Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #seasonofmist, aggregated by home.social.
Autumn weather outside...
Autumnal music inside!!!
HULDER - 'Verbolgen' by @hulder_official & @seasonofmistofficial
#harzhikingmetalpunk
#hulder
#seasonofmist
#blackmetal
#autumn
#metalpunksteel
#speedmetalpunks
#vinyl
#harzmountains
#music
https://www.instagram.com/p/DeRfgVEDEj5/?psln=bHBxdWFrdHVmcDYx
+++REVIEW+++
#zephyrs_odem_review
#zo_review_folk
Gåte – Sigil (2026)
(10.476) Timo (9,0/10) Folk/Rock/Metal
Label: Season of Mist
VÖ: 25.09.2026
(...) Für mich haben GÅTE einen Seltenheitswert. So vielschichtig und spannend hört man Folklore selten, dabei ist die Band alles andere, aber nur nicht gewöhnlich (...)
https://www.zephyrs-odem.de/reviews/detail/gaate-sigil-2026-15603
Review auf unserer Webseite / Threads / X / WhatsApp / BluSky / Mastodon / Metalliverse
#gåte #gåtenorway #folkmetal #modernfolk #seasonofmist #folkrock
Review: Temic – Ceiba – The Progressive Subway
Album art by: Hicham Hamzi Style: Progressive metal (clean vocals)Recommended for fans of: Dream Theater, Leprous, Devin Townsend,…
#NewsBeep #News #Music #2026 #7.5 #cleanvocals #Englishlyrics #Entertainment #international #October #ProgressiveMetal #SeasonofMist #UK #UnitedKingdom
https://www.newsbeep.com/uk/790812/
Eihwar announce European tour – Distorted Sound Magazine
EIHWAR have announced a headlining European tour! The French pagan folk duo have announced their Witches & Vikings…
#Europe #EU #Eihwar #EihwarEuropeanTour #European #SeasonofMist
https://www.europesays.com/europe/151671/
Temic return with ‘Ceiba,’ an expansive journey through grief, loss, mortality, healing and acceptance. Check out our review of the progressive metal outfit’s sophomore album.
Read Here: https://metalinsider.net/new-music/album-review-temic-ceiba
#Temic #Ceiba #ProgressiveMetal #SeasonOfMist #NewMusic #AlbumReview
Review: Green Carnation – A Dark Poem, Pt. III: The Messiah Complex
Published by Claire on 2026/09/302026/09/30 Album art by Niklas Sundin Style: Progressive metal (clean vocals)Recommended for fans of:…
#NewsBeep #News #Music #2026 #8 #cleanvocals #Englishlyrics #Entertainment #norway #Overground #ProgressiveMetal #SeasonofMist #september #UK #UnitedKingdom
https://www.newsbeep.com/uk/787572/
Review: Green Carnation – A Dark Poem, Pt. III: The Messiah Complex
Published by Claire on 2026/09/302026/09/30 Album art by Niklas Sundin Style: Progressive metal (clean vocals)Recommended for fans of:…
#NewsBeep #News #US #USA #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Music #2026 #8 #cleanvocals #Englishlyrics #Entertainment #norway #overground #ProgressiveMetal #SeasonOfMist #september
https://www.newsbeep.com/us/865953/
Eihwar Book a Headlining European Tour
Following their first European headline tour, and a headline tour across the US, Eihwar hit the road again…
#Europe #EU #Eihwar #European #EuropeanTourdates #Hindarfjäll #SeasonofMist
https://www.europesays.com/europe/149464/
Gåte guitarist Magnus Børmark takes us inside ‘Sigil,’ with a track-by-track guide.
Recensie: Green Carnation – A Dark Poem, Part III: The Messiah Complex (EN) ★★★★½
https://writteninmusic.com/albumrecensie/green-carnation-a-dark-poem-part-iii-the-messiah-complex-en/
Recensie: Green Carnation – A Dark Poem, Part III: The Messiah Complex ★★★★½
https://writteninmusic.com/albumrecensie/green-carnation-a-dark-poem-part-iii-the-messiah-complex/
GREEN CARNATION - 'A Dark Poem, Part lll: The Messiah Complex' by @green2carnation & @seasonofmistofficial _ #Review Online Now _ at @twilight_magazin
#greencarnation
#seasonofmist
#twilightmagazin
#progressivemetal
#IntenseMusic
#progressiverock
#metal
#heavymetal
#metalpunksteel
#speedmetalpunks
https://www.instagram.com/p/DdNwfFFjGu1/?stkn=MTltbWdtOXV2M2d6OQ==
https://www.europesays.com/at/387267/ Heilung kehren nach ihrer Auszeit ins Studio zurück #AT #Austria #Auszeit #Entertainment #Heilung #Music #Musik #NeuesAlbum #Österreich #Rückkehr #SeasonOfMist #Studio #Trailer #Unterhaltung
The time has finally arrived for the conclusion of Green Carnation’s epic A Dark Poem. If you’ve been following this journey, the band released the dark, brooding A Dark Poem Part I: The Shores of Melancholia last year to set the stage. Like The Matrix movies, this record works fine on its own, introducing a dark and chaotic side to the band. It was an exciting listen because, unlike previous Green Carnation records, The Shores of Melancholia was surprisingly one-sided instead of the band’s typical roundness. Which meant one of two things: either this trilogy would represent a much harsher version of the band, or we haven’t heard shit yet.
When A Dark Poem Part II: Sanguis dropped earlier this year, I was floored. Unlike The Matrix movies, Sanguis proved superior to its predecessor. But, as a pair, the experience is pure bliss. Out of the dark world of Melancholia came an album of hopelessness and severe depression. It’ll make you cry at one point, and scream at the skies at another. It also includes some of the best songwriting in Green Carnation’s thirty-six-year existence. So, how in the unholy hell can you fit in a finale? And even if you did, what would that sound like? I present to you the shocking A Dark Poem Part III: The Messiah Complex.
After all the ups-and-downs, intensity, emotion, and passion, The Messiah Complex arrives in a tight little package, consisting of a mere four songs with a thirty-eight-minute runtime. Which makes me realize how perfectly balanced these three records are because, when added up, they hover just below two hours of music. Of the three records, this new one feels the most progressive, and that progressiveness intensifies with each track. “Unconditional Artificial Chemistry” is an exceptional opener, delivering a pleasurable mid-paced groove, massive bass poppin’, and a classic Green Carnation chorus. It has Nordhus’ addictive melodic vocals, soothing guitar leads, and also some impressive key work.
The title track is the best on the record, but that’s silly to say when all four tracks are top-tier. But the combination of acoustic pluckings and hypnotic strummings puts us in the realm of Acoustic Verses. That’s before the head-bobbing chug takes over and gets this thing rockin’. At the midway point, we arrive at the calm before the storm. Then, the track really moves, climbing and roaring and soaring to its heavy conclusion. One of the cooler aspects of this song is the lead vocals by Green Carnation overload, Stein Sordal. “Broken Souls, Common Enemies” follows “The Messiah Complex” seamlessly, dropping some old-school progginess over a gorgeous chorus, nifty guitar leads, harpsichord action, and vicious rasps. After a gentle lull with acoustic guitars and flute, the song is flung up to a stratosphere over layered vocals, a sweeping atmosphere, and a stellar conclusion.
But the closing number, “A Dark Poem – Orchestral Suite,” is like nothing I’ve ever heard before. Executed by the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra and Opera Choir, this nearly seventeen-minute song sees no distortion, no rumbling bass, and no vocals. Outside of the songwriting, you actually won’t hear a single peep from the band. It might be the most ambitious thing I have ever heard. By no means an expert in classical music, I can clearly hear Vivaldi inspiration here, with waves of strings, horns, woodwinds, and percussion that collide at the end in a massive conclusion. There’s no way I can describe it. It’s something one must hear. And it somehow is the perfect ending to this Ophelia-inspired epic.
