First, hats off to Mariusz Lewandowski, who created the cover art for Bell Witch‘s third album, for it was this striking artwork that got me to check out this otherwise new to me band. Second, holy. fuck. I have not been utterly moved by a Funeral Doom album for a few years, probably since Funeral’s From […]

I wasn’t sure how these young Canadians would follow up their excellent 2014 debut, The Lucid Collective, a completely over the top , noodling clinical and triggered tech death tour de force, only since topped by First Fragment‘s Dasein since then as far as sheer tech death insanity goes. Well, they are up the the […]

It’s been 10 years since Kansas City’s  Lo- Ruhamah released their impressive debut, The Glory of God, and then a subsequent interview with the band, cleared up the band’s deep philosophical themes and leanings, leanings which again arise on the band’s long awaited follow up, Anointing. Though not a Christian band, as you see by […]

It wasn’t until 2014s Titan that I got into Greece’s Septiciflesh, which is a surprise considering I’m a sucker for big, epic orchestration in metal. But as with Titan, and even prior releases like The Great Mass that I went back to, Septicflesh remain all fluff and no real substance.  But the fluff, remains some of […]

Last year, I received a demo from San Francisco’s Sentient Ignition, they didn’t want a review, just some feedback from me about their sound. The basic premise of my feedback was they were promising, talented, sounded like Black Crown Initiate, and the vocals needed some work. Well, they wrote me back earlier this summer and sent […]

Belphegor has always been one of those consistent, respected veteran bands on my periphery that I’ve ‘liked’ but never ‘loved’. The first  album I heard and covered was 2005s relentless  Goatreich Fleshcult,  and while I thoroughly enjoyed it, subsequent albums like Pestapokalypse VI, Walpurgis Rites- Hexenwahn and Black Magick Necromance, left me pretty ambivalent. So much […]

It’s been 8 years since I reviewed Crimfall’s  debut As The Path Unfolds, a solid entry into the Finnish folk/pagan/epic/melodic/Viking genre along sides stalwarts Ensiferum, Brymir and Turisas. They released a second album, The Writ of Sword back in 2011, but I never heard it so I can’t tell how they have developed since then. What I […]

Under the alias of ‘Zornheym’, bassist/guitarist Tomas Nilsson, played in Dark Funeral from 2011-to 2014, and now he and some of his Swedish metal pals (notably Diabolical drummer Angst and Facebreaker’s Richard Bendler on vocals) has formed his own band under that moniker but those expecting anything like Dark Funeral will be sorely disappointed, as Zornheym play a […]

You know home in some sports and other contests there is a USA vs the World? Well, if we did that for deathcore, despite a valiant effort from the likes of Enterprise Earth, Rings of Saturn, Shadow of Intent, Fit For and Autopsy and Oceano (and negative points from Suicide Silence) , the rest of the world […]

After completely gutting and then revamping the line up, Dani Filth seemed invigorated for the surprisingly good Hammer of the Witches back in 2015, and that renewed energy has carried over into the follow up, the darkly seductive, 12th album, Cryptoriana – The Seductiveness of Decay. A tale of Victorian debauchery, magick, death, the afterlife and Gothic, supernatural […]

On paper, I should be super pumped about Ursinne, (Swedish for ‘fury’) a project featuring Dave Ingram (Benediction, Downlord, Down Among the Dead Men, Echelon) and Jonny Pettersson (Ashcloud, Henry Kane, Gods Forsaken, Wombbath, Just Before Dawn, etc) rounded out by bassist Sonia Nusselder. Even more so when I heard Kam Lee (Massacre) makes an […]

UK power trio Dyscarnate got on my radar with the 2014 reissue of their 2012 sophomore album, And So it Came to Pass, an impressive display of groove and heft that many compared to Dying Fetus- and rightfully so as the band has a bit of hardcore buried in their death metal salvos. And they […]

