Before starting this review, I was listening to/reviewing the reissue of Winter’s 1990 masterpiece Into Darkness. Whether directly or not, I can tell they had an impact on Lantern and their new album Dimensions. I bought into the hype of Lantern’s previously release, but it overall left me with a cold feeling. Not that cold, […]
The promo for this new act got my attention because it is black metal on Purity Through Fire, and they have been killing it in that arena in 2020 with the likes of Mavorim, Kryptamok , SAD, Slagmark and Noidva. Also, Eisenkult features members of Mavorim as well as Totenwache and Meuchelmord, bands I am […]
Through every metal fad I’ve seen rise and fall over the years, I don’t think any swept me up so thoroughly in its current than the explosion of Folk Metal in the early/mid 2000’s. The mighty, but refreshingly upbeat and peppy sounds of bands like Finntroll and Turisas wormed their way into my ears and, […]
I’ve been feeling a bit… contemplative, lately. Join the club, right? We’re all finding ourselves in a world that just sorta… isn’t the one we knew it to be. And all this time in quarantine has given everyone time to really think about their lives. Are you happy with the way that it’s going? Are […]
Lets get one thing out of the way first, I’m not Engutturalment Cephaloslamectomy over and over in this review, from now on its EC, get over it. Second thing that I should address is that Indiana’s EC, while a Slam band of the slammiest order, it’s immediate from opener “Worthless Intro You Will Skip”, that […]
What a perfect album name and title for the current global isolation: Exulansis; The tendency to give up trying to talk about an experience because people are unable to relate to it. Sequestered: To keep a person or a group of people away from other people. Sympathy ; feelings of pity and sorrow for someone […]
Ohio’s Embalmer continues to be one of my top bands in all of death metal and with them recording their new album, for a 2020 release, I felt it befitting to review their 2016 release, Emanations from the Crypt which recently was spit-shined, polished and vomited out with not only a remastering of the sound […]
Sometimes I get in the mood for some good old fashioned, no frills, second wave black metal, and occasionally a release comes along that fills that void perfectly. Earlier this year it was Germany’s Darkened Nocturne Slaughtercult and their album, Mardom, and here in the fall/winter as the nights grow longer and darker, the fittingly […]
Sweet Texas watermelon! Has it been two years already? Wow…it really doesn’t seem like a couple of years have passed since Exhumed released their fan and critic praised Death Revenge, but here I am blasting my eardrums as well as my face, clean into oblivion with the aural onslaught that is Horror, Exhumed‘s seventh full-length […]
Despite being the arguable top act in the Swedish death metal revival since 2010s Tales From the Morgue, I had some reservations about the band’s sixth album. Mostly due to yet another line up change surrounding founder Jimmy Lundqvist, this one involving the addition of Markus Svensson on guitars but mainly, Penki Samuelsson moving to […]
Do you like early Asphyx? Do You like early, Drunen led, Consuming Impulse Era Pestilence? Then the always reliable FDA Records has a release for you, the full length debut from German death metal act Evoked, and it’s a scorcher of an album, despite its clear influences. Culling heavily from The Rack as well as […]
Oh Dear. I saw the writing on the wall for Equilibrium’s downfall with 2016s Armageddon, and its epically bad lead single “Born to be Epic”). But I didn’t see the next album being such a complete and total disaster that completely alienates the band’s fan base. After 4 albums that arguably stand among the very […]
Lots of long overdue comeback albums this year: Possessed, Sacred Reich, Nocturnus and add Exhorder to that growing list too. Longtime original members from the first 2 classic albums Slaughter in the Vatican from 1990 and The Law in 1992, Kyle Thomas-vocals and Vinnie LaBella-guitar return to the fold to resurrect this once great, but […]
Ohio’s Embalmer are one of the longest running active death metal bands out there today. Like all death metal bands that have been around for 20+ years there have been line-up changes along the way. I’ve been an Embalmer fan since 1993 and have not looked back. Throughout the years they have put out 2 […]
It’s been 6 years since New Jersey’s Embludgeonment released their brutal debut album, Infinite Regress. Now after the wait their follow-up, Barn Burner sees its release on the excellent Comatose Music label. How about let’s bring in John Hartman from Mortal Decay to add that extra bit of brutal spice. BAM!!! 9 songs in 33 […]
Bear with me me here…….. back in 1992, whilst in college, I read in Pitch Weekly ( a free, alternative Kansas City paper) , that Entombed were playing at a local VFW. Of course, I was going, so that night, I loaded up up beers and other substances and headed out with a friend. Well, […]
When stacked against the barren wasteland of the 2018 thrash metal scene, comparatively, 2019 is off to a much stronger start. The likes of Critical Defiance, Inculter and Exumer have dropped solid albums thus far. And now, up and coming Detroit band Euphoria Ω return with the follow-up to their impressive 2016 debut, Operation: Genesis. […]
The definition of equipoise is basically ‘a balance of purposes or interests’, and while there is certainly a balance of interests in this tech death supergroup…..nay mega group, the balance of purpose is a little left behind. I’m not familiar with Nick Padovani and his other primary group Virulent Depravity, but he has enough sway […]
Absolutely sick little sludgy, abrasive split release here from a pair of bands that feature some under the radar heavy rock vets from both sides of the pond. A good split EP should introduce you to two great bands that you might not know a whole helluva a lot about but after a few plays […]
Lavadome isn’t the most production label out there, but when they do release something, its usually pretty darn top notch (i.e. Epoch, Zealotry, Destroying Divinity, Heaving Earth, Chaos Inception). And that continues with the third full length album from Australia’s Eskhaton, Omegalitheos, a splendidly and typically murky and muddy delivery of Australian death metal chaos. In […]
Ain’t that a shame?… No, I’m not referencing the legendary rock and roll badass, Fats Domino. The shame that I refer to is the fact that while the bigger metal labels, i.e. Metal Blade, Century Media, Nuclear Blast, and Relapse, continue to push a lot of the same bands on us, the listening/buying metal fans, […]
Excommunicated have been around for 8 years and in that time, released a comp in 2011 and their debut full-length in 2011 Skeleton Key. After quite some time Chad Kelly said F-this, I cannot continue to keep eating po-boys all the time, in Louisiana, let’s put something out. Putting down the huge sandwiches, Chad picked […]
Bordeaux France’s Exocrine waste no time in laying down some quite nutty technical death metal with their third full length release Molten Giant. “Scorched Human Society” opens with a slight intro into some incredibly clean scalar runs. These guys do an excellent job of breaking up the technical section with groove laden bridge section that […]
Wisconsin’s Emblazoned released their debut album, in 2014, Eucharistiae Sacramentum and it was outstanding. Even topping their 2013 ep, The Living Magisterium. They return with their second full-length, Catharsis. Emblazoned have always had a black metal edge to the death metal sound and the black metal moments definitely are taking center stage with Catharsis. […]
From the opening mid range chords of the introductory “Into the Fire” with strains of that classic Phantasm/”Left Hand Path” riff, you know exactly what you are getting from the debut of Germany’s Endseeker: Classic, Swedish styled death metal. And much like recent releases from label mates Lifeless and Blood of Seklusion, it delivers the goods, […]