Can someone explain to me how Shadow of Intent is unsigned? Especially considering the absolute proliferation of the symphonic/blackened deathcore genre of late? Are the band members complete dicks? Are they independently wealthy? Do they hate labels? Imperium Delirium is the band’s 5th self-released effort, their third after dropping the Halo video game-inspired themes from […]

Battlespells, the second album from this Finnish duo, named after a Vlad Tepes song, was one of the more authentic 90s styled black metal albums of recent memory, up there with releases from Northwind Wolves, Mist From the Mountains, Pestilent Hex, and I Am The Night over the last few years. And even with a […]

I keep waiting for the Blackened/Symphonic deathcore movement to burn out, but nope, it appears 2025 is going to be an even better year than 2020 and 2025. Of course, the 800 lb gorilla in the room will be the forthcoming album from Lorna Shore, and then a 600 lb gorilla with Shadow of Intent. […]

Do you miss early/mid-00s ‘Myspace’ deathcore? Still jamming All Shall Perish, As Blood Runs Black, Embrace the End, The Red Chord, Salt the Wound, Knights of the Abyss, Animosity, The Number 12 Looks Like You, Rose Funeral, My Bitter End, and Dead to Fall? Well, Im right there with you- that era was my mutha-fucking […]

Deathcore duo Larcenia Roe got the deathcore scene’s attention back in 2023, with their self-titled EP, Dereliction. Especially the vocals of Ryan Vail, who made Lorna Shore‘s Will Ramos look like Hansi Kürsch. And indeed, there were immediate comparisons to Lorna Shore. However, Larcenia Roe‘s sound is much more of a grimier, beat down, and […]

I’m usually a little leery of bands that use the Kult, ‘K’ in their band moniker or album title. However, I also trust almost anything FDA Records puts out, so here we are. Nekrodeus hails from Austria and Ruaß (Austrian for ‘Soot’, but also a slang term for ‘rabble’ or ‘scum’) is their third album […]

Swedish death metal super group Lik (‘corpse’) has been churning out solid Dismember meets Wolverine Blues area Entombed since 2015s, Mass Funeral Evocation and 2018 Carnage. But despite a lineup that features folks from Katatonia, The Resistance, Face Down, Kaamos and such, I feel like they never took that jump into Entrails levels of genre […]

Listen, I know. Even though they were founded first, Poland’s Hate sounds like Behemoth circa  Zos Kia Kultus, Demigod, Evangelion. I seen them be called ‘Wish’ Behemoth or ‘Temu’ Behemoth, but the fact is, I’ve ordered some pretty cool shit from Wish and Temu. And with the band’s 13th album that’s what you get- some […]

I knew nothing about Bavaria’s Drudensang. But the promo is listed ‘for fans of  Lunar Aurora, Abigor, Katharsis, Ascension, Nagelfar‘. And the band is comprised of current and former members of Mavorim, Atronos, Aphelium Aeternum and Belphegor. Im in. So Drudensang (loosely meaning ‘witch wail’ or ‘witch chant’), and Geysterzvvang (‘dark compulsion’) is a 6-song EP, […]

Listen, usually I spend the first part of my reviews wasting your time with introductory bullshit, back story, anecdotes, and general filler. Not for this one. Arizona’s Kardashev (named after a Russian astrophysicist who developed a theory for measuring a civilization’s level of technological advancement) is one on the most engaging and entralling new acts […]

After reforming after 18 years in 2020 and releasing one of the best reunion albums of recent memory with Cosmic World Mother, Finland’s enigmatic and genre-shifting…And Oceans wasted little time in releasing the follow-up, As In Gardens, So In Tombs, a mere 2 years later. And as I said in my review of As In […]

This spring/summer, two mid-era Behemoth-inspired acts will be vying for your attention: the always reliable Hate, and this French death metal act and their third album, although I have not heard the first two self-released albums. But Transcending Obscurity saw enough to sign them, and that label usually does not miss. And they certainly have […]

I knew absolutely nothing about Toronto trio A Flock Named Murder or their label, Hypaethral Records, other than they play post/atmospheric black metal, which has kind of been my jam lately, so I randomly grabbed the promo. Then, because I’m a goddamn professional (sometimes) I actually did some research on the band, only to find […]

