Black Inside Blue LP - 100 copies

Cathartic, far reaching scathing black metal with a massive post-metal cinematic scope and bit of death metal gruffness. Themed with haunting anguish, yet still melodious in execution, Mirage is another strong black metal release from this band that continues to eschew typical genre sounds. Jammed with tasty guitars and riffs, solid drumming, and a atmospheric production lead this to sound much more sophisticated than you would expect.

Released by Season Of Mist

Slugdge - Esoteric Malcology. Hope they get it together for a new one

Be’lakor - Stone’s Reach

Norwegian Melodic Black Metal from 1997

Hazzerd - The 3rd Dimension

Orange / Yellow Merge 'Radiant Sun' LP - 100 copies

Changing gears from the last (really good) album, Qaalm has evolved from monolithic blackened funeral doom into a far more dynamic and open-minded (yet still doom) band that explores more of the various worlds of metal.

Bringing forth a startling new progressive and melodic focus, but keeping them solidly imbued into their previous foundation, Grave Impressions Of An Unbroken Arc finds Qaalm reinventing themselves without losing the heft that made past work so crushing. Immediately, it is clear that this album will have a different sound, but any doubts are quickly quashed when the opening track roars into life and lays down leviathan aggression.

The guitars and bass still rumble with mighty riffs the size of buildings, but the melancholic lines snaking through give the album and different life that matches the varied, sometimes jazzy drumming that can still bury you when needed. Vocally, the growls that get to contrast with subjectively softer moments throughout the record are immense, and inversely, the more gloomy clean tone fits perfectly to provide vitality.

The immersive nature of the four tracks offers quite the interesting display of how skilled the songwriting is, especially with the merger of the melodic black metal by way of post- leaning sludge that is wrapped in exploratory prog rock / metal. This fully fledged fusion is demonstrated particularly well on the closing track, where the most climatic (and comparatively 'least metal') vocals and instrumentation come together with a gothic inflection that pulls in bits of the Peaceville Three and even a dash of Opeth.

Otherwise in short, quite excellent.

Released by Hypaethral Records

Limited edition splatter variant (limited to 666 copies worldwide). Had to grab the 2024 repress of this classic from Listenable Records. Absolutely love this album 🤘🏻

Talk about something I thought I'd never see on vinyl.I used to tape trade back in these daze and Jim was always good for a laugh.

Classic metal with black metal vocals. This pretty purple marbled thing is their last album, though they just launched a new release on Bandcamp

What a banger

the walk hard soundtrack is the heaviest album I own.