Foghazer - He Left The Temple (2026)

Take the artist's image, song titles, label and even the name, Foghazer, and try not to be surprised when you hear the music behind it, I dare you. The black-metal-facade meeting the trip-hop core sound of the Berlin-based artist is really just something else. And yes, the trippy beats and scratches are followed by metal guitar backgrounds, but the effect is still peculiar. In the best possible way.

This also means that Foghazer's debut album is one of very few trip-hop-adjacent releases that don't bore me. Unfortunately, I struggle to enjoy the genre I once thought might become my favourite. Something clicked in my mind in the wrong way. But it seems that what I need it a dose of originality. And yes, I recognize that this is probably a very amateur project, the quality of the guitar parts is not great, but I value the complexity and diversity of compositions a lot, enough to give the project an OK with a note "keep an eye on". 

According to Foghazer, the album is filled with the so-called "sound of low visibility", "slow beats, distorted memory and fog as both space and emotion" in his words mesmerize the audience with ease while the addition of surprising but so well-fitted elements (like the fantastic, Igorrr-like opera vocals in He) add up to the originality of this music even more.

He Left The Temple costs what you want to pay.

Check: He

Country: Germany

Genre: death trip-hop

Label: Hypnotic Dirge Records

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Rodent Destroyer - Nespurrth (2021)

Even though this project may be considered a joke or even a mockery towards metal music, everybody should know about it. Rodent Destroyer is Human Slave a.k.a. Alister Reed from Pennsylvania, but it's not the end of the line-up as other band members include... Reed's cats. This makes the name of the project as well as all the album and tracks' names making sense and I love it, while, at the same time, Nespurrth is at the same time genuinely enjoyable. 

The cats are vocalists here. And I would have never said that cat meows fit metal music so well. They probably don't perform life but in the album versions, they do brilliantly. They add ferocity to the already utterly crazy and thrilling music here. And it's no exaggeration, the pace is extreme, the guitar sounds are crude and nerve-wrecking (in the lo-fi, very black metal manner) and the songs... very satisfying. Each is delivered with a pun in the title (my favourite being Enslaved by Pawpaganda which I'm not sure cats would actually sing, they would rather be the imposing part here) and with cat (and human) vocals all over the compositions. And an important notice here: even though the project was established only last year, they managed to release the third album already and even change the vocalist, as on Nespurrth it is Zelda not Lord Purr anymore who produces vocal samples.

Nespurrth costs 8 USD.

Check: Where the Sliamese Live

Country: Pennsylvania, US

Genre: feline black metal

Label: Above Ground Records

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