#austrianmetal — Public Fediverse posts

The calendar turns, and what better way to celebrate the coming year than an album that sounds straight out of the late 80s? Austria’s Wildhunt have been slinging out classic thrash/heavy metal since 2011, but have until this year produced only one record: 2016’s Descending. Ten years is a long time to cook up a sophomore record, and Wildhunt via Jawbreaker Records boasts of “a mix of detail-loving, energetic metal and epic song structures” for album number two, Aletheia. Cited as being for fans of Metallica, Heathen, King Diamond and Megadeth, Wildhunt runs the risks of any band explicitly evoking the distant past: coming off as geriatric nostalgia-bait. Is this Wildhunt’s fate, or can they rise above and make Aletheia a blast from the present-past?

Wildhunt may play the kind of stuff Ronald Reagan could’ve heard, but Altheia doesn’t sound like the kind of record Reagan could’ve played either. Recalling at once the prog-thrash of Heathen on “Made Man” and “The Holy Pale” and the 70s hard rockin’ of Rainbow on “Touching the Ground” and “Aletheia,” Wildhunt play an inherently backward-looking style that still sounds fresh out of the garage. The guitar duo of Wolfgang Elwitschger and Julian Malkmus draw heavily from the schools of Hetfield and Blackmore, dropping muscular palm-muted riffs and nimbly melodic leads and solos, while bassist Robbie Nöbauer regularly works in lines that play with the six-string like Cliff Burton licks (“Kanashibari”). Rhythmically, drummer Lukas Lobnig lays down driving patterns that propel Wildhunt through all of the wild turns that Aletheia has, most notably on the gargantuan prog numbers of “Made Man” and “Sole Voyage.” Top it off with Elwitschger’s booming baritone—warm, silky and vintage as Aletheia’s dynamic mixing and mastering—and you get an album expertly performed and deeply indebted to the sounds of yesteryear.

Aletheia by Wildhunt

Though Wildhunt won’t surprise you with novelty, Aletheia might catch you off-guard with its adventurous, progressive songwriting. Wildhunt forgo simple catchiness and repetitive loops on Aletheia in favor of untypical, tension-building intervals and progressions. Songs spiral out into bridge-filled bonanzas of killer riffs and solos, getting into Megadeth speeds on “The Holy Pale,” majestic prog-power hooks on “Sole Voyage” á la Tanagra and, in the album’s most unexpected turn, a diversion into smooth salsa also on “Sole Voyage.” Furthering Wildhunt’s eccentricity, Aletheia deal in dark, thoughtful, and fantastical lyricism. When Elwitchger opines on “Aletheia” that “hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue,” I perk up immediately, every time. If you’re looking for familiarity and easy listening, Aletheia is for you; if you’re looking for something expansive and daring, Aletheia is also for you.

But with how many twists and turns Wildhunt throw at the listener, Aletheia can feel surprising blunted at times. Aletheia is dramatic, and its songs go a lot of directions, but they rarely build to the big, explosive moments to accent their highs and lows. For example, though Elwitchger’s voice is plenty good, it sounds like he sticks too closely to his most comfortable range and, though he never comes off as strained as a result, it feels like he’s not quite giving it all. “Made Man” and “In Frozen Dreams” exemplify this issue, as even though each segment of them is interesting, they don’t really build up to much, and as such feel a little meandering. Similarly, the two instrumentals “Touching the Ground” and “Kanashibari” sit in a weird middle ground of being too involved to pass off as interludes but not quite substantial enough to work as stand-alone songs. Aletheia isn’t devoid of memorable moments—”The Holy Pale” and “Aletheia” have killer choruses and “Sole Voyage” is a blast front to back1—but with how much creativity Wildhunt possess it should be more electrifying than it is.

Aletheia isn’t the face of metal to come in 2026,2 but it’s a fun and energetic morsel of heavy metal regardless, and what more does anything need to be? If the previous paragraph came off as overly harsh, it’s only because the skill and creativity Wildhunt exudes make it easy to imagine how great Aletheia could be if things were taken up one more notch. If any of the bands mentioned above are your cup(s) of tea, Altheia will more than likely agree to your sensibilities. It’s adventurous, well-played, lots of fun, and occasionally great. Kicking off 2026 with Wildhunt’s Altheia is no bad idea at all.

