On Hiraeth, Abstracted demonstrates a thorough understanding of contemporary progressive metal styles and integrates them into something all their own. The band’s main sound is a djent-fueled take on modern progressive death metal, closest to early-era The Contortionist in its blending of odd-meter riffery, post-rock-influenced textures, and an enticing contrast between melancholic space-age cleans and technical 6-string chugs. Abstracted balance this with more traditional Haken-esque classic prog turnarounds and jazz breaks (“Sirens”), fast-paced Between the Buried and Me riff marathons (“To Quench This Insatiable Thirst”), and harmonic nuance within darker moments à la Persefone (“Requiem”). The result is a varied and dynamic set of tunes that glide effortlessly between impressive riff-fueled aggression and cathartic melodies. Songs like “The Utter End” and “The Barren Grave of God” demonstrate the band’s ability to naturally move from strength to strength without missing a beat, unfolding across expansive guitar arpeggios, delightfully off-kilter breakdowns, virtuosic solos, and powerful musical climaxes.

This level of fluidity and genre cohesion on Hiraeth is only made possible by the high level of musicianship Abstracted display. Guitarists José Consani and Leonardo Brito give varied performances that successfully meld more djent-centric playing with classic death metal sensibilities and demonstrate keen melodic ears with dense jazz chords and powerful lead lines. Drummer Fernando Pollen blends Latin grooves with acrobatic modern metal flourishes, and the production’s more natural drum tone allows his dynamic nuances to guide several songs. ² On bass, Riverton Alves turns in a thoroughly warm and jazz-based, Cynic-flavored performance that shines during quieter moments, while keyboardist Carol Lynn supplies plenty of atmosphere through subtle synth textures and steps to the forefront a few times with quirky, but effective synth lines reminiscent of Diego Tejeida. Together, this ensemble breathes plenty of life into a style of music that can often feel over-processed, and their performances help to unify this collection of songs into a cohesive whole.The only elements of Hiraeth that aren’t immediately impressive are the vocals and the production. Rosano Pedro Matiussi delivers an impassioned performance, and his vocal lines often fit the songs well, but his clean singing lacks a certain impact or personality to elevate good moments into great ones. Initially, this was enough to deter me from really digging deeper and appreciating the songcraft on display, but the singing grew on me quite a bit with time. Similarly, his death growls are solid, if not one-note, and they feel like they exist more so to fill a role than to accent particular sections. This could potentially be the production’s fault, as Hiraeth sounds generally good and more natural than the swaths of overproduced modern prog ³ but lacks a certain sonic clarity, occasionally making especially dense sections harder to parse. There’s a distinct lack of reverb on the harsh vocals, and I can’t help but wonder if a stronger mix could fit the layered clean singing a bit better. Matiussi’s vocals are far from bad, and there are parts like the somber intro to “Requiem” where he sounds great, but when everything else is operating at such a high level, they feel like a weak link.

With Hiraeth, Abstracted have delivered an impressive piece of modern progressive metal. This record is a grower for sure, with dense and layered compositions often revealing their clever construction and intense interconnectedness only after repeated spins. Even if the vocals leave a little to be desired, the Brazilian group has successfully combined the sounds of several of the best modern prog bands into something exciting and nuanced.

Rating: Good
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: M-Theory Audio
Websites: abstractedmetal.bandcamp | facebook.com/abstractedbr
Releases Worldwide: February 20, 2026

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Night of the Vampire’s take on blackened darkwave is oodles of fun. Across Enchanting Winds, songs are led by gaudy synth lines atop simple distorted guitars, classic 80s drum patterns, and finished with a blackened rasp. This is an effective formula that’s as fun as it is addictive, evoking the playful jubilance of vintage synth-led sounds and sharpening it with black metal’s frostbitten cudgel. The result is campy and over-the-top, but Astral Shadow has plenty of tricks up their satin sleeve to make this formula more delectable. Whether it’s adding tasteful lead guitar and campy clean vocals (“Children of the Immortal Blood”) ¹, going full Simple Minds with a driving synth pop rocker (“Sacrificed to the Night”) or deploying some ignorant mid-tempo chugs underneath the ocean of synth (“Casting Shadows in an Ocean of Time”), there’s no shortage of clever adornments to spice up the core blackened darkwave sound. Night of the Vampire might sound more like Depeche Mode than Darkthrone, but that’s fine when this pernicious platter is this delectable.

