Finnish Metal

Battle Beast – Steelbound Review

By Grin Reaper on October 17, 2025 in Reviews, Heavy Metal, Power Metal, 71 comments

“Steelbound,, Battle Beast’s seventh full-length album, struts forth boasting bubblegum choruses and sticky refrains that, upon contact, are sure to plague your showers and commutes for days afterward. For the uninitiated, the sextet from Helsinki, Finland, plays pop-infused power metal with anthemic, uplifting gusto and broad appeal. Battle Beast simmers with talent, but it’s singer Noora Louhimo that steals the show with her powerhouse range and grit, the perfect voice to broadcast the positivity and pluck that Battle Beast engenders. After years of snacking on sweetmeats, though, has the candy coating left this Beast’s fangs riddled with cavities, or are the teeth still mighty enough to bring the pain?” Steel or cotton candy?

Hooded Menace – Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration Review

By Steel Druhm on October 2, 2025 in Reviews, Death Metal, Doom Metal, 42 comments

“I’ve been hot and cold on Finnish doom-death act Hooded Menace over the years. I enjoyed the heavy, ugly sound of their early albums, but as they slowly progressed into more melodic realms, I felt they lost a bit of their primal sting. I enjoyed albums like Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed and 2021s The Tritonus Bell and respected their reset into more jaunty, trad metal melodic doom soundscapes, but it just felt like something was missing. That brings us to their latest release, Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration.” All good in the Hood?

Mors Principium Est – Darkness Invisible Review

By Angry Metal Guy on September 26, 2025 in Reviews, Melodic Death Metal, 82 comments

Since 2003, Mors Principium Est has released eight full-length albums of top-notch melodic death metal. Most people agree, however, they really took flight in 2012, which coincidentally is a year after Andy Gillion joined the band. Gillion was fired, however, in 2021. So, with the re-entry of the original guitarists and a new creative engine, I’ve been dying to know how Mors would navigate album number nine. And now it’s here…

Amorphis – Borderland Review

By Steel Druhm on September 24, 2025 in Reviews, Heavy Metal, Melodic Death Metal, 139 comments

“I’ve been an Amorphis fanboy since I first heard Tales from the Thousand Lakes. That album captured a special kind of magic, and to this day it remains a “desert island” release for Yours Steely. I loved them through their early days of perpetual evolution and was thrilled when Tomi Joutsen brought them new fire and force when he joined for 2006s Eclipse. Tomi’s first 3 albums with Amorphis resulted in what is perhaps one of the most potent trilogies in metal history, and though their output has been less consistently amazing since then, it’s hard to dislike anything they do. That said, I liked but didn’t love 2022s Halo effort despite really wanting to.” Black Swan event at the border?

Stuck in the Filter: June 2025’s Angry Misses

By Kenstrosity on September 10, 2025 in Reviews, Stuck in the Filter, Ambient, Deathcore, Drone, Electronic Metal, Folk Metal, Heavy Metal, Industrial Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Power Metal, 149 comments

Filters are hard to keep clean because of all this filth. Don’t make it worse!

Proscription – Desolate Divine Review

By Dear Hollow on September 3, 2025 in Reviews, Black Metal, Blackened Death Metal, Death Metal, 31 comments

“Last we met Finland’s Proscription, an overwhelming amount of promise was almost as intense as their blackened death attack. While rerecorded songs from their 2017 demo such as “I, the Burning Son” and “Blessed Feast of Black Seth” singlehandedly tamed the experience with jarring simplicity and excessive repetition killing momentum, tracks like “Conduit” and “To Reveal the Word Without Words” were elite blackened death. The promise was insane, causing a bigger stir in the underground than the music itself. While Conduit was solid, Desolate Divine promises even bigger and better.” Stick to the proscript.

The Bleak Picture – Shades of Life Review

By Maddog on July 8, 2025 in Reviews, Death Doom, Death Metal, Doom Metal, Gothic Metal, Melodic Death Metal, 17 comments

“It’s been a draining year. Lacking the mental energy for new music, I’ve subsisted on a diet of ISIS and Fvneral Fvkk. Clouded by the doomy stylings of the latter, I decided to make my return to reviewing with dismal death-doom. Despite releasing their debut just last year, Finland’s The Bleak Picture is a project of members of Autumnfall. That said, these two bands sound worlds apart, as their names betray. Abandoning the blackened scenery of Autumnfall, The Bleak Picture paints a bleak picture with melodic death-doom that reeks of Finland.” Smell the bleakness.

Sarastus – Agony Eternal Review

By Kenstrosity on July 3, 2025 in Reviews, Black Metal, Melodic Black Metal, 58 comments

“If you follow the Finnish, or even the wider Scandinavian black metal scene, you might know about Finnish trio Sarastus. I would never have known about them, though, if it weren’t for AMG Hisselves telling Dr. A. N. Grier to listen to them and cover this. Of course, because I’m an opportunistic bastard with a ravenous appetite for shenanigans—and because GrierGrier slept on the promo pool until he was sunburned to a smoking chunk of stinky charcoal—I swiped it right from under his nose. Sucks to suck, loser! Now I’m here, spinning Sarastus’ third opus, Agony Eternal, and reveling in the fact that I stole something that just happened to be worth stealing from not one, but two upper management. You’re welcome.” Stolen goods, Finnish hoods.

Leverage – Gravity Review

By Steel Druhm on June 17, 2025 in Reviews, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, 25 comments

“Finland’s Leverage are one of those bands that always seemed to operate at the outer fringes of heavy metal. Their 2006 Tides debut showcased a strong 80s rock base with just enough of an over-the-top edge to make it plausible to call them a metal act. Most of the songs reminded me more of Survivor and Night Ranger than any specific metal act, but the writing was catchy enough that it didn’t matter. Follow-ups Blind Fire and Circus Colossus kept the template in place with only modest tweaks, and when very distinctive frontman Pekka Heino decamped, they replaced him well with Kimmo Blom. Blom passed away in 2022, and now Leverage return with a new frontman as they try to soldier on.” Leverage against the force of gravity.

…and Oceans – The Regeneration Itinerary

By Owlswald on May 20, 2025 in Reviews, Black Metal, Melodic Black Metal, 42 comments

“My history with Finland’s …and Oceans runs as deep as the Mariana Trench. As a burgeoning metalhead, the eclectic symphonic black metal of 1998’s The Dynamic Gallery of Thoughts immediately sank its hooks into me. Its successor, The Symmetry of I – The Circle of O, solidified their place with its atmospherically intense and innovative brutality. The two albums remain all-time favorites of mine to this day. Conversely, the group’s industrial era of A.M.G.O.D.(2001) and Cypher (2002)—preceding the group’s hiatus—split my interest until 2020’s Cosmic World Mother and the subsequent As in Gardens, So in Tombs marked …and Oceans’ triumphant return to form.” Return of the …