Panopticon – Laurentian Blue (2025) – Review

Panopticon - Laurentian Blue - Album Cover

There’s a fine line between Black Metal and proper folk. Examples abound, but the most telling one probably is Wardruna with its founding member Kvitrafn1 (White Raven), who famously hopped to the other side from Gorgoroth together with the infamous Gaahl. The latter returned to his roots in the meantime, whereas Selvik and his sidekick, Lindy-Fay Hella, stayed in pagan land.

But I digress. Panopticon just hit our review pipe. A band steeped in blackened forgery but freely dispensing folksy tunes, too. A one-man show run by one Austin L. Lunn, excelling in a steady flow of Folk and … [...] Click to raid more!

Professor Emeritus – A Land Long Gone (2025) – Review

Professor Emeritus - A Land Long Gone - Album Cover

Ah yes, traditional American Doom Metal. There’s a bunch of acolytes of this style out there in the metal multiverse. Until recently, many of them were overhyped to hell and back through breathless reporting that often became incoherent after a while.

Bands like Khemmis or Pallbearer were never quite able to slake this crew’s unholy thirst for real, tear-drenched doom with blood mixed into their fear-induced sweat, noisomely drenching their band shirts. You know, tribulation writ large. Of the kind you will mostly find with European-style doom acts. A scarce commodity to be had with US outfits. There are exceptions, … [...] Click to raid more!

Puteraeon – Mountains of Madness (2025) – Review

Something called Mountains of Madness has gotta be good, right? We won’t know for certain until the review concludes, of course. But records boasting mini-Cthulhus on their album art with stories from cold plains must appear on our zine. H.P. Lovecraft is one of our favorite sources for horror stories after all.

And sure enough, Puteraeon here delve deep into the lore of primordial terrors that we cannot comprehend. And they do this with a real sturdy and pretty merciless brand of Swedish Death Metal unchanged by the eons spent on the cold wastes of Kadath. Let the Mountains of [...] Click to raid more!

Ominous Ruin – Requiem (2025) – Review

Ominous Ruin - Requiem - Album Cover

Ha! 2025 didn’t yield its usual crop of brutal Death Metal pieces yet and we’re behind on quota. Management is fuming and will be cutting benefits if the review desk won’t get a move on.

So, luckily, our scouts found an obscure Extreme Metal band from the Bay Area that stubbornly stuck to the smelly underbelly of the alloy-laced underground. Meaning, despite endlessly riffing about stages and soundscapes, they didn’t quite get to that breakthrough yet. The famed metal nirvana many a band attempted to reach but few ever did.

So, let’s explore. Ominous Ruin state that they did something … [...] Click to raid more!