Four guys up in Ontario Canada really , really like Dark Funeral, Immortal and Marduk and they do a pretty admirable job of paying homage to them on their blistering debut (label released) album Black Northern Storm. Now this is my first exposure to these lads, so I’m not sure how Black Northern Storm stands […]

Rounding out my recent gamut of quality sludge/noise comes Wisconsin’s Desolate Void, who measure up favorably to the likes of Lair of the Minotaur, Ultralord and Black Cobra but with bit of a nasty, Southern tinged grindcore sheen that brings about a bit of Eyehategod or Soilent Green.At the center of Desolate Void’s caustic tantrums […]

A taster EP from this progressive, post black, avant-garde, Winds meets Arcturus meets Solefald collaboration. A collaboration, that to me, comes across like a slightly more diverse and edgy version of Winds and has the benefit of Solefald’s Lazare (Lars Nedlund) on vocals rather than Winds’ rather underwhelming Lars Eric Si (who play bass in […]

I hate to gush about a potential record of the year so early in 2006, especially with albums from In Flames, Eyes of Fire, Thryfing, Bal-Sagoth and Skinless lurking on the horizon, buts it’s not just the sheer quality of Misery Inc’s sophomore effort, Random End that impresses me, it’s compressed by the fact it’s […]

Christ, now THIS is retro kids. Just look at that artwork. This is raw garage thrash punk crossover circa 1986 fronted by an annoying female screamer/yeller (who has since departed), that will appeal to those that enjoyed the recent Municipal Waste album, only if you can get past the squealing banshee doing vocals. Personally, I […]

As much as I wanted to make some snide remark about this being watered down hardcore, and Victory’s watered down hardcore roster, I couldn’t because for what it is (screamohardcore, metalcorrepunkrock), it’s pretty solid and certainly better than some of Victory’s other more aggressively promoted bands (ahem, Hawthorne Heights, Bayside).Hailing from Germany, veterans Waterdown sound […]

First thing’s first; great cover.Now, I really wanted to like Bleeding Through’s third album. I really wanted it to be a huge middle finger to metalheads that look down on Bleeding Through with disdain and I wanted The Truth to remove Bleeding Through from the hated Hotopicore trifecta that also includes Avenged Sevenfold and Atreyu. […]

Though I really only regard this album as a competent and solid entry into the female fronted Goth rock album category that I will rarely listen too, I will concede that it is one of the sexiest albums I’ve heard in a while.Beseech has undergone a considerable lineup overhaul since I last heard them on […]

With their long awaited second album, France’s Aes Dana (who once featured various members of Antaeus and Arkhon Infaustus), have delivered a perfect rendition of folk and Celtic/pagan artistry and frosty black metal nihilism and arguably one of the finest pieces of folk based metal I have ever heard. Graced by the flutes of Amorgen […]

There’s something to be said for no frills, competently brutal, US death metal and Vile, along with Divine Empire’s Method of Execution have delivered it in droves.Compared to other Unique Leader bands like Decrepit Birth, Agiel, Gorgasm, Internal Suffering and such, Vile’s third album is actually rather tame; there’s some control, some blackened melody, solos […]

There’s an awful lot of quality hardcore to be had on this 2 disc retrospective from one of metallic hardcore’s recently reformed underappreciated pioneers. Before the current popular metal meets hardcore trend spearheaded by bands like Hatebreed et al there was Strife, Earth Crisis, Merauder and Turmoil, who toiled without the benefit of MTV or […]

Another scorching record from Willowtip, this time in the form of Dallas’s own Napalm Death worshiping grinders, Kill the Client who have delivered a blistering Stateside response to The Code is Red… While most copycat metal rests on the laurels of the subject material, Kill The Client’s homage to Napalm Death (as well as Nasum […]

I never heard this Finnish band’s debut Pride/Fall, but after hearing this excellent slab of melodic, melancholy Finnish death metal, I will certainly be digging it up. Culling from the usual Finnish suspects like Amorphis and Rapture, Noumena’s crunchy, deliberate pace laced with somber harmonies also will appeal to fans of Insomnium, Swallow the Sun […]

