Perdition Temple – Malign Apotheosis Review

By Mark Z.

Since coming to prominence as the guitarist and primary songwriter of Angelcorpse in the 1990s, Gene Palubicki has been tearing a burning warpath through the extreme metal underground, scorching eardrums with projects like his (sadly defunct) death-thrash band Blasphemic Cruelty and his current collaboration with Morbid Angel’s Steve Tucker and Origin’s John Longstreth1 in the death metal supergroup Malefic Throne. My favorite of Gene’s post-Angelcorpse projects, however, is Perdition Temple, probably because it sounds the most like Angelcorpse. In fact, as noted by the great Al Kikuras years ago in his review of the band’s 2015 sophomore album The Tempter’s Victorious, the band’s 2010 debut Edict of the Antichrist Elect was originally intended to be the fifth Angelcorpse album. Ever since Mr. Kikuras’s evocative prose turned me on to Perdition Temple, I’ve slowly become a salivating fanboy for them, going from trying to make sense of what the fuck I was hearing to scaring soccer moms in my neighborhood by walking around in a hoodie adorned with the album art of The Tempter’s Victorious (with inverted crosses on the sleeves for good measure).

After Tempter‘s, Gene stripped the band down to a power trio consisting of himself on vocals and guitar, Alex Blume (Ares Kingdom, ex-Blasphemic Cruelty) on bass, and Ron Parmer (Malevolent Creation, Brutality) behind the kit. This lineup appeared on 2020’s Sacraments of Descension (which was an enjoyable album that I probably underrated at the time) and 2022’s Merciless Upheaval (which was really more of a glorified EP, given that half of its eight songs were covers). Now, this same crew is back with 2025’s Malign Apotheosis, another firestorm of an album with just enough of a different approach to still feel fresh.

Of course, Perdition Temple are the sort of underground band that are never going to stray too far from their signature formula. And indeed, this album’s scalding blackened death metal approach is largely similar to what Perdition Temple have always done. The opening track, “Resurrect Damnation,” shows Gene’s trademark six-string attack leading the charge as well as we’ve ever heard it, with the song crammed full of supercharged Morbid Angel riffs, rapidly churning tremolos, lightning-speed solos, a vaguely thrashy midsection, and a quick devilish motif that just barely holds everything together.

“Quick” actually turns out to be apt description for these eight tracks as a whole. While Perdition Temple have always been fast, prior albums often incorporated notable slower moments to add some memorability and variety to the mayhem. Here, only “Kingdoms of the Bloodstained” really slows down for any decent amount of time, with its abrasive mid-tempo bridge sounding like Immolation reforged in the fires of blackened death metal. Most of these tracks instead take the approach of the follow-up song, “Purging Conflagration,” which maniacally barrels forward on violent, pounding chugs and squawking notes without ever stopping for air. The end result is perhaps the most relentless and vicious album the band have yet released.

That’s not to say there’s nothing memorable or noteworthy here. The title track, for example, strikes especially hard by incorporating its addictive, staccato main riff between bouts of sludgy Morbid Angelisms. Likewise, the closing track, “Fell Sorcery,” shows that Gene’s reunion with John Longstreth in Malefic Throne may have caused some Origin influence to bleed over into here, as the song climaxes with an explosive laser beam riff that could have easily been pulled from a tech death album. Through it all, Gene’s raspy vocals sound more biting and scornful than ever, while Ron Parmer proves once again to be the perfect fit for this project. The man wisely refrains from using constant blast beats and instead beats the hell out of his kit in a way that has surprising finesse, matching the momentum and frequently morphing nature of Gene’s riffing. Perhaps this album’s most notable trait, however, is the production, which is more raw than the band’s prior work and recalls the unpolished sound of Behemoth‘s The Apostasy. While this makes the sooty guitars feel a tad subdued, the drums more than make up for this by punching through everything with satisfying clarity.

