Mining Metal is a monthly column from Heavy Consequence contributing writers Langdon Hickman and Colin Dempsey. The focus is on noteworthy new music emerging from the non-mainstream metal scene, highlighting releases from small and independent labels — or even releases from unsigned acts. It was in conversation with Grandmaster Otheyn Vermithrax Poisontongue of Stormkeep, Blood Incantation, and Wayfarer, I realized how impressive Immolation’s Descent is. He and I spoke about the five-year gap between Stormkeep’s debut album Tales of Othertime and their upcoming sophomore record, The Nocturnes of Iswylm , which isn’t much longer than the four years Immolation took between releasing Acts of God in 2022 and Descent this April. For him, a second Stormkeep album could’ve been just that, a second Stormkeep album; a reshuffling and glossing up of the hits, but ultimately a retread. Somehow, Tales of Othertime felt effortless in its decadence.…