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Floating - Hesitating Lights - (10/10) - Transcending Obscurity Records

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  FLOATING   from Sweden are finding increasingly impressive ways to enrich death metal music with progressive and post punk influences. While their previous release turned heads, this new one is far more refined, confident and accomplished. The primary elements have their place in the music with none of it getting dislodged by the dominance of the other and that's where the beauty lies - there's a subtlety, an emotional fragility that comes through in death metal music, which usually sounds too tough and overbearing for the most part.   "Hesitating Lights"   is a thoughtfully composed, beautifully tempered album of bold, refreshing death metal music, which in these times, is no mean feat.” The album has eight songs, and  “I Reached the Mew”  is first. The opening bass lines dance with the energy of an 80’s song, but the riff that follows is a hardened slab of Post Metal. The devastating harsh vocals mix in and give the song an oil on water quality. The Pro...
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Creatvre - Toujours Humain - (10/10) - I, Voidhanger Records

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  From Bandcamp, “French band  CREATVRE  are back with a new and exciting work,  "Toujours Humain."  As sole member  Raphaël Fournier  says, "the album bears witness to a world where humanity is one of its own relics, a vestige drowned in silicon. It’s a cyber-industrial journey, navigating between collective collapse and the pulse of resilience, each song a visual capsule drawn from this bleak tableau. It’s an allegory of self-erasure for individuals, as programmed by those who set the agenda,"  Fournier  explains. "The shame of still being biological. A lucid awareness with no escape, submerged in a world that operates without us. It’s the exploitation of hope. The commodification of salvation. A false light sold to those who were plunged into darkness. The album is a dystopian soundtrack where violence is cold, almost surgical, and where the only possible utopia is an inner and collective revolt." The album has nine songs, and  “Syntr...
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Abigail Williams - A Void Within Existence - (10/10) - Agonia Records

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  American black metal act  ABIGAIL WILLIAMS  returns with its sixth full-length album:  "A Void Within Existence,”  released July 18th via Agonia Records. The follow-up to  "Walk Beyond the Dark,”  this new chapter pushes the band's sound to even greater extremes - bleaker, heavier, more atmospheric than ever.    Produced by  Ken Sorceron,  mixed by  Dave Otero,  with drums by  Mike Heller  and cover art by  Eliran Kantor,  “this is a journey into disintegration. Where the self ends, the void begins,"  Sorceron  comments. The album has seven songs, and  “Life, Disconnected”  is first. The opening tones are weighted and dreadful. I feel like I stepped into a nightmare that is full of harrowing creatures and a lot of blood. The room suddenly went dark and there is no escape. The harsh vocals nicely compliment the frightening landscape you have uncovered.  “Void Within”  has ...
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Rivers of Nihil - Rivers of Nihil - (10/10) - Metal Blade Records

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  From their official website, “Sixteen years and five albums into the Pennsylvania band's career, progressive death metal progenitors   RIVERS OF NIHIL  are upping the ante with the self-titled album. Traditionally, a self-titled record can signal a return to basics and/or a fresh beginning, and in 10 powerful songs, it's clear that both those factors are in play. The album deserves the 'self-titled' treatment. “I feel like these songs are the perfect blend of all our albums, with all the fat cut away," says founding member/guitarist   Brody Uttley . There are more technical songs, but with a more mature understanding of pacing. There's a fair bit of experimental stuff, but with a more refreshed perspective on those styles for the current era of the band." “The Sub-Orbital Blues”  is first, and I am immediately struck by a shift in their sound. The power of the harsh vocals and sheer weight of their sound is still there, but the clean vocals bring some me...
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Ghost - Skeleta - (9/10) - Lorna Vista Recordings

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  From Bandcamp, “Coming off a last few years defined by an American Music Award and iHeart Radio Award-winning international #1 album, an RIAA-certified platinum single, and a massive world tour immortalized in a box office record-breaking feature film, 2025 is poised to be   GHOST’s   busiest, most ambitious and outright biggest year to date. Having revealed the existence of   “Skeleta ,” the forthcoming sixth album from the GRAMMY-winning Swedish theatrical rock icons,   GHOST   has only begun the next phase of its inevitable path to world domination.” It took me years to warm to this band…their imagery turned me off immediately. Being Scottish, I am very stubborn, so once you are spurred, you remain. I’m not sure when the light came on, but a small part of me remembered that it’s about   music , and that’s all that matters. “Peacefield”  is the first song. Gentle tones open the song, as the title suggests, and it builds into an unabashed Pop s...
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Lux Terminus - Cinder - (10/10) - Independent

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  It’s been seven long years since their last release, and now   LUX TERMINUS  returns with their latest offering titled   “Cinder.”  From their Facebook page, they self-describe as “keyboards-driven instrumental cinematic modern Prog.” The first three songs, in three separate movements, feature   ESPERA  (live backing vocals for   SLEEP TOKEN,  and Prog band   EXPLORING BIRDSONG )   vocalists   Lynsey, Paige, and Maty.  The first movement is short, and has minimal instrumentation, but might be a precursor to what we can expect on the album. If it’s any indication, we are in for a treat, because the gentle piano and keyboard melodies are gorgeous, as are the hushed vocals of the trio. Rolling into the second movement, their lush, cinematic side comes bursting through like a beacon, and  Vikram’s  bright piano and keyboard notes work so well with the cadenced rhythms. Backing vocals roll in, and the entire song be...
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Violet Cold - Modular Consciousness - (10/10) - Independent

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  Off the beaten path and mysterious, genre-twisting bands are what captivate me these days. Maybe it’s because I am tired of the same old, same old, and because of my age, experience, vast pedigree of reviews in just about any genre you can think of (over 4,000 and counting), and my constant need to discover and listen to new bands, I am smitten with the prospect of digesting   VIOLET COLD’s  new album,   “Modular Consciousness.”  First, it’s a one-man band hailing from the county of Azerbaijan, and for Americans, that is located at the border of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia's republic of Dagestan to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia and Turkey to the west, and Iran to the south. Second, he is a prolific songwriter, delivering 12 full-lengths since formation in 2013. This new album is an EP, made up of five songs.  “Digital Mirage”  is first. An electronic beat comes through first, reminding me of ...
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