I can’t recall ever coming across any other bands from Belarus, which I guess shouldn’t come as a surprise since, according to Metal Archives, only about 250 metal bands have ever existed there. Despite that lack of a fertile scene, Crypt of Reason have crafted three of the strongest, most promising death/doom tracks of the […]

Willowtip’s strength as a label has long been their association with forward thinking and technically proficient metal bands willing to push the envelope and challenge the listener. Naturally they have wisely broadened their roster over the years to include artists of a more cut-throat and straight-forward brand of extremity. Yet my original attraction, and continued […]

Chicago blackened death thrash troupe, IMMORTAL BIRD, are pleased to announce the release of their debut EP. Titled Akrasia, the abrasive manifestation of audio filth was recorded at Lo-Tech Laboratories this past summer by unsung Windy City sound sorcerer Jeff Ziolo, mixed by Kurt Ballou (Converge, Isis, High On Fire, Skeletonwitch) at Godcity Studio, mastered by Brad […]

Back in 2009 I reviewed the debut EP from this aptly named Italian act, and came away rather impressed with the heavy, lurching salvo and a after a 4 year wait, a debut full length via Italy’s own Memorial Records album has surfaced and it was well worth the wait. The band’s moniker fits perfectly […]

Church of Misery are an institution. When it comes to big, bluesy doom riffs they are untouchable, and if you’re into metal and have yet to hear the band’s serial killer-inspired doom boogie then I suggest you head over to Youtube, punch in “Killifornia” and give a good listen. I’ll wait… All set? Now if […]

After giving the Prosthetic records debut of Skeletonwitch, Beyond the Permafrost a relatively lukewarm review, I simply didn’t give the band’s follow ups, Breathing the Fire or Forever Abomination, the time of day, despite the band growing immensely in popularity with their modern, black thrash meets melodic death metal spin off. I simply lumped them […]

My introduction to Skeletonwitch goes back to 2007 when I first heard their second album, Beyond the Permafrost. I had wanted to get their debut, from 2004, At One with the Shadows, but it’s out of print and one day it will be reissued for the masses. However I was really digging the band and their blackened death/thrash attack. One of the main ingredients of a good band is songwriting and the band excels in that category. I could not believe the guitar melodies on the album, that not only were the songs brutal, but they were memorable and played with emotion. A lot of feeling goes into how the band constructs a song and how they incorporate the riffs. I love the albums after BTP, Breathing the Fire and Forever Abomination and own quite an array of Skeletonwitch shirts.

Portland’s Red Fang are a band I feel I should like more than I actually do.  On the surface their style of greasy heavy rock meets stoner metal jams holds great appeal.  Yet the significant hype that has been bestowed upon Red Fang and the commercial headway they have made suggests something extra special boils […]

Ossuary Anex is a brutal death metal band from Russia, so you know what to expect, since Russia is putting out some of the most vicious slam death metal bands right now.  My iTunes, when, I loaded the cd in, said it was a 2013 release, this was released pretty much on New Year’s Eve […]

What we have here is the complete discography, 26 songs in total, of now defunct Swedish act, Fulmination, who were around for a few short years in the early 90’s and featured yet to be members of Uncanny, Centinex and Entrails but never actually releasing a full length album.  The band played a pretty straightforward […]

Kentucky folk metal act , Panopticon announced via  their Facebook page that the band was now a member of the Bindrune Recordings stable. Lone member Austin Lunn further stated: “Well, here it is. The announcement I was promising. Change is inevitable and if we resist it, sometimes it can be painful. I have parted ways […]

Black metal veterans Aurora Borealis are preparing to unleash their long awaited 7th release, World Shapers early 2014 and as a teaser frontman Ron Vent has revealed the cover art as well a a video documenting the equipment used for the album’s recording: Adds Vento:   “This will mark Aurora Borealis 7th cd. Spanning 17 […]

This is fucking ugly. A bleak, miserable, experience fit only for the most masochistic listeners. Those uninitiated should stay away. If you’re still reading, you’ll be rewarded. Starting off as a way for 2 incredibly talented and classically trained musicians to take out their frustrations with music in general, Venowl was spat forth from hell […]

