It’s no secret that I love Helloween. They were the first German Power Metal band I ever heard, way back in 1986, with their amazing Keeper of the Seven Keys Part 1 album. I was a hooked fish at that point. Power and majesty have always been the cornerstone of any Helloween album (well, maybe […]

It’s no surprise that I love Panzerchrist as much as I do. Their core sound has remained consistent throughout their storied career. Each album has stood as a testament to their brand of brutality that has remained solid since 1999’s Six Seconds Kill. Maleficium Part 2 is the follow up to last year’s Maleficium Part […]

Sweden’s most consistent bunch of Vikings need no introduction. Unleashed have been stalwarts of the scene since Johnny Hedlund was booted from Nihilist back in the late 80s. It worked out pretty well for him because 36 years later, Unleashed are poised to release Fire Upon Your Lands, their 15th full-length album. Hot off the […]

Sometimes it’s bloody difficult to find information about a band. Take Sowulo and their fifth (!) album: Niht. There’s nothing on Metal Archives about them at all, I mean, five albums in, you’d think there’d be something, right? Nope. So here I go into this with only the barest of information. It’s a good thing […]

Sometimes an album comes along that speaks to me on a deeply cerebral level. This has happened before; I tend to cover the weirdest shit I can find, usually crazy Folk Metal and Avant-garde Metal.Occasionally, though, I’ll cover instrumental powerhouse albums like Zombi and their fantastic Direct Inject album. Which brings me to Agropelter. A […]

Back in 2022, I did a review in these hallowed pages for an all-female international beast called Castrator. That album was Defiled in Oblivion, and it was one of my favorite releases of that year. Since that time, they’ve been doing… whatever bands do; I’m assuming playing shows and recording this album. What an album […]

I love raw as fuck Black Metal. Whether it’s one person or four, if it sounds like it was recorded on a Tascam four-track in someone’s basement studio, I’m all fucking there. I’ve covered some raw bands here before: Avmakt, Ad Infinem Omnia, and Horna, to name three, and Embers of Ouroboros are now firmly […]

A debut full-length a day keeps the depression away. Today I’m going to talk about Lenax and their brand spanking first album Infection. A great debut album makes a statement, a stern fist to the face of a genre established years ago, while also attempting to cement the band in the annals of Black Metal’s […]

Okay, so I saw the term Epic Folk Metal and I started thinking about Korpiklaani, Ensiferum, and Arkona (Rus). I was pretty on the mark with Korpiklaani more than the others, since Mandragora Titania (formerly Mandragora Thuringia) has created a magnificent and fun as fuck album. This isn’t their first album; they have three previous […]

Hello from the skronky, Jazzy as fuck Tech-Death rabbit hole. This one is a deep goddamn dive (no pun intended) into the most insane Tech-Death album I have heard this year so far, and I’ve heard a few mind-melting albums already, so that is saying something. Digressing in progress because ByoNoiseGenerator is one of those […]

The other day in the group chat, el Jefe posed the question of a band that sounds like modern Hypocrisy, and would any of us like to cover it…? Well, sign me the fuck up, brother! I eat that shit up! So here I am reviewing Lacabra and their self-titled, debut full-length and I have […]

Jazzy Tech-Death, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways… Quadvium (if you didn’t know already) is a project of Steve Di Giorgio (Testament, Death) and Jeroen Paul Thesseling (Obscura, Pestilence). They grabbed a guitar player along the way and a drummer: Yuma van Eekelen (Our Oceans, Pestilence) and Eve (Myth Of I, […]

Sargeist is one of the foundations of the Finnish Black Metal scene, a deadly force of Satanic wrath. They, along with Horna (Shatraug is associated with both Cult entities) and the unholy Behexen, form this Black Metal pyramid, a diabolical trinity if you will. Flame Within Flame is their sixth full-length following 2018’s Unbound, and […]

I have a process when I look for new Metal when promos drop: find the weirdest sounding shit possible. So if I see that a band is featuring banjos, a cellist, and a keyboardist… I’m fucking sold. Such is the case with New York’s Weeping Sores and their blistering 2nd album, The Convalescence Agonies. It’s […]

I’ve been trying to review this album for weeks now. Things kept getting in my way, however, and so now I’m able to sit down and put thoughts to page about this album that stands before me. I’m talking about French/Japanese depressive black metal duo, Enterré Vivant, and their heart-wrenching third album Azukï, from enigmatic […]

Occasionally, an album will hit me with such force that I’m compelled (not by the power of Christ) to put finger to keyboard and rave about it. This is the case with Trivax and their revival of violence on The Great Satan (directed at the Ayatollah Khomeini, who is depicted on the cover as Satan). […]

I’m going to admit that I didn’t like Midnight at first. I don’t know why they play this DIY style of Punk, Death Metal, and old school Thrash. Stuff I like and by this point they’re pretty fucking good at it. Athenar is a workhorse, putting out a slew of singles, splits, compilations, even a […]

I’ll admit to knowing next to nothing about Indonesia. I know that it’s beautiful (I’ve seen pictures and I love their action movies, so I’m sort of an expert) but I’m not here to talk about traveling, I’m here to talk about the proud and savage Jakarta natives, Tombstone. Coming in hot as a meteor […]

Once upon a time, I thought of Melodic Death Metal as the Michael Bolton of the Metal community. It’s pretty, at times brutal as fuck; but ultimately one cancels out the other and it either sucks ass or kicks it. This is not the case with Greece’s Nightfall. I wasn’t expecting what I got from […]

When Morgoth ceased to exist following the shitty Feel Sorry for the Fanatic there was a hole left in the Death Metal community. They did reunite, albeit without vocalist Marc Grewe for the pretty good Ungod, but it wasn’t the same. It’s ok though because Leper Colony was formed to fill that sizeable void. As […]

Sweden’s Celtic-themed Melodic Death Metal stalwarts Eluveitie (“the Helvetian” in Etruscan) have been spreading joyful violence since 2002. Theirs is a train I jumped on right away, after doing my daily search for new Metal when I discovered Ven their fantastic EP from 2004. “Uis Elveti,” and “Your Gaulish War” became anthems for me, and […]

I’ve been turned onto some killer bands since signing up for the Metalhead Box. One of the first shirts I received was a Tribunal one. So of course I wanted to know what they sounded like, and my expectations have been exceeded substantially. My stupid ass thought they are a Black Metal band interested in […]

Think about the last good Sword and Sandal movie, or game; it doesn’t matter when, just that you’ve ever seen one. For me, I think of Conan the Barbarian, Clash of the Titans; you get the idea. Elvenking live in a land of fantasy, where women randomly rise out of cobalt blue waters and dragons […]

We’re in an age of chaos and confusion. Now, in a musical setting, that can be a visceral experience. Notes colliding into each other at breakneck speed while the drums blast and the bass rumbles the Earth. It’s the basis of Black Metal. Eternal suffering and a veil of darkness lowering onto the desolate landscape. […]

Coming out of the French Alps on black sleds of vengeance is Aldaaron, waving a banner dripping blood and blasting album number five,e Par-delà les cimes (Above and Beyond the Summits). After the marvelous Majestic Heights, Melancholic Depths back in 2023, they (presumably) started working on Par-delà les cimes. The result is a bombastic triumph […]