This self-released, very professional, well presented and produced effort from this Belgian five piece is a pleasant surprise amid reviewing my 678th metalcore EP. Plying a form of atmospheric, mid paced, vaguely pagan/folk black metal, Thurisaz sound very “Scandinavian” with their tinkling synths, melodic guitars and pagan hues. If you slowed Skyfire or Wintersun slowed […]

Despite the power metal cover, Sweden’s Azure deliver a pretty solid slab of melodic and accessible black/war metal, and thanks to Deathgasm, King of Stars-Bearer of Dark now has a US license from Pulverized Records. This is as ‘nice’ as black metal gets, with the catchy restraint of early Norther meets the epic dynamics of […]

Here’s some pretty entertaining and humorous grindcore that takes elements from Cephalic Carnage (bizarre tangents, love of weed) and early Pungent Stench (humor, guitar tone, vocals, song structures) and manages to squeeze everything into one highly packed bowl of resin infused fun.Though still grindcore, Serious Grind manage to deliver more than just 30 second spurts […]

Well, here it is folks. The moment of this album arriving had me giddier than when my first real girlfriend let me touch her jiggly and moist bits for the first time. This is comeback album that for me, far exceeds the hype of Suffocation, Obituary, Celtic Frost, and whoever else the fuck has decided […]

The word melodic gets thrown around like food when Anna Nicole Smith eats a buffet; a word chucked into death metal to show something other than sheer brutality, but other than a few solos, what makes death metal truly melodic?.Arsis, that’s what. Let me tell you, the 13 minute center piece of this criminally teasing […]

Of all the hardcore EP’s chucked at me over the last few years, the self titled EP from this California band still gets regular airplay. Killing The Dream also get addition exposure when I play the excellent Embrace the End album as guitarists Joel Adams and Bart Mullis moonlight in that slighter heavier death core […]

I’ll admit that while Osculum Obscenum and The Fourth Dimension are two of my favorite death metal albums ever, everything past The Fourth Dimension never really impressed my despite the widespread acclaim of albums like Abducted and The Final Chapter. The final nail in the coffin for me was the god awful Catch 22 and […]

“ONCE AGAIN WE BRING ARMAGEDDON!” Apt opening to start the album as “At The Entrance to Hells Unholy Fire” kicks off album number four from this legitimate Swedish super group comprised of Lord K Philipson (House of Usher, Leukemia, Dark Funeral, God Among Insects), Jörgen Sandström (ex-Grave, ex-Entombed, ex- Krux, Vicious Art), Petter S. Freed […]

With all the all the underwhelming metalcore Metal Blade has churned out this year (As I Lay Dying, The Black Dahlia Murder, Unearth, Winter Solstice, The Red Death, Neaera), you’d forgive me for being cynical when broached with another Iron Clad Recordings (Unearth’s Trevor Phipps’ label) licensed effort. Then you’d have to also forgive me […]

Considering the vast wealth of deathcore and tech/math core that has assaulted my ears this year, New York’s Abeyance shouldn’t have even registered on the Richter scale, even more so considering their rather questionable choice of label. But as it stands Experience is the Words that are Written is actually pretty solid.  I’ve seen a […]

As hard as Lifeforce is plugging this as Entombed meets Dissection meets Mastodon meets High On Fire, I’m only buying a quarter of their hype; the Swedish death metal quarter. Withered, for all intents, purposes, regardless of origin (Georgia-hence the Mastodon plugs), name dropping and forced label based pigeon holing, stand toe to toe with […]

Adding to this year’s bumper crop of burly, breakdown inspired “death-core” come California’s Winds of Plague and their Recorse Records (based out of Independence, MO, not 2 hrs from my house) debut and for those of you that enjoy the likes of All Shall Perish, With Dead Hands Rising, Despised Icon, Embrace the End, Antagony, […]