Author Archive

With their first 3 albums, A Celebration of Guilt, United in Regret and We Are the Nightmare, James Malone’s Arsis, injected a feral energy and staggering musicianship to a stagnating melodic death metal scene and added the US as major players in the genre. However, personal and line up issues hindered the band’s progress and […]

After a 7 year wait, a considerable amount of hype and build up, something strange happened to Summoning‘s eagerly awaited 7th album. After the teaser trailers, after the first song was revealed, the metal world was brimming with anticipation and then the album came out a couple of weeks ago……..and there were *crickets*. Now I […]

Facedown records was in a bit of a slump in late 2012 and early 2013, but responded recently and mightily with Hope for the Dying‘s Aletheia, the heavier than thou release from Those Who Fear, Christian metal’s possible savior in the new Extol reunion, and this, the almost as punishing but slightly more experimental second […]

I am not sure I have ever heard a more perfect marriage on a split release than Sol, the 3 song, almost 70 fucking minute, Sun themed opus from two of the more exiting, new, one man black metal projects going right now. Both released stunning CDs last year; Mare Cognitum‘s An Extraconscious Lucidity, and […]

Bellum Omnium Contra Omnes (roughly translated to War of All Against All) is the debut full length album from one man project based in Harrowgate, England, who goes under the guise of ‘Leviathan’. I was interested in reviewing this because Bal Sagoth‘s Johnny Maulding engineered the album and helped out with some synths, and I’m […]

I’m usually a little leery of reissues of only 5 year old death metal albums. I prefer my reissues to be of a more classic musk, and frankly I don’t think there was much released in 2008 that really needed re-issuing. However, along comes the start up UK Label Wretched Decay Records and their re-issue […]

Sorry guys, those of who who clicked on this review link expecting or hoping for a melancholic Finnish or Swedish death/doom band based on the moniker,  will be a bit disappointed , as this is nothing of the sort. However, while you are here let me introduce you to this multifaceted, progressive metal band from […]

After two lauded albums that arguably spear headed the Swededeath revival, Sweden’s Entrails is playing with the big boys now. Residing on Metal Blade Records, (a fitting replacement for Vomitory methinks)  and sitting atop the heap of retro Swedish/Sunlight inspired death metal bands. But the pressure is now even more, especially with the all important […]

Anyone that reads this site regularly know I have a huge love of old school Swedish death metal. Pretty well anything with that HM2/Sunlight sound sounds gets me more excited than Kim Kardashian in an NBA locker room. And 20 years after the genre’s originators like Entombed, Grave, Carnage and Dismember spewed forth from Stockholm, the genre is experiencing a comeback of massive proportions. For the last few years the HM2 sound and style has been in a resurgence with bands from the UK (Binah), Poland (Ulcer, Kingdom), the US (Abysme, Terminate, Horrendous), Germany (Revel in Flesh, Lifeless), Spain (Unconsecrated), The Netherlands (Funeral Whore, Massive Assault) and even the Czech Republic (Morbider, Brutally Deceased), just to name a few. But standing atop of the genre, are acts that hail from the genre’s homeland: Sweden. From the recent reissues of long long classics like Uncanny and Toxaemia, to new blood like Blood Mortized, Malfeitor, Usurpress, Morbus Chron, Bombs of Hades, Bastard Priest and Rogga Johannsen’s 4,456 bands, the Swedes are back. And none is more happy to be back than Entrails. Originally forming in 1990, but never recording anything, one could argue that their loooooong awaited debut, Tales from the Tomb was essentially a dusted off, unearthed blast from the past, re-ignited this whole resurgence. And now their third album, Raginf Death has just been released on Metal Blade Records- a far cry from obscurity 23 years ago. I overcame the language barrier and caught up with founder and guitarist Jimmy Lundquist to dig further into the pile of Entrails…

Here is a band from Norway that is hard to define and review. They grab your attention with that cover and album title, and then the style they play is a form of avant garde, experimental, progressive melodic death metal that’s really difficult to pigeonhole. The only bands I could think of that shared some […]

Never judge a book by its cover. In this case, I thought I was going to HATE France’s Kause 4 Konflikt: the name, the excessive Ks, the masked, combat fatigue clad band members, the self described ‘offensive war-core’ styled music, every thing screamed shitty Slipknot clone or awful nu metal tripe. And indeed, the opener […]

