83rd part of short reviews.
OBITUARY – Dying of Everything
Year: 2023
Label: Relapse Records
Rating: 7,5 / 10
Dear grandfathers have returned with a new album, which almost does not differ from the old ones published from 2005 onwards, so I have nothing to say. This is OBITUARY, this is groove, these are great melodic solos that clung to the band during the period with Ralph Santola, and they have remained, although Ralph himself left us a long time ago. A very good record. Do not expect the return of the cold sound of the first works; the press release is full of shit, as always.
KROLOK – Funeral Winds & Crimson Sky
Year: 2021
Label: Osmose Productions
Rating: 6,5 / 10
Unfortunately, the Slovak band KROLOK started and ended for me on the fantastic demo “When the Moon Sang Our Songs". It was almost a perfect nosferatu metal that filled my soul with a genuine horror. Having become a little tidier and masterful, KROLOK became the head of the modern Carpathian metal movement, and, oddly enough, I have nothing to complain about. They do everything exactly right, with understanding and depth, but for some reason their music leaves me indifferent. All I hear is a lot of interesting musical solutions that arouse my academic curiosity, and that's all. But I'm not listening to metal for that.
HECATOMB – Horrid Invocations
Year: 2020
Label: Invictus Productions
Rating: 7,3 / 10
Furious metal of death and destruction in the best Australian traditions. There is even an excess of agressiveness here, but not much originality. Of course, this is the debut record, so I guess this band will have its own voice eventually. Recommended to the fans of GOSPEL OF THE HORNS, SADISTIK EXEKUTION, early NOCTURNAL GRAVES.
OLD CASTLES / WINTERSTORM – Everlasting Black Arts in Supreme Darkness
Year: 2023
Label: Inferna Profundus Records
Rating: 7 / 10
Split of two projects involving the leader of 13th TEMPLE. Black ambient and black metal from the darkest depths of South America. OLD CASTLES is more intense, WINTERSTORM is more depressive, and both are more or less reminiscent of DROWNING THE LIGHT. As often happens in such cases, aesthetics plays a major role here, and the music itself is somewhat mediocre. Only the second metal track from OLD CASTLES is different, as well as a small instrumental from WINTERSTORM - because the latter was stolen from Russian band МОРОК or from BBH.
FUSTILARIAN – All This Promiscuous Decadence
Year: 2021
Label: Amor Fati Productions
Rating: 5 / 10
Depressive - although you won't guess at first, because the album begins with frenzied rhytms and chainsaw guitars - metal from Portugal, dedicated to the vanity of human existence. Amor Fati belongs to that small number of German publishers that I respect, but this project sounds like another commercial German bullshit (even if it's actually Portuguese) with a recycled sound and even more recycled set of tricks that I've heard so many times that I really want to hang myself. Enough is enough!
English (UK) 
Крыўская