Obscure Metal Catalogue #8: Kyle's 10 favorite albums of January 2025

January 2025 was a busy month: not only because of the Lunar New Year, but also the sheer volume of new releases. Many stones are yet to be unturned, so there'll only be an OMC issue for this month.

Feb 09, 2025

Release date: January 31st, 2025
Genre: Atmospheric/Depressive Black Metal
Country: Finland
Label: Avantgarde Music

It has been a good minute since the last time a good DSBM album popped up on my radar, and much longer that it’s one with no weak spots.

The newborn Void of Hope’s debut offering is as frostbitten and austere as it gets, as the gusting riffs and shrieking vocals cut right into your skin and fill you with complete despair. This, however, is not achieved by making the production razor thin: the guitar, while still characteristically piercing, also possesses a full body to its tone; and this is backed by well-pronounced, dynamically rich bass and drums. As a result, there is plenty breathing room for every instrument in the mix, as well as for the listeners - more than enough to take in the blood-chilling coldness wholly.

Compositionally speaking, “Proof of Existence” has quite a range of expression across its 42-minute runtime; but surprisingly enough, what people would consider stereotypical of DSBM - that is, the slow and dragged-out riffs - doesn’t appear until halfway through the album, and it’s only fully manifested the closer “Decaying Years”. For most parts, Void of Hope plays a kind of black metal amalgamation of Silencer, Shining, and even a little bit of Misþyrming.

A perfect album for wintertime depression.

2. Dysmorphic Demiurge - Of Chaos and Eternal Night

Release date: January 30th, 2025
Genre: Brutal Death Metal
Country: United States
Label: Vomit Your Shirt

Far too saturated with gurgled production and pinging snares is the current state of brutal death metal, and this makes the latest offering from the Knoxville-based Dysmorphic Demiurge rather refreshing change of landscape.

In essence, “Of Chaos and Eternal Night” is pretty much your brutal death metal ordeal through and through built with chugging riffs and gut-rolling vocals, albeit with novelties such as keyboard passages that are infused into the arrangement in amounts enough to make the songs interesting and not overpowering the metal foundation. The riffs in the album, while still quite conventional in their cadence, are far from desensitizing thanks to the added melodicism. What’s more, here and there, we can even catch certain riff phrasings that hark to The Black Dahlia Murder and early days of Gorguts.

Although it’d be an exaggeration to say the band is blazing a new path with their latest release, it’s safe to say that “Of Chaos and Eternal Night” is a solid brutal death metal album nonetheless.

3. The Great Old Ones - Kadath

Release date: January 24th, 2025
Genre: Post-Black Metal
Country: France
Label: Season of Mist

The universe of H. P. Lovecraft has long been one to be invoked by voices of discordant chaos and mind-melting terror, but this is perhaps the first time I’ve ever heard such a beautiful rendition of it like here in The Great Old Ones’ most recent full-length.

Okay, maybe not that beautiful nor serene, because ramping blast beats and dissonance are also two elements integral to the composition of “Kadath”: for example, half of “Those from Ulthar” is built on jarring, sludgy riffs that are, quite honestly, suffocating at times; or the assault near the end of “Under the Sign of Koth”.

Having said that, the “post” part of The Great Old Ones particularly shines through here, particularly with the melodic choices signature of the genre: tracks #4, #5, and #6 are rich with mesmerizingly hypnotic moments, with shimmering guitar hooks and lines, as well as psychedelic bass runs locking in with what the guitars are playing - sometimes even leading it.

An instant favorite to have come out of 2025, and a Lovecraftian staple standing side-by-side with Sulphur Aeon for me.

4. Tormentor Tyrant - Excessive Escalation of Cruelty

Release date: January 24th, 2025
Genre: Death Metal
Country: Finland
Label: Everlasting Spew

The Finnish outfit Tormentor Tyrant with their debut full-length is the living proof that a musician will always sound close to the stuffs that they love.

Hailing from Finland, one of Europe’s extreme metal bastions with its own sound, but “Excessive Escalation of Cruelty”, and Tormentor Tyrant by extension, sounds decidedly American: the Deicide influence spew forth right from the start of the album, and they remain there for the rest of the short but sweet 27-minute runtime.

To be frank, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with being a worship band: forsooth, were it condemnable, the majority of today’s music world would be promptly eradicated. In the realm of classic death metal revival, among worshippers of Cannibal Corpse and HM-2-core bands, there’s Tormentor Tyrant goes with Deicide, and one simply cannot deny that they capture the sound to an absolute T.

Hell, I’d even say that they do Deicide better than even Deicide today!

5. Kiloton - s/t

Release date: January 19th, 2025
Genre: Black/Death Metal, Noise
Country: Canada
Label: Independent

The Ross Bay Cult black/death sound has always been on the rougher, more ruthless side of the extreme metal spectrum, and attempts have been made to make it even more violent; however, this has mostly been done through means of mixing and mastering, and none - at least in my opinion - has been able to do it in a way that T.S.’s Kiloton does.

What sets the new-age Canadian warmonger apart is their exclusion of guitar, instead opting for distorted bass and actual noise to conceive the chaos; and now, even when guitar is now incorporated into the mix, it’s only additive - another layer of serration to complement the already primordial sonic holocaust.