Somewhere in the Ukraine, Metal Scrap Records must have unearthed a lost cache of mid to late ’90s melodic death metal and just now unleashed it on the world. That or the label and the underground metal scene in Eastern Europe has just now discovered the genre, as the label has recently released a slew […]

In music, there are said to be innovators and consummators. Consummators perfect pre-existing forms; innovators pave the way for new movements. However, to draw the line that distinctly is misleading; innovators always build upon previous forms. They never innovate from scratch. Beethoven, one of the most important innovators in music, first went through an entirely […]

Mr. Dan Swanö, the renowned Swedish vocalist/multi-instrumentalist/producer (Edge Of Sanity, Nightingale, Moontower and Bloodbath, among many others) has been rather quiet for some time. Recently, it was revealed he had been working on a new collaboration with the rather unknown fellow Swede and multi-instrumentalist Ragnar Widerberg after they worked together in a Swedish music store. […]

Like a small child I’ve watched Scotland’s Man Must Die grow from their 2003 demo Season of Evil, through 2 albums on Relapse, the first Scottish band to be signed to the label. A decade later the band is releasing their 4th album, Peace Was Never An Option on Lifeforce Records — and boy is it a scorcher! A revamped lineup and a 4 year break seems to have really invigorated the band as it is easily their strongest effort since 2004’s Start Killing -debut. In these 10 years, I’ve visited with vocalist Joe McGlynn a few times, as well as other lone remaining original member, guitarist Alan McFarland, and deciphered their thick accents enough to have some great conversations. So with the band reappearing on the metal map, I reached out once more and spoke with Joe McGlynn to do some catching up…

“Art of the ugly soul. One is limiting art much too severely when one demands that only the composed soul, suspended in moral balance, may express itself there. As in the plastic arts, there is in music and poetry an art of the ugly soul, as well as an art of the beautiful soul; and […]

With UK metal and death metal in particular being in a full and impressive resurgence, one only need to look to Scotland’s Man Must Die for arguably the catalyst for the current swath of killer death metal coming from the fair isle. With 2004’s …Start Killing and then two subsequent releases on Relapse Records (2007’s […]

It wasn’t long ago that the albums you heard mostly depended on what was worth your money. With more and more music becoming easily, cheaply, and often freely accessible via services like Spotify, Bandcamp, SoundCloud, iTunes and all the full-album streams that labels are surprisingly eager to post, what you listen to nowadays is more […]

Mega thanks to Matt, from Dark Descent Records, for not only having one of the best underground record labels out there, but for also being such a cool dude.  This ep was a surprise that he sent me, I never heard of this Australian act, and San La Muerte plays a filthy dirty raw brand […]

I’ve been looking forward to this release since Blast Head announced it a few months ago. Not just because it’s a Blast Head release, and the new label is really coming into its own, but Eternium hail from St Louis, Missouri my metal bereft neck of the woods, and feature Chad Griffin, formerly of short […]

It would be easy to assume that a band who takes their name from an Electric Wizard song would fit in nicely with the bleary eyed stoner doom bands roaming metal’s landscape nowadays. It’s an easy assumption, but a wrong one. Despite the implication of their moniker, Las Vegas’ Demon Lung stands out as a […]

Having honed their craft since 2007 in the UK metal scene, Scordatura have unleashed their first full-length (originally self released but picked up by Blast Head Records), and this thing is an impressive debut. Jumping from the gates following a horror movie sample, “Necromantic Disposition” gets the show started, and the brutality starts to flow […]

Embalmer is a brutal death metal band from Cleveland, Ohio that have been around since 1989. They have gone through band members coming and going, going on hiatus, but most of they are a major influence on the brutal U.S. death metal scene, as well as many overseas bands associated in this particular genre. When I joined Internal Bleeding, in 1994, their Rotting Remains demo became one of my favorite demos of all time. Beyond brutal, fantastically brutal vocals and just well played extreme underground death metal. Back in the 90’s we played with Embalmer many times live, and they were one of the heaviest and best brutal bands that I was fortunate enough to be on the same bill with them.