Terminus broke away from old habits in 2025 to concentrate on investigating older records and new types of content. But many of you desperately sought our sage advice on the best records of 2025, so here it is: a different version of our usual yearly Omega episode. This time, your hosts tackle the project of evaluating a pretty quiet year in two different ways. TBMG provides a sampler platter of ten records with lightning round reviews, concentrating on dark heathen black metal, and TDMG provides a tight top 5 of his favorites for the year, with an emphasis on vision and ambition. Welcome to 2026, Terminators.

0:00:00 - Intro/TBMG Presents 10

1:58:59 - Interlude - Brazen Horde - “Purgation, Thy Foul Lash” fr. Behold! The Ashen Cross (Nithstang/Blackseed, 2025)

2:04:43 - TDMG’s Top 5

4:01:33 - Outro - Umulamahri - “Leaked Photo of Heaven” fr. Learning the Secrets of Acid (Ordovician Records, 2025)

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The worm turns back in The Death Metal Guy's direction with an episode centered on Vehemence, cult melodic death metal legends from Phoenix, Arizona. Covering the band's two early 00s masterpieces, your hosts attempt to crack the code on how a band from the deserts of the west managed to beat every band from Gothenburg at their own game, with a uniquely American style and flair.

0:21:30 - God Was Created (Metal Blade, 2002)

1:10:42 - Interlude - Eucharist - “Into The Cosmic Sphere” fr. A Velvet Creation (Wrong Again Records, 1993)

1:15:05 - Helping the World to See (Metal Blade, 2004)

2:12:04 - Outro - Vehemence - “Murdered by the Earth” fr. Forward Without Motion (Battleground Records, 2015)

After much anticipation, innumerable references on the show, and a shocking number of technical issues, we have arrived with an episode that The Black Metal Guy has been threatening for years. For those unfamiliar, Dawn is one of the finest and also one of the most underappreciated bands of the Swedish 90s melodic black/death metal scene, and one very near and dear to The Black Metal Guy's heart. Join us as we investigate the band's two full-length records and discover what makes them far more than merely another band in the established style.

0:00:00 - Intro/Background of Dawn

0:15:08 - Nær Sólen gar Niþer for Evogher (Necropolis Records, Jan 6 1994)

1:29:34 - INTERLUDE - Taake - “Hordaland doedskvad I,” fr. Hordalands doedskvad (Dark Essence, 2005)

1:37:17 - Slaughtersun (Crown of the Triarchy) (Necropolis Records, May 7 1998)

3:28:47 - OUTRO - Dawn - “Incantation of Unholyness,” fr. the Apparition demo (December 1992)

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In the wake of the passing of Nisse Karlén into eternity, it seems only appropriate to pay tribute to a titan of extreme metal. Sacramentum's unique style of melodic black/death metal not only placed them directly alongside bands like Dissection and Dawn, but established melodic ideas and ambitious structural methodologies that would only take root more popularly decades later. Come with us as we take a look at their earliest material and attempt to trace their roots forward up to newer foliage.

0:00:00 - Intro

0:15:44 - Finis Malorum

0:54:30 - Interlude - Vinterland - “Still the Night is Awake” fr. Welcome My Last Chapter (No Fashion Records, 1996)

0:58:01 - Far Away From The Sun

01:51:12 - Outro - Sacramentum - “The Vision and The Voice,” fr. Far Away from The Sun (Adipocere Records, 1996)

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Since the beginning of the year, your intrepid hosts have been concentrating exclusively on older, classic material- this all changes today. At least for this episode. In today's entry, we feature the triumphant return of Paimon Gate with a new record that elaborates on their established style with more evolution than might appear at first blush, and the inaugural volley by Pyromancer, whose oppressive brand of late 80s filth brings to mind a blood-smeared and heroin-shooting take on Celtic Frost.

0:00:00 - Intro

0:02:42 - Paimon Gate - Advanced Satanic Witchcraft (Nuclear War Now)

0:58:40 - Interlude - Blood Storm - “The Atlantean Wardragon,” fr. The Atlantean Wardragon (Cacophonous Records, 1997)

1:03:51 - Pyromancer - Absolute Dominion by Fire (Adirondack Black Mass)

1:44:42 - Outro - Gravewürm - “Ancient Storms of War,” fr. Doomed to Eternity (Hell’s Headbangers)

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We have to go back, bros. In today's episode of Terminus, your hosts travel back to 1990 to cover two obscure records close to their hearts, each operating in the primordial ooze of death metal, grindcore, thrash, and hardcore, but with completely contrasting sounds. TBMG brings to the occasion Prophecy of Doom, whose 1990 record resembles Deviated Instinct or early Bolt Thrower but with a demented industrial-stench aesthetic all their own. TDMG's plus one: Righteous Pigs, who create what sounds like modern crowdkilling hardcore out of thrash riffs and jazz drumming.

