WOLFBASTARD - Satanic Scum Punks review

 

WOLFBASTARD - Satanic Scum Punks

Apocalyptic Witchcraft Recordings

After a few years England's Blackened Crust punks are back with their fourth full length. Now before I continue on about this album there's a few facts to be put forth about the term "crust". Back in the late 80's / early 90's you had leftists in the Hardcore scene who didn't want to be associated with the crop of bands which were coming out under that label. They didn't like the term Anarco Punk and they liked DISCHARGE so the term "Dis - bands" first came into play. Then "Crust" came out to be the official descriptive term.

Basically the bands / fans were hippie punks with leftist ideas.Their bands and record labels all went broke. Fast forward to the present and for over a decade now you've got bands using that DISCHARGE sound and infusing it into Death Metal or Black Metal. What's even funnier some bands are made up of skinheads. LOL! Oh yeah I have to laugh at that since the skinheads hated Metal back in the day as well.

With all of that said I like WOLFBASTARD simply because they fill that vacuum of what decent 1980's HC use to be like to a point while not going into late 80's / early 90's Metal-core. As far as the whole satanic thing goes I'm sure they have their tea at noon and a beer at the pub at five without stopping to worship the horned one. I like their kick ass attack with these eleven cuts. It's all slam dance style material which I wish I could participate in.

 

Yeah after a four year wait these wanna-be Scum Punks are back. I doubt the cover artwork really means serious intent. You can scream "Hail Satan" all you want because the Christian faithful believe in freedom of speech. But if you talk bad about another religion, which is infecting your country,  then you would be called bad and your government would come after you. I'm just pointing out the obvious there Englishman.

Great release even though the obvious is there to be viewed.  

https://apocalypticwitchcraft.co.uk/

LISTEN HERE:

https://apocalypticwitchcraft.bandcamp.com/album/satanic-scum-punks

VEILBURNER - All That Glimmers Is Gloam review

VEILBURNER - All That Glimmers Is Gloam

Transcending Obscurity Records

I first became a fan of this US Blackened Death metal act back in January of 2019 after hearing their fourth full length, A Sire to the Ghouls of Lunacy, which came out at the very end of 2018. Since then I think every full length that's followed is some of the greatest Extreme Metal in this modern era. It's not that they continue a cool sound. Instead they progress, experiment and produce changes to their sound which makes em unique as well as damm good.

There's not many Extreme Metal acts out there who push things to a crazy level more with album after album. In all honesty I like my comfort level when it comes to Metal. But once in a while I appreciate acts who just go berserk and VEILBURNER are the top one of them. I mean listening to this new one you get an infection of blood thirsty Black Metal (especially in the vocals) meets KING CRIMSON with the crazy riffs / song structures.

I mean something I had said before and that's this is a perfect example of total filth and hatred meeting beauty in a hellhole of shit. VEILBURNER are a two piece act hailing  from somewhere in Pennsylvania. The two individuals are David Moody who's responsible for all instruments and Chris Sheppard on vocals. I lived in Pennsylvania many years ago and I could not come up with this must hatred and despair. 

This new album is nine cuts of mostly hate filled anthems based on insanity. There's one cut, "Dis Obedient Woe", which slows things down to a Gothic Doom level. But the rest is far more insane. After listening to the latter half of this album I wanna say "My name is Lucifer and where's my medication?"

The bottom line is that VEILBURNER have put out another amazing album. As always it's a listening experience as opposed to just a cool release. And again hard to find something better than this out there. David Moody, aka: Mephisto Deleterio, is an amazing songwriter. The song craft he creates is blackened chaos which somehow works. Add to that vocalist Chris Sheppard, aka: Chrisom Infernium, who in the past I refereed to as a drunken priest suffering from rabies. Vocally his style is inbetween MAYHEM's Attila Csihar and FUNERAL MIST / MARDUK's Mortuus. Which is why I think this is the most exciting album I've heard in 2026. Call it Black Metal (which I'm leaning to) or Blackened Death. For me it's the best.

https://tometal.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://veilburnerband.bandcamp.com/album/all-that-glimmers-is-gloam

 

DRUDKH - Thaw EP review

 

DRUDKH - Thaw EP

Season of Mist 

As far as Black Metal bands who started out in the 2000's go DRUDKH is one of my favorites. I say that because obviously I own everything they've released. With that said I'd say 70% of it is damm good. So yeah they've had some duds in their career in my opinion. Another thing worth mentioning is that their EP releases for the most part come across as extra tracks that couldn't fit on a previous full length. 

Once again I see Thaw in the same way as tracks which did not make it on their last full length Shadow Play from 2025. Thaw is three cuts, two of which are semi long meeting at the seven minute mark and one is an instrumental. Collectors, like me, head it if you're not there.

https://www.season-of-mist.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7saLvmGPw2A

ISKALD - Curse of the Mind review

 

ISKALD - Curse of the Mind

Dusktone

I've been a fan of Norway's ISKALD ever since I checked out their second full length Revelations of Reckoning Day which came out in 2008 on Indie Recordings. In fact whenever we get our first snow down where I live here in North Carolina I play that CD in order to feel grim and frosty. I've followed their career buying all of their full lengths and enjoyed em all. 

But their last album, Innhostinga, came out in 2018. So here we are now some many years later with the band's sixth full length, Curse of the Mind. The band is now on Dusktone after many years on Indie Recordings. Also the line-up has gone through some changes. The studio duo of Aage Andre Krekling (drums / vocals) and Simon Larsen (vocals, guitars, bass and keyboards) is still in tact. Except now Krekling has given up drumming and is the main vocalist.

