Author Archive
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › T on Monday, January 6th, 2020
Hailing from Edmonton, Canada, one might assume that Tales of the Tomb are yet another impressive act of technicality and time signature wielding wizardry, especially given that Christian Donaldson (Cryptopsy) handles the mixing and mastering of the band’s latest sophomore EP release, Volume Two: Mendacium. Yes, one might assume this solely based on our experience […]
Tags: 2020, Death Metal, Nick K, Review, Self-Released, Tales of the Tomb
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › T on Friday, November 29th, 2019
If you have ever been out to dinner with Toxic Holocaust, you know what to expect from the band’s sixth full-length album, Primal Future: 2019. While Toxic Holocaust releases have never been the Wolfgang Puck or Gordon Ramsay of thrash metal, they are far from being the local McDonald’s brand of drivel that barely satisfies, […]
Tags: 2019, eOne Music, Kristofor Allred, Punk, Review, thrash metal, Toxic Holocaust
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › E on Wednesday, November 20th, 2019
Sweet Texas watermelon! Has it been two years already? Wow…it really doesn’t seem like a couple of years have passed since Exhumed released their fan and critic praised Death Revenge, but here I am blasting my eardrums as well as my face, clean into oblivion with the aural onslaught that is Horror, Exhumed‘s seventh full-length […]
Tags: 2019, Death Metal, Exhumed, Grindcore, Kristofor Allred, Relapse Records, Review
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › A on Wednesday, October 30th, 2019
Admittedly, I was zero percent familiar with Aggravator and any of their previous output before their new self-titled EP. Though after spending some quality time with said EP, thanks to Unspeakable Axe Records, who have just recently re-released Aggravator after being independently released earlier this year, I will be hunting down their earlier efforts and […]
Tags: 2019, Aggravator, Death Metal, Kristofor Allred, Review, Unspeakable Axe Records
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › C on Friday, October 18th, 2019
Well summbitch…As if I needed another reason to love Denton, Tx; here comes Creeping Death, hot off the heels of their last EP, Specter of Death, with their full-length debut, Wretched Illusions. Besides being a cool place that I’ve always had great times in, whether playing shows with my own band, scouring records shops for […]
Tags: 2019, Creeping Death, Death Metal, eOne Music, Kristofor Allred, Review
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › B on Thursday, October 3rd, 2019
What can I say about Bones and their new, and third full-length album, Diseased, that hasn’t already been said before about a few other bands; namely, the ones that seem to influence Bones and their trade of crusty and sometimes even punky, no frills, basic, bare boned death metal. If Terrorizer/Nausea meets Celtic Frost/Obituary by […]
Tags: 2019, Bones, Death Metal, Kristofor Allred, Review, Transcending Obscurity Records
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › C on Thursday, September 5th, 2019
You’ve heard of the Six Degrees of Separation right? Hell, you’ve probably even heard of the quirky, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Well, I guess you could say that it was the Six Degrees of Dave Ingram that led to my introduction of Cropsy Maniac. You see, it goes like this: I’m a big Benediction […]
Tags: 2019, Crospy Maniac, Horror Pain Gore Death Productions, Kristofor Allred, Review
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › O on Tuesday, August 20th, 2019
Ahh Thrash Metal…For the most part there are usually two camps when it comes to the liking of the genre. One camp simply being lovers of the trade, relishing in everything it is, in all of its neck breaking glory; the other camp tends to keep its distance from the beer and sweat smelling, denim […]
Tags: 2019, Confused Records, Kristofor Allred, Overt Enemy, Review, thrash metal
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › D on Thursday, August 8th, 2019
Hot damn! The floor is lava, my ass. The floor is pure fucking Death Angel fire! Rest assured, the band’s newest thrash platter, Humanicide, will burn you up, consuming your pitiful little being, leaving nary a trace that your ever existed, much less mattered. A bit much? Maybe, but Humanicide really is that good, we’re […]
Tags: 2019, Death Angel, Kristofor Allred, Nuclear Blast Records, Review, thrash metal
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › N on Tuesday, July 9th, 2019
Chicagoan four-piece, Nucleus, have returned with their sophomore LP, Entity, and while I haven’t necessarily been on pins and needles awaiting new material these past three years since their debut full-length, Sentient, I have been looking forward to seeing where these cosmic laced death dealers would take their brand of brutality with future releases. Sentient […]
Tags: 2019, Death Metal, Death/Thrash Metal, Kristofor Allred, Nucleus, Review, Unspeakable Axe Records
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › L on Friday, June 21st, 2019
I don’t know what it is with England/the U.K., but that little island nation just cranks out fantastic metal, plain and simple. From originators to imitators, the amount of quality and varied material is quite astonishing, and while I wouldn’t put London’s Lvcifyre in the hallowed halls of British metaldom just yet, I would recommend […]
Tags: 2019, Dark Descent Records, Death Metal, Kristofor Allred, Lvcifyre, Review
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › U on Tuesday, June 11th, 2019
I first heard about Usurper, via Metal Maniacs magazine, roughly about twenty years ago. The band had released their second LP, Skeletal Season, in 1999 and were due to follow it up with their third full-length, Necronemisis, in 2000. As it always does, extreme metal was once again going through stylistic changes and Chicago’s Usurper […]
Tags: 2019, Black/Thrash Metal, Kristofor Allred, Review, Soulseller Records, Usurper
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › H on Tuesday, June 4th, 2019
