A short, sweet week for EPs this week, with just two for us to check out. However, I’m sure both are going to be awesome metal releases, so let’s get right to it!

Candlemass: Black Star

The legendary doom metal band look to follow up 2022s Sweet Evil Sun with this EP, released as a celebration of the bands 40+ years together! What an EP and a celebration it is, too! I wasn’t expecting it to open on an acoustic guitar and Johan’s powerful vocals, but from that into the heavy riffing shortly after, it instantly gave me the epicness I was expecting from the band! The dynamics of the track are awesome and it’s a definite highlight for me! Then you have the traditional doom riffing awesomeness of ‘Corridors of Chaos’, the more hard-rocking Pentagram cover ‘Forever My Queen’, and even a fantastic Sabbath cover thrown in for good measure! It’s 18-minutes of doomy goodness, and a welcome return from a band I love that we haven’t heard from in far too long! If anyone is a fan of the band or the genre, check this out, you certainly won’t be disappointed! And hopefully with them getting into the studio for this, it means we’re closer to a full new release from them than ever! 8/10

Nobody: Saint Devil in the Fields

Just two months after his last EP, Tuomas is back with another dark-folk masterclass. Opening on the incredible ‘Eight Bullets of Death’, it has much more of a jazz-bar rock n’ roll feel to it, and is a lot of fun! Then you have the controversial slower ‘I Fucking Hate Jesus’, and the almost medieval ‘Swamp Dance’. It’s only 12-minutes, but is a lot of fun and all four tracks are great! While I wouldn’t say I quite enjoyed it overall as much as his last release, I felt like the opener was very much my favourite song I’ve heard by him. It certainly won’t be for everyone, but I enjoyed it and would recommend if you are at all curious! 7/10