Author Archive

Apolaustic (meaning ‘devoted to enjoyment’) is the new project from former Stortregn vocalist Romain Negro, who departed the Swiss act after 6 albums. If you are familiar with Switzerland’s Stortregn, then you know they started as a melodic black metal band on albums like Emptiness Fill the Void, but transitioned to a more technical death […]

Much like last year’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra effort,  this short but blistering 6-track EP (though only 3 actual songs) from Indianapolis’s Mauled is a throwback to the Myspace, early /mid 00s era of deathcore. Specifically, the likes of Suicide Silence, Whitechapel, All Shall Perish, My Bitter End, and Embrace the End. No blackened or symphonic […]

Lawd. It’s been since 2008 since I last heard Kentucky’s Blackened doom/sludge act Highgate. It was their debut self-titled album on Total Rust Music, and apparently, I really liked it. Now, since their debut, they have released a couple more albums with Shrines to the Warhead , Black Frost Fallout,  and their last album, Survival, […]

Germany’s Schattenvald (Shadowforest) has been knocking around since 1998, but didn’t release an album until 2007, and has released 5 albums since, yet somehow neither I nor any of the staff here has covered them. And we love us some German black metal in these here parts. As I said in my review of Nazghor’s […]

This is gonna be the easiest review I’ll have to write in 2026. It’s a Vomitory album. Done. I mean, of course I could flesh this thing out and ramble on about this being the band’s 9th album (11th if you count the Cut Up hiatus/ detour they band took after sort of breaking up […]

Germany’s death/thrash act Messticator is a relatively new act formed with former and ex- members of various other German thrash and death metal bands I am not familiar with, like Embers of Flesh and Devarium. Total Mastery is their second album, following up 2022s Forthcoming Revelation.  As they all do, the promo materials tell me […]

Swedish/HM2 death metal can come from anywhere these days. There are stellar bands in the style from France (Iron Flesh), Japan (Heteropsy), Greece (Abyssus), Chile (Soulrot), Russia (Wombripper), Germany (Lifeless), Czechia (Brutally Deceased), Poland (Ulcer), Australia (Earth Rot), Venezuela (Nocturnal Hollow) and the USA (Sentinet Horror), just to name a few. Newcomers, Necrogore are from […]

I sort of enjoyed the two prior releases from Sweden’s cosmic black metal act, Lightlorn; the debut EP, These Nameless Worlds, and the 2023 debut full-length, At One with the Night Sky. I own both physical CDs, and they fill that early Deafheaven, Soul Dissolution, Alkhemia, Vallendusk, Numeron, Vela Pulsar, Spectral Lore styled melodic/atmospheric black […]

Recently, I’ve been on a bit of a super heavy, metallic hardcore/beatdown,  ‘not quite deathcore/slam’ bender with bands like Orphan, True Temper, Misery Whip, Beyond the Styx, Glassbone, Unfazed, Braces, Grounds For Assault, Silverlake Murder, Hounds of War, Traitors, Nailwound, Pintglass, Mugshot, No Cure, etc. But when this came across my desk, I thought it […]

After covering 2020s Old Old Death back in 2020, I missed 2023s Fandens Skall, Tulus’s 4th effort since reforming in 2007, after the band’s successful  Khold offshoot. As I stated in my review of Old Old Death, Tulus and Khold are/were essentially interchangeable in terms of sound and style; simple, cold, riff driven Norweigian black […]

I rather enjoy Italy’s Dusktone Records; they have a solid offering of symphonic black/death metal bands/releases (The Gloomy Radiance of the Moon, Voland, Obscura Qalma, Svartghast), that I enjoy, as well as a very solid stable of reissues and compilations (Einherjer, Stormlord, Aborym, Spite Extreme Wing, etc). The latest of their offerings that has caught […]

Listen, I know I’m late on this one. I know it’s a pretty high-profile release from a revered band with a tragic backstory. But truth be told, I have not really heard much of this post-Windir act past 2006’s Pitch Black Brigade. In fact, I had no idea they were still active, let alone released an […]

