Originally released in 2006 on JCM records (RIP), Metal Blade apparently saw enough in this Minnesota band’s second effort to send the band back to studio to re-mix and re-master (and add two tracks and new cover art) to the follow-up to 2003’s promising but flawed effort, V.II R.VI. With considerable line-up changes, Epicurean appear […]

Moribund is extremely pleased to announce the signing of Lebanese duo Ayat. Absolutely the most insane and crazed band the label’s heard in forever, Ayat’s forthcoming Six Years of Dormant Hatred album is a nuclearblackmetalgoatpunk assault on everyone and everything, poetic in its depravity but unmindful of its consequences. In a prepared statement, vocalist Filthy […]

Recently, Napalm Records started using voiceovers on their promotional CDs. Granted, voiceovers are not quite the full on FUCK YOU METAL MEDIA!!! that digital downloads are, but it’s certainly a tip of a finger gently circling around the rim of my anus. Listen labels, I guarantee (and this isn’t directed at just Napalm Records), screwing around with your promotional […]

So, three years after the caustic Converge-meets-Isis worship of Luce, Italy’s The Secret return with yet another well-done, brittle and calamitous slab of noise — with a thin post-rock visage. And while the genre has certainly seen its fair share of Converge wannabes over the last few years, The Secret are by far one of […]

For some bands it’s the place of origin that determines their music, and Brutality is certainly among them. The group hails from Tampa, Florida – the capitol of American death metal. Unfortunately, being overshadowed by death giants like Cannibal Corpse, Obituary and Decide, Brutality never managed to get the proper acclaim for their work. Metal […]

Relapse Records is proud to announce the signing of South Carolina’s GRAVES OF VALOR.GRAVES OF VALOR (Jeff Springs: guitar / Richard Turbeville: guitar / Damon Welch: vocals / Dayton Cantley: drums / David Hasselbring: bass) are currently writing for their Relapse debut and follow-up to last year’s EP, Famine (Tragic Hero Records). GRAVES OF VALOR’s […]

Today, MORIBUND RECORDS officially announces the signing of Greek black metal band NADIWRATH. Formed last year and featuring DODSFERD mainman Wrath on vocals, NADIWRATH released a three-song demo last summer, which caught the attention of MORIBUND with its catchy-yet-caustic anthems of traditionalist pestilence. Promises Wrath of the imminent debut album, “The NADIWRATH full-length will be […]

With most recent deathcore simply obsessed with showing me how heavy and broodle they are (Annotations of An Autopsy, Emmure, Embrace The End, I Declare War, etc) a few bands such as Born of Osiris, Veil of Maya, Fate and Atlanta’s A Thousand Times Repent are trying to engage in a little more than a […]

So here is a limited edition (500 copies) 7″ vinyl spilt with new songs from Grayceon (“The West”) and Giant Squid (“Sutter’s Fort”). Both bands are arguably two of the better avant-garde, post-rock bands around, with both acts featuring the vocals of Jackie Perez Gratz (Amber Asylum) and her cello amid the dramatic, fluid, evocative […]

JUDAS PRIEST ROAR BACK WITH AN INSTANT EPIC, ‘NOSTRADAMUS’ ON MULTIPLE CLASSIC FORMATS & A WORLD TOUR! Think ‘Double vinyl, gatefold sleeve concept album,’ and some of rock’s all-time classic recordings come to mind. But in the realm of heavy metal, there has never been a double vinyl (now disc!) concept album that has managed […]

Open Grave Records is pleased to make Sweden-based band TRITON ENIGMA debut album, “Black Lies“, available for streaming in its entirety. “Black Lies” was released this past Tuesday world-wide via Open Grave.TRITON ENIGMA was formed in 2005 as a side project for Ronnie Bergerståhl (WORLD BELOW, DEMONICAL, ex-JULIE LAUGHS NOMORE, CENTINEX, AMARAN, GRAVE), Thomas Nilsson […]

Montreal based death metal quartet Synastry have announced headlining tour dates in support of their upcoming debut album, “Blind Eyes Bleed“. The band will be playing a string of dates in Ontario, before their CD Release party on May 17th, 2008. A summer tour across Canada is being planned and will be announced shortly. “We […]

