Another year gone, and narrowing down the year’s best metal albums remains as excruciating as ever, but then again, that’s part of the fun! What I enjoy is the retrospective exercise, and what it has resulted in over the past few years is that every subgenre, every stream, is producing excellent work.
Take grindcore. This year, we had Blind Equation moving on the periphery, quantizing everything down to molecules with their Nintendocore madness. Meanwhile, Dephosphorus continue to gaze into space, seeking light in the midst of all bleakness. On the more traditional side, Barren Path sharpened their Gridlink-derived pedigree into something direct and uncompromising. At the far, forgotten noisegrind altar, Sulfuric Cautery revelled in the Last Days of Humanity sound. The divergence is remarkable, a genre expanding outward in every direction.
Grindcore was not the only one; black metal, too, was everywhere at once. Yellow Eyes pressed forward on their singular path without a second thought. Stygian Ruin transformed their dungeon synth roots into atmospheric power, crafting their finest work yet. Zeicrydeus reclaimed the heavy-metal fervour of the Hellenic tradition, while Vauruvâ embraced progressive openness, Antiversum leaned into dissonance, and Alicia Cordisco pursued something unexpectedly tender.
Alongside this wave of newcomers, it was a pleasure to see several heavyweights return. Evoken cast their suffocating funeral gloom, Teitanblood and Malthusian descended into black/death battlegrounds, and against all odds, Coroner delivered a triumphant comeback. And there is this direct link between the old and the new that continues to fuel the fire. The forward-thinking mindset of Coroner has opened new possibilities, which bands like Sallow Moth and Retromorphosis take full advantage of, paving their own way.
There is much more to uncover in the selections below, so dig in! – Spyros Stasis
20. Dephosphorus – Planetoktonos (Selfmadegod)
Per aspera ad astra, through hardship to the stars. This ancient motto encapsulates the duality in Dephosphorus’s cosmic vision. The Greek astrogrind band have always viewed the cosmos as something vast and unknowable, but at the same time, they have refused to succumb to nihilism. Case in point is their new full-length album, Planetoktonos, which explores the idea of a future utopia where humanity lives in equilibrium with its surroundings.
It is a fitting setting for their death metal and grindcore foundation, which soon explodes through polemic grooves in “Living In a Metastable Universe”. The latent Bolt Thrower grooves lead the way, morphing into rampant grindcore blasts with “Hunting for Dyson Spheres”, a mode that invokes an urgent and fervent essence to “After the Holocaust”.
What is key for Dephosphorus is their versatility and flow. “The Triumph of Science and Reason” transitions from grindcore roots to old-school hardcore and mid-paced death metal. This modularity allows them to easily traverse a range of sonic realms, from Breach-like post-hardcore contortions in “Pale Veins”, to Knut’s pummeling density, to the more chaotic angularity of mathcore (“Calculating Infinity”), and to fumey, blackened psychedelia (“Hunting for Dyson Spheres”).
The cherry on top is Miltos Schimatariotis’s electronica injections, which provide a hallucinatory and otherworldly effect. Rather than clash with the band’s brutal core, these electronic elements enhance it, pulling chaos outward into deeper, more hallucinatory zones that echo the infinite scale of their lyrical concerns. Thus, Planetoktonos is another triumph in Dephosphorus’s canon, a cosmic assault that refuses despair, instead aiming its rage at entropy and emerging, defiantly, with hope intact. – Spyros Stasis
19. Blind Equation – A Funeral in Purgatory (Prosthetic)
While Nintendocore, a fusion of chiptune and eight-bit videogame music with elements of extreme metal and punk, has been around since the early 2000s, recent years have seen an explosion of bands whose style is both an evolution of the genre and something new altogether. Similar to their Prosthetic Records labelmates Thotcrime, Chicago’s Blind Equation play cybergrind-adjacent music that can borrow from and transform into a myriad of other styles at any moment, ranging from the violent breakcore of the Igorrr variety to sentimentally charged emo and nu metal.
