Weekly Digest, Week 46 / 2025

A bewildering and tonally divergent week is upon us, with releases from Astronoid, Ildaruni, Oromet, Pupil Slicer and Qrixkuor.

If you get dizzy, poke your head overground for some more straightforward impressions.   

Agnostic Front – Echoes In Eternity

Alcatrazz – Prior Convictions

Cold Steel – Discipline & Punish

Drain – …Is Your Friend

Omnium Gatherum – May The Bridges We Burn Light The Way

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TOP PICK OF THE WEEK

Qrixkuor – The Womb of the World

Genre: Atmospheric death/black metal

Subjective rating: 4.5/5

Objective rating: 4.5/5

Country of origin: England

This will dissolve the ground underneath your feet and send you hurtling into a realm of shifting shadows, unsettling shapes and pure madness. In essence it is a strain of terrifying death metal, feeding on your fear and causing light itself to wither and die. An orchestra of beautiful malevolence plays in the background, while the vocals hiss like serpentine demons and the guitars thrash and writhe in blind rage and agony. Given the depth, it feels a lot like doom, and it bites with a blackened bitterness, but when the intensity builds there is no denying the rumbling, musty savagery. It keeps morphing and evolving, alive with corrupting potency. It's a lot to take in, but never really becomes overwhelming, and the nightmare comes to an end after a little over 50 minutes, which is no more or less than it needs to leave you broken down yet in complete awe.

Highlights: "The Womb of the World" and "Slithering Serendipity"

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Astronoid – Stargod

Genre: Progressive/avant-garde metal

Subjective rating: 3.5/5

Objective rating: 4/5

Country of origin: USA

Let's go on an adventure skipping through a selection of pleasant dimensions to the uplifting tones of 80s rock and heavy metal. There are notes of sadness involved, and a good deal of dreamy contemplation, but for the most part it's cushioned by gentle-yet-expressive vocal work and warm melodies. The guitars are clearly present, offering gallops and chugs that draw from prog, hard rock and even a slight bit from black metal. But they rarely get to outshine the synth based atmosphere, which strongly sets the tone for the entire experience. There are a few too many mellow and un-challenging tracks on here for my taste, but it's elegantly and cohesively crafted as a result of a very clear and well executed vision.  

Highlights: "Love Weapon" and "Dream Protocol '88"

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Ildaruni – Divinum Sanguinem

Genre: Black metal

Subjective rating: 4/5

Objective rating: 4/5

Country of origin: Armenia

This is Armenian black metal that emerges like an army of the dead from ancient and forgotten halls carved into the heart of the mountain. That's not saying it's locked in rigor mortis. On the contrary, it bristles with grim energy and strikes with both blade-edged fierceness and towering force. There is a definite epic quality to it, with a melodic approach that brings to mind solemn melodic death metal, but the snarling vocals and shivering tone keeps it rooted in the blackness. Its folk elements provide clear distinction, while it remains quite traditional in its instrumentation otherwise. There's not a weak track on the album, and one or two more truly outstanding songs might have elevated it into undeniable greatness.

Highlights: "Forged With Glaive and Blood" and "Zurvan Akrane"

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Oromet – The Sinking Isle

Genre: Doom metal

Subjective rating: 4/5

Objective rating: 4/5

Country of origin: USA

If you're looking for funeral doom with the same kind of all-enveloping, seemingly endless scope as Bell Witch, then this is likely to sate your hunger. It keeps rising, and rising, and rising, and pulls you along with it to unseen domains of the skies. The bass is a constant, steady companion, and the patient drumming, like the footsteps of a titan, carry you effortlessly along. While, as expected, moving at a glacial pace, it's a truly dynamic listen, bringing you the unstoppable force of a tsunami as well as serene calms of near-silence.

Highlights: "Hollow Dominion" and "Foresaken Tarn"

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Pupil Slicer – Fleshwork

Genre: Mathcore

Subjective rating: 4/5

Objective rating: 4/5

Country of origin: England

This is not your average, fiendishly complicated, rubbing-alcohol-flavored piece of mathcore. It's aggressive, for sure, and certainly not straightforward. But there are layers to the harshness, and the band deftly maneuvers between them in a way that is both satisfyingly unpredictable and which produces a rich level of variation. There is noise and dissonance, but also groove, melody and experimenting with genre influences. It's a band flexing its capabilities and expanding its repertoire, doing so confidently and fully committed to making it work within the flexible framework of their base style. The effort is there all the way, as it claws, snaps and roars at you in rhythmic outbursts.

Highlights: "Heather" and "Gordian"

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HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Norilsk – Gigantes Mortui

Genre: Doom/death metal

Country of origin: Canada

Tenebris – Kochanowski

Genre: Progressive metal

Country of origin: Poland