I kinda dug the last album from these young Minneapolis pseudo grinders, back when they were called A Second From the Surface. Though it was still sort of squealing, chaotic nu grind at its core, it had a hearty punk backbone and some surprising melodies thrown into the mix. Little has changed other than the […]

Another release on my hometown’s September Riot Records, this time from Dubuque Iowa three piece Lost Apparitions, and while label mates Estrus called themselves progressive, Lost Apparitions are actually a much more progressive, experimental act. Plying a sort of catchall, angular and jangly post rock/post hardcore that reminded me of instrumental acts like Sleeping In […]

How the fuck is it that 3 my favorite albums of 2009 are self released (two being Kalisia and Be’lakor) and one of them, Cephalectomy’s An Epitaph to Tranquility is a FREE FUCKING DOWNLOAD????? That’s right. The full length follow up to 2004 excellent Eclipsing the Dawn (not counting the 28 minute single track, The Dream […]

Following three very special US appearances this summer in Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York (effectively breaking their streak of visa issues), Swedish black metal battalion MARDUK will return for a full headlining North American tour this November. The band will be joined by Nachtmystium, Mantic Ritual, Merrimack and Black Anvil (on select dates). An updated […]

Italian melodic-death metallers Disarmonia Mundi have finally completed their new record entitled “The Isolation Game”. The album has been recorded, produced, mixed and mastered at The Metal House Studio by Ettore Rigotti and contains 13 brand new tracks of wallshaking extreme metal also featuring guest appearances by Björn “Speed” Strid (SOILWORK) on vocals and guitarist […]

Greek modern metallers The Fallen Within signed with Coroner Records for the release of their debut album entitled “Intoxicated”. The album, presented as an avant garde melodic death work with many dark atmospheres, was recorded and produced by Bob Katsionis from FIREWIND, mixed and mastered by Ahti Kortelainen at Tico Tico Studio in Finland. The […]

I have a very vague recollection of this Swedish bands full length debut 2006, Serene Catharsis as a mix of gruff Swedish death metal with a slight melodic, progressive lean, and this re-issue of their 2005 WIll and Perception demo EP along with two new tracks and a reworked 2004 demo track (“Common Walls”) seems […]

Ok, I’ll admit I’m reviewing this because September Riot Records is based in my hometown, and even though the band Estrus hail from Central Illinois, its always nice to see some local folks get involved in an otherwise barren Central Missouri metal scene, even if it is pretty standard modern hot topic styled metalcore/screamo. Despite […]

“L’Eterno Maligno Silenzio“, the third album from enigmatic Italian Illuminates TENEBRAE IN PERPETUUM, is being streamed in its entirety at the following location : http://www.debemur-morti.com/ecards/DMP0058. Recorded & mixed at Necropalace Studio and mastered at 322 Studio, “L’Eterno Maligno Silenzio” will be released on October 30th via Debemur Morti Productions. The limited digipack edition is currently […]

Exclusive preview track unveiled at http://www.myspace.com/mantricofficial Prosthetic Records is proud to announce the signing of MANTRIC to the label for a worldwide, multi-album deal. Formed in 2007 in Oslo, Norway from the ashes of metal pioneers Extol, MANTRIC takes the visionary songwriting approach of its founding members to new, epic heights. Fusing a unique, distinctly […]

One could argue that in the space of just three full length albums , Liv Kristine and her spectacular cleavage , err I mean voice, have become Gothic metal’s premier act. The formula they ply has been done amply by the likes of Nighwish, Epica, Stream of Passion and a host of other boobie fronted […]

In advance of its October 27th release, all eight tracks of PELICAN’s upcoming Southern Lord debut album What We All Come To Need is now streaming on the band’s Myspace page! Stop by and check it out today: http://www.myspace.com/pelican. PELICAN is out on a full US tour with label mates Black Cobra now through mid-December. […]

Candlelight Records today confirms the upcoming release of a special deluxe version of ABSU’s popular self-titled album. Set for American release January 26, the limited edition format will include a bonus live DVD that was filmed in Montreal amidst the band’s first stateside tour in nearly eight years. The band recently kicked off a European […]

Ugh. I feel queasy. While not overly impressed with the last offering from this Netherlands madman who goes by the name of Mories, there’s something about this album that literally hooks me, reels me in an gives me a tangible sense of disgust and self loathing. Maybe it’s the more perverse, sexually depraved nature of […]