At the end of this mighty journey, Sanguis still captivates me the most. It’s pure sex to my ears. But A Dark Poem Part III: The Messiah Complex is truly special. While many will talk about the closer more than any other track, Green Carnation saved some of their best material for last. The heavier tracks flow so well that you come to realize that they are just as classical as the orchestral piece. Reviewing this trilogy has been one of the highlights of my AMG career, and I can’t wait for you all to hear it.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Season of Mist
Websites: greencarnationsom.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/greencarnationnorway
Releases Worldwide: September 4th, 2026
https://www.europesays.com/nl/301414/ Green Carnation – A Dark Poem, Part III: The Messiah Complex #ADarkPoemPartIii:TheMessiahComplex #Amusement #Dutch #Entertainment #GreenCarnation #Music #Muziek #Nederland #Nederlanden #Nederlands #Netherlands #NL #prog #ProgressiveMetal #SeasonOfMist
https://www.europesays.com/be-nl/135902/ Green Carnation – A Dark Poem, Part III: The Messiah Complex #ADarkPoemPartIii:TheMessiahComplex #Amusement #BE #België #Belgium #Entertainment #GreenCarnation #Music #Muziek #prog #ProgressiveMetal #SeasonOfMist
Given its proclivity for scathing speeds, tough turnarounds, and blistering double bass, death metal contains a surprising number of drummer-vocalists. There’s Chris Reifert’s foundational feats in Autopsy, Mike Browning’s total-body tour de force on The Key (Nocturnus), and Max Klebanoff’s cookie-monstered kit-mashing in Tomb Mold. Add Andrea Feltrin of Miscreance to the list of specimens who helm the drums while screaming like a maniac. His Northern Italian quartet garnered well-deserved hype with their thrashy, old-school brand of technical death metal on debut Convergence (2022).1 For its sophomore outing, Miscreance gets bolder with a concept record; the band describes Reminiscence as a ‘lost album’ from ‘an unknown civilization that’s both futuristic and extremely primitive.’ Feltrin thus faces the unenviable task of carrying the narrative and rhythmic weight of Reminiscence, a forward-looking foray into vintage thrash-death.
Fortunately, three killer musicians fill out Miscreance, evoking the genre’s genesis and present. In lockstep with Feltrin’s lethal limbs is bassist Jean-Claude Rossingnol, whose Rickenbacker rattles with a deliciously fat n’ clangy tone.2 His punchy plucks, scintillating slaps, and stimulating slides unquestionably conjure the presence of Atheist. Guitar duo Andrea Granauro and Tommaso Cappelletti forge Miscreance’s frontline, discharging a repertoire of spidery riffs, grinding gallops, and whammy-barred solos. Their symbolic sound patterns summon the inhuman fretboard gymnastics of proggy Death. Together, the members of Miscreance craft a more-than-worthy iteration of old-school technical death metal, with sharp, clean, and vibrant production. Reminiscence pays homage to a classic like Sadus’s A Vision of Misery (1992), and it can dance with a greenhorn like Tomb Mold’s The Enduring Spirit (2023).
It is the rhythm section, though, that supplies Miscreance with its star power. Often, the bass in technical (death) metal comes off as merely another melodic instrument, and Rossingnol certainly adds color at key moments (“Synaptic Corpse Dissection”). The real joys of Reminiscene, however, bloom when Rossingnol and Feltrin beat the listener over the head with primal rhythmic hooks. A recurring motif in “Oracle’s Rift” best exemplifies such wallopings. Feltrin’s accented drumrolls lock in with Rossingnol’s voluminous bass slaps, acting as a kind of non-melodic chorus for the song. The off-kilter yet movement-inducing interplay between the bass and drums forms the fabric of Reminiscence, tapping into the brain of a lizard with an advanced degree. With a little help from this feral fabric, the knotty guitar hooks stitched by Granauro and Cappelletti shine even more.
Fairly consistently, Reminiscence slays across its 38 minutes. Opener “Trait d’Union” maps a template of elements that reverberate throughout. Its tribal bongos set a primal tone that periodically pops up as the album soars through its technical journey. Additionally, the opener dons over the music deep voiceovers that, while a bit goofy, develop a sense of narrative trajectory. “Synaptic Cortex Dissection” stands as a mid-album high point—it culminates with some absolutely deranged, absolutely delightful guitar harmonies. The back half of Reminiscence keeps the momentum and quality high, even if some moments shout for breathing room (the bass groove in “Symbiosis,” the cosmic solo in “Zenith of a Dying Sun”). Pseudo-instrumental “Mirage” is a bangin’ closer, though, somehow upping the ante on an album living in the fast lane. Feltrin’s maniacal rasps amplify the unhinged volatility, recalling mid-career Chuck and Damian Herring’s harshes (Horrendous). I love how Feltrin barely sputters out all the lyrics as he screeches like an eagle. Still, more lyrical legibility would cement Reminiscence’s concept about ‘primordial extraterrestrials [that] have achieved total neural unity’ but are tempted by ‘innate wickedness.’3
As carpenters of thrashy, old-school technical death metal, Miscreance furnish a sophomore album that all but nails it. Propelled by an exciting bass/drum duo and rounded out by an equally imposing guitar pair, Reminiscence delivers everything fans of this genre are looking for, with verve. Miscreance could stand to be more unique, but they show signs of developing something singular in the future. Indeed, this Italian quintet has only just begun to discover its potential. One day, I look forward to reminiscing about Miscreance’s sophomore album as the band’s stepping-stone to the top of the death-thrash world.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Season of Mist
Websites: Instagram | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: August 28th, 2026
Temic have unveiled a video for their latest single, “Broken.” New album, ‘Ceiba,’ arriving in October via Season of Mist.
Details: https://metalinsider.net/video/temic-unveil-new-single-broken
De Noorse blackmetalband #Nordjevel heeft een contract getekend bij 💿 #SeasonofMist
De band sluit zich aan bij het Underground Activists-imprint van het Franse label.
Meer weten? Check dan het nieuws item door Seth Abrikoos op onze website:
🔗 https://www.brothersinraw.com/post/nieuws-concerttip-nordjevel-tekent-bij-season-of-mist-en-kondigt-incantation-tour-2027-aan
https://www.europesays.com/be-nl/126307/ Hulder – Verbolgen | Zware Metalen #Amusement #BE #België #Belgium #BlackMetal #Entertainment #hulder #Music #Muziek #recensie #review #SeasonOfMist #verbolgen #ZwareMetalen
https://www.europesays.com/nl/290129/ Hulder – Verbolgen | Zware Metalen #Amusement #BlackMetal #Dutch #Entertainment #hulder #Music #Muziek #Nederland #Nederlanden #Nederlands #Netherlands #NL #recensie #review #SeasonOfMist #verbolgen #ZwareMetalen
https://www.europesays.com/nl/286499/ Emptiness – Nowhere Speaks | Zware Metalen #Amusement #België #black #BlutAusNord #death #Dutch #emptiness #Entertainment #Music #Muziek #Nederland #Nederlanden #Nederlands #Netherlands #NL #NowhereSpeaks #recensie #review #SeasonOfMist #VanEigenBodem #ZwareMetalen
https://www.europesays.com/be-nl/122792/ Emptiness – Nowhere Speaks | Zware Metalen #Amusement #BE #België #Belgium #black #BlutAusNord #death #emptiness #Entertainment #Music #Muziek #NowhereSpeaks #recensie #review #SeasonOfMist #VanEigenBodem #ZwareMetalen
https://www.europesays.com/be-nl/117455/ TodoMal – Graveyards Of Joy #2026 #Amusement #BE #België #Belgium #doom #Entertainment #GraveyardsOfJoy #Music #Muziek #post #progressief #ProgressieveDoom #SeasonOfMist #todomal
https://www.europesays.com/nl/280315/ TodoMal – Graveyards Of Joy #2026 #Amusement #doom #Dutch #Entertainment #GraveyardsOfJoy #Music #Muziek #Nederland #Nederlanden #Nederlands #Netherlands #NL #post #progressief #ProgressieveDoom #SeasonOfMist #todomal
“Fire Blades from the Tomb” and “De Venom Natura” — Italian Outfit Ponte del Diavolo Discusses Their Signature Post-Punk Doom
Repost #BrothersinRAW 🔥 #CHANGELING brengt een unieke blindfolded studio playthrough uit van “World? What World?”!
