Weekly Digest, Week 07 / 2026
- Thomas
- 11 minutes ago
- 4 min read
The wave of bleak morbidity keeps on rolling, but meets some brighter-minded resistance, featuring releases from Ensanguinate, Mors Verum, Night Of The Vampire, Phendrana and Sleeping Giant.
The same thing is happening overground, just on a bigger scale:
Before I Turn – Immoral And Malevolent Happenings (metalcore)
Karnivool – In Verses (progressive metal/rock)
Mayhem – Liturgy Of Death (black metal)
Tailgunner – Midnight Blitz (heavy metal)
TOP PICK OF THE WEEK Overtoun – Death Drive Anthropology
Genre: Experimental death/thrash metal
Subjective rating: 4.5/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Country of origin: Chile
This thing is not quite like anything I've ever heard before, and that in itself is pretty exciting. The fact that they're using death and thrash as the base ingredients for their bold, style-melding experimentation is a further endearing factor in my book, and the choice of stretching conventionality pretty far, but not all the way to the breaking point, has resulted in an album that, although a bit uneven, will catch you off guard more than a few times, while also allow you to enjoy yourself. You get a punk-y disdain for rules, with a jazz-y, prog-y attitude to rhythm-, melodic- and mood shifts, adding a thrash- and hardcore-derived love for crisp beats and riffs and a splash of death metal savagery on top of that. In between are traces of black metal, and an overall strong influx of traditional Latin American music. The album flow does suffer a bit from all this stylistic wriggling, but there's also clearly some strong ideas behind it all, with each track serving a different purpose. Takes a bit to get used to, but in the end I find myself loving it exactly because it's a bit of a hodgepodge.
Highlights: "Death Drive Anthropology" and "Dur Khrod"
Eye Of Purgatory – Darkborne
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Country of origin: Sweden
Soon it'll be more helpful pointing out the Swedish OSDM bands that don't have Rogga Johansson contributing than doing the whole "Rogga... again?!"-acting-surprised-at-his-inhuman-productivity-thing. Here he's working with a couple of Americans to make some appropriately spooky stuff for Friday the 13th. It's riff-driven, fairly high tempo death metal stuffed with horror-movie synth, both as atmosphere and driving melody, and propelled by some distinctly light-footed drum work. It's nothing hugely out of the ordinary, but is just the right degree of flippant and retro-oriented to allow for a whole heap of fun. Could've needed some more punch in the low end, but it's not a glaring deficiency.
Highlights: "The Slithering" and "Formless Figures Dance"
Greyhawk – Warriors Of Greyhawk
Genre: Power/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Country of origin: USA
Adventure time! This is the kind of album that instantly triggers that childish, starry-eyed, stick-fencing dreamer in you. Greyhawk returns with a new vocalist on their third full-length, and certainly doesn't come out lacking in that department. Be it fist-pumping battle charges or clifftop serenades to the heavens, the energy of the moment is perfectly matched by the vocals. The playing is tightly performed, vibrant, solo loving and suitably epic, grounded by 80s heavy metal riffs the likes of Accept. It's obviously not meant to be serious, but is so competently performed, varied and highly enjoyable that it sort of demands your attention. The album starts off very strong, and even though it doesn't quite keep that up for the entirety of the perhaps over-long runtime, I'd say there are no noteworthy missteps on here.
Highlights: "Ascension" and "Warriors of Greyhawk"
Ponte Del Diavolo – De Venom Natura
Genre: Doom/black metal/punk
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Country of origin: Italy
This Italian band quickly won me over with their debut album "Fire Blades From The Tomb". It took the slightly tongue-in-cheek occultism of early Ghost and took it to a gloomy, forbidden place, infusing it with black metal chilliness, but keeping the classic doom pace and relative accessibility. On their sophomore release, Ponte Del Diavolo have refined their sound, cleaned up their production and boosted the punk tendencies that were also present on the debut. The downside is that it simply doesn't sound as mystical or shady as before, but on the plus side it's got a wider range and stronger sonic impact, with most of the occult vibe still intact, now with a slightly more gothic flavor. The first two thirds of the album is really strong, then it feels like they ran a bit low on new tricks towards the end. Still, this is a band that still very much understands what makes them unique, and probably trying to nudge themselves ever so slightly closer to the spotlight without fully abandoning the shadows.
Highlights: "Lunga vita alla necrosi" and "Il veleno della Natura"
Sundecay – The Blood Lives Again
Genre: Doom metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Country of origin: Canada
Canadian band Sundecay know how to move around in the classic doom space in a way that brings in elements that highlight their strengths, forging a sound of their own, without breaking out of the genre confines and becoming a hybrid. This is slow, solemn stuff with a dark tone, but with flavors of prog, psychedelia, sludge, stoner and a touch of alternative. There's measured melody with a certain epic flavor, which builds the scope without taking off and leaving the earth behind. There are a few slightly stagnant sections throughout, but also sort of not more than you'd expect for something moving at this pace. It offers both engaging riffs and drifts into soulful calm, making for a highly impressive, style-confident debut full-length.
Highlights: "Here Comes the Wizard" and "The Tyranny Rushes In"
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
Agenbite Misery – Remorse Of Conscience
Genre: Experimental black/death metal
Country of origin: USA
In Aeternum – …Of Death And Fire
Genre: Death/black metal
Country of origin: Sweden
Paganizer – As Mankind Rots
Genre: Death metal
Country of origin: Sweden
Comments