The result is a wild burst of colors, moods, and emotions, composed with a heavy sonic makeup but left cradling an endearingly soft core. A Funeral in Purgatory mirrors many of the intangible things that make albums like Cocojoey’s STARS minor masterpieces, just with an accent placed on denser shapes and metallic edges rather than electronic elements. This is music of the present, yet one that seems built for the future. – Antonio Poscic
18. Malthusian – The Summoning Bell (Relapse)
Thomas Robert Malthus hypothesized an existential crisis in which exponential population growth, bound to finite resources, inevitably leads to famine and war. A dark future perfectly suited toward black/death aesthetics, as Ireland’s Malthusian would tell you. Seven years after their debut record, Across Deaths, the band returns with their first Relapse record, The Summoning Bell. A record of maturity, The Summoning Bell sees Malthusian further hone their style, evolving from the cavernous black/death of their earlier days toward fully-fledged death metal.
The impact is immediate in “Red, Waiting”, with schizoid leads that echo the US death-metal lineage. They convey an imbalanced essence, an unpredictability rooted in Morbid Angel’s legacy, imbuing the music with a quasi-elemental form. A force of nature that cannot be tamed or contained. Yet this time, Malthusian appear almost mathematical. Shedding their black/death murk for a purer death metal form, they have gained a striking precision.
Being able to control these crazed moments is vital, and also explains how Malthusian can aptly transform as they descend into extreme death/doom narratives. Slow pace and asphyxiating methodology lead into psychedelia. The transformation is complete, tortured, and near-cosmic. In these moments, Malthus’s theory becomes a reality, as you peek into an unrecognisable world.
The Summoning Bell is a triumphant return, an evolution sharpened through fire. Malthusian honour their black/death roots while fully embracing death metal’s brutal calculus, forging a vision both apocalyptic and exhilarating. – Spyros Stasis
17. Ava Mendoza / Gabby Fluke-Mogul / Carolina Pérez – Mama Killa (Burning Ambulance)
The participation of US guitarist Ava Mendoza and violinist Gabby Fluke-Mogul on a new-music-cum-metal project like this one isn’t all that surprising. Yet, it’s the inclusion of death metal drummer and Castrator co-founder Carolina Pérez that turns Mama Killa into something unusually potent.
Above all, Mama Killa is an exploration of how metallic elements behave when mixed with other influences and the varied and exciting music these alchemical reactions can produce. Some cuts roar to life, carried by a steady groove, with Mendoza vocalizing and coaxing her guitar into making riffs that sound like a gravel crunching machine, only for fluke-mogul’s insistent, revolving bowed lines to lead it into a tar pit of stoner rock and sludge metal.
Others are all incipient noise and grumble, reminiscent simultaneously of the textural avant rock of Caspar Brötzmann Massaker/Richard Pinhas’s Heldon and the heavy jazz fusion of Hedvig Mollestad, blended with traces of blues, country, American roots music, and a sort of punk energy: melody and rhythmic drive dissolving into Tony Conrad-esque microtonal yelps. This is an utterly exciting listen, front to back. – Antonio Poscic
16. Sulfuric Cautery – Killing Spree (Blast Addict)
You know this scene in Breaking Bad, where Walter and Jesse stand in the hallway while watching the hydrofluoric acid eat through the ceiling? Right before body parts drop with a thump to the floor? I have pretty much the same reaction in anticipation of the new Sulfuric Cautery record. The noise-fascinated, goregrind act returns with another brutal, horrifying, and annihilating record in Killing Spree.
This is relentless grindcore that nods to its early Carcass roots but quickly pushes beyond them. Still, it is difficult not to feel the reek of putrefaction coming through, especially in moments where the death metal self gets the best of them. “Utterly Hopeless Existence” and “Uncontrollable Bleeding” showcase this lineage, the slower parts providing a clearer (somewhat) definition to the guitars. It is all a ploy, of course, highlighted in “Broken Shell of a Man”, where the slow start is sardonically taunting you before the real fun begins.
Because Sulfuric Cautery’s heart is not with the early grindcore pioneers, but with their noisier offspring, aka Last Days of Humanity. The swamp-gurgled vocals opening “Toe Tag” make that connection unmistakable. The tight snare sound, a constant, ringing reminder of annihilation and mayhem, is inescapable. The main change from Sulfuric Cautery’s previous records is a newfound technical nuance, reflected primarily in the erratic rhythm structures.
