Average doom, thy name is Witchsorrow. Not much has changed since their debut in 2010. They are still plying the same straightforward style of doom rooted in classic St. Vitus and Cathedral. God Curse Us is as decent as their debut and unfortunately just as unremarkable. And that’s really as far as it goes. Nothing […]

Tired of overly clean, triggered production jobs and some of the more generic, sterile aspects of modern death metal?  Finland’s Desolate Shrine might just be the antidote you are looking for.  Hot on the heels of their 2011 debut Tenebrous Towers; the gut-wrenching The Sanctum of Human Darkness is the depraved follow-up.   This is dark […]

Dynfari is a new band to the blackish metal scene, but they are a prolific one. After forming in 2010, the Icelandic duo of Jón Emil (percussion, guitars) and Jóhann Örn (vocals, bass, guitars) have already released two full-length albums. Their self-titled debut ran just under the 45-minute mark, but their latest release, Sem Skugginn […]

Trust me, there is nothing Stagnant about the debut from  this avant garde black metal French-Norwegian collaboration. On a label run by a guy with ties to the likes of  Mayhem, Darkthrone, Ulver, Ved Buens Ende, Virus, Fleurety, Ihsahn, Arcturus, Manes and Solefald and featuring Svein Egil Hatlevik of Fleurety and Dødheimsgard fame, you might […]

Cult of Fire are described as “the new Czech masters of atmospheric black metal,” following in the tradition of forebears like Master’s Hammer and Root. A lofty statement, but once you hear Triumvirát, it’s an undeniable one as well. (And if those names aren’t enough for you, drummer Tom Coroner also led a previous life […]

Stoner rock seems to be leaking into death metal a bit more and more these days. Coffins, Acid Witch, and Hooded Menace have all managed to incorporate weedy grooves in to traditionally dark and dreary doomy death metal and have done it pretty damn well. With a member of death metallers Invasion and Nocturnal Torment […]

Compelled to check this release out by an excellent review by my good friends over at metalreview.com, I was greeted by a very intriguing but also polarizing release. Touted as experimental black metal, I was expecting something, well black metal-y from this anonymous, robe and mask clad UK act (for some reason, I want to […]

Beyond Threshold sounds like a fitting moniker for a thrash, or perhaps melodic death, or maybe even a metalcore band.  Instead, on their second album Who We Are, Beyond Threshold dish out a perplexing blend of commercially-inclined heavy rock with a big dose of late 90’s to early 00’s nu-metal.  Not exactly a musical recipe […]

Haiduk is the Canadian, one man project of one Luca Milojica. And while the trend for most one man metal is of the blackened or depressive kind with a few exceptions, Haiduk (apparently a term for Balkan freedom fighters)  is actually rather good thrash/death metal  and you wouldn’t really know it was a one man […]

If you are sending Teeth of the Divine (that’s us) self-released demos and/or other releases, a couple of things will get you noticed and probably reviewed. First, it helps if you are good. A recent example of this being the six track demo from Poland’s Hyperial. Or, number two, you have some sort of intriguing […]

Sweden’s Aeon is back with another brutal slab of their blasphemous brand of Floridian-styled death metal.  Aeons Black is their fourth album, and not a great deal has changed since dropping their Unique Leader debut Bleeding the False, back in 2005.  Aeon have never really had progression in mind, instead following a tried and true […]

One of the better releases of late 2012, Snakereigns is a strong album overflowing with punk-laden black & roll rife with aggression and attitude. Sporting a meaty, angry sound and songs full of energy, the execution of Oslo’s Okkultokrati lies somewhere between vintage Celtic Frost, Fear, Venom and newer black ‘n’ roller’s Midnight. It’s difficult […]

Originally released back in 2009 on vinyl, the initial run of this split sold old. At just 500 records pressed, it was only a matter of time before this 7” was gone forever. Considering the slow groundswell that Tokyo, Japan’s Coffins has been enjoying over the past few years, it was inevitable. What else that […]

