2025
Kep’s Best EPs of 2025
Written by Kep Welcome in for the first of my two AOTY articles. Today we’re talking EPs, and 2025 was full of great ones. I rounded up 13 that I thought were particularly deserving of […]
melodic black metal
2025
Halloween Bloodbath: 6(66) All Hallows Releases You Need to Hear
Written by Kep Metal and Halloween go together like blood and guts. In fact, there’s usually a flood of metal releases on 10/31 even when it falls on a non-standard release day, just because so […]
2024
2024
Album Review: Hekseblad – “Kaer Morhen” (Melodic Black Metal)
Written by Westin Hekseblad – Kaer Morhen> Melodic black metal> Michigan/Massachusetts, US> Releasing April 19> Hypnotic Dirge Records “Punk is dead” is a common refrain that’s so ingrained in music that it’s become memetic. It’s […]
2022
Album Review: Stormruler – “Sacred Rites & Black Magick” (Black Metal)
Written by Kep Stormruler – Sacred Rites & Black Magick> Black metal> Missouri, US> Releasing October 14> Napalm Records I find Stormruler to be somewhat of an oddity in the landscape of American black metal. While most USBM bands […]
2022
Album Review: Orm – “Intet • Altet” (Melodic Black Metal)
Written by Kep Orm – Intet • Altet> Melodic black metal> Denmark> Releasing September 30> Interdisciplinarian I’m a sucker for a good concept album (operative word “good”, of course). I also love an extra-long record that pushes […]
2020 Albums
Album Review: Symbolik – Emergence 9.3 (Melodic Tech Death)
An album a decade in the making and carrying influences from across a length of time, making for a pretty unique combination of melodic death metal and technical death metal, though with a blackened touch. The riffs on this one are addictive and varied but never without a sense of outlandish melody. This one will absolutely slap your ears about and demand many listens. Emergence comes out on the 10th of April. […]
2020 Albums
Album Review: Voidfire – Ogień Pustki 7.5 (Black Metal)
Voidfire are coming into the scene strong with a well presented debut album entitled Ogień Pustki, and it is a concept album “based on the theme of finding artistic inspiration in emotional suffering” according to the band. Immediately the most eye catching thing is the mysterious artwork, this time skipping Lewandowski and going straight to the source, a licensed piece from Zdzisław Beksiński made in 1976. It’s a bloody strong artwork to have and will surely find the band stuck in the minds of many this year. The sound on hand here is some tight melodic black metal for lonely hearts, with a kicking drum for marching into the gloom. […]
2019 Albums
Album Review: Wandar – Zyklus 9 (Black Metal)
Zyklus is an outstanding black metal record that not a lot of people have heard over here and I’m honestly surprised. The quality and creative direction are both high end and it’s presented eloquently. Wandar are a German band who have been around since 2006 putting out music independently. I received the cassette from indie tape bistro Repose Records earlier this year and it has since become one of my favorite tapes. It’s also out on Vinyl, very recently actually. I’d recommend this to any black metal fan, especially those I see on social media growing weary of post-black releases this year. Wandar encompass most forms of black metal and won’t bore you about it. […]
2019 Albums
Tape Review: Peasant/Somalgia – Within, Without (Black Metal)
I love split cassettes, you never know what is going to be thrown at you. It forces you into a more open minded state and what I received from this dank split is some enchanting black metal from a bunch of grim cunts in the UK. Limited to a now sold out 50, this is indeed a neat tape to receive. Might as well get on it digitally and give it a listen. […]