0:00:00 - Intro

0:10:51 - Prophecy of Doom - Acknowledge the Confusion Master (Deaf Records, 1990)

0:53:46 - Interlude - Sonic Violence - “Tortured (Dub)” fr. Jagd (Peaceville Records, 1990)

1:00:20 - Righteous Pigs - Stress Related (Nuclear Blast Records, 1990)

1:55:34 - Outro - Like Rats - “Bloodline” fr. Like Rats (A389 Recordings, 2012)

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What happens when you record an all-timer? What happens when you permanently alter the course of an entire genre of music? What happens when a set of very precise techniques enter the basic DNA of an entire generation? On this episode, TDMG and TBMG discuss Sargeist, a band whose influence is so vast it's nearly unnoticed, taking a look at their seminal 2010 record Let the Devil In and their brand new release, Flame Within Flame. Can the band ever achieve the heights of the past? Or, more importantly: should that even be the goal?

0:00:00 - A history of Sargeist, their influence, and Franco-Finnish Black Metal

0:34:55 - Let the Devil In (Moribund Records/World Terror Committee, 2010)

1:36:06 - Interlude - Sargeist - “Let The Devil In,” fr. Let The Devil In (Moribund / WTC, 2010)

1:40:13 - Flame Within Flame (World Terror Committee, 2025)

2:35:11 - Outro - Bekhira - “The Devil and the Sorcerer” fr. L'élu du mal (Aura Mystique Productions, 2005)

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TDMG returns with the (somehow) highly anticipated second installment of Balaclava Books, and the second installment of his investigation into Peter Sotos' Total Abuse. This time, we take a look at Tool, the notorious eight-part work which displays Peter Sotos finding his footing in his own style and plumbing ever-deeper depths of human despair and cruelty. Listener discretion strongly advised.

0:00:00 - Intro

0:11:33 - Tool. and Total Abuse

0:19:30 - One (Quality Time)

0:38:36 - Five

0:56:06 - Two and Three

1:11:36 - Six and Seven

1:21:31 - Four and Eight

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Thought we were dead? You fucking wish! Terminus is back with a hot one long in the making, where your hosts take a look at the seminal mid-00s work of Enmity and Last Days of Humanity while drawing out broader ideas of brutal death metal's proximity to noise. If black metal without heavy metal gets you Blazebirth Hall, what happens when a similar concept is applied to death metal? Only the most extreme music ever made. After the reviews, stick around for a guided tour of some of TDMG's favorite obscurities from this scene and beyond.

0:00:00 - Intro/A Conception of Noisedeath

0:14:58 - Enmity - Illuminations of Vile Engorgement (Permeated Records, 2005)

0:59:54 - Interlude - Intestinal Engorgement - “Fetal Extraction Anal” fr. Putrefying Consumption of Dismemberment (Amputated Vein Records, 2022)

1:02:53 - Last Days of Humanity - Putrefaction in Progress (Bones Brigade, 2006)

1:40:12 - Interlude - Foetopsy - “Spilling of Blood and Urine Into the Body Cavity” fr. Dyspartum (Barbarian Records, 2003)

1:41:28 - Other fascinating records

2:11:40 - Outro - Masturbation - “Gutted and Incinerated In the Insanity of Your Thoughts” fr. Putrified Vaginal Infibulation (Brutalized Records, 2006)

What, you want a cute little description of the episode? It's BOLT THROWER.

0:38:48 - Realm of Chaos (Slaves to Darkness) (Earache Records, 1989)

1:43:49 - Interlude - Bolt Thrower - “World Eater 94” fr. Who Dares Wins (Earache Records, 1998)

1:49:57 - The IVth Crusade (Earache Records, 1992)

3:16:28 - Just Before Dawn - “The Gulf of Tonkin” fr. A War Too Far (Raw Skull Recordz, 2023)