Suffering so you don't have to!
Metalcatto
Finland has given us excellent Metal in almost every subgenre. However, have you ever heard of Finnish Grindcore? Chances are you haven’t, which is why veterans Rotten Sound’s Mass Extinction caught my attention. I ended up wondering if those sauna addicts could be good at this, too. I mean, look at that artwork! It’s super promising! It makes me feel like I’m going to start an epic and dramatic journey. Could that be true? Am I imagining things?
Metalcatto
Full disclosure: I’m a longtime fan of Omnium Gatherum. I’ve been following them since The Redshift and still consider New World Shadows and Beyond to be Melodic Death Metal classics. (If you haven’t listened to them yet, stop wasting your time and go fix that.) So when May the Bridges We Burn Light the Way dropped, I was all in. That said, I’m not blind to the band’s controversies — It’s always been compared, sometimes unfairly, to its peers. With OG, you never really know what you’re going to get: a genre-defining masterpiece or a divisive curveball. Either way, it’s never boring.
Vicky
Doom Metal as a whole is one of the most niche genres out there. It has a little something for everyone, and without a doubt, we all once found ourselves in a Doom Metal song – ranging from slightly less depressive (Candlemass deserves credit for coming up with “please let me die in solitude”), all the way to the even more mournful part (think of this: Swallow The Sun once sang “My old friend will you lay me back to rest? I’ve been suffering so long without you. Come and take me away from this pain”. If that doesn’t scream out Metal Dostoevsky, I don’t know what will).
Metalcatto
Let’s say you’re really into Death/Doom and don’t know who Hooded Menace is. Umm, I’m trying to follow up that phrase with a way to forgive you, but it’s hard. Not many bands have continued releasing reliable and even spectacular retro-Metal like these guys. Albums like Never Cross the Dead, Darkness Drips Forth, and Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed are now considered classics. So, you can imagine the bar is high — and since my 80s nostalgia is non-existent, good luck to the band in this review!
Pegah
Sometimes a bond forms between you and an album that feels utterly singular—something that can’t be replicated, only forged through endless replays of the same tracks. For me, Monotony Fields became exactly that: one of the most influential records in guiding me toward the realm of Funeral Doom. The summer of 2016 was steeped in the soundscapes Shape of Despair summoned from the depths of darkness, and even now, each listen evokes emotions that their later work has never been able to recreate.
Metalcatto
Alright, I’ll tell you something superficial — and I’m not proud of it, but it’s the truth. I had several earlier promos to check out, but I saw Proscription‘s Desolate Divine and its absolutely astonishing cover art and said, “Screw merits and fairness, this thing looks evil!” That kind of aesthetic confidence is hard to resist. Still, you always have to be cautious with artwork that looks too convincing, especially when it comes to Blackened Death Metal. You risk overindulging and ending up sick the whole trip home (which I’m actively trying to avoid during this vacation).
Metalcatto
It’s been a while since we’ve reviewed some good old school Death Metal. Honestly, after everything that happened in 2024, I’ve gotten dangerously close to becoming a hater. It’s just hard to stay excited when the scene feels so oversaturated. Still, despite the genre fatigue, new bands continue to dive into the old school trenches like it’s 1992 all over again. One of these brave souls is Malformed, who arrive with the debut Confinement of Flesh. This record is supposed to bring something fresh to the table, but you’ll have to excuse my skepticism — I’ve heard that before.
Pegah
“Where there is sorrow, there is holy ground“
Oscar Wilde
Ixone
Ever ended up in that situation when you know an album is going to be good just because the band’s discography is flawless? If you haven’t I only have one word to say to you: Sarastus. Despite it appearing like my bias for Finnish Black Metal is doing the talking again (I am too stubborn to just stop pretending that I don’t start drooling when I see that exact tag), I think that the response to their latest record, Agony Eternal indicates that I haven’t lost the plot quite completely.
Metalcatto
Sometimes I wonder what Atmospheric Black Metal would sound like if anyone actually knew or cared how to produce it. Enter Beleth’s Trumpet‘s Chapel of Bones, a band seemingly interested in doing old-school Black Metal that doesn’t sound like French fries fried out of existence. It also happens to be a Finnish band, and despite my best efforts to find some drama, it remains properly mysterious. Time will tell if that’s a good or bad thing. Anyway, let’s dive into this swirling mass of malevolence and static noise.
Metal Eclipse Reviews 