Author Archive

BAHIMIRON set release date for new album!!!

American black metal outlaws BAHIMIRON are ready to unleash their wolves to the flesh of Christ with Rebel Hymns of Left Handed Terror this fall on MORIBUND RECORDS. Set for release on October 25th, BAHIMIRON‘s Rebel Hymns of Left Handed Terror will contain nine hymns of rabid bestial nightmares, all in devotion to total death and the fiery […]

Gorephilia – Ascend to Chaos EP

The debut EP from Finland’s Gorephilia was a victim of circumstance. Released earlier this year around the same time and on the same label as Corpsessed‘s debut EP,  it got kind of steam rolled by The Dagger & the Chalice. Which is actually a bit of a shame as Ascend to Chaos, while certainly not […]

Gravehill – When All Roads Lead to Hell

Try as hard as I may, I simply can’t get into California’s Gravehill and their brand of blackened thrashy death metal. Even residing on Dark Descent and featuring an ex-member of Morgion/Keen of the Crow and current members of Exhumed (Matt “Hellfiend” Harvey to be specific, whose recently reissued thrash death project, Dekapitator shares a […]

Living Fields, The – Running Out of Daylight

From the band’s 2004 The Miseries Never Cease EP to their self-titled, self released 2007 debut album, I’ve long championed The Living Fields as one of the most criminally unsigned bands in metal. Well, the unsigned part was rectified with the band signing with Candlelight Records, and though this album took its sweet sweet time […]

Fleshgod Apocalypse – Agony

Oh. My. Fucking. God. Imagine, metaphorically speaking, that two high speed trains are careening towards each other on a unavoidable collision course. One train is Origin‘s ultra technical, brutal, but intelligent form of death metal. The other train is Sigh and their over the top orchestral symphonics and theatrics. BAM!!!! They collide, each train melting […]

Underworld Records to Release Excommunicated’s Skeleton Key on August 15th

Underworld Records has set August 15th as the date on which EXCOMMUNICATED debut album Skeleton Key will be unleashed. Compositionally dynamic, atmospherically insidious, and impossible to forget, this is Louisiana blackened death that lacerates the soul and burns into the brain. A dark treatise on the medieval Catholic Church, Skeleton Key is that rare metal […]

All Shall Perish – This is Where It Ends

All Shall Perish‘s sophomore album, The Price of Existence was my favorite album of 2006. Unfortunately, their 2008 follow up, Awaken the Dreamers was a bit of a let down. In part due to the precedent set by the prior album, but also due to some more commercial moments, clean vocals and even ballads. So […]

Candlelight Records To Release Classic And Career Retrospect Releases From: DISCHARGE, EXTREME NOISE TERROR, THE VARUKERS

Candlelight Records will continue its previously launched classics series confirming releases from DISCHARGE, EXTREME NOISE TERROR, and THE VARUKERS. New to the series, the label will release Disensitise and War Is Hell from DISCHARGE on August 23, followed by Holocaust In My Head by EXTREME NOISE TERROR on September 27 and the 2CD The Damnation […]

Disma – Towards the Megalith

OK, I reeeeeally need to revisit Incantation. Not only have I been enjoying the likes of Corpsessed, Gorephilia, Blaspherian and such, but the current wave of old school death metal has even got Century Media on the band wagon with the excellent Sonne Adam. Profound Lore Records has simply decided to truly dig into the […]

Dibbukim – Az A Foygl Un A Goylem Tantsn

So in my 10 or so years of this reviewing gig, I’ve seen the increase in ethnic and cultural influences within metal. Of course, there’s the obvious folk/pagan stuff, but bands like Melechesh, Orphaned Land, Mictlantecuhtl, Negura Bunget and others have brought the world to metal.But never in a million years did I ever think […]

Hellmouth – Gravestone Skylines

Hellmouth is the music equivalent of their hometown Detroit: violent, grimy, pissed off and ugly. Their debut, Destroy Everything, Worship Nothing was a feral but ultimately forgetful  crossover assault of black metal, thrash and punk, but on their follow up, Gravestone Skylines, with the same musical influences,  the band has improved their sneering sonic violence, […]

WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM: Album Info, Artwork, North American Tour Unveiled

With WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM‘s fourth full-length album, Celestial Lineage, now completed and nearing its September 13, 2011 release date via Southern Lord Records, we today unveil the album’s full song listing and album artwork. The cover art for Celestial Lineage was created by photographic artist Alison Scarpulla, and the package designed by Aaron […]

Morne – Asylum

Somewhere in Boston , MA at the intersection of doom, post rock, sludge and fucking awesome lies the band Morne. A new act to me, but after seeing some positive press and the band being on Profound Lore, I just had to check their second album out. I was greatly rewarded, as will you upon […]

Entrenched – Preemptive Strike

War and death metal have been ingrained within each other since the genre first started. And it seems a certain style of death metal has been associated with war. Sure there’s a few black metal acts and so called ‘war metal’ acts that that do the whole war thing, but I think most would agree […]

Burial, The – The Winepress

This little booger slipped through my highly efficient, organizational skills and structured teethofthedivine office space (i.e the pile of CDs and my daughter’s Disney DVDs on my computer desk at home). But a track randomly popped up on my Ipod warranting further investigation.. I’m not going to try and dance smartly around the divisive white […]

BLACK COBRA Complete Recording Of Fourth Album; Title Revealed

The Bay Area’s devastating duo BLACK COBRA have completed the recording process of their upcoming fourth full-length album, set for release in the Autumn months ahead. For the recording of this, the band’s second release for Southern Lord Recordings, BLACK COBRA recently ventured across the continent to pound out their anticipated new album, the follow-up […]

WHITE ARMS OF ATHENA Unveil Cover, Track Listing, Launch Pre-order

Technical/progressive metal band, WHITE ARMS OF ATHENA, have unveiled the cover art and track listing from their debut full length, “Astrodrama.” Recorded by Jamie King (Between the Buried and Me, The Human Abstract), the album will be released on August 16th, 2011 and there’s a special discount code available via pre-order through PROSTHETIC’s webstore, now […]

FALLOCH: Post-Black Metal Duo To Release Debut Via Candlelight Records

Based in Glasgow, Scotland, the duo known as FALLOCH are a growing glimmer on the atmospheric, post-black metal horizon. Andy Marshall and Scott McLean united out of a desire to create music that conveys atmosphere and emotion utilizing an expansive backdrop of styles and sounds. Metal, post-rock, folk, with minimalist composers Yann Tiersen, and Arvo Part all factor […]

Hope for the Dying – Dissimulation

Man, after the bands 2009 self titled debut EP, I said I’d keep an eye on these Christian shredders in hope they would deliver something better. And boy did they ever! I didn’t quite see anything this good coming though. Adding a dramatic symphonic element to their early A Plea For Purging/ Woe of Tyrants […]

Jute Gyte – Verstiegenheit

Adam Kalmbach has been a busy individual. Since I reviewed Old Ways,  his third CD of impressive, one man black metal back in 2009, he has released 6 more albums under the Jute Gyte moniker, including a couple of atmospheric experimental albums. There obviously isn’t a lot to do in Springfield, Missouri (I can attest […]

WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM: New Album Nears Completion

After devoting late Winter season to writing and recording, WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM are in the final stages of completing their fourth full-length opus of epic, earthen Black Metal ceremony. For over six months the Weaver brothers, Aaron and Nathan, have been immersed in the painstaking writing and recording process of their newest album, […]

Death – Human (reissue)

Metalheads could and will argue about which Death album is the band’s best effort, although to no avail, because arguments could be made for all of them (I’m kinda partial to Spiritual Healing). However, I’m not sure many people would argue that the lineup on 1991’s Human was the best one of  Chuck Schuldiner’s rotating […]

Iron Maiden – From Here to Eternity: The Best of 1990-2010

Yup! Another Iron Maiden compilation that follows up to 2008’s Somewhere Back in Time – The Best of: 1980-1989. While I’m typically not a huge fan of compilations, for those that missed Iron Maiden‘s reunion and Bruce Dickinson era part deux, as well as a couple of Blaze Bayley -era numbers―slyly delivered as live songs, […]

Exhausted Prayer – The Worst of All Possible Worlds

The debut release from LA’s Exhausted Prayer was an ambitious, promising but convoluted affair of cross genre metal that melded black, ambient and progressive metal. And now the follow up is here and it looks like the band has mostly fulfilled the promise of Looks Down In the Gathering Shadow  ― with improved song writing and more […]

DARK FUNERAL: Swedish Black Metallers Announce New Vocalist

Band Added To The 70000 Tons Of Metal Lineup Swedish black metallers, DARK FUNERAL, have officially announced a replacement for longtime vocalist, Emperor Magus Caligula. In an official statement from guitarist Lord Ahriman: “It surely was not an easy task to find a worthy replacement for Emperor Magus Caligula, who has been doing an amazing job for DARK […]