Let’s put aside the pretentious subtitle of this record because it’s almost to easy to take shots at it. (And considering the quality of most tribute albums, how hard is it really to be the world’s greatest?) In fact, it may live up to its billing. It’s certainly the best of the several Ozzy tributes […]

So this is the debut of Jada Pinkett Smith’s metal band.OK, for the two of you still reading this review, the biggest problem with this record, as you might guess, is the fact that it’s not believable on any level. The band’s OK. They play a fairly solid version of nu-metal, but Smith sounds like, […]

Winter’s Bane hasn’t been one of the luckiest bands in the world. After releasing their very solid melodic power metal debut Heart of a Killer in 1993, they soon lost their lead singer – a guy by the name of Tim Owens, better known as “Ripper.” Guitarist Lou St. Paul took over the vocal duties on […]

More fine non-doom form Firebox, and upon immediate listens, Finland’s aptly titled Total Devastation reminded me of The Amenta and Scarve with their intensely ballistic take on cybernetic metal, although not quite as blackened. Of course Reclusion boasts a massive production (courtesy of Finnvox) and has the usual injections of cyber samples and programming, but […]

I really wanted to like this, even more so after the blistering opening track ‘Reaction’. Commercially gleaned metalcore with a healthy dose of modern punk and old school hardcore (Bane?), but in the end the album loses steam and ends up being lumped in with the vast hordes of faceless middle tier, cliched metalcore.If the […]

A quick look and the band members best albums of 2004 gives you a quick insight as to the style of this Italian mob of noisy young men.; Converge You Fail Me, The End Within Dividia, Isis Panopticon, oh and Converge You Fail Me. Did I mention Converge? Yep, Italian Converge lovers unite as The […]

I can’t pretend to have heard this bands prior apparently grindcore based offerings, so I cant tell you how The Healing Process compares, but what I can you that this is the best album Dying Fetus never did. With members of two of my favorite Canadian bands, the mighty Neuraxis and In Dying Days, Despised […]

2005 is shaping up to be a monstrous year for doom, as Shape of Despair, Esoteric, Novembers Doom, Pantheist, Draconian, and now Ireland’s finest musical export have fans lining up for Zoloft prescriptions all over the world. After the superb The Sullen Sulcus, Mourning Beloveth jump to tiny German label, Grau (a sub label of […]

Frantic Bleep Feature ImageThe Sense Apparatus (The End Records) If prior albums from The End by Peccatum, Arcturus, Winds, Age of Silence and Madder Mortem bored you with their overly artistic facades, Frantic Bleep is just for you. Culling elements from all the aforementioned acts and even borrowing members from Madder Mortem (Kjetil Fosseid, Daniel […]

In 2003, O Solitude was one of my favorite albums and I actually thought the band broke up after than superb effort. Well, apparently they relocated the UK (from Belgium) and had a lineup shuffle. Thank god, ‘cos now possibly the finest funeral doom band around can follow up their excellent debut with a suitably […]

Kaamos -Lucifer Rising Feature Image(Candlelight ) In 2002, amid all the Swedish retro hoopla of Bloodbath’s Resurrection Through Carnage and even original recordings from Swedish veterans Centinex, Vomitory and Fleshcrawl, one band lithely slipped under the radar that year with their self titled debut. Now, personally I didn’t care for it that much especially compared […]

Norway’s Enslaved is clearly out to redefine itself on its newest album, ISA. With a new line-up, a new label and a powerful, striking new record, Enslaved returns to the spotlight, using musical prowess, adventurous spirit and damned fine songwriting skills to direct much deserved attention. Long exploring the byways of Extreme Metal psychedelia across three albums (Mardraum through Below the Lights), the core of Enslaved, Ivar Bjornson and Grutle Kjellson, revisits the past (Vikingligr Veldi and Frost) while having a keen eye on the future. ISA is a monumental album, one which is carved in modern Thrash Metal chops, Black Metal ethos and experimental songcraft. Read on as guitarist and songwriter Ivar Bj�rnson gives insight into the new Enslaved.

