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Features

The Top Albums of 2025 – Part 2!

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Part two of our list, and things are already starting to heat up! I thought I’d take this quick time to highlight some honourable mentions, as there were so many albums that sadly didn’t quite make the cut that are well worth checking out: Badflower. Dropkick Murphys. Russel Dickerson. Bleed From Within. Cam. Ron Pope. Heaven Shall Burn. William Prince. Jordan Davis. And, knock her all you like, but the new Sabrina Carpenter album slaps!

80 – Star Circus: From the Wreckage

We kick off part two of this years list with a long-anticipated sophomore album, and one hell of a sleazy, AOR/hard rock release! I’ve been a fan of the band for a few years now, and was pretty hyped when this was announced and we got sent it, and for anyone who’s read our review, I was certainly not disappointed! Nearly 50-minutes of awesome riffing and instrumentation, and packed full of choruses big enough to fill stadiums! Feeling like a modern version of Glenn Hughes or Night Ranger, it’s a lot of fun, and an incredibly easily listen that I’d recommend any rock fan check out! If/when you do, you’ll easily hear why we gave it a whopping 9.5/10, and why it easily made it onto our list!

Check out our reaction to them here!

Listen to: Chained to You, One Hit Wonder, and Last Dance

79 – Paradise Lost: Ascension

The godfathers of death-doom returned this last September with their first new studio stuff in half a decade, and proved that they are still one of the best in their genre. This is an hour of moody, gothic heaviness, and I love every bit of it. The riffs are the main highlight, as expected in this music, but some of the vocal lines are surprisingly catchy too, even when screamed! And the whole thing is just epic, flowing perfectly one track into the next. It’s certainly not for everyone, and is no small undertaking, but if you are at all into doom music, this is very much the album for you! It was, you guessed it, another massive 9/10 from us when it dropped, and a few listens later it still very easily sits at that. A welcome, easy addition to this spot on the list!

Listen to: Tyrents Serenade, Salvation, and Sirens

78 – Rival Pack: BURN

As I’ve said before, 2025 was the year of the hardcore return, and few did it better this year than this Netherlands-based collective. Frankly, the fact that they sit on barely 100 monthly listeners at this point is nothing short of criminal! This isn’t even half an hour of absolute aggression and fury that would put plenty of other artists to shame. It’s a great way to get out some anger, as it makes me just want to throw people around a pit, and at the same time is a great fun listen. It’s a typical sound for the genre and doesn’t do a lot out of the ordinary, but what it does do, it does to perfection. I’ve spun this a lot since June and haven’t yet gotten bored of it, sure to keep spinning it plenty in the new year, too! From the riffing to the screams to the breakdowns, it’s all so good. Somehow it was one we hadn’t checked out for NMM, but give this a listen and try to tell me it is anything less than a 9/10! An amazing heavy album, and well worth its placement on here. On a weaker year, it could have gotten far higher!

Listen to: Closing In, Killer in the Pool, and Don’t Waste My Time

77 – Luna Marble: Self-Titled

The debut album from the bluesy hard rockers only came out last month, but has quickly established itself as a force in this list! This is a powerhouse of 70s riffs and psychedelia from start to finish, as well as being packed full of some awesome, arena-filling choruses to boot! It’s honestly refreshing to hear a band inspired by Led Zeppelin but not sound like a clone of them. It’s a more modern sound, reminding me a lot more of something like Brave Rival. These guys have truly mastered their craft and sound already, insanely impressive for a band so young and not having been going all that long. Everyone is exceptionally talented; from the riffing to the drumming, synth to the actually-focused-on bass to the soaring, powerful vocals it’s all incredible. I’ve fallen in love with the band since this early November release, and if you are at all into more of a classic rock style it is an absolute must-listen! It’s very easy to hear why it got a massive 9/10 from me, and it more than earned its slot here!

Listen to: All of my Love, So Long, and Redemption

76 – The War & Treaty: Plus One

Firstly, I don’t remember this album being this damn LONG. As much as I love the band, 66 minutes is a lot to sit through, and I think it’s a big reason as to why I’ve stuck to the tracks I like and very rarely revisited the release as a whole. It’s most likely the reason that it’s a touch lower than their previous release was on these lists. The highs are in the sky, but there is a fair bit of needless filler too, in this writers opinion, which stopped it from being quite as excellent an album as Lover’s Game. However, it’s still a damn good album, and produced some of my favourite country-adjacent tracks of the year. The duo lean even harder into their Southern Soul style than ever, putting out a truly unique release different to anything else on this list. And, honestly, it’s the more country/Americana stuff that I find myself going back to the least. They have really found their niche and bounce off of each other somehow better than ever, crafting something honestly special here, despite the length. It’s crazy to look back on our review of it and see my opinion has changed a bit on the slower stuff. Honestly, I’d stick with the 9.5/10 over top marks. However it’s still awesome, and very deserving of a slot of this list, that’s for sure! Check this out, especially the opening half!

Listen to: Call You By Your Name, Stealing a Kiss, and Love is on Fire

75 – Feuerschwanz: Knightclub

Power metal ‘Gangnam Style’… do I need to say anything else?! The band put the fun in power metal like few other bands can, and it makes this a fantastic listen! Don’t get me wrong, they can also get serious and ‘proper power metally’ when they want to, but the slightly more light-hearted nature is a lot of fun, and has kept me coming back to a lot of this album again and again. And even though the release may appear front-loaded (aside the massive closer), there are some truly incredible folk metal songs throughout, and I couldn’t name you a bad song. I have fully gotten on-board the power metal train the last couple of years or so, and this is honestly one of my favourite releases in the genre since then! It is a resounding YES in answer to the question posed in my review, and I fully stand by the 9/10 I gave it back then. It more than deserves this slot on the list, and would have gotten higher if it weren’t for a couple other power metal albums further on…

Check out our interview with Ben here!

