If you had told me a few years ago that the cello would become one of my favourite instruments in heavy music, I’d probably have laughed you out of the room. But watching bands like IAN tear up the floor at The Holloway with a cello planted right in the middle of suffocating guitar sludge opened up a whole new corridor in my listening habits.
That friction between delicate acoustic beauty and raw heaviness is something special. Canadian multi-instrumentalist Raphael Weinroth-Browne takes that premise and pushes it into stratosphere on his third studio outing, Empyrean.
Empyrean was born out of a commission from James Wilton Dance for a contemporary piece titled Bach Reimagined, Weinroth-Browne has reshuffled the deck to create a continuous, nine-track dialogue between 18th-century Baroque counterpoint (this is his explanation – yep I had to look it up) and modern extreme metal. It sounds like an impossible tightrope to walk, yet he pulls it off with jaw-dropping authority.
The album takes off with Speed Of Light, and the technical precision hits you immediately. Instead of using the cello as a weeping background ornament, Raphael attacks the strings with blistering speed, using looping pedals, percussive bow strikes, and distortion to mimic the relentless chug of an eight-string guitar. It doesn’t just sound ambitious; it sounds physically demanding, rattling with genuine kinetic force.
Tracks like Remnant and Evocation dive deep into darker, moodier waters. He layers haunting multi-tracked harmonies that feel ancient and church-like, before sweeping into polyrhythmic grooves that fans of Meshuggah will instantly recognise. It’s got that progressive metal edge where technical virtuosity doesn't get in the way of emotional weight.
The centrepiece run of Murmuration, Integration, and Dissolution showcases just how far he can stretch four strings. By weaving post-rock dynamics, electronic pulses, and subtle Middle Eastern scales into Bach's contrapuntal architecture, Weinroth-Browne creates music that feels boundless. You get moments of pure, fragile silence followed by crushing, feedback-drenched waves of low-end rumble that rumble right in your chest.
By the time the introspective quiet of Sanctum and Reflection swells into the triumphant finale of Empyrean, you realise you’ve experienced something completely outside ordinary genre confines.
Naturally, the genre gatekeepers will spend hours arguing on message boards about whether an instrumental cello record can officially be classified as "metal." Honestly, let them argue. If you care about sheer technical skill, fearless songwriting, and heavy, boundary-smashing art, Empyrean is an exhilarating listen from start to finish. A fascinating, hugely impressive record. 8/10
Winter At Sea – Hearts (A Cheery Wave Records) [Spike]
Writing a single twenty-minute track is a risky gamble. In the post-rock and post-metal world, it’s far too easy for a long-form piece to wander off into ambient background noise or disappear up its own backside.
However when a band actually understands pacing, dynamics, and structural weight, twenty minutes can feel like twenty seconds. London’s Winter At Sea have taken that gamble on Hearts, and they’ve pulled it off with style.
I’ll be completely honest: this wasn’t love at first spin. In a world of quick-hit three-minute singles, sitting down with a continuous, unbroken twenty-minute composition demands patience. It took me three or four listens to properly dial into the frequency and understand the map they were laying out. But am I glad I put the time in. Once the architecture clicked, the whole thing opened up into something genuinely special.
Structured across five linked movements, the piece behaves less like an EP and more like an unfolding storm. It opens quietly with Glimpse Of The Horizon, building a delicate, atmospheric foundation before the tension tightens into Heart In Mouth. The shift from delicate, melodic guitar lines into heavy, physical rhythm work feels completely natural, there are no clumsy joins or forced transitions here.
The middle stretch of Gathering Dark and A Sleeping Mist brings that cinematic, brooding weight that fans of bands like Russian Circles or Mono will recognize, but with a colder, distinctly British edge. The band described this release as "larger, fiercer and more commanding than anything Winter At Sea have composed previously," and that claim holds water. The drums hit with a dry, punchy weight, and the guitars swell into thick, textured waves that feel designed to shake the walls of a proper venue.
