Weekly Spotlight, Week 26 / 2025

A light-defying week with mood-sourers coming in from Witherer, Haggus, Hellevaerder and Imha Tarikat.

The big names try a bit harder to keep spirits high, but still go heavy:

Alestorm – The Thunderfist Chronicles

Cryptopsy – An Insatiable Violence

Malevolence – Where Only The Truth Is Spoken

Mugshot – All The Devils Are Here

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Witherer – Shadow Without A Horizon

Genre: Blackened death/doom metal

Subjective rating: 4.5/5

Objective rating: 4.5/5

This one will require some post-listen light therapy. It feels like being buried alive and hearing the earth move around your coffin like a great beast tossing and turning in its sleep, while other buried souls scream their lungs out in agony and despair all around you. There seems to be little rhyme or reason to its progression, other than it taking the shape of a deeply disturbing nightmare that refuses to let go, and gets even more oppressive the more you fight for consciousness in an attempt to wake up. It's disharmonic, but not in a technical or actively jarring way. The tempo is doom, but the drum, bass and guitar interplay is so intricate and at odds with each other in an oddly organic way that it feels quite busy at times. The vocals are mostly deep and gurgly, and it feels heavy in a deep and echoing way, but it's not at all overproduced. Dive in, and forget what comfort and happiness feels like.

Highlights: "Fiat Umbra (Burial Beneath the Stalactites" and "Solar Collapse Mandala"

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Haggus – Destination Extinction

Genre: Grindcore/hardcore

Subjective rating: 4.5/5

Objective rating: 4/5

Haggus takes the form of a street-stomping, pissed off punker that also happens to be a rotting, flesh-eating undead. Essentially it's grindcore, confirmed by its sub-25 minute runtime, total lack of buildups and steady, impatient tempos. But it also showcases goregrind nastiness, death metal heaviness, groove and melody, and plenty of punk and hardcore levity. There are a few by-the-numbers tracks (and even these hold a high standard) and then there's a generous handful of true entertainers, rocking your world with style shifts, endearing attitude and/or sick riffs. I'd say that the first half is definitely best, but there aren't any real lulls or drops in quality, so you can expect a good thrashing till the very end.

Highlights: "Do You Love Mincecore" and "Bound By Realms Of Cruelty"

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Hellevaerder – Fakkeldragers

Genre: Black metal

Subjective rating: 4/5

Objective rating: 4/5

Hellevaerder is a Dutch black metal band that's now on their third full-length, and that experience is clearly audible on "Fakkeldragers". If you don't pay it all that much attention, it'll probably sound like run-of-the-mill, cold, folk-tinged, windswept black metal, but the devil is absolutely in the details. The band is not content to rely on atmosphere to provide the nuance. Instead they apply subtle tonal- and rhythm shifts, helped by an effective use of bass and tremolo, that sometimes feel like they're performing two sides of a dynamic duel. The production is suitably lean and sharp. I could have liked a bit more punch to the riffs, especially when they're at their most aggressive, but for the most part the mood comes through perfectly. The vocals sound tortured, like they're performing painful invocations, and contribute to the feeling of sinister witchery at work.  

Highlights: "De laatste dageraad" and "Fakkeldragers"

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Imha Tarikat – Confessing Darkness

Genre: Black metal

Subjective rating: 3.5/5

Objective rating: 3.5/5

Bitter black metal out of Germany on offer here. Marching, often high-tempo rhythms drive the songs forward at an unstoppable pace, spreading the misery steadily across all of reality. There's an aggression borrowed from blackened death metal that ensures a good, solid impact, and the dark melody paints an expansive picture of lands swathed in smoky blackness. There's a hint of a sinister western groove to the guitars, and the vocals are hoarse rather than full-on harsh, which provides the band some welcome distinction. It's probably a bit longer than necessary at nearly 56 minutes, but certainly doesn't ever run out of energy.

Highlight: "Another Failed Ritual"