France’s Putrid Offal were one of France’s early death metal/grind bands with a number of obscure splits and demos between 1991 and 1994, but it’s taken them until 2015 to release a full length album, which essentially re-records most of the material from the bands 90s discography and adds a couple of covers for good measure. […]

Here’s an early 2015 release from Switzerland’s oddly named Dysrider ( formerly known as Trophallaxy, a symphonic power metal act) that has grown on me of late as it adds to the recent spat of various types of metal laced with epic symphonics and orchestration. It also recalls some of my favorite releases from the late 90s early […]

Tucked away in the midst of Dark Descent’s higher profile 2015 releases is this little gem from reformed 90s Netherlands act Eternal Solstice, who released 3 solid albums in the mid 90s. Founder, Ramon Soeterbroek and early member Mischa Hak (also of Sempiternal Deathreign back then) has recruited a couple of young bucks (notably ex Funeral Whore drummer Tim Roeper) […]

I’m not super familiar with the UK crust/D beat scene or this Durham based act who have been around since since 2006 with a number of splits and EPs under their bullet belt. But if debut full length Usurping the Throne of Disease is any indication I need to rectify both issues right away. Coming across […]

After classic Swedish death metal, my second favorite style is the burly, blasting, but measured, commanding death metal that’s a step below tech death, that the early Floridian (Monstrosity, Deicide, etc.), New York (Suffocation, Dying Fetus) and Polish scene (Behemoth, Vader, Hate, etc.) did so well, and was encapsulated perfectly last year by the likes of Abysmal […]

“And on their skins, as on the bark of trees, Have with my knife carved in Roman letters ‘Let not your sorrow die, though I am dead.’ Tut, I have done a thousand dreadful things As willingly as one would kill a fly; And nothing grieves me heartily indeed But that I cannot do ten […]

Hailing from Quebec, this duo take their name from Siberia’s most desolate, northernmost city, and of course it’s home to a ….metal foundry. And while you’d expect doom considering the moniker and label, this isn’t the huge, lumbering, funeral doom, Evoken/Ahab sort of crawl the name and label imbue, as it’s much more varied. These […]

So Canada’s Blast Head Records has thrown their hat into the retro Swedish death metal movement, and what an entry it is, digging up up Mörbid Vomit from the depths of Finland and compiling the bands 2012 demo and 2013’s self-released I Breathe Hell EP into one festering compilation. But you’d swear they were from the bowels of […]

Based on the artwork and logo, I was fully expecting either unadulterated,, guttural Comatose/Unique Leader styled assaulted of tech death or a burly typically Belgian chug fest (Dehuman hails from Brussels), I braced for the impending assault. However, I was graced with a modern style of death metal that mixed a little of everything from Floridian death […]

I owe Shroud of Despondency’s Rory Heikkila an apology. Not only was I extremely tardy in my reviews of the band’s albums—Pine and Tied to an Dying Animal—this interview was supposed to occur months ago. Quite frankly the band slipped through the cracks of my massive backlog of metal to review, emails to answer and interview requests. I guess my situation sort of mirrors the band’s trials and tribulations as they have slipped through the cracks of even metal’s most independent labels during the band’s 15 years of existence (and 18 or so releases)…

So I’m sure by now all of you know about Gruesome, the classic Death homage act fronted by Matt Harvey of Exhumed and joined by members of Possessed, Malevolent Creation and Derketa. What you don’t know, if you have not heard the album by now, is exactly how fucking spot on Savage Land is in it’s recreation […]

I really wish  Germany’s Weak Aside had chosen another name to replace their former moniker of Spearhead, as everything else about the band’s solid sophomore effort is high quality and pretty awesome, deserving of a more awe inspiring, war mongering death metal name. Other than the name everything about The Next Offensive is pretty damned good. […]

So 2015 looks like the year that symphonics/keyboards become the new black and come crashing to the forefront of death metal. They’ve long been around (Agiel, Fleshgod Apocalpyse, etc.), but already this year in 2015 I’ve heard new releases from Sarpanitum, The Project Hate, Arbitrator, Ovid’s Withering, The Monolith Deathcult, Irreversible Mechanism, Scarab, Sonus Mortis and this, the third album […]

For a decade now, Slovenia’s Dekadent have toiled in the underground with little fanfare or recognition, only exalted by those few in the know about this superb band. Maybe it’s the band’s geographical location. Or the band’s chosen style of un-traditional black metal that focuses on cinematic atmospheric and uplifting harmonies. But for whatever reason the band never seemed to get the recognition it deserved with their three prior albums, notably 2011s sumptuous Venera : Trial & Tribulation, my first exposure to the band.