Hailing from Quebec, Canada, the youngsters in Pronostic are a technical/melodic death metal band trying their hand at adding a sort of  Black Dahlia Murder/Arsis/Allegaeon sound to modern almost deathcore/death metal that’s intricate and busy, but has a few chops and plenty of skill. The thing is, it’s about 5 years too late. Don’t get […]

Hailing from Austin, Texas, Morgengrau is a 4 piece playing old school US death metal in the Master/Death/Incantation/Immolation vein. What makes them even more interesting is that the band is fronted by former Autumn Tears/Hod/Ignitor vocalist/guitarist Erika Tandy and the drums are played by another femme fatale, Reba Carls. Not that being females in death […]

Part of this writing endeavor is getting sent records by unknown obscure bands. Sure, we get to review Soilwork, Nile and other international super acts that really don’t need our lip service — but it’s so more rewarding to get a promo from a band like Russia’s Wandersword, and be able to spread the word […]

The debut from Germany’s Revel in Flesh, Deathevocation, was one of the very best examples of Old School Swedish Death Metal, and one of my favorite releases of 2012. So a mere year later, here is the follow up and what do you really expect here? Of course its the same style, delivered with the […]

After 2005’s Absence and 2006’s Anatomy of Life, Finland’s Noumena looked to be on the verge of breaking out and rising to the levels of fellow Finns Amorphis, Insomnium, Swallow the Sun and previous greats like Rapture and Sweden’s Slumber in the realms of melancholic death metal. However, the band took a hiatus and simply […]

Just Before Dawn is a multinational super group of sorts. It was formed by Blood Mortized guitarist Anders Biazzi with old school death metal mercenary Rogga Johanssen (Revolting, Megascavenger, Paganizer, etc.) providing the vocals. However, the project snowballed and a bunch of other vocalists from old school death metal acts got involved and as a […]

Back in 2005, I reviewed ‘Absence’, the second album from melancholic Finnish death/doom metal act Noumena. Despite competing directly with the likes of Amorphis, Insomnium, Swallow the Sun and Rapture, the release was one of my favorite releases of that year. The very next year the band released ‘Anatomy of Life’ — once again to critical reviews. However, the band then went silent. Real silent. After being on the verge of truly breaking out, they were not heard from again for seven years. Until now.

Continuing the harrowing black metal stylings of the landmark III, former Antaeus vocalist MkM has fulfilled the expectations of arguably one of 2012s most anticipated black metal releases. No ifs and or buts, Arrow in Heart is and will be one of the most striking and regally filthy black metal releases of the year and […]

So Dark Descent Records has taken a little break from their Finnish death metal revival to license this 2012 release from this Swedish/Hungarian act, which was originally released on Mi Saco Un Ojo Records.  Fans of the likes of recent acts Necrowretch and Necrocurse should take note, as Megatomb ply the same sort of black […]

Up until Regain Records reissued the band’s discography in 2009, I never really cared for Sweden’s blackened thrashers Nifelheim. The band hasn’t released anything since 2007, but vocalist Hellbutcher has been busy and one of his latest projects is Necrocurse – a band that combines Nifelheim‘s black thrash, spikes ‘n’ satan visage with the current […]

It appears Finntroll have been out troll’d. With Finntroll becoming a bit less ‘trolly’ on their latest effort Blodsvept, dumping the fur and bones in favor of a steam-punk meets Pirate of the Caribbean visage and branching out into more symphonic, circus-ish and experimental realms and less polka/humpa inspired fun (though still a fine album), […]

Fans of murky, muddy, atonal death/black metal along the lines of Vasaeleth, Mithochondrion, Paroxsihzem, Ulcerate and Australian nasties like Impetuous Ritual and Portal, take note. Here is a duo from the depths if Philadelphia PA, that deliver that same churning, icky, sickly discordant noise and deliver it with an exclamation point. And that’s no surprise as the […]

You may recently have heard the name Ola Englund in death metal circles, as he is the guitarist on the latest Six Feet Under release, Unborn (but don’t hold that against him or Feared), but he has been messing around with other bands for a few years, mostly Feared which has been around since 2010 […]

It’s fitting that the second full-length offering from this mysterious Polish entity is named after a poisonous, hallucinatory plant and the band is named after a book from Lovecraftian mythos, because each night I listened to this release at night time, on head phones, it resulted in nightmares, unsettled sleep, and according to my wife, […]