By the time the final movement, Descent Into The Undertow, drags the piece toward its crushing conclusion, the sheer momentum is breathtaking. It’s heavy, cathartic, and refuses to rely on cheap crescendo tricks to make its point. The volume builds because the emotion demands it, leaving you sitting in stunned silence once the final notes fade out into the room.
Hearts isn't music for casual background listening while you check your emails. It’s an immersive, demanding piece of work that rewards your full attention, and easily the most formidable thing Winter At Sea have put their name to. If you’re willing to give it the time it deserves, it delivers in spades. 8/10
Wyrdstæf - Primordial Bloodlines (Apocalyptic Witchcraft) [Mark Young]
It’s amazing to think that after nearly 40 years of loving heavy metal in nearly all of its off shoots (not you, Folk) that you can come across another new description, or label or tag. Wyrdstæf are proponents of Atmospheric Blackened Tribal Metal, which as a whole term is new to me.
From Dismal Paradise through These Little Voices, they use the same tack of the soft intro before launching into the song proper and I’m sick of it. Its boring, do something else. It’s likely that anyone else reviewing this would like it, but I just can’t get on with it. The guitarwork is good, so is the drumming, the core requirements are here but are coated in a sheen, polished to death which makes the songs catch in the back of the throat. It needed less of that and more of a raw approach, because this is just too clean. 5/10
Empyrean was born out of a commission from James Wilton Dance for a contemporary piece titled Bach Reimagined, Weinroth-Browne has reshuffled the deck to create a continuous, nine-track dialogue between 18th-century Baroque counterpoint (this is his explanation – yep I had to look it up) and modern extreme metal. It sounds like an impossible tightrope to walk, yet he pulls it off with jaw-dropping authority.
The album takes off with Speed Of Light, and the technical precision hits you immediately. Instead of using the cello as a weeping background ornament, Raphael attacks the strings with blistering speed, using looping pedals, percussive bow strikes, and distortion to mimic the relentless chug of an eight-string guitar. It doesn’t just sound ambitious; it sounds physically demanding, rattling with genuine kinetic force.
Tracks like Remnant and Evocation dive deep into darker, moodier waters. He layers haunting multi-tracked harmonies that feel ancient and church-like, before sweeping into polyrhythmic grooves that fans of Meshuggah will instantly recognise. It’s got that progressive metal edge where technical virtuosity doesn't get in the way of emotional weight.
The centrepiece run of Murmuration, Integration, and Dissolution showcases just how far he can stretch four strings. By weaving post-rock dynamics, electronic pulses, and subtle Middle Eastern scales into Bach's contrapuntal architecture, Weinroth-Browne creates music that feels boundless. You get moments of pure, fragile silence followed by crushing, feedback-drenched waves of low-end rumble that rumble right in your chest.
By the time the introspective quiet of Sanctum and Reflection swells into the triumphant finale of Empyrean, you realise you’ve experienced something completely outside ordinary genre confines.
Naturally, the genre gatekeepers will spend hours arguing on message boards about whether an instrumental cello record can officially be classified as "metal." Honestly, let them argue. If you care about sheer technical skill, fearless songwriting, and heavy, boundary-smashing art, Empyrean is an exhilarating listen from start to finish. A fascinating, hugely impressive record. 8/10
Winter At Sea – Hearts (A Cheery Wave Records) [Spike]
Writing a single twenty-minute track is a risky gamble. In the post-rock and post-metal world, it’s far too easy for a long-form piece to wander off into ambient background noise or disappear up its own backside.
However when a band actually understands pacing, dynamics, and structural weight, twenty minutes can feel like twenty seconds. London’s Winter At Sea have taken that gamble on Hearts, and they’ve pulled it off with style.
I’ll be completely honest: this wasn’t love at first spin. In a world of quick-hit three-minute singles, sitting down with a continuous, unbroken twenty-minute composition demands patience. It took me three or four listens to properly dial into the frequency and understand the map they were laying out. But am I glad I put the time in. Once the architecture clicked, the whole thing opened up into something genuinely special.
