Doomed For Metal Reviews

  Alkhemi is a black metal band from France, who are releasing their second full-length album “Häxen.”  The album’s sound incorporates a lot of melodic and atmospheric elements but in a very smart way.  These elements expand the album into an epic sound that remains rooted in the cold, frightening side of black metal.  In essence, the melody/atmosphere highlights and exposes the raw nerves of the band’s sound without compromising an inch of what makes black metal so powerful and dangerous.  There are a lot of layers to this darkness and I have found “ Häxen ,” to be an album that gets better and better every time I listen to it.  It isn’t necessarily a complicated or convoluted album, but it does have a lot of depth, so it is rife with wonderful discoveries, and each listen feels like a different journey.  The production/mix is exactly how I like my black metal.  It has a raw feel to it without actually being raw but it's certainly dense and rough...

Dissentience is a melodic death/thrash metal band from Pennsylvania, who formed in 2013.  Their latest release is the EP “ Kaiju .”  They have also released a demo, another EP, and one full-length so far.   This is my first experience of the band, but this short but tight EP has convinced me that it won’t be my last.  Across four songs and a runtime of just under 24 minutes, this is a rousing blast of energetic metal that is easy to burn through multiple times. Their Metallum tag of being melodic death/thrash is pretty damn accurate too.  It is full speed ahead most of the time, but the guitars still manage to throw in catchy, melodic passages that go a long way in fleshing out their thrash-based sound, for a full experience that is as high quality as a full-length. It’s a very modern production and I find that is what the songs need, as it makes the melodic aspects stand out yet the album feels very weighty and dense.  The first song, “ Obsidian Tomb ...

Winter Eternal is a one-man black metal band from Greece, who formed in 2000 as Unveiled NightSky but changed to the current moniker in 2011. The musician behind all this is Soulreaper , also from Without Guidance and formally of Convixion , Nightbreed , and Regulus. Winter Eternal ’s black metal is cold and bleak but also melodic and surprisingly infectious.  With 8 songs and a 30-minute runtime, it is a focused album that knows exactly what it is going for.  A lot of the melodic guitar is memorable across this frozen landscape, but the gritty speed of the genre’s foundations is just as present, so this album packs quite the punch within its well-written songs.  It's pretty groovy too but not in the usual way but because the riffs and melodies go so well together. As they play off one another, each song builds up a wall of sound. As the harmonies grow towards the rising action, the songs pour on their melancholic leanings but never forget the power a blackened riff hol...

Dense Fog is a one-man black metal band from China, who formed in 2022.  After releasing two demos, the band has released their full-length, self-titled album.  It was originally released in October of last year in digital but 2026 will see it getting physical formats.  The band plays an atmospheric style of Black metal that has as many quiet, beautiful moments as it does blackened ones. The liminal spaces in between the softer notes offer a stark contrast to the otherwise bleak, distorted passages of the album. With that being said, the light and dark elements have a regal interplay between each other. Clean keys get just as much playtime as heavy riffs and rapid-fire drums.  The songs aren't very fast but that doesn't stop the drums from giving it their all. I appreciate that the album is heavy and extreme without being truly aggressive.  It is also highly melodic, but more in an atmospheric sense than in a catchy or bombastic way. It is a very even album that...

Cryptic Shift ’s “ Overspace & Supertime ,” is a planet. It’s a living, breathing world rife with discoveries and stories. Across its long journey if 5 songs that run 1 hour and 20 minutes , the deep dive that is required to listen to this beast is insane. I don’t know if listening is the right word…this is exploring. Or being. This isn’t a death metal album that you put on for a few minutes at a time as you blow through the tracks on a piecemeal basis.   This is the epitome of progressive death metal and you must give it a lot of your time because even if you devote your undivided attention to its length, not everything can be absorbed in one setting. This could be a very good thing or a very bad thing, depending on your perspective.   But I’m a big fan of doom and prog so the long songs don’t bother me but with that being said, this is an esoteric experience and not everyone is going to be able to handle this. But if you’re willing, nothing here is a...

Dwellnought is a blackened doom band from Italy, who formed in 2023. After a demo last year, they have now dropped their full-length debut album “ Monolith of Ephemerality .” The word ‘ephemerality’ actually doesn’t have a single definition but it is most often seen as a concept of things existing only briefly and, academically, it describes a diverse assortment of things and experiences.  “ Monolith of Ephemerality ,” is an experience and then some. Its concept may revolve around transitions but the darkness is here to stay. This is a raw album, a concept in of itself that graces black metal often but something I feel we need more of in doom. However, as raw as it is, isn’t to the point of determinant. If anything, it makes the album better. If this darkness is a part of ephemerality then it needs to be as massive and bottomless as possible—and those elements work best in this style as a rough presentation of the dangers.  The mix is still on point too. The bass ca...

Necrofier 's “ Transcend Into Oblivion ,” is an album that balances a classic, straightforward black metal approach with the more melodic side of the genre with plenty of atmosphere, without going overboard with any one of these elements. Throw in some good ol 'heavy metal influences on top of all that, and what is presented here is quite dynamic, with a lot of details and depth. It's a hefty album too– 12 songs that come very close to hitting the hour mark. I'm a doom fan so long albums aren't anything new to me but the album does require patience if you aren't used to the long winded side of the genre. But I appreciate this aspect. Not every album is meant to be dived into for a quick fix and picked up later. I love albums that require attention to pick up its own attention to details and this album delivers on that notion. The album is divided up into three sections, with two interludes to separate them and then a final song to cap it all off. The songs in ...