Author Archive

Coffin Feeder – Big Trouble

I was drawn to the debut album from Belgium’s Coffin Feeder by the album cover featuring some awesomely iconic 80s movie and TV characters from the likes of  Cobra, Commando, Predator, They Live, Gremlins, The Running Man, Total Recall, Big Trouble in Little China, He -Man, GI Joe and others all who seem to be […]

Dormant Ordeal – Tooth and Nail

Polish death metal duo Dormant Ordeal has been around since 2008, and has three prior albums under their belt, but they are a new act to me and newly signed to Willowtip for their 4th album. Much like fellow Poles Redemptor or Trauma, Dormant Ordeal plays a form of distinctly Polish death metal with traceable […]

Wythersake – At War with Their Divinity

In my review of Wythersake’s 2021 debut, Antiquity, I said (paraphrasing here) the band had delivered some solid symphonic melodic black/death metal, and with some tweaks, (namely some of the vocals and better synths) could develop into a really promising band. Well, they listened to some of my suggestions. Just kidding. I know my opinion […]

Cartilage – Tales from the Entrails: A Necrology EP

Cartilage is a real cool death/grind band out of San Francisco, California. They’ve had a few albums and EPs prior and this new EP Tales from the Entrails: A Necrology, appears to be a stop-gap release before their third album hits.  Their second album, The Deader the Better, from 2022, was pretty damn good.  The […]

Aversed – Erasure of Color

I quite enjoyed the self-released debut from Aversed, Impermanent, back in 2021. It was an unabashed homage to Arch Enemy‘s styled melodic death, from members of Alleageon and Begat the Nephillim complete with Haydee Irizarry doing her best Alyssa White-Gluz impression. Well, there are a couple of changes in the Aversed camp. First, the jump up a […]

ADE – Supplicium

It took 6 years, but we finally have a new ADE album, their 5th, titled Supplicium (‘Punishment’) on a new label, Time To Kill records, and with yet another new lineup. Entering the fray is Hideous Divinity Drummer Edoardo Di Santo (as ‘Atticvs’ here), and Eyeconoclast bassist Gabriele Vellucci. What hasn’t changed is that ADE […]

Trold – I Skovens Rige

It’s been since 2020, with Blodiga Skald‘s The Undrunken Curse, that I got truly excited about a folk metal album. *sigh* there was a time when any album with horns, strings, or an accordion would have got me all sorts of worked up. Sure Ensiferum, sort of does it for me, but when I say […]

Benediction – Ravage Of Empires

That logo? Dave Ingram on vocals? Nuclear Blast Records? It just feels right, doesn’t it? 5 years after their return from a 12-year hiatus with 2020’s solid Scriptures, UK death metal veterans Benediction is back with album number 9. And while the band’s middle and later catalog isn’t quite the stuff of legend, there is […]

Scalpture – Landkreig

After two fine albums on FDA Records (including 2022’s fucking outstanding Feldwärts), Germany’s war mongering death metal act Scalpture have made the jump to a different German label, Testimony Records for their 4th album, though it comes with mixed results. Saying Landkreig is a step back from Feldwärts is probably a bit over an overstatement, […]

Caustic Phlegm – Purulent Apocalypse

The debut album from the Scotlands’s solo artist Evangelos Vasilakos (also of equally fittingly named black/death act Chestcrush– who have a long in the upcoming Deathgasm 2 movie) has the most fitting band and album name ever, as this album is Caustic, Phlegm-y , Purulent, and Apocalyptic all at once Ladies and gentlemen, what we […]

Crown of Madness – Memories Fragmented

I’ve covered this husband-and-wife duo for two EPs now, first with 2022’s The Void and then 2023’s Elemental Binding.  Both deliver excellent, discordant death metal with themes based on video games, D&D, and such. So I was super happy for the band when they signed with Transcending Obscurity, a perfect label for them. And the duo (Sunshine Schneider—guitar, […]

Cradle of Filth – The Screaming Of The Valkyries

After two excellent, reinvigorated albums in Hammer of the Witches and Crytoriana, Dani Filth and his hired gang of ever-changing musical mercenaries, took a step back with 2021, Existence is Futile, where the constant line-up changes, appeared to have taken its toll, mainly Lindsey Schoolcraft, who was settling into her role as the new Sara […]

Nechochwen return with new single + album announcement

Press release 2025-03-21 Precipice of Stone The time has come to offer a glimpse of “spelewithiipi”, Nechochwen’s upcoming album, set for release on May 9, 2025. The first single, “Precipice of Stone”, is now available for streaming.   Nechochwen commented:   “Precipice of Stone” is a tribute to medicine songs that have helped me through difficult […]

