Mini Reviews From Around The Bowl (8/20/26)
Einherjer – Lifeblood
By Norse Music | June 19th, 2026
Viking metal is a hard genre to pin down. Enslaved and Borknagar had more lyrical similarities to Bathory’s Hammerheart than musical ones. Einherjer have never been as musically ambitious as the aforementioned artists, but their place in metal history is important. Viking metal needed bands to codify it into something more than an aesthetic affiliation. Albums like Odin Owns Ye All found a sweet spot between epic march riffs and ’90s black metal. 20 years after their debut, Einherjer play the same type of Bathory-meets-second-wave on Lifeblood. The black metal sounds more like Now, Diabolical than Nemesis Divina Satyricon, but it delivers what the cover depicts. It’s as satisfyingly unremarkable as most of their discography. If you’re like me and crave a collection of horn-swigging fist-pumpers when the weather gets warmer, Einherjer still know how to scratch that itch. At a time when we have artists like Marthe and Hemlokk playing epic Bathory metal with renewed passion and conviction, Lifeblood feels a bit like “Dad Viking Metal,” but hey, that has its place too. – Meadow Wyand
The Fifth Alliance – Stenahoria
Tartarus Records | May 29th, 2026
Sadly, I didn’t come across this album until a few weeks after its release. Once I did though, I was captivated by The Fifth Alliance’s unique blend of post-black metal and doom. Stenahoria fits somewhere between Rosa Faenskap and Mandylion-era The Gathering. The latter comparison is weighted heavily by the breathtaking vocals of Natalya Thelen. Like Anneke, her clean voice has a melodic allure and effortless ability to switch to falsetto on tracks like “Battle of Barnet.” Yet, her harsh vocals have the commanding heft of Svalbard’s Serena Cherry. Pummeling forth with heavier black metal openers, Stenahoria is an all-too-rare example of an album that gets better as it goes. The final two songs allow space for the band to breathe and settle into the doomier parts of their sound. The lyrics compound the emotion and grandeur of the music with personally uplifting and socially conscious mythology. The Fifth Alliance display a powerful and compelling confidence across these 5 tracks. It’s surely one of the most overlooked releases of the year. – Meadow Wyand
Nuclear Tomb – Epoch Inhumane
Rotted Life Records | June 12th, 2026
It’s astonishing how much Nuclear Tomb have grown. If you were around the DC metal scene in 2016, catching this group of rambunctious thrashers on an opening slot was unavoidable. Their naivety had charm, but you could tell there was something special blooming. One has to commend the band for developing their style of ’80s thrash with influence from Gorguts, noisy post-hardcore and crust punk. Though it has a precedent in groups like Voivod and Revocation, Nuclear Tomb have an atypical approach that set them far above a pizza-thrash throwback. Despite how off-kilter and dissonant Epoch Inhumane gets, the songs still have hooks, melodies and memorability. Keeping it short and sweet, each track has its own identity. From progressive instrumental “Butcher’s Lament,” touches of Appalachian guitar on “Unbowed & Averse” and Bad Religion shout-outs on “Broken Promise, Barren Essence,” Nuclear Tomb’s sincere idiosyncrasies shine across this LP. The songwriting is the biggest step forward from Terror Labyrinthian. It feels more cohesive, focused and less part-based. The musicianship and production are exceptional, resulting in one of the most interesting and intoxicating riff-frenzies you’ll hear this summer. – Meadow Wyand
Solystalgia – S/T
Nameless Grave Records | June 24th, 2026
In a genre that often plods through sprawling arrangements, Solystalgia deliver a beautifully constructed gem of Death/Doom on their debut. It’s an album-ass-album that ebbs and flows in movements. The band know when to emphasize black metal blasts on a building crest of emotion, yet also as proggy touches at the end of phrases. Dynamics are used to great effect and there’s a wonderful sense of melody that ties riffs and ambient passages together. I usually find interstitial tracks superfluous, but they’re well thought out and give the record an engrossing, aquatic atmosphere. The album is injected with the perfect amount post-metal tremolo swells to sound contemporary. Though it features guitar work as euphonious as The Third and The Mortal and early Anathema, it isn’t another ’90s throwback. Perhaps its biggest success is in its thematic material. The mood of mourning isn’t based upon the Byronic fantasies of the Peaceville Three, but the murderous, mass funerals being carried out in Gaza and Lebanon. The last two tracks are especially powerful in their commentary, guided by a sense of melancholy that should humanize the atrocities to anyone with half a heart. Those condoning the “bipartisan acceptance of innocent death as the cost of doing business in the Muslim and Arab world” (Ta-Nehisi Coates) could learn something from Solystalgia’s empathetic doom. – Meadow Wyand
Blarstunga – The Demo
Independent | May 11, 2026
It’s not every day that I get the chance to review something from my fellow Virginia boys. I had the privilege of seeing Blarstunga at their first ever live show some weeks back and was really impressed. Describing their particular brand of progressive sludge as “eddic metal,” each of the three songs on this demo draw from events in history and/or historically-inspired literature. Sonically, there’s a lot of fun stuff going on. Blarstunga hits my ears as having a noisier than average take on doom, partially because of their dissonant harmonies and a guitar tone that reminds me of the bass from those early Swans records. Despite being only a three-piece, Blarstunga have atmosphere aplenty, and each song on this release feels heavy and grim. I’ve had this demo in my rotation for the last couple of weeks now and after spending a good amount of time with it, I can confidently say that you’re missing out if you skip this one. – Reliquary Tower
