Dolphin Whisper and Thus Spoke get their time to shine with their Top Ten(ish) of 2025. Brace for weirdness!
Suffering Hour
Ossuary – Abhorrent Worship Review
“These days, it seems like people get their idea of what “cavernous” should sound like from people who read about caves in books. Incantation are supposed to be the torch bearers for the subgenre, but they have sounded more like a facsimile of the sound for decades, and even more filthy modern equivalents like Funebrarum or Vastum still manage to sound like a studio imitation of what should be a raw and organic aural depiction. Drilling through the limestone and sporting some concerningly bloody tools, Ossuary have arrived with their debut full-length Abhorrent Worship, with the promo itself promising the album will open up a cave for you, dear listener, to die in.” Turn your head and cave.
Ritual Ascension – Profanation of the Adamic Covenant Review
“Profanation of the Adamic Covenant represents catacombs dripping with putridity and filth, the blasphemy called against the heavens from far below ground. It’s an upheaval from beneath our feet, the crawling and coagulant rot that spreads from abyss to abyss. The filth and blood clots our eyes, hearts, and minds, driving us deeper and deeper into the madness until our lungs are filled with mud. Ritual Ascension is transcendence and enlightenment achieved through the reveling and swallowing of the grime-soaked entrails through a vicious and ancient ritual, the lumbering deity whose mammoth footfalls and cloud of plague require payment in full. It’s a ritual to the god of the mud and disease, and a fist slammed into the underside of heaven.” Punishment rituals.
Sarcophagum – The Grand Arc of Madness
“Side projects are a staple in all genres of music, and metal is no exception. Some projects are used to explore new ideas that would be out of place in a musician’s main outfit (Spectral Voice), with others to express themselves in a more individualized setting (Corpsegrinder). But what if members of a band decided they could do the same thing as their old and current outfit, but better? Enter Sarcophagum. Created by current and past members of Golgothan Remains, this Sydney Australia studio project wasted no time crafting a debut EP in 2022 and released a stand-alone single just last year. Now, they stand poised to deliver their first full-length, The Grand Arc of Madness.” Of side projects and phagums.
Stuck in the Filter: May 2024’s Angry Misses
May Filter uncloggings bring cool metal…sloggings? Work with me here, people!
Acausal Intrusion – Panpsychism Review
“Acausal Intrusion verged on greatness with 2021’s Nulitas, touching the lip of the void but never quite accomplishing the swan dive into the darkness. Uncompromisingly complex, dissonant, and brutal through Nythroth’s unhinged axework, alongside more brutal elements like vocalist Cave Ritual’s subterranean growls and his tasteful pong snare, it was an album loaded with potential – uniquely accomplished through a strangely counterintuitive meditative quality.” Pardon this new Intrusion.
Tongues – Formløse Stjerner Review
“The niche within a niche label I, Voidhanger often scrapes the fringes of underground styles for acts embracing the weird, the strange, the vaguely musical—curious but rarely captivating for me. Par for the course, I’d never heard of Denmark’s Tongues before snagging up Formløse Stjerner, but something about the tumultuous landscape of the nihilistically nautical cover called to me like a Danish white whale, a hvidhval, if you will. Feel the Willies!
Decipher – Arcane Paths to Resurrection Review
“The artwork for Arcane Paths to Resurrection struck me immediately, and not only because it’s cool. There was something familiar about it, and after a little digging, I found that the same artist, Artem Grigoryev, is behind both this and the cover of Suffering Hour’s The Cyclic Reckoning. What’s funny is that even before discovering this, I was thinking about how much Decipher’s debut reminded me of Suffering Hour. It has a similar grittiness, a similar piercing edge to its guitar tones, and similar thrashy energy.” Suffering for art.
Haunter – Discarnate Ails Review
“I first heard of San Antonio’s Haunter during my brief stint in the Discord server. The discordant blackened death of 2019’s Sacramental Death Qualia caught my ears immediately. It struck the difficult balance of exploring tortuous harmonies and building an unsettling atmosphere while keeping me rapt. Dissonance tends to alienate me more often than it attracts me, but Haunter occupies a thin middle ground of bands like Ulcerate and Sunless that inject a digestible dose of dissonance while still supplying compelling melodies to latch onto.” Haunting the Alamo.
Senzar – Pyre of Throes Review
“While the small nation of Ireland is host to a few larger names (Primordial and Altar of Plagues come to mind), there is still not yet a strongly defined Irish metal sound, other than the stereotypical squeal of bagpipe or drone of a hurdy gurdy. Senzar does not muse on folky ideas, instead using Pyre of Throes to cement their place in the ranks of post-kissed blackened acts like Suffering Hour or Yellow Eyes.” Irish fires.
