123rd part of the short reviews.
KAEVUM – Ultra
Year: 2025
Label: Darker Than Black Records
Rating: 7,5 / 10
The Norwegian band KAEVUM was (since it broke up in early 2026) a rather rare curiosity for their country. KAEVUM played openly National Socialist metal, which almost no one does in Scandinavia. "Ultra" has a pretty good epic and melodic sound, which mixes traditional Norway, French influences and something like late ARCKANUM. There's a lot of shouting, chanting, violence, and space. The sound could probably have been made better. But overall– it's a strong album.
HEXELLA – The Ancient Gaping Mouth
Year: 2024
Label: Hells Headbangers Records
Rating: 6 / 10
The debut album of the US band. Its engine is a hot lady (of Mexican origin, of course, since white women care more about defending the criminals these days) Noelia Garza. HEXELLA quite successfully mixes Black Metal with punk techniques and D-Beat. It turns out very evil, without all this unacceptable fun and ridiculousness. Unfortunately, apart from that evil feeling, (and unexpectedly serious lyrics), there is nothing else here. Punk-based music almost always remains very superficial; a food for the body, but not for the spirit.
DRAUGASKÓGUR – Fullmoon Hypnotic Ritual
Year: 2025
Label: Astral Nightmare Productions
Rating: 7,8 / 10
Very atmospheric and dark metal from Serbia. The debut EP. The sound is reminiscent of all kinds of "vampyric" projects, (it was not for nothing that Inferna Profundus released it on cassettes), but the music here is similar to Finnish school of Black Metal with periodic visits to the territory of BURZUM. I also remembered the little-known Polish band FALL. In addition to talented guitar parts with beautiful leads, keyboards play a very important role here, creating a proper cold feeling.
CAUSTIC PHLEGM – Purulent Apocalypse
Year: 2025
Label: Hells Headbangers Records
Rating: 8,2 / 10
The most disgusting brutal Death Metal from the UK. At least in form it is Death Metal of the early Swedish type, and in all other aspects it is a total goregrind. The guitar strings are hanging somewhere at knee level, the pots are thudding, and the vocals of the author of this wonderful music seem to have been recorded by him after immersing himself into fecal vomit to the level of his nose. Otherwise, I do not know how he managed to create all these disgusting sounds. To bring the aesthetics to perfection, he also added some atonal keyboard parts to the music. The result is very interesting. If you don't have the nerves and time to listen to ultra-violent shit like PARACOCCIDIOIDOMICOSISPROCTITISSARCOMUCOSIS or OXIDISED RAZOR, but you want something smelly and putrid, and without movie samples, try out CAUSTIC PHLEGM.
СМРТ – Na utrini
Year: 2024
Label: Osmose Productions
Rating: 7 / 10
The second album of the Serbian band (the former PYRE member plays drums here). The word "utrina" means an abandoned, neglected land where someone used to live, and it conveys the feeling of the album very well. It is cold, dark and decadent. The sound of SMRT is often compared to that of Quebec, but their melodiousness is not at all sugary as that of Canadians. Everything here is imbued with a sense of hopelessness. If you survive the cloudy first track, then more beautiful, moving and painful things await you. Like almost all Balkan metal albums, "Na Utrini" lacks some important component (perhaps its own face?), but it is a strong record. The physical editions of the album contain a cover of DARKTHRONE's ”Transilvanian Hunger", reworked to match the band's style so thoroughly that you might not even recognize the song if you didn't know what it is in advance.
