After reviewing 2008s Slania, I never really went back to Switzerland’s folk metal act Eluveitie, I have not even heard 2012s Helvetios or 2010s Everything Remains or the band’s acoustic album, Evocation from 2009. I always thought the band was a bit over hyped and were simply Darkest Hour with a Hurdy Gurdy and a violin […]

After a tasty little debut EP back in 2011 and a few splits and subsequent EPs, former God Macabre front man per Boder  has finally released a full length album from Mordbrand, a dusty, d beat driven old school Swedish death metal return, and it’s a ripping little release. While certainly old school and Swedish, […]

Like Sectu’s Nefarious, the Third album from Greece’s Mass Infection is unfortunately liable to get a little bit lost in the early summer/spring deluge of killer death metal namely the stuff Unique Leader releases. Which is a shame as Comatose and Mass Infection have released pretty damn solid death metal record in For A am […]

Four albums into their career and Alestorm have outgrown and honed their ‘Scottish Pirate Metal’ sound and become arguably one of Scotland’s more famous metal acts. And the all important contract album, album number 4 certainly cements that with a larger than life collection of  drinking songs and Pirate-y raucous  rockers, but also a sense of impending […]

In nature, the hunter always at some point becomes the hunted or to use another analogy the student becomes the master. Pick your terrible analogy, but it applies to metal all the time. Some younger hungrier, more talented acts eventually surpasses their peers after looking up at the pedestal. it is the natural order, an […]

Fans of the so called down tempo deathcore movement such as The Acacia Strain, Restrains, Portrayer,  Osiah, Extortionist,  Endings, Overthrower and of course, Calmed By The Tides of Rain take note of this band and release. Heck, it even features a guest vocal performance from CBTTOR vocalist Artyom, and they hail from Russia as well. Boy is this heavy and […]

Austria’s goat porn fetish-izing death metal kings have been around since 1992. 2014 will see the release of the band’s tenth studio album, after a bit of a delay. And while the longevity and consistency of arguably Austria’s most famed metal export after Pungent Stench, has never been questioned, Belphegor never seemed to get mentioned amid death metal’s upper echelon acts. Even with a 10 album legacy, the band just seems to get ignored.

France’s The Great Old Ones took the black metal world by storm back in 2012, with their critically acclaimed debut, Al-Azif back in 2012. A full two years later, the band has released the follow up, continuing the Lovecraftian/Chthulu mythos based form of shimmering post black metal, and appear to be ready to pick up […]

“You’d better turn it up.Or turn it off.Or get fucked”. That pretty much sums up The Hell, a fun loving, foul mouthed hard core band from Watford, England, who on their Prosthetic Records debut indeed drop the groovehammer with a raucous mix of brute force beefy, American core mixed with a piss n sneer of […]

I’m not afraid to admit that initially, I completely discounted this release based purely on the band name alone. But once again , as many times before, a track popped up on my ipod shuffle mode, that made me check out who I was listening to and lo and behold is was these long running, […]

I guess, based by the number of bands playing the style currently loaded onto my Ipod (Nux Vomica, Stheno, Tombs, Plebian Grandstand, Direwolves, Young and in the Way, Wolvehammer, Black Monolith, Hexis, Protestant, Black Anvil to name a few) blackened crust/sludge/stuff, is the new black. However, what makes Brooklyn’s Mortals stand out (other than the high […]

I like surprises, and a concept based black metal album from Sumerian deity named band  from the depths of Austin, Texas certainly qualifies as a surprise, especially when its this good. The band has a couple of splits and one debut album from 2009 under their spiked belt, though this is my first exposure to them. They […]

Fallujah is a little bit the victim of the deathcore backlash as well as saturation of techy modern ‘death metal’ bands like The Faceless, Within the Ruins, River of Nihil, Kamikabe Born of Osiris, The Contortionist and such. Their debut, The Harvest Wombs was a solid effort I enjoyed, despite the samey, sweep, solo blast,’ look what good guitarists we are’ […]

Unfortunately, the third album from Sweden’s Sectu (formerly known as Cimmerian Dome) is liable to get crushed and unrecognized in 2014 stellar tech death releases, which is a shame as it’s a damn fine release in its own right and if you are looking for some tech death with a little more old school and organic feel, […]

So back in 2010, these guys released a solid album of shredding, technical melodic deathcore/metalcore, that was kind of an under the radar release (other than Metalsucks gushing all over it for 3 articles in a row), and i rather enjoyed it but it wasn’t doing anything new in 2010 that I had not heard […]

To those in the know, the name Lord Worm is synonymous with death metal. Having been the pivotal mouthpiece for the first two seminal Cryptopsy albums, Blasphemy Made Flesh and None So Vile and then returning for the band’s 2005 effort, Once Was Not. For many he is the only Cryptopsy vocalist that mattered, especially in lieu of a revolving door of controversial and divisive vocalists that followed him.

You’d think I’d be more familiar and versed with Greece’s long running Septicflesh. They are after all part of the long running and somewhat influential Greek metal movement from the early 90s along with Rotting Christ, Thou Art Lord, Varathron and Necromatia and of course, one of the early death metal bands to add cinematic orchestration to […]

Those who thought that former Cryptospsy vocalist Lord Worm’s new project, Rage Nucléaire was a mere flash in the pan had better think again. Lord Worm has returned two years after his first real, post Cryptopsy foray with yet another hate fueled, apocalyptic, industrialized slab of unrelenting black metal, and it’s just as solid and unforgiving […]

Much like the Czech Republic’s Brutally Deceased, who took their name from a song by Swedish death metal legends, Grave, Southern California’s Skinfather is named after a Dismember song. And while the band’s sound is mostly rooted in the old Swedish buzz of yore, it adds a little modern crust and hardcore to it, not unlike fellow […]

Despite hailing from the darkest depths of Cincinnati, Ohio, you’d be forgiven for assuming Valdrin reside in Scandinavia due to their impressive take of that locale’s melodic black metal sound as encapsulated by the likes of Emperor, Dissection, Naglfar and Dimmu Borgir. Fear not Dimmu Borgir haters, this isn’t overly pompous theatrical black metal, that is more […]

If you were to ask me who are the most promising new era black metal bands that can carry the post ridden sub genre into the next millennium, I would tell you the divisive Deafheaven, Australia’s Woods of Desolation, but also France’s The Great Old Ones and Greece’s Spectral Lore. The latter two burst onto the scene […]

Continuing the old timey, dusty death metal vibe of the label’s previous releases by Trenchrot and Omnivore, Canada’s Sabbatory are here to deliver some no nonsense old school death/thrash metal. And like this years earlier release from Morfin, the primary influence is an easy one to hear: (very)early Death. Sure, there is lots of other old […]

Sometimes I just need a break from all the brutal music I listen to. Whether it’s some bouncy folk/viking metal, some melodic black metal or just something else to reset to internal brutality meter. Recently, it’s a few choice releases- the debut from Moldavia’s Arcturus worshiping Chordewa, Deathpoint’s soaring metalcore, Barishi’s prog waft and this, the second album […]

Où est le boeuf? Apparently it’s in Montreal, Canada an it’s all located on the second, fun as hell record from the awfully named Dark Century. But luckily the band’s tongue in check delivery allows for the moniker and the album name and the album cover, but the music itself is where its at here. Dark Century play […]

Willowtip’s entry into 2014 early/Spring run of superlative tech/brutal death metal comes by way of the tiny country of Malta and the  third album from Abysmal Torment, a band previously unknown to me. And boy is it a doozie. Using Floridan death metal as a very broad template, Abysmal Torment manage to dirty the core sound […]