The second album from the reformed Pillory, (who released one album, No Lifeguard at the Gene Pool back in 2005 then broke up in 2008) isn’t quite what you’d expect from Unique Leader.  And while it continues the label’s excellent run of simply killer 2014 releases, it does it from a slightly different angle. Rather […]

If you simply cannot wait to get your hands on Crowbar’s impending Symmetry in Black,  need another Neurosis album now, or if you enjoyed the second under the radar excellence from Finnish doom sludgster’s Lurk, Kaldera, or was underwhelmed by last years Morne effort, Shadows (as I was…), then the debut album from France’s Oruga (or larva) is […]

Back in May of this year I made the 2 hour trek to the Riot Room in Kansas City, Missouri to see Paganfest V. This years iteration was the usual mix of big name headliners in Finland’s Korpiklaani and Turisas, a little different flair with Taiwans’s Chthonic and Kentuckian Winterhymn. Of course my main reason for attending was to see to two Finnish folk heavyweights, who rarely make it to the midwest, let alone Missouri.

After a 6 year layoff, death metal legends Incantation returned in 2012 rather triumphantly with Vanquish in Vengeance, one of the  more successful reunion/ comebacks of the last few years. But how would the band respond after the comeback/reunion glow and excitement that often fogs objective reactions after long layoffs has faded and the band […]

Uk supergroup Vallenfyre caused a minor ripple in the metal scene back in 2011 with their debut, A Fragile King, a pretty solid doom death outfit with nods to the bands primary members Gregor Mackintosh of Paradise Lost and Hamish Glencross of My Dying Bride and drummer Daniel Erlandsson. It was a solid effort but not great, especially considering the […]

I typically have loved and probably will love everything and anything that Dark Descent Records releases. Their 2014 thus far has been stunning with the likes of Corpsessed, Lie In Ruins, Lvcifyre Thantifaxath, and a Binah EP. However, here is the third album from blackened death thrashers Gravehill, the second for Dark Descent, and as with […]

Here are five 7 ” EPs from Atlanta based Boris Records and all three are rooted in denim and beer or Satan, being retro, old school thrash at their core with various elements of either death or black metal.   Up first is home grown thrashers,  Sadistic Ritual the label’s very own home town in Atlanta […]

Despite being a mid level Swedish super group of sorts featuring former and current members of the likes of Nominon, Just Before Dawn and Killaman, Puteraeon have never really registered with me. I have a vague recollection of their 2011 debut, The Esoteric Order, but I neither own it or really remember much about it, […]

Sagas, the 2008 second album from Germany’s Equilibrium remains a hall mark of epic folk/Viking metal,  but the follow up Rekreatur, fell a tad short and we’ve had to wait four years for a follow up. Granted, last years Waldschrein EP was a nice teaser, if only for the (3 years too late) cover of […]

This review is two firsts for me- first review of Russia’s Haarbn Productions (a long running but un prolific label) and a band from the country of Moldova, Chordewa named after a Bengali form of Vampire. But it won’t be the last for either as Haarbn’s latest (Sawlegen, Sand Aura, Narjahanam), releases is solid and […]

Occasionally I like to break up my more ‘broodle’ musical leanings with something a little more amicable. Stuff like Protest the Hero, the recent Barishi album, maybe some older Killswitch Engage or Life in Your Way. A few years ago, the debut, On the Bottom from Canada’s metalcore act Odium was that break, and I still play that album fairly regularly (the track “Serenity’s End” just still kills it). Its mostly due to the simply excellent clean vocals of Thomas Emmans- a mix of Tools Maynard Keenan and Howard Jones.

