111th part of the short reviews.
AZKETEM – Azketem
Year: 2024
Label: Darkness Shall Rise Productions
Rating: 7 / 10
Decent dark metal from Germany. Very atmospheric and unhurried, with a deep sound from the legendary Tore Stjerna, and, most importantly, well-conditioned in a consistently sad and calm mood, without unnecessary explosions of aggression.
NIGHTSIDE – Death from the North
Year: 2024
Label: Purity Through Fire
Rating: 7,5 / 10
This is the second album by an old Finnish band (founded as early as 1996, but on hiatus from 2004 to 2021), whose distinctive feature is vocalist Jeri Kurunen aka Rauta, one of the few decent YouTube metal bloggers. NIGHTSIDE plays strong old-fashioned Black Metal with a frosty spirit and apocalyptic melody in the Old Swedish style (but also not without traditional Finnish melancholy). Everything here is as it should be: consecutive lines of riffs, blast beats, some sinister keys and the evil voice of Kurunen. Fine work.
PROFANATION – Skull Crushing Violence
Year: 2023
Label: Iron Bonehead Productions
Rating: 7,9 / 10
A powerful debut EP from a French band featuring a very decent (at least from a creative point of view) lad Kev Desecrator (SÉPULCRE, DESTRÖYER 666, ex-PERVERSIFIER, VENEFIXION). The music here is somewhere between BLACK WITCHERY and our LJOSAZABOJSTWA, and it's all defiled (in a good way) by punk filth and the simplicity of musical constructions. There's something very masculine and animalistic about the rumble of the bass and the clunking of cymbals; it makes you want to CRUSH!!! Well, the name of the release is just about that, so everything is logical.
MISERERE LUMINIS – Ordalie
Year: 2023
Label: Sepulchral Productions
Rating: no rating
A project of French–speaking Canadians from SOMBRES FORÊTS and GRIS, where they play all the same - atmospheric metal on the verge of hysteria that probably should make the listener tear his clothes on his chest and suffer from sincere heartache. Unfortunately, all these Quebec refinements have never worked for me. The title track on the GRIS album "Il était une forêt..." is everything that ever touched me. Well, there's also AKITSA, but they are totally different band. Therefore, it is difficult for me to evaluate "Ordalie". Most likely, the fans will like it. At least from a technical and compositional point of view, the album is really very high-quality.
MOON INCARNATE – Hymns to the Moon
Year: 2024
Label: Iron Bonehead Productions
Rating: 7 / 10
The debut album of the German-American band MOON INCARNATE is being promoted as another descendant of the "Peaceville Trinity", but, as in all such cases, MOON INCARNATE is similar to them to the same extent as all Black Metal is similar to MAYHEM, DARKTHRONE and BURZUM. In other words, this is really a classic-style doom... Well, that's it. High-quality and varied, and even frankly heavy, with a certain dose of necessary distortion on guitars. The lyrics, again, are quite interesting and complement the music in a proper manner. However, as with the aforementioned Canadians, I rarely get moved by doom albums. 90% of them sound the same. That's why most of the "Hymns..." goes right through me or passes me by... but not all of it. For example, the track "Nemesis" is a case where a dog-stitched press release suddenly gets a foundation, because this song really sounds like PARADISE LOST or KATATONIA of the mid-90s, only with big balls. A very good contrast between heavy hammering rhytms and clear-voiced gothic stuff. Hats off!
English (UK) 
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