For you whippersnappers out there, the current  incarnation of General Surgery―the one that reformed in 2003 and has released  two full-length albums since―is a far cry from what the band was in 1991 when they unleashed their seven song debut EP Necrology. One of the early super groups, culling members of the then burgeoning Stockholm Death metal […]

With the release of their third album, Scotland’s Alestorm have not only continued with the metallic shanties about all things Pirate-y, but they’ve upped the ante of their scope and grandiosity. As Black Sails at Midnight Improved upon Captain Morgan’s Revenge, so has Back Through Time also improved; bigger, more raucous fun and more metal, Back Through Time shows Alestorm as consistent as any folk act in the scene today. Oh and you want epic? How about Vikings battling Pirates (“Back Through Time”) and the return of the mighty Leviathan in an eight minute black metal styled track (“Death Throes of the Terror Squid”)? I visited with scallywag Chris Bowes to find out even more about one of my very favorite current bands and one of my favorite albums of 2011.

I’ve never really considered myself anything but a relatively casual fan of The Black Dahlia Murder, despite their rather large status in the realms of modern metal. With a sound that’s been cloned more times than Jenna Jameson has had cocks in her, their appeal loses even more luster as I blame them for the […]

As I’ve mentioned in other Dark Descent Records’ reviews, I really like the fact they are balancing out some awesome reissues (Uncanny, Utumno, etc.) with some new acts like Adversarial, Miasmal, Corpsessed, Gorephilia and Washington DC’s sickly heavy, crusty d-beat blackened doom act, Ilsa. While essentially lying in the same murky sludgy and heavy territory […]

I’ve been sitting on my review of this simply stunning double LP for a while now for a couple of reasons. First, it’s such a monolithic, emotionally draining and fantastic album that putting it into words is nigh impossible. Second, I just want to listen to and absorb this record over and over again and […]

Despite my relative familiarity with old school Swedish metal, old and new, as well as most of Rogga Johanssen’s many current and former Stockholm-styled projects (Paganizer, Ribspreader, Bone Gnawer, etc.) I actually had never heard of Revolting. It’s even more surprising that their newest effort was released on FDA Rekotz, the label responsible for my […]

Lost in all the controversy and arguing over the new Morbid Angel album is the  fact that another legendary, godfather act of death metal also returned after a long hiatus in 2011. The difference is…these guys did it right. After two certifiably classic death metal albums in Severed Survival and Mental Funeral, Autopsy released two  […]

Napalm recording artist and premier “pirate metal” band ALESTORM will be touring North America this fall, in support of just-released new album Back Through Time. Beginning in late August and going through the end of September, SPV recording artists KAMELOT will be headlining the tour, with ALESTORM headlining select dates. Vocalist/keytarist Chris Bowes had the […]

Legendary progressive tech metallers, PESTILENCE, will release their sixth full-length to North American masses on July 19, 2011 via Mascot Records. Titled Doctrine, the 11-track long player was recorded and mixed at Woodshed Studio in southern Germany with vocalist/guitarist by Patrick Mameli, Yuma van Eekelen and Victor Bullok (Triptykon, Dark Fortress) and offers up a torrent […]

A stalwart of the Chicago doom/death metal scene for over a decade, Novembers Doom raised some eyebrows with their last 2 albums; 2007s The Novella Reservoir and 2009s Into Nights Infernal Requiem. The band injected more pure and aggressive death metal into their melancholy laced sound, with surprisingly brutal results. However with their latest release, Aphotic, the band appears to have returned to their doomier, sadder and more tempered releases of their first 5 albums. So while casually Facebook chatting with Novembers Doom drummer and fellow metalreview.com writer Sasha Horn a full fledged interview sort of evolved. And here is the subsequent impromptu result….

