Fifth circle Registered the : 2014-01-04
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Laugar – 2025 - On Blurred Lines Dancing With Desperate Plea
Post | Sludge | Doom | Progressive | Death
A fresh release from Moscow’s LAUGAR, a band that, like many others, leans on its own vision of styles and substyles, blending a wide array of genre approaches—or better yet, forging them together into a new kind of alchemical experiment.
Did they manage to turn it into gold? Let’s listen and find out.
(And if it is gold, then it’s a very dark and depressive one, as if enriched with the blackest intentions and real emotional gravity. Getting a whiff of Doom? Absolutely.)
The intro track “On” flashes by like a plane vanishing into the clouds above. But a twilight guitar still manages to break through and growl a few times.
Then comes “Blurred Lines” — a deep plunge into pessimism and wide expanses of despair. With a confident low-register vocal and a desperate blackened secondary voice that freezes your thoughts. The meditative rhythm section chills the soul, while another raspy, blackened, split-throated vocal lurks in the background—like it’s finishing off whatever is good and eternal.
What grabs your attention here is the lead guitar in the final third of the track—it seems to carve something out with precision, carefully aligning itself with your vital organs.
In “Dancing With,” LAUGAR seems to pick up the pace, but things don’t get any lighter—on the contrary, this unexpected dynamism only emphasizes the inevitability of Doom and Fate—aka, the very essence of Doom.
The band walks a progressive razor’s edge here, and the main vocal is—strike that—weakened, sustained with a strange clean voice that sounds as if it’s speaking from a quiet room padded with mattresses. That concept, I feel, should’ve been pushed further, adding even more madness to the mix.
The track “Desperate Plea” continues the musical-conceptual line of the album—there’s a subtle but definite connection between the tracks, and that’s not just a metaphor, it’s a medical fact.
Here, LAUGAR delivers a dose of progressive Doom Death Metal—not by smashing it in your face, but rather gradually, starting with a clean, untainted guitar solo in the first third, only to then flatten it with extreme effects and explosive energy from the rhythm section. But that solo survives—it pushes through the pavement like a stubborn weed, symbolizing that not everything in this life is lost. A surprising note of optimism at the end. Much appreciated.
It’s clear LAUGAR is part of the New Wave of Russian Doom Metal.
A solid addition to the collection of fans of the genre—and also for open-minded music lovers into extreme soundscapes and beyond.
A necessary note: this EP is best experienced in high quality (as I did).
That’s exactly what the fat, rich sound from Pentagram House hints at.
Fifth circle Registered the : 2014-01-04
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Ulfdallir – 2025 – Einherjar – (Single)
Melodic Death Metal
After a brief hiatus, a new single by the Moscow-based band ULFDALLIR has emerged from the cold fjords. And judging by certain signs of fate, it’s clear they haven’t been wasting their time—they remain as focused as ever on creating Viking Melodic Death Metal.
What immediately stands out is the sound of the single: clear, precise, powerful, and well-balanced. While such quality has become more common among Russian bands lately, it’s still worth highlighting every time—it’s a great trend to see.
“Einherjar” begins with an epic and intriguing theme that leans into Death Doom, but that doesn’t last long. Very soon, the track erupts into total, fast-paced, and energetic mayhem—showcasing that the musicians of ULFDALLIR have truly honed their chemistry in the studio. You simply can't achieve such musical precision without tight coordination. And of course, they clearly intend to bring this track to the stage.
Blazing riffing becomes the spine of the song—its solid foundation, supported by a driving rhythm section. And the vocalist? Full throttle.
The fierce frontman delivers a powerful performance with a few extreme vocal personas. Beyond his vocal dynamism, it’s the sheer power and raw fury captured in the recording that deserves special mention.
Smartly, after the storm’s epicenter—after the intense flurry of strings—ULFDALLIR carved out a short segment that shifts the track’s pace, slowing things down and diving into a mid-tempo epic mood. Here, the main vocal is joined by choral Viking shouts—like war cries before battle, stoking the fire for the coming clash. Overall, the backing vocals carry their own weight in both meaning and musical impact—a common and essential feature in Viking Metal.