Enchanting Winds provides meaningful variety in its execution, keeping this rave from getting too stale. Night of the Vampire goes full Blade nightclub with “The Cosmic Darkness Calls me,” a delightful goth rager which ditches the guitars for a throbbing synth bassline and icy, programmed drums. The faster tempo of “Mother Moon of the Astral Dawn” is a nice, energetic break from the dancefloor, utilizing effective drum pullbacks to keep its forward momentum, and “Misty Illusions” is a solid dungeon synth closer that eases you out of the whole vampiric experience. With relatively short song-lengths and a curt 30-minute runtime, this is also a record that doesn’t overstay its welcome, allowing for repeated spins without running the risk of blood withdrawal. Enchanting Winds is an enjoyable, blackened journey from start to finish. I only wish it set its sights a little higher.

The main thing preventing Night of the Vampire from reaching sanguine ecstasy is the relative lack of ambition in Enchanting Wind’s songwriting. Astral Shadow’s approach is simple: latch onto a catchy synth melody and then ride it for the song’s entire duration, with minor variation for choruses. This works exceedingly well on shorter pieces or in conjunction with more inventive additions, but falls a bit short when it’s the only tactic on display. As a result, songs built almost entirely around a single synth line, like “The Prince of Many Faces and the Lady of the Night” or “Beyond the Howls of the Celestial Wolves,” end up feeling one-note, with little development or variation. Once you notice this pattern across the record, the impact of individual tracks diminishes. That’s especially frustrating given that “Children of Immortal Blood,” with its contrasting choruses, proves Astral Shadow is capable of writing dynamic, multi-part songs with distinct elements. As it stands, the straightforward songcraft doesn’t prevent these tracks from being exciting in the right context, but it does keep Enchanting Winds from evolving beyond its initial premise.

The Enchanting Winds of the Dreamweaving Masquerade is a charming debut from Night of the Vampire. The essential idea of “black metal meets 80s synths” is effective, entertaining and often moves beyond the simple proposition, even if the straightforward songcraft detracts from my enjoyment at times. I’ll gladly place Night of the Vampire alongside their unserious contemporaries in my “kvlt cheese-maxing” playlist and look forward to whatever Astral Shadow produces next.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Profound Lore Records
Website: nightofthevampire.bandcamp.com | Instagram
Releases Worldwide: February 6th, 2026

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From the moment you press “play,” it’s clear that Revered by Death is bursting with punk energy and metal spirit. Opener “A Pessimistic Soaring” wastes no time before hitting you square in the face with a simple, but effective power chord riff panned to one channel before the full rhythm section bursts in. We get a tasty, phased-out guitar lead before landing on a fun, punky verse riff, complete with blackened rasps about “a world consumed by darkness.” This sets the stage nicely for what Karloff is all about: no-nonsense, kitschy retro metal/punk with plenty of energy. Their bread-and-butter is like if a less-gaudy Midnight crashed into the punked-out thrash of early Nasty Savage and sprinkled it in a blackened layer of late-era Darkthrone. When it all comes together, the result can be oodles of fun. Karloff isn’t reinventing the wheel, but they’re definitely spilling some beer on it and decorating it with fake cobwebs and candles.

A lot of Revered by Death’s charm comes from the no-nonsense attitude on display from Karloff’s members. At their best, the riffs have the sort of quality of alcohol-fueled basement jams, with Tom Horrified providing some flavorful leads to spice things up and laying down punky power chords that find a sweet spot between uncomplicated and straight-up ignorant (“Crown Cult Fate,” “Die Wiederkehr der Dunkeleit”). H.T Steinbrecher’s drum performance is effective and workmanlike, rarely veering into blastbeat territory and keeping things classy with variations on rock beats, aided by the occasional d-beat (“Prince of Parasites”). Karloff maintains their core metal/punk sound across much of the album, but a few effective variations help to keep things fresh. “When the Flames Devour You All” is a mid-tempo, blackened banger, with swirling black metal arpeggios meeting sludgy power chords, and “Elisabetha’s Revenge” continues this thread, amping up the cinematics and dynamics to make for a memorable closer. Throughout it all, there’s a distinct sense of personality that helps maintain a sonic cohesion.

