Weekly Digest, Week 51 / 2025

Darkness descends and teeth are gritten in the last proper batch of releases of the year, as we look at Martröð, Orbis de Ignis, Pincer+, Sun Of The Suns and Windswept.

The mainstream releases are all very of-the-time, and markedly less dark:

Abbie Falls – Life is just a temporary plan

Lord Of The Lost – Opvs Noir Vol. 2

Volumes – Mirror Touch

Zero 9:36 – They Were Always Here

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TOP PICK OF THE WEEK

Martröð – Draumsýnir eldsins

Genre: Black metal

Subjective rating: 4/5

Objective rating: 4/5

Country of origin: International

Enter a whirling confluence of the damned, like an infernal whirlpool in the dark, pulling at the edges of your sanity and challenging your sense of comfort at every turn. This Icelandic/American project plays a saturated form of black metal, pouring on layers of atmosphere and disharmonic melody over rushing drums, subtle, dissonant symphonic backing elements and growling vocals somehow sounding both wet and hoarse at the same time. It's a kind of sound that sucks you in and leaves you too petrified to turn away, as it becomes your whole reality. There are only four tracks on the album, but each play different parts in the experience, as they explore new areas of the nightmarish underworld.

Highlight: "Sköpunin" and "Dauðinn"

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Orbis de Ignis – Ancestral Strides

Genre: Doom/gothic metal

Subjective rating: 3.5/5

Objective rating: 3.5/5

Country of origin: Finland

This album combines a lot of what I love about the sadder side of Amorphis (much thanks to the vocal style) and Norwegian classic doom band Sahg. What this is in essence is melancholy doom in the vein of My Dying Bride, but taken in a distinctly Finnish melodic direction and added a few mild progressive touches. The guitars get to soar into overcast skies on dark daydream tangents, and the tone glides between sullen gothic introspection and trickles of hope. Not all of the melody lines work quite as well, but the ones that do have the potential to stick in your mind a long time. This has a lot of promise, and I'm looking forward to hearing more.  

Highlight: "Golden Snake"

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Pincer+ – Who Are You When No One's Around

Genre: Hardcore/metalcore

Subjective rating: 3.5/5

Objective rating: 3.5/5

Country of origin: Australia

A crushing, heavily metallic hardcore album out of Australia that's got great momentum, groovy-yet-abrasive chugs and, of course, ground-splitting breakdowns. It insistently grabs a hold of your attention and keeps shaking you to the beat of the music to ensure that you're involved all the way through the sub-22 minute runtime. There are a few, shoegaze-y melodic moments, but mostly this is about slamming your feet into the ground to the musical equivalent of breaking apart a concrete floor with sledgehammers.

Highlight: "Concrete Lullaby"

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Sun Of The Suns – Entanglement

Genre: Progressive groove/death metal

Subjective rating: 3.5/5

Objective rating: 3/5

Country of origin: Italy

Fronting their sound with the rumbling chug-grooves of the likes of Orbit Culture, Sun of the Suns is an Italian semi-progressive groove- and technical death metal band. It's a modern style, but not embracing trendy tropes either, instead opting for brutal aggression mixed with classic melodic depth. There are not quite enough songs that really stand out, but there's nothing weak either, so if you're looking for some well-executed heavy riffs with a bit of space in between to get lost in, then this is for you.

Highlight: "On The Last Day Of Earth"

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Windswept – The Devil's Vertep

Genre: Black metal

Subjective rating: 3/5

Objective rating: 3.5/5

Country of origin: Ukraine

A black metal project by Drudkh's Roman Sayenko, this is back-to-basics evil stuff with marching rhythms and stripped-down winter gale melodies. It sounds raw and suitably primitive, but with some depth to it, and a few well-chosen folk elements. The vocal style is a bit too phlegm-y for my taste, and overall there aren't a ton of distinguishing features, but it's to-the-point and confident in its unholy brand.

Highlight: "The Potion"

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HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Dawn Of A Dark Age – Ver Sacrum

Genre: Atmospheric black/folk metal

Country of origin: Italy

Kaosophia – Funeral Of The Gods

Genre: Black metal

Country of origin: Ukraine

Lust Of Decay – Entombed In Sewage

Genre: Death metal

Country of origin: USA