Celebrate the return of fall with some metal and merch from Victory Records! Symphonic death metallers ERIMHA recently released their album Reign Through Immortality, and for those that like Dimmu Borgir and other bombastic, symphonic black/death metal, Erimha is a must listen and Victory Records wants 3 lucky TeethoftheDivine readers to get in on the action with a huge Erimha prize package and an added bonus prize!!!!

Helsinki, Finland was a busy place on the last weekend of June 2013. Not only were there three, four or five festivals going in and around the city, but the streets were full of gay pride as well. For whatever reason, Tuska Open Air Metal Festival’s visitor count has been on the decline since the relocation from the Kaisaniemi park to the industrial zone — not that the other events around the town helped, quite possibly snatching a few casual listeners with acts like Green Day and Rammstein. However, Teeth of the Divine never abandons those in need, and thus we summoned ourselves to the 16th Tuska Festival where acts like King Diamond, Bolt Thrower and Testament graced the main stage.

Teethofthedivine is thrilled to add an actual, real live musician to its ranks. Hopefully this one will last longer than Ben Hogg (Beaten Back to Pure etc) god love ‘im. Frank was the vocalist on two Internal Bleeding albums (as you will find out below), and brings that experience as well as a ton of contacts in the scene and energy with him for reviews and interviews. Frank currently also writes for allabouttherock.com, but is bringing his background in the industry to our little site. Take a few minutes to meet the latest addition and actual veteran musician to the teethofthedivine. staff.

The fine folks at webzine/label Transcending Obscurity are offering 2 of their releases to 2 lucky readers of Teethofthedivine. That’s right two lucky readers will each receive a copy of Drug Honkey’s disturbing 2012 release ‘Ghost in the Fire’ and the 2010 debut, ‘Impending Hostility’ from Polish war mongering death metalers Preludium.

It’s been a mystery for quite some time as to why Goatwhore isn’t playing in front of sold out crowds in the larger theatres across America. After seeing them five times already in various cities, their shows are usually in smaller bar/club venues with anywhere from 30 to 100 people. And when they’ve been included on massive tours like the one when Celtic Frost reemerged with Monotheist and the one last year with Cannibal Corpse, Between the Buried and Me and countless others, Goatwhore was at the bottom of the bill.

After a year long hiatus, Tampere’s Sauna Open Air festival returned again in 2013 for a weekend that consisted of mainly Northern European acts like Nightwish, Children of Bodom, Opeth, Volbeat and Sabaton — with the only US visitor going by the name of Hatebreed. The festival also saw other changes. Instead of being ushered into a park setting, the party was held in a sports stadium and rather than doing three full days, there were only two. And we were there.

What happens when you discover a new band? You go see them play — that’s what. Noel Holmes discovered Nile and soon found himself at one of their live shows back in March 2013. This is what happened.

We are all about supporting independent, new labels and bands here at Teeth of the Divine. So when fledgling UK label Wretched Decay Records approached us about some reviews and a monster giveaway for all of you dedicated Teethers out there, how could we refuse? Were giving stuff away to not just one, not just two, but three randomly selected winners!

At the end of every calendar year, metal journalists spend months trying to put together the dreaded year end list. It’s a long, stressful and ever-evolving process that keeps us up at night as we order and reorder albums several times, fret over stuff we have too high on the list or stuff that got bumped off the bottom. We try to make the lists as extensive and inclusive as possible, but inevitably, stuff gets missed. Maybe an album was too obscure, got overlooked in the crowd, we didn’t hear it until too late, or simply never made it into our inbox. So some of the staff here decided to give you guys a late Christmas present and let you know about some releases that you need to hear in case you also missed it or like us, simply overlooked it or it just didn’t get coverage here. These are the mulligans that, in hindsight, deserve your attention and probably would have made our staff’s year-end lists if we weren’t so lazy and rushed by a tireless dictator. So rise, brush, floss and repeat as we drill you with our cavities and fillings from 2012:

UPDATE-CONGRATULATIONS TO PALLBEARER, WHO BY A SERIES OF COMPLEX FORMULAS AND CALCULATIONS WON THE TOTD STAFF ALBUM OF THE YEAR WITH ‘SORROW AND EXTINCTION’. ANAAL NATHRAKH’S ‘VANITAS’ TOOK SECOND PLACE, WITH DYING FETUS TAKING THIRD WITH ‘REIGN SUPREME’.

. Another year, another winter spent threatening physical violence upon the staff here to get their year-end picks in. Now that the dust has settled, here are the results – the definitive list of critical picks of 2012’s best and worst releases. It’s all here: top albums, top EPs, top songs, biggest letdowns and the woulda shoulda coulda’s, as hand-picked by the TOTD staff. Feel free to comment, critique and tell us your own favorites for 2012. Thanks to all you guys for reading our little site in 2012 and here’s to another epic year of metal in 2013. Salut!

Wintersun’s blood-bonded following has been clamoring for a US tour ever since their self-titled debut was released in 2004. 8 years later, our prayers are answered as the controversial album Time I is released alongside a worldwide tour with Eluveitie and Varg. Was it everything we hoped for?

