Album Review: Sardonic Witchery – Hell’s Thorns Attack
Reviewed by Matthew Williams
There’s a wonderful sentence at the bottom of the attached PR sheet that came with this promo, which simply states “Old fashioned satanic metal forged in fire, steel and devotion to darkness”. If that doesn’t whet your appetite then nothing will, as King Demogorgon, the Lusitanian bastard, has risen once more from the hidden depths of the Texas underground, via Portugal, to unleash merry hell upon the world.
With G Lucis Ruina by his side, they have emerged with a collection of songs that make up Sardonic Witchery’s fifth album, and it all kicks off with a deliciously eerie opening on “Crown of Burning Spikes”. The snare is getting one hell of a pounding, as it does throughout the entire album, and with the chorus sounding like a war cry, each word pierces your soul deeper than the one before. The crushing noise is unrelenting and with a solo leading “Hateful Evil Thorne” they unleash a killer riff around the minute mark that signals their demonic intent. It’s dark, aggressive and savage, but more importantly, it’s damn good.
Across the songs, they are paying their respects to the history of black metal whilst simultaneously moving the band towards new levels of bedlam, chaos and profanity. “Unholy Conqueror” has a huge commanding presence, like a cloaked figure constantly watching over your shoulder, before they confront you head on with the terrifying “Sabbath of Sadistic Desire”. I didn’t think they could up the depravity further, but this propels it up several notches, with scintillating riffs and rhythms exploding all over the composition.
Their exploration of all things wicked and immoral moves onto “Ego Sum Rex Ignis Aeturnus” followed by “Cult of a Thousand Horns” which is just rapid and will leave your ears stinging. The screaming vocals, intense rhythms and raucous riffs are wonderfully weaved together to produce a song full of venomous intent. The onslaught shows no signs of slowing, with next track “Raped by Horrendous Night” demonstrating that they aren’t just playing fast for playing fast sake, they are doing it with intent. And that intent is to rip your face off!!!
The fierce and frenzied beating of your senses comes to an end with “Dark Moon Slaughter” as the solo leads into more frothing at the mouth vocals, and a few well placed “eeuurrgghhsss”. This one does however seem more controlled, and purposeful in its approach, with the middle section riff getting me instantly headbanging as the repeated chorus line dramatically raises the caustic nature of the song. Enter at your peril with this one.
In 2019, the Spook School broke up. Now, the Scottish indie-pop band is reuniting to release a new record titled Like A Heartbeat. The lead single “Falling” is out today.
Six bands from four countries will descend on The Garage this Halloween for a one-off celebration of BLACK ALTAR and their three decades in the black metal underground. The Polish veterans will deliver an exclusive UK anniversary performance in London on Saturday, October 31, 2026. Norway’s URGEHAL will appear as special guest headliner, while Merrimack, […]
CORROSION OF CONFORMITY will return to US stages this Fall on a co-headlining tour with THE SWORD! The two-week journey will commence on November 2nd in Buffalo, New York and run through November 19th in Pensacola, Florida. Additional support will be provided by Hippie Death Cult.
Comments CORROSION OF CONFORMITY vocalist/guitarist Pepper Keenan, “Well well welll… to all the free thinkers and beer drinkers, the CORROSION train won’t stop. Everywhere all the time! Gonna be ripping with THE SWORD and Hippie Death Cult. See ya on the horizon. Let’s fucking go!”
Artist ticket presales begin today, Tuesday August 25th at 12:00pm ET. Password: COC2026 . General on sale date is Friday, August 28th. Secure your tickets at coc.com/pages/tour. See all confirmed dates below.
CORROSION OF CONFORMITY + THE SWORD w/ Hippie Death Cult: 11/02/2026 Town Ballroom – Buffalo, NY 11/03/2026 Asbury Lanes – Asbury Park, NJ 11/04/2026 Hampton Beach Casino – Hampton Beach, NH 11/06/2026 Elevation 27 – Virginia Beach, VA 11/07/2026 Port City Blitz Festival – Wilmington, NC * COC only 11/08/2026 Capitol City Music Hall – Harrisburg, PA 11/10/2026 The Sovereign – St. Louis, MO 11/11/2026 Granada – Lawrence, KS 11/13/2026 The Apollo Theatre – Belvidere, IL 11/14/2026 The Vogue – Indianapolis, IN 11/15/2026 Bogart’s – Cincinnati, OH 11/17/2026 The Senate – Columbia, SC 11/18/2026 Workplay – Birmingham, AL 11/19/2026 Vinyl Music Hall – Pensacola, FL
CORROSION OF CONFORMITY will be touring in support of their mammoth new double album, Good God / Baad Man, released on April 3rd via Nuclear Blast!