“Einherjar” is a strong example of a war-chant—a “song of battle” that holds a special place in the VikingMetal genre.
The single practically demands to be part of a larger Viking epic—a full-length album.
Fifth circle Registered the : 2014-01-04
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Cancroid – 2025 - Tempus Odii - (Album)
CANCROID is one of the oldest active Groove/Death Metal bands in Russia. To remind you, this band from Stavropol began its journey back in 1993. Over that wild stretch of time, the group has released only three full-length albums—a clear testament to the musicians’ selectiveness and perfectionism when it comes to releasing material.
Let’s dive into their freshest opus: “Tempus Odii.”
The band opens with an extended barrage of strings, immediately signaling that you shouldn't expect straightforward riffs or easy exits (“Neither Fly Nor To Crawl”). From the very first minutes of the album, the studio production stands out—clean, punchy, and professionally crafted.
CANCROID clearly has an appreciation for both mid-tempo grooves and fast, dynamic passages, gliding freely and deftly through a complex polyrhythmic environment.
With two guitarists in the lineup, the band delivers both the groove-driven core and a death-metal-flavored overlay, featuring well-crafted guitar parts that are skillfully integrated into their Groove/Death Metal framework. These parts are notable for their melodic richness, almost oozing from the album’s layers—which feels like a signature trait of CANCROID.
Moreover, the solos don’t just serve the track’s primary message—they sometimes break away entirely, flying alongside the main flow to create sonic depth and emotional width (“Pharisee,” among others).
And of course, there’s the album’s mature and intricate song architecture, where every moment is interdependent, intentional, and deeply tied to the album’s overarching musical canvas.
It's time to say a few words about the vocalist, who performs in two extreme vocal styles—low and higher-pitched. His delivery is not only flawlessly embedded in CANCROID’s compositions (kudos to the sound engineer), but it also becomes inseparable from the musical substance itself. The vocalist doesn't merely follow the melodic line of the instruments—he also shapes the vocal melodies in his own right.
Additionally, his vocal parts often go beyond the simple dual-style formula. In some places, “shadowed,” multilayered vocals appear, significantly complicating the structure of the track. A good audio setup (high bitrate!) is your friend when listening to these layers.
A highlight of the album is “Out of Control”, which bursts with thrashy aggression, prompting the vocalist to go full-thrash in response—with a vivid and fiery result. One of the strongest tracks on the album, no doubt.
The final, experimental composition, “Tempus Odii,” begins in a meditative, hypnotic state before morphing into Ambient Doom Metal. Tracks like this add a special flavor to the record.
The album “Tempus Odii” is undeniably a strong piece of work, one that will strike a chord not only with dedicated Groove/Death Metal fans, but also with metalheads who simply appreciate high-quality musicianship.
Fifth circle Registered the : 2014-01-04
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Anthill – 2025 - Volume III (Climbing the Bone Mountain) – (Album)
Progressive Death Metal / Avant-garde metal
ANTHILL – Volume III (Climbing the Bone Mountain) – Translation into English:
This is the second full-length album by ANTHILL, which balances on the edge of the mentioned genres. The mastermind behind the project performs all the guitar parts (and occasionally bass) and also handles vocals. A significant number of musicians, including some from abroad, contributed to the album — more on that later.
You know, the album opens with a short intro, and then — boom, straight from the first step — it hits hard and powerfully, in a way that takes your breath away in places. One wonders what was going through the author’s mind when he decided to hit the listener with a wall of sound right from the start, without any build-up, piano intro (which comes later), or distant bells ringing. ))
I think the point is to show that such formalities don’t really interest the musician — he’s more focused on taking his music seriously and hopes the listener will embrace that same mindset. But that’s the lyrical side — now let’s get to the physics.
Right from the beginning, the musicians of ANTHILL create a sense of instrumental pressure… pressure and a clear intention to overwhelm the listener with solo parts that, frankly, continue all the way through the album. I don’t believe this album is aimed at guitarists in the “look what I can do!” sense — but it is very much a guitar-centric album, where, in my opinion, the guitar solos take on a dominant role.
