There’s a very particular brand of Scandinavian metallic music that manages to sound utterly freezing while burning with raw, feverish punk fury. Norway’s Korrupt have been sharpening that exact blade for years. When their second record Secret Sorrows landed back in 2023, it made waves by anchoring black-rock swagger to a venomous hardcore backbone.
On their third full-length outing, The Weight We Carry, the Kristiansand crew have chosen not to settle into a comfortable groove. Instead, they’ve turned the thermostat down to sub-zero, stripped away any lingering polite gloss, and delivered nine tracks of ferocious, blackened hardcore and razor-sharp thrash that hits with genuine, teeth-grinding malice.
Right from the opening salvos of Narrative Warfare, the intent is unmistakable. There’s no ambient wind-up or cinematic throat-clearing; Marius Jahnsen and company dive straight into icy, fast-picked tremolos that crash headlong into stomping, pit-clearing hardcore grooves. What immediately elevates this beyond standard crust-punk fare is the sheer calibre of the hooks. Even when the tempo redlines and the dual vocal attack sounds like throats being stripped of their lining, Korrupt never lose sight of a formidable guitar lead.
That dynamic balance pays huge dividends as the album rolls into Waiting For The Sun and Being, Paranoid. On the latter, the tempo pulls back into a muscular, swaggering rock cadence without sacrificing an ounce of physical menace. The twin vocal arrangements overlap and collide with breathless urgency, keeping the venom boiling beneath melodic riffs that feel tailor-made to be screamed back by a room packed tight against a stage barrier.
The centrepiece run is arguably the most punishing stretch the band has ever put to tape. Single Devoted To The Grave is an absolute ripper, blending high-octane black-and-roll guitar licks with a bone-crunching hardcore breakdown that begs for bodies to be hurled across a floor. From there, Deathwish hits like an unhinged sprint before Totalitarian lands a haymaker to the jaw.
Right from the opening salvos of Narrative Warfare, the intent is unmistakable. There’s no ambient wind-up or cinematic throat-clearing; Marius Jahnsen and company dive straight into icy, fast-picked tremolos that crash headlong into stomping, pit-clearing hardcore grooves. What immediately elevates this beyond standard crust-punk fare is the sheer calibre of the hooks. Even when the tempo redlines and the dual vocal attack sounds like throats being stripped of their lining, Korrupt never lose sight of a formidable guitar lead.
That dynamic balance pays huge dividends as the album rolls into Waiting For The Sun and Being, Paranoid. On the latter, the tempo pulls back into a muscular, swaggering rock cadence without sacrificing an ounce of physical menace. The twin vocal arrangements overlap and collide with breathless urgency, keeping the venom boiling beneath melodic riffs that feel tailor-made to be screamed back by a room packed tight against a stage barrier.
The centrepiece run is arguably the most punishing stretch the band has ever put to tape. Single Devoted To The Grave is an absolute ripper, blending high-octane black-and-roll guitar licks with a bone-crunching hardcore breakdown that begs for bodies to be hurled across a floor. From there, Deathwish hits like an unhinged sprint before Totalitarian lands a haymaker to the jaw.
Lyrically, the album takes the traditional religious lexicon of sin, guilt, penance, and salvation and weaponizes it against systemic control, institutional oppression, and personal burnout. When gang chants and melodic clean-vocal flourishes surface unexpectedly on "Totalitarian," they don't soften the blow; they add stark, tragic contrast to the surrounding savagery.
Down the stretch, Eternal Rest opens with murky, death-metal-tinged weight before snapping into their trademark feral thrash, setting up the climactic closer I Am The Soil. Ending the journey where much of its lyrical trauma lives, buried deep, but refusing to stay down, it claws its way through layers of grim distortion and driving rhythm toward an exhausted, hard-won catharsis.
The Weight We Carry is lean, nasty, and relentlessly focused. By fusing the atmospheric frost of Norwegian black metal with the unpretentious, room-clearing punch of metallic hardcore, Korrupt have delivered their most confident, punishing, and memorable statement to date. A blistering, essential listen. 9/10
Absolute Power – Needs Must When the Devil Drives (Time to Kill Records) [Keith Boswell]
The band Absolute Power takes the form of a side project where invitees come and go but with the nucleus being ever present. Formed in 2006 in England by founder members Simon Efemey and Shane Embury the group created their first album self-titled Absolute Power providing a classical heavy metal brand of music.