Produced by Grammy award winner Warren Riker (Fugees, Down, Cathedral) and featuring cover art by famed New Orleans artist Scott Guion, Good God / Baad Man was recorded at Blak Shak Studios in Riffissippi, USA, Dockside Studios in Maurice, Louisiana, and Bee Gee Barry Gibb’s home studio in Miami, Florida.
Watch CORROSION OF CONFORMITY’s previously released videos for “Baad Man” HERE, “Asleep On The Killing Floor” HERE, “You Or Me” HERE, and “Gimme Some Moore” HERE.
Good God / Baad Man is available on digipak CD, vinyl, and digital formats.
Preview/purchase CORROSION OF CONFORMITY’s Good God / Baad Man at THIS LOCATION.
CORROSION OF CONFORMITY Live Lineup: Pepper Keenan – guitar, vocals Woody Weatherman – guitar Bobby Landgraf – bass Nick Shabatura – drums
CORROSION OF CONFORMITY Recording Lineup: Pepper Keenan – guitar, vocals Woody Weatherman – guitar Stanton Moore – drums Bobby Landgraf – bass
THE SWORD are celebrating the 20th anniversary of their groundbreaking debut album, Age Of Winters and are finishing up their highly anticipated tour with Red Fang on the West Coast.
THE SWORD has handcrafted their own immersive mythology underscored by undeniable and unpredictable guitar fireworks, cinematic themes, and otherworldly concepts. Since emerging out of Austin, Texas in 2003, the quartet of JD Cronise (vocals, guitar), Bryan Richie (bass, keys), Kyle Shutt (guitar, vocals), and Santiago Vela (drums) have incited the obsession of a diehard fanbase.
Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford once opened up on the moment he met the legendary Dolly Parton, as well as the unlikely collaboration their meeting eventually spawned. The two beloved singers crossed paths at the 2022 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame ceremony, where Parton was inducted into the Hall itself and Priest were honoured with a special Musical Excellence Award.
Near the end of the night, Parton invited some of that year’s hosts and inductees, including Brandi Carlile, P!nk, Duran Duran’s Simon LeBon, Sheryl Crow, Annie Lennox, Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo, to come on stage and sing trademark hit Jolene with her. Halford was amongst the stars to take part in the amazing spectacle, meaning the Metal God got to meet a longtime idol of his.
“Somehow, instinctively, I knew we were going to meet,” Rob explained to Metal Hammer. “I always tell the story of my mother’s grandmother, who was a clairvoyant, and I still think I’ve got a little of that in me, because something went, ‘You’re going to meet Dolly Parton.’ Two or three days later, these emails come into the office, and Dolly’s reached out, asking, ‘Would you sing some lines on Jolene?’ You sit at home and go, ‘Oh my god, this is truly going to happen!’ Being a gay guy, ‘I’ve got nothing to wear!’ I know that she likes to sparkle and I like to sparkle, so what I wore on that night was apropos.”
As overawed by the encounter as Halford evidently was, it seems Parton herself was also very impressed to meet the heavy metal hero – not least because of his impressive facial hair.
“She goes, ‘I love your beard!’” Halford exclaimed, “and she starts to clean my beard! It was so surreal! I’m meeting this living legend and she’s tickling my beard and going, ‘So you’re going to sing some Jolene with me?’ I was just floating.”
The following year, Halford’s new-found friendship with Parton would level-up courtesy of an appearance on her rock ‘n’ roll album Rockstar, where the two would duet on the track Bygones. Halford recorded his vocals separately from Parton, sending her the demos to rave reviews.
“We’re on the phone to each other and she’s going, ‘Send me the files! Send me the files!’” Halford said. “So I sent her the files and she calls back and goes, ‘I love these! This is gonna be great!’ This is Dolly Parton on speakerphone! Ha ha! She’s just this beautiful beacon of life. You can tell by the way I’m speaking that this is important to me as a musician, to have had this literally once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work with someone so great.”
“I been gettin’ up each morning with the hair of the downward dog.” That fantastic lyric belongs to “Marlboro Vinyasa,” the latest single from Willi Carlisle’s Tyler Childers-produced double album The Universal Bubba. Unlike prior single “Mason Jar At The Center Of The World,” which was the kind of a traditional reel you could squaredance to, this song is a barroom country-rocker. The press release repeatedly uses the word “smoky,” which would be appropriate even if a cigarette brand wasn’t name-checked in the title.
