Asylum Road closed their 2025 with a very uncompromising single, ‘Mask of Oblivion’. The track’s mix of metalcore and hardcore with a pinch of death metal darkness left nothing to chance in terms of overall heaviness.
On their 2019 LP, ‘Ode To Oblivion’, Oreyeon delivered a set of songs driven by absolutely crushing riffs. Blending the stoner/fuzz of classic Kyuss into a doomier musical landscape, the record’s best songs were unrelentingly heavy, and yet a world of vocal filters and other tricks sometimes gave their sound a deep psych edge which kept things interesting. Over the next few years, Oreyeon would become an important fixture within the Italian doom and sludge scenes. By the time they recorded ‘Equations For The Useless’ in 2022, a much bigger recording budget gave them a slightly clearer sound, but without making their material especially more accessible. If anything, it cemented the band’s reputation as one of Europe’s finest underground metal bands.
Named “Guitarist of The Year 2025” by Roadie Crew Magazine, Silas Fernandes is the embodiment of all of those fretboard shredders you loved in the early 90s. His current EP ‘Carbon Purge Acceleration’ presents a half dozen very heavy instrumental workouts, each of which help to showcase his explosive style.
Occasionally, a band name is all you need to gauge what something probably sounds like. Truckfighters and Acid Mammoth are two great examples. Here’s another: Lord Elephant create an absolutely huge sound throughout their second album ‘Ultra Soul’. The record’s seven instrumental numbers often find the Italian band in a weighty frame of mind, bringing a world of riffs that blend doom, stoner metal and deep psych in a way that invites favourable comparisons with Earthless and Karma To Burn, as well as drawing influence from the instrumental elements of Down and Eyehategod – only making those influences feel more intense.
An ominous drone, a piercing sound from a synth and a feeling of rising tension create the ideal way to introduce Shadowborn’s debut EP. In just a few seconds, this gives ‘Through The Hourglass’ a feeling of unease, and the quiet but dark sounds also have the effect of making the subsequent riffs come through with a much bigger punch.