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MB Premiere: MORBYDA - 'Open The Gates Of Fire'
Today, in cooperation with Dying Victims Productions, we are excited to present the new track 'Open the Gates of Fire' from MORBYDA's highly anticipated debut album, Under The Spell.
Hailing from Leipzig, Germany's MORBYDA was founded 2022 by vocalist / guitarist Chris (Indian Nightmare) and drummer Joris (Boundless Chaos, Lemongrab) with the intention to shred some skull-crushing blackened speed metal. Early on, their influences were drawn from the more traditional but equally fast bands of the New Wave of Heavy Metal movement like Skull Fist, Evil Invaders, and Stallion. Thus armed, the duo wrote their first songs, which tended to have a darker and more evil approach than said bands.
After the joining of second guitarist Julez (Sintage) and bassist Antonio (Pursuit), MORBYDA completed and recorded their first Demo(n) Tape in 2023 during some more-than-drunken nights in the valleys of Leipzig. Armed with that demo, MORBYDA sharpened their knives and started to play many gigs: Over the Edge 3, Antifascist Black Metal Gathering, touring with Boundless Chaos and Necromancer, and many more. In August 2024, they recorded their debut full-length.
A grand debut statement, MORBYDA's Under The Spell is a fresh breath of old air. Wild yet locked-in, exhibiting both the fury of youth and the ageless wisdom of the ancients, the band's debut album remains a heavy metal album above all. The atmosphere may be blackened, the pace swift but never overly speedy, the shifts in dynamics and textures equally restless and thoughtful, but MORBYDA display a maturity beyond their young years here; even calling Under the Spell blackened speed metal betrays the depth of their compositions. The dual-lead work alone enflames the senses, sulfurous and yet very nearly NWOBHM, and the quartet's energy – again, no matter the tempo – is simply off the charts here. On sheer charisma alone, MORBYDA could convince the most skeptical of listeners.
Old-days references could include Japan's Sabbat, millennial Nifelheim, the late / great Eidomantum, early Tribulation, or Hungary's Tormentor, but all that's to underline just how advanced MORBYDA are at this early stage. It's almost guaranteed you'll fall Under The Spell!
MORBYDA is:
Joris - Drums
Julez - Guitars
Chris - Vocals, Guitars
Antonio - Bass
MORE INFO AND PRE-ORDERS:
https://www.instagram.com/morbyda_band
https://morbyda.bandcamp.com/
http://www.dyingvictims.com/
https://dyingvictimsproductions.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/dyingvictimsproductions/
Entered: 5/13/2025 1:26:29 AM
440Views
MetalBite's Top 10 Albums of the Month - March 2025
Welcome back to MetalBite's Top 10 Albums of the Month! We're a little late on the draw for this one, sorry to keep all you eager readers waiting. We'll be back more swiftly with April's list.
No time for a long preamble, let's dive right in.
-Nate
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Aversed - Erasure Of Color
M-Theory Audio
It can be tough to dial in the right mix of elements with a progressive/melodic death album - especially when Arch Enemy, The Agonist and At the Gates are listed as comparables on metal-archives. That shows some of the faults of the "similar artists" tab - this doesn't really have a lot of pop melodeath or metalcore tendencies, but it's also got a bit more modernity to its flavour than, say, Dawn of Ouroboros, who arrive at a similar endpoint with different building blocks. There's a lot of contrasting elements in this, and at times it feels like Erasure Of Color struggles to form a cohesive thread between them - but it's saved by the strength of the individual performances. Sarah Hartman's vocals (both clean and harsh) are excellent, with a certain tonal ferality to her mid-rasp and a resonant richness to her clean singing. The guitarwork and soloing is well-rounded and professional, and the drums of Jeff Saltzman (Allegaeon, Unflesh, Continuum) are top-notch and on par with some of the bigger names in the tech game right now. It's an amorphous album that isn't totally sure what it wants to be, but it'll keep you listening the whole time as you try to figure it out.
-Nate
Pestifere - There Was Never Light
Ordovician Records
I don't think I've ever seen anyone hype up this Minnesotan black metal act - I can't even remember how I discovered them, but their previous album Hope Misery Death is packed full of awesome riffs once you get past the thin production job, and I've returned to it periodically over the years. This new album, which comes out nine long years after that one, was a pleasant surprise as I was perusing new releases in March.