A lot of bands tire out with age, but Perdition Temple apparently just gets dirtier and more relentless. Malign Apotheosis may not dethrone the band’s first two albums, but it’s a surefire win for fans of the band, and another reminder of how great blackened death metal can be when it’s written by one of the wildest riff-writers in the business.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Hells Headbangers Records
Websites: perditiontemple.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/perditiontemple
Releases Worldwide: November 28th, 2025

#2025 #35 #americanMetal #angelcorpse #aresKingdom #behemoth #blackMetal #blasphemicCruelty #brutality #deathMetal #hellsHeadbangersRecords #immolation #maleficThrone #malevolentCreation #malignApotheosis #morbidAngel #nov25 #origin #perditionTemple #review #reviews

Beheaded – Għadam Review

By Dear Hollow

I’m not sure which is worse: to release terrible or forgettable albums. Unfortunately for Maltese death metal outfit Beheaded, it has been the latter for the vast majority of their career. Always releasing competent material but nothing that sticks, their tenure within these hallowed halls has been rife with mediocrity, both 2017’s Beast Incarnate and 2019’s Only Death Can Save You lauded acknowledged for sounding like brutal death metal by the inimitable Kronos – the definition of “mixed” territory. Even 1998 highlight Perpetual Mockery has been covered up by the sands of time. This is precisely why Għadam is such a monumental release for this death metal stalwarts.

For Għadam, Beheaded becomes “il-kittieb” of their own horror – both lyrically and musically. Nearly forsaking all brutal tendencies without sacrificing its bite, the quintet focuses instead on channeling its heritage. The songs are entirely in Maltese, each track named after and capturing the storytelling of local horror writer Anton Grasso:1 the songs grapple with folk horror, local struggles, and the supernatural, and reflect the nation’s troubled history with religion and Christianity. For the first time in Beheaded’s history, it feels as though the band is writing their own music rather than regurgitating what brutal death ought to sound like. While the album is imperfect, Għadam is a motion from a band previously stuck in the muck of their own habits to rise from the dead and make the future bright again.

While elements of Beheaded’s brutal death peak through periodically, Għadam is remarkably atmospheric and dread-inducing. Drawing from Maltese folk music, the melodies here give an otherworldly flare, conjuring horrors both tangible and surreal. While the opening title track and the concluding instrumental “Irmied” feature harp guitar that sets the tone for a more focused and streamlined affair, the meat of Għadam is ominous, dense, and foreboding. From dirging riffs layered with doomed menace and vicious vocals (title track, “Iħirsa”), the kickass guitar work amplified by wild solos (“Iljieli bla qamar,” “Jidħaq il-lejl”), or the blackened tremolo and subtle synths that add a whole new dimension of intensity (“B’niket inħabbru l-mewt,” “Ix-xjaten ta’ moħħi”), riffy motifs and haunted leads are streamlined and consistent across the board. Cleans are used sparingly, but utilize a mournful mumble that adds to the desolation of the atmosphere. Ultimately, Beheaded feels reborn into a sound that feels very much theirs, despite newfound comparisons to God Dethroned, Belphegor, and Angelcorpse.

Given highlights and individual song identity, the structure of Għadam feels more intentional than Beheaded has offered before. Most notably, the track “Il-kittieb” serves as a centerpiece not only for being the fifth track in the nine-track album, but as a sonic eye of the storm; while it utilizes the same tricks as its surrounding tracks, they are weaponized in a slow-building crescendo whose climax serves as the most satisfying moment of the album. Intertwined dissonant leads and ethereal solos collide in a 6/8 timing that feels like a waltz through hell. Even last full song “Jidħaq il-lejl” feels like a culmination of the two tracks preceding it, a riffy and ominous trek through dark territory. This structure makes it easy to forget the weak links, such as the frenetic and anchorless (“Xtrajt l-infern”) or the forgettable (“B’niket inħabbru l-mewt,” “Iħirsa”). The spoken word passages scattered throughout are also hit or miss.

Beheaded has forsaken their long-time forgettable signature in favor of something that ironically suits them better. Għadam is imperfect in its experimentation, but is surprisingly realized regardless, a consistent thread of viciousness and menace woven into all its movements gives exposure to its homeland, a culture tragically neglected in the annals of history. While “Maltese death metal” would have traditionally conjured images of brutal death’s relentless pummeling in Beheaded or Abysmal Torment, Għadam’s sinister and atmospheric approach to blackened death metal tinged with local dark lore and haunting melodics, even if imperfect, sets Beheaded out onto a new and unforgettable path.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Agonia Records
Website: facebook.com/BeheadedMT
Releases Worldwide: July 25th, 2025

#2025 #35 #AbysmalTorment #AgoniaRecords #Angelcorpse #Beheaded #Belphegor #BlackenedDeathMetal #BrutalDeathMetal #DeathMetal #Għadam #GodDethroned #Jul25 #MalteseMetal #Review #Reviews