That said, the compositions are structured — maybe not following traditional formulas, but they do have their own form, which ultimately helps the listener grasp and engage with ANTHILL’s musical message.
As a guitarist, this performer is clearly very well-trained. Cascades of string parts pour down on the listener, who is quickly forced to admit: this is the real deal, heavy as hell — pure Death Metal, a true challenge to the nervous system. But once you get used to this volcanic eruption, you begin to pick up the mood of the guitar — its melodic line, whether triumphant, mournful, or even machine-gun-like in attitude.
A standout impression comes from the actual piano interlude — “Crossroads. Intro.” After that, the sun seems brighter, and the grass greener.
The ANTHILL vocalist works in two main modes, with the dominant one being extreme harsh vocals — occasionally dropping into a low growl. In extreme vocals, it’s hard to sing emotionally — or rather, it’s hard for the listener to perceive emotion, since voices like this are rare in everyday life. BUT — the singer here does manage to express something emotionally. Beyond the narrative tone, we can pick up on rage, despair, and an unyielding will.
On track II, “Trail (Magic Mirrors),” there’s a fleeting moment of mystical, effect-laden clean vocals — and honestly, that’s something that could have been expanded on.
To sum it up: the album Volume III (Climbing the Bone Mountain) is heavier than many other “heavy” albums. And what else does a metalhead really need? Just be sure to toss aside your “Steel Standard of Death Metal” handbook…
In the end, I couldn’t resist asking the author this question:
— Artyom, has anyone ever called you the Yngwie Malmsteen of Death Metal?
His reply:
— Nope. And honestly, I’d prefer not to be compared to such big names. Let each listener make their own judgment. I wouldn’t want to put myself next to any legendary guitarists.
As mentioned earlier, quite a few musicians were involved in the recording:
Guest guitar solo — Denis Shvarts (Dark Matter Secret) on “IV Trail”
Guest cello solo — Andrey Matchtevaelov on “III Trail”
Plus international contributors, including:
Chris Bradley from the Canadian Technical Death Metal band Beneath The Massacre — guitar solo on “Crossroads”
Stephen Jarrett — guitarist and frontman of U.S.-based Orgone (Progressive Death/Avant-Garde Metal) — backing vocals on I, II, and V Trail, and the intro to “Crossroads”
Three drummers: Andrey Litvinenko, Alexander Kasyarum, and Ivan Kornienko
Line-up of ANTHILL:
Guitars/Vocals — Artyom Anthillov
Bass — Evgeny Nesterov, Artyom Anthillov
Mixing and Mastering — Evgeny Evstratov
Cover Art — Ivan Stan (known for his work on many metal band covers)
Fifth circle Registered the : 2014-01-04
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Whisper Inside – 2025 - Вальс морской волны – (Single)
This is a new single from Sergey Parfyonov’s Neoclassic Gothic DoomMetal and Atmospheric Rock project.
I hope you’ve already had a chance to hear some tracks by WhisperInside, at least from the 2024 album “Call from the Darkness”, which I’ve written about before.
Sergey composed the music and lyrics, worked on the arrangement, and performed and recorded everything himself.
This single features vocals by Yuri Skripchenko and Anya Melanina. It’s clear the author is striving to make the musical form more complex — especially through the use of vocal duets. And these are two clean vocals. In this piece, the composer places particular emphasis on the neoclassical form (and instrumentation), skillfully merging it with Gothic Rock and Gothic Metal content.
As a result, the track conveys genuine heartfelt melancholy and restrained drama. The lyrical female vocals are finely tuned in the mix — at just the right moments, they seem to soar above the listener, while the male voice features a subtle but impressive vibrato.
Still, it’s the neoclassical element that leads the way here, though arranged in an Atmospheric Rock manner. Sergey employed a wide range of instruments, creating a rich ORCHESTRATION that includes various strings, keyboards, and even brass… (There’s a strong impression that the author may have formal conservatory training.)
Even though the track lasts eight minutes, it feels complete and cohesive, living its own “independent life.” In that sense, it’s a perfect standalone single — yet it would also fit naturally on an album, where a romantic composition like this would easily find a prominent place.
