Back catalogue: Metal

Review: The story goes with this one that a collective of seasoned musicians came together and discovered a rare camaraderie. With no hesitation, they poured their everything out onto tape and the results are now presented here on this one-sided and etched 12" under the title Better Lovers. Out features former Every Time I Die members Jordan Buckley on guitar, Steve Micciche on bass, and Clayton "Goose" Holyoak on drums with frontman Greg Puciato on vocals and Grammy-winning producer Will Putney. The music is dense metal with walls of sound washing over you and full of big guitar riffs, guttural vocals and dark energy.

Review: Phantomimea arrives through Loma Vista Recordings and is a brilliant new five-track cover EP from Ghost. Each and every tune is epic in its own way with material by Television, Genesis, The Stranglers, Iron Maiden and Tina Turner all chewed up and sat out in their own inimitable way. Though some of these sources are rather unlikely given Ghost's style they are all reworked with great respect. Ghost is in a great run of form having just won Best Rock Album of the Year at the iHeart Radio Music Awards, which itself came off last year's international chart-topping success Impera.

Review: RECOMMENDED
17 albums in and it feels like Napalm Death are only just hitting their stride. Well, they've been hitting their stride for roughly 17 albums, but while many bands - especially those at the more frenetic and uncompromising end of things - tend to start, err, compromising after four or five long forms, the Birmingham grindcore masters still sound fresh. Albeit fresh but covered in sweat and rage.

Following on from 2020's Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism, Resentment is a mini-LP that picks up where its predecessor left off. Among the highlights is a fantastic cover of 1980s industrial electronic outfit Slab!, but really it's nigh-on-impossible to pick specifics here - buckle up, turn it up, and let the ferocity wash over you. Suffice to say, keeping this level of intensity without winding up sounding like you're screaming into the abyss isn't easy, and Napalm Death's career should be considered a masterclass.

Review: Canadian sci-fi-tinged prog metal auteurs Voivod originally unveiled The End Of Dormancy EP in 2020, with this "ocean blue" reissue from Brutal Panda sprinkling extra aesthetic weight to the title-track's nautical tale of a mysterious entity leagues beneath the sea. Originally a cut from 2018's critically acclaimed The Wake, this EP version offers a unique "Metal Section" take, almost a full minute longer with added trumpets, saxophone and trombones, whilst the B-side features a live rendition of the epic piece as well as the iconic opening track from the band's seminal 1989 prog-thrash masterpiece Nothingface - 'The Unknown Knows', both performed at the Live Montreal Jazz Fest 2019.