From the depths of Cleveland’s legendary metal scene emerges Curse of Denial to devour the innards of the weak and unsuspecting. Vicious old school thrash-inspired Blackened Death Metal carnage that will keep your head steadily banging into utter oblivion. A juggernaut of hellfire awaits with Curse of Denial’s 2nd full length album that carries the […]

Down tempo (or lazy eyed deathcore as I lovingly call it), is one of my guilty pleasures. It takes the best part of deathcore, the breakdowns, and beats them to death repeatedly for an entire album with little or no deviation. If bands like Black Tongue, Calmed By the Tides of Rain, Traitors, Falsifier and […]

When word of the this supergroup/side project surfaced earlier this year I immediately pre ordered the album after just hearing one song. And I’m by no means a fanboy Job For A Cowboy or The Black Dahlia Murder, but when vocalist Jon Davy and fellow JFAC guitar cohorts Alan Glassman and Tony Sannicandro team up […]

I’m new to the UKs Sathamel, but based on this, the band’s impressive debut full length album, after a few demos and a live release, they look to be a killer new black death metal act rising from the UK metal scene, despite some scandal. Apparently, the band was caught stealing material from US act […]

Progressive, symphonic Israeli metal band for fans of Delain, Between the Buried and Me, Dream Theater and Orphaned Land? Mastered by Jens Bogren (Opeth, Devin Townsend, Amon Amarth, Amorphis) ? Ok, I’m interested. Scardust’s debut album, Sands of Time was originally self released in 2017, but has been picked up by M Theory Audio (Into […]

Much like my recent discovery of Blind Guardian, I was a late bloomer when it came to Sweden’s divisive war/history themed power metal vanguards Sabaton. It wasn’t until I randomly heard “Winged Hussars” (arguably still my favorite Sabaton track) from 2016s The Last Stand on a random spotify playlist that I became hooked. I grabbed […]

The ups and downs of melodic death metal have been well documented in these pages, as well as elsewhere, so I won’t bore you with the current state (clue-its down), but with In Flames‘ latest release, I The Mask, not sucking, there could be life left in the genre yet. And here comes Luxembourg’s Feradur […]

There are things that should not go together but some how, despite all odds, work: Peanut Butter and Jelly, French Fries and Milkshake, Chicken and Waffles, Deep fried things that should not be deep fried (God bless America!) , the list goes on. But one element added to metal can that should not work but […]

****We interrupt your regularly scheduled slate of death and black metal to bring you this female fronted symphonic/power metal review*****  I’m a very cyclic music listener and reviewer, I do a lot of my listening and reviewing in batches; a 4 or 5 death metal albums in a row, 4 or 5 black metal albums […]

There’s sure to be a lot of discussion at years end about what the ‘heaviest’  (a relative term of course) album of the year was. From what I’ve heard so far I and my exposure is limited due to the amount of stuff in all genres I review and what we are sent) in 2019 […]

Sühnopfer (German for ‘Atonement’) is a French, one man black metal project featuring Ardraos, who has been around a while and has surfaced in a number of well known and lesser known French bands like Peste Noire, Aorlhac, Veratyr, Endymion, Antrum Mortis and others. This project, while productive with 2 full lengths and various demos […]

After departing from Morbid Angel singer/drummer Mike Browning went on to form one of the most original death metal acts of it time,-Nocturnus  I was fortunate to see them on the Grindcrusher tour on Long Island in 1990, while they were supporting their debut album The Key and Godflesh and Napalm Death were also on […]

Last year I went through a pretty hardcore phase of melodic black metal where I was listening to classic like Dissection, Catamenia, Vinterland, and Sacramentum, as well as newer bands like Thormesis, Vindland, Wormwood and Störtregn. Somehow though, I completely overlooked Sweden’s Istapp (“icicle”) and their 2010 album, Blekinge and 2015 album, Frostbitten. But that has […]

You’d think it was 1988 all over again, what with Opprobrium (then Incubus) releasing albums (also on High Roller Records), Jeff Becerra and Possessed roaming around after 37 years, and now another early death/thrash band, Protector has released a solid album also, though this band’s hiatus wasn’t as long, they went dark for a long […]

KHNVM ( pronounced as kha-nooom) is a multinational Magdeburg /Bangladeshi duo comprised on ‘Obliterator’ on guitar,bass and vocals and hes aided by drummer Krzysztof Klingbein (Aggressor,  Resurrection and Thunderwar), and while a solid, furious death metal offering, the the first offering from Testimony Records that hasn’t truly blown me away like say Demonbreed, Sentient Horror […]

For the Fallen, the 2017 post Bolt Thrower debut of Memoriam, featuring long time Bolt Thrower members Karl Willets and Andrew Whale (joined by current and former Benediction dudes Frank Healy and Scott Fairfax) was a solid homage to fallen Bolt Thrower comrade  Martin “Kiddie” Kearns (RIP), and was as expected, a Bolt thrower/Benediction sounding […]

I’ve enjoyed Denmark’s Dawn of Demise for 12 years, 4 albums and 1 EP now, despite absolutely nothing changing in the band’s sound since 2006s Hate Takes its Form, to 2016s The Suffering. Simple, chugging, groovy death metal. However, with the band’s fifth album, an increased sense of melody has upped the ante a little, […]

The fourth album from Germany’s Thormesis, Freier Wille – Freier Geist, was my first exposure to this band, but that album was on and off my year end list for 2015, though it ultimately didn’t make the cut. The follow up, 2017s Trümmerfarben, didn’t strike me as positively for some reason and I didn’t even review […]

Der Rote Milan is a black metal band from Germany that has couple of members of solid death metal band Ichor in its ranks, so I thought their second effort, Moritat was worth a look, especially seeing as the version I got for review was packaged in a  pretty cool deluxe A5 digibook format with […]

Though I enjoyed every release from Italy’s Fleshgod Apocalypse, going back to 2009s Oracles, I’ve enjoyed some, like 2011s Agony (My album of the year) and 2016s  King, more than others (2013s Labyrinth), but King, really saw the band create the perfect balance between the tech death chaos and the sweeping orchestral majesty that is […]

Anders Biazzi (ex Amon Amarth,  ex Blood Mortized, Just Before Dawn) and his arguably more busy  Just Before Dawn cohort Jonny Pettersson (Wombbath Ashcloud, Nattravnen, Henry Kane, Heads for the Dead,) and drummer Brynjar Helgetun (Crypticus. Megascavenger, Just Before Dawn, Putrevore) are back with the second album under the Gods Forsaken moniker. However, some new […]

Bear with me me here…….. back in 1992, whilst in college, I read in Pitch Weekly ( a free, alternative Kansas City paper) , that Entombed were playing at a local VFW. Of course, I was going, so that night, I loaded up up beers and other substances and headed out with a friend. Well, […]

Over the course of the Amon Amarth‘s 10 album, 20+ year career, they have been one of the most consistent bands in metal. If you were to plot a line with their albums on it, they are almost all certainly in a straight line when it comes to quality with a couple that go over […]

Germany’s Corrosive stomped onto my radar last year with their second album, Lucifer Gave US the Faith, a big, beefy mix of Grave, Entrails,  Illdisposed and Hypocrisy, that delivered a damn solid assault of groovy Swedish death metal and the follow up is improved enough to put these guys on the cusp of the genre’s […]

For a while, Whitechapel were the true darlings of deathcore’s peak, with 2008s This Is Exile being the genre’s arguable apex along  with All Shall Perish‘s The Price of Existence. However, since then, the band hasn’t quite been on the same level; a ‘dumbing down’ of the lyrics, a simplification of the music into a […]