The grimmest of the grimmity grim and the Kvltest of the Kvlt black metal, and it’s on Southern Lord? Talk about the law of opposites attract. With an ex-Kvist member and current members of Vulture Lord and Asmegin in its ranks, Urgehal as if you could not judge from the cover are a pure and […]

More religious themed metalcore following the likes of Symphony In Peril, Zao, The Showdown and Norma Jean, but unfortunately despite a valiant and impressively powerful effort, Alove For Enemies just don’t quite measure up to their peers. The main reason for their slightly lacking result is that despite a super punchy production and a plethora […]

I could (and most likely will) spend this whole review going down the laundry list of elements that Genghis Tron pile on a dangerously teetering table for your amusement and distraction (Grindcore, 80’s Hip-hop, Shred, Porn soundtrack funk, post-hardcore, gabber….) on this 5 song introduction to their fucked-up little world; but suffice it to say […]

I thought Trivium’s debut Ashes to Inferno held a lot of promise and so did Roadrunner apparently, snapping them up to try and reinvigorate their flagging metal roster, and they picked a good band to do it as Trivium seem while possibly herded under the vast metalcore banner, would actually seem to fit in with […]

C’mon people. DO you REALLY need me to review this? What are you expecting? Trip hop? Cyber metal? Classical music? This is a Nile album fer chrissakes, and that alone will essentially dictate whether you buy this or not based on your opinion of the last three albums. My only dilemma is dressing up this […]

When Magna Carta’s first Rush tribute, Working Man, came out in 1996, fans frothed at the premise of the day’s best progressive musicians taking cracks at the venerable Canadian pioneers. Excepting Devin Townsend’s unforgivable vocal trashing of the sacred “Natural Science,” every track was a radiant impression of the individual player: Cynic’s Sean Malone, Mr. […]

A couple of years ago Bloodbath started a mini phenomenon by paying homage to classic Swedish death metal albums such as Left Hand Path and Like an Ever Flowing Stream. By gathering a group of influential, talented musicians the album was well received in no due part to the source material. Others followed; Murder Squad, Incapacity, Ribspreader,Facebreaker as well as other veteran bands still successfully pawning that style, delivering solid albums (Dismember, Fleshcrawl, Centinex, Grave)after many years. Enter the Fins. With arguably equally a killer influence on modern metal, Amorphis and Sentenced had their own special niche in death metal, so a special group of Fins decided it was their turn to pay homage to the Swedish classics in the form of super group, ChaosBreed. If the name doesn’t give it away (a track from Entombed’s seminal Clandestine), ChaosBreed is a pure throwback death metal album, Finnish style. Complete with a Sunlight buzz and infectious grooves, the simple yet aptly titled Brutal is the collaborative effort of vocalist Taneli Jarva (The Black League, ex Sentenced), guitarist Esa Holipainen (Amorphis), guitarist Marko Tarvonen (Moonsorrow), drummer Nalle Osterman (Gandalf) and bassist Oppu Laine (ex –Amorphis), and is in fact…brutal. I caught up with Esa Holipainen to get the lowdown in this killer album as well as the band’s take on the classic era they captured perfectly.

For some reason, Kansas’s Origin seems to be one of those bands the metal community has singled out for a rather undeserved level of internet harassment. Sure, on their self-titled debut they were a mindless vortex of speed, but on follow up Informis, Infinitas, Inhumanitas, I really thought the band improved and focused somewhat although […]

So the label change from Voice of Life to the uber experimental Prophecy Productions looks to have made a slight impact on this German band that displayed huge promise on their Swanlike debut. The main change? The vocals. Vocalist/drummer Niko Knappe, despite saying otherwise in an interview I did with him, has now adopted the […]

Testament’s Seen Between the Lines DVD is basically a 1:1 copy of their 1991 VHS carrying the same name. Featuring a few chosen live cuts from the Souls of Black –era, a bunch of music videos, interviews and extra footage of the band goofing around in Tokyo. There’s some hour and a half worth of […]

For a label that already has Unearth, the signing of this band and release of their debut album seems odd considering that this band are virtually identical in every way to Unearth. With the exception of a sterner vocalist and a more gravelly production, Winter Solstice have the very same dual Swedish melodic death metal […]

At the end of my review for this band’s debut EP, Means by Which the End is Justified, on Love Lost Records, I stated that a full length album from this Florida based, Dillinger Escape Plan inspired tech core band would be pretty impressive. I didn’t know it would be on Metal Blade, but I […]

To me, God Dethroned have never quite recaptured the glorious mix of brutality and melody displayed on 1997’s The Grand Grimoire, with a string of mediocre releases following that great album up. Last years Into the Lungs of Hell came the closest of all the subsequent releases, but still didn’t touch the sophomore album in […]