Weekly Spotlight, Week 05 / 2025
- Thomas
- Jan 27
- 4 min read
This week sees a battle between modern and old school, the contenders being Century, Fleshbore, Tormentor Tyrant, Descarnado, Goatlord Corp. and Haine.
Century - Sign of the Storm
Genre: Heavy metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4.5/5
Country of origin: Sweden
Century is one of those bands that sound like they practiced their skills and style for 30 years before emerging from their cave and releasing anything to the public. Their brand of doom-touched, ever so slightly sullen old school-style heavy metal seems to fit them like a chainmail glove. The crisp production, with just the right amount of vocal reverb, is completely on point - not too punchy, not too clean, and yet taking nothing away from the performances. Regardless of the fantasy-leaning, gloomy themes, and sometimes full-on doom choruses, the playing always, always takes you back to riff- and solo heaven, which feels inexplicably reassuring, like a car accelerating in perfect accord with the decreasing g-forces as it comes out of a tight bend. For me, it's almost too consistent, nearly becoming predictable, but at a sub-38 minute runtime, this will keep fans of the style thoroughly invested for many repeat listens.
Highlights: "Sacrifice" and "Sign of the Storm"
Fleshbore - Painted Paradise
Genre: Technical death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Country of origin: USA
US-based Fleshbore play meaty, mean tech death not too unlike Archspire, although not quite as obsessed with inhuman speed (although they play very, very fast). And that's where they differ in an interesting way from a lot of other tech death acts in that the focus is more on crushing, precise heaviness and moderate melody than on breaking the record for how many notes it's possible to cram into a single song. This thing thunders like an unending series of artificially triggered earthquakes, and although it's certainly a distinctly modern style of death metal, it refuses to let go of the core savagery that birthed the subgenre. It's a well-composed, well balanced, absolute beast of an album that might win over a few straight death fans to the tech side.
Highlights: "Setting Sun" and "LaPlace's Game"
Tormentor Tyrant - Excessive Escalation of Cruelty
Genre: Death metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Country of origin: Finland
There's no hesitation with Tormentor Tyrant. This stuff lunges at you at every opportunity, trying to rip your face off and revel in your agony. It's ultra-aggressive old school-leaning death metal that's mostly short and sweet except for a couple of 4+ minute tracks, resulting in a sub-27 minute runtime, which feels spot on for this style. The album is a highly engaging mix of groove and savagery, throwing you morsels of spine-tingling riffage just long enough to get you properly hooked before they move on, keeping you itching for the next one. It's in no way exploratory or particularly innovative, but damn does it deliver on bloodlust-inducing ferocity.
Highlights: "Cosmic Wild Hunt" and "Pit of Anguish"
Descarnado - El eterno odio de las almas desterradas
Genre: Deathcore/technical death metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Country of origin: Argentina
To all non-Spanish speakers out there, the title of this album translates to "The eternal hatred of banished souls". As a listening experience, this hatred takes the shape of inexhaustible fury, as the band lays into you with gun sentry-drums and berserker-rampage-cyborg guitars, precisely flailing blades and sonically assaulting you with blurts of scrambled alert noises. As far as tech deathcore goes, it has a slight blackened edge, with beastly, deep-snarling vocals, and so tonally it matches the demonic frenzy depicted on the album cover. For those not too fond of deathcore or tech death, be warned that this album leans into pretty much all the tropes you're guaranteed to be averse to, but it doesn't overdo them. I found most of my favorite tracks in the bottom half of the album, and so found the overall structure a bit off, but that could definitely be a me thing.
Highlight: "Abduccion"
Goatlord Corp. - Temple of Serpent Whores
Genre: Black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Country of origin: France
Off-the-hinges aggressive black metal out of France, from a band that got started in the late 90s, and has now re-emerged with their first full-length. The album hits astoundingly hard, with a massive, mountainous low end and a demonic drive, plowing entire landmasses out of its way on its relentless march of hate. With unapologetically acerbic and warlike song titles, it manifests some of the old-school devil-may-care and rebellious attitudes of the subgenre, and supercharges its sonic expression with tons of force. Not all the tracks are as strong, but the highlights are evenly spaced, keeping you engaged throughout,
Highlight: "Slave Disciplin"
Haine - Fertile Void
Genre: Deathcore
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Country of origin: Malta
Deathcore from Malta, that leans far more in the direction of tech death than metalcore. It's heavy and brutal, certainly a tad mechanical and precise, but utilizing the fierceness of death metal rather than the typical over-reliance on down-tuned, djent guitars and breakdowns as means to sound heavy. It's suitably melodic, decently varied, and delivering above expectations in terms of technicality.
Highlight: "Hindrance"
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