Voices from the Underground – The Review Express

Supernatural Anthems

June 4th, 2026

Xtreem Music

Death Metal

10/07

Revolting continue their dedication to classic Swedish death metal, treating the style as a fixed language of decay rather than nostalgia. Supernatural Anthems is built on HM-2 guitar tone, where buzzing distortion drives direct riffs and simple hooks. The record favors mid-paced stomp with occasional bursts of speed, focusing on groove over complexity. Vocals are guttural and kept low in the mix, reinforcing a dense, horror-tinged atmosphere rather than clarity. The rhythm section is heavy and tightly locked, giving the album weight and cohesion, though with limited dynamic range. Across the tracklist, the band remains consistent but rarely steps outside familiar genre patterns. It is well executed and cohesive, but deliberately conservative in writing, offering reliability over surprise.

BalashToth

Equation II - The Antithesis of Life and Free Will

Haziran 12, 2026

Not-Even-Music, Metal Ör Die

Records, Pest Records

Melodic Death Metal

10/6.5

BalashToth’s Equation II extends the project’s melodic death metal framework with discipline, but rarely escapes its own structural rigidity. Built on late-90s Swedish death metal vocabulary, the album alternates between hyper-fast bursts and mid-paced grooves, yet these shifts often feel diagrammatic rather than instinctive. Tracks such as “+Fear + Despair” push extreme tempos forward with an emphasis on velocity over development, while more grounded moments like “Self = Dark Side” lean into familiar HM-2-toned riff structures that are most effective when allowed space to breathe.

The production is clean and tightly separated, clearly shaped by a mixing-focused background. Guitar articulation is sharp, but the overall sound lacks the organic grit associated with Carcass or Dismember, resulting in precision that sometimes undercuts visceral impact. Vocals remain consistently harsh yet emotionally restrained, with the guest appearance on “÷ Misunderstanding” offering the only notable tonal disruption in an otherwise controlled palette.

Conceptually, the “equation” framework enforces symmetry that occasionally restricts songwriting into predictable patterns. A short viola-driven interlude expands the atmosphere briefly, but also exposes how narrow the album’s stylistic range remains. Influences from At the Gates and The Haunted are clearly present, though not meaningfully reworked into a distinct identity. As a debut full-length, it is competent and intermittently engaging in its groove-oriented sections, but ultimately cautious and overly controlled in execution.

Fyrdsman

The Free Man

May 1, 2026

Self-Released

Atmospheric Black Metal

10/6.5

Fyrdsman’s second full-length, “The Free Man,” extends Tim Shaw’s black metal project into post-conquest England mythology and personal exile themes. Conceptually it leans on rebellion, loss and visionary isolation, but musically it is defined by a mid-to-raw black metal language where tremolo-picked guitars and cold linear structures prioritize atmosphere over technical display. Instead of constant variation, the album relies on sustained tension and looping motifs, building immersion through repetition rather than immediate hooks.

Ian Finley’s session drumming provides a controlled framework, moving between blast-driven intensity and more processional pacing that underscores a sense of historical weight. Vocals appear to function as a blurred texture within the mix—harsh and distant rather than narratively clear. The production favors a bleak, slightly unpolished sound, reinforcing its themes of trauma and fragmentation. The risk is familiarity: without strong melodic identity or structural surprise, the record may struggle to stand apart in the crowded atmospheric black metal field. Still, its conceptual coherence suggests ambition beyond routine genre exercise.

Aspen Sanctum

To Withhold the Need to Conquer

August 07, 2026

Self-Released / Fiadh Productions

Midwest Black Metal

10/07

Aspen Sanctum’s debut “To Withhold the Need to Conquer” emerges from Kalamazoo, Michigan with a hybridized black metal vision that leans heavily on atmosphere without abandoning structural grit. The project’s core idea—melding black metal intensity with Midwestern post-hardcore sensibilities and faint Americana textures—doesn’t function as a gimmick but as a compositional framework that consistently informs pacing and texture.

From the outset, the album prioritizes expansive chord movement over traditional tremolo-driven monotony, allowing riffs to breathe and evolve rather than merely attack. Guitars oscillate between sharp, cutting dissonance and wide, melancholic voicings, often layered in a way that creates a sense of horizon rather than confinement. The rhythm section is notably forward-driven; bass lines grind with a dry, almost mechanical presence while the drums maintain a controlled urgency, pushing transitions without overwhelming the atmospheric elements. Vocals sit firmly in a harsher black metal register, but they are mixed as part of the texture rather than the focal point, reinforcing the album’s collective rather than frontman-driven identity.

