NEORHYTHM — 2025 - "Безумия"

Groove Death Metal, Progressive Metal

Three Groove Death Metal ball lightning strikes are launched by NEORHYTHM in their 2025 EP titled “Madness”. The Neorhythm of Madness. Three occult elixirs infused with the meanings of ancient Hellenic magic, Middle Eastern sorcery, and beyond...

By the way, NEORHYTHM has long warned that their “art is based on the legacy of such genres as Groove, Death, Thrash, and Progressive Metal.” This is a more expanded definition, and therefore reveals the band’s musical message more precisely.

“Dionysianism.”
The mini-album kicks off very intensely, powerfully, and with unstoppable groove, forming a thick, tightly-packed sound with not a single cubic millimeter of empty, unused space. It grabs you, yes. A hard-hitting rhythm acts as the skeleton, upon which, with the finesse of a plastic surgeon, the muscular tissues of guitar solos and, moreover, vocal acrobatics are layered. The vocals here are clean yet screaming, declaring: “Yes, I am insane…”—swinging a pendulum between harsh passages and even deeper extreme tones close to growling. Meanwhile, the guitar depicts a ringing green flame of an alchemical burner. NEORHYTHM’s experiments have begun.

“Rapture.”
It is noticed again: each NEORHYTHM track is like a sealed and welded Groove Death Metal capsule, and the guitar solos are the steel can-opener breaking through these zones. The capsules are also split by the vocal parts, seemingly smoking from tension. Suddenly, a bold and truly clean rock vocal appears. In the darkness and vortex we once again witness tight drum fills and shimmering guitar leads. Let’s put it this way: all of this cannot avoid being Progressive Metal.

“Foresight.”
Opening with an old-school metal riff, at first this track is a bit more traditional in structure: unlike the previous whirlpool-like compositional solutions, here “top and bottom” are clearly marked, and foggy walls outlined. But not for long — the tense, high-voltage guitar lines strike back along with peculiar, eccentric vocal installations mixed with ritual chanting...

This is the kind of mini-album that has enough musical content to fill an entire full-length release for other bands. Which, by the way, can be perceived differently depending on what you’re after:
“Simplicity and punch? Complexity and drive?”
Or everything at once — as with NEORHYTHM. On this EP, each track is like a hypercube — a tesseract — with an exit into the fourth magical dimension.

https://vk.com/neorhythm

Blackthorn — 2025 — Hexsecratus - SoundAge prod.- (Album)
Symphonic/Blackened Gothic Metal, Symphonic Extreme Metal


An interesting phenomenon on the Russian metal scene.
An all-female band that has been playing heavy music since 2004 has now released its fourth full-length album (as well as plenty of singles and EPs).

The “Symphonic” tag is of real importance for this band and is taken very seriously: on the album in question, in addition to the band’s staff violinist, the recording also featured the Mysterio choir and a string quartet. The band creates true Symphonic Metal and will be of interest not only to Gothic Metal fans, but also to listeners who appreciate serious neoclassical metal music

As expected in Gothic Metal, BLACKTHORN employ the classic “beauty and the beast” vocal formula — soprano versus growl. However, in a more sophisticated and intricate form: Aina delivers soprano as well as scream parts, while guitarist Elvira performs the growling vocals.
After the neoclassical and unsettling intro “The Tenement,” the band unfolds a grand, large-scale musical canvas with a truly luxurious sound.

What impressed me personally is that the sound production was handled by guitarist Elvira — and honestly, the result scores very high marks. She explains:
“The need to create our own sound was primarily driven by the uniqueness of the musical material and the non-trivial tasks involved: presenting a rich musical heritage (choir, orchestrations, Gothic Metal melodic traditions of the 1990s) in a more modern interpretation — low tuning of 7-string guitars and a powerful rhythm section. To achieve the desired result, I spent more than 10 years gaining experience in sound production.”
It is worth emphasizing that it is precisely BLACKTHORN’s sound and arrangements that allow the band to spread its black wings over an entire range of metal subgenres — Symphonic Metal, Symphonic Black Metal, Symphonic Death Metal, and Operatic Metal.

In the track “The Nethersource,” for example, the Mysterio choir opens the piece, the soprano takes over, the string quartet supports it, a melodic theme emerges — and then a harsh growl bursts in, as if drawing a heavy line underneath it all. The screams appear locally, like petty demons, scratching mystical signs across glass with steel nails. The vocal parts are not set against each other; instead, they complement one another dramatically, in line with the composition’s overall concept. At times, the result is on the level of Sweden’s Therion during their second, post-death period.
BLACKTHORN invite listeners not only to headbang and mosh, but also to approach the music seriously, delving into the intricacies — or rather, the complex architecture — of the vocal arrangements and melodic lines of the string instruments: not only guitars and violin, but also cellos. In other words, the band presumes a listener who is familiar not only with Black Sabbath, but also with Mozart and Prokofiev. Then again, one can also simply enjoy inspired, spectacular, and powerful music…

While listening, you don’t always pay attention to track titles. I was especially struck by a brilliant use of growling and screaming embedded into choral passages and thought: what a great audio depiction of a vampire feast. Then I checked the title — of course: “Feast Upon Lifeblood.”

BLACKTHORN did not skimp on duration — 52 minutes is a worthy figure for a symphonic metal celebration. The album is remarkably consistent at a high level, and many bands still have a long way to go to reach that bar. But you’ll hear for yourself.

Of course, I also want to mention the track that had the strongest impact on me personally. In my opinion, it is “Nexus Polaris” — oh, sorry, “Nexus Sevenfold” (not by chance!!! I was reminded of the Norwegian band Covenant). “Nexus Sevenfold” launches headlong into a neoclassical vein, and it made me think the guitar solo should have been given a more highlighted role — by the way, right next to the violin at 1:06. On this track, the extreme vocal parts are given more freedom: they soar effortlessly alongside soprano Valkyries and choral thunderclouds. Here, as it seems to me, the band achieves peak interaction among all vocal performers.
BLACKTHORN’s album “Hexsecratus” is set to claim a high place among the best russian albums of 2025.