The Leaving |The Leaving |Personal Records

Release Date 06.03.2026
Format CD
Genre Blackened/Doom Metal
Country International

The Leaving exist as a massive international collaboration of veteran metalheads. You get Dany Tee from Los Males Del Mundo screaming his lungs out. Kevin Storm brings his guitar and bass experience from Heretoir, having also shredded live with Shining and Vulture Industries. Joining the string section is Ferry Hofman, a guy tearing up the Dutch scene with Endymaeria. Down in the engine room sits Ed Warby, the legendary drummer famous for crushing the kit in Gorefest and Hail Of Bullets. These guys got together to unleash their self-titled debut.

"The Leaving" dives straight into the psychological torment of a totally shattered relationship. The music bases itself heavily in crushing doom structures while ripping through everything with pure black metal aggression. Dany Tee unleashes sheer agony and desperation through his harsh, throat-shredding shrieks. The twin guitar assault delivered by Kevin Storm and Ferry Hofman produces massive, sorrowful riffs and haunting leads. Ed Warby drives the devastation forward with gigantic grooves and extreme drum patterns.

Songs like "I" and "II" construct huge walls of sound designed to crush the listener. The atmosphere remains completely oppressive across the entire runtime. The guitars weave constantly out of dissonant chords into haunting melodies. Warby dictates the pacing, moving from slow, dragging doom sections into sudden bursts of black metal speed. The production stays raw, perfectly matching the total torment described in the lyrics. Everything sounds desperate, angry, and completely devastated.

This release represents a very good debut with just a few minor flaws, justifying its final rating. The short runtime goes by incredibly fast, leaving the listener demanding more music from this lineup. Some transitions between the slow doom segments and the faster black metal attacks are a bit abrupt. Certain sections loop the same riff ideas a few times too many. Tracks like "V" and "VI" unleash total devastation, keeping the agonizing atmosphere alive regardless of the sudden shifts.

"The Leaving" demands your attention with its raw depiction of pure mental anguish. The guys successfully merge two extreme styles into a totally chaotic assault. Extreme metal maniacs will appreciate the unholy alliance of these seasoned veterans. The final song, "VII", closes the release on an absolutely depressing note. They just need to iron out a few songwriting kinks for the next release to reach total perfection.

Score: 7.5

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Ligation |After Gods |Personal Records

Release Date: 23 January 2026
Format: CD
Genre: Death Metal, Doom Metal, Experimental Noise
Country: Finland

Ligation comes from Finland and operates as a power trio rooted deep in the underground. The members are no newcomers, carrying experience from acts such as Profetus, Convocation, Sum Of R, and La Murga. Since their formation, Ligation has focused on a warped blend of death metal, doom, and harsh noise aesthetics. Two split releases with Hail Conjurer and Gravavgrav introduced their approach, one built on discomfort, physical pressure, and unorthodox sound sources. These early works framed the band as an entity working outside neat genre lines.

“After Gods” is the band’s debut full length and gathers that material into a larger, more complete form. The album presents death metal and doom filtered through abrasive noise ideas, often sliding into unsettling and oppressive territory. The music relies on abrupt shifts, coarse textures, and twisted phrasing that avoids predictable patterns. The overall sound stays hostile and invasive, more concerned with tension and disturbance than smooth progression.

Across the album, Ligation creates a grim atmosphere that borders on the surreal. The songwriting leans into instability, with sections that crawl, rupture, and reform in strange ways. The inclusion of bonus tracks from the earlier splits deepens the album’s character, adding more layers of chaos and reinforcing the band’s fixation on physical and psychological strain. The result is a work that feels claustrophobic and confrontational, rooted in extremity rather than accessibility.

“After Gods” fits best alongside the more deranged corners of old school experimental death metal and early avant minded extremes. Fans of Pungent Stench, Pan.Thy.Monium, Disharmonic Orchestra, Phlebotomized, Xysmα, and the noisier legacy of Amp Hetamine Reptile will recognize familiar attitudes, even as Ligation push their own unsettling language. The album is not an easy listen, but it offers a clear picture of a band committed to ugliness and abrasion.

