Symphony Of Heaven is a Christian melodic black/death metal band from Indiana, that used to be on Rottweiler Records. But with their 3rd album has forged out alone like… that one guy…. that went … out to the wilderness? In the bible maybe? I’m trying here, that theology isn’t really my jam. What IS my […]

A Finnish supergroup of sorts (former and ex-members of …And Oceans, Black Beast, Rapture, Scorgrain), The Mist From the Mountains released a superb debut back in 2022, that made my year-end list with its excellent take on the classic, folky second wave black metal sound, culling heavily from the likes of Borknagar, the first Ulver […]

The cover art on Obsidian Mantra‘s 3rd album, As We All Will, may not scream “DEATH METAL!!!!”, instead having more of an Opeth-ian progressive metal vibe. However fair reader, as the old saying goes, ‘never judge a book by its cover’. As We All Will is VERY much a death metal album. A death metal […]

Italy’s Dwarven-themed Power metal stalwarts, Wind Rose is back with album number 7, following up 2022’s excellent Warfront, which in my opinion was the best thing they have released. I’ve been a fan of the band since 2017s Stonehymn, where they really locked into the whole Dwarven metal persona, costumes, and themes.  Since then, they […]

I’ve been waiting for this one for a while. A while back one of the other esteemed staff here, Steve K, tagged me on a video for the song “Deconstruction” and I was hooked, purchasing/ downloading the band’s various songs and EPs. So, who is The Weeping Gate? Well, they hail from Little Rock, Arkansas. They […]

Japan’s envy has been at it for 32 years now,  and have over 20 releases (albums, splits, EPs/etc) to their credit. Their last album, The Fallen Crimson made my year-end list in 2020 in part to some utterly gorgeous female vocals enhancing the already mesmerizing, soaring post-rock/metal. Now, four years later, we get Eunoia (a […]

Vafurlogi is an old/new Icelandic black metal band fronted by Þórir Garðarsson notably of Svartidauði and Sinmara. The project has percolated for over 20 years, with some of the songs being written over that period, songs that didn’t belong in Svartidauði’s more chaotic discography, as Vafurlogi is far more rooted in classic, early late 90s […]

Blackened Symphonic Death Metal is quite a mouthful – would you not agree?  Torn from Existence hail from Colorado and have been around a few years and Hearken the Darkened Skies is their debut album. Hopefully, the band is getting this debut out to distros, labels etc..so this Self-Released album can be picked up by […]

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 […]