🤘 Meer weten? Check het volledige nieuws, sounds & concerttip-item door Seth Abrikoos op onze website!
Misery Index have returned with “Feral Future,” their first new single in four years.
Details: https://metalinsider.net/video/misery-index-release-first-new-single-in-four-years-feral-future
Recensie: Green Carnation – A Dark Poem, Pt I: The Shores Of Melancholia (EN) ★★★★
https://writteninmusic.com/albumrecensie/green-carnation-a-dark-poem-pt-i-the-shores-of-melancholia-en/
Recensie: Green Carnation – A Dark Poem, part II: Sanguis (EN) ★★★★
https://writteninmusic.com/albumrecensie/green-carnation-a-dark-poem-part-ii-sanguis-en/
Recensie: Green Carnation – A Dark Poem, part II: Sanguis ★★★★
https://writteninmusic.com/albumrecensie/green-carnation-a-dark-poem-part-ii-sanguis/
Emptiness, nothingness, absence, non-being: such evocations of negation abound in extreme metal, often justifiably given the visceral analogy between dense dissonance and existential dysphoria. Among the acts walking this walk, Belgium’s Emptiness proudly stalk, with the blurb for seventh full-length Nowhere Speaks explicitly stating that it is “entirely unconcerned with making its listener comfortable.” The group’s trajectory thus far has taken them from uncompromising blackened death into ever more ambient and experimental territory, where they first crossed into the AMG-verse via Jean-Luc Ricard’s 2014 TYMHM post on Nothing But the Whole, and returned in 2017 to send shivers down Grymm’s spine with Not For Music. The sudden pivot into French-sung, distortion-free Vide was no less disturbing for its quietitude, though it may have ironically alienated fans. Nowhere Speaks thus carries the weight of significant mystery: what form has Emptiness taken this time, and does it bear any connection to their past?
Nowhere Speaks sees Emptiness heap scorn over those who doubted them—this is all of Emptiness, and there’s nothing random about it. The album begins with this affirmation, picking up the riff that was cut-off midway from Nothing But the Whole’s closer “Lowland,” and carrying on (“Nothing But The Whole (Part 2)”). It ends with it too, final track “All For Nothing” lapsing into the malevolent soundscape of Nothing But The Whole’s first, “Go and Hope,” and stopping with similar abruptness—a synecdoche for the wider circularity that connects these two albums over a decade apart. This brings a weird closure to the former record, even as Nowhere Speaks’ ending perpetuates the unsettled and unsettling sempiternality. Emptiness’ self-referential horror doesn’t stop at album construction. In a direct mirror of predecessor Vide, which was recorded by each member in isolation and geographically distant, Nowhere Speaks was recorded live all at once in the studio. This reassembling works as a metaphor for this album’s sound, which reconstructs many of Emptiness’ elements in both familiar and unfamiliar ways.
Nowhere Speaks is the opposite of immediate; everything about it creeps. And it creeps inexorably, as certain as death. The dark melodies and restlessly stalking tempos (“Nowhere Speaks,” “Words to Wind,” “When the Whole Arrives”1) are only the half of it. Sometimes the music’s atmosphere incarnates as disso-death moodiness, (“Words to Wind,” “When the Whole Arrives”), sometimes as the blurriness of noisy atmo-black (“The Threat,” “One Must See All,” “All For Nothing”), sometimes as warped, static-scattered ambience (“Darkness Commands,” “Words to Wind,” “Next In Line”). Tremolos often feel almost warm (“Nowhere Speaks,” “All For Nothing”) until they aren’t (“Words to Wind”), and the stylistic incongruence between them and the electro-industrial edge that warps whispered growls creates an eerie tone throughout. The highest points are the culmination of these apparent inconsistencies, some new genre Emptiness have been crafting all this time—a pared-back blackened-death, dark ambient, groovy, and dissonant. It builds in the second act of “Words to Wind,” stalks with predatory grace at “When the Whole Arrives”‘s intro, and spreads insidiously in “Next In Line.” Emptiness pass through extreme metal and cloak elements in atmosphere, yet all this adds rather than subtracts tension and fearfulness.
These nuanced and unusual textures are intriguing, but they sometimes veer towards a mélange that’s too understated. Emptiness have absolutely nailed the vibe, and much of Nowhere Speaks does capitalise on the magical combination of pseudo-dissonant guitar, smothering dark ambience, and unusual compositional shapes. I can forgive the myriad interludes—some of which, particularly “Darkness Commands,” are excellent in their own right—which bleed in and out of the main songs. It’s the wavering vagaries in the midpoints and margins that threaten to fade too far into the background. The burying of instruments whilst nothing else drives a progression (“Nowhere Speaks,”); muffled voices and noise (“Words to Wind”), an immersion-breaking slide into the major (“Nowhere Speaks,” “The Clash of Forces,” “All for Nothing”). At least it sounds brilliant—all the layers distinguishable, the reverb a softness rather than an obstruction, the drums, vocals and guitars each having space to spook you.
Emptiness are evidently believers in the virtue of patience, answering the open question of Nothing But The Whole’s abrupt ending more than a decade after it was posed. Nowhere Speaks is no anomaly; give it time, and it spreads out like a great gulf of nothing.2 It may have taken many listens, but I’m now so immersed in the void of beautiful nothingness Emptiness have created, that it’s hard to remember I ever really had my doubts.
Rating: Very Good
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Season of Mist
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: July 17th, 2026
Upon making landfall on the shores of AMG, Southern goth rock outfit Wailin Storms stirred up strong sentiments in our esteemed staff. Madam X praised this Texas-turned-North Carolina quartet’s One Foot in the Flesh Grave (2015) for its ‘oddly dark and tricksy’ swirl of Danzig and 16 Horsepower. Since this (Great) debut, subsequent squalls have been weaker but still potent. Cherd found Rattle (2020) a moving, if unvaried, gust of ‘dark psychedelic twang,’ while The Silver Snake Unfolds (2022) blew fresh air into the band’s ‘fire-and-brimstone snake handling speaking in tongues nightmare music.’ 1 In the Year of Our Lord 2026, Wailin Storms play The Arsonist on their new home, Season of Mist. Conjuring a conflagration for their fifth album, these Durham doom-punk goth rockers may once again set fire to the Score Safety Counter.
