Archive for the ‘Reviews › H’ Category

I remember seeing a couple of full page ads for this release in Metal Maniacs, and thinking there’s no way this can be any good- Viking metal from Ohio? But boy was I wrong. Sharing a lot of elements with Oakhelm, Hammer Horde are not only a Viking metal band from the least Viking place […]

I’m still kind of on the fence with this release. On one hand, it’s nice to see some thrash done by dudes who don’t look 16 years old, with short dyed black hair and eye liner. But on the other hand, the kids almost do it better. That statement certainly won’t make me any friends. […]

Hailing from Michigan (Detroit), Hellmouth are a snarling, gnarly crossover band that meld, punk, thrash and hardcore into a mix that’s a refreshing change from the usual Ferret fare though it lacks real staying power, once the initial burst of feral energy wears off. Citing influences like Celtic Frost, Black Flag, Venom, Black Sabbath and […]

Like Satyricon and Thorns? Then you’re bound to like this Polish act, who combine their mechanized brand of black metal with a variety of spacey effects and add-ons. Maniacal, undulating saxophones, distorted vocal samples and early 80s synth effects are thrown into the black metal mix on “Axis of Diagram.” Some carnivalesque, Arcturus-style menace and […]

Hope for the Dying is the first release on the recently re-launched Strike First Records (a subsidiary of Facedown Records that released records by the likes of War of Ages, Sinai Beach, Inked In Blood, Jesus Wept and Bloodlined Calligraphy), and though its basically a repackaged version of the bands demo from earlier in 2008, […]

Placed in the Dark Power Metal category, Swedish metallers Her Whisper are indeed far from calling up any associations with bright colors of sonic palette. Instead, their primary hues are gray, black and dark blue, just like the colors of the artwork on the cover of their sophomore release The Great Unifier. Probably this feel […]

For well over 20 years now, Hirax has been feeding its rabid cult following heaping, fiery helpings of tried and true Thrash Metal. Now the Hirax live experience has been documented for the rest of the world to see with Thrash And Destroy, a live DVD/CD weighed down with more of the Metal you crave. […]

With as weak a name as Harmony, it might be easy to immediately dismiss these Christian Power Metallers but this could be a mistake as their music more than makes up for it the moment Chapter II: Aftermath (Chapter II, hereinafter) blasts out of your speakers. Although their lyrical subject matter is indeed also heavily […]

And so the thrash resurgence/revival marches on. This time I have before me the debut full-length from Head On Collision (HOC). I first discovered the band while tooling around Myspace (hey, it really can be awesome sometimes right?) 2-3 years ago, looking for some fresh thrash. Not only did the band impress me, but they […]

If I had to make up a metal compilation of this year’s catchiest metal songs, “Rock’n’Roll Devil”, the title number from the second album by Swedish Death ‘n’ Roll trio Helltrain, would pronouncedly fetch up somewhere there at one of the places atop. As you most probably surmised, the release at issue is yet another […]

By now, The Haunted should need no introduction. Featuring 2/5’s (at one time 3/5’s) of Swedish legends At the Gates, they’ve had their fair share of the metal spotlight over the past decade. Their vocalist is subject of much heated debate on blabbermouth over his personal blogs, and over the past couple years, their fan […]

What’s this? A hefty, experimental metal band from France on Prosthetic Records? Is it the new Gojira? Nope, but close. Originally released on Dental Records in 2007, it appears Prosthetic Records has snapped up this Alsace band’s debut in order to whet everyone’s appetite for the upcoming The Way of All Flesh, and good thing […]

There are three ‘core’ records I was really looking forward to this year; Ligeia’s Bad News, the new All Shall Perish and this follow up to the excellent Nocturne. Well, with Bad News being a huge disappointment and the jury still out on Awaken the Dreamers (which I’m still trying to figure out), where does […]

Much like label mates Verse, Boston’s Have Heart play a form of modern melodic hardcore, but where Verse came across as more introspective and varied, Have Heart, while still emotional and honest, have a more expected, tighter and angrier, typical hardcore delivery, though still impassioned and honest. More traditionally based around rousing power chords and layered […]

While Decapitated, Behemoth and Vader are considered Polish death metal royalty, there’s a second tier of the Polish death metal aristocracy headed up by the likes of Yattering, Trauma, Crionics and underlooked veterans, Hate. Not only buried under the prestige of their own country mates, but also 2008’s slew of killer death metal, comes Hate’s […]

Hard to believe it’s been seven years since the release of Hollenthon‘s previous opus, With Vilest of Worms to Dwell. Besides featuring one of the more memorable covers that year (a coiled snake with a protruding, knuckled spine), it boasted epic, symphonic swells over vaguely Viking riffage and coarse vocals. It should have been right […]

Viking black metal giants that seem to be too often overlooked, Helheim are back with their sixth full length and second on Dark Essence. I have followed Helheim to Muspell and back, or from “Muspilli Strid” to “Svart Seid.” Hellheim lineage shines through. This is a return to Solistitium form. Many old elements are in […]

Viva la thrash revival! Here’s the Bay Area’s own Hatchet with their debut full length, Awaiting Evil, a real barn stormer filled front to back with face melting riffs, leads, solos and quite possibly my favorite vocalist I’ve heard yet from the movement in Marcus Kirchen. His delivery isn’t entirely unique or distinctive, but he’s […]

Much like the recent release of label mates A Thousand Times Repent, Georgia’s Hereafter An Odyssey deliver an EP (which was originally self released by the band) plying a style that’s been done to death (core), but do it well enough to warrant your attention if you are a fan of the genre, or new […]

The thrash reunions continue. This time German band Headhunter, featuring vocalist/bassist Marcel “Schmier” Schirmer of Destruction, guitarist Uwe “Schmuddel” Hoffmann from Talon and drummer Jorg Michael, who has played with Saxon, Stratovarius and Grave Digger, among a long string of others.While I missed this band’s work in the early 1990s, I’m intrigued by what I […]

When last I heard Helion, on their 2006 EP Mercury Rising, they were a damned solid, but pretty straightforward power/prog outfit. It was one of the better records that I heard that year in the style. Two years and a lineup change later, I could almost be listening to a different band. The good news […]

There is beating the dead horse and then there is kicking the skeleton after all the meat has rotted off. Horna milk all they can out of an idea but discard it before it becomes too putrid. Once again we have ‘unoriginal’ black metal with rehashed elements highlighting past glories, on once again, if you […]

Much like Bloodbath’s Resurrection Through Carnage in 2002, the debut from Hail of Bullets is an album forged by a group of death metal veterans plying a pure homage to classic death metal. Headed by vocalist Martin Van Drunen (Pestilence, Asphyx) and joined by guitarists Paul Baayans and Stephan Gebedi (Thanatos), bassist Theo van Eekelen […]

Judging by their name, you’d expect Herrschaft to be a German industrial act, all brooding Teutonic sturm und drang. You’d only be partly right – they’re actually French, and spew a harsh, danceable mix of pounding industrial, bristling electro and crunchy metal riffs. The vocals – heavily processed, of course – are definitely the most […]

Hailing from the Netherlands, Heidevolk are Napalm’s latest folk metal darlings. Hot on the heels of the likes of Svartsot and Alestorm, Heidevolk might be the best of the bunch, and arguably the best folk metal album I have heard since Ásmegin’s Hin Vordende Sod & Sø. Apart from the expected gallop of Viking-tinged hymns […]