Listen to: Knightclub, Valhalla, and Sam the Brave

74 – Carter Faith: Cherry Valley

Another debut album, this one for a sure-fire future country megastar. Her Dolly-esque vocals and her fantastic lyric/songwriting are a winning combination, that’s for sure! Her quick wit lyrically is second to very few currently. She definitely adds some modernness to the neo-traditional sound though, and even some epicness with songs like the opener. It’s simple and rather chilled-out as a whole, but packed full of both fun and emotion. And, even at its pretty stacked length, it’s full of amazing songs and it an incredibly easy listen. A lot of it came out as singles beforehand, but despite being a marketing/income tactic, it’s also easy to see why, as there are so many standouts. It gives off Sabrina Carpenter vibes at times, and I mean that as the uttermost of compliments! It’s very easy to hear why I gave this a 9/10, and it’s stayed firmly in my rotation since the start of October when it was released. If you are at all into country music check this out, especially given how MASSIVE a name she’s going to be sooner rather than later. Heck, ‘If I Had Never Lost my Mind…’ still gives me goosebumps now, that alone should encourage you to listen!

Listen to: Sex, Drugs, & Country Music, Grudge, and Burn my Memory

73 – Old Dominion: Barbara

Just two years after their amazing Memory Lane, the country megastars returned with yet another barn-burner! It’s a really interesting release for me, too. When it first released, I was adamant it wasn’t up there with their last album. However, the more I listen to it, the more I find myself enjoying almost every song a lot. While the singles aren’t as massive and memorable, it’s a shorter, more concise album, with less filler and far more killer than Memory Lane. It’s a chilled-out country album that feels like it leans more into their influences than trying to score another radio hit. The band really cut loose and wrote what they wanted to, and it results in a beautiful album that is packed full of heart and emotion. It combines a more traditional country/soul sound with their more modern elements, so if that sounds at all like something you’d be interested in, I can’t recommend this enough! It’s another one that definitely gets bumped up, as I only gave it 8/10 in our review, while it’s another easy 9 now, if not higher!

Listen to: Making Good Time, Man or the Song, and Talk Country

72 – Fit for a King: Lonely God

The Texan metalcore collective returned back in August with their eighth album, and it’s an epic, varied release! Whether it’s the more modern BMTH-inspired arena metalcore, or the brutally heavy riffing and breakdowns that brought them to the dance, or even a couple of slower ballads, this thing is packed full of a bit of everything from the genre! And the band do it all so well! From crushing breakdowns to epic soundscapes, I’m obsessed with all of it. I do typcially prefer the heavier tracks, but something about this band and this album had me loving every song. They’re perfectly spread out through the album too, the moments of levity incredibly offsetting the brutal times. I loved The Hell We Create, but this is up there alongside it, for sure! If you are at all into modern metalcore, this is certainly an album for you. A very solid 9/10 from us easily landed it it’s spot on our list!

Listen to: Extinction, Monolith, and Blue Venom

71 – Eld Varg: Destroyer

The Scottish melodic hard rock/metallers returned with a vengeance with this album last month. The riff-masters clearly borrow from plenty of old-school metal influences, but still somehow sound modern, maybe due to the album’s excellent production! I gushed over this album plenty in my review, but it is so very deserved. It genre-blends in all the best way, and really has a little something for everyone even slightly into metal. 41-minutes of epicness; from power and folk metal to more thrash to melodic hard rock at times. And, as said before, the whole thing goes by in a flash, and is well worth listening to in one sitting! The band are all so incredibly talented at playing and writing, and I can foresee this pushing them up a few notches in the scene by this time next year. It very much deserves its place on our list!

Listen to: Achamán, The Hell of Mirrors, and Crestfallen

70 – HARDY: Country! Country!

Album number four from one of Nashville’s biggest modern songwriters certainly washed out some of the bad taste in the mouth that Quit!! left behind. Leaning more into the country-hard rock fusion that made mockingbird so successful was definitely a step in the right direction, and lead to an album I have revisited a fair bit the last three months. Is it as good as mockingbird? Given that it’s here on this list and not at number 2, no. But hell, it made the list this year, and above a lot of other country albums, so that should say a lot!

Despite being long and certainly having some filler without a cool concept to explain it away, there are still some excellent country tracks across a lot of this, and it’s very much a return to form for THE CROW. There is far more great than not too, with most of this ending up on my personal playlist by now! There’s a lot of fun, but there’s also plenty of emotion shown at times, HARDY’s vocals and talent handling both styles masterfully. The length has most probably dropped it a few places on this list, don’t get me wrong, but it’s a surprisingly easy listen for over an hour. In fact, it may be the longest album on the list this year, which is an achievement in of itself, I guess! I gave it an 8.5/10 back in September, but as predicted in that review, this has grown on me more since! It’s a solid, easy 9/10 now, and very easily makes it this high on the list. Hopefully he rearranges his UK tour next year, as I’d love to hear some of this live!

Listen to: Country Country, Girl With a Gun, and Y’all Need Jesus

69 – Solence: ANGELS CALLING

After sitting with this album for a couple of months now, I’ve finally gotten on-board with serious Solence, and I really love this release! This thing is an incredible pop/alt-metal album packed to the brim with amazing, catchy-as-anything tracks. Honestly, every track is as good as the last, and the album has such a fantastic flow to it, 27-minutes going by in a flash. It has hints of early 2000s US radio-rock, but with a distinctly modern European twist on top of that, especially with the Callboy-like electronic elements and screams. Oh, and then we just get some insanely technical solos thrown in for good measure too; this album really having a bit of everything!

