Author Archive

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, […]

Spain really does not have a definitive ‘sound’ when it comes to metal. Like its culture, it’s a wide array of interesting mixes and styles, and the debut from Valencia’s Domains is a perfect example of the rich tapestry of Spain’s culture and history. While old school death metal is the obvious back bone here, […]

Formerly known as Gary Busey Amber Alert, California Alterbeast has released an album that adds to Unique Leaders killer 2014 so far which has included the outstanding Soreption release,The Kennedy Veil, as well as the upcoming Near Death Experience and Beneath albums. However, this isn’t quite as much of a brutal death metal affair as […]

Despite hailing from Stockholm, the birth of Swedish death metal, Astrophobos have chosen a different path, a path traveled by fellow Swedes like DIssection and Naglfar; an blacker path. Make no bones about it, Astrophobos’s influences are as clear on their sleeve as the moon in the night sky, and their brand of melodic, razor sharp black metal is a solid throwback to the mid 90s, performed with an energy and reverence that comes with inate Swedish genes.

When the former vocalist of Internal Bleeding and current teethofthedivine staffer recommends a band and album for me, I usually take notice, even if released in 2013. Especially when I’ve been in a real brutal death metal/slam death metal frame of mind of late, and Frank Rini pretty well eats and breathes the style. Even more […]

First off, congrats to Doug Moore, vocalist for Pyrrhon and former co-scribe at metalreview.com for getting a deal with the mighty Relapse Records, and second, apologies to Doug for not getting around to reviewing the band’s solid debut album, An Excellent Servant But a Terrible Master, released on Selfmadegod Records back in 2011. Now, on to […]

“The demon Abalam is a King of Hell and an assistant to Paimon. He takes possession of a human’s body to encourage the human to commit lust, he would defile humans during the possession and the only way they could escape was death.” Hailing from the Denmark, Hexis (a term related to or meaning ‘possession’ ) […]

“Allo…………cunt” And so begins “Upon Your Mountains of Flesh My River of Life Shall Flow” the opening track from Australia’s Wretch, a grindcore band featuring Duncan Beard, former drummer for doom act Futility, and this is a hell of a departure from that project. And as you’d expect any grindcore from Australia to sound like, […]

From the always reliable purveyors of fine vinyl, Halo of Flies, comes a repress of the second album from Germany’s Deathrite. It strays a little away from the label’s norm delivering less hardcore and a more crust/d-beat/grind/death metal assault that will appeal to fans of Trap Them, Enabler, Nails, Dead in the Dirt and Black Breath, […]

I have not really got into the whole smokey female fronted , cultish, 70s inspired ‘vest’ metal  scene that’s been prevalent over the last few years. Other than the first Serpentcult album and a smattering of Blood Ceremony or Demon Lung, it just has not sucked me in. And it’s a shame, as Texas’s excellently […]

For the most part, Cyber or Industrial Death Metal has a pretty rigid formula: Beefy, chunky guitars, mechanical pounding drums and the odd whirr or beep and sample here and there with some growled vocals. The Netherlands’ Empire of the Scourged, while generally following those paradigms also manage to changes things up a bit on […]

Back in 2009 I reviewed the second album, The End of an Era from this Tennessean melodic black/death metal act. It was a solid The Black Dahlia Murder inspired slab of shredding metal, but nothing that really upped the game at all. Well, with a significant lineup change (now with even more former and current […]