Back in 2022, I reviewed the solid third album, Lélekharang, from the Hungarian duo, WitcheR (not based on the Andrzej Sapkowski books or Henry Cavill show). It was a very well done style of Summoning-ish styled atmospheric black metal, focusing on more doomy, and moody pacing, complete with programmed drums and tinny guitars, just like […]

I could just address the elephant in the room and talk about the artwork for Subcutaneous Tomb, and if that’s what happens, then it happens. That’s the most important part, right? Not how the album sounds, but whether or not it resembles Gorguts’ eponymous debut, Considered Dead, and the artwork for that album… That’s silly. […]

I was pretty darn upset when Malignant Altar called it quits. I reviewed their Realms of Exquisite Morbidity debut album. So awesome. Memorable. Doomy, brutal and dark death metal. Well, slap me in the face and say stop all that cryin’, because Terror Corpse contains former Malignant Altar members. That’s right, folks. Hailing from Houston, […]

I didn’t know that I needed Decrepit Altar in my life… until now. I love the cavernous, murky, and downright swampy vibes that these Croatian death/doom dealers are spewing out into the unsuspecting world. Egregious Defilement is their brand spanking first EP, and let me tell you what: IT’S FUCKING GREAT! I probably didn’t need […]

Mausoleum Gate is a pleasant Finnish surprise I recently came across. They have two prior albums and an EP. Space, Rituals and Magick continues their brand of metal, which combines the very early metal sounds from the 70s and early 80s. Think bands like Black Sabbath/Ozzy, Angelwitch, Mercyful Fate and Iron Maiden. Hell, even The […]

Here is salvo number 5 from Chicago’s Blood of the Wolf (with members of Withering Soul and Kommandant), and like 2022’s IV: The Declaration of War Eternal, and 2018’s II: Campaign of Extermination before it (I missed the EP III: Blood Legend), it’s a ripper of Midwest Blackened/death/war metal. At 31 minutes, Indomitable does not fuck […]

I recently got to see Los Angeles’ Lamp of Murmur with Dödsrit and the mighty Blackbraid. It was my first exposure to their brand of Black Metal craziness, and I wasn’t disappointed, not only are they fun to listen to, but they’re insane live. The Dreaming Prince in Ecstasy is their 4th full-length after a slew […]

Phobocosm, hailing from Montréal, Quebec, have been slinging their brand of darkness since around 2008, but did not pop onto the scene with a release until their debut album, Deprived, in 2014. All of their releases have been on Matt Calvert’s awesome Dark Descent Records. Gateway is the band’s fourth studio album, and we get […]

2025 has seen some excellent symphonic black metal, especially later on in the year, with releases from Old Machines, Gjallahorn’s Wrath, Maahes, Carach Angren, Argesk, Mystic Circle, Rotting Demise, Labyrinthus Stellarum, Mourniaty, Achathras, Execrari, Deconstruction Sequence, Haimad, and Withering Soul.  Add the third album from the Netherlands’ one-man (J.M.K.P) act, The Gloomy Radiance of the Sun. This […]

The internet told me Orm (‘serpent’) was an epic/atmospheric black metal band from Denmark that sang about Norse Mythology. Sign me up! The internet also told me they are/were known for sprawling 25-minute songs, but apparently they returned to the shorter songs of their 2017 self-titled debut on Guld, their 4th album. So how do […]

Garde is an interesting ‘new’ band, even though they formed 25 years ago, and Harbinger of Revenge and War is their only release. So you know they took a really, really long time to get this sucker out to us. Vocals are done by Dan Capp, the newest Solstice (UK) singer. He’s been with them […]

The 2022 debut from this Chicago-based neoclassical melodic death metal act, Rex Mortem, was a fine example of a blind promo grab and review, and added to that year’s melodic death metal revival. So I have been eagerly awaiting a follow-up. And here it is. For those unfamiliar, the band began as a more metalcore/progressive […]

