RIFF VAULT Digging deep into rock & metal

Est. 2025

Digging deep into
rock & metal.

No algorithms. No PR. Just honest critical writing about the music that matters, from sludge and post-metal to stoner rock and black metal.

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Today

2 reviews
Dymna Lotva - Vyraj album cover

Dymna Lotva

Post-Black MetalAtmospheric Black Metal

Vyraj

BY · Prophecy Productions · 2026

The exiled Belarusian duo turn persecution and Slavic folklore into towering post-black metal, with a My Dying Bride guest and acoustic passages that ache. Emotionally huge, if the loudness-war mix crowds its heaviest walls.

There is no separating Dymna Lotva's music from where it comes from. Composer Jauhien Charkasau and vocalist Katsiaryna Mankievich built the band in Minsk, marched against Lukashenko with a hundred thousand others, were banned from performing, and fled to Poland when the regime came for the people it could not silence. As of late 2025 the Belarusian state officially brands them an "extremist group." Vyraj, named for the mythic Slavic otherworld where birds and souls winter, is the sound of that exile: post-black metal reaching for the folklore of a homeland its makers cannot safely enter.

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Wizard Master - V.I.T.R.I.O.L. album cover

Wizard Master

Occult DoomStoner Doom

V.I.T.R.I.O.L.

IT · Füneral Division Records · 2026

Rome occultists conjure fuzzed-out '70s doom rock with backmasked ritual and open Electric Wizard worship, and crucially they recorded it warm and un-crushed. A groovy, characterful seance, held back only by some low-mid murk.

Everything about V.I.T.R.I.O.L. is a summoning. The cover, a blank-eyed acolyte offering up a floating black cube against sickly pink, sets the tone, and Rome's Wizard Master spend the record chasing a fuzzed-out, backmasked, incense-heavy '70s doom rock that wears its Electric Wizard love openly, right down to a track literally called "The Electric Wizard." Formed in 2019 and now running their own Füneral Division label, they deal in groove-first occult doom sung in a raw, theatrical clean voice, more ritual than riff-clinic.

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This week

12 reviews
Hidden Gem A record worth revisiting →
Walk Through Fire - Till Aska album cover

Walk Through Fire

Till Aska

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Jehovah on Death - Lágrimas de Oro album cover

Jehovah on Death

Lágrimas de Oro

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Verheerer - Urgewalt album cover

Verheerer

Urgewalt

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Witchsorrow - The Devil and All His Works album cover

Witchsorrow

The Devil and All His Works

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EYES - SPINNER album cover

EYES

SPINNER

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Hooded Menace - Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration album cover

Hooded Menace

Lachrymose Monuments of Obscuration

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Karla Kvlt - Thunderhunter album cover

Karla Kvlt

Thunderhunter

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Marianas Rest - The Bereaved album cover

Marianas Rest

The Bereaved

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Masheena - Let The Spiders In album cover

Masheena

Let The Spiders In

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Møl - DREAMCRUSH album cover

Møl

DREAMCRUSH

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Birds of Nazca - Pangaea album cover

Birds of Nazca

Pangaea

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BLKE - BLKE album cover

BLKE

BLKE

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Growing Horns - The Essence of Suffering album cover

Growing Horns

The Essence of Suffering

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From the vault

14 reviews
Hermit Dreams - Desperate Anomies album cover

Hermit Dreams

Desperate Anomies

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SHEEV - Ate's Alchemist album cover

SHEEV

Ate's Alchemist

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The Great Old Ones - Kadath album cover

The Great Old Ones

Kadath

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Apewards - Liminal Choices album cover

Apewards

Liminal Choices

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Mountain of Misery - Shades Of The Ashes album cover

Mountain of Misery

Shades Of The Ashes

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Prophets of Thwaites - Vulnerant omnes ultima necat album cover

Prophets of Thwaites

Vulnerant omnes ultima necat

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Nailed to Obscurity - Generation Of The Void album cover

Nailed to Obscurity

Generation Of The Void

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Naxatras - V album cover

Naxatras

V

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Zéro Absolu - La Saignée album cover

Zéro Absolu

La Saignée

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Bushfire - Snakes Bite Tales album cover

Bushfire

Snakes Bite Tales

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Dark Shaman - Occult Doom album cover

Dark Shaman

Occult Doom

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Inborn Suffering - Pale Grey Monochrome album cover

Inborn Suffering

Pale Grey Monochrome

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Coltaine - Brandung album cover

Coltaine

Brandung

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Komatsu - A Breakfast For Champions album cover

Komatsu

A Breakfast For Champions

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