Ah, now a bone-fide metal titan.
Lamb Of God have represented, at least to me a high watermark of metal. A band who can write riffs that seem to collapse in on themselves without sounding as though they are ever treading water. Personally, Sacrament is probably my go to, primarily because of Walk With Me In Hell being an all time classic. I think you can hold their 3-album run from As The Palaces Burn to Sacrament up as prime examples of truly brilliant heavy metal. Extending that further, you could squeeze Wrath into the conversation too, except that it was the beginning of a cycle where each album would come and there would some absolute class on there, but there would also be some padding.
Black Crowes - A Pound Of Feathers (Silver Arrow Records) [Rich Piva]
There have been a dozen or so bands I have had obsessions with over my music listening life. The Black Crowes are one of them. When the band decided to do the Dead thing and become this “live” band I became this crazy tape trader guy. I must have had 200 Crowes boots, from 3 plus hour shows to rare demos recorded on a boom box. I still feel, to this day, that their discography through By Your Side is pretty much perfect, and yes, I do love By Your Side.
Lets be honest, a ton of bands would love to be able to write to the same level as this. I suppose it’s something that every band falls into, especially those where the early releases are at god level and you have to play songs from it or we riot. Does the energy go as bands evolve where the excitement becomes unadventurous? As people grow does the same spark happen when they are in a room? I’m not sure how many were welcoming this release other than being something to kick start a tour cycle but I’d like to say that Into Oblivion is the best thing they have done in a long time.
It's exciting, starting with Into Oblivion, this opening salvo seems like a return to Walk With Me, but with its own swing. Straight away its them but with additional weight removed from their sound. Its lighter but still heavy. Its direct and has zero fat on it whatsoever. It starts, detonates and moves allowing for the super speed of Parasocial Christ to rip you to bits. Look at the track lengths, these have been pared down at each step, removing anything unnecessary from each song. Yes, its familiar, of course it is but it’s the manner that each of them drop in. It is an album for them, on their own terms.
It's exciting, starting with Into Oblivion, this opening salvo seems like a return to Walk With Me, but with its own swing. Straight away its them but with additional weight removed from their sound. Its lighter but still heavy. Its direct and has zero fat on it whatsoever. It starts, detonates and moves allowing for the super speed of Parasocial Christ to rip you to bits. Look at the track lengths, these have been pared down at each step, removing anything unnecessary from each song. Yes, its familiar, of course it is but it’s the manner that each of them drop in. It is an album for them, on their own terms.
What’s different here is that it is a no skip trip (stealing with pride from some chap off Twitter). There are no boring or meh moments that have been the case previously. Sepsis is a monstrous beast where the pace is slowed down at its start, so when it does do the expected switch its all the more powerful for it. St. Catherine’s Wheel scorches, that trademark stop-start riffola they do so well is in full force. It hints at songs past, again how can they not? They are 12 albums in and still pulling crackers out of their collective hats, Blunt Force Blues possessing that crushing groove, impetus and 1st song energy on a track that is the near the end is telling.
They have gone into this with a mindset that each song must match the one before and after it. Even when they adjust tempos to suit, those ‘slower’ songs like Bully still move. There is never a sense of standing still, or worse yet trying to play catch up with other bands or trends. I didn’t expect this from them at all, they still sound vital and have something interesting to say. 9/10
Black Crowes - A Pound Of Feathers (Silver Arrow Records) [Rich Piva]
There have been a dozen or so bands I have had obsessions with over my music listening life. The Black Crowes are one of them. When the band decided to do the Dead thing and become this “live” band I became this crazy tape trader guy. I must have had 200 Crowes boots, from 3 plus hour shows to rare demos recorded on a boom box. I still feel, to this day, that their discography through By Your Side is pretty much perfect, and yes, I do love By Your Side.
This obsession did slow down, but I have always been a huge fan. I was pumped when we got a new record in 2024, Happiness Bastards, which was good for what it was, but I thought that was it for them. But alas, the brothers are back, with a new lineup and what they both said is a record that is back to their roots AND transformative at the same time, titled A Pound Of Feathers, which, ironically, was the title of a demos bootleg I used to have as part of my tape collection. I am not sure I would say musically transformative, given it sounds like The Black Crowes, but back to their roots, a bit more raw, and containing some cool new Crowes tracks? I can get behind that.
The opener, Profane Prophecy, is a cool upbeat bluesy rocker with Rich doing his thing he does so well and Chris’s voice as strong as ever. This will be a live staple for sure. The boys still dig The Stones. Cruel Streak has a fun little riff and that wonderful Crowes signature sound that, even now, I can never get enough of. Pharmacy Chronicles is no Sometimes Salvation but it will do, in 2026 at least. Do The Parasite may be my favorite track on the record. A fun rocker with the brothers finding their chemistry once again, even if the other guys are new (not Sven, but you get it). I also dig High & Lonesome, that has this Wings thing going on which makes me happy.
