Welcome back metal heads to another episode of the great metal debate podcast. I'm Xander and today we are going to be talking about a local blackened death metal band from Nashville Tennessee called Act of Impalement. This is the band's sophomore album titled Infernal Ordinance.
I was first introduced to this band a couple months ago when they played a live show when my friends in the band Storm Ritual opened up for them. I was blown away by their live performance and impressed with their overall sound. While I was there I purchased one of their t-shirts from their merch stand and little did I know, the artwork for the t-shirt design was the soon-to-be album cover.
Even though I follow this band on Facebook nothing in my feed had popped up about an upcoming new album. I wasn't informed about it at all. In fact, the only reason I know that they put this new album out a few days ago is because Angry Metal Guy posted a review for it. As soon as I saw that, I nearly spit out my drink! Even though I was actually going to be recording another album review for a different underground band today, I had to once again postpone that so I could immediately work on this one.
A few nights after I watched Act of Impalement play live, I listened to their debut album Perdition Cult. If you are a fan of bands such as Archgoat or Blasphemy you will love these guys. They take the best parts of their aesthetic and dial it up to 11. Their debut was incredible but this new album has truly kicked things up a notch especially since the line-up change. Ethan Rock is still the vocalist and guitarist but they introduce new bassist Jerry Garner and new drummer Aaron Hortman.
The beginning of "Summoning the Final Conflagration" leads in with a doom sounding riff before the switch to a groovy blackened death metal riff. It's one that is sure to get your head nodding.
The musical style definitely has similarities to the traditional OSDM sound but with some black metal riffs thrown into the mix like with "Specters of Unlight". On a positive note the entire album is like this.
As for the vocals, they are oftentimes slow but also speed up in different areas. This vocal style aside from the aforementioned bands is also very reminiscent of early Incantation. The songs "Creeping Barrage" and "Atomic Hecatomb" are a perfect example of this and are definitely highlights on this record. If you don't bang your head to those, you are not a Metalhead.
Despite its length, my favorite song is without a doubt "Blasphemies Rebirth". After the first 2 seconds of drum symbol tapping, you can anticipate a guitar riff that will cause involuntary headbanging.
"Death Hex" was the song that got me growling the song title after a couple listens and the final track "Erased" is an epic finale.
Because we are still very early in the year and I will be listening to at least 200 new albums in 2023 it's hard to give this album a score. It's subject to change during the month of December when I make my albums of the year list. But for now, I believe this is definitely good enough to earn a 7 out of 10 score.
Be sure to show your support for Act of Impalement. You can listen to their music on bandcamp, Spotify and Amazon Music.

The Great Metal Debate

Album Review - Infernal Ordinance (Act Of Impalement)

Welcome back metalheads to another episode of The Great Metal Debate Podcast. I'm Xander and today we are going to be talking about an underground metal band from Joplin, Missouri called Gravehuffer.

I was granted early access to review this new album titled ... Depart from So Much Evil a full month before it's February 17th release date.
According to metal-archives, the genre is a mix between thrash metal, crust and grindcore. All of those subgenres are styles that I will be the first to admit that I am unfamiliar with. However, I am willing to step outside my comfort zone and explore new avenues.

This is the band's 4th full-length studio album and despite not listening to anything else in the band's discography, I gotta say that I am pleasantly surprised by what this group is capable of especially with only 6 songs.

"Blueprint for an Early Grave" is the first track on this album that begins with a little noise for an intro. It all starts with air horns followed by an announcer giving a warning over some loudspeakers about evacuating an area. The heavy music picks up as we hear people shouting but once all that is over, the vocalist comes in to deliver his lyrics. The song alone is very short but it's just a taste of what is to come.

The next track is called "Slayberry" and it is much faster and much more aggressive sounding. While researching this band, the online metal encyclopedia doesn't reveal the name of the current drummer but whoever they are, they seem to really know how to beat those skins at a rapid rate of speed.

"The Cryptid and The Iron Bird" displays the full range of vocalist Travis McKenzie who seems to have many different voices. It's refreshing to hear someone who isn't stuck doing the exact same thing for every single song.

But now we must acknowledge the stringed instrument players and how perfectly in sync they are. The bass playing of Mike Jilge is symmetrically in line with guitarist Ritchie Randall complimenting his overall rhythm. Both of them know when its their turn to shine back and forth on a track. A great example of it happens during the song "Brainstorm".

