Ὁπλίτης (Hoplites) – Παραμαινομένη (Paramainomeni) Review

Hoplites is a one-man Chinese black metal/hardcore band that emerged out of nowhere and proceeded to release three full lengths over the course of 2023. I thought each release was slightly better than the last, but none of them really had memorable moments, instead feeling like an aimless jam session each time that threw elements at the wall to see what stuck. Where does that leave the new album? Find out in this review…

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Svdestada – Candela Review

With a woman in a robe on the cover stretching air and red light, it’d be easy to dismiss Candela as just another longing metalcore album. And while there are shades of that in riff assembly, Svdestada (a stylized version of sudestada which simply means “southeast”), hailing from the burgeoning punk scene of Spain, self-describes as blackened crust. We’ll take our patatas bravas golden brown though…

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