Mere weeks remain before the big holiday events befall us. Of course, I’m speaking about the AMG Listurnalia, but yeah, Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year’s are coming too. Before these festive occasions distract us, we must churn out several belated Record(s) o’ the Month features because running them in 2025 would be really tacky. And so we come to the now distant month of October and the fruits it bore us. Eat well, but save room for figgy pudding!
“Sometimes it’s not about the brutality or the speed, it’s about the pizzazz. German band Deathrite began life as OSDM worship in 2010, before attempting to make their own mark by incorporating more punk riff simplicity and black metal atmospheres into one vile brew. Now, they stand poised to deliver their fifth outing, the oddly titled Flames Licking Fever, and the idea of such a trifecta of sounds certainly tickles the earballs. Do the ingredients come together in a potable stew, or should these flavors remain separated from each other for good?” Lick the Devil.
“Veonity has undergone some crucial changes since they last graced these hallowed halls, notably the addition of vocalist Isak Stenvall (Lancer), which allows former vocalist Anders Sköld to focus solely on guitar. With the extra firepower that Stenvall provides, Veonity hopes to get you pumped up for their epic saga of power metal anthems.” Was Stenvall The Final Element they needed to complete their sound? See what I did there? ;)
“Deivos is probably not the band you think of first when it comes to the vibrant Polish death metal scene. Vader? Sure. Behemoth?? Of course! Decapitated?! Absolutely–Winds of Creation is one of the best death metal debuts on record. I was surprised, then, to discover that Deivos has also stalked the scene for over 25 years, starting in 1997–and that Apophenia is the band’s seventh album since debuting Emanation from Below in 2006.” Olde perogies.
“I’ve long been a fan of blackened speed metal, with some of my favorite releases over the past few years falling into this most ferocious of subgenres. Bavaria’s own Blackevil scratched that specific itch with their sophomore effort Forever Baptised in Eternal Fire back in 2020. Thankfully, the mighty Holdeneye’s flowery prose perfectly captured my feelings about that record, and I’ve spent many an hour since then spinning that blasphemous little bundle of joy.” And now it falls to Tolkien’s wayward Mary Sue to assess whether Blackevil has delivered yet again.
“In examining Oregon-based Sleepless’ sophomore outing, Through Endless Black, it’s at least clear that two things are true: the power of riffs indeed compels this collection to rock, and an urgent vocal identity fills its chest proudly. But the question still looms around what brand of traditional showmanship Sleepless displays.” Wherein one unruly Dolphin-wrangler talks about a sword too deep in its sheath.
“Have you ever looked back on the grander, moister bands of yore and thought ‘Man, I sure do wish Immortal and Angelcorpse did an album together’? That’s okay, neither have I—apparently we have no imagination. Luckily, New Jersey blackened death outfit Blasphemous are prepared to uncork their fourth album, To Lay Siege and Conquer to show us all what we’ve been missing.” Once again, New Jersey innovates. I’m fairly certain that’s the first time such a sentence has been composed in the English language.
“Norse mythology is becoming increasingly prevalent in modern popular culture. Figures such as Thor, Odin, and Loki are now household names thanks to the popularity of Marvel movies, but many metal groups have drawn deeply from these legendary stories for decades. To them, they transcend surface entertainment value, ingrained with cultural and even religious identity. Hailing from Sweden, Seid seeks to explore the spiritual side of ancient Norse traditions and beliefs through pagan black metal.” Norse codes.
“Reviewing the newest release from a long-running band you’ve never heard of is one of the more interesting experiences I’ve had as a reviewer. Although Slechtvalk has been taking on the Dutch metal scene since 1999, I’d never heard of them before accepting this review. Really, all I had was a genre tag—black metal—and the difficult-to-ignore expectation that you get when a group has been around for as long as this Dutch trio. Could they live up to it? Of course they could—they’ve been around for a while, after all. Do they? Also yes, but let’s dive into the why.” Olde, bolde, and colde.
“At their most well-behaved, members of the Fey Kingdom are mischievous. A wallet lost here, a child spirited away there, all good fun. But history has ever taught us that the Fey can, and will, be cruel. As per Scottish Folklore, it is there, in the Unseelie Court, where those malicious denizens of the Fey Kingdom dwell, and plot. Thus arrives New York-based newcomers Mythbegotten, here to divulge untold stories of what’s past the forest’s edge by reading from a musty old tome of Tales from the Unseelie Court.” Staten Island Fairies.
