Suffering so you don't have to!
Elyna Kahn
Avantasia‘s tenth studio album, Here Be Dragons, is here! Featuring 10 tracks, artwork by Rodney Matthews, and bombastic production by the renowned Sascha Paeth, this album retains the band’s signature essence: masterful choruses, Symphonic Metal elements, and creative sounds. Following its release, the band will embark on a highly anticipated European tour, much to the excitement of its dedicated fanbase.
Yes! I’m guilty! I forgot about one of the hottest releases of the year because life is a more complicated rollercoaster than an Obscura opening riff. I’m a huge fan—I love almost everything in the band’s catalog, which is why it’s going to be hard for A Valediction to top previous releases. I know many were divided with Diluvium, but I loved it; it was as if At the Gates could perform Tech Death (I’m not the first one to say this, so chill!). However, can the apex predator in Tech Death defend its seat on Metal Olympus? Let’s shred our way in!
Elyna Kahn
BRAINSTORM, a name that evokes power and creativity, is a German metal band with over two decades of experience. Soon, it’ll release Plague of Rats. This album is being hailed as a career milestone, revisiting the band’s fascination with Indu culture, a theme it first explored in 2003’s release, Soul Temptation. With high expectations, I dove into the album, listening to it multiple times to fully absorb its energy. The first thing that struck me was the “Live-in-Studio” sound, which gives the record an electrifying, concert-like atmosphere. Each of the 11 tracks bursts with energy, making it feel as though you’re standing in front of the stage, surrounded by flames and a roaring crowd.
Pegah
“Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.”
― Haruki Murakami
The Wrath Within is the second full-length album by the German Doom Metal band Atramentum. The album’s title reflects themes of inner turmoil and personal challenges. The cover art’s color palette complements this concept: red symbolizes anger, conflict, and bravery, while the black lines evoke grief, mourning, and death. The two wolves featured on the cover embody duality, representing opposing forces such as fear, anger, and sorrow versus love, hope, and peace.
Here we go again! It’s one of my reviewer’s favorite niches—German Black Metal—which, according to them, has become synonymous with quality. (Honestly, I think that applies more to German Post/Black, but I’m being a snob.) Anyway, Urfeind is a band that attempts to represent this harrowing and deranged Black Metal school of thought with pride. Dauþalaikaz is an album with that kind of attitude and art. It takes itself seriously, and the real question is if we, the plebs, can take it seriously too.
Ixione
There are very few things on this planet that go together as well as Black Metal and Germany. As much as this may reflect my personal bias, I have yet to find a German Black Metal band that isn’t good—Morbus Dei is no exception. Its latest effort, The World We Left Behind, undoubtedly succeeds in delivering a freezing cold, razor-sharp sound that feels like a misanthrope’s greatest fantasy. At first glance, it may not seem like anything overly ambitious, but that is precisely where its strength lies.
Defeated Sanity needs no introduction. Not many bands embody the heaviest of the heavy like this act does. Ever since Psalms of the Moribund, its catalog has been a masterclass in brutal consistency without devolving into the numbing exercise that often plagues Brutal Death Metal. That alone is an achievement. I can throw on a Defeated Sanity album and be annihilated for 35 minutes straight. Yet, with every new release, there’s always the lurking risk of falling into tired tropes. So, does Chronicles of Lunacy dodge the lameness abyss?
Enough happy times and enjoyable music. It’s time for us to sink into the deepest despair and cry a river of tears. I hope this gloomy intro got your attention because thanks to ASCIAN (don’t confuse it with Asian, you monster!), we’re only going down from here—into more weeping and unfathomable sadness, of course. Right, we’re also here to try to grasp the quality of Sing to Me, Sweet Void (uplifting title, right?). Prepare those tissues, because you might need them by the time we’re done.
Sometimes, release days are so packed that we have to keep talking about them long after they’ve passed. Sometimes, they leave us with things we can’t dare to miss. I picked up Servant‘s Death Devil Magic with the hope that this would be one of those cases—where I almost missed a cool release. I mean, just look at that art! It practically screams diabolical riffs that will melt faces, right? It can’t just be me trying to justify my laziness here. Well, I hope not. But let’s cut the self-pity and get down to business.
I’ve always said one of our principles is to give nostalgia a chance, even though we deeply hate leaning on it. Lately, we’ve been indulging bands that sound straight out of 1995. So, when I heard Typhonian was 90s-inspired with a Swedish Death Metal sound, I puked my breakfast all over my marble countertop—because, honestly, I can’t handle another retro album this week. However, The Gate of the Veiled Beyond promised something different, claiming to pay homage to Edge of Sanity—and I’m always down for that kind of nostalgia. So, let’s set aside our biases for once and check this beast out.
Metal Eclipse Reviews 