I’ve had most of this album stuck in my head at various points over the last two plus months, and it has grown on me more and more. They fully deserve the fast rise they are having, and I can really see 2026 being their year with the sheer amount of touring they have planned! We gave it 8.5/10 when it released, but it’s definitely higher than that for me now. A good album that’s grown on me even more with subsequent listens, it more than deserves to be rocking this list!

Check out our reaction to them here!

Listen to: Monsters in my Head, Where Were You..?, and All of the Pain Must Go

68 – Locash: Bet the Farm

The first album from the country duo in six years was more than worth the wait! This is a masterclass in bro-ish country, and is a release I’ve been jamming a lot from April all the way to now. It’s a lot of fun throughout, but also packed full of emotion, as well as some stadium-sized choruses and harmonies from the pair. And from the more Southern rock infused to the country ballads, they do it all perfectly. It’s a sound that’s definitely taken a step back in recent years but I’m so glad hasn’t died off completely. If you are into country at all, I’d definitely recommend giving this a chance, it’s impossible not to love it! And at under 40-minutes, it’s pretty short for a country release these days. We gave this a whopping 9.5/10 when it released, and if you take a listen it’s very easy to see why! If it wasn’t for country booming once again this year, it would have ended up higher, but it is still at a damn respectable point of the list!

Listen to: Hometown Home, Bring Em Back, and Shipwrecked

67 – Tetrarch: The Ugly Side of Me

The nu-metal revival continued to be in full swing in 2025, and this album was a large focal point of that! The bands third album followed up 2021’s amazing Unstable perfectly, building on everything that album laid out and coming out with an incredibly strong release overall. Every song slaps, and it makes for a fantastic, heavy, catchy just over half-an-hour! The duo of Josh Fore and Diamond Rowe is a real powerhouse, and will inspire this band continues to grow into a juggernaut in years to come. Especially if they keep continuing to grow and build on their sound, and put out better and better albums! From the crushing riffing to the massive choruses to the occasional awesome solo, it’s all amazing. It got a huge 9/10 from us when it dropped, and has been in regular rotation for me since May, easily earning its spot on this list! For anyone who’s into nu or industrial metal, or just anything around that early 2000s sound, listen to this immediately!

Check out our reaction to them here!

Listen to: Never Again (Parasite), Live Not Fantasize, and Cold

66 – The Damn Shames: Trailers on Bricks

A release recommended to me by a good friend of the company, Kyle Daniel, and I’m so glad that he did! This is an incredible Southern rock album! From the instrumentation to the incredible harmonies to the arena-filling choruses, it’s all so damn good, from start to finish. Honestly, each of these 10 tracks are as good as the last, and it makes for a super easy listen from start-to-finish! The band are all insanely talented players and songwriters, and the fact that this is their debut album and it’s of this high quality is truly amazing. This somehow only got an 8.5/10 from us upon release, but after multiple revisits over the last six months, this is easily closer to a 9 for me! If you are at all into the country or Southern rock scene, this is very much the album for you. Hopefully either scene in the UK picks them up, as I’d love to see this stuff live! I look forward to hearing where they go from here, but for now I am content to keep spinning this record, hence why it ends up pretty high on this list!

Listen to: Who Killed Rock n’ Roll?, Another Spoke in the Wheel, and Quittin’ Time

65 – Epica: Aspiral

I mean, we finally got three new parts of A New Age Dawns on this release, that alone gets it onto this list! However, the other eight songs are also just as good, too! The whole thing is an epic, cinematic masterpiece that somehow feels like it goes by far too quickly despite it being an hour. I always felt like they were one of the more underrated symphonic metal bands, but they put out one of the best albums in the genre in recent years with this. From Simone’s incredible vocals and choruses to the insane instrumentation throughout, it’s easy to hear why it’s had me hooked since April. It got a huge 9.5/10 from us, and if you give it a listen you’ll easily be able to tell why! I’m always a touch hit and miss with the genre, but when it’s done as well as this it’s hard not to fall in love, hence why it’s here and in a pretty favourable position. It’s a big undertaking, but I’d highly recommend a full listen through of the album for anyone even slightly interested!

Listen to: Cross the Divide, Arcana, and Eye of the Storm

64 – Humming Whale: Chasing Rabbits

Another debut album, and this time a fantastic blend of so many different metal styles! Somewhere between hardcore and prog metal, it’s a blend that shouldn’t work anywhere near as well as these guys make it! I already gushed over this album in my review not long ago, so I feel like cliff notes are probably more preferred, right? Incredible instrumentation, catchy, powerful vocals, great cleans and harshes, and some epic songwriting. Like it somehow combines Tool, Godsmack and Turnstile. If that sounds at all like your sort of thing, go check it out ASAP! Their creativity and uniqueness is off the charts, and I can see a huge future for them if they keep on putting out stuff of this quality. For now, I’m more than happy to keep spinning this release, an easy 9/10, and it easily made it onto this spot on the list!

Listen to: Chasing Rabbits, Waves, and Black Waters

63 – Born of Osiris: Through Shadows

This brutal slice of technical metalcore from back in July is somehow something I haven’t revisited too much since its release, but upon doing so am blown away all over again. Instrumentally this is absolutely phenomenal from the very first note; the riffing to the solos, drumming to the electronics and synth, it’s all mind-blowingly good. And the vocals too, be it screams or the odd clean, all fit it so well. I’ve really gotten into the heavier side of metalcore since the mainstream side of it has lightened up, and adding a tech and electronic edge to it is like a match made in heaven. And heck, some of it is catchy, as well as being heavy and djenty, it’s really awesome! I knew I had this album in my list for a reason, but I can’t believe I even slept on it for a few months again, even after giving it 9/10 back in July. If you are even slightly into metal, but especially modern Machine Head, Periphery or Shadow of Intent, this is one to put on immediately!

