This has been pummelling my head:

https://keresofficialband.bandcamp.com/ ... mini-lupus

Nothing groundbreaking or even outstanding, but if you like your blackened death metal to have an emphasis on violence and still be (somewhat) memorable, this should do the trick.

The new UK didn't land for me like Keziah Lilith Medea did for whatever reason. Maybe too lead guitar driven?

One man band Crystayler from Belarus new album sounds like some very good standard melodic/raw black metal

My body is asking for power metal released this year, any recommendations?

My body is asking for power metal released this year, any recommendations?

My body is asking for power metal released this year, any recommendations?

New Skeletal Remains and Slimelord albums both fucking rule, heard good stuff about the new Convulsing too so I'm gonna check that one out next.

Need to recommend Italian band Ponte del Diavolo's debut album. Quality mix of things going here. Doom and occult tendencies mostly with tinges of darkwave and black metal. All very absorbing, original and mesmerizing. The song "Covenant" is on repeat.


https://pontedeldiavolo666.bandcamp.com ... m-the-tomb

Need to recommend Italian band Ponte del Diavolo's debut album. Quality mix of things going here. Doom and occult tendencies mostly with tinges of darkwave and black metal. All very absorbing, original and mesmerizing. The song "Covenant" is on repeat.


https://pontedeldiavolo666.bandcamp.com ... m-the-tomb

The new Midnight is a ripper. It's been a while since I listened to the first couple of albums and I've only played 'Hellish expectations' through once, but my immediate impression is that it could be my favourite yet from Athenar.
I definitely like it a lot more than the last couple, I suppose it's the stronger punk influence this time around that makes it much more urgent and aggressive:

https://midnight-ohio.bandcamp.com/albu ... pectations

This has been driving everyone around here CRAZY. I've only given a casual listen to half the album and I am in shock.
Contender for album of the year. Canadians (Montreal). Riff-rich, US Power metal with great vocals (A friend is contemplating whether the vocals are AI trained to Yannis Papadopoulos' performance!) and some superb arrangements.

Like I said, I was listening to it causally (while doing something else) but it was enough to know it's something really special. I thought some of the arrangements were weird, how it transitioned from passage to passage specifically but I caught some a-ma-zing parts. It's a bit chaotic but damn! Anyway, I am at work now but I am really, really eager to listen to this a lot more.

I have no idea what to make of the album cover.

Riff-rich, US Power metal with great vocals (A friend is contemplating whether the vocals are AI trained to Yannis Papadopoulos' performance!)

Here's hoping that isn't the case haha. There is a real guy listed fortunately.

This is pretty badass indeed. Sounds in the tradition of complex, riff-salad USPM... very Yannis-esque vocals for sure. We don't get a lot of bands really like this anymore - they're usually either more simple or more in the epic fantasy mode, but this is sort of like Prodigy/Oracle/whatever they were called, or a more over the top Helstar or something. Even those are kind of reaching - it's not a ripoff of anything that immediately comes to mind. Cool find.

Yeah it's in the long, really high octane arrangements and these really energized riffs.

The production seems kind of grating to me. I'll have to try it again on my better headphones later. I like the music quite a bit though.

Amazing!

This has been driving everyone around here CRAZY. I've only given a casual listen to half the album and I am in shock.
Contender for album of the year.

If Noor turns out legit despite my paranoia, I put forward the proposition to be accepted for the AOTY 2024 poll, it's way too late for '23, it was the bandcamp and the NWOTHM channel that exposed it really.