Where, in the past, they would simply steamroll with little variation, here they become more unpredictable, lashing out in a spasmodic manner to increase volatility. As with their past, this is the closest that metallic or punk-ish music can get to the noise genre. And lucky us, Killing Spree is the grotesque blob we did not know we needed. – Spyros Stasis
15. Evoken – Mendacium (Profound Lore)
Part of the extreme doom/death pantheon, Evoken have amassed a near flawless discography. Embrace The Emptiness, Quietus, and Antithesis of Light established an unyielding sense of dread and sorrow. However, starting with A Caress of the Void, Evoken began to soften slightly (very, very slightly), enveloping their dread in a sense of melancholy. Hypnagogia and Altra Mors joined that tradition, but their new record, Mendacium, looks to unravel this.
Mendacium acts as a hybrid point. Opener “Matins” rekindles the old hopelessness, its riffs breaking in slow waves, vocals lamenting as though everything is destined to be swallowed by the abyss. It is a sad procession, a task that must be completed to achieve some form of catharsis. This is where the record twists, with Evoken tapping into their latter-day self. In this mode, they augment their majestic quality, confidently walking toward despair rather than being dragged into it.
To that end, they evoke (see what I did there?) the melancholic spirit of the Peaceville Three, adorning their ceremony with a tangible, sorrowful essence. Then it all comes crashing down again. “None” channels Esoteric’s psychedelic endeavors, and the grand finale with “Compline” results in the final, unavoidable devastation.
Here, doom contorts into something harsher, as death metal brutality tears through the funereal veil. It is an excellent structure, paying homage to the band’s evolution over the years and collecting all its individual components into a unified form. Thus, Mendacium does not just retrace Evoken’s past; it refracts it, proving that their command of extreme doom/death’s language remains as devastating and as essential as ever. – Spyros Stasis
14. Nekrodeus – Ruaß (FDA)
It’s a rare pleasure these days to discover new music via a concert experience first, and even rarer for the band to then live up to the energy and sparkling tension of their shows on record. The third full-length by death metal group Nekrodeus accomplishes just that. I write death metal, but the Graz-based outfit veers far beyond the basics of the genre, encasing their riffs in crust and hardcore, propelling their songs at black metal speeds, and submerging everything in the abyssal tunings of doom metal and sludge.
There’s a significant variety across the 11 tracks. ”Trümmerjugend” clashes D-beat with black metal, “Volkscancer” reaches grindcore levels of insanity—but they are all held together by an overarching sentiment, a genuine belief in antifascist values, as screamed and growled by Stefan Rindler (“We bare our teeth / To bite the hand that holds the leash / Not here to please”) and supported by the roar and clatter of his bandmates’ instruments. Stunning stuff. – Antonio Poscic
13. Barren Path – Grieving (Willowtip)
The unexpected return of Gridlink with the fantastic Coronet Juniper was unfortunately short-lived. Thankfully, all Coronet Juniper members, minus Jon Chang, have now regrouped as Barren Path, with Mitchell Luna (Maruta/Shock Withdrawal) taking over vocal duties.
As is expected, Barren Path carry forward much of Gridlink’s lineage in their debut, Grieving. The chaotic energy is still the guiding force, immediately taking over from the start of “Whimpering Echo”. The tumultuous ride does not cease. Barren Path showcase an unhinged resolve as “Subversion Record” twists and turns and “Lunar Tear” storms ahead at lightning speed.
Where Barren Path diverge from Gridlink is by trading their sense of playfulness for a more determined, in-your-face approach. The feeling of exhilaration still carries over, lending an epic quality to the underlying melodies of “No Geneva”. It also navigates aptly through the maze-like structures of their song, as if navigating a sonic labyrinth, each turn narrowing like a corridor in House of Leaves.
