Listen, I’ve been excited about a fair number of reunions and comebacks over the years: Gorefest, Carcass, Disillusion, At The Gates, and recent ones like …And Oceans and Naglfar. But I have to admit, after a 17 year wait, news of the return of Tennessee’s Epoch of Unlight had me more thrilled than all of […]
I grabbed this promo to review as I dug the 2020 debut from Germany’s Eisenkult, …gedenken wir der finsternis back in 2020 ( though I somehow completely missed last year’s Von Himmel, Hoch Herab) as it was a super melodic, medieval black metal release, and I love that shit. So it appears somewhere between the […]
Though not quite the tech-death onslaught that 2021 was, 2022 has still had some stellar releases from the likes of Aethereus, Inanimate Existence and GreyLotus. And while GreyLotus’ Dawnfall might be my top contender right now, Exocrine’s fifth album is certainly right up there as well. France’s Exocrine got on my radar with 2020s Maelstrom, […]
Thronehammer’s vocalist Kat Shevil Gillham sings and drums on the debut EP, from UK’s Enshroudment. I’m really an old school doom death fan. I do enjoy new bands in this genre but bands like Morgion, Anathema, Paradise Lost, Dream Death– all their earliest releases, as well as My Dying Bride, all hold a special place in my heart. This 3 song […]
I don’t think there is any doubt that the first three albums from Entrails, 2010s Tales From the Morgue, 20011s The Tomb Awaits, and possibly the band’s 2013 Metal Blade debut, Raging Death are the pinnacle of the Swedish death metal revival. However, subsequent albums Obliteration, World Inferno and Rise of the Reaper didn’t quite […]
Finally; my longtime friend in stoolism and brutality Tim King returns to death metal. Tim played bass and sang with the Chicago 90s brutal/tech death band Oppressor and we became fast friends in the 90’s playing shows together. I remember one Internal Bleeding show with them and Symphony of Grief was like at a bowling alley or some shit. We […]
I reviewed Eldritch Horror‘s 2015 long awaited debut album Untouched by the Sun here 7 years ago. Time flies. And what a debut that was. Harnessing old school death metal calling to mind the 80’s and not surprising since they’d been underground monsters since yet 80’s. Finally seeing the band live a few years after […]
Color me impressed. Finnish death metal troupe Enragement and their third full-length album, Atrocities, came totally out of left field and left me battered, bruised, bleeding, and ultimately begging for more. Seriously friends, this is some wonderful death metal that really does capture the majority of how the band themselves describe their sound and approach, […]
I’ve had a Power Trip sized hole in my heart since the untimely passing of Riley Gale. Last year’s Spiritworld helped fill it temporarily (giggity), but not permanently. What I didn’t anticipate was an album on Unique Leader, the undisputed kings of deathcore, staking a claim. So, here comes Extinction AD. The title track is […]
Brian Eckermann is a prolific solo artist from San Antonio, Texas who has also served in other local obscure Texas bands like Scars of the Flesh, Winters Plague, and Wings of Abaddon. Plague Bringers is his eighth solo album and a direct follow-up to 2018s Winters Plague (The Final Eclipse), telling the story of an […]
Eternity’s End contains Christian Munzner, Hannes Grossman, and Linus Klausenitzer in its ranks. Before assuming this is a killer technical death metal band, let me inform you that it’s not. They are, however, described as “technical power metal,” so take that for what it is. Most power metal bands have a tech aspect with their […]
Exodus’ 11th proper full-length album, Persona Non Grata, finally sees the light. The band opting to delay it twice due to Covid, as well as drummer Tom Hunting’s cancer diagnosis and treatment, so the release could be closer to when the band could begin playing live shows again. Time really flies and their last scorching […]
There are quite a few things I wish I could go back and change about last year. I’m sure most of us feel the same way considering what a shitball year it was, and still continues to be in a lot of ways. Though one of the simplest things I would change would be regulating […]
GOD DAMN. So, four albums in, most people familiar with the modern Metallic Hardcore scene probably need no introduction to the UK’s Employed to Serve. The explosive voice of Justine Jones along with her compatriot bruisers have made quite an impact in a world of heavy hitters the likes of Knocked Loose, Code Orange and […]
For a little while now, we’ve found ourselves in a new golden era of Thrash, and being that it was pretty much my gateway drug into the world of metal, I couldn’t be more thrilled that thrash itself has expanded and become home to such a wide-reaching spectrum of bands and sounds. From the dizzying, […]
Germany’s Empyrium have been around for close to 30 years, with a hiatus in the 00’s. I’d always seen the band name, but always stayed away from them because of not quite grasping the folk metal genre, until relatively recently. Their prior releases are a mixed bag containing a variety of sounds, vocals and instruments. […]
I rather enjoyed the 2017 debut, Flesh Hammer Prophecy, from this German Dismember-loving band. However, I somehow completely missed the 2019 follow-up, The Harvest, (which has since been rectified) where the band made the jump from FDA Records to Metal Blade, much like Entrails, and have now unleashed album number 3. From the opening strains of […]
These are the kinds of reviews that are only as hard as you want to make them. Here you’ve got a band celebrating its 25th year of making music with brand new material, and over that time they’ve never really missed a step – becoming true legends and pioneers of epic, bombastic Viking metal. Sure, […]
[A meeting at the Extreme Metal Research & Development Labs, Level 5, The Moon] “Krallice goes Disgorge (US)”…………. “That’s it?” “That’s the pitch.” “Isn’t that just Gorguts? They share a member” “…No… Gentlemen, women, and non-human friends present, if you’ll fit your VR headsets on, I’ll explain this incredible breakthrough in today’s presentation. Gorguts recent […]
Anyone who really knows me, knows I like it fast, raw, dirty and just this side of sadistic… What? No, get your fucking head out of the gutter ya dork. No, I’m not talking about my relations with your mom (heh heh), I’m talking of course of Japan’s young bringers of Blackened Speed/Thrash Evil, and […]
It’s always fun reading through the greetings that bands, promoters and labels write when sending out promotional materials. There’s a lot of “ETERNAL HAILS!” and “GREETINGS!” and “Dear media partners,” followed by some description like “born from the feral wastelands of Poland…” or superlative tropes like “the metal underground’s best kept secret…” yadda yadda yadda. […]
‘Tis the year 2020 – and the world, more than ever, needs a hero. From the depths of despair, uncertainty and great tyranny, rises a champion. An unflinching, uncompromising force of great power. An iron-willed warrior spurred on by mighty battle hymns of honor and glory, marching boldly into a sadistic hellscape without the burden […]
This is a nice little ditty of a release with Matt Harvey leading the way in both bands. For the Exhumed side it’s 3 songs and 2 for the Gruesome side – “The Gruesome Twosome”…I couldn’t resist. 5 songs in about 20 minutes and I have gone through this split multiple times and it’s a […]
At this point, Enslaved can do pretty much whatever they want and need no introduction. If you don’t subscribe to that theory, I will fight you. Naked (I do all of my fighting in the nude exclusively). They’re no longer what one would necessarily consider black metal, although they have those influences creep up. At […]
WARNING!!!*** This review is being presented to you in extremely late fashion, mainly due to the world right now being crazy and my sorry ass being lazy…In fact, you may have already heard and formed opinions on this four-way split, yet I encourage you to read on as your opinions are probably wrong, seeing that […]