Tom Valcanis

4 December 2025

Blog

The Six Stacker: Tears In Rain

Tom Valcanis

4 December 2025

Blog

It happened… again. I bought an album I already owned without even checking. I saw Opeth at the Palais Theatre (sat down and all) and couldn’t believe I didn’t own their darker half of their double record Deliverance (the other bit being the portent of things to come, Damnation.) Turns out I did. Great gig, though. It’s December now and I’m still grumbling about the cold. What the hell? If I paid more attention in Earth Science classes, I’d probably know why. (Hint: It’s La Nina)

Whom Gods Destroy - Insanium

I love this band. I love this band despite how relentlessly American they are. Odd time signatures? Check. Raspy Jørn Lande knockoff on vocals? Check. ex-Dream Theater keyboardist? (Derek Sherinian, natch.) Check. Asian bass player? Check. I haven’t kept up with Dream Theater for yonks. A part of me feels bad, but a larger part of me doesn’t give a shit. This has been lodged in my six stacker for so long, it may have formed a symbiotic relationship with it. Opener In The Name of War is crushingly heavy if you still think Painkiller is the apex predator of heaviness. This is no criticism; metalheads rejoiced when DT released Train of Thought, their semi-demi-thrash album all the way back in ‘03. You get Hammond organ drenched barnstormers (Over Again), European style rock ballads (The Decision, Find My Way Back) and classic, fist-pumping bluesy Dad rock jams (Keeper of the Gate). Prog fans of a certain vintage - there’s nothing you won’t love here.

Officium Triste - Hortus VeneNum

I was scolded… perhaps pilloried… maybe lambasted by a underling during my iron fist-like command overHysteria Mag for suggesting the Peaceville Three (My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost, and Anathema) was ever a thing. I overruled him, so it is. As for Dutch depressos Officium Triste, Hortus Venenum is like stepping in a time machine to 1996 and flipping switches in the Cavanaugh brothers’ brains to make another run in the Eternity or Judgement sound. (They’ve been around since before then, believe it or not.) It’s death-doom in that Anathem-ic vein, undiluted by space rock or prog rock. They even crib their reedy e-Bow theatrics on a weighty eight-minute Walk in Shadows, and weeping whirlwinds of chugging woe on My Poison Garden, which passes resemblance to contemporary MDB. Pensive piano-driven closer Angels with Broken Wings… well, you get the picture. It’s a paean to the Anathema that never was, only real.

Ihsahn - Ihsahn

I still contend that OG black metal shrieker Ihsahn (Emperor, Peccatum, et. al.) writes music for Bond villains as if they were the heroes of the piece: elegant, sophisticated, masculine; with a streak of insanity run through it. A lot of this self titled record is symphonic black metal in the “anything goes” philosophy of Arcturus; blast beats meets belts of bassoon head on in Pilgrimage to Oblivion, for example. He doesn’t really ease off the gas all that much until A Taste of Ambrosia, an slipping into darkness instead of bat-out-of-helling it like the previous tracks. The Distance Between Us infused with his brooding cleans could be mistaken for a Katatonia cut, which isn’t altogether a bad thing. Best vocal performance on the album goes to the nine-minute slow builder At the Heart of All Things Broken, a multifaceted symphony that could (and does) rival the metal epic greats: Ghost Love Score, Hallowed Be Thy Name, etc. Ihsahn’s ambition matches his talent, which is all we as listeners can hope for.

Mother of Graves - The Periapt of Absence

Yes, I too had to look up what periapt meant (it means amulet.) For the uninitiated, death-doom died around the turn of the century; though there’s so many bands “bringing it back” I’m beginning to think it never really went away. Indianapoles (is that a thing?) Mother of Graves drape themselves in mourning and woe (like any death-doom cultist should) by way of death n’ roll in Sweden - if Dan Swanö (Edge of Sanity, Witherscape) or L.G. Petrov (RIP; Entombed) prodded their respective bands to really really get into My Dying Bride. Case and point being the double-time asskicker Shatter the Visage, which may or may not be a lost Purgatory Afterglow cut. That knotty and complicated riffing Swanö pioneered is alive and well here; even his clipped rapid fire vocal delivery (A Scarlet Threnody, Upon Burdened Hands). It’s walks to the precipice of extremity, looks down, laughs, yet never ever jumps off; which is a good thing because some of these tracks could easily overstay their welcome. Excellent in almost every regard.

