Archive for the ‘Reviews › H’ Category

I’ve only had a few tastes of Seattle quartet He Whose Ox is Gored and their rising tide, wall of noise musical inclinations, but every single one has been fuckin’ delicious.  After a few EP releases I find myself hung on the horns of the band’s debut long-player The Camel, The Lion, The Child.  From […]

After 2012s simpler, Stockholm death metal based The Chills, this US death metal act emerged from a creative cocoon that was last years Ecdysis, a better, more creative and more challenging band. And only a year later they have returned with Anareta, (a greek astrological term for a ‘destroyer’), and it continues the more progressive, experimental […]

  The hallucinatory, Kyuss-ian chords that entrance “Destroyer Television,” the EP opener of Phoenix, Arizona doom lords Horse Head and their debut release The Missionary may be one of the all-time great red herrings.  Aw, what a gracious melody…so inviting, relaxing and warm that it’s like good sex meets a fifth of whiskey…and then planes […]

It is hard to believe that it has been eighteen years since the Hate Eternal/Alas demo was released. Hate Eternal being a blistering technical death metal band and Alas being more of a melodic doom project. Both of these projects showing the song writing versatility of Erik Rutan who had been in Morbid Angel and […]

When James McBain the guitarist/vocalist of the excellent Rats of Reality isn’t breaking apart Pangaea with that band’s blackened, demonic d-beat, he’s at the helm of his solo project Hellripper.  He’s a veritable one man wrecking crew playing all of the instruments (aside from Mark Lerche’s lead on “Trial by Fire”) and the end result […]

A long-standing pillar of sonic strength and consistency, High on Fire has built a body of work that demands your fucking respect, even if the album peaks have slightly varied along the way. The dependable quality of High on Fire’s music is increasingly rare to find in bands that remain active over such a lengthy […]

“And on their skins, as on the bark of trees, Have with my knife carved in Roman letters ‘Let not your sorrow die, though I am dead.’ Tut, I have done a thousand dreadful things As willingly as one would kill a fly; And nothing grieves me heartily indeed But that I cannot do ten […]

Some metal reviews require expanded length, detailed analysis and thoughtful examination.  Other metal reviews demand brevity, tough talk and all hyperbole checked at the door.  In the case of Denmark, Copenhagen’s Halshug and their Southern Lord debut Blodets Bånd I won’t be pushing the boundaries of the written word.  Simply put, this is crust punk […]

The Hands of Orlac by Maurice Renard is a tale I’m very familiar with having seen numerous film adaptations of it including the 1960 version with Christopher Lee, The Beast with Five Fingers and The Hand.  What is it about that ol’ genre staple involving disembodied limbs running amuck that is so appealing?  I couldn’t […]

“The mouth of hell”. That is what Hadal Maw roughly translates to and the band has released an album that defines that translation with substantial purity. Very much steeped in the realm of death metal, they manage to throw in bits-and-pieces of discordant hardcore to complete a sound that is very reminiscent of modern death […]

2014 was a banner year for the Unique Leader label, which happens to be one of my personal favorites.  With releases from the likes of Fallujah, Inanimate Existence and Omnihility (which all made my year end list), they further cemented their place at the top of the heap for the label with the best and […]

Much like label and country mates Destroying Divinity, the Czech Republic’s aptly named Heaving Earth make no bones about their primary influences, and any death metal fan can quickly ascertain such simply based on the track names, album name cover art and palette. And then you press play and while the instantly recognizable throes of […]

The cover art attracted me to this album; a man hung from his neck holding a harp while vultures anxiously await a go at his bones.  Pretty cool shit.  Sometimes you can get burnt going in on the cover art theory alone, but that’s not the case here.  Hombre Malo is a quartet of bad […]

After listening to Harbinger, I am kicking myself for not having listened to Mutilation Rites earlier. Apparently this is their second full-length. From what I can gather of their previous work, Harbinger seems to represent a significant step in a more caustic, less melodic direction in the vein of many a band nowadays purveying in […]

The Malaysian bulldozing death metal machine are back with yet another album, Battalion.  Ever since their inception, in 2009, Humiliation have released eps/splits’7” and albums, and with this marking their 5th long player, one has to wonder are they over-saturating the scene? As we speak, I am pretty sure they have ideas for album #6. Prior to […]

Do you remember when real metal musicians wore all black, spiked arm bands, raised middle fingers,  and said “Hails!” in interviews?  Pepperidge Farm remembers, and so do Denmark’s Horned Almighty.   It’s obvious from the start these guys are old school through and through. …or are they?  How old does something have to be to be […]

Back in 2012 these yanks released, The Chills, a damn fine Stockholm styled death metal album that made it into the top ten of my 2012 year end list. I was curious as to how the band would follow it up and keep up with the retro trend that’s been top notch since and especially here […]

“You’d better turn it up.Or turn it off.Or get fucked”. That pretty much sums up The Hell, a fun loving, foul mouthed hard core band from Watford, England, who on their Prosthetic Records debut indeed drop the groovehammer with a raucous mix of brute force beefy, American core mixed with a piss n sneer of […]

I like surprises, and a concept based black metal album from Sumerian deity named band  from the depths of Austin, Texas certainly qualifies as a surprise, especially when its this good. The band has a couple of splits and one debut album from 2009 under their spiked belt, though this is my first exposure to them. They […]

Along with the likes of Origin, Spawn of Possession, and Beneath the Massacre, Hour of Penance has been one band that has been at the forefront of the technical brutal death metal genre.  Their style, along with the others mentioned, comes at you from all sides like an infantry battalion, with riffs flying all around […]

Here are five 7 ” EPs from Atlanta based Boris Records and all three are rooted in denim and beer or Satan, being retro, old school thrash at their core with various elements of either death or black metal.   Up first is home grown thrashers,  Sadistic Ritual the label’s very own home town in Atlanta […]

The Swiss are putting themselves back on the metal map early in 2014 with the likes of Tryptikon, Schammasch, Near Death Condition and Impure Wilhemina and this, the rather impressive debut of progressive sludge/post rock from Herod. They Were None is above all things heavy as shit.  And while tangibly culling from obvious contemporaries like Neurosis, Isis, The […]

After almost 15 years in the reviewing game, there is very little that surprises me or leaves me speechless in today’s metal scene. Then along comes France’s Hardcore Anal Hydrogen and fucks everything up. I really don’t even know where to begin. Maybe that the band likes the likes of Napalm Death, Pryapisme and Mr Bungle? But […]

Coming seemingly out of nowhere, Germany’s Hangatyr has exploded into 2014 with a superb slab of Norse black metal that is as infectious as it is intense. Bristling with a sonic ferocity as it should in this genre of metal, Hangatyr also has crafted their music around swirling melodies and catchy, simplistic riffs. While the […]

 USBM is an interesting animal. When placed next to it’s European counterparts it seems more savage, feral if you will. Like it feels like it has to prove something in order to be accepted. Sad but true, and while there are great American Black Metal bands, Helgardh is going to have to work to be […]