Posts Tagged ‘2026’

Vreid – The Skies Turn Black

Vreid – The Skies Turn Black

Listen, I know I’m late on this one. I know it’s a pretty high-profile release from a revered band with a tragic backstory. But truth be told, I have not really heard much of this post-Windir act past 2006’s Pitch Black Brigade. In fact, I had no idea they were still active, let alone released an […]

LAIR OF THE MINOTAUR: Chicago Destroyers Return With First Album In Sixteen Years

LAIR OF THE MINOTAUR: Chicago Destroyers Return With First Album In Sixteen Years, I HAIL I, Set For May 1st Release; Title Track Streaming + Maryland Deathfest Set And Release Show Booked Chicago’s savage trio LAIR OF THE MINOTAUR will deliver their monstrous fifth album – their first in sixteen years – unveiling the merciless I HAIL I, confirmed […]

Serpent Icon – Tombstone Stories EP

Serpent Icon – Tombstone Stories EP

Serpent Icon is a brand spanking new melodic death metal project (they aren’t even on metal-archives yet), formed by Tobias Dahs (King’s Winter, ex Living Abyss), but he’s joined by some notable guys in the scene: vocalist Christian Müller (Night In Gales) and drummer Hartmut Stoof (Gloryful, Symbiontic). And this is one of those rare […]

Hating Life  – Revenge From Beyond EP

Hating Life – Revenge From Beyond EP

Band name from the early Grave demo and 4th album title – check. Intro song named “Into the Grave”- check. Gothic font logo- check. So I’ll give you one guess what the debut release from Ataraxy’s Santi Racaj sounds like? Yeah, though hailing from sunny Spain, this is 100%  Grave worship, so HM2 buzzing death […]

Slagmaur – Hulder’s Ritual

Slagmaur – Hulder’s Ritual

I’ve been trying to figure out how to start this review for Slagmaur and their fourth full-length album Hulders Ritual. The main reason I picked this album is that Black Metal luminary Snorre Ruch (Thorns), one of then liminaries who helped invent the Norwegian Black Metal style and forged a legacy borne in the fires […]

Nazghor – A World Ablaze

Nazghor – A World Ablaze

If you were listening to black metal in the mid-90s to the early 2000s, you might be familiar with Germany’s Solistitium Records. They were pretty productive in that time, releasing records from bands like Isvind, Helheim, Darkwoods My Betrothed, Tsjuder, Horna, and even Behemoth’s earlier albums. They went on hiatus in 2006, but reactivated in […]

Sylosis –  The New Flesh

Sylosis – The New Flesh

I’m going to start this review with a gripe. In press materials for Sylosis’ new album, The New Flesh, main man Josh Middleton said something that I always sneer at. He stated that there’s not a lot of “good” metal out there nowadays. I think he meant that the mainstream type of metal I review […]

Monstrosity – Screams from Beneath the Surface

Monstrosity – Screams from Beneath the Surface

Long-running Floridian death metalers Monstrosity return with their seventh full-length album, Screams from Beneath the Surface. It’s been eight long years since they released their last album, The Passage of Existence, which was an amazing album, and I loved the artwork as well. The band has made some odd choices in album covers, such as […]

Forcefed Horsehead/Shaving the Werewolf – From Horrid to Worse Split

Forcefed Horsehead/Shaving the Werewolf – From Horrid to Worse Split

So, I’ve never done meth. Lets get that out of the way. Nor have I ever found myself at a point of thinking “you know what might be fun? Crack cocaine.” My brand of self-destructive tendencies (and mental illness!) have certainly taken me to a number of dumb and regrettable decisions in my life, make […]

Phasma – Purgatory

Phasma – Purgatory

International brutal tech blackened/deathcore/death metal band Phasma, returns with their 3rd album – Purgatory. With six songs, the band goes the simple route. They name each tune with a Roman numeral. The first song starts with some growls, beatdown deathcore, then right into a terrific blast beat. The above explanation of the various genres the […]

CrusHuman – Imperial

CrusHuman – Imperial

Evolution is a necessity in the natural world. For any species to continue life, it has to continually reinvent itself, and since humans are the ultimate evolution, this includes Death Metal bands as well. See how I weaved that to be an introduction? Effortlessly. Anyway, today has brought me a promo for an album I’ve […]

Slaughterday – Dread Emperor

Slaughterday – Dread Emperor

After 4 albums on FDA Records, Germany’s Autopsy Worshipping duo, Slaughterday (an Autopsy song title for the newbies), has jumped to Testimony Records for album number 5, but that’s the only thing that has changed. While 2022s Tyrants of Doom added a cleaner, clearer sound and some other old school death metal dynamics to the […]

