More 2000s revival core, which is not a bad thing. But they dont do anything new and dont bring new ideas to the table. Most songs have a heavy oldschool trivium vibes and early metalcore / trash riffs. It is well played and performed but fails to stand out whatsoever.

Space Of variations return with the follow up to their promising debut. Sadly it keeps the problems the debut had to begin with. Mainly the songs feel incohesive and alot of tracks dont feel like they belong with each other. On their own, each song is nice. Good riffs, fitting vocals and alot of experimental things to spice up the songs. It sets them apart from other Metalcore bands, but to me atleast, it also distracts from the music.

Sundecay deliver a good Doom record here. Its a very well produced and perfomed record, with fun lyrics, good riffs, nice atmospheres and beautiful vocals. It doesnt reinvent the wheel, neither does it tread new ground. But what it does, it does really well!

Story of the year offer a well made easycore record. Simple hooks, good melodies and fun vibes all around. Its just very basic all around, nothing makes it stand out among others. And the stylized title of the record kinda makes me cringe.

The Emperors of Hardcore and Metalcore return after a long time with a bang. Converge go back to a heavier more unpolished sound, which works in their favour. It stands out. The record flows from oldschool hardcore punk, to oldschool metalcore with flourishes of grindcore and powerviolence in between. There is no filler here. Only thing i dont really care about, is the interlude. But its only about 2 Minutes and doesnt deterr from the record itself. My only gripe with the record, is that some ... read more

The origin of black Metal bands return with another new album. It shows everything Mayhem are known for and what the modern black metal scene kind off has evolved into. Its fierce and straight foreward. Sadly nothing that stands out for me. Its far from being terrible, but other bands have already delivered better black metal this year!

What a beautiful album. Karnivool return from their hiatus with an amazing record. Fantastic Atmospheres combined with great vocal harmonies and good instrumentals. Its all that you want from a prog album. The sound can be described as a combo of modern tool and haken. They dabble somewhere in between those two. My only negative point here, is that is somewhat inconsistent. Songs 2-4 are true masterpieces, while the some songs in the later half kinda feel somewhat forgetable.
Still all in all ... read more

Puscifer give us everything that i expected a Maynard James Keenan to do. Weird, atypical and unorthodox songs with politically charged lyrics. Its very much to weird for me, and probably wasnt a good starting point for me with puscifer. But thats alright. The sound sounds compareable to what MJK did with tool on 10k Days on the weirder songs.

Its a short oldschool slamming deathcore EP. And youll get what u expect. Well executed, well performed, but feels incredibly stale to someone like me, who is not very fond of slamming deathcore. Cause of this it gets a middle of the road score!

I went into this, knowing nothing. The Album cover lured me in. What I got is a solid MeloDeath record with some deathcore flourishes in the middle. The riffs are really nice, but the songs blend together alot and the vibe is constant. No shifts no change. It does its job, but doesnt reinvent the wheel. And coming from only knowing the cover art, id hoped for alot more.

A very mediocre post hardcore EP. Nothing really stands out, the vocals are nice, but the screams sadly feel off. They dont seem to fit in with the vibe of the EP. My big pluspoint here is the cover art. That really looks great!

Before I Turn offer us a ambitious new record. This record is one of the best examples of a front loaded record. The first 3 Songs promise a very orchestral experience with a greater than life storyline about a failed relationship. Sadly the plot gets lost really quickly over the next 3-4 Songs. What started as a orchestral metalcore sound devolved back into modern metalcore with just some flourishes of the full orchestra that was there before. Even the songwriting feels slower paced and less ... read more

A very well done and performed renewal nwbhm record. Its very riff heavy and has fun rythms. Sadly it doesnt stick to my brain as much as id have liked it to. But the melodies are fun, the riffs are great and all performances overall are very well done. Just not my favourite kind of metal. Still can fully recommend!

Silence The Echo is a relatively new hard rock / alternative metal group. This record shows exactly that. Well executed, but relatively simple hard rock and alternative metal. The big standout here are the vocals. Very beautiful and haunting, giving some Amaranthe or Beyond The Black vibes. The Riffs are fine, so are the hooks. Its not really a standout, but can be very fun if its ur genre! For a debut record, its a very well done album.

The Year of alot of dark albums continues. This time with some atmospheric doom metal. The atmosphere this thing creates are really nice, but not as dark and gloomy as they couldve been. The riffs are slow and sludgy but fit the vibe very well. I personally didnt enjoy the vocals alot, as cleans sound somehow very off to me and the screams werent itching my brain very well. But its far from terrible. Just not my kind of tea!

Im at a loss for words. Not in a positive sense. It feels like Hanabi want to differ so much from Babymetal. But somehow, in their tries to do that, they lost their senses. I am mainly just confused. Songs 1-4 are alright at best with many vocal lines bordering annoying territory. But what is that last song? It feels like the type of Anime Opening you always skip, cause its just not pleasant. Nothing much else to say here...

This album is... weird. It almost overachieves its goal of being ambitious. The spoken word and rap sections flow well into the heavy djent sections. But neither of them feel like they belong in their space? It feels disjointed and all over the place, whilst clinging to its loose idea. Each of the segments on their own is fine. Nothing as a standout but neither really bad. It just exists, and pushes boundaries. But sadly it doesnt exceed at it as well as it couldve.

Beautifully haunting, is what i want to describe this adventure as. MØL create a blissful soundscape whilst traversing it with black metal riffs and screeches to grant it its contour. Blackgaze as a genre rarely sounded this blissful and happy, whilst destroying you on the inside. The melodies are beautiful and vary enough to be memorable. The riffs, even if buried alot, are well done and grant their grit to this bliss. The vocals, clean and harsh, both tread wonderfully along the path ... read more

The Hirsch Effekt make their way into 2026, with their Album "Der Brauch". This Album sees them experimenting alot with different clean sounds and lets them venture into progressive dephts sometime adjacent to Devin Townsand. They swapped their lyrics to complete german and create a sound thats most compareable to TesseracT and Haken, but with its own little twist of mathcore within it. The Lyrics are great, the songwriting fantastic and the soundscapes and atmospheress they create ... read more

This is how you do a Nu-Metal tinged Hardcore record without it being corny or stale. Its so groovy, you cant resist the headbang. None of the songs overstay their welcome, its a quick 30min in and out. My only gripe with it, is that some songs just feel like they didnt have the same quality as others. And im also tired of the songs with a million features, which you can decipher none of.
It definitively is one of the highlights thus far, and probably will stand as a highlight in its genre ... read more