Archive for the ‘Reviews › P’ Category

All of a sudden, I have got a glut of thrash/groove releases (Treyharsh, Murkocet, Malkavian, Voice of Ruin) hearkening to the late 90s tones of Machine Head, Daath, Devildriver, Chimaira and Skinlab. And while it’s a sound I’m only a bit lukewarm on, sometimes a production can make a release much more impressive. Such is the […]

I am new to the Power Trip camp, thanks to my brother-n-law Jason “I Ran the Hucklebuck, before you were able to walk around the Brambles”.   Hailing from Texas, this crossover-thrash band released a pretty ass-kicking debut album, Manifest Decimation in 2013, which they now have bested with Nightmare Logic.  If you were a […]

Well this is a bit of an under the radar tech/death surprise.   Germany’s Profanity have certainly been around for a while with The Art of Sickness being their 3rd full length release and have been around since 1994. The Art of Sickness kicks off with “The Great Obstacle” which will leave you dizzy from all […]

From a very early point in their career it was evident that much lauded Arkansas doomers Pallbearer were something special. Debut LP Sorrow and Extinction brought doom to the masses with its spellbinding mix of traditional doom topped with powerful vocal melodies, an intense emotional pull and enough modern sensibilities to appeal to a broader […]

Back in 2009 Long Island’s  Painted In Exile released a killer 3 song EP called Revitalized. Riding the popularity of bands like of Between the Buried and Me, Protest the Hero, The Human Abstract, Periphery, Born of Osiris etc, the band was a experimental fusion of shredding metalcore, deathcore, mathcore, jazz, prog metal and even […]

Oh yeah, the force is strong in this one, the Dismember force that is. This one being Italy’s Profanal and their contribution to the altar that is swedish death. Obviously we know that the followers are many, some bring reverence and new found power to the church, where others as we know, just worship, nothing […]

Plutonium is the brain child of one J. Carlsson who does everything in this Swedish industrialized black metal project. It’s been a while since I’ve heard a good example of the style (Havoc Unit  maybe?) , and while Plutonium checks all the boxes, it’s not a release I’m enamored with. The check boxes that Carlsson fills […]

 Technically, this review is about the Putrisect/Scorched split, Final State of Existence, though personally, I like to refer to it as “the review that almost wasn’t, part 1”. To make a long story short, my laptop decided to shit out on me, barring me from any access to its treasures, i.e. four reviews that were awaiting […]

I’ve been a huge fan of Swedish sludge butchers Pyramido since their debut full-length Sand came out on Totalrust Music in 2009.  The follow-up Salt was even heavier and saw the band stretching their songs, riffs and viciousness into a technologically advanced weapons platform that was far deeper and more desiccated than any number of […]

Transcending Obscurity continues to develop, distribute, promote and release home grown talent  giving us fine bands like Strangulate, Biopsy, Rectified Spirit Diabolus Arcanium,  and now the debut from Mumbai’s Primitiv. The aptly named Primitiv is not doing anything new. They play a very simple form of Jungle Rot/Six Feet under mid paced chugging, death metal. Its’ got deep burly vocals,  a […]

I know many readers will roll their eyes at a release such as this, but this is for the few folks that enjoy the styling of After the Burial, Painted In Exile (new album hurry up and get here already!), Fallujah, Viljharta,  Born of Osiris, Aegaeon, 7 Horns 7 Eyes,  Within the Ruins and other synth heavy, modern ‘core’ or ‘djent’ […]

No arguments that Finland’s Purtenance put out one of the finest death metal albums in the 90’s, Member of Immortal Damnation.  To argue would be stupid.  A few years ago the band put the pieces back together and …to Spread the Flame of the Ancients is their third release, & second full length since the […]

Prime Evil, hailing from New York City, was more of a cult death/thrash band back in the 80’s/early 90’s.  They put out some demos and crap, but never breaking through to get a record deal.  Then they broke up and reformed 20 years later and in 2012 put out the devastating Evilution 3 song ep.  […]

After telling us about his Kentucky roots with 2012s Kentucky, and then his move to Minnesota with last years Roads to the North, Austin Lunn appears to have settled down and is down dealing with the most fitting season for his style of organic, naturalistic and atmospheric black metal- Autumn. And I gather autumn in […]

  Speed… speed… and more SPEEEEEEEDDDDD!!!  That’s what you should expect out of the 3rd LP from this Italian brutal death metal quintet.  They want to play as fast as possible, and fast they most definitely can do. I remember this band from their last full length, Degenerating Anthropophagical Euphoria, which was a good album, […]

Panzerkruezer’s Aurora deliver us crushing war inspired death metal ala Bolt Thrower, Just Before Dawn, or Hail of Bullets.  Based on the cover art alone there isn’t much question that, surprise, the drapes match the carpet.  The three piece are based in Dresden, Germany.  Dresden is infamous for having been leveled after what is likely […]

A sideways glance at the save-some-room-on-your-plate-for-gravy artwork and scraggly logo adorning Philadelphia’s newest dirty needle slingin’ export Pissgrave might lead one to assume that they’re looking at one of the innumerable third-tier groups that sit forever unsold clogging up the CD racks at metal fests. A second look reveals the Profound Lore logo tucked away […]

I remember Prion from hearing their last full length, Impressions, way back in 2008.  It was a solid death metal album, and since then these guys had kind of fallen off my radar; though we had to wait seven years for another album, it was worth the wait for this one. Boasting the same original […]

Hailing from Indiana, Psychomancer are a death metal band who toiled on the scene in from 1997 to 2011, then broke up after two albums in the mid oos. Well they are reformed and have released a new EP on the home state label owned by Yellowtooth’s Peter Clemens. I wasn’t familiar with the band […]

Primitive Man’s latest ep is an oppressive, aggressive slab o’ sludge…and a bit of grind…fine, slip in some crust parts too.  It’s an anthropomorphic equivalent to the imposing brutalist style housing project high rise that populate the part of town ,as whispered of by parents, “you don’t want your car to breakdown in”.  Zooming in […]

The second album from English groove doom heavies Prophets of Saturn practically screams, “Listen to me while high as possible, please!”  The four tracks that comprise the weedy, peer pressuring Retronauts are overloaded with groove, drippy psyche-wah solos, sleepy monotone vocals and a rhythm section that is fresh out of high school.  In terms of […]

From Luxembourg hail some of the coldest sons of bitches you’ll ever meet.  The band in question is Plaguewielder; a doom paced, blackened affair with some of the most obnoxiously retched vocals I’ve ever heard.  This quartet is a pretty hypothermic affair aimed at leaving your carcass strung up in a meat-locker for future feasting.  […]

Palinopsia are unsigned band from US,  Vermont specifically,  and they bring their take of doom to the metal table with this EP release. They describe their music has blackened doom sludge and that is exactly what you are getting. The black primarily in the vocals with some death vocals scattered thru the songs and the […]

2015 brings the return of England’s Paradise Lost for their 27th year in existence. It also brings fourth their 14th full length album. In this day and age, it is amazing to have a band with this kind of longevity and productivity. Add to that the fact that the lineup is original except for the drummer, […]

France’s Putrid Offal were one of France’s early death metal/grind bands with a number of obscure splits and demos between 1991 and 1994, but it’s taken them until 2015 to release a full length album, which essentially re-records most of the material from the bands 90s discography and adds a couple of covers for good measure. […]