This past year has surely been a busy year for Mr. Patrick Mameli, singer and guitarist for Pestilence.  Their first four albums were remastered and reissued in deluxe formats and I reviewed all four of them here.  Perfect reissues!  Patrick has assembled a brand new Pestilence line-up:  Calin Paraschiv on lead guitar, Tilen Hudrap on […]

I will attempt to do Watain’s ardent supporters proud by this review. Understand that I am new to the Watain camp, so forgive me if you disagree with me. Deepsend Records owner and friend, Graham Landers, recommended this new Watain to me and I was hooked. He guided me through their discography and within a […]

Delaware’s Scorched impressed me when I saw them live, recently on the Morta Skuld and Embalmer tour and they were cool dudes. Kick ass tour!! I picked up the debut album, Echoes of Dismemberment. This album destroys and I immediately recognized a bunch of their songs, from the live show. The singer Matt Kapa gave […]

I’ve been a big fan of Malaysia’s Humiliation, brand of war inspired death metal, for a number of years. They release an album every year, along with some splits to boot. The band is always writing new music. As we speak they are writing their 9th album. Their brand of Bolt Thrower/classic Obituary/Hail of Bullets […]

It’s been 5 years since Death Strike, the solid second effort from this Dismember/Grave worshiping Dutch act, and although this was released on vinyl and digital last year, I waited with baited breath for the CD version from FDA Records, and it was worth the wait. The formula is the same; well executed Dismember meets  […]

Milwaukee Wisconsin’s Morta Skuld released a monstrous debut album in 1993, Dying Remains and I listened to it constantly.  Beyond quality death metal, with some thrash metal tendencies, but leaning more towards the brutal side of things, like Demolition Hammer and eventually some Solstice influence.  Well fast forward 24 years later and I get to […]

I was fairly impressed with Discreation’s 2015 effort Procreation of the Wretched , a solid European death metal record from a group of Germans I had never heard of. The album took a while to get going, but its last 2/3 was pretty damn good. End of Day, does not take a while to get […]

Ever wonder what it would sound like if Angel Corpse and Dark Funeral spat forth some sort of infernal Black Death hybrid that aggressively mean and just down right nasty.  Sweden’s Degial’s third full length effort Predator Reign is savage listen that wastes no time in pummeling the listener right off the bat.   Opening up […]

There are some similarities between Germany’s Corrosive and Sweden’s Entrails. Both were active in the 90s but never really became fully productive until the reformed on the 00s. Also, both play a beefy, killer form of Old school death metal with a heavy emphasis on killer grooves and Stockholm based riffage. Corrosive isn’t quite on […]

So it’s winter. 2018. New year, yet mankind is consuming the planet, waiting to be devoured by global warming and other cataclysmic events. So what’s a good way to get rid of all that negativity? Look back at the summer of 2017 and Tuska festival’s 20th Anniversary.

Even though he has long championed his home country (India) and other Asian bands , Transcending Obscurity Records owner Kunal Choksi has outdone himself with the second effort from Mumbia’s Gutslit. You’d would have no idea these guys were from India once you hit play, as the band culls from a plethora of brutal influences […]

What do you get when you cross the most successful and popular NWOBHM band, Iron Maiden, the (slightly) darker thrash of King Diamond and even Iced Earth, the swagger of Motorhead, and the headstrong dominance of Manowar, with ass kicking XX chromosomes of mighty frontwoman power? Lady Beast, you get Lady Beast my friends. Wait… […]

As usual. when the dust has settled on a year, a few late year releases find their way into my hands and miss  the deadline for year end lists, but certainly need some attention, and this is the case  with the second album from the UKs Monolith Cult, a new act to me. In my […]

Delving into this release just from the initial look at the cover, the imagery of the band members, logo etc,  I will admit, it is a bit different soundwise than expected. Nothing bad mind you, it’s just going in, I was expecting a cold, speed assault similar to Marduk and their brethren but what I’m […]

All four of these albums were previously remastered in 1999 and now we get reissues of a reissue.  But Tom Warrior breathed new life into the sound with the help from his Triptykon bandmate V.Santura who is an excellent engineer.  Each paragraph will speak more about my experience with Celtic Frost and the added extras.  […]

Though still maligned as a genre, Deathcore had a a pretty solid year in 2017 with Aversion’s Crown, Thy Art is Murder, Oceano, Through the Eyes of the Dead, Fit For An Autopsy, Slaughter to Prevail, Conjonctive, Shadow of Intent, Boris the Blade and Reaping Asmodiea releasing solid efforts, and as the year closed out, […]

Voracious Scourge’s debut release, …Our Demise is a monstrous ep comprising some of the best members in death metal.  You have Adrie Kloosterwaard from Sinister, doing the vox, Mike Smith, ex-Suffocation drummer, Jason McIntyre and Lance Strickland, from Suture on guitar and bass.  This 5-song ep is so damn killer.””You think you know well played, […]

I’ve got to hand it to New Jersey’s Mortum, from the little snippet of material that I had heard from them before I signed up to review their new album, Eheieh Chaos, I wasn’t too impressed. The music wasn’t bad per se but it wasn’t anything new or more than just a little intriguing; yet […]

Hailing from the D.C. area, Pain Tank is a fucking unhinged bunch that rip through 13 tracks of fucking furious doom-laden, noise-blasted hardcore n’ crusty, punk grind that calls to mind Enemy Soil, Man is the Bastard, Employer/Employee, early Pig Destroyer, Skitsystem, Phobia, Inhale/Exhale era Nasum, Napalm Death and lots of other neurotic, repulsive influences.  […]

Holland’s Graceless are a new act, but feature a number of veterans from the Dutch scene from the likes of the excellent Nailgun Massacre and Soulburn, Master and Grand Supreme Bloodcourt. And the end result is what you’d expect from a collaboration of those folks. If you enjoy any of these band members other projects you […]

France’s Aosoth released one of the greatest black metal albums I ever heard in 2013-IV: An Arrow in Heart. It made my best of list and I interviewed them as well.  Nice dudes, creating some dark and brutal music.  There were a few death metal elements on the album and it was just fantastic.  Fast […]

Another year on the books, another year packed with excellent metal in every style. And while we didn’t see any significant trends emerge this year, you will notice if you look at our collective lists that there’s very little overlap in our picks. The new releases from the old guard, the standard bearers, and the heavy hitters of death, black, doom and beyond only make up a fraction of what’s offered here – everything else is new arrivals and recent rising stars. No matter where you find it, metal has never been so prolific or diverse, and that is great news for all you out there who are black of heart and hard of hearing. So get ready to dig in and get lost in the deepest bowels of the metal underground – when you come up for air, it’ll be 2018.

While Tomas Lindberg’s other 2017 project and release by The Lurking Fear (which I found to be a real snoozer), might get more press and recognition, possibly  due to the Century Media label or more prominent former and current bands members from At The Gates, Bombs of Hades, Edge of Sanity and Disfear . But the fact […]

I’m not familiar with Portugal’s Process of Guilt, but considering the country’s quality output this recently (Goldepyre, Grog, Primal Attack, The Ominous Circle, Switchtense) I thought I’d see how the country’s post rock/sludge genre was doing, and based on a review at this very site of the band’s last album, 2012’s , FÆMIN , my curiosity was peaked. […]

Technical death metal. There’s generally two type of people when regarding the sub-genre. Those that don’t like it, considering it nothing more than a noodly-broodly fretboard wankfest that’s more show than substance, and well, those that do. I happen to fall in the latter category and think that tech-death is some stellar shit. Honestly, I’d […]