Contextually, this album was a challenge for me to write. As a fifteen year old some twenty two years ago I was fortunate enough to Bergen Norway’s Enslaved at Mirage in Minneapolis along with fellow Osmose Productions label mates at the time, Absu. Unfortunately for me Mirage in Minneapolis has not existed for many years […]
Slovenia’s Eruption came into my radar in 2013 when Xtreem Music signed them and remastered and reissued their debut 2009 album, Lifeless Paradise. I was impressed by this thrash band, who looked to be developing a sound that could hang with the big thrash bands. I immediately picked up the second album, Tenses Collide and […]
Running Billie Holiday’s “Gloomy Sunday” through a grinder of screeching, white-washed noise is how Floridian filth merchants Ether get their kicks on opener “Dearest the Shadow,” a hint at the oddball, angular quirks to come. The band’s 2nd LP There is Nothing Left for me here is a craggy, down the mountain plummet of doom-y, […]
Well this is definitely an album I missed out on last year and wish I would have discovered it sooner. In 1995 a band from Quebec called Gorelust released an album called Reign of Lunacy that came out on New World Symphony records. Fast forward twenty two years later and we have Eyexist, a […]
Listen, I’m not much of a ‘crossover’ guy. I appreciated the heydey of DRI, Prong, Crumbsuckers, Ludichrist and recently, Detroit Hellmouth are decent , but for the most part i like my thrash and my puck/hardcore somewhat separate. But, like a professional, I occasionally try to get out of my comfort zone. Sometimes it works […]
After reigniting the Swedish death metal revival with 2 albums of Dark Descent Records, Entrails moved to Metal Blade and released Raging Death and Obliteration, the latter of which saw a line up change as long time guitarist Mathias Nilsson left, replaced with youngster Penki Samuelsson and it showed with a solid but underwhelming effort. Well, World […]
So it appears that some HM Boss pedals have finally found their way all the way down under. They have surfaced all over Europe (Greece, France, Czech Republic, Poland etc) and the USA (Fatalist, Sentient Horror, etc), but now Australia can get in on the mid range action. However, Perth’s Earth Rot are not a […]
It’s been 5 years since Sweden’s Evocation released Illusions of Grandeur in 2012, and frankly I thought the band was done. After transitioning from a pure, mid range, Swedish death metal band akin to their Cemetery/90s roots, to a more melodeath/Amon Amarth-ish styled band the band has returned with only 3 remaining members from Illusions of Grandeur, […]
Has it really been 15 years since Colorado’s Excommunion released Superion? I reviewed the album for digitalmetal, and the review has been lost on the mists of time, but I recall really liking it. The two members (Christbutcher- bass/vocals and less creatively named Kyle Spanswick- guitars/vocals) have since blown up in Nightbringer, releasing 5 fine […]
When Erik asked if anyone wanted to review the new Emmure album no one was chomping at the bit to do the review, except for me. Being a long standing fan of the band, I really wanted to review this. I know how polarizing the band is to many in the metal community, due […]
I love bands that have the energy and passion in their sound but also still tie into the familiar sounds we all know and love. Take Italy’s Ekpyrosis who excel at both. At the onset,after the customary eerie intro, listen to opening song “Profound Death” and you will judge for yourself as well. The intense […]
If anything could be said about Epoch, it would have to be the fact that the band is a bit of a mystery. Being wholly unfamiliar with the group or its sole album Sacrosanct, (originally a digital only release in 2015; now seeing a physical release this year, via Lavadome Productions) I tried to do […]
So Maurizio Iacono and his Kataklysm crew are back with album number 3 of his Roman themed, epic, symphonic death metal project, Ex Deo. And while album number 2, Caligula was better than the debut, Romulus, and album number 3 is similarly incremental in its improvement, I’m still not enamored with a project that I really […]
Featuring Michael Gilpatrick on bass and Chadd Beverlin on drums (both of Ohio solar sludge titans Mockingbird), Enhailer’s debut LP Grisaille is a bad trip through the bad lands full of psychedelic tonalities, dry heaving riffs and shattering rhythmic shifts that break Tectonic plates like teeth. To keep my own personal record straight, Mockingbird didn’t […]
Despite coverage of this long running Polish act’s last two albums right here at TOTD, I have never heard this band’s take on synth laden, progressive doom/death/black metal. While researching and reading the promo materials, I see Opeth name dropped quite a bit, and to some extent there is some Opeth in here with light […]
Back in my early reviewing days, I was all over ‘beauty and the beast’ metal; gloomy goth/doom death metal mixing death metal vocals and angelic female vocals. The likes of Thalarion, The Gathering, Lacuna Coil, To Elysium, Tragodia, Beseech, Draconian, Seventh Moon, The Provenance, Alas and such were my jams. A couple of bands recently […]
When I received this promo, I questioned the need for another Dave Ingram (Benediction, Bolt Thrower, Hail of Bullets), Rogga Johansson (Paganizer, Revolting, Ribspreader, Johansson & Speckmann et al) collaboration, despite my enjoyment of both guys’ previous and current projects, even more so considering they both recently collaborated on two Down Among the Dead Men albums […]
Swedish styled death metal is coming from all over the globe now. And adding to Polish bands playing the style like Ulcer and labelmates Kingdom, is the debut album from Eteritus. I have not heard the band’s previous 2014 EP Tales of Death, but Following the Ancient Path is a solid if unspectacular take on the […]
Germany’s Equilibrium has resided atop the viking/folk metal hill for a while now, with 2005s Turis Fratyr and 2008s Sagas remaining two of the very top albums in the genre. And while Rekreatur was a transitional solid release after a line up shift, the band stormed back with Erdentempel in 2014. So now here with album […]
Tee Pee Records always puts on a helluva duchess and the proverbial mind spread. Hell, I still listen to Titan’s A Raining Sun of Light and Love for You and You and You on an almost weekly basis. Why Relapse never seemed to give Titan’s stellar follow-up Sweet Dreams any big sort of push is […]
Ahh, the death metal explosion of the late ’80’s and early ’90’s…if you were there to experience any of it, then you know it was a magical time for metal music. A time when a new guard was coming up and pushing the old guard aside, whether the old liked/wanted it or not. It was […]
What’s this you say? a female fronted tech death metal/ djenty/modern death metal supergroup featuring former members of Animosity ( a must have from the early 00s deathcore scene), Animals as Leaders (Navene Koperweis) and The Faceless (Evan Brewer)? Well, color me interested…. While certainly The Faceless and Animosity influences ( as well as many modern bands like Textures, Veil of […]
Here is something that is a little out of my wheelhouse, but considering my interest in keyboard drenched metal and the plethora of releases I’ve covered recently with said keyboards, this is an intriguing release that captures my interest here and there. Elvaron hail from France and have 4 prior albums under their belts dating […]
Here is an interesting little 5 song, 30 minute EP from a Canadian black metal band who clearly are influenced by Sear Bliss. I say that because at the front and center of all the PR material for this release is the highly touted use of French Horns which play a major part in all 5 […]
With short and sweet songs Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania quartet Eternal Sleep work up a lardy, greasy metallic chunk n’ chug on their debut EP, The Emptiness Of… There’s a stocking stuffed full of various human appendages and entrails to be found here, making the band’s sound a bit harder to pin down on any one particular […]