Luna’s dual vocal delivery further distinguishes Barren Path from their predecessors. Here, the approach leans more towards death metal, with cutthroat vocals and deeper growls that yield monstrous moments, as seen in “Primordial Black”. It is a warranted departure from the path, one that echoes with towering figures from mid-to-late 2000s grindcore, and especially Nasum. No karaoke mode this time, just 13 relentless minutes of down-to-business grind. Precisely as it should be. – Spyros Stasis
12. OvO – Gemma (Artoffact)
Italian experimental musicians Stefania Pedretti and Bruno Dorella have been playing together as the avant-garde doom-noise duo OvO for 25 years, forging a relationship that eclipses art and spans all facets of life. In return, this stability and mutual support have enabled their music to inhabit ever stranger niches of the metal world and beyond, all of which have led to the alien soundscapes that form their latest album, Gemma.
Born from a tension between marching beats, abstract electronic gestures, dissonant riffs, and the eldritch quality of Pedretti’s vocal delivery, the album is often a deliciously uneasy listen. Its industrial stomps, layers of serrated synths, and full-bodied screams seem to be engineered with a purpose that, like Demián Rugna’s 2017 horror Aterrados, draws you into an ominous parallel dimension, equally harrowing and wondrous. In its whole, Gemma feels like the crowning accomplishment of OvO’s often breathtaking career, but also like a stepping stone to whatever terrifying sonic universe they’ll imagine next. – Antonio Poscic
11. Author & Punisher – Nocturnal Birding (Relapse)
Different forces have always pulled Author & Punisher. Tristan Shone’s fascination with the artificial is well established. By building his own drone and dub machines to articulate his industrial vision, Shone proves his complete dedication to his craft. On the other hand, he has always balanced his mechanical harshness with an unmistakable human core. His music might collapse into brutal breakdowns and sonic debris, yet beneath it lies an unmistakable emotional resonance. Case in point, his latest work, Nocturnal Birding, where he draws inspiration from birdsong for his compositions, forcing his machines to abide by their sonic quality and rhythmic structure.
Following an excellent record in Krüller, Shone does not look to repeat the recipe. Krüller might have been the epitome of Shone’s organic/inorganic approach, but Nocturnal Birding takes a different route. The record is condensed, clocking at just over 30 minutes. The compositions themselves are much more immediate, heard in the devastating Godflesh-ian breakdowns of “Black Storm Petrel” and “Rook”.
Similarly, the hooks here feel less intricate and more immediate than those on Krüller. “Meadowlark” pushes toward a Nine Inch Nails subtleness, the desolate vocal delivery creating an encompassing space. Even more impressive is the ending to “Mute Swan”, where the final ascent carries a hypnotic and otherworldly quality. It ties the urban to the transcendent in fascinating equilibrium, the sound design intricately mirroring the background bird chirps.
In many ways, Shone has not changed his ways. His vision remains unwavering, but still, he finds places to experiment. If Krüller was the culmination of his hybrid vision, Nocturnal Birding shows how potent his sound can be when stripped back to its most direct, primal form. – Spyros Stasis
10. Coroner – Dissonance Theory (Century Media)
I never thought I would see Coroner release a new record, and yet here we are. Twenty-two years after the monumental Grin, the Swiss act makes its long-awaited return with Dissonance Theory. Coroner pushed thrash to new dimensions, harnessing its raw aggression through a technical lens.
However, Coroner’s vision was more ambitious. I always viewed them as a reflection of Voivod, both bands tapping into the same discordant stream. But, where the Canadians reveled in chaotic exhilaration, the Swiss worshipped an unyielding force of precision. The breakdowns of “Transparent Eye” show this rhythmic dedication, a relentless order that slowly twists the mind. That same structural rigor injects the heavy groove that has always been Coroner’s hallmark. It is hard to believe that a band founded in 1983 could unleash the industrial coating of “Sacrificial Lamb”, the tremendous momentum of “Symmetry”, or the mid-tempo application of “Trinity”.
It is a truly forward-thinking mindset, separate from any pointless progressive term. How many thrash bands can you name with atmospheric passages? The aforementioned Voivod, maybe Depressive Age, aspects of Mekong Delta, and Sabbat. It is a slim list, right? Yet, Coroner did exactly that through the discordant lead of “Paralyzed, Mesmerized” in Grin, and they still unearth this otherworldly sense in “Sacrificial Lamb” and “The Law”. Still, through all this technical aptitude, the relentless rhythm, the discordance and atmosphere, Coroner remain extremely straightforward and catchy.