Party Cannon – Subjected To A Partying EP

Party Cannon – Subjected To A Partying EP

I’m going to be brutally honest, I’ve never listened to Party Cannon until now. Send any hate mail to the circular filing cabinet; I’m not kidding, though. This is my first time listening to these guys from always sunny Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland. Do I like it? Yes, it is weird as fuck and extremely in-fucking-sane. […]

Winter Eternal – Unveiled Nightsky

Winter Eternal – Unveiled Nightsky

I quite enjoyed 2021’s Land of Darkness from this Greek (now relocated to Scotland) solo artist (‘Soulreaper’), but for some reason I missed 2024’s Echoes of Primordial Gnosis. So I thought I’d better get to this, his fifth album, before he drops another one. Now, I did listen to Echoes of Primordial Gnosis to be able to […]

Distorted Reflection – Doom Zone

Distorted Reflection – Doom Zone

I was all set to cover Distorted Reflection and their first album, Doom Rules Eternally, back in 2024, and then life happened, and I missed my window of opportunity. Since I don’t want that to happen again and also since Doom Zone is a pretty killer album, I’m jumping on it now. Living somewhere between […]

Banisher – Metamorphosis

Banisher – Metamorphosis

The last time we covered Poland’s Banisher was 2016’s Oniric Delusions, and it wasn’t me covering it. But considering I like Polish technical death metal, really, really liked Dormant Ordeal‘s Tooth and Nail from last year, AND saw the band has members that are or have been in/helped out the likes of some Polish heavy hitters […]

Exhumed – Red Asphalt

Exhumed – Red Asphalt

California’s long-running death grind outfit Exhumed returns with Red Asphalt, their ninth full-length album of original songs. I left out some of their covers/retrospective albums. The band has remained intact since 2018, and with Matt Harvey (vox/guitars), leading the charge, his band of goremongers- Ross Sewage (vox/bass), Mike Hamilton (drums), and Sebastian Phillips (guitars) return […]

Worm Shepherd –  Dawn of the Iconoclast EP

Worm Shepherd – Dawn of the Iconoclast EP

After 2024s Hunger album, one of the best in the blackened deathcore genre of that year, there was a considerable shake-up in the Worm Shepherd camp, who were already functioning in a reduced capacity as a duo and some guests. Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but original vocalist Duane Duarte was let go […]

Death Assault –  Deathassault

Death Assault – Deathassault

Have you ever wondered how a combination of metalcore, Slipknot, and the nu metal stylings of Taproot would sound while recorded in a garbage can? Me neither. No disrespect to either of those bands (I have seen Taproot a few times and would again), but some musical stylings don’t work well and at times sound […]

Paganizer – As Mankind Rots

Paganizer – As Mankind Rots

There used to be a restaurant chain here in the States called Steak and Ale. They served traditional American food, a staple of the menu being meat and potatoes. No, this isn’t a review for A La Carte, it’s for Rogga Johansson and his main band Paganizer; I say ‘main’ because dude has a few […]

Tarlung – Axis Mundi

Tarlung – Axis Mundi

I can’t say I’m too versed in the Austrian Sludge/Doom scene, but the internet tells me that Axis Mundi is the third album from this Austrian trio, who are not in any other projects. Either way, I’m kinda digging this. Occasionally, I need a break from deathcore and symphonic black metal, and a couple of […]

Fossilization – Advent of Wounds

Fossilization – Advent of Wounds

Giorgio’s Everlasting Spew Records has a bunch of quality death metal acts on its roster. A few years ago, Brazil’s Fossilization came into fruition and since then have released an EP, in 2021, He Whose Name Was Long Forgotten, and their debut album, in 2023, Leprous Daylight. There have been some line-up shifts since the […]

Darklore – The Great Elven War

Darklore – The Great Elven War

Okay, so think about your favorite Dimmu Borgir album- for me it’s Enthrone Darkness Triumphant; okay, now think of your favorite Cradle of Filth record- mine is Dusk and Her Embrace. The Great Elven War, however, is the best album neither of those bands ever made. This is an album that could’ve come out between […]

NEVERMORE Announce Signing To Reigning Phoenix Music & Forthcoming Show With New Line-Up

Watch NEVERMORE’s Documentary HERE! Legendary heavy metal powerhouse NEVERMORE have signed with Reigning Phoenix Music. The band also welcomes to the line-up Jack Cattoi on guitar, Semir Özerkan on bass, and new vocalist Berzan Önen. To showcase the new lineup, NEVERMORE’s first live appearance will take place on April 1st, 2026, in Istanbul, Turkey. On this […]

Møl – DREAMCRUSH

Møl – DREAMCRUSH

There’s rarely anything more satisfying than hearing a band come fully into its own – whose work you’ve enjoyed and admired for years, but for one reason or another, it seemed never quite put all the pieces together in the right order to make it a complete, fully-realized project.  Of course, any band or artist’s […]