Erebos, the Welsh death metallers’ third full-length of new material is their strongest yet. Previous releases aggressively proclaimed Venom Prison as one of extreme metal’s most exciting new propositions.
Many bands that have been around this long have begun their slow slide into mediocrity, but more than three decades into an undeniably legendary career Amorphis show no signs of slowing down, once again releasing an amazing album that will deservedly perch near the top of many year-end lists in 2022. Amorphis have mastered the art of crafting melodic earworms that seem a lot heavier than they are due to Tomi Jousten’s harsh vocals, but musically this is a very accessible album. While overall the heaviness of the band might be dialed down a bit here, the material on Halo is no less engaging. The band continue with their trademark style, adroitly mixing death metal heaviness with power metal, symphonic metal, folk elements, and progressive tendencies and in the process showing us why they continue to be the preeminent melodic death metal band on the planet. Amorphis – Halo (Atomic Fire)įinnish legends Amorphis are back with Halo, their fourteenth album and the final chapter in a trilogy that includes the stellar Under The Red Cloud and Queen Of Time. Massive in sound, epic in scope, awash in both light and dark moments, The Long Road North is a superb album. Could it be trimmed down a bit? Sure, but that’s not Cult Of Luna’s style, and we’re better off for it.
The nine songs on The Long Road North clock in at a not-svelte seventy minutes, with four songs near or over the ten-minute mark, and is a dense listen that commands attention. Epic-length tracks of intense sludgy post-metal may be the bulk of The Long Road North’s compositions, but there are plenty of forays down shorter roads. Expectations are suitably high every Cult of Luna release over the past decade and beyond has been a classic. Post-metal titans Cult Of Luna return with their eighth full-length effort, The Long Road North. Cult Of Luna – The Long Road North (Metal Blade) metanoia is our pick for the month’s best album. 3),” a stunning addition to the two Spiritual Migration songs. The biggest surprise on this excellent album is “Consciousness (Pt. The music is cinematic in scope, painstakingly arranged and perfectly executed. Persefone show why they should be at the forefront of the modern progressive metal movement. It is also excellent, featuring stellar performances from all musicians and versatile vocalist Marc Martins Pia. As with past releases, metanoia is a vast, all-encompassing epic album. A well-deserved feat for this group of talented Andorrans, and here they are with metanoia, the much-anticipated follow-up. Persefone – metanoia (Napalm)įive years ago we reviewed Persefone’s excellent fifth album, Aathma, a superb platter that made its way up to Number 4 in our year-end list. Here are our picks for February 2022’s best heavy metal albums. You’ll certainly be seeing some of these albums on 2022’s best albums list several months from now. It was a challenge narrowing it down to the final six, and even more difficult ranking them. To see this many quality releases so early in the year is rare. February was an incredibly strong month when it comes to new releases.