Hailing from Kansas City, MO, Marasmus are a no-bullshit US styled death metal act that cull heavily from the Floridian side of things (most notably Cannibal Corpse and Hateplow) with just a touch of Unique Leader, singularly paced brutality. The end result is a competent, if unspectacular, slab of American death metal. This is one […]

New Two-Song Album Coming Early 2013 from Flenser Records With the end of 2012 quickly approaching and Grayceon‘s critically-acclaimed last album All We Destroy (Profound Lore) waning in the rear-view, the San Francisco-based triad prepares for the next chapter in their story: a 30-minute album comprised of two sprawling epics that bend the concentration closer […]

Southwicked is a multinational death metal act that features some Belgian dudes from obscure bands like Blood Haven and Shattered Skull and Allen West of Obituary/Six Feet Under fame. So its no surprise that a majority of Southwicked‘s debut album sounds a lot, no, JUST like West era Obituary and Six Feet Under. You’d think […]

Album Details and First Single Revealed Swedish death metal overlords, AEON, are pleased to unveil the details of their fourth studio offering , Aeons Black. Set to drop via Metal Blade Records on November 20, 2012, the mammoth 15-track Aeons Black was recorded at Empire Studio in Östersund, Sweden, engineered, mixed and mastered by Ronnie […]

Remember in the late 90s when In Flames and Dark Tranquility were exploding? When Children of Bodom were fresh and awesome and young energetic, but short lived melodic death metal bands like Lothlorien, Auberon, Ebony Tears, Embracing, and Eucharist were releasing killer albums? Well, if you long for those days of bouncy, busy, solo filled, […]

Much like The Great Old Ones‘ release, Al Azif, Sentinel the third release from Greece’s Spectral Lore is an awesome black metal surprise that mixes a multitude of recognized black metal styles and tropes, notably Memoria Vestusta II era Blut Aus Nord, Krallice and other more ambient, experimental and otherwordly black metal. Even with a […]

And the retro Swedish death metal hits keep coming with a second wave of bands like Malfeitor, Mass Burial, Corrosive Carcass, Unconsecrated, Bombs of Hades, Eroded and such continuing the quality laid down by bands like Entrails, Demonical, Bloodbath, Fatalist, Hail of Bullets and others. And while some may tire of the genre’s imminent saturation, […]

Melbourne’s Be’lakor have gone from unknown, unsigned band to one of the scene’s most respected and consistent bands. Having just released their third critically acclaimed album in Of Breath and Bone, the band is now entering pastures that find the tiny dependent Australian band playing doomy, melodic death metal mentioned in the same breath as the like of Insomnium, Opeth and other European luminaries. And I’ve watched and listened the whole time, seeing the band grow and become one of metal’s elite acts. All the while I’ve stayed in pretty consistent contact with the band’s founder and keyboardist Steve Merry who was once again, more than willing to answer a few questions about Be’lakor, the new album and what the future holds for Be’lakor…

Candlelight Records today confirms November 6 as the North American release date for Vanitas, the new album from England’s ANAAL NATHRAKH. Produced by Mick Kenney (Bleeding Through, Ingested), the album carries the band’s signature and regarded union of black metal and grindcore. There is no other band that creates music as frightening as the Birmingham-based […]

Hailing from Minnesota, Lungs are a sludgy, down tempo, post rock/doom band that would fit nicely on Halo of Flies Records, next to a band like Northless , even  more so considering their vinyl based output here. This self titled 10″ release consists of two songs, the 7 minute “The  Pith” and  the 8 minute […]

Though many have thought melodic death metal dead for a few years now (thanks, In Flames), a few releases here in late 2011/2012 by the likes of Vale of Pnath, Pictured, December Flower, Darkness By Oath, Allegaeon and Karnak Seti have shown there’s a bit of life in the genre yet. And here is Italy’s […]

Deepsend Records is proud to announce the signing of Australia’s ETERNAL REST. The label will release the band’s debut album, Prophetic, in early 2013. The album was recorded and mixed by Joe Haley (Psycroptic). Eternal Rest hail from Brisbane, Australia. The band’s powerful energy can be heard on Prophetic, but must be experienced in a live […]