The song has been carefully mixed in a professional studio, so the sound quality scores very high.
Created with care for fans of melodic rock and metal!
P.S. And now a little joke from the author: Heard the song? Take a look at the single’s cover art.
Fifth circle Registered the : 2014-01-04
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Los Cochinos — 2025 - Cool Sheriff Machete - (Single)
Death Metal
The Kazan-based death metallers Los Cochinos continue their deep dives into the heavy genre and full-on audio extremity. The band has been active since 2013 and already has a collection of releases under their belt (an album came out in 2020).
Rumor has it a new album is expected this year... and if that really happens, the New Wave of Russian Death Metal will receive a fierce new boost.
The brigade kicks things off with a gripping and compelling heavy tempo, clanking with an overflow of raw emotion... and soon enough, their signature vocals come in — ultra-low growls, occasionally shifting toward a raspier, more threatening tone.
I’d note that within this four-minute single, the rhythm section steamrolls everything around into a state of total affect. The sound engineer, by the way, did a top-notch job — the rhythm section ticks like a precision mechanism.
The guitar work is rich and non-trivial, carving through space and time with tense execution. Closer to the end, a string solo steps in to show that Los Cochinos aren't just about riffing alone.
The single, by the way, tells the story of a Wild West legend — the Tough Sheriff Machete, who brutally takes down wrongdoers.
Even if the aforementioned rumors don’t pan out, this single stands strong — a product ready for consumption. A good playback system and high bitrate are recommended.
Fifth circle Registered the : 2014-01-04
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HUMAN TIME – 2025 - Цена совершенства - (Album)
(Experimental Death Metal, Ambient DeathMetal, Progressive Death Metal, Black Metal, Deathcore)
The Price of Perfection is long, persistent work. Well, some are blessed by the gods, and the musician delivers an epic right out of the gate — or so the theory goes. Now let’s see how it works in practice, with the latest album from the project HUMAN TIME.
These days, the project has moved toward a refined sound, at times brushing right up against industrial territory, using special effects to craft compositions of powerful atmospheric weight. It flings its musical wings wide open, ensnaring the listener in traps of deadly sound. At the same time, it’s clear that from a compositional standpoint, the author has thoroughly thought through and developed a unique architecture of all-encompassing mood for each track.
This becomes apparent right from the first track — not merely as an advance teaser, but more as a roadmap for navigating the album.
Lately, I’ve noticed many bands paying close attention to how they deliver complex vocal parts. The opening song features Andru Bru from Datura (a vivid and intense extreme vocalist), and the author squeezes every possible thrill out of this collaboration.
It’s worth mentioning right away the main voice of HUMAN TIME — brutal, low-frequency, and loaded with a couple of kilotons’ worth of TNT — expressed through several distinct vocal personas. At the same time, the singer finds the strength and range to add intonation, creating tense whirlpools of meaning and nuance.
The rhythm section here is also outstanding, playing with both possible and impossible artistry, meeting every condition to warrant tags like “Technical Death Metal.” The complexity of the musical ideas backs up this assumption.
For HUMAN TIME, it’s entirely natural that amid the blistering, high-speed, crushing Death Metal assaults, there’s room for melodic parts that feel completely organic. More than just “lyrical bridges,” these are closer to interludes — and that makes them far more interesting.
The deeper you immerse yourself in this reinforced-concrete bastion, the more it seems the tracks are conceptually connected. That’s true — lyrically, yes — but it’s also clearly evident at the musical level. This has its strengths and weaknesses. Musical conceptuality gives the album a monolithic character, but it can also loop musical ideas, hindering their progress within the album. In my opinion, HUMAN TIME, with this aptly titled “The Price of Perfection,” has happily avoided that pitfall. How? See above — “long, persistent work.”
The closing track features RomanoChi, tasked with truly daunting vocal challenges — in a piece with unrestrained ferocity, machine-like dynamism, and, of course, that signature atmospheric sound. His blackened overtones (in addition to Death Metal fire) pour about half a canister of kerosene into the album’s final track.
