(((Microwaves))) – Contagion Heuristic

Here’s another off the wall noisy alt rock record from Crucial Blast, similar to Black Elk’s recent self titled effort, and like that effort, is a swing and miss despite the bands Once boasting members of Don Caballero and Zombi (and probably giving readers a rough idea of the band’s sound), Pittsburgh’s (((Microwaves))) is a […]

21st Impact, The – By All Means Necessary/Second to None

First off, I’d like to warn and apologize to Digitalmetal readers about the impending influx of contemporary hardcore/punk reviews about to inundate the site. It is fall after all. Second I’d like to tell Digitalmetal readers about the best of the bunch of this aforementioned contemporary hardcore/punk I’ve received in the mail in the from […]

Killswitch Engage – The End of Heartache

Someone please give Killswitch Engage and All That Remains a hug-they’re having major heart issues. Anyhoo, I don’t know about you guys, but Alive? Or Just Breathing, was kind of my first heavy exposure to metalcore on a grand scale, despite other bands forging the way many years before and my quick souring on the […]

Cephalectomy – Eclipsing the Dawn

Do you miss old Kataklysm? Do you miss the mystical hyper-blasting and over the top lyrical, otherworldly vocalizations of Sylvain Houde? Well, Country mates Cephalectomy are for you dear reader.Nova Scotia’s Cephalectomy have released a superb album that re-creates the Northern hyper-blasting of Sorcery; insanely fast brutal death/grind with surprising amounts of intricate, layered melodies […]

Vltimas – Epic

International supergroup Vltimas released a killer debut in 2019,  Something Wicked Marches In, which I reviewed and gave high praises of their stamp on blackened death metal.  One of the many things going for that debut was how damn catchy it was – I still listen to that sucker!  The same members return with Flo […]

Lord Dying – Clandestine Transcendence

I have seen Portland Oregon’s Lord Dying’s name float around the metal scene for at least a decade now.  Never heard them in my life and they have three prior albums: Summon the Faithless in 2013, Poisoned Altars in 2015, and Mysterium Tremendum in 2019.  Suffice it to say this reviewing bastid now must go […]

Iron Front – Hooked

Our glorious editor, Erik “The Enforcer”, passed along the promo for Iron Front to me, thinking it would be up my alley to review, and he was correct Hailing from Oakland California the band has been around a few years. Their notable releases are the Demo-nic Possession demo from 2020, Flayed Alive EP in 2021, […]

Maul – Desecration and Enchantment EP (Cassette)

Let’s get something out of the way first: Fuck cassettes. I recall a conversation I had with a few metalheads slightly older than myself at a festival when one of the bands “only” had CDs and vinyl available as physical formats. Two young whippersnappers asked them if they had any cassettes, to which they replied; […]

Alchemy of Flesh – By Will Alone

Guitarist/Vocalist Tim Rowland’s Alchemy of Flesh album returns with By Will Alone.   A big change in terms of sound on this record is that he strictly uses six-string guitars tuned to D Standard.   The last album was a bit of a tribute to Morbid Angel, and it was noted that Rowland was trying to use […]

Cannibal Corpse – Chaos Horrific

Can you believe Chaos Horrific is the 16th album from Cannibal Corpse?  Talk about an achievement in death metal.  Seriously if they wanted to break up now who could blame them?  They have accomplished more than enough and have given back to the death metal scene an enormous amount. That said, other than the album […]

Vorder – False Haven

OK so, I guess let’s get the confusing stuff out of the way first, yeah? Vorder is the current iteration of a Swedish Doom/Sludge/Progressive band many of you might have known as V, but with a bit of a new lineup consisting of former Katatonia, In Mourning and Disrupted drummer and current Grand Cadaver drummer Daniel Liljeqvist on, uh, […]

Magick Touch – Cakes & Coffins

Listen, it’s nice when you discover an album, and it just blows you the hell away, right? Be it with originality, technical mastery or creative genius – the kind of album where you get a sense you’re listening to something special, a new benchmark upon which all releases after will be judged. Especially if it’s […]

Overkill – Scorched

I think it’s safe to say the Tri-State Area East Coast thrashers Overkill regained their mojo with 2010’s Ironbound album.  They were also armed with a new label Nuclear Blast Records, where they have remained since.  The four albums which followed were also pretty damn ass-kicking and that trend continues with Scorched, the band’s…wait for […]