2026 sees the release of their sophomore album Needs Must When The Devil Drives on the 30th of October 2026. This release comes some fifteen years since their last offering citing the need to wanting to get it right plus the availability of key personnel as the reasons behind the time span between albums.
This record delivers a brilliant brand of classic heavy metal as a base but also hints at a psychedelic element and also riffs of a thrashy type making the album all in all a good listen. Contributors in this instance are cited as Tim Ripper Owens ex Judas Priest, Mark Gemini Thwaite of The Mission fame and John Cooke of Napalm Death.
Stand out tracks for me on this album include the high intensity Saviour as well as the atmospheric track Within. Of course, the Queen cover of Sheer Heart Attack will always bring the fans in.
Whilst being a quality piece of work I think it does not take itself too seriously and lets the listener just sit back and enjoy. 8/10
Sarcator - The Ones We Follow (Reigning Phoenix Music) [Mateusz Stefanow]
In the late 70’s to early 80s metal experienced an exodus from the groovy, riff-laden tones of Black Sabbath to the crushing weight of death metal, via speed and thrash metal, and Sarcator’s new release, The Ones We Follow, would fit in there perfectly, not quite the simple heavy metal they advertise themselves as being, as it is chock-full of speed and aggression, with heavily melodic sections and almost growl-like vocals giving the album a proto-thrash vibe.
The title track and Underground Streets share clean guitar tones, with chugging riffs and speedy guitar progressions pull the songs along, while the vocals are almost growled, giving the album that common ground between almost heavy and almost thrash.
You Gotta Possess Me features shriekier vocals, building up an almost demonic vibe, which pairs with the cries that Tervonen lets loose, while bringing in speed metal influences that amount to a clean melodic section that establishes the melancholic vibe that permeates the next two songs.
Aside from sounding like a Proust title, In Search Of Oblivion is a relatively slow track, focusing on melodic progressions, restrained or at least less prominent drumming and sections of whispered vocals, give the song a sense of loss, fading and weakening, without losing the metallic intensity.
Rotting Chapels is about 7 minutes long and does not overstay it’s welcome, it keeps up the melancholic atmosphere and features a wind whistling soundbite, pairing beautifully with the drawn out vocals and guitar solo around the midpoint that add to the feeling of abandonment.
This album is simply outstanding, it feels familiar yet fresh and new, featuring unique parallels to other acts that have come before, but these parallels seem to be taken as inspirations that Sarcator have adapted and shaped into their own unique soundscape. 9/10
Helter Skelter - Luciferous Satanous Doomicus! (Ruidoteka Records) [Joe Guatieri]
Helter Skelter are a Doom Metal band from Los Angeles, California.
Down the stretch, Eternal Rest opens with murky, death-metal-tinged weight before snapping into their trademark feral thrash, setting up the climactic closer I Am The Soil. Ending the journey where much of its lyrical trauma lives, buried deep, but refusing to stay down, it claws its way through layers of grim distortion and driving rhythm toward an exhausted, hard-won catharsis.
The Weight We Carry is lean, nasty, and relentlessly focused. By fusing the atmospheric frost of Norwegian black metal with the unpretentious, room-clearing punch of metallic hardcore, Korrupt have delivered their most confident, punishing, and memorable statement to date. A blistering, essential listen. 9/10
Absolute Power – Needs Must When the Devil Drives (Time to Kill Records) [Keith Boswell]
The band Absolute Power takes the form of a side project where invitees come and go but with the nucleus being ever present. Formed in 2006 in England by founder members Simon Efemey and Shane Embury the group created their first album self-titled Absolute Power providing a classical heavy metal brand of music.
2026 sees the release of their sophomore album Needs Must When The Devil Drives on the 30th of October 2026. This release comes some fifteen years since their last offering citing the need to wanting to get it right plus the availability of key personnel as the reasons behind the time span between albums.
This record delivers a brilliant brand of classic heavy metal as a base but also hints at a psychedelic element and also riffs of a thrashy type making the album all in all a good listen. Contributors in this instance are cited as Tim Ripper Owens ex Judas Priest, Mark Gemini Thwaite of The Mission fame and John Cooke of Napalm Death.
Stand out tracks for me on this album include the high intensity Saviour as well as the atmospheric track Within. Of course, the Queen cover of Sheer Heart Attack will always bring the fans in.
