2014 was  an quietly decent  year for high quality folk/viking with Eluveitie’s Origins, Crimson Shadows‘ Kings Among Men, Nothgards, Age of Pandora, Skalmond’s Með vættum, Valknacht’s Le Sacrifice d’Ymir and Equilibrium’s Erdentempel (with only Equilibrium making my 2014 year end list).  And I wish I could say that Denmark’s Vanir and their 3rd album would be included in that list but unfortunately it’s a […]

Back in the late ’90s through the mid ’00s, The End Records were one of the more innovative and progressive metal labels around. They were releasing ground breaking metal albums from acts like Arcturus, Age of Silence, Scholomance, Green Carnation and Agalloch… the list goes on. In 2004 the label released a 3-song teaser EP from one of its own, Tomer Pink (who worked for The End Records) and his project Subterranean Masquerade. It also featured Jake Depolittle, Paul Kuhr of label mates Novembers Doom, Tino Losicco of label mates Epoch of Unlight and Jason William Walton of Agalloch, also label mates.

Remember in the late ’90s and early ’00s when The End records was changing metal by releasing fresh, genre challenging invigorating and exiting bands like Nokturnal Mortum, Love History, Epoch of Unlight, Scholomance, Frantic Bleep, Novembers Doom, Agalloch, Giant Squid, Enslaved, Virgin Black, The Gathering, Sculptured, Green Carnation, Winds and even Arcturus‘s masterpiece The Sham Mirrors? My god […]

I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again, Canada has a killer, underrated folk viking metal scene; Battlesoul, Vesperia , Valknacht, Will of the Ancients, Valfreya, Trollwar, Nordheim, Battlesoul, and of course Blackguard are all fine acts to rival their Finnish peers. Well, poised to make a move to the top of the scene is Toronto’s Crimson Shadows […]

Since 2005 Ireland’s Primordial have become the indisputable kings of Irish metal. And not only that, you could argue that Primordial have become one of the biggest bands in metal, with past albums consistently littering year end lists whether its 2005’s watershed album, The Gathering Wilderness, 2007’s To The Nameless Dead or 2011’s Redemption at the Puritan’s Hand, the bands seems able to do no wrong in the eyes of the metal masses and media.

Not to be confused with Colorado’s tech death Execration or the many other Execrations, Norway’s Execration are an altogether different beast. Sounding very similar to country mates Obliteration, Execration play a murky, psychedelic and heavily Autopsy influenced style of death metal (also, think a nastier, dirtier version of Morbus Chron) that isn’t a quick, easy listen, but […]

So both former Cradle of Filth member Paul Allender  and lone remaining Cradle of Filth member Dani Filth released their own side project/new bands in 2014. Allender had White Empress, a strange symphonic, female fronted mash up and Dani had Devilment. Devilment features new-ish Man Must Die bassist (and now Cradle of Filth bassist) Daniel Firth,  and […]

I haven’t received any promos from Germany’s’ Bastardized Recordings in years, going back to the likes of Six Reasons to Kill, Deadsoil, Soulgate’s Dawn and Feast for the Crows metalcore days of the mid 00s. But they have been fairly busy since then, if not as productive, including the discography from homeland death metal  act […]

After the success of Death, notably Leprosy and Spiritual Healing, a number of European clones also became successful in the early ’90s. England had Cancer, Germany had Morgoth, The Netherlands had Pestilence and Asphyx, but France’s scene lagged behind a bit comparatively speaking, really only offering Massacra, Loudblast and Agressor until Mercyless entered the fray in pretty spectacular fashion in […]

Though around long before, since 2005’s The Gathering Wilderness Ireland’s Primordial has accomplished 2 things; became one of metal’s best bands, and second, locked doggedly onto a sound that’s unmistakably theirs, that none have recreated. So, if you were a fan of The Gathering Wilderness, as well as 2007’s To The Nameless Dead and 2011’s Redemption at the […]

Call me a homer but I’m always a little excited when a local, or Missouri band does well. But pickings have been slim of late. I mean Scholomance, Anacrusis, Angel Corpse, Lye By Mistake; long gone. And promising young bands like Vampire Moooose, Harkonin or Recrudescence never made it further than local favorite. But canada’s Blast Head Records have managed to unearth, not one but two fine death/black metal acts from St Louis in Symphonic death metal act Eternium and blackened death mongers Tyranny Enthroned.

