When SCALPTURE came into being in the German city of Bielefeld in 2009, founding guitarist Felix Marbach already had a clear vision: The musical direction was to be death metal without any compromise regarding its roots and values, but at the same time the band aimed to evolve into a singular musical entity with a unique style very much their […]

I’m a big WWI buff. I’ve even been to Ypres trenches, Sanctuary Wood and laid a wreath at the Menin gate in Belgium.  And in my review of the most recent God Dethroned album, The Judas Paradox, I lamented the fact that God Dethroned was no longer focused on WWI, a subject I of course […]

Watch “Keinen Schritt Zurück” feat. DONOTS HERE HEAVEN SHALL BURN have just released a special new single and video, “Keinen Schritt Zurück,” featuring their longtime friends from the renowned German alternative/punk rock band DONOTS. This marks their first new music since they released a cover of Trivium’s “Pillars Of Serpents” at the end of 2022, […]

I’m not familiar with Germany’s Servant, having not heard the band’s prior two albums. Still, I’m always down for some ‘melodic-yet-furious black metal’ (per the promotional email). Especially as I dig a lot of the music that AOP Records puts out, especially the likes of Firtan, Waldgeflüster, Groza, Finsterforst, and Harakiri for the Sky. So I […]

We don’t do interviews very much any more here. I mean how many times do you need to hear some megastar like Karl Sanders or Corpsegrinder say “yeah this album is better than the last one” or “this album was a very ‘personal’ one’?

That said , if I ever get the chance to promote one of the ‘small guys’ or even better a ‘local’ small guy, whose music I really enjoy, I often try and do it, especially if it means meeting the said band in person.

One such example of both is Vile Revelation, hailing from Columbia , Missouri.

Though I reviewed the debut, Voidgazer, from this discordant death metal Texas duo back in 2021, I missed the follow-up, in 2022, Demiurge. What I do remember about the debut though was, while the churning Incantation-y murk was good stuff, the duo was really at their best when delivering more lumbering, grooving controlled riffs. And […]

For a while there in the early/00s, Nails was one of the flagship bands of what I call the “Southern Lord” sound. Bands like Nails, Trap Them, All Pigs Must Die, Black Breath, Dead In the Dirt, playing a filthy form of Swedish Death metal-hued d-beat, crust, grindcore/hardcore. And I’m confident in saying popular new bands […]

God Dethroned is back with album number 12, and at this point, it’s difficult to keep rewriting the same review as Henri Satler and whoever is in his band (yet another different drummer here) are so god damn consistent at this point in their career it’s silly. After a trio of albums about WWI, Satler […]

  Fresh off a summer festival run, American death metal legends MASSACRE, spearheaded by growl forefather Kam Lee, announce details of their long-awaited fifth studio album, “Necrolution”, set for release on November 8th via Agonia Records. The album’s first single, “The Colour Out Of Space”, is being premiered now in the form of a lyric video, at this address: https://youtu.be/3SKX76h68EA MASSACRE – The Colour Out […]

I’ve been on a huge Lord of the Rings/ Tolkien kick recently and have been seeking out some music to satiate my need, enter Swedish duo Morcaint. Mornië Utúlië is the follow-up to last year’s Ellesar EP, and the duo of Ulvtyr and main composer Heruhim certainly know their way around Tolkein-themed atmospheric and melancholic […]

August 23rd 20024 saw both Fleshgod Apocalypse and Nile release new albums. That’s the music equivalent if Deadpool  & Wolverine and Alien Romulus had been released on the same day. I love both but one has to be listened to and reviewed first,  and be seen first. Well, hopefully, you already read my review of […]

After a killer year in 2022, but then a relatively slow year in 2023, Symphonic/blackened Deathcore is back to having a superb 2024 with killer releases from Synestia/Disembodied Tyrant, Drown in Sulfur, Eden Adversary, Ruins of Perception, A Wake in Providence, The Archaic Epidemic, Vile Revelation, Downfall of Mankind and of course, Immortal Disfigurement (the […]

Album number 6 from Italy’s master of symphonic/orchestral brutal death metal sees more lineup changes, much like 2019s Veleno. And while they certainly weathered the changes admirably (replacing long-time members Christiano Trionfera and Tommaso Ricardi departing, Francisco Paoli moving from drums to vocals), with a really good album that even showed some more controlled and restrained songs, […]

Our very own Frank Rini did an in-depth interview with the excellent Scriptorium Magazine and gives little old Teeth of the Divine some love. Read the article here

Along with Morgue and Sun of Nothing, Axamenta is yet another band I have not heard in 15-20+ years that I am hearing after a really long gap in 2024. I first heard these epic, melodic Belgians on 2001’s Codex Barathi, but it was on 2006s Ever-Arch-I-Tech-Ture , where they delivered a dizzying true tour […]

Did you ever get suckered by a trailer or a teaser trailer? Ya know a quick glimpse of a movie, that teases something really cool? And then you watch the final product and it is kind of a letdown as it showed the cool stuff in the teaser/trailer ( when did teasers for trailers become […]

Rochester (NY) – Contrarian is recording a new album and guess who’s back? Confirmed by the band via Bandcamp, original members Jim Tasikas and George Kollias have joined forces once again to record Contrarian’s sixth studio album to be entitled Escaping Depravity. The recording process has started in Athens, Greece and with sound engineer Doug White at Watchmen Studios as with previous albums. Contrarian’s last tour […]

If you did a ‘Big 4’ of symphonic deathcore, who ya got? For me, the first 3 are easy shoo-ins; Lorna Shore, Mental Cruelty, and Shadow of Intent. But who is the 4th band when you take into account things like productivity, quality, longevity, and consistency? Worm Shepherd? Maybe.Immortal Disfugurement? Only one album. But I’m […]

Canada’s Atavistia has released 2 incredibly solid albums of epic,  symphonic balanced metal since 2020 in The Winter Way and Cosmic Warfare, which made my 2023 year-end list (I can’t speak for 2017s One Within The Sun debut). And they continue their excellent productivity with a brand new 5 song EP. Inane Ducam (subtitled ‘I […]

I always look forward when I get physical packages of CDs from FDA records to review. I can pretty much guarantee its going to be some form of killer old-school death metal and that I’m going to dig it. Well,  the new EP from Germany’s Evoked checks both the boxes. I rather enjoyed their debut […]

Finland’s Assemble The Chariots has been on my radar for a few years now after I heard the single “Empress” back in 2021. They have a ton of singles and EPs  since 2009, all digitally released, but no full-length album- and as a result when they announced Unyielding Light, it became one of my most […]

Back in 2012, I reviewed The Abrogation from Alabama’s Chaos Invocation, a damn solid piece of ripping death metal. But then nothing for over 10 years. I was recently curious about the status of the band it turns out vocalist Chris White (also of Blood Stained Dusk) and guitarist/bassist Cam Pinkerton actually left the band […]

This summer, two pretty revered veteran, symphonic black metal acts will be releasing their ninth albums (both on June 28th no less!). Both released their debut albums in 1996 and both waited 6-7 years between their last albums and these new releases. One is Norway’s Limbonic Art, who released their debut The Moon In Scorpio […]

Wow. Here is some really creative, unique black/death metal from a Dutch band I know nothing about other than they have 1 prior album under their belt. The actual ‘Shiva Hypothesis’ is a theory concerning extinction-level events and meteors, but the band is a 4 piece with ties to various other Belgian death metal acts, […]

Cripes, here is another band like Greece’s Sun of Nothing, that I have not heard in fucking ages. With Sun of Nothing there was a 21-year gap between their debut …and Voices, Words, Faces, Complete the Dream way back in 2003 and this year’s Maze. With French bruisers Morgue it was 2002’s utterly devastating The […]