wolves of hades

Album Review: Lamp of Murmuur – The Dreaming Prince in Ecstasy

ColinLeave a comment

I’ve never considered myself a fan of Lamp of Murmuur — I actively disliked Saturnian Bloodstorm for its unsubtle At the Heart of Winter-isms that stayed almost exclusively on one side of the tasteful tribute vs. blatant ripoff debate — but given the act’s ongoing ascension within black metal I’ve continued to pay attention in the hopes there will be a release that finally hooks me. Synthesizing the black metal that characterized the previous album with the gothic undertones of Submission and Slavery and some triumphant heavy metal The Dreaming Prince in Ecstasy has not won me over, but nonetheless contains some of the best material from M. thus far.

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Initial Descent: November 10 – 16, 2025

JoshLeave a comment
The Grasshopper Lies Heavy
The Grasshopper Lies Heavy image courtesy of Oscar Moreno

Welp, Mariah broke her ice tomb and all y’all lost your shit over a Starbucks teddy bear mug, hoarded them all, then promptly asked $200+ for them on ebay. LOL. Anyway, The Grasshopper Lies Heavy kicks this week of new releases off in style. It’s heavy, catchy, and loads of rifftastic sludgy fun so get some of that STAT. Next up we’ve got black metal from Lamp of Murmuur, death metal from Degraved, and some grindy powerviolencey stuff from Nuclear Dudes. And, of course we’ve got our usual long list of other releases that are sure to find an audience among all you wild and crazy folks of which I’m sure had nothing to do with any of my opening statements…right? Don’t answer that but do keep an eye out this week for more coverage on some of these and we’ll be seeing you.

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CANTO: Vast Pyre, Wretched, Vintersea, and More

CoreyLeave a comment

Alright, so you’ve basically got me for like four more days before I disappear for another week. Aren’t you lucky?

“Ein Bier… bitte.”
– cmb

Album Review: Verwoed – The Mother

HeraLeave a comment
verwoed - the mother

You can’t deny the Netherlands has a thriving black metal scene, giving us gems such as Terzij de Horde, Fluisteraars, and Laster. One of the more recent bands to catch my attention in the past few years is Verwoed, whose previous album, De Val, held me in a grip in mid-2020. It took me a while to fully understand De Val musically, but once it clicked I couldn’t stop thinking about it. When a new album was announced, I knew I had to listen to it.

And it seems The Mother is everything De Val was and more.

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Album Review: Dödsrit — Nocturnal Will

Colin1 Comment


Dödsrit first appeared on my radar back in 2018 with Spirit Crusher, a very solid offering that combined long, drawn-out buildups characteristic of atmospheric black metal with the d-beat-driven aggression of crust punk. In the time since they graduated from solo band to four piece and in 2021 released Mortal Coil, which began to look towards a more melodic future. With Nocturnal Will the band have fully committed to the melodicism that was merely hinted at previously — easing back on many of the crust elements in exchange — with the end result being a triumphant slab of bombastic black metal that is easily the best album in the band’s discography, and an early frontrunner for black metal album of the year.

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Initial Descent: March 17 – 23, 2024

Josh3 Comments
Hideous Divinity

Did you get lucky yesterday? HA. I’ll leave that on you to define and figure out. Alrighty then…we’ve got the new releases for this, the week of March 17 – 23, so let’s do it: one I’ve been ecstatic about, just from its sheer level of brute force, kicks things off from Hideous Divinity and thankfully you’ll hear more about this one later in the week from someone that 100% knows their way around a review, next up is a sludgy one from Mastiff and if somehow you are still unaware this band isn’t just sludgy they’re violently sludgy, then we’ve got a blackened thrash split between Wormwitch and Sadistic Ritual, then last up top is some black metal from Dödsrit which we will also be hearing more about this week from yet another one of our team that knows their way around a review, and then we’ve got all the other releases that we know about hanging out below these. Plenty here to sink your teeth into so get to digging and we’ll see you here throughout the week.

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