My only real complaint with Revered by Death is that some tracks aren’t quite as tightly executed as others. Karloff largely hit the mark, and none of the songs are complete stinkers, but some of the B-sides fail to get the blood pumping as effectively. At 4-minutes, “Regicide” is a tad longer than average and lingers on its main riff for its entirety, lacking a lead or meaningful variation to keep things interesting. “On Weathered Altar” is a surprising turn towards instrumental horror ambience and lands smack in the middle as an interlude that runs for about twice as long as it should. These aren’t total deal breakers, but on a short album, they feel longer than they otherwise would and distract somewhat from an otherwise solid package.

With Revered by Death, Karloff has delivered a lively batch of blackened metal/punk rippers. Nothing here will boggle your mind, but the band’s distinctive attitude and kitschy execution are plenty entertaining. The next time I want to feel like I’m in a metal party scene from an 80s horror movie, I’ll crush a beer can on my forehead, pull out my ripped jeans, gel my mullet, and throw on some of the best tracks from this latest Karloff.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Dying Victims Productions
Website: facebook.com/karloffpunk
Releases Worldwide: January 23rd, 2026

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In the first half of What Happened In Roundwood, Under establishes their own distinct style that sits nicely in conversation with their American contemporaries. The foundations of these songs are built on angular sludge riffs over looping odd time signatures and off-kilter rhythmic patterns, like if a more avant-garde Melvins crashed into a version of Swans that was capable of editing. Bassist and vocalist Matt Franklin anchors the music with simple but weighty low-end riffs, locking tightly with drummer Andy Preece’s commanding, hypnotic grooves. Guitarist Simon Mayo fills in the gaps with jagged riffs and layers of dissonant, skronk-heavy leads. Franklin lends a sneering, British rasp to the endeavor, guiding the songs with an impassioned vocal performance that successfully conveys the aural depravity on display. This formula is deepened with the addition of menacing choral vocals and harmonies (“Ma,” “The Alchemist”), swirling guitar cacophonies (“Tantrum), and even Primitive Man-tinged, slow noise bursts (“Isaac”). It’s an effective and thoroughly unsettling display with just enough variety in its execution to keep things exciting until the B-side obliterates any sense of normalcy.

In the second half of What Happens In Roundwood, Under undergo a dramatic sonic shift, and the results are thrilling. The final stretch of the album leans heavily into exploratory, avant-garde jazz-influenced territory, with the tracks flowing seamlessly into one another like a three-part suite. These songs stand out as the album’s clear highlights. The sequence begins with “Rings,” which unfolds in a state of subdued horror, slowly building tension through sparse instrumentation before reaching a blissful climax. This transitions smoothly into “Roots and Limbs,” a jazzy, post-hardcore-like track that increases the tempo and intensity, providing a sense of release after several slower songs. All of this builds toward the closer, “Felling.” The final track plays out like a fever dream, reprising key moments from earlier in the album and reshaping them into a chaotic haze of noise. When the music finally collapses into rich choral vocals, it feels like the calm at the center of a storm. A perfect ending to a bold and striking second half.

This places What Happens in Roundwood in a peculiar position. The second half of the record explores markedly different sonic territory than the first, and is stronger for it. Under’s more standard sound, showcased on the first five tracks, is engaging, but compared to the highs of the final three, it falls a little short. Repeated listens leave me wanting just a bit more grit or memorability in the more straightforward sludge riffcraft before it gives way to the more exploratory material. I appreciate the band’s efforts to vary their noise-rock/sludge approach through vocal layers/embellishments or a Southern tinge (“Escape Roundwood”), but I find myself largely whelmed by the opening salvo. This isn’t a major mark against the record; the album is solid throughout. Still, it keeps the work from standing quite as tall alongside some of my favorites in the style.

With What Happens In Roundwood, Under have delivered a solid sludgy noise rock record with plenty of autre appeal. I wish the impressive oddity were distributed a bit more evenly throughout the album’s runtime, but it’s still an enjoyable listen that carves out its own unique niche within the broader style. The next time the UK group revisits their brand of sinister sludge, I’ll be excited to listen.