Wytch Hazel - V: Lamentations

Crusaders in the name of our Lord (Jesus, not Dio) Wytch Hazel are BACK with their fifth proto-NWBOHM record and it’s… well, the Wytch Hazel we all know and cherish. Overdriven twin leads, throbbing riffs, huge nourishing harmonies, and sounding if it was recorded off Lake Montreaux in a Rolling Stones Mobile Studio while a razed hotel smoulders behind them. Thanks for nothing, Mothers of Invention. All their records are largely filler-free (if you want to be a child of God then all art praising him must be worthy of him, right?) and this one lives up to its title. The Demon Within isn’t all happy clapping; it’s introspective and downcast, an expression of a struggle with faith. 70s pagan (!!!) folk creeps into the Wishbone Ash (who else) cribbed The Citadel, darker territory still. Though we get a glimpse of that light and love on a cheery ender Elements - despite a confessional, sombre middle-8 - because not doing so would be far too removed from their mission. Another belter from a band who seemingly can’t put a note wrong.

Wormed - Omegon

Death metal? What about Clankerfied death metal? Well, Fear Factory kinda cornered the market on that like 30 (!!!) years ago. Omegon is a concept record “a cosmic substance defying mortal grasp. Amidst ancient conflict, civilizations vie for its boundless power, blurring reality's lines. From shadows emerges Krighsu, a timeline hacker entangled in manipulation by cosmic forces. Amidst surreal realms, he battles to unlock Omegon's mysteries.” Ha! Nerds. This is tech death rooted firmly at the lower end of the register, hollowbody blast beats the order of the day such is the tangled opener Automaton Virtulague (what the fuck) and the brutality doesn’t shift recalling Gorguts or Cattle Decaptitation, especially in the ever-shifting Pleoverse Omninertia (I am not writing these out again) Unfortunately for my tired fingers the most tech death of them all is Aetheric Transdimensionalization (fuck my giddy aunt) which defies Euclidian space… well it seems like it. Look at those clankers on the record cover. Now insert your USB into its Love.exe!

Tom Valcanis

27 August 2025

Blog

The Six Stacker: In Your Mind

Tom Valcanis

27 August 2025

Blog

It’s still cold and I’m crammed to the eyeballs in work. I swear when I get my ducks in a row, one duck takes a good long notice only to tell me to go to hell. These discs preserved my sanity when it wore thin, especially the first one…

MYRATH - Karma

Even the most cynical power metalhead will have to concede these albums as watersheds in the genre: Keepers of the Seven Keys. Blind Guardian’s Nightfall in Middle-Earth. Hammerfall’s Legacy of Kings. Probably. Kamelot’s The Black Halo. Maybe. Tunisia’s Myrath make the case for Karma as another watershed in this oft-derided genre (mostly by me.) As opening castenets echo around opener To the Stars, their barnstorming ‘blazing desert metal’ would win over any crowd, any where as openers for pretty much anyone. Singer Zaher Zorgati is that perfect rough-hewn blend of a soaring Russell Allen (Symphony X) and stadium-commanding rasp of Jørn Lande (Jørn, ex-Masterplan, et. al.), gliding in as bombastic horns rattle the earth in second showstopper Into the Light. Speaking of, they even out Masterplan Masterplan in closer Carry On, replete with sadboi chorus and lightning-quick fretwork.

Yes, there’s a lot of Arabic/North African pop melody here, but god damn it you cannot tell me it doesn’t work. A New Jack swing infecting Candles Cry will latch on to your brain-stem in under a Mos Eisley minute. Likewise the track Disney wished they had on the Aladdin soundtrack, Let it Go. So much of it is 12-point Eurovision fodder but that’s the beauty of this entire record. Each track feels alive with new ideas and motifs, sounding foreign yet familiar, rousing yet grounded. If you haven’t heard this record, you should. Like, right now.

Blood Incantation - Absolute Elsewhere

The much feted Denver, Coloradans ask the question “what if those hippie stoners your dad told you to steer clear from were also death metal” and answer it in mind-alteringly trippy fashion on Absolute Elsewhere. I know scribes have written hard-drives worth of “IT’S PINK FLOYD MIXED WITH DEATH METAL OMG” and they’re right. It’s also Rush, Camel, King Crimson, and a whole bunch of other obscure prog shit I don’t know about and will likely never ever come across, ever. Though compared to some of their psychedelic bretheren such as Sigh for example, it feels a bit safe. You don’t have to smear blood across your face and direct sonic weapons at your audience to get your point across, no. Though for all the writers in a lather about how cutting-edge and groundbreaking this feels, it just doesn’t. It’s great, contrasting and deftly played progressive rock and death metal. One guy sat it next to Sigh and Gorguts, saying it was “ a towering achievement which exceeds all expectations.” Yeah, maybe? It’s good. It’s really good. Best album of last year good. But I don’t think it’s Pet Sounds.