Listen to: Seppuka, Through Shadows, and Activated

62 – Lanie Gardner: Faded Polaroids

The second album from the rising country star, somehow she keeps just getting better and better! She’s incorporated a little more rock elements since her debut, and it’s made for an incredible, fun country album. And even on her slower tracks, they’re also radio-country ballads, and just as good as the rest of the songs. And even at its length, it’s still an easy listen without a bad song throughout. Her vocals are incredible, as are her lyrics, and they all fit perfectly over the instrumentation, whether it’s country, southern rock, Americana or more of a pop leaning. It got an incredibly easy 9/10 from us, and there was no way it wasn’t getting a strong spot on this list. She has such an insanely bright future ahead of her, and I don’t suspect this is the last time she’ll be on a list like this!

Listen to: Boys Like You, Boot Down, and Buzzkill

61 – Once Awake: Far Out and Beyond

I have such a weak spot for old-school melodeath this year, and the fifth album from the Norwegian quartet delivered that in spades back in April. This thing is an epic nine tracks crushing brutality, riffs, breakdowns and some huge, catchy moments to break them up. There is not a track to skip, and I’ve done it in full numerous occasions since its release. Heck, it’s so good it even prompted me to go to Derby of all places to see them live, that should be the biggest endorsement there is! For those into the heyday of In Flames or Bodom, this is an album you need to spin, you’ll surely be as obsessed as I’ve been. And it actually has our first 10/10 review of our list so far, and it more than deserves that rating! It’s a phenomenal album, and only reason it’s not even higher up is because of the sheer amount of awesome releases from 2025, and the wide variety of styles we cover. I challenge you to find me a better straight-up melodeath album over the last year or two, I think you’d be hard pressed to find much!

Listen to: Where’s All the Silence Gone, Injustice, and Kill the Concern

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Reviews

0: Shadecrown’s Best Album Yet?

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The fourth album from the Finnish doomy melodeath band drops tomorrow, but with that genre description I just knew I had to check out the whole thing early and fully! I’m not familiar with the band in any way and am going into this completely blind, but am already pretty hyped for it. Let’s dive in and see what it’s like!

The album explodes right into a melodic riff to open ‘The Art of Grieving’. It immediately gives off huge melodeath vibes in the best way. The clean ‘oh’s in the back were a nice touch and added so much depth to the song. The screams come in for the verse, grounding it firmly in the metal camp, and fit it perfectly. THAT riff in the middle is TASTY, and the growl that brings it into a solid breakdown is incredible. Honestly, the vocals throughout the track are amazing, showing off a great range and always being exactly what the track needs. Between that and the amazing guitaring, it’s a great way to open the album, and an easy highlight, for sure!

The riffing to open ‘In a State of Agony’ is INCREDIBLE, harkening back to the heydays of BFMV or Killswitch, scratching that metalcore itch perfectly. However, then the screams come in and perfectly shift it towards the death side of camp. The awesome verse leads to an epic chorus and damn, this song is honestly the perfect melodeath track. Heck, we even get a clean section of the second verse, building up through a fantastic guitar solo and third verse into a truly epic final chorus and riff to take us home. The structure of both songs so far have been really interesting, showing the band’s attention to detail and innovation in their songwriting. Another incredible song!

‘Fragile Chapters’ brings more great riffing, melodic leads, and more brutal screams. It’s hard not to compare to the likes of In Flames or Children of Bodom, but honestly, I’d say Shadecrown are doing it just as good as the legends of the genre, at this point. The chorus is amazing, somehow being infectiously catchy from the vocal and guitar melodies. And we get yet another awesome clean section with some incredible soloing over the top, giving the track a lot of dynamics and making the heavy bits even heavier! The track all feels like it leads to that HUGE, brutal breakdown too, as it should, as it’s fucking incredible! Yet again, it’s another fantastic song and huge highlight!

‘Gone’ builds up through keys into an almost modern metal riff, though the epicness still keeps it separate to others in that genre. It’s a slower paced track but is no less heavy; like a melodeath ballad. The voicemail bit in the middle was a cool touch, and somehow fit the song perfectly, giving it even more emotional charge. It’s a simpler track but hits HARD, providing a slight reprive from the balls-to-the-wall pace so far while still feeling very Shadecrown.

‘Zero’ brings back the riffs immediately and perfectly, and is yet another phenomenal heavy melodeath song. Heck, so is half of the rest of the album! ‘Inadequate’ has maybe my favourite growls on the release. Then you have the stomping, heavy closer ‘Repentance’ that closes things out perfectly, drawing together elements of all that came before it while being crushing in its own way. All are awesome songs just as good as each other!

Then, we round out the album with two slower songs, ‘Under the Waves’ and single ‘Tear-Blind’. The former starts with a beautiful acoustic guitar intro, exploding into melancholic heaviness and an epic, sorrowful feeling throughout, changing the pace dramatically but perfectly. The harmonised clean vocals on it are amazing, and add so much depth. The heaviness is still very much present, but over a darker, bittersweet soundscape that still fits the album amazingly. Meanwhile, the latter is a truly epic track that boarders on power or atmospheric black metal in terms of its size and scope. The slow build of more and more parts through the intro and low-but-heavy verse into that huge choruses is amazing. It’s very clear why it was chosen as a single, and it was a very good choice! And those low screams towards the end… *chefs kiss*. It’s yet another amazing song and another highlight on an album packed full of them!

Overall: I LOVED this. I’d somehow never heard of the band before now but am immediately desperate to check out the rest of their back catalogue. I don’t feel like we get enough melodeath released these days, at least that makes it over to the UK, so to get some of such insanely high quality is amazing. If you are at all into the heavier side of metal, I can’t recommend this album enough, and it’s insane that they aren’t a massive name in the scene already. They have a huge new fan in me, and I’ll be spinning this a lot for the next few months, I’m sure!