The opening track, “Consequence,” and its chorus alone will have you tapping frantically on the repeat button. It makes the ride through Dissonance Theory that much more rewarding, an ambitious work that retains a direct perspective. It proves that Coroner were not just ahead of their time back in the 1980s and 1990s, they still are to this day. – Spyros Stasis
9. Alicia Cordisco – Burden of I (Fiadh)
Can an extreme metal album be considered tender? Multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and former Judicator member Alicia Cordisco’s return to recording under her own name and first venture into black metal make a strong case for it. Burden of I delivers what is simultaneously some of the year’s most ferocious yet poignant metal music.
Beneath the harsh exterior of groaning riffs, relentless blast beats, and suffering growls, we find a softer core, embroidered with dazzling harmonic progressions, melodies borrowed from folk traditions, and leads that sound like prayers sent out to the universe. The lyrics that accompany the music are similarly touching but also heartbreakingly fragile, woven around an introspective exploration of loneliness and isolation. Helped by Brett Windnagle (drum programming) and Vanessa Funke (vocals), Cordisco joins a growing list of musicians who show how black metal’s orthodoxy can be subverted into a thing of radiant beauty. – Antonio Poscic
8. Zeicrydeus – La Grande Heresie (Independent)
Rehashing a style is one thing. Comprehending it is another. Philippe Tougas (Atramentus, Chthe;ilist) and his new project, Zeicrydeus, belong to the second category. In La Grande Heresie, Tougas draws inspiration from the Hellenic black metal scene, and it is easy to see it through the dialled-in groove and piercing bends in “Ten Thousand Spears…”.
The early Rotting Christ aura is everywhere, extending the scenery with its melodic inclination and epic sense. Zeicrydeus then crosses the fiery path, the descent plunging everything into darkness as the bass becomes prominent. “Profane Spells & Naked Swords…” further delves into the lineage of Magus and Baron Blood, while Tougas makes a sardonic twist employing some sweeter notions to that recipe in “Goldstell (Blood of the Third Sun)”.
On that level alone, La Grande Heresie is excellent, but what Tougas unearths is the secret core to the Hellenic black metal sound. It is its kinship and direct connection to heavy metal tropes. While the Scandinavian scene looked to distance itself from metallic tradition, the Greeks reforged it anew. The unhinged yet purposeful start to “Ten Thousand Spears…” speaks volumes through its poignant assault.
The mid-section of “Profane Spells & Naked Swords…” revels in Running Wild’s galloping spirit, and the playful guitar work that greets “Sous L’Ombre” descends into doom depths only to triumphantly rise again. Everything is as it should be in La Grande Heresie; a case in point is the seamless transition to the “Thou Art Lord” cover (“The Era of Satan Rising”). I’m confident I found the record that completes my Onyx, Gods of War – At War infinite repeat playlist. – Spyros Stasis
7. Antiversum – De Nemesis Omnes Et Omnia (Amor Fati)
Antiversum’s sophomore LP De Nemesis Omnes Et Omnia is a masterclass in coaxing an utterly unnerving sound from standard black and death metal elements. The Swiss group’s pieces are long and intricately structured, dominated by a compositional approach reminiscent of another great band, Norway’s legendary avant-garde outfit Virus.
Yet, it’s the tracks’ textural qualities—the wailing riffs, the whip-like drum hits, the dissonant synths, the growls of an infernal Virgil—and intangible atmospheres that make them so appealing. Cosmic horrors are left to roam freely across the album’s five pieces, each with its own dark individual character contributing to a larger sense of absolute creepiness. Fittingly, the album ends with a cut named “Vuoto”. Empty. Void. – Antonio Poscic
6. Vauruvã – Mar de Deriva (Independent)
In Caio Lemos’s exponentially growing discography, Vauruvã stands as his most emotionally melodic and expressive project to date. Starting from the raw, folk-tinged improvisations of Manso Queimor Dacordado, the project embraced a wild sense of unpredictability in Por Nós da Ventania before transforming once again with Mar de Deriva. Surprisingly, the structure now prevails, steering the project away from its free-form origins and toward a more mature progressive rock sound.