Whilst being a quality piece of work I think it does not take itself too seriously and lets the listener just sit back and enjoy. 8/10
Sarcator - The Ones We Follow (Reigning Phoenix Music) [Mateusz Stefanow]
In the late 70’s to early 80s metal experienced an exodus from the groovy, riff-laden tones of Black Sabbath to the crushing weight of death metal, via speed and thrash metal, and Sarcator’s new release, The Ones We Follow, would fit in there perfectly, not quite the simple heavy metal they advertise themselves as being, as it is chock-full of speed and aggression, with heavily melodic sections and almost growl-like vocals giving the album a proto-thrash vibe.
The title track and Underground Streets share clean guitar tones, with chugging riffs and speedy guitar progressions pull the songs along, while the vocals are almost growled, giving the album that common ground between almost heavy and almost thrash.
You Gotta Possess Me features shriekier vocals, building up an almost demonic vibe, which pairs with the cries that Tervonen lets loose, while bringing in speed metal influences that amount to a clean melodic section that establishes the melancholic vibe that permeates the next two songs.
Aside from sounding like a Proust title, In Search Of Oblivion is a relatively slow track, focusing on melodic progressions, restrained or at least less prominent drumming and sections of whispered vocals, give the song a sense of loss, fading and weakening, without losing the metallic intensity.
Rotting Chapels is about 7 minutes long and does not overstay it’s welcome, it keeps up the melancholic atmosphere and features a wind whistling soundbite, pairing beautifully with the drawn out vocals and guitar solo around the midpoint that add to the feeling of abandonment.
This album is simply outstanding, it feels familiar yet fresh and new, featuring unique parallels to other acts that have come before, but these parallels seem to be taken as inspirations that Sarcator have adapted and shaped into their own unique soundscape. 9/10
Helter Skelter - Luciferous Satanous Doomicus! (Ruidoteka Records) [Joe Guatieri]
Helter Skelter are a Doom Metal band from Los Angeles, California.
They seemingly haven’t been around for too long, from research despite them playing shows, information about them online is very sparse but from what I can tell, they formed sometime in 2023. They put out one single from this EP in August of last year, that being Burn The Witch and they have congregated in the studio since then as over a year later in 2026, Helter Skelter bring us their debut EP, Luciferous Satanous Doomicus.
We sink into this release with track two, Black Acid. The world buzzes with feedback as the sample states, “I don’t like your face, it makes me want to do things to it” and from that moment onwards, death rings at your door. A raw chaotic sound digs itself up out of its own Grace and stumbles away with fuzzy guitars, dominating bass and drums that sound like they were recorded in a small cellar through a tin can.
The bass very much feels like the lead instrument here, taking the reigns, being the loudest of all, at the same time, what might ad well be a million miles away, you hear the vocalist yelling with all of his might and anguish. It’s a scary resemblance to Jus Oborn but I really like the way the singer is going about it, constantly whaling.
Solos peak out from the fog, Wah infused, they feel like some form of hope in this cruel world. Black Acid stays wallowing in this swamp throughout its runtime, it doesn’t introduce anything to keep me guessing but I am loving the ride.
With the following track we go into the aforementioned Burn The Witch, it remains unchanged from its original release and it’s good for it as it’s crushing in every way possible.
Dare I say it’s the most filthy and distorted song on this entire EP but saying that, the bass has a marvellous technical performance here, ghost notes aplenty, this song just locks in together so well. Burn The Witch is my favourite song on Luciferous Satanous Doomicus.
Later on we’ve got track five with Sons Of Set. This song is as evil as the others are but feels more wallowing here, it’s at the point of defeat with its slower, more crawling pace.
One of the best moments on the entire record happens here as from 4:55 onwards, Sons Of Set suddenly flows like a stream with the speed of the song drastically rising like the level of the sea that plans to destroy a small village.
This from all-accounts shouldn’t work as it is a major departure from the established rhythm but the way that Helter Skelter proceeds with it shows that their not afraid of taking risks.
There is a juxtaposition with this though and it continues throughout the full-listen as this remains my biggest critique with the record. At times especially with Sons Of Set in particular, the band pulls too much from the Electric Wizard handbook. Similar lyrical phrases to those used on legendary records like Come My Fanatics and Dopethrone happen again and again.