It’s been  3 years since Anders Biazzi (ex –Amon Amarth, Gods Forsaken, Blood Mortized) released a Just Before Dawn album, the war themed Swedish death metal project with a veritable host of guest vocalists and musicians. There has been a couple of EPs and a single, and now right before the band’s next full length release, […]

Contrarian caused a few waves back in 2015 with their highly regarded debut, Polemic. A supergroup of sorts founded by Jim Tasikas with Brian Mason (Sulaco), Leon Macy (Mithras) on guitars with George Lollias (Nile) on drums. It was a Death homage, with  a heavier lean on the band’s latter, more progressive tones, adding some […]

One of the coolest and lesser known (at least in the US) power metal acts I have discovered recently is Germany’s Orden Ogan. A long running band with 5 albums under their belt since 2004 (with 2015s Ravenhead and 2012s To the End being the ones that got me hooked), these guys add a little oomph to power […]

Khazaddums‘ 2015, Dwarven/Tolkien themed EP, In Dwarven Halls was a solid, promising little 3 song demo/release, but I was not expecting quite this big of a leap in quality a mere 2 years later with the band’s full length debut. Driving the massive improvement to the band’s brutal, Nile-ish death metal is the addition of full […]

The Barren Throne, the third album from Iceland’s Beneath, was a solid tech/brutal death  metal affair, befitting the label it was released on (Unique Leader), but it was hardly a memorable, game changing album. That looks to have changed with the band’s wholly improved and utterly  impressive third album, Ephemeris. The more cosmic/celestial theme of […]

So, amid my recent power/heavy metal reawakening, it dawned on me that all of the bands I have become enamored with have been European. Sure, I dabbled with the new Iced Earth, Demons and Wizards, Kamelot and a few others, but none really hit the spot. Then I received a promo from Pennsylvania’s Lör . An […]

Though some might argue they belonged with Dark Tranquillity and In Flames in the pantheons of Swedish metal, I’d put Desultory’s first three albums right there in the second tier of Swedish styled death metal along side the likes of Seance, Cemetery, Comecon and such. Their more melodic take on the Stockholm sound was a […]

After one of the more successful comebacks of the last few years with 2012s Vanquish in Vengeance, death metal legends Incantation had a quick turn around with 2014s Dirges of Elysium, a solid album, but a bit of a step back with a cleaner, more sterile production and a bit of a rushed sense of […]

Listen, I’m not much of a ‘crossover’ guy. I appreciated the heydey of DRI, Prong, Crumbsuckers, Ludichrist and recently, Detroit Hellmouth are decent , but for the most part i like my thrash and my puck/hardcore somewhat separate. But, like a professional, I occasionally try to get out of my comfort zone. Sometimes it works […]

California’s Rings of Saturn and their (jokingly) self described ‘aliencore’ are one of the more divisive bands in metal, even more some since allegations the band recorded their materiel at half speed and used Guitar pro. Whether you consider them technical death metal or deathcore, the band’s first 3 albums Dingir and Lugal Ki En got […]

“A priest who had an affair with a 12 or 15 year old girl brought to one of their encounters, a consecrated host, and he touched her vagina and he said ‘this is how God loves you” and then he raped her”. And so that creepy quote begins the debut EP from Milwaukee’s Prezir (Serb-Croatian for […]

Hailing from Massachusetts, The Summoned play a form of noisy, techy/grindy spazzy tech/death metal that recalls a lot of the Black Market Activities/ Ironclad Recordings bands of the early and mid 00s. Much like the recent release from super group Johm Frum, there’s a lot of Dillenger-y, The Red Chord, Animosity, early Between the Buried and […]

The Portuguese metal scene has really caught my eye of late with the likes of The Ominous Circle, Goldenpyre, Primal Attack, Switchtense, and such. But it’s been missing something a little more brutal, and that’s where Grog come in. Though they have been around since 1991/92, and have released a fair amount of demos, this […]