REVIEW: Stygian - Dreadlands

The Italian blackened metal punks Stygian are bringing their newest project, Dreadlands, to all their fans around the world. With a meticulously picked line-up, consisting of the vocalist Emiliano Melandri, guitarists Mirko Abà and Lucio Minghetti, bassist Paolo Parmeggiani Lopez, and drummer Rolando Giulio Ferro, the band makes its way swiftly into the hearts of their fans, and even a broader audience, and it is evident that they are not planning to stop any time soon.

The band went all in once again and presents to its fans ten unique songs on Dreadlands. The listeners are mostly met with typical blackened metal punk songs, especially at the beginning of the album, and all of them are composed with passion and rage. A perfect example of this is the song 'You Will Not Survive This Night'. The listener can hear distinctive traits of both black metal and punk, such as the fast tempos and harsh vocals, that are very typical for black metal, and a raw, often distorted sound present in punk. The atmosphere of the song is dark and chaotic, playing with the intensity of both genres, resulting into heavily narrated track full of riffs, drums and screams.

Stygian decided to change their usual style a little bit, and came up with the absolute explosion of emotions that is 'Burning Mires'. The song starts off with an acoustic guitar and clear vocals, both of which the listeners do not hear often in the band’s work, only to flip into an absolute blast of sounds that carries the song around until the end. This song in particular is a perfect showcase of the composing abilities of the band members, as it dives into some territories that are not so familiar, yet it always comes back to the band’s roots and brings the chaos and tension with it, making the sound familiar, yet exciting to explore, as it does not tend to be stuck in one direction.

The band also shows off its ability to compose heart-breaking bridges, and the perfect example of this is in the song 'Spirit in the Mist'. Starting off with subtle guitar strumming, this part then evolves into an intense battle between vocals, drums and guitars, gradually adding sounds and elements, until it explodes into a big bang of dark energy and chaos projecting into the listener’s ears.

Although the songs are composed greatly and they do implore the listeners to feel the emotions they carry with them, they do not have any transitions in between them, resulting oftentimes in messy changeovers that do not give space to let the melodies and sounds fully sink in. Nonetheless, Dreadlands is still an excellent example of blackened metal punk, with a dread-filled energy, heavy lyrics and and intense melodies. Stygian did a great job ensuring each of the songs features both familiar and unfamiliar sounds.

Score: 8/10

Dreadlands was released on July 4th 2025 via Time To Kill Records.

Words: Katerina Stepanikova

Photos: Stygian