Crimson Glory - Chasing the Hydra album cover

Florida’s Crimson Glory return with Chasing the Hydra, a sharp progressive metal effort balancing melody and might. Travis Willis does an admirable job on vocals, honoring Midnight while carving his own identity. The album feels both reverent and refreshed, capturing the band’s soaring legacy.

Lividus - Scarabaeus album cover

Lividus’s Scarabaeus delivers a tight blend of progressive melodic death thrash metal. Released on Nameless Grave Records, the Portland, Oregon band explores trauma’s aftermath and the endurance it builds, with sharp riffs and focused songwriting throughout.

Spirit Adrift - Infinite Illumination album cover

Spirit Adrift’s Infinite Illumination closes their journey with a fierce, mournful charge. The Texas band delivers a final statement through 20 Buck Spin. Their split lends the album a poignant weight, its soaring riffs and reflective tone capturing a group burning bright before fading into history.

Juna Serita - Flow album cover

Juna Serita’s Flow bursts with vibrant bass driven energy, showcasing why she’s considered one of Japan’s best bass players. Her work with Muses, Tokyo Avengers, and Tokyo Groove Jyoshi echoes through an album full of confidence, groove, and radiant musical personality.

Green Carnation - A Dark Poem, Part II: Sanguis album cover

Green Carnation’s A Dark Poem, Part II: Sanguis deepens the Norwegian band’s progressive exploration of introspection, expanding the emotional terrain first shaped on Part I. The album’s sweeping dynamics, reflective moods, and patient crescendos form an immersive continuation of their journey.

Dionysiaque - La tourbe des rêves album cover

Dionysiaque s La tourbe des rêves channels France’s shadowed avant metal spirit into a swirling, dream buried descent. Released by I, Voidhanger, it melds ritualistic tension and surreal melancholy, crafting an unsettling, imaginative journey that feels both ancient and vividly hallucinatory.

Power Paladin - Beyond the Reach of Enchantment album cover

Power Paladin’s Beyond the Reach of Enchantment is a triumphant surge of Icelandic power metal energy. It sharpens their flair for soaring melodies and vivid fantasy storytelling. The band channels heroic grandeur, crafting an exuberant, quest driven record with high flying charm.

Mirror of Deception - Transience album cover

Mirror of Deception’s Transience is a somber, slow‑burning statement from Germany’s long‑running traditional doom metal veterans. The album leans into reflective melancholy, letting its riffs breathe and its moods linger, weaving sorrow and weight into a gripping, deliberate crawl.

Gutvoid - Liminal Shrines album cover

Canada’s Gutvoid deliver a cavernous, suffocating atmosphere on their second album Liminal Shrines, released via Profound Lore, blending murky death doom riffs with eerie ambience and unsettling, lingering dark, immersive dread.

The Silver - Looking Glass Hymnal Blue album cover

Philadelphia’s The Silver deliver a harrowing second record on Gilead Media. Looking Glass Hymnal Blue is post-black metal turned inward, baroque riffs and visceral shrieks wrestling with fractured identity and self-reflection in equal, devastating measure.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Chalice of Suffering - The Raven Cries One Last Time album cover

Minnesota’s Chalice of Suffering delivers a harrowing journey with The Raven Cries One Last Time, a funeral doom record steeped in grief and atmosphere. Bagpipes and death growls weave together beautifully throughout. This is a slow, crushing meditation on loss and sorrow that lingers on.

In Ruins - We are All to Perish album cover

In Ruins’ We Are All to Perish delivers a bleak, mesmerizing slab of Romanian funeral doom, steeped in slow-burning despair. The album draws deeply from the poetry of Serghei Esenin. Each track feels like a dirge echoing Esenin’s fatalistic beauty and crumbling emotional landscapes.

Mammon’s Throne - My Body to the Worms album cover

Mammon’s Throne deliver a crushing, despondent slab of Australian doom on My Body to the Worms. Their Hammerheart release twists madness into slow, heaving riffs and bleak atmospheres, channeling despair with a weight that feels ritualistic, deliberate, and relentlessly consuming.

