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Ninth Realm is a heavy metal death-thrash band founded in Maryland and the surrounding DMV area. Formed in 2019, the band has released six individual recordings, including a demo, two EPs, a promo tape, and a full-length album, as well as several splits and compilations with other bands. Drummer Joey Burke and lead guitarist Liam McMahon started the project while in college at the University of Maryland.
Conceptually, the band draws from Joey’s original dark fantasy world, Tythorin – a setting shaped by themes of vengeance, fate, grief, trauma, and the indomitable willpower of the human spirit. As for the sound and style of the band, Ninth Realm’s music is a mixed variety of metallic hardcore, ODSM, traditional heavy metal, and blackened thrash.
formed circa 2019 with a sniper’s aim for a cosmic horror themed form of ‘old school’ inspired death metal which was obviously curated either with some experience or sense enough to side-step the usual afterthought riddled aesthetics of nascent death metal bands with a well-curated vision up front. From their first release, a split mLP with Noxis (‘Communion of Corrupted Minds‘, 2021), they were whipping out pretty solid mid-to-slow paced death metal with bump or two of synthesizer weirdness, nothing as brutal as Timeghoul or whatever but clearly inspired by the standard presented via bands like (early) Blood Incantation and Tomb Mold where niche-level interest in atmosphere and meandering grooves made for a notable enough touch. At the time I figured they were ultimately aiming for something more death-doom oriented though this style, which they’re now referring to as “esoteric”, takes notes from better defined portals on this first official release.
From the depths of Philly crawled a small one-man black metal band, unnoticed, but uncaring. As the years built up, so did the competency of the band's sole member at the time. This culminated in the early 2024 release, Bedeviled. A truly unique sound was brought forth by Grozov, blending elements of heavy, speed, power, thrash, and even bits of black metal. The result is a fantastic display of proficient traditional metal fury.
By far the most interesting aspect of this album are the instrumentals. The guitar tone, as soon as you hear it, gives you an idea of the sound that Grozov was going for; this unique metallic sheen that sounds exactly like the album cover. More importantly, of course, are the notes that are played. As soon as the intro finishes, the metal is immediately unleashed with an awesome melodic introduction to the track The Frog. Though starting out slow, it builds up into a quicker section, keeping its traditional metal mid-paced melody and even throwing in some shredding. Following this, it commences an aggressive, thrashier section, topped with what I can only describe as 'mean' vocals, in a Venom-esque shouting fashion. The chorus is melodic and features heavy backing vocals, soaring above another melodic riff, paced perfectly from the aggression felt earlier. Now, normally I wouldn't describe the details of individual songs. However, with Grozov, this is sort of the formula that sole member Aidan Strauss rolls with throughout the album, and to great effect, I might add. Although this might be a simplistic formula that is repeated throughout, it's executed so well that you hardly notice it - especially considering this album isn't even 40 minutes long, the short length contributing to the success of this formula. The songwriting and pacing as a whole, put simply, is excellent.
Matching the music are the vocals, the majority of which are, as mentioned previously, delivered in a Cronos-y, growly shout. However, Strauss is capable of going much higher during some of his screams, and though they aren't the greatest, they certainly aren't bad and he's able to pull it off. During most of the choruses are where he employs his alternate vocal styles, usually those aforementioned screams or sometimes clean singing. Aided by this style are the emphasis on the lyrics, some truly awesome tales of horrific fantasy and savage battles - magic, swords, wizards, fire, the whole works.