Score: 7.0

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Pedestal For Leviathan | Enter: Vampyric Manifestation | Personal Records

Release Date: 12 December 2025

Format: CD

Genre: Symphonic Blackened Death Metal

Country: USA

Pedestal For Leviathan rose out of Colorado in 2024 when Kendrick Lemke decided to fuse brutal death metal riffing with the grand theatrical darkness of bands such as Cradle Of Filth and Dimmu Borgir. His first step into the world was the EP “Festering Apparition”, a release that spread quickly through word of mouth and hinted at a mind eager to build something large and ominous. With a full live lineup now in place, the project arrives with its debut full length “Enter: Vampyric Manifestation”, a work that confirms Lemke’s ambition to create something massive in scale and steeped in blackened extravagance.

The album progresses with firm intent, guided by towering orchestral layers and violent riff storms that rise behind Lemke’s monstrous vocals. What makes the whole thing work is the way he blends thick death metal aggression with theatrical black metal darkness. One moment the guitars grind forward with brute force, the next the orchestral backdrop lifts everything into a more dramatic space, giving the songs a sweeping and stormy character. The sound is huge, almost cinematic in the way it fills the ear, a clear sign of the time and care poured into every corner of the production.

Across the album the energy stays high and the songwriting keeps driving forward. The riffs carry a bite that fans of Septicflesh or Fleshgod Apocalypse will recognize, while touches of Belphegor and Darklord echo in the more chaotic passages. Lemke handles the writing, recording and mixing with an impressive sense of scale, and the mastering by Mathew Meyer adds extra volume and weight to the final result. The album’s world is painted in deep reds and cold night shadows, helped along by striking cover artwork from Alexander Kemp that completes the atmosphere.

As a debut full length, “Enter: Vampyric Manifestation” comes across with assurance. It brings intensity, theatrics and a stormy atmosphere without slipping into chaos, and it keeps its energy sharp from start to finish. The bonus tracks from the debut EP fit neatly at the end, giving new listeners a complete picture of what Pedestal For Leviathan has been building toward. Fans of extreme metal who like big soundtracks wrapped inside harsh riffing will likely welcome this rising project with open arms. This release is like the start of a long unfolding path for Lemke and his expanding lineup, a path carved with ambition and shadow.

Score: 7.5

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Silent Tombs | Mourning Hymns From Beyond | Personal Records

 

Release Date: October 17, 2025

Format: CD

Genre: DoomDeath Metal

Country: Mexico

Silent Tombs hail from Colima, Mexico, and first emerged in 2016. Born from the collaboration of musicians already active in the Mexican extreme scene, the band carries a history tied to acts like Demonic Manifestation, Ravenous Death, Noxifer, Altumtenebris, and Wolves. Their debut step came in 2018 with the EP “The Slipping Away Of All Hope”, and after several lineup shifts, the group found stability with Enrique Martínez and Arturo Delgado on guitars, Mauricio González on bass, Felipe González on drums, and Victor Mercado taking over vocals. With this formation, the long-awaited full-length “Mourning Hymns From Beyond” now arrives through Personal Records.

Across 11 tracks Silent Tombs delivera a work drenched in grief and menace. The album moves between crushingly slow passages and sudden storms of rhythm, drawing power from the contrasts of suffocating despair and surging drive. Guitars carry mournful melodies, twisting sorrow into something vast and unrelenting, while the vocals roar with a guttural depth that matches the heaviness of the atmosphere. The rhythm section adds gravity, whether dragging the listener through funereal marches or pounding ahead with grim determination.

“Mourning Hymns From Beyond” is deeply rooted in the doom/death tradition, echoing the lineage of bands like early Anathema, Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride while keeping a modern sharpness in its melancholy. Silent Tombs do not shy away from stretching songs into long and immersive narratives, where repetition and tension work hand in hand to create an oppressive and strangely captivating experience.

The album’s emotional current never falters. Whether the guitars sing with mournful harmony or collapse into thunderous dissonance, whether the drums crawl or surge, the sense of ruin and loss remains constant. It is not simply heavy; it is crushing in the truest sense, an album that embodies sorrow as much as it does rage. By the time “Drowned In Oblivion” closes the album, the listener has traveled through a landscape of decay, twilight, and grief, one that resonates with a harsh beauty.

This debut establishes Silent Tombs as a name to watch in the doom/death world, delivering an album that carries heaviness and atmosphere in equal measure, while offering enough variety to sustain its long runtime. For anyone drawn to the darker ends of metal, “Mourning Hymns From Beyond” is an album worth sinking into.