Skulls? Czech. Wild corpse paint? Czech. Black attire? Czech. Hooded/cloaked member? Czech. Spiked wrist band(s) and/or gauntlets? Czech. Finger claw ring thingy? Czech. Satan as the bands frontman? Czech. Wait…What? That’s right friends, Hnus Umirajici’s frontman/vocalist is apparently the Prince of Darkness himself, or at least according to the band’s press bio. In fact, the […]
Tags: 2019, Black Metal, Hnus Umirajici, Kristofor Allred, MetalGate, Review
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › C on Friday, May 3rd, 2019
Remember in Rocky IV when Ivan Drago beat the beloved Apollo Creed to literal death? Do you remember the brutality of the beatdown and the shock and awe of witnessing what had just occurred? Well friends, I do. I remember it well, and the feeling I get from listening to Moscow, Russia’s Critical Extravasation is […]
Tags: 2019, Critical Extravasation, Death Metal, Kristofor Allred, Redefining Darkness Records, Review
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › S on Thursday, April 4th, 2019
Well I’ll be damned, color me impressed. Brescia, Italy’s, The Scars in Pneuma, and their debut album, The Path of Seven Sorrows, really caught me by surprise with its mature sound and songwriting. While the band cites influences from the likes of Rotting Christ, Mgla, Dissection, Be’lakor and others, in the end it’s just a […]
Tags: 2019, Kolony Records, Kristofor Allred, Review, Symphonic Black Metal, The Scars in Pneuma
Posted in Frontpage Feature, Reviews, Reviews › M on Monday, March 11th, 2019
I’m always going to consider Malevolent Creation to be in the top-tier of death metal bands. This is probably due to the fact that I am an old-school fan from their first few early 90’s offerings, and those feelings I have for their earlier material, coupled with the fact that the band has consistently released […]
Tags: 2019, Century Media Records, Death Metal, Kristofor Allred, Malevolent Creation, Review
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › A on Wednesday, February 20th, 2019
I’ve always been pretty knowledgeable when it comes to heavy/extreme metal and all its facets. All through my life, my fellow metalhead friends have referred to me as a metal encyclopedia. Like many die-hard metalheads, my affiliation with the genre has always been one from a “love and collect” aspect as opposed to merely a […]
Tags: Absence Betrayal, Melodic Black Metal, Metal Renaissance Records, Self-Released, Symphonic Black Metal
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › I on Thursday, January 17th, 2019
Hot damn! I like surprises (at least good ones) just as much as the next guy or gal, but I have to say that some of my most favorite surprises are when I find out a band I really like has released a new album right under my nose without me knowing anything about it. […]
Tags: 2019, Black Metal, Debemur Morti Productions, Infestus, Kristofor Allred, Review
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › J on Tuesday, December 18th, 2018
Generally speaking, average and/or mediocre albums can be quite the proverbial bitch when it comes to reviewing. Much like a dining experience that is merely decent and all around adequate, how does one go about recommending something that is just basically sufficient? Seriously, how many times have we either told someone not to go to […]
Tags: 2018, I Hate Records, JT Ripper, Kristofor Allred, Review, thrash metal
Posted in Frontpage Feature, Reviews, Reviews › U on Monday, December 10th, 2018
Coming to proper metal age, i.e. my teenage years, during death metal’s initial ’90’s explosion not only introduced me to what would become some of the greatest music on the planet, but it also introduced me and many like-minded individuals to the fantastically macabre offerings of H.P. Lovecraft. Considering that damn near every band at […]
Tags: 20 Buck Spin, 2018, Kristofor Allred, Review, Ulthar
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › M on Tuesday, November 6th, 2018
Master is a bit of an unusual act. The band, or more specifically, bassist/vocalist and founding member, Paul Speckmann, has been involved in the metal scene for 35 years now and arguably, he is credited among other notable metal alumni such as Death‘s Chuck Schuldiner, Possessed, and Necrophagia‘s Killjoy with helping create death metal itself. […]
Tags: 2018, Kristofor Allred, Master, Review, Transcending Obscurity Records
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › D on Friday, October 26th, 2018
IT’S MORPHIN’ TIME! Okay, I won’t lie to you guys. I didn’t actually know the catch phrase to the once longtime running children’s show without having to look it up. In all honesty, I’ve never seen an episode of the original program or its spinoffs as I am considered an old fart to many youngsters, […]
Tags: 2018, De Profundis, Kristofor Allred, Review, Transcending Obscurity Records
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › D on Friday, October 5th, 2018
Oklahoma City’s Dischordia are back! Back with a brand new two song, 25-minute mind fucking that is Binge/Purge. Just a year and a half after the release of their last full-length, Thanatopsis, which I threw heaps of praise at, the power trio serves up a punishing cocktail that leaves all who indulge, assed out on the […]
Tags: 2018, Dischordia, Kristofor Allred, Review, Self-Released
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › T on Thursday, September 13th, 2018
Ah, Celtic Frost…Whether you love ’em, hate ’em, or are just meh about them, one thing is fact. Their influential impact on metal was, and still is, a huge and undeniable thing. Some have taken that Frost-y influence and built upon it with great success, i.e. Obituary, while others have more than just flirted with […]
Tags: 2018, Kristofor Allred, PRC Music, Review, Tyranno
Posted in Reviews, Reviews › E on Friday, August 31st, 2018
Ain’t that a shame?… No, I’m not referencing the legendary rock and roll badass, Fats Domino. The shame that I refer to is the fact that while the bigger metal labels, i.e. Metal Blade, Century Media, Nuclear Blast, and Relapse, continue to push a lot of the same bands on us, the listening/buying metal fans, […]
Tags: Everlasting Spew Records