"Empress of Evil" is a one-track single release by US, California based thrash metal act Nukem. The single was independently released in April 2023. It´s the first release from Nukem since they released their debut full-length studio album "The Unholy Trinity" in 2016. It´s worth a mention that Gary Holt (Exodus, Slayer) plays guitar solos on "Empress of Evil".

Stylistically Nukem have changed quite a bit since "The Unholy Trinity" which was a thrash metal release with many nods toward speed metal and traditional heavy metal. "Empress of Evil" is instead an aggressive and brutal thrash metal song and it´s fans of an artist like Power Trip rather than fans of the more melodic thrash/heavy metal style of the debut album who are gonna appreciate this single. The vocals are raw, snarling, and angry and the riffs are sharp, intense, and brutal. The same with the drumming.

"Empress of Evil" features a fat, massive, and powerful sounding production job. If this turns out to be a teaser release for a forthcoming album, there is plenty to look forward to. Personally I thought Nukem had found their own charming thrash/heavy metal niche with "The Unholy Trinity" and had hoped they would continue down that road on future releases, but this is pretty intense and powerful thrash metal too and definitely worth a listen. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

"The Patchwork Gehinnom" is the third full-length studio album by Polish black metal act Iperyt. The album was released through Pagan Records in December 2017. It´s the successor to "No State Of Grace" from 2011 and features one lineup change since the predecessesor as bassist Abuser has been replaced by Vincent.

Iperyt play an industrial tinged extreme metal/black metal style featuring programmed drums. That description probably puts off at least half of the readers of this review, but please read on as Iperyt are an act who have something to offer. The tracks are dark, aggressive, and powerful black metal but the programmed drums provide a cold futuristic atmosphere, and this is one of the few cases where programmed drums actually have some merit. They are not here just as a replacement for a human drummer, but they actually contribute to the soundscape adding the right gloomy industrial atmosphere to the material. Compared to the earlier releases by Iperyt, "The Patchwork Gehinnom" is their least industrial tinged release though and it´s much closer to black metal than industrial metal. The vocals are snarling and aggressive and Iperyt shows mastery of both blasting fast-paced parts and heavy mid-paced parts. It´s the depressive atmospere and a feeling of hopelessness which are the defining elements of "The Patchwork Gehinnom". In other words this is a pretty bleak release with absolutely no light in sight.

"The Patchwork Gehinnom" is well produced and it manages to both pummel the listener with an abrasive and massive layering of guitars, bass, programmed drums, sound effects, raspy black metal vocals, and the occassional samples, but also challenge the listener´s intellect with some intriguing details. The songwriting is effective but slightly one-dimensional other than the atmospheric "Scars Are Still Sexy" and album closer "Checkmate, God!", which shows a slightly more melancholic version of Iperyt, stepping outside their usual black metal style and adding some semi-melodic raw vocals instead of the snarling vocals. "The Patchwork Gehinnom" is overall a strong release from Iperyt and probably their most accessible up until then. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

"Department of Apocalyptic Affairs" is the second full-length studio album by Norwegian black/avant-garde metal act Fleurety. The album was released through Supernal Music in 2000. It´s the successor to "Min tid skal komme" from 1995, although the two full-length studio albums are bridged by the 1999 "Last-minute Lies" EP. Fleurety consists of the duo of Alexander Nordgaren (guitars), Svein Egil Hatlevik (drums, synths, vocals), but in addition to the core duo "Department of Apocalyptic Affairs" also features a host of prolific guest appearances from artists like Maniac (Mayhem, Gravetemple, Sinsaenum, Tormentor), Garm (Ulver, Borknagar, Arcturus), Einar Sjursø (Virus, Infernö), and Hellhammer (Mayhem, Shining, Arcturus, The Kovenant), among others.

"Department of Apocalyptic Affairs" opens with "Exterminators" and right off the bat it´s audible that Fleurety have completely changed since the black metal days of "Min tid skal komme". If you´re familiar with the musical direction of the "Last-minute Lies" EP, the avant-garde metal style of "Department of Apocalyptic Affairs" probably won´t come as a surprise, but if you come to "Department of Apocalyptic Affairs" directly from listening to "Min tid skal komme" and expect that "Department of Apocalyptic Affairs" will sound anything like the debut album you will as a minimum be very surprised and in some instances (depending on your tastes and open mindedness) very disappointed by the highly experimental and ever changing avant-garde metal style of "Department of Apocalyptic Affairs".

The vocals vary between semi-jazzy female clean vocals, male clean vocals (of many different types), and more aggressive snarling male vocals. In that respect Fleurety have brought back a few of the extreme metal elements they had otherwise left behind on "Last-minute Lies", but other than a few heavy riffs and punchy rhythms here and there and the aggressive raw vocals, there isn´t much here which reveals that only 5 years before Fleurety were a black metal playing unit. It´s fellow contemporary countrymen Ulver, Atrox, and to a lesser extent Manes that Fleurety have something in common with. The bass, guitars, drums, and vocals are complimented by programmed drums and effects, keyboards, and saxophone, making "Department of Apocalyptic Affairs" quite the interesting affair in terms of instrumentation.

