Author Archive

When samples of this relatively hyped Metal Blade release started dropping, I had several folks hit me up via email, Facebook and even Myspace telling me I should check these guys out and they were something I’d enjoy. And to some extent, they were all right: The Conscious Seed of Light is a pretty solid […]

Back in 2009 I reviewed the debut EP from this aptly named Italian act, and came away rather impressed with the heavy, lurching salvo and a after a 4 year wait, a debut full length via Italy’s own Memorial Records album has surfaced and it was well worth the wait. The band’s moniker fits perfectly […]

After giving the Prosthetic records debut of Skeletonwitch, Beyond the Permafrost a relatively lukewarm review, I simply didn’t give the band’s follow ups, Breathing the Fire or Forever Abomination, the time of day, despite the band growing immensely in popularity with their modern, black thrash meets melodic death metal spin off. I simply lumped them […]

Somewhere in the Ukraine, Metal Scrap Records must have unearthed a lost cache of mid to late ’90s melodic death metal and just now unleashed it on the world. That or the label and the underground metal scene in Eastern Europe has just now discovered the genre, as the label has recently released a slew […]

Like a small child I’ve watched Scotland’s Man Must Die grow from their 2003 demo Season of Evil, through 2 albums on Relapse, the first Scottish band to be signed to the label. A decade later the band is releasing their 4th album, Peace Was Never An Option on Lifeforce Records — and boy is it a scorcher! A revamped lineup and a 4 year break seems to have really invigorated the band as it is easily their strongest effort since 2004’s Start Killing -debut. In these 10 years, I’ve visited with vocalist Joe McGlynn a few times, as well as other lone remaining original member, guitarist Alan McFarland, and deciphered their thick accents enough to have some great conversations. So with the band reappearing on the metal map, I reached out once more and spoke with Joe McGlynn to do some catching up…

With UK metal and death metal in particular being in a full and impressive resurgence, one only need to look to Scotland’s Man Must Die for arguably the catalyst for the current swath of killer death metal coming from the fair isle. With 2004’s …Start Killing and then two subsequent releases on Relapse Records (2007’s […]

I’ve been looking forward to this release since Blast Head announced it a few months ago. Not just because it’s a Blast Head release, and the new label is really coming into its own, but Eternium hail from St Louis, Missouri my metal bereft neck of the woods, and feature Chad Griffin, formerly of short […]

First off, my apologies to Helcaraxë, for as much as I enjoyed 2012’s Red Dragon, I simply never got around to reviewing it after I purchased it despite really enjoying it as well as all of the band’s prior efforts (2007’s Triumph and Revenge and 2009’s Broadsword). So when Children of Ygg showed up in […]

Where is Grimulfr when you need him? Here is a short sharp review of a short, sharp, 4 song 12″ vinyl EP from the USA’s Teratism, a long running and prolific (10 releases in just under a decade) black metal band that shares veteran members with the likes of Catholicon, Theatre of the Macabre, Demonic […]

The second best  release from Hypnotic Dirge’s recent offerings, you’d expect this to be a German crazy, industrial, off kilter black metal release based on that moniker and such. However, the band while in fact German, and is somewhat ambitious, they share more with the progressive, avant garde black metal movement of the mid 90’s, […]

Occasionally here at teethofthedivine I get my hands on a release that simply leaves me speechless. Not because it’s brilliant or the best thing Ive ever heard, but because it simply defies logical categorization. Whereas most metal fits neatly into some compartmentalized category or genre or at whether it be made up or predefined, it’s […]

Here is the first release from new Colorado based label, To The Head Records. It is a 5 track split EP from two Colorado bands in Murder Cafe and Earth Burnt Black. Both ply sort form of doom metal, which appears to be the label’s focus, but both bring something a little different to typical doom […]

As I have stated here many times, before part of the fun of this website reviewer gig is being able to expose folks to smaller, independent bands that they may never get a chance to be aware of. I mean sure, its nice to review the likes of Carcass and Gorguts, but we all know […]

My dealing with Wisconsin’s Halo of Flies records have mostly been Lightbearer/Fall of Efrafa or Protestant related with a few other crust /hardcore releases scattered in there. However, here is something a little off the beaten path but still is a perfect fit for the label- a female fronted, black-ish post rock/post hardcore band from […]

Upon receiving this album for review from this Washington State band I was fearing either lo-fi, basement level one man black metal (due to the cover and the use of “ov”) or some more typically Pacific Northwest ‘cascadian’ black metal. I was wrong on both counts, as the second album from this duo is actually […]

Perversion is a death metal band hailing from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and Pillars of the Enlightened is their debut full length album (they had an EP, The Origins of Horror, in 2008) which was originally self released in 2012, but has been picked up by the fine folks at Blast Head Records […]

Last year, Finish act Decaying released their third album, Encirclement, and it was a solid take on Bolt Thrower/Asphyx/Hail of Bullets styled, war themed European death metal. And so here is the follow up, The Last Days of War, and little has changed in the Decaying camp as they still wear the obvious influences on […]

After a little bit of a misstep with the Netra release, Hypnotic Dirge is back on track with a handful of very solid releases (Odradek Room, Galaktik Cancer Squad, Lycanthia, Frigoris), the best of which is the second album from Massachusetts atmospheric black metal act Obsidian Tongue, and for those of you who are fans […]

So here is only the second release from P2, a label co owned and run by one Paulo Paguntalan, guitarist and vocalist for Copremesis (whose debut Muay Thai Lady Boys still has some of the best cover art ever) and vocalist for Andromorphous Rexalia, so it should come as no surprise that the fledgling label’s […]

Much like my compadre Nick E’s review of this year’s other mega high profile, reunion release in Gorguts‘s Colored Sands, one has to wonder if there is really a need for a review of a release of this magnitude? Arguably the inventors of melodic death metal and a legendary band with 4 certifiably classic, game […]

I have to admit to being fairly late to the Gorguts party. My first actual Gorguts purchase was 1998s Obscura, and like most, back then it simply was too forward thinking and mind blowing for my tiny brain. However, as I got involved in this journalism stuff, was exposed to more realms of musical creativity, I came to appreciate Obscura for the genius it was and even went back and picked up the rest of Gorguts’ early catalog, which I had merely dismissed as Death clones when they first came out as well as the band’s then swansong From Wisdom to Hate.

Destructive Intent is the debut release from Berlin’s Dehuman Reign, and don’t let the cover art fool, this isn’t some crusty lo-fi noise but rather a pretty solid take on Floridian death metal, notably the likes of Malevolent Creation and Monstrosity sprinkled with a dose of thrash, and it’s pretty good stuff. Consisting of an […]

Back in 2011, UK/New Zealand collaboration Monsterworks, featuring The Living Fields vocalist Jon Higgs released the killer, The God Album– and it was an awesome slab of progressive, experimental and undefinable modern metal. So here is the follow up, dealing with Man rather than God and is full of the same deep philosophical themes and […]

Victory Records has become such an anomaly for me. After being one of the true stalwart metalcore/hardcore labels responsible for releasing albums by Integrity, Martyr AD, Damnation AD, Hatebreed, Earth Crisis and Thursday and even being the home to Between the Buried and Me for 3 absolutely classic albums, the label is just hard to […]

Sometimes a name just grabs you, and Maryland’s Sloth Herder is one such name. And on their Second self-released EP, the music is often as interesting as the band name. With a name like Sloth Herder, you would expect a massive crawling, doom/sludge outfit, but that could not be further from the truth. At only […]