33 minutes of amygdala-agitating, groovy, bombarding, belligerent extreme fucking metal.

ETERNAL HAILS!

6. Goatlord Corp. - Temple of Serpent Whores

Release date: January 19th, 2025
Genre: Black Metal
Country: France
Label: Nomad Snakepit Productions

I don’t know how well this is going to stick, but I figure I’ll make the connection anyway - considering half of the current Seth lineup is in this particular band: if Seth’s “La France des Maudits” is a literary lamentation and a call to arms, then Goatlord Corp.’s “Temple of Serpent Whores” is the violence that ensues.

The band gives you no time to prepare and send you headfirst into a aural warzone, and shellshock is the sole feel across the eight tracks presented - in a surprisingly Swedish manner. The primary, breakneck black metal savagery is highly reminiscent of Marduk and Tsjuder; and this is fused with the crushing groove of Swedish death metal a la Dismember for balance. Moments of melodicism are still present, too, most prominently in the last two tracks. But make no mistake, they do not detract you from the unrelenting fury unfurling between your ears.

A must-have in the wartime playlist, especially in this period of human history.

7. Häxkapell - Om Jordens Blod och Urgravens Grepp

Release date: January 17th, 2025
Genre: Black Metal
Country: Sweden
Label: Nordvis Produktion

Since Oraklet started Häxkapell in 2016 and released the debut in 2021 under that moniker, he has been asserting himself as one of the best atmospheric black metal artists of this decade with a blend of hypnotic pagan artistry and wintry black metal austerity. The latest release, “Om Jordens Blod och Urgravens Grepp”, is already set to be one of the best albums of 2025, as it’s so well-written that people will have to either match its quality or top it in order to be an AOTY contender in just about anyone’s list.

The triumphant, Viking melodicism plays centerpiece in “Om Jordens Blod och Urgravens Grepp”, regardless if it’s in the metal riffs or the fully-fledged folk sections - the latter best showcased in the halfway track “Hem”. This is also complemented by stoical singing and chanting that’s executed in various places across the 40-minute runtime, which works pleasantly well with the typical black metal screams. All these elements culminate in a thoroughly captivating atmosphere of many emotions: serenity, triumph, stoicism, and even a sense of solemnness.

An impeccable work of black metal, all in all.

8. Hazzerd - The 3rd Dimension

Release date: January 17th, 2025
Genre: Thrash Metal
Country: Canada
Label: M-Theory Audio

About as rare as a good DSBM album is a good thrash metal album, such as the latest offering from the Canadian Hazzerd.

The quartet takes after the classic stylistic elements of the thrash titans like Slayer and Testament - supercharged, frantic riffages and percussive vocal delivery - but what makes them different from the myriad derivatives and old-school worshippers is how they combine power metal-styled leadwork so seamlessly into the thrash DNA, specifically here in their latest album “The 3rd Dimension”. Dragonforce-like harmonized guitars and soaring solos are somewhat of a staple here in the album: a majestic contrast to the balls-to-the-wall attitude of the rhythm sectors which makes the band’s sound outstandingly interesting.

Clocking in at 41 minutes, the majority of the tracklist is short and sweet, usually under 3 and a half minutes, with the only two exceptions being track #3 “Unto Ashes” and the penultimate instrumental “A Fell Omen”, which serve as the technical showcase for the band.

Should you be looking for a thrash release that’s actually exciting, look no further than this one.

9. Onirophagus - Revelation from the Void

Release date: January 17th, 2025
Genre: Doom/Death Metal
Country: Spain
Label: Personal Records

Doom/Death Metal? Death/Doom Metal? Apparently, there’s a way to tell the two genres apart, but that’s not the point of this featurette.

Lethargy is the calling card of the Catalans and their newest offering: for most parts, the album is entrancingly slow, with a lot of emphasis and weight in each movement within the tracks to convey a deep-crawling sense of - you guess it - doom. And notably, invoking chants are interplayed with the deep gutturals for an even greater cacophonous effect when the band decides to take it even slower. That said, there are still moments in the 48-minute apocalyptic sinkhole when they kick the tempo up a notch, most clearly in the second track “Landsickness” - taking on a more death/doom cadence a la Rippikolu and Undergang. Confusing, I know.

Nevertheless, even if you can’t tell the two genres apart, “Revelation from the Void” is still an amazing album that’s worth checking out.

10. Rudra - Antithesis

Release date: January 14th, 2025
Genre: Vedic Metal
Country: Singapore
Label: Awakening Records

Anyone who knows the Singaporean veterans Rudra will most likely to know them for how they take the elements of blackened death metal in the likes of God Dethroned and fuse it with their Vedic heritage to create their unique sound.

Such is their formula, and it has remained more or less unchanged for the last three decades: only perhaps very subtle changes with the metal half of their music. And this is true, regarding their full-length release this year, “Antithesis”.

In general, the band’s sound is comparatively more straightforward and blistering - closer to their earlier works than their most recent one “Eight Mahavidyas”, which had a more atmospheric aesthetic to it, while still retaining the ascendant essence that is unmistakably Rudra: ranging from the battering assaults in the veins of Hate and 1349, to the compelling Vedic melodicism that manifests itself in every corner of each songs, most outwardly so in tracks #4 and #9.

Legend status undisputed and solidified.