Burial returns with their fourth full-length studio album, Rejoice In Sin, delivering a powerful blend of rawness and precision that reminds you why black metal continues to thrive as a genre. The UK-based trio—Dave Buchan on drums, Richard Barraclough on guitars, and Derek Carley handling vocals and bass—shows how much can be accomplished with just three members. This album is a masterclass in creating a full, immersive sound without relying on overproduction.
The title track, Rejoice In Sin, opens the album with what feels like the distant wail of a horn, leading into a scream and a guttural growl that immediately sets the tone. The guitars and drums carry an organized chaos, while tempo changes at the start and near the end keep you engaged. The track closes with a cleaner guitar sound that still maintains its intensity—a strong introduction that draws you deeper into the album.
Wretched Is This Life, the second track and my personal favourite, showcases an incredible balance of guitar and bass in the intro. A standout tempo change after the first verse brings back the opening riff, blending classic black metal elements with a modern edge. The bass line here deserves special mention—it steps out from behind the main guitars at times, delivering sharp, rhythmic punches that elevate the song. This track is a perfect example of how Burial blends precision with raw energy.
Across the album, the vocals are haunting and guttural but never feel gimmicky. Derek Carley’s delivery feels authentic and perfectly suited to the gritty tone of the music. The blast beats from Dave Buchan are a highlight—they aren’t a repetitive blur but instead vary in tempo and add depth to each track. The bass guitar, often overlooked in this genre, is prominent throughout, acting as both a foundation and, at times, a rhythm guitar. This attention to the bass gives the songs a layered, full sound that’s hard to achieve with just three members.
For a black metal album, Rejoice In Sin brings in some welcome variety. At times, it leans into atmospheric black metal; at others, there’s a hint of Symphonic influence or even a black-n-roll vibe. The production feels deliberately raw, as if you’re sitting in the studio with the band, which adds to its edgy charm.
After a dozen playthroughs, I can confidently say there isn’t a single track I’d skip. Each song is carefully crafted, and the precision in the tempo changes is impressive. Burial has created an album that’s gritty, immersive, and engaging from start to finish. 8/10
Veuve - Pole (Go Down Records) [Rich Piva]
The title track, Rejoice In Sin, opens the album with what feels like the distant wail of a horn, leading into a scream and a guttural growl that immediately sets the tone. The guitars and drums carry an organized chaos, while tempo changes at the start and near the end keep you engaged. The track closes with a cleaner guitar sound that still maintains its intensity—a strong introduction that draws you deeper into the album.
Wretched Is This Life, the second track and my personal favourite, showcases an incredible balance of guitar and bass in the intro. A standout tempo change after the first verse brings back the opening riff, blending classic black metal elements with a modern edge. The bass line here deserves special mention—it steps out from behind the main guitars at times, delivering sharp, rhythmic punches that elevate the song. This track is a perfect example of how Burial blends precision with raw energy.
Across the album, the vocals are haunting and guttural but never feel gimmicky. Derek Carley’s delivery feels authentic and perfectly suited to the gritty tone of the music. The blast beats from Dave Buchan are a highlight—they aren’t a repetitive blur but instead vary in tempo and add depth to each track. The bass guitar, often overlooked in this genre, is prominent throughout, acting as both a foundation and, at times, a rhythm guitar. This attention to the bass gives the songs a layered, full sound that’s hard to achieve with just three members.
For a black metal album, Rejoice In Sin brings in some welcome variety. At times, it leans into atmospheric black metal; at others, there’s a hint of Symphonic influence or even a black-n-roll vibe. The production feels deliberately raw, as if you’re sitting in the studio with the band, which adds to its edgy charm.
After a dozen playthroughs, I can confidently say there isn’t a single track I’d skip. Each song is carefully crafted, and the precision in the tempo changes is impressive. Burial has created an album that’s gritty, immersive, and engaging from start to finish. 8/10
Veuve - Pole (Go Down Records) [Rich Piva]
Italian stoner/psych rockers Veuve are back with a new record called Pole, which is a pretty pedestrian title for a record that is so good and so complex. This is Veuve’s third record and the first since 2019. The time off allowed the band to create six gigantic soundscapes that blend the best of stoner and heavy psych at over almost an hour of run time, which may be a bit much for some, but totally worth the effort of you hang in.
You would think that a record almost an hour long with only six tracks would lean heavily on the psych side of the house, but the first two tracks, Land Of Denial and The Thaw are just straight up killer heavy stoner rock goodness. Land Of Denial has a killer bass work and enough fuzz for all of us. I love the guitar tone on this one and on all of the tracks on Pole. The Thaw gives me Fire Down Below vibes, which of course is very welcomed, and has my favourite guitar work on the record. The first two tracks are the shortest on Pole, the next three is when it gets intense.