The Score: 9/10

Features, Reviews

Trowsholm, LN and Reliquia Rock Scruffy Murphys!

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A day after our trip to Download (not reviewing it, it feels weird to review one day of a three day festival) we headed up to Birmingham for a night of folky, dark metal goodness. Three awesome bands packing out a small, hot venue that’s been recently refurbished and reopened; it was set to be a good night! Let’s dive into all three and let y’all know just how awesome they were!

Kicking off the night were the gothic metallers Reliquia. They were the only band I hadn’t checked out beforehand, but they came away with a big new fan in me! They’re a sort of style I love; the epic, dark, gothy-doom sound, and reminded me a lot of bands like My Dying Bride. It had all the best elements of doom and black metal, but also sounded pretty unique. And for a venue as small as it was to get a sound as massive as the band produced was amazing, so big props to the sound guy as well as the band for producing a great show. The band are all hugely talented, playing perfectly along with their organ-and-bass backing track as well as writing some awesome songs. And they really grew into their performance, too. They seemed a touch nervous at first, but as the packed room got more into it so did the band, with Gregg in particular being a great frontman by the end. He also had some of the best live vocals I’ve heard in a while; from low singing to awesome screams they were all great. As I said, they won me round pretty quickly into a new fan, and I’d recommend checking them out if you haven’t already!

Next up were the reason we were there, the incredible LN. After seeing them at Winters End back in February and falling in love, we knew we had to see them again ASAP. To the shock of I’m sure no one, we once again were blow away by the band! They’re one of the most interesting bands in the UK underground scene today, as well as being one of the best live bands around. Their studio work is phenomenal and translates perfectly live, especially in such an intimate setting. There was no denying the crowd were there for them, and they played off it perfectly. Heck, they even got a pit going, which I was not expecting at all! LN is such an engaging and magnetic frontwoman, having the crowd in the palm of her hand throughout. Everyone else also put on a great show though, as well! From their popular older stuff to new preview songs and latest single ‘Hellfire’, it was a fantastic set, too. They band are clearly going to go far fast, and it’s so cool seeing them in these small venues before they blow up! 

Headlining the night were Scotlands own Trowsholm. Right off the bat it was an interesting collection of people; a viking, a wizard, someone in a matching short, shirt and bucket-hat combo and a thrasher… seems like the start of a bad joke! However, it made for one hell of a party mood right from the offset, and the band kept said mood high through the whole set. They were potentially the heaviest band of the night, and at very least the highest energy and paced, and it made for an awesome headline set! It felt almost like a heavier Alestorm, so impossible not to love! They travelled far to be at the gig and made sure it was worth it as they put on a show from beginning to end. They were the least ‘my thing’ of the night but I still had a blast, as did the still-packed-out crowd around me! They were polished and professional while still feeling fun and more light-hearted, and I can’t recommend them enough!

Overall, it’s was an absolutely amazing night of live music! All three bands knocked it out of the park and fit so well on the same bill together. I cannot recommend seeing all three of them enough if they come close to where you are, and I already want to see all of them live again already! And plus, shoutout to the venue, which was awesome, and is helping keep rock and metal alive in one of the most important cities for it!

Reviews

Candlemass and Nobody: EPs Galore!

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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

Reviews

Witchburner: Earthblood Return to Melt Faces with Their Sophomore EP!

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The Finnish Sludgy-doom metallers are set to release their brand new EP on Thursday. I’m not at all familiar with the band and they only appeared to burst onto the scene last year. However, I love the genre they play and am excited to hear this. And, at only three tracks long, I couldn’t not check it out!

The title track opens the EP perfecto with a sludgy, heavy wall of sound and an excellent riff. It speeds up heading into the verse, almost turning into a thrash/death metal track. The vocals very much reinforce that point too, it being a pretty gritty scream. It slows up into a pretty awesome, groovy bridge riff around the 1:30 mark, it almost having stoner metal vibes when it drops out to just guitar and bass a couple of times. We also get some cool little drum solo bits in the middle, everyone being given a chance to shine throughout. It continues to be heavy throughout, there being multiple awesome riffs in the last two plus minutes that honestly by the end of it my neck hurt from headbanging so much. And the screams in the breakdown at the end… *chefs kiss*. It’s a fantastic way to open the EP, and easily makes our playlist!

‘Sons of Heavy Rain’ opens on one hell of a doom riff or three, and I love it! The main riff through it kinda reminds me of Judas Priest from the 90s onwards too; that awesome technical style and a little lighter than the previous track. The solo over the top matches the feel and vibe perfectly, too. The heaviness of course comes back in with the harsh vocals, but it almost gives off Entombed-style death’n’roll more than anything else. Especially with all the guitar melody and soloing throughout. It has a pretty catchy chorus too with the backing vocals giving it a big hand in that direction. It all combined together perfectly to sound heavy, epic and catchy all at the same time. I honestly can’t get enough of this track, everything about it is awesome. From the vocals to the balls-to-the-wall drumming to the insane guitaring; riffs and pinch harmonics and soloing galor, it’s all amazing. So far the EP is two for two on playlisted tracks!

The final track on the far-too-short EP, ‘Swamp Hammer’ does the Batushka thing of having a slow, low, atmospherically distant riff go on for arguably too long. How very, very stoner-doom of them. As it picks up we get an AWESOME riff that keeps pretty stonery. Even with the harsh vocals giving it a death edge, it’s still undoubtedly sludgy and doomy. And again, multi-tracked vocals make for a pretty catchy chorus! Some of the low growls in the back at times too, damn. There’s a fantastic guitar solo tucked away in the middle, technically fantastic and fit the style of the song perfectly. And we even get an INSANE bass solo too, just as good as the guitar one. This song utterly blew me away and I don’t care, all three of these go on our playlist. Shit, that was awesome.