"Go Murder Pray and Die" is probably my favorite song on this album due to the angry and fast pace of everything. I definitely hear the punk rock influences in this one.

The album title track "Depart From So Much Evil" has a slow and ominous start. One thing you'll notice is that the track is over 22 minutes long but the actual song within it is only 7:30. There's a lot of filler sounds that stretch all the way to almost the 13th minute before another song within the track begins.

However this hidden track is very incomplete. It will play for just under a minute before a glitch happens and the track stops before the 14th minute hits. Which means the track isn't actually a full 22 minutes. I'm not sure if the song ending abruptly was the band's intention but either way it is still very jarring.

I'm not going to give this album a score because honestly, even though I know the band is good at what they do, I can't bring myself to give it a proper rating because I'm not an expert on this particular genre. If a cross between thrash, crust and grindcore sounds like it would interest you, definitely give these guys a listen.

You can listen to Gravehuffer on most music streaming platforms. Make sure you show your support for the underground and keep it metal.

Album Review - Depart From So Much Evil

Welcome back to The Great Metal Debate. Today we’re bringing you another metal album review, featuring the latest from US metallers Theocracy titled Mosaic. Let’s take a dive into this release track-by-track…
 
Mosaic goes right for the throat with the rapid-paced opener “Flicker” which is reminiscent of Dragonforce in its versing. Here we hear the first of many masterful lead breaks executed by new guitarist Taylor Washington, who some might know as frontman for the band Paladin.
 
The next track, “Anonymous,” is classic Theocracy. The vocal melody in the chorus is just a tad sugary for my taste, but fits with the overall vibe of the song and I do love that final shout vocalist Matt Smith gives at the end. There’s also some sturdy riffs scattered throughout by guitarists Washington and Hinds.
 
Third on the listing is the title track “Mosaic,” which was released in advance and in music video format. The song starts softly and then hits hard with Unleash The Arches worthy riffs and leads. I really enjoy the overall feel of that’s created by the band: killer from start to finish with galloping guitars and beautiful, subtle overtones.
 
The next track on the docket is “Sinsidius (Gods Of War).” If found the song bit disjointed at points but it’s still kind of a banger, and definitely one of the heavier tracks on the album. I’m not sure everything works perfectly on this song, but I really appreciate that Theocracy tried a lot different things. Speaking for myself, sometimes the imperfect experiment is more appealing than the safe sure thing, and ultimately it works enough to makes it a fav of mine on the album.
 
In contrast, “Turn To Dust” is much more traditionally structured – a very straightforward and incredibly catchy track. That main riff is a killer, and I am in love with Washington’s solo. I hear hints of “Breaking The Chains” era Dokken in this one. “Turn To Dust” is followed by “The 6th Great Extinction.” Another song where the chorus is slightly too sweet vocally for my taste, although the killer lead makes up for any shortcomings.
 
The band channel Iron Maiden on the intro to “Deified,” which is another fast paced rocker. This song does a great job of creating some dramatic build-ups, with the guitars adding jubilant bursts of sound. The chorus brings it home for the most part, although the track loses some of its steam at the end. 
 
“The Greatest Hope” is a brief, ballady track.  More than just an interlude, but light in delivery as a full song. Smith’s voice is beautiful but I wasn’t a fan of the melody or pacing used here. The acoustic guitar really didn’t do much for me – I probably would have preferred this one with more orchestrations supporting the vocals instead. Thereafter we find the somewhat schizophrenic “Liar, Fool, or Messiah.” For me there’s a bit of a disconnect between the verses and chorus – they just feel like they’re not quite on the same page. The vocals though are really strong on both counts.
 
The album finale is “Red Sea” – a 19 minute monster that truly delivers.  I won’t try to summarize this epic which contains more music than most Eps, but I will say it’s a cohesive song – not merely an amalgam of musical ideas that you sometimes get with such efforts.
 
I love the production, particularly the amazing guitar tone and well-crafted, nuanced keys. Washington’s lead guitarwork is fantastic and longstanding drummer Ernie Topran executes quite well throughout keeping things interesting rhythmically. Smith hits all the notes just right and belts the lyrics with amazing passion. He’s a gem of a singer who sadly has been hidden under a bushel basket as far as popular recognition.
 