You would think that a record almost an hour long with only six tracks would lean heavily on the psych side of the house, but the first two tracks, Land Of Denial and The Thaw are just straight up killer heavy stoner rock goodness. Land Of Denial has a killer bass work and enough fuzz for all of us. I love the guitar tone on this one and on all of the tracks on Pole. The Thaw gives me Fire Down Below vibes, which of course is very welcomed, and has my favourite guitar work on the record. The first two tracks are the shortest on Pole, the next three is when it gets intense.
Each track clocks in at around twelve minutes, but they are all excellent. Quest For Fire slows it down, brings a bit of doom in, and takes the vocals to the next level. There is nothing overtly psych on Pole, but it is there, with this one being a great example of it lurking behind each note, especially during the different tempo and mood changes. Look out for some grungy bits too. Next is Inner Desert, that brings some really great riffs and is a sprawling track that actually reminds me of when Muse was good. This one takes quite a turn about half way through.
The third of the 36-minute trilogy is The Sudden Light, my favourite of the three, and boy does it bring the atmosphere to go along with the heavy. I hear some Jane’s Addiction going on here musically and I am all about that. The trippiest of all the tracks on Pole, but still brings the crunch. The closer, while shorter in comparison at eight minutes, Thrive On Empty Temples is still some epic stoner goodness that shows these guys really know how to put a complex (for stoner rock) composition together. It is a bit long, especially for six tracks, but Pole really delivers some killer, epic stoner with grunge and psych elements. Veuve have really taken it to another level and should impress a lot of listeners with their new record. Don’t get scared off by the song length, hang in there and get ready for quite the adventure. 8/10
Veilburner - The Duality Of Decapitation And Wisdom (Transcending Obscurity Records) [GC]
When I see something from Transcending Obscurity, I immediately think death metal and usually quality death metal at that, however Veilburner have been listed as black metal and of course labels need a variety of different acts to keep thing interesting, so The Duality And Deception Of Wisdom is Veilburner’s new album, and this is my take on it.
I’m instantly struck that its seven tracks are all exactly seven minutes long and not sure why that is or if there some hidden meaning to it all? Bit weird really, anyway it all starts off ok on Tem Ohp Ab In Mysticum which is chock full of blasting drums which are the highlight because the rest is a bit stop start and ragged, with loads of different time changes thrown in and differing types of vocals that are at one point decent but then in an instant a bit cringeworthy and about halfway through it all just gets to repetitive and drags on till the end.
Veilburner - The Duality Of Decapitation And Wisdom (Transcending Obscurity Records) [GC]
When I see something from Transcending Obscurity, I immediately think death metal and usually quality death metal at that, however Veilburner have been listed as black metal and of course labels need a variety of different acts to keep thing interesting, so The Duality And Deception Of Wisdom is Veilburner’s new album, and this is my take on it.
I’m instantly struck that its seven tracks are all exactly seven minutes long and not sure why that is or if there some hidden meaning to it all? Bit weird really, anyway it all starts off ok on Tem Ohp Ab In Mysticum which is chock full of blasting drums which are the highlight because the rest is a bit stop start and ragged, with loads of different time changes thrown in and differing types of vocals that are at one point decent but then in an instant a bit cringeworthy and about halfway through it all just gets to repetitive and drags on till the end.
III Visions Of Hex-Shaped Hiss, Behead The Howling Spirit is an unnecessarily long song title but it does show more depth and has some nice djenty string bending riffs to kick off with, then it gets all ‘’spooky’’ and atmospheric complete with goblin vocals that are again on the cringey side of the spectrum after the promising start, not much really happens for a couple of minutes and then it sparks back into life and has decent mix of almost tech death but it also leans on melodic death metal too, but the vocals are doing nothing for me and the run time is again too long as it just gets sort of meanders to the finish.
The Duality Of Decapitation And Wisdom Part 1 throws a spanner in the works and is introduced with some soft and grandiose guitar work mixing in with some background atmospherics and it builds and builds and finally about 3 minutes in the black metal nastiness is unleased and it’s the juxtaposition between the styles that actually pays off here the scathing nature of the black metal bounces perfectly off the more laid back beginning of the track, then The Duality Of Decapitation And Wisdom Part 2 just carries on the feeling of its sister track and doesn’t really seem like a part 2 is needed as they obviously wanted 1 long song but needed to break it down to 7 minutes exactly for some still unknown reason?