Forgotten Tomb - Nightfloating

Let’s say Jonas Renkse in the late 90s visted his government-subsidsed Swedish throat doctor and he (HE???) said there was nothing wrong with his pipes and could growl from Monday until Fredagmsys and beyond. I think that version of Katatonia would resemble Forgotten Tomb. Hailing from Italy (really?) Forgotten Tomb play a forlorn, down-tuned death metal that seemingly died out after the release of Discouraged Ones. A Chill You Can’t Taint’s icy arpeggios recall ye olde Peaceville-era Katatonia, though those delirious wandering passages give way to to some rather extraverted face-melters. Though there’s only six tracks on here, they feel like a whole lot more; a depth and diversity most straight up death metal bands wouldn’t dare touch. (c.f Drifting, the weird synth funeral dirge that sounds like a My Dying Bride offcut) It’s a death metal crew displaying their love for shoegaze and post-punk underneath about fifteen overlapped Cannibal Corpse and Malevolent Creation patches. It’s an Sliding Doors-style experience, for sure.

Amiensus - Reclamation Parts I and II

This, along with Myrath got a solid run in my Six Stacker of late. It also becomes apparent how the two intertwine with one another - the first disc being about life and death and the second a departure into an afterlife, or altered consciousness. Just a joy to listen to every time.

Progressive black metal (if that’s what we’re calling it) over these two ambitious discs is for want of a better word, beautiful. Yeah, it’s brutal as fuck at times but Reclamation Parts I and II (which should be taken as a whole) feels vibrant, resplendent, triumphant. Just like Wilderun or Disillusion before them, it’s a grand opus that takes in the wondrous spectrum of human emotion while retaining an overwhelming joy. It’s a joy evoked by the simple pleasure of listening to these sounds, as a haze between one’s internal world and the external settles in. A crowning achievement in the genre as it spans so many - folk, neo-classical, thrash, prog - because it will leave you in pure awe.

Kanonenfieber - Die Urkatastrophe

Here’s a new one for ya pally: death metal all about the Kaiserreich’s faild campaign in the First World War… in German. On my first listen, I couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about. It felt like Amon Amarth in German with bits of Bolt Thrower mixed in. Sturmtrupp sure feels like Versus the World and Nordic windmilling n’ cosplay to me, at least on casual listen. (Gegen die Welt?) Main man Noise captures the relentless churn of trench warfare in tracks such as Waffenbrüder, opening like still dawn over a bloodsoaked battlefield before the whistle blows to initiate mindless, industrial-strength slaughter in the pursuit of mere inches of territory. There is some pummeling thrash in highlight Gott mit der Kavallerie and blunt force hulka-riffage in a Char 2C sized Panzerhenker. Anthemic yet defeated in Ausblutungsschlacht, guitars crawling across barren landscapes and punctuated with speeches by Imperial Germans, it’s a feast for the ears and the imagination. The closest we’ll ever get to the Great War are grainy photos, gut-wrenching poetry, or perhaps the comfort of a respawn in Battlefield 1. Kanonenfieber take on a grim subject and capture it with fire and intensity few other bands dream to match.

Tom Valcanis

1 July 2025

Blog

The Six Stacker: Dirty and Ugly

Tom Valcanis

1 July 2025

Blog

In the Winter months, it can get really dirty and ugly - especially when there’s days you just don’t wanna get up and everybody sucks. To coin a phrase. It’s Winter and there’s not much fun to be had, especially when you’re stone motherless broke (I am right now, that could change in minute…) Here are some traxx I’ve been spinning:

The Last of Lucy - Godform

Weird name for a weird band. If they weren’t playing fret-melting tech death, what would they be playing? Twee indie rock? Something like that. What strikes me looking at the runtime of this disc is how short it is (a bit over 32 minutes) despite how many ideas one hears throughout. Empyreal Banisher clocks us over the head with lightspeed doublekick and riffs to match, lead breaks lifting off before crashing down, spiders emerging from the wreckage threatening to devour us limb from limb. This all happens within a taught three minutes seven seconds. Twin Flame is aptly titled as they chew off our ears and salve them with gentle clarinet solos (two of them!). Old school arsekicking (Sentinel Codex, Angelic Gateway) sits alongside new school dissonant, technical asskicking (Darkest Night of the Soul). Both work in brutal harmony by never belabouring the point. So much to love here.