They shelled out for a better mix this time around, and the riff style is still intact - lots of sharp tremolo riffs with catchy stutter grooves and a strong sense of melody. Perhaps the long wait was due to the members' other, more prominent projects taking priority - current and former members have ties to Sunless, Ritual Ascension, Aberration and Suffering Hour, so this perhaps comes with a higher quality standard than other bands of a similar caliber. There's touches of lush Americana in the acoustic sections, and the carefully crafted, smooth transitions shows that there was a reason a lot of time elapsed in between releases. If Pestifere had fallen off my radar for the past couple of years, this thrust them right back into my sights - There Was Never Light is well worth the wait.
-Nate
Arch Enemy - Blood Dynasty
Century Media
Blood Dynasty balances aggression with melody in fine fashion. The music recalls the best of At the Gates at times, but done in a more mainstream fashion. This is one of the more accessible melodic death metal bands and they go to great lengths to make their songs as appealing as possible. "Paper Tiger" is particularly catchy and will have you singing along. This doesn't really push the genre forward in any way, but it's not like fans of the band were expecting that - it's a solid entry in a lengthy discography.
-Adam
Everlore - Hope And Turmoil
Independent
A power metal band from Finland subverting all expectations? Indeed, far from being the umpteenth Stratovarius/Sonata Arctica knockoff to come out of Scandinavia, Everlore's sophomore Hope And Turmoil is possibly as diverse as an album from the genre can be. The listener can hear influences ranging from Blind Guardian to thrashier acts like Running Wild and even Persuader, with virtuoso lead guitar playing going hand in hand with the explosive drumming to truly give it that extra oomph. The 57-minute playing time can turn out to be a bit too much to stomach in one sitting, and I can't say I'm totally fond of the unimpressive vocals, but anyone who has even a passing interest in power metal is guaranteed to find at least something to like. At the very least, 'Kingdom Of One' and 'Inferno' are warmly recommended to anyone curious to check out the band.
-Greg
Cryptosis - Celestial Death
Century Media Records
After a symphonic and atmospheric instrumental intro, "Faceless Matter" offers a technically dizzying performance, especially on the drumming side. For those who listened to their 2023 EP, The Silent Call, they already showed they were expanding their sound to venture into more extreme territories and already on this song, the riffs have a much colder feel. "The Silent Call" (Version 2024) is a rerecording of the EP's title track and after a few seconds of blackened chords with an atmospheric melody in the back, they hit you with an assault of blast beats. Ascending cranks up the technicality as well as the melody with a modern, Emperor sounding backtracks. The thrash metal is still there, but takes more of a backseat, letting the blackened influences fully take its place and adding a good dose of extremity. It's a big change but I think they succeeded in applying this stylistic turn seamlessly, taking their mechanical sci-fi world to the next logical level, exploring the cold and empty expanses of space.
-Raphael
Disarmonia Mundi - The Dormant Stranger
Coroner Records
This is not something I was expecting to add to this list considering I gave this new album a whim purely out of nostalgia. Melodeath was a key part of my musical development in my early teens as I graduated from my "gateway bands" such as Alexisonfire, Underoath, Killswitch Engage and As I Lay Dying in the mid-to-late-00s and started to explore the wider world of metal. Scar Symmetry was a favorite from back then, Into Eternity, Soiilwork and In Flames were in heavy rotation. Disarmonia Mundi, in particular the Fragments Of D-Generation album, was a part of this transitory period in my life, but it's been at least over a decade since I gave them a proper listen - so when I saw they had a new album out I figured why the hell not give it a go.
But here's the thing…this actually slaps? It's as close as you can get to pop music within the realm of metal, but within that paradigm it's incredibly well done. Sure, it's got your stock verse/chorus x2, bridge, final chorus format, but the verse riffs are groovy and get the blood pumping, the choruses hook onto your brain like leeches, and the production on this is immaculate - thick, well-rounded and polished to perfection in a genre where it's okay to have such a glossy, modern sound. I did not expect to be this riveted by a modern pop melodeath album, but this was a pleasant surprise on all fronts. I really hope that artwork isn't AI generated (you never really know these days), but mediocre aesthetic aside, this is absolutely worth a listen even if the genre isn't normally your thing.