Score: 7.5

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Infernal Thorns | Christus Venari | Personal Records

 

Release Date: September 12, 2025
Format: CD
Genre: Death/Black Metal
Country: Chile

Infernal Thorns was born in 2003 in Valparaíso, Chile, founded by guitarist Andrés Arancibia. After years of instability and lineup changes, the band went on hiatus until 2016, when work began on what would become their debut, “Diabolical Goat Presence” (2017). The band gained traction with a national tour in 2018, and over time, established a permanent lineup with Rodrigo Serrano on guitar, Daniel Pérez on bass, and Paolo Fernández on drums. The second album, “Inflicting Ravage To The Holy Cattle” (2020), cemented their presence in the South American extreme metal underground. A fiery EP, “Keep The Bastard Under Torture” (2022), followed and prepared the ground for what would become their most ambitious release. In 2024, the band entered Audiocustom Studio to record “Christus Venari”, produced by Seba Puente. The result is an album that aims to establish Infernal Thorns as a force in international extreme metal.

“Christus Venari” is an album that balances violent aggression with controlled songwriting, delivering nine tracks in just under forty minutes. The music is rooted in the traditions of death and black metal, and carries an identity that makes each song strike with force and intent. Riffs slice forward with an icy edge, while the drumming pounds with relentless precision, giving the songs intensity. Vocals are harsh, blasphemous, and commanding, layered in a way that makes them a constant presence.

The atmosphere of the album is dominated by darkness, with guitars weaving between sharp tremolo melodies and crushing low-end attacks. Breaks and tempo shifts prevent monotony and give each track its own distinct character, from bursts like “Christ Distressed” to the epic closer “Illuminated By The Flames.” The solos scattered throughout are chaotic and unhinged, injecting moments of madness that elevate the material further.

Production-wise, the album avoids sterile over-refinement, keeping a raw edge that suits the violent nature of the songs. The mix allows all instruments to remain audible, giving space for the bass to throb and guitars to cut through without sacrificing power. What stands out most is how well the band merges atmosphere with brutality, thriving in their intersection.

“Christus Venari” is the kind of release that can appeal fans of blackened death chaos and those who favor more structured, riff-driven songwriting. It shows Infernal Thorns as a band that has sharpened its identity and is ready to step beyond national recognition into international relevance.

Score: 8.5

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Plasmodulated | An Ocean ov Putrid, Stinky, Vile, Disgusting Hell | Personal Records/Gurgling Gore Records/Dawnbreed Records

From the boggy swamps of Florida comes Plasmodulated, a project that first lurked in the mind of Myk Colby (Wharflurch) before evolving into a full, blood-spewing entity. With the addition of Josh Goldner (guitar), Jonathan Griffin (drums), and Carlos Salas (bass) in 2023, the project mutated into something far more grotesque, quickly taking its warped riffs and guttural visions to live stages. Their sound draws from early death metal traditions while twisting them into fresh forms of sickness, mixing a taste for thrash bursts, eerie death-doom weight, and an obsession with stories of parasitic infestations and intergalactic rot.

The debut album, “An Ocean Ov Putrid, Stinky, Vile, Disgusting Hell”, is a vile plunge into diseased waters where riffs bubble up like festering sores and guttural roars narrate grotesque tales. Across its ten tracks and roughly 40 minutes, the band paints a vivid horror-show panorama. The production feels raw and full, with guitars biting hard thanks to their uncommon decision to keep things in standard tuning. This gives the songs an old-school sharpness while still sounding as filthy as you’d want from a band obsessed with bodily fluids and alien parasites.

The two-part “Gastral Realms” saga sits in the album’s center as its most ambitious moment. It plays out like a sci-fi horror soundtrack told in riffs and growls, with plenty of twists that feel cinematic in scale. Other tracks like “The Final Fuckening” and “Drowning In Sputum” deliver bursts of pure chaos, keeping the pace frantic and unpredictable, while the closing title track feels like the rotten curtain dropping on this whole grotesque spectacle.

“An Ocean Ov Putrid, Stinky, Vile, Disgusting Hell” isn’t an easy listen—it’s meant to overwhelm, to suffocate, and to disgust. That’s its triumph. Plasmodulated have crafted a debut that feels like a living, mutating organism, and once you step into its vile tide, it’s not likely you’ll emerge clean.

Score: 8.0

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