Ollie Wride - The Pressure Point

The voice and face of the New Retro Wave is BACK! Ollie’s last record Thanks in Advance had a sexy, confident edge to it; The Pressure Point by contrast is lovelorn and weary. A Matter of Time is a bright, dare I say jaunty track that could’ve cut straight out of Buckaroo Banzai or a similar thoroughly entertaining, OTT, yet completely bonkers film. He struts through syncopated, Calypso-tinged (think Billy Ocean) contemporary (for the time) adult pop (a sax drenched The Way I See It), U2-style arena-filling homages to Radio Ga Ga, at least where that shuddering beat is concerned (Radio feat. The American English), and post-disco shuffle melding with New Jack Groove in electric dreams (Holy Drug).

Though all of the cuts are stellar thanks to meticulous production and knockout vocal performances, centrepiece Victoria is the business. It arrives on a wow and flutter of synth, Ollie’s breathy tones building tension as brisk bluesy licks accompany him, leading to an incredible release: an explosive chorus carried on the backs of a thousand pained voices: “First you tell me to go / then you tell me to stay / Your eyes are fixed on me / but you’re a million miles away” - simply irresistable. Like I’ve said so many times before, in the reniassance of 80s synthwave, Ollie Wride is IT!

Unto Others - Never, Neverland

From my Best of 2024 review:

From the hard yet jangly chords of opener Butterfly, Gabe Franco’s baritone croon, rich with metaphor comparing a difficult lover to a butterfly (I could win your heart with a melody / I could comfort you with a sweet serenade (I made) / Or I could lash my tongue in a criticism, yeah / Or put you down and pray for the tears in your eyes / I want you to die) you can just feel that this is album is dark magic pressed into thin perspex. It shifts from goth to crossover Suicidal Tendencies thrash (Momma Likes the Door Closed) to ironic post-punk meets Steinman pop (Angel of the Night) with such self-assuredness it’s almost criminal. This all occurs over three consecutive tracks, by the way. What’s even more incredible is that some of these mouthwatering cuts clock in at 7” 45 lengths: a punchy Fame, a punky Flatline, or a satisfying morsel of Blue Oyster Cult worship Hoops. It all feels like Lt. Tuck Pendleton’s bittersweet lament in Innerspace: “When things are at their darkest pal, it’s a brave man who can kick back and party.” So Unto Others did. And we reaped the benefits.

Aborted - Vault of Horrors

The Vault of Horrors is as close to a compliation or mixtape style album we’ll ever get in death metal. Each track features a who’s who in the gurgle-throatripper zoo and these Belgian goreanauts mould their necksnapping riffery to match. Archspire’s Oliver Rae Aleron joins on The Shape of Hate and it’s shotgun blasts of vocals and drums for four minutes straight. The one minute forty four fleshripper Insect Politics could slot in at a hardcore show, thanks to Jason Evans (ex-Ingested) throat stripper delivery plus semi-demi-breakdown in the dying seconds of the last act. Aborted is fun death metal. Put it on and mosh in your seat. Boom.

Opeth - The Last Will and Testament

Opeth IS BACK! Well, as far as their metallic roots are concerned. One minute twenty into §1 (yeah, I know) as their syncopated riffs crunch along, Mikael Akerfeldt growls for the first time in what feels ike 20 years (Was it 20 years? When did Watershed come out? 2008? Oh fuck) Of course, it’s metal with all the weird paisley and patchouli 70s prog weaved in; dizzy Camel-isms, Jethro Tull cribbed flute parts (§4), Emerson, Lake, and Palmer riff salad surgery, and a ton of other weird stuff only your hippie uncle has ever heard of. We’re never getting another My Arms, Your Hearse, but hey, they can (and have done) much more blander fare.

Sworn - A Journey Told Through Fire

Norway’s Sworn has its feet in two worlds: one planted in dark and mystic black metal imperium of Hel Vete yore; the other in the post-Enslaved, post-Ihsahn reimagining of black metal. How? Ohhh, Dan Swanö (ex-Edge of Sanity, Nightingale, Witherscape) produced this. Now it makes sense. Their blast-beaten Scandi-shred chops are uimpeachable, as is their Finnish sadboi tendency, an Insomnium-eqsue snowdrift acoustic break in Grand Eclipse sealing a frostbitten Northernmost deal. It’s melodic black metal through and through, though you’d be forgiven if half of Dissection and half of Omnium Gatherum showed up to the studio (under Swanö’s guidance), sprinkling in a little Emperor or Old Man’s Child for good measure. There are few - if any - pitch perfect hybrids of latter-day melodic death metal AND melodic black metal out there. It may have taken fifteen years of gruesome gestation, but the journey told through riff and lick (and fire) is well worth it.