THE TOP 10 ALBUMS OF THE MONTH should be self-explanatory, an ordered ranking of ten albums that’d resonated most throughout this month. If you’re new to the site, the tendency is heavy and/or surreal music. Choices are selected based on temporal immersion, personal connection, impressive style, point of view, aesthetics and with consideration for the lasting value of each selection. All choices are ultimately personal and come without consideration for populism, nepotism, cronyism, or any outside factors including perceived “relevance”. Writing about music is a passion I afford as much time as is manageable and I am grateful to have so much to choose from. Thank you.

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I. This month on MystificationZine.com included 27 longform album reviews, 20 video reviews/features, and 18 short album reviews. As much as I try to cover there are a vast, vast number of overlooked monthly releases which are yet worth seeking out. Take this as a jumping off point for your own exploration and let me know what you find. Where is the new Sargeist on the list? High up there for sure but it released one day ago. I won’t rush an opinion for the hell of it, everything deserves due consideration.

II. If you’d missed the memo last month: [1] Check out the ZINE tab on the site menu. [2] Mystification Zine issue number seven will arrive shortly. [3] New webstore: mystification.bigcartel.com [4] Discogs: discogs.com/seller/terraasymmetry. All of these are efforts to boost investment into the site.

III. In 2025 written reviews will now have a video component which will post at the bottom of each review or feature, typically every week or two. If you enjoy these please consider following on YouTube. We are hovering around ~1,275 subscribers and hoping to reach the 2,000 mark in 2025.

IV. As always I’d like to express my gratitude for the bands, labels and PR firms who choose to work with me. Thank you.

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13. BLOOD MONOLITH – The Calling of Fire (2025) | REVIEW
12. WEEPING SORES – The Convalescence Agonies (2025) | REVIEW
11. PUTERAEON – Mountains of Madness (2025) | REVIEW

#10
ARTIST:	ENTHEOMORPHOSIS
TITLE:	Pyhä kuilu
RECORD LABEL(S):	Svart Records

A ritual of hope and haze? A “wastement” jam gone ruthless? A cleansing lysergic meditation for those aching to achieve ego-death? A collaboration of doom and self-liberation between some of the finer avant-musos in the Suomi realm for sure, Entheomorphosis is alchemical in its waft and memorable for the character these fellowes embody as a unit. However you might categorize the droning spiritus in mind to help grasp its entirety I personally couldn’t deny the magickal effect achieved through repeated listening. As was the case with Waste of Space Orchestra I’d been left wanting some continuation of this idea or narrative, a good sign I’d enjoyed myself.

“With an unfathomably deep and frothing well of inner dread swollen in mind and boundless spiritual outburst envisioned Finnish avant-droning atmosludge/doom quartet ENTHEOMORPHOSIS have readied themselves for complete purgation within this debut full-length album. ‘Pyhä kuilu‘ intends a dissolution and reinvention of the self which paths completely through the umbra before reaching any one point of meaningful illumination. A dark and pained ritual of psychic release centered around their fully enmeshed rhythmic chemistry these recordings are defined by surreal obsidian entrancement along a path of ego-death, a harrowing invitation to hone the self within the span of this ~32 minute downward seeking scowl and be refined by their course through abysm.“

>> FULL REVIEW <<

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#9
ARTIST:	ESCARNIUM
TITLE:	Inexorable Entropy
RECORD LABEL(S):	Everlasting Spew Records

While the review process left me feeling ‘Inexorable Entropy‘ was fantastic yet under developed in some sense I cannot deny the fact that I’ve gone back to this record many times since for its trade between spaced, sinister drift and volatile atmospheric death. This’d been a very rare case of an album needing just a little bit more time than the review process allows to simmer in mind. Also the shorter length of the record really helps in that I found myself easily taking a half hour and rolling along with its punches.

