2019 has been a banner year for power metal, especially for some of the bigger name bands, and more importantly power metal bands I actually like: Battle Beast, Beast In Black, Twilight Force, Sabaton , Grimgotts, 43 Rhapsody based bands and even grizzled Hammerfall all released albums,  with some of them certainly in the mix […]

Do you like early Asphyx? Do You like early, Drunen led, Consuming Impulse Era Pestilence? Then the always reliable FDA Records has a release for you, the full length debut from German death metal act Evoked, and it’s a scorcher of an album, despite its clear influences. Culling heavily from The Rack as well as […]

New Jersey’s Fit For An Autopsy got on my radar back when they started in 2008, as they initially featured one of my favorite vocalists of the era, vocalist Nate Johnson from very short lived deathcore act Deadwater Drowning as well as noise-mongers Premonitions of War. Even after Johnson left, Ive purchased all the albums, listened to […]

When I reviewed Nile’s fourth album, Annihilation of the Wicked way back in 2005, I mused how long the band could keep up the high quality and continue  the  long running Egyptian themes. Well 14 years and 5 albums later, that answer is pretty clear. Even with a bit of a lull with 2012s At […]

Oh Dear. I saw the writing on the wall for Equilibrium’s downfall with 2016s Armageddon, and its epically bad lead single “Born to be Epic”). But I didn’t see the next album being such a complete and total disaster that completely alienates the band’s fan base. After 4 albums that arguably  stand among the very […]

What the Fuck? Have I gone back in time to 2006-2008? Unearth released a great album last year, Killswitch Engage released a great album earlier this year, and now As I Lay Dying have released a great album!!!! I digress. But personally I have found the story arc of AILD frontman Tim Lambesis more interesting […]

If you look carefully at the bottom left of the cover of the debut album from Sweden’s In Pain, you can see a small building that’s Sunlight Studio’s and in the door, non other than Tomas Skogsberg, the master of the mid range, HM 2 death metal sound. Fitting considering, as with the band’s EP […]

I’m not very familiar with the UKs Infant Annihilator, other than the ridiculous prices their first 2 albums are being sold for, and that some of the members are in down tempo act Black Tongue. But The Battle Of Yaldabaoth is my first time actually hearing them, and if it’s any indication, those prices are […]

Last year, I reviewed the fourth album, Emptiness Fills the Void, (Non Serviam Records) from this Swiss melodic black metal band, And was rather impressed with band’s tight, modern take on classic Scandinavian (Dissection, Naglfar, Catamenia, Dawn etc) melodic black metal from the 90s. So when I heard Non Serviam Records was reissuing the band’s […]

When a promo manages to name drop Insomnium, Turisas, Monnsorrow and Omnium Gatherum it its one sheet press release, you get my attention, if just to see how bloated the claims are. But this Finnish act has somehow managed to cull from all of their fellow Finns and drop a solid third album full of […]

The Artisan Era is really starting to come into its own as a label, and is starting to hone in on a pretty specific sound. With bands like Inferi, Equipoise, Warforged, The Odious Construct, Arkaik, Aethereus, Oubliette, Flub, Enfold Darkness, Mordant Rapture and The Zenith Passage, the label certainly has some of the better technical […]

The debut from this musty, old school Swedish death metal act, What Lies Beyond, was a solid record, but none one I’ve really revisited since I purchased it. And the same can be said true of the follow up: a solid old school Swedish death metal record, but one that’s likely to get lost in […]

Coming with the dreaded ‘groove/thrash metal’ tag, and some 80s B grade cover artwork (intentional I’m sure), I didn’t have very high expectations for the debut from this Netherlands act, but the old  adage  ‘never judge a book by its cover’, was pretty appropriate here, as I actually ended up rather enjoying this thrashy little […]

I’m not going to lie, I’ve been waiting for ICS Vortex to be the full time singer again in Borknagar for a while now. No disrespect to Andreas Hedlund (Vintersorg) and his contributions on the last few albums, or even Garm’s superb early efforts, but I think most would agree the ICS Vortex albums (Quintessence, […]

I’m not sure what is more surprising- that this is Pathology’s 10th album since 2006, or that its released on Pavement Music/Entertainment, once a prolific extreme metal label, now home to the likes of Dishwalla, Puddle of Mud, Flaw and Tantric. Either way, album number 10 sticks to the tenets of the last few albums, […]

While most are out there blowing their loads over the Tool album, I’ve been sitting here patiently awaiting the arrival of another long awaited progressive metal album, Disillusion’s reunion effort after 13 years!. Yep- it’s been 13 years since the divisive Gloria, which while a solid album, had the herculean task of following up a […]

Well,  at least I know that Germany’s Unholy Conspiracy Deathwork label knows how to package an album. As with label mate’s Der Rote Milan‘s Moritat, the fourth album from home land act Stellar Master Elite comes in some intriguing packaging, a black embossed  2mm black carton premium digipack, with 3 black foil prints on all sides […]

Here’s the 6th album from Brazilian Black/Thrash veterans Power From Hell, whom I’m not familiar with due to my general lack of knowledge or affinity for Black/Thrash metal. And due to those reasons, probably won’t check out again, but fans of the genre should check them out if they haven’t already. Culling from  the first […]

I’m unfamiliar with female fronted Minnesotan black metal act False, but seeing as their second effort was released on the usually reliable Gilead Media, who recently dropped the magnificent third Falls of Rauros album, I though Id give this a go. And what I was greeted with was some fantastic 90s styled , Scandinavian semi […]

I’m on a bit of a symphonic metal kick of late, especially deathcore,jamming the likes of Carnifex, Ov Lustra and When Plagues Collide on a regular basis. So here is Connecticut’s Shadow of Intent, who are one of the online deathcore community’s darlings with 2 albums under their belt (Primordial and Reclaimer). They have made […]

Most will roll their eyes at blackened deathcore with symphonic elements , but Arizonians Ov Lustra (“Of Glory? Of Shining?”Of Mirrors?) has absolutely knocked it out of the park with this ‘debut’ EP, utilizing some of the most effective orchestration I’ve heard in any metal genre with perfect results. Formerly known as Sun Speaker and […]

No disrespect to Tom Morris, Scott Burns or Dan Swano, but I would argue that of all the ‘legendary’ 90s metal producers, one is a producer and a studio that truly created a sound and one could immediately identify as ‘that sound’. Thats is Tomas Skogsberg and Sunlight Studio. Of course, most will know of […]

I had high hopes for this.  It was either because it was named after an Entombed song from Clandestine, or that drummer Eric Krebs is the drummer here, and he is in another German death metal band called Golem, who released one of the early 00s most underrated death metal albums, Dreamweaver. Unfortunately, I was […]

After Whitechapel’s The Valley, you could argue that Thy Art is Murder’s’ Human Target, and Carnifex’s 7th album are 2019s other ‘big name’, veteran deathcore releases. And while I have yet to hear Human Target, The Valley was phenomenal, so where does World War X stand? Well, I had some reservations when I saw/heard first […]

Sweden’s Turbocharged have been around for a while now, with 4 albums and various other releases to their name. However, this is my first time hearing them, which is odd as I typically seek out anything with a HM 2 Swedish death metal guitar tone, but I missed these guys somehow. But this isn’t your […]