Battle metallers TURISAS have officially started recording their upcoming 4th studio album. The band is currently recording drums at Atomic Spa studio in Helsinki, Finland, and they will continue the recordings in different locations until the end of January. This follow-up to 2011’s Stand Up And Fight is scheduled for a worldwide release in May […]

There is ‘hype’ and then there is the ridiculous levels of hype that has followed former Ensiferum frontman Jari Mäenpää and his post-Ensiferum project Wintersun around since their self-titled debut, 8 years ago. Numerous delays, supposed deletion of material and a few teasers later, we are finally given the follow-up to one of epic metal’s […]

For anybody wondering what happened to Chton, the answer is simple: they disappeared for a period of time to focus on other projects and when the time was right, created another album. Aside from a demo in 2006 called Death Awaits, the metal world hasn’t heard a peep for the Trondheim, Norway residents since their […]

Germany’s Finsterforst have lurked in the Black Forest for a few years now. After 2007’s under the radar debut Weltenkraft the band unleashed …Zum Tode Hin to the world. And after sticking to a pretty rigid, bouncy Finnish folk formula, Finsterforst changed up their sound morphing into a sprawling, Bathory inspired sound with lengthy, rangy anthemic songs build around their black metal base. Armed with a new deal with Folk/Viking powerhouse Napalm Records, the band is ready to reveal their epic sound to a wider audience with Rastloss, a vast, epic album that cull Hammerheart and classic Moonsorrow. Guitarist Simon Schillinger was kind enough to answer a few questions about the band’s imminent explosion onto the Viking/folk metal scene.

Somewhere between their debut, Weltenkraft and their second effort Zum Tode Hin, Germany’s Finsterforst made a subtle change from a pure Equilibrium-worship band playing a more bouncy and uptemo form of blacked viking/folk metal, to a more somber and slower paced band more akin to Bathory with only hints of folky Equlibrium-isms. Well, on their Napalm Records […]

Having some Hirax and Metal Church blood in their ranks at one point or another, and hailing from L.A. in quite the audible fashion, I gotta say Heretic gets quite the hype sauce a’boilin’ as they’re rushing back into the scene after almost a quarter of a century with this record. Still, I find it […]

It could be said that all music is mood music because who honestly puts on an album they aren’t in the mood for? We’ve all got go-to albums for our moods. Records we put on when we’re sad, when we want to relax, when we cook. Birth Control is the kind of album to listen […]

Lurking somewhere between the doom stylings of It Will Come and the sludgy hues of Mares of Thrace, Swiss all female act shEver released their second full-length album, Rituals, earlier this year and it instantly gives a shot in the arm to all female bands, breaking away from the current trend of smoky voiced ‘vest metal’.  […]

Century Media Records is proud to welcome Swedish black metal extremists WATAIN to its worldwide family. Legitimately labeled as genre leaders, deservedly awarded with a Swedish Grammy, playing the world’s biggest stages and touring the globe constantly while reaching numerous top positions in the annual reader’s polls, WATAIN have worked hard and achieved a lot […]

I’m typically one that’s all for experimentation and avant-garde elements in music, I respect most musicians that push envelopes and boundaries with their music. However, sometimes it gets a little too much for me and that’s the case with Botanist — a one man plant-themed project delivered from the point of view of a man […]

Are there any bands out there that still play early era metal? Does the San Francisco Bay Area have a true underground metal scene? Can bearded fans of satanic death metal get along with metalcore scene kids? These burning questions have brought me to Music Ink in San Jose, California, where a group of local bands have taken over a music school to hold the very first Screams of Metal Festival.

The gents over at Horror Pain Gore Death Productions have been steady with their reissues and whatnot. This time around, the label was kind enough to re-release the out of print EP from Canada’s thrash troupe Minax. Vengeance Rising is a collection of five pissed off, riff-laden thrash tracks that are as in your face […]