Gojira’s albums, ranked worst to best, span seven records and nearly thirty years — from a murky French death metal debut recorded under a different name to an Olympic opening ceremony watched by a billion people. No band in modern metal has evolved this far without losing the thread of who they are. This is the complete Gojira discography judged on influence, ambition, replay value and staying power rather than release-week hype. Fair warning: the album most musicians point to as their technical peak isn’t the one at number one.
How this ranking was built
Not release-week hype, and not nostalgia.
This blends long-term fan consensus, critical reassessment over time, musical influence and technical innovation, and plain replay value and emotional impact. Recency bias and nostalgia bias were both deliberately kept out.
There’s a reason this argument feels louder now than it did five years ago. After the 2024 Paris Olympic opening ceremony, an enormous new audience found Gojira all at once — and longtime fans reopened the question of which era actually defines them.
Both groups tend to arrive at different answers. That’s what makes this list worth having.
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7. Terra Incognita (2001)
The Vibe: Unfiltered death metal chaos with spiritual undertones.
Terra Incognita captures Gojira in their rawest and least restrained form. The band is overflowing with ideas, aggression and conviction, but still learning how to channel that intensity into a singular voice. The influence of Morbid Angel and Sepultura is obvious in both the riffing and the relentless pacing.
The production is murky and unforgiving, occasionally struggling to keep up with Mario Duplantier’s explosive drumming. That rawness gives the album authenticity, but it also limits its replay value against everything that followed.
Why It Ranks Here: Not because it’s weak, but because every subsequent album refined and elevated its ideas.
The Vibe: Tribal, hypnotic, and intentionally abrasive.
The Link is the bridge between Gojira’s death metal origins and the sound they’d eventually define. Repetition and rhythm replace speed and excess, producing an album that feels ritualistic rather than aggressive.
The dry, organic production emphasises texture and groove, giving “Remembrance” and “Indians” a physical, almost percussive weight. For some fans the repetition is meditative. For others it’s exhausting.
Why It Ranks Here: Historically essential, but uneven and less inviting than what followed.
Key Track: “Remembrance” Musician’s Note: The outro double-kick pattern remains one of Mario Duplantier’s most punishing recorded performances.
5. Fortitude (2021)
The Vibe: Stadium-scale metal built for mass audiences.
Fortitude is Gojira fully embracing accessibility. The songwriting is streamlined, the choruses are enormous, and the messaging leans toward resilience and unity rather than existential dread.
“Amazonia” and “The Chant” are built for festival crowds, while “Born For One Thing” retains enough bite to satisfy longtime fans. The trade-off is a noticeable reduction in menace.
Why It Ranks Here: It succeeds on its own terms, but plays things safer than most of the catalogue.
Key Track: “Born For One Thing” Best Moment: The groove-driven chorus of “Amazonia”
4. Magma (2016)
The Vibe: Grief, restraint, and emotional minimalism.
Written during the illness and death of the Duplantier brothers’ mother, Magma is Gojira at their most vulnerable. The band abandons sprawling epics for shorter, focused compositions soaked in atmosphere and sorrow.
Joe Duplantier’s clean vocals take centre stage, and the production is warmer and more restrained than anything earlier. “Stranded” became the breakthrough single, but the album’s real power is in its emotional weight.
Why It Ranks Here: A masterclass in restraint that divided fans who wanted brutality.
Key Track: “Stranded” Deep Cut: “Low Lands”
3. L’Enfant Sauvage (2012)
The Vibe: Precision brutality balanced with melody.
This is the album most often handed to new listeners, and for good reason. L’Enfant Sauvage balances technical aggression with emotional resonance without sacrificing intensity.
The production is razor-sharp, the riffs are massive, and the songwriting is disciplined. “Explosia” opens with catastrophic force, while “The Gift of Guilt” blends melody and devastation seamlessly.
Why It Ranks Here: It’s the bridge album — accessible without compromise.
Key Track: “L’Enfant Sauvage” Best Moment: The closing riff of “The Gift of Guilt”
2. The Way of All Flesh (2008)
The Vibe: Clinical, suffocating, and technically ruthless.
Among musicians, The Way of All Flesh is often considered Gojira’s true peak. The production is dry and unforgiving, making every drum ghost note and guitar scrape painfully audible.
Lyrically it confronts mortality head-on. “The Art of Dying” remains one of the most ambitious compositions in modern metal, building tension for minutes before detonating.
Why It Ranks Here: Possibly their most impressive album technically, but less universally resonant than their masterpiece.
Key Track: “The Art of Dying” Musician’s Note: The intro to “Oroborus” remains a coordination nightmare for guitarists.
