New Zealand’s Ulcerate apparently are far more influential than they know. While Gorguts gets the lions share of the credit for the churning, murky atonal style of off kilter death metal, Ulcerate were 3 albums in before Colored Sands and Gorguts‘ return. Other fine bands like Zhrine, Zealotry, Miserist, Construct of Lethe, Ara, Artificial Brain, Mitochondrion and […]
After a solid self released debut, Bedlam, back in 2015, North Carolina’s war mongering blackened thrash act Suppressive Fire under went some line up changes and shuffling and got themselves signed to Virginia’s Lost Apparition Records. And now they have released album number 2 and it is yet another solid offering of black/thrash metal with […]
When Soulburn reformed in 2014, I was pleasantly surprised at their return album after 16 years, namely The Suffocating Darkness. To this day is still one of my all time favorite blackened death/doom albums and yes I have heard all the great albums and own most from 30 years prior. Soulburn incorporated alot more black […]
When Dan Swano says “One of the best SweDeath projects I have come across in 20 years. The perfect blend of all the highlights from the Swedish scene from 89 to 91. Truly awesome!”, I buy instantly and listen later. And having mastered this release from Sentient Horror (with mixing assistance from Damian Herring of Horrendous), […]
Due to an unfortunate and excruciating ear infection that has had me uniaural for about three months I failed to write this review in a timely fashion, for which I must apologize to the band and the band’s guests. This EP deserved a timelier addressing. Because, frankly, it smokes. It does not smoke because it […]
Intelligence without pretentiousness, focus, and sledgehammer sincerity. Those three qualities defined Saint Vitus when they first adopted the name in 1980 and still does through three different singers, over ten releases, and a thirty years plus long journey along the margins of mainstream music. Their influence, however, is far from marginal and extensively documented. Their […]
London’s soul cooking, noise-ridden psychedelic doom titans Sonic Mass were a complete and total happy accident for me on Bandcamp. I couldn’t even recall to you at this point in time what exactly I was trying to find instead but one start to finish listening of You People Never Learn made a believer out of […]
Amid all the black and death metal I get sent to review, occasionally I get some more off the wall stuff that gets my attention (i.e Duobetic Homunkulus). Here is one such release from France’s Stangala, and its not just off the wall, it’s out of the house and running naked in the yard. I really […]
More often than not, supergroups are a collective of guys or gals trying to get out side the box and deliver something more outside the realm of their full time endeavors as the folks try and spread their creative wings or whatever. But sometimes, one only need look at the members involved and get a […]
Good fuckin’ lord my ears! That’s praise by the way. This two-way grindcore orgy is some of the foulest, filthiest, fastest and most fucked up stuff I’ve heard in a long time. You get your organs embalmed twice; a pair of incisions by Michigan’s manic lords of grind, Sunlight’s Bane (formerly known as Traitor) and […]
Ahh, the death metal explosion of the late ’80’s and early ’90’s…if you were there to experience any of it, then you know it was a magical time for metal music. A time when a new guard was coming up and pushing the old guard aside, whether the old liked/wanted it or not. It was […]
If only other bands’ cutting room floors looked like Soilwork’s. When they released The Living Infinite in 2013, I marveled at how many superb songs they had turned out during those writing sessions – enough for an absurdly generous double album that was also my #1 pick for the year. And then some, it turns out, when they […]
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’m not a big ‘thrash guy’. Not since the classics of the 80s/90s has a thrash band captured my attention unless injected with a little more grit or death metal like Dew Scented. So here is the third album from long running, nu metal named, thrash band from Portugal, hardly the thrash or metal mecca or […]
India’s Transcending Obscurity is becoming a pretty reliable source for simple, no frills death metal of late, (Primitiv, Third Sovereign, Affliction Gate, etc), and the duo comprising Indian newcomers Strangulate is no exception. Using old school American Death metal as a template, the Cannibal Corpse and Suffocation influence is immediate and obvious, but these guys do […]
Crikey. If you thought the second album, Contradiction, from these Swiss dark metallers was ambitious at 2 CDs and 80 minutes, wait till you get a load of their third album, Triangle. 3 CDs, exactly 100 minutes, each CD clocking in at 33 minutes and change and each covering a different musical style and concept. You have CD I: The […]
I had zero expectations for this release: French melodic death metal from a year ago with odd moniker. But seeing as Finisterian Dead End, who released War Inside‘s solid SUTURE recently, picked this up, I thought I would give it a fair shake, and I’m glad I did, as it delivered an energizing, reinvigorating take on […]
You know the moment when your privates get all wet or hard (or both) when you hear something that’s undeniably good? Like, say for example, stumbling for the first time upon Disillusion’s Back to Times of Splendor or Devin Townsend’s best of compilation with all your to-be favorite tracks on it? Stam1na’s latest offering, Elokuutio […]
Chicago trio Snow Burial presents their first full-length Victory in Ruin after a pair of EPs. The band’s history is something I can jive with as the fellas formed the band after attending a Shiner reunion show. I’m a huge Shiner fan and Snow Burial has that same kind of effervescent, ever-changing sound that never […]
Festering, Norwegian rot is the slophouse gruel served from four-piece skullfuckers The Sickening. The overall attack is a slaughterhouse explosion with cattle guts, pig snouts and delectable innards flying in every direction. Catchy, thrash metal viruses escape from the contamination ward while sloppy, sluggard death metal chug is laid to fecal waste thanks to guttural […]
When initially listening to San Jose’s Spinebreaker, I’m at first reminded of the now defunct Short lived Skinfather and their 2014 release, None Will Mourn; both California bands, both young ‘kids’ playing a form of mid range, hardcore tinged Dismember/ Swedish death metal , and both releases are vinyl only. Of course that;s a broad generalization, as Spinebreaker […]
Suppressive Fire is a new, slightly blackened 3 piece death/thrash metal band from North Carolina, and while I’ve never been a huge fan of black/thrash, Suppressive Fire lean a little more to the thrash side and their war laden themes and imagery had me more intrigued than I usually would be with something this style. With […]
Recalling the glory years of Scandinavian 90s melodic death metal, Finland’s Suotana and their debut album hearken back to an era of early Children of Bodom, Norther, Lothlorien, Ensiferum, Kalmah and such. Big, epic, keyboard drenched, catchy, bouncy slightly blackened melodic death metal is the order of the day, and while there is nary a […]
When Satan emerged from the dead with their exceptional comeback album Life Sentence in 2013, one of the early pioneers of the NWOBHM triumphed emphatically, bringing their old school retro formula into the modern era with spectacular results. While I’m sure long-time fans were particularly enthralled, I was surprised by the impact it had on […]
Well slap my ass and call me Sally, Belgium’s Serial Butcher just surprised the hell right out of me with their sophomore album for Unique Leader Records, Brute Force Lobotomy. Though I had previously never heard Serial Butcher before, I pretty much could guess their sound, this is a Unique Leader release after all. So […]
