With their third album on as many labels, Sweden’s Zonaria are if anything, anything persistent and consistent. Their previous albums released on Pivotal Recordings (2007s Infamy and the Breed) and then Nuclear Blast  (2009s The Cancer Empire) respectively were a melding  of mildly futuristic  melodic death metal glossed over with Dimmu Borgir symphonics and that […]

Released the same time as Engulfed‘s EP, Through the Eternal Damnation, Through the Ages is the debut from Greece’s war mongering quartet War Possession, and while Engulfed seems to have dropped the Bolt Thrower influence from their Burial Invocation days, War Possession is happy to carry on the mantle and deliver 4 tracks and 21 […]

Warning: this review breaks the record for Opeth references. Initially, the first few minutes of this unannounced release hinted at some sorted of pretentious, Proggy, SPV/Sensory type release, with wafting clean vocals and sharp, stuttering progressive riffage. However, about three minutes into opener “Glimpse of What May Be”  guitarist Daniel Cordoba unleashed a Akerfeldt-ian bellow, […]

Colorado’s Execration aren’t doing anything particularity innovative or new within death metal on their sophomore album, but they do death metal pretty well and add a little  resin driven intellectual brutality to their standard US death metal throes. With a sound I can only term as “Colorado-ish” there’s some Cephalic Carnage complexity (especially vocally) and […]

Sorry this review is so late, but ya know Rome wasn’t built in a day… I wasn’t ever really that enamored with Romulus, the first release of Ex Deo, the epic, Roman themed side project headed by Kataklysm frontman Maurizio Iacono and most of his Kataklysm buddies. It seemed little more than unused Kataklysm riffs […]

I’ve had a hard time getting into any of Zeitgeister Music’s recent releases (Woburn House, Skarab, Klabautamann), but after seeing so much praise heaped upon Valborg and their previous  albums and most current release Nekrodepression, by many of my respected peers and close friends in the metal journalism world,  I felt I should give another […]

From the label  who in 2012 alone was responsible for the likes of Resurgency, Ectovoid, Flagellated Seraph, Malfeitor and Decaying comes yet more very tasty old school death metal by way of two EPs from Turkey’s Engulfed and Greece’s War Possession. Formed by two members of the now defunct Burial Invocation, who themselves released a […]

The guardians of the Gothenburg sound, DARK TRANQUILLITY, released their first album 20 years ago and are still one of the most exciting bands in melodic death metal. New and old fans will be happy to hear that they are ready to announce their 10th album. The band comments: “Greetings, Darklings! After having played over […]

Hailing from Sweden and with a name like Fetus Stench, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the debut full length album from this death metal act was of the old school, Stockholm-y kind. However, rather than dust off some old Entombed riffs and go for the obvious sound, Fetus Stench go for a different influence […]

Those of you who enjoyed releases from Canada’s Cephalectomy including their sophomore effort Eclipsing the Dawn and their final release- the free download- An  Epitaph for Tranquility take note. Barra Xul is basically the same band and sound by two of Cephalectomy‘s main guys, founder/guitarist/vocalist  Cory Andrews (also of Select and Dismember) and bassist Scott […]

As is the norm around this time of year, myself and others in the field are still filtering through the slew of late 2012 releases and as is often the case, unearthing late year gems that simply could not get reviewed in time for the end of 2012. And such is the case with the […]

Remember when Mastodon were a good underground metal band rather than the commercialized, major label  juggernaut they have become? Remember Remission and Leviathan? Philadelphia’s Swarm of Arrows remember, and with The Great Seekers of Lesser Life they have delivered a slightly burlier, gruffer take on Mastodon-ish rumbling, tumbling metal. First off, all four members deliver […]

Darkest Origins is a Split release between two primitive, raw black metal bands- California’s one man act Hæresiarchs of Dis, who has three full length albums under their belt, the last two being on Moribund Records, and the international (US, Croatia and the Netherlands) act Ophidian Forest who have 2 self released albums to their […]

Based in Southampton in the UK, Hummune is a trio that play a form of groovy, down tuned metal that culls from the likes of Helmet, The Deftones and such but with just a dash of more heavier tones of groove era Gorefest (Soul Survivor/ Chapter 13) , Machine Head and it very heavily recalled […]

Wow. This is REALLY good. A self released EP from  Wisconsin based symphonic black metal band, usually would not set my expectations very high, but on their debut effort Warseid has blown me away with this downright epic 4 song EP. Though only 4 songs, the release is still 30 minutes long with songs ranging […]

Here’s a unique and challenging album from the usually predictable Unique Leader Records. Hailing from Australia but residing in Los Angeles, Devolved have 3 previous full length albums under their belts, none of which I’ve heard, so I had nothing to compare this blind purchase to. My last blind purchase was also a Unique Leader […]

While bands like Entombed, The Generals, Calmsite, Six Feet Under and others are sometimes classified as “death ‘n’ roll”, the truth is it’s just death metal with a little groove and some catchy hooks. However, Finland’s Rocking Corpses are here to truly deliver death ‘n’ roll, and a weird but strangely enjoyable sound it is. […]

I had initially filed this under “did we really need this reunion?” category when I got it for review. I mean, while I realize that the band’s sole release, 1998’s Prophecies Foretold  was a solid entry into the New Yawk style of death metal and the band got them briefly mentioned in the same breath […]

I’ve long championed Facedown Records and their oft maligned Christian metal, but of late other than  Your Memorial, Hands and A Home for Home, the label seems to have really fallen into a rut- with the likes of For Today, Gideon, Altars, War of Ages, Leaders and Onwards to Olympas, they seem to basically be […]

Despite my general disdain for instrumental music, 2009s Immeasurable , the debut by this  Wisconsin instrumental act , really caught my ear. Featuring a former metal journalist and member of post rockers Northless and death metal act Ara, Jerry Hauppa and cello player James Becker, the follow up, V is a 5 song concept piece  […]

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; I never really got Incantation or Immolation in the early 9os. I was obsessed with Swedish death metal and Cradle of Filth  and both bands murky, muddy styles never really sat well with me. Heck, the only Incantation album I own and have really heard is […]

FINTROLL has officially started recording their 6th album at Sonic Pump Studios in Helsinki! The currently untitled follow-up to 2010’s masterpiece Nifelvind will be released worldwide through Century Media Records in late March 2013. In regards to this new album, the band comments on their studio blog (http://yersiniafestis.blogspot.de/):   “Combining our trademark sound with even […]

It’s been a while since I heard some good skronky discordant, math metal, maybe going back to Brazen Bull‘s early 2012 release, The Traveling Parasite, which I’m still trying to get my head around for review. Well, here is French noise mongers Dacast, and their 2 track 35 minute assault on the ears, Dédale. Early […]

Trust me, there is nothing Stagnant about the debut from  this avant garde black metal French-Norwegian collaboration. On a label run by a guy with ties to the likes of  Mayhem, Darkthrone, Ulver, Ved Buens Ende, Virus, Fleurety, Ihsahn, Arcturus, Manes and Solefald and featuring Svein Egil Hatlevik of Fleurety and Dødheimsgard fame, you might […]

Compelled to check this release out by an excellent review by my good friends over at metalreview.com, I was greeted by a very intriguing but also polarizing release. Touted as experimental black metal, I was expecting something, well black metal-y from this anonymous, robe and mask clad UK act (for some reason, I want to […]