Rating: 9/10 Release: 1 December 2023 Label: Century Media Records Orphaned Land – A Heaven You May Create – is it hard to believe that Orphaned Land is celebrating the band’s 30th anniversary! How do you celebrate such an occasion, put out a live album! This was a very special show … Continue reading →
Rating: 8/10 Release: 17 November 2023 Label: Mighty Music Vansind is a six-member Danish folk metal band and Mørket (“The Darkness”) is their first full-length album. My preview is really what I like what to hear. I was familiar with them from their 2021 modest hit “Den Farefulde Færd”, which … Continue reading →
Rating: 8/10 Release: 29 September 2023 Label: Independent / Bandcamp Ilmarinen is a big, six-member Dutch folk metal band in a traditional sense, and “Gold” is a very short, two-song EP. It appears to be their third release and a marked improvement over their earlier works: the editing is a … Continue reading →
Rating: 9/10 Release: 8 September 2023 Label: Independent Evilon (a portmanteau of “evil” and “Avalon”) is a Swedish band calling themselves folk metal. Typically, I’ll open these reviews like “BandName is an n-member band of SomeGenre”, but it seems the band is restructuring and some folks have departed. At the … Continue reading →
Rating: 10/10 Release: 29 September 2023 Label: Metal Blade Records The Irish band Primordial are back with their tenth full-length album on Metal Blade Records. The Irish band has 32 years of career, full of albums, hits and tours. This follow-up to 2018’s “Exile Amongst the Ruins”, “How It Ends” … Continue reading →
Rating: 8/10 Release: 17 November 2023 Label: Independent Cabrakaän is a five-member symphonic folk metal band from Toluca, Mexico… just outside of Mexico City in the heart of what was once the Aztec empire. This is where they draw a lot of inspiration for their songs. Aztlán is their third … Continue reading →
Rating: 9/10 Release: 20 October 2023 Label: Mighty Music Sylvatica is a four-member Danish melodic death metal band, and Cadaver Synod is their third full-length album. They’re a band I’ve heard of but never found time to sit down and give them a listen, and that was a huge mistake. … Continue reading →
Rating: 7/10 Release: 8 July 2023 Label: Independent / Bandcamp Zeitgeist is a solo act out of Nancy, France, as far as I can tell, and La voie de l’Atlantique (“Way of the Atlantic”) is their second release. It’s a guitar, drums, a keyboard and vocals, and the sound is … Continue reading →
Rating: 9/10 Release: 16 September 2023 Label: Independent Toter Fisch, German for “Dead Fish” is a five-member folk / death metal band out of France. I was excited to give this a listen based on the epic band logo and great album art alone, and I found out quickly: however … Continue reading →
Rating: 8.5/10 Release: 18 August 2023 Label: Napalm Records The Icelanders Skálmöld are back with “Ýdalir“, released after five years. In this album the sextet was inspired by old Icelanders, such as the poem “Grímnismál“, adapting them in a way never heard before. In “Ýdalir“, moreover, they manage to sound … Continue reading →
