Much like my recent discovery of Blind Guardian, I was a late bloomer when it came to Sweden’s divisive war/history themed power metal vanguards Sabaton. It wasn’t until I randomly heard “Winged Hussars” (arguably still my favorite Sabaton track) from 2016s The Last Stand on a random spotify playlist that I became hooked. I grabbed […]
There’s sure to be a lot of discussion at years end about what the ‘heaviest’ (a relative term of course) album of the year was. From what I’ve heard so far I and my exposure is limited due to the amount of stuff in all genres I review and what we are sent) in 2019 […]
Sühnopfer (German for ‘Atonement’) is a French, one man black metal project featuring Ardraos, who has been around a while and has surfaced in a number of well known and lesser known French bands like Peste Noire, Aorlhac, Veratyr, Endymion, Antrum Mortis and others. This project, while productive with 2 full lengths and various demos […]
Last month marked the 20th anniversary of Metallica’s S&M show with the San Francisco symphony. I was at that show, and it was a grand and sonic spectacle, as the band jammed out on stage with a phalanx of tuxedoed musicians and film composer Michael Kamen wielding the conductor’s baton. For most of the metal […]
I’ve said in prior reviews from this new-ish Ohio based label, I really like the direction the label is headed with a real focus of real death and black metal and some very cool forays into HM 2 boss styled death metal such as Inoculated Life, In Shadows and Dust, upcoming Nocturnal Hollow album and […]
Well I’ll be damned, color me impressed. Brescia, Italy’s, The Scars in Pneuma, and their debut album, The Path of Seven Sorrows, really caught me by surprise with its mature sound and songwriting. While the band cites influences from the likes of Rotting Christ, Mgla, Dissection, Be’lakor and others, in the end it’s just a […]
Sweden’s Soen well and truly emerged from the shadows of Tool on their exceptional past two albums, 2014’s Tellurian, and 2017’s Lykaia. In the process the band has established their position at the forefront of the modern progressive metal scene, deftly mixing heartfelt emotion and wintry melancholy, with complex, riff and groove heavy arrangements. Soen […]
Massachusetts has spawned some muscular, heavy rock machines over the years including Only Living Witness, Ichabod, Milligram, Scissorfight, Birch Hill Dam, Roadsaw, Sam Black Church, Tree and Honkeyball just to name a few. The unique thing that many of these bands did was that they incorporated intricate punk/hardcore influences into their sounds, even if only […]
Creating anything is hard, even if you’re a master of your craft. I don’t care if you’re Spielberg, Scorsese, Pixar, or Stephen King. You still need to take your raw, half-formed idea, and then use all of your skill, experience, judgment, and persistence to shape it into something that measures up to or surpasses your […]
This is a split cd which also includes the following bands, in addition to Sacrificial Slaughter: Coathanger Abortion and Rottenness. Mike Juliano’s HPGD label has always been one of favorite underground labels where I have discovered new and exciting bands. If you have never heard either one of these bands, this is a good place […]
Back in 2013, Germany’s Sulphur Aeon made quite a splash in the death metal genre with their churning Lovecraftian based debut album, Swallowed By the Ocean’s Tide, then followed it up with the more miasmal, Gateway to the Antisphere is 2015, an album that had lofty expectations but still grew on me. Both albums made my year-end […]
So imagine Mastodon got heavier instead of more progressive, added some Crowbar heft to a stoner metal backbone and were suddenly from Australia and you’d get Sydney’s Sumeru and their raucous second album, Summon Destroyer. After the intro, “Inanis Kultus” the band dive in to “The Temple”, and it’s a bit of a soft opening for the album as […]
It is no secret my love of the releases of Everlasting Spew Records knows no bounds. They continue to put out incredible release after incredible release. This might be one of their best ones of the year. International Super group Serocs puts on a literal clinic with their 2018 release The Phobos/Deimos Suite. Where to […]
Man! This is release is totally out of my comfort zone so bear with me if I seem like NWOBHM is a new language to me. Newcastle England’s Satan have returned with their fourth full length studio release Cruel Magic. I was initially turned on to Satan by the singer of the band I am […]
I have no prior experience with progressive Netherlands symphonic, melodic death/black metal duo, Shylmagoghnar ( a moniker the duo created), but their second album, Transience is one of the most wondrous albums of the year. Seriously, this is a really good album. It reminds me a little of Disillusion and their progressive melodic death metal magnum opus […]
I dug the second album, The Undying Season, from this US based melodic death metal band, but for some reason never checked out the follow up, 2016s Neuronic Saw. Maybe because it didn’t have the big name power of Oliver Pinnard (Neuraxis, Vengeful) or drumming royalty FLo Mournier or Dirk Verbueren like its its predecessors did, […]
Did you find your self craving the new Jungle Rot record this year? Do you like meat and potatoes? Do you like chunky, no frills Death metal? Did you enjoy Grave’s last 4 albums? if you answered yes to the previous questions, just go ahead and order the third album from Germany’s Supreme Carnage. Seriously- what […]
Considering my love of all things symphonic, especially symphonic black metal and even more especially my love of French horns and brass, you’d think i’d be more aware of Hungary’s Sear Bliss. I have heard the name whispered on the lips of the elite with 2004s Glory and Perdition often mentioned as a classic black […]
I’ll tell you what, Transcending Obscurity Records, is having a strong run here recently. The tiny Independent Indian label has churned out excellent releases from the likes of Jupiterian, De Profundis, Gaerea , Down Among the Dead Men, and one of the best death metal records of the year in Depravity’s Evil Upheaval, and that with […]
I have to hand to to Travis Weickum. He has been fronting Colorado’s Skinned now since 1995 and over the course of 4 albums, 2 splits, some demos and singles, some on labels, many independent. He has been the sole member of Skinned that’s been on all of them amid a whirlwind on members that has […]
I was drawn to the 4th album from Switzerland’s Stortregn (Swedish for ‘downpour’) by the as always killer Dan Seagrave artwork alone as I had never heard of this band or any of their albums. But as what happens a few times on blindly checking out a promo, I ended up really liking this band and […]
I dug the 2014 debut, Nightmare Vortex, from these German, Autopsy lovin’ ( Slaughterday is a song from the bands Mental Funeral album ) fiends, but for some reason completely missed the 2016 follow up, Laws of the Occult, which has been rectified since getting this EP for review, and its a little barnstormer of an EP The […]
Maybe it’s a bit premature, considering I am writing this review in what is still the first quarter of 2018, but for the time being, I am putting money on the U.K.’s Slugdge‘s new album, Esoteric Malacology, to be the album of the year for many a metalhead; or a contender for the title at […]
I’ve long championed Philadelphia’s Starkweather as a horribly underrated force in American metal. But with only 4 album since 1992, the less than prolific noisemongers keep themselves on the outer fringes of metal popularity, and that’s probably a good thing as more album like 2006’s landmark Croatoan or 2010s This Sheltering Night, might be too […]
California’s Skeletal Remains have composed and performed one of the year’s best death metal albums with their 3rd studio full length record Devouring Mortality. The attention to detail exhibited is outstanding. Starting off with Dan Seagrave’s brilliant cover artwork (Morbid Angel, Entombed, Malevolent Creation), these guys clearly wanted to present the look of an early […]