As usual. when the dust has settled on a year, a few late year releases find their way into my hands and miss  the deadline for year end lists, but certainly need some attention, and this is the case  with the second album from the UKs Monolith Cult, a new act to me. In my […]

Though still maligned as a genre, Deathcore had a a pretty solid year in 2017 with Aversion’s Crown, Thy Art is Murder, Oceano, Through the Eyes of the Dead, Fit For An Autopsy, Slaughter to Prevail, Conjonctive, Shadow of Intent, Boris the Blade and Reaping Asmodiea releasing solid efforts, and as the year closed out, […]

Holland’s Graceless are a new act, but feature a number of veterans from the Dutch scene from the likes of the excellent Nailgun Massacre and Soulburn, Master and Grand Supreme Bloodcourt. And the end result is what you’d expect from a collaboration of those folks. If you enjoy any of these band members other projects you […]

While Tomas Lindberg’s other 2017 project and release by The Lurking Fear (which I found to be a real snoozer), might get more press and recognition, possibly  due to the Century Media label or more prominent former and current bands members from At The Gates, Bombs of Hades, Edge of Sanity and Disfear . But the fact […]

I’m not familiar with Portugal’s Process of Guilt, but considering the country’s quality output this recently (Goldepyre, Grog, Primal Attack, The Ominous Circle, Switchtense) I thought I’d see how the country’s post rock/sludge genre was doing, and based on a review at this very site of the band’s last album, 2012’s , FÆMIN , my curiosity was peaked. […]

Though hailing from Quebec, Canada,  Цар Стангра (translating to ‘Tsar Stangra’) and founder Stan Stefanovski would have you imbuing the legions of Bulgar cavalry sweeping across the steppes to confront the invading Byzantines… The Ukrainian/ Eastern European vibe is strong here with the likes of Obest, Drudkh, Negura Bunget, Nokturnal Mortum etc, flowing through their veins […]

  Every once and a while a release comes out that truly drops my jaw and leaves me salivating for more.  Such is the case with Cracow Poland’s Redemptor fourth full length record Arthaneum.  I consider myself a fairly well traveled connoisseur of polish technical death metal.  This record goes beyond being a technical death […]

There is something foul afoot in the Iberian Peninsula. Some Portuguese  and Spanish acts like The Ominous Circle, Morbid Flesh, Aversio Humanitas, Goldenpyre, have delivered some truly nasty black and death metal of late, and with their second effort Spain’s Altarage look to be the apex of the onslaught. I never heard the band’s debut, […]

Taking a break form the recent onslaught of old school and Swedish death metal, Germany’s FDA Records have delved into the death-doom genre with the 4th full length album from Hamburg’s Ophis (“snake”), and it’s as successful and consistent as you’d expect from the label, despite the genre. The aptly named The Dismal Circle is […]

“This is what happens. It indicates the non-frenzied feeding of a large squalus – possibly Longimanus or Isurus glauca. Now… the enormous amount of tissue loss prevents any detailed analysis; however the attacking squalus must be considerably larger than any normal squalus found in these waters. Didn’t you get on a boat and check out […]

Ever since Nile erupted forth with their Egyptian take on brutal death metal, ethnic, and cultural elements have crept into death metal more and from from Ade  to Scarab and others. But here comes France’s Impureza to add one I have not heard before- at least not in this full on capacity: Flamenco. Sure, a […]

Every time I think Italy has rendered the most brutalist of brutal albums, it seems to quickly get superseded by something else. Whether it’s Hour of Penance to Blasphemer, to Hideous Divinity, then to Logic of Denial, Antropofagus  and recently Daemusinem . Well, Devangelic is here to try and stop the buck. However, the best term I can […]

From the opening mid range chords of the introductory “Into the Fire” with strains of that classic Phantasm/”Left Hand Path” riff, you know exactly what you are getting from the debut of Germany’s Endseeker: Classic, Swedish styled death metal. And much like recent releases from label mates Lifeless and Blood of Seklusion,  it delivers the goods, […]

