Blitz reviews 124: VOID, CENTINEX, SVAMPE ALKEMI, SARGEIST, FINNR’S CANE

124th part of the short reviews.

VOID – Forbidden Morals
Year: 2025
Label: Shadow Kingdom Records
Rating: 9 / 10

All the praises I sang for VOID's first album in my review, they are all true in relation to "Forbidden Morals". These guys write, play and look better not just than other retro bands of a similar style, but even than the forefathers themselves. Fantastic!!!

 

CENTINEX – With Guts and Glory
Year: 2025
Label: Black Lion Records
Rating: 5,5 / 10

The Swedes of CENTINEX are formally included in the list of Death Metal classics of their country, but for some reason they have always remained in a secondary role. And now, after listening to the new album from them, I finally found out why. "With Guts and Glory" is a pure Speed Metal with a heavy sound, and also quite melodic. This, to put it mildly, is far from GRAVE or even DISMEMBER.

 

SVAMPE ALKEMI – Raritäten XX-XXV
Year: 2025
Label: self-release
Rating: 7 / 10

A collection of unreleased compositions of the wonderful Belarusian project. As always, soulful and extremely catchy mushroom rock. This time with a different set of sounds, because some of the tracks are demos, and some are studio (?) recordings. There is nothing truly outstanding about SVAMPE ALKEMI, but I would listen to this music over and over again.

 

SARGEIST – Flame Within Flame
Year: 2025
Label: World Terror Committee
Rating: 7 / 10

I guees it should already be stated that after the peak in the form of “Let The Devil In”, SARGEIST can only do something a few times weaker. You can listen to albums after 2010, they're good, but the ghost of the powerful "Let The Devil In" will always be present somewhere nearby, and there's nothing you can do about it. Before ”Flame Within Flame", Shatraug once again changed the band's line-up, and then recorded a typical SARGEIST album with a tragic sound, which this time resembles the earliest works. It should be noted that almost every track has one amazing riff, but all in all, it's the same stuff we heard before. Don't know about you, but I am tired of SARGEIST. It seems the idea of this band is exhausted.

FINNR’S CANE – Finnr’s Cane
Year: 2025
Label: Nordvis Produktion
Rating: 6,8 / 10

A bassless atmospheric mental metal from Canada. The lack of bass hits this music very hard, because with a normal rhythm section, the skeleton, the songs would have turned out twice as strong. FINNR'S CANE resemble AGALLOCH on "Marrow of the Spirit" in many places, but it is essentially closer to, for example, FEN, because there is something wrong with their sense of rhythm. It's a pity, because the band has the potential for something more than just liquid hipster metal.