With my recent obsession and onslaught of technical death metal, symphonic deathcore, and black metal in 2021, I thought it was time to return to an old favorite and see what’s going on in the shambling world of moldy, mid-paced death doom metal. The likes of Worm, Hooded Menace, Malignant ALtar, and Outre Tombe, certainly […]

For 3 albums now, Canada’s young tech-death masters have shredded their way into the upper echelon of the genre. From 2011’s barely registering debut, All Shall Align, to 2014swatershed album,  The Lucid Collective, which put them on the map, to 2017s Relentless Mutation, which signaled they were now masters of their craft they have improved […]

I have reviewed 2 of the 3 last Obscura albums, including the magnificent 2016 magnum opus, Akroasis. But for some reason, we/I never covered 2018s Diluvium album, despite it being yet another standout in the band’s consistently brilliant releases, thought it saw them take a more melodic turn. So I thought I would return to […]

Listen, I know we haven’t done an interview in a few years. But I thought I’d dip my toes back in the interview well and see what happens. And what better place to start than one of the year’s best Swedish death metal offerings from the multinational act, Abscession. I love me some Swedish death metal, and these guys are pretty much near the top of the peak for the genre.

It’s been 5 years since Swedish/German act Abscession released their excellent debut album, Grave Offerings, one of the best slabs of HM2 Swedish death metal of the last few years, with one of the best songs in the genre “Gargoyle” of the last few years also. And now partnered with Transcending Obscurity Records (allowing for […]

A couple of years ago, I discovered Argentine Symphonic death metal band Mortuorial Eclipse, but they have not released anything since 2018s excellent Urushdaur. However, it appears Italy’s new act Obscura Qalmah (Hidden meaning/tradition) is a more than adequate stand-in with their burly, bombastic take on symphonic blackened death metal. Formed from the members of […]

Believe it or not, Norway’s Blood Red Throne has been knocking about for around 25 years and 10 albums now. Initially formed when Tchort of Emperor fame and Død (aka the incredibly affable Daniel Olaisen) met playing in Satyricon, Olaisen is the only remaining member since the band’s formation and Tchort left after 2009s Souls […]

So here is one of my more obscure forays into 2021’s bumper crop of deathcore and it’s from Ukranian act, Lieweaver who split the middle ground between burly mid-paced downtempo deathcore and more technical death metal stylings and also throw in a few atmospheric keyboards here and there. It’s not doing anything particularly original or […]

So here’s an odd one, so bear with me here. I fell in love with this dreamy, ‘whispering’ Dutch atmospheric black metal duo with 2020s Bloem, which made my year-end list that year and subsequently purchased prior albums Dromers and Luwte.  I had no idea this album was even coming out until I found out […]

Osiah, Lorna Shore, Signs of the Swarm, Crown Magnetar, Worm Shepherd, Lieweaver, Distant, Slaughter to Prevail, Mental Cruelty, Dead/Awake, and others, : “We released the heaviest deathcore releases of 2021!” Bound in Fear: “…Hold my beer”. The UKs Bound In Fear snuck onto my 2019 year-end list with The Hand of Violence (“Stigmata” and “Hate […]

Stop me if you’ve heard this before – the best technical death metal album of the year is Ominous Ruin, no wait! it’s Hannes Grossman, oh no, shit it’s Ophidian I.  That’s it! PHEW.  I hope nothing else comes out that will change that…. Obscura , Archspire, and First Fragment “Oh, Hai!” Shit. Listen, there’s a […]

Do you like Summoning?  Do you llike long songs with epic orchestration over militant, mid-paced black metal with songs of ancient battles and distant lands played by a European duo? Do you wish Caladan Brood would hurry the fuck up and release a follow-up to Echoes of Battle? If you answered yes to any of […]