Personally, I feel like we are in a new golden era of metalcore/deathcore/death metal female vocalists. Sure, the path was forged by the likes of Dawn Crosby (Fear of God), Karen Crisis (Crisis), Angela Gossow (Arch Enemy), Krista Curry (Landmine Marathon), Laura Nichol and Grace Perry (Light This City), Maria Kolokouri (Astarte), Courtney LaPlante (Iwrestledabearonce […]

Back in 2022, these French maniacs, formerly known as Herpes, dropped their excellent debut, Blood Red Tentacle. A fine Swedeath album with a foul reek of Autopsy that reminded me of the short-lived super group Murder Squad. And with their second effort, not much has changed. If anything, the stench of Autopsy is even thicker […]

DOWN: Legendary Heavy Metal Supergroup Signs To Nuclear Blast Records; New Music To See Release Next Year! Photo by Metal Dave Media Legendary heavy metal supergroup DOWN – featuring vocalist Philip H. Anselmo, guitarists Pepper Keenan and Kirk Windstein, drummer Jimmy Bower, and bassist Pat Bruders – is pleased to announce their official signing with Nuclear Blast […]

BEAST IN BLACK and Blizzard Entertainment’s Diablo® Join Forces to release new track ‘Enter The Behelit’ to mark Berserk Crossover Today marks the epic convergence of three cultural titans: Diablo®, the critically acclaimed franchise that defined the Action RPG genre; acclaimed manga, Berserk; and Finnish heavy metal band, BEAST IN BLACK, who have collaborated to launch an exclusive track ‘Enter The […]

I was drawn to the debut album from Belgium’s Coffin Feeder by the album cover featuring some awesomely iconic 80s movie and TV characters from the likes of  Cobra, Commando, Predator, They Live, Gremlins, The Running Man, Total Recall, Big Trouble in Little China, He -Man, GI Joe and others all who seem to be […]

Polish death metal duo Dormant Ordeal has been around since 2008, and has three prior albums under their belt, but they are a new act to me and newly signed to Willowtip for their 4th album. Much like fellow Poles Redemptor or Trauma, Dormant Ordeal plays a form of distinctly Polish death metal with traceable […]

In my review of Wythersake’s 2021 debut, Antiquity, I said (paraphrasing here) the band had delivered some solid symphonic melodic black/death metal, and with some tweaks, (namely some of the vocals and better synths) could develop into a really promising band. Well, they listened to some of my suggestions. Just kidding. I know my opinion […]

Cartilage is a real cool death/grind band out of San Francisco, California. They’ve had a few albums and EPs prior and this new EP Tales from the Entrails: A Necrology, appears to be a stop-gap release before their third album hits.  Their second album, The Deader the Better, from 2022, was pretty damn good.  The […]

I quite enjoyed the self-released debut from Aversed, Impermanent, back in 2021. It was an unabashed homage to Arch Enemy‘s styled melodic death, from members of Alleageon and Begat the Nephillim complete with Haydee Irizarry doing her best Alyssa White-Gluz impression. Well, there are a couple of changes in the Aversed camp. First, the jump up a […]

It took 6 years, but we finally have a new ADE album, their 5th, titled Supplicium (‘Punishment’) on a new label, Time To Kill records, and with yet another new lineup. Entering the fray is Hideous Divinity Drummer Edoardo Di Santo (as ‘Atticvs’ here), and Eyeconoclast bassist Gabriele Vellucci. What hasn’t changed is that ADE […]

It’s been since 2020, with Blodiga Skald‘s The Undrunken Curse, that I got truly excited about a folk metal album. *sigh* there was a time when any album with horns, strings, or an accordion would have got me all sorts of worked up. Sure Ensiferum, sort of does it for me, but when I say […]

That logo? Dave Ingram on vocals? Nuclear Blast Records? It just feels right, doesn’t it? 5 years after their return from a 12-year hiatus with 2020’s solid Scriptures, UK death metal veterans Benediction is back with album number 9. And while the band’s middle and later catalog isn’t quite the stuff of legend, there is […]