Geist‘s 2009 album Galeere was and still is one of my very favorite albums of that year and was a darn near perfect black metal album. But then I never heard anything from the band for the next, almost 4 years. Well it turns out that the band was having some issues with a lawsuit […]
Swiss act Eluveitie has been in my music collection since late 2009 when I got the bands watershed second effort, Slania. In 2010, when the band posted the music video for their (at the time) brand new song, “Thousandfold”, I immediately went to Nuclear Blast and pre-ordered Everything Remains (as it Never Was). That statement […]
This year-old Chicago outfit is going out this fall on Obituary’s Carnival of Death tour, which is packed with old-school death (the reformed Broken Hope, plus Jungle Rot), and technical death (Decrepit Birth). Yet the press notes described Encrust as similar to Mastodon, Clutch or Kvelertak, so that seemed an odd addition to the bill. Then I sampled the first track, “Predatory Skin,” and […]
Once again, Halo of Flies Records ensures that I keep a record player in my possession by releasing an impressive 2 track split 12″ from California sludge doom act Amarok and Polish doom band Enth. Both bands are new to me, but I’ll be certainly looking out for releases from both in the future. I’ll […]
Entering he goregrind arena is the up and coming UK-based Engorgement, a group of mates who play a rather rudimentary style of gore-soaked and blood-splattered grindcore. Clocking in at a hair past 22 minutes, the seven songs on Excruciating Intestinal Lacerations are what you’d expect from a band from this sub genre of metal, […]
This is the third full-length from St Petersburg’s Epitimia, a band listed as ambient black metal on the Metal Archives. I haven’t heard their previous releases, so I have to assume that’s correct, but on Faces of Insanity, their sound is more like a mix of the lush, melodic death/doom of Swedish and Finnish acts […]
Milwaukee hardcore/crust band Enabler have said about their new full length – the world is fucked, and this is the soundtrack to its demise. Based on their lyrical themes it’s a pretty accurate description, albeit a bold one. With bleak artwork and song titles such as “Fuck Today” and “Save Yourself”, you can tell these […]
I had no idea what to expect from the debut from Ireland’s Eternal Helcaraxe. The cover and logo hinted at something Viking or Pagan, the moniker just reminded me of US death metal act Helcaraxe, and the album title was just ‘meh’. And they were from Ireland- with a few exceptions (namely Cruachan, Waylander, Primordial […]
I’ve been struggling with this review for several weeks now. On one hand I feel its typically strong Dark Descent release that adds another quality act and release to their excellent roster. But on the other hand, it’s a strange record that struggles with influences, identity and consistency. Notably featuring members of Belgian black metal […]
Those familiar with the work of Italian hard rock act Wicked Minds will already know guitarist Lucio Calegari and his penchant for vintage psychedelia. For those- like myself- who have gone into listening to Calegari’s Electric Swan without that precedent, it’s enough to know that this is a band fueled with experience and a passion […]
Something just crept up out of one of the bogs in balmy Alabama and it’s a hideous monster on the prowl to maim and sever anything in its path. That monster is Ectovoid, a new band more or less formed out of the ashes of Bloated Carcass. Cheesy hyperbole aside, the debut album from Ectovoid […]
Fans of the slightly more brutal style of traditional death metal will surely gobble this one up and praise it for all its blood-soaked, gory glory. Excruciating Existence, the debut full-length album from Brazil’s Escarnium, is everything a fan of this genre of metal loves: it’s guttural, has crunching guitars, it’s straightforward, without frills, without […]
It’s been awhile since I’ve had anyone satisfy my yen for Dimmu Borgir-style symphonic black metal. For awhile, and mostly in the late ’90s, it seemed to be everywhere: Old Man’s Child of course, but also Mactatus, Mystic Circle, Stormlord, Morgul, Anorexia Nervosa, Thyrane, Carach Angren, Ninnuam, and so on. And although most of those […]
The debut album Vitriol from the Italian band Evenoire is an interesting beast. They are firmly rooted in the goth and symphonic sub-genres of metal along with some tentative outgrowth into folk territory. Yet, for the goth and symphonic elements being so dominating, I feel that it is of their most uninspired moments. Vitriol is […]
American Death Thrash is the perfect title for this 10 song split between Oklahoma’s Sacrificial Slaughter and California’s Enfuneration. 10 tracks, 5 from each of good ol’ fashioned American metal, with Sacrificial Slaughter firmly gripping the thrash element and Enfuneration being more of the death metal side. Sacrificial Slaughter are the more veteran act with […]
Do you hate your life? Are you on the verge of a big break-up? Or do you just plain wish everyone was dead? If you said yes to any of these then your ears should not be treated to this record for fear of suicide or mass murder. Well actually fuck it listen to it […]
When an album cover depicts four long haired zombies devouring the flesh of the dead from the grave, I expect it to be a very unrelenting death metal album. Dismemberment, mutilation, disembowelment and any other descriptor for human evisceration are what I expect to drive the music and lyrics. Exhumed delivers the splattered gore on […]
Here’s an interesting release from the label behind the recent and solid Ov Hollowness CD, Hypnotic Dirge Records, so you can expect something…well… hypnotic and dirge-y. And in the case of Ekove Efrits, it’s a one man black metal act from Iran, helmed by Count De Efrit. I use the term black metal very loosely here, […]
So I reviewed the demo compilation by this New York tech metal act a couple of years ago and was rather impressed, especially by the shredding abilities of guitarists Nick Llerandi and Billy Anderson who added some very nice sweeps and solos to the semi deathcore/tech death metal/metal core stylings. However, my only real gripe […]
Portugal’s Major Label Industries is hardly prolific with their releases, but when they release something it’s usually something creative or unique like Crushing Sun, The Firstborn or Before the Rain. However, with the release of E.A.K‘s second effort, the label appears to have succumbed to releasing an underwhelming home grown effort that does not match the […]
I honestly don’t know where to start here. I have vague recollections of Ebonylake from the late ’90s due to them being British and residing on Cacophonous Records, but never actually heard their sole 1999 release, On the Even of the Grimly Inventive. So when I got this CD from new French label–this is only […]
Here’s the debut full-length from Louisiana’s Excommunicated, the new band formed by Chad Kelly of Catholicon (and UW Records founder). He’s joined by two cohorts from Suture and Despondency (Jonathan Joubert and Jason McIntyre respectively). The end result is a varied, enjoyable death/thrash record with an expected Southern-hue that deals with the extremely bloody and […]
This takes me back to the good ol’ days in the 90s when Relapse Records was also Release Entertainment and put out albums by cold industrialists like Dead World and Malformed Earthborn. Harsh, bludgeoning and mechanistic, Eyeswithoutaface’s Monotoneoteny is a raging piece of industrial sludge. It’s heavy and it’s abrasive, even as it is quiet […]
Listen, (for once) I’m just going to get right to it. If you Like Trap Them or some of today’s noisy discordant bands like Animosity, Gaza, Harlots and such, just go ahead and grab this release, a collection of the bands first two releases, Eden Sank to Grief and War Begins With You. Milwaukee’s Enabler […]
If you are the kind of a person that thought the 2011 releases by the likes of Ana Kefr or Unexpect were just too much, too chaotic and too avant garde, just go ahead and leave now. Go on! You’ll be doing yourself a favor. On the other hand, if you thrive on those sort of […]