Author Archive

Yup. You read right. This death metal/grindcore band from Finland is called Blastanus. Luckily, their second, self-released album is more impressive than their moniker as Collapse delivers 11 songs and 43 minutes of punchy Euro sounding death/grind that should please the fans of Aborted and maybe newer Cephalic Carnage and such. There’s thick, beefy guitars, […]

If you are the kind of a person that thought the 2011 releases by the likes of Ana Kefr or Unexpect were just too much, too chaotic and too avant garde, just go ahead and leave now. Go on! You’ll be doing yourself a favor. On the other hand, if you thrive on those sort of […]

Listen, a s much as I’d like to, I rarely review 3 track demos- I simply don’t have the time considering all the other stuff we get here to review. However, I will make a few exceptions; 1) if you are really fucking good, 2) if you are really fucking good and local and 3) […]

Rising from the filth-lands of Uddevalla and Ljungskile, Sweden, NECROCURSE was spawned in 2004 with a penchant for all things brutal and ugly. Featuring current and past members of Nifelheim, Necronaut, Runemagick, Deathwitch and Swordmaster (among others), the band is now ready to unleash their chaos upon an unsuspecting underground via Singapore’s Pulverised Records in […]

Candlelight Records today unveils a special remix version of WOE’s acclaimed second album Quietly, Undramatically. The album is available now for streaming and download via the label’s exclusive Bandcamp page. In addition to the new mix, Candlelight has posted the debut album from Falloch, a special reissue of Extreme Noise Terror’s A Holocaust In Your Head, and […]

Candlelight Records today confirms the worldwide signing of thrashers RUMPELSTILTSKIN GRINDER. The Philadelphia-based band is already working on their new album, titled Ghostmaker, expected for release early spring 2012. The four-piece tested some of their new material via a string of regional shows this past weekend and expect to tour in support of the album […]

Up until I heard this 10 song, 7″ release from Atlanta’s Dead in the Dirt, God Is War from All Pigs Must Die was my favorite crust release of 2011, and before that, Nails and their Unsilent Death release was my favorite crust release of the last decade or so. But once the needle hits […]

I feel a little bit sorry for Finland’s Cryptborn, even after having their debut EP re-released by Dark Descent Records (an honor considering the labels affinity for awesome old school death metal). The reason? Basically because their EP is released about the same time as Entrails‘ The Tomb Awaits — much like the high quality indie […]

Well folks, here it is! Entrails‘ newest album, The Tomb Awaits. For old school Stockholm death metal fans, the follow-up to my 2010’s album of the year and arguably the most anticipated album of 2011; the cherry on top of a pie that’s already been filled with the likes of Undead Creep, Brutally Deceased, Demonical, Morbus […]

With album number 3, Maledictus Eris, Denmark’s Svartsot have continued their consistent enjoyable take on folk laced death metal. However, rather than frolicking synths and fruity jigs, Svartsot deliver folk metal with a bearded, burly presence that’s as much Amon Amarth than anything else. But what makes the consistency surprising is the band turn over and the fact that guitarist Cris Frederiksen is the only remaining member from the debut, Ravenes Saga. So I visited with Cris to get a little more insight in the band’s new line-up, as well as some details on the new album.

I’ll admit I wasn’t too excited for a new Lock Up album. I mean, it’s been eight years since Hate Breeds Suffering, which I really though wasn’t necessary after 1999’s Pleasure Pave Sewers, (which was admittedly one of the first high profile super groups). And let’s be honest, a grindcore side project in 2011 featuring […]

Hailing from Germany, Nothgard play a form of fun, epic and bombastic folk viking metal akin to country mates Equilibrium and Finsterforst, but also cull heavily from the genres other heavyweights, notably Ensiferum. Bouncy happy amicable metal is the order of the day with a power metal back bone beefed up with melodic death metal […]