Overall: As you can probably tell, I loved this! It’s of course a rather niche genre, but I’m big into the style and these guys did all of it to perfection. All three tracks are as good as each other, and all are incredible. I HAVE to see ‘Swamp Hammer’ live, my god I hope they tour near me soon. It’s not going to be for everyone, but if you’re a fan of metal at all check it out, it may definitely surprise you. It’s not often I give this out for EPs, but it can’t be anything else…

The Score: 10/10

Reviews

Sweet Evil Sun: Yet Another Doom Metal Magnum Opus from Candlemass?

Doom metal titans Candlemass are back for their first album since before the apocalypse of 2020. I used to be a big fan of the band in my youth, but will admit I have dropped off them in recent years. So, when this album came across our emails, I was desperate to check it out! Without further ado, let’s do this!

The opener, ‘Wizard of the Vortex’, is awesome. Alongside having the most doom metal, Candlemass song title ever, that riff is amazing. It runs through the majority of the track and is the definite highlight. However, Johan Längqvist’s Bruce Dickinson/Blaze Bailey style vocals are a fantastic touch over the top. I know the band have been through a vocalists over the years and most will gravitate to Messiah, but in my opinion Johan is at least a very close second. He adds a power and catchiness that pushes the band past the typical doom metal scene and into something greater. The lead guitar parts were also phenomenal, and the quiet vocal outro was amazing. A great way to open the album, and a track that easily makes the playlist.

The title track keeps it heavy, upping the pace ever so slightly with another sludgy, evil riff. Mats “Mappe” Björkman is an honestly underrated as fuck rhythm guitarist. I’d put him up there with the likes of Hetfield and Adrien Smith, personally. And, of course, band leader and bassist Leif is just as good at ever at writing some of the evilest riffs out there. Honestly everything about this track is incredible as once again Lars’ lead lines are insane. Another underrated player. And Jan keeps the groove and sludgy pace perfectly on the drums. If you are going to listen to any track on the album, or by this band if you are new to them from this article, check this out. It’s catchy and at <4 minutes pretty accessible, as well as being a good song and a great showcase of the band’s talent. Another to make the playlist!

Check out more doom metal here.

The band just keep slapping out fantastic slow riff after fantastic slow riff with the opening of ‘Angel Battle’. They’re so far like 7/7 for awesome riffs. When the track kicks in and picks up the pace a little it sounds amazing, almost fitting into a NWOBHM sound. However, the sludge of the other part is just as fantastic. I really cannot stop gushing over this band, can I? This is another amazing track because of course it is, it’s Candlemass. The stripped back bridge was nice, with the cleaner guitars and low vocals. It then results in the heavy riff packing an even bigger, malicious punch when to comes back in. A great song, I forgot how much I love this band!

By the time ‘Black Butterfly’ rolled around I’ve started to run out of things to say that won’t make me sound like the little fangirl I am. It was another awesome doom metal song. I liked the added touch of dynamics in ‘When Death Sighs’ where the verses were mainly just a simple guitar chug and the vocals. Again, it made the riff even more impactful when the whole band came in. The chorus is also very catchy, especially with the dual vocals and key-change in the final one. Avatarium’s own Jennie Ann-Smith sounds amazing doing the high harmony. The drop-out to just drums in ‘Scandinavian Gods’ was also awesome, and it was nice to hear the solid beat be so focused on. All three tracks are incredible and I love them all; but outside of the points I have spoken about here, they’re much of the same as the previous three tracks.

Next up is the album’s prog song, ‘Devil Voodoo’. Opening on an acoustic guitar, subtle string and Johan’s powerful voice. It all still sounds dark and evil, though. Before a minute into the track a surprisingly quick riff kicks in, again giving off NWOBHM vibes. The awesome backing vocal harmonies are back for the chorus, adding so much dynamic and catchiness to it all.

The heavy bridge is a lot of fun, especially with the faster bass drum. It also leads us back to a reprise of the opening acoustics. Honestly, I’d have loved them to last even longer, but can’t exactly argue when instead we get a heavy riff and blistering, amazing guitar solo instead. The whole track went by in a flash, it definitely didn’t feel like nearly eight minutes. Everything was given time to breathe perfectly, but I’d have also happily taken another two plus minutes of it! Playlisted!

The slow open of ‘Crucified’ is fun, and it’s another infectiously catchy chorus. The doom AF riff for the bridge is also incredible, especially with the bell and the solo going on over the top. And while I have nothing specific to say about ‘Goddess’, it’s still a great track. By this point the doom fatigue had set in just a tiny bit, but I still found myself interested and enjoying each song. And the final track, ‘A Cup of Coffin’, is simply a minute of an amazing riff followed by some applause and cheering. While the cheering is probably tongue in cheek, I honestly think it’s pretty deserved here, what a fantastic close to a fantastic album.

Overall: Wow. I have to admit I dropped off from checking the band out for a good few years, since I was a teenager really, but damn if this hasn’t brought my love for the band right back again. The riffs were incredible, the vocals great and catchy, and the song writing as a whole was top notch. This is the very evolution of the metal genre that Black Sabbath started all those years ago. It’s sludgy, heavy, evil greatness. I’m going to have to go back and check out what I missed by them now. It’s definitely up there with some of the top albums of the year!

The Score: 9/10

new music mondays

New Music Mondays: Halestorm, Three Days Grace and Much More!

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An absolutely HUGE week for New Music Mondays. 12 massive albums from some of the biggest names in rock and metal all out on the same day. I don’t know what it was about May 6th, but I’ve been waiting for it for a while. Without further ado, let’s get to it!

