Underking--Dungeon Crawler (Digital) {2025 Independent}

This MLP is fucking incredible. It's totally original, melding traditional heavy metal with unique melodies and modern metal's rhythms. Vocally, I'm reminded of the mighty clean vocals of Borknagar, soaring over the music with enough power to give the listener goosebumps with almost folk-like melodies. There is some metalcore influence to the music, and who knew it would sound so damn good stacked on top of a traditional metal foundation? It's not enough to turn off old metalists like me, as the influence is completely understated and the epic heavy metal takes absolute precedence. Lyrically this is very much Dungeons & Dragons, with songs about dungeon crawls, dwarves, quests, and the like. I really can't say enough how fantastic this record is. I hope for more of the same from the band and for labels to get wise to this and spread this music far and wide.

underking.bandcamp.com

Vampiric Oath--Doctrines of Withering Nature (CD) {2026 Vampiric Militant Legions Records}

I really didn't expect this to be this good. I figured "oh, another vampire-obsessed black metal band." Man, was I wrong. This is an international two-man project, with one living in Romania and the drummer living in Finland (of course, the national home of black metal these days). The vocals are all over the black metal spectrum, from spoken to howled to growled, often all in the same song. This is also fairly technical stuff, especially where the drums are concerned, with thing you don't normally hear on a traditional black metal record. For instance, all the little drum rolls and fills and embellishments and the occasional slow guitar melody. It's definitely done primarily in the Finnish black metal style, full of dark, cold melody and speed, but fully capable of increasing the intensity and becoming brutal at times. The production overall is perfect, but truly shines on the vocals in particular, accenting everything the vocalist is doing with absolute clarity. I can't stress enough that this is not just another Satanic Warmaster clone, and that the black metal legions should go out and find this. It's worth the effort.

vampiricoath.bandcamp.com

Savage Master--Dark & Dangerous (CD/LP/CS) {2025 Shadow Kingdom Records}

Savage Master is one of, if not the, leading truly underground traditional metal bands in the scene today. The album is full of memorable riffs and songs, showing a band that is at the peak of their creativity. Stacey Savage's vocals are perhaps at their most polished so far - gone are the growing pains of those first few records, and I think she's truly found her voice here. Likewise, all the other instruments are similarly polished, and they all shine on this recording. What is the same as in the past is the occult nature of the lyrics, and it fits their metal extremely well, with an almost King Diamond-like perfection. The devil and metal do go hand-in-hand, you know. I look forward, now that the band has found its footing sound-wise over the past couple of records, to seeing what they do next. It's almost as if their first couple of LPs were demos, just showing us what they had the potential to do. Now they get to show us the results of that potential.

www.shadowkingdomrecords.com

Wolfenstein--Death Brigade (CD) {2026 CDN Records}

I don't classify this as regular thrash metal at all. Sure, on the surface it might appear that way, but when you get down in the dirt with this band, they're closer to a mixture of first-wave black metal, early death metal, and, yes, thrash. Take the vocals - the singer is vicious, blasphemous, and delivers his vocals with a yelled growl and not a shout like most thrash bands. He reminds me a lot of the vocalist from Demolition Hammer, actually. This has a lot in common with early Kreator, early Sepultura, and Sarcofago, as well as Exodus and Razor. These vocals are delivered over often frenzied thrash, songs whipping by at light speed. The entire record isn't even twenty-five minutes long, and that's a good thing. I'm left wanting more. This isn't feel-good party thrash and it slays all of those bands where they stand. If Wolfenstein keeps at it, they're going to be mentioned in the same breath as Evil Army and Desolus, at least by me, and that's rarified company.

www.cdnrecords.com