Archive for the ‘Reviews › H’ Category

Based in Southampton in the UK, Hummune is a trio that play a form of groovy, down tuned metal that culls from the likes of Helmet, The Deftones and such but with just a dash of more heavier tones of groove era Gorefest (Soul Survivor/ Chapter 13) , Machine Head and it very heavily recalled […]

Haiduk is the Canadian, one man project of one Luca Milojica. And while the trend for most one man metal is of the blackened or depressive kind with a few exceptions, Haiduk (apparently a term for Balkan freedom fighters)  is actually rather good thrash/death metal  and you wouldn’t really know it was a one man […]

If you are sending Teeth of the Divine (that’s us) self-released demos and/or other releases, a couple of things will get you noticed and probably reviewed. First, it helps if you are good. A recent example of this being the six track demo from Poland’s Hyperial. Or, number two, you have some sort of intriguing […]

Having some Hirax and Metal Church blood in their ranks at one point or another, and hailing from L.A. in quite the audible fashion, I gotta say Heretic gets quite the hype sauce a’boilin’ as they’re rushing back into the scene after almost a quarter of a century with this record. Still, I find it […]

Considering the amount of stuff we get sent to review, you’d better be pretty good to be an independent Polish industrial/cyber death metal band and your 6 song demo EP gets my attention enough to warrant a review. It’s also lucky that I haven’t heard any really good rushing cyber death metal in a long […]

Now this is just filthy.  And I don’t mean any kind of filthy, I mean FILTHY.  This is like the floor at the favorite hole in the wall bar where you’ve seen way too many metal shows.  But it’s a glorious filth that you won’t want to wash off any time soon.  Finland’s Hooded Menace […]

I love getting my hands on obscure, previously unheard (to me) metal bands, and they turn out to be enjoyable – case and point Malaysia’s Humiliation, and their third full length album, From Strength to Strength.Admittedly I had zero expectation whatsoever, but amid all the proggy, tech death and deathcore ringing in my ears, Humiliation […]

So back in 2009, Ohio’s Hammer Horde released their debut album, Under the Mighty Oath, which was a mighty slab of blackened epic pagan/viking/folk metal that belied its American origins and sounded like a very authentic European act akin to Ensiferum, Turisas, Finsterforst, Forefather, early Mithotyn, Equilibrium and such. An impressive feat considering not too many […]

Oh man, what a weird little album this is. Hail Spirit Noir are two guys from Greece, playing a kooky mix of black metal and late ’60s psychedelic folk. I wish Pneuma were actually 40 years old, and that I’d found it on vinyl in the back of some musty old secondhand store, all covered […]

So here is last of fledgling Blast Head Records’ three initial releases. Hailing from Roanoke Virginia, Human Infection self released Infest to Ingest last year, but Blast Head picked it up for release earlier this year, and unfortunately of the labels  first three releases, this is my least favorite. Human Infection play death metal. Bog […]

The name, Hellcrawler, immediately piqued my interest, while the combination of album title and grim cover art guaranteed that I’d have to give Wastelands a spin or 10. While maybe not as perpetually disappointing as finding out the girl with the sexy voice on the phone looks nothing like she sounds, making the leap from […]

Their press info lists them as a metalcore band, but to lump these Germans into such an oft-hated genre does a bit of a disservice. These Germans play a form of thrash/death/punk with a large dose of early Napalm Death for good measure. So if you do want to put them in the metalcore genre, […]

Well fuck! That didn’t take long! After kicking my ass for a majority of 2011 with the likes of Entrails, Cryptborn, Uncanny, Miasmal, Undead Creep, Corpsessed, Gorephilia and such, Dark Descent Records, a mere two fucking days into 2012, has unleashed yet another gem of awesome old school death metal. Despite the label and PR […]

An album able to both warm the bones and embody the cold is generally a good one to have on hand during the colder months. Thank goat for Hammers of Misfortune and their skill at blending both the melancholy and heart-warming aspects of heavy metal so fluidly. Their multi-faceted take on the hardships and triumphs […]

Looking for a last-minute Christmas gift for the power/traditional metal fan? Well, thanks to my crappy timing in writing this review, you’re too late. But you still might want to check out Holy Grail’s holiday 7-inch single Seasons Bleedings. The run is limited to 500 copies – 250 red and 250 green – or there’s […]

Black metal is a curious beast; it can be a very conservative sub-genre and at the same time, one of the most diverse types of music to be composed. Bands like Enslaved, Dimmu Borgir and Deathspell Omega have shed most of their black metal roots in favor of something different. Whereas, Darkthrone, Dark Funeral and […]

I wasn’t overly impressed with the nu grind, caustic, programmed drum based output of Harpoon‘s last release, Double Gnarly/Triple Suicide, so when this showed up in my mail box I was hardly overly enthused. However, it appears, even with a drum machine still present, the trio of guitarist Tony Costello, bassist DJ Baracca (Lair of […]

I rather enjoyed Hull‘s full length debut, Sole Lord as it was a nice sludgy record bolstered by  a variety of smooth layered vocals, not unlike Baroness. However, once I hit play on their sophomore record, it was apparent Hull has changed up their game a bit. For the better. While the album still has […]

Listen, a s much as I’d like to, I rarely review 3 track demos- I simply don’t have the time considering all the other stuff we get here to review. However, I will make a few exceptions; 1) if you are really fucking good, 2) if you are really fucking good and local and 3) […]

Here’s some of that sweet hot fire I glimpsed while reviewing Highgate’s sophomore album Shrines to the Warhead. This collection of demo and live tracks compiles the band’s 2005 and 2006 demos along with an unreleased track and two live recordings. Normally this type of material dump is only interesting to established fans but Black […]

Reviewing a Christian metal album is always like swimming in shark tank with a chum jockstrap on. Well…IT’S FEEDING TIME BOYS!!! But I try to stay the course and be objective as I can, and most readers probably don’t realize that I’m actually a devout (?) atheist, so my many Christian reviews aren’t some thinly […]

Hellmouth is the music equivalent of their hometown Detroit: violent, grimy, pissed off and ugly. Their debut, Destroy Everything, Worship Nothing was a feral but ultimately forgetful  crossover assault of black metal, thrash and punk, but on their follow up, Gravestone Skylines, with the same musical influences,  the band has improved their sneering sonic violence, […]

Man, after the bands 2009 self titled debut EP, I said I’d keep an eye on these Christian shredders in hope they would deliver something better. And boy did they ever! I didn’t quite see anything this good coming though. Adding a dramatic symphonic element to their early A Plea For Purging/ Woe of Tyrants […]

Highgate’s follow up to their 2008 debut is like a really interesting movie you end up feeling ambivalent about. A picture projecting sickly foreboding, a sense of dread and imminent mental and physical collapse but the plot meanders and at the end you’re left intrigued with no desire to watch it again. You’re left searching […]

There are those out there that think death metal is dying or dead. That the once proud genre has succumbed into a riffless, soulless, pro tool pandemic and become full of stagnant clones or simply fallen into pure homage and worship. For the record, I am not one of those people. However, if I were, […]