St. Louis, Missouri is hardly a hot bed of premier metal like say Texas, Chicago or the East Coast. Heck, even Kansas City has more notable bands. I can count the numbers of excellent extreme metal bands I’ve heard from St Louis than had a larger impact on metal out side of Missouri? You can […]

When Nick Holmes of Paradise Lost was announced as new singer of death metal supergroup Bloodbath, filling the considerably large shoes of Mikael Åkerfeldt and Peter Tagtgren, i thought is was a genius move. Not only getting a big name, but a name that many wanted as they were clamoring to hear Nick growl again once […]

WOW! I’m a newcomer to Australia’s self proclaimed ‘extreme progressive metal’ act Ne Obliviscaris, but after hearing Citadel, the band’s second album, there’s no doubt in my mind that this act has to be one of the more special and ambitious bands I have heard in some time. So much so, that I’m actually having a […]

From the same label and country that brought us the excellent The Great Old Ones, comes a similarly black/shoe gaze/crust  project with a dash of cascadian ambiance and ambition that shows great promise the the rather lengthy 2, twenty or so minute tracks that comprise this impressive debut album. Sliding comfortably in amid the likes […]

Just Before Dawn is a project started by Blood Mortized guitarist Anders Biazzi, just like the 2013 debut, the formula is devastatingly effective:  war themed, mid paced death metal rooted on Bolt Thrower and Hail of Bullets and a seemingly never ending parade of who is who in Swedish metal metal providing other instruments and […]

Despite being around since 1991 and releasing 8 decent eight albums, Sweden’s Centinex were always sort of an after thought in the Swedish death metal scene of the early 90s, especially since after the first couple of albums the band sorted of cleaned up their sound to be more melodic and with a blacker sheen. The […]

The 2012 debut, My Empire, from this German death metal act was a solid, if unspectacular, typically FDA Rekotz affair, being an old school death metal record with a bit of modern polish. And now 2 years later this young group has released the follow up, and it improves on the debut significantly. The production […]

So here is the result of a $60,000 Kickstarter campaign: Some killer old-school death metal Andreas Marschall artwork, a killer production, and a killer Obituary album. Pity that money could not have been used to fix John Tardy’s ragged vocal cords… After these death metal legends quickly churned out three albums after reuniting in 2005 for […]

The debut  2013 EP from this side project of UK doomsters, Eye of Solitude, was one of my favorite EPs of 2013 and I have been excited for a full length ever since it was announced and I have followed and lapped up every teaser of trailer since. And it was worth the wait as ‘Profane […]

Much like how they opened the year with the killer trio of releases from Corpsessed, Lie in Ruins and Lvcifyre, Dark Descent Records is closing out 2014 with a slew of more stunning releases from Horrendous, Phobocosm, Sempiternal Dusk, and this, the most twisted of the lot, the debut from Finland’s Swallowed. While Finland’s death metal […]

Anyone who has read my work over the years at this very site or my other past outlets know that I have a a Skogskyrkogården cemetery cross sized boner for anything Swedish death metal. And 2014 has been a banner year for the style and tone with killer releases from the likes of Brutally Deceased, Incarnated, Putereaon, Ending Quest, Just Before Dawn Entrails demo collection, just to name a few. There’s is something about that timeless guitar tone that keep on living despite its age as evidence by the endless revival of the style.

Andrew D’Cagna of Nechochwen and Obsequiae has another passion apart from his excellent folky grey/black metal projects, and it’s old School Swedish death metal. And Eihwaz Recordings, the sub label of Bindrune, where the other projects reside, has allowed Andrew to release Between The Living and the Dead, an fine homage to the style that stands toe […]

As expected from the fickle metal community there has been both a lot of hype and hate towards the debut release from this one woman black metal project from Denmark. From the elitist ‘no women in black metal’ to ‘Deafheaven suck’ crowd and those that think this is the future of black metal. And as is normal, the […]

First off, many thanks to Paul Shaw, the owner of Blast Head Records, for recommending this band’s debut EP, Song of the Crippled Bull awhile ago. I instantly knew these progressive death metal-playing Pennsylvanians were onto something special, and now the debut full-length cements that fact. For those lamenting Opeth‘s swing away from death metal and […]