In a press release just sent out by Prophecy Productions, it was announced that founder of Lifelover, Jonas Bernquvst has passed away: “On the night of the 9th September, Jonas Bergqvist a.k.a. ‘B’, founding member, main composer, and guitarist of Lifelover, died unexpectedly. The cause of his death is still unclear and has yet to […]

Whereas label and country mates The Cleansing struck quickly with their second album, Denmark’s Spectral Mortuary took a little longer to muster up a follow up on one of 2007’s most over looked death metal albums. I’m glad to shout that the wait was definitely worth it, as Total Depravity is a monster of  death […]

As previously announced, Australian funeral doom icons MOURNFUL CONGREGATION have signed with 20 Buck Spin for the North American release of two full-length releases. The first of the pair, a compilation of out-of-print tracks entitled The Unspoken Hymns, acts as a prologue for the band’s newly completed, monumental, brand new full-length album, The Book Of […]

The folks over at Deepsend Records really like their chunky Danish death metal, and particularly if it’s a band that features members of once respected Danish death metal acts. In the case of The Cleansing you have current and former members of Usipian, Iniquity, Corpus Mortale and Panzerchrist. And with label mates  Spectral Mortuary, you get […]

I really hope you readers appreciate what I do for this site, because I’m pretty sure that listening to Blut Aus Nord‘s latest effort and De Magia Veterum‘s latest album in close succession for review purposes, I’ve exposed myself to irreparable mental and psychological damage. Damage, that may require long term treatment and anti-psychotic drugs. […]

There’s a good reason it’s taking me so long to review notable 2011-albums from Blut Aus Nord and De Magie Veterum; you simply have to be in the right frame of mind and have some mental patience to punish yourself aurally for that long. In the case of France’s Blut Aus Nord it’s bracing for […]

As much as I love what Dark Descent Records has done in 2011–and will continue to do so–they have to have a blight on their record at some point right? If I’m being brutally honest, for me it’s the second album from Philadelphia’s supposedly legendary death metal act Goreaphobia. Listen. Just because you formed in […]

So we have a one man band called Ov Hollowness from Canada, on a label called Hypnotic Dirge Records, with long songs and titles like “Desolate”, “Winds Forlorn”, and “Drone”. I’ll give you one guess as to what style of music this is. Emocore. Just kidding. The best (in my opinion of course) of Hypnotic […]

Reviewing a Christian metal album is always like swimming in shark tank with a chum jockstrap on. Well…IT’S FEEDING TIME BOYS!!! But I try to stay the course and be objective as I can, and most readers probably don’t realize that I’m actually a devout (?) atheist, so my many Christian reviews aren’t some thinly […]

I’ve followed the UK’s The Belonging for a while now, from their slightly forgetful 2005 debut, Setting the Scene, to 2009’s Ashes of a Fallen Throne, where the band took an improved step into impressive blackened war metal. And now, in 2011, with their third follow up, we’ve got yet another quality self-released album. Continuing their […]

I really like what former doom merchants, Southern Lord, is doing with their crust/hardcore of late;  excellent releases from the likes of  Nails, Acephalix, Masakari, Black Breath, Planks, Summon the Crows, Sabarante, and this, the fucking blistering debut of All Pigs Must Die. Featuring Kevin Baker (The Hope Conspiracy) on vocals and Ben Koller (Converge) […]

Despite all the attention that post-rock influenced black metal or East Coast and Pacific Northwest black metal gets, there’s a few nice little unsigned, independent, more obscure USBM bands lurking in the sunny depths of California. Notably Lake of Blood and this mysterious new act, Leucosis. With only six myspace-friends and three of them notably […]

I’m not entirely sure how to describe the second, self-released album from Italy’s Laetitia In Holocaust. I mean, if the moniker and the cover art–a group of giant insects gang banging the planet earth–doesn’t clue you in the level of weirdness contained on Rotten Light, I’m not sure I can help. Falling ever so generally […]