Talk about a match made in heaven…….Switzerland’s  Stortregn, a formerly pure 90s melodic black metal band turned more technical, surgical, shredding death metal with some of their black metal remnants left behind, on The Artisan Era, arguably the flagship label for this style with bands like Inferi, Demon King, Enfold Darkness and such. I’ve reviewed […]

The physical reissue of this 2017 digital only release from this Norwegian symphonic black metal band caught my eye as it features Clemens Wijers of Carach Angren doing the symphonic/orchestral arrangements. And boy is this fucking good! Its definitely got a bit of a theatrical/dramatic Carach Angren vibe, with Wiljers rendering some superbly rousing strings […]

So far in 2021, there’s been some excellent symphonic metal from power metal band Dragony, stalwarts Epica, the orchestral bombast of Abstrakt, the majestic Utbyrd, the epic  tales of Aussies Stormtide, the reformed Phlebotomized,  the avant garde chaos of Exanamis and aa few others as well. One such band is Belgium’s InHuman, who were formed […]

I have not heard a lot from Innerstrength Records in the last few years, but back in the heyday of deathcore/ metalcore I dug some of their releases from the likes of The Storm, Shallow Water Grave,  I Killed Everyone and such, but have not heard anything from them in a while. S0 when I […]

Sometimes I like my black metal delivered in epic, rangy long albums like say Kjeld’s latest offering, Harakiri For the Sky’s vast double album or Utbyrd’s majestic foray. But sometimes I like my black metal in short sharp, icy bursts, like the debut EP, from New Finnish black metal duo Sarvekas, which is a perfect […]

So first up, here is your early contender for the year’s most unreadable logo, right? I’m new to California’s Aylwin, though they have a pretty good amount of demos, Eps and splits under their belt since 2012, But the promotional email had buzz words like Alda, Ameseours, Wolves In The Throne Room, and ‘nature-centric atmospheric […]

I’m embarrassed to say I’m new to this Austrian atmospheric/post-black metal duo and their 4 prior albums, despite some familiarity with their previous band, Viking/Pagan themed black metal act, Bifrost. It appears to be a criminal oversight on my part, as I delved into the band’s back catalog to prepare for this review and the duo […]

Someone really wants to be on The Artisan Era. I mean, look at that logo, cover and the music fits the label perfectly being a shreddy melodic form of polished, surgical, blackened, technical death metal that’s in line with the likes of Inferi and such. At that someone is Ric Galvez, who plays all the […]

Death metal legends Asphyx are now four albums into their reunion, with Necroceros being the fourth since 2009s Death…The Brutal Way, one of the more successful reunions of recent memory. Now, like many reunions from yore, this isn’t the original line up with Martin Van Drunen being the sole original member and guitarist Paul Baayens […]

With some promotional tag lines stating this was ‘Extreme Finnish Symphonic Metal’, I grabbed this promo right away as anything symphonic’ gets my attention, and I had never heard of this band before, so a new find in the genre is always a positive. And I’m glad I did, this is really good stuff. The […]

I grabbed this promo based on 2 things; 1) the fact it’s on the UKs Clobber Records, who released the excellent Argesk debut last year, and 2) I’m still on my melodic/atmospheric black metal kick from 2020 that comprised of over half of my year-end list. Norfolk’s (not too far from my old Fenny stomping […]

Pnuema Hagion (Greek for Holy Spirit) is a duo ‘R’ on all instruments and vocals and Shane Elwell on drums) from Texas that have been around a while in acts like Amateur Podiatry, Covered in Flies, Endless Disease, Excantation, Flesh Consumed, Intestinal Disgorge, Liquid Viscera and others. they have a pretty good number of demos, […]

Wisconsin based,  metal collaboration (Shroud of Despondency‘s Rory Heikkila, Khazaddum’s Luka Đorđević and Enabler’s Brian Serzynski), Prezir (Serb-Croatian for ‘contempt’) is back with album number 2 after dropping a vicious little ep in 2017 and a solid full length debut on 2018 and the now trio, appears to really have further honed in on a […]

I’m always up for some 90s styled Symphonic black metal, and Sweden’s Svartghast is up to the task with their solid, if by the numbers debut, Perdition. Not surprising when you consider one half of the duo is G. Johansson/Choronzon who has served in the likes of Setherial, Impious, and Torchbearer. The formula is pretty simple […]

I didn’t want to do this to you guys, really I didn’t, especially on Christmas week, but the fact is, this is the album we need now. Typically, I would absolutely cringe at anything with spoken word, theatric, storytelling tropes in a metal album, especially of this sort of Dickensian old-timey fluff. And do we […]

At face value, Finland’s Worthless play Swedish styled death metal. They have HM 2 sounding guitars (though not overbearing), gruff, rough vocals and cantankerous, galloping riffs. But if you take a deeper dive (and take into account the band moniker and album title) in the band’s second full length, you get a little more nuanced […]

I have not heard Germany’s Dehuman Reign since I reviewed their debut EP, Destructive Intent, back in 2013. They released an album Ascending From Below back in 2016, but based on album number 3, not much has changed since the EP, as this is stout American death metal for fans of Cannibal Corpse, Monstrosity and […]

Listen, I fully understand the hate for Hatebreed. Past their influential debut, they have been responsible for popularizing ‘hardcore’ and making it more commercial, and putting it in malls and on MTV. But there is no denying their chest-beating anthemic take on ‘bro-core’ has been the rallying cry for a generation and more than likely […]

Ho hum, another Rogga Johansson project… what’s that, 246 bands now? Though to be fair, of his many many bands, I find Revolting to be one of his better efforts, especially the 3 album run of The Terror Threshold,  In Grisly Rapture and Hymns of Ghastly Horror. The last of which, was the last Revolting […]

Oreamnos (a kind of goat apparently?) is the new project from former partners in New York’s Weverin,  Matt Schott (also from Valdur and Sxuperion) on drums and vocals, and Sam ‘the harp’ on guitar and bass. And while I have not heard any of Weverin’s considerably obscure discography, I am somewhat familiar with the Valdur […]

Ohio’s Redefining Darkness Records is turning into a solid little US-based death metal label with some really good releases and bands under their belt. They have also unleashed some impressive Swedish death styled metal gems such as Angerot, Tombstoner, In Shadows and Dust, Wretched Fate, Pyre Wombripper and Sentient Horror. Well, add Tampa Bay’s Carnal […]

I rather enjoyed the debut from Israel’s Scardust, The Sands of Time.  It was a more progressive, Dream Theater tinged, complex take on the standard Delain/Epica style of female-fronted symphonic metal. It was highlighted by guitarist Yadin Moyal, vocalist Noa Gruman and young keyboardist/orchestral arranger, Alex Nichola. And once again on another concept/story themed metal […]

“FFO Oathbreaker, Fall of Efrafa, Amenra, Downfall of Gaia, etc” Oh, you clever sons of bitches. THAT’S how you get my attention when it comes to promo emails. Heck, why not just throw in Tragedy to boot as well as, BJs, steaks, guns and the New Orleans Saints to top it off???? But unlike about […]

My Dying Bride‘s 2020 album, The Ghosts of Orion, was an Ok release, not the best of the legendary UK doom act’s third act (yey growls!), but still a decent MDB release, with 3 or so really strong songs, which is always a good thing. So to keep us entertained during these covid times, the […]

There’s not a lot of info out there right now on Stormkeep (a D & D, Forgotten Realms thing apparently), but I knew as I saw the words ‘triumphant’,  ‘epic’ and ‘melodic’ as well as the renowned JRR Tolkein artist Ian Miller cover art (who also graces one of my favorite other EPs ever, Abigor’s […]