-Nate
Trold - I Skovens Rige
Mighty Music
As you press play you step in a magical forest, along with the sounds of a stream of water and birds chirping, you get velkommen to a fun adventure with five Dannish trolls that will be your drinking buddies for the next 47 minutes of riffs, Nordic folk and infectious melodies. Trold do not reinvent the wheel, they perfected it, playing folk metal better than anyone in the world, let me tell you! (Sorry, I am writing this on April third, I have a certain orange psycho on my mind) So buckle up, open a cold beer and dive into a mysterious forest full of trolls, folk melodies and tight extreme metal.
-Raphael
Dessiderium - Keys To The Palace
Willowtip Records
There's a small sub-sectrion of technical death metal that is very…joyous. Uplifting. I feel like we need a new name for it - "technical life metal" perhaps? This certainly doesn't make me dwell on the futility of my existence, nor pulverize my ears into oblivion. This is downright happy. This makes me want to walk in nature on a bright summer day, read a fantasy novel, and review my weekly goals.
This is by no means a bad thing - just don't expect to get what you usually do out of this style of music. Even Ophidian I, who have a similar level of upbeat melodiousness, are much more frenetic and zippy than Keys To The Palace. This covers a wide range of themes in a very storybook-like fashion - "A Dream That Wants Me Dead" is a gradual, deliberate ballad, the soulful clean singing is about as frequent as the harsh vocals, and there's endless layers of synth work and a wide array of guitar techniques all arranged by mastermind Alex Haddad (Arkaik, Atheist and a handful of others). This is very multifaceted for a solo project, and it'll take you on a gorgeous, enlightening journey. It's definitely the type of album that's going to appeal to prog fans as opposed to the brutal death enthusiasts, but hey, even extremophiles need a break every now and then.
-Nate
Ade - Supplicium
Time To Kill Records
Someone should introduce Rome's death metal band Ade to Elon Musk, since he seems like a big fan of the roman empire and their "salute". Joking aside, Ade offers us a refreshing take on classic death metal from the underworld, infusing it with traditional Greek music (because just like their mythology, it wouldn't be a proper empire without them taking other people's shit). Anyhow, the fusion of brutal riffs, blast beats, super low growled vocals and various traditional lyres, aerophones and percussions, adding an extra layer of sounds, gives the album an impeccable epic atmosphere. Comparisons to Nile are inevitable and while totally apt, the themes and sounds are different enough to make it a completely unique listening experience.
-Raphael
Lady Beast - The Inner Alchemist
Dying Victims Productions
Prepare to enter a magical and mysterious world, filled with melodies, heavy riffs and a commanding vocal performance courtesy of Deborah Levine's powerful mastery of her vocal cords. During these lean 36 minutes of pure heavy metal, you will headbang hard to the heavy riffs, tap your fingers along with the shredding solos and sing your heart out with Deborah. And has usual, impeccable sounding production from Dying Victims!
-Raphael
Symbiotic Growth - Beyond The Sleepless Aether
Independent
Sudbury is a small town towards the north end of Ontario with a harsh climate - perfect qualities for an extreme metal incubator. There aren't a ton of bands that come out of this area, but the ones that do - Finnr's Cane, Beyond Within, Fractal Generator - are worth a listen. Symbiotic Growth is a healthy addition to this list, featuring Dan Favot of Fractal Generator on drums for an extra bit of quality assurance. Where Fractal creates an alien, cold and unfeeling atmosphere, this project feels warm and earthy, like the first signs of plant life peeking through the cracks of a post-apocalyptic world. The proggy take on black metal brings newer Enslaved to mind, particularly in the clean vocals, and there's a hint of more restrained Beyond Creation motifs in some of the guitar lines. Even with the occasional parallels to tech-death, Beyond The Sleepless Aether is an album that prioritizes songcraft over showmanship, with a lot of radiant, uplifting crescendos that create a powerful aura and a strong sense of satisfaction when the songs near completion. This album is over an hour, but it's time well spent, striking the balance between having long-form songwriting with enough garnishes sprinkled about to keep your attention.