1. From Mars to Sirius (2005)
The Vibe: A genre-defining eco-metal epic.
From Mars To Sirius isn’t just Gojira’s best album — it’s one of the most important metal releases of the 2000s. Built as a loose concept record about environmental collapse and rebirth, it merges crushing heaviness with atmosphere and emotional depth that extreme music rarely reaches.
“Flying Whales” became iconic without becoming a novelty, while “The Heaviest Matter of the Universe” and “Backbone” helped redefine what progressive metal could be.
Why It Wins: Because no other Gojira album reshaped the genre this completely.
Key Track: “Flying Whales” Defining Moment: The pick-scrape whale motif that became legendary without ever losing its impact.
If The Way of All Flesh represents Gojira’s technical summit, From Mars To Sirius represents their soul.
That’s why it still wins.
The full ranking
7. Terra Incognita (2001) 6. The Link (2003) 5. Fortitude (2021) 4. Magma (2016) 3. L’Enfant Sauvage (2012) 2. The Way of All Flesh (2008) 1. From Mars To Sirius (2005)
Gojira albums in release order
Terra Incognita — 2001 The Link — 2003 From Mars To Sirius — 2005 The Way of All Flesh — 2008 L’Enfant Sauvage — 2012 Magma — 2016 Fortitude — 2021
Where this ranking will divide people
The split on this band runs along a clean line, and it’s worth naming.
Musicians and extreme metal purists tend to put The Way of All Flesh first — it’s the one drummers and guitarists point at, and the technical argument is genuinely strong. Everyone else puts From Mars To Sirius first, because it’s the record that changed what the genre could sound like.
Magma and L’Enfant Sauvage are the real battleground, though. Depending on which era converted you, one of them is a masterpiece and the other is a compromise.
And Fortitude at five will irritate the people who came in through the Olympics, which is fair enough — it’s the most accessible thing they’ve made, and accessibility isn’t a flaw.
The context: their 2024 Paris Olympic opening ceremony performance brought an enormous new audience to a band that spent two decades in the underground.
Seven studio albums from 2001’s Terra Incognita to 2021’s Fortitude, ranked using a weighted fan-and-critic hybrid rather than release-week reaction.
Best: From Mars To Sirius (2005) — the consensus masterpiece and one of the most important metal records of the 2000s.
Worst: Terra Incognita (2001) — raw and authentic, but every album after it refined the same ideas better.
The musicians’ pick: The Way of All Flesh (2008) dominates among players and extreme metal purists. It lands second here.
The battleground: Magma and L’Enfant Sauvage remain the most divisive records in the catalogue.
The accessible one: Fortitude (2021) is Gojira’s most mainstream and most polarising era.
FAQ
What is the best Gojira album?
From Mars To Sirius, released in 2005. It tops long-term fan polls, critic retrospectives and musician-led discussions alike, thanks to its influence, ambition and staying power. Built as a loose concept record about environmental collapse and rebirth, it produced “Flying Whales” and “The Heaviest Matter of the Universe” and reshaped what progressive metal could sound like. The Way of All Flesh (2008) is the most credible challenger and is frequently named by other musicians as the band’s technical peak.
How many albums does Gojira have?
Seven studio albums: Terra Incognita (2001), The Link (2003), From Mars To Sirius (2005), The Way of All Flesh (2008), L’Enfant Sauvage (2012), Magma (2016) and Fortitude (2021).
What is Gojira’s heaviest album?
Terra Incognita is the rawest, but The Way of All Flesh is widely considered their heaviest in terms of sonic density, technicality and lyrical darkness. Its dry, unforgiving production makes every detail audible and gives the record a suffocating weight the debut’s murkier mix never achieved.
Which Gojira album has the whales?
From Mars To Sirius (2005), specifically the track “Flying Whales,” which features whale song samples and the enormous sliding guitar pick-scrapes that became one of the most recognisable sounds in modern metal.
Did Gojira play the Olympics?
Yes. In July 2024 Gojira became the first heavy metal band to perform at an Olympic opening ceremony, playing a metal arrangement of the French revolutionary song “Ah! Ça Ira” at the Conciergerie in Paris. The performance introduced the band to a global audience of hundreds of millions and cemented their place among the most significant heavy bands working today.
Seven albums, one Olympic stage, and an argument that’s been running for twenty years. Is From Mars To Sirius really untouchable, or does The Way of All Flesh take it? Settle it in the comments. And keep it locked on the Loaded Radio stream — follow Loaded Radio for daily rock and metal news.
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