driving the melodies, even when things get closer to Morbus Chron than the softer moments of Edge of Sanity. In Sweden, where the Entombed clones run rampant, I can only imagine the natives are longing for some freshness to be injected into the style - and Floating does that, not just for their home country, but in the wider realms of death metal as a whole.

Seriously, though, I can't overstate how the bass makes this album. It creates this funky groove you never wanna stop boppin' to.
-Nate

MetalBite's Rating: 8.5/10

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2: Mawiza - Ül
Season Of Mist

Ül is the second album by indigenous groove metal band Mawiza and already they are making big waves in the metal scene. Coming from what is present day Chile, they are part of the Mapuche nation, they proudly display their culture, singing exclusively in Mapuzungun, the Mapuche language and it gives the music such a different feeling and matches to perfection with the equally original music. Their style can be generally described as groove metal but done in a completely original way, incorporating different and eclectic sounds that makes it feel truly unique. Honestly, the closest thing that comes to mind would be Magma era Gojira which makes sense giving that the last song features guest vocals from Joe Duplantier. If you want a truly refreshing metal experience do not miss out on Mawiza, a powerful experience, blending modern music with ancestral indigenous sounds for what is a pretty perfect album!
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 8.6/10

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1: Philosophobia - The Constant Void
Sensory Records

I love progressive metal so much, but I can be a bit picky, it needs to strike the perfect balance between highly technical playing, songwriting, melody, musicality and it needs to touch me emotionally. Philosophobia hits all of those and more! Clearly inspired by the greats of prog, like Dream Theater, this international group of talented musicians pushes prog metal to new highs. They nail pretty much all aspects of prog, it is highly complex music without forgetting to add emotion, with grandiose choruses that explode with emotions and a magnificent vocal performance by Domenic Papaemmanouil. His voice can be soft and vulnerable, soaring high and epic or even harsh with a good dose of extremity. But even their instrumental song follows the same structures and tells an emotional and epic story, no words needed. Another element they put everywhere, is their impeccable sense of atmosphere, with various keyboard sounds, from synth to piano. They finish the album with a 20-minute epic, truly taking their time and incorporating every element of their songwriting in one monumental closer. This is thoughtful music filled with emotive and complex shapes, I can't wait to see where this band goes, it's an essential for all prog fans! Plus, that cover art from Björn Gooßes at Killustrations is visually striking and thought provoking, a perfect representation of their sound.
-Raphael

MetalBite's Rating: 9/10

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Thanks for stopping by! We'll get caught up real soon - we haven't missed a month in 4 years of doing this and we're not about to start, despite the backlog. In the meantime, check out our AOTM lists from previous months here:

June 2025
May 2025
April 2025
March 2025
February 2025
January 2025

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

Entered: 10/17/2025 4:37:42 AM

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