Hailing from my old college stomping grounds in Kansas City, Missouri, Solace and Stable are a group of young tech metallers cut from the same cloth as bands like Between the Buried and Me, Woe of Tyrants, The Demonstration, Conducting from the Grave, With Passion and such; they play a form of shred filled, melodic […]

Here’s a vinyl split LP with some amazing potential. Light Bearer‘s first LP, 2011’s Lapsus was one of the very best releases of last year while Wisconsin’s Northless have steadily improved over the two releases I have heard in 2010’s No Quarter for the Damaged and last year’s Clandestine Abuse LP. I’m not going to […]

Along with Dark Descent and Willowtip, Deepsend Records are one of my favorite independent US based labels, especially when it comes to pure death metal. They’ve had a solid spring summer releasing quality albums by the likes of Offending, Synapses, the always reliable Dawn of Demise and even got into the reissue game with reissues […]

Italy has a surprisingly solid technical/brutal death metal scene.  Of course, there’s the more obvious  monsters like Fleshgod Apocalypse and Hour of Penance, but if you dig a little deeper and actually list bands like Antropofagus, Gory Blister, Illogicist, Vomit the Soul, Unconventional Disruption, Humangled, Psychofagist just to name a few, you start to realize […]

Hailing from Texas and featuring The Faceless drummer Lyle Cooper, Absvrdist play a form of vicious modern grind/crust that would sit well on Southern Lord. It will appeal to fans of  Enabler and any other of Southern Lord’s crust/hardcore bands, and it’s got just a dash of black metal (though that might just be the […]

  Adult Swim’s Animated Aggressors to Release New Album in North America with CD/DVD Combo and Clean Version on October 16, 2012; Limited Edition Vinyl Follows on November 6 DETHKLOK returns this fall with Metalocalypse: Dethklok Dethalbum III, the highly-anticipated follow up album that fans of the animated band have been begging for. The stars […]

I really kind of wanted to like the debut from Vancouver’s Tribune a whole lot more. They seem like a fun loving group of guys that don’t take themselves too seriously, and the music contained on Elder Lore/Dark Arts is an eclectic mix of thrash, heavy metal, metalcore and melodic death metal. That is also the […]

It does not take a genius to figure out the style of metal played by Melbourne, Australia’s Whoretopsy; look at the moniker, the cover, the album title and song titles like “Cardiac Defecation”, “Potty Mouth”, “Necrobordello” and “Intimate Disgust”. What we have here brutal, ultra misogynistic death metal of the slammiest variety. I’m pretty sure […]

You know those anti-meth PSA posters where they show a normal person and their progression each month as they become addicted to meth? Well, one listen to Drug Honkey‘s fourth album might result in the same, tooth rotting, skin itching, hair losing, gaunt results. In fact, Drug Honkey might be onto a new sub genre of […]

Once again, Halo of Flies Records ensures that I keep a record player in my possession by releasing an impressive 2 track split 12″ from California sludge doom act Amarok and Polish doom band Enth. Both bands are new to me, but I’ll be certainly looking out for releases from both in the future. I’ll […]

Despite the recent run of excellent album reissues both needed and unnecessary, there has been a large hole in my metal collection and in my heart. As much as I’ve loved and needed reissues of the likes of God Macabre, Burial, Gorement, Uncanny, Convulse and such, there’s been one release missing; Desecrator‘s sole, 1991 album, […]

Last year, Minnesota’s Your Memorial dropped one of the year’s best metalcore records, Christian or otherwise.  And since then Facedown Records has struggled with a bit of staleness with their subsequent releases and even lost one of their best bands, Sleeping Giant, to another label. Well, Your Memorial is here as the savior to Facedown […]

GOREMENT, one of the finest yet obscurest death metal bands to ever emerge from the soil of Sweden, has signed a worldwide deal with Century Media Records for the release of the band’s entire recordings. Within The Shadow Of Darkness – The Complete Recordings will be available exclusively at CM Distro as a 2CD and […]