If there is one thing I enjoy about cyber death metal such as The Amenta, Scarve, Total Devastation, Sybreed, Kryoburn, Hypnosis , The Project Hate and Finland’s Scorngrain is the guitar tone; that thick, mechanical, filling shaking guitar tone and as with their impressive debut, the fittingly titled Cyberwarmachine, Scorngrain once again deliver a solid […]

Though I have been pretty harsh on most of the Pathos Productions releases, due to the not quite as archaic sound of many of the labels releases, this debut album from Holland’s Desensitised is one of the labels better efforts. Though not purely old school-y, Virus of Violence is a chunky throwback European death metal […]

After their debut album, Devouring the Prophecy on Unique Leader records, what could be a better fit than signing to Willowtip records, already the home to other such masters of technical brutality such as Gorod, Dim Mak, Illogicist Carpharnaum, and delivering Willowtip’s first, eagerly awaited release of 2007? Plying a similar form of complex yet, […]

I’m not sure what “It” is and how it is prevailing, but in the case of the debut record from this Portland melodic metalcore/hardcore act, “It” is a damn fine metalcore album for fans of Misery Signals, Means and Life in Your Way. Soaring, shimmering, layered melodies injected with some burlier moments, arguably more burly […]

I’m not a ‘rock’ guy, not at all. So when confronted by this Los Angeles alternative rock three piece featuring Queens of the Stoneage and Karma To Burn drummer, Rob Oswald, I was hardly quivering with excitement. The thing is though, Twenty-Six is really good and there are several songs I simply can’t get out […]

There’s nothing wrong with the fourth release from Michigan’s relatively veteran hardcore act Today I Wait, but there’s nothing that completely enamors me either. Basically culling from every big name in hardcore and metalcore, TID’s mix of intense, burly metallic hardcore and a few melodic metalcore elements and even a hint of more death metal […]

So here is the first release on Galactic Records, the label recently formed by Mithras main man Leon Macy, and let me tell you it’s a fucking doozy. Formed from the ashes of a few obscure English death metal bands (Infant Bile, Dark Earth), Birmingham’s Sarpanitum look to, (along with the new Mithras and Man […]

I honestly never saw the big deal with Embalmer. 3 ultra cult demos, then a ‘Best of..’ on Relapse Records back when death metal was a its very peak? Bug Whup. And apparently the rest of the metal world doesn’t see the big deal with them either seeing as they re-united in 2005 with little […]

Ireland’s Cruachan, for me, has always been a band of unfulfilled promise and annoyingly un-reached potential. Also, their ability to never quite settle of a style of metal, (be it the black metal of Tuatha Na Gael of the thrash of The Middle Kingdom or even just heavy metal for the Skyclad-ish Pagan) to back […]

Spinefarm/The End The fact its taken me this long to review this album despite the fact Moonsorrow is responsible for two of the greatest Viking metal records ever (Voimasta Ja Kunniasta and Kivenkantaja) as well as my rather non-committal response to the bands last, grittier album, Verisäkeet sort of shows what a hard time I’m […]

So this spring sees two fairly important melodic death records released from two once ‘rising’; bands; Omnium Gatherum on a new label, with a new vocalist looking to rebound from the lackluster Years In Waste after a genre defining debut, Spirits and August Light, and super group of sorts Nightrage. Arguably Nightrage lost their ‘supergroup’ […]

In the early 1970’s the British Government was reprimanded by the European Convention on Human Rights for torturing suspected IRA members by using a Sensory Deprivation method know as “White Noise”. Well, I think the European Convention on Human Rights needs to investigate Crucial Blast and France’s Monarch! for similar offenses. What’s better than 1 […]

With The Exhibitions EP being my first exposure to this German black metal band, I’m not sure I’m able to gage Secrets of The Moon’s standing within the hierarchy of black metal, but based on personal taste alone, I happen to think this band is one of the finest, yet underrated black metal bands around. […]

With their fifth album, Germany’s Fear My Thoughts have now evolved in to a full on modern melodic death metal act, and a good one at that. And while Hell, Sweet, Hell was a glossy but flawed transitional album, Vulcanus sees the band deliver an improved effort that should elevate the band into elite status. […]

Here’s another one of the springs ‘big’ releases, and I was even more intrigued to hear this, in light of how impressed I was with former Naglfar member Jens Ryden’s solo project, Profundi and to simply see how Naglfar would respond with their second post Ryden album. Well. It’s a Naglfar album. It sounds a […]

I’m no sludge expert, but in Materia, Belgium’s three piece Blutch appear to have released a solid sludge/doombeast that should appeal to fans of The Abominable Iron Sloth, Black Cobra, Negative Reaction and such. Slow yet abrasive and menacing, Materia has all the hallmarks you’d expect from such a record; gritty earthy guitars, foreboding, patient […]

So Candlelight has signed a Deathcore band? Though it initially seemed a bit ‘trendy’ to me, but to their credit in Kansas’s Diskreet, they have found a solid act that delivers the goods. Licensed from the UK’s Siege of Amida Records and having 2 bonus tracks, Infernal Rise is exactly what you would expect from […]

Ho Hum. A new Dimmu Borgir album and with it will come the fan division between ‘true’ black metal fans who decry Dimmu Borgir as sellouts and undoubtedly a new generation of more accepting fans either hearing these Norwegian stalwarts for the first time or simply accepting Dimmu Borgir for what they are. When the […]

Prosthetic Records Further highlighting the development of the previously ‘core’ based Prosthetic Records is this pure black/death metal project featuring members of Brian Werner and Sam Molina of US death metal legends Monstrosity. However, even with that slight pedigree, A Symphony Of Suffering shows that not all projects of renowned musicians are worthwhile. While certainly […]

I rather enjoyed the debut EP In the Midst of Bloodied Soil from this Sacramento metalcore act, as is brought some synth laced, epic blackened majesty to metalcore. However, with a considerable line-up shuffle, their Earache full-length debut sounds like a slightly different beast. That doesn’t make it a bad record, its just a bit […]

So as I get further down into my packages of CD’s from Poland’s Lifeline Records, I get to this anthology from the now disbanded Polish Vegan Melodeath/metalcore act Sunrise. Cursed Not Alone consists of the band’s two releases, Generation of Sleepwalkers (Sanctuary Records 1998) and Child of Eternity (Sobermind Records 2000), and is are repackaged […]

I really enjoyed this Norwegian extreme Goth outfit’s last record, Free Fall Into Fear, but for some reason Existentia is not hitting me with the same impact. Whether it is the stripped down line-up, the slightly more mid paced, less varied and more Gothic material, or just rather ‘meh’ songs, something is just missing. The […]

Being from Europe myself, I actually grew up watching the Eurovision Song contest, and I still remember England’s Bucks Fizz winning with the inanely catchy “Making Your Mind Up” and becoming huge pop stars-one of the few commercial successes to arise from the contest. Watching the annual submission from Turkey was always a wonderful sonic […]

So, I’ve never really liked YOB or even really enjoyed stoner doom/rock, so when graced with the sudden appearance of Middian’s debut album featuring Mike Scheidt of the now defunct YOB, I wasn’t sure I’d like this 5 track slab of similarly themed metal. However, with a more aggressive, metal edge more akin to the […]

I’ve always sort of pegged France’s Hacride as a ‘sister’ band of The Netherland’s Textures; both are angular jagged, Meshuggah inspired bands, that are good at what they do. However, while in my opinion Textures took a step back with Drawing Circles, Hacride have stepped way up with their impressive second album, Amoeba. What sets […]