-Nate
Cradle Of Filth - The Screaming Of The Valkyries
Napalm Records
When Valkyries appear, it usually isn't the best sign. In line with these dark days Cradle Of Filth have chosen this title for their 16th (!) regular studio album. Although there isn't anything groundbreaking, the songs are really well composed. Highly melodic, paired with Dani's rapid-fire vocals and the typical Cradle Of Filth guitars and keyboards- it's vastly superior to their 00s material. They have been in a groove since Hammer Of The Witches which seemed to be a turning point in their discography. With "Non Omnis Moriar" they have a black metal semi-ballad on board, and the female vocals complement that song in a very emotional way. The Screaming Of The Valkyries isn't the best album in their career but it's a strong addition to their lengthy back catalogue.
-Michael
METALBITE'S TOP 10 ALBUMS OF THE MONTH
10: Hexecutor - …Where Spirits Withers In Its Flesh Constraint
Dying Victims Productions
Wow, what a tricky title for such a tricky album. Compared to its predecessor Beyond Any Human Conception Of Its Knowledge… this is much bulkier and more difficult to explore. The trademarks that made the last album are still there, but more progressive and with a lot more technical finesse. The vocals arestill high-pitched and aggressive like a barking terrier, reminiscent of black thrash. But all the other stuff happening around that – the melodies, the guitar solos, the drumming – is much more traditional thrash metal than before. The overwhelming density makes it a bit of a grower but once you get into it, you won't be disappointed.
-Michael
MetalBite's Rating: 8.5/10
9: Nite - Cult Of The Serpent Sun
Season Of Mist
Let's have a fun Nite out (sorry) and party with the deliciously blackened heavy metal of Nite's new album Cult Of The Serpent Sun, filed with infectious grooves, melodic leads as far as the ear can hear and a perfect blackened atmosphere, brilliantly helmed by a ferocious vocal performance, adding just the right amount of extremity! Every song is a hit and has something unique to offer, making these 37 minutes pass so quickly you'll hit replay immediately!
-Raphael
MetalBite's Rating: 8.5/10
8: Shrine Of Denial - I, Moloch
Transcending Obscurity
Turkey has an underrated metal scene. Whether it's deathcore (Devoured Elysium), brutal death (Molested Divinity), Transcending Obscurity label-mates (Serpent Of Old), or just one of Mustafa Gürcalioğlu's eight jillion bands (Diabolizer, Engulfed, Hyperdontia), there's something in the water that gives the riffs that come out of there a very distinct flavor. Shrine Of Denial has all of those characteristics - there's a blackened edge that adds melody while being no less menacing, a level of intricacy to the riffs that never crosses the bridge into modern tech, but still requires an adept guitarist to execute, and a rich, meaty production with some lingering bite that drives every riff into your brain. The drummer is excellent, capable of playing at blazing speeds while retaining a solid groove, and the strained, ragged shouts are just the icing on an already delicious cake. There are some seasoned veterans playing on this, which makes sense - this is way too good to be a debut. And yet, it is!
-Nate
MetalBite's Rating: 8.5/10
7: Scalpture - Landkrieg
Testimony Records
Sadly, war being a constant in human history, it is always a relevant subject matter and what better genre than metal to convey these horrors beyond comprehension. The backbone of Landkrieg is a classic, Boss HM-2 enthusiast, death metal but with so many twists and turns that it sounds 100% new and unique. Throughout the heavy and often groovy riffs, melody often peaks out, making things really dynamic. Though, it is by no means a melodic death record, it is pure osdm, they only use melody and atmosphere sparingly making for a unique experience. Add to this the wonderful lyrics about Germany's 30 years' war (1618 – 1648) and you have a compelling narrative accompanied by incredible death metal plus it's not a mindless war worship, "Cannot the conflict end now?, With a Protestant defeat, A Catholic victory, And the Danish king's retreat, With a realm in ruins, In debts, in misery?, Yet this game became, A winning industry, Thus, conflict must proceed, And proceed" As their bandcamp page beautifully say "Although the Germans have chosen war as their main subject, Scalpture embrace modern values such as tolerance, peace, and reason." And to top all of this, the cover art is one of the best I've seen in a while!