The Arsonist stokes the shift Wailin Storms started around Rattle. There, the band refined their swampy pastiche into a more measured fusion of their influences. Past outings in this idiom suffered from songwriting redundancy and sore-thumb tracks. The Arsonist, however, proceeds as a dynamically-sequenced, organically-produced dance between barn burners and smoldering pits. “Dead End” ignites the album with the darkly driving guitar enmeshments of Justin Storms and Ben Melton. Meanwhile, “You Never Answered” bursts with spasmodic rhythms from drummer Mark Oates and bassist Steve Stanczyk. Even when the fires abate, Wailin Storms bring the heat. “Heart of Mine” and “The Arsonist” excel at slow-burn setups with sizzling sendoffs, singeing the skin from within. Whether in the energetic or meditative category, the songs consistently hit the spot, feeling wrought to just the right degree. At 45 minutes, The Arsonist breathes when it needs to and scorches when it wants to.
The apex of this blaze are the vocals of Justin Storms, who mightily impresses with his range. Storms’s wail has recalled Glenn Danzig since Flesh Grave, and it continues to power some affecting choruses (“You Never Answered,” “The Arsonist”). Subsequent releases, however, have seen the frontman branch out beyond the Shirtless Wonder. On The Arsonist, Storms incorporates stylings akin to the silky mid-range of Chris Cornell (Soundgarden) and the alien warbling of Thom Yorke (Radiohead). On that latter reference: Storms’s voice, at its most tender and brittle, brilliantly inflects somber material that wouldn’t sound out of place on Hail to the Thief (“Heart of Mine,” “It’s All Dark Now Where Your Eyes Used to Be”). He even dips into some down n’ dirty blues moans, mixed with a flitting falsetto (“Saved”). Storms is not the only voice on The Arsonist, though; Melton melts faces with aggro shouts, imbuing the blues rock with a noisy edge (“Dead End,” “Never Rest”).2 As thrilling a display as I’ve heard in 2026, The Arsonist stands as a surefire frontrunner for Vocal Performance o’ the Year.3
Criticisms of The Arsonist are minimal and wispy, affording opportunities for further praise. Lighting a spark and growing into a flashover, The Arsonist does falter a tad in its pre-decay transition. “Patient Night” pleases with fun, shaker-fueled shimmies, but it’s a bit simplistic and truncated, comparatively speaking. Following this tune is “The Wind,” a more expansive number possessing sweet pseudo-metal punctuations. Its subdued ending, however, feels like a slightly redundant transition into the excellent closing piano ballad (“It’s All Dark Now…”). Another nitpick concerns lyrics. The Arsonist excels at marrying emotional realism with surrealist imagery. But one moment always sticks out: the punk ending of “Never Rest,” where Storms snarls an equally punk rallying cry (‘Fuck your fucking war…Fuck your fucking war’). I’m no puritan when it comes to profanity, and I like a good protest song as much as the next guy. Alas, something about these lyrics momentarily takes me out of the album’s arrestingly eerie aura.
Extinguishing these critical flamelets reveals a Safety Counter set ablaze. After three attempts, I didn’t think Wailin Storms would ever again produce an album as great as One Foot in the Flesh Grave. The Arsonist proved me wrong, though it’s greatness is of a different kind. Whereas Flesh Grave grounds its twists and turns in Danzigian blues rock/metal, The Arsonist enchants with its seamless shifts between combustible laments and fiery bangers. Arson may be a crime, but missing out on The Arsonist—whether you’re a longtime fan or a newcomer to Wailin Storms—would be the real crime.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: Season of Mist
Websites: Official | Instagram | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: July 10th, 2026
Holissstik have unveiled "Would You Take This Heart," the latest single from the upcoming debut album, Chapter 1: This Endless Solitude, arriving in August via Season of Mist.
Details: https://metalinsider.net/video/holissstik-unveil-new-single-would-you-take-this-heart
Of all metal’s subgenres, doom remains one of the most welcoming to outside influences, often stretching its boundaries past lethargic, downtuned tempos of despair and dread. Spanish duo TodoMal1 embody that openness completely, drawing from a wide spectrum of styles to shape their unique blend of progressive doom. Formed by multi‑instrumentalists Christopher B. Wildman (Jade (live), ex-Asgaroth) and composer/producer Javier Fernández Milla (ex-Asgaroth), Ultracrepidarian (2021) and With a Greater Good (2023) pushed at the edges of classic doom with a big, cinematic approach rooted in the grandeur of Candlemass and the cosmic blues of Pink Floyd. Graveyards of Joy, their third record, closes the trilogy and marks their first expansion into a five-piece recording and live ensemble, joined by drummer Javier “Bud” Martínez (Jade), guitarist Javier Félez (ex-Teitanblood), and vocalist/keyboardist Cecilia Tallo (ex-Maud the Moth). And their contributions help unlock TodoMal’s most ambitious and articulate record to date.
Graveyards of Joy finds TodoMal pushing their sound into more progressive territories, with their immersive strain of atmospheric doom feeling far more melodic and balanced than their previous work. Juxtaposing processional tones with airy, luminous passages in a way that resists categorization, each song on Graveyards of Joy is incredibly dense yet no less urgent. “Mare Ignis” could have come straight from a Devin Townsend record, elevated by an expressive, gothic shimmer and reverb-drenched textures, while “Misericordiah” offers a moment of pure acoustic beauty before “Unholy” snaps back with brooding gothic rock heaviness and bright, pop-minded sensibility. Tallo’s lush choral backdrops (“Mare Ignis”), coupled with orchestral elements like horns (“Point of Coalescence,” “Mare Ignis”), violins (“Misericordiah”), Hammond-esque synths (“For Mercy”) and piano (“Graveyards of Joy,” “Lucid Nightmare”), create soaring, hook-laden melodies with an ethereal, dreamlike quality that lets the heavily layered arrangements feel deceptively lighter than they are, even in the face of Martinez’s thunderous drums, Felez’s chunky riffing and the record’s saturating production.
TodoMal excel at balancing darkness and light, constantly offsetting heaviness with melody and atmosphere. “Lucid Nightmare” leans into melodic allure without losing heft, pairing resonant guitars with Tallo’s bright piano and choral layers, while “Point of Coalescence” contrasts ominous horns and crushing riffs against airy vocals that keep the song from ever feeling too oppressive. The guitar work on Graveyards of Joy favors big, expressive solos and memorable phrasing, emphasizing emotional lift over technicality and adding another dimension to TodoMal’s cinematic, textured identity. “Deliverance” delivers the record’s most dynamic moment, moving from delicate acoustics into a massive, emotional swell, while “Humanised Gods” distills their approach into a punchy, hook- and synth-laden standout. Across Graveyards of Joy, TodoMal uses melody, orchestration, and texture to let the material surface for air before pulling you back into its darker depths.
Wildman’s vocal performance is one of Graveyards of Joy’s defining highlights, channeling a tone that lands somewhere between Jón Aldará’s (Iotunn, Barren Earth) soaring melodicism and Robert Smith’s (The Cure) emotive, gothic inflection. Instead of leaning into brutality, Wildman avoids growling entirely, opting for an indie-tinged, gothic rock delivery that softens and reshapes TodoMal’s traditional doom foundation. “For Mercy” evidences the full reach of his character, with an untethered vocal line floating above an upbeat acoustic guitar that initially feels awkward but quickly captures my admiration with its off-kilter charm. The track recalls the Violent Femmes in many respects and shows the breadth of the group’s influences. The duo also leans heavily on background harmonies and choral passages to amplify the material’s emotional weight, creating a soundscape that reveals new nuances with each listen. The production reinforces this, feeling enveloping and bright, and the concise runtime—aside from the sprawling “Deliverance” and the similarly lengthy closer—ultimately strengthens the record’s pacing.