Halestorm: Back From the Dead

Back from the dead indeed. After four years the band returned with their follow-up to 2018’s Vicious. The two singles from the album were both fantastic, setting the scene for the rest of it perfectly. However, you are going to have to wait just a little longer for my review and score, as there is no way I’m NOT doing this in depth! It should be on the site and socials within a couple of days, so keep an eye out!

Three Days Grace: EXPLOSIONS

One of the leaders of the affectionately dubbed ‘butt-rock’ sub-genre, Three Days Grace have been around over two decades at this point and show no sign of slowing down. I have to admit, I haven’t really actively listened to this band since One-X all the way back in 2006. So, it was nice to find myself rather pleasantly surprised by this album!

Three Days Grace’s Official Facebook

All the elements of butt-rock are here, the basic, heavy guitar riffs, the electronic melodies to help build the track and the edgy lyrical content. However, it is clear it is being written by a band that know exactly what they are doing, and do it exceptionally well. While the opener and lead single was a little too edgy for me, tracks like ‘I Am The Weapon’ and ‘No Tomorrow’ are just as good as anything else they’ve put out. Even the slower tracks like ‘Lifetime’ and ‘Redemption’ are fantastic, even if they are pretty depressing lyrically. Still, the emotion is definitely there, in every track. It’s made me want to check out the albums from them I’ve missed and I’ll definitely be listening to this a lot in the coming weeks! 7/10

Simple Plan: Harder Than it Looks

The Canadian pop-punkers have done a lot more than just ‘What’s New Scooby Do?’. The band have had some amazing, huge tracks over their now six album career. Their latest looks to continue that trend, being packed with huge, catchy, arena-filling choruses and vocal lines… and not a great deal else. Don’t get me wrong, the instrumentation is fine, but there isn’t really any of it that I would consider memorable. It’s a usual issue with pop punk, but it’s more prevalent in more anthemic bands like these or Good Charlotte. Still, tracks like the opener and ‘Million Pictures of You’ are good fun and highlights of a fairly standard, samey album. 6.5/10

Fozzy: Boombox

Another album I have to do an in-depth review of I’m afraid, as I have been a Jericho fan for as long as I can remember. Still though, from what I’ve heard so far, it’s going to be pretty good, and certainly better than their last couple of albums!

Silverstein: Misery Made Me

The pop-punk/emo/post hardcore(?) band hit double digits on their discography last week. This sort of music was never really my thing as a kid, in fact I actively avoided most ’emo’ music aside the odd AFI song. So, because of that, I know the band by name only. However, I did enjoy this album. The band managed to put together some interesting different styles throughout. I didn’t think the opening track was that heavy at all and leant heavily into pop-punk so it had me wondering where the post hardcore was. Then the heavy second track came in and I understood a lot more.

Tracks like ‘Ultraviolet’, ‘It’s Over’ and ‘Slow Motion’ also perfectly blend these two styles. The tracks have some awesome catchiness blended with the heaviness too. I’m actually pissed at myself for not giving this band a chance sooner, I’ll definitely be checking them out more! It’s an effortless style of arena-heavy-rock that bands like Asking Alexandria and BVB have tried to varying degrees of success recently. Awesome stuff! 8.5/10

Ibaraki: Rashomon

Trivium frontman and all-round metal legend Matt Heafy finally put out his solo album last week. This is said album. Oh, and it’s death/black metal, so I have been even more excited! Opening on a seven-and-a-half minute death epic for an essentially debut album is a ballsy move, but Heafy pulls it off masterfully. Insane riffs and a harsher scream than I have heard him use in a while, as well as still some of his powerful cleans, start the album off strong.

Ibaraki’s Official Facebook

Then there’s the all out assault of ‘Ibaraki-Doji’ and the darkly beautiful black metal slow build of ‘Jigoku Dayu’, both of which are massive highlights. Oh, and Behemoth’s own Nergal also makes an appearance on the awesome ‘Akumu’, another highlight. There is also guest appearances from the legendary Ihsahn of Emperor and even My Chemical Romance Frontman Gerard Way. Oh, and yes, you guessed it, both tracks are also awesome. Especially the latter, which sees the usually clean vocalist scream his fucking lungs out. I honestly didn’t think he had it in him, that was awesome. Heafy does a good job of managing to make it sound not too much like Trivium, but still have that recognisable edge to it. While I wouldn’t put it quite up there with Court of the Dragon, it is still an insanely strong album. 9/10

Otoboke Beaver: Super Champon

I don’t understand how these girls have over 100k monthly listeners. Then again, the punk scene is and always has been weird. I’m going to be honest with you, I didn’t make it through the whole album. I couldn’t. The vocals were barely in tune and the lyrics were SO VERY REPETITIVE. For a guy who complains about the Killers’s magnum opus ‘Mr Brightside’ being ‘lazy’ for having the same verse twice, this band make them look like J.R. Tolkien. I don’t get it, it sounds awful. If you like it please let me know on our socials what I’m missing, because this was not good. 2/10

Depressed Mode: Decade of Silence

The doom metallers returned after… well… a decade of silence (13 years, to be exact). I’ve already reviewed this very good album, so you can check out what I had to say, alongside my score, here.

Terror: Pain Into Power

This is the first ‘beatdown hardcore’ band I believe we have (at least knowingly) covered here at Overtone. While I feel like I have heard the term somewhere before, it doesn’t sound like my sort of thing so I suspect this will be a review of my first time listening to a whole new sub-genre today, rare these days.

