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A choice selection of the latest albums and EPs currently blowing the DM office speakers
Under the needle


REVIEWED: Katatonia + Evergrey @ Electric Ballroom, Camden
There’s arguably no better measure of a band’s stylistic breadth and evolution than the fanbase they attract — a subcultural strata only too keenly observable within the colourful and frequently chaotic sphere of live music. Indeed, the motley assortment of leather-clad metalheads, romantically attired goths and follicularly challenged, middle-aged gentlemen gathered here this evening gives no small indication of just how fluid and ever-evolving a craft Katatonia have been ho
Jan 3


REVIEWED: Argesk – 'Moonlight Pyromancy'
Beyond the many assorted memes and Instagram reels regularly seen rather mercilessly poking fun at what is, admittedly, a genre whose cartoonish, corpse-painted melodrama lends itself only too readily to such playful mockery, anyone with even a casual interest in black metal will attest that this notorious, ghoulishly subversive offshoot of extreme metal is in a pretty exciting place right now. Indeed, from the searing viscerality and sumptuous, melancholia-steeped atmospheri
Dec 2, 2025


DØDSRIT TALK CATHARSIS, CHAOS AND CREATIVE FREEDOM
With their signature blend of blackened, icily visceral hostility and sleekly entwined, Gothenburg-tinged riffery, Dødsrit have carved out a reputation as one of the most electrifying forces in modern extreme metal. Having unleashed the intensely cathartic ‘Irjala’ to riotous acclaim earlier this year, summer 2025 finds the Danish/Netherlands-based collective deep in an international touring cycle. Fresh from a rapturously received debut at Fortress Festival, founding duo Geo
Dec 1, 2025


Raising the Abyss: Cult Never Dies Marks Twelve Years with Black Metal and a Signature IPA
Between Brexit, Covid-19 and the painfully prolonged periods of austerity that have punctuated the last decade, it’s hard to overestimate the immeasurable creative losses inflicted during this unprecedented era. As long-established record labels, iconic music magazines and cherished venues continue to fold under mounting pressures, underground black metal publishing group and label Cult Never Dies has achieved something remarkable: not merely weathering one of the most hostil
Nov 15, 2025


REVIEWED: Fortress Festival 2025 @ Scarborough Spa (Day 2)
It’s a little after 12pm on a decidedly bleary-eyed Sunday morning, and as an ever-expanding horde of dishevelled-looking punters pile...
Aug 20, 2025


REVIEWED: Fortress Festival 2025 @ Scarborough Spa (Day 1)
As the mainstream continues to sink ever deeper into the mires of nondescript, heavily commercialised mediocrity, atmospheric black metal...
Jul 25, 2025


Cathartic black metal horde Abduction discuss darkly electrifying fifth album 'Existentialismus' and monumental Fortress Festival set
With its visceral yet ghoulishly entrancing blend of icily corrosive riffing, weightily bludgeoning, obsidian-hued groove and sumptuously...
Jul 3, 2025


REVIEWED: Incineration Fest 2025 @ Camden Town, London
Whether you’re the newly signed talent that’s been relegated to a 10am slot on a stage the approximate size of a postage stamp, the...
Jun 26, 2025


Afargang mastermind and fiddle player Olav L. Mjelva discusses hauntingly transcendental debut 'Andvake'
From penning and producing Hollywood film scores and collaborating with Nordic folk metal titans Wardruna to performing with a...
Jun 13, 2025


REVIEWED: Final Destination: Bloodlines (2025)
It’s been a full 25 years since Final Destination ’s notoriously twitchy teen protagonist (Devon Sawa) abruptly abandoned his seat on a...
Jun 4, 2025


REVIEWED: Inferno Festival 2025 @ Rockefeller, Oslo (Part 2)
“Burn this place to the ground!” howls ROTTING CHRIST ’s wild-eyed, uncontainably euphoric frontman Sakis Tolis mere moments after ‘Fire,...
May 28, 2025


REVIEWED: Inferno Festival 2025 @ Rockefeller, Oslo (Part 1)
From such high-grossing corporate giants as Download through to the cosily intimate, subterranean delights of Yorkshire-based black metal...
May 12, 2025
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