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 […]

Broken Hope has been a force in the United States Death Metal scene for nearly thirty years now.  Jeremy Wagner has really done an outstanding job rebuilding the group and keeping the style of death metal that they have played for nearly three decades fine-tuned and meticulously written.  Here we have their sixth full length […]

I’ve been an Iced Earth fan for awhile now. Twenty years exactly, at the time of this review, as it was the band’s compilation/re-worked/best of album, Days of Purgatory, that introduced me to their take on thrash, power, and traditional metal. At the time I thought of myself as a latecomer, as the band had […]

When Soulburn reformed in 2014, I was pleasantly surprised at their return album after 16 years, namely The Suffocating Darkness.  To this day is still one of my all time favorite blackened death/doom albums and yes I have heard all the great albums and own most from 30 years prior.  Soulburn incorporated alot more black […]

Every time a new Aborted album comes around, I can liken it to another output from Napalm Death, in which the question inevitably gets asked:  these dudes have been around forever, can they still bring the pain with the same piss ‘n vinegar of previous outputs?  I can say that for Retrogore the answer is […]

Well this was quite a pleasant surprise a few months ago when Century Media announced they had secured the rights to the cult death/thrashers material and working in conjunction with Morbid Saint would release a deluxe discography, compiling all of the band’s released material onto 2 cds. The last reissue, the band released themselves, on […]

Back in 2013 I reviewed the debut from this Texas act, Aetherial, ( I missed 2015s Blue) and it was a challenging, engaging but exhaustive listen of progressive metal that had every genre and the kitchen sink in it. Well there’s been a bit of a line up change and a focus in delivery. Of note, […]

Let’s be brutally honest shall we? Sure Grave’s first three albums are certified classics, and while there’s some division over Hating Life, I’m willing to say that other the overall excitement of the band’s reunion in 2002, the post Jorgen, post “Back From the Grave” glow might have worn off . And other than 2012s Endless […]

Krisiun, always the bridesmaid, never the bride…that’s too bad really, because the truth of the matter is that this trio of brothers can put out some terrifically fast, tight, and brutal material that, when done right, can clearly out shine many of the top tier death metal bands that Krisiun often get overlooked for. Most […]

Falsifier and Born Hanged, the first two EPs from this UK downtempo/deathcore act have become the Sermon of Mockery among deathcore fans, being the holy grail of deathcore collectors  and reaching stupid prices. So Black Tongue have parlayed that and their prior Infant Annihilator infamy (whose releases also go for high prices) into a deal with […]

I was so stoked when Morgoth reformed several years ago and even more stoked when the band announced they would write a new record.  I was a fan since their ep’s in the late 80’s.  I saw them live on their mini east coast tour, for The Eternal Fall ep and the band tore the […]

This reissue was impossible to find in the U.S.  For imports, as usual, I had to go and get it from a European distro and paid over $20 for it. But it was worth it since Odium is my favorite Morgoth album.  In 1993 Odium was released and polarized a lot of Morgoth’s fan base […]

 Okay this album is definitely going to be a grower, but that’s not a bad thing mind you, it’s just at times expectations can be a mindf**k. You anticipate, you dream and dwell on that one moment of what you envision or what you dream about forever ( in this case Sanctuary reforming ) and […]

2015 brings the return of England’s Paradise Lost for their 27th year in existence. It also brings fourth their 14th full length album. In this day and age, it is amazing to have a band with this kind of longevity and productivity. Add to that the fact that the lineup is original except for the drummer, […]

I’m not usually one to get to reeled in by hype. Even more so for Sweden’s Tribulation, who left me unimpressed in 2009 with a pretty standard Swedish death metal release, The Horror, then their death metal got all proggy and developed with the rather hyped  The Formulas of Death, a transition that really didn’t […]

Thanatos formed in 1984, under the watchful eye of a youthful Stephan Gebédi, in the Netherlands.  So essentially one could make the argument that he is responsible for starting the death/thrash movement in that part of the world.  Without going into too much history I’ll just say Century Media, from 2013-2014 re-issued and remastered all […]

In 1998 the Dutch death/doom outfit known as Asphyx disbanded for a short period of time and put out an album under the new name of Soulburn, with a crushing album – Feeding on Angels. Wannes Gubbles on bass/vocals, Eric Daniels providing the ultra heavy guitar crunch and Bob Bagchus rounding out the punishing drums. […]

If you asked me prior to their releases which of the metal juggernaut albums of recent years had the greatest potential for failure, I would have probably went with the new At The Gates record. Despite many delays, we knew Gorguts would deliver a unique, organic experience, and while Carcass had a spotty past of […]

So in summation: band forms, band does a couple of demos under Nihilist moniker, band changes name to Entombed, then releases two certifiably classic albums (Left Hand Path, Clandestine). Then release a third divisive album, Wolverine Blues (which has actually grown on me in my older, wiser years). Then things get a bit odd with a  […]

These days, talk about Nachtmystium is inseparable from talk about the group’s main man, Blake Judd. I have never been much of a follower of the people behind the music I listen to, for the reason that I am almost always disappointed to hear about what fucked up things they’re doing in their lives. I’ve […]

Uk supergroup Vallenfyre caused a minor ripple in the metal scene back in 2011 with their debut, A Fragile King, a pretty solid doom death outfit with nods to the bands primary members Gregor Mackintosh of Paradise Lost and Hamish Glencross of My Dying Bride and drummer Daniel Erlandsson. It was a solid effort but not great, especially considering the […]

It’s been over twenty years since Massacre released their ground breaking album From Beyond, and just over that time period since Promise, which many of us would rather not even remember as part of their catalog. But here, I can safely say that Back From Beyond is NOT Promise, it is in fact a lesson […]

After years without a full-length release, NOLA’s most famous sludge sons Eyehategod are back with a new, self-titled full-length, and it’s as if they’ve never been away. You would have thought that these miscreants from New Orleans might have mellowed with age (even just slightly), but they still sound as pissed off as ever. Much […]

If you were to introduce someone to extreme metal, and they hadn’t heard the genre or weren’t previously a fan, you could do little better than to throw on the new Aborted album. It’s all that is right and enjoyable about the metal genre, and on their 8th full length album these Belgians show absolutely […]

As I detailed in my review of 2011s One for Sorrow, Finland’s Insomnium have become a predictable but brilliant stalwart of melancholic melodic death metal, a gradual, subtle shift from their more doomy beginnings. They have their sound and they know how to wield it perfectly, even at the expense of progression or growth, instead […]