In my line of work, I’m all about first impressions. I will generally make a snap judgment about a person and determine their veracity within about 30 seconds. Luckily, this does not apply to metal albums and reviews, because if I had simply relied on first impressions, Among Flies would have been album of the […]

Here’s a pretty solid debut EP from French act Diluvian (meaning a “deluge”) that combines melodic death metal and modern polished brutality (I hate to use the term deathcore here) into a impressive 5 song EP that holds a lot of promise. Though I’ve seen the term ‘deathcore’ thrown about in regards to this release […]

Hailing from Algeria in North Africa, Devast play a form of jagged, choppy, twangy technical death metal, that while fits all the paradigms of technical death metal, has a little of its own character and differs from the sudden flurry of California tech death that’s assaulted the scene of late. The 8 songs on this […]

Though some may consider The East coast and Florida the main stays of US death metal, but for the home of technical, brutal death metal, you need to consider that in California there are such amazing death metal acts as Deeds of Flesh, Vile, Brain Drill, Decrepit Birth, Odious Mortem and Severed Savior, who after […]

Willowtip is extremely proud to announce the signing of Washington, D.C.’s MAGRUDERGRIND. The band is set to enter Godcity Studios in early January to record their Willowtip debut with famed engineer Kurt Ballou (Converge, Misery Index, Torche). The recording will mastered at Visceral Sound by Scott Hull (Pig Destroyer, Phobia, Maruta). Immediately following the recording […]

Avant-garde psych-metal trio ZOROASTER has completed work on its highly anticipated new album, Voice of Saturn. The follow up to the band’s critically acclaimed release, Dog Magic, Voice of Saturn will see a March 10, 2009 release via Terminal Doom Records. Recorded at The Living Room in Atlanta (The Black Lips, Mastodon) with engineer Ed […]

Drop Dead Gorgeous Announces The Original Gangstour Featuring BrokeNCYDE, Eyes Set To Kill and And Then There Were None ***  Drop Dead Gorgous have announced the line-up for the upcoming Original Gangstour featuring BrokeNCYDE with Eyes Set To Kill along with And Then There Were None. The tour will kick off in Reno, NV on […]

After just finishing a successful UK Tour, Napalm recording artists POWER QUEST are pleased to announce two festival appearances for 2009! They are confirmed for the first edition of a new UK festival called Metalfest, set to take place on September 25-27, 2009 at JB’s in Dudley. The six-piece will play amongst the likes of […]

  BATTLEFIELDS have posted the new song “Quake and Flood” from their Translation Loss Records debut “Thresholds Of Imbalance” due late March 2009 here:  BATTLEFIELDS’ Translation Loss debut “Thresholds Of Imbalance” was recorded at The Devil’s Workshop in Minnesota with drummer and engineering Rob Schmidt manning the helm and was mastered by Nick Zampiello at […]

Seriously people, its about time we start talking about New Hampshire’s Trap Them as one of the US’s best kept metal secrets, as with their second full length album, the band has once again delivered a sonic donkey punch that mixes crusty chaos and hardcore (think Converge), Rotten Sound and the midrange pummeling of Wolverine Blues […]

2008 was a pretty good year for melodic, contemporary hard core with the likes of Verse, Have Heart, Brothers, Take It Back and the almighty Killing the Dream. Yet here comes this nautical themed debut from this awesome SoCal three piece featuring members of Graf Orlock and comes close to taking the throne of 2008s […]

Way back in 2005 before metalcore and deathcore annoyed everyone, The Classic Struggle released their solid debut, Feel Like Hell, and at the time was one of the heavier displays of the genre I had heard. Fast Forward three years and unfortunately The Classic Struggle like With Dead Hands Rising and Embrace the End, simply […]

Great, another group of kids playing off the wall spazzy, crumbly, squealy deathcore. Except this lot are named after a Mitch Hedberg joke, have lots of samples (including Dane Cook and Anchorman), goofy song titles and quirky synths and an oh so quirky sense of humor. And somehow they’ve done this for 3 fucking albums […]

