Mr. Matt Calvert’s overall goal must be be to have his Dark Descent label put every  underground label out of business.  Blood Incantation are yet another special band, that he found a few years ago.  2015 saw the band put out a pretty killer 4 song ep, Interdimensional Extinction.  I am new to the Blood […]

I enjoyed Bostonian’s Zealotry’s 2013 debut, The Charnal Expanse.  I really enjoyed Defeated Sanity’s Lille Gruber’s drum work on the album.  It was some of the best of his career, regarding the progressive moments.  The new Zealotry brings in Alex Zalatan, as the drummer, and couples some more session musicans, but leaves Pat Tougas intact, […]

Kicking it since 1999, Spain’s best and most brutal band Wormed, have had their fair share of ups and downs.  After several high profile demos, the band released Planisphærium in 2003.  To say this album was phenomenal is an understatement.  I did not find out about this gem of a band until after this album […]

Well this was quite a pleasant surprise a few months ago when Century Media announced they had secured the rights to the cult death/thrashers material and working in conjunction with Morbid Saint would release a deluxe discography, compiling all of the band’s released material onto 2 cds. The last reissue, the band released themselves, on […]

Ohio’s grinding death maniacs, Embalmer have been around since the late 80’s. Obviously being around that long the band has had a revolving door of musicians throughout their 25+ years in existence. When I joined Internal Bleeding in ’94, I was introduced to Embalmer and they became one of my fave bands. Rick Fleming’s vocals […]

Megadeth has gone through many line-ups throughout the years and mainman Dave Mustaine is no stranger to controversy. Among the classic albums, there’s been a few shadier ones, but despite everything, the band is still kicking and putting out new music. Does the engine still have any power left? We take a look at Megadeth’s latest output, Dystopia.

Starting out in the late 80’s Francis Howard (Guitars) and his brother, Moyses (Drums), along with bass/vocalist Scot Latour would put together one of the most under-appreciated death/thrash bands, Incubus.  Hailing from Louisiana, Incubus would go on to put out the outstanding 1988 Serpent Temptation, debut album. They bested that 2 years later with Beyond the […]

No arguments that Finland’s Purtenance put out one of the finest death metal albums in the 90’s, Member of Immortal Damnation.  To argue would be stupid.  A few years ago the band put the pieces back together and …to Spread the Flame of the Ancients is their third release, & second full length since the […]

Desecresy are an outstanding Finnish death metal act, that in their brief inception since 2009, have released now their fourth album.  They play an older style of death metal that mixes in influences from Autopsy to a lot of Bolt Thrower rumbling, tank like heaviness.  Never opting to go into blast beat territory this 2 […]

Prime Evil, hailing from New York City, was more of a cult death/thrash band back in the 80’s/early 90’s.  They put out some demos and crap, but never breaking through to get a record deal.  Then they broke up and reformed 20 years later and in 2012 put out the devastating Evilution 3 song ep.  […]

Italy’s Ad Nauseam have put out the best technical death metal album of the year.  Nihil Quam Vacuitas Ordinatum is the band’s debut and this is mind bending ultra brutal technical death metal.  Take aspects of Gorguts/Ulcerate and Gigan.  Catch my drift?  This is atmospheric, monolithic, avant garde and disturbing sounding death metal.  This makes […]

Hailing from Ohio, this is TON’S, Jeff Shepler’s other band, Fully Consumed.  The band is labeled as technical death metal.  I found the band to be more straightforward brutal death metal.  Think Gorgasm/Lividity/(early)Deeds of Flesh  type of stuff. I really love TON and their new album, but I’m not the biggest fan of Fully Consumed’s […]

Disfigured was a NY death metal band, back in the 90’s and I was friends with the fellas, especially Ryan Schimmenti, the founding member.  Russia’s Lord of the Sick Recordings have just issued, in limited pressing, Anthology of Dementia, which puts all of Disfigured’s recordings on a cd.  I was a huge fan of this band, […]

Holland’s Nailgun Massacre return with their second album and will be a top ten for me this year, easily.  2011’s Backyard Butchery was a killer debut with tons of Autopsy tinged, memorable brutality.  Boned, Boxed and Buried has it beat.  Opener “Where’s the Head?” is so ridiculously catchy-your head will fall off from the non-stop […]

Hailing from Boston, Mass, I had never heard of Composted before.  They’re an interesting band of fellows.  After looking at the insert pictures, cover, layout and reading the lyrics I made this assessment.  If you took Larry “The Cable Guy” and gave him some instruments with 3 other doppelgangers I believe Plump Up The Volume […]

Dave Rotten’s Xtreem Music Label is one of the very best around, especially for his stellar reissues.  So Famishgod is a side project he is lending his guttural vocals to and Pako Deimler is playing all the instruments which also includes the drum machine programming.  Famishgod play an ultra heavy down tuned form of doom/death […]

I am not a hater of Ghost. I happen to love their prior albums, actually.  A lot of people jumped on the hateorade train thinking that Ghost were just an elaborate hoax of a band.  I’m not one of those.  I mean, how can a classic metalhead slag a band that has influences ranging from Mercyful Fate and Blue […]

  I find many unjust situations bordering on criminal acts.  Here are some examples.  The fact that I have been playing the Mega Millions for close to 2 decades and I have only won, maybe 40 bucks over this course.  Another one that comes to mind is my damn Dallas Cowboys have only won 2 […]

Denmark never has a shortage of quality bands and Crocell return with their fourth long player, in their relatively short existence.  I had never heard of them until last year when Deepsend Records label owner, Graham recommended them to me.  I picked up their discography from him and have been a happy camper ever since.  […]

Ahhh good ‘ole Middletown, NY.  Growing up, my family and I would always pass Middletown, NY, on our way to The Catskills, in upstate NY.  I remember this rest stop we would always get breakfast, memories…. This is where Morpheus Descends hail from.  They added the Descends to the name in ’92.   The band […]

Several years ago, Ohio’s TON reformed and now we are finally seeing the fruits of their labor.  Bow Down To Extinction is their second album, their ’99 debut, Plague, is outstanding.  I was a huge fan of TON’s demos, in the 90’s Internal Bleeding and TON shared many good times together onstage.  They are also […]

  If you enjoy ultra-brutal death metal, played with extra hot sauce from good ‘ole Houston, Texas, well than look no further than Desecrate the Faith.  I see the band being labeled in the deathcore territory.  That’s B.S.  I mean I do enjoy deathcore, but this is slam death metal and yes, there are differences. […]

Ok, ok, Dark Descent Records…stop it, really.  Mr. Matt Calvert, truly over the last 2 years, especially, is making other labels squirm in their chairs.  While obviously having a penchant for the awesome Finnish scene, he signs bands from a variety of extreme genres and goddammit he gets it right every effin time!!!  With the […]

Wombbath is  a Swedish death metal band who were kicking it around in the early 90’s but broke up in 1995.  Their lone album, 1993s Internal Caustic Torments was a classic for me and grossly overlooked back in the day.  Had no idea it was remastered a mere 2 years ago and I snagged it recently from […]

I was so stoked when Morgoth reformed several years ago and even more stoked when the band announced they would write a new record.  I was a fan since their ep’s in the late 80’s.  I saw them live on their mini east coast tour, for The Eternal Fall ep and the band tore the […]