“Cut back to the rawly stinging quick and reeking of miserably struck brutality this fourth full-length album from Salvador, Brazil-based death metal quartet ESCARNIUM spikes in mind as deeply and quickly as an impinged nerve, each bite of its intensity raising even more corporeal dread. Roaring in ear and rearing back in order to express profound nihilistic dismay ‘Inexorable Entropy‘ deftly builds upon the band’s more recent habit of mind-bending atmospheric interjections alongside an even more succinct crush through their brazen death metal assault. While the whole event does technically amount to iteration beyond their previous LP this doesn’t stop these folks from putting together their finest release to date.“

>> FULL REVIEW <<

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#8
ARTIST:	OSSUARY
TITLE:	Abhorrent Worship
RECORD LABEL(S):	Me Saco Un Ojo, Darkness Shall Rise

Though I couldn’t say Ossuary‘s much anticipated debut was memorable for its songcraft they do offer an especially effective feral connection within their textural and surreal grooves. Linear corridors of finessed riffcraft and a great snarl carry the mind well through their horrors and even if there is no “gimmick” or unheard of idea in hand there is something to be said for the primal efficacy of death and doom metal in combination when delivered with hissing conviction. If I came across tentative about their work in my coverage it is because I’d found this album shockingly great as a fan of the sub-genre but also assured that their evolution over time might prove ten times more interesting. Also, really interesting choices such as cover art and production sound help this to stand out a bit more in the crowd.

“Shattered at the knees and clambering atop a messily scattered subterranean hill of gnawed-smooth skeletal remains Madison, Wisconsin-based death metal trio OSSUARY depict a primordial lair beyond human sacrifice, a pit of mayhemic suffering which reeks of the ancient miasma of ‘old school’ death/doom metal they’ve been crafting for the last decade or so. A proper debut full-length album which delivers upon the band’s years of development ‘Abhorrent Worship‘ presents a natural refinement of morbid classicism and misery bound gloom which yet obsesses over the riff and its downward circling pathos. Though their work doesn’t set out to holistically tribute (or flatly replicate) the vast realm of classic death-doom sounds they’ve done well to develop and expound their own combination of select traits and wield them as strengths per this fleshed-out, more formal introduction.“

>> FULL REVIEW <<

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#7
ARTIST:	ELEVENTH RAY
TITLE:	Reviving Tehom
RECORD LABEL(S):	Dark Descent Records

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that my review for ‘Reviving Tehom‘ was all over the place in some respects as the album itself is eclectic, raw, and guided more by spiritual significance than sub-genre. That specificity is itself indicative of personality we rarely see in this type of headspace, Eleventh Ray aren’t defined by a ‘Morbid Tales‘-level riff or a “retro” thrashing moment here but a full array of interest that stretches beyond the black, death and thrash metal specificity which feeds their unreal paradigm. Creativity and lo-fi 80’s black-death metal are one thing but I think what’d gotten me so riled about this album was the sensation that they’d added something new to an ancient sound, wrenching ancient blood from rotten vestments.

“A leak of raw power from sessions guided by the ecstatic channeling of aeonic dark magick this debut full-length album from Athens, Greece-based thrashing dark death metal quartet ELEVENTH RAY offers a spiritually sincere alternative to the naive “shock rock” satanism of the mid-to-late 80’s extreme metal phenomenon, taking their own path through occult and idiosyncratic readings of the ageless ways. More a portal to fiery primacy than any sort of cartoonish, retro-minded extraction ‘Reviving Tehom‘ evokes the specificity of typhonian alchemical conjure beside a ritualized vision of the not-yet-specified mid-to-late 80’s age of thrashing and doomed death-and-black metal at its meanest and most riff-obsessed stages. To the insatiable worshippers of the old cult it’ll be an impressively stylized portal reopened and rethought, and a uniquely stated riff record to all else.“

>> FULL REVIEW <<

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#6
ARTIST:	WARMOON LORD
TITLE:	Sacrosanct Demonopathy
RECORD LABEL(S):	Werewolf Records

While I’d focused intently on the dual-rhythm guitar work of ‘Sacrosanct Demonopathy‘ in my review it was for the sake of suggesting Warmoon Lord have admirably built upon their previous release with ever-inclining standards closer to those of 90’s black metal musicianship. This album meets that high standard with its grand, ambitiously mayhemic songcraft while indulging in folken high fantasy carnage otherwise, making for a well-rounded listen with highly repeatable depth.