-Raphael
MetalBite's Rating: 8.6/10
6: Dawn Of Ouroboros - Bioluminescence
Prosthetic Records
From the first second of Bioluminescence, you are hit with a full blackened fury and after 30 seconds of pummeling, it abruptly becomes soft, with Chelsea Murphy's delicate voice enveloping you in a warm atmosphere. But just as you start to feel safe, she hits you with brutal growled vocals, straight from the underworld. For the next 48 minutes, Dawn Of Ouroboros takes us on a roller coaster of progressive technicality and songwriting, sheer black and death metal brutality and warm post-black atmospheres. Switching effortlessly between softness and pure brutality, Chelsea can summon the deepest guttural death growls, switch to a blackened screaming banshee and then hits you with soft jazz to soothe your ears. If you like extreme metal to be progressive, brutal and yet, who can also be soft and overflowing with warm atmospheres, Dawn Of Ouroboros is the band you need.
-Raphael
MetalBite's Rating: 8.7/10
5: Teitanblood - From The Visceral Abyss
Norma Evangeluim Diaboli
One of those bands that always seems to find a way to place themselves on the cutting edge of extremity. Though they've opted for a cleaner production sound this time around, they have not sacrificed any amount of viciousness - if anything, it only sharpens the edge they use to carve up your skull. Even as Teitanblood refines, expands and broadens their approach, they maintain their status as one of the most thrilling and wild band you can experience in the bestial war metal realm - there aren't many other bands that can consistently create that boundless giddy feeling you have when you're first getting into extreme metal and feel like there's a whole new world at your fingertips. Picking apart the pieces of the cacophony spoils the surprise - if you've never heard this band, all I need to tell you is that they're the soundtrack to spiraling downward through all seven layers of hell. Are you brave enough to take the plunge?
-Nate
MetalBite's Rating: 8.7/10
4: Warbringer - Wrath And Ruin
Napalm Records
Germany gave us teutonic thrash metal, putting the US in its place, being the clearly superior form of thrash! (I know, I know, Slayer exists) But in the mid 2000's, the US hit back with bands like Havok and today's subject, Warbringer. Wrath And Ruin continues their domination with flawless sounding, aggressive and technical thrash and John Kevill's equally powerful pen. First of all, one of the many ways this album shines is brutally honest lyrics, showing a perfect awareness of our dystopian time: "I don't think a change is something I'll live to see, I'm far more realistic, no longer I dreamI swallow my drugs to silence a scream, I keep myself sedated, no longer do I dream, of another world". I understand being pessimistic about the future, we all cope like we can but I will always believe a better world is possible, Warbringer certainly makes it better! The best way of dealing with this enormous feeling of doom is to organize in your community and what better community than all of the metalheads around the world! Back to Warbringer, Kevill also expresses the mental burden of being an American, clearly aware of what his nation does on the daily: "It's just how it is, Don't think about why, Another day goes by, a strike from the sky, The orders are made, The jets soar on high, Someone becomes a crater, On Earth's other side". Musically we get powerful, varied and often fast paced thrash. Filled with classic heavy thrash breakdowns, heavy riffs, crazy solos and a classic, "Angel Of Death", high pitch long scream on "Strike From The Sky"! One or the other notable high moments on the album is the epic "Cage Of Air". Soft classic guitar notes begin slowly and culminate in a fast, almost blackened, drum crescendo that leads to a fast paced and heavy thrash riff. It almost feels claustrophobic and you get a feeling of urgency in the music, it pairs perfectly with the lyrical content: "One second, one minute, one year, The future disappears, My value extracted, my blood is spent, I'm free to choose how I cough up the rent, I see no walls around me, But the bars are always there, Surrounding me, I'm trapped, I'm trapped, Inside a cage of air". This perfectly depicts the living situation of almost everybody, trapped in work and bills, seemingly free, but in the end, not really. Capitalism truly has a way of enslaving people, in ways not immediately apparent. Also, I love the cover art, as a big In Flames fan, it reminds me of the classic album "The Jester Race"!
-Raphael
2025 sees Warbringer finally, finally cement themselves as one of modern thrash's all-time best bands. Wrath And Ruin, the quintet's 7th full-length, is the culmination of everything they've done so far in a compact, yet deflagrating package. The last two albums were already their most diverse collections of songs to date – even if I'm likely the only one not truly impressed by Weapons Of Tomorrow – but this is easily their most mature, taking the best of both worlds and showing once again how far they've come in these two decades. Add John Kevill's most ferocious performance so far, and the obvious talents of the whole lineup, and you get the picture. 'A Better World' is a song for the ages, with its disillusioned message striking a chord as well, while 'Through A Glass, Darkly' and 'The Last Of My Kind' offer all the melodic detours you need without attempting another half-ballad, but song here ultimately ends up below excellence. A milestone in their career.
