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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AGAINST I Confront Critical Divide With “Anti Life” – Sweden Rock Magazine Review Sparks Conversation Around Blackened Death Metal’s Modern Landscape
Sweden’s relentless blackened death metal force AGAINST I continues to command attention with their latest full-length release “Anti Life,” out now via Twisted Flesh Recordings — a record that’s already stirring debate within the extreme metal underground following a newly published review in Sweden Rock Magazine .
Penned by critic Jesper Löfvenborg, the review recognizes the band’s staggering output since forming in 2022, noting that AGAINST I have already delivered three full-length albums alongside four EPs in just a few short years — a pace more reminiscent of a bygone era when bands lived in the studio and let the riffs fly fast and often.
Described as a “modern, melody-driven death metal with a pronounced darkness,” “Anti Life” showcases the band’s signature fusion of bleak atmosphere and aggressive precision. Frontman Fredrik Keith Croona’s distinct vocal delivery — strained, intense, and emotionally charged — drives the album’s nihilistic themes, reinforced by track titles like “In Death’s Grip,” “Descend,” “Where We Lay to Rest,” and “Symphony for the End.”
While the review highlights the album’s strong melodic backbone and shadowy tonal identity, it also places “Anti Life” within the crowded realm of blackened death metal, ultimately awarding the release a 5/10 rating and pointing to the challenges bands face in standing out within an increasingly saturated global scene.
Rather than a setback, the critique underscores a larger conversation — one that AGAINST I stands firmly in the middle of. In a genre overflowing with imitators, the band’s unwavering commitment to productivity, evolution, and sonic exploration continues to separate them from the pack.
Founded by prolific musician Fredrik Keith Croona (Cynical Existence, ex-Menschdefekt), alongside guitarist Mathias Back and drummer Anders Ström, AGAINST I has built its identity on blending extreme metal brutality with haunting melodic elements and subtle electronic textures. With previous releases like “Carnival of Excess” and “Songs for the Dying,” the band has steadily carved out a space that refuses to play it safe.
Their 2025 single “All Hope Is Gone” further pushed that boundary — a cold, punishing track that hinted at the darker and more refined direction realized in “Anti Life.” Self-produced and driven by a fiercely independent ethos, AGAINST I continues to operate without compromise, delivering raw and unfiltered darkness straight to listeners worldwide.
In a scene where many fade into the noise, AGAINST I is choosing a different route: consistency, conviction, and a refusal to slow down.
Love it or hate it — “Anti Life” is making sure the band stays in the conversation.
For fans of: Belphegor, Anaal Nathrakh, The Project Hate MCMXCIX
Label: Twisted Flesh Recordings
For press inquiries, interviews, or promotional opportunities: zach@metaldevastationradio.com
Check out the magazine here: https://swedenrockmagazine.com/

Check out the band here: https://metaldevastationradio.com/thebeast/blog/27346/against-i-announce-new-single-all-hope-is-gone-a-crushing-glimpse-into-their-next-chapter-of-blackened-death-metal

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Sister .

The post Sister Sin unveil their cover of Cinderella’s classic track “Somebody Save Me” first appeared on Sleaze Roxx.

Posted on March 26th 2026, 12:10p.m.

From carnets to bus hire and visa applications that may be declined anyway, Svalbard’s Serena Cherry sounds off on the mounting costs that are making touring unsustainable

Alissa White-Gluz is working on two new albums with very different focuses

Emo’s Not Dead is bringing back its cruise for the 5th year, and the line-up is absolutely spectacular.

Setting sail from Miami heading towards Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas, between January 22-26, 2027, the bands that are set to board showcase the wonderfully broad spectrum of sounds that make up the scene, both old and new.

Yellowcard, Mayday Parade, Dance Gavin Dance, Don Broco, The Ghost Inside, Silverstein, The Cab, Honey Revenge, The Paradox, girlfriends, Hawthorne Heights, Gym Class Heroes, The Wonder Years, Hot Milk, The Spill Canvas, letlive., The Fall Of Troy, Blessthefall, Saosin and more will be just a small part of the entertainment, too.

There’s the Joy Casino, water slides, go-karts, drinking tournaments, comedy nights, theme nights, and so much more. The ship also hosts a number of amenities, including elevated dining experiences, Mandara Spa & Salon, Vibe Beach Club, Aqua Park, mini golf, Pulse Fitness Center and a video arcade. It really has everything you could ever want.

You can secure your cabin and find out more at endcruise.com

The post Yellowcard, Mayday Parade & More Announced For Emo’s Not Dead Cruise 2027 appeared first on Rock Sound.