LAIR OF THE MINOTAUR: Chicago Destroyers Return With First Album In Sixteen Years, I HAIL I, Set For May 1st Release; Title Track Streaming + Maryland Deathfest Set And Release Show Booked Chicago’s savage trio LAIR OF THE MINOTAUR will deliver their monstrous fifth album – their first in sixteen years – unveiling the merciless I HAIL I, confirmed […]

Serpent Icon is a brand spanking new melodic death metal project (they aren’t even on metal-archives yet), formed by Tobias Dahs (King’s Winter, ex Living Abyss), but he’s joined by some notable guys in the scene: vocalist Christian Müller (Night In Gales) and drummer Hartmut Stoof (Gloryful, Symbiontic). And this is one of those rare […]

Band name from the early Grave demo and 4th album title – check. Intro song named “Into the Grave”- check. Gothic font logo- check. So I’ll give you one guess what the debut release from Ataraxy’s Santi Racaj sounds like? Yeah, though hailing from sunny Spain, this is 100%  Grave worship, so HM2 buzzing death […]

If you were listening to black metal in the mid-90s to the early 2000s, you might be familiar with Germany’s Solistitium Records. They were pretty productive in that time, releasing records from bands like Isvind, Helheim, Darkwoods My Betrothed, Tsjuder, Horna, and even Behemoth’s earlier albums. They went on hiatus in 2006, but reactivated in […]

After 4 albums on FDA Records, Germany’s Autopsy Worshipping duo, Slaughterday (an Autopsy song title for the newbies), has jumped to Testimony Records for album number 5, but that’s the only thing that has changed. While 2022s Tyrants of Doom added a cleaner, clearer sound and some other old school death metal dynamics to the […]

I quite enjoyed 2021’s Land of Darkness from this Greek (now relocated to Scotland) solo artist (‘Soulreaper’), but for some reason I missed 2024’s Echoes of Primordial Gnosis. So I thought I’d better get to this, his fifth album, before he drops another one. Now, I did listen to Echoes of Primordial Gnosis to be able to […]

The last time we covered Poland’s Banisher was 2016’s Oniric Delusions, and it wasn’t me covering it. But considering I like Polish technical death metal, really, really liked Dormant Ordeal‘s Tooth and Nail from last year, AND saw the band has members that are or have been in/helped out the likes of some Polish heavy hitters […]

After 2024s Hunger album, one of the best in the blackened deathcore genre of that year, there was a considerable shake-up in the Worm Shepherd camp, who were already functioning in a reduced capacity as a duo and some guests. Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but original vocalist Duane Duarte was let go […]

I can’t say I’m too versed in the Austrian Sludge/Doom scene, but the internet tells me that Axis Mundi is the third album from this Austrian trio, who are not in any other projects. Either way, I’m kinda digging this. Occasionally, I need a break from deathcore and symphonic black metal, and a couple of […]

Some bands are subtle in their chosen influences; some wear their influences on their sleeves. Australian trio Graves For Gods, have their influences carved into their fucking chest and mope around topless for the whole world to see. Their influence? The Peaville doom trinity: My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost, and Anathema– of course, classic/versions of […]

Though they have been pretty heavy on the deathcore of late (Lorna Shore, Mental Cruelty, Signs of the Swarm, Distant, Ov Sulphur, Vomit Forth, etc.), Century Media still has actually also done a pretty good job of finding some excellent death metal on their roster, too. There is, of course, Sanguisugabogg, but also  Blood Incantation, Frozen […]

I’m not familiar with Hungary’s Symphonic/Epic/Gothic Melodic death metal troupe Meteora, but I’m always up for some symphonic stuff, and I do have a soft spot for the classic ‘beauty and the beast’ dual female vocal styled stuff (Nightwish, Epica, Leaves Eyes, Tristania, Love History, Thalarion, Draconian, etc). With 4 albums under their belt, you’d […]

So, like Sigh’s I Saw the World End-Hangman’s Hymn MMXXV, here is another favorite album of mine from the 2000’s, this time it’s Rotting Christ‘s Aealo from 2010, getting a whole new recording and release. I never covered the original here, as I covered it for a different webzine at the time, but it made […]