Fifth circle Registered the : 2014-01-04
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Путь Солнца — 2025 - От Заката До Рассвета — (Album)
The band Path of the Sun has long stood among the front-line fighters of the New Wave of Russian Thrash Metal. Since 2006, they’ve released a slew of works, including nine full-length albums. The musicians carved out a clearly defined niche for themselves — War Thrash Death Metal — and felt perfectly at home in it, creating their own instantly recognizable musical and lyrical brandmark. You could identify them, as they say, in three notes.
And now, a short lyrical digression: when composing within a given musical or thematic framework, what do musicians do with ideas that don’t quite fit the established boundaries?
Exactly — they pack them away into a special “music suitcase,” occasionally shaking it and trying to tell by ear whether there’s enough in there for a full-length album. This time, there was.
And, to be honest, there was enough for a fully conceptual album: “at the heart of the story are three inseparable friends since childhood. Together they went through…” And so on — nothing less than that.
It should be said that the musical form here has undergone a bit of a renovation — but entirely in a positive sense. The band has stepped slightly away from Thrash Death Metal and now dishes out a predatory, energetic Thrash Metal. Mirron’s low harsh vocals remain in their attacking vanguard position. In this new thrash frenzy, they not only hold their ground but, so to speak, are reborn under different circumstances. Vocal variety across the album is now the rule — which fits perfectly with the concept-album approach.
The past never lets go — the group opens the record with “By Fire and Sword”, a kind of message and signal: yes, this is the same Path of the Sun, with their brutality and hardness. Choral refrains and mighty solos in the VikingMetal vein make their mark here.
The second track practically begs to be the anthem of a biker show or festival. I’m sure the band hit a few such “motor” events this summer — and were met with open arms. After all, Path of the Sun has always been defined by irrepressible dynamism and sheer wild energy, something “motor rockers” love, as the classic once sang.
It must be noted that in every track, not only the vocals and rhythm section are thoroughly worked out (!!!), but the guitar work also leaves a very pleasant impression — that’s a medical fact. Now that the band is playing more than just War Thrash Metal, we hear more melody, more developed string arrangements — and done smartly, in different formats.
A standout piece is “Song of Eternity” — almost a ballad, with Mirron’s extreme vocals unexpectedly taking on lyrical overtones. Turns out, Path of the Sun still has room to grow and explore. The guitarist handles the themes brilliantly, and overall the band feels here like a shark in an atoll.
Of course, after that, things need to get heavier and faster — naturally. The killer Speed Thrash Metal of “Steel Wings” delivers the onslaught and sonic pressure, with choppy guitar slashes. And of course, you can hear that this is Path of the Sun — brandmark intact and in full force.
Tracks like “Chasing the Shadow” and “Three, Seven, Ace” demand attention. The first — supposedly pirate-themed (but actually not) — works on two levels: a literal one, and another about real and illusory values. Surprising? Not really. The second — a mystical thrash thriller about cards and, in this case, “Three, Seven, Ace” and the Queen of Spades — feels like a nod to the all-time hit “Ace of Spades”.
With bluesy, unhinged heavy metal, the album closes on its title track “From Sunset to Sunrise”. Mirron once again shows new facets of his voice — but for him, this is neither hard nor difficult, just pure fun.
A thrash album that’s beautiful, tight, and emotional. Excellent in both recording and performance. Absolutely one for the collection.
Fifth circle Registered the : 2014-01-04
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Serpens Omen – 2025 - Headless Frenzy – (Single)
Symphonic Death Metal, Dark Мetal
The musicians have changed their name, but not their music — and now the singles are coming out under the new brand SERPENS OMEN. For now, it’s singles only, but the fans are already asking about a full album. The band’s response is optimistic. Still — as if it’s that easy to just go and record a full-length. It’s not.
From the very beginning, rock and metal bands have been trying to blend neoclassicism with their favorite genre, with varying degrees of success and failure. It may seem like the easiest thing in the world, but… there have always been plenty of obstacles along the way — starting with arrangements: how to organically weave disparate parts into a single composition.
