You add symphonic keyboards to any kind of metal, and for the most part I’ll dig it. Add them to a blistering tech death/black metal sound and me love you long time. Such is the case with South Carolina’s Enthean, a new -ish trio and their impressive self released debut album. With a tech death backbone […]
Ohio’s grinding death maniacs, Embalmer have been around since the late 80’s. Obviously being around that long the band has had a revolving door of musicians throughout their 25+ years in existence. When I joined Internal Bleeding in ’94, I was introduced to Embalmer and they became one of my fave bands. Rick Fleming’s vocals […]
I find many unjust situations bordering on criminal acts. Here are some examples. The fact that I have been playing the Mega Millions for close to 2 decades and I have only won, maybe 40 bucks over this course. Another one that comes to mind is my damn Dallas Cowboys have only won 2 […]
New to me, Elffor is the long running side project of a Spaniard by the name of Eöl, who also plays keyboardist in Numen and Suffering Dawn. He has been releasing albums since 1998, and this expansive 2 disc compilation from South Korea’s Fallen Angels Productions covers all 6 albums and throws in a couple of […]
OK Mighty Music, THIS is more like it!!!!!!!!!! After a slew of awful rock, Mighty Music has released something that I more expect from the label. Some chunky, beefy European death metal by way of Austria’s Epsilon (formerly known as Side Y)and their second full length album. These guys are new to me, but I like what […]
Euro-Asia (Orwell fans will get the wordplay) piles on the tonal goodness with their latest EP release A View of the Earth. These Floridian netherworld dwellers gravitate between the Empire State Building tall riffage and trance-y space-outs of heavy/pretty greats such as Hum, Shiner, Floor, Swervedriver and Cave In. Not quite crushing enough to be […]
I think most metal/punk folks who have spent time kicking around the underground can agree that splits and compilations are a wholesome part of our musical diet. My collection is full of them, and I have to say that many of them introduced me to multiple badass bands all in one fell swoop. To support […]
For 5 years and three previous albums now, Sweden’s Entrails, reactivated from the 90s has been arguably the forerunner and top band in the Swedish death metal revival. After two killer albums on FDA Rekotz/Dark Descent, they were elevated to the big leagues with 2013s Raging Death, on Metal Blade Records, and didn’t lose a […]
Tucked away in the midst of Dark Descent’s higher profile 2015 releases is this little gem from reformed 90s Netherlands act Eternal Solstice, who released 3 solid albums in the mid 90s. Founder, Ramon Soeterbroek and early member Mischa Hak (also of Sempiternal Deathreign back then) has recruited a couple of young bucks (notably ex Funeral Whore drummer Tim Roeper) […]
So 2015 looks like the year that symphonics/keyboards become the new black and come crashing to the forefront of death metal. They’ve long been around (Agiel, Fleshgod Apocalpyse, etc.), but already this year in 2015 I’ve heard new releases from Sarpanitum, The Project Hate, Arbitrator, Ovid’s Withering, The Monolith Deathcult, Irreversible Mechanism, Scarab, Sonus Mortis and this, the third album […]
Enslaved that has really impressed me over the years has been their ability to craft albums that have a completely identity of their own but can only be albums written by Enslaved. I was first introduced to them with the album Isa. It was actually the title track and it’s music video that caught my […]
Not to be confused with Colorado’s tech death Execration or the many other Execrations, Norway’s Execration are an altogether different beast. Sounding very similar to country mates Obliteration, Execration play a murky, psychedelic and heavily Autopsy influenced style of death metal (also, think a nastier, dirtier version of Morbus Chron) that isn’t a quick, easy listen, but […]
Time To Die is Electric Wizard’s eighth proper full length in a little over two decades. Reading some of the press releases, interviews, and reviews for this album leading up to its release (and afterwards), I was anticipating an album that would be wholly abrasive and pissed off. I misunderstood because this album isn’t so […]
“I see behemoth coming/I see a serpent coming/I see a beast is coming/I see a deadly heat is coming” –”There Is A Serpent Coming” Being as this is the first song to contain vocals on an Earth record since Pentastar: In The Style of Demons, it’s very appropriate and telling. One could use any of […]
I’m not much of a hardcore guy. Hardcore for me was the old DC shit often associated with Dischord Records. I still think Lungfish is a “hardcore” band, or more recently Bullets In, so that should illustrate to you just how damn out of touch I am. Okay, I’m into a few of the early […]
Exodus are an odd creature among the old guard of thrash metal. Having barely avoided the dreaded scourge of the nineties by breaking up after 1992’s Force of Habit (which was middling but not outright offensive), they reappeared in 2001 with the stellar comeback, Tempo of the Damned. That still didn’t stop them from turning […]
Ellorsith’s 1959 possesses a gravitas rarely heard in a band’s first release. Inspired by the Dyatlov Pass Incident of 1959, in which nine ski hikers died mysteriously during a night on the northern Ural Mountains, the music is a fitting representation of the event’s cold and cryptic nature. Opener “Vvedénije” (it sounds spooky until you […]
Milwaukee’s Emblazoned just ripped our heads off last year with their debut Deepsend Records release with The Living Magisterium ep. I enjoyed their blackened death metal brutality that also had plenty of nods to the 90’s death metal movement, which is what the band is heavily influenced by. Now a year later the band have […]
With an band moniker that’s a homage to Gorement and their classic 1994 album, The Ending Quest, you know exactly what Sweden’s Ending Quest is delivering on their debut; HM-2 styled, mid range, old school Swedish death metal goodness. And in a year that has delivered some really top notch examples of the style (Brutally Deceased, Putereaon, […]
So in summation: band forms, band does a couple of demos under Nihilist moniker, band changes name to Entombed, then releases two certifiably classic albums (Left Hand Path, Clandestine). Then release a third divisive album, Wolverine Blues (which has actually grown on me in my older, wiser years). Then things get a bit odd with a […]
Phew. This is ambitious. 2 Cds, almost 2 hours of ambient black metal contained in a very well packaged (Hypnotic Dirge’s best packaging to date) double gatefold digipack. Nicely done indeed, now if only the music was as striking. Despite being around for 5 years and having three other full-length albums under their belt, this […]
After reviewing 2008s Slania, I never really went back to Switzerland’s folk metal act Eluveitie, I have not even heard 2012s Helvetios or 2010s Everything Remains or the band’s acoustic album, Evocation from 2009. I always thought the band was a bit over hyped and were simply Darkest Hour with a Hurdy Gurdy and a violin […]
Sagas, the 2008 second album from Germany’s Equilibrium remains a hall mark of epic folk/Viking metal, but the follow up Rekreatur, fell a tad short and we’ve had to wait four years for a follow up. Granted, last years Waldschrein EP was a nice teaser, if only for the (3 years too late) cover of […]
A couple of years ago I stumbled across a reissue of a lost gem from the classic early 90’s death metal scene. The album in question was Inside the Unreal, the debut full-length and until now sole album from Italy’s Electrocution. Apparently it was well received back in the day but perhaps due to their […]
After years without a full-length release, NOLA’s most famous sludge sons Eyehategod are back with a new, self-titled full-length, and it’s as if they’ve never been away. You would have thought that these miscreants from New Orleans might have mellowed with age (even just slightly), but they still sound as pissed off as ever. Much […]