Most splits I review are often at least by liked mined or musically similar acts, that’s not the case with this split as it combines the gnarly Bolt Thrower fronted by a manic banshee sound of Arizona’s Landmine Marathon with the classic thrash metal of former Exhumed members. Landmine Marathon’s, debut, Wounded, was a gritty, […]

You’d think that a lineup of Swedish death and black metal veterans like Jocke Widfeldt (Dominion Caligula, ex-Obscurity), Matti Mäkelä (ex-Dark Funeral, Dominion Caligula, ex-Obscurity) ,Tobbe Sillman (Guidance of Sin, The Dead ), Robert Lundin (ex-Dark Funeral, Dominion Caligula, ex-Obscurity) and especially Jörgen Sandström (ex-Grave, ex-Corpse, The Project Hate, Krux, ex-Entombed, Death Breath, Putrefaction, Torture […]

Death metal has its share of geographic sounds; the Stockholm sound, the Gothenburg sound, the Florida sound, the Birmingham sound, the Canadian sound etc. Well one of the more overlooked sounds is the Denmark sound. Generally highlighted by chunk and heft with a dash of thrash rather than speed (and more often than not produced […]

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWN. Ho- hum another tough guy hardcore band has discovered Bay Area thrash and solos. With a lineup shuffle and label change, New York’s Sworn Enemy , after a couple of typical tough guy hardcore releases (As Real As It Gets and The Beginning of the End), have dumped the power chords and breakdowns in […]

“There is no one righteous, not even one; no one seeks God. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear […]

At the risk of losing what little credibility I have within the metal community, I have a confession to make. I do not own a single Vader release. Not one. In fact the last Vader record I actually heard was 2002’s Revelations, and before that the only Vader record I physically even owned in the […]

While a fairly standard metalcore meets death metal affair, Atlantis is the first Blood & Ink release I have enjoyed since Foreknown’s Calm Seas Don’t Make Sailors and With Blood Comes Cleansing’s debut Golgotha, as the likes of Skylines, Blessed By A Broken Heart, Stars Are Falling, Nashemah, The Gentleman’s Pistols, Burden of a Day […]

Thanks to the US postal service, it took numerous attempts an several months for me to get my copy of this for review from the label and after the wait, though I’m not completely sold, this is if anything, a very, very challenging and ambitious work. If you think the likes of Between the Buried […]

Though oddly touted as ‘Blue Collar metal”, Pittsburg’s Once Nothing are more in line with the Southern infused likes of Maylene And the Sons of Disaster, Cancer Bats, The Showdown and Remove The Veil, but add a heftier, sterner metalcore/hardcore tone rather than a more drawling rock backbone to their Southern core. Still though, the […]

Lost in the current retro thrash revival is the fact that Norway’s Audiopain have been chugging along and kicking out 10 plus releases since 1998, two EP/splits just last year, and their latest 6 track offering, is arguably the most pure throwback and raw of all the so called current thrash revivalists. Whole promoted as […]

After NonAnthropgenic and SoulSavior, V:28’s trilogy is apparently now complete with VioLution, which basically continues their industrial black-ish metal tone that still imbues a sort of modern Enslaved meets label mate Havoc Unit in a blackened industrial visage. The thing is, it’s still just relatively uninteresting as nothing really ever ‘happens’ or peaks on the […]

Despite a lengthy discography dating back to 1998, Germany’s JaKa never seemed to make the impact you’d expect in the grindcore genre, and I think part of it is they are just a little too experimental for the grindcore crowd, not quite death metal or serious enough for the death metal fans, and simply too […]

Estonia’s Goresoerd deliver 16 short tracks of chunky, blasting, groovy grindcore with a tongue in check delivery that should appeal to fans of Blood Duster and a lot of the Obscene Productions stuff. Though hardly a groundbreaking record, the usual mix of short, sharp punky blasts (“For Idiots All Over the World”, “Circle of Masturbators”, […]

Italy’s Tragodia are not doing anything new in the realms of romantic Gothic metal, as their synth backed, catchy yet despondent riffs and male/female vocal trade off has been perfected by the likes of Thalarion, Beseech and Lacuna Coil, but it’s an acceptable entry into the genre. An expected, crisp clean (Finnvox Studio) production delivers […]

Hailing from Tampa, Florida, Mena Brinno (which translates as “Moon Fever”), is a female fronted Gothic metal band featuring former Royal Anguish players Katy Decker and Marius Kozlowski. And while delivering many of the usual Gothic metal elements, Mena Brinno has more in common with the likes of To-Mera and Alas in that it tries […]

Waldemar Sorychta (Grip Inc., Rotting Christ) has been busy recently. Not only did he release the album from his new project, Enemy of the Sun record late last year, he also released this German entry into female fronted Gothic metal, a genre he has had considerable influence in, having produced the likes of Lacuna Coil, […]

For three albums now, Chicago’s Dead to Fall have to struggling to find their sound, both style and production wise. After seeing and interviewing the band twice now, it became readily apparent that the band, and mainly vocalist Jon Hunt, were never really comfortable with the whole serious deathcore/metalcore image and themes that they plied […]

The fourth album from Erik Rutan and his revamped Hate Eternal line-up is somewhat of a double edged sword. On one hand, the aptly titled Fury & Flames is arguably one of the most murderously heavy and uncompromising death metal albums ever recorded. On the other hand, it’s virtually unlistenable in long doses or at […]

Don’t get me wrong, While I have enjoyed the last two Dismember albums, the fact is both Where Ironcrosses Grow and even the fine The God That Never Was, just seemed a bit forced and too melodic for me. However, with the self-titled tenth album, an infusion of youth into the line up and yet […]

Despite being formed in 2000 ans this being their 5th album, this is my first exposure to the German black metal war machine known as Endstille, and while a scathing vicious take on razor sharp black metal, I don’t think I’ll b checking out the back catalog unless I see it used or cheap somewhere. […]

Much like the UK’s Bring Me The Horizon, Cleveland’s Salt The Wound, despite their preteen looks, deliver a decent take on At The Gates and Breakdown filled American metal. Not purely in the realms of say Suicide Silence or Whitechapel, but straddling the gap between say The Black Dahlia Murder, Sons of Azrael and All […]

Change is often a hit and miss prospect for metal bands; just ask Metallica, Entombed, Immortal, Carcass, Gorefest and many others. In the case of California’s Decrepit Birth, who after a nasty and publicized arrest of their guitarist Mike Turner on Child Molestation charges, change has been a good thing. The change also includes Odious Mortem drummer […]

What is Pagan/Viking/Folk Metal? Well according to Nuclear Blast and their recently released CD/DVD compilation to promote the upcoming 2008 Pagan Fest tour, it’s a number of things; It could be veterans of chunky death metal with plundering Viking lyrics (Amon Amarth’s “Victory March”, Unleashed’s “The Long ships are Coming”), it could be epic hymns […]

Back in 2001, The Cleansing made semi waves in the death metal genre being a project involving Obituary’s Trevor Peres and Pyrexia’s Keith Devito and Rob Marseca, and with both band’s at the time being on hiatus, the album probably got more attention and credit than it really deserved. So now on Napalm Records, (which […]

Like Origin’s staccato filled, voracious technicality? Like Gore? Like stunning drum and bass work? Just get this already. In a few week span that’s has seen the release of the new Decrepit Birth album as well as the impending Hate Eternal album, the debut full length from Brain Drill cements that death metal appears to […]