Production-wise, the record opts for clarity over raw abrasion. This choice works in favor of its dynamic range, though at times it slightly tames the more feral edges one might expect from its black metal foundation. Still, the layering of melodic passages and ambient interludes creates a coherent narrative arc, especially in mid-album stretches where restraint becomes as important as aggression.

Ill Tidings

Seeds of True Rebirth

June 26th, 2026

Vendetta Records

Black Metal

Austria

10/07

Ill Tidings' third album "Seeds of True Rebirth" extends the band's melodic black metal framework without fundamentally reshaping it. The focus is on layered guitar writing, where tremolo lines and wider harmonic chords overlap, producing a cold but dense atmosphere that shifts between icy melodicism and heavy mid-tempo weight. The production is intentionally rough-edged yet more balanced than earlier releases, giving the drums a clearer forward drive that anchors the otherwise foggy mix. Vocals remain expressive but restrained, avoiding theatrics in favor of a harsher delivery. The strongest moments emerge when repetition takes on a ritualistic quality, with slow-burning riffs circling into hypnotic structures. Still, the reliance on familiar melodic black metal patterns occasionally blurs track identity across the seven-song sequence. Rather than depicting apocalypse as rupture, the album lingers in its aftermath, sometimes at the expense of structural tension. It is ambitious in atmosphere and scale, even if not every idea fully lands.

Ristridi

Ride The Storm

August 21st, 2026

Self-Released

Power Metal

Germany

10/07

Ride The Storm combines Ristridi’s classic power metal approach with a dramatic narrative frame, resulting in a record that is strong in parts but occasionally unfocused. The guitars draw on Demons & Wizards and Blind Guardian influences, with riffs that at times open into symphonic passages, though this expansion does not deliver equal impact throughout. Clean vocals contrasted with Alex Meyer’s harsh delivery create tension in mid-tempo sections, but some transitions feel formulaic. Production is clear and bright, yet can thin out in the low end. Anti’s lyricism frames the songs as modern fables, but the music does not always sustain that narrative weight. Overall, it is an ambitious but uneven and not fully cohesive release.

Chullachaqui

Epiphanic Perdition

June 5, 2026

Self-Released

Post-metal, sludge metal, doom metal

10/7.5

Chullachaqui’s debut album occupies a broad space between post-metal, sludge and doom metal, using stylistic shifts less for display and more for atmosphere building. The most notable aspect of “Epiphanic Perdition” is its preference for slow accumulation of tension over riff-driven aggression. Guitar tones are thick and suffocating, while lingering drone textures allow the songs to progress not only through heaviness but also through a sense of scale and emptiness. The vocals remain embedded within the music rather than leading the narrative, deepening the overall bleak mood.

The album’s greatest strength is its patience in bringing different influences together under a single identity. At the same time, some progressive tendencies and extended arrangements occasionally dilute the focus rather than increase the dramatic impact. Particularly during frequent tempo shifts, the songwriting does not always maintain the same level of conviction. The warm yet dirty production reinforces the sludge and doom elements, although a sharper dynamic contrast sometimes feels necessary.

Even so, “Epiphanic Perdition” succeeds in becoming more than a personal side project and establishes its own aesthetic territory. It is not a flawless debut, but it is a promising first album whose atmosphere, heavy riff craft and dark emotional weight remain compelling even when the execution occasionally wanders.

Drunemeton

Dweller Of Carcosa

June 8th, 2026

Self-Released

Epic Blackened Heathen Metal

Drunemeton’s Dweller Of Carcosa draws on numerous references from pagan metal, melodic death metal and black metal, yet its real strength lies less in nostalgia and more in atmosphere. The defining feature throughout the album is the balance between aggression and epic melody; the dark texture created by tremolo-driven riffs and layered melodic guitars gives the material a constant sense of momentum. The harsh, black metal-rooted vocals prevent the melodic arrangements from becoming overly romanticized, keeping the music grounded and convincing.

That said, the album’s approach can feel overly familiar at times. The nods to the classic European pagan and epic metal scene are effective, but certain sections seem tied more to established genre conventions than to a truly distinctive identity. Even so, the production avoids excessive polish, helping the music retain its underground character; the melancholic atmosphere achieved in the mid-tempo passages is among the record’s strongest qualities.

The cover selections further reinforce the project’s aesthetic direction, yet the album’s main achievement is not in its references but in how successfully it spreads its dramatic and mythological tone across the entire record. It is neither flawless nor revolutionary, but it is a compelling release that sincerely embraces the traditions of epic and dark metal, remaining engaging even when it becomes somewhat predictable.

OZAN