Graveyards of Joy pulls all of its many ingredients into a layered, multifaceted whole that grows more rewarding with every listen. TodoMal’s twist on doom may feel occasionally strange, but it’s insanely stylish and unmistakably their own. It’s the kind of take that makes genre labels feel irrelevant because there is no denying this is simply great music. A couple of longer tracks could stand a trim, and a few endings land a bit abruptly, but those small quibbles fade quickly. What stays with you instead is the album’s accessibility, scope, and immensity. TodoMal may mean “all wrong,” yet Graveyards of Joy is anything but.
Rating: Great!
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Season of Mist
Websites: todomalband.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/todomalofficial
Releases Worldwide: July 3rd, 2026
A photo I took of #TEMIC last year just made it onto the cover of the live versions Skeletons and Paradigm 🤘 #SeasonofMist
Wrote some #BrothersinRAW items regarding:
- #UntitledWithDrums | #SeasonofMist
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Green Carnation have announced A Dark Poem, Part III: The Messiah Complex, arriving in September via Season of Mist. The Norwegian progressive metal veterans have also unveiled the new single "Unconditional Artificial Chemistry.”
Details: https://metalinsider.net/video/green-carnation-announce-a-dark-poem-part-iii
#GreenCarnation #ADarkPoem #TheMessiahComplex #ProgressiveMetal #SeasonOfMist #NewMusic
Japanese death metal quartet Defiled have spent three decades releasing records that are unique and stubbornly uncategorizable. From the innovative and boundary-pushing (2003’s Divination and 2011’s In Crisis), to the leaner, more modern era (Towards Inevitable Ruin through Horror Beyond Horror), their eight-album discography has wandered through as many genres as it has writers on this blog.1 Divination and In Crisis sounded like stuffing Cryptopsy, Voivod, and Primus into a metal box and kicking it down a flight of stairs, but lineup turnover ushered in a disappointing shift on Towards Inevitable Ruin that persisted through the next three albums. Accordingly, my AMG colleagues had no shortage of criticisms, yet beneath every complaint—and AMG’s Law of Diminishing Recordings—lies the group’s unwavering shinjō:2 write the music they want to write and don’t give a damn what anyone thinks, as long as it provokes a reaction. What reaction will Defiled’s ninth album, Altered State, draw?
As it turns out, a positive one. On Altered State, Defiled’s early, unhinged chaos has given way to a more controlled sound, though the quartet still brings plenty of rhythmic changes (“Dazed in Blindness”), odd time signatures (“Prophecies”), and off-kilter grooves (“Obsession”) that confirm the group’s trademark brand of wackiness is alive and kicking. Across approximately forty-three minutes, Defiled tear through fourteen tracks, loading songs like “Portal,” “The Degradation,” and “Genocidal Stage” with pit-igniting, muscular riffs that nod toward Sepultura’s classic era. The first seven tracks fly by, but with Altered State’s familiar grindcore-leaning structure, the feeling of fatigue begins to creep in, especially as many songs follow similar patterns. Fortunately, cuts like “The Ultra Death” and “Metamorphosis of Evil” help break that spell, injecting a welcome dose of Human-era Death into the mix. And while it remains a melting pot of genres, Altered State plants its flag firmly in thrash and death above all else.
Two enduring criticisms have plagued Defiled’s modern era, but Altered State shows meaningful improvement on both. 2024’s Horror Beyond Horror struggled not because of weak performances, but because its material failed to leave a lasting mark. Altered state largely flips that script, relying on a barrage of catchy riffing by Yusuke Sumita and Sinichiro Hamada to craft tracks that are both engaging and memorable in equal measure. From “Obsession” through “Genocidal Stage,” my head rarely stayed still, nodding in time as Keisuke Hamada’s assaulting blasts and jackhammer rhythms fuse with Sumita and Hamada’s down-picked guitar lines. Vocally, Hamada delivers a solid, deathly growl with a dusting of groove metal grit that sticks with Defiled’s usual approach. Though his delivery is throaty, consistent and appropriately abrasive, his phrasing doesn’t vary much. Long drawn‑out growls tend to appear in the same spots—always during intros and usually coming out of choruses or a bridge—making his performance predictable even as the instrumentation around it shifts and mutates, serving more as a functional piece than a standout characteristic.
Takachita Nakajima’s bass excursions revive some of the low-end grooves that defined Defiled’s early years (see “The Degradation” and “Metamorphosis of Evil”, for example), but recent releases buried them under bad production. While the mix here is still too loud and compressed to give his bass the adequate space it deserves, Altered State’s production is nonetheless a clear improvement. Its added warmth and body give the material a classic death metal heft that lets the songwriting land squarely in that sweet spot of ’90s nostalgia, while still remaining balanced enough for Nakakima’s bass ventures to occasionally surface beneath the nuances of Humada’s terrific drumming or Sumita’s and Keisuke Hamada’s sprinting riffwork.
In his review of Horror Beyond Horror, Felagund held out hope that the next writer to tackle Defiled would earn the honor of bestowing their first “Great” rating since In Crisis. I won’t be claiming that distinction with Altered State, but I do find myself in the welcome position of giving these Japanese veterans their strongest marks in a decade. Altered State succeeds by largely shedding prior missteps and packing itself with memorable material while still delivering the patented twists and turns that have defined Defiled’s sound for years. Hard to love but undoubtedly entertaining, Altered State is the first step in a course correction Defiled desperately needed.
Rating: Good
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Season of Mist
Websites: defiledjapan.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/defiled
Releases Worldwide: June 12th, 2026
Ahead of the June 12 release of Altered State, Defiled guitarist and founding member Yusuke Sumita joins Metal Insider for an exclusive track-by-track breakdown of the band's ninth studio album.
Read the full track-by-track guide: https://metalinsider.net/guest-blog/defileds-yusuke-sumita-breaks-down-every-track-on-altered-state
#Defiled #AlteredState #YusukeSumita #SeasonOfMist #DeathMetal #JapaneseMetal #TrackByTrack #MetalInsider
Wrote three #WhiteroomReviews news items regarding:
- #Temic - #SeasonofMistRecords
- #UntitledWithDrums - #SeasonofMist
- #OkGoodnight - #HoldTightCo
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Hey, remember in 2021, when we were all stuck indoors, six feet away from each other, and a little Swiss band called Impure Wilhelmina came out of nowhere and dropped Antidote, an album that had bangers from beginning to end, and was awarded a rare-but-coveted 5.0 from yours truly? That was a fun time, because there were some of you who loved the album (and still do), and many more of you who didn’t like it, and boy, some of you who hated it acted like the album personally violated your beloved dog or cat in front of your mother… who the album then shot in cold blood while gaslighting you. Yep, like I said… fun times! Good news is they’re back with their eigth album, Le sanglot, and to further endear to the listeners who may or may not have enjoyed their work so far, it’s sung entirely in French!
Okay, now that the detractors have noped the fuck outta here, I’m sure some of you have questions as to whether or not Le sanglot hits the same lofty highs of Antidote and Radiation. Sadly, the short answer is “no,” but that doesn’t mean there isn’t any enjoyment to be found on here. From the moment “Électricité noire” opens up, all the trademark Impurities lay bare: crashing atonal riffs, pounding drums, and Michael Schindl’s buttery smooth, soulful croon are all present and accounted for. The only difference is it’s in a different language… and that’s fine! If you enjoyed anything from the prior two albums, your head will still bob, and your inner sad-boi/-girl will be more than satiated by the song’s charms, just like the highlights on their previous outings did.
The problem here is that, despite whatever language the band decides to sing in, some of the songs just don’t land as well, or leave an impact. Immediate follow-up “Cent milles plais,” while musically pleasant and inoffensive, doesn’t do much to pull you in over the song’s duration. Elsewhere, closer “À jaimais radieuse” sounds like it’s building to something in the end, but it fades out as Schindl finishes off his second chorus, leaving the listener hanging and not in a good way. But while you have certified bangers like “Train mort,” the only song with black metal screaming and atmospherics, it’s that weird back-and-forth of quality that’s both confounding and frustrating.
