Thy Kingdom Will Burn – The Loss and Redemption (2025) – Review

Thy Kingdom Will Burn - The Loss and Redemption - Album Cover

The RMR crew indeed didn’t hear back from the dreary cold wastes of the North for some time. Meaning, the zine’s dreaded review pipe has some real use for substantial, darkly melancholic metal. Not that we were short on material from Scandinavia, far from it. The folks up there are very prolific and the Extreme Metal on display is often outstanding. But real in-the-flesh melodeath? Some. Meaning, there really was nothing much that got us out from under the fire. It’s winter after all, so this needs to sport some real juice.

But never say die, right? Because here Thy [...] Click to raid more!

Officium Triste – Hortus Venenum (2024) – Review

Officium Triste - Hortus Venenum - Album Cover

Officium Triste‘s last record left a pretty hefty impression over at the Review Desk. In an abundance of weeping guitars, tear-drenched melodies, and relentless growls, the band delivered a mountainous relic of oldish doom. After all, the piece talked about The Death of Gaia, no less. Albeit that the record’s overbearing intensity and inherent repetitive nature finally got the better of us after a while.

So, here we’re entering the poisoned garden. Hortus Venenum the band called their newest creation. A new excursion into an ominous world of invisible dangers, potions, and deception? We would have liked a … [...] Click to raid more!

Blighted Eye – Agony’s Bespoke (2024) – Review

Blighted Eye - Agony's Bespoke - Album Cover

A good storyline will drive the quality of a record. A stereotype that is almost always true. A great storyline, however, will knock it out of the park. And that is where Blighted Eye strut onto the scene like the bright green Cookie Monster. I’m hearing, Agony’s Bespoke rides into battle on the tale of Clare, a deported convict violently abused by Australian settlers, as described in the 2018 movie ‘The Nightingale’. And to transform these brutal moving pictures into an Extreme Metal piece definitely turns this slightly nauseating tale into a damned great storyline. Thus as the lore goes, … [...] Click to raid more!