Author Archive

Destruction – D.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N.

Germany’s favorite sons of thrash are back once again with their fifth album (six if you count thrash anthems as an actual album) since their reunions about a decade ago, and they still have it for the most part. The acronym that is the album’s title contains the first letter of each of the ten […]

Sothis – De Oppresso Liber

Sothis have finally unleashed some label backed mayhem upon my ears and its about time. I reviewed their demo elsewhere and I was surprised it took them so long to hook up with someone. They were from the Dimmu Borgir school of symphonic black metal back then and they certainly retain that influence. However they […]

Altars – Altars (2nd review)

Altars debut effort is a demo of experimental death metal. Coming in at 24 minutes it’s a short one, although the last song is 9 minutes long. One of the big problems they run into here is the production because it’s a bit too muddy for you to hear what they really want to do […]

Lord Belial – The Black Curse

Lord Belial assaults or speakers once again, and we all happy for it of course. They continue the trademark blackened death metal stylings that have gotten so much good press over the years. That should continue here because this is a good album. Imagine a more bass heavy Dissection with the scales leaning a bit […]

Blackwinds – Flesh Inferno

I had never heard these guys before I got this disc and I am rather mad at myself because of it. This is some really good primal black metal, though it doesn’t sound the least bit primitive. By that I mean it doesn’t have a truly awful production that many seem to think is the […]

Gravdal – Sadist

To Gravdal I would like to say, congratulations on having one of the hardest logos to read in the history of metal. I almost didn’t review this on account of not having a band to name in the review. That said on to the music. Gravdal like to make noisy, caustic black metal in the […]

Dead, The – The Dead

The Dead are a death metal outfit that comes to us from Australia.  This is a very short album with 9 songs in 29 minutes. If you are looking for something new and exciting then skip this one.  To be honest I’m really not into this one at all as it slavishly obeys all of […]

Misery – On Demon Wings

Misery comes to me by way of Australia and it’s not half bad. They tread upon well-worn ground in the vein of Obituary and Morbid Angel especially with the guitar as there are plenty of leads borrowed from Trevor Peres and half the solos smack of Azagthoth. The tempo is mostly slow and bruising which […]

Torche – Meanderthal

The strangeness that is Torche has returned to my speakers once again and I could not be happier. This album is in and out like the wind with thirteen songs in thirty-six minutes. They have often been described as a stoner-metal equivalent to The Foo Fighters and I don’t think that’s an off base comparison […]

Demians – Building an Empire

Demians is a one man band from France, Nicholas Chapel being the man behind it. I’m really struggling to come up with the words to describe this album, other than this really reminds me of a post-metal Tool. This is not just because Chapel’s voice reminds me quite a bit of Maynard James Keenan, though […]

Motörhead – Motörizer

I have to be honest; I don’t know why anyone reviews Motorhead albums anymore. If you haven’t been paying attention these guys have been doing roughly the same thing for the past 33 years, namely blowing out everyone’s eardrums and loving it. These guys make Nigel Tufnel look like a weakling because Motorhead clearly goes […]

Batallion, The – Stronghold of Men

Are you tired of the great thrash revival that is going on these days? If you answered yes then I would say avoid this record like the plague. However, if you’re more like me and miss The Crown with a vengeance then this isn’t such a bad thing. Stronghold of Men is probably an unnecessary […]

Ethereal Architect- Dissension

If you enjoy midpaced metal soaking in keyboards then you might as well stop reading this review and go right out and buy this. However I’ll keep going if you want a bit more detail to help you make up your mind. The vocals are of the clean variety and while they sound decent enough […]

Man from the Moon, The – Rocket Attack

This is going to be a hard album for me to review because being a professional demands more than just saying this sounds like bad AC-DC with really weak vocals. Imagine the Snake of the last few Voivod albums during a fit of whining and you have an idea of what I’m dealing with trying […]

Blessed by a Broken Heart – Pedal to the Metal

Every now and then a record comes along that is truly hard to describe to anyone, this is one such album. It is in fact not so much an album as an endurance test. This is something you listen to when you want to drive yourself over the edge in a bad way. I do […]

Malpractice -Triangular

I’m probably the wrong person to be reviewing a prog album as for the most part the entire genre bores me. However I will try my best to explain where they lay in the progscape. My guess is that these guys would be right in the middle to be honest. They are accomplished musicians however […]

Atrox – Binocular

Atrox has reminded me of one of the central tenets of my existence on this album, specifically the one about murdering anyone who thinks techno and metal are a good combination. This is very clean industrial-nu-metal without a hint of malice to it anywhere, even the Planet of the Apes sample. The drumming is the […]

40 Below Summer – Sideshow Freaks (Reissue)

Some people need to get more current with information technology, because this is how records like this happen. No one got the memo that Nu-metal was found dead in an alley with its Korn shirt torn to pieces, raped, stabbed, raped again and set on fire by a horde of people with good taste. This […]

Anew Revolution – Rise

Let me start off by saying that this is the most misleading band name of all time. Why do I say this? There is nothing revolutionary about this album other than the fact that it’s a few years too late. Metalcore is the new trend, not numetal. Lateness offends me, at least when it results […]

Grave – Dominion VIII

Grave have been re-animated for about six years now and this is the fourth album they’ve released in that time. Unlike Unleashed Grave have hung a bit closer to their original style.  This is fast, dirty, old-school Stockholm death metal in the vein of early Entombed, Dismember etc. This is the one failing this album […]

Aborted – Strychnine.213

Well for those of you hoping for a return to Engineering the Dead, there’s always next album. To be honest I liked the direction they were going in from Goremageddon on as I tend to prefer melodic death more to the bloodsoaked gore of their early albums. I’ve just never been that into gore for […]

Cult of Luna – Eternal Kingdom

Like many a listener I discovered Cult of Luna in 2002 when I heard their masterpiece, The Beyond. However I lost track of them after that as I was bored by Salvation and don’t even recall Somewhere Along the Highway.  I decided to give them another chance though as I loved The Beyond so much. […]

Belphegor – Bondage Goat Zombie (2nd review)

The kings of Austrian BDSMetal are back for yet another go. Having seen them live and enjoyed their last few albums I can say this without fear. They are getting progressively more insane by the moment, and we the listener benefit more than we can ever know. They are somehow getting more melodic and more […]

Opeth – Watershed (2nd review)

After a three year absence Opeth return to us and somehow they manage to get even more bizarre yet again. I’m not going to compare this to older Opeth as I am a latecomer to the Opeth phenomenon myself. I only started a bit before Blackwater Park, thanks to a friend of mine who could […]

Tiamat – Amanethes

Tiamat have returned for the first time since 2003’s Prey, and not a moment to soon for me. The long hiatus has brought some change to the band, this is for sure. While they are nowhere near their Astral Sleep days Amanethes is their most aggressive album in ages. There is plenty of the goth […]