After a 9-year layoff, California Sludge mongers Armed For Apocalypse returned in 2022 with Ritual Violence, a beastly, hefty album that almost matched their absolutely killer debut, Defeat, waaaaay back in 2009, and that album is still one of my go-to favorites in the style. With only a 4-year wait, this time, but the same lineup […]
The Formula for a raw Black Metal album: take some stomach bile, mix it up with some menstrual blood and a pinch of salt, and pour it on the band members’ heads in some sort of blasphemous ritual. Featuring members of Finnish Black Metal royalty (True Black Dawn, and …And Oceans, to name two). Accelerated […]
The long-standing partnership between Xtreem Music and Finland’s Desecresy continues on the band’s ninth album. The first four albums were with Tommi Grönqvist – Guitars, Bass, and drums and Jarno Nurmi on vocals. Then Jarno left, and Tommi has been keeping his labor of love alive and taking on the vocal duties. A one-man band, […]
It’s been 6 years since the UK’s Hecate Enthroned returned to the purely symphonic black metal style that made them famous in the mid to late 90s. After starting as an unabashedly Cradle of Filth-mimicking band, with The Slaughter of Innocence, a Requiem for the Mighty, Dark Requiems… and Unsilent Massacre, they delved into a […]
I have no idea how I have not crossed paths with Scotland’s Cnoc An Tursa (“Hill of the Standing Stone”) up until now. I know they haven’t been super prolific, with only 2 albums since 2013, but lawd, we have covered them here on their debut The Giants of Auld, and heck, we even interviewed […]
I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing the first two albums from Bolt Thro.. I mean Frozen Soul, and I have enjoyed all their material, dating back to their Maggot Stomp days. I truly hope they give credit to Scott, since he helped them initially. By album number three, you want to see the band continue […]
NY/NJ death metal act Reeking Aura is back with their second album, On the Promise of the Moon. I really enjoyed their interesting, ambient, and brutal debut album Blood and Bonemeal, from 2022. I thought it was an improvement over their debut 2020 EP, Beneath the Canopy of Compost. Guitarists Terrell Grannum, Rick Habeeb, and vocalist […]
I’m starting to feel like metal websites need to have this image on their site: The UK’s Ingested was the latest in a concerning, long, and consistent run of deathcore vocalists being douche-y, with Josh Davies, who replaced original vocalist and co-founder Jason Evans in 2024, being promptly removed from the band after barely 2 […]
“This is a big release for them. First in over a decade. Sound of the new single is their best sounding recording. There’s my 2-second review”. Fellow scribe Frank Rini said he would punch me if I didn’t quote him regarding this fantastic new offering from international mutilators (but mostly from Jerusalem/ Bethlehem, having relocated […]
It’s been over a decade since I last heard Egypt’s Scarab, on their second album, Serpents of the Nile, back in 2015. They released an album in 2020, which I own, called Martyrs of the Storm, and it slays, but I never got around to reviewing it. But not much has changed other than a […]
After wrecking your eardrums for two albums on Poland’s Godz of War Productions, Milwaukee noise mongers, Pig’s Blood have jumped to Dark Descent Records for album number three, but nothing has changed. This group, with folks from Prezir, Protestant, Enabler, Shut in, Force, and others, continues to deliver a Revenge/ Blasphemy/ Angelcorpse-inspired form of vitriolic […]
Inferi has had quite a nice little stint over its 20 years of existence. Our Editor-in-Chief, Erik “The Brave” reviewed the band’s last album, their sixth, Vile Genesis, and really enjoyed it. That album was incredible. One of the things I’ve always enjoyed about the band, and while it may seem odd, is the band […]
I’ve been a Corrosion of Conformity fan since Animosity (1985), and while I do miss those days of early Hardcore brutality, the band has become something more massive than I ever thought they would. By the time they had released their eponymous, much lauded 1991’s Blind, they were strong as fuck with tracks like “Vote […]
If you are at this site, reading this review I am going to assume that, 1) that you know who Dimmu Borgir is and their place in the pantheons of Black Metal, 2) that you probably have a strong opinion about them and their albums, 3) you know there has been an 8 year wait […]
Mike and Horror Pain Gore Death Productions are at it again, causing trouble with the fourth album from Spain’s Caustic, and in my opinion, their best album. It’s been a while since their last album, Hate Generation, from 2015. That album upped the game in sheer intensity from the band. They have now one-upped that […]
Riverflame is a new medieval melodic black metal band featuring members of Hail Spirit Noir, Ponte del Diavolo, and Owls, and it touts the likes of Stormkeep and Summoning as influences. Now, I love me some medieval black metal, as evidenced by my recent Gladium Regis review and my love of bands like Véhémence, Darkenhold, […]
France’s Towering has been around since 2016, and after a few demos released their debut album, Obscuring Manifestation, in 2019, on Dolorem Records. Tom J. Silver -Guitars (lead), Vocals, Christnach – Guitars (rhythm), Morte – Drums all return for album #2, The Oblation of Man. The band welcomes a new bassist, Arboria. The debut was […]
After gutting the band and coming back with a new lineup for a 2023 EP and 2024’s No Name Graves, the founder and guitarist Wyatt McLaughlin, sort of reinvented TLTSOL into a moodier, more down-tempo, and I dare I say, menacing take on deathcore, having more in common with Bound In Fear. Helped largely by […]
This is my first time reviewing a Darkthrone album. I know, right?! I’m shaking my head too… lame as fuck joke but whatever. I’m pretty jazzed about it. I found out about Darkthrone through the classic Transilvanian Hunger; picked up from an Albuquerque bookstore, used. It wasn’t some hole-in-the-wall store either; no lit candles guided […]
Here we are, nine years since Germany’s Anasarca’s last album, their fourth one, Survival Mode, was released. I have been in touch with vocalist/guitarist Michael Dormann for quite a number of years, and a few years ago, he sent me their Goddess of the Somber Shade – Promo 2024. They were shopping this three-song promo […]
Archaic Oath is a new but veteran Belgian duo comprised of instrumentalist Lykormas (Hemelbestormer, Lhaäd, Rituals of the Dead Hand, Wolven, ex-Entartung, ex-Gorath) and vocalist Arneriach (Astovidatu, Bleak Cold Irrelevance, Eternal Blood of War, Hail Spirit Noir). They apparently met way back in 2005, but recently decided to come together and form a project to […]
Last year, I reviewed one of the most unusual albums I think I have to this point… The Harvest by :Skull & Dawn: was my AOTY, and it was well-deserved (I even got a victory lap because I got the other guys to like it too). I digress because Twin Serpent is a bit similar […]
As I prepared for an upcoming Crowbar/Eyehategod concert earlier this year, I was listening to all sorts of other sludge-y doom-y bands and albums; Armed for Apocalypse, Tarlung, Soilent Green, Yellowtooth, Black Royal, and such. Then a promo came across my desk that touted Statement of Wills as ‘for fans of Doom metal, hardcore, 90s […]
So UK’s Venom have been around for a minute, eh?? If we are to look at the first three extreme bands using extreme lyrics, where devils, killing, and all things evil were first written about, the top three bands are: Black Sabbath, The Misfits, and Venom. I mean, with over 15 albums to their name, […]
For a while there in the 00s, I was heavily into the post-rock/post-metal genre. I mean heavily. After discovering Isis’ Oceanic, I was looking for everything and anything in the genre: The big ones like Cult of Luna, The Ocean, Rosetta, Callisto, Transmission0, and Burst, as well as more obscure ones like Impure Wilhelmina, Iron […]