In a hole in the ground there lived a perfectly ordinary death metal band, thank you very much. Not a warm, comfortable, well-appointed hole such as a hobbit might live in, but a deep, dark hole in the mire. Full of death and ooze, and the sort of creeping, grasping fog one reads about in gothic novels. Now take that classic death sound and drag its entrails down an octave or two, throw in a healthy slug of raw, sludgy malice, insert a giant spider or two to liven things up, and take a seat.
You’re now in roughly the right place to encounter Fog Wall, their unique brand of Tolkien-flavoured mayhem, and their debut offering, Gloomweaver.
Reunion albums can be a tough nut to crack, especially when there’s been an extended period of absence between releases. Sometimes, bands can release some of their best material after taking some time away, coming back refreshed with a desire to continue to push themselves creatively. Other times, this material can sometimes come across as somewhat uninspired and a cynical move designed to both capitalise on the demand of their fanbase and attempt to recapture the magic found in their past releases. However, they can also fall somewhat in between the two camps – noble efforts that are perfectly listenable but end up leaving listeners coming away feeling that something is missing. Copenhagan’s Lack must have considered this to some extent when they initially reformed in 2021, given that it’s taken them five years after reforming to finally release new music for the first time since 2008’s Saturate Every Atom. With their new self-titled album, Lack aren’t treating this like a big reunion album many years in the making, but simply the next chapter in their story, picking up where they left off 18 years ago.
On 2023’s Cerebral Circus, Initiate tapped into something special. Where their debut had shown glimmers of promise, Cerebral Circus delivered on them with bracing emotion mixed with furious riffing. It should’ve made them hardcore superstars, but for whatever reason managed to fly under radars with those in the know adoring it, but not giving them the breakout they deserved. Then, seemingly nothing until last year’s ’Too Much’ channelled despair and hopelessness at the world into a piercing, desperate cry for better, along with touring but no true follow-up. Now, though, their new EP With Love // With Rage is here, and – let’s not beat around the bush – it’s a ripper.
Part of the reason Cerebral Circus resonated so strongly was vocalist Crystal Pak’s lyricism, and With Love // With Rage continues that trend of frank openness, dissecting mental health and struggles and the split between, as its title suggests, love and rage. Musically they’re as visceral as ever; ‘Burn After Reading’ explodes out of speakers, a feedback-drenched open giving way to pummelling drums and melody-charged riffs. Its breakneck speed is complemented by melodic guitar leads.
‘Delusions’ throws crossover thrash into the mix, Pak raging, “With every hope that you quell, I pray you rot in hell / Then make this a world that I fucking hate,” while ‘Shadowboxing’ flips the mood entirely for a much more brooding, bleak view into a bitter battle with her own mind as she bellows. “Nothing behind my eyes / I just want my fucking bed / It’s a special kind of torment / When you can’t control your head.”
With the trio having a strong foundation within the extreme metal world (Autopsy, Brainiol, Amber Asylum and Owl), Deathgrave have long since proven they have the technical chops and lineage to melt faces clean from bone. Hell Is Evil sees the band further expand from their grindcore, pulling in disparate elements of extreme music with added touches of hardcore punk, thrash, industrial, d-beat and death metal for additional flavouring, lending itself to the most diverse Deathgrave album so far.
From the get go the Hell Is Evil is full throttle, with the titular track leading the charge with battering rams for riffs, getting the listener warmed up for thirty more minutes of brutality. The chorus hits hard with a tongue in cheek edge; guttural rumbles of the shouted ‘Hell Is Evil’ is undeniable as a circle pit battle charge and clearly not taking themselves too seriously. Following is the prog-death leaning ‘Hard To Swallow’, with another big chorus but having the melodic weight of Death in the more elaborate guitar work. ‘I Am Here’ delivers the grindcore for long time fans of the band, breakneck blast beats and fury woven into a strong, punchy, heavy hardcore chorus.
Forming in the childhood bedrooms of members Harry Atkinson and Jake Hughes, Superfriends have shared stages with some of the best political and punk-influenced indie that the UK has to offer, including Slash Fiction, Fightmilk and ME REX. Debut King Of The Moths has many twists and turns, and it’s no wonder Netflix featured their song ‘Blimpy Boy’ in the offbeat adult animation series Exploding Kittens.
Now a fully-fledged four-piece adding Matt Johnson and Mark Riley to the lineup, Superfriends have established themselves as a staple in the diverse UK scene, especially if their latest album is anything to go on.
From their debut EP in 2022, you could tell that Perpetual Paradox were destined to be a well-known name in not only the UK metal scene but beyond. Whilst that first EP was fairly bare bones, their debut album, Deathwish, which dropped in 2025, was their most concise and heaviest to that point. Now swaying slightly away from the death metal you’ve known and loved, the band have brought another offering to the table in the form of May Misery Befall You.
While it’s an EP that only spans five songs over the course of twenty-two minutes, it’s a sprawling effort that shows everything they have at their disposal. The technical riffs, the engulfing drums and the incendiary vocals are all still here and sharper than ever. But as the opening track, ‘Bound And Strangled By A Black Snake’, starts, you’re greeted to an ominous echoing piano before the guitars of Oliver Miles & Jorge Nunes quietly and softly raise in volume before you’re consumed by Adrian Caucelo’s vocals knocking you out of the atmospheric trance with Harry Cook’s blast beats in tow.