Much often came down to the talent of individual musicians — for example, Jon Lord (RIP) from Deep Purple. Others followed their own path of trial and error. In metal, one of the successes (among many others) was Therion, whose certain works are now considered cult classics.
Back in the day, I liked how the band ZMEY I RADUGA (“The Serpent and the Rainbow”) approached these challenges — both in composition and in the final sound. You could hear they’d dared to experiment, which was already interesting in itself — but listening further, it became clear the band had actually achieved Results. Now, under a new name, the musicians offer a Continuation.
SERPENS OMEN open with tense orchestration, but paired with exciting, high-speed, driving drums. Woven into the fabric are extreme vocals (plural, in fact), both in lead parts and in background choir layers. The vocal arrangement here is — I’d venture to say — the most complex, and it’s smart, tasteful, and highly appealing. The SERPENS OMEN vocalist clearly spent a lot of time in the studio — no question about it. Piecing together this kind of audio art object is no easy task. Especially since halfway through, clean choral passages appear. A Death Metal opera in miniature?
This is genuine Symphonic Death Metal, and the most important word in that phrase is SYMPHONIC — with a dark guitar mood, teetering on the edge between depression and manic intent, striking sparks from under iron-shod hooves…
For this single, the SERPENS OMEN composer set out to create precisely a Neoclassical piece with corresponding orchestration — combined with extreme vocals and an ironclad rhythm section. The sound easily scores high marks.
Even though it’s “just” a single — a self-contained mono-idea — you can clearly feel the urge to continue the theme, to expand it across other examples and test subjects.
When listening, make sure the quality is as high as possible.
Fifth circle Registered the : 2014-01-04
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INSANIS — 2025 - Everyday Is Ragnarok — (Album)
Black Metal, Thrash Metal, Blackened Thrash Metal, Black-N-Roll
The idea of Ragnarok (the end of the world) reduced to the daily overcoming of Everything.
INSANIS delivers ferocious Blackened Thrash Metal and fire-breathing Black-N-Roll — relentless from the very start, dynamic, frenzied, teetering on the edge of Punk Metal, and it feels like all limits have been crossed and all multicolored lines left far behind.
And if you suddenly notice some slowdown in this sonic Ragnarok, know this — it’s only a setup for an even greater acceleration.
INSANIS has suddenly plunged into such historical depths that the archaeologists of music can barely dig through the sands of time fast enough to pinpoint the epoch of the presumed events. Thrash, Hardcore, punk… and also old-school Heavy Metal — in that very troglodyte form when everything began with crude riffs and the desire to sing unlike any vocalist from the top 100.
No doubt, all this will be in high demand at INSANIS live shows, where the stirring energy and mad drive get the most immediate reaction.
The album’s sound is quite a paradox. Sure, it was recorded in a proper studio, but when the musicians unleash their wildest fury, certain hardcore- and punk-technical quirks cause the sound to “shake up” — and it feels perfectly natural. So there’s nothing to complain about here.
The workload on the musicians and vocalist, of course, was extreme — especially for the drummer, guitarists, and singer )). Credit to the vocalist: a harsh, raspy delivery with dives into the low register at high speed is not something everyone can pull off.
Despite its short running time, the album feels at least one and a half times longer. It’s a phenomenon of perception — the metalhead’s brain is used to decoding breakneck-speed grinding and thus naturally processes such anti-musical material.
It’s worth mentioning that an unprepared listener simply won’t “get” this album — quite literally — and will hear little more than a strangely structured, aggressive sonic chaos they can’t make sense of.
As blasphemous as it may sound to some music lovers — I’ll say it: the Russian roots of this INSANIS album lie in the work of the band E.S.T. In some places, you can even hear it…
Is there anything that stands out in this box of five artillery shells? Yes. The apocalyptic track “Riding Tiamat” — pure Black-N-Roll, both driving and groovy, seemingly pessimistic in meaning but musically quite upbeat.
Well then, the cannons loaded with old-school destructive metal have fired their shots… Which makes the final message all the more strange and mystical: “1349” — the name of Norwegian and German metal bands, and as a year — the peak of the Black Death in Europe. https://vk.com/insanisofficial