“While one could accuse hundreds of supreme black metal bands today of revisionist escapism few seek to generate their own dark fantasy worlds with any real sincerity, at least not to the ambitious magnitude of Lahti, Finland-based black metal duo WARMOON LORD who tread familiar ground but do so to an impeccable standard and with increasing ambition album over album. For this third full-length record their craft has all of the lofty adornment and herd-defying attitude one’d want from a second wave obsessed muse yet their treatment of Satanic high fantasy narrated guile is most distinctly lead by an elite uptick in guitar arrangements and performances centered on the realm of the riff. ‘Sacrosanct Demonopathy‘ refuses to toe the line, finding a brilliant ratio between the upshot gloria of introspective Scandinavian black metal majesty and the direct-to-throat slash of (early) melodic black metal at its most complexly scaled and riveting left hand grasp.“

>> FULL REVIEW <<

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#5
ARTIST:	COLTSBLOOD
TITLE:	Obscured into Nebulous Dusk
RECORD LABEL(S):	Translation Loss Records

Every release from this British trio has been an escalation beyond the last though this long-awaited third LP is especially fine in its application beyond the last, a natural intensification of their treading between atmospheric sludge, funeral doom metal and death/doom heaviness. Though I’d enjoyed their previous LP quite a bit in hindsight this one has stuck particularly well as an embiggened continuation of that core idea. Perhaps the Finnish funeral doom inspiration helps to grease the wheel for my own taste but I couldn’t pull myself away from the haunting atmosphere and heaviest yet production values applied to their work. Brilliant work which I’ve continued to revisit beyond the review process.

“The shoe has dropped, the collapse of the natural world and civilization having been less than grand and moreso guttural in its flailing heave unto death, and yet the stamp it leaves on humanity’s neck is profoundly concentric. As it turns out the pre-apocalypse and the post-apocalypse look much the same beyond all the disintegrating corpses left behind as Liverpool, England-based funeral death doom/sludge metal trio COLTSBLOOD depict the finale of life on earth both in motion and fully arrived on this third and heaviest full-length album. ‘Obscured into Nebulous Dusk‘ is a far deeper step down into funeral death/doom metal tonality, still a thunder-carved sludge/doom metal band with extreme metal tastes but one who fully dive into atmospheric dithering of funeral-apropos sounds. While it won’t alienate fans of their previous work in any sense this is a band who’ve sharpened their general preparedness, performance and presentation to a fresh high this third time around.“

>> FULL REVIEW <<

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#4
ARTIST:	DARKSIDE RITUAL
TITLE:	Chamber of Deathlessness
RECORD LABEL(S):	Chaos Records

Though I was aware of Darkside Ritual per their debut in 2017 I’d missed out on this Mexican blackened death metal band’s development beyond that point, having escaped any mention of their EP or second album so it was rad to not only catch up with their discography but find ‘Chamber of Deathlessness‘ existing on another level. I’d enjoyed the dark underground grime of this recording as well as their step away from more caustic tech-death tonality as this refocused their work away from chaos into furor and dementia, a brain-wracking vortex of introspection which intensifies with each piece.

“Amplified between a hundred points of refraction in sinistral angle the phenomenon of being is mused into void-gazing existential abstraction in the hands of Querétaro, Mexico-based technical blackened death metal quartet DARKSIDE RITUAL who peel back the celestial shroud and pry loose the viscera of the skull within this third full-length album. A conceptual trilogy’s peaking arc ‘Chamber of Deathlessness‘ captures the band maneuvering further from caustic technical brutality into neuron-stretching nausea, centering their attack upon occasionally dissonant and erratically paced songs which tread more readily into hypnotic rhythms and deeper blackened territory on this third cycle. Densely written and pulverizing by default their work had already breached abstracted forms on prior releases and here all comes in no less frequent waves of mind palace raiding riff-driven death metal faceted within high-rate, layer-peeling tangent which preserves their brutal tension by way of a darkest, haze-ridden presence.“

>> FULL REVIEW <<

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#3
ARTIST:	WITCHCRAFT
TITLE:	Idag
RECORD LABEL(S):	Heavy Psych Sounds

Though I didn’t fall out of my chair for ‘Black Metal‘ a few years back I found it surprising to see folks pretty unanimously suggesting Witchcraft are “back”, as I think I’d stepped away from the review process for this one thinking Pelander‘s work is now sealed into pact as an ouevre rather than an ongoing exploration. This is the record from the band I’ll look back on and say it had everything, a cumulative signature achieved from summed beginnings unto a soul-gripping heavy psych/doom metal album. Also the choice of guitar tones, the warbling voice in beauteous Swedish sung pieces, this one has its own magnetic dread-bound heavy rock spirit to it and I couldn’t keep my ears off it.