“Legado”, with its meditative progression, opens a cosmic dimension. Traditional percussion and acoustic guitars combine in a spiraling vision through the Milky Way. That mystical perspective persists—serene craftsmanship carries “Os Caçadores” even after distorted guitars explode into brilliant color. The melodic quality lends the album a cinematic scope.
The sorrowful tones of “Legado” arrive in intimate fashion, but Lemos still allows a hopeful essence to pierce through. Here, the black metal is reworked to fit a progressive rock approach. It carries Krallice’s DNA, even drawing from Scarcity in how the instrument is stretched to its limits. The result is epic, with the beginning of the closer “As Selvas Vermelhas no Planeta dos Eminentes” tearing your heart out with its moving lines. Given the current black metal landscape and its dissonant tendencies, it is refreshing to see Vauruvã adopt this approach without turning it into a gimmick.
They do not stop there. Their folk inclinations remain strong, drawing on Panopticon’s fusion of Americana and black metal as a blueprint and reformulating it through the lens of Brazilian folk traditions. The additional percussion and the synthesizers come together to carve out a sense of wonder and grace from the black metal and progressive rock stones. The result is an exquisite effort, dense, detailed, and emotionally resonant. An absolute gem, both heartfelt and compositionally daring, it marks a new chapter in Vauruvã’s evolving language. – Spyros Stasis
5. Sallow Moth – Mossbane Lantern (I, Voidhanger)
You know those people who receive an email with multiple questions and respond with just one word? I suspect that Dallas, Texas-based multi-instrumentalist Garry Brents might be one of them. Sallow Moth, the latest of his numerous projects, sounds like Brents replying ‘yes’ to questions that weren’t meant to be binary.
New Age-tinged, jazzy death metal in the vein of Cynic? Yes. Keep the jazz, but add more technicality and intricate progressions, à la Atheist? Yes. Wormed’s mind-grinding brutal death metal? Yes. How about the Swedish old-school of Dismember or Entombed? Yes. Slant it melodically, like Edge of Sanity? Yes. Throw in a bit of Gorguts’ dissonance? Yes. Yes! YES!
For all the cornucopia of styles mashed together, there is nary a moment on Mossbane Lantern that feels self-indulgent or forced. Instead, the album’s flow is nothing short of spectacular, navigating between styles then superimposing them as textural layers. – Antonio Poscic
4. Teitanblood – From the Visceral Abyss (NoEvDia)
Sometimes, there is a method to the madness. Teitanblood’s black/death has always been brutal and direct, but that did not mean that it was simple. It had an intrinsic design that might not follow a comprehensible pattern, but was nevertheless a design.
This remains the case with their fourth full-length, From the Visceral Abyss, where the black/death onslaught erupts through a Celtic Frost on speed approach. The ragged riffs take form and are thrown to the meatgrinder, yet the attitude and presence survive. In many cases, this is a process of annihilation, in which they abandon the norms and descend into a brutal assault that leaves nothing standing (“And Darkness Was All”).
However, where Teitanblood excel is in being economical. Nothing here is wasted; every crazed, schizoid solo has its function and purpose, every illogical drum pattern serves a more significant role. Nothing is for show; everything is of substance. Listen to the cymbal work in the final part of “Sepulchral Carrion God”, and you will experience a level of detail that verges on the neurotic. This is a work that is built layer upon layer. As a result, it oozes with a depth that can extend to the atmospherics, something that “From The Hypogeum” extensively implements.
It is a mystical procedure through alien landscapes that are incomprehensible to our primate mind. The evocative themes of the title track evoke this concept, as does the substantial closer “Tomb Corpse Haruspex”. It constructs this obsidian monolith, an imposing and unearthly structure that fills you with dread at its mere presence. The poisonous psychedelic melodies take over, and the effects add grandeur, ending this feverish experience on a high note. Teitanblood continue to deliver their dark, damned work. And we would not have it any other way. – Spyros Stasis
3. Retromorphosis – Psalmus Mortis (Season of Mist)
The three albums released by Swedish group Spawn of Possession between 2003 and 2012 rank among the best specimens of technical death metal from that era. Featuring four of the five members from Spawn of Possession’s final lineup, Retromorphosis evolve beyond the point at which their predecessors left off, retaining their flair and zest while significantly expanding the sound.