The Savannah, Georgia-based KYLESA, who recently finished recording their fourth studio album, will tour Japan for the first time early next year. The seven-show trek will correspond with the official Japanese release of the band’s acclaimed 2006 album, “Time Will Fuse Its Worth,” on Red Cobalt Industries. Additional information about the limited-edition release, which features […]

Founded in 2003 by brothers Wes and Jeremy Fareas, the New Approach to Martyrs Expressions (Name), is an amalgam of experimental tech metal, grindcore, ambient sounds, freeform jazz, blues, cultural world music, an odd sense of humor, and maniacal mood swings. Known for their chaotic energy, Name breathes vivid new life onto the stage. Name […]

The Asian symphonic black metal band ChthoniC, who made international headlines by championing Taiwanese democracy from the Ozzfest and Wacken stages last summer, has recently finished recording their new album “MIRROR OF RETRIBUTION” which is a concept album in Los Angeles with producer (and Anthrax guitarist) Rob Caggiano (Cradle of Filth, Bleeding Through). This marks […]

The third in Willowtip’s excellent recent grindcore revival trilogy (Phobia, Kill the Client), Maruta (a Japanese name for the collective victims in the infamous Unit 731 war crimes) ironically lies somewhere between the two as they mix furious, relentless modern grindcore with a more classic power chord driven sound. Seething blast beats feral screams, deep […]

New Zealand’s ULCERATE have finished recording their new album, Everything Is Fire. Scheduled for an early 2009 release, Ulcerate’s second full-length album further refines and expands their work on 2008’s Of Fracture and Failure. Punishing, churning dissonance mixed with their trademarked sense of melody and textured rhythm work, coupled with a greater foray into mood […]

Despite the switch from Deepsend to Unique Leader, little has changed in the Lecherous Nocturne camp. They still feature Mike Poggione (Monstrosity, Carpharnaum) on bass, they still unleash blistering blackened death metal, still under 30 minutes in length, and its still pretty good stuff. Coming it at 28 minutes, compared to Adoration of the Blade’s […]

Captivating UK buzz band DIAGONAL has completed work on its highly anticipated debut album. The progressive jazz-rock group will release the self-titled Diagonal in North America on January 27, 2009 via Rise Above Records. A seven piece from Brighton on the UK’s south coast, all in their mid twenties, DIAGONAL is very much at the […]

According to Unrestrainedmag.com, one of the metal media’s pioneers, Adrian Bromley, who started e-zine Chronicles of Chaos as well as Unrestrained Magazine and recently worked for The End Records and Ixmati Media, has passed away. From Unrestrainedmag.com; “It is with a very heavy heart we report that Adrian ‘The Energizer’ Bromley passed away in his […]

Worse Than Alone out March 10, 2009 on Eyeball Records THE NUMBER TWELVE LOOKS LIKE YOU announce a new March 10, 2009 release date for their third full-length release, Worse Than Alone (Eyeball Records). The Bergen County, NJ five-piece self-produced the disc at Backroom Studios in Rockaway, NJ and brought in acclaimed producer/mixer Steve Evetts […]

Though I was very impressed with this young act’s debut, Akeldama back in 2006, my recent experience of them at this year’s Summer Slaughter, and exposure to their new material left me somewhat unimpressed. Whether it was the lack of full time keyboard player, the more experimental material, or just an off night in a […]

SHADOW KINGDOM RECORDS, the Pittsburgh-based heavy metal/rock label and online store, has a slew of hard to find/rare reissues as well as new signings coming out in 2009. The record label comments, “There is so much good material that never was released on CD from the 70’s and 80’s and I’ve made sure with SHADOW […]

To celebrate a year since its original release, UK thrashers EVILE’s ripping debut album ENTER THE GRAVE has been reissued as a special redux edition and is now available worldwide! This limited edition version of EVILE’s FLEMMING RASMUSSEN-produced (METALLICA) modern thrash masterpiece features the album housed in a special slipcase, and includes three bonus tracks, […]