Darkthrone – Pre-Historic Metal (Peaceville Records)You could probably write a thesis on the eras of Darkthrone, some journalist much better than me probably has but as far as I can see it the duo of Fenriz and Nocturno Culto have long transcended their
Transylvanian Thunder through various genres additions.
Their most recent form sees the double act obsessed with old-school heavy metal, the raw, genre defining blasts of early Venom, Celtic Frost/Hellhammer, Mercyful Fate and Sabbat. We’re in leather and studs territory here, not the kind that means you pour petrol on religious building but the ones where counterculture and encasing you with riffs to go crazy too is what the endgame is.
Fenriz and Nocturno Culto have an innate love for this music and they utilise the style to create their own version of it. Histrionic vocals coming on the title track, edging into low end King Diamond as
Siberian Thaw chugs into the glacial doom crush of Sabbath and Pentagram.
Continuing where they left off with
It Beckons Us All,
Pre-Historic Metal is a record all about the riff, dirty, distorted riffs with very little effects, just in your face savagery. However with the years of skill between the two, it’s more r fined than just raw attack, there’s synths that linger, shifting atmospheres and a retro modern production.
It’s an explicitly tight record, eight songs and put, their most collaborative yet with both playing everything, letting brevity be their guide to just get the riffs out and get on with it, witnessed by
Eat Eat Eat Your Pride which has the snarling rock n roll of Motorhead.
Can we call Darkthrone black metal any more? Does it matter, this is
Pre-Historic Metal, get me a mammoth and get nasty
. 9/10Draconian – In Somnolent Ruin (Napalm Records)Sometimes you have to go back to go forward.
Swedish band Draconian have had a few line up changes since their last album
Under A Godless Veil which was their first without their longtime bassist and was also their final record with Heike Langhans on vocals. They’ve added Niklas Nord on guitar for this new era with Daniel Johansson taking up the drum stool permenantly and Daniel Arvidsson on bass. Vocally Lisa Johansson rejoins Draconian, having been the co-vocalist on their first five albums before leaving in 2011.
So there’s very much a mix of new and old in the Draconian of 2026, though at the heart of it all is still lead guitarist Johan Ericson and band-leader/vocalist Anders Jacobsson and that means that Draconian won’t be straying too far off the introspective gothic doom path with
In Somnolent Ruin.
I Welcome Thy Arrow welcomes Draconian’s dreamstate, the beautiful and haunting vocals of Lisa countered by the growls of Anders, that vocals duality such an important part of the band’s identity and the symbiotic relationship of those first five albums reaffirmed on this first atmospheric track. As they wrote the album they started to explore Plato’s therapy of the soul, completely organically but this philosophical discourse fits the existentialist style of Draconian, it’s thoughtful, melancholic and poetic. The spectral clean passages colliding with the heavy death/doom chugs and symphonic backing on tracks such as The Monochrome Blade.
The maudlin goth of Anima which features Daniel Ånghede unfolds into more death brutalism towards the end while Misanthrope River begins with narration/instrumental from Simon Bibby (Thy Listless Heart/My Silent Wake), but it’s with tracks like Face Of God where Draconian really deliver, seven and bit minutes of organ drenched gothic death doom that’s dark and emotional.
The more things change the more they stay the same for Draconian who seamlessly debut their current line up on record with another brilliant record of philosophical death doom. 8/10
Rexoria – Fallen Dimension (Black Lodge)
We’ve had Battle Metal, Pirate Metal, Lycan Metal, History Metal and now we have Royal Metal from Swedish band Rexoria. So yeah Swedish, expect big power metal marches, symphonic flourishes, triumphal keys and choruses for for shouting back.
They’ve performed with the likes of Battle Beast, Bloodbound and Dynazty and if you love those bands then you’ll want to join Rexoria’s royal crusade. For you Latin fans Rex means king, Oria means golden so this the Royal Metal tag but there is something regal about the music on Fallen Dimension.
The mix of power metal bounce (Running With The Stars) and electronic thump (Awakening), sends most of the songs on this fourth album into either a storming gallop (Wasted Land) or a stomping mid-pace march (Dancing On The Ruins), as the powerhouse vocals of Frida Ohlin take centre stage.
She’s joined here for two duets by Mike Anderssom of Tungsten on the cinematic Dominion and Johnny Gioeli of Hardline on the closing ballad Heart Of Sorrow, perhaps a positive consequence of Rexoria’s growing presence in the scene.
Album four sees growth all round, their confidence stronger, their music slicker and more defined. Fallen Dimension brings royal metal to the populace of the power metal kingdom. 7/10
Infected Dead – Invicta (Self-Released)
Returning from the grave in 2025 with a new line up tech death brutalists Infected Dead return with a 4-track EP of bludgeoning, virtuoso, metal crush straight out of Kent.
Invicta is an EP that thematically draws from Lovecraftian Horrors, the distrust of the unknown and the existential fear that we face in modern times are just as terrifying as any tangible monsters. Beginning with the tremolo picked Astral Divination, Infected Dead pull their rotting corpse out of slumber with a blackened nightmare to start.
There’s a dystopian mindset that is always present on this EP, as the band set about battering you with breakneck riffs, time changes, ferocious vocal growls, a barrage of blast beats and widdly basslines. Realm Of Ichor shows off all this very well, bass is a lead instrument, the riffs shift from explosive blasts to stomping crushes and breakdowns on Organic Monolith.
Bands like Obscura and Job For A Cowboy are the main influences of this band, but really if you like your music, chunky, chuggy and full of technical skill then you’ll be rejoicing the return of Infected Dead. 7/10