This is great stuff, and more than competitive with more recent efforts by Blind Guardian, Beast In Black, or Gloryhammer. I think this is the best album Theocracy have ever put out – I’m giving Mosaic a 9 out of 10.

Album Review - Mosaic

Welcome back to The Great Metal Debate podcast. Today we will be looking at the Finish black metal band Moonlight Sorcery. This is the band's first full length debut album titled Horned Lord of the Thorned Castle, released September 29th through Avant-garde Music.

Last year's EP titled Piercing Through the Frozen Eternity, we got some noticeable guitar riffs that didn't quite break through that obvious power metal sound yet. Another EP that came out last year titled Nightwind: Conqueror from the Stars was a small improvement on the overall song writing.

Earlier this year we got a single "In Coldest Embrace" which opened the door to much better studio production quality. They also did an amazing job on that Deep Purple cover for the song "Burn". 

For this debut we kick things off with "To Withhold The Day". Instantly we get an epic audible pummeling followed by the lower strings on the guitar fret making the listener close their eyes to take it all in. These sounds eventually lead you into an infectious melodic hook. Surprisingly there's even a wonderful guitar solo in this song as well which is much appreciated. Solos aren't the first thing you think of when you're talking about black metal so even if they're not reinventing the wheel, it's so refreshing.

Next up is that aforementioned single from earlier this year. It's good but we're not going to dwell on it for too long. In fact, we'll skip ahead to "The Secret of Steaming Blood". Love that title by the way. That opening chug riff before vocalist Ruttomieli screams the name of the song "THE SECRET OF STEAMING BLOOD" before the rest of the lyrics definitely got my blood steaming. Maybe the secret is to play this song. Let me tell you, despite its intentionally raw sound, the riffs are still groovy! It's all thanks to the 2 guitarists. One of them who is labeled as the rhythm player goes by the name Haaska and the other who is the lead, also credited as the bassist.

Speaking of not being able to pronounce things, we have the next track which starts with the letter Y. It looks like it says "Yonsilma". Those dots above the O and the A indicated that I did not say that correctly. But one thing I will say is that despite them being in the background behind the vocals, the shredding guitar work is face melting! "Vihan Verhon Takka" continues the trend of the guitar work knocking your socks off with those pinch harmonic style riffs. I didn't think I was going to be treated to such an imposing power metal presence in the overall tone but boy am I glad it's here to stay.

Throughout the album we get so many symphonic elements sprinkled into the songs. There's so much variety here and I doubt that any fan of black metal would get bored. To further prove my point, we have "The Moonlit Dance of the Twisted Jester's Blood-soaked Rituals". It has a winding guitar riff and a few crazy yet maniacal laughs and there's no vocals. That's right, this one is a jaw dropping instrumental track. Most interludes like this are calm, but not this one. This one is relentless!

"Fire Burns The Horizon" takes you straight back to the blistering cold black metal experience and casts a spell on you after its second half which causes the listener to become even more entranced. The echoey sounding voice that you hear feels like it's coming from deep within a dark cave.

"Into the Silvery Shadows of Night" is a relaxing tune with haunting screeches. Dor the concluding song, "Suden Tie (Wolven Hour pt. 2)," "Wolven Hour" was a song title on the Piercing Through the Frozen Eternity - EP so it's cool that there's a follow-up to it. It's an amazing way to end a solid debut album.

When I say that Horned Lord of the Thorned Castle is a solid debut, I genuinely mean that! This is hands down one of my favorite black metal albums of the year and gets a 9.5 out of 10 from me.

Metal Debate Album Review - Horned Lord Of The Thorned Castle (Moonlight Sorcery)

Milunka Savić was a Serbian war heroine who forced herself into the army under the name of her brother. She fought in the Balkan Wars and in World War I and was wounded no less than nine times during her service.  She took her brother’s place going into the war and was known as a badass with grenades. She also single-handedly captured 23 Bulgarian soldiers. She dressed like a man in the beginning, but eventually she dropped this pretense after being wounded. 
When WWI came, Milunka was assigned to the famous “Iron squadron”, the most elite Second Squadron of the Serbian army, “Knjaz Mihailo”. This lady could fight like no other and has subsequently been awarded numerous honors. Milunka Savić is probably the most-decorated female soldier of all time.

The War to End All Wars

Sabaton - Lady Of The Dark

Welcome back to The Great Metal Debate podcast. Today we are talking about the fourth full-length studio album by the New York brutal tech death band Malignancy titled ...Discontinued, which was dropped on June 14th through Willowtip Records.

This is the band's first album in 12 years so this certainly calls for celebration. For a band that has been around since 1992, you would think that they would have much more albums in their discography but, I guess some bands like to really take the time with their craft.

Before diving into this new record track by track, I'm going point out a major similarity that I've always noticed about this band. Particularly with the vocalist Danny Nelson having a nearly identical sounding voice to Ross Dolan from Immolation. I had often wondered if Malignancy was a side project band, which would make a lot of sense seeing as how both bands are from Yonkers! The answer is no, Danny and Ross are two different people. However, Danny had done vocals for Mortal Decay's 2013 album The Blueprint For Blood Spatter.

When I looked up the names of the band members, I had to do a double take when I saw the bass player. At first I thought it said Alex Webster from Cannibal Corpse, but nope, the new bass player is Alex Weber. Haha, not Webster.

Coincidentally enough, guess where Cannibal Corpse originally started. You guessed it, New York. Except they formed in Buffalo. According to Metal-Archives, Alex Weber has played live for Defeated Sanity and Obscura. Guitarist Ron Kachnic has also been in Pyrexia, Demolition Hammer and Mortician! Mike Heller has been the drummer for multiple bands including System Divide which is Sven from Aborted's side project band. Despite not advertising as such, Malignancy IS a super group.

Kicking things off we have the first track titled "Existential Dread". As you listen to this album, you can feel Danny's lips press against the microphone as he delivers his powerful vocals. You can tell he definitely uses his diaphragm to produce such a monstrous tone. Watch a few live videos of them and you can witness for yourself Danny's commanding stage presence too.

"Purity of Purpose" was the first single released for this album about 2 months beforehand. I remembered as soon as I heard it, I immediately looked up the full-length release date and album title just to add it to my list. Judging from that track alone, I knew I had to review it.

The second single "Biological Absurdity" was uploaded a month later and it of course blew me away. Both of these songs were aired on YouTube as official tracks but we haven't been treated to a music video yet.

I have found myself jamming this album front to back since its release a little over a week ago and I gotta say, I'm impressed! I mean, Malignancy never disappoints. This album is absolutely killer and one of the finest examples of your standard death metal.

Bad ass death metal albums without an overly unique pizazz quality about them are still more than capable of getting a good rating out of me. This is definitely one of the better straight forward death metal albums I've heard in 2024 so far. With that being said, I'm feeling a nice 8/10 rating.

Malignancy has been kickin around in the underground scene since I was a 1-year-old. They've gone through a few line-up changes here and there but have held strong as a band for the past three decades. Their popularity may not be up on the same level as many other bands but they deserve a lot of credit, respect and most of all support.

You can buy their merch ... at pretty much any online metal merch outlet. The most obvious choice would be bandcamp, but they also have merch at primitiverecordings.com, hellsheadbangers.com and indiemerch.com. Of course, if you get lucky enough to see them live; they definitely have a merch table and I hear that they are usually at their stand before and after a show. So don't be shy, go say hi and if nothing else, throw them a few bucks in their tip jar.

Metal Debate Album Review - Discontinued (Malignancy)

Welcome to another episode of The Great Metal Debate podcast. Today we will be talking about the fourth full-length studio album from the German melodic death metal band Nyktophobia titled To The Stars. Lets dive into this album track by track.

We're gonna do this slightly back asswards though because the first two singles they released for this new record happen to be the last two songs on the album. That's sort of a bold choice if you ask me. The first of which was "Millenium". I figured the song would eventually grow on me but after about 4 more listens, I still couldn't tell you what the song even sounded like. Nothing seemed to really stand out about it. It's not a bad song, it just wasn't memorable. I felt underwhelmed. But then I thought okay, not their best work but its alright. Let's hear that new song titled "Voyager 1".

When I opened the file for the opening track, I had mixed feelings over the fact that I had to sit through a minute of obligatory intro track "The Gateway" but on the other hand, it was at least a peaceful sounding intro with the piano keys. I can forgive an intro track as long as its a good intro track.

In fact, it fits seamlessly into the first real song which happens to be the album titled track "To The Stars". Now this song, got me nodding my head in approval! I love the soaring guitar winding up over the blast beats which continued throughout the rest of the track. Not a whole lot of variety but it still sounds okay. At least it had a short lived but calming break.

Next we have "Farewell". Here instead of the Greek mythology that this band is known for, it appears that they've gone into the topic or interstellar travel. Which is cool, sometimes change is good and I'm a huge science fiction fan. This song in particular definitely has a good enough guitar riff to stick the landing.

I would go as far to say that the song "Charon Gate" compliments the former as a great precursor. Not that these two tracks go hand in hand but I do get the feeling of a build-up to a superior musical composition. I quite enjoy this one, it really reminds me of their earlier work. Tomasz' layered vocals go great with that soothing main riff played by guitarists Michael and Phillip. I also like how this one brings back a chorus. 

"The Fall of Eden" lifts off with a slower tempo but kicks into high gear once Michiel's galloping drumming style picks up a speedy rythmn. The guitars once again wind up with the sharp long notes. The problem with this is that when you hear the first 30 seconds of the song, that's you begin to realize that this is how the rest of the song will play out. The same unchanging simplistic riff.

"Progenitor" has the most relaxing intro to any song on the record by having us hear birds chirping over piano and cellos for 1:27. That time stamp of course brings us back to the world of good old fashioned melodic death metal and its probably my favorite track thus far.

But then we come to "Behind The Stars Exists No Light" which honestly sounds pretty good. I like that moment when Tomasz says ... There is no light, behind the stars

And I already talked about these last two songs but I need to revisit them. After listening to the whole album I can now provide a much better analysis. Starting with "Millenium", I'll say that it still doesn't fully grab my attention but its okay. In conclusion "Voyager 1" is a perfect closer to the album as the first half of the track is instrumental. A somber piano has keys being pressed down hard in a dramatic way but later on we get a very weird, almost alien-like sound. It's hard to describe so you'll just have to check it out for yourself.

My final thoughts on this record is that I love this band but my go-to albums will always be Fallen Empire and Fate of Atlantis. So I'll give Nyktophobia - To The Stars a 8.5/10 rating. Show your support for Nyktophobia by streaming their music on all platforms and their merch is on their Bandcamp page.

Metal Debate Album Review - To The Stars (Nyktophobia)

The podcast is back with another amazing Metal Debate album review... Xander checks out the new one from blackened heavy metal outfit Nite titled "Cult Of The Serpent Sun" (Season Of Mist, 2025).

QUOTES
"I'll give this one a high score, mainly because it's a perfect match to their two previous records. All together this makes a nearly flawless trilogy… Chances are high that I'll have this one on constant rotation over the next 10 months especially when it comes out."

Check out Nite’s music at https://www.youtube.com/@seasonofmist 

Purchase music and merchandise from Nite at https://nitemetal.com/ 

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The Great Metal Debate Podcast:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-great-metal-debate-podcast/id1037874814
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Podcast intro music by CONTRA; intro voice by Greg Kyle (RIP).

CONTACT
Business email: TheGreatMetalDebate@gmail.com


Metal Debate Album Review - Cult Of The Serpent Sun (Nite)

The Metal Debate podcast is bring featuring another amazing album review...  Xander reviews the latest from Hate titled “Bellum Regiis” (Metal Blade Records, 2025).

QUOTES
"Even though I enjoy Hate, I gotta say that I have only recently become an even bigger fan... that one new track by Hate destroys everything Behemoth has made in the past five years!"

Check out Hate’s music at https://www.youtube.com/@metalbladerecords 

Find music and merchandise from Hate at https://linktr.ee/hateofficial    

SOCIAL LINKS:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/metaldebate/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thegreatmetaldebate/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/metaldebate/

The Great Metal Debate Podcast:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-great-metal-debate-podcast/id1037874814
https://soundcloud.com/thegreatmetaldebate

Podcast intro music by CONTRA; intro voice by Greg Kyle (RIP).

CONTACT
Business email: TheGreatMetalDebate@gmail.com 


Metal Debate Album Review - Bellum Regiis (Hate)

Podcast where Gomthog and co-hosts engage in lively debates on heavy metal music as well as interviewing artists and reviewing albums.  Occasional explicit language.

New tracks tagged #Metal Album