Triumpher - Piercing the Heart of the World album cover

Triumpher delivers a thunderous statement with their third album. Blending heavy, epic, and power metal with a dark, mythological soul, the tracks surge with anthemic riffs, soaring vocals, and cinematic grandeur. A commanding release that cements their place among modern metal’s finest.

Temple of Void - The Crawl album cover

On The Crawl, American death/doom band Temple of Void deepen their cavernous sound. Massive riffs drag like chains while eerie melodies seep through the gloom. The pacing balances suffocating heaviness with grim atmosphere, letting each song breathe without losing menace.

Stygian Steel’s Black Lotus Veil album cover

Black Lotus Veil by Stygian Steel delivers brooding progressive doom metal straight from Norway. The album blends crushing, slow-burn riffs with atmospheric passages. Its dark, meditative tone feels both weighty and exploratory, giving each track a sense of looming grandeur.

Hela - A Reign to Conquer album cover

Hela’s album A Reign to Conquer delivers towering, slow burning doom metal steeped in myth and shadow. The Spanish band Hela crafts crushing riffs, ritualistic pacing, and dark fantasy atmosphere, evoking ancient gods and forgotten realms. It feels epic, ominous, and deeply immersive.

The Peril of the Brutal Dark an Ezra Cain Mystery cover art

Peril of the Brutal Dark by Chris Condon and Jacob Phillips delivers a grim, atmospheric crime tale steeped in tension and moral decay. Condon’s sharp pacing pairs perfectly with Phillips’ moody, shadow-drenched art, creating a bleak yet gripping world where violence and desperation collide.

End of Life comic book cover

End of Life from Vertigo Comics is a sharp meditation on death, friendship, and unfinished business. Writer Kyle Starks balances biting humor with emotional sincerity, while artist Steve Pugh delivers gritty, lived-in visuals that heighten its absurd, heartfelt journey.

Lovebites - Outstanding Power album cover

Lovebites from Japan unleash a blazing statement with Outstanding Power, their 5th full length. The album surges with sharp riffs, soaring vocals, and relentless drumming, balancing melody and speed with polished confidence. It feels triumphant, focused, and packed with fantastic hooks.

Album cover to Kröwnn - Santa Somnia

Hailing from Italy, Kröwnn craft a brooding doom metal journey on Santa Somnia. Weighty riffs and funereal pacing support fantasy themed lyrics, building an immersive world steeped in mysticism, shadow, and epic, otherworldly grandeur.

Cover to Bleeding Hearts

Deniz Camp’s Bleeding Hearts pairs razor sharp social commentary with intimate character drama, brought vividly to life by Morian’s moody, expressive artwork. This title balances grit and vulnerability, crafting a tense, emotionally charged story that lingers without relying on shock or spectacle.

Dead tree in a desolate landscape

Australia’s Karnivool deliver progressive music with precision and atmosphere on In Verses, weaving intricate rhythms, soaring melodies, and introspective lyrics into a dynamic, emotionally resonant album that rewards attentive listening with layered depth and evolving sonic textures.

Abstract art of arms intertwined

Møl’s Dreamcrush surges with distortion and emotion, showcasing Denmark’s finest at their most expansive. Blending post-black ferocity with metal shoegaze haze, the album balances blast-driven intensity and dreamy melody. Themes of existentialism and introspection pulse through every track.

A procession in the fog

Lone Wanderer’s Exequiae deepens the German band’s funeral doom vision. Crawling tempos and cavernous tones frame songs steeped in pessimism and loss. Each track feels like a ritual of mourning, heavy yet patient, suffocating hope while embracing sorrow with weight and bleak resolve.

Stairs going into some kind of portal

Hällas’s Panorama showcases the Swedish band’s flair for heavy prog, adventure rock, and psych folk. Sweeping keys, heroic riffs, and nostalgic melodies create a cinematic journey that feels classic yet fresh, balancing forward momentum with dreamy, mythic atmosphere throughout.

Ritual Arcana album cover showing a sword, a key, and a feather

Album of the week: Ritual Arcana - s/t

He wasn’t capable during his first term in office, even less so now.

Album of the week: Ellende - Zerfall

Album of the week: Ellende - Zerfall

Have always loved the Vertigo imprint and I enjoy your writing. Looking forward to this project.