It just takes away the originality from Helter Skelter, they need to develop their own lore here and their first release is the perfect way to do that. Even if their sound does take heavy influence from the wizard as well, it has enough grit to stand on its own two feet.
It’s the danger of Doom Metal, you don’t want to emulate anything too much regardless of how cool and dark it is. Nothing that the band is doing here with its theming is egregious and it doesn’t make my skin crawl, it’s just a little bit annoying.
Helter Skelter haven’t reinvented the wheel here but I think that for their first go around, they’ve done a damn good job! The songs here leak despair in their attack and the production is a perfect fit for what they’re trying to do, everything feels closed in on itself, in a prison of its own design, it’s so anxiety-inducing.
I have to mention the names of their members here as they’ve all done a brilliant job with Angel Villa on guitar and vocals, their other guitarist Ariel Pang, bassist David Munoz and Frankie Cardenas on drums and keyboards.
Overall with Luciferous Satanous Doomicus, Helter Skelter has made an EP that is as brilliant as it is angry, the only colours its vision are black and white, the rest has been beaten out of it. It perfectly portrays that man around the corner in the alleyway. Don't talk to him or look him in the eye as it can only lead to trouble. 8/10
We sink into this release with track two, Black Acid. The world buzzes with feedback as the sample states, “I don’t like your face, it makes me want to do things to it” and from that moment onwards, death rings at your door. A raw chaotic sound digs itself up out of its own Grace and stumbles away with fuzzy guitars, dominating bass and drums that sound like they were recorded in a small cellar through a tin can.
The bass very much feels like the lead instrument here, taking the reigns, being the loudest of all, at the same time, what might ad well be a million miles away, you hear the vocalist yelling with all of his might and anguish. It’s a scary resemblance to Jus Oborn but I really like the way the singer is going about it, constantly whaling.
Solos peak out from the fog, Wah infused, they feel like some form of hope in this cruel world. Black Acid stays wallowing in this swamp throughout its runtime, it doesn’t introduce anything to keep me guessing but I am loving the ride.
With the following track we go into the aforementioned Burn The Witch, it remains unchanged from its original release and it’s good for it as it’s crushing in every way possible.
Dare I say it’s the most filthy and distorted song on this entire EP but saying that, the bass has a marvellous technical performance here, ghost notes aplenty, this song just locks in together so well. Burn The Witch is my favourite song on Luciferous Satanous Doomicus.
Later on we’ve got track five with Sons Of Set. This song is as evil as the others are but feels more wallowing here, it’s at the point of defeat with its slower, more crawling pace.
One of the best moments on the entire record happens here as from 4:55 onwards, Sons Of Set suddenly flows like a stream with the speed of the song drastically rising like the level of the sea that plans to destroy a small village.
This from all-accounts shouldn’t work as it is a major departure from the established rhythm but the way that Helter Skelter proceeds with it shows that their not afraid of taking risks.
There is a juxtaposition with this though and it continues throughout the full-listen as this remains my biggest critique with the record. At times especially with Sons Of Set in particular, the band pulls too much from the Electric Wizard handbook. Similar lyrical phrases to those used on legendary records like Come My Fanatics and Dopethrone happen again and again.
It just takes away the originality from Helter Skelter, they need to develop their own lore here and their first release is the perfect way to do that. Even if their sound does take heavy influence from the wizard as well, it has enough grit to stand on its own two feet.
It’s the danger of Doom Metal, you don’t want to emulate anything too much regardless of how cool and dark it is. Nothing that the band is doing here with its theming is egregious and it doesn’t make my skin crawl, it’s just a little bit annoying.
Helter Skelter haven’t reinvented the wheel here but I think that for their first go around, they’ve done a damn good job! The songs here leak despair in their attack and the production is a perfect fit for what they’re trying to do, everything feels closed in on itself, in a prison of its own design, it’s so anxiety-inducing.
I have to mention the names of their members here as they’ve all done a brilliant job with Angel Villa on guitar and vocals, their other guitarist Ariel Pang, bassist David Munoz and Frankie Cardenas on drums and keyboards.
Overall with Luciferous Satanous Doomicus, Helter Skelter has made an EP that is as brilliant as it is angry, the only colours its vision are black and white, the rest has been beaten out of it. It perfectly portrays that man around the corner in the alleyway. Don't talk to him or look him in the eye as it can only lead to trouble. 8/10
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