Review - Hessian Firm

Defeated Sanity – Chronicles of Lunacy (2024)

Defeated Sanity continues to defy expectations within the death metal scene. With their 30th anniversary on the horizon, the band shows no signs of slowing down, and their seventh album,…

By Nicholas Mkhl January 9, 2025Review

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Ulcerate – Cutting the Throat of God (2024)

Continuing the project laid out in the previous few albums, New Zealand’s Ulcerate endeavor to concoct a blend of post-metal in the style of Isis with the dissonant death metal…

By Raphael Alecto June 17, 2024Review

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Death Metal from Hellas – Part III: Nightfall – Parade into Centuries (1992)

(suggested track listening: ”Domestication of Wildness”, ”Immaculate / Enslaved by Need”) Nightfall’s debut album Parade into Centuries (1992) was, in many ways, a landmark release. It was arguably the earliest full-length album…

By bornofthecauldron April 27, 2024Review

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Iced Earth – Burnt Offerings (1995)

Iced Earth were always an anomaly within USPM, far darker and much more aggressive than their peers and unlike the rest of the bands from that scene, they did not…

By Nicholas Mkhl April 26, 2024Review

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Death Metal from Hellas – Part II: Funeral Revolt – Burial (1992)

(suggested track listening: ”Fly Beyond”, ”Concealment of Truth”) For the second installment in our series, we proceed north from Athens to the city of Edessa (Central Macedonia), home of another…

By Johan Pettersson March 23, 2024Review

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Death Metal from Hellas – Part I: Horrified – Eternal God (1991)

Whenever the subjects of Greece and metal music intertwine, the discussion tends to gravitate towards the Hellenes’ genuinely unique contribution to the black metal movement of the early-to-mid- 1990s. Quite…

By Johan Pettersson March 21, 2024Review

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Lordian Guard – Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (1997)

When speaking of metal music in terms of its perceived heaviness, a surface-level reading would point towards sonic signifiers such as down-tuned guitars, distorted vocals, or slow, pounding percussion. However,…

By Johan Pettersson March 7, 2024Review

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The Black – The Priest of Satan (1994)

In spite of featuring Jon Nödtveidt on vocals/guitars/keyboards and having been put to tape only a few months after the recording of ”The Somberlain”, The Black’s debut album bears surprisingly…

By Johan Pettersson February 24, 2024Review

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Nåstrond – Toteslaut (1995)

The Swedish Black Metal scene of the 1990s is often - and perhaps rightfully - portrayed as having consisted of a smaller cadre of style-defining artists, followed by a veritable…

By Johan Pettersson February 19, 2024Review

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Blind Guardian – Imaginations from the Other Side (1995)

Six excellent albums in a row entirely contained within a decade is a virtually unimiginable feat yet Blind Guardian have done it without ever relying on the same tools for…

By Nicholas Mkhl December 10, 2023Review