What isn’t confusing or anger-inducing is the production. Once again silky-smooth and robust, Le sanglot oozes ferocity when needed, like on the blast-beat portion of album highlight “Blanche réalité,” giving the album a much-needed boost of energy. The quieter, softer moments also shine, like on the acoustic “Demain j’abandonne,” providing a rich, warm feeling while listening. But while it sounds great, I wish the songwriting were tighter this go-’round, with stronger choices and melodies. When Impure Wilhelmina fire on all cylinders, the results are usually not only impressive, but they tug on the heartstrings like few others do. On some of these songs, they just fall flat, and that’s a heartbreaking thing to admit.
But that’s not to say there isn’t anything enjoyable on Le sanglot, as there are still some great moments on here. They’re just few and far-between, and not at the level of their previous two albums. Just go into the album knowing this and, regardless of your expertise of the French language, you’ll be fine. Either way, I’m sure the comment section is going to be interesting, regardless of your stance on the band or their music.1
Review: 3.0/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Season of Mist
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: May 22nd, 2026
GREEN CARNATION - 'A Dark Poem, Part ll: Sanguis' by @green2carnation & @seasonofmistofficial _ #Review @ @twilight_magazin
https://www.twilight-magazin.de/reviews/musik-review/green-carnation-a-dark-poem-part-il-sanguis
#greencarnation
#linsedunemanninen
#darkmetal
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https://www.instagram.com/p/DXR6CfHDNMr/?igsh=MXM1NjJzd3JyMDZqcA==
A little less than a year ago, Green Carnation dropped Part I of their A Dark Poem trilogy, The Shores of Melancholia. That captivating record sets the stage for the band’s ambitious Ophelia-inspired epic. While I know many loved The Shores of Melancholia as it stood (which is fair), I had a difficult time treating it that way, knowing it was meant to be a full experience. Thankfully, I can say that The Shores of Melancholia works even more now that I’ve heard A Dark Poem Part II: Sanguis. The Shores of Melancholia is a fantastic introduction to the unbearable depression, frustration, guilt, and sorrow that envelop Sanguis and its impeccably concise, thirty-seven-minute runtime. So, I’ll admit, individual albums should have stand-alone qualities. That way, listeners can absorb a record in the moment and in the entire experience when they have time for such a thing. We all know Part I mostly achieved that, but what about Part II?
I can thankfully say that Green Carnation has achieved both. Sanguis is a record you can put on repeat with no problems, while also setting both parts on in succession. Everything that was set up in the first album is cranked to eleven in the sequel. And not just in songwriting, riffage, aggression, or attitude. This is still Green Carnation, after all. The sad moments I felt with the first album are far more intense in the sequel. The riffs are harder than most of the songs the band has ever written, and the slower pieces have the emotion of a broken-hearted child. This is exactly what much of the lyrical content focuses on. If there ever was A Dark Poem by Green Carnation, Sanguis is it.
A Dark Poem, Part II: Sanguis by Green Carnation
The self-titled opener is simply one of the most epic on the disc. It picks up from where the previous album left off and slingshots you into a powerful new direction. Incorporating spacey effects with a headbangable groove and a soaring, melodic chorus, this nine-minute beauty sets the stage for what’s to come. When the rasps arrive at the halfway mark, the desperation in the clean vocals intensifies, bringing along that good ole Green Carnation sadness. But the moment it all seems to come to an end, it transitions once more, splashing every known color on the canvas as it builds, drawing all manner of moods through its dripping, streaking, and smattering visualizations. This track alone is worth the journey into Sanguis, but it’s only the beginning.
We take a step back into the warm embrace of calmness with the follow-up track, “Loneliness Untold, Loneliness Unfold.” Ripped straight from the cutting floor of Acoustic Verses, this gorgeous track is made even more special because it features Stein Roger Sordal on vocals. And, by god, can he stand up straight next to the mighty Kjetil Nordhus. The closer, “Lunar Tale,” is another in the same vein. Simplistic in approach (that’s really what makes it so powerful), it uses soft vocals and breathy flute to zap any happiness you might have in your current situation, and leave you battered, broken, and without hope. Another track worth mentioning explores some sounds of Green Carnation’s past. “Fire in Ice” is a nifty compilation of the band’s current era, smashed together with the rocking character of A Blessing in Disguise. Opening with some soothing clean guitars, it alternates between a classic groove and a bass/drum-led lull. Then, it erupts into a kickass riff that rocks the socks off my dick. This song incorporates the ferocity and beauty of Green Carnation better than any on the album.
Outside of some goofy progginess on the back half of “Sweet to the Point of Bitter,” Sanguis is arguably damn-near perfect. The opener conjures fist-pumping anger at the sky; “Fire in Ice” lets you stomp down everything that stands in your way; and “Loneliness Untold, Loneliness Unfold”1 is the emotional breakdown song we’ve needed all year. Toss in a handsomely dynamic master that lets even the smallest of morsels of melancholy rise to the surface, and you have something that is simply breathtaking for the band and the genre. If Green Carnation has never resonated with you, there is nothing I can do to change your mind. For those who need something in these trying times to bolster their spirits or tear them apart (if only for a moment to reset), Sanguis is here for you.
Rating: 4.5/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Season of Mist
Websites: greencarnationsom.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/greencarnationnorway
Releases Worldwide: April 3rd, 2026
Sometimes a record practically introduces itself with a shrug. Take Via Doloris and their debut Guerre et Paix. The band name? A shortened nod to the Via Dolorosa. The death of Jesus and some “suffering-as-identity” vibes that we’ve seen a thousand times in black metal. The album title? Literally War and Peace in French. The cover art? You’ve seen it. You have seen it—some grayscale, vaguely haunted expanse that could just as easily front a dozen other releases clogging up the “give in to your anger” section. None of this is a crime on its own, but stack all these choices together, and they start pinging that lizard-brain reviewer alarm: this looks like a mid-tier black metal album before a single note even plays. Then there’s the promo copy, dutifully promising “a passage through pain in search of meaning, and the distant, flickering promise of rebirth.” Is this thing good, or is it just another entry in the ever-expanding catalog of metal-by-numbers?
Via Doloris is the solo project of guitarist Gildas le Pape, who spent several years performing live with Satyricon, and Guerre et Paix marks his debut under the moniker. The sound is a comfortable middle ground between more straightforward, blast-driven, 2nd-wave riffing and more expansive, atmospheric impulses, with le Pape’s melody-forward riffs driving the compositions. His guitar work never veers too far off the blackened path, but he imbues each riff with a sneaky melodicity and deploys a fair amount of variety in his 6-stringed attack. There are notes of Havukruunu-esque pagan black melodies (“Communion”), swirling Blut Aus Nord icy arpeggios (“Omniprésents”), and searing, Anaal Nathkrakh-flavored bouts of black metal destruction (“For The Glory”). Throughout it all, le Pape’s knack for catchy, multi-faceted blackened riff-craft shines through. The parts are at once hypnotic and aggressive, and often deepened through intricate guitar layers, allowing songs to flow seamlessly between movements. I’ve found the entrancing outro to “Ultime Tourment” or the Fluisteraars-like motif of “Visdommens Vei 1” stuck in my head for weeks during the review, a testament to the strength of the guitar parts on display and to their immersive effect.