Swedish progressive death metallers SKYFIRE have set “Esoteric” as the title of their fourth album, due this fall via Pivotal Rockordings. The cover art, which can only be described as “epic,” was created by Pär Olofsson, who has previously worked with BRAIN DRILL, PSYCROPTIC, SPAWN OF POSSESSION, and PERSUADER.The recording process for “Esoteric” is nearing […]

Über fucking metal album title. Über fucking metal album cover art. Über fucking metal song titles and lyrics. Über fucking metal inlay art. Über fucking metal video. Lair of the Minotaur are just Über fucking metal. Period. Now on their third full length album, Chicago’s Lair of the Minotaur have been steadily improving and honing […]

So Colosseum is from Finland, reside on Firebox/Firedoom, and play funeral doom metal — do you really need to know more? Painfully slow, lethargic melancholy delivered with crushing guitars, deep bellows, layered despondent harmonies and flocked with synths, Colosseum are the archetype of Finnish doom as played by likes of country/label mates Depressed Mode, My […]

Once upon a time in America there was a glam rock band named Slaughter… and many people thought that this wasn’t the most appropriate name for such music. Three guys from Toronto, Canada had exactly the same opinion and in August of 1984 decided to form their own band and also call it Slaughter – […]

Is there a point in introducing Hypocrisy? This modern metal phenomenon lead by musical mastermind and “Godfather of Gothenburg” – Peter Tägtgren is well-known to all death metal maniacs worldwide, gaining huge acclaim and respect with each of its releases. “Penetralia“, Hypocrisy’s stunning debut album, takes us back to the band’s beginnings, when Tägtgren was […]

According to Willowtip Records, French death metal act Gorod is currently working on its follow-up album to 2006’s Leading Vision, which should be ready for release in early 2009 on Willowtip. Six songs have been written so far, and the band claims that the new album, “will be an evolution of the process that began […]

Prosthetic Records is proud to announce the addition of Seattle’s death/black metallers Book of Black Earth to the label’s roster. Catching the label’s eye while on a West Coast tour with future labelmates The Funeral Pyre in late 2007, Book of Black Earth consists of members of venerable metal underground band Teen Cthulhu, and are […]

Seventh Rule Recordings announces the newest member of its family: Wetnurse. From the heart of New York City, Wetnurse emerges with a signature style that carries forth the spirit of some of the Big Apple’s most crucial heavy bands — Bad Brains, Swans, Unsane, Quicksand, Brutal Truth… Seventh Rule Recordings owner Scott Flaster describes Wetnurse: […]

Canadian progressive-metal newcomers, What’s He Building In There? (WHBIT?), have announced their new members in the wake of the departure of both guitarists, Christopher Cookson and David Halk. “Since the departure of the super-talented quasi-jedi Cookson and the mad scientist Halk, we have recruited our good friend, the unyielding Mason Tikl, who will be taking […]

This summer, Dethklok, the animated band from Adult Swim’s Metalocalypse, hits the road on a 28-city headlining tour kicking off June 2 in Portland, along with two of metal’s top acts, Chimaira and Soilent Green. Tickets to the five-week Adult Swim Presents tour will go on sale to the general public starting Friday, April 18 […]

Montreal’s technical death metal band Beneath the Massacre has scheduled studio time for the follow up record to 2007’s ‘Mechanics of Dysfunction.’ The band will enter the studio April 25 with Yannick St-Amant (Despised Icon, Neuraxis, Martyr), who also produced Beneath the Massacre’s prior full-length and the ‘Evidence of Inequity’ EP. Afterwards, Jason Suecof (The […]

The new track “Hate And Heartache” from MOUTH OF THE ARCHITECT’s new release Quietly has been posted on the Translation Loss Records Myspace profile! You can preorder the record with an exclusive t-shirt design from our website, 2xLP Preorder Packages are coming soon! “Quietly,” which was recorded by Chris Common (These Arms Are Snakes) at […]

Over the years, I’ve had a few thank you emails from bands for a review or interview, but when I reviewed the debut album from Pennsylvania’s Serious Grind here, and subsequently interviewed them for another publication, main man Josh Ebel thanked me gratuitously and we stayed in fairly regular contact. He seemed one of the […]