Chicago’s Black Sites make a welcome return with third LP Untrue, the follow-up to 2019’s impressive sophomore album, Exile. Since their inception in 2016, Black Sites have been on a steady upward trajectory, bringing their old school trad metal sound into the here and now, adding modern crunch and progressive elements into the mix. Now […]

There was a time in the late 90s early 00s that I was all fucking in on Viking metal, Enslaved were still sort of Viking based, Moonsorrow were releasing downright epic albums like Voimasta ja kunniasta and Kivenkantaja, Amon Amarth were blowing up and releasing albums every month. And at the forefront of my Viking […]

My man Ray Lopez, owner of Thrash Corner Records recently re-released this debut album on CD, from Sweden’s Cruentus.  Night Embrace Me is 10 songs of blackened/death/thrash metal.  The opening song, “Slain”, gets things underway quickly.  Some early Skeletonwitch influence are evident early on.  The one thing, well there are many, that you will notice […]

‘M’ or ‘Mories’ or his real name, Maurice De Jong, as he is known here, is the Netherlands’ black metal version of Rogga Johansson. He’s in double-digit bands, though I’ve onlyheard  Gnaw Their Tongues,  and arguably his most known creation and De Magia Veterum, as I reviewed releases by both on this very site.   And […]

I know, I know. Jinjer. Despite their hype and relative fame based on the seemingly hundreds of YouTube “reaction” videos, they’re still worth a listen. Or several. They’re more deserving of mainstream metal acclaim than a lot the bands who receive it. They write great, memorable songs, and have one of the most talented and […]

Like it or not, deathcore is having a pretty solid comeback over the last couple or years, and it appears to be peaking in 2021 with Unique Leader Records leading the charge with releases from the likes of Distant, Osiah, To The Grave, Humanity’s Last Breath, Mental Cruelty, Worm Shepherd, Bound In Fear, (a few […]

Infidel Reich is back with their third release, their second full length New World Outrage.  Another bombardment of Motörhead meets Sodom battalion of brutal death/thrash metal with smatterings of punk and even Carnivore.  After kind of a meaningless intro  “Sic Semper Tyrannis” comes bursting through with a killer riff which repeats throughout the album.  I […]

A freshly minted project comprising members of Rimfrost, Sweden’s Son of Sam features dynamic duo Throllv (vocals, drums, guitars, keyboards) and Khratos (bass, guitars, backing vocals), joining forces to create a vastly different and uniquely separate entity from their main project. Although the album seems to have flown under the radar since its mid-year release, […]

I honestly don’t know how they keep doing it. Seriously, Belgium’s Aborted has been on a consistent roll for damn near a solid decade now. The band, having just released their eleventh full-length album entitled Maniacult, are once again steamrolling over the scene and their peers with a fantastic display of seething viciousness that nary […]

My top 3 most anticipated albums of 2021 were Gojira, Wolf King, and Rivers of Nihil. I may also be forgetting some. However, Gojira was massively disappointing, Wolf King exceeded my expectations, and Rivers of Nihil probably have no chance of a reaching the heights I believe this band can achieve. So, it’s already clear […]

Let me start out by saying I’ve rewritten this intro and parts of the subsequent review 3 times now. That’s what happens when I have way too much time with an album and question the articulation of my thoughts. I’m always trying to write a funny, witty, creative, suitably childish intro, and sometimes when I […]

A love of Video Games, Lovecraft, and Morbid Angel.   An Interesting mix.  Tim Rowland’s solo Alchemy of Flesh project is one of the biggest surprises of the year in my opinion.   The attention to detail in gear selection and sound is quite impressive here.  Something else that catches my attention is the killer artwork by […]

France may well be known by most as being the land of wine, cheese and romance. But those of us in the world of all things metal also know it’s home to some of the finest, most forward-thinking and respected metal acts in the world. Gojira, Deathspell Omega, Alcest, Blut Aus Nord – the list […]

Very late last year, I was introduced to Boston’s Seven Spires, with their second album, Emerald Seas, and immediately fell in love with them, largely due to vocalist Adrienne Cowan (who surprisingly used to be the keyboard player for deathcore act, Winds of Plague). Her range and power on songs like “Bury You” , “Succumb” […]

The metal universe is chock full of legendary, long lasting acts who delivered album after album of excellence or at least some level of  consistency, even with a misstep or two; for example, Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Bolt Thrower, Dismember, Iron Maiden, Slayer, Incantation, Deicide, Suffocation etc.

But for every one of those bands that had the right recipe for longevity and quality, there are 50 or more that never ‘made’ it. And my made it, we mean they just had one killer album or EP and for any number of reasons, never followed that release up.

Let’s start off by saying “female-fronted metal” is not a thing. Well, let me walk that back. It’s definitely a THING, it’s just not a genre. If you’re one of those who thinks it is, I pose to you; Do Jinjer, Arch Enemy, Brutus, Nightwish, Capra, Lady Beast, and Cripper all sound the same? I […]

I know what you’re thinking, “Why the hell is Flotsam and Jetsam‘s latest full-length, Blood in the Water, being reviewed now, months after the album’s release in June”? Well, I can give you two reasons for this. First, and this is the most important reason, Blood in the Water is 100% THE SHIT. This album […]

GOD DAMN. So, four albums in, most people familiar with the modern Metallic Hardcore scene probably need no introduction to the UK’s Employed to Serve. The explosive voice of Justine Jones along with her compatriot bruisers have made quite an impact in a world of heavy hitters the likes of Knocked Loose, Code Orange and […]

This was a heavy duty order for me to review, Senjutsu, the 17th album from my favorite metal band of all time, Iron Maiden.  Maiden’s earlier output from the debut up until Fear of the Dark are all my favorite Maiden albums.  The first time I heard them was when I was 10 years old […]

Well I’ll be damned, as far as this Texas boy is concerned, Brooklyn, New York’s melodic death metal troupe, Winter Nights, just released about as perfect of an EP as you can get, I tell you what. Sky Burial is four tracks, eighteen minutes and fifty-one seconds, and some of the best melodic death metal […]

This past year has been a tough one for… well, so goddamn many reasons. But in particular, the last year has seen the Metal community lose a heartbreaking amount of legendary and highly influential artists. LG Petrov (Entombed, Firespawn), Alexi Laiho (Children of Bodom, Bodom After Midnight), Sven Gross (Fleshcrawl), Mike Howe (Metal Church, Heretic), […]

Pessimist started in Maryland in the early 90’s and had a bunch of hype surrounding them and I became friends with guitarist Kelly Mclauchlin through mutual friends.  To see him see me back with Internal Bleeding 3 years ago in the mid-west -wearing the Voracious Contempt purple tour longsleeve from the tour was a huge […]

“Our stories won’t be written with ink and mirth. But carved in flesh and the soul of the earth. The whispers of the wind will cease to be. All we hear is the wailing of the oceans plea” – “The Archive”. Arkivet (Archive) is the third album from stellar, fast-rising new Swedish melodic black metal […]

The debut album, Misery Sermon from these track suit and mask wearing Russian deathcore thugs was one of my guilty pleasures of 2017, but then they went a bit quiet for a couple of years. But a flurry of singles and videos in 2019, 2020 and 2021 (and even got the famed metal gunner/drummer treatment […]

Do not be alarmed, but the UK’s Beyond Grace are about to unleash an absolute BANGER on your unsuspecting asses. If you listened to their debut Seekers back in 2017, you may be expecting it a little bit, but son, you don’t even fucking know. If you haven’t heard it, definitely check out Seekers because […]