UK black metallers Wode are back with a followup to 2017's Servants of the Countercosmos. It's their third album overall, first in four years, and first for 20 Buck Spin, and it's also a major leap forward from everything else they'd done previously. They used to sound like a relatively traditional black metal band, but on Burn In Many Mirrors, they're pushing the limits of the genre and often defying them entirely. The album still owes a lot to '90s black metal, but it also dives deeper than Wode ever have into Slayer-esque thrash, classic heavy metal, revved-up punk, and more, and M. Czerwoniuk's vocals are catchier than ever without sacrificing any of his usual venom. Burn In Many Mirrors reminds me in spirit of Tribulation's modern classic The Children of the Night, an album that perfectly fused the extremity of black & death metal with the melody and theatrics of classic rock. Burn isn't just another album hopping on the arena black metal trend though. Wode put their own spin on it, and the result is some of the most fun, creative, and vicious metal I've heard all year.

The album officially drops Friday (4/2) via 20 Buck Spin, but it's streaming in its entirety right now: