So, I’m playing a bit of catch up here having just recently received CDs from new label Blast Head Records, based out of Canada and Belgium’s Shiver Records, so expect a few late 2011 releases, seeing as they sent actual CDs not digital files. First up is the first release from Blast Head Records, the […]

In the Midst of Lion have been busy little bees since I reviewed their 2009  Strikefirst records debut, Out of Darkness. They of course moved on and up to Facedown Records and  some time in 2010, released Heart of Man, which I never got around to reviewing, and then in late 2011 released album number […]

Agoura Hills, CA – February 20th, 2012 – Legendary British metal act, Angel Witch, are proud to unveil their new album, As Above, So Below. The Jaime Gomez Arellano (Ghost/The Gates Of Slumber) produced album unites newly-penned yet timeless-sounding material such as ‘Geburah’, ‘The Horla’, ‘Brainwashed’ and ‘Upon This Cord’ with four long-lost tracks from […]

Australian extreme metallers ETERNAL REST have announced that their forthcoming debut album will be titled, ‘Prophetic’, and will be released worldwide in Spring 2012. The album has been recorded and engineered by Joe Haley (PSYCROPTIC). The band have also announced the completion of their line up adding Josh Robinson on vocals and Jannico Kelk on […]

Polish death metal CENTURION has signed a contract with Psycho Records for its second long play album Serve No One. The release will come out on March 14th, 2012. The recording session took place in several periods of 2010 in Progresja studio in Warsaw, under a supervision of the sound engineer Paweł Janos Grabowski. Mix […]

So the band Liberteer came to my attention after reviewing the recent Beaten to Death album, a grindcore album that was grindcore with a difference, and so is the debut album from Liberteer. Comprised of Matt Widener, the grindcore lineage is certainly here considering Widener’s involvement in the likes of Cretin, Citizen, Exhumed and The […]

There’s a very fine line as a critic between liking something and disliking something. A production issue, a vocal issue, a song writing issue or any number of things that can sway an opinion between praise and disappointment. Case and point; 40 Watt Sun’s largely revered album, The Inside Room and Pallbearer‘s debut album. Both cathartic, […]

So Mexico is getting in on this retro death metal resurgence with Ominous Crucifix and their take on cavernous, gnarly simple old school Incantation-y death metal. And while Ominous Crucifix don’t really do anything wrong on The Spell of Damnation, the album is still a pretty average effort resulting in one of FDA Rekotz’s weaker […]

So being a huge fan of Gorefest I had to check out the second album from The 11th Hour, a doom metal project featuring former Gorefest (and current Hail of Bullets) drummer Ed Warby and guitarist Frank Harthoon. That respectable duo is joined by Officium Triste growler Pim Blankenstein,  who brings his super deep, typical […]

I’ve made no bones about the fact that I’m not a huge fan of A Plea For Purging‘s shift from awesome, twiddly shreddy metalcore to more serious, personal djent styled music. I have not really cared for the band since 2009’s Depravity, and frankly haven’t really cared to, as in my opinion nothing will top […]

Israel’s Total Rust Music has carved out a nice little niche for themselves on the black/doom/sludge genre with a number of quality releases from the likes of Highgate, Lords of Bukkake, Pyramido, Funeralium and such. 2012 looks to be of to a similarly high quality start with a trio of releases by Spain’s Tort, French black […]

PROTEST THE HERO ANNOUNCE U.S TOUR WITH VERY SPECIAL GUEST PERIPHERY JEFF LOOMIS, THE SAFETY FIRE, AND TODAY I CAUGHT THE PLAGUE SUPPORT TOUR SPONSORED BY TOONTRACK, MERCHNOW, and METALSUCKS.COM Closing out the US portion of the Scurrilous album cycle, PROTEST THE HERO will embark on a 24 date coast-to-coast U.S tour starting March 25th […]