Ne Obliviscaris‘s 2014 sophomore album Citadel was one of my top 3 albums for that year, and now 3 years later, the Australian progressive extreme metal collective look to have another of my top albums for 2017 in Urn. The incredibly ambitious and hard to describe sound of these guys is in force again,  as […]

I really want to like these Massachusetts metallers  more. They feature Colin Conway (ex- Cannae), one of the coolest dudes I’ve ever interviewed, and my reviewing brethren Luke Sanders gushed over their last record, 2013s Blood and Black. Throw in a beefy, modern take on East Coast death/thrash metal and you’d think the recipe was […]

Hailing from Rochester, NY, duo Mavradoxa  play a form of atmospheric black metal that would be right at home on Bindrune Recordings. It’s a woodsy, Agalloch rooted form of black metal akin to the likes of  Falls of Rauros, Alda, Wodensthrone and such. However, it does not mean its as good as those bands. While Mavradoxa […]

I rather enjoyed this bands second effort, 2013s Atonement, but the band waited a little long for a follow up ( four years is an eternity for brutal death metal), so me waiting a few months to get a review out is excusable. But not much appears to have changed. The band are as brutal […]

There are a few records that left an indelible mark on me as a young metal head. One such record was Fleurety’s 1995 debut, Mid Tid Skal Komme.  And most of it was due to the vocals of Marian Aas Hansen, who added a bluesy, sultry sway to the avante garde black metal. Another more recent effort […]

It’s been quite a year for the old guard of American Death metal. Obituary, Immolation, Suffocation, Broken Hope, Incantation, Dying Fetus and such all releasing albums in 2017. But none may be more important to any band right now than Morbid Angel‘s 10th (proper) album, Kingdoms Disdained.  After the controversial shit show that was Illud Divinum Insanus back […]

Hailing from Toronto, Decatur play a beefy from of groove/thrash metal inspired by the Northeastern US scene (Shadow’s Fall etc), but the selling point here is the debut effort was produced by Gojira’s Joe Duplantier. So you would expect this thing sounds great, and it does with Duplantier glossing the rhythm section with his heavy fingerprints, and […]

What we have here as an impressive self released debut of Lovecraft themed melodic black/death metal from  Denver’s Crafteon. Eschwing the usual Lovecraftian throes (churning miasmal chaos or deep complex, atmospheric black metal), Crafteon go for a cleaner, sharper sound more akin to Dissection, Dimmu Borgir or Ancient’s better output. The guitars have a crisp clean […]

Though a Milwaukee super group of sorts, featuring current and ex members of  new black metal act Prezir (who I highly recommend) , gloomy hardcore act Protestant and crust mongers Enabler, Pig’s Blood would have you believe they come from South America, by way of Pete Helmkamp’s (Angelcorpse) fever dreams with a debut album of bestial, snarling, barbaric black/death […]

If there was one band I feel like I could copy and paste a review from a prior release, change to song titles and call it good, it would be Cannibal Corpse. And sometimes that’s not necessarily  bad thing, and that’s the case with Cannibal Corpse‘s 14th studio album. Despite all the pre album talk […]

Despite switching from FDA Rekotz to FDA Records, the German label has stayed true to delivering  old school death metal, especially the Swedish/Stockholm style finding bands from Germany like  Endseeker, Revel in Flesh, Lifeless as well from as other countries like Funeral Whore, Fatalist, Ending Quest and Massive Assault. Well, add Italy to the list in […]

There is a host of bands vying for the throne left vacant by Dismember. The likes of Infected Chaos, Brutally Deceased, Harm, Blood of Seklusion, Evocation, Endseeker, Massive Assault, Fatalist, Interment and Germany’s Lifeless are certainly near the top of the list. I’ve cowered the bands prior two efforts, 2010 Beyond the Threshold of Death and […]