Fifteen Interesting Metal Albums From Q1

Some hastily written thoughts about metal-ish albums you should own

Apr 03, 2025

Ainsoph - Affection & Vengeance (Wolves Of Hades)

From: Netherlands
Genre: black metal/post-punk

Whereth Wyatt? Stop me if you've heard this one before: an atmospheric-rich, innovatively immersive black metal band from the Netherlands. Right, it's almost a cliche at this point, something that must just be part of the Dutch DNA. So, yeah, no surprise that Ainsoph’s Affection & Vengeance is another winner, but how it wins is pretty neat. There's the black metal, of course, although this is a lighter variant that some might categorize as atmo black or post-black, as if either genre tag means anything at this point — think something on the Laster spectrum if comparisons are more your speed. But what's more interesting than base style dissection are the other timbral shades draped on top like gossamer veils: post-hardcore, shoegaze, goth, post-punk. Highlight "The Beaten Path Made Flesh" reminds me of my beloved Scatter the Ashes, a bygone post-hardcore too late/too soon band that filtered that '00s sound of the moment through something much closer to, like, The Sound. And like that favorite of mine, Ainsoph's "Flesh" has bite, too. Check out that swirling blackgaze bridge in that it is both black metal and shoegaze. Foscor meets Drop Nineteens, maybe. Wonderful. And I.V.'s vocals — everyone in the band assumes pseudonyms, presumably — hit the bullseye between detachment and heartache. You know what else is there? Affection and vengeance. That might read weird on the page, but you've definitely felt it, and you'll feel Ainsoph, too.

Bombardement - Dans La Fournaise (Symphony Of Destruction)

From: Bordeaux, France
Genre: d-beat

Motörhead d-beat with blazing leads has always been the shorthand for Bombardement, although the band proudly claims Discharge as the primary influence, thank you very much. Still, I've got to do what I've got to do to get this one into a metal blog, so Motörhead it is. And, what the hell, is there just a touch of angel-dusted NWOBHM in there, too? Why not. When making specious claims, claim boldly. Anyway, Bombardement is the whole reason I created the Bombardement Clause in the Black Market days. That clause served me well forcing more than a few punkers into the column. Because I don't think any metalhead in the land except the nitpickiest of dorks can deny these riffs. I submit as evidence "Alarme," which begins with a very Sabbath-y opening before launching right into the riff of the album, a fleet little Discharger with a nifty wikiwikiwiki speed-picked part. And as she did on the equally excellent Le Futur Est Là, Oriane is roaring absolute fire, a gruff yell that will flambé the weak. Metal! Sort of! Just go with it. We’ll, uh, ignore the nearfecta. Can’t win them all.

Chaos Inception - Vengeance Evangel (Lavadome Productions)

From: Huntsville, Alabama
Genre: death metal

There has to be a section in the Lavadome contract demanding signees go extra hard. Where a band like Garoted escalated the extremity of Deicide's Legion, Chaos Inception is all about living up to Mithras and Hate Eternal with a touch of Brazilian batshittery. Still, some subtler touches make Vengeance Evangel, Chaos Inception's third full-length, such an engaging listen. For one, check out those Sarpanitum leads, that near-melo star-streaking shreddiness that sounds like two chrome balls colliding. And then there are guitarist Matt Barnes's solos, which, per Lavadome's typically accurate write-up, were inspired by shredders from the '60s and '70s. Let's pull back the camera, though, and marvel at Chaos Inception's keen sense of flow. Even when it's dipping and diving into all sorts of weird nooks and crannies that other death metal bands would leave unobserved, the duo, with Gary White on vocals plus blaster extraordinaire Kevin Paradis, pushes these songs ever forward. Put more simply, it goes hard as hell.

Death Obvious - Death Obvious (self-released)

From: Finland
Genre: black metal / death metal

There's not a whole lot to write about Death Obvious that can't be accomplished by listening to "Santuario" or "Catechismus For The Plagued," two off-kilter death/doomers that have additionally earned comparisons to skronk merchants Thantifaxath. Sima Sioux (music) and Lea LaVey (vocals) cut in a lot of Celtic Frost/Triptykon, too, meaning there are undeniable riffs every few seconds. If there are OOGHs, I keep missing them, but there sure feel like some should be in there. You could OOGH your own OOGH, I guess. And that's saying something for an album that's this far on the outskirts, dipping a toe in the avant-garde. It's death/doom, yes, but it's also the sound of having a nervous breakdown. “Mercury Off Axis,” indeed.