The songs on Guerre et Paix largely sit in the 6–7 minute range, and while Via Doloris doesn’t always wring every possible peak out of that runtime, le Pape makes it feel purposeful more often than not. A track like “Un Franc Soleil” is built around an engaging central riff that subtly evolves as the song progresses, even if it stops just shy of a full-blown crescendo. This approach carries across the record: rather than leaning on dramatic shifts, le Pape favors gradual layering and textural changes, letting songs breathe and unfold at their own pace. The songwriting tends to stick to a core tempo and feel, with variation coming from added guitar layers, drum patterns, or ambient elements rather than structural overhauls. While this can create a meditative consistency that makes certain parts and songs blend together, it ultimately works in the album’s favor, giving Guerre et Paix a cohesive, immersive flow that reinforces the strength of its ideas over the course of a full listen.
This is all buoyed by a seriously sharp production job. Guerre et Paix sounds immaculate. Produced by le Pape and mixed with Nicolai Codling, it opts for clarity over the genre’s usual haze with crystalline guitars front and center, cutting cleanly through even the densest passages. They’re icy but precise, with every layered phrase coming through intact instead of dissolving into mush. Frost (Satyricon, 1349) turns in a characteristically stellar session performance, and the mix gives him room to flex. The drums have a warm, natural quality to them that showcases a varied performance. It allows the more subdued sections to breathe while still filling the mix during more intense, blast-heavy moments. It all comes together to elevate the album’s most dynamic touches, letting details like the choral swell in “Omniprésents” or the melancholic closing progression of “Communion” land exactly as they should.
As it turns out, Guerre et Paix lands comfortably above the genre’s overcrowded middle tier. Via Doloris has delivered an immersive and nuanced atmospheric black metal record, carried by memorable, melodic guitar work that unfolds beautifully over contemplative songs. It sounds amazing and marks le Pape as a promising voice within the space. This is way better than the somewhat generic packaging would suggest.
Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 10 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Season of Mist
Websites: viadoloris.bandcamp.com | instagram.com/via.doloris
Releases Worldwide: March 20th, 2026
Reviewing albums explicitly labelled post-metal always seems to bring out my inner pedant. I know all genre labels are kind of meaningless, but post-metal specifically seems to simply be slapped onto anything with fewer riffs than your average atmo-black record, but a lot more cleans. Nonetheless, you know what it sounds like, in essence. If that essence had form, it could be Unverkalt on their third LP Héréditaire. Born in Greece and now split between Greece and Germany, Unverkalt’s self-styled avant-garde approach to post-metal takes its “heaviest and most heartfelt” form on this album, which also marks their signing with Season of Mist. Unknown to me beforehand, promotional references to Cut of Luna and Sylvaine in particular caught my eye, along with the art. I’m glad I picked it up because Unverkalt have something that approaches brilliance at many times. But in embodying the vague yet recognisable subgenre—and sounding good whilst doing it—Héréditaire fails to go further than the safety of the minimum required.
Ignore the artist touchstones in the promo; Unverkalt has little meaningful in common with them: a female lead vocalist is about where that starts and ends. If anything, the aura reflects more Harakiri for the Sky, Heretoir, or maybe Frayle. Lead vocalist Dimitra Kalavrezou sings with a distinctive, somewhat sweet intonation, and screams with articulate fierceness—impressive considering this is her first record providing harsh vocals. Her voice is joined by that of guitarist Eli Mavrychev and—in a late-album highlight—Sakis Tolis (“I, The Deceit”), often layered and intermingled to lend a chorus-of-many-voices air that can be quite powerful. This sense of solidarity and humanity ties into Héréditaire’s overt emotionality—easily its greatest asset—which revolves around mournful yet uplifting themes that rise from softly resonant notes into the (regrettably blurry) weeping of tremolo and chunky riffs. It’s through the continued swell and fade of each composition that we get to see the greats that Unverkalt is capable of.
Even as songs tend to repeat the same pattern, most manage to draw the listener in. Synths (“Oath ov Prometheus”), vaguely MENA-style saxophone (“Ænæ Lithi”), and sprinklings of piano (“Penumbrian Lament”), and humming strings (“Maladie de l’Esprit”)1 float in and out, and I only wish they were used more. Harnessing the drama of surging, urgent riffs (“Die Auslöschung,” “Oath ov Prometheus”) and heartfelt group screams and singing (“Death is Forever,” “A Lullaby for the Descent”), the iterated compositions win you over by sheer force. These plainly beautiful melodies and ardent vocal performances are inextricable, each lending the other a level of strength and gravity neither could claim in isolation. Some songs stand head and shoulders above others in this regard: “Die Auslöschung,” “Death is Forever,” “Maladie de l’Esprit,” and in particular, “I, the Deceit,” where Sakis Tolis brings not only his voice but a distinctly Scandinavian melodeath2 vibe to a song where he and Dimitria also duet in their shared native tongue. That song and many others are also examples of Unverkalt’s strange, quasi-pop-rock leanings that they incorporate through the use of bobbing, understated clean refrains that slingshot back into something heavier or more atmospheric (“Oath ov Prometheus,” “A Lullaby for the Descent,” “Introjects”). This weirdness sharpens Unverkalt’s style and works surprisingly well.
Héréditaire thus brims with feeling, strong melodies, and potential. Undeniably stirring at its best (“Die Auslöschung,” “I, the Deceit,” “Maladie de l’Esprit”), and with little idiosyncrasies of style giving it distinction, as a whole it feels oddly unrealised. One culprit is the shockingly compressed mix, which robs the guitars of their body and drums of their bite. Given the vocal range on display and the elements of instrumental experimentation (horns, piano, etc), this would sound far better with a roomier production. But it’s primarily the overly repetitive structure of the compositions that causes issues. Though the passion of the singing or screaming, and the force of a good melody cause you to briefly forget, every song follows essentially the same trajectory—or rather, the same sequence of things repeats across the album, sometimes spanning between songs. Whispers or quiet singing, a steady beat and post-rock atmosphere, black-adjacent speed and screaming, and a lapse into a swaying tempo. With nine tracks adding up to around 50 minutes, you start to notice.
I don’t want to rag on Héréditarire too much; it’s a good album. The fervency and melancholia of the vocal performances—from Dimitria especially—and melodies show the passion behind the project, and there’s a thread of individuality that could pull them out of obscurity. But for as expressive, intriguing, and compelling as their music often is, Unverkalt’s reluctance—or inability—to step outside of a template holds them down when they could be soaring.
Rating: Good
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Season of Mist
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: February 27th, 2026
Dead Horse One - Season of Mist - 2017
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Recensie: Green Carnation – A Dark Poem, Pt I: The Shores Of Melancholia ★★★★
https://writteninmusic.com/albumrecensie/green-carnation-a-dark-poem-pt-i-the-shores-of-melancholia/
Der Weg Einer Freiheit – Innern [Things You Might Have Missed 2025]
By Thus Spoke
My experience with Der Weg Einer Freiheit differs quite substantially from our resident Eldritch reviewer. Perhaps because my first taste was 2017’s Finisterre, I never saw it, nor later Noktvrn (2021) as disappointing steps down from previous Stellar heights. In my eyes, the path that Der Weg Einer Freiheit followed in the last decade is not only a natural extension of their introspective, emotionally-charged black metal, but it has also enabled them to expand and enhance this consistently potent core to new levels. Whilst sliding into post-metal, and opening themselves to the admittedly unrefined use of gaze, the group nonetheless fold them into the speed and fury of their heavier side, ramping up the climaxes, and making Noktvrn a staggeringly impactful work whose official score here I can only respectfully disagree with. It was largely due to my love for that record that I was so excited at the approach of Innern earlier this year.1 Little did I know that it would fall to me, come list season, to give Der Weg Einer Freiheit their due.
