With temperatures dropping below freezing in the northeastern United States but the full force of Mother North still to come, the season is prime for slow, heavy, and epic music. To that point, there could be no better time for legendary masters of doom, Candlemass, to release their latest offering to the masses. The thirteenth album from one of Sweden's finest, Sweet Evil Sun serves as a soundtrack to the last leaves of the year that gracefully fall from the withering forest

What comes to mind when thinking of being lost in a labyrinth? The claustrophobia among the towering walls? The panic of never finding the exit? The terror that perhaps you are not alone and, if you are not, what else could be wandering the corridors? Like a finely crafted horror story, Static Abyss channels all these feelings and more in their debut album, Labyrinth of Veins (Peaceville Records). Fitting in right at home on the very label that launched the death-doom movemen

There is something mystical about the Norwegian language. The way the words sway and flow easily bring to mind mighty forests and fjords that make up Norway itself. And with this comes an overwhelming sense of isolation: not negative, but one that makes a person reflect on their life and the world around them. Since 1991, Norway's own Funeral has worked to better define this sensation and, through their latest release Praesentialis In Aeternum (Season of Mist), prove once aga