-Greg
MetalBite's Rating: 8.8/10
3: Drudkh - Shadow Play
Season Of Mist Underground Activists
Once again, Drudkh tells us a sad story from their war-ridden home-country Ukraine. And just like on the 2022 album All Belong To The Night Roman Saenko has created some very unique and emotional music. Kicking off with a long acoustic intro, a furious thunderstorm breaks out with the first proper song ("April"). This is some really melodic but harsh black metal where you can hear both – the hatred but also the fragility – in the music. The use of an acoustic guitar gives that song a very emotional touch, and the other four tracks are similarly composed. A lot of keyboards are used to create a warm and pensive atmosphere and just when you get comfortable, black metal outbursts transform the song. Nothing is safe, nothing is reliable and like Fox Mulder once said: "trust no one"
-Michael
MetalBite's Rating: 9/10
2: Imperial Triumphant - Goldstar
Century Media Records
I have to admit, I never got into Imperial Triumphant dissonant brand of black and death, maybe because their last three albums were almost an hour long and it was more than I could digest, or the masks were too gimmicky, either way, after listening to Goldstar I almost feel bad for having shunned this truly unique and amazing band all of these years. One of the major reasons this was the album that made me like them, I think, is the fact that it's their most "accessible" album to date. I put accessible in quotes because it is still very much a jazz infused avant garde black death metal album. What makes it accessible is that it is now an efficient 39 minutes and has plenty of little moments where melody peeks out of this dissonant whirlwind of highly controlled technical chaos. The bass is funky and groovy, the drums sound crisp, precise and extremely technical, the riffs are always super dissonant going from heavy and rhythmic chugs, to blackened, atmospheric tremolo pickings. New York is everywhere around this album, from the distant police sirens, the old New York jazz (the drum solos from none other than Dave Lombardo and Tomas Haake is mind-blowing), to the lyrics (the song Lexington Delirium is literally about the Chrysler building: "What brings posterity?, Throne of Bolts!, Ziggurats flooding the, Throne of Bolts!, Blessings upon thee, Throne of Bolts!, Inside the womb of, Ferrissian void"). I don't know who writes the lyrics but he sure does have a way with the pen! Just beautifully constructed phrases with a lot of social commentary. The aptly titled "Industry Of Misery" for example: "At the banks, Thou shall kneel!, Of the river, Thy soul be filled, Third world!, Now beg for it, I love you, Servitude, Debt be the gatekeeper", referencing the unequal exchange that has decimated the global South, truly profound stuff! I just can't get over how good Goldstar is, from the short 47 seconds grindcore blast of "NEWYORKCITY", featuring the howling screams of Yoshiko Ohara to the roaring 20s gramophone short interlude, that acts like a small pause before an increasingly fast drum crescendo leads to groovy, dissonant and heavy chugs, everything works to make this masterpiece so unique and memorable!
-Raphael
MetalBite's Rating: 9/10
1: Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power
Roadrunner Records
Deafheaven's previous record was their "Shelter", all Alcest fans will understand, it was mainly a dream pop infused post rock album with a few rare moments of George Clarke's howling screams, hinting that the black part of their particular blackgaze style is still there, somewhere. Fast-forward to the present and Deafheaven are back with Lonely People with Power and after a quick, a bit unsettling intro, setting a certain vibe, Doberman begins and right there, Deafheaven makes a statement, we are back! Starting as a classic mid-tempo blackgaze emotional section, it's not long George Clarke starts to scream and the music gets more intense. Full intensity blackened blast beats that show Daniel Tracy's immense talent on the kit. For an hour and 2 minutes, Deafheaven takes you through their entire career, even their colder, more atmospheric black metal sound. Some of the tracks on here are straight headbangers, tracks like "Magnolia" and "Revelator" are some of the heaviest Deafheaven have sounded, period. But fear not, the warm melodies and atmospheres of shoegaze is everywhere on the album, with all of the emotional post rock buildups you can wish for. Musically and lyrically, this album is filled with a deep sense of vulnerability, sadness and questioning. Why me? Why all of this suffering: "Trembling weakness is what haunts us now,, Inside the windows, What once made us proud, I owned everything thought to be suicidal mania, I was everything taught to me, Drinking deeply, The truth of my grief, But what else could be?". Pain is such a deep well of inspiration, combined with beautiful melodies and impressive instrumental performance (Chris Johnson's bass complements the drums, for a dynamic rhythm section) and when George Clarke screams words like: "Drinking silver from a dim spring of, mercury, On the outskirts of a desert, The lifeless slither, Still we seek thirsting and wandering" it merges the raw emotions of the words with the equally emotive, warm melodies of the guitars. So, Lonely People With Power is a testament of Deafheaven's supremacy of the blackgaze subgenre, after fifteen years, they're still one of the best at it. When the album finishes, you feel a sense of catharsis, like right after a good cry. I can already tell it will be on my end of the year list!
