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 […]

Unique Leader Records is on a definite upswing. Dating back to last year’s Rings of Saturn,  Pyrexia, Deeds of Flesh and Deprecated releases and opening up 2014 with Soreption’s killer  Engineering the Void (one of my contenders for album of the year), Alterbeast, and Iceland’s Beneath (review coming soon)  and this, the third album (though the first I have heard) from […]

After almost 15 years in the reviewing game, there is very little that surprises me or leaves me speechless in today’s metal scene. Then along comes France’s Hardcore Anal Hydrogen and fucks everything up. I really don’t even know where to begin. Maybe that the band likes the likes of Napalm Death, Pryapisme and Mr Bungle? But […]

Deathcore poster children Whitechapel are back with  album number five, a nice shiny clean logo, a contrived album title and cover and the waning hopes of a fading genre resting on their shoulders. How will they fare? To be honest you either like Whitechapel and deathcore or you don’t, and I’m not about to convince […]

After storming out of the gate with their first two releases, Brutally Deceased‘s Grave worshiping Dead Lovers Guide and Chaos Inception’s excellent, Nile busting The Abrogation, Czech label Lavadome productions went quiet for a bit. However, they are back in business in 2014 with new releases from Chaos Inception and Destroying Divinity in the works […]

I’m usually not one to step outside of my usual metal fare of death metal black metal and their various sub genres. However, a little prog band from Vermont named after a Magic the Gathering card has really captured my attention with their self titled 2013 debut. It’s my understanding that the band started out […]

Back in 2011, New York’s Pyrrhon released their debut album, An Excellent Servant But A Terrible Master on Selfmadegod Records. It was a noisy discordant death metal/grindcore record, but more importantly it featured a good friend and former co scribe from my metalreview.com days, Doug Moore. I had every intention of reviewing the album and also interviewing Doug for this site, but alas I never followed through. A full 3 years later and look at Pyrrhon now! All signed to Relapse Records and shit and releasing one of 2014’s early stellar releases on The Mother Of Virtues.

Like the Embludgeonment album, this is another Frank Rini special, recommended to me way after the fact, but certainly worth my and your time. Hailing from Poland, Feto In Fetus is a death metal/grindcore band  and this is their second album, and its a scorching album that throws out some killer Belgian/European styled chunky death metal […]

From the ever improving Blast Head Records comes the second album from Virginia’a Human Infection and from the artwork and lyrics to the vocals, to the song writing and production everything has improved from the solid but forgetful debut, Infest to Ingest. Not that Curvatures In Time will be on an year end lists, but […]

I really respect what The Ukraine’s Metal Scrap Records is doing. They recently celebrated 20 years of existence and they promote the shit out of home grown/local bands. The thing is, 95% of them are terrible. In their most recent slew of offerings albums by Navalm, Ram-page, Halberd and Vadikan made me literally cringe. However, […]