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With split, thrown make their long-awaited return and it lands with real impact. The track feels urgent and unfiltered, channeling frustration and inner pressure into something direct and physical. Lyrically, split revolves around losing control, self-doubt, and the exhausting weight of being stuck in your own head. It captures that moment where thoughts start to […]

Listen to the best in new, heavy music every week with HEAVY‘s new weekly HEAVY AUDIO MAG, featuring music from our weekly cover artist plus new premieres, hit predictions, and killer tracks we just know you want to listen to from bands featured over both digimags and some just because we want to put them […]

In 2024, Magdalena Bay’s sophomore album Imaginal Disk brought the avant-pop duo into stardom. Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin announced last year that they were turning it into a movie, calling it “our most ambitious undertaking thus far.” Yesterday they officially announced the film, which will be premiering at Tribeca Film Festival in June.

The post Magdalena Bay Announce <em>Imaginal Disk</em> Cinematic Companion Premiering At Tribeca appeared first on Stereogum.

It's reportedly due to "unforeseen medical circumstances affecting the band members." Continue reading…

Without question, Friday is my favorite day of the week. Even more tantalizing than the conclusion to an often grueling gauntlet of meetings, feedback, and GSD,¹ I’m blessed with metal’s new releases. Trying to listen to everything that comes out is a fool’s errand—luckily, I’m a fool. During one of my customary Friday excursions, fortune smiled upon me when I stumbled onto Graufar’s sophomore opus, Via Necropolis. As I listened, the album’s grooves, riffs, and passions bathed me in blackened deathly glory. My luck persisted through the morning—Graufar’s promo still lurked unclaimed in the bin. Yoink! Though I discovered Via Necropolis late, I was powerless to resist the call of a review, especially given the band’s unsigned/independent status. Thus saddled with an unplanned bit of writing and a pocketful of tunes, let us sojourn down Necropolis way.

Too many blackened death metal bands present a mixed bag of half-measures.² To me, the peak allure of the subgenre promises the brutality and technicality of death metal united with black metal’s icy atmospherics and raw aesthetics. The quintessentially boilerplate BDM band brews a tepid concoction featuring a death metal base with black metal spices; fortunately, Graufar averts getting mired in pedestrian trappings. Honing a sound established on debut Scordalus, Via Necropolis flaunts chilly trems, grating rasps, and a coat of corpse paint that betrays their blackened heart, and it beats with the blood of Dissection, Necrophobic, and Rimfrost. Death metal’s influence is more subtle, skulking in chugging grooves and vicious growls that blend in seamlessly.

Though Graufar’s performances across Via Necropolis merit praise, vocalist Gernot Graf deserves special recognition. His scathing vocals loose misery and malevolence that arouse a primal reflex, making my throat twinge at the thought of snarling along. Tracks like “Blizzard and Blaze” and “Foltertrog” exhibit Graf’s penchant for wringing out every ounce of emotion, from vitriol to agony. Black metal rasps aren’t his only trick, though. Graf roars with an insatiable fire on “Charon” and “Buried in Flames,” devolving into bestial throes within “Heralds of Doom” and “Via Necropolis” and ensuring that his versatile performance never lacks conviction or fervor. Graf also plays guitar alongside Michael Herber, and together they fashion a glittering heap of licks, leads, and grooves. And it’s the latter that stands out the most, because while death metal regularly brandishes them, black metal rarely deigns to approve the groove. Meanwhile, “Buried in Flames” and “On Your Knees” demonstrate Graufar’s shrewd understanding of songwriting, and bolstered by Thomas Buchmeier’s slinky bass and René Hinum’s precision drumming, Via Necropolis positively thrums.

Throughout Via Necropolis, Graufar dazzles with their ability to conjure dynamic arrangements informed by influences. Kicking off with a Dissection-coded intro on “Blizzard and Blaze,” Graufar mingles with mellow cleans, slithers through second-wave savagery reminiscent of Mayhem,³ and even dabbles in throat-singing before ending back on the cleans. “Heralds of Doom” features a fiery solo that cedes to a pit-ready sway, “Via Necropolis” starts with a sleek Necrophobic-meets-Watain riff that builds to a doomy chorus played over rabid trems, and “On Your Knees” bashes you in the face with a potent Sepultura groove.⁴ Despite Graufar’s administration of reference points galore, they never linger overlong on any one. The songwriting is deceptively understated, and although this works in Graufar’s favor as a whole, over repeated listens I find my engagement more attuned to Via Necropolis’s back half. Reordering the tracks (“Buried in Flames” would make a fantastic opener) and slightly trimming the longer ones would add an immediacy that brings some of the back-end boom up front.

All told, Graufar delivers a vibrant outing that boasts a refreshing take on blackened death teeming with wonderfully wicked ideas. Via Necropolis sizzles throughout its forty-two minutes and distinguishes the band as an act to watch. Considering both Graufar’s albums have been released independently, the band displays remarkable song craft and self-editing, and Via Necropolis gleams with talented musicians who forge well-crafted metal bangers. Better late than never, I’m glad this gem didn’t slip by.

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Rating: Very Good!
DR: NA | Format Reviewed: WAV
Label: Self-Release
Websites: Website | Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: March 20th, 2026

The post Graufar – Via Necropolis Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

NSW based artist Neo Stereo has just released his brilliant new single called Back For You. Back For You is about relationships and how people change throughout them. It’s about pushing through the hard times, especially when you’re with the one you love. Influenced by lifelong experiences of music to produce a sound that is […]

Electric Callboy announces their long-anticipated new album TANZNEID, set for release on August 7, via Century Media Records/Sony Music Australia. At the same time, the band joins forces with global gaming hit game Brawl Stars for their explosive new single and video Hypercharged, which also introduces the new character Damian to the Brawl Stars universe. […]

Los Angeles post-punk trio Black Market Heart return April 14, 2026 with their new full-length, What Happens in the Dark, arriving alongside a new video for the title track. Forged in the pink smog glow of a Southern California sunset and the low hum of the 101 at dusk, the record finds guitarist and vocalist […]

International rock titans ONE OK ROCK announce their new live EP Live From DETOX JAPAN TOUR 2025, releasing on April 30 alongside the U.S. release of their highly-anticipated concert film ONE OK ROCK DETOX JAPAN TOUR 2025 AT NISSAN STADIUM IN CINEMAS. Marking the one-year anniversary of the release of DETOX, the forthcoming 6-track record […]

Shat out of hell? Indeed. The epically unpronounceable, utterly indecipherable and altogether uncompromising gore merchants, Sanguisugabogg, are returning to Australia in June 2026 with special guests PeelingFlesh. And fans simply cannot get enough. with Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne all SOLD OUT! With he addition of Melbourne’s pulverising death metallers Gutless as openers for all shows, […]