Rating: Good!
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: APF Records
Websites: understockport.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/understockport
Releases Worldwide: January 23rd, 2026

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For the brand of ultra-modern nü-deathcore they play, Bite Down clearly know what they’re doing. Violent Playground is largely made up of short, 2–3 minute bludgeon-fests that deploy every tool in the contemporary heavy music arsenal to maximize mosh appeal. These are straightforward songs built on simple core riffs and stacked with multiple breakdowns, all pushed to their absolute limit and enhanced by smart production choices. Subtle synths and electronic textures thicken the riffs, while bass drops and vocal layering ensure that every breakdown lands with maximum violence. The band blends the nü-metal-tinged bleeps, bloops, and Digitech whammy abuse of Darko US with the over-the-top brutality of Dealer, delivering it all with the unapologetic ignorance of stylistic forebearers Emmure. For the most part, this results in an effective—if predictable—modern core assault, though it isn’t without its missteps.

Violent Playground is a short, nine-track release, and on roughly half of those songs, Bite Down are firing on all cylinders. Tracks like “Self Inflicted,” “Bury You,” “Paralythe,” and “Bound to Nothing” highlight the band’s knack for crafting vicious, crowd-ready violence, hurtling between kill riffs and breakdowns under the guidance of vocalist Hampus Ströberg’s venomous delivery and misanthropic lyrics. Unfortunately, these highlights are offset by several tracks that lean more heavily into hip-hop influences, disrupting the album’s momentum. The title track detours into a brief rap verse before circling back to a final breakdown, while “Deadweight” spends much of its runtime riding a trap-style instrumental alongside a rap feature. These moments aren’t disastrously executed—“Wastage,” in particular, effectively uses a restrained hip-hop intro before fully kicking in, but they’re less compelling and feel out of place on such a concise tracklist.

The core issue with Violent Playground is that it doesn’t quite register as a fully realized album. With the inclusion of the interlude “Exit Out,” Bite Down are left with only eight full songs, two of which are partially sidelined by less engaging rap sections. On a record that barely cracks the 20-minute mark, this has a noticeable impact, making the release feel more like a slightly beefed-up EP than a cohesive full-length. Combined with the lack of a clear flow or overarching thematic thread, the album falls short of elevating its strongest moments. The standout tracks are undeniably effective, but they aren’t enhanced by the context surrounding them, and that’s ultimately a missed opportunity.

On Violent Playground, Bite Down show that they’re plenty capable of making effective and devastating nü-deathcore bangers, but not of making a cohesive album. The standout tracks here (“Bury You, “Paralythe,” and “Bound by Nothing”) hit hard enough to justify the buzz and will almost certainly thrive in isolation, primed for gym playlists, breakdown compilations, and bite-sized algorithm fodder, but I’d be hard-pressed to revisit the full album instead of just listening to my preferred songs. Bite Down clearly understand how modern heavy music circulates and succeeds online, but until that singles-first mentality is translated into a more holistic artistic vision, this debut feels less like a complete album and more like a well-executed content drop for the feed.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 160 kb/s mp3
Label: Prime Collective
Websites: bitedownmusic.com| facebook.com/bitedownband
Releases Worldwide: January 9th, 2026

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Each song on Bible Songs 2 adapts short Old and New Testament passages, turning some of the Bible’s darkest verses into miniature noise-rock payloads, modernizing the language and maximizing each piece’s impact with deranged noise-rock instrumentation. Foley’s acerbic spoken delivery covers verses about the vicious destruction and suffering of Jerusalem during the Babylonian siege (“Lamentations 4:7—11”), the condemnation of man by God for his failures (“Joshua 7:6—26”), and the ultimate biblical reckoning at the end of days (“Revelation 8:7—13”). Each line is spewed with a sort of sarcastic vitriol that at once recognizes the horror of its subject matter, while also poking fun at its absurdity. Individual lines alternate between exaggerated humor, ¹ and cosmic consequence. ² Through it all, Foley’s personality and keen sense of phrasing contribute to no shortage of incredibly memorable couplets that have stuck with me all year since I first heard them.

Bible Songs 2 features exclusively guitar, bass, and a drum machine, yet The Austerity Program uses this sparse palette to create expansive canvases that both excite and disturb. Calabrese’s bass provides the record’s most recognizable element, a chunky, mid-pushed growl reminiscent of imperial-era Ministry or The Jesus Lizard, forming the backbone of most songs alongside the band’s signature drum machine grooves. That drum machine feels uncanny in its force and precision, functioning less like traditional percussion and more like an inhuman engine driving each track forward. Foley’s guitar operates primarily as a shrill, siren-like effect, recontextualizing riffs, adding rhythmic accents, and pushing the music into the liminal space between noise and composition. These elements converge across six tracks built on hypnotic, repeating rhythms that expand and contract between subdued chaos and total aural devastation. “Judges 19:22—29” and “Luke 3:4—9” exemplify this, but there are also more even-tempered pieces like the bass-led “Joshua 7:6—26,” the slow-build of “Zephaniah 3:1—7,” or the sonic journey of “Lamentations 4:7—11.” This is all in preparation for the closer “Revelation 8:7—13,” whose urgent tremolo riffs, inhuman snare patterns, and final burst of dissonance convincingly soundtrack the end of days. ³