The last couple of years has been spectacular for old school classic Swedish styled death metal; you’ve had albums from the likes of veterans such as Bloodbath, Séance, Necrovation, Evocation, Dismember as well as new blood from Hail of Bullets, DeathEvocation and Fatalist just to name a few. Heck, even Entombed returned from the land of suck on 2007s Serpent Saints. What was missing was a big name reunion- a glorious name from the past, the return of a legend (Séance doesn’t quite count). And that happened earlier this year (at least here in the US) when Ibex Moon Records released Death …the Brutal Way from Dutch death metal legends, Asphyx. Complete with the duo that was mostly responsible for the legendary The Rack, suddenly busy vocalist Martin Van Drunen, founding member Rob Bagchus returned to the fray in spectacular fashion and I caught up with Mr. Bagchus to find out how this legendary comeback came about and other things….

Reactivated Swedish atmospheric black metallers ALGAION have set Exthros (“enemy” in Greek) as the title of their third album, to be released via Pulverised Records. Exthros was recorded at Helltower Studio by ALGAION live/studio drummer Robert Eng (Corporation 187) and mastered by Simon Söderberg at Mayfire Studio. Exthros track listing: 01. “Alpha” 02. “That Time […]

As when I heard the re-issue of Marduk’s Dark Endless last year, I had no idea that the current iteration of one of Sweden’s more respected second tier black/death metal acts, Necrophobic was so different from their more recognized, current sound. Like Marduk, Necrophobic’s first sound was one rooted in early Swedish death metal, namely […]

 Candlelight Records today confirms two limited edition versions of ABIGAIL WILLIAMS’ popular debut album, In the Shadow of a Thousand Suns. Set for release January 12, the special formats will kick off the band’s first tour of 2010, their fifth in support of the album. The deluxe edition will feature a bonus disc containing five […]

You’d expect competent Opeth worship to come from Sweden and such, but not necessarily from the US, however as bands like Daylight Dies, Iron Thrones and Gwynbleidd showed on 2006 excellent Amaranthine EP back in 2006, Opeth worship can come from anywhere. In the case of Gwynbleidd, the depths of Brooklyn, NY (albeit by way […]

My only real knowledge or experience with Boston’s Doomriders is that they feature Converge bassist Nate Newton and Cave In Drummer JR Conners, two bands I like but aren’t awfully obsessed with, so when I gathered that this outfit was a more rock based band to boot, my hopes weren’t extremely high. That all changed […]

Though plying the same basic musical style and shtick as the relatively enjoyable 2008 debut, Total Brutal, Tim Lambesis’s (As I Lay Dying) Arnold Schwarzenegger themed metal act has grown somewhat. First off, professional Arnold impersonator Josh Robert Thompson (The Howard Stern Show, The Late Late Show) now provides the excellent and amusing Arnold quips […]

Blackened death metallers ACHERON have signed with Ibex Moon Records for the US release of The Final Conflict: Last Days Of God. Founding bassist / vocalist Vincent Crowley had this to say about the signing: “We (ACHERON) have really been wanting to have someone license our new album The Final Conflict: Last Days of God […]

Second new Saattue song Taakka has been made available for listen at Saattue myspace (http://www.myspace.com/saattue). The song is taken from Saattue’s second album Vuoroveri. The album will be released on October 21st. Vuoroveri will include eight works of doomy, heavy, dark and multidimensional saatto metal. Saattue is signed to Spikefarm Records. Vuoroveri (Tide of Blood) […]

FREE DOWNLOAD OF PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED SONG “FROZEN” All That Remains will debut their video for their latest single “Forever in Your Hands” exclusively on MySpace.com at http://www.myspace.com/metal starting on October 7th. The video will also air on an episode of MTV2’s Headbangers Ball hosted by the band on the morning of October 18th at 2:00 […]

Death metal is full of brilliant, legendary songs. Songs that helped shape the genre, define a band or create a classic album. These are songs that every death metal fan knows by heart or can name at the mere hearing of a single note or chord; “Left Hand Path”, “Override of the Overture”, “Black Winter Day”, “Unas, Slayer of Gods”, “You’ll Never See”, “Infecting the Crypts”, “Hammer Smashed Face”, “Chopped In Half”, “Leprosy”, “Corporeal Jigsaw Quandary”, “Chapel of Ghouls” – “Victory March”- the list goes on and on. But what about those other songs that fleshed out albums both classic and overlooked? Songs by bands revered and unheard of that simply never caught the ear of the public, the fans or the critics?