For two albums now, Dani Filth has delivered a reinvigorated Cradle of Filth since gutting the lineup after 2012s forgetful The Manticore and Other Horrors. Both 2015s Hammer of the Witches and 2017s Cryptoriana – The Seductiveness of Decay, with the same re-vamped line-up, delivered classic Cradle of Filth writing and energy that signaled Dani […]

I’ve been covering Inferi since 2009s End of an Era, and since then they have become The Artisan Era’s flagship band and one of the mainstays of the melodic/shredding technical death metal genre in the US scene. They have not been super prolific, with 2 more albums, an EP and a redo of End of […]

I had no idea what to expect when checking out New Jersey’s Replicant, I just had not heard a Transcending Obscurity release in quite a while and while grabbing the killer new Abscession, I checked out Veilburner’s excellent Lurkers in the Capsule of Skull (due to the review here), and Replicant’s second album, Malignant Reality on […]

There was a time in the late 90s early 00s that I was all fucking in on Viking metal, Enslaved were still sort of Viking based, Moonsorrow were releasing downright epic albums like Voimasta ja kunniasta and Kivenkantaja, Amon Amarth were blowing up and releasing albums every month. And at the forefront of my Viking […]

‘M’ or ‘Mories’ or his real name, Maurice De Jong, as he is known here, is the Netherlands’ black metal version of Rogga Johansson. He’s in double-digit bands, though I’ve onlyheard  Gnaw Their Tongues,  and arguably his most known creation and De Magia Veterum, as I reviewed releases by both on this very site.   And […]

Like it or not, deathcore is having a pretty solid comeback over the last couple or years, and it appears to be peaking in 2021 with Unique Leader Records leading the charge with releases from the likes of Distant, Osiah, To The Grave, Humanity’s Last Breath, Mental Cruelty, Worm Shepherd, Bound In Fear, (a few […]

Very late last year, I was introduced to Boston’s Seven Spires, with their second album, Emerald Seas, and immediately fell in love with them, largely due to vocalist Adrienne Cowan (who surprisingly used to be the keyboard player for deathcore act, Winds of Plague). Her range and power on songs like “Bury You” , “Succumb” […]

Hot on the heels of solid, recent, and upcoming majestic, melodic, second wave black metal homages like Warmoon Lord, Arna, Sinira, fellow one man project, Winter Eternal, Kjeld, Wooden Throne and such, comes prolific lone Aussie ‘Nightwolf’ (also in Blood Stronghold and Eternum) and his 5th releases in as many years. And while it’s my […]

“Our stories won’t be written with ink and mirth. But carved in flesh and the soul of the earth. The whispers of the wind will cease to be. All we hear is the wailing of the oceans plea” – “The Archive”. Arkivet (Archive) is the third album from stellar, fast-rising new Swedish melodic black metal […]

The debut album, Misery Sermon from these track suit and mask wearing Russian deathcore thugs was one of my guilty pleasures of 2017, but then they went a bit quiet for a couple of years. But a flurry of singles and videos in 2019, 2020 and 2021 (and even got the famed metal gunner/drummer treatment […]

The UKs Necronautical (which I’m now learning means ‘to explore death’, and not something maritime related…) first appeared on my radar their second effort, 2016s, The Endurance at Night on the then reborn , legendary UK label, Cacophonous Records. They were a solid , enjoyable, but unspectacular symphonic black metal act with innate Cradle of […]

New Jersey’s Lorna Shore has come a long way since I reviewed their 2013 EP, Maleficum, a decent but standard deathcore release that had a few symphonic elements here and there. But through  2015s Psalms and 2017s Flesh Coffin, they gradually added more epic, symphonic elements, but they really didn’t register as something special at […]

Much like Warmoon Lord‘s recent opus, you can tell just from the moniker, the ‘not Emperor’s Into the Nightside Eclipse art work at all’,  cover art and song titles (“Crossing the Blackest Skies”, “The Illusive Wings of Death”, “Crown of Stars”, ) and the cover of Gates of Ishtar‘s “Dawn of Flames”, what you are […]