"Department of Apocalyptic Affairs" features a decent quality production job, but the distorted guitars at times sound a bit powerless. I´m not sure they are meant to be massive and heavy, but it would have been nice with a bit more punch and power when the music occasionally features heavy riffs. Heavy riffs aren´t the dominant musical element of the album though. That´s instead dissonant lead- and (dis)harmony themes, odd jazzy interludes, and all sorts of other weirdness and abrupt musical shifts. To my ears most tracks have a musical red thread, but there are moments where the avant-garde nature of the compositions almost overpower the songwriting and become weird for the sake of it. Upon conclusion "Department of Apocalyptic Affairs" is a bold sophomore studio album from Fleurety. They certainly don´t cater to their original fanbase with this one, but I respect that this ws their musical statement at that point in their career. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

"Extinction Level Event" is a one-track single release by US, California based thrash metal act Dark Angel. The single was released through Reversed Records in April 2025 and functions as a teaser release for Dark Angel´s forthcoming fifth full-length studio album bearing the same title. Dark Angel formed in 1981 under the Shellshock monicker but changed their name to the current one in 1983. They released four full-length studio albums between 1985 and 1991 before disbanding in 1992. Especially drummer Gene Hoglan went on to become one of the most prolific musicians on the scene subsequently playing with artists like Death, Strapping Young Lad, Dethklok, Testament, and Fear Factory (among others). Dark Angel reunited in 2013 (in the same quintet lineup who disbanded in 1992) initially playing sporadic shows, but after some years they started writing new music. Tragedy struck when founding member/guitarist Jim Durkin suddenly passed away in March 2023 at the age of 58, but the band soldiered on replacing Durkin with Hoglan´s wife Laura Christine.

Stylistically "Extinction Level Event" isn´t a continuation of the technical multi-riff/multi-section thrash metal style of "Time Does Not Heal" (1991), and if comparisons have to be made I´d place the musical direction to somewhere between the aggressive raw thrash metal of "Darkness Descends" (1986) and the slightly more sophisticated and technically leaning thrash metal style of "Leave Scars" (1989), probably leaning more toward the latter than the former. We can establish right away that Dark Angel haven´t included any contemporary influences and other than a more detailed and well defined contemporary production style (although still with an old school organic touch), "Extinction Level Event" could well have been released in the 1980s. So, Dark Angel aren´t here to revolutionize thrash metal, but rather just play the music style of their youths with the right amount of skill and aggression. After getting used to Ron Rinehart having a more worn and raw voice and vocal style than his 80s/90s self, "Extinction Level Event" grew on me after a couple of listens and Dark Angel arguably still have their place on the thrash metal scene. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

"Kinship" is the second full-length studio album by Danish metal act Iotunn. The album was released through Metal Blade Records in October 2024. It´s the successor to "Access All Worlds" from 2021. There have been no lineup changes since the predecessor. Iotunn formed in Copenhagen in 2015 and released the promising "The Wizard Falls" EP in 2016 and with the release of "Access All Worlds" they started making headlines.

Stylistically the material on "Kinship" is a natural successor to the material featured on "Access All Worlds". Progressive/power metal combined with both death, black, folk, and even doom metal elements, and all delivered in an epic and atmospheric package (it´s one of the better combinations of melodic tinged metal and extreme metal I´ve heard in a while). Lead vocalist Jón Aldará (Barren Earth, Hamferð) performs both epic clean semi-operatic vocals (both low end and high end cleans), death metal growling, and black metal snarling, and as a result the vocal part of the album is quite varied. The material on the 8 tracks, 68:23 minutes long album is both eclectic in style, epic in sound, but also powerful, heavy, and massive. It´s relatively polished, but still with enough rawness to pack a punch when that is needed. Other than the paatos filled and skilled vocal performance, one of the other great assets of "Kinship" is the harmony- and lead guitar work of the two Gräs brothers, Jens and Jesper. The album is loaded with soaring epic leads that´ll have you picture great mountains and beautiful valleys, fantasy castles and dark wizards. The scope of the music is almost cinematic in nature.

"Kinship" features a high quality production job courtesy of prolific Danish producer Jacob Hansen. This is a perfect sound production for this type of music. As mentioned above the sound is relatively polished and you can hear all details clearly in the mix, but there is still bite and rawness enough for this never to become a sterile listening experience. Combined with the intriguing, sophisticated, and powerful songwriting, and the high level musical performances, this results in a high quality sophomore studio album from Iotunn. A 4 - 4.5 star (85%) rating is deserved.