Knogjärn – Mera Bedövning

I’m gonna be honest – there’s a lot about Sweden’s Knogjärn that, at first glance, I really wasn’t sure about. I’m the first to admit, I can sometimes be a judgemental shit. I’m working on it. But as I looked at the band, their heavy usage of brass knuckle images led to the sneaking suspicion […]

Invirulant – Indomitable Worldwide Slamdemic

Late last year,  I reviewed the new ep from resurrected brutal slam death metal band Necrambulant.  I mentioned how much I loved their 2013 debut album Infernal Infectious Necro-Ambulatory Pandemic and the new ep A Feast of Festering Flesh is good.  I did feel some of that putrid and filthy sludge that was on the […]

Sarcator – Alkahest

Remember being 17 or 18 years old and thinking you knew everything? And yet, in the same breath, somehow you often found yourself not knowing what the fuck you were doing at all? Equal parts cock-sure confidence and complete naivete. The truth, for most of us, is that when you’re that age, you’re still just […]

Cellblock Autopsy – Fertile Soil of Immorality

Thank you to the SBDC (Slamming Brutal Deathmetal Community) Instagram for this discovery.  Their label and promotion account is regularly posting the newest brutal death metal.  As much as I like the genre a ton of the stuff I see is rather indistinguishable from the next.  Maybe 1 in 50 has either a unique take […]

Intoxicated – Watch You Burn

A couple years back, I had the great pleasure of reviewing Intoxicated’s long-awaited comeback (whether or not you knew it) EP, Walled. I’ll let you go back and re-read that review for the very long, complicated, but VERY interesting back story of the band’s history dating all the way back to 1990, but suffice to […]

Interview With The Project Hate MCMXCIX

Question: name a Swedish death metal band that has been around for over 20 years, and has released 14 consistently good albums in that time span? Chances are you were not thinking of The Project Hate MCMXCIX, the brainchild of one Lord K Phillipson, a gentleman whom I have conserved with over the internet over the years since the third album, Hate, Dominate, Congregate, Eliminate. His supporting cast has changed over the years (though he has been finally locked into a stable group of hired guns for a while now), but one thing remains; the absolutely monstrous albums he and his troupe kicks out.

And what makes it even more impressive is that the last 6 albums have been donation funded, paid for by fans of the project, via ‘donation experiments’ whereby fans can donate money, and upon a certain amount being reached, he commences assembling his musical avengers and recording the album and sends those results digitally to those that donated. There is even a limited CD run if the fans, again want to pay for the whole CD-making process.

Creeping Flesh – …And Then The Bombs Came

“Then a new sound droned into our ears, the sound, deep, all-encompassing, with no notes in it, just a gigantic faraway surge of doom-like sound. It was the heavies, coming on with a terrible slowness in flights of twelve, three flights to a group, stretched out across the sky. I thought it would never end……and […]

Whales Don’t Fly – The Golden Sea

Whales Don’t Fly, eh? Who is going to tell Gojira? Considering I mentioned on my year end list that their latest album was not a masterpiece but was indeed just okay, maybe it should be me. After all, I’m pretty good at breaking bad news. What I’m not good at is finding promos to review. […]

Vorga – Striving Toward Oblivion

Germany’s Vorga burst into the scene about 6 years ago and released an EP, but Striving Toward Oblivion is their debut full length album and showcases a trailblazing style of black metal. Opening this 8 song 45 minute album is “Starless Sky” and what an opening ripper of a lead off song. Massive blasting equipped with […]

Ministry – Moral Hygiene

What can he said about the greatest industrial metal band of all time?  I mean they started out as an alternative band until 1988 when the legendary The Land of Rape and Honey combined metal with industrial to create the benchmark for this style of music. Main man Al Jourgensen is a musical genius. Especially […]

Cathexis – Untethered Abyss

Austin Texas’s Cathexis return with their second full length effort Untethered Abyss.  I have been spinning this album for the last few months and my first impressions of them were a black death band with influences like Immolation and Ulcerate.  They are a bit more varied in terms of groove and riff variety.  The Title […]

Necronemesis – Some Things Should Stay Underground

It’s strange, the little quirks and idiosyncrasies that pull our thoughts and attention toward one thing or another. Case in point, this very review. I straight up only chose this album for review because of the band’s name; Necronemesis. For whatever the reason I have always had an affinity for the word nemesis, a certain […]