The opener, Profane Prophecy, is a cool upbeat bluesy rocker with Rich doing his thing he does so well and Chris’s voice as strong as ever. This will be a live staple for sure. The boys still dig The Stones. Cruel Streak has a fun little riff and that wonderful Crowes signature sound that, even now, I can never get enough of. Pharmacy Chronicles is no Sometimes Salvation but it will do, in 2026 at least. Do The Parasite may be my favorite track on the record. A fun rocker with the brothers finding their chemistry once again, even if the other guys are new (not Sven, but you get it). I also dig High & Lonesome, that has this Wings thing going on which makes me happy.
I always love when Rich pulls out the slide, like he does on the acoustic Queen Of The B-sides. Love when they harmonize on this one too. It’s Like That sounds like it's a By Your Side outtake and I am certainly here for that. Rich has had a riff revival, as I really dig the one on Blood Red Regrets too. Eros Blues is the other highlight on the record. As the guys are channelling their Southern Blues roots and creating one of the cooler songs they have in a couple decades. The closer, Doomsday Doggerel, is pretty cool too, channelling some of those epic Zeppelin tracks that the guys did so well with Mr. Page back in the day.
I am not sure what I am even expecting from a Black Crowes Record in 2026. I guess if I can get one like A Pound Of Feathers that has a bunch of cool songs, two excellent ones, maybe only one or two that could have been left off, and Chris and Rich vibing as well as they have in many years, then I guess I should be happy; and I am. 7/10
Monstrosity – Screams From Beneath The Surface (Metal Blade Records) [Spike]
The Florida death metal scene has always felt a bit like a geological layer, reliable, impenetrable, and built on a foundation of Lee Harrison’s drumming. Monstrosity have spent the better part of three decades acting as the structural engineers of this sound, and their latest, Screams from Beneath the Surface, is exactly the kind of high-velocity, technical excavation you’d expect from a band that refuses to succumb to the rot of modern trends.
It’s an album that understands that "classic" doesn't have to mean "dated."
The record doesn't bother with a polite preamble. Banished To The Skies hits with a nearly seven-minute demonstration of why Harrison is still one of the most respected architects in the genre. The blast beats are clinical, providing a rigid framework for Mark English and Matt Hall to weave those needle-fine, technical riffs that have become the band's signature. It’s a dense, complex opening that gives way to the more straightforward, pugnacious energy of The Colossal Rage. If the opener was a lecture in composition, this is the physical demonstration, a heart-attack pulse that demands a circle pit.
Mike Hrubovcak’s vocals remain a crystalline anchor amidst the chaos of The Atrophied and Spiral. He possesses that rare death metal clarity; you can actually hear the vitriol in the lyrics without needing a lyric sheet to act as a translator. It gives tracks like Fortunes Engraved In Blood a narrative weight that survives the high-velocity churn of the guitars. There is a "no-frills" honesty to the production here which I love, it sounds like a band playing in a room, not a collection of plugins trying to sound like a band.
The momentum shifts gear during Vapors And The Thorns, where the band leans into a more rhythmic, mid-paced grit. It’s here that the specific "Florida" DNA, that humid, oppressive atmosphere that made the 90s scene so vital. Blood Works and The Dark Aura double down on this, featuring solos that cut through the low-end churn like a surgical laser. The technicality is high, certainly, but it never feels like they’re showing off for the sake of a guitar clinic; every note feels like it’s been placed there to increase the overall pressure.
The experience culminates in Veil Of Disillusion. As a closing statement, it’s a monolith, a huge five-minute descent that brings back the progressive, sprawling ambition of the opener. It refuses to offer a tidy resolution, instead collapsing into a final, abrasive rhythmic collapse that feels entirely earned.
Monstrosity haven't tried to reinvent the wheel with Screams From Beneath The Surface; they’ve simply proven that the wheel is still the most effective way to crush everything in its path. It’s a masterclass in professional, unvarnished death metal from a band that knows exactly where the bodies are buried. It’s honest, it’s brutal, and it’s arguably one of the best things to crawl out of the sunshine state this year. 9/10
Witchcraft - A Sinner's Child (Heavy Psych Sounds) [Matt Bladen]
How do you follow up an album like IDAG? The album that brought you the acclaim that you so deserve after a long career?
Well in the case of Swedish occult doom act Witchcraft, you strip away all of the heavy stuff to just it's simplest form, only two tracks with a full band line up as three if the five just feature the talent of bandleader/vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Magnus Pelander. As if welcoming the Spring, A Sinner's Child is an EP infused with warmth and a feeling of rebirth and renewal, it's the tender side of Pelander's songwriting, these songs coming from his soul, one at least, Själen Reser Sig, recorded over the course of eight years over three separate occasions before finally being released.
