Artwork by: Adam Burke

Style: Atmospheric Black Metal, Blackened Death Metal, Doom Metal, Progressive Death Metal (Mixed Vocals, mostly harsh)
Recommended for fans of: Horrendous, Blood Incantation, Mother of Graves, Tomb Mold, Replicant
Country: United States (Illinois)
Release date: 9 October 2026

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The moon has always served as a source of fascination for me. Whether it’s the looming Hunter’s moon of Bloodborne, the crescent ornamentation of the chthonic witch-goddess Melinoë in Hades II,or the nightmare fuel that are the Brethren Moons of Dead Space, there’s no end to the material upon which I might sate my appetite for all things lunar and lunar-inspired. As we careen headlong through October—the spookiest of months, one associated with crisp nights and spirited frights—I feel an even greater reverence for our celestial skyfellow. What a perfect time for Selenoplexia to land in my lap, then.

The Illinois four-piece waltz out a mesmerizing blend of black metal, doom metal, and post-metal steeped in twilight atmospherics and melodicism wreathed in spellbinding rays of silver splendor. While their debut LP Exalt and Despair favored a thicker, more claustrophobic death metal-focused production, Selenoplexia have opted for a more organic sound on follow-up Beneath the Lunar Tyrant, granting the instrumentation an extra measure of space that supplies clarity even amidst the gnashing lunarian screams and bellowing death howls.¹ With a focus on longer songwriting compared to Exalt and Despair, Beneath the Lunar Tyrant seems poised to deliver a new phase for Selenoplexia. Does their moon sit firmly in the House of Awesome? Break out your stargazers, and let’s discover, shall we?

We’re settled into things with a nice bit of synth-y ambience a’la “Prologue”—the inclusion of which I would normally nitpick for continuing metal’s baffling trend of wasting an entire track slot on an intro that could have easily been fused to the first proper song, except the rest of the album is so goddamn good that I can’t be bothered.² “A Secret from Time’s Past” jumps out with a clattering, energetic drum performance by Jonathan Morhaim, whose fill-work is an absolute delight across the record, as he deftly moves from blast beat runs into jingling bell hits and dexterous cymbal work. Courtney Vida’s high shrieks slot perfectly alongside the bright tremolo riffing of Daniel Vida, and when the band shift into more death metal-coded territory on cuts like “The Battle of Agretes (Glory of Holy Warfare)”, her shift into deeper, bestial growls (and his into more knuckle-dragging grooves) feels so natural one could be forgiven for missing the transition entirely. Likewise when they take bends into doom and post- flavored passages—see the shift from “The Battle of Agretes (Glory of Holy Warfare)” into “Ruins of Taivarseem”. The latter continues to showcase the band’s many facets as an introspective acoustic section reveals Courtney’s clean vocals, which pierce the foggy night like bands of silver moonlight, stark in their arrival yet beautiful to witness.

Beneath the Lunar Tyrant unfolds not as a sequence of events chronicled via tracks with definable beginnings and ends, but rather as a singular, unbroken night limned in celestial frost, glittering with a splendor the light of day could never reveal. While this design philosophy makes for a potentially unpleasant playlist pal, it’s a decision I applaud, especially given the band’s deft hand at weaving all the material together. Were it not for the song titles popping up in the corner of my screen, I’d be hard pressed to identify the moment where one track becomes the next. Spirited, fluid performances work wonders in keeping the pacing tight, and a sharp ear for songcraft ensures that no particular moment gets stretched out to the point of exhaustion, yet neither are standout sections—like Jonathan’s ecstatic drum fills toward the end of “The Battle of Agretes (Glory of Holy Warfare)”—whisked away before the listener has sated themselves.

Stitching together six songs into a single thirty-seven minute opus could have easily made for a disastrous recipe. However, Selenoplexia marshalled the strengths of their attendant genres—black metal’s chilling ferocity, doom metal’s melancholic (and often melodramatic) flair, and post-metal’s penchant for introspection—and created an arresting fusion that left me moonstruck on multiple occasions during my listens. Their ear(s) for knowing when and how long to keep a passage going, and how to transition into a new one without sounding forced or abrasive kept me consistently entertained, and reliving all the flavorful and emotive instrumentation made hitting replay a no-brainer. It was once believed the moon could drive a person mad, but you’d be a downright lunatic not to give Beneath the Lunar Tyrant a spin or seven.

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Recommended tracks: The Battle of Agretes (Glory of Holy War), Ruins of Taivaraseem, Passing Through the Wounds of Abraxas, the whole album—just listen to the whole album
You may also like: Mare Cognitum, Moss Upon the Skull, Ænigmatum, False, Shabti
Final verdict: 9/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Independent

Selenoplexia is:
– Sawyer Fridel (bass, backing vocals)
– Jonathan (drums, synthesizers, guitar)
– Daniel Vida (guitars, backing vocals)
– Courtney Vida (vocals)

1. Production was handled by Colin Marston, so of course it’s great. ↩︎
2. Though it is worth noting that “Prologue” is the only track on the album that doesn’t effectively flow into the next. ↩︎