Wolfheart is the solo project of one Tuomas Saukkonen, who you might recognize as the brainchild behind such acts as Before the Dawn and Black Sun Aeon. Winterborn is the first project under this moniker after disbanding all his other projects, and though it was originally self released back in 2013, Spinefarm is now making this […]

A few years ago North Carolina’s Daylight Dies were the darling of the US death doom scene, picking up the mantle of the likes of Morgion and invoking the Finnish greats like Rapture and such. But 4 only albums in 10 years saw the band sort of fall from the genre’s pinnacle. But you know a band has left a positive legacy when a band starts to mimic you and your sound to a tee. And that’s what fellow North Carolinians Atten Ash have done.

It does not take genius to figure out that Atten Ash founder James Greene is a fan of Daylight Dies. He and the band hail from the same state (North Carolina), play a form of emotive, melancholy death/doom metal, and to top things off, he recruited current Daylight Dies guitarist Barre Gambling to play guitars and […]

You’d think with Flo Mournier of Cryptopsy fame on drums (taking over for the ubiquitous Dirk Verbueren) and Oliver Pinnard (Cryptopsy, Vengeful, ex-Neuraxis) on bass, the second album from New Hampshire’s Solium Fatalis (Fatal Throne?) would be a Canadian inspired, brutal tech death metal vortex of chaos. But its not. And that’s not a bad thing. […]

For three albums now, The Netherland’s Carach Angren has been arguably the top symphonic black metal band on the block, being the arguable heir apparent to Cradle of Filth or Dimmu Borgir. Dense theatrics, cinematic atmospheres and deft story telling normally of ghost or apparition themed concepts have driven albums like the debut, Lammendam or 2010s nautically themed […]

Considering my love of folk metal and all things epic, especially the sort that deals with history and historical writings, I have no idea how the Icelandic/German trio Árstíðir Lífsins (meaning seasons of life), featuring members of Germany’s Helrunar and Iceland’s Skendod,  is just now becoming known to me. Especially when an album like, Aldafǫðr ok munka dróttinn (Odin […]

There’s no question, when it comes to crumbling, monstrous death metal, Dark Descent records simply can’t be fucked with. However, when going out side the realms of death metal, I tend to get a little less enamored with the label’s releases. The likes of Gravehill, Craven Idol and Crypt Sermon, while respected releases in their […]

Here’s one of those reviews, where I wish another writer had taken this off my hands and delivered a slightly more knowledgeable review of a style and album that I’m really not a fan of or familiar with even if released by the mighty Dark Descent Records. DDR has stepped out of the death metal […]

Ive enjoyed watching Germany’s Finsterforst (Dark Forest) evolve from a pretty blatant, if incredibly enjoyable Equilibrium clone  on their first two releases into a more epic, rangy and cinematic mix of Moonsorrow and Bathory, as heard on 2012s Rastlos, where the band delivered vast 20 minute songs and more epic orchestration, clean choirs and mid paced […]

Since 2006’s watershed album, Armada, Norway’s Keep of Kalessin have teased with utter brilliance mired in mediocrity. Truly epic, brilliant songs like “Armada”, ‘Crown of the Kings”, “Dragon Iconography”, “The Rising Sign” or “The Divine Land” littered the last three albums and while 2010’s Reptillian seemed to remedy the peaks and valleys of the band’s […]

So I get an email from Jassem “Darkvain” Alrumaidheen, the bassist, keyboardist and clean vocalist for Divine Disorder, a symphonic/progressive death metal band from Kuwait, requesting a review of his band’s 2014 release, Garden of Dystopia. I normally politely pass on 2014 releases at this point, but the press release he sent got my attention; A host of […]