Steel Druhm summarizes his experiences on the recent 70000 Tons of Metal Cruise while downplaying and concealing crimes committed in international waters.
Dark Tranquillity
Stuck in the Filter: September 2025’s Angry Misses
Ah, the pungent stench of autumnal Filters. Forget pumpkin spice and get you some Filter droppings from September!
Mors Principium Est – Darkness Invisible Review
Since 2003, Mors Principium Est has released eight full-length albums of top-notch melodic death metal. Most people agree, however, they really took flight in 2012, which coincidentally is a year after Andy Gillion joined the band. Gillion was fired, however, in 2021. So, with the re-entry of the original guitarists and a new creative engine, I’ve been dying to know how Mors would navigate album number nine. And now it’s here…
Vittra – Intense Indifference Review
“Two months ago, I saw a post on social media announcing Vittra’s sophomore album, Intense Indifference. The name struck me as funny. “A bit like a Radical Neutrality Party or my side-project Exaggerated Understatement,” I quipped quippily while jonesing for that hot rush of dopamine that comes along with them sweet, sweet likes. But once my fix was had, I hastily forgot about them.” Like me and your mom.
Record(s) o’ the Month – May 2025
There are months when the Record(s) o’ the Month feels like a sacred duty. It is the noble, worthwhile culmination of rigorous listening and passionate discourse. And then there’s May. May, a month in which Dr. A.N. Grier tried to vote for a band called… SEXCAVE or some shit 4 or 5 different times with different pseudonyms, and where Dolphin Whisperer almost made me rage quit by making a single joke about “sky-tearing tonalities,” which, like… what kind of pretentious fucking bullshit is that? Do you people even listen to music or do you just sit around all day making up stupid poetic ways of saying absolutely nothing?
Yer Metal is Olde: Dark Tranquillity – Character
“Once heralded as a promising hotbed of melodic death metal goodness, Gothenburg, Sweden wasn’t quite the same back in 2005 as it was in the mid-to-late 1990s. In Flames was busy chasing the nü-metal dream, trading twin guitar melodies and acoustic folklore and beauty for jumpsuits, dreadlocks, and simplistic riffage. At The Gates, once the spearhead of the entire Gothenburg movement, was long gone at that point, and wouldn’t reunite for another couple of years. It was up to Dark Tranquillity to put the city back on the map, and despite their own dalliances in moody goth territory, it would take 2002’s Damage Done to marry their trademark melodic sensibilities with their newfound love for electronic influences and dark motifs.” Damage merchants.
AMG’s Unsigned Band Rodeö: Nephylim – Circuition
““AMG’s Unsigned Band Rodeö” is a time-honored tradition to showcase the most underground of the underground—the unsigned and unpromoted. This collective review treatment continues to exist to unite our writers in boot or bolster of the bands who remind us that, for better or worse, the metal underground exists as an important part of the global metal scene. The Rodeö rides on.” In the field with Nephylim.
Arch Enemy – Blood Dynasty Review
“Incepted as an offshoot of Carcassian lineage, early breakout albums Wages of Sin (2001) and Doomsday Machine (2005) spread like wildfire in the emerging world of digital accessibility. In particular, clips from the 2006 DVD Live Apocalypse, popped around early YouTube further quenching the thirst for the powerful live performances that the once ravenous act possessed—at least that’s my memory of how the melodeath-leaning Swedes came to be a global powerhouse. Arch Enemy’s current incarnation does not lack stage-ready talent, of course—professionals thrive on the tour.” Enemies everywhere.
Thy Kingdom Will Burn – The Loss and Redemption Review
“Scarlet Records have been around for some time, quietly snatching up every power, symphonic, and corset-core outfit in Italy. Why are there so many of these acts in a country of its size, you ask? I-a have-a no idea-a. So, it was a great surprise when I picked up this rando from their label, neither Italian nor any of the aforementioned genre abominations. Thy Kingdom Will Burn hails from the frozen wastelands of Finland and plays sad-boi melodic death metal.” The burning sad.
The Halo Effect – March of the Unheard Review
“It seems like only yesterday I was writing about a supergroup helmed by Mikael Stanne of Dark Tranquillity fame. That’s because I just covered Cemetery Skyline, his Goth rock project that dropped the very successful Nordic Gothic release late last year. Now in the blink of a Mind’s I, he’s back with the sophomore outing from The Halo Effect. This star-studded collective features various past members of In Flames. It’s essentially a salute to the early days of the Gothenburg sound, with an approach that conjures nostalgia of the glory days of both Dark Tranquillity and In Flames equally.” Perish in the flaming tranquillity!