Here’s a nice little surprise in the form of the second album from Chicago’s symphonic black metal act Withering Soul. With ties to one of first US acts plying the style competently, the underrated Veneficum, in keyboardist/guitarist Krystopher, Withering Soul’s sound has a distinct European tone that obviously culls from the likes of early Dimmu […]

Halo of Flies is having a pretty awesome run of LP releases over the last few months. Going back to last year’s The Makai and Protestant LPs, this year they’ve released the sublime debut of Light Bearer (ex Fall of Efrafa) and Northless’ follow up to 2010’s No Quarter for the Damaged CD/EP. As with […]

This has to be a late April’s Fools right? Or some sick practical joke and somewhere Trey Azagthoth and David Vincent are laughing it up, and will let us in on the joke, then release a proper album, right? Because if not, I’m going to be pissed, as are lots of other death metal fans. […]

Mithras would like to announce the return of long time frontman/bassist Rayner Coss, who left back in 2008. Rayner commented “Firstly, it’s good to be back! When I departed in 2008, Leon and I had been playing in bands together non-stop for over 12 years, and for various reasons I was finding it really difficult […]

So a member of (our)  TOTD forum asked me if I could review this band–that has some friends of his in Japan–as they are excited for some possible international exposure. I agreed. Though, I admit to not expecting much, but I’ll do a favor for a longtime reader — even if the CD was released […]

Based on the cover art and album name, I was expecting some form of shitty deathcore, but I should have known better than that from Soulflesh Collector Records. Instead, what we have here is some very impressive Dying Fetus -styled (nay, worshiping — the moniker kind of gives it away I guess) slammy, downtuned death […]

Following up on 2010’s Ashes of Angels, former Antaeus vocalist MkM has returned to his Aosoth-project to deliver sermons of blackened fury. And while the last effort had slight tinges of Deathspell Omega/Blut Aus Nord styled discordance and atmospherics, with lengthier songs, more dissonant, harrowing and atonal hues, Aosoth appears to have morphed into a […]

“I See No God Up Here” claimed Yuri Gagarin during the first manned space flight, April 1961. The last really good, pure post-rock/shoegaze albums I heard were Rosetta’s last effort and the last EP by Mouth of the Architect. But in a matter of weeks I’ve heard three; Halo of Flies Records’ excellent LP duo […]

I’ve seen a fair bit of buzz on the old Internet about this Finnish band’s debut EP, and after finally grappling with its criminally short 23-minutes of hellish death metal — the hype is in deed worth it. One could argue that the oddly named Corpsessed are cut from the current cloth of better Incantation […]

There are those out there that think death metal is dying or dead. That the once proud genre has succumbed into a riffless, soulless, pro tool pandemic and become full of stagnant clones or simply fallen into pure homage and worship. For the record, I am not one of those people. However, if I were, […]

FoR have always been a well honed and eclectic American black metal band, but as they have progressed, their art has taken on an even more impressive and beautiful atmosphere as their songs developed and writing style grown to carry the listener deep into the woods with classical and folk elements. The bands first full-length […]

Chaos Records is proud to announce the debut album from Mexican Death Metal origniators CENOTAPH. For the first time on vinyl we present the debut masterpiece The Gloomy Reflections of Our Hidden Sorrows coupled with two bonus tracks “Repulsive Odor to Decomposition” and “Larvs of Subconscious.” Formed in 1989, CENOTAPH was one of Mexico first […]

Dark Descent Records is proud to announce the reissue of Death Strike’s Fuckin’ Death on CD and vinyl. Active from 1984 to 1985, Fuckin’ Death represented one of death metal’s earliest recordings. Death Strike disbanded after 1985’s Fuckin’ Death demo and Paul Speckmann went on to front the legendary Master. Fuckin’ Death was eventually re-released […]

The tombs are closed and the coffins are lowered. The sun bleaches the gravestones and the flowers wither. The sun settles and the darkness rises. The stench of death still lingers and the presence of doom is inimitable. The ritual preparation of the dead is complete. ENCOFFINATION arises from the crypts to worship this ritual […]

1. A noxious atmosphere or influence: “The family affection, the family expectations, seemed to permeate the atmosphere . . . like a coiling miasma” 2. a. A poisonous atmosphere formerly thought to rise from swamps and putrid matter and cause disease. b. A thick vaporous atmosphere or emanation Fucking perfect… Considering Dark Descent’s obsession with […]