This summer, two pretty revered veteran, symphonic black metal acts will be releasing their ninth albums (both on June 28th no less!). Both released their debut albums in 1996 and both waited 6-7 years between their last albums and these new releases. One is Norway’s Limbonic Art, who released their debut The Moon In Scorpio […]
Wow. Here is some really creative, unique black/death metal from a Dutch band I know nothing about other than they have 1 prior album under their belt. The actual ‘Shiva Hypothesis’ is a theory concerning extinction-level events and meteors, but the band is a 4 piece with ties to various other Belgian death metal acts, […]
My bud Alex, the owner of Dolorem Records, has once again sent me a promo for one of his bands and this time it’s for Serement, a blackened death metal band hailing from Greece. I had never heard of the word Serement and decided to look it up but had no luck, the net kept […]
Canada keeps kicking out sick tech death bands in 2024. Sentiment Dissolve has been around since 2021. The Orwellian Dream kicks off with “Forced Birther.’ Right off the bat you can hear how intricate their arrangements and vocal patterns are. You can hear the Archspire influence on the vocal patterns which are quite impressive done […]
Many of the bands I review on this site, I randomly encountered. That’s the case for Tennesse’s Summoner’s Circle. In my “why the fuck not,” era just last year, I saw a festival of which I had not heard in my state called Toledo Death Fest. Despite the hot sun, they were a stylistic sore […]
Thanks to this YouTube group, I spent much of 2023 discovering newer symphonic black metal, or at least releases in the genre that aren’t from the golden age, or releases that somehow I completely missed from 2010 on. I found superb bands like Spain’s Ensom, Canada’s Obscuris Romancia, Russia’s Skylord, Cuba’s Mephisto, Finland’s Shade Empire, […]
25 years is a long time. Hell, over 25 years is a long time, and I’ve realized that a lot of the bands I love are coming up on that side of their longevity, which isn’t much next to the Rolling fucking Stones and we all know they’ve been doing it since the Triassic period […]
“It’s not the worst thing ever,” says the custodian as he scrapes all the dried cum from in and around the glory hole. I didn’t wish for him to elaborate, but by instinct, I said “Wouldn’t it be easier just to do it when it’s fresh?” He scowled and I received no answer. Foolishly, I […]
Non Stop Ruthless Crushing …..what???? I feel like there’s another word that was forgotten here. Anxiety? Diarrhea? Parental disappointment? I keed, I keed What we have here is a re-release of a 2023 effort from this Texas act formed by Jason Ramsey (notably from Baton Rouge’s Suture, who released solid albums on Deepsend Records, Unmatched […]
Synestia is a new symphonic deathcore duo consisting of Minnesota’s Sam Melchior (all instruments, writing) and Finland’s Ville Hokkanen (vocals). In 2022 they released their fantastic debut album, Malificium, but it was digital only and got kind of bulldozed by that year’s slew of stellar releases in the genre from Shadow of Intent, Worm Shepherd, […]
Sweden’s Sarcasm returns with their fifth album Mourninghoul. Sarcasm plays a unique throwback style of classic Swedish Sound (Unanimated, Dawn, Early Gates of Ishtar, Early Desultory) mixed with moments of modern heaviness by bands like Morbid Angel. “As Northern Gates Opens” opens the album and I was hooked right away by the coldness of the […]
By now it’s not a secret that Finland spews out some incredible Black Metal. I could sit here and name check every band and that would be boring as fuck. I’m guilty of it, and since I realize that I’m excluded from persecution and it’s usually in my introduction where I pull that shit anyway. […]
Three years ago I reviewed the self-titled, debut album from California’s epic doom metal band Stygian Crown and really loved it. I was happy to see my friend, Rhett Davis, drumming on it, a legendary drummer from Crimson Relic, Morgion and Gravehill, and many other bands, both past and present. The original line-up with guitarists […]
This Finnish power metal band has been around since the 90’s and I have seen their logo and ads for decades, however, I have never heard them until now, with Clear Cold Beyond which is their 14th album – holy smokes! After listening to their back catalog in order to compare this to their prior […]
I am a tremendous Manilla Road fan. Unfortunately, they are one of the few bands I never had a chance to see live, prior to the passing of founder/vocalist/guitarist Mark Shelton – a true metal genius. RIP Metal Brother. From the ashes, we will rise and what we have here is 50% Manilla Road and […]
So like, as a dude inching closer and closer to 40, I’ve been finding myself doing a fair amount of self-reflecting and fighting through existential crises and all that fun shit. I often end up wondering what the hell is wrong with me because I remember being in my teens and 20s and having a […]
I’ve been on a bit of a black metal kick of late, and one band that has scratched that particular itch is German trio Stiriah and their third album, Portal, released back in February. Lying squarely in the 90s second wave, with a semi-melodic and symphonic sound (there are keyboards here and there but it’s […]
Good Lord, it’s been 21 years since I heard this Greek blackened-sludge band’s debut, …and Voices, Words, Faces, Complete the Dream way back in 2003. It was, and still is one of the more caustic, brittle, and downright nasty albums I have ever covered, especially vocally. I guess the band has dropped 2 other albums […]
While power and black metal was/has often been the primary vehicles for keyboards/ orchestration in metal, I still fondly recall some of my early exposure to more epic keys and orchestration (not just intros or a bit here or there for atmosphere) in death metal such as Nocturnus (arguably the first to do so?), Amorphis, […]
Stellar Remains is an entirely new venture by Dan Elkin. I’ve scoured the web trying to find more info, but all I have is from the promo materials, so pardon my ignorance. The record label, Gutter Prince Cabal, has only recently appeared on my radar thanks to Fryktelig Stoy. I am forever grateful for them […]
I reviewed the debut album, Eroded Corridors of Unbeing, from Colorado’s doom/death outfit, Spectral Voice, in 2017. Seeing the band on their tour with Undergang, prior to the album, was a really awesome experience, especially since the members of Spectral Voice are also members of Blood Incantation. After various splits etc…since the debut album, Spectral […]
Getting all bleary-eyed and waxing poetic about a given band’s “old school sound” is one of the metal world’s most time-honored tropes. It’s not even just the old heads that can’t help but get all nostalgic for a good throwback, either – these days you’ll find no shortage of trucker hat-wearing, often-mustachioed young men with […]
I’ve taken a deep dive into Depressive Suicidal Black Metal (hereafter referred to as DSBM) this year with Happy Days and Shining both reviewed in these hallowed pages and coming extremely recommended by yours truly. I sit here on a gloomy Sunday composing this review and ruminating on the French Black Metal scene; the core […]
One of the surprises being a metal reviewer (not journalist, mind you), is receiving the new promo for a band of whom I have been a fan for a while now. It’s even better when it’s out of nowhere. In this case I am of course referring to Sorcerer and their new, streamlined album Reign […]
Stortregn’s (‘downpour’) development from a melodic black metal band into a more technical, shredding death metal band with a few black metal elements has been a splendid development, and fittingly with the style shift, the band found themselves on the perfect label, The Artisan Era, literally the preemptive label for shreddy/melodic, sometimes symphonic tech death/black […]
