Here’s yet another entry in the parade of retro records that seem to be rolling in early this year, and like most of the others, Barn Burner’s Bangers is a pretty solid outing.
The Canadian outfit certainly draws influence from the early 1980s like the other retro bands I’ve heard recently, but they also dip back into [...]

Ignoring the DVD releases and Best of -compilations, Armored Saint have been occupied elsewhere, unable to thrash out like they should. It’s been 10 years since their previous full-length album “Revelation” and the crowd has been left wandering in the dark, looking for the saint that is armored to set them free. This year, the band finally returns to the meat factory with their newest album “La Raza” (via Metal Blade Records). But the question remains… can they deliver? Read Shawn’s take on it.

I’ve had high hopes for just about every project that Tim Owens has been involved in since his departure from Iced Earth, and they’ve been largely lackluster. Finally, though, the cycle of disappointment is broken with the debut of Charred Walls of the Damned.
The new project was founded by former Death and Iced Earth drummer [...]

A lot of folks downplay GWAR, thinking of it as a relic from the mid ‘90s when Saddam A Go Go was worshiped on Beavis & Butt-Head. Granted, their efforts on CD haven’t always been up to their other antics. Despite some strong outputs, funny songs and appealing humor there has been quite a bit [...]

Though plying the same basic musical style and shtick as the relatively enjoyable 2008 debut, Total Brutal, Tim Lambesis’s (As I Lay Dying) Arnold Schwarzenegger themed metal act has grown somewhat.
First off, professional Arnold impersonator Josh Robert Thompson (The Howard Stern Show, The Late Late Show) now provides the excellent and amusing Arnold quips and [...]

Call me jaded, but after the far blacker presentation and delivery of 2007s impressive Nocturnal, I just wasn’t that excited for the bands fourth effort, especially after seeing the cover art and knowing longtime guitarist John Kempainen was out of the fold (even if replaced by ex-Arsis guitarist Ryan Knight). Something about Nocturnal seemed blacker [...]

Boston’s Ravage, one of the newest bands to join Metal Blade’s ever-growing roster, sure does have a strange discography. With more than 10 years and two full-lengths under their collective belt, the group has more EPs, live albums and demos than you can shake a studded stick at. They even have a best-of album (which [...]

I’ve heard of saving the best for last, but on a record, it’s not usually the best idea. That’s unfortunately what Darkness Dynamite have done on The Astonishing Fury of Mankind, though.
After nine tracks of OK but fairly uninventive metalcore, the last two songs on the album finally show show sparks of life and make [...]

Released as digital only EP, Warsaw Rising is a stop gap release from this Dutch super group (members of Asphyx, Gorefest, Thanatos) with 2 new songs, a cover song (Twisted Sister’s “Destroyer”) and three live songs (”Red Wolves of Stalin”, “Nachthexen” and “The Crucial Offensive”) from the excellent …Of Frost and War debut.
To be honest [...]

I’ve kind of dreaded writing this review ever since I gave Evangelion a few spins. Seeing as Behemoth has reached Dismember, Bolt Thrower, Suffocation and Grave levels of consistency and quality, they have arguably surpassed Vader as Poland’s premier metal export and almost certainly should be considered death metal royalty at this point in their [...]

Wow – talk about being knocked on your ass! Carving Out the Eyes of God (from here on will be Carving), the fourth long player from New Orleans’ Goatwhore is a monster of an album, and it was totally unexpected for me.
My first exposure to them was about five years ago when I saw them [...]

Apparently, Facedown Records didn’t have the budget to sign another Christian metalcore/deathcore act and Sumerian Records didn’t want another keyboard laced deathcore act on their roster, so Metal Blade swooped in and gave them a record deal, killing two birds with one very mediocre, clichéd stone.
Guardiansis the poster child for modern American deathcore/metalcore; except without [...]

An EP, apparently, at 39 minutes for this fairly prolific British doom trio, both of whose proper albums have exceed the hour mark and who have been fairly well-regarded among doom aficionados. My only prior experience with the group comes from their 2004 split with the excellent and sadly defunct Torture Wheel, who I thought [...]

France has churned out some serious experimental shit in recent years and Eryn Non Dae is no exception. Hydra Lernaia is an impressive debut album that shows promise for a young band.
Armed with quality production and tight musical craft, Eryn Non Dae sounds as if they are completely comfortable with their skills. Interbreeding off rhythms [...]

Arguably surpassing The Black Dahlia Murder as Metal Blade’s media darlings, JFAC have at least weathered the hype and the hate to change styles from their reee filled deathcore to morph into a more respectable death metal outfit, and retain their fan base as 2007s unit moving Genesis proved. However, in these eyes (or ears) [...]

One could easily look at the moniker, cookie cutter logo, generic computerized cover art, and Metal Blade’s recent release history, and make the assumption that As You Drown is merely another drop in the generic deathcore bucket.
Wrong.
As You Drown (previously named Ethereal) hail from Sweden and play death metal. Really good fucking death metal. [...]

Hailing from Blekinge, Sweden on the frozen coasts of the Baltic Sea, are the three warlords that form Istapp. Mordechai von Renvaktar, C. Ashuck von Renvaktar and Fjalar have set out on a campaign to destroy the sun and all of its followers. To this end, Istapp has joined forces (or ‘conquered’, if you ask [...]

Metal Blade is a wonderfully sharp company. What better time to rerelease one of their more popular band’s older material than now (y’know, when they’re finally popular)? And in retrospect, it’s really bizarre that it took an audience this long to take notice of Amon Amarth. Certainly they now can be mentioned in the same [...]

Los Angeles, California’s We Are The End has inked a deal with Metal Blade Records! A relatively new addition to the SoCal scene, the band came together in June of 2008 with the timely meeting of Brandyn Love and Shaun-Matthew Paramore, and the eventual addition of vocalist, Spencer Aragon, guitarist Mychal Wright, and drummer David [...]

I was only recently introduced to Ireland’s Primordial by way of 2005s The Gathering Wilderness and 2007s To the Nameless Dead, and only in the last month or so have I had a chance to go back and check out the Candlelight reissues of 2000s Spirit the Earth Aflame and 2002s Storm Before Calm. However, [...]

I literally knew nothing about this Nevada band before seeing this suddenly appear in Metal Blade’s digital promo site, apparently their second full length album – no press hype from Metal Blade, no other inklings about the style or substance of the band before I pressed play.
And when I did press play I was greeted [...]

The Germans have a similar problem as the Americans. The term metalcore gets thrown around like a whore in a bukkake circle and deprives some bands of the obvious melodic death metal moniker they deserve. Despite comparisons to heavy weights Heaven Shall Burn and Caliban, bands like Neaera along with Fragments of Unbecoming lean considerably [...]

Now this is some excellent death metal right here. Spanning many sounds and variations of death metal, Germany’s Lay Down Rotten bring a well balanced and never tiring extreme metal pallet.
Head-banging, groove based riffing and superb, emotive melodic leads punctuate this disc in an immediately memorable fashion. A lot of this stuff brings a couple [...]

So here is album number two from the UK’s Trigger the Bloodshed who along with the likes of Sarpanitum, Detrimentium, Man Must Die (and since, Ignominious Incarceration) have recently resurrected the British death metal scene and with a slight line- up change, Trigger the Bloodshed remain as technical and visceral as the debut.
Of course , [...]

God Dethroned is a band that we’ve witnessed in either one of two forms: “on” or “off.” It’s a little harder to prove when God Dethroned is “on” nowadays, considering many of their detractors haven’t thought them good since 1992’s Christhunt. That said, it’s terribly easy to point at the bad in the God Dethroned [...]