Blasphemous – To Lay Siege and Conquer Review

By Alekhines Gun

Have you ever looked back on the grander, moister bands of yore and thought “Man, I sure do wish Immortal and Angelcorpse did an album together”? That’s okay, neither have I—apparently we have no imagination. Luckily, New Jersey blackened death outfit Blasphemous is prepared to uncork its fourth album, To Lay Siege and Conquer to show us what we’ve been missing. After releasing a pair of albums before breaking up in 2013, Blasphemous reformed with a refreshed lineup for 2018’s Emerging Through Fire, an album that seemed poised to make serious waves in the underground before a certain disease strolled up and ruined things for everybody. Fortunately, band founder/vocalist RK managed to keep the group together through the pandemic and got back to writing, and you can be assured the perpetuated lineup has paid serious dividends.

The first thing that caught the ear’s attention was how much better To Lay Siege and Conquer sounds than its predecessor. Whether by artistic intent or budgetary limitations, Emerging Through Fire had a much more raw, tinny, and thin approach, emphasizing the blacker half of the band’s sound at the cost of weight and power. To Lay Siege and Conquer has no such problems, crushing the listener with a modern productional heft worthy of Watain or Decrepit Birth and giving it the power of modern death without sacrificing an ounce of its blacker, acid-drenched melodies. Absolutely everything here is militant and bombastic, from the abused bass rumblings (“Son of the Forsaken”) to the attacked-by-killer-bees solos (“Spiritual Enslavement,” “Martyr Complex”), to RK’s constant vocal conducting, which rides atop but never drowns out the music. His performance in particular holds the album together, sounding like a much younger, far more pissed-off Thomas Lindberg (At the Gates), and though his vocal range may be a bit limited, his pitch manages to maintain its power and clarity without ever stagnating or growing boring.

To Lay Siege and Conquer is no vocalist’s grandstanding album, however, as Blasphemous takes a SWAT team approach to songwriting, with a “get in, wreck stuff, leave” mentality. Melodies and moments rarely repeat beyond their shelf life, instead evolving gradually around their melodic theme. The album’s title track is a prime example of this, with a rolling tank of a groove uncorked by Steve Shreve and Hal Microutsicos that alternates between rapid-fire tremolos and half-time chugs while drummer Mark Vizza adjusts his blasts to a thicker barrage to compensate. The drums are arranged to punctuate shifting riffs and intensity. Mark’s toolbox doesn’t really expand beyond the “blast, gallop, and groove” trifecta, but he masterfully ebbs and flows, pulling back into tasteful cymbal tempo-keeping as easily as uncorking an expected avalanche of snare abuse under leads that range from razor-sharp blackened harmonies to vaguely eastern flair (“Curse of the Witchchrist”) To Lay Siege and Conquer doesn’t want for a variety of engaging moments.

The only real flaw facing Blasphemous is consistency. Instead of being customarily frontloaded and fizzling out, To Lay Siege and Consquer is refreshingly bookended by its highlights, with the first and last two songs being the most engaging, while the middle stretch turns into a bit of a drag. Some of the slower moments (“Dead and Still” and “Martyr Complex”) remind of the punkier sounds of Sons of Northern Darkness without ever building to any kind of climax or theme, while “Spiritual Enslavement” can’t seem to decide what flavor it wants to be, causing otherwise effective riffs to lose momentum before the song suddenly ends. Still, Blasphemous wisely errs on the side of brevity, keeping things at a lean 29 minutes, before closing the album on a note of triumph with the anthemic closer, “Neverborn.”

To Lay Siege and Conquer is an enjoyable carpet bombing of riffy,[Ah yes, who doesn’t love a good… carpet… bombing? – AMG] throwdown, brodown blackened death goodness. Lovers of the style will undoubtedly find much to enjoy here, and Blasphemous is knocking on the door of something special. Maintaining the lineup has improved its cohesion and confidence, and the production highlights the power of the performances, ensuring many of the songs will level bars across the nation when played live. Keep an eye out for their fifth album to see if they can unlock the next gear in their compositional skills, and for now, enjoy laying siege to your neighbors.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: mp3
Label: Adirondack Black Mass
Websites: blasphemousphilly.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/blasphemousmetal
Releases Worldwide: October 25th, 2024

#2024 #30 #AdirondackBlackMass #AmericanMetal #Angelcorpse #BlackMetal #BlackenedDeathMetal #Blasphemous #DeathMetal #DecrepitBirth #Immortal #Oct24 #Review #Reviews #ToLaySiegeAndConquer #Watain

