Sons of Crom: "The Black Tower"

The strongest arm in modern heavy metal

I can tell by the quality of The Black Tower that my lacking acquaintance with the duo's album debut from 2014, Riddle of Steel, is a huge mistake that will soon have to be mended. From the name one would expect fairly traditional heavy metal, but The Black Tower is anything but bound by the shackles of tradition.

Sasquatch: "Maneuvers"

Retrospective stoner metal just the way we like it

As far as stoner metal goes, Sasquatch steer straight for the same pitfalls as many others; Their focus isn't on being original - They're clearly followers of classics like Fu Manchu and Kyuss. Rather, the focus lies with the simple enjoyability of their primal flow, the heavy-handed groove of a well-crafted rhythm section, and the craftsmanship of the riff.

Kimi Kärki: "Eye for an Eye"

Partially derivative, but much more so coloured through by his own style and aesthetic

Kimi Kärki should be known to most fans of doom metal as the lead guitarist of Reverend Bizarre and Lord Vicar. But he's a man of many talents, as his lengthy career would suggest; He's also involved in progressive rock outfit Orne, psychonauts Uhrijuhla and Berliner Schule-revivalists E-Musikgruppe Lux Ohr. Furthermore, he's quite adept as a classic folk guitarist, songwriter and vocalist, as evident on both his solo debut, The Bone of My Bones, and now on his sophomore effort, Eye for an Eye.

Sunken: "Departure"

Bombarded by cosmic rays, Sunken scour the farthest corners of Earth to bring the best that atmospheric black metal has to offer.

The days of Arescet are long gone, with the band having more than a few years ago transformed into what we see and hear before us today: Sunken. A nautical leviathan of black metal. It has been quite the wait since the band's demo debut The Crackling of Embers, but the wait has been well worth it.

Compulsory: "Gnosis"

An obscure gem from the cassette-age

When Gnosis came out in 1994 as Danish death practitioners debut demo, their style of specialised weirdening death metal was perhaps a bit late to the ball. After all, off-kilter death metal classics like Considered Dead and Piece of Time had already been out for a few years at this point. However, Compulsory's demo isn't without its own flair.

U.D.S.: "Too Fast for Love"

Thuggish grindcore beatings

Self-proclaimed practitioners of goreviolence, U.D.S. curate their brand of ghetto grindcore with all knobs turned to maximum. They're not too fancy to not include a bunch of pitch shifted vocals to go with their devastating low-end grooves either!

Gestapolis: "Amagerland"

Amagerbro grindcore warmachine!

With grindcore it's no good to just claim something as being no-holds-barred, unrelenting, or extreme, because that's basically just the name of the game. There are other factors to take into account instead, otherwise you would just be describing every grindcore band ever.