The band has added guitarist Ben Hansen who plays with em live. On bass there's Tobias Aubert and Isak Larsen has taken over on drums. Something else new is that Curse of the Mind is the band's first concept album. To me that's a shocker because I considered all of their albums to be based on concepts. Mainly the whole grim, frosty atmosphere of Norwegian heritage. 

For years I've always considered ISKALD to be heirs of a Black Metal heritage from Norway that conveyed with a melodic tone the nature, history and inner feelings of the region. This new one is like a cold day in hell and it's all Norse inspired. The territory is called Helheim and it's more than a mythological place. It's actually a state of mind which ISKALD deliver in four blackened revelations.

Musically Krekling does a great job on vocals. The song structures are not as carried away as you would guess. I say that mainly because Simon Larsen has always been a great song writer. His riffs are icy and tremolo based with a hint of technical touches. Plus his use of keyboards is always in a subtle back ground manner.

All in all I like this release. It's good as well as a big chance for the band. Hey concept albums always are. Hopefully they go back to that run, previously from years ago, when it was cool album every few years.  

https://www.dusktone.it/

LISTEN HERE:

https://dusktone.bandcamp.com/album/curse-of-the-mind

DIMMU BORGIR - Grand Serpent Rising review

 

DIMMU BORGIR - Grand Serpent Rising

Nuclear Blast Records

Well there's a lot to unpack here so let's go for it. The last album by this Norwegian Symphonic Black Metal act that I use to like and still own a copy of is 2007's In Sorte Diaboli. I hardly ever listen to it. In fact I believe it was around this time that the band influenced too many copycat acts who just followed their style because they had become mainstream metal. 

Obviously if you're a hardcore BM fan then you hated DIMMU BORGIR before 2007 and called em sell outs. Be that as it may when the band released Abrahadabra in 2010 I was like fuck you. To me that was Blackened Power Metal and utter bullshit. That was I wrote DIMMU BORGIR off. I never heard 2018's Eonian nor did I want to. 

So here we are many years later and I figured let's check it out. First off a big shocker to me is that only vocalist Shagrath and guitarist Silenoz are still in the band. Everyone else is new. As far as this, the band's eleventh full length goes I'm definitely sitting on a fence figuring it out.

For anyone to say this is a return to form for DIMMU BORGIR I'd say you're an idiot or a liar and maybe both. A return to form would really mean going back to the days of the original Stormblast or Enthrone Darkness Triumphant which I still think is their best album. This return to form is more like In Sorte Diaboli except that the cool sounds are part of the second half of the album. 

With the exception of "Ascent" the first portion of this release blows. "As Seen in the Unseen" starts out cool with an atmospheric opening, an aggressive point middle but ends poorly. That seems the be the total theme which predominates this release. Bad keyboard themed atmospheric parts with common guitar riffs. "The Exonerated." is another perfect example of a good song destroyed by Shagrath's insistence on almost Power Metal keyboard back drop.

 

The bottom line is that this album sucks. I gave it a serious chance and it's another disappointment. Nuff Said!

https://www.nuclearblast.com/de/#gbaid74159

LISTEN HERE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnR1cRin3Dw

ARMORY - Echoes of the Astrolith review

 

ARMORY - Echoes of the Astrolith

Dying Victims Productions

When you get old, and trust me that'll happen to some of you. There will come a time where comfort means a fucking lot. As far as music goes it'll be like wearing your old leather jacket. It's the main reason why I really like Germany's Dying Victims Productions. Their releases are by bands who for myself remind me of the 1980's Metal scene, both mainstream and underground. 

Back then, if you were into Metal, you had the mainstream stuff as well as the cool underground material. And if you were into the latter then you were the coolest motherfucker around. Plus you sported a nasty ass grin because you had crazy songs in your head. Case in point here we have Sweden's ARMORY who hail from Gothenburg and there's no Melodic Death Metal on this release.

Musically this, the band's fourth full length, is traditional Euro Speed Metal which eventually turns into Power Metal over time. But ARMORY do have an EXODUS influence. I mean vocalist Chris Rostoff (actually new vocalist since he joined the band this year) comes off like Steve "Zetro" Souza. Albeit Chris Rostoff does have a better vocal range but still. 

Add to that musically the twin guitar duo of Gustav Sundin and Niclas Mendahl Ingelman is exciting as fuck. The rhythm section of bassist Jesper Lundin and the amazing drummer August Holmstrom is just kick ass. The songs on here are killer. So yeah in the end this is an amazing album. But it's more of a stand out release. I mean ten or twenty years from now people should look at this as being a fuckin classic. Nuff Said. 

https://dying-victims.de/

LISTEN HERE:

https://dyingvictimsproductions.bandcamp.com/album/echoes-of-the-astrolith

RUNAWAY DEVILS - Blood Must Be Shed to Enchant Your Head review

 

RUNAWAY DEVILS - Blood Must Be Shed to Enchant Your Head

Godz ov War Productions

This label, Godz ov War Productions, has always been known for great Black and Death Metal. Trust me because I write about their great releases. What we have here is something so out of the box that I'm shocked, shocked I say that this label released this. 

What we have here is a four piece all female band who are musically producing a sound that's basically Blackened Punk. The first time I listened to this my first thoughts were it's the PANDORAS (an all female Garage Punk act from Los Angeles, California in the late 1980's) doing Black Metal. 

I'm gonna take a guess and say this is the band's original cassette release put out on CD by the label. In all honesty it's horrible. 

http://godzovwar.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://godzovwarproductions.bandcamp.com/album/blood-must-be-shed-to-enchant-your-head