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 […]

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 […]