Dean Brown

It’s not what’s inside that counts for would-be ruffians

Ambitious Swiss crew embark on a new odyssey

New Jersey death metallers make an unexpected detour

Portal members prise open new doors of perception

Enigmatic occultists put the songwriting in sharp relief

Melodic black metallers go overboard on the symphonics

Blackened doom explorers still consulting their maps

Ex-Bolt Thrower singer wages a new battlefront

Textural adventures from Poland’s far-reaching polymaths

Iowa’s drone/doom explorers pile on the weight

British post-metallers offer up an immersive second album

West Coast doom renegades perform a rite of deliverance

Widescreen post-BM from the wounded heart of France

German/Icelandic pagans offer a new take on Slowly They Rot

West Coast doom renegades perform a rite of deliverance

Anselmo teams up with cult horror figure for fun and frolics

Nordic death metallers throw new DNA into the swamp

Philosophical Canadians map out new paths to wander

Belgian BM sceptics take a huge leap into the breach

Huddersfield's rapidly evolving doomsayers look to the stars

Progressive Norse metallers Enslaved gather their recent rarities with new compilation

Sophisticated yet brutal death metal deviancy from Auroch's new album

Ex-Warning frontman heads into the emotional hinterlands with new album

Elemental voyagers Neurosis still shaking the foundations with new album

US classicists Sumerlands jump ahead of the retro-metal pack