Back catalogue: Metal

Review: While many would chalk California's Papa Roach up to being another flash-in-the-pan late 90s/early 00s nu-metal outfit who had a few major singles and nothing more, dig a little deeper and their consistency and longevity makes them quite the exception to the rule when compared to their once peers in other forgotten groups such as Spineshank. Gearing up for what will be their 12th full-length studio album to be released later in 2025, serving as follow up to 2022's Ego Trip, the band have opted to reissue their much adored ninth LP Crooked Teeth. Originally released in 2017, the record has been praised for its sonic balancing between the more radio-rock oriented sound of their latter-day output and the dusting off of their rap-metal "old school" style prevalent on cuts such as the lead single title-track that swings from grooving hard rock to full on digitally produced rap bars, while a further signalling to their past selves in the modern era comes from the guest feature by hip-hop/pop-punk/pop star Machine Gun Kelly on 'Sunrise Trailer Park'.

Review: Parkway Drive are huge metal stars from Aus and this is the band's 20th anniversary. Winston McCall (vocals), Luke Kilpatrick (guitar), Jeff Ling(guitar), Jia O'Connor (bass), and Ben Gordon (drums) are marking the occasion by making their Don't Close Your Eyes album available for the first time ever on vinyl. The eight original tunes re included as well as some bonus cuts from their split record with I Killed The Prom Queen and compilation albums What We've Built and True Til Death, Volume 1. Several versions of this one are out there and this is a limited edition gatefold with translucent gold vinyl so is not to be sniffed at for fans old or new.

Review: Patriarkh (formerly Batushka) can most succinctly be described as "Orthodox black metal", with their haunting fusion of blackened doom metal married to neo-folk elements including use of a vast array of instruments such as tagelharpa, mandolin, mandocello, hurdy gurdy and stringed dulcimer, as well as the inclusion of a symphony orchestra and choir. Returning over half a decade since 2019's Hospodi, their third full-length Prophet Ilja tells the true story that happened in the band's home area of Podlasie, in the village of Grzybowszczyzna, in the 1930s and 40s, detailing the world of Eliasz Klimowicz, the titular Prophet Ilja, an illiterate peasant who was the leader of the Orthodox Grzybowska Sect, active until the 1960s, cultivating and transmitting the history of the self-proclaimed prophet. Drawing on the myriad forms of Orthodox music, pulling from Byzantine monody, liturgical chant and Russian polyphony, whilst neatly adapting folk and liturgical melodies into their blackened sonic maelstrom, while lyrically delving into texts from the theatre play "Prorok Ilja" and drawing from the messages contained in the works of Wlodzimierz Pawluczuk, the heightened sense of theatrical pastoralism, period accurate aesthetic, and head-melting sonics provide a uniquely religious black metal experience unlike anything else the scene has ever heard, past or present. No corpse paint here, we're afraid.

Review: Having recently struck internet-age meme-gold thanks to iconic frontman (and sole original member) Bobby Liebling's iconic, seemingly "drugged out" gaze whilst performing live on stage, there really could be no more ample time for doom metal pioneers Pentagram to be releasing a new album. Returning a full decade on from 2015's Curious Volume, the band's ninth full-length Lightning In A Bottle offers up yet another entirely new revitalised lineup featuring guitarist/producer Tony Reed (Mos Generator, Big Scenic Nowhere), drummer Henry Vasquez (Legions of Doom, Saint Vitus, Blood of the Sun) and bassist Scooter Haslip (Mos Generator, Saltine), while the decades of performing, touring and admitted drug addiction have done little to dilute Liebling's looming presence and powerful vocal cadence. Unmistakeably still Pentagram, complete with heaving grooves and occult charisma, the material doesn't simply rethread past glories, but makes a vital case for the band's inarguable place in the doom metal cosmos, with Liebling balancing his aura with sobering introspection of his own years of opioid abuse on standout cuts such as 'Dull Pain' or the haunting 'Lady Heroin', where he ponders - "Lady Heroin, have I seen the last of you?" We hope so, Bobby, but we hope to see plenty more of you eyeballing fans in the front row whilst getting your macabre groove on.

Review: Considered to be one of "the big four of doom metal" along with Candlemass, Saint Vitus, and Trouble; Alexandria, Virginia's Pentagram are metallic royalty who helped to pioneer the sound laid out in a blueprint by Black Sabbath across the 70s. While active in the underground scene during this decade and taking influences and turning them into experiments in real time, when their first official albums would eventually release in the 80s, the band had already become the project of sole original member Bobby Liebling, who has since been accompanied by a varying array of musicians throughout their decades-spanning tenure. 2004's Show 'Em How is a late-stage example of this formula with Liebling backed by members of Maryland stoner-doom outfit Eternal Void who helped to re-instil some of the menacing malevolence somewhat absent from their 21st century output up to this point. As usual with Pentagram releases, there's a unique spine description, which reads "Further infections to feed your disease." Nice.

Review: So good then named them seven times? That's no doubt what fans of Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs will say, and you'd be hard-pushed to argue off the evidence of this new album. It is their fifth in just 10 years and is a powerful statement that is packed with some of their most potent work in an already storied career. The Newcastle-based quintet, fortified by their own individual passions, held up mirrors to themselves in writing this one. The result sounds are anthems for a world that is sleepwalking into oblivion but if it sounds this good, we aren't perturbed.

