Listen, I have my guilty pleasures, and one of them is female fronted or dual vocals (‘beauty and the beast’ I call it) styled Gothic/symphonic metal (or ‘cleavage-core’, for the kids) . Since the days of Thalarion and Beseech, How Like A Winter, early The Gathering, Theatre of Tragedy, Draconian, Epica and Delain and Tristania, and more […]

I’m so very happy, but I’M ALSO FUCKING PISSED. I’m happy as I always am any time I discover a new band I’ve never heard, especially one that falls in that sweet thrashy death wheelhouse that makes me all giddy and tingly inside. And I’m doubly happy to discover one that includes a female lead […]

So recently, I have received a few progressive experimental and often symphonic metal/death metal albums. The Outsider‘s one man effort, From Ancient and Forbidden Books, Orbit Culture’s hammering, Gojira worshiping self titled album, and this, the second effort from the UKs Rannoch. With Opeth and Gojira worn openly on their sleeve, Rannoch delivers 12 tracks […]

When the new thrash bands started to re-emerge in the 2000’s one of the best bands, that put many of the bigger acts to shame were and still is California’s Warbringer.  I was lucky enough to catchy them on their debut album tour for War Without End when they toured with Exodus and Kreator.  I […]

I have a lot of inappropriate shirts. Perhaps my favorite is my Carach Angren “You came to the wrong forest, mother fucker.” It’s not my Satanic Warmaster shirt where someone is getting sawed in half through the genital region, which I once accidentally wore (or so I told my girlfriend at the time) to the […]

Originally self released last year, but picked up by Prosthetic Records for a CD and gorgeous baby blue/purple swirl LP, Eternity’s End is the debut from this Ohio based melodic death metal trio featuring 2 members of Viking metal band Hammer Horde and 1 from Blood of the Prophets. Don’t let the term melodic death […]

Well, isn’t this just a barrel of rainbows and fucking unicorns? Scottish Hardcore rays of sunshine Razor Sharp Death Blizzard obviously aren’t mincing words about their current outlook on life. If it’s light-of-heart positivity and joy you’re looking for, just keep walking, friend – ‘cuz This shit is bleak. Like, BLEAK bleak. Somebody please give […]

I know it’s a broad, sweeping generalization, but it’s a pretty common phenomenon for metal, and death metal in particular to have a geographical sound or recognizable style. You’ve got Sweden’s buzzsaws, Florida’s punchy technicality, New Yawk’s groove, Finland’s filth and Canada’s uber complexity. But what is Norway’s know death metal sound? It’s not really […]

Montréal, Quebec’s ultra-brutal tech-death/deathcore act Beneath The Massacre return with their fourth album, Fearmonger.  The band seemingly going into a hibernation for some years, as their last album Incongruous, was released in 2012.  Much of the band has remined intact, the newest member is Anthony Barone, on drums.  When bands are so over-the-top brutal I […]

I’ll make a full confession so you know where I stand. I am a Lamb of God fanboy. I have the Wrath era logo tattooed on me in what was, at the time, the most painful place I had yet to receive a tattoo (I will not confirm or deny if it was my b-hole). […]

I’m a big believer in being honest with yourself. Knowing who, and what you are (and just as importantly, aren’t) goes a long way towards helping you build a happy, successful life for yourself. That’s not to say that personal growth and exploring new things is by any means a bad thing or useless endeavor […]

Epic doom isn’t really my thing. Well, it never used to be. Sure, one of my favorite vocalists of all time is Ronnie James Dio. I have no children, so the closest I have is my black cat and his name is Dio, so that’s the best tribute I can give. Side note: I picked […]

For years I have seen the Collision band logo and never investigated them until now. They hail from The Netherlands and stated in 2000. They have several albums under their belt and The Final Kill is their newest release-a 7 song ep. Collision plays a hybrid blend of thrash-crossover mixed with brutal grindcore. When I […]

I know this review is a month or so late but it’s been 18 years since the last actual…And Oceans album so, I think I’m good So, after 18 years, … And Oceans are back and not just back, but back to their symphonic black metal roots that they abandoned when they became more industrial […]

I once read a review regarding Belgium’s Pestifier and their then, sophomore release, Reaching the Void, where the group was described as sounding like a collision of Obscura, Beyond Creation, and Vektor. I’ve always like that analogy of the band. It’s true, clean, concise, and includes by association other influential acts such as Pestilence, Death, […]

There must be a huge Finnish or Scandinavian poplace or cultural influence in Canada right? Other wise  why is there such a surprisingly  large amount of solid Finnish sounding epic/folk/viking bands there? Blackguard/Profugus Mortis, Crimson Shadows, Vesperia/Bolero, Battlesoul. Will of the Ancients, Nordheim, Valfreya just to name a few. Well, add Vancouver’s Atavistia to that […]

All hail Hail Spirit Noir who hail from Greece. These gentlemen caught my ears and eyes when they released Oi Strigoi all the way back in the “before times” in 2014. I was, and remain a big fan of that album, so I was excited when they released Mayhem in Blue in 2016. While I […]

As I peruse through albums I might consider year end candidates I see a lot of black metal; …And Oceans, Abduction, Kryptamok, Aara, Afsky, Eisenkult, Glaciation, Marrasmieli  to name a few. But there is very little truly special  death metal.Sure there’s some good stuff like the always reliable Abysmal Dawn,  The Project Hate‘s Purgatory or […]

When I heard a few months back that Ulcerate was working on a new album, I couldn’t have been more excited.  I own their entire LP catalog, and after seeing them live in San Antonio 4-5 years ago, I was floored at the atmosphere they create and the fact that they were able to produce […]

Christ this is the 13th full-length Sinister album.  I really don’t count Dark Memorials as a 14th album because that was an album made up of cover songs. I’ve been a long time fan of the band ever since I heard the debut Cross the Styx and first saw them on tour in support of […]

Well, imagine my surprise when I was perusing the promos and found a new release from one of my most favorite bands, Behemoth. It’s not a new full length, unfortunately, but an EP titled A Forest, which has two versions of the song by the same title originally recorded by The Cure. There’s a recorded […]

I’m not sure what to make of the U.K.’s Lucid Conformity and their debut album, Architects of Madness. While it’s definitely not a bad album per se, I’m not willing to throw out heaps of praise or vital recommendations for it either. The fact that the group/duo employs more than a few, i.e. way too […]

I’ve been feeling a bit… contemplative, lately. Join the club, right? We’re all finding ourselves in a world that just sorta… isn’t the one we knew it to be. And all this time in quarantine has given everyone time to really think about their lives. Are you happy with the way that it’s going? Are […]

As I mentioned in my Glaciation review, Ive been on a French metal kick and the third album from Abduction might be the best of the bunch so far this year. One of my cohorts reviewed their prior album A L’heure du Crépuscule, and succinctly threw around bands like Borknagar, Arcturus, Ved Buens Ende, and […]

In 1989 Sepultura’s Beneath the Remains solidified the band as being able to compete with the bigger thrash metal acts as this was a ferocious death/thrash metal assault.  To this day my favorite Sepultura album is their second album, Schizophrenia, from 1987.  I was a fan since Morbid Visions, from 1986.  And I missed meeting […]