Author Archive

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 […]

When I got a CD in the mail, by a band called Monsterworks–whom I had never heard–I really had no idea what to expect. I was maybe expecting a new band doing some sort of new metal. Boy was I wrong. It turned out that Monsterworks is a UK/New Zealand collaboration that plays a form of experimental thrash/death/heavy […]

Ibex Moon Records is set to release the brutality-laden soundtrack to this year’s bloodiest and most gore-filled film of the year, Afterparty Massacre. Featuring music from the likes of DENIAL FIEND, INCANTATION, CARDIAC ARREST, GRAVEHILL, FATALIST, GOREAPHOBIA, FUNERUS, FERAL, SOULLESS, LIFELESS & ESTUARY, this soundtrack threatens to incite as much bloodlust and violence as the […]

It’s a shame to see Von of Liturgy end his label/distro Epitomite Productions, though not a high end label, they released some solid stuff throughout the years, recently releasing decent CDs from the likes of Abacinate and Domination Through Impurity. However, there is a silver lining to every cloud and for me it’s the massive clearance sale that Epitomite Productions had, getting rid of their stock ate ridiculous prices, and while most of the good stuff went early I was able to pick up a couple of older CDs for $3 including Axamenta’s Ever-Arch-I-Tech-Ture and the as yet only released from Polish Death metal act Angerpath, 2007s Forgotten World.

Eternal Helcaraxe came to be in May 2003. Between then and February 2004 began writing for a black metal project based on raw emotion and atmosphere. After several line-up changes both founding members decided to continue as a two piece and in March 2008 released the first MCD entitled Palest Kingdom. Shortly after this release […]

Candlelight Records confirms the worldwide signing of FALLOCH. Andy Marshall and Scott McLean joined their talents together only a year ago but have already found a curious and growing audience. The band, who combine a wide variety of styles including metal, post-rock and folk, are completing details for their debut album, Where Distant Spirits Remain, […]

SERPENTCULT was born in the summer of 2006 by Frédéric Caure, Steven Van Cauwenbergh and Frederik ‘Cozy’ Cosemans in a classic power-trio setup. A few months later, Michelle Nocon joined the ranks on vocals and soon thereafter, the first EP Trident Nor Fire was recorded and released. The first European live appearances started in 2007, […]

I’ve not really been a huge fan of the current Incantation worship movement in US death metal. Partially because I was never an Incantation fan in the first place and secondly the current Swedish death metal worship movement is much more entertaining to me. However, the debut full length from Houston’s Blaspherian has got my […]

And I thought Journal‘s Unlorja was ambitious! Imagine if Kayo Dot, The Pax Cecilia, Orphaned Land, Unexpect , Between the Buried and Me and Opeth all got together and contributed their DNA to a new breed of experimental, musical  genetics — the resultant zygote would be Ana Kefr. Meaning ‘I am Infidel’ in Arabic, California’s […]

It’s no real secret that I’m a huge fan of Between the Buried and Me. Since The Silent Circus, I’ve reviewed virtually everything they have released for this site or some other publication. I’ve interviewed and seen the band live three times and their album Alaska resides on my top 25 metal albums of all time — only one of a handful of albums released in the 2000s. And in what appears to be an annual occurrence, I happened to catch them in Lawrence, KS while touring with The Ocean and Job For a Cowboy. A tour, that’s promoting their jump from long time label Victory Records to Metal Blade and their current EP The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues — the first part of a planned two CD concept. So amidst Lawrence’s hordes of hipsters, tempting college lasses, apple chutney feta cheese burgers and drumming homeless dudes, I caught up with guitarist Paul Waggoner to find out more about the current release, the label switch and other guitar maestros…

To make this easy and let you decide whether to finish reading this review or not — I’ll lay it out right away: Alabama’s Gideon are essentially a typical Facedown Records band. They are Christian and they play metalcore. There. While not as impressive as label mates Your Memorial or the new Hope for the […]

Listen- this is my first exposure to Woods of Ypres, so this review isn’t going to go into the bands apparent shift from respected black metal into whatever they are being called now (Hippys, posers, sell outs, etc). What I am going to get into is how this Earache re-release of the bands 2009 fourth […]

I can’t say I had super high hopes for the debut CD from Serbia’s Bane; nondescript moniker, clichéd logo, artwork and album title, etc. But when I dove into the album I was actually greeted with some very competent and confident melodic black/death metal. There’s nothing original to be seen here at all here. Solid […]

For over four years now, Jackie Perez Gratz has declined my romantic overtures and while her restraining order against me prevents physical contact within 100ft, I’m still allowed to review her band’s albums. I’m kidding. It’s 200 ft. So here is album number three from vocalist/cellist Gratz and her two compadres Zach Farewell (drums) and […]

British melodic death metal act THE SOULLESS (formerly IGNOMINIOUS INCARCERATION) are preparing for the release of their new album, ISOLATED, which hits stores in Europe on May 16th and North America on June 7th. THE SOULLESS vocalist ANDY WARDLE discusses the album’s artwork: “We chose Ryohei Hase for our artwork. He did the art for […]

Of all the recent reissues of classic Swedish death metal, this two disc reissue of Uncanny’s lone album complete with two demos and one split with Ancient Rites is the one I’ve most been looking forward to. Alongside Gorement and maybe God Macabre, this album was long the holy grail for hard to find classic […]

Hailing from Norway, Fester released Winter of Sin back in 1992 and their rendition of death metal was a slower, crawling, almost doomy dusty take on the genre, with black metal rasps that were quite a bit different from the Swedish explosion and the tight clinical US assaults of the time. So Abyss Records has […]

Canadian heavy metal trio CAULDRON are due to kick off a North American tour tonight with fellow heavy metal act HOLY GRAIL. CAULDRON will be supporting HOLY GRAIL on all US dates, but due to an overwhelming demand from their home fans, CAULDRON will be co-headlining all shows in Canada and will play a longer […]

LISTENABLE RECORDS has announced the signing of genuine Swedish death metal band TORMENTED featuring members of SCAR SYMMETRY, ex-MARDUK and DEVIAN. TORMENTED started playing 2008 with no other intentions than creating Death Metal that they themselves wanted to hear. Although TORMENTED may sound old-school it is not deliberately so, this is pure Death Metal! The […]

Up and coming death metal overlords Dark Descent Records are proud toannounce the signing of American Death Metal act FATHER BEFOULED for therelease of their third album on CD and LP formats. Formed in 2006 and quickly amassing a solid fan-base with their breed of lurching, abysmal and suffocating death metal, Father Befouled have released […]