Concrete Winds – Concrete Winds Review

By Maddog

I left my first splotch on this fair site with Concrete Winds in 2021. The regrettably-titled Nerve Butcherer was an archetypal 3.0. Concrete Winds’ brand of war metal was fierce, concise, and exciting, but I haven’t returned to it due to its shameless recycling of ideas. Their new self-titled record seems to promise a similar experience, even in its minutiae. Much like its predecessors, Concrete Winds sports amorphous cover art and unfolds over nine tracks with silly faux-death-metal two-word titles.1 I approached the album expecting Concrete Winds to deliver a satisfactory but indistinguishable rehash of their past assaults.

I was half right. Concrete Winds’ sound is instantly recognizable, but it isn’t a photocopy of Nerve Butcherer. As before, Concrete Winds’ blackened riffs sound razor-sharp despite their simplicity. The album unfolds at a frantic pace, spanning nine tracks that treat your ears like a relay race baton. While Concrete Winds’ single-minded barrage feels familiar, it comes with some tweaks. The rhythmic experimentation that both helped and hurt Nerve Butcherer takes a back seat, with occasional exceptions like “Demented Gospels.” If anything, Concrete Winds leans further into their grindcore influences, cutting even straighter to the point (“Daylight Amputations”). Conversely, shrill guitar leads expand the band’s style while fitting snugly within it, augmenting Concrete Winds’ air raid with a siren. Other digressions include industrial percussion (“Subterranean Persuasion”) and Sodom-esque first-wave black metal (“Pounding Devotion”). Concrete Winds steps out of their comfort zone on their self-titled, even if only by an inch.

Concrete Winds’ old habits and new flourishes merge into an explosive 25 minutes. Every riff shines through its uncontainable energy, making any ten-second snippet of the record a pleasure in its own right. Occasional forays into other styles add novelty without skimping on power, like the industrial segments and traditional death metal influences of “Subterranean Persuasion.” Concrete Winds hits hardest when these pieces come together. For instance, the aggression of highlight “Infernal Repeater” fits the band’s mold, while the track’s flailing guitar melodies both stand out and heighten its intensity. Consistently smooth transitions between different songs and styles help the album’s new experiments feel at home throughout. Concrete Winds continues to play to their strengths, maintaining their violence-first approach while taking new steps.

Still, Concrete Winds struggles to stay fresh as a complete record. Despite diverging from its predecessors, it wears out through repetition. Concrete Winds’ trademark lowbrow war metal is the album’s core, and variations like the air raid siren guitars show up so often that they become forgettable. Once you settle into Concrete Winds’ style, even its most extreme cuts feel cookie-cutter, especially after several listens (“Virulent Glow”). Luckily, the album doesn’t brazenly self-plagiarize riffs as Nerve Butcherer did, but both its shortest songs (“Permanent Dissonance”) and its longest (“Demented Gospels”) pull from the same bag of tricks. Every idea here works in isolation, but different sections step on each other’s toes, making the final product less exciting to revisit.

Concrete Winds hit me hard on my first spin, but it dulls as the weeks go by. A first glance reveals marked improvements over Nerve Butcherer and Primitive Force. Concrete Winds has added new tools to their arsenal and reduced their raw repetition of riffs, all while sounding just as sharp. But even over just half an hour, this abrasive brand of grindy blackened death loses its edge through overuse. Your mileage may vary. Devotees of bands like Angelcorpse should pay heed, and Dolph’s enthusiasm suggests that the album may be a hit with no-good cetaceans. While Concrete Winds won’t threaten my year-end list, it’s a thrilling listen with enough innovation to get me excited for its follow-up.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Sepulchral Voice Records
Websites: concretewinds.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/aggressivenoisetorment
Releases Worldwide: August 30th, 2024

#2024 #30 #Angelcorpse #Aug24 #BlackMetal #BlackenedDeathMetal #BlackenedGrind #ConcreteWinds #DeathMetal #FinnishMetal #Grindcore #Review #Reviews #SepulchralVoiceRecords #Sodom #WarMetal

Adversarial – Solitude with the Eternal Review

By Dear Hollow

I guess I’m one of two Adversarial fans here at AMG, because I’ve name-dropped them in scattered reviews, while Angry Metal Guy himself made a 224-word TYMHM back in 2010 for the act’s debut All Idols Fall Before the Hammer, then slyly name-dropping them in a 2019 ROTM post compared to Musmahhu. The point is, Adversarial is apparently obscure. While sporting a style not unlike the dense n’ dissonant stylings of Antediluvian and Mitochondrion, the melodic dissonant template has always reminded me of Ulcerate; the difference is the absolutely apeshit blast-happy approach to punishment. After nine long years, we are hit with third full-length Solitude with the Eternal, and it embraces the duality, a double-edged sword, of dissonance and punishment.