Bible Songs 2 is an absolute triumph of a record. It builds on the immense strengths The Austerity Program has demonstrated in the past and weaponizes their unique brand of unsettling noise rock for a set of timely compositions that showcase just how powerful the combination of music and a fully-realized subject matter can be. It’s one of my favorite records of the year, and I’ll be quoting notable lines and blasting it for years to come.

Tracks to Check Out: “Lamentations 4:7—11,” “Judges 19:22—29,” “Joshua 7:6—26,” “Revelation 8:7—13”

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One of the most compelling aspects of The Blue Nowhere is the genre exploration BTBAM undertakes on nearly every track. In their earlier work (Alaska, Colors), BTBAM often veered into Mr. Bungle–esque genre detours as brief respites from their riff-salad. ³ Over time, these moments have gradually evolved into elements that feel more organically woven into the songs’ DNA. On The Blue Nowhere, that evolution reaches full maturity, with tracks built around key genre incorporations that bring a sense of playfulness and ingenuity to the A-side, making the lengthy record breeze by. From a funkalicious opener that careens between tasty chicken-scratch guitars and soaring, progtastic choruses (“Things We Tell Ourselves in the Dark”), to a delightful bluegrass motif that anchors a rambunctious tune (“Absent Thereafter”), to an industrial-tinged rager that culminates in one of the band’s classic breakdowns (“God Terror”), the opening salvo showcases a band fully at ease melding their signature sound with unexpected combinations—and achieving stellar results.

None of these genre experiments would matter much, however, if the band lacked strong songs to support them. Fortunately, BTBAM excel in that department. The record’s B-side continues to explore new sonic territory for BTBAM, from an extended, vaudevillian, string-led passage (“Slow Paranoia”) to a post-rock–influenced climax (“Beautifully Human”), but the latter half is especially focused on sharpening their songwriting to a level it has never quite reached before. “Psychomanteum” and “Slow Paranoia” present the band at their very best, seamlessly blending breakneck pacing and technical wizardry with memorable hooks and an unmistakable sense of fun, earning their place alongside my favorite classic tracks and never once feeling their 11-plus-minute runtimes. It’s in the closing pair of tracks, though—“The Blue Nowhere” and “Beautifully Human”—that the album truly drives home its impact. These are cleaner, more somber compositions than nearly anything the band has released before, ⁴ complete with lush synth layers and captivating vocal harmonies. Together, they highlight BTBAM’s ability to craft powerful, emotionally resonant songs that place their impeccable musicianship firmly in service of the composition, serving as the finishing touch to an already excellent record.

The Blue Nowhere is Between the Buried and Me’s most exciting and fully realized release in years. It’s unmistakably BTBAM, yet it finds the band fully comfortable with their evolution, delivering an impressive set of layered, intricate, and emotionally resonant tracks. The record feels like a return to form, with the group confidently rediscovering their footing and producing one of the strongest prog releases of the year.

Tracks to Check Out: “God Terror,” “Absent Thereafter,” “Slow Paranoia,” “Beautifully Human”

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The best way to describe Confusion Gate is that Yellow Eyes have returned to a more traditional atmospheric black metal sound, but have taken with them all of the lessons from the albums they’ve produced since. Compositions are expansive and built on the standard black metal foundation (blast beats, tremelos, kvlt shrieking) but are imbued with a stunning sense of hypnotic melody from synths, nature sound effects, and layers of luminous guitars. The classic Krallice-like Skarstad guitar work, which defies all conventional logic, appears plenty here, but it’s nested in a sea of gorgeous harmonies. Songs introduce motifs, develop them, and return to them in a way that resembles classical composition, creating a cohesive and deeply textured sonic journey. Confusion Gate captures the Thoreau-tinged naturalism from Cascadian black metal legends Agalloch and Wolves In The Throne Room, runs them through the kaleidoscopic filter of Trhä, and finishes them with the distinctive melodic dissonance of Yellow Eyes. The result is an immaculate realization of the band’s sound that feels at once familiar and utterly novel.