Innern takes the fragments of Der Weg Einer Freiheit’s personality and combines them in a way that demonstrates their evolution across the board. Their flair for continual escalation, with a darkly humming atmosphere, urgent guitar lines, and a cascading torrent of percussion, has only improved. It gives first track, “Marter,” a strange yet inexorable ability to make me feel excited for an album I’m already listening to, and this tug deep in my core will resurface repeatedly as “Xilbaba,” “Eos,” and “Fragment” rush upwards toward, or collapse downwards into their own devastating climaxes. The group’s recent experimentation with softer textures is manifest in yet more layers that make the intense sound more intense (“Marter,” “Eos”) and the introspective more introspective (“Fragment,” “Forlorn”), pulling its listener in deep either way. Innern does mean ‘inside’, after all.
The music has—somehow—more presence than ever. Guitars sound downright cinematic in their grandiose, sweeping paths or resonant chimes, but whether surging or sighing, you listen. It doesn’t hurt that they carry some of the most gorgeous melodies of Der Weg Einer Freiheit’s career (“Xilbaba,” “Eos”). The final act, signified by the return of piano in late instrumental “Finisterre III” and the closing, English-sung “Forlorn,” does not weaken Innern’s resolve nor its magnetism. With decisive chords and dreamily sad scales as carefully placed for reflection as those that began the album in “Marter” were for anticipation. And the shoegaze is no longer shoehorned and segregated; unlike Noktvrn’s maligned “Haven,” “Forlorn” has bite, and it rises as it should out of the conflicting emotions of apathy and longing that final track expresses. Once again, Tobias Schuler’s drumming propels violent, beautiful storms from calm to fury and back with a graceful savagery that could send death metal percussionists packing. Innern’s use of tempos to construct an ebb and flow that rushes and crashes around the listener, and allows space for a forlorn tremolo to ring in the air, and Nikita Kamprad’s scream to hold, is little short of magnificent.
So monumental in aura is Innern, and yet, so easy to listen to. Not even 45 minutes long, and dripping with feeling, suffused with captivating melodies and compelling rhythms, the silence at its close comes with a jolt as the portal suddenly closes. Needless to say, I’ve been hitting it on repeat for a while now. The sterner side of me would acknowledge the album’s quiet(er) death—from “Finisterre III” onwards—may irk some, but as I indicated earlier, not only does the seamless and natural exhale of “Finisterre III”-“Forlorn” flow perfectly, there’s a decisiveness and a finality to this closing act that I’ve come to appreciate more and more.
If somehow you’re reading this and either a) like Der Weg Einer Freiheit but haven’t got to Innern yet; or b) have never listened to them before, but like the sound of anything above. Stop what you’re doing immediately, please, and give Innern a spin. This might be the best Der Weg Einer Freiheit ever sounded.
Tracks to Check Out: “Marter,” “Xilbaba,” “Eos,” “Forlorn”
#2025 #atmosphericBlackMetal #blackMetal #derWegEinerFreiheit #germanMetal #innern #postMetal #seasonOfMist #thingsYouMightHaveMissed2025
By Mystikus Hugebeard
Ah, the Viking Age. One of the most mythologized eras in history, and a bottomless well of inspiration for cool things like video games, shows, books, tattoos, and bad things like obsession over ancestral purity, shockingly racist ideologies, and lutefisk. But the best thing of all, and most importantly, music! Which leads us to Danheim (Literally “Danish Home”). Danheim is the solo Nordic folk project by Reidar Schæfer Olsen, and Heimferd is his first full album in four years, which might as well be an eternity. Danheim is usually very prolific, with eight albums released between 2017 and 2021, with about a gazillion singles released during and after those 4 years. Furthermore, Danheim is one of the more well-known Nordic folk artists; he has numerous collaborations with, to name a few, Gealdýr, Sigurboði, Heldom, and has, like Wardruna, been featured on the History Channel’s Vikings. In other words, Danheim is something of a titan of the genre—is Heimferd worth the wait?
Danheim’s music, and by extension Heimferd, is a sonic extension of the version of the Vikings that has embedded itself within people’s imagination and contemporary media: an intoxicating image of a powerful and mysterious people, plunged into a captivating world of violence and mysticism.1 Most might immediately connect Danheim’s sound to Wardruna (not unjustifiably), but that paints a rather flat picture. The music is cinematic in a way that calls to mind a less avant-garde Heilung, it vibrates with a slightly electronic, tribal weight that, at this point, belongs more to Danheim than any of his peers (but one might still compare it to Vígundr or Heldom), and it’s atmospheric and densely layered like, well, Wardruna. But I believe it’s the simple immediacy of Danheim’s that has made him the Nordic folk titan that he is. It’s just so easy to fall under the spell of electronically augmented droning chants set to the rhythm of deep, beating drums, heard in some form or another in nearly every song on Heimferd.
…and yet, there sadly wafts an air of shallowness across Heimferd. There is an unfulfilled relationship between Heimferd’s sound and its songwriting. Heimferd’s stellar production and the variety of instruments create a captivating soundscape, but so rarely do songs breathe or evolve in a way that gives the songs life. This is felt all throughout Heimferd. “Heljar Skuggar” and “Rúnmyrkr” each utilize engaging, distorted chants in the vein of Heilung, but feel stagnant, without peaks or valleys. Songs are often lacking in stakes or tension, the worst of which is heard in the lifeless “Valvejen” as it flits loosely between tagelharpa melodies and excessive downtime. For songs meant to sound almost hypnotic in their droning, much comes off as forgettable, like “Kominn Dagr” as it switches from monotone chanting into a toothless tagelharpa melody, neither section given ample time to grow or make an impact. Clearly, Danheim places a lot of emphasis on atmosphere, and Heimferd is indeed viking-y at a distance—but up close, there is little to sink your teeth into.
This is not always the case, however, with a handful of songs towering above the rest. The vocal-heavy closer, “Yggdrasil II” (a sequel to “Yggdrasil” from 2018’s Fridr), has a quiet majesty to its rhythmic and beautiful chorus. “Vindfari” is an unassuming song that really sneaks up on you, as the drums march behind a simple chanting melody with a peculiar, percussive vocal delivery to some words that adds unique character to the song. Heimferd’s best song is “Haukadalur,” though. This song moves and breathes like a living thing, as distant haggard exhalations augment a powerful beat which heralds a coarse, dancing tagelharpa. These songs have such richness to their melodies, making the most of Danheim’s accessible and engaging style. It feels as if this has been my experience with every Danheim album: two or three genuinely stellar tracks that speak of an artist capable of amazing things, surrounded by songs that sound great but leave little impression.
Danheim has ever been frustrating for me, and Heimferd reaffirms that feeling. His infectious soundscape sufficiently conjures a Viking-age atmosphere and energy, but with base songwriting that so rarely transforms the music into something lasting or impactful. It’s strange, because my first listen of Heimferd was the most positive one, and I think it’s because Danheim’s style of Nordic folk can be cathartic in a way not many other artists within the genre are. But on each subsequent spin, when I listen closer, probing, pleading for depth, I’m left wanting. Heimferd is the distilled essence of the modern perception of Vikings, but with little drama or tension. It’s fun, but ephemeral.
Rating: Mixed
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps
Label: Season of Mist
Websites: official | bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: October 31st, 2025
#25 #2025 #Danheim #DarkFolk #Gealdýr #Heilung #Heimferd #Heldom #Neofolk #NordicFolk #Oct25 #Review #Reviews #SeasonOfMist #Sigurbodi #Vigundr #VikingMusic #Wardruna