Effluence - Pianistic Dismemberment/Christian Necromancy - The Pederast (Putrefactive Recordings)

From: California
Genre: extremely hard bop/lol

Lol. Look, let's get the Christian Necromancy out of the way first because, in today's political climate with the DOJ apparently pursuing a certain type of fundamentalist Christian persecution complex, you're going on a list if you listen to it. I think the window dressing speaks for itself, so let's save some words — read the liner notes if you want the full rundown. The music, though? Oh, my friend, you can't ignore that. The Pederast is one of the best black metal albums I've heard this year, and it features an, wait for it, "acoustic 10-string lyre" in place of an electric guitar. That's Matt, the sole proprietor, doing Matt things, in line with whatever has been happening in Tantric Bile lately (good albums! Worth your time, too, even though I'm not going to cover them here). Anyway, Christian Necromancy is like Mastery trying to be Jute Gyte. Again, lol.

Pianistic Dismemberment continues the no-guitar trend, transposing some sicko BDM to piano. "NO GUITARS ON THIS ALBUM...'CAUSE PIANO ATE EM :[," Matt writes in the Bandcamp liner notes. Indeed. And the final breakdown in "GbAbbGEbEbbDABbbFDbbE GbbBbbDbAbEbbEbAGbEC" definitely sounds like a piano chewing on something. Perhaps your ears. Perhaps your soul. Needless to say, the hyperspeed piano tremolos sound very sproingy, suggesting, along with the Estuarine we'll cover in the following blurb, that there is a burgeoning subgenre of sproing metal coming for us all. Needless to say, absolutely absurd. Lol.

Estuarine - Corporeal Furnace (self-released)

From: Tampa, Florida
Genre: death metal

Here's our other sproingy little guy. The bass-forward Estuarine is the project of Hydrus, a creative death/grinder who wears moth wings in promo pictures, which I imagine is either a reference to the Mothman Prophecy or they’re the most successful Venture Bros. henchman. Corporeal Furnace, Estuarine's fourth full-length, is far beyond what has come before, steering more into the psychedelic inclinations of its purveyor. It's also — how do I put this — absolutely wild. You get that from the jump when a near-ska part pops up on "Accidents of Chance." The album is no less creatively unhinged from there, earning the Bandcamp comment plaudit of "one-man deathgrind Primus." It's also, you know, good, too. "Royalty" is smart songwriting, taking its cues from Ripping Corpse, just a very, very weird Ripping Corpse. So, here's the pitch: If you dug that Embryonic Devourment from last year but wondered what it would sound like if it ate all of the drugs in its van during a routine traffic stop, here you go. Ultimately, Corporeal Furnace is one of those albums I keep expecting to break out but hasn't yet, so get in on the ground floor now. It’s $1.

Gláss - S/T (self-released)

From: Parts Unknown
Genre: rock/post-punk

Welcome to the band receiving the Helium Horse Fly Exception, otherwise known as the Kairon; IRSE! Rule. I'm not even going to pretend this is metal, but it is excellent, and it will scratch all kinds of itches for metalheads.

I love that Rennie Resmini, whose Substack you should really be reading over this one, compared Gláss to "slow Antioch Arrow." There's definitely some of that angular riffing, along with a pervasive sense of aggressive pensiveness. And, as I've written before, there's some of that off-kilter, chiming post-everything guitar from This Heat and its descendants, such as Laddio Bolocko, U SCO, and the Psychic Paramount. But I almost think that Gláss fits in better with something like Public Image Ltd., particularly the vocals — a voice that is both delirious and disarmingly hyper-focused — and lyrics. "Saw myself in my own wish/ Saw a woman summoning some gardener and throwing coins into a dish/ Heard the portcullis close." Some of this stuff borders on the inscrutable, but all the lyrics have great mouthfeel, written and spoken for people who love language. And Gláss composes for people who love music, taking those people through these intricate, labyrinthine structures. Just such a cool album with a vibe unlike any other I've heard so far this year.

Hateful Abandon - Threat (self-released)

From: Bristol, UK
Genre: post-punk/industrial metal

I've been one of the complainers that "harrowing" has become an overused critical crutch, especially when applied to something like noise rock. The industrial-y stomp of Hateful Abandon makes a pretty great play to rescue that word, though. This is some harrowing stuff. Maybe it's that little bit of black metal in the mix. "Shithouse," complete with an additional dollop of Through Silver in Blood-era Neurosis, is aggressively miserable in a very blackened way without tumbling into the well-worn black metal tropes. Still, I think Hateful Abandon is at its best when getting its Godflesh on. "Scavenger," which was "rescued from the rubble" and "extracted from a destroyed hard drive," has that classic sonic depth even though there are few moving parts. Killer stuff. One of the early AOTY front-runners.

Homeskin - Soul Washed Bleach (self-released)

From: Texas
Genre: black metal/grind

Garry Brents resurrects Homeskin and delivers an absolute scorcher. Soul Washed Bleach, as its title implies, burns like crazy, ripping through a bunch of grind riffs in service of progressive black metal. Indeed, it's as if Discordance Axis got obsessed with Thorns. I mean, jeez, listen to "Xerox Vampire Painting." Starting with that classic Rob Marton choppy-seas riff, Brents blasts off toward "Stellar Master Elite" territory, matching off-kilter tremolo riffs against each other. Garry, you're crazy for this one — as if we should expect anything different at this point.