Death metal legends Incantation just released their 9th studio album after a 6 year layoff, Vanquish in Vengeance through Listenable Records. At what an album it is! A crawling monster of doom/death that lays waste to all the pretenders and mimics and two lucky Teeth of the Divine readers can find themselves owning a copy of the album courtesy of the bald—but fine—folks at Clawhammer PR.

Are there any bands out there that still play early era metal? Does the San Francisco Bay Area have a true underground metal scene? Can bearded fans of satanic death metal get along with metalcore scene kids? These burning questions have brought me to Music Ink in San Jose, California, where a group of local bands have taken over a music school to hold the very first Screams of Metal Festival.

A 12-hour metal festival—featuring Autopsy, Absu, Abysmal Dawn, Impaled and Exodus—on a WWII aircraft carrier. How fucking metal is that? Slaughter by the Water 3, the Bay Area’s own metal festival, was held this year aboard the USS Hornet in Alameda, CA. In this epic, exclusive TOTD feature, we sit down with the show’s organizer, then step aboard for a gig report on a venue that could literally destroy all other venues. All horns on deck!

Teeth of the Divine’s battle-worn assault squad is back for the last time to recollect the experiences and ordeals they went through on the last day of Tuska Open Air Metal Festival — held in Helsinki, Finland for the fifteenth time. Sunday provided quite possibly the festival’s brightest highlights with Overkill storming the stage and Huoratron blinding everyone with their over-the-top strobo-lights. This is Sunday and the end of our epic three-part quest to TUSKA OPEN AIR 2012.

Teeth of the Divine’s battle worn assault squad is back to recollect the experiences and ordeals they went through on the second day of Tuska Open Air Metal Festival — held in Helsinki, Finland for the fifteenth time. Saturday not only saw heavy metal’s more empowering side, but its blackest as well. Thus, our report of epic proportions continues with the last day of June 2012. This is Saturday.

The fifteenth Tuska Festival was held for the second time at the Suvilahti-area, only a short distance away from the very center of Finland’s capital, Helsinki. The ever-changing and unpredictable weather saw almost fifty or so bands (including Ministry, Megadeth, Behemoth, Anaal Nathrakh, Sabaton, Trivium and Horna to name a few) play for around 28,000 metalheads during the final days of June (and first day of July) 2012. Teeth of the Divine’s task force was sent to investigate and muster up a report of epic proportions. This is Friday.

Hämeenlinna is a city (with a population of 60k) some 100 kilometres north from Helsinki. A somewhat of a beautiful place during summertime (for example, the national park Aulanko). The city’s name stems from the iconic castle of Häme, built around the beginning of the 14th century. In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, the city was also the home of a long-defunct festival, Giants of Rock, which saw acts such as Dio, Sepultura, Suicidal Tendencies, Helloween, Motörhead, Anthrax, Obituary and countless others play live — some could argue that some of those bands were in their prime at that time. (Check out Sepultura’s gig on YouTube.) But enough with history lessons…

Aside from the bragging rights associated with attending a Swedish metal show, I was genuinely excited to see some “real” metal after spending the last two weeks lavishing in the cheap thrills of Turntable.fm’s Metalcore/Deathcore/Nintendocore room.

Even though it was on a Sunday night, and I was violently hung over and sleep deprived, I packed my camera gear, put on the tightest pair of black jeans I could find, and drove down to DNA Lounge in San Francisco, California, to see an awesome lineup of bands.

Howdy folks! Who in the hell says “howdy” these days? Lame! Or at least not “Rad!” anyway; I’m pretty sure on this one, but be you might want to consult your copy of Hip Teenage Colloquialisms for Dummies just in case.. We’ll begin the proceedings with a couple of books as a way of proving to the world that I have in fact beaten back the disease of illiteracy…or some shit like that.

Yeah, I know, I have not done one of these in a few months. But I’m trying to be particular about what I review here, and my bargain bin hauls tend to come in bunches. I just don’t want to review every 99 cents early 90s Metal Blade or Pulkas CD I find in the used bin.

And this episode of bargain bin reviews is slightly relevant as you will read shortly. I found this CD for 99 cents in the clearance bin at Hastings. The unreadable logo and esoteric title immediately drew me in to a blind purchase, thinking it had to be metal of some sort….and I was right.

And we’re back! Nothing overly zany or wholly inappropriate to say this time around; only that I do enjoy these playlists and I’m always a little amazed with just how much music goes in and out of my ears on a weekly, even daily, basis. Some things never change; and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

“Are you ready for some black metal?,” the guy in line ahead of me growled to his buddy. I didn’t step in to correct them, choosing not to be ‘that guy,’ but technically there was only one black metal band on tonight’s bill: Watain. The rest, all blackish, either by association or subject matter. Devil’s in the details.

The two bald and rather unkempt dudes at Clawhammer PR and Germany’s Apostasy Records have teamed up with teethofthedivine.com to give away 6 Apostasy Records CDs. Two lucky winners will each get 3 Apostasy releases and all you have to to is fill out the form below. It’s that easy.

It’s that time again, isn’t it? How infrequent is infrequent and how absurd is absurd? Have I told you that I’m reading Sammy Hagar’s book and that I waited until it came out on paperback to purchase it? How many more sentences formed as questions can you take? Does it really matter? Aren’t we all dead eventually anyway? Is that even relevant here? What happens next? You take a look at the list below, ok?