There’s a cold remoteness that resonates throughout black metal’s complex and not always pleasant history. It’s often the music of isolation, and many of the genre’s most identifiable characteristics – high-pitched screams, brisk tempos and coarse recording qualities – possess an innate relationship with absence; of light, company, temperature, and in the most macabre of cases, hope.

These are sweeping generalisations, but given that Winterfylleth share their name with an old english word for October – a month typified by impending nightfall, morning frost and Halloween – this alignment with the stereotypically bleak milieu associated with black metal is an easy reach.

The Manchester band’s latest album, the ninth of their twenty year existence, is called ‘The Unyielding Season’. The titular season could be the month of their namesake, or it could be a reference to the grim epoch of existence humanity currently occupies. Either way, a cursory reading would conclude that Winterfylleth’s ‘The Unyielding Season’ is exactly what could be expected of a 21^st century black metal album.

This is not always the case, though, as is apparent from the opening song’s stoic lyrics. Vocalist Chris Naughton declares: “Give strength to all, this lonely hour” as ‘Heroes of a Hundred Fields’ begins the record by traversing six-minutes of grandeur with more than a hint of pomp. There are a few moments like this, where Winterfylleth stray just enough from their genre’s core to engage the disinterested. That said, there’s likely little about ‘The Unyielding Season’ that will entice those who are not already fans of black metal.

That’s because, much like with the eight albums that precede ‘The Unyielding Season’, Winterfylleth remain both loyal to black metal’s stylistic mainstays and consummate in the execution of their performances. The band’s two-decade career is like that of a faithful co-worker, who’s head-down professionalism earns them less overt praise than is deserved, but a quiet and widespread approval nonetheless. It all means that gaining new fans may be challenging, but the already converted will remain thoroughly engaged.

None of this, however, should detract from the creativity and borderline scholarly smartness inherent to ‘The Unyielding Season’. When Sir Philip Sidney wrote ‘The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia’ to entertain his younger sister, little did he know that his 16^th century novel would be adapted quite so coherently five centuries later into ‘Echoes In The After’, a composition Winterfylleth were inspired to write following the infamous felling of a tree at Sycamore Gap on Hadrian’s Wall.

There’s instrumental creativity here too, like when Simon Lucas’ imperious drumming hijacks ‘A Hollow Existence’ to constitute a percussive riff above the swirling ribbons of guitars, collapsing as they do upon their overlapping selves into swathes of weighty ambience.

So enveloping is Winterfylleth’s noise wall that each song’s runtime frequently exceeds six minutes, as moments pass with a near meditative sensation. The expansiveness works given the morbidity of the title track, the despondency of ‘In Ashen Wake’, and the album’s general longing for hopefulness in times of despair. These songs trash and toil through the darkness, yearning for positive resolution.

It is for this reason that ‘Unspoken Elegy’ is a welcome diversion from the more challenging subject matter. What is effectively an interlude led by guitar and cello passages that are complementary to one another, the instrumental is something that is world-weary – heavy, in a different sense of the word.

Winterfylleth need to remain fluid in their instrumental choices too, as the comparatively gentle ‘Unspoken Elegy’ – in contrast to the riff-centric ‘Towards Elysium’ – ensures the latter’s crunchy guitars excite all the more vivaciously.

Even within this more groove-driven style, however, the use of atmosphere remains Winterfylleth’s greatest strength. Many of the standout moments here are the most instrumentally hedonistic, when epic sprawls of sound splinter into a blazing forest of chilling gales.

Which leads to the elephantine riff in the room, with Winterfylleth concluding ‘The Unyielding Season’ with a cover of Paradise Lost’s ‘Enchantment’. By eschewing atmosphere for stoner riffs, the band deliver on what is largely the album’s only major misstep, creating a conclusion that is unfortunately unwieldy and strangely unkempt.

Otherwise, Winterfylleth remain ever-consistent by demonstrating a well-balanced display of devotion to black metal’s transcendent qualities, and to showing a consistent interest in novel ideas, even if that interest is from afar. ‘The Unyielding Season’ is both stylistically on-brand and built upon unnerving lyrics, grandiose builds and the smallest scintilla of optimism for these unyielding times.

BEN WILLIAMS

National treasures The Darkness have announced a celebration of the very best of their chart-topping, award-winning, platinum-selling catalogue on their forthcoming UK arena tour in December 2026. The shows promise an awe-inspiring, spandex-clad, rip-roaring stomp through some of the most iconic rock songs in history. Their largest headline tour in 20 years will see some […]

The post The Darkness Announce 2026 Arena Tour Will Celebrate Best Of Greatest Hits & Fan Favourites appeared first on ROCKPOSER DOT COM!.