2024

Judicator – Concord Review

Judicator – Concord Review

By Iceberg on March 29, 2025 in Reviews, Heavy Metal, Power Metal, 50 comments

“Seven albums into their career, Utah’s Judicator are back with another platter of American power metal designed to raise both your horns and your calorie load. Originally the epitome of Blind Guardian worship, Judicator began moving away from their Hansi-centric style with the departure of founding guitarist Alicia Cordisco in 2022. This coincided with the release of The Majesty of Decay, an album that saw Judicator adding prog to their power core, a move that satisfied the Eye of Holden but didn’t sit so well with resident power metal maven Eldritch. Their latest LP, Concord, has Judicator tackling the American West, a mythos that’s rightfully earned its reputation as good, bad, and ugly.” Cheesio Leone.

August Moon – Something Eldritch and Macabre Review

August Moon – Something Eldritch and Macabre Review

By Owlswald on February 18, 2025 in Reviews, Black Metal, Death Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Power Metal, Thrash Metal, 34 comments

“As Listurnalia hits these hallowed halls with the year-end release doldrums in full swing, scraping the pit to unearth one last juicy morsel before the holidays can be a fool’s errand. Luckily, I didn’t have to scrape much as August Moon’s debut Something Eldritch and Macabre was gifted to me from the bone pile. Conceived at the epicenter of Finland’s renowned 90’s death metal scene as a side project and think tank of avant-garde ideas not suitable for their main band, As Serenity Fades, August Moon are a testament to patience. After a brief one-year run and the release of two demos, the group disbanded in 1994 before re-emerging in 2014 to continue crafting their debut.” The power and the patience.

Choir – Smithe Thee Smoldering Providence [Things You Might Have Missed 2024]

Choir – Smithe Thee Smoldering Providence [Things You Might Have Missed 2024]

By Dear Hollow on February 9, 2025 in Things You Might Have Missed 2024, Black Metal, Blackened Death Metal, Death Metal, 14 comments

“Bring them tired ashes to the black waters and sing an anthem for the famine! Smithe Thee Smoldering Providence is blasphemy, a molten and silt-laden horror that saturates every negative space with noise, desolation, and punishment. It dirges and roars like the gods that you thought were benevolent and merciful – their faces lurid and nauseating when you looked upon them. Hallelujah, you will go mad. You will embrace your fate with arms outstretched and feet running until you sink. You will vomit and rejoice at the coming of ruin. You will praise your master. Choir preaches to this manic truth and gospel of filth, recalling the memory of a ritual buried deep in a book of death-bathed dark.” Of smoldering and smotting.

Moondark – The Abysmal Womb Review

Moondark – The Abysmal Womb Review

By Tyme on February 1, 2025 in Reviews, Death Metal, Doom Metal, Sludge Metal, 36 comments

“Thirty years is a long time to spend brewing up a debut album, but for Sweden’s Moondark, it’s taken precisely that. Neither the result of sloth nor overwrought perfectionism, Moondark’s cadre of musicians—composed of current members from Interment and October Tide—have put in plenty of work during this time, contributing to some of Sweden’s heaviest hitters like Katatonia, Centinex, Necrophobic and the tragically short-lived Trees of Eternity. Not so hot on the heels then of their independently released Demo #1 in 1993, which Xtreem Music reissued as The Shadowpath in 2015, Moondark and label Pulverised Records are finally ready to serve up debut proper The Abysmal Womb to the masses.” Moons, wombs, darkly lit rooms.

AngryMetalGuy.com’s Aggregated Top 20 Albums o’ 2024

AngryMetalGuy.com’s Aggregated Top 20 Albums o’ 2024

By El Cuervo on January 30, 2025 in Blog Posts, Lists, 235 comments

“Here we are. The culmination of not just two to five weeks of hardcore listing, but twelve months of hardcore metalling. The AngryMetalGuy.com Aggregated Top 20 Albums o’ 2024 represents the cream of the crop, or more accurately, the cream of a small corner of a field containing some crops. Using the unrestrained power of manual data entry and a mighty spreadsheet, our wonderful little website compiles our numerous year-end ranking articles and the dozens of metal albums therein into one final, dreadful ranking.” One List to Debase Them All, One List to Find Them…

Angry Metal Guy’s Top Ten(ish) of 2024

Angry Metal Guy’s Top Ten(ish) of 2024

By Angry Metal Guy on January 29, 2025 in Blog Posts, Lists, 349 comments

Starting 2025 with a bang was always important, and I elected the “being 26 days late with your Record o’ the Year post” as the best possible way to give everyone that patented Angry Metal Guy feeling of waiting and waiting only to be smacked in the face with 5000 words that you disagree with entirely. Welcome to the Wonderful World of Executive Dysfunction™! Let’s make a list!

Wuldorgast – Cold Light Review

Wuldorgast – Cold Light Review

By Alekhines Gun on January 19, 2025 in Reviews, Black Metal, 52 comments

“As the tendrils of winter usher in good bourbon, unwanted family visits, and moon-bitten frost, the trvest of the black metallers come out to peddle their wares. Releasing anything so late in the year is a bold move, as list-mania seizes the hearts of authors across the blogosphere, making an uphill battle for bands from the first note. Here to try their luck today is two-man USBM outfit Wuldorgast, a band so young that at the time of this writing, they don’t even have a page on the Archives.” The darkness of Decemeber releases.