In many ways, Confusion Gate feels like the full realization of the potential hinted at by Master’s Murmur. Several standout tracks (“Brush the Frozen Horse,” “Suspension Moon,” “I Fear the Master’s Murmur”) interpolate haunting melodies from their 2023 dungeon synth album gorgeously, elevating them to sublime heights at the center of these dynamic and powerful compositions. Combined with a series of subdued interludes, the record takes on the shape of a complete, carefully sculpted work. Across full listens, I find myself lulled into a dark, reflective haze by the album’s more brooding passages (“The Scent of Black Mud,” “A Forgotten Corridor”), only to be jolted awake by moments of startling beauty. For an hour-plus black metal album, there are no pacing issues, just a masterful display of contrast and tension that culminates in the breathtaking, blissful climax of the title track. All of this is rendered with a warm, crunchy analog texture, the result of a fully self-recorded and self-produced effort that defiantly rejects the oppressive polish of so many modern releases. Every synth line, kick drum hit, and ethereal guitar figure feels alive and organic in a way few contemporary records do.

It’s hard for me to adequately convey my thoughts on Confusion Gate because Yellow Eyes has produced a record that transcends the traditional logic that we analyze music with. When I’m listening to this album, I just experience a raw outpouring of feeling and emotion beyond what most art has the ability to convey. It’s a stunning achievement that stands as a testament to the sheer pathos music can conjure and it’s one of the best black metal records of the decade.

Songs To Check Out: “Brush the Frozen Horse,” “The Thought of Death,” “I Fear the Master’s Murmur,” “Confusion Gate”

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Equinox marks a clear return to form for Equilibrium after the detour of Renegades. The electronic and metalcore elements from their last record still linger, occasionally poking their neon-tinted heads out, but the heart of the band’s sound is back in full force: that boisterous blend of Finntroll and Ensiferum filtered through the Europower cheese of Rhapsody of Fire, now with a touch of Avatar added. The songs are built on a familiar mix of traditional woodwinds, thick distorted guitars, and gaudy synth lines, with newcomer Fabi’s fearsome growl leading the charge through straightforward verses and repeated choruses. When these ingredients click, and the newer sonic flourishes collide with the band’s classic, folk-driven sense of epic grandeur, the result can be exhilarating. Tracks like “Gnosis,” “Awakening” and “Bloodwood” move easily between core-tinged riffs and massive, sing-along Viking choruses, delivered with the bombast Equilibrium is known for. Unfortunately, the rest of the album doesn’t reach the same heights.

According to the band, Equinox was originally intended as an EP rather than a full-length release, and the pacing issues and filler make that easy to believe. Large sections of several songs feel like padding before the actual track begins. Both “Borrowed Waters” and “Legends” open with long, drawn-out “atmospheric” intros that sap the impact of what follows, and the album includes no fewer than three interludes (“Archivist,” “Rituals of Sun and Moon” and “Tides of Time”). These moments don’t do the record any favors. They’re often delivered through a jarring mix of electronic trap drums, over-the-top synth lines and the band’s more traditional woodwind flourishes, creating a stylistic mishmash that feels pulled straight from a fantasy-themed Fortnite event. At times, these elements collide with simplistic, “tribal,” repetition-heavy vocals (“Earth Tongue”), resulting in something that sounds closer to a hyper-dramatic Nordaboo YouTube montage than classic Equilibrium. Even though the album does contain plenty of fully formed songs, these detours make the overall experience feel uneven and lopsided.

There are moments on Equinox where Equilibrium’s updated approach works despite its flaws. “I’ll Be Thunder” is a concise, effective track that blends electronic and orchestral elements into a tightly written folk-metal package. Even the seemingly toxic trance-metal/rap/metalcore hybrid verse in “One Hundred Hands” is intriguing, though the autotuned chorus and generic breakdown drag the song down. To the band’s credit, the mixing is solid across the album. It’s polished without being crushed by excessive loudness for a Nuclear Blast release, and producer Daniel McCook does an admirable job balancing the electronic, orchestral, and metal components. The result is a surprisingly even production that rewards multiple listens. I just wish there were more aspects of Equinox I could praise without reservations.