“Musing over dark dreams, fantastical quasi-blasphemies and what drives the blues in mind Örebro, Sweden-based heavy psychedelic rock/traditional doom metal trio WITCHCRAFT return with their first characteristic full-length in nearly a decade. As a seventh and long-awaited record from a band credited with inspiring broader heavy rock revivalist idealism a couple of decades ago ‘Idag‘ is naturally cumulative, gathering years broadened ouevre into a proper representative experience. Meeting up with the expectations set by the artist’s 70’s stoked spiritus and folken doomed personae might’ve been a mess in most hands but here style acts in service to their songcraft and not the other way around, ensuring no matter how you approach this one it’ll feel equal parts welcome return and a pace forward.“

>> FULL REVIEW <<

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#2
ARTIST:	BALMOG
TITLE:	Laio
RECORD LABEL(S):	War Anthem Records

On paper, in poise and with consideration for purpose Balmog‘s music is black metal yet an album like ‘Laio‘ doesn’t consider sub-genre a strict order so much as malleable palette to exercise their death-magick upon. Their evolution here is new flesh grown within sorrowful introspection, a heavier focus on post-punk/gothic rock tastes and now song structures takes their exploration further down the left hand path beyond ‘Eve‘. Huge fan of this band and the path they’ve forged for themselves, particularly within their last five or so releases.

“There is a psychic war being fought within the tethered contentedness of the individual and the skull-pinging ambition that haunts all thoughts beyond self-actualization’s prompt, a fifth stage maturation of the singularity that goes on peering readily into the dark on this latest full-length album from Soutomaior, Galicia-based black metal quartet (trio on record) BALMOG. Their latest crowning achievement in an imposing streak of black metal blurring movements against the grain, ‘Laio‘ feels the momentum behind it’s back and revels in the sensation of fusing bones and drying cartilage as their inner-beast continues to grow. Combining more recent sea-change with an increasingly distant past the band’s latest material achieves a new level of harried emotional intensity, an array of reactive and wise notions built from eclectic, outward-seeking sensibilities. Though the entity hungers for a holistically representative self it doesn’t escape the tormentor’s wheel, leaning into lamentations which follows life’s expansion and death’s contraction in wrenching unison.“

>> FULL REVIEW <<

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#1	Album of the Month
ARTIST:	JADE
TITLE:	Mysteries of a Flowery Dream
RECORD LABEL(S):	Pulverised Records, Iron Fortress Records

There is no better feeling than approaching a record from every possible angle, talking in circles around it trying to figure it from the guts out and ultimately having to surrender to it being its own glorious Eldritch artefact, glowing in hand as its spreads its aura of madness. Sure, the pleasure of hyperbole is a close second place but really I still feel like I could (and did) try to reduce my elevator pitch for Jade‘s latest down to a few sentences and could maybe do it in ten. I’ll settle for it being a vision within a dream intending spirit guided commune with the omnipresent channeled through a death metal root system, a ritual of melodious nourishment for the seeker’s dream divination efforts. Atmospheric death metal covers it well enough but death/doom applies too here and there.

“Spoken between the collective unbewusst and the unknown realm(s) beyond death the dialogue pursued at the heart of this second full-length album from Catalonian atmospheric death metal trio JADE intends access to a profound lucid dreaming state in order to divine the deeper mysteries of life and death. In pursuit of transcendental ken ‘Mysteries of a Flowery Dream‘ focuses on developing its own ominous yet richly melodic sonic language, a surreal tongue which better achieves their commune with the psychopomp that’d direct our way through the nine-stage process of releasing the soul from the body. A brilliantly composed slow-rolling tide built upon ripples of doomed, blackened and impassioned storm-calling psychedelia here we find these sorcerers of guitar-driven atmosphere reaching for a more direct-shot melodious charge, tasking themselves with a uniquely blustering tonal experience which rings in hundred-layered whorl yet still manages their goal of transcendental connectivity.“

>> FULL REVIEW <<

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