Author Archive
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › P on Tuesday, August 8th, 2023
It still amazes me, even 2 years later, 3 Russian death metal dudes (all three are in the HM2 worshipping Wombripper) delivered one of 2021’s best black metal records in Eminence. And it still stands up there with label mates Véhémence as Antiq Records’ very best releases and bands. Well, the follow-up is finally here, […]
Tags: 2023, Antiq Records, Atmospheric Black Metal, Erik T, Passéisme, Review
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › E on Tuesday, August 1st, 2023
One of my favorite releases from the early 00s metalcore explosions was Earth & Sphere from Massachusetts’ Beyond the Sixth Seal. It had some death metal beef in its traditional dual euro melodies (as well as the Red Chord‘s Mike Mckenzie on vocals), and really knocked the songwriting out of the park. Why do I […]
Tags: 2023, Death Metal, Erik T, Exsanguination, Horror Pain Gore Death Productions, Review
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › G on Friday, July 28th, 2023
It’s been 6 years since India’s Gutslit punched me in the face repeatedly for their second effort, Amputheatre, and let the world know they were clearly one of the top, if not the top brutal death metal bands from the county, if not the region. The line up that unleashed Amputheatre is largely intact, except […]
Tags: 2023, Brutal Death Metal, Death Metal, Erik T, Gutslit, Review, Self-Released
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › C on Wednesday, July 26th, 2023
This summer, two major deathcore heavyweights will be vying for your attention. On one hand, is Signs of the Swarm and the subtly evolved and technical Amongst the Low & Empty. A still brutal, but intricate, deft evolution of modern Deathcore. On the other hand, is the pure fucking beatdown of Colorado’s Crown Magnetar and […]
Tags: 2023, Crown Magnetar, Deathcore, Erik T, Review, Unique Leader Records
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › H on Thursday, July 20th, 2023
Listen, I’ll make this short because frankly listening to Hate Manifesto‘s ΑΠΟΣΤΑΤΗΣ (‘Apostate’) gives me a headache, and I want to get this review knocked out ASAP. As much as I love being enveloped by swathes of orchestral and symphonic elements in my metal, sometimes a good no-frills, solid kick in the teeth gets me […]
Tags: 2023, Blackened Death Metal, Erik T, Hate Manifesto, Helter Skelter Productions, Regain Records
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › C on Tuesday, July 18th, 2023
When your promotional materials boldy claim that your album is the ‘Best Swedish death metal of 2023”, you’ve got some balls on you, that’s for sure. But you certainly got my attention. The thing is…… the claim might be right. Even with some hefty competition from the likes of Wretched Fate, Iron Flesh, Angerot, Coffin […]
Tags: 2023 Review, Come Sweet Death, Erik T, Hammerheart Records, Swedish Death Metal
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › A on Friday, July 14th, 2023
As I stated in my review of Drama Noir‘s Night Fall Upon the Asylum review earlier this week, there are two symphonic black metal releases vying for my attention right now. And while the aptly named Drama Noir delivered a solid, bombastic symphonic black metal album, in the vein of Dimmu Borgir and such, Swedens […]
Tags: 2023, At Dawn Records, Avdagata, Erik T, Melodic Black Metal, Review, Symphonic Black Metal
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › D on Wednesday, July 12th, 2023
So two solid classic-sounding symphonic black metal albums have got my attention this summer. First the debut of Sweden’s Avdagata, The Faceless One, and Nightfall Upon the Asylum, the third album from Greece’s Drama Noir. While slightly different approaches, Drama Noir, bad moniker aside, is a solid, pure, mid-era (the classic three-word albums) Dimmu Borgir-and […]
Tags: 2023, Drama Noir, Erik T, Floga Records, Review, Symphonic Black Metal
Posted in Frontpage Feature, Reviews, Reviews › C on Monday, July 10th, 2023
When I first heard rumors of Texas’s Creeping Death a few years ago, I stupidly assumed they were just a Metallica tribute band and disregarded them. Then as I heard more and more, and they got signed to a ‘big’ label, I assumed they were simply yet another Bolt Thrower worship band, as is the […]
Tags: 2023, Creeping Death, Death Metal, Erik T, MNRK Heavy, Review
Posted in Articles, Features, Frontpage Feature on Friday, July 7th, 2023
TeethoftheDivine and Horror Pain Gore Death Productions has teamed up to deliver an exclusive song, “The Void” from Burial Rites, the forthcoming second album from Massachusetts’s Exsanguination.!
Read the Official press release below from HPGD Productions:
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › A on Tuesday, July 4th, 2023
There’s a couple of reasons I checked out the debut from British newcomers Ageless Summoning. 1) it’s on Dark Descent Records. ’nuff said. 2), the promo material dropped Steve Tucker-era Morbid Angel and Immolation as influences, and certainly when the opening lurch of “Usurper of the Void” and its otherworldy Trey Azagthoth solo cemented that […]
Tags: 2023, Ageless Summoning, Dark Descent Records, Death/Doom Metal, Erik T, Review
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › I on Thursday, June 29th, 2023
Sweden’s Ironmaster is a supergroup featuring a trio of dudes who are ir have been in such bands as Carnal Forge, Facebreaker, Scar Symmetry Dark Funeral and Incapacity. And while Black Lion Records is usually known for their more melodic or symphonic black metal offerings, Ironmaster delivers a savage assault of blistering no frills blackened/death […]
Tags: 2023, Black Lion Records, Blackened Death Metal, Erik T, Ironmaster, Review
Posted in Frontpage Feature, Reviews, Reviews › F on Monday, June 26th, 2023
Fathomage is a one-man, Australian, self-confessed Orthodox Christian who goes by the name of ‘Akul’. But don’t let the orthodox Christian thing put you off, as his music isn’t preachy ‘white metal’ at all but rather a Summoning (he has dabbled in Tolkien themes for prior album Minas Morgul – The Nazgûl Awaken) inspired take […]
Tags: 2023, Atmospheric Black Metal, Erik T, Fathomage, Northern Silence Productions, Review
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › D on Monday, June 26th, 2023
The 2022 self-titled debut EP from Italy’s Dead Chasm, was a solid affair of churning, miasmal Dark Descent-styled death metal that hinted at something pretty damn good for the band’s future, and here we are with the band’s full-length debut. And while it continues from the sound of the EP, it’s not quite the jump […]
Tags: 2023, Dead Chasm, Death Metal, Erik T, FDA Records, Review
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › O on Tuesday, June 20th, 2023
Sometimes I need a break from my symphonic addiction and shake things up a bit and get back to basics. Go back to my roots so to speak…how about some relentless, blasting blackened death metal from South Carolina??? Fuck yes. And Olkoth ( a deity from the Cthtulu mythos) with current and ex-members from various […]
Tags: 2023, Blackened Death Metal, Death Metal, Erik T, Everlasting Spew Records, Olkoth, Review
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › A on Tuesday, June 13th, 2023
So this spring/summer the always reliable FDA records unleashed a couple of lethal debut albums from female-fronted death metal bands. One, was the debut of Itlay’s Dead Chasm, whose solid EP I covered here, and the other from Turkey’s Abolish, who was of interest to me as they feature Lucy Ferra on vocals, who impressed […]
Tags: 2023, Abolish, Death Metal, Erik T, FDA Records, Review
Posted in Frontpage Feature, Reviews, Reviews › M on Monday, June 12th, 2023
Starting as a standard brutal death metal/slam band, Germany’s started adding some keyboards around 2019’s Inferis, but it was for 2021’s excellent A Hill to Die Upon, where they went full-on symphonic deathcore, and on the heels of Lorna Shore‘s genre igniting Immortal, comparisons to Lorna Shore were inevitable…. and warranted. However, they also had […]
Tags: 2023, Blackened Deathcore, Century Media Records, Deathcore, Erik T, Mental Cruelty
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › N on Thursday, June 8th, 2023
Indonesia Vallendusk is one of my favorite atmospheric black metal bands, so when I heard that Numeron was from also Indonesia, played the same style of black metal, AND have a concept album based on Norse mythology, I had to check it out. And while not quite as good as Vallendusk, they are still really […]
Tags: 2023, Atmospheric Black Metal, Erik T, Numeron, Review, Tragedy Productions
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › V on Tuesday, June 6th, 2023
So after splitting up shortly after 2011’s Opus Mortis VIII, with most of the members going on to form Cut Up (essentially Vomitory 2.0) and releasing a couple of solid albums, one of Sweden’s most long-running and purely, staunchly death metal (no groove metal or death ‘n’ roll diversions) bands is back together and it’s […]
Tags: 2023, Death Metal, Erik, Metal Blade Records, Review, Vomitory
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › V on Tuesday, May 30th, 2023
So at 2023s midpoint a few bands and their respective debuts are arguably vying for the year’s best Swedish death metal release (with Iron Flesh Church of the Dead, Angerot and Wretched Fate certainly in the conversation for non debuts). One, Come, Sweet Death’s, hacking, slashing Dismember homage, Imperishable. And two, the debut from Swtizerland’s […]
Tags: 2023, Death Metal, Erik T, Review, Swedish Death Metal, Transcending Obscurity Records, Vomitheist
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › P on Friday, May 26th, 2023
OK, there is a lot to get to here; Pronostic is a Canadian progressive/melodic technical death metal project that hasn’t released anything since 2015s , An Atomic Decision, and before that their 2012 debut Deviated Inner Spectrum. The project is the brainchild of both guitarists/vocalists Alexandre Lauzon and Charles Pilotte, both relative unknowns in the […]
Tags: 2023, Erik T, Pronostic, Review, Self-Released, Technical Death Metal
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › A on Tuesday, May 23rd, 2023
From 2004 to 2017 Wintersun, the bloated,much-maligned, crowd-funded (begged) project of Jari Mäenpää has produced 3 albums and has released nothing since 2017s The Forest Seasons, other than a few compilations and single. (despite seemingly asking for money eery few months) Since 2017, Canada’s Atavistia has released 3 quality albums including 2020s excellent The Winter […]
Tags: 2023, Atavistia, Erik T, Review, Self-Released, Symphonic Black Metal
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › F on Wednesday, May 17th, 2023
I haven’t been super excited about death/doom metal and its subgenres, for a while now, heck I completely missed the Shape of Despair album from last year, and they were one of my absolute faves in the genre back in the day. Heck, the new Insomnium, barely registered with me. But in 2020, Colorado’s Fires […]
Tags: Death/Doom Metal, Erik T, Fires In The Distance, Melodic Death/Doom, Prosthetic Records, Review
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › C on Wednesday, May 10th, 2023
Caedeous is an ‘extreme, symphonic black metal’ band hailing from Lison, Portugal, and due to my addiction to anything symphonic as well as my general love of symphonic black metal, I had to check out their fourth album. And not being familiar with the band I was a bit taken aback. Instead of the usual […]
Tags: 2023, Black Sunset, Caedeous, Erik T, MDD Records, Symphonic Black Metal
Posted in Frontpage Feature, Reviews, Reviews › E on Monday, May 8th, 2023
Boy have I been waiting for this one. Ever since these Russians dropped the killer video for “Protonemesis” over a year ago. I’ve been salivating for this release, as it’s been 10 years since Serial Urbicide and the new song showed a bit of a direction shift into a more ambitious form of slam with […]
Tags: Brutal Death Metal, Extermination Dismemberment, Slam, Unique Leader Records