I kinda feel like I’m getting punked here at this point. Listen, I’m not naive. I didn’t come into Borderlands thinking that, just because the Under the Red Cloud/Queen of Time/Halo trilogy of album was wrapped up, that this new Amorphis record was suddenly gonna sound VASTLY different. The band has more or less been sticking to their distinct formula […]
The world, simply, is a brutal place. There’s no shortage of forces at play working day in and day out to make what brief time we have on this rock more trying and difficult than, all too often, seems entirely necessary, and as I continue to get older and my body continues to find new […]
Listen, I strive to be as objective as possible when writing reviews, providing an unbiased opinion where I can to guide you, good reader, in the right direction and help you spend your hard-earned money wisely. But if you have read my reviews before, you know I am one: A huge fan of the blackened/symphonic […]
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 […]
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 […]
After a few albums of top-tier deathcore, Signs of the Swarm earned their spot as one of the genre’s better bands, with 2021’s Absolvere being their very peak in my humble opinion. But on 2023’s Amongst the Low and the Empty, along with a jump from Unique Leader to Century Media, came a slight development. While […]
I cannot believe it’s been 23 years since Relapse released the discography of Ohio’s brutal goregrind band – Hemdale. As it is called once again here, Rad Jackson took all the complete works of the band and released a beautiful reissue. Christ, I remember playing a show with these fellas, and there are a bunch […]
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 […]
Deliquesce (to liquefy during decomposition), is an Australian brutal/tech death project from Disentomb’s Adrian Cappelletti. He’s joined by vocalist James Cooper (ex-Incarnate), bassist Armando Wall and American session drummer Lyle Cooper (Mithridatum, Humanity Is A Cancer). And it’s a bit different from the hulking, brutal death metal of Disentomb, as Deliquesce is even more technical […]
What the hell am I listening to and why do I love this?? Our acclaimed site owner Erik “The Brave” Thomas did a bang up review of Impureza’s second album, La caída de Tonatiuh, in 2017 and it made his year end list as well. I overlooked the band, there are just too many bands […]
Thaumaturgic Veil, the fourth full-length from Milwaukee’s Viogression, came out of nowhere. It could be that the band has no label, and maybe that is why? Their last album, 3rd Stage of Decay, was a damn good album, and this album has a very striking and cool AF album cover. Brian DeNeffe, vocals, is the […]
When calculating all of Sodom’s albums, The Arsonist, comes in at album #18, even with their covers albums, etc.. The long-running Teutonic German thrash metal band has had some clunkers along the way; however, Genesis XIX, from 2020, their last original full-length, showcased the band on fire ,especially with incorporating blast beats and showing a […]
Re-recordings are a bit of an issue for me. On one side, sometimes replacing a bad production is a necessity; sometimes it’s not really warranted. And sometimes, a classic just needs a fresh lick of paint. There’s a little of all of the above going on here as Mirai Kawashima has decided to completely re-record […]
Can someone explain to me how Shadow of Intent is unsigned? Especially considering the absolute proliferation of the symphonic/blackened deathcore genre of late? Are the band members complete dicks? Are they independently wealthy? Do they hate labels? Imperium Delirium is the band’s 5th self-released effort, their third after dropping the Halo video game-inspired themes from […]
Judging art is, by it’s very nature, a subjective endeavor. Anyone who says they can look at any work, no matter the medium, on a purely objective basis is either A) a liar, or B) someone you probably don’t wanna find yourself stuck in a conversation with at a dinner party. Art should not be […]
Canada’s most extreme metal band, Cryptopsy returns with their 9th full-length album, An Insatiable Violence. I have been a fan since the very early days. When I joined Internal Bleeding in 1994, Cryptopsy were just gaining steam, and we played a string of shows together with them in Canada and some fests here in the […]
Uhhhhhhhhh yeah so look, I can’t really know what it’s like to write and release albums for the same band for 30+ years like Jonas Renske and Anders Nystrom of Katatonia have. Sure, the pair have taken the band on a number of artistic and stylistic twists and turns along the way to keep things […]
Never question my commitment to metal. I wrote this review while sitting at my hotel desk while on vacation. Sure, the weather was awful, but I was at Maryland Death Fest, babe. And while my right wrist was annoyingly adorned with all the wristbands one could imagine, I wanted to make sure I conveyed the […]
I should not like Sleep Token.. Thanks to my bastid friend, Graham (Deepsend Records), who recently sent me this band to check out as he had recently started to like this band. He actually told me, “Frank, you’re probably not going to like this”. Not only did I love this new album, Even In Arcadia […]
After reforming after 18 years in 2020 and releasing one of the best reunion albums of recent memory with Cosmic World Mother, Finland’s enigmatic and genre-shifting…And Oceans wasted little time in releasing the follow-up, As In Gardens, So In Tombs, a mere 2 years later. And as I said in my review of As In […]
Ghost Bath hath returned with Rose Thorn Necklace, which is my second favorite type. They went hard this time on those DSBM vocals, as the torture, not quite Silencer-level shrieks, can be heard throughout the first real track, “Rose Thorn Necklace.” What stands out immediately is the production, highlighting the guitars, front and center. It’s […]
Personally, I feel like we are in a new golden era of metalcore/deathcore/death metal female vocalists. Sure, the path was forged by the likes of Dawn Crosby (Fear of God), Karen Crisis (Crisis), Angela Gossow (Arch Enemy), Krista Curry (Landmine Marathon), Laura Nichol and Grace Perry (Light This City), Maria Kolokouri (Astarte), Courtney LaPlante (Iwrestledabearonce […]
My fall down the Tech-Death rabbit hole continues. It’s been a wild ride, and it seems to have no end because another killer band has come across my radar. They are called Changeling, and this is a new project from Tom “Fountainhead” Geldschläger. Most recently he wrote “Weltseelee”, the 15-minute epic that he composed for […]
UK’s underrated Cancer return with their seventh full-length album, Inverted World. I saw Cancer on their US tour in 1991 in support of their second album, Death Shall Rise, which is still their best album, and with James Murphy on guitar nonetheless. After their third album, The Sins of Mankind, in 1993, the band, as […]
It took 6 years, but we finally have a new ADE album, their 5th, titled Supplicium (‘Punishment’) on a new label, Time To Kill records, and with yet another new lineup. Entering the fray is Hideous Divinity Drummer Edoardo Di Santo (as ‘Atticvs’ here), and Eyeconoclast bassist Gabriele Vellucci. What hasn’t changed is that ADE […]