Weekly Digest, Week 22 / 2026
- Thomas
- 5 hours ago
- 4 min read
Evil is certainly the sentiment of the week, with nefarious intent all around from Eternal Evil, Funebrarum, Hecate Enthroned, Serpent Lord and Trelldom.
The big prog names of the week try their best to steal the show:
Balmora – These Graven Halls (metalcore/melodic death metal)
Elder – Through Zero (progressive/psychedelic rock/metal)
Monolord – Neverending (stoner/doom metal)
Devin Townsend – The Moth (progressive/symphonic metal)
TOP PICK OF THE WEEK
Trelldom – …by the word…
Genre: Avant-garde black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Country of origin: Norway
Wow, if you ever wondered whether black metal still has the ability to pull you out of your comfort zone and conjure shapes in the darkness yet unseen, then trust in this album to confirm this for you. Newly reactivated, Gaahl-fronted Trelldom know how to put the weird back into the subgenre, without sacrificing the projection of actual dark conviction or feeling of partaking in something ill-advised.
"...by the word..." feels like a descent into self-conscious madness, as if embracing a kind of reality distortion as a way of communicating. This is far darker than "Gaahls WYRD". Not a ton more technically aggressive, but certainly more oppressive. It's like experiencing the perception of a deranged wraith, only to finally snap out of it and realize that you've unwittingly taken part in committing terrible atrocities.
Highlights: "Folding the Mind" and "I Speak Forgotten Voices"
Eternal Evil – Forever Feared
Genre: Thrash/heavy metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Country of origin: Sweden
If you like back-to-basics, shredding, aggressive heavy metal the likes of Vulture and Bewitcher, then this should be right up your alley. Swedish band Eternal Evil transport you back to the early days of thrash metal and infuses it with a playful, solo-tastic flair and a pinch of black metal evil.
Parts of this album reminds me of early Trivium, with the desire to round off aggression with melodic memorability and a bit of epic oomph. It also has some of the same early unevenness of said band. Most tracks have sections of seemingly effortless, characterful playfulness, but the way that they get to these sections isn't always as smooth. A real diamond in the rough, this one.
Highlight: "Eyes Of Wrath"
Funebrarum – Beckoning The Void Of Eternal Silence
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Country of origin: USA
How about some malignant old school death metal that's just dug itself out of the mulch after many years of decomposing hibernation? New Jersey's Funebrarum haven't released a full-length since 2009, and the last of anything we got from them was an EP back in 2016. Now the beast has reared its hideous head and is ready to chase you at mid-tempo through the dead gloom of the snow-covered forest on the album cover.
While there's a surprising amount of faster paced riffing and soloing going on, the dominant feeling is that of wading through a thick layer of thick low-end rumble. The production is quite muted, which suits the feeling of abyssal dread, but robs it of much of the visceral quality it might have had. But if you're on board with the slightly lumbering style, then you have an album full of brutal highlights to look forward to.
Highlights: "Anhela Odor Mortuoruom (The Adepts)" and "Beckoning the Void of Eternal Silence"
Hecate Enthroned – The Corpse Of A Titan, A Lament Long Buried
Genre: Symphonic black/death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Country of origin: England
Veteran UK band Hecate Enthroned are back with their first full-length in 7 years, and their seventh overall since starting out in 1995. Given the title of the album, you'd expect a full-on plunge into epic, dark fantasy, and in that you'd be absolutely correct. This is a comprehensive album steeped in atmosphere, and unlike the style of fellow countrymen Cradle of Filth it feels like it's meant to be taken pretty seriously.
Overall this is a fairly aggressive album, with moments of death metal force, symphonic intensity and thoroughly harsh vocals, which do tend to get locked in to the same style and register for fairly long stretches of time. It's quite indulgent in terms of interludes and buildups, but if you agree that this is a necessary part of constructing the grandeur of this kind of sound then I think you'll welcome it all. At its best it's all-enveloping and hair-raisingly powerful.
Highlight: "A Gallery of Rotting Portraits"
Serpent Lord – The Once Forgotten Ways Of Old
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Country of origin: USA
Serpent Lord is very much the resurrection of a forest demon first brought into the world in the early 2000s, now returned with a debut full length and a well-matured set of pagan maledictions to be cast upon the world. "The Once Forgotten Ways Of Old" definitely carries that feel of being carried on icy winds emanating from a ritual carried out among neolithic ruins.
The music is unmistakably a kind of atmospheric black metal at its core, that's not really allowed to drift off or take much of a rest underway. There's melody, great scope, backing vocals, traditional instruments and the like, but not really to the point where it crosses into folk. It feels focused, yet epic - grave, but far from rooted to the spot. I'm missing some truly standout moments, but it's a solid foundation on which to build. Let's hope it doesn't take another 20 years.
Highlight: "A Pagan's Spell"
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
Crocell – Swarm Of Insects
Genre: Black/death metal
Country of origin: Denmark
Deus Sabaoth – Distortion Of Lies
Genre: Black metal
Country of origin: Ukraine
The Fifth Alliance – Stenahoria
Genre: Black/doom metal
Country of origin: Netherlands
Godthrymm – Projections
Genre: Doom metal
Country of origin: England
Meltification – Meltification
Genre: Grindcore/death metal
Country of origin: Denmark
Misanthrope – Embrasement
Genre: Progressive/melodic death metal
Country of origin: France
The Scalar Process – Agnomysticism
Genre: Technical/progressive metal
Country of origin: France
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