Author Archive

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 […]

Haiduk is the Canadian, one man project of one Luca Milojica. And while the trend for most one man metal is of the blackened or depressive kind with a few exceptions, Haiduk (apparently a term for Balkan freedom fighters)  is actually rather good thrash/death metal  and you wouldn’t really know it was a one man […]

If you are sending Teeth of the Divine (that’s us) self-released demos and/or other releases, a couple of things will get you noticed and probably reviewed. First, it helps if you are good. A recent example of this being the six track demo from Poland’s Hyperial. Or, number two, you have some sort of intriguing […]

There is ‘hype’ and then there is the ridiculous levels of hype that has followed former Ensiferum frontman Jari Mäenpää and his post-Ensiferum project Wintersun around since their self-titled debut, 8 years ago. Numerous delays, supposed deletion of material and a few teasers later, we are finally given the follow-up to one of epic metal’s […]

Germany’s Finsterforst have lurked in the Black Forest for a few years now. After 2007’s under the radar debut Weltenkraft the band unleashed …Zum Tode Hin to the world. And after sticking to a pretty rigid, bouncy Finnish folk formula, Finsterforst changed up their sound morphing into a sprawling, Bathory inspired sound with lengthy, rangy anthemic songs build around their black metal base. Armed with a new deal with Folk/Viking powerhouse Napalm Records, the band is ready to reveal their epic sound to a wider audience with Rastloss, a vast, epic album that cull Hammerheart and classic Moonsorrow. Guitarist Simon Schillinger was kind enough to answer a few questions about the band’s imminent explosion onto the Viking/folk metal scene.

Somewhere between their debut, Weltenkraft and their second effort Zum Tode Hin, Germany’s Finsterforst made a subtle change from a pure Equilibrium-worship band playing a more bouncy and uptemo form of blacked viking/folk metal, to a more somber and slower paced band more akin to Bathory with only hints of folky Equlibrium-isms. Well, on their Napalm Records […]

Lurking somewhere between the doom stylings of It Will Come and the sludgy hues of Mares of Thrace, Swiss all female act shEver released their second full-length album, Rituals, earlier this year and it instantly gives a shot in the arm to all female bands, breaking away from the current trend of smoky voiced ‘vest metal’.  […]

Century Media Records is proud to welcome Swedish black metal extremists WATAIN to its worldwide family. Legitimately labeled as genre leaders, deservedly awarded with a Swedish Grammy, playing the world’s biggest stages and touring the globe constantly while reaching numerous top positions in the annual reader’s polls, WATAIN have worked hard and achieved a lot […]

I’m typically one that’s all for experimentation and avant-garde elements in music, I respect most musicians that push envelopes and boundaries with their music. However, sometimes it gets a little too much for me and that’s the case with Botanist — a one man plant-themed project delivered from the point of view of a man […]

So while a majority of the retro death metal resurgence has focused on the Stockholm sounds, reviving the classic tones of Entombed, Dismember, Grave and such (and there’s nothing wrong with that), what if you had a hankering for a nostalgic death metal sound that wasn’t from Sweden? What if you were craving a band […]

Germany’s Downfall of Gaia is a new act to me and one of Metal Blade’s more recent, under the radar signings, but I was curious about this release due to the artwork and creative album title resulting in me checking out the digital promo we received. And after only a few listens, it resulted in […]

Germany’s DEFEATED SANITY have completed work on their new full-length album, titled Passages Into Deformity. The album is scheduled for release on February 5, 2013. A bonus DVD will be included that features a making-of video, interviews with the band, and performance videos. The band comments: “With Passages Into Deformity, fans can expect another quality […]

Considering the amount of stuff we get sent to review, you’d better be pretty good to be an independent Polish industrial/cyber death metal band and your 6 song demo EP gets my attention enough to warrant a review. It’s also lucky that I haven’t heard any really good rushing cyber death metal in a long […]

You are going to have a hard time believing this, but there was a time when I was actually questioning whether I should review the latest release from Finland’s epic folk metal stalwarts Ensiferum. You see, I actually seem to have soured a bit of folk metal in 2012, (I know, I know, its like […]

Though released much earlier this year, the debut full length album from Spain’s Mass Burial only recently found its way into my mailbox, but the wait was well worth it. Despite hailing from Spain, Mass Burial would have you believe they reside in Stockholm, Sweden… and that’s its 1990. Yup, like country mates Unconsecrated (actually […]

Recommended to me by a fellow teethofthedivine forum member, Mare Cognitum‘s second release, was released back in June as a mere ‘pay what you want’ bandcamp digital download. But now, An Extraconscious Lucidity is now available as a limited CD from the band’s sole member and brain child Jacob Buczarski. But whatever format you decide […]

Geist‘s  2009 album Galeere was and still is one of my very favorite albums of that year and was a darn near perfect black metal album. But then I never heard anything from the band for the next, almost 4 years. Well it turns out that the band was having some issues with a lawsuit […]

Back in 2009 I was introduced to Germany’s black metal horde, Geist, and their stellar maritime themed album, Galeere. It was a virtually perfect black metal album mixing frosty riffs, atmosphere with confident levels of old school mastery and a modern polish and delivery. However, that album was followed by three years of silence due to some legal issues and some internal band issues resulting in 3 on Geist members leaving the band. However bassist Alboin and drummer Marlek have forged ahead, undergoing a name change and returning with an album that’s every bit as good as Galeere. Alboin was kind enough to visit with me and further explain the turmoil of the the last few years and the superb new vision that is Eïs.

Greece’s Spectral Lore rightfully (I hope) garnered  some attention with Sentinel, their magnificent third release that should put them on the black metal map. But it didn’t take long for Spectral Lore brainchild  Ayloss to get right back to business  by way of a fucking excellent split with fellow Greeks, Locust Leaves.I’m not usually one […]