Rating: Good
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps MP3
Label: Jawbreaker Records
Websites: wildhunt.at | jawbreakerrecords.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/wildhuntaustria
Releases Worldwide: January 2nd, 2026

Pillars of Cacophony – Paralipomena [Things You Might Have Missed 2025]

By Owlswald

Amidst the routine of our daily lives, it’s easy to overlook the hidden, complex universe that exists just outside our normal gaze. It only takes a bit of magnification to reveal it: a place where cells shift and collide, forming the invisible architecture of existence. Capturing the awe of this biological machinery is a tall order. Yet, Dominik, multi-instrumentalist and mastermind of Pillars of Cacophony, has created a soundscape with second LP, Paralipomena, that does exactly that, exploring the building blocks of life through sound. Though tackling the topic of bioscience through the lens of disso and technical death metal may be a volatile experiment, this Austrian knows exactly how to harness the power of biology to bridge the divide. You see, Dominik is a bioscientist by trade, literally mining his own PhD thesis to drive the chaos that is Pillars of Cacophony. This academic authenticity is what sets Paralipomena apart, resulting in a rare fusion of intellect and brutality that you simply can’t afford to miss.

The genome of Paralipomena is an unstable body of technical and dissonant death metal, forged in the chaotic intersection of Ulcerate and The Faceless. The album’s kinetic energy flows freely across synapses, connecting a skin of hooky riffs, tremolo surges, and punishing down-picking. Intelligent songwriting and flash-fire percussion surgically underpin this to create an unsettling cacophony of sonic friction. While tracks like “The Cradle,” “The Discord,” and “Retina” demonstrate Pillars of Cacophony’s hyper-speed technicality, cuts like “Cachexia,” “Mitosis,” and the Meshuggahian “Landscapes of Permanence” twist the formula, venturing into unpredictability with jazzy permutations and calm, contemplative sections (“Maps of Disintegration”). This is the soundtrack to inter-cellular warfare—a torrent of fast-twitch riffing and searing discordance, punctuated by pressurized blast beats, static-laced roars, and the acidic twang of bass, transporting one into a world seen only through a high-powered scope.

Paralipomena is rife with entropy, yet its multi-layered cytoskeleton maintains homeostasis. Pillars of Cacophony’s layered guitars clash and coordinate simultaneously—one flooding the airwaves with raw, unsettling dissonance, while the other focuses on calculated technicality and micro-precision picking. “Of Plagues and Fibrils” immediately delivers Paralipomena’s chemistry of chaos and precise equilibrium in its moving, shifting main palm-muted riff, infecting the listener’s brain like a disease with its immediate, powerful hooks. The drums’ complex cymbal flares and tom rolls only enhance the track’s memorability, providing badass atmosphere and tasteful technicality in equal measure. Pillars of Cacophony showcases this same momentum again in “Retina,” which pushes a Necrophagist-like tempo—particularly during its groovy double-bass sections and unidirectional picking—and “The Cradle,” where the rhythm section anchors the frenetic guitar work and furious tremolodic leads.

Ever since it dropped earlier this year, Paralipomena continues to grip me. It succeeds by concentrating sonic violence to create the ultimate soundtrack to a hidden world—one that feels as technically layered as it is immediately catchy. Pillars of Cacophony has forged an album that pairs an extreme and dystopian soundscape with the surgical authority of empirical sciences, carving a bespoke path outside the predictable confines of death metal. If you’re a fan of disso or tech-death and somehow missed Paralipomena, consider this your diagnosis and remedy that malady immediately.

Tracks to Check Out: “Of Plagues and Fibrils,” “The Cradle,” “Retina,” “The Discord.”

#2025 #AustrianMetal #DeathMetal #Meshuggah #Necrophagist #Paralipomena #PillarsOfCacophony #TechnicalDeathMetal #TeratogenRecords #TheFaceless #ThingsYouMightHaveMissed2025 #TYMHM #Ulcerate