Archive for the ‘Reviews › P’ Category

Well, it isn’t exactly easy to review less than 9 minutes of music in any meaningful way. But Phasm’s 2013 demo absolutely smashes together 4 triumphant songs in this time frame. Call it frantic, frenetic, frenzied, or hysterical; each word has a worthy place among the pantheon of eligible descriptors for this wonderfully energetic debut. […]

Pathology has been one of the most, if not the most brutal death metal band to come out of San Diego, California and the band has only been around a mere 7 years. When vocalist Matti Way departed after the 2010 release of Legacy of the Ancients the band still plowed forward and the 2011 […]

When listing countries that churn out the best death metal, India would likely be way down the line of most people’s lists.  But lurking in the depths of some of these lesser known countries, however, you can find some solid metal being played.  That’s the case here with three piece band Plague Throat, who has […]

Since appearing as a Rob Halford wannabee on Pantera‘s Power Metal in 1988, Phil Anselmo has appeared in a large number of different projects; the pioneering groove metal in the aforementioned band, the seminal Louisianan sludge/southern/stoner metal outfit Down, the black metal groups Eibon and Christ Inversion, the hardcore Superjoint Ritual and Arson Anthem and […]

This is a polarizing release for me. When I first heard it was happening, I was confounded. I didn’t think the bands fit together, and though I absolutely love Panopticon, the inclusion of Vestiges I was decidedly less enthusiastic about. Vestiges play a mash-up of Fall of Efrafa-esque post metal and crust with inclusions of […]

Perversion is a death metal band hailing from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and Pillars of the Enlightened is their debut full length album (they had an EP, The Origins of Horror, in 2008) which was originally self released in 2012, but has been picked up by the fine folks at Blast Head Records […]

While I am far from the highest authority when it comes to ultra-kvlt, super underground, cassette only, no website Black Metal, it is not frequent that I come across a release from a band, or in this case two, that have been around for nearly half a decade or more, that I have never even […]

Better late than never, right? Released as far back as September of last year, this little monster of American blackish metal somehow slipped through the cracks. Cosmic Cataclysms, the debut full-length album from Seattle-based Phalgeron, is a splendid concoction of brutal savagery and sweeping melodies all rolled into one. But lest you think they are […]

If there was a musical equivalent to vaudeville (late 19th century variety entertainment) it would be represented in the form of the fourth album from Pensées Nocturnes, Nom d’une Pipe! Like the theatrical genre of years past, this album cobbles together classical, swing, bal-musette, reggae, and jazz in a bleak, disturbing black metal skin. The […]

Hailing from Quebec, Canada, the youngsters in Pronostic are a technical/melodic death metal band trying their hand at adding a sort of  Black Dahlia Murder/Arsis/Allegaeon sound to modern almost deathcore/death metal that’s intricate and busy, but has a few chops and plenty of skill. The thing is, it’s about 5 years too late. Don’t get […]

Apart from bestial black metallers, Deiphago, I can’t recall ever coming across any other metal bands from The Philippines. A quick search on Metal Archives provides a statistical reason: less than 200 bands with under 400 releases have ever come out of that region. Why so few metal bands exist in the world’s twelfth most […]

The UK’s husband and wife doom team return with their fifth album of big amps and bigger riffs. Carolyn and Pete have taken their wall of amps and brilliantly fuzzed out tone to a new level on Maleficia Lamiah and produced their finest album yet. The two tracks on offer dump a load of classic […]

Ugly, brutish, and oppressive, Scorn has all the ingredients to be great. Primitive Man’s combination of d-beat crust, sludge, and crippling doom is a combination after my heart and they show a tremendous amount of potential with this release. Its aesthetic is almost grind-like, feeling like a Benümb album without any blast beats. There are […]

“We continue to storm forward with no real sense of direction or purpose. We repeat ourselves, retell the same lies and never change. We all have become stagnant and entitled.. We know better, but we do it anyway. We are greedy, lazy and tired. We are destroying everything we’ve worked to preserve and shitting in […]

After five years of toiling around in obscurity in their native Canada, brutal death metal newcomers Paroxsihzem,  with the help of  Dark Descent Records, have re-unleashed onto the world, their 2010 self-titled debut full-length album. Sporting a raw, crude production, the album is a whirlwind of vicious riffs, raucous noise and sheer nastiness. In short, […]

Porcupine Tree’s affiliation with the larger metal community largely dates back to Steven Wilson’s acclaimed production credits on several of Opeth’s albums; most notably Blackwater Park.  Of course many metalheads would have already had the highly rated British prog-rockers on their radar but it was evidently the buzz from Wilson’s outstanding production and guest spots […]

The best possible analogy I came across as a main descriptor for Pathology is the ”press play; get your ass handed to you for 30 minutes” type of endearing imagery. I wouldn’t go to an album from these guys with any other real expectation in mind; they satisfy this craving for uncompromising violence without a […]

Pig Destroyer’s 2007 album Phantom Limb ended up on many year-end lists and was lauded as one of, if not the best, album that they have put out, so hype for this one was massive to say the least.  In a genre like grindcore where it can be hard to separate from the pack, Pig […]

Remember in the late 90s when In Flames and Dark Tranquility were exploding? When Children of Bodom were fresh and awesome and young energetic, but short lived melodic death metal bands like Lothlorien, Auberon, Ebony Tears, Embracing, and Eucharist were releasing killer albums? Well, if you long for those days of bouncy, busy, solo filled, […]

Splits are always an enjoyable listen, regardless if one or more of the bands on the micro compilation are even halfway decent. It’s always been a terrific way to sample typically unknown bands in small doses and because the listener will usually be treated to multiple songs from each band, splits are almost always more […]

I’m a trad metal fan. It is, hands-down, my favorite metal genre. As much as I try to shake things up with a bit of prog or power metal, my well-worn copy of Mercyful Fate‘s Don’t Break the Oath never strays too far out of my reach. So, with a metal palette like mine, I […]

I’m not generally a fan of post-metal, what with its simplistic, introspective riffing that goes nowhere and boring atmosphere, all in the hipsterish conceit that it’s actually more thoughtful than being, I dunno, good. But then there’s Portugal’s Process of Guilt who put so much venom and nightmarish tension into the post-metal compositions on their […]

Grindcore mainstays Phobia are back with their 6th full length, and on this newest one they made the odd choice to introduce… clean vocals and female gothic influences?!? Ummm… No. This is straight up ass-melting grindcore, and it’s what these guys have been pummeling eardrums with for over 20 years. When you can personify the […]

I have to admit, I’m not a massive fan of Hells Headbangers, as their primarily dirty black/thrash spikes and Satan roster doesn’t do a whole lot for me. But when they kick out some real nasty death metal like  Deiphago  or Sanguis Imperum, they seem to hit it out of the park. And such is […]

I was less than impressed with Prong’s last outing, Power of the Damager. I preferred it to the more industrial stuff they’d been doing, but it hasn’t returned to my rotation in the nearly five years since it came out. I thought it was OK, but didn’t have a lot of passion or energy. So […]