Death Metal – Page 14 – Metal Eclipse Reviews

Panzerfaust – The Suns of Perdition – Chapter IV: To Shadow Zion

There you can see it: Prometheus carrying the weight of our world, of our sins! There aren’t many bands that portray war like Panzerfaust. It’s not just the horror and immorality of it, but also its symbolism. This band gets that, which is why reaching the end of this tetralogy feels bittersweet. Who else has ever pulled this off? Four albums exploring a single concept with such depth? Maybe only Obscura with its cosmological tetralogy. Anyway, last time Panzerfaust released something, I had my concerns. Let’s see if The Suns of Perdition – Chapter IV: To the Shadow of Zion proves me wrong.

Thunraz – Incineration Day

You look at that name, you look at that art, you even look at the few band members, and you know that Thunraz’s Incineration Day isn’t going to be an easy ride. It’s not going to be chill or fun. This looks like a trip straight into hell—everything unholy and obscene. But am I exaggerating? Am I falling for the solid marketing job by its creators? In a year brimming with complex and impressive Disso-Death, Thunraz will need something truly distinctive to stand out among the heavyweights. Enough talk—let’s dive in!

Lying Figures – Inheritance

Pegah

The French Melodic Death/Doom Metal band Lying Figures returns after a long hiatus with its new album, Inheritance. This time, Frédéric Simon (vocals & bass) and Matthieu Burgaud (guitars) guide us on a profound introspective journey, confronting emotions long buried or ignored. The album delves into deeply personal themes, exploring self-alienation, frustration, inner conflict, despair, and disorientation. These ideas are mirrored in the album cover, which portrays a dark, abandoned cityscape devoid of light, teetering on the brink of collapse. The inverted city hints at duality and the tension between mind and body, as well as a fractured sense of reality. The dominant red tones evoke intense emotions such as self-expression, aggression, and resilience, while birds and barren branches in the corners suggest life fleeing this desolate scene.

Mitochondrion – Vitreseptome

SonikGoat

Until now, Mitochondrion has not released a new full-length album in 11 years. Eleven years in which the commodification of some of popular music’s most challenging and demanding material has continued unabated. Indeed, in 2024, it’s possible to say that in the rarefied world of extreme Metal, styles such as Disso-Death have even become somewhat “fashionable”—by the niche standards of the underground, of course. Bands pushing further into abyssal realms seem to erupt into our cosmos on a weekly basis these days, so it takes a special group to take such a long hiatus and still return with a palpable buzz of expectancy. Not only has Mitochondrion achieved that, but has also surpassed its previous full-length, the mighty Parasignosis, delivering yet another top-tier album for 2024.

Molder – Catastrophic Reconfiguration

SonikGoat

What’s to be done with a corpse, you may ask? To most, a corpse is just a swiftly decaying pile of blood and guts—a mess, an inconvenience. Sure, you could burn it or dispose of it, but it will cost you time and effort. Wouldn’t it be more useful to repurpose it somehow? Let Molder show you the way. The band knows how to take a cadaver, reanimate it, imbue it with an undead will, and let it thrash around for 30 minutes or so. A most excellent and entertaining use for a heap of remains, wouldn’t you agree?

Barren – The Hanged Man

Pegah

Sometimes, carrying on, just carrying on, is the superhuman achievement.
― Albert Camus

Massacre – Necrolution

It’s time to fire up the time machine and travel back to the least glorious decade of humanity: the ’80s. At MER, we understand that nostalgia fuels today’s economy, and Massacre knows this well, too. Necrolution is clearly intended as a tribute to the early days of Death Metal, but with a level of production that some of us, at least, can appreciate. It’s a delicate balance, giving these Florida veterans the respect they deserve while keeping this review honest—but I’ll do my best not to retch too much at the ’80s.

Paganizer – Flesh Requiem

Here we go again! Another Old School Swedish Death Metal album. Yay… Oh, you can’t feel my excitement? Maybe that’s because we review a few of these each month in our True Kvlt section. However, Paganizer isn’t just another knockoff of Entombed or Dissection. This band means business and has been delivering solid albums for years. Flesh Requiem has the challenging task of offering something new from a band that values consistency above all else. Personally, I’m curious to see if Paganizer manages to break the Old School mold this time.

Ataraxie – Le Décline

Pegah

Le Déclin (meaning The Fall) is the sixth full-length album by the French Funeral Doom Metal band Ataraxie. However, its style isn’t confined to Doom Metal’s subgenres, as some tracks can be categorized as Progressive Death Metal. The first time I listened to Ataraxie, I was thrilled by the sudden changes in rhythms—shifting from calm, low-tempo, Doom-like rhythms to high-speed, Death-like blasts. Specifically, as a Funeral Doom Metal fan, you’ll be surprised by how, in the blink of an eye, they pull you out of the dreary, depressive atmosphere and thrust you into the cruel world, forcing you to face reality.

Carnosus – Wormtales

Carnosus has both the blessing and the curse of having dropped one of the best albums (and probably the best Tech Death album) of 2023: Visions of Infinihility. It took the underground by storm, and before we could even recover, the band is back with Wormtales. Many of us were nervous that it was too soon for Carnosus to hit us with more of its unique approach to Tech Death. But if there was one band capable of pulling off this feat, it was Carnosus. So, let’s dive in!