Sometimes a band has subtle nuanced influences in their chose sound. Sometimes bands are a little more obvious in wearing their influences on their sleeves, and sometimes as in the case of Sweden’s Souldrainer, they say ‘fuck you,  here’s the band we love and we are going to sound exactly like them’. For Souldrainer,  a band featuring […]

Regular readers of this site will know that I’ve never been a huge fan of Satan ‘n’ spikes or beer’ n’ denim styled Black/thrash, with only a couple of exceptions. Well, now there is another exception; the UK’s Cultfinder and their second EP, Hell’s Teeth. I can’t quite put my finger on why I’m enjoying this […]

Deathcore has been waning for a while now, and the only pre- new Whitechapel release that even remotely entertained me recently were Carnifex,  Thy Art Is Murder‘s Hate and Eternal Torture‘s dubstep tinged Lacerate the Global Enemy. But right before Whitechapel’s Our Endless War dropped I got this solid little EP from New Jersey’s Lorna Shore, who […]

The Swiss are putting themselves back on the metal map early in 2014 with the likes of Tryptikon, Schammasch, Near Death Condition and Impure Wilhemina and this, the rather impressive debut of progressive sludge/post rock from Herod. They Were None is above all things heavy as shit.  And while tangibly culling from obvious contemporaries like Neurosis, Isis, The […]

Despite being around since 1998 and having three fairly obscure releases under their belt, I’m pretty confident in stating that I doubt The Netherlands’ Winter of Sin was on many folks radars for the that time and those releases. Heck, I had never heard of them until now, and I’m sure a lot more folks will be […]

If you have ever sat around ad wondered “What the heck happened to Swedish band Crowpath? Those noisy fuckers were one of Willowtip’s best bands?”, your question has now been answered. While only two Crowpath members are in Tellusian, their influence is apparent, but not overwhelming as two other members of this exciting new act […]

There is prolific and then there is Swedish musician ‘Revolting’ Rogga Johansson, who makes a mockery of the word. Currently listed in 13 active bands and has guested or appeared on numerous others over the years, the man is synonymous with old school Swedish death metal. Originally starting out with Paganizer, the guy has his finger in so many band’s it insame to think about. His most recent projects and releases includes Down Among the Dead Men, a project with former Benediction front man Dave Ingram and his fourth full length Ribspreader album, Meathymns.

Wow. 2014 is shaping up to be a banner year for technical death metal. You’ve got Unique Leader’s killer 2014 releases (Soreption, Beneath, Near Death Experience as well as upcoming Pillory and Inanimate Existence records) Willowtip chipping in with Abysmal Torment Cultivate the Apostate, Italy’s reliable masters Hour of Penance withRegicide, respectable US efforts from Rivers of Nihil, […]

I can’t tell you a whole lot about Ontario’s Thantifaxath other than that they are Canadian. No members are listed in the CD or on line anywhere, no Facebook page, no official website. But what I can tell you is that Dark Descent’s first real foray into black metal amid of the label’s excellent death metal […]

One could argue that all of the iconic, old school death metal bands that took time off, or broke up then came back (Grave, Morbid Angel, Pestilence, Obituary, Fear Factory etc) , Autopsy has had the most successful return of all without a single hiccup or misstep in their comeback. . Three albums in after […]

Hailing from Iceland, Beneath is a tech death metal band who share two ex members with the only other death metal band from Iceland I have ever heard,the pretty damn solid  Ophidian I, who released their debut back in 2012 on Soulflesh Collector Records. The Barren Throne is the band’s second album, and it’s no surprise […]

Back in 2009, Spain’s Teitanblood erupted onto the scene with their debut full length album, Seven Chalices, and gave everyone nightmares with a disturbingly filthy take on bestial black/death metal. Well now they have returned with the simply and aptly titled Death, and while it isn’t as nauseatingly ritualistic  as Seven Chalices, it is far […]

As I detailed in my review of 2011s One for Sorrow, Finland’s Insomnium have become a predictable but brilliant stalwart of melancholic melodic death metal, a gradual, subtle shift from their more doomy beginnings. They have their sound and they know how to wield it perfectly, even at the expense of progression or growth, instead […]

One of the more impressive retro/Swedish death metal releases of the last few years was from the Czech Republic’s Grave-ly named Brutally Deceased, Dead Lover’s Guide, released in 2010 on Lavadome Productions. Well a long four years later with the scene potentially a little saturated and on another home country based label, the band has […]