Didn’t get much time in February and March to listen to new albums, but managed to check out a few. Out of those, these ones really stayed in my head.

1. Outer Head - Erevos

Genre: Doom Metal

Outer Head - Erevos

Found this one through Doom Charts, had zero clue about the band before that. But, listening to this album felt like getting hit by a truck in slow motion - heavy, impactful, and suffocating as fuck.

The whole album is so damn cosmic - sludgy riffs and thick atmosphere throughout. There’s a weird kind of rawness to it, but properly polished with gloomy vocals. Didnt expect to enjoy this album so much, but it just keep hitting me harder track after track.

Outerhead

2. Cradle of Filth - The Screaming Of The Valkyries

Genre: Symphonic Black Metal

Cradle of Filth - The Screaming Of The Valkyries

This one gave me pure old-school Cradle vibes, straight from the grave. The album doesn’t do anything new or unpredictable - I kinda knew what was coming - but it still hit hard where it needed to.

Dani Filth’s voice? Still sounds evil as ever. Man’s vocals pierced the whole album straight into my hear. It’s not groundbreaking, but for a Cradle fan , this was full of bangers.

Cradle of Filth

3. Cult of Fire - The One, Who is Made of Smoke

Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal

Cult of Fire - The One, Who is Made of Smoke

First time listening to this band. Got to know that they’ve been in the game since 2011. Looking at the album cover - I legit thought they were Indian — full of Hindi/Sanskrit text, and all the tracks sounded HINDU as fuck. But turns out they’re Czech, which blew my mind even more.

They mixed that tantric energy with atmospheric black metal in a way I’ve never heard before. It was intense, and fun to listen. Few tracks like Dhoom and Joy are still stuck in my head. Didn’t expect to enjoy it this much.

Cult of Fire

4. Arch Enemy - Blood Dynasty

Genre: Death Metal

Arch Enemy - Blood Dynasty

Arch Enemy’s my guilty pleasure band. To be honest, I only listen to them because of Alissa - she’s a perfect vocalist, and yeah, she’s so daamn hot.

But Blood Dynasty still delivered some solid metal. The riffs are sharp, the aggression is on point, and Alissa’s growls? Unmatched. I may be biased, but this album’s a banger for me

Arch Enemy

5. Cryptosis - Celestial Death

Genre: Progressive Thrash Metal

Cryptosis - Celestial Death

I still listen to their 2021 release Bionic Swarm very often. That’s the album I think of whenever I hear progressive thrash. After 3+ years, these Dutch boys came back with another experimental banger.

Next level production quality. This has to be one of the best produced albums I’ve heard in recent times. The sound is crystal clear and every instrument hits with full force. The album is packed with complex melodies and sharp riffs throughout.

Cryptosis

6. Allegaeon - The Ossuary Lens

Genre: Melodic Technical Death Metal

Allegaeon - The Ossuary Lens

These guys are pretty famous in the scene, but this is just the second album I’ve heard of theirs. Their 2022 release Damnum was one of my favorites back then during COVID.

It’s like listening to the same album but not too proggy, just the right balance of melody and techy solos. Amazing vocals as their last album and they focused more on solid tech riffs this time.

Allegaeon

7. Dawn of Ouroboros - Bioluminescence

Genre: Post Black + Progressive Death + Ambient Jazz (really???)

Dawn of Ouroboros - Bioluminescence

Female fronted post black metal…saw a lot of hype around this one on Twitter, so I gave it a try - and damn, it turned out to be a banger with no fillers at all.

They blended progressive death and post-black metal so smoothly. But that’s not it - they managed to threw in jazz and ambient touches here and there. And the best part? It didn’t feel forced at all…nothing like those silly ass bands that randomly mix genres just for the sake of it. This one felt really natural with ofcourse great lead vocals.

Dawn of Ouroboros

8. Euphrosyne - Morus

Genre: Post Blackgaze

Euphrosyne - Morus

Ahhh! Another female fronted post-black metal. I really wonder - What happened to all my GATE KEEPING these days!

Came across this one through some random dude’s twitter post. I didnt really see anyone else talk about it. Maybe because of blackgaze being considered as a bastard child of black metal and shoegaze.

But damn, They did really great balancing aggressiveness and melody in a perfect way. The guitar arrangements are beautiful and the vocals? She absolutely nailed it, switching between haunting cleans and brutal screams.

Euphrosyne

9. This Gift Is A Curse - Heir

Genre: Blackened Slude Metal

This Gift Is A Curse - Heir

Easily one of the darkest punishing albums I’ve heard in a while. A very long and intense album with over an hour of runtime.

The classy sludge and hardcore sounds mixed perfectly with black metal elements. It took me a couple of listens to fully get into it - but once it clicked, it stayed.

This Gift Is A Curse

Honorable Mentions

Fange - Purulences

Genre: Industrial Sludge Metal

Fange - Purulences

Nite - Cult of the Serpent Sun

Genre: Blackened Thrash Metal

Nite - Cult of the Serpent Sun

Imperial Triumphant - Goldstar

Genre: Avant-garde black metal

Imperial Triumphant - Goldstar

Long live METALHEADS - horns up and never down! 🤘