Decaying Human is a young Indonesian brutal death metal band that reactivated last year, after forming in 2021, but was dormant. Brian, owner of Ossuary Industries, knows brutal death metal and has his ear to the scene morning, noon and night, kinda like this fella, right here. There are all forms of extreme metal and […]

I’ve heard some weird shit this year, admittedly, I hear weird shit every year because that’s what I look for on promo day. Weird shit. Well, I got super excited this last time because guess what I got? The promo from the Czechian legends, Master’s Hammer, entitled Maldorör Disco… YEAH, BOY! I’m about to admit […]

If you, like me, were just a tad underwhelmed with Binah’s recent comeback effort, Onkos, (especially after an 8-year wait). I might have a bit of a stand-in album for you. Heteropsy is the side project of Japan’s Frostvore, who released one of the better Swedish/HM2 death metal homages in 2020s, Drowned In Blood. They […]

Comatose Music is killing it towards the end of 2025 with quality brutal death metal releases. Massachusetts-based brutal slam/death metal act Dysentery has not released an album in 10 years. The last one was their third album- the absolutely savage, Fragments. I’ve known vocalist Scott Savaria and guitarist Peter “Blue” Spinazola (Fit for an Autopsy) […]

I’ll confidently put Binah’s debut Hallucinating in Resurrecture as one of the best albums in the Swedish death metal revival of the last 10-15 years, up there with the likes of Entrails’ first few efforts, Disfuneral, Abscession, Necrom, Horrendous, and Demonical’s albums, and a slew of others. However, the follow-up, Phobiate, must not have resonated […]

Demoniacal Genuflection was a death metal band based out of Houston, Texas, who released a series of splits, demos, and one full-length album in their ten-year existence. The band called it quits in 2015. This compilation titled Darker Lamentation contains their 2010 debut album The Ministers of Lamentation and four songs which were included on […]

Hello! Welcome to my review of the brand spanking new Testament album entitled Parabellum. I plan on being as fair as possible. This is their fourteenth album, so they have a sizeable back catalog to compare Para Bellum with previous albums. The first thing I notice right off the bat is the amount of blast […]

Germany’s bludgeoners of death, Stillbirth, return with Survival Protocol, their ninth full-length studio effort and debut for Reigning Phoenix Music. Their albums have run the gamut of brutal death metal, deathcore, to even smatterings of technical death metal. The one thing I really like about Stillbirth, is that they have improved their sound and style […]

I last sang the praises of Mystic Circle in 2023 for the brutal beating that is Erzdämon, and they’ve been covered previously by our own El Jefe for Mystic Circle back in 2022. Hexenbrand 1486 sees the band once again flexing their Symphonic Black Metal muscles. This is album eleven for these unholy Germans, and […]

Defigurement is a brutal new Californian technical death metal act featuring some well-known band members, including Mike Heller (Azure Emote, Black Hole Deity) on drums, Kevin Fetus on guitars, DMT on bass/vocals, and Matthias Joyce on vocals. Endbryo is their debut album with 16 songs, some of which are interludes, all in under thirty minutes. […]

The first time I talked about Hammerfilosofi was for their EP Solus last year, and now they’re back with a soul shredding new album called Signum. Eight tracks of well-crafted blasphemy that surpass what they’ve done to this point. Signum sees the band flexing their muscles in the most Marduk way possible, and that’s from […]

Occasionally, believe it or not, I listen to things other than deathcore, death metal, or symphonic black metal. Yep- even I have to have a palate cleanser or reset or guilty pleasure, or whatever you want to call it. And for me, it’s super cheesy power metal. And not normal power metal- I fall hard […]

Well, now, friends. What we have here is a swollen, pus-oozing freak of nature. A demon from the foulest depths of Hell, ugly and mutated beyond all imagination; something straight out of an H.P. Lovecraft book. Of course, I’m talking about the new Chained to the Dead… what did you think I was talking about? […]