“As is perhaps unsurprising for a doom act, Dvm Spiro appear to have a preoccupation with death. The subtitle of their debut, MMXIX – In Frigidum Lectum is Latin for In a Cold Bed—presumably an allusion to one’s grave—and now, sophomore MMXXVI – Grave states that concept explicitly. This legacy in misery actually extends further into the past, as three of Dvm Spiro’s four members also play in longstanding Italian doom outfit Nihili Locus.” Doomed to the grave.
“As 2025 winds to a close, the depleted promo pit growls with hunger, eager for the new year and a fresh bucket o’ chum. As I sift through the meager mid-December hopefuls, I detect a flash of black and silver. Snatching the promo, I discover clarinet-wielding Vittorio Sabelli and his project Dawn of a Dark Age, along with ninth album Ver Sacrum.” At the end of the year is the Dark Age.
“Of all the genre labels, doom metal is probably the one that most often prompts me to investigate further. This isn’t because it’s my favorite per se, but rather because doom and its myriad subgenres can sound so wildly different from one another, so I try to ensure I don’t miss something good. This time it paid off when I found Aganoor, a brand new doom group from Rome, Italy. Formed as recently as summer 2023, they wasted no time writing and recording a debut LP, Doomerism, which promises an intriguing blend of classic doom, stoner, heavy psych, and goth rock.” Doom for expansion.
“Eva Can’t is ready for a musical expedition. A global, transoceanic expedition, judging by the promo sheet which says that Emisferi is “imagined as a journey from pole to pole on an uninhabited planet.” Accordingly, the album title translates to “hemispheres” from Italian and is organized into four trios of songs called Ghiacci Boreali (Northern Ice), Mari Boreali (Northern Seas), Mari Australi (Southern Seas) and Ghiacci Australi (Southern Ice). To navigate such an ambitious concept this time around, they must be adventurous enough to explore new waters yet focused enough to avoid drifting aimlessly.” Pole dancing.
“Post-black isn’t a style I would normally associate with themes of viscera or ritualism. Stereotypes and caricatures exist as Deafheaven school of thought, quite cheery affairs with sanguine post-rock melodies atop a foundation of distant blastbeats and shrieks. Ecr.Linf offers no such grace.” Grace and the hammer.
“Good blackgaze feels way too hard to come by. There’s just something about the crossroad of metal and not metal that eludes so many artists and listeners. Done right, it’s one of my preferred styles of metal, allowing for intense beauty and vivid emotion at the same time, so I was excited to have the opportunity to review Senhal, the debut full-length album from Italy’s Of the Muses. According to its promotional material, the album mixes doom, black, and post-metal alongside dreampop elements in a mesh of blackgaze.” Gaze into the void.
“Latin—language of ancient history’s classiest empire, known only by nerds with and without PhDs, and vernacular of choice for many a metal act. Somnium Nocte Mendaciis (Night’s Dreams of Lies) continues Ophe’s foray into the world of incomprehensible titles, and nearly as incomprehensible music. In the time since 2018’s Litteras Ad Tristia Maestrum Solitude, sole member Bargnatt XIX has only doubled-down on the weird. Now forgoing clean vocals entirely, as well as almost all things approaching a melody, the album is the exact opposite of easy listening.” Dead tongues and harsh language.
“As I do with all bands that have a discography, I started from the top. It was only last year that Kolossus dropped their debut record, The Line of the Border. In those forty-plus minutes, my lips would involuntarily mouth, ‘What the fuck?’ Each song is nothing like the last. Each brings something new to the plate, and none cared what came before or went after. It refused to follow the rules—it’s own or anyone else’s. And, to an extent, K is no different.” K is for Klosers.
“What a profoundly odd band In Tormentata Quiete is. Plenty of Italian bands are grand, pompous, cheesy, and theatrical, but few do it like this one, sporting three vocalists in a range of styles but remaining light on orchestral elements. Their first foray into the halls of AMG was shot down with a 1.0 from Grymm for being unstructured and containing baffling, out-of-place elements like rap breakdowns in the middle of their semi-symphonic avant-garde drama metal. Their second, Finestatico, earned them a 3.5 from yours truly, seemingly fixing everything its predecessor did wrong. Krononota sees another change of the guard in the vocal department, but can they maintain the high standard of before?” Pomp in a weird place.
“It’s all about the journey, so the saying goes. For me, the journey from album discovery to album listening to album review is often the highlight of my week, regardless of the ultimate destination (read: rating). For Luca Mazzotta, the one man behind the one-man Helfir project, The Journey is his third release, and one that takes its title very seriously. Taking the helm on every instrument, real and programmed, Mazzotta’s ambitions and inspirations, including such names as Katatonia and Porcupine Tree, are unleashed over fifty minutes of honest, dark, and remarkably flexible music.” Safe travels.