Brutal, catchy, virtuosic, melodic, and humorously eerie—Psalmus Mortis encompasses all these qualities and more. Yet, it remains utterly technical without being overwhelming. At times, the album draws heavily on grindcore and doom, integrating their usual tropes into the complex tempo changes, rhythms, and riffs throughout the songs. At others, it reaches for synthesizers and electronic effects, introducing atmospheric elements into unexpected sections, ranging from the symphonic (“Machine”) to dungeon synth (“Obscure Exordium”), and even to experimental flourishes reminiscent of Canadian avant-metallers Unexpect (“The Tree”). – Antonio Poscic
2. Stygian Ruin – Stygia II: Ancient and Arcane (Independent)
It might be a stretch to call anything related to black metal unique in 2025, but the music of Stygian Ruin certainly comes close to qualifying. The project helmed by Norwegian musician Erlend Rønning evolved from dungeon synth into black metal that is simultaneously atmospherically expansive and rhythmically pulsating, replete with ambient-music-evoking cues and the nervous trill of guitar tremolos, fusing into a strangely oneiric vision of the genre.
A shimmer of electronic textures envelops melodic riffs and blast beats, delicately like mist descending upon a forest’s clearing. In its midst, a lyrical fantasy is delivered with a dramatic, almost Sprechgesang flair. Listening to Stygia II: Ancient and Arcane evokes bands like Virus, Agalloch, Secrets of the Moon, and even Aluk Todolo, but the black metal tropes visited at an andante pace carve out a niche of their own and form an album that is both a great entry point into Stygian Ruin’s discography and the culmination of their work so far. – Antonio Poscic
1. Yellow Eyes – Confusion Gate (Gilead Media)
Following 2023’s Master’s Murmur, a descent into industrial folk territory, it has been six years since Yellow Eyes last released a black metal record. The seasoned, New York-based act are a trusted force in the scene, boasting a substantial discography, and yet their new record, Confusion Gate, is a revelation. Not in the sense that Yellow Eyes deviate from the path, but in that they are doing everything better.
Their black metal is dense, heavily layered, resulting in a thick sonic wall. The unified front of riffs overwhelms from the outset through “Brush the Frozen Horse”, yet never at the expense of definition or melody. It is a technique inherited from a lineage of acts, such as Ash Borer and Fell Voice. Still, Yellow Eyes further unravel these abstracted forms, adding an erratic sense of unpredictability and vigor that echoes the early Krallice days.
From there, they can gaze into a darker abyss, with the textural quality of the guitar work taking inspiration from their sister band Ustalost. In moments like “I Fear the Master’s Murmur”, they explode with triumphant rage, while in “The Scent of Black Mud”, they radiate cold grimness. Yet, they can still turn this around into a deep, hallucinatory sense of unease. Their dissonant inclinations greatly help here, with the cacophonous quality of “The Thought of Death”, the mysterious sorrow of “Suspension Moon”, and the chilling effect of “A Forgotten Corridor” depicting a reality as dead as dreams.
Their overarching tendencies do not cease. On one hand, they traverse into the folkloric, more confidently in the record’s interludes, but also in their main structures. In doing so, they invoke a latent, primordial Cascadian spirit alongside an early Ulverian form. The beautiful guitar lines in the final moments of the title track fully expose this deep communion with nature.
Similarly, they channel the teachings from Master’s Murmur to further establish a deep, ambient sense, highlighted by detailed field recordings, and the impressive synthesizers and choirs tastefully placed in key moments. In a robust discography, Confusion Gate stands apart. It feels like this is the record that Yellow Eyes were working towards all along. The album that required 15 years of practice and experience to reach. It is also part of the final releases from Gilead Media, and although there is still one more record to come, if this were the label’s final chapter, it would be a great way to go. – Spyros Stasis