It’s alright. Better than I expected it to be, given the name of the subgenre. It wasn’t anything special but there were a few good riffs, like the one at the end of ‘Boundless Contempt’. And it didn’t overstay its welcome either, being just 18-minutes spread across ten songs. Even the lyrics weren’t terrible. It’s not the best thing I’ve ever listened to but I’ll happily listen to it again. 6/10

Puppy: Pure Evil

This was somehow a more doom version of Smashing Pumpkins. The intro track made me think the album was going to be pretty slow and heavy, but then ‘The Kiss’ flipped it all on its head. It’s an interesting blend of styles: doom/stoner, metal, grunge and even some desert rock. I enjoyed it a fair bit, with ‘Spellbound’ being my particular album highlight. 6/10

I Am The Night: While the Gods Are Sleeping

It’s black metal. That alone should tell you exactly what to expect. I’ve really tried, guys. I’ve been doing NMM for over seven months now and have since listened to a fair amount of black metal. It’s the only sub-genre that does absolutely nothing for me. The musicians in this band are clearly very good at what they do, and the vocalist has one hell of a scream on him, but the actual songs kinda bore me. This is what people think of when they use phrases like ‘all metal just sounds the same’ and ‘you can’t tell what they’re saying’ and you know what, they’re absolutely right. I am the Night are a solid band and probably a great black metal band, bit it isn’t for me. 3/10

Stand Atlantic: f.e.a.r.

I nearly didn’t cover this. Then I remembered I covered Avril Lavigne in one of these and realised I kind of had to. It is still guitar based, even if it is more pop than rock. It reminds me very much of the likes of Olivia Rodrigo or Gayle in its melody, just with slightly more guitars. It isn’t a bad thing and is certainly catchy. It’s simply very basic catchiness and the lyrics are not really my sort of thing. It’s clearly inspired by modern female pop and punk (like AS IT IS) alongside the likes of Avril and P!no. It simply doesn’t quite live up to those influences. Tracks like ‘Deathwish’ and ‘Don’t Talk’ are pretty decent though and definite highlights. 5.5/10

Reviews

Decade of Silence: How Do Depressed Mode Sound After 13 Years Away?

Depressed Mode are a Finnish doom/death/prog metal band. Formed in 2005 as a solo project of Ossy Salonen, the band released two albums in the few years after before going silent through the 2010s. However, the band returned this last week with their first album in over a decade, and titled it accordingly! I’m not particuarly familiar with the band so I’m excited to be checking it out!

Depressed Mode’s Official Facebook

‘Death Walks Among us’ opens on a beautiful orchestral piece. It builds and builds perfectly. But, at a minute-and-a-half before the guitars and drums come in, it may be just a tad long. The strings continuing on in the back is an excellent touch, made even better moments later when the lead guitar harmonises with it. It then heads into full-on doom metal for the verse, the low growls also bringing in the death element. Surprisingly though, there were some clean vocals in here too. Not many, but it broke things up a bit and added a catchy element to it all.

The chuggy, almost breakdown part afterwards was fantastic. The growls fit in well and the violins when they come back in. The cleans come back in for what I assume is the chorus before and it even leads to a pretty sweet guitar solo, even if it was a tad short. The final chorus with the duelling clean and harsh vocals was FANTASTIC and rounds out one hell of an opening track. This is everything I could possibly want out of the heavier side o metal. It was heavy, packed full of great riffs and great screams. But, to top it off, it has some great clean vocals and a real epic feel to it thanks to the strings. The easiest playlist I’ve done in a while!

‘Endless November’ starts off slow but still heavy. The clean vocals remain too, reminding me of Tobias Forge in their higher, harmonised delivery. A higher, more female-led symphonic metal vocal adds even more depth to it. It plays off the other clean perfectly. It has a very black/doom metal vibe about it all. And it benefits from being on the proggier side length wise too, as the pace doesn’t really pick up until a few minutes in, the harsh vocals not coming in until after that. They’re pretty far back in the mix though, almost treated like another instrument. The operatic female vocal takes the lead here in a big way, giving us an even catchier chorus than the previous tracks! The whole song is more like symphonic metal than anything else, doom being the next closest. It’s epic and a lot of fun, another great song!

Check out our review of a similar band, Extinction in Progress, here.

‘Dissociation of the Extinguished Mind’ is another one with an epic opening, even having a pretty great guitar solo around the one minute mark. It stays slow for the verse and the growls return. There’s a great riff that comes in around the mid-point of the song, the lead guitar following the string accompaniment perfectly. There’s the odd vocal line and sound as well behind it, spoken word kinda style, and it really reminds me of Faith no More. The clean vocals afterwards added a nice change of pace, and again when they go back to them later, and around it are more heavy, growled verses. It fading out to a piano outro was also fantastic, adding an epic, creepy finale to things. Good stuff!

The piano continues on into the intro of ‘As the Light Dims’, and the violin over the top makes it all so beautiful. The guitars come in over the top, as do the female vocal lines. The dynamics of the track are fun, heading into some growls before dropping back down to the piano and female ‘ooo’s and ‘ahhh’s. It builds back up again with the Ghost-like clean vocals and huge distorted guitar chords. At one point all three vocal styles are duelling and it sounds AMAZING. The whole track is heavy, proggy greatness.

Unfortunately, this is where the album peaks for me. Don’t me wrong, the following five tracks are all awesome, and I will definitely be listening to them again a few times after this. Heck, the riff for ‘Serpents’ is my favourite on the whole album, and the track is a highlight for sure. And it was nice to have some more upbeat tracks again like ‘Eternal Darkness’. However, there are a lot of slower parts throughout the album. Anyone who visits this site reguarly knows that my patience for this type of music isn’t the best. It’s all fantastically written and awesome to listen to, but nine songs clocking in at over an hour is a little much for me all in one sitting!

Overall: As I’ve said, this was awesome. It was an epic, heavy, very well-written album full of everything you could ask for from the sub-genre. A fantastic return after well over a decade away!

The Score: 8/10

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