Structured across five linked movements, the piece behaves less like an EP and more like an unfolding storm. It opens quietly with Glimpse Of The Horizon, building a delicate, atmospheric foundation before the tension tightens into Heart In Mouth. The shift from delicate, melodic guitar lines into heavy, physical rhythm work feels completely natural, there are no clumsy joins or forced transitions here.
The middle stretch of Gathering Dark and A Sleeping Mist brings that cinematic, brooding weight that fans of bands like Russian Circles or Mono will recognize, but with a colder, distinctly British edge. The band described this release as "larger, fiercer and more commanding than anything Winter At Sea have composed previously," and that claim holds water. The drums hit with a dry, punchy weight, and the guitars swell into thick, textured waves that feel designed to shake the walls of a proper venue.
By the time the final movement, Descent Into The Undertow, drags the piece toward its crushing conclusion, the sheer momentum is breathtaking. It’s heavy, cathartic, and refuses to rely on cheap crescendo tricks to make its point. The volume builds because the emotion demands it, leaving you sitting in stunned silence once the final notes fade out into the room.
Hearts isn't music for casual background listening while you check your emails. It’s an immersive, demanding piece of work that rewards your full attention, and easily the most formidable thing Winter At Sea have put their name to. If you’re willing to give it the time it deserves, it delivers in spades. 8/10
Wyrdstæf - Primordial Bloodlines (Apocalyptic Witchcraft) [Mark Young]
It’s amazing to think that after nearly 40 years of loving heavy metal in nearly all of its off shoots (not you, Folk) that you can come across another new description, or label or tag. Wyrdstæf are proponents of Atmospheric Blackened Tribal Metal, which as a whole term is new to me.
Tribal via Sepultura in the 90’s has distilled itself into different areas and I’ll admit it now that my knowledge of other tribal bands is scant. Hailing from the UK, they are tapping into something different than trying to ape a particular sound and the titles therein suggest looking to the distant past for inspiration. In any event, Primordial Bloodlines represents one of those albums that excites and frustrates in equal measure.
Just before we dive in, I need to tell you about how good this sounds, with major props to the drum sound and the drumming that is displayed on here. You know yourself that any band that has Tribal anywhere near them must be able to pound those skins and on here Malang is serving up first class drum clinics. White Spring is our start, any fears of it being a throwaway intro are removed after an elongated period of chants that sound similar to a Haka (feel free to put me right on this) they bring in the guitars and then set us up for Great Migrations which detonates and doesn’t stop.
This leans into that blackened edge – blasts, dual vocals all played at a ferocious pace until they pull that speed back to allow them to slowly build the middle out. You know it’s built with the live stage in mind and it sounds colossal, especially with those drums exploding around you. It’s a great start, and Hyperborean is up next. By rights, you would expect them to blast into this from the off and keep that momentum in place. Instead, they slowly drift into it which does lessen its impact once it get’s going.
Like Migrations, this is another great offering from them, a direct attack that is in your face and keeps bounding forward. It’s when we hit Parhelion that things start to falter. So, depending on where you sit with this genre the tribal chanting that starts this off and then seems to continue forever will either be fine, or like me will have you reaching for the skip button. The energy built up getting to this point evaporates with this one developing without doing anything, at least for the casual listener. It means that from my perspective they are starting again, and at the last minute.
The title track, Primordial Bloodlines is their last act and starts with a more melancholic and restrained approach. Its tonally different than the others, the laid back opening revealing a more thoughtful side of the band which allows them to do the expected and go loud, which is where this track takes flight.
It goes some way to repair the damage done by Parhelion. I make no apologies for that statement, hence my frustration with this because I should be having a different conversation about this album. As noted, it sounds fantastic, the guitars have a clarity to them as well as being heavy and when they are going loud the songs rip. If this is your thing then give this a go. 7/10
Til The End - Til The End (Lifeforce Records) [Spike]
Ah, it had to happen. I’ve had a good run with reviews up until last week, and its happened again this week with Til The End, a slide of melodic death metal who note that they wish to pay tribute to the Gothenburg scene whilst forging ahead with their own style. Which is admirable, because as a homebase for some of the best extreme metal of the last 30 or so years, there is a certain pedigree and expectation that music which originates from those shores is going to be of a decent quality.
