With a history tracing back to the epicentre of melodic death metal in Sweden, October Tide have come a long way and have generated a spark that is strongly felt in the energy of the scene. "In Splendor Below" is the latest addition to their vibrant discography of guitar-driven, emotive death/doom metal art. It packs some of the most authentic and unique compositions from the capable hands of founding member and long-time Katatonia guitarist, Fredrik Norrman, his brother and guitarist Mattias Norrman (ex-Katatonia), vocalist Alexander Högbom (Demonical), bassist Johan Jönsegård (Letters From The Colony) and drummer Jonas Sköld (Letters From The Colony / Thenighttimeproject). While Fredrik prefers for the music to speak for itself, he finds the new album "a bit more aggressive, a bit more death metal, and with an overall colder feeling than previous records".

The Astral Sleep is the 1991 album by Tiamat. This was released by the Century Media label.

At long last, the wait is finally over: SHADOW KINGDOM RECORDS is proud to present ALTAR OF OBLIVION's massively anticipated third album, The Seven Spirits.

After ten years and five albums of groundbreaking progressive death metal, Neurosis have managed to carve a highly original niche for themselves… coming off somewhat like a Tool for extremists. Yeah, you heard right. But while this Oakland bunch deserve great kudos for such unwavering commitment to their vision, they seem fated to remain confined to well-kept secret status for remaining so stubbornly inaccessible. 1999's Times of Grace adds another chapter to this ongoing dilemma by delving ever deeper into the group's hypnotic semi-industrial dirge. But whereas previous efforts tended to suffer from erratic songwriting and uneven pacing, many tracks taking painfully long to build towards their crescendos, this album offers the most seamless continuity of any album in the band's challenging discography…

Swedish metallers GRAND MAGUS will release their new album, "Wolf God", on April 19 via Nuclear Blast. The follow-up to 2016's "Sword Songs" was recorded at Sweetspot Studio in Sweden with producer Staffan Karlsson (ARCH ENEMY, FIREWIND, SPIRITUAL BEGGARS).

Neurosis is a band with a distinctive sound driven by sludgy guitars and aggresive screaming vocals while still maintaining atmospheric. They are often regarded as the pioneers of post- metal and have influenced many major bands in that genre, like Isis and Pelican. The band's seventh full length studio album, A Sun That Never Sets, shows the band taking a more avant- garde and experimental direction than before.
The album features very frequent softer and atmospheric parts, making the album very atmospheric. The songs often progress, starting out with clean guitar playing and slowly moving towards sludgy riffs and fierce screams…

The Atlanta-based foursome play a very aggressive stoner rock hybrid that at times reminds of the non-death metal excursions by Entombed, but with a complex slant that nears prog rock proportions. The jazzy drumming and clean guitar that go on for most of "Ol'e Nessie" is a Southern-sounding sprawl that could be the Allmans if the brothers bludgeoned with the "Whipping Post" instead of just tying folks up to it. Even though their homeland's influence is more subtle the rest of the way, it's still there if you look beneath the Sab-Stooge-Motörhead Gristle, and that, along with the technical ecstasy, helps make Mastodon stand out amongst a ton of other post-Man's Ruin Stonehenge rockers.

Von Stroheim, described as some variation of a "doom band", fulfills that promise in ways very possibly unintended by those claiming either (or both) doom and bands: they've made a record that's a soundtrack for the doomed. Which is almost totally different. With a nod to Austrian director Erich von Stroheim, the record 'Love? Who Gets Love?' is a biting treatise on love soured where all of the femmes fatales are fatal and as voiced by singer and theremin player Dominique Van Cappellen-Waldock with guest appearances by Pete Simonelli from Enablers and Caroline Blanchet (ex-Choo Choo Shoe Shoot), set in stone in a darkening world view successfully evinced by the guitar and synth work of producer Raphaël Rastelli.

Drone metal gods Sunn O))) have two new albums coming in 2019, both of which were produced by the equally legendary Steve Albini.

When Mastodon first reared its bucktoothed head in 2001 with the Lifesblood EP, the scriveners of metal took note: here was something promising. With 2002's Remission, the promise was kept; it was a debut that puzzled and excited listeners with an amalgam of styles: hardcore punk's intensity and angular chops; death metal's squealing, complex guitars; a heaviness usually the province of sludge and doom metal; and drumming that risked its integrity and ventured into the territory of wank by courting progressive rock and jazz. (Has anyone other than Magma's Christian Vander dared to marry percussion this complex to metal this extreme?) Other bands have flirted with this territory, most notably Dillinger Escape Plan, but their attack always had one foot firmly planted in punk's messy metalcore backyard…

Although the band Anathema has since gone down a much more atmospheric and melodic route with their music, it's important to note that the group began as one of the pioneers of death doom metal, a style of music similar in its melancholic feeling to what Anathema has done more recently, but much heavier and darker in the one it is executed. With a few demos and this debut 'Serenades', Anathema would be setting the groundwork for a style that has since become much more popular by the likes of bands like Swallow the Sun. Although 'Serenades' is a classic work for its development in that doom metal sound, it is an incredibly hit-or-miss ordeal throughout, and may be better appreciated for its place in history than as a listening experience of its own.

Akai Yami is the 2007 album by Japanese doom metal band Birushanah. This was released by Missing Link.

The Crestfallen EP (1992). The style of early Anathema was a strange juxtaposition between smooth, melancholy guitar leads and deformed death metal children with one leg longer than the other trying to dance. The rhythms are sometimes absolutely horrible and do not even create distinctive riffs, just juddering patterns that do nothing for atmosphere or heaviness. Many of the riffs are dominated by bass and drums, but when we get something with recognizable shapes and moods it picks up something from the scuzzy production and works a treat, conjuring real feeling with ease. The first two songs definitely have the pick of the riffs and manage to express their anguish a little better: the melodies are also all over them, and these features give the release its character…

80 minutes of epic orchestral doom/ death metal from musicians known from such acts as Susperia, Dimmu Borgir, Sirenia and Funeral. Abyssic convey sombre funeral doom draped in Norwegian black metal majesty and sophisticated 70's progressive rock. Low-tuned sinister riffs and discerning orchestration for fans of Septic Flesh, My Dying Bride and Shape Of Despair.

Some albums are born from necessity rather than desire. When a Shadow Is Forced Into the Light is one. After Swallow the Sun issued their triple-length magnum opus Songs from the North I, II & III in 2015, tragedy struck. Guitarist/composer Juha Raivio lost his life partner, the poet and vocalist Aleah Stanbridge, to cancer at the end of 2016. She and Raivio had formed the band Trees of Eternity but she passed before their debut was completed. He finished and released the album then went into seclusion. Upon returning, he formed the band Hallatar, composing songs from lyrics in her journals. They released No Stars Upon the Bridge in 2017. But Raivio also channeled his grief into this extended reflection on loss, sadness, heartbreak, and transformation for STS; he penned its nine songs in three weeks…