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 […]
Frankfurt Indiana’s scariest duo return with an inexplicable re-issue of their limited 2006 cdr demo release that only serves to show that their horrid debut, The Night Our Rituals Blackened The Stars, was not in fact a fluke and the band can actually be consistently terrible over two releases. Why oh why someone at AKR […]
The last time we heard from this German metalcore outfit they were called just ‘Destiny’ and released the excellent The Tracy Chapter. Now with a legally changed name and a new label, the band’s mid era Poison The Well worship and strong sense of songwriting is still intact. Not as grating as fellow Germans Heaven […]
Taking the chunk of Danish/Belgian death metal, then lumber and lurch of Jungle Rot (and I hear some Hatework and Vore in here too) and the slam of say Eternal Suffering and Suffocation (without the complexity), Denmark’s Dawn of Demise have delivered a pretty damn stout offering of perfectly rendered death metal, giving Deepsend a […]
Though keyboards and synths have recently been used more frequently in death core, it was the 2005 debut, A Cold Day In Hell, from this California band that seemed to use them in a more symphonic black metal way that really got my attention and the attention of Century Media. So now armed with a […]
So here’s a re-issue of the 2005 cassette only third release from the Hungarian one man project comprised of Vorgrov, and after doing some research I was pretty excited to hear this supposedly folky take on one man drony, doomy ambient and atmospheric black metal. Well, its OK I suppose. It’s primal and grim with […]
Brilliance often breeds polarity. For example, Kezia, the 2006 debut from this group of young Canadians, split the metal community down the middle, with a love it or loathe it mindset. That being said, of all the non extreme metal albums I reviewed, Kezia seemed to be that rare non death, grind, black, thrash metal […]
Often the press and promo sheets that come with albums for review are the greatest work of literary fiction since “A History of Great French Military Victories” came out. However in the case of Alestorm it simply says this: ‘Scottish Pirate Metal.’ I’d say that about covers it. Formerly known as Battleheart, Scotland’s Alestorm (arguably […]
Recorded live at the Worcester Palladium in April of 2007, this 29 track DVD features most of the ‘popular’ Metal Blade artists. But while I have no problems with production or fairly bare bones but entertaining back stage interviews, I have issue with the fact Metal Blade went withtracks from teh likes of Beyond The […]
From the same coalition that brought us the excellent Sickening Horror release, comes another phenomenal technical death metal release from a part of the world you would not usually expect, this time in the form of the full length debut from New Zealand’s Ulcerate. Though not quite as experimental as the Sickening Horror release, Of […]
After making some waves with their debut release from The Faceless, the second release from the label is a smartly similar release of forward thinking, synth laced, techy, progressive, death metal/deathcore. Throw in some Between The Buried and Me styled arpeggio flourishes, and you get a pretty solid, if all too short release. Clocking in […]
Oklahoma’s The Agony Scene is in dire need of some therapy, because they have a considerable personality crisis. First, on their 2003 self titled debut, they unleashed a promising, Darkest Hour-ish, blackened form of Euro-death laced metalcore, then on 2005’s The Darkest Red, they went commercial metalcore with clean vocals and catchy choruses. So now, […]
“Lo-ruhamah is the name of the first daughter of the prophet Hosea and his wife Gomer in the Book of Hosea. The name, which translates as “not pitied,” is chosen by God as a sign of displeasure with the people of Israel for following other gods” -From Wikipedia. Lo-Ruhamah also happens to be stunning Christian […]
Every year there are a few releases that kill a genre for me. This year, Bless The Fallen’s Eclectic Sounds of a City Painted Black and White and Of The First Born’s self titled debut EP has killed melodic metalcore for me. Terrible, terrible cover, forced song writing and vocals and a plethora of utterly […]
To make it quick, if you like Tides, Pelican, The Autumn Project, Russian Circles, The Red Sparowes or any other instrumental, shimmery post rock outfits, just go ahead and grab the debut from Germany’s Long Distance Calling. An hour of artful, elegant instrumental music on par with the course is what you will get from […]
From the underrated German black metal scene and rising Van label comes a ritualistic, ambient black metal outfit consisting of two members of the far more primal outfit, Graupel. With a tangible influence of The Ruins of Beverast in the plodding, moody tones and to these ears, a hint of Summoning in the deliberate percussion, […]
I don’t mean for this review to turn into a rant about Crash Music, but holy hell do they just seem to sign bands that ride the coattails of whatever trend is in vogue at the time. Take Ashes of Your Enemy for example. It’s like Crash realized there is a thrash revival going on […]
So the recent Willowtip/Neurotic releases such as Sickening Horror and Ulcerate have produced some absolutely mind numbingly superb technical death metal, but with Corpus Mortale, the results are far simpler, chunkier and slightly less impressive, but solid for what it is. I actually remember hearing this Danish band a few years ago on the Succumb […]
With the break up of I Killed t he Prom Queen, Parkway Drive become Australia’s most prominent metalcore act, and with their second full length album, Horizons, cement the fact musically. While the much maligned metalcore genre gets its share of hate, when performed at a top notch level, I find it thoroughly enjoyable and […]
Jesus Christ. I tried to like this, I really did. It’s sort of melodic, experimental metalcore with lots of progressive moments, solos, clean vocals and such, but ultimately when delivered with such shitty musicianship and production; it pretty much ruined melodic metalcore for me. With tangible influences like Misery Signals, Shai Hulud, Bewteen the Buried […]
With former members of Cavity, Acid King and -16- , Black Cobra return with album number two of grimy, rumbling, tumbling metal for fans of Torche, High on Fire, Hail!Hornet, Negative Reaction, Kylesa and such. So yeah, if Mastodon were girthier, nastier and far far sludgier, you might get close to Black Cobra’s sound, a […]
After officially declaring …And Oceans dead with the transitional ..And Oceans/Havoc Unit/Sin Decay split, here is official full length debut from Havoc Unit, the newer and nastier incarnation of …And Oceans. While most will more than likely remember the last two …And Oceans offerings, AMGOD and Cypher as water down techno laced black metal, it […]
OK, so there is melodic black metal and then there is Norway’s veteran act Enslavement of Beauty, who with their third album, deliver an uber sugary sweet mix of Gothic synths and very polite, catchy black metal/melodic death metal. Think early Children of Bodom mixed with maybe the synth laced melodic death metal of Lothlorien […]
