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 […]

While I’m sure upcoming reviews of the new Obituary and At the Gates albums  will get well deserved traffic and attention, it’s releases and the opportunity to do reviews of releases like this that keep me interested in metal and this whole reviewing thing. Hailing from Chile, Siaskel’s debut album will more than likely be one of […]

Despite an impressive lineage from some of Canada’s best technical death metal bands like Atheretic, Neuraxis and Vengeful, the debut from Phobocosm plays more like Dark Descent’s typical, cavernous, devastatingly heavy doom/death sounds of  Binah, Lvcifyre , Lie In Ruins and notably Corpsessed and it rules. But was there really any doubt? With a crushing Colin Marston mix, Deprived […]

10 years after Onwards to Mecca, one of the elder statesmen of New Yawk death metal, like Pyrexia last year, has reformed and are giving it another go on Unique Leader records. And like Pyrexia’s Feast of Iniquity, Imperium is a relatively successful reunion, if still in the shadow of Suffocation and Dying Fetus all these […]

So, if like me you were underwhelmed by the last Triptykon record, here is another Swiss metal act to fulfill your needs for controlled, slower, moody and progressive dark metal that is a real undiscovered gem in 2014s metal releases. Contradiction is Schammasch’s second album albeit my first introduction to this trio, but it won’t be my […]

Panopticon and Bindrune Recordings is a match made in heaven. A label that has released some truly special atmospheric, organic and naturalistic metal (Falls of Rauros, Nechochwen, Blood of the Black Owl, Obsequiae) finally releasing a more accessible and wider CD release of Austin Lunn’s 5th album under the Panopticon banner, a project that personifies organic, atmospheric and naturalistic. […]

Here’s another early release from the UKs fledgling Rotten Music, who brought us the creatively named Facefuck. This time is a Polish band called Vomit Your Brain, and this EP compiles the band’s first 2 demos into one 6 song, 18 minute slab of  no frills, slammy brutal death metal. Less grindcore  and toilet humor […]

I don’t now a whole lot about Finland’s black metal duo Ordinance, other than it’s a couple of guys who have served in or helped out the likes of Algalzahanth, Night Must Fall and Slugathor. Now I know that the band’s debut album, Relinquished, released on a double LP containing 3 20-minute plus “sides”, broken into […]

Adding some deathcore to Unique Leader’s well documented tech death onslaught, comes the UKs self described ‘politicore’ activists Acrania (a fetal birth defect) bringing the absolute heavy to the fray. Listen, if you don’ t like pig squeals, ‘reeeee’ styled inhaled growls, tons of bass drop laden breakdowns and some rudimentary if effective blasting, I’m […]

There is so much superficially wrong with the debut EP from Australia’s not so subtly named Facefuck that screams ‘godawful goregrind’; the name the cover, programmed drums, frog burp vocals, the logo, the song titles (“Indiginous Ectoplasmic Rectal Invasion”, “Infected Labial Secretion Obsession”), the over use of samples (including  some  from the movies Scary Movie […]