I’ve been on a huge Lord of the Rings/ Tolkien kick recently and have been seeking out some music to satiate my need, enter Swedish duo Morcaint. Mornië Utúlië is the follow-up to last year’s Ellesar EP, and the duo of Ulvtyr and main composer Heruhim certainly know their way around Tolkein-themed atmospheric and melancholic […]

Maggot Stomp, as I have stated before, is one of the best smaller, underground death metal labels out there.  They have been responsible for finding talent, early in a band’s career, and then the band blows up and gets bigger offers, such as Sanguisugabogg and Frozen Soul, jumping ship to Century Media Records a few […]

Spain’s Totengott returns with their third album, Beyond the Veil, and first for Hammerheart Records.  I have enjoyed their prior two albums, Doppelgänger and The Abyss quite a lot.  The band originally started as a Celtic Frost cover band and their primary influence falls in line with the monstrous Monotheist reformation album as well as […]

“Can I offer you a nice egg in this trying time?” –Frank Reynolds In this case, the egg is the 20th Anniversary edition of one of my favorite albums of all time, the seminal Ashes of the Wake. Wait, wasn’t there a 15th anniversary reissue? Yes, yes there was. As for the “trying time,” just […]

Greece’s Hail Spirit Noir is one of the most experimental bands out there.  Their last album, Mannequins, from 2021 I reviewed on here and I still really enjoy it.  This was their most audacious piece of work because it was made up of more synth/wave, 80’s horror movie instrumentals and sounds.  Only a handful of […]

After a killer year in 2022, but then a relatively slow year in 2023, Symphonic/blackened Deathcore is back to having a superb 2024 with killer releases from Synestia/Disembodied Tyrant, Drown in Sulfur, Eden Adversary, Ruins of Perception, A Wake in Providence, The Archaic Epidemic, Vile Revelation, Downfall of Mankind and of course, Immortal Disfigurement (the […]

I love French Black Metal, and that goes back to the early 2000s when I first heard Mutiilation, Anorexia Nervosa, Deathspell Omega and Osculum Infame. From the press release: Gravenoire was formed in early 2022 by Maximilien Brigliadori (BÂ’A, Diablation, former Hyrgal), Emmanuel Zuccaro (BÂ’A, Verfallen, former Hyrgal), Vicomte Vampyr Arkames (Diablation (former Seth / […]

Australia’s Werewolves have returned with their fifth album Die for Us, having released an album, each year, since their 2020 debut The Dead Are Screaming.  This time around, no longer with Prosthetic Records, like their prior albums, have released this independently. If you have slept under a rock for the last five years, and have […]

Reviewing the new Fulci album seems natural. I’m a huge fan of Italian horror in general, of course including Lucio Fulci. I rock a Tropical Sun back patch on what I’m certain is the greatest battle jacket ever created, I saw them live last year, and I learned seminal Italian words like “pizza” and “spaghetti” from them. […]

Forest of Shub Niggurath will be released on September 10th, 2024, via Xtreem Music on CD and digital platforms. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWM5FQM53KQ Veteran Swedish death metal band PAGANIZER has officially signed with Xtreem Music for the release of their new EP, Forest of Shub Niggurath, which will serve as a prelude to their forthcoming album in 2025. The band has also […]

I’ve reviewed a fair amount of Denmark’s, Crocell’s releases and have enjoyed all of their albums.  The band started out as a pretty hefty sounding melodic, but chunky, style of death metal.  Several years ago the influx of black metal began to permeate into their releases and with their sixth long-player Of Frost, of Flame, […]

Album number 6 from Italy’s master of symphonic/orchestral brutal death metal sees more lineup changes, much like 2019s Veleno. And while they certainly weathered the changes admirably (replacing long-time members Christiano Trionfera and Tommaso Ricardi departing, Francisco Paoli moving from drums to vocals), with a really good album that even showed some more controlled and restrained songs, […]

Along with Morgue and Sun of Nothing, Axamenta is yet another band I have not heard in 15-20+ years that I am hearing after a really long gap in 2024. I first heard these epic, melodic Belgians on 2001’s Codex Barathi, but it was on 2006s Ever-Arch-I-Tech-Ture , where they delivered a dizzying true tour […]

Boston’s Seven Spires were never on my radar until 2021, when our illustrious site owner, Erik “The Brave”, gave a glowing review to Gods of Debauchery, the band’s third album.  I loved the album so much, it made my year end list and I went through their back catalog to obtain their two prior full […]

I’ve loved Dark Ambient Music or ‘Dungeon synth’ music since the first time I heard Mortiis’ Født til å herske, but even before his music, I loved Midnight Syndicate. They were a Halloween and night drive staple, as well as Thou Shalt Suffer‘s Somnium; yes I’m bouncing around years, no I don’t care. I really […]

Some black metal bands just get it!!!  One such band, who were one of the best at this, but sadly no longer around, was Aosoth, from France.  When listening to Akhlys, one would not necessarily think this was an American band.  However, over the last number of years, the States have been experiencing a swell […]

Embracing change is a good thing, even if it is rarely the easy thing. The whole idea of “change” in and of itself demands you abandon the comfort of predictability and stability, to reach out beyond the walls of your safe zone and explore new possibilities – all without any guarantee that the new seeds […]

Did you ever get suckered by a trailer or a teaser trailer? Ya know a quick glimpse of a movie, that teases something really cool? And then you watch the final product and it is kind of a letdown as it showed the cool stuff in the teaser/trailer ( when did teasers for trailers become […]

Ours is a country in turmoil. We are divided as never before in our history, trust in the government is at an all-time low and naturally, the conspiracy theories are whizzing by like… bullets that don’t necessarily hit their marks. But lurking below the heat-baked streets are the CrusHumans, bent on destroying everything in their […]

Canada’s brutal blackened /grind space death metal band Fractal Generator is back with their third album Convergence.  I am a huge fan of their debut Apotheosynthesis and the follow-up  Macrocosmos.  This band is a very intriguing and original band in many ways.  I find them exciting.  All their albums boast awesome artwork too, as this […]

I was going to make an intro joke about Forgotten Tomb being, you know, forgotten, but I realized I did that for their last album. So, there goes my opener. I’m going to move on and pretend for now that my wit has evolved. Hopefully Forgotten Tomb has as well. Nightfloating is the band’s 11th […]

If you did a ‘Big 4’ of symphonic deathcore, who ya got? For me, the first 3 are easy shoo-ins; Lorna Shore, Mental Cruelty, and Shadow of Intent. But who is the 4th band when you take into account things like productivity, quality, longevity, and consistency? Worm Shepherd? Maybe.Immortal Disfugurement? Only one album. But I’m […]

Original second Sepultura guitarist, Jairo “Tormentor”, returns with the follow-up to the 2022 debut album, Antichrist Reborn, with The Troops of Doom new 11-song offering, A Mass to the Grotesque.  I reviewed the last album and there other EP’s and the entire line-up, since the 2020 band’s inception remains intact.  This provides continuity in the […]

Scald is a name that appears in heavy metal lore. Specifically, the epic doom genre, or as their new album indicates, Ancient Doom Metal. I was taken aback when I saw that they were going to be releasing a new album, considering the first and only was in 1997. I heard Will of the Gods […]

I’ve been in a weird mood lately, things haven’t been catching my ear, which can be attested to the mountain of material that I could write about. But I got this promo the other day and I can’t stop listening to it, going on three days it’s been in rotation already. The ‘this’ that I’m […]