I’m fairly new to Sweden’s Meadow’s End despite my love of all things that melds symphonics and metal, having only recently discovered the band’s 2016 release, Sojourn (in part to a brilliant piece of evocative cover art), and thusly grabbing the bands other 2 previous releases and pre ordering this, the band’s fourth effort. What […]

Warning: I am going to say the words Bal-Sagoth, a record breaking number of times in this review… Man, I haven’t had this much anticipation for an album in a looooooong time. Why? Well friends, Let me tell you of an Age undreamed of…. Back in the 1990s a band called Bal-Sagoth arose from the […]

At its onset, the third album from Norway’s Blodhemn, (a new act to me) is an odd beast that’s not sure if it wants to be a more enigmatic and off kilter type of black metal akin of Enslaved, or a more vitriolic and melodic entity in the vein of Grafvitnir, and after a while […]

I was curious as to how After the Burial would follow up the emotional 2016 album, Dig Deep, the tragedy laden homage to deceased former guitarist Justin Lowe. Having come up with bands like Born of Osiris, Periphery, The Faceless and such, After the Burial have arguably been the most consistent in their delivery since […]

If you are reading this review, I’m going to assume you know this history behind this veteran Louisiana brother act. If you don’t, here is the cliff notes version: Two brothers from Louisiana form a band called Incubus and band release two pretty influential releases in Serpent Temptation (1988) and Beyond the Unknown ( 1990) […]

I was pretty impressed with my first exposure to Stephane Thirion  and his third album,  A fleur de peau, from his one man project, In Shadows And Dust. It delivered black metal rendered with a Stockholm death metal guitar tone with good effect, and apparently the guys over at Redefining Darkness were also impressed, enough to […]

Remember in the mid/late 1990s when metal took a hard lean to Gothic overtures and bands like Sentenced, Anathema, Tiamat, Katatonia, Samael, Cemetery, Paradise Lost, Rotting Christ softened up and bands like Godgory, Sculpture, Crematory, Agathodaimon were a dime a dozen on Nuclear Blast Records? Well, Finland’s Asphodelus are here to remind you of that […]

The definition of equipoise is basically ‘a balance of purposes or interests’, and while there is certainly a balance of interests in this tech death supergroup…..nay mega group, the balance of purpose is a little left behind. I’m not familiar with Nick Padovani and his other primary group Virulent Depravity, but he has enough sway […]

I’ve said in prior reviews from this new-ish Ohio based label, I really like the direction the label is headed with a real focus of real death and black metal and some very cool forays into HM 2 boss styled death metal such as Inoculated Life, In Shadows and Dust, upcoming Nocturnal Hollow album and […]

I rather enjoyed Fallujah’s semi meteoric rise from fairly typical Unique Leader modern tech death through 2014s The Flesh Prevails, (which made my 2014 year end list) and 2016s ambitious Dreamless, as the band expanded into far more atmospheric and progressive pastures. However, some lineup churn (notably original vocalist/guitarist Alex Hoffman and longtime guitarist Brian […]

I’m sure its a coincidence more than anything, but Battle Beast releasing their 5th album shortly after former member Anton Kabanen released the 2nd album from from the band he formed after acrimoniously leaving Battle Beast , Beast In Black, but it sure feel like a more personal, competitive move. However I digress.. So while […]

Guitarist Jim Tasikas is back with Contrarian’s third album and  again, joining is George Kollias (Nile) on drums and vocals ( though Cody McConnell has joined as a live session vocalist), Sulaco’s Brians Mason (guitars) and Ed Paulsen on bass, and the skilled outfit continues their spot on latter era Death homage to precise levels […]

A few years ago bands like Nails, All Pigs Must Die, Trap Them  and almost every other release on Southern Lord was all the rage;  A feral, snarling mix of grind core, crust, death metal and hardcore rendered with a dirtied up Swedish HM2 buzzsaw tone.  Well, the 2018 debut from France’s Nuisible is here […]

Sweden’s Wretched Fate is a new band formed by members of melodic death metal band Non Divine Sun, and their debut album, Fleshletting is the album that Bloodbath should have released last year. Yep- I said it, heresy I know, but Fleshletting is a brutal, catchy and dynamic slab of Swedish styled death metal that you’d think a […]

When I checked out 2016s King Of Everything promo from this Ukranian act, and the lead single (or at least the video/single that came with the promo) “Words of Wisdom“, I wasn’t overly impressed with the sort of djenty modern groove, nu metal.  But a couple of years later, I started seeing ‘reaction’ videos to a […]

Do you like your death metal old school but brutal? Do you like your death metal sloppy and meaty? Do you like your death metal to be a mix of the first Cannibal Corpse album’s zombified, fetid blasts , Incantation’s oozing miasma and Devourment’s punishing grooves? Please let me introduce you to the third album from Arizona’s Meathook. With […]

I was rather impressed with the debut album Memento Mori, back in 2016 from these French melodic death metallers, and they have finally released a follow up in Prokopton, and no surprise, it’s just as impressive and consistent as the debut. Again with a sound heavily rooted in the string/synth-heavy, brighter, bouncy tones of early Children […]

For those of you who have heard the new Fallujah track, and, like me, wasn’t that impressed, here is an alternative for you in the sophomore album from Bay Area act Aenimus. With 11 tracks based on iconic horror stories (The Shining, IT, The Deadzone, Hannibal, etc) and a host of guests including Eddie Hermida (All Shall […]

England’s Hecate Enthroned is largely known for being the band that Former Cradle of Filth bassist/vocalist Jon Kennedy formed after departing Cradle of Filth before they were huge rock stars (he actually appears on the original version of Dusk and Her Embrace, recently released as The Original sin) , and subsequently and unabashedly ripping off Cradle […]

After 3 albums with Finland’s quick rising power metal act Battle Beast, guitarist Anton Kabanen had a bit of an acrimonious departure from the band but quickly formed his own band Beast In Black, then really didn’t hide the fact its basically the same band, with the same sound, but somehow even cheesier and catchier. They […]

From newish  German label that already brought us fine releases by Demonbreed, Carnal Tomb, and Sentient Horror in their short lifespan, comes another excellent slab of buzz saw laden, HM 2 drenched, Swedish styled death metal with the debut from Italy’s Organic. Fans of the genre will probably be ordering this as I speak, but yeah this is a […]

Cripes- I have not reviewed an Unleashed album since 2006s Midvinterblot, and frankly due to a really awkward interview with founder Jonny Hedlund after I ripped 2002s Hells Unleashed, haven’t really given the band too much attention, despite an apparent solid run of albums since then in Hammer Battalion, As Yggdrasil Trembles, Odalheim, Dawn of the Nine. So, […]

It’s been a fair while since a ‘real’ ( I use that term due to the crossover between death metal and deathcore in bands like Ingested, Fit For For an Autopsy, Lorna Shore and Organectomy and such) deathcore record tickle my fancy, probably something in 2017 or early 2018 (maybe Lorna Shore‘s Flesh Coffin?). But here is the late […]

Apparently a lot has happened in the 12 or so years since reviewed this Polish band’s debut, Buried in Between, a decent At The Gates ish metalcore/melodeath record. There’s been a lineup shuffle, and more importantly over the band’s 3 albums since the debut, these guys have evolved into solid death/black metal act and now […]

Good lord- talk about an obscure blast from the past. I vaguely remember purchasing this Swdish band’s debut EP Alienor back in 1993 as a blind purchase, and kind digging it. It was a more progressive slightly different take on death metal back then, but 2 albums later in 1994 and 1996 the band disappeared […]