With so much of this album just falling to Pelander, it celebrates his talent throughout, defining his position as the heart and soul of Witchcraft for 20 years, while also carrying things back to his humble solo artist beginnings. Both the title track and it's follow up Sinner's Clear Confusion have the woozy indie approach of The Tragically Hip, while Even Darker Days Slowly Coming My Way comes from that darkened folk tradition, while there's some riffs on Drömmen Om Död Och Förruttnelse and Själen Reser Sig that takes Witchcraft into fuzzy doom.
20 years and numerous evolutions, with this EP Witchcraft are more Jeff Buckley than Black Sabbath and that's a very good thing. 8/10
I am not sure what I am even expecting from a Black Crowes Record in 2026. I guess if I can get one like A Pound Of Feathers that has a bunch of cool songs, two excellent ones, maybe only one or two that could have been left off, and Chris and Rich vibing as well as they have in many years, then I guess I should be happy; and I am. 7/10
Monstrosity – Screams From Beneath The Surface (Metal Blade Records) [Spike]
The Florida death metal scene has always felt a bit like a geological layer, reliable, impenetrable, and built on a foundation of Lee Harrison’s drumming. Monstrosity have spent the better part of three decades acting as the structural engineers of this sound, and their latest, Screams from Beneath the Surface, is exactly the kind of high-velocity, technical excavation you’d expect from a band that refuses to succumb to the rot of modern trends.
It’s an album that understands that "classic" doesn't have to mean "dated."
The record doesn't bother with a polite preamble. Banished To The Skies hits with a nearly seven-minute demonstration of why Harrison is still one of the most respected architects in the genre. The blast beats are clinical, providing a rigid framework for Mark English and Matt Hall to weave those needle-fine, technical riffs that have become the band's signature. It’s a dense, complex opening that gives way to the more straightforward, pugnacious energy of The Colossal Rage. If the opener was a lecture in composition, this is the physical demonstration, a heart-attack pulse that demands a circle pit.
Mike Hrubovcak’s vocals remain a crystalline anchor amidst the chaos of The Atrophied and Spiral. He possesses that rare death metal clarity; you can actually hear the vitriol in the lyrics without needing a lyric sheet to act as a translator. It gives tracks like Fortunes Engraved In Blood a narrative weight that survives the high-velocity churn of the guitars. There is a "no-frills" honesty to the production here which I love, it sounds like a band playing in a room, not a collection of plugins trying to sound like a band.
The momentum shifts gear during Vapors And The Thorns, where the band leans into a more rhythmic, mid-paced grit. It’s here that the specific "Florida" DNA, that humid, oppressive atmosphere that made the 90s scene so vital. Blood Works and The Dark Aura double down on this, featuring solos that cut through the low-end churn like a surgical laser. The technicality is high, certainly, but it never feels like they’re showing off for the sake of a guitar clinic; every note feels like it’s been placed there to increase the overall pressure.
The experience culminates in Veil Of Disillusion. As a closing statement, it’s a monolith, a huge five-minute descent that brings back the progressive, sprawling ambition of the opener. It refuses to offer a tidy resolution, instead collapsing into a final, abrasive rhythmic collapse that feels entirely earned.
Monstrosity haven't tried to reinvent the wheel with Screams From Beneath The Surface; they’ve simply proven that the wheel is still the most effective way to crush everything in its path. It’s a masterclass in professional, unvarnished death metal from a band that knows exactly where the bodies are buried. It’s honest, it’s brutal, and it’s arguably one of the best things to crawl out of the sunshine state this year. 9/10
Witchcraft - A Sinner's Child (Heavy Psych Sounds) [Matt Bladen]
How do you follow up an album like IDAG? The album that brought you the acclaim that you so deserve after a long career?
Well in the case of Swedish occult doom act Witchcraft, you strip away all of the heavy stuff to just it's simplest form, only two tracks with a full band line up as three if the five just feature the talent of bandleader/vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Magnus Pelander. As if welcoming the Spring, A Sinner's Child is an EP infused with warmth and a feeling of rebirth and renewal, it's the tender side of Pelander's songwriting, these songs coming from his soul, one at least, Själen Reser Sig, recorded over the course of eight years over three separate occasions before finally being released.
With so much of this album just falling to Pelander, it celebrates his talent throughout, defining his position as the heart and soul of Witchcraft for 20 years, while also carrying things back to his humble solo artist beginnings. Both the title track and it's follow up Sinner's Clear Confusion have the woozy indie approach of The Tragically Hip, while Even Darker Days Slowly Coming My Way comes from that darkened folk tradition, while there's some riffs on Drömmen Om Död Och Förruttnelse and Själen Reser Sig that takes Witchcraft into fuzzy doom.
20 years and numerous evolutions, with this EP Witchcraft are more Jeff Buckley than Black Sabbath and that's a very good thing. 8/10
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