At first glance, the medieval castle depicted on the album's cover carries a romantic quality. Then the title, “Graveyards Of Joy”, enters the equation and introduces an eerie paradox. How can the words “graveyard” and “joy” coexist in the same phrase? That question nudges you to examine the details of Lluís Rigalt's painting, “Ruïnes”, more closely. A solitary figure stands near the bottom-left corner, although a closer look suggests that this person may not be entirely alone, but rather in the presence of some dark entity. This brief exercise in observation offers a useful blueprint for approaching any new album, especially one by a band previously unknown to you. I may have encountered the name TODOMAL before, but I had never listened to their music, and I am glad that “Graveyards Of Joy” changed that.

The clock strikes eleven, the bats circle the belfry, organs drone beneath stone arches, and somewhere in Guadalajara, PHANTOM are sharpening their fangs. “Not Midnight Yet”, the Mexican Speed / Thrash Metal band’s third full-length release, is exactly the kind of record its title promises: urgent, hungry, and far from finished. Following the success of “Tyrants Of Wrath”, PHANTOM return through High Roller Records with an album that pushes their sound further without abandoning the old-school Heavy Metal spirit that defines them. Recorded and mixed by Héctor "Northen" Ibarra at Nehtron Studios in Guadalajara, and mastered by Patrick W. Engel at Temple of Disharmony in Germany, “Not Midnight Yet” expands the band's formula with stronger melodies, more adventurous songwriting, and a darker, more atmospheric approach.

“Where do we go, where do we go from here…”

Some albums try far too hard to sound heavy. Everything is pushed into the red, distorted beyond necessity, and made louder, as if volume alone can carry emotional weight. But heavy music does not have to be loud to feel crushing, and UK Doom-bearers WARNING have always belonged to that rare category. Twenty years after “Watching From A Distance”, WARNING return with “Rituals Of Shame” and five long, agonizingly slow songs that feel less like a comeback and more like an emotional continuation. It’s almost as if the band never truly left. The sound may be denser, and the feelings moving behind the wall of guitars may carry even more weight, but the same emotional core remains untouched.