Shadows Of A Shadow is another good track full of gothic undertones that create another epic feeling track that you would imagine would be the perfect soundtrack to burn a church to, it has a feel of a death march and once again uses a slower pace for the most part but when they do ramp up the pace its done really well and has all the things you need and if there is such a thing then this may be a great showing of melodic black metal, Woe Ye’ Who Build Crosses…Are Those Who Will Serve Us Till Death takes almost seven minutes to type but zero time to unleash a savage death metal assault upon us.
Rammed full of cutting riffs and off kilter drums, with some nice time changes to keep everything interesting, the vocals are actually one of the high points on this track finally, there are a few different styles and they all work well and so its onto V.I.I (Voured Ichneumous Icon) to close proceedings, and it manages to achieve this with aplomb as it feels like they have saved the best till last as this track is superb everything is brimming with menace and dark atmosphere that creates a suffocating feeling and adds the icy feel of the first wave of Norwegian black metal into the melting pot and shows that they really are capable of some fantastic stuff.
This really summed up my feelings on black metal, it can be great and really devastating at times but then in an instant can sound ridiculously stupid but still wants to be taken seriously? There were parts on The Duality Of Decapitation And Wisdom that I really enjoyed but equally there were parts I just rolled my eyes at and wanted to skip, it’s a decent listen but whatever you do don’t take it too seriously!! 6/10
Grey Attack – Back To Greysland (Metalapolis Records) [Liam Williams]
Back To Greysland is the 4th album by hard rock quartet Grey Attack. This is going to be quite a short one because I’ll be honest, I really struggled to get through this album. I can appreciate the bands efforts to bring back a more 80’s glam rock sound and mix in a bit of grunge and metal to try and keep things updated but it still sounds like something straight out of the 80’s. It’s like they’re just trying to sound like a heavier Bon Jovi, but it just doesn’t work. Each part on its own sounds decent enough, but altogether it’s very rough.
The guitars and bass are pretty good, some of the solos are great, but most of them just lack any soul. I do like some of the riffs and I appreciate the experimenting with different effects in some parts. The drums are ok but in most of the songs they sound way too loud in the mix compared to everything else. As if they thought making the drums louder made the songs sound heavier but it just sounds really bad. The singer can definitely sing, I actually quite like his voice, he sounds a lot like Scott Weiland, one of my favourite singers.
This really summed up my feelings on black metal, it can be great and really devastating at times but then in an instant can sound ridiculously stupid but still wants to be taken seriously? There were parts on The Duality Of Decapitation And Wisdom that I really enjoyed but equally there were parts I just rolled my eyes at and wanted to skip, it’s a decent listen but whatever you do don’t take it too seriously!! 6/10
Grey Attack – Back To Greysland (Metalapolis Records) [Liam Williams]
Back To Greysland is the 4th album by hard rock quartet Grey Attack. This is going to be quite a short one because I’ll be honest, I really struggled to get through this album. I can appreciate the bands efforts to bring back a more 80’s glam rock sound and mix in a bit of grunge and metal to try and keep things updated but it still sounds like something straight out of the 80’s. It’s like they’re just trying to sound like a heavier Bon Jovi, but it just doesn’t work. Each part on its own sounds decent enough, but altogether it’s very rough.
The guitars and bass are pretty good, some of the solos are great, but most of them just lack any soul. I do like some of the riffs and I appreciate the experimenting with different effects in some parts. The drums are ok but in most of the songs they sound way too loud in the mix compared to everything else. As if they thought making the drums louder made the songs sound heavier but it just sounds really bad. The singer can definitely sing, I actually quite like his voice, he sounds a lot like Scott Weiland, one of my favourite singers.
But the overlapping vocals in most of the songs just sound all over the place. And the lyrics, easily the worst part of the album for me. I could do my best to ignore the other issues if the lyrics weren’t so bad. They’re very uninspired and repetitive at the best of times but just absolutely pure cringe inducing stuff at other times, especially on the tracks Turn Me On and Get Over Me. Really not great. Which is a shame because like I said, otherwise I think the dude is a pretty decent singer.
Some of the other glaring issues is when the band attempts to add any other sounds into the songs like piano and strings. They just sound off to me. The mix is really rough and it ruins their inclusion in the tracks. I really did try to give this album a chance, I listened to the whole thing from start to finish in one sitting hoping that it would get better as the album progressed but unfortunately it didn’t. There are some decent parts but nothing that’ll make me want to give it another listen. I’m giving it a very generous. 3/10
Some of the other glaring issues is when the band attempts to add any other sounds into the songs like piano and strings. They just sound off to me. The mix is really rough and it ruins their inclusion in the tracks. I really did try to give this album a chance, I listened to the whole thing from start to finish in one sitting hoping that it would get better as the album progressed but unfortunately it didn’t. There are some decent parts but nothing that’ll make me want to give it another listen. I’m giving it a very generous. 3/10
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