Equinox is a difficult album to recommend despite its strengths. Equilibrium have mostly abandoned the divisive sound of their previous record, while adapting its electronic elements in a return to form. The singles here do capture the bombast of their earlier work and are fun enough on their own, but the record around them is inconsistent and, at times, baffling in its execution. Equilibrium could certainly do a lot worse, but this is far from the re-conquest of the folk metal throne it could’ve been.

Rating: 2.0/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 256 kb/s mp3
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Websites: equilibrium-metal.net | facebook.com/equilibrium
Releases Worldwide: November 28th, 2025

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Luckily for Strigiform, their songcraft does anything but check boxes, and the compositions on Aconite are nuanced and powered by a crack team of impeccable musicians. This is a quartet of underground metal veterans, from bands such as Vertebra Atlantis, Afraid of Destiny and Thirst Prayer, showing every bit of their pedigree across a lean 34-minute runtime. They merge the reality-altering riffcraft of mid-period Blut Aus Nord, the crystalline cleans of Haunter’s lighter moments and the sly virtuosity of Serpent Column into something entirely their own. Guitarist Saprovore careens between satisfying second-wave tremolos, uncomfortable suspended arpeggios, and spacey, phaser-coated clean sections dripping with a subtle menace. This delectable guitar work is backed by a tasty, jazz-fueled bass performance by Aiokos, who anchors the 6-string haze with a warm, meaty backbone, guiding the ear through these twisted compositions with melodic fills and supporting the eldritch riffery when necessary. The instrumental trio is rounded out by Morte Rossa on drums, who blasts and gallops as expected during the more anarchic moments, but also brings a gentle rhythmic touch to the record’s softer motifs. Each performance is impressive in its own right, but it’s the synthesis of these talented players working together to create considered compositions that elevate Aconite to a higher plane of perverse consciousness.

On Aconite, songs unfold naturally, brimming with skronktastic chaos and understated melodies. Strigiform understands the necessary push and pull to accent a work’s heavier moments, spending almost as much time lulling you into a sense of hypnotic false security as they do pummeling your eardrums with unholy blackened fury. The more aggressive cuts (“Adamant,” “Obsecration”) are led by omnidimensional death-tinged riffs and octopus-armed drum grooves while vocalist N shrieks abstract void poetry atop it all, but the rest of the album leaves plenty of room for brooding atmosphere. “Scorched and Hostile” emerges from its aural onslaught and ends on a sickening off-time chordal refrain, while album highlight “Hypnagogic Allure” weaves around a gorgeously haunting, Imperial Triumphant-esque clean arpeggio, building towards a dissonant freak-out as its poignant conclusion. Aconite demonstrates a pointed and deliberate pacing that often eludes bands of this ilk. Whenever a section might overstay its welcome, Strigiform interject with a novel, mind-bending part which furthers the song, easing up on the gas when necessary, but always deepening the band’s twisted vision.

Musically, Aconite is superb, but the work as a whole is elevated by Strigiform’s keen sense of thematics. The six songs on Aconite are ordered from shortest to longest, with each piece becoming more and more expansive until the 8-minute finale “Knell of Nethermost Withdrawal,” a tune that begins with nearly two minutes of abstract noise before the band’s familiar groaning lurch explodes into action. A full album listen gives the sense of descending into the Conradian darkness of some sinister subterranea. This is aided by some truly standout lyrics which evoke a poetic nihilism with the flourish of French symbolists like Baudelaire or Rimbaud. Such evocative lines as “Encapsulation of screaming cells / Inebriated by rotten velvet / Heal me with your aconite hands / Soak me in crimson flames / Turn my wrath to limestone / Drown in smoke” or “Molten into iridescent hallucinations / of devoured perception / yet again, another moment of consciousness / coerced into contemplation.” set my inner English major’s heart ablaze and are clear evidence that Aconite has the narrative weight to match its outstanding musicianship.

With Aconite, Strigiform have crafted a fully realized artistic statement that pushes the boundaries of esoteric underground metal. It’s the kind of album that makes all the trials and tribulations of music reviewing worthwhile—a debut from an unknown band on a modest label that completely floors you. Aconite is dynamic, intricate, and richly layered, a record every fan of avant-garde metal should hear. I can’t wait to see what Strigiform do next

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: I, Voidhanger Records
Websites: i-voidhangerrecords.bandcamp.com/album/aconite
Releases Worldwide: November 14th, 2025

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