Review: Returning with their highly anticipated follow up to 2019's sophomore sewer pit Posthumous Humiliation that saw them included on numerous end of year lists from the likes of Pitchfork and Exclaim!, Philadelphia old school death metal revivalists Pissgrave deliver in abundance on their horrific third full-length Malignant Worthlessness. Compared to pioneering gore and blasphemy-obsessed acts such as Cannibal Corpse and Deicide, the band continue to refine their abrasive, audible assault of crunching riffage, Morse Code blastbeats and unintelligible gutturals, whilst leaning every further into their "real world" depictions of inhumane violence, refraining from the fantasy elements of many of their peers, with guitarist Tim Mellon even clarifying their unpleasant ethos - "The overall aesthetic is reality-based death. Pissgrave are rooted in reality rather than fantasy. Images of violent, offensive death are what is necessary to portray us musically and visually." Lovely.

Review: Aussie metalcore crew Polaris dropped their influential debut album The Mortal Coil back in 2017 and seven years on it has aged well and is still regarded as a classic with fans. As such it gets a reissue via Sharptone on limited clear white & blue splattered vinyl and includes an insert. It is a wild and visceral ride through some thrash metal chords, intense drums and guttural vocals that raise utter hell and come at you in waves of larger-than-life sound. Essentially it is as good as metalcore gets with catchy melodic choruses and heavy riffs and screams.

Review: Following only one year after 2023's critically acclaimed Zig, avant-pop-metal genre-denier Poppy (real name Moriah Pereira) returns with a direct successor which many fans initially and understandably presumed to be titled Zag. Having featured on albums by both the accessible pop-leaning Virgina based metalcore outfit Bad Omens and the far more vicious Kentucky metallic hardcore greats in the making Knocked Loose (which featured her most caustic vocals to date) in the past year, Negative Spaces attempts to eschew the more stripped-down restraint of 2021's Justin Meldal-Johnsen-produced Flux with a total sensory overload of digi-pop chaos. Working with producer Jordan Fish who recently departed from his intrinsic role within Bring Me The Horizon, the duo have seemingly intertwined approaches, dynamics and abilities to complement each other's tastes and carve out soundscapes that equally and simultaneously prioritise pop song structures, industrial harshness and hyperpop maximalism, yet all united under the mercurial presence of Poppy's multi-faceted characteristic cadences.

Review: Returning just one year on from 2023's Zig (with what many initially presumed to be titled Zag), Moriah Pereira, better known as Poppy, delivers her sixth full-length LP Negative Spaces. Fresh off of appearances on both the new Bad Omens and Knocked Loose albums, with the latter marking her most unhinged vocal performance to date, this latest work seeks to strike a balance between her established digi-metal-pop formula and more outsider experimentations in both regards to heavier delivery and more complex electronica. Produced by former Bring Me The Horizon producer/keyboardist/programming wizard Jordan Fish, the not-so-strange bedfellows compliment each other majorly with Fish's ear for the sonic coalescence of metallic and industrial soundscapes within glistening pop structures providing an ample playground for Poppy to stretch her vocal cadences and multi-faceted character dynamics to enthralling new heights. This limited indie exclusive pressing arrives on a trifold pink & white split-coloured vinyl.

Review: 12 years. Twelve years. T-WELVE YEARS! It's been a decade plus two since Porcupine Tree bowed out with a spectacular One Last Job at London's Royal Albert Hall. There are few venues as fitting as that statesman of a concert hall for a band that sound like this. The English troupe have always been about these huge sounds, chords soaring above your head, riffs blazing, while tracks always threatening - and often following through - to veer off the straight and narrow into more experimental prog moods.

Now they're back with a much-anticipated, and long-delayed, comeback record. The question is, then, does it live up to expectations? The answer, thankfully, is yes, and then some. Closure/Continuation brings the crew's sound bang up to date, without forgetting who they are and always have been. It's a thing of beauty, but also thunderous power when it wants to unleash it.

Review: Originally released in 1990 and celebrating its 35th anniversary this year, Frizzle Fry was the debut full-length from avantgarde funk metal absurdist trio Primus. Known to normies as the band who penned and performed the South Park theme song, those more in the know should be aware of the bold staying power and creative fearlessness this album exuded, whilst signifying that the heavier realms of alternative rock and metal didn't need to be all leather clad angst. Arriving at a similar time to the self-titled debut from Mr. Bungle, the early 90s began with earnest outsider attempts to push the envelope before grunge would come along and be completely devoured by the mainstream machine. Funded with money from the sales of their initial 1989 live album Suck On This, by the time of recording, original guitarist Todd Huth had departed the group, being replaced by mainstay Larry LaLonde playing many parts written by his predecessor. Boasting the band's breakout single, minor radio hit and longtime fan favourite 'John The Fisherman', this reissue duplicates the 2002 remaster and includes the addition of their double whammy cover of The Residents' 'Hello Skinny/Constantinople'.

Review: Rockpalast (which translates as Rock Palace) is a German music television show that broadcasts live on German television station Westdeutscher Rundfunk. In 1997 it welcomed Primus to play their own festival and Broadcast Live At Rockpalast Open Air Festival 1997 is a recrding of what went down from the prog rock greats. The American outfit comprised of, oringally, Les Claypool, guitarist Todd Huth and and drummer Tim "Herb" Alexander, dropepd their first album in 1990. Frizzle Fry was critically well received and saw some great underground success which led to interest from major record labels. Plenty of their early tunes appear on this great live recording.