Crown Magnetar – Punishment EP

Colorado’s deathcore kings are here to beat your fucking face in. Right the fuck in. No theatrics, no choirs, no sweeping symphonics (ok, maybe just a smidge in 2 songs), just 4 songs in 18 minutes to remind you they arguably sit atop or near the top of the current pure deathcore heap. After delivering […]

Istapp – Sól tér sortna

I was late to the Istapp (‘icicle’) party, only discovering them on 2019’s stellar, The Insidious Star, but subsequently going back and listening to prior albums from the mid-10’s like Blekinge and Frostbiten. Honestly, though I had kind of forgotten about them, but 6 years after The Insidious Star a revamped Istapp is back. There […]

DISEMBODIED TYRANT JOINS NUCLEAR BLAST

DISEMBODIED TYRANT JOINS NUCLEAR BLAST + NEW SINGLE ‘8.6 BLACKOUT’ OUT NOW + NORTH AMERICAN TOUR KICKS OFF NEXT WEEK Photo Credit: Chris Klumpp Nuclear Blast Records is proud to welcome Missouri’s burgeoning extreme metal wrecking crew DISEMBODIED TYRANT to the label’s thriving roster. With one of the most distinct new sounds in heavy music, the volatile four-piece […]

To Obey A Tyrant – Frigore Inferni EP

From the promotional email: FFO: Mental Cruelty, Worm Shepherd, Lorna Shore Yep, I’m in. How these Brits haven’t been on my radar before this EP is a mystery to me. They play my favorite genre of music right now and reside on one of the better independent labels doing said genre. But trust me after […]

Whitechapel – Hymns in Dissonance

After bursting on the scene with their 2007 debut, The Somatic Defilement, Tennessee’s Whitechapel quickly rose to the top of deathcore hierarchy with the follow-up, This Is Exile, in 2008, still a classic in the genre all these years later. However, subsequent albums like Our Endless War, Whitechapel, Mark of the Blade, and A New […]

Vildhjarta releases new single, “+ sargasso +” – taken from new album, ‘+ där skogen sjunger under evighetens granar

Vildhjarta releases new single, “+ sargasso +” – taken from new album, ‘+ där skogen sjunger under evighetens granar +’ + där skogen sjunger under evighetens granar + album artwork   Swedish progressive metal pioneers Vildhjarta have built a career defined by mystique and groundbreaking artistry, consistently defying expectations. The band has established an identity rooted in […]

Admire The Grim – Resist

Finland’s Admire The Grim, are a new melodic death metal band that leans heavily into their country’s fairly rich history of the genre. On their debut album, Resist they deliver a competent if by-the-numbers album of shredding, tightly played, melodeath that fans of Children of Bodom, Kalmah, and such should definitely appreciate. Fronted by Katri Snellman […]

Havukruunu -Tavastland

Finland’s Havukruunu ( ‘coniferous crown’) first got on my radar with 2017’s Kelle Surut Soi, but in 2020, they obliterated my radar with 2020’s Uinuos syömein sota, which was my clear-cut favorite album of the year. The funny thing is, we have never actually reviewed them! Well let’s fix that together, shall we? The word […]

Open Kasket – Trials of Failure

Listen up, fans of early Gatekeeper, Terminal Nation, Fuming Mouth, Kruelty, Acephalix, Vastum, and Xibalba take fucking note. You need the debut from Arkansas’ Open Kasket in your life, right fucking now!!! Open Kasket plays a form of meaty, girthy beatdown/hardcore-driven death metal that lumbers and slopes with bad fucking intentions at every turn. With […]

Infested Angel – Threnodies To Eternal Despair

I actually got this promo in the fall of 2024. I immediately enjoyed it, planning on doing a review for its early 2025 release, but as usual, life, other promos, and work got in the way, and I forgot about it. But here we are, and let’s get to it. Adorned with a wonderfully 90s […]

UK DEATH METAL TITANS CANCER RETURN WITH NEWS OF THEIR NEW ALBUM INVERTED WORLD

LEAD SINGLE ‘AMPUTATE’ SET FOR RELEASE ON MARCH 14th WITH NEW VIDEO Inverted World Album Artwork For over 35 years UK death metal legends Cancer have been delivering some of the most brutal and uncompromising music in the genre. Now, they return with Inverted World, their highly anticipated follow-up to 2018’s Shadow Gripped. Set for release on April 25th via Peaceville Records, the album […]

Pathogenic – Crowned in Corpses

Boston’s Pathogenic is a new act to me but they have been around a while with a debut album, Cyclopean Imagery way back in 2011, and a self-titled follow-up album in 2019. Neither of which I have heard. But I was looking for an early 2025 release to review, and the promotional description of ‘progressive […]