Bereft is a Los Angeles based melodic sludgy doom band featuring Sacha Dunable of Intronaut and Graviton, Derek Donley of National Sunday Law and Graviton, Charles Elliott of Abysmal Dawn and ex-The Faceless vocalist Derek Rydquist. Bereft released its first track “Withered Efflorescence” exclusively via their Facebook page in early September 2011 to rave reviews […]

You know if I’m reviewing a September 2011 release here in 2012, it has to be good, and holy shit is this good. Hailing from Norway, Beaten to Death consists of a few of Norway’s veteran players from short lived or middle tier bands like Insense, She Said Destroy, oh and drummer who has played […]

Battle metallers TURISAS will be heading back to North America this spring for “PaganFest: America Part III”, their first-ever US headlining run! Joining the Finnish sextet on their triumphant return to the States is a gathering of bands from across the world: Scotland’s ALESTORM, Rome’s EX DEO, Russia’s ARKONA, and the US’s very own HUNTRESS. […]

A Hope For Home‘s last record, Realis was a decent, if slightly whiny visage of shimmery Christian post-rock. So here they are with album number three, and it’s a vast, beautiful improvement that’s on par with Hands‘ Give Me Rest — as far as gorgeous, introspective Christian metal goes. Now that almost everyone has left or […]

So back in 2010 I reviewed the self-released debut from Portugal’s Karnak Seti, and it was a surprisingly good melodic death metal effort that imbued the the genre’s once hailed stylings and even reminded me a little of Disillusion‘s landmark debut. Well, the band were kind enough to send me the follow-up, In Harmonic Entropy, […]

As usual at this time of year, I get a few CDs for review that came out late the year before. Such is the case with Ahdistuksen Aihio Productions who sent me Ave Maria‘s Chapter I and this, the debut from Finland’s Saturnian Mist. And while Ave Maria left me unsettled but only slightly impressed, Gnostikoi […]

Here’s yet another addition to the growing collection of fine but quirky, experimental German black metal. This time in the form of duo ‘A’ (guitars/vocals) and ‘C’ (drums) and their Ave Maria debut, Chapter I. I don’t have a whole lot of reference points for this act, but it’s safe to say they definitely sound […]

So here’s another reason to own a record player (and a cassette player);  Sacred Plague Records. And one of their recent releases  is the second effort from Chico, California’s Black Hole of Calcutta, a noisy, primal punk/grind/hardcore collaboration featuring members of The Makai, Transient and Mammoth Torta. Named after a 1756 incident where 146 prisoners […]

Blood Mortized‘s self released 2009 debut was one of my coolest old school Swedish death metal discoveries during the genre’s current revival. And though featuring former and current members of Amon Amarth and Crypt of Kerberos, the band didn’t seem to have as high of a profile as some of their contemporaries, but with an […]

Anyone has a Latin dictionary? Here is the impressive debut from Minnesota’s Atrum Inritus and as you can tell from the moniker, album title and track titles like “Aegrus Evert”, ” Sacramentum Exeuntium”, ” Tenebris Descendi” and “Ephemera”, there’s no doubt about what we are  dealing with here: Black metal. While all the above and […]

    Montreal’s monsters of tech-death mayhem, BENEATH THE MASSACRE, have announced their newest album, entitled, “Incongruous,” will be released in the US on February 14th, in the UK on February 20th, in mainland Europe on February 24th and in Canada on February 28th. “Incongruous” was produced and mixed by Chris Donaldson (Cryptopsy) and mastered […]

Graf Orlock has completed work on its new EP, Los Angeles. In keeping with its tradition of using Hollywood blockbusters as inspiration, Graf Orlock has based Los Angeles entirely on Michael Mann’s 1995 film, Heat, starring Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. Los Angeles is the follow-up to last year’s acclaimed Doombox EP, which Decibel Magazine called, “a churning, eclectic barnburner evoking unrestrained […]

Listen, I’ll readily admit to being one of those shallow, close minded types that judges a book by its cover, or a band by its moniker. And quite frankly a band with the name The Gardenerz wasn’t something I was ready to dive into. It’s the same reason I’ve never listened to Weekend Nachos and […]