Unbelievable dissoblack/death compositions by just one person, and a contender for album of the year. After listening to it once and bought the CD, I must've played it around 15 times by now and it never gets boring.

The best modern composer surpassed even herself this time and gifted us one of the best movie soundtracks of all time; it is debatable if this or Kara no Kyoukai is her best work to date, but yes, it is otherworldly and adds a big dose of greatness to an amazing movie trilogy. There is just nothing wrong; as many times as I listen to Heaven's Feel music, it is flawless.

How I want symphonic black metal to be. Setting the atmosphere so well that not even a second sounds tiring. Of Awakening is a very professional work, and the fact that it features Tim Charles definitely means something.

Absolutely wonderful atmospheric black metal with a heavy use of melodic passages and a strong character. You rarely see atmoblack albums of such high caliber.

I seriously believe this is the most underrated album of all time. It is perfect for what it is, and it has a theme that almost everyone can relate to. I bet Magic Dance/Jon Siejka went through a tough break-up with his first love. His inspiration and emotion portrayed through Vanishings feel 100% real, and I love every second of the album. It sounds like a late 80s or 90s album but evolved into a 2010s one with better production quality. The lyrics hit right in the heart and the melodies and ... read more

Starting with their first release in the summer of 2022, Blackbraid (or "Sgah'gahsowáh", or Jon Krieger, a solo artist rooting from the Adirondack Mountains of New York) made a great number of fans, including me, and gave us a new kind of "indigenous" metal, let's call it the Blackbraid metal.

So, the Blackbraid metal decided to evolve early, not even one year ago, and this was both a pleasant and upsetting event for the fans. We were waiting patiently to see what ... read more

This album deserves more love and it's one of my 2023 favourites. It's melodic black metal at its finest, and you can understand it is *that good* at tracks 4 and 5, Frozen Kings and Wanderer of Times. Great riffs, great drumming, great vocals. Also, the final track which is a Necrophobic cover couldn't be bad - it's Necrophobic tier in a Frozen Dawn - manner.

Something else that is noteworthy is the beautiful cover art; which is actually a Mariusz Lewandowski painting (Lewandowski, 1960-2022, ... read more

A fun, playful and ingenious one-man black-speed metal project. Sometimes it reaches the peak of the genre; opening track and album-titled song are absolute bangers.

Insomnium's 2023 album is better than what I expected it to be, and there are some very interesting parts there like the song Godforsaken with Johanna Kurkela or White Christ with Sakis Tolis.

*Having witnessed their live performance at Release Festival, I was not satisfied though, and I think these guys need some time to improve their live performances.

Feels like getting swallowed by a whirlpool.

You guys gotta be kidding me. Is everyone deaf? Can't you HEAR what's happening? M. Shadows faces difficulty singing lately as we all know, so they focused more on the music and experimented to the extent that Matt's voice won't be as important as Gates' guitar, for example. The song sounds so different and, once again, shows that Avenged Sevenfold are great musicians that succeed in evolving, even if the outcome is not always that good. Personally I prefer Nobody to almost all of HTTK and The ... read more

Ne Obliviscaris are back, this time with a song dedicated to the lost lives from the fires in Australia. As a big fan of the band, I have to say that this single is the best way to start my experience with Exul - their upcoming 2023 album. And the reason is simple; it is a 100% NeO song, and it reminds of many of their past works. Having listened to this single 17 times in 5 hours, and having shed many tears, or probably a lake, I can confidently say that it feels like a combination of Portal ... read more

As someone who hasn't dug deep into Arch Enemy's past, I want to say that Deceivers is a very good and catchy Melodic Death metal release, that might be a good starter for someone who's not into extreme metal, or for someone who is and wants to enjoy a good album with great riffs and harsh vocals.

Note: As an Amorphis fan, I daresay that Arch Enemy made a better work in 2022.

There are some good and catchy songs from here and there but other ones are annoyingly bad and I can't ignore it. I love Chris Motionless' voice, but damn it I can't praise everything he does.

Best songs: Cause of Death, Burned at Both Ends II
Worst ones: Red, White & Boom (reminded me of YUNGBLUD), We Become The Night

I can't understand why it's considered so good, but "born yesterday" sounds very interesting as a song, and some other moments of the album. Still, not my cup of tea.

Diversum is a unique album whose genre is hard to describe; it would be something like melodic gothic death-doom progressive metal! Their new singer does great work, too, in my opinion. The vibes are always clear and present. However, it is hard to find "that great moment" in Diversum, which is the album's big disadvantage. If I had to pick the album's highlight, it would be The Malevolent God.

Pros: pulls you into its cover art's world and keeps its atmosphere and character till the end
Cons: often gets repetitive

Tatsuro Yamashita's still got it at the age of 69. Big respect.

The album is pretty simple and keeps the city pop vibe. We've had better city pop for sure but it's still a good listen.

A typical nu metal album with nothing memorable or new in it. Also, wtf is this cover art?

As a Soen fan, I have to say that after Fortune single was released, I was looking forward to a release whose songs could be even better than their original studio versions. Even if I love 80% of the original songs featured here, only around half of them managed to reach their former level. Joel Ekelof's voice is softer and the music is not as heavy, which may lead to the improvement or deterioration of some songs.
Also, it's great to see one of my all-time fave songs covered by one of my ... read more