So, it is disappointing that Til The End doesn’t reach the heights its obviously aiming for. It has everything you associate with melodic metal, its just that its served up with a lack of energy, or maybe raw aggression. Take your pick, but for me there was something missing that rendered the music here as lifeless. You can argue that Lava, which on the surface has those ingredients but feels like they are here because its expected to put that section there, and put that lead break there.
Just before we dive in, I need to tell you about how good this sounds, with major props to the drum sound and the drumming that is displayed on here. You know yourself that any band that has Tribal anywhere near them must be able to pound those skins and on here Malang is serving up first class drum clinics. White Spring is our start, any fears of it being a throwaway intro are removed after an elongated period of chants that sound similar to a Haka (feel free to put me right on this) they bring in the guitars and then set us up for Great Migrations which detonates and doesn’t stop.
This leans into that blackened edge – blasts, dual vocals all played at a ferocious pace until they pull that speed back to allow them to slowly build the middle out. You know it’s built with the live stage in mind and it sounds colossal, especially with those drums exploding around you. It’s a great start, and Hyperborean is up next. By rights, you would expect them to blast into this from the off and keep that momentum in place. Instead, they slowly drift into it which does lessen its impact once it get’s going.
Like Migrations, this is another great offering from them, a direct attack that is in your face and keeps bounding forward. It’s when we hit Parhelion that things start to falter. So, depending on where you sit with this genre the tribal chanting that starts this off and then seems to continue forever will either be fine, or like me will have you reaching for the skip button. The energy built up getting to this point evaporates with this one developing without doing anything, at least for the casual listener. It means that from my perspective they are starting again, and at the last minute.
The title track, Primordial Bloodlines is their last act and starts with a more melancholic and restrained approach. Its tonally different than the others, the laid back opening revealing a more thoughtful side of the band which allows them to do the expected and go loud, which is where this track takes flight.
It goes some way to repair the damage done by Parhelion. I make no apologies for that statement, hence my frustration with this because I should be having a different conversation about this album. As noted, it sounds fantastic, the guitars have a clarity to them as well as being heavy and when they are going loud the songs rip. If this is your thing then give this a go. 7/10
Til The End - Til The End (Lifeforce Records) [Spike]
Ah, it had to happen. I’ve had a good run with reviews up until last week, and its happened again this week with Til The End, a slide of melodic death metal who note that they wish to pay tribute to the Gothenburg scene whilst forging ahead with their own style. Which is admirable, because as a homebase for some of the best extreme metal of the last 30 or so years, there is a certain pedigree and expectation that music which originates from those shores is going to be of a decent quality.
So, it is disappointing that Til The End doesn’t reach the heights its obviously aiming for. It has everything you associate with melodic metal, its just that its served up with a lack of energy, or maybe raw aggression. Take your pick, but for me there was something missing that rendered the music here as lifeless. You can argue that Lava, which on the surface has those ingredients but feels like they are here because its expected to put that section there, and put that lead break there.
Its all very mechanical and without emotion. The problem for me, is that I’ve heard so much of this since I started reviewing and before that when the Gothenburg sound started breaking through, is that I’m probably very jaded by it all. I don’t want to hear acoustic interludes or lyrics that feel as though King Diamond would have used them in the mid-80s, there something here that I detest and I can’t adequately express what it is.
From Dismal Paradise through These Little Voices, they use the same tack of the soft intro before launching into the song proper and I’m sick of it. Its boring, do something else. It’s likely that anyone else reviewing this would like it, but I just can’t get on with it. The guitarwork is good, so is the drumming, the core requirements are here but are coated in a sheen, polished to death which makes the songs catch in the back of the throat. It needed less of that and more of a raw approach, because this is just too clean. 5/10
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