Time has not worn Toronto’s Adversarial, as Solitude will attest. Punishment is still priority number one, as 2010’s All Idols… and 2015’s Death, Endless Nothing and the Black Knife of Nihilism firmly established – blastbeats and shredding riffs are in no short supply. The trio of raging guitarist/vocalist C.S. and thunderous bassist M.M., romping atop the galloping doomsday horse of drummer E.K., shred and gurgle like there’s no tomorrow. Despite its cutthroat intensity, Solitude with the Eternal manages to avoid war metal unhingedness while remaining just on this side of sane, guiding its compositions with a “Janus-faced” and “dual-tongued” attack, a pendulum swinging between sharp and slithering, gazing upon horrific truths while revering its macabre beauty. Ultimately, while nothing terribly groundbreaking, Adversarial makes the nine-year wait worth it in its more dynamic songwriting weaponized in this dichotomy for maximum darkness.

Solitude with the Eternal is a bit of Angelcorpse songs covered by Antediluvian and Tetragrammacide, while somehow avoiding the crawling crassness of the former and the DR0 eardrum decimation of the latter. Balancing thick and grimy riffs with a stinging dissonance that shines like a blast of shattered glass, tracks like “Beware the Howling Darkness on Thine Left Shoulder,” “Merging Within the Destroyer,” and “Fanes at the Engur” are relentless assaults guided by C.S.’s absolutely devastating bellows and subterranean shredding with simple yet effective dissonant overlays, while “Hatred Kiln of Vengeance” and “Endless Maze of Blackened Dominion” feel like Evangelion-era Behemoth on crack, guitar harmonics balancing tones blasphemous and regal in equal measure. Bass is blessedly present, shining amid the blinding melodies in “Beware the Howling Darkness…” and “Fanes of the Engur.” Drums have always been Adversarial’s main spotlight, a sharp pong dominating tracks in All Idols Fall Before the Hammer and a mammoth thud in Death, Endless Nothing…; Solitude with the Eternal sports a much more palatable in-between, effectively cutting through the murk while not testing listeners’ mettle.

While spending most of its time blasting, Adversarial’s textures still shine. “Witness to the Eternal Light” features an atmospheric wind-torn ambient motif amid the blasting with a more dissonant palette, which sets the tone for the centerpieces “Death is an Advisor in the Woods of the Devil” and “Crushed Into the Kingdom of Darkness.” These two tracks feel like the eye of the storm, focusing more heavily on dense atmospherics and stinging melody, injecting a powerful sense of purpose to the pummeling that surrounds it; the former deals in far more prominent guitar melodies, while the latter paints its dense riffs in broad strokes through slower tempos against the backdrop of night. Because of this setup, the album feels a bit like a journey through a heretical hurricane, giving further weight to the album’s second act. Adversarial’s more meditative songwriting shines here.

Of course, this is not to say that Solitude with the Eternal is perfect. It’s obnoxiously loud, riddled with tempo abuse, and C.S.’s saturated vocals can often drown out the instrumentals, questioning momentum – ultimately requiring multiple listens to discern every murky movement and burning lead. However, Adversarial’s unhinged attack that avoids war metal decadence is addictive, and its more nuanced textures give the third full-length a mysterious and sinister quality only hinted at in the band’s catalog. It may not make lists, but it remains a pummeling return from an act that feels like they’re just getting started.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Dark Descent Records
Websites: facebook.com/AdversarialOfficial
Released Worldwide: May 31st, 2024

#2024 #35 #Adversarial #Angelcorpse #Antediluvian #Behemoth #BlackenedDeathMetal #CanadianMetal #DarkDescentRecords #DeathMetal #DissonantDeathMetal #May24 #Mitochondrion #Review #Reviews #SolitudeWithTheEternal #Tetragrammacide #Ulcerate #WarMetal

Absolute savagery. Love it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Za59dtmLWA

#deathmetal #angelcorpse #metal #savage #Christhammer