Mean Mistreater - Do or Die (Dying Victims Productions)

From: Austin, Texas
Genre: heavy metal

You weren't going to make it out of here without some heavy metal. Why is it so hard for bands to capture their live show energy in the studio? Perhaps there's too much time to make decisions, like a basketball player left too open to knock down a jumper. You second-guess yourself at every turn, trying to fix things instead of firing away. That seems to be what affected some famous classic rock bands that taked themselves to death instead of just killing it like they did on the stage. Anyway, long windup to say that Do or Die, Mean Mistreater's second full-length in as many years, captures exactly what this band is like in the flesh. The quintet is a total steamroller of heavy metal and hard rock, powered along by the inexhaustible lungs of Janiece Gonzalez. You've read me writing this before, but Gonzalez can just wail — one of my favorite voices in heavy metal right now. And the band that backs her just totally kills it, particularly the twin-guitar attack of Alex Wein and Quinten Lawson. Do or Die is everything you want out of a BBQ soundtrack standby or a Friday night GRRW friend.

The Overmold - The Overmold (I, Voidhanger Records)

From: USA
Genre: rock/post-punk

Taking a peek at the liner notes tells you everything:

Mick Barr - guitars, bass, vocals
Tim Wyskida - drumset, percussion

The trifecta achieving "The Overmold," which, at 35 minutes, might be the longest trifecta of all time, is everything these two musicians have been working toward over their respective careers. It has the sense of space of Tim Wyskida's stops and the repetitive/meditative qualities of Mick Barr's experiments. But it's also something new, a work that almost tries to push the limits of what constitutes heaviness. "The Overmold" is quiet and sparse, challenging a listener to broaden their conception of what may comprise metal. Even the more active middle section, which locks into the recursive mathiness of Orthrelm, is subdued. But I wouldn't think of this work as an exercise, either. It's an engaging document of where these two peerless performers are currently at, making for an exciting and exacting listen, provided you give it the time it deserves.

Scimitar - Scimitarium I (Crypt of the Wizard)

From: Copenhagen, Denmark
Genre: black metal/heavy metal

Earlier this year, I described Scimitar as "Tanith backed by Serpent Column." I would like to amend that slightly by appending, "and it freaking rips." Since my initial on-the-fence appraisal, those spidery riffs that Scimitar slashes out so well have become the background to a good chunk of my year, providing instant respite when the world becomes too much. I think the reason this band, with members of Slægt and Endless Glory and vocalist Shaam Larein, so ensorcells me is because it is so suffocatingly entrancing, a recording that you can’t help but lose yourself in because it closes up around you. The atmosphere is unreal, this swirling fog of blackened heavy metal. Tens of listens deep, I'm still discovering new facets, new footholds, that allow me to vault myself to new places. This is why we listen to metal. Also, RIP whatever else I was trying to concentrate on while this is playing.

Trauma Bond - Summer Ends. Some Are Long Gone (self-released)

From: London, UK
Genre: metalcore/grind

Man, did I ever bang my head against this album for a long time. I think the thing keeping me loving Summer Ends. Some Are Long Gone, Trauma Bond's followup to the beloved Winter's Light, is that I thought it was missing moments, those little snatches of above-and-beyond badassery that the duo do so well. Where are the riffs, in other words. So, it took me a lot of time to realize that the moment is the whole album. Summer Ends. Some Are Long Gone should be digested as a complete work, a 20-minute single composition. It's then that you appreciate the rise and fall, such as the way the industrial parts fit into the mix, both teasing and strengthening those world-ending juds. Tom Mitchell spins out a few good ones here, but the star of the show is Eloise Chong Gargette, who sounds absolutely incensed, a worthy successor to the JR Hayes throne. Also, goodness, that riff at 0:59 in "Regards."

Uulliata Digir - Uulliata Digir (self-released)

From: Poznań, Poland
Genre: avant-garde/black metal

Heavy metal trumpeters, rejoice. Anyway, fascinating album, reminding me of good-era Negură Bunget, not so much in sound but in Uulliata Digir's approach to how to widen the scope of metal. It's funny this is the last album in this list that I'm trying to crap out during my work breaks because it has the most meat on its bones. The twists and turns in the 15-minute "Myrthys" alone could make for a dozen other albums. Like, check out that middle section with Michał Sosnowski's growls and Julita Dąbrowska's intoned near-whispers. That gives way to a big ol' chugger that, without the drums, feels ritualistic and near-free time. The build is so intense, finally exploding into a recapitulation of the song's opening themes, just heavier and far harder. That's the journey, folks.