-Raphael
MetalBite's Rating: 9.2/10
Thanks as always for stopping by. In case you missed it, check out February 2025 and January 2025's top 10 list while it's still manageable and you don't fall too far behind.
And, of course, Follow MetalBite on Facebook, Spotify and Instagram so you can be there right when the next Top 10 list drops!
Entered: 5/4/2025 9:54:39 AM
1.01kViews
MB Premiere: FLY! - 'Loser'
Today, in cooperation with Dying Victims Productions, we are excited to present the new track 'Loser' from Australia's FLY! highly anticipated debut album, ...Or Die!.
FLY! is a fast and mean rock 'n' roll machine from Melbourne. Emerging from the darkest depths of the Aussie wastelands, FLY! united with a singular vision: to play fast, loud, and mean rock 'n' roll, harkening back to the raw power of 1970s and early '80s rock. Inspired by the likes of Motörhead, Judas Priest, and AC/DC, FLY! are a rough 'n' rowdy amalgam of their influences, and then some!
Formed in 2023, FLY! blasted onto the Australian rock scene, playing up and down the east coast and leaving a trail of destruction (and empty beer cans) in their wake. 2024 saw the release of FLY!'s dangerous debut demo with a string of blistering national performances to follow, seeing FLY! share the stage with the likes of the Cosmic Psychos, Cancer Bats, and heavy metal brethren (and now-labelmates) AARDVARK, among many others.
With two songs reprised from that demo, the quartet now present their first full-length, …Or Die! Wasting not a whole minute as they ride "Into the Wasteland", these road warriors take flight across the 11-track / 39-minute album: a no-holds-barred love letter to speed, desert highways, murderous marauders and relentless riffs. Lean, mean and unclean, their high-speed, raw-power rock 'n' roll kicks out the jams with judicious efficiency. There's no overthinking these desert-wasteland anthems; you simply hop on and go, go, go! FLY!'s vicious, high-speed rock explores themes such as weapons, beer, homicidal maniacs, and the power of acceleration! And while not overtly retro-oriented, there's an authentically late '70s feel to …or Die!, from the just-distorted-enough guitar tones, the crash 'n' bash rhythms, and especially the songwriting itself: juiced up like Bomber, strutting like Stained Class, sleazy like Powerage. Add in a touch of mid '70s Thin Lizzy and a punk-and-proud attitude like Zeke – or hell, even spiritual cues to their homeland's rich tradition of garage rock – and you're left with no choice: FLY! …or Die!
FLY! is:
Tom Thompson - Bass
Willy Cox - Vocals, Guitars
Rodney Speedman - Drums
Malcom 'Mouldy' Black - Guitar
MORE INFO AND PRE-ORDERS:
https://www.facebook.com/flyordie666/
https://flyordie666.bandcamp.com/
http://www.dyingvictims.com/
https://dyingvictimsproductions.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/dyingvictimsproductions/
Entered: 4/29/2025 6:02:28 AM
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BEHEMOTH - The Shit Ov God
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Entered: 5/17/2025 12:16:34 PM
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|
Garota
(7.6)
|
|
Urfeind
(9.1)
|
Leper Colony
(8)
|
Necrodeath
(8.7)
|
Drudensang
(9)
|
Frightful
(8)
|
The Great Sea
(8.5)
|
Eisenkult
(7